3178. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 11–14.
Florence.
March 15– [1853] [1]
My ever dear, very dear friend, I am disappointed by your letter–. What—no better after all this time? I cannot make out why the cold weather should have power to operate injuriously with regard to the effects of an accident such as you describe. Is there a mixture, does Mr May suppose, of rheumatic affection? can it be that which helps to take the power of moving from you? I have comfort in seeing that your old vivacity & vitality, either in the manner or form of writing, do not diminish in you; but, for the rest, I do want more comfort. Be generous & give it to me as soon as you can—& write in any case, dearest Miss Mitford, without waiting as you did last time. If only a few lines let me have them, because I am a long way off, remember, & the Alps & the sea conspire to gift one with a double fatal ability for building dungeons in the air .. which was always a sort of specialty of mine.
Your numbers are not correct about Napoleon—the minority is decidedly wrong. [2] So my superstition cant find room for the sole of her foot [3] on your omen. For the rest, he is an extraordinary man .. that’s past doubting of .. & a man, too, with better stuff in him than is supposed by the Times Newspaper & the English nation generally. But I have no enthusiasm for him on the other side, after all .. he does not allow of enough liberty for me—he keeps too heavy a foot on the press. Observe, I perfectly understand that such & such may be the necessities of his position; but, as the position improves, the necessities become less stringent. He intends to let the people breathe, in their intellectual life, presently, when he can .. or I would not bear with him for a moment .. but till he has done it, I cant “put my trust in princes” [4] enough to give him my heart. Wait a little if you please– Here am I talking anti Napoleonism, I who am called a Napoleonist by everybody, & who wrestle hard with my own husband on that very subject!! The amount of injustice which has been written & spoken against him makes me his advocate; but when on the other hand you ask me for enthusiasm I draw back, & repeat “wait a little.” For instance, the late siezure on three newspapers at once, disappointed me extremely– [5] The government had been tolerant for some weeks or months, & I had hoped that without great provocation there would be no more siezures. Now the provocation seems to me insufficient. France is prospering materially just now—but, after all, France is an intellectual country if she is anything, and if you take away her intellectual life you abolish her. What I have always respected in L Napoleon is the people. The people has chosen him, & I, as a democrat, admit their right to choose– Vive le peuple. [6]
The spring has surprised us here just as we were beginning to murmur at the cold. Think of somebody advising me the other day not to send out my child without a double-lined parasol! There’s a precaution for March. The sun is powerful—we are rejoicing in our Italian climate. Oh, that I could cut out just a mantle of it to wrap myself in, & so go and see you!—— Your house is dry you say– Is the room you occupy airy as well as warm? Because being confined to a small room, with you who are so used to liberty & out of door life, must be depressing to the vital energies. Do you read much? No, no—you ought not to think of the press of course, till you are strong. Ah—if you should get to London to see our play, how glad I should be! We, too, talk of London .. but somewhat mistily, and not so early in the summer. Mr & Mrs Marsh .. he is the american minister at Constantinople .. have been staying in Florence, & passing some evenings with us. They tempt us with an invitation to Constantinople this summer, which would be irresistible if we had the money for the voyage, perhaps .. so perhaps it is as well that we have not. Enough for us that we are going to Rome & to Naples—then northward. I am busy in the meanwhile with various things—a new poem, [7] .. and revising for a third edition which is called for by the gracious public. Robert too is busy with another book. [8] Then I am helping to make frocks for my child, reading Proudhon (& Swedenborg) and in deep meditation on the nature of the Rapping spirits, upon whom, I understand, a fellow dramatist of yours, Henry Spicer, (I think you once mentioned him to me as such) has just written a book entitled “The Mystery of the Age.” [9] A happy winter it has been to me altogether– We have had so much repose, & at the same time, so much interest in life, .. also I have been so well, .. that I shall be sorry when we go out of harbour again with the spring breezes. We like Mr Tennyson extremely, & he is a constant visitor of ours:—the poet’s elder brother. By the way, the new edition of the Ode on the Duke of Wellington, seems to contain wonderful strokes of improvement. [10] Have you seen it?– As to Alexandre Dumas, fils, I hope it is not true that he is in any scrape from the cause you mention. [11] He is very clever—& I have a feeling for him for his father’s sake as well as because he presents a rare instance of intellectual heirship. Did’nt I tell you of the prodigious success of his drama of the “Dame aux Camelias,” which ran above a hundred nights last year, & is running again? how there were caricatures on the boulevards, showing the public of the pit holding up umbrellas to protect themselves from the tears rained down by the public of the boxes? how the President of the republic went to see, & sent a bracelet to the first actress, [12] & how the English newspapers called him immoral for it?—how I went to see, myself, & cried so that I was ill for two days, & how my aunt called me immoral for it? [13] I was properly lectured, I assure you. She “quite wondered how Mr Browning could allow such a thing, ..” not comprehending that Mr Browning never, or scarcely ever, does think of restraining his wife from anything she much pleases to do. The play was too painful .. that was the worst of it .. but I maintain it is a highly moral play, rightly considered .. & the acting was certainly most exquisite on the part of all the performers. Not that Alexandre Dumas, fils, excels generally in morals (in his books, I mean) but he is really a promising writer as to cleverness, & when he has learnt a little more art, he will take no low rank as a novelist. Robert has just been reading a tale of his called ‘Diane de Lys,’ [14] & throws it down with .. “You must read that, Ba—it is clever—only, outrageous as to morals.” Just what I should expect from Alexandre Dumas, fils. I have a tenderness for the whole family, you see!
