Life and Letters of Robert Browning [27]
judicious bystander, -- no recreant as thou to the bonds of nature,
but a good borrower and true -- remark, as did his grandsire before him
on like occasions, that thou hast `paid the DEBT of nature'?
Ha! I have thee `beyond the rules', as one (a bailiff) may say!
--
* Miss Hickey, on reading this passage, has called my attention to the fact
that the sentiment which it parodies is identical with that expressed
in these words of `Prospice',
. . . in a minute pay glad life's arrears
Of pain, darkness, and cold.
--
==
Such performances supplied a distraction to the more serious work
of writing `Paracelsus', which was to be concluded in March 1835,
and which occupied the foregoing winter months. We do not know
to what extent Mr. Browning had remained in communication with Mr. Fox;
but the following letters show that the friend of `Pauline'
gave ready and efficient help in the strangely difficult task
of securing a publisher for the new poem.
The first is dated April 2, 1835.
==
Dear Sir, -- I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter: --
Sardanapalus `could not go on multiplying kingdoms' -- nor I protestations --
but I thank you very much.
You will oblige me indeed by forwarding the introduction to Moxon.
I merely suggested him in particular, on account of his good name and fame
among author-folk, besides he has himself written -- as the Americans say --
`more poetry 'an you can shake a stick at.' So I hope we shall come to terms.
I also hope my poem will turn out not utterly unworthy your kind interest,
and more deserving your favour than anything of mine you have as yet seen;
indeed I all along proposed to myself such an endeavour,
for it will never do for one so distinguished by past praise
to prove nobody after all -- `nous verrons'.
I am, dear sir,
Yours most truly and obliged
Robt. Browning.
==
On April 16 he wrote again as follows:
==
Dear Sir,
Your communication gladdened the cockles of my heart. I lost no time
in presenting myself to Moxon, but no sooner was Mr. Clarke's letter perused
than the Moxonian visage loured exceedingly thereat -- the Moxonian accent
grew dolorous thereupon: -- `Artevelde' has not paid expenses
by about thirty odd pounds. Tennyson's poetry is `popular at Cambridge',
and yet of 800 copies which were printed of his last, some 300 only
have gone off: Mr. M. hardly knows whether he shall ever venture again,
&c. &c., and in short begs to decline even inspecting, &c. &c.
I called on Saunders and Otley at once, and, marvel of marvels,
do really think there is some chance of our coming to decent terms --
I shall know at the beginning of next week, but am not over-sanguine.
You will `sarve me out'? two words to that; being the man you are,
you must need very little telling from me, of the real feeling I have
of your criticism's worth, and if I have had no more of it,
surely I am hardly to blame, who have in more than one instance
bored you sufficiently: but not a particle of your article
has been rejected or neglected by your observant humble servant,
and very proud shall I be if my new work bear in it
the marks of the influence under which it was undertaken --
and if I prove not a fit compeer of the potter in Horace
who anticipated an amphora and produced a porridge-pot.
I purposely keep back the subject until you see my conception
of its capabilities -- otherwise you would be planning a vase
fit to give the go-by to Evander's best crockery, which my cantharus
would cut but a sorry figure beside -- hardly up to the ansa.
But such as it is, it is very earnest and suggestive --
and likely I hope to do good; and though I am rather scared
at the thought of a FRESH EYE going over its 4,000 lines --
discovering blemishes of all sorts which my one wit cannot avail to detect,
fools treated as sages, obscure passages, slipshod verses,
and much that worse is, -- yet on the whole I am not much afraid of the issue,
and I
but a good borrower and true -- remark, as did his grandsire before him
on like occasions, that thou hast `paid the DEBT of nature'?
Ha! I have thee `beyond the rules', as one (a bailiff) may say!
--
* Miss Hickey, on reading this passage, has called my attention to the fact
that the sentiment which it parodies is identical with that expressed
in these words of `Prospice',
. . . in a minute pay glad life's arrears
Of pain, darkness, and cold.
--
==
Such performances supplied a distraction to the more serious work
of writing `Paracelsus', which was to be concluded in March 1835,
and which occupied the foregoing winter months. We do not know
to what extent Mr. Browning had remained in communication with Mr. Fox;
but the following letters show that the friend of `Pauline'
gave ready and efficient help in the strangely difficult task
of securing a publisher for the new poem.
The first is dated April 2, 1835.
==
Dear Sir, -- I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter: --
Sardanapalus `could not go on multiplying kingdoms' -- nor I protestations --
but I thank you very much.
You will oblige me indeed by forwarding the introduction to Moxon.
I merely suggested him in particular, on account of his good name and fame
among author-folk, besides he has himself written -- as the Americans say --
`more poetry 'an you can shake a stick at.' So I hope we shall come to terms.
I also hope my poem will turn out not utterly unworthy your kind interest,
and more deserving your favour than anything of mine you have as yet seen;
indeed I all along proposed to myself such an endeavour,
for it will never do for one so distinguished by past praise
to prove nobody after all -- `nous verrons'.
I am, dear sir,
Yours most truly and obliged
Robt. Browning.
==
On April 16 he wrote again as follows:
==
Dear Sir,
Your communication gladdened the cockles of my heart. I lost no time
in presenting myself to Moxon, but no sooner was Mr. Clarke's letter perused
than the Moxonian visage loured exceedingly thereat -- the Moxonian accent
grew dolorous thereupon: -- `Artevelde' has not paid expenses
by about thirty odd pounds. Tennyson's poetry is `popular at Cambridge',
and yet of 800 copies which were printed of his last, some 300 only
have gone off: Mr. M. hardly knows whether he shall ever venture again,
&c. &c., and in short begs to decline even inspecting, &c. &c.
I called on Saunders and Otley at once, and, marvel of marvels,
do really think there is some chance of our coming to decent terms --
I shall know at the beginning of next week, but am not over-sanguine.
You will `sarve me out'? two words to that; being the man you are,
you must need very little telling from me, of the real feeling I have
of your criticism's worth, and if I have had no more of it,
surely I am hardly to blame, who have in more than one instance
bored you sufficiently: but not a particle of your article
has been rejected or neglected by your observant humble servant,
and very proud shall I be if my new work bear in it
the marks of the influence under which it was undertaken --
and if I prove not a fit compeer of the potter in Horace
who anticipated an amphora and produced a porridge-pot.
I purposely keep back the subject until you see my conception
of its capabilities -- otherwise you would be planning a vase
fit to give the go-by to Evander's best crockery, which my cantharus
would cut but a sorry figure beside -- hardly up to the ansa.
But such as it is, it is very earnest and suggestive --
and likely I hope to do good; and though I am rather scared
at the thought of a FRESH EYE going over its 4,000 lines --
discovering blemishes of all sorts which my one wit cannot avail to detect,
fools treated as sages, obscure passages, slipshod verses,
and much that worse is, -- yet on the whole I am not much afraid of the issue,
and I