GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, Venice, 15 May 1864
Title
GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, Venice, 15 May 1864
Title
GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, Venice, 15 May 1864
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope
Date(s)
- 1864-05-15
Place
Venice
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, Venice, 15 May 1864
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library, inserted in T. A. Trollope's copy of Jubal and Other Poems, 1874. Published: T. A. Trollope, What I Remember, 2d ed., 2 vols., 1887, II, 313-314.
Hotel de la Ville | Venice | May 15. 1864.
My dear Mrs. Trollope
I wonder whether you are likely to be at Lake Como next month, or at any other place that we could take in our way to the Alps. It would make the prospect of our journey homeward much pleasanter if we could count on seeing you for a few hours, and I will not believe that you will think me troublesome if I send this question to you. I am rather discontented with destiny that she has not let us see anything of you for nearly three years, and I hope you too will not be sorry to take me by the hand again.
My ground for supposing it not unlikely that you will be at one of the lakes is the report I had from Mr. Pigott that such a plan was hovering in your mind. My chief fear is, that our return which is not likely, at the latest, to be later than the middle of June, may be too early for us to find you.
We reached Venice three days ago, after a short stay at Milan, and have the delight of finding everything more beautiful than it was to us four years ago. That is a satisfactory experience to us who are getting old and are afraid of the traditional loss of glory on the grass 261 and all else with which melancholy poets threaten us.
Mr. Lewes says I am to send "the liveliest things that can be said with propriety" to you, and love to Bice, to whose memory he appeals in spite of all the friends she has made since he had the last kiss from her. I too have love to send to Bice, whom I expect to see changed like a lily-bud to something more definitely promising. Mr. Trollope, I suppose, is in England by this time else I should say, all affectionate regard from us both to him. I am writing under difficulties.
Ever, dear Mrs. Trollope,
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library, inserted in T. A. Trollope's copy of Jubal and Other Poems, 1874. Published: T. A. Trollope, What I Remember, 2d ed., 2 vols., 1887, II, 313-314.
Hotel de la Ville | Venice | May 15. 1864.
My dear Mrs. Trollope
I wonder whether you are likely to be at Lake Como next month, or at any other place that we could take in our way to the Alps. It would make the prospect of our journey homeward much pleasanter if we could count on seeing you for a few hours, and I will not believe that you will think me troublesome if I send this question to you. I am rather discontented with destiny that she has not let us see anything of you for nearly three years, and I hope you too will not be sorry to take me by the hand again.
My ground for supposing it not unlikely that you will be at one of the lakes is the report I had from Mr. Pigott that such a plan was hovering in your mind. My chief fear is, that our return which is not likely, at the latest, to be later than the middle of June, may be too early for us to find you.
We reached Venice three days ago, after a short stay at Milan, and have the delight of finding everything more beautiful than it was to us four years ago. That is a satisfactory experience to us who are getting old and are afraid of the traditional loss of glory on the grass 261 and all else with which melancholy poets threaten us.
Mr. Lewes says I am to send "the liveliest things that can be said with propriety" to you, and love to Bice, to whose memory he appeals in spite of all the friends she has made since he had the last kiss from her. I too have love to send to Bice, whom I expect to see changed like a lily-bud to something more definitely promising. Mr. Trollope, I suppose, is in England by this time else I should say, all affectionate regard from us both to him. I am writing under difficulties.
Ever, dear Mrs. Trollope,
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, Venice, 15 May 1864, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/93706