2886. EBB to Eliza Anne Ogilvy
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 16, 220–224.
Florence.
Novr 3. [1850] [1]
It grieved me, dearest Mrs Ogilvy, to hear of your anxieties about your little Marcia. May they all be passed by this time, & your own health strengthened in consequence, for I can understand how you were not likely to be very well yourself while you had to stand by & see her suffer. The remedy of the balia, you know my faith in,—and, if she is a sufficient balia, I hope you will witness no more illness from the teeth .. none of consequence .. for this budding of the almond tree must be supposed to draw the sap a little hardly through the tree. Wiedeman has cut one of his eye teeth, and another is just at hand—he has thirteen teeth, .. & is none the worse for any of them—feeling some pain of course occasionally & giving us a supererogatory passion as the result, but with no morbid symptoms whatever .. oh, I do wish you could see him! He is small still, but round & rosy, and I assure you I can scarcely carry him through the rooms now. A most curious child he is: he wont talk a bit: when he wants to call anyone, he does it as he called the pigeons at our villa, by making a little kissing sound with his mouth. That’s for Flush, and that’s for the horse on the tapestry, and that too is for Papa when he does’nt come fast enough to the piano. You know the child’s old passion for music & the churches– Well—it has grown lately to a sort of phrenzy. First thing is, when he comes in to us, to have the piano played: upon which he goes off to the end of the room, kneels down before a chair, folding his hands, turning up his eyes, & muttering with his lips, .. kneeling so, & as if rapt, for five minutes together. Then, he gets up, goes to another chair, & does the same thing, .. interspersing various gesticulations meant clearly for crossing himself & telling beads, .. bowing or making a curtsey to the chair, .. all with the gravest of faces—I doubt whether he means it for play at all: it seems rather that he is possessed with an imagination. If the piano stops in a moment, he shouts out impatiently & stamps imperiously .. he must have music:—but, for the rest, he takes no notice of anybody in the room .. he wants nobody’s sympathy. Is’nt it curious? I overheard the balia the other day saying to Girolama the dress maker, that “that child quite martyrized her by forcing her into the churches, & that now he had taken to saying Ave Marias for himself”. We keep on the balia for a few months, because Wilson cant carry him out of doors, and he must’nt at his age be encouraged in too much walking. Afterwards, Wilson will take him– His hair curls all over his head like a small golden fleece .. a lamb’s .. as he is, dear darling—and I am obstinate in not cutting it, though you cut Alexander’s with such good effect. How he must talk, .. your Alexander! How I should like to hear him!– But I shant. Because, instead of coming back to us in the manner of reasonable people, .. you who confess to have not gained so very much by going away, .. you persist, like your balia, in keeping to the Kingdom of Naples .. unless indeed you go to Rome, which will be as bad. I shall not see even your sister (.. I say even your sister, because I never saw her)—for she must have passed us somehow by sea or air—we have lost her. Therefore Robert took advantage of another opportunity, of some friends of ours (Mrs Tomkyns & her sisters) going to Rome & Naples, to send his book, [2] the only book we have received from England– Mine, I suppose, is not yet out, [3] and Professor Blackie’s has not reached us. I hope you will receive Robert’s in safety & unsteeped in oil.
Shall I tell you now about Siena? We left our villa at the end of a month & went into the town for a week that I might see the churches & pictures properly. The cathedral is very fine, it seems to me, with its peculiar effects of warm marbles—so warm to my imagination, that I had a sort of feeling of suffocation there, in spite of the chilly weather. Perhaps the syrens under the blue weights of the sea may feel so—it was a singular feeling. Then Sodoma is great .. though the pathetic Christ by the column wants deity, & though the beautiful visitation of the Magi strikes me as much inferior to the exquisite picture of Gentile on the same subject in the Belle Arti at Florence. Still, the power is great, the pathos true: and the anguish of the virgin mother in Sodoma’s crucifixion, it is almost anguish to look at—it seems death & the bitterness of death together—you remember that fainting figure. So the painter is rightly to be admired. But what of Beccafumi? what of Pacchierotto? Did you see the divine virgin & child of Pacchierotto in the church of San Christofero? [4] I believe I would rather have that picture than any other in Siena, if I had leave to carry away any I pleased. After getting the whole town by heart .. for I even climbed down to Fonte Branda & up again, found out the ‘pozzo di Diana’ [5] & fumbled among the ashes of Santa Catarina’s kitchen, .. we were under a strong temptation to go on to Volterra. But the funds and Robert’s superhuman prudence (for a human-poet) forbade, and back we came to Florence, thankful for & contented with all the good & pleasure we had been able to obtain without ruining