4884. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 97–99.
[Rome]
Thursday. [25 April 1861] [1]
Dearest of Isas, I take heart & enclose my Italian—with the English poem .. that you may see both. Get Dall’Ongaro to look at it, & give an opinion whether it seems do-able and worth doing. [2] I care for the thing more through sentiment than vice,—meaning, more for love than vanity. My endeavour has been not so much to produce a smooth idiomatic Italian translation, as to give the English with all the notches in it– We have more chance for the poetry, you know, that way. Only in the 3d stanza, not seeing how to say that Peter’s neck was stiff, [3] I made his head hard instead: it comes to the same thing– Then the “rombo” (instead of “storione”) is mentioned in the 6th Italian Stanza—because, the turbot was reserved for Caesar—& not the “sturgeon”, which is kept in England for Queen Victoria– [4] All the rest is literally rendered—you will observe. The English poem was sent to America some time ago, & will be printed soon. Of course you wont press Dall’Ongaro in any way. I quite agree that he should be occupied otherwise .. in higher things—but his facility & power of language are great, & he might care to do it after all–
I think my Isa your book is decidedly having a success. Novels are not usually noticed so much:—certainly they are not– I just now receive your letter. Did Bowen tell you he had written a review, or how did you hear that? [5] Why does’nt Mudie put the book on his list, if he has it, stupid man? Perhaps it will appear presently. How anxious I am for my turn.
I have fears of speaking, but I hear that a letter has been received in Rome from our capital c, [6] either yesterday or the day before, written in sight of a cheerful conclusion here. The more glad I was to hear it, because it was represented to me less than a week ago that Odo R persisted in a conviction that the French would’nt go. Not that I believed a word of it really, but that it hurts the ears of one’s soul to have such things said. I mean to write to Dall’Ongaro—I think. Thank him for his kind note. [7] M. Grün has’nt been here since. And I do thank you, Isa mine, for your news about Naples. Let me tell you, on that head, that Odo Russell observed to Robert lately that he believed there was exaggeration. He “should be more uneasy” he said, “if he had’nt heard precisely as lamentable a story about Tuscany at annexation-time–”
Naziones—no. Not a paper have I received!– And I have hungered & thirsted in vain for accounts from the Turin parliament—for the last interpellations about Rome, for Garibaldi’s speech,—& other things. Strangely Mdme Matteucci does not write– Either a letter has been stopped, or she has not given up coming.
The pope is said to be better. [8] I dont think it was epileptic:—there was no convulsion, I believe–
I dare say I should like Zobi– [9] If Mdme P. [10] is Orleanist, that accounts for everything– Let us be grateful to Garibaldi for what he has done, and prove our gratitude by forgiving what he has not done– If we are to have idols, I never could choose him. As to Mazzini—(never tell Dall’Ongaro ..) but I am irritated against him down to the roots of my understanding. He would risk Italy in the toss of a paul. I believe he would prefer the undoing of everything that he might begin at the beginning again. No—in my alphabet M and G even dont come before C– That call upon the Italians to attack Venetia, when he knew the reasons against it, was one of his wicked actions. [11]
I dont know if my word about Thackeray yesterday was intelligible. For four months he had had a poem of mine,—Robert fancied it had not reached him .. then was angry– At last comes the very kindest of notes– [12] Never was anybody turned out of a room for indecent behaviour in a kinder & more conciliating way. My “moral is the purest” and all that—but “unlawful love” is’nt ever named in England– On sundays, yes, but not on mondays! and in fact its impossible that he could affront his readers’ chastity by publishing my poem.
Now, look to your paces, Isa– I tell you chiefly that you may take warning. After all, I dont blame him– I dare say, it was not judiciously selected for the Cornhill on my part. Only I protest in the abstract against that stifling mask of hypocrisy, behind which consciences are simply suffocated. I am not a coarse woman, nor an unchaste woman. Let me say it– But the fear of plain words goes with the non-practise of plain virtues– May God bless you dearest dear Isa—says out of breath with haste–
Your Ba–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 454–455.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference in the penultimate paragraph to having written a “word about Thackeray yesterday”; that is, in letter 4883.
2. See letter 4868, note 14. We have been unable to trace an Italian translation of “A View Across the Roman Campagna” by Dall’Ongaro.
3. “… Ay, but Peter’s neck / Is stiff to turn on the foundering deck” (“A View Across the Roman Campagna,” lines 14–15).
4. “But the sturgeon [”storione”] goes to the Cæsar’s dish” (line 30).
6. Cavour.
9. Antonio Zobi (1808–79); see letter 4815, note 16.
10. Elisa Peruzzi (see letter 4438, note 18). Presumably, “accounts for everything” refers in part to her dislike of Napoleon III, which EBB intimates in earlier letters (see, for example, letter 4558).
11. It is unclear whether “he” refers to Mazzini or Garibaldi. Both men, privately and publicly, urged the liberation of Venetia from Austrian control.
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