Marie-Thérèse Blanc (“Th. Bentzon”)

October 5, 1894

Florence, Italy

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits, Paris

Il Palmerino

Maiano

Florence

Ce 5 Octobre [Today October 5]

My dear Madame Blanc,

much to write something about my friend (& master in many ways) Walter Pater. He was never thoroughly appreciated in England (so much so that owing to his very early & immature book, the Renaissance, he passed as a sort of immoral aesthete) and the silence which has followed on his death shocks me terribly. I am sure the French would appreciate this most exquisite artist and delicate, austere moralist: the young men whom Desjardins and Vogüe appeal to would learn so much from Marius the Epicurian & the lovely book on Plato, by the whole evolution of this soul from love of the materially beautiful to longing for the morally sound pure and harmonious. Do write about him, will you? I have a whole list of passages & quotations I could send you.

Enrico Nencioni 

October 5, [1894] 

Florence, Italy

Biblioteca Marucelliana , Carteggio Nencioni I 12.1-5_12 & 12.1-5_13

Envelope: Prof. Enrico Nencioni/17 Via delle Caldaie/Città 

[The original of this letter is in Italian]

Il Palmerino, Maiano, Florence. 

5 Ottobre 

Caro Nencioni, 

Che fa? Desidero tanto vederla. Non potrebbe venire giù a collazione o a pranzo (ora che le sere sono giornate sono sempre lunghe e i tram numerosi) — Il 10 deve arrivare D. Laura Gropallo, e so ch’ essa gradisce ogni occasione di trovarla. Senta caro Nencioni, desidero proprio che faccia un bellissimo articolo sul mio povero e illustre amico Pater. Credo che certi suoi scritti, Marius the Epicurean, ed il suo bellissimo ultimo studio su Platone farebbero un monte di bene ai giovani italiani. Che contravveleno ad un d’Annunzio, per esempio, non sarebbe la carriera spirituale, direi quasi il Pilgrim’s Progress, del Pater, cominciato col principiando dal morboso esteticismo [sic] del Swinburniano, i e appurandosi man mano nell’altissimo esteticismo [sic] morale di Platone; questo passo sviluppo del senso della bellezza finchè si estenda alle cose dello spirito, e riconosca nella bellezza fisica il simbolo organico del rigore, della pulizia morale, dell’armonia in tutto l’uomo! –  

Ci pensi, caro Nencioni. 

Sua dev. 

V. Paget 

45. [Enrico Nencioni 

October 5, [1894] 

Florence, Italy 

Biblioteca Marucelliana , Carteggio Nencioni I 12.1-5_12 & 12.1-5_13 

Envelope: Prof. Enrico Nencioni/17 Via delle Caldaie/Città 

[The original of this letter is in Italian]

Il Palmerino, Maiano, Florence. 

October 5 

Dear Nencioni, 

What are you doing? I want so much to see you. Couldn’t you come down for breakfast or dinner (now that the evenings the days are getting longer and the trams more numerous) – Lady Laura Gropallo ought to arrive on the 10^th and I know that she enjoys every occasion to see you. Listen, dear Nencioni, I really want you to write an excellent article on my poor and illustrious friend Pater. I believe that certain of his works, Marius the Epicurean, and his latest excellent study of Plato would do a world of good for young Italians. What an antidote to a d’Annunzio, for example, would be the spiritual career, I would say almost the Pilgrim’s Progress, of Pater, beginning with starting from Swinburne’s unhealthy aestheticism the and clearing up bit by bit in the highest moral aestheticism of Plato; this step development of the sense of beauty until it extends to spiritual things, and recognizes in physical beauty the organic symbol of rigour, of moral cleanliness, of the harmony in the entire man! – 

Think about it, dear Nencioni. 

Your devoted, 

V. Paget]

Marie-Thérèse Blanc (“Th. Bentzon”)

October 14, [1894]

Florence, Italy

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits, Paris

Il Palmerino

Maiano

Florence

14^th October (my birthday, alas being 38 years old)

[1893]

Very dear Madame Blanc – I cannot tell you how much yr proposal of my writing about  Pater has touched me; now is it you who always think of others?

Alas, although I did want two months ago, to write about my illustrious friend, and although the idea of doing so is still a very great temptation, I feel I must not. I have got fairly well after my illness of this summer, but I find that a very little work tires me; and a paper on Pater would take my very best energies, which alas, I have not got at my beck & call, particularly at present? Will you tell Monsieur Brunetière, with my compliments, that he has made me very proud; but alas, I also require to be made very well!

…

I am sending you, dear friend, a list of pages in Pater, because I do want you to write something about him.

Marie-Thérèse Blanc (“Th. Bentzon”)

November 7, 1895

Florence, Italy

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits, Paris

arrange trains Il Palmerino

Maiano

Florence

7 Nov. 1895

My dear Mme Blanc,

… I am publishing a new book on Renaissance things: you shall have it. It contains a few pages on dear M^r Pater. But they are such as only Readers of his work would understand.I am publishing a new book on Renaissance things: you shall have it. It contains a few pages on dear M^r Pater. But they are such as only Readers of his work would understand.I am publishing a new book on Renaissance things: you shall have it. It contains a few pages on dear M^r Pater. But they are such as only Readers of his work would understand.