4111. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 1–2.
[Florence]
[1 January 1858] [1]
My dearest Isa, I cannot express to you my astonishment at the infinite degree of bad taste of the letter you enclosed to me– He had just sent some photographs (of the Baths of Lucca &c) to Robert with a word of affectionate wishes written on one, and this had quite softened me to him, [2] .. all the more, that he had stood on the reserve towards me .. which I accepted as a real compliment– Yes, I felt softened— .. But why should one be soft in this world, Isa? Is’nt soft rightly another word for imbecile?
For now all my anger is up again– Such a letter!—such a want of feeling– I agree with you that nothing could have induced me to accept that gift– If I had been you I would have written, perhaps—but your instinct may have directed you to the better way. The ‘charming apartment’ .. & ‘charming padrone’– [3] How wonderful that a poet should not know what ought to be felt on some occasions. I am deeply disappointed in Lytton.
By the way, dearest Isa, Pippo [4] came to Robert today in great distress, begging hard for his intercession with you, & explaining that the clock on the piazza stopped this morning, which was the occasion of his forgetting the time. Can you forgive him, do you think, this once again?–
For the other culprit, I dont advise you to use those horses any more– They ‘gib’ [5] too decidedly–
It is shameful–
Dont you come tomorrow, saturday? Dearest Isa, Peni says you are not well,—over tired– God bless you, dear– Throw off this dust, & remember there is blue sky above you.
Your ever loving
Ba
Publication: B-IB, pp. 141–142.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dated by EBB’s references to the photographs from Lytton, which were sent as a New Year’s present. The final paragraph refers to Saturday as “tomorrow”; New Year’s Day in 1858 fell on a Friday.
2. Lytton sent two photographs: one was of the house where the Brownings had stayed the previous summer; the other, of Bagni di Lucca, specifically Ponte a Serraglio, which is inscribed by Lytton: “Many many happy new years to you & yours dear Browning! Your affectionate RBL.” (see Reconstruction, H175 and H176). The photographs are reproduced in vol. 24, facing p. 144 and p. 145.
3. At the end of December, Lytton moved from Isa Blagden’s villa to the centre of Florence, occupying rooms in the house of the banker Leone Finzi. In the 1 January 1858 section of a letter to John Forster, Lytton reported that he had relocated due to the “encreasing cold of winter, and the return of bad symptoms in the throat” (see SD2127 in vol. 24). He remained in Florence, in the Finzi household, until 8 March 1858. Evidently, EBB and Isa considered the manner of his departure from Villa Brichieri abrupt and ungrateful.
4. Groom and carriage driver for Joseph Gamgee (1801–95), Scottish veterinary surgeon who owned livery stables in Piazza Antinori. Payments to Pippo are entered in RB’s account book for this period on 18 January and 16 April (see Appendix IV).
5. Variant of “jib” (OED).
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