MS 681 01 01 02

MS 681 01 01 02

Moulton-Barrett archive: Early manuscripts by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning

File

[19th century]

4 items and 1 oversized volume

A small collection of copies and proofs of early manuscripts by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. There is a manuscript fragment that introduces the play 'The tragedy of Laodice or the dying queen', written by Elizabeth as a child and performed by her and her siblings at the 'Theatre Royal', Hope End. On the fragment, Elizabeth lists the parts that the siblings would be playing and gives the date as "Saturday evening, September 1819". Mounted with this fragment are two tickets handwritten by Elizabeth to the described performance. These are addressed to "Mr Clarke" and "Mr Barrett".

There is also a fragment of a corrected proof of "Cupid and Psyche" consisting of six lines on a single leaf, a copy by Edward Moulton-Barrett (Father) of lines written by Elizabeth on a page of a copy of her Essay on Mind, a copy by Alfred Moulton-Barrett (brother) of "Verses on a Clock" by Elizabeth, aged fourteen, that was circulated in the Barrett family in 1820, and a transcript by Arabella Moulton-Barrett (sister) of Elizabeth's "A Sabbath Morning at Sea", called "A Sabbath on the Sea" in this transcript.

The manuscript fragment of 'The tragedy of Laodice' is mounted with the handwritten tickets and housed in a quarter navy morocco over cloth slip case with "Barrett Theatricals, Hope End, 1819" stamped in gilt on the cover.

The manuscript fragment of 'The tragedy of Laodice' is mounted and therefore oversized. It is therefore in Ky.8.
The other manuscript fragments are in individual envelopes within the box of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning papers (Kn).