2655. EBB & RB to Arabella & Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 121–128.
| [In EBB’s hand] | [Pisa] |
Feb. 8– [1847] [1]
My own dearest Arabel, this will not perhaps be a long letter, but I can send you satisfactory news of Wilson, thank God– She is reinstated in her various offices, & has taken leave of Dr Cook though still weak & restricted as to diet. Coffee she is commanded to take leave of for ever .. mark that, Arabel! Where the stomach is feeble & irritable, it is very bad– And no eggs, no butter, .. poor Wilson!—& no wine,—& no potatoes .. I wonder how she gets on. There is still swelling in the side, but it is going away gradually, & she looks very well, & is likely to be really well, I hope & trust, & she is not at all afraid of Italy—& she takes rice & milk & tea & chicken & the light rolls we have here, & presently promises to add a great deal of exercise– As to what she has to do for us, it is light work as you may suppose, & we have, both of us, every reason for feeling a regard for her & attending to her comfort .. poor Wilson! A most excellent & amiable girl she is,—& I never shall forget what she has done for me.
And now my dear dearest Arabel, do tell me why you dont write to me, .. neither you nor Henrietta?– Unfortunate me, if you have sent a letter in the little parcel; because Sarianna Browning finds no means of sending it until March—and I may wait till April for a word from you, at that rate– The steamers from England dont begin to come until March—so provoking. But as to the letter, it was my fault if you sent one so, seeing that I ought to have explained how a parcel comes to Italy on four feet, & a letter flies on wings. Arabel! do write directly! Henrietta, I entreat you to write– And Arabel, beware of ever thinking of returning that watch to me– It is your own—& I shall be dreadfully offended by a word against my resolute word on the subject long ago. If you like, you know, to change it for a watch of a more useful size, it will be the same thing, & I shall have my share in the gift & in the thoughts—— There, now!– This is the third time of answering– Let me remember while I can, to say that I am very well, .. even if only to change the subject– Write, write!–
I dreamed of you last night—always I am dreaming of you, & when you dont write, I dream blackly & wide awake. The weather does not admit yet of my going out .. but as soon as we have a few fine settled days we are certainly going to Volterra & Siena for one excursion, & to Lucca & the Baths of Lucca afterwards, for another, .. & both must be in the course of the next two months as we leave Pisa then. We can go to Lucca & return in one day by the railroad, but the Baths being eight miles farther & exquisitely situated in the Apennines, [2] I was saying yesterday to Robert, that I should like to sleep there & have time to enjoy it, to which he replied that we could spend a week there if I preferred it .. but we shall see—it depends on the weather & the chesnut trees, to say nothing of our caprices– I have a fancy rather for those Baths of Lucca: for being in the mountains—think of it, Arabel!– So often I wish & long for you! So often Robert says “I wish your sisters were with you”, .. knowing what my thoughts are– Still, the hour of meeting will come, & in the meanwhile we love one another heart to heart as always– May God bless us all to the best ends of love– Now what am I to tell you? One of our days is like another,—& the only ‘news’ is, that we have both had excellent reports from Moxon as to poetry,—the proceeds this year being seventy pounds! There’s riches for you––all expenses paid!– Moxon desires however, .. as some copies remain of some of Robert’s works, that the issue of the new edition shd be delayed till our return to England, in order to secure, as he says, “an immediate success”. Altogether we are sufficiently pleased, I assure you, by this report––& are turning our faces to a new book on Italy which is to move the world– Not that we shall spend money in printing anything—oh no!—you shall see presently .. only not immediately, if you please!– I must know rather more of Italy in the first place, before I can do my part– Talking of worldly prosperity, however, I shall tell you that I proposed to Robert the other day to put into the Pisan lottery … there’s immorality for you! but Jules Janin, the French critic, hazarded once five shillings & won a palace with orange groves & marble balustrades & the ghosts of the Medici know what, [3] .. & I suggested the risking of only five shillings. It would be as well, I thought, to have a palace too,—where was the objection? Oh, but Robert would’nt hear of it, & looked rather shocked at me for my want of principle in the matter. He said quite coolly that he had no doubt of being successful, if he considered it a justifiable experiment & so made up his mind to try it,—but that he would rather get a palace by any other means .. some honest means—he should only be ashamed of it, after he had won it so,—he seriously hoped that I was only in jest in proposing such a thing. I declared that I was perfectly in earnest, but laughed outright at his gravity while he cut his pencil & put away his palace, just as if they both were in his hand together—he always believes that he has only to wish for a