2802. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 15, 312–313.
[Bagni di Lucca]
[5 July 1849] [1]
My dearest Sarianna, I do wish you were here. I am sure you would enjoy losing yourself with Robert in the mountains & forests, and if you have a genius for climbing it could scarcely be more nobly exercised than in this place. The scenery is exquisite, the coolness most exhilarating: it is a novelty to us to be able to sleep & eat & walk & breathe without the drawback of having to set about it in an oven. We are perched (instead of that) among the trees, & we look down giddily over a great world of mountains, at the feet of which the little white river rushes & raves– Only the sound of the water & of the cicali can reach us; and this is a wonderful change after the Austrian drums & shrill Tuscan voices of poor dear Florence. Dear Sarianna, if you can manage to get to Italy before the autumn, we shall have plenty of room for you here—remember that we shall; and the heat can do nobody any harm—that is certain. Mention your health particularly always—it was quite right to have medical advice & it has probably saved you from serious illness & all us who love you, from great pain– I am hoping much from the change of air & scene to Robert, whose spirits & nerves have been altogether worn & shattered—more indeed than I liked saying to you before: it has made me very uneasy. Now already, his appetite seems better,—and if God pleases, we shall get great good & refreshment of spirit out of the glorious beauty which surrounds us on every side. If the spirit of man went downward to the dust, we should be justified in laying our living heads there after these temporal separations—but as this is not so, we must & ought to take courage & look upward & onward where we are going. The grave is not a place of abiding—not even for our tears– I say so who have shed many bitter ones .. far bitterer, dearest Sarianna, than those in your eyes– May God help all of us–
Now I shall tell you of little Babe– Robert has told you, of course, of his baptism, & how we have made him dearer by giving him a saint’s name, to associate him (as God’s providence did) with her goodness & tenderness—and so, you shall love him a little more, Sarianna, than otherwise you would do, for Her beloved sake. Such a fat, chubby little creature he is, & so full of premature intelligence—fixing his eyes upon you, .. when perhaps you are not thinking of him but talking to somebody else .. fixing his eyes on you & smiling, .. as much as to say “I understand what you are talking of”. Then he likes to play with Flush’s ears; and when you say “Flush” he looks at Flush, .. evidently knowing the name. So strong he is, that when he lies on the floor & two fingers are stretched out to him, he will sieze them with his two fists and drag himself up straight:—Wilson says that he quite frightens her, he is so strong—she expects him to get up & walk away some morning. Then he laughs aloud & talks to himself or to the nearest thing, lying on the floor with his round bare arms & legs. Yesterday morning he had a most interesting conversation with the bed post. Whenever he looks at himself in the glass, he laughs for joy. Tell your dear father this—oh, I wish he could see it all for himself– May God bless both of you. We think & talk of you—we love you dearly. My very dear sister, believe how tenderly I feel for you & with you! I am your attached Ba.
Address, on integral page: Miss Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Dated by reference to letter 2800, in which RB tells Sarianna (under the heading “Thursday. July 5”) that “Ba is writing a little note to you.”
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