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Browning's Letters to Isabella Blagden: An Addendum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

William O. Raymond*
Affiliation:
Bishop's University

Abstract

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Type
Comment and Criticism
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1940

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References

1 Since the manuscript of this letter has been lost, it is impossible to ascertain the precise source of Mrs. Orr's blunder. There are, however, several instances of her misdating letters of Browning to Isa Blagden whose manuscripts have been preserved. The extract from the letter cited on page 266 of her biography of the poet should be dated August 18, 1862, not August 18, 1863. On pages 291–292, Mrs. Orr combines extracts from two letters of Browning written in December, 1871, and January, 1872, as though her citations were from a single letter written in January, 1872. A comparison of her quotations from Browning's letters with the text of these as printed in the Wise and Baylor collections will reveal her carelessness in matters of typographical detail.

2 As this “Addendum” goes to press, I have noted that Professor Knickerbocker has not included September 1864 in his check-list of the dates of missing letters. While Mrs. Orr, as I have stated, has printed part of the text of Browning's letter of Sept. 19, 1864 (which she misdates '62), the manuscript of the letter is lost.