ABSTRACT
First publ. in Helena Faucit Martin, On Some of Shakespeare’s Female Characters (5th ed., 1893) 396–7, from which our text is taken; repr. Correspondence vi 351–2 n.3. Composed 4 Mar. 1843 (B.’s subscription) and inscribed in an album belonging to the actress Helena (Helen) Faucit, later Lady Martin (1817–98). The album was offered for sale by Sotheby in 1936 (Collections, E180, p. 411) but its present location is unknown. With it was a letter from B. to Miss Faucit (Correspondence vi 351):
My dear Miss Faucit,—Here is your album, with my best thanks for the honour you have done me by asking some rhymes for it: and here are the rhymes themselves—poor enough, most probably, but sincere, quite as certainly. I wish from my soul it were in my power to find some worthier way of proving the admiration and gratitude with which I remain, my dear Miss Faucit, yours ever faithfully,
