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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Letters of Robert Browning, by 
+Mrs. Sutherland Orr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life and Letters of Robert Browning
+
+Author: Mrs. Sutherland Orr
+
+Release Date: January 21, 2006 [EBook #655]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Alan Light and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING
+
+by Mrs. Sutherland Orr
+
+
+Second Edition
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+Such letters of Mr. Browning's as appear, whole or in part, in the
+present volume have been in most cases given to me by the persons to
+whom they were addressed, or copied by Miss Browning from the originals
+under her care; but I owe to the daughter of the Rev. W. J. Fox--Mrs.
+Bridell Fox--those written to her father and to Miss Flower; the two
+interesting extracts from her father's correspondence with herself and
+Mr. Browning's note to Mr. Robertson.
+
+For my general material I have been largely indebted to Miss Browning.
+Her memory was the only existing record of her brother's boyhood and
+youth. It has been to me an unfailing as well as always accessible
+authority for that subsequent period of his life which I could only know
+in disconnected facts or his own fragmentary reminiscences. It is less
+true, indeed, to say that she has greatly helped me in writing this
+short biography than that without her help it could never have been
+undertaken.
+
+I thank my friends Mrs. R. Courtenay Bell and Miss Hickey for their
+invaluable assistance in preparing the book for, and carrying it through
+the press; and I acknowledge with real gratitude the advantages derived
+by it from Mr. Dykes Campbell's large literary experience in his very
+careful final revision of the proofs.
+
+A. Orr. April 22, 1891.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+
+Chapter 1 Origin of the Browning Family--Robert Browning's
+Grandfather--His position and Character--His first and second
+Marriage--Unkindness towards his eldest Son, Robert Browning's
+Father--Alleged Infusion of West Indian Blood through Robert Browning's
+Grandmother--Existing Evidence against it--The Grandmother's Portrait.
+
+Chapter 2 Robert Browning's Father--His Position in Life--Comparison
+between him and his Son--Tenderness towards his Son--Outline of his
+Habits and Character--His Death--Significant Newspaper Paragraph--Letter
+of Mr. Locker--Lampson--Robert Browning's Mother--Her Character and
+Antecedents--Their Influence upon her Son--Nervous Delicacy imparted to
+both her Children--Its special Evidences in her Son.
+
+Chapter 3 1812-1826 Birth of Robert Browning--His Childhood
+and Schooldays--Restless Temperament--Brilliant Mental
+Endowments--Incidental Peculiarities--Strong Religious
+Feeling--Passionate Attachment to his Mother; Grief at first
+Separation--Fondness for Animals--Experiences of School Life--Extensive
+Reading--Early Attempts in Verse--Letter from his Father concerning
+them--Spurious Poems in Circulation--'Incondita'--Mr. Fox--Miss Flower.
+
+Chapter 4 1826-1833 First Impressions of Keats and Shelley--Prolonged
+Influence of Shelley--Details of Home Education--Its Effects--Youthful
+Restlessness--Counteracting Love of Home--Early Friendships: Alfred
+Domett, Joseph Arnould, the Silverthornes--Choice of Poetry as a
+Profession--Alternative Suggestions; mistaken Rumours concerning
+them--Interest in Art--Love of good Theatrical Performances--Talent for
+Acting--Final Preparation for Literary Life.
+
+Chapter 5 1833-1835 'Pauline'--Letters to Mr. Fox--Publication of the
+Poem; chief Biographical and Literary Characteristics--Mr. Fox's Review
+in the 'Monthly Repository'; other Notices--Russian Journey--Desired
+diplomatic Appointment--Minor Poems; first Sonnet; their Mode of
+Appearance--'The Trifler'--M. de Ripert-Monclar--'Paracelsus'--Letters
+to Mr. Fox concerning it; its Publication--Incidental Origin of
+'Paracelsus'; its inspiring Motive; its Relation to 'Pauline'--Mr. Fox's
+Review of it in the 'Monthly Repository'--Article in the 'Examiner' by
+John Forster.
+
+Chapter 6 1835-1838 Removal to Hatcham; some Particulars--Renewed
+Intercourse with the second Family of Robert Browning's
+Grandfather--Reuben Browning--William Shergold Browning--Visitors
+at Hatcham--Thomas Carlyle--Social Life--New Friends and
+Acquaintance--Introduction to Macready--New Year's Eve at Elm
+Place--Introduction to John Forster--Miss Fanny Haworth--Miss
+Martineau--Serjeant Talfourd--The 'Ion' Supper--'Strafford'--Relations
+with Macready--Performance of 'Strafford'--Letters concerning it
+from Mr. Browning and Miss Flower--Personal Glimpses of Robert
+Browning--Rival Forms of Dramatic Inspiration--Relation of 'Strafford'
+to 'Sordello'--Mr. Robertson and the 'Westminster Review'.
+
+Chapter 7 1838-1841 First Italian Journey--Letters to Miss Haworth--Mr.
+John Kenyon--'Sordello'--Letter to Miss Flower--'Pippa Passes'--'Bells
+and Pomegranates'.
+
+Chapter 8 1841-1844 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon'--Letters to Mr.
+Frank Hill; Lady Martin--Charles Dickens--Other Dramas and Minor
+Poems--Letters to Miss Lee; Miss Haworth; Miss Flower--Second Italian
+Journey; Naples--E. J. Trelawney--Stendhal.
+
+Chapter 9 1844-1849 Introduction to Miss Barrett--Engagement--Motives
+for Secrecy--Marriage--Journey to Italy--Extract of Letter from
+Mr. Fox--Mrs. Browning's Letters to Miss Mitford--Life at
+Pisa--Vallombrosa--Florence; Mr. Powers; Miss Boyle--Proposed British
+Mission to the Vatican--Father Prout--Palazzo Guidi--Fano; Ancona--'A
+Blot in the 'Scutcheon' at Sadler's Wells.
+
+Chapter 10 1849-1852 Death of Mr. Browning's Mother--Birth of his
+Son--Mrs. Browning's Letters continued--Baths of Lucca--Florence
+again--Venice--Margaret Fuller Ossoli--Visit to England--Winter in
+Paris--Carlyle--George Sand--Alfred de Musset.
+
+Chapter 11 1852-1855 M. Joseph Milsand--His close Friendship with
+Mr. Browning; Mrs. Browning's Impression of him--New Edition of
+Mr. Browning's Poems--'Christmas Eve and Easter Day'--'Essay' on
+Shelley--Summer in London--Dante Gabriel Rossetti--Florence; secluded
+Life--Letters from Mr. and Mrs. Browning--'Colombe's Birthday'--Baths of
+Lucca--Mrs. Browning's Letters--Winter in Rome--Mr. and Mrs. Story--Mrs.
+Sartoris--Mrs. Fanny Kemble--Summer in London--Tennyson--Ruskin.
+
+Chapter 12 1855-1858 'Men and Women'--'Karshook'--'Two in the
+Campagna'--Winter in Paris; Lady Elgin--'Aurora Leigh'--Death of
+Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Barrett--Penini--Mrs. Browning's Letters to Miss
+Browning--The Florentine Carnival--Baths of Lucca--Spiritualism--Mr.
+Kirkup; Count Ginnasi--Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Fox--Havre.
+
+Chapter 13 1858-1861 Mrs. Browning's Illness--Siena--Letter from Mr.
+Browning to Mr. Leighton--Mrs. Browning's Letters continued--Walter
+Savage Landor--Winter in Rome--Mr. Val Prinsep--Friends in Rome: Mr. and
+Mrs. Cartwright--Multiplying Social Relations--Massimo d'Azeglio--Siena
+again--Illness and Death of Mrs. Browning's Sister--Mr. Browning's
+Occupations--Madame du Quaire--Mrs. Browning's last Illness and Death.
+
+Chapter 14 1861-1863 Miss Blagden--Letters from Mr. Browning to
+Miss Haworth and Mr. Leighton--His Feeling in regard to Funeral
+Ceremonies--Establishment in London--Plan of Life--Letter to Madame
+du Quaire--Miss Arabel Barrett--Biarritz--Letters to Miss
+Blagden--Conception of 'The Ring and the Book'--Biographical
+Indiscretion--New Edition of his Works--Mr. and Mrs. Procter.
+
+Chapter 15 1863-1869 Pornic--'James Lee's Wife'--Meeting at Mr. F.
+Palgrave's--Letters to Miss Blagden--His own Estimate of his Work--His
+Father's Illness and Death; Miss Browning--Le Croisic--Academic
+Honours; Letter to the Master of Balliol--Death of Miss
+Barrett--Audierne--Uniform Edition of his Works--His rising
+Fame--'Dramatis Personae'--'The Ring and the Book'; Character of
+Pompilia.
+
+Chapter 16 1869-1873 Lord Dufferin; Helen's Tower--Scotland; Visit to
+Lady Ashburton--Letters to Miss Blagden--St.-Aubin; The Franco-Prussian
+War--'Herve Riel'--Letter to Mr. G. M. Smith--'Balaustion's Adventure';
+'Prince Hohenstiel--Schwangau'--'Fifine at the Fair'--Mistaken Theories
+of Mr. Browning's Work--St.-Aubin; 'Red Cotton Nightcap Country'.
+
+Chapter 17 1873-1878 London Life--Love of Music--Miss
+Egerton-Smith--Periodical Nervous Exhaustion--Mers; 'Aristophanes'
+Apology'--'Agamemnon'--'The Inn Album'--'Pacchiarotto and other
+Poems'--Visits to Oxford and Cambridge--Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald--St.
+Andrews; Letter from Professor Knight--In the Savoyard
+Mountains--Death of Miss Egerton-Smith--'La Saisiaz'; 'The Two Poets of
+Croisic'--Selections from his Works.
+
+Chapter 18 1878-1884 He revisits Italy; Asolo; Letters to Mrs.
+Fitz-Gerald--Venice--Favourite Alpine Retreats--Mrs. Arthur
+Bronson--Life in Venice--A Tragedy at Saint-Pierre--Mr.
+Cholmondeley--Mr. Browning's Patriotic Feeling; Extract from Letter
+to Mrs. Charles Skirrow--'Dramatic Idyls'--'Jocoseria'--'Ferishtah's
+Fancies'.
+
+Chapter 19 1881-1887 The Browning Society; Mr. Furnivall; Miss E.
+H. Hickey--His Attitude towards the Society; Letter to Mrs.
+Fitz-Gerald--Mr. Thaxter, Mrs. Celia Thaxter--Letter to Miss Hickey;
+'Strafford'--Shakspere and Wordsworth Societies--Letters to Professor
+Knight--Appreciation in Italy; Professor Nencioni--The Goldoni
+Sonnet--Mr. Barrett Browning; Palazzo Manzoni--Letters to Mrs. Charles
+Skirrow--Mrs. Bloomfield Moore--Llangollen; Sir Theodore and Lady
+Martin--Loss of old Friends--Foreign Correspondent of the Royal
+Academy--'Parleyings with certain People of Importance in their Day'.
+
+Chapter 20 Constancy to Habit--Optimism--Belief in Providence--Political
+Opinions--His Friendships--Reverence for Genius--Attitude towards
+his Public--Attitude towards his Work--Habits of Work--His
+Reading--Conversational Powers--Impulsiveness and Reserve--Nervous
+Peculiarities--His Benevolence--His Attitude towards Women.
+
+Chapter 21 1887-1889 Marriage of Mr. Barrett Browning--Removal to De
+Vere Gardens--Symptoms of failing Strength--New Poems; New Edition
+of his Works--Letters to Mr. George Bainton, Mr. Smith, and Lady
+Martin--Primiero and Venice--Letters to Miss Keep--The last Year in
+London--Asolo--Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald, Mrs. Skirrow, and Mr. G. M.
+Smith.
+
+Chapter 22 1889 Proposed Purchase of Land at Asolo--Venice--Letter
+to Mr. G. Moulton-Barrett--Lines in the 'Athenaeum'--Letter to Miss
+Keep--Illness--Death--Funeral Ceremonial at Venice--Publication of
+'Asolando'--Interment in Poets' Corner.
+
+Conclusion
+
+Index
+
+
+Portrait of Robert Browning (1889) Mr. Browning's Study in De Vere
+Gardens
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+Origin of the Browning Family--Robert Browning's Grandfather--His
+position and Character--His first and second Marriage--Unkindness
+towards his eldest Son, Robert Browning's Father--Alleged Infusion
+of West Indian Blood through Robert Browning's Grandmother--Existing
+Evidence against it--The Grandmother's Portrait.
+
+
+
+A belief was current in Mr. Browning's lifetime that he had Jewish blood
+in his veins. It received outward support from certain accidents of his
+life, from his known interest in the Hebrew language and literature,
+from his friendship for various members of the Jewish community in
+London. It might well have yielded to the fact of his never claiming the
+kinship, which could not have existed without his knowledge, and which,
+if he had known it, he would, by reason of these very sympathies, have
+been the last person to disavow. The results of more recent and more
+systematic inquiry have shown the belief to be unfounded.
+
+Our poet sprang, on the father's side, from an obscure or, as family
+tradition asserts, a decayed branch, of an Anglo-Saxon stock settled,
+at an early period of our history, in the south, and probably also
+south-west, of England. A line of Brownings owned the manors of
+Melbury-Sampford and Melbury-Osmond, in north-west Dorsetshire; their
+last representative disappeared--or was believed to do so--in the time
+of Henry VII., their manors passing into the hands of the Earls of
+Ilchester, who still hold them.* The name occurs after 1542 in different
+parts of the country: in two cases with the affix of 'esquire', in two
+also, though not in both coincidently, within twenty miles of Pentridge,
+where the first distinct traces of the poet's family appear. Its cradle,
+as he called it, was Woodyates, in the parish of Pentridge, on the
+Wiltshire confines of Dorsetshire; and there his ancestors, of the third
+and fourth generations, held, as we understand, a modest but independent
+social position.
+
+     * I am indebted for these facts, as well as for some others
+     referring to, or supplied by, Mr. Browning's uncles,
+     to some notes made for the Browning Society by Dr. Furnivall.
+
+This fragment of history, if we may so call it, accords better with our
+impression of Mr. Browning's genius than could any pedigree which more
+palpably connected him with the 'knightly' and 'squirely' families whose
+name he bore. It supplies the strong roots of English national life
+to which we instinctively refer it. Both the vivid originality of that
+genius and its healthy assimilative power stamp it as, in some sense,
+the product of virgin soil; and although the varied elements which
+entered into its growth were racial as well as cultural, and inherited
+as well as absorbed, the evidence of its strong natural or physical
+basis remains undisturbed.
+
+Mr. Browning, for his own part, maintained a neutral attitude in the
+matter. He neither claimed nor disclaimed the more remote genealogical
+past which had presented itself as a certainty to some older members of
+his family. He preserved the old framed coat-of-arms handed down to him
+from his grandfather; and used, without misgiving as to his right to do
+so, a signet-ring engraved from it, the gift of a favourite uncle, in
+years gone by. But, so long as he was young, he had no reason to think
+about his ancestors; and, when he was old, he had no reason to care
+about them; he knew himself to be, in every possible case, the most
+important fact in his family history.
+
+     Roi ne suis, ni Prince aussi,
+     Suis le seigneur de Conti,
+
+he wrote, a few years back, to a friend who had incidentally questioned
+him about it.
+
+Our immediate knowledge of the family begins with Mr. Browning's
+grandfather, also a Robert Browning, who obtained through Lord
+Shaftesbury's influence a clerkship in the Bank of England, and entered
+on it when barely twenty, in 1769. He served fifty years, and rose to
+the position of Principal of the Bank Stock Office, then an important
+one, and which brought him into contact with the leading financiers
+of the day. He became also a lieutenant in the Honourable Artillery
+Company, and took part in the defence of the Bank in the Gordon Riots
+of 1789. He was an able, energetic, and worldly man: an Englishman, very
+much of the provincial type; his literary tastes being limited to the
+Bible and 'Tom Jones', both of which he is said to have read through
+once a year. He possessed a handsome person and, probably, a vigorous
+constitution, since he lived to the age of eighty-four, though
+frequently tormented by gout; a circumstance which may help to account
+for his not having seen much of his grandchildren, the poet and his
+sister; we are indeed told that he particularly dreaded the lively boy's
+vicinity to his afflicted foot. He married, in 1778, Margaret, daughter
+of a Mr. Tittle by his marriage with Miss Seymour; and who was born
+in the West Indies and had inherited property there. They had three
+children: Robert, the poet's father; a daughter, who lived an uneventful
+life and plays no part in the family history; and another son who died
+an infant. The Creole mother died also when her eldest boy was only
+seven years old, and passed out of his memory in all but an indistinct
+impression of having seen her lying in her coffin. Five years later the
+widower married a Miss Smith, who gave him a large family.
+
+This second marriage of Mr. Browning's was a critical event in the life
+of his eldest son; it gave him, to all appearance, two step-parents
+instead of one. There could have been little sympathy between his father
+and himself, for no two persons were ever more unlike, but there was yet
+another cause for the systematic unkindness under which the lad grew
+up. Mr. Browning fell, as a hard man easily does, greatly under the
+influence of his second wife, and this influence was made by her
+to subserve the interests of a more than natural jealousy of her
+predecessor. An early instance of this was her banishing the dead lady's
+portrait to a garret, on the plea that her husband did not need two
+wives. The son could be no burden upon her because he had a little
+income, derived from his mother's brother; but this, probably, only
+heightened her ill-will towards him. When he was old enough to go to a
+University, and very desirous of going--when, moreover, he offered to
+do so at his own cost--she induced his father to forbid it, because,
+she urged, they could not afford to send their other sons to college. An
+earlier ambition of his had been to become an artist; but when he showed
+his first completed picture to his father, the latter turned away and
+refused to look at it. He gave himself the finishing stroke in the
+parental eyes, by throwing up a lucrative employment which he had held
+for a short time on his mother's West Indian property, in disgust at the
+system of slave labour which was still in force there; and he paid for
+this unpractical conduct as soon as he was of age, by the compulsory
+reimbursement of all the expenses which his father, up to that date, had
+incurred for him; and by the loss of his mother's fortune, which, at the
+time of her marriage, had not been settled upon her. It was probably
+in despair of doing anything better, that, soon after this, in his
+twenty-second year, he also became a clerk in the Bank of England. He
+married and settled in Camberwell, in 1811; his son and daughter were
+born, respectively, in 1812 and 1814. He became a widower in 1849; and
+when, four years later, he had completed his term of service at the
+Bank, he went with his daughter to Paris, where they resided until his
+death in 1866.
+
+Dr. Furnivall has originated a theory, and maintains it as a conviction,
+that Mr. Browning's grandmother was more than a Creole in the strict
+sense of the term, that of a person born of white parents in the West
+Indies, and that an unmistakable dash of dark blood passed from her to
+her son and grandson. Such an occurrence was, on the face of it, not
+impossible, and would be absolutely unimportant to my mind, and, I think
+I may add, to that of Mr. Browning's sister and son. The poet and his
+father were what we know them, and if negro blood had any part in their
+composition, it was no worse for them, and so much the better for the
+negro. But many persons among us are very averse to the idea of such
+a cross; I believe its assertion, in the present case, to be entirely
+mistaken; I prefer, therefore, touching on the facts alleged in favour
+of it, to passing them over in a silence which might be taken to mean
+indifference, but might also be interpreted into assent.
+
+We are told that Mr. Browning was so dark in early life, that a nephew
+who saw him in Paris, in 1837, mistook him for an Italian. He neither
+had nor could have had a nephew; and he was not out of England at the
+time specified. It is said that when Mr. Browning senior was residing on
+his mother's sugar plantation at St. Kitt's, his appearance was held
+to justify his being placed in church among the coloured members of the
+congregation. We are assured in the strongest terms that the story has
+no foundation, and this by a gentleman whose authority in all matters
+concerning the Browning family Dr. Furnivall has otherwise accepted
+as conclusive. If the anecdote were true it would be a singular
+circumstance that Mr. Browning senior was always fond of drawing negro
+heads, and thus obviously disclaimed any unpleasant association with
+them.
+
+I do not know the exact physical indications by which a dark strain is
+perceived; but if they are to be sought in the colouring of eyes, hair,
+and skin, they have been conspicuously absent in the two persons who in
+the present case are supposed to have borne them. The poet's father had
+light blue eyes and, I am assured by those who knew him best, a clear,
+ruddy complexion. His appearance induced strangers passing him in the
+Paris streets to remark, 'C'est un Anglais!' The absolute whiteness
+of Miss Browning's skin was modified in her brother by a sallow tinge
+sufficiently explained by frequent disturbance of the liver; but it
+never affected the clearness of his large blue-grey eyes; and his hair,
+which grew dark as he approached manhood, though it never became black,
+is spoken of, by everyone who remembers him in childhood and youth,
+as golden. It is no less worthy of note that the daughter of his early
+friend Mr. Fox, who grew up in the little social circle to which he
+belonged, never even heard of the dark cross now imputed to him; and a
+lady who made his acquaintance during his twenty-fourth year, wrote a
+sonnet upon him, beginning with these words:
+
+     Thy brow is calm, young Poet--pale and clear
+     As a moonlighted statue.
+
+The suggestion of Italian characteristics in the Poet's face may serve,
+however, to introduce a curious fact, which can have no bearing on the
+main lines of his descent, but holds collateral possibilities concerning
+it. His mother's name Wiedemann or Wiedeman appears in a merely
+contracted form as that of one of the oldest families naturalized in
+Venice. It became united by marriage with the Rezzonico; and, by a
+strange coincidence, the last of these who occupied the palace now owned
+by Mr. Barrett Browning was a Widman-Rezzonico. The present Contessa
+Widman has lately restored her own palace, which was falling into ruin.
+
+That portrait of the first Mrs. Browning, which gave so much umbrage
+to her husband's second wife, has hung for many years in her grandson's
+dining-room, and is well known to all his friends. It represents a
+stately woman with an unmistakably fair skin; and if the face or hair
+betrays any indication of possible dark blood, it is imperceptible to
+the general observer, and must be of too slight and fugitive a nature
+to enter into the discussion. A long curl touches one shoulder. One
+hand rests upon a copy of Thomson's 'Seasons', which was held to be
+the proper study and recreation of cultivated women in those days. The
+picture was painted by Wright of Derby.
+
+A brother of this lady was an adventurous traveller, and was said to
+have penetrated farther into the interior of Africa than any other
+European of his time. His violent death will be found recorded in a
+singular experience of the poet's middle life.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+Robert Browning's Father--His Position in Life--Comparison between
+him and his Son--Tenderness towards his Son--Outline of his Habits and
+Character--His Death--Significant Newspaper Paragraph--Letter of
+Mr. Locker-Lampson--Robert Browning's Mother--Her Character and
+Antecedents--Their Influence upon her Son--Nervous Delicacy imparted to
+both her Children--Its special Evidences in her Son.
+
+
+
+It was almost a matter of course that Robert Browning's father should be
+disinclined for bank work. We are told, and can easily imagine, that he
+was not so good an official as the grandfather; we know that he did not
+rise so high, nor draw so large a salary. But he made the best of
+his position for his family's sake, and it was at that time both more
+important and more lucrative than such appointments have since become.
+Its emoluments could be increased by many honourable means not covered
+by the regular salary. The working-day was short, and every additional
+hour's service well paid. To be enrolled on the night-watch was also
+very remunerative; there were enormous perquisites in pens, paper, and
+sealing-wax.* Mr. Browning availed himself of these opportunities of
+adding to his income, and was thus enabled, with the help of his private
+means, to gratify his scholarly and artistic tastes, and give his
+children the benefit of a very liberal education--the one distinct ideal
+of success in life which such a nature as his could form. Constituted as
+he was, he probably suffered very little through the paternal unkindness
+which had forced him into an uncongenial career. Its only palpable
+result was to make him a more anxiously indulgent parent when his own
+time came.
+
+     * I have been told that, far from becoming careless in the
+     use of these things from his practically unbounded command
+     of them, he developed for them an almost superstitious
+     reverence.  He could never endure to see a scrap of writing-
+     paper wasted.
+
+Many circumstances conspired to secure to the coming poet a happier
+childhood and youth than his father had had. His path was to be smoothed
+not only by natural affection and conscientious care, but by literary
+and artistic sympathy. The second Mr. Browning differed, in certain
+respects, as much from the third as from the first. There were,
+nevertheless, strong points in which, if he did not resemble, he at
+least distinctly foreshadowed him; and the genius of the one would lack
+some possible explanation if we did not recognize in great measure its
+organized material in the other. Much, indeed, that was genius in the
+son existed as talent in the father. The moral nature of the younger
+man diverged from that of the older, though retaining strong points of
+similarity; but the mental equipments of the two differed far less
+in themselves than in the different uses to which temperament and
+circumstances trained them.
+
+The most salient intellectual characteristic of Mr. Browning senior was
+his passion for reading. In his daughter's words, 'he read in season,
+and out of season;' and he not only read, but remembered. As a
+schoolboy, he knew by heart the first book of the 'Iliad', and all
+the odes of Horace; and it shows how deeply the classical part of his
+training must have entered into him, that he was wont, in later life, to
+soothe his little boy to sleep by humming to him an ode of Anacreon. It
+was one of his amusements at school to organize Homeric combats among
+the boys, in which the fighting was carried on in the manner of the
+Greeks and Trojans, and he and his friend Kenyon would arm themselves
+with swords and shields, and hack at each other lustily, exciting
+themselves to battle by insulting speeches derived from the Homeric
+text.*
+
+     * This anecdote is partly quoted from Mrs. Andrew Crosse,
+     who has introduced it into her article 'John Kenyon and his
+     Friends',
+     'Temple Bar', April 1890.  She herself received it from Mr.
+          Dykes Campbell.
+
+Mr. Browning had also an extraordinary power of versifying, and taught
+his son from babyhood the words he wished him to remember, by joining
+them to a grotesque rhyme; the child learned all his Latin declensions
+in this way. His love of art had been proved by his desire to adopt it
+as a profession; his talent for it was evidenced by the life and power
+of the sketches, often caricatures, which fell from his pen or pencil as
+easily as written words. Mr. Barrett Browning remembers gaining a very
+early elementary knowledge of anatomy from comic illustrated rhymes
+(now in the possession of their old friend, Mrs. Fraser Corkran) through
+which his grandfather impressed upon him the names and position of the
+principal bones of the human body.
+
+Even more remarkable than his delight in reading was the manner in
+which Mr. Browning read. He carried into it all the preciseness of the
+scholar. It was his habit when he bought a book--which was generally
+an old one allowing of this addition--to have some pages of blank paper
+bound into it. These he filled with notes, chronological tables, or such
+other supplementary matter as would enhance the interest, or assist the
+mastering, of its contents; all written in a clear and firm though by
+no means formal handwriting. More than one book thus treated by him
+has passed through my hands, leaving in me, it need hardly be said,
+a stronger impression of the owner's intellectual quality than the
+acquisition by him of the finest library could have conveyed. One of the
+experiences which disgusted him with St. Kitt's was the frustration
+by its authorities of an attempt he was making to teach a negro boy
+to read, and the understanding that all such educative action was
+prohibited.
+
+In his faculties and attainments, as in his pleasures and appreciations,
+he showed the simplicity and genuineness of a child. He was not only
+ready to amuse, he could always identify himself with children, his
+love for whom never failed him in even his latest years. His more than
+childlike indifference to pecuniary advantages had been shown in early
+life. He gave another proof of it after his wife's death, when he
+declined a proposal, made to him by the Bank of England, to assist in
+founding one of its branch establishments in Liverpool. He never indeed,
+personally, cared for money, except as a means of acquiring old, i.e.
+rare books, for which he had, as an acquaintance declared, the scent
+of a hound and the snap of a bulldog. His eagerness to possess such
+treasures was only matched by the generosity with which he parted with
+them; and his daughter well remembers the feeling of angry suspicion
+with which she and her brother noted the periodical arrival of a certain
+visitor who would be closeted with their father for hours, and steal
+away before the supper time, when the family would meet, with some
+precious parcel of books or prints under his arm.
+
+It is almost superfluous to say that he was indifferent to creature
+comforts. Miss Browning was convinced that, if on any occasion she had
+said to him, 'There will be no dinner to-day,' he would only have
+looked up from his book to reply, 'All right, my dear, it is of no
+consequence.' In his bank-clerk days, when he sometimes dined in Town,
+he left one restaurant with which he was not otherwise dissatisfied,
+because the waiter always gave him the trouble of specifying what he
+would have to eat. A hundred times that trouble would not have deterred
+him from a kindly act. Of his goodness of heart, indeed, many distinct
+instances might be given; but even this scanty outline of his life has
+rendered them superfluous.
+
+Mr. Browning enjoyed splendid physical health. His early love of reading
+had not precluded a wholesome enjoyment of athletic sports; and he was,
+as a boy, the fastest runner and best base-ball player in his school. He
+died, like his father, at eighty-four (or rather, within a few days of
+eighty-five), but, unlike him, he had never been ill; a French friend
+exclaimed when all was over, 'Il n'a jamais ete vieux.' His faculties
+were so unclouded up to the last moment that he could watch himself
+dying, and speculate on the nature of the change which was befalling
+him. 'What do you think death is, Robert?' he said to his son; 'is it
+a fainting, or is it a pang?' A notice of his decease appeared in an
+American newspaper. It was written by an unknown hand, and bears a stamp
+of genuineness which renders the greater part of it worth quoting.
+
+
+'He was not only a ruddy, active man, with fine hair, that retained its
+strength and brownness to the last, but he had a courageous spirit and a
+remarkably intelligent mind. He was a man of the finest culture, and was
+often, and never vainly, consulted by his son Robert concerning the more
+recondite facts relating to the old characters, whose bones that poet
+liked so well to disturb. His knowledge of old French, Spanish, and
+Italian literature was wonderful. The old man went smiling and peaceful
+to his long rest, preserving his faculties to the last, insomuch that
+the physician, astonished at his continued calmness and good humour,
+turned to his daughter, and said in a low voice, "Does this gentleman
+know that he is dying?" The daughter said in a voice which the father
+could hear, "He knows it;" and the old man said with a quiet smile,
+"Death is no enemy in my eyes." His last words were spoken to his son
+Robert, who was fanning him, "I fear I am wearying you, dear."'
+
+
+Four years later one of his English acquaintances in Paris, Mr.
+Frederick Locker, now Mr. Locker-Lampson, wrote to Robert Browning as
+follows:
+
+
+Dec. 26, 1870.
+
+My dear Browning,--I have always thought that you or Miss Browning, or
+some other capable person, should draw up a sketch of your excellent
+father so that, hereafter, it might be known what an interesting man he
+was.
+
+I used often to meet you in Paris, at Lady Elgin's. She had a genuine
+taste for poetry, and she liked being read to, and I remember you gave
+her a copy of Keats' poems, and you used often to read his poetry to
+her. Lady Elgin died in 1860, and I think it was in that year that Lady
+Charlotte and I saw the most of Mr. Browning.* He was then quite an
+elderly man, if years could make him so, but he had so much vivacity of
+manner, and such simplicity and freshness of mind, that it was difficult
+to think him old.
+
+     * Mr. Locker was then married to Lady Charlotte Bruce, Lady
+     Elgin's daughter.
+
+I remember, he and your sister lived in an apartment in the Rue de
+Grenelle, St. Germain, in quite a simple fashion, much in the way that
+most people live in Paris, and in the way that all sensible people would
+wish to live all over the world.
+
+Your father and I had at least one taste and affection in common. He
+liked hunting the old bookstalls on the 'quais', and he had a great
+love and admiration for Hogarth; and he possessed several of Hogarth's
+engravings, some in rare and early states of the plate; and he would
+relate with glee the circumstances under which he had picked them up,
+and at so small a price too! However, he had none of the 'petit-maitre'
+weakness of the ordinary collector, which is so common, and which I own
+to!--such as an infatuation for tall copies, and wide margins.
+
+I remember your father was fond of drawing in a rough and ready fashion;
+he had plenty of talent, I should think not very great cultivation; but
+quite enough to serve his purpose, and to amuse his friends. He had a
+thoroughly lively and _healthy_ interest in your poetry, and he showed me
+some of your boyish attempts at versification.
+
+Taking your dear father altogether, I quite believe him to have been one
+of those men--interesting men--whom the world never hears of. Perhaps he
+was shy--at any rate he was much less known than he ought to have been;
+and now, perhaps, he only remains in the recollection of his family,
+and of one or two superior people (like myself!) who were capable of
+appreciating him. My dear Browning, I really hope you will draw up a
+slight sketch of your father before it is too late. Yours, Frederick
+Locker.
+
+
+The judgments thus expressed twenty years ago are cordially re-stated
+in the letter in which Mr. Locker-Lampson authorizes me to publish them.
+The desired memoir was never written; but the few details which I have
+given of the older Mr. Browning's life and character may perhaps stand
+for it.
+
+With regard to the 'strict dissent' with which her parents have been
+taxed, Miss Browning writes to me: 'My father was born and educated in
+the Church of England, and, for many years before his death, lived in
+her communion. He became a Dissenter in middle life, and my mother, born
+and brought up in the Kirk of Scotland, became one also; but they could
+not be called bigoted, since we always in the evening attended the
+preaching of the Rev. Henry Melvill* (afterwards Canon of St. Paul's),
+whose sermons Robert much admired.'**
+
+     * At Camden Chapel, Camberwell.
+
+     ** Mr. Browning was much interested, in later years, in
+     hearing Canon, perhaps then already Archdeacon, Farrar extol
+     his eloquence and ask whether he had known him.  Mr. Ruskin
+     also spoke of him with admiration.
+
+Little need be said about the poet's mother. She was spoken of by
+Carlyle as 'the true type of a Scottish gentlewoman.' Mr. Kenyon
+declared that such as she had no need to go to heaven, because they made
+it wherever they were. But her character was all resumed in her son's
+words, spoken with the tremulous emotion which so often accompanied his
+allusion to those he had loved and lost: 'She was a divine woman.' She
+was Scotch on the maternal side, and her kindly, gentle, but distinctly
+evangelical Christianity must have been derived from that source. Her
+father, William Wiedemann, a ship-owner, was a Hamburg German settled
+in Dundee, and has been described by Mr. Browning as an accomplished
+draughtsman and musician. She herself had nothing of the artist about
+her, though we hear of her sometimes playing the piano; in all her
+goodness and sweetness she seems to have been somewhat matter-of-fact.
+But there is abundant indirect evidence of Mr. Browning's love of
+music having come to him through her, and we are certainly justified in
+holding the Scottish-German descent as accountable, in great measure
+at least, for the metaphysical quality so early apparent in the poet's
+mind, and of which we find no evidence in that of his father. His strong
+religious instincts must have been derived from both parents, though
+most anxiously fostered by his mother.
+
+There is yet another point on which Mrs. Browning must have influenced
+the life and destinies of her son, that of physical health, or, at
+least, nervous constitution. She was a delicate woman, very anaemic
+during her later years, and a martyr to neuralgia, which was perhaps a
+symptom of this condition. The acute ailment reproduced itself in
+her daughter in spite of an otherwise vigorous constitution. With the
+brother, the inheritance of suffering was not less surely present, if
+more difficult to trace. We have been accustomed to speaking of him as a
+brilliantly healthy man; he was healthy, even strong, in many essential
+respects. Until past the age of seventy he could take long walks without
+fatigue, and endure an amount of social and general physical strain
+which would have tried many younger men. He carried on until the last a
+large, if not always serious, correspondence, and only within the latest
+months, perhaps weeks of his life, did his letters even suggest that
+physical brain-power was failing him. He had, within the limits which
+his death has assigned to it, a considerable recuperative power. His
+consciousness of health was vivid, so long as he was well; and it was
+only towards the end that the faith in his probable length of days
+occasionally deserted him. But he died of no acute disease, more than
+seven years younger than his father, having long carried with him
+external marks of age from which his father remained exempt. Till
+towards the age of forty he suffered from attacks of sore-throat, not
+frequent, but of an angry kind. He was constantly troubled by imperfect
+action of the liver, though no doctor pronounced the evil serious. I
+have spoken of this in reference to his complexion. During the last
+twenty years, if not for longer, he rarely spent a winter without a
+suffocating cold and cough; within the last five, asthmatic symptoms
+established themselves; and when he sank under what was perhaps his
+first real attack of bronchitis it was not because the attack was very
+severe, but because the heart was exhausted. The circumstances of his
+death recalled that of his mother; and we might carry the sad analogy
+still farther in his increasing pallor, and the slow and not strong
+pulse which always characterized him. This would perhaps be a mistake.
+It is difficult to reconcile any idea of bloodlessness with the bounding
+vitality of his younger body and mind. Any symptom of organic disease
+could scarcely, in his case, have been overlooked. But so much is
+certain: he was conscious of what he called a nervousness of nature
+which neither father nor grandfather could have bequeathed to him. He
+imputed to this, or, in other words, to an undue physical sensitiveness
+to mental causes of irritation, his proneness to deranged liver, and
+the asthmatic conditions which he believed, rightly or wrongly, to be
+produced by it. He was perhaps mistaken in some of his inferences, but
+he was not mistaken in the fact. He had the pleasures as well as the
+pains of this nervous temperament; its quick response to every congenial
+stimulus of physical atmosphere, and human contact. It heightened the
+enjoyment, perhaps exaggerated the consciousness of his physical powers.
+It also certainly in his later years led him to overdraw them. Many
+persons have believed that he could not live without society; a
+prolonged seclusion from it would, for obvious reasons, have been
+unsuited to him. But the excited gaiety which to the last he carried
+into every social gathering was often primarily the result of a moral
+and physical effort which his temperament prompted, but his strength
+could not always justify. Nature avenged herself in recurrent periods of
+exhaustion, long before the closing stage had set in.
+
+I shall subsequently have occasion to trace this nervous impressibility
+through various aspects and relations of his life; all I now seek to
+show is that this healthiest of poets and most real of men was not
+compounded of elements of pure health, and perhaps never could have been
+so. It might sound grotesque to say that only a delicate woman could
+have been the mother of Robert Browning. The fact remains that of such
+a one, and no other, he was born; and we may imagine, without being
+fanciful, that his father's placid intellectual powers required for
+their transmutation into poetic genius just this infusion of a vital
+element not only charged with other racial and individual qualities, but
+physically and morally more nearly allied to pain. Perhaps, even for his
+happiness as a man, we could not have wished it otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+1812-1826
+
+Birth of Robert Browning--His Childhood and Schooldays--Restless
+Temperament--Brilliant Mental Endowments--Incidental
+Peculiarities--Strong Religious Feeling--Passionate Attachment to his
+Mother; Grief at first Separation--Fondness for Animals--Experiences of
+School Life--Extensive Reading--Early Attempts in Verse--Letter from his
+Father concerning them--Spurious Poems in Circulation--'Incondita'--Mr.
+Fox--Miss Flower.
+
+
+
+Robert Browning was born, as has been often repeated, at Camberwell, on
+May 7, 1812, soon after a great comet had disappeared from the sky.
+He was a handsome, vigorous, fearless child, and soon developed an
+unresting activity and a fiery temper. He clamoured for occupation from
+the moment he could speak. His mother could only keep him quiet when
+once he had emerged from infancy by telling him stories--doubtless
+Bible stories--while holding him on her knee. His energies were of
+course destructive till they had found their proper outlet; but we do
+not hear of his ever having destroyed anything for the mere sake of
+doing so. His first recorded piece of mischief was putting a handsome
+Brussels lace veil of his mother's into the fire; but the motive, which
+he was just old enough to lisp out, was also his excuse: 'A pitty baze
+[pretty blaze], mamma.' Imagination soon came to his rescue. It has
+often been told how he extemporized verse aloud while walking round and
+round the dining-room table supporting himself by his hands, when he was
+still so small that his head was scarcely above it. He remembered having
+entertained his mother in the very first walk he was considered old
+enough to take with her, by a fantastic account of his possessions in
+houses, &c., of which the topographical details elicited from her the
+remark, 'Why, sir, you are quite a geographer.' And though this kind of
+romancing is common enough among intelligent children, it distinguishes
+itself in this case by the strong impression which the incident had left
+on his own mind. It seems to have been a first real flight of dramatic
+fancy, confusing his identity for the time being.
+
+The power of inventing did not, however, interfere with his readiness to
+learn, and the facility with which he acquired whatever knowledge came
+in his way had, on one occasion, inconvenient results. A lady of reduced
+fortunes kept a small elementary school for boys, a stone's-throw from
+his home; and he was sent to it as a day boarder at so tender an age
+that his parents, it is supposed, had no object in view but to get
+rid of his turbulent activity for an hour or two every morning and
+afternoon. Nevertheless, his proficiency in reading and spelling was
+soon so much ahead of that of the biggest boy, that complaints broke
+out among the mammas, who were sure there was not fair play. Mrs.----was
+neglecting her other pupils for the sake of 'bringing on Master
+Browning;' and the poor lady found it necessary to discourage Master
+Browning's attendance lest she should lose the remainder of her flock.
+This, at least, was the story as he himself remembered it. According to
+Miss Browning his instructress did not yield without a parting shot.
+She retorted on the discontented parents that, if she could give their
+children 'Master Browning's intellect', she would have no difficulty
+in satisfying them. After this came the interlude of home-teaching, in
+which all his elementary knowledge must have been gained. As an older
+child he was placed with two Misses Ready, who prepared boys for
+entering their brother's (the Rev. Thomas Ready's) school; and in due
+time he passed into the latter, where he remained up to the age of
+fourteen.
+
+He seems in those early days to have had few playmates beyond his
+sister, two years younger than himself, and whom his irrepressible
+spirit must sometimes have frightened or repelled. Nor do we hear
+anything of childish loves; and though an entry appeared in his diary
+one Sunday in about the seventh or eighth year of his age, 'married two
+wives this morning,' it only referred to a vague imaginary appropriation
+of two girls whom he had just seen in church, and whose charm probably
+lay in their being much bigger than he. He was, however, capable of a
+self-conscious shyness in the presence of even a little girl; and his
+sense of certain proprieties was extraordinarily keen. He told a friend
+that on one occasion, when the merest child, he had edged his way by the
+wall from one point of his bedroom to another, because he was not fully
+clothed, and his reflection in the glass could otherwise have been seen
+through the partly open door.*
+
+     * Another anecdote, of a very different kind, belongs to an
+     earlier period, and to that category of pure naughtiness
+     which could not fail to be sometimes represented in the
+     conduct of so gifted a child. An old lady who visited his
+     mother, and was characterized in the family as 'Aunt Betsy',
+     had irritated him by pronouncing the word 'lovers' with the
+     contemptuous jerk which the typical old maid is sometimes
+     apt to impart to it, when once the question had arisen why a
+     certain 'Lovers' Walk' was so called.  He was too nearly a
+     baby to imagine what a 'lover' was; he supposed the name
+     denoted a trade or occupation.  But his human sympathy
+     resented Aunt Betsy's manner as an affront; and he
+     determined, after probably repeated provocation, to show her
+     something worse than a 'lover', whatever this might be. So
+     one night he slipped out of bed, exchanged his nightgown for
+     what he considered the appropriate undress of a devil,
+     completed this by a paper tail, and the ugliest face he
+     could make, and rushed into the drawing-room, where the old
+     lady and his mother were drinking tea.  He was snatched up
+     and carried away before he had had time to judge the effect
+     of his apparition; but he did not think, looking back upon
+     the circumstances in later life, that Aunt Betsy had
+     deserved quite so ill of her fellow-creatures as he then
+     believed.
+
+His imaginative emotions were largely absorbed by religion. The early
+Biblical training had had its effect, and he was, to use his own words,
+'passionately religious' in those nursery years; but during them and
+many succeeding ones, his mother filled his heart. He loved her so much,
+he has been heard to say, that even as a grown man he could not sit
+by her otherwise than with an arm round her waist. It is difficult to
+measure the influence which this feeling may have exercised on his later
+life; it led, even now, to a strange and touching little incident
+which had in it the incipient poet no less than the loving child. His
+attendance at Miss Ready's school only kept him from home from Monday
+till Saturday of every week; but when called upon to confront his first
+five days of banishment he felt sure that he would not survive them. A
+leaden cistern belonging to the school had in, or outside it, the raised
+image of a face. He chose the cistern for his place of burial, and
+converted the face into his epitaph by passing his hand over and over it
+to a continuous chant of: 'In memory of unhappy Browning'--the ceremony
+being renewed in his spare moments, till the acute stage of the feeling
+had passed away.
+
+The fondness for animals for which through life he was noted, was
+conspicuous in his very earliest days. His urgent demand for 'something
+to do' would constantly include 'something to be caught' for him: 'they
+were to catch him an eft;' 'they were to catch him a frog.' He would
+refuse to take his medicine unless bribed by the gift of a speckled frog
+from among the strawberries; and the maternal parasol, hovering above
+the strawberry bed during the search for this object of his desires,
+remained a standing picture in his remembrance. But the love of the
+uncommon was already asserting itself; and one of his very juvenile
+projects was a collection of rare creatures, the first contribution to
+which was a couple of lady-birds, picked up one winter's day on a wall
+and immediately consigned to a box lined with cotton-wool, and labelled,
+'Animals found surviving in the depths of a severe winter.' Nor did
+curiosity in this case weaken the power of sympathy. His passion for
+birds and beasts was the counterpart of his father's love of children,
+only displaying itself before the age at which child-love naturally
+appears. His mother used to read Croxall's Fables to his little sister
+and him. The story contained in them of a lion who was kicked to death
+by an ass affected him so painfully that he could no longer endure the
+sight of the book; and as he dared not destroy it, he buried it between
+the stuffing and the woodwork of an old dining-room chair, where it
+stood for lost, at all events for the time being. When first he heard
+the adventures of the parrot who insisted on leaving his cage, and who
+enjoyed himself for a little while and then died of hunger and cold,
+he--and his sister with him--cried so bitterly that it was found
+necessary to invent a different ending, according to which the parrot
+was rescued just in time and brought back to his cage to live peacefully
+in it ever after.
+
+As a boy, he kept owls and monkeys, magpies and hedgehogs, an eagle,
+and even a couple of large snakes, constantly bringing home the more
+portable creatures in his pockets, and transferring them to his mother
+for immediate care. I have heard him speak admiringly of the skilful
+tenderness with which she took into her lap a lacerated cat, washed
+and sewed up its ghastly wound, and nursed it back to health. The great
+intimacy with the life and habits of animals which reveals itself in his
+works is readily explained by these facts.
+
+Mr. Ready's establishment was chosen for him as the best in the
+neighbourhood; and both there and under the preparatory training of that
+gentleman's sisters, the young Robert was well and kindly cared for. The
+Misses Ready especially concerned themselves with the spiritual welfare
+of their pupils. The periodical hair-brushings were accompanied by the
+singing, and fell naturally into the measure, of Watts's hymns; and Mr.
+Browning has given his friends some very hearty laughs by illustrating
+with voice and gesture the ferocious emphasis with which the brush would
+swoop down in the accentuated syllables of the following lines:
+
+     Lord, 'tis a pleasant thing to stand
+     In gardens planted by Thy hand.
+
+     .    .    .    .    .
+
+     Fools never raise their thoughts so high,
+     Like 'brutes' they live, like _brutes_ they die.
+
+He even compelled his mother to laugh at it, though it was sorely
+against her nature to lend herself to any burlesquing of piously
+intended things.* He had become a bigger boy since the episode of the
+cistern, and had probably in some degree outgrown the intense piety of
+his earlier childhood. This little incident seems to prove it. On the
+whole, however, his religious instincts did not need strengthening,
+though his sense of humour might get the better of them for a moment;
+and of secular instruction he seems to have received as little from the
+one set of teachers as from the other. I do not suppose that the mental
+training at Mr. Ready's was more shallow or more mechanical than that
+of most other schools of his own or, indeed, of a much later period; but
+the brilliant abilities of Robert Browning inspired him with a certain
+contempt for it, as also for the average schoolboy intelligence to
+which it was apparently adapted. It must be for this reason that, as he
+himself declared, he never gained a prize, although these rewards were
+showered in such profusion that the only difficulty was to avoid
+them; and if he did not make friends at school (for this also has been
+somewhere observed),** it can only be explained in the same way. He
+was at an intolerant age, and if his schoolfellows struck him as more
+backward or more stupid than they need be, he is not likely to have
+taken pains to conceal the impression. It is difficult, at all events,
+to think of him as unsociable, and his talents certainly had their
+amusing side. Miss Browning tells me that he made his schoolfellows
+act plays, some of which he had written for them; and he delighted his
+friends, not long ago, by mimicking his own solemn appearance on some
+breaking-up or commemorative day, when, according to programme, 'Master
+Browning' ascended a platform in the presence of assembled parents and
+friends, and, in best jacket, white gloves, and carefully curled hair,
+with a circular bow to the company and the then prescribed waving
+of alternate arms, delivered a high-flown rhymed address of his own
+composition.
+
+     * In spite of this ludicrous association Mr. Browning always
+     recognized great merit in Watts's hymns, and still more in
+     Dr. Watts himself, who had devoted to this comparatively
+     humble work intellectual powers competent to far higher
+     things.
+
+     ** It was in no case literally true.  William, afterwards
+     Sir William, Channel was leaving Mr. Ready when Browning
+     went to him; but a friendly acquaintance began, and was
+     afterwards continued, between the two boys; and a closer
+     friendship, formed with a younger brother Frank, was only
+     interrupted by his death.  Another school friend or
+     acquaintance recalled himself as such to the poet's memory
+     some ten or twelve years ago. A man who has reached the age
+     at which his boyhood becomes of interest to the world may
+     even have survived many such relations.
+
+And during the busy idleness of his schooldays, or, at all events, in
+the holidays in which he rested from it, he was learning, as perhaps
+only those do learn whose real education is derived from home. His
+father's house was, Miss Browning tells me, literally crammed with
+books; and, she adds, 'it was in this way that Robert became very early
+familiar with subjects generally unknown to boys.' He read omnivorously,
+though certainly not without guidance. One of the books he best and
+earliest loved was 'Quarles' Emblemes', which his father possessed in
+a seventeenth century edition, and which contains one or two very
+tentative specimens of his early handwriting. Its quaint, powerful lines
+and still quainter illustrations combined the marvellous with what he
+believed to be true; and he seemed specially identified with its world
+of religious fancies by the fact that the soul in it was always depicted
+as a child. On its more general grounds his reading was at once largely
+literary and very historical; and it was in this direction that the
+paternal influence was most strongly revealed. 'Quarles' Emblemes'
+was only one of the large collection of old books which Mr. Browning
+possessed; and the young Robert learnt to know each favourite author in
+the dress as well as the language which carried with it the life of his
+period. The first edition of 'Robinson Crusoe'; the first edition of
+Milton's works, bought for him by his father; a treatise on astrology
+published twenty years after the introduction of printing; the original
+pamphlet 'Killing no Murder' (1559), which Carlyle borrowed for his
+'Life of Cromwell'; an equally early copy of Bernard Mandeville's
+'Bees'; very ancient Bibles--are some of the instances which occur to
+me. Among more modern publications, 'Walpole's Letters' were familiar to
+him in boyhood, as well as the 'Letters of Junius' and all the works of
+Voltaire.
+
+Ancient poets and poetry also played their necessary part in the mental
+culture superintended by Robert Browning's father: we can indeed imagine
+no case in which they would not have found their way into the boy's
+life. Latin poets and Greek dramatists came to him in their due time,
+though his special delight in the Greek language only developed itself
+later. But his loving, lifelong familiarity with the Elizabethan school,
+and indeed with the whole range of English poetry, seems to point to
+a more constant study of our national literature. Byron was his chief
+master in those early poetic days. He never ceased to honour him as the
+one poet who combined a constructive imagination with the more technical
+qualities of his art; and the result of this period of aesthetic
+training was a volume of short poems produced, we are told, when he was
+only twelve, in which the Byronic influence was predominant.
+
+The young author gave his work the title of 'Incondita', which conveyed
+a certain idea of deprecation. He was, nevertheless, very anxious to see
+it in print; and his father and mother, poetry-lovers of the old
+school, also found in it sufficient merit to justify its publication.
+No publisher, however, could be found; and we can easily believe that
+he soon afterwards destroyed the little manuscript, in some mingled
+reaction of disappointment and disgust. But his mother, meanwhile, had
+shown it to an acquaintance of hers, Miss Flower, who herself admired
+its contents so much as to make a copy of them for the inspection of her
+friend, the well-known Unitarian minister, Mr. W. J. Fox. The copy was
+transmitted to Mr. Browning after Mr. Fox's death by his daughter, Mrs.
+Bridell-Fox; and this, if no other, was in existence in 1871, when, at
+his urgent request, that lady also returned to him a fragment of verse
+contained in a letter from Miss Sarah Flower. Nor was it till much later
+that a friend, who had earnestly begged for a sight of it, definitely
+heard of its destruction. The fragment, which doubtless shared the same
+fate, was, I am told, a direct imitation of Coleridge's 'Fire, Famine,
+and Slaughter'.
+
+These poems were not Mr. Browning's first. It would be impossible to
+believe them such when we remember that he composed verses long before
+he could write; and a curious proof of the opposite fact has recently
+appeared. Two letters of the elder Mr. Browning have found their way
+into the market, and have been bought respectively by Mr. Dykes Campbell
+and Sir F. Leighton. I give the more important of them. It was addressed
+to Mr. Thomas Powell:
+
+
+Dear Sir,--I hope the enclosed may be acceptable as curiosities. They
+were written by Robert when quite a child. I once had nearly a hundred
+of them. But he has destroyed all that ever came in his way, having a
+great aversion to the practice of many biographers in recording every
+trifling incident that falls in their way. He has not the slightest
+suspicion that any of his very juvenile performances are in existence.
+I have several of the originals by me. They are all extemporaneous
+productions, nor has any one a single alteration. There was one amongst
+them 'On Bonaparte'--remarkably beautiful--and had I not seen it in
+his own handwriting I never would have believed it to have been the
+production of a child. It is destroyed. Pardon my troubling you with
+these specimens, and requesting you never to mention it, as Robert
+would be very much hurt. I remain, dear sir, Your obedient servant, R.
+Browning. Bank: March 11, 1843.
+
+
+The letter was accompanied by a sheet of verses which have been sold
+and resold, doubtless in perfect good faith, as being those to which the
+writer alludes. But Miss Browning has recognized them as her father's
+own impromptu epigrams, well remembered in the family, together with
+the occasion on which they were written. The substitution may, from the
+first, have been accidental.
+
+We cannot think of all these vanished first-fruits of Mr. Browning's
+genius without a sense of loss, all the greater perhaps that there can
+have been little in them to prefigure its later forms. Their faults seem
+to have lain in the direction of too great splendour of language and too
+little wealth of thought; and Mr. Fox, who had read 'Incondita' and been
+struck by its promise, confessed afterwards to Mr. Browning that he had
+feared these tendencies as his future snare. But the imitative first
+note of a young poet's voice may hold a rapture of inspiration which
+his most original later utterances will never convey. It is the child
+Sordello, singing against the lark.
+
+Not even the poet's sister ever saw 'Incondita'. It was the only one of
+his finished productions which Miss Browning did not read, or even
+help him to write out. She was then too young to be taken into his
+confidence. Its writing, however, had one important result. It procured
+for the boy-poet a preliminary introduction to the valuable literary
+patron and friend Mr. Fox was subsequently to be. It also supplies the
+first substantial record of an acquaintance which made a considerable
+impression on his personal life.
+
+The Miss Flower, of whom mention has been made, was one of two sisters,
+both sufficiently noted for their artistic gifts to have found a place
+in the new Dictionary of National Biography. The elder, Eliza or Lizzie,
+was a musical composer; the younger, best known as Sarah Flower Adams,
+a writer of sacred verse. Her songs and hymns, including the well-known
+'Nearer, my God, to Thee', were often set to music by her sister.* They
+sang, I am told, delightfully together, and often without accompaniment,
+their voices perfectly harmonizing with each other. Both were, in their
+different ways, very attractive; both interesting, not only from their
+talents, but from their attachment to each other, and the delicacy which
+shortened their lives. They died of consumption, the elder in 1846, at
+the age of forty-three; the younger a year later. They became acquainted
+with Mrs. Browning through a common friend, Miss Sturtevant; and the
+young Robert conceived a warm admiration for Miss Flower's talents,
+and a boyish love for herself. She was nine years his senior; her own
+affections became probably engaged, and, as time advanced, his feeling
+seems to have subsided into one of warm and very loyal friendship. We
+hear, indeed, of his falling in love, as he was emerging from his teens,
+with a handsome girl who was on a visit at his father's house. But the
+fancy died out 'for want of root.' The admiration, even tenderness, for
+Miss Flower had so deep a 'root' that he never in latest life mentioned
+her name with indifference. In a letter to Mr. Dykes Campbell, in 1881,
+he spoke of her as 'a very remarkable person.' If, in spite of his
+denials, any woman inspired 'Pauline', it can have been no other than
+she. He began writing to her at twelve or thirteen, probably on the
+occasion of her expressed sympathy with his first distinct effort at
+authorship; and what he afterwards called 'the few utterly insignificant
+scraps of letters and verse' which formed his part of the correspondence
+were preserved by her as long as she lived. But he recovered and
+destroyed them after his return to England, with all the other
+reminiscences of those early years. Some notes, however, are extant,
+dated respectively, 1841, 1842, and 1845, and will be given in their due
+place.
+
+     * She also wrote a dramatic poem in five acts, entitled
+     'Vivia Perpetua', referred to by Mrs. Jameson in her 'Sacred
+     and Legendary Art', and by Leigh Hunt, when he spoke of her
+     in 'Blue-Stocking Revels', as 'Mrs. Adams, rare mistress of
+     thought and of tears.'
+
+Mr. Fox was a friend of Miss Flower's father (Benjamin Flower, known as
+editor of the 'Cambridge Intelligencer'), and, at his death, in 1829,
+became co-executor to his will, and a kind of guardian to his daughters,
+then both unmarried, and motherless from their infancy. Eliza's
+principal work was a collection of hymns and anthems, originally
+composed for Mr. Fox's chapel, where she had assumed the entire
+management of the choral part of the service. Her abilities were not
+confined to music; she possessed, I am told, an instinctive taste and
+judgment in literary matters which caused her opinion to be much valued
+by literary men. But Mr. Browning's genuine appreciation of her musical
+genius was probably the strongest permanent bond between them. We shall
+hear of this in his own words.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+1826-1833
+
+First Impressions of Keats and Shelley--Prolonged Influence
+of Shelley--Details of Home Education--Its Effects--Youthful
+Restlessness--Counteracting Love of Home--Early Friendships: Alfred
+Domett, Joseph Arnould, the Silverthornes--Choice of Poetry as a
+Profession--Alternative Suggestions; mistaken Rumours concerning
+them--Interest in Art--Love of good Theatrical Performances--Talent for
+Acting--Final Preparation for Literary Life.
+
+
+
+At the period at which we have arrived, which is that of his leaving
+school and completing his fourteenth year, another and a significant
+influence was dawning on Robert Browning's life--the influence of the
+poet Shelley. Mr. Sharp writes,* and I could only state the facts
+in similar words, 'Passing a bookstall one day, he saw, in a box
+of second-hand volumes, a little book advertised as "Mr. Shelley's
+Atheistical Poem: very scarce."' . . . 'From vague remarks in reply to
+his inquiries, and from one or two casual allusions, he learned that
+there really was a poet called Shelley; that he had written several
+volumes; that he was dead.' . . . 'He begged his mother to procure him
+Shelley's works, a request not easily complied with, for the excellent
+reason that not one of the local booksellers had even heard of the
+poet's name. Ultimately, however, Mrs. Browning learned that what she
+sought was procurable at the Olliers', in Vere Street, London.'
+
+     * 'Life of Browning', pp. 30, 31.
+
+Mrs. Browning went to Messrs. Ollier, and brought back 'most of
+Shelley's writings, all in their first edition, with the exception of
+"The Cenci".' She brought also three volumes of the still less known
+John Keats, on being assured that one who liked Shelley's works would
+like these also.
+
+Keats and Shelley must always remain connected in this epoch of
+Mr. Browning's poetic growth. They indeed came to him as the two
+nightingales which, he told some friends, sang together in the May-night
+which closed this eventful day: one in the laburnum in his father's
+garden, the other in a copper beech which stood on adjoining
+ground--with the difference indeed, that he must often have listened
+to the feathered singers before, while the two new human voices sounded
+from what were to him, as to so many later hearers, unknown heights and
+depths of the imaginative world. Their utterance was, to such a spirit
+as his, the last, as in a certain sense the first, word of what
+poetry can say; and no one who has ever heard him read the 'Ode to a
+Nightingale', and repeat in the same subdued tones, as if continuing
+his own thoughts, some line from 'Epipsychidion', can doubt that they
+retained a lasting and almost equal place in his poet's heart. But the
+two cannot be regarded as equals in their relation to his life, and it
+would be a great mistake to impute to either any important influence
+upon his genius. We may catch some fleeting echoes of Keats's melody
+in 'Pippa Passes'; it is almost a commonplace that some measure
+of Shelleyan fancy is recognizable in 'Pauline'. But the poetic
+individuality of Robert Browning was stronger than any circumstance
+through which it could be fed. It would have found nourishment in desert
+air. With his first accepted work he threw off what was foreign to
+his poetic nature, to be thenceforward his own never-to-be-subdued and
+never-to-be-mistaken self. If Shelley became, and long remained for him,
+the greatest poet of his age--of almost any age--it was not because he
+held him greatest in the poetic art, but because in his case, beyond
+all others, he believed its exercise to have been prompted by the truest
+spiritual inspiration.
+
+It is difficult to trace the process by which this conviction formed
+itself in the boy's mind; still more to account for the strong personal
+tenderness which accompanied it. The facts can have been scarcely known
+which were to present Shelley to his imagination as a maligned and
+persecuted man. It is hard to judge how far such human qualities as we
+now read into his work, could be apparent to one who only approached him
+through it. But the extra-human note in Shelley's genius irresistibly
+suggested to the Browning of fourteen, as it still did to the Browning
+of forty, the presence of a lofty spirit, one dwelling in the communion
+of higher things. There was often a deep sadness in his utterance; the
+consecration of an early death was upon him. And so the worship rooted
+itself and grew. It was to find its lyrical expression in 'Pauline'; its
+rational and, from the writer's point of view, philosophic justification
+in the prose essay on Shelley, published eighteen years afterwards.
+
+It may appear inconsistent with the nature of this influence that
+it began by appealing to him in a subversive form. The Shelley whom
+Browning first loved was the Shelley of 'Queen Mab', the Shelley who
+would have remodelled the whole system of religious belief, as of human
+duty and rights; and the earliest result of the new development was
+that he became a professing atheist, and, for two years, a practising
+vegetarian. He returned to his natural diet when he found his eyesight
+becoming weak. The atheism cured itself; we do not exactly know when or
+how. What we do know is, that it was with him a passing state of moral
+or imaginative rebellion, and not one of rational doubt. His mind was
+not so constituted that such doubt could fasten itself upon it; nor
+did he ever in after-life speak of this period of negation except as
+an access of boyish folly, with which his maturer self could have no
+concern. The return to religious belief did not shake his faith in his
+new prophet. It only made him willing to admit that he had misread him.
+
+This Shelley period of Robert Browning's life--that which intervened
+between 'Incondita' and 'Pauline'--remained, nevertheless, one of
+rebellion and unrest, to which many circumstances may have contributed
+besides the influence of the one mind. It had been decided that he was
+to complete, or at all events continue, his education at home; and,
+knowing the elder Mr. Browning as we do, we cannot doubt that the best
+reasons, of kindness or expediency, led to his so deciding. It was none
+the less, probably, a mistake, for the time being. The conditions of
+home life were the more favourable for the young poet's imaginative
+growth; but there can rarely have been a boy whose moral and mental
+health had more to gain by the combined discipline and freedom of a
+public school. His home training was made to include everything which
+in those days went to the production of an accomplished gentleman, and
+a great deal therefore that was physically good. He learned music,
+singing, dancing, riding, boxing, and fencing, and excelled in the
+more active of these pursuits. The study of music was also serious, and
+carried on under two masters. Mr. John Relfe, author of a valuable work
+on counterpoint, was his instructor in thorough-bass; Mr. Abel, a pupil
+of Moscheles, in execution. He wrote music for songs which he himself
+sang; among them Donne's 'Go and catch a falling star'; Hood's 'I will
+not have the mad Clytie'; Peacock's 'The mountain sheep are sweeter';
+and his settings, all of which he subsequently destroyed, were, I am
+told, very spirited. His education seems otherwise to have been purely
+literary. For two years, from the age of fourteen to that of sixteen,
+he studied with a French tutor, who, whether this was intended or not,
+imparted to him very little but a good knowledge of the French language
+and literature. In his eighteenth year he attended, for a term or two,
+a Greek class at the London University. His classical and other
+reading was probably continued. But we hear nothing in the programme of
+mathematics, or logic--of any, in short, of those subjects which train,
+even coerce, the thinking powers, and which were doubly requisite for
+a nature in which the creative imagination was predominant over all the
+other mental faculties, great as these other faculties were. And, even
+as poet, he suffered from this omission: since the involutions and
+overlappings of thought and phrase, which occur in his earlier and again
+in his latest works, must have been partly due to his never learning to
+follow the processes of more normally constituted minds. It would be
+a great error to suppose that they ever arose from the absence of a
+meaning clearly felt, if not always clearly thought out, by himself. He
+was storing his memory and enriching his mind; but precisely in so
+doing he was nourishing the consciousness of a very vivid and urgent
+personality; and, under the restrictions inseparable from the life of a
+home-bred youth, it was becoming a burden to him. What outlet he found
+in verse we do not know, because nothing survives of what he may then
+have written. It is possible that the fate of his early poems, and,
+still more, the change of ideals, retarded the definite impulse towards
+poetic production. It would be a relief to him to sketch out and
+elaborate the plan of his future work--his great mental portrait gallery
+of typical men and women; and he was doing so during at least the later
+years which preceded the birth of 'Pauline'. But even this must have
+been the result of some protracted travail with himself; because it was
+only the inward sense of very varied possibilities of existence which
+could have impelled him towards this kind of creation. No character he
+ever produced was merely a figment of the brain.
+
+It was natural, therefore, that during this time of growth he should
+have been, not only more restless, but less amiable than at any other.
+The always impatient temper assumed a quality of aggressiveness. He
+behaved as a youth will who knows himself to be clever, and believes
+that he is not appreciated, because the crude or paradoxical forms which
+his cleverness assumes do not recommend it to his elders' minds. He
+set the judgments of those about him at defiance, and gratuitously
+proclaimed himself everything that he was, and some things that he was
+not. All this subdued itself as time advanced, and the coming man in him
+could throw off the wayward child. It was all so natural that it might
+well be forgotten. But it distressed his mother, the one being in the
+world whom he entirely loved; and deserves remembering in the tender
+sorrow with which he himself remembered it. He was always ready to
+say that he had been worth little in his young days; indeed, his
+self-depreciation covered the greater part of his life. This was,
+perhaps, one reason of the difficulty of inducing him to dwell upon
+his past. 'I am better now,' he has said more than once, when its
+reminiscences have been invoked.
+
+One tender little bond maintained itself between his mother and himself
+so long as he lived under the paternal roof; it was his rule never to go
+to bed without giving her a good-night kiss. If he was out so late that
+he had to admit himself with a latch-key, he nevertheless went to her
+in her room. Nor did he submit to this as a necessary restraint; for,
+except on the occasions of his going abroad, it is scarcely on record
+that he ever willingly spent a night away from home. It may not stand
+for much, or it may stand to the credit of his restlessness, that,
+when he had been placed with some gentleman in Gower Street, for the
+convenience of attending the University lectures, or for the sake of
+preparing for them, he broke through the arrangement at the end of a
+week; but even an agreeable visit had no power to detain him beyond a
+few days.
+
+This home-loving quality was in curious contrast to the natural
+bohemianism of youthful genius, and the inclination to wildness which
+asserted itself in his boyish days. It became the more striking as he
+entered upon the age at which no reasonable amount of freedom can
+have been denied to him. Something, perhaps, must be allowed for the
+pecuniary dependence which forbade his forming any expensive habits of
+amusement; but he also claims the credit of having been unable to accept
+any low-life pleasures in place of them. I do not know how the idea can
+have arisen that he willingly sought his experience in the society
+of 'gipsies and tramps'. I remember nothing in his works which even
+suggests such association; and it is certain that a few hours spent at a
+fair would at all times have exhausted his capability of enduring it.
+In the most audacious imaginings of his later life, in the most
+undisciplined acts of his early youth, were always present curious
+delicacies and reserves. There was always latent in him the real
+goodness of heart which would not allow him to trifle consciously with
+other lives. Work must also have been his safeguard when the habit of it
+had been acquired, and when imagination, once his master, had learned to
+serve him.
