Correspondence

5944. Robert Bulwer Lytton to RB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 230–231.

[Postmark: 17 July 1867]

My dear Browning

The name of the Paris Aurist is Turnbull—Dr Turnbull [1] —an Englishman, tho’ he lives at Paris– I dont know his precise address, but will send it you the next time I see my father.

The contents of the 3d vol of my ‘Collected Edition’ [2] are indeed nearly all quite new—but they are mostly paraphrases, imitations, &c Among them an odd fantastic sort of drama or dramatic poem but I really dont know whether it is good or bad. My new book of verse in two vols “Chronicles and Characters” [3] wh I am now passing thro the press, but which cannot I suppose appear till this 3d vol of the Edition is out, is indeed, I hope, a great improvement on all previous work. When it is complete in print I’ll send it you.

My dear wife (we both thank you for your kind enquiries) is going on very well: tho’ I shd be glad if she cd get some fresh country air which she really wants, but I cannot persuade her to leave town while I am laid up—which I fear I must expect to be for some weeks yet– My slight operation was very successfully performed by Prescott Hewett; [4] but unluckily inflammation supuration, and other uncomfortable complications have followed—wh somewhat retard convalescence tho’ they are none of them at all serious. I am now however quite free from fever– But the visits even of friends fatigue me; so pray my dear friend do not think of calling here—on my acct at least—for if I could not see you, your coming wd only be a disappointment to me—great in proportion to the pleasure I must needs forego for a while. With best love from me & mine to your dear Sister,

Ever dear Browning

Most affly

R Lytton.

Address: Robert Browning Esq. / 19 Warwick Crescent / Upper Westbourne Terrace / W. / London.

Publication: BBIS-10, pp. 227–228.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Alexander Turnbull (1795–1881), a Scottish-born aurist living in Paris, had treated Lytton for deafness in December 1866 and “seems to have helped him considerably” (see Victor Alexander Lytton, The Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton, 2 vols., 1913, II, 371). Evidently, Isa Blagden had asked RB, on behalf of T.A. Trollope, to inquire about Turnbull (see letter 5947).

2. The Poetical Works of Owen Meredith (2 vols., 1867). Volume one, consisting of Clytemnestra and Poems Lyrical and Descriptive, was published by Chapman and Hall in January; volume two, consisting of Lucille, in April. An advertisement in The Athenæum of 20 April 1867 announced that volume three was “in the press” (no. 2060, p. 527), but it was never issued.

3. Chronicles and Characters (2 vols., 1868) was published by Chapman and Hall in November 1867.

4. Prescott Gardiner Hewett (1812–91), baronet (1883), surgeon, “was appointed surgeon-extraordinary to the queen in 1867” (ODNB).

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