5036. RB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 50–53.
1. Chichester Road, Upper Westbourne Terrace
Friday March 7. [1862] [1]
My dearest Isa,-Your note this morning gives me a pain to think it is not, as it ought to have been, an answer to the proper letter of mine I always meant to write immediately on arriving: I had no time,-to say more than a word, at least and yesterday, on trying to manage writing while Pen was at his music lesson two yards off, was forced to give it up. Briefly of myself-we had a very prosperous visit as I did, saw & said all I wanted, & was able to go back with the assurance that the break in our business here was well paid for: I went no where, but for a call or two, spent the time with Milsand & my own people, and returned on Monday, as appointed. I considered carefully whether I could go to Broadstairs; but we got up in the dark on Monday-left Boulogne at 2. & arrived in the bitter cold at Folkestone two hours after, to recruit a little in the hour & a quarter-after which by express train, no encumbrance of luggage, & a fast cab, we got home by nine-oclock- I should have been forced to stay all night at Stone House had I gone on from Folkestone, and that might not have been in your power to allow-big as your dear heart is. Well, at Paris I called twice on Mrs Bracken-& she spent Saturday Eg with us-Willy & Miss Smith [2] accompanying her. Willy had a bad cold, was confined to the house-but Pen dined there once. Pen is almost if not quite as tall as Willy-their shoes made decision in the matter difficult, what with short & long heels & soles-but the difference is wholly in Willies neck & head-which are long-his shoulders & Pen’s are of a height: you may remember there was a great difference three years ago. He is a sweet clever boy,-draws very nicely-looks much like Annette-but seems pale & delicate; Mrs B. & my sister were surprised at Annette’s not calling-she said they might depend on her giving the photographs in person-but Mrs B added (what quite explained the course she took) that she passed the day at London in bed: Mrs B. added, she seemed inclined to stay a long time where she is. [3] Here let me say that I recd yesterday a letter from my sister in which she bids me tell you that she “wrote to Fanny H. [4] by the same post, with your message,-F. being about to leave Dresden-& she will write to you as soon as she gets the answer.” Among the letters I found here on returning, the first I opened was one from Villeri-quite satisfactory-explaining the cause of the delay, assuring me the tablet had been ordered, correcting the inscription he had given you, [5] and offering to take charge of the book with the dedication, [6] & present it properly: I am very grateful for his prompt kindness, without which I could not have ventured to take a decisive step: the one thing I forgot to ask further was whether the Inscription was by Tommaseo really,-is your impression that I may be as sure of that as of the rest? I shall risk mentioning his name, I think, (on the direct authority of Made Mignaty, [7] you know, who could not be easily wrong about it). The publication of that book takes place on the 20th You will be here-& if you knew how it irked me all our journey thro’ to think that on returning I could not first of all run in for a minute to you, over the way! Dear Isa, wherever you are, is much that I rest on, in this world-holding, as I do, by only a few points now: I shall feel sad indeed when you go farther off than Blackheath [8] -but the end,-if I am able to arrange it,-of my life, will be spent in Italy,-where you will be.
I found, too, a long letter from Lytton, [9] which you will see & be interested with-he sends i suoi convenevoli [10] to you-& says he is astonished to find how much his father’s religious sentiments resemble mine-also speaks bitterly against the prevailing imitation of Tennyson. I have so much to tell you when we meet that it would be useless to begin now: one thing, lest you should learn & wonder at it from the papers, I will mention. Last year, Leigh Hunt’s son wrote asking earnestly for any letters of his father I might have: I replied I had only one of any importance, which was locked up in Florence, [11] -if I could get that, he was welcome to it. He wrote again thanking me- At Florence, I put the letter aside-& of late, supposing the book out or done with, thought no more of the matter. But here is the book out at last, with a speech in the preface about his being unable under well-known circumstances to trouble me even by a question-which induces him to print, not what his father wrote to me but, a letter of mine & hers to his father, [12] full of intimate talk about our child’s illness, and other things which give me real pain to read-the whole improved by such a series of blunders in the copying my letter (being unused to my hand-writing, I suppose) that the result is unintelligible beyond even my unintelligibility. (He confesses it probably needs correction!) Think of doing this without one word of enquiry as to whether I would allow such a liberty-which means,-taking care not to receive the inevitable refusal. Once I should have been angry enough-now, I seem hardly to care after the first feeling of disgust and annoyance,-it is as if some clownish person had thrown open the door of a bathing-machine in which I was undressing-the whole company on the beach stare & probably laugh-& a very young lady would be mortified enough,-but I shall not break my heart, depend on it. What clownishness, however!
