3420. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 220–225.
Rome–
May 24 [sic, for 25]. [1854] [1]
My ever beloved Arabel,
I write in the greatest haste to record that we leave Rome tomorrow by vettura. Write to Florence directly, lest the letter miss us– We have been on the point of taking the cheap route by sea, & nothing but a mere turn of circumstances, & a representation from Pantaleoni that we should probably have to sleep on deck through the immense pressure of passengers .. (everybody rushing to the French boats away from the Italian since the late fatal accident [2] ..) prevented our immolation to that horrible fate– It will be only on the fourth day that we reach Florence, and we shall pay considerably more– Oh—I had yielded the point. Robert said it shd be as I liked—but it seemed really wisest (& most disagreeable) to yield,—so I yielded. That unfortunate Mr Knight lost his wife & his two children by persisting in the sea-scheme [3] —& the idea of it was a little in Robert’s head—nevertheless he went down twice to take our places by the steamer, & was foiled by a want of change or some such small cause. So glad I am of the actual decision. The land-journey was gently forced on us by the circumstances. Dearest Arabel—you made me very anxious by your long silence, and I took for granted what was the fact of course, that your exertions had made you quite ill. Do write—dont delay—or we may have left Florence– My Penini has been unwell three times– Three times we have had to call in Pantaleone—& now he is as white as this paper & almost as thin, though perfectly well, I thank God. The evil never was very great indeed—simple diarrhœa attended with a feverishness which would not have alarmed us anywhere else but at Rome—but here fever mounts, & we were right in having the best advice instantly– The third attack was of toothache. He has a carious back-tooth & caught cold somehow I suppose– The face swelled just as your’s used to swell [4] —think of that poor darling. For three days, he shook his head rather than say ‘no’– Still we should not have had a physician, if an extraordinary degree of fever (extraordinary for so simple a cause) had not developped itself– I never saw Penini so unwell in my life– So patient too he was! so good & sweet! taking up your hand & kissing it when he could not speak—crying softly to himself. Through all his little illnesses he has taken his medecines without a word– Once he said to me– “Did I tate my medecine velly well”? “Oh yes”—said I,—“beautifully!”. “I did it as well as ever I tould, betause I wanted to mate Dod pleased.” He certainly looks another child—has lost all his brilliancy .. that sort of prettiness—the very hair hangs dully & uncurled. It’s this detestable climate which, as the summer grows, takes hold of him & enervates the whole system. Then I was extremely vexed to perceive last night that his two front teeth the lower ones are quite loose– At five years old it is too early to change the teeth, & he will be disfigured if he loses them. I hope it may be from the general swelling of the gums, & that the teeth may fix themselves again .. I do hope so. Pantaleone applied linseed poultices to the swelled face. I was frightened lest there might be a gathering & breaking .. but he said that if it took place it would be in the inside & I need not mind– The swelling dispersed however– Poor little angel, what he suffered! For three days he touched nothing but liquids, & did’nt stir from Wilson’s knee or mine—Robert’s & Ferdinando’s assisting occasionally. Yes, we mean to bring Ferdinando with us to London. We like him—& it would be heartbreaking work to part him from Penini– Then there’ll be an advantage in keeping up Penini’s Italian which he speaks as well as English now—& besides Ferdinando is an excellent servant & well-conducted in every respect—& tell dear Henrietta we shant stay long enough in England to pay taxes for him. [5] Sarianna will probably go with us, & we shall leave the poor Nonno in Paris in a lamentable condition—nevertheless we shall leave him. You are not to judge our present position with too much melancholy. Penini is well, & in excellent spirits. Duke Alfonso Cirilla [6] presented him with a gun yesterday which has lifted him to the heights of generalship—he is only afraid that the pope may get hold of it before he escapes the bound of the pontifical territory. By that time the beloved “general” will begin to recover his lovely rose-colours I do trust, & by the time we reach Florence we shall all be revived. Dont be too sorry for me meantime. I have not been groaning ever since I wrote last. Ten days ago it never entered your mind where I was, and if you had seen me (in a magic mirror) tête à tête in a carriage with Mr Lyons, the English diplomatical representative here, twelve miles from Rome, I wonder what you would have thought of me. The fact is I had been overpersuaded to join a Kemble-picnic on a day when my Penini was not quite well .. Pantaleone swearing that there was nothing worth a moment’s uneasiness .. & as Mr Lyons had to come to Rome before the others, I caught at the opportunity of coming too in spite of the company. A few miles from Rome we met the Pope walking, the pontifical carriages &c following—. Mr Lyons had to get out & stand in the ruts– I sate where I was, only bowing my head as his holiness walked two inches from me brushing the carriage with his white sleeve. Of course I had an especial benediction .. which I took home to Penini .. whose darling pale face grew scarlet with pleasure when I told him of it. Penini has considerable admiration for the dignities of the world. He confided to me the other day that he should like to be the pope—or even, a cardinal. “What!” said I—“would you rather be the pope than Louis Napoleon–” “Oh no– I lite better to be Napoleon.” Robert has been present at fourteen Kemble picnics—& I at some five or six. We were at Tivoli at Hadrian’s villa last week, [7] & have since been (yesterday) at Vallerano on the campagna– In this way we have had a good knowledge & enjoyment of the country about Rome—and the society was brilliant enough not to spoil the association. I quite love Mrs Sartoris .. & Mrs Kemble too—then we have had M. Ampere, a famous member of the French Institute, M. le Comte de Gozze, the Austrian Chargé d’Affaires, Dr Pantaleone, who besides his skill in his profession, is very clever otherwise, & a patriot—was a member of Mazzini’s Legislative Assembly, [8] —& others—agreeable people, all of them.