+
+One tangible cause of his youthful restlessness has been implied in the
+foregoing remarks, but deserves stating in his sister's words: 'The
+fact was, poor boy, he had outgrown his social surroundings. They were
+absolutely good, but they were narrow; it could not be otherwise; he
+chafed under them.' He was not, however, quite without congenial society
+even before the turning-point in his outward existence which was reached
+in the publication of 'Pauline'; and one long friendly acquaintance,
+together with one lasting friendship, had their roots in these early
+Camberwell days. The families of Joseph Arnould and Alfred Domett
+both lived at Camberwell. These two young men were bred to the legal
+profession, and the former, afterwards Sir Joseph Arnould, became
+a judge in Bombay. But the father of Alfred Domett had been one of
+Nelson's captains, and the roving sailor spirit was apparent in his
+son; for he had scarcely been called to the Bar when he started for New
+Zealand on the instance of a cousin who had preceded him, but who was
+drowned in the course of a day's surveying before he could arrive. He
+became a member of the New Zealand Parliament, and ultimately, for a
+short time, of its Cabinet; only returning to England after an absence
+of thirty years. This Mr. Domett seems to have been a very modest man,
+besides a devoted friend of Robert Browning's, and on occasion a warm
+defender of his works. When he read the apostrophe to 'Alfred, dear
+friend,' in the 'Guardian Angel', he had reached the last line before it
+occurred to him that the person invoked could be he. I do not think that
+this poem, and that directly addressed to him under the pseudonym of
+'Waring', were the only ones inspired by the affectionate remembrance
+which he had left in their author's mind.
+
+Among his boy companions were also the three Silverthornes, his
+neighbours at Camberwell, and cousins on the maternal side. They appear
+to have been wild youths, and had certainly no part in his intellectual
+or literary life; but the group is interesting to his biographer.
+The three brothers were all gifted musicians; having also, probably,
+received this endowment from their mother's father. Mr. Browning
+conceived a great affection for the eldest, and on the whole most
+talented of the cousins; and when he had died--young, as they all
+did--he wrote 'May and Death' in remembrance of him. The name of
+'Charles' stands there for the old, familiar 'Jim', so often uttered by
+him in half-pitying, and all-affectionate allusion, in his later years.
+Mrs. Silverthorne was the aunt who paid for the printing of 'Pauline'.
+
+It was at about the time of his short attendance at University College
+that the choice of poetry as his future profession was formally made. It
+was a foregone conclusion in the young Robert's mind; and little less
+in that of his father, who took too sympathetic an interest in his son's
+life not to have seen in what direction his desires were tending. He
+must, it is true, at some time or other, have played with the thought of
+becoming an artist; but the thought can never have represented a wish.
+If he had entertained such a one, it would have met not only with no
+opposition on his father's part, but with a very ready assent, nor
+does the question ever seem to have been seriously mooted in the family
+councils. It would be strange, perhaps, if it had. Mr. Browning became
+very early familiar with the names of the great painters, and also
+learned something about their work; for the Dulwich Gallery was within a
+pleasant walk of his home, and his father constantly took him there. He
+retained through life a deep interest in art and artists, and became a
+very familiar figure in one or two London studios. Some drawings made
+by him from the nude, in Italy, and for which he had prepared himself by
+assiduous copying of casts and study of human anatomy, had, I believe,
+great merit. But painting was one of the subjects in which he never
+received instruction, though he modelled, under the direction of his
+friend Mr. Story; and a letter of his own will presently show that, in
+his youth at least, he never credited himself with exceptional artistic
+power. That he might have become an artist, and perhaps a great one,
+is difficult to doubt, in the face of his brilliant general ability and
+special gifts. The power to do a thing is, however, distinct from the
+impulse to do it, and proved so in the present case.
+
+More importance may be given to an idea of his father's that he should
+qualify himself for the Bar. It would naturally coincide with the
+widening of the social horizon which his University College classes
+supplied; it was possibly suggested by the fact that the closest friends
+he had already made, and others whom he was perhaps now making, were
+barristers. But this also remained an idea. He might have been placed in
+the Bank of England, where the virtual offer of an appointment had been
+made to him through his father; but the elder Browning spontaneously
+rejected this, as unworthy of his son's powers. He had never, he said,
+liked bank work himself, and could not, therefore, impose it on him.
+
+We have still to notice another, and a more mistaken view of the
+possibilities of Mr. Browning's life. It has been recently stated,
+doubtless on the authority of some words of his own, that the Church was
+a profession to which he once felt himself drawn. But an admission of
+this kind could only refer to that period of his childhood when natural
+impulse, combined with his mother's teaching and guidance, frequently
+caused his fancy and his feelings to assume a religious form. From the
+time when he was a free agent he ceased to be even a regular churchgoer,
+though religion became more, rather than less, an integral part of his
+inner life; and his alleged fondness for a variety of preachers meant
+really that he only listened to those who, from personal association
+or conspicuous merit, were interesting to him. I have mentioned Canon
+Melvill as one of these; the Rev. Thomas Jones was, as will be
+seen, another. In Venice he constantly, with his sister, joined the
+congregation of an Italian minister of the little Vaudois church there.*
+
+     * Mr. Browning's memory recalled a first and last effort at
+     preaching, inspired by one of his very earliest visits to a
+     place of worship. He extemporized a surplice or gown,
+     climbed into an arm-chair by way of pulpit, and held forth
+     so vehemently that his scarcely more than baby sister was
+     frightened and began to cry; whereupon he turned to an
+     imaginary presence, and said, with all the sternness which
+     the occasion required, 'Pew-opener, remove that child.'
+
+It would be far less surprising if we were told, on sufficient
+authority, that he had been disturbed by hankerings for the stage. He
+was a passionate admirer of good acting, and would walk from London to
+Richmond and back again to see Edmund Kean when he was performing there.
+We know how Macready impressed him, though the finer genius of Kean
+became very apparent to his retrospective judgment of the two; and it
+was impossible to see or hear him, as even an old man, in some momentary
+personation of one of Shakespeare's characters, above all of Richard
+III., and not feel that a great actor had been lost in him.
+
+So few professions were thought open to gentlemen in Robert Browning's
+eighteenth year, that his father's acquiescence in that which he had
+chosen might seem a matter scarcely less of necessity than of kindness.
+But we must seek the kindness not only in this first, almost inevitable,
+assent to his son's becoming a writer, but in the subsequent unfailing
+readiness to support him in his literary career. 'Paracelsus',
+'Sordello', and the whole of 'Bells and Pomegranates' were published at
+his father's expense, and, incredible as it appears, brought no return
+to him. This was vividly present to Mr. Browning's mind in what Mrs.
+Kemble so justly defines as those 'remembering days' which are the
+natural prelude to the forgetting ones. He declared, in the course of
+these, to a friend, that for it alone he owed more to his father than to
+anyone else in the world. Words to this effect, spoken in conversation
+with his sister, have since, as it was right they should, found their
+way into print. The more justly will the world interpret any incidental
+admission he may ever have made, of intellectual disagreement between
+that father and himself.
+
+When the die was cast, and young Browning was definitely to adopt
+literature as his profession, he qualified himself for it by reading and
+digesting the whole of Johnson's Dictionary. We cannot be surprised to
+hear this of one who displayed so great a mastery of words, and so deep
+a knowledge of the capacities of the English language.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+1833-1835
+
+'Pauline'--Letters to Mr. Fox--Publication of the Poem; chief
+Biographical and Literary Characteristics--Mr. Fox's Review in the
+'Monthly Repository'; other Notices--Russian Journey--Desired diplomatic
+Appointment--Minor Poems; first Sonnet; their Mode of Appearance--'The
+Trifler'--M. de Ripert-Monclar--'Paracelsus'--Letters to Mr. Fox
+concerning it; its Publication--Incidental Origin of 'Paracelsus'; its
+inspiring Motive; its Relation to 'Pauline'--Mr. Fox's Review of it in
+the 'Monthly Repository'--Article in the 'Examiner' by John Forster.
+
+
+
+Before Mr. Browning had half completed his twenty-first year he had
+written 'Pauline, a Fragment of a Confession'. His sister was in the
+secret, but this time his parents were not. This is why his aunt,
+hearing that 'Robert' had 'written a poem,' volunteered the sum
+requisite for its publication. Even this first instalment of success did
+not inspire much hope in the family mind, and Miss Browning made pencil
+copies of her favourite passages for the event, which seemed only too
+possible, of her never seeing the whole poem again. It was, however,
+accepted by Saunders and Otley, and appeared anonymously in 1833.
+Meanwhile the young author had bethought himself of his early
+sympathizer, Mr. Fox, and he wrote to him as follows (the letter is
+undated):
+
+
+Dear Sir,--Perhaps by the aid of the subjoined initials and a little
+reflection, you may recollect an oddish sort of boy, who had the honour
+of being introduced to you at Hackney some years back--at that time
+a sayer of verse and a doer of it, and whose doings you had a little
+previously commended after a fashion--(whether in earnest or not God
+knows): that individual it is who takes the liberty of addressing one
+whose slight commendation then, was more thought of than all the gun
+drum and trumpet of praise would be now, and to submit to you a free and
+easy sort of thing which he wrote some months ago 'on one leg' and which
+comes out this week--having either heard or dreamed that you contribute
+to the 'Westminster'.
+
+Should it be found too insignificant for cutting up, I shall no less
+remain, Dear sir, Your most obedient servant, R. B.
+
+I have forgotten the main thing--which is to beg you not to spoil
+a loophole I have kept for backing out of the thing if necessary,
+'sympathy of dear friends,' &c. &c., none of whom know anything about
+it.
+
+Monday Morning; Rev.--Fox.
+
+
+The answer was clearly encouraging, and Mr. Browning wrote again:
+
+
+Dear Sir,--In consequence of your kind permission I send, or will send,
+a dozen copies of 'Pauline' and (to mitigate the infliction) Shelley's
+Poem--on account of what you mentioned this morning. It will perhaps
+be as well that you let me know their safe arrival by a line to R. B.
+junior, Hanover Cottage, Southampton Street, Camberwell. You must not
+think me too encroaching, if I make the getting back 'Rosalind and
+Helen' an excuse for calling on you some evening--the said 'R. and
+H.' has, I observe, been well thumbed and sedulously marked by an
+acquaintance of mine, but I have not time to rub out his labour of love.
+I am, dear sir, Yours very really, R. Browning. Camberwell: 2 o'clock.
+
+
+At the left-hand corner of the first page of this note is written: 'The
+parcel--a "Pauline" parcel--is come. I send one as a witness.'
+
+On the inner page is written:
+
+'Impromptu on hearing a sermon by the Rev. T. R.--pronounced "heavy"--
+
+'A _heavy_ sermon!--sure the error's great, For not a word Tom uttered
+_had its weight_.'
+
+A third letter, also undated, but post-marked March 29, 1833, refers
+probably to the promise or announcement of a favourable notice. A fourth
+conveys Mr. Browning's thanks for the notice itself:
+
+
+My dear Sir,--I have just received your letter, which I am desirous of
+acknowledging before any further mark of your kindness reaches me;--I
+can only offer you my simple thanks--but they are of the sort that one
+can give only once or twice in a life: all things considered, I think
+you are almost repaid, if you imagine what I must feel--and it will have
+been worth while to have made a fool of myself, only to have obtained a
+'case' which leaves my fine fellow Mandeville at a dead lock.
+
+As for the book--I hope ere long to better it, and to deserve your
+goodness.
+
+In the meantime I shall not forget the extent to which I am, dear sir,
+Your most obliged and obedient servant R. B. S. & O.'s, Conduit St.,
+Thursday m-g.
+
+
+
+I must intrude on your attention, my dear sir, once more than I had
+intended--but a notice like the one I have read will have its effect at
+all hazards.
+
+I can only say that I am very proud to feel as grateful as I do, and
+not altogether hopeless of justifying, by effort at least, your most
+generous 'coming forward'. Hazlitt wrote his essays, as he somewhere
+tells us, mainly to send them to some one in the country who had 'always
+prophesied he would be something'!--I shall never write a line without
+thinking of the source of my first praise, be assured. I am, dear sir,
+Yours most truly and obliged, Robert Browning. March 31, 1833.
+
+
+Mr. Fox was then editor of a periodical called the 'Monthly Repository',
+which, as his daughter, Mrs. Bridell-Fox, writes in her graceful
+article on Robert Browning, in the 'Argosy' for February 1890, he was
+endeavouring to raise from its original denominational character into
+a first-class literary and political journal. The articles comprised in
+the volume for 1833 are certainly full of interest and variety, at once
+more popular and more solid than those prescribed by the present fashion
+of monthly magazines. He reviewed 'Pauline' favourably in its April
+number--that is, as soon as it had appeared; and the young poet thus
+received from him an introduction to what should have been, though it
+probably was not, a large circle of intelligent readers.
+
+The poem was characterized by its author, five years later, in a
+fantastic note appended to a copy of it, as 'the only remaining crab
+of the shapely Tree of Life in my Fool's Paradise.' This name is ill
+bestowed upon a work which, however wild a fruit of Mr. Browning's
+genius, contains, in its many lines of exquisite fancy and deep pathos,
+so much that is rich and sweet. It had also, to discard metaphor,
+its faults of exaggeration and confusion; and it is of these that Mr.
+Browning was probably thinking when he wrote his more serious apologetic
+preface to its reprint in 1868. But these faults were partly due to his
+conception of the character which he had tried to depict; and partly to
+the inherent difficulty of depicting one so complex, in a succession
+of mental and moral states, irrespectively of the conditions of time,
+place, and circumstance which were involved in them. Only a very
+powerful imagination could have inspired such an attempt. A still more
+conspicuous effort of creative genius reveals itself at its close. The
+moment chosen for the 'Confession' has been that of a supreme moral or
+physical crisis. The exhaustion attendant on this is directly expressed
+by the person who makes it, and may also be recognized in the vivid, yet
+confusing, intensity of the reminiscences of which it consists. But
+we are left in complete doubt as to whether the crisis is that of
+approaching death or incipient convalescence, or which character it
+bears in the sufferer's mind; and the language used in the closing pages
+is such as to suggest, without the slightest break in poetic continuity,
+alternately the one conclusion and the other. This was intended by
+Browning to assist his anonymity; and when the writer in 'Tait's
+Magazine' spoke of the poem as a piece of pure bewilderment, he
+expressed the natural judgment of the Philistine, while proving himself
+such. If the notice by J. S. Mill, which this criticism excluded, was
+indeed--as Mr. Browning always believed--much more sympathetic, I can
+only record my astonishment; for there never was a large and cultivated
+intelligence one can imagine less in harmony than his with the poetic
+excesses, or even the poetic qualities, of 'Pauline'. But this is a
+digression.
+
+Mr. Fox, though an accomplished critic, made very light of the artistic
+blemishes of the work. His admiration for it was as generous as it was
+genuine; and, having recognized in it the hand of a rising poet, it was
+more congenial to him to hail that poet's advent than to register his
+shortcomings.
+
+
+'The poem,' he says, 'though evidently a hasty and imperfect sketch, has
+truth and life in it, which gave us the thrill, and laid hold of us with
+the power, the sensation of which has never yet failed us as a test of
+genius.'
+
+
+But it had also, in his mind, a distinguishing characteristic, which
+raised it above the sphere of merely artistic criticism. The article
+continues:
+
+
+'We have never read anything more purely confessional. The whole
+composition is of the spirit, spiritual. The scenery is in the chambers
+of thought; the agencies are powers and passions; the events are
+transitions from one state of spiritual existence to another.'
+
+
+And we learn from the context that he accepted this confessional and
+introspective quality as an expression of the highest emotional life--of
+the essence, therefore, of religion. On this point the sincerest
+admirers of the poem may find themselves at issue with Mr. Fox. Its
+sentiment is warmly religious; it is always, in a certain sense,
+spiritual; but its intellectual activities are exercised on entirely
+temporal ground, and this fact would generally be admitted as the
+negation of spirituality in the religious sense of the word. No
+difference, however, of opinion as to his judgment of 'Pauline' can
+lessen our appreciation of Mr. Fox's encouraging kindness to its author.
+No one who loved Mr. Browning in himself, or in his work, can read the
+last lines of this review without a throb of affectionate gratitude
+for the sympathy so ungrudgingly, and--as he wrote during his latest
+years--so opportunely given:
+
+
+'In recognizing a poet we cannot stand upon trifles nor fret ourselves
+about such matters [as a few blemishes]. Time enough for that
+afterwards, when larger works come before us. Archimedes in the bath had
+many particulars to settle about specific gravities and Hiero's crown,
+but he first gave a glorious leap and shouted 'Eureka!''
+
+
+Many persons have discovered Mr. Browning since he has been known to
+fame. One only discovered him in his obscurity.
+
+Next to that of Mr. Fox stands the name of John Forster among the first
+spontaneous appreciators of Mr. Browning's genius; and his admiration
+was, in its own way, the more valuable for the circumstances which
+precluded in it all possible, even unconscious, bias of personal
+interest or sympathy. But this belongs to a somewhat later period of our
+history.
+
+I am dwelling at some length on this first experience of Mr. Browning's
+literary career, because the confidence which it gave him determined its
+immediate future, if not its ultimate course--because, also, the poem
+itself is more important to the understanding of his mind than perhaps
+any other of his isolated works. It was the earliest of his dramatic
+creations; it was therefore inevitably the most instinct with himself;
+and we may regard the 'Confession' as to a great extent his own, without
+for an instant ignoring the imaginative element which necessarily and
+certainly entered into it. At one moment, indeed, his utterance is so
+emphatic that we should feel it to be direct, even if we did not know it
+to be true. The passage beginning, 'I am made up of an intensest life,'
+conveys something more than the writer's actual psychological state. The
+feverish desire of life became gradually modified into a more or less
+active intellectual and imaginative curiosity; but the sense of
+an individual, self-centred, and, as it presented itself to him,
+unconditioned existence, survived all the teachings of experience, and
+often indeed unconsciously imposed itself upon them.
+
+I have already alluded to that other and more pathetic fragment of
+distinct autobiography which is to be found in the invocation to the
+'Sun-treader'. Mr. Fox, who has quoted great part of it, justly declares
+that 'the fervency, the remembrance, the half-regret mingling with
+its exultation, are as true as its leading image is beautiful.' The
+'exultation' is in the triumph of Shelley's rising fame; the regret, for
+the lost privilege of worshipping in solitary tenderness at an obscure
+shrine. The double mood would have been characteristic of any period of
+Mr. Browning's life.
+
+The artistic influence of Shelley is also discernible in the natural
+imagery of the poem, which reflects a fitful and emotional fancy instead
+of the direct poetic vision of the author's later work.
+
+'Pauline' received another and graceful tribute two months later than
+the review. In an article of the 'Monthly Repository', and in the course
+of a description of some luxuriant wood-scenery, the following passage
+occurs:
+
+
+'Shelley and Tennyson are the best books for this place. . . . They are
+natives of this soil; literally so; and if planted would grow as surely
+as a crowbar in Kentucky sprouts tenpenny nails. 'Probatum est.' Last
+autumn L----dropped a poem of Shelley's down there in the wood,* amongst
+the thick, damp, rotting leaves, and this spring some one found a
+delicate exotic-looking plant, growing wild on the very spot, with
+'Pauline' hanging from its slender stalk. Unripe fruit it may be, but of
+pleasant flavour and promise, and a mellower produce, it may be hoped,
+will follow.'
+
+     * Mr. Browning's copy of 'Rosalind and Helen', which he had lent
+     to Miss Flower, and which she lost in this wood on a picnic.
+     This and a bald though well-meant notice in the 'Athenaeum'
+     exhaust its literary history for this period.*
+
+         * Not quite, it appears.  Since I wrote the above words,
+         Mr. Dykes Campbell has kindly copied for me the following extract
+         from the 'Literary Gazette' of March 23, 1833:
+
+     'Pauline:  a Fragment of a Confession', pp. 71.  London, 1833.
+     Saunders and Otley.
+
+     'Somewhat mystical, somewhat poetical, somewhat sensual,
+     and not a little unintelligible,--this is a dreamy volume,
+     without an object, and unfit for publication.'
+
+The anonymity of the poem was not long preserved; there was no reason
+why it should be. But 'Pauline' was, from the first, little known or
+discussed beyond the immediate circle of the poet's friends; and when,
+twenty years later, Dante Gabriel Rossetti unexpectedly came upon it
+in the library of the British Museum, he could only surmise that it had
+been written by the author of 'Paracelsus'.
+
+The only recorded event of the next two years was Mr. Browning's
+visit to Russia, which took place in the winter of 1833-4. The Russian
+consul-general, Mr. Benckhausen, had taken a great liking to him, and
+being sent to St. Petersburg on some special mission, proposed that
+he should accompany him, nominally in the character of secretary.
+The letters written to his sister during this, as during every other
+absence, were full of graphic description, and would have been a mine
+of interest for the student of his imaginative life. They are,
+unfortunately, all destroyed, and we have only scattered reminiscences
+of what they had to tell; but we know how strangely he was impressed
+by some of the circumstances of the journey: above all, by the endless
+monotony of snow-covered pine-forest, through which he and his companion
+rushed for days and nights at the speed of six post-horses, without
+seeming to move from one spot. He enjoyed the society of St. Petersburg,
+and was fortunate enough, before his return, to witness the breaking-up
+of the ice on the Neva, and see the Czar perform the yearly ceremony
+of drinking the first glass of water from it. He was absent about three
+months.
+
+The one active career which would have recommended itself to him in his
+earlier youth was diplomacy; it was that which he subsequently desired
+for his son. He would indeed not have been averse to any post of
+activity and responsibility not unsuited to the training of a gentleman.
+Soon after his return from Russia he applied for appointment on a
+mission which was to be despatched to Persia; and the careless wording
+of the answer which his application received made him think for a moment
+that it had been granted. He was much disappointed when he learned,
+through an interview with the 'chief', that the place was otherwise
+filled.
+
+In 1834 he began a little series of contributions to the 'Monthly
+Repository', extending into 1835-6, and consisting of five poems. The
+earliest of these was a sonnet, not contained in any edition of Mr.
+Browning's works, and which, I believe, first reappeared in Mr. Gosse's
+article in the 'Century Magazine', December 1881; now part of his
+'Personalia'. The second, beginning 'A king lived long ago', was to be
+published, with alterations and additions, as one of 'Pippa's' songs.
+'Porphyria's Lover' and 'Johannes Agricola in Meditation' were reprinted
+together in 'Bells and Pomegranates' under the heading of 'Madhouse
+Cells'. The fifth consisted of the Lines beginning 'Still ailing, Wind?
+wilt be appeased or no?' afterwards introduced into the sixth section of
+'James Lee's Wife'. The sonnet is not very striking, though hints of the
+poet's future psychological subtlety are not wanting in it; but his most
+essential dramatic quality reveals itself in the last three poems.
+
+This winter of 1834-5 witnessed the birth, perhaps also the extinction,
+of an amateur periodical, established by some of Mr. Browning's friends;
+foremost among these the young Dowsons, afterwards connected with Alfred
+Domett. The magazine was called the 'Trifler', and published in monthly
+numbers of about ten pages each. It collapsed from lack of pocket-money
+on the part of the editors; but Mr. Browning had written for it one
+letter, February 1833, signed with his usual initial Z, and entitled
+'Some strictures on a late article in the 'Trifler'.' This boyish
+production sparkles with fun, while affecting the lengthy quaintnesses
+of some obsolete modes of speech. The article which it attacks was 'A
+Dissertation on Debt and Debtors', where the subject was, I imagine,
+treated in the orthodox way: and he expends all his paradox in showing
+that indebtedness is a necessary condition of human life, and all his
+sophistry in confusing it with the abstract sense of obligation. It is,
+perhaps, scarcely fair to call attention to such a mere argumentative
+and literary freak; but there is something so comical in a defence of
+debt, however transparent, proceeding from a man to whom never in his
+life a bill can have been sent in twice, and who would always have
+preferred ready-money payment to receiving a bill at all, that I may be
+forgiven for quoting some passages from it.
+
+
+For to be man is to be a debtor:--hinting but slightly at the grand and
+primeval debt implied in the idea of a creation, as matter too hard
+for ears like thine, (for saith not Luther, What hath a cow to do with
+nutmegs?) I must, nevertheless, remind thee that all moralists
+have concurred in considering this our mortal sojourn as indeed an
+uninterrupted state of debt, and the world our dwelling-place as
+represented by nothing so aptly as by an inn, wherein those who lodge
+most commodiously have in perspective a proportionate score to reduce,*
+and those who fare least delicately, but an insignificant shot to
+discharge--or, as the tuneful Quarles well phraseth it--
+
+     He's most in _debt_ who lingers out the day,
+     Who dies betimes has less and less to pay.
+
+So far, therefore, from these sagacious ethics holding that
+
+     Debt cramps the energies of the soul, &c.
+
+as thou pratest, 'tis plain that they have willed on the very outset
+to inculcate this truth on the mind of every man,--no barren and
+inconsequential dogma, but an effectual, ever influencing and productive
+rule of life,--that he is born a debtor, lives a debtor--aye, friend,
+and when thou diest, will not some judicious bystander,--no recreant as
+thou to the bonds of nature, but a good borrower and true--remark, as
+did his grandsire before him on like occasions, that thou hast 'paid the
+_debt_ of nature'? Ha! I have thee 'beyond the rules', as one (a bailiff)
+may say!
+
+     * Miss Hickey, on reading this passage, has called my
+     attention to the fact that the sentiment which it parodies
+     is identical with that expressed in these words of
+     'Prospice',
+
+     . . . in a minute pay glad life's arrears
+     Of pain, darkness, and cold.
+
+Such performances supplied a distraction to the more serious work of
+writing 'Paracelsus', which was to be concluded in March 1835, and which
+occupied the foregoing winter months. We do not know to what extent Mr.
+Browning had remained in communication with Mr. Fox; but the following
+letters show that the friend of 'Pauline' gave ready and efficient help
+in the strangely difficult task of securing a publisher for the new
+poem.
+
+The first is dated April 2, 1835.
+
+
+Dear Sir,--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your
+letter:--Sardanapalus 'could not go on multiplying kingdoms'--nor I
+protestations--but I thank you very much.
+
+You will oblige me indeed by forwarding the introduction to Moxon. I
+merely suggested him in particular, on account of his good name and
+fame among author-folk, besides he has himself written--as the Americans
+say--'more poetry 'an you can shake a stick at.' So I hope we shall come
+to terms.
+
+I also hope my poem will turn out not utterly unworthy your kind
+interest, and more deserving your favour than anything of mine you have
+as yet seen; indeed I all along proposed to myself such an endeavour,
+for it will never do for one so distinguished by past praise to prove
+nobody after all--'nous verrons'. I am, dear sir, Yours most truly and
+obliged Robt. Browning.
+
+
+On April 16 he wrote again as follows:
+
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your communication gladdened the cockles of my heart. I lost no time
+in presenting myself to Moxon, but no sooner was Mr. Clarke's letter
+perused than the Moxonian visage loured exceedingly thereat--the
+Moxonian accent grew dolorous thereupon:--'Artevelde' has not paid
+expenses by about thirty odd pounds. Tennyson's poetry is 'popular at
+Cambridge', and yet of 800 copies which were printed of his last,
+some 300 only have gone off: Mr. M. hardly knows whether he shall ever
+venture again, &c. &c., and in short begs to decline even inspecting,
+&c. &c.
+
+I called on Saunders and Otley at once, and, marvel of marvels, do
+really think there is some chance of our coming to decent terms--I shall
+know at the beginning of next week, but am not over-sanguine.
+
+You will 'sarve me out'? two words to that; being the man you are, you
+must need very little telling from me, of the real feeling I have of
+your criticism's worth, and if I have had no more of it, surely I
+am hardly to blame, who have in more than one instance bored you
+sufficiently: but not a particle of your article has been rejected or
+neglected by your observant humble servant, and very proud shall I be
+if my new work bear in it the marks of the influence under which it was
+undertaken--and if I prove not a fit compeer of the potter in Horace
+who anticipated an amphora and produced a porridge-pot. I purposely
+keep back the subject until you see my conception of its
+capabilities--otherwise you would be planning a vase fit to give the
+go-by to Evander's best crockery, which my cantharus would cut but a
+sorry figure beside--hardly up to the ansa.
+
+But such as it is, it is very earnest and suggestive--and likely I hope
+to do good; and though I am rather scared at the thought of a _fresh eye_
+going over its 4,000 lines--discovering blemishes of all sorts which
+my one wit cannot avail to detect, fools treated as sages, obscure
+passages, slipshod verses, and much that worse is,--yet on the whole
+I am not much afraid of the issue, and I would give something to be
+allowed to read it some morning to you--for every rap o' the knuckles I
+should get a clap o' the back, I know.
+
+I have another affair on hand, rather of a more popular nature, I
+conceive, but not so decisive and explicit on a point or two--so I
+decide on trying the question with this:--I really shall _need_ your
+notice, on this account; I shall affix my name and stick my arms akimbo;
+there are a few precious bold bits here and there, and the drift and
+scope are awfully radical--I am 'off' for ever with the other side, but
+must by all means be 'on' with yours--a position once gained, worthier
+works shall follow--therefore a certain writer* who meditated a notice
+(it matters not laudatory or otherwise) on 'Pauline' in the 'Examiner',
+must be benignant or supercilious as he shall choose, but in no case an
+idle spectator of my first appearance on any stage (having previously
+only dabbled in private theatricals) and bawl 'Hats off!' 'Down in
+front!' &c., as soon as I get to the proscenium; and he may depend that
+tho' my 'Now is the winter of our discontent' be rather awkward, yet
+there shall be occasional outbreaks of good stuff--that I shall warm as
+I get on, and finally wish 'Richmond at the bottom of the seas,' &c. in
+the best style imaginable.
+
+     * Mr. John Stuart Mill.
+
+Excuse all this swagger, I know you will, and
+
+(The signature has been cut off; evidently for an autograph.)
+
+Mr. Effingham Wilson was induced to publish the poem, but more, we
+understand, on the ground of radical sympathies in Mr. Fox and the
+author than on that of its intrinsic worth.
+
+The title-page of 'Paracelsus' introduces us to one of the warmest
+friendships of Mr. Browning's life. Count de Ripert-Monclar was a young
+French Royalist, one of those who had accompanied the Duchesse de Berri
+on her Chouan expedition, and was then, for a few years, spending his
+summers in England; ostensibly for his pleasure, really--as he
+confessed to the Browning family--in the character of private agent of
+communication between the royal exiles and their friends in France. He
+was four years older than the poet, and of intellectual tastes which
+created an immediate bond of union between them. In the course of one of
+their conversations, he suggested the life of Paracelsus as a possible
+subject for a poem; but on second thoughts pronounced it unsuitable,
+because it gave no room for the introduction of love: about which, he
+added, every young man of their age thought he had something quite new
+to say. Mr. Browning decided, after the necessary study, that he would
+write a poem on Paracelsus, but treating him in his own way. It was
+dedicated, in fulfilment of a promise, to the friend to whom its
+inspiration had been due.
+
+The Count's visits to England entirely ceased, and the two friends
+did not meet for twenty years. Then, one day, in a street in Rome, Mr.
+Browning heard a voice behind him crying, 'Robert!' He turned, and
+there was 'Amedee'. Both were, by that time, married; the Count--then, I
+believe, Marquis--to an English lady, Miss Jerningham. Mrs. Browning, to
+whom of course he was introduced, liked him very much.*
+
+     * A minor result of the intimacy was that Mr. Browning
+     became member, in 1835, of the Institut Historique, and in
+     1836 of the Societe Francaise de Statistique Universelle, to
+     both of which learned bodies his friend belonged.
+
+Mr. Browning did treat Paracelsus in his own way; and in so doing
+produced a character--at all events a history--which, according
+to recent judgments, approached far nearer to the reality than any
+conception which had until then been formed of it. He had carefully
+collected all the known facts of the great discoverer's life, and
+interpreted them with a sympathy which was no less an intuition of their
+truth than a reflection of his own genius upon them. We are enabled
+in some measure to judge of this by a paper entitled 'Paracelsus, the
+Reformer of Medicine', written by Dr. Edward Berdoe for the Browning
+Society, and read at its October meeting in 1888; and in the difficulty
+which exists for most of us of verifying the historical data of
+Mr. Browning's poem, it becomes a valuable guide to, as well as an
+interesting comment upon it.
+
+Dr. Berdoe reminds us that we cannot understand the real Paracelsus
+without reference to the occult sciences so largely cultivated in his
+day, as also to the mental atmosphere which produced them; and he quotes
+in illustration a passage from the writings of that Bishop of Spanheim
+who was the instructor of Paracelsus, and who appears as such in the
+poem. The passage is a definition of divine magic, which is apparently
+another term for alchemy; and lays down the great doctrine of all
+mediaeval occultism, as of all modern theosophy--of a soul-power equally
+operative in the material and the immaterial, in nature and in the
+consciousness of man.
+
+The same clue will guide us, as no other can, through what is apparently
+conflicting in the aims and methods, anomalous in the moral experience,
+of the Paracelsus of the poem. His feverish pursuit, among the things of
+Nature, of an ultimate of knowledge, not contained, even in fragments,
+in her isolated truths; the sense of failure which haunts his most
+valuable attainments; his tampering with the lower or diabolic magic,
+when the divine has failed; the ascetic exaltation in which he begins
+his career; the sudden awakening to the spiritual sterility which has
+been consequent on it; all these find their place, if not always their
+counterpart, in the real life.
+
+The language of Mr. Browning's Paracelsus, his attitude towards himself
+and the world, are not, however, quite consonant with the alleged facts.
+They are more appropriate to an ardent explorer of the world of abstract
+thought than to a mystical scientist pursuing the secret of existence.
+He preserves, in all his mental vicissitudes, a loftiness of tone and a
+unity of intention, difficult to connect, even in fancy, with the real
+man, in whom the inherited superstitions and the prognostics of true
+science must often have clashed with each other. Dr. Berdoe's picture
+of the 'Reformer' drawn more directly from history, conveys this double
+impression. Mr. Browning has rendered him more simple by, as it were,
+recasting him in the atmosphere of a more modern time, and of his own
+intellectual life. This poem still, therefore, belongs to the same group
+as 'Pauline', though, as an effort of dramatic creation, superior to it.
+
+We find the Poet with still less of dramatic disguise in the deathbed
+revelation which forms so beautiful a close to the story. It supplies a
+fitter comment to the errors of the dramatic Paracelsus, than to those
+of the historical, whether or not its utterance was within the compass
+of historical probability, as Dr. Berdoe believes. In any case it was
+the direct product of Mr. Browning's mind, and expressed what was to
+be his permanent conviction. It might then have been an echo of German
+pantheistic philosophies. From the point of view of science--of modern
+science at least--it was prophetic; although the prophecy of one for
+whom evolution could never mean less or more than a divine creation
+operating on this progressive plan.
+
+The more striking, perhaps, for its personal quality are the evidences
+of imaginative sympathy, even direct human insight, in which the poem
+abounds. Festus is, indeed, an essentially human creature: the
+man--it might have been the woman--of unambitious intellect and large
+intelligence of the heart, in whom so many among us have found comfort
+and help. We often feel, in reading 'Pauline', that the poet in it was
+older than the man. The impression is more strongly and more definitely
+conveyed by this second work, which has none of the intellectual
+crudeness of 'Pauline', though it still belongs to an early phase of the
+author's intellectual life. Not only its mental, but its moral maturity,
+seems so much in advance of his uncompleted twenty-third year.
+
+To the first edition of 'Paracelsus' was affixed a preface, now long
+discarded, but which acquires fresh interest in a retrospect of the
+author's completed work; for it lays down the constant principle
+of dramatic creation by which that work was to be inspired. It also
+anticipates probable criticism of the artistic form which on this, and
+so many subsequent occasions, he selected for it.
+
+
+'I am anxious that the reader should not, at the very outset--mistaking
+my performance for one of a class with which it has nothing in
+common--judge it by principles on which it was never moulded, and
+subject it to a standard to which it was never meant to conform. I
+therefore anticipate his discovery, that it is an attempt, probably more
+novel than happy, to reverse the method usually adopted by writers whose
+aim it is to set forth any phenomenon of the mind or the passions,
+by the operation of persons and events; and that, instead of having
+recourse to an external machinery of incidents to create and evolve the
+crisis I desire to produce, I have ventured to display somewhat minutely
+the mood itself in its rise and progress, and have suffered the agency
+by which it is influenced and determined, to be generally discernible
+in its effects alone, and subordinate throughout, if not altogether
+excluded: and this for a reason. I have endeavoured to write a poem, not
+a drama: the canons of the drama are well known, and I cannot but think
+that, inasmuch as they have immediate regard to stage representation,
+the peculiar advantages they hold out are really such only so long as
+the purpose for which they were at first instituted is kept in view. I
+do not very well understand what is called a Dramatic Poem, wherein all
+those restrictions only submitted to on account of compensating good
+in the original scheme are scrupulously retained, as though for some
+special fitness in themselves--and all new facilities placed at an
+author's disposal by the vehicle he selects, as pertinaciously rejected.
+. . .'
+
+
+Mr. Fox reviewed this also in the 'Monthly Repository'. The article
+might be obtained through the kindness of Mrs. Bridell-Fox; but it will
+be sufficient for my purpose to refer to its closing paragraph, as given
+by her in the 'Argosy' of February 1890. It was a final expression of
+what the writer regarded as the fitting intellectual attitude towards a
+rising poet, whose aims and methods lay so far beyond the range of
+the conventional rules of poetry. The great event in the history of
+'Paracelsus' was John Forster's article on it in the 'Examiner'. Mr.
+Forster had recently come to town. He could barely have heard Mr.
+Browning's name, and, as he afterwards told him, was perplexed in
+reading the poem by the question of whether its author was an old or a
+young man; but he knew that a writer in the 'Athenaeum' had called it
+rubbish, and he had taken it up as a probable subject for a piece of
+slashing criticism. What he did write can scarcely be defined as praise.
+It was the simple, ungrudging admission of the unequivocal power, as
+well as brilliant promise, which he recognized in the work. This
+mutual experience was the introduction to a long and, certainly on Mr.
+Browning's part, a sincere friendship.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+1835-1838
+
+Removal to Hatcham; some Particulars--Renewed Intercourse with the
+second Family of Robert Browning's Grandfather--Reuben Browning--William
+Shergold Browning--Visitors at Hatcham--Thomas Carlyle--Social Life--New
+Friends and Acquaintance--Introduction to Macready--New Year's Eve
+at Elm Place--Introduction to John Forster--Miss Fanny Haworth--Miss
+Martineau--Serjeant Talfourd--The 'Ion' Supper--'Strafford'--Relations
+with Macready--Performance of 'Strafford'--Letters concerning it
+from Mr. Browning and Miss Flower--Personal Glimpses of Robert
+Browning--Rival Forms of Dramatic Inspiration--Relation of 'Strafford'
+to 'Sordello'--Mr. Robertson and the 'Westminster Review'.
+
+
+
+It was soon after this time, though the exact date cannot be recalled,
+that the Browning family moved from Camberwell to Hatcham. Some such
+change had long been in contemplation, for their house was now too
+small; and the finding one more suitable, in the latter place, had
+decided the question. The new home possessed great attractions. The
+long, low rooms of its upper storey supplied abundant accommodation for
+the elder Mr. Browning's six thousand books. Mrs. Browning was suffering
+greatly from her chronic ailment, neuralgia; and the large garden,
+opening on to the Surrey hills, promised her all the benefits of country
+air. There were a coach-house and stable, which, by a curious,
+probably old-fashioned, arrangement, formed part of the house, and were
+accessible from it. Here the 'good horse', York, was eventually put up;
+and near this, in the garden, the poet soon had another though humbler
+friend in the person of a toad, which became so much attached to him
+that it would follow him as he walked. He visited it daily, where it
+burrowed under a white rose tree, announcing himself by a pinch of
+gravel dropped into its hole; and the creature would crawl forth, allow
+its head to be gently tickled, and reward the act with that loving
+glance of the soft full eyes which Mr. Browning has recalled in one of
+the poems of 'Asolando'.
+
+This change of residence brought the grandfather's second family, for
+the first time, into close as well as friendly contact with the first.
+Mr. Browning had always remained on outwardly friendly terms with
+his stepmother; and both he and his children were rewarded for this
+forbearance by the cordial relations which grew up between themselves
+and two of her sons. But in the earlier days they lived too far apart
+for frequent meeting. The old Mrs. Browning was now a widow, and,
+in order to be near her relations, she also came to Hatcham, and
+established herself there in close neighbourhood to them. She had then
+with her only a son and a daughter, those known to the poet's friends
+as Uncle Reuben and Aunt Jemima; respectively nine years, and one year,
+older than he. 'Aunt Jemima' married not long afterwards, and is chiefly
+remembered as having been very amiable, and, in early youth, to use
+her nephew's words, 'as beautiful as the day;' but kindly, merry
+'Uncle Reuben', then clerk in the Rothschilds' London bank,* became a
+conspicuous member of the family circle. This does not mean that the
+poet was ever indebted to him for pecuniary help; and it is desirable
+that this should be understood, since it has been confidently asserted
+that he was so. So long as he was dependent at all, he depended
+exclusively on his father. Even the use of his uncle's horse, which
+might have been accepted as a friendly concession on Mr. Reuben's part,
+did not really represent one. The animal stood, as I have said, in Mr.
+Browning's stable, and it was groomed by his gardener. The promise of
+these conveniences had induced Reuben Browning to buy a horse instead of
+continuing to hire one. He could only ride it on a few days of the week,
+and it was rather a gain than a loss to him that so good a horseman as
+his nephew should exercise it during the interval.
+
+     * This uncle's name, and his business relations with the
+     great Jewish firm, have contributed to the mistaken theory
+     of the poet's descent.
+
+Uncle Reuben was not a great appreciator of poetry--at all events of
+his nephew's; and an irreverent remark on 'Sordello', imputed to a more
+eminent contemporary, proceeded, under cover of a friend's name, from
+him. But he had his share of mental endowments. We are told that he was
+a good linguist, and that he wrote on finance under an assumed name. He
+was also, apparently, an accomplished classic. Lord Beaconsfield is said
+to have declared that the inscription on a silver inkstand, presented to
+the daughter of Lionel Rothschild on her marriage, by the clerks at New
+Court, 'was the most appropriate thing he had ever come across;' and
+that whoever had selected it must be one of the first Latin scholars of
+the day. It was Mr. Reuben Browning.
+
+Another favourite uncle was William Shergold Browning, though less
+intimate with his nephew and niece than he would have become if he had
+not married while they were still children, and settled in Paris, where
+his father's interest had placed him in the Rothschild house. He is
+known by his 'History of the Huguenots', a work, we are told, 'full of
+research, with a reference to contemporary literature for almost every
+occurrence mentioned or referred to.' He also wrote the 'Provost of
+Paris', and 'Hoel Morven', historical novels, and 'Leisure Hours', a
+collection of miscellanies; and was a contributor for some years to
+the 'Gentleman's Magazine'. It was chiefly from this uncle that Miss
+Browning and her brother heard the now often-repeated stories of their
+probable ancestors, Micaiah Browning, who distinguished himself at the
+siege of Derry, and that commander of the ship 'Holy Ghost' who conveyed
+Henry V. to France before the battle of Agincourt, and received the
+coat-of-arms, with its emblematic waves, in reward for his service.
+Robert Browning was also indebted to him for the acquaintance of M. de
+Ripert-Monclar; for he was on friendly terms with the uncle of the young
+count, the Marquis de Fortia, a learned man and member of the Institut,
+and gave a letter of introduction--actually, I believe, to his brother
+Reuben--at the Marquis's request.*
+
+     * A grandson of William Shergold, Robert Jardine Browning,
+     graduated at Lincoln College, was called to the Bar, and is
+     now Crown Prosecutor in New South Wales; where his name
+     first gave rise to a report that he was Mr. Browning's son,
+     while the announcement of his marriage was, for a moment,
+     connected with Mr. Browning himself.  He was also intimate
+     with the poet and his sister, who liked him very much.
+
+The friendly relations with Carlyle, which resulted in his high estimate
+of the poet's mother, also began at Hatcham. On one occasion he took
+his brother, the doctor, with him to dine there. An earlier and much
+attached friend of the family was Captain Pritchard, cousin to the noted
+physician Dr. Blundell. He enabled the young Robert, whom he knew from
+the age of sixteen, to attend some of Dr. Blundell's lectures; and this
+aroused in him a considerable interest in the sciences connected with
+medicine, though, as I shall have occasion to show, no knowledge of
+either disease or its treatment ever seems to have penetrated into his
+life. A Captain Lloyd is indirectly associated with 'The Flight of the
+Duchess'. That poem was not completed according to its original plan;
+and it was the always welcome occurrence of a visit from this gentleman
+which arrested its completion. Mr. Browning vividly remembered how the
+click of the garden gate, and the sight of the familiar figure advancing
+towards the house, had broken in upon his work and dispelled its first
+inspiration.
+
+The appearance of 'Paracelsus' did not give the young poet his just
+place in popular judgment and public esteem. A generation was to pass
+before this was conceded to him. But it compelled his recognition by the
+leading or rising literary men of the day; and a fuller and more varied
+social life now opened before him. The names of Serjeant Talfourd,
+Horne, Leigh Hunt, Barry Cornwall (Procter), Monckton Milnes (Lord
+Houghton), Eliot Warburton, Dickens, Wordsworth, and Walter Savage
+Landor, represent, with that of Forster, some of the acquaintances made,
+or the friendships begun, at this period. Prominent among the friends
+that were to be, was also Archer Gurney, well known in later life as the
+Rev. Archer Gurney, and chaplain to the British embassy in Paris.
+His sympathies were at present largely absorbed by politics. He was
+contesting the representation of some county, on the Conservative side;
+but he took a very vivid interest in Mr. Browning's poems; and this
+perhaps fixes the beginning of the intimacy at a somewhat later date;
+since a pretty story by which it was illustrated connects itself with
+the publication of 'Bells and Pomegranates'. He himself wrote dramas and
+poems. Sir John, afterwards Lord, Hanmer was also much attracted by the
+young poet, who spent a pleasant week with him at Bettisfield Park. He
+was the author of a volume entitled 'Fra Cipollo and other Poems', from
+which the motto of 'Colombe's Birthday' was subsequently taken.
+
+The friends, old and new, met in the informal manner of those days, at
+afternoon dinners, or later suppers, at the houses of Mr. Fox, Serjeant
+Talfourd, and, as we shall see, Mr. Macready; and Mr. Fox's daughter,
+then only a little girl, but intelligent and observant for her years,
+well remembers the pleasant gatherings at which she was allowed to
+assist, when first performances of plays, or first readings of plays and
+poems, had brought some of the younger and more ardent spirits together.
+Miss Flower, also, takes her place in the literary group. Her sister had
+married in 1834, and left her free to live for her own pursuits and her
+own friends; and Mr. Browning must have seen more of her then than was
+possible in his boyish days.
+
+None, however, of these intimacies were, at the time, so important to
+him as that formed with the great actor Macready. They were introduced
+to each other by Mr. Fox early in the winter of 1835-6; the meeting is
+thus chronicled in Macready's diary, November 27.*
+
+     * 'Macready's Reminiscences', edited by Sir Frederick Pollock;
+          1875.
+
+
+'Went from chambers to dine with Rev. William Fox, Bayswater. . . . Mr.
+Robert Browning, the author of 'Paracelsus', came in after dinner; I was
+very much pleased to meet him. His face is full of intelligence. . . .
+I took Mr. Browning on, and requested to be allowed to improve my
+acquaintance with him. He expressed himself warmly, as gratified by the
+proposal, wished to send me his book; we exchanged cards and parted.'
+
+
+On December 7 he writes:
+
+
+'Read 'Paracelsus', a work of great daring, starred with poetry of
+thought, feeling, and diction, but occasionally obscure; the writer can
+scarcely fail to be a leading spirit of his time. . . .'
+
+
+He invited Mr. Browning to his country house, Elm Place, Elstree, for
+the last evening of the year; and again refers to him under date of
+December 31.
+
+
+'. . . Our other guests were Miss Henney, Forster, Cattermole, Browning,
+and Mr. Munro. Mr. Browning was very popular with the whole party; his
+simple and enthusiastic manner engaged attention, and won opinions from
+all present; he looks and speaks more like a youthful poet than any man
+I ever saw.'
+
+
+This New-Year's-Eve visit brought Browning and Forster together for the
+first time. The journey to Elstree was then performed by coach, and the
+two young men met at the 'Blue Posts', where, with one or more of Mr.
+Macready's other guests, they waited for the coach to start. They eyed
+each other with interest, both being striking in their way, and
+neither knowing who the other was. When the introduction took place at
+Macready's house, Mr. Forster supplemented it by saying: 'Did you see a
+little notice of you I wrote in the 'Examiner'?' The two names will
+now be constantly associated in Macready's diary, which, except for
+Mr. Browning's own casual utterances, is almost our only record of his
+literary and social life during the next two years.
+
+It was at Elm Place that Mr. Browning first met Miss Euphrasia Fanny
+Haworth, then a neighbour of Mr. Macready, residing with her mother at
+Barham Lodge. Miss Haworth was still a young woman, but her love and
+talent for art and literature made her a fitting member of the genial
+circle to which Mr. Browning belonged; and she and the poet soon became
+fast friends. Her first name appears as 'Eyebright' in 'Sordello'. His
+letters to her, returned after her death by her brother, Mr. Frederick
+Haworth, supply valuable records of his experiences and of his feelings
+at one very interesting, and one deeply sorrowful, period of his
+history. She was a thoroughly kindly, as well as gifted woman, and much
+appreciated by those of the poet's friends who knew her as a resident in
+London during her last years. A portrait which she took of him in 1874
+is considered by some persons very good.
+
+At about this time also, and probably through Miss Haworth, he became
+acquainted with Miss Martineau.
+
+Soon after his introduction to Macready, if not before, Mr. Browning
+became busy with the thought of writing for the stage. The diary has
+this entry for February 16, 1836:
+
+
+'Forster and Browning called, and talked over the plot of a tragedy,
+which Browning had begun to think of: the subject, Narses. He said that
+I had _bit_ him by my performance of Othello, and I told him I hoped I
+should make the blood come. It would indeed be some recompense for the
+miseries, the humiliations, the heart-sickening disgusts which I have
+endured in my profession, if, by its exercise, I had awakened a spirit
+of poetry whose influence would elevate, ennoble, and adorn our degraded
+drama. May it be!'
+
+
+But Narses was abandoned, and the more serious inspiration and more
+definite motive were to come later. They connect themselves with one
+of the pleasant social occurrences which must have lived in the young
+poet's memory. On May 26 'Ion' had been performed for the first time and
+with great success, Mr. Macready sustaining the principal part; and the
+great actor and a number of their common friends had met at supper at
+Serjeant Talfourd's house to celebrate the occasion. The party included
+Wordsworth and Landor, both of whom Mr. Browning then met for the first
+time. Toasts flew right and left. Mr. Browning's health was proposed
+by Serjeant Talfourd as that of the youngest poet of England, and
+Wordsworth responded to the appeal with very kindly courtesy. The
+conversation afterwards turned upon plays, and Macready, who had ignored
+a half-joking question of Miss Mitford, whether, if she wrote one, he
+would act in it, overtook Browning as they were leaving the house, and
+said, 'Write a play, Browning, and keep me from going to America.' The
+reply was, 'Shall it be historical and English; what do you say to a
+drama on Strafford?'
+
+This ready response on the poet's part showed that Strafford, as a
+dramatic subject, had been occupying his thoughts. The subject was in
+the air, because Forster was then bringing out a life of that statesman,
+with others belonging to the same period. It was more than in the air,
+so far as Browning was concerned, because his friend had been disabled,
+either through sickness or sorrow, from finishing this volume by the
+appointed time, and he, as well he might, had largely helped him in its
+completion. It was, however, not till August 3 that Macready wrote in
+his diary:
+
+
+'Forster told me that Browning had fixed on Strafford for the subject of
+a tragedy; he could not have hit upon one that I could have more readily
+concurred in.'
+
+
+A previous entry of May 30, the occasion of which is only implied, shows
+with how high an estimate of Mr. Browning's intellectual importance
+Macready's professional relations to him began.
+
+
+'Arriving at chambers, I found a note from Browning. What can I say upon
+it? It was a tribute which remunerated me for the annoyances and cares
+of years: it was one of the very highest, may I not say the highest,
+honour I have through life received.'
+
+
+The estimate maintained itself in reference to the value of Mr.
+Browning's work, since he wrote on March 13, 1837:
+
+
+'Read before dinner a few pages of 'Paracelsus', which raises my wonder
+the more I read it. . . . Looked over two plays, which it was not
+possible to read, hardly as I tried. . . . Read some scenes in
+'Strafford', which restore one to the world of sense and feeling once
+again.'
+
+
+But as the day of the performance drew near, he became at once more
+anxious and more critical. An entry of April 28 comments somewhat
+sharply on the dramatic faults of 'Strafford', besides declaring the
+writer's belief that the only chance for it is in the acting, which, 'by
+possibility, might carry it to the end without disapprobation,' though
+he dares not hope without opposition. It is quite conceivable that his
+first complete study of the play, and first rehearsal of it, brought to
+light deficiencies which had previously escaped him; but so complete
+a change of sentiment points also to private causes of uneasiness and
+irritation; and, perhaps, to the knowledge that its being saved by
+collective good acting was out of the question.
+
+'Strafford' was performed at Covent Garden Theatre on May 1. Mr.
+Browning wrote to Mr. Fox after one of the last rehearsals:
+
+
+May Day, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
+
+Dear Sir,--All my endeavours to procure a copy before this morning have
+been fruitless. I send the first book of the first bundle. _Pray_ look
+over it--the alterations to-night will be considerable. The complexion
+of the piece is, I grieve to say, 'perfect gallows' just now--our _King_,
+Mr. Dale, being . . . but you'll see him, and, I fear, not much applaud.
+Your unworthy son, in things literary, Robert Browning.
+
+P.S. (in pencil).--A most unnecessary desire, but urged on me by Messrs.
+Longman: no notice on Str. in to-night's True Sun,* lest the other
+papers be jealous!!!
+
+     * Mr. Fox reviewed 'Strafford' in the 'True Sun'.
+
+A second letter, undated, but evidently written a day or two later,
+refers to the promised notice, which had then appeared.
+
+
+Tuesday Night.
+
+No words can express my feelings: I happen to be much annoyed and
+unwell--but your most generous notice has almost made 'my soul well and
+happy now.'
+
+I thank you, my most kind, most constant friend, from my heart for your
+goodness--which is brave enough, just now. I am ever and increasingly
+yours, Robert Browning.
+
+You will be glad to see me on the earliest occasion, will you not? I
+shall certainly come.
+
+
+A letter from Miss Flower to Miss Sarah Fox (sister to the Rev. William
+Fox), at Norwich, contains the following passage, which evidently
+continues a chapter of London news:
+
+
+'Then 'Strafford'; were you not pleased to hear of the success of one
+you must, I think, remember a very little boy, years ago. If not, you
+have often heard us speak of Robert Browning: and it is a great deal to
+have accomplished a successful tragedy, although he seems a good deal
+annoyed at the go of things behind the scenes, and declares he will
+never write a play again, as long as he lives. You have no idea of
+the ignorance and obstinacy of the whole set, with here and there an
+exception; think of his having to write out the meaning of the word
+'impeachment', as some of them thought it meant 'poaching'.'
+
+
+On the first night, indeed, the fate of 'Strafford' hung in the balance;
+it was saved by Macready and Miss Helen Faucit. After this they must
+have been better supported, as it was received on the second night
+with enthusiasm by a full house. The catastrophe came after the fifth
+performance, with the desertion of the actor who had sustained the
+part of Pym. We cannot now judge whether, even under favourable
+circumstances, the play would have had as long a run as was intended;
+but the casting vote in favour of this view is given by the conduct of
+Mr. Osbaldistone, the manager, when it was submitted to him. The diary
+says, March 30, that he caught at it with avidity, and agreed to produce
+it without delay. The terms he offered to the author must also have been
+considered favourable in those days.
+
+The play was published in April by Longman, this time not at the
+author's expense; but it brought no return either to him or to his
+publisher. It was dedicated 'in all affectionate admiration' to William
+C. Macready.
+
+We gain some personal glimpses of the Browning of 1835-6; one especially
+through Mrs. Bridell-Fox, who thus describes her first meeting with him:
+
+
+'I remember . . . when Mr. Browning entered the drawing-room, with a
+quick light step; and on hearing from me that my father was out, and
+in fact that nobody was at home but myself, he said: "It's my birthday
+to-day; I'll wait till they come in," and sitting down to the piano,
+he added: "If it won't disturb you, I'll play till they do." And as he
+turned to the instrument, the bells of some neighbouring church suddenly
+burst out with a frantic merry peal. It seemed, to my childish fancy, as
+if in response to the remark that it was his birthday. He was then slim
+and dark, and very handsome; and--may I hint it--just a trifle of a
+dandy, addicted to lemon-coloured kid-gloves and such things: quite "the
+glass of fashion and the mould of form." But full of ambition, eager for
+success, eager for fame, and, what's more, determined to conquer fame
+and to achieve success.'
+
+
+I do not think his memory ever taxed him with foppishness, though he may
+have had the innocent personal vanity of an attractive young man at his
+first period of much seeing and being seen; but all we know of him
+at that time bears out the impression Mrs. Fox conveys, of a joyous,
+artless confidence in himself and in life, easily depressed, but quickly
+reasserting itself; and in which the eagerness for new experiences
+had freed itself from the rebellious impatience of boyish days. The
+self-confidence had its touches of flippancy and conceit; but on this
+side it must have been constantly counteracted by his gratitude for
+kindness, and by his enthusiastic appreciation of the merits of other
+men. His powers of feeling, indeed, greatly expended themselves in this
+way. He was very attractive to women and, as we have seen, warmly loved
+by very various types of men; but, except in its poetic sense, his
+emotional nature was by no means then in the ascendant: a fact difficult
+to realize when we remember the passion of his childhood's love for
+mother and home, and the new and deep capabilities of affection to be
+developed in future days. The poet's soul in him was feeling its wings;
+the realities of life had not yet begun to weight them.
+
+We see him again at the 'Ion' supper, in the grace and modesty with
+which he received the honours then adjudged to him. The testimony has
+been said to come from Miss Mitford, but may easily have been supplied
+by Miss Haworth, who was also present on this occasion.
+
+Mr. Browning's impulse towards play-writing had not, as we have seen,
+begun with 'Strafford'. It was still very far from being exhausted. And
+though he had struck out for himself another line of dramatic activity,
+his love for the higher theatrical life, and the legitimate inducements
+of the more lucrative and not necessarily less noble form of
+composition, might ultimately in some degree have prevailed with him if
+circumstances had been such as to educate his theatrical capabilities,
+and to reward them. His first acted drama was, however, an interlude to
+the production of the important group of poems which was to be completed
+by 'Sordello'; and he alludes to this later work in an also discarded
+preface to 'Strafford', as one on which he had for some time been
+engaged. He even characterizes the Tragedy as an attempt 'to freshen
+a jaded mind by diverting it to the healthy natures of a grand epoch.'
+'Sordello' again occupied him during the remainder of 1837 and the
+beginning of 1838; and by the spring of this year he must have been
+thankful to vary the scene and mode of his labours by means of a first
+visit to Italy. He announces his impending journey, with its immediate
+plan and purpose, in the following note:
+
+
+To John Robertson, Esq.
+
+Good Friday, 1838.
+
+Dear Sir,--I was not fortunate enough to find you the day before
+yesterday--and must tell you very hurriedly that I sail this morning
+for Venice--intending to finish my poem among the scenes it describes.
+I shall have your good wishes I know. Believe me, in return, Dear sir,
+Yours faithfully and obliged, Robert Browning.
+
+
+Mr. John Robertson had influence with the 'Westminster Review', either
+as editor, or member of its staff. He had been introduced to Mr.
+Browning by Miss Martineau; and, being a great admirer of 'Paracelsus',
+had promised careful attention for 'Sordello'; but, when the time
+approached, he made conditions of early reading, &c., which Mr. Browning
+thought so unfair towards other magazines that he refused to fulfil
+them. He lost his review, and the goodwill of its intending writer; and
+even Miss Martineau was ever afterwards cooler towards him, though his
+attitude in the matter had been in some degree prompted by a chivalrous
+partisanship for her.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+1838-1841
+
+First Italian Journey--Letters to Miss Haworth--Mr. John
+Kenyon--'Sordello'--Letter to Miss Flower--'Pippa Passes'--'Bells and
+Pomegranates'.
+
+
+
+Mr. Browning sailed from London with Captain Davidson of the 'Norham
+Castle', a merchant vessel bound for Trieste, on which he found himself
+the only passenger. A striking experience of the voyage, and some
+characteristic personal details, are given in the following letter to
+Miss Haworth. It is dated 1838, and was probably written before that
+year's summer had closed.
+
+
+Tuesday Evening.
+
+Dear Miss Haworth,--Do look at a fuchsia in full bloom and notice the
+clear little honey-drop depending from every flower. I have just found
+it out to my no small satisfaction,--a bee's breakfast. I only answer
+for the long-blossomed sort, though,--indeed, for this plant in my room.
+Taste and be Titania; you can, that is. All this while I forget that you
+will perhaps never guess the good of the discovery: I have, you are to
+know, such a love for flowers and leaves--some leaves--that I every
+now and then, in an impatience at being able to possess myself of them
+thoroughly, to see them quite, satiate myself with their scent,--bite
+them to bits--so there will be some sense in that. How I remember the
+flowers--even grasses--of places I have seen! Some one flower or weed, I
+should say, that gets some strangehow connected with them.
+
+Snowdrops and Tilsit in Prussia go together; cowslips and Windsor Park,
+for instance; flowering palm and some place or other in Holland.
+
+Now to answer what can be answered in the letter I was happy to receive
+last week. I am quite well. I did not expect you would write,--for none
+of your written reasons, however. You will see 'Sordello' in a trice, if
+the fagging fit holds. I did not write six lines while absent (except
+a scene in a play, jotted down as we sailed thro' the Straits of
+Gibraltar)--but I did hammer out some four, two of which are addressed
+to you, two to the Queen*--the whole to go in Book III--perhaps. I
+called you 'Eyebright'--meaning a simple and sad sort of translation
+of "Euphrasia" into my own language: folks would know who Euphrasia, or
+Fanny, was--and I should not know Ianthe or Clemanthe. Not that there is
+anything in them to care for, good or bad. Shall I say 'Eyebright'?
+
+     * I know no lines directly addressed to the Queen.
+
+I was disappointed in one thing, Canova.
+
+What companions should I have?
+
+The story of the ship must have reached you 'with a difference' as
+Ophelia says; my sister told it to a Mr. Dow, who delivered it to
+Forster, I suppose, who furnished Macready with it, who made it over
+&c., &c., &c.--As short as I can tell, this way it happened: the captain
+woke me one bright Sunday morning to say there was a ship floating keel
+uppermost half a mile off; they lowered a boat, made ropes fast to some
+floating canvas, and towed her towards our vessel. Both met halfway, and
+the little air that had risen an hour or two before, sank at once. Our
+men made the wreck fast in high glee at having 'new trousers out of the
+sails,' and quite sure she was a French boat, broken from her moorings
+at Algiers, close by. Ropes were next hove (hang this sea-talk!) round
+her stanchions, and after a quarter of an hour's pushing at the capstan,
+the vessel righted suddenly, one dead body floating out; five more were
+in the forecastle, and had probably been there a month under a blazing
+African sun--don't imagine the wretched state of things. They were,
+these six, the 'watch below'--(I give you the result of the day's
+observation)--the rest, some eight or ten, had been washed overboard at
+first. One or two were Algerines, the rest Spaniards. The vessel was a
+smuggler bound for Gibraltar; there were two stupidly disproportionate
+guns, taking up the whole deck, which was convex and--nay, look you!
+(a rough pen-and-ink sketch of the different parts of the wreck is here
+introduced) these are the gun-rings, and the black square the place
+where the bodies lay. (All the 'bulwarks' or sides of the top, carried
+away by the waves.) Well, the sailors covered up the hatchway, broke up
+the aft-deck, hauled up tobacco and cigars, such heaps of them, and
+then bale after bale of prints and chintz, don't you call it, till the
+captain was half-frightened--he would get at the ship's papers, he said;
+so these poor fellows were pulled up, piecemeal, and pitched into the
+sea, the very sailors calling to each other to 'cover the faces',--no
+papers of importance were found, however, but fifteen swords, powder
+and ball enough for a dozen such boats, and bundles of cotton, &c., that
+would have taken a day to get out, but the captain vowed that after five
+o'clock she should be cut adrift: accordingly she was cast loose, not a
+third of her cargo having been touched; and you hardly can conceive the
+strange sight when the battered hulk turned round, actually, and
+looked at us, and then reeled off, like a mutilated creature from some
+scoundrel French surgeon's lecture-table, into the most gorgeous and
+lavish sunset in the world: there; only thank me for not taking you at
+your word, and giving you the whole 'story'.--'What I did?' I went to
+Trieste, then Venice--then through Treviso and Bassano to the mountains,
+delicious Asolo, all my places and castles, you will see. Then to
+Vicenza, Padua, and Venice again. Then to Verona, Trent, Innspruck (the
+Tyrol), Munich, Salzburg in Franconia, Frankfort and Mayence; down the
+Rhine to Cologne, then to Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege and Antwerp--then home.
+Shall you come to town, anywhere near town, soon? I shall be off again
+as soon as my book is out, whenever that will be.
+
+I never read that book of Miss Martineau's, so can't understand what
+you mean. Macready is looking well; I just saw him the other day for a
+minute after the play; his Kitely was Kitely--superb from his flat cap
+down to his shining shoes. I saw very few Italians, 'to know', that is.
+Those I did see I liked. Your friend Pepoli has been lecturing here, has
+he not?
+
+I shall be vexed if you don't write soon, a long Elstree letter. What
+are you doing, writing--drawing? Ever yours truly R. B. To Miss Haworth,
+Barham Lodge, Elstree.
+
+
+Miss Browning's account of this experience, supplied from memory of her
+brother's letters and conversations, contains some vivid supplementary
+details. The drifting away of the wreck put probably no effective
+distance between it and the ship; hence the necessity of 'sailing away'
+from it.
+
+
+'Of the dead pirates, one had his hands clasped as if praying; another,
+a severe gash in his head. The captain burnt disinfectants and blew
+gunpowder, before venturing on board, but even then, he, a powerful man,
+turned very sick with the smell and sight. They stayed one whole day
+by the side, but the sailors, in spite of orders, began to plunder the
+cigars, &c. The captain said privately to Robert, "I cannot restrain my
+men, and they will bring the plague into our ship, so I mean quietly in
+the night to sail away." Robert took two cutlasses and a dagger; they
+were of the coarsest workmanship, intended for use. At the end of one of
+the sheaths was a heavy bullet, so that it could be used as a sling.
+The day after, to their great relief, a heavy rain fell and cleansed the
+ship. Captain Davidson reported the sight of the wreck and its condition
+as soon as he arrived at Trieste.'
+
+
+Miss Browning also relates that the weather was stormy in the Bay of
+Biscay, and for the first fortnight her brother suffered terribly. The
+captain supported him on to the deck as they passed through the Straits
+of Gibraltar, that he might not lose the sight. He recovered, as we
+know, sufficiently to write 'How they brought the Good News from Ghent
+to Aix'; but we can imagine in what revulsion of feeling towards firm
+land and healthy motion this dream of a headlong gallop was born in
+him. The poem was pencilled on the cover of Bartoli's "De' Simboli
+trasportati al Morale", a favourite book and constant companion of his;
+and, in spite of perfect effacement as far as the sense goes, the pencil
+dints are still visible. The little poem 'Home Thoughts from the Sea'
+was written at the same time, and in the same manner.
+
+By the time they reached Trieste, the captain, a rough north-countryman,
+had become so attached to Mr. Browning that he offered him a free
+passage to Constantinople; and after they had parted, carefully
+preserved, by way of remembrance, a pair of very old gloves worn by him
+on deck. Mr. Browning might, on such an occasion, have dispensed with
+gloves altogether; but it was one of his peculiarities that he could
+never endure to be out of doors with uncovered hands. The captain also
+showed his friendly feeling on his return to England by bringing to Miss
+Browning, whom he had heard of through her brother, a present of six
+bottles of attar of roses.
+
+The inspirations of Asolo and Venice appear in 'Pippa Passes' and 'In
+a Gondola'; but the latter poem showed, to Mr. Browning's subsequent
+vexation, that Venice had been imperfectly seen; and the magnetism which
+Asolo was to exercise upon him, only fully asserted itself at a much
+later time.
+
+A second letter to Miss Haworth is undated, but may have been written at
+any period of this or the ensuing year.
+
+
+I have received, a couple of weeks since, a present--an album large and
+gaping, and as Cibber's Richard says of the 'fair Elizabeth': 'My
+heart is empty--she shall fill it'--so say I (impudently?) of my grand
+trouble-table, which holds a sketch or two by my fine fellow Monclar,
+one lithograph--his own face of faces,--'all the rest was amethyst.' F.
+H. everywhere! not a soul beside 'in the chrystal silence there,' and
+it locks, this album; now, don't shower drawings on M., who has so many
+advantages over me as it is: or at least don't bid _me_ of all others say
+what he is to have.
+
+The 'Master' is somebody you don't know, W. J. Fox, a magnificent and
+poetical nature, who used to write in reviews when I was a boy, and
+to whom my verses, a bookful, written at the ripe age of twelve and
+thirteen, were shown: which verses he praised not a little; which praise
+comforted me not a little. Then I lost sight of him for years and
+years; then I published _anonymously_ a little poem--which he, to my
+inexpressible delight, praised and expounded in a gallant article in a
+magazine of which he was the editor; then I found him out again; he got
+a publisher for 'Paracelsus' (I read it to him in manuscript) and is in
+short 'my literary father'. Pretty nearly the same thing did he for
+Miss Martineau, as she has said somewhere. God knows I forget what the
+'talk', table-talk was about--I think she must have told you the results
+of the whole day we spent tete-a-tete at Ascot, and that day's, the
+dinner-day's morning at Elstree and St. Albans. She is to give me advice
+about my worldly concerns, and not before I need it!
