3480. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 326–329.
Florence.
Oct. 17 [1854] [1]
My dearest Mona Nina,
If you think we have put you out of the sight of our memory, how wrong you are! On the contrary I have thought of you more for not writing– The thought of a friend strikes with a recoil, you know, when we have sinned against them ever so little. I have been generally very full of sins against my friends lately in the way of writing, & this has chiefly happened through our intention of going to England, which would have been better than any possible letter. The intention was long on the swing—& then came the disappointment, which made me silent too–
My dear friend I thought of you in Rome tenderly, & in Florence I have not thought less of you. I hated Rome .. from association, & anxiety about Penini & feeling myself a barbarian therefore, & an outcast from the sympathies of civilized persons, I was loth to write more letters than were drawn from me by absolute persecution. The only good thing we found at Rome was the acquaintance of the two Kembles. We do admire & love them both. Of Mrs Sartoris we have seen not a little this summer besides, though the straightened circumstances which kept us from going north prevented also our getting to the Baths of Lucca for the summer. But she has been here twice, & we have carried away twelve bushelfuls of the fragments of the happiness she gave us in her passionate singing & brilliant talking. On one of those joyous evenings she opened her heart about you, & told us how she had shrunk from reading your paper about her artistic loss [2] & how she had wounded you by that piece of cowardice. She was full of her baby & her husband then, & the woman was happier than the artist had ever been. I could understand this, and also I could understand the unpleasant effect upon your apprehension of her. Now, Art’s “revenges” have begun—the artist has revived in the woman—& the domestic life, though perfectly happy, seems narrow for the soul– She tells me that she feels like a healthy person whose feet & hands are tied—& she suffers yearnings towards her great lost public career, even under the eyes of her beautiful youngest child who has the face of an angel. [3] Under these circumstances there was an opening for your book, & Robert gave it to her from our bookcase. [4] She brought us the enclosed note the next morning that we should send it to you at once. [5]
Now we are alone at this dear Florence. The Sartoris vision has vanished—she has gone to Rome, & taken with her another favorite friend of ours, Hatty Hosmer, the American sculptress—and we are settling down to a quiet, busy winter. The summer (in spite of all traditions of Florence heat) has been most enjoyable– I have seldom felt more happy in spite of certain crosses .. the greatest being the accident to my father who was run against by a cab & broke his leg—since when he has been doing well. My Penini whom we brought from that pestilent Rome, a pale puny child, has unfolded & recovered his colours like a flower, in this pure air native to him, my darling! He is a poetical, enchanting little Puck .. & (to speak modestly as Robert does) he “looks præternatural among other children.” He announced the other day that “very soon he must have a room to shut himself up in, to write his poems.” This, at five years old, is alarming for the public. What is better is, that the child’s nature runs over with love. Robert & I are his “two pets,” and I am his “dearlest little Ba.” Think of a spoiled child, who, at five, reads & writes, & begins to play on the piano, yet is’nt “crammed,” & is as infantine as if he were just weaned. So pretty too! That’s my “doxy”.!
Tell me if you have read George Sand’s “Maîtres Sonneurs” [6] & if it is’nt exquisite. We catch sight of your advertisement or rather of your new book’s advertisement, with great interest. [7]
I saw very little of Gerardine in Rome, but you are aware of course that she is in a full flow of prosperity. Mr Macpherson has black nails from the contact with his “philosopher’s stone,” [8] & very occupied time– The last is better, & the former not much worse. He does not please me extremely, there’s no denying, any more than he has pleased you—but while Gerardine is happy, which she is, one might as well object, you know, to the rather ugly baby– The first poor child was lovely, people say–
Dr Braun, I like very much—& he & his wife were kind & attentive to us in many ways– We dined with them “mode Germanicâ” [9] one day, & he & I had talk of a sympathetic kind about Swedenborg & Jacob Behmen, moving tables & rapping spirits, at other meeting-times.
We find that we are likely to have the means of going north next year– So dont believe that our appearance among you is only “high fantastical”– [10] We shall confound you with facts & faces next June perhaps–
I have been comforted by some improved accounts of dear Miss Mitford who has lain, as you probably are aware, in an almost desperate state for some months.
We are gasping for breath (with all of you) on the matter of the war—for the horrors of which, only the great union between France & England consoles me– Will you write to us dearest Mona Nina?– Do. Never avenge yourself with silence. Heap up the hot coals rather!– [11]
With Robert’s true love, ever
your affectionate Ba–
Do speak of yourself—how you are—what you are doing—where you are going? May you be coming to Italy this winter!! Ainsi soit il! [12]
Address: Mrs Jameson / Ealing / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. “Adelaide Kemble: and the Lyrical Drama in 1841,” an essay in Memoirs and Essays Illustrative of Art, Literature, and Social Morals (1846), at the beginning of which Mrs. Jameson writes: “Adelaide Kemble exists to us no more. She has retired within the sacred precincts of domestic life” (p. 69). The essay is dated August 1843; the Sartorises’ first child, Greville Edward, was born on 15 August 1843.
3. Algernon Charles Frederick Sartoris.
4. Mrs. Jameson had presented EBB a copy of Memoirs and Essays in June 1846 (see letter 2405); see also Reconstruction, A1303.
5. See SD1779.
6. Les Maîtres sonneurs (1853), a novel of peasant life set in George Sand’s native region of Berry and neighboring Bourbonnais, concerns folk musicians and folkways. Two of the principal characters, Joseph and Huriel, are bagpipers. They and another character, Étienne, all love the same woman, Brulette.
7. A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies, Original and Selected (1854), published on 10 November 1854, was mentioned among “books of interest likely to appear ere long” in the “Our Weekly Gossip” column of The Athenæum (7 October 1854, no. 1406, p. 1199). We have been unable to trace an advertisement for Mrs. Jameson’s book prior to the date of this letter.
8. i.e., from the chemicals he used in processing photographs.
9. EBB found the dinner “detestable,” whereas RB thought it “excellent” (see SD1752).
10. Twelfth Night, I, 1, 15.
11. Cf. Proverbs 25:22.
12. “So be it!”
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