3299. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 18–28.
43– Via Bocca di Leone. Rome. 3o piano
Friday–Monday. Decr [16–] 19. [1853] [1]
I had been thinking, my beloved Arabel, that I would write to you before your dear letter came to bid me. You are not to be uneasy about us—we are all well, thank God. Also the invalids .. (did I tell you that the youngest Miss Page [2] had been siezed with fever, much to my horror—?) are both able to sit up, .. the invalids in this house,—and Jane [3] too the English nurse at the Storys’, is convalescent. Little Edith has not yet been able to be moved from Mr Page’s apartment—for above three weeks she has been confined to her bed, in considerable danger oftener than once. At last the gastric fever passed into Roman fever [4] .. a common transition—and Emma Page’s did precisely the same. When Emma was taken ill I began to “lose my head” as Robert calls it—that is, I insisted on sending Penini away to Miss Blagden’s—. Said Robert .. “Well, you shall do as you like—but speak first to the physicians, because they have no kind of interest in killing Penini .. let us hear.” And the physicians assured us over & over that infection was out of the question .. that we might even sleep with impunity in the patients’ room. ‘Roman fever’ is simply ague .. like a fen fever—not dangerous, except in its exhausting affects on the constitution .. and to be cut down, says Pantaleone, to the roots, by the free use of quinine. Pantaleone is the Italian physician set upon a pedestal very deservedly by all the English here, as nothing can exceed, (according to my own impression, & Robert’s) his ability & straightforwardness– If he had been called in earlier to poor Joe … but I cant bear to write or think of it– Mr Story believed in homœopathy & employed a clever homœopathic physician, [5] till Robert insisted, when they were all powerless with despair, on calling in Pantaleone & doing something. Oh. Arabel, I have seen much of homœopathy & its workings! It has no cathartic medecine .. and in active cases there is no help in it whatever. When Pantaleone was called in the child had been unconscious for hours– He said, “I will do what I can, but it is late.” A simple dose of castor oil the day before might have saved that child .. only, God’s providence arranges these things, & it is vain to say “if this had been,” when all is after His will.
Emelyn Story is wonderfully well, I think, just as I expected she would be, although the truth is that she lost the light of her eyes [6] & her soul in that boy & that she cares little comparatively for the remaining child. But that very expansive & demonstrative kind of grief goes out in the explosion—she is not only composed but quite cheerful almost always when I see her now .. chiefly distressed (oh, no wonder!) by Edith’s talk about Joe .. her little poor plans to spend her half pauls on a christmas present for Joe .. “What shall she buy for Joe, this year?” You see they have not dared to tell Edith of his death. She has been told, “he is better” .. which is true, as God knows. And when she says such things, the mother’s & father’s hearts faint within them—we found them both quite overcome two nights ago, crying bitterly.
Yes, Rome has been unusually unhealthy this year, & at this time even it is unhealthy– Still, every day that passes carries us into a better air, and we shall be very mindful of ourselves & Penini in the meanwhile– As for me, I am particularly well .. able to go out almost daily .. forgetting almost that I have a chest– But I keep anxious about Robert & Penini– We who lived at Florence without the least care or precaution, have to consider now the sun, now the damp, now the wind– Penini is’nt to run for fear of heating himself, for instance, & if he is out after four, I am beating myself against all sorts of fears– Now that is’nt pleasant—is it? I would rather be shut up in dear Florence for my usual two months, & be undisturbed about my child– Oh—I dare say I am far more anxious than is necessary—but how natural under these circumstances, to be unnecessarily anxious! People say “There’s not the least danger if you take common care”!– But what’s the meaning of “common care”? It seems to me an uncommonly difficult thing to take this common care, .. for us who are not used to it.
I have seen very little in Rome yet, having still less inclination to go anywhere– I forget whether I told you that my first drive was with poor Emelyn—“There’s the colisseum [sic]—there’s the temple of Vesta—there’s Joe’s grave!” for she would insist on driving to the English cemetery [7] & stopping the carriage at the gate. I felt so sick I had to struggle with myself not to faint, which would have been not only very wrong of me but very ridiculous under the circumstances– You know my old natural horror of grave-yards .. the earth-side of death. [8] I cant bear to look at all if I dont look over & up. And the situation I was placed in seemed to me scarcely bearable, indeed.
