4051. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 143–144.
[Bagni di Lucca]
[?22] [September 1857] [1]
Oh no, my dear kindest friend– My poor little Peni is not at the ‘Prato’ [2] but still in his bed, only very much better I do thank God. The fever & flushings of rash rather than permanent eruption, continued through yesterday, and I was uneasy this morning at two oclock to find the skin cleared perfectly while he was very hot. After that, however, he slept quietly, and at nine oclock when the doctor arrived, there was scarcely a sign of fever or of eruption either. His little face now is white & rose as usual, & fresh & cool. But the doctor [3] wont let him get up, & persists that it is measles of some singularly benign character, all the symptoms, he says, denoting meazles, with the exception of a little irregularity in the form of the eruption—and I do trust it may be so, the advantage of the disorder passing so mildly, being quite obvious. He is very gentle & sweet, & not restless about this bed-keeping—and now I am no longer very anxious about him. How grateful I ought to be!
Dear, you interest me very much– Tell me more, more, as you know it,—for there is nothing to me of such grand &, at the same time, intimate significance, as this subject. The ‘discerning of spirits’ [4] means, I think, (I have looked at the passage) the critical apprehension in the power of understanding between the good & the evil spirits. It is a power we need much– But I never should fear that those who hold by the Lord & the Good, should be deceived injuriously to themselves.
I am afraid of thinking of you for wednesday. It is so much more prudent for you to keep away.
Oh no, no. We do not require any help. Peni reads himself a little,—not much—& perhaps much reading & talking are not very good for him–
Your ever grateful & affectionate
EBB
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Conjectural dating based on EBB’s reference to Pen’s illness and on her tentative cancellation of Mrs. Eckley’s Wednesday visit (see letters 4049 and 4052).
2. “Meadow.”
3. Identified as “Marchi” in letter 4054. Ridolfo Marchi, listed as an Italian physician in W. Snow’s Hand Book for the Baths of Lucca (Pisa, 1846), resident “the whole year round” and “employed by the government” (p. 58).
4. I Corinthians 12:10.
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