Isabella M. Anderton was born at Lower Clapton, then almost a country
village, near London, in October, 1858. She was educated at Priory
House School, kept by her father, where boys and girls were taught
together after the manner now followed by many American schools; for
Mr. Anderton, who had thought much about the theories of his work,
believed strongly in such co-education. Many of his pupils, it may be
said in passing (for he has now been dead some years), have justified
his belief, having achieved a good measure of distinction and fame.
After matriculating at London in 1877, she went to study German for a
year at Cannstadt, where she contracted a close friendship with Frau
Freiligrath, wife of the German patriot-poet, whose children had also
formerly been at Priory House School.
Returning to Clapton in 1878, she taught for four years in her father’s
school, till the weakness of her health, which she had overtaxed by the
strenuousness of her work, made it imperative for her to take a rest.
She therefore remained at home for a year, quietly attending lectures
from Professors Burdon Sanderson and Ray Lankester, at University
College.
In 1883 she went to Italy and lived for some years with a family at
Genova, teaching the children and writing. Here she began those Italian
studies which she pursued with such unfailing delight during the
remainder of her life.
In 1887 she had another break-down, and with a friend, went up to the
Apennines above Pistoia to recruit. Here, however—at Prunetta—her
illness became so serious that, in response to a telegram, a brother
and sister hurried out to her assistance. On their arrival a move was
made to Cutigliano, where she slowly recovered strength. During this
visit to the Pistoiese she came closely into touch with the peasants
of the neighbourhood, studying their folk-lore and their ways of
thought with keen and sympathetic interest. Her exceptional knowledge
of Italian, and her instinct for the genius of the race, enabled her
to go with a rare directness home to the minds and affections of her
peasant-friends; and, of the literary results—The Tuscan Stories and
Sketches here given—a considerable number were contributed to “Good
Words.”
After this she left the family with whom she had been living, but
remained in Genova, teaching and writing, till her marriage in October,
1890, to Rodolfo Debarbieri, when they removed to Florence, in which
fascinating city the remainder of her life was spent, in the heart of
its literary and artistic life. Here their only child, a son, was born
in 1891; and in course of time it was arranged that this son should be
sent to receive his education in England.
In 1899 she was appointed to the English Chair in the Istituto SS.
Annunziata, where her work and influence over the pupils were highly
valued by all, not only for their intellectual but also for their
stimulating moral qualities.
In 1900 she had to undergo a serious operation, most skilfully
performed by Professor Colzi of Florence. This, though successful for
the time, seems to have left a legacy of evil, and in 1902 a further
operation became necessary. She continued her work, however, bravely
once more, writing on literary and artistic subjects with unfailing
zest, and in June, 1904, seemed to her friends to have completely
recovered her health and strength. But the final blow fell swiftly.
In July illness seized her again, and carried her off in the December
following, after terrible sufferings borne with a fortitude which
one can hardly call other than heroic. No thanks can be adequate for
the care and kindness of her friend Dr. Oscar Marchetti, who could
not have done more for her had she been his own sister; nor for the
whole-hearted devotion of her maid Paolina.
She was followed by a distinguished company of friends,
fellow-professors, and artists, to the Protestant cemetery of the
Allori, about a mile and a half outside the Porta Romana—a peaceful
enclosure, with its solemn cypresses and weeping ashes, set like an
island amid the sunny olive-clad hills she loved so well. Here, at the
foot of an avenue of cypresses, she was laid to rest; and thus the
sentiment of the prose-poem given in this volume seems to cling about
her to the end.
Her command of Italian and knowledge of the literature were
extraordinary; and in fact she was often taken during later years
for an Italian, on one occasion asking a friend rather ruefully if
it were true that she spoke English with an accent: and, by living
with Italians of all classes, she obtained an understanding of their
habits of thought and more intimate life that few foreigners possess.
