File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 18 February 1852 (e8f22fa3-976f-4be2-af57-7f8f5ccf5bfb).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-022#003

Cambridge Feb 18th 1852.
Dearest Emmeline,
Have I written you that Mary promises me a visit this summer with Eva & Angus, coming partly to break the parting with Ronny, who must be sent to England to school. If her intention holds good to the last she will be here early in April, & I trust we shall have a happy summer together. How I wish you could join us somewhere, & that you could be withdrawn, for a time, from the sad memories of Geneseo. I feel very impatient at times when I think how rapidly life is speeding away & that the few friends I have are so rarely near me. It is very unsatisfactory to be forbidden all these mutual offices which presence alone can truly aid one to fulfill, [p. 2] to be almost in a separate world already – but ‘so mote it be’ & we must all belong more or less, to the band of Renunciants Goëthe talks about. We have just got thro’ reading the tragic history of Margaret Fuller Ossoli – by Emerson, Channing, &c various friends taking up her remarkable life with their acquaintance with her. It is deeply interesting & shows forth a woman of nobler heart & brain than I had supposed. There was so much distasteful in her manners we evidently did her no justice, though her friends were of the most devoted kind. Her prophetic longing for foreign life & active benevolence were strangely fulfilled, & the Italian part is very touching, all its struggle & sorrow seeming fitly to close in the grand & solemn beauty of their united death. For it was [p. 3] beautiful - & and life would always have been to her "too difficult" as she says when overwhelmed by its burdens.
Mrs Ward was here yesterday & told me much of Jenny Lind's marriage at her house, the beautiful character of her husband, & his entire worthiness of her noble & deeply religious nature. It was most quietly & privately accomplished, taking everyone by surprise, tho we all knew Jenny was furnishing a house at Northampton for the summer. Their plan is to be there but a few months & then go to Germany. She (Jenny) considers his talent as a composer very remarkable, & has long known him so well that it has none of the danger of a sudden fancy.
She brought him out here with her last summer &I was much pleased with his modesty & look of feeling and gentleness. I trust they may be happy, for so sensitive a nature as hers would terribly suffer from the reverse.
[p. 4] We were last evening at a very splendid dinner given by Mrs Chas Amory for Lizzy Prescott – with many lovely women, Cora Shaw, Mrs Sears, Mrs Ned Perkins &c & in her palazzo-like banquet room. Mrs Winthrop spoke much with me of you, & showed me the handkerchief she had in her hand as your gift. She wished much to write to you but thought you must have had so many letters to answer she would refrain. How does Wm support his sorrow? I felt very anxiously for him – and what are Sam’s plans & purposes & how likes he his wandering life? I had a glimpse of Edward, the other night at Mrs Powell Mason’s brilliant ball but rarely have a chance to speak with him. Give my love to Mrs James of whom I think often, as of you all, with fervent prayers for your comfort under this added pang.
ever affly & truly
thy Fanny.
Henry’s love.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; friendship; social life; subject; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1852 (1011/002.001-022); (LONG-FileUnitName)