SD2332. Elizabeth Clementine Kinney to Newark Daily Advertiser
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 341 (in part).
Florence, January 28th, 1860.
This newly organized National Guard, next to Napoleon, is looked to as the salvation of Central Italy; and they, being trained into proud consciousness of self-importance, are likely to prove equal to the occasion, whatever that may be. To be sure, their courage has not yet been put to the test, though their promptitude has, and certainly they seem always ready to come to the rescue. Whether their muskets would do ready service, has yet to be proved. According to the captious Italian correspondent of the London Times, the Tuscans would not stand their own fire; much less that of the enemy. But this clever writer is a self denaturalized Italian, not only having attached himself to England by marriage, and long residence there; but having adopted the language, habits and principles of that country. So, tho’ a Piedmontese by birth, and proud of his Turin citizenship, he has become thoroughly Anglicised, and whatever love or respect he has left for his countrymen, is confined to Piedmont. True, the Northern Italians have more masculine vigor, and so more courage, than those further south.
Yet the Times correspondent speaks from prejudice rather than fairness, when he says that the Tuscans are wholly effeminate and given up to frivolity. That they have some of the gentler graces, that of forebearance, par example, is shown in having permitted their caluminator [sic] to live unmolested in their pleasant little capital all this season, satisfying their wounded amour propré by giving him only the “cold shoulder”; which, not relishing, despite his contempt for them, (or perhaps to take better aim at them farther off) he has gone to Rome. Possibly he found himself where patience on the part of the Government and people was no longer a virtue, for he seems to have left in a hurry. Yet his patriotism cannot be doubted, from the real interest he shows in the Italian cause. In fact he seems to think no one in earnest but himself. His pecking at the Tuscans may be after all owing less to personal dislike than to the misfortune of being himself a born fault-finder. A writer, the pith of whose pen is in sarcasm, may be in some sense excused for indulging his talent, especially when, in doing so, he amuses thousands besides amusing himself—and finding the employment lucrative.
Mrs. Browning should call the Times correspondent [Antonio Gallenga] out, now that both are at Rome. They might cross steel pens to the advantage of the Tuscans, who have a champion in the poet. Or if this were not cause enough for open combat, they could find another in Napoleon III., whom the one publicly denounces, and the other gives to the immortality of eulogistic poetry. Mrs. Browning is, however, a hero-worshipper, and would fight for her own ideal, not for the man, who being a man, is easier hit by carnal weapons, than propped up by fancy-work. Since the Emperor declared himself also an idealist, the poet’s sympathy has deepened; so, that not finding sufficient expression in her poetic laudation published (for her’s not for Truth’s sake, as said the Editor) in the London Athenæum, she has an elaborate ode to the Imperial Conqueror now in press, that will no doubt convince both worlds that he is a second Redeemer, at least for Italy.
And should the end prove that, in his new act he was only the redeemer of his own name, the bond of poetic sympathy will not be weakened, for, in any case, will not the Hero and the Poet both have fought “for an idea?” …
Text: Newark Daily Advertiser, 20 March 1860, p. 2.
___________________
