4868. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 64–67.
126. Via Felice.
[8 April 1861] [1]
Dearest dear Isa, We dont get the paper. [2] Will you ask why? Here’s a special address enclosed.
I have just heard from what seems excellent authority (Annette has been here) that a French company is to be withdrawn from Rome today, & that all the troops will be immediately withdrawn from the R.S. [3] —except Rome & Civita Vecchia– The French generals however were not aware of this yesterday morning .. though prepared for much—& thus I cant help a certain scepticism. There is an impression in French quarters that the delay arises from a fear of a ‘coup’ on the part of Austria, if she did’nt see France hereabouts. But Goyon means to try to get away before the crisis, which is’nt in his tastes at all. De Noue has gone—went yesterday.
I heard yesterday of Sir John Bowring telling somebody that “the time had resolved itself now into an affair of days”– Still, there are people I suppose who hold fast their opinions of the antique form—like Mr Massy Dawson, for instance, who called on me yesterday with moustaches & a bride, [4] but otherwise unchanged. He still maintains that Napoleon will perish in defence of the papacy, & that (from first to last) he has been thwarted in Italy– “I know that Sir John Bowring, Diomed[e] Pantaleoni, Mrs Browning” (bowing graciously to me, in that complimentary frame of body which befits disputants with female creatures ..) “and other persons better informed than I am, think differently– And, in fact, if I looked only at facts and at the worldly circumstances of the case, I should agree with you all– But reading the Apocalypse as I do, I find myself before a fixed conclusion …!” Imagine this, dearest Isa mine,—his bride sitting in a delicate dove-coloured silk on the sofa, as tame as any dove, & not venturing to coo even. I suppose she thought it quite satisfactory– Rather (.. what is called) nice-looking .. tall & slim .. a good lay-figure for dove-coloured silks, .. with the “testa ristretta” [5] —as small as can be. What a woman with a brain could be made to suffer under certain casualties! He quoted simply St John & Mr Kinglake!– Mr Kinglake plainly running a little with St John. “Was’nt he (Kinglake) a member of Parliament, and a lawyer?” And if his allegation was’nt true, & if Napoleon did not propose to Francis Joseph to swap Lombardy for the Rhine provinces, why was there no contradiction on the part of the French emperor?–
Now do mark the necessity of Napoleon’s saying .. “I did’nt really pick Mr Jones’s pocket of his best foulard last monday—no, though it hung out a tempting end. Pray dont let the volunteers think so ill of me.”
That would have been “like” our emperor—would’nt it?
By the way I had yesterday a crowd of people, & all at once, so that I was in a flutter of weakness, & did’nt get over it quickly. Mrs Bruen brought Miss Sewell [6] .. (Amy Herbert) and Lady Juliana Knox [7] .. whom Annunziata takes in as a homœopathic dose– “E molto curioso questo cognome,––precisamente come la medicina .. nux! tale quale.” [8] She (Lady Juliana) had just been presented to the pope .. just before his illness .. & was much touched, when at the close of the reception of indiscriminately catholics & protestants, he prayed a simple prayer in French & gave them all his benediction, .. ending in a sad humble voice … “Priez pour le pape.” [9]
It was touching—was it not? Poor old man. When you feel the human flesh through the ecclesiastical robe, you get into sympathy with him—at once.
Miss Sewell will come and see me again, she promised, & then I shall talk with her more– I could’nt get at her through the people yesterday. She is a very nice, gentle-looking, cheerful, respectable sort of .. single-womanish person (decidedly single) of the olden type,—very small, slim, quiet, with the nearest approach to a poky bonnet possible in this sinful generation. I, in my confusion, did not glance at her petticoats, but, judging a priori, I should predicate a natural incompatibility with crinoline– But really I liked her, liked her– There were gentleness, humility, & conscience—three great gifts– Of course we can touch only on remote points—but I hope (for my own sake) we may touch on these, & another day I mean to try. She said one thing which I liked. Speaking of convents, she “considered that women must deteriorate by any separation from men.” Now that’s not only true, but it is not on the surface of things as seen from her stand-point. [10]
You will be very much astonished at the return of the Eckleys to Florence– [11] It was suddenly arranged. For us, we shall not be back till deep in May—& then for the terrible journey into France. Oh—I hate thinking of it.
I had a visit a day ago from M. Carlo Grün, a Prussian, with a letter of introduction from Dall’Ongaro. I feel a real regard & liking for Dall’Ongaro, & would welcome any friend of his– No—my Isa. I would prefer him as my translator to any “young lady of twenty–” [12] Heavens,—never whisper it to the Marchesa, [13] .. but I confide to you that my blood ran cold at that thought. I know what poets of twenty must in all probability be– Dall’Ongaro is a poet, & has a remarkable command of language.
I have tried my hand at turning into literal Italian prose (only marking the lines) of a lyric on Rome sent lately to America, [14] —& I may show it to you one of these days–
Surely some one must be coming here, who would bring ‘Agnes’– I want Agnes so very much–
Tell me what everybody says– I wont call you vain .. only confiding.
Now I must send off this–
In tender love your
Ba.
Though I quote Sir John Bowring––I fear he is very ill & dangerously so. Robert calls in vain– He is confined to his bed.
The last accounts somewhat better–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 442–445.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to General de Nouë’s departure “yesterday”; he left Rome on 7 April 1861.
2. La Nazione; see the beginning of letter 4866.
3. Roman States.
4. Harriet Massy-Dawson (née Griffinhoof, 1807–67); see letter 4822, note 11.
5. “Narrow mind.”
7. Juliana Caroline Frances Knox (1825–1906), daughter of the 2nd Earl of Ranfurly.
8. “That surname is very strange—exactly like the medicine .. nux! the same.”
9. “Pray for the Pope.”
10. In her Impressions of Rome, Florence, and Turin (1862), Miss Sewell writes: “The pleasure which will ever stand out prominently in the retrospect of my last days at Rome is a visit—the second I had made—to Mrs. Barrett Browning. The short intercourse has now been rendered so sacred by death, that I only refer to it from the wish to express, not merely the admiration which all must feel for her great poetical powers, but the personal regard inspired by the charm of her winning manner, her cordiality and quick sympathy, her self-restraint and thoughtful consideration, when, in the course of conversation, any sentiments at variance with her own were brought forward. Mrs. Barrett Browning was the one person in Rome of whom every one who knew her spoke with respectful affection; and, slight as was our acquaintance, it has left an ineffaceable impression of the working of that spirit of Charity which, when all shades and differences of opinion shall be lost in the light of God’s knowledge, will, we are told, last for ever” (pp. 242–243).
11. From Rome, where they had been staying.
12. Unidentified. In letter 4885, EBB refers to her as a Sicilian poetess.
13. Marchesa Torrearsa; see letter 4770, note 7.
14. “A View Across the Roman Campagna,” published in The Independent (New York) on 25 July 1861. EBB’s Italian prose version, which she sends Isa with letter 4884, is not extant.
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