4167. EBB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 101–102.
[Florence]
[?18] [April 1858] [1]
My dearest Fanny, my ‘evil eye’ shant prevent my setting you right as to matters of fact, & proving to you for once that indeed, indeed, you do vex yourself about the merest mistakes & shadows–
1– I send the Shakespeare, because we have a Shakespeare– If I had had the other books, you shd have had them instantly.
2dly Robert saw you directly because Isa Blagden showed him where you were. He did not visit your box nor the boxes of any other of his acquaintances present, through there being so little time between the acts– Also, you were with Mdme de Smidt, [2] —& he had not the least notion that you were uncomfortably placed.
We knew quite too late that you had engaged a box to yourself, otherwise he would have prayed you to accept a place in his, & that would have been a pleasure both to him & me. Isa Blagden was a little precipitate in fancying that I shd be afraid of your meeting Robert in the theatre– Of course I was not so absurd .. however absurd I may be actually.
Now, dearest Fanny, I do beseech you not to torment yourself by foolish fancies– Life is hard enough, without calling in such helps for making it harder– I am very very grieved for the headache—which is a real evil indeed–
As for me, I am not very well—feverish & weak—& my eyes which have helped me so often over rough patches of the road, have, this time, turned against me– But I can see a little today––without pain, I mean– The inflammation is very much diminished.
I would write more if I could–
Your ever & sincerely affectionate friend
Ba–
Penini came home triumphant– Frightened? Not he– No more than Thalberg would be frightened! [3]
Address: Miss Haworth.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Conjectural date suggested by EBB’s reference to the box that RB and Isa Blagden shared at the Cocomero theatre on 17 April (see letter 4166, note 2).
2. Elizabeth de Schmid (née Spence, 1810–89), daughter of William Spence, F.R.S., of London, and his wife, Elizabeth (née Blundell). In 1833 she married Chevalier John Philip Louis de Schmid (1804–64), of Coblenz, chamberlain to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
3. Sigismond Thalberg (1812–71), Swiss composer and virtuoso pianist. EBB refers to Pen’s performance at Giuseppe Del Bene’s musical soirée, which she describes in letter 4149.
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