4823. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 306–311.
126 Via Felice. Rome.
Feb– 3. [1861] [1]
Ever dearest Isa, you are not quite right I see plainly, & do you know I am inclined to blame you for not giving ear to Dr Grisonowski in all medical things. For maladies of this kind a great deal of strict discipline is necessary, & if you dont “scotch the snake” [2] you are sure to suffer directly again from the venom– Then observe– I dont think our friend at all inclined to over-violence in his medecines. Trust him my Isa, a little more—& tell me soon that you are able for balls & other glories– As for me I have been pretty well again– The cold relaxed & I was better accordingly– I am weak, & the world is heavy with me at times, but there’s a refuge out of one’s self, thank God, & a reviving energy towards work– ‘Salvation by works’ is an excellent doctrine when taken out of one’s theology. Mere faith & dreaming would never save me. [3]
Yes—I have seen the Athenæum on Theodosia Trollope. Not the “only lady” who knows—but “the lady who knows best” [4] .. I think the phrase is– I dont in the least doubt her being well up in Florentinism of most kinds—but even as to Florentine politics I extremely doubt her information– I mean, her knowledge of the views taken by the masses .. (the national guard people & class for instance—) She has done good by these papers in England,—& perhaps, or certainly, the more good, from their very defects, .. from their being conformed to English prejudice & self love, & adapted to flatter the insular self-complacency– But as statements of the Italian question …! Well—my objection to them is precisely on the ground selected for praise by the Athenæum critic—“it is a moderate & English view.” [5] Precisely so—it is an English view & not an Italian view,—& I have the weakness to consider that the Italian view of Italian affairs is likely to be nearest the truth. The extract in the Athenæum—that holding of the balance between Cavour & Garibaldi .. with the fling at France between the two .. irritated me, I do confess to you– And there is a want of comprehension .. an incapacity to take in the whole question in such a way of judging, which is eminently feminine, let me say, as taken in connection with so much general cleverness.
I had a visit lately from Mdme Swab, [6] Scheffer’s friend, the artist’s friend, the revolutionist’s friend, the republican’s friend, .. everybody’s friend in loss & grief .. not young, very rich, with one of the most divine countenances of pure benevolence I ever looked at. She lives in England, though originally a German Jewess—and came over to Italy in a flame of enthusiasm, she says, with weights of business connected with Shaftesbury subscriptions on her, [7] —went to Naples, & corrected (by facts) the idea that Mdme Mario had been making over Garibaldi funds to Mazzini– She says Mdme Mario has been much sinned against by slander—& I dare say this is true. Mdme Swab, though republican in her leanings, is no Mazzinian in respect to Italy– But she is Garibaldian in that overwhelming sense which is nonsense to my mind—because really Garibaldi is great as a hero—but when you draw out analogies between him & Cavour, you compare Sayers [8] & Shelley—you ‘deraisonnez’ [9] simply. I found her, too, ill-informed on facts—only with such noble beautiful instincts & sympathies that I really loved her before she had done talking– She is deeply connected with the Parisian opposition (Orléanistic &c) & cried out at the name of Napoleon .. “But he is a scoundrel– How can he mean well–” When I avowed my faith, she said she must bring me a Venetian patriot friend of hers, who also swears by him to her special wonder. Then she confessed that her Paris friends had behaved very ill on this Italian question, & that she had given up communion on it with them—. (O Isa! that wretched Guizot!) [10] She lamented that the good which had come through France to Italy had not come through England—for with all her anti-Napoleonist prejudices & distrusts of the emperor’s secret motives, she saw clearly enough that it had come through France. She is coming to read to me quantities of Scheffer’s letters—& quantities of Cobden’s. Cobden is godlike to her. She says no one knows him. Upon which she confessed that Cobden took a favorable view of the emperor—. [11] But her Napoleonic opinions, you see, are of the growth of Mdme Mohl’s salons [12] at the coup d’etat time—& it’s hard to get out of that. Also she lives in England.
I must tell you that Naples damped her considerably about the destinies of Italy. Never mind– The devil has been there & Mazzini, but the cause will triumph sooner or later. I feel wonderfully little anxiety about Italian affairs. I seem to scent the morning air,—to see the light at the end of the cavern. Alexandre Dumas is gone for the moment, I am happy to find. Mr Dicey writes to his mother [13] that Gaeta is not injured from the sea-bombardment, & that, after all, the land assault will carry it—& not too soon perhaps– Napoleon probably knew that the Piedmontese preparation was incomplete, & made a necessary delay effective in policy. There is a very full understanding between him & Cavour, I little doubt.
