Letter from Elizabeth Barret Browning to Isa Blagden, Jan 7, [1859]

Cushman is expecting Isa Blagden to visit her.

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My dearest Isa
your letter seemed long in coming, as this will seem to you I fear. I ought to have answered mine at once, & put off doing so from reason to reason & from day to day– Very busy I have been, sending off seven of the nine books of Aurora, having dizzied myself with the “ifs” & “ands,” & done some little good I hope, at much cost. Dearest dear Isa, your letter interested me deeply. I knew you would have that interview & renewal of sight, but I could only guess till you told me how calmly magnanimous you could be under it. We both admired you entirely– “Perfectly digne” said Robert. “Perfectly Isa”, thought I.

After all it was one of my motives for my vehement & factious opposition to the Spanish scheme. Forgive me.

So much well over then. The next will be the rest. Plainly you are not in the full blow of enjoyment considering the cold and the anxious household .. Annette brought me the ‘plan’ of the house .. and it makes one shiver to look at it—and when you add to that intersection of corridors, a blank of fireplaces, one’s imagination catches chilblains at the bare thought. Well—you will come home to Italy in time, it does seem now—and here is Miss Cushman sunning herself & all of us with the expectation of your consenting to fill some empty room of hers & being her visitor at Rome. Dearest Isa, dont disappoint us. Rome will do you such good, dear,—& when you come to Civita Vecchia, here you are! And there will be no expense for you, Isa– And Miss Cushman yearns to have you, & swears you have “promised” her!—with what verity I dont know.

As to the Roman climate, we have had some beautiful weather, but Robert was calling his gods to witness (the goddess Tussis mong them) that he never felt it so cold in Florence—never. Fountains frozen, Isa, & the tramontana tremendous. But it cant last: that’s the comfort at Rome: & meantime we are housed exquisitely in our Lion’s mouth,—the new portieri & universal carpeting keeping it snugger than ever, & the sun over-streaming us through six windows. I have just been saying that whenever I come to Rome I shall choose to come here. The only fault is the height & the smallness of the rooms; & in spite of the last, we have managed to have & hold twenty people & upwards through a serata. Peni has had a bad cold from over staying the time on the Pincio one afternoon, & I have kept him in the house these ten days. Such things one may do by one’s lion-cubs,—but the lions are harder to deal with and Robert caught cold two or three days ago,—in spite of which, he chose to get up at six every morning as usual & go out to walk with Mr Eckley. Only by miracle & nux, is he much better today. I thought he was going to have a furious grippe as last year & the year before– I must admit however that he is extremely well just now, to speak generally, & that this habit of regular exercise (with occasional homœpathy) has thrown him into a striking course of prosperity as to looks spirits & appetite. He eats “vulpinely” he says—which means that a lark or two is no longer enough for dinner. At breakfast the loaf perishes by Gargantuan slices– He is plunged into gaieties of all sorts, caught from one hand to another like a ball, .. has gone out every night for a fortnight together, & sometimes two or three times deep in a one night’s engagements. So plenty of distraction, & no men & women Men & women from without, instead! I am shut up in the house of course, & go to bed when he goes out—& the worst is, that there’s a difficulty in getting books. Still, I get what I can, & stop up the chinks with Swedenborg,—and in health am very well, for me, & in tranquillity excellently well. Not that there are not people more than enough who come to see me—but that there is nothing vexatious just now—life goes smoothly, I thank God,—& I like Rome better than I did last time. The season is healthy too (for Rome)– I have only heard of one English artist since we came .. who arrived, sickened, died, & was buried, before anyone knew who he was– Besides ordinary cases of slight Roman fever among the English, Miss Sherwood (who with her father was at Florence) has had it slightly—& Mrs Marshall,who came to us from Tennyson. (A Miss Spring Rice she was!) But the poor Hawthornes suffer seriously. Una is dissolved to a shadow of herself by reiterated attacks—and now Miss Shepherd is seized with gastric fever– Mr Hawthorne is longing to get away—where, he knows not.

My Peni has conquered his cold, & when the weather gets milder I shall let him out. Meanwhile he has taken to––what do you suppose? I go into his room at night & find him with a candle regularly settled on the table by him, & he reading, deeply rapt, an Italian translation of Monte Cristo! Pretty well for a lion-cub, is’nt it? He is enchanted with this book, lent to him by our padrona, —& exclaims every now & then, “Oh, magnificent, magnificent!” And this morning at breakfast he gravely delivered himself to the following effect—“Dear mama, for the future I mean to read novels. I shall read all Dumas’s, to begin. And then I shall like to read papa’s favorite book, Madame Bovary.”——Heavens! what a lion-club [sic]! Robert & I could only answer by a burst of laughter– It was so funny. That little dot of nine & a half full of such hereditary tendencies. And Madame Bovary in a course of education!

Mr Page has a baby—male, this time. Poor Mrs Macpherson is better—but she has been terribly in danger– First it was thought she must lose her life, & then her arm .. from abscess & low fever. Much is attributed to the malaria of the situation. Mr Motley of the “Dutch Republics” is here—a very agreeable gentlemanly man. Miss Ogle of “Lost Love” is here– Natural, simple & extremely clever– A great many people you would like to know– There are Germans .. Gregorovius & Heyse .. not Paul, but a great Grecian– Did’nt you take the Novelle[n] with you? I cant get at German books here .. except that one volume of Heine was brought with us. I have seen Mr Hooker once– He came in one evening, & talked in sighing sentiment about you. So did Mr Thompson. Fanny Haworth & Miss Heaton have not appeared yet. They fix every wednesday & saturday for leaving Leghorn—& whether last saturday was more effective than the others, remains to be proved. I see a good deal of Sophia Eckley. You would love her if you knew her—& I want you to know her well. She does not understand why there should be any coldness between you—nor really do I. When you are both in Florence it must be otherwise, she hopes.

May God bless you, my much loved Isa—for this & other years, and beyond time also– I shall love you all that way—αει says the genius of the ring.

Your ever loving

Ba