4223. RB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 195–196.
Hâvre—Rue du Perrey 2.
August 1. ’58.
Dearest Isa,
Ba is writing at a great rate to you, I observe—but you have been so good in your two letters to myself that I shall say a word or two on my own account. Here we are (to begin strikingly) and, on the whole, we might have done much worse elsewhere, I incline to think. Etretat has good cliffs, and a fresh, open country to my taste—but the hole of a town is vile and you jostle with everybody else—for you are all poured forth funnel-wise on to the narrow bit of sea and must get it with the manners of hogs at a trough: here, the ugliness of every thing in immediate view is surprising—but you have it all to yourself: then the stretch of sea is considerable, and the sea-faringness of the place is good & interesting. Best of all, Ba’s improvement in health is incontestable & rapid: she takes much more of a bath than was recommended to her in Florence; and begins to walk real little walks and sit by the hour in the air: so that we have got all we came for & more than I hoped—& now—there is no telling what one seems to have a right to hope for, if all goes on as happily the next month or six weeks. Peni is minnowizing away among the Tritons, [1] bathing with the best of them with great advantage—& for me .. I am intending &c &c being somewhat bilious and indisposed to salt water: I shall begin tomorrow—perhaps. Another comfort is the fresh looks and rude health of my father who likes the town & the sea, & the library & plainly enjoys himself: my sister is very well, too. We don’t see a soul—(except Mrs Bracken whom I shall talk about specially to Annette): there’s a “Casino”,—salon de lecture,—a stones throw off—or, rather, a napoléon’s throw-away off—that being the subscription-fee; which entitles you to study one “Constitutionel” [2] three days stale, several numbers of the “Guide Dentaire” (full of information about carious teeth,[)]—all the back livraisons of a certain Journal of useful Inventions containing models of improved cheese-toasters, novel implements of use in drill-husbandry & the like,—the remaining three-quarters of the table being cleverly littered over with tradesmen’s prospectuses, cards for a dancing-master’s Ball and so on.—Now, Isa, you’ll be prepared to appreciate my devotion when I assure you I am very sorry that Chapman has taken it into his head, without the least hint from me, to send the “Athenæum” straight to me,—not viâ Casa Guidi as I hoped he would continue to do: had I prayed him to exert himself so far as to change the direction, you would have remained in undisturbed receipt of the thing world without end [3] —as it is, by giving fresh orders on the subject, we should infallibly both of us lose it. Well, Isa—so there is wonderful coolness at Florence—just as I expected: you are very wise in keeping where you so pleasantly perch– I shall never see anything so dear to me elsewhere. You say no word about Hatty—is she at Siena? Give her my dear love when you can. How is Mr Kirkup, I wonder? You keep another huge advantage over us in the person of Mr Hawthorne: I hope he lets you see him. Ah, Madlle de Fauveau! I should think poorly indeed of my own penetration if I had not divined in her, ten or eleven years ago,—what I always represented her to be,—a divine woman: just as one may venerate a picture in some house three streets distant and, for all that, let the months & years go by, without multiplying one’s visits to it,—so I believed in her & yet, in a manner, let her alone. I am glad indeed that you see her, at all events. What are her politics to me? [4] The noble faith, courage, & self-sacrifice that distinguish her must salt all people’s politics in some degree to keep them from getting corrupt. I must end now: so, thanks again, dearest Isa, for all your kindness—keep well, and let us have a happy meeting before very long. My sister begs to be particularly remembered to you. God bless you.
Yours ever affectionately
RB.
Remember me, please, to Mrs Crossman, Miss Crossman, Mrs Baker & Major Gregorie. How is Mr Jarves? And give many & true greetings to Mr & Mrs Trollope. Are you ever so lucky as to see Mr Boott? You must give me a golden little letter of your own in return for all this coppery nonsense. I don’t put down the really funny things—such as my meeting a lady in Paris, who was kind & complimentary & whom I took to be an American—she being Made Lamartine. [5]
Publication: B-IB, pp. 160–162.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Cf. Coriolanus, III, l, 89.
2. Le Constitutionnel was founded in Paris as a republican opposition newspaper in 1815, but it later supported the 1851 coup d’état and the Second Empire.
3. Cf. Isaiah 45:17.
4. Félicie de Fauveau’s “politics” were Legitimist. She had participated in the Vendée revolt of 1832, which sought to restore the Bourbon monarchy in France.
5. Marianna Eliza de Lamartine (née Birch, 1790–1863), an Englishwoman, wife of the poet Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790–1869).
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