4476. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 268–271.
Villa Alberti. Siena-
August 27. [1859] [1]
Ever dearest Isa I meant to have written yesterday—your letters deserve answering before they arrive, instead of waiting a day. No indeed, Isa—(let this word come first!) you wont be absurd and carry out ridiculous notions about hotels at Siena!– That would be one way of paying us a visit! &, to take rooms two miles off! No—we will give you standing-place—& you shall take it by turns to lie down.
—Seriously, when Wilson who is here just now, & must soon go back to Florence to make preparations to receive her new nurseling Landor, is gone, she will leave space enough for two or three Isas and Miss Fields .. could such be found in the world .. & also by that time I shall be a little stronger I hope & trust– I am steady enough on my feet, and sleep well & eat well, & dont cough—still the open windows seem enough for me, & a carriage-drive rather beyond my comfortable capability– In fact, I am very very languid, and at six oclock feel as if I must go to bed—and have an indisposition to talk, which is scarcely natural. Never mind– Courage & patience– I mean to be in the ruts of life again before Isa comes—and then wont we “charge” Mr Story .. not like bishops but Garibaldi’s .. on political matters? [2] I have not seen him yet, but Robert says he is intemperate against the emperor, and (late events not justifying his ideas) maintains that Napoleon has changed his mind about the Duchies & armed interventions! As if the answer to the Tuscan Delegates before he left Italy, was not patent–! [3]
I expand every morning over the Monitore, [4] leaf by leaf, like a flower– Dearest Isa, if you can, without great trouble, send sometimes the Corrière Mercantile, of course I shall be glad– Only Robert seemed to think I taxed you too much.
A stray number now & then when you happen to be in Florence, and a strict account kept .. that is all.
Is it true that Prince Poniatowsky [5] declares “by the way,” the intention of France to refuse any hypothetical dignity meditated towards Prince Napoleon?– I am glad Tuscany waits for the rest of Central Italy before she offers herself to Victor E– [6] That appears wise. Count Gori [7] here told Robert that the Marquis de Laiatico had seen a despatch of Lord John’s recommending Piedmont to ‘accept’. If it had recommended Piedmont to refuse, that would have been stranger. [8] I am delighted with affairs in France [9] and the “second phase of the empire’[’]—see ‘Foi des traités’– Yes, Mrs Trollope gives an unkind impression in her articles, [10] with regard to Napoleon—and she ought to avoid it the more, from a consideration of the peculiarly ungenerous & unjust views cultivated by the Athenæum. [11] A great man in difficulties, & with the onus upon him of carrying out a great deed, notwithstanding all of them, should receive from us a more comprehending sympathy, I think. I see Mr Trollope’s book advertised– [12] How is he in health? I do hope he has got over the fatigue & other effects of his self-devotion in relation to it–
Robert has heard today from Annette, who is quite well, she says, with good appetite,—about to go to Scotland & Ireland,—and to join Mrs Mackenzie in Paris in October, with the intention of being in Florence in January– I perfectly agree with you in your judgement on that subject– It seems to me a most extraordinary & most unfortunate choice. Kinny would be altogether intolerable to me in that relation [13] —but it is not my affair .. happily– I am glad Annette seems so very much stronger. So far, at least, is well. But three cold months in Paris are not desireable for her even so–
Mr Landor is “meek as maid” [14] at present. I have seen him only once, but Robert broods over him like a dove, and the sucking dove [15] responds. Wilson is to take an apartment, & receive him & ‘do’ for him– Poor old man– He looked to me very pale when I saw him for the first time the other day,—but I dare say he thought the same of me,—& really his spirits and general strength seem to be considerably improved. Wilson’s visit here is spoilt to her by poor little Pilade being very unwell with diarrhea & dysentery—from his teeth, it is supposed,—but he looked ill when he arrived—and now, I hope he is better: he does not cry as incessantly– Teresa [16] came with them–
The Storys have been very kind & attentive to me––sending Galignani’s everyday, & pressing to have Penini .. who goes to them every day,—& Robert, towards evening. It’s a little outlet for poor Robert whose fate would otherwise (what with Penini & me) be too deplorable. He wont suffer me to take up the lessons yet– So kind! <***>
Publication: B-IB, pp. 234–237.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Wilson’s “new nurseling Landor.”
