4514. EBB to Euphrasia Fanny Haworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 24–28.
Casa Guidi.
Nov. 2– [1859] [1]
My dearest Fanny, I this moment receive your letter, & hasten to answer it lest I should be too late for you in Paris. Dear Fanny, you seem in a chronic transitional state—it’s always crisis with you– I cant advise,—but I do rather wonder that you dont go at once to England & see your friends till you can do your business. Going back to Dusseldorf would scarcely be satisfactory,—would it? I would certainly go to England at once, since sooner or later you feel yourself called to go,—and then you will be able to look round & judge whether it might not be better on the whole to settle yourself among old associations, & there, rather than elsewhere– As to Italy .. the shadow of the past is on it. ‘’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view–’ [2] Certainly you were not very happy here– To travel backwards & forwards with a small income, is impossible,—and you have really to choose between north & south. Now Florence is peculiar in its society, as you know,—& is likely to lose many even of its old advantages in the gain of political ones– Carriages for instance, have grown to be dearer than at Paris, by the new tariff—and the change in the coinage, [3] with other causes, will raise the prices of everything– Just at present, of course, the situation is exceptional,—but I find it hard to get raiment for the winter without paying quite too much. The annexation will sweep away court & diplomacy together, and, as Count Cottrell lugubriously prophecies, every pretence at good society with the rest– The grass is to grow in the streets, he says– Better grass, than the mark of Austria’s hoof, say I. Then remember the climate, & how it cannot be the best for you—and is not. These are considerations to prevent vain regrets. — As to furnishing rooms in Paris, it would be wiser than doing the same here—but with your mind & tastes, I would see & feel England first– In one’s native country, one feels stronger & safer as a single woman—there is less to vex and perplex—more stability & subdued light– You know, Fanny, you are very gentle, easily wounded: it seems to me that you would be, on the whole, happier in England. I speak entirely from my knowledge of you– You can get at pictures in England & at artistic society also, if you please,—& making a slancio [4] into Germany or to Paris, would not be impossible to you occasionally.
Does this advice sound too disinterested on my part? Never think so. We only stand, ourselves, on one foot in Florence—forced to go away in the summer,—forced to go away in the winter. Robert was so persuaded even last winter, (before my illness,) of my being better at Rome, that he would have taken an apartment there & furnished it, except that I prevented him. Then we have calls from the north, and on most summers we must be in England & Paris– To stay on through the summer in Florence is impossible to us, at least– Think of thermometers being a hundred & two in the shade this year!– So I consider your case dispassionately—and conclude we are not worth your consideration in reference to prospects connected with any place. We are rolling stones, gathering no moss– There’s no use for anyone to run after us,—but we may roll anyone’s way. I say this, penetrated by your affectionate feeling for us! May God bless you & keep you, my dear friend–
As for me I have been nearly as ill as possible—that’s the truth—suffering so much, that the idea of the evil’s recurrence makes me feel nervous. All the Italians who came near me, gave me up as a lost life—but God would not have it so this time, and my old vitality proved itself strong still. At present I am remarkably well– I had a return of threatening symptoms a fortnight ago, but they passed– I think I had been talking too much. Now I feel quite as free & well as usual about the chest,—and “buoyant” as to general spirits– Affairs in Italy seem going well, and Napoleon does not forget us, whatever his townsfolk of a certain class may do. The French newspapers remember us well, I am happy to see, also. But, my dear Fanny, who am I, to give letters to Garibaldi? I dont know him, nor does he know me. Have you acquaintance with Madame Swartz?– [5] She could help Mr Spicer. But she has just gone to Rome. And we are going to Rome. Did not Sarianna tell you that– We go on my account, to avoid the tramontana here. People say we are fool-hardy on account of the state of the country—but you are aware we are no more frightened of revolutions, than M. Charles is, of the tiger. [6] Prices at Rome will be more reasonable at any rate. Nobody pays high for a probability of being massacred. What I’m most afraid of, after all, is lest the ‘Holiness of our Lord’ should agree to reform at the last moment. It’s too late,—it must be too late—it ought to be too late.
