Not the least interesting element in this previously unrecorded verse letter by Holman Hunt is
that it seems to establish the date—late 1848 or January 1849—when DGR first read
Browning's
Sordello
, which has to be the book referred to in lines 4-17.
DGR had been reading Browning's poetry at least since mid-1847, but as his October letter to
Browning indicates, at that point he knew only
Pauline
and
Paracelsus
, and
probably the
Bells and
Pomegranates
(see
Fredeman,
Correspondence,
47.3
). Browning published nothing between 1846 and 1850.
DGR dates his sonnet
“On Browning's
Sordello”
1849, but as we see here, he was eager, even frantic,
to get a copy in late 1848.
Like his verse letter of
August 1848 to William Smith Williams, this letter to Frederick Stephens
is composed in an amusing doggerel
line of syllabic couplets (with variations). Another doggerel letter by
Hunt survives, though it is badly water and fire damaged. Though lacking a named addressee, it
was almost certaintly written to Stephens and dates from either September or October 1848.
This collection contains 1 text or image, including:
South African National Gallery Manuscript text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
Not the least interesting element in this previously unrecorded verse letter by Holman Hunt is that it seems to establish the date—late 1848 or January 1849—when DGR first read Browning's Sordello , which has to be the book referred to in lines 4-17. DGR had been reading Browning's poetry at least since mid-1847, but as his October letter to Browning indicates, at that point he knew only Pauline and Paracelsus , and probably the Bells and Pomegranates (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 47.3 ). Browning published nothing between 1846 and 1850. DGR dates his sonnet “On Browning's Sordello” 1849, but as we see here, he was eager, even frantic, to get a copy in late 1848.
Like his verse letter of August 1848 to William Smith Williams, this letter to Frederick Stephens is composed in an amusing doggerel line of syllabic couplets (with variations). Another doggerel letter by Hunt survives, though it is badly water and fire damaged. Though lacking a named addressee, it was almost certaintly written to Stephens and dates from either September or October 1848.
Printing History
The manuscript poem has never been printed.