4512. EBB to Henry Fothergill Chorley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 19–21.
Casa Guidi,
Nov. 1. [1859] [1]
My dear Mr Chorley, This is to certify that really we cant wait for Roccabella. Be so kind as to pray Mr Chapman to send it to us directly by the book-post, that we may take it to Rome, where we go soon. It is strange,—‘Roccabella’ is the book. We saw a review of it in your Athenæum, [2] and never once thought of you. Who could have supposed that a confederate would be treated so lightly?– From the notice however, such as it was, .. Robert cried, “Remember, you who get at novels, to get Roccabella at the first opportunity. There’s something peculiar & striking about the book evidently.” And I agreed. Yet neither of us had a notion, by dream or vision, that the author was a dear friend of ours, & that moreover our personal vanity was deeply interested in what he had written. [3]
Dear Mr Chorley, I feel as if I could thank you for not being of the politics of your Guild. How could I think that an Englishman could escape the universal corroding of the Times & its correspondents? By the way, the correspondent here is not received into houses where Italians visit. They will not in general cross thresholds after the heels of his boots. [4]
Villafranca was a great misfortune. But a crime it was not. And the consequences will be survived, I hope & believe, on the part of the nation, and also of the liberator– [5] For the misfortune itself has developed the highest qualities in the nation. Who, of any of us, could have believed that the Tuscans, for instance, could behave so, after forty-eight & nine?– We are resolved here, and calm. The government has the sympathy of the masses. The finances will hold out for another year at least,—& we comprehend that order & patience will save us.
Meanwhile I confess to vague anxieties about the Congress, & also about the papal question .. lest the pope should not go mad in the course of providence (as Austria did at the beginning of the war) & lest he should concede certain reforms, conceded too late to be acceptable. People tell us we shall face the revolution in Rome—but “we keeps” a revolution .. we are used to such cobra capellas in a state of domestication. I am a sort of mild Judith, [6] you know, in my way. And you ought to hear Penini talk. A German [7] (baron & coxcomb,) was arrested the other day for wearing a yellow glove on one hand & a black one on the other, (Austrian colours) & gesticulating at the Cascine significantly with both hands. Said Penini in a ferocious manner;—eyes flashing, .. “What will they do with him? Keep him in a dungeon for three years?”–
By the way, you advise a child, ten years old, to study Bach? Do you think the comprehension ripe enough for the reception of such dry grandeurs–? Robert who is the director in this case (I am ignorant) is delighted to have your sympathy & counselling ideas, but he seems to think that Bach is scarcely ‘meat for babes.’ A child requires a certain ‘lift’ in the movement, .. a colour in the ideas. Dont you think so on re-consideration?– Then, as you observe in the last Athenæum, the instrumental difficulties of the time being so “improbable if not impossible” to surmount, [8] childhoods mobility of hand has been taken advantage of by Robert, to obtain as much execution as such little fingers are capable of. Rosellen’s studies, [9] for instance, “of medium difficulty” & the next number, have been played by this Penini of ours, besides the Stephen Hellers I told you of– And now the child is studying Schuloff’s Carnival de Venise, simply for the sake of the use of the hand. Well—be not scandalized. Bach will come anon. Advise, advise. Tell us of any music which is recommendable.
Do write to us oftener. I am so glad to hear that your sister [10] does not suffer more than usual. Give her my love always. I am better,—feeling more “buoyant” as our friends the Americans say. If I can get to Rome without damage, I may probably be safe for this winter, which otherwise would make me apprehensive.
Ora pro nobis [11] here in Italy, my dear friend. Oh, to have a free Italy, a regenerated nation, .. and no Austria at all. If the Congress could & would buy off Venetia! But when did a Congress ever do such good. When two or three diplomats are gathered together, there, is the devil in the midst of them. [12] Robert’s love & Peni’s. Tell me anything you may hear <***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Boston Public Library and Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the review of Roccabella (see note 2 below).
2. In the issue of 24 September 1859 (no. 1665, pp. 396–397). The reviewer, identified as William Hepworth Dixon (1821–79) in the marked file copy of The Athenæum now at City University, London, did “not care a rush” for the novel’s heroine, “this wayward, foolish woman … though we admit that readers more susceptible and sentimental may find for her some pity, and even some excuse.” Roccabella was issued by James Blackwood, Paternoster Row. Edward Chapman often obliged the Brownings by sending them other publishers’ books.
5. i.e., Napoleon III.
6. The title character of one of the Old Testament Apocrypha who, by cutting off the head of the Assyrian general Holofernes, inspires the Israelites to victory over Nebuchadnezzar’s invading army.
7. Identified as “Baron de Kraff[t]” in letter 4514; presumably Prussian-born Otto Magnus Eugen Michael, Count de Dönhoff, Baron de Krafft (1835–1904).
8. EBB refers to an item in the music and drama section of The Athenæum for 22 October 1859. Chorley cautions against public amateur performances of modern instrumental pieces: “The instrumental music of our time is beyond the reach of the average amateur, since the mechanical difficulties thereof require a steady devotion of labour which is not so much improbable as impossible” (no. 1669, p. 538).
9. Henri Rosellen (1811–76), 25 études de moyenne force pour le piano, op. 133 (1852). The “next number” may refer to an earlier work: 12 études brillantes, op. 60 (1844).
10. Mary Ann Chorley (1801–63).
11. “Pray for us.”
12. A reversal of Jesus’s words in Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
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