3502. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 33–40.
Florence.
Dec. 20. [1854] [1]
My ever beloved Arabel In spite of Henrietta’s dear long welcome letter I go to you, you see, like a dog to his master, feeling that you want me most. The account of Trippy is very painful to me—dearest Trippy– I can only love her & pray for her, & speak of her little. Penini says, “I sint the more I pray the worser she gets—but still I will go on praying.” You cant fancy .. yes, you can .. how my thoughts hang upon her & you– Oh, say to her, if she can hear, that I love her tenderly & ask her good & ease & happiness of God’s mercy. It is but little we can do for one another with ever so much love. This last letter I was very glad to have, but the one before came so slowly that almost I could reproach you Arabel,—though I ought’nt, I dare say, for you must have much to do beside writing to me. Only, short letters that come quick would be welcome just now. At post-time I am apt to turn very sick. Let me think now what there is to tell you–
First, of dearest Henrietta. It’s the greatest relief to me to hear of Surtees’ missing his majority & the chance of a glorious grave at Sebastapol [sic]. [2] At the same time, Arabel, I must confess to you that I did’nt take your view of the case—& it seemed to me (& to Robert too) natural & praise-worthy that he should make the offer he did. He is a soldier after all, & we must accept his point of view. If Robert were in his position, perhaps I should’nt have had the force to act as nobly as Henrietta did, but I should certainly have tried—yes indeed I should have tried.
“I could not love thee Dear so much,
Loved I not honour more.” [3]
That sentiment is the ideal of us all. I feel no violent enthusiasm about the war. But it turns my blood a little to see “captains”, so called, travelling in Italy, & I do think that, soldier or artist, we should go straight on beyond amateurship. Also, if Surtees had been made a major, there would have been advantages to his family which I cannot think him wrong for considering, though at the price of such suffering to poor Henrietta at the first step– Well—I thank God it is as it is, when Henrietta is considered– It would have been very hard on her, poor darling. She has done well, and Surtees has done well,—and as the government did not accept the reasonable condition proposed, the end is well too– Fancy Henrietta with her two babies, shut up in the house at Taunton, listening for the telegraphic reports! What a position. I had it in my head to lay a trap for her & carry her off to Paris—but if she had been caught ever so, she would’nt have been consoled by any of us. Really it wd have been dreadful, .. & the relief would have been denied to me of scolding at Surtees, because I should’nt have thought him so wrong, you see.
Ah—this christmas season! I never like it very much—I cant get over recollections .. though I dip back into the old joy for Penini’s sake, who has heaps of presents & indulgences. Now, however, I shall be too much with you & you will be too sad I fear, for anything that is’nt sad—it will be too strong for Penini this time. The poor child does nothing but dream of “my tistmas” & what’s to happen then. He rather wants all the people in Florence to be brought to have tea with him, or dinner or something—but it wont do, my Penini, this time,—you will have to curb this social appetite of your’s. I hope some of his friends will ask him– Never was such a child for going out & receiving in .. you would be shocked at him, Arabel. He is’nt shy, & is popular with children, so that he has it his own way in society, which is pleasant to us all. But I dare say he wont have so many Christmas parties as he had at Rome last year—he will have to be domestic & to accept quiet days with Isa Blagden & little Harry Cottrell & Alice Tassinari. Henrietta says we have more society than she has—but we have no mixed society at all in Florence—we are out of society, so considered. It is true that it was set down as a wonderful thing last week our having nobody at all in the evening for the whole week—but then, our tea-takings, though frequent enough, amount to receiving a few persons over & over again .. such as Mr Tennyson, Mr Norton, Mr & Mrs Kinney, Isa Blagden, Mr Stuart. We enjoy our solitary evenings most, I assure you,—tea at seven tête à tête, or Penini appearing as the sole visitor, “I sint I shall have tea wiz you tonight.” Isa has come into Florence. Mr Tennyson who is in possession of the splendid Villa Torrigiani with it’s famous gardens, has received her & the Nortons into his house .. that is, into separate apartments in it, of course—and as they are all friends & inclined to visit one another, & meet for music & talk two or three times a week, it answers excellently so far. I only hope too much friendship may not work its contrary. Such things are seen. The Torrigiani people come here frequently of course—& the Kinneys much more seldom. In the Kinney[s]’s house, [4] .. the house being divided into apartments, continental fashion, .. the American consul from Paris Mr Goodrich & his family are living now. The father is Peter Parley known to fame, and the daughter Miss Peter Parley .. otherwise Miss Goodrich, [5] .. is known to fame besides, being the medium in Paris through whom Lamartine, Arago & others had their experience of the spirit-rappings & table-movings. She had so much notoriety in Paris that her