Life and Letters of Robert Browning [96]
little leisure for social distractions,
and probably at first very little inclination for them.
His plan of life and duty, and the sense of responsibility attendant on it,
had been communicated to Madame du Quaire in a letter
written also from St.-Enogat.
==
M. Chauvin, St.-Enogat pres Dinard, Ile et Vilaine: Aug. 17, '61.
Dear Madame du Quaire, -- I got your note on Sunday afternoon,
but found myself unable to call on you as I had been intending to do.
Next morning I left for this place (near St.-Malo, but I give what they say
is the proper address). I want first to beg you to forgive
my withholding so long your little oval mirror -- it is safe in Paris,
and I am vexed at having stupidly forgotten to bring it
when I tried to see you. I shall stay here till the autumn sets in,
then return to Paris for a few days -- the first of which will be the best,
if I can see you in the course of it -- afterward, I settle in London.
When I meant to pass the winter in Paris, I hoped, the first thing almost,
to be near you -- it now seems to me, however, that the best course
for the Boy is to begin a good English education at once.
I shall take quiet lodgings (somewhere near Kensington Gardens,
I rather think) and get a Tutor. I want, if I can (according to
my present very imperfect knowledge) to get the poor little fellow
fit for the University without passing thro' a Public School. I, myself,
could never have done much by either process, but he is made differently --
imitates and emulates and all that. How I should be grateful
if you would help me by any word that should occur to you!
I may easily do wrong, begin ill, thro' too much anxiety --
perhaps, however, all may be easier than seems to me just now.
I shall have a great comfort in talking to you -- this writing
is stiff, ineffectual work. Pen is very well, cheerful now, --
has his little horse here. The place is singularly unspoiled,
fresh and picturesque, and lovely to heart's content.
I wish you were here! -- and if you knew exactly what such a wish means,
you would need no assuring in addition that I am
Yours affectionately and gratefully ever
Robert Browning.
==
The person of whom he saw most was his sister-in-law, whom he visited,
I believe, every evening. Miss Barrett had been a favourite sister
of Mrs. Browning's, and this constituted a sufficient title
to her husband's affection. But she was also a woman to be loved
for her own sake. Deeply religious and very charitable, she devoted herself
to visiting the poor -- a form of philanthropy which was then
neither so widespread nor so fashionable as it has since become;
and she founded, in 1850, the first Training School or Refuge
which had ever existed for destitute little girls. It need hardly be added
that Mr. and Miss Browning co-operated in the work. The little poem,
`The Twins', republished in 1855 in `Men and Women', was first printed
(with Mrs. Browning's `Plea for the Ragged Schools of London')
for the benefit of this Refuge. It was in Miss Barrett's company
that Mr. Browning used to attend the church of Mr. Thomas Jones,
to a volume of whose `Sermons and Addresses' he wrote a short introduction
in 1884.
On February 15, 1862, he writes again to Miss Blagden.
==
Feb. 15, '62.
`. . . While I write, my heart is sore for a great calamity
just befallen poor Rossetti, which I only heard of last night --
his wife, who had been, as an invalid, in the habit of taking laudanum,
swallowed an overdose -- was found by the poor fellow on his return
from the working-men's class in the evening, under the effects of it --
help was called in, the stomach-pump used; but she died in the night,
about a week ago. There has hardly been a day when I have not thought,
"if I can, to-morrow, I will go and see him, and thank him for his book,
and return his sister's poems." Poor, dear fellow! . . .
`. . . Have I not written a long letter, for me who hate
and probably at first very little inclination for them.
His plan of life and duty, and the sense of responsibility attendant on it,
had been communicated to Madame du Quaire in a letter
written also from St.-Enogat.
==
M. Chauvin, St.-Enogat pres Dinard, Ile et Vilaine: Aug. 17, '61.
Dear Madame du Quaire, -- I got your note on Sunday afternoon,
but found myself unable to call on you as I had been intending to do.
Next morning I left for this place (near St.-Malo, but I give what they say
is the proper address). I want first to beg you to forgive
my withholding so long your little oval mirror -- it is safe in Paris,
and I am vexed at having stupidly forgotten to bring it
when I tried to see you. I shall stay here till the autumn sets in,
then return to Paris for a few days -- the first of which will be the best,
if I can see you in the course of it -- afterward, I settle in London.
When I meant to pass the winter in Paris, I hoped, the first thing almost,
to be near you -- it now seems to me, however, that the best course
for the Boy is to begin a good English education at once.
I shall take quiet lodgings (somewhere near Kensington Gardens,
I rather think) and get a Tutor. I want, if I can (according to
my present very imperfect knowledge) to get the poor little fellow
fit for the University without passing thro' a Public School. I, myself,
could never have done much by either process, but he is made differently --
imitates and emulates and all that. How I should be grateful
if you would help me by any word that should occur to you!
I may easily do wrong, begin ill, thro' too much anxiety --
perhaps, however, all may be easier than seems to me just now.
I shall have a great comfort in talking to you -- this writing
is stiff, ineffectual work. Pen is very well, cheerful now, --
has his little horse here. The place is singularly unspoiled,
fresh and picturesque, and lovely to heart's content.
I wish you were here! -- and if you knew exactly what such a wish means,
you would need no assuring in addition that I am
Yours affectionately and gratefully ever
Robert Browning.
==
The person of whom he saw most was his sister-in-law, whom he visited,
I believe, every evening. Miss Barrett had been a favourite sister
of Mrs. Browning's, and this constituted a sufficient title
to her husband's affection. But she was also a woman to be loved
for her own sake. Deeply religious and very charitable, she devoted herself
to visiting the poor -- a form of philanthropy which was then
neither so widespread nor so fashionable as it has since become;
and she founded, in 1850, the first Training School or Refuge
which had ever existed for destitute little girls. It need hardly be added
that Mr. and Miss Browning co-operated in the work. The little poem,
`The Twins', republished in 1855 in `Men and Women', was first printed
(with Mrs. Browning's `Plea for the Ragged Schools of London')
for the benefit of this Refuge. It was in Miss Barrett's company
that Mr. Browning used to attend the church of Mr. Thomas Jones,
to a volume of whose `Sermons and Addresses' he wrote a short introduction
in 1884.
On February 15, 1862, he writes again to Miss Blagden.
==
Feb. 15, '62.
`. . . While I write, my heart is sore for a great calamity
just befallen poor Rossetti, which I only heard of last night --
his wife, who had been, as an invalid, in the habit of taking laudanum,
swallowed an overdose -- was found by the poor fellow on his return
from the working-men's class in the evening, under the effects of it --
help was called in, the stomach-pump used; but she died in the night,
about a week ago. There has hardly been a day when I have not thought,
"if I can, to-morrow, I will go and see him, and thank him for his book,
and return his sister's poems." Poor, dear fellow! . . .
`. . . Have I not written a long letter, for me who hate