Correspondence

4510.  EBB & RB to Emelyn Story

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 11–13.

[Postmark: 29 October 1859]

Saturday Morning—shame on us!

My dear Mrs Story,

I wanted to begin the answer to your note (most kind note) of two days ago—& so have stupidly prevented Ba from thanking you at once. She will do that for herself presently—but I am anxious to say that our surprise and my .. something like consternation at finding you had gone away after all, and without getting what I supposed was necessary, and on a Festa-day when banks are shut,—you must know it was considerable; I don’t like to think of it even now, though your note gives such pleasant assurance of matters having somehow gone right. I believed it impossible that you could leave that afternoon, having sounded Story on the subject & felt the bottom of his mind on the subject at three o’clock or nearly. We went out on a sudden instigation of mine—just to the Cascine, & were back within an hour & a half.

You need not be told how entirely we owe you the delightful summer we have spent at Siena: its one fault was its briefness. Ba is hardly so well as when she was let thrive in peace & quiet in that dear old Villa & the pleasant country it hardly shut out. She is forced to see more people, & talk oftener than suits her. I am very anxious to get away and see no obstacle to our doing so by the end of the first week in November when Mr Landor will be finally established in his winter quarters. We are papering & carpeting and doing things superiorly. He is quite well; as gentle & affectionate as ever—and I shall regret his loss more than there is any use in dwelling upon, now that it must be. Ba enters the room at this moment saying “I wish we were in Rome!.” Tell us,—for we count on your goodness,—the day you expect to be there—and, when you get there, any news about houses,—sunny ones & prices of the same: in short, as usual trouble yourself infinitely for the sake of us poor do-nothings in return, who can’t even keep at home one afternoon when we might be of some slight use. Goodbye now—for a very little time, I trust: love to Story to Edie—truest felicitations to you on the rosy cheeks of the Boys—kindest regards to Wild—indeed, more grateful & affectionate remembrances rise up as I write than one can well put in a letter—or, indeed, in a speech.

Ever yours most sincerely

Robert Browning.

[Continued by EBB]

who has written so much & left so little room between me & post-time that I can only say amen to his affectionate thoughts– Yes– I am very anxious to get to Rome. Nothing keeps us but the Landor necessity– The air here, (since it has turned to damp,) and too much talking make me feel more unsound than I have done lately—& the prophecied-of massacre at Rome (toward the imagination of which Dall’Ongaro contributed poetically, two evenings ago) does not alarm me so much as thoughts of the Tramontana– The Venetian poet threatened us also on other points– But I am stedfast in the faith that things are going excellently– Even dear Mr Story must approve of the locking up of the newspapers against the bishops’ charges. [1] Let us pray that the pope & his Antonelli wont give up an inch. The danger is that they give up– Will nobody help the pope away? My kingdom for a horse [2] .. or rather a mule—or rather a boat from Porta Anzio [3] —! Then the emperor’s last promise to the Tuscan delegates that there shd be no intervention .. neppure Napolitano [4]  .. is worth something. [5]

So sorry we were to miss you!—and who could have thought it after what Mr Story said to us? Till your note came we even held a little to the probability of your returning for a week or fortnight. But the boys cheeks confuted such an idea most reasonably, of course– Thank you a hundred times for your kindness in caring to have Penini– But he was well the next day– And then, parting with him would be hard. I did so once to my own sister for a week—and he cried every evening of the time, [6] —& I almost did the same. He was six years old then, & he made a vow “never in his life more to go away from papa & mama.” It wont be kept,—the more’s the pity. [7] Still up to this time, he will not go, he says– But you are none the less kind– Tell dear Edie with my true love, that I had my jacket arranged with the pretty patriotic buttons on purpose to receive her that unlucky morning– Love to all of you–

Affectionately always

Elizabeth Barrett B–

[Continued by RB]

Since writing, arrives a letter from Cartwright—he is urgent on us to take the Apartment above that occupied by Mr Jones in the Corso last year. [8] He represents it as precisely what we require—(number of rooms, sun in abundance, third floor no more difficult of access than a second—) ending with “I honestly believe that in all Rome you will not find a more suitable apartment.” He further says if he can agree as to price, he will himself take the Jones’ apartment—& presses for an immediate answer. Now, what do you say? Is not the Corso very noisy? Is it healthy there? Can we do better, do you think? They ask 60.sc. a month for five months—with a prospect of diminution if we take it for longer. We both of us want your opinion before thinking of a decision—forgive all the trouble, if you can! On returning to the letter, I find the bedrooms look to the back, over a convent-garden.

Address, in RB’s hand: Madame Story / Villa Palmieri, / Livorno.

Publication: BAF, pp. 48–51.

Manuscript: Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

1. The Paris correspondent for The Daily News reported the following: “The Débats mentions the fact of an ‘invitation’ [from the French government] having been sent to all the papers to abstain from further discussion of the topics raised by the bishops’ pastoral letter” (17 October 1859, p. 5). The next day’s issue of The Daily News carried an editorial from the Univers that protested “the notice lately served upon the journals that they are not to publish the bishops’ pastoral letters” (p. 5).

2. Richard III, V, 4, 7.

3. Sic, for Porto d’Anzio, 37 miles S. of Rome. It was a seaport of the Roman Empire, then known as Antium.

4. “Not even of Naples.”

5. The Morning Post of 26 October 1859 carried the following report of Napoleon III’s meeting with the Tuscan delegates: “The Monitore Toscano has furnished a brief abstract of the answer of the Emperor Napoleon to the Tuscan deputation on Sunday last. It is confined to the declaration on the part of Napoleon III. that he does not consider himself sufficiently released from the engagements of Villafranca to offer them any other counsel than to receive once more the Grand Duke, provided his restoration be accompanied with full securities for liberty and independence. He is most decided against all interventions, being resolved not even to tolerate one on the part of Naples. His engagements, he declared, were limited by le possible. … The Tuscan Government loses no time in converting the possibility … into the certainty that the Emperor will guarantee the newly-acquired liberty of the Tuscans to manage their own affairs” (p. 5). The report went on to name the Tuscan delegates: Ubaldino Peruzzi, Marquis de Laiatico, and Carlo Matteucci.

6. From 29 September to 30 October 1855, Pen stayed with Arabella at Eastbourne, while his parents remained in London.

7. Cf. I Henry IV, II, 4, 468.

8. Listed in the Brownings' address book of this period (AB-4) at 63 Corso is a George Jones, perhaps George Jones, R.A. (1786–1869), painter of military scenes and executor of J.M.W. Turner’s estate.

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