There’s a dear good Fanny! Follow up the Guldenstúbbe, man & maid. [7] Insist on a seänce. Why should’nt you see as well as Mrs Milner Gibson? And tell me of her. And oh, why did’nt you go & live in her pocket, so as to get into the inside of what she knows & practises? [8] See what I would do, if I had the opportunity, & were not “under coverture.” [9] Mr Kirkup here is having rings carried away out of the window & brought back through the same. But I am especially interested in this writing without material hands. Is it ever produced, (ask your Germans) except upon tombs, & remembered localities. If the lock of hair of a deceased person, for instance, were laid in a drawer with a sheet of paper, could’nt you get an autograph so? ask– I dont like those wonderful signatures of public persons: I doubt much the identity– What had the apostle Paul to do with your Baron, for instance? The spirit of somebody who died yesterday, would come more easily & probably—and a lock of hair, or keepsake of any kind would establish a ‘rapport,’ better I should think, than any ‘grave,’ extant. Try to learn something for me.
Isa Blagden is well, & trying to let her villa for the winter. The Eckleys have returned to Florence & are in a pleasant house near the Carmine. [10] Mrs Tuckermann is in England– They mean to remain for the winter in Florence, and to go to America next year. Florence is very empty of English—and the streets look dull. I hope your friend M. Tassinari will keep out of conspiracies—but he regrets his Duke somewhat loudly– [11] A small conspiracy was blown up by the government a few days since. [12] Were you acquainted with Baron de Kraff[t] [13] .. Mademoiselle de Fauveau’s friend? Baron & Coxcomb? He took it into his head to drive through the Cascine with one yellow glove & one black .. gesticulating with the same .. Arrested, in consequence .. Peni cried out ferociously .. “What will they do with him? put him in a dungeon for three years?” Mark the ideas of these newly freed cubs of patriots!
Sorry I am about your new novel. But, if too long for Chambers, try another magazine. Try ‘All the Year round’ [14] —why not? Your last novel, I saw in that American publication, “The Living Age,” [15] which pirates all the ‘crack’ articles out of the English periodicals– And very well it looked there.
Poor Mr Landor is in perfect health & in rather good spirits—seeming reconciled to his fate of exile– In the summer he moaned over it sadly—“never could be happy except in England”—and I rather leant to sending him back, I confess. But Mr Forster & other friends seemed to think that, if he went back, he could never be kept from the attack [16] —all would come over again: and really that was probable. Still, I feared for him before he went to Siena. It does not do to shake hourglasses, at his age—and though he had been acclimated here by an eleven years residence, [17] still–– … Well, there was nothing for it but to keep him here. He sighs a little still, that it “does not agree with him”, & that Florence is a “very ugly town,” and so on,—but still he is evidently much stronger than when he went to Siena; can walk for an hour together (instead of failing at the end of the street) and looks quite vigorous with his snow-white beard & moustache through which the carnivorous laugh runs and rings– He does’nt know yet we are going away– He will miss Robert dreadfully– Robert’s goodness to him has really been apostolical– And think of the effect of a goodness which can quote at every turn of a phrase, something from an author’s book! Is’nt it more bewitching than other goodness? To certain authors, that is.
Wilson hopes to let her old apartment, which she keeps on her hands. The Rios are in it just now. The new one has very small rooms for her inmate—but she herself has more space on the groundfloor .. which, I do trust, wont turn out to be damp. It is about half a mile removed from us. Teresa [18] has suddenly left her for higher wages somewhere else—too suddenly to be commended for it–
Pen has a poney, & we take it with us to Rome. There’s a piece of extravagance for you. Now, enough of me! Robert’s love.
