3552. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 161–164.
[Florence]
[Postmark: 19 May 1855]
You will be groaning at us for our silence, my dearest Sarianna– After all we dont write to say when you are to have us back—only we are coming this time. The Paris prices just now are terrifying—& the exhibition would be as well seen on our return .. or better perhaps. You are wishing a change of air for the dear nonno– Now, think—would it be feasible or desireable that you should establish him anywhere out of Paris, & that we should see him there .. take him en route to England, there, as we should do at Paris? Will you muse over it? For instance—at Boulogne—or elsewhere—if you could hear of a nest where you might settle him comfortably during your absence. How admirable, if the Corkrans would go somewhere, & accept him as a boarder or next door neighbour for a little time. In this way we should solve a difficulty about him, & avoid Paris & the expenses, which we gladly would do just now.
Penini thanks the dearest Nonno fervently—he will bring him a copybook. Was the other sent back duly from London?
Robert says he has told you of Ferdinando & Wilson’s intended marriage. They are both so excellent, and we feel so affectionately to dear Wilson (who has been perfect to Penini) that it can only be pleasure to us to further their happiness even at our inconvenience!– At the same time it makes me feel selfishly sad to look forward & consider that a “family” is probably imminent, in which case we shall have to lose both of them—we cant, of course, travel about, (or even stay still) with a train of children, whatever we might wish. So the news comes like a shake to our domestic comfort. Still, there’s no use in looking forward– There may be no children—in which case they will stay on with us as long as they both please, & save my poor Penini a heart-break. Ferdinando is good, upright, simple, tender, & will make her, I think, very happy– He has been attached to her these two years, but she would not .. at first.
You should have seen Penini’s face when I told him I had been writing an account of his “faults” to you. He looked half incredulous, half reproachful– Could I be so unkind? After all, I forget his most inconvenient fault—an excessive love of dissipation. He must go here, there, everywhere—and oh! when will he be old enough to go to the opera?—the real opera? And when are you doing to have a party, papa-mama?—(he addresses us always compoundly without a conjunction.) If it goes on so, he’ll be blasé by the time he’s ten years old!
We were reading about David being praised .. (David had slain his tens of thousands) [1] & what came of it. “Mama,” says Penini very earnestly, “I have somesing to tell you. When I do to a party & walt out & see people, when I’m dlessed, you know, velly nice, .. I heard the people say, “Oh, what a velly pretty little boy that is,”—& I dont lite it, not a bit– I want to go away.”– There’s humility for you—though he had killed his tens of thousands; he, too!——
He is reading ‘Frank’ in Italian—a very good translation,—&, in English, “Line upon Line.”
Robert gets on excellently with his dictation—has about six thousand lines copied. The poems are magnificent. [2]
Forgive us– It takes all our love for you to draw us out of this Italy which grows dearer & dearer. We groan to each other, strophe & anti-strophe, about London.
Certainly we must see the dear nonno before we go to England. It would be outrageous not to do so. And if we cant do it except in Paris, we must go to Paris for the purpose—only in that case, it will be in the strictest incognito. I shall wear a beard, & Robert will probably appear before you as a figurante.
Give my love to dear Mrs Shaw, & tell her that all Florence is ringing with a letter I have had from Mr Jerves about the American medium Hume & his doings in London. The letter has been handed about (I lost it for a week) & we hear of a universal taking of copies. It was agreed that Mr J. should see, & send us his experience—& really it has quite confounded Robert– Mr Jerves swears that he has seen & touched—has clasped the spirit-hands, .. “softer & more thrilling than any woman’s” .. has heard spiritual music—the instrument played on exquisitely, being an accordion while he himself (Mr J) held it upside down– The spirits pulled strongly .. or did’nt pull—the music without vibration coming equally– In fact, I believe the spirit-question is in a way to be solved, proved, that is, .. & that the unbelievers will drop into the minority.
You & I, Sarianna, will see these things in London together—shall we not?—must we not?—you & I and Robert–
You see Mr Jerves left Florence a few weeks ago with a promise to write to me if he saw anything in London, where this Hume had just arrived. Robert said to him, “I will believe your experience.” Here’s the result. Yet, though confounded, & going as far as “that it cant be altogether a delusion”, he must see himself, he says, before concluding. Lord Brougham has been investigating, [3] & there is said to be a great interest in London. Hume is a descendant of the historian’s family .. & related to Lord Home. [4] His father, I think, married so as to disoblige his connections, & went out to America. Mr Hume is quite a gentleman, young, full of piety & natural sweetness & frankness of disposition. So says Mr Jerves & his family has known him long.
How interesting & strange that you shd have seen the emperor shot at– [5] It would have been the tragedy of the world if he had been killed just now. France would not hold together a moment, probably—and we should have the rest of the nations at our throats. We in England. But God will not order it so.
I really should write to Mrs Corkran– Give her my true love, & say how I smite on my breast [6] & say so!– The way I am worked just now, is my only excuse. Really Robert & I are in a treadmill, each on a side.
Did he tell you that he had seen George Sand. I did not, I am sorry to say. We just heard of her arrival as she was going away, (she was only here a day or two) and Robert went late in the evening. [7] She looked handsomer than ever, he says, with not a touch of the man George, except the cigarette.
I can tolerate that woman’s moral corruption even, (though these things always stink) because it is, in her, free of the social perfidy which is the worst characteristic of vice—at least, to me, the most disgusting.
She was going back to Paris—delighted with Florence in the meantime.
May God bless you both. Write! I am longing to be able to go by Nice to escape the sea, & enjoy the beautiful land—but we fear it will be too expensive. With the best of our loves, Peni’s & mine, your ever affectionate Ba.
Leighton whose successful picture makes so much noise in London just now, is the artist who sketched Penini as you have him. [8]
Address, in RB’s hand: France. / Mademoiselle Browning, / chez M. Byrne, / Avenue des Champs-Elysées 138. / Paris.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
2. The poems that would constitute Men and Women (1855).
3. See note 11 in the preceding letter.
4. See letter 3539, note 6. Home was not related to the philosopher and historian David Hume (1711–76).
5. An attempt to assassinate Napoleon III took place on 28 April 1855. A report from Paris, dated 29 April, appeared in The Morning Post with the following details: “The Emperor, yesterday, about five o’clock, was riding slowly up the Champs Elysées, on his way to join the Empress in the Bois de Boulogne. He was accompanied by Colonel Ney and M. de Valabréque, who rode a little to the rear of his Majesty. As he approached the Arc de Triomphe, a well-dressed man was seen to advance to the middle of the road, which is of very great breadth. When his Majesty was within ten paces of him, the man drew a pistol and fired. Count Ney struck his spurs into his horse and dashed at the villain, who had such presence of mind as to step aside suddenly, and, as the impetus given to the horse carried Colonel Ney past him, and therefore exposed the Emperor, he stepped forward to about four paces from his mark and fired again. Neither shot struck his Majesty. Two men in blouses, as well as the Imperial grooms, by this time rushed on the assassin and secured him” (30 April 1855, p. 5). The perpetrator, a Roman named Giovanni Pianori, was tried and condemned to death on 7 May 1855. He was executed by guillotine a week later.
6. Cf. Luke 18:13.
7. George Sand spent two months travelling in Italy from mid-March to mid-May 1855 with her son Maurice and her current companion Alexander Manceau. They arrived in Florence on 28 April and left on 2 May. Mme. Sand recorded that after dinner on the 1st she received a visit from RB (see George Sand, Agendas, ed. Anne Chevereau, 1993, I, 276–278).
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