Correspondence

2676.  EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 198–200.

Florence.

May 12– [1847] [1]

I was afraid, we both were afraid for you, dearest friend, when we saw the clouds gather & heard the rain fall as it did that day at Florence. It seemed impossible that you should be beyond this evil influence, should you have travelled ever so fast—but, after all, a storm in the Appenines, like many a moral storm, will be better perhaps than a calm, to look back upon. We talked of you & thought of you, & missed you at coffeetime, & regretted that so pleasant a week (for us!) should have gone so fast—as fast as a dull week, or rather a good deal faster. Dearest friend, do believe that we felt your goodness in coming to us .. in making us an object, before you left Italy! it fills up the measure of goodness & kindness for which we shall thank & love you all our lives– Never fancy that we can forget you or be less touched by the memory of what you have been to us in affection & sympathy .. never! And dont you lose sight of us—do write often, and do, do make haste & come back to Italy, & then make use of us in any & every possible way as housetakers or housemates, for we are ready to accept the lowest place or the highest. The week you gave us would be altogether bright & glad, if it had not been for the depression & anxiety on your part—. May God turn it all to gain & satisfaction, in some unlooked for way. To be a roadmaker is weary work, even across the Appenines of life. We have not science enough for it, if we have strength, which we have’nt either– Do you remember how Sindbad shut his eyes & let himself be carried over the hills by an eagle? [2]  That was better, than to set about breaking stones—. Also, what you could do you have done, .. you have finished your part; & the sense of a fulfilled duty is in itself satisfying .. is & must be– My sympathies go with you entirely, while I wish your dear Gerardine to be happy .. I wish it from my heart. Do let me hear the decision at Milan– If you elevate two instead of one, it will be better still, will it not? Your Ravenna does not look as well however as ours, of our dreams. There is only the pine forest & Dante’s tomb to fall back upon, I think. Tell us if it seems to you a place for a few weeks loitering in, & dont forget to say whether the osteria is cheap & comfortable. Tell us too particularly about Venice––about the climate in winter, .. the best situations .. cheapness &c &c. We hear bad accounts of the winter there, & as Robert says, are “nearly bullied out of” our first plans. My sisters write to me in consternation, much as if we were about to make a villeggiatura [3] on the Maremma. “What! Venice for the winter”!– So do give us a little information out of charity. Just after you left us arrived our box, with the precious deeds, which are thrown into the cabinet for want of witnesses! And then Robert has had a letter from Mr Forster, with the date of Shakespeare’s birthday, [4] & overflowing with kindness really both to himsel<f &> me. It quite touched me, that letter. Also we have had a visitation from an American … but on the point of leaving Florence & very tame & inoffensive, & we bore it very well considering. He sent us a new literary periodical of the old world, in which among other interesting matter I had the pleasure of reading an account of my own “blindness,” taken from a French paper (the Presse) [5] & mentioned with humane regret. Well!—& what more news is there to tell you? I have been out once, only once, & only for an inglorious glorious drive round the Piazza Gran Duca, past the Duomo, outside the walls & in again at the Cascine. It was like the trail of a vision in the evening sun. I saw the Perseus in a sort of flash. [6] The Duomo is more after the likeness of a Duomo than Pisa can show:—I like those masses in ecclesiastical architecture. Now we are plotting how to engage a carriage for a month’s service without ruining ourselves, .. for we must see, & I cant walk & see .. though much stronger than when we parted & looking much better, as Robert & the looking glass both do testify. I have seemed at last “to leap to a conclusion” of convalescence. But the heat—oh, so hot it is! If it is half as hot with you, you must be calling on the name of St Lawrence [7] by this time & require no “turning”. I shd not like to travel under such a sun. It wd be too like playing at snapdragon. [8] Yes—“brightly happy.”! Women generally lose by marriage—but I have gained the world by mine. If it were not for some griefs which are & must be griefs, I should be too happy perhaps .. which is good for nobody. May God bless you my dear dearest friend! Robert must be content with sending his love today & shall write another day. We both love you everyday. My love & a kiss to dearest Gerardine who is to remember to write to me.

Your ever affectionate

Ba–

Direct Poste Restante.

Address, on integral page: À Madame / Madame Jameson / Poste Restante / Milano. Redirected, in an unidentified hand: Verona.

Publication: LEBB, I, 328–330 (in part).

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Year provided by postmark.

2. A reference to “The Story of Sinbad the Voyager” in The Arabian Nights, trans. Jonathan Scott, 1811, 2, 20–22.

3. “Holiday.” The Maremma, a marshy area south of Pisa on the Tuscan coast, was at the time considered unhealthy and malarial.

4. Mrs. Jameson had been expected to arrive on the 24th of April, but surprised the Brownings when she arrived a day early, which she did when she remembered it was Shakespeare’s birthday (see letter 2669)—hence EBB’s emphasis here.

5. The American visitor is George L. Duyckinck; see the preceding letter and SD1319. We have been unable to identify the “periodical” to which EBB refers, nor have we been able to trace the “account” in La Presse.

6. “Perseus and Medusa,” in bronze, by Benvenuto Cellini (1500–71) in the Loggia dei Lanzi.

7. An allusion to the martyrdom of Lawrence of Rome, a deacon of Rome who, according to tradition, was martyred in 258 by being roasted on a gridiron.

8. A traditional Christmas time activity which involves soaking raisins in brandy, setting the brandy alight, and plucking the raisins from the flames with one’s fingers.

___________________

National Endowment for the Humanities - Logo

Editorial work on The Brownings’ Correspondence is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This website was last updated on 3-29-2024.

Copyright © 2024 Wedgestone Press. All rights reserved.

Back To Top