4680. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 22–26.
Casa Guidi
Monday [11 June 1860] [1]
My dearest Arabel, This must be a short letter, but as you are so silly, you darling, as to be restless about us, .. here we are arrived—safe & sound, unmassacred by the way .. though our inns in two places were crammed by soldiers (Lamoriciere’s) & I was sorely tempted to lock my door, but could’nt, would’nt, & should’nt– We travelled by Orvieto & Chiusi, through some exquisite scenery—four, six & seven horses .. “besides,” as Pen said, “his little horse,” which was fastened behind. Poney & I, a good deal tired—and even now I feel broken up rather, & have not been out these three days since our return. Tomorrow however I shall be seen in my “accustomed haunts” to the public advantage of Florence. Also Pen rides out today, the poney being its own man again. Really a beautiful poney– The photograph from Hamilton Wild’s picture wont represent the poney to you properly– He makes it much too large, & too coarse-looking. In fact, in those days of last autumn, the poney was unpolished,—uneducated for court circles—had’nt been clipped, rubbed down, fed on oats, kept in a stable: a mere country poney with merely native charms– The Duke de Grammont & the Marquis Ricci, [2] & ever so many of the less noble, had not yet offered to buy him—nor had Robert declared that he would’nt part with him for a hundred napoleons. I tell you this that due honour may be rendered to Stella, who in the picture is ill-represented. Mr Frederick Chapman (here on business) is to take these photographs to England—photographs, understand, of Pen on his poney. [3] But just before we left Rome we all went to be photographed .. & the results the Storys are to bring, & I am afraid they will be too late for Chapman. [4] Still it is the less a pity, that we shall be able to send them in letters, as they are done upon small cards like Robert’s. Peni & I are on one, & Pen alone on another. [5] You shall have both when we receive them. Also I mean to send some for my dearest Storm to whom I shall certainly write. And to George. What is he doing all alone at Budleigh Salterton? [6] I dont like thinking of it at all. Why not wander our way—if the sun & the soldiers dont make us inadmissible? Dearest Arabel, my darling, I dont know what to say. Our prospects are of course most uncertain, & I cant guarantee to you the peace we have here just now. If Austria can fight, she will fight—that’s sure. If Lamoriciere can attack us, he will attack us—that’s twice sure. We mean to annex the Neapolitan States, & then the Papal will fall in—that can surely be done without strokes– Afterwards comes the Venetia affair– Perhaps Austria may sell, if driven into that corner. With all this before us however, I cant be sure of a quiet summer, as you say—& then I am afraid of the responsibility of the heat for you—in spite of the comparative coolness of our villa at Siena—which is taken, & is large enough to hold us all– Oh—it would be too delightful, too happy– But I dare’nt urge it– I must not– I leave it there—to you & George, & your inspirations .. tearing myself away from the very idea ....…
Now let me talk of you. Whatever happens Arabel, you are entirely right in not agreeing to Bummy’s proposition. Never, never, would that act of union & annexation be profitable. At the same time I should much like your leaving London. A villa at Hastings—or in Devonshire on the coast somewhere, would be excellent for you—& you would compass more good there than will ever be possible to you in London. Why dont the Strattens think of something of that sort? He might preach with half the expense of health & thought. I throw it out, this idea, as a tub to my whale. [7] Not that I mean to imply that you are “very like a whale”. [8]
Frederick Chapman (junior partner) says that people in England universally admire my “pluck” (meaning impudence, I suppose) while they revile my politics. The Poems B.C. are likely to go into a second edition soon. [9] Aurora Leigh is in the act of passing through the fifth [10] —which is not bad. Harriet Martineau in a letter to an American paper on European politics, monstrously unjust & absurd, bestows a paragraph on my book not unkindly meant, I dare say, but the cool arrogance of which made me feel half inclined to anger & half to laughter. [11] “I see by the newspapers as well as hear by private letters that you have got Mrs B’s new poems ‘Before Congress.’ Some of us have been conscious of a desire to put off the arrival of that book among you, under a sense of shame that such a book should have been produced by such a woman ..... Those who know her mind after a study of many years will be the first to protest against the natural supposition that she is guilty of the coarse & vulgar worship of success exemplified by the flatterers of the French emperor .. without disputing that his present success blinds her to some things which will disgust her if she lives to see his fall, we may confidently say that her aberration is mainly owing to an ideal & [un]practical habit of mind which is no secret among her friends. There have been prior evidences of such misconception of the character of persons whom she supposed she thoroughly knew as may enable us to understand how she may fancy even Louis Napoleon a great man & a public blessing. It is a sad pity—not because any person in the world will adopt her view in the face of existing facts, but because it is a misfortune when literary genius diverges from its high path to deal falsely with vice, & give fictitious names to a depraved ambition, & a tyranny & treachery unsurpassed in the history of the world.”!!