thing, to have it—he believes it as I do that the sun will rise tomorrow– There is a tradition in his family that “a Browning can fail in nothing”—& in his own ex<per>ience, is proved by ever so many miracles, that he has only to wish for <…> for that impossible thing,—to find it close to him the next moment– So, this <…>, he wont have a palace by any manner of means—more’s the pity, I think! Jules Janin, besides his orange groves, had plate & linen & furniture, .. all in a glorious situation in the Baths of Lucca. The lottery is very popular in Italy––a lottery carried on by small sums– The people want amusement & excitement:—if they did not, they would be freer perhaps: as it is, the intellectual & moral degradation is striking. The national newspapers sound like theme-writing by boys of twelve years old,—the literature reminds one of the “World of Fashion” or “Belle Assemblée”: [4] there seem to be no men here. France & England are centuries before these Italians—to judge from the writings! (observe!) Of the living humanity, we shall know more presently. We heard from dear Mr Kenyon (oh, so kind he is!) two days ago—and Mr. Panizzi (of the British Museum) & Mr Babbage [5] have given us letters of introduction to two or three more professors here– I argue ill of professors, though, since our Signor Ferucci, who, as Robert says, is just “the husk of a man”,—full of platitudes & commonplaces. Oh thank you, Arabel, for sparing us “the Groemes”. [6] Most curiously, just before your letter mentioned them, Robert who had been down to Peverada [7] upon business (he keeps the Hotel sacred to the English in Pisa) had been making me laugh by a story about the miraculous stupidity of some Mr Groeme (your very Groeme!) whom Peverada could not instruct in the necessity of being subject to the custom house officers. It is too long to tell but it made me laugh at the moment .. & induced Peverada to exclaim with a long drawn sigh .. “See what I have to endure”—for his office is to explain everything to everybody … who can understand anything. He speaks excellent English & is a person in great request of course.– Mr Kenyon says that George is in the country, & Mrs Martin told me that I was to hear from him– Tell me about him, & Storm, & all of them .. & dont let dear Sette think that I was ungrateful for his letter.– So Leonard Clarke is by no means inconsolable—it makes one laugh & sigh at the same time—but she never was much his companion—<tha>t makes a difference: still it is not decent conduct, considering how, af<ter all> she was his wife & the mother of his child– [8] Bummy does not wri<te … >—she told me that aunt Fanny had been ill—did you hear of it? Do let me hear every detail of how you get on & whom you see & where you go—& do go among your friends a little more, my own Arabel? Does Mary Hunter continue better?—mention her– And tell me too of Mr Hunter, & if there should be room with him for my love, give it to him! & instruct me concerning his visit to Paris—let me lose no detail. Surely he must be in a kinder mood by this time. I shall write to Blackwood & send him some old sonnets, [9] —& take the opportunity of enquiring about my Prometheus & explaining why the other was not sent. [10] Dear Henry must be wholesomely disgusted of his Austrians, I should think by this time, considering the Cracow business. [11] Neither have my French much distinguished themselves as to integrity & righteousness in the matter of the Spanish marriages—I say my French .. because I have been taking Guizot’s part against Robert, [12] evening after evening—reading the despatches & arguing on each of them .. (such discussions we have had!) till at the last revelations I was forced to give in——though it was wrong of me to blame “my French” .. when simply it was my Guizot who failed. In fact the French people are highly indignant .. I like & love the French: & Guizot only stands up to face the charge of defective honour & truth, such as appear too undeniable.– Tell me of Occy’s drawings—I love him dearly, dear Occy .. tell him so– I love them all, dear things, with all my heart. Mind you speak of dearest Papa– Are Minny’s legs better? My best love to her– Mention dear Trippy, & say how she is & if she is with you much—I never forget her, tell her– And thank Lizzie for her welcome little letter—she is a darling. Does Surtees Cook get his appointment .. & Susan, does she return from the country—the more you instruct me in, the better. So you are of opinion that Robert & I shd quarrel rather, to break up the monotony? How we shd ever quarrel, is impossible for me to conceive of—though I have had my pardon begged several times for mysterious offences beyond my apprehension. Seriously, how shd we quarrel, when I am always in the right, & he knows it? He loves me more every day, he says & I believe—yes, sure I am, that he loves me, .. these five months being e<…>—more than when we married .. inexpressibly more– Yet his <…> dogma is, “that I do not know & never shall know, how much he loves me—and, as to loving him in a like proportion … why, it is foolishness of me to pretend to such a thing—it cannot be–” If all married people lived as happily as we do, how many good jokes it would spoil! against marriage & so on!—only the world wd be too happy for the graves in it—far too happy.
