4662. EBB to Theodore Tilton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 309.
Rome.
May 6– [1860] [1]
Dear Sir,
I have to thank you, both for my husband & myself, for your kind & sympathetic letter. I am much touched by the generosity of the American public, and find a real pleasure, higher than the personal part of it, in observing that your national susceptibility interferes so little with your love for the truth & your sympathy with rescued nations. May God bless America.
As to matters of business, your liberality, sir, is welcome as a proof of what is better still. We do not often write for periodicals whether at home or abroad, but you will see by what is enclosed, that I have acceded to your request– The poems go straight to you from the brain, & not round by England– When you have done with them, have the goodness to pass them to Mr Francis for the next edition of ‘Napoleon III in Italy’—the “First News from Villafranca” to be printed immediately before “The tale of Villafranca,”—and “King Victor Emmanuel entering Florence” [2] immediately after, “Italy & the World.”
My book has had a very angry reception in my native country as you probably observe, but I shall be forgiven one day, and meanwhile, forgiven or unforgiven, it is satisfactory to one’s own soul to have spoken the truth as one apprehends the truth.
Faithfully yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
But we return to Tuscany at the end of the month, and our address is always Casa Guidi, Via Maggio, Florence. Have the goodness to give the accompanying note to Mr Francis.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: University of Texas.
1. Year provided by EBB’s references to “First News from Villafranca” and “King Victor Emanuel Entering Florence, April, 1860” (see note 2 below).
2. Published in The Independent of 7 June 1860 (p. 1). “First News from Villafranca” appeared in the issue of 16 August 1860 (p. 1).
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