SD2071. Elizabeth Clementine Kinney to Edmund Clarence Stedman
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 258–259 (in part).
Casa del Bello, Florence,
April 29th 1857.
My dearly beloved Son:
What does this silence mean? Has my long letter of Feb’y 25th failed to reach you—arriving during your absence, was it lost among the accumulation of letters? …
Sick or well, we are always called upon to entertain strangers—would that they were oftener angels—for Florence is the rendezvous of visitors from all parts of the world, & every body gives every body letters to us: while there being no minister here from our Government, Mr. Kinney, having filed that office at another court, is looked to by most of our countrymen who come her for counsel & attentions. All this of course, prevents our living very economically, even in this cheapest city in the world. Sometimes indeed we are repaid richly by really “entertaining Angles unawares.” Only the other night we had the three queens—of Science, of Poetry, & of Prose—together here: Mrs Somerville, Mrs. Browning, & Mrs Stowe—what a constellation! Baron Humboldt said in a letter (which I saw) of Mrs. Somerville—“That greatest of Women!” You know she is the interpreter of Lu Place, & her bust stands by the side of Sir Isaac Newton’s in the London Royal Academy. She is now 75 years old, yet engaged on a new mathematical work; still she embroiders the finest cambric, sketches from nature & paints in oil as well. She lives in Florence with her husband—a retired surgeon of the Navy—& two dashing daughters “of a certain age,” who inherit none of their mother’s talents, but glory in her fame. It was a veritable pleasure for me to see these three queens of women side by side; while I—in spirit—knelt before them. Mrs Browning is the most fragile-looking of human beings—has but one lung left, & speaks scarcely above a whisper the few words she utters. But her works speak for her, & it is unnecessary that she should talk. Besides, Mr Browning talks enough, & well enough for both: he was particularly eloquent & witty that evening. Mrs Browning has presented me a copy of Aurora Leigh—that poem of her poems! Have you read it? Mrs Stowe pleased us all by her simplicity and modesty. Her sister Mrs Thos. Perkins of Hartford was with her: she is a fine looking & more commanding person than her sister, that greater—that great woman! Then there were present too, Mr. Thos. Trollope—author of “The Girlhood of Catherine de’ Medici”, & numerous other works, & his wife, a real & versatile genius—author of “Baby Beatrice,” “The King’s Temptation” etc. etc. which have been republished in the U.S. Their mother, the old lady-novelist—who is of the same age as Mrs Somerville, but more infirm—was so enthusiastic about Mrs Stowe, that she determined to see her, tho’ she herself rose from a sick bed to do so: but she fainted in dressing to come, & was obliged to give it up. She has just published her hundredth volume—all written since 1830!—is she not a remarkable woman? Her book on America did us good for all, & she now affects Americans gustily: my husband is her model-man & most intimate friend. She is a strong-minded woman, not withstanding that some of her novels are trashy. But her work is done! She is now in failing health, & nervous about a soul—which she never, up to this age, found, or believed she had, till unconvinced by Moses & the Prophets—“spiritualism” falsely so called—suggested to her that troublesome after life for which she found herself all unprepared. She sees no one now but her Dr. & Mr Kinney, who talks moral philosophy with her. But, to return to the Soirée Litteraire, there were also Prof. Whitney from the oriental language department of Yale College, Mr. Hanna, a writer for the Edinburgh Review, Miss Blagden, an English poetess, & several other distinguished people, besides our own great Sculptor, who completed the union of the Allied Powers. How I wished you present that evening!
This week Mrs Jameson the English Authoress & Miss Cushman will be here. The latter is going to America to fulfil an engagement this summer. She was here in the Autumn en route for Rome & now returns to England to embark for the U.S. She is a very clever (in the English sense) & agreeable woman. If I have courage enough I mean to show her my Tragedy.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Columbia University.
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