3225. EBB to Elizabeth Clementine Kinney
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 161.
Casa Guidi
[?14 July 1853] [1]
Offered for sale by Thomas F. Madigan (New York), Catalogue, 1931, item 17. 2 pp., 12mo. EBB writes: “Mrs. Tennyson has been with us and expressing a desire to let her house to yourself [2] directly without the mediumship of any other person, I agreed to give her this note as an introduction to you so that you may consider the subject in a face to face talk.
Dear Mrs. Kinney, if I had wings like a dove, [3] I would fly over to you, but having only feet like a weary woman, I can only lay them up on a sofa. So disappointed we were not to see you last night! I hope this morning that you are much better & that you & Mr. Kinney are turning over in your minds the necessity of going to Rome directly. Au revoir then, or rather a riverderci in Rome. Continue us, both of you, in your kind thoughts.”
1. Dating suggested by EBB’s reference to the Kinneys in letter 3227, where she writes that she had seen them twice prior to leaving for Bagni di Lucca. Presumably, the Kinneys first called at Casa Guidi on 10 or 11 July 1853 (see the third paragraph of letter 3224). They may have planned to attend Robert Lytton’s gathering at Bellosguardo on the 13th, but Mrs. Kinney was unwell; thus EBB’s disappointment about “last night.”
2. The Kinneys were currently staying in the Hôtel de New York.
3. Psalm 55:6.
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