Correspondence

2653.  EBB & RB to Anna Brownell Jameson

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 113–115.

Feb. 4. [1847] [1]

We were very glad to have news of you at last, my very dear friend, & that it should be better news, at least more cheerful, than any which came to us from Florence. You seemed done for by your hospitable acquaintances there, & you cant think how we painted a mural over that last letter which sounded like a last gasp of exhaustion, .. to the effect that when ourselves went to Florence we should keep out of the mud of the English by all possible means. The sort of thing is bad anywhere, .. but here in Italy, just when one’s personality is tuned up to the highest, to have it meet the confusion of ever so many rough fists, is enough to break the instrument– So I am glad you are away in Rome & the mediæval ages, & with friends round you to help the charm with their sympathy. Had Madme de Goëthe too much pleasure in seeing dear Gerardine? [2] You do not tell us,—& what you told me before, interested me into wishing to hear the end. You did not find Mrs Butler, [3] we learnt by the papers, .. for observe, we see the papers now,—or did I tell you that before? Also, Mr Hemans’s Roman journal [4] had apprized us of the safe arrival in Rome of a “celebrated authoress” & our dear friend, who put off writing to tell us of herself, a great deal too long. Otherwise, you might have been supposed to be ‘lost in admiration’ before the productions of that eminent artist of Sienna, [5] who makes such a point of being known by the whole world, as Signor Ferucci laboriously impressed upon me. I was innocent enough to take into my head at the moment, by the way, that you would not get much out of such a man, & the fact proves so– Three days at Sienna! Would, that we might have met you there! But it was out of the question. I have been out of the house just once since Christmas, though not in the least inclined to be otherwise than contented with Pisa & the climate & the weather, on that account: precaution explains everything. Indeed if we had been on the Arno, I should have had much more liberty– But you know how the wind waits to devour one just at our door; & even with a very sufficient mildness of temperature, it seemed unwise to run the risk of meeting it, particularly when I was so well in this room. I have been & am very well, & we burn the Grand Duke’s pinewood & talk & get on delightfully, & I wont have Pisa abused, let Robert come in from his dreary hour’s walk on Lung’Arno (when it is wet he can go no where else) in ever such an imprecative humour on the soul-less faces he meets there. After all, he is in excellent spirits, & we make amends for being shut up a little for the present, by various sublime schemes of going to Jerusalem, & Moscow, besides Volterra [6]  & Sienna. And then, by the grace of M. Ferucci, we have Vasari from the library, & are ploughing through it .... will you let me say ploughing? Really I do venture to think it a dull book. Perhaps when we reach his contemporaries, we may find more flesh & blood. And Robert is very busy with his new edition, & has been throwing so much golden light into “Pippa,” that everybody shall see her “pass” properly .. yes, & surpass. [7] Now, let me tell you of our adversity– A fortnight ago poor Wilson was taken ill, & for several days was confined to her bed, & indeed is only at present beginning to be able to resume her occupations. We had Dr Cook here constantly—and at first I was frightened out of my wits, .. sending Robert out to fetch him at ten oclock at night. It was inflammation of the mucus membrane of the stomach, arising (said Dr C.) from the sea sickness, which had produced swelling & irritation increased by improper remedies. A little longer, & a dangerous gastric fever wd have been the result. We like Dr Cook, who has shown a great deal of prompt intelligence .. & she is recovering her strength in a satisfactory manner .. poor Wilson!– And think how I missed her, & had to learn (besides) what a quantity of things I could really manage to do for myself when I tried!! It has been a lesson in moral & practical philosophy, & finished reversing the world for me. Robert in the meanwhile, carried the teakettle; saw to the fire .. I bade him observe what he had come to at last—but the goodness & affectionateness were strong enough for all things. I wonder at the strength & depth of them more & more.— Do write—& thank Gerardine for me for her letter, & tell me how long she & dearest Aunt Nina are likely to stay at Rome. Shall we not hear without such a long pause? Letters from England bring me the best accounts of my father’s spirits & the most affectionate words from my sisters. I heard yesterday from Miss Mitford, .. but no news, I think, except that Miss Cushman means to be imperious about Mr Chorley’s tragedy .. the ‘Duchess Eleanor’ .. & to insist on its being acted. [8] Are you well now, dear friend? Give my love to Gerardine, & tell her I am delighted that she is an enchanted ‘philosopher’ now she is in Rome! Do believe me,

your ever affecte

Ba.

[Continued by RB]

Ba evidently thinks me the “minute Philosopher”! See what a little space she allows me to say so much in—but next time .. I will write, and leave her the precincts of the sealing wax. Dear Aunt Nina, kind, dearest friend, keep on making us happy by such letters, with good news of yourself. We are quite well—but Ba will have told you—all things go well with us—but will go still better when we see you—don’t forget that! We think .. with all the rational hesitation, and refusals to determine .. that we shall spend next winter at Florence,—next to that, at Rome—there is only one thing quite settled,—what you may term, settled—that is, that we return to England viâ Moscow—(we have been reading Custine’s not very wise book)[.] [9] Good, best, bye, dear Aunt, and dear Geddie–

RB.

Address, in RB’s hand, on integral page: Mrs Jameson, / Dama Inglese, / Uffizio delle Poste, / Roma.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Year provided by postmark.

2. Ottilie von Goethe (1796–1872), Goethe’s daughter-in-law, and Mrs. Jameson had been friends and correspondents since the early 1830’s. In a letter to her sister in March 1847, Mrs. Jameson wrote: “Mme. Goethe is occupied with her sick son; she has given Gerardine a beautiful scarf” (Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson, 1878, by her niece Gerardine Macpherson, p. 239).

3. See letter 2648, note 8.

4. Charles Isidore Hemans (1817–76) founded The Roman Advertiser in October 1846 as the first English-language newspaper in Rome. The issue for 16 January 1847 carried the following announcement: “On the 15th arrived Mrs. Jameson, one of the first female writers of England, whose works display refined justness of taste, powers of thought and analysis, in a high degree.”

5. We take this to be a reference to Duccio di Buoninsegna (fl. 1278–1318).

6. Volterra is some 55 miles southwest of Florence, via Empoli and Pontedera. It is noted for its Etruscan architecture as it was one of the twelve cities in the Etruscan confederation.

7. A reference to EBB’s initial incomprehension of Pippa Passes; see letter 827. For RB’s revisions of Pippa Passes for the 1849 edition, see The Poems of Browning, ed. John Woolford and Daniel Karlin (1991–), 2, 7, and The Poetical Works of Robert Browning, ed. Ian Jack and Rowena Fowler (Oxford, 1983–), 3, 15.

8. See letter 2642, note 8, as well as letter 2715, note 5.

9. See note 1 in the preceding letter. For more information about RB’s thoughts on Russia, see Patrick Waddington, “Browning and Russia,” Baylor Browning Interest Series, no. 28 (October 1985).

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