4071. EBB to Sophia Eckley

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 182.

[Florence]

[ca. 10 October 1857] [1]

“Here is a note from dear [2] Mrs Eckley” says Peni emphatically, bringing it in– Dearest Sophie, I feel the wind a little, but not as I feel you– How dear you are.

And I am not ill, not I—only I do feel the wind & that I have a chest.

I thought to get a clear evening for you tonight, but no,—there’s not a hope for it, either for this day or tomorrow, unhappily for me. Come to me at least in the mornings when you can, till the cobwebs shall be brushed from the sky properly by the witches. [3]

Now shall I seal this note with my sealing-wax, having lighted a match of my own. I shall never want a match again while I live, that’s certain, though I should live an “æon” or two– Yet to thanking you, I wont, this time—“thank you” has run into the stereotype.

And for the travelling, we will talk of it, Robert will talk of it—but between generous dreaming & practical earnest remains a chasm still–

Your loving & grateful

EBB

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Berg Collection.

1. Approximate dating suggested by EBB’s reference to her health (see the first sentence in letter 4070) and to “travelling” (in Egypt and the Holy Land), which the Browning have all but decided against by 13 October (see the second paragraph in letter 4074).

2. Underscored three times.

3. From the nursery rhyme, “The Old Woman Tossed up in a Blanket” (sometimes “Basket”). Although the rhyme does not depict the “old woman” as a witch, illustrations usually do (see for example, Traditional Nursery Songs of England with Pictures by Eminent Modern Artists, ed. Felix Summerly, 1843).

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