Now, let me tell you something, Arabel, which has pleased me. I have spoken to you of our friend Mr Page .. told you how we both held him in reverence & admiration as a man & an artist. Well—in the course of this winter he has been engaged on a portrait of Robert– [9] It was a profound secret—nobody was to be told of it. The picture was finished the other day .. a head, full size .. painted on his peculiar system, and the most wonderful thing you ever looked at, even if you have looked at Titian’s portraits. The colouring is precisely Titian’s, and the life nature’s .. the picture is alive. I go– I look at it .. stand in wonder & ecstasy before it—and at last, the princely artist forces it upon my acceptance– He had done it for me, he said—he would not part with it to anyone else– I objected, resisted, .. was overcome at last. Well– I scarcely know if I was right in yielding, even now. The money value of the portrait is a hundred pounds, and the artist is not rich, with a large family who are expensive in their habits. He says that his wife said to him at the beginning .. “Do it for Mrs Browning, and that he had had no idea from the first but to do it for me!—therefore, if I persisted in refusing, I should frustrate his intentions”! Never was a more princely thing done certainly. At once, two purchasers had promised themselves—(by the way, Mr Reade’s portraits of us at Florence are sold already to a gentleman of Philadelphia) [10] and as a work of art, irrespective of the subject, the picture would be snatched up & paid for quickly. But then, the noble wish of the artist would, as he says, be frustrated. So I took the picture. Think! a stranger to us the other day. There was Mr Fisher who painted a portrait of Robert, & did a cartoon of Penini, & never offered me so much as a sketch of either– And this portrait has used time. Robert sate above fifty times. It is the finest head ever produced by the artist, according to his own valuation of his own works. We shall have it exhibited next year, & hope to get a good engraver to work on it & give advantages to the artist—but whatever we may do we shall be his debtors for ever—I, most, of course, both because the gift was to me, & because I naturally have an intenser pleasure in the fact & gain. Mr Page is very fond of Robert—he had an attack of Roman fever the other day (oh, we go on having the fever as usual in this healthful climate!) & sent up for Robert to go & sit by him– He was much excited .. not absolutely delirious, but raised above his usual quiet mood .. & he discoursed about Swedenborg & the Revelations & the human anatomy till Robert thought it did harm to listen to him any more .. increased the fever. Among other things he said fervently .. “I love you like a brother– Do you know why I love you? Because you believe in the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Arabel, I should like you to know Mr Page. He is a noble Christian man.
