4121. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 19–22.
Florence.
Jany 26. [1858] [1]
My dearest Mrs Martin, how grieved I am that you should be ill. And I am sure you have been very ill, since you admit of illness at all––very ill– Dearest Mrs Martin, I wish I could take your hand & say this, and say besides that it vexes me to think how you have been feeling after me in the dark when I should have gone to you long ago. It was wrong of me indeed– I have been wrong always & to nearly everybody for months past, .. never writing when not goaded & driven to it, .. but this is no excuse to you– Only I am not quite as bad as you think—(the Devil is’nt, says the proverb, [2] —so I may say it of myself humbly;––) for I never received the letter you speak of, nor the lithograph, [3] —never. Tuscany has behaved ill about letters lately, & many are lost, .. for what reason I cant say– Now let me tell you of ourselves–
We lingered about going to Rome, and the weather changed, & then we lost courage for going. I have not been ill—only languid & nervous sometimes– Just now I have a little necessary cough through the exceptional severity of the weather (by nine degrees colder than for many years) & I have taken to prison discipline & diet .. my old codliver oil—but I am not ill, even now. No indeed. Only one’s soul goes away, in frost & snow such as we have had it here lately, & one thinks regretfully of the forfeited Ægyptian warmth in the midst of which we might have been now, &, of which, letters from our intended fellow-travellers [4] (enclosing sprigs of jasmine) invidiously remind us– Well—we decided, as we thought, for the best– (Robert wants to make me swear to go next year.) At any rate little Penini, on whose account I chiefly feared the east, is comforting me here with a full fat rosy face,—getting on too, magnificently, with his music & German, which he would’nt have done on a Nile-boat—not in the music, at least. And he plays to the surprise of everybody, this little creature,—long “arrangements” of operas, from Bellini & Verdi––“not like a child” as people say, .. with a sense of time & sentiment which are remarkable– The poor little hands that cant reach an octave anyhow!– Then he reads & translates quite nicely Grimm’s German stories– We are very proud of him– The best sweetest darling, too, I must say … breaking off in pure consideration to you, & not a bit “for good taste’s sake.”
Yes, I have been in bitter indignation at “the affair” in Paris, [5] .. and all the more that I know or seem to know something of the persons implicated, .. I mean, of the class of persons, .. & of the gradual & deep demoralization of certain ideas which enter in & possess a man or woman– As to Mazzini who is mixed up more or less with all these things, [6] I could burn my right hand which has helped to praise him– When I was in England, I almost knelt at the feet of a woman (whom I loved & love) [7] to save her from the influence of that man. Almost in vain too—almost—not quite– She swore to me that her hand should not strike so till she had seen me again—but the letter of the oath has not kept her from much evil since that time. The man mesmerizes women & men, uses them as instruments in unscrupulous deeds, & breaks them without a sigh– Never has Austrian done as much harm to Italy as Mazzini has– He has lost us liberty—I do not doubt that he was the heart of the frightful business in Paris lately, though we know nothing except from the newspapers. “O Liberty, what deeds are done in thy name.” [8]
It seems to me that the emperor’s address to the Legislative body was very fine– [9] Prout says of it, .. “the most heroic document of this century,” [10] —& I think with reason.
The speaker did not however go deep enough when he said that a bad cause does not & never did triumph by assassination– He should have said, added, that, even when the unjust man falls by assassination, the just cause never so triumphs– In government, the man at the head of it, is never all: he is the ostensible sign of something else, when he himself is anything. Stab the King of Naples, [11] who is undeniably a bad man, & at the head of a bad government, and if you do no more than kill him, he is replaced instantly in his kind– Breaking off a vane does not change the wind– No, indeed–
I have said nothing, dear dear friend, of your personal griefs, [12] knowing that it is better not to intrude between God’s hand & such sore wounds– But I write by return of post that you may know how I think of you in sympathy & love– Dear Mr Martin must have suffered in seeing you ill– Make haste & go south, and let me hear as soon as you can, that you are much better & more cheerful. I long to hear this.
