4283. EBB to Henry Spicer
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 295.
43. Bocca di Leone
Monday morning– [29 November 1858] [1]
Dear Mr Spicer,
I was in hopes that my husband would have succeeded in seeing you yesterday & have persuaded you to come here to receive the information you asked for about our friend Miss Haworth– She was in Florence when we set off for Rome twelve days ago, & she hoped to undertake the same journey herself in a fortnight– There may be delays however, in her movements,—you know they cant be calculated on as the comet’s [2] —and if you really leave Rome as soon as you say, I had better send you her Florentine address .. Casa Pepi, Via Pepi. A letter, directed there, would reach her,—especially if you added aux soins de Madame Tassinari. [3]
And now I have only to regret for our own parts, in the case of your holding to your intention of going away directly, that we should not have had the pleasure of seeing you even once. Should you not go, pray remember that we have come–
Very truly yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to the Brownings’ departure from Florence “twelve days ago.”
2. Donati’s Comet, named for its discoverer, Giovanni Battista Donati (1826–73), was first observed at Florence on 2 June 1858. The comet was closest to the earth and at its greatest magnitude in late September and early October. Writing from Florence to the Newark Daily Advertiser on 9 October, Elizabeth Kinney called it “The wonder of the sky.— When the nucleus reached the north western horizon, last evening about 8 o’clock, its flaming tail reached a point near the zenith! Nothing at all comparable to it has been seen here during this generation” (30 October 1858, p. 2).
3. “In care of Madame Tassinari.”
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