2629. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 46–48.

Collegio Ferdinando

Saturday– [21 November 1846] [1]

We were delighted to have your note, dearest aunt Nina, & I answer it with my feet on your stool .. so that my feet are full of you even if my head is not, always. Now I shall not go a sentence farther without thanking you for that comfort—you scarcely guessed perhaps what a comfort it would be, .. that stool of yours. I am even apt to sit on it for hours together, leaning against the sofa, till I get to be scolded for putting myself so into the fire, & prophecied of in respect to the probability of a “general conflagration” of stools & Bas,—on which the prophet is to leap from the Leaning Tower, & Flush to be left to make the funeral oration of the establishment. In the meantime it really is quite a comfort that our housekeeping should be your “example” at Florence, & we have edifying countenances whenever we think of it– And Robert will not by any means believe that you have passed us on our own ground, though the eleven pauls a week for breakfast, & my humility, seemed to suggest something of the sort. I am so glad, we are both so glad, that you are enjoying yourself at the fullest & highest among the wonders of art, & cannot be chilled in the soul by any of those fatal winds you speak of! For me, I am certainly better here at Pisa, though the penalty is to see Frate Angelico’s picture, [2] with the remembrance of you rather than the presence. Here, indeed, we have had a little too much cold for two days—there was a feeling of frost in the air & a most undeniable east wind which prevented my going out & made me feel less comfortable than usual at home. But after all, one felt ashamed to call it cold, & Robert found the heat on the Arno insupportable,—which set us both mourning over our “situation” at the Collegio, where one of us could not get out on such days, without a blow on the chest from the “wind at the corner.” Well—experience teaches, & we shall be taught—&—the cost of it, is not so very much after all .. we have seen your professor once since you left us—(oh, the leaving!) or spoken to him once, I should say, when he came in one evening & caught us reading, sighing, yawning over Nicoló de’ Lapi, a romance by the son in law of Manzoni. Before we could speak, he called it “excellent, trés beau,” [3] one of their very best romances .. upon which, of course dear Robert could not bear to offend his literary & national susceptibilities by a doubt even. I, not being so humane, thought that any suffering reader would be justified (under the rack-wheel) in crying out against such a book, as the dullest, heaviest, stupidest, lengthiest. Did you ever read it? If not, dont. When a father in law imitates Scott, & a son in law imitates his father in law, think of the consequences!–! Robert in his zeal for Italy & against Eugene Sue, tried to persuade me at first (this was before the scene with your professor) that “really Ba, it was’nt so bad” .. “really you are too hard to be pleased” .. & so on .. but after two or three chapters, the dulness grew too strong, for even his benevolence, & the yawning catastrophe (supposed to be peculiar to the “Guida”) overthrew him as completely as it ever did me, though we both resolved to hold on by the stirrup to the end of the two volumes. The catalogue of the library (for observe that we subscribe now—the object is attained!) offers a most melancholy insight into the actual literature of Italy. Translations, translations, translations .. from third & fourth & fifth rate French & English writers .. chiefly French .. the roots of thought, here in Italy, seem dead in the ground– It is well that they have great memories: .. nothing else lives.

We have had the kindest of letters from dear noble Mr Kenyon,—who by the way speaks of you as we like to hear him– Dickens is going to Paris for the winter, & Mrs Butler (he adds) is expected in London. [4] Dear Mr Kenyon calls me “crotchetty,” but Robert “an incarnation of the good & the true,” .. so that I have everything to thank him for– There are noble people who take the world’s side & make it seem “for the nonce” almost respectable—but he gives up all the talk & fine schemes about money-making, & allows us to wait to see whether we want it or not .. the money, I mean.

It is monday & I am only finishing this note. In the midst came letters from my sisters, making me feel so glad that I could not write. Everybody is well & happy, .. & dear Papa, in high spirits & having people to dine with him everyday––so that I have not really done anyone harm in doing myself all this good– It does not indeed bring us a step nearer to the forgiveness—but to hear of his being in good spirits makes me inclined to jump .. with Gerardine. Dear Geddie! How pleased I am to hear of her being happy .. particularly (perhaps) as she is not too happy to forget me. Is all that glory of art making her very ambitious to work & enter into the court of the Temple?

I fancy that Mr Martineau might have extended his subject, for that all moral as well as all religious mistakes whatever, must arise from partial conceptions of the nature of God. [5] Now do let me hear from you soon, dear friend[,] & from Geddie too—dear Geddie!– Robert’s love to you both. We often talk of our prospect of meeting you again– And for the past, dearest aunt Nina, believe of me that I feel to you more gratefully than ever I can say,—& remain, while I live,

your faithful & affectionate

Wilson is much pleased by yr kind remembrance of her. The weather is delightful today.

Address: À Madame / Madame Jameson / Poste Restante / Firenze.

Publication: LEBB, I, 308–310 (in part, as 23 November 1846).

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. This letter is postmarked 23 November 1846, a Monday, from Pisa. The previous Saturday was the 21st, and EBB mentions finishing this letter on Monday.

2. From the context it appears that EBB is referring to a picture that Mrs. Jameson described in a previous letter. Mrs. Jameson refers to several works by Fra Angelico in Sacred and Legendary Art (1848), but it is impossible to know which, if any, of those she might have written about to EBB.

3. “Excellent, very fine.” Niccolò de’ Lapi (Paris, 1841) by Marchese Massimo Taparelli D’Azeglio (1798–1866) is an historical novel set in early 15th-century Florence. “Although D’Azeglio’s skill at blending historical themes with the private lives of his fictional characters is admirable, his novels fell far short of the literary achievements of Manzoni or Sir Walter Scott” (The Macmillan Dictionary of Italian Literature, 1979). D’Azeglio married Giulia Manzoni (1808–34) on 21 May 1831; however, the marriage was cut short by her death three years later. D’Azeglio’s active role in the struggle for Italian independence and unity won him a place at the top of EBB’s list of Italian heroes. He called on her in Rome in the spring of 1859, and before that had read lines from Casa Guidi Windows before the Piedmontese Assembly.

4. Frances Anne (“Fanny”) Butler (née Kemble, 1809–93) was travelling in Italy with her sister and brother-in-law, Adelaide and Edward Sartoris. They returned to England in December 1846, shortly after which Fanny Butler published an account of her travels in a book entitled A Year of Consolation (1847).

5. Presumably a reference to James Martineau (1805–1900); however, we are unable to clarify EBB’s comment.

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