4858. Walter Savage Landor to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 46–47.
[Florence]
[late March 1861] [1]
Dear Browning, It is some comfort, in all my miseries, to know that I am no burden to my family and friends. I can make no use of my drawing room. The smoke, often so dense that I could see only the frames of my pictures, has affected my lungs no less than my eyes. Yet I will be contented and remain in my lodgings for the short remainder of my life. Pray tell me what is the rent. I shall never buy an article of clothes, and will contrive to exist within 120£ a year. A year—there can not be Two. My brother will soon receive the little he lays out for me. Assure good Mrs Romagnoli that she may order for herself and maid whatever is necessary. My teeth will not manage even bread. I live on a cup of chocolate and a plate of soup.
I am flattered by the wish of Lady Mary Anne Alford, and will now inclose a few lines which it requires all her courtesy to accept.
In My dialogue Virgil and Ovid are made Englishmen. [2] They called one another Virgilius and Ovidius. Printers are properly called Devils. With kindest regards to Mrs B and the grand Equestrian, believe me ever yours sincerely—WSL
Publication: BBIS-5, p. 36.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Dating based on Landor’s references to the smoke, his rent, and his diet of chocolate and soup, all of which EBB repeats in letter 4866.
2. i.e., his imaginary conversation of “Virgil and Horace,” published in The Athenæum of 9 March 1861 (no. 1741, pp. 326–327). Landor had earlier confused Ovid for Horace in a January letter to Arthur Walker, to whom he later complained of the printer’s substituting “Ovid” for “Ovidius” and omitting three words that resulted in a change of meaning (see Letters and Other Unpublished Writings of Walter Savage Landor, ed. Stephen Wheeler, 1897, pp. 121–122).
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