Poems. by BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett - 1850: New Edition.

London: Chapman & Hall,, 1850. The first appearance of Sonnets from the Portuguese, uncommon in the original cloth Second edition, considerably expanded and revised, and the first to include the author's most celebrated love poems, Sonnets from the Portuguese. This is also the first to give EBB's married name on the title page, she having only met Robert Browning immediately after the publication of the first edition in 1844. EBB's 1844 Poems captured the attention of Browning, who wrote to her on 10 January 1845: "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett". This was the beginning of a whirlwind love story which inspired EBB's love poems. The 44 sonnets were composed between August 1845 and the spring of 1846; EBB only showed them to Browning later in 1849, and he persuaded her to include them in the present edition of the Poems. In addition to the sonnets, the edition includes a new translation of Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point", and further sonnets, including some on EBB's sisters, her dog Flush, and two on the Greek scholar Hugh Stuart Boyd, who had been her tutor. "The title of the series was meant to veil EBB's personal record of her emotions during her epistolary courtship by Browning, the Portuguese invoking the speaker of her earlier poem 'Catarina to Camoens'...EBB's sonnets are deeply embedded in the developing relationship between the poet and her future husband, and refer to particular events such as their exchange of locks of hair, as well as echoing the exchanges of their letters... they create a sequence of autobiographical, politically charged, figuratively and formally innovative sonnets that had a major impact both on the sonnet and on the poetic sequence" (Orlando). The edition was a success, and the 43rd sonnet - "How Do I Love Thee?" - has become one of the most famous love poems in the English language. This copy is in the second state, as often, with the publisher's imprint "193 Piccadilly" instead of "186 Strand". Two volumes, octavo. Original blue cloth, spines lettered in gilt, covers with blind floral border and strapwork centrepiece, yellow coated endpapers. Vol. II with ownership inscription of one Elizabeth Charles dated 1851 on front free endpaper and of one Dorothea Charles dated 1898 on rear pastedown; occasional neat pencil annotations. Spine ends, corners, and inner hinges professionally repaired, spines slightly toned, couple of spots of foxing to outer leaves in each volume, otherwise clean. A very good set. Barnes A6.