3751. EBB to Isa Blagden

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 157.

[Paris]

[mid-March 1856] [1]

Dearest Isa I send you also the tongs, your own, .. that you may not suffer too much by your kindness to me. Also the Athenaeum–

Robert bids me say that though he will go to you, he “wont eat anything”– I suppose he’s afraid of the quantity of truffles & foie gras with which you will think yourself bound otherwise to provide yourself in preparation. He has a most dreadful cold, as you will see, & will take the darkest view of everything. Dont expect anything to break up the fugue into polkas from that quarter. I am burning candles at twenty shrines that you may’nt go to Madrid.

Your own affectionate Ba.

Address, on integral page: à Mademoiselle / Mademoiselle Blagden.

Publication: B-IB, p. 103.

Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.

1. Dating suggested by EBB’s references to RB’s illness (see letter 3746) and Madrid. Isa was considering a trip there but decided against it by late March, as indicated by RB’s remarks in letter 3755.

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