2785. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 15, 257–261.
Florence.
April 30. [1849] [1]
We are very glad & gratified, dearest Monna Nina, to have the affectionate letter from you. As to the letter from Ireland, it is in the brightest part of the moon somewhere, for it never reached us at Florence; and we, what do you think we have been thinking about you all this while? That you had forgotten us, done with us, set us on one side altogether. At least Robert was certain of this—oh, he was sure of it for his part, .. and my arguments against the melancholy position grew fainter & fainter, when the time passed & not a word came from you, & we could only hear from everybody how Mrs Jameson was very busy & absorbed in her successes & so on. Well—it is delightful to know that we were not after all forgotten—because how could we afford to lose any of you? any of your thoughts & affections, our dear kind friend, when you have taught us, so past forgetfulness, the dear worth of them all? Another time, we shall calculate on letters going astray—and, still better, for the future do let us write to one another oftener, so that even if letters do go astray (the stars being more in fault than they) they may have quick successors to set everything to right again. Believe that we love you & long to hear every detail about you always. It is not for the Edgeworths, [2] it is for you. Robert believed that you would hear directly of the birth of our child from Mr Kenyon, instead of from the papers.
He has been in the deepest anguish from the blow which followed the blessing & of which you speak so feelingly. Yet, though you speak feelingly & though you know him, you cannot know how he has suffered, yes, & suffers still. I am not able to tell you that he has recovered his spirits—he says that he never shall recover them—only I have better hope of him than he has himself, happily for both of us. You see there was something peculiarly thrilling to a nature like his in the discord between the joy & the grief, in the thought that we were rejoicing here just while his mother was dying and that people would be apt to set the good against the evil (as has been done in many kind letters) & the new affection against the old, as if one could replace the other! It was quite natural that he should be inclined to put away passionately all the comfort for the time– Now, it begins to rise into sight again .. poor little babe, sent to us to be a blessing, though not of course to replace all blessings! What charmed me at first most (after the sound of the first cry) was his delight in the child—that took me quite by surprise– I never imagined that he wd care so much for a child. Always he used to tell me that he did’nt believe he had the least touch in him of paternal instinct .. always before the child came .. and two days before, when I had caught cold & was not well & made him more nervous than usual about me, he wished to Heaven that the living creature would exhale, & disappear in some mystical way without doing me any harm. I who did’nt wish my child to exhale by any manner of means, & begged him not to say such things lest he shd be taken at his word, could scarcely be prepared for the joy he showed afterwards, .. coming to see the baby bathed & dressed every morning & in a dreadful state of tribulation about the wet nurses, so that I had to console him myself & try to prove that our little babe was’nt after all “too spiritual & sweet & lovely” to live on in this lower world. Four wet-nurses we had the first week—number one .. exit tearing her hair because she wanted a combination of babies (excluding her own, observe!) to which we could’nt consent:—number two .. engaged in another family: number three, .. came the whole way from beyond Pescia & had to go back again, the supply not being equal to the demand: .. Number four—with immense cheeks of the real cardinal’s scarlet, a great, active, laughing, goodnatured, kind hearted woman, without nerves,—and with us still to our daily satisfaction. Through these four revolutions, our young Italy passed gloriously, with a characteristic Florentine indifference. Constitution or ‘costituente’ [3] .. what cared he? He slept & grew fat, Grand Duke or Guerazzi. Never was a more healthy child– Dearest friend, if you could see him at this moment you would wonder how such a child could be my child, .. just as I wonder myself. Such large round cheeks, such a superfluity of chins, such a broad chest, and vigorous legs & arms—and really a beautiful child too—called “a model for Michal Angelo” by the accoucheur and “un Jesu bambino” [4] by the monthly nurse, the wet nurse being of opinion that “the Signora must have seen some very pretty people when she walked out in the streets!”