We have been besides to St Peters, which moved me less than I had expected. I have been more impressed by other churches—by the Milan cathedral for instance, .. or even by the gorgeous mystery of St Mark’s at Venice– Still, it was grand. Penini, I must tell you, has made various sketches of St Peters, & of the Vatican, “wis two Popes looting out of y window.” As to the Vatican I have not set foot in it .. to my eternal disgrace, you may say– The weather has been rather wet, but mild, & interspersed with glorious floods of sunshine—just weather to suit me– The damp is not heavy—the air is light & soft. The city generally is much more brilliant & alive than I had thought to find it, .. green eminences covered with gardens standing up from the heart of it, and a hundred silver fountains leaping to reach them– We have a most comfortable apartment, and we are feeling by degrees better inclined to be happy in it–
By the way, quantities of people have called—Mr & Mrs Brotherton .. she was a Miss Reece [9] whom you may remember at Sidmouth, though Henrietta knew more of her than you & I did– Annie Hayes, I think, knew her. Since then she has turned to a literary woman .. has contributed to the Athenæum & printed apart some very poetical sonnets .. is a friend of Frederick Tennyson’s .. a friend too of Mr Westwood’s—& married two or three years ago. I rather like her, without being in any way innamorata, understand.– Gerardine Macpherson I scarcely recognized! “Am I not a woman & a mother?” [10] she seems to say. Not a sign of girlishness left—but as affectionate as ever. I feel glad to have seen her.– Mr Hemans [11] .. a convert to Romanism too .. is very liberal notwithstanding, besides being cultivated & refined. He rather won over me by enquiring after Penini who was out, & observing that he had “heard much” of the child’s “attractions & accomplishments”—(of course he had.) I was glad to see him for his mother’s sake, of course too. Mr Thackeray & his daughters .. who spent an evening with us some days ago– Mr & Mrs Archer Clive .. You have heard of her as V. A most peculiar woman as to appearance– Voice, articulation, movement, expression, everything against her– It must be hard work to make a soul penetrate & influence through such a body. People say she has a third iron leg (wound up at intervals) to assist two over-soft ones—and she speaks through tusks rather than teeth when she has wriggled her way to you with a stick. The ugliest woman I ever saw in my life, yet it is said that her husband loves her (which is to the honor of both of them) and she has two nice looking children twelve & ten years old. [12] A very different person, too, has called on me .. Fanny Kemble .. with such eyes, such a voice!– She has enchanted me—and I fancy almost she meant to enchant me, for she has called repeatedly & been very gracious .. which, it is said, she is not always. Robert calls her theatrical .. but she does not strike me as being more than effective—not affected by any means. She has selfpossession & grace, and speaks beautifully & nobly both as to thought & language. Her manner of life here is the most retired possible, though her sister Adelaide (Mrs Sartoris) is much in society. Then we have had Miss Watkins Wynn & her sister Mrs Lindesay [13] —we knew Miss Wynn in Paris, & she offered to come & spend an evening with us & came a few days since .. the same evening we had the Thackerays– Also, General Lodwick & his family [14] have called. Also Mr Cass, [15] the American chargè d’affaires. I hope there wont be too much of this visiting, but there seems a prospect of excess really. The English church here is intensely puseyite, I understand—the clergyman [16] is said to consider himself in the diocese of the “bishop of Rome,” meaning Pio nono—& his own ecclesiastical surveillance of his flock is after the straightest sect of ecclesiastical shepherds. He calls on everybody if they dont go to church & remonstrates with them for schism .. (yet he has not found us out yet, I must tell you)—and if they go to church only on sundays, neglecting the saints’ days, he remonstrates with them for heresy. For our part, we attend the presbyterian worship in a private room of the American embassy, where Mr Baird officiates– He is a young preacher of no great ability, but simple & fervid—he has learnt much through suffering, [17] I understand– Robert & I received the Lord’s supper from his hands the sunday before last, & though a portion of the service was read we both of us enjoyed it much—indeed those were the happiest moments I have had in Rome. I never saw the sacrament so administered, Arabel—there were great pieces of bread as large as two of my fingers. For the rest, not more than five or six communicants besides ourselves, & those, women. We stayed without any permission, beyond the general invitation to christians of all denominations given in the sermon—we saw at once that we were free to stay. Mr Baird is of the church of Scotland & is said to be a liberal man– He came to see the Pages, who are Swedenborgian, & gave them leave to sing their own hymns, music, words, & all, which they were accustomed to use in their places of worship in America .. which he might well have done seeing that they consist of extracts from the old & new Scriptures adapted literally, .. only men in general are so narrow that you come to praise individuals for being simply reasonable. Mr Page is a great favorite of ours. He is called the American Titian, & I have heard some Americans contend that as a portrait-painter