+
+I cannot say or sing the pleasure your way of writing gives me--do go
+on, and tell me all sorts of things, 'the story' for a beginning; but
+your moralisings on 'your age' and the rest, are--now what _are_ they?
+not to be reasoned on, disputed, laughed at, grieved about: they are
+'Fanny's crotchets'. I thank thee, Jew (lia), for teaching me that word.
+
+I don't know that I shall leave town for a month: my friend Monclar
+looks piteous when I talk of such an event. I can't bear to leave him;
+he is to take my portrait to-day (a famous one he _has_ taken!) and very
+like he engages it shall be. I am going to town for the purpose. . . .
+
+Now, then, do something for me, and see if I'll ask Miss M----to help
+you! I am going to begin the finishing 'Sordello'--and to begin thinking
+a Tragedy (an Historical one, so I shall want heaps of criticisms on
+'Strafford') and I want to have _another_ tragedy in prospect, I write
+best so provided: I had chosen a splendid subject for it, when I learned
+that a magazine for next, this, month, will have a scene founded on my
+story; vulgarizing or doing no good to it: and I accordingly throw it
+up. I want a subject of the most wild and passionate love, to contrast
+with the one I mean to have ready in a short time. I have many
+half-conceptions, floating fancies: give me your notion of a thorough
+self-devotement, self-forgetting; should it be a woman who loves thus,
+or a man? What circumstances will best draw out, set forth this feeling?
+. . .
+
+
+The tragedies in question were to be 'King Victor and King Charles', and
+'The Return of the Druses'.
+
+This letter affords a curious insight into Mr. Browning's mode of work;
+it is also very significant of the small place which love had hitherto
+occupied in his life. It was evident, from his appeal to Miss Haworth's
+'notion' on the subject, that he had as yet no experience, even
+imaginary, of a genuine passion, whether in woman or man. The experience
+was still distant from him in point of time. In circumstance he was
+nearer to it than he knew; for it was in 1839 that he became acquainted
+with Mr. Kenyon.
+
+When dining one day at Serjeant Talfourd's, he was accosted by a
+pleasant elderly man, who, having, we conclude, heard who he was, asked
+leave to address to him a few questions: 'Was his father's name Robert?
+had he gone to school at the Rev. Mr. Bell's at Cheshunt, and was he
+still alive?' On receiving affirmative answers, he went on to say that
+Mr. Browning and he had been great chums at school, and though they had
+lost sight of each other in after-life, he had never forgotten his
+old playmate, but even alluded to him in a little book which he had
+published a few years before.*
+
+     * The volume is entitled 'Rhymed Plea for Tolerance' (1833),
+     and contains a reference to Mr. Kenyon's schooldays,
+     and to the classic fights which Mr. Browning had instituted.
+
+The next morning the poet asked his father if he remembered a
+schoolfellow named John Kenyon. He replied, 'Certainly! This is his
+face,' and sketched a boy's head, in which his son at once recognized
+that of the grown man. The acquaintance was renewed, and Mr. Kenyon
+proved ever afterwards a warm friend. Mr. Browning wrote of him, in a
+letter to Professor Knight of St. Andrews, Jan. 10, 1884: 'He was one
+of the best of human beings, with a general sympathy for excellence
+of every kind. He enjoyed the friendship of Wordsworth, of Southey, of
+Landor, and, in later days, was intimate with most of my contemporaries
+of eminence.' It was at Mr. Kenyon's house that the poet saw most of
+Wordsworth, who always stayed there when he came to town.
+
+In 1840 'Sordello' appeared. It was, relatively to its length, by far
+the slowest in preparation of Mr. Browning's poems. This seemed, indeed,
+a condition of its peculiar character. It had lain much deeper in the
+author's mind than the various slighter works which were thrown off in
+the course of its inception. We know from the preface to 'Strafford'
+that it must have been begun soon after 'Paracelsus'. Its plan may have
+belonged to a still earlier date; for it connects itself with 'Pauline'
+as the history of a poetic soul; with both the earlier poems, as the
+manifestation of the self-conscious spiritual ambitions which were
+involved in that history. This first imaginative mood was also
+outgrowing itself in the very act of self-expression; for the tragedies
+written before the conclusion of 'Sordello' impress us as the product of
+a different mental state--as the work of a more balanced imagination and
+a more mature mind.
+
+It would be interesting to learn how Mr. Browning's typical poet became
+embodied in this mediaeval form: whether the half-mythical character
+of the real Sordello presented him as a fitting subject for imaginative
+psychological treatment, or whether the circumstances among which he
+moved seemed the best adapted to the development of the intended type.
+The inspiration may have come through the study of Dante, and his
+testimony to the creative influence of Sordello on their mother-tongue.
+That period of Italian history must also have assumed, if it did not
+already possess, a great charm for Mr. Browning's fancy, since he
+studied no less than thirty works upon it, which were to contribute
+little more to his dramatic picture than what he calls 'decoration', or
+'background'. But the one guide which he has given us to the reading of
+the poem is his assertion that its historical circumstance is only to
+be regarded as background; and the extent to which he identified himself
+with the figure of Sordello has been proved by his continued belief that
+its prominence was throughout maintained. He could still declare,
+so late as 1863, in his preface to the reprint of the work, that his
+'stress' in writing it had lain 'on the incidents in the development of
+a soul, little else' being to his mind 'worth study'. I cannot therefore
+help thinking that recent investigations of the life and character of
+the actual poet, however in themselves praiseworthy and interesting,
+have been often in some degree a mistake; because, directly or
+indirectly, they referred Mr. Browning's Sordello to an historical
+reality, which his author had grasped, as far as was then possible, but
+to which he was never intended to conform.
+
+Sordello's story does exhibit the development of a soul; or rather,
+the sudden awakening of a self-regarding nature to the claims of other
+men--the sudden, though slowly prepared, expansion of the narrower into
+the larger self, the selfish into the sympathetic existence; and this
+takes place in accordance with Mr. Browning's here expressed belief that
+poetry is the appointed vehicle for all lasting truths; that the true
+poet must be their exponent. The work is thus obviously, in point of
+moral utterance, an advance on 'Pauline'. Its metaphysics are,
+also, more distinctly formulated than those of either 'Pauline' or
+'Paracelsus'; and the frequent use of the term Will in its metaphysical
+sense so strongly points to German associations that it is difficult to
+realize their absence, then and always, from Mr. Browning's mind. But
+he was emphatic in his assurance that he knew neither the German
+philosophers nor their reflection in Coleridge, who would have seemed a
+likely medium between them and him. Miss Martineau once said to him
+that he had no need to study German thought, since his mind was German
+enough--by which she possibly meant too German--already.
+
+The poem also impresses us by a Gothic richness of detail,* the
+picturesque counterpart of its intricacy of thought, and, perhaps for
+this very reason, never so fully displayed in any subsequent work. Mr.
+Browning's genuinely modest attitude towards it could not preclude
+the consciousness of the many imaginative beauties which its unpopular
+character had served to conceal; and he was glad to find, some years
+ago, that 'Sordello' was represented in a collection of descriptive
+passages which a friend of his was proposing to make. 'There is a great
+deal of that in it,' he said, 'and it has always been overlooked.'
+
+     * The term Gothic has been applied to Mr. Browning's work, I
+     believe, by Mr. James Thomson, in writing of 'The Ring and
+     the Book', and I do not like to use it without saying so.
+     But it is one of those which must have spontaneously
+     suggested themselves to many other of Mr. Browning's
+     readers.
+
+It was unfortunate that new difficulties of style should have added
+themselves on this occasion to those of subject and treatment; and the
+reason of it is not generally known. Mr. John Sterling had made some
+comments on the wording of 'Paracelsus'; and Miss Caroline Fox, then
+quite a young woman, repeated them, with additions, to Miss Haworth,
+who, in her turn, communicated them to Mr. Browning, but without making
+quite clear to him the source from which they sprang. He took the
+criticism much more seriously than it deserved, and condensed the
+language of this his next important publication into what was nearly its
+present form.
+
+In leaving 'Sordello' we emerge from the self-conscious stage of Mr.
+Browning's imagination, and his work ceases to be autobiographic in the
+sense in which, perhaps erroneously, we have hitherto felt it to be.
+'Festus' and 'Salinguerra' have already given promise of the world of
+'Men and Women' into which he will now conduct us. They will be inspired
+by every variety of conscious motive, but never again by the old (real
+or imagined) self-centred, self-directing Will. We have, indeed, already
+lost the sense of disparity between the man and the poet; for the
+Browning of 'Sordello' was growing older, while the defects of the poem
+were in many respects those of youth. In 'Pippa Passes', published one
+year later, the poet and the man show themselves full-grown. Each has
+entered on the inheritance of the other.
+
+Neither the imagination nor the passion of what Mr. Gosse so fitly calls
+this 'lyrical masque'* gives much scope for tenderness; but the quality
+of humour is displayed in it for the first time; as also a strongly
+marked philosophy of life--or more properly, of association--from
+which its idea and development are derived. In spite, however, of these
+evidences of general maturity, Mr. Browning was still sometimes boyish
+in personal intercourse, if we may judge from a letter to Miss Flower
+written at about the same time.
+
+     * These words, and a subsequent paragraph, are quoted from
+     Mr. Gosse's 'Personalia'.
+
+
+Monday night, March 9 (? 1841).
+
+My dear Miss Flower,--I have this moment received your very kind
+note--of course, I understand your objections. How else? But they are
+somewhat lightened already (confess--nay 'confess' is vile--you will
+be rejoiced to holla from the house-top)--will go on, or rather go
+off, lightening, and will be--oh, where _will_ they be half a dozen years
+hence?
+
+Meantime praise what you can praise, do me all the good you can, you and
+Mr. Fox (as if you will not!) for I have a head full of projects--mean
+to song-write, play-write forthwith,--and, believe me, dear Miss Flower,
+Yours ever faithfully, Robert Browning.
+
+By the way, you speak of 'Pippa'--could we not make some arrangement
+about it? The lyrics _want_ your music--five or six in all--how say you?
+When these three plays are out I hope to build a huge Ode--but 'all
+goeth by God's Will.'
+
+
+The loyal Alfred Domett now appears on the scene with a satirical poem,
+inspired by an impertinent criticism on his friend. I give its first two
+verses:
+
+
+On a Certain Critique on 'Pippa Passes'.
+
+(Query--Passes what?--the critic's comprehension.)
+
+     Ho! everyone that by the nose is led,
+     Automatons of which the world is full,
+     Ye myriad bodies, each without a head,
+     That dangle from a critic's brainless skull,
+     Come, hearken to a deep discovery made,
+     A mighty truth now wondrously displayed.
+
+     A black squat beetle, vigorous for his size,
+     Pushing tail-first by every road that's wrong
+     The dung-ball of his dirty thoughts along
+     His tiny sphere of grovelling sympathies--
+     Has knocked himself full-butt, with blundering trouble,
+     Against a mountain he can neither double
+     Nor ever hope to scale.  So like a free,
+     Pert, self-conceited scarabaeus, he
+     Takes it into his horny head to swear
+     There's no such thing as any mountain there.
+
+The writer lived to do better things from a literary point of view; but
+these lines have a fine ring of youthful indignation which must have
+made them a welcome tribute to friendship.
+
+There seems to have been little respectful criticism of 'Pippa Passes';
+it is less surprising that there should have been very little of
+'Sordello'. Mr. Browning, it is true, retained a limited number of
+earnest appreciators, foremost of whom was the writer of an admirable
+notice of these two works, quoted from an 'Eclectic Review' of 1847, in
+Dr. Furnivall's 'Bibliography'. I am also told that the series of poems
+which was next to appear was enthusiastically greeted by some poets
+and painters of the pre-Raphaelite school; but he was now entering on
+a period of general neglect, which covered nearly twenty years of his
+life, and much that has since become most deservedly popular in his
+work.
+
+'Pippa Passes' had appeared as the first instalment of 'Bells and
+Pomegranates', the history of which I give in Mr. Gosse's words. This
+poem, and the two tragedies, 'King Victor and King Charles' and 'The
+Return of the Druses'--first christened 'Mansoor, the Hierophant'--were
+lying idle in Mr. Browning's desk. He had not found, perhaps not very
+vigorously sought, a publisher for them.
+
+
+'One day, as the poet was discussing the matter with Mr. Edward Moxon,
+the publisher, the latter remarked that at that time he was bringing out
+some editions of the old Elizabethan dramatists in a comparatively
+cheap form, and that if Mr. Browning would consent to print his poems
+as pamphlets, using this cheap type, the expense would be very
+inconsiderable. The poet jumped at the idea, and it was agreed that each
+poem should form a separate brochure of just one sheet--sixteen pages
+in double columns--the entire cost of which should not exceed twelve or
+fifteen pounds. In this fashion began the celebrated series of 'Bells
+and Pomegranates', eight numbers of which, a perfect treasury of fine
+poetry, came out successively between 1841 and 1846. 'Pippa Passes'
+led the way, and was priced first at sixpence; then, the sale being
+inconsiderable, at a shilling, which greatly encouraged the sale;
+and so, slowly, up to half-a-crown, at which the price of each number
+finally rested.'
+
+
+Mr. Browning's hopes and intentions with respect to this series are
+announced in the following preface to 'Pippa Passes', of which, in later
+editions, only the dedicatory words appear:
+
+
+'Two or three years ago I wrote a Play, about which the chief matter I
+care to recollect at present is, that a Pit-full of good-natured people
+applauded it:--ever since, I have been desirous of doing something in
+the same way that should better reward their attention. What follows
+I mean for the first of a series of Dramatical Pieces, to come out at
+intervals, and I amuse myself by fancying that the cheap mode in which
+they appear will for once help me to a sort of Pit-audience again.
+Of course, such a work must go on no longer than it is liked; and to
+provide against a certain and but too possible contingency, let me
+hasten to say now--what, if I were sure of success, I would try to say
+circumstantially enough at the close--that I dedicate my best intentions
+most admiringly to the author of "Ion"--most affectionately to Serjeant
+Talfourd.'
+
+
+A necessary explanation of the general title was reserved for the last
+number: and does something towards justifying the popular impression
+that Mr. Browning exacted a large measure of literary insight from his
+readers.
+
+
+'Here ends my first series of "Bells and Pomegranates": and I take the
+opportunity of explaining, in reply to inquiries, that I only meant
+by that title to indicate an endeavour towards something like an
+alternation, or mixture, of music with discoursing, sound with sense,
+poetry with thought; which looks too ambitious, thus expressed, so the
+symbol was preferred. It is little to the purpose, that such is
+actually one of the most familiar of the many Rabbinical (and Patristic)
+acceptations of the phrase; because I confess that, letting authority
+alone, I supposed the bare words, in such juxtaposition, would
+sufficiently convey the desired meaning. "Faith and good works" is
+another fancy, for instance, and perhaps no easier to arrive at: yet
+Giotto placed a pomegranate fruit in the hand of Dante, and Raffaelle
+crowned his Theology (in the 'Camera della Segnatura') with blossoms of
+the same; as if the Bellari and Vasari would be sure to come after,
+and explain that it was merely "simbolo delle buone opere--il qual
+Pomogranato fu pero usato nelle vesti del Pontefice appresso gli
+Ebrei."'
+
+
+The Dramas and Poems contained in the eight numbers of 'Bells and
+Pomegranates' were:
+
+    I.  Pippa Passes.  1841.
+   II.  King Victor and King Charles.  1842.
+  III.  Dramatic Lyrics.  1842.
+          Cavalier Tunes; I. Marching Along; II. Give a Rouse;
+            III. My Wife Gertrude.  ['Boot and Saddle'.]
+          Italy and France; I. Italy; II. France.
+          Camp and Cloister; I. Camp (French); II. Cloister (Spanish).
+          In a Gondola.
+          Artemis Prologuizes.
+          Waring; I.; II.
+          Queen Worship; I. Rudel and The Lady of Tripoli; II. Cristina.
+          Madhouse Cells; I. [Johannes Agricola.]; II. [Porphyria.]
+          Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr.  1842.
+          The Pied Piper of Hamelin; a Child's Story.
+   IV.  The Return of the Druses.  A Tragedy, in Five Acts.  1843.
+    V.  A Blot in the 'Scutcheon.  A Tragedy, in Three Acts.  1843.
+          [Second Edition, same year.]
+   VI.  Colombe's Birthday.  A Play, in Five Acts.  1844.
+  VII.  Dramatic Romances and Lyrics.  1845.
+          'How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.  (16--.)'
+          Pictor Ignotus.  (Florence, 15--.)
+          Italy in England.
+          England in Italy.  (Piano di Sorrento.)
+          The Lost Leader.
+          The Lost Mistress.
+          Home Thoughts, from Abroad.
+          The Tomb at St. Praxed's:  (Rome, 15--.)
+          Garden Fancies; I. The Flower's Name;
+            II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis.
+          France and Spain; I. The Laboratory (Ancien Regime);
+            II. Spain--The Confessional.
+          The Flight of the Duchess.
+          Earth's Immortalities.
+          Song.  ('Nay but you, who do not love her.')
+          The Boy and the Angel.
+          Night and Morning; I. Night; II. Morning.
+          Claret and Tokay.
+          Saul.  (Part I.)
+          Time's Revenges.
+          The Glove.  (Peter Ronsard loquitur.)
+ VIII. and last.  Luria; and A Soul's Tragedy.  1846.
+
+
+This publication has seemed entitled to a detailed notice, because it is
+practically extinct, and because its nature and circumstance confer on
+it a biographical interest not possessed by any subsequent issue of Mr.
+Browning's works. The dramas and poems of which it is composed belong to
+that more mature period of the author's life, in which the analysis of
+his work ceases to form a necessary part of his history. Some few of
+them, however, are significant to it; and this is notably the case with
+'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon'.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+1841-1844
+
+'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon'--Letters to Mr. Frank Hill; Lady
+Martin--Charles Dickens--Other Dramas and Minor Poems--Letters to Miss
+Lee; Miss Haworth; Miss Flower--Second Italian Journey; Naples--E. J.
+Trelawney--Stendhal.
+
+
+
+'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon' was written for Macready, who meant to
+perform the principal part; and we may conclude that the appeal for it
+was urgent, since it was composed in the space of four or five days.
+Macready's journals must have contained a fuller reference to both the
+play and its performance (at Drury Lane, February 1843) than appears in
+published form; but considerable irritation had arisen between him and
+Mr. Browning, and he possibly wrote something which his editor, Sir
+Frederick Pollock, as the friend of both, thought it best to omit. What
+occurred on this occasion has been told in some detail by Mr. Gosse, and
+would not need repeating if the question were only of re-telling it on
+the same authority, in another person's words; but, through the kindness
+of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hill, I am able to give Mr. Browning's direct
+statement of the case, as also his expressed judgment upon it. The
+statement was made more than forty years later than the events to
+which it refers, but will, nevertheless, be best given in its direct
+connection with them.
+
+The merits, or demerits, of 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon' had been freshly
+brought under discussion by its performance in London through the action
+of the Browning Society, and in Washington by Mr. Laurence Barrett; and
+it became the subject of a paragraph in one of the theatrical articles
+prepared for the 'Daily News'. Mr. Hill was then editor of the paper,
+and when the article came to him for revision, he thought it right
+to submit to Mr. Browning the passages devoted to his tragedy, which
+embodied some then prevailing, but, he strongly suspected, erroneous
+impressions concerning it. The results of this kind and courteous
+proceeding appear in the following letter.
+
+
+19, Warwick Crescent: December 15, 1884.
+
+My dear Mr. Hill,--It was kind and considerate of you to suppress the
+paragraph which you send me,--and of which the publication would
+have been unpleasant for reasons quite other than as regarding my own
+work,--which exists to defend or accuse itself. You will judge of the
+true reasons when I tell you the facts--so much of them as contradicts
+the statements of your critic--who, I suppose, has received a stimulus
+from the notice, in an American paper which arrived last week, of
+Mr. Laurence Barrett's intention 'shortly to produce the play' in New
+York--and subsequently in London: so that 'the failure' of forty-one
+years ago might be duly influential at present--or two years hence
+perhaps. The 'mere amateurs' are no high game.
+
+Macready received and accepted the play, while he was engaged at the
+Haymarket, and retained it for Drury Lane, of which I was ignorant that
+he was about to become the manager: he accepted it 'at the instigation'
+of nobody,--and Charles Dickens was not in England when he did so: it
+was read to him after his return, by Forster--and the glowing letter
+which contains his opinion of it, although directed by him to be shown
+to myself, was never heard of nor seen by me till printed in Forster's
+book some thirty years after. When the Drury Lane season began, Macready
+informed me that he should act the play when he had brought out two
+others--'The Patrician's Daughter', and 'Plighted Troth': having
+done so, he wrote to me that the former had been unsuccessful in
+money-drawing, and the latter had 'smashed his arrangements altogether':
+but he would still produce my play. I had--in my ignorance of certain
+symptoms better understood by Macready's professional acquaintances--I
+had no notion that it was a proper thing, in such a case, to 'release
+him from his promise'; on the contrary, I should have fancied that such
+a proposal was offensive. Soon after, Macready begged that I would call
+on him: he said the play had been read to the actors the day before,
+'and laughed at from beginning to end': on my speaking my mind about
+this, he explained that the reading had been done by the Prompter, a
+grotesque person with a red nose and wooden leg, ill at ease in the love
+scenes, and that he would himself make amends by reading the play next
+morning--which he did, and very adequately--but apprised me that, in
+consequence of the state of his mind, harassed by business and various
+trouble, the principal character must be taken by Mr. Phelps; and again
+I failed to understand,--what Forster subsequently assured me was plain
+as the sun at noonday,--that to allow at Macready's Theatre any
+other than Macready to play the principal part in a new piece was
+suicidal,--and really believed I was meeting his exigencies by accepting
+the substitution. At the rehearsal, Macready announced that Mr.
+Phelps was ill, and that he himself would read the part: on the third
+rehearsal, Mr. Phelps appeared for the first time, and sat in a chair
+while Macready more than read, rehearsed the part. The next morning Mr.
+Phelps waylaid me at the stage-door to say, with much emotion, that it
+never was intended that _he_ should be instrumental in the success of a
+new tragedy, and that Macready would play Tresham on the ground that
+himself, Phelps, was unable to do so. He added that he could not expect
+me to waive such an advantage,--but that, if I were prepared to waive
+it, 'he would take ether, sit up all night, and have the words in his
+memory by next day.' I bade him follow me to the green-room, and hear
+what I decided upon--which was that as Macready had given him the part,
+he should keep it: this was on a Thursday; he rehearsed on Friday and
+Saturday,--the play being acted the same evening,--_of the fifth day
+after the 'reading' by MacReady_. Macready at once wished to reduce the
+importance of the 'play',--as he styled it in the bills,--tried to leave
+out so much of the text, that I baffled him by getting it printed in
+four-and-twenty hours, by Moxon's assistance. He wanted me to call it
+'The Sister'!--and I have before me, while I write, the stage-acting
+copy, with two lines of his own insertion to avoid the tragical
+ending--Tresham was to announce his intention of going into a monastery!
+all this, to keep up the belief that Macready, and Macready alone, could
+produce a veritable 'tragedy', unproduced before. Not a shilling was
+spent on scenery or dresses--and a striking scene which had been used
+for the 'Patrician's Daughter', did duty a second time. If your critic
+considers this treatment of the play an instance of 'the failure of
+powerful and experienced actors' to ensure its success,--I can only say
+that my own opinion was shown by at once breaking off a friendship of
+many years--a friendship which had a right to be plainly and simply told
+that the play I had contributed as a proof of it, would through a change
+of circumstances, no longer be to my friend's advantage,--all I could
+possibly care for. Only recently, when by the publication of Macready's
+journals the extent of his pecuniary embarrassments at that time
+was made known, could I in a measure understand his motives for such
+conduct--and less than ever understand why he so strangely disguised and
+disfigured them. If 'applause' means success, the play thus maimed
+and maltreated was successful enough: it 'made way' for Macready's own
+Benefit, and the Theatre closed a fortnight after.
+
+Having kept silence for all these years, in spite of repeated
+explanations, in the style of your critic's, that the play 'failed in
+spite of the best endeavours' &c. I hardly wish to revive a very painful
+matter: on the other hand,--as I have said; my play subsists, and is as
+open to praise or blame as it was forty-one years ago: is it necessary
+to search out what somebody or other,--not improbably a jealous adherent
+of Macready, 'the only organizer of theatrical victories', chose to say
+on the subject? If the characters are 'abhorrent' and 'inscrutable'--and
+the language conformable,--they were so when Dickens pronounced
+upon them, and will be so whenever the critic pleases to re-consider
+them--which, if he ever has an opportunity of doing, apart from the
+printed copy, I can assure you is through no motion of mine. This
+particular experience was sufficient: but the Play is out of my power
+now; though amateurs and actors may do what they please.
+
+Of course, this being the true story, I should desire that it were told
+_thus_ and no otherwise, if it must be told at all: but _not_ as a statement
+of mine,--the substance of it has been partly stated already by more
+than one qualified person, and if I have been willing to let the poor
+matter drop, surely there is no need that it should be gone into now
+when Macready and his Athenaeum upholder are no longer able to speak
+for themselves: this is just a word to you, dear Mr. Hill, and may be
+brought under the notice of your critic if you think proper--but only
+for the facts--not as a communication for the public.
+
+Yes, thank you, I am in full health, as you wish--and I wish you and
+Mrs. Hill, I assure you, all the good appropriate to the season. My
+sister has completely recovered from her illness, and is grateful for
+your enquiries.
+
+With best regards to Mrs. Hill, and an apology for this long letter,
+which however,--when once induced to write it,--I could not well
+shorten,--believe me, Yours truly ever Robert Browning.
+
+
+I well remember Mr. Browning's telling me how, when he returned to the
+green-room, on that critical day, he drove his hat more firmly on to his
+head, and said to Macready, 'I beg pardon, sir, but you have given the
+part to Mr. Phelps, and I am satisfied that he should act it;' and how
+Macready, on hearing this, crushed up the MS., and flung it on to the
+ground. He also admitted that his own manner had been provocative; but
+he was indignant at what he deemed the unjust treatment which Mr. Phelps
+had received. The occasion of the next letter speaks for itself.
+
+
+December 21, 1884.
+
+My dear Mr. Hill,--Your goodness must extend to letting me have the last
+word--one of sincere thanks. You cannot suppose I doubted for a moment
+of a good-will which I have had abundant proof of. I only took the
+occasion your considerate letter gave me, to tell the simple truth which
+my forty years' silence is a sign I would only tell on compulsion. I
+never thought your critic had any less generous motive for alluding to
+the performance as he did than that which he professes: he doubtless
+heard the account of the matter which Macready and his intimates gave
+currency to at the time; and which, being confined for a while to their
+limited number, I never chose to notice. But of late years I have got to
+_read_,--not merely _hear_,--of the play's failure 'which all the efforts
+of my friend the great actor could not avert;' and the nonsense of this
+untruth gets hard to bear. I told you the principal facts in the letter
+I very hastily wrote: I could, had it been worth while, corroborate them
+by others in plenty, and refer to the living witnesses--Lady Martin,
+Mrs. Stirling, and (I believe) Mr. Anderson: it was solely through the
+admirable loyalty of the two former that . . . a play . . . deprived
+of every advantage, in the way of scenery, dresses, and
+rehearsing--proved--what Macready himself declared it to be--'a complete
+success'. _So_ he sent a servant to tell me, 'in case there was a call for
+the author at the end of the act'--to which I replied that the author
+had been too sick and sorry at the whole treatment of his play to do any
+such thing. Such a call there truly _was_, and Mr. Anderson had to come
+forward and 'beg the author to come forward if he were in the house--a
+circumstance of which he was not aware:' whereat the author laughed at
+him from a box just opposite. . . . I would submit to anybody drawing a
+conclusion from one or two facts past contradiction, whether that play
+could have thoroughly failed which was not only not withdrawn at
+once but acted three nights in the same week, and years afterwards,
+reproduced at his own theatre, during my absence in Italy, by Mr.
+Phelps--the person most completely aware of the untoward circumstances
+which stood originally in the way of success. Why not enquire how it
+happens that, this second time, there was no doubt of the play's doing
+as well as plays ordinarily do? for those were not the days of a 'run'.
+
+. . . . .
+
+. . . This 'last word' has indeed been an Aristophanic one of fifty
+syllables: but I have spoken it, relieved myself, and commend all that
+concerns me to the approved and valued friend of whom I am proud to
+account myself in corresponding friendship, His truly ever Robert
+Browning.
+
+
+Mr. Browning also alludes to Mr. Phelps's acting as not only not having
+been detrimental to the play, but having helped to save it, in the
+conspiracy of circumstances which seemed to invoke its failure. This was
+a mistake, since Macready had been anxious to resume the part, and would
+have saved it, to say the least, more thoroughly. It must, however, be
+remembered that the irritation which these letters express was due much
+less to the nature of the facts recorded in them than to the manner in
+which they had been brought before Mr. Browning's mind. Writing on the
+subject to Lady Martin in February 1881, he had spoken very temperately
+of Macready's treatment of his play, while deprecating the injustice
+towards his own friendship which its want of frankness involved: and
+many years before this, the touch of a common sorrow had caused the old
+feeling, at least momentarily, to well up again. The two met for the
+first time after these occurrences when Mr. Browning had returned, a
+widower, from Italy. Mr. Macready, too, had recently lost his wife; and
+Mr. Browning could only start forward, grasp the hand of his old friend,
+and in a voice choked with emotion say, 'O Macready!'
+
+Lady Martin has spoken to me of the poet's attitude on the occasion of
+this performance as being full of generous sympathy for those who were
+working with him, as well as of the natural anxiety of a young author
+for his own success. She also remains convinced that this sympathy led
+him rather to over-than to under-rate the support he received. She wrote
+concerning it in 'Blackwood's Magazine', March 1881:
+
+
+'It seems but yesterday that I sat by his [Mr. Elton's] side in the
+green-room at the reading of Robert Browning's beautiful drama, 'A Blot
+in the 'Scutcheon'. As a rule Mr. Macready always read the new plays.
+But owing, I suppose, to some press of business, the task was entrusted
+on this occasion to the head prompter,--a clever man in his way, but
+wholly unfitted to bring out, or even to understand, Mr. Browning's
+meaning. Consequently, the delicate, subtle lines were twisted,
+perverted, and sometimes even made ridiculous in his hands. My "cruel
+father" [Mr. Elton] was a warm admirer of the poet. He sat writhing and
+indignant, and tried by gentle asides to make me see the real meaning of
+the verse. But somehow the mischief proved irreparable, for a few of
+the actors during the rehearsals chose to continue to misunderstand the
+text, and never took the interest in the play which they would have done
+had Mr. Macready read it.'
+
+
+Looking back on the first appearance of his tragedy through the widening
+perspectives of nearly forty years, Mr. Browning might well declare as
+he did in the letter to Lady Martin to which I have just referred, that
+her '_perfect_ behaviour as a woman' and her 'admirable playing as an
+actress' had been (or at all events were) to him 'the one gratifying
+circumstance connected with it.'
+
+He also felt it a just cause of bitterness that the letter from Charles
+Dickens,* which conveyed his almost passionate admiration of 'A Blot in
+the 'Scutcheon', and was clearly written to Mr. Forster in order that
+it might be seen, was withheld for thirty years from his knowledge, and
+that of the public whose judgment it might so largely have influenced.
+Nor was this the only time in the poet's life that fairly earned honours
+escaped him.
+
+     * See Forster's 'Life of Dickens'.
+
+'Colombe's Birthday' was produced in 1853 at the Haymarket;* and
+afterwards in the provinces, under the direction of Miss Helen Faucit,
+who created the principal part. It was again performed for the Browning
+Society in 1885,** and although Miss Alma Murray, as Colombe, was almost
+entirely supported by amateurs, the result fully justified Miss
+Mary Robinson (now Madame James Darmesteter) in writing immediately
+afterwards in the Boston 'Literary World':***
+
+     * Also in 1853 or 1854 at Boston.
+
+     ** It had been played by amateurs, members of the Browning
+     Society, and their friends, at the house of Mr. Joseph King,
+     in January 1882.
+
+     *** December 12, 1885; quoted in Mr. Arthur Symons'
+     'Introduction to the Study of Browning'.
+
+
+'"Colombe's Birthday" is charming on the boards, clearer, more direct in
+action, more full of delicate surprises than one imagines it in print.
+With a very little cutting it could be made an excellent acting play.'
+
+
+Mr. Gosse has seen a first edition copy of it marked for acting, and
+alludes in his 'Personalia' to the greatly increased knowledge of the
+stage which its minute directions displayed. They told also of sad
+experience in the sacrifice of the poet which the play-writer so often
+exacts: since they included the proviso that unless a very good Valence
+could be found, a certain speech of his should be left out. That speech
+is very important to the poetic, and not less to the moral, purpose
+of the play: the triumph of unworldly affections. It is that in which
+Valence defies the platitudes so often launched against rank and power,
+and shows that these may be very beautiful things--in which he pleads
+for his rival, and against his own heart. He is the better man of
+the two, and Colombe has fallen genuinely in love with him. But the
+instincts of sovereignty are not outgrown in one day however eventful,
+and the young duchess has shown herself amply endowed with them. The
+Prince's offer promised much, and it held still more. The time may come
+when she will need that crowning memory of her husband's unselfishness
+and truth, not to regret what she has done.
+
+'King Victor and King Charles' and 'The Return of the Druses' are both
+admitted by competent judges to have good qualifications for the stage;
+and Mr. Browning would have preferred seeing one of these acted to
+witnessing the revival of 'Strafford' or 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon',
+from neither of which the best amateur performance could remove the
+stigma of past, real or reputed, failure; and when once a friend
+belonging to the Browning Society told him she had been seriously
+occupied with the possibility of producing the Eastern play, he assented
+to the idea with a simplicity that was almost touching, 'It _was_ written
+for the stage,' he said, 'and has only one scene.' He knew, however,
+that the single scene was far from obviating all the difficulties of
+the case, and that the Society, with its limited means, did the best it
+could.
+
+I seldom hear any allusion to a passage in 'King Victor and King
+Charles' which I think more than rivals the famous utterance of Valence,
+revealing as it does the same grasp of non-conventional truth, while its
+occasion lends itself to a far deeper recognition of the mystery,
+the frequent hopeless dilemma of our moral life. It is that in which
+Polixena, the wife of Charles, entreats him for _duty's_ sake to retain
+the crown, though he will earn, by so doing, neither the credit of a
+virtuous deed nor the sure, persistent consciousness of having performed
+one.
+
+Four poems of the 'Dramatic Lyrics' had appeared, as I have said, in the
+'Monthly Repository'. Six of those included in the 'Dramatic Lyrics and
+Romances' were first published in 'Hood's Magazine' from June 1844
+to April 1845, a month before Hood's death. These poems were, 'The
+Laboratory', 'Claret and Tokay', 'Garden Fancies', 'The Boy and the
+Angel', 'The Tomb at St. Praxed's', and 'The Flight of the Duchess'. Mr.
+Hood's health had given way under stress of work, and Mr. Browning
+with other friends thus came forward to help him. The fact deserves
+remembering in connection with his subsequent unbroken rule never to
+write for magazines. He might always have made exceptions for friendly
+or philanthropic objects; the appearance of 'Herve Riel' in the
+'Cornhill Magazine', 1870, indeed proves that it was so. But the offer
+of a blank cheque would not have tempted him, for his own sake, to this
+concession, as he would have deemed it, of his integrity of literary
+purpose.
+
+'In a Gondola' grew out of a single verse extemporized for a picture by
+Maclise, in what circumstances we shall hear in the poet's own words.
+
+The first proof of 'Artemis Prologuizes' had the following note:
+
+
+'I had better say perhaps that the above is nearly all retained of a
+tragedy I composed, much against my endeavour, while in bed with a fever
+two years ago--it went farther into the story of Hippolytus and Aricia;
+but when I got well, putting only thus much down at once, I soon forgot
+the remainder.'*
+
+     * When Mr. Browning gave me these supplementary details for
+     the 'Handbook', he spoke as if his illness had interrupted
+     the work, not preceded its conception.  The real fact is, I
+     think, the more striking.
+
+Mr. Browning would have been very angry with himself if he had known he
+ever wrote 'I _had_ better'; and the punctuation of this note, as well as
+of every other unrevised specimen which we possess of his early writing,
+helps to show by what careful study of the literary art he must have
+acquired his subsequent mastery of it.
+
+'Cristina' was addressed in fancy to the Spanish queen. It is to be
+regretted that the poem did not remain under its original heading of
+'Queen Worship': as this gave a practical clue to the nature of the love
+described, and the special remoteness of its object.
+
+'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' and another poem were written in May 1842
+for Mr. Macready's little eldest son, Willy, who was confined to the
+house by illness, and who was to amuse himself by illustrating the poems
+as well as reading them;* and the first of these, though not intended
+for publication, was added to the 'Dramatic Lyrics', because some
+columns of that number of 'Bells and Pomegranates' still required
+filling. It is perhaps not known that the second was 'Crescentius, the
+Pope's Legate': now included in 'Asolando'.
+
+     * Miss Browning has lately found some of the illustrations,
+     and the touching childish letter together with which
+     her brother received them.
+
+Mr. Browning's father had himself begun a rhymed story on the subject of
+'The Pied Piper'; but left it unfinished when he discovered that his son
+was writing one. The fragment survives as part of a letter addressed to
+Mr. Thomas Powell, and which I have referred to as in the possession of
+Mr. Dykes Campbell.
+
+'The Lost Leader' has given rise to periodical questionings continued
+until the present day, as to the person indicated in its title. Mr.
+Browning answered or anticipated them fifteen years ago in a letter to
+Miss Lee, of West Peckham, Maidstone. It was his reply to an application
+in verse made to him in their very young days by herself and two other
+members of her family, the manner of which seems to have unusually
+pleased him.
+
+
+Villers-sur-mer, Calvados, France: September 7, '75.
+
+Dear Friends,--Your letter has made a round to reach me--hence the delay
+in replying to it--which you will therefore pardon. I have been asked
+the question you put to me--tho' never asked so poetically and so
+pleasantly--I suppose a score of times: and I can only answer, with
+something of shame and contrition, that I undoubtedly had Wordsworth in
+my mind--but simply as 'a model'; you know, an artist takes one or two
+striking traits in the features of his 'model', and uses them to start
+his fancy on a flight which may end far enough from the good man or
+woman who happens to be 'sitting' for nose and eye.
+
+I thought of the great Poet's abandonment of liberalism, at an unlucky
+juncture, and no repaying consequence that I could ever see. But--once
+call my fancy-portrait 'Wordsworth'--and how much more ought one to
+say,--how much more would not I have attempted to say!
+
+There is my apology, dear friends, and your acceptance of it will
+confirm me Truly yours, Robert Browning.
+
+
+Some fragments of correspondence, not all very interesting, and his
+own allusion to an attack of illness, are our only record of the poet's
+general life during the interval which separated the publication of
+'Pippa Passes' from his second Italian journey.
+
+An undated letter to Miss Haworth probably refers to the close of 1841.
+
+
+'. . . I am getting to love painting as I did once. Do you know I was
+a young wonder (as are eleven out of the dozen of us) at drawing? My
+father had faith in me, and over yonder in a drawer of mine lies, I
+well know, a certain cottage and rocks in lead pencil and black currant
+jam-juice (paint being rank poison, as they said when I sucked my
+brushes) with his (my father's) note in one corner, "R. B., aetat. two
+years three months." "How fast, alas, our days we spend--How vain
+they be, how soon they end!" I am going to print "Victor", however, by
+February, and there is one thing not so badly painted in there--oh, let
+me tell you. I chanced to call on Forster the other day, and he pressed
+me into committing verse on the instant, not the minute, in Maclise's
+behalf, who has wrought a divine Venetian work, it seems, for the
+British Institution. Forster described it well--but I could do nothing
+better, than this wooden ware--(all the "properties", as we say, were
+given, and the problem was how to catalogue them in rhyme and unreason).
+
+     I send my heart up to thee, all my heart
+     In this my singing!
+     For the stars help me, and the sea bears part;
+     The very night is clinging
+     Closer to Venice' streets to leave me space
+     Above me, whence thy face
+     May light my joyous heart to thee its dwelling-place.
+
+Singing and stars and night and Venice streets and joyous heart, are
+properties, do you please to see. And now tell me, is this below the
+average of catalogue original poetry? Tell me--for to that end of being
+told, I write. . . . I dined with dear Carlyle and his wife (catch
+me calling people "dear" in a hurry, except in letter-beginnings!)
+yesterday. I don't know any people like them. There was a son of Burns
+there, Major Burns whom Macready knows--he sung "Of all the airts",
+"John Anderson", and another song of his father's. . . .'
+
+
+In the course of 1842 he wrote the following note to Miss Flower,
+evidently relating to the publication of her 'Hymns and Anthems'.
+
+
+New Cross, Hatcham, Surrey: Tuesday morning.
+
+Dear Miss Flower,--I am sorry for what must grieve Mr. Fox; for myself,
+I beg him earnestly not to see me till his entire convenience, however
+pleased I shall be to receive the letter you promise on his part.
+
+And how can I thank you enough for this good news--all this music I
+shall be so thoroughly gratified to hear? Ever yours faithfully, Robert
+Browning.
+
+
+His last letter to her was written in 1845; the subject being a concert
+of her own sacred music which she was about to give; and again, although
+more slightly, I anticipate the course of events, in order to give it
+in its natural connection with the present one. Mr. Browning was
+now engaged to be married, and the last ring of youthful levity had
+disappeared from his tone; but neither the new happiness nor the new
+responsibility had weakened his interest in his boyhood's friend. Miss
+Flower must then have been slowly dying, and the closing words of the
+letter have the solemnity of a last farewell.
+
+
+Sunday.
+
+Dear Miss Flower,--I was very foolishly surprized at the sorrowful
+finical notice you mention: foolishly; for, God help us, how else is
+it with all critics of everything--don't I hear them talk and see them
+write? I dare-say he admires you as he said.
+
+For me, I never had another feeling than entire admiration for your
+music--entire admiration--I put it apart from all other English music I
+know, and fully believe in it as _the_ music we all waited for.
+
+Of your health I shall not trust myself to speak: you must know what
+is unspoken. I should have been most happy to see you if but for a
+minute--and if next Wednesday, I might take your hand for a moment.--
+
+But you would concede that, if it were right, remembering what is now
+very old friendship. May God bless you for ever (The signature has been
+cut off.)
+
+
+In the autumn of 1844 Mr. Browning set forth for Italy, taking ship, it
+is believed, direct to Naples. Here he made the acquaintance of a young
+Neapolitan gentleman who had spent most of his life in Paris; and they
+became such good friends that they proceeded to Rome together. Mr.
+Scotti was an invaluable travelling companion, for he engaged their
+conveyance, and did all such bargaining in their joint interest as the
+habits of his country required. 'As I write,' Mr. Browning said in a
+letter to his sister, 'I hear him disputing our bill in the next room.
+He does not see why we should pay for six wax candles when we have
+used only two.' At Rome they spent most of their evenings with an
+old acquaintance of Mr. Browning's, then Countess Carducci, and she
+pronounced Mr. Scotti the handsomest man she had ever seen. He certainly
+bore no appearance of being the least prosperous. But he blew out his
+brains soon after he and his new friend had parted; and I do not think
+the act was ever fully accounted for.
+
+It must have been on his return journey that Mr. Browning went to
+Leghorn to see Edward John Trelawney, to whom he carried a letter of
+introduction. He described the interview long afterwards to Mr. Val
+Prinsep, but chiefly in his impressions of the cool courage which Mr.
+Trelawney had displayed during its course. A surgeon was occupied all
+the time in probing his leg for a bullet which had been lodged there
+some years before, and had lately made itself felt; and he showed
+himself absolutely indifferent to the pain of the operation. Mr.
+Browning's main object in paying the visit had been, naturally, to speak
+with one who had known Byron and been the last to see Shelley alive; but
+we only hear of the two poets that they formed in part the subject
+of their conversation. He reached England, again, we suppose, through
+Germany--since he avoided Paris as before.
+
+It has been asserted by persons otherwise well informed, that on this,
+if not on his previous Italian journey, Mr. Browning became acquainted
+with Stendhal, then French Consul at Civita Vecchia, and that he imbibed
+from the great novelist a taste for curiosities of Italian family
+history, which ultimately led him in the direction of the Franceschini
+case. It is certain that he profoundly admired this writer, and if he
+was not, at some time or other, introduced to him it was because the
+opportunity did not occur. But there is abundant evidence that no
+introduction took place, and quite sufficient proof that none was
+possible. Stendhal died in Paris in March 1842; and granting that he was
+at Civita Vecchia when the poet made his earlier voyage--no certainty
+even while he held the appointment--the ship cannot have touched there
+on its way to Trieste. It is also a mistake to suppose that Mr. Browning
+was specially interested in ancient chronicles, as such. This was one of
+the points on which he distinctly differed from his father. He took his
+dramatic subjects wherever he found them, and any historical research
+which they ultimately involved was undertaken for purposes of
+verification. 'Sordello' alone may have been conceived on a rather
+different plan, and I have no authority whatever for admitting that it
+was so. The discovery of the record of the Franceschini case was, as its
+author has everywhere declared, an accident.
+
+A single relic exists for us of this visit to the South--a shell picked
+up, according to its inscription, on one of the Syren Isles, October
+4, 1844; but many of its reminiscences are embodied in that vivid and
+charming picture 'The Englishman in Italy', which appeared in the 'Bells
+and Pomegranates' number for the following year. Naples always remained
+a bright spot in the poet's memory; and if it had been, like Asolo, his
+first experience of Italy, it must have drawn him in later years the
+more powerfully of the two. At one period, indeed, he dreamed of it as a
+home for his declining days.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+1844-1849
+
+Introduction to Miss Barrett--Engagement--Motives for
+Secrecy--Marriage--Journey to Italy--Extract of Letter from
+Mr. Fox--Mrs. Browning's Letters to Miss Mitford--Life at
+Pisa--Vallombrosa--Florence; Mr. Powers; Miss Boyle--Proposed British
+Mission to the Vatican--Father Prout--Palazzo Guidi--Fano; Ancona--'A
+Blot in the 'Scutcheon' at Sadler's Wells.
+
+
+
+During his recent intercourse with the Browning family Mr. Kenyon had
+often spoken of his invalid cousin, Elizabeth Barrett,* and had given
+them copies of her works; and when the poet returned to England, late in
+1844, he saw the volume containing 'Lady Geraldine's Courtship', which
+had appeared during his absence. On hearing him express his admiration
+of it, Mr. Kenyon begged him to write to Miss Barrett, and himself tell
+her how the poems had impressed him; 'for,' he added, 'my cousin is a
+great invalid, and sees no one, but great souls jump at sympathy.'
+Mr. Browning did write, and, a few months, probably, after the
+correspondence had been established, begged to be allowed to visit
+her. She at first refused this, on the score of her delicate health and
+habitual seclusion, emphasizing the refusal by words of such touching
+humility and resignation that I cannot refrain from quoting them. 'There
+is nothing to see in me, nothing to hear in me. I am a weed fit for the
+ground and darkness.' But her objections were overcome, and their first
+interview sealed Mr. Browning's fate.
+
+     * Properly E. Barrett Moulton-Barrett.  The first of these
+     surnames was that originally borne by the family, but
+     dropped on the annexation of the second.  It has now for
+     some years been resumed.
+
+There is no cause for surprize in the passionate admiration with
+which Miss Barrett so instantly inspired him. To begin with, he was
+heart-whole. It would be too much to affirm that, in the course of his
+thirty-two years, he had never met with a woman whom he could entirely
+love; but if he had, it was not under circumstances which favoured the
+growth of such a feeling. She whom he now saw for the first time had
+long been to him one of the greatest of living poets; she was learned as
+women seldom were in those days. It must have been apparent, in the most
+fugitive contact, that her moral nature was as exquisite as her mind
+was exceptional. She looked much younger than her age, which he only
+recently knew to have been six years beyond his own; and her face was
+filled with beauty by the large, expressive eyes. The imprisoned love
+within her must unconsciously have leapt to meet his own. It would have
+been only natural that he should grow into the determination to devote
+his life to hers, or be swept into an offer of marriage by a sudden
+impulse which his after-judgment would condemn. Neither of these things
+occurred. The offer was indeed made under a sudden and overmastering
+impulse. But it was persistently repeated, till it had obtained a
+conditional assent. No sane man in Mr. Browning's position could have
+been ignorant of the responsibilities he was incurring. He had, it
+is true, no experience of illness. Of its nature, its treatment, its
+symptoms direct and indirect, he remained pathetically ignorant to his
+dying day. He did not know what disqualifications for active existence
+might reside in the fragile, recumbent form, nor in the long years
+lived without change of air or scene beyond the passage, not always even
+allowed, from bed-room to sitting-room, from sofa to bed again. But he
+did know that Miss Barrett received him lying down, and that his very
+ignorance of her condition left him without security for her ever being
+able to stand. A strong sense of sympathy and pity could alone entirely
+justify or explain his act--a strong desire to bring sunshine into that
+darkened life. We might be sure that these motives had been present with
+him if we had no direct authority for believing it; and we have this
+authority in his own comparatively recent words: 'She had so much need
+of care and protection. There was so much pity in what I felt for her!'
+The pity was, it need hardly be said, at no time a substitute for love,
+though the love in its full force only developed itself later; but it
+supplied an additional incentive.
+
+Miss Barrett had made her acceptance of Mr. Browning's proposal
+contingent on her improving in health. The outlook was therefore vague.
+But under the influence of this great new happiness she did gain
+some degree of strength. They saw each other three times a week; they
+exchanged letters constantly, and a very deep and perfect understanding
+established itself between them. Mr. Browning never mentioned his visits
+except to his own family, because it was naturally feared that if
+Miss Barrett were known to receive one person, other friends, or even
+acquaintances, would claim admittance to her; and Mr. Kenyon, who was
+greatly pleased by the result of his introduction, kept silence for the
+same reason.
+
+In this way the months slipped by till the summer of 1846 was drawing to
+its close, and Miss Barrett's doctor then announced that her only chance
+of even comparative recovery lay in spending the coming winter in the
+South. There was no rational obstacle to her acting on this advice,
+since more than one of her brothers was willing to escort her; but Mr.
+Barrett, while surrounding his daughter with every possible comfort,
+had resigned himself to her invalid condition and expected her also to
+acquiesce in it. He probably did not believe that she would benefit by
+the proposed change. At any rate he refused his consent to it. There
+remained to her only one alternative--to break with the old home and
+travel southwards as Mr. Browning's wife.
+
+When she had finally assented to this course, she took a preparatory
+step which, in so far as it was known, must itself have been
+sufficiently startling to those about her: she drove to Regent's Park,
+and when there, stepped out of the carriage and on to the grass. I do
+not know how long she stood--probably only for a moment; but I well
+remember hearing that when, after so long an interval, she felt earth
+under her feet and air about her, the sensation was almost bewilderingly
+strange.
+
+They were married, with strict privacy, on September 12, 1846, at St.
+Pancras Church.
+
+The engaged pair had not only not obtained Mr. Barrett's sanction to
+their marriage; they had not even invoked it; and the doubly clandestine
+character thus forced upon the union could not be otherwise than
+repugnant to Mr. Browning's pride; but it was dictated by the deepest
+filial affection on the part of his intended wife. There could be no
+question in so enlightened a mind of sacrificing her own happiness with
+that of the man she loved; she was determined to give herself to him.
+But she knew that her father would never consent to her doing so; and
+she preferred marrying without his knowledge to acting in defiance of a
+prohibition which, once issued, he would never have revoked, and which
+would have weighed like a portent of evil upon her. She even kept the
+secret of her engagement from her intimate friend Miss Mitford, and
+her second father, Mr. Kenyon, that they might not be involved in its
+responsibility. And Mr. Kenyon, who, probably of all her circle, best
+understood the case, was grateful to her for this consideration.
+
+Mr. Barrett was one of those men who will not part with their children;
+who will do anything for them except allow them to leave the parental
+home. We have all known fathers of this type. He had nothing to urge
+against Robert Browning. When Mr. Kenyon, later, said to him that he
+could not understand his hostility to the marriage, since there was no
+man in the world to whom he would more gladly have given his daughter
+if he had been so fortunate as to possess one,* he replied: 'I have no
+objection to the young man, but my daughter should have been thinking of
+another world;' and, given his conviction that Miss Barrett's state was
+hopeless, some allowance must be made for the angered sense of fitness
+which her elopement was calculated to arouse in him. But his attitude
+was the same, under the varying circumstances, with all his daughters
+and sons alike. There was no possible husband or wife whom he would
+cordially have accepted for one of them.
+
+     * Mr. Kenyon had been twice married, but he had no children.
+
+Mr. Browning had been willing, even at that somewhat late age, to study
+for the Bar, or accept, if he could obtain it, any other employment
+which might render him less ineligible from a pecuniary point of view.
+But Miss Barrett refused to hear of such a course; and the subsequent
+necessity for her leaving England would have rendered it useless.
+
+For some days after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Browning returned to
+their old life. He justly thought that the agitation of the ceremony
+had been, for the moment, as much as she could endure, and had therefore
+fixed for it a day prior by one week to that of their intended departure
+from England. The only difference in their habits was that he did not
+see her; he recoiled from the hypocrisy of asking for her under her
+maiden name; and during this passive interval, fortunately short, he
+carried a weight of anxiety and of depression which placed it among the
+most painful periods of his existence.
+
+In the late afternoon or evening of September 19, Mrs. Browning,
+attended by her maid and her dog, stole away from her father's house.
+The family were at dinner, at which meal she was not in the habit of
+joining them; her sisters Henrietta and Arabel had been throughout in
+the secret of her attachment and in full sympathy with it; in the case
+of the servants, she was also sure of friendly connivance. There was no
+difficulty in her escape, but that created by the dog, which might be
+expected to bark its consciousness of the unusual situation. She took
+him into her confidence. She said: 'O Flush, if you make a sound, I
+am lost.' And Flush understood, as what good dog would not?--and crept
+after his mistress in silence. I do not remember where her husband
+joined her; we may be sure it was as near her home as possible. That
+night they took the boat to Havre, on their way to Paris.
+
+Only a short time elapsed before Mr. Barrett became aware of what had
+happened. It is not necessary to dwell on his indignation, which at that
+moment, I believe, was shared by all his sons. Nor were they the only
+persons to be agitated by the occurrence. If there was wrath in the
+Barrett family, there was consternation in that of Mr. Browning. He
+had committed a crime in the eyes of his wife's father; but he had been
+guilty, in the judgment of his own parents, of one of those errors which
+are worse. A hundred times the possible advantages of marrying a Miss
+Barrett could never have balanced for them the risks and dangers he
+had incurred in wresting to himself the guardianship of that frail life
+which might perish in his hands, leaving him to be accused of having
+destroyed it; and they must have awaited the event with feelings never
+to be forgotten.
+
+It was soon to be apparent that in breaking the chains which bound her
+to a sick room, Mr. Browning had not killed his wife, but was giving her
+a new lease of existence. His parents and sister soon loved her dearly,
+for her own sake as well as her husband's; and those who, if in a
+mistaken manner, had hitherto cherished her, gradually learned, with one
+exception, to value him for hers. It would, however, be useless to
+deny that the marriage was a hazardous experiment, involving risks of
+suffering quite other than those connected with Mrs. Browning's safety:
+the latent practical disparities of an essentially vigorous and an
+essentially fragile existence; and the time came when these were to make
+themselves felt. Mrs. Browning had been a delicate infant. She had also
+outgrown this delicacy and developed into a merry, and, in the harmless
+sense, mischief-loving child. The accident which subsequently undermined
+her life could only have befallen a very active and healthy girl.*
+Her condition justified hope and, to a great extent, fulfilled it. She
+rallied surprisingly and almost suddenly in the sunshine of her new
+life, and remained for several years at the higher physical level: her
+natural and now revived spirits sometimes, I imagine, lifting her beyond
+it. But her ailments were too radical for permanent cure, as the weak
+voice and shrunken form never ceased to attest. They renewed themselves,
+though in slightly different conditions; and she gradually relapsed,
+during the winters at least, into something like the home-bound
+condition of her earlier days. It became impossible that she should
+share the more active side of her husband's existence. It had to be
+alternately suppressed and carried on without her. The deep heart-love,
+the many-sided intellectual sympathy, preserved their union in rare
+beauty to the end. But to say that it thus maintained itself as if by
+magic, without effort of self-sacrifice on his part or of resignation on
+hers, would be as unjust to the noble qualities of both, as it would be
+false to assert that its compensating happiness had ever failed them.
+
+     * Her family at that time lived in the country.  She was a
+     constant rider, and fond of saddling her pony; and one day,
+     when she was about fourteen, she overbalanced herself in
+     lifting the saddle, and fell backward, inflicting injuries
+     on her head, or rather spine, which caused her great
+     suffering, but of which the nature remained for some time
+     undiscovered.
+
+Mr. Browning's troubles did not, even for the present, exhaust
+themselves in that week of apprehension. They assumed a deeper reality
+when his delicate wife first gave herself into his keeping, and the long
+hours on steamboat and in diligence were before them. What she suffered
+in body, and he in mind, during the first days of that wedding-journey
+is better imagined than told. In Paris they either met, or were joined
+by, a friend, Mrs. Anna Jameson (then also en route for Italy), and Mrs.
+Browning was doubly cared for till she and her husband could once more
+put themselves on their way. At Genoa came the long-needed rest in
+southern land. From thence, in a few days, they went on to Pisa, and
+settled there for the winter.
+
+Even so great a friend as John Forster was not in the secret of Mr.
+Browning's marriage; we learn this through an amusing paragraph in a
+letter from Mr. Fox, written soon after it had taken place:
+
+
+'Forster never heard of the Browning marriage till the proof of the
+newspaper ('Examiner') notice was sent; when he went into one of his
+great passions at the supposed hoax, ordered up the compositor to have a
+swear at him, and demanded to see the MS. from which it was taken: so it
+was brought, and he instantly recognised the hand of Browning's sister.
+Next day came a letter from R. B., saying he had often meant to tell him
+or write of it, but hesitated between the two, and neglected both.
+
+'She was better, and a winter in Italy had been recommended some months
+ago.
+
+'It seems as if made up by their poetry rather than themselves.'
+
+
+Many interesting external details of Mr. Browning's married life must
+have been lost to us through the wholesale destruction of his letters to
+his family, of which mention has been already made, and which he carried
+out before leaving Warwick Crescent about four years ago; and Mrs.
+Browning's part in the correspondence, though still preserved, cannot
+fill the gap, since for a long time it chiefly consisted of
+little personal outpourings, inclosed in her husband's letters and
+supplementary to them. But she also wrote constantly to Miss Mitford;
+and, from the letters addressed to her, now fortunately in Mr. Barrett
+Browning's hands, it has been possible to extract many passages of a
+sufficiently great, and not too private, interest for our purpose.
+These extracts--in some cases almost entire letters--indeed constitute
+a fairly complete record of Mr. and Mrs. Browning's joint life till
+the summer of 1854, when Miss Mitford's death was drawing near, and the
+correspondence ceased. Their chronological order is not always certain,
+because Mrs. Browning never gave the year in which her letters were
+written, and in some cases the postmark is obliterated; but the missing
+date can almost always be gathered from their contents. The first letter
+is probably written from Paris.
+
+
+Oct. 2 ('46).
+
+'. . . and he, as you say, had done everything for me--he loved me for
+reasons which had helped to weary me of myself--loved me heart to heart
+persistently--in spite of my own will . . . drawn me back to life and
+hope again when I had done with both. My life seemed to belong to him
+and to none other, at last, and I had no power to speak a word. Have
+faith in me, my dearest friend, till you know him. The intellect is so
+little in comparison to all the rest--to the womanly tenderness, the
+inexhaustible goodness, the high and noble aspiration of every hour.
+Temper, spirits, manners--there is not a flaw anywhere. I shut my eyes
+sometimes and fancy it all a dream of my guardian angel. Only, if it had
+been a dream, the pain of some parts of it would have wakened me before
+now--it is not a dream. . . .'
+
+
+The three next speak for themselves.
+
+
+Pisa: ('46).
+
+'. . . For Pisa, we both like it extremely. The city is full of beauty
+and repose,--and the purple mountains gloriously seem to beckon us on
+deeper into the vine land. We have rooms close to the Duomo, and leaning
+down on the great Collegio built by Facini. Three excellent bed-rooms
+and a sitting-room matted and carpeted, looking comfortable even for
+England. For the last fortnight, except the last few sunny days, we have
+had rain; but the climate is as mild as possible, no cold with all the
+damp. Delightful weather we had for the travelling. Mrs. Jameson says
+she won't call me improved but transformed rather. . . . I mean to know
+something about pictures some day. Robert does, and I shall get him to
+open my eyes for me with a little instruction--in this place are to be
+seen the first steps of Art. . . .'
+
+
+
+Pisa: Dec. 19 ('46).
+
+'. . . Within these three or four days we have had frost--yes, and a
+little snow--for the first time, say the Pisans, within five years.
+Robert says the mountains are powdered towards Lucca. . . .'
+
+
+
+Feb. 3 ('47).
+
+'. . . Robert is a warm admirer of Balzac and has read most of his
+books, but certainly he does not in a general way appreciate our French
+people quite with my warmth. He takes too high a standard, I tell him,
+and won't listen to a story for a story's sake--I can bear, you know, to
+be amused without a strong pull on my admiration. So we have great wars
+sometimes--I put up Dumas' flag or Soulie's or Eugene Sue's (yet he was
+properly impressed by the 'Mysteres de Paris'), and carry it till my
+arms ache. The plays and vaudevilles he knows far more of than I do,
+and always maintains they are the happiest growth of the French school.
+Setting aside the 'masters', observe; for Balzac and George Sand hold
+all their honours. Then we read together the other day 'Rouge et Noir',
+that powerful work of Stendhal's, and he observed that it was exactly
+like Balzac 'in the raw'--in the material and undeveloped conception . . .
+We leave Pisa in April, and pass through Florence towards the north of
+Italy . . .'
+
+(She writes out a long list of the 'Comedie Humaine' for Miss Mitford.)
+
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Browning must have remained in Florence, instead of merely
+passing through it; this is proved by the contents of the two following
+letters:
+
+
+Aug. 20 ('47).
+
+'. . . We have spent one of the most delightful of summers
+notwithstanding the heat, and I begin to comprehend the possibility of
+St. Lawrence's ecstasies on the gridiron. Very hot certainly it has been
+and is, yet there have been cool intermissions, and as we have spacious
+and airy rooms, as Robert lets me sit all day in my white dressing-gown
+without a single masculine criticism, and as we can step out of the
+window on a sort of balcony terrace which is quite private, and swims
+over with moonlight in the evenings, and as we live upon water-melons
+and iced water and figs and all manner of fruit, we bear the heat with
+an angelic patience.
+
+We tried to make the monks of Vallombrosa let us stay with them for two
+months, but the new abbot said or implied that Wilson and I stank in his
+nostrils, being women. So we were sent away at the end of five days. So
+provoking! Such scenery, such hills, such a sea of hills looking alive
+among the clouds--which rolled, it was difficult to discern. Such fine
+woods, supernaturally silent, with the ground black as ink. There were
+eagles there too, and there was no road. Robert went on horseback,
+and Wilson and I were drawn on a sledge--(i.e. an old hamper, a basket
+wine-hamper--without a wheel) by two white bullocks, up the precipitous
+mountains. Think of my travelling in those wild places at four o'clock
+in the morning! a little frightened, dreadfully tired, but in an ecstasy
+of admiration. It was a sight to see before one died and went away into
+another world. But being expelled ignominiously at the end of five days,
+we had to come back to Florence to find a new apartment cooler than the
+old, and wait for dear Mr. Kenyon, and dear Mr. Kenyon does not come
+after all. And on the 20th of September we take up our knapsacks and
+turn our faces towards Rome, creeping slowly along, with a pause at
+Arezzo, and a longer pause at Perugia, and another perhaps at Terni.
+Then we plan to take an apartment we have heard of, over the Tarpeian
+rock, and enjoy Rome as we have enjoyed Florence. More can scarcely be.
+This Florence is unspeakably beautiful . . .'
+
+
+
+Oct. ('47).
+
+'. . . Very few acquaintances have we made in Florence, and very quietly
+lived out our days. Mr. Powers, the sculptor, is our chief friend and
+favourite. A most charming, simple, straightforward, genial American--as
+simple as the man of genius he has proved himself to be. He sometimes
+comes to talk and take coffee with us, and we like him much. The
+sculptor has eyes like a wild Indian's, so black and full of light--you
+would scarcely marvel if they clove the marble without the help of his
+hands. We have seen, besides, the Hoppners, Lord Byron's friends at
+Venice; and Miss Boyle, a niece of the Earl of Cork, an authoress and
+poetess on her own account, having been introduced to Robert in London
+at Lady Morgan's, has hunted us out, and paid us a visit. A very
+vivacious little person, with sparkling talk enough . . .'
+
+
+In this year, 1847, the question arose of a British mission to the
+Vatican; and Mr. Browning wrote to Mr. Monckton Milnes begging him to
+signify to the Foreign Office his more than willingness to take part
+in it. He would be glad and proud, he said, to be secretary to such an
+embassy, and to work like a horse in his vocation. The letter is given
+in the lately published biography of Lord Houghton, and I am obliged to
+confess that it has been my first intimation of the fact recorded there.
+When once his 'Paracelsus' had appeared, and Mr. Browning had taken rank
+as a poet, he renounced all idea of more active work; and the tone and
+habits of his early married life would have seemed scarcely consistent
+with a renewed impulse towards it. But the fact was in some sense due
+to the very circumstances of that life: among them, his wife's probable
+incitement to, and certain sympathy with, the proceeding.
+
+The projected winter in Rome had been given up, I believe against the
+doctor's advice, on the strength of the greater attractions of Florence.
+Our next extract is dated from thence, Dec. 8, 1847.
+
+
+'. . . Think what we have done since I last wrote to you. Taken two
+houses, that is, two apartments, each for six months, presigning the
+contract. You will set it down to excellent poet's work in the way
+of domestic economy, but the fault was altogether mine, as usual. My
+husband, to please me, took rooms which I could not be pleased with
+three days through the absence of sunshine and warmth. The consequence
+was that we had to pay heaps of guineas away, for leave to go away
+ourselves--any alternative being preferable to a return of illness--and
+I am sure I should have been ill if we had persisted in staying there.
+You can scarcely fancy the wonderful difference which the sun makes
+in Italy. So away we came into the blaze of him in the Piazza Pitti;
+precisely opposite the Grand Duke's palace; I with my remorse, and poor
+Robert without a single reproach. Any other man, a little lower than the
+angels, would have stamped and sworn a little for the mere relief of the
+thing--but as to _his_ being angry with _me_ for any cause except not
+eating enough dinner, the said sun would turn the wrong way first. So
+here we are in the Pitti till April, in small rooms yellow with sunshine
+from morning till evening, and most days I am able to get out into the
+piazza and walk up and down for twenty minutes without feeling a breath
+of the actual winter . . . and Miss Boyle, ever and anon, comes at
+night, at nine o'clock, to catch us at hot chestnuts and mulled wine,
+and warm her feet at our fire--and a kinder, more cordial little
+creature, full of talent and accomplishment never had the world's polish
+on it. Very amusing she is too, and original; and a good deal of
+laughing she and Robert make between them. And this is nearly all we see
+of the Face Divine--I can't make Robert go out a single evening. . . .'
+
+
+We have five extracts for 1848. One of these, not otherwise dated,
+describes an attack of sore-throat which was fortunately Mr. Browning's
+last; and the letter containing it must have been written in the course
+of the summer.
+
+
+'. . . My husband was laid up for nearly a month with fever and relaxed
+sore-throat. Quite unhappy I have been over those burning hands and
+languid eyes--the only unhappiness I ever had by him. And then he
+wouldn't see a physician, and if it had not been that just at the right
+moment Mr. Mahoney, the celebrated Jesuit, and "Father Prout" of Fraser,
+knowing everything as those Jesuits are apt to do, came in to us on
+his way to Rome, pointed out to us that the fever got ahead through
+weakness, and mixed up with his own kind hand a potion of eggs and port
+wine; to the horror of our Italian servant, who lifted up his eyes at
+such a prescription for fever, crying, "O Inglesi! Inglesi!" the case
+would have been far worse, I have no kind of doubt, for the eccentric
+prescription gave the power of sleeping, and the pulse grew quieter
+directly. I shall always be grateful to Father Prout--always.'*
+
+     * It had not been merely a case of relaxed sore-throat.
+     There was an abscess, which burst during this first night of
+     sleep.
+
+
+May 28.
