SD2346. Kate Field to Cordelia Riddle Sanford
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 345 (in part).
[Florence]
[March 1860]
… There is a young American here, Mr. Vedder, very talented and very poor, to whom I do wish somebody would give an order. I have translated a sonnet of Nicolini into blank verse; very blank, I fear, as it is my first attempt. It is about the Pope and Rome, of course. I’ve sent two letters to the “Transcript” under the nom de plume of “Fie.” Do you think it good? I was at a loss for a name; mother thought it as good as any. I think you will be delighted with Milan—people so fine—Cathedral so beautiful—La Scala so grand—and Liberty so new there. But poor Venice! It would make my heart ache to visit Venice while the white coats of Austrians hover over her like birds of prey. Last evening we were at Miss Blagden’s,—mother and I meeting Miss Cobbe, Hattie Hosmer, Emma Crow, and young Cushman, the great Charlotte’s nephew; and we all laughed immoderately at nothing, as people always do whenever Hattie Hosmer is present. Emma Crow tells me that Mr. Browning paid me a tremendous compliment the night before she left Rome. I was dying to know what, but modesty forbade. Still this much is pleasant to me and may be to you. The Brownings return in May. Miss Cushman does not visit Florence en route to England, so they say. Miss Stebbins is at work upon her Lotus Eater, and has completed a “wonderful” bust of Miss Cushman. …
Text: Lilian Whiting, Kate Field: a Record (Boston, 1899), pp. 100–101.
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