4135. RB to Harriet G. Hosmer
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 44–45.
Florence,
Feb. 21, ’58.
Dearest Hatty,
Two months since you wrote! and not two days,—indeed, no!—in all the time since, that I have not been intending and intending to answer you. The last reason is the best– I have been “biled” by grippe and griped (afterward) by bile, and in a vile condition altogether these three or four weeks—and Peni added very unnecessarily to our bother by going through the same complaint with characteristic variation—the end being that he has lost the Carnival at the same time as his cold. I wish we had been in Rome or Egypt or anywhere rather than here, but it can’t be helped now.
What a darling you will be if you just write us a half a page about yourself– Are you well and happy? Do you work at Zenobia [1] to your heart’s content? Have you thought of any other subject? I happen to know you are well, however—Jarvis [2] reported you so, the other day, having heard from you as I did not deserve to do.
A friend of ours, the Comtesse Du Quaire, an English lady, goes to Rome this week– She is a friend of Mrs. Sartoris and indeed (I should say) of almost every other English friend you have—and a very clever and accomplished person besides—she paints very well and has been studying under Mignaty this winter; I am sure you will like her very much; will you take this for an introduction when she calls? And will you further procure her the favour of an acquaintance with Mr. Gibson? (to whom I wish to be kindly remembered, myself). And finally—will you admire her splendid development when she makes her entry—which I do not expect will be unobserved—her proportions being Zenobian. She is coming back, I believe, and will tell us all about you.
Do you see Miss Heaton? Kindest regards to her if you do. And Aesi d’Australia! [3] How I should like to know what she is about!
Mrs. Jameson means to go to Naples at the end of the week—and thence to Rome; she is not very well, and may delay starting—as she has done already—should the weather be unfavorable; she chooses the sea route. Have you seen the Twisletons? Isa is pretty well. Annette has been layed up this month by a bad cold—but is getting better at last as we all hope to do now that the spring-feeling is perceptible. How is Page—at Rome? Is your portrait nearer completion by a touch or two? [4]
There is a letter for you—the grippe, having evacuated the nobler parts of the body, lingers, I seem to see, at the fingers’ ends—don’t you catch it thence, that’s all. I was counting on my wife’s making the thing worth receiving by adding a word or two—but she has been writing all the morning and is so evidently un-up to it that I won’t let her try—she sends you her dear love.
Yours affectionately ever,
Robert Browning.
Publication: Harriet Hosmer, Letters and Memories, ed. Cornelia Carr (New York, 1912), pp. 120–121 (in part).
Source: Typescript at Radcliffe Institute.
1. Miss Hosmer’s sculpture “Zenobia in Chains” (1859), which had been in the planning stages for some time. During her last visit to Florence in November 1857, she “spent hours in the Pitti and other Florentine libraries, searching for the proper dress for her figure” (Dolly Sherwood, Harriet Hosmer: American Sculptor, 1830–1908, Columbia, Missouri, 1991, p. 160). For details of the Brownings’ friendship with Harriet Hosmer, see pp. 329–340.
2. James Jackson Jarves (1818–88). The Brownings frequently misspell the name of this American friend as “Jarvis” or “Jerves.”
3. Adelaide Eliza Scott Ironside (1831–67), Australian artist known by her initials, “AESI” (see letter 3755, note 13).
4. i.e., William Page’s portrait of Miss Hosmer (see letter 3717, note 16).
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