4891. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 114–117.
[Rome]
[Postmark: 11 May 1861]
Your account of the dearest nonno was very pleasant on the whole, .. only of course you will be very careful with him. And then, dearest Sarianna, you yourself have not been well– The grippe seems to have been bitter against you. This is the time of year when it generally rages,—and even Pen has had a small cough, which makes me austere about hours. In fact the weather in the north has reverberated here, & we have paid for our mild winter by a considerable lingering of cold wind, from snow in the mountains, they say. As for me, its much to my disadvantage in getting air & strength. I hope you are quite well again, as is Pen, & that the loved nonno is as strong as he ever was. Do you get good wine for him? The vintages are said to have suffered, (which grieves me for poor dear Milsand) from the frost. We hear of travellers in snow-storms through England, where the cold has been great .. and that in Paris too, there has been snow. I do hope the opening summer will not copy the last.
Dearest Sarianna, try to find out if Fontainbleau is damp, because I was assured the other day, that it was, besides being subject to intense heats. Also, will you see if there is a completed railroad to Trouville. Robert denies the sea-air ever disagrees with him—(sea-bathing does—) and it may be good for you & for Pen .. to say nothing of Arabel, who is coming in the course of the summer. The objection is the journey—but if the railroad is there, it would not prolong the journey (in relation to Fontainbleau) more than two or three hours, if so much—would it? We ought to enquire a little beforehand. We shall get to you as early as we can– The weather is against us everywhere. We shall cut Florence quite short. By the way we have the satisfaction of seeing a precipitation of the Tuscan funds down, down,—which only makes Robert wish for more power of “buying in”, causing the eyes of a Florentine Frescobaldi [1] to open in wonder at so much audacity. But Robert, generally so timid in such things, has caught a flush of my rashness, & is alarmed by neither sinking funds nor rising loans. We have a strong faith in Italy .. Italia fatta [2] particularly since that grand child, Garibaldi, has turned good again! The troubles in the Neapolitan States are exaggerated,—are perilous even so—& I dare say Milsand thinks we are all going to pieces—but we shall not—there are great men here, & there will be a great nation presently. An Australian Englishman, [3] very acute, & free from the political faults (as I see them) of England, did all he could to prepare me for failure in Italy .. “to save my heart from breaking,” as he said. And we have had drawbacks since then—yet my hope remains as strong.
The Duchess de Grammont (French embassy) sent us a card for Penini .. ‘Matinée d’enfants’ [4] .. and he went, & was rather proud of being received under a full-length portrait of Napoleon, who is as dear as ever to him. It was a very splendid affair, quite royal– Pen wore a crimson velvet blouse, & was presented to various small Italian princes, Colonnas, Dorias[,] Piombinos, [5] & had the honor of talking ponies & lessons & playing leap-frog with them. The ambassador’s own boy, the little Grammont, has a poney ‘tale quale’ [6] like Pen’s, only superannuated rather, which gives us the advantage.
Ah no, Sarianna. You are not in earnest, asking. We cant pack up ponies & travel so– To bring that poney to Rome even, though he is tied to the carriage, he costs us (for the mere stable at night & oats) five & twenty francs, each way—besides the groom’s expenses– No. Pen must do without his poney for a while, & will gladly,—for the pleasure of having his nonno & you. Besides he will boast all the more gloriously for the absence of the “objét”. [7]
I wonder if he will confide to you his tender admiration for the young queen of Naples .. whom, between you & me, he pursues, & receives in return ever so many smiles from that sad lovely face. When charged with a love-affair, Pen answered gravely that he “did feel a kind of interest.”—— He told us that two days since she stood up in her carriage three times to smile at him. Something it may be for the poney’s sake,—but also, Pen confessed to an impression that his new jacket attracted.!! Fancy little Pen! Robert says she is very pretty—& for Pen (who makes it a point of conscience to consider the whole ‘razza’ [8] of Bourbons & Papalini, as “questi infami birboni”) [9] to be so drawn, there must be a charm. After all, poor little creature, she acted heroically from her point of sight,—& if the king had minded her, he would have made liberal concessions in time, perhaps. The wretched queen-mother [10] & herself were at daggers drawn from the beginning.
I hear that Jessie Mario & her husband have been taken up at Ferrara. They were only going to begin the war with Austria on their own account. Mazzini deserves what I should be sorry to inflict. He is a man without conscience. And that’s no reason why Jessie & her party should use him for their’s. Mario is only the husband of his wife.
Robert has brought me home a most perfect copy of a small torso of Venus [11] .. from the Greek .. in the clay. It is wonderfully done, say the learned– He says all “his happiness lies in clay now”—that was his speech to me this morning. Not a compliment,—but said so sincerely & fervently, that I could not but sympathize & wish him a life-load of clay to riot in. Its the mixture of physical & intellectual effort, which makes the attraction, I imagine– Certainly he is very well & very gay.
I am happy to see that the North British quarterly has an article on him. [12] That gives hope for England. Thackeray has turned me out of the Cornhill for indecency, but did it so prettily & kindly that I who am forgiving, sent him another poem. He says that plain words permitted on Sundays must not be spoken on Mondays in England, & also that his “Magazine is for the use of babes & sucklings.” [13] (I thought it was for the volunteers.)
May God bless you, dearest Sarianna & nonno. Pen’s love.
Address, in RB’s hand: France. / Mademoiselle Browning / 151. Rue de Grenelle, / Faubourg St Germain, / Paris.
Publication: LEBB, II, 440–443 (in part).
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Unidentified member of the prominent Tuscan family.
2. “Italy made.”
3. Presumably Edward Wilson (see letter 4581, note 1).
4. “Afternoon party for children.”
6. “Exactly alike.”
7. “Object.”
8. “Race.”
9. “These infamous rogues.”
10. Maria Theresa (1816–67), of Austria, second wife of King Ferdinand II (1810–59), was Francis II’s stepmother.
12. A general review of RB’s works appeared in The North British Review of May 1861 (pp. 350–374). The reviewer, Gerald Massey (1828–1907), writes that “of all our living poets … Mr. Browning is about the likeliest to win his least fame and fewest readers in his own life time,” partly because his poetry “is pre-eminent amongst our nineteenth century poetry, for those subtle qualities of thought and feeling which demand the profoundest attention.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 360–369. Tear-sheets from this review, inscribed by RB, were sold as part of lot 931 in Browning Collections. See Reconstruction, A1753, where the reviewer is misidentified as F.H. Evans.
13. Cf. Psalm 8:2 and Matthew 21:16. See letter 4865.
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