3217. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 134–139.
Casa Guidi. Florence.
[ca. 22] June– [1853] [1]
Shall I tell you why I did not write sooner, my dearest always Mona Nina? Simply because, being an unreasonable woman, I expected you to write, as indeed you said you would, about Colombe’s Birthday. You said you would write—and I said to myself .. I wont cross a letter .. which is so vexatious in a correspondent—I will wait and “set all things in order”. [2] Oh—I suppose you forgot all about it– I know how it is in London where you are whipped round & round like a top, .. thrown from your intentions by your activities. But here, we have nothing to do but think .. on the shortcomings of others & our own. So I have been thinking, marking you, inwardly digesting you, & expecting you to keep your promise.
Certainly in the meantime I owed you a letter. That I humbly confess & beg your pardon for. I will try to behave better in future, my dear friend. Certainly I have never forgotten you or thought of you with less love—and it has grieved me that you should be in sadness & anxiety from any cause especially from one that touches closely as the failing health of your mother. [3] May you have comfort. That she looks & has always looked for comfort to you, must bring consolation to your own thoughts under these circumstances–
Your book [4] gave us the greatest pleasure,—and I feel as if I should thank you again as the opportunity opens. The introduction is beautiful & eloquent—and I see little to wish away on controversial grounds,—unless it be such an expression as “worship of the virgin” [5] which you use repeatedly & which I should be inclined (I !) to change for ‘veneration of the virgin’ or something tantamount. Because the most enlightened R. Catholics would not admit probably that they do “worship” the virgin,—while the most tolerant protestants cannot be expected to be lenient to absolute ‘worship’ of the virgin– I know that ‘worship’ in old English means reverence .. as in the marriage service [6] —but what is understood by the word actually & popularly is another thing. So I make my criticism– Take it at the worth, or trample it at the worthlessness–
I am sorry that Mrs Kemble did not pass through Florence, but we shall see her in Rome next winter—and you .. shall we really see you? Hold to your intentions! dont betray them & us, as our friends do generally. Such a race of perjurers as you are when you begin to talk of Italy! You promise & vow like godfathers & godmothers, & then behave naughtily like the baby. By the way, how glad I am that dear Gerardine should have another boy. [7] God keep it safe in her clasping arms. I am very glad.
We shall go to Rome next winter, unless there’s a fatality against Rome which I begin half to believe– Meantime if the hot weather should ever fairly set in, which is less a credible thing, we must find our way wherever we can find the shadow on the cheapest terms—somewhere up in the mountains perhaps. Italy has done me great good– I am well, & without cough to signify—there’s always a sort of potential cough with me .. a sense of the sleeping lion .. but I dont cough .. above once or twice in four & twenty hours, .. & am well. In spite of which advantage, being ungrateful & unreasonable, I am vexed at not being able to catch sight of my poor darling Arabel who needs me, I fear. Well—next summer we shall certainly pay our usual flying visit to London “at the risk of one’s life.” Also we shall have books to see through the press. [8] There will be a necessity on us .. which is pleasant sometimes. Ah—your book! That will bring many good things to us surely! pleasure, as only the beginning.
I have read ‘Ruth.’ I agree with you absolutely on the word you say of Mrs Stowe. She has done good work in a great cause, & I rejoice in her triumph for that cause’s sake & because she is a woman. As an artist, as the possessor of a faculty, she is not in my mind to be named with the author of Villette——nor does she equal the author of Ruth; & I open my eyes with astonishment over this unjust retribution of the world. There has been an equal enthusiasm in Paris, observe,—& if it had’nt been for the lately absorbing interest of the turning tables & the overturning of Turkey by the Czar, [9] (says the Charivari) the applauding Parisians would have scarcely let her walk along the boulevards for the crowd of them. [10] Now, she will have a quieter reception, it is said. I much admire ‘Ruth’—it is powerful in parts, & penetrating everywhere. The world wanted such a book. For my own particular taste however, I should rather have had Ruth not die. If she had’nt, the English public might not have borne it—what do you say? [11]
I had a letter from Athens the other day [12] .. full of blue mountains & skies .. “opposite stands mount Hymettus.” Then the news—“nothing is talked of in Greece but turning tables & spiritual manifestations, and I could tell you some curious things but am afraid of tiring you”– Fancy how vexed I was! how I recoiled from Mount Hymettus & descriptive composition. I am more interested than ever in the new phenomena, & have heard the most wonderful facts on many sides .. & nothing tires me I beg my friends to remember. That “nonsense should be talked on these subjects” would not discourage me I do assure you, though you say it would. The most nonsense is always talked on the most important subjects, such as religion & politics—none at all on knitting stockings & playing whist. What I want is ‘facts,’ .. not Mr Lewes’s facts (of the Leader) [13] but the facts testified to by reverent & intelligent minds. The movements of the table under the hand, appear to be purely mesmerical effects. There was the sister [14] of a ‘medium’ here the other day—not a paid medium, understand .. and she held me suspended by the relations she made. A cultivated woman too, with truthful eyes full of tears– Is it true that Faraday has taken up the subject of the tables? [15] I should like to be in Paris just now with my susceptible ears & eyes. I should hear, I should see, in that case.
