2973. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 156–161.
138 Avenue des champs Elysées
Oct 31. Nov 2. [1851] [1]
Ever beloved Arabel I hope you have been looking out for a letter from me some days now– Robert’s father & sister are with us—that is, are spending all their time with us except the sleeping time. They came sooner, by a sudden arrangement, than they had thought of, or than we exactly wished .. for we happened to be in a desperate state of crisis just at the moment. Our french servant, who was an excellent servant, cooked well, did everything well, was accused one fine morning by the proprietor of the house of very defective morals– She had received a “bon ami” three times already—the ‘bon ami’ never left her till daylight—it was a case past explanation. So we were forced to send her away, & there was a ‘scene’, in which she prayed the gods might provide us with as good a servant as herself, with no worse fault than such a “bêtise” [2] as what we sent her away for– Certainly she had been imprudent—she ought to have known that the English were “excessivement severes” [3] about such things—but she did think that upon her promise to be careful for the future, we should keep her in her situation. It was impossible however. The facts were known in the house, & we could not keep a woman of a disreputable character. But it was very vexatious, especially at that moment. Now we have a little brisk laughing creature, who tumbles about everything .. “has no method,” Wilson says, but who cooks extremely well & is as good natured as possible. Her name is Desirée, and I dare say she will do for us perfectly. Things appear cheaper instead of dearer as we come to understand better, and a good manager (which neither I nor Robert can pretend to be) might live for very little. On the other hand it is colder—much colder, the last few days,—and I cant get out, which is a pity just now when the Brownings are here,—but Robert wanders about with them, & the weather will change soon, I must hope. I shall insist this evening on his taking Sarianna to Madme Mohl’s ‘soirèe,’ because she called here two days ago & invited her particularly—but as to going myself that’s out of the question. I was there with Robert last friday, & liked it as well as I can like anything of the sort– Oh it was amusing enough, and as little constrained as the coffee-drinking in the piazza of St Mark’s at Venice– You stay half an hour, an hour, or more, just as you like—& you may wear a cloak & bonnet, if you like, for I saw one lady equipped so– Then you have the satisfaction of knowing (if you have sensibility) that your hostess cant by any possibility be ruined, even if you persist in going to see her every friday in the year. We had each of us a cup of very watery tea (which Robert pretended to take, & set down on a table) but not the shadow of a piece of bread & butter even, to break on the repose. The refreshments are altogether spiritual, I assure you– There were a good many french, & among them a friend of George Sand, whom Madme Mohl wanted to bring up to introduce to us, but failed, she says, because we were so knotted round with English. There was Mr Phillimore, George’s friend,—the writer in Blackwood & barrister—he came in George’s name. Then, Mr Thompson, [4] the abolitionist, who is rather a philanthropical bore, it must be confessed—he would insist on talking to me about his flight from Boston from the mob of five thousand, & various circumstances appertaining. I sympathize with him so utterly, you see, that nothing remains to be said—and he is not eloquent in conversation … for an orator! Then, Mrs Chapman, the female mover of the American abolition-movement .. a pupil of Dr Channing’s– I had had one or two letters from her, years ago. She is a clever woman, & still pretty, though with two grown up daughters. [5] Then, a Mr Savile Morton, [6] whom Robert met once at Mon[c]kton Milnes’s– (He writes, I think, for the Daily News[.]) Then, a Miss Julia Smith, [7] whom I have heard of all my life as an intimate friend of Harriet Martineau .. with a keen, impressive face. People not of the highest interest, but in their degree, interesting enough. For the rest, there seems to be a general inclination of kindness towards us, &, as I say to Robert, we must really take care not to be taken off our feet by the stream of society .. especially English: it would be the ruin of our life & comfort. I like Lady Elgin– She has an earnest countenance, with a soul looking out of it,—& nothing can be more cordial than her bearing to us. She wrote to me the day before yesterday to beg us to let her take us in her carriage to St Cloud .. “a beautiful drive along the banks of the Seine” .. but we had visitors, & it was impossible. Robert has done his Shelley, except something of the writing out part, & just now he cant do much of course. As for me I have not set myself to think what I shall do, yet, but it must come.
