4487. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 293–296.
Villa Alberti.
Sept 12. [1859] [1]
Ever dearest Isa, we shall receive you with delight on saturday—both of you, tell Kate with my love. At what o’clock?
While I think of it, .. dont bring Adam Bede and About, [2] —because the Storys have sent to Goodban’s for both books– But draw on Mdme Brecker for Daniels, [3] if possible,—and for those Blackwood Clerical papers you praised to me, [4] —and for Salvator after the twelfth volume, [5] —and for anything else the divine Brecker will send me– If she frowns on my liturgy because of what she has ‘just sent’ me, tell her, I will return them all duly & soon. Bring a ruled copybook, single-lined—for Pen.
And Isa dear, can you prevail on M. Delâitre, [6] to send two or three of his small combs for the back hair, for me to choose from—dark ones– If he has none but tortoise shell, I must have those– Only as moderate in price as reasonable people expect.
Dont imagine that we shall let you go away soon. Bring impedimenta [7] enough for an army–
My dearest Isa, it seems to me that many people see wrongly in this Italian question, & that you yourself are as wrong as possible in supposing that the selection of prince Napoleon by the Tuscans would diminish the difficulties. In the first place I believe sincerely that such a choice would not have been favorably received by the Emperor. Then, although Austria would have preferred anything to the aggrandizement of Piedmont (because of her hatred to Piedmont) the choice of Prince Napoleon no more performed the Villafranca conditions than the fusion does—and Austria only wants an opportunity of retracting of course,—which is furnished by any non-performance of conditions. Observe this fact—England was persuaded by the emperor to acknowledge the Tuscan Vote. [8] I shall be very sorry if English prejudices and suspicions are carried out into the minds of Tuscans who have still less excuse for holding them than the English have.
If Napoleon insisted that Piedmont should refuse, why did’nt Piedmont refuse? Certainly it was a conditional acceptance [9] –—precisely what Mr Russell assured me it would’nt & could’nt be—& the King would scarcely have used that phrase about the Emperor, if he had known the Emperor’s intentions to be hostile to it. M. Giudicci’s information (as to Count Arese [10] ) was very different–
The Moniteur, as reported by telegraph, struck me too, however, a good deal. Austria plainly is difficult to manage at Zurich– Also, the emperor wishes it to be known what his motives were in advising the return of the Dukes. [11] I think he should have been more open before, if he was in earnest about this return, & have given public guarantees on the subject of Venice. It was scarcely enough that his agents shd have whispered and counselled.
After all, Isa, we may do better as it is—though ‘fais ce que dois’ [12] is not always clear, (the dois is’nt) and I, as I have confessed to you, should have doubted a little in my vote, through sympathy with poor, poor Venetia. But it may be better as it is. In the face of such a power as Piedmont, strengthened through the fusion, Austria will find it hard to hold Venetia long– At worst, & in case no pecuniary compensation can be found, (which may yet!) a few years will dislodge her, I think—a very few years. Meanwhile that she should attack Piedmont at present, & France stand by & let her (in spite of what is said to be ‘compito’ [13] ) seems to me the most absurd of nightmares.
The ‘Patrie’ & the ‘Siecle’ which, both before & since the peace, have advocated the Italian cause to the very uttermost, & in the extremest Italian sense, were both decorated, upon or after the 15th of August, in the persons of their writers– [14] Nothing can be more significant than this– There is talk through the Post, of the French ambassador being recalled for political incapacity– [15] I wonder if that is true. He did not advocate the fusion, I believe.
Read what is said in the Times,—of Jessie?—as if she were really mad, [16] —& not “in the non-natural sense.” [17] Robert says it’s all a joke of the Times correspondent. Heavy joking in that case. How absurd, that demi-semi-Demidoff. [18] How can Mademoiselle de Fauveau bear the sort of thing?
A friend of Ferdinando came from Florence on the occasion of the fusion fête, [19] & declared that you were colder than we were. We have a great deal of air,—and even wind sometimes, & today Robert swears it is nearly cold– But I can bear only a single sheet over me at night—which does’nt sound like cold—does it? The weather is bright & beautiful. Think of me—I drove with Robert to the Storys yesterday afternoon .. at half past five, & had tea on their terrace before the house. I was back at seven– It shows how I have gathered strength. Still I am a wretched shadow of Ba—& you must not expect any recreation out of me, poor, poor Isa– I should say, poor Kate too, if it were not for Robert—but he’s a supplement in full—is’nt he? You made me so sorry by what you said of Kate– Why does anybody teaze her when I like her so much–
Dearest Isa’s loving
Ba.
Address: Mademoiselle Blagden / Villa Bricchieri / Bellosguardo / Firenze.
Publication: B-IB, pp. 246–248.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. As indicated in letter 4491, EBB refers to La Question Romaine (Brussels, 1859) by Edmond About (1828–85).
3. Possibly Elizabeth Daniel (née Spencer, b. 1822), who published as Mrs. Robert Mackenzie Daniel and was the author of numerous novels, the most recent being Old Home (1857), The Old Maid of the Family (1858), The Student’s Wife (1858), and Master and Pupil (1859). Her husband, also a novelist, died in 1847, aged 33.
4. George Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life (1858), serialised in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine between January and November 1857, was published in two volumes in January 1859.
5. Salvator (14 vols., 1855–59) by Alexandre Dumas (père); see letter 4175, note 8.
6. A “parfumeur” in the Piazza San Gaetano (C.D. Blanc, Guide de Florence, Florence, 1860, p. xxix).
7. “Baggage.”
8. i.e., the vote in the Tuscan Assembly for union with Piedmont (see letter 4476, note 6).
10. Francesco Arese (1805–81), Italian politician and soldier. Long a friend of Louis Napoleon and his mother, Queen Hortense, Arese was part of the provisional government in 1848, a senator in the Subalpine Parliament in 1854, and after 1859 a senator and cabinet minister in the Piedmont government, as well as Cavour’s agent in Paris. He became Italy’s ambassador to France in 1861. EBB refers to him in “Summing Up in Italy” (Last Poems, 1862), line 29.
11. An article in Le Moniteur universel of 9 September 1859 discussed the positions taken by Napoleon III and Franz Josef at Villafranca: “The Austrian emperor … promised the greatest concessions for Venice … but he put as a sine qua non condition for these concessions the return of the archdukes to their states. Thus, the matter was clearly put in Villafranca: either the [French] Emperor should stipulate nothing for Venice … or in order to obtain important concessions … he had to agree to the return of the archdukes. Good sense, then, dictated his conduct, because it was not at all a matter of bringing back the archdukes with foreign troops, but on the contrary to make them return, with serious guaranties, by the free will of the populations who would be made to understand how much this return was in the interests of the great Italian nation” (p. 1).
12. “Do what you should.”
13. “Accomplished.”
14. Further indicating Napoleon III’s strong support for Italy. La Patrie, a Paris daily with a large circulation, was associated with Monarchists and the Roman Catholic Church. Le Siècle, also a Paris daily, appealed mainly to the small trades and working classes, and it was distinctly anti-clerical.
15. The Morning Post for 6 September 1859 reported the recall of the Marquis de Ferrière le Vayer (see letter 4468, note 2) and commented: “We are not at all surprised, after such exhibitions of diplomatic incapacity” (p. 3).
16. Jessie White Mario and her husband were detained in Bologna because of their association with Mazzini. In a 31 August dispatch to The Times, the Florence correspondent reported the intercession of Angelo Brofferio and Garibaldi in the Marios’ behalf. Evidently, they argued that Mme. Mario was “only a half-cracked creature, and that both humanity towards her mental infirmity and courtesy to her sex demanded her instant release” (6 September 1859, p. 7). The Bolognese authorities responded by saying that they would release the Marios in eight days.
17. A phrase that William George Ward (1812–82), theologian and follower of John Henry Newman, used to describe his acceptance of some of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith that the Church of England required its ordinands to swear to uphold. In The Ideal of a Christian Church (1844), Ward argued: “Our twelfth Article is as plain as words can make it on the ‘evangelical’ side … of course I think its natural meaning may be explained away, for I subscribe it myself in a non-natural sense” (p. 479).
18. Comte Demidoff de San-Donato (1813–70); see letter 3149, note 6.
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