he surpasses Titian– Certainly nothing can go beyond two portraits we have seen .. especially one of Miss Cushman. [18] You see soul & body together. The colour throbs with life. Then the man himself is interesting—full of quiet & power—as gentle as the holder of a great faculty ought to be– I expect to sympathize with him on many subjects—he is a believer in the manifestations .. but we have not spoken on them except by a few passing words, though we are to have mutual confidences one of these days as is already agreed– I am rather more shy than I used to be of talking on the subject before people who dont sympathize—there comes very little good out of it, I think. Then, one does not care for discussion when one has strong convictions– It is curious that you should quote Mr Bunn just in this letter, when I had just thrown down the english journal called the “critic” & a review of his book– The unbelieving ‘critic’ reproaches Mr Bunn for having published his “experience” of the rapping spirits, without any explanation of how his friends must have cheated him in the course of it because, you see, this said experience which is given in full, is calculated to counteract all the excellent effect of that marvellous discovery about the table with the drawer & internal machinery– Even the ‘Critic’ could observe that!! [19]
—As to the discovery .. you are to consider that two hundred pounds have been offered this long while by public advertisement in America for any physical solution of the facts– [20] Therefore nothing can be more natural (or more stupid) than the suggestion by a working carpenter, of this splendid idea of tables with machinery inside—why here’s Robert himself who cries out “That’s perfect humbug, of course”– Why, even your professional, paid mediums, who use their own tables in their own houses, when they come to yours, use the first table you bring them, producing the same effects. Why, if the phenomena occurred only in prepared places, or in places where preparation is possible, I should have believed, like the greatest sceptic of you all, that there was trickery somehow– But the manifestations exclude the idea of the possibility of machinery .. you must begin by seeing that clearly– No indeed– Mrs Shaw brought no table– [21] She said, “any table, if it is not too heavy”—and we gave her an old little table, about twice as large as the one you painted for me, [22] & of the usual height– That table span round till we were all breathless– Somebody cried while it was spinning round & round, [‘]‘If spirits are present let the table stop.” It stopped so suddenly that we were quite jerked forward– Yes, Arabel—I was certainly convinced by testimony before I was confirmed by experience. But if the experience had failed it would have been only the failure of an experience– I should have lost nothing in losing it except just an experience—just as I have lost others—(for I have seen failures, admitting them to be failures, in the attempt to move both tables & hats, & certainly I never tried to unsee them) therefore my interests as a theorist were not so passionately involved as you appear to think, in the verity of those particular phenomena. Also I do not think, myself, that I am peculiarly facile in receiving evidence of the kind– It is quite one thing to have a theory, & another to see. I never in my life fancied that I saw what is called “a ghost,”—I never in my life had a presentiment to which I could attach much importance—& with regard to these manifestations I have tried over & over to be instrumental in the mystical writing, holding a pencil for half an hour at a time yet never fancied a success–! Now, for what I saw in Casa Guidi .. I was convinced at the time & I hold to my conviction, that those manifestations were veritable– Observe,—Robert is as persuaded as I am that every one was in good faith .. & that no trick was used or attempted. As to Mrs Shaw, she & the assistant medium [23] had left the house, when we .. (Mr & Mrs Story, Robert & I) had the final experience; when the table rocked violently, & spelled out the phrase “Be earn”——. By the way, I cannot be sure of having told you, that previously, under her mediumship, on the first announcement of E Flower, the name was spelled Floyer .. with a y instead of a w– We saw at once what the name was .. that is, I and Robert did .. & then Mrs Shaw observed that she had doubted at the moment whether the movement indicated w or y. Nobody at the table knew of Eliza Flower—nearly all were Americans. In the same way, when Lytton’s sister was announced, nobody at the table knew her name except himself. Of course I do not feel certain of the identity of these spirits—the spirits in question may or not have been present—but that spirits were present I have an unwavering conviction. That I have not persuaded you does not surprise me .. I did not think you would believe from what I said; but I think you will believe one day, let it come soon, let it come late– In reply to what you say—of course nothing happens except by God’s permission whether it is exceptional or general– If intercourse with the spiritual world is permitted to be general instead of exceptional as it used to be, we must imply I think that God sees a utility in it, instead of denying the facts because we see no utility in it– As to Dives, [24] I dont understand how he can be quoted against such an intercourse– The general access was not permitted in his days, though in the early days of the church (I dont speak of the new Testament church) it probably was. At