5806. RB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 127–129.
19. Warwick Crescent,
Upper Westbourne Terrace,
Oct. 19. ’66.
Dearest Isa,
I knew there was good reason for your silence, and only wanted to be sure that it implied no accident to yourself: you were quite legitimately hindered,—only, take care, now that all the “rush” is over & ended, to repair your losses with rest: you do wonders really, considering how little you expected once to do,—in those Roman days when “all your ambition was to get from the Gregoriana to the Pinciana and there see the sun set”: [1] whereas you fly about like a dear little witch as you are. Tell me about your house, [2] —is it the one you thought of taking? At any rate, please describe it all over again to me. Your visit to me was the one drop of water to the thirsty man who wants a pailful. Who knows? I may see you in Florence soon. Next Michaelmas—if God please to help us—Pen goes to Balliol. And what am I to do?—Have new troubles and worse, probably, as a punishment for any ingratitude: perhaps however au fond du fond [3] I am not so very ungrateful after all.
Was it ominous that you missed just that 12th?—I was married on that day twenty years ago. [4]
We enjoyed Croisic increasingly to the last—spite of the three weeks vile weather, in striking contrast to the golden months at Pornic last year. I often went to Guerande: once Sarianna and I walked from it .. in two hours and somewhat under,—nine miles: tho’ from our house, straight over the sands and sea, it is not half that distance. Miss Smith made the last part of our stay pleasant,—she is my favourite out of the trio. [5] She too liked the place much—and got good from the Bathing: she regretted leaving so much—and so evidently needed more baths and, perhaps, holiday—that at the last moment we persuaded her to go and find the fine weather at Biarritz—she wisely did so, is there still, and likes it as we expected. The Brackens preceded us by some days, but Miss Smith started with us, to part company at Le Mans. We stayed three days at Paris, and now are here—for good, I hope: Pen working hard,—and I have my poem [6] to mend and end in the gaps between Greek and Latin. Let me tell you of two interesting books,—Le dernier Amour, by George Sand, [7] —surprising to me, from its cleverness and return to the Indiana style of thing (I generally hate her last writings)—and this new “Affaire Clemenceau” by young Dumas. [8] “Tamaris” [9] by G. Sand I dont believe in nor care about. I have not read Felix Holt [10] —nor seen her, though I have twice tried to do so: Lewis called yesterday—very kind & pleasant and useful, but looking so ill! The Fortnightly turns into a Monthly next year, and Lewes in all likelihood leaves the Editorship. [11]
I am glad to hear that T. Trollope is about to marry happily [12] —quite right in him to try. I think him affectionate, good, full of various talent,—all which his wife will soon find out. Give Bice my love,—I like the memory of her. My love to dear old Kirkup I will give myself– I have let him alone far too long: I’ll be bound Dante, and anybody else his “medium” [13] knows by name, sups with him and keeps him amused. I am never angry with the purely Duped. Poor Cottrell,—is it the beginning—or middle of the end? Things are changed indeed if he, as the Bible calls it, “goes softly.” [14] Do you ever hear from Lytton in any way? I found invitations here for those two marriages which have been the town talk, Julian Fane’s & his sister’s. [15] Julian never saw his predestined one (a very pretty girl) till a certain Thursday,—next day, he proposed and was accepted, and fell at the mother’s knees saying just “Give her me—for I cannot live without her!”—Whereto said the mother (whom I fancy I hear)—“Who’s “she”?” There’s to encourage you in gossipping, my own Isa! God bless you– My sister’s best love and Pen’s go with mine. A good long compensating letter next time, please!
Ever affy yours RB.
Publication: DI, pp. 248–250.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Isa Blagden stayed in an apartment at 13 Via Gregoriana in Rome from January 1863 to April 1864, during which time she injured her knee. Porta Pinciana is just a few blocks from Via Gregoriana.
2. Villa Isetta.
3. “At the very bottom.”
4. 12 September 1846 in St. Marylebone church.
5. Of sisters: Mary Egerton Bracken (née Smith, 1819–99), Annie Egerton Smith (1821–77), and Margaret Egerton Castle (née Smith, 1822–1912).
6. The Ring and the Book.
7. George Sand’s Le dernier amour (1867) was first published serially in Revue des Deux Mondes from 1 July to 15 August 1866. Her Indiana (1832) was described by EBB many years before as “sensual & physical—and yet that work does appear to me very brilliant & powerful, & eloquent beyond praising” (see letter 1094).
8. Affaire Clémenceau: Mémoire de l’accusé (1866), a semi-autobiographical novel by Alexandre Dumas (fils).
9. A novel published in 1862, set on the Mediterranean coast in the fictional town of Tamaris, near Toulon.
10. George Eliot’s Felix Holt, the Radical (3 vols., Edinburgh and London, 1866) was published by William Blackwood and Sons on 14 June.
11. George Henry Lewes was editor of The Fortnightly Review from January 1865 until his “health was so precarious by the end of 1866” he resigned (ODNB).
12. On 29 October 1866, Thomas Adolphus Trollope married Frances Eleanor Ternan (1825–1913), sister of Dickens’s longtime mistress, Ellen Ternan. Earlier in the year Frances had become governess to Trollope’s daughter, Bice.
13. “Bibi” (see letter 5645, note 4).
14. Cf. Isaiah 38:15.
15. Lady Rose Sophia Mary Fane (1834–1921)—see letter 5231, note 2—married on 15 August 1866 Henry Weigall (1831–1925), of Southwood House, St. Lawrence, Ramsgate. For Julian Fane’s marriage, see letter 5799, note 2.
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