3591. Anna Brownell Jameson to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 217–220.
Paris
July 31– [1855] [1]
I have been longing to write to you dearest Ba—but deferred from day [to day]—because I could tell you nothing definite of myself– I was prevented from leaving Paris—just as I was setting off—(trunks packed—passports signed &c)—a vexatious & painful accident to my mouth– I have been ever since suffering more or less[.] Am still in the Dentist[’]s hands—and shall not be released till about the middle of next week– It is very inconvenient—but I am making the best of it—& of my time—& am again able to go out & look forward to some decided arrangements—I intend to leave Paris on the 7th if I can– Madame de Goethe is waiting for me at Vienna—she has been very suffering—& I shall join her there—by her express desire—so that all my plans about Italy are postponed—she is very apprehensive about the cholera—which prevails all thro Lombardy—in short for the next 2 months I shall do what she likes—& then—I dont know what next– I am afraid even to think of Rome—lest I should not be able to accomplish it–
Now dearest Ba—do write to me– How empty Paris has seemed to me without you!—do you remember how I used to go lounging up to the Elyseés every day—satisfied to be near you?—& to look in your sweet kind face?—& to listen to you!—& to talk to you or be silent?—& dear Robert—who always reminded me of Göthe[’]s simile of the fountain [2] —like one of those great jets d’Eau at Versailles—flinging its stream on high & around so that whatever side you brought your cup, it was sure to be filled?—& your darling boy & all his graceful ways—& sweet voice– I could almost wish myself in England—but no—it is better, wiser to be here—than there—but do write to me!—have you got a nice lodging?—have you made progress with your poem?– Whom do you see!– I know you see Mrs Procter for she always mentions you—& who else whom I know—Adelaide & Fanny Kemble—tell me!—& about Tennyson[’]s new poem [3] —have you read it?—have you seen Mr Kenyon—or is he in the Isle of Wight—take your nice pen in hand—& scrib[b]le a line—tell me of your sisters—of all that concerns you—it seems as if those few days in which we were together here—had brought you nearer to me than ever– Monckton Milnes is here—he is going with me tonight to see Madme Ristori in the new part of the Pia dei Tolomei [4] —I wish she would not always play in Tragedy—such lugubrious—monotonous tragedies as these French & Italian—she was so very charming in elegant Comedy!—but the furore does not diminish—& I must say that the impression her personal character has made on me does not diminish either—on the contrary–
—I went last night to St Germain to see Lady Elgin & say farewell to Lady Augusta who is obliged to return to England & go into waiting on her Duchess– [5] I spent a pleasant Evening with them—they are in a pretty hotel on the verge of the forest—the old Lady is looking better & is really better– Lady Fanny [6] is come to take her sister[’]s place as Nurse—& I found there a brother. Thomas Bruce, [7] who made a most agreeable impression & appeared to me a man of information, sense & good feeling—we talked of you—& miladi showed me the copy of Keats [8] you had given her with evident pride in the gift—— She has lent her rooms in the Rue de Lille to Mrs Chapman for the exhibition of her purchases for the American Bazaar [9] —it is to be some thing very pretty–
I have been making some more researches here into the working of the Sisters of Charity—which I hope to turn to account some day—but I feel lonely & go about all my pursuits as if I were on a desert island—I dont know why–
Madme Mohl is as amusing as ever—& as kind—no one can be more kind but there are times when the rapid utterance, & excessive animation, makes me nervous—that is my fault only & because I am not well—she is taken up at present by the famous Orientalist von Hammer [10] —who is here—as brilliant at 82—as I remember him at Vienna 20 years ago.
—Now I shall get into a Cab & take my letter to the Grande Poste—while there is yet time—write to me dearest Ba—& you Robert—add a few words. I love your joint letters.
You are so inseparable in my fancy & my love–
Ever yours
Anna
Address: Angleterre / Mrs Browning / 16. Dorset Street / Baker Street / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Goethe is reported to have made the following comments in regard to Alexander von Humboldt: “He has a many-sidedness such as I have found nowhere else. On whatever point you approach him, he is at home, and lavishes upon us his intellectual treasures. He is like a fountain with many pipes, under which you need only hold a vessel, and from which refreshing and inexhaustible streams are ever flowing” (Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret, trans. John Oxenford, 1850, I, 299).
3. Maud, and Other Poems (1855), which was advertised by Moxon as “just published” in The Athenæum of 28 July 1855 (no. 1448, p. 859).
4. A play in five acts by Carlo Marenco (1800–46), first performed in 1836 at Turin. Mrs. Jameson would be attending the French premiere at the Théâtre des Italiens, which featured Adelaide Ristori in the title role. The play is based upon a character in the fifth canto of Dante’s Purgatorio and depicts the tragic and mysterious murder of a young bride.
5. The Duchess of Kent, Victoria Maria Louisa (1786–1861), daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and widow of the Prince of Leiningen. She had married in 1818 Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. Their only child Alexandrina Victoria (1819–1901) became Queen of England upon the death of William IV on 20 June 1837.
6. Frances Anne Baillie (née Bruce, 1832–94), youngest daughter of Thomas Bruce (1766–1841), 7th Earl of Elgin, and his second wife Elizabeth (née Oswald, 1790–1860). Lady Frances married at Paris on 15 February 1855 Evan Peter Montagu Baillie (1824–74), of Dochfour.
7. Thomas Charles Bruce (1825–90), youngest son of Lord and Lady Elgin.
8. The Brownings presented a copy of Keats to Lady Elgin in December 1852; see letter 3151, note 10.
9. i.e., the Anti-Slavery Bazaar held annually at Boston beginning in 1834 and under the direction of Maria Weston Chapman (1806–85) and her sisters since 1835. Put on at Christmas in recent years, it was usually accompanied by the publication of the Anti-Slavery Society’s annual gift book, The Liberty Bell, also under the direction of Mrs. Chapman.
10. Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall (1774–1856), Austrian orientalist and diplomat. His translation of Divan of Hafiz (1812) inspired Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan (1819).
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