4699. EBB to Edith Story
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 57–58.
Casa Guidi.
Friday– [22 June 1860] [1]
I should have written to you yesterday or before dearest Edith. I was delighted to have your letter, & only missed in it the news that you were coming down to Florence– That was a particular Mancanza, [2] too, for Penini .. who has been talking everyday of sitting down to answer your note on his own part.– Only I cant wait for him—and he is spending the day with his friend Hal Cottrell, after achieving a certain quantity of “Latinette” for his friend the Abbé–
I hope you are liking Leghorn a little better– Here, it has not been too warm,—and I am beginning to feel well again. I thought I was to be tired for all the rest of my life after the journey from Rome,—and the poney seemed to have the same idea– He had to be bled, & I, to stay at home for a week at least. I was ashamed to keep your dear little Duchess [3] out of her photographs so long. She was looking quite beautiful, with that ‘angelico sorriso’ [4] in the mouth & eyes, which means goodness as well– I should be sure to love her if I had leave–
In fact, all Florence looks well—I hear the most mythical accounts of the great Days here—how one man fell dead for joy with his mouth wide open for ‘viva,’—and how the King said on entering the Pitti, “Mio zio [5] ha fatto male di lasciare una casa tanto bella.” [6] Also, the number of times he burst into tears that afternoon must have been exhausting to the beloved monarch– [7] What however is not fabulous but certain, is that our Florentines are perfectly satisfied with the past and the present, the only anxiety being for the south– I hope you read the Nazione– We take in still the Monitore, but we shall have sight of the Nazione at Siena as well as here, as Miss Blagden takes it in and is preparing to settle herself for a time somewhere near the Villa Alberti– This will be for the good of the colony. I am eager to get About’s new pamphlet. [8] My emperor goes to Baden to be cheered by peoples (“acclamations populaires”) & fêted by Kings, [9] —& prove to everybody that if he sows dragon’s teeth, [10] it is’nt because he’s a dragon. The idiocy of the world is great—a remark from the bearing of which, I dont exclude my own country by any manner of means, as you may well suppose– There’s a regiment of female volunteers (riflewomen) already,—and queen Victoria has caused to be promulgated an ordinance .. somewhat after the pattern of the declaration of neutrality last year .. against all sabbath-breaking & other kinds of naughtiness–– [11] Shall I tell you the last riddle? “Why are the volunteers like Nelson?” You give it up?—— “Because the last thing Nelson did was to die for his country. And that’s the last thing the volunteers will do”–
It’s Mr Forster’s wit–
And my belief–
Harriet Martineau in a letter to the anti-slavery Journal, [12] confides to America how much she is ashamed of me, & explains graciously that I dont flatter the emperor because he’s an emperor, (who’d have thought it?) but because there’s a weak point in my brain … well known to all my affectionate friends &c &c &c–!–
The amazing insolence of it all, made me quite … laugh.
Every day I have half expected to see you Edith, or some of you– Pen caught sight of dear Mr Story at Pisa– [13] You were there?– Do let us hear– Our love goes thankfully to you—all of you–
Your affectionate friend
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to the Duchess of Casigliano. In letter 4697, RB reports that the Brownings’ called on her.
2. “Neglect.”
3. Of Casigliano.
4. “Angelic smile.”
5. Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Victor Emmanuel’s maternal uncle.
6. “My uncle did a bad thing to leave such a beautiful house.”
8. Edmond About’s La Prusse en 1860 (1860), purporting to contain the ideas of Napoleon III, attempts to assure Prussia that it has nothing to fear from the French.
10. In Greek mythology Cadmus, upon Athena’s instructions, sowed a dragon’s teeth and ferocious warriors sprang up in their place. Thus, the phrase means to foment war or fighting; or to stir up trouble.
11. “A proclamation for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and for the preventing and punishing of vice, profaness, and immorality” was issued by Queen Victoria on 9 June 1860. The Times of 16 June (p. 5) printed the text of the proclamation, which directed Her Majesty’s subjects “to attend the worship of God on every Lord’s day” and “to suppress all public gaming-houses and places, and lewd and other disorderly houses; and also to suppress and prevent all gaming whatsoever, in public or private houses, on the Lord’s day; and … to prevent all persons keeping taverns, or other public houses whatsoever, from selling wine, beer, or other liquors, or receiving or permitting guests to be or remain in such their houses in the time of Divine service on the Lord’s day.”
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