3181. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 23–30.
Florence.
April 1 [–2]– [1853] [1]
I dont know, I scarcely know, my ever dearest Arabel, whether you or I must pass for the “naughty boy”, as Penini calls all criminals. Robert says I had a cross-letter from you last—however that may be, let me write, for I do long for some new sign from you. Also I have something to say, which even now it may be somewhat too late to say, inasmuch as if Messrs Chapman & Hall have sent you proofs for your correction, you will be considerably puzzled about the meaning of it. The truth is, when I sent the second volume of my poems to be reprinted for the third edition, I took a great liberty with you, for which, Arabel, I do humbly entreat your forgiveness. I told Chapman (or rather made Robert tell him) that if he were not perfectly sure of a minute attention being paid to the work, punctuation &c, he was to send you the proofs. Oh, I knew you would do it for me—and as you have been lately correcting proofs for your “own work,” [2] you wont be out at sea in the doing. All that is necessary, is the attention to my corrections, punctuation &c. There’s just a knack in it. If you found a difficulty, George would have the great goodness to see to it, I think .. ( Illus. at the side means [‘]‘destroy,” ‘put out.’) After all, Chapman may choose to trust to his own resources, & we left it to him to decide. I sent the second volume to him first, because of there being less to alter in it, and now the first volume is ready to send by the earliest conveyance. Very busy I have been with this correcting, & so has dear Robert, helping me. You will wonder perhaps that there should be anything to do after the previous grand revision,—but indeed there was much to do, & the poems will be considerably the better for the labour spent on them. [3]
And now for our movements. We remain in a state of suspended animation, nothing arranged yet for Rome. Robert says it is out of the question to undertake extra expenses without means—that he would’nt do such a thing for the world as encounter such risks—and I find nothing to answer in spite of my anxiety about going to Rome. Who could calculate on such a thing as the omission of fifty pounds from our half year’s income? [4] I feel convinced that it has been simply forgotten—though Robert still supposes that the time was changed, & that it is intended for us to receive it with our April dividend. But it was always paid on the first of January & again in June—& my opinion is that, if another arrangement had been adopted, it would have been explained at the time to us, to save us from any doubt on the subject– Oh no—dear generous Mr Kenyon has just forgotten it—and if he should forget it again in June!!. What then? Meanwhile, to prove to you, that we have not frittered away our money lately, I will tell you that since we left London six months ago, we have spent exactly one hundred and forty four pounds. That includes the hundred pounds Mr Kenyon gave us for Rome [5] —but though we did not go to Rome we came as far as Florence upon it, & our journey was more expensive than it would otherwise have been through my being ill at Genoa where you know we were kept at an hotel ten days. A fortnight, too, at an hotel in Paris! Mr Kenyon knows perfectly that we have had no more to spend than I have told you, because our dividends pass through his hands: [6] —and certainly it would be difficult for any family to live & travel upon less. Also, out of that hundred & forty four pounds we have prepaid a year’s rent for Casa Guidi. [7] See if we have been extravagant, Arabel! Robert has only just drawn for the book-money (twenty eight pounds). In a day or two there will be another dividend—forty four pounds or about that. But to plunge into travelling expenses on so little .. (should the retarded fifty not come up) would be impossible as you must see. I am sorry– Because you see Mr Kenyon may think it strange that we dont go to Rome if he fancies he has given us the January fifty as usual! Really that is what chiefly vexes me– On the other hand, it is plainly impossible under the circumstances. Dearest, I tell you these things in the profoundest confidence. I never would forgive, understand, your letting out such a thing to Miss Bayley or any human being who might talk to you on the subject. I should not only be pained but disgraced in my soul by it. I tell you, simply that you may not set us down as capricious, unreasonable creatures. As for the hundred a year, we have no claim on Mr Kenyon for a hundred halfpence a year—& perhaps it would have been as well if we had not accepted it in the first place. People do always best, relying on themselves.
