2672. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 186–194.
Florence
May 6– [1847] [1]
Thank you, thank you, my beloved Arabel! thank you my ever dearest Henrietta! thank you for these slippers which make the soles of my feet pink with shame, .. to say nothing of the gown & the soul of my body strictly speaking! It was an extravagance in you to send me the gown, as I explained to you before .. but nothing could be prettier or more after my particular taste, than the colour & texture of this gown. Robert too likes the colour .. it is a favorite colour with both of us: and if you had sent me instead of it, a scarlet garment turned up with yellow, it would still seem to me best, beautifullest, welcomest, with the touch of your affection so warm upon it, dearest Both of you! Now I need not, I think, buy a summer costume—I think not. And also I can wear nothing which will not remind me of you .. the green plaid which is Robert’s favorite & which I just begin to wear every day, brings Arabel before me bodily in a great vision between the hooks & eyes: the silk shot, will bring Henrietta; this blue barége, both of you. How hard it will be to keep from thinking of you! Even my shoes will not help me into a distraction .. for here are these prettiest of possible slippers, which Henrietta has made for me! & these other pretty ones .. yes, pretty ones, .. with the dear stitches in the soles, which would perish, they swear, if I dared to use them for washing slippers, till they are worn out for higher purposes. They are very pretty & will look well with the blue gown– As to Henrietta’s, Wilson & I are lost in admiration, tracing the intricacy of the silken embroidery! And both pairs fit perfectly, perfectly– Then comes the crimson note-book, like a rose leaf. Robert says that it wd be better to keep it for addresses, which we are always in a maze about, .. so that it may lie on the table & be free from such blots & erasures as come with the composition of “great works.” Thank you dear darling Arabel! how too good to me you are! and then, your goodness about Wilson’s gown! She desires me to thank you much for it: she was very much pleased. As to the purse, .. though the one concerned will write his own feeling about it, I must press in with a word of gratitude, & in the spirit, kiss your dear fingers which constructed it, .. because they could not (dear fingers) give me more pleasure than so– His eyes shone with pleasure, for his part, at receiving such a mark of kindness from you– Thank you for him & for me. We had other presents by this box, besides Trippy’s & yours: for with our cards, which Robert left behind him in the hurry, Mrs Browning sent me (among other things) a carved cardcase, something like the one Arlette gave to Arabella Bevan on her marriage, only with more carving .. & prettier altogether;—and Sarianna, a little gold pencil case set round with turquoises .. far too pretty. Do you remember my pencil case, with the little Ba seal– Well! one day as I walked out at Pisa, the ring broke & the pencil case was lost of course. Very sorry I was—and Robert in his kindness, without saying a word to me tried every shop in Pisa, to replace it, all in vain. The Pisan barbarians (you have no idea how barbarous those Pisans are, Arabel!) could not conceive of pencil cases except of thick silver ones four inches long, and seals the size of a small fist .. therefore, still without a word to me, he wrote to ask his sister to buy what he wanted, .. which she sends as a gift of her own, & as I describe it, worth six of the one I had lost. Such a pleasure it was to me to have the box! So impatient I was about it’s coming that Robert was quite amused at me! I longed to see slippers & purses .. all the marks of your dear fingers:—and the dear old teapot, out of which we had such excellent coffee last night & this morning. Strange it seemed indeed! It is just large enough for Robert & me, with some superfluity for Flush. Darling Arabel, I had yours & dearest Henrietta’s joint letter a few days ago, as I was about to seal mine to you– Dear, dear, dear you are—both of you! But be perfectly at ease about me for the future– I am honest & frank to you & will be so, and I do assure you that I am as well as you could wish me to be, if not yet quite as strong, & that the strength is coming in long strides. The journey to Florence was undertaken by medical permission, remember; & I have fulfilled the condition of keeping six weeks to the sofa, .. now this fortnight, without stirring out of doors—and I shall lie down a good deal for a long while, by the purest discretion, although meaning to