3248. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 217–221.
[Bagni di Lucca]
[mid-August 1853] [1]
We have begun to breathe again the last two days. The heat has been intense & unusual with these Baths of Lucca .. the thermometer within a touch of eighty in this room with its five gaping doors .. but now the place is returned to its right mind, & Penini has put on his frock which he had doffed during the morning heats. I hear that in Florence, people are gridironed .. at 96 in the shade .. hotter still at night. It is well for us that we are not there. The heat came in like an hyena suddenly loosed. We are enjoying this beautiful place, & our friends the Storys help us in the pleasure. There is a constant going backwards & forwards to tea & talk on the lovely evenings .. they to us, & we to them .. & the children do the same. Penini has receptions in his arbour. He says there’s room for “two & twenty peoples” on his stone bench—perhaps there’s room for six .. but “two & twenty” just now is his “number of perfection.” Oh, dear nonno! He is deeply grateful for your picture & verses, but as to getting a drawing or a letter out of that child at this time of absolute joy & idleness, neither you nor I can. He is quite Bacchic in his mountain & garden raptures, & is continually out of doors, full of play with Carlino, & teazing Ferdinando, our new servant, out of his powers of cooking. Ferdinando wins my heart by his good nature to Penini, & Penini on the other hand, is devoted to him. We overheard the child expounding his name to his new friend the other day– “Wobert .. tetto il nome di mio papa– Wieblan .. tetto mio nome .. tetto bello” .. “Bello, certo,—ma non capisco bene [2] &c &c”. He is looking radiant & is growing fat. Thinner he was before we left Florence & paler. I fancied it was the effect of the heat, but as it has been twice as hot since we came here—& he seemed to bloom like a rose in it, I suppose he only wanted change of air– Nothing quenches his spirits or puts his hair out of curl. A lovely little creature to look at & listen to, he is really– He has been called since he came here by “observant strangers,” “the loveliest child that ever was seen”. People stop Wilson to ask whose child he is.
Dearest Sarianna, I am very well, & you are not to believe any of Robert’s calumnies– I am without cough, I may say .. & there’s no other malady that I have the least inkling of– The heat made me rather languid—which is nothing! As long as the chest goes well, I am well always– I wish it were as well with my poor Arabel from whom I heard yesterday. She is angry with George for letting me hear about her .. for letting out by accident that she was not well– She is afraid I may “exaggerate & be uneasy without cause &c[.]” The truth is she has never got over the prevalence of “bitter east wind in the early spring” .. & though a few days of summer weather might set her right, she thinks, there seems to be no prospect of summer– Such an account of the weather, Sarianna! “Never was there such a summer” she says– When people begin to hope in consequence of a gleam of sunshine, the cold & rain begin again. It is bad enough to reconcile her to our staying in Italy, she admits. I hear much the same from other people. And there was a leading article in the Examiner the other day which observed that the English climate for the last year had exceeded its reputation for badness. [3] I hope there is nothing serious in Arabel’s unwellness—it is not the chest—it seems to be cold in the glands. Nothing would do her so much good as a removal to the south—but there’s no hope of it. They are more than usually uncomfortable at home, I fear.
I shall take the great liberty of correcting you with regard to the price of bread—just before your letter came Robert & I had been pausing with reflection over an article from the Times, stating that while, in consequence of the abnormal state of things in France, wheat & flour were dearer than in London, bread at all the first class bakers in London was dearer than the first class bread in Paris by so much——the difference being considerable!– [4] Now although the Times is mendacious upon principle, I think that an official article of this kind would probably be accurate– Dont you? You ought to take in Galignani. It is really a need in these times. We have it on the second day which answers as well. As to the cruelty question, what you see yourself is indisputable– But that simply proves that there are heartless people employed on the public works & given to take carts your way. It does not touch the wider question mentioned by Mr Corkran about “drivers”– In respect to “drivers,” so called, .. drivers of public vehicles, of cabs[,] fiacres & diligences, we have had a good deal of experience & quite different impressions. Carters employed in buildings & even in farms are apt to be rougher & more brutal than other men, everywhere. I like the Corkrans much .. I love them for their feeling & sympathy towards you .. but I must tell you, Sarianna, that their prepossessions in respect to France appear to me as striking as any almost I have met with among the “English abroad” who are famous for prepossessions. It is the one drawback with me to the Corkrans. They associate very little with the French—they know absolutely nothing of their literature– With all Mrs Corkran’s good & high sympathies, she bends her beautiful brows when you speak of Balzac .. she never read him, she will admit. Mr Corkran has been wrong in all his political previsions with regard to France, simply because he cant be right in the straightest deductions from distorted facts. An honest, excellent man of undeniable intelligence—but prejudiced, not wide. That’s my opinion, at least. The last time we talked together in the Champs Elysées, he maintained to me that upon the Empire being declared, there wd be an anti-English policy immediately, & a suppression of all the French newspapers except one!– Judge–
The only hope for the world is the union of England & France to the ends of liberty & civilization– The change in the tone of the English press is delightful to me on this account simply.