When Lent begins we hear that one of the first preachers in Italy is to deliver a discourse in the cathedral, four days of the week—& we mean to go, if the weather shd anywise admit of it– I shall like it much on every account–
How is Arabella Gosset? & Miss Russell? [13] I thought of her, when I heard of the sulphuric æther experiments: & how wonderful they are!—and what a merciful remission of the pangs of humanity! I write in the greatest, greatest haste, & can read over nothing. Mrs Martin made me glad at heart by the assurance that you & Henrietta looked well—you are very idle though, as to writing– Oh now, do, do write. Wont the new debtors act enable uncle Richard & the poor Barretts to come to England? [14] Indeed the account of the latter is very melancholy,—but I never can comprehend how a man like him, in the prime of life, & with a sufficiency of intelligence & energy I suppose, should not at once exert himself to get occupation either in England or France– The French railroads are as feasible as the English– Occupation is not only his resource, but his duty!– I grieve for poor Maria & her six children– And is it not his fault & his reproach, that those debts in Jamaica are unpaid at this day?
Observe, Arabel, that the cathedral is close by, .. as near to us in this house, as Devonshire Place .. the beginning of Devonshire Place—is to you—so that the distance was not great enough for a car<riage, w>hile the great cloak covered me into the very depths of prud<ence—therefore>, there was no danger! Then the cathedral is not like cathed<rals in> England—I felt no cold at all. Three days ago we had a letter from Mrs Jameson, who is enjoying herself in Rome & wishing for us, she has the goodness to say, most fervently. I heard too from dear Miss Mitford who spoke of receiving a kind message from you & of intending to visit you when she shall be in London this summer.
Now I shall write no more– May God bless you, my dearest own Arabel, my dearest Henrietta—may God bless you always– Give my love to those whom I love, & who will have it– I write like a race horse “scouring the plain” [15] .. or as an Italian writer quotes from the “Gintilman’s Magasine”, .. “like a scouring race horse”– May God bless you– Pray for me as I do for you–
Understand that I can write better than this really, when I try: but the haste drives the words before one!
Your own ever attached
Ba–
Flush has grown, from being simply insolent, a complete tyrant now—another Nicholas– He barks one distracted, the first moment he takes it into his head to want anything– I was saying to Robert (who spoils him) the other day, that soon we shd have to engage a page for his sole use—or brown livery turned up with white.
Yes, I think he does mean it for Italian—pure Tuscan, you know.
N.B—mind, nobody makes me melancholy by writing about my birthday– [16] (Speak in time!) How I think of you all!
| [Continued by RB] | Pisa, |
I have to thank you, my dearest sisters, for two of the kindest notes in the world. It is an unspeakable delight to me to find that I can sympathize with Ba in every thing, and love most dearly the two whom she loves most dearly– I know, and nobody so well, what you have lost in her—that is, lost for a time—yet your generosity pardons me that loss, while your woman’s tact and quickness of feeling does justice to the conduct which occasioned it—for both of which, I am, and always shall be most truly and gratefully your debtor– You tell me that the way to pay such debts is to love Ba—but I cannot obey you there—she takes all my love for her own sake—just as you,—whom I was prepared and eager to love for her sake,—you make me love you on your own account. You wish to know how Ba is—from me, as well as from her. I assure you that thro’ God’s goodness she appears quite well; weak, certainly, as compared to persons in ordinary health, but with no other ailment perceptible. A few days ago, she seemed to have caught a slight cold—(thro’ her kind care of Wilson, who has been ill as I am sure Ba will have told you)—but yesterday & today the few symptoms of aching &c have disappeared. Dr Cook, the physician we called in to Wilson, who had seen Ba just on his arrival, expressed his surprize & delight at the manifest improvement in her appearance—and he observed to Wilson, “this comes of a visit to Pisa in time”—(he is learned in pulmonary disease and has written a book about it [17] —he has just returned, moreover, from England—“where the cold was intense” he said[)]. Here, also, the cold has been considerable, and we are too indebted to the good already produced by the climate, to peril it by going out rashly at this (as we hope) the winter’s end: but I trust and believe that, with the stock of strength preserved thro’ the winter we shall so profit by the coming fine weather, as to need fear no relapse. Ba sleeps admirably—and is steadily diminishing the doses of morphine, quite as much as is prudent. I daresay she explained to you the cause of the Apothecary’s mistake about the prescription, at the beginning—he really believed his morphine to be so superior to what we could get in England that he felt himself bound to diminish the quantity—ever since, his performances have been unexceptionable—indeed, he is said to be one of the best Chymists in Italy. What, I think, you would be most struck with in Ba, is the strengthened voice– Wilson hears it, she says, thro’ her door and ours. I cannot tell you of other qualities that are “strengthened,” however—no words can convey the entire sweetness, unselfishness of that dear nature! Yet I have been used to the kindest of natures, and am by no means likely to err from excess of indulgence to any one.
