4807. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 266–269.
126 Via Felice. Rome
Tuesday. [8 January 1861] [1]
Beloved Arabel, our letters will cross again I fear, but I must write to you. You will not have liked my last letter perhaps [2] —you dont feel with me in some things– It might be wise to be silent, but I love you so that I cant keep out of sight points which lie habitually near in me to the region of love. That made me send you the extract from Mrs Stowe’s letter– [3] It did me more good (her letter did) than anything which has happened, & so I could’nt hold it for myself though to you it may probably seem a pure piece of insanity. Think of this, Arabel– She took leave of me in the early part of 1860, & we made no agreement about correspondence– This is the first letter I have received from her—written in America & in a perfect unconsciousness of its finding me less happy than usual– You may say that her writing about spiritualism to me is natural enough, when my interest in the subject is known– Still there were many subjects under discussion between us—and it struck me as at least a strange coincidence that she should have been impelled just now & just in such terms to write me this letter. Also, within a few days, I have heard from Mr Jarves, from America .. It looks as if it were meant that I should take comfort, and I do take it. Humanity is in a strange phase now—there is a silent opening of mystic doors, and a rolling away of stones before sepulchres. [4] I do believe this—and if I have had reason to scorn myself for much inconsistent & illogical anguish, I think that some of it came thus Arabel——that in the first shock, we get distracted between the natural association (of the natural body, I mean) and the spiritual fact– We are thrown violently from one to the other, & cant disengage our feelings from the earth– I hope it has been more a stupidity of mind than anything else in me, & that as the eye sees clearer it makes no tears,—& that we cease to catch out wildly into the infinite for what is beside us, conscious, unchanged, active in love & life, & beautiful through both renewed—yes, and able to communicate if the defect were not in us– It is my belief– Not able, you think. But there is a growing cloud of witnesses [5] in England as in other countries, .. and if you & I live long enough Arabel, we shall hear considerable recognition of certain facts. Meantime, George tells me something of Surtees which makes me ask you to send him that extract from Mrs Stowe’s letter .. unless you have destroyed or mislaid it. Otherwise I should like Surtees to have it to read–
Dearest, darling Arabel, I pray you not to run risks of going out in the cold, & to take the care of yourself in the house. Oh—how I could teaze you about flannel waistcoats if I dared! But you are the Unpersuadeable, my dearest– Here we all three wear flannel next our skin in the winter—next the skin & up to the throat—& we in Italy!– It is the merino,—as soft as silk– No, you wont be persuaded– As to your coming south, you will have seen that I did not count on it—it was but the lightest kind of dream– And indeed you are perfectly right considering the season & the circumstances– Rest is the best for you, my own—and thinking over it myself I came to regard it so, as you will have observed in the next letter– Only I do hope dear Occy & Charlotte will not leave you alone, because you ought not to be alone– Be good to me in the only way you can by caring for yourself & being well! I pray for you constantly—which is pure selfishness of course. I hope dear Mr Stratten & Mrs Stratten are with you often– Give them my grateful love if they are. I will write in answer to dear aunt Jane’s kindest letter & Mrs Martin’s—only it costs me a great effort to have to answer such letters– But I shall write.
I am anxious about our dearest Stormy & aggrieved for him too– Still I cannot see that he should suffer himself to be driven from England by Lizzie– It is monstrous– When he leaves Bryngwyn, surely it might be otherwise arranged—and I have little doubt that she would prefer a more independent & lively home for herself– Why cant she go to Lymington, [6] & leave the place to Charlotte & Occy? I am very, very sorry about it–
Do you say that I write dull letters not worth reading? You may well. I have seen nobody yet—which Robert says is wrong & must end—& of course must—but, here in Rome if one opens one’s door, one opens it to everybody– The quiet has been the best thing for me. Now I read. Reading is so part of my life that I suffer horribly when I dont read: the soul eats itself. I get the Galignani but no Italian paper .. though Robert has tried various devices about it. Our paper sent to Mr Russell was siezed on by the police– Think of that.
Yet things are going on well—that is, they are coming to an end. The French policy is to let the fruit rot on the tree, then shake it gently till it fall of itself– The pope is being starved out on the financial question– The French officers are prepared for a removal, & for being quietly replaced by the Piedmontese– Meanwhile the Pope offended everybody the other day by omitting the Emperor’s name from his reply to the official military compliment on New Year’s day. [7] Such a thing was never done before– On the omission being hinted at afterwards in private, the pope replied, .. “I have said what I chose to say, & no more.” Our Abbé heard this from the French: it is therefore authentic.
Penini goes on with his Latin &c very regularly– Robert has given him a pretty little silver watch & chain—one of the prettiest possible, & excellent for going– He was so eager for a watch, and it seemed absurd to give him a gold one—especially that gigantic valuable watch which is his– [8] After a few years he will pass from the ‘silver age’ to the golden—and he is very happy with the present compromise, & wears it in his blouse pocket.
I mean to write to my dearest George who has been so kind, when I can write less dully. See how I come on you unscrupulously!–
Write to me, darling. I wrote to dear Surtees– [9] I love you from the depth of my heart– If God permits it we must meet somehow in the summer & I must hold you for the winter– But there’s time to think– Dear, love a little in the way of my love to you,
Your Ba–
Address: Angleterre– / Miss Moulton Barrett / 7. Delamere Terrace / Harrow Road / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 511–514.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Date provided by London postmark of 14 January 1861, a Monday.
3. Letter 4782. EBB evidently included the verse part of that letter in the extract she sent to Arabella. Below, EBB asks Arabella to forward the extract to Surtees, who in turn made a copy of the verses, which he introduced with a prefatory note: “The following lines were copied by … Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and sent, from Rome, where she was residing with her husband and child” (ms at ABL/Altham).
4. Cf. Luke 24:2.
5. Cf. Hebrews 12:1.
6. Sic, for Leamington, Warwickshire, where Lizzie’s aunt Mary Williams resided.
8. This watch, evidently from the estate of EBB’s grandmother Elizabeth Moulton (see letter 3983, note 2), may be the one offered for sale by Cogs and Pieces, online antique pocket watch dealer, Dorsetshire, England, [late 2020], Stock No. 1585. The dealer’s description includes the following: “Gold full hunter, 53 mm. … fully signed (Daw, Cheapside, London) … Dial: White enamel … CASE: 18ct gold. Hallmarks for London, 1801.” This is probably the same watch that appeared in a list of items retained from Pen Browning’s estate by his executors that were sold privately to members of the Moulton-Barrett family in the autumn of 1912. On that list, the watch is described as a “Gold Hunter, white face, Very old” (Reconstruction, p. 617).
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