3370. EBB to William Wetmore Story
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 157–159.
43 Bocca di Leone–
Wednesday morning– [29 March 1854] [1]
My dear Mr Story
Pray dont look on me as a backer of Pantaleoni’s. I have no pretension to back anybody on such a subject, & it was more for you than for him that I said what I did—it’s better not to vex oneself while eating the bread, about the best way of growing the corn—that’s all I meant to say– For the rest, the difference between you is simply that he considered & considers the liver-affection to be the result of the persistence of the fever– The fever after long persistence affects one or another of the organs of the body, sometimes the liver sometimes the brain, .. the ‘perniciosa’ [2] being Roman fever with dangerous symptoms. So he says!– Also, he could not have meant to send away your child to die, because two months ago, as Emelyn told me the same morning, & as was patent among all your friends, he wished her to go. In his view of the case, not taking the quinine was not taking the only efficient remedy .. & it was not for you but for him, supposing him to be responsible, to judge of the quantity necessary to the end– Of course he might be perfectly wrong, as many wiser men have been—that is nothing at all to the question. If loyalty means a general subjection to opinion I am apt to be as disloyal as you call yourself, dear Mr Story,—but I do hold that loyalty to superior knowledge is one of the conditions of wisdom—& so do you .. or you wouldn’t trust Sciamani– [3] The misfortune was (both to you & Pantaleone) that you employed him with a dyspathy between you, & an acknowledged want of confidence on your part from the beginning. You were not loyal to him because you did not recognize in him the qualities which command loyalty from you as from others.
As to the want of feeling &c, you had that impression from the first– He has a peculiar manner, which may not mean carelessness or indifference– Now, he has attended Mrs Sartoris’s delicate baby [4] all the winter & she is entirely satisfied with him .. she who is a most anxious & tender mother– He snatches up political pamphlets from her table as from yours, but she reads him altogether differently & considers him as considerate & feeling as if he gesticulated according to the received professional hieroglyphic.
Why say anything more about Robert’s journey? Never think that either he or I grudged the little trouble he took in the attempt to relieve you from a single pang of the great apprehended anguish. In my part I had more joy in seeing him come back with his good news than I had pain in seeing him go—so I was paid, you observe!
I shall be glad indeed when you can remove to pleasanter rooms at Albano, & still gladder when you can get still farther away .. for all this atmosphere must be bad for dear Edith. My quarrel with Pantaleone (if you want to hear my quarrel) was, all along, that he did not send you off three months ago. See!
Tell Edie that Penini will send her a drawing– I cant bear to let him send one till we are surer of the grounds .. till she can sit up a little, dear child. It is very cheering to have such a continuance of favorable news– Every day gained is worth more than itself, because the constitution at her age, if it has time for self assertion, has extraordinary spring & power of wrestling with disease– Then the weather grows finer. I hope you dont exhaust yourselves with nursing all day & night. Why not have a regular nurse which would spare you both so much? It would be good in every way– I would not have troubled you with this scribble if I had known Robert was writing .. you have pulled us both down on you, it seems, dear Mr Story. May God bless you all– With love to dear Edie & Emelyn & thanks to the latter for her note,
Most truly yours ever
EBB—
Publication: BAF, pp. 28–30.
Manuscript: University of Texas.
1. This letter accompanied letter 3369.
2. “Malignant fever.”
4. Algernon Charles Frederick Sartoris (1851–93).
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