Correspondence

3311.  EBB to Emelyn Story

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 47.

[Rome]

[late December 1853] [1]

Thank you, again & again, dearest Emelyn, for this beautiful present, which will keep the thought of you close to me——

“Oh so fair, oh so white, oh so soft is she”! [2] – You are far too kind—‘Oh, so kind,’ should come after!

We are delighted to see dear little Edith back among us, and Penini has almost choked himself with pudding in the emotion of his haste, to welcome her. How well she looks! Would’nt it do you good, dear Emelyn, to join the walking party which Robert is to make one of? I am delighted for him to go– It is as desireable for him as for Mr Story to take exercise, and I cant help thinking that, as a matter of duty & wisdom, it would be well for you to go too–

Ever affectionately yours

Ba

Publication: Isabel C. Clarke, Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Portrait (London, [1929]), pp. 297–298.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Approximate date based upon EBB’s references to a “beautiful present,” presumably for Christmas, and to Edith Story’s being “back among us,” looking well. She had been seriously ill from late November into mid-December 1853.

2. Cf. Ben Jonson, Under-Woods (1640), “A Celebration of Charis,” IV, 30.

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