807. RB to William Charles Macready
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 37–38
[London]
[?late April 1841] [1]
My dear Macready:—
Do forgive the delay in sending the little book I herewith beg your acceptance of—and which has only come to hand this minute.
Our friend Fox, I am given to understand, pronounces it abundantly “unintelligible” [2] —but Fox is lecturing just now on the Devil, and can hardly fail to be full of his subject—on one point, however, I should be truly sorry to be misunderstood. I have advertised three plays, or attempts at plays, one of which, I think, might succeed on the stage—now the poor but genuine compliment to yourself implied by such a course, was this—all things considered, I had rather publish, that is print—this play, sell a dozen copies, and see the rest quietly shelved—than take the chance of a stage success that would in the highest degree gratify and benefit me, at the risk of “mettre du gêne” [3] in a friendship which I trust I know how to appreciate, by compelling you once more to say “No”, where you would willingly say “Yes.”
“I hope here be proof” [4] how much I am,
Dear Macready,
Yours faithfully,
R. Browning.
Pray remember me most kindly to Mrs. and Miss Macready.
Text: Emerson College Magazine, Vol. XX, No. 3, January 1912, pp. 131–132.
1. Dating hinges on identification of the book being sent, discussed in the following note.
2. In view of Fox’s comment, it appears at first glance that the book was probably Sordello. However, that is made unlikely by Macready’s diary entry of 29 March 1840, recording that RB called to make a personal presentation of Sordello (Macready, I, 54). It therefore seems from the context that RB was sending one of the three works advertised as “nearly ready” when Sordello was published (see letter 747, note 6). As RB indicates that he doesn’t wish to press Macready to stage this play, that excludes from consideration The Return of the Druses, as RB certainly did urge its performance; the choice is between Pippa Passes and King Victor and King Charles. As Macready had read “Browning’s play on Victor, King of Sardinia—it turned out to be a great mistake” in September 1839 (Macready, I, 23), we reach the conclusion that the enclosure with this letter was Pippa Passes. Fox’s comment may seem unlikely in connection with Pippa, as DeVane writes (p. 95) of its “simplicity and beauty” and the expectation of success, but the shadow of Sordello caused it to receive a cool reception. The Spectator (17 April 1841) found it “without coherence or action”; The Monthly Review (May 1841) spoke of “obscurity that offends us” and of the “mechanical imperfection” of the language, so it is quite possible that Fox did pronounce it “unintelligible.” EBB herself found it hard to understand (see letter 827). (For the full text of the reviews, see pp. 392–393.)
If the enclosure was Pippa Passes, the date can be conjectured from the following three letters, all sending copies of the work.
3. “To put constraint.”
4. Cf. Measure for Measure, II, 1, 133.
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