– What has been curiously beautiful from the beginning is his complexion– No “red gum” nor rashes of any kind, nor weak eyes, nor other common scourges of early babyhood– Now his two cheeks have roses in them, one on each side. And such a good baby! So serene & unfretful! Robert walks with him in his arms up & down the terrace, & I could’nt if I tried ever so, the weight is so great. As for me, I am very well & have been out once in the carriage & am beginning to get fat. Dr Harding says that my health is likely to be quite reinstated now, & indeed I feel very well. Your friend Sir Charles Herbert does not practise as accoucheur, understand, & always calls in an Italian when in attendance himself—therefore it wd have been useless to have applied to him. Dr Harding has satisfied us entirely. I suffered nothing unusual in any way,—& he said in my hearing that in the course of his practice he had never seen the functions of nature more healthfully & perfectly performed. Robert was with me the whole time till the last few minutes (when he was sent away by authority) & I comforted myself by pulling his head nearly off; & then he came back & brought me the child to look at, & I felt his tears dropping on my face. Oh what blessing! how great God’s goodness was to us!– The first cry came to me in the rapture of a surprise! for all day I had not dared to think of the child,—& the sight of the cradle at the bed’s foot quite irritated me. Not that I was in the least nervous about myself– On the contrary I could not realize the common sense of danger. But it had always seemed to me reasonable to expect some evil about the child—malformation if nothing else. What with morphine & a frightful fall which I had in the autumn, added to other qualifications for the maternal office, it seemed to me that I could not reasonably expect a happy issue as far as the child was concerned. So instead of sinking with exhaustion, at the end, I rose up into a state of ecstasy & could scarcely be kept quiet. Wilson “never heard any one in such a situation allowed to talk in that way.” Dear Wilson was very kind & we kissed one another for joy. As for the nursing, I gave up my priveledges with wonderful magnanimity being so glad indeed that our baby had escaped my evil star up to that moment. It wd have been too bad & selfish of me to have wished even to nurse him. The milk caused me some headache & inconvenience—particularly as the republicans of Florence did us the honour to keep festa round the tree of liberty planted at our palazzo-door, with guns & cannons & a band of music & patriotic songs from morning till night, yes, & half the night through three days after my confinement, causing the monthly nurse to offer various petitions to the Madonna against a milk-fever: but I had no fever, & got strength rapidly. There now! The fit of egotism is better too. Yet I wont apologize for anything, because I know & trust your goodness & that you will care to hear rather of ourselves than of Italian politics. The latter indeed tend miserably to misanthropy of the worst kind. We have lost our faith in Italy .. except the sun & the vines. Men put out no green leaf—like their own liberty-trees. Most ludicrous, if not as sad, has been the so called republican movement in Florence—a republic, the public dissenting! A dissent, amounting (when energetic enough) to the hiding of Leopold buttons by an over all coat. The second revolution (in favour of the Duke) would’nt have taken place if the Leghornese (who made the first against the Duke, ..) had not refused to pay their debts at the caffès here. Our patriotic civic guard, municipal guard, & sundries, who bore placidly the dethronement of their unoffending sovereign, could’nt bear that, & fired away. Robert who was walking in the town, just got home across the bridges before the passage was barred; & Dr Harding who was coming here, took refuge behind a stable-door a moment previous to four shot corpses falling up against it. Now Florence is quiet in all respects– If you came, you would find very few English & absolute safety—& how glad we shd be! Shall you come, do you think? Do think & come. Our plans are unsettled. So kind of you to give us your book! [5] (passages of which have charmed us in certain newspapers.) Robert’s publishers are stingy about his—& never sent us one copy, for ourselves or our friends. It is very pleasant to have your opinion. Is it true that you are leaving Ealing? Tell us all of yourself & dear Gerardine. I thought she was on the point of marrying last autumn. Father Prout is here again. How is Lady Byron? We get no new books, & lose you & Miss Martineau together. May God bless you! Keep your sympathies warm to us—to your ever affectionate
EBB–
Will you give this little note to dear Gerardine? I have left no room for Robert, & indeed he is less inclined to writing even to you than generally. He desires his very best love, & bids me say how he felt the kindness of your letter. God bless you always.
Address, on integral page: Mrs Jameson / Ealing.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. EBB is no doubt referring to remarks concerning the Edgeworth family whom Mrs. Jameson had visited the previous year. In a letter to Robert Noel, dated 16 December 1848, she reported: “In the first week of last September, being quite worn out with hard work, I ran away for a change. … I ran to Ireland … where I spent ten days with the Edgeworths, and found that celebrated family as charming as the world had believed them. Maria Edgeworth lively and full of all natural sympathies at the age of eighty-one” (Gerardine Macpherson, Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson, 1878, p. 254).
3. “Constituent.”
4. “A child Jesus.”
5. A copy of Sacred and Legendary Art (1848), published the previous November.
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