2. An allusion to bishops who charged priests to denounce anti-papal pamphlets and to Garibaldi’s charges in battle. During the late war he had won victories against the Austrians at Casale and Varese (see letter 4438, note 4).
4. The Monitore Toscano.
5. Joseph Michael Xavier Francis John Poniatowski (1816–73), natural son of Stanislaus Poniatowski (1754–1833) whose notable collection of gems, which sold at Christie’s in May 1839, indirectly led to EBB’s contributing a number of Greek verse translations to a projected “Classical Album” (see letter 1884, note 4). The younger Poniatowski became in 1847 a citizen of Tuscany, where in the same year he was made a prince. He served as Tuscan minister in Paris from 1848 and was later appointed “senator by Napoleon III., whom he followed to England in 1871” (EB). Poniatowski, like the Comte de Reiset (see letter 4475, note 8), tried to persuade the citizens of Tuscany to restore the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine to the ducal throne (see The Morning Post, 31 August 1859, p. 6). EBB refers to Poniatowski’s mission in stanza XI of “An August Voice” (Poems Before Congress, 1860).
6. Tuscany did not “wait.” After the assembly voted on 20 August to make an offer of union with Piedmont, a delegation was sent to Turin with the offer in hand. But it was rejected, as union with Tuscany would have violated the terms of Villafranca. Not long afterwards, Ricasoli, as minister of the interior, “simply pretended” that the offer had been accepted, and Tuscany adopted “the Sardinian system of currency, of weights and measures, of customs and postal arrangements” (George Martin, The Red Shirt and the Cross of Savoy, New York, 1969, p. 515).
7. Augusto di Gori Pannilini (1820–77), of Siena.
8. It is doubtful that Laiatico would have seen such a dispatch, as the British government was remaining neutral in regard to Italy. The dispatches from Lord John Russell that we have traced for this period do not carry this recommendation. In that EBB’s account is third-hand, elements of the marquis’s communication may have been garbled.
10. In a letter from Florence that appeared in The Athenæum of 9 July 1859, Theodosia Trollope wrote that by securing the protection of the Pope and allowing him the freedom “to send out his hired ruffians on such monstrous errands,” Napoleon III could not “but feel … even amid the fever of his glorious victories, how false is his position in Italy as upholder quand-même of such a system festering to such crime” (no. 1654, p. 53). In the most recent issue of The Athenæum that EBB could have seen, Mrs. Trollope commented on Reiset’s mission: “I know that Count de Reiset, Napoleon’s envoy, sent for the purpose of feeling the way for the restoration of the dynasty, has been much struck by the unanimity of opinion here on the subject; and confessed to a member of the government here that he could but inform his master that there did not exist the shadow of a hope of obtaining the return of the deposed Prince” (20 August 1859, no. 1660, p. 245).
11. Doubtless, one of the “ungenerous & unjust views” EBB has in mind appeared in The Athenæum of 20 August 1859, immediately in front of Theodosia Trollope’s contribution. A letter from Paris on the festivities commemorating Napoleon I’s birthday on 15 August contained numerous sarcastic references to Napoleon III’s recent achievements in Italy. Wondering why there were no great works praising the emperor, the writer proceeded to introduce examples of works less than great: “Still glory will have its cheap song. The deeds of Magenta and Solferino must be told to all. If there be no genius strong enough to lead the nation in chorus, little pipes must be tuned” (no. 1660, p. 243).
12. In The Athenæum of 20 August, Chapman and Hall announced that Thomas Adolphus Trollope’s Tuscany in 1849 and in 1859 would be published “next week” (no. 1660, p. 253). The work appeared on 3 September 1859 (see The Athenæum of that date, no. 1662, p. 315).
13. Kinny was Mary Mackenzie’s maid.
14. Cf. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue, line 69.
15. Cf. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I, 2, 82–83.
16. Wilson’s maid, as identified in the third paragraph of letter 4489.
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