5578. RB to William Wetmore Story, Emelyn Story & Edith Story
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 244–246.
19. Warwick Crescent,
Upper Westbourne Terrace, W
April 11. ’65.
Dear Friends, I was happy indeed to get your letters—Edie’s first, & now this satisfactory one. I had no notion when we met & parted in Paris so hurriedly that any thing was wrong with you (in my writing you must each of you pick out his or her own whos and yous:) I only supposed that London Life had done its usual work: and having already exceeded my stay abroad I was anxious to get home again: for I used to idle enough in Italy—but here I stick to my business honestly. At all events, you seem quite recovered now, and must take care & keep so. “Medea” [1] will be a sight to see,—and I rejoice that so good a fellow as Goldsmid has the “Saul”– [2] I shall be able to see it, moreover, with the rest of the world. As for the Bust [3] —you could never mistake my feeling of fear of the alterations that seemed unavoidable: I know very well that if such a miracle of reproduction could be expected from any human being, it may from you. Many people, quite competent to pronounce judgment, have declared that such a miracle is accomplished in the present case: all the more will be my prize, of course. But I was put to so much pain by a well-meaning artist here, [4] two years ago, who was bent on re-constructing something out of photographs and pictures, and did fail so entirely,—that the approach to anything like the pain impressed me, certainly, at the time. I know your immense superiority not only in art but in the knowledge which the art is to use: and whatever be the result there can be no annoyance to me; there was before.
Well, we are in the Easter lull, before recommencing with double spirit in a fortnight: I & Pen mean to go to Paris next week for a few days to see our people. Pen is a great fellow now, with incipient moustaches, and made his appearance the other night at a party in the actual coat & white tie: inevitable, but bitter! His whole great soul was wrapped up in the Boatraces last Saturday, when Oxford again beat Cambridge, [5] the cool long & strong stroke against the spurt and spasmodic dip: the English do best by sticking to the English way. And don’t you be fancying there’s any panic in us about Canada [6] —those fortifications are considered useless by the people who expect to have to fight—and if we have not, so much the better, but as we get promises of it from right & left, it’s not easy to disbelieve them altogether.
I am very sorry that you should have your painful experience of Chapman’s slowness in rendering an account: that is his old vice—I bade you be prepared for it: he is in like arrears with me. It admits of no excuse at all, and you have a right to give it what ugly name you please—which name if he dislikes, the remedy is in his own hands. I will speak to him about it in a day or two. The Booksellers generally give accounts only once a year—but he engages to do otherwise, and don’t keep his word: I have not myself the genius of making such men mind me, and they know it.
As for the work you so kindly care to know about, it is all in one way, about the Trial-Book [7] —my poem will be long enough, for one thing.
Spring is upon us of a sudden, and pairing-time is evident: Octavius Barrett re-marries next week: [8] I even hear this morning that Milsand (you know him?) is on the point of marrying. [9] All the better!
I must try and see more of Lady William than I have done of late: I am overcome by engagements. I continue to hope for better things in your part of the world than that the imbecility there will last forever. Is Mrs Trollope dead?—very ill, I know—but nothing so sad is known here as yet. [10]
Good bye—this is a poor scribble, but it may go—your generosity in answering it will be the greater. Pen’s love with mine to you all.
Ever affectionately yours RB.
I am very anxious to hear from Cartwright who is in sad trouble I fear, with illness of his children & of himself, poor fellow. [11]
Address: Stati Pontefici. / Madame Story, / Palazzo Barberini, / Rome.
Publication: BAF, pp. 150–153.
Manuscript: Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.
1. William Wetmore Story’s “Medea, Meditating the Death of Her Children” was completed in 1866 and sold to William H. Stone, of London.
3. Of EBB; see letter 5298, note 4.
4. Probably Thomas Richmond (1802–74); see leetter 5271.
5. The Times of 10 April 1865 carried a report of the annual boat race (see letter 5351, note 2) held on April 8th. Despite a lead of “three lengths,” the Cambridge eight lost to the Oxford crew by “four or five lengths. … The fifth victory in succession which was thus gained by Oxford was due mainly to their perseverance in the long stroke, which has been the tradition of the University” (p. 12).
6. The House of Commons had recently authorized £50,000 for the improvement of Canada’s defenses, particularly fortifications in Quebec, to help repel a possible attack from the United States (see The Times, 7 April 1865, p. 9). The author of a letter to The Times, signing himself “a Canadian in London,” asked British statesmen “to reflect, whether, with the geographical conditions of Canada, the fortifying of a few points, which command no passes required for invaders from the south, and are hardly better than arbitrarily selected upon an open frontier, will be likely to afford any real security” (10 April 1865, p. 10). During and after the Civil War, more than one American politician called for the annexation of Canada, but there was never any real threat.
7. The Ring and the Book (1868–69).
8. On 17 April 1865, Octavius Moulton-Barrett married Maria Elizabeth Morris (1842–1931), as his second wife. She was the illegitimate daughter of Edward Morris (1821–52) and Maria Elizabeth Woodifield (afterwards Snowden, 1819–83). It is believed that Maria Elizabeth was adopted and raised by her grandmother Maria Sarah Drummond (née Windus, formerly Morris, 1797–1872), who left her granddaughter a large inheritance. In 1844 her father, Edward Morris, married Sophia Amelia (née Holland), who later married Octavius’s brother Henry. See letter 4169, note 16, and letter 4121, note 14.
9. Joseph Milsand and Laure Thérèse Henry (1826–96) were married in Paris on 27 April 1865. Their only child, Claire Thérèse Milsand (afterwards Blanc-Milsand, 1853–1934), was born on 4 December 1853.
10. Theodosia Trollope (née Garrow, 1816–65) died at Florence on 13 April, after suffering from consumption for many years. She was buried in the Protestant Cemetery.
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