Oh yes—there is imposture sometimes in this spiritual matter as on others. But the imitation proves the truth, does not disprove it. I have been assured that it is not possible, however, to reproduce the real raps, which are rather detonations than raps. We heard a most interesting letter read the other night from Mr Appleton, [5] the brother in law of Longfellow, who is now in Paris. A Miss Goderich [6] there, “a very sweet girl & a powerful medium” is a friend of his, & there was a séànce a few evenings before at Lamartine’s, at which “everybody was convinced & the poet in ecstasies.” Among other spirits the spirit of Henry Clay came, & said “J’aime Lamartine”. [7] They are to have another séance at Madme Hahnemann’s. [8] Louis Napoleon has had some favorable oracles .. though “mon oncle” [9] by no means confirmed them to Mr Appleton. The Czar is familiar with the spirits, and the King of Holland is quite absorbed in them. [10] Yet Mr Appleton doubts still, he says, whether they are spirits external to the mind, or whether it is some new development of clairvoyance by an unconscious projection of the personality. In any case, he concludes, “it is the sublimest conundrum ever offered to the world’s guessing”– So do I.
Did you ever see our friend Mr Greenhough the sculptor? You know he died mad in America. [11] His wife was dreadfully depressed for two months– Then she had a revelation (so called) through a medium, a friend of hers. They placed paper on the table with a pencil, & put out the lamp. The paper was found covered with an autograph .. a facsimile of his writing at any rate .. to the effect that it was well with him .. followed by expressions of love to his wife & his children. [12] The widow was satisfied & consoled. [13] Observe. The writing was not by the medium’s hand—(unless the said medium, a young lady, lied, & blasphemously committed forgery against the dead) but by the invisible hand. Other writings are said to be produced in a like manner. I do not conclude anything—but such things are calmly asserted by intelligent & veracious persons, as facts. Robert & I dined with the Greenhough’s at Mr Kenyon’s the summer before last—with husband & wife.
Think of Penini coming up to us with a proposition the other morning that he would bathe in the river– The river is a rushing stream with a continual murmur of the mountains in it. We said yes!—but that he must go with Wilson. He wanted to go with Ferdinando & Carlo.!– Think of the child!– At last he condescended to go with Wilson & Frederica the signorina of this house, [14] & he plunged in, head foremost, & seemed to enjoy it,—& I fancied it might be good & strengthening for him– But no—nothing can induce him to go again– He says he was “tuite shot” (quite shocked) to see Frederica in her bathing gown—and he told Ferdinando privately that he would go with him .. “O si! ma non mi piace di andar[e] ton telle donne.”! (con queste donne!) [15] As if we could possibly let that baby go without his nurse, to bathe in a river!
He has grown as wild as a bird .. but he remembers & loves you both, & thanks Nonno for the picture most gratefully. We must wait till the estro [16] returns.
Did I tell you that Mr Kenyon sent me a letter from Mrs Gaskill [sic], very kindly relating to me, and that I wrote to her directly? I mean the author of Ruth. God bless you, dearest Sarianna! I am so anxious about you that you should be happy—so anxious! Write to us. No indeed—we shall not “go round” to see Kings, when we are going to you next spring–
Your ever most affectionate Ba.
Thackeray made £3000 in America. [17] He is gone to Paris. Tell Mr Kenyon to write.
Robert is well & much fatter .. yes, & rather industrious for him. He likes Lucca & so do I– It depends on the number of rooms if the apartment you speak of is dear or not. Not dear if many rooms, certainly. The best situation in Paris, remember! A “Belgrave Square” situation!——
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Dating suggested by EBB’s reference to The Times article (see note 4) and by her mention of several topics that she also discusses in letter 3250, such as Pen’s swim in the river and Thomas Gold Appleton’s letter concerning spiritualism.
2. “Wobert .. this the name of my father– Wieblan .. this my name .. this beautiful” .. “Beautiful, indeed,—but I don’t understand well.”
3. We have been unable to trace this article.
4. An article in The Times of 5 August 1853 (p. 6) contained “a comparison of the present prices of wheat, flour, and bread in London and Paris.” Although there were slight differences reported in the comparative prices of wheat and flour, “first quality” bread was found to be “22 per cent. dearer in London than in Paris.”
5. Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–84), the brother of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s second wife Frances, was the author of a volume of poetry, Faded Leaves (Boston, 1872), and a book of essays, A Sheaf of Papers (Boston, 1875). He was probably best known for popularizing spiritualism as a parlour game in Paris.
6. Alice Lee Goodrich (1837–1903), second daughter and fourth child of Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793–1860), originator of the Peter Parley series of children’s books and lately U.S. Consul at Paris (1851–53), and his second wife, Mary (née Boott, 1805–68). There were two other daughters: Emily Louisa (1829–1903) and Mary Wolcott (1846–74), but in a letter to Arabella, dated 20 December [1854], EBB remarks that Miss Goodrich is “scarcely eighteen” (ms with GM-B). Alice turned eighteen in January 1855.
7. “I love Lamartine.”
8. Melanie Hahnemann (née d’Hervilly); see letter 3041, note 13.
9. “My uncle”; that is, Napoleon I.
12. The three Greenough children were Henry (later Horatio) Saltonstall (1845–1916), Mary Louise (1848–54), and Charlotte Gore (1850–ca. 1919).
13. Nathalia Wright in Horatio Greenough: The First American Sculptor (Philadelphia, 1963) records that “throughout 1853 Louisa [Greenough] corresponded with the poet and spiritualist Mrs. Sarah Whitman, attended seances, and read a good deal about spiritualism, in the hope of establishing communication with Horatio, but she never felt that she did” (pp. 298–299).
14. Federica Tolomei (b. 1828), first daughter and second child of Pietro Tolomei’s first marriage.
15. “Oh yes! but I don’t like to go with these women.”
16. “Inspiration.”
17. EBB refers to William Makepeace Thackeray’s first American lecture tour, which began in November 1852 and ended in April 1853. According to the DNB, Thackeray returned from America “with about 2,500l.”
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