Letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Jessie Meriton White, [April 28[?], 1856]
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Browning advises Jessie Meriton to ask Cushman for help in terms of a translation of George Sand who has a "reputation [...] of being tenacious" about her translations. Browning admits that she cannot interfere on Meriton's behalf since she does not know Sand's personally. However, Cushman's "intimate" friend Madame Viardot does and Browning assures Meriton that "Miss Cushman could not object to say a word on the subject to Madame Viardot, nor Madme Viardot to apply to George Sand."
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My dear friend & Jessie,
it would be inexcusable in me to have waited these three days before answering your letter, if I had not an excuse in work all the morning, & perfect weariness all the evening .. so that I drop down suddenly every day from overstraining, to donothingness on the sofa– But I feel I should have written at once, considering what I have to say–
Dearest Jessie I would do anything for you, but here is the present situation as it appears to my husband & indeed to myself– My mediation is worth just nothing with George Sand .. who has been in Paris till now, & never came near me, nor gave us an opportunity of seeing us, either of us, though Robert called on her twice, .. except when he dined in her company at Mr Monckton Milnes’s & liked her as much as ever. She was looking, too, worthy of herself with a wreath of ivy round that magnificent head of hers– Oh—I complain of nothing, observe—she has been overcome with dramatic business in Paris I know– I only mention the fact, & that she never came here, or let us go to her for any good end, and that therefore for personal regard’s sake she will do nothing for me– I will tell you for whom she is more likely to do it– Get Miss Cushman to say a word to Madme Viardot [opera singer] who is her intimate friend, & for whose sake she will certainly do much.
But .. here’s the difficulty .. the international law in these matters gives her a pecuniary right in any translation made of any work of hers, … & she has the reputation, at least, of being tenacious about it. I dont at all know what she can claim or may be inclined to claim– If I wrote to her, she would infallibly, as Robert thinks, make a claim of some sort. With Madame Viardot it might be different—you might at any rate try—and Miss Cushman could not object to say a word on the subject to Madame Viardot, nor Madme Viardot to apply to George Sand. I do wish I could be of the use you supposed. You should not have had to ask me twice.
I should like to send you some verses Penini has written about Italy—you would forgive him after, for those he also has made on the little new Napoleon, who is “such a darling” he swears—having seen him asleep in the Tuileries gardens.
I am horribly frightened about our Italy, by the way—it will be difficult to do what is really desired, much less what is desireable, without getting into a new war with Austria—notwithstanding my belief in the good faith of France & England in this matter. Something however must be done– What is clearest is that Austria has been much vexed in the course of the conferences–
Robert’s love & Peni’s—and that of your ever affectionate
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