+
+'. . . And now I must tell you what we have done since I wrote last,
+little thinking of doing so. You see our problem was, to get to England
+as much in summer as possible, the expense of the intermediate journeys
+making it difficult of solution. On examination of the whole case, it
+appeared manifest that we were throwing money into the Arno, by our way
+of taking furnished rooms, while to take an apartment and furnish it
+would leave us a clear return of the furniture at the end of the
+first year in exchange for our outlay, and all but a free residence
+afterwards, the cheapness of furniture being quite fabulous at the
+present crisis. . . . In fact we have really done it magnificently, and
+planted ourselves in the Guidi Palace in the favourite suite of the last
+Count (his arms are in scagliola on the floor of my bedroom). Though we
+have six beautiful rooms and a kitchen, three of them quite palace rooms
+and opening on a terrace, and though such furniture as comes by slow
+degrees into them is antique and worthy of the place, we yet shall have
+saved money by the end of this year. . . . Now I tell you all this lest
+you should hear dreadful rumours of our having forsaken our native land,
+venerable institutions and all, whereas we remember it so well (it's a
+dear land in many senses), that we have done this thing chiefly in order
+to make sure of getting back comfortably, . . . a stone's throw, too, it
+is from the Pitti, and really in my present mind I would hardly exchange
+with the Grand Duke himself. By the bye, as to street, we have no
+spectators in windows in just the grey wall of a church called San
+Felice for good omen.
+
+'Now, have you heard enough of us? What I claimed first, in way of
+privilege, was a spring-sofa to loll upon, and a supply of rain water to
+wash in, and you shall see what a picturesque oil-jar they have given
+us for the latter purpose; it would just hold the Captain of the
+Forty Thieves. As for the chairs and tables, I yield the more especial
+interest in them to Robert; only you would laugh to hear us correct
+one another sometimes. "Dear, you get too many drawers, and not enough
+washing-stands. Pray don't let us have any more drawers when we've
+nothing more to put in them." There was no division on the necessity of
+having six spoons--some questions passed themselves. . . .'
+
+
+
+July.
+
+'. . . I am quite well again and strong. Robert and I go out often after
+tea in a wandering walk to sit in the Loggia and look at the Perseus,
+or, better still, at the divine sunsets on the Arno, turning it to pure
+gold under the bridges. After more than twenty months of marriage, we
+are happier than ever. . . .'
+
+
+
+Aug.
+
+'. . . As for ourselves we have hardly done so well--yet well--having
+enjoyed a great deal in spite of drawbacks. Murray, the traitor, sent us
+to Fano as "a delightful summer residence for an English family," and we
+found it uninhabitable from the heat, vegetation scorched into
+paleness, the very air swooning in the sun, and the gloomy looks of the
+inhabitants sufficiently corroborative of their words that no drop of
+rain or dew ever falls there during the summer. A "circulating library"
+which "does not give out books," and "a refined and intellectual Italian
+society" (I quote Murray for that phrase) which "never reads a book
+through" (I quote Mrs. Wiseman, Dr. Wiseman's mother, who has lived in
+Fano seven years) complete the advantages of the place. Yet the churches
+are very beautiful, and a divine picture of Guercino's is worth going
+all that way to see. . . . We fled from Fano after three days, and
+finding ourselves cheated out of our dream of summer coolness, resolved
+on substituting for it what the Italians call "un bel giro". So we went
+to Ancona--a striking sea city, holding up against the brown rocks, and
+elbowing out the purple tides--beautiful to look upon. An exfoliation
+of the rock itself you would call the houses that seem to grow there--so
+identical is the colour and character. I should like to visit Ancona
+again when there is a little air and shadow. We stayed a week, as it
+was, living upon fish and cold water. . . .'
+
+
+The one dated Florence, December 16, is interesting with reference to
+Mr. Browning's attitude when he wrote the letters to Mr. Frank Hill
+which I have recently quoted.
+
+
+'We have been, at least I have been, a little anxious lately about the
+fate of the 'Blot in the 'Scutcheon' which Mr. Phelps applied for
+my husband's permission to revive at Sadler's. Of course putting the
+request was mere form, as he had every right to act the play--only it
+made ME anxious till we heard the result--and we both of us are very
+grateful to dear Mr. Chorley, who not only made it his business to be at
+the theatre the first night, but, before he slept, sat down like a true
+friend to give us the story of the result, and never, he says, was a
+more legitimate success. The play went straight to the hearts of the
+audience, it seems, and we hear of its continuance on the stage, from
+the papers. You may remember, or may not have heard, how Macready
+brought it out and put his foot on it, in the flush of a quarrel between
+manager and author; and Phelps, knowing the whole secret and feeling
+the power of the play, determined on making a revival of it in his own
+theatre. Mr. Chorley called his acting "fine". . . .'
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+1849-1852
+
+Death of Mr. Browning's Mother--Birth of his Son--Mrs. Browning's
+Letters continued--Baths of Lucca--Florence again--Venice--Margaret
+Fuller Ossoli--Visit to England--Winter in Paris--Carlyle--George
+Sand--Alfred de Musset.
+
+
+On March 9, 1849, Mr. Browning's son was born. With the joy of his
+wife's deliverance from the dangers of such an event came also his
+first great sorrow. His mother did not live to receive the news of
+her grandchild's birth. The letter which conveyed it found her still
+breathing, but in the unconsciousness of approaching death. There had
+been no time for warning. The sister could only break the suddenness of
+the shock. A letter of Mrs. Browning's tells what was to be told.
+
+
+Florence: April 30 ('49).
+
+'. . . This is the first packet of letters, except one to Wimpole
+Street, which I have written since my confinement. You will have
+heard how our joy turned suddenly into deep sorrow by the death of my
+husband's mother. An unsuspected disease (ossification of the heart)
+terminated in a fatal way--and she lay in the insensibility precursive
+of the grave's when the letter written with such gladness by my poor
+husband and announcing the birth of his child, reached her address. "It
+would have made her heart bound," said her daughter to us. Poor tender
+heart--the last throb was too near. The medical men would not allow
+the news to be communicated. The next joy she felt was to be in heaven
+itself. My husband has been in the deepest anguish, and indeed, except
+for the courageous consideration of his sister who wrote two letters of
+preparation, saying "She was not well" and she "was very ill" when in
+fact all was over, I am frightened to think what the result would have
+been to him. He has loved his mother as such passionate natures only
+can love, and I never saw a man so bowed down in an extremity of
+sorrow--never. Even now, the depression is great--and sometimes when I
+leave him alone a little and return to the room, I find him in tears. I
+do earnestly wish to change the scene and air--but where to go? England
+looks terrible now. He says it would break his heart to see his mother's
+roses over the wall and the place where she used to lay her scissors and
+gloves--which I understand so thoroughly that I can't say "Let us go to
+England." We must wait and see what his father and sister will choose to
+do, or choose us to do--for of course a duty plainly seen would draw us
+anywhere. My own dearest sisters will be painfully disappointed by any
+change of plan--only they are too good and kind not to understand the
+difficulty--not to see the motive. So do you, I am certain. It has been
+very, very painful altogether, this drawing together of life and death.
+Robert was too enraptured at my safety and with his little son, and the
+sudden reaction was terrible. . . .'
+
+
+
+Bagni di Lucca.
+
+'. . . We have been wandering in search of cool air and a cool bough
+among all the olive trees to build our summer nest on. My husband has
+been suffering beyond what one could shut one's eyes to, in consequence
+of the great mental shock of last March--loss of appetite, loss of
+sleep--looks quite worn and altered. His spirits never rallied except
+with an effort, and every letter from New Cross threw him back into deep
+depression. I was very anxious, and feared much that the end of it
+all would be (the intense heat of Florence assisting) nervous fever or
+something similar; and I had the greatest difficulty in persuading
+him to leave Florence for a month or two. He who generally delights in
+travelling, had no mind for change or movement. I had to say and swear
+that Baby and I couldn't bear the heat, and that we must and would go
+away. "Ce que femme veut, _homme_ veut," if the latter is at all amiable,
+or the former persevering. At last I gained the victory. It was agreed
+that we two should go on an exploring journey, to find out where we
+could have most shadow at least expense; and we left our child with
+his nurse and Wilson, while we were absent. We went along the coast to
+Spezzia, saw Carrara with the white marble mountains, passed through
+the olive-forests and the vineyards, avenues of acacia trees, chestnut
+woods, glorious surprises of the most exquisite scenery. I say
+olive-forests advisedly--the olive grows like a forest-tree in those
+regions, shading the ground with tints of silvery network. The olive
+near Florence is but a shrub in comparison, and I have learnt to despise
+a little too the Florentine vine, which does not swing such portcullises
+of massive dewy green from one tree to another as along the whole road
+where we travelled. Beautiful indeed it was. Spezzia wheels the blue sea
+into the arms of the wooded mountains; and we had a glance at Shelley's
+house at Lerici. It was melancholy to me, of course. I was not sorry
+that the lodgings we inquired about were far above our means. We
+returned on our steps (after two days in the dirtiest of possible inns),
+saw Seravezza, a village in the mountains, where rock river and
+wood enticed us to stay, and the inhabitants drove us off by their
+unreasonable prices. It is curious--but just in proportion to the
+want of civilization the prices rise in Italy. If you haven't cups and
+saucers, you are made to pay for plate. Well--so finding no rest for the
+soles of our feet, I persuaded Robert to go to the Baths of Lucca, only
+to see them. We were to proceed afterwards to San Marcello, or some
+safer wilderness. We had both of us, but he chiefly, the strongest
+prejudice against the Baths of Lucca; taking them for a sort of wasp's
+nest of scandal and gaming, and expecting to find everything trodden
+flat by the continental English--yet, I wanted to see the place, because
+it is a place to see, after all. So we came, and were so charmed by the
+exquisite beauty of the scenery, by the coolness of the climate, and
+the absence of our countrymen--political troubles serving admirably our
+private requirements, that we made an offer for rooms on the spot, and
+returned to Florence for Baby and the rest of our establishment
+without further delay. Here we are then. We have been here more than
+a fortnight. We have taken an apartment for the season--four months,
+paying twelve pounds for the whole term, and hoping to be able to stay
+till the end of October. The living is cheaper than even in Florence, so
+that there has been no extravagance in coming here. In fact Florence is
+scarcely tenable during the summer from the excessive heat by day and
+night, even if there were no particular motive for leaving it. We have
+taken a sort of eagle's nest in this place--the highest house of the
+highest of the three villages which are called the Bagni di Lucca, and
+which lie at the heart of a hundred mountains sung to continually by a
+rushing mountain stream. The sound of the river and of the cicale is all
+the noise we hear. Austrian drums and carriage-wheels cannot vex us, God
+be thanked for it! The silence is full of joy and consolation. I think
+my husband's spirits are better already, and his appetite improved.
+Certainly little Babe's great cheeks are growing rosier and rosier. He
+is out all day when the sun is not too strong, and Wilson will have it
+that he is prettier than the whole population of babies here. . . . Then
+my whole strength has wonderfully improved--just as my medical friends
+prophesied,--and it seems like a dream when I find myself able to climb
+the hills with Robert, and help him to lose himself in the forests.
+Ever since my confinement I have been growing stronger and stronger, and
+where it is to stop I can't tell really. I can do as much or more than
+at any point of my life since I arrived at woman's estate. The air of
+the place seems to penetrate the heart, and not the lungs only: it
+draws you, raises you, excites you. Mountain air without its
+keenness--sheathed in Italian sunshine--think what that must be! And
+the beauty and the solitude--for with a few paces we get free of
+the habitations of men--all is delightful to me. What is peculiarly
+beautiful and wonderful, is the variety of the shapes of the mountains.
+They are a multitude--and yet there is no likeness. None, except where
+the golden mist comes and transfigures them into one glory. For the
+rest, the mountain there wrapt in the chestnut forest is not like that
+bare peak which tilts against the sky--nor like the serpent-twine of
+another which seems to move and coil in the moving coiling shadow. . . .'
+
+
+She writes again:
+
+
+Bagni di Lucca: Oct. 2 ('49).
+
+'. . . I have performed a great exploit--ridden on a donkey five miles
+deep into the mountain, to an almost inaccessible volcanic ground not
+far from the stars. Robert on horseback, and Wilson and the nurse (with
+Baby) on other donkies,--guides of course. We set off at eight in the
+morning, and returned at six P.M. after dining on the mountain pinnacle,
+I dreadfully tired, but the child laughing as usual, burnt brick colour
+for all bad effect. No horse or ass untrained for the mountains could
+have kept foot a moment where we penetrated, and even as it was, one
+could not help the natural thrill. No road except the bed of exhausted
+torrents--above and through the chestnut forests precipitous beyond
+what you would think possible for ascent or descent. Ravines tearing the
+ground to pieces under your feet. The scenery, sublime and wonderful,
+satisfied us wholly, as we looked round on the world of innumerable
+mountains, bound faintly with the grey sea--and not a human habitation.
+. . .'
+
+
+The following fragment, which I have received quite without date, might
+refer to this or to a somewhat later period.
+
+
+'If he is vain about anything in the world it is about my improved
+health, and I say to him, "But you needn't talk so much to people, of
+how your wife walked here with you, and there with you, as if a wife
+with a pair of feet was a miracle of nature."'
+
+
+
+Florence: Feb. 18 ('50).
+
+'. . . You can scarcely imagine to yourself the retired life we live,
+and how we have retreated from the kind advances of the English society
+here. Now people seem to understand that we are to be left alone. . . .'
+
+
+
+Florence: April 1 ('50).
+
+'. . . We drive day by day through the lovely Cascine, just sweeping
+through the city. Just such a window where Bianca Capello looked out
+to see the Duke go by--and just such a door where Tasso stood and where
+Dante drew his chair out to sit. Strange to have all that old world life
+about us, and the blue sky so bright. . . .'
+
+
+
+Venice: June 4 (probably '50).
+
+'. . . I have been between Heaven and Earth since our arrival at Venice.
+The Heaven of it is ineffable--never had I touched the skirts of so
+celestial a place. The beauty of the architecture, the silver trails of
+water up between all that gorgeous colour and carving, the enchanting
+silence, the music, the gondolas--I mix it all up together and maintain
+that nothing is like it, nothing equal to it, not a second Venice in the
+world.
+
+'Do you know when I came first I felt as if I never could go away. But
+now comes the earth-side.
+
+'Robert, after sharing the ecstasy, grows uncomfortable and nervous,
+unable to eat or sleep, and poor Wilson still worse, in a miserable
+condition of sickness and headache. Alas for these mortal Venices, so
+exquisite and so bilious. Therefore I am constrained away from my joys
+by sympathy, and am forced to be glad that we are going away on Friday.
+For myself, it did not affect me at all. Take the mild, soft, relaxing
+climate--even the scirocco does not touch me. And the baby grows
+gloriously fatter in spite of everything. . . . As for Venice, you can't
+get even a "Times", much less an "Athenaeum". We comfort ourselves by
+taking a box at the opera (a whole box on the grand tier, mind) for
+two shillings and eightpence, English. Also, every evening at half-past
+eight, Robert and I are sitting under the moon in the great piazza of
+St. Mark, taking excellent coffee and reading the French papers.'
+
+
+If it were possible to draw more largely on Mrs. Browning's
+correspondence for this year, it would certainly supply the record of
+her intimacy, and that of her husband, with Margaret Fuller Ossoli. A
+warm attachment sprang up between them during that lady's residence in
+Florence. Its last evenings were all spent at their house; and, soon
+after she had bidden them farewell, she availed herself of a two days'
+delay in the departure of the ship to return from Leghorn and be with
+them one evening more. She had what seemed a prophetic dread of the
+voyage to America, though she attached no superstitious importance to
+the prediction once made to her husband that he would be drowned; and
+learned when it was too late to change her plans that her presence there
+was, after all, unnecessary. Mr. Browning was deeply affected by the
+news of her death by shipwreck, which took place on July 16, 1850; and
+wrote an account of his acquaintance with her, for publication by her
+friends. This also, unfortunately, was lost. Her son was of the same
+age as his, little more than a year old; but she left a token of the
+friendship which might some day have united them, in a small Bible
+inscribed to the baby Robert, 'In memory of Angelo Ossoli.'
+
+The intended journey to England was delayed for Mr. Browning by the
+painful associations connected with his mother's death; but in the
+summer of 1851 he found courage to go there: and then, as on each
+succeeding visit paid to London with his wife, he commemorated his
+marriage in a manner all his own. He went to the church in which it had
+been solemnized, and kissed the paving-stones in front of the door. It
+needed all this love to comfort Mrs. Browning in the estrangement from
+her father which was henceforth to be accepted as final. He had held no
+communication with her since her marriage, and she knew that it was
+not forgiven; but she had cherished a hope that he would so far relent
+towards her as to kiss her child, even if he would not see her. Her
+prayer to this effect remained, however, unanswered.
+
+In the autumn they proceeded to Paris; whence Mrs. Browning wrote,
+October 22 and November 12.
+
+
+138, Avenue des Champs Elysees.
+
+'. . . It was a long time before we could settle ourselves in a private
+apartment. . . . At last we came off to these Champs Elysees, to a very
+pleasant apartment, the window looking over a large terrace (almost
+large enough to serve the purpose of a garden) to the great drive and
+promenade of the Parisians when they come out of the streets to sun
+and shade and show themselves off among the trees. A pretty little
+dining-room, a writing and dressing-room for Robert beside it, a
+drawing-room beyond that, with two excellent bedrooms, and third
+bedroom for a "femme de menage", kitchen, &c. . . . So this answers all
+requirements, and the sun suns us loyally as in duty bound considering
+the southern aspect, and we are glad to find ourselves settled for six
+months. We have had lovely weather, and have seen a fire only yesterday
+for the first time since we left England. . . . We have seen nothing in
+Paris, except the shell of it. Yet, two evenings ago we hazarded going
+to a reception at Lady Elgin's, in the Faubourg St. Germain, and saw
+some French, but nobody of distinction.
+
+'It is a good house, I believe, and she has an earnest face which must
+mean something. We were invited to go every Monday between eight and
+twelve. We go on Friday to Madame Mohl's, where we are to have some of
+the "celebrites". . . . Carlyle, for instance, I liked infinitely more
+in his personality than I expected to like him, and I saw a great deal
+of him, for he travelled with us to Paris, and spent several evenings
+with us, we three together. He is one of the most interesting men I
+could imagine, even deeply interesting to me; and you come to understand
+perfectly when you know him, that his bitterness is only melancholy, and
+his scorn, sensibility. Highly picturesque, too, he is in conversation;
+the talk of writing men is very seldom so good.
+
+'And, do you know, I was much taken, in London, with a young authoress,
+Geraldine Jewsbury. You have read her books. . . . She herself is quiet
+and simple, and drew my heart out of me a good deal. I felt inclined to
+love her in our half-hour's intercourse. . . .'
+
+
+
+138, Avenue des Champs Elysees: (Nov. 12).
+
+'. . . Robert's father and sister have been paying us a visit during the
+last three weeks. They are very affectionate to me, and I love them for
+his sake and their own, and am very sorry at the thought of losing them,
+as we are on the point of doing. We hope, however, to establish them in
+Paris, if we can stay, and if no other obstacle should arise before the
+spring, when they must leave Hatcham. Little Wiedemann 'draws', as you
+may suppose . . . he is adored by his grandfather, and then, Robert!
+They are an affectionate family, and not easy when removed one from
+another. . . .'
+
+
+On their journey from London to Paris, Mr. and Mrs. Browning had been
+joined by Carlyle; and it afterwards struck Mr. Browning as strange
+that, in the 'Life' of Carlyle, their companionship on this occasion
+should be spoken of as the result of a chance meeting. Carlyle not only
+went to Paris with the Brownings, but had begged permission to do so;
+and Mrs. Browning had hesitated to grant this because she was afraid her
+little boy would be tiresome to him. Her fear, however, proved mistaken.
+The child's prattle amused the philosopher, and led him on one occasion
+to say: 'Why, sir, you have as many aspirations as Napoleon!' At
+Paris he would have been miserable without Mr. Browning's help, in his
+ignorance of the language, and impatience of the discomforts which this
+created for him. He couldn't ask for anything, he complained, but they
+brought him the opposite.
+
+On one occasion Mr. Carlyle made a singular remark. He was walking with
+Mr. Browning, either in Paris or the neighbouring country, when they
+passed an image of the Crucifixion; and glancing towards the figure of
+Christ, he said, with his deliberate Scotch utterance, 'Ah, poor fellow,
+_your_ part is played out!'
+
+Two especially interesting letters are dated from the same address,
+February 15 and April 7, 1852.
+
+
+'. . . Beranger lives close to us, and Robert has seen him in his white
+hat, wandering along the asphalte. I had a notion, somehow, that he was
+very old, but he is only elderly--not much above sixty (which is the
+prime of life, nowadays) and he lives quietly and keeps out of scrapes
+poetical and political, and if Robert and I had a little less modesty we
+are assured that we should find access to him easy. But we can't make
+up our minds to go to his door and introduce ourselves as vagrant
+minstrels, when he may probably not know our names. We could never
+follow the fashion of certain authors, who send their books about with
+intimations of their being likely to be acceptable or not--of which
+practice poor Tennyson knows too much for his peace. If, indeed, a
+letter of introduction to Beranger were vouchsafed to us from any benign
+quarter, we should both be delighted, but we must wait patiently for
+the influence of the stars. Meanwhile, we have at last sent our letter
+[Mazzini's] to George Sand, accompanied with a little note signed by
+both of us, though written by me, as seemed right, being the woman. We
+half-despaired in doing this--for it is most difficult, it appears,
+to get at her, she having taken vows against seeing strangers, in
+consequence of various annoyances and persecutions, in and out of print,
+which it's the mere instinct of a woman to avoid--I can understand it
+perfectly. Also, she is in Paris for only a few days, and under a new
+name, to escape from the plague of her notoriety. People said, "She will
+never see you--you have no chance, I am afraid." But we determined
+to try. At least I pricked Robert up to the leap--for he was really
+inclined to sit in his chair and be proud a little. "No," said I, "you
+_sha'n't_ be proud, and I _won't_ be proud, and we _will_ see her--I won't
+die, if I can help it, without seeing George Sand." So we gave our
+letter to a friend, who was to give it to a friend who was to place it
+in her hands--her abode being a mystery, and the name she used unknown.
+The next day came by the post this answer:
+
+'"Madame, j'aurai l'honneur de vous recevoir Dimanche prochain, rue
+Racine, 3. C'est le seul jour que je puisse passer chez moi; et encore
+je n'en suis pas absolument certaine--mais je ferai tellement mon
+possible, que ma bonne etoile m'y aidera peut-etre un peu. Agreez
+mille remerciments de coeur ainsi que Monsieur Browning, que j'espere
+voir avec vous, pour la sympathie que vous m'accordez. George Sand.
+Paris: 12 fevrier '52."
+
+'This is graceful and kind, is it not?--and we are going to-morrow--I,
+rather at the risk of my life, but I shall roll myself up head and all
+in a thick shawl, and we shall go in a close carriage, and I hope I
+shall be able to tell you the result before shutting up this letter.
+
+'Monday.--I have seen G. S. She received us in a room with a bed in it,
+the only room she has to occupy, I suppose, during her short stay in
+Paris. She received us very cordially with her hand held out, which
+I, in the emotion of the moment, stooped and kissed--upon which she
+exclaimed, "Mais non! je ne veux pas," and kissed me. I don't think
+she is a great deal taller than I am,--yes, taller, but not a great
+deal--and a little over-stout for that height. The upper part of the
+face is fine, the forehead, eyebrows and eyes--dark glowing eyes as they
+should be; the lower part not so good. The beautiful teeth project a
+little, flashing out the smile of the large characteristic mouth, and
+the chin recedes. It never could have been a beautiful face Robert and
+I agree, but noble and expressive it has been and is. The complexion is
+olive, quite without colour; the hair, black and glossy, divided with
+evident care and twisted back into a knot behind the head, and she wore
+no covering to it. Some of the portraits represent her in ringlets, and
+ringlets would be much more becoming to the style of face, I fancy, for
+the cheeks are rather over-full. She was dressed in a sort of woollen
+grey gown, with a jacket of the same material (according to the ruling
+fashion), the gown fastened up to the throat, with a small linen
+collarette, and plain white muslin sleeves buttoned round the wrists.
+The hands offered to me were small and well-shaped. Her manners were
+quite as simple as her costume. I never saw a simpler woman. Not a shade
+of affectation or consciousness, even--not a suffusion of coquetry, not
+a cigarette to be seen! Two or three young men were sitting with her,
+and I observed the profound respect with which they listened to every
+word she said. She spoke rapidly, with a low, unemphatic voice. Repose
+of manner is much more her characteristic than animation is--only,
+under all the quietness, and perhaps by means of it, you are aware of an
+intense burning soul. She kissed me again when we went away. . . .'
+
+
+
+'April 7.--George Sand we came to know a great deal more of. I think
+Robert saw her six times. Once he met her near the Tuileries, offered
+her his arm and walked with her the whole length of the gardens. She was
+not on that occasion looking as well as usual, being a little too much
+"endimanchee" in terrestrial lavenders and super-celestial blues--not,
+in fact, dressed with the remarkable taste which he has seen in her
+at other times. Her usual costume is both pretty and quiet, and the
+fashionable waistcoat and jacket (which are respectable in all the
+"Ladies' Companions" of the day) make the only approach to masculine
+wearings to be observed in her.
+
+'She has great nicety and refinement in her personal ways, I think--and
+the cigarette is really a feminine weapon if properly understood.
+
+'Ah! but I didn't see her smoke. I was unfortunate. I could only go with
+Robert three times to her house, and once she was out. He was really
+very good and kind to let me go at all after he found the sort of
+society rampant around her. He didn't like it extremely, but being the
+prince of husbands, he was lenient to my desires, and yielded the point.
+She seems to live in the abomination of desolation, as far as regards
+society--crowds of ill-bred men who adore her, 'a genoux bas', betwixt
+a puff of smoke and an ejection of saliva--society of the ragged red,
+diluted with the low theatrical. She herself so different, so apart, so
+alone in her melancholy disdain. I was deeply interested in that poor
+woman. I felt a profound compassion for her. I did not mind much
+even the Greek, in Greek costume, who 'tutoyed' her, and kissed her I
+believe, so Robert said--or the other vulgar man of the theatre, who
+went down on his knees and called her "sublime". "Caprice d'amitie,"
+said she with her quiet, gentle scorn. A noble woman under the mud, be
+certain. _I_ would kneel down to her, too, if she would leave it all,
+throw it off, and be herself as God made her. But she would not care for
+my kneeling--she does not care for me. Perhaps she doesn't care much
+for anybody by this time, who knows? She wrote one or two or three kind
+notes to me, and promised to 'venir m'embrasser' before she left Paris,
+but she did not come. We both tried hard to please her, and she told a
+friend of ours that she "liked us". Only we always felt that we couldn't
+penetrate--couldn't really _touch_ her--it was all vain.
+
+'Alfred de Musset was to have been at M. Buloz' where Robert was a
+week ago, on purpose to meet him, but he was prevented in some way. His
+brother, Paul de Musset, a very different person, was there instead, but
+we hope to have Alfred on another occasion. Do you know his poems? He is
+not capable of large grasps, but he has poet's life and blood in him,
+I assure you. . . . We are expecting a visit from Lamartine, who does a
+great deal of honour to both of us in the way of appreciation, and was
+kind enough to propose to come. I will tell you all about it.'
+
+
+Mr. Browning fully shared his wife's impression of a want of frank
+cordiality on George Sand's part; and was especially struck by it in
+reference to himself, with whom it seemed more natural that she should
+feel at ease. He could only imagine that his studied courtesy towards
+her was felt by her as a rebuke to the latitude which she granted to
+other men.
+
+Another eminent French writer whom he much wished to know was Victor
+Hugo, and I am told that for years he carried about him a letter of
+introduction from Lord Houghton, always hoping for an opportunity of
+presenting it. The hope was not fulfilled, though, in 1866, Mr. Browning
+crossed to Saint Malo by the Channel Islands and spent three days in
+Jersey.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 11
+
+1852-1855
+
+M. Joseph Milsand--His close Friendship with Mr. Browning; Mrs.
+Browning's Impression of him--New Edition of Mr. Browning's
+Poems--'Christmas Eve and Easter Day'--'Essay' on Shelley--Summer in
+London--Dante Gabriel Rossetti--Florence; secluded Life--Letters from
+Mr. and Mrs. Browning--'Colombe's Birthday'--Baths of Lucca--Mrs.
+Browning's Letters--Winter in Rome--Mr. and Mrs. Story--Mrs.
+Sartoris--Mrs. Fanny Kemble--Summer in London--Tennyson--Ruskin.
+
+
+
+It was during this winter in Paris that Mr. Browning became acquainted
+with M. Joseph Milsand, the second Frenchman with whom he was to be
+united by ties of deep friendship and affection. M. Milsand was at that
+time, and for long afterwards, a frequent contributor to the 'Revue
+des Deux Mondes'; his range of subjects being enlarged by his, for
+a Frenchman, exceptional knowledge of English life, language, and
+literature. He wrote an article on Quakerism, which was much approved by
+Mr. William Forster, and a little volume on Ruskin called 'L'Esthetique
+Anglaise', which was published in the 'Bibliotheque de Philosophie
+Contemporaine'.* Shortly before the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Browning
+in Paris, he had accidentally seen an extract from 'Paracelsus'. This
+struck him so much that he procured the two volumes of the works and
+'Christmas Eve', and discussed the whole in the 'Revue' as the second
+part of an essay entitled 'La Poesie Anglaise depuis Byron'. Mr.
+Browning saw the article, and was naturally touched at finding his poems
+the object of serious study in a foreign country, while still so little
+regarded in his own. It was no less natural that this should lead to
+a friendship which, the opening once given, would have grown up
+unassisted, at least on Mr. Browning's side; for M. Milsand united the
+qualities of a critical intellect with a tenderness, a loyalty, and a
+simplicity of nature seldom found in combination with them.
+
+     * He published also an admirable little work on the
+     requirements of secondary education in France, equally
+     applicable in many respects to any country and to any time.
+
+The introduction was brought about by the daughter of William Browning,
+Mrs. Jebb-Dyke, or more directly by Mr. and Mrs. Fraser Corkran, who
+were among the earliest friends of the Browning family in Paris. M.
+Milsand was soon an 'habitue' of Mr. Browning's house, as somewhat later
+of that of his father and sister; and when, many years afterwards, Miss
+Browning had taken up her abode in England, he spent some weeks of the
+early summer in Warwick Crescent, whenever his home duties or personal
+occupations allowed him to do so. Several times also the poet and his
+sister joined him at Saint-Aubin, the seaside village in Normandy which
+was his special resort, and where they enjoyed the good offices of
+Madame Milsand, a home-staying, genuine French wife and mother, well
+acquainted with the resources of its very primitive life. M. Milsand
+died, in 1886, of apoplexy, the consequence, I believe, of heart-disease
+brought on by excessive cold-bathing. The first reprint of 'Sordello',
+in 1863, had been, as is well known, dedicated to him. The 'Parleyings',
+published within a year of his death, were inscribed to his memory. Mr.
+Browning's affection for him finds utterance in a few strong words which
+I shall have occasion to quote. An undated fragment concerning him from
+Mrs. Browning to her sister-in-law, points to a later date than the
+present, but may as well be inserted here.
+
+
+'. . . I quite love M. Milsand for being interested in Penini. What a
+perfect creature he is, to be sure! He always stands in the top place
+among our gods--Give him my cordial regards, always, mind. . . .
+He wants, I think--the only want of that noble nature--the sense of
+spiritual relation; and also he puts under his feet too much the worth
+of impulse and passion, in considering the powers of human nature. For
+the rest, I don't know such a man. He has intellectual conscience--or
+say--the conscience of the intellect, in a higher degree than I ever
+saw in any man of any country--and this is no less Robert's belief than
+mine. When we hear the brilliant talkers and noisy thinkers here and
+there and everywhere, we go back to Milsand with a real reverence. Also,
+I never shall forget his delicacy to me personally, nor his tenderness
+of heart about my child. . . .'
+
+
+The criticism was inevitable from the point of view of Mrs. Browning's
+nature and experience; but I think she would have revoked part of it if
+she had known M. Milsand in later years. He would never have agreed with
+her as to the authority of 'impulse and passion', but I am sure he did
+not underrate their importance as factors in human life.
+
+M. Milsand was one of the few readers of Browning with whom I have
+talked about him, who had studied his work from the beginning, and had
+realized the ambition of his first imaginative flights. He was
+more perplexed by the poet's utterance in later years. 'Quel homme
+extraordinaire!' he once said to me; 'son centre n'est pas au milieu.'
+The usual criticism would have been that, while his own centre was in
+the middle, he did not seek it in the middle for the things of which
+he wrote; but I remember that, at the moment in which the words were
+spoken, they impressed me as full of penetration. Mr. Browning had so
+much confidence in M. Milsand's linguistic powers that he invariably
+sent him his proof-sheets for final revision, and was exceedingly
+pleased with such few corrections as his friend was able to suggest.
+
+With the name of Milsand connects itself in the poet's life that of a
+younger, but very genuine friend of both, M. Gustave Dourlans: a man of
+fine critical and intellectual powers, unfortunately neutralized by bad
+health. M. Dourlans also became a visitor at Warwick Crescent, and a
+frequent correspondent of Mr. or rather of Miss Browning. He came from
+Paris once more, to witness the last sad scene in Westminster Abbey.
+
+The first three years of Mr. Browning's married life had been
+unproductive from a literary point of view. The realization and
+enjoyment of the new companionship, the duties as well as interests
+of the dual existence, and, lastly, the shock and pain of his mother's
+death, had absorbed his mental energies for the time being. But by the
+close of 1848 he had prepared for publication in the following year a
+new edition of 'Paracelsus' and the 'Bells and Pomegranates' poems. The
+reprint was in two volumes, and the publishers were Messrs. Chapman and
+Hall; the system, maintained through Mr. Moxon, of publication at the
+author's expense, being abandoned by Mr. Browning when he left home.
+Mrs. Browning writes of him on this occasion that he is paying 'peculiar
+attention to the objections made against certain obscurities.' He
+himself prefaced the edition by these words: 'Many of these pieces were
+out of print, the rest had been withdrawn from circulation, when the
+corrected edition, now submitted to the reader, was prepared. The
+various Poems and Dramas have received the author's most careful
+revision. December 1848.'
+
+In 1850, in Florence, he wrote 'Christmas Eve and Easter Day'; and
+in December 1851, in Paris, the essay on Shelley, to be prefixed to
+twenty-five supposed letters of that poet, published by Moxon in 1852.*
+
+     * They were discovered, not long afterwards, to be spurious,
+     and the book suppressed.
+
+The reading of this Essay might serve to correct the frequent
+misapprehension of Mr. Browning's religious views which has been
+based on the literal evidence of 'Christmas Eve', were it not that its
+companion poem has failed to do so; though the tendency of 'Easter Day'
+is as different from that of its precursor as their common Christianity
+admits. The balance of argument in 'Christmas Eve' is in favour of
+direct revelation of religious truth and prosaic certainty regarding it;
+while the 'Easter Day' vision makes a tentative and unresting attitude
+the first condition of the religious life; and if Mr. Browning has meant
+to say--as he so often did say--that religious certainties are required
+for the undeveloped mind, but that the growing religious intelligence
+walks best by a receding light, he denies the positive basis of
+Christian belief, and is no more orthodox in the one set of reflections
+than in the other. The spirit, however, of both poems is ascetic: for
+the first divorces religious worship from every appeal to the poetic
+sense; the second refuses to recognize, in poetry or art, or the
+attainments of the intellect, or even in the best human love, any
+practical correspondence with religion. The dissertation on Shelley is,
+what 'Sordello' was, what its author's treatment of poets and poetry
+always must be--an indirect vindication of the conceptions of human life
+which 'Christmas Eve and Easter Day' condemns. This double poem stands
+indeed so much alone in Mr. Browning's work that we are tempted to ask
+ourselves to what circumstance or impulse, external or internal, it has
+been due; and we can only conjecture that the prolonged communion with
+a mind so spiritual as that of his wife, the special sympathies and
+differences which were elicited by it, may have quickened his religious
+imagination, while directing it towards doctrinal or controversial
+issues which it had not previously embraced.
+
+The 'Essay' is a tribute to the genius of Shelley; it is also a
+justification of his life and character, as the balance of evidence then
+presented them to Mr. Browning's mind. It rests on a definition of the
+respective qualities of the objective and the subjective poet. . . .
+While both, he says, are gifted with the fuller perception of nature and
+man, the one endeavours to
+
+'reproduce things external (whether the phenomena of the scenic
+universe, or the manifested action of the human heart and brain) with an
+immediate reference, in every case, to the common eye and apprehension
+of his fellow-men, assumed capable of receiving and profiting by this
+reproduction'--the other 'is impelled to embody the thing he perceives,
+not so much with reference to the many below, as to the One above him,
+the supreme Intelligence which apprehends all things in their absolute
+truth,--an ultimate view ever aspired to, if but partially attained, by
+the poet's own soul. Not what man sees, but what God sees--the 'Ideas'
+of Plato, seeds of creation lying burningly on the Divine Hand--it is
+toward these that he struggles. Not with the combination of humanity in
+action, but with the primal elements of humanity he has to do; and he
+digs where he stands,--preferring to seek them in his own soul as the
+nearest reflex of that absolute Mind, according to the intuitions of
+which he desires to perceive and speak.'
+
+The objective poet is therefore a fashioner, the subjective is best
+described as a seer. The distinction repeats itself in the interest with
+which we study their respective lives. We are glad of the biography of
+the objective poet because it reveals to us the power by which he works;
+we desire still more that of the subjective poet, because it presents us
+with another aspect of the work itself. The poetry of such a one is an
+effluence much more than a production; it is
+
+'the very radiance and aroma of his personality, projected from it but
+not separated. Therefore, in our approach to the poetry, we necessarily
+approach the personality of the poet; in apprehending it we apprehend
+him, and certainly we cannot love it without loving him.'
+
+The reason of Mr. Browning's prolonged and instinctive reverence
+for Shelley is thus set forth in the opening pages of the Essay: he
+recognized in his writings the quality of a 'subjective' poet; hence, as
+he understands the word, the evidence of a divinely inspired man.
+
+Mr. Browning goes on to say that we need the recorded life in order
+quite to determine to which class of inspiration a given work belongs;
+and though he regards the work of Shelley as carrying its warrant within
+itself, his position leaves ample room for a withdrawal of faith, a
+reversal of judgment, if the ascertained facts of the poet's life should
+at any future time bear decided witness against him. He is also careful
+to avoid drawing too hard and fast a line between the two opposite kinds
+of poet. He admits that a pure instance of either is seldom to be found;
+he sees no reason why
+
+'these two modes of poetic faculty may not issue hereafter from the same
+poet in successive perfect works. . . . A mere running-in of the one
+faculty upon the other' being, meanwhile, 'the ordinary circumstance.'
+
+I venture, however, to think, that in his various and necessary
+concessions, he lets slip the main point; and for the simple reason that
+it is untenable. The terms 'subjective' and 'objective' denote a real
+and very important difference on the ground of judgment, but one
+which tends more and more to efface itself in the sphere of the higher
+creative imagination. Mr. Browning might as briefly, and I think more
+fully, have expressed the salient quality of his poet, even while he
+could describe it in these emphatic words:
+
+'I pass at once, therefore, from Shelley's minor excellencies to his
+noblest and predominating characteristic.
+
+'This I call his simultaneous perception of Power and Love in the
+absolute, and of Beauty and Good in the concrete, while he throws, from
+his poet's station between both, swifter, subtler, and more numerous
+films for the connexion of each with each, than have been thrown by any
+modern artificer of whom I have knowledge . . . I would rather consider
+Shelley's poetry as a sublime fragmentary essay towards a presentment
+of the correspondency of the universe to Deity, of the natural to the
+spiritual, and of the actual to the ideal than . . .'
+
+This essay has, in common with the poems of the preceding years, the
+one quality of a largely religious and, in a certain sense, Christian
+spirit, and in this respect it falls naturally into the general series
+of its author's works. The assertion of Platonic ideas suggests,
+however, a mood of spiritual thought for which the reference in
+'Pauline' has been our only, and a scarcely sufficient preparation; nor
+could the most definite theism to be extracted from Platonic beliefs
+ever satisfy the human aspirations which, in a nature like that of
+Robert Browning, culminate in the idea of God. The metaphysical aspect
+of the poet's genius here distinctly reappears for the first time since
+'Sordello', and also for the last. It becomes merged in the simpler
+forms of the religious imagination.
+
+The justification of the man Shelley, to which great part of the Essay
+is devoted, contains little that would seem new to his more recent
+apologists; little also which to the writer's later judgments continued
+to recommend itself as true. It was as a great poetic artist, not as a
+great poet, that the author of 'Prometheus' and 'The Cenci', of 'Julian
+and Maddalo', and 'Epipsychidion' was finally to rank in Mr. Browning's
+mind. The whole remains nevertheless a memorial of a very touching
+affection; and whatever intrinsic value the Essay may possess, its main
+interest must always be biographical. Its motive and inspiration are set
+forth in the closing lines:
+
+'It is because I have long held these opinions in assurance and
+gratitude, that I catch at the opportunity offered to me of expressing
+them here; knowing that the alacrity to fulfil an humble office conveys
+more love than the acceptance of the honour of a higher one, and that
+better, therefore, than the signal service it was the dream of my
+boyhood to render to his fame and memory, may be the saying of a few,
+inadequate words upon these scarcely more important supplementary
+letters of _Shelley_.'
+
+If Mr. Browning had seen reason to doubt the genuineness of the letters
+in question, his Introduction could not have been written. That, while
+receiving them as genuine, he thought them unimportant, gave it, as he
+justly discerned, its full significance.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Browning returned to London for the summer of 1852, and we
+have a glimpse of them there in a letter from Mr. Fox to his daughter.
+
+
+July 16, '52.
+
+'. . . I had a charming hour with the Brownings yesterday; more
+fascinated with her than ever. She talked lots of George Sand, and so
+beautifully. Moreover she silver-electroplated Louis Napoleon!! They are
+lodging at 58 Welbeck Street; the house has a queer name on the door,
+and belongs to some Belgian family.
+
+'They came in late one night, and R. B. says that in the morning
+twilight he saw three portraits on the bedroom wall, and speculated who
+they might be. Light gradually showed the first, Beatrice Cenci, "Good!"
+said he; "in a poetic region." More light: the second, Lord Byron! Who
+can the third be? And what think you it was, but your sketch (engraved
+chalk portrait) of me? He made quite a poem and picture of the affair.
+
+'She seems much better; did not put her hand before her mouth, which I
+took as a compliment: and the young Florentine was gracious . . .'
+
+
+It need hardly be said that this valued friend was one of the first whom
+Mr. Browning introduced to his wife, and that she responded with ready
+warmth to his claims on her gratitude and regard. More than one joint
+letter from herself and her husband commemorates this new phase of the
+intimacy; one especially interesting was written from Florence in 1858,
+in answer to the announcement by Mr. Fox of his election for Oldham; and
+Mr. Browning's contribution, which is very characteristic, will appear
+in due course.
+
+Either this or the preceding summer brought Mr. Browning for the first
+time into personal contact with an early lover of his works: Mr. D.
+G. Rossetti. They had exchanged letters a year or two before, on the
+subject of 'Pauline', which Rossetti (as I have already mentioned) had
+read in ignorance of its origin, but with the conviction that only the
+author of 'Paracelsus' could have produced it. He wrote to Mr. Browning
+to ascertain the fact, and to tell him he had admired the poem so much
+as to transcribe it whole from the British Museum copy. He now called
+on him with Mr. William Allingham; and doubly recommended himself to the
+poet's interest by telling him that he was a painter. When Mr. Browning
+was again in London, in 1855, Rossetti began painting his portrait,
+which he finished in Paris in the ensuing winter.
+
+The winter of 1852-3 saw the family once more in Florence, and at Casa
+Guidi, where the routine of quiet days was resumed. Mrs. Browning
+has spoken in more than one of her letters of the comparative social
+seclusion in which she and her husband had elected to live. This
+seclusion was much modified in later years, and many well-known English
+and American names become associated with their daily life. It referred
+indeed almost entirely to their residence in Florence, where they found
+less inducement to enter into society than in London, Paris, and Rome.
+But it is on record that during the fifteen years of his married life,
+Mr. Browning never dined away from home, except on one occasion--an
+exception proving the rule; and we cannot therefore be surprised that
+he should subsequently have carried into the experience of an unshackled
+and very interesting social intercourse, a kind of freshness which a man
+of fifty has not generally preserved.
+
+The one excitement which presented itself in the early months of 1853
+was the production of 'Colombe's Birthday'. The first allusion to this
+comes to us in a letter from the poet to Lady, then Mrs. Theodore,
+Martin, from which I quote a few passages.
+
+
+Florence: Jan. 31, '53.
+
+'My dear Mrs. Martin,--. . . be assured that I, for my part, have
+been in no danger of forgetting my promises any more than your
+performances--which were admirable of all kinds. I shall be delighted if
+you can do anything for "Colombe"--do what you think best with it, and
+for me--it will be pleasant to be in such hands--only, pray follow
+the corrections in the last edition--(Chapman and Hall will give you a
+copy)--as they are important to the sense. As for the condensation into
+three acts--I shall leave that, and all cuttings and the like, to your
+own judgment--and, come what will, I shall have to be grateful to you,
+as before. For the rest, you will play the part to heart's content, I
+_know_. . . . And how good it will be to see you again, and make my wife
+see you too--she who "never saw a great actress" she says--unless it was
+Dejazet! . . .'
+
+
+Mrs. Browning writes about the performance, April 12:
+
+
+'. . . I am beginning to be anxious about 'Colombe's Birthday'. I care
+much more about it than Robert does. He says that no one will mistake it
+for his speculation; it's Mr. Buckstone's affair altogether. True--but I
+should like it to succeed, being Robert's play, notwithstanding. But the
+play is subtle and refined for pits and galleries. I am nervous about
+it. On the other hand, those theatrical people ought to know,--and what
+in the world made them select it, if it is not likely to answer their
+purpose? By the way, a dreadful rumour reaches us of its having been
+"prepared for the stage by the author." Don't believe a word of it.
+Robert just said "yes" when they wrote to ask him, and not a line
+of communication has passed since. He has prepared nothing at all,
+suggested nothing, modified nothing. He referred them to his new
+edition, and that was the whole. . . .'
+
+
+She communicates the result in May:
+
+
+'. . . Yes, Robert's play succeeded, but there could be no "run" for a
+play of that kind. It was a "succes d'estime" and something more, which
+is surprising perhaps, considering the miserable acting of the men. Miss
+Faucit was alone in doing us justice. . . .'
+
+
+Mrs. Browning did see 'Miss Faucit' on her next visit to England. She
+agreeably surprised that lady by presenting herself alone, one morning,
+at her house, and remaining with her for an hour and a half. The only
+person who had 'done justice' to 'Colombe' besides contributing to
+whatever success her husband's earlier plays had obtained, was much more
+than 'a great actress' to Mrs. Browning's mind; and we may imagine
+it would have gone hard with her before she renounced the pleasure of
+making her acquaintance.
+
+Two letters, dated from the Baths of Lucca, July 15 and August 20, '53,
+tell how and where the ensuing summer was passed, besides introducing
+us, for the first time, to Mr. and Mrs. William Story, between whose
+family and that of Mr. Browning so friendly an intimacy was ever
+afterwards to subsist.
+
+
+July 15.
+
+'. . . We have taken a villa at the Baths of Lucca after a little
+holy fear of the company there--but the scenery, and the coolness, and
+convenience altogether prevail, and we have taken our villa for three
+months or rather more, and go to it next week with a stiff resolve of
+not calling nor being called upon. You remember perhaps that we were
+there four years ago just after the birth of our child. The mountains
+are wonderful in beauty, and we mean to buy our holiday by doing some
+work.
+
+'Oh yes! I confess to loving Florence, and to having associated with it
+the idea of home. . . .'
+
+
+
+Casa Tolomei, Alta Villa, Bagni di Lucca: Aug. 20.
+
+'. . . We are enjoying the mountains here--riding the donkeys in the
+footsteps of the sheep, and eating strawberries and milk by basinsful.
+The strawberries succeed one another throughout the summer, through
+growing on different aspects of the hills. If a tree is felled in
+the forests, strawberries spring up, just as mushrooms might, and the
+peasants sell them for just nothing. . . . Then our friends Mr. and
+Mrs. Story help the mountains to please us a good deal. He is the son of
+Judge Story, the biographer of his father, and for himself, sculptor and
+poet--and she a sympathetic graceful woman, fresh and innocent in
+face and thought. We go backwards and forwards to tea and talk at one
+another's houses.
+
+'. . . Since I began this letter we have had a grand donkey excursion to
+a village called Benabbia, and the cross above it on the mountain-peak.
+We returned in the dark, and were in some danger of tumbling down
+various precipices--but the scenery was exquisite--past speaking of for
+beauty. Oh, those jagged mountains, rolled together like pre-Adamite
+beasts and setting their teeth against the sky--it was wonderful. . . .'
+
+
+Mr. Browning's share of the work referred to was 'In a Balcony'; also,
+probably, some of the 'Men and Women'; the scene of the declaration in
+'By the Fireside' was laid in a little adjacent mountain-gorge to which
+he walked or rode. A fortnight's visit from Mr., now Lord, Lytton, was
+also an incident of this summer.
+
+The next three letters from which I am able to quote, describe the
+impressions of Mrs. Browning's first winter in Rome.
+
+
+Rome: 43 Via Bocca di Leone, 30 piano. Jan. 18, 54.
+
+'. . . Well, we are all well to begin with--and have been well--our
+troubles came to us through sympathy entirely. A most exquisite journey
+of eight days we had from Florence to Rome, seeing the great monastery
+and triple church of Assisi and the wonderful Terni by the way--that
+passion of the waters which makes the human heart seem so still. In the
+highest spirits we entered Rome, Robert and Penini singing actually--for
+the child was radiant and flushed with the continual change of air and
+scene. . . . You remember my telling you of our friends the Storys--how
+they and their two children helped to make the summer go pleasantly at
+the Baths of Lucca. They had taken an apartment for us in Rome, so that
+we arrived in comfort to lighted fires and lamps as if coming home,--and
+we had a glimpse of their smiling faces that evening. In the morning
+before breakfast, little Edith was brought over to us by the manservant
+with a message, "the boy was in convulsions--there was danger." We
+hurried to the house, of course, leaving Edith with Wilson. Too true!
+All that first day we spent beside a death-bed; for the child never
+rallied--never opened his eyes in consciousness--and by eight in the
+evening he was gone. In the meanwhile, Edith was taken ill at our
+house--could not be moved, said the physicians . . . gastric fever,
+with a tendency to the brain--and within two days her life was almost
+despaired of--exactly the same malady as her brother's. . . . Also the
+English nurse was apparently dying at the Story's house, and Emma Page,
+the artist's youngest daughter, sickened with the same disease.
+
+'. . . To pass over the dreary time, I will tell you at once that the
+three patients recovered--only in poor little Edith's case Roman
+fever followed the gastric, and has persisted ever since in periodical
+recurrence. She is very pale and thin. Roman fever is not dangerous to
+life, but it is exhausting. . . . Now you will understand what ghostly
+flakes of death have changed the sense of Rome to me. The first day by
+a death-bed, the first drive-out, to the cemetery, where poor little Joe
+is laid close to Shelley's heart ("Cor cordium" says the epitaph)
+and where the mother insisted on going when she and I went out in the
+carriage together--I am horribly weak about such things--I can't look
+on the earth-side of death--I flinch from corpses and graves, and never
+meet a common funeral without a sort of horror. When I look deathwards
+I look _over_ death, and upwards, or I can't look that way at all. So that
+it was a struggle with me to sit upright in that carriage in which the
+poor stricken mother sat so calmly--not to drop from the seat. Well--all
+this has blackened Rome to me. I can't think about the Caesars in the
+old strain of thought--the antique words get muddled and blurred with
+warm dashes of modern, everyday tears and fresh grave-clay. Rome
+is spoilt to me--there's the truth. Still, one lives through one's
+associations when not too strong, and I have arrived at almost enjoying
+some things--the climate, for instance, which, though pernicious to the
+general health, agrees particularly with me, and the sight of the blue
+sky floating like a sea-tide through the great gaps and rifts of ruins.
+. . . We are very comfortably settled in rooms turned to the sun, and do
+work and play by turns, having almost too many visitors, hear excellent
+music at Mrs. Sartoris's (A. K.) once or twice a week, and have Fanny
+Kemble to come and talk to us with the doors shut, we three together.
+This is pleasant. I like her decidedly.
+
+'If anybody wants small talk by handfuls, of glittering dust swept out
+of salons, here's Mr. Thackeray besides! . . .'
+
+
+
+Rome: March 29.
+
+'. . . We see a good deal of the Kembles here, and like them both,
+especially Fanny, who is looking magnificent still, with her black hair
+and radiant smile. A very noble creature indeed. Somewhat unelastic,
+unpliant to the age, attached to the old modes of thought and
+convention--but noble in qualities and defects. I like her much. She
+thinks me credulous and full of dreams--but does not despise me for
+that reason--which is good and tolerant of her, and pleasant too, for I
+should not be quite easy under her contempt. Mrs. Sartoris is genial and
+generous--her milk has had time to stand to cream in her happy family
+relations, which poor Fanny Kemble's has not had. Mrs. Sartoris' house
+has the best society in Rome--and exquisite music of course. We met
+Lockhart there, and my husband sees a good deal of him--more than I
+do--because of the access of cold weather lately which has kept me at
+home chiefly. Robert went down to the seaside, on a day's excursion with
+him and the Sartorises--and I hear found favour in his sight. Said the
+critic, "I like Browning--he isn't at all like a damned literary man."
+That's a compliment, I believe, according to your dictionary. It made me
+laugh and think of you directly. . . . Robert has been sitting for his
+picture to Mr. Fisher, the English artist who painted Mr. Kenyon and
+Landor. You remember those pictures in Mr. Kenyon's house in London.
+Well, he has painted Robert's, and it is an admirable likeness. The
+expression is an exceptional expression, but highly characteristic. . . .'
+
+
+May 19.
+
+'. . . To leave Rome will fill me with barbarian complacency. I don't
+pretend to have a ray of sentiment about Rome. It's a palimpsest Rome, a
+watering-place written over the antique, and I haven't taken to it as a
+poet should I suppose. And let us speak the truth above all things. I
+am strongly a creature of association, and the associations of the place
+have not been personally favourable to me. Among the rest, my child, the
+light of my eyes, has been more unwell than I ever saw him. . . .
+The pleasantest days in Rome we have spent with the Kembles, the two
+sisters, who are charming and excellent both of them, in different ways,
+and certainly they have given us some excellent hours in the Campagna,
+upon picnic excursions--they, and certain of their friends; for
+instance, M. Ampere, the member of the French Institute, who is witty
+and agreeable, M. Goltz, the Austrian minister, who is an agreeable
+man, and Mr. Lyons, the son of Sir Edmund, &c. The talk was almost too
+brilliant for the sentiment of the scenery, but it harmonized entirely
+with the mayonnaise and champagne. . . .'
+
+
+It must have been on one of the excursions here described that an
+incident took place, which Mr. Browning relates with characteristic
+comments in a letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald, of July 15, 1882. The picnic
+party had strolled away to some distant spot. Mrs. Browning was not
+strong enough to join them, and her husband, as a matter of course,
+stayed with her; which act of consideration prompted Mrs. Kemble to
+exclaim that he was the only man she had ever known who behaved like a
+Christian to his wife. She was, when he wrote this letter, reading his
+works for the first time, and had expressed admiration for them; but, he
+continued, none of the kind things she said to him on that subject could
+move him as did those words in the Campagna. Mrs. Kemble would have
+modified her statement in later years, for the sake of one English and
+one American husband now closely related to her. Even then, perhaps, she
+did not make it without inward reserve. But she will forgive me, I am
+sure, for having repeated it.
+
+Mr. Browning also refers to her Memoirs, which he had just read, and
+says: 'I saw her in those [I conclude earlier] days much oftener than
+is set down, but she scarcely noticed me; though I always liked her
+extremely.'
+
+Another of Mrs. Browning's letters is written from Florence, June 6
+('54):
+
+
+'. . . We mean to stay at Florence a week or two longer and then go
+northward. I love Florence--the place looks exquisitely beautiful in
+its garden ground of vineyards and olive trees, sung round by the
+nightingales day and night. . . . If you take one thing with another,
+there is no place in the world like Florence, I am persuaded, for a
+place to live in--cheap, tranquil, cheerful, beautiful, within the
+limits of civilization yet out of the crush of it. . . . We have spent
+two delicious evenings at villas outside the gates, one with young
+Lytton, Sir Edward's son, of whom I have told you, I think. I like him
+. . . we both do . . . from the bottom of our hearts. Then, our friend,
+Frederick Tennyson, the new poet, we are delighted to see again.
+
+. . . . .
+
+'. . . Mrs. Sartoris has been here on her way to Rome, spending most of
+her time with us . . . singing passionately and talking eloquently. She
+is really charming. . . .'
+
+
+I have no record of that northward journey or of the experiences of the
+winter of 1854-5. In all probability Mr. and Mrs. Browning remained in,
+or as near as possible to, Florence, since their income was still too
+limited for continuous travelling. They possibly talked of going to
+England, but postponed it till the following year; we know that they
+went there in 1855, taking his sister with them as they passed through
+Paris. They did not this time take lodgings for the summer months,
+but hired a house at 13 Dorset Street, Portman Square; and there, on
+September 27, Tennyson read his new poem, 'Maud', to Mrs. Browning,
+while Rossetti, the only other person present besides the family,
+privately drew his likeness in pen and ink. The likeness has become well
+known; the unconscious sitter must also, by this time, be acquainted
+with it; but Miss Browning thinks no one except herself, who was near
+Rossetti at the table, was at the moment aware of its being made. All
+eyes must have been turned towards Tennyson, seated by his hostess on
+the sofa. Miss Arabel Barrett was also of the party.
+
+Some interesting words of Mrs. Browning's carry their date in the
+allusion to Mr. Ruskin; but I cannot ascertain it more precisely:
+
+
+'We went to Denmark Hill yesterday to have luncheon with them, and see
+the Turners, which, by the way, are divine. I like Mr. Ruskin much, and
+so does Robert. Very gentle, yet earnest,--refined and truthful. I like
+him very much. We count him one among the valuable acquaintances made
+this year in England.'
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 12
+
+1855-1858
+
+'Men and Women'--'Karshook'--'Two in the Campagna'--Winter in
+Paris; Lady Elgin--'Aurora Leigh'--Death of Mr. Kenyon and Mr.
+Barrett--Penini--Mrs. Browning's Letters to Miss Browning--The
+Florentine Carnival--Baths of Lucca--Spiritualism--Mr. Kirkup; Count
+Ginnasi--Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Fox--Havre.
+
+
+
+The beautiful 'One Word More' was dated from London in September; and
+the fifty poems gathered together under the title of 'Men and Women'
+were published before the close of the year, in two volumes, by Messrs.
+Chapman and Hall.* They are all familiar friends to Mr. Browning's
+readers, in their first arrangement and appearance, as in later
+redistributions and reprints; but one curious little fact concerning
+them is perhaps not generally known. In the eighth line of the
+fourteenth section of 'One Word More' they were made to include
+'Karshook (Ben Karshook's Wisdom)', which never was placed amongst them.
+It was written in April 1854; and the dedication of the volume must have
+been, as it so easily might be, in existence, before the author decided
+to omit it. The wrong name, once given, was retained, I have no doubt,
+from preference for its terminal sound; and 'Karshook' only became
+'Karshish' in the Tauchnitz copy of 1872, and in the English edition of
+1889.
+
+     * The date is given in the edition of 1868 as London 185-;
+     in the Tauchnitz selection of 1872, London and Florence 184-
+     and 185-; in the new English edition 184-and 185-.
+
+'Karshook' appeared in 1856 in 'The Keepsake', edited by Miss Power;
+but, as we are told on good authority, has been printed in no edition or
+selection of the Poet's works. I am therefore justified in inserting it
+here.
+
+     I
+
+     'Would a man 'scape the rod?'
+     Rabbi Ben Karshook saith,
+     'See that he turn to God
+     The day before his death.'
+
+     'Ay, could a man inquire
+     When it shall come!' I say.
+     The Rabbi's eye shoots fire--
+     'Then let him turn to-day!'
+
+
+     II
+
+     Quoth a young Sadducee:
+     'Reader of many rolls,
+     Is it so certain we
+     Have, as they tell us, souls?'
+
+     'Son, there is no reply!'
+     The Rabbi bit his beard:
+     'Certain, a soul have _I_--
+     _We_ may have none,' he sneer'd.
+
+     Thus Karshook, the Hiram's-Hammer,
+     The Right-hand Temple-column,
+     Taught babes in grace their grammar,
+     And struck the simple, solemn.
+
+Among this first collection of 'Men and Women' was the poem called
+'Two in the Campagna'. It is a vivid, yet enigmatical little study of a
+restless spirit tantalized by glimpses of repose in love, saddened and
+perplexed by the manner in which this eludes it. Nothing that should
+impress one as more purely dramatic ever fell from Mr. Browning's
+pen. We are told, nevertheless, in Mr. Sharp's 'Life', that a personal
+character no less actual than that of the 'Guardian Angel' has been
+claimed for it. The writer, with characteristic delicacy, evades all
+discussion of the question; but he concedes a great deal in his manner
+of doing so. The poem, he says, conveys a sense of that necessary
+isolation of the individual soul which resists the fusing power of
+the deepest love; and its meaning cannot be personally--because it is
+universally--true. I do not think Mr. Browning meant to emphasize this
+aspect of the mystery of individual life, though the poem, in a certain
+sense, expresses it. We have no reason to believe that he ever accepted
+it as constant; and in no case could he have intended to refer its
+conditions to himself. He was often isolated by the processes of his
+mind; but there was in him no barrier to that larger emotional sympathy
+which we think of as sympathy of the soul. If this poem were true, 'One
+Word More' would be false, quite otherwise than in that approach to
+exaggeration which is incidental to the poetic form. The true keynote
+of 'Two in the Campagna' is the pain of perpetual change, and of the
+conscious, though unexplained, predestination to it. Mr. Browning could
+have still less in common with such a state, since one of the qualities
+for which he was most conspicuous was the enormous power of anchorage
+which his affections possessed. Only length of time and variety of
+experience could fully test this power or fully display it; but the
+signs of it had not been absent from even his earliest life. He loved
+fewer people in youth than in advancing age: nature and circumstance
+combined to widen the range, and vary the character of his human
+interests; but where once love or friendship had struck a root, only a
+moral convulsion could avail to dislodge it. I make no deduction from
+this statement when I admit that the last and most emphatic words of the
+poem in question,
+
+     Only I discern--
+     Infinite passion, and the pain
+     Of finite hearts that yearn,
+
+did probably come from the poet's heart, as they also found a deep echo
+in that of his wife, who much loved them.
+
+From London they returned to Paris for the winter of 1855-6. The younger
+of the Kemble sisters, Mrs. Sartoris, was also there with her family;
+and the pleasant meetings of the Campagna renewed themselves for Mr.
+Browning, though in a different form. He was also, with his sister,
+a constant visitor at Lady Elgin's. Both they and Mrs. Browning were
+greatly attached to her, and she warmly reciprocated the feeling. As Mr.
+Locker's letter has told us, Mr. Browning was in the habit of reading
+poetry to her, and when his sister had to announce his arrival from
+Italy or England, she would say: 'Robert is coming to nurse you, and
+read to you.' Lady Elgin was by this time almost completely paralyzed.
+She had lost the power of speech, and could only acknowledge the little
+attentions which were paid to her by some graceful pathetic gesture of
+the left hand; but she retained her sensibilities to the last; and Miss
+Browning received on one occasion a serious lesson in the risk of ever
+assuming that the appearance of unconsciousness guarantees its reality.
+Lady Augusta Bruce had asked her, in her mother's presence, how Mrs.
+Browning was; and, imagining that Lady Elgin was unable to hear or
+understand, she had answered with incautious distinctness, 'I am afraid
+she is very ill,' when a little sob from the invalid warned her of her
+mistake. Lady Augusta quickly repaired it by rejoining, 'but she is
+better than she was, is she not?' Miss Browning of course assented.
+
+There were other friends, old and new, whom Mr. Browning occasionally
+saw, including, I need hardly say, the celebrated Madame Mohl. In the
+main, however, he led a quiet life, putting aside many inducements to
+leave his home.
+
+Mrs. Browning was then writing 'Aurora Leigh', and her husband must have
+been more than ever impressed by her power of work, as displayed by her
+manner of working. To him, as to most creative writers, perfect quiet
+was indispensable to literary production. She wrote in pencil, on
+scraps of paper, as she lay on the sofa in her sitting-room, open to
+interruption from chance visitors, or from her little omnipresent son;
+simply hiding the paper beside her if anyone came in, and taking it
+up again when she was free. And if this process was conceivable in the
+large, comparatively silent spaces of their Italian home, and amidst
+habits of life which reserved social intercourse for the close of the
+working day, it baffles belief when one thinks of it as carried on
+in the conditions of a Parisian winter, and the little 'salon' of the
+apartment in the Rue du Colisee in which those months were spent. The
+poem was completed in the ensuing summer, in Mr. Kenyon's London house,
+and dedicated, October 17, in deeply pathetic words to that faithful
+friend, whom the writer was never to see again.
+
+The news of his death, which took place in December 1856, reached Mr.
+and Mrs. Browning in Florence, to be followed in the spring by that of
+Mrs. Browning's father. Husband and wife had both determined to forego
+any pecuniary benefit which might accrue to them from this event; but
+they were not called upon to exercise their powers of renunciation. By
+Mr. Kenyon's will they were the richer, as is now, I think, generally
+known, the one by six thousand, the other by four thousand guineas.* Of
+that cousin's long kindness Mrs. Browning could scarcely in after-days
+trust herself to speak. It was difficult to her, she said, even to write
+his name without tears.
+
+     * Mr. Kenyon had considerable wealth, derived, like Mr.
+     Barrett's, from West Indian estates.
+
+I have alluded, perhaps tardily, to Mr. Browning's son, a sociable
+little being who must for some time have been playing a prominent part
+in his parents' lives. I saw him for the first time in this winter of
+1855-6, and remember the grave expression of the little round face,
+the outline of which was common, at all events in childhood, to all the
+members of his mother's family, and was conspicuous in her, if we may
+trust an early portrait which has recently come to light. He wore the
+curling hair to which she refers in a later letter, and pretty frocks
+and frills, in which she delighted to clothe him. It is on record that,
+on one of the journeys of this year, a trunk was temporarily lost which
+contained Peni's embroidered trousers, and the MS., whole or in part, of
+'Aurora Leigh'; and that Mrs. Browning had scarcely a thought to spare
+for her poem, in face of the damage to her little boy's appearance which
+the accident involved.
+
+How he came by his familiar name of Penini--hence Peni, and Pen--neither
+signifies in itself, nor has much bearing on his father's family
+history; but I cannot refrain from a word of comment on Mr. Hawthorne's
+fantastic conjecture, which has been asserted and reasserted in
+opposition to Mr. Browning's own statement of the case. According to Mr.
+Hawthorne, the name was derived from Apennino, and bestowed on the child
+in babyhood, because Apennino was a colossal statue, and he was so very
+small. It would be strange indeed that any joke connecting 'Baby' with a
+given colossal statue should have found its way into the family without
+father, mother, or nurse being aware of it; or that any joke should have
+been accepted there which implied that the little boy was not of normal
+size. But the fact is still more unanswerable that Apennino could by no
+process congenial to the Italian language be converted into Penini.
+Its inevitable abbreviation would be Pennino with a distinct separate
+sounding of the central n's, or Nino. The accentuation of Penini is also
+distinctly German.
+
+During this winter in Paris, little Wiedemann, as his parents tried to
+call him--his full name was Robert Wiedemann Barrett--had developed a
+decided turn for blank verse. He would extemporize short poems, singing
+them to his mother, who wrote them down as he sang. There is no less
+proof of his having possessed a talent for music, though it first
+naturally showed itself in the love of a cheerful noise. His father had
+once sat down to the piano, for a serious study of some piece, when
+the little boy appeared, with the evident intention of joining in the
+performance. Mr. Browning rose precipitately, and was about to leave the
+room. 'Oh!' exclaimed the hurt mother, 'you are going away, and he
+has brought his three drums to accompany you upon.' She herself would
+undoubtedly have endured the mixed melody for a little time, though her
+husband did not think she seriously wished him to do so. But if he did
+not play the piano to the accompaniment of Pen's drums, he played piano
+duets with him as soon as the boy was old enough to take part in them;
+and devoted himself to his instruction in this, as in other and more
+important branches of knowledge.
+
+Peni had also his dumb companions, as his father had had before him.
+Tortoises lived at one end of the famous balcony at Casa Guidi; and
+when the family were at the Baths of Lucca, Mr. Browning would stow away
+little snakes in his bosom, and produce them for the child's amusement.
+As the child grew into a man, the love of animals which he had inherited
+became conspicuous in him; and it gave rise to many amusing and some
+pathetic little episodes of his artist life. The creatures which he
+gathered about him were generally, I think, more highly organized than
+those which elicited his father's peculiar tenderness; it was natural
+that he should exact more pictorial or more companionable qualities from
+them. But father and son concurred in the fondness for snakes, and in a
+singular predilection for owls; and they had not been long established
+in Warwick Crescent, when a bird of that family was domesticated there.
+We shall hear of it in a letter from Mr. Browning.
