Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 3 August 1839:
'I a personally quite unacquainted with Mr Horne [...] Have you not heard of his Cosimo de'
Medici? He is a man of indubitable genius. I feel THAT quite distinctly, although I have read
only a little of his poetry'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 15 May 1840:
'I had finished Napoleon & was about to write to you on the subject -- & I will still write.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, late January 1841:
'I have just read your reply to the Monthly Critic -- though not his attack'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 10 March 1841:
'I have seen Orpheus, & write just to thank you for the pleasure of the vision [...] You have
gathered power, intensity, freedom of versification -- But in my brain
---- "slow the Argo ploughs her way
LIke a dun dragon spreading moonlit wings",
to suggest certain unsurpassable lines.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 4 August 1841:
'I have seen & read [italics]the book[end italics] [...] It is written by an enthusiast in the cause of genius upon the spectacle of its misery, lighted up to ghastliness by the torchlight of [Isaac]
D'Israeli & other memorialists [...] Its thunderbolts are hurled against all false media -- such
as interpose between men of genius & the public, in the form of [italic]readers[end italics] for
publishers & Theatrical managers, &c &c [...] There is, in fact, with much talent & power, a
sufficiency of acrimony & indiscretion [...] notwithstanding the sense forced upon me of the
overweight of certain words -- I did feel myself taken off my feet & carried along in the brave
strong generous current of the spirit of the book -- It is a fearless book, with fine thoughts on
a stirring subject'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 18 January 1842:
'What can you have thought, my dear Mr Horne, of all this loitering with your tragedy? [...]
Here it is all safe back for you [...] thank you, thank you, twice over, for all the -- -- --
[italics]pleasure[end italics] is the wrong word -- -- -- [italics]sensation[end italics] is not
quite right -- the [italics]emotion[end italics], which this fine tragedy has given me [goes on
to comment upon text in detail]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Manuscript: Unknown
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 29 November 1842:
'Mr Leigh Hunt & Mr Horne have been reviewing Tennyson & Browning in the Church of England
quarterly [...] Mr Horne is acute and generous as he always is, -- but Leigh Hunt's article,
altho' honest in criticism, I do not doubt, & wise in many of the remarks, strikes me as a cold
welcome from a poet to a poet -- & to such a poet as Tennyson! -- & I felt a little vexed while
I was reading it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 29 May 1843:
'By the way [...] I have been reading you in the Illuminated Magazine.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
Katherine Cockell to Elizabeth Barrett, 30 June 1843:
'I could not put Orion out of my hands for my needful food, -- nor out of my head for my more
needful sleep. I was wholly possessed, rapt away into some new sphere never before dreamt
of, & all this, (& much more than all this) tho' I have no classical enthusiasm (of course not!)
real or affected; & tho' I have a particular antipathy to Giants.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Cockell Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 7 July 1843:
'Mr Kenyon was with me yesterday, and praised "Orion" most admiringly. He had read it only
in parts yet, through a press of occupation, but he had from these parts, he said, the same
sort of pleasure as from Keats's "Endymion" or "Hyperion;" and what particularly charmed him
was the versification.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Kenyon Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 7 August 1843:
'I heard of Orion the other day being admired at the first glance, & carried away to be admired
at leisure, by Mrs Jameson'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anna Brownell Jameson Print: Book
Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 27 December 1843:
'I must not forget to thank you for your recommendation of "Orion" -- I have read it again &
again, & like it exceedingly -- I thought it a little [italics]cold[end italics] at first, but lost sight
of that in the second reading'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book
Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 28 January 1844:
'For the Dramas [of Richard Hengist Horne], we owe you many thanks -- we have read them
all, & admired them all [...] I confess I have formed an almost higher opinion of Mr Horne's
genius from them, than from "Orion" [poem] [...] "Delora["] too, has many fine passages, --
and I should be more particular in adverting to them & others, were it not that your own pencil
has forestalled me, so that my encomiums would be, in most cases, but a reiteration of your
own [goes on to reflect upon pleasures of reading annotations by others in books]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book
Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 28 January 1844:
'For the Dramas [of Richard Hengist Horne], we owe you many thanks -- we have read them
all, & admired them all [...] I confess I have formed an almost higher opinion of Mr Horne's
genius from them, than from "Orion" [poem] [...] "Delora["] too, has many fine passages, --
and I should be more particular in adverting to them & others, were it not that your own pencil
has forestalled me, so that my encomiums would be, in most cases, but a reiteration of your
own [goes on to reflect upon pleasures of reading annotations by others in books]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book
Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, 28 January 1844:
'For the Dramas [of Richard Hengist Horne], we owe you many thanks -- we have read them
all, & admired them all [...] I confess I have formed an almost higher opinion of Mr Horne's
genius from them, than from "Orion" [poem] [...] "Delora["] too, has many fine passages, --
and I should be more particular in adverting to them & others, were it not that your own pencil
has forestalled me, so that my encomiums would be, in most cases, but a reiteration of your
