800. EBB to Thomas Powell
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 25–26.
Torquay.
Feby. 19th 1841.
Dear Sir
I write three days later than I shd have done, to acknowledge your very kind attention in sending me your new attempt upon Chaucer [1] — which seems to me excellently accomplish’d, with more closeness perhaps to the original (perhaps—is it not so .. as a whole?) than your previous performances—also ‘Staffo’ with its touching preface [2] —& yr ‘Nature’s voice’ [3] a prophecy with so much beauty siding the truth. I appreciate in all your poetry its uplooking aspect. And pray do not sheathe the ‘dogmatic swords’ [4] or apologize for not doing it—a strong expression adapted to the strong cruelty of the thing expressed.
Thank you too, much & truly, for some kind-words conveying your own & Mrs Powell’s pleasure in poems of mine. My Prometheus is rather close to the letter—but I quite disagree with you—(you wont misinterpret me into affectation—that wd be serving me worse than I served Æschylus—) as to its being true to the poetry. Oh no!– It is stiff & hard—a Prometheus twice bound, & to a colder rock than was intended .. I wish sometimes to vindicate myself by doing it again. In the meantime your goodnature is father to a too gentle thought [5] of it, by much!
But you do me bare justice again in supposing that I shd be sorry to hear of any heaviness weighing upon that true poet Mr Leigh Hunt. “The world presses heavily on one of its finest spirits.” And so it must be: or the world wd not be the world—nor wd spirits be spirits.— I do hope, he is not seriously ill—that he is better while I write. The weather is very trying—with these sudden heats upon the late bitter cold. Yet (in answer to your kind enquiry) I myself have suffered less, & am actually better than might have been thought from the circumstances.
Sincerely yours
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: University of Iowa.
1. The Monthly Chronicle for February 1841 contained Powell’s modernized version of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale; or, The Cock and the Fox” (pp. 119–133).
2. Sic, for “Staffa.” This poem, on pp. 110–113 of the magazine, was by “the late Thomas Chapman.” The preface explains that Chapman, “endowed with mental powers of no common order, of a lovely natural disposition … beloved by … all who had the happiness of his friendship,” had died of cholera in 1824, in his 21st year. The manuscript was supplied “through the kindness of a friend”—presumably Powell.
3. The magazine contained three poems by Powell, but none with this title.
4. We have not located the source of this quotation; from the context, it may well be taken from one of Powell’s own poems, or his letter to EBB.
5. Cf. II Henry IV, IV, 5, 92.
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