5106. RB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 114–118.
Next month’s letter to)
Chez M. Laraison, Maire de Ste Marie, Pornic. Loire Inférieure.
Aug. 18. ’62
Dearest Isa,
I begin my letter at once, fearing that the slowness of the post may cause you to miss it otherwise. This is a wild little place in Brittany something like that village where we stayed last year [1] —close to the sea—a hamlet of a dozen houses, perfectly lonely—one may walk on the edge of the low rocks by the sea for miles—or go into the country at the back. Pornic is full & gay enough at half an hour’s distance. Our house is the Mayor’s, [2] large enough, clean & bare. I sit in my room all day & walk of an evening. Pen & my sister bathe. My father (perfectly well) walks & reads & draws. Mrs J. Bracken & Willie arrived yesterday & will get settled somewhere, here or at Pornic, in the course of the day. The place is much to my mind; I have brought books, & write: I wanted a change.
I wish you all enjoyment in your villa—for me, I had rather you were there than as you lived in England, now at one & now at another place, always with some obstacle to my seeing you (what I call “seeing”)—I could not even “fancy” you at places of which I know nothing: now, I shall very well see you in my mind’s eye. Is not Giglioni’s the villa where the Kinneys staid for some time—on the hill, near Gregory’s [sic] garden. [3] Oh, those walls & the way back—& the gate, & the long street & the corner house bent sharp like a card[.] [4]
I will tell you, dearest friend, but it is a secret, please—I shall go to Florence whenever the erection takes place of the monument—of which the designs are nearly finished. Leighton made them,—carrying out the idea I told you, I think,—but there is much to be done in the details: he worked with the greatest zeal,—dear fellow,—and I am in hopes that Cottrell will be able to take the main designs with him, so as to let the artist begin at once: the point we are anxious about is the substructure which must be very particularly attended to that the safety of the whole may be ensured, and I shall just go to Florence while that is being done,—for that & nothing else[.] I have not even mentioned it to Pen or my sister, but I must go, you under[stand.] If it can be next summer, well—if not, the next. I have told Cottrell & Leighton (who was earnest about his directions being attended to) but nobody else—& I trust you, mind. I could not live at Florence, now or at any time—unless perhaps in old age: but Italy,—Rome or Naples, I will go to the moment I can—& when will that be? You must write me long, detailed letters—you don’t now: remember I read your letters, twice, & then burn them: mine, I trust,—earnestly conjure you will never show: but you will not. Now to something else: what is there to “enquire about” in this decision at Perigueux? [5] I saw it in the French papers & talked it fully over with Milsand: it is precisely as I thought and told you. In France, there is a secular, and a religious marriage—the first, obligatory on everybody, the second optional: any priest, as a person not already married, may be married by the first form—which takes no account whatever of religious disqualification: on the other hand, the R.C. Church only attributes efficacy to its own form, tho obliged (in France) to have the civil form superimposed also. Milsand said that the refusal to marry on the part of the Mayors in this case was a complete mistake—arising from a clause in the “Concordat” [6] providing that the civil ceremony shall be refused to a priest on the religious consideration—which has nothing to do with it: so that the man is re-instated in his rights to marry. But do you call this “secularization”? His own words are, in the report of the trial in a paper, that happens to be here are, “The Church might ignore the ceremony, or even excommunicate him for the act, but her censures would not invalidate the civil contract”—exactly! But what of a man, like your friend, [7] who professes to defer to the church, fear excommunication, and abide by her censures? That was the case I considered—and it was even said that “several Bishops had professed themselves willing to perform the ceremony”—which of course was a stupidity. The only obstacle I ever saw to the man’s going to France & getting civilly married was in his unwillingness to loose [sic] character, prestige & hopes of perferment: if he likes to lose them, he may—but as for getting the consent of the church, remaining in it (as the Church would consider “remaining”) and yet marrying,—it is impossible, as he knows well enough. I knew a French Priest who had married in this manner, & who became an Irvingite—& Lady Elgin (an Irvingite) told me she could hardly keep her servants from insulting him when he came there. I said to Milsand—“How should you judge such a man?”– He answered—“I hate compulsory vows—but undoubtedly there must be a strong feeling against such a man.” That is the reason why the mayors refuse to be accessory to so wicked a thing—whereupon the Tribunal says properly “the wickedness is nothing to the Law.” Have the goodness, dearest, not to quote me to anybody on this subject: it is a matter as clear as day and evident to the meanest understanding, & certainly does not want such authority as mine—but I write at this length to you, because I really am surprised at your seeming to see some new light on the matter. Recollect that it is otherwise in Italy—because, in the Papal states, there is no civil form at all—and wherever there is such a form—as (I suppose, in Piedmont) the Church still has her veto: but in France, she can only “grin & bear it.”