+
+Of his son's moral quality as quite a little child his father has told
+me pretty and very distinctive stories, but they would be out of place
+here.*
+
+     * I am induced, on second thoughts, to subjoin one of these,
+     for its testimony to the moral atmosphere into which the
+     child had been born. He was sometimes allowed to play with a
+     little boy not of his own class--perhaps the son of a
+     'contadino'.  The child was unobjectionable, or neither
+     Penini nor his parents would have endured the association;
+     but the servants once thought themselves justified in
+     treating him cavalierly, and Pen flew indignant to his
+     mother, to complain of their behaviour.  Mrs. Browning at
+     once sought little Alessandro, with kind words and a large
+     piece of cake; but this, in Pen's eyes, only aggravated the
+     offence; it was a direct reflection on his visitor's
+     quality.  'He doesn't tome for take,' he burst forth; 'he
+     tomes because he is my friend.'  How often, since I heard
+     this first, have we repeated the words, 'he doesn't tome for
+     take,' in half-serious definition of a disinterested person
+     or act! They became a standing joke.
+
+Mrs. Browning seems now to have adopted the plan of writing independent
+letters to her sister-in-law; and those available for our purpose are
+especially interesting. The buoyancy of tone which has habitually
+marked her communications, but which failed during the winter in Rome,
+reasserts itself in the following extract. Her maternal comments on Peni
+and his perfections have hitherto been so carefully excluded, that a
+brief allusion to him may be allowed on the present occasion.
+
+
+1857.
+
+'My dearest Sarianna, . . . Here is Penini's letter, which takes up
+so much room that I must be sparing of mine--and, by the way, if you
+consider him improved in his writing, give the praise to Robert, who
+has been taking most patient pains with him indeed. You will see how
+the little curly head is turned with carnival doings. So gay a carnival
+never was in our experience, for until last year (when we were absent)
+all masks had been prohibited, and now everybody has eaten of the tree
+of good and evil till not an apple is left. Peni persecuted me to let
+him have a domino--with tears and embraces--he "_almost never_ in all his
+life had had a domino," and he would like it so. Not a black domino!
+no--he hated black--but a blue domino, trimmed with pink! that was his
+taste. The pink trimming I coaxed him out of, but for the rest, I let
+him have his way. . . . For my part, the universal madness reached me
+sitting by the fire (whence I had not stirred for three months), and you
+will open your eyes when I tell you that I went (in domino and masked)
+to the great opera-ball. Yes! I did, really. Robert, who had been
+invited two or three times to other people's boxes, had proposed to
+return their kindness by taking a box himself at the opera this night,
+and entertaining two or three friends with galantine and champagne. Just
+as he and I were lamenting the impossibility of my going, on that very
+morning the wind changed, the air grew soft and mild, and he maintained
+that I might and should go. There was no time to get a domino of my
+own (Robert himself had a beautiful one made, and I am having it
+metamorphosed into a black silk gown for myself!) so I sent out and
+hired one, buying the mask. And very much amused I was. I like to see
+these characteristic things. (I shall never rest, Sarianna, till I risk
+my reputation at the 'bal de l'opera' at Paris). Do you think I was
+satisfied with staying in the box? No, indeed. Down I went, and Robert
+and I elbowed our way through the crowd to the remotest corner of
+the ball below. Somebody smote me on the shoulder and cried "Bella
+Mascherina!" and I answered as impudently as one feels under a mask.
+At two o'clock in the morning, however, I had to give up and come away
+(being overcome by the heavy air) and ingloriously left Robert and
+our friends to follow at half-past four. Think of the refinement and
+gentleness--yes, I must call it _superiority_ of this people--when no
+excess, no quarrelling, no rudeness nor coarseness can be observed in
+the course of such wild masked liberty; not a touch of licence anywhere,
+and perfect social equality! Our servant Ferdinando side by side in the
+same ball-room with the Grand Duke, and no class's delicacy offended
+against! For the Grand Duke went down into the ball-room for a short
+time. . . .'
+
+
+The summer of 1857 saw the family once more at the Baths of Lucca, and
+again in company with Mr. Lytton. He had fallen ill at the house
+of their common friend, Miss Blagden, also a visitor there; and Mr.
+Browning shared in the nursing, of which she refused to entrust any part
+to less friendly hands. He sat up with the invalid for four nights; and
+would doubtless have done so for as many more as seemed necessary, but
+that Mrs. Browning protested against this trifling with his own health.
+
+The only serious difference which ever arose between Mr. Browning and
+his wife referred to the subject of spiritualism. Mrs. Browning held
+doctrines which prepared her to accept any real or imagined phenomena
+betokening intercourse with the spirits of the dead; nor could she
+be repelled by anything grotesque or trivial in the manner of this
+intercourse, because it was no part of her belief that a spirit still
+inhabiting the atmosphere of our earth, should exhibit any dignity or
+solemnity not belonging to him while he lived upon it. The question must
+have been discussed by them on its general grounds at a very early stage
+of their intimacy; but it only assumed practical importance when Mr.
+Home came to Florence in 1857 or 1858. Mr. Browning found himself
+compelled to witness some of the 'manifestations'. He was keenly
+alive to their generally prosaic and irreverent character, and to the
+appearance of jugglery which was then involved in them. He absolutely
+denied the good faith of all the persons concerned. Mrs. Browning as
+absolutely believed it; and no compromise between them was attainable,
+because, strangely enough, neither of them admitted as possible that
+mediums or witnesses should deceive themselves. The personal aspect
+which the question thus received brought it into closer and more painful
+contact with their daily life. They might agree to differ as to the
+abstract merits of spiritualism; but Mr. Browning could not resign
+himself to his wife's trustful attitude towards some of the individuals
+who at that moment represented it. He may have had no substantial fear
+of her doing anything that could place her in their power, though a
+vague dread of this seems to have haunted him; but he chafed against the
+public association of her name with theirs. Both his love for and his
+pride in her resented it.
+
+He had subsided into a more judicial frame of mind when he wrote 'Sludge
+the Medium', in which he says everything which can excuse the liar and,
+what is still more remarkable, modify the lie. So far back as the autumn
+of 1860 I heard him discuss the trickery which he believed himself to
+have witnessed, as dispassionately as any other non-credulous person
+might have done so. The experience must even before that have passed
+out of the foreground of his conjugal life. He remained, nevertheless,
+subject, for many years, to gusts of uncontrollable emotion which would
+sweep over him whenever the question of 'spirits' or 'spiritualism' was
+revived; and we can only understand this in connection with the peculiar
+circumstances of the case. With all his faith in the future, with all
+his constancy to the past, the memory of pain was stronger in him than
+any other. A single discordant note in the harmony of that married love,
+though merged in its actual existence, would send intolerable vibrations
+through his remembrance of it. And the pain had not been, in this
+instance, that of simple disagreement. It was complicated by Mrs.
+Browning's refusal to admit that disagreement was possible. She never
+believed in her husband's disbelief; and he had been not unreasonably
+annoyed by her always assuming it to be feigned. But his doubt of
+spiritualistic sincerity was not feigned. She cannot have thought,
+and scarcely can have meant to say so. She may have meant to say, 'You
+believe that these are tricks, but you know that there is something real
+behind them;' and so far, if no farther, she may have been in the
+right. Mr. Browning never denied the abstract possibility of spiritual
+communication with either living or dead; he only denied that such
+communication had ever been proved, or that any useful end could
+be subserved by it. The tremendous potentialities of hypnotism and
+thought-reading, now passing into the region of science, were not then
+so remote but that an imagination like his must have foreshadowed them.
+The natural basis of the seemingly supernatural had not yet entered into
+discussion. He may, from the first, have suspected the existence of some
+mysterious force, dangerous because not understood, and for this reason
+doubly liable to fall into dangerous hands. And if this was so, he
+would necessarily regard the whole system of manifestations with
+an apprehensive hostility, which was not entire negation, but which
+rebelled against any effort on the part of others, above all of those
+he loved, to interpret it into assent. The pain and anger which could be
+aroused in him by an indication on the part of a valued friend of even
+an impartial interest in the subject points especially to the latter
+conclusion.
+
+He often gave an instance of the tricks played in the name of
+spiritualism on credulous persons, which may amuse those who have not
+yet heard it. I give the story as it survives in the fresher memory of
+Mr. Val Prinsep, who also received it from Mr. Browning.
+
+
+'At Florence lived a curious old savant who in his day was well known
+to all who cared for art or history. I fear now few live who recollect
+Kirkup. He was quite a mine of information on all kinds of forgotten
+lore. It was he who discovered Giotto's portrait of Dante in the
+Bargello. Speaking of some friend, he said, "He is a most ignorant
+fellow! Why, he does not know how to cast a horoscope!" Of him Browning
+told me the following story. Kirkup was much taken up with spiritualism,
+in which he firmly believed. One day Browning called on him to borrow a
+book. He rang loudly at the storey, for he knew Kirkup, like Landor,
+was quite deaf. To his astonishment the door opened at once and Kirkup
+appeared.
+
+'"Come in," he cried; "the spirits told me there was some one at the
+door. Ah! I know you do not believe! Come and see. Mariana is in a
+trance!"
+
+'Browning entered. In the middle room, full of all kinds of curious
+objects of "vertu", stood a handsome peasant girl, with her eyes fixed
+as though she were in a trance.
+
+'"You see, Browning," said Kirkup, "she is quite insensible, and has no
+will of her own. Mariana, hold up your arm."
+
+'The woman slowly did as she was bid.
+
+'"She cannot take it down till I tell her," cried Kirkup.
+
+'"Very curious," observed Browning. "Meanwhile I have come to ask you to
+lend me a book."
+
+'Kirkup, as soon as he was made to hear what book was wanted, said he
+should be delighted.
+
+'"Wait a bit. It is in the next room."
+
+'The old man shuffled out at the door. No sooner had he disappeared than
+the woman turned to Browning, winked, and putting down her arm leaned it
+on his shoulder. When Kirkup returned she resumed her position and rigid
+look.
+
+'"Here is the book," said Kirkup. "Isn't it wonderful?" he added,
+pointing to the woman.
+
+'"Wonderful," agreed Browning as he left the room.
+
+'The woman and her family made a good thing of poor Kirkup's
+spiritualism.'
+
+
+Something much more remarkable in reference to this subject happened to
+the poet himself during his residence in Florence. It is related in a
+letter to the 'Spectator', dated January 30, 1869, and signed J. S. K.
+
+
+'Mr. Robert Browning tells me that when he was in Florence some years
+since, an Italian nobleman (a Count Ginnasi of Ravenna), visiting at
+Florence, was brought to his house without previous introduction, by
+an intimate friend. The Count professed to have great mesmeric and
+clairvoyant faculties, and declared, in reply to Mr. Browning's avowed
+scepticism, that he would undertake to convince him somehow or other of
+his powers. He then asked Mr. Browning whether he had anything about him
+then and there, which he could hand to him, and which was in any way
+a relic or memento. This Mr. Browning thought was perhaps because he
+habitually wore no sort of trinket or ornament, not even a watchguard,
+and might therefore turn out to be a safe challenge. But it so happened
+that, by a curious accident, he was then wearing under his coat-sleeves
+some gold wrist-studs which he had quite recently taken into wear, in
+the absence (by mistake of a sempstress) of his ordinary wrist-buttons.
+He had never before worn them in Florence or elsewhere, and had found
+them in some old drawer where they had lain forgotten for years. One of
+these studs he took out and handed to the Count, who held it in his hand
+a while, looking earnestly in Mr. Browning's face, and then he said,
+as if much impressed, "C'equalche cosa che mi grida nell' orecchio
+'Uccisione! uccisione!'" ("There is something here which cries out in my
+ear, 'Murder! murder!'")
+
+'"And truly," says Mr. Browning, "those very studs were taken from
+the dead body of a great uncle of mine who was violently killed on his
+estate in St. Kitt's, nearly eighty years ago. . . . The occurrence of
+my great uncle's murder was known only to myself of all men in Florence,
+as certainly was also my possession of the studs."'
+
+
+A letter from the poet, of July 21, 1883, affirms that the account is
+correct in every particular, adding, 'My own explanation of the matter
+has been that the shrewd Italian felt his way by the involuntary help
+of my own eyes and face.' The story has been reprinted in the Reports of
+the Psychical Society.
+
+A pleasant piece of news came to brighten the January of 1858. Mr. Fox
+was returned for Oldham, and at once wrote to announce the fact. He
+was answered in a joint letter from Mr. and Mrs. Browning, interesting
+throughout, but of which only the second part is quite suited for
+present insertion.
+
+Mrs. Browning, who writes first and at most length, ends by saying
+she must leave a space for Robert, that Mr. Fox may be compensated for
+reading all she has had to say. The husband continues as follows:
+
+
+. . . 'A space for Robert' who has taken a breathing space--hardly more
+than enough--to recover from his delight; he won't say surprise, at your
+letter, dear Mr. Fox. But it is all right and, like you, I wish from my
+heart we could get close together again, as in those old days, and what
+times we would have here in Italy! The realization of the children's
+prayer of angels at the corner of your bed (i.e. sofa), one to read
+and one (my wife) to write,* and both to guard you through the night of
+lodging-keeper's extortions, abominable charges for firing, and so on.
+(Observe, to call oneself 'an angel' in this land is rather humble,
+where they are apt to be painted as plumed cutthroats or celestial
+police--you say of Gabriel at his best and blithesomest, 'Shouldn't
+admire meeting _him_ in a narrow lane!')
+
+     * Mr. Fox much liked to be read to, and was in the habit
+     of writing his articles by dictation.
+
+I say this foolishly just because I can't trust myself to be earnest
+about it. I would, you know, I would, always would, choose you out of
+the whole English world to judge and correct what I write myself; my
+wife shall read this and let it stand if I have told her so these twelve
+years--and certainly I have not grown intellectually an inch over the
+good and kind hand you extended over my head how many years ago! Now it
+goes over my wife's too.
+
+How was it Tottie never came here as she promised? Is it to be some
+other time? Do think of Florence, if ever you feel chilly, and hear
+quantities about the Princess Royal's marriage, and want a change. I
+hate the thought of leaving Italy for one day more than I can help--and
+satisfy my English predilections by newspapers and a book or two.
+One gets nothing of that kind here, but the stuff out of which books
+grow,--it lies about one's feet indeed. Yet for me, there would be one
+book better than any now to be got here or elsewhere, and all out of a
+great English head and heart,--those 'Memoirs' you engaged to give us.
+Will you give us them?
+
+Goodbye now--if ever the whim strikes you to 'make beggars happy'
+remember us.
+
+Love to Tottie, and love and gratitude to you, dear Mr. Fox, From yours
+ever affectionately, Robert Browning.
+
+
+In the summer of this year, the poet with his wife and child joined his
+father and sister at Havre. It was the last time they were all to be
+together.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 13
+
+1858-1861
+
+Mrs. Browning's Illness--Siena--Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Leighton
+--Mrs. Browning's Letters continued--Walter Savage Landor--Winter
+in Rome--Mr. Val Prinsep--Friends in Rome: Mr. and Mrs.
+Cartwright--Multiplying Social Relations--Massimo d'Azeglio--Siena
+again--Illness and Death of Mrs. Browning's Sister--Mr. Browning's
+Occupations--Madame du Quaire--Mrs. Browning's last Illness and Death.
+
+
+
+I cannot quite ascertain, though it might seem easy to do so, whether
+Mr. and Mrs. Browning remained in Florence again till the summer of
+1859, or whether the intervening months were divided between Florence
+and Rome; but some words in their letters favour the latter supposition.
+We hear of them in September from Mr. Val Prinsep, in Siena or its
+neighbourhood; with Mr. and Mrs. Story in an adjacent villa, and Walter
+Savage Landor in a 'cottage' close by. How Mr. Landor found himself
+of the party belongs to a little chapter in Mr. Browning's history for
+which I quote Mr. Colvin's words.* He was then living at Fiesole with
+his family, very unhappily, as we all know; and Mr. Colvin relates
+how he had thrice left his villa there, determined to live in Florence
+alone; and each time been brought back to the nominal home where so
+little kindness awaited him.
+
+     * 'Life of Landor', p. 209.
+
+
+'. . . The fourth time he presented himself in the house of Mr. Browning
+with only a few pauls in his pocket, declaring that nothing should ever
+induce him to return.
+
+'Mr. Browning, an interview with the family at the villa having
+satisfied him that reconciliation or return was indeed past question,
+put himself at once in communication with Mr. Forster and with Landor's
+brothers in England. The latter instantly undertook to supply the needs
+of their eldest brother during the remainder of his life. Thenceforth an
+income sufficient for his frugal wants was forwarded regularly for his
+use through the friend who had thus come forward at his need. To Mr.
+Browning's respectful and judicious guidance Landor showed himself
+docile from the first. Removed from the inflictions, real and imaginary,
+of his life at Fiesole, he became another man, and at times still seemed
+to those about him like the old Landor at his best. It was in July,
+1859, that the new arrangements for his life were made. The remainder
+of that summer he spent at Siena, first as the guest of Mr. Story, the
+American sculptor and poet, next in a cottage rented for him by Mr.
+Browning near his own. In the autumn of the same year Landor removed to
+a set of apartments in the Via Nunziatina in Florence, close to the
+Casa Guidi, in a house kept by a former servant of Mrs. Browning's, an
+Englishwoman married to an Italian.* Here he continued to live during
+the five years that yet remained to him.'
+
+     * Wilson, Mrs. Browning's devoted maid, and another most
+          faithful servant
+     of hers and her husband's, Ferdinando Romagnoli.
+
+Mr. Landor's presence is also referred to, with the more important
+circumstance of a recent illness of Mrs. Browning's, in two
+characteristic and interesting letters of this period, one written
+by Mr. Browning to Frederic Leighton, the other by his wife to her
+sister-in-law. Mr.-- now Sir F.-- Leighton had been studying art during
+the previous winter in Italy.
+
+
+Kingdom of Piedmont, Siena: Oct. 9, '59.
+
+'My dear Leighton--I hope--and think--you know what delight it gave
+me to hear from you two months ago. I was in great trouble at the time
+about my wife who was seriously ill. As soon as she could bear removal
+we brought her to a villa here. She slowly recovered and is at last _well_
+--I believe--but weak still and requiring more attention than usual. We
+shall be obliged to return to Rome for the winter--not choosing to risk
+losing what we have regained with some difficulty. Now you know why I
+did not write at once--and may imagine why, having waited so long, I put
+off telling you for a week or two till I could say certainly what we do
+with ourselves. If any amount of endeavour could induce you to join us
+there--Cartwright, Russell, the Vatican and all--and if such a step were
+not inconsistent with your true interests--you should have it: but I
+know very well that you love Italy too much not to have had weighty
+reasons for renouncing her at present--and I want your own good and
+not my own contentment in the matter. Wherever you are, be sure I shall
+follow your proceedings with deep and true interest. I heard of your
+successes--and am now anxious to know how you get on with the great
+picture, the 'Ex voto'--if it does not prove full of beauty and power,
+two of us will be shamed, that's all! But _I_ don't fear, mind! Do
+keep me informed of your progress, from time to time--a few lines will
+serve--and then I shall slip some day into your studio, and buffet the
+piano, without having grown a stranger. Another thing--do take proper
+care of your health, and exercise yourself; give those vile indigestions
+no chance against you; keep up your spirits, and be as distinguished and
+happy as God meant you should. Can I do anything for you at Rome--not to
+say, Florence? We go thither (i.e. to Florence) to-morrow, stay there a
+month, probably, and then take the Siena road again.'
+
+
+The next paragraph refers to some orders for photographs, and is not
+specially interesting.
+
+
+Cartwright arrived here a fortnight ago--very pleasant it was to see
+him: he left for Florence, stayed a day or two and returned to Mrs.
+Cartwright (who remained at the Inn) and they all departed prosperously
+yesterday for Rome. Odo Russell spent two days here on his way
+thither--we liked him much. Prinsep and Jones--do you know them?--are in
+the town. The Storys have passed the summer in the villa opposite,--and
+no less a lion than dear old Landor is in a house a few steps off. I
+take care of him--his amiable family having clawed him a little
+too sharply: so strangely do things come about! I mean his Fiesole
+'family'--a trifle of wife, sons and daughter--not his English
+relatives, who are generous and good in every way.
+
+Take any opportunity of telling dear Mrs. Sartoris (however
+unnecessarily) that I and my wife remember her with the old feeling--I
+trust she is well and happy to heart's content. Pen is quite well and
+rejoicing just now in a Sardinian pony on which he gallops like Puck on
+a dragon-fly's back. My wife's kind regard and best wishes go with those
+of, Dear Leighton, yours affectionately ever, R. Browning.
+
+
+
+October 1859.
+
+Mrs. to Miss Browning.
+
+'. . . After all, it is not a cruel punishment to have to go to Rome
+again this winter, though it will be an undesirable expense, and we
+did wish to keep quiet this winter,--the taste for constant wanderings
+having passed away as much for me as for Robert. We begin to see that
+by no possible means can one spend as much money to so small an end--and
+then we don't work so well, don't live to as much use either for
+ourselves or others. Isa Blagden bids us observe that we pretend to live
+at Florence, and are not there much above two months in the year, what
+with going away for the summer and going away for the winter. It's
+too true. It's the drawback of Italy. To live in one place there is
+impossible for us, almost just as to live out of Italy at all, is
+impossible for us. It isn't caprice on our part. Siena pleases us very
+much--the silence and repose have been heavenly things to me, and the
+country is very pretty--though no more than pretty--nothing marked or
+romantic--no mountains, except so far off as to be like a cloud only
+on clear days--and no water. Pretty dimpled ground, covered with low
+vineyards, purple hills, not high, with the sunsets clothing them. . . .
+We shall not leave Florence till November--Robert must see Mr. Landor
+(his adopted son, Sarianna) settled in his new apartments with Wilson
+for a duenna. It's an excellent plan for him and not a bad one for
+Wilson. . . . Forgive me if Robert has told you this already. Dear
+darling Robert amuses me by talking of his "gentleness and sweetness".
+A most courteous and refined gentleman he is, of course, and very
+affectionate to Robert (as he ought to be), but of self-restraint, he
+has not a grain, and of suspiciousness, many grains. Wilson will run
+many risks, and I, for one, would rather not run them. What do you say
+to dashing down a plate on the floor when you don't like what's on it?
+And the contadini at whose house he is lodging now have been already
+accused of opening desks. Still upon that occasion (though there
+was talk of the probability of Mr. Landor's "throat being cut in his
+sleep"--) as on other occasions, Robert succeeded in soothing him--and
+the poor old lion is very quiet on the whole, roaring softly, to beguile
+the time, in Latin alcaics against his wife and Louis Napoleon. He
+laughs carnivorously when I tell him that one of these days he will have
+to write an ode in honour of the Emperor, to please me.'
+
+
+Mrs. Browning writes, somewhat later, from Rome:
+
+
+'. . . We left Mr. Landor in great comfort. I went to see his apartment
+before it was furnished. Rooms small, but with a look-out into a little
+garden, quiet and cheerful, and he doesn't mind a situation rather out
+of the way. He pays four pounds ten (English) the month. Wilson has
+thirty pounds a year for taking care of him--which sounds a good deal,
+but it is a difficult position. He has excellent, generous, affectionate
+impulses--but the impulses of the tiger, every now and then. Nothing
+coheres in him--either in his opinions, or, I fear, his affections. It
+isn't age--he is precisely the man of his youth, I must believe. Still,
+his genius gives him the right of gratitude on all artists at least, and
+I must say that my Robert has generously paid the debt. Robert always
+said that he owed more as a writer to Landor than to any contemporary.
+At present Landor is very fond of him--but I am quite prepared for his
+turning against us as he has turned against Forster, who has been so
+devoted for years and years. Only one isn't kind for what one gets by
+it, or there wouldn't be much kindness in this world. . . .'
+
+
+Mr. Browning always declared that his wife could impute evil to no one,
+that she was a living denial of that doctrine of original sin to which
+her Christianity pledged her; and the great breadth and perfect charity
+of her views habitually justified the assertion; but she evidently
+possessed a keen insight into character, which made her complete
+suspension of judgment on the subject of Spiritualism very difficult to
+understand.
+
+The spiritualistic coterie had found a satisfactory way of explaining
+Mr. Browning's antagonistic attitude towards it. He was jealous, it was
+said, because the Spirits on one occasion had dropped a crown on to his
+wife's head and none on to his own. The first instalment of his
+long answer to this grotesque accusation appears in a letter of Mrs.
+Browning's, probably written in the course of the winter of 1859-60.
+
+
+'. . . My brother George sent me a number of the "National Magazine"
+with my face in it, after Marshall Wood's medallion. My comfort is that
+my greatest enemy will not take it to be like me, only that does not go
+far with the indifferent public: the portrait I suppose will have its
+due weight in arresting the sale of "Aurora Leigh" from henceforth. You
+never saw a more determined visage of a strong-minded woman with the
+neck of a vicious bull. . . . Still, I am surprised, I own, at the
+amount of success, and that golden-hearted Robert is in ecstasies about
+it, far more than if it all related to a book of his own. The form of
+the story, and also, something in the philosophy, seem to have caught
+the crowd. As to the poetry by itself, anything good in that repels
+rather. I am not so blind as Romney, not to perceive this . . . Give
+Peni's and my love to the dearest 'nonno' (grandfather) whose sublime
+unselfishness and want of common egotism presents such a contrast to
+what is here. Tell him I often think of him, and always with touched
+feeling. (When _he_ is eighty-six or ninety-six, nobody will be pained or
+humbled by the spectacle of an insane self-love resulting from a long
+life's ungoverned will.) May God bless him!--. . . Robert has made his
+third bust copied from the antique. He breaks them all up as they are
+finished--it's only matter of education. When the power of execution is
+achieved, he will try at something original. Then reading hurts him; as
+long as I have known him he has not been able to read long at a time--he
+can do it now better than at the beginning. The consequence of which
+is that an active occupation is salvation to him. . . . Nobody exactly
+understands him except me, who am in the inside of him and hear him
+breathe. For the peculiarity of our relation is, that he thinks aloud
+with me and can't stop himself. . . . I wanted his poems done this
+winter very much, and here was a bright room with three windows
+consecrated to his use. But he had a room all last summer, and did
+nothing. Then, he worked himself out by riding for three or four hours
+together--there has been little poetry done since last winter, when
+he did much. He was not inclined to write this winter. The modelling
+combines body-work and soul-work, and the more tired he has been, and
+the more his back ached, poor fellow, the more he has exulted and been
+happy. So I couldn't be much in opposition against the sculpture--I
+couldn't in fact at all. He has material for a volume, and will work at
+it this summer, he says.
+
+'His power is much in advance of "Strafford", which is his poorest work
+of art. Ah, the brain stratifies and matures, even in the pauses of the
+pen.
+
+'At the same time, his treatment in England affects him, naturally, and
+for my part I set it down as an infamy of that public--no other word.
+He says he has told you some things you had not heard, and which I
+acknowledge I always try to prevent him from repeating to anyone. I
+wonder if he has told you besides (no, I fancy not) that an English lady
+of rank, an acquaintance of ours, (observe that!) asked, the other
+day, the American minister, whether "Robert was not an American." The
+minister answered--"is it possible that _you_ ask me this? Why, there is
+not so poor a village in the United States, where they would not tell
+you that Robert Browning was an Englishman, and that they were sorry
+he was not an American." Very pretty of the American minister, was it
+not?--and literally true, besides. . . . Ah, dear Sarianna--I don't
+complain for myself of an unappreciating public. I _have no reason_. But,
+just for _that_ reason, I complain more about Robert--only he does not
+hear me complain--to _you_ I may say, that the blindness, deafness and
+stupidity of the English public to Robert are amazing. Of course Milsand
+had heard his name--well the contrary would have been strange. Robert
+_is_. All England can't prevent his existence, I suppose. But nobody
+there, except a small knot of pre-Raffaellite men, pretend to do him
+justice. Mr. Forster has done the best,--in the press. As a sort of
+lion, Robert has his range in society--and--for the rest, you should
+see Chapman's returns!--While, in America he is a power, a writer, a
+poet--he is read--he lives in the hearts of the people.
+
+'"Browning readings" here in Boston--"Browning evenings" there. For the
+rest, the English hunt lions, too, Sarianna, but their lions are chiefly
+chosen among lords and railway kings. . . .'
+
+
+We cannot be surprised at Mrs. Browning's desire for a more sustained
+literary activity on her husband's part. We learn from his own
+subsequent correspondence that he too regarded the persevering exercise
+of his poetic faculty as almost a religious obligation. But it becomes
+the more apparent that the restlessness under which he was now labouring
+was its own excuse; and that its causes can have been no mystery even
+to those 'outside' him. The life and climate of Italy were beginning
+to undermine his strength. We owe it perhaps to the great and sorrowful
+change, which was then drawing near, that the full power of work
+returned to him.
+
+During the winter of 1859-60, Mr. Val Prinsep was in Rome. He had gone
+to Siena with Mr. Burne Jones, bearing an introduction from Rossetti to
+Mr. Browning and his wife; and the acquaintance with them was renewed
+in the ensuing months. Mr. Prinsep had acquired much knowledge of the
+popular, hence picturesque aspects of Roman life, through a French
+artist long resident in the city; and by the help of the two young men
+Mr. Browning was also introduced to them. The assertion that during his
+married life he never dined away from home must be so far modified, that
+he sometimes joined Mr. Prinsep and his friend in a Bohemian meal, at an
+inn near the Porta Pinciana which they much frequented; and he gained in
+this manner some distinctive experiences which he liked long afterwards
+to recall. I am again indebted to Mr. Prinsep for a description of some
+of these.
+
+
+'The first time he honoured us was on an evening when the poet of
+the quarter of the "Monte" had announced his intention of coming to
+challenge a rival poet to a poetical contest. Such contests are, or
+were, common in Rome. In old times the Monte and the Trastevere, the
+two great quarters of the eternal city, held their meetings on the Ponte
+Rotto. The contests were not confined to the effusions of the poetical
+muse. Sometimes it was a strife between two lute-players, sometimes
+guitarists would engage, and sometimes mere wrestlers. The rivalry was
+so keen that the adverse parties finished up with a general fight. So
+the Papal Government had forbidden the meetings on the old bridge.
+But still each quarter had its pet champions, who were wont to meet in
+private before an appreciative, but less excitable audience, than in
+olden times.
+
+'Gigi (the host) had furnished a first-rate dinner, and his usual tap
+of excellent wine. ('Vino del Popolo' he called it.) The 'Osteria' had
+filled; the combatants were placed opposite each other on either side
+of a small table on which stood two 'mezzi'--long glass bottles holding
+about a quart apiece. For a moment the two poets eyed each other like
+two cocks seeking an opportunity to engage. Then through the crowd a
+stalwart carpenter, a constant attendant of Gigi's, elbowed his way.
+He leaned over the table with a hand on each shoulder, and in a neatly
+turned couplet he then addressed the rival bards.
+
+'"You two," he said, "for the honour of Rome, must do your best, for
+there is now listening to you a great Poet from England."
+
+'Having said this, he bowed to Browning, and swaggered back to his place
+in the crowd, amid the applause of the on-lookers.
+
+'It is not necessary to recount how the two Improvisatori poetized, even
+if I remembered, which I do not.
+
+'On another occasion, when Browning and Story were dining with us, we
+had a little orchestra (mandolins, two guitars, and a lute,) to play to
+us. The music consisted chiefly of well-known popular airs. While they
+were playing with great fervour the Hymn to Garibaldi--an air strictly
+forbidden by the Papal Government, three blows at the door resounded
+through the 'Osteria'. The music stopped in a moment. I saw Gigi was
+very pale as he walked down the room. There was a short parley at the
+door. It opened, and a sergeant and two Papal gendarmes marched solemnly
+up to the counter from which drink was supplied. There was a dead
+silence while Gigi supplied them with large measures of wine, which the
+gendarmes leisurely imbibed. Then as solemnly they marched out again,
+with their heads well in the air, looking neither to the right nor the
+left. Most discreet if not incorruptible guardians of the peace! When
+the door was shut the music began again; but Gigi was so earnest in
+his protestations, that my friend Browning suggested we should get into
+carriages and drive to see the Coliseum by moonlight. And so we sallied
+forth, to the great relief of poor Gigi, to whom it meant, if reported,
+several months of imprisonment, and complete ruin.
+
+'In after-years Browning frequently recounted with delight this night
+march.
+
+'"We drove down the Corso in two carriages," he would say. "In one were
+our musicians, in the other we sat. Yes! and the people all asked, 'who
+are these who make all this parade?' At last some one said, 'Without
+doubt these are the fellows who won the lottery,' and everybody cried,
+'Of course these are the lucky men who have won.'"'
+
+
+The two persons whom Mr. Browning saw most, and most intimately, during
+this and the ensuing winter, were probably Mr. and Mrs. Story. Allusion
+has already been made to the opening of the acquaintance at the Baths
+of Lucca in 1853, to its continuance in Rome in '53 and '54, and to the
+artistic pursuits which then brought the two men into close and frequent
+contact with each other. These friendly relations were cemented by their
+children, who were of about the same age; and after Mrs. Browning's
+death, Miss Browning took her place in the pleasant intercourse which
+renewed itself whenever their respective visits to Italy and to England
+again brought the two families together. A no less lasting and truly
+affectionate intimacy was now also growing up with Mr. Cartwright and
+his wife--the Cartwrights (of Aynhoe) of whom mention was made in the
+Siena letter to F. Leighton; and this too was subsequently to include
+their daughter, now Mrs. Guy Le Strange, and Mr. Browning's sister. I
+cannot quite ascertain when the poet first knew Mr. Odo Russell, and his
+mother, Lady William Russell, who was also during this, or at all
+events the following winter, in Rome; and whom afterwards in London
+he regularly visited until her death; but the acquaintance was already
+entering on the stage in which it would spread as a matter of course
+through every branch of the family. His first country visit, when he had
+returned to England, was paid with his son to Woburn Abbey.
+
+We are now indeed fully confronted with one of the great difficulties
+of Mr. Browning's biography: that of giving a sufficient idea of the
+growing extent and growing variety of his social relations. It is
+evident from the fragments of his wife's correspondence that during, as
+well as after, his married life, he always and everywhere knew everyone
+whom it could interest him to know. These acquaintances constantly
+ripened into friendliness, friendliness into friendship. They were
+necessarily often marked by interesting circumstances or distinctive
+character. To follow them one by one, would add not chapters, but
+volumes, to our history. The time has not yet come at which this could
+even be undertaken; and any attempt at systematic selection would create
+a false impression of the whole. I must therefore be still content to
+touch upon such passages of Mr. Browning's social experience as lie in
+the course of a comparatively brief record; leaving all such as are not
+directly included in it to speak indirectly for themselves.
+
+Mrs. Browning writes again, in 1859:
+
+
+'Massimo d'Azeglio came to see us, and talked nobly, with that noble
+head of his. I was far prouder of his coming than of another personal
+distinction you will guess at,* though I don't pretend to have been
+insensible to that.'
+
+     * An invitation to Mr. Browning to dine in company
+     with the young Prince of Wales.
+
+Dr.--afterwards Cardinal--Manning was also among the distinguished or
+interesting persons whom they knew in Rome.
+
+Another, undated extract might refer to the early summer of 1859 or
+1860, when a meeting with the father and sister must have been once more
+in contemplation.
+
+
+Casa Guidi.
+
+'My dearest Sarianna,--I am delighted to say that we have arrived, and
+see our dear Florence--the Queen of Italy, after all . . . A comfort
+is that Robert is considered here to be looking better than he ever was
+known to look--and this, notwithstanding the greyness of his beard . . .
+which indeed, is, in my own mind, very becoming to him, the argentine
+touch giving a character of elevation and thought to the whole
+physiognomy. This greyness was suddenly developed--let me tell you how.
+He was in a state of bilious irritability on the morning of his arrival
+in Rome, from exposure to the sun or some such cause, and in a fit of
+suicidal impatience shaved away his whole beard . . . whiskers and all!!
+I _cried_ when I saw him, I was so horror-struck. I might have gone into
+hysterics and still been reasonable--for no human being was ever so
+disfigured by so simple an act. Of course I said when I recovered heart
+and voice, that everything was at an end between him and me if he didn't
+let it all grow again directly, and (upon the further advice of his
+looking-glass) he yielded the point,--and the beard grew--but it grew
+white--which was the just punishment of the gods--our sins leave their
+traces.
+
+'Well, poor darling Robert won't shock you after all--you can't choose
+but be satisfied with his looks. M. de Monclar swore to me that he was
+not changed for the intermediate years. . . .'
+
+
+The family returned, however, to Siena for the summer of 1860, and from
+thence Mrs. Browning writes to her sister-in-law of her great anxiety
+concerning her sister Henrietta, Mrs. Surtees Cook,* then attacked by a
+fatal disease.
+
+     * The name was afterwards changed to Altham.
+
+
+'. . . There is nothing or little to add to my last account of my
+precious Henrietta. But, dear, you think the evil less than it
+is--be sure that the fear is too reasonable. I am of a very hopeful
+temperament, and I never could go on systematically making the worst of
+any case. I bear up here for a few days, and then comes the expectation
+of a letter, which is hard. I fight with it for Robert's sake, but all
+the work I put myself to do does not hinder a certain effect. She is
+confined to her bed almost wholly and suffers acutely. . . . In fact,
+I am living from day to day, on the merest crumbs of hope--on the daily
+bread which is very bitter. Of course it has shaken me a good deal, and
+interfered with the advantages of the summer, but that's the least. Poor
+Robert's scheme for me of perfect repose has scarcely been carried out.
+. . .'
+
+
+This anxiety was heightened during the ensuing winter in Rome, by just
+the circumstance from which some comfort had been expected--the second
+postal delivery which took place every day; for the hopes and fears
+which might have found a moment's forgetfulness in the longer absence of
+news, were, as it proved, kept at fever-heat. On one critical occasion
+the suspense became unbearable, because Mr. Browning, by his wife's
+desire, had telegraphed for news, begging for a telegraphic answer. No
+answer had come, and she felt convinced that the worst had happened, and
+that the brother to whom the message was addressed could not make up
+his mind to convey the fact in so abrupt a form. The telegram had been
+stopped by the authorities, because Mr. Odo Russell had undertaken
+to forward it, and his position in Rome, besides the known Liberal
+sympathies of Mr. and Mrs. Browning and himself, had laid it open to
+political suspicion.
+
+Mrs. Surtees Cook died in the course of the winter. Mr. Browning always
+believed that the shock and sorrow of this event had shortened his
+wife's life, though it is also possible that her already lowered
+vitality increased the dejection into which it plunged her. Her own
+casual allusions to the state of her health had long marked arrested
+progress, if not steady decline. We are told, though this may have been
+a mistake, that active signs of consumption were apparent in her even
+before the illness of 1859, which was in a certain sense the beginning
+of the end. She was completely an invalid, as well as entirely a
+recluse, during the greater part if not the whole of this last stay in
+Rome.
+
+She rallied nevertheless sufficiently to write to Miss Browning in
+April, in a tone fully suggestive of normal health and energy.
+
+
+'. . . In my own opinion he is infinitely handsomer and more attractive
+than when I saw him first, sixteen years ago. . . . I believe people in
+general would think the same exactly. As to the modelling--well, I told
+you that I grudged a little the time from his own particular art. But it
+does not do to dishearten him about his modelling. He has given a great
+deal of time to anatomy with reference to the expression of form, and
+the clay is only the new medium which takes the place of drawing. Also,
+Robert is peculiar in his ways of work as a poet. I have struggled a
+little with him on this point, for I don't think him right; that is
+to say, it would not be right for me . . . But Robert waits for an
+inclination, works by fits and starts; he can't do otherwise he says,
+and his head is full of ideas which are to come out in clay or marble. I
+yearn for the poems, but he leaves that to me for the present. . . . You
+will think Robert looking very well when you see him; indeed, you may
+judge by the photographs meanwhile. You know, Sarianna, how I used to
+forbid the moustache. I insisted as long as I could, but all artists
+were against me, and I suppose that the bare upper lip does not
+harmonise with the beard. He keeps the hair now closer, and the beard is
+pointed. . . . As to the moony whiteness of the beard, it is beautiful,
+_I_ think, but then I think him all beautiful, and always. . . .'
+
+
+Mr. Browning's old friend, Madame du Quaire,* came to Rome in December.
+She had visited Florence three years before, and I am indebted to her
+for some details of the spiritualist controversy by which its English
+colony was at that time divided. She was now a widow, travelling with
+her brother; and Mr. Browning came whenever he could, to comfort her in
+her sorrow, and, as she says, discourse of nature, art, the beautiful,
+and all that 'conquers death'. He little knew how soon he would need the
+same comfort for himself. He would also declaim passages from his wife's
+poems; and when, on one of these occasions, Madame du Quaire had said,
+as so many persons now say, that she much preferred his poetry to hers,
+he made this characteristic answer, to be repeated in substance some
+years afterwards to another friend: 'You are wrong--quite wrong--she has
+genius; I am only a painstaking fellow. Can't you imagine a clever sort
+of angel who plots and plans, and tries to build up something--he wants
+to make you see it as he sees it--shows you one point of view, carries
+you off to another, hammering into your head the thing he wants you to
+understand; and whilst this bother is going on God Almighty turns you
+off a little star--that's the difference between us. The true creative
+power is hers, not mine.'
+
+     * Formerly Miss Blackett, and sister of the member for New
+     Castle.
+
+Mrs. Browning died at Casa Guidi on June 29, 1861, soon after their
+return to Florence. She had had a return of the bronchial affection to
+which she was subject; and a new doctor who was called in discovered
+grave mischief at the lungs, which she herself had long believed to
+be existent or impending. But the attack was comparatively, indeed
+actually, slight; and an extract from her last letter to Miss Browning,
+dated June 7, confirms what her family and friends have since asserted,
+that it was the death of Cavour which gave her the final blow.
+
+
+'. . . We come home into a cloud here. I can scarcely command voice or
+hand to name 'Cavour'. That great soul which meditated and made Italy
+has gone to the diviner Country. If tears or blood could have saved
+him to us, he should have had mine. I feel yet as if I could scarcely
+comprehend the greatness of the vacancy. A hundred Garibaldis for such a
+man!'
+
+
+Her death was signalized by the appearance--this time, I am told,
+unexpected--of another brilliant comet, which passed so near the earth
+as to come into contact with it.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 14
+
+1861-1863
+
+Miss Blagden--Letters from Mr. Browning to Miss Haworth and Mr.
+Leighton--His Feeling in regard to Funeral Ceremonies--Establishment
+in London--Plan of Life--Letter to Madame du Quaire--Miss Arabel
+Barrett--Biarritz--Letters to Miss Blagden--Conception of 'The Ring and
+the Book'--Biographical Indiscretion--New Edition of his Works--Mr. and
+Mrs. Procter.
+
+
+
+The friend who was nearest, at all events most helpful, to Mr. Browning
+in this great and sudden sorrow was Miss Blagden--Isa Blagden, as she
+was called by all her intimates. Only a passing allusion to her could
+hitherto find place in this fragmentary record of the Poet's life; but
+the friendship which had long subsisted between her and Mrs. Browning
+brings her now into closer and more frequent relation to it. She was
+for many years a centre of English society in Florence; for her genial,
+hospitable nature, as well as literary tastes (she wrote one or two
+novels, I believe not without merit), secured her the acquaintance of
+many interesting persons, some of whom occasionally made her house their
+home; and the evenings spent with her at her villa on Bellosguardo live
+pleasantly in the remembrance of those of our older generation who were
+permitted to share in them.
+
+She carried the boy away from the house of mourning, and induced his
+father to spend his nights under her roof, while the last painful duties
+detained him in Florence. He at least gave her cause to deny, what has
+been so often affirmed, that great griefs are necessarily silent. She
+always spoke of this period as her 'apocalyptic month', so deeply poetic
+were the ravings which alternated with the simple human cry of the
+desolate heart: 'I want her, I want her!' But the ear which received
+these utterances has long been closed in death. The only written
+outbursts of Mr. Browning's frantic sorrow were addressed, I believe, to
+his sister, and to the friend, Madame du Quaire, whose own recent loss
+most naturally invoked them, and who has since thought best, so far as
+rested with her, to destroy the letters in which they were contained. It
+is enough to know by simple statement that he then suffered as he did.
+Life conquers Death for most of us; whether or not 'nature, art,
+and beauty' assist in the conquest. It was bound to conquer in Mr.
+Browning's case: first through his many-sided vitality; and secondly,
+through the special motive for living and striving which remained to
+him in his son. This note is struck in two letters which are given me to
+publish, written about three weeks after Mrs. Browning's death; and we
+see also that by this time his manhood was reacting against the blow,
+and bracing itself with such consoling remembrance as the peace and
+painlessness of his wife's last moments could afford to him.
+
+
+Florence: July 19, '61.
+
+Dear Leighton,--It is like your old kindness to write to me and to say
+what you do--I know you feel for me. I can't write about it--but there
+were many alleviating circumstances that you shall know one day--there
+seemed no pain, and (what she would have felt most) the knowledge of
+separation from us was spared her. I find these things a comfort indeed.
+
+I shall go away from Italy for many a year--to Paris, then London for a
+day or two just to talk with her sister--but if I can see you it will be
+a great satisfaction. Don't fancy I am 'prostrated', I have enough to do
+for the boy and myself in carrying out her wishes. He is better than one
+would have thought, and behaves dearly to me. Everybody has been very
+kind.
+
+Tell dear Mrs. Sartoris that I know her heart and thank her with all
+mine. After my day or two at London I shall go to some quiet place in
+France to get right again and then stay some time at Paris in order to
+find out leisurely what it will be best to do for Peni--but eventually I
+shall go to England, I suppose. I don't mean to live with anybody, even
+my own family, but to occupy myself thoroughly, seeing dear friends,
+however, like you. God bless you. Yours ever affectionately, Robert
+Browning.
+
+
+The second is addressed to Miss Haworth.
+
+
+Florence: July 20, 1861.
+
+My dear Friend,--I well know you feel as you say, for her once and for
+me now. Isa Blagden, perfect in all kindness to me, will have told you
+something perhaps--and one day I shall see you and be able to tell you
+myself as much as I can. The main comfort is that she suffered very
+little pain, none beside that ordinarily attending the simple attacks
+of cold and cough she was subject to--had no presentiment of the result
+whatever, and was consequently spared the misery of knowing she was
+about to leave us; she was smilingly assuring me she was 'better',
+'quite comfortable--if I would but come to bed,' to within a few minutes
+of the last. I think I foreboded evil at Rome, certainly from the
+beginning of the week's illness--but when I reasoned about it, there
+was no justifying fear--she said on the last evening 'it is merely the
+old attack, not so severe a one as that of two years ago--there is no
+doubt I shall soon recover,' and we talked over plans for the summer,
+and next year. I sent the servants away and her maid to bed--so little
+reason for disquietude did there seem. Through the night she slept
+heavily, and brokenly--that was the bad sign--but then she would sit
+up, take her medicine, say unrepeatable things to me and sleep again. At
+four o'clock there were symptoms that alarmed me, I called the maid and
+sent for the doctor. She smiled as I proposed to bathe her feet, 'Well,
+you _are_ determined to make an exaggerated case of it!' Then came what
+my heart will keep till I see her again and longer--the most perfect
+expression of her love to me within my whole knowledge of her. Always
+smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's--and in a few minutes
+she died in my arms; her head on my cheek. These incidents so sustain
+me that I tell them to her beloved ones as their right: there was no
+lingering, nor acute pain, nor consciousness of separation, but God took
+her to himself as you would lift a sleeping child from a dark, uneasy
+bed into your arms and the light. Thank God. Annunziata thought by her
+earnest ways with me, happy and smiling as they were, that she must have
+been aware of our parting's approach--but she was quite conscious, had
+words at command, and yet did not even speak of Peni, who was in
+the next room. Her last word was when I asked 'How do you feel?'
+--'Beautiful.' You know I have her dearest wishes and interests to
+attend to _at once_--her child to care for, educate, establish properly;
+and my own life to fulfil as properly,--all just as she would require
+were she here. I shall leave Italy altogether for years--go to London
+for a few days' talk with Arabel--then go to my father and begin to try
+leisurely what will be the best for Peni--but no more 'housekeeping'
+for me, even with my family. I shall grow, still, I hope--but my root is
+taken and remains.
+
+I know you always loved her, and me too in my degree. I shall always be
+grateful to those who loved her, and that, I repeat, you did.
+
+She was, and is, lamented with extraordinary demonstrations, if one
+consider it. The Italians seem to have understood her by an instinct.
+I have received strange kindness from everybody. Pen is very well--very
+dear and good, anxious to comfort me as he calls it. He can't know his
+loss yet. After years, his will be worse than mine--he will want what he
+never had--that is, for the time when he could be helped by her wisdom,
+and genius and piety--I _have_ had everything and shall not forget.
+
+God bless you, dear friend. I believe I shall set out in a week. Isa
+goes with me--dear, true heart. You, too, would do what you could for us
+were you here and your assistance needful. A letter from you came a day
+or two before the end--she made me enquire about the Frescobaldi Palace
+for you,--Isa wrote to you in consequence. I shall be heard of at 151,
+rue de Grenelle St. Germain. Faithfully and affectionately yours, Robert
+Browning.
+
+
+The first of these displays even more self-control, it might be thought
+less feeling, than the second; but it illustrates the reserve which, I
+believe, habitually characterized Mr. Browning's attitude towards men.
+His natural, and certainly most complete, confidants were women. At
+about the end of July he left Florence with his son; also accompanied by
+Miss Blagden, who travelled with them as far as Paris. She herself must
+soon have returned to Italy; since he wrote to her in September on the
+subject of his wife's provisional disinterment,* in a manner which shows
+her to have been on the spot.
+
+     * Required for the subsequent placing of the monument
+     designed by F. Leighton.
+
+
+Sept. '61.
+
+'. . . Isa, may I ask you one favour? Will you, whenever these dreadful
+preliminaries, the provisional removement &c. when they are proceeded
+with,--will you do--all you can--suggest every regard to decency and
+proper feeling to the persons concerned? I have a horror of that man
+of the grave-yard, and needless publicity and exposure--I rely on you,
+dearest friend of ours, to at least lend us your influence when the
+time shall come--a word may be invaluable. If there is any show made,
+or gratification of strangers' curiosity, far better that I had left
+the turf untouched. These things occur through sheer thoughtlessness,
+carelessness, not anything worse, but the effect is irreparable. I won't
+think any more of it--now--at least. . . .'
+
+
+The dread expressed in this letter of any offence to the delicacies of
+the occasion was too natural to be remarked upon here; but it connects
+itself with an habitual aversion for the paraphernalia of death, which
+was a marked peculiarity of Mr. Browning's nature. He shrank, as his
+wife had done, from the 'earth side' of the portentous change; but truth
+compels me to own that her infinite pity had little or no part in his
+attitude towards it. For him, a body from which the soul had passed,
+held nothing of the person whose earthly vesture it had been. He had no
+sympathy for the still human tenderness with which so many of us regard
+the mortal remains of those they have loved, or with the solemn or
+friendly interest in which that tenderness so often reflects itself in
+more neutral minds. He would claim all respect for the corpse, but he
+would turn away from it. Another aspect of this feeling shows itself in
+a letter to one of his brothers-in-law, Mr. George Moulton-Barrett, in
+reference to his wife's monument, with which Mr. Barrett had professed
+himself pleased. His tone is characterized by an almost religious
+reverence for the memory which that monument enshrines. He nevertheless
+writes:
+
+
+'I hope to see it one day--and, although I have no kind of concern as to
+where the old clothes of myself shall be thrown, yet, if my fortune be
+such, and my survivors be not unduly troubled, I should like them to lie
+in the place I have retained there. It is no matter, however.'
+
+
+The letter is dated October 19, 1866. He never saw Florence again.
+
+Mr. Browning spent two months with his father and sister at St.-Enogat,
+near Dinard, from which place the letter to Miss Blagden was written;
+and then proceeded to London, where his wife's sister, Miss Arabel
+Barrett, was living. He had declared in his first grief that he would
+never keep house again, and he began his solitary life in lodgings
+which at his request she had engaged for him; but the discomfort of this
+arrangement soon wearied him of it; and before many months had passed,
+he had sent to Florence for his furniture, and settled himself in the
+house in Warwick Crescent, which possessed, besides other advantages,
+that of being close to Delamere Terrace, where Miss Barrett had taken up
+her abode.
+
+This first period of Mr. Browning's widowed life was one of unutterable
+dreariness, in which the smallest and yet most unconquerable element was
+the prosaic ugliness of everything which surrounded him. It was fifteen
+years since he had spent a winter in England; he had never spent one in
+London. There had been nothing to break for him the transition from the
+stately beauty of Florence to the impressions and associations of the
+Harrow and Edgware Roads, and of Paddington Green. He might have
+escaped this neighbourhood by way of Westbourne Terrace; but his
+walks constantly led him in an easterly direction; and whether in an
+unconscious hugging of his chains, or, as was more probable, from the
+desire to save time, he would drag his aching heart and reluctant body
+through the sordidness or the squalor of this short cut, rather than
+seek the pleasanter thoroughfares which were open to him. Even the
+prettiness of Warwick Crescent was neutralized for him by the atmosphere
+of low or ugly life which encompassed it on almost every side. His
+haunting dream was one day to have done with it all; to have fulfilled
+his mission with his son, educated him, launched him in a suitable
+career, and to go back to sunshine and beauty again. He learned by
+degrees to regard London as a home; as the only fitting centre for the
+varied energies which were reviving in him; to feel pride and pleasure
+in its increasingly picturesque character. He even learned to appreciate
+the outlook from his house--that 'second from the bridge' of which so
+curious a presentment had entered into one of the poems of the 'Men and
+Women'*--in spite of the refuse of humanity which would sometimes yell
+at the street corner, or fling stones at his plate-glass. But all this
+had to come; and it is only fair to admit that twenty-nine years ago the
+beauties of which I have spoken were in great measure to come also. He
+could not then in any mood have exclaimed, as he did to a friend two or
+three years ago: 'Shall we not have a pretty London if things go on in
+this way?' They were driving on the Kensington side of Hyde Park.
+
+     * 'How it strikes a Contemporary'.
+
+The paternal duty, which, so much against his inclination, had
+established Mr. Browning in England, would in every case have lain very
+near to his conscience and to his heart; but it especially urged itself
+upon them through the absence of any injunction concerning it on his
+wife's part. No farewell words of hers had commended their child to his
+father's love and care; and though he may, for the moment, have imputed
+this fact to unconsciousness of her approaching death, his deeper
+insight soon construed the silence into an expression of trust, more
+binding upon him than the most earnest exacted promise could have been.
+The growing boy's education occupied a considerable part of his time and
+thoughts, for he had determined not to send him to school, but, as far
+as possible, himself prepare him for the University. He must also, in
+some degree, have supervised his recreations. He had therefore, for the
+present, little leisure for social distractions, and probably at first
+very little inclination for them. His plan of life and duty, and the
+sense of responsibility attendant on it, had been communicated to Madame
+du Quaire in a letter written also from St.-Enogat.
+
+
+M. Chauvin, St.-Enogat pres Dinard, Ile et Vilaine: Aug. 17, '61.
+
+Dear Madame du Quaire,--I got your note on Sunday afternoon, but found
+myself unable to call on you as I had been intending to do. Next morning
+I left for this place (near St.-Malo, but I give what they say is the
+proper address). I want first to beg you to forgive my withholding so
+long your little oval mirror--it is safe in Paris, and I am vexed at
+having stupidly forgotten to bring it when I tried to see you. I shall
+stay here till the autumn sets in, then return to Paris for a few
+days--the first of which will be the best, if I can see you in the
+course of it--afterward, I settle in London.
+
+When I meant to pass the winter in Paris, I hoped, the first thing
+almost, to be near you--it now seems to me, however, that the best
+course for the Boy is to begin a good English education at once. I shall
+take quiet lodgings (somewhere near Kensington Gardens, I rather
+think) and get a Tutor. I want, if I can (according to my present
+very imperfect knowledge) to get the poor little fellow fit for the
+University without passing thro' a Public School. I, myself, could never
+have done much by either process, but he is made differently--imitates
+and emulates and all that. How I should be grateful if you would help me
+by any word that should occur to you! I may easily do wrong, begin ill,
+thro' too much anxiety--perhaps, however, all may be easier than seems
+to me just now.
+
+I shall have a great comfort in talking to you--this writing is stiff,
+ineffectual work. Pen is very well, cheerful now,--has his little horse
+here. The place is singularly unspoiled, fresh and picturesque, and
+lovely to heart's content. I wish you were here!--and if you knew
+exactly what such a wish means, you would need no assuring in addition
+that I am Yours affectionately and gratefully ever Robert Browning.
+
+
+The person of whom he saw most was his sister-in-law, whom he visited, I
+believe, every evening. Miss Barrett had been a favourite sister of Mrs.
+Browning's, and this constituted a sufficient title to her husband's
+affection. But she was also a woman to be loved for her own sake. Deeply
+religious and very charitable, she devoted herself to visiting the
+poor--a form of philanthropy which was then neither so widespread nor so
+fashionable as it has since become; and she founded, in 1850, the first
+Training School or Refuge which had ever existed for destitute little
+girls. It need hardly be added that Mr. and Miss Browning co-operated in
+the work. The little poem, 'The Twins', republished in 1855 in 'Men and
+Women', was first printed (with Mrs. Browning's 'Plea for the Ragged
+Schools of London') for the benefit of this Refuge. It was in Miss
+Barrett's company that Mr. Browning used to attend the church of Mr.
+Thomas Jones, to a volume of whose 'Sermons and Addresses' he wrote a
+short introduction in 1884.
+
+On February 15, 1862, he writes again to Miss Blagden.
+
+
+Feb. 15, '62.
+
+'. . . While I write, my heart is sore for a great calamity just
+befallen poor Rossetti, which I only heard of last night--his wife, who
+had been, as an invalid, in the habit of taking laudanum, swallowed
+an overdose--was found by the poor fellow on his return from the
+working-men's class in the evening, under the effects of it--help was
+called in, the stomach-pump used; but she died in the night, about a
+week ago. There has hardly been a day when I have not thought, "if I
+can, to-morrow, I will go and see him, and thank him for his book, and
+return his sister's poems." Poor, dear fellow! . . .
+
+'. . . Have I not written a long letter, for me who hate the sight of
+a pen now, and see a pile of unanswered things on the table before me?
+--on this very table. Do you tell me in turn all about yourself. I shall
+be interested in the minutest thing you put down. What sort of weather
+is it? You cannot but be better at your new villa than in the large
+solitary one. There I am again, going up the winding way to it, and
+seeing the herbs in red flower, and the butterflies on the top of the
+wall under the olive-trees! Once more, good-bye. . . .'
+
+
+The hatred of writing of which he here speaks refers probably to the
+class of letters which he had lately been called upon to answer, and
+which must have been painful in proportion to the kindness by which
+they were inspired. But it returned to him many years later, in simple
+weariness of the mental and mechanical act, and with such force that he
+would often answer an unimportant note in person, rather than make the
+seemingly much smaller exertion of doing so with his pen. It was the
+more remarkable that, with the rarest exceptions, he replied to every
+letter which came to him.
+
+The late summer of the former year had been entirely unrefreshing, in
+spite of his acknowledgment of the charms of St.-Enogat. There was more
+distraction and more soothing in the stay at Cambo and Biarritz, which
+was chosen for the holiday of 1862. Years afterwards, when the thought
+of Italy carried with it less longing and even more pain, Mr. Browning
+would speak of a visit to the Pyrenees, if not a residence among them,
+as one of the restful possibilities of his later and freer life. He
+wrote to Miss Blagden:
+
+
+Biarritz, Maison Gastonbide: Sept. 19, '62.
+
+'. . . I stayed a month at green pleasant little Cambo, and then came
+here from pure inability to go elsewhere--St.-Jean de Luz, on which
+I had reckoned, being still fuller of Spaniards who profit by the new
+railway. This place is crammed with gay people of whom I see nothing
+but their outsides. The sea, sands, and view of the Spanish coast and
+mountains, are superb and this house is on the town's outskirts. I stay
+till the end of the month, then go to Paris, and then get my neck back
+into the old collar again. Pen has managed to get more enjoyment out of
+his holiday than seemed at first likely--there was a nice French family
+at Cambo with whom he fraternised, riding with the son and escorting
+the daughter in her walks. His red cheeks look as they should. For me, I
+have got on by having a great read at Euripides--the one book I brought
+with me, besides attending to my own matters, my new poem that is about
+to be; and of which the whole is pretty well in my head,--the Roman
+murder story you know.
+
+'. . . How I yearn, yearn for Italy at the close of my life! . . .'
+
+
+The 'Roman murder story' was, I need hardly say, to become 'The Ring and
+the Book'.
+
+It has often been told, though with curious confusion as regards the
+date, how Mr. Browning picked up the original parchment-bound record of
+the Franceschini case, on a stall of the Piazza San Lorenzo. We read
+in the first section of his own work that he plunged instantly into the
+study of this record; that he had mastered it by the end of the day; and
+that he then stepped out on to the terrace of his house amid the sultry
+blackness and silent lightnings of the June night, as the adjacent
+church of San Felice sent forth its chants, and voices buzzed in the
+street below,--and saw the tragedy as a living picture unfold itself
+before him. These were his last days at Casa Guidi. It was four years
+before he definitely began the work. The idea of converting the story
+into a poem cannot even have occurred to him for some little time, since
+he offered it for prose treatment to Miss Ogle, the author of 'A Lost
+Love'; and for poetic use, I am almost certain, to one of his leading
+contemporaries. It was this slow process of incubation which gave
+so much force and distinctness to his ultimate presentment of the
+characters; though it infused a large measure of personal imagination,
+and, as we shall see, of personal reminiscence, into their historical
+truth.
+
+Before 'The Ring and the Book' was actually begun, 'Dramatis Personae'
+and 'In a Balcony' were to be completed. Their production had been
+delayed during Mrs. Browning's lifetime, and necessarily interrupted by
+her death; but we hear of the work as progressing steadily during this
+summer of 1862.
+
+A painful subject of correspondence had been also for some time engaging
+Mr. Browning's thoughts and pen. A letter to Miss Blagden written
+January 19, '63, is so expressive of his continued attitude towards the
+questions involved that, in spite of its strong language, his family
+advise its publication. The name of the person referred to will alone be
+omitted.
+
+
+'. . . Ever since I set foot in England I have been pestered with
+applications for leave to write the Life of my wife--I have refused--and
+there an end. I have last week received two communications from friends,
+enclosing the letters of a certain . . . of . . ., asking them for
+details of life and letters, for a biography he is engaged in--adding,
+that he "has secured the correspondence with her old friend . . ." Think
+of this beast working away at this, not deeming my feelings or those of
+her family worthy of notice--and meaning to print letters written years
+and years ago, on the most intimate and personal subjects to an "old
+friend"--which, at the poor . . . [friend's] death fell into the hands
+of a complete stranger, who, at once wanted to print them, but desisted
+through Ba's earnest expostulation enforced by my own threat to take
+law proceedings--as fortunately letters are copyright. I find this woman
+died last year, and her son writes to me this morning that . . . got
+them from him as autographs merely--he will try and get them back. . . ,
+evidently a blackguard, got my letter, which gave him his deserts, on
+Saturday--no answer yet,--if none comes, I shall be forced to advertise
+in the 'Times', and obtain an injunction. But what I suffer in feeling
+the hands of these blackguards (for I forgot to say another man has been
+making similar applications to friends) what I undergo with their paws
+in my very bowels, you can guess, and God knows! No friend, of course,
+would ever give up the letters--if anybody ever is forced to do that
+which _she_ would have writhed under--if it ever _were_ necessary, why, _I_
+should be forced to do it, and, with any good to her memory and fame,
+my own pain in the attempt would be turned into joy--I should _do_ it at
+whatever cost: but it is not only unnecessary but absurdly useless--and,
+indeed, it shall not be done if I can stop the scamp's knavery along
+with his breath.
+
+'I am going to reprint the Greek Christian Poets and another
+essay--nothing that ought to be published shall be kept back,--and this
+she certainly intended to correct, augment, and re-produce--but _I_ open
+the doubled-up paper! Warn anyone you may think needs the warning of the
+utter distress in which I should be placed were this scoundrel, or
+any other of the sort, to baffle me and bring out the letters--I can't
+prevent fools from uttering their folly upon her life, as they do on
+every other subject, but the law protects property,--as these letters
+are. Only last week, or so, the Bishop of Exeter stopped the publication
+of an announced "Life"--containing extracts from his correspondence--and
+so I shall do. . . .'
+
+
+Mr. Browning only resented the exactions of modern biography in the
+same degree as most other right-minded persons; but there was, to
+his thinking, something specially ungenerous in dragging to light any
+immature or unconsidered utterance which the writer's later judgment
+would have disclaimed. Early work was always for him included in this
+category; and here it was possible to disagree with him; since the
+promise of genius has a legitimate interest from which no distance
+from its subsequent fulfilment can detract. But there could be no
+disagreement as to the rights and decencies involved in the present
+case; and, as we hear no more of the letters to Mr. . . ., we may
+perhaps assume that their intending publisher was acting in ignorance,
+but did not wish to act in defiance, of Mr. Browning's feeling in the
+matter.
+
+In the course of this year, 1863, Mr. Browning brought out, through
+Chapman and Hall, the still well-known and well-loved three-volume
+edition of his works, including 'Sordello', but again excluding
+'Pauline'. A selection of his poems which appeared somewhat earlier, if
+we may judge by the preface, dated November 1862, deserves mention as a
+tribute to friendship. The volume had been prepared by John Forster and
+Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall), 'two friends,' as the preface
+states, 'who from the first appearance of 'Paracelsus' have regarded its
+writer as among the few great poets of the century.' Mr. Browning had
+long before signalized his feeling for Barry Cornwall by the dedication
+of 'Colombe's Birthday'. He discharged the present debt to Mr. Procter,
+if such there was, by the attentions which he rendered to his infirm old
+age. For many years he visited him every Sunday, in spite of a deafness
+ultimately so complete that it was only possible to converse with him in
+writing. These visits were afterwards, at her urgent request, continued
+to Mr. Procter's widow.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 15
+
+1863-1869
+
+Pornic--'James Lee's Wife'--Meeting at Mr. F. Palgrave's--Letters to
+Miss Blagden--His own Estimate of his Work--His Father's Illness and
+Death; Miss Browning--Le Croisic--Academic Honours; Letter to the Master
+of Balliol--Death of Miss Barrett--Audierne--Uniform Edition of his
+Works--His rising Fame--'Dramatis Personae'--'The Ring and the Book';
+Character of Pompilia.
+
+
+
+The most constant contributions to Mr. Browning's history are supplied
+during the next eight or nine years by extracts from his letters to Miss
+Blagden. Our next will be dated from Ste.-Marie, near Pornic, where he
+and his family again spent their holiday in 1864 and 1865. Some idea
+of the life he led there is given at the close of a letter to Frederic
+Leighton, August 17, 1863, in which he says:
+
+
+'I live upon milk and fruit, bathe daily, do a good morning's work, read
+a little with Pen and somewhat more by myself, go to bed early, and get
+up earlyish--rather liking it all.'
+
+
+This mention of a diet of milk and fruit recalls a favourite habit of
+Mr. Browning's: that of almost renouncing animal food whenever he went
+abroad. It was partly promoted by the inferior quality of foreign meat,
+and showed no sign of specially agreeing with him, at all events in his
+later years, when he habitually returned to England looking thinner and
+more haggard than before he left it. But the change was always congenial
+to his taste.
+
+A fuller picture of these simple, peaceful, and poetic Pornic days comes
+to us through Miss Blagden, August 18:
+
+
+'. . . This is a wild little place in Brittany, something like that
+village where we stayed last year. Close to the sea--a hamlet of a dozen
+houses, perfectly lonely--one may walk on the edge of the low rocks by
+the sea for miles. Our house is the Mayor's, large enough, clean and
+bare. If I could, I would stay just as I am for many a day. I feel out
+of the very earth sometimes as I sit here at the window; with the little
+church, a field, a few houses, and the sea. On a weekday there is nobody
+in the village, plenty of hay-stacks, cows and fowls; all our butter,
+eggs, milk, are produced in the farm-house. Such a soft sea, and such a
+mournful wind!
+
+'I wrote a poem yesterday of 120 lines, and mean to keep writing whether
+I like it or not. . . .'
+
+
+That 'window' was the 'Doorway' in 'James Lee's Wife'. The sea, the
+field, and the fig-tree were visible from it.
+
+A long interval in the correspondence, at all events so far as we are
+concerned, carries us to the December of 1864, and then Mr. Browning
+wrote:
+
+
+'. . . on the other hand, I feel such comfort and delight in doing the
+best I can with my own object of life, poetry--which, I think, I never
+could have seen the good of before, that it shows me I have taken the
+root I _did_ take, _well_. I hope to do much more yet--and that the
+flower of it will be put into Her hand somehow. I really have great
+opportunities and advantages--on the whole, almost unprecedented ones--I
+think, no other disturbances and cares than those I am most grateful for
+being allowed to have. . . .'
