4866. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 57–60.
Rome. Via Felice– 126.
April 4– [1861] [1]
Ever dearest Isa––greeting from Ba the teazer–
How I teaze!
But General de Nouè goes away, & I cant lose my Naziones– We have leave to receive them now (from the 8th of April) through
M. le Colonel Pissis [2]
Chef d’état– Major de
l’armée d’occupation–
Roma–
Will you see to it, dearest Isa mine?
I am hungering & thirsting for Agnes– I hope Bowen the first [3] will make amends for his various sins & quickly– I feel that I could forgive him if ........! Meanwhile do you see how the ‘Saturday’ shows up poor Lytton? [4] Why should he have attempted a reputation as Servian linguist? We can live with less– Wandering on the shores of the Danube to catch up floating lyrics, (when all the time one was dog’s earing M. Dozon, [5] with the help of a French dictionary!) is a picturesque idea to suggest, but really an unnecessary pretension– Lytton too, who could pretend to higher things & “have his claim allowed” .. I am sorry– The few lines quoted, though voluptuous almost beyond the line, are of an exquisite sensuality & melody. What he wants is a noble morale. A great want in the making of a man— .. & of a poet therefore–
Observe a book just out, called ‘Rome in 1860’ .. by Edward Dicey. [6] He surprised us by telling us the other day that it was dedicated to us, .. Robert & me– He is a favorite with us both, & much in unity with me especially, in political views,—& I do hope his book may succeed. I see Mudie takes him up. I wish Mudie may take Agnes– I shall tell Arabel (who subscribes I think) to send for the book there––
Roman affairs must be going right, .. or Cavour would not certainly take the line he does: [7] I point out to Mr Trollope’s attention what Gallenga says of the all but universal belief in the Emperor & the successful issue of things, in the north– [8] See late Times’ correspondence– Indeed there’s a “small minority” (meaning perhaps Gallenga & his wife) who conceive that Napoleon meant nothing but evil from beginning to end, & was in fact considerably disappointed by the concession of Savoy & Nice which constrained him to favor Italy to some degree!– That the cession of Savoy & Nice was a condition of completed Italy, I always saw, with others––but that Napoleon did’nt want to take those provinces, (in order to be free to do evil) is a quite new rendering, as far as my own observation goes– “Small” indeed must be the “minority” believing such a thing. Did you ever hear it before? Perhaps its the only species of calumny hitherto untried. [9]
I am reading ‘Lavinia’– [10] Halfway in the first volume. I never will write poems in the Servian language, nor even in the Italian– This man knows English well, and yet he’s as dry & flat in his writing as possible, it seems to me. I feel as if none of the words grew from the soil of the man. Also, there is not much faculty—apart from the language.– I never could be warm about Dr Antonio [11] ––though that book had a certain interest– Its interest seemed to me rather circumstantial, than essential– I feel it hard to get on with ‘Lavinia’—but she may improve–
Ruskin has sent me his last volume of the Painters splendidly bound—and “with deep regard” [12] —which is far better of course. I am afraid he is not happy.
A letter comes from Mr Landor describing a condition of complicated anguish. [13] The smoke has produced desease of the lungs. He has left off eating anything,—even bread—takes nothing but chocolate & soup,—desires to know what he pays for his house. In fact .. Robert translates everything into some desperate design of running after Kate to the Piazza dell’Independenza.
His room never used to smoke. Why should it smoke now? Has Wilson made anyone visit the chimney?
Dearest Isa write, & when you write say how you are—& the rest!
I want to hear from you– Not yet have I been out. And I have arrived <***>
Publication: B-IB, pp. 435–438.
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 April.
2. Charles Victor Pissis (1806–72) had commanded a French regiment in the second war of Italian independence and thereafter was assigned to the occupation in Rome. On his return to France in 1863, he was elevated to the rank of brigadier-general.
3. i.e., Charles Synge Christopher Bowen.
