3519. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 76–78.
Casa Guidi.
Feb. 13– [1855] [1]
My dearest Mrs Martin how am I to thank you for this most beautiful shawl—looking fresh from Galatea’s flocks, & woven by something finer than her fingers? [2] You are too good & kind—and I shall wrap myself in this piece of affectionateness on your part, with very pleasant feelings. Thank you, thank you. I only wish I could have seen you (though more or less dimly, it wd have been a satisfaction) in the face of your friend [3] who was so kind as to bring the parcel [4] to me. But I have been very unwell, & was actually in bed when he called .. unwell with the worst attack on the chest I ever suffered from in Italy. Oh—I should have written to you long since if it had not been for this. For a month past or more I have been ill. Now indeed, I consider myself convalescent, the exhausting cough and night fever are gone, I may say; the pulse quiet,—&, though considerably weakened & pulled down, that will be gradually remedied as long as this genial mildness of the weather lasts. You were quite right in supposing us struck here by the cold of which you complained even at Pau. Not only here but at Pisa there has been snow & frost, together with a bitter wind which my precaution of keeping steadily to two rooms opening into one another, could not defend me from. My poor Robert has been horribly vexed about me of course, & indeed suffered physically at one time through sleepless nights diversified by such pastimes as keeping fires alight & warming coffee &c &c. Except for love’s sake it would’nt be worth while to live on at the expense of doing so much harm—but you need’nt exhort—I dont give it up. I mean to live on & be well.
In the meantime, in generous exchange for your miraculous shawl, I send you back sixpence worth of rhymes. [5] They were written for Arabel’s Ragged School bazaar last spring .. (she wanted our names ..) and would not be worth your accepting but for the fact of their not being purchaseable anywhere. A few copies were sent out to us lately– Half I draw back my hand as I give you this little pamphlet, because I seem to hear dear Mr Martin’s sardonic laughter at my phrase about the Czar– “If she wink &c”– [6] Well– I dont generally sympathize with the boasting mania of my countrymen, but it’s so much in the blood, that, even with me, it exudes now & then, you observe. Ask him to be as gentle with me as possible.
Oh—the East, the East!– [7] My husband has been almost frantic on the subject. We may all cover our heads & be humble. Verily we have sinned deeply. As to ministers, that there is blame I do not doubt—the Aberdeen element has done its worst [8] —but our misfortune is that nobody is responsible .. & that if you tear up Mr so & so or Lord so & so, limb from limb, as a mild politician recommended the other day, you probably would do a gross injustice against very well-meaning persons– It’s the system, the system, which is all one gangrene—the most corrupt system in Europe, is it not? Here is my comfort. Apart from the dreadful amount of individual suffering which cries out against us to heaven & earth, this adversity may teach us much—this shock which has struck to the heart of England may awaken us much—& this humiliation will altogether be good for us. We have stood too long on a pedestal talking of our moral superiority, our political superiority, & all our other superiorities, which I have long been sick of hearing recounted. Here’s an inferiority proved. Let us understand it & remedy it—and not talk, talk, any more–
<…> [9]
We heard yesterday from the editor of the Examiner, Mr Forster, who expects some terrible consequence of present circumstances—in England, as far as I can understand. The alliance with France is full of consolation– There seems to be a real heart-union between the peoples. What a grand thing the Napoleon loan is!– [10] It has struck the English with admiration.
I heard, too, among other English news that Walter Savage Landor who has just kept his eightieth birthday [11] & is as young & impetuous as ever, has caught the whooping cough by way of an illustrative accident– Kingslake [sic] (Eothen) came home from the Crimea (where he went out & fought as an amateur) with fever, which has left one lung diseased. [12] He is better, however.
There was a letter from Arabel– Miss Trepsack is recovering—how wonderful! Papa has suffered from asthma in consequence of an imprudence but he is well. Poor Henrietta had been in London for nearly three weeks—made vain endeavours to see him
<…>
be in the room. The result was of course that he went out for the day. Those mezzo termine [13] arrange-[ments] sound wiser, but miss the possible happinesses of extreme measures. Not that I could have advised the extreme measure—still, I would not have advised against it.
Dearest Mrs Martin, dearest friends, be both of you well & strong. Shall we not meet in Paris this early summer? May God bless you!
Your ever affectionate
Ba.
Write & tell me that all goes well with you & yours—what writing!– Penini is health itself– Take Robert’s love from me.
Address: Mrs Martin / Pau / Basses Pyrénées / France / By the kindness of / Mr Andersen.
Publication: LEBB, II, 184–187 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Landor’s “eightieth birthday” (see note 10).
2. EBB refers to the title character in Cervantes’ first published work, La Galatea (1585), a pastoral novel in which two shepherds, Elicio and Erasto, are in love with the beautiful shepherdess, Galatea. Like many pastoral heroines she is seen weaving chaplets for her hair.
3. Perhaps the “Mr. Andersen” given in the address. An Edward Andersen is listed in the subscription records of Vieusseux’s reading rooms for 26 December 1854 at Hôtel de New York. We have been unable to identify him further.
4. Containing “a beautiful shawl”; see the fifth paragraph in letter 3518.
5. Two Poems by Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning (1854), published to support Arabella’s Ragged Schools bazaar. We have been unable to trace this presentation copy.
6. “A Plea for the Ragged Schools of London,” line 3.
7. Cf. “Rudel and the Lady of Tripoli” (Dramatic Lyrics, 1842), line 36.
9. About a fourth of the sheet has been excised, affecting text here and below.
10. Referring to the funding of the French war effort in the Crimea, The New Cambridge Modern History notes: “The war was financed by loans, three being raised, in March 1854 and January and July 1855. Each was larger than the last and more readily taken up. As they were put up directly to public subscription their success seemed proof of confidence in the regime” (10, 487). The Morning Post of 16 January 1855 ran the following report from their French correspondent: “The subscription to the Loan, which has now closed, exceeds all anticipation. Everybody agrees that the total amount is above fifteen hundred millions. The surplus is about five hundred millions; and the deposit of 10 per cent. is forthwith to be returned to the subscribers” (p. 5).
11. On 30 January 1855.
12. According to the ODNB, Alexander William Kinglake (1809–91), historian and travel writer, had gone “with John Delane, editor of The Times, and A.H. Layard MP to Constantinople and on to join the invasion fleet off the Crimean coast on 10 September 1854. … Kinglake rode with the allies towards Sevastopol and watched them take up siege positions on upland to the south. From there, he saw the charges of the heavy and light brigades on 25 October near Balaklava, though soon afterwards he was invalided back to England.” “By January 1855 Kinglake was recovering from his sickness at Vivary, Taunton” (Gerald de Gaury, Travelling Gent: The Life of Alexander Kinglake, 1972, p. 120).
13. “Half-measure.”
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