<…> [8]
For my part I thank God for a very, very happy winter—so happy! All I wanted was you. Money-affairs never trouble me, be certain,—and, what pleases me is, that Robert is not troubled this time. He is well & not nervous .. in a healthy state of mind & competence to repose—the thing I have desired for him very often when he let himself be lashed by all the winds of the compass. Thank God.
Penini is like the small angel of the house—so radiant, so loving, so good!– Think of his saying to Robert yesterday, “The first sing I sint of in the morning is how mush Papa & Mama love me—den I call to Vincenzio.” Robert said, “You should think besides how good God is to you”. “Oh, les! I sint lat too.” Wilson says he certainly does. When he opens his eyes he thanks God, in Italian, for having made him sleep well. He always did that you know, & he still does it. And then he talks sometimes about “Papa & Mama” & how they love him “too mush, I sint,” and how he loves them, “velly mush.” There is such spontaneous sweetness in the child’s thoughts, that he seems to me as I was telling Robert yesterday, & he agreed, like a child taken out of a poem & incarnated. Wilson declares that he is irresistible & carries everything before him– I found him two days since helping to wash his socks in a basin of water with lather over his wrists– “I really could’nt help letting him,” said Wilson apologetically—“he coaxes so! he said to me .. “Tome, my little darling, you be dood. I [9] velly dood!” So she let him wash. He rules the house I can assure you. But it is’nt only for gaining his ends that he is carressing—oh no. Last week he was shutting his box of letters while I held it .. “Tate tare”! he cried .. “tate tare I dont hurt your little pretty darling fingers!” He said it quite paternally. As to Robert, Robert perfectly adores the child. He always loved him pretty well—but now! No wonder—for Robert is an immense favorite & I have good reason for jealousy—I am as jealous as Othello. Now is the fair at Florence, & he goes every day to buy fairings. One fairing was a tamb[o]urine, for which we had to pay two pence three farthings, (we are not ruined by Penini’s fairings after all) and he dances & plays on the tamb[o]urine in the prettiest way possible, while Robert accompanies it on the piano. This is the Easter fair. On “holy thursday” he went to five churches .. nay, to seven, which is the catholic pilgrimage—for Girolama being “forced to go to seven,” she said, asked Wilson to go twice into two of the five, to keep the letter of the ordinance.!!! (Wilson not liking to take Penini to all the seven on account of the distance). He did’nt understand going twice over into churches, and enquired “Perchè–” “Per visitare Jesu,” [10] answered Girolama. On which he looked up to Wilson quite awestruck .. “Where is gentle Jesus, Lily?” Wilson properly told him Girolama only meant that she wanted to say her prayers to Jesus. I advise Wilson to be simple & direct with him about all these things, so that he may not apprehend any of their superstitions. For the rest, their symbols & decorations, when seen in daylight of heart & simplicity, are just fit for babies like Penini– Oh, he was delighted with the easter lambs, and resurrection gardens, as elaborately and fantastically exhibited in the churches on thursday. What is evil in doctrine, & absurd in medium, he does’nt understand, little darling,—it floats him by!—and I would rather see him in sympathy with Christians, (ever such imperfect Christians) than teach him so soon that there are schisms in Christianity. Mrs Ogilvy’s young children, whom she never would suffer to set foot in the churches, thought naturally that the Italians were going straight to hell, when they thought at all.— She had some difficulty in teaching her little girl [11] charity on the subject. No wonder.— What were children to think?– I must however admit to you that Penini once startled us a good deal by observing to Robert .. “I sint there are a dood many Dods in Flolence.” Robert said directly—“Pictures, you mean.” “Oh les. I tand, Papa” .. (I understand). Indeed it seems to me that he may understand more than some of the learned amongst us– Just now Wilson has brought him in his nightgown to give us the goodnight kiss– “Dood night,” he says, “mine two little darling flends.” (friends) Girolama is Penini’s favorite in Florence. She stands about as high as my shoulder .. or rather below it, to be exact. To the hips downward she is well made .. but the legs withered or contracted in some way in her childhood .. and so with all her glossy black hair & good features, she is just a dwarf. Penini takes her to be a sort of child, & we have no peace unless Girolama comes to dinner some three days a week .. which, as she is very poor, is a most acceptable desire on his part. Also, he carries her about with him very often to the fair & elsewhere—& if it rains & he cant go out, Girolama is sent for to spend the day with him. This is a great help in talking Italian, & I encourage it for various reasons. He never talks Italian to us. He wont. He announced to Wilson one day.