get out in the carriage & to the galleries in a day or two. The journey retarded the recovery a little—I wont say that it did not: but then it was only a little, & the change of air & the increase of comforts here, were in my favour—& I have steadily been growing stronger & stronger ever since our settlement. Two days before Mrs Jameson left us, there was suddenly a great improvement (like a leap) and after she had gone, .. from that time to this, .. I have recovered & something over .. for certainly I have not looked so well for years & years as I do now. Robert drew me into the light yesterday, &, after a due period of contemplation, exclaimed, “No, your sisters would not recognize you! Seriously I say that they would not recognize you.” Which I flatter myself is rather an error, in despite of his flattery—but the truth is that I have grown fatter & look different to my own eyes in the glass– I can see how much better I look. There now! I do hope you are satisfied! On the other side of the question, the walking is less agile than usual & stooping is still rather painful– Of course! So I shall lie down still a good deal & make myself perfect .. if God’s will permit it. In the meantime it is dreadful not to see the Venus de’ Medici! but I shall see her now in a day or two, & without indiscretion,—and what I already behold is better blessing to the eyes than any marble goddess in the world .. videlicet Arabel’s picture. Thank you my dearest dear Arabel, thank you again & again for the delight of having this picture! it seems like a renewal of the first gift of it, with more than the first joy!. Oh, so like! so yourself! Only the eyes are drawn up with a sun’s ray transfixing them—& the blotting shadows are too strong! As Robert says, it is you at the greatest disadvantage! But what full joy to have you to look at & kiss, through the cold glass or any way. And dont think that it does’nt remind me of my debt to you– I owe you a likeness of myself, & you shall have it, be sure– Otherwise I should be a traitor & a highwayman—oh, I understand all that perfectly– You have me fast by the collar of my conscience.——
To go to other subjects then, you cant think, Arabel, how much & increasingly I like these rooms of ours, & how we enjoy the accession of comfort on all sides. The Pisa apartment did very well at the time– We were quite contented, except in the cheating which spoilt something of the prestige. But now we look back on poor Pisa, at least on our accommodations there, with absolute scorn, & wonder how we could bear this thing & the other—see how ungrateful a little prosperity makes one! The hard chairs & sofas, the stony beds .. the linen of sackcloth—the teaspoons & teacups of immortal memory! Here we have every luxury really—& I never shd desire to live in better rooms (& these are carpeted all over) nor with completer comfort. And the cheapness is something miraculous .. frightful almost .. I open my eyes wider & wider every day as our dinner comes! Observe, that according to our present arrangement, nobody orders the dinner– The restaurant agrees to send us a certain number of dishes every day, on the payment of so much a week .. about nineteen shillings. Now is’nt it delightful to take no thought of what we shall eat, & without so much as rubbing a lamp like Aladdin, to see the table covered, with a dinner cooked [&] served hot in the flash of a miracle, precisely at three oclock?! I told Henrietta some particulars in my last letter, but really I must tell her some more,—because the genies of housekeeping never did nor can do as much for her, nor for dear Minny, as the Genii of us ignorant people for ourselves .. see if it can. Yesterday’s dinner for instance—now observe! Soup à la macaroni– A shoulder of lamb, roasted– A chicken, boiled, served with peas. Risolles of veal– Fried potatoes & spinage[–] A rice pudding– I could not help saying, “I do wish my sisters were here! There is dinner enough for four besides Wilson; & it’s really a pity that my sisters are not here.” To which Robert answered, .. “How glad I should be if they were! it wd give me the greatest, greatest pleasure”. And we are as loud in our wishes at coffee times, because the coffee being peculiarly good & aromatic (& at 6d½ a pound, tell Minny! but there are only ten ounces in an Italian pound, & I heard the other day that you count twelve in England) it drives me to wish for you, my own Arabel– Oh, for a good & happy talk over the Mocha! “Give us a wind, if you are kind” [2] Mr Stratten, & send her out to us! You should have bread & butter too, both excellent, & the latter stamped with the arms of