GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Milan and Verona, 29 May -- 1 June 1880
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Milan and Verona, 29 May -- 1 June 1880
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Milan and Verona, 29 May -- 1 June 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1880-05-29–<br /> 1880-06-01
Place
Milan and Verona
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Milan and Verona, 29 May -- 1 June 1880
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Envelope: Madame Bodichon | Scalands Gate | Robertsbridge | Hawkhurst | Sussex | England. Postmark: BOLOGNA-ALA | 1 | GIU | 80. HAWKHURST | A | JU 4 | 80: ROBERTSBRIDGE | J 4 | 80. Mostly published: Cross, III, 400-403.
'abMilan May 29'bb Verona, June 1. 80.
Dearest Barbara
The change I make in the date of this letter is a sign of the difficulty you well know that one finds in writing all the letters one wants to write while travelling. Ever since Charles forwarded to me your dear letter while I was in Paris I have been meaning to write to you. That letter doubly sweet to me because it was written before you received mine, intended to inform you of my marriage before it appeared in the newspaper. Charles says that my Friends are chiefly hurt because I did not tell them of the approaching change in my life. But I really did not finally, absolutely decide -- I was in a state of doubt and struggle until only a fortnight before the event took place and for a week of that time I was ill with influenza, so that at last everything was done in the utmost haste. However, there were four or five friends, of whom you were one, to whom I was resolved to write so that they should at least get my letter in the morning of the 6th.
I had more than once said to Mr. Cross that you were that one of my friends who required the least explanation on the subject -- who would spontaneously understand our marriage. But Charles sends me word that my friends in general are very sympathetic, and I should like to mention to you that Bessie is one whose very kind words he has sent to me, for you may have an opportunity of giving my love to her and telling her that it is very sweet to me to feel that her affection is constant to me in this as it was in other crises of my life.
I wish, since you can no longer come in and out among us as you used to do, that you already knew my husband better -- his character is so solid, his feeling is so eminently delicate and generous. But you will have inferred something of this from his desire to dedicate his life to the remaining fragment of mine. His family welcome me with the utmost tenderness, and they are of the best paste men and women can be made of. All this is wonderful blessing falling to me beyond my share after I had thought that my life was ended and that, so to speak, my coffin was ready for me in the next room. Deep down below there is a hidden river of sadness but this must always be with those who have lived long -- and I am able to enjoy my newly re-opened life. I shall be a better, more loving creature than I could have been in solitude. To be constantly lovingly grateful for the gift of a perfect love is the best illumination of one's mind to all the possible good there may be in store for man on this troublous little planet.
We leave Verona today, and stay a little at Padua on our way to Venice. The last two days we have had some greyness of sky and good rain which has laid the dust for us while cheering the richly cultivated plains around us. Hitherto we have had delightful weather and just the temperature we 'abboth'bb rejoice in. We are both fond of warmth, and could bear more heat than we have the prospect of at present. We came into Italy by way of Grenoble (seeing the Grande Chartreuse) Chamb'e9ry, and the Mont Cenis tunnel. Since then we have been staying at Milan and enjoying the Luini frescoes and a few other great things there. The great things are always by comparison few, and there is much everywhere one would like to help seeing after it has once served to give one a notion of historical progression.
We shall stay at Venice ten days or a fortnight, so if you have a scribe, or would write yourself, to tell me that all is going on well with you the letter would not, as the Scotch say, "go a-missing."
Your always loving
Marian.
Yesterday we had a drive on the skirting heights of Verona and saw the vast fertile plain around with the Euganean Hills blue in the distance, and the Appennines just dimly visible in the clear margin of the horizon. I am always made happier by seeing well-cultivated land.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Envelope: Madame Bodichon | Scalands Gate | Robertsbridge | Hawkhurst | Sussex | England. Postmark: BOLOGNA-ALA | 1 | GIU | 80. HAWKHURST | A | JU 4 | 80: ROBERTSBRIDGE | J 4 | 80. Mostly published: Cross, III, 400-403.
'abMilan May 29'bb Verona, June 1. 80.
Dearest Barbara
The change I make in the date of this letter is a sign of the difficulty you well know that one finds in writing all the letters one wants to write while travelling. Ever since Charles forwarded to me your dear letter while I was in Paris I have been meaning to write to you. That letter doubly sweet to me because it was written before you received mine, intended to inform you of my marriage before it appeared in the newspaper. Charles says that my Friends are chiefly hurt because I did not tell them of the approaching change in my life. But I really did not finally, absolutely decide -- I was in a state of doubt and struggle until only a fortnight before the event took place and for a week of that time I was ill with influenza, so that at last everything was done in the utmost haste. However, there were four or five friends, of whom you were one, to whom I was resolved to write so that they should at least get my letter in the morning of the 6th.
I had more than once said to Mr. Cross that you were that one of my friends who required the least explanation on the subject -- who would spontaneously understand our marriage. But Charles sends me word that my friends in general are very sympathetic, and I should like to mention to you that Bessie is one whose very kind words he has sent to me, for you may have an opportunity of giving my love to her and telling her that it is very sweet to me to feel that her affection is constant to me in this as it was in other crises of my life.
I wish, since you can no longer come in and out among us as you used to do, that you already knew my husband better -- his character is so solid, his feeling is so eminently delicate and generous. But you will have inferred something of this from his desire to dedicate his life to the remaining fragment of mine. His family welcome me with the utmost tenderness, and they are of the best paste men and women can be made of. All this is wonderful blessing falling to me beyond my share after I had thought that my life was ended and that, so to speak, my coffin was ready for me in the next room. Deep down below there is a hidden river of sadness but this must always be with those who have lived long -- and I am able to enjoy my newly re-opened life. I shall be a better, more loving creature than I could have been in solitude. To be constantly lovingly grateful for the gift of a perfect love is the best illumination of one's mind to all the possible good there may be in store for man on this troublous little planet.
We leave Verona today, and stay a little at Padua on our way to Venice. The last two days we have had some greyness of sky and good rain which has laid the dust for us while cheering the richly cultivated plains around us. Hitherto we have had delightful weather and just the temperature we 'abboth'bb rejoice in. We are both fond of warmth, and could bear more heat than we have the prospect of at present. We came into Italy by way of Grenoble (seeing the Grande Chartreuse) Chamb'e9ry, and the Mont Cenis tunnel. Since then we have been staying at Milan and enjoying the Luini frescoes and a few other great things there. The great things are always by comparison few, and there is much everywhere one would like to help seeing after it has once served to give one a notion of historical progression.
We shall stay at Venice ten days or a fortnight, so if you have a scribe, or would write yourself, to tell me that all is going on well with you the letter would not, as the Scotch say, "go a-missing."
Your always loving
Marian.
Yesterday we had a drive on the skirting heights of Verona and saw the vast fertile plain around with the Euganean Hills blue in the distance, and the Appennines just dimly visible in the clear margin of the horizon. I am always made happier by seeing well-cultivated land.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Milan and Verona, 29 May -- 1 June 1880, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/93074