3985. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 48–51.
Florence.
April 9. [1857] [1]
Dearest Madonna, I must not wait lest I miss you, in your transit to Naples: thank you for your dear letter, then– The weather has burst suddenly into summer, (though it rains a little this morning) and I have been let out of prison to drive in the cascine and to Bellosguardo. Beautiful, beautiful Florence. How beautiful, at this time of year. The trees stand in their “green mist” [2] as if in a trance of joy. Oh, I do hope nothing will drive us out of our paradise this summer, for I seem to hate the north more ‘unnaturally’ than ever– [3]
Mrs Stowe has just arrived, & called here yesterday & this morning, when Robert took her to see the Salvators at the end of our street. [4] I like her better than I thought I should—that is, I find more refinement in her of voice & manner—no rampant Americanisms– Very simple & gentle .. with a sweet voice,—undesirous of shining or poser-ing, .. so it seems to me. Never did lioness roar more softly, (that is quite certain) and the temptations of a sudden enormous popularity should be estimated, in doing her full justice. She is nice-looking too,—& there’s something strong & copious & characteristic in her dusky wavy hair. For the rest, the brow has not very large capacity—& the mouth wants something both in frankness and sensitiveness, I should say– But what can one see in a morning visit? I must wait for another opportunity. She spends tomorrow evening with us, & talks of remaining in Florence till the end of next week—so I shall see & hear more. Her books are not so much to me, I confess, as the fact is, that she above all women (yes, & men of the age) has moved the world—& for good. [5]
I hear that Mrs Gaskell is coming .. whom I am sure to like & love. [6] I know that by her letters,—though I was stupid or idle enough to let our correspondence go by, .. & by her books, which I earnestly admire. How anxious I am to see the life of Charlotte Bronte! [7] But we shall have to wait for it here–
Dearest friend, you dont mention Madme de Goëthe, but I do hope you will have her with you before long. The good to you will be immense,—& after friendship (and reason) the sun & moon & earth of Italy will work for you in their places– May God grant to us all that you may be soon strong enough to throw every burden behind you. The griefs that are incurable are those which have our own sins festering them. [8]
It is very pleasant to hear of dear Gerardine, & I can perfectly comprehend what you tell me of her. Give her my kind love.
On the sixth of April we had tea out of doors, on the terrace of our friend Miss Blagden in her villa of Bellosguardo (not exactly Aurora Leigh’s, mind.) You seemed to be lifted up above the world in a divine ecstasy– Oh, what a vision!
Have you read Victor Hugo’s ‘Contemplations’? [9] We are doing so at last. As for me, my eyes & my heart melted over them—some of the personal poems are overcoming in their pathos,—& nothing more exquisite in poetry, can express deeper pain.
Does Bessie Parkes come here soon? [10] Surely she will come.
The Dublin University Magazine has attacked Aurora (with some extreme praise, it is said in the Globe) on the ground of the indecencies—“it is a pity it should be a sealed book to Mrs B’s own sex”—and “she must not think of doing the Afra Behn with impunity”. [11] Is’nt it too bad & unjust? All because certain rampant vices are not ignored. I cant help being a little vexed——which is foolish, besides–
Robert comes back– He says that Mrs Stowe was very simple & pleasant– He likes her. So shall I, I think. She has the grace too, to admire our Florence.
Your ever affectionate
Ba–
I dare say the illustrations will be beautiful. But you are at work on a new book, are you not? [12]
Address: À Madame / Madame Jameson / 4– Via Strozzi / Roma.
Publication: LEBB, II, 258–260 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Cf. Alfred Tennyson, “The Brook” (1855), line 14: “When all the wood stands in a mist of green.”
3. EBB had written in letter 3979: “Miss Bayley says it is perfectly ‘unnatural’ of me not to love England.”
4. i.e., paintings by Salvator Rosa (1615–73), including “The Oath of Cataline” (1663), in the Pitti Palace.
5. EBB refers to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Boston, 1852).
6. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell had been in Rome with her two eldest daughters since 23 February 1857. They travelled to Florence soon after Easter Sunday (12 April 1857) and stayed till the end of the month. According to Gerald DeWitt Sanders, “Mrs. Gaskell called several times upon the Brownings. One of these calls Catherine Winkworth [travelling with the Gaskells] described as being stiff, Mrs. Browning scarcely speaking at all, while Mrs. Gaskell talked almost exclusively of Charlotte Brontë; and another, which Mrs. Gaskell made with Charles Eliot Norton, found Mrs. Browning, who had just heard of the death of her father, unable to see visitors” (Elizabeth Gaskell, 1929, p. 105). In another account of one of Mrs. Gaskell’s calls, it is reported that she “talked Mr. Browning to sleep” (Esther Alice Chadwick, Mrs. Gaskell: Haunts, Homes, and Stories, 1910, p. 344).
7. Mrs. Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë (2 vols.) was published on 25 March 1857 by Smith, Elder & Co. The title-page included an epigram from Aurora Leigh, 5, 434–441.
8. Possibly another reference to Mrs. Jameson’s estrangement from Lady Byron; see letter 3735, note 7.
10. Bessie Rayner Parkes, who was in Rome at this time, arrived in Florence a month later on 11 May, a Monday, and remained some eight days, staying at the Hôtel de York (see her letters to Elizabeth Parkes, 16 and 21 May 1857, mss at Girton). It is unlikely that she saw EBB during that time, considering the latter’s seclusion after the death of her father. But Miss Parkes did meet RB on at least one occasion (see SD2079).
11. Aphra Behn (1640?–89), playwright, poet, and fiction writer, is best known for her play The Rover and her short novel Oroonoko. Behn wrote in the bawdy style of the Restoration and claimed the rights and respect due to male authors. In the Victorian era, she was considered a discredit to her sex. The anonymous reviewer for The Dublin University Magazine, in an April 1857 review of Aurora Leigh (pp. 460–470), suggests that the book is “almost a closed volume for her own sex” (i.e., as Behn’s are), adding, “the days when such women as Aphra Behn can hope to be palatable to the female sex are, we believe, gone for ever.” The reviewer is especially critical of EBB’s “coarse” expressions and “unfeminine” thoughts. For the full text of this review, see pp. 316–323. The Globe and Traveller of 3 April 1857 quoted the relevant passage from the Dublin and criticized the review for “too much praise in some parts and too sweeping censure in others” (p. 1).
12. In January 1857 Anna Jameson published a third edition of the multi-volume Sacred and Legendary Art, to which were added many new illustrations not included among the sketches and woodcuts of previous editions. She began in 1857 preparing for the second edition of Legends of the Madonna (the fourth book in the series, first published in 1852) and collecting materials to complete the series—filling two memorandum books on “the Life of Our Lord” and “Old Testament subjects” (see Estelle M. Hurll, “Memoir of Mrs. Jameson,” Sacred and Legendary Art, Boston, 1895, 1, xlii–xliii). Mrs. Jameson’s The History of Our Lord, as Exemplified in Works of Art, completed by Lady Eastlake, was published posthumously in 1864.
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