4896. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 128–130.
Rome.
Saturday– [18 May 1861] [1]
Ever dearest Isa, Now that Robert’s letter is gone, I am able for shame to write– His waiting did not mean a slackness of kindness, but a tightness of entanglement in other things,—and then absolutely he has got to the point of doing without reading– Nothing but clay does he care for, poor lost soul!– But you will see, I hope, from what he has written, (to judge by what he speaks) that he is not so lost as to be untouched by Agnes–
He brought me yesterday the Saturday R. with the notice. Well—I think it likely to serve the book– As Saturday Reviews go, it seems to me very favorable—& then the length of the criticism is of itself a deposition in favor of a work– You have had a decided success, my Isa—& I thank God for such an aim of life justified to you from henceforth–
I send you, dear, two more translations for Dall’Ongaro– [2] You will have given him my former message– I began that letter to him, & was interrupted,—& then, considering the shortness of our time here, would not begin another– You will have explained & will make him thoroughly understand, that in sending him a verbal & literal translation I never thought of exacting such a thing from him, but simply of letting him have the advantage of seeing the raw, naked poetry as it stands– In fact, my translation is scarcely Italian, I know very well– I mean it for English rather– Conventional & idiomatical Italian forms have been expressly avoided– I have used the Italian as a net to catch the English in for the use of an Italian poet! Let him understand.
We shall be soon in our Florence now– I am rather stronger, but so weak still that my eyes dazzle to think of it– Povera me– [3]
Tell Dall’Ongaro that his friend M. Grün had enough of me in one visit– He never came again though I prayed him to come– I have not been equal to receiving in the evening, & perhaps he expected an invitation– I go to bed at eight on most nights. I’m the rag of a Ba– Yet I am stronger, & look much so, it seems to me– Mr Story is doing Robert’s bust, [4] .. which is likely to be a success– Hatty brought us a most charming design for a fountain for Lady Marion Alford. [5] The imagination is unfolding its wings in Hatty. She is quite of a mind to spend the summer with you at Florence or elsewhere– The Storys talk of Switzerland–
Kinney [6] has been very ill, & because something was said of a possible danger if she were not bled, (which was objected to) Mrs M. began to scream .. & terrified the patient almost to the thing apprehended– How foolish that poor woman is,—how infirm of will! I have no right to speak, I dare say– I have certainly as little presence of mind as most women & children,—but I cant help despising a little all screaming creatures– Is it a good reason .. that my weakness goes out rather in fainting? Perhaps almost as good a reason, after all, as any human being has for despising another–
Andersen (the Dane) came to see me yesterday [7] —kissed my hand, & seemed in a general verve for embracing– He is very earnest, very simple, very childlike– I like him– Pen says of him .. “He is not really ‘pretty’– He is rather like his own ugly duck—but his mind has developped into a swan–”
That was’nt bad of Pen, was it? He gets on with his Latin too– And Isa,—he has fastened a half franc to his button hole, for the sake of the beloved image! [8] —& no power on earth can persuade him out of being so ridiculous– I was base enough to say that it would’nt please the Queen of Spain! And he responded, he “chose her to know that he did [9] love Napoleon.”!!
Isa .. I send these two last poems that Dall’Ongaro may be aware of my sympathy’s comprehending more sides than one of Italian experience–
We have taken no apartment yet!!!
Annette will make short work of G—she says–
Write, & tell me particularly of dear Sophie Cottrell– I am so sorry about her– Oh—I wish she would’nt get into any more of these scrapes– Before the last advent, there was reason for running a risk—but now .. !– [10] My true love to her!
Andersen was received at a ‘Matinée d’enfants’ at the Story’s last week—& he read half his “Ugly Duck” in English—(it was not intelligible .. the man’s English is wonderful) and then Robert read his poem of the ‘Rats’ .. with great applause I hear– And Mr Story acted the part of “Pied Piper”– [11]
You see, (by a combination of reports,) what we are to have presently!—satisfaction in Rome, among other good things! I believe in it entirely this time. But oh, Isa, Isa .. Poland, Poland! And Telaky!– [12] If my eyes could weep blood, & it profited, they should & would!
America, too, is passing an awful crisis– Only I hope strongly– My best love to Kate, & tell her so– Lord John, that most pedantic of schoolmasters in Europe, <***>
Publication: B-IB, pp. 467–469.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Date based upon EBB’s reference to Hans Christian Andersen’s visit of “yesterday” (see note 7 below).
2. Presumably, one of these prose translations was of “A Court Lady,” the only poem of EBB’s that is known to have been translated by Dall’Ongaro (see letter 4639, note 15). EBB had earlier sent “A View Across the Roman Campagna” (see letter 4868, note 14).
3. “Poor me.”
4. William Wetmore Story’s plaster bust of RB is now at Casa Guidi. It is illustrated facing p. 177. A marble copy, commissioned by George Moulton-Barrett, was executed in 1864 and presented to Pen. Its present location is unknown.
5. “The Fountain of the Siren,” “designed for the conservatory in Lady Marian’s London house … depicted a female figure seated high on a supporting shell as … little cupids … played on dolphins at the base of the piece. With water spilling over the vase, Hatty explained, the chubby infants would appear to be beneath the surface of the water” (Dolly Sherwood, Harriet Hosmer: American Sculptor, 1830–1908, Columbia, Missouri, 1991, p. 206).
6. Sic, for Kinny, Mary Mackenzie’s maid.
7. Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75), Danish poet and fabulist, recorded in his diary, 17 May 1861: “Visited the English poetess Mrs Browning, who kindly expressed her pleasure at seeing me; she looked very ill” (Elias Bredsdorff, Hans Christian Andersen, 1975, p. 241).
8. i.e., of Napoleon III. EBB’s reference to the Queen of Spain is probably a slip for the Queen of Naples, who would no doubt have felt that Napoleon III had contributed to the demise of her husband’s kingdom.
9. Underscored four times.
10. EBB alludes to Sophia Cottrell’s difficult pregnancies and the high mortality rate of her newborn infants. In the last 12 years, four of her children had died; three of them within a month after birth. We have no evidence that she was pregnant at this time. Her most recent child, Violet Amy, was born on 11 January 1859. The next child, Agnes Isa Sophia, was born in 1865.
11. Andersen wrote in his diary, 13 May 1861: “At two o’clock I went with Jonas to the American sculptor Story … had to read in english the beginning of ‘The Ugly Duckling’, but it was too bad and I got Story to read the rest. Here was a brother of Longfellow, the poet, here was the poet Robert Browning, who in a circle of children read two of his own poems for them, one about the Piper from Hamelin; he dressed himself up and played the part of the Piper, the children following him in a crowd through the room” (Elias Bredsdorff, Hans Christian Andersen, 1975, p. 241). Henry James confirms that after Andersen had read “‘The Ugly Duckling,’ Browning struck up with the ‘Pied Piper’; which led to the formation of a grand march through the spacious Barberini apartment, with Story doing his best on a flute in default of bagpipes” (William Wetmore Story and His Friends, 1903, I, 286).
12. A reference to the recent death of László Teleki (1811–61) on 8 May. See letter 4828, note 17.
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