[11 March 1845]. Browning, Robert to Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.

              Tuesday Morning. 

Your letter made me so happy, dear Miss Barrett, that I have kept quiet this while: is it too great a shame if I begin to want more good news of you, and to say so?. Because there has been a bitter wind ever since. Will you grant me a great favour? Always when you write, tho’ about your own works, not Greek plays merely, put me in-always-a little official bulletin-line that shall say “I am better”-or “still better”-will you? That is done, then-and now, what do I wish to tell you first? The Poem you propose to make, for the times,-the fearless fresh living work, you describe,-is the only Poem to be undertaken now by you or anyone that is a Poet at all,-the only reality, only effective piece of service to be rendered God and man-it is what I have been all my life intending to do, and now shall be much, much nearer doing, since you will be along with me. And you can do it, I know-and am sure-so sure, that I could find in my heart to be jealous of your stopping in the way even to translate the Prometheus,-tho’ the accompanying monologue will make amends, too-Or shall I set you a task I meant for myself once upon a time?-which, Oh, how you would fulfil! Restore the Prometheus Πυρφορος as Shelley did the Λυομευος-when I say “restore” I know, or very much fear, that the πυρφορος was the same with the πυρκαευς which, by a fragment, we sorrowfully ascertain to have been a Satyric Drama-but surely the capabilities of the subject are much greater than in this, we now wonder at; nay, they include all those of this last-for just see how magnificently the story unrolls itself. The Beginning of Jupiter’s Dynasty, the calm in Heaven after the storm, the ascending .. (stop, I will get the book and give the words)-οπως ταχιςα τον πατρἕωον εις θρονον καθ᾽εζετ᾽, ευθυς δαιμοσιν νεμει γερα αλλοισιν αλλα .. κ.τ.λ all the while Prometheus being the first among the first in honor, as καιτοι θεοισι τοις νεοις τουτοις γερα τις αλλος, η ᾽γω, παντελως διωρισε?-then the one black hand-cloudlet staining