3422. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 226–227.
[Rome]
[25 May 1854] [1]
Dearest Sarianna I write standing at a table in the greatest haste to say we leave Rome tomorrow & well, thank God. Still, Penini is so pale & thin, & has been so unwell for the third time, that I shall be overjoyed to go. The last malady was simple toothache—he has a carious tooth, little darling, in which he caught cold, & the whole face swelled to the most frightful extent, the suffering being attended with a degree of fever which made it necessary to call in Pantaleone again. For three days that angel never touched a crumb of bread .. nothing but liquid—& did not stir off one’s knee—did’nt speak .. kissing one’s hand gently from time to time. Linseed poultices were applied to the cheek, & the swelling went away gradually, but I never saw Penini so unwell. The climate is too enervating for him as the hot weather creeps on—and then, I do hold that the air here is absolutely poisonous. As we get beyond it he will expand & redden into his old prettiness, & I am in haste to set off.
What makes amends for the evil fates of Rome a little, is this picture .. the portrait of Robert by Mr Page, which the princely artist has forced upon my acceptance. Oh Sarianna, it is a wonderful picture—alive! As a work of art we all cry out at the miraculousness of the colour & life, and as a portrait it is literal. Was I right or wrong to accept it? I am really overwhelmed with the sense of obligation—for the artist is not rich, observe, & has a family. But he said—“I feel that I would accept if I were in your position” so simply & nobly, that I held out my hand & accepted–
So I have entered on a new inheritance, you see—& it makes amends for much that has been noxious to me in Rome. How glad I shall be to see my dear Florence. Do you know what Robert says? “One good I have got in Rome, is having learnt to appreciate Florence.”
Still, if we stay too long in Florence, Sarianna, it wont be my fault, I promise you. I feel that we ought to make haste to you both .. that we owe ourselves to you– May God bless you. When we take Penini to you, I do hope he will have his roses & dimples back, or you will think I have romanced about him—you wont know him any more than the eagle did the little owls. [2]
Your ever attached
Ba–
We take Ferdinando with us to Paris it is decided I think—“Ferdinandino” [3] as Penini has taken to call him tenderly– A colossal man with moustaches!
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to leaving Rome “tomorrow”; that is, on 26 May.
2. Alluding to Jean de La Fontaine’s fable “The Eagle and the Owl,” in which the two birds agree not to harm one another’s offspring. The eagle unwittingly violates the agreement when he fails to recognise a nestful of screeching owls as the beautiful birds described by their parent. The moral of the story is that one’s own children are always beautiful.
3. “Little Ferdinand.”
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