4653. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 289.
[Rome]
[19 April 1860] [1]
Dearest dear Isa Robert says he will give me five minutes while he puts on his coat—or cravat, I think– How shall I say in it that I thank you from my heart for all things? The excommunication, you are to give to Mrs Trollope with my love, & no malice intended. Certainly we are all in it—and the emperor Napoleon first & chiefly– As to the government’s refusal to admit it, I agree with the government & disagree with the Nazione. It has not been admitted into France– So good, for both places, it seems to me. Why should weak consciences be bruised unnecessarily, & why should the clerical party .. the part of the party which is inclined to behave well, be placed before the eyes of men in a more inconsistent relation with the Head of the church than is needful?–
——As for me, my dearest Isa, be of good cheer, & dont imagine that I am taking to heart any outcry of devils, boobys or posts [2] (the three we have to do with in modern times, instead of the Gods, men, & columns of antiquity!) [3] I have seen my article in the Saturday Review—the criticism of three files, [4] ––besides the scattered shot in three other political articles, [5] .. and I am not dead, nor even ill– The Athenæum vexed me, because it so vexed Robert with its mis-statement. The Saturday Review vexes neither him nor me—nor is it unfair, from the writer’s point of view–
Here’s Robert who tears
away my next sentence
In all love your
Ba–
Remember our newspapers–
We are in distress–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 332–333.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. This letter evidently accompanied letter 4652.
2. A fairly negative review of Poems Before Congress appeared in the 14 April issue of The Morning Post. “Italy and the World” was the target of the more severe remarks: “The versification, if it may so be called, is as rugged as unmelodious, as unpleasant all through. Quite apart from the subjects of this poem—a rampant raid upon England and her cautious policy, and a very intemperate tirade upon her commercial disposition—its faults of construction and mere mechanical harmony are too grave to be accepted without protest by Mrs. Browning’s readers” (p. 3). For the full text of this review, see pp. 386–387.
3. Cf. Byron, “Hints from Horace” (1831), line 588.
4. i.e., three columns.
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