4624. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 223–227.
[Rome]
[Postmark: 18 March 1860]
Dearest Sarianna I am very very sorry that you have been so unwell– Take care of that cold water in the morning. Cold bathing is excellent in summer but in winter the circulation must be very vigorous to admit of it innocently. Robert’s ‘instincts’ he always says, go against it in the cold weather. Avoid sore throats as far as possible—for in these days of diphtheria they are especially to be guarded against– Fanny Haworth tells me however in a letter yesterday that you & the beloved Nonno are both flourishing which is the best thing to say. Give Pen’s & my truest love to him.
I am beginning to flourish too, as far as so dry a stick can. For some days I have felt a sort of settling about the roots, which proves more strength. Oil of cod’s liver, & sun of spring are acting on me, at last. But I was feeble for a long time after my attacks on the chest, & could’nt shake off a tendency to cold, showing itself with horrid pain & internal gatherings in first one ear & then another—a thing I never had in my life before. Simply from weakness, it seems to me. But if the ears of my readers ache through my verses as mine have done in writing some of them, I pity you all.
There is a whisper in the air of great electional triumphs in Tuscany [1] —but there will probably be fighting as well as voting before we have done. Give my love to dear M. Milsand & thank him from me for not writing about Savoy whatever his opinion may be against annexation. We know more than it is likely even he shd know of the state of things in France & Europe. Private letters from high sources have been communicated to us from Paris, observe [2] —& we hope much, yet are anxious. The Emperor’s position is very difficult. Threatened with coalition of the political & clerical opposition at home .. & abroad with a European coalition—yet resolute to do his part in Italy. What appears vacillation is necessary diplomacy– As the papal party says & swears here, Napoleon & Cavour “s’entendent comme deux larrons”. [3]
In respect to Savoy there has been a premature mooting of the question which everybody has lamented because of its giving occasion to the enemy to blaspheme. When Italy is constituted wholly into a nation, people will see what the Italians see & know already, that they dont want Savoy, whose populations are in reality French & for years have been in opposition to Piedmont & hankering after France. Piedmont neither cedes, nor gives, nor exchanges Savoy .. but simply permits that right of choice to the Savoy inhabitants which she claims for the people of Italy– There will be a vote, & the decision will correspond to it. But as nothing alarms the European governments & old school of statesman so much, as the talk of popular voting & election, (“les allures revolution[n]aires des Buonapartes”) [4] so Napoleon has been obliged to wrap up the question (in official speeches & despatches) in such comprehensible phrases, as geographical needs & needs of frontier. [5] It is what we call in spiritualism, the “natural presentation of the spiritual form.”
The only thing important to me is sure, that nothing will be done except according to the will of the populations–
As to Italy, we expect to have Venitia within the year.
And tell dear M. Milsand that I hope & trust that what you say about his “disapproving the war,” refers to his past ideas. To regret the war now, in the face of this nation which it has resuscitated, sounds in our ears like a crime almost–
Even the English do not dare stand here & regret the war—though there are many persons who profess to wish that anybody had done so much good .. except the Devil!.. meaning the emperor.
Pen speaks English as fluently as he needs to do, but he understands Italian better,—writes it much better. It is curious. Little Cottrell, [6] his friend, was born in Florence just as he, has lived there all his life except three months once in England where he went at six years old speaking only Italian. His English is perfect, & he speaks Italian like a foreigner, much to the mortification of his mother who cant account for it. Observe—all their servants are & have been Italian, & they live very much in Italian society– Peni on the other hand, we are told by everyone, speaks Italian precisely as a native, & writes it grammatically in a way that surprises me considering that we have not fed him on grammars in reference to any language. He is very proud of his Tuscan, & when he wants to be impertinent, will sound the ‘hasa’ for ‘casa,’ with a grave face & maintain that it’s beautiful .. though he knows better than to speak so commonly. For “Bocca Romana” [7] he pretends a great scorn. Even Robert who is deep in the Tuscan dialect will come to Peni for light sometimes. He is an authority amongst us, I assure you. While for English, there is’nt a touch of foreign accent,—& when he reads a little more—he will attain to what English scholars attain. Certainly, if I live to help in his education (& the same may be said of Robert) he wont be found deficient in a knowledge of English literature. But up to this point Pen is not a ferocious reader in any language. Most of his storybooks are English—& he delights in Mayne Reid’s books of adventure. [8]
By the way he informed Robert & me yesterday that his abbé was “going soon to put him into Virgil—!!! This would be gobbling up the Latin language in a hurry indeed! but I dont much think his Abbé meant it quite so early or seriously–
If M. Milsand keeps to his race-theories, he certainly cant exclude the Americans from his exaltations of Anglo-Saxonism. In fact the northern states are more purely Anglo-Saxon. I should say that [sic, for than] England herself, having less of that admixture of Norman blood which goes with our aristocratical families.
And as for America, Robert bids me always remember our own ties– The American public carries him on its shoulders, while the English public (more shame to it!) ignore his name nearly. The difference of the bearing of the English & Americans to us two personally, is something extraordinary. And lion-hunting explains nothing. Robert is read in America: his books are bought.
Get the last Nor of Thackeray for Nonno that he may read the article on Junius. [9] It is an admirable number—& the magazine is making everyone’s fortune. 80,000 copies sold–
Your ever affectionate sister Ba
Love to Corkrans–
PS. You must forgive Robert for the long silence last time. He was so vexed about my being ill– He had said just before .. “I feel perfectly happy just now” –– & then he was made wretched again. I could scourge myself with stripes sometimes for vexing him so–
All is smooth now, however– Pen & he both look radiant—& Mr Fields the American bookseller observed the other day (in relation to Robert’s use of homœopathy which he is constant to) that “whatever he does to himself must be right—such a magnificent specimen of a man!—such a glorious life & energy in him!”
I teaze Robert a little on this head .. or body rather. “Such a magnificent specimen of a man”!–
I am looking to be torn to pieces in England for my book– Let me tell you the one thing which can give it any interest to you. Pen has read through all these poems– The ode was read to him– [10] At the part about Italy .. his eyes overflowed, & down he threw himself on the sofa, face downwards, to hear the rest. They are the only poems of mine in which he has expressed or felt the least interest .. & I have been extremely flattered by his praises of these–
The heroine of ‘the Dance’ was the Marchesa Laiatico (whose husband died in England last summer). Everything is historical– Even the Court Lady has a groundwork--for it is true that the Milanese ladies went in full dress to visit the hospitals.
Address, in RB’s hand: France. / À Mademoiselle / Madlle Browning, / 151. Rue de Grenelle, / Faubourg St Germain, / Paris.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
2. Referring to the letters written by Charles Fauvety (see letter 4616, note 2).
3. “Are thick as thieves.”
4. “The revolutionary attraction of the Bonapartes.”
6. Henry (“Hal”) Edward Plantagenet Cottrell (1851–1938).
7. “Roman accent.”
8. One of which was The English Family Robinson; see letter 4602, note 2.
9. The article, “A Few Words on Junius and Macaulay,” by Herman Merivale (1806–74), as identified in The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, was published in The Cornhill Magazine of March 1860 (pp. 257–263). The identity of Junius was of great interest to RB, Sr. (see letter 3875, note 2).
10. “Napoleon III in Italy,” the first poem in Poems Before Congress (1860).
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