Correspondence

5837.  RB to Esther Levy Bensusan

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 147.

[London]

Friday Mg [ca. 1867] [1]

Dear Mrs Bensusan, [2]

You see I was quite unable to get to you last night, though I had some hopes I might have managed it, in the morning. To-morrow I dine with the people at the Deanery Westminster: [3] judge whether I can get away in anything like time!

Depend on it, one day I shall have the pleasure I lose for the present.

Gratefully yours

Robert Browning.

P.S. A Jewish girl is often the most exquisite thing in the creation: which is in favour of your friend Miss B. [4]

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Approximate dating suggested by RB’s mention of “the Deanery Westminster,” where he occasionally dined during the mid- to late 1860’s.

2. Esther Levy Bensusan (née Bravo, 1812–69); see letter 5516, note 1.

3. The home of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–81), Dean of Westminster, and his wife, Lady Augusta (née Bruce, 1822–76).

4. Unidentified. Possibly Mrs. Bensusan’s niece-in-law, Orovida Abigail Levy Bensusan (1843–1912), daughter of Samuel Levy Bensusan (1797–1886) and his wife, Esther (née Bernal, 1813–98).

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