4685. EBB to Eliza Anne Ogilvy
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 37–40.
Florence.
June 15. [1860] [1]
My dear friend it did not need your kind letter to remind me that though I send you my book, I owe you the debt of writing & that, instead of sending me a kind letter, you might well have reproached me– For a year past I have had my life at once so full & so frail that such sins of negligence or omission have been forced on me here & there. You said once that as you stepped into life, you felt the calm of the grave steal on you. I, an unbeliever in the calm of the grave, may be as sceptical of calms of life—for though older than you, the further I walk into life, the louder grows the battle, the quicker beats the drum in my heart. Never did a year of youth pass to me in a hotter fire & passion than the last has. Not on personal subjects indeed– But what difference does it make, if the emotion is personal?—if ‘these tears be wet’?– [2]
In sending a few copies of my book to you & some other friends, I felt as if I might be offending unaware. But you have forgiven me my gift– Thank you. Not so, have I fared with the English press, by which I am declared renegade & unnatural sinner, in all sorts of type– I dont know if you have much access to the newspapers & periodical publications, to be aware with what great ferocity these dogs of war [3] have been up & at my little book– And now that its pretty well over, I am still alive, & feeling considerably relieved in having spoken out the word that burnt in me– Whether truth or not, to you, it was truth to me—& the reception found for it in England simply confirms me in the belief that it is God’s truth as well as mine– If the consciences of men had been in a less morbid state, there would have been less irritation & more temper & justice towards a writer who could only be disinterested in her view. At any rate, I have delivered my own soul in speaking—& if I had destroyed my popularity in the process I would have spoken out equally– My publisher however (Chapman) says there will be no injury—& that Aurora Leigh is in the press for a fifth edition notwithstanding; & that the BC. poems are selling in spite of vituperation. Did you read the Saturday Review on me, & Blackwood?– Professor Aytoun of course did the last–
I ask it of your candour to observe that the official declaration of the Prussian minister (Baron Schleinitz) [4] has settled the question of the Villafranca peace. Only that unexpected conclusion prevented the attack of Prussia, which was definitively fixed for the passage of the Mincio. The emperor’s statement therefore, before the Legislative Assembly, [5] as well as his act in Lombardy, are justified beyond objection– .. except to those who saw no drawback in a European war of the largest kind–
You have taken a view of Italy, eminently unItalian, whether right or wrong abstractedly. What you call a “war of aggression” (on what ground?–) is to them the “war of independence” for which they thank God– Let Napoleon be the devil twice over, they owe their freedom to him—not only at Milan but at Florence, at Bologna & elsewhere. Only his upraised finger prevents Austrian intervention at this moment—only his troops present in the peninsula, preserved to us the power of choice & the virtue of the vote– He would have “swamped” Tuscany? Ask the Tuscans!—who came to the vote with the French flag as well as the Italian– Ask Cavour .. who has been at one with the emperor from first to last– He might well say, “Napoleon is in my boat,—& must sink or swim with me”– As to the cession of Savoy & Nice, it is’nt to be regarded as an isolated fact– It is’nt the pay for Lombardy. It is the condition (arranged from the beginning) of a reconstituted Italy– It rivets the alliance till the consummation of all things,—& justifies the Head of the French State to the opposing parties in France, & also to posterity, in raising up what in the course of some fifty or a hundred years may be a rival power—France is generous in her foreign policy, but she has like all nations her “interested classes”; and, besides, there are the different factions of the opposition who are using this question of Italy as a weapon against the Empire– For instance .. do you comprehend what is being carried on in Rome, by Lamoriciére & M. de Merode & the parties they hang by? It is the French opposition transported to Rome. Napoleon exposed his life in Lombardy; he is besides risking his dynasty– If you could hear with your ears at Rome the low curses of the clerical party– There was a certain Monsignore [6] who said aloud with significantly ferocious eyes,——“To think,—that only one life stands betwixt us and prosperity”–!– Well-instructed persons have said to me, speaking of the emperor—“I fear for him– He will fail– Forty thousand priests against him!!– They will get their ends by taking his life, if by no other means”–
When you come to Florence to “show Marcia her birthplace” (& Alexander’s) you will find an equestrian statue of Napoleon side by side with Victor Emmanuels in the Piazza Maria Antonia .. now the Piazza dell’ Independenza– You will find a live Tuscany .. an Italy, if it pleases God, restored to herself–
Meanwhile we are living, eating, drinking, dreaming, Garibaldi– His undertaking was pathetic & sublime at once– If he had failed it would have been in the eyes of all, a fault as well as a failure– We must have disclaimed him officially– In fact the danger to Central Italy was great– It was pulling down our house on our heads– More forlorn than any forlorn hope was this enterprise, to which he went, armed with his private grief—the loss of his birthplace, Nice .. and the fact of that miserable marriage of which you probably know the story. [7] If you dont, I will tell you that tragedy– On the subject of Nice, he belonged to the small minority who objected to the annexation to France,—& not having the brain of a Statesman, so as to comprehend certain complications & previdences, he could not be convinced– He’s our hero, but not our politician– People whispered, he would break his sword & go to America– No,—he did what was nobler– He avenged his personal suffering upon the enemy of Italy who had permitted the suffering.
