4155. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 81–82.
[Florence]
[?1] [April 1858] [1]
My dearest Isa, Robert makes me write for him, to represent his situation. In the first place, remember that he pays half at least in the carriage– Secondly, having (upon that understanding) promised to take Mr Inchbold, [2] he can’t possibly, he feels, leave him behind to go by the train. Therefore, however vexed to forgo you, he has resolved to accompany the Perkinses, & to bequeath you his friend– Be good to him, & to the bequeather’s memory. You will all meet in Prato. [3]
Robert says that if the night should unexpectedly become fine he will return with you perhaps, but he could not possibly sit under cover, [(]even if that sort of cover was sufficient) arranging for his friend to stay out comfortably in the rain. In fact, my dearest Isa, let it be rain or no rain, fine or not fine, I solemnly protest against Robert’s driving in an open carriage at night for two hours. His cold is not well yet, & his chest is in a susceptible state. If Annette likes to risk herself, it is her affair—but Robert’s doing so is mine, .. & if he loves me the least in the world, & if the air is as damp as it promises to be (even without rain) he will confide himself rather to steam than to Pippo. [4]
Which I should have said oratorically yesterday, if I had had the least notion of your meaning to have the open carriage in such weather.
Now be good & indulgent to crotchetty people like me, & also to poor Mr I. who is not crotchetty, & blameless otherwise.
Robert’s best love—(he will meet you of course) with that of your
ever loving Ba–
Remember Mr Inchbold knows nothing of all this– Robert tells him simply that he goes by train.
Drive to Via Canto alla fortuna. Casa di G.B. Bruzzi. 1. piano. un terrazzo. (usciti dalla stazione della Via Ferrata, prendete la via del Serraglio, e seguitate lungo questa fino presso la piazza di San Domenico.) [5]
Publication: B-IB, pp. 149–150 (as [?3] [April 1858]).
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Date suggested by EBB’s reference to the Prato excursion, which took place on Good Friday, 2 April 1858; see note 3 below.
2. John William Inchbold (1830–88), landscape painter greatly influenced by John Ruskin, exhibited three pictures at the Royal Academy in 1855.
3. Every three years on Good Friday, the town of Prato, located 11 miles N.E. of Florence, stages a re-enactment of the Crucifixion procession, which begins after dark. William Wetmore Story included a description of the procession in his Roba di Roma (2nd ed., 1863): “The persons composing it are mounted on horseback and dressed in fantastic costumes … representing Pontius Pilate, the centurions, guards, executioners, apostles, and even Judas himself. Each one carries in one hand a flaring torch, and in the other some emblem of the Crucifixion, such as the hammer, pincers, spear, sponge, cross, and so on. The horses are all unshod, so that their hoofs may not clatter on the pavement” (I, 101). According to an item in The Athenæum of 10 May 1834, the procession lasts “three quarters of an hour” (no. 341, p. 357). In 1858 Good Friday fell on 2 April. See Appendix IV for RB’s entry in his account book on that date.
5. Directions to the Church of San Domenico in Prato: “Leaving from the station at Via Ferrata, take Via del Serraglio, and follow this until you come to Piazza San Domenico.”
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