– “Now, Lily, I tan peat Inglese– You muss not say si to me no more. I peat Italian to Vincenzio & balia & Girolama, but not to Mama & Papa & Lily.” So it was settled on the spot. He does not mix up the languages. He speaks English with fluency, if not well .. (he is’nt intelligible by any manner of means) and Italian very nicely indeed. As to the poems .. oh Arabel, I am afraid he has forgotten most of them– It is’nt his fancy now to repeat poems, though he quotes them occasionally. He writes them, if you please. That’s a different matter. Oh Arabel! your message about your kind desire of sending him a present on his birthday, threw him straightway into a fit of sentimentality. “Oh dear me!” said he, “I lite to go to Londra to see mine flends–” “Who are your friends in London,” I asked– “Alibel, Lorge .. so many, I tant tell you all leir names. You know, Mama.” He remembers everything I can assure you. One of his most tender recollections, tell George, is being taken into the bazaar & presented with his favorite pump which still is treasured up. I was reading one day to Robert & mentioning the name of a Hebrew professor in America, a George somebody, [12] .. on which Penini interposed with a deep sigh .. “Oh, dear Lorge!– Lorge dave me mine pump.” Mr Tennyson has just sent me Tait with a review of the Rapping spirits .. a review of Mr Spicer’s book on the subject that is– [13] Now, Arabel, I expect you to read that paper in Tait! I wish I had as much facility in getting at Mr Spicer, but everything in good time. The judge Edmonds, mentioned as a medium, is one of the most distinguished judges of the United States. [14] For any rational human being to ignore such a sign of the times is most irrational. It is deepening & deepening. Remember, I am by no means prepared to maintain or to believe that the spirits of Robert Southey, Edgar Poe, & others, produced the writings put forth in their names. [15] The authenticity of the spirits is quite a different question. For my part I believe there is a mixture of good & evil, of the instructed & uninstructed, in them, and that no doctrine (as indeed Mr Spicer says) should be received from them without other evidence. [16] Also, many have been struck into insanity by their means—that is, by the excitement & fanaticism produced through them– [17] Twenty one persons are in one madhouse, I heard the other day, from this very cause. The more reason for investigating the subject. It is one to me of the very deepest interest, & certainly ought to be to every thinker interested in nature of man & eventualities of man. No wonder that Mr Lewes who has done his best to instruct the nascent English public in Comte’s atheism, [18] should deny these things. [19] All the Sadducees of the age, (and there are many) who deny angel & spirit, must of necessity scoff at every manifestation of the kind. Miss Bayley, of course, considers it just as “unworthy of my high intellect,” that I should believe in Jesus Christ, .. or even in my own soul, .. as give ear to “Rappers.” I never mind being laughed at on these occasions. Let them laugh. Frederick Tennyson (Alfred’s elder brother) is an out & out believer– We like him very much. As to Robert he quite loves him—& likes to have him here evening after evening. Did I tell you that he was a reader of Swedenborg. Yes—but not very deeply, nor sympathetically. He has shifted away from that ground. He goes more with Heath [20] & the materialists, is strong upon prophecy .. trusts Faber [21] .. & is full of the Second Coming, as it is expected by a certain class. Even so, or in any other way, come, Lord Jesus!– [22] We should not be too particular about the way, I think. Frederick Tennyson is quite a Christian, & one of the simplest & most truthful of men. Cultivated & refined too, to a fault almost.– Did I tell you that Miss Sandford comes here at least once a week in the evening? sometimes oftener. We like her. Mr Hanna has been at Rome for a fortnight & Robert had a letter from him on ecclesiastical affairs yesterday—& Robert & Mr Stuart are to be at the church today to send away the congregation as they come, the preacher not being come-at-able. Mr Hanna gives tremendous accounts of the weather at Rome—rain, rain, rain! Prices inordinate, he says! By the way, Robin Hedley wrote to Robert much the same history. So we have our consolations upon the necessity of lingering here. Indeed it seems to me that the weather at Florence has been better than anywhere else—& yet even we complain. One must grumble in this world. Here is a fact. A full week ago, the may was in full bloom in our hedges. I am very well, and Peninni like a rose–
Arabel—do write to me about Trippy. I ask & ask, & you never send me news of her or a message. I want to know how she is, & about her house. [23] My true love to her.
