Revolutions are hardly ever realized in single moments, single years, or discrete turning points. Instead, they unfold over time. Elizabeth Barrett Browning stresses this historical reality in letters and poems she wrote about Risorgimento Florence during the late 1840s. In a letter to Mary Russell Milford dated 30 April 1849, Barrett Browning glosses the events of 1849 as "two revolutions." This perhaps surprising claim was provoked in part by her appraisal of Grand Duke Leopold II, whose duplicitous allegiances to Tuscans and Austrians had long been suspected. By the spring of 1849, they were undeniable. Yet her frustrations aren't limited to him alone. "My faith in every species of Italian is however nearly tired out," Barrett Browning confesses: "I don't believe they are men at all, much less heroes & patriots. Since I wrote last to you, I think we have had two revolutions here at Florence--Grand Duke out, Grand Duke in--The bells in the church opposite rang for both--They first planted a tree of liberty close to our door, and then they pulled it down." (1) Famous for her rallying cries on behalf of the Risorgimento, Barrett Browning in fact understood mid-century Florence through a series of uncertainties: not one but two revolutionary springs, not only the planting but also the uprooting of new life. (2) For Barrett Browning, 1849 brought the uncertainties of 1847 and 1848 into even sharper focus. Barrett Browning's 1851 diptych Casa Guidi Windows similarly dramatizes two revolutions: it dilates on the immediate aftermath of two events that read, at least at first, as inverses of one another. (3) Part one is inspired by 12 September 1847, when Leopold II promised to support the Florentine civic guard, despite his personal and political allegiances to Austria. Part two is inspired by 2 May 1849, when the Austrian army occupied Florence after Leopold II fled the city, renewed allegiances with Pope Pius IX and Emperor Franz Joseph I, and then returned. The Grand Duke's militarized re-entry confirmed his duplicity and marked the fall of the provisional Tuscan republic. (4) For Barrett Browning, the Florentine civic guard and the Austrian army embody two distinct historical possibilities. Indeed, as she chronicles her own wavering faith in Tuscan independence across Casa Guidi Windows, she returns, again and again, to the complex civic and political allegiances of two non-Italian figureheads: Pope Pius IX and Grand Duke Leopold II. While Pius IX was and is still notorious for renouncing his commitment to mid-century revolutions (Margaret Fuller famously excoriates him for reversing his implicit support of Roman revolutionaries between 1848 and 1849 in The New-York Daily Tribune), Grand Duke Leopold II will be my primary subject in this essay. Leopold II appears as an important counterpart to Barrett Browning's speaker throughout the poem. As I'll demonstrate, she compares her ambivalence to his at crucial moments, identifying with