4000. EBB to Isa Blagden

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 69.

[Florence]

[mid-May 1857] [1]

My dearest Isa To begin with the wine .. Ferdinando says that ours is dearer, & that Ansano objected to that– Three pauls & a half the flask—but then the flask is equal to four bottles of Marsala, .. & the wine goes further, of course, through being better, than the ordinary supply.

Dearest Isa, I did not look at you “reproachfully” surely. How could I, when I felt simply the satisfaction of seeing you again? As to last night,—“tired” was not the word– I thought you all so good, & so kind & so agreeable .. and you so dear, as ever. But I thought myself very stupid & dull & flaccid .. as if the life & spirit had gone out of me—which is the case literally—just the condition described by people who say that they could be knocked down by a feather– Naturally, the feather knocks me down ten times a day,—& small blame to it! Do you know my heart died in me when Robert talked of going to England next year? I felt as if I could’nt bear it. Which is all absurdity on my part, of course—& not worth speaking of, except to explain why I seemed to you “tired” last night.

Come as often as you can, dearest dear Isa, & untire me– I love you truly, as you know–

Your attached

Ba–

Publication: B-IB, p. 121 (as [early June 1857]).

Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.

1. Dating inferred from EBB’s description of her fragile emotional state. After learning of the death of her father, EBB saw no one but Isa Blagden for at least a month, as reported by RB in letter 4002. EBB indicates at the beginning of the second paragraph that she had not seen Isa for some time until just recently.

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