Dearest Fanny, keep up your spirits, do. Write to me to say you are less sad. And love not less your
affecte Ba–
But Mrs Mackenzie had the same difficulties at Rome, about the pictures being taken down. [19]
Address: France– / Aux soins de / Mademoiselle Browning / (Madlle Haworth) / Rue de Grenelle– 151. / Faubg St Germain / Paris.
Publication: LEBB, II, 348–350 (in part).
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Thomas Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope (1799), I, 7.
3. In July 1860, Tuscan currency was converted from pauls and crazie to lire and centesimi, equivalent to French francs and centimes. The new currency began circulating on 1 November 1859.
4. “Dash.”
5. Marie Esperance von Schwartz (née von Brandt, 1818–99), best remembered for her association with Garibaldi, was born in England of a German family. In 1849 she took up residence in Rome, and, after her divorce from her second husband in 1854, she maintained there a popular salon, which was visited by Franz Liszt, Gregorovius, and Odo Russell, among others. In 1861 she published Garibaldi’s Denkwürdigkeiten, her edition of his memoirs, under the pseudonym Elpis Melena (“Black Hope”). She also wrote a biography of Dr. Gryzanowski (Hanover, 1899). In the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4), Mme. Schwartz is listed as “Baronne de Schwartz, / Palazzo Lovatti, Piazza del Popolo.”
6. Charles Jamrach (1815–91), German-born dealer in wild animals, with premises at 180 St. George Street East, London. As reported in The Standard of 27 October 1857, on 26 October a tiger escaped the confines of its cage and proceeded to attack a young boy. Jamrach subdued the animal, and the boy was rescued.
7. Ludwig von Guldenstubbe (1820–73), and his sister, Julie. Sometimes referred to as a count, or in this case baron, Guldenstubbe claimed that after leaving pen and paper on a grave or in a crypt, he would later return to find written messages (see letter 4215, note 14).
8. Susanna Milner Gibson (née Cullum, 1814–85), wife of Thomas Milner Gibson (1806–84), radical M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne, held séances at her London home. She is described in the ODNB as “an advocate of mesmerism and spiritualism.”
9. A legal phrase denoting “the condition or position of a woman during her married life, when she is by law under the authority and protection of her husband” (OED).
10. Casa Bartolini in the Piazza del Carmine, as entered in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4).
11. Giovanni Tassinari (1805–92) had been a Chamberlain to Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
12. The Morning Post of 31 October 1859 reported the arrest of six conspirators in Florence on 21 October in a plot to restore the Grand Duke in Tuscany. They had planned “to attach to the corners of all the streets in the city a false proclamation, to be signed by all the members of the present Government. In it the Government was to say that the time had at length arrived to throw down the mask, that up to the present moment it had deluded the country with vain hopes, but that now … those hopes were reduced to zero and that therefore, whilst giving up their power into the hands of the people, they counselled them to accept the restoration of the Grand Duke. A similar proclamation could not fail to produce an inevitable alarm, and consequently a general confusion, and then the name of Ferdinand IV. [eldest son of Leopold II] would have been proclaimed by all the members of the [conspiratorial] society mingled with the rest of the crowd” (p. 3).
14. All the Year Round, a weekly magazine founded and edited by Charles Dickens, was launched on 30 April 1859 with the first installment of A Tale of Two Cities. The magazine replaced Dickens’s Household Words, which ceased publication after its last issue on 28 May 1859.
15. “My Three Wooings,” from Chambers’s Journal (see letter 4471, note 4), appeared in The Living Age (Boston), 11 June 1859, pp. 683–704.
16. From Mrs. Yescombe, to whom he owed £1,000 in libel damages (see letter 4214, note 4).
17. Landor lived in Florence, then later at Fiesole, from 1821 to 1835. An additional year since his return to Italy in 1858 brings his total period of residence at that time to fifteen years.
18. Wilson’s maid.
19. Presumably, those she was in the process of copying.
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