SD2367. Theodore Parker to Caroline Coddington Thayer
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 348 (in part).
Rome
St. Richard’s Day [3 April], 1860.
My Dear Caroline
It is a good while since I have written you but it will be a short line you get now. First of all let me beg to be remembered to the memorable whose names some times get crowded out at the end of the letter, to the inlying and outlying members of the Household at 111 …
I suppose you have seen Mrs. Browning’s new Poem before this time. She is here but her Book is not allowed, so I have seen no line of it. She is a weird looking woman 50 years old, would weigh (with her clothes) 70 to 80 pounds—one of the smallest pieces of mature femality that I remember to have seen. She has been sick all her life; sometimes for 4 years not crossing the threshold of her chamber. She is a Spiritualist, a believer in Hume! She has one son—a bright fantastically-dressed boy of 12 who seems likely to turn out like other sons of a genius & to be brought up as well as only sons commonly are. Browning is a fine hearty hale Englishman with a little gray in his hair, full of literature, anecdote & fun. There is also a Mr. Newton—the English consul—one of the pleasantest men I have met abroad. He was a good while at Halicarnassus & has unearthed the famous Mausoleum, one of the wonders of the world. He is full of knowledge & culture, & is sent here, where he has little to do, that he [may] make explorations, I take it, for the cause of ancient art. He was for years connected with the Brit. Museum. He is going to print a great Book on his discoveries in Asia Minor. … Dr. Appleton has been as kind to us as if he were my Brother—doing all sorts of service, which I can never repay. Apthorp is the most tender of companions for a sick man—forbearing, gentle, kind & self-denying, so you see I do not lack protectors of the male sort more than of the female. Hannah [Stevenson] leaves us Friday next & goes alone in the diligence to Florence, where we think of meeting her by & by. She talks of sailing from Paris about May 1—whether she will or not I can’t say. She has seen Rome with great thoroughness, not knowing a word of the language too: no women know as much as she about what is best worth seeing here. But she has been unhappy all winter; her sister’s illness wore heavy on her & the “alienation” between her & all three of the female Hunts & Apthorps, which shut her out from their society entirely, has had its effect. Still I never knew her so well in a winter as this. She is thin & looks old, but strong & well. I wish I knew what the XXVIII did at the annual meeting last Sunday. They have had all the best talent that is lying loose in the community. But I suppose 300 to 500 “educated” & wealthy persons attended the 9 lectures of R. W. E. & never paid a cent! Yet if E. had delivered these in 2 courses, they would proudly have paid $2 for each. Thus to leave poor men & women to bear the burthen is shameful—all the more considering the class of men who do it! But meanness is manifold.—I feel under great obligations to the Fraternity for printing so many of my works; impotent in speech and writing they make me powerful by the types.—Story is taking my Bust, now nearly done. I don’t know that any of you would recognize me in the bearded figure, but I think it is T. P. in 1860, thin & emaciated & bearded, but the same man underneath.—I wonder if Thomas Goddard ever got my letter. Remember me to him & her. Faithfully your Theodor Parker, hoping also that the Rheumatism is ended & gone!
Publication: Boston Public Library Bulletin, 5 (October–December 1923), pp. 366–367.
Manuscript: Boston Public Library.
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