parents feared it might be an obstacle to her “success in life,” & so stopped it. Now she has begun again with the spirits, it appears—& she promised Mrs Kinney to go to her some morning & give her an opportunity of judging. A very pretty girl, quite young—scarcely eighteen I hear. She not only moves tables but elicits the rappings—only she cant write. She has held a pencil in her hand for an hour together & has had no movements. By the way, tell Henrietta I cant send her what was written about papa [6] —the paper is lost. I have put away some of the papers to keep, but I believe scarcely one remains of them all. I will try to send her something– I have been nervous about the writing lately, & we tried only once, a week since, when there was nothing legible—just scratches & scribbles. Robert was at Isa’s one evening, & I made Wilson come into this room. Both her arms were siezed directly, & when Robert rang, one leg was so affected she could scarcely walk to the door to open it. In spite of which, no legible writing!– It’s a curious & capricious power. We thought the table was going to move, it creaked & palpitated so, & perhaps it would have done it, if Robert had stayed away longer. Mr Jarves goes to the United States in April or May, intenting [sic] to seclude himself with the medium Hume [7] for several months, to investigate the subject & its intenser bearings with a complete earnestness, & he promises to write me the results. He was here yesterday. The movement spreads more & more in America. Washington Irving is now investigating. [8] As to your objection to the hand seen alone, I quoted to you Belshazzar’s feast, because the writing there was actually produced by a hand seen alone, according to scripture. That it was the “hand of God,” is an extraordinary thing to take for granted. We know nothing of how the tables of the Law were written—but how the “mene mene” &c was written is specifiedii [9] —we cant speculate about it. By the way, if a writing of the same sort were set up at St Petersburgh before the Czar in relation to Sebastopol, how you would all cry out that the communication was not spiritual enough!–
The fact is the hand is not mutilated. It is our sight which is mutilated, into seeing only the hand.
Zan[n]etti went to see Isa Blagden the other day, said the bones were returning to their places & she had only to persevere in the treatment. He examined Louisa too with the greatest care & hoped to make her walk– Afterwards, refused his fee! Isa may well call him “that angel Zanetti.” I never heard of such a medical man in my life. He’s a prodigy. Isa told him that under God she owed him everything, & the word seemed enough gratification for him. She walks up & down stairs much too often, & has recovered from the whole debility which prostrated her. Her drawing-room at Villa Torrigiani opens upon a magnificent terrace over the gardens, & in a full sunny aspect,—so that nearly every day she can walk there & Louisa lie there for hours on her couch. And this in the heart of Florence—not a quarter of a mile from our door.
Think of Mr Norton coming & sitting three hours with us the other day, & opening his heart about his marriage .. talking about his “regrets,” & crying, sobbing like a boy. I felt deeply sorry for him– I was more sorry than Robert who set it down as unmanly, after a step of the kind, to repent in public. But women are better at receiving confidences—and then he is so young & has been so foolish & must bear its consequences for ever .. I could not help being very sorry indeed for him. Also, he said nothing in disfavour of his wife—poor thing, you have only to look in her good, simple, gentle face with its radiant Italian smile, to see that nothing is to be said. But he spoke a little about the beautiful accomplished women with whom he had been accustomed to associate in the coterie of the Duchess of Sutherland [10] & others, .. then observed that he had “chosen otherwise—that it all was at end for him—& the worst was that he had no companion, none to understand him. —Oh—in the sight of God she was as noble as the noblest, & she loved him—but” … there, the voice broke again. What was to be said? He was married. There, an end. I have a good opinion of him, & I believe he will be a kind & tender husband,—but see what a frightful length of misery, if she lives out her years! She came to see me with him the other day, & for the first time I thought her pretty. Her countenance is sweet & truthful. Do you know I told him afterwards what my impression was—& you cant imagine how gratified he appeared, poor fellow. He broke out in a glow at which Robert & I could scarcely keep our countenances .. about the horrible ways of people in general, & how everybody seemed afraid of saying, “Norton, you have a beautiful wife.” The fact is he is mortified at the scanty admiration she has received from his friends—it’s one of his grievances. As nobody thinks her beautiful, nobody says so of course—& really he must love her, to expect it. I set that down as a good sign. Louisa is going to offer to teach her to read– She is heard stammering through the wall to her husband’s instruction. She told Isa that Mrs Norton (the signora madre) [11] wished her to learn to sing instead of learning to read!! .. but that, for her own part, she thought reading would be of more use to her. Poor thing! you cant think what a pure, innocent face she has. The baby [12] is not pretty, so far.
