2877. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 16, 184–186.
[Siena]
[ca. 7 September 1850] [1]
It will be hard for you to believe, my dearest Sarianna, that I have been overflowing with gratitude all this time—none of the droppings having reached you. Yet it’s the truth as Robert knows—and if he has not told you (indeed I hope he has) how much I have felt & spoken about your kindness to the two volumes [2] taken under your protection, he has done me great injustice which it will be almost too late for me to remedy. For my part I am only just beginning to be a little alive again. Such a ghastly time I have had of it these seven weeks, & so difficult it has been for me to write a word worth anybody’s reading, .. I mean with the least vital spirit in it, .. or speak a word, or think a thought,—the exhaustion having been most complete. The leaving Florence was a very uncongenial effort, & I looked much more likely to change the world than to change the air with advantage—but Dr Harding has been perfectly justified in his advice that we shd go, by the results of the going,—& now at the end of a week, I find myself & everybody finds me “quite a different person,” (which is an immense improvement) able to walk about independently, & with something like a human colour in my face & hands. The consequence of which is that I am writing to you, dearest Sarianna, without so much danger of splashing you all over from the slough of despond, [3] as otherwise wd have been; & now let me tell you in one word how very much I thank you for your patience & perfect goodness through that long piece of work you did for me!– Believe also that I feel your affectionateness through the patience & goodness, .. which is still the more thankworthy & acceptable thing. I wish you could say in a satisfactory manner that you were quite well yourself– I dont like the want of sleep you just hint at darkly, & it seems to me you shd do something to remedy it before the evil takes the form of a habit. Did you ever try a hop pillow? or the inhaling of the steam from hops? Or the burning a cigar in your room, which though less agreeable, wd be still more effectual perhaps? I found it so once: nothing tranquillizes the nervous system so entirely.
Robert will tell you all about our villa & how much we like it—the vineyard up to the door, with the purple of grapes caught sight of down the vistas of vines—& magnificent views beyond all, of enchanted cities, Roman mountains, & dreary maremmas. Our little Wiedeman, however, mainly agrees with Flush, that the streets of Florence, & the people in the Cascine, & the processions from the churches, are better things than anything here, except the blackberries & grapes, .. yes, & except the donkey, & the pigeons, & the pig, & the great yellow dog. Wiedeman does’nt particularly enjoy a rural life—not to say that we are taking the opportunity of his present rustication to wean him by degrees, which he considers of course a misery & a wrong. But his cheeks grow redder, & the good fresh air is evidently agreeing well with him—& now & then he is taken to Siena where he falls into ecstasies in the churches, refreshing his ecclesiastical tastes. Can you fancy that child, a year & a half old, shrieking at the door of a church, to be taken in? He knows every church in Florence. A most premature little creature he is, tell your dear father with my love, with all sorts of fancies, and “too many ideas,” as the balia says. He looks more like a fairy than a child, & buzzes about the things of the world with a frightful sort of activity– I shd like him to be less excitable & more robust—but he is quite well, & “cant be better than well” as Dr Harding said.
Here I am at the end of my paper. No need & no power of telling you how perfect Robert has been to me during my illness—(as when is he otherwise than perfect to me?)—nor of the Paris-scheme, & how I have set heart & head on it– May God bless you always, Sarianna!
Your most affectionate sister
Ba.
Address, on integral page: Miss Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Dating suggested by EBB’s reference to being in Siena for a week; the Brownings arrived there from Florence on 31 August.
2. i.e., Sarianna’s correcting proof for Poems (1850).
3. One of the obstacles Christian must overcome in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.
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