the Medici—all I have seen of the Medici, by the way, since I came to Florence– But tell me if people of small incomes are not justified in leaving their own country of dear England, on the mere ground of the cheapness of this Italy? I did not imagine the difference to be so great. Which reminds me of my surprise in hearing of the new plans of Tours, adopted by the Hedleys. Do you imagine that uncle Hedley has lost money in the late French railroad panic? because I [3] do! I cant otherwise explain his leaving Paris to settle for three years in such a place as Tours. I heard it with astonishment. Tours is cheap, & affords facilities for education, I believe, cheaply—but to settle down in that close provincial atmosphere, asphyxié by the worst kind of English wateringplace society, is a position which for myself I should not choose by any means, & which I should have supposed undesirable to the Hedleys for various reasons– And for three years! I fancied that they fluctuated between Nice & Florence for next winter—and how anyone in the world could prefer Tours to Florence, is incomprehensible, even from motives of pecuniary prudence. Perhaps they want to be within reach of Pau, & think of the expense of travelling. Expense has something to do with it, be sure– When does Arabella Bevan arrive? & how is she? And tell me everything of Mr Bevan, & whether the turning Roman Catholic be true or not– If true, I am sorry on some accounts—but you know my opinion that as far as a man is personally concerned, on all essential points, he might as well be a Catholic by profession, as what he was when he talked in my room. A man with a conscience put in irons by other men under the name of “Church” & “Tradition”, .. a man who cannot think or love, or breathe, in fact, intellectually, but under the biting pressure of such iron, is a Roman Catholic already, & worse than many Roman Catholics, who being born in their creed instead of choosing it, often hold to it more loosely than a convert can by possibility do– I felt sure that Mr Bevan would not stop where he stood—I told Jane so quite openly. Not that persons may not stand there & stop—hundreds of persons stand there & stop: but then they stand there because pushed there by the shoulders, & they stop there because not pushed away by the shoulders. But when a man has walked there of himself, or even partly of himself .. there’s no reason why he shd not walk away of himself—do you understand? if he has thought for himself (very falsely as I think) to A, he is likely to think for himself to B .. that is, if there is any logic in the man, .. for everything depends on that. And Mr Bevan’s views were not hastily taken up without examination. He had examined, he was in earnest—it was’nt a mere matter of either feeling or fashion, remember. I felt very sure of the conclusion in his case, just as I feel very sorry for the Hedleys– Uncle Hedley will be distressed, I think. Will Arabella settle in England really? or does she go to Tours? & is that the object? Mind you tell me the whole history of Capt. Reynolds. Henrietta says that she likes what she hears of him. Wont it be a long while to wait for his Majority? and in the meanwhile will it be pleasant to live near Canterbury, under cover of a regiment? Will Arlette like it? Above all things dont let dear Bummy (if the persuasion of all of you can do anything) bury herself in the country in a cottage, unless she can press near some other cottage with a loving friend in it. Little she knows the effect of such a life on her– In no way, is it a healthy, wise life, for one of her temperament—advise her against it earnestly. And yet it is difficult to know what to substitute .. it is difficult to advise: but certainly I would not advise that– Anything but that, I think. I do wish she had a friend to live with or travel with—change of scene wd be good for her spirits & health, but she wd not have courage to travel alone, like our friend Mrs Jameson, & other female friends of hers. Perhaps she will go back to Ireland with the Butlers– Poor dear Bummy– Give her my love, if she holds it worth having. Papa’s refusal to receive her, accounts sufficiently I think, for her silence lately towards you—it was strange in Papa!—but he probably thought awfully of the gallant Captain & the matrimonial plague-spot. I wish he had spared poor Bummy the expense of taking lodgings, so considerable at this time of year in London. Tell me all about Bummy, .. & Arlette too—& tell me how Arlette behaves under the approximated shadow of orange-blossom & if she is very much in love indeed; & where she goes after the marriage.