him in ways that reveal her historical imagination. By historical imagination, I mean not only how she blurs personal and political identifications with the Austro-Florentine Duke but also how she superimposes past- and present-tense expressions of patriotic sentiment, as she does in her 1849 letter to Mitford, through her reflections on him. By stressing Barrett Browning's representations of Leopold II across the 1847 and 1849 "revolutions," I'll read this poem as a self-conscious meditation on historiography, one that presents seemingly recursive moments non-linearly and sometimes non-sequentially. Barrett Browning imagines poetic authority, I argue, as necessarily mutable and as an alternative to the Grand Duke's push-and-pull, give-and-take power and the civic disillusionment that it incites by the midpoint of the poem. Early critics of Casa Guidi Windows read Barrett Browning's diptych structure as evidence of her patriotic naivete: she doesn't revise part one (written in 1847) to anticipate part two (written in 1849). …

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伊丽莎白·巴雷特·布朗宁的 Casa Guidi 窗户中的历史想象

革命几乎不会在单个时刻、单个年份或离散的转折点实现。相反，它们会随着时间的推移而展开。伊丽莎白·巴雷特·布朗宁 (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) 在 1840 年代后期写的关于佛罗伦萨复兴的信件和诗歌中强调了这一历史现实。在 1849 年 4 月 30 日给玛丽·拉塞尔·米尔福德的一封信中，巴雷特·布朗宁将 1849 年的事件描述为“两次革命”。这一或许令人惊讶的说法部分是由于她对利奥波德二世大公的评价，长期以来一直怀疑他对托斯卡纳人和奥地利人的两面性效忠。到 1849 年春天，它们已不可否认。然而，她的挫折不仅限于他一个人。“然而，我对每一种意大利人的信仰都快要筋疲力尽了，”巴雷特·布朗宁承认道：“我根本不相信他们是男人，更不用说英雄了。爱国者。自从我上次给你写信以来，我想我们在佛罗伦萨已经发生了两次革命——大公出去，大公进来——对面教堂的钟声响起——他们首先在我们家门口种了一棵自由之树，然后他们把它推倒了。” (1) Barrett Browning 以代表 Risorgimento 的集会呐喊而闻名，她实际上通过一系列不确定性了解了中世纪的佛罗伦萨：不是一个而是两个革命性的泉水，不仅是种植，而且(2) 对于 Barrett Browning 而言，1849 年将 1847 年和 1848 年的不确定性带入了更加清晰的焦点。Barrett Browning 1851 年的双联画 Casa Guidi Windows 同样戏剧化了两次革命：它在两个事件的直接后果上展开，阅读，至少一开始，作为彼此的倒数。(3) 第一部分的灵感来自 1847 年 9 月 12 日，当时利奥波德二世承诺支持佛罗伦萨公民卫队，尽管他个人和政治上都效忠于奥地利。第二部分的灵感来自 1849 年 5 月 2 日，当时奥地利军队在利奥波德二世逃离佛罗伦萨后占领了佛罗伦萨，重新效忠教皇庇护九世和弗朗茨约瑟夫一世皇帝，然后返回。大公的军事化重返证实了他的口是心非，并标志着临时托斯卡纳共和国的垮台。(4) 对于巴雷特·布朗宁来说，佛罗伦萨公民卫队和奥地利军队体现了两种截然不同的历史可能性。事实上，当她通过 Casa Guidi 窗户记录她自己对托斯卡纳独立的摇摆不定的信仰时，她一次又一次地回归到两个非意大利傀儡的复杂公民和政治效忠：教皇庇护九世和大公利奥波德二世。虽然庇护九世过去和现在仍然因放弃对世纪中叶革命的承诺而臭名昭著（玛格丽特·富勒在纽约每日论坛报上对他在 1848 年至 1849 年间对罗马革命者的隐性支持进行了著名的谴责），但利奥波德大公将成为我在这篇文章中的主要主题。利奥波德二世在整首诗中都是巴雷特·布朗宁的演讲者的重要对应物。正如我将要展示的，她在关键时刻将自己的矛盾心理与他进行比较，以揭示她历史想象力的方式与他产生认同。我所说的历史想象不仅指她如何模糊与奥佛罗伦斯公爵的个人和政治认同，而且还指她如何叠加过去时和现在时的爱国情绪表达，正如她在 1849 年给米特福德的信中所做的那样，通过她对他的反思。通过强调巴雷特布朗宁在 1847 年和 1849 年“革命”中对利奥波德二世的表现，我将把这首诗当作对历史编纂的自觉沉思来读，它非线性地、有时是非连续地呈现看似递归的时刻。我认为，巴雷特·布朗宁 (Barrett Browning) 想象诗的权威必然是可变的，并且可以替代大公的推拉、让步权力以及它在诗的中点煽动的公民幻灭。Casa Guidi Windows 的早期批评者将 Barrett Browning 的双联画结构视为她爱国天真的证据：她没有修改第一部分（写于 1847 年）来预测第二部分（写于 1849 年）。… 我认为，这必然是可变的，并且可以替代大公的推拉、让步权力以及它在诗的中点煽动的公民幻灭。Casa Guidi Windows 的早期批评者将 Barrett Browning 的双联画结构视为她爱国天真的证据：她没有修改第一部分（写于 1847 年）来预测第二部分（写于 1849 年）。… 我认为，这必然是可变的，并且可以替代大公的推拉、让步权力以及它在诗的中点煽动的公民幻灭。Casa Guidi Windows 的早期批评者将 Barrett Browning 的双联画结构视为她爱国天真的证据：她没有修改第一部分（写于 1847 年）来预测第二部分（写于 1849 年）。…