+
+
+One of our very few written reminiscences of Mr. Browning's social life
+refers to this year, 1864, and to the evening, February 12, on which
+he signed his will in the presence of Mr. Francis Palgrave and Alfred
+Tennyson. It is inscribed in the diary of Mr. Thomas Richmond, then
+chaplain to St. George's Hospital; and Mr. Reginald Palgrave has kindly
+procured me a copy of it. A brilliant party had met at dinner at the
+house of Mr. F. Palgrave, York Gate, Regent's Park; Mr. Richmond, having
+fulfilled a prior engagement, had joined it later. 'There were, in
+order,' he says, 'round the dinner-table (dinner being over), Gifford
+Palgrave, Tennyson, Dr. John Ogle, Sir Francis H. Doyle, Frank Palgrave,
+W. E. Gladstone, Browning, Sir John Simeon, Monsignor Patterson,
+Woolner, and Reginald Palgrave.'
+
+Mr. Richmond closes his entry by saying he will never forget that
+evening. The names of those whom it had brought together, almost all to
+be sooner or later numbered among the Poet's friends, were indeed
+enough to stamp it as worthy of recollection. One or two characteristic
+utterances of Mr. Browning are, however, the only ones which it
+seems advisable to repeat here. The conversation having turned on the
+celebration of the Shakespeare ter-centenary, he said: 'Here we are
+called upon to acknowledge Shakespeare, we who have him in our very
+bones and blood, our very selves. The very recognition of Shakespeare's
+merits by the Committee reminds me of nothing so apt as an illustration,
+as the decree of the Directoire that men might acknowledge God.'
+
+Among the subjects discussed was the advisability of making schoolboys
+write English verses as well as Latin and Greek. 'Woolner and Sir
+Francis Doyle were for this; Gladstone and Browning against it.'
+
+Work had now found its fitting place in the Poet's life. It was no
+longer the overflow of an irresistible productive energy; it was the
+deliberate direction of that energy towards an appointed end. We hear
+something of his own feeling concerning this in a letter of August '65,
+again from Ste.-Marie, and called forth by some gossip concerning him
+which Miss Blagden had connected with his then growing fame.
+
+
+'. . . I suppose that what you call "my fame within these four years"
+comes from a little of this gossiping and going about, and showing
+myself to be alive: and so indeed some folks say--but I hardly think it:
+for remember I was uninterruptedly (almost) in London from the time
+I published 'Paracelsus' till I ended that string of plays with
+'Luria'--and I used to go out then, and see far more of merely literary
+people, critics &c. than I do now,--but what came of it? There were
+always a few people who had a certain opinion of my poems, but nobody
+cared to speak what he thought, or the things printed twenty-five years
+ago would not have waited so long for a good word; but at last a new set
+of men arrive who don't mind the conventionalities of ignoring one and
+seeing everything in another--Chapman says, "the new orders come from
+Oxford and Cambridge," and all my new cultivators are young men--more
+than that, I observe that some of my old friends don't like at all
+the irruption of outsiders who rescue me from their sober and private
+approval, and take those words out of their mouths "which they always
+meant to say" and never did. When there gets to be a general feeling of
+this kind, that there must be something in the works of an author, the
+reviews are obliged to notice him, such notice as it is--but what poor
+work, even when doing its best! I mean poor in the failure to give a
+general notion of the whole works; not a particular one of such and
+such points therein. As I begun, so I shall end,--taking my own course,
+pleasing myself or aiming at doing so, and thereby, I hope, pleasing
+God.
+
+'As I never did otherwise, I never had any fear as to what I did going
+ultimately to the bad,--hence in collected editions I always reprinted
+everything, smallest and greatest. Do you ever see, by the way, the
+numbers of the selection which Moxons publish? They are exclusively
+poems omitted in that other selection by Forster; it seems little use
+sending them to you, but when they are completed, if they give me a
+few copies, you shall have one if you like. Just before I left London,
+Macmillan was anxious to print a third selection, for his Golden
+Treasury, which should of course be different from either--but _three_
+seem too absurd. There--enough of me--
+
+'I certainly will do my utmost to make the most of my poor self before
+I die; for one reason, that I may help old Pen the better; I was
+much struck by the kind ways, and interest shown in me by the Oxford
+undergraduates,--those introduced to me by Jowett.--I am sure they would
+be the more helpful to my son. So, good luck to my great venture, the
+murder-poem, which I do hope will strike you and all good lovers of
+mine. . . .'
+
+
+We cannot wonder at the touch of bitterness with which Mr. Browning
+dwells on the long neglect which he had sustained; but it is at first
+sight difficult to reconcile this high positive estimate of the value of
+his poetry with the relative depreciation of his own poetic genius which
+constantly marks his attitude towards that of his wife. The facts
+are, however, quite compatible. He regarded Mrs. Browning's genius as
+greater, because more spontaneous, than his own: owing less to life and
+its opportunities; but he judged his own work as the more important,
+because of the larger knowledge of life which had entered into its
+production. He was wrong in the first terms of his comparison: for he
+underrated the creative, hence spontaneous element in his own nature,
+while claiming primarily the position of an observant thinker; and he
+overrated the amount of creativeness implied by the poetry of his wife.
+He failed to see that, given her intellectual endowments, and the lyric
+gift, the characteristics of her genius were due to circumstances as
+much as those of his own. Actual life is not the only source of poetic
+inspiration, though it may perhaps be the best. Mrs. Browning as a poet
+became what she was, not in spite of her long seclusion, but by help of
+it. A touching paragraph, bearing upon this subject, is dated October
+'65.
+
+
+'. . . Another thing. I have just been making a selection of Ba's poems
+which is wanted--how I have done it, I can hardly say--it is one dear
+delight to know that the work of her goes on more effectually than
+ever--her books are more and more read--certainly, sold. A new edition
+of Aurora Leigh is completely exhausted within this year. . . .'
+
+
+Of the thing next dearest to his memory, his Florentine home, he had
+written in the January of this year:
+
+
+'. . . Yes, Florence will never be _my_ Florence again. To build over or
+beside Poggio seems barbarous and inexcusable. The Fiesole side don't
+matter. Are they going to pull the old walls down, or any part of them,
+I want to know? Why can't they keep the old city as a nucleus and build
+round and round it, as many rings of houses as they please,--framing the
+picture as deeply as they please? Is Casa Guidi to be turned into any
+Public Office? I should think that its natural destination. If I am at
+liberty to flee away one day, it will not be to Florence, I dare say.
+As old Philipson said to me once of Jerusalem--"No, I don't want to go
+there,--I can see it in my head." . . . Well, goodbye, dearest Isa. I
+have been for a few minutes--nay, a good many,--so really with you in
+Florence that it would be no wonder if you heard my steps up the lane to
+your house. . . .'
+
+
+Part of a letter written in the September of '65 from Ste.-Marie may be
+interesting as referring to the legend of Pornic included in 'Dramatis
+Personae'.
+
+
+'. . . I suppose my "poem" which you say brings me and Pornic together
+in your mind, is the one about the poor girl--if so, "fancy" (as I
+hear you say) they have pulled down the church since I arrived last
+month--there are only the shell-like, roofless walls left, for a few
+weeks more; it was very old--built on a natural base of rock--small
+enough, to be sure--so they build a smart new one behind it, and down
+goes this; just as if they could not have pitched down their brick
+and stucco farther away, and left the old place for the fishermen--so
+here--the church is even more picturesque--and certain old Norman
+ornaments, capitals of pillars and the like, which we left erect in the
+doorway, are at this moment in a heap of rubbish by the road-side. The
+people here are good, stupid and dirty, without a touch of the sense of
+picturesqueness in their clodpolls. . . .'
+
+
+The little record continues through 1866.
+
+
+Feb. 19, '66.
+
+'. . . I go out a great deal; but have enjoyed nothing so much as a
+dinner last week with Tennyson, who, with his wife and one son, is
+staying in town for a few weeks,--and she is just what she was and
+always will be--very sweet and dear: he seems to me better than ever. I
+met him at a large party on Saturday--also Carlyle, whom I never met at
+a "drum" before. . . . Pen is drawing our owl--a bird that is the light
+of our house, for his tameness and engaging ways. . . .'
+
+
+
+May 19, '66.
+
+'. . . My father has been unwell,--he is better and will go into
+the country the moment the east winds allow,--for in Paris,--as
+here,--there is a razor wrapped up in the flannel of sunshine. I hope to
+hear presently from my sister, and will tell you if a letter comes: he
+is eighty-five, almost,--you see! otherwise his wonderful constitution
+would keep me from inordinate apprehension. His mind is absolutely as
+I always remember it,--and the other day when I wanted some information
+about a point of mediaeval history, he wrote a regular bookful of notes
+and extracts thereabout. . . .'
+
+
+
+June 20, '66.
+
+'My dearest Isa, I was telegraphed for to Paris last week, and arrived
+time enough to pass twenty-four hours more with my father: he died on
+the 14th--quite exhausted by internal haemorrhage, which would have
+overcome a man of thirty. He retained all his faculties to the last--was
+utterly indifferent to death,--asking with surprise what it was we were
+affected about since he was perfectly happy?--and kept his own strange
+sweetness of soul to the end--nearly his last words to me, as I was
+fanning him, were "I am so afraid that I fatigue you, dear!" this, while
+his sufferings were great; for the strength of his constitution seemed
+impossible to be subdued. He wanted three weeks exactly to complete his
+eighty-fifth year. So passed away this good, unworldly, kind-hearted,
+religious man, whose powers natural and acquired would so easily have
+made him a notable man, had he known what vanity or ambition or the
+love of money or social influence meant. As it is, he was known by
+half-a-dozen friends. He was worthy of being Ba's father--out of the
+whole world, only he, so far as my experience goes. She loved him,--and
+_he_ said, very recently, while gazing at her portrait, that only that
+picture had put into his head that there might be such a thing as the
+worship of the images of saints. My sister will come and live with
+me henceforth. You see what she loses. All her life has been spent in
+caring for my mother, and seventeen years after that, my father. You may
+be sure she does not rave and rend hair like people who have plenty to
+atone for in the past; but she loses very much. I returned to London
+last night. . . .'
+
+
+During his hurried journey to Paris, Mr. Browning was mentally blessing
+the Emperor for having abolished the system of passports, and thus
+enabled him to reach his father's bedside in time. His early Italian
+journeys had brought him some vexatious experience of the old order of
+things. Once, at Venice, he had been mistaken for a well-known Liberal,
+Dr. Bowring, and found it almost impossible to get his passport 'vise';
+and, on another occasion, it aroused suspicion by being 'too good';
+though in what sense I do not quite remember.
+
+Miss Browning did come to live with her brother, and was thenceforward
+his inseparable companion. Her presence with him must therefore be
+understood wherever I have had no special reason for mentioning it.
+
+They tried Dinard for the remainder of the summer; but finding it
+unsuitable, proceeded by St.-Malo to Le Croisic, the little sea-side
+town of south-eastern Brittany which two of Mr. Browning's poems have
+since rendered famous.
+
+The following extract has no date.
+
+
+Le Croisic, Loire Inferieure.
+
+'. . . We all found Dinard unsuitable, and after staying a few days at
+St. Malo resolved to try this place, and well for us, since it serves
+our purpose capitally. . . . We are in the most delicious and peculiar
+old house I ever occupied, the oldest in the town--plenty of great
+rooms--nearly as much space as in Villa Alberti. The little town, and
+surrounding country are wild and primitive, even a trifle beyond Pornic
+perhaps. Close by is Batz, a village where the men dress in white from
+head to foot, with baggy breeches, and great black flap hats;--opposite
+is Guerande, the old capital of Bretagne: you have read about it in
+Balzac's 'Beatrix',--and other interesting places are near. The sea is
+all round our peninsula, and on the whole I expect we shall like it very
+much. . . .'
+
+Later.
+
+'. . . We enjoyed Croisic increasingly to the last--spite of three
+weeks' vile weather, in striking contrast to the golden months at Pornic
+last year. I often went to Guerande--once Sarianna and I walked from it
+in two hours and something under,--nine miles:--though from our house,
+straight over the sands and sea, it is not half the distance. . . .'
+
+
+In 1867 Mr. Browning received his first and greatest academic honours.
+The M.A. degree by diploma, of the University of Oxford, was conferred
+on him in June;* and in the month of October he was made honorary Fellow
+of Balliol College. Dr. Jowett allows me to publish the, as he terms it,
+very characteristic letter in which he acknowledged the distinction. Dr.
+Scott, afterwards Dean of Rochester, was then Master of Balliol.
+
+     * 'Not a lower degree than that of D.C.L., but a much higher
+     honour, hardly given since Dr. Johnson's time except to
+     kings and royal personages. . . .'  So the Keeper of the
+     Archives wrote to Mr. Browning at the time.
+
+
+19, Warwick Crescent: Oct. 21, '67.
+
+Dear Dr. Scott,--I am altogether unable to say how I feel as to the
+fact you communicate to me. I must know more intimately than you can how
+little worthy I am of such an honour,--you hardly can set the value of
+that honour, you who give, as I who take it.
+
+Indeed, there _are_ both 'duties and emoluments' attached to this
+position,--duties of deep and lasting gratitude, and emoluments through
+which I shall be wealthy my life long. I have at least loved learning
+and the learned, and there needed no recognition of my love on their
+part to warrant my professing myself, as I do, dear Dr. Scott, yours
+ever most faithfully, Robert Browning.
+
+
+In the following year he received and declined the virtual offer of the
+Lord Rectorship of the University of St. Andrews, rendered vacant by the
+death of Mr. J. S. Mill.
+
+He returned with his sister to Le Croisic for the summer of 1867.
+
+In June 1868, Miss Arabel Barrett died, of a rheumatic affection of
+the heart. As did her sister seven years before, she passed away in
+Mr. Browning's arms. He wrote the event to Miss Blagden as soon as it
+occurred, describing also a curious circumstance attendant on it.
+
+
+19th June, '68.
+
+'. . . You know I am not superstitious--here is a note I made in a book,
+Tuesday, July 21, 1863. "Arabel told me yesterday that she had been much
+agitated by a dream which happened the night before, Sunday, July
+19. She saw Her and asked 'when shall I be with you?' the reply was,
+'Dearest, in five years,' whereupon Arabella woke. She knew in her dream
+that it was not to the living she spoke."--In five years, within a
+month of their completion--I had forgotten the date of the dream, and
+supposed it was only three years ago, and that two had still to run.
+Only a coincidence, but noticeable. . . .'
+
+
+In August he writes again from Audierne, Finisterre (Brittany).
+
+
+'. . . You never heard of this place, I daresay. After staying a
+few days at Paris we started for Rennes,--reached Caen and halted a
+little--thence made for Auray, where we made excursions to Carnac,
+Lokmariaker, and Ste.-Anne d'Auray; all very interesting of their kind;
+then saw Brest, Morlaix, St.-Pol de Leon, and the sea-port Roscoff,--our
+intended bathing place--it was full of folk, however, and otherwise
+impracticable, so we had nothing for it, but to "rebrousser chemin" and
+get to the south-west again. At Quimper we heard (for a second time)
+that Audierne would suit us exactly, and to it we came--happily, for
+"suit" it certainly does. Look on the map for the most westerly point
+of Bretagne--and of the mainland of Europe--there is niched Audierne, a
+delightful quite unspoiled little fishing-town, with the open ocean in
+front, and beautiful woods, hills and dales, meadows and lanes behind
+and around,--sprinkled here and there with villages each with its fine
+old Church. Sarianna and I have just returned from a four hours' walk
+in the course of which we visited a town, Pont Croix, with a beautiful
+cathedral-like building amid the cluster of clean bright Breton
+houses,--and a little farther is another church, "Notre Dame de
+Comfort", with only a hovel or two round it, worth the journey from
+England to see; we are therefore very well off--at an inn, I should say,
+with singularly good, kind, and liberal people, so have no cares for the
+moment. May you be doing as well! The weather has been most propitious,
+and to-day is perfect to a wish. We bathe, but somewhat ingloriously, in
+a smooth creek of mill-pond quietude, (there being no cabins on the bay
+itself,) unlike the great rushing waves of Croisic--the water is much
+colder. . . .'
+
+
+The tribute contained in this letter to the merits of le Pere
+Batifoulier and his wife would not, I think, be endorsed by the few
+other English travellers who have stayed at their inn. The writer's
+own genial and kindly spirit no doubt partly elicited, and still more
+supplied, the qualities he saw in them.
+
+The six-volume, so long known as 'uniform' edition of Mr. Browning's
+works, was brought out in the autumn of this year by Messrs. Smith,
+Elder & Co.; practically Mr. George Murray Smith, who was to be
+thenceforward his exclusive publisher and increasingly valued friend. In
+the winter months appeared the first two volumes (to be followed in the
+ensuing spring by the third and fourth) of 'The Ring and the Book'.
+
+With 'The Ring and the Book' Mr. Browning attained the full recognition
+of his genius. The 'Athenaeum' spoke of it as the 'opus magnum' of
+the generation; not merely beyond all parallel the supremest poetic
+achievement of the time, but the most precious and profound spiritual
+treasure that England had produced since the days of Shakespeare.
+His popularity was yet to come, so also the widespread reading of his
+hitherto neglected poems; but henceforth whatever he published was sure
+of ready acceptance, of just, if not always enthusiastic, appreciation.
+The ground had not been gained at a single leap. A passage in another
+letter to Miss Blagden shows that, when 'The Ring and the Book'
+appeared, a high place was already awaiting it outside those higher
+academic circles in which its author's position was secured.
+
+
+'. . . I want to get done with my poem. Booksellers are making me pretty
+offers for it. One sent to propose, last week, to publish it at his
+risk, giving me _all_ the profits, and pay me the whole in advance--"for
+the incidental advantages of my name"--the R. B. who for six months
+once did not sell one copy of the poems! I ask 200 Pounds for the sheets
+to America, and shall get it. . . .'
+
+
+His presence in England had doubtless stimulated the public interest
+in his productions; and we may fairly credit 'Dramatis Personae' with
+having finally awakened his countrymen of all classes to the fact that a
+great creative power had arisen among them. 'The Ring and the Book'
+and 'Dramatis Personae' cannot indeed be dissociated in what was the
+culminating moment in the author's poetic life, even more than
+the zenith of his literary career. In their expression of all that
+constituted the wide range and the characteristic quality of his genius,
+they at once support and supplement each other. But a fact of more
+distinctive biographical interest connects itself exclusively with the
+later work.
+
+We cannot read the emotional passages of 'The Ring and the Book' without
+hearing in them a voice which is not Mr. Browning's own: an echo, not
+of his past, but from it. The remembrance of that past must have
+accompanied him through every stage of the great work. Its subject had
+come to him in the last days of his greatest happiness. It had lived
+with him, though in the background of consciousness, through those of
+his keenest sorrow. It was his refuge in that aftertime, in which a
+subsiding grief often leaves a deeper sense of isolation. He knew the
+joy with which his wife would have witnessed the diligent performance
+of this his self-imposed task. The beautiful dedication contained in the
+first and last books was only a matter of course. But Mrs. Browning's
+spiritual presence on this occasion was more than a presiding memory of
+the heart. I am convinced that it entered largely into the conception
+of 'Pompilia', and, so far as this depended on it, the character of the
+whole work. In the outward course of her history, Mr. Browning proceeded
+strictly on the ground of fact. His dramatic conscience would not have
+allowed it otherwise. He had read the record of the case, as he has
+been heard to say, fully eight times over before converting it into the
+substance of his poem; and the form in which he finally cast it, was
+that which recommended itself to him as true--which, within certain
+limits, _was_ true. The testimony of those who watched by Pompilia's
+death-bed is almost conclusive as to the absence of any criminal motive
+to her flight, or criminal circumstance connected with it. Its time
+proved itself to have been that of her impending, perhaps newly expected
+motherhood, and may have had some reference to this fact. But the real
+Pompilia was a simple child, who lived in bodily terror of her husband,
+and had made repeated efforts to escape from him. Unless my memory much
+deceives me, her physical condition plays no part in the historical
+defence of her flight. If it appeared there at all, it was as a merely
+practical incentive to her striving to place herself in safety. The
+sudden rapturous sense of maternity which, in the poetic rendering of
+the case, becomes her impulse to self-protection, was beyond her age
+and her culture; it was not suggested by the facts; and, what is more
+striking, it was not a natural development of Mr. Browning's imagination
+concerning them.
+
+The parental instinct was among the weakest in his nature--a fact which
+renders the more conspicuous his devotion to his own son; it finds
+little or no expression in his work. The apotheosis of motherhood which
+he puts forth through the aged priest in 'Ivan Ivanovitch' was due to
+the poetic necessity of lifting a ghastly human punishment into the
+sphere of Divine retribution. Even in the advancing years which
+soften the father into the grandfather, the essential quality of early
+childhood was not that which appealed to him. He would admire its
+flower-like beauty, but not linger over it. He had no special emotion
+for its helplessness. When he was attracted by a child it was through
+the evidence of something not only distinct from, but opposed to this.
+'It is the soul' (I see) 'in that speck of a body,' he said, not many
+years ago, of a tiny boy--now too big for it to be desirable that I
+should mention his name, but whose mother, if she reads this, will know
+to whom I allude--who had delighted him by an act of intelligent grace
+which seemed beyond his years. The ingenuously unbounded maternal pride,
+the almost luscious maternal sentiment, of Pompilia's dying moments
+can only associate themselves in our mind with Mrs. Browning's personal
+utterances, and some notable passages in 'Casa Guidi Windows'
+and 'Aurora Leigh'. Even the exalted fervour of the invocation to
+Caponsacchi, its blending of spiritual ecstasy with half-realized
+earthly emotion, has, I think, no parallel in her husband's work.
+
+'Pompilia' bears, still, unmistakably, the stamp of her author's genius.
+Only he could have imagined her peculiar form of consciousness; her
+childlike, wondering, yet subtle, perception of the anomalies of life.
+He has raised the woman in her from the typical to the individual by
+this distinguishing touch of his supreme originality; and thus infused
+into her character a haunting pathos which renders it to many readers
+the most exquisite in the whole range of his creations. For others
+at the same time, it fails in the impressiveness because it lacks the
+reality which habitually marks them.
+
+So much, however, is certain: Mr. Browning would never have accepted
+this 'murder story' as the subject of a poem, if he could not in some
+sense have made it poetical. It was only in an idealized Pompilia that
+the material for such a process could be found. We owe it, therefore, to
+the one departure from his usual mode of dramatic conception, that the
+Poet's masterpiece has been produced. I know no other instance of what
+can be even mistaken for reflected inspiration in the whole range of his
+work, the given passages in 'Pauline' excepted.
+
+The postscript of a letter to Frederic Leighton written so far back as
+October 17, 1864, is interesting in its connection with the preliminary
+stages of this great undertaking.
+
+
+'A favour, if you have time for it. Go into the church St. Lorenzo in
+Lucina in the Corso--and look attentively at it--so as to describe it
+to me on your return. The general arrangement of the building, if with a
+nave--pillars or not--the number of altars, and any particularity there
+may be--over the High Altar is a famous Crucifixion by Guido. It will be
+of great use to me. I don't care about the _outsid_.'
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 16
+
+1869-1873
+
+Lord Dufferin; Helen's Tower--Scotland; Visit to Lady Ashburton--Letters
+to Miss Blagden--St.-Aubin; The Franco-Prussian War--'Herve
+Riel'--Letter to Mr. G. M. Smith--'Balaustion's Adventure'; 'Prince
+Hohenstiel-Schwangau'--'Fifine at the Fair'--Mistaken Theories of Mr.
+Browning's Work--St.-Aubin; 'Red Cotton Nightcap Country'.
+
+
+
+From 1869 to 1871 Mr. Browning published nothing; but in April 1870
+he wrote the sonnet called 'Helen's Tower', a beautiful tribute to the
+memory of Helen, mother of Lord Dufferin, suggested by the memorial
+tower which her son was erecting to her on his estate at Clandeboye. The
+sonnet appeared in 1883, in the 'Pall Mall Gazette', and was reprinted
+in 1886, in 'Sonnets of the Century', edited by Mr. Sharp; and again
+in the fifth part of the Browning Society's 'Papers'; but it is still I
+think sufficiently little known to justify its reproduction.
+
+     Who hears of Helen's Tower may dream perchance
+     How the Greek Beauty from the Scaean Gate
+     Gazed on old friends unanimous in hate,
+     Death-doom'd because of her fair countenance.
+
+     Hearts would leap otherwise at thy advance,
+     Lady, to whom this Tower is consecrate!
+     Like hers, thy face once made all eyes elate,
+     Yet, unlike hers, was bless'd by every glance.
+
+     The Tower of Hate is outworn, far and strange;
+     A transitory shame of long ago;
+     It dies into the sand from which it sprang;
+     But thine, Love's rock-built Tower, shall fear no change.
+     God's self laid stable earth's foundations so,
+     When all the morning-stars together sang.
+
+April 26, 1870.
+
+
+Lord Dufferin is a warm admirer of Mr. Browning's genius. He also held
+him in strong personal regard.
+
+In the summer of 1869 the poet, with his sister and son, changed the
+manner of his holiday, by joining Mr. Story and his family in a tour in
+Scotland, and a visit to Louisa, Lady Ashburton, at Loch Luichart Lodge;
+but in the August of 1870 he was again in the primitive atmosphere of a
+French fishing village, though one which had little to recommend it but
+the society of a friend; it was M. Milsand's St.-Aubin. He had written,
+February 24, to Miss Blagden, under the one inspiration which naturally
+recurred in his correspondence with her.
+
+
+'. . . So you, too, think of Naples for an eventual resting-place! Yes,
+that is the proper basking-ground for "bright and aged snakes." Florence
+would be irritating, and, on the whole, insufferable--Yet I never hear
+of any one going thither but my heart is twitched. There is a good,
+charming, little singing German lady, Miss Regan, who told me the other
+day that she was just about revisiting her aunt, Madame Sabatier, whom
+you may know, or know of--and I felt as if I should immensely like to
+glide, for a long summer-day through the streets and between the old
+stone-walls,--unseen come and unheard go--perhaps by some miracle, I
+shall do so--and look up at Villa Brichieri as Arnold's Gypsy-Scholar
+gave one wistful look at "the line of festal light in Christ Church
+Hall," before he went to sleep in some forgotten grange. . . . I am so
+glad I can be comfortable in your comfort. I fancy exactly how you feel
+and see how you live: it _is_ the Villa Geddes of old days, I find. I well
+remember the fine view from the upper room--that looking down the steep
+hill, by the side of which runs the road you describe--that path was
+always my preferred walk, for its shortness (abruptness) and the fine
+old wall to your left (from the Villa) which is overgrown with weeds and
+wild flowers--violets and ground-ivy, I remember. Oh, me! to find
+myself some late sunshiny Sunday afternoon, with my face turned to
+Florence--"ten minutes to the gate, ten minutes _home_!" I think I should
+fairly end it all on the spot. . . .'
+
+
+He writes again from St.-Aubin, August 19, 1870:
+
+
+'Dearest Isa,--Your letter came prosperously to this little wild place,
+where we have been, Sarianna and myself, just a week. Milsand lives in a
+cottage with a nice bit of garden, two steps off, and we occupy another
+of the most primitive kind on the sea-shore--which shore is a good sandy
+stretch for miles and miles on either side. I don't think we were ever
+quite so thoroughly washed by the sea-air from all quarters as here--the
+weather is fine, and we do well enough. The sadness of the war and its
+consequences go far to paralyse all our pleasure, however. . . .
+
+'Well, you are at Siena--one of the places I love best to remember. You
+are returned--or I would ask you to tell me how the Villa Alberti wears,
+and if the fig-tree behind the house is green and strong yet. I have
+a pen-and-ink drawing of it, dated and signed the last day Ba was ever
+there--"my fig tree--" she used to sit under it, reading and writing.
+Nine years, or ten rather, since then! Poor old Landor's oak, too,
+and his cottage, ought not to be forgotten. Exactly opposite this
+house,--just over the way of the water,--shines every night the
+light-house of Havre--a place I know well, and love very moderately:
+but it always gives me a thrill as I see afar, _exactly_ a particular spot
+which I was at along with her. At this moment, I see the white streak of
+the phare in the sun, from the window where I write and I _think_. . . .
+Milsand went to Paris last week, just before we arrived, to transport
+his valuables to a safer place than his house, which is near the
+fortifications. He is filled with as much despondency as can be--while
+the old dear and perfect kindness remains. I never knew or shall know
+his like among men. . . .'
+
+
+The war did more than sadden Mr. and Miss Browning's visit to St.-Aubin;
+it opposed unlooked-for difficulties to their return home. They had
+remained, unconscious of the impending danger, till Sedan had been
+taken, the Emperor's downfall proclaimed, and the country suddenly
+placed in a state of siege. One morning M. Milsand came to them in
+anxious haste, and insisted on their starting that very day. An order,
+he said, had been issued that no native should leave the country, and
+it only needed some unusually thick-headed Maire for Mr. Browning to be
+arrested as a runaway Frenchman or a Prussian spy. The usual passenger
+boats from Calais and Boulogne no longer ran; but there was, he
+believed, a chance of their finding one at Havre. They acted on this
+warning, and discovered its wisdom in the various hindrances which they
+found on their way. Everywhere the horses had been requisitioned for the
+war. The boat on which they had relied to take them down the river
+to Caen had been stopped that very morning; and when they reached the
+railroad they were told that the Prussians would be at the other end
+before night. At last they arrived at Honfleur, where they found an
+English vessel which was about to convey cattle to Southampton; and in
+this, setting out at midnight, they made their passage to England.
+
+Some words addressed to Miss Blagden, written I believe in 1871, once
+more strike a touching familiar note.
+
+
+'. . . But _no_, dearest Isa. The simple truth is that _she_ was the poet,
+and I the clever person by comparison--remember her limited experience
+of all kinds, and what she made of it. Remember on the other hand, how
+my uninterrupted health and strength and practice with the world have
+helped me. . . .'
+
+
+'Balaustion's Adventure' and 'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' were
+published, respectively, in August and December 1871. They had been
+preceded in the March of the same year by a ballad, 'Herve Riel',
+afterwards reprinted in the 'Pacchiarotto' volume, and which Mr.
+Browning now sold to the 'Cornhill Magazine' for the benefit of the
+French sufferers by the war.
+
+The circumstances of this little transaction, unique in Mr. Browning's
+experience, are set forth in the following letter:
+
+
+Feb. 4, '71.
+
+'My dear Smith,--I want to give something to the people in Paris, and
+can afford so very little just now, that I am forced upon an expedient.
+Will you buy of me that poem which poor Simeon praised in a letter
+you saw, and which I like better than most things I have done of
+late?--Buy,--I mean,--the right of printing it in the Pall Mall and,
+if you please, the Cornhill also,--the copyright remaining with me. You
+remember you wanted to print it in the Cornhill, and I was obstinate:
+there is hardly any occasion on which I should be otherwise, if the
+printing any poem of mine in a magazine were purely for my own sake: so,
+any liberality you exercise will not be drawn into a precedent against
+you. I fancy this is a case in which one may handsomely puff one's own
+ware, and I venture to call my verses good for once. I send them to
+you directly, because expedition will render whatever I contribute more
+valuable: for when you make up your mind as to how liberally I shall be
+enabled to give, you must send me a cheque and I will send the same as
+the "Product of a Poem"--so that your light will shine deservedly. Now,
+begin proceedings by reading the poem to Mrs. Smith,--by whose judgment
+I will cheerfully be bound; and, with her approval, second my endeavour
+as best you can. Would,--for the love of France,--that this were a "Song
+of a Wren"--then should the guineas equal the lines; as it is, do what
+you safely may for the song of a Robin--Browning--who is yours very
+truly, into the bargain.
+
+'P.S. The copy is so clear and careful that you might, with a good
+Reader, print it on Monday, nor need my help for corrections: I shall
+however be always at home, and ready at a moment's notice: return the
+copy, if you please, as I promised it to my son long ago.'
+
+
+Mr. Smith gave him 100 guineas as the price of the poem.
+
+He wrote concerning the two longer poems, first probably at the close of
+this year, and again in January 1872, to Miss Blagden.
+
+
+'. . . By this time you have got my little book ('Hohenstiel') and seen
+for yourself whether I make the best or worst of the case. I think, in
+the main, he meant to do what I say, and, but for weakness,--grown more
+apparent in his last years than formerly,--would have done what I say he
+did not.* I thought badly of him at the beginning of his career, _et pour
+cause_: better afterward, on the strength of the promises he made, and
+gave indications of intending to redeem. I think him very weak in the
+last miserable year. At his worst I prefer him to Thiers' best. I am
+told my little thing is succeeding--sold 1,400 in the first five days,
+and before any notice appeared. I remember that the year I made the
+little rough sketch in Rome, '60, my account for the last six months
+with Chapman was--_nil_, not one copy disposed of! . . .
+
+     * This phrase is a little misleading.
+
+'. . . I am glad you like what the editor of the Edinburgh calls my
+eulogium on the second empire,--which it is not, any more than what
+another wiseacre affirms it to be "a scandalous attack on the old
+constant friend of England"--it is just what I imagine the man might, if
+he pleased, say for himself.'
+
+
+Mr. Browning continues:
+
+
+'Spite of my ailments and bewailments I have just all but finished
+another poem of quite another kind, which shall amuse you in the spring,
+I hope! I don't go sound asleep at all events. 'Balaustion'--the second
+edition is in the press I think I told you. 2,500 in five months, is a
+good sale for the likes of me. But I met Henry Taylor (of Artevelde)
+two days ago at dinner, and he said he had never gained anything by his
+books, which surely is a shame--I mean, if no buyers mean no
+readers. . . .'
+
+'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' was written in Scotland, where Mr.
+Browning was the guest of Mr. Ernest Benzon: having left his sister to
+the care of M. and Madame Milsand at St.-Aubin. The ailment he speaks
+of consisted, I believe, of a severe cold. Another of the occurrences
+of 1871 was Mr. Browning's election as Life Governor of the London
+University.
+
+A passage from a letter dated March 30, '72, bears striking testimony to
+the constant warmth of his affections.
+
+
+'. . . The misfortune, which I did not guess when I accepted the
+invitation, is that I shall lose some of the last days of Milsand, who
+has been here for the last month: no words can express the love I have
+for him, you know. He is increasingly precious to me. . . . Waring
+came back the other day, after thirty years' absence, the same as
+ever,--nearly. He has been Prime Minister at New Zealand for a year and
+a half, but gets tired, and returns home with a poem.'*
+
+     * 'Ranolf and Amohia'.
+
+This is my last extract from the correspondence with Miss Blagden. Her
+death closed it altogether within the year.
+
+
+It is difficult to infer from letters, however intimate, the dominant
+state of the writer's mind: most of all to do so in Mr. Browning's case,
+from such passages of his correspondence as circumstances allow me
+to quote. Letters written in intimacy, and to the same friend, often
+express a recurrent mood, a revived set of associations, which for the
+moment destroys the habitual balance of feeling. The same effect is
+sometimes produced in personal intercourse; and the more varied the
+life, the more versatile the nature, the more readily in either case
+will a lately unused spring of emotion well up at the passing touch.
+We may even fancy we read into the letters of 1870 that eerie, haunting
+sadness of a cherished memory from which, in spite of ourselves, life
+is bearing us away. We may also err in so doing. But literary creation,
+patiently carried on through a given period, is usually a fair
+reflection of the general moral and mental conditions under which it has
+taken place; and it would be hard to imagine from Mr. Browning's work
+during these last ten years that any but gracious influences had been
+operating upon his genius, any more disturbing element than the sense of
+privation and loss had entered into his inner life.
+
+Some leaven of bitterness must, nevertheless, have been working within
+him, or he could never have produced that piece of perplexing cynicism,
+'Fifine at the Fair'--the poem referred to as in progress in a letter to
+Miss Blagden, and which appeared in the spring of 1872. The disturbing
+cause had been also of long standing; for the deeper reactive processes
+of Mr. Browning's nature were as slow as its more superficial response
+was swift; and while 'Dramatis Personae', 'The Ring and the Book',
+and even 'Balaustion's Adventure', represented the gradually perfected
+substance of his poetic imagination, 'Fifine at the Fair' was as the
+froth thrown up by it during the prolonged simmering which was to leave
+it clear. The work displays the iridescent brightness as well as the
+occasional impurity of this froth-like character. Beauty and ugliness
+are, indeed, almost inseparable in the moral impression which it leaves
+upon us. The author has put forth a plea for self-indulgence with a
+much slighter attempt at dramatic disguise than his special pleadings
+generally assume; and while allowing circumstances to expose the
+sophistry of the position, and punish its attendant act, he does not
+sufficiently condemn it. But, in identifying himself for the moment with
+the conception of a Don Juan, he has infused into it a tenderness and
+a poetry with which the true type had very little in common, and which
+retard its dramatic development. Those who knew Mr. Browning, or who
+thoroughly know his work, may censure, regret, fail to understand
+'Fifine at the Fair'; they will never in any important sense misconstrue
+it.
+
+But it has been so misconstrued by an intelligent and not unsympathetic
+critic; and his construction may be endorsed by other persons in the
+present, and still more in the future, in whom the elements of a truer
+judgment are wanting. It seems, therefore, best to protest at once
+against the misjudgment, though in so doing I am claiming for it an
+attention which it may not seem to deserve. I allude to Mr. Mortimer's
+'Note on Browning' in the 'Scottish Art Review' for December 1889. This
+note contains a summary of Mr. Browning's teaching, which it resolves
+into the moral equivalent of the doctrine of the conservation of force.
+Mr. Mortimer assumes for the purpose of his comparison that the exercise
+of force means necessarily moving on; and according to him Mr. Browning
+prescribes action at any price, even that of defying the restrictions
+of moral law. He thus, we are told, blames the lovers in 'The Statue and
+the Bust' for their failure to carry out what was an immoral intention;
+and, in the person of his 'Don Juan', defends a husband's claim to
+relieve the fixity of conjugal affection by varied adventure in the
+world of temporary loves: the result being 'the negation of that
+convention under which we habitually view life, but which for some
+reason or other breaks down when we have to face the problems of a
+Goethe, a Shelley, a Byron, or a Browning.'
+
+Mr. Mortimer's generalization does not apply to 'The Statue and the
+Bust', since Mr. Browning has made it perfectly clear that, in this
+case, the intended act is postponed without reference to its morality,
+and simply in consequence of a weakness of will, which would have been
+as paralyzing to a good purpose as it was to the bad one; but it is not
+without superficial sanction in 'Fifine at the Fair'; and the part which
+the author allowed himself to play in it did him an injustice only to be
+measured by the inference which it has been made to support. There could
+be no mistake more ludicrous, were it less regrettable, than that of
+classing Mr. Browning, on moral grounds, with Byron or Shelley; even
+in the case of Goethe the analogy breaks down. The evidence of the
+foregoing pages has rendered all protest superfluous. But the suggested
+moral resemblance to the two English poets receives a striking comment
+in a fact of Mr. Browning's life which falls practically into the
+present period of our history: his withdrawal from Shelley of the
+devotion of more than forty years on account of an act of heartlessness
+towards his first wife which he held to have been proved against him.
+
+The sweet and the bitter lay, indeed, very close to each other at the
+sources of Mr. Browning's inspiration. Both proceeded, in great measure,
+from his spiritual allegiance to the past--that past by which it was
+impossible that he should linger, but which he could not yet leave
+behind. The present came to him with friendly greeting. He was
+unconsciously, perhaps inevitably, unjust to what it brought. The
+injustice reacted upon himself, and developed by degrees into the
+cynical mood of fancy which became manifest in 'Fifine at the Fair'.
+
+It is true that, in the light of this explanation, we see an effect very
+unlike its cause; but the chemistry of human emotion is like that of
+natural life. It will often form a compound in which neither of its
+constituents can be recognized. This perverse poem was the last as well
+as the first manifestation of an ungenial mood of Mr. Browning's mind.
+A slight exception may be made for some passages in 'Red Cotton Nightcap
+Country', and for one of the poems of the 'Pacchiarotto' volume; but
+otherwise no sign of moral or mental disturbance betrays itself in his
+subsequent work. The past and the present gradually assumed for him a
+more just relation to each other. He learned to meet life as it offered
+itself to him with a more frank recognition of its good gifts, a more
+grateful response to them. He grew happier, hence more genial, as the
+years advanced.
+
+It was not without misgiving that Mr. Browning published 'Fifine at
+the Fair'; but many years were to pass before he realized the kind of
+criticism to which it had exposed him. The belief conveyed in the
+letter to Miss Blagden that what proceeds from a genuine inspiration is
+justified by it, combined with the indifference to public opinion
+which had been engendered in him by its long neglect, made him slow to
+anticipate the results of external judgment, even where he was in some
+degree prepared to endorse them. For his value as a poet, it was best
+so.
+
+The August of 1872 and of 1873 again found him with his sister at
+St.-Aubin, and the earlier visit was an important one: since it supplied
+him with the materials of his next work, of which Miss Annie Thackeray,
+there also for a few days, suggested the title. The tragic drama which
+forms the subject of Mr. Browning's poem had been in great part enacted
+in the vicinity of St.-Aubin; and the case of disputed inheritance to
+which it had given rise was pending at that moment in the tribunals of
+Caen. The prevailing impression left on Miss Thackeray's mind by this
+primitive district was, she declared, that of white cotton nightcaps
+(the habitual headgear of the Normandy peasants). She engaged to write
+a story called 'White Cotton Nightcap Country'; and Mr. Browning's quick
+sense of both contrast and analogy inspired the introduction of
+this emblem of repose into his own picture of that peaceful, prosaic
+existence, and of the ghastly spiritual conflict to which it had served
+as background. He employed a good deal of perhaps strained ingenuity in
+the opening pages of the work, in making the white cap foreshadow the
+red, itself the symbol of liberty, and only indirectly connected with
+tragic events; and he would, I think, have emphasized the irony of
+circumstance in a manner more characteristic of himself, if he had laid
+his stress on the remoteness from 'the madding crowd', and repeated
+Miss Thackeray's title. There can, however, be no doubt that his poetic
+imagination, no less than his human insight, was amply vindicated by his
+treatment of the story.
+
+On leaving St.-Aubin he spent a month at Fontainebleau, in a house
+situated on the outskirts of the forest; and here his principal indoor
+occupation was reading the Greek dramatists, especially Aeschylus, to
+whom he had returned with revived interest and curiosity. 'Red Cotton
+Nightcap Country' was not begun till his return to London in the later
+autumn. It was published in the early summer of 1873.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 17
+
+1873-1878
+
+London Life--Love of Music--Miss Egerton-Smith--Periodical Nervous
+Exhaustion--Mers; 'Aristophanes' Apology'--'Agamemnon'--'The
+Inn Album'--'Pacchiarotto and other Poems'--Visits to Oxford and
+Cambridge--Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald--St. Andrews; Letter
+from Professor Knight--In the Savoyard Mountains--Death of Miss
+Egerton-Smith--'La Saisiaz'; 'The Two Poets of Croisic'--Selections from
+his Works.
+
+
+
+The period on which we have now entered, covering roughly the ten or
+twelve years which followed the publication of 'The Ring and the Book',
+was the fullest in Mr. Browning's life; it was that in which the varied
+claims made by it on his moral, and above all his physical energies,
+found in him the fullest power of response. He could rise early and go
+to bed late--this, however, never from choice; and occupy every hour of
+the day with work or pleasure, in a manner which his friends recalled
+regretfully in later years, when of two or three engagements which
+ought to have divided his afternoon, a single one--perhaps only the most
+formally pressing--could be fulfilled. Soon after his final return to
+England, while he still lived in comparative seclusion, certain habits
+of friendly intercourse, often superficial, but always binding, had
+rooted themselves in his life. London society, as I have also implied,
+opened itself to him in ever-widening circles, or, as it would be truer
+to say, drew him more and more deeply into its whirl; and even before
+the mellowing kindness of his nature had infused warmth into the least
+substantial of his social relations, the imaginative curiosity of the
+poet--for a while the natural ambition of the man--found satisfaction in
+it. For a short time, indeed, he entered into the fashionable routine of
+country-house visiting. Besides the instances I have already given,
+and many others which I may have forgotten, he was heard of, during the
+earlier part of this decade, as the guest of Lord Carnarvon at Highclere
+Castle, of Lord Shrewsbury at Alton Towers, of Lord Brownlow and his
+mother, Lady Marian Alford, at Belton and Ashridge. Somewhat later,
+he stayed with Mr. and Lady Alice Gaisford at a house they temporarily
+occupied on the Sussex downs; with Mr. Cholmondeley at Condover, and,
+much more recently, at Aynhoe Park with Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright. Kind
+and pressing, and in themselves very tempting invitations of this nature
+came to him until the end of his life; but he very soon made a practice
+of declining them, because their acceptance could only renew for him the
+fatigues of the London season, while the tantalizing beauty and
+repose of the country lay before his eyes; but such visits, while they
+continued, were one of the necessary social experiences which brought
+their grist to his mill.
+
+And now, in addition to the large social tribute which he received, and
+had to pay, he was drinking in all the enjoyment, and incurring all the
+fatigue which the London musical world could create for him. In Italy
+he had found the natural home of the other arts. The one poem, 'Old
+Pictures in Florence', is sufficiently eloquent of long communion with
+the old masters and their works; and if his history in Florence and Rome
+had been written in his own letters instead of those of his wife, they
+must have held many reminiscences of galleries and studios, and of the
+places in which pictures are bought and sold. But his love for music
+was as certainly starved as the delight in painting and sculpture was
+nourished; and it had now grown into a passion, from the indulgence of
+which he derived, as he always declared, some of the most beneficent
+influences of his life. It would be scarcely an exaggeration to say that
+he attended every important concert of the season, whether isolated or
+given in a course. There was no engagement possible or actual, which did
+not yield to the discovery of its clashing with the day and hour fixed
+for one of these. His frequent companion on such occasions was Miss
+Egerton-Smith.
+
+Miss Smith became only known to Mr. Browning's general acquaintance
+through the dedicatory 'A. E. S.' of 'La Saisiaz'; but she was, at the
+time of her death, one of his oldest women friends. He first met her as
+a young woman in Florence when she was visiting there; and the love
+for and proficiency in music soon asserted itself as a bond of sympathy
+between them. They did not, however, see much of each other till he had
+finally left Italy, and she also had made her home in London. She there
+led a secluded life, although free from family ties, and enjoying a
+large income derived from the ownership of an important provincial
+paper. Mr. Browning was one of the very few persons whose society she
+cared to cultivate; and for many years the common musical interest took
+the practical, and for both of them convenient form, of their going to
+concerts together. After her death, in the autumn of 1877, he almost
+mechanically renounced all the musical entertainments to which she had
+so regularly accompanied him. The special motive and special facility
+were gone--she had been wont to call for him in her carriage; the
+habit was broken; there would have been first pain, and afterwards an
+unwelcome exertion in renewing it. Time was also beginning to sap his
+strength, while society, and perhaps friendship, were making increasing
+claims upon it. It may have been for this same reason that music after
+a time seemed to pass out of his life altogether. Yet its almost sudden
+eclipse was striking in the case of one who not only had been so
+deeply susceptible to its emotional influences, so conversant with
+its scientific construction and its multitudinous forms, but who was
+acknowledged as 'musical' by those who best knew the subtle and complex
+meaning of that often misused term.
+
+Mr. Browning could do all that I have said during the period through
+which we are now following him; but he could not quite do it with
+impunity. Each winter brought its searching attack of cold and cough;
+each summer reduced him to the state of nervous prostration or physical
+apathy of which I have already spoken, and which at once rendered change
+imperative, and the exertion of seeking it almost intolerable. His
+health and spirits rebounded at the first draught of foreign air; the
+first breath from an English cliff or moor might have had the same
+result. But the remembrance of this fact never nerved him to the
+preliminary effort. The conviction renewed itself with the close of
+every season, that the best thing which could happen to him would be to
+be left quiet at home; and his disinclination to face even the idea
+of moving equally hampered his sister in her endeavour to make timely
+arrangements for their change of abode.
+
+This special craving for rest helped to limit the area from which their
+summer resort could be chosen. It precluded all idea of 'pension'-life,
+hence of any much-frequented spot in Switzerland or Germany. It was
+tacitly understood that the shortening days were not to be passed in
+England. Italy did not yet associate itself with the possibilities of
+a moderately short absence; the resources of the northern French coast
+were becoming exhausted; and as the August of 1874 approached, the
+question of how and where this and the following months were to be spent
+was, perhaps, more than ever a perplexing one. It was now Miss Smith who
+became the means of its solution. She had more than once joined Mr. and
+Miss Browning at the seaside. She was anxious this year to do so again,
+and she suggested for their meeting a quiet spot called Mers, almost
+adjoining the fashionable Treport, but distinct from it. It was agreed
+that they should try it; and the experiment, which they had no reason
+to regret, opened also in some degree a way out of future difficulties.
+Mers was young, and had the defect of its quality. Only one desirable
+house was to be found there; and the plan of joint residence became
+converted into one of joint housekeeping, in which Mr. and Miss Browning
+at first refused to concur, but which worked so well that it was renewed
+in the three ensuing summers: Miss Smith retaining the initiative in
+the choice of place, her friends the right of veto upon it. They stayed
+again together in 1875 at Villers, on the coast of Normandy; in 1876 at
+the Isle of Arran; in 1877 at a house called La Saisiaz--Savoyard for
+the sun--in the Saleve district near Geneva.
+
+The autumn months of 1874 were marked for Mr. Browning by an important
+piece of work: the production of 'Aristophanes' Apology'. It was far
+advanced when he returned to London in November, after a visit to
+Antwerp, where his son was studying art under M. Heyermans; and its much
+later appearance must have been intended to give breathing time to the
+readers of 'Red Cotton Nightcap Country'. Mr. Browning subsequently
+admitted that he sometimes, during these years, allowed active literary
+occupation to interfere too much with the good which his holiday might
+have done him; but the temptations to literary activity were this time
+too great to be withstood. The house occupied by him at Mers (Maison
+Robert) was the last of the straggling village, and stood on a rising
+cliff. In front was the open sea; beyond it a long stretch of down;
+everywhere comparative solitude. Here, in uninterrupted quiet, and in a
+room devoted to his use, Mr. Browning would work till the afternoon was
+advanced, and then set forth on a long walk over the cliffs, often in
+the face of a wind which, as he wrote of it at the time, he could lean
+against as if it were a wall. And during this time he was living, not
+only in his work, but with the man who had inspired it. The image of
+Aristophanes, in the half-shamed insolence, the disordered majesty, in
+which he is placed before the reader's mind, was present to him from
+the first moment in which the Defence was conceived. What was still more
+interesting, he could see him, hear him, think with him, speak for him,
+and still inevitably condemn him. No such instance of always ingenious,
+and sometimes earnest pleading foredoomed to complete discomfiture,
+occurs in Mr. Browning's works.
+
+To Aristophanes he gave the dramatic sympathy which one lover of life
+can extend to another, though that other unduly extol its lower forms.
+To Euripides he brought the palm of the higher truth, to his work the
+tribute of the more pathetic human emotion. Even these for a moment
+ministered to the greatness of Aristophanes, in the tear shed by him to
+the memory of his rival, in the hour of his own triumph; and we may be
+quite sure that when Mr. Browning depicted that scene, and again when he
+translated the great tragedian's words, his own eyes were dimmed. Large
+tears fell from them, and emotion choked his voice, when he first
+read aloud the transcript of the 'Herakles' to a friend, who was often
+privileged to hear him.
+
+Mr. Browning's deep feeling for the humanities of Greek literature, and
+his almost passionate love for the language, contrasted strongly with
+his refusal to regard even the first of Greek writers as models of
+literary style. The pretensions raised for them on this ground were
+inconceivable to him; and his translation of the 'Agamemnon', published
+1877, was partly made, I am convinced, for the pleasure of exposing
+these claims, and of rebuking them. His preface to the transcript gives
+evidence of this. The glee with which he pointed to it when it first
+appeared was no less significant.
+
+At Villers, in 1875, he only corrected the proofs of 'The Inn Album' for
+publication in November. When the party started for the Isle of Arran,
+in the autumn of 1876, the 'Pacchiarotto' volume had already appeared.
+
+When Mr. Browning discontinued his short-lived habit of visiting away
+from home, he made an exception in favour of the Universities. His
+occasional visits to Oxford and Cambridge were maintained till the very
+end of his life, with increasing frequency in the former case; and the
+days spent at Balliol and Trinity afforded him as unmixed a pleasure
+as was compatible with the interruption of his daily habits, and with a
+system of hospitality which would detain him for many hours at table.
+A vivid picture of them is given in two letters, dated January 20 and
+March 10, 1877, and addressed to one of his constant correspondents,
+Mrs. Fitz-Gerald, of Shalstone Manor, Buckingham.
+
+
+Dear Friend, I have your letter of yesterday, and thank you all I can
+for its goodness and graciousness to me unworthy . . . I returned on
+Thursday--the hospitality of our Master being not easy to set aside.
+But to begin with the beginning: the passage from London to Oxford was
+exceptionally prosperous--the train was full of men my friends. I was
+welcomed on arriving by a Fellow who installed me in my rooms,--then
+came the pleasant meeting with Jowett who at once took me to tea with
+his other guests, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of London, Dean
+of Westminster, the Airlies, Cardwells, male and female. Then came the
+banquet--(I enclose you the plan having no doubt that you will recognise
+the name of many an acquaintance: please return it)--and, the dinner
+done, speechifying set in vigorously. The Archbishop proposed the
+standing 'Floreat domus de Balliolo'--to which the Master made due
+and amusing answer, himself giving the health of the Primate. Lord
+Coleridge, in a silvery speech, drank to the University, responded to by
+the Vice-Chancellor. I forget who proposed the visitors--the Bishop of
+London, perhaps Lord Cardwell. Professor Smith gave the two Houses
+of Parliament,--Jowett, the Clergy, coupling with it the name of your
+friend Mr. Rogers--on whom he showered every kind of praise, and Mr.
+Rogers returned thanks very characteristically and pleasantly. Lord
+Lansdowne drank to the Bar (Mr. Bowen), Lord Camperdown to--I really
+forget what: Mr. Green to Literature and Science delivering a most
+undeserved eulogium on myself, with a more rightly directed one on
+Arnold, Swinburne, and the old pride of Balliol, Clough: this was
+cleverly and almost touchingly answered by dear Mat Arnold. Then the
+Dean of Westminster gave the Fellows and Scholars--and then--twelve
+o'clock struck. We were, counting from the time of preliminary
+assemblage, six hours and a half engaged: _fully_ five and a half nailed
+to our chairs at the table: but the whole thing was brilliant, genial,
+and suggestive of many and various thoughts to me--and there was
+a warmth, earnestness, and yet refinement about it which I never
+experienced in any previous public dinner. Next morning I breakfasted
+with Jowett and his guests, found that return would be difficult: while
+as the young men were to return on Friday there would be no opposition
+to my departure on Thursday. The morning was dismal with rain, but after
+luncheon there was a chance of getting a little air, and I walked for
+more than two hours, then heard service in New Coll.--then dinner again:
+my room had been prepared in the Master's house. So, on Thursday, after
+yet another breakfast, I left by the noon-day train, after all sorts of
+kindly offices from the Master. . . . No reporters were suffered to be
+present--the account in yesterday's Times was furnished by one or more
+of the guests; it is quite correct as far as it goes. There were,
+I find, certain little paragraphs which must have been furnished by
+'guessers': Swinburne, set down as present--was absent through his
+Father's illness: the Cardinal also excused himself as did the Bishop of
+Salisbury and others. . . . Ever yours R. Browning.
+
+
+The second letter, from Cambridge, was short and written in haste, at
+the moment of Mr. Browning's departure; but it tells the same tale of
+general kindness and attention. Engagements for no less than six meals
+had absorbed the first day of the visit. The occasion was that of
+Professor Joachim's investiture with his Doctor's degree; and Mr.
+Browning declares that this ceremony, the concert given by the great
+violinist, and his society, were 'each and all' worth the trouble of
+the journey. He himself was to receive the Cambridge degree of LL.D. in
+1879, the Oxford D.C.L. in 1882. A passage in another letter addressed
+to the same friend, refers probably to a practical reminiscence of 'Red
+Cotton Nightcap Country', which enlivened the latter experience, and
+which Mrs. Fitz-Gerald had witnessed with disapprobation.*
+
+     * An actual red cotton nightcap had been made to flutter
+     down on to the Poet's head.
+
+
+. . . You are far too hard on the very harmless drolleries of the young
+men, licensed as they are moreover by immemorial usage. Indeed there
+used to be a regularly appointed jester, 'Filius Terrae' he was called,
+whose business it was to jibe and jeer at the honoured ones, by way of
+reminder that all human glories are merely gilded bubbles and must not
+be fancied metal. You saw that the Reverend Dons escaped no more than
+the poor Poet--or rather I should say than myself the poor Poet--for
+I was pleased to observe with what attention they listened to the
+Newdigate. . . . Ever affectionately yours, R. Browning.
+
+
+In 1875 he was unanimously nominated by its Independent Club, to the
+office of Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow; and in 1877 he again
+received the offer of the Rectorship of St. Andrews, couched in very
+urgent and flattering terms. A letter addressed to him from this
+University by Dr. William Knight, Professor of Moral Philosophy there,
+which I have his permission to publish, bears witness to what had
+long been and was always to remain a prominent fact of Mr. Browning's
+literary career: his great influence on the minds of the rising
+generation of his countrymen.
+
+
+The University, St. Andrews N.B.: Nov. 17, 1877.
+
+My dear Sir,--. . . The students of this University, in which I have
+the honour to hold office, have nominated you as their Lord Rector; and
+intend unanimously, I am told, to elect you to that office on Thursday.
+
+I believe that hitherto no Rector has been chosen by the undivided
+suffrage of any Scottish University. They have heard however that you
+are unable to accept the office: and your committee, who were deeply
+disappointed to learn this afternoon of the way in which you have been
+informed of their intentions, are, I believe, writing to you on the
+subject. So keen is their regret that they intend respectfully to wait
+upon you on Tuesday morning by deputation, and ask if you cannot waive
+your difficulties in deference to their enthusiasm, and allow them to
+proceed with your election.
+
+Their suffrage may, I think, be regarded as one sign of how the
+thoughtful youth of Scotland estimate the work you have done in the
+world of letters.
+
+And permit me to say that while these Rectorial elections in the other
+Universities have frequently turned on local questions, or been inspired
+by political partisanship, St. Andrews has honourably sought to choose
+men distinguished for literary eminence, and to make the Rectorship a
+tribute at once of intellectual and moral esteem.
+
+May I add that when the 'perfervidum ingenium' of our northern race
+takes the form not of youthful hero-worship, but of loyal admiration and
+respectful homage, it is a very genuine affair. In the present instance
+I may say it is no mere outburst of young undisciplined enthusiasm, but
+an honest expression of intellectual and moral indebtedness, the genuine
+and distinct tribute of many minds that have been touched to some higher
+issues by what you have taught them. They do not presume to speak of
+your place in English literature. They merely tell you by this proffered
+honour (the highest in their power to bestow), how they have felt your
+influence over them.
+
+My own obligations to you, and to the author of Aurora Leigh, are such,
+that of them 'silence is golden'. Yours ever gratefully. William Knight.
+
+
+Mr. Browning was deeply touched and gratified by these professions of
+esteem. He persisted nevertheless in his refusal. The Glasgow nomination
+had also been declined by him.
+
+On August 17, 1877, he wrote to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald from La Saisiaz:
+
+
+'How lovely is this place in its solitude and seclusion, with its trees
+and shrubs and flowers, and above all its live mountain stream which
+supplies three fountains, and two delightful baths, a marvel of delicate
+delight framed in with trees--I bathe there twice a day--and then what
+wonderful views from the chalet on every side! Geneva lying under
+us, with the lake and the whole plain bounded by the Jura and our own
+Saleve, which latter seems rather close behind our house, and yet takes
+a hard hour and a half to ascend--all this you can imagine since you
+know the environs of the town; the peace and quiet move me the most--And
+I fancy I shall drowse out the two months or more, doing no more of
+serious work than reading--and that is virtuous renunciation of the
+glorious view to my right here--as I sit aerially like Euripides, and
+see the clouds come and go and the view change in correspondence with
+them. It will help me to get rid of the pain which attaches itself to
+the recollections of Lucerne and Berne "in the old days when the Greeks
+suffered so much," as Homer says. But a very real and sharp pain touched
+me here when I heard of the death of poor Virginia March whom I knew
+particularly, and parted with hardly a fortnight ago, leaving her
+affectionate and happy as ever. The tones of her voice as on one
+memorable occasion she ejaculated repeatedly 'Good friend!' are fresh
+still. Poor Virginia! . . .'
+
+
+Mr. Browning was more than quiescent during this stay in the Savoyard
+mountains. He was unusually depressed, and unusually disposed to regard
+the absence from home as a banishment; and he tried subsequently to
+account for this condition by the shadow which coming trouble sometimes
+casts before it. It was more probably due to the want of the sea air
+which he had enjoyed for so many years, and to that special oppressive
+heat of the Swiss valleys which ascends with them to almost their
+highest level. When he said that the Saleve seemed close behind the
+house, he was saying in other words that the sun beat back from, and the
+air was intercepted by it. We see, nevertheless, in his description
+of the surrounding scenery, a promise of the contemplative delight in
+natural beauty to be henceforth so conspicuous in his experience, and
+which seemed a new feature in it. He had hitherto approached every
+living thing with curious and sympathetic observation--this hardly
+requires saying of one who had animals for his first and always familiar
+friends. Flowers also attracted him by their perfume. But what he loved
+in nature was essentially its prefiguring of human existence, or
+its echo of it; and it never appeared, in either his works or his
+conversation, that he was much impressed by its inanimate forms--by even
+those larger phenomena of mountain and cloud-land on which the latter
+dwells. Such beauty as most appealed to him he had left behind with
+the joys and sorrows of his Italian life, and it had almost inevitably
+passed out of his consideration. During years of his residence in London
+he never thought of the country as a source of pleasurable emotions,
+other than those contingent on renewed health; and the places to which
+he resorted had often not much beyond their health-giving qualities to
+recommend them; his appetite for the beautiful had probably dwindled for
+lack of food. But when a friend once said to him: 'You have not a great
+love for nature, have you?' he had replied: 'Yes, I have, but I love
+men and women better;' and the admission, which conveyed more than it
+literally expressed, would have been true I believe at any, up to the
+present, period of his history. Even now he did not cease to love men
+and women best; but he found increasing enjoyment in the beauties of
+nature, above all as they opened upon him on the southern slopes of the
+Alps; and the delight of the aesthetic sense merged gradually in the
+satisfied craving for pure air and brilliant sunshine which marked his
+final struggle for physical life. A ring of enthusiasm comes into his
+letters from the mountains, and deepens as the years advance; doubtless
+enhanced by the great--perhaps too great--exhilaration which the Alpine
+atmosphere produced, but also in large measure independent of it. Each
+new place into which the summer carries him he declares more beautiful
+than the last. It possibly was so.
+
+A touch of autumnal freshness had barely crept into the atmosphere of
+the Saleve, when a moral thunderbolt fell on the little group of persons
+domiciled at its base: Miss Egerton-Smith died, in what had seemed
+for her unusually good health, in the act of preparing for a mountain
+excursion with her friends--the words still almost on her lips in
+which she had given some directions for their comfort. Mr. Browning's
+impressionable nervous system was for a moment paralyzed by the shock.
+It revived in all the emotional and intellectual impulses which gave
+birth to 'La Saisiaz'.
+
+This poem contains, besides its personal reference and association,
+elements of distinctive biographical interest. It is the author's
+first--as also last--attempt to reconstruct his hope of immortality by
+a rational process based entirely on the fundamental facts of his own
+knowledge and consciousness--God and the human soul; and while the very
+assumption of these facts, as basis for reasoning, places him at issue
+with scientific thought, there is in his way of handling them a tribute
+to the scientific spirit, perhaps foreshadowed in the beautiful epilogue
+to 'Dramatis Personae', but of which there is no trace in his earlier
+religious works. It is conclusive both in form and matter as to his
+heterodox attitude towards Christianity. He was no less, in his way, a
+Christian when he wrote 'La Saisiaz' than when he published 'A Death
+in the Desert' and 'Christmas Eve and Easter Day'; or at any period
+subsequent to that in which he accepted without questioning what he had
+learned at his mother's knee. He has repeatedly written or declared in
+the words of Charles Lamb:* 'If Christ entered the room I should fall
+on my knees;' and again, in those of Napoleon: 'I am an understander of
+men, and _he_ was no man.' He has even added: 'If he had been, he would
+have been an impostor.' But the arguments, in great part negative, set
+forth in 'La Saisiaz' for the immortality of the soul, leave no place
+for the idea, however indefinite, of a Christian revelation on the
+subject. Christ remained for Mr. Browning a mystery and a message of
+Divine Love, but no messenger of Divine intention towards mankind.
+
+     * These words have more significance when taken with their
+     context. 'If Shakespeare was to come into the room, we
+     should all rise up to meet him; but if that Person [meaning
+     Christ] was to come into the room, we should all fall down
+     and try to kiss the hem of his garment.'
+
+The dialogue between Fancy and Reason is not only an admission of
+uncertainty as to the future of the Soul: it is a plea for it; and as
+such it gathers up into its few words of direct statement, threads of
+reasoning which have been traceable throughout Mr. Browning's work. In
+this plea for uncertainty lies also a full and frank acknowledgment of
+the value of the earthly life; and as interpreted by his general views,
+that value asserts itself, not only in the means of probation which
+life affords, but in its existing conditions of happiness. No one, he
+declares, possessing the certainty of a future state would patiently and
+fully live out the present; and since the future can be only the ripened
+fruit of the present, its promise would be neutralized, as well as
+actual experience dwarfed, by a definite revelation. Nor, conversely,
+need the want of a certified future depress the present spiritual and
+moral life. It is in the nature of the Soul that it would suffer from
+the promise. The existence of God is a justification for hope. And
+since the certainty would be injurious to the Soul, hence destructive
+to itself, the doubt--in other words, the hope--becomes a sufficient
+approach to, a working substitute for it. It is pathetic to see how
+in spite of the convictions thus rooted in Mr. Browning's mind, the
+expressed craving for more knowledge, for more light, will now and then
+escape him.
+
+Even orthodox Christianity gives no assurance of reunion to those whom
+death has separated. It is obvious that Mr. Browning's poetic creed
+could hold no conviction regarding it. He hoped for such reunion in
+proportion as he wished. There must have been moments in his life when
+the wish in its passion overleapt the bounds of hope. 'Prospice' appears
+to prove this. But the wide range of imagination, no less than the lack
+of knowledge, forbade in him any forecast of the possibilities of the
+life to come. He believed that if granted, it would be an advance on the
+present--an accession of knowledge if not an increase of happiness. He
+was satisfied that whatever it gave, and whatever it withheld, it would
+be good. In his normal condition this sufficed to him.
+
+'La Saisiaz' appeared in the early summer of 1878, and with it 'The
+Two Poets of Croisic', which had been written immediately after it. The
+various incidents of this poem are strictly historical; they lead the
+way to a characteristic utterance of Mr. Browning's philosophy of life
+to which I shall recur later.
+
+In 1872 Mr. Browning had published a first series of selections from his
+works; it was to be followed by a second in 1880. In a preface to the
+earlier volume, he indicates the plan which he has followed in the
+choice and arrangement of poems; and some such intention runs also
+through the second; since he declined a suggestion made to him for the
+introduction or placing of a special poem, on the ground of its not
+conforming to the end he had in view. It is difficult, in the one case
+as in the other, to reconstruct the imagined personality to which his
+preface refers; and his words on the later occasion pointed rather to
+that idea of a chord of feeling which is raised by the correspondence of
+the first and last poems of the respective groups. But either clue may
+be followed with interest.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 18
+
+1878-1884
+
+He revisits Italy; Asolo; Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald--Venice--Favourite
+Alpine Retreats--Mrs. Arthur Bronson--Life in Venice--A Tragedy at
+Saint-Pierre--Mr. Cholmondeley--Mr. Browning's Patriotic
+Feeling; Extract from Letter to Mrs. Charles Skirrow--'Dramatic
+Idyls'--'Jocoseria'--'Ferishtah's Fancies'.
+
+
+
+The catastrophe of La Saisiaz closed a comprehensive chapter in Mr.
+Browning's habits and experience. It impelled him finally to break with
+the associations of the last seventeen autumns, which he remembered
+more in their tedious or painful circumstances than in the unexciting
+pleasure and renewed physical health which he had derived from them. He
+was weary of the ever-recurring effort to uproot himself from his home
+life, only to become stationary in some more or less uninteresting
+northern spot. The always latent desire for Italy sprang up in him,
+and with it the often present thought and wish to give his sister the
+opportunity of seeing it.
+
+Florence and Rome were not included in his scheme; he knew them both
+too well; but he hankered for Asolo and Venice. He determined, though as
+usual reluctantly, and not till the last moment, that they should move
+southwards in the August of 1878. Their route lay over the Spluegen; and
+having heard of a comfortable hotel near the summit of the Pass, they
+agreed to remain there till the heat had sufficiently abated to allow
+of the descent into Lombardy. The advantages of this first arrangement
+exceeded their expectations. It gave them solitude without the sense
+of loneliness. A little stream of travellers passed constantly over the
+mountain, and they could shake hands with acquaintances at night, and
+know them gone in the morning. They dined at the table d'hote, but took
+all other meals alone, and slept in a detached wing or 'dependance'
+of the hotel. Their daily walks sometimes carried them down to the Via
+Mala; often to the top of the ascent, where they could rest, looking
+down into Italy; and would even be prolonged over a period of five
+hours and an extent of seventeen miles. Now, as always, the mountain air
+stimulated Mr. Browning's physical energy; and on this occasion it also
+especially quickened his imaginative powers. He was preparing the first
+series of 'Dramatic Idylls'; and several of these, including 'Ivan
+Ivanovitch', were produced with such rapidity that Miss Browning refused
+to countenance a prolonged stay on the mountain, unless he worked at a
+more reasonable rate.
