3925. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 132–136.
Florence.
Novr 23. [1856] [1]
My very dearest Arabel I do thank you from my heart for your darling letter like yourself. I have been growling like a wounded bear for a letter, a letter—so frightened that I did’nt dare say I was frightened—you understand. Here, where there’s nothing to distract one, I think of you over & over, turning you round—first, it’s papa—then, it’s you– But you are a darling for writing,—& you have done me, .. oh, so much good!– But, dearest, you should get my letter on the fifth day, & I cant conceive how it is that you waited nine days for it. Well—no growling any more on my part—& for you, you may rely on hearing from me. Dearest George, was very good to let me hear of your safe arrival [2] —but I did not write immediately because I took it into my wise head that you were going to write immediately. The weather here is very cold—ice in the streets—such a thing unknown at the time of year: but I suffer more from languor than any other cause—& the cough keeps off surprisingly. There is certainly something in the atmosphere here, apart from the temperature, which is favorable to me. So much to set you at ease about me,—doing as I would be done by. Penini is in full bloom & great spirits. You cant think how pretty he looks in his new blouses. Only yesterday, two English gentlemen stood still to look at him—“What a beautiful child! So graceful! such splendid hair.” ‘You should’nt hear such things,’ observed Wilson. “And pray why not,” said he, walking on with an air– I am happy to say that he attends much more to his lessons, & that we have to praise him for a general improvement in goodness. I read your letter to him, as far as concerned him, & he was very pleased. He tries to be good, I think,—having told us that he meant to “turn over a new leaf really.” Last night I heard him saying his prayers—“Oh dear God, make me dood by your Holy Spirit.” Still, the ecclesiastical vocation seems to have passed—it was the gravity of Mr Kenyon’s house which threw him on that—and now he has taken to his soldiering as absorbedly as ever, & is frightfully Italian, talking of “you English” with great contempt. We have bought a new little bed for him & put it into our room, as we could’nt leave him with Wilson & Ferdinando. Then he goes to his own room (that is, Wilson’s) to dress. Ferdinando has a room of his own to dress in– Yes, our house is very, very comfortable, & strikes me so, even after all Mr Kenyon’s luxuries—and if you were here to see, you would say so. Still Florence is flat, Robert says, after London & Paris. Therefore fittest I say, for the attitude of repose. Not to be obliged to do anything, is a delightful novelty to me just now,—even though I am of course expecting to be torn to pieces for what I have done– The best is, that I dont feel any more afraid of it,—Florence seems so out of sight & out of hearing of the whole world. I shall not have to face a man who has just read my book & is thinking what a shameless wretch I am,—& that’s an inexpressible comfort to a woman who is brave in thought & in writing, but socially & personally covetous of the quiet & safe side of the street, to almost an ignoble degree– Oh! <Annie Hayes.> [3] What a letter. And who is Colonel Downing, [4] I wonder .. you must try to get me out of this. Explain to her if she comes, and if she seems to insist on her request following me to Italy (for it may be enough to say that I am gone) .. explain to her how I have nothing to do with the book, & have to pay for every copy I give—which is the case, you know– It is’nt as if a publisher simply printed for me. Cool indeed,—on her part– But try to smooth matters so that I may not appear unkind. I would give her ‘Aurora’ if I thought she really cared for it, and if I were in London—but as it is,—well, it does seem to me an astonishing proceeding on her part.– How sad is your account of dear Mr Hunter. [5] Tell me, Arabel. Do you mean to say that his mind is impaired? Where is Mary? [6] What are her present prospects? Is she distressed much,—& has she lost all hope of her father’s being better. Is he able to read & employ himself? Tell me a little more– What sort of ‘hospital’ is it? an establishment where he can have comfort & seclusion? tell me– I had seen in the paper Alfred’s arrival at Madeira, & now am very glad that Lizzy sailed as she did. No, Arabel,—I fear much that it is merely outside prettiness with her—only she is so very, very pretty, that one would fain give the outward credit for the inward–
