2097. Giuseppe Mazzini [1] to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 169–171.
108. High Holborn.
Giovedì [13 November 1845] [2]
Mio caro Signore
Mi duole assai che non abbiate potuto assistere alla nostra celebrazione del quarto Anniversario: [3] so che avreste avuto piacere come uomo e come poeta.
Vi sono gratissimo del dono fattomi. Ho letto, riletto, e fatto leggere a miei amici l’ “Italy in England.” [4] Non parlo della poesia: sono da lungo tempo vostro ammiratore sincero; ma parlo ora del sentimento che l’ha ispirata. Vi è bisogno assoluto di far nota qui in Inghilterra la nostra condizione e la nostra causa; e uomini come voi sono i miglori per diffondere la simpatia che cerchiamo.
Concedete ch’io vi mandi una copia d’un libriccino scritto da me sui Bandiera: [5] mi paiono individualitá degne che le conosciate meglio e le ammiriate.
Non so se abbiate veduto mai un’opuscolo inglesi ch’io pubblicai mesi addietro intorno alle condizioni d’Italia, intitolato “Italy, Austria, and the Pope.” [6] L’opuscolo che contiene una moltitudine di fatti che avrei voluto noti a tutti; ma il silenzio del Times e del morning chronicle ha cacciato lo scritto nell’ombra, e inceppata la vendita.
Addio, Signore: credete alla stima amichevole del vostro
Gius. Mazzini.
Address: R. Browning, Esqr
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
Translation:
My dear Sir
I am sorry that you could not assist in our fourth Anniversary celebration: [3] it would have given you pleasure as a man and as a poet.
I am very grateful for the gift you have given me. I have read, re-read, and have read to my friends “Italy in England.” [4] I do not speak of poetry: I have been for a long time your sincere admirer; but I speak of the sentiment that has inspired it. There has been a need in England to note our condition and our cause; and men like you can best spread the sympathy we are looking for.
Allow me to send a copy of a little book written by me on the Bandiera: [5] they seem to me individualities worthy to be better recognized and admired by you.
I don’t know if you have ever seen an English pamphlet that I published some months ago about the conditions of Italy, entitled “Italy, Austria, and the Pope.” [6] The pamphlet contains a multitude of facts that I have wanted noticed by all; but the silence of the Times and the morning chronicle has relegated what I have written to the shadows, and has hindered the sale.
Goodbye, Sir: believe the friendly esteem of your
Gius. Mazzini.
1. Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-72), one of the primary leaders in the cause for Italian unification, was also an author and literary critic. Early in life he joined the ranks of the Carbonari, the secret society aimed at overthrowing the despotic governments in power. He advanced rapidly in the society’s hierarchy, but soon became disillusioned, and set about forming his own group, “Young Italy,” which eventually replaced the Carbonari as the central organization for Italian nationalist revolutionaries. Arriving in London in 1837 after exile in France and Switzerland, he published articles on Italian literature in leading journals, and, as indicated in this letter to RB, founded in 1841 a school for Italian children in England. From a letter written by Jane Carlyle, we know that Mazzini and RB had met prior to this letter when they were guests at a dinner party in early September (Carlyle, 19, 202).
2. Dated by Mazzini’s reference to “Italy in England,” which was published on 6 November in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, and his reference to the fourth anniversary celebration of the founding of his school for Italian children in London.
3. i.e., of the founding, in 1841, of the Free Italian School that Mazzini had organized. Mazzini gave an account of the first anniversary celebrations in a letter to his mother, dated 12 November 1842, in which he mentioned musical performances, distribution of awards, and a speech by Professor Rossetti. “The grand moment,” he wrote, “was when supper was brought in. Just imagine the delight of perhaps a hundred and fifty of these lads at seeing before them maccheroni asciutti garnished with butter and Parmesan cheese!” He explained that it was all paid for by contributions, including £5 from Lady Byron (Mazzini’s Letters, trans. Alice de Rosen Jervis, 1930, pp. 81–82).
4. “Mr. Browning is proud to remember that Mazzini informed him he had read this poem to certain of his fellow-exiles in England to show how an Englishman could sympathize with them” (Mrs. Sutherland Orr, A Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning, 7th ed., 1896, p. 306n).
5. A reference to Ricordi dei fratelli Bandiera e dei loro compagni di martirio in Cosenza il 25 Luglio 1844, Documentati colla loro corrispondenza, ed. Giuseppe Mazzini (Paris, 1844). A copy inscribed by Mazzini was sold as lot 913 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A1577). This booklet was a memorial to the Italian brothers Emilio and Attilio Bandiera—sons of an Austrian admiral and naval officers themselves—who had joined Mazzini’s “Young Italy” in 1842. They were captured and shot during an attempted revolt on 25 July 1844. RB sent this copy to EBB on 20 November.
6. Mazzini’s pamphlet, subtitled “A Letter to Sir James Graham, Bart.,” had been published earlier in 1845 in response to the incident involving the opening of Mazzini’s letters upon the request of the foreign secretary (see letter 1881). There was a feeling at the time that information in Mazzini’s letters about the Bandiera brothers, as well as letters to and from them, had been passed on to the Austrians, resulting in the eventual capture and deaths of the two brothers.
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