4776. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 215–218.
Florence.
Friday. [9 November 1860] [1]
Ever beloved Arabel I have your letter– That the pain should have yielded is a blessing for which we cannot enough thank God.— The feeling that it is so is a relief .. a lifting of the cloud to us– All was blackness while one had to think constantly, “she may be suffering acute pain at this moment—” May God be blessed for what he has granted–
For the rest, my darling, I cannot comprehend why the disease must not be essentially better for the inflammatory point being turned– Your letter does not satisfy me—which Robert says is being absurd & ungrateful—but you know very well why it does’nt– Is the drain [2] very great that she should lose strength notwithstanding the diminishing of the pain, & notwithstanding her ability too to take wine &c?– Tell me how this is– I wish you had told me also, how she bore the “sitting up” which it pleased me that she should have proposed herself? Mention these things– She is in the Lord’s hands this Treasure of our hearts—& that He should have taken away the pain is a first-fruit of His benediction, for which no drawback should make us less grateful. Tell her with my most tender love that she must never think of writing to me– Tell her to think a loving thought of me & be sure that I shall feel wherever I am, the good & sweetness of that.
Arabel dearest, it seems long since I wrote to you– George had my last letter– [3] We are preparing to go to Rome,—but you must direct here till I write to say (which I shall do at the last moment) that you must direct otherwise. The difference in getting letters will be small, & it seems wise for me to go to the better climate. “It is safer,” says Dr Grisonowski, and I suppose it is. Otherwise I feel little “up” to the exertion of it, & would rather keep where I am– Political dangers you are not to suppose. Though my imagination is not sensitive to that form of fear, yet I could not be unreasonable & take Robert & Pen into any real risk– The fact is that Rome is as safe as Florence, I believe, tho’ I heard the other day that the pope was to be “basketted” (“corbellato”) before long .. “done for,” that is,—but even if the French go, there will be a succession on the part of the Piedmontese .. or rather Italians—for Piedmont has perished in Italy … & the security is likely to be unshaken– (The war that must come (unless Austria sells Venetia) will shake the north first, observe–) So the greatest danger is still the cold wind– It has begun here, & we cant travel while it lasts– We have had fires two days. I am well & ready to go at the first change, only not before. Tell me a little more of dear uncle Hedley– Is he able to move about? & how are his spirits?
I am very glad about the governess. [4] There are as you say advantages & disadvantages in her youth—much depends on the personal qualities. Some women are younger at thirty than others at twenty– Age is scarcely absolute.
That you should have a moment’s thought, any of you, of my Penini I never supposed—and, dearest, I avoided writing till he was up & well on purpose– There is enough surely to trouble you without my throwing stones into the water. Pen is brilliant in health & spirits. His malady was simply influenza which has been sweeping through Florence this autumn, .. & kindly avoiding me. I did’nt kiss Pen for two or three days I was so afraid of being caught in the toils–
So glad I am to hear of Set’s arrival– [5] That is gain for us– The winds & whirlwinds were inquieting–
Mrs Orme is alive, after all my impressions– I have not seen Mrs Robson. She wrote to desire me to name the day when I could come to see her that she “might not be out,—” mistaking my phrase that “I hoped to see her before we left Florence”. Certainly I cant go out in this wind—which I shall explain later, in a note of farewell, & so avoid the meeting I hope– I gave her information about masters &c,—and really I am not able to do more just now. She mentioned in her note how “wonderfully well” Mrs Orme was—which accounts for their all coming away, I suppose.
I am pleased that dearest George & you all liked the Cornhill verses [6] —but there’s really nothing to deserve a word of his or anybody’s in them,—it is so entirely the fact which makes the poetry– The fact was no invention of mine, & my only merit is telling it simply & clearly. It was not a solitary fact, Arabel,—Many “forced recruits” having been found on those fields of battle, .. Italians, forced to stand in the Austrian ranks .. dead with their faces towards their brothers, .. and guns which never had been loaded in their hands! They could die for Italy—& they died. The pathos of that situation had only to be told. I have another poem in perhaps the next Cornhill—not Italian, this time. [7] The Cornhill succeeds, I hear enormously,—the sale reaching 90,000—so they can afford to pay well– They sent me ten guineas for the ‘Recruit’– But in America they persist in paying just double. Only, anti-English as I am said to be, I prefer an English audience very much.
Poor Mrs Howard who lost her daughter at Milan (I told you) writes to tell me that Mr Beecher read “He giveth His beloved sleep” [8] at the American grave– It was not sung, she said, because nobody could sing for tears—but the minister, Mr Beecher, read it. That touched me very much. The remains were taken to America– A strange care, to my thinking! and especially with people who are so little conventional as to reject any form of what is called “mourning.” Mrs Howard’s own letter had a red seal; & Mr Beecher disapproves of black being worn by any member of his church,—using all his influence against it. He is an Independent, you know, & has the largest church in America. It is certainly the reflection of Swedenborgian ideas. [9] Mr Beecher’s reasons might be slightly different & less stringent to my mind– Do you hear how Mr Stratton is? I am afraid I have sent you over weight letters lately. Tell me of it. This time I take care. Oh may God give you power, beloved, to send me an improved account. With tender love to all of you, I am
your Ba.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 498–501.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Dated by EBB’s references to her letter to George (letter 4770) and to the Brownings’ impending departure for Rome. They left Florence on 18 November 1860.
5. In Jamaica.
6. “A Forced Recruit at Solferino” (see letter 4743, note 7).
7. EBB refers to “Lord Walter’s Wife,” which she had evidently already sent to the Cornhill’s editor, William Makepeace Thackeray. In a letter dated 2 April 1861 (ms at Berg), he politely declined the poem and apologized for taking such a long time to do so. He compared his discomfort at having to reject anything written by EBB to a man with “a tooth wh. must come out and wh. he has kept for months and months away from the dentist.” “Lord Walter’s Wife” was first published in Last Poems (1862).
9. We have been unable to confirm that Henry Ward Beecher was influenced by Swedenborg. Clifford E. Clark, Jr. describes Beecher’s religion as “romantic Christianity … a religion of the heart, an appeal to the feelings and emotions that replaced the cold, formalistic evangelical theology of the previous generation and accepted the new theories of evolution and biblical criticism” (Henry Ward Beecher: Spokesman for a Middle-Class America, Urbana, Illinois, 1978, pp. 3–4).
___________________
