5935. RB to Chancellor of Oxford University
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 224–225.
London
8 July 1867
Robertus Browning Clarissimus Viris Celeberrimæ Academiæ Oxoniensis Cancellario, [1] Magistris et Scholaribus S.
Verbis consequi nequeo, Viri ornatissimi, quantum me delectaverit Registrarii vestri epistola humanissima, qua nudius tertius me certiorem fecit ita decrevisse inclytum Senatum Oxoniensem ut ego, alienus scilicet et hospes, dignus existimarer qui insigni gradu Magistri in Artibus cohonestarer atque in illustrissimum Ordinem Academicum cooptarer. Hodie modo Diploma vestrum mihi in manus venit. Quum illa modica Latine scribendi facultas, mihi olim tam cara, jampridem exarnerit, vereor ne dum cordi est meritam gratiam persolvere, nimis incultus deprehendar. Major tamen hic honos, majus est hoc beneficium quam ut oratione œquare sperem. Accipite ergo a me qualiacunque hæc grati animi indicia, non quæ reddere debeam sed quce possim.
Quod quæ in poematis tractavi non omnius displiceant peritioribus, vehementer gaudeo: nam talium ego judicio, quamvis panciorum,—præfiscini dicam,—solummodo pondus censeo tribuendum. Sed de hoc fere melius mihi videtur tacere quam loqui, quippe qui bonas literas degustaverim verius quam didicerim. Utinam filius meus, hoc proculdubio patre felicior, abiturus hinc propediem ad vos Oxonienses alumnus, totis agitet viribus ut, istis literis incumbendo, vestris auspicies et exemplo vestro, et parentis spei respondeat et officiis suis suffiagia superiorum evincat.
Quod reliquum est, te, Vir prœclare, et vos amplissimum Senatum eruditosque Academicos precor, ut me meosque labores, sicut hactenus ita deinceps quoque, vobis commendatos velitis.
Dedi Londini κατὰ τὸ παλαιὸν VIII Id. Jul. Anno a nato Christo 1867.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Oxford University Archives. [2]
Translation:
Robert Browning, to the most noble The Chancellor, Masters of Arts and Scholars of the famous University of Oxford, Greeting.—
I cannot express in words, Gentlemen, how much I was delighted by the kind letter of your Registrary, informing me that your illustrious Senate had decreed that I, although a stranger and no member of the University, was deemed worthy of the honour of the degree of Master of Arts and of inclusion in that distinguished Academic body; and today your Diploma reaches me. Since my small skill in the writing of Latin, though always dear to me, has now long become rusty, I fear my thanks, much as I wish to make them worthy, may be found to lack polish. But this honour, this kindness, are too great for me to hope to match them by any words of mine; and you must accept such assurances of gratitude as I can offer, inadequate indeed, but from the heart.
It is a great pleasure to me that my efforts in poetry commend themselves to the more discriminating; for to the judgment of such people only, few though they are, can I attach any weight. Yet on this subject silence seems almost more fitting to me than speech, in that I have more truly enjoyed literature than expounded it. My son, in this certainly more fortunate than his father, is soon to leave me to become an undergraduate among you at Oxford: may he endeavour with all his power, by application to literature, to live up to your traditions and example and his father’s hopes; & so earn by his studies the commendation of his betters.
For the rest, I trust that you, noble Sir, the illustrious Senate and the learned University may hold me, as in the past, so in the future, in your esteem.
Given at London, this eighth day of the Ides of July (to use the old style) in the year of our Lord 1867.
1. Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley (1799–1869), 14th Earl of Derby, Chancellor of Oxford University from 1852 until his death.
2. Written on Athenæum Club stationery. Also extant, at the Armstrong Browning Library, Joseph Milsand Archive, is a preliminary draft and fair copy. A second draft is in the R.H. Taylor Collection, Princeton University.
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