We have just returned from Rome, having remained there six months– I had one attack in the course of it, but am well now—though scarcely as strong as before my illness last summer. Early in July we go to a villa near Siena, to avoid the hot season—& there our Abbè (who taught Penini throughout the winter) is to join us, take a lodging hard by & continue his work– He began to teach the child Latin six months ago,—gave him lessons also in French, arithmetic & geography– You may imagine Pen’s innocence as to figures when I tell you that before we went to Rome, he never could be “quite sure,” he said, “which was a 6 & which a 9, as to the tails going up or down”– Of course that was my fault– I thought he had enough to do with living languages &c, & I wanted to spare his young brain the fret of even simple addition– Also, I had never put him into Latin– And we wished him to learn according to the Italian vowel system, having a belief in its correctness– Our abbé is a Corsican, & speaks French & Italian with equal purity from his two national relations—not knowing a word of English, of course. He teaches most admirably—, & although an abbè & a priest, is one of the most innocent & amiable of men– Pen likes him extremely, & is’nt afraid of being a little playfully impertinent sometimes (in spite of Robert’s lectures) about the Pope’s excommunication, & codinism [8] in the Papal states– The child has gone through the Latin grammar, translates the Latin epitome of sacred History into Italian, and Italian phrases into Latin, .. & writes parsing lessons, all very fairly—putting to shame my remembrance of the slow creeping classical methods in use in England. But the fact of Pen being a native Italian & having the language perfectly, gives him an advantage, which an English child has not, of course– He keeps saying that “Latin is the most beautiful language & the most easy, he ever learnt–” Oh—but you are not to think he does’nt speak English just as I do– Yes, indeed. Only his Italian is an Italian’s– Also, I believe I must confess that he writes Italian more correctly & idiomatically– In English idioms, he’s astray sometimes—talks of the “clock beating the hour”—&c. But this is soon corrected, & in accent & fluency he’s as English as the best of us, .. or the worst– Only .. such a politician!—such a Napoleonist! and “Italianissimo”– [9] I assure you it is’nt my teaching, though you may fancy this– He gets his politics from his friends .. out of the streets & campagne–
After which history of him, I beg you to look at his photograph– It’s not like him—it’s himself– We were all executed in our last June days at Rome,—just now,—so that you have us as we look at present– [10] Am I simply vain in supposing that you might like to have our shadows, “in memoriam”–? I want you to see my Peni. As for me, I am “black”—women always suffer by this process,—but my personal vanity takes amends out of the child– I wish I had as much of all of you– Let me <have a let>ter from you at least, & an account of your being & doing– What have you been writing?– Why dont <you> think of making any <money> through the magazines– The Cornhill <for> instance–?
Our best love to dear Mr Ogilvy, & all of you–
Your affectionate
friend EBB–
Address: Mrs Ogilvy / Lower Sydenham / London.
Publication: EBB-EAHO, pp. 147–153.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Cf. King Lear, IV, 7, 70.
3. Cf. Julius Caesar, III, 1, 273.
5. EBB refers to Napoleon III’s address to the French National Assembly on 1 March 1860 (see letter 4614, notes 5, 6, and 10).
6. Unidentified.
8. From “codino”; “reactionary.” Pius IX had excommunicated the Piedmontese government in March (see letter 4637, note 12).
9. “Extremely Italian.”
10. The enclosed photographs (see letter 4680, note 5) are preserved with this letter.
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