3230. EBB to Caroline Crane Marsh
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 180–182.
Casa Tolomei, Alla Villa, Bagni di Lucca.
July 19– [1853] [1]
My dear Mrs Marsh
I have delayed replying to your letter, but the gratification it brought quick & at once, has lasted through the long silence. I was very glad to hear from you .. gladder to have such kind things written .. I should be gladdest of all if you had told me that you were stronger in health. Not a word about you! All about Mount Hymettus! Now if ever you are so kind & remembering as to write to me again, will you say something of yourself, & do me the justice to believe that, in exchange for your welcome & most touching sympathy, I shall always feel a tender interest in you & an anxiety for some alleviation of your heavy trial. The power of bearing so serenely, is a great gift in itself of course. Only, your friends .. & is it impertinence in me to press in under such a name? .. would desire for you gifts of another order .. more joyful as to this life, if somewhat less beautiful & rare.
You bid me tell you of our plans—& that was a reason why I did not write before: our plans had a difficulty in developing out of our dreams. We, irresolute birds, sate pluming our wings on the old wall of Casa Guidi, not knowing whether to fly north or south. The doubt ended by an accident,—for, hearing of a pleasant house here, we took flight in a moment, & are delighted, for our child & ourselves, to have exchanged the heat & noise of Florence (where people talk all night through the open windows to make July intolerable) for the cool dewy shadow of these mountains, & the cicale in the planetrees before our door. The worst is .. the watering-place humanities!—but we have decided on being as sulky as possible & on “denying ourselves” [2] in the unchristian sense–. Yet as “to do as one would be done by” [3] at Lucca, means to avoid visiting one’s neighbour .. we shall be, so far, virtuous. We shall stay here three months, & then creep on towards Rome, I suppose. Ah—indeed! often & often have we talked over your too kind suggestion about Constantinople. It does for a dream—we have eaten much opium upon it, & the clouds are not yet out of our heads. Even the pointing of the cannons just now does’nt lessen the attraction that way!–
Talking of the “humanities” of Lucca, I was talking very general philosophy, .. &, in spite of it, we were delighted the other day to have a visit from some unexpected American friends, Mr & Mrs Storey [sic]. We fancied they were at Rome, & lo, they were at the Bagni Caldi, [4] & ran down the mountain to take us by surprise.
In Florence, since you went away, we have had various visitors from your country .. & the last were Mr & Mrs Kinney—you recognize the name of the American minister at the court of Turin. I like him much—we both do—& it was delightful to hear a word of hope for our poor Italy from the lips of a man of experience & intellect. His account of Piedmont .. of the progress of the people & the honesty of the King .. sounded like water in one of your Eastern deserts .. & we listened eagerly like thirsty men. Mr Kinney has come south on account of his health, and he seems to be rallying already, I am glad to say.
You were good enough to be scrupulous about tiring me on the subject of the “turning tables,” “spirits,” &c—but nobody could tire me on that subject, I beg to say, .. much less you. I am deeply interested in it, and have come to very different conclusions from yours, it is candid to tell you. Yes, I read Humboldt’s letter [5] —yes, I read Faraday’s! & I consider facts to be too strong for either of them. I believe that both philosophers, if they live long enough, will have to un-write those letters. As to Faraday his observations seem to me to apply to certain exhibitions (of which there have been many) imitative of the actual phenomena, but not to touch the phenomena themselves. His letter perhaps proves two things .. first, that even the simpler order of these phenomena cannot be accounted for by the known laws of nature—and secondly that the divine humility of the Bacons & Newtons has ceased to distinguish our men of science. Indeed I think it a very arrogant letter—now, don’t you?
We know so little in this world! For my part, nothing overwhelms me with the sense of our absolute ignorance, as when the wise and learned among us say arrogantly, “This is not” .. “this cannot be”.
The evening before our last at Florence, we had tea & strawberries on the terrace of Mr Lytton’s villa .. on the heights of Bellosguardo .. meeting there our friends, Mr Powers, & Mr Tennyson. It was a bachelor’s party & I made tea like a bachelor .. in an awkward way I believe .. but nobody minded it between the fireflies & the stars, & Florence dissolving in the valley beneath us in that seething purple light which had run down from the hills. Seldom have I enjoyed anything so much.
The country here, too, is beautiful,—& our child is charmed with the new free mountain-life. For ourselves we mean to work hard so as to deserve our holiday. Thank you for all your kind words & thoughts. Am I not to thank Mr Marsh for personal benefits (since he wrote your letter to me & will have the labour of reading this) as well as for pleasant recollections?
With our united regards to you both, I remain for myself, dear Mrs Marsh,
Most faithfully yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Publication: Caroline Crane Marsh: A Life Sketch (n.p., [ca. 1910]), pp. 39–42.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; 1853 was the only year the Brownings stayed at Casa Tolomei.
2. Cf. Mark 8:34.
3. Cf. Matthew 7:12.
4. In Casa Lena; see SD1675.
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