3479. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 325–326.
[Florence]
[mid-October 1854] [1]
My dearest Isa
What is to be said? Certainly you must do & ought to do precisely what you please & think best. With regard to any obligation about the house, Robert agrees with me that the idea of such a thing is absolutely absurd, & that you are, morally & legally, entirely free to follow your unbiased inclination on the subject. Robert says, “Mind you tell her so.”
For the rest .. you have to judge. As to ‘unhealthy quarters’ .. ‘funghi’, bad management & the like, it’s equally bosh. There was no time for any management at all. Poison, there was none. The cholera was unquestionable. Still, that there may be no more cases, is probable enough. Only the “exaggeration”, observe, is sure to be on the bright & not the dark side of this question.
It seems to me that Annette Black is very anxious to get you to Leghorn where you will spend a dull winter without books or friends. Mr Cassels tells me that the dulness of the place is dreadful. And where there’s no necessity—!
Still, you will act as you always do, with good reasons & from the best intentions—and it does not become me who am naturally so interested in your staying, to give advice against your going. Wherever you go or stay, may God be with you & make you well & happy. It’s difficult to persuade us of course that Louisa who looks so much better than she did last year at this time, shd require a removal from Florence, but still you know her more intimately & accurately than we can do. Observe one thing. You give up Zanetti [2] if you go. Because if it’s difficult to see him now, what will it be when you have to arrange meetings from Leghorn? Shall we see you as Robert said? If we do, will you come back to tea to meet Capt Aidè who spends the evening here.
Thank you for the sight of Virginia’s letter. It is very, very kind to me, at least– Is’nt it?
Your ever affectionate
Ba–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 59–60.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. EBB’s comments regarding the Henderson deaths and Isa’s leasing a house in Leghorn place this letter soon after letter 3478.
2. Ferdinando Zannetti (1801–81), a Florentine physician, had correctly diagnosed Isa’s knee problem. EBB later recommended him to Sophia Eckley: “If you are not well, I do beseech you to go to Florence and see Zanetti.. who is extraordinarily far-sighted into disorders … He is a great man too in the high moral sense. … Did you ever hear his story? He loved once, & lost the object of his love—and in a sublime despair, devoted himself, consecrated himself henceforth, to the poor & suffering of his race. A great man, indeed” (13 July [1858], ms at Berg).
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