4133. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 40–43.
Casa Guidi.
[mid-] Feby [1858] [1]
My dearest Sophie’s letter was very pleasant,—her letters, let me say, for two came at once, one with the flowers inside, & both with the perfume. Dear, how I thank you & love you .. as human souls may– If you knew how repentant I am of not going with you! If I had, I should have lost some cold things besides the weather here, which has been most exceptionally cold for Italy, nearly killing us all,—for I have waited & not replied instantly to your letters simply because first my husband was ill with grippe, & then Penini was ill with grippe, .. (the latter not quite well yet, ..) while I myself feel crushed in body & spirit .. spirits at least. How much better to have gone with you & helped to gather the flowers you sent me!– Thank you, thank you for sending them.
It is strange– In Paris, even in London there have been mild good days while we in Florence, yes, & at Rome & Naples, have been just freezing .. our Arno presenting room to stand on for the first time since .. 47– [2] It is as if north & south had inverted their influences– Will it ever come to “sweet north” & “bitter south,” [3] we wonder.?– The East meanwhile remains unchanged,—and I was foolish enough to refuse to go to the East– Oh, how I wish, how I wish .... and for more reasons than for any of these! That long great divine calm on the Nile, .. how I have sighed after it.
But a wise man or woman would put me down quickly with … “Count your blessings rather than your losses.” So I count my blessings– First, my husband & my Penini are nearly well again, & my anxious nights while they were feverish & suffering, are dreamt out by God’s goodness. Then, among other good things, you love me still, you have’nt mummified me & buried me in a pyramid, .. and I see your true tender face in a vision––in the body or out of the body I can scarcely tell.! [4] --
What a happy tranquil time you have had– You could’nt have drawn a picture to fill me with more envy– Though I, too, belong to this living advancing age, & feel with the moderns eminently, yet for that very reason perhaps, .. because my heart beats so restlessly to every movement of progress, .. I do care intensely for repose, silence, when I can get either. What a grand gap of life it must be .. on the Nile .. without letters, or newspapers .. not knowing who has been assassinated in Paris, or married in England, [5] or made ridiculous anywhere.!—— And little Do [6] likes it– Give him Penini’s love with mine. Tell him that Peni got a sword at Christmas nearly as bright as his,—& also a domino for this carnival .. a domino after his own choice, made up of rose-coloured calico trimmed with black ribbon, together with a rose-coloured mask– Poor Peni– Twice has he enjoyed the glory of this costume in the streets,—only twice– Then the ‘grippe’ came, and now the carnival ends, .. & I fear there will be no more opportunity for poor Peni’s glory! I shall be afraid of letting him out today or tomorrow—. Poor Peni! If he were looking after the crocodiles now!–
Still you are not to think that he has not been well this winter. It has only been this attack of grippe, and quite lately, .. & he does not give signs of being very much pulled down by it after all.
The flowers came beautifully—as if they had promised not to stir! Then I ought to thank you, dear, and your’s, (I do!) for the too kind appreciation of me in the printed extract. How much too kind .. will you say to Mr Tuckermann [7] that I think so?
The spiritual experiences are very pleasant—very– I have heard three things of Hume [8] lately .. First, .. he is in prison in Paris “for debt & criminal practices.” Second, .. he has been holding a seânce at Emile de Girardin’s in Paris– Third, .. he has had a pension settled on him of six thousand francs, & is about to go to Constantinople– The first I dont believe; the second, I do: the third I am doubtful about, waiting for confirmation– [9] A little book has been newly published on the subject of spiritualism, [10] very superior to Mrs Crosland’s [11] but having some weak points still,—by Mr Wilkinson a brother of the famous Garth. We had it sent to us from England– You will like it for the high tone & piety of the writer,—who is a Swedenborgian, by the way. Mrs Crosland is not herself a strong medium, and the strange things I told you about spiritual flowers & fruits & jewels, referred to the mediumship of another person, [12] a friend of hers whose reliableness she is sure of, an Englishwoman in her own sphere of life.
By the way, in a letter which I lately received from Mr Ruskin, [13] he answers a question I made to him by telling me that he does not laugh at the subject .. nor does he believe. He has sent us a book which would please you,—his little work on the “Political economy of art,” which is full of new & beautiful things–
Mrs Jameson is still in Casa Guidi, weather-bound & art-bound together, always meaning to go away, & never going. But she means more strongly now, & will probably actually reach Rome at the end of this month of February. I am glad to say she is much stronger & better for her residence in Florence, though she cant praise us for our warm temperature. Continually she asks after you– “Have I heard lately? shall I hear lately?” & such questions.
And you may comfort your benevolence by the knowledge of Aurora Leigh’s being in Mrs Stisted’s hands——who is sure to think it, on the whole, “a very naughty book.”
Do write—miss no opportunities– And believe that I love you, dear dearest Sophie. Peni’s love to Do, and mine do do– [14] Robert’s love also, with mine to Mr Eckley—and would your mother accept it too? May God bless you & love you prays your
Ba.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to Pen’s having not fully recovered from his illness. By 22 February, he had (see letter 4136).
2. Sic, for 49 (see the first paragraph in letter 2828).
3. EBB transposes “sweet” and “bitter”; see letter 4124, notes 7 and 8.
4. Cf. II Corinthians 12:2.
5. EBB refers to the marriage of Princess Victoria and Prince Frederick William (see letter 4117, note 8) and to the assassination attempt on Napoleon III (see letter 4121, note 5).
6. The Eckley’s son, David.
7. Probably, Mrs. Eckley’s brother Samuel Parkman Tuckerman (1819–90), composer, second of three sons of Edward Francis Tuckerman and his wife, Sophia (née May). He frequently studied in England and on the Continent.
8. Daniel Dunglas Home (1833–86); his last name, pronounced with a long “u,” was habitually misspelled “Hume” by the Brownings and many others.
9. In letter 4148 EBB writes: “An English lady has lately died & left him [Home] six thousand francs a year—that is, two hundred & forty pounds.” But according to Home’s second wife, the “English lady” and the bequest were the inventions of the “Paris journals” (see D.D. Home: His Life and Mission, 1888, p. 105).
11. Light in the Valley: My Experience of Spiritualism by Camilla Crosland (1857). EBB gives her views of the work in letter 4092.
12. Annie Andrews (née Acworth, 1841–1903); see letter 4092, note 6.
14. i.e., “ditto, ditto.”
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