4471. EBB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 256–258.
Villa Alberti
Siena–
Tuesday [16 August 1859] [1]
Dearest Fanny, I dont like to leave you though I may not find you ‘am Rhein’. [2] You send no address, only indicate Cologne. My answer as to politics & personal subjects may be one– I have been very ill, yes, very ill, & even now am scarcely able to creep from one end of the room to another– We came here, not to die at Florence—& really it required courage to move, in the state in which I was. It was the peace, I think– I had lived too long in a state of exultation, & was struck with despair—could do nothing but weep & talk in impotent rages .. not against the Emperor, but all those selfish & inhuman nations who forced his hand & truncated his great intentions. Of these England is one—(never speak to me again of England–) Well—it was this emotion falling on a peculiar susceptibility of body from the extreme heat,—& perhaps some cold. ‘L’amour’ as Theodosia Trollope quotes in her last Athenæum ‘l’amour et la fluxion de poitrine’– [3] Any way I have nearly made my farewell to this world, & feel shaken in the standing ground I have recovered. We have come to a villa two miles from Siena, very airy, & looking down upon purple hills—& I hope I shall be able to drive a little after a time. As it is, to get to my chair is an effort—but I am taking asses milk & making some improvement with hope of more. Then public affairs are going better– Napoleon is deep as the sea, & has but changed the arena—not abandoned the struggle—and our Italians are behaving magnificently– We shall do it this time, after all, if God be with us to the end–
We remain here till the end of september, & then return to Florence. Winter-plans are not fixed yet, but certainly they will not take us out of Italy. Why, dear Fanny, you must have forgotten what I am made of, to suppose that we are going north (even as north as Paris) in the autumn or winter. If I had a vocation to suicide, it might answer perhaps– No—our winter will be spent either at Rome or Florence–
Let me tell you. I have read you in Chambers, and you read excellently. [4] Persevere. This line will carry you far–
But for living your life you seem as much at a loss as ever, & I do quite pity you, poor Fanny, desolately wandering about Germany– Shall you come back to us, do you think, because you have no object to draw you away? We are very humble, mark– Not a word of English plans do you say—& I, for my part, was always incredulous.
You will forgive my writing any more, I know—most affectionate thoughts & wishes go to you from my heart when it is most silent– Ba–
Robert’s love with Pen’s– But you take for granted that, good & sincere persons are never mediums. I deny that proposition– We are said to have a haunted villa here– Noisy voices & the like–
Address: Mademoiselle Fanny Haworth / Poste Restante / Cologne / Am Rhein.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. This letter is postmarked 19 August 1859, a Friday.
2. “On the Rhine”; part of Miss Haworth’s address.
3. “Love and pneumonia”; see letter 4469, note 10.
4. “My Three Wooings,” which appeared unsigned in three parts in Chambers’s Journal (formerly Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal) on 16, 23, and 30 April 1859. It was later reprinted in Miss Haworth’s Stories for Idle Afternoons (1875), pp. 79–153.
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