I have written again to Cottrell– I had a letter when in Paris telling me as much, & no more than you tell me. I know nothing about the disorder that required the operation—a tumour, perhaps. I pity him & her with all my heart. If they stay so long in London I may not improbably see them: I shall be in England, I hope, by the 1st October. The weather here is very pleasant—very cool, no sun: Pen finds the sea do him good—he grows much: Remember me kindly to Miss Smith who has been so attentive to him—& tell her that he draws a great deal, copies the church (very old & picturesque,) an old tower close by, & will “do” the whole place bit by bit. [8]
And your next letter will be from Florence! Do be minute—tell me trifles—no trifles to me! See my letter—the little writing & the quantity of it! I heard from Wilson two days ago—she said the heat had been excessive & that Orestes (her eldest boy, who joined her (after calling on me) a few weeks ago, suffers much from it– Mr Landor was pretty quiet & well enough. I have not heard from Lytton this long while—I must write to him. You must know that one of your Miss Elliots is going to marry the brother of Made Du Quaire [9] —it was old news a month ago in London.
I was unfortunately unable to get your tale—in Fraser? [10] —before I left: indeed, I never quitted a house so precipitately—my engagements were continual to the last: I look forward to the quiet October & November in London: fortunately I have so many invitations to go into the country that I shall best extricate myself by pleading the impossibility of accepting one without offending another– I shall go nowhere. If I could, I would stay just as I am for many a day. I feel out of the very earth sometimes, as I sit here at the window—with the little church, a field, a few houses, and the sea; on a week day there is nobody in the village: plenty of haystacks, cows & fowls—all our butter, eggs, milk are produced in the farm-house. Such a soft sea & such a mournful wind! I wrote a poem yesterday of 120 lines [11] —& mean to keep writing, whether I like it or no. I hear Willy’s voice downstairs, & suppose his mother may be with him—& will go & see whether they have found a house. They hope to get one close by us. Willie is a very nice boy, much grown, no longer taller than Pen however: he looks paler than will be the case after plenty of bathing & air: his gentle manners & intelligence make him a very desirable companion for Pen.
Good bye, dearest Isa. If I ever can do anything, remember me. I shall know that wherever you are, my dearest friend is: I forget nothing, and all your goodness comes into my mind whenever my thoughts go back—as they will do, I think, even more & more now. Tell all friends in Florence, the Trollopes, Mignatys,—I remember them. Powers was in London but I could never learn where. [12] My father & sister send their kind love to you—& Pen shall, when he returns.
Ever yours affectionately
Robert Browning.
Recollect to see if my missing case is with your things, please. [13]
Publication: DI, pp. 116–122.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. St. Enogat, near Dinard, from 12 August to 21 September 1861.
2. René Laraison (1817–90).
3. RB refers to the garden of Maj. Charles Gregorie (1791–1858), whose residence was Villa Colombaia, Bellosguardo (see letter 3711, note 4). The Kinneys stayed in Villa Giglioni from spring to autumn 1859.
4. On the return home from Isa’s villa in Bellosguardo, RB would pass through the “gate” (Porta Romana) and walk down the “long street” (Via Romana) to Piazza San Felice and Casa Guidi, “the corner house bent sharp like a card.”
5. The decision, rendered on 31 July by the Tribunal of Périgueux, a town 66 miles E.N.E of Bordeaux, concerned the refusal of the town’s mayor “to celebrate the marriage of M. de Brou Laurière, the priest, with Mdlle. Elizabeth Fressanges” (The Daily News, 4 August 1862, p. 5). “The Perigueux court in few but conclusive words says, that the Code Napoleon regards marriage as a purely civil contract … that there is nothing in French law to prohibit a catholic priest from marrying—nothing to show that by entering into holy orders he loses his quality or rights as a citizen. … For the above reasons the court orders the mayor … to proceed at once to perform the ceremony, and to register the contract in due form” (p. 5).
6. The Concordat of 1801 between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon I, which “re-established the Catholic religion in France as the form of worship recognized and endowed by the state” (EB).
7. Carlo Passaglia (see letter 5032, note 3).
8. Although none of Pen’s drawings of Ste. Marie from the 1862 holiday have surfaced, those he made the following year have. Three of these are reproduced facing p. 273.
11. Probably “Gold Hair: A Legend of Pornic” (see The Poems of Robert Browning, Vol. 4, ed. John Woolford, Daniel Karlin, and Joseph Phelan, Harlow, England, 2012, p. 89).
12. Hiram Powers was in London for the International Exhibition, where two of his sculptures were displayed: “California” and “Proserpine” (see the exhibition’s Official Catalogue of the Fine Arts Department, 1862, p. 148). According to Richard P. Wunder, Powers had also come to England to visit his recently married daughter, Louisa (“Loulie”); see Hiram Powers: Vermont Sculptor, 1805–1873 (1991), I, 316. He and his son Longworth left Florence for London on 3 July and returned home on 12 August (see Wunder, I, 316–317).
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