We have had a visit from a M. Emile Forgues, who is to bring his wife, [8] he says– It was he who reviewed Robert in the ‘Revue des deux mondes’ some three years ago. I like him. He is characteristic & animated. By the way, an article on Robert in this same ‘Revue des deux mondes” appeared last august, & we have had sight of it at last. It is very ably & conscientiously written, & the most satisfactory review I ever met with on the subject. If it satisfies me, you may suppose that it is in the highest degree appreciating– Here’s a phrase or two– “J’aborde une individualité singuliere, les uns diraient maladive, les autres diront merveilleuse, en tout cas une individualité bien propre à embarrasser ses juges. Pour apprecier M. Browning, on est forcé de prophétiser, comme lorsqu’il [s’]agit d’une religion naissante. Pour donner une idée de lui, les mots font defaut.—— […] Son genie à lui, c’est de pouvoir ce que M. Tennyson ne peut pas; c’est de revoir en chaque fait un abrégé de la creation. Chacun son rôle: aux uns de centraliser toutes les emotions humaines, aux autres de centraliser toutes nos conceptions. Pour les uns, le lyrisme; pour M. Browning, la poésie epique.– […] De tous les poetes que je sache, il est le plus capable de résumer les conceptions de la religion, de la morale et de la science théorique de notre époque, en leur donnant un corps poétique.” [9] ——
Those are a few sentences drawn out at hazard. It is a very long & elaborate review, & I cant pretend to give you an idea of it—but, of course, it will be a fortunate introduction into the society of men of letters here. Also, I should be delighted, under any circumstances, at such a notice from the first literary periodical in Europe. The writer is a M. Milsand– [10]
Arlette came twice to see me, & Mr Reynolds & Sir James Carmichael, with her, on one occasion: afterwards she brought her little girl. Very affectionate she always is to me, & very pretty she looked—prettier, I maintain, than before her marriage, though there’s a difference of opinion on this point. I do hope she may enjoy Florence. She talks of Paris for next winter. I wonder Bummy did not go with her to Italy, as she thinks of Italy at all. Arlette told me she had begged her to go.
The Hedleys have taken an apartment in Rue l’astorg, [11] near the Madeleine, & are so much engaged in furnishing it that Robert & I have been to see them only once, we were so afraid of being in the way. The Tours furniture was considered unworthy of Paris, & they are exchanging chintz for satin, & reforming everything altogether. [12] When we saw the apartment, it was all confusion accordingly, but I dare say, it will be beautiful at last. It is on a second floor (no disadvantage at Paris, as I have told you) & the windows look on a garden full of trees– I have seen more picturesque rooms, certainly. The drawing room is large & square, & the dining room close to it—but the furniture will look well, & the general result will be very handsome & comfortable, I think. The rooms for the little girls & their governess are particularly nice, & aunt Jane’s own bedroom is delightful. She looks well & is charmed to be in Paris. Not quite so, poor uncle Hedley, who keeps sighing for the country, the country! He likes nothing but the country, he says, & should be happy to be able to live in England. He had a garden at Tours .. Still, I do think the removal here is a wise thing. They have all been most affectionately kind to me .. coming to see me again & again: and Robert is quite won over from his old disbelief in the love for me of any of my relations. Ibbit is lovely—very like aunt Jane in that look of sweetness she has. Yet she is not regularly handsome, nor is likely to be considered so. The other little girls dont seem to me pretty at all—Fanny is most so. [13] Aunt Jane told me that Mr Bevan was not a step nearer the papacy—“he was firm as a rock”: & she thought him “quite right in his opinions.” She was more surprised at Bummy’s Puseyism than I am, by any manner of means .. but I cant help being amused at the idea of your face, Arabel, under the development of the causes of the “Danger of the church of England” in Leonard’s reading. Tell me everything, do.
Wiedeman was called “an angel” by Ibbit the other day, to my great satisfaction. Aunt Jane thinks him “very like Sette”: He gets on capitally with his talking, & is more & more winning. The other morning Madme Mohl was giving us a graphic account of the last revolution .. (she is an Englishwoman, I think I told you, & married a German, naturalized French) .. “Suddenly,” said she, “my heart beat at the rate of a hundred & sixty—I heard the tocsin.” “Boum” .. said Wiedeman .. carried away by the situation, beyond all sense of shyness. He had been listening to her with intent, staring eyes, for a quarter of an hour together, .. & now, they were coming out of his head with excitement. “Boum” .. said he.
She turned quite with wonder to us– “Do you mean to say that child understands what we are talking of?”. Indeed he did, perfectly. And soon, when Robert said that he would like to go into the streets & see the fighting, & when I said that he should’nt go, unless he chose to take me & Baby with him, .. the child burst out into one of his fits of animation & eloquence .. “No, Peninni—Peninni, no[”]—he would stay at “hom” with “Lili”—he would not go out among the “babas” (.. the soldiers) to hear “boum, boum” .. & be fought against, this way, & this way .. (striking into the air with his little arms) .. “no, Peninni, no, Papa.” And ever since then, whenever you want to move him you have only to talk about the “revoluzione”– I assure you he thinks deeply about it.