By the way Brinsley Norton who is always talking of the divine childhoods of the Sheridans & others of the “blue blood,” said the other day to Isa, that he “never in his life saw such a lovely child as Penini—& that it was’nt only for the face & hair, but for the manners & whole bearing.”! of course this opinion recommends him to me– It’s a very sound opinion too, for Penini’s manners & way of talking always seem to me his chief charm, & quite uncommon among children. You will not think him gone off, Arabel. He has taken lately to say very hard words .. talks of “entering” a room .. of “reposing his hands” .. of “preparing a table” .. of what he does “generally”, & “usually”, & “suddenly”. He’s “velly solly to interlupt you” on asking you for the twentieth time to open or shut the door, and is “quite glieved” (grieved) to have to ask for another bonbon. With all this, you never saw a more perfect baby in all simplicities; & he likes being cuddled on one’s knee & coaxed as much as ever. His Italian is very pretty—& he has caught the Italian modulation exactly, the very sing-song of the voice. I had ordered a white felt hat for him, but I did not like it when it came, & substituted, from the same shop, a black velvet one, made very low, with black feather,—tied with a green & black ribbon. It is most becoming to the child, set on his golden ringlets.
He came to ask me the other afternoon if he might go to one of the churches to hear a novena .. the chanted litanies before christmas. I said yes– I always say yes, Arabel—& added “Remember to pray for Trippy”. When he came back he ran to me out of breath .. “I did lemember, darling mama! but I tould’nt pray for Trippy—it was’nt my fault, not a bit—it was all music, & the pliests would’nt stop, not one moment.” “Well—but you thought of God, & thanked him, did’nt you?” “Oh yes! indeed.” Wilson said he had chanted most beautifully, the people turning round to look at him on all sides– They were standing to chant. Suddenly whether he was affected by the music, or whether he wanted to pray his specific prayer, he knelt down & held up his darling hands—then he rose again & went on with the chanting. Sometimes he chants at home .. “Domini Deo” .. with the very ecclesiastical intonation & cadence. Henrietta says that Altham chants too at church. Well—these children are brought up very differently. Altham, she says, is never to read a word that is’nt pure church of Englandism .. whereas Penini is carefully instructed to love & worship Jesus with all sorts of persons & irrespectively of forms– I am as frightened of sectarianism, as Henrietta is of heresy. I wonder if it will end by Penini’s being a Puseyite of the straightest sect, and by Altham’s being a red-hot dissenter. There are reactions sometimes. Only I do not feel very much afraid. Because all true religion (like moral & artistic good) is developped from within. Hold Christ, the Head, & you must be right in your place as church-member—and if you hold Christ once, you dont unhold him. To “walk together as far as we are agreed” [13] is the precept which, (after the intimate principle,) makes the universal church. It seems to me to be of great importance. When Penini examines a new book, the first anxious enquiry is apt to be .. “Is there anysing about gentle Jesus.” He is very fond of hearing about Jesus. The other day a mouse was caught in a trap & he was frightened lest Ferdinando should give it to the porter’s cat. After using various arguments, he said, “If you do cruel things .. andrete al cattivo posto” .. you’ll go to a bad place.” Said Ferdinando .. “Giù .. below .. I suppose you mean.” “No,” said Penini, “who has peculiar notions of the infernal, “su .. up above.” “But paradise is above .. il paradiso è su.” “No—il paradiso è su, su .. ma questo cattivo posto e un pocchino più giu .. the bad place is a little lower, only still above. It’s hot in summer, & cold in winter, & there are serpents! Then it’s full of evil spirits. Lily, you know about the evil spirits. Esplain to Ferdinando.” [14] This complimentary appeal to Wilson as being the familiar of evil spirits, was followed by a digression to the gospel, of which he gave the whole story to Ferdinando, to his great astonishment. Wilson was quite surprised herself at the clearness of the exposition—about Peter cutting off the ear of the servant & all [15] .. (Penini