4178. EBB to Sophia Eckley

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 121–122.

[Florence]

[?mid-May 1858] [1]

Robert put off the ride, dearest Sophie, that we may have you tonight– So you will come, wont you?–

I hope you were mild to Doady yesterday– When two boys are mixed together, the brenntwein, [2] as the Germans say, becomes strong– Peni was the guilty one, because he ought to have restrained himself after certain things I said to him in the morning—but he was penitent & I forgave him– Give my love to dear Do– As to poor Annunciata, she lost her usual patience perhaps from having had a wretched headache all day– I gave her consolation in the shape of aconite globules, [3] & she thought better of the world & the children in it before she went to bed–

Dearest Sophie, what vexed me was that you should have been received in our threshold with such disquieting complaints–

In all love

your

Ba.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Berg Collection.

1. Conjectural date suggested by the first line. RB and David Eckley were riding together at this period (see letter 4174).

2. Sic, for branntwein: “Spirit”; i.e., “alcohol.”

3. Aconite is derived from monkshood, a plant in the buttercup family, and, like several other homœopathic medicines, a deadly poison.

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