own [goes on to reflect upon pleasures of reading annotations by others in books]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Thomas Westwood to Elizabeth Barrett, ?12 April 1844:
'I have just finished the second volume [of A New Spirit of the Age], dear Miss Barrett, & my
fingers itch to tell you that I am quite positively sure that [italics]you are in more pages of the
book than those headed by your name[end italics]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Westwood Print: Book
Richard Hengist Horne to Elizabeth Barrett, 10 June 1844:
'Leigh Hunt has shown me his copy [of A New Spirit of the Age] all marked through. He has
marked with great admiration various passages written violently of by [italics]others[end
italics].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Leigh Hunt Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 5 April 1845:
'For Mr Horne's storybook, I like some of the stories & think it a pretty book. A few children of six years old might be too old for it, -- but, in general, I do not quarrel with the fitnesses [...] I remember a little book which was a favorite in our nursery, called "A visit to a farm-house [by S.W.]," with precisely the same characteristics, & a better & more interesting general construction. There are a few touches more of poetry in this book, -- owing to Mr. Horne, of course, but the defect is the absolute want of reference to Deity, as creator, which the child looks for, .. which the first instinct of the child looks out to meet. Not that I advocate the teaching of theological systems to children of that early age; but that if the sense of beauty is to be educated, the sense of God should be educated also.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, 4 January 1846:
'I found Horne's book at home, and have had time to see that beautiful things are there -- I suppose "Delora" will stand alone still -- but I got pleasantly smothered with that odd shower of wood-spoils at the end, the dwarf-story [...] and there is good sailor-speech in the "Ben Capstan" [...] At one thing I wonder -- his not reprinting a quaint clever [italics]real[end italics] ballad, published before "Delora", on the "Merry Devil of Edmonton" -- the first of his works I ever read -- no, the very first piece was a single stanza, if I remember, in which was this line "When bason-crested Quixote, lean and bold," .. good, is it not?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Book
Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, 4 January 1846:
'I found Horne's book at home, and have had time to see that beautiful things are there -- I suppose "Delora" will stand alone still -- but I got pleasantly smothered with that odd shower of wood-spoils at the end, the dwarf-story [...] and there is good sailor-speech in the "Ben Capstan" [...] At one thing I wonder -- his not reprinting a quaint clever [italics]real[end italics] ballad, published before "Delora", on the "Merry Devil of Edmonton" -- the first of his works I ever read -- no, the very first piece was a single stanza, if I remember, in which was this line "When bason-crested Quixote, lean and bold," .. good, is it not?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical
Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett, 4 January 1846:
'I found Horne's book at home, and have had time to see that beautiful things are there -- I suppose "Delora" will stand alone still -- but I got pleasantly smothered with that odd shower of wood-spoils at the end, the dwarf-story [...] and there is good sailor-speech in the "Ben Capstan" [...] At one thing I wonder -- his not reprinting a quaint clever [italics]real[end italics] ballad, published before "Delora", on the "Merry Devil of Edmonton" -- the first of his works I ever read -- no, the very first piece was a single stanza, if I remember, in which was this line "When bason-crested Quixote, lean and bold," .. good, is it not?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Browning Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Barrett to Roberrt Browning, 4 January 1846:
'When you get Mr. Horne's book you will understand how, after reading just the first & last poems, I could not help speaking coldly a little of it [...] I did think & do, that the last was unworthy of him, & that the first might have been written by a writer of one tenth of his facility. But last night I read the "Monk of Swineshead Abby" & the "Three Knights of Camelot" & "Bedd Gelert" & found them all different stuff, better[,] stronger, more consistent, & read them with pleasure & admiration.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Roberrt Browning, 4 January 1846:
'When you get Mr. Horne's book you will understand how, after reading just the first & last poems, I could not help speaking coldly a little of it [...] I did think & do, that the last was unworthy of him, & that the first might have been written by a writer of one tenth of his facility. But last night I read the "Monk of Swineshead Abby" & the "Three Knights of Camelot" & "Bedd Gelert" & found them all different stuff, better[,] stronger, more consistent, & read them with pleasure & admiration.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Roberrt Browning, 4 January 1846:
'When you get Mr. Horne's book you will understand how, after reading just the first & last poems, I could not help speaking coldly a little of it [...] I did think & do, that the last was unworthy of him, & that the first might have been written by a writer of one tenth of his facility. But last night I read the "Monk of Swineshead Abby" & the "Three Knights of Camelot" & "Bedd Gelert" & found them all different stuff, better[,] stronger, more consistent, & read them with pleasure & admiration.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte (as Currer Bell) to Richard Hengist Horne, 15 December 1847:
'You will have thought me strangely tardy in acknowledging your courteous present, but the fact is it never reached me till yesterday [...]
'I have to thank you, not merely for the gift of a little book of 137 pages, but for that of a [italics]poem[end italics]. Very real, very sweet is the poetry of "Orion"; there are passages I shall recur to again and yet again -- passages instinct both with power and beauty. All through it is genuine -- pure from one fault of affectation, rich in noble imagery [...] You could not, I imagine, have written that epic without at times deriving deep happiness from your work.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
