3506. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 45–46.
Florence–
Dec– 30– [1854] [1]
My dearest Sarianna, we are very glad to introduce to you Mrs Shaw an american friend of ours, whom you will be happy, we are sure, to make a friend of yours. She is particularly sympathetical to me in many ways, and indeed we have both only regretted the want of opportunity given to us by circumstances, of seeing her closer & oftener– Her husband is just now in America– They are wealthy people, &, like princes in soul, spend their wealth in noble ways & to generous ends. She is the youngest looking mother of a grown up daughter [2] I ever saw .. not only physically young, but with that spring of heart & intellect which often gives way in persons after much of life & care, & which is so entirely more interesting than the mere animal spirits ever are– Not that I commend her to you particularly on the ground of intellect– She has no pretension that way– It is the simple, warm, noble nature, I like–
Robert says he told you that Penini had a cough– I said nothing about it, because it was passing when we wrote, & I know how one gets to be anxious at a distance. For one day this cough was very bad, & I was in a perfect fever—for he never in his life had a cough, except the hooping cough in Paris, & I have a terror about any affection of the chest in relation to him– We gave him some Bath lozenges, [3] —and after that one day, the malady yielded .. & now you never hear such a thing as a cough from him. He is perfectly well in all ways– He caught his cold by a persistency in running out on the terraces with nothing on, after those beloved rabbits of his—which in our present weather, when there’s influenza on all sides, is not to be done with impunity. Naughty child– We are very careful .. but he flies away like a bird–
By the way Sarianna, I am indignant that you should fancy him “grown like me”– I deny it vehemently. You know foolish people in England & elsewhere such as Arabel &c have sometimes called him rather like me—but it always was nonsense, & is now. There is something in the setting on of the brow perhaps—the nose does not advance from the brow like Robert’s– But, for the rest, the shape of the nostrils, the formation of the lips, is exactly Robert’s—and you will see, when the babyhood of the face is lived down, how strikingly he will be like him altogether. The sketches we sent are defective in the nose & mouth. The brow & eyes are resembling in the full-face sketch—nothing beside—and the profile sketch is like .. except the mouth which is horrible– Wilson & Ferdinando were quite indignant about each of these portraits .. “Bellino come lui, non è, certo!” [4] “Like indeed!”
I quite love dear M. Milsand for being interested in Penini– What a perfect creature he is, to be sure! He always stands in the top place among our gods. Give him my cordial regards always, mind.
No news further of dear Trippy—there cant be much change I suppose. May God bless you both– With our tender love, dearest Sarianna’s Ba–
We have a black velvet hat for Penini with a long black feather—& you cant think how lovely he looks with the rivers of golden curls underneath. Penini’s costume costs more than either mine or Robert’s– I dress my doll & ruin myself–
It is by Mrs Shaw’s own request that we introduce her to you. Penini’s present copybook is written in ink. He has taken a fancy to make some of his “poems” in Italian. One language is much the same as the other to him.
Address: À Mademoiselle / Mademoiselle Browning [5] / 138. Avenue des Champs Elysées– / au troisme
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Leighton’s sketches of Pen (see letter 3505, note 9).
2. The Shaws’ eldest daughter, Anna Blake (afterwards Curtis, 1836–1923).
3. Cough lozenges made of honey, sold by Benjamin Dawson of Bath.
4. “As pretty as he is, it certainly isn’t!”
5. The envelope bears no postmarks. The letter was probably enclosed in one to Mrs. Shaw, who presented it as a letter of introduction to Sarianna.
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