3212. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 122–124.
[Florence]
[mid-June 1853] [1]
<***> in abstract existences, clouds, mists, music—we are probably very wrong in these things. There is a humanity beyond the grave—degrees in knowledge, & nobleness—foolish spirits as well as wise ones, probably.
Tell me if Mrs Corkran hears much of the American manifestations, & what is talked of them in Paris as far as you hear. Mrs Carmichael Smith for instance—who believes, I think, in clairvoyance? [2] I had a letter from Athens the other day .. & nothing was talked of there, said my correspondent, [3] except “moving tables & spiritual manifestations”. Tell me anything you may hear, as I am very much interested.
Tell me too about Miss Lynn’s book. [4] Well—if she does’nt find social liberty enough at Paris, she must be hard to please. I suppose “bribing the porter” means paying him; and sublunary porters will require payment however unreasonably, & in particular when kept up late. I suspect the book to be strong. Tell me about it. Miss Mary Hume, who is about to publish poems, [5] is the youngest daughter of the economist, and a Swedenborgian besides a poetess. Her father tolerates, without sympathizing. She is an intimate friend of a friend of mine Countess Cottrell “of this ilk”—… who, by the way, sent the other morning to me for Penini’s two hats, his summer frocks & information respecting the “colours” he was likely to wear this season—!! He was’nt properly impressed with the glory of leading the Florentine fashions, & shed “some natural tears .. but wiped them soon” [6] when his hats & general wardrobe disappeared under the hands of the Cottrells’ servant. Robert will have told you of our excursion to Prato, & how Penini went with us to his intense joy. He had taken it into his head that we were going away for good .. (hearing a hint of railway travelling ..) & dropped his face down into my lap with the most tragical sobs—turned into joy when Robert offered to take him with us– He wants to go to Paris vehemently to see “Nonno and the swans.” London in spite of “Alibel” & “mine dlum” (left in her charge) he does’nt care quite so much for, because of “lose dirty fleets” (those dirty streets) & also because of going across the sea & Lily being sick. Then he has hope of re-visiting that paradise “Passy,” with “Sayanna.”
His passion for flowers develops more & more. He stands before them in a rapture with clasped hands. “Oh, how velly pretty! Lose yellow flowers near lose loses!” Such a smile!–
I heard from Mrs Jameson yesterday, who talks of coming to Italy the next autumn or winter. We saw Miss Cushman only in passing, as she found letters here to constrain her presence in England. She means to play this winter in London, if her health admits of it. Helen Faucit is acting Colombe in the provinces. We had a Manchester paper speaking warmly of the author as a poet. [7] Surely the success of this play must be favorable to the poems generally. Mrs Stowe must be in Paris by this time. [8] Mrs Jameson says that she does not much like her face though it lights up in conversation—there is a satirical expression .. & the voice & enunciation are eminently American. She has had a triumph in England quite contrary to the habits of our people,—exceptional in our social history .. and for the sake of the cause associated with her, & of womanhood generally, I am glad of it. At the same time, as an artist & woman of genius, she is not to be named with Miss Bronté—& scarcely with Mrs Gaskell, the author of ‘Ruth’—& I open my eyes with astonishment at the inequalities of literary justice & retribution in this world.
You may be magnetic,—but if you dont concentrate your will & life, it wont appear. A sceptical mood would probably take away your power– I am inclined to believe in your eyes against your experience hitherto. Take care of yourself, dearest Sarianna, & dont catch cold again. God bless you both. Best of loves to the dear Nonno.
Be happy—& love Ba.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Approximate dating suggested by EBB’s reference to the Brownings’ “excursion to Prato.” In letter 3210 EBB writes of “going to Prato tomorrow.”
2. In a letter dated 25 May 1853, Mrs. Carmichael-Smyth wrote to Mrs. George Baxter, an American friend of her son: “You have such great lights in yr western world that one is almost led to believe in the extinction of our old world luminaries before them, but it wont be so, we shall each trim our lamps & run the race that is set before us, run with patience & love, which is the object of Christian life—Do your ‘spirits’ think this?—if so I will believe in them—or will they show us any beneficial results of their new locomotive power? meanwhile the turning of tables occupies many an evening hour, while young ladies & gentlemen find great virtues in the magnetic chain” (The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, ed. Gordon N. Ray, Cambridge, Mass., 1945–46, 3, 271–272).
3. Caroline Marsh.
4. Presumably Realities (1851); see letter 3205, note 4.
5. The Bridesmaid, Count Stephen, and Other Poems (1853), published in September, was dedicated to her father Joseph Hume.
6. Paradise Lost, XII, 645.
7. In its review of the 31 May performance of Colombe’s Birthday at the Theatre Royal, The Manchester Examiner and Times of the following day considered RB’s poetry to be “inspired by noble thoughts, and possessed of the power to give utterance to them in language abounding in imagination and fancy” but felt that Colombe’s Birthday belonged “in the closet, where every word can be dwelt upon, every fancy cherished,—referred to again and again” (p. 5). For the full text of this review, see pp. 396–397.
8. Harriet Beecher Stowe had arrived in England on 10 April 1853 and, following a tour of England and Scotland, left for the continent on 4 June. “After a stay in Paris with Maria Chapman, Stowe’s party traveled to the Swiss Alps and thence to Germany” (Joan D. Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life, Oxford, 1994, p. 250). She returned to America in September 1853.
___________________
