3704. Anna Brownell Jameson to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 56–57.
Ealing
Dec 28 [1855] [1]
Dearest Ba–
Thanks for your dear letter—it is a real comfort to think of you as escaped from that miserable lodging & under a warm roof– I wish I were with you or near you! but no such good will happen to me yet– I should have written to dear Robert had I not been for some days prostrated by influenza– For I have been reading his two volumes with the deepest attention & interest– I am struck with absolute wonder by the depth & reach of intellect they display—by the metaphysical subtlety of the characteristics of various personalités—by the vigourous graphic imagery– I could complain of that singularity of form & expression which renders them difficult reading but then if it were quite otherwise—it would not be R.B. The diction has individuality as well as peculiarity—one of the poems which has most struck me & which I have not heard quoted is Cleon[—]it is quite wonderful—& I have read it with fresh pleasure & wider comprehension three times over—the latter part of “Saul” from p 122 does not please me so much as the first part [2] —because I cannot take it in—in “Love among the Ruins”—I recognised an old acquaintance I had listened to with delight– Andrea del Sarto most beautiful as character painting!—but Fra Filippo Lippi puzzled me– I see an existence & a significance but as we see a shape thro a cloud of words—but I will read it again—only I wish one could have pleasure unassisted with perplexity the first time of reading—on the whole, my idea of the Poet[’]s power is raised– O I must not forget to say how beautiful I think “one word more”! & how I wish I were at Paris, sitting by your side—that I might say many other things I have no space or time to say now!–
—The last two days I have been reading Macauley’s [sic] 3d volume [3] —or rather it has been read to me,—I am not yet fairly at work—last week I accepted an invitation (often repeated last year) from Fanny Kemble to spend a few days with her– She worked so very hard to play the obliging hostess that I felt quite tired of her exertions—& thought I should never like to set foot in her house again—yet she is a fine creature[.] Tell me is Lady Augusta at Paris?– I will not “etch out” my wretched eyes—but am going to try steel plates [4] —wh will be a saving in the end—kiss dear sweet Penini for me—& remember me to all friends who ask after me—kind Mad[.] Mohl particularly—& write to me—short letters & few words if you have not time for more– I embrace you both with all kind wishes
Your affecte
AJ
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by Mrs. Jameson’s references to Men and Women and The History of England.
2. Mrs. Jameson refers to the new part of “Saul” (1855) that RB appended to the poem he first published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845). “Saul” appears in volume two of Men and Women, pp. 111–146.
3. Volumes three and four of Thomas Babington Macaulay’s The History of England (10 vols., 1849–61) were published in December 1855.
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