4634. EBB to Gerardine Macpherson

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 246–247.

28 Via Tritone

Tuesday morning [27 March 1860] [1]

My dear Geddie, I really could not write yesterday, under the immediate shock of reading your letter–

You know, but perhaps not all, how I feel in losing (as far as the loving can lose those whom they love .. as far as death brings loss) that great heart, that noble human creature–

May God comfort you .. & those who, like you, knew what she was—that dearest friend. I should like to know if the illness was very short, and if any dear to her were by her side at the last.

Dear Geddies

ever very affectionate

EBB–

Publication: Gerardine Macpherson, Memoirs of The Life of Anna Jameson (London, 1878), pp. 313–314 (in part).

Manuscript: Scripps College.

1. Date provided by EBB’s reference to the death of Anna Jameson, news of which reached the Brownings on 26 March (see the first paragraph of letter 4633).

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