4334. EBB to Sarah Blake Shaw
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 62–63.
Rome. 43. Bocca di Leone.
Feb. 16. [1859] [1]
My dearest Mrs Shaw, not a word of yours, only words of others from you! Am I to thank you or reproach you, dear friend? I had a hope that you would keep tryst with me this year and write—but no letter comes. Another book instead, [2] to say that you are alive & keep me in kind remembrance. Just as I was going to write, it came——will you believe that? At Paris the first book [3] was thrown into my room by .. your sister, [4] I think .. & before I could arise and catch at the intermediate hand warm with yours, she was gone—and I was going– We went the very next morning, I believe. But why not let me see your sister?– Well– This book then, I read at Florence, where we remained about three weeks on our way to Rome, and few books have pleased me so much as “Foregleams of immortality”– It is full of beauty & truth. The writer is wise from Swedenborg, & has his own gifts besides,—and I can scarcely conceive of his writings not impressing many & deeply. I have lent the book, & recommended it in England .. where the husks of the old theology interfere much with development & growth. Tell me (you see you must tell me—I must & will have you write to me) can it be possible that the writer is a Unitarian in any sense? [5] I mean can it be possible that he denies or doubts the incarnation of the Lord? Mr Page assures me that he belongs nominally to the Unitarian party, & this seems to me plainly contradicted by the book itself. I understood from the preface that though written by the invitation of a certain Unitarian society, the great theological question was permitted to be open, & that therefore he had consented to write. Certainly it is a most beautiful & pungent book– Yes, it gave me more pleasure than Longfellow—though I thank you much here too, recognizing the poet’s charm.
We ran back from the north in a new ardour for our Italy, & though Rome is not Florence nor as dear, we are enjoying our winter here, & looking forward to Tuscany at the end of May– Now let me tell you of our dear friend Mr Page. I got over a prick of real pain & received the new Mrs Page cordially. She is a more pleasant person than I was prepared for—not pretty, but fresh-looking, & with a quantity of brown smooth hair—her manners & voice soft and gentle to the last degree. All day and (perhaps all night) she is down on her knees before him—adoring him, devoted to him in every way & word– It is always .. “Teach me this”,—“You taught me that!” “Is this the exact thing you taught me?” He is prophet & king, .. if not something higher—and my dear friend, is’nt that what nearly every man thinks he was born for? It’s the ‘right divine’ of the man over the woman. Therefore one scarcely need be surprised that Mr Page should call himself & feel himself the “happiest of married men,”—& I, for my own part, seem to owe her a real debt of gratitude for having made him happy at last– Then she is an excellent manager in household affairs, I understand,—so that
<…> [6]
Little Penini is developping fast in music & other things– His golden curls & innocent smile remain, thank God.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Harvard University.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to “the first book” (see note 3 below), which she read before leaving Florence the previous November (see letter 4278).
2. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Courtship of Miles Standish (Boston, 1858), inscribed: “Mrs. Browning from her friend Sarah B. Shaw, Staten Island, Nov. 1858.” This copy sold in Browning Collections as part of lot 710 (see Reconstruction, A1479).
3. Edmund Hamilton Sears, Athanasia: or, Foregleams of Immortality (Boston, 1858); see letter 4278, note 8.
4. Susan Parkman (née Sturgis, 1810–69), second daughter of Nathaniel Russell Sturgis (1779–1856) and his wife, Susan (née Parkman, 1780–83). Susan and her younger sister, Sarah, were the only surviving daughters of a family of seven boys and five girls. In 1835 Susan married her first cousin John Parkman (1813–83).
5. Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810–76), a Unitarian parish minister in the Boston area, believed, unlike most Unitarians, that Jesus Christ was divine.
6. The conclusion of the letter is missing, except for the following sentences, written in the margin of the first page.
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