4401. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 141–143.
[Rome]
[ca. 9 May 1859] [1]
My dearest Sarianna, you need not be uneasy about us– We flourish in the air of revolution, & are in the highest spirits, all of us, about the war– My only anxiety (personal to myself) is to get back to Florence .. where our people have behaved magnificently,—with a self restraint & calm resolution most creditable to the progress of Italian conduct since 48. The affliction of the last ten years has taught much—& the union from north to south of the peninsula is most striking & affecting– No, Sarianna, the question is not “a change of matters”—the question is life or death– And this time, it will be life– Italy is emerging.
Meanwhile I dont very much wonder at your misapprehension of certain things, .. if you get all your light on them from your English weekly paper—— .... which is stopped sometimes, .. is it? & if this be really so, the French government could not prove its value of the English alliance more than by stopping its newspapers from entering France– (As to the French newspaper press, the utmost liberty has been permitted on every side of the question .. which I know, who see the line taken by these papers, for and against the government.) So infamous has been the bearing of the Times, Saturday Review &c &c &c that I am still patriotic enough to wish I could have bought at the sacrifice of much, the annihilation of every number of every English journal (except the Daily News, & Morning Post) before it touched the continent– We have covered ourselves with dishonor in our parliament & our press,—& most painful has it been to some who live here under the English name, to feel the responsibility of such things cast on them– Robert and I are at one in these things– Only where he says “Ignoble,” I say “Inhuman”– For all the great interests of humanity suffer because we button up our pockets–
The state of things here is curious– The youth drift away to Piedmont silently, the French silently protecting them from the sbirri [2] at the railways. Pope inclined to run away & watched– People in a mute fervour of expectations. All parties broken up everywhere & a universal adhesion to Piedmont & France. (Austrian minister [3] still using his influence to suppress every expression of popular feeling with the dungeon–)
Meantime the confusion of the foreign visitors is something amusing– Steamers so crowded that you can only get a berth by taking it three weeks before hand, at the risk of the siezure of the steamer in question for military purposes before that day– Roads broken up beyond Florence with the military .. railroads stopped in the north– We shall travel by vetturino through Sienna, the shorter way to Florence which is perfectly tranquil now, though an Austrian invasion is threatened of course– As to funds .. your uncle of course moralizes “I said so”—but we are not afraid–
Isa Blagden came from Madrid quite ill & worn, but has revived in Florence & is in a generous state of ignition as to public affairs,—sending us all the placards & pamphlets .. she who used not to be Italian, full of admiration, for the national bearing—“Superhuman” is her word for certain leaders. — As to my emperor he does me credit I think– Robert says ‘What will you all do if he gets a bullet in his breast?’ Why ill– But in any case living or dying he covers himself with the glory of a great cause. Peni looks on his medal with glowing eyes & says, “I will always keep it. [4] This is a noble man.” He reads just now in French, Paul et Virginie—has finished “Le Magasin des enfants’[’] in two volumes since being in Rome—has read also two German novelettes by Franz Hoffmann, & is reading the second volume of Robinson der junger—in Italian, ‘Le mie prigioni’—& in English, a history of Rome [5] — He writes English & Italian dictations–
How are the poor Corkrans? do you ever hear? Fanny Haworth has gone to Naples (thence to get by sea to France & Geneva) with an Illinois judge & his son– [6] There are attentions but whether they will ripen or not I cant say– Miss Heaton is a little frightened finding it difficult to get away—& Robert base enough to laugh. Dont you admit a fear for us– May God bless you, both of you–
Your ever affectionate
Ba
Publication: Letters to Robert Browning and Other Correspondents, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ed. Thomas J. Wise (London, 1916), pp. 39–44.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. This letter accompanied letter 4400, which was begun on 8 May and completed on 10 May.
2. “Policemen.”
3. Count Franz Colloredo (1799–1859).
4. Presumably a medal bearing an image of Napoleon III.
6. As indicated in letter 4405, these were evidently Jonathan Young Scammon (1812–90), lawyer, banker, and businessman, of Chicago, and his son, Charles Trufant Scammon (1840–76). The wife and mother, Mary Ann Haven (née Dearborn), had died in 1857. In the Presidential campaign of 1860, Scammon was a strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln, whose son Robert Todd would later study in Scammon’s law office. An attraction for Fanny Haworth, besides Scammon’s considerable wealth, was his devotion to Swedenborgianism (see American National Biography). He afterwards married in 1867 Mrs. Gardiner Wright (d. 1901).
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