4405. EBB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 152–153.
43. Bocca di Leone
Thursday/Friday [12–13 May 1859] [1]
My dearest Fanny, I answer your riddle of a letter, at once—& really, really, I only see plainly in it that your headaches are very oppressive .. which is bad news .. & for the rest, not even that “decidedly you are not going to marry Mr S.” [2] The sentence looked final—but when on the next page I fell on the pleasure of “being loved,” I was thrown out again perfectly. Is it Scammon or Gammon? or something so very, very immoral that it cant be analysed? Pray relieve my mind as soon as possible, and tell me why a journey which proved so pleasant, except for the headache, cant go on as far as Illinois?– I wont … “pause for a reply” [3] ——
When I get an answer from your House-agent, together with the smelling-bottle I hope, I will take care of the latter till we meet– Where?– when?– We go to Tuscany on the 25th by Sienna. Surely you will not give up Florence, I fancy, except for preparations for the Western States?–
I say nothing of what touches me, [4] fearful for my letter–
Do take care of yourself, dear Fanny, and dont doubt at the wrong point of history, whether in travelling symbolically or otherwise. I should fancy you must be snatching a ‘fearful joy’ [5] in Naples just now.
Sophia Eckley had rather a crowded reception the other evening at which I was present. There was an American bishop (Potter) there, [6] Mottleys, Storys &c &c … not Miss Heaton– Talfourd however appeared, with Robert’s portrait & Sophie’s [7] .. both finished & attracting various criticisms. The upper part of the face (in Robert’s) is singularly fine .. but the mouth I thought a failure. Sophie’s portrait is like, only a shade & a line coarser than she is– People continue to rush away from Rome, & we shall be left stranded presently– The Brackens went away, viâ Florence, this morning– And we dine today with the Storys, to say farewell to Mr Sumner– I have been to see the new Venus, [8] who is greatly over-praised, in my mind–
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Friday/ You will be glad after all to have seen Naples .. & for the rest, you will “tell me all about it at Florence”– I am curious, I confess meanwhile– If you knew what a riddle of a letter you have sent me, Fanny!– I turn it round & round, hold it up in all lights, as if it were a “spiritual writing”–
No envelopes allowed, they say,—Odo Russell was at the Storys last night—(I was interrupted yesterday & could’nt finish my note) & Mr Sumner goes today by Genoa which is the best way perhaps in his condition. And yet who knows? Your ever most affectionate
Ba.
Address, on integral page: Mademoiselle Fanny Haworth / Hotel d’Angleterre / Napoli.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. This letter is postmarked 13 May 1859, a Friday.
2. Jonathan Young Scammon (see letter 4401, note 6).
3. Julius Caesar, III, 2, 34.
4. Doubtless the war in Italy.
5. Thomas Gray, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” (1747), line 40.
6. Alonzo Potter (1800–65), Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania, who was travelling in Europe with his family for the sake of his health.
7. i.e., Field Talfourd’s portrait of Sophia Eckley. We have been unable to trace its whereabouts.
8. Presumably, the second of three versions of “Venus Guiding Aeneas and the Trojans to the Latin Shore” by William Page. The first had been rejected by the Paris Salon earlier in the year (see letter 4374, note 2). The third was completed in 1862 (see Garnett McCoy, “William Page and Henry Stevens: an incident of reluctant art patronage,” Archives of American Art Journal, 30, 1990, 13–18).
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