4241. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 229–232.
Le Havre– Maison Versigny
2. rue du Perrey–
Sept. 15. [1858] [1]
Dearest Sophie, Sophie– Why did I write Sophy?– [2] Certainly Sophie is prettier, & if used oftener—in your life, dearer to me. No, I wont have a letter changed. Literally I love you.
And you have been in sadness, you & dear Mr Eckley? You had the impression of a grief and it came? [3] We sympathize with you from our hearts in this grief, which is not to you however a grief ‘without hope’ [4] .. nor indeed without certainty of the presence of the apparently Passed away. How different death is to us who believe in the fact of access– My sister said to me a few days since, “Why, you would take away the curse!” .. (stating it as an objection.) “But” said I, “it is’nt I who take away the curse: it is Jesus Christ.” Oh, that was not enough! The churches must have their ‘curse’ to comfort themselves withal, or they are greatly troubled. Just see– This objection to the manifestations seems to me their glory—for yes, the curse is much taken away by means of them—death grows different—less terrible, less vague, less lost in the Infinite. We are ‘nearer & nearer.’
Let me tell you. I dont think that the writing is satisfactory– If we could attain to writings without human agency (as has been done in Paris [5] & elsewhere) we attain to proof—but it seems to me scarcely possible to be sure that the brain of the writing medium does not work inconsciously through his fingers. I perceive that I myself can write involuntarily, as it seems to me—but there are only letters heaped up without intelligence, not formed into words nor conveying any apparent meaning– Perhaps if I watched less narrowly the motions of my mind I might write words & sentences, & accept them for spirit messages. Or perhaps (for this too is to be considered) what I do is only a rude beginning of medium-development. Who shall say? Yet I confess to you none of this mere writing by a hand contents me, unless proved by simultaneous manifestations of another order. I hear that Miss Shepherd, an accomplished young person living in Mr Hawthorne’s family at Florence as governess to his daughter, is a writing medium, but never writes what is not in her mind. There seems to me a good deal of movement on the subject in Florence just now—sitting at tables & the like– So Isa Blagden writes to me–
—Which reminds me of the foolish Cobb & Constantinople story– [6] Never care for it. People who understand, understand: people who know Mr Eckley, know that he never could mean to be unkind & ungenerous to a woman. When things are said from one to another, no one can feel how they were said first—with what tone of voice & intention– Put by the subject with the Damascus purse, [7] & be sure that both will be rightly appreciated by minds worth satisfying– Yes, indeed.
Isa Blagden tells me that the Crossmans have heard from Hume, who is married at last, & had the aid-de-camps of the Emperor of Russia present as witnesses to his marriage, [8] to say nothing of the gift of a diamond from the said Imperial majesty. Dumas (the great Alexandre) desired to write his memoirs, & is stopped by the consideration of the court connections of the noble lady who has become his wife. The power returned for a week, and went again. Now speak. Do you keep your impression that you will see him this winter?—do you?
We leave Havre next monday, to my great relief I must say. We mean to take an apartment in Paris for a fortnight, which we shall take on afterwards by the week as long as the weather is tolerably warm. Then my sister goes to England, & we go to Italy– Thank God. There’s an Italy in the world still. If you had been here with me this summer I should never have held (with all my love for you & your love for me, dear) your head above water– The smells of the place would have overcome your susceptible organization. Then it is dull, yet not solitary,—and ugly, unless one goes out into the country beyond my reach. A place I never could like– ‘Patience—and shuffle the cards.’ [9] The next deal may better it. Write to Havre, because letters may be forwarded. Our party breaks up the day after tomorrow, Robert’s father & sister proceeding to their own home in Paris, from thence to look for some apartment fit to receive ourselves & my sister on monday–
Robert has dragged me by the hair of my head to the Photographist here, & I have been executed duly .. as a gift to Arabel. Annunciation calls the result ‘una donna perduta.’ [10] Never did you see such concentrated misery as the countenance represses—and I am thinking of offering it as a frontispiece to the ‘Woman’s Journal’ [11] as a representation of the most wronged of the sex– Dreadful. But Robert & Arabel swear it is like–! So much the worse for me. [12]
I console myself for my wounded vanity by my pleasure in a lovely portrait of Peni—really lovely. [13] This time, the art has made amends. Arabel gave it to us on the anniversary of our wedding-day. A full-length—the pose, the expression, quite his own. You will agree with me that it is very pretty– Photography deals better with young children & old men than with “the intermediate state,” dont you think?
