3158. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 300–302.
[Florence]
[ca. 8 January 1853] [1]
<***> according to the terms of the “President’s letter” which neither I nor he, I am sure, have on the last point forgotten. [2] We shall see–
The state of things here, in Tuscany, is infamous & cruel. The old serpent the Pope is wriggling his venom into the heart of all possibilities of free thought & action– [3] It is a dreadful state of things. Austria the hand, the papal power the brain! and no energy in the victim for resistance—only for hatred– They do hate here, I am glad to say.
But we linger at Florence in spite of all. It was delightful to find ourselves in the old nest, still warm, of Casa Guidi, to sit in our own chairs & sleep in our own beds—and here we shall stay as late perhaps as March, if we dont re-let our house before– Then we go to Rome & Naples– You cant think how we have caught up our ancient traditions just where we left them, & relapsed into our former soundless, stirless hermit-life– Robert has not passed an evening from home since we came—just as if we had never known Paris!– People come sometimes to have tea & talk with us, but that’s all—a few intelligent & interesting persons sometimes, such as Mr Tennyson (the poet’s brother) & Mr Lytton (the novelist’s son) & Mr Stuart, the lecturer on Shakespeare whom once I named to you, I fancy. Mr Tennyson married an Italian, & has four children– [4] He has much of the atmosphere poetic about him, a dreamy, speculative, shy man, reminding us of his brother in certain respects,—good & pure-minded– I like him. Young Mr Lytton is very young as you may suppose, with all sorts of high aspirations,—and visionary enough to suit me, which is saying much—and affectionate, with an apparent liking to us both, which is engaging to us of course– We have seen the Trollopes once, the younger ones, but the elder Mrs Trollope was visible neither at that time nor since– They have a very pretty house & garden full of orange trees, and are happy just now in the prospect (for the first time) of Mrs Tom Trollope’s confinement .. about February, I think. I pity married people without children, though often they are complete enough in themselves. It’s a wreath, with the two ends loose:—just the tie is wanting–
As to our darling he is the joy of our house & hearts. Either I am very vain or very happy .. (Nay, any way very happy) for there is not a point on which I would see him altered. The remarkable intelligence does not exclude the infantine sweetness & ingenuousness—he is not what is called an “old-fashioned child”—and the lovingness is the crown of all– Think of a child too, who is above three years old & never has been punished—no, nor needed it. The love rushes into his face visibly .. sometimes, in a flash of light, and then he kisses & squeezes you, .. or me rather .. crying “dear Ba”– Oh, he is fond of calling me ‘Ba’, .. the darling! and his father, “Wobert,” .. when he means us most good. The pretty shining ringlets seem to wave about us the very sunshine of life—he is a dear angel, really.
I sit here reading Dumas’ ‘last,’ [5] notwithstanding. Dumas is astonishing—he never will write himself out—there’s no dust on his shoes after all this running—his last books are better than his first–
Do your American friends write ever to you about the rapping spirits? I hear & would hear much of them. It is said that at least fifteen thousand persons in America, of all classes of society, are mediums as the term is– Most curious these phenomena <***>
Publication: LEBB, II, 98–99 (in part, as to Isa Blagden, winter 1852–53).
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dating suggested by reference to a letter of 16 January 1853 from Miss Mitford to W.C. Bennett, in which she mentions receiving this letter “to-day” (see SD1632).
2. Presumably, EBB has been discussing current relations between France and Rome. The “President’s letter” may refer to the letter of 18 August 1849 that Louis Napoleon sent to his representative in Rome after hearing of the repressive political measures being implemented by the Vatican in anticipation of the Pope’s return from exile. In the letter, a translation of which appeared in The Times of 8 September 1849, the president summed up what he thought was the point of his army’s intervention in Rome: “the re-establishment of the temporal power of the Pope,—a general amnesty, the secularization of the Administration, the Code Napoleon, and a liberal Government” (p. 6). EBB had written to Miss Mitford on this subject in October 1849; see letter 2816, note 3.
3. An allusion to the Madiai case; see letter 3146, note 7.
4. They were Julius (Giulio) George (1840–1904), Elizabeth (1848–1903), Emily (1850–1935), and Matilda (1851–92).
5. Possibly Olympe de Clèves (1851–52), which EBB mentioned as a new book in letter 3089.
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