Talking of prettiness, the daguer[r]eotype of Henrietta’s children, [7] which she gave to me, was left, through Wilson’s mistake, in Wimpole Street. I have been very angry & vexed, because it looked so like a perfect indifference & ingratitude on my side, to Henrietta’s kindness– But after all, the thing is arranged rightly—it was right that you should have the picture, & I give it up to your hands & am the more satisfied that I always felt you ought to have it! Its a very pretty picture, is’nt it? & so like both the children, that I wish there was as good a one extant of my little Pen. Talking of him, there was no difficulty between him & the French sailors, on account of their being French, I can assure you– He gets on capitally with the French, & has no shyness about speaking. In Paris, he went out with Mr Browning & astonished him by the facility with which he asked the road & interpreted generally for the ‘grandpapa’, who himself makes no progress from year’s end to year’s end, in this matter of the foreign language. Penini goes with Robert to hear Mr Hanna preach—but really Arabel, I have my secret doubts whether we do well in making him go. Mr Hanna is tremendous in heaviness as a preacher—& a child cannot by any possibility keep up his attention. It is difficult to say what should be done under such circumstances,—for though you hate me for saying so my darling Arabel, I do believe in my soul that a child’s spiritual nature wd be better served by sending him into a kneeling Catholic congregation with his little prayer for five minutes, than by overburthening him with a load of Scotch orthodoxy for an hour & a half. Still, there are objections, I am aware. What may be good now, wd act ill, perhaps, on the future—& it might be dangerous to attach a child’s devout associations to forms which are associated, on their side, with such an amount of dogmatic error. So Peni goes on to Mr Hanna’s service, and I sigh for the renewing of the churches in certain respects .. for the letting in of more sunshine & air & natural beauty. It will not be perhaps, in my time, but it will be, I think. The world is preparing for some unforseen spiritual developments– Well. Talking of the R. Catholic church (which will suit them little) Mr Aubrey De Vere [8] spent about five hours with me alone the other evening, (while Robert was having tea with Isa Blagden), discoursing on that form of faith. He is a convert within these few years—very devout, very learned, very fluent, almost eloquent & quite acute. He left me with great respect for him, but perfectly untouched by his arguments,—though somewhat exhausted by having to listen & talk so long. Nothing ever does touch me from that quarter of heaven,—my own tendencies are so different. Ending, I thought he was in the way to be saved,—& he thought I was’nt … I had the curiosity to ask him about the process of his conversion—& of course he told me that he had begun by High-churchism—according to the Anglican model. Of course. He was on his way through Florence to Rome, & we parted, excellent friends. He is a very interesting person, & a good Christian—by whatever name he may call himself—for, fortunately, it does not alter a man’s identity that he should choose to shut himself up in prison for the term of his natural life.
Oh, Arabel, if you heard all the evidence to the ‘manifestations’ here in Florence, you would be shaken, though Robert is’nt. It is curious the amount of hatred of Hume, combined with the amount of testimony to the phenomena. Here are people who would be enchanted to be able to set it all down as trickery, & they turn to Hume’s witnesses—they can do no other. Mr Trollope was here the other day—he said it was impossible there could have been “machinery” in his house. I made my observations all the time he talked. When we were in Florence last, Mr Trollope believed in neither angel nor spirit—he was a free-thinker of the freest order. Now he confesses himself perplexed beyond measure,—confounded, in fact. Mr Kinney the ex-american-minister from Turin, sate here three quarters of an hour the day before yesterday—said,—a spiritual hand, cut off at the wrist (without drapery) took hold of his on the table—felt it, pressed it, shook it,—& that he saw, as well as felt—said, that he, too, tried to lift up the pencil from the table, put out his strength, & failed,—said that an accordion went playing before his eyes in the air, and then settled a foot above the table between him & Mr Powers, (having ceased playing)—said that he tried to push this accordion down on the table, & that he failed—the instrument being supported in the air as steadily as if it stood on the table—said, that, not only he looked, but carried his hands under & round it, to prove that it had no material support of any kind. He concluded that it was absolutely absurd to suppose any sort of legerdemain capable of accounting for such effects. After this testimony, he called Hume “a baboon” & expressed extraordinary contempt for him. In fact Hume has offended everybody by his agreeable habit of repeating to each, his neighbour’s opinion of him, .. which in such a society as this of Florence, could not be otherwise than fatal! I was entirely right in all my suppositions—only the testimony to the facts, is stronger than I supposed, & stronger than, under the circumstances, could be anticipated by most persons.