The war– Do you mark the tone of such newspapers as the Constitutionel with regard to Austria & Prussia? Are you not yet aware that something bad stinks out of Warsaw? [14] Austria, more over, has been lately encouraged to this new tone towards Hungary. [15] There will be a ‘shuffling of the cards’ in Europe presently, & the ‘next deal’ will dispose differently of certain old trumps. I am full of expectation about the meeting of the Legislative assembly in Paris,—of what will be said on both sides. Here, the papal party seems desponding by the mouths of its representative men—who add however, “France will go & Piedmont come—but wait a few years!!” And I am content: because if, after a few years, pope & Bourbon are restored, Italy will have deserved no better. I have heard from several different quarters that this is the tone taken by persons in papal authority. This, too, I have heard—Robert read a letter from some one who must not be named—(near the Emperor) .. speaking much of Napoleon’s constant interest in favor of Italy, .. but adding that his home difficulties were great– That besides the obsession of the clerical party the very empress vexed him with devotional scruples—& that the small prince whom he dotes upon, had been instructed to say to him, .. “Sois bon pour mon parrain!” [16] Only he is not a man to be woman-hunted or child-hunted out of a fixed purpose. He may be a little longer silent, but he will act when the moment of action comes.
Mr Cartwright has returned from Naples in a very desponding state of mind– But that, being his normal condition, does not count with me. He has desponded regularly on every phase of the Italian question, from the Lombard war to the last movement. Also I observe that his fierce talk about Napoleon has sensibly subsided—which proves that it’s impossible to invent any credible new slander just at present. Not that I have seen him since he came back. But Robert sweeps up the “niceties” for me sometimes– Poor Mr Cartwright is the less hopeful too just now through an attack of Roman fever, & the necessity of taking quinine till he is deaf– [17]
We have the Atlantic Monthly. There’s a most en[te]rtaining article on Keats by Cowden Clarke. A continuation of a story of Miss Prescott [18] .. more extravagant (to the point of absurdity) than usual. She has a rich poetical fancy or passion, let us say—which she should use like an artist, & not abuse like a woman. I feel a little afraid for her future. Kaleidoscope complications leave the world cold. We cry out at first, & then leave the toy on the table. An article on Italian affairs is not always right, but is more clear of prejudices than usual, & indeed to a degree that surprised me somewhat.
The new volume of Adelaide Procter’s poems is not dedicated to Miss Hays, though the first was– [19] The new volume we have sight of .. & I think there is progress. Only my surprise remains, that such writing, with so little force & originality, should have had so favorable a reception. I understand that Monkton Milnes (who cant sell his books) feels aggrieved by it—which does not surprise me. For he is quite as high in his moral tone, with the vigour & artistic development which she has not. In fact he would make two or three such poets. This is all between you & me– I admire her personally—& there’s a goodness & grace in what she writes– Moreover is’nt there something kindly rhymed about Aurora Leigh in this volume? [20] It would, in fact, be horrible for me to be heard nibbling at another woman’s poems. I would as soon that people said I dyed my hair–
My dearest Isa, that Mr Field[s] is unreliable. [21] I have just seen a letter from Mrs Apthorp which exhibits him slippery & slipping as usual– Miss Cobb’s m∙s. was sent out to him by his desire, & he wont use it—something of Mr Story’s engaged for, & he recoils– Of course the time is unfavorable for publication—but nothing can excuse the breach of an engagement—nothing. I consider his conduct to you abominable on every account. Smith gets an advantage rather—except that he can use the American market on his own account, but you lose yours—& this vexes me. They wont bring out your novel, dear, in England till later in the Spring—so be prepared for that. The Saturday Review is stopped—not allowed to penetrate,—so I suffer with the owner. [22] I missed with the rest the review of poor Mdme Schwartz. [23] Robert sees it at the reading room—& says that the article on the Emperor called him Pecksniff, [24] which he considers tolerably personal– What wd you have? Sir John Bowring is still very ill.
My love to all Florence. I am glad you didnt go to the ball with Dr G. I wonder if you do manage your affairs well with him– He is extraordinary– Yet I like him—& I should like .....<***>
Publication: B-IB, pp. 398–403.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; 1861 was the only year the Brownings resided at 126 Via Felice in February.