So touched I was to see in the papers about Miss Price’s death. [24] Good for her, I do hope, such a dismissal from the body must be. I had no idea she was as old as seventy. What an indelicate unfeeling fashion that is of advertising the age, in the advertisement of the death. People dont always do it happily—& it always jars on me when they do, & my attention is called to it. There’s a want of personal delicacy in it, it seems to me. They might as well say .. “and she had grey hair”.... or “brown” .. of what consequence is it to the world, I wonder? The living person would not have liked to be published so, & that consideration is conclusive, or ought to be.
Wilson has never had a sign from Mr Righi! but she hears that he is in a lucrative situation. She has no regrets, I am happy to perceive. For the rest, we go on very well. The first possibility which admits of our raising her wages, we shall certainly give her the benefit of—but just now, you may judge!– I should like to give her twenty pounds a year directly for my part, & if it were in any way possible. Do write to me, dearest, & tell me of yourself particularly—& then of everybody. God bless you beloved! How I think of you! What of Henry? Nothing of Jamaica I do trust. This is a dull unsatisfactory letter .. & scribbled in a hurry .. Robert spurring me on. Do you mean to say that there’s a chance of Henrietta being shovelled off to Ireland?– That would be lamentable. Tell me of Henrietta & the babies– When have you a chance of seeing them? Dont be a Plymouth sister please. I would rather .. I wont say what I wd rather.
Robert said last night, “I must write to that dear Arabel. Give her my dearest love meantime.” Love him, for he deserves it. God bless you my own. Hold me in prayer & love. Your own Ba always.
What of Mrs Orme? Is Mary Hunter with the Owens. The Lindsays are gone to England. I cant read over– Such haste! Mention Papa[.]
Robert is so vexed with you for paying the postage. Observe—— You pay more than we do. I entreat you not to do it. [25]
Address: Angleterre via France. / Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, I, 548–555.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Year provided by postmark of 2 April 1853. EBB apparently concluded this letter on that date. In letter 3183 she remarks to Arabella: “I wrote to you the day before yesterday.”
2. Presumably, something that had been printed in connection with either the Ragged Schools Union or the Refuge for Destitute Girls, charities to which Arabella volunteered her time.
3. EBB provided the following “Postscript” to the “Advertisement” in Poems (1853): “In the present edition the author has done her best to remedy the oversights and defects of that former revision [Poems (1850)], which her absence from England rendered less complete than it should have been” (p. viii). The new edition featured numerous alterations in punctuation. More substantive changes were made in the longer poems, The Seraphim and Prometheus Bound. The most significant revisions, however, occurred in “A Drama of Exile,” to which EBB added a 28-line speech by Lucifer, and “A Vision of Poets,” from which EBB deleted two stanzas.
4. A reference to the £100 a year Kenyon had been giving the Brownings in semi-annual installments (see letter 2905, note 3).
5. First mentioned in the fifth paragraph of letter 3121.
6. In his capacity as a trustee of the Brownings’ marriage settlement. For the sources of their income, see letter 2526.
7. As of 1 May 1851, the Brownings were leasing Casa Guidi for “twenty pounds a year”; see the second paragraph in letter 2913.
8. EBB crossed out the following passage: “Only, nobody with a family can travel about on two hundred a year, let them live on it ever so contrivedly.”
9. Underscored twice.
10. “Why–” “To visit Jesus.”
11. Louisa Mary Ogilvy (1846–70).
12. George Bush (1796–1859), Presbyterian minister who became an adherent of Swedenborgianism, was Professor of Hebrew language and literature at New York University from 1831 to 1847. He published A Grammar of Hebrew Language in 1831 and later The Soul; or, An Inquiry into Scriptural Psychology (New York, 1845).
