3411. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 210–213.
43 Via Bocca di Leone
May 4––May 8th afterwards [1854] [1]
My dearest Isa I am delighted to hear again from you—though you say nothing of your knee, & though I had a prick of conscience on first sight of the address of your letter. I should have written indeed, & would, if it had’nt been for reasons which are no reasons at all but very good reasons nevertheless– The fact is I have’nt been “up” to writing– I have’nt been very well—Penini has’nt been well at all. I had a horrible fright with him—for one night he was hot .. hot .. Isa .. think of that! and though Ferdinando comforted me about the pulse, still in my mind it was too fast. We sent for Pantaleoni & have had him in attendance since– He said it was a slight fever from the irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach which had begun again, but was nothing to care for—administered medecines, & set the child up again. I do thank God– Yesterday he called himself “rather well” and today he is “tuite well” .. but pale & thinner—oh, this horrible Rome of yours– Shall we ever get out of it with our heads? Robert & I have just been to Mrs Brotherton, who is unwell too .. only a ‘touch’ of Roman fever, not more– Mr Page has had it three times this week .. which I dont particularly wonder at as he is under Franco, & trusting beside to the famous “plaister” of which you may have heard from Hatty Hosmer. By the way, we went to her studio to give her news of you, & found her tête à tête or rather corps à corps with a model– She invited us in, & Robert accepted. For my part I felt rather shy, & preferred the company of Mr Gibson’s painted Venus, who is only nearly as bad (when all’s said) as any natural nudity. Robert was quite vexed at me for this piece of prudery,—but not being ‘professional’ there was not much reason I thought, to struggle against my womanly instincts in the case. One’s a woman after all, and weak: I would rather see a nude male model in the company of a man (though my husband) than a nude female model—and I would rather not see either. An artist like Hatty is justified by her art—but I should scarcely be justified. At least I had not motive enough to give me courage.
Miss Hosmer is coming to us tonight, and I have asked Virginia Vaughan [2] to meet her. I like Hatty more & more– She is modelling a lovely, expressive ‘lost pleiad’, [3] & is better herself than her statues– A pure, simple, upright nature like hers is a thing to love & wonder over among the crawling social falsities one has to step carefully n<ot> to tread on– I shall take to wearing goloshes. On monday Robert & I are going on a country excursion with Mrs Sartoris & Mrs Kemble, both of whom I like much, you know. Yes, and yesterday we were at the fountain of Egeria [4] .. we alone, & Penini, and Wilson, & Ferdinando “the beloved,” and I enjoyed it very much– I have been, also, to one or two studio’s .. to Rosetti’s & Kaupter’s .. no, that’s not quite the name .. but both are as bad as possible—also to Riedel’s [5] the German painter who paints a sunbeam & who’s wonderful though a mannerist. Gibson’s Clemency [6] is fine & expressive. By the way I think I too may end in falling in love with Gibson. I feel myself going.
Well—you have done admirably about the villa, [7] though I should turn into a ‘grillo’ [8] if I <sp>ent the summer in the heat so–
May 8.
So much I wrote & left unfinished, dearest Isa, having been called away—& since then I have had no heart to write. Penini has been ill again—worse than I ever saw him– He had the toothache one night, & the next morning a swelling of the face came on, with fever—burning hands, a pulse at a gallop .. & all his spirits gone. He has been living on febrifuges since then—the swelling is subsiding fast, & there will be no gathering inside as I was afraid—also he has begun to leave Lily’s knee & mine, & to crawl about the house in search of Ferdinando. Such a little saint & martyr as the child has been—he made me say his prayers for him “betause I tant speat,” & laying in bed with his hands folded. Medecines were taken without a word—frightfully good he has been– It was simply toothache acting on a system inclined to fever by this pestilential climate– Oh Rome, Rome—‘mother of orphans’! [9] —or rather step-mother—having first slain the fathers & mothers! People are going away as fast as possible, & I wish we were going tomorrow– Mrs Kemble goes on monday to Florence, taking Virginia Vaughan with her–
I was sure you would like Mr Lytton– I for my part can scarcely fancy a Sir Edward at any age, quite as pure & noble & poetical as I take him to be– We shall have only a flash of him in Florence,—but more perhaps farther north. So glad I am that you have seen Mr Tennyson– Then I wont be guilty of the impertinence of backing Mrs Brotherton in the matter [of] letters of introduction– By this time he does not take you for a swindler. You will like him I think, in a different way from Lytton. By the way, he has been horribly put down in the Athenæum [10] .. but what vexed me more was an attack in the very next article upon Lady Bulwer Lytton [11] which will be very annoying to her son if he sees it– And some tender friend (not you!) will be sure to tell him of it,—you’ll find presently. That she should deserve it, makes it all the worse of course.