ourselves. Since then, I have been embroidering frocks for Wiedeman, .. three merino frocks for the winter, .. and catching cold, & walking up to San Miniato, [6] & giving deep offence to people by not going to call on them, .. I, who really mean to be kind to everybody, on the whole, & am always getting into these scrapes. Then one writes & reads a little at intervals .. and so, life goes on. I must not forget, this time, to tell you of Dr Harding—how with tears in his eyes, he told Robert of his son’s abilities & want of will– On his leaving the army, the father said ‘choose’ .. he was ready to advance him in any other profession he wished. On choosing art, the father said, “For every picture you paint I will give you fifty pounds” .. and the young man’s uncle had said the same. Besides, the father paid for studio & models, & offered to pay the expenses of sending pictures to the exhibition in London– ‘Oh’, he exclaimed warmly, “the boy might have been an academician by this time—he might have been anything”. But not a picture was finished—or, as it was finished, the artist destroyed it– “A mere mania”, said Dr Harding. “The truth is, his fancy was for twenty thousand a year and no work for it.” In this fancy he could not & ought not to be sustained. An idle life in the caffès was what could not be tolerated. And so, after having exhausted all forms of persuasion, his father had been forced to try severity & had forbidden his house to him. Dr Harding told all this to Robert with great emotion, & observed at last that the picture ‘finished for Mr Ogilvy’ was the only one he had heard of as finished to any purpose. It was a case of pure madness, in his opinion. It seems right to tell you this, your impressions having been received from the other side of the medal hitherto. Both Robert & I incline to a full confidence in Dr Harding’s kindheartedness & consequent innocence from the implied charge. The Henry Greenhoughs, the sculptor says, are comfortably established in ‘Cambridge’—but “she prefers Florence in some respects, and he, in all”. Mrs Horatio Greenhough has a little girl by help of æther, [7] which, however, the medical man had not courage to give her enough of, so that the pains were only mitigated. Mr Hanna preaches at the Swiss church, & we go to hear him. I wish I knew more Florentine news to send you. Mr Stuart will tell you of his own arrival:—he is learning Hebrew, he says. Dont let me forget to set down that Mrs Tennyson “has the sweetest voice in the world” and “is in many respects an uncommon woman”. So, another friend writes to me.
Write soon, dear friend, & give me full details of the dear children & yourself too. I long to hear that you are well. Of course they are admired & you are proud of them. Perchè no! [8] The Princesse de la Tremouille occupies your rooms above us, & her people assure ours that everything is cheaper in Paris, whence they have just come. With our united cordial regards to both of you, I remain
your affectionate
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
You will like to hear that Mrs Cox had a fine baby, a girl! [9]
Address, on integral page: A Madame / Madme Ogilvy, / Villa Falcon, / Sorrento, / Napoli. Redirected: Poste Restante / Firenze.
Publication: EBB-EAHO, pp. 32–37.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. This copy of Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day is inscribed to “Mrs David Ogilvy—with RB’s kindest regards. Florence, Oct. 28.’50” (see Reconstruction, C252).
3. Her Poems (1850) appeared on 8 November; see letter 2880, note 7.
4. According to Murray’s A Hand-Book for Travellers in Central Italy (1850), “San Cristoforo, a small church, modernised in 1800, has a fine Madonna … by Pacchiarotto” (p. 210), now attributed to Girolamo del Pacchia (1477–1533). Murray’s also notes that “the celebrated masterpiece of Sodoma, the Christ at the column, formerly in the church of S. Francesco” had been removed to the Accademia delle Belle Arti (p. 207). The “visitation of the Magi” EBB mentions must refer to one by Pacchiarotto in the Accademia; the “Adoration of the Magi” (1423), by Gentile da Fabriano (ca. 1385–1427), is in the Uffizi in Florence.
5. “In the court of the convent [i.e., of the conventual church of the Carmine] is a deep well, called the Pozzo di Diana, which was believed to communicate with the fabulous mine of Diana, ridiculed by Dante (Purgat. xiii)” (Murray’s Hand-Book, p. 210). The Fonte Branda is the best-known fountain in Siena. First mentioned in the yeart 1081, it was enlarged by Bellamino in 1198 and rebuilt by Giovanni di Stefano in 1246. It is located near the church of San Domenico and the house of St. Catherine.
6. A steep climb is required to reach the church of San Miniato, which was built in 1018 on the site of a fourth-century chapel. It lies not far from the center of Florence and provides a commanding view of the city and surrounding areas.
7. Charlotte Greenough (1850–1919?), the third and youngest child of Horatio and Louisa Greenough, was born on 4 September. “Cambridge” refers to the city in Massachusetts.
8. “Why not!”
9. Emily Rebecca Cox (d. 1872), eldest daughter of Robert Cox and his wife Margaret Jackson Cox (née Ward, 1821–82), was born on 16 October 1850 in Florence (ICS).
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