3410. EBB to Sarah Blake Shaw
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 208–210.
Rome. 43 Via Bocca di Leone.
May 4– [1854] [1]
My dear Mrs Shaw,
If “Florence is not like Florence without us,” in Mr Stuart’s kind phrase, Rome is not like Rome with us, it seems—for everybody says that such a Rome as the Rome of the last winter was not known in the memory of Romans– Indeed it has been well for you all to be away .. by Nile or by Arno [2] .. anywhere than here among the fevers– As for me I shall avoid the fountain of Trevi, though you accuse me of hydrophobia and ingloriously bad taste. [3] The climate would suit my chest, but I would not live here with anyone dear to me, for fifty chests—though you filled them for me with Californian gold .. the heart’s more susceptible than the lungs, is it not?– Also, we had some five or six weeks colder weather than I ever felt in Italy except in –49 at Florence– Otherwise it was mild enough—and I do thank God that my child & my husband have not suffered illness, though I have been in continual anxiety about them– Little Penini who was radiant throughout the winter, is looking pale now & has not been as strong as usual lately .. and I shall be altogether delighted to carry him through the gates of this Rome to our Florence, where we are going towards the end of the month.
Now, you set me down as a barbarian. I am sensitive in my associations—& of course the dash of cold water we had in the face as we entered Rome (for the first day was spent by little Joe’s deathbed) was a fatal first impression– Then the sense of physical & moral miasma has weighed upon me more & more heavily ever since I have been here. And then, again, I came to “hear the owlet” .. “plod my way through broken thrones & empires”, [4] —&, instead of that, there has been a buzz of vulgar watering-place gossipping & visiting, modulated curiously by cardinal vices & papal fallibilities, in the ascendant from the first to the last.
Mr & Mrs Story were to have left Rome at five oclock this morning for Civita Vecchia on their way to Marseilles & Paris– You would think him much worn & changed by his trials, & I have been very sorry for him—but Edith is quite herself again, & a removal to another climate will probably prevent any change for the worse.– You will not like to hear that Mr Page has had the Roman fever three times this week .. which does not surprise me (as he is under Franco) [5] though it grieves me indeed. We are warm appreciators both of his paintings & of himself—we reverence & quite love the man—he lives habitually in a high sphere of thought & art, & is a Christian it seems to me, to the end of his paint brush– A noble man, of whom America may be proud, & upon whom I do congratulate you! He has sent some pictures to England, .. the portrait of Miss Cushman, one of her friend Miss Hayes, & one of himself, .. which are miraculous. How can he continue to live here with this fever besetting him? I dont see how he can. There is a great deal of a different kind of good too in his wife, who with all her youngness & naivété, strikes me as being most affectionate & disinterested– It is pretty to see her with her sister-daughters & to observe the love on both sides.
Not a word do you say of the “spirits”– Are they ‘quenched’ or exorcized? We have a lady here who writes Greek, [6] without knowing a word or letter of the language– So she says & swears.
Our plan is to return to Florence at the end of this month, & then to go to London through Paris, returning to Paris for the winter. Still, there may be another solution of our meditations on the subject–
My dear Mrs Shaw, believe in the truth with which I was happy to know you, and am happy to remember you– Surely we shall meet .. in Florence at least—in Paris perhaps. Till then, think of me with the affectionate thoughts I give you, notwithstanding the shortness of our acquaintance—very short, but very pleasant to me & my husband.
Always yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning–
After all, I repented my repentance, & found your letter which was duly delivered. I wish you had said to me what I have heard from others .. that you were the better for Ægypt. Will you give our regards to Mr Shaw & all your house?
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Harvard University.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the death of Joe Story.
2. The Shaws had travelled to Egypt the previous December (see the fourth paragraph in letter 3319) and were now back in Florence.
3. See letter 3361, note 4.
4. Cf. Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1818), IV, lxxviii, 6–7.
5. Dr. G. Franco; see letter 3299, note 5. Assuming that Franco was the homœopathic physician who initially attended Joe Story (see the first paragraph of letter 3299), EBB’s lack of regard is understandable.
6. Mary Brotherton.
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