3487. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 1–3.
[Florence]
[Postmark: 11 November 1854]
My dearest Sarianna, I shall be writing my good deeds in water [1] today with this mere pretence at inks. We are all well—though it is much too cold for me—a horrible tramontana which would create a cough under the ribs of death, & sets me coughing a little in the morning. I am afraid it’s to be a hard winter again this year, or harder than last year’s. We began fires on the last day of October after the most splendid stretch of spring summer & autumn I ever remember. We have translated our room into winter—sent off the piano towards the windows, & pushed tables, chairs & sofas as near to the hearth as possible.
What a time of anxiety this war-time is. I do thank God that we have no reasons for its being a personal agony, through having anyone very precious at the post of danger. I have two first cousins there, .. a Hedley, & Paget Butler, Sir Thomas’s son. [2] I understood that the gloom in England from the actual bereavements is great—that the frequency of deep mourning strikes the eye .. that even the shops are filled chiefly with black, & that it has become a sort of mode to wear black or grey without family losses & from the mere force of sympathy.
My poor father is still unable to stir from the house, & he has been unwell through a bilious attack, the consequence of want of exercise. [3] Nothing can induce him to go out in a carriage—because he “never did in his life drive out for mere amusement,” he says. There’s what Mr Kenyon calls “the Barrett obstinacy”—& it makes me uneasy as to the effect of it in this instance, upon the general health of the patient. Poor darling Arabel seems to me much out of spirits—“out of humour” she calls it, dear thing—oppressed by the gloom of the house, & looking back yearningly to the time when she had sisters to talk to. Oh Sarianna, I wish we were all together to have a good gossip or groaning, with a laugh at the end!——
I shall like so to show you & dear Nonno, [4] our Penini. You’ll be pleased with the child, I prophecy—you wont be disappointed. He ended his reading-lesson a few days ago with a roar, such a screaming that Wilson heard it in her room & wondered. Why, do you imagine, he screamed? Why had I to take him on my knee, & coax him, & wipe away the streaming tears with my handkerchief? You’ll never guess. —Because the apostle John was sent to Patmos. Did ever a child cry for such a reason before, I wonder. What do you think?
Thus it was. He had been reading a simple childish abstract of the scripture history, called the ‘Peep of Day,’ nothing to appeal to the feelings in any way—just finishing it. He had borne serenely the history of the crucifixion, [5] because that was done “on purpose” by the Lord—he looked up at my face with horror every now & then, but he did’nt cry. Then, the story of the sorrows of the different apostles being entered into .. Peter crucified &c &c, his heart was getting fuller & fuller—he said once or twice “This is very sad to read” .. “Only just for nothing but because they loved Jesus” .. but when it came to John .. sent to a place with water all round [6] (.. “just like poor Robinson Crusoe,” said Penini ..) suddenly the reader’s voice paused, & the silence was broken by the roar I told you of. How the child did scream, to be sure! For my part I scarcely knew whether to laugh or cry.
He’s the sweetest darling that ever was seen & known, I must say. His very naughtiness smells of violets. This morning, he & his rabbits .. (the rabbits are his joy, & the torment of the rest of the house .. think of six white rabbits on a sofa!..) got into trouble with the other idol Ferdinando who swore that he would send them away. Penini locked up the precious rabbits for safety, & wanted to lug the key with him to Villa Moutier where he was going to spend the day. Wilson objected to this, & answered for it that Ferdinando would never touch the rabbits at all. “I dont believe you, Lily,” said Penini vehemently,—“& I would’nt believe even Gentle Jesus!–” Wilson told him of course that he had said a very wicked thing indeed—that to use Gentle Jesus’s name in that way, was most wicked. The child looked thunderstruck, & with quivering lips said “Do, Lily, forgive me.” “Oh”—said she, “you have not displeased me, but God, so you should ask God to forgive you.” Off he ran into the next room & knelt down on his knees. Then—“I’ve said my prayers, Lily. Now, will you forgive me and kiss me?” Was’nt it touching of the child?
I do hope in a day or two to have an opportunity of sending you the copy-books. You will care for them, I am sure. And after a proper interval, to allow you to get the full pleasure of them, be so kind as to send them by some safe occasion to Arabel:—because I am very vain, you are to understand—& my brothers choose to say that a letter written by the same author to Arabel, was written by me! They are sceptical of Penini’s being able to write so—& call it an impossible thing! Afterwards the dear Nonno shall have the books if he likes it—when we bring them back ourselves. Arabel will take care of them till then.
Mr Kenyon has desired to have a letter from Penini– (Think of that!) & Penini wrote a really wonderful letter which wont be believed in, I dare say, anymore than the rapping spirits. To you who are the Faithful, to you & nonno, he is going to write soon to express his gratitude for the air-castles & pretty verses. God bless you both. Take care of yourselves & love us properly– Here’s Robert come for the letter! Dearest Sarianna,
Your ever affectionate sister
Ba–
By the way, imagine our prospect! Seven rabbits here already—and “the mama” (Peni announced to Robert this morning) “is to have new ones every monday!!”– She is certainly in a critical position at present.
Address, in RB’s hand: France. / Mademoiselle Browning, / chez M. Byrne, / Avenue des Champs Elysées 138. / Paris.
Publication: LEBB, II, 179–180 (in part).
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, V, 3, 82-83.
2. Henry William Paget Butler (1831–1913), tenth child and fourth son of EBB’s Aunt Frances (née Graham-Clarke, 1790–1868) and her husband Thomas Butler (1783–1861), 8th Baronet, was a lieutenant in the 7th Regiment of Foot, which saw action in the Crimean War at the battle of the Alma and the battle of Inkerman where he was “severely wounded” (The New Annual Army List … for 1855 … Corrected to 1st January, 1855, ed. Major H.G. Hart, p. 158). “A Hedley” refers to John Hedley; see letter 3476, note 6.
3. In August 1854, EBB’s father was struck by a cab in Wimpole Street, resulting in a broken leg.
4. “Grandfather.”
5. In The Peep of Day, the crucifixion of Christ is told in three parts under the title of “The Cross.”
6. The telling of Peter’s crucifixion and John’s banishment to a country with “water all round” occurs in Lesson 51, “John,” in The Peep of Day.
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