4303. EBB to Sophia Eckley

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 1.

[Rome]

[ca. January 1859] [1]

Ever dearest Sophie, what am I to say? That you were very wicked & that I pardon you, or that I was very wicked & you must pardon me. Really, considering what past, it looks to me as if the wickedness of us two was mixed up, as if the ‘lost angels’ [2] had to do with us both, & that we both jested & laughed, yes, & drew– Was it naughty? If so, you saw that first– My conscience has been light since then. I meant no harm, you meant no harm—now did you?

Dearest Sophie, how you dream about me. I was “generous” (was I?) while you were so cruel. Ah Sophie, Sophie. That’s the way you make my virtues–

You are a dear darling friend. After this long sum, there’s the quotient … dont they call it?– I mean the figure at the bottom,—the result.

And I am

your Ba–

in tender affection.

Docket, in recipient’s hand: Winter ’59.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Berg Collection.

1. Approximate dating provided by the docket.

2. EBB used the same term in letter 262 when referring to the angels cast out of heaven in Paradise Lost. She refers to a “lost angel” in A Drama of Exile (1844), line 199.

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