French and German, too, were at command, as well as Latin, and to a
less extent Greek; one of her most valuable works being a study of
the character of Virgil’s Dido, especially interesting as being from
a woman’s point of view. It is much to be regretted that this cannot
now be traced, or it would have been included here. She undertook
for Senatore Domenico Comparetti the translation into English of his
“_Traditional Poetry of the Finns_” (1898), and had many an interesting
discussion with him as to the manner of its English presentment. At
first he was rather inclined to resent her vigorous pruning of his
elaborate periods, though in the end he saw that, though admissible in
Italian, they were impossible in English. Indeed a few months ago he
said with picturesque Italian politeness that he had come to prefer
the translation to the original. This translation, with a preface by
Mr. Andrew Lang, was published by Messrs. Longmans in 1898. For about
ten years she was Florence correspondent to The Studio, her chief
contributions being _Pietro Fragiacomo_ (Oct. 1899): and _Domenico
Morelli_ (Nov. 1901). These articles she wrote, as was always her
custom, under her maiden name.
Her work on literature and art gave her the keenest delight, as also
did the beauty of the city of Florence and her friendship with some
of its most interesting residents. The fascination too of the Tuscan
hills and plains appealed deeply to her, as did the romance of Elba
where she once went for a long holiday with her brother. Rome, Venice,
Siena, and the varied beauties of Italy—perhaps these appealed to her
the more poignantly that her physical wellbeing seemed gradually more
precarious and elusive. Latterly it was a long war between her will and
her weakness; between the _vivida vis animi_—the living force of her
indomitable spirit—and the _ineluctabile fatum_—the fate whose grip
none may escape. Yet with unquenched hope she struggled on, keeping for
her friends a cheerful sunniness, and for those in need of help and
comfort a well-spring of encouragement. If the motto she once adopted:—
Ad Augusta per Angusta,
was not realised in a material sense, it may stand, as inscribed on
the marble in the Allori, as symbolical of a spiritual struggle and
attainment.
The singular combination in her nature of English and Italian
characteristics is well expressed in the beautiful words of her
friend the poet Angiolo Orvieto, writing just after her death in the
Florentine literary paper “_Il Marzocco_”:—
“Isabella M. Anderton.—È morta a Firenze, ove abitava da parecchi
anni, la signora Isabella M. Anderton, elegante e dotta scrittrice
di arte italiana su parecchie riviste inglesi tra le quali _The
Studio_. Esperta della lingua e della letteratura nostra, fece inglesi
con efficacia e fedeltà prose e poesie: e son degne di speciale
ricordo le sue versioni dal Pascoli—di cui era ammiratrice ed
amica—e la traduzione del _Kalevala_ di Domenico Comparetti.—Venuta
dall’Inghilterra in Italia, ella contemperò in una incantevole armonia
le energiche virtú della sua stirpe e le grazie della nostra. Fu
inglese nella operosa tenacia del volere, nella tempra metallica
del carattere; italiana nell’elegante agilità dello spirito, nella
sensibilità vivida e pronta, nella fantasia colorita. Fu donna nel
senso più delicato di questa parola e nel senso più alto; e seppe
mostrare alla sventura un volto sorridente. Insegnante valentissima,
ebbe la cattedra di lingua inglese al Collegio dell’Annunziata e seppe
cattivarsi l’affetto e la stima delle sue allieve, che ricorrevano
a lei per consiglio ed aiuto anche dopo lasciata la scuola. Il
_Marzocco_, che ne ebbe qualche volta la collaborazione, si unisce ai
molti che in Firenze e fuori ne piangono la scomparsa.”
“_There has passed away at Florence, where she had lived many years,
Isabella M. Anderton, an elegant and learned writer on Italian art in
several English reviews, among them_ THE STUDIO. _Well skilled in our
language and literature, she turned both prose and verse into strong
and faithful English: worthy of special mention being her versions of
Pascoli—of whom she was an admirer and friend—and her translation
of the_ KALEVALA _of Domenico Comparetti. An Englishwoman settled in
Italy, she blended in an enchanting harmony the nervous energy of her
race and the grace of ours. She was English in her energetic tenacity
of will, finely tempered as a blade of steel; Italian in her agile
grace of spirit, in her vivid and ready sensibility, in the glowing
colours of her imagination. She was a woman in the truest and highest
sense of the word; and knew how to meet adversity with a smiling face.
A most excellent teacher, she held the Chair of English Letters at the
Collegio dell’Annunziata, where she fairly captivated the affections
and esteem of her pupils who went to her for counsel and advice after
having left the school. The_ MARZOCCO, _to which she was a contributor,
joins with many in Florence and elsewhere in mourning her loss._”