By the way, we are all to have our heads cut off on the fourth of november—so we were told yesterday. There’s to be a stormy ‘chamber,’ in any case, and I would give much to be present. If we could but get tickets! It is said that the president is a “fatalist” & “entété” [14] to an extreme, believing that he is necessary to France. So his enemies say, & I, who do not count among them, believe they speak quite truly. How things will end, it is difficult to guess at all, but certainly they are likely to end before May; & I, for my part, would rather they ended with Louis Napoleon than Henri cinq. It is very exciting.
Dearest, darling Arabel, I do trust your rheumatic pains have quite left you. I hear from Henrietta who does not hear from you she says– I do hope you are too amused to write,—& no worse reason. I wish I could hear. Put the enclosed little sheet under an envelope to Henrietta– [15] She asks me one or two questions & I dont like either to delay answering them or to make her pay for a letter immediately. I hope this wont be overweight. Write & tell me everything– Write directly. I am hungry & thirsty for letters. Wiedeman wore George’s pelisse yesterday, which together with a becoming new hat, a white felt hat & feathers, made him look really pretty. But he does’nt like it as well as your red frock– The red frock, is his joy & glory—and I assure you we had to send him out in it, (with his trowsers, Arabel!) today. He cried for it, & being a spoilt child, had his own way of course. Wilson says that he is very much admired here. People turn round to look at him. And do you know, Miss Geraldine Jewsbury told Carlyle who told me, that I had the “most beautiful child that ever was seen.” I suppose she saw him (when she called on me & I was out) with scarlet cheeks just awake, which always make him look pretty, you know.
God bless you my own very dear sister– Pray for me & love me—hold me tenderly in your heart, for it is a precious place to
your Ba.
Read if you please what I send to Henrietta. It’s an answer to questions chiefly.
Publication: EBB-AB, I, 419–425.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; the only October in which the Brownings resided at 138 Avenue des Champs Élysées occurred in 1851.
2. “Stupidity.”
3. “Excessively severe.”
4. George Thompson (1804–78), British abolitionist, had, at the invitation of William Lloyd Garrison, travelled to America in 1834 to speak against slavery before large crowds. In October 1835 in Boston, he narrowly escaped from a mob estimated by some at six to ten thousand, though other estimates placed it nearer two to five thousand (William Lloyd Garrison, 1805–1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, New York, 1885, II, 11).
5. Elizabeth Bates Chapman (afterwards Laugel, b. 1831) and Anne Greene Chapman (afterwards Dicey, 1837–79). Maria Chapman (née Weston, 1806–85) travelled to Europe in 1848 in order to further the education of her two daughters and her son, Henry Grafton Chapman (1833–83). She returned to America in 1855 (see Clare Taylor, Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement: The Weston Sisters, Basingstoke and New York, 1995). Mrs. Chapman and James Russell Lowell had written letters to EBB in 1845, requesting an anti-slavery poem for The Liberty Bell. In December 1846 EBB replied to Lowell and enclosed “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point,” as well as a letter for Mrs. Chapman: “Will you have the goodness to forward to Mrs. Chapman … the note addressed to her?” (EBB to James Russell Lowell, 17 December 1846, ms at ABL).
6. Savile Morton (1811–52) had been correspondent for The Daily News since 1846.
7. Julia Smith (1799–1883), youngest of five daughters of the politician William Smith (1756–1835).
8. Marie Athénais Forgues (1824–86), daughter of Marie Pierre Pauliner and his wife Marie Elizabeth Lebarbier de Tinan. She married Èmile Forgues on 13 March 1844 in Paris.
9. “I am tackling a singular individuality, some would call unhealthy, others will call wonderful, in any case an individuality likely to confuse its judges. To appreciate Mr. Browning, one is forced to prophesy, as if it were a question of a new religion. Words fail to give an idea of him.—— […] His particular genius is to be able to do what Mr. Tennyson cannot; it is to see again in each event a summary of creation. To each his role: to some that of concentrating all human emotions, to others that of concentrating all our ideas. For some, lyricism; for Mr. Browning, epic poetry.– […] Of all the poets I know, he is the most capable of summing up the ideas of our age concerning religion, morality and theoretical science, by giving them poetic embodiment.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 381–394.
10. Joseph Antoine Milsand (1817–86), French critic and philosopher. For details of his friendship with the Brownings, see the biographical sketch, pp. 251–264.
11. At no. 12, as listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period; see Appendix IV.
12. Cf. Hamlet, III, 2, 38.
13. The three youngest Hedley girls were Frances (1836–1914), Mary (1838–54), and Anna (b. 1842), none of whom married. Elizabeth Jane (“Ibbit”) was seventeen at the time of this letter.
14. “Headstrong.”
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