present .. supposing there is access .. we are not to look for apocalyptic teachings, it seems to me .. if we do, we shall fall into grievous errors .. as the Newman street churches partially & many others in a worse degree have done before us– These spirits are as fallible as embodied men are .. some are ignorant & evil—some are weak & only learning—some are of a higher order, but I think that few have come yet from the interior Heavens– We must wait. In the meantime it seems to be a great work, abolishing to the mortal flesh of us the terrors of death & the separation of death—making all clear & familiar—a development of Christ’s work on the earth—developped through the humanity of us .. not through any special faculty or gift .. but through the mere, bare putting together of soul & body– For the mediumship does not belong to men of genius or women of genius, or even exclusively to religious men & women, but it seems to be exercised simply in virtue of some sort of bodily constitution .. through some electrical or Odylic redundancy .. which is used by the spirits .. & which is so common in men than [sic, for that] one person of every five or six is said to be more or less fitted for this use– As to the ignobility of the mode of expression .. often have I heard it asserted & objected to. To me the mode is most impressive— I was more moved that night than when I stood in St Peter’s near the high altar– We were all awed before the phenomena grew familiar. The mystery of that palpitating wood thrilled me through & through—I felt lifted up face to face with the unseen to a height above tears—and names overwhelming to me at other moments might have been spoken then & found me quite calm. It was the spiritual against the mortal, & the spiritual prevailed.
Robert says in one of his poems that “with Him there is no great nor small”. [25] I dont consider Mrs Jameson’s comparison “irreverent”, .. though what she added about the connection between tables & carpentry was un peu fort [26] & made me laugh out. She has a very open mind & has heard, I dare say, much more than you read to her from my letter– In Paris a year ago she used to laugh to scorn the whole subject, but nobody now can dispose of this question with a laugh– Nor with a sermon, Arabel! Mr Stratten has no right or reason to conclude that spiritual communications mean perforce Satanic communications—it is very irrational. All the churches are wrong, one as much as another, I do believe, with regard to the spiritual world as state & as relation– The church of Rome goes farther than Mr Stratten. For “madness” &c &c—religion & love have made more madmen than merchandize & voluptuousness .. yet religion & love are none the less surely divine for that. But the truth is that these statistics of madness are immensely exaggerated & incorrect– A Mr & Mrs Thompson [27] have just been here—she just from America .. where her sister Mrs Moett is about to give public readings of my poems, I understand– [28] She tells me that her father [29] who is deeply interested in the manifestations, uses a test which silences & banishes the evil spirits– “Do you acknowledge our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ”? Again & again she has seen it prevail– They cannot answer or sign—they give place to other spirits instantly– Three days before she left America her little daughter, [30] eight years old, was developped as a medium—but she means to discourage it. “Why,” said I– “Because it sometimes increases nervous susceptibility– One of my sisters [31] is a medium, & now she is afraid of being in a room by herself, for fear of the spirits manifesting themselves in some unaccustomed way.” —— This is not however the usual consequence of mediumship.
Wilson tells me there is a child [32] here just like Penini—looks like his brother—of the same age—the hair a little longer! (think of that, Arabel!) & a little lighter– His nurse told Wilson that she had said to her mistress .. an English lady .. “For the first time your child has a rival!” and the lady was rather jealous .. just as I am. Penini, for his part, says, “I muss have pottets in mine polta” .. because his double has pockets. After all he cant be a child like my Penini .. I dont believe a word of it. Oh yes, Arabel .. you will love him .. this Penini of ours, .. better & better, as you come to know him– He is so good, this Penini—so good & sweet & true. I have scruples about telling him the common fancy-stories because of his accepting everything as a pure truth– As we were travelling I told him “Jack & the beanstalk,” which delighted him—but I was rather taken aback when he asked me at the end, “Did Jack see God? I sint he muss when he went so high up in the sky.” The next conclusion was, “When we det to Blome I mean to det some beans & plant them– I [33] lite to go up too.”– Almost I felt a sort of remorse—as if I had deceived the child with my story. He believes so entirely in the supernatural that a vision of angels would’nt startle him in the least—of that I am convinced. He asked the other day .. “Can Joe see me?” I said I was not sure .. I did not know—I only knew that God saw him. “Oh yes, God. But if Joe wants velly mush to see me—& if he loots down so ..” (looking down fixedly on the carpet with his body bent) “can Joe see me, you sint?” “Well,” I answered, “I think he can”– Another time he asked .. referring to his medal of the Duke of Wellington .. “Dear Mama, you sint Joe has seen the Dute of Wellyton?” Robert thought the question should be whether the Duke had seen Joe.
