4204. EBB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 152–154.
Hotel Hyacinthe [1] St Honoré.
Wednesday—& Thursday. [7–8 July 1858] [2]
My dearest Fanny, The scene changes .. no more cypresses, no more fire-flies, no more dreaming repose on burning hot evenings– Push out the churches—push in the boulevards– Here I am, sitting alone at this moment, in an hotel near the Tuilleries, where we have taken an apartment for a week, a pretty salon with the complement of velvet sofas & arm-chairs & looking-glasses, & bedrooms to correspond, with clocks at distances of three yards, as if the time was in desperate danger of forgetting itself– Which it is of course– Paris looks more splendid than ever, & we were not too much out of breath with fatigue on our arrival last night, to admit of various cries of admiration from all of us. It is a wonderfully beautiful city. And wonderfully cold, considering the climate we came from– Think of our finding ourselves forced into winter suits, & looking wistfully at the grate– I did so this morning– But now there is sunshine–
We had a prosperous journey—except the sea-voyage, which prostrated all of us … Annunziata to “the lowest deep” [3] of misery– At Marseilles we slept, & again at Lyons & Dijon, taking express trains the whole way—so that there was as little fatigue as possible,—& what with the reviving change of air & these precautions, I felt less tired throughout the journey than I have sometimes felt in Florence after a long drive & much talking. We had scarcely any companions in the carriages, & were able to stretch to the full longitude of us—a comfort always—and I had Mdme Ancelot, [4] & ‘Doit et avoir’ [5] which dropped into my bag from Isa’s kind fingers on the last evening—& we gathered Galignanis & “Illustrations” day by day– Travelling has really become a luxury– I feel the repose of it chiefly– Yes,—no possibility of unpleasant visitors! no fear of horrible letters! quite lifted above the plane of bad news, or of the expectation of bad news which is nearly the same thing– There you are, shut in, in a carriage! Quite out of reach of the telegraph even, which you mock at as you run alongside the wires–!
Yes, but some visitors—some faces & voices are missed. And altogether I was very sad at leaving my Italy—oh, very sad–
Only not quite as bad as Peni who was bathed in tears at parting from Wilson & Ferdinando, & had his eyes full at every turn of the day afterwards. Indeed his spirits never revived till Marseilles—and even at Dijon he said he would rather go back than forward—think of that!
Now mind, Fanny, that you write to me– Direct to this hotel if you write at once, but not otherwise– We shall probably outstay our week here, but not very long.
Tell me how you like “up in the villa” life, [6] & how long you shall bear it–
Paris– I have not been out of the house, .. except when I came into it!– But today, thursday, I mean to drive a little with Robert. You know I have a weakness for Paris .. and a passion for Italy. Which would operate thus perhaps .. that I could easily stay here, when once here, if there was but a sun to stay with me—. We are in admiration all of us at everything .. from cutlets to costumes. On the latter point I shall give myself great airs over you barbarians presently .. no offence to Zerlinda [7] —and, to begin, pray draw your bonnets more over your faces!
I would rather send this bit than wait, as I did not write to you from Marseilles–
May God bless you. If you knew how happy I think you for being in Italy!—if you knew!
I shiver with the cold.
I tie up three loves to send you from your truly affectionate
Ba.
Address: Italie / à Mademoiselle / Mademoiselle Fanny Haworth / Casa Pepi / Via Pepi / Florence.
Publication: LEBB, II, 281–282 (in part).
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Sic, for Hôtel de Londres (see letter 4203, note 1).
2. This letter is postmarked 8 July 1858, a Thursday.
3. Paradise Lost, IV, 76.
4. Marguerite Louise Virginie Ancelot (née Chardon, 1792–1875), French playwright, novelist, and painter. EBB may have been reading Mme. Ancelot’s recent book of memoirs, Les salons de Paris, foyers éteints (1858).
5. Doit et avoir (“Debit and credit”), (1857), French translation of Soll und Haben (Leipzig, 1855), by Gustav Freytag (1816–95), a popular romance extolling the virtues of the German middle-class merchant.
6. An allusion to RB’s poem “Up at a Villa—Down in the City” (Men and Women, 1855). As indicated in letter 4229, EBB refers to Villa Tassinari outside Florence, though she directs this letter to the Tassinaris’ city address.
7. A dressmaker in Florence (see letter 4043).
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