My best love to the dear Hedleys– Oh you Englishwoman!—— I know that in your heart you would fain tie up your friends to the English provinces in ties of disgust, to Paris– Tell me sincerely .. do you find your country-neighbours more virtuous (& more intelligent?) than your vagabond friends? “I pause for a reply.” [13] For my part, I think, that moving from one country to another is excellent exercise for souls,—tending decidedly to their growth & expansion–
Yes, I am not only glad but delighted to hear of Henry’s intended marriage– His letter talking of a divine Amelia in the clouds (of whom I had never heard in my life) broke on me as the pleasantest letter I had had for a year– Dear dear Henry! I was so glad. Beautiful, faultless, perfect temper, lovely shape of the head, eyes to make sonnets on, a nobility far on the outside of human nature ...... &c &c. in fact, Henry is deeply in love & that charmed me! he is so good, so domestic, so likely to be happy & to make happy– Since then, I have heard, what he was not certainly at the time aware of, that she has a thousand a year .. which spoils nothing of course. The widowhood I should have objected to, hating second marriages,—but it appears that the first engagement was no true marriage—very unhappy– She left her husband after the first fortnight– [14] And Henry loved her when she was Miss Holland. Here I shall end– I have lately had letters from both my sisters .. rather pleasant than otherwise. Dear Storm insists on returning for a time to Jamaica, & he will go, I suppose. May God bless you both my very dear friends– Robert’s love & Peni’s.
Your ever affectionate & grateful
Ba
Address: France / À Madame / Madame Martin / Hotel Brighton / Paris.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Cf. the proverbial expression: “The devil is not so black as he is painted.”
3. Apparently, of Hope End; see letter 4176.
4. The Eckleys.
5. On the night of 14 January 1858, an attempt was made to assassinate Napoleon III near the Opéra de Paris in the Rue Lepelletier. Felice Orsini (1819–58) and three other Italian nationalists threw four bombs (three exploded) at the carriage carrying the French emperor and empress on their way to the opera. Neither imperial party was hurt, but eight people were killed, and over a hundred others were injured. All four of the conspirators were arrested, tried, and convicted. Orsini was sentenced to death and executed on 13 March 1858.
6. Felice Orsini had been one of Giuseppe Mazzini’s trusted associates. However, according to Denis Mack Smith, “Orsini, for personal as well as political reasons, had some months earlier become a bitter enemy of Mazzini and indeed was hoping by such a horrific action to supplant his former leader with a more extreme and violent policy for the patriotic revolution. Mazzini deplored Orsini’s attempt” (Mazzini, New Haven, Conn., 1994, pp. 121–122).
7. Jessie White Mario (see letter 3537, note 11).
8. Cf. “O liberté, que de crimes on commet en ton nom” (“O liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name”), the words of Jeanne-Marie Roland de la Platière (née Phlipon, 1754–93), just before she was guillotined in November 1793.
9. On 19 January 1858 Napoleon III addressed the opening session of the French legislature. The Examiner of 23 January carried a translation of the speech, which concluded with remarks on the recent assassination attempt: “These plots bring their lessons with them. Firstly, they prove the weakness and impotence of the parties who have recourse to assassination and such desperate means; secondly, that no assassination, even if successful, ever served the cause of those who hired the assassin. … These attempts, therefore, neither shake my security in the present nor my faith in the future. If I live the Empire will live with me, and if I should fall my very death would only tend to strengthen the Empire” (p. 54).
10. Presumably, communicated in a letter. Francis Sylvester Mahony (“Father Prout”) was at this time Paris correspondent for The Globe and Traveller.
11. Ferdinand II (1810–59); see letter 3003, note 29.
12. One of these “griefs” was the recent death of Mrs. Martin’s younger brother, Samuel Vignoles (1796–1857), who “accidently drowned” on 18 November at Melbourne, Australia (The Cork Examiner, 25 November 1857, p. 2).
13. Julius Caesar, III, 2, 34. In this and subsequent quotations from Shakespeare’s works, the line numbers correspond to those in The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston, 1974).
14. Edward Morris (1822–52), only son of David Edward Morris (1773–1842), proprietor of the Haymarket Theatre, and his wife, Maria Sarah (née Windus, afterwards Drummond, 1794–1872). Morris was “late of the 1st Royal Dragoons” when he married Sophia Amelia Holland on 29 February 1844 (The Morning Post, 1 March 1844). Two years before marrying Sophia Amelia, Morris had a daughter born out of wedlock, Maria Elizabeth Morris (1842–1931). She became Octavius Moulton-Barrett’s second wife in 1865.
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