3563. EBB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 182.
[Paris]
Monday—June 25. [1855] [1]
My dearest Fanny,
I answer for Sarianna, rising up as the ghost of Ba–! Come and see us! We are all to be found at the Avenue des Champs Elysées, 138—and Robert & I are here for a week at least.
I want to see you very much. How could you go so far out of reach?
We arrived yesterday evening after losing two boxes on the road, so that I & Penini have nothing to put on—(but neither had they in the garden of Eden!). What could be expected from two poets & a bride & bridegroom .. which our servants are!? I ask it of you. The wonder is that we lost only our boxes & not our heads.
When will you come? I have seen your, America’s, & the world’s, Mrs Le Vert. [2] She kissed me on both cheeks. She wore a Napoleonic jacket of green velvet and golden bees, [3] —but was more royal than the new dynasty beyond any manner of comparison.
Sarianna was delighted to have your note & bids me give you her love. She was going to write but I usurped the pen & wrote this.
Ever your affectionate
Ba. or
(if you dont believe without
a full signature,)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Address: À Mademoiselle / Mademoiselle Haworth / Au Château Ville d’Avray / Près de / St Cloud.
Publication: Paul P. Kies, “An Unpublished Letter of Elizabeth B. Browning,” Research Studies of the State College of Washington, 18 (December 1950), 223–224.
Manuscript: Washington State University.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Octavia Le Vert (née Walton, 1811–77), known as “Madame Le Vert” or “the Countess of Mobile,” was travelling in Europe at this time with her husband Henry Strachey Le Vert (1804–64), a physician, and their eldest daughter Octavia (1836–89). She called on the Brownings at Casa Guidi in late May 1855 and described the poets in a letter to her mother (see SD1823). Presumably, Mrs. Le Vert had received a letter of introduction to the Brownings from Fanny Haworth, whom she had met at London in 1853.
3. A symbol of the First Empire, personally chosen by Napoleon I, which was prominently displayed on the imperial coat-of-arms and elsewhere. It was revived by Napoleon III.
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