4440. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 210–212.
[Florence]
[Postmark: 1 July 1859]
My dearest Sarianna, there is a breath of air giving one strength to hold one’s pen at this moment– How people can use swords in such weather, it’s difficult to imagine. We have been melting to nothing, like the lump of sugar in one’s tea .. or rather in one’s lemonade .. for tea grows to be an abomination before the sun– The heat which lingered unusually, has come in on us with a rush of flame for some days past, suggesting however the degree beyond itself, which is coming– We stay on at Florence, because we cant bear to go where the bulletin twice a day from the war, comes less directly,—& certainly we shall stay till we cant breathe here any more. On which contingency our talk is to go somewhere for two months. Meanwhile we stay.
You cant conceive of the intense interest which is reigning here—you cant realize it,—scarcely– In Paris there is vivid interest of course—but that is from less immediate motives .. except with persons who have relations in the army– Here, it is as if each one had a personal enemy in the street below, struggling to get up to him– When we are anxious we are pale—when we are glad, we have tears in our eyes– This “unnecessary” & “inexcusable” war, (as it has been called in England,) represents the only hope of a nation agonizing between death & life– You talk about our living or dying, but we live or die. That’s the difference between you & us–
We shall live however– The hope is rising into triumph. Nobody any more will say that the Italians fight ill– Remember that Garibaldi has with him simply the volunteers from all parts of Italy, not the trained troops– He & they are heroic (as with such conviction & faith they were sure to be)—and the trained troops not less so. [1] “Worthy of fighting side by side with the French,” says the Emperor. While the French are worthy of their fame. “The great military power” [2] crumbles before them .. because souls are stronger than bodies always– There is no such page of glory in the whole history of France– Great motives, & great deeds. The feeling of profound gratitude to Napoleon the third, among this people here, is sublime from its unanimity & depth–
And the Times newspaper lies on—lies even on that head–
All this excitement has made Florence quite unlike its quiet self,—in spite of the flight of many residents & nearly all travellers– Even we have been stirred up to wander about more than is our custom here. There’s something that forbids us to sit at home—we run in & out after the bulletins & to hear & give opinions—and then, in the rebound we have been caught & sent several times to the theatre (so unusual for us) to see the great actor Salvini who is about to leave Florence. We saw him in Othello & in Hamlet [3] —& he was very great in both, Robert thought, as well as I. Only, his houses pine,—because, as he says, the “true tragedies spoil the false”—& the Italians have given up the theatres for the caffés at this moment of crisis.
Fanny Haworth has left Italy for Switzerland—with the intention of going to England—in which case she wont return, I think. Certainly Italy disagrees with her, & she knows it—and if she could be siezed on by somebody & held & settled in spite of herself, it would be happy for her. Drifting about here is unsatisfactory & very expensive– Think of her having spent 95 pounds English in five weeks, travelling from Rome through Naples back to Florence, .. though she took the cheaper way by the sea and is by no means extravagant in her personal habits—she & her maid. [4] Travelling is more expensive than it used to be, with regard to inns &c– And all that money dropped into the void, except that she has seen Naples certainly.
A very refined, accomplished & a most amiable woman– Dear kind Fanny– I shall miss her– Yet I advised her to settle in England—it is wiser in the long run.
Robert is so enlarged that he has need to be newly measured for clothes. He & Pen quite well– So am I.
May God bless the dearest Nonno & you– Mary Hunter wrote to me that you had both been very kind to her for which I thank you much.
In best love Ba.
Address, in RB’s hand: France. / Mademoiselle Browning / 151. Rue de Grenelle, / Faubourg St Germain, / Paris. Redirected: Parti [5] hotel de Lyon, Rue du Hasard / Versailles.
Publication: LEBB, II, 317–319 (in part, as [about June 1859]).
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
2. i.e., Austria.
3. Also in Torquato Tasso and Abimelech (see letter 4431, note 1, and the sixth paragraph in letter 4436).
4. Trautchen Birgel.
5. “Departed.” As indicated by Sarianna in SD2287, she and her father stayed only a month at Versailles before returning to Paris.
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