3300. EBB to Eliza Fox
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 29–30.
Rome.
[18] Decr [1853] [1]
My dear Miss Fox
Your letter followed me from Florence to Rome where we have fallen upon evil days [2] .. terrible disparities between the pleasure we had in coming & the affliction to which we came, .. the child [3] of the friends who welcomed us, dying only a few hours after our arrival, & their remaining little girl lying in great danger from the same fever. She is better,—but our first day in Rome having been spent by a deathbed, you may suppose what a great black slur has crossed out the heroic recollections, & how hard it is to take this for Rome really. Even now, I feel as if I could be patient under Niebuhr [4] (which is saying much)—for the clearest thing I can see anywhere here, is the one poor little grave–
Pleasant in spite of all was the coming of your letter. Will you tell your friend [5] that her music & her intentions alike do me honor, & that I am cordially grateful to her. We think the music beautiful & expressive—and I should be proud, after what you have told me of the composer, to be associated with a woman so noble, even if her work were less excellent. Will you say this to her, dear Miss Fox?–
Then, let me thank you for your own kind words to me .. those chords at the end too were tuneful! But you cant be in earnest in talking of yourself as a stranger to me, though, through a vexatious crossing of circumstances, I did see too little of you when we were in London. Surely we are potential friends after all! Do you not guess how often & how over & over my husband has told me of your father’s kindness, sympathy & help, & that these, from the beginning of Robert’s career upwards, had been most precious & availing to him? Assure Mr Fox that there are two now to remember this for ever, even if he & you should forget it.
Which I hope you will not, after all– Our child (thank you for asking about him) is radiant with health & spirits– He was talking the other day of that famous basket of peaches, memorable among his most brilliant reminiscences–
Suffer me to remain, with Robert’s very best regards,
Yours affectionately
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Address: Angleterre. / Miss Fox / 3. Sussex Place / Regent’s Park / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library.
1. Day and year provided by postmark.
2. Cf. Paradise Lost, VII, 25.
3. Joe Story.
4. Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831), German historian. His influential history of ancient Rome, Romische Geschichte (2nd. ed., fully revised, 1827–32), is considered by many to be the first instance of modern critical history. The most recent English translation was The History of Rome, trans. J.C. Hare, C. Thirwall, et al. (4th ed., 1847–51).
5. Clara Macirone; see letter 3293.
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