4203. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 150–152.
Hotel Hyacinthe [1] St Honoré. Paris–
Wednesday—. [7 July 1858] [2]
My dearest Sophie I write to you from Paris– What a distance! what a stretch of thought & heart! & how the heart easily does it!
We arrived last night, & have taken rooms in this hotel, near the Tuilleries, for a week at least, and are throwing out “feelers” to feel out the best sea-place, in order to compass my “sea-change
Into something rich & strange”– [3]
Also, I am changed already in certain respects, being considerably stronger than when you knew me last. I was much better when we left Florence, and the journey has bettered me still. We spent thursday night on the deck of the steamer between Leghorn & Genoa, Robert Peni & I stretched on shawls, & my bones in sore conflict with the boards,—but the stars were so bright, the sea so still! it was sad & enjoyable as the last look & touch of our Italy should be– From Genoa to Marseilles all was different: heaving waters: & groaning souls—for, do you know, we were all most unpoetically ‘sick,’ Robert, Peni, & I, .. not to speak of Annunciata whose misery was indescribable indeed– Then we slept at Marseilles, Lyons, & Dijon, travelling softly by express trains, as people do, who wont be tired & pay for having their will. Robert was resolved that I should’nt be tired. So, that, I was not, not at all,—& our journey was very pleasant, & we entered Paris not too much out of breath for the full admiration of this most beautiful city. It always has a charm for me, this Paris, so artistic yet so unlike the artistic of Italy, so material & so unlike the materialism of England .. fantasticando [4] between earth & heaven, & drawing from both with a strange power, strangely exciting to my fancy– Then I like the French, who are very little understood by our races, yours, & mine,—and least by mine.
I find a note from Mrs Jameson who is only on the verge, (within a day or two), of quitting Paris. [5]
Your bag, dear, was of the greatest use, & constant in reminding me of you & your love. I filled it with books, & kept pulling them in & out with a thought of you.
But my poor little Pen was in low spirits till we reached Marseilles– He parted from Wilson, you know, & the baby .. & from his beloved Ferdinando,—& kept mopping up his tears with an outspread handkerchief all the way down stairs from the Guidi. After, at the station, his very shoulders sobbed with the last adieu to Ferdinando—and nothing quite revived him till the “dejeuner à la fourchette” [6] at Marseilles, which he seemed to consider a peculiar epoch in his life– Then he sate down & wrote a letter to Wilson, ending thus .. “your affectionate & everlasting Penini.” So soon do the parting griefs of life begin! and their sentiments.
Dear, Alexandre Dumas has gone to Russia, [7] say the journals, (which we read in the train) in order to be present at the marriage of the great medium Mr Horne [sic]– [8] Also, Mr Horne who is about to ally himself with a noble Russian family, (his fiancée being dowered with millions) will not on that account give up spiritualism. On the contrary it is his intention to inaugurate an establishment in Germany, devoted to ‘magical’ purposes– I quote from my recollection of the French journal,—I think the ‘Illustration’– [9]
Robert finds his father & sister very well & very happy to receive us– It would have been wrong if we had not come–
But my Florence, my Florence! And would not I rather be in the chesnut woods with you, dearest, dearest Sophie?– Yes indeed–
Now you will write. I almost deserve it, for this once—seeing that this will be the third letter written by me since I heard from you–
I love you very tenderly– Shall I call myself “everlasting” like my poor Peni?
His love to Doady, & mine & Robert’s to you all three– And remember us affectionately to your mother– Miss Eckley, [10] I think, is not with you–
Write– Tell me of your spirits. Tell me of yourself—tell me of all that touches you– And love me as I love you–
Your Ba.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Here and in several letters that follow, EBB gives an incorrect return address. The Brownings were staying at the Hôtel de Londres, Rue St. Hyacinthe, St. Honore.
2. Date provided by EBB’s reference to the Brownings’ arrival of “last night.” They reached Paris from Dijon on 6 July 1858, a Tuesday.
3. Cf. The Tempest, I, 2, 401–402.
4. “Daydreaming.”
5. Mrs. Jameson remained in Paris until 17 July; see the third paragraph in letter 4216.
6. “Light lunch.”
8. Perhaps, these journals repeated Galignani’s earlier misspelling of Home, noted by EBB in letter 4197.
9. We have been unable to trace this reference to Home in L’Illustration, a Paris weekly newspaper (1843–1944).
10. David Eckley’s sister, Frances Augusta Eckley (see letter 4092, note 9).
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