2. Cf. Macbeth, III, 2, 13.
3. Protestants generally believe in “salvation by faith” as suggested in the Epistles such as Ephesians 2:8–9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: / Not of works, lest any man should boast.” It was generally assumed by Protestants that Roman Catholics believed in “salvation by works,” though it is a much debated subject in Catholic theology.
4. Theodosia Trollope’s Social Aspects of the Italian Revolution, published on 12 January 1861, contains edited versions of 27 articles that appeared in The Athenæum from 7 May 1859 to 28 April 1860. The book was reviewed in The Athenæum of 26 January 1861 (no. 1735, pp. 113–114) by the journal’s editor, William Hepworth Dixon (1821–79). In his conclusion, he remarked: “We can warmly recommend these ‘Social Aspects of the Italian Revolution,’ as witnessed and described from a most favourable point of view, by the lively and pictorial pen of one who knows Italy—its leading men and women, its history, its dialects, its manners and its scenery—better, perhaps, than any other English lady now alive.” Dixon is given as the reviewer in the marked file copy of The Athenæum now at City University, London.
5. Dixon wrote: “Mrs. Trollope is moderate and English in her views—neither Cavourian nor Garibaldian, as most men and women appear to be in Italy at this present hour. She can do honour to both the Statesman and the Soldier” (Athenæum, p. 113). The “fling at France,” mentioned below, occurs in a quotation illustrating Dixon’s point: “The Cabinet of Turin has in fact immeshed itself marvellously little in the web of Napoleonic subtleties, if one considers how much of momentous change has been carried out in Italy sorely against the manifested predilections of France. I think, as I said before, that the very attacks of the opposition have strengthened the hands of the Government to repel the future encroachments of a privileged Ally” (pp. 113–114).
7. Lord Shaftesbury (see letter 4607, note 9) was at this time president of the London Committee of a Society for the Reformation of the Religion in Italy, which was soliciting contributions for several activities related to spreading the evangelical word (see Geoffrey B.A.M. Finlayson, The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury: 1801–1885, 1981, p. 461).
8. Tom Sayers (1826–65), celebrated English prize fighter.
9. “Talk nonsense.”
12. Mary Elizabeth Mohl (née Clarke, 1793–1883). In letter 2991, written a month after the coup d’état of 2 December 1851, EBB referred to Mme. Mohl as an Orleanist and later, as one “who hates Napoleon with a hatred passing the hate of women” (letter 3705).
13. Anne Mary Dicey; see letter 4616, note 17.
16. “Be good to my godfather.” Pius IX was the Prince Imperial’s godfather.
17. Large doses of quinine, the only effective treatment for malaria until the twentieth century, can lead to a condition known as cinchonism, symptoms of which include deafness.
18. “The Professor’s Story” by Harriet Prescott was serialised in The Atlantic Monthly from January 1860 to April 1861; chap. 25 was published in the issue for January 1861, pp. 75–85. “Recollections of Keats: by an Old School-Fellow,” i.e., Charles Cowden Clarke (1787–1877), appeared in the same issue, pp. 86–100. The “article on Italian affairs” refers to “The European Crisis,” pp. 101–113.
19. Adelaide Anne Procter’s Legends and Lyrics (2nd vol., 1861) bears no dedication. The first volume, published in 1858, was dedicated to Matilda Hays.
20. In “A Woman’s Answer,” Legends and Lyrics (1861), the last two stanzas of the poem read:
The Poets that you used to read to me
While summer twilights faded in the sky;
But most of all I think Aurora Leigh,
Because—because—do you remember why?
Will you be jealous? Did you guess before
I loved so many things?—Still you the best:—
Dearest, remember that I love you more,
Oh, more a thousand times than all the rest!
(p. 189)
21. The publisher James T. Fields.
22. Presumably the Diceys, who were lending their copy to the Brownings during the previous winter; see the end of letter 4616.
23. The Saturday Review for 5 January 1861 (pp. 21–22) contained a generally negative review of Marie von Schwartz’s Recollections of General Garibaldi; or Travels from Rome to Lucerne (1861), a translation of Hundert und ein Tag auf meinem Pferde und ein Ausflug nach der Insel Maddalena (Hamburg, 1860).
24. The archetypal hypocrite in Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit (1844). In the last paragraph of an article entitled “An Emperor at Home” that appeared in The Saturday Review for 19 January 1861 (pp. 64–66), Napoleon III is compared to Pecksniff. Earlier in the article the emperor is referred to as the “Saviour of Society,” a phrase RB later used as the sub-title of his thinly-veiled portrait of Napoleon III, Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau (1871).
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