Life and Letters of Robert Browning [72]
its full significance.
Mr. and Mrs. Browning returned to London for the summer of 1852,
and we have a glimpse of them there in a letter from Mr. Fox to his daughter.
==
July 16, '52.
`. . . I had a charming hour with the Brownings yesterday;
more fascinated with her than ever. She talked lots of George Sand,
and so beautifully. Moreover she silver-electroplated Louis Napoleon!!
They are lodging at 58 Welbeck Street; the house has a queer name on the door,
and belongs to some Belgian family.
`They came in late one night, and R. B. says that in the morning twilight
he saw three portraits on the bedroom wall, and speculated who they might be.
Light gradually showed the first, Beatrice Cenci, "Good!" said he;
"in a poetic region." More light: the second, Lord Byron!
Who can the third be? And what think you it was, but your sketch
(engraved chalk portrait) of me? He made quite a poem and picture
of the affair.
`She seems much better; did not put her hand before her mouth,
which I took as a compliment: and the young Florentine was gracious . . .'
==
It need hardly be said that this valued friend was one of the first
whom Mr. Browning introduced to his wife, and that she responded
with ready warmth to his claims on her gratitude and regard.
More than one joint letter from herself and her husband
commemorates this new phase of the intimacy; one especially interesting
was written from Florence in 1858, in answer to the announcement by Mr. Fox
of his election for Oldham; and Mr. Browning's contribution,
which is very characteristic, will appear in due course.
Either this or the preceding summer brought Mr. Browning for the first time
into personal contact with an early lover of his works: Mr. D. G. Rossetti.
They had exchanged letters a year or two before, on the subject of `Pauline',
which Rossetti (as I have already mentioned) had read in ignorance of
its origin, but with the conviction that only the author of `Paracelsus'
could have produced it. He wrote to Mr. Browning to ascertain the fact,
and to tell him he had admired the poem so much as to transcribe it whole from
the British Museum copy. He now called on him with Mr. William Allingham;
and doubly recommended himself to the poet's interest by telling him
that he was a painter. When Mr. Browning was again in London, in 1855,
Rossetti began painting his portrait, which he finished in Paris
in the ensuing winter.
The winter of 1852-3 saw the family once more in Florence, and at Casa Guidi,
where the routine of quiet days was resumed. Mrs. Browning has spoken
in more than one of her letters of the comparative social seclusion in which
she and her husband had elected to live. This seclusion was much modified
in later years, and many well-known English and American names
become associated with their daily life. It referred indeed almost entirely
to their residence in Florence, where they found less inducement
to enter into society than in London, Paris, and Rome.
But it is on record that during the fifteen years of his married life,
Mr. Browning never dined away from home, except on one occasion --
an exception proving the rule; and we cannot therefore be surprised
that he should subsequently have carried into the experience
of an unshackled and very interesting social intercourse,
a kind of freshness which a man of fifty has not generally preserved.
The one excitement which presented itself in the early months of 1853
was the production of `Colombe's Birthday'. The first allusion to this
comes to us in a letter from the poet to Lady, then Mrs. Theodore, Martin,
from which I quote a few passages.
==
Florence: Jan. 31, '53.
`My dear Mrs. Martin, -- . . . be assured that I, for my part, have been
in no danger of forgetting my promises any more than your performances --
which were admirable of all kinds. I shall be delighted
if you can do anything for "Colombe" -- do what you think best with it,
and for me --
Mr. and Mrs. Browning returned to London for the summer of 1852,
and we have a glimpse of them there in a letter from Mr. Fox to his daughter.
==
July 16, '52.
`. . . I had a charming hour with the Brownings yesterday;
more fascinated with her than ever. She talked lots of George Sand,
and so beautifully. Moreover she silver-electroplated Louis Napoleon!!
They are lodging at 58 Welbeck Street; the house has a queer name on the door,
and belongs to some Belgian family.
`They came in late one night, and R. B. says that in the morning twilight
he saw three portraits on the bedroom wall, and speculated who they might be.
Light gradually showed the first, Beatrice Cenci, "Good!" said he;
"in a poetic region." More light: the second, Lord Byron!
Who can the third be? And what think you it was, but your sketch
(engraved chalk portrait) of me? He made quite a poem and picture
of the affair.
`She seems much better; did not put her hand before her mouth,
which I took as a compliment: and the young Florentine was gracious . . .'
==
It need hardly be said that this valued friend was one of the first
whom Mr. Browning introduced to his wife, and that she responded
with ready warmth to his claims on her gratitude and regard.
More than one joint letter from herself and her husband
commemorates this new phase of the intimacy; one especially interesting
was written from Florence in 1858, in answer to the announcement by Mr. Fox
of his election for Oldham; and Mr. Browning's contribution,
which is very characteristic, will appear in due course.
Either this or the preceding summer brought Mr. Browning for the first time
into personal contact with an early lover of his works: Mr. D. G. Rossetti.
They had exchanged letters a year or two before, on the subject of `Pauline',
which Rossetti (as I have already mentioned) had read in ignorance of
its origin, but with the conviction that only the author of `Paracelsus'
could have produced it. He wrote to Mr. Browning to ascertain the fact,
and to tell him he had admired the poem so much as to transcribe it whole from
the British Museum copy. He now called on him with Mr. William Allingham;
and doubly recommended himself to the poet's interest by telling him
that he was a painter. When Mr. Browning was again in London, in 1855,
Rossetti began painting his portrait, which he finished in Paris
in the ensuing winter.
The winter of 1852-3 saw the family once more in Florence, and at Casa Guidi,
where the routine of quiet days was resumed. Mrs. Browning has spoken
in more than one of her letters of the comparative social seclusion in which
she and her husband had elected to live. This seclusion was much modified
in later years, and many well-known English and American names
become associated with their daily life. It referred indeed almost entirely
to their residence in Florence, where they found less inducement
to enter into society than in London, Paris, and Rome.
But it is on record that during the fifteen years of his married life,
Mr. Browning never dined away from home, except on one occasion --
an exception proving the rule; and we cannot therefore be surprised
that he should subsequently have carried into the experience
of an unshackled and very interesting social intercourse,
a kind of freshness which a man of fifty has not generally preserved.
The one excitement which presented itself in the early months of 1853
was the production of `Colombe's Birthday'. The first allusion to this
comes to us in a letter from the poet to Lady, then Mrs. Theodore, Martin,
from which I quote a few passages.
==
Florence: Jan. 31, '53.
`My dear Mrs. Martin, -- . . . be assured that I, for my part, have been
in no danger of forgetting my promises any more than your performances --
which were admirable of all kinds. I shall be delighted
if you can do anything for "Colombe" -- do what you think best with it,
and for me --