The Storys have been in Rome and are gone at last, by sea to Marseilles, having resolved on going every day I think for ten successive days. Edith was looking quite herself—Mr Story not well– He is the only one of the house who may be a little the worse a year hence for what has happened. They are gone to Paris, to Dieppe, to Havre– I scarcely know where—nor anybody else perhaps–
I am bound to tell you that Mr Page’s fever did not return on sunday as it was engaged to do, so he is full of faith in the mystical plaister.
Hatty is quite satisfied with your Villa Moutier, [12] & sends her best love to you– It’s abominable of you, Isa, not to speak of your knee– I shall have to invoke the spirits to know about it, & they will too probably lie, & I shall be told for my comfort that you have dislocated the other knee, & broken one arm. Write & tell me of yourself– Plainly you hated Casa Guidi—now did’nt you? [13] You missed the sun,—the rooms were too large & dreary—you liked nothing about us but the porter, for whom you have an absorbing passion evidently– Penini’s love & a large kiss for you & Louisa—& the same from Robert–
As for me I am entirely your affectionate
Ba
Publication: B-IB, pp. 50–54.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Year provided by EBB’s references to The Athenæum’s reviews of Frederick Tennyson’s poems and Lady Bulwer-Lytton’s novel.
2. Virginia Vaughan (1832–1913), born in South Carolina, was the daughter of John Champion Vaughan (1806–92), a slaveholder who freed his slaves, moved north in 1837, and thereafter supported the abolitionist cause. Miss Vaughan and Harriet Hosmer had been classmates at Mrs. Sedgwick’s School for Girls in Lenox, Massachusetts. They travelled to Rome together in the autumn of 1852.
3. We have been unable to trace such a work by Harriet Hosmer.
5. August Riedel (1799–1883), German painter; Antonio Rosetti (b. 1819, in Milan), Italian sculptor; and Gustav Kaupert (1819–97), German sculptor. They all had studios on or near Via Margutta. Visits to artists’ studios were popular with travellers in Rome and highly recommended in Murray’s handbooks.
6. Part of the monument to Queen Victoria that Gibson had been commissioned to execute for the Prince’s Chamber in the Houses of Parliament. The main figure of the Queen, eight feet in height, is flanked by two statues, each seven feet high, representing Justice and Clemency; the latter holds a sheathed sword and an olive branch.
7. Villa Moutier.
8. “Cricket.”
9. Cf. Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1818), IV, lxxviii, 1-3.
11. A review of Behind the Scenes, A Novel (1854), by Rosina, Lady Bulwer-Lytton, immediately followed that of Frederick Tennyson’s Days and Hours in The Athenæum of 15 April 1854. The reviewer, Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury (as given in the marked file copy of The Athenæum, now at City University, London), remarked: “Lady Bulwer has certainly proved that she has one arch-enemy, one who has betrayed her as none other could have done. She has accused many,—but with all her cleverness (and she is clever), she has failed to discover that her own worst enemy is—herself. No other enemy, however wicked or powerful, could have compelled her to write such a tissue of dullness, malignity, and vulgarity” (no. 1381, p. 460).
12. Beginning sometime in July 1854, Hatty Hosmer stayed with Isa Blagden at Villa Moutier until returning to Rome in October.
13. Shortly after Isa’s return to Florence in April, she stayed at Casa Guidi until her rooms at Villa Moutier were made available.
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