5021. RB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 34–36.
1. Chichester Road, Upper Westbourne Terrace
Saty Feb. 15. ’62.
Dearest Isa,
I was happy to have your letter: as I said, whatever could be done you would do,—others, kind too, don’t bear in mind, or, from whatever reason, forget the main question. If “Laura Savio of Turin” is really the name of the “Mother & Poetess”, my information is sufficient on that head. [1] About the other, judge how urgent I am for some piece of authentic news– When the printing is done, the dedication prefixed, and all that delays further proceeding is the uncertainty whether that “decreto” [2] of which you were assured, has been intended to be carried into effect: it might of course be begun & completed in a day. What shall I do if the Municipality never remembers any thing of the kind? On the other hand, it would be a real relief & delight to me to say just a word of thanks, on the only occasion in my power. Two days ago, on getting your letter, finding even good Trollope fail us in the matter, I wrote a few lines to Villeri himself (care of Mignaty)—asking him—from whom the account came—to corroborate it—& I am sure he will. I did not like sending to Pisa—on the chance of finding him—so directed to his friend. But, here is what I suppose to be Grisanowsky’s letter—arrived last night: I send it in earnest desire to know whether it contains what I want, & I know you will lose no time in satisfying me. I enclose Trollope’s note, as you may want it. Miss C’s piece of print will be kept till you come. [3] I can’t understand people paying off the “Amphitryon” & “charming wife” in that manner: it seems more American than America itself! Certainly we are all ungrateful enough to Villa Bricchieri,—we who have had so many breakfasts & tea parties there—with charms & Amphitryons to boot—& have never mentioned it in a prompt review of “Agnes Tremorne”! (Observe, that I have read with great pleasure the beginning of your new novel [4] —& think it will greatly extend your reputation.) While I write, my heart is sore for a great calamity just befallen poor Rossetti—which I only heard of last night: his wife, [5] who had been, as an invalid, in the habit of taking laudanum swallowed an over-dose—was found by the poor fellow on his return from the Working-Men’s Class [6] in the evening under the effects of it—help was called in, the stomach-pump used; but she died in the night—about a week ago: & there has hardly been a day when I have not thought—“if I can, to-morrow, I will go & see him, & thank him for his book, [7] & return his Sister’s poems.” [8] Poor, dear Fellow!– Another melancholy thing—Mrs Twistleton,—young, so pretty, so full of sympathy, so good to me—has one of those horrible internal complaints,—just such a case as Henrietta’s, [9] I fear: her husband’s haggard looks, and suffering ways are hard to bear—so was seeing her, as I was allowed to do three days ago. From Rome, Cartwright informs me of the grave illness of Lady William Russell.—indeed, considering her age & the nature of her malady, a desperate case. So one lives! And so would not I live, if this life were all,—no, indeed!
Dearest, I send you another parcel of papers: I go to Paris, if nothing prevents, next Saty for a week. Goodbye, & God bless you. Pen is quite well—drawing over the way, or he would send his love with mine.
Affectionately yours ever
R Browning
Publication: DI, pp. 97–100.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. RB refers to EBB’s “Mother and Poet,” whose inspiration was Olimpia Savio di Bernstiel (née Rossi, 1816–89); see letter 4883, note 15. RB appended his misidentification to the end of the poem in Last Poems: “This was Laura Savio, of Turin, a poetess and patriot, whose sons were killed at Ancona and Gaeta” (p. 96).
2. “Decree.”
3. RB may be referring to Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904). We cannot identify the “piece of print,” nor can we explain the sentence that follows. The OED defines “Amphitryon” as “a host, an entertainer to dinner,” taken “from the comedy of Molière, in which Amphityron (foster-father of Hercules) gives a great dinner.”
4. The Woman I Loved, and the Woman Who Loved Me appeared as a serial in Once a Week from 18 January to 8 March 1862. It was published in book form by Chapman and Hall in May 1865.
5. Elizabeth Siddal (née Siddall, 1829–62) died from an overdose of laudanum on 11 February. At the coroner’s inquest her death was ruled accidental, but there is some evidence that she left a suicide note for Rossetti. Her entry in the ODNB calls her death a suicide. A distraught Rossetti placed his unpublished manuscript poems in her coffin and renounced poetry.
6. Dante Gabriel Rossetti began teaching a figure class at the Working Men's College in January 1855. He taught there regularly for three years, then periodically until 1862 (see Rossetti, 2, 4 and 7–8). The college was founded by F.D. Maurice and other Christian Socialists in 1854.
7. The Early Italian Poets: From Ciullo D’Alcano to Dante Alighieri, trans. D.G. Rossetti (1861).
8. Presumably, either manuscript copies or proofsheets of Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti (1830–94), second daughter and fourth child of Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti (1783–1854) and his wife, Frances Mary Lavinia (née Polidori, 1800–86), sister of Byron’s physician. Goblin Market was published by Macmillan & Co. on 5 April 1862.
9. i.e., cancer of the uterus. Ellen Twisleton died on 18 May 1862.
___________________
