4275. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 281–283.
Florence.
Novr 16– [1858] [1]
My dearest Mrs Martin, have I been wicked or unfortunate? I did mean to write to you from Paris,—and Robert seems to think that I did’nt write. The confusion of those days leaves but a dim line between intention & performance, and really I should pause before absolutely swearing .....
But dearest Mrs Martin, what must you have thought of me in that case—? For a letter of yours was sent after me from Havre: that is certain.
Well—if you disdain to read this letter when it is written, I must bend before the righteous wrath. I will write it, any way. We are going to Rome the day after tomorrow, and I have “the face” to beg you to write to me & to address as usual to Poste Restante, Florence, seeing that we dont yet know our Roman address. We have been, up to yesterday, weather-bound even in thought, the winter having come down like a lion & siezed us suddenly three or four days after our arrival at home,—so that we began to despair of being able to travel, it being perfectly impossible for me to put my head out of the door with things as they were. A chance remained indeed. To have a winter begin in Italy with November was too extraordinary, if it began, to go on. And now the air is mild as May again; snow, melted on the hills, tramontana changed into soft breathings—& we go on thursday accordingly—the day after tomorrow.
You have surely heard from Arabel if not from me that I recovered my health & nerves at that horrible place Havre, which I was ungrateful to notwithstanding. In fact, Arabel herself was my sea-air, dear darling– The sight of her face, the conviction that she was happy, & had chosen well & wisely for herself in life, & then the feeling that she loved me without diminution, she & that dearest George who came & stayed & was so very good & tender .. all this helped to work me out of a good deal of morbidness from which I was suffering in soul & body. Then there was dear kind Henry, who came for a week & brought his wife to shew me. And in Paris I had Arabel all to myself for a month, & she & I roamed about by ourselves, poking into the shops, & peering into the shop-windows, & so trifling away a quantity of heavy-heartedness– She, she said, “was the Judas who carried the bag” [2] .. meaning the money– And when I awoke one morning, & lo, she was gone, & I was in Paris by myself (so far!) & went out alone to “do” [3] some remaining shopping, .. I began by dropping my purse with two napoleons, as an offering to the infernal gods, & a proof of mental distraction.
Let me add that it was picked up directly & advertised in the Moniteur—which would not have been done in any other metropolis in Europe. (See how the Imperial government raises the character of the nation!!!.) N.B. (As good as morals in general.) Seriously, I am satisfied about Arabel. She looked remarkably well, I thought, & had a cheerful strength about her plans in life, which revived me, & which I honored much–
But my poor dear Henrietta I missed. She could not come,—I could not go,—we must wait for another year to meet.
And you—how vexatious, that I should not catch sight of you & Mr Martin, in Paris or elsewhere. And you will venture England this year? Really?– May you be justified to the uttermost. But even your example would not draw us to Wales, as long as I draw every breath with a weak chest, which till I put on my spiritual body [4] must be, I suppose. We are more likely to go nearer the sun instead of further from it—to the east, for instance.
Meanwhile, a great fortune has happened to me. Munro, the sculptor, passing through Florence, sees my Penini, & begs to make a sketch in clay of “that beautiful head.” I of course am not loth. An exquisite bust is the result. So perfect in likeness too, that I set about tormenting my husband into the extravagance of “giving an order” for the marble. On which, Mr Munro protests against submitting to the very appearance of “laying a trap for an order”, and refuses to do it for us except at a half price which does scarcely more than cover the expenses. After some discussion, we agree .. & he carries the cast home to be turned into marble & exhibited in London this next season– Go to see it I beseech you, & say what you think–
We fall into the winter-tide of people going to Rome, & have been beset by visitors since our return to Florence—but I am busy in spite of it all, preparing a stereotype edition of ‘Aurora,’ which has been called for & which will be printed uniformly with my former poems, & with an engraving of me myself on the first page—! Oh I detest it & should have never admitted it, if it had not been for certain detestable representations of me which are about, in America & even England. They annoy Robert a good deal, & he would have a photograph taken, to set the literal truth against the artists’ .. (proving how bad they must be!) And the engraving is to be made from this photograph, which was “sans retouche,” [5] & considered satisfactory by even himself.
Such a beautiful photograph I had taken of Peni at the same time! [6] People call it “like a Velasquez”– His “literal truth” is certainly very lovely. Strange to say, he does not lose his infantine roundness & delicacy of colour, while his expression grows into intellect. He remains too, so dear & winning. I heard him say yesterday in a half playful, half tender way, to a boy-playfellow of his, .. “My mama is called Ba, because she’s as good as a lamb.” No compliment I ever received touched me so much. You see I am conceited & tell it!
Now write, to prove you forgive me—& tell me of dear Mr Martin, .. of both of you—how you are, what you do. Robert’s love.
And I am ever, my dear friends, your affectionate
Ba
Address: Angleterre viâ France– / Mrs Martin / Colwall / Malvern / Worcestershire.
Publication: Sydney Musgrove, “Unpublished Letters of Thomas de Quincey and Elizabeth Barrett Browning,” Auckland University College Bulletin, 44 (1954), 28–31.
Manuscript: Auckland Public Library.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Cf. John 12:6 and 13:29.
3. Cf. John 13:27, “… Then Jesus said unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.”
4. Cf. I Corinthians 15:43–44.
5. “Unretouched.”
6. EBB may be referring to a photograph different from the one Arabella gave the Brownings, also “like a Velasquez” (see the end of letter 4245). In a letter to her of 22 January 1859 (ms with GM-B), EBB distinguishes between a copy of the photograph given by Arabella and one sent to Charles John.
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