6073. RB to William Morris
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 333–334.
19. Warwick Crescent,
Upper Westbourne Terrace, W.
June 7. ’68.
My dear Morris,
Here is your book read at last, [1] —and beautiful it proves: affecting me much as do Handel’s fine “Suites,” [2] as he calls them, for the Clavecin [3] of his day: all the newer for their archaic tinge, all the more varied (to the appreciatively observant) because of the continuous key and recurring forms,—the New masked in the Old and perpetually looking out of the eyeholes of its disguise. It is a double delight to me—to read such poetry, and know you, of all the world, wrote it,—you whose songs I used to sing while galloping by Fiesole in old days, “Ho, is there any will ride with me?” [4]
And now, quick, the second volume,—getting the rest ready at your best diligence!
Ever affectionately yours
Robert Browning.
Give my true congratulations to your wife. [5]
Address: William Morris Esq. / Mr F.S. Ellis, / 33. King Street, / Covent Garden.
Publication: William Morris: Artist, Writer, Socialist, ed. May Morris (Oxford, 1936), I, 641–642.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library (envelope); and Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum.
1. The first volume of The Earthly Paradise (3 vols., 1868–70), inscribed by Morris: “Robert Browning from his friend the Author,” to which RB added: “London, May 6, 1868.” The complete work sold as lot 944 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A1678; now at Huntington).
2. George Frederick Handel (1685–1759) published two sets of suites for harpsichord in his lifetime: Suites de Piéces (1720) and Suites des Piéces (1733); see A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sir George Grove (4 vols., 1900), I, 657.
3. “Harpsichord.”
4. “Sir Giles’ War-Song” (The Defence of Guenevere, and Other Poems, 1858), line 1.
5. Jane Morris (née Burden, 1839–1914); see letter 4594, note 11. We are unable to clarify RB’s “congratulations.”
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