had thought that a “velly dood sing” when he read of it) everything said in Italian of course, as Ferdinando does’nt know a word of English. Penini is quite as fluent in Italian as English, and it’s pretty to hear him turn from one language to another. Indeed within these few days he has made two Italian compositions, by his own special desire. Mr Kenyon was delighted with his letter—thought it “so clever yet so childlike”– Did I tell you? That’s just the right praise. He talks much of you at times & seems to remember everything, though your locality must be seen rather vaguely, I think, to admit of his saying .. “When we det to our villa in London, mama, may I buy some tots & hens?–”
Yes– I do like Miss Sandford. What strikes you as out-of-the-way in her, is her extreme earnestness of character. Everything is real to her & in her .. even sending somebody’s regards. The conventions of society she lives out of, & so she makes one smile by her least ways. I consider her quite original & poetical in her external life, much more than Robert & I are, professed poets as we are! And I dare say she could’nt write a verse worth a straw. It is so sometimes—there are persons who, unable to make an ideal in Art, struggle for it in their daily life .. their bread and butter & boiled mutton, .. & such persons are often melancholy & always eccentric .. & interesting, I will add. Also, you cant imagine how affectionate she can be. Oh, I like her much, & so does Robert. We had a long letter from her the other day, written in pencil! She’s miserable in London, where it’s settled she is to live for the present—with occasional transits to Paris. You would like her if you knew her better. She has just sent Andersen’s Fairy Tales to Penini [16] .. who seems to like them, though they are rather beyond his age, I cant help thinking.
Arabel– I wrote to Mrs Jago from Rome. I never forget her—it was she who had forgotten me, I thought. I will write now. Letters must wander strangely, for I wrote to Mrs Martin too, not long since. How unlucky!
And tell Henrietta, we never received her Illustrated News [17] which she says she was so kind as to send to us. Robert caught sight of it at the library .. & that was how we came to know of her military glories. I am going to write to her of course. I do hope that her visiting London this winter wont keep her from doing so next summer. Oh– surely she will promise to meet us then.
I sent the ballad of “My Kate” to Mr Procter for Miss Power’s Keepsake, [18] because he wrote to ask for it. Therefore it does not come under the head of contributing to periodical literature for money– I have also given lately “A Curse for a Nation” to Mrs Chapman of Paris (her sisters passing through Florence) to be printed in her American periodical against slavery. [19]
I am very sorry about Annie Hayes’ divorce. [20] As she cant marry again, what can be the use of it, I wonder? A divorced woman in England (thanks to the state of law & public opinion) is never in an improved position. She was mad when she married, & is scarcely sane when she unmarries. That’s my opinion. “As the tree falls, it may lie” [21] & her tree fell into a ditch. [22] Most heartily glad I am to escape being ‘witness’– Poor Arabel. I do quite pity you. You come in for the worst of everything.
Tell me faithfully about Papa, for I think much of him & anxiously. Why did the Cooks interfere about Henrietta? What she thought of might, by a chance, have succeeded, when nothing else succeeds. Aunt Jane all but recommended it long ago. In any case, as Henrietta had courage for it, it was quite foolish to prevent the trial. I [23] should not have courage either to do it, or to prevent its being done. [24]
Arabel, dearest darling, do write to me. Speak to dearest Trippy for me– I pray for her & love her. Oh—so anxious I am, <***>
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 113–120.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Sebastopol.
2. Prior to 25 November 1854, Surtees had submitted a proposal to the war command (see SD1786), offering three or four hundred volunteers from the 1st Somersetshire Militia for service in the Crimea in exchange for a promotion to Major. The proposal was accepted in part, but Surtees would only “be promoted to the Brevet rank of Major” (see SD1791). He rejected this counteroffer and remained in England.
