4842. EBB to Mary Ann Bruen

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 12.

[Rome]

Friday. [ca. March 1861] [1]

My dear Mme Bruen

I find with shame that I still keep About. I meant my husband to take it back to you, but time slips under him, & from day to day his intentions fail–

The weather seems to yield & we may be on the point of spring–

How I thank you for About. The last preface is very incisive & worthy of himself. [2]

As to Italy, nobody shall talk me out of my hopes. Bon-compagni is likely to come here after all– [3]

With my love to all your circle,

affectionately yours

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Source: Transcript in editors’ file.

1. Dating based on Mrs. Bruen’s presence in Rome during the spring of 1861 and on EBB’s reference to “the point of spring.”

2. EBB may have in mind the preface to Edmond About’s Rome Contemporaine, issued in October 1860, which is a sequel to his La Question Romaine (1859).

3. We have been unable to clarify EBB’s statement about Carlo Boncompagni (1804–80), former Piedmontese ambassador to Tuscany and longtime deputy in the Piedmontese assembly.

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