5078. RB to Pasquale Villari
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 87–88.
19. Warwick Crescent,
Harrow Road.
May 28. ’62
My dear Mr Villari,
I am delighted to hear that you are in London, and will take the first moment I can spare from a pressure of engagements to call and have the happiness of seeing you. I am just entered into a house of my own, and have only begun to get a few chairs and tables for it, or I would try and procure myself as much of your company as your benevolence might bestow—but if you stay any time here I shall do something towards covering my bare boards, and your kindness will not change before then. You will find Miss Blagden at No 6. Dorset Place, Dorset Square [1] —she intends to leave London on the 6th June; I have apprised her of your desire to see her. Miss Cobbe is not in London now—but Miss Blagden will give you her address: I will find out where Mr Mill is, [2] and let you know. I feel ashamed that you should read my handwriting before seeing my face—but you must already understand and be prepared to forgive the trouble of a London life.
Ever yours very faithfully and gratefully,
Robert Browning.
The “bambino” is delighted to hear any Italian is arrived, and Mr Villari especially. He is quite well and sends his “dovuti riguardi.” [3]
Publication: Edward C. McAleer, “Pasquale Villari and the Brownings,” Boston Public Library Quarterly, 9 (1957), 46.
Manuscript: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
1. The residence of Mary Potticary (1793–1871) and her sister Joanna (1795–1871). According to the 1861 England census, the household included their nieces Emily Sowton (1826–81) and Mary Sowton (1832–1918). Mary Potticary signed the 1866 Women’s Suffrage petition, which John Stuart Mill presented to the House of Commons.
2. At this time, John Stuart Mill was in Athens, where on 11 June 1862 he wrote to George Grote: “A friend and correspondent of mine, Professor Villari of the University of Pisa, is now in England on a mission from the Italian Government, to make enquiries into popular education in England … I have ventured to send him an introduction to you. … When I was in Tuscany seven years ago, I saw him, and we have been frequent correspondents ever since” (The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Vol. 15, The Later Letters of John Stuart Mill, 1849–1873, Part II, ed. Francis E. Mineka and Dwight N. Lindley, Toronto, 1972, pp. 780–781).
3. “Due regards.”
___________________
