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62 worth the best efforts of other poets. She was not content to judge and defend; she must present in English one of the great works which she had studied. Hence her translation of the famous tragedy of Æschylus, "Prometheus Bound," which was published in 1835. The preface contained due acknowledgment of her indebtedness to "the learned Mr. Boyd." Some years later the author said that this translation was written in twelve days, and "should have been thrown in the fire afterwards—the only way to give it a little warmth." A new version now appears in her collected works.

In 1836 Miss Mary Russell Mitford, when on a visit to London, became acquainted with Miss Barrett, whose parents had taken a house in the suburbs of the metropolis. Miss Mitford was then a famous author. Her works comprised "Rienzi" and other dramas, as well as a novel or two. She had also published sketches of English life in "Our Village." In her "Recollections of a Literary Life," issued in 1851, she gives a sketch of her young friend, Miss Barrett, as she appeared at the beginning of their acquaintance:

"Of a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on either side of a most expressive face, large, tender eyes richly fringed by dark eyelashes, a smile like a sunbeam, and such a look of youthfulness that I had some difficulty in persuading a friend in whose carriage we went together to Chiswick that the translatress of the 'Prometheus' of Æschylus, the authoress of the 'Essay on Mind,' was old enough to be introduced into company—in technical language, was out."

The two authors, in spite of the difference in their ages (cheerful, gossipy, red-faced Miss Mitford being then in her fiftieth year), became warm friends, and thereafter corresponded freely and frequently. Miss Mitford's share of the correspondence has been published, but the other side has not yet seen the light.