5908. RB to William Cornwallis Cartwright
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 204.
19. Warwick Crescent,
Upper Westbourne Terrace, W.
May 17 [sic, for 18]. ’67. [1]
My dear Cartwright,
I supposed that you would be apprised by receipt of the Pall Mall Gazette (through the F. O. under cover) that your article was inserted at once [2] —or only with a day’s waiting in consequence of the curious fact that identically the same information was given in an article in the “Chronicle” (new Catholic Liberal Weekly Paper) [3] —and the Editor wished to refer to that: this second notice was inserted yesterday, the day after I received it. [4] Mr Smith is going to write himself to you: and you can be in no better hands. I am in a prodigious haste to tell you just this, & save the post. Send me,—or Mr Smith, Pall Mall,—putting in “Smith & Elder,” I suggest, as Smiths abound,—any thing you want inserted. [5] Give my true love to Mrs Cartwright– I trust I shall soon see her & Wanda & all your household. If you see Mr Craven,—do ask for that paper about the Franceschini Murder [6] —it is most probably what I have, but should it be a different account, I can’t say of what importance it would be.
What is Cardinal Franceschini, [7] —of Tuscan extraction, or anyhow of the Arezzo family,—if so, what are his arms? Ask any instructed person, why a mother in want of a name for her child would be led to call him “Gaetano” [8] —what virtues are there in that saint’s patronage? [9]
Ever affectionately yours
Robert Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Correct day provided by RB’s reference to the date of publication of the “second notice” (see note 4 below).
2. “Italian Financial Embarrassments,” The Pall Mall Gazette, 13 May 1867, p. 4.
3. “Rome and Italy,” The Chronicle, 11 May 1867, p. 148 (copy in the holdings of Cambridge University Library, MS Add 7486/1). This weekly newpaper, edited by Thomas Frederick Wetherell (1830–1908), was published from 30 March 1867 to 15 February 1868.
4. Preserved with the letter is a copy of The Pall Mall Gazette of 17 May 1867, containing Cartwright’s short article, entitled “Italian Intrigues” (p. 5).
5. Cartwright’s copies of The Pall Mall Gazette, preserved at the Northamptonshire Record Office, indicate further contributions: “Roman Brigandage,” 15 June 1867, p. 10; “Archbishop Manning at Rome,” 20 June 1867, p. 5; [Arrest of Father Gigli and Father Carnelli], 12 July 1867, p. 5; and, [Distribution of Grog to Pope’s Foreign Mercenaries], 13 July 1867, p. 5.
7. We have been unable to trace a Roman Catholic cardinal of that name.
8. Gaetano Franceschini (b. 1697), son of Guido Franceschini.
9. St. Gaetano or Cajetan (1480–1547), lawyer turned priest who founded the Theatine order. He was canonized in 1671.
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