By the way .. I laugh to myself to think how horrified you will be .. Penini has been going through a mild course of Swedenborgianism. We were at a loss for a reading book for him .. could’nt get such a thing at any booksellers .. & Mrs Sartoris’s children’s books are too old. At last Mrs Thom[p]son (the artist’s wife) came to the rescue, .. with a storybook “for the use of the young children of the New Church” .. which upon examining I approved of entirely, & Penini has just finished two volumes of it—also a Swedenborgian magazine for children [11] .. much less good—though some of the papers in it, particularly one called ‘Willie’s Dream’ enchanted Penini .. so I selected parts, which were read to him over & over to his great joy. As he says, he “likes to hear about God & the angels.” Did I ever tell you that Penini dictates what he calls poems? He chants them, never stopping for a word– Here’s a theological composition, produced the other day. I put it down word for word. (“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.”—) Dont put your finger on any flaw in the theology, or cry out that he is too strong on free will. It’s Penini’s own—that’s all I can say. Here’s a specimen of his profane literature. (“One day a boy went out without a gun, and he went in a garden where there was some lions & tigers & serpents & swans & ducks & all other kinds of colours of beasts. Then this boy went near the swans & ducks, & looked at them, & stooped down & took one in his hand and carried it at the gate; but when he saw the man, the man said, “Where you caught that goose?” The boy said, “I caught it out of that bath.”— “Give it to me out of your hand, because I dont allow for you to take it. Tell me if you have some pauls. Twenty pauls you must give me, and then I shall give you the goose.” And then the boy gave the man two scudi, & the man gave the boy the goose. And then he went out of the gate & brought it at the door. And when the man came & opened the door the servant said, “Where you caught that goose?” And he said “I
<…> [12]
sheets– You dont say a word of Mr Hunter– Has he settled? & where?– [13] May God bless you my beloved Arabel– My love is with you all– Write to me, Arabel—& tell me of Henrietta—for if she goes off to Ireland … That, one cant stop to think of. It would be past enduring.
Your own own Ba–
Robert’s best love.
Address: Angleterre– / Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 78–83.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Year provided by postmark. Corrected day based on EBB’s statement in the first line that the Brownings are leaving “Rome tomorrow.” They left Rome on 26 May 1854.
2. About midnight of 24 April 1854, the Italian steamer Ercolano sank off Antibes after colliding with another Italian vessel, the Sicilia. More than forty persons were lost. Eyewitness accounts attributed the accident to negligence on the part of the Ercolano’s captain and crew (see The Daily News of 3 May 1854, p. 3).
3. Edward Louis Knight (1817–82), his wife Charlotte Owen (née Harris, 1828–54), and their two children Edward John (1852–54) and Robert Wynn (1853–54) were passengers in the Ercolano when it sank. The Times of 9 May 1854 reported the deaths of Mrs. Knight and her sons.
4. For EBB’s explanation as to the cause of Arabella’s swelling, see the second paragraph in letter 3259.
5. A flat tax on persons with male servants had been introduced in 1777. Several years later, under William Pitt, parliament enacted a progressive tax that increased with the number of servants. In 1853, Gladstone abolished the earlier scale and returned to a flat rate: “a guinea for every servant of the age of eighteen or more” (Stephen Dowell, A History of Taxation and Taxes in England, 1884, 3, 249). Employers were not assessed for female servants. Although the tax law did not specifically address the length of residence necessary for an employer to be liable for the tax assessment on male servants, presumably it was a period of more than six months, as it was in the case of income tax.
6. Luigi Alfonso Pasquale Giovanni Catalano Gonzaga (b. 1831), eldest son of Pasquale Catalano Gonzaga, Duke of Cirella (1800–69), Neapolitan landowner and Senator, and his wife Marianna (née Rossi). He married on 9 August 1859, in Dublin, Carolina Guarducci (1818–75), opera singer and eldest daughter of Pietro Guarducci, of Leghorn.
7. Tivoli, a hill town 19 miles E. of Rome on the Tiber, overlooks the Campagna and is famous for its Roman temples and villas. Hadrian’s Villa lies at the foot of the hill. According to Murray’s A Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy (1853), “nothing in Italy can be compared to its imposing ruins: the stranger is amazed by their size and extent, which far surpass the ruins of the Palace of the Cæsars” (part II, p. 252).
8. In 1849, when Mazzini governed the short-lived Roman Republic as the acknowledged head of a triumvirate.
9. William Page’s oil on panel portrait of RB, which sold as lot 57 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, G8), is reproduced as this volume’s frontispiece.
10. Read’s portraits of EBB and RB (see letter 3286, note 16) were purchased by Ferdinand Julius Dreer (1812–1902), a Philadelphia jeweller and goldsmith, who later gave them to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. They are now at the Armstrong Browning Library. See vol. 19 where they are reproduced between pages 336 and 337.
11. Probably The New Church Magazine for Children, founded and edited by Sampson Reed (1800–80), prominent Swedenborgian. Published in Boston, it ran from 1843 to 1862, after which it was known as The Children’s New Church Magazine.
12. At least two pages are missing. The balance of the letter is written on the inside flap of the envelope.
13. The Congregational Year Book for 1855 notes that George Barrett Hunter left Ramsgate for Beer, Devonshire, in 1854.
___________________
