SD1291. Anna Brownell Jameson to Lady Noel Byron
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 366 (in part).
Pisa
Oct 27– 1846–
I have recd two letters from you since I wrote …
We are in Pisa still as you see & likely to remain another fortnight—rain—rain—rain—every day– The Arno rushing past us, a turbulent flood—the waters out between this & Florence so that it is scarcely safe travelling—but I have occupation– Gerardine is happy, busy, interested & we are in no haste to part from our friends– They have settled themselves in a comfortable lodging—& all their arrangements are as sensible as if they had never spoken anything but prose in their lives & they are so happy!—& the quality of the happiness is so rare & so fine!– O if it may but last!– I wish you would buy a pamphlet published by Moxon—entitled Bells & Pomegranates No 8– It contains two pieces, poems in the Dramatic forms—“Luria” & “Souls Tragedy”—they might be called “Profession and Performance”—there is a quiet unconscious grandeur in the conception of the first—Luria—a depth of Irony in the last—& a vigour & beauty in both which enchant me– There is occasional obscurity of diction—if you do not like them at first—I wish you would read them twice—for my sake—& then tell me what you think– He—Browning, is preparing a second edition of these—& of Paracelsus– I am glad that they are required—for I have often thought them rather too “Caviare” to be relished– I have a letter from Kenyon today in which he tells me that he considered her—with all her fine qualities of mind & heart as doomed to end her days in her sick room—he saw no escape for her from the peculiar despotism of her father & he says “it never occurred to his grosser sense that there was a man who could undertake the difficulties the constant slavery & anxiety attendant on the circumstances of her health” &c—what would he say if he saw B—carrying his wife up & down two flights of stairs—hanging over her as if she were something spared to him for a while out of heaven!—& she deserves his devotion & appreciates it. We are together every day & sometimes for nearly the whole day—never weary as it should seem of each other—& if I talk of going on to Florence,—such a shade comes over the countenance of both—I cannot but feel it—& Gerardine!– She will certainly be improved by all she hears—I would desire nothing better or higher for her just at this period of her life–
We are now in the “Gran Bretagna”—far less noisy than the “Vittoria hotel”—cheaper—& to be recommended for every thing. …
My two friends are as poets, enthusiastic about Lord B. We went to see the Lanfranchi Palace which he inhabited when here—it is now the property of a rich & noble family, the Toscanelli & retains nothing to recall his memory except the Garden in which he walked & studied—as it is said– I had my own thoughts—more with you than there—it was all sad to me, tho’ you do your best to put that feeling out of my mind– …
Second letter from Pisa—direct to Florence Post Restante.
Address: The / Lady Noel Byron / Moore Place / Esher / Surrey / Angleterre.
Publication: None traced.
Source: Typescript at Bodleian Library.
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