SD2164. Sarianna Browning to Joseph Milsand
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 349 (in part).
151, rue de Grenelle
June 3d [1858] [1]
My dear Mr Milsand,
I have delayed writing in hopes that some letter from Italy or London would arrive, and give me the means of making my epistle more worthy the trouble of being read,—but in vain. Not a sign of life from Mrs Corkran, no word from Robert, not a scrap of news of any kind. Even Miss Blackwell who promised me this month’s number of that new light the English Woman’s Journal, has failed me,—so that I cannot instruct you in the latest improvements in social morals– However, as you bid me write I write, with proper womanly subjection– I hope I know my place, as our housemaids say. So you really consider yourself one of the champions of our sex! Well, as I have resolved not to quarrel with you, the less said about it the better. Quite seriously, why is it that spite of all our absurdities England is the only place I know, where a real, deep respect is felt for women? I cannot find the slightest trace of it in France,—though I am not acquainted with French men personally, yet I am sufficiently well versed in your light literature, the novels, journals, and periodicals of the day, which to foreigners contain unintentional revelations of the tone of morals and manners, still I have never met with a glimpse of the peculiar feeling I mean. There is an abundant appreciation of women in their lowest point of view,—and, indulgence in speaking of their sins never extended to them in England,—there is also a certain patronising good opinions of them in some quarters, infinitely impertinent; but for an honest recognition of them as rational and trustworthy beings, fit for something higher than merely to be fallen in love with, it is only in England I perceive it. Is this difference to be placed to the merit of our women, or our men? I am inclined to give some of the credit to the men, though women now more immediately influence one another, to be sure. I am often laughed at by women for having too good an opinion of your sex, but as I am not aware that I estimate your virtues very highly, I hope the charge is unfounded. If I think too well of some, I have a profound contempt for others– As for our detractors whom you allude to, it merely proves their limited experience and their own low requirements—if a man sets out with a low standard of morals for himself and others, he has little chance of ever coming in contact with anything higher. It never seems to strike our defamers that if true, the shame would recoil on themselves,—for in no age or country can the women be degraded and the men elevated. Turning the page, stops my preachment. Miss Blackwell’s notice was not to be by the Mr Ponsard. I should not have forgotten his name. She tells me the English woman’s journal gets on very well in a mercantile sense—do you know its editor, Miss Bessie Parkes? She is one of the curiosities that grow in our land—her mission is to rouse women into working for themselves, scorning the aid of male brutes, labour hard is her watch cry,—she herself is a rather pretty young lady, with a childish lisp, living at home with her parents, rolling in wealth– What crochet gets into the girl’s head to make her leave waltzing and sugar plums for journalism and propagandism! By the way, Miss Blackwell had worked herself into a fit of nervous irritability over the said Rosa Bonheur article,—was perfectly wretched,—when she came to announce to me with a smiling face that Editress Bessie had just written her a letter brimful of the most flattering compliments. <***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Joseph Milsand Archive.
1. Year provided by reference to The English Woman’s Journal (1858–63) as a “new light.”
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