We have been reading Newman & Froude [16] .. by way of antidote, says Robert, to an excess of supernaturalism. Froude is on the whole weak, I think—& Newman unequally strong—that is, weak at intervals. His logic leaps prodigiously– He denies the foundation & accepts the results of Christianity. He forgets & denies the existence of the water-courses, while the water-lilies are wet in his grasp. He will not allow of insight .. in the case of such a doctrine as the immortality of the soul for instance—but he trusts entirely to insight for the doctrine of the Being & Moral Nature of God. He wont stay where he is—indeed he cant. He is nothing, if not a sceptic. He holds a thing in his hand, & pulls it to pieces—that’s all his occupation. It’s the dying man clutching at the bedclothes .. he pulls at the wool– He’s very ill, if not dying—he has made himself giddy with turning round & round theological propositions, .. & down he falls presently in a fit. Beautiful things there are in that book on the ‘Soul’ [17] —only not in place .. not belonging to him. He worked them out from Christianity, & to use them against Christianity is an absurdity even more than it is an ingratitude.
Robert could’nt get through Froude, but I did, in spite of all. I hear that George Sand is writing beautifully two or three romances at once, carried on in different newspapers—but they dont reach us yet. [18]
Penini is a darling—& so much admired that I am vainer than ever. Think of women stopping their carriages to look at him!–
God bless you, dearest Mona Nina! Take care of yourself! Remember us to our friends—especially to the Procters– Mrs Procter must miss Adelaide to the point of sadness, I should think. [19] How is Lady Byron? We are interested in all you tell us. We have not attained to Moore’s Life yet, but judging by the extracts he must sink as a man, by the whole relation. [20] God bless you. Dont overwork yourself, nor overvex yourself, nor do yourself harm any way. Our twofold love—& Penini’s makes it threefold. I have a right in his kisses, & send one to you—a large one– Do write.
Your ever & truly affectionate Ba.
If you see Miss Mackenzie, [21] my best love—remember. Colombe seems to have answered better than I had hoped, & is now being played in the provinces.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Year and approximate day provided by EBB’s reference to Le Charivari (see note 10).
2. Cf. I Corinthians 14:40.
3. Johanna Murphy (née Bird, 1775–1854) died in London on 26 March of the following year.
4. Legends of the Madonna (1852).
5. In her Introduction to Legends of the Madonna, Mrs. Jameson notes that “the worship of the Madonna did prevail through all the Christian and civilised world for nearly a thousand years” (p. xviii). Further references to the worship of the Madonna or Virgin occur throughout the Introduction; see, for example, pp. xx, xxi, xxiii, and xxvi.
6. The concluding words of the bridegroom in the “Solemnization of Matrimony,” as given in The Book of Common Prayer, contain the following: “With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow.” In The Annotated Book of Common Prayer (2nd. ed., 1867), the editor, Rev. John Henry Blunt, writes of this passage: “The meaning of the word ‘worship’ in this place is defined by the word used in its place in some of the ancient Manuals, which … was ‘honour.’ … The more exclusive use of this word [i.e., ‘worship’] in connexion with Divine Service is of comparatively modern date” (p. 269).
7. William Hamilton Macpherson was born on 6 May 1853 at Rome.
9. Relations between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire had rapidly deteriorated since Turkey had refused to comply with Russian demands (see letter 3193, note 5). Consequently, the Russian ambassador, Prince Menschikoff, was withdrawn on 21 May. According to The Times correspondent in Constantinople, the Prince, before his departure, sent a note to the Turkish foreign minister, implying that recent actions taken by the minister’s government were “considered by the Imperial Cabinet as an act of hostility to Russia and to her religion” (10 June 1853, p. 6). There were also continued rumours of an increase of Russian armaments in the Black Sea and Bessarabia, as well as the massing of transportation equipment on the Pruth river, the boundary separating Russian controlled Bessarabia from Ottoman controlled Moldavia. In the same issue, the Paris correspondent for The Times reported that the Turks were prepared to send 40,000 troops to the frontier “the moment the first Russian is known to have crossed the Pruth” (p. 6).
10. An item in Le Charivari for 14 June 1853, entitled “Le Portrait de Mistress Beecher Stowe,” included these comments: “We all thought, a few months ago, that if Mistress Beecher took a fancy to make a trip to Paris, she wouldn’t be able to make her way through the boulevards except with the help of eight or ten city sergeants … . Well, Mistress Beecher Stowe is in Paris, and except for the chief of police … no one knows in which hotel Mistress Beecher Stowe has taken up residence. … Not arriving in time, that’s the whole problem. Six months ago, people spoke of nothing but the American slave, then the good Negro was dropped a little by the turning tables, and now today Prince Menchikoff has become a Russian Uncle Tom on whose head the interest of all Europe is focused” ([p. 2]).
