4781. RB to Augusta Matthews
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 225–226.
[Florence]
Saturday Night. [17 November 1860] [1]
Dear Mrs Matthews, [2]
What can we say to such kindness as yours? You must know I, at least, was sure (so I thought) of seeing & bidding you goodbye before we went. But today brings us so disastrous a letter that I have had no choice except to precipitate our journey so as to prevent my wife receiving the shock which seems inevitable at the critical time of the year, when, under the most favorable circumstances, she has to struggle for her life. I hope that the change of scene & respite from bad news for a day or two will enable her to receive strength in some degree. Anyhow, we leave to-morrow early—and we shall have your kind wishes, I know. Be assured that for our parts we feel most grateful for all the interest you have taken in my wife—so little as we can do to prove what we do feel all the same. Say this to your kind relatives, please: There must be some quiet time in store for us when we can sit and let the moss grow!
Goodbye, dear Mrs Matthews—give our united true regards to your husband, and believe me
Yours very faithfully ever
Robert Browning.
Address: Mrs Mathews, / Casa Del Bello / Via della Fornace.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library and Scripps College.
1. Date provided by RB’s statement, “we leave to-morrow early.” The Brownings left for Rome on Sunday, 18 November.
2. Augusta (“Gussy”) Neunburg Matthews (née Leighton, 1835–1919); see letter 4503, note 4.
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