4368. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 100–102.
43. Bocca di Leone
[25] March [1859] [1]
My ever dearest Isa, you dont write, not you! I wrote last, remember, & though you may not have liked all the politics of the same, you might have responded to some of the love, you naughty Isa—so I think I shall get up a “cause celebre” for myself—(it shall be my turn now) & I shall prove (or try) that nobody has loved me (or can) up to this date of the 26th of march. 1859. Dearest Isa, seriously speaking, you must write, for I am anxious to know that you are recovering your good looks & proper bodily presence as to weight. Just now I am scarcely of sane mind about Italy– It even puts down the spirit-subject. I pass through cold stages of anxiety, & white heats of rage– Robert accuses me of being “glad” that the new Times correspondent [2] has been suddenly seized with Roman fever. It is I, who have the true fever .. in my brain & heart– I am chiefly frightened lest Austria yield on unimportant points to secure the vital ones; & Louis Napoleon with Germany & England against him is in a very hard position. God save us all–
Massimo d’Azeglio has done us the real honor of coming to see us, & seldom have I, for one, been more gratified– A noble chivalrous head .. and that largeness of the political morale which I find no where among statesmen .. except in the Head of the French government. Azeglio spoke bitterly of English policy .. stigmatized it as belonging to a past age, the rags of old traditions. He said that Louis Napoleon had made himself great simply by comprehending the march of civilization (the true Christianity, said Azeglio) & by leading it. Exactly what I have always thought. Azeglio disbelieves in any aim of territorial aggrandizement on the part of France. He is full of hope for Italy. It is 48 over again, [3] said he, but with matured actors. He finds a unity of determination among the Italians wherever he goes.
Well—Azeglio is a man. Seldom have I seen a man whom I felt more sympathy towards– He has a large, clear, attractive “sphere,” as we Swedenborgians say. [4]
The pamphlet Collegno, never reached us– [5] The papal government has snatched it on the way. Farini’s is very good– [6] Thank you for all your kindness as to pamphlets—(not letters, Isa! I distinguish in my gratitude). We lent Mr Trollope’s [7] to Odo Russell, the English plenipotentiary, and to Azeglio—so that it has produced fruit in our hands.
Did I write since Robert dined with the Prince of Wales? Col. Bruce called here & told me that though the budding royalty was not to be exposed to the influences of mixed society, the society of the most eminent men in Rome was desired for him, & he (Col. Bruce) knew it would “gratify the Queen that the Prince should make the acquaintance of Mr Browning.” Afterwards came the invitation—or “command”– I told Robert to set them all right on Italian affairs, & to eschew compliments .... which, you know, is his weak point– (He said the other day to Mrs Story .. “I had a delightful evening yesterday at your house: [8] I never spoke to you once”—and encouraged an artist, who was “quite dissatisfied with his works” as he said humbly, by an encouraging … “But, my dear fellow, if you were satisfied, you would be so very easily satisfied!!!” Happy! was’nt it?) Well—so I exhorted my Robert to eschew compliments & keep to Italian politics .. & we both laughed, as at a jest. But really he had an opportunity—the subject was permitted, admitted, encouraged—& Robert swears that he talked on it higher than his breath– But oh, the English, the English! I am unpatriotic & disloyal to a crime, Isa, just now– Besides which, as a matter of principle, I never put my trust in princes, [9] except in the parvenus.
Not that the little prince here talked politics. But some of his suite did, & he listened. He is a gentle refined boy, Robert says.
Robert has gone today to Grotta Ferrata [10] with the Cartwrights & Mr Leighton to the fair. We are all well. Give my letter to Mr Villeri. Thank you for the extract from Dumas. Try to get the book– How glad I shall be to be within reach of books again– Here, nobody reads, & the supply is equal to the demand. Send as many Tuscans as possible to Piedmont—use your influence, Isa– May God bless you dear, dearest Isa– I am
your very loving Ba–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 202–204.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. In the first paragraph, EBB states that she wrote this letter on 26 March 1859; however, her reference to RB’s attending the fair at Grotta Ferrata “today” indicates that the letter was written on 25 March (see note 8 below).
2. Henry Wreford (1806–92), The Times correspondent at Naples and Rome since the 1840’s, was transferred from Naples to Rome in March 1859 to “investigate the reports of papal oppression and popular discontent” (see C.T. McIntire, England Against the Papacy, 1858–1861, Cambridge, 1983, p. 44).
3. EBB refers to the first war of Italian independence (1848–49).
5. Probably Azeglio’s Diario dell’Assedio di Navarino: Memorie di Giacinto Collegno, precedute da un ricordo biografico dell’autore (Turin, 1857). Giacinto Octavio Provana, Conte di Collegno (1794–1856), soldier and statesman, had served as Piedmont’s minister plenipotentiary at Paris from January to October 1852, during which time EBB had met his wife, Margherita (1811–57); see letters 3031 and 3046.
8. A spacious apartment on the piano nobile of the Palazzo Barberini, where the Storys had resided since December 1856.
9. Cf. Psalm 146:3.
10. Grotta Ferrata, S.E. of Rome in the vicinity of Frascati, is notable for its Greek Orthodox (Basilian) monastery with Byzantine decorations and mosaics, as well as frescoes by Domenichino. According to Murray’s A Handbook of Rome and Its Environs (1858), “travellers should endeavour to attend the Fair here on the 25th of March, to see the varied costumes of the peasantry of the environs” (p. 347).
___________________
