4176. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 119–121.
Florence.
May 14. [1858] [1]
My dearest Mrs Martin, we have dug to the bottom of the mystery. Miss Bayley[’]s friend brought an engraving to us on the very day in question (the records of the hotel being sought for the notice of it) & we received that,—but it was the portrait of our loved friend Mr Kenyon, & not at all the representation of Hope End. The latter is not lost therefore: it only was not sent. And now, dearest friend, I beseech you to make no other move on the subject, unless you have the lithograph in your hands, purchased by your too liberal act– Otherwise, let it rest– I would rather have simply to thank you for the kind affectionate intention, as gratefully I do thank you.
As soon as I can get up a little more strength we shall travel north for a few summer months, I dare say, but certainly not for longer, as a winter in the north would put a ‘finis’ to the bottom of my scroll– The doctor [2] says I have “let myself drop too much,” & he is picking me up with a rod of ‘iron,’ [3] .. & quinine to boot– It’s no malady, he says, but just weakness—— In fact the weight of grey & black thought I have had on my shoulders for a year & more, tells sooner or later. But I am stronger already, & beginning to look like myself. We have read of the feeling with which people shall call on the mountains to cover them– [4] Did you never feel the same? (not with respect to the face of the Lord, by any means though–) I should like so much to get among the Italian mountains for this year again—but there seems to be a duty fixed for us in Paris, as Robert’s father is not young, & lives there & has not seen him since the year before last .. nor seen Penini, .. which is almost worse.
But by the time we reach Paris, you will have gone to England—alas!
Oh– I never told you how better than flattered I was that you should have taken Aurora Leigh with you. Did you see in the list of lectures to be delivered by Gerald Massey, (advertised in the Athenæum) one on “Aurora Leigh & the woman’s question.”? [5] I did not fancy that this poem would be so identified as it has been, with that question, which was only a collateral object with my intentions in writing.
We have had such roses for a month back, red, white, & yellow; Florence remembers her name. And there are anonymous angels, let me tell you, who send me bouquets, in size like a small table, [6] —under the weight of which Penini walks tottering when he brings them into the room to me, & which are almost oppressive with perfume, or would be if the windows were not open. I feel as if I lived in a garden. How you despise me, thinking of yours.!
Now you understand? Captain Thomas [7] left a parcel for us at the date you mention, and we received it. You understand what the mistake is?——
Yes, there will be no war this time. Not that I feared a war, but I was shuddering for the alliance—which is safe for the present, thanks to the magnanimity of L.N., I must think. [8] Observe– If I were in opposition to him tooth and nail, I should be equally repugnant, (to the ends of my poor fangs) to that shameless acquittal of Bernard & what followed. [9] The ignoble immoralities of the Times fill me with disgust. Did you read that article about “jobbing”—how we always “jobbed” in England, & meant to “job,” because it answered so well with us? [10] —— Horrible. <***>
Publication: Sydney Musgrove, “Unpublished Letters of Thomas de Quincey and Elizabeth Barrett Browning,” Auckland University College Bulletin, 44 (1954), 36–37 (in part, as summer of 1859).
Manuscript: Auckland Public Library and Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the advertisement in The Athenæum (see note 4 below).
2. James Harding.
3. Cf. Psalm 2:9. EBB refers to “steel” medicine, a preparation of iron (see letter 4064, note 2).
4. Cf. Hosea 10:8, Luke 23:30, and Revelation 6:16.
5. The advertisement appeared in the 8 May 1858 issue of The Athenæum: “Gerald Massey, (Author of ‘The Ballad of Babe Christabel,’ ‘Craigcrook Castle,’ &c.) submits the following List of Lectures to the Presidents of Art-Societies and Secretaries of Literary Institutions … Terms, Five Guineas per Lecture” (no. 1593, p. 577). Massey listed fourteen lectures, including “Aurora Leigh: The Woman’s Cause.”
6. Two of the “angels” were Sophia Eckley (see letter 4174) and Ellen Burgwyn (see SD2155).
7. Unidentified.
8. Previously, EBB had commented upon Napoleon III’s pamphlet, L’empereur Napoléon III et l’Angleterre, as evidence that he “rises in magnanimity” towards the English (see letter 4149, note 7).
10. We have been unable to locate this article in The Times. However, an editorial in The Morning Chronicle of 3 May 1858 contained the following remarks on jobbing: “If it is meant by jobbing that those who have influence over work to be done, will assign the doing to those in whom they are interested, we cannot possibly put a stop to it, and we see no reason to do so if we could” (p. 4).
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