You found fault, I am told, with our midnight attendance at Mass on Christmas eve—but we took great precautions and the Cathedral is but a few paces from our house. When the weather permits (and not before) we hope to make an excursion to Sienna, Colle, and Volterra,—fine old Etruscan cities, one & all. In the meantime, we are in Carnival season, and I saw full half a dozen masqueradors yesterday,—a more effective sermon on the vanity of human pleasure you would not wish to hear! It may grow better by and bye. There is to be a grand affair in August, a service to a particular picture of the Virgin “Sotto gli Organi” [18] which, they say, saved this city from the earthquakes last year—but we shall be away. I believe I have filled my envelope without telling you very much, but another time I shall succeed better. Know me for your most affectionate
RB–
Address, in EBB’s hand, on integral page: (To the care of Miss Trepsack) / Miss Arabel Barrett / 5– Upper Montagu Street / Montagu Square.
Publication: NL, pp. 40–42 (in part).
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Year provided by postmark and the dated continuation in RB’s hand.
2. According to Murray’s Hand-Book for Travellers in Northern Italy (1847), Bagni di Lucca is “about 15 miles from Lucca” (p. 415).
3. In Voyages en Italie (1839), Jules Janin gives an account of his lottery success in a chapter entitled “La Palazzina Lazzarini,” the name of the house he won near Lucca.
4. A reference to The New Monthly Belle Assemblée and to The World of Fashion and Continental Feuilletons, both of which would have fit EBB’s implication here of a publication comprised of writing in the style of the blue-stocking school.
5. Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was a mathematician and inventor of an elaborate calculating machine. Antonio Panizzi (1797–1879) had become assistant librarian of the British Museum in 1831, and keeper of printed books shortly afterwards in 1837. Acquisition of the Grenville library in 1846 was mostly due to his efforts, and he was largely responsible for the design of the reading room.
6. Unidentified.
8. Mary Frances Graham-Clarke (afterwards Wilmer, b. 1845) was the only child of Isabella and Leonard Graham-Clarke. EBB’s allusion to his conduct is unclear, but it might refer to his subsequent marriage to Lavinia Horsford.
9. EBB sent Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine eight sonnets. Four of them appeared in the May 1847 issue: “Life,” Love,” “Heaven and Earth. 1845,” and “The Prospect. 1845.” Four more appeared in the June 1847 issue: “Two Sketches” (depicting her sisters Henrietta and Arabella), “Mountaineer and Poet,” and “The Poet.”
11. The Republic of Cracow had been an independent state since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but the Austrian government sent troops to Cracow in March 1846, and in November 1846 it was incorporated into the Austrian empire. Despite the protests of other countries, especially England and France, it remained under Austrian rule until 1918, when it was returned to Poland.
12. On 10 October 1846, Queen Isabella II of Spain and her sister Luisa Fernanda, the Infanta, married the Duke of Cadiz and the Duke of Montpensier, respectively. Despite agreements previously made between the French and English governments, the marriage of the Infanta to Montpensier was not to have taken place until after the Queen’s marriage. For this reason, Guizot, Louis Philippe’s minister, was accused of deceit in the affair. Although he was under strong pressure from his sovereign, he also saw the advantage of the triumph as a political victory for his party, as well as feeling a sense of personal pride because of his dislike for Palmerston. Despite initial success, these events led to the fall of Guizot and the Orleans monarchy the following year.
13. Mary Anne Russell (1816–70); she was a sister of Sir William Russell (see letter 2165) and of Emma and Jane Monro. EBB’s cousin, Arabella Sarah Butler, had married Ralph Allen Gosset in 1835.
14. EBB’s uncle by marriage, Richard Butler, and her cousin Samuel Goodin Barrett (with his wife Maria and their family), were residing outside England to avoid their creditors and imprisonment. EBB is apparently referring to the “Act to abolish the Court of Review on Bankruptcy, and to make alterations in the Jurisdiction of the Courts of Bankruptcy and Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors” a new act which was being debated by Parliament. It became law in July 1847, but it would not have affected EBB’s family members since its advantage was to creditors who could recover small debts without great cost. Imprisonment for debt was not abolished until 1869.
15. Cf. Pope, An Essay on Criticism, line 372.
16. RB did not learn the day and month of EBB’s birth, 6 March, until August 1885 (seeReconstruction, A232, now at Eton). RB was informed of the year, 1806, by her brother George in November 1887 (Harper’s Monthly Magazine, March 1916, p. 530).
17. A Practical Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption, Its Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment (1842) by Francis Cook; see letter 2645, note 2.
18. The “Madonna dell’Organo, the object of Catholic devotion … is a Greek painting venerated at Pisa before 1224, and may possibly be as old as the first foundation of the present building” (Murray’s Hand-Book, p. 445). Another guide-book to Pisa calls it the “Madonna di sotto gli Organi” and says it has been attributed to Francesco Curradi (Nuova Guida di Pisa, Pisa, 1843, p. 93).
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