Editing Elizabeth Barrett Browning (section)

===Decline and death===
[[File:Tomb - Elizabeth Barrett Browning.jpg|thumb|right|Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb, [[English Cemetery, Florence]]. 2007]]

After the death of an old friend, G. B. Hunter, and then of her father, Barrett Browning's health started to deteriorate. The Brownings moved from Florence to Siena, residing at the ''Villa Alberti''. Engrossed in Italian politics, she issued a small volume of political poems titled ''Poems before Congress'' (1860) "most of which were written to express her sympathy with [[Risorgimento|the Italian cause]] after [[Second Italian War of Independence|the outbreak of fighting in 1859]]".<ref name="Donaldson"/> They caused a furore in Britain, and the conservative magazines ''[[Blackwood's Magazine|Blackwood's]]'' and the ''[[Saturday Review (London)|Saturday Review]]'' labelled her a fanatic.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Browning [née Moulton Barrett], Elizabeth Barrett (1806–1861), poet and writer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-3711 |access-date=2025-03-19 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/3711}}</ref> She dedicated this book to her husband. Her last work was ''A Musical Instrument'', published posthumously.

Barrett Browning's sister Henrietta died in November 1860. The couple spent the winter of 1860–1861 in Rome where Barrett Browning's health deteriorated, and they returned to Florence in early June 1861.<ref name="ONDB"/> She became gradually weaker, using morphine to ease her pain. She died on 29 June 1861 in her husband's arms. Browning said that she died "smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's...Her last word was...'Beautiful' ".<ref name="ONDB"/> She was buried in the Protestant [[English Cemetery of Florence]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/barrett-_browning.htm| title = Poetsgraves.co.uk}}</ref> "On Monday July 1 the shops in the area around Casa Guidi were closed, while Elizabeth was mourned with unusual demonstrations."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The nature of her illness is still unclear. Some modern scientists speculate her illness may have been [[hypokalemic periodic paralysis]], a genetic disorder that causes weakness and many of the other symptoms she described.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Buchanan|first=A|author2=Weiss, EB|title=Of sad and wished-for years: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's lifelong illness|journal=Perspect Biol Med|date=Autumn 2011|volume=54|issue=4|pages=479–503|pmid=22019536|doi=10.1353/pbm.2011.0040|s2cid=32949896}}</ref>