526. RB to William Charles Macready
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 173–174.
Camberwell,
May 28, 1836.
Dear Sir,
The admiration I have for your consummate genius is too assured and “thorough-shine” to admit of certain misgivings which commonly attend a less absolute conviction: My mind is made up to believe that you comprehend me as you comprehend Macbeth or Ion,—that while you understand how intensely I feel, you see a reason for the wretched little I say, and are satisfied with that little. I shall be at no pains, therefore, to set advantageously forth the proposition I am about to make,—in perfect faith that you know why “nice affection” should “scorn meaner hands,” [1] and be far removed from presumption while it aspires most earnestly.
I am now engaged in a work which is nearly done: [2] I allow myself a month to complete it: from the first of July I shall be free: if, before then, any subject shall suggest itself to you––any character or event with which you are predisposed to sympathize––I will give my whole heart & soul to the writing a Tragedy on it, to be ready by the first of November next: should I be unequal to the task, the excitement and extreme effort will have been their own reward:—should I succeed, my way of life will be very certain, and my name pronounced along with yours:
I wish you, from my soul, all health and happiness, and am ever,
Dear Sir,
most faithfully your’s
Robert Browning
W.C. Macready Esqr
Address, on integral page: W.C. Macready Esqr / 61. Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
Publication: NL, pp. 11–13.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Perhaps a paraphrase of Spenser’s “Entire affection hateth nicer hands” (Faerie Queene, I, viii, 40).
2. Sordello, which RB put aside for Strafford, and did not publish till 1840.
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