By the way, we are amused at my ‘settlements’ just arriving! They came in the box, you know, which was’nt the reason of my being so anxious about it’s safety, I do assure you, Arabel. Eight months after my marriage, it will be a most satisfactory settlement indeed, & Robert will “tie himself up” after his good pleasure rather than mine, against the temptation of … what wd the temptation be? .. of ruining me & letting me have no more coffee! Oh, the wisdom of this world, how foolish it is!– I do laugh it all to scorn from the deepest of my soul, knowing what he is, & what I [4] am even, & what the world is that would guard one of us from the other!– These settlements make such a packet, I could not hold it in one hand– Very good settlements, I have no doubt at all. There they are, thrown into the cabinet for the present, because, being just too late for Mrs Jameson, we want another witness to the signatures. Perhaps the Hanfords, when they come, will afford us one .. or two– Afterwards I am to make my will, says Mr Kenyon .. & Robert is to make another will in addition to the one or two made already—oh, there cant be too many wills & precautions. It is only a pity rather that we have not each of us fifty thousand a year to make it all worth while. Now pray dont be anxious about Venice– If we spend the winter there, we shall hear & give good reasons for it—we dont bind ourselves to Mr Irving’s theory, although founded on the experience of an invalid who had tried other places. I know it is the fashion to cry out against poor Venice; & very likely the fashion may be able to justify itself—we shall enquire further & not be rash, though of course wishing to be at Venice & to keep tryst with dear Mr Kenyon who proposes to meet us there late in October– Now October is too late, unless we cd winter in Venice—only I dare say we might draw him further on to the south, were it needful. We dont go to the Baths of Lucca. We said we would, when I was ill & Robert was frightened, but now in this smooth water we say nothing of the sort—I would’nt go there for the world if I could draw breath anywhere else in Italy. The scenery is beautiful, .. but the society .. the ways & means of the place .. nothing can be more detestable! “divided between Gambling & Church of Englandism”, say our informants—meaning no disrespect to the church of England, observe, but simply that the schismatic & controvertial spirit is keen & bitter there. Then there are races, & promenades, & soirees east & west; & people live so close together in the small mountain hive, that one could’nt escape the buzzing & stinging. No—our plan is to remain at Florence as long as the heat will let us:—(and I cant fancy these rooms being hot, let the sun do its best! ..) & then … why, then, we must fix on some one plan of the hundred. We want to take the round through Sienna & Volterra & Pisa again—& Prato & Pistoia—we want them for our book. I have seen nothing yet to write of. Depend on our shunning the heat, & the cold– Robert would think for me if I did not for myself. I assure you quite enough fuss is made about my taking a step on the floor– Mrs Jameson said, “Now my dear Browning, dont force Ba to eat anymore than she really can[.]” The fuss made about me is something extraordinary. Moreover I heard the other day, in consequence of being so much better, that “for the rest of my life” I was to drink every day so many glasses of port wine—a libation poured out of gratitude, I suppose, for want of another reason. Naples is the most uncertain of climates, tell Mrs Orme [5] —hot sun, cold winds. Pisa & Rome are considered equable & mild beyond other places– Wilson has revived since she came here, as by a miracle. She feels, she says, quite herself, quite well—I am so glad. It is a pure, clear air, & the weather has been lovely, & she likes & admires this beautiful city .. with the exception of the statues in the piazzas & gardens, which appear to her quite scandalous. She confesses to me in confidence that she would’nt “walk with a gentleman” in the piazza Gran Duca, [6] “on any account.” Today Wilson has bought a very pretty watch for herself .. silver .. but very small & flat & elegantly made, & has given for it only £2—4s If the works are really good, it is surprisingly cheap .. but I shd be afraid.– Sorrento (I just think of Sorrento) is such a way off, remember! Tell Henrietta that! [7] I wonder poor Mrs English shd return to Torquay– Such things surprise me always. If Wilson’s sister shd go to the <…> [8] I shall be sorry .. & this “pour cause”. [9] Cant you get her some milder situation .. talking of climates, & begging my dearest Henrietta’s pardon for some of her friends. You cant think what pleasure it is to me to have this piano for Robert’s playing– He plays well, & has a great deal of science, & we have a constant succession of new music. The library too is excellent—& Flush approves of the sofa. Did you hear that Heraud had been lecturing somewhere (at Manchester I think) on the poems of Robert & Elizabeth Barrett Browning “now joined together in the bonds of holy