3409. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 205–208.
[Rome]
[4 May 1854] [1]
My dearest Sarianna, our Penini is much better again. The fact is he quite recovered after I wrote last & was beginning to have roses as usual in the dear cheeks, when back came the old symptoms of diarrhea & he was under medical treatment for the second time as we received your last letter. We would not write yesterday because I really I [sic] could’nt say he was in a satisfactory state—nothing very wrong, but a continuance of the state of relaxation for several days. Three nights ago I was frightened out of my wits by hot hands & an evident condition of fever, & Robert went for Pantaleone without losing time. One would’nt have been disturbed so anywhere except here—because a little heat in a young child may come & go without consequence .. but here one loses one’s head as Robert says. Pantaleone said, on coming, there was a little fever but it was simply caused by the internal irritation which he would put an end to– In the morning indeed & ever since the child has been perfectly cool, and the other evil has now ceased. Yesterday afternoon he was well enough to drive out to the grotto of Egeria, where Ferdinando held him under the fountain with a mouth wide open to catch those spiritual waters, [2] —& this morning he is perfectly well, I thank God for it. Dr Pantaleone attributes the disorder to the climate, & makes light of it of course, .. but I cant make light of anything which leaves him such a pale little creature .. looking as delicate as he used to look before we came to Italy this last time.
Annie Thackeray will tell you how he had put out new blossoms since that day– She thought him wonderfully improved in the appearances of health & robustness—“never saw such a change for the better in a child”——& indeed he has been looking radiant till a month ago. Well—there is nothing wrong now—and he has not been ill in any serious way you are to understand—for instance, he has done his reading with me every day– Pantaleone has managed him beautifully & acquired the confidence of the patient—“Oh, I dot such a pain! I sint it much more better you send for Pantaleone.” The child took his medecines like a hero, and was horribly affectionate to us all in proportion to his illness– “Dear mama, I love you so much!—more than you loves me!” He seemed to me too like an angel ready to fly.– You will believe, dear, that I am ready to fly anywhere to get from this place. I shant be easy till we are gone .. that’s certain—& I would hurry away at once,—but Robert says we ought’nt, or cant, or something as inconvenient–– There are things to see, engagements to keep—and Penini must be taken care of sedulously .. that’s all– The shell-fish are out of the question now at least—it has been just the change of weather, & the relaxing climate. Illness in different forms continues on all sides. We had some cold wet weather which, following an imprudent night excursion to the Vatican, [3] rather deranged me among others—now it is a divine air & sunshine .. & if my heart could do as well as my lungs, I should be satisfied. I dare say our cold weather (in our degree) came with yours, and I do hope that yours has gone with ours– It is full summer here, & exquisite—not hot you are to understand. Penini falls into ecstasies over the flowers & trees– He had not been to the Pincio for two or three days, and upon going at last with Wilson he stretched out his arms in an enthusiasm she says, & exclaimed .. “Oh .. how—’licious!” (delicious.) He was positively in tears the other day because Wilson threw away some dead flowers– One morning he was holding a lily of the valley in his hand– “Poor little flower,” said I—“your hot hand kills it.” This he did’nt like at all– To kill it was dreadful,—and yet to hold it in his hand was a pleasure. At last his face brightened with a sudden thought—“But, dear mama, when this pretty flower dies, the heart in the leaves will go up to God, and then it will be much more happy, & more pretty too.”– “That’s your opinion is it—?–” “Yes! Oh, I sure …” holding up his arm like Paul at Athens. [4]
Talking of Penini’s theological views I have a mind to send you a “poem” (so called) he wrote a few weeks ago– I wrote it with a pencil to his dictation, till at the end he cried “stop”– He chanted the whole to me without a pause– I have several compositions of the kind, treasured up to be shown to you one day– Dear nonno will like to see this, I fancy, & you wont be critical on the theological phrases used at five years old. ——“The earth has God to love me if I am good. But if I want to sit without God He cant help us, for else He dies for nothing on His cross with His goodness for me. If I dont be good, God comes on His cross again. And when we dont like to sit, then He does’nt make us sit. If my eye was opened, then I could see God very well,—but still we cant see Him with our outsides on.”– It seems to me mystical and Swedenborgian upon the whole. The phrase about the “outsides” is a favorite one with Penini who always when he talks of death & burial insists on the “outside” being only in question.
To turn to quite another subject .. whether or not French manufactures have deteriorated, the fact was when we were in Paris, that all inferior silks were cheaper & better in England, whereas the superior ones were cheaper & better in France. So English tradesmen told me themselves. The English silks are quite good enough for me, & I would rather buy what I want of the kind in London, for obvious reasons. The inconvenience is that your dresses are so much better made (& cheaper) in Paris, that you lose an advantage so. You will find, Sarianna, when you go back to London everybody looking provincial & ungraceful in their costume– It struck me extremely, though I am not morbidly susceptible to such things—and I was quite insolent to Arabel, she will tell you, about her bonnets & dresses, I, who dont muse too deeply about my own. Get your bonnet for the summer where you are, therefore—and enough of the rest to make a type of—while, for the general material of clothing, I would certainly trust London– Economical people like you & me, find their account in it–
Arabel has not written a word to you about our verses or your drawings [5] ––I am half uneasy– What can be the reason. It was very kind of you to send what you did, & you have made her grateful. I will answer for it. I hope the fatigue has not been too much for her– Did Penini answer the dear nonno’s letter which pleased him so?– I cant remember anyhow–
Oh yes, yes—I agree with Madme Louis about the advantage of furnishing oneself. The difference is immense. In three years you have paid for your furniture even if you spend more money in it than you are likely to do. How is Mrs Kemble– [6]
Your ever affectionate Ba–
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to the Brownings’ excursion to the fountain of Egeria, which took place on 3 May (see the second paragraph in letter 3411).
2. According to Murray’s A Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy (1853), until a few years before, Romans visited the fountain “on the first Sunday in May to drink the water, which they considered to possess peculiar virtues” (part II, p. 88). Regarding the location of the fountain, “Roman antiquaries, without regard to classical authority,” traditionally placed the fountain of Egeria (a nymph or goddess associated with Diana) “in the valley of the Almo, now called the Valle Caffarelli, about a mile from the Porta San Sebastiano … midway between the modern high road to Naples and the Via Appia” (part II, p. 87). Murray’s further comments that although “recent excavations” cast doubt on the placement of the fountain, “the quiet seclusion of the spot is well calculated to make the traveller desire to be a believer in the truth of the tradition” (part II, p. 88). During his 1844 trip to Italy, RB visited this area and later mentioned it to EBB in letter 1963.
3. The tour of the Vatican Museum by torchlight, mentioned in letter 3396.
4. As depicted in Raphael’s cartoon, “St. Paul Preaching at Athens,” for the tapestries in the Sistine Chapel; see Acts 17:22–33.
5. For the Ragged Schools bazaar (see letter 3349, note 7).
6. Sic; probably a slip of the pen for Corkran.
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