Never was a journey so much enjoyed by a child before, as our journey by him. He was amused at everything—laughed aloud when the oxen were fastened to the carriage in the mountain-ascents– “Well, I sint soon they’ll mate the pigs do it.” A good deal of the necessity however was accounted for by the immense weight of his desk which he was constantly talking about to Ferdinando & the vetturino .. “Mio segretario un gr<ande …>.” [34] A few days before he left Florence he began to say ‘y<es’> instead <of “>Less”—& I heard him boasting a day or two ago– “When I a <little> baby and not four, I said Less, and sant you—now I tan say yes, and tant you.” (thank you.) His Italian is the prettiest thing possible—prettier even than his English—and he & Ferdinando are studying French at the present moment to make his accomplishments complete. He has read a child’s book (written in one syllable) once through, & nearly through a second time—you cant think how nicely he reads—and within this week he has begun to write & astounds us all with the facility he brings to it– He has two pages of “dear papa’s” and “Ferdinandos” which we have never done admiring. There is not the least difficulty now about the reading—only he does it regularly. Even while <we> travelled he read a page a d<a>y at the inns. Perhaps you dont know that the old women of Italy of the lower classes, are apt to be surprisingly ugly– He said to me the other day .. “Dear Mama, I not lite old peoples not a bit– Their faces not a bit pretty.” “Oh Penini,” said I, “what a thing to say! So I suppose when I am old, you wont love me a bit.” He paused for a moment in deep consideration, & then lifting up his hand emphatically .. “It be a long time before you old, I sint. First, you muss det large lite Papa.” He calculates on my extreme youth you see, because of my low dimensions–—— Since I began this letter, Edith has been removed home—she is quite out of danger, & up the greater part of the day .. Emma Page, in this house, is also convalescent– We have paid another visit to Mrs Kemble—sate with her an hour & a half .. She talked of her children [35] in such an agony of sorrow that no one could sit by & see that face, & hear that voice without tears of sympathy. She is coming to spend an evening with us alone, & I hope we shall be friends– The weather is exquisite– I only hope that Rome may agree half as well with Robert & Penini, as with me it is likely to do. Think of my being able to go out everyday. We are going to the midnight mass in Sta Maria Maggiore on Xmas Eve & to St Peter’s on Xmas day– [36] There is every facility offered to us through Mr Cass of getting tickets for everything—but I cant do & bear everything—we must select. My beloved Arabel, my heart will be with you through all– God bless you everyone .. dearest things!– Tell dearest Henrietta how I love her!– Write & tell me of yourself (whom you dont mention) and of Papa—Mind. Else I shall be uneasy. Give a heap of Christmas kisses from us all three to dearest Trippy– Do you hear of Mrs Orme? Write as you promise, & tell me of yourself—but if ever you pay the postage you shall accept the consequences! It makes letters insecure, observe. Never mind writing without an envelope– There is a new arrangement, & now the envelope does no harm at all—only write on thin paper– [37] God bless you dearest & darling– Love me, think of me, pray for me– Robert’s best love as ever
with that of your own Ba–
Love to Bummy & Arl<ette>—remember.
We paid nothing (more’s the shame) for your letter<– I do>nt prepay this, this time, for fear of its being lost—but I will run all risks nex<t time i>f you pay a sous for your letters. Understand clearly– Will you tell me what is the postage of this letter.
Address, on integral page: Angleterre. / Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 49–59.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Emma Page (1839–1901).
3. See letter 3291, note 1.
4. i.e., malaria.
5. Probably Dr. G. Franco (d. 1883), listed in Murray’s A Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy (1856) at 81 Via della Croce and described as “a Maltese gentleman, who speaks English and is highly spoken of” (part II, p. xiii).
