3429. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 239–241.
Casa Guidi.
Thursday. [8 June 1854] [1]
My dearest Sarianna I am delighted to say that we have arrived, & see our dear Florence .. the queen of Italy after all. On the road I said to Penini .. “Make a poem about Florence–” Without a moment’s hesitation he began .. “Florence is more pretty of all. Florence is a beauty. Florence was born first, and then Rome was born. And Paris was born after.” Penini is always en verve– [2] He’s always ready to make a poem on any subject, and does’nt ask you to wait while he clears his voice. The darling will soon get over the effect of that poisonous Roman air, I do trust, though it is humiliating to hear our Florentines wailing over his loss of bloom & dimples—it does’nt console me that his amount of growth is properly acknowledged. Well—good milk & good air will do their work in a little time with God’s blessing—& a most voracious appetite is developped already I am glad to say. Even in the journey he revived .. the blue marks under the darling eyes fading gradually away .. & now he looks decidedly better though unlike himself of two months ago. You are to understand that the child is perfectly well, & that the delicate look is traceable distinctly & only to the attacks he had in Rome during the last few weeks. Throughout the winter he was radiant as I used to tell you, & the confessed king of the whole host of his contemporaries & country-babies.
Robert says he is going to warn you against certain acquaintances of ours, very vexatious. [3] Be warned .. for they are not of your type nor kind. We are very vexed at their planting themselves in our Champs Elysées, as such a presence entirely outweighs the whole of the advantages of that situation, such as you & I have counted upon. The Kembles were our gain in Rome– I appreciate & admire both of them– They fail in nothing as you see them nearer. Noble and upright women, whose social brilliancy is their least distinction! Mrs Sartoris is the more tender & tolerant—the more loveable & sympathetical perhaps to me. I should like you to know them both. Then, there is that dear Mr Page!– Yes, and Harriet Hosmer the young American sculptress, who is an immense favorite with us both. The rest of the Romans may disappear in the gulf of Curtius [4] without much affliction on my part.
A comfort is that Robert is considered here to be looking better than he ever was known to look. And this, notwithstanding the greyness of his beard .. which indeed, is, in my own mind, very becoming to him, the argentine touch giving a character of elevation & thought to the whole physiognomy. This greyness was suddenly developped .. let me tell you how– He was in a state of bilious irritability on the morning of his arrival in Rome from exposure to the sun or some such cause, & in a fit of suicidal impatience shaved away his whole beard .. whiskers & all!! I cried when I saw him, I was so horror-struck– I might have gone into hysterics & still been reasonable,—for no human being was ever so disfigured by so simple an act. Of course I said when I recovered breath & voice, that everything was at an end between him & me if he did’nt let it all grow again directly, and (upon the further advice of his looking-glass) he yielded the point, and the beard grew. But it grew white—which was the just punishment of the gods—our sins leave their traces.
Well—poor darling Robert wont shock you after all—you cant choose but be satisfied with his looks. M. de Monclar swore to me that he was not changed for the intermediate years.
Robert talks of money .. of waiting for that .. among other hindrances to setting out directly– Not my fault, be certain, Sarianna! We seem to have a prospect of letting our house for a year, which if the thing happens, will give us a lift.
We spent yesterday evening with Lytton at his villa, meeting there Mr & Mrs Walpole, Frederick Tennyson, & young Norton (Mrs Norton’s son) who married the Capri girl. She was not present, I am sorry to say– We walked home to the song of nightingales by starlight & fire-fly-light. Florence looks to us more beautiful than ever, after Rome– I love the very stones of it, to say nothing of the cypresses & river.
Robert says—“Are you nearly done?” I am done. Give Penini’s love & mine to the dear nonno, & tell him (& yourself, dear) how delighted we shall be [to] have you both. You are prepared to go to England, I hope. By the way, the weather there is said to be murderous through bitter winds, but it must soften as the season advances. May God bless you. I am your’s in
truest love–
Ba.
We had a very pleasant vettura journey, Robert will have told you.
Publication: LEBB, II, 167–169 (in part, as [end of May 1854]).
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Dated by EBB’s description of a walk home “yesterday evening.” She describes the same walk in letter 3427.
2. “In high spirits.”
3. Probably the Cranches, who are listed at 108 Avenue Champs Élysées in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-3).
4. An allusion to the legend of the fourth-century Roman, Marcus Curtius, who sacrificed his life for Rome by leaping into the gulf that had opened in the Forum. According to tradition, the oracles had instructed that the only way to close the gulf was for the most prized possession of Rome to be cast into the chasm as a sacrifice. Realizing that Rome’s greatest possession was its youthful soldiers, Curtius offered himself. The gap closed, and a lake formed in its place, which was named Lacus Curtius in honour of the hero.
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