11. The title character, after being seduced by a man who afterwards deserts her, bears an illegitimate son. At the end of the novel she nurses her former lover through typhus but contracts the disease herself and dies not knowing her own name.
12. From Caroline Marsh.
14. Sara Jane Clarke. The medium was Lucy Caroline Clarke.
15. Michael Faraday would publish a letter in The Times of 30 June 1853 on “Table-Turning”; see letter 3224, note 5. Perhaps EBB had seen or heard of a letter to the editor of The Morning Post, 13 June 1853, from an “R.W.,” that concluded: “I understand that Professor Faraday, the greatest living authority on electrical agency, has received several letters on the subject of table turning, and has replied that people deceive themselves” (p. 6).
16. Perhaps The Nemesis of Faith (1849) by James Anthony Froude (1818–94) and Phases of Faith (1850) by Francis William Newman (1805–97).
17. The Soul, Her Sorrows and Her Aspirations: An Essay Towards the Natural History of the Soul, As the True Basis of Theology (1849), by Francis William Newman.
18. La Filleuele was serialized in Le Siècle from April to June 1853. Les Maîtres sonneurs ran as a serial from June to July 1853 in Le Constitutionnel. Sand published both novels in book form that same year.
19. A letter to EBB from Anne Benson Procter (15 April 1854, ms at Chicago) indicates that the latter’s daughter Adelaide had been staying in Turin since April 1853 at the residence of her maternal aunt, Emily de Viry (née Montagu).
20. Volumes 3 and 4 of Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, ed. Lord John Russell (8 vols., 1853–56), published in early April 1853, were reviewed in The Athenæum on the 16th and 23rd that same month. The extracts given in the first notice are primarily concerned with the manuscript memoirs of Lord Byron that he had given to Thomas Moore in Vienna on 19 October 1819. The gift came with the understanding that Moore would publish the manuscript after Byron’s death. At the end of the following year, Byron, knowing that Moore was in debt, suggested that his friend offer the memoirs to a publisher. Moore sold the manuscript to John Murray for 2,000 guineas in the summer of 1821. Soon afterwards, however, Moore’s aristocratic friends, worried that there could be revelations about them in the memoirs, indicated their disapproval of the sale and encouraged him to get the manuscript back from Murray, for which they were prepared to contribute financially. Murray agreed to return the manuscript but kept it as security until Moore could raise the full sum, something he had not accomplished by the time of Byron’s death on 19 April 1824. The subsequent negotiations regarding control of the memoirs and their future disposition culminated some five weeks after the poet’s death with their incineration in the fireplace in John Murray’s office. Present were the publisher, representatives of Byron’s family, and Thomas Moore (see The Athenæum, 16 April 1853, no. 1329, pp. 471–473). In the second notice, the reviewer Peter Cunningham (as identified in the marked file copy of The Athenæum at City University, London) blamed the manuscript’s destruction on the person to whom it had first been entrusted: “Mr. Moore’s personality in the matter went no degree beyond the 2,000l. which was its incident, liberally assigned to him. The manuscript which was for this purpose the autobiographer’s kind gift, was for other purposes a sacred trust. … Would Byron have put this appeal to posterity (supposing it to have been one) into the hands of Moore, if he could have foreseen that he was thereby providing for its interception on the way to that posterity which it was never to reach? … We do not think the public will ever be satisfied in the matter. To burn the manuscript was the last thing, it will be felt, that should have been done with it” (The Athenæum, 23 April 1853, no. 1330, pp. 497–498).
Lady Byron had evidently discussed “Moore’s Life” with her friend Anna Jameson. The latter had written Ottilie von Goethe on 26 April 1853 and remarked that the “publication of Moore’s Memoirs and Journals has caused a revival of all the old Byron scandal, particularly as to the burning of Lord Byron’s memoirs” and that Lady Byron “is ill from the agitation caused by all this” (Letters of Anna Jameson to Ottilie von Goethe, ed. G.H. Needler, 1939, p. 191). The Athenæum notice of 16 April published a letter from Lady Byron, dated 10 March 1820, to her estranged husband in response to his proposal that she read the manuscript “in case she might wish to confute any of his statements.” She wrote: “I decline to inspect it. I consider the publication or circulation of such a composition at any time as prejudicial to Ada’s future happiness” (p. 471). Ada was their only child.
21. Louisa Caroline Stewart-Mackenzie (see letter 2982, note 12). The previous month, Mrs. Jameson had taken “Louisa … to see the pictures and sculpture at Bath House belonging to the second Lord Ashburton” (Virginia Surtees, The Ludovisi Goddess: The Life of Louisa Lady Ashburton, Wilton, Wiltshire, 1984, p. 46).
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