+
+They did not linger on their way to Asolo and Venice, except for a
+night's rest on the Lake of Como and two days at Verona. In their
+successive journeys through Northern Italy they visited by degrees all
+its notable cities, and it would be easy to recall, in order and detail,
+most of these yearly expeditions. But the account of them would chiefly
+resolve itself into a list of names and dates; for Mr. Browning had
+seldom a new impression to receive, even from localities which he had
+not seen before. I know that he and his sister were deeply struck by
+the deserted grandeurs of Ravenna; and that it stirred in both of them
+a memorable sensation to wander as they did for a whole day through the
+pinewoods consecrated by Dante. I am nevertheless not sure that when
+they performed the repeated round of picture-galleries and palaces, they
+were not sometimes simply paying their debt to opportunity, and as much
+for each other's sake as for their own. Where all was Italy, there
+was little to gain or lose in one memorial of greatness, one object
+of beauty, visited or left unseen. But in Asolo, even in Venice, Mr.
+Browning was seeking something more: the remembrance of his own actual
+and poetic youth. How far he found it in the former place we may infer
+from a letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald.
+
+
+Sept. 28, 1878.
+
+And from 'Asolo', at last, dear friend! So can dreams come _false_.--S.,
+who has been writing at the opposite side of the table, has told you
+about our journey and adventures, such as they were: but she cannot
+tell you the feelings with which I revisit this--to me--memorable place
+after above forty years' absence,--such things have begun and ended with
+me in the interval! It was _too_ strange when we reached the ruined tower
+on the hill-top yesterday, and I said 'Let me try if the echo still
+exists which I discovered here,' (you can produce it from only _one_
+particular spot on a remainder of brickwork--) and thereupon it answered
+me plainly as ever, after all the silence: for some children from the
+adjoining 'podere', happening to be outside, heard my voice and its
+result--and began trying to perform the feat--calling 'Yes, yes'--all in
+vain: so, perhaps, the mighty secret will die with me! We shall probably
+stay here a day or two longer,--the air is so pure, the country so
+attractive: but we must go soon to Venice, stay our allotted time there,
+and then go homeward: you will of course address letters to Venice, not
+this place: it is a pleasure I promise myself that, on arriving I shall
+certainly hear you speak in a letter which I count upon finding.
+
+The old inn here, to which I would fain have betaken myself, is
+gone--levelled to the ground: I remember it was much damaged by a recent
+earthquake, and the cracks and chasms may have threatened a downfall.
+This Stella d'Oro is, however, much such an unperverted 'locanda' as its
+predecessor--primitive indeed are the arrangements and unsophisticate
+the ways: but there is cleanliness, abundance of goodwill, and the sweet
+Italian smile at every mistake: we get on excellently. To be sure never
+was such a perfect fellow-traveller, for my purposes, as S., so that
+I have no subject of concern--if things suit me they suit her--and
+vice-versa. I daresay she will have told you how we trudged together,
+this morning to Possagno--through a lovely country: how we saw all the
+wonders--and a wonder of detestability is the paint-performance of the
+great man!--and how, on our return, we found the little town enjoying
+high market day, and its privilege of roaring and screaming over a
+bargain. It confuses me altogether,--but at Venice I may write more
+comfortably. You will till then, Dear Friend, remember me ever as yours
+affectionately, Robert Browning.
+
+
+If the tone of this does not express disappointment, it has none of the
+rapture which his last visit was to inspire. The charm which forty years
+of remembrance had cast around the little city on the hill was dispelled
+for, at all events, the time being. The hot weather and dust-covered
+landscape, with the more than primitive accommodation of which he spoke
+in a letter to another friend, may have contributed something to this
+result.
+
+At Venice the travellers fared better in some essential respects.
+A London acquaintance, who passed them on their way to Italy, had
+recommended a cool and quiet hotel there, the Albergo dell' Universo.
+The house, Palazzo Brandolin-Rota, was situated on the shady side of
+the Grand Canal, just below the Accademia and the Suspension Bridge. The
+open stretches of the Giudecca lay not far behind; and a scrap of garden
+and a clean and open little street made pleasant the approach from back
+and side. It accommodated few persons in proportion to its size, and
+fewer still took up their abode there; for it was managed by a lady of
+good birth and fallen fortunes whose home and patrimony it had been; and
+her husband, a retired Austrian officer, and two grown-up daughters
+did not lighten her task. Every year the fortunes sank lower; the upper
+storey of the house was already falling into decay, and the fine old
+furniture passing into the brokers' or private buyers' hands. It still,
+however, afforded sufficiently comfortable, and, by reason of its very
+drawbacks, desirable quarters to Mr. Browning. It perhaps turned the
+scale in favour of his return to Venice; for the lady whose hospitality
+he was to enjoy there was as yet unknown to him; and nothing would have
+induced him to enter, with his eyes open, one of the English-haunted
+hotels, in which acquaintance, old and new, would daily greet him in the
+public rooms or jostle him in the corridors.
+
+He and his sister remained at the Universo for a fortnight; their
+programme did not this year include a longer stay; but it gave them time
+to decide that no place could better suit them for an autumn holiday
+than Venice, or better lend itself to a preparatory sojourn among the
+Alps; and the plan of their next, and, though they did not know it, many
+a following summer, was thus sketched out before the homeward journey
+had begun.
+
+Mr. Browning did not forget his work, even while resting from it; if
+indeed he did rest entirely on this occasion. He consulted a Russian
+lady whom he met at the hotel, on the names he was introducing in
+'Ivan Ivanovitch'. It would be interesting to know what suggestions or
+corrections she made, and how far they adapted themselves to the rhythm
+already established, or compelled changes in it; but the one alternative
+would as little have troubled him as the other. Mrs. Browning told Mr.
+Prinsep that her husband could never alter the wording of a poem without
+rewriting it, indeed, practically converting it into another; though he
+more than once tried to do so at her instigation. But to the end of his
+life he could at any moment recast a line or passage for the sake of
+greater correctness, and leave all that was essential in it untouched.
+
+Seven times more in the eleven years which remained to him, Mr. Browning
+spent the autumn in Venice. Once also, in 1882, he had proceeded towards
+it as far as Verona, when the floods which marked the autumn of that
+year arrested his farther course. Each time he had halted first in some
+more or less elevated spot, generally suggested by his French friend,
+Monsieur Dourlans, himself an inveterate wanderer, whose inclinations
+also tempted him off the beaten track. The places he most enjoyed were
+Saint-Pierre la Chartreuse, and Gressoney Saint-Jean, where he stayed
+respectively in 1881 and 1882, 1883 and 1885. Both of these had the
+drawbacks, and what might easily have been the dangers, of remoteness
+from the civilized world. But this weighed with him so little, that he
+remained there in each case till the weather had broken, though there
+was no sheltered conveyance in which he and his sister could travel
+down; and on the later occasions at least, circumstances might easily
+have combined to prevent their departure for an indefinite time. He
+became, indeed, so attached to Gressoney, with its beautiful outlook
+upon Monte Rosa, that nothing I believe would have hindered his
+returning, or at least contemplating a return to it, but the great
+fatigue to his sister of the mule ride up the mountain, by a path which
+made walking, wherever possible, the easier course. They did walk _down_
+it in the early October of 1885, and completed the hard seven hours'
+trudge to San Martino d'Aosta, without an atom of refreshment or a
+minute's rest.
+
+One of the great attractions of Saint-Pierre was the vicinity of the
+Grande Chartreuse, to which Mr. Browning made frequent expeditions,
+staying there through the night in order to hear the midnight mass. Miss
+Browning also once attempted the visit, but was not allowed to enter the
+monastery. She slept in the adjoining convent.
+
+The brother and sister were again at the Universo in 1879, 1880, and
+1881; but the crash was rapidly approaching, and soon afterwards it
+came. The old Palazzo passed into other hands, and after a short period
+of private ownership was consigned to the purposes of an Art Gallery.
+
+In 1880, however, they had been introduced by Mrs. Story to an American
+resident, Mrs. Arthur Bronson, and entered into most friendly
+relations with her; and when, after a year's interval, they were again
+contemplating an autumn in Venice, she placed at their disposal a suite
+of rooms in the Palazzo Giustiniani Recanati, which formed a supplement
+to her own house--making the offer with a kindly urgency which forbade
+all thought of declining it. They inhabited these for a second time in
+1885, keeping house for themselves in the simple but comfortable foreign
+manner they both so well enjoyed, only dining and spending the evening
+with their friend. But when, in 1888, they were going, as they thought,
+to repeat the arrangement, they found, to their surprise, a little
+apartment prepared for them under Mrs. Bronson's own roof. This act
+of hospitality involved a special kindness on her part, of which Mr.
+Browning only became aware at the close of a prolonged stay; and a sense
+of increased gratitude added itself to the affectionate regard with
+which his hostess had already inspired both his sister and him. So
+far as he is concerned, the fact need only be indicated. It is fully
+expressed in the preface to 'Asolando'.
+
+During the first and fresher period of Mr. Browning's visits to Venice,
+he found a passing attraction in its society. It held an historical
+element which harmonized well with the decayed magnificence of the city,
+its old-world repose, and the comparatively simple modes of intercourse
+still prevailing there. Mrs. Bronson's 'salon' was hospitably open
+whenever her health allowed; but her natural refinement, and the
+conservatism which so strongly marks the higher class of Americans,
+preserved it from the heterogeneous character which Anglo-foreign
+sociability so often assumes. Very interesting, even important names
+lent their prestige to her circle; and those of Don Carlos and his
+family, of Prince and Princess Iturbide, of Prince and Princess
+Metternich, and of Princess Montenegro, were on the list of her
+'habitues', and, in the case of the royal Spaniards, of her friends. It
+need hardly be said that the great English poet, with his fast spreading
+reputation and his infinite social charm, was kindly welcomed and warmly
+appreciated amongst them.
+
+English and American acquaintances also congregated in Venice, or passed
+through it from London, Florence, and Rome. Those resident in Italy
+could make their visits coincide with those of Mr. Browning and his
+sister, or undertake the journey for the sake of seeing them; while the
+outward conditions of life were such as to render friendly intercourse
+more satisfactory, and common social civilities less irksome than they
+could be at home. Mr. Browning was, however, already too advanced in
+years, too familiar with everything which the world can give, to be long
+affected by the novelty of these experiences. It was inevitable that
+the need of rest, though often for the moment forgotten, should assert
+itself more and more. He gradually declined on the society of a small
+number of resident or semi-resident friends; and, due exception being
+made for the hospitalities of his temporary home, became indebted to the
+kindness of Sir Henry and Lady Layard, of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis of Palazzo
+Barbaro, and of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Eden, for most of the social
+pleasure and comfort of his later residences in Venice.
+
+Part of a letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald gives an insight into the character
+of his life there: all the stronger that it was written under a
+temporary depression which it partly serves to explain.
+
+
+Albergo dell' Universo, Venezia, Italia: Sept. 24, '81.
+
+'Dear Friend,--On arriving here I found your letter to my great
+satisfaction--and yesterday brought the 'Saturday Review'--for which,
+many thanks.
+
+'We left our strange but lovely place on the 18th, reaching Chambery at
+evening,--stayed the next day there,--walking, among other diversions
+to "Les Charmettes", the famous abode of Rousseau--kept much as when he
+left it: I visited it with my wife perhaps twenty-five years ago, and
+played so much of "Rousseau's Dream" as could be effected on his antique
+harpsichord: this time I attempted the same feat, but only two notes or
+thereabouts out of the octave would answer the touch. Next morning we
+proceeded to Turin, and on Wednesday got here, in the middle of the
+last night of the Congress Carnival--rowing up the Canal to our Albergo
+through a dazzling blaze of lights and throng of boats,--there being, if
+we are told truly, 50,000 strangers in the city. Rooms had been
+secured for us, however: and the festivities are at an end, to my great
+joy,--for Venice is resuming its old quiet aspect--the only one I value
+at all. Our American friends wanted to take us in their gondola to see
+the principal illuminations _after_ the "Serenade", which was not
+over before midnight--but I was contented with _that_--being tired and
+indisposed for talking, and, having seen and heard quite enough from
+our own balcony, went to bed: S. having betaken her to her own room long
+before.
+
+'Next day we took stock of our acquaintances,--found that the Storys,
+on whom we had counted for company, were at Vallombrosa, though the
+two sons have a studio here--other friends are in sufficient number
+however--and last evening we began our visits by a very classical
+one--to the Countess Mocenigo, in her palace which Byron occupied: she
+is a charming widow since two years,--young, pretty and of the prettiest
+manners: she showed us all the rooms Byron had lived in,--and I wrote
+my name in her album _on_ the desk himself wrote the last canto of 'Ch.
+Harold' and 'Beppo' upon. There was a small party: we were taken
+and introduced by the Layards who are kind as ever, and I met old
+friends--Lord Aberdare, Charles Bowen, and others. While I write comes
+a deliciously fresh 'bouquet' from Mrs. Bronson, an American lady,--in
+short we shall find a week or two amusing enough; though--where are the
+pinewoods, mountains and torrents, and wonderful air? Venice is under
+a cloud,--dull and threatening,--though we were apprehensive of heat,
+arriving, as we did, ten days earlier than last year. . . .'
+
+
+The evening's programme was occasionally varied by a visit to one of
+the theatres. The plays given were chiefly in the Venetian dialect, and
+needed previous study for their enjoyment; but Mr. Browning assisted at
+one musical performance which strongly appealed to his historical and
+artistic sensibilities: that of the 'Barbiere' of Paisiello in the
+Rossini theatre and in the presence of Wagner, which took place in the
+autumn of 1880.
+
+Although the manner of his sojourn in the Italian city placed all the
+resources of resident life at his command, Mr. Browning never abjured
+the active habits of the English traveller. He daily walked with his
+sister, as he did in the mountains, for walking's sake, as well as for
+the delight of what his expeditions showed him; and the facilities which
+they supplied for this healthful pleasurable exercise were to his mind
+one of the great merits of his autumn residences in Italy. He explored
+Venice in all directions, and learned to know its many points of beauty
+and interest, as those cannot who believe it is only to be seen from
+a gondola; and when he had visited its every corner, he fell back on
+a favourite stroll along the Riva to the public garden and back again;
+never failing to leave the house at about the same hour of the day.
+Later still, when a friend's gondola was always at hand, and air and
+sunshine were the one thing needful, he would be carried to the Lido,
+and take a long stretch on its farther shore.
+
+The letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald, from which I have already quoted,
+concludes with the account of a tragic occurrence which took place at
+Saint-Pierre just before his departure, and in which Mr. Browning's
+intuitions had played a striking part.
+
+
+'And what do you think befell us in this abode of peace and innocence?
+Our journey was delayed for three hours in consequence of the one mule
+of the village being requisitioned by the 'Juge d'Instruction' from
+Grenoble, come to enquire into a murder committed two days before.
+My sister and I used once a day to walk for a couple of hours up a
+mountain-road of the most lovely description, and stop at the
+summit whence we looked down upon the minute hamlet of St.-Pierre
+d'Entremont,--even more secluded than our own: then we got back to our
+own aforesaid. And in this Paradisial place, they found, yesterday week,
+a murdered man--frightfully mutilated--who had been caught apparently in
+the act of stealing potatoes in a field: such a crime had never occurred
+in the memory of the oldest of our folk. Who was the murderer is the
+mystery--whether the field's owner--in his irritation at discovering
+the robber,--or one of a band of similar 'charbonniers' (for they
+suppose the man to be a Piedmontese of that occupation) remains to
+be proved: they began by imprisoning the owner, who denies his guilt
+energetically. Now the odd thing is, that, either the day of, or after
+the murder,--as I and S. were looking at the utter solitude, I had the
+fancy "What should I do if I suddenly came upon a dead body in this
+field? Go and proclaim it--and subject myself to all the vexations
+inflicted by the French way of procedure (which begins by assuming
+that you may be the criminal)--or neglect an obvious duty, and return
+silently." I, of course, saw that the former was the only proper course,
+whatever the annoyance involved. And, all the while, there was just
+about to be the very same incident for the trouble of somebody.'
+
+
+Here the account breaks off; but writing again from the same place,
+August 16, 1882, he takes up the suspended narrative with this question:
+
+'Did I tell you of what happened to me on the last day of my stay here
+last year?' And after repeating the main facts continues as follows:
+
+
+'This morning, in the course of my walk, I entered into conversation
+with two persons of whom I made enquiry myself. They said the accused
+man, a simple person, had been locked up in a high chamber,--protesting
+his innocence strongly,--and troubled in his mind by the affair
+altogether and the turn it was taking, had profited by the gendarme's
+negligence, and thrown himself out of the window--and so died,
+continuing to the last to protest as before. My presentiment of what
+such a person might have to undergo was justified you see--though
+I should not in any case have taken _that_ way of getting out of the
+difficulty. The man added, "it was not he who committed the murder, but
+the companions of the man, an Italian charcoal-burner, who owed him a
+grudge, killed him, and dragged him to the field--filling his sack with
+potatoes as if stolen, to give a likelihood that the field's owner had
+caught him stealing and killed him,--so M. Perrier the greffier told
+me." Enough of this grim story.
+
+. . . . .
+
+'My sister was anxious to know exactly where the body was found: "Vouz
+savez la croix au sommet de la colline? A cette distance de cela!" That
+is precisely where I was standing when the thought came over me.'
+
+
+A passage in a subsequent letter of September 3 clearly refers to
+some comment of Mrs. Fitz-Gerald's on the peculiar nature of this
+presentiment:
+
+
+'No--I attribute no sort of supernaturalism to my fancy about the thing
+that was really about to take place. By a law of the association of
+ideas--_contraries_ come into the mind as often as _similarities_--and the
+peace and solitude readily called up the notion of what would most jar
+with them. I have often thought of the trouble that might have befallen
+me if poor Miss Smith's death had happened the night before, when we
+were on the mountain alone together--or next morning when we were on the
+proposed excursion--only _then_ we should have had companions.'
+
+
+The letter then passes to other subjects.
+
+
+'This is the fifth magnificent day--like magnificence, unfit for turning
+to much account--for we cannot walk till sunset. I had two hours' walk,
+or nearly, before breakfast, however: It is the loveliest country I ever
+had experience of, and we shall prolong our stay perhaps--apart from
+the concern for poor Cholmondeley and his friends, I should be glad
+to apprehend no long journey--besides the annoyance of having to pass
+Florence and Rome unvisited, for S.'s sake, I mean: even Naples would
+have been with its wonderful environs a tantalizing impracticability.
+
+'Your "Academy" came and was welcomed. The newspaper is like an electric
+eel, as one touches it and expects a shock. I am very anxious about the
+Archbishop who has always been strangely kind to me.'
+
+
+He and his sister had accepted an invitation to spend the month of
+October with Mr. Cholmondeley at his villa in Ischia; but the party
+assembled there was broken up by the death of one of Mr. Cholmondeley's
+guests, a young lady who had imprudently attempted the ascent of
+a dangerous mountain without a guide, and who lost her life in the
+experiment.
+
+A short extract from a letter to Mrs. Charles Skirrow will show that
+even in this complete seclusion Mr. Browning's patriotism did not go to
+sleep. There had been already sufficient evidence that his friendship
+did not; but it was not in the nature of his mental activities that they
+should be largely absorbed by politics, though he followed the course of
+his country's history as a necessary part of his own life. It needed
+a crisis like that of our Egyptian campaign, or the subsequent Irish
+struggle, to arouse him to a full emotional participation in current
+events. How deeply he could be thus aroused remained yet to be seen.
+
+
+'If the George Smiths are still with you, give them my love, and tell
+them we shall expect to see them at Venice,--which was not so likely
+to be the case when we were bound for Ischia. As for Lady Wolseley--one
+dares not pretend to vie with her in anxiety just now; but my own pulses
+beat pretty strongly when I open the day's newspaper--which, by some new
+arrangement, reaches us, oftener than not, on the day after publication.
+Where is your Bertie? I had an impassioned letter, a fortnight ago,
+from a nephew of mine, who is in the second division [battalion?] of
+the Black Watch; he was ordered to Edinburgh, and the regiment not
+dispatched, after all,--it having just returned from India; the poor
+fellow wrote in his despair "to know if I could do anything!" He may be
+wanted yet: though nothing seems wanted in Egypt, so capital appears to
+be the management.'
+
+
+In 1879 Mr. Browning published the first series of his 'Dramatic Idyls';
+and their appearance sent a thrill of surprised admiration through
+the public mind. In 'La Saisiaz' and the accompanying poems he had
+accomplished what was virtually a life's work. For he was approaching
+the appointed limit of man's existence; and the poetic, which had been
+nourished in him by the natural life--which had once outstripped its
+developments, but on the whole remained subject to them--had therefore,
+also, passed through the successive phases of individual growth. He had
+been inspired as dramatic poet by the one avowed conviction that little
+else is worth study but the history of a soul; and outward act or
+circumstance had only entered into his creations as condition or
+incident of the given psychological state. His dramatic imagination
+had first, however unconsciously, sought its materials in himself; then
+gradually been projected into the world of men and women, which his
+widening knowledge laid open to him; it is scarcely necessary to say
+that its power was only fully revealed when it left the remote regions
+of poetical and metaphysical self-consciousness, to invoke the not less
+mysterious and far more searching utterance of the general human heart.
+It was a matter of course that in this expression of his dramatic
+genius, the intellectual and emotional should exhibit the varying
+relations which are developed by the natural life: that feeling should
+begin by doing the work of thought, as in 'Saul', and thought end by
+doing the work of feeling, as in 'Fifine at the Fair'; and that the two
+should alternate or combine in proportioned intensity in such works of
+an intermediate period as 'Cleon', 'A Death in the Desert', the 'Epistle
+of Karshish', and 'James Lee's Wife'; the sophistical ingenuities of
+'Bishop Blougram', and 'Sludge'; and the sad, appealing tenderness of
+'Andrea del Sarto' and 'The Worst of It'.
+
+It was also almost inevitable that so vigorous a genius should sometimes
+falsify calculations based on the normal life. The long-continued
+force and freshness of Mr. Browning's general faculties was in itself
+a protest against them. We saw without surprise that during the decade
+which produced 'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau', 'Fifine at the Fair', and
+'Red Cotton Nightcap Country', he could give us 'The Inn Album', with
+its expression of the higher sexual love unsurpassed, rarely equalled,
+in the whole range of his work: or those two unique creations of airy
+fancy and passionate symbolic romance, 'Saint Martin's Summer', and
+'Numpholeptos'. It was no ground for astonishment that the creative
+power in him should even ignore the usual period of decline, and defy,
+so far as is humanly possible, its natural laws of modification. But in
+the 'Dramatic Idyls' he did more than proceed with unflagging powers on
+a long-trodden, distinctive course; he took a new departure.
+
+Mr. Browning did not forsake the drama of motive when he imagined and
+worked out his new group of poems; he presented it in a no less
+subtle and complex form. But he gave it the added force of picturesque
+realization; and this by means of incidents both powerful in themselves,
+and especially suited for its development. It was only in proportion to
+this higher suggestiveness that a startling situation ever seemed to
+him fit subject for poetry. Where its interest and excitement exhausted
+themselves in the external facts, it became, he thought, the property
+of the chronicler, but supplied no material for the poet; and he often
+declined matter which had been offered him for dramatic treatment
+because it belonged to the more sensational category.
+
+It is part of the vital quality of the 'Dramatic Idyls' that, in them,
+the act and the motive are not yet finally identified with each other.
+We see the act still palpitating with the motive; the motive dimly
+striving to recognize or disclaim itself in the act. It is in this that
+the psychological poet stands more than ever strongly revealed. Such at
+least is the case in 'Martin Relph', and the idealized Russian legend,
+'Ivan Ivanovitch'. The grotesque tragedy of 'Ned Bratts' has also its
+marked psychological aspects, but they are of a simpler and broader
+kind.
+
+The new inspiration slowly subsided through the second series of
+'Idyls', 1880, and 'Jocoseria', 1883. In 'Ferishtah's Fancies', 1884,
+Mr. Browning returned to his original manner, though carrying into it
+something of the renewed vigour which had marked the intervening change.
+The lyrics which alternate with its parables include some of the most
+tender, most impassioned, and most musical of his love-poems.
+
+The moral and religious opinions conveyed in this later volume may be
+accepted without reserve as Mr. Browning's own, if we subtract from them
+the exaggerations of the figurative and dramatic form. It is indeed
+easy to recognize in them the under currents of his whole real and
+imaginative life. They have also on one or two points an intrinsic value
+which will justify a later allusion.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 19
+
+1881-1887
+
+The Browning Society; Mr. Furnivall; Miss E. H. Hickey--His Attitude
+towards the Society; Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald--Mr. Thaxter, Mrs. Celia
+Thaxter--Letter to Miss Hickey; 'Strafford'--Shakspere and Wordsworth
+Societies--Letters to Professor Knight--Appreciation in Italy;
+Professor Nencioni--The Goldoni Sonnet--Mr. Barrett Browning;
+Palazzo Manzoni--Letters to Mrs. Charles Skirrow--Mrs. Bloomfield
+Moore--Llangollen; Sir Theodore and Lady Martin--Loss of old
+Friends--Foreign Correspondent of the Royal Academy--'Parleyings with
+certain People of Importance in their Day'.
+
+
+
+This Indian summer of Mr. Browning's genius coincided with the highest
+manifestation of public interest, which he, or with one exception, any
+living writer, had probably yet received: the establishment of a Society
+bearing his name, and devoted to the study of his poetry. The idea arose
+almost simultaneously in the mind of Dr., then Mr. Furnivall, and of
+Miss E. H. Hickey. One day, in the July of 1881, as they were on their
+way to Warwick Crescent to pay an appointed visit there, Miss Hickey
+strongly expressed her opinion of the power and breadth of Mr.
+Browning's work; and concluded by saying that much as she loved
+Shakespeare, she found in certain aspects of Browning what even
+Shakespeare could not give her. Mr. Furnivall replied to this by asking
+what she would say to helping him to found a Browning Society; and it
+then appeared that Miss Hickey had recently written to him a letter,
+suggesting that he should found one; but that it had miscarried, or, as
+she was disposed to think, not been posted. Being thus, at all events,
+agreed as to the fitness of the undertaking, they immediately spoke of
+it to Mr. Browning, who at first treated the project as a joke; but did
+not oppose it when once he understood it to be serious. His only proviso
+was that he should remain neutral in respect to its fulfilment. He
+refused even to give Mr. Furnivall the name or address of any friends,
+whose interest in himself or his work might render their co-operation
+probable.
+
+This passive assent sufficed. A printed prospectus was now issued. About
+two hundred members were soon secured. A committee was elected, of which
+Mr. J. T. Nettleship, already well known as a Browning student, was
+one of the most conspicuous members; and by the end of October a small
+Society had come into existence, which held its inaugural meeting in
+the Botanic Theatre of University College. Mr. Furnivall, its principal
+founder, and responsible organizer, was Chairman of the Committee, and
+Miss E. H. Hickey, the co-founder, was Honorary Secretary. When, two or
+three years afterwards, illness compelled her to resign this position,
+it was assumed by Mr. J. Dykes Campbell.
+
+Although nothing could be more unpretending than the action of this
+Browning Society, or in the main more genuine than its motive, it did
+not begin life without encountering ridicule and mistrust. The formation
+of a Ruskin Society in the previous year had already established a
+precedent for allowing a still living worker to enjoy the fruits of his
+work, or, as some one termed it, for making a man a classic during his
+lifetime. But this fact was not yet generally known; and meanwhile a
+curious contradiction developed itself in the public mind. The outer
+world of Mr. Browning's acquaintance continued to condemn the too great
+honour which was being done to him; from those of the inner circle he
+constantly received condolences on being made the subject of proceedings
+which, according to them, he must somehow regard as an offence.
+
+This was the last view of the case which he was prepared to take. At
+the beginning, as at the end, he felt honoured by the intentions of the
+Society. He probably, it is true, had occasional misgivings as to its
+future. He could not be sure that its action would always be judicious,
+still less that it would be always successful. He was prepared for its
+being laughed at, and for himself being included in the laughter.
+He consented to its establishment for what seemed to him the one
+unanswerable reason, that he had, even on the ground of taste, no just
+cause for forbidding it. No line, he considered, could be drawn between
+the kind of publicity which every writer seeks, which, for good or
+evil, he had already obtained, and that which the Browning Society was
+conferring on him. His works would still, as before, be read, analyzed,
+and discussed 'viva voce' and in print. That these proceedings would
+now take place in other localities than drawing-rooms or clubs, through
+other organs than newspapers or magazines, by other and larger groups
+of persons than those usually gathered round a dinner-or a tea-table,
+involved no real change in the situation. In any case, he had made
+himself public property; and those who thus organized their study of him
+were exercising an individual right. If his own rights had been assailed
+he would have guarded them also; but the circumstances of the case
+precluded such a contingency. And he had his reward. How he felt towards
+the Society at the close of its first session is better indicated in the
+following letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald than in the note to Mr. Yates which
+Mr. Sharp has published, and which was written with more reserve and, I
+believe, at a rather earlier date. Even the shade of condescension which
+lingers about his words will have been effaced by subsequent experience;
+and many letters written to Dr. Furnivall must, since then, have
+attested his grateful and affectionate appreciation of kindness intended
+and service done to him.
+
+
+. . . They always treat me gently in 'Punch'--why don't you do the
+same by the Browning Society? I see you emphasize Miss Hickey's
+acknowledgement of defects in time and want of rehearsal: but I look
+for no great perfection in a number of kindly disposed strangers to
+me personally, who try to interest people in my poems by singing and
+reading them. They give their time for nothing, offer their little
+entertainment for nothing, and certainly get next to nothing in the way
+of thanks--unless from myself who feel grateful to the faces I shall
+never see, the voices I shall never hear. The kindest notices I have
+had, or at all events those that have given me most pleasure, have been
+educed by this Society--A. Sidgwick's paper, that of Professor Corson,
+Miss Lewis' article in this month's 'Macmillan'--and I feel grateful for
+it all, for my part,--and none the less for a little amusement at the
+wonder of some of my friends that I do not jump up and denounce the
+practices which must annoy me so much. Oh! my 'gentle Shakespeare', how
+well you felt and said--'never anything can be amiss when simpleness and
+duty tender it.' So, dear Lady, here is my duty and simplicity tendering
+itself to you, with all affection besides, and I being ever yours, R.
+Browning.
+
+
+That general disposition of the London world which left the ranks of the
+little Society to be three-fourths recruited among persons, many living
+at a distance, whom the poet did not know, became also in its way
+a satisfaction. It was with him a matter of course, though never of
+indifference, that his closer friends of both sexes were among its
+members; it was one of real gratification that they included from
+the beginning such men as Dean Boyle of Salisbury, the Rev. Llewellyn
+Davies, George Meredith, and James Cotter Morison--that they enjoyed the
+sympathy and co-operation of such a one as Archdeacon Farrar. But he had
+an ingenuous pride in reading the large remainder of the Society's lists
+of names, and pointing out the fact that there was not one among them
+which he had ever heard. It was equivalent to saying, 'All these people
+care for me as a poet. No social interest, no personal prepossession,
+has attracted them to my work.' And when the unknown name was not only
+appended to a list; when it formed the signature of a paper--excellent
+or indifferent as might be--but in either case bearing witness to
+a careful and unobtrusive study of his poems, by so much was the
+gratification increased. He seldom weighed the intrinsic merit of such
+productions; he did not read them critically. No man was ever more
+adverse to the seeming ungraciousness of analyzing the quality of a
+gift. In real life indeed this power of gratitude sometimes defeated its
+own end, by neutralizing his insight into the motive or effort involved
+in different acts of kindness, and placing them all successively on the
+same plane.
+
+In the present case, however, an ungraduated acceptance of the labour
+bestowed on him was part of the neutral attitude which it was his
+constant endeavour to maintain. He always refrained from noticing any
+erroneous statement concerning himself or his works which might appear
+in the Papers of the Society: since, as he alleged, if he once began to
+correct, he would appear to endorse whatever he left uncorrected, and
+thus make himself responsible, not only for any interpretation that
+might be placed on his poems, but, what was far more serious, for
+every eulogium that was bestowed upon them. He could not stand aloof as
+entirely as he or even his friends desired, since it was usual with some
+members of the Society to seek from him elucidations of obscure passages
+which, without these, it was declared, would be a stumbling-block to
+future readers. But he disliked being even to this extent drawn into
+its operation; and his help was, I believe, less and less frequently
+invoked. Nothing could be more false than the rumour which once arose
+that he superintended those performances of his plays which took place
+under the direction of the Society. Once only, and by the urgent desire
+of some of the actors, did he witness a last rehearsal of one of them.
+
+It was also a matter of course that men and women brought together by
+a pre-existing interest in Mr. Browning's work should often ignore its
+authorized explanations, and should read and discuss it in the light of
+personal impressions more congenial to their own mind; and the various
+and circumstantial views sometimes elicited by a given poem did not
+serve to render it more intelligible. But the merit of true poetry lies
+so largely in its suggestiveness, that even mistaken impressions of
+it have their positive value and also their relative truth; and the
+intellectual friction which was thus created, not only in the parent
+society, but in its offshoots in England and America, was not their
+least important result.
+
+These Societies conferred, it need hardly be said, no less real benefits
+on the public at large. They extended the sale of Mr. Browning's works,
+and with it their distinct influence for intellectual and moral good.
+They not only created in many minds an interest in these works, but
+aroused the interest where it was latent, and gave it expression where
+it had hitherto found no voice. One fault, alone, could be charged
+against them; and this lay partly in the nature of all friendly
+concerted action: they stirred a spirit of enthusiasm in which it
+was not easy, under conditions equally genuine, to distinguish the
+individual element from that which was due to contagion; while the
+presence among us of the still living poet often infused into that
+enthusiasm a vaguely emotional element, which otherwise detracted from
+its intellectual worth. But in so far as this was a drawback to the
+intended action of the Societies, it was one only in the most negative
+sense; nor can we doubt, that, to a certain extent, Mr. Browning's best
+influence was promoted by it. The hysterical sensibilities which, for
+some years past, he had unconsciously but not unfrequently aroused in
+the minds of women, and even of men, were a morbid development of that
+influence, which its open and systematic extension tended rather to
+diminish than to increase.
+
+It is also a matter of history that Robert Browning had many deep and
+constant admirers in England, and still more in America,* long before
+this organized interest had developed itself. Letters received from
+often remote parts of the United States had been for many years a detail
+of his daily experience; and even when they consisted of the request for
+an autograph, an application to print selections from his works, or a
+mere expression of schoolboy pertness or schoolgirl sentimentality, they
+bore witness to his wide reputation in that country, and the high esteem
+in which he was held there.** The names of Levi and Celia Thaxter of
+Boston had long, I believe, been conspicuous in the higher ranks of his
+disciples, though they first occur in his correspondence at about
+this date. I trust I may take for granted Mrs. Thaxter's permission to
+publish a letter from her.
+
+     * The cheapening of his works in America, induced by the
+     absence of international copyright, accounts of course in
+     some degree for their wider diffusion, and hence earlier
+     appreciation there.
+
+     ** One of the most curious proofs of this was the
+     Californian Railway time-table edition of his poems.
+
+
+Newtonville, Massachusetts: March 14, 1880.
+
+My dear Mr. Browning:
+
+Your note reached me this morning, but it belonged to my husband, for it
+was he who wrote to you; so I gave it to him, glad to put into his hands
+so precious a piece of manuscript, for he has for you and all your work
+an enthusiastic appreciation such as is seldom found on this planet: it
+is not possible that the admiration of one mortal for another can exceed
+his feeling for you. You might have written for him,
+
+     I've a friend over the sea,
+     .    .    .    .
+
+     It all grew out of the books I write, &c.
+
+You should see his fine wrath and scorn for the idiocy that doesn't at
+once comprehend you!
+
+He knows every word you have ever written; long ago 'Sordello' was
+an open book to him from title-page to closing line, and _all_ you have
+printed since has been as eagerly and studiously devoured. He reads you
+aloud (and his reading is a fine art) to crowds of astonished people,
+he swears by you, he thinks no one save Shakspere has a right to be
+mentioned in the same century with you. You are the great enthusiasm of
+his life.
+
+Pardon me, you are smiling, I dare say. You hear any amount of such
+things, doubtless. But a genuine living appreciation is always worth
+having in this old world, it is like a strong fresh breeze from off the
+brine, that puts a sense of life and power into a man. You cannot be the
+worse for it. Yours very sincerely, Celia Thaxter.
+
+
+When Mr. Thaxter died, in February 1885, his son wrote to Mr. Browning
+to beg of him a few lines to be inscribed on his father's tombstone. The
+little poem by which the request was answered has not yet, I believe,
+been published.
+
+
+'Written to be inscribed on the gravestone of Levi Thaxter.'
+
+Thou, whom these eyes saw never,--say friends true Who say my soul,
+helped onward by my song, Though all unwittingly, has helped thee too?
+I gave but of the little that I knew: How were the gift requited, while
+along Life's path I pace, could'st thou make weakness strong, Help me
+with knowledge--for Life's old, Death's new! R. B. April 19, '85.
+
+
+A publication which connected itself with the labours of the Society,
+without being directly inspired by it, was the annotated 'Strafford'
+prepared by Miss Hickey for the use of students. It may be agreeable to
+those who use the little work to know the estimate in which Mr. Browning
+held it. He wrote as follows:
+
+
+19, Warwick Crescent, W.: February 15, 1884.
+
+Dear Miss Hickey,--I have returned the Proofs by post,--nothing can be
+better than your notes--and with a real wish to be of use, I read
+them carefully that I might detect never so tiny a fault,--but I found
+none--unless (to show you how minutely I searched,) it should be one
+that by 'thriving in your contempt,' I meant simply 'while you despise
+them, and for all that, they thrive and are powerful to do you harm.'
+The idiom you prefer--quite an authorized one--comes to much the same
+thing after all.
+
+You must know how much I grieve at your illness--temporary as I will
+trust it to be--I feel all your goodness to me--or whatever in my books
+may be taken for me--well, I wish you knew how thoroughly I feel it--and
+how truly I am and shall ever be Yours affectionately, Robert Browning.
+
+
+From the time of the foundation of the New Shakspere Society, Mr.
+Browning was its president. In 1880 he became a member of the Wordsworth
+Society. Two interesting letters to Professor Knight, dated respectively
+1880 and 1887, connect themselves with the working of the latter; and,
+in spite of their distance in time, may therefore be given together.
+The poem which formed the subject of the first was 'The Daisy';* the
+selection referred to in the second was that made in 1888 by Professor
+Knight for the Wordsworth Society, with the co-operation of Mr. Browning
+and other eminent literary men.
+
+     * That beginning 'In youth from rock to rock, I went.'
+
+
+19, Warwick Crescent, W.: July 9, '80.
+
+My dear Sir,--You pay me a compliment in caring for my opinion--but,
+such as it is, a very decided one it must be. On every account, your
+method of giving the original text, and subjoining in a note the
+variations, each with its proper date, is incontestably preferable
+to any other. It would be so, if the variations were even
+improvements--there would be pleasure as well as profit in seeing what
+was good grow visibly better. But--to confine ourselves to the single
+'proof' you have sent me--in every case the change is sadly for the
+worse: I am quite troubled by such spoilings of passage after passage
+as I should have chuckled at had I chanced upon them in some copy
+pencil-marked with corrections by Jeffrey or Gifford: indeed, they are
+nearly as wretched as the touchings-up of the 'Siege of Corinth' by the
+latter. If ever diabolic agency was caught at tricks with 'apostolic'
+achievement (see page 9)--and 'apostolic', with no 'profanity' at all, I
+esteem these poems to be--surely you may bid it 'aroint' 'about and all
+about' these desecrated stanzas--each of which, however, thanks to your
+piety, we may hail, I trust, with a hearty
+
+     Thy long-lost praise thou shalt regain
+     Nor be less dear to future men
+     Than in old time!
+
+Believe me, my dear Sir, Yours very sincerely, Robert Browning.
+
+
+
+19, Warwick Crescent, W.: March 23, '87.
+
+Dear Professor Knight,--I have seemed to neglect your commission
+shamefully enough: but I confess to a sort of repugnance to classifying
+the poems as even good and less good: because in my heart I fear I
+should do it almost chronologically--so immeasureably superior seem to
+me the 'first sprightly runnings'. Your selection would appear to be
+excellent; and the partial admittance of the later work prevents one
+from observing the too definitely distinguishing black line between
+supremely good and--well, what is fairly tolerable--from Wordsworth,
+always understand! I have marked a few of the early poems, not included
+in your list--I could do no other when my conscience tells me that I
+never can be tired of loving them: while, with the best will in the
+world, I could never do more than try hard to like them.*
+
+     * By 'them' Mr. Browning clearly means the later poems, and
+     probably has omitted a few words which would have shown
+     this.
+
+You see, I go wholly upon my individual likings and distastes: that
+other considerations should have their weight with other people is
+natural and inevitable. Ever truly yours, Robert Browning.
+
+Many thanks for the volume just received--that with the correspondence.
+I hope that you restore the swan simile so ruthlessly cut away from
+'Dion'.
+
+
+In 1884 he was again invited, and again declined, to stand for the
+Lord Rectorship of the University of St. Andrews. In the same year he
+received the LL.D. degree of the University of Edinburgh; and in the
+following was made Honorary President of the Associated Societies of
+that city.* During the few days spent there on the occasion of his
+investiture, he was the guest of Professor Masson, whose solicitous
+kindness to him is still warmly remembered in the family.
+
+     * This Association was instituted in 1833, and is a union of
+     literary and debating societies.  It is at present composed
+     of five: the Dialectic, Scots Law, Diagnostic,
+     Philosophical, and Philomathic.
+
+The interest in Mr. Browning as a poet is beginning to spread in
+Germany. There is room for wonder that it should not have done so
+before, though the affinities of his genius are rather with the older
+than with the more modern German mind. It is much more remarkable that,
+many years ago, his work had already a sympathetic exponent in Italy.
+Signor Nencioni, Professor of Literature in Florence, had made his
+acquaintance at Siena, and was possibly first attracted to him through
+his wife, although I never heard that it was so. He was soon, however,
+fascinated by Mr. Browning's poetry, and made it an object of serious
+study; he largely quoted from, and wrote on it, in the Roman paper
+'Fanfulla della Domenica', in 1881 and 1882; and published last winter
+what is, I am told, an excellent article on the same subject, in the
+'Nuova Antologia'. Two years ago he travelled from Rome to Venice
+(accompanied by Signor Placci), for the purpose of seeing him. He is
+fond of reciting passages from the works, and has even made attempts at
+translation: though he understands them too well not to pronounce them,
+what they are for every Latin language, untranslatable.
+
+In 1883 Mr. Browning added another link to the 'golden' chain of verse
+which united England and Italy. A statue of Goldoni was about to be
+erected in Venice. The ceremonies of the occasion were to include the
+appearance of a volume--or album--of appropriate poems; and Cavaliere
+Molmenti, its intending editor, a leading member of the 'Erection
+Committee', begged Mr. Browning to contribute to it. It was also desired
+that he should be present at the unveiling.* He was unable to grant
+this request, but consented to write a poem. This sonnet to Goldoni also
+deserves to be more widely known, both for itself and for the manner of
+its production. Mr. Browning had forgotten, or not understood, how
+soon the promise concerning it must be fulfilled, and it was actually
+scribbled off while a messenger, sent by Signor Molmenti, waited for it.
+
+     * It was, I think, during this visit to Venice that he
+     assisted at a no less interesting ceremony:  the unveiling
+     of a commemorative tablet to Baldassaro Galuppi, in his
+     native island of Burano.
+
+
+Goldoni,--good, gay, sunniest of souls,--Glassing half Venice in that
+verse of thine,--What though it just reflect the shade and shine Of
+common life, nor render, as it rolls Grandeur and gloom? Sufficient for
+thy shoals Was Carnival: Parini's depths enshrine Secrets unsuited to
+that opaline Surface of things which laughs along thy scrolls. There
+throng the people: how they come and go Lisp the soft language, flaunt
+the bright garb,--see,--On Piazza, Calle, under Portico And over Bridge!
+Dear king of Comedy, Be honoured! Thou that didst love Venice so,
+Venice, and we who love her, all love thee!
+
+Venice, Nov. 27, 1883.
+
+
+A complete bibliography would take account of three other sonnets,
+'The Founder of the Feast', 1884, 'The Names', 1884, and 'Why I am a
+Liberal', 1886, to which I shall have occasion to refer; but we
+decline insensibly from these on to the less important or more
+fugitive productions which such lists also include, and on which it is
+unnecessary or undesirable that any stress should be laid.
+
+In 1885 he was joined in Venice by his son. It was 'Penini's' first
+return to the country of his birth, his first experience of the city
+which he had only visited in his nurse's arms; and his delight in it was
+so great that the plan shaped itself in his father's mind of buying a
+house there, which should serve as 'pied-a-terre' for the family, but
+more especially as a home for him. Neither the health nor the energies
+of the younger Mr. Browning had ever withstood the influence of the
+London climate; a foreign element was undoubtedly present in his
+otherwise thoroughly English constitution. Everything now pointed to his
+settling in Italy, and pursuing his artist life there, only interrupting
+it by occasional visits to London and Paris. His father entered into
+negotiations for the Palazzo Manzoni, next door to the former Hotel de
+l'Univers; and the purchase was completed, so far as he was concerned,
+before he returned to England. The fact is related, and his own position
+towards it described in a letter to Mrs. Charles Skirrow, written from
+Venice.
+
+
+Palazzo Giustiniani Recanati, S. Moise: Nov. 15, '85.
+
+My two dear friends will have supposed, with plenty of reason, that I
+never got the kind letter some weeks ago. When it came, I was in the
+middle of an affair, conducted by letters of quite another kind, with
+people abroad: and as I fancied that every next day might bring me
+news very interesting to me and likely to be worth telling to the dear
+friends, I waited and waited--and only two days since did the matter
+come to a satisfactory conclusion--so, as the Irish song has it, 'Open
+your eyes and die with surprise' when I inform you that I have purchased
+the Manzoni Palace here, on the Canal Grande, of its owner, Marchese
+Montecucculi, an Austrian and an absentee--hence the delay of
+communication. I did this purely for Pen--who became at once simply
+infatuated with the city which won my whole heart long before he was
+born or thought of. I secure him a perfect domicile, every facility for
+his painting and sculpture, and a property fairly worth, even here and
+now, double what I gave for it--such is the virtue in these parts of
+ready money! I myself shall stick to London--which has been so eminently
+good and gracious to me--so long as God permits; only, when the
+inevitable outrage of Time gets the better of my body--(I shall not
+believe in his reaching my soul and proper self)--there will be a
+capital retreat provided: and meantime I shall be able to 'take mine
+ease in mine own inn' whenever so minded. There, my dear friends! I
+trust now to be able to leave very shortly; the main business cannot be
+formally concluded before two months at least--through the absence of
+the Marchese,--who left at once to return to his duties as commander
+of an Austrian ship; but the necessary engagement to sell and buy at a
+specified price is made in due legal form, and the papers will be sent
+to me in London for signature. I hope to get away the week after next at
+latest,--spite of the weather in England which to-day's letters report
+as 'atrocious',--and ours, though variable, is in the main very
+tolerable and sometimes perfect; for all that, I yearn to be at home in
+poor Warwick Crescent, which must do its best to make me forget my new
+abode. I forget you don't know Venice. Well then, the Palazzo Manzoni
+is situate on the Grand Canal, and is described by Ruskin,--to give
+no other authority,--as 'a perfect and very rich example of Byzantine
+Renaissance: its warm yellow marbles are magnificent.' And again--'an
+exquisite example (of Byzantine Renaissance) as applied to domestic
+architecture.' So testify the 'Stones of Venice'. But we will talk about
+the place, over a photograph, when I am happy enough to be with you
+again.
+
+Of Venetian gossip there is next to none. We had an admirable Venetian
+Company,--using the dialect,--at the Goldoni Theatre. The acting
+of Zago, in his various parts, and Zenon-Palladini, in her especial
+character of a Venetian piece of volubility and impulsiveness in the
+shape of a servant, were admirable indeed. The manager, Gallina, is a
+playwright of much reputation, and gave us some dozen of his own pieces,
+mostly good and clever. S. is very well,--much improved in health: we
+walk sufficiently in this city where walking is accounted impossible by
+those who never attempt it. Have I tired your good temper? No! you ever
+wished me well, and I love you both with my whole heart. S.'s love goes
+with mine--who am ever yours Robert Browning.
+
+
+He never, however, owned the Manzoni Palace. The Austrian gentlemen*
+whose property it was, put forward, at the last moment, unexpected and
+to his mind unreasonable claims; and he was preparing to contest
+the position, when a timely warning induced him to withdraw from it
+altogether. The warning proceeded from his son, who had remained on the
+spot, and was now informed on competent authority that the foundations
+of the house were insecure.
+
+     * Two or three brothers.
+
+In the early summer of 1884, and again in 1886, Miss Browning had a
+serious illness; and though she recovered, in each case completely, and
+in the first rapidly, it was considered desirable that she should not
+travel so far as usual from home. She and her brother therefore accepted
+for the August and September of 1884 the urgent invitation of an
+American friend, Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, to stay with her at a villa
+which she rented for some seasons at St. Moritz. Mr. Browning was
+delighted with the Engadine, where the circumstances of his abode,
+and the thoughtful kindness of his hostess, allowed him to enjoy the
+benefits of comparative civilization together with almost perfect
+repose. The weather that year was brilliant until the end of September,
+if not beyond it; and his letters tell the old pleasant story of long
+daily walks and a general sense of invigoration. One of these,
+written to Mr. and Mrs. Skirrow, also contains some pungent remarks on
+contemporary events, with an affectionate allusion to one of the chief
+actors in them.
+
+
+'Anyhow, I have the sincerest hope that Wolseley may get done as
+soon, and kill as few people, as possible,--keeping himself safe and
+sound--brave dear fellow--for the benefit of us all.'
+
+
+He also speaks with great sympathy of the death of Mr. Charles Sartoris,
+which had just taken place at St.-Moritz.
+
+In 1886, Miss Browning was not allowed to leave England; and she and
+Mr. Browning established themselves for the autumn at the Hand Hotel at
+Llangollen, where their old friends, Sir Theodore and Lady Martin, would
+be within easy reach. Mr. Browning missed the exhilarating effects of
+the Alpine air; but he enjoyed the peaceful beauty of the Welsh valley,
+and the quiet and comfort of the old-fashioned English inn. A new source
+of interest also presented itself to him in some aspects of the life
+of the English country gentleman. He was struck by the improvements
+effected by its actual owner* on a neighbouring estate, and by the
+provisions contained in them for the comfort of both the men and the
+animals under his care; and he afterwards made, in reference to them,
+what was for a professing Liberal, a very striking remark: 'Talk of
+abolishing that class of men! They are the salt of the earth!' Every
+Sunday afternoon he and his sister drank tea--weather permitting--on
+the lawn with their friends at Brintysilio; and he alludes gracefully
+to these meetings in a letter written in the early summer of 1888, when
+Lady Martin had urged him to return to Wales.
+
+     * I believe a Captain Best.
+
+The poet left another and more pathetic remembrance of himself in the
+neighbourhood of Llangollen: his weekly presence at the afternoon Sunday
+service in the parish church of Llantysilio. Churchgoing was, as I have
+said, no part of his regular life. It was no part of his life in London.
+But I do not think he ever failed in it at the Universities or in the
+country. The assembling for prayer meant for him something deeper in
+both the religious and the human sense, where ancient learning and piety
+breathed through the consecrated edifice, or where only the figurative
+'two or three' were 'gathered together' within it. A memorial tablet now
+marks the spot at which on this occasion the sweet grave face and the
+venerable head were so often seen. It has been placed by the direction
+of Lady Martin on the adjoining wall.
+
+It was in the September of this year that Mr. Browning heard of the
+death of M. Joseph Milsand. This name represented for him one of the few
+close friendships which were to remain until the end, unclouded in
+fact and in remembrance; and although some weight may be given to those
+circumstances of their lives which precluded all possibility of friction
+and risk of disenchantment, I believe their rooted sympathy, and Mr.
+Browning's unfailing powers of appreciation would, in all possible
+cases, have maintained the bond intact. The event was at the last
+sudden, but happily not quite unexpected.
+
+Many other friends had passed by this time out of the poet's life--those
+of a younger, as well as his own and an older generation. Miss Haworth
+died in 1883. Charles Dickens, with whom he had remained on the most
+cordial terms, had walked between him and his son at Thackeray's
+funeral, to receive from him, only seven years later, the same pious
+office. Lady Augusta Stanley, the daughter of his old friend, Lady
+Elgin, was dead, and her husband, the Dean of Westminster. So also were
+'Barry Cornwall' and John Forster, Alfred Domett, and Thomas Carlyle,
+Mr. Cholmondeley and Lord Houghton; others still, both men and women,
+whose love for him might entitle them to a place in his Biography, but
+whom I could at most only mention by name.
+
+For none of these can his feeling have been more constant or more
+disinterested than that which bound him to Carlyle. He visited him
+at Chelsea in the last weary days of his long life, as often as their
+distance from each other and his own engagements allowed. Even the man's
+posthumous self-disclosures scarcely availed to destroy the affectionate
+reverence which he had always felt for him. He never ceased to defend
+him against the charge of unkindness to his wife, or to believe that in
+the matter of their domestic unhappiness she was the more responsible
+of the two.* Yet Carlyle had never rendered him that service, easy as it
+appears, which one man of letters most justly values from another:
+that of proclaiming the admiration which he privately expresses for his
+works. The fact was incomprehensible to Mr. Browning--it was so foreign
+to his own nature; and he commented on it with a touch, though merely a
+touch, of bitterness, when repeating to a friend some almost extravagant
+eulogium which in earlier days he had received from him tete-a-tete. 'If
+only,' he said, 'those words had been ever repeated in public, what good
+they might have done me!'
+
+     * He always thought her a hard and unlovable woman, and I
+     believe little liking was lost between them.  He told a
+     comical story of how he had once, unintentionally but rather
+     stupidly, annoyed her. She had asked him, as he was standing
+     by her tea-table, to put the kettle back on the fire.  He
+     took it out of her hands, but, preoccupied by the
+     conversation he was carrying on, deposited it on the
+     hearthrug.  It was some time before he could be made to see
+     that this was wrong; and he believed Mrs. Carlyle never
+     ceased to think that he had a mischievous motive for doing
+     it.
+
+In the spring of 1886, he accepted the post of Foreign Correspondent to
+the Royal Academy, rendered vacant by the death of Lord Houghton. He had
+long been on very friendly terms with the leading Academicians, and a
+constant guest at the Banquet; and his fitness for the office admitted
+of no doubt. But his nomination by the President, and the manner in
+which it was ratified by the Council and general body, gave him sincere
+pleasure.
+
+Early in 1887, the 'Parleyings' appeared. Their author is still the same
+Robert Browning, though here and there visibly touched by the hand
+of time. Passages of sweet or majestic music, or of exquisite fancy,
+alternate with its long stretches of argumentative thought; and the
+light of imagination still plays, however fitfully, over statements
+of opinion to which constant repetition has given a suggestion of
+commonplace. But the revision of the work caused him unusual trouble.
+The subjects he had chosen strained his powers of exposition; and I
+think he often tried to remedy by mere verbal correction, what was a
+defect in the logical arrangement of his ideas. They would slide into
+each other where a visible dividing line was required. The last stage of
+his life was now at hand; and the vivid return of fancy to his
+boyhood's literary loves was in pathetic, perhaps not quite accidental,
+coincidence with the fact. It will be well to pause at this beginning
+of his decline, and recall so far as possible the image of the man who
+lived, and worked, and loved, and was loved among us, during that brief
+old age, and the lengthened period of level strength which had preceded
+it. The record already given of his life and work supplies the outline
+of the picture; but a few more personal details are required for its
+completion.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 20
+
+Constancy to Habit--Optimism--Belief in Providence--Political
+Opinions--His Friendships--Reverence for Genius--Attitude towards
+his Public--Attitude towards his Work--Habits of Work--His
+Reading--Conversational Powers--Impulsiveness and Reserve--Nervous
+Peculiarities--His Benevolence--His Attitude towards Women.
+
+
+
+When Mr. Browning wrote to Miss Haworth, in the July of 1861, he had
+said: 'I shall still grow, I hope; but my root is taken, and remains.'
+He was then alluding to a special offshoot of feeling and association,
+on the permanence of which it is not now necessary to dwell; but it
+is certain that he continued growing up to a late age, and that the
+development was only limited by those general roots, those fixed
+conditions of his being, which had predetermined its form. This
+progressive intellectual vitality is amply represented in his works; it
+also reveals itself in his letters in so far as I have been allowed to
+publish them. I only refer to it to give emphasis to a contrasted or
+corresponding characteristic: his aversion to every thought of change. I
+have spoken of his constancy to all degrees of friendship and love. What
+he loved once he loved always, from the dearest man or woman to whom his
+allegiance had been given, to the humblest piece of furniture which had
+served him. It was equally true that what he had done once he was wont,
+for that very reason, to continue doing. The devotion to habits of
+feeling extended to habits of life; and although the lower constancy
+generally served the purposes of the higher, it also sometimes clashed
+with them. It conspired with his ready kindness of heart to make him
+subject to circumstances which at first appealed to him through that
+kindness, but lay really beyond its scope. This statement, it is true,
+can only fully apply to the latter part of his life. His powers of
+reaction must originally have been stronger, as well as freer from the
+paralysis of conflicting motive and interest. The marked shrinking from
+effort in any untried direction, which was often another name for his
+stability, could scarcely have coexisted with the fresher and more
+curious interest in men and things; we know indeed from recorded facts
+that it was a feeling of later growth; and it visibly increased with the
+periodical nervous exhaustion of his advancing years. I am convinced,
+nevertheless, that, when the restiveness of boyhood had passed away,
+Mr. Browning's strength was always more passive than active; that he
+habitually made the best of external conditions rather than tried to
+change them. He was a 'fighter' only by the brain. And on this point,
+though on this only, his work is misleading.
+
+The acquiescent tendency arose in some degree from two equally prominent
+characteristics of Mr. Browning's nature: his optimism, and his belief
+in direct Providence; and these again represented a condition of
+mind which was in certain respects a quality, but must in others be
+recognized as a defect. It disposed him too much to make a virtue of
+happiness. It tended also to the ignoring or denying of many incidental
+possibilities, and many standing problems of human suffering. The first
+part of this assertion is illustrated by 'The Two Poets of Croisic',
+in which Mr. Browning declares that, other conditions being equal,
+the greater poet will have been he who led the happier life, who most
+completely--and we must take this in the human as well as religious
+sense--triumphed over suffering. The second has its proof in the
+contempt for poetic melancholy which flashes from the supposed utterance
+of Shakespeare in 'At the Mermaid'; its negative justification in the
+whole range of his work.
+
+Such facts may be hard to reconcile with others already known of Mr.
+Browning's nature, or already stated concerning it; but it is in the
+depths of that nature that the solution of this, as of more than one
+other anomaly, must be sought. It is true that remembered pain dwelt
+longer with him than remembered pleasure. It is true that the last great
+sorrow of his life was long felt and cherished by him as a religion, and
+that it entered as such into the courage with which he first confronted
+it. It is no less true that he directly and increasingly cultivated
+happiness; and that because of certain sufferings which had been
+connected with them, he would often have refused to live his happiest
+days again.
+
+It seems still harder to associate defective human sympathy with his
+kind heart and large dramatic imagination, though that very imagination
+was an important factor in the case. It forbade the collective and
+mathematical estimate of human suffering, which is so much in favour
+with modern philanthropy, and so untrue a measure for the individual
+life; and he indirectly condemns it in 'Ferishtah's Fancies' in the
+parable of 'Bean Stripes'. But his dominant individuality also barred
+the recognition of any judgment or impression, any thought or feeling,
+which did not justify itself from his own point of view. The barrier
+would melt under the influence of a sympathetic mood, as it would
+stiffen in the atmosphere of disagreement. It would yield, as did in his
+case so many other things, to continued indirect pressure, whether from
+his love of justice, the strength of his attachments, or his power
+of imaginative absorption. But he was bound by the conditions of an
+essentially creative nature. The subjectiveness, if I may for once use
+that hackneyed word, had passed out of his work only to root itself more
+strongly in his life. He was self-centred, as the creative nature must
+inevitably be. He appeared, for this reason, more widely sympathetic in
+his works than in his life, though even in the former certain grounds of
+vicarious feeling remained untouched. The sympathy there displayed was
+creative and obeyed its own law. That which was demanded from him by
+reality was responsive, and implied submission to the law of other
+minds.
+
+Such intellectual egotism is unconnected with moral selfishness, though
+it often unconsciously does its work. Were it otherwise, I should have
+passed over in silence this aspect, comprehensive though it is, of Mr.
+Browning's character. He was capable of the largest self-sacrifice and
+of the smallest self-denial; and would exercise either whenever love
+or duty clearly pointed the way. He would, he believed, cheerfully have
+done so at the command, however arbitrary, of a Higher Power; he often
+spoke of the absence of such injunction, whether to endurance or action,
+as the great theoretical difficulty of life for those who, like himself,
+rejected or questioned the dogmatic teachings of Christianity. This
+does not mean that he ignored the traditional moralities which have so
+largely taken their place. They coincided in great measure with his own
+instincts; and few occasions could have arisen in which they would not
+be to him a sufficient guide. I may add, though this is a digression,
+that he never admitted the right of genius to defy them; when such a
+right had once been claimed for it in his presence, he rejoined
+quickly, 'That is an error! _noblesse oblige_.' But he had difficulty in
+acknowledging any abstract law which did not derive from a Higher Power;
+and this fact may have been at once cause and consequence of the special
+conditions of his own mind. All human or conventional obligation appeals
+finally to the individual judgment; and in his case this could easily be
+obscured by the always militant imagination, in regard to any subject
+in which his feelings were even indirectly concerned. No one saw
+more justly than he, when the object of vision was general or remote.
+Whatever entered his personal atmosphere encountered a refracting medium
+in which objects were decomposed, and a succession of details, each held
+as it were close to the eye, blocked out the larger view.
+
+We have seen, on the other hand, that he accepted imperfect knowledge as
+part of the discipline of experience. It detracted in no sense from his
+conviction of direct relations with the Creator. This was indeed the
+central fact of his theology, as the absolute individual existence had
+been the central fact of his metaphysics; and when he described the
+fatal leap in 'Red Cotton Nightcap Country' as a frantic appeal to the
+Higher Powers for the 'sign' which the man's religion did not afford,
+and his nature could not supply, a special dramatic sympathy was at
+work within him. The third part of the epilogue to 'Dramatis Personae'
+represented his own creed; though this was often accentuated in the
+sense of a more personal privilege, and a perhaps less poetic mystery,
+than the poem conveys. The Evangelical Christian and the subjective
+idealist philosopher were curiously blended in his composition.
+
+The transition seems violent from this old-world religion to any system
+of politics applicable to the present day. They were, nevertheless,
+closely allied in Mr. Browning's mind. His politics were, so far as they
+went, the practical aspect of his religion. Their cardinal doctrine was
+the liberty of individual growth; removal of every barrier of prejudice
+or convention by which it might still be checked. He had been a Radical
+in youth, and probably in early manhood; he remained, in the truest
+sense of the word, a Liberal; and his position as such was defined in
+the sonnet prefixed in 1886 to Mr. Andrew Reid's essay, 'Why I am a
+Liberal', and bearing the same name. Its profession of faith did not,
+however, necessarily bind him to any political party. It separated him
+from all the newest developments of so-called Liberalism. He respected
+the rights of property. He was a true patriot, hating to see his country
+plunged into aggressive wars, but tenacious of her position among the
+empires of the world. He was also a passionate Unionist; although the
+question of our political relations with Ireland weighed less with him,
+as it has done with so many others, than those considerations of law and
+order, of honesty and humanity, which have been trampled under foot in
+the name of Home Rule. It grieved and surprised him to find himself on
+this subject at issue with so many valued friends; and no pain of Lost
+Leadership was ever more angry or more intense, than that which came to
+him through the defection of a great statesman whom he had honoured and
+loved, from what he believed to be the right cause.
+
+The character of Mr. Browning's friendships reveals itself in great
+measure in even a simple outline of his life. His first friends of
+his own sex were almost exclusively men of letters, by taste if not by
+profession; the circumstances of his entrance into society made this a
+matter of course. In later years he associated on cordial terms with
+men of very various interests and professions; and only writers of
+conspicuous merit, whether in prose or poetry, attracted him as such. No
+intercourse was more congenial to him than that of the higher class of
+English clergymen. He sympathized in their beliefs even when he did not
+share them. Above all he loved their culture; and the love of culture in
+general, of its old classic forms in particular, was as strong in him as
+if it had been formed by all the natural and conventional associations
+of a university career. He had hearty friends and appreciators among the
+dignitaries of the Church--successive Archbishops and Bishops, Deans
+of Westminster and St. Paul's. They all knew the value of the great
+freelance who fought like the gods of old with the regular army. No
+name, however, has been mentioned in the poet's family more frequently
+or with more affection than that of the Rev. J. D. W. Williams, Vicar
+of Bottisham in Cambridgeshire. The mutual acquaintance, which was made
+through Mr. Browning's brother-in-law, Mr. George Moulton-Barrett,
+was prepared by Mr. Williams' great love for his poems, of which he
+translated many into Latin and Greek; but I am convinced that Mr.
+Browning's delight in his friend's classical attainments was quite as
+great as his gratification in the tribute he himself derived from them.
+
+His love of genius was a worship: and in this we must include his whole
+life. Nor was it, as this feeling so often is, exclusively exercised
+upon the past. I do not suppose his more eminent contemporaries ever
+quite knew how generous his enthusiasm for them had been, how free from
+any under-current of envy, or impulse to avoidable criticism. He could
+not endure even just censure of one whom he believed, or had believed
+to be great. I have seen him wince under it, though no third person was
+present, and heard him answer, 'Don't! don't!' as if physical pain were
+being inflicted on him. In the early days he would make his friend, M.
+de Monclar, draw for him from memory the likenesses of famous writers
+whom he had known in Paris; the sketches thus made of George Sand and
+Victor Hugo are still in the poet's family. A still more striking
+and very touching incident refers to one of the winters, probably the
+second, which he spent in Paris. He was one day walking with little Pen,
+when Beranger came in sight, and he bade the child 'run up to' or 'run
+past that gentleman, and put his hand for a moment upon him.' This was
+a great man, he afterwards explained, and he wished his son to be able
+by-and-by to say that if he had not known, he had at all events touched
+him. Scientific genius ranked with him only second to the poetical.
+
+Mr. Browning's delicate professional sympathies justified some
+sensitiveness on his own account; but he was, I am convinced, as free
+from this quality as a man with a poet-nature could possibly be. It may
+seem hazardous to conjecture how serious criticism would have affected
+him. Few men so much 'reviewed' have experienced so little. He was by
+turns derided or ignored, enthusiastically praised, zealously analyzed
+and interpreted: but the independent judgment which could embrace at
+once the quality of his mind and its defects, is almost absent--has been
+so at all events during later years--from the volumes which have been
+written about him. I am convinced, nevertheless, that he would have
+accepted serious, even adverse criticism, if it had borne the impress of
+unbiassed thought and genuine sincerity. It could not be otherwise with
+one in whom the power of reverence was so strongly marked.
+
+He asked but one thing of his reviewers, as he asked but one thing of
+his larger public. The first demand is indicated in a letter to Mrs.
+Frank Hill, of January 31, 1884.
+
+
+Dear Mrs. Hill,--Could you befriend me? The 'Century' prints a little
+insignificance of mine--an impromptu sonnet--but prints it _correctly_.
+The 'Pall Mall' pleases to extract it--and produces what I enclose:
+one line left out, and a note of admiration (!) turned into an I, and
+a superfluous 'the' stuck in--all these blunders with the correctly
+printed text before it! So does the charge of unintelligibility attach
+itself to your poor friend--who can kick nobody. Robert Browning.
+
+
+The carelessness often shown in the most friendly quotation could hardly
+be absent from that which was intended to support a hostile view; and
+the only injustice of which he ever complained, was what he spoke of
+as falsely condemning him out of his own mouth. He used to say: 'If a
+critic declares that any poem of mine is unintelligible, the reader
+may go to it and judge for himself; but, if it is made to appear
+unintelligible by a passage extracted from it and distorted by
+misprints, I have no redress.' He also failed to realize those
+conditions of thought, and still more of expression, which made him
+often on first reading difficult to understand; and as the younger
+generation of his admirers often deny those difficulties where they
+exist, as emphatically as their grandfathers proclaimed them where they
+did not, public opinion gave him little help in the matter.