matrimony”. [10] Just that form, as it was repeated to us! How exquisitely absurd, to be sure! I tell you all sorts of things huddled up together but not “joined together” by any means or order– Now do you sit down & write me a delightful, delightful letter, as so often you do, & never often enough. When I write next, which will be to my dear, dear Henrietta, I shall be able to say perhaps a little about the Venus. Robert went today to reconnoitre the staircase, & there are five flights! But he can carry me up he says, though half it frightens me lest all this carrying shd injure him—only it wd not be right for me just now to walk upstairs, .. & if it were right, .. cospetto di Bacco! [11] .. why my conscientious convictions wd avail nothing. I might as well talk to Fiesole in the distance as try to persuade him. Since my marriage I have scarcely walked up any sort of stairs above three times, even when as able to walk up stairs as you: its a thing not permitted … “Pray what did I marry you for but to carry you up stairs”. I am going out to drive tomorrow by the way .. its settled at last .. & Wilson thinks, can only do me good– We shall engage a carriage for a month, so as to have an hour’s drive every day—just engaged, understand, for that hour or hour & a half: & the expense will be a daily fifteen pence: & already it is so hot that we are to go “in the cool of the evening” at about six. I who have not been out, cant fancy its being hot .. these rooms are so very cool—and if it were not for Robert’s & Wilson’s affidavits to its being “burning, out of doors”, & to possible walks between hedges of scarlet roses in full bloom, I should laugh at the idea of taking such precautions. No warmth, except the most temperate has penetrated to me yet. We are on the north of the Arno, you see—& are perforated with doors & windows & protected from the sun both by walls of marble, & Venetian blinds. I do hope we shall be able to remain here some time. We shall have letters of introduction to Powers [12] & some other artist. Mrs Trollope is said to have settled herself in Florence by purchase, [13] but she is absent, & our terrors have “for the nonce” subsided– Till now I have put off mentioning the books George sent to me, [14] because I wanted to look into them a little first. Tell him with my best love that I thank him affectionately for his kindness & shd still more thank him if he had written something rather, rather kinder than that “Mrs Browning” on the fly leaf,—but I have corrected it in my own hand and put “To Ba from her ever dear George”, so it is all right now. Emerson has fine thoughts but seems to want the artistic faculty wholly. Sir L Bulwer is justified to the utmost, I think, & is a gentleman in his justification. The Eclectic Review is on the excess side of flattery. How curious, the quotation from Landor’s poem on Robert, is on the last page! quite unconsciously done too of course! Give my best love & thanks to my dearest George. And mind you congratulate dear Sette for me. And speak of Henry & Alfred & Occy. Why cant George speak to Papa of Henry’s wish to accept Mr Margary’s offer? [15] It really does at this distance, appear to me a quite monstrous state of things, that he shd be hindered in the legitimate & honorable desire of taking a step out into life for himself. Best love to him & all of them.
Robert has just received such an affectionate letter from Mr Forster of the Examiner that my heart has melted like wax .. beginning “my very dear Browning” & ending “yours & Mrs Browning’s much attached friend[”]! you know he had written to us at Vaucluse, & Petrarch’s ghost absorbed the letter– And he is going to write a third time next week he says—there never was such affection, I assure you– He tells Robert that “the first place in English poetry” is waiting for him,—& as for me, I am caught up into the cloud too– [16] He wants to hasten Robert’s second edition. Then he tells us of having spent three weeks in Paris with Dickens, in the course of which he breakfasted with Châteaubriand & dined with Victor Hugo—& of Tennyson’s new poem which is “full of sweet & noble grandeur” & “certainly the best thing he has done yet.” [17] Very glad I am for Tennyson & the world. Do you see Mr Hunter often? Tell me of him, & how Mary is– Any prospect of settlement? What bazaar are you working for? Do walk out Arabel, if ever you think of me. Do you see Mr Boyd? My love to him: I shall write soon. You shd be very flattered by the extraordinary confidence reposed in you by your friends. Tell me more & more. Why does’nt Susan have bridesmaids instead of enacting them? [18] I thought .. I thought! … My love to her & Surtees too. Is the successful man at Taunton likely to move soon? Mention your headaches & love me as I love you. To dearest Henrietta I shall write next. Shall I dare to put my feet into these too beautiful slippers of hers? And what fairy gloves you send me! Dear & kind, both of you! Remember now that I am well .. eat, sleep, look .. but I cant describe myself. God bless you dear, darling Arabel! How I love you!