Mr Jerves [9] tells me that the last manifestations in America refer to the making of flowers—a real flower is produced before the eyes of all .. gradually made, as I understood him. Then there is spiritual writing on the skin—the skin raised up to present letters, as in printing for the blind. The movement is spreading wider & wider.
I have had a letter lately from Miss Bayley; & dear Mr Kenyon has had, she says, ‘a slight relapse,’—though she does not seem to apprehend anything, & even talks of venturing “to leave him for a few days in December.” She tells us that the Edward Kenyons have arrived in Vienna, & that the correspondence henceforth between the brothers is likely to be of the slightest kind. I cant think of this final breach with the equanimity she exercises—though I perfectly acquit her of all blame in causing it. But it remains to me a very melancholy fact, however caused. [10] Madme Braun refuses her offers of a home, & determines to reside on in Rome– I felt that she could not return to re-settle herself in England, & Miss Bayley considered me most unreasonable for saying so. Not that I [11] would have stayed on at Rome exactly—but to take up the old life in England wd have been impossible to me still more.
I hope two copies of ‘Aurora’ went to Wimpole Street, for you & George. If not, you must enquire after them. [12] We have heard nothing yet of course, (as this is only the 23d) except by the advertisement, of the price of the book, which I protest against as far too much. [13] How can people be expected to buy a book at such a price?——
Oh yes, Arabel—Arlette overworks her children; [14] & I think it very unwise both to give a four months holiday, & to make up for it by such means.
I go on writing of anything but what I am thinking of … you—but it wd not be amusing to you to talk only of yourself. If ever you think of me in love, prove it, dearest dear, by taking care of me in yourself—by not doing too much; by not exposing yourself to cold weather—by using means when you require them. Now that I am at a distance from you, I am at your mercy, Arabel, & you must be generous & care for me. Also write,—& tell me of papa—I am very anxious. Are his spirits tolerably good. I think you should try to get people to dine– It must be good for him. I am rather sorry that Dr Elliotson does not attend. May God bless you, my beloved, & all of you. I love & wish good to you all. Peni’s love & Robert’s–
Your own Ba.
Address: Angleterre viâ France. / Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 267–272.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. In London from Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
3. Name in angle brackets was obliterated after receipt, probably by Arabella.
4. Col. David Downing (1802–88), of the 27th Regiment Native Infantry, India. He was a distant cousin of Annie Hayes (née Boyd) through his mother Anne Downing (née Boyd, b. 1763).
5. The Revd. George Barrett Hunter was suffering from mental and physical deterioration. According to his death certificate, he died on 13 January 1857 at Carshalton, Surrey, of “Disease of the Brain” and “Paralysis.” From EBB’s mention of a “hospital,” it is possible that Hunter was being housed in the Convalescent Hospital at Carshalton, which was founded as a charitable institution in the mid-1840’s (see The Medical Times, 22 February 1851, p. 208).
6. Mary Hunter (1826–1903), only child of George Barrett Hunter, had until recently been employed as governess in the family of EBB’s cousin Angela Owen (née Bayford). The reference to her in letter 3935 indicates that Mary was in the London area.
8. Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902), Irish poet and author, had been received into the Roman Catholic Church in November 1851.
9. Sic, for Jarves.
10. EBB refers to the contention between Sarah Bayley and the Edward Kenyons regarding the care of John Kenyon; see the second paragraph of letter 3858.
11. Underscored twice.
12. Arabella’s copy of Aurora Leigh (1857) is inscribed by her: “Arabel Barrett. Novber. 15th / 56. The gift of dearest Ba.” This copy is currently in a private collection.
13. Twelve shillings.
14. EBB refers to the two eldest Reynolds children: Mary Arabella Susan (1849–1917) and Charles Richard (1850–62).
___________________
