3831. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 24–25.
39. Devonshire Place.
Saturday. [Postmark: 9 August 1856]
I am very sorry to say, dearest Moña Nina, that we cant take care of your spectacles, seeing that you certainly did not leave them with us. May it be, that you have not lost them!
We lost you, though, last night,—and you ought to have been there, completing my enjoyment– Robert bids me tell you that he “saw the Pyrrhic dance, and the moon, & Phœbus Apollo,—adroitly interspersed with quotations from Shakespeare” [1] —but you are not to mind his sneers– I know he liked it, as much nearly as I did,—& I was in an enthusiasm. Nothing could be more exquisite than some of the classical effects. The Pyrrhic dance was a Greek poem in action—I felt inclined to cry out with pleasure– Thank you for this, my dear friend. It was affecting too, in spite of all improbabilities,—& the huge one of the little baby. I think there was a round mask, as large as a very large slop-basin, carried on the top of the cradle to represent the baby’s face—which really might have been corrected at any decent toy-shop– Mrs Charles Kean [2] was perfect as a statue. [3] It was most beautiful generally.
Mrs Procter sent us the ticket, being unwell herself—so I asked one of my brothers to come in to us when he could get from dinner in Wimpole Street. How much pleasure you gave me.
Now with regard to Ealing– We are engaged on monday & thursday, you, on tuesday & wednesday, .. therefore we could only go to you on friday or saturday .. & I fear .. for those two days. So it would be better to delay a little longer before fixing the time—would’nt it? We shall see you, meanwhile. I shall like much to go to you,—but when we do go, we will have an early dinner here, & get to you as early as you please afterwards .. say, at four—and you shall give us some tea, which we all prefer to other sorts of festival.
With Robert’s love
your ever affectionate
EBB–
My two books have gone to the printer’s. [4]
Address: Mrs Jameson. / Ealing.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. EBB refers to the Brownings’ attendance at The Princess’s Theatre, London, to see a production of The Winter’s Tale, staged by the actor-manager Charles Kean (1811–68). This extravaganza-style performance opened on 28 April 1856 and played without interruption for one hundred and two nights, closing on 22 August 1856. Kean chose to set the play in Syracuse and Bithynia, allowing him the opportunity of “reproducing a classical era” and including various tableaux vivants, designed to reveal the “private and public life of the ancient Greeks” to spectators (see Charles Kean, Shakespeare’s Play of The Winter’s Tale, arranged for representation at the Princess’s Theatre, 1856, p. vi). Kean took the role of Leontes, his wife played Hermione, and Ellen Terry (1847–1928) appeared on the stage for the first time in her career, playing Leontes’ son, Mamillius. The Pyrrhic dance was performed by thirty-six youths in full armour at the beginning of Act I, Scene 2.
2. Ellen Kean (née Tree, 1805–80), a leading actress of her day, had married Charles Kean in 1842.
3. In the last scene of A Winter’s Tale, Hermione, who has been presumed dead for sixteen years, is presented to her husband, Leontes, as a statue, which is then brought to life.
4. i.e., the first two books of Aurora Leigh.
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