SD1235.1. Jane Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 11.
[London]
[18 September 1845]
My Dear—One of the enclosed letters came this morning. …
[Mazzini] told me nothing worth recording except that he had received the other day a—declaration of love! and this he told with the same calma and historical precision, with which you might have said you had received an invitation to take the chair at a Mechanics-Institute-dinner! Of course I asked “the particulars”—“why not?” and I got them fully, at the same time with brevity, and without a smile! Since the assassination affair he had received many invitations to the house of a Jew-Merchant of Italian extraction, where there are several daughters “what shall I say?—horribly ugly—that is; repugnant for me—entirely”! one of them is “nevertheless very strong in music” and seeing that he admired her playing she had “in her head confounded the playing with the player.” The last of the only two times he had availed himself of their attentions; as they sat at supper, with Browning and some others—“the youngest of “the horrible family” proposed to him, in sotto voce that they two should drink “a goblet of wine” together, each to the person that each loved most in the world. “I find your toast unegoist” said he, and I accept it with pleasure. But said she when we have drank we will then tell each other to whom? Excuse me said he we will if you please drink without conditions. Whereupon they drank, and then this girl—what shall I say—bold—upon my honour! proposed to tell me to whom she had drank and trust to my telling her after—“as you like”!— “Well then it was to you”! “Really? said I—surprised I must confess.” “Yes said she pointing aloft—true as God exists”— Well! said I, I find it strange! Now then, said she to whom did you drink— Ah! said I that is another question—and on this, that girl became ghastly pale—so that her sister called out Nina! What is the matter with you?—and now Thanks God she has sailed to Aberdeen” …
Publication: Carlyle, 19, 201–203.
Manuscript: National Library of Scotland.
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