+
+The second (unspoken) request was in some sense an antithesis to the
+first. Mr. Browning desired to be read accurately but not literally. He
+deprecated the constant habit of reading him into his work; whether in
+search of the personal meaning of a given passage or poem, or in the
+light of a foregone conclusion as to what that meaning must be. The
+latter process was that generally preferred, because the individual mind
+naturally seeks its own reflection in the poet's work, as it does in the
+facts of nature. It was stimulated by the investigations of the Browning
+Societies, and by the partial familiarity with his actual life which
+constantly supplied tempting, if untrustworthy clues. It grew out of the
+strong personal as well as literary interest which he inspired. But the
+tendency to listen in his work for a single recurrent note always struck
+him as analogous to the inspection of a picture gallery with eyes blind
+to every colour but one; and the act of sympathy often involved in this
+mode of judgment was neutralized for him by the limitation of his genius
+which it presupposed. His general objection to being identified with
+his works is set forth in 'At the Mermaid', and other poems of the same
+volume, in which it takes the form of a rather captious protest against
+inferring from the poet any habit or quality of the man; and where also,
+under the impulse of the dramatic mood, he enforces the lesson by saying
+more than he can possibly mean. His readers might object that his
+human personality was so often plainly revealed in his poetic utterance
+(whether or not that of Shakespeare was), and so often also avowed by
+it, that the line which divided them became impossible to draw. But he
+again would have rejoined that the Poet could never express himself with
+any large freedom, unless a fiction of impersonality were granted to
+him. He might also have alleged, he often did allege, that in his case
+the fiction would hold a great deal of truth; since, except in
+the rarest cases, the very fact of poetic, above all of dramatic
+reproduction, detracts from the reality of the thought or feeling
+reproduced. It introduces the alloy of fancy without which the fixed
+outlines of even living experience cannot be welded into poetic form. He
+claimed, in short, that in judging of his work, one should allow for the
+action in it of the constructive imagination, in the exercise of which
+all deeper poetry consists. The form of literalism, which showed itself
+in seeking historical authority for every character or incident which he
+employed by way of illustration, was especially irritating to him.
+
+I may (as indeed I must) concede this much, without impugning either
+the pleasure or the gratitude with which he recognized the increasing
+interest in his poems, and, if sometimes exhibited in a mistaken form,
+the growing appreciation of them.
+
+There was another and more striking peculiarity in Mr. Browning's
+attitude towards his works: his constant conviction that the latest must
+be the best, because the outcome of the fullest mental experience, and
+of the longest practice in his art. He was keenly alive to the necessary
+failings of youthful literary production; he also practically denied to
+it that quality which so often places it at an advantage over that, not
+indeed of more mature manhood, but at all events of advancing age. There
+was much in his own experience to blind him to the natural effects of
+time; it had been a prolonged triumph over them. But the delusion, in so
+far as it was one, lay deeper than the testimony of such experience, and
+would I think have survived it. It was the essence of his belief that
+the mind is superior to physical change; that it may be helped or
+hindered by its temporary alliance with the body, but will none the less
+outstrip it in their joint course; and as intellect was for him the life
+of poetry, so was the power of poetry independent of bodily progress and
+bodily decline. This conviction pervaded his life. He learned, though
+happily very late, to feel age an impediment; he never accepted it as a
+disqualification.
+
+He finished his work very carefully. He had the better right to
+resent any garbling of it, that this habitually took place through
+his punctuation, which was always made with the fullest sense of its
+significance to any but the baldest style, and of its special importance
+to his own. I have heard him say: 'People accuse me of not taking pains!
+I take nothing _but_ pains!' And there was indeed a curious contrast
+between the irresponsible, often strangely unquestioned, impulse to
+which the substance of each poem was due, and the conscientious labour
+which he always devoted to its form. The laborious habit must have grown
+upon him; it was natural that it should do so as thought gained the
+ascendency over emotion in what he had to say. Mrs. Browning told Mr.
+Val Prinsep that her husband 'worked at a great rate;' and this fact
+probably connected itself with the difficulty he then found in altering
+the form or wording of any particular phrase; he wrote most frequently
+under that lyrical inspiration in which the idea and the form are least
+separable from each other. We know, however, that in the later editions
+of his old work he always corrected where he could; and if we notice
+the changed lines in 'Paracelsus' or 'Sordello', as they appear in the
+edition of 1863, or the slighter alterations indicated for the last
+reprint of his works, we are struck by the care evinced in them for
+greater smoothness of expression, as well as for greater accuracy and
+force.
+
+He produced less rapidly in later life, though he could throw off
+impromptu verses, whether serious or comical, with the utmost ease.
+His work was then of a kind which required more deliberation; and other
+claims had multiplied upon his time and thoughts. He was glad to have
+accomplished twenty or thirty lines in a morning. After lunch-time, for
+many years, he avoided, when possible, even answering a note. But he
+always counted a day lost on which he had not written something; and in
+those last years on which we have yet to enter, he complained bitterly
+of the quantity of ephemeral correspondence which kept him back from
+his proper work. He once wrote, on the occasion of a short illness which
+confined him to the house, 'All my power of imagination seems gone. I
+might as well be in bed!' He repeatedly determined to write a poem every
+day, and once succeeded for a fortnight in doing so. He was then in
+Paris, preparing 'Men and Women'. 'Childe Roland' and 'Women and Roses'
+were among those produced on this plan; the latter having been suggested
+by some flowers sent to his wife. The lyrics in 'Ferishtah's Fancies'
+were written, I believe, on consecutive days; and the intention renewed
+itself with his last work, though it cannot have been maintained.
+
+He was not as great a reader in later as in earlier years; he had
+neither time nor available strength to be so if he had wished; and he
+absorbed almost unconsciously every item which added itself to the
+sum of general knowledge. Books had indeed served for him their most
+important purpose when they had satisfied the first curiosities of his
+genius, and enabled it to establish its independence. His mind was made
+up on the chief subjects of contemporary thought, and what was novel or
+controversial in its proceeding had no attraction for him. He would read
+anything, short of an English novel, to a friend whose eyes required
+this assistance; but such pleasure as he derived from the act was more
+often sympathetic than spontaneous, even when he had not, as he often
+had, selected for it a book which he already knew. In the course of his
+last decade he devoted himself for a short time to the study of Spanish
+and Hebrew. The Spanish dramatists yielded him a fund of new enjoyment;
+and he delighted in his power of reading Hebrew in its most difficult
+printed forms. He also tried, but with less result, to improve his
+knowledge of German. His eyesight defied all obstacles of bad paper and
+ancient type, and there was anxiety as well as pleasure to those about
+him in his unfailing confidence in its powers. He never wore spectacles,
+nor had the least consciousness of requiring them. He would read an
+old closely printed volume by the waning light of a winter afternoon,
+positively refusing to use a lamp. Indeed his preference of the faintest
+natural light to the best that could be artificially produced was
+perhaps the one suggestion of coming change. He used for all purposes
+a single eye; for the two did not combine in their action, the right
+serving exclusively for near, the left for distant objects. This was why
+in walking he often closed the right eye; while it was indispensable
+to his comfort in reading, not only that the light should come from
+the right side, but that the left should be shielded from any luminous
+object, like the fire, which even at the distance of half the length of
+a room would strike on his field of vision and confuse the near sight.
+
+His literary interest became increasingly centred on records of the
+lives of men and women; especially of such men and women as he had
+known; he was generally curious to see the newly published biographies,
+though often disappointed by them. He would also read, even for his
+amusement, good works of French or Italian fiction. His allegiance to
+Balzac remained unshaken, though he was conscious of lengthiness when he
+read him aloud. This author's deep and hence often poetic realism was,
+I believe, bound up with his own earliest aspirations towards dramatic
+art. His manner of reading aloud a story which he already knew was
+the counterpart of his own method of construction. He would claim his
+listener's attention for any apparently unimportant fact which had a
+part to play in it: he would say: 'Listen to this description: it will
+be important. Observe this character: you will see a great deal more of
+him or her.' We know that in his own work nothing was thrown away; no
+note was struck which did not add its vibration to the general utterance
+of the poem; and his habitual generosity towards a fellow-worker
+prompted him to seek and recognize the same quality, even in productions
+where it was less conspicuous than in his own. The patient reading which
+he required for himself was justified by that which he always demanded
+for others; and he claimed it less in his own case for his possible
+intricacies of thought or style, than for that compactness of living
+structure in which every detail or group of details was essential to the
+whole, and in a certain sense contained it. He read few things with so
+much pleasure as an occasional chapter in the Old Testament.
+
+Mr. Browning was a brilliant talker; he was admittedly more a talker
+than a conversationalist. But this quality had nothing in common with
+self-assertion or love of display. He had too much respect for the
+acquirements of other men to wish to impose silence on those who
+were competent to speak; and he had great pleasure in listening to a
+discussion on any subject in which he was interested, and on which
+he was not specially informed. He never willingly monopolized the
+conversation; but when called upon to take a prominent part in it,
+either with one person or with several, the flow of remembered knowledge
+and revived mental experience, combined with the ingenuous eagerness to
+vindicate some point in dispute would often carry him away; while his
+hearers, nearly as often, allowed him to proceed from absence of any
+desire to interrupt him. This great mental fertility had been prepared
+by the wide reading and thorough assimilation of his early days; and it
+was only at a later, and in certain respects less vigorous period, that
+its full bearing could be seen. His memory for passing occurrences, even
+such as had impressed him, became very weak; it was so before he had
+grown really old; and he would urge this fact in deprecation of any want
+of kindness or sympathy, which a given act of forgetfulness might seem
+to involve. He had probably always, in matters touching his own life,
+the memory of feelings more than that of facts. I think this has been
+described as a peculiarity of the poet-nature; and though this memory
+is probably the more tenacious of the two, it is no safe guide to the
+recovery of facts, still less to that of their order and significance.
+Yet up to the last weeks, even the last conscious days of his life,
+his remembrance of historical incident, his aptness of literary
+illustration, never failed him. His dinner-table anecdotes supplied,
+of course, no measure for this spontaneous reproductive power; yet some
+weight must be given to the number of years during which he could
+abound in such stories, and attest their constant appropriateness by not
+repeating them.
+
+This brilliant mental quality had its drawback, on which I have already
+touched in a rather different connection: the obstacle which it created
+to even serious and private conversation on any subject on which he was
+not neutral. Feeling, imagination, and the vividness of personal points
+of view, constantly thwarted the attempt at a dispassionate exchange of
+ideas. But the balance often righted itself when the excitement of
+the discussion was at an end; and it would even become apparent that
+expressions or arguments which he had passed over unheeded, or as it
+seemed unheard, had stored themselves in his mind and borne fruit there.
+
+I think it is Mr. Sharp who has remarked that Mr. Browning combined
+impulsiveness of manner with much real reserve. He was habitually
+reticent where his deeper feelings were concerned; and the impulsiveness
+and the reticence were both equally rooted in his poetic and human
+temperament. The one meant the vital force of his emotions, the other
+their sensibility. In a smaller or more prosaic nature they must have
+modified each other. But the partial secretiveness had also occasionally
+its conscious motives, some unselfish, and some self-regarding; and from
+this point of view it stood in marked apparent antagonism to the more
+expansive quality. He never, however, intentionally withheld from others
+such things as it concerned them to know. His intellectual and religious
+convictions were open to all who seriously sought them; and if, even
+on such points, he did not appear communicative, it was because he took
+more interest in any subject of conversation which did not directly
+centre in himself.
+
+Setting aside the delicacies which tend to self-concealment, and for
+which he had been always more or less conspicuous; excepting also the
+pride which would co-operate with them, all his inclinations were in
+the direction of truth; there was no quality which he so much loved
+and admired. He thought aloud wherever he could trust himself to do so.
+Impulse predominated in all the active manifestations of his nature. The
+fiery child and the impatient boy had left their traces in the man; and
+with them the peculiar childlike quality which the man of genius never
+outgrows, and which, in its mingled waywardness and sweetness, was
+present in Robert Browning till almost his dying day. There was also a
+recurrent touch of hardness, distinct from the comparatively ungenial
+mood of his earlier years of widowhood; and this, like his reserve,
+seemed to conflict with his general character, but in reality harmonized
+with it. It meant, not that feeling was suspended in him, but that it
+was compressed. It was his natural response to any opposition which his
+reasonings could not shake nor his will overcome, and which, rightly
+or not, conveyed to him the sense of being misunderstood. It reacted in
+pain for others, but it lay with an aching weight on his own heart, and
+was thrown off in an upheaval of the pent-up kindliness and affection,
+the moment their true springs were touched. The hardening power in his
+composition, though fugitive and comparatively seldom displayed, was in
+fact proportioned to his tenderness; and no one who had not seen him
+in the revulsion from a hard mood, or the regret for it, knew what that
+tenderness could be.
+
+Underlying all the peculiarities of his nature, its strength and its
+weakness, its exuberance and its reserves, was the nervous excitability
+of which I have spoken in an earlier chapter. I have heard him say:
+'I am nervous to such a degree that I might fancy I could not enter a
+drawing-room, if I did not know from long experience that I can do it.'
+He did not desire to conceal this fact, nor need others conceal it for
+him; since it was only calculated to disarm criticism and to
+strengthen sympathy. The special vital power which he derived from this
+organization need not be reaffirmed. It carried also its inevitable
+disablements. Its resources were not always under his own control; and
+he frequently complained of the lack of presence of mind which would
+seize him on any conventional emergency not included in the daily social
+routine. In a real one he was never at fault. He never failed in a
+sympathetic response or a playful retort; he was always provided with
+the exact counter requisite in a game of words. In this respect indeed
+he had all the powers of the conversationalist; and the perfect ease and
+grace and geniality of his manner on such occasions, arose probably
+far more from his innate human and social qualities than from even his
+familiar intercourse with the world. But he could not extemporize a
+speech. He could not on the spur of the moment string together the
+more or less set phrases which an after-dinner oration demands. All his
+friends knew this, and spared him the necessity of refusing. He had
+once a headache all day, because at a dinner, the night before, a false
+report had reached him that he was going to be asked to speak. This
+alone would have sufficed to prevent him from accepting any public
+post. He confesses the disability in a pretty note to Professor Knight,
+written in reference to a recent meeting of the Wordsworth Society.
+
+
+19, Warwick Crescent, W.: May 9, '84.
+
+My dear Professor Knight,--I seem ungracious and ungrateful, but am
+neither; though, now that your festival is over, I wish I could have
+overcome my scruples and apprehensions. It is hard to say--when kind
+people press one to 'just speak for a minute'--that the business,
+so easy to almost anybody, is too bewildering for oneself. Ever truly
+yours, Robert Browning.
+
+
+A Rectorial Address need probably not have been extemporized, but it
+would also have been irksome to him to prepare. He was not accustomed
+to uttering himself in prose except within the limits, and under
+the incitements, of private correspondence. The ceremonial publicity
+attaching to all official proceedings would also have inevitably been a
+trial to him. He did at one of the Wordsworth Society meetings speak a
+sentence from the chair, in the absence of the appointed chairman,
+who had not yet arrived; and when he had received his degree from the
+University of Edinburgh he was persuaded to say a few words to the
+assembled students, in which I believe he thanked them for their warm
+welcome; but such exceptions only proved the rule.
+
+We cannot doubt that the excited stream of talk which sometimes flowed
+from him was, in the given conditions of mind and imagination, due to
+a nervous impulse which he could not always restrain; and that the
+effusiveness of manner with which he greeted alike old friends and new,
+arose also from a momentary want of self-possession. We may admit this
+the more readily that in both cases it was allied to real kindness
+of intention, above all in the latter, where the fear of seeming cold
+towards even a friend's friend, strove increasingly with the defective
+memory for names and faces which were not quite familiar to him. He was
+also profoundly averse to the idea of posing as a man of superior
+gifts; having indeed, in regard to social intercourse, as little of the
+fastidiousness of genius as of its bohemianism. He, therefore, made it
+a rule, from the moment he took his place as a celebrity in the London
+world, to exert himself for the amusement of his fellow-guests at a
+dinner-table, whether their own mental resources were great or small;
+and this gave rise to a frequent effort at conversation, which converted
+itself into a habit, and ended by carrying him away. This at least was
+his own conviction in the matter. The loud voice, which so many persons
+must have learned to think habitual with him, bore also traces of this
+half-unconscious nervous stimulation.* It was natural to him in anger
+or excitement, but did not express his gentler or more equable states
+of feeling; and when he read to others on a subject which moved him,
+his utterance often subsided into a tremulous softness which left it
+scarcely audible.
+
+     * Miss Browning reminds me that loud speaking had become
+     natural to him through the deafness of several of his
+     intimate friends: Landor, Kirkup, Barry Cornwall, and
+     previously his uncle Reuben, whose hearing had been impaired
+     in early life by a blow from a cricket ball. This fact
+     necessarily modifies my impression of the case, but does not
+     quite destroy it.
+
+The mental conditions under which his powers of sympathy were exercised
+imposed no limits on his spontaneous human kindness. This characteristic
+benevolence, or power of love, is not fully represented in Mr.
+Browning's works; it is certainly not prominent in those of the later
+period, during which it found the widest scope in his life; but he has
+in some sense given its measure in what was intended as an illustration
+of the opposite quality. He tells us, in 'Fifine at the Fair', that
+while the best strength of women is to be found in their love, the best
+product of a man is only yielded to hate. It is the 'indignant wine'
+which has been wrung from the grape plant by its external mutilation. He
+could depict it dramatically in more malignant forms of emotion; but he
+could only think of it personally as the reaction of a nobler feeling
+which has been gratuitously outraged or repressed.
+
+He more directly, and still more truly, described himself when he said
+at about the same time, 'I have never at any period of my life been deaf
+to an appeal made to me in the name of love.' He was referring to an
+experience of many years before, in which he had even yielded his better
+judgment to such an appeal; and it was love in the larger sense for
+which the concession had been claimed.
+
+It was impossible that so genuine a poet, and so real a man, should be
+otherwise than sensitive to the varied forms of feminine attraction. He
+avowedly preferred the society of women to that of men; they were, as
+I have already said, his habitual confidants, and, evidently, his most
+frequent correspondents; and though he could have dispensed with woman
+friends as he dispensed with many other things--though he most often won
+them without knowing it--his frank interest in their sex, and the often
+caressing kindness of manner in which it was revealed, might justly
+be interpreted by individual women into a conscious appeal to their
+sympathy. It was therefore doubly remarkable that on the ground of
+benevolence, he scarcely discriminated between the claim on him of a
+woman, and that of a man; and his attitude towards women was in this
+respect so distinctive as to merit some words of notice. It was large,
+generous, and unconventional; but, for that very reason, it was not,
+in the received sense of the word, chivalrous. Chivalry proceeds on
+the assumption that women not only cannot, but should not, take care
+of themselves in any active struggle with life; Mr. Browning had no
+theoretical objection to a woman's taking care of herself. He saw no
+reason why, if she was hit, she should not hit back again, or even
+why, if she hit, she should not receive an answering blow. He responded
+swiftly to every feminine appeal to his kindness or his protection,
+whether arising from physical weakness or any other obvious cause of
+helplessness or suffering; but the appeal in such cases lay first to his
+humanity, and only in second order to his consideration of sex. He would
+have had a man flogged who beat his wife; he would have had one flogged
+who ill-used a child--or an animal: he was notedly opposed to any
+sweeping principle or practice of vivisection. But he never quite
+understood that the strongest women are weak, or at all events
+vulnerable, in the very fact of their sex, through the minor traditions
+and conventions with which society justly, indeed necessarily,
+surrounds them. Still less did he understand those real, if impalpable,
+differences between men and women which correspond to the difference
+of position. He admitted the broad distinctions which have become
+proverbial, and are therefore only a rough measure of the truth. He
+could say on occasion: 'You ought to _be_ better; you are a woman; I ought
+to _know_ better; I am a man.' But he had had too large an experience of
+human nature to attach permanent weight to such generalizations; and
+they found certainly no expression in his works. Scarcely an instance of
+a conventional, or so-called man's woman, occurs in their whole range.
+Excepting perhaps the speaker in 'A Woman's Last Word', 'Pompilia' and
+'Mildred' are the nearest approach to it; and in both of these we
+find qualities of imagination or thought which place them outside the
+conventional type. He instinctively judged women, both morally and
+intellectually, by the same standards as men; and when confronted by
+some divergence of thought or feeling, which meant, in the woman's case,
+neither quality nor defect in any strict sense of the word, but simply
+a nature trained to different points of view, an element of perplexity
+entered into his probable opposition. When the difference presented
+itself in a neutral aspect, it affected him like the casual
+peculiarities of a family or a group, or a casual disagreement between
+things of the same kind. He would say to a woman friend: 'You women are
+so different from men!' in the tone in which he might have said, 'You
+Irish, or you Scotch, are so different from Englishmen;' or again, 'It
+is impossible for a man to judge how a woman would act in such or such
+a case; you are so different;' the case being sometimes one in which
+it would be inconceivable to a normal woman, and therefore to the
+generality of men, that she should act in any but one way.
+
+The vague sense of mystery with which the poet's mind usually invests
+a being of the opposite sex, had thus often in him its counterpart in
+a puzzled dramatic curiosity which constituted an equal ground of
+interest.
+
+This virtual admission of equality between the sexes, combined with his
+Liberal principles to dispose him favourably towards the movement for
+Female Emancipation. He approved of everything that had been done for
+the higher instruction of women, and would, not very long ago,
+have supported their admission to the Franchise. But he was so much
+displeased by the more recent action of some of the lady advocates of
+Women's Rights, that, during the last year of his life, after various
+modifications of opinion, he frankly pledged himself to the opposite
+view. He had even visions of writing a tragedy or drama in support of
+it. The plot was roughly sketched, and some dialogue composed, though I
+believe no trace of this remains.
+
+It is almost implied by all I have said, that he possessed in every mood
+the charm of perfect simplicity of manner. On this point he resembled
+his father. His tastes lay also in the direction of great simplicity of
+life, though circumstances did not allow of his indulging them to the
+same extent. It may interest those who never saw him to know that he
+always dressed as well as the occasion required, and always with great
+indifference to the subject. In Florence he wore loose clothes which
+were adapted to the climate; in London his coats were cut by a good
+tailor in whatever was the prevailing fashion; the change was simply
+with him an incident of the situation. He had also a look of dainty
+cleanliness which was heightened by the smooth healthy texture of the
+skin, and in later life by the silvery whiteness of his hair.
+
+His best photographic likenesses were those taken by Mr. Fradelle in
+1881, Mr. Cameron and Mr. William Grove in 1888 and 1889.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 21
+
+1887-1889
+
+Marriage of Mr. Barrett Browning--Removal to De Vere Gardens--Symptoms
+of failing Strength--New Poems; New Edition of his Works--Letters to Mr.
+George Bainton, Mr. Smith, and Lady Martin--Primiero and Venice--Letters
+to Miss Keep--The last Year in London--Asolo--Letters to Mrs.
+Fitz-Gerald, Mrs. Skirrow, and Mr. G. M. Smith.
+
+
+
+The last years of Mr. Browning's life were introduced by two auspicious
+events, in themselves of very unequal importance, but each in its own
+way significant for his happiness and his health. One was his son's
+marriage on October 4, 1887, to Miss Fannie Coddington, of New York, a
+lady towards whom Mr. Barrett Browning had been strongly attracted when
+he was a very young man and she little more than a child; the other, his
+own removal from Warwick Crescent to De Vere Gardens, which took place
+in the previous June. The change of residence had long been with him
+only a question of opportunity. He was once even in treaty for a piece
+of ground at Kensington, and intended building a house. That in which
+he had lived for so many years had faults of construction and situation
+which the lapse of time rendered only more conspicuous; the Regent's
+Canal Bill had also doomed it to demolition; and when an opening
+presented itself for securing one in all essentials more suitable, he
+was glad to seize it, though at the eleventh hour. He had mentally fixed
+on the new locality in those earlier days in which he still thought his
+son might eventually settle in London; and it possessed at the same time
+many advantages for himself. It was warmer and more sheltered than any
+which he could have found on the north side of the Park; and, in that
+close vicinity to Kensington Gardens, walking might be contemplated as a
+pleasure, instead of mere compulsory motion from place to place. It was
+only too soon apparent that the time had passed when he could reap much
+benefit from the event; but he became aware from the first moment of his
+installation in the new home that the conditions of physical life had
+become more favourable for him. He found an almost pathetic pleasure
+in completing the internal arrangements of the well-built, commodious
+house. It seems, on looking back, as if the veil had dropped before his
+eyes which sometimes shrouds the keenest vision in face of an impending
+change; and he had imagined, in spite of casual utterances which
+disclaimed the hope, that a new lease of life was being given to him. He
+had for several years been preparing for the more roomy dwelling which
+he would probably some day inhabit; and handsome pieces of old furniture
+had been stowed away in the house in Warwick Crescent, pending the
+occasion for their use. He loved antiquities of this kind, in a manner
+which sometimes recalled his father's affection for old books; and most
+of these had been bought in Venice, where frequent visits to the
+noted curiosity-shops had been his one bond of habit with his tourist
+countrymen in that city. They matched the carved oak and massive
+gildings and valuable tapestries which had carried something of Casa
+Guidi into his first London home. Brass lamps that had once hung inside
+chapels in some Catholic church, had long occupied the place of the
+habitual gaselier; and to these was added in the following year one of
+silver, also brought from Venice--the Jewish 'Sabbath lamp'. Another
+acquisition, made only a few months, if indeed so long, before he left
+London for the last time, was that of a set of casts representing the
+Seasons, which were to stand at intervals on brackets in a certain
+unsightly space on his drawing-room wall; and he had said of these,
+which I think his son was procuring for him: 'Only my four little heads,
+and then I shall not buy another thing for the house'--in a tone of
+childlike satisfaction at his completed work.
+
+This summer he merely went to St. Moritz, where he and his sister were,
+for the greater part of their stay, again guests of Mrs. Bloomfield
+Moore. He was determined to give the London winter a fuller trial in the
+more promising circumstances of his new life, and there was much to
+be done in De Vere Gardens after his return. His father's six thousand
+books, together with those he had himself accumulated, were for the
+first time to be spread out in their proper array, instead of crowding
+together in rows, behind and behind each other. The new bookcases, which
+could stand in the large new study, were waiting to receive them. He did
+not know until he tried to fulfil it how greatly the task would tax his
+strength. The library was, I believe, never completely arranged.
+
+During this winter of 1887-8 his friends first perceived that a change
+had come over him. They did not realize that his life was drawing to a
+close; it was difficult to do so when so much of the former elasticity
+remained; when he still proclaimed himself 'quite well' so long as he
+was not definitely suffering. But he was often suffering; one terrible
+cold followed another. There was general evidence that he had at last
+grown old. He, however, made no distinct change in his mode of life. Old
+habits, suspended by his longer imprisonments to the house, were resumed
+as soon as he was set free. He still dined out; still attended the
+private view of every, or almost every art exhibition. He kept up his
+unceasing correspondence--in one or two cases voluntarily added to it;
+though he would complain day after day that his fingers ached from
+the number of hours through which he had held his pen. One of the
+interesting letters of this period was written to Mr. George Bainton, of
+Coventry, to be used, as that gentleman tells me, in the preparation of
+a lecture on the 'Art of Effective Written Composition'. It confirms the
+statement I have had occasion to make, that no extraneous influence ever
+permanently impressed itself on Mr. Browning's style.
+
+
+29, De Vere Gardens: Oct. 6, '87.
+
+Dear Sir,--I was absent from London when your kind letter reached
+this house, to which I removed some time ago--hence the delay in
+acknowledging your kindness and replying, in some degree, to your
+request. All I can say, however, is this much--and very little--that,
+by the indulgence of my father and mother, I was allowed to live my own
+life and choose my own course in it; which, having been the same from
+the beginning to the end, necessitated a permission to read nearly all
+sorts of books, in a well-stocked and very miscellaneous library. I had
+no other direction than my parents' taste for whatever was highest and
+best in literature; but I found out for myself many forgotten fields
+which proved the richest of pastures: and, so far as a preference of
+a particular 'style' is concerned, I believe mine was just the same
+at first as at last. I cannot name any one author who exclusively
+influenced me in that respect,--as to the fittest expression of
+thought--but thought itself had many impulsions from very various
+sources, a matter not to your present purpose. I repeat, this is
+very little to say, but all in my power--and it is heartily at your
+service--if not as of any value, at least as a proof that I gratefully
+feel your kindness, and am, dear Sir Yours very truly, Robert Browning.
+
+
+In December 1887 he wrote 'Rosny', the first poem in 'Asolando', and
+that which perhaps most displays his old subtle dramatic power; it was
+followed by 'Beatrice Signorini' and 'Flute-Music'. Of the 'Bad Dreams'
+two or three were also written in London, I think, during that winter.
+The 'Ponte dell' Angelo' was imagined during the next autumn in Venice.
+'White Witchcraft' had been suggested in the same summer by a letter
+from a friend in the Channel Islands which spoke of the number of toads
+to be seen there. In the spring of 1888 he began revising his works for
+the last, and now entirely uniform edition, which was issued in monthly
+volumes, and completed by the July of 1889. Important verbal corrections
+were made in 'The Inn Album', though not, I think, in many of the later
+poems; but that in which he found most room for improvement was, very
+naturally, 'Pauline'; and he wrote concerning it to Mr. Smith the
+following interesting letter.
+
+
+29, De Vere Gardens, W.: Feb. 27, '88.
+
+My dear Smith,--When I received the Proofs of the 1st. vol. on Friday
+evening, I made sure of returning them next day--so accurately are they
+printed. But on looking at that unlucky 'Pauline', which I have not
+touched for half a century, a sudden impulse came over me to take the
+opportunity of just correcting the most obvious faults of expression,
+versification and construction,--letting the _thoughts_--such as they
+are--remain exactly as at first: I have only treated the imperfect
+expression of these just as I have now and then done for an amateur
+friend, if he asked me and I liked him enough to do so. Not a line
+is displaced, none added, none taken away. I have just sent it to the
+printer's with an explanatory word: and told him that he will have less
+trouble with all the rest of the volumes put together than with this
+little portion. I expect to return all the rest to-morrow or next day.
+
+As for the sketch--the portrait--it admits of no very superior
+treatment: but, as it is the only one which makes me out youngish,--I
+should like to know if an artist could not strengthen the thing by a
+pencil touch or two in a few minutes--improve the eyes, eyebrows, and
+mouth somewhat. The head too wants improvement: were Pen here he could
+manage it all in a moment. Ever truly yours, Robert Browning.
+
+
+Any attempt at modifying the expressed thoughts of his twenty-first year
+would have been, as he probably felt, a futile tampering with the work
+of another man; his literary conscience would have forbidden this, if it
+had been otherwise possible. But he here proves by his own words what I
+have already asserted, that the power of detail correction either was,
+or had become by experience, very strong in him.
+
+The history of this summer of 1888 is partly given in a letter to Lady
+Martin.
+
+
+29, De Vere Gardens, W.: Aug. 12, '88.
+
+Dear Lady Martin,--The date of your kind letter,--June 18,--would affect
+me indeed, but for the good conscience I retain despite of appearances.
+So uncertain have I been as to the course we should take,--my sister and
+myself--when the time came for leaving town, that it seemed as if
+'next week' might be the eventful week when all doubts would
+disappear--perhaps the strange cold weather and interminable rain made
+it hard to venture from under one's roof even in fancy of being better
+lodged elsewhere. This very day week it was the old story--cold--then
+followed the suffocating eight or nine tropical days which forbade any
+more delay, and we leave to-morrow for a place called Primiero, near
+Feltre--where my son and his wife assure us we may be comfortably--and
+coolly--housed, until we can accompany them to Venice, which we may stay
+at for a short time. You remember our troubles at Llangollen about the
+purchase of a Venetian house . . . ? My son, however, nothing daunted,
+and acting under abler counsels than I was fortunate enough to obtain,*
+has obtained a still more desirable acquisition, in the shape of the
+well-known Rezzonico Palace (that of Pope Clement 13th)--and, I believe,
+is to be congratulated on his bargain. I cannot profess the same
+interest in this as in the earlier object of his ambition, but am quite
+satisfied by the evident satisfaction of the 'young people'. So,--by the
+old law of compensation,--while we may expect pleasant days abroad--our
+chance is gone of once again enjoying your company in your own lovely
+Vale of Llangollen;--had we not been pulled otherwise by the inducements
+we could not resist,--another term of delightful weeks--each tipped
+with a sweet starry Sunday at the little church leading to the
+House Beautiful where we took our rest of an evening spent always
+memorably--this might have been our fortunate lot once again! As it is,
+perhaps we need more energetic treatment than we should get with you
+--for both of us are more oppressed than ever by the exigencies of
+the lengthy season, and require still more bracing air than the
+gently lulling temperature of Wales. May it be doing you, and dear Sir
+Theodore, all the good you deserve--throwing in the share due to us, who
+must forego it! With all love from us both, ever affectionately yours
+Robert Browning.
+
+     * Those of Mr. Alexander Malcolm.
+
+He did start for Italy on the following day, but had become so ill, that
+he was on the point of postponing his departure. He suffered throughout
+the journey as he had never suffered on any journey before; and during
+his first few days at Primiero, could only lead the life of an invalid.
+He rallied, however, as usual, under the potent effects of quiet,
+fresh air, and sunshine; and fully recovered his normal state before
+proceeding to Venice, where the continued sense of physical health
+combined with many extraneous circumstances to convert his proposed
+short stay into a long one. A letter from the mountains, addressed to a
+lady who had never been abroad, and to whom he sometimes wrote with more
+descriptive detail than to other friends, gives a touching glimpse of
+his fresh delight in the beauties of nature, and his tender constant
+sympathy with the animal creation.
+
+
+Primiero: Sept. 7, '88.
+
+. . . . .
+
+'The weather continues exquisitely temperate, yet sunny, ever since the
+clearing thunderstorm of which I must have told you in my last. It is, I
+am more and more confirmed in believing, the most beautiful place I
+was ever resident in: far more so than Gressoney or even St.-Pierre de
+Chartreuse. You would indeed delight in seeing the magnificence of the
+mountains,--the range on either side, which morning and evening, in
+turn, transmute literally to gold,--I mean what I say. Their utterly
+bare ridges of peaks and crags of all shape, quite naked of verdure,
+glow like yellow ore; and, at times, there is a silver change, as the
+sun prevails or not.
+
+'The valley is one green luxuriance on all sides; Indian corn, with
+beans, gourds, and even cabbages, filling up the interstices; and the
+flowers, though not presenting any novelty to my uninstructed eyes,
+yet surely more large and purely developed than I remember to have seen
+elsewhere. For instance, the tiger-lilies in the garden here must be
+above ten feet high, every bloom faultless, and, what strikes me as
+peculiar, every leaf on the stalk from bottom to top as perfect as if no
+insect existed to spoil them by a notch or speck. . . .
+
+'. . . Did I tell you we had a little captive fox,--the most engaging
+of little vixens? To my great joy she has broken her chain and escaped,
+never to be recaptured, I trust. The original wild and untameable nature
+was to be plainly discerned even in this early stage of the whelp's
+life: she dug herself, with such baby feet, a huge hole, the use
+of which was evident, when, one day, she pounced thence on a stray
+turkey--allured within reach by the fragments of fox's breakfast,--the
+intruder escaping with the loss of his tail. The creature came back one
+night to explore the old place of captivity,--ate some food and retired.
+For myself,--I continue absolutely well: I do not walk much, but for
+more than amends, am in the open air all day long.'
+
+
+No less striking is a short extract from a letter written in Venice to
+the same friend, Miss Keep.
+
+
+Ca' Alvise: Oct. 16, '88.
+
+'Every morning at six, I see the sun rise; far more wonderfully, to my
+mind, than his famous setting, which everybody glorifies. My bedroom
+window commands a perfect view: the still, grey lagune, the few seagulls
+flying, the islet of S. Giorgio in deep shadow, and the clouds in a
+long purple rack, behind which a sort of spirit of rose burns up till
+presently all the rims are on fire with gold, and last of all the orb
+sends before it a long column of its own essence apparently: so my day
+begins.'
+
+
+We feel, as we read these late, and even later words, that the lyric
+imagination was renewing itself in the incipient dissolution of other
+powers. It is the Browning of 'Pippa Passes' who speaks in them.
+
+He suffered less on the whole during the winter of 1888-9. It was
+already advanced when he returned to England; and the attacks of cold
+and asthma were either shorter or less frequent. He still maintained
+throughout the season his old social routine, not omitting his yearly
+visit, on the anniversary of Waterloo, to Lord Albemarle, its
+last surviving veteran. He went for some days to Oxford during the
+commemoration week, and had for the first, as also last time, the
+pleasure of Dr. Jowett's almost exclusive society at his beloved Balliol
+College. He proceeded with his new volume of poems. A short letter
+written to Professor Knight, June 16, and of which the occasion speaks
+for itself, fitly closes the labours of his life; for it states his view
+of the position and function of poetry, in one brief phrase, which might
+form the text to an exhaustive treatise upon them.
+
+
+29, De Vere Gardens, W.: June 16, 1889.
+
+My dear Professor Knight,--I am delighted to hear that there is a
+likelihood of your establishing yourself in Glasgow, and illustrating
+Literature as happily as you have expounded Philosophy at St. Andrews.
+It is certainly the right order of things: Philosophy first, and Poetry,
+which is its highest outcome, afterward--and much harm has been done by
+reversing the natural process. How capable you are of doing justice
+to the highest philosophy embodied in poetry, your various studies of
+Wordsworth prove abundantly; and for the sake of both Literature and
+Philosophy I wish you success with all my heart.
+
+Believe me, dear Professor Knight, yours very truly, Robert Browning.
+
+
+But he experienced, when the time came, more than his habitual
+disinclination for leaving home. A distinct shrinking from the fatigue
+of going to Italy now added itself to it; for he had suffered when
+travelling back in the previous winter, almost as much as on the outward
+journey, though he attributed the distress to a different cause: his
+nerves were, he thought, shaken by the wearing discomforts incidental
+on a broken tooth. He was for the first time painfully sensitive to
+the vibration of the train. He had told his friends, both in Venice and
+London, that so far as he was able to determine, he would never return
+to Italy. But it was necessary he should go somewhere, and he had no
+alternative plan. For a short time in this last summer he entertained
+the idea of a visit to Scotland; it had indeed definitely shaped itself
+in his mind; but an incident, trivial in itself, though he did not think
+it so, destroyed the first scheme, and it was then practically too late
+to form another. During the second week in August the weather broke.
+There could no longer be any question of the northward journey without
+even a fixed end in view. His son and daughter had taken possession of
+their new home, the Palazzo Rezzonico, and were anxious to see him and
+Miss Browning there; their wishes naturally had weight. The casting vote
+in favour of Venice was given by a letter from Mrs. Bronson, proposing
+Asolo as the intermediate stage. She had fitted up for herself a little
+summer retreat there, and promised that her friends should, if they
+joined her, be also comfortably installed. The journey was this time
+propitious. It was performed without imprudent haste, and Mr. Browning
+reached Asolo unfatigued and to all appearance well.
+
+He saw this, his first love among Italian cities, at a season of the
+year more favourable to its beauty than even that of his first visit;
+yet he must himself have been surprised by the new rapture of admiration
+which it created in him, and which seemed to grow with his lengthened
+stay. This state of mind was the more striking, that new symptoms of his
+physical decline were now becoming apparent, and were in themselves of a
+depressing kind. He wrote to a friend in England, that the atmosphere
+of Asolo, far from being oppressive, produced in him all the effects of
+mountain air, and he was conscious of difficulty of breathing whenever
+he walked up hill. He also suffered, as the season advanced, great
+inconvenience from cold. The rooms occupied by himself and his sister
+were both unprovided with fireplaces; and though the daily dinner with
+Mrs. Bronson obviated the discomfort of the evenings, there remained
+still too many hours of the autumnal day in which the impossibility of
+heating their own little apartment must have made itself unpleasantly
+felt. The latter drawback would have been averted by the fulfilment of
+Mr. Browning's first plan, to be in Venice by the beginning of October,
+and return to the comforts of his own home before the winter had quite
+set in; but one slight motive for delay succeeded another, till at last
+a more serious project introduced sufficient ground of detention. He
+seemed possessed by a strange buoyancy--an almost feverish joy in life,
+which blunted all sensations of physical distress, or helped him to
+misinterpret them. When warned against the imprudence of remaining where
+he knew he suffered from cold, and believed, rightly or wrongly, that
+his asthmatic tendencies were increased, he would reply that he was
+growing acclimatized--that he was quite well. And, in a fitful or
+superficial sense, he must have been so.
+
+His letters of that period are one continuous picture, glowing with
+his impressions of the things which they describe. The same words will
+repeat themselves as the same subject presents itself to his pen; but
+the impulse to iteration scarcely ever affects us as mechanical.
+It seems always a fresh response to some new stimulus to thought or
+feeling, which he has received. These reach him from every side. It is
+not only the Asolo of this peaceful later time which has opened before
+him, but the Asolo of 'Pippa Passes' and 'Sordello'; that which first
+stamped itself on his imagination in the echoes of the Court life of
+Queen Catharine,* and of the barbaric wars of the Eccelini. Some of his
+letters dwell especially on these early historical associations: on the
+strange sense of reopening the ancient chronicle which he had so deeply
+studied fifty years before. The very phraseology of the old Italian
+text, which I am certain he had never glanced at from that distant time,
+is audible in an account of the massacre of San Zenone, the scene of
+which he has been visiting. To the same correspondent he says that
+his two hours' drive to Asolo 'seemed to be a dream;' and again, after
+describing, or, as he thinks, only trying to describe some beautiful
+feature of the place, 'but it is indescribable!'
+
+     * Catharine Cornaro, the dethroned queen of Cyprus.
+
+A letter addressed to Mrs. FitzGerald, October 8, 1889, is in part a
+fitting sequel to that which he had written to her from the same spot,
+eleven years before.
+
+
+'. . . Fortunately there is little changed here: my old
+Albergo,--ruinous with earthquake--is down and done with--but few
+novelties are observable--except the regrettable one that the silk
+industry has been transported elsewhere--to Cornuda and other places
+nearer the main railway. No more Pippas--at least of the silk-winding
+sort!
+
+'But the pretty type is far from extinct.
+
+'Autumn is beginning to paint the foliage, but thin it as well; and
+the sea of fertility all round our height, which a month ago showed
+pomegranates and figs and chestnuts,--walnuts and apples all rioting
+together in full glory,--all this is daily disappearing. I say nothing
+of the olive and the vine. I find the Turret rather the worse for
+careful weeding--the hawks which used to build there have been "shot for
+food"--and the echo is sadly curtailed of its replies; still, things
+are the same in the main. Shall I ever see them again, when--as I
+suppose--we leave for Venice in a fortnight? . . .'
+
+
+In the midst of this imaginative delight he carried into his walks the
+old keen habits of observation. He would peer into the hedges for what
+living things were to be found there. He would whistle softly to the
+lizards basking on the low walls which border the roads, to try his old
+power of attracting them.
+
+On the 15th of October he wrote to Mrs. Skirrow, after some preliminary
+description:
+
+
+Then--such a view over the whole Lombard plain; not a site in view, or
+_approximate_ view at least, without its story. Autumn is now painting all
+the abundance of verdure,--figs, pomegranates, chestnuts, and vines, and
+I don't know what else,--all in a wonderful confusion,--and now glowing
+with all the colours of the rainbow. Some weeks back, the little town
+was glorified by the visit of a decent theatrical troop who played in a
+theatre _in_side the old palace of Queen Catharine Cornaro--utilized also
+as a prison in which I am informed are at present full five if not six
+malefactors guilty of stealing grapes, and the like enormities. Well,
+the troop played for a fortnight together exceedingly well--high tragedy
+and low comedy--and the stage-box which I occupied cost 16 francs. The
+theatre had been out of use for six years, for we are out of the way
+and only a baiting-place for a company pushing on to Venice. In fine, we
+shall stay here probably for a week or more,--and then proceed to Pen,
+at the Rezzonico; a month there, and then homewards! . . .
+
+I delight in finding that the beloved Husband and precious friend
+manages to do without the old yoke about his neck, and enjoys himself as
+never anybody had a better right to do. I continue to congratulate him
+on his emancipation and ourselves on a more frequent enjoyment of his
+company in consequence.* Give him my true love; take mine, dearest
+friend,--and my sister's love to you both goes with it. Ever
+affectionately yours Robert Browning.
+
+     * Mr. Skirrow had just resigned his post of Master in
+     Chancery.
+
+The cry of 'homewards!' now frequently recurs in his letters. We find it
+in one written a week later to Mr. G. M. Smith, otherwise very
+expressive of his latest condition of mind and feeling.
+
+
+Asolo, Veneto, Italia:  Oct. 22, '89.
+
+My dear Smith,--I was indeed delighted to get your letter two days ago--
+for there _are_ such accidents as the loss of a parcel, even when it has
+been despatched from so important a place as this city--for a regular
+city it is, you must know, with all the rights of one,--older far than
+Rome, being founded by the Euganeans who gave their name to the
+adjoining hills.  'Fortified' is was once, assuredly, and the walls
+still surround it most picturesquely though mainly in utter ruin, and
+you even overrate the population, which does not now much exceed 900
+souls--in the city Proper, that is--for the territory below and around
+contains some 10,000.  But we are at the very top of things, garlanded
+about, as it were, with a narrow line of houses,--some palatial, such as
+you would be glad to see in London,--and above all towers the old
+dwelling of Queen Cornaro, who was forced to exchange her Kingdom of
+Cyprus for this pretty but petty dominion where she kept state in a
+mimic Court, with Bembo, afterwards Cardinal, for her secretary--who has
+commemorated the fact in his 'Asolani' or dialogues inspired by the
+place:  and I do assure you that, after some experience of beautiful
+sights in Italy and elsewhere I know nothing comparable to the view from
+the Queen's tower and palace, still perfect in every respect.  Whenever
+you pay Pen and his wife the visit you are pledged to, * it will go hard
+but you spend five hours in a journey to Asolo.  The one thing I am
+disappointed in is to find that the silk-cultivation with all the pretty
+girls who were engaged in it are transported to Cornuda and other
+places,--nearer the railway, I suppose: and to this may be attributed
+the decrease in the number of inhabitants. The weather when I wrote last
+_was_ 'blue and blazing--(at noon-day)--' but we share in the general
+plague of rain,--had a famous storm yesterday: while to-day is blue and
+sunny as ever.  Lastly, for your admonition: we _have_ a perfect
+telegraphic communication; and at the passage above, where I put a * I
+was interrupted by the arrival of a telegram: thank you all the same for
+your desire to relieve my anxiety. And now, to our immediate business--
+which is only to keep thanking you for your constant goodness, present
+and future:  do with the book just as you will.  I fancy it is bigger in
+bulk than usual. As for the 'proofs'--I go at the end of the month to
+Venice, whither you will please to send whatever is necessary. . . . I
+shall do well to say as little as possible of my good wishes for you and
+your family, for it comes to much the same thing as wishing myself
+prosperity:  no matter, my sister's kindest regards shall excuse mine,
+and I will only add that I am, as ever, Affectionately yours Robert
+Browning.
+
+
+A general quickening of affectionate impulse seemed part of this last
+leap in the socket of the dying flame.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 22
+
+1889
+
+Proposed Purchase of Land at Asolo--Venice--Letter to Mr. G.
+Moulton-Barrett--Lines in the 'Athenaeum'--Letter to Miss
+Keep--Illness--Death-- Funeral Ceremonial at Venice--Publication
+of 'Asolando'--Interment in Poets' Corner.
+
+
+
+He had said in writing to Mrs. FitzGerald, 'Shall I ever see them' (the
+things he is describing) 'again?'  If not then, soon afterwards, he
+conceived a plan which was to insure his doing so. On a piece of ground
+belonging to the old castle, stood the shell of a house. The two
+constituted one property which the Municipality of Asolo had hitherto
+refused to sell.  It had been a dream of Mr. Browning's life to possess
+a dwelling, however small, in some beautiful spot, which should place
+him beyond the necessity of constantly seeking a new summer resort, and
+above the alternative of living at an inn, or accepting--as he sometimes
+feared, abusing--the hospitality of his friends.  He was suddenly
+fascinated by the idea of buying this piece of ground; and, with the
+efficient help which his son could render during his absence, completing
+the house, which should be christened 'Pippa's Tower'.  It was evident,
+he said in one of his letters, that for his few remaining years his
+summer wanderings must always end in Venice.  What could he do better
+than secure for himself this resting-place by the way?
+
+His offer of purchase was made through Mrs. Bronson, to Count Loredano
+and other important members of the municipality, and their personal
+assent to it secured.  But the town council was on the eve of
+re-election; no important business could be transacted by it till after
+this event; and Mr. Browning awaited its decision till the end of
+October at Asolo, and again throughout November in Venice, without fully
+understanding the delay.  The vote proved favourable; but the night on
+which it was taken was that of his death.
+
+The consent thus given would have been only a first step towards the
+accomplishment of his wish.  It was necessary that it should be ratified
+by the Prefecture of Treviso, in the district of which Asolo lies; and
+Mr. Barrett Browning, who had determined to carry on the negotiations,
+met with subsequent opposition in the higher council.  This has now,
+however, been happily overcome.
+
+A comprehensive interest attaches to one more letter of the Asolo time.
+It was addressed to Mr. Browning's brother-in-law, Mr. George
+Moulton-Barrett.
+
+
+Asolo, Veneto:  Oct. 22, '89.
+
+My dear George,--It was a great pleasure to get your kind letter; though
+after some delay.  We were not in the Tyrol this year, but have been for
+six weeks or more in this little place which strikes me,--as it did
+fifty years ago, which is something to say, considering that, properly
+speaking, it was the first spot of Italian soil I ever set foot upon--
+having proceeded to Venice by sea--and thence here.  It is an ancient
+city, older than Rome, and the scene of Queen Catharine Cornaro's exile,
+where she held a mock court, with all its attendants, on a miniature
+scale; Bembo, afterwards Cardinal, being her secretary.  Her palace is
+still above us all, the old fortifications surround the hill-top, and
+certain of the houses are stately--though the population is not above
+1,000 souls: the province contains many more of course.  But the immense
+charm of the surrounding country is indescribable--I have never seen its
+like--the Alps on one side, the Asolan mountains all round,--and
+opposite, the vast Lombard plain,--with indications of Venice, Padua,
+and the other cities, visible to a good eye on a clear day; while
+everywhere are sites of battles and sieges of bygone days, described in
+full by the historians of the Middle Ages.
+
+We have a valued friend here, Mrs. Bronson, who for years has been our
+hostess at Venice, and now is in possession of a house here (built into
+the old city wall)--she was induced to choose it through what I have
+said about the beauties of the place: and through her care and kindness
+we are comfortably lodged close by. We think of leaving in a week or so
+for Venice--guests of Pen and his wife; and after a short stay with them
+we shall return to London. Pen came to see us for a couple of days:  I
+was hardly prepared for his surprise and admiration which quite equalled
+my own and that of my sister.  All is happily well with them--their
+palazzo excites the wonder of everybody, so great is Pen's cleverness,
+and extemporised architectural knowledge, as apparent in all he has done
+there; why, _why_ will you not go and see him there? He and his wife are
+very hospitable and receive many visitors. Have I told you that there
+was a desecrated chapel which he has restored in honour of his mother--
+putting up there the inscription by Tommaseo now above Casa Guidi?
+
+Fannie is all you say,--and most dear and precious to us all. . . .
+Pen's medal to which you refer, is awarded to him in spite of his
+written renunciation of any sort of wish to contend for a prize. He will
+now resume painting and sculpture--having been necessarily occupied with
+the superintendence of his workmen--a matter capitally managed, I am
+told.  For the rest, both Sarianna and myself are very well; I have just
+sent off my new volume of verses for publication. The complete edition
+of the works of E. B. B. begins in a few days.
+
+
+The second part of this letter is very forcibly written, and, in a
+certain sense, more important than the first; but I suppress it by the
+desire of Mr. Browning's sister and son, and in complete concurrence
+with their judgment in the matter. It was a systematic defence of the
+anger aroused in him by a lately published reference to his wife's
+death; and though its reasonings were unanswerable as applied to the
+causes of his emotion, they did not touch the manner in which it had
+been displayed. The incident was one which deserved only to be
+forgotten; and if an injudicious act had not preserved its memory, no
+word of mine should recall it.  Since, however, it has been thought fit
+to include the 'Lines to Edward Fitzgerald' in a widely circulated
+Bibliography of Mr. Browning's Works,* I owe it to him to say--what I
+believe is only known to his sister and myself--that there was a moment
+in which he regretted those lines, and would willingly have withdrawn
+them. This was the period, unfortunately short, which intervened between
+his sending them to the 'Athenaeum', and their appearance there. When
+once public opinion had expressed itself upon them in its too extreme
+forms of sympathy and condemnation, the pugnacity of his mind found
+support in both, and regret was silenced if not destroyed.  In so far as
+his published words remained open to censure, I may also, without
+indelicacy, urge one more plea in his behalf. That which to the merely
+sympathetic observer appeared a subject for disapprobation, perhaps
+disgust, had affected him with the directness of a sharp physical blow.
+He spoke of it, and for hours, even days, was known to feel it, as such.
+The events of that distant past, which he had lived down, though never
+forgotten, had flashed upon him from the words which so unexpectedly met
+his eye, in a vividness of remembrance which was reality.  'I felt as if
+she had died yesterday,' he said some days later to a friend, in half
+deprecation, half denial, of the too great fierceness of his reaction.
+He only recovered his balance in striking the counter-blow.  That he
+could be thus affected at an age usually destructive of the more violent
+emotions, is part of the mystery of those closing days which had already
+overtaken him.
+
+     * That contained in Mr. Sharp's 'Life'.  A still more recent
+          publication
+     gives the lines in full.
+
+By the first of November he was in Venice with his son and daughter; and
+during the three following weeks was apparently well, though a physician
+whom he met at a dinner party, and to whom he had half jokingly given
+his pulse to feel, had learned from it that his days were numbered. He
+wrote to Miss Keep on the 9th of the month:
+
+
+'. . . Mrs. Bronson has bought a house at Asolo, and beautified it
+indeed,--niched as it is in an old tower of the fortifications still
+partly surrounding the city (for a city it is), and eighteen towers,
+more or less ruinous, are still discoverable there: it is indeed a
+delightful place. Meantime, to go on,--we came here, and had a pleasant
+welcome from our hosts--who are truly magnificently lodged in this
+vast palazzo which my son has really shown himself fit to possess, so
+surprising are his restorations and improvements: the whole is all but
+complete, decorated,--that is, renewed admirably in all respects.
+
+'What strikes me as most noteworthy is the cheerfulness and comfort of
+the huge rooms.
+
+'The building is warmed throughout by a furnace and pipes.
+
+'Yesterday, on the Lido, the heat was hardly endurable: bright sunshine,
+blue sky,--snow-tipped Alps in the distance. No place, I think, ever
+suited my needs, bodily and intellectual, so well.
+
+'The first are satisfied--I am _quite_ well, every breathing inconvenience
+gone: and as for the latter, I got through whatever had given me trouble
+in London. . . .'
+
+
+But it was winter, even in Venice, and one day began with an actual fog.
+He insisted, notwithstanding, on taking his usual walk on the Lido. He
+caught a bronchial cold of which the symptoms were aggravated not only
+by the asthmatic tendency, but by what proved to be exhaustion of the
+heart; and believing as usual that his liver alone was at fault, he took
+little food, and refused wine altogether.*
+
+     * He always declined food when he was unwell; and maintained
+     that in this respect the instinct of animals was far more
+     just than the idea often prevailing among human beings that
+     a failing appetite should be assisted or coerced.
+
+He did not yield to the sense of illness; he did not keep his bed. Some
+feverish energy must have supported him through this avoidance of every
+measure which might have afforded even temporary strength or relief. On
+Friday, the 29th, he wrote to a friend in London that he had waited thus
+long for the final answer from Asolo, but would wait no longer. He would
+start for England, if possible, on the Wednesday or Thursday of the
+following week. It was true 'he had caught a cold; he felt sadly
+asthmatic, scarcely fit to travel; but he hoped for the best, and would
+write again soon.' He wrote again the following day, declaring himself
+better. He had been punished, he said, for long-standing neglect of
+his 'provoking liver'; but a simple medicine, which he had often taken
+before, had this time also relieved the oppression of his chest; his
+friend was not to be uneasy about him; 'it was in his nature to get
+into scrapes of this kind, but he always managed, somehow or other, to
+extricate himself from them.' He concluded with fresh details of his
+hopes and plans.
+
+In the ensuing night the bronchial distress increased; and in the
+morning he consented to see his son's physician, Dr. Cini, whose
+investigation of the case at once revealed to him its seriousness. The
+patient had been removed two days before, from the second storey of the
+house, which the family then inhabited, to an entresol apartment just
+above the ground-floor, from which he could pass into the dining-room
+without fatigue. Its lower ceilings gave him (erroneously) an impression
+of greater warmth, and he had imagined himself benefited by the change.
+A freer circulation of air was now considered imperative, and he was
+carried to Mrs. Browning's spacious bedroom, where an open fireplace
+supplied both warmth and ventilation, and large windows admitted all
+the sunshine of the Grand Canal. Everything was done for him which
+professional skill and loving care could do. Mrs. Browning, assisted
+by her husband, and by a young lady who was then her guest,* filled the
+place of the trained nurses until these could arrive; for a few days
+the impending calamity seemed even to have been averted. The bronchial
+attack was overcome. Mr. Browning had once walked from the bed to
+the sofa; his sister, whose anxiety had perhaps been spared the full
+knowledge of his state, could send comforting reports to his friends
+at home. But the enfeebled heart had made its last effort. Attacks
+of faintness set in. Special signs of physical strength maintained
+themselves until within a few hours of the end. On Wednesday, December
+11, a consultation took place between Dr. Cini, Dr. da Vigna, and Dr.
+Minich; and the opinion was then expressed for the first time
+that recovery, though still possible, was not within the bounds of
+probability. Weakness, however, rapidly gained upon him towards the
+close of the following day. Two hours before midnight of this Thursday,
+December 12, he breathed his last.
+
+     * Miss Evelyn Barclay, now Mrs. Douglas Giles.
+
+He had been a good patient. He took food and medicine whenever they were
+offered to him. Doctors and nurses became alike warmly interested in
+him. His favourite among the latter was, I think, the Venetian, a widow,
+Margherita Fiori, a simple kindly creature who had known much sorrow. To
+her he said, about five hours before the end, 'I feel much worse. I
+know now that I must die.' He had shown at intervals a perception, even
+conviction, of his danger; but the excitement of the brain, caused by
+exhaustion on the one hand and the necessary stimulants on the other,
+must have precluded all systematic consciousness of approaching death.
+He repeatedly assured his family that he was not suffering.
+
+A painful and urgent question now presented itself for solution: Where
+should his body find its last rest? He had said to his sister in the
+foregoing summer, that he wished to be buried wherever he might die: if
+in England, with his mother; if in France, with his father; if in Italy,
+with his wife. Circumstances all pointed to his removal to Florence; but
+a recent decree had prohibited further interment in the English Cemetery
+there, and the town had no power to rescind it. When this was known
+in Venice, that city begged for itself the privilege of retaining the
+illustrious guest, and rendering him the last honours. For the moment
+the idea even recommended itself to Mr. Browning's son. But he felt
+bound to make a last effort in the direction of the burial at Florence;
+and was about to despatch a telegram, in which he invoked the mediation
+of Lord Dufferin, when all difficulties were laid at rest by a message
+from the Dean of Westminster, conveying his assent to an interment in
+the Abbey.* He had already telegraphed for information concerning the
+date of the funeral, with a view to the memorial service, which he
+intended to hold on the same day. Nor would the further honour have
+remained for even twenty-four hours ungranted, because unasked, but for
+the belief prevailing among Mr. Browning's friends that there was no
+room for its acceptance.
+
+     * The assent thus conveyed had assumed the form of an offer,
+     and was characterized as such by the Dean himself.
+
+It was still necessary to provide for the more immediate removal of the
+body. Local custom forbade its retention after the lapse of two days and
+nights; and only in view of the special circumstances of the case could
+a short respite be granted to the family. Arrangements were therefore at
+once made for a private service, to be conducted by the British Chaplain
+in one of the great halls of the Rezzonico Palace; and by two o'clock of
+the following day, Sunday, a large number of visitors and residents had
+assembled there. The subsequent passage to the mortuary island of San
+Michele had been organized by the city, and was to display so much of
+the character of a public pageant as the hurried preparation allowed.
+The chief municipal officers attended the service. When this had been
+performed, the coffin was carried by eight firemen (pompieri), arrayed
+in their distinctive uniform, to the massive, highly decorated municipal
+barge (Barca delle Pompe funebri) which waited to receive it. It was
+guarded during the transit by four 'uscieri' in 'gala' dress, two
+sergeants of the Municipal Guard, and two of the firemen bearing
+torches: the remainder of these following in a smaller boat. The barge
+was towed by a steam launch of the Royal Italian Marine. The chief
+officers of the city, the family and friends in their separate gondolas,
+completed the procession. On arriving at San Michele, the firemen again
+received their burden, and bore it to the chapel in which its place had
+been reserved.
+
+
+When 'Pauline' first appeared, the Author had received, he never learned
+from whom, a sprig of laurel enclosed with this quotation from the poem,
+
+     Trust in signs and omens.
+
+Very beautiful garlands were now piled about his bier, offerings of
+friendship and affection. Conspicuous among these was the ceremonial
+structure of metallic foliage and porcelain flowers, inscribed 'Venezia
+a Roberto Browning', which represented the Municipality of Venice. On
+the coffin lay one comprehensive symbol of the fulfilled prophecy: a
+wreath of laurel-leaves which his son had placed there.
+
+
+A final honour was decreed to the great English Poet by the city in
+which he had died; the affixing of a memorial tablet to the outer wall
+of the Rezzonico Palace. Since these pages were first written, the
+tablet has been placed. It bears the following inscription:
+
+     A
+     ROBERTO BROWNING
+
+     MORTO IN QUESTO PALAZZO
+     IL 12 DICEMBRE 1889
+     VENEZIA
+     POSE
+
+Below this, in the right-hand corner appear two lines selected from his
+works:
+
+     Open my heart and you will see
+     Graved inside of it, 'Italy'.
+
+Nor were these the only expressions of Italian respect and sympathy. The
+municipality of Florence sent its message of condolence. Asolo, poor
+in all but memories, itself bore the expenses of a mural tablet for
+the house which Mr. Browning had occupied. It is now known that Signor
+Crispi would have appealed to Parliament to rescind the exclusion
+from the Florentine cemetery, if the motive for doing so had been less
+promptly removed.
+
+Mr. Browning's own country had indeed opened a way for the reunion of
+the husband and wife. The idea had rapidly shaped itself in the public
+mind that, since they might not rest side by side in Italy, they
+should be placed together among the great of their own land; and it was
+understood that the Dean would sanction Mrs. Browning's interment in
+the Abbey, if a formal application to this end were made to him. But
+Mr. Barrett Browning could not reconcile himself to the thought of
+disturbing his mother's grave, so long consecrated to Florence by her
+warm love and by its grateful remembrance; and at the desire of both
+surviving members of the family the suggestion was set aside.
+
+Two days after his temporary funeral, privately and at night, all that
+remained of Robert Browning was conveyed to the railway station; and
+thence, by a trusted servant, to England. The family followed within
+twenty-four hours, having made the necessary preparations for a long
+absence from Venice; and, travelling with the utmost speed, arrived in
+London on the same day. The house in De Vere Gardens received its master
+once more.
+
+
+'Asolando' was published on the day of Mr. Browning's death. The report
+of his illness had quickened public interest in the forthcoming work,
+and his son had the satisfaction of telling him of its already realized
+success, while he could still receive a warm, if momentary, pleasure
+from the intelligence. The circumstances of its appearance place it
+beyond ordinary criticism; they place it beyond even an impartial
+analysis of its contents. It includes one or two poems to which we would
+gladly assign a much earlier date; I have been told on good authority
+that we may do this in regard to one of them. It is difficult to refer
+the 'Epilogue' to a coherent mood of any period of its author's life. It
+is certain, however, that by far the greater part of the little volume
+was written in 1888-89, and I believe all that is most serious in it
+was the product of the later year. It possesses for many readers the
+inspiration of farewell words; for all of us it has their pathos.
+
+
+He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets' Corner, on the 31st
+of December, 1889. In this tardy act of national recognition England
+claimed her own. A densely packed, reverent and sympathetic crowd of his
+countrymen and countrywomen assisted at the consignment of the dead poet
+to his historic resting place. Three verses of Mrs. Browning's poem,
+'The Sleep', set to music by Dr. Bridge, were sung for the first time on
+this occasion.
+
+
+
+
+Conclusion
+
+
+
+A few words must still be said upon that purport and tendency of Robert
+Browning's work, which has been defined by a few persons, and felt by
+very many as his 'message'.
+
+The definition has been disputed on the ground of Art. We are told by
+Mr. Sharp, though in somewhat different words, that the poet, qua poet,
+cannot deliver a 'message' such as directly addresses itself to the
+intellectual or moral sense; since his special appeal to us lies not
+through the substance, but through the form, or presentment, of what he
+has had to say; since, therefore (by implication), in claiming for it
+an intellectual--as distinct from an aesthetic--character, we ignore its
+function as poetry.
+
+It is difficult to argue justly, where the question at issue turns
+practically on the meaning of a word. Mr. Sharp would, I think, be the
+first to admit this; and it appears to me that, in the present case, he
+so formulates his theory as to satisfy his artistic conscience, and yet
+leave room for the recognition of that intellectual quality so peculiar
+to Mr. Browning's verse. But what one member of the aesthetic school may
+express with a certain reserve is proclaimed unreservedly by many more;
+and Mr. Sharp must forgive me, if for the moment I regard him as one of
+these; and if I oppose his arguments in the words of another poet
+and critic of poetry, whose claim to the double title is I believe
+undisputed--Mr. Roden Noel. I quote from an unpublished fragment of a
+published article on Mr. Sharp's 'Life of Browning'.
+
+
+'Browning's message is an integral part of himself as writer; (whether
+as poet, since we agree that he is a poet, were surely a too curious
+and vain discussion;) but some of his finest things assuredly are the
+outcome of certain very definite personal convictions. "The question,"
+Mr. Sharp says, "is not one of weighty message, but of artistic
+presentation." There seems to be no true contrast here. "The primary
+concern of the artist must be with his vehicle of expression"--no--not
+the primary concern. Since the critic adds--(for a poet) "this vehicle
+is language emotioned to the white heat of rhythmic music by impassioned
+thought or sensation." Exactly--"thought" it may be. Now part of this
+same "thought" in Browning is the message. And therefore it is part of
+his "primary concern". "It is with presentment," says Mr. Sharp, "that
+the artist has fundamentally to concern himself." Granted: but it must
+surely be presentment of _something_. . . . I do not understand how
+to separate the substance from the form in true poetry. . . . If the
+message be not well delivered, it does not constitute literature. But
+if it be well delivered, the primary concern of the poet lay with the
+message after all!'
+
+
+More cogent objection has been taken to the character of the 'message'
+as judged from a philosophic point of view. It is the expression or
+exposition of a vivid a priori religious faith confirmed by positive
+experience; and it reflects as such a double order of thought, in which
+totally opposite mental activities are often forced into co-operation
+with each other. Mr. Sharp says, this time quoting from Mr. Mortimer
+('Scottish Art Review', December 1889):
+
+
+'His position in regard to the thought of the age is paradoxical, if not
+inconsistent. He is in advance of it in every respect but one, the most
+important of all, the matter of fundamental principles; in these he
+is behind it. His processes of thought are often scientific in their
+precision of analysis; the sudden conclusion which he imposes upon them
+is transcendental and inept.'
+
+
+This statement is relatively true. Mr. Browning's positive reasonings
+often do end with transcendental conclusions. They also start from
+transcendental premises. However closely his mind might follow the
+visible order of experience, he never lost what was for him the
+consciousness of a Supreme Eternal Will as having existed before it; he
+never lost the vision of an intelligent First Cause, as underlying all
+minor systems of causation. But such weaknesses as were involved in
+his logical position are inherent to all the higher forms of natural
+theology when once it has been erected into a dogma. As maintained by
+Mr. Browning, this belief held a saving clause, which removed it from
+all dogmatic, hence all admissible grounds of controversy: the more
+definite or concrete conceptions of which it consists possessed no
+finality for even his own mind; they represented for him an absolute
+truth in contingent relations to it. No one felt more strongly than he
+the contradictions involved in any conceivable system of Divine creation
+and government. No one knew better that every act and motive which we
+attribute to a Supreme Being is a virtual negation of His existence.
+He believed nevertheless that such a Being exists; and he accepted His
+reflection in the mirror of the human consciousness, as a necessarily
+false image, but one which bears witness to the truth.
+
+His works rarely indicate this condition of feeling; it was not often
+apparent in his conversation. The faith which he had contingently
+accepted became absolute for him from all practical points of view; it
+became subject to all the conditions of his humanity. On the ground of
+abstract logic he was always ready to disavow it; the transcendental
+imagination and the acknowledged limits of human reason claimed the last
+word in its behalf. This philosophy of religion is distinctly suggested
+in the fifth parable of 'Ferishtah's Fancies'.
+
+But even in defending what remains, from the most widely accepted point
+of view, the validity of Mr. Browning's 'message', we concede the fact
+that it is most powerful when conveyed in its least explicit form; for
+then alone does it bear