That Miss Martineau should sit on an altitude to lecture me on these particular points (she who never was supposed particularly strong on them!) is really funny and what she can mean by my habit of “misconception” &c &c, moves my wonder. Certainly I have thought too well of several persons in private life, who have been treacherous to me in the long run—but Miss Martineau can scarcely have heard of these painful experiences. Nor do I consider that a freedom from suspicion in personal associations leaves one incompetent to judge of a course of political action or of the character of men far removed from any personal sphere of the observer. Certainly I did not guess the Grand Duke was a traitor till he was proved so, but I knew he had faults of weakness & cowardice which did not exclude such a possibility– I hoped also once in Mazzini—but from the beginning I saw in him that tendency to unscrupulousness as to means which developed itself afterwards in loss & destruction. My judgements on the last movement in Italy, have been considered sufficiently correct– Never mind. Time will bring lights. Meanwhile .. Viva Garibaldi!—— “Italia sará.” [12]
Did I send my poems to Storm?—— Because I ought to have done it– Arabel, we saw not a little at Rome of Dr Manning the convert. I must tell you of him—but another time– For this letter must go– Our Abbé is to be at Siena by the tenth of July, so that Pen will begin his lessons again—& meanwhile he is to prepare quantities, poor child. It is beginning to be very hot—but we shall try to hold on here for a month.
Arabel—have you read Adam Bede—and the Mill on the Floss. [13] I like the last best. The author has been here with her Lewes [14] —& will return I believe—in which case I must see her– There is great good in that woman, I am certain—in spite of everything. Great good, besides the great genius.
Wilson is well– Do you know that her sister has failed in business? [15]
Speak of yourself Arabel– “Toothache”? what means that? Write & tell me of dear Alfred & his wife. Your letter saddened me a little– I love you, love you, love you. Oh yes & I desire to love Christ with one heart with you–
I have neither pens nor ink—not being “settled” yet–
Your own Ba—
An American has just been here. [16] He tells me I must be prepared for disfavor in England, “I being just a hundred years in advance of you all as to politics.” Now I set that mild opinion against Miss Martineau’s. Robert’s best love & Pen’s. Love to Minny.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 465–469.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Date provided by EBB’s remark: “I … have not been out these three days since our return.” The Brownings arrived in Florence on Friday, 8 June 1860.
2. Marchese Matteo Ricci (1826–96), Italian classical scholar, was the son-in-law of Massimo d’Azeglio. He published a translation of Aristotle’s Politics in 1853.
3. i.e., photographs of Hamilton Wild’s painting.
4. The photographs arrived before Chapman left for England on or about 18 June; consequently, EBB and RB were able to enclose them to family and friends in the letters that follow.
5. These photographs were taken at Alessandri’s studio in Rome; see Reconstruction, F40–44 for EBB and H187–188 for Pen. There were two poses of EBB and Pen: one in which both are sitting (variant A), and one in which Pen is standing beside a seated EBB (variant B). It is the latter she sends to Arabella (in letter 4683) and others at this time. All three photographs are reproduced facing p. 48. Although EBB writes “we all went to be photographed,” there are no photographs of RB from this session extant. Those of RB that she enclosed with the other photographs at this time were copies made from the one taken in January (see letter 4571, note 6).
6. Near Exmouth in Devonshire. By 23 July 1860, George had left for Ilfracombe, as he explained in a letter to Henrietta written on that date (transcript in editors’ file).
7. “To create a diversion, esp. in order to escape a threatened danger” (OED).
8. Hamlet, III, 2, 382.
9. A second edition of Poems Before Congress was never published.
10. The fifth edition of Aurora Leigh, issued in 1860, was a reimpression from the stereoplates of the revised fourth edition and contained no corrections or alterations by EBB. The earliest announcement of the publication of the fifth edition that we have traced occurs in a Chapman and Hall advertisement in The Athenæum of 24 November 1860 (no. 1726, p. 697).
11. The following is an extract (slightly misquoted with omissions) from Harriet Martineau’s letter of 23 April to the editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, which appeared in the issue of 19 May 1860 (p. 3). For the full text of this extract, see SD2375 in vol. 27.
12. “Long live Garibaldi!-- ‘Italy will be.’”
13. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (see letter 4671, note 12). Adam Bede was published the previous year (see letter 4386, note 16).
15. Perhaps Jane Wilson; see letter 4679.
16. Unidentified.
___________________
