To Messrs TICKNOR AND FIELDS:

I take advantage of the opportunity of the publication in the United States of my “Men and Women,” for printing which you have liberally remunerated me, to express my carnest desire that the power of publishing in America this and every subsequent work of mine may rest exclusively with

your house.

i am, my dear Sirs,
with high esteem,

Yours faithfully,
PARIS, Nov 29, 1855.

ROBERT BROWNING.

TO ROBERT BROWNING.

THERE is delight in singing, though none bess
Beside the singer: and there is delight
In praising, though the praiser sit alone
And see the praised far off him, far above.
Shakspeare is not our poet, but the world's,
Therefore on him no speech! and brief for thee,
Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale,
No man hath walkt along our roads with step
So aviive, so inquiring eye, or tongue
So varied in discourse. But warmer climes
Give brighter plumage, stronger wing: the breeze
Of Alpine heights thou playest with, borne on
Beyond Sorrento and Amalfi, where
The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDORE

Many of these pieces were out of print, the rest had been withdrawn from circulation, when the corrected edition, now submitted to the reader, was prepared. The various Poems and Dramas have received the author's most careful revision,

DECEMBER, 1848