3. Cf. Richard Lovelace (1617–57), “To Lucasta, Going to the Warres” (1649), lines 11–12.
4. Casa del Bello in Via della Fornace (now Via dei Serragli).
5. Alice Lee Goodrich (1837–1903); see letter 3248, note 6.
6. i.e., what the “Spirits” had written about him; see the last paragraph in letter 3468.
7. Daniel Dunglas Home (1833–86), the most celebrated medium during the period when popular interest in spiritualism was at its height, was born at Currie, near Edinburgh, the third son of nine children of William Home, a paper-maker, and his wife Elizabeth (née McNeil). When a year old, Home was given to an aunt and uncle who took him with them when they relocated to the United States in 1841 (see Waddington, p. 45). In 1855 he travelled to England, where he became well known conducting séances, one of which was attended by the Brownings on 23 July 1855. He would later hold séances for some of the crowned heads of Europe. He served as the model for RB’s “Mr. Sludge, ‘the Medium.’” Home’s name, pronounced with a long “u,” was often misspelled “Hume.”
8. Washington Irving (1783–1859), American author, editor, and diplomat, had had at least one recorded experience with moving tables. In a letter to Mrs. Pierre M. Irving, dated 10 February 1853, he writes about attending a party in Washington “where the grand experiment was made on a large table … the table gradually raised on two legs … performed gyrations about the room, &c; all which appeared very mysterious and diabolic. Unfortunately, two or three of us tried an after experiment, and found that we could tip table, and make it move about the room without any very apparent exertion of our hands; so we remain among the unconverted—quite behind the age” (Pierre M. Irving, The Life and Letters of Washington Irving, 1864, 4, 111).
9. Cf. Daniel 5:25: “And this is the writing that was written, mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” In the verse immediately preceding, Daniel tells Belshazzar: “Then was the part of the hand sent from him [i.e., God]; and this writing was written” (Daniel 5:24), which indicates that the hand was sent from God, not that it was God’s hand. No hand is mentioned at all in the account of Moses’s receiving the tablets on which the ten commandments were written (see Exodus 24:12).
10. The young Norton would have known the Duchess of Sutherland through his mother, Caroline. It was the Duchess of Sutherland who, in 1836, stood by Mrs. Norton when the latter was on the verge of “being completely ostracized by respectable society” (ODNB).
11. “Lady mother.”
12. Carlotta Chiara Maria Norton (1854–1931) was born on 21 August.
13. Cf. Amos 3:3.
14. The placement of quotation marks and lack of same are presented as written.
15. All four gospels contain the episode of the high priest’s servant’s ear being cut off during Christ’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane; see Matthew 26:51; Mark 14:47; Luke 22:50–51; and John 18:10. However, only Matthew and John specifically name Peter as committing the act. Doubtless, Pen had read this story in the lesson entitled “The Garden” in Favell Mortimer’s The Peep of Day.
16. Andersen’s Fairy Tales, first published in 1835, began appearing in English translations in 1846. The most recent English edition at this time was a translation by Madame de Chatelain: Tales and Fairy Stories (1852).
19. The Liberty Bell. EBB’s poem appeared in the 1856 issue, which was published by the American Anti-Slavery Society late in 1855. A copy of that issue, inscribed by Mrs. Chapman “To Elizabeth Barrett Browning from her affectionate friend Maria Weston Chapman, Weymouth, Massachusetts, U.S. January 29th, 1856,” sold as lot 861 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A621). The poem was later collected in Poems Before Congress (1860). Mrs. Chapman had four sisters: Caroline Weston (1808–82), Anne Warren Weston (1812–90), Lucia Weston (1822–61), and Emma Forbes Weston (1825–88).
20. Ann Henrietta Hayes (née Boyd, 1811–1901) was granted a divorce from her husband, Henry William Hayes, “by reason of adultery” on 6 February 1855 (The Morning Post, 7 February 1855, p. 7). The Hayeses had married in 1837.
21. Cf. the old English proverb: “As a man lives, so shall he die; as a tree falls, so shall it lie.”
22. EBB alludes to her old friend’s marital problems. See letter 2716, in which her husband’s conduct is described as “detestable, past believing almost.”
23. Underscored twice.
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