28 April 1843. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett to Mathews, Cornelius.

              50 Wimpole Street–

April 28. 1843

My dear Mr Mathews, In replying to your kind letter I send some more verse for Graham’s, praying such demi-semi-gods as preside over contributors to magazines, that I may not appear over-loquacious to my editor. Of course it is not intended to thrust three or four poems into one number: My pluralities go to you simply to “bide your time’[’], & be used one by one as the opportunity is presented– In the meanwhile you have received, I hope, a short letter written to explain my unwillingness to apply as you desired me at first, to Wiley & Putnam, an unwillingness justified by, what you told me afterwards. I did not apply—nor have I applied—& I wd rather not apply at all– Perhaps I shall hear from them presently. The pamphlet on International Copyright is welcome at a distance,—but it has not come near me yet; and for all your kindness in relation to the prospective gift of your works I thank you again & earnestly. You are kind to me in many ways—& I wd willingly know as much of your intellectual habits as you teach me of your genial feelings– This Pathfinder (what an excellent name for an American journal) I also owe to you—with the summing up of your performances in it—& with a notice of Mr Browning’s Blot on the ’Scutcheon which wd make one poet furious (the “infelix Talfourd”) & another a little melancholy, namely Mr Browning himself. There is truth on both sides—but it seems to me hard truth on Browning. I do assure you I never saw him in my life .. do not know him even by correspondence!—and yet whether through fellow-feeling for Eleusinian mysteries, or whether through the more generous motive of appreciation of his powers, I am very sensitive to the thousand & one stripes with which the assembly of critics doth expound its vocation over him—& The Athenæum for instance made me quite cross & misanthropical last week– The truth is, & the world shd know the truth, it is easier to find a more faultless writer than a poet of equal genius– Dont let us fall into the category of the sons of Noah– Noah was once drunk indeed!—but once he built the ark. Talking of poets, would your Graham’s Miscellany care at all to have occasional poetical contributions from Mr Horne?– I am in correspondence with him & I think I could manage an arrangement upon the same terms as my engagement rests on, if you please & your friends please–—that is, .. & without a formality,––if it shd give you any pleasure– He is a writer of great power I think. And this reminds me that you may be looking all this while for the Athenæum’s reply to your friend’s proposition, of which I lost no time in apprizing the editor Mr Dilke,—& here are some of his words .. “An American friend who had been long in England & often conversed with me on the subject, resolved on his return to establish such a correspondence. In all things worth knowing, all reviews of good books” (which “are published first or simultaneously,” says Mr Dilke, “in London”) “he was anticipated: and after some months he was driven of necessity to geological surveys, centenary celebrations, progress of railroads, manufactures &c, & thus the project was abandoned altogether”– Having made this experiment Mr Dilke is unwilling to risk another––neither must we blame him for the reserve. When the International Copyright shall at once protect the national meum & tuum in literature & give it additional fulness & value, we shall cease to say insolently to you that what we want of your books, we will get without your help—but as it is, the Mr Dilkes of us, have nothing much more courteous to do– I wish I could have been of any use to your friend– I have done what I could– In regard to critical papers of mine, I wd willingly give myself up to you, seeing