You dont say a word to me of Mrs Beecher Stowe. How did her book impress you? No woman ever had such a success, such a fame! [15] No man ever had, in a single book. For my part I rejoice greatly in it. It is an individual glory full of healthy influence & benediction to the world. At the same time I do not account <***>
Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 380–383.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the three French newspapers; see note 5.
2. Doubtless, EBB had received the same numbers and explanation from Miss Mitford that the latter had sent James T. Fields on 1 March 1853 (see Yesterdays with Authors, Boston, 1872, p. 324) and William Harness on 25 February 1853. To Harness, Miss Mitford wrote: “The numbers for the election of President of France in favour of Louis Napoleon were: For. 7119791/1119. Against. Look through the back of this against the candle, or the fire, or any light” (L’Estrange (2), III, 260). The numbers “7119791/1119” revealed the word “empereur” if viewed following the instructions. The smaller number was usually given as 1,119,000 (closer to the actual election returns), but the zeroes were to be dropped (see Notes and Queries, 13 October 1883, p. 297). The official results of the 1848 French presidential election, as reported in The Times, were “5,534,520” for Louis Napoleon and “1,448,302” for his nearest opponent, General Cavaignac (25 December 1848, p. 5).
3. Cf. Genesis 8:9.
4. Cf. Psalm 146:3.
5. An article in The Daily News of 4 March 1853 (p. 5) declared: “A heavy blow has been struck at the Parisian press. Three journals, the Presse, the Assemblée, and the Mode, have all received warnings. With the exception of the comparatively unimportant warning given a few days since to the Gazette de France, the peculiar engine of terror invented by the present government, and called a ‘warning,’ has not been set in motion against any metropolitan journal since the amnesty for press offences, which accompanied the proclamation of the Empire.” The report went on to explain that La Presse had published a series of articles by its founder and owner, Emile de Girardin, entitled “‘Why the Republic did not last,’ which, with very slight alterations, might be appropriately headed thus, ‘Why the Empire will not last.’ … He openly contended that universal sufferage … should be a perpetually active principle, so organised as to be able at any time to pull down what it has set up. This, of course, is treated by the Emperor as an attack upon the constitution.” L’Assemblée Nationale was censured for a journalistic battle with Le Constitutionnel in which the former took the side of the Bourbon dynasty against the Napoleonic dynasty. The Daily News did not explain the warning given to La Mode, a fashion magazine, but it too was founded by Girardin. A journal was given only two warnings; “the third offence prescribes suppression.”
6. “Long live the people.”
7. Aurora Leigh.
8. RB was composing poems that would be published in Men and Women.
9. Henry Spicer (1812–91), the author of a number of plays such as Jeffreys; or, the Wife’s Vengeance (1846) and Cousin Cherry (1852), had recently published Sights and Sounds: The Mystery of the Day: Comprising An Entire History of the American “Spirit” Manifestations (1853). Because of the response it received, there followed a few months later Facts and Fancies: A Sequel to Sights and Sounds (1853), which contains an eight-line epigraph from EBB’s “A Rhapsody of Life’s Progress” (1844).
10. Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, first published on 18 November 1852, was not well received, leading Tennyson to revise it.
11. In a letter to William Harness, dated 25 February 1853, Miss Mitford said “I hear from Paris that young Alexandre Dumas (a thorough mauvais sujet) is one of the slanderers taken up for libel” (L’Estrange (2), III, 259). We have found no evidence that Alexandre Dumas (fils) was accused of libel or slander at this time.
12. Marie Charlotte Eugénie Doche (née de Plunkett, 1821–1900), a Belgian-born actress of Irish descent, was chosen by Dumas for the role of his heroine Marguerite Gautier, after his first choice refused to play a courtesan.
13. Presumably Jane Hedley, who was in Paris at the time the Brownings attended the play.
14. Diane de Lys, a novella published in 1851, concerns the beautiful but heartless Marquise de Lys. Bored in a marriage to an older man, she takes a lover, a young Baron. Their trysts occur at the studio of the Baron’s friend, an as yet unknown painter named Paul Aubry. Without having met, the Marquise falls in love with Aubry through his paintings. When, after various machinations on her part, they do meet, she offers to be his mistress. But he declines. Dumas adapted the story for the stage, and it opened at the Gymnase on 15 November 1853.
15. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Boston, 1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe sold more than 300,000 copies in the first year.
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