4. Serbski Pesme was reviewed in The Saturday Review of 23 March 1861 (pp. 298–299). In charging Lytton with plagiarism, the reviewer declared: “Mr. Meredith had not the least occasion to go further than his bookseller’s shop, as all the songs, without one exception, which he would fain be thought to have collected among the Carpathians, are to be found in M. Dozon’s excellent little work. Mr. Meredith has transferred these to his own pages in a different order from M. Dozon.” Several years later, in a letter to Isa Blagden of 21 March 1867, RB suggests the reviewer was “Strangford”; that is, the 8th Viscount Strangford (1825–69), diplomat and noted linguist (see DI, p. 258).
5. A reference to Poésies Populaires Serbes (1859) by Auguste Dozon (1822–91), an accomplished linguist and a member of the French diplomatic corps.
6. Published in Cambridge, 1861, Dicey’s work is dedicated “To Mr and Mrs Robert Browning.” His presentation copy to them formed lot 611 of Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A785).
7. In his speech concerning the Roman question, delivered in the Italian parliament on 25 March, Cavour addressed the Pope’s fear that the loss of his temporal power would result in the loss of security for his spiritual power: “Does the temporal power render the Pontiff really independent? If it were so, I would hesitate to solve the problem. But no person can maintain such a view. In the times when sovereigns, resting upon the Divine right, regarded their domination as a right of absolute property over men and things, I can understand that a power of this nature was a guarantee for the Pope. The authority was at least submitted to, if not accepted. But since 1789 Governments have reposed upon the consent, expressed or tacit, of the people. … A Power which does not rest upon this basis, which maintains an absolute antagonism between the people which it governs and itself, has no longer the possibility of existence. Now, this antagonism appears in the Papal States, and appears as an evil without remedy” (The Times, 30 March 1861, p. 11). Cavour went on to openly announce his government’s inevitable relationship with the Vatican: “Arrived at Rome, we shall proclaim the separation of the Church from the State. … At the risk of being deemed utopian, I avow my belief that when these principles have been proclaimed and consecrated by you, the soul of Pius IX., opening itself anew to the generous sentiments which earned for him such hearty approval some years ago, will stimulate him to seek to acquire the immortal glory of having reconciled the Italian nation with the Church, and religion with liberty” (p. 11).
8. In a report from Turin that appeared in The Times of 25 March 1861, Antonio Gallenga observed: “Of the good intentions of the French Emperor it is worse than stark blasphemy to express a doubt here. There is something in the reliance of the Italians on this ‘only friend they have in the world’ that passes all understanding” (p. 10).
9. After wondering at the “reliance” of the Italians on Napoleon III, Gallenga remarked: “There yet is a small minority of cooler heads in Italy, for whom the future is not so bright, nor yet the past so clear. These have their doubts as to the power, and greater doubts as to the will, of the Emperor of the French to do them real good. For these the real intention of Napoleon III. was—and is, indeed—to rescue Italy from Austrian thraldom, but only in so far to give it freedom and independence as to make her the bounden handmaiden, under the specious title of the inseparable ally, of France. … But Napoleon still holds Rome, and, these ill-omened prophets apprehend, will never peacefully of his own accord give it up. At the time of the annexation of Central Italy, they think, when his consent, or, rather, his reluctant connivance under protest, was solicited, he put as a condition that session of Savoy and Nice, which he trusted would never be accepted” (p. 10).
10. Lavinia (3 vols., 1860) by Giovanni Domenico Ruffini (1807–81), an Italian author and patriot. He became friendly with Mazzini and subsequently left Italy for England, where he wrote several novels in English to promote the Italian cause. His first novel, the largely autobiographical Lorenzo Benoni (Edinburgh, 1853), traces his association with Young Italy and Mazzini, who is represented in the character of Fantasio.
11. Ruffini’s Doctor Antonio (Paris, 1855) reaches its climax amid the 1848 revolution.
12. EBB’s copy of volume five of Ruskin’s Modern Painters (1860) is inscribed on the fly-leaf: “Mrs. Robert Browning, with the Author’s deepest regards. 1861.” The volume sold as part of lot 1051 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A1983).
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