3583. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 206–208.
[London]
Friday. [20 July 1855] [1]
How vexatious to miss you, dearest Isa– If I had known you were there I would have re-dressed (the injury) for I was only half undressed. Mr Kinglake had come that night just as I was going to bed, so I might have taken warning & sate up still longer.
I am vexed too about saturday, for I should have liked to go to you with Penini & Wilson who accept your kind invitation– I want particularly to see the little Pinson [sic]—I promised the mother [2] that I would– Now do help me to get sight of the child– Would she come here some day next week (not monday) to see Penini—or must I go to Chelsea .. & where?– Help me to cut the Knot. Tomorrow somebody is coming from Farnham [3] to spend the morning here & I must stay at home when I would so fain go to you–
Your letter was very interesting to me,—& do come, as you say, on wednesday—& let us talk out the whole. It will be very kind. At the same time, having promised Mr Ruskin to keep open the week for him after tuesday, I must make it a conditional engagement– If he writes to say “Come to Denmark Hill on wednesday”, (for instance) we are bound to go– But if you hear nothing to the contrary, as about Mr Ruskin, you will come on wednesday. That’s settled. Otherwise, I shall plead for another day.
As to the “presence of God” Sir E.B.L. [4] may understand something peculiar by that—else, he is wrong. The ‘glory of the Lord’ [5] & the personal Christ have been seen professedly by certain spirits.
I am so delighted that Hume is within reach– I send you a letter from Mrs Kinney which made my heart ache yesterday. You will see that poor Mrs Read died of cholera– [6] The embalming in order to burial in “native earth” &c is pitiable– People are horrible materialists, it seems to me– It’s something like bottling the last vomit of a beloved person–
With which agreeable image I leave you. Dearest Isa, dont kill yourself <***>
Publication: B-IB, pp. 73–75.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Dated by reference to EBB’s “having promised Mr. Ruskin to keep open the week for him after tuesday.” In letter 3580 Ruskin told her that if she could not come on Wednesday, 18 July, or Friday, 20 July, he “would keep every day open … in the week after next.”
2. Possibly the Mrs. Penson described by Elizabeth Kinney, in a journal entry of 25 May 1855, as an American singer studying music in Florence. She sang at a reception given by Hiram Powers on 24 May 1855. “She has a very remarkable voice, ranging in compass from the highest Soprano to the lowest contralto notes; yet it is not so sympathetic as some” (Mrs. Kinney’s Journal, ms at Columbia). There is a Swin E. Penson, perhaps Mrs. Penson’s husband, listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-3) at 7 Southampton Street, Fitzroy Square.
3. Caroline Paine (née Newnham, 1822–1904). She and her husband John Manwaring Paine (1807–58) lived in Farnham, Surrey, where he was a landed proprietor and hops farmer. EBB had first met Mrs. Paine in 1846 (see BC, 12, 199), and the Brownings had visited the Paines in Surrey in 1852. Mrs. Paine’s name appears on RB’s list of friends and relatives who were to receive copies of Men and Women; see letter 3673.
4. Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
5. This phrase occurs throughout the Bible, the first instance being Exodus 16:7.
6. Mary J. Read (née Pratt) died on 26 June 1855 at Florence, six days after the death of her daughter Lily. Mrs. Kinney recorded that Lily and Mary Read had died of cholera. On the death of the Kinneys’ servant Donato from the same disease, the Reads, “fearing contagion,” had moved from Casa del Bello to a hotel, “but what they feared … followed them,” and Lily succumbed to cholera on 20 June (Mrs. Kinney’s Journal, 19 and 21 June 1855).
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