Robert Browning - The Complete Works of Robert Browning - Poems, Plays, Letters & Biographies in One Edition

‘“And truly,” says Mr. Browning, “those very studs were taken from the dead body of a great uncle of mine who was violently killed on his estate in St. Kitt’s, nearly eighty years ago… . The occurrence of my great uncle’s murder was known only to myself of all men in Florence, as certainly was also my possession of the studs.”‘

A letter from the poet, of July 21, 1883, affirms that the account is correct in every particular, adding, ‘My own explanation of the matter has been that the shrewd Italian felt his way by the involuntary help of my own eyes and face.’ The story has been reprinted in the Reports of the Psychical Society.

A pleasant piece of news came to brighten the January of 1858. Mr. Fox was returned for Oldham, and at once wrote to announce the fact. He was answered in a joint letter from Mr. and Mrs. Browning, interesting throughout, but of which only the second part is quite suited for present insertion.

Mrs. Browning, who writes first and at most length, ends by saying she must leave a space for Robert, that Mr. Fox may be compensated for reading all she has had to say. The husband continues as follows:

… ‘A space for Robert’ who has taken a breathing space — hardly more than enough — to recover from his delight; he won’t say surprise, at your letter, dear Mr. Fox. But it is all right and, like you, I wish from my heart we could get close together again, as in those old days, and what times we would have here in Italy! The realization of the children’s prayer of angels at the corner of your bed (i.e. sofa), one to read and one (my wife) to write, *and both to guard you through the night of lodging-keeper’s extortions, abominable charges for firing, and so on. (Observe, to call oneself ‘an angel’ in this land is rather humble, where they are apt to be painted as plumed cutthroats or celestial police — you say of Gabriel at his best and blithesomest, ‘Shouldn’t admire meeting him in a narrow lane!’)

*Mr. Fox much liked to be read to, and was in the habit of writing his articles by dictation.

I say this foolishly just because I can’t trust myself to be earnest about it. I would, you know, I would, always would, choose you out of the whole English world to judge and correct what I write myself; my wife shall read this and let it stand if I have told her so these twelve years — and certainly I have not grown intellectually an inch over the good and kind hand you extended over my head how many years ago! Now it goes over my wife’s too.

How was it Tottie never came here as she promised? Is it to be some other time? Do think of Florence, if ever you feel chilly, and hear quantities about the Princess Royal’s marriage, and want a change. I hate the thought of leaving Italy for one day more than I can help — and satisfy my English predilections by newspapers and a book or two. One gets nothing of that kind here, but the stuff out of which books grow, — it lies about one’s feet indeed. Yet for me, there would be one book better than any now to be got here or elsewhere, and all out of a great English head and heart, — those ‘Memoirs’ you engaged to give us. Will you give us them?

Goodbye now — if ever the whim strikes you to ‘make beggars happy’ remember us.

Love to Tottie, and love and gratitude to you, dear Mr. Fox, From yours ever affectionately, Robert Browning.

In the summer of this year, the poet with his wife and child joined his father and sister at Havre. It was the last time they were all to be together.

Table of Contents

1858-1861

Mrs. Browning’s Illness — Siena — Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Leighton — Mrs. Browning’s Letters continued — Walter Savage Landor — Winter in Rome — Mr. Val Prinsep — Friends in Rome: Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright — Multiplying Social Relations — Massimo d’Azeglio — Siena again — Illness and Death of Mrs. Browning’s Sister — Mr. Browning’s Occupations — Madame du Quaire — Mrs. Browning’s last Illness and Death.

I cannot quite ascertain, though it might seem easy to do so, whether Mr. and Mrs. Browning remained in Florence again till the summer of 1859, or whether the intervening months were divided between Florence and Rome; but some words in their letters favour the latter supposition. We hear of them in September from Mr. Val Prinsep, in Siena or its neighbourhood; with Mr. and Mrs. Story in an adjacent villa, and Walter Savage Landor in a ‘cottage’ close by. How Mr. Landor found himself of the party belongs to a little chapter in Mr. Browning’s history for which I quote Mr. Colvin’s words. *He was then living at Fiesole with his family, very unhappily, as we all know; and Mr. Colvin relates how he had thrice left his villa there, determined to live in Florence alone; and each time been brought back to the nominal home where so little kindness awaited him.

*‘Life of Landor’, p. 209.

‘… The fourth time he presented himself in the house of Mr. Browning with only a few pauls in his pocket, declaring that nothing should ever induce him to return.

‘Mr. Browning, an interview with the family at the villa having satisfied him that reconciliation or return was indeed past question, put himself at once in communication with Mr. Forster and with Landor’s brothers in England. The latter instantly undertook to supply the needs of their eldest brother during the remainder of his life. Thenceforth an income sufficient for his frugal wants was forwarded regularly for his use through the friend who had thus come forward at his need. To Mr. Browning’s respectful and judicious guidance Landor showed himself docile from the first. Removed from the inflictions, real and imaginary, of his life at Fiesole, he became another man, and at times still seemed to those about him like the old Landor at his best. It was in July, 1859, that the new arrangements for his life were made. The remainder of that summer he spent at Siena, first as the guest of Mr. Story, the American sculptor and poet, next in a cottage rented for him by Mr. Browning near his own. In the autumn of the same year Landor removed to a set of apartments in the Via Nunziatina in Florence, close to the Casa Guidi, in a house kept by a former servant of Mrs. Browning’s, an Englishwoman married to an Italian. *Here he continued to live during the five years that yet remained to him.’

*Wilson, Mrs. Browning’s devoted maid, and another most faithful servant of hers and her husband’s, Ferdinando Romagnoli.

Mr. Landor’s presence is also referred to, with the more important circumstance of a recent illness of Mrs. Browning’s, in two characteristic and interesting letters of this period, one written by Mr. Browning to Frederic Leighton, the other by his wife to her sister-in-law. Mr. — now Sir F. — Leighton had been studying art during the previous winter in Italy.

Kingdom of Piedmont, Siena: Oct. 9, ‘59.

‘My dear Leighton — I hope — and think — you know what delight it gave me to hear from you two months ago. I was in great trouble at the time about my wife who was seriously ill. As soon as she could bear removal we brought her to a villa here. She slowly recovered and is at last well — I believe — but weak still and requiring more attention than usual. We shall be obliged to return to Rome for the winter — not choosing to risk losing what we have regained with some difficulty. Now you know why I did not write at once — and may imagine why, having waited so long, I put off telling you for a week or two till I could say certainly what we do with ourselves. If any amount of endeavour could induce you to join us there — Cartwright, Russell, the Vatican and all — and if such a step were not inconsistent with your true interests — you should have it: but I know very well that you love Italy too much not to have had weighty reasons for renouncing her at present — and I want your own good and not my own contentment in the matter. Wherever you are, be sure I shall follow your proceedings with deep and true interest. I heard of your successes — and am now anxious to know how you get on with the great picture, the ‘Ex voto’ — if it does not prove full of beauty and power, two of us will be shamed, that’s all! But I don’t fear, mind! Do keep me informed of your progress, from time to time — a few lines will serve — and then I shall slip some day into your studio, and buffet the piano, without having grown a stranger. Another thing — do take proper care of your health, and exercise yourself; give those vile indigestions no chance against you; keep up your spirits, and be as distinguished and happy as God meant you should. Can I do anything for you at Rome — not to say, Florence? We go thither (i.e. to Florence) tomorrow, stay there a month, probably, and then take the Siena road again.’