The Brownings’ Correspondence, Volume 6

Volume 6 highlights EBB’s growing correspondence with the painter B.R. Haydon, who often accompanies his letters to her with sketches—all reproduced in this volume—including one of John Keats. Her sonnet on Haydon’s portrait of William Wordsworth is published in The Athenæum. When the old poet sees a copy of the sonnet he writes to EBB with suggestions for its improvement. She contributes poetry to American periodicals as a result of correspondence with poet and editor Cornelius Mathews. RB continues to correspond with Alfred Domett, Thomas Powell and W.C. Macready. However, RB’s friendship with the latter comes to an end over the staging of his play A Blot in the ’Scutcheon (1843), the fifth number of Bells and Pomegranates; earlier, he publishes Nos. III and IV, Dramatic Lyrics (1842) and The Return of the Druses (1843).