BIB_ID
402644
Accession number
MA 2148.41
Creator
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861.
Display Date
[1852] February 2.
Credit line
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Description
1 item (10 pages) ; 16 x 10.5 cm + envelope
Notes
Place and year of writing determined from postmarks and internal evidence. See the published editions of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Envelope with stamp and postmarks addressed to: "Angleterre/ George G Barrett Esqre/ 50. Wimpole Street/ London."
With a seal.
Envelope with stamp and postmarks addressed to: "Angleterre/ George G Barrett Esqre/ 50. Wimpole Street/ London."
With a seal.
Provenance
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Summary
Thanking George for his letter; discussing Mary Russell Mitford's book Recollections of a Literary Life, which contained a chapter on EBB in which Mitford described her appearance and her devastation at the death of her brother Edward; describing Robert Browning's response to the book and its depiction of EBB; telling him that she has written to Mitford "a very affectionate letter;--recognizing her affectionate & generous intentions everywhere, but not attempting to conceal that she had occasioned me extreme pain--There is no answer yet,--and I shall be most sorry if I have offended her in return for intended kindness--What can can one do? The truth is, that one ought to be let alone while one's alive"; mentioning that George Sand is in Paris and that she hopes to meet her, though "[w]hether we shall get at her this time remains uncertain--for it appears that she has a wholesome horror of lion-hunters & book-makers"; writing about the coup d'etat in France, and her opinions on its validity and how it has been carried out: "It is on the pure democratical ground that I set my foot, when I cry aloud for respect to the opinion of a great people.. let it be a mistaken opinion or not"; objecting, however, to Louis Napoleon's expropriation of the property of the house of Orleans and commending procurer general Dupin's letter of resignation in response to the decree; telling George that she and Browning have fought about these matters: "Patriotism gets the upper hand of judgment, & he drops into a vortex of national sympathy. As for me, I'm a bad patriot, I believe--I care more for the world & humanity every year, & less for local & national interests"; writing that Lady Elgin (Mary Nisbet Ferguson) came to visit on Saturday evening and "told us all sorts of supernaturalisms which charmed me"; mentioning that the abolitionist George Thompson, who EBB had once met, "knew all about the 'Rappists', had heard the spirits 'rap', knew how a spirit gave a kiss to one lady, and an autograph to another"; sending news of Pen: "He never ceases talking the most extraordinary mess of a language you can imagine!"; adding a postscript: "I want to know how Papa is. You did not mention him."
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