How good, how good you are, to write to me so often. It is delightful, among the smells here of which I told you, to have a breath of such fragrance breathed from Lucca. There are chesnut-trees somewhere, .. and a running-river––and above all, love. Thank you, my sister, my friend. I thank you for all—& may God bless you.
And to think of that darling Do on his knees praying for ‘mama’s friend.’ I see him and feel him. Pen asks after him anxiously when the letters come. Pen has persisted in his swimming lessons, & can swim alone. Also he has capace [14] in the way of French, & has made progress in other things, besides his red cheeks—for instance, he has taken to drawing & even to water colours, & has almost a book-full of ‘sketches.’
Do you think ever of Rome? do you hear much of mountainous prices there?– Robert talks of Rome persistingly, but I dont know how it may be. So far it seems to Rome! Even my Florence I can scarcely believe in, with this atmosphere round me—this!–
May God bless & keep you, my dearest Sophie. Take care of me tenderly in your thoughts, dear Sophie, & rescue me from the rougher sides of thoughts which (even yours) must be less soft on this side than on that. Have you had ever, this summer, sad impressions of me? tell me–
In true love Your Ba
All our love to all yours. Mr Eckley, Mrs Tuckerman—all.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; 1858 was the only year the Brownings stayed in Le Havre.
2. See the third to last paragraph in letter 4192.
3. We are unable to identify this grief.
4. Cf. I Thessalonians 4:13.
5. By Ludwig von Guldenstubbe (see letter 4215, note 14).
6. In her autobiography, Frances Power Cobbe recalled that during a brief stay at Constantinople in the early spring of 1858, she wished to visit the St. Sophia mosque. Hoping to join a group and thus save considerable expense, she heard that an American family (the Eckleys) intended to go, but “for some reason their courier would not consent to my joining them. I thought it was some stupid imbroglio of servants wanting fees, and having the utmost confidence in American kindness and good manners, I called on the family in question at their hotel and begged they would do me the favour to allow me to pay part of the £5, and to enter the doors of St. Sophia with them accordingly; at such time as might suit them. To my amazement the gentleman [Mr. Eckley] and ladies looked at each other; and then the gentleman spoke, ‘O! I leave all that to my courier!’ ‘In that case, I said, I wish you good morning.’” (Life of Francis Power Cobbe, As Told by Herself, 1904, pp. 262–263). Miss Cobbe went on to record that “these unmannerly people … reached Florence a month after me and found I had naturally told my tale of disappointment to the Brownings … the Somervilles, Trollopes and others who had become my friends” (p. 263).
7. EBB refers to Mrs. Eckley’s difficulties with Clotilda Stisted (see the fourth paragraph in letter 4230).
8. Alexandra Kroll and Daniel Dunglas Home were married at St. Petersburg on 1 August 1858 in the presence of Count Alexei Pavlovich Bobrinsky (1826–94) and Count Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817–75), aid-de-camps to Tsar Alexander II (1818–81), who had succeeded his father Tsar Nicholas I in 1855 (see Waddington, p. 404).
9. Cervantes, Don Quixote, pt. II, chap. 23.
10. “A lost woman.”
11. i.e., The English Woman’s Journal.
12. This image has not been located.
13. This photograph is inscribed by Arabella: “For dearest Ba & Robert—from Arabel. Taken at Havre. Sep. 12/58” (see Reconstruction, H183). The photograph is reproduced facing p. 241.
14. “Ability.”
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