SD1462. Charles Eliot Norton to Norton Famiy
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 16, 308–309 (in part).
The Gulf of Genoa,
Friday afternoon. Dec’r 13th [–19] 1850.
My dearest Friends
When I sent off to you a week ago a short letter from Florence, telling you that I should be with you very soon, I thought that it would be the last which I should send to you from Europe. But now I find that I shall arrive in Paris in season to send a letter by next Saturday’s steamer and I know that you will be glad to hear that I am so far on my way home, while I should be sorry to let even one steamer go without carrying to you some words of love from me. …
My last days at Florence were delightful ones. The friendly and affectionate kindness, I can use no other epithets, of the Brownings and the Blacks, made these days so, and gave to my parting from Florence a much deeper regret than I should otherwise have felt. But it was a pleasant sorrow, and one not willingly to be lost. — I told you that I had spent Friday eveg with the Brownings, they were then most pleasant, and when I left them with no thought of being about to say Good bye to Florence so soon, I promised to come and spend another evening with them before many days were over. The next day I got your letters and set about making my preparations to leave Florence on Tuesday. I had lent my copy of Uncle Ticknor’s book to Mr Browning and I wrote to him telling him of my change of plans and begging him to let me have it again. — On Monday I was out all the morng taking a last look at some of my favourite places and a first at sights which I had not seen before, and I returned to my room in the afternoon. I was in good fortune for as I went up the steps Browning was just knocking at my door having himself brought back the book. He came in and sat with me for an hour talking most agreeably. The more I saw of him and of Mrs Browning the more did I discover in them the characteristics which their poetry would lead one to believe them to possess. Browning’s conversation is remarkable and often very striking. His thoughts flow quickly, he uses many figures but always apposite ones, he has a store of pleasant anecdotes, and he says everything with such entire straightforward earnestness that one cannot but like him. He is quite unconscious and never even in the slightest way claims any regard for himself as a poet, or shows that he expects you to remember that he is one. Indeed one of the most charming characteristics of both him and his wife is their self-forgetfulness. When he left me I promised to spend Tuesday evening with them, for I had then determined not to leave Florence until Thursday. … With the books which he brought back was a most kind note, for he had thought that he might not see me again. — So Tuesday evening I spent with Mr and Mrs Browning, and of course I had a charming eveg. Mrs Browning seemed better and stronger than I had ever seen her, she talked more than usual and was only too kind to me. Her last words as I bade her Good bye were,—“You will be sure that your sisters let us know as soon as they arrive in Florence, for we shall be very glad to see them.” The next morng Browning met me at eleven and went with me to look at some pictures on which I wanted his judgment. There were three, two of which I thought might answer Cousin Louisa’s purpose. Browning has much knowledge of painting, and I thought it would be a pleasant association with the pictures if I got them, that he had looked at them. The pictures, however, did not please him much, and he thought the prices too high, so I determined not to take them and I am coming home to put the commission into your hands, my dear William, Louisa, & Jane. Browning was most kind in his offer to look out for pictures such as I wanted, but of course it was not an offer to be accepted although he really meant it so. From the picture dealers we walked together to the gallery of the Academy, and looked through its treasures,—then we went to see Mr Greenough, and then after going to see the fresco by Raphael of the Last Supper, we parted. He spoke again to me of letting him and his wife know whenever you reached Florence, and said that he should be very glad to do anything in his power for you, while his wife whose delicacy prevented her from exercising any active hospitality would be glad to see you. — All this was without the slightest hint on my part of how great a favor it would be to me to introduce you to them. I shall of course now send a note to them by you. …
Thursday. Dec’r 19th Paris.
I arrived here, my dearest Friends, night before last …
Publication: Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, ed. Sara Norton and M. A. DeWolfe Howe (Boston, 1913), 1, 77–79 (in part).
Manuscript: Harvard University.
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