BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT. (1806-1861). Exceptional, apparently unpublished, Autograph Letter Signed, “Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” Eight very full pages, octavo. "Via de Tritone, Rome," May, no date, no year [1860?]. Accompanied by original envelope addressed in Browning’s hand to “Madame Bruen, Villino Lustrini, Via Fornace, Firenze.” Black “Rome 19 Mag 60” postal cancellation. Browning writes:

“My dear Mrs. Bruen, I do want to have a good happy letter from you his time about Mrs. Perkins. Pray tell me that she makes you all happy, & that the baby continues in its former prosperity. Your letter quite shocked me—for I had not realized to myself there having been so much danger & anguish among you though I had heard of illness. Shall you decide on leaving Italy for the summer, I wonder? Or will you go to Lucca as usual? I suppose we may say of the winter it is past; & yet we had such a return of gloom and chill (even in Rome) when we said so weeks ago that it requires courage to affirm anything. I had begun to go out, & was forced to leave it off. Only, the warmth during the last three or four days has been re-assuring. We shall be slow in returning to Florence, having, like slow snails, a house on our backs till June. But I mean to try to return before May is out. Our plans afterward are very uncertain. The more repose for me, the better I believe—even from good words & …works, perhaps. You know how they have been pelting me in England with stones… & mud. “if you speak that enough,’ said an American friend to me the other day, ‘you are crucified --Fall short of that punishment & the defect is simply in your degree of truth.’ I have only been true up to the degree of pelting & pillory. The worse for me, that is. Deep must be the anxiety of all of us in the Sicilian movement – not at and end, I see by this morning’s paper. May God back the right & against it wrong; The Lamoriciere business is the expression in Rome of the coalition of French oppositions against the emperor. The party which has delighted in terming itself ‘the intellect of France’ comes into light so, as exponent of civilization, & upholder of oppression in Italy. Better so perhaps. Penini longs for Florence. He is faithful. Here he is hard worked. I cant [sic] leave you in error as to Edith Story. You must not fancy that she is backward in anything becoming her age, because she is forward in generosity & affection to little Pen. Very few girls would bear to drag a child after them, as she does, Pen, allowing him to hang on her skirts. He has been in an agony at the idea of being left behind, & has insisted, & begged, & pressed in to use books somewhat beyond him, which, not to vex the poor child overmuch, the Abbe kindly has yielded to, & Edith condescended to most sweetly. I am very grateful for this condescendancy [sic] on Edith’s part, for it would be ruin & indolence for my child if he learnt in company with a pupil more backward then himself. He would sink, or do nothing. As it is--, the worst is that he comes to me to complain of ‘a child’s not being able to understand “la belleza” [the beauty], & and sets his down to Pignotti’s fable which he hates—As if he cared for the conversations of a fire-fly & an elephant, when he knows they cant [sic] speak one word – and as if he did’nt [sic] like to hear about Clarinda & the sun & moon, just as well as Edith – He who is an Italian too!’ So I had to intercede for him with the Abbee--. But would I ever intercede if poor good dear Edith suffered for her kindness, in the estimation of anyone? Indeed I shouldn’t have the heart to do it, even for my Pen’s sake. She is intelligent, & very truthful & direct, as well as generous & unvain [sic] -- & Pen is very justly fond of her…which makes another reason of his desire to keep up with her, perhaps. Mrs. Story’s mother & brother have arrived in Rome, & Miss Westing’s brother is expected. How I envy you for having seen Victor Emanuel enter my Florence. I, too, understand about ‘Clarinda, & the sun & moon,’ & would willingly have had part in you pleasure. Give my love to dear Mrs. Perkins, Miss Bruen—all of you. Let me have a word of good news if possible. Affectionately yours, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
-INSIDE ENVELOPE- Little Penini rides his poney[sic] & learns Latin with an Italian Abbe & so has plenty to do, I assure you. Never did the poor child work so hard. Edith Story works with him which is a great adventure & he is very fond of her with reason. With our love to all of you, believe me dear Mrs. Bruen affectionately yours El. B. Browning.”

During the 19th century, no female poet was more esteemed by cultured readers in both the United States and England than Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her literary career began at fourteen, when she published her first poem. Sadly, the following year Browning fell ill with a lung ailment that plagued her for the remainder of her all too short life. Even in her frequently debilitated state, Browning continued to write, and in 1845 she received an introductory telegram form fellow poet Robert Browning. Following a clandestine marriage two years later, the couple crossed onto the continent and settled in Florence. There, Browning finally gave birth to her only child in 1849 after three earlier miscarriages. For a short time after the ‘miracle’ of Robert Barrett Browning’s birth, his mother’s chronically poor health improved, but, by 1860, she was sicker than ever, and grew weaker by the day. In spite of her ever worsening condition in this last year of her life, Browning remained devoted to her eleven year old Pen, doting upon him constantly and exposing him to the arts whenever her health permitted. In this correspondence, Browning, even while she bemoans the difficulty she faces concerning her son’s recalcitrance, seems happy at the prospect of Pen working beside his older companion Edith Story. Relating his dislike of Pignotti’s children’s fables and his wise to read Tasso along with Edith, one senses that she hopes he still may yet show himself to be as precocious as his mother, who learned Greek alongside her brother and wrote odes at nine. The demands of raising Pen were not the only drain upon Barrett’s ever dwindling strength. At this same time, she found herself inspired to pick up her pen as the Second War of Italian Unification (1859-61) unfolded. Browning’s attack against Lamoricière (an exiled French General who took command of the Papal Army in 1860) and her tension over the situation in Sicily would find a full poetic expression soon in the final collection Browning would publish during her life. “Poems Before Congress” (1861), like “Casa Guidi Windows” (1851), unabashedly championed the cause of Italian unification, while showing support for Napoleon III, an ally of Victor Emanuel at the start of the conflict. Published in 1860, a time when tensions over the controversial issue of Italian unification ran high, Browning’s collection also denounced England’s political policy on non-intervention. For these reasons, many English reviewers, whose sympathy with Italy did not eradicate their mistrust of Napoleon, branded the collection as pamphleteering, and soon, as Browning laments in this letter, a storm of fervid attacks descended on her from quarterlies like Blackwood's and the Saturday Review. A lengthy eight page letter, written in the last year of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life with remarkable personal and social content.

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