924. RB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 258–259.
New Cross, Hatcham.
Tuesday [?mid-March 1842] [1]
Dear Mrs Jameson,
I shall try hard for the great pleasure of seeing you on Thursday Morning. —I am glad indeed that my play [2] interests you in any degree.
Ever yours faithfully
R Browning.
A thing, by the way, I have longed to ask you– At which of the Colnaghis [3] can one see the Correggio [4] you spoke of one evening at Carlyle’s? I am just now hungry for his pictures, and mean whenever I am sore at heart to go and get well before the great cupola at [5] ––but why not versify, since that, or something like it, is my trade?–
Could I, heart-broken, reach his Place of birth
And stand before his Pictures—could I chuse
But own at once “the sovereign’st thing on earth
“Is Parma-city for an inward bruise?” [6]
Publication: N&Q, December 1974, pp. 449–450 (in part).
Manuscript: R.H. Taylor Collection.
1. This letter could have been written at any time after December 1840, when RB moved to New Cross. The handwriting and form of signature, together with the reference to “my play,” provide this conjectural dating.
2. Assumed to be King Victor and King Charles, published 12 March 1842.
3. London print-sellers and publishers. The firm was founded by Paul Colnaghi (1751–1833) but, at this time, was in the hands of his son Dominic Paul (1790–1879), with premises at 14 Pall Mall East. A separate establishment, at 23 Cockspur Street, was managed by Dominic’s son, Martin Henry Colnaghi (1821–1908), hence RB’s query.
4. Antonio Allegri da Correggio (ca. 1489–1534), who developed the illusionist technique pioneered by Mantegna, subsequently used almost always in ceiling paintings.
5. Here RB wrote, and crossed out, the letter “P”. Correggio executed two dome paintings in Parma. They were of Christ Ascending (1520) in the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista, and the Assumption of the Virgin (1530) in the cathedral; as RB uses the phrase “great cupola” he is probably referring to the latter. He and EBB visited Parma in May 1851, and EBB subsequently wrote to John Kenyon (8 July 1851): “Correggio … is sublime at Parma: he is wonderful! besides having the sense to make his little Christs and angels after the very likeness of my baby.”
6. Cf. I Henry IV, I, 3, 57–58. RB is punning “Parma-city” with Shakespeare’s “parmaciti.”
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