3367. RB to William Wetmore Story
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 153–154.
[Rome]
Monday Mg [27 March 1854] [1]
My dear Story.
I am most happy at your good news—and now have little doubt but you will continue to send me better. Your letter reached me on Saturday—I was out of Rome for the day, [2] and so unable to answer it before—this morning—there being no post on Sunday– But this new letter of Mrs Story’s was worth waiting for. I have just time to congratulate you & send this off. All your friends were delighted at the turn things had taken. Dr Gorham [3] will call on you tomorrow on his way to Naples. Mr Rotch [4] enquires with great kindness after you—but has (this morning—he tells me) a trouble of his own in the illness of his youngest child—it is fever, but scarlatina, he believes, or rather Pantaleoni, whom he has called in. There is nothing to fear apparently.
Ba would have been less nervous had the letter-countermandatory arrived—but it is still to arrive! [5] Well may Prince Massimo [6] put his motto over the office—that delay is the thing at Rome! Mrs Page was very unwell on arriving, but is better or well now. I have only time to tell you how much I am
yours ever RB–
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: McGill University.
1. Dating provided by reference to letter 3366, in which EBB tells Mrs. Story that RB has just come in and “will write a few words to Mr. Story,” and by RB’s allusion to his trip to Velletri.
2. As indicated in letter 3377, RB had gone on a picnic to Frascati in the company of Adelaide Sartoris, her sister Fanny Kemble, and John Gibson Lockhart.
3. John Warren Gorham (1813–93), born in Boston, was a Harvard graduate. In September 1847 he left the United States in the Sophia Walker, as did the Storys, for Italy. A Catholic, Gorham settled in Rome, practicing medicine until 1856 when he was given the American consulship at Jerusalem. In 1860 he returned to the United States and became a professor of languages.
4. Benjamin Smith Rotch (1817–82), a Boston merchant, and his wife Annie (née Lawrence, 1820–93), daughter of New England textile magnate Abbott Lawrence, had three children at this time, the youngest of whom was Aimée (1852–1918). The Rotches had been travelling through Europe and arrived in Rome during the latter part of 1853, remaining there until the following May.
5. Evidently, after Story had sent an urgent letter to RB asking him to come to Velletri, he sent another letter telling him not to come.
6. Prince Camillo Vittorio Emanuele Massimo (1803–73) held the hereditary office of postmaster-general to the pope. He was descended from Quintus Fabius Maximus (d. 203 B.C.), the so-called “Cunctator” (he who delays), and his heraldic motto was “Cunctando Restituit.”
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