3513. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 63–64.
[Florence]
[early February 1855] [1]
My dearest kindest Isa it grieves me quite that you should be vexed about this evening– I was vexed before you—& yet the truth is, that Robert is reasonable about it, & that my nights just now are so execrable it seems a sort of duty to take the possible precautions against them. I never speak therefore in the evening—Robert reads & plays—and the very pleasure of seeing you would set me talking if I tried or not to be dumb. I have had a pulse à faire fremir, [2] for several days, even in the day-time, and at night on comes the cough, so that I get up in the morning broken & exhausted. At the same time, last night was a shade quieter .. I had more sleep—& the circulation seems more reasonable this morning. So that altogether I have hope of surviving my troubles. If I thought they were to end me, dearest Isa, I would insist on seeing you as much as possible,—but as it is, a few evenings more quiet may set me up enough to enjoy you & be the better for you at once. Therefore I take patience, for my part—but I cant tell you dearest Isa, how it touches me .. yes, & Robert too .. that you should care to come & see me so! He was on the point he says, of giving it up .. against his own sense of what was right & wise. There’s an iron Pluto [3] for you!
Mr Irving has just written to us that the weather is exactly as trying at Pisa—which, as the ordinary temperature of Pisa is higher than Rome’s, is a satisfactory thing to hear– Never since I have been in Italy, have I suffered so—that’s sure. Mr Jervis says that the weather in Rome has been & is “detestable,” and the town “filthy & gloomy.”
I hope Robert told you how relieved the letter from England made me about our dear old friend– [4] Think of her absolutely being on her legs again!—walking from one room to another! I dare say she will outlive half of us after all. It seems quite a miracle.
I will send you back your papers, dear, very soon, & I thank you much for letting me see them– You are running over with kindness—nothing spunges you up!
Do you know I wont let Penini be enchanted today with your music, till I hear something more about the miliary symptoms. He shall go some other day instead. Children are morbidly susceptible of infection you know, & it’s my comfort just now to see him in the full blossom of health. Forgive this cowardice. My love to dear Lou– So sorry I am to hear of her having been unwell for her sake & your sake, dear dear Isa.
Your grateful & attached
Ba–
Address, on integral page: Miss Blagden.
Publication: B-IB, pp. 63–64.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dating based on EBB’s references to her ill health, to her refraining from talking in the evening, and to Isa’s frustrated desire to visit. In letter 3518 EBB refers to these same topics, adding that Isa came to tea “the day before yesterday”; i.e., 10 February.
2. “To make [one] tremble.”
3. Cf. Milton, Il Penseroso (1673), line 107.
4. Mary Trepsack.
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