6. Cf. Psalm 38:10.
7. At the southern base of the Aventine Hill, near the Porta San Paolo. The original cemetery, where John Keats was buried, dates from the mid-eighteenth century. It was expanded in 1822 and again in 1894. Just outside the cemetery walls stands the Pyramid of Cestius. The Temple of Vesta, now thought to be the Temple of Hercules, lies to the north of the Aventine, close to the Tiber. This distinctive building, converted to a church in the twelfth century, is round and relatively small, with a cella encircled by Corinthian columns.
8. See letter 2459, in which EBB describes an evening drive with Arabella past Harrow Cemetery.
9. Sic, for Rees; see letter 3222, note 6. The “poetical sonnets” EBB mentions below appeared in The Forest-House, and Other Poems (1850).
10. EBB may be playfully alluding to the anti-slavery slogan engraved on Josiah Wedgwood’s medallion of 1787: “Am I not a man and a brother?”
11. Charles Isidore Hemans (1817–76), the fifth of five sons born to Alfred Hemans (1781–1827), British Army captain, and his wife, the poet Felicia Dorothea (née Browne, 1793–1835), had established The Roman Advertiser in October 1846, the first English-language newspaper in Rome. According to the ODNB, “he briefly entered the Roman Catholic church and his historical and artistic judgement was frequently affected by his religious fervor. To English visitors in Rome and to English residents he was always a friendly guide.” On 25 May 1854, Hemans presented EBB with his mother’s commonplace book “in token of admiration & respect” (Reconstruction, A1166).
12. Caroline Clive (née Meysey-Wigley, 1801–73), pseud. V, and her husband the Rev. Archer Clive (1800–78) had two children: Charles Meysey Bolton Clive (1842–83) and Alice Clive (afterwards Greathed, 1843–1915).
13. Harriot Hester Lindesay (née Williams-Wynn, d. 1878, aged 65) had married John Lindesay (1808–48) in 1836. In referring to her sister, EBB means Charlotte Williams-Wynn.
14. The immediate family of Peter Lodwick (see letter 3286, note 7) consisted of his second wife, Elizabeth Mary (née Eastwick, formerly Ford, d. 1873), sister of William Joseph Eastwick (see letter 3211, note 1), and their two children: Robert William Peter (1831–1929) and Emily Mary (b. 1833?).
15. Lewis Cass, Jr. (ca. 1814–78), American diplomat, served as chargé d’affaires at Rome from 1849 to 1854. In the latter year his title was changed to Minister to the Papal States, a position he held until 1858. His father Lewis Cass (1782–1866), the Democratic candidate for president in 1848, losing to Zachary Taylor, was currently serving as a U.S. Senator from Michigan.
16. According to the ICS, Francis Blake Woodward (1802–66) was the chaplain of the English Church in Rome from 1850 until 1864. His Sermons, Preached in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Dublin (1850) contains a sermon on apostolic succession, which he, like other supporters of the Oxford Movement, or Puseyites, held to be doctrine.
17. In 1841, while travelling in Europe with his family, Charles Baird “was called to pass through the severe discipline of suffering. An attack of inflammatory rheumatism … brought on an affection of the heart so rapid and violent in its character as for a time to threaten his life” (Henry M. Baird, “Biographical Sketch,” Memorials of the Rev. Charles W. Baird, D.D., ed. Margaret E. Baird, New York, 1888, p. 2). The attack, which left him an invalid for the next few years, evidently led him to a career in the church (see pp. 2–3).
18. Joseph Leach describes Page’s portrait of Charlotte Cushman as “no prettified likeness from a Thomas Sully. Page had painted her life-size and real, a heavy-jawed, unsmiling woman clearly aged thirty-six. … The face looked pleasant enough, she supposed, though Page had scarcely bothered to suggest any grace or feminine charm. Yet for all its honesty, she liked it, and in her eyes it only took on added merit when it soon became celebrated” (Bright Particular Star: The Life and Times of Charlotte Cushman, New Haven, Conn., 1970, p. 257).
