3962. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 218–220.
[Florence]
[Postmark: 28 January 1857]
My dearest Sarianna, Robert says I may write a few words. I wish there were anything like news to give you,—but if you talk of dulness, what must it be with us? Poor Fanny Haworth reminded me the other day that only twice had she found us with three or four people together in the evening– However, a lady-friend [1] has suddenly lighted in Florence, who has presented her at the embassy, .. to say nothing of a male Italian [2] who seems to pay her sedulous evening visits rather to my alarm, I must say. Meanwhile her health is really deplorable– She began by a headache once a fortnight,—& now a week does’nt pass without her being confined to her bed two days out of it. Robert & I have ceased prescribing calomel, for plainly the case is beyond our skill. There must be something very wrong. She seems frightened of going to Rome, both for money’s sake & health’s sake—and she likes Florence better,—I hope there is not a cause. Isa & she, unfortunately, dont combine well. They are very different. Yes, the portrait of Peni is like, [3] —and lovely,—& most gracefully done. There’s so much fancy in her performances in this way, that Robert is always decrying her for not having done more– She copies a good deal at the Galleries, having attained to getting a ‘permesso.’ [4]
I forgot to tell you that Peni went to the play & was ecstatical about it, [5] —liked it “better even” than the famous “opera of the monkies,” and would “like to go every night” he said. Poor child, he had been entreating so for this pleasure,—& you know Robert! Peni never would have achieved it if it had’nt been for somebody offering a part of a box—Robert puts off so. Throughout our many years of residence here I have been once inside a teatro, years ago, too!– [6] But Mdme Tassinari is promised another box, she says, & then Peni is to have a corner again .. which he is dreaming over, poor darling. Oh, he has had no Parisian gaieties, this year, I assure you. He laments at not having been “at a party” once. Not once!
Robert persists in his drawing & anatomy—and I dun a little for Sordello & poetry, which he works at in his head still, he maintains. He is very well & in very good spirits—the better for the quiet, I do not at all doubt, just as I myself am. He & I are perfectly sick of the subject of the will,—& if we wait until we “quicken” anybody concerned, we shall wait long. I suppose the particular time of payment must be according to the specification of the testator,—& in this instance, a year is specified. [7] There are houses to be sold, I understand. I only hope the persons who are rending & dividing the furniture &c of Devonshire Place, may respect your chairs & books [8] —which really we ought not to have left, as we did, last year. If they send them to a place of deposit, there will be more to pay in six months than the things are worth,—& much more– Robert mentioned them to Miss Bayley, but she takes no more notice of us—and Arabel speaks of the house being torn to pieces. The housekeeper [9] went to her full of complaints about it. A hundred pounds are bequeathed to Arabel, and the same to Henrietta– But what astounds me is what Robert will have told you about .. at least £80,000 being undisposed of, & so falling to the two residuary legatees. [10] How strange!—how very strange. Such men as Mr Booth! without affinity, either in blood or mind!
Blackwood is fair to Aurora, from the writer’s own point of view– Alison, Robert thinks. [11] He belongs to another & elder school. Indeed I have no right to complain of the critics generally. Robert says I am delighted when I am abused. And really things said on the other side, whether in print or M∙S. are too much sometimes for even one’s vanity! Such absurd extravagances!– What does elate me, is dear M. Milsand’s being pleased. And I felt so sure that he would not be! It was surprise & pleasure at once, therefore.
But as to the vulgar success .. the success with the masses .. why, of course, it pleases, because one is mortal & inconsistent, & vulgar after all. But if you think that I think it’s the poetry ....!
Dearest Sarianna, please yourself, in the matter of the clock. [12] You must’nt let us force on you anything you dont like—& if you should prefer to spend the money on another kind of gift, choose. I had fancied I had seen very pretty clocks—but that’s so entirely a matter of taste, it does not bear talking of. For my part, a room scarcely seems to me furnished without a clock. We are having our own which was injured by the sea-voyage years ago, done up,—now that we can afford it better.
Ferdinando has improved in his native air, & we are going on well; & I hear nothing of plans of leaving us.
Best love to both of you—from us two—Peni & me—Robert speaking for himself.
Your ever affectionate
Ba–
Address, in RB’s hand: France. / À Mademoiselle / Madlle Browning, / 151. Rue de Grenelle, Faubg St Germain, / Paris.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. The “lady-friend” has not been identified.
2. Giovanni Lotti (1812–76), lawyer and writer. He is listed in the Brownings’ second joint address book (AB-4) at 1617 Via de’ Bardi. EBB mentions him by name in later correspondence.
4. “Permit.”
5. The Tuscan Stentarello, see the fourth paragraph in letter 3957.
6. In Siena during the autumn of 1850, the Brownings attended a performance of the Tuscan Stentarello (see letter 2884).
9. Mary Ann Adams; see letter 3959, note 5.
___________________
