2708. RB to Mary Louisa Boyle

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 326.

[Florence]

Monday, 3. p.m. [25 October 1847] [1]

Dear Miss Boyle–

Thank you very truly for the kind trouble of the note– I called—(alone, for my wife is indisposed)—on Mlle de Fauveau, [2] and was shown the beautiful & Cellinesque Bells, by her mother–

I have to thank your Brother for a card yesterday. Will your own occasions never bring you near Via Maggio again?

Ever yours faithfully,

Robert Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Dating based on RB’s reference to Via Maggio. The Brownings took rooms at 1881 Via Maggio on 19 October 1847, and remained there for ten days. The only Monday they were there was October 25th.

2. Félicie de Fauveau (1801–1886) was a French sculptress who was born in Florence. Romantic in style, her work was inspired by Dante and Walter Scott. She and her mother had been exiles in Italy since 1834 because of their Royalist sympathies. Mlle. Fauveau “worked in marble, in alabaster, and in silver, in many branches, brooches, clasps, and wings, which would have done no discredit to Benvenuto Cellini” (Mary Boyle: Her Book, ed. Sir Courtenay Boyle, 1901, p. 129).

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