4326. EBB to Eliza Anne Ogilvy
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 45–46.
[Rome]
[ca. 30 January 1859] [1]
<***> But much work cant be done under such circumstances: we must go back to Florence to work. Rome is crowded. Crême de la crême––Duchesses passing as skim milk by the side of crowned heads,—& crowned heads the merest curd by the side of cardinals. Balls, receptions, squeezes in every degree. Meantime Robert is so good (I call it goodness) as never to neglect giving two hours a day to Pen’s music– The consequence is that the loss of our Florence master [2] is by no means felt. Little Pen makes great progress, & though I say it who should’nt, will play beautifully. There are brilliant points about his execution already, & one wonders to observe the dexterity & activity of the small hands. The sentiment of music is very strong in him. We dont work him hard in other directions—he reads with me, German French & English, & Italian daily, & writes English & Italian dictations, which last I find of excellent use in mending his weak points of spelling. The child is much grown in height of course, but looks so precisely what he was––with the same delicate infantine features & complexion that you would be surprised perhaps. He wears his blouses somewhat shorter,—and full, rather short trowsers of which I got the pattern at Paris .. black fine cloth or velvet for out of doors, white in the house, .. & embroidered collars as usual– I am as fond of “dressing him up” as ever, you see– But there is no want of simplicity in the dress, nor want of fitness for his age, it seems to me– The curls hang naturally—“mamas curls” still—under heavy mortgage to me, though he would fain have them off. But all artists (including my husband, I am glad to say) applaud me for not translating him into prose before the time of prose comes. By the way, I want you & Mr Ogilvy, when you are in London with time on your hands, to go to Mr Monro’s studio 6 Upper Belgrave Square, & look at a bust of Peni, [3] in course of production for the next exhibition– [4] The artist was struck by Pen’s head this autumn in Florence, & asked to make a clay sketch of it– So successful that seemed to me, that I yearned after the marble—& he had the generosity to insist on doing it for us at half price– If you see it, you see Peni—so I want you to see it– Most spiritual, & most like–
Let me tell you what Peni is doing just now. Reading Monte Cristo in an Italian translation. He has entered into it with a passion, a passion! I find him reading it in his bed with a candle propped up in a wash hand basin. “Only one chapter dear mama!”—— I hear exclamations! “O Dumas, Dumas, you are a great man! I knew by mama you were a great man—but to write a book magnificent like this, I never thought of it”–!– To tell you the truth, when I let Peni begin the book I did’nt think he would be interested beyond the prison-part—but his interest is alarming, & he is actually at the end of the fourth volume. Of course he has the same facility in reading Italian as English—it’s the same thing. The Italian shows itself in his English talk sometimes very amusingly– For instance he told us a few days ago that he had “seen a beautiful bronze in the Corso, [5] which represented Romulus & Remus popping [6] at the wolf”. And he expresses at dinner a decided liking to “selvatic [7] ducks.” But his English on the whole is not distressing, while he is always taken for an Italian child by Italians. He speaks French too without any shyness, though of course imperfectly. Latin is in the future for him, & Alexander has an awful advantage there.
Never did a marriage (except my own) please me so well as Prince Napoleon’s. [8] Viva la Francia, Viva l’Italia, Viva Verdi, [9] as they say at Turin! <***>
Publication: EBB-EAHO, pp. 140–142.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Approximate dating based on EBB’s reference to the marriage of Prince Napoleon and Princess Clotilde, which took place on 30 January 1859.
2. Giuseppe Del Bene; see letter 3935, note 19.
3. Alexander Munro’s bust of Pen in marble (see letter 4270, note 3).
5. The principal boulevard of modern Rome, about a mile in length, bounded by the Porta del Popolo on the north and the Piazza di Venezia on the south.
6. From “poppare,” “to nurse.”
7. From “selvatiche,” “wild.”
9. As EBB explains in letter 4330, “Verdi” in this context was an acronym for “Vittore Emmanuele re d’Italia” (“Victor Emmanuel King of Italy”), in effect, a cheer for an independent and unified Italy.
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