2623. Joseph Arnould to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 20–22.
18. Victoria Square. Pimlico
Oct. 16th 1846
My dear Browning. It is of no use at all trying to express with pen & paper the burst of congratulation surprise & delight with which we (for Maria [1] begs to be included) hailed the announcement of your marriage! No—it lies not in mortal ink—one warm grasp of the hand, & one quick glance of the eye might do it—all else were tedious, and ineffectual: so do you and Mrs. Browning both take the friendliest of greetings & the sincerest of good wishes from two hearts, who having for six years beat together as one[,] know what a blessed thing “the marriage of true minds” is, & feel confident that your’s will be “without impediment”. [2]
Pisa being your first fixed point, I despat[c]h this thither trusting that you will have arrived there before it and that Mrs. Browning will have accomplished the journey as prosperously, as we hear from your Sister, she had commenced it.
And when will you be coming back amongst us? or rather is not that a most unfair question to put yet, when you have no right to tolerate the putting of any questions at all, and an undisputed claim to live wholly in the happiness of the present, without a thought about the future:—I asked the question because somehow it came spontaneously to the very tip of my pen—: in fact it is the mere expression in words, of what we are constantly asking ourselves: a sort of obstinate questioning which creates within us the only sort of drawback to the delight which the tidings of your marriage spread amongst us: we think in fact of certain dark intimations scattered by you to our secret dismay of intentions to remain some indefinite time in the Paradise of Exiles: [3] “years” we think we remember, but can only hope this will not be true & that our ears deceived us through the medium of our apprehensions. I hardly know though whether amid the autumnal fogs & cold rains of a London October, we ought ever to wish you back from that peaceful ci<ty> between the mountains and the Sea where the <in>habitancy of man seems least to have stained the clear beauty of Nature; where all is tranquil & harmonious alike in the sunny silence of the streets, and the shadowy solitude of the Campo Santo. [4] You, who at once find out every thing, and are fond of walking, will have explored & appreciated the beauty of that winding walk upon the great dike which stays the overflowings of the Arno and leads on through a fruitful wilderness of orchards & vineyards to the foot of the mountains which shut in the Eastern sky. It used to strike me that in all Italy, which is saying a strong thing[,] there is no more lovely walk. But I must not make myself miserable by letting my thoughts carry me out of London into Pisa. There are no news here which you care about or which you will not learn from those London papers which are as accessible in Pisa as in Pall-Mall: Chorley has not yet returned from his trip & is now at Paris. Dowson has I daresay written to you: do you remember that night! how thoroughly you mystified us, & I never dreaming of what was to be (how could I be so leaden!) fancied that as we were to meet at Wanstead [5] —I need not be guessing about Hatcham– Beast that I was—yea swinish in my stupidity– An affecting little incident occurred yesterday– Miss Browning sent me those cigars (delicious!) that you spoke of. I received them as the solemn legacy of your bachelorhood—“sooty retainers,’[’] “fine negroes” [6] for whose maladroit services you had no more need. As their fragrant fumes rise round me, I need not say that the generous “testator” is vividly recalled and my eyes glisten through the smoke as I fancy myself grasping your hand in a paroxysm of congratulation which I feel too painfully how imperfectly I have conveyed to you in words[.] Maria unites with me in kindest regards to you and all the kindest expressions of good will which usage will allow us to proffer or Mrs Browning to receive[.]
Ever your sincere friend
J. Arnould
Address, on integral page: Robert Browning Esqre / Poste Restante / Pisa / Italy / via France.
Publication: Smalley, pp. 94–95.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library, Gordon N. Ray Bequest.
1. Maria (1816–59), eldest daughter of George Ridgway, of Walbrook, married Joseph Arnould on 13 June 1840, at St. James, Clerkenwell.
2. Cf. Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116” (1609), lines 1–2. In this and subsequent Shakespearean quotations, the line numbers correspond to those used in The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston, 1974).
3. Shelley, Julian and Maddalo (1824), line 57.
4. An historic burial site next to the cathedral in Pisa, famous for its 14th and 15th century frescoes. This cemetery was founded in the 12th century by Archbishop Ubaldo, who deposited earth from Mt. Calvary which he had brought back from the Holy Land, hence the name “Campo Santo.”
5. The younger members of the Dowson family had a summer cottage at Woodford, near Wanstead, in the years 1837–44 (Maynard, p. 411).
6. Charles Lamb, “A Farewell to Tobacco” (1818), lines 17–18.
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