4431. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 192.
[Florence]
[?18] [June 1859] [1]
My dear dearest Sophie, how grieved I am that you should be suffering! Here I have waited patiently, & at last comes .. nothing better than the news of your being unwell. Try to be well, dear, & believe that I am loving you all the time, & beyond.
Fanny Haworth has arrived & been with me, & she comes this evening to meet the Villa people [2] who propose ‘descending in a body on the plains.[’] [3] I knew I had no hope of you, because of the Mulocks [4] —& now there’s a worse obstacle–
Your ever loving Ba.
Mr Boote [5] waiting– I feel quite broken & headachy today. Salvini was wonderful.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Conjectural date suggested by EBB’s last sentence: “Salvini was wonderful,” presumably in Othello, which she mentions attending in letter 4440. It was performed at the Cocomero in Florence on 10 and 17 June (see Monitore Toscano of 10 and 16 June 1859). In letter 4436 EBB tells Mrs. Eckley about three other plays she saw that featured Salvini but does not refer to Othello. For this and other annotations that draw upon Italian sources in the present volume, the editors gratefully acknowledge the scholarly assistance of Simonetta Berbeglia, of Arezzo, Italy.
2. Isa Blagden and her guest at Villa Brichieri, Kate Field.
3. Cf. Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer (1715–20), III, 334.
4. The family of Thomas Homan-Mulock (see letter 4048, note 9).
5. Francis Boott; see letter 4212, note 5.
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