13. A review of Henry Spicer’s Sights and Sounds appeared in the March 1853 issue of Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine (pp. 157–164).
14. John Worth Edmonds (1799–1874), New York Supreme Court Justice (1847–1853), who co-authored with physician George T. Dexter Spiritualism (New York, 1853). In this popular work, Edmonds gives the results of his investigation of the subject, during the course of which, he claims, he communicated with the dead. He is mentioned in Tait’s review of Sights and Sounds (p. 159). In that work Spicer refers to Edmonds as a medium “of most wonderful power” (p. 111).
15. The review in Tait’s contains extracts of poems allegedly dictated by Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Southey (pp. 160–161).
16. In introducing a passage from Sights and Sounds, in which Spicer quoted from a lecture by Rev. J.P. Stewart, the Tait’s reviewer felt that it could be “regarded as the exponent also of Mr. Spicer’s own views.” The passage included the following remark: “We may trust the spirit that gives utterance from within the veil, as far as we can see him; as far as we know the truth of what he utters from other sources; as far as we can confirm his testimony from other evidence, but no farther” (p. 161).
17. The reviewer pointed out that while Spicer “admits that the aptitude to degenerate into fanaticism is the most distressing feature in this spiritual manifestation, he looks upon that only as an additional reason why its true character and powers should be ascertained and defined” (p. 158).
18. Auguste Comte (1798–1857), French philosopher and founder of Positivism, a philosophical system that has as one of its aims the application of scientific reasoning for the betterment of society. In his central work, Cours de philosophie positive (1830–42), Comte describes three evolutionary stages of human thought, the theological, the metaphysical, and the positive, the last being superior to the first two because it is based on observation and fact, rather than faith, and therefore dismissive of the unprovable, such as the existence of God. George Henry Lewes presented Comte’s ideas in a series of articles, entitled “Comte’s Positive Philosophy,” that ran in The Leader from April to August 1852. In part one Lewes refers to Comte as “the greatest thinker of modern times” (3 April 1852, p. 327).
19. A few weeks earlier, Lewes had published an article in The Leader on spiritualism, “The Rappites Exposed.” In the opening sentence, he refers to the “wide-spreading delusion of what is called the Spirit Manifestations or Rapping” (12 March 1853, p. 261) and states the need for a thorough investigation of the phenomena. He goes on to relate that during a recent séance he attended, conducted by the American medium Maria Hayden (see letter 3159, note 5), he asked to speak to one of the Furies. The medium obliged, and, after a succession of questions put to the Fury, he learned that “she had died six years ago, aged 25, leaving seven children” and that she was Jewish (p. 262). Towards the end of the article Lewes wrote: “I must plainly say, that a more ignoble imposture than this spirit manifestation never came before me” (p. 263).
20. Dunbar Isidore Heath; see letter 3172, note 4.
21. George Stanley Faber (1773–1854), Anglican minister whose numerous books and articles were often concerned with controversial religious topics. “Throughout his career he strenuously advocated the evangelical doctrines of the necessity of conversion, justification by faith, and the sole authority of scripture as the rule of faith” (DNB).
22. Cf. Revelation 22:20.
23. Mary Trepsack had evidently been contemplating a move from her rooms at 26 Welbeck Street since the previous summer (see the third paragraph in letter 3058). Nevertheless, she remained at her current address until sometime around the beginning of spring 1855, as indicated in a mid-April 1855 letter from EBB to Sarianna Browning (ms at Lilly).
24. Caroline Price (1783–1853), only daughter of Sir Uvedale Price (1747–1829) and Lady Caroline Price (née Carpenter, 1749–1826). She was godmother to EBB’s brother Alfred, and a friend from Hope End days. She died on 10 March 1853. Death notices appeared in The Times of 15 March 1853 and in The Morning Chronicle of the next day.
25. For the current state of postal regulations between England and the continent, see letter 3167, note 3.
___________________
