4162. EBB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 90–91.
[Florence]
[?10] [April 1858] [1]
My dearest Fanny I am delighted that you are out & so well. But why almost reproach me? Why be sad about ‘outsides’? Why use such a word at all? Do you blame me that I am afraid for Penini? Would you not be afraid yourself, if you had a Penini? I assure you that, had my own sister been precisely in your position, I should be equally cautious,—supposing always that I knew her to be well-attended & wanting nothing. If I had had the meazles, I should have kept away from everyone as a matter of course, & would have kept my own people from me at the end of the bayonet– So pray dont use or think such a sad cold world [sic, for word] as “outsides”– Indeed my thoughts & loving sympathies have been with you continually, & nothing pleases me better than to know of your getting over all the trial of it– And now, tell me– Do you dream at all of going to Paris to your sister. [2] It is too early surely for going north– Here is Florence just turned beautiful & bright—& Hume coming this month! Pray dont go– Robert will send you the casts tomorrow– He has made a great purchase of a skeleton, [3] & has discoursed upon it till he made me dizzy & sick, .. enlarging on the beautiful gutta percha finishing of the joints, & the facility with which the head comes off & on—& how, two months ago, this was a Florentine of thirty-six, straying, at evenings perhaps, by Casa Guidi. Well– I have not seen it yet. I leave it to you. I keep on the “outside”—<saying, that if I tolerate Robert’s ‘bones’ in the house, .. he should, my spirits.> [4]
But dont come just yet—& laugh & dont sigh, & remember that though I long to have you sitting close by me, I am afraid for Peni, & want you to be well-aired before I talk face to face with you–
I heard from a London friend, a woman, Mrs Jago, the wife of a navy surgeon, that she had heard much of Mrs Wilkinson’s drawings, [5] which were exquisite. Write to me, & love me, & believe that I do love you.
Ba
Yes, I have been out—& today– I dare say you are not half as tired– So ‘weak’ I am– I have taken to cod’s liver oil twice a day, instead of once–
Besides his skeleton, Robert has bought a homœopathic medecine-chest. [6] You shall have the casts tomorrow morning.
Address: Miss Haworth.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Conjectural date suggested by EBB’s mention of RB’s purchase of a medicine chest (see note 6 below).
2. Miss Haworth’s only living sister at this time was Julia Haworth (1807–70).
3. For 10 francesconi and 5 pauls on 3 April 1858, as entered by RB in his account book of this period (see Appendix IV).
4. Text within angle brackets has been inserted as an afterthought.
5. The drawings described in William M. Wilkinson’s Spirit Drawings: A Personal Narrative (1858) were made by his wife, Elizabeth (née Andrew, b. 1816), daughter of John Andrew, of Manchester, and his wife, Elizabeth. Allegedly, Mrs. Wilkinson drew them while under spiritual influence.
6. RB’s purchase is entered in his account book on 10 April as "Homepth. med.” for 5 francesconi and 3 pauls. In letter 4165, EBB explains that it “is not a chest except by courtesy: it is rather a huge pocket-book, containing fifty bottles.”
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