19. Alfred Bunn (1796–1860), a London theatre manager, had just published Old England and New England, in a Series of Views Taken on the Spot (2 vols., 1853), which included a chapter on “spiritual rappings” (I, 111–145). At the beginning of this chapter, Bunn describes a séance, during which he apparently communicates with the spirit of his mother. He admits to having his incredulity regarding the rapping spirits considerably shaken. Towards the end of the chapter he prints a letter from a carpenter who had made “two ‘medium tables’ … both of which had machinery concealed in them, for producing ‘raps’ at the will of the operator” (I, 140). In reviewing the book, The Critic of 1 December 1853 quoted from Bunn’s séance experience and suspected “that a trap was laid for him, and that his hospitable friends are laughing at the success of the mysterious revelations which enticed Mr. Bunn into a partial state of belief” (p. 623). The Critic referred to the carpenter’s letter and felt that Bunn was “not, therefore, excusable for leaving his own case unexplained” (p. 623).
20. We have been unable to trace any such advertisement.
21. EBB refers to the séances conducted in Casa Guidi; see letter 3286.
22. See letter 2768, note 6.
23. Mary Crowninshield Silsbee (1840–1928); see letter 3286, note 10.
24. Latin for “rich,” accepted as the name of the rich man in the parable in Luke 16:19–31, which tells of him and a beggar named Lazarus. After their deaths, the beggar is “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom”; the rich man is condemned to hell. In order to save his brothers from a similar fate, the latter beseeches Abraham to send Lazarus to “testify unto them.” But the request is denied.
25. EBB may have in mind Pippa Passes (1841), Introduction, 148–159: “All service ranks the same with God … ” Cf. Aurora Leigh, VII, 809–810: “‘There’s nothing great / Nor small,’ has said a poet of our day.”
26. “A bit much.”
27. Cephas Giovanni Thompson and his wife Mary Gouverneur (née Ogden).
28. Anna Cora Mowatt (née Ogden, 1819–70), an American actress. We have been unable to trace any record of her giving a public reading of EBB’s poems.
29. Samuel Gouverneur Ogden (1779–1860), owner of an extensive shipping business in New York City, married Eliza Lewis (1785–1836) in 1803 and with her had fourteen children. He married secondly Julie Fairlie (1808–62) in 1837.
30. Anna Cora Thompson (1844–1905).
31. Possibly Louisa Willoughby Turner (née Ogden, 1810–76), third daughter and fifth child of the aforementioned Samuel Ogden and his first wife. She had married William Turner in 1845 and the same year published under her maiden name Reasons for Joining the New Jerusalem Church (New York, 1845), her explanation for leaving the Episcopal church and embracing Swedenborgianism. In chapter two she relates her experiences with mesmerism and how they led her to Swedenborg. Mrs. Turner republished her work with revisions under her married name in 1856 as Points of Difference Between the Old and New Christian Churches (Boston, 1856), from which all references to mesmerism were removed.
32. Unidentified.
33. Underscored three times.
34. “My desk a big one.”
35. In 1834 Fanny Kemble married Pierce Butler, an American slave owner, and they had two children: Sarah (1835–1908) and Frances Anne (1838–1910). As part of the lengthy and acrimonious divorce proceedings that took place in 1848–49, she had settled for his “annual allowance of $1,500 with the privilege of her children’s society during two months of each year” (Leota S. Driver, Fanny Kemble, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1933, p. 155). However, a later biographer claims that the settlement contained a “provision that the children should be allowed to spend one month a year with their mother” (Dorothy Marshall, Fanny Kemble, 1977, p. 221). Dorothy Marshall further maintains that Fanny Kemble did not see her children from September 1850 until she returned to the United States in 1856, the only explanation being that “perhaps Pierce, as he had done in the past, contrived so many obstacles that Fanny found it impossible in practice to spend any time with them while their father remained in sole control” (p. 221).
36. Santa Maria Maggiore, one of seven basilicas in Rome and third in rank, is situated at the top of the Esquiline Hill. In its Chapel of the Holy Sacrament “is preserved the sacred Presepio, or the cradle of the Saviour, which forms the subject of a solemn ceremony and procession on Christmas Eve, at which the cardinal-vicar generally officiates” (Murray’s A Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy, 1853, part II, p. 118). However, according to the “Italian Correspondent” in The Critic of 1 December 1853, “for the first time, the Sovereign Pontiff will be drawn from the Vatican to St. Maria Maggiore, to celebrate the Midnight Mass of the Nativity, through lines of light produced by this yet novel agency [i.e., gas lamps]” (p. 632).
37. To keep the weight under ¼ oz; see letter 3286, note 26.
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