3346. EBB to Anne Braun

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 118.

[Rome]

[?25] [February 1854] [1]

Dearest Mdme Braun,

I have not stirred out for above a fortnight, and Robert is out—but if he will let me .. that is, if there seems no great reason in prudence against it .. we will both gladly come to you tomorrow, & you shall give me my carnival, [2] all I have had of one– How good you are to have thought of us!

Your affectionate

Elizabeth B Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Huntington Library.

1. Conjecturally dated by EBB’s reference to the Carnival. Her only excursion during the 1854 Carnival was to a musicale at the Brauns’ on Sunday, 26 February, as discussed in letter 3349.

2. According to Murray’s A Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy (1853), in Rome “the Carnival begins after New Year’s Day, and continues until the beginning of Lent; the masking takes place only during the last 8 days, exclusive of the Sunday and Fridays. … The last 3 days of the Carnival are the most exciting; the whole city seems then to be congregated in the Corso” (part II, p. 11). In 1854 the Carnival ended on 28 February.

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