3934. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 148–150.
[Florence]
[ca. 9 December 1856] [1]
Robert says he will wait for me till tomorrow,—but I leave my other letters rather, & write to you, .. so sure I am that we ought’nt to put that off any longer. Dearest Sarianna, I am very much pleased that you like the poem, having feared a little that you might not. M. Milsand will not, I prophecy;—“seeing as from a tower the end of all.” [2] The Athenæum is right in supposing that it will be much liked and much disliked by people in general, [3] although the press is, so far, astonishing in its goodwill, & although the extravagance of private letters might well surprise the warmest of my friends—but, patience, in a little while, we shall have the other side of the question, & the whips will fall fast after the nosegays. Still, I am surprised, I own, at the amount of success—& that golden-hearted Robert is in ecstasies about it, far more than if it all related to a book of his own. The form of the story, & also, something in the philosophy, seem to have caught the crowd– As to the poetry, by itself, .. anything good in that, repels rather. I am not as blind as Romney,—not to perceive this.
He had to be blinded, observe, to be made to see—just as Marian had to be dragged through the uttermost debasement of circumstances, to arrive at the sentiment of personal dignity. I am sorry; but indeed it seemed necessary.
You tantalize me with your account of “warm days”– It is warmer with us today, but we have had snow on all the mountains, & poor Isa has been half frozen at her villa. As for me, I have suffered wonderfully little—no more than discomfort & languor. We have piled up the wood in this room & the next, & had a perpetual blaze. Not for ten years has there been in Florence such a november! “Is this Italy?” says poor Fanny Haworth’s wondering face. Still, she likes Florence better than she did– She has brought letters of introduction & has got to know a few people, & has taken up her painting & copies in the galleries after permission, & is tolerably cheerful, when I see her. But she has spent too much money in coming here, she says. She will be well off—that is, she will have between four & five hundred a year—which is well for a single woman: but up to this time, nothing is arranged, and she ought’nt to live up to her income, which she has been doing of course in travelling with whatever economy.
Is it not strange that dear Mr Kenyon should have lost his brother by this sudden stroke? Strange & sad. The worst is, the coldness between them at the last. Oh, how very sad. He was suffering too under a relapse when the news came—which Miss Bayley says, did not dangerously affect him, after all. Oh—sad & strange. I pity the unfortunate wife more than anyone. She said to me this summer—“I could not live without him. Let us hope in God that he & I may die at the same moment.”
Penini has had a cold in the head for a day or two, the worst consequence of which was the hot whey at night, in which his soul delighted. Now he is well,—& so good, so transfigured to good in his lessons, you would’nt know him. Rosy & fat too—there’s no drawback. We did’nt dare to tell him of Puck’s danger of exile. [4] He wd have been furious. For my part, I sympathize with you as well as with Puck—indeed I do.
There’s much good in dear M. Milsand’s ideas for us about Paris & the south of France. Still, I’m rather glad to be quite outside the world for a little, during these first steps of Aurora. Best love to the dear Nonno. May God bless you both.
Your ever affectionate
Ba.
Oh—the spirits! Hate of Hume & belief in the facts are universal here.
Publication: LEBB, II, pp. 241–243 (in part, as [November 1856]).
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Dating suggested by EBB’s reference to the cold November—she makes a similar reference in letter 3935—and by her mention of Pen’s cold—he is suffering from it in letter 3932.
2. Cf. Shelley, The Cenci (1819), II, 2, 147.
3. In the closing paragraph of his review of Aurora Leigh in The Athenæum, Chorley wrote: “Here we must hand over ‘Aurora Leigh’ to those who will wonder at, or decry, or enthusiastically commend, or pass over the differences and discords of the tale; for it will have readers of all four classes. To some it will be so much rank foolishness,—to others almost a scriptural revelation.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 275–279.
4. A pet dog belonging to Sarianna and RB, Sr. In a letter to Joseph Milsand, Sarianna mentions Puck and describes his meeting with Pen: “Puck is perfectly well & lively,—but growled most ingraciously at his little master” ([8 July 1858], ms at ABL/JMA).
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