4913. RB to William Wetmore Story & Emelyn Story
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 158–159.
Florence,
Friday. [21 June 1861] [1]
Dear Friends,
Don’t let me miss another post-hour and leave your letters, so kind & pleasant to us both, unanswered. You tell us nothing of yourselves however. Mrs Story was far from well three weeks ago.
First, there’s no doubt you can have Villa Orr [2] how & when you please. Nencini said the owners wanted money, would never have refused an offer,—in short I took it for granted that any conditions so reasonable would be accepted unless I gave too early notice of the possibility of your return. “There was nobody and would be nobody”—he said. Alberti will be at least as accom[m]odating. Should you incline to the Baths of Lucca,—I hear of the propitious emptiness of that place also, how any terms will be caught at. What do you think of Viareggio which seems rather attractive to folks this season,—and is praised for its sea and six miles of sand?
How kindness’ self you have been in all that troublesome negotiation for the apartment! It will all come to nothing, we begin to fear, as the days go by & bring no tidings. As the chair could be appended without disfigurement to the house, [3] one sees no other reason against us than that fears & scruples shake the Prince [4] and we shall probably drop off in the shake—a great pity, though!
Yes,—very good news, good symptoms on every side for Italy: the main of it is effected, let us hope,—“tutto è salvo”, [5] and the less of delay in these plaguy “dettagli” [6] (vide today’s Nazione)—the better. As you put to me that poser, “Is the Queen insane or Catholic?” [7] —I can only resort to my old sheepish answer—“don’t believe!” I have no sort of private information, but see a spread of English Newspapers daily and can only couple their absolute silence with Antonelli’s knowledge and commentary, [8] and make the too customary conclusion. The Court Circular yesterday mentioned that the Queen had driven, in plenty of company, to Richmond and returned thence, on Saturday last,—and, on Sunday morning, had attended service in Buckingham House Chapel [9] —as long as she can so perform in public it will not matter much if she be secretly mad and confidentially a papist, I suppose: but I remember, so long ago, when she was lame and unable to stand upright,—then bent upon marrying nobody but Lord Elphinstone, [10] —then a tory to the backbone,—then mad as a March hare—but that was twenty five years ago,—and such a “then” will this “now” soon turn to, not improbably.
How hot, how unpleasant to be so far away from you, how pleasant to hope soon to see the good summer time again as of old in your company! We all want the same things exactly. Can it not be? Ba is stronger & better, but has not yet left the house. Few friends are here. Landor has cut off his beard—treasure your photographs! As you have ours, by the bye, dear Mrs Story, please to help yourself to heart’s content—and keep the residue till you see us. Who knows but I may really run over some morning if I can be spared? Do not you intend, on the other hand, to see something of Florence before the final settlement? How it would delight us all,—but you know that. We hear less of American news than when we were at Rome, and abundantly despise our own mean newspaper-articles. All love to you all from us here—do be good and write to us, as soon as there is anything to say,—and sooner.
Affectionately yours ever
Robert Browning–
Publication: BAF, pp. 70–72.
Manuscript: Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.
1. Dated by RB’s reference to the “Court Circular” (see note 9 below).
3. RB refers to some form of “lift” (see letter 4908, note 4).
4. Enrico Barberini-Colonna (1823–89), Prince of Palestrina, eldest son of Francesco Barberini-Colonna (1772–1853), Prince of Palestrina, and his wife, Vittoria Colonna (1791–1847).
5. “Everything is safe.”
6. “Details.”
8. RB implies that Cardinal Antonelli was the source of these rumors concerning Queen Victoria. In a dispatch to Lord John Russell, dated 11 June 1861, Odo Russell wrote: “The Pope has taken it into his head that Her Majesty our Queen is about to turn Roman Catholic and that the Duchess of Kent was converted on her death bed. I have heard the matter discussed by several of the Pope’s prelates and today Monsignor Talbot assured me that the Pope was in possession of the most positive information on the subject. These foolish priests really don’t know what to invent next” (The Roman Question, ed. Noel Blakiston, 1962, p. 178).
9. RB’s comments are confirmed by the “Court Circular” in The Morning Chronicle of 17 June 1861, a Monday: “Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by the Princess Alice, the Prince of Wales, and Prince Louis of Hesse, left Buckingham Palace, at five o’clock on Saturday afternoon in a carriage-and-four for White-lodge, Richmond-park. Lady Augusta Bruce, the Hon. Flora Macdonald, and the Hon. A.N. Hood followed in a second carriage-and-four. … Yesterday the Queen and Prince Consort, the Princess Alice, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Helena, the Princess Louise, the ladies and gentlemen of the Court, and the domestic household, attended divine service in the private Chapel, Buckingham Palace” (p. 4).
10. John Elphinstone (1807–60), 13th Lord Elphinstone and 1st Baron Elphinstone, Governor of Madras and later Bombay, was a captain in the Royal Horse Guards and “a lord-in-waiting to William IV from 1835 to 1837 … In 1837 Elphinstone left the guards on being appointed governor of Madras by Lord Melbourne. It was said at the time that his appointment was made in order to dispel a rumour that the young Queen Victoria had fallen in love with him” (ODNB).
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