5658. Lady William Russell to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 20.
[London]
Monday twelve o’clock. [Postmark: 6 November 1865]
Dear Mr Browning
The Storys from Mount Felix wrote to announce themselves to Dinner to Day—— all 3 therefore I have my Qu[a]drilateral fill’d; & at all Events you would be engaged—— But I thought you might like to meet them here after Dinner? I therefore write “to remind”—— as you have never appear’d on the Horizon of Mayfair since you last Epistolized— Instead of Babrius [1] —— pray tell me whence Gladstone takes his Quotation … (Edinburgh) about words instead of Porridge … τι δε μ'ωφελησους οι ρυθμοι προς ταλφιτα &c &c [2]
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I have had an interesting Letter from Cartwright poor fellow he fell Sick of Erysipelas at Naples!––– So could enjoy nothing there—–– She & Roma [3] –– had fever as usual!——
Address, on integral page: Robert Browning Esq / 19 Warwick Crescent / Upper Westbourne Terrace.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Babrius, thought to have been a hellenized Roman of the late first century, cast Æsop’s fables into verse and composed original fables of his own.
2. “But how will these rhythms help me get my daily bread?” Aristophanes, Clouds, line 648, trans. Jeffrey Henderson. (In this and subsequent quotations from, or references to, Greek and Latin classical authors, citations are from the Loeb Classical Library unless otherwise noted.) The Greek passage is quoted by Gladstone towards the beginning of a lecture delivered at the University of Edinburgh on 3 November 1865, which was published by John Murray the following day as Address on the Place of Ancient Greece (1865).
3. Roma Cartwright (1859–1907, the youngest of the Cartwrights’ four surviving children. “She” refers to Cartwright’s wife, Clementine.
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