I promised Miss Smith [13] to tell you, from her, how grieved she has been to hear that you have been unwell from Mrs Mackay yet, if you were as unwell as she fancied, would you write to me, about return &c without a word of it? I can only entreat you to take care of yourself: & do, dearest Isa, have medical advice if it should be requisite! Miss Smith is quite well: we begin a fresh term of drawing lessons, three a week at her own house, to-morrow: I am quite satisfied that her instruction is all that one could desire-& Pen is come back more interested in it than ever: the drawing I took for my Father was really good, & met with the applause you may expect. Won’t you come & spend a whole Sunday with me, dearest Isa, as soon as you arrive? I will talk my fill with you-arrangements, & Pen’s improvement I ought to add, allow me to give more time to myself than when you were here, & I lost so much I regret now-but also regretted then, you know. Goodbye & God bless you, my own friend. Pen is riding, but I may safely give his best love.
Ever yours affectionately
RB.
I send all papers-why not?-the rest, when you come.
Publication: DI, pp. 100-103.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; 1862 was the only year RB resided at 1 Chichester Road in March.
2. Annie Egerton Smith (1821-77), second daughter of Egerton Smith (1774-1841), founder of The Liverpool Mercury, and his wife, Margaret (née Wood, 1796-1866), was a younger sister of Mary Bracken and the aunt of Willie Bracken (see letter 4205, note 11). She first met RB in Florence (see Orr, p. 290) and their friendship later developed, after RB’s return to London, through a shared interest in music. Her sudden death in Switzerland while on holiday with RB inspired him to write La Saisiaz (1878), which he dedicated to her.
3. Annette Bracken is listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4) at 28 Harbourne Road, Edgbaston, near Birmingham.
4. i.e., Fanny Haworth.
5. In letter 5032, Villari told RB that “the second name [Barrett] was added, as You desired.” Unfortunately it was misspelled on the memorial tablet (see letter 5019, note 1).
7. Margherita Albana-Mignaty (née Alvanas, 1821-87) was born on Corfu to Greek parents, Dimitrios Alvanas and his wife, Aikaterini. She was later adopted by her mother’s sister, Diamantina (d. 1844), and her husband, Sir Frederick William Adam (1784-1853), who served as lord high commissioner of the Ionian Islands from 1824 to 1832. Margherita married George Mignaty in 1844, and they settled in Florence two years later. She and Isa Blagden were close friends.
8. Southeast of London. Isa was staying with her friend Charlotte Brice (née Agassiz, 1822-1900) and her husband, Alexander Charles Brice (1818-89). Mrs. Brice is listed in AB-4 at 20 Blessington Rd., Lee, Kent, which is closer to the village of Blackheath than it is to Lee.
10. “His compliments.”
12. Letter 4069, in which both Brownings write of the fever that attacked Pen at Bagni di Lucca in the summer of 1857. It was published in The Correspondence of Leigh Hunt, ed. Thornton Hunt (2 vols., 1862), II, 264-268. In a prefatory note to the volumes, the editor writes: “Although I was personally unknown to Mr. Robert Browning, he met my request with generous cordiality, and held out hopes of furnishing some few letters that would have been of the greatest value. They have not come. The reason is but too well known to the public; and the impossibility of intruding … has induced me to publish one or two letters … without further consultation; although it is most probable that this portion of the book would have been materially improved by his corrections” (I, vii).
13. Jane Browning Smith, Isa’s friend and Pen’s drawing instructor.
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