4172. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 116.
[Florence]
[?7] [May 1858] [1]
My dearest Sophie, welcome to you & joy to me! How glad I am– You did not hear from me at Malta, because I have been unwell with inflammation of the eyes among the rest– I have been in the dark, & not able to read– That is all over now however,—only I am not as strong as usual.
Dear, Robert would go to you directly, but for hearing that you were so tired– Sleep, sleep, be refreshed, & come to me tomorrow.– I had said, .. at twelve oclock, .. but Penini shrieks out that at twelve he shall be away with his music-master, & that he must see Do, & that you must come at one instead–
But sleep, rest, .. never mind Pen & me till you are no longer tired– And how tired you must be!
Ever your loving EBB—
Ba
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Conjectural date based on EBB’s “welcome” to Mrs. Eckley, who had just returned to Florence after a six-month tour of Egypt and the Holy Land. In The Oldest of the Old World (1860), Mrs. Eckley records that she and her family landed at Leghorn on “the 6th of May” (p. 299). In the album where she kept EBB’s letters, she wrote next to this one: “Return to Florence from the East” (ms at Berg).
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