your Ba–
Best love to dear Minny, whom always I mean to write to & shall soon. Do remember me when you hear of dear Storm.
Address, on integral page: Miss Arabel Barrett / 50 Wimpole Street.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Year determined from EBB’s reference to the Brownings’ removal from Pisa to Florence in April 1847.
2. Cf. Macbeth, I, 3, 11–12.
3. Underscored twice.
4. Underscored twice.
5. Evidently Mrs. Orme was considering a visit to Italy for her health after her unfortunate experience with the cold water cure the previous year (see letter 2165).
6. Now called the Piazza della Signoria.
7. Underscored three times.
8. The name of the family to whom Wilson’s sister may go into service has been obliterated by someone other than EBB. It is unclear as to which of Wilson’s five sisters EBB is referring; they are identified in volume 13, p. 381.
9. “With good reason.”
10. John Abraham Heraud (1799–1887), poet, dramatist, and journalist, was at this time the editor of The Christian’s Monthly Magazine. Although Heraud reviewed RB’s works, for example Paracelsus in Fraser’s Magazine for March 1836 (see vol. 3, pp. 364–372), we have been unable to verify EBB’s reference to him “lecturing.”
11. Literally, “by the face of Bacchus!”, used as an exclamatory expression to mean “good heavens!”
12. Hiram Powers (1805–73) was an American sculptor from Vermont. He and his family had been living in Florence for ten years, and they were to become some of the Brownings’ closest friends in Florence. The “other artist” might be Horatio Greenough (1805–52), another American sculptor living in Florence at this time. John Kenyon wrote a letter of introduction to Powers for the Brownings in April (see SD1316), as did George Duyckinck on 10 May (see SD1319).
13. The Casa Olivieri rather than the Villino Trollope; the latter did not become the Trollope family residence in Florence until 1850 (see letter 2670, note 3).
14. George sent a copy of The Eclectic Review (Reconstruction, A846) along with books by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. A review of EBB’s Poems (1844) appeared in the November 1846 issue of The Eclectic Review; for the complete text, see pp. 375–380. Westwood had mentioned this review to her in a letter in December 1846 (see letter 2638, note 7), but he seemingly failed to make the connection of the closing lines of the review as those from Landor’s “To Robert Browning.” The work by Emerson which George sent was doubtless Emerson’s Poems (1847). Describing the poems in general, a review in The Athenæum for 6 February 1847 parallels EBB’s criticism, suggesting that “a wild, low music, indeed, accompanies these artless strains; an indistinct, uncertain melody” (no. 1006, p. 145). A Word to the Public (Leipzig, 1847) by Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, sent by George, sold as lot 529 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A526; present whereabouts unknown). George inscribed the volume “Mrs. R. Browning,” and EBB added “From dear George to Ba, Florence, 1847.”
15. It is unclear what position Peter John Margary had offered to Henry. Margary married Emma Monro (née Russell) in July 1847 (see letter 2697, note 9). Her first husband had died in 1843.
16. Cf. I Thessalonians 4:17.
17. Tennyson’s poem The Princess was published in December 1847. EBB had referred to the poem in January 1846; see letter 2191, note 5.
18. See letters 2670, note 9, and 2684, note 5.
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