Poems: New Edition. [Sonnets From the Portuguese].

London; Chapman & Hall, 1850., 1850. Hard Cover. SECOND EDITION, revised and enlarged, and the FIRST EDITION (second state, with 193 Piccadilly to publishers' imprint) to include the "Sonnets from the Portuguese". Foolscap octavo, pp. [3], vi-xii, 362; [4], vi-viii, 480, bound without half-titles. Near contemporary binding in black 1/4 roan with 4 raised bands, gilt titles & decoration to spine and light brown pebbled cloth covered boards; marbled endpapers and all edges gilt. Leather rubbed to edges; cover cloth very slightly rippled. A little light foxing, mainly to prelims; tidy gift inscriptions to first blanks Vol I only dated 1880 and to both volumes dated 1949. 2 small archival tape repairs with associated creasing to p. 343/4. A very good set. Includes "Sonnets From the Portuguese" the 44 celebrated love poems which Browning (1806-61) wrote for her husband Robert, composed in 1845-6. After the first edition of "Poems" was published in 1844, Robert Browning wrote in admiration to Elizabeth and their subsequent courtship inspired the sonnets, which he insisted she include in the Second Edition of the collected verse. Wise states in his bibliography '...the Second, but greatly enlarged, Edition of Mrs Browning's 'Poems' is of considerable interest and importance, and its claim to rank as a princeps is fully justified'. Thomas J. Wise; A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, pp., 61-66.