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.
'...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.'
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)to-morrow,stay there a month,probably,and then take the Siena road again.'
The next paragraph refers to some orders for photographs,and is not specially interesting.
Cartwright arrived here a fortnight ago --very pleasant it was to see him:
he left for Florence,stayed a day or two and returned to Mrs.Cartwright (who remained at the Inn)and they all departed prosperously yesterday for Rome.Odo Russell spent two days here on his way thither --we liked him much.Prinsep and Jones --do you know them?--are in the town.
The Storys have passed the summer in the villa opposite,--and no less a lion than dear old Landor is in a house a few steps off.
I take care of him --his amiable family having clawed him a little too sharply:so strangely do things come about!
I mean his Fiesole 'family'--a trifle of wife,sons and daughter --not his English relatives,who are generous and good in every way.
