4611. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 195–199.
28. Via del Tritone. Rome
February– 22– [1860] [1]
Dearest naughtiest Moña Nina .. where is the place of your soul, your body abiding at Brighton, that never, no, never, do I hear from you? It seems hard. Last summer I was near to slipping out of the world, & then, except for a rap, you might have called on me in vain– (And said rap you would’nt have believed in.) Also, even this winter, even in this Rome, the city of refuge, I have had an attack—less long & sharp indeed, but weakening—and though I am well now, & have corrected the proofs of a very thin & wicked “brochure” on Italian affairs—(in verse, of course) yet still I am not too strong for cod’s liver oil & the affectionateness of such friends as you– (I speak as if I had a shoal of such friends—povera me! [2] ) Write to me therefore. Especially as the English critics will worry me alive for my book, & you will have to say “Well done, critics”! so write before you read it, to say, “Ba, I love you.” That makes up for everything. Oh, I know you did write to me in the summer. And then I wrote to you—and then there came a pause– Which is hard on me, I repeat.
Geddie has come here, lamenting also– Besides we have been somewhat disappointed by your not coming to Italy. Never will you come to Rome as Geddie expects, late in the spring, to take an apartment close to her, looking charmingly on the river. I told her quite frankly that you would not be so unwise– Rome is empty of foreigners this year—a few Americans standing for all– Then, in the midst of the quiet, deeply does the passion work—on one side, with the people—on the other, in the despair & rage of the Papal government. The pope cant go out to breakfast, to drink chocolate & talk about “Divine things” to the “Christian youth,” but he stumbles upon the term “new ideas” &, falling precipitately into a fury, neither evangelical nor angelical, calls Napoleon a ‘sicario’ (cutthroat) & Vittorio Emanuele an “assassino.” [3] The French head of police, who was present, whispered to acquaintances of ours, “Comme il enrage le saint pere”! [4] —— In fact, all dignity has been repeatedly forgotten in simple rage. Affairs of Italy generally are going on to the goal, & we look for the best & most glorious results. Perhaps, not without more fighting. Certainly we cant leave Venetia in the mouth of Austria, by a second Villafranca– We cannot & will not– And sooner or later, the emperor is prepared, I think, to carry us through– Odo Russell told me, (without my putting any question to him), that everything, as it came out, proved how true he had been to Italy—that in fact he had “rather acted as an Italian than as a Frenchman.” And Mr Russell, while liberal, is himself very English, & free from Buonaparte tendencies, from hair to heel.
Now I am going to tell you of poor Mdme Braun. I have seen her once, when she had the goodness to mount to me—& I thought her in good spirits then, & very little altered. She underwent a burning, just after Christmas, I think, & was cheerful about the result, looking forward to some painless months—when, sad to say, this morning she calls at this door & sends up her friend, who gives me a very melancholy account of her. Within the last few days, it appears, symptoms of extention towards the bone, have occurred—& this, the medical man Dr Small, [5] considers dangerous, while she herself has been a good deal depressed about it– Her friend (it must be Dr Braun’s niece, I fancy .. a very kind, feeling person, to all appearance) [6] spoke with great sadness, & expressed small hope. Her general health is good, she is even stout, & has an excellent appetite—but if vital parts be attacked by the tubercle, what then? I have felt sick at heart about it all– Nothing to help—& so much to endure! I heard of her dining at Geddie’s, not a fortnight ago—& she receives at musical matinees at her own house– [7] Her very object in calling at our door today was to name a morning for the next meeting. So she keeps up, still– But oh, I am so very very sorry!—— And so will you be, I know–
We have pleasant sunny rooms here, for which we have not paid above our means, on account of the extraordinary fall of rents this year. Little Pen rides about on his poney .. a beautiful poney bought for him at Siena, & brought for him to Rome by the side of our vettura horses: The child rides well & with the grace he puts into everything, (may I say so?) & child & poney are both stared after by the Romans while they gallop on the Pincio or in the Borghese gardens. Robert wanted him to ride well—& we dont pay much more for the poney than for the abbé who teaches him Latin .. with whom, by the way, he gets on nicely– He & Edith Story have lessons together, in Latin & Arithmetic—& the association with the elder mind seems to act excellently on him. He is full of emulation, & “cant be disgraced before Edith” .. whom he is fond of besides—and really she is a great favorite of mine also, truthful, simple, direct, & generous, I think. —Only its my disease to think too well of people,—and my misfortune, to find out the mistake– [8] So I have grown humble about this kind of impression.
We often have letters from dear Isa Blagden who sends me the Florence news, more shining from day to day– Central Italy seems safe–
But let me tell you of my thin slice of a wicked book– Yes, I shall expect you to read it—and I send you an order for it to Chapman therefore– Everybody will hate me for it—& so you must try hard to love me the more, to make up for that. Say its mad, & bad, & sad [9] .. but add that somebody did it, who meant it, thought it, felt it, throbbed it out with heart & brain & that she holds it for truth in conscience & not in partizanship. I want to tell you (oh I cant help telling you) that when the ode [10] was read before Peni—at the part relating to Italy, his eyes overflowed, & down he threw himself on the sofa, hiding his face– The child has been very earnest about Italian politics– The heroine of that poem called “The Dance,” was Mdme di Laiatico– [11] The ‘Court Lady’ is an individualization of a general fashion—the ladies at Milan having gone to the hospitals in full dress & in open carriages– Macmahon, [12] taking up the child, is also historical– I believe the facts to be in the book. “He [13] has done it all,” were Cavour’s words. When you see an advertisement & have an opportunity to apply at Chapman’s, do so “by this sign” [14] enclosed– I read of you in the papers, stirring up the women. [15] Write & say how <you are,> [16] & where you are <…> shall go to <… m>ay God bless <… l>ove of all <…> us—and especially your
ever & very affectte Ba.
Hatty is at work– I see little of her–
I hope you liked the article on the immorality of luncheon-rooms in your high-minded Saturday Review. [17]
Address: Angleterre. / Mrs Jameson / 16. Chatham Place / Brighton.
Publication: LEBB, II, 360–362 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. “Poor me!”
4. “How he rages, the Holy Father.”
5. Thomas Gerard Small (1804–85); see letter 3344, note 4.
6. Perhaps Theodora von Müller, Anne Braun’s friend and companion, whom EBB later names in a letter to Sarah Bayley (17 June [1860], transcript in editors’ file). Mlle. von Müller remained with Anne Braun until the latter’s death in 1863. She afterwards became the companion of Miss Bayley, who bequeathed her a substantial legacy. She is listed in the Brownings’ address book of the period (AB-4) under Mme. Braun as “Mlle de Muller, Tréviers.”
7. An apartment in Casa Tarpeia (see letter 3329, note 2).
8. EBB alludes to Sophia Eckley.
9. Cf. with a remark attributed to Lady Caroline Lamb that Lord Byron was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”
10. “Napoleon III in Italy.”
11. Eleonora Corsini (née Rinuccini, 1813–86) married Neri Corsini, Marquis de Laiatico, in 1834.
12. Marie Edmé Patrice Maurice de MacMahon (1808–93), French general, made Marshal of France and Duc de Magenta for his contribution to the French victory over the Austrians at Magenta in June 1859 (see letter 4438, note 8). He later served as president of France’s Third Republic (1873–79). The incident EBB mentions is described in “Napoleon III in Italy,” XI.
13. i.e., Napoleon III.
14. According to legend, Constantine the Great (ca. 274–337) had a vision in which a cross appeared in the sky, bearing the words: “in hoc signo vinces” (“by this sign shalt thou conquer”).
15. Untraced.
16. A small portion of the manuscript has been removed affecting text here and below.
17. EBB refers to an article entitled “The Ladies’ Club” that appeared in The Saturday Review of 7 January 1860 (pp. 12–13). Citing an advertisement that announced a “Ladies’ Reading Room, with Luncheon Room attached (under the management of Ladies),” the article claimed that the ladies wanted what they thought gentlemen enjoyed at a men’s club: “A home of selfishness and idleness, and neglect of domestic duties—a place for little indulgences—a trysting-place for gossip, and a house of call for letters which had better not be addressed to the Penates and Lares.” The Ladies’ Reading Room was located at 19 Langham Place, which was also the site of the editorial offices of The English Woman’s Journal. In a letter published in The Globe of 16 January 1860, Bessie Parkes discussed the history and purpose of the reading room: “It was originally established by me, in a room at 14A, Princes-street, Cavendish-square, for the double purpose of collecting together all those magazines and papers in which literary women, and indeed all cultivated ladies, feel an interest, but which it is utterly impossible for them to see unless they are rich enough to spend very many pounds a year in buying them; and also to be a place of rest and recreation to those innumerable women who are engaged in daily tuition, and other laborious paths of duty and breadwinning. … I arranged … that tea and coffee should be provided at a small charge. … To this small and not very convenient room … 70 ladies attached their names as subscribers … By the unsparing aid of … a lady of rank, the institution has been moved into large and convenient premises, and a luncheon-room has been added” (p. 2).
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