4498. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 317–320.
Alberti Villa. Siena.
Monday. [3 October 1859] [1]
Ever dearest Isa, I should have written to you yesterday & meant to do so– An awful silence seemed to have fallen upon nature when you were gone,—and Hatty’s appearance, [2] with Wilson, were supernatural accessories almost in place. I was so struck altogether that I could only open my eyes, & not my mouth .. at first. Yes, it was horribly provoking. You would have had her too to travel back with you. Was it my fault? No indeed– My idea was simply to prevent the early departure that day, of either of my visitors, .. and not to send away Isa a moment sooner for any consideration–
Well—you saw Hatty next morning of course, & heard her ‘raisonnement[’] [3] about your going to Rome– Only that you wont go, Isa, of course, seeing that nothing I ever want to make you do, will you do, as a matter of principle– The English scheme is a pure risk of health & money—and for what end, is beyond my eyesight, even if Lord Rosse helped it with his telescope– [4] I could see the people walking on the moon sooner. That’s sure–
Now, dear dearest Isa, let me thank you for your goodness about the Tennyson poem which we both admire much: it is fine & true. [5] How good of you to write it out, and not for a fraction of the hundred pounds—but you gave pleasure & much, .. which is always worth gold to you, dear kindest Isa–
You see we did’nt arrive on saturday. In fact it has been & is almost too warm– Dont let me blaspheme against it– It is exquisite weather. We take on the villa by the day—so that at the first change, expect us straightway–
Oh Isa—so vexed I am! And that rare angel, the Burradge, [6] vanishing without granting you the vision of him, just as if you had stayed a few days longer! Is that not an argument for Rome, at least.?
I have heard from Mrs Jameson, who wrote from Berlin, but was to be in England on business towards the second week of October. So there will be no Italy for her this year of course– [7]
The Cartwrights arrived– [8] Mr Cartwright came over to us before he broke bread, and two days afterwards went back alone to Florence where he will remain perhaps ten days & then go to Bologna—then return. Meanwhile Mrs Cartwright & the children give a week to Siena. Mr Cartwright[’]s politics were, as I supposed, difficult to bear. Quantities of “facts” which could’nt be other than lies– Names, dates, details of a fabulous accuracy: proofs inexcusable of things entirely impossible. Robert who heard all, told me afterwards that the effect on his mind was an impression favorable to Napoleon. Even I [9] could’nt expect more– I like Mr Cartwright much, but he is English as I say– He even said to me that he was “chiefly interested in Italian affairs as they bore on England”– (I wont be “maudlin-moral” [10] on that sentiment.) The whole interest of English politicians is in fact, not Italy’s welfare, but the exclusion of French influence in order to the admission of English influence– He said that France had bargained for Savoy & Nice– [11] (Denied within these two or three days by Piedmont[.]) He said that France insisted on imposing Prince Napoleon over Tuscany– (Denied within these two or three days by the Moniteur!) [12] He said that Cipriani & Pepoli [13] were creatures of Napoleon & playing his game. How, I wonder?– Against annexation, somehow–
Dear, my poem is in, in the Athenæum—but they took me at my word, & throw off the responsibility of the politics– [14] Here I send you the stanza omitted– Read it between the 6th and 7th: it is the right seventh–
7.
“A great Deed in this world of ours?
Unheard of the pretence is–
It threatens plainly the Great Powers:
Is fatal in all senses–
A just Deed in the world? Call out
The rifles! [15] be not slack about
The National Defences!”
I am full of regret about the omission– There’s the effect of having a poem in one’s head long before one writes it down! If I had thought they would have taken me at my word and thrown off the responsibility, I should not have been hindered from sending it the day after the ms went to them, by the fear of its depriving the other stanzas of their small chance of being accepted– Never mind. I will [16] print it in time. [17] Such a comfort to one, it is, to sfogarsi. [18]
I did all I could to persuade Hatty to stay in Florence & send Gibson on with the maid—but there was some unreal difficulty in regard to a passport, & a real one in her desire to get on– She was not well when she was here, and Rome is not fit for her this month–
We hear that the Tuscan Government assumed the Savoy arms in consequence of a communication & a permission. [19] May it be so.
(It just strikes me that my sending you my “stanza” may seem stupid—but you will understand that I rely on your having sight of the Athenæum– I know you do see it–)
After which parenthesis let me go on to say that the enthusiasm of the people here at the assumption of the Savoy arms has been immense. We had no cannons, but we roared as loud.
Mrs Cartwright & the Storys come to tea this evening—if six is the evening.
May God bless you, dearest Isa– I have been making way more openly, I think, in these latter days. And you, how are you, dear?
Write, & tell me all– The Eckleys are in Florence.
Robert’s best love with Peni’s
& your loving Ba’s–
Did you put up by mistake with your books the ‘Mariage en Province’– [20] Because it belongs to the Storys–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 250–253.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dated by EBB’s references to the postponement of the Brownings’ departure. They were planning to leave Saturday, 1 October 1859 but did not return to Florence until Monday, 10 October 1859.
2. Harriet Hosmer had been in Switzerland with John Gibson. Apparently, she arrived in Siena on Monday, the 26th, shortly after Isa Blagden and Kate Field had departed, then returned to Florence on the 27th.
3. “Reasoning,” or “argument.”
4. William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800–67), astronomer and builder of reflecting telescopes. The six-foot reflector that he completed in 1844 and mounted in his observatory at Birr Castle, Ireland, was “the largest telescope in the world for over six decades” (DNB).
5. Presumably “The Grandmother’s Apology,” which was published in the 16 July 1859 issue of Once a Week. Tennyson received a hundred pounds for the contribution (see The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson, ed. Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon, Jr., Cambridge, Mass., 1981–90, 2, 230).
6. Sic, for Burridge.
7. Anna Jameson had been in Germany for several months visiting her friend, Ottilie von Goethe.
8. On 26 or 27 September; see the third to last paragraph in letter 4494.
9. Underscored twice.
10. Tennyson, “Will Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue” (1842), line 208.
11. The secret agreement made between Napoleon III and Camillo di Cavour at Plombières in 1858 (see letter 4472, note 8) included the ceding of Nice and Savoy to France. The formal treaty doing so was signed on 24 March 1860.
13. Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli (1825–81), a cousin of Napoleon III, led the resistance to Austrian occupation in Bologna. Leonetto Cipriani (1812–88), who supported both Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon III, was elected governor general of Romagna a few months earlier. Pepoli and Cipriani are mentioned in EBB’s poem, “Summing Up in Italy,” line 27.
16. Underscored three times.
18. “Vent.”
19. In keeping with the Tuscan government’s treating of union with Piedmont as a fait accompli (see letter 4476, note 6), Ricasoli “put the cross of Savoy on the tricolor banner, put up the arms of Savoy in public places and, after 29 September, headed all public documents … ‘Regnando S.M. Vittorio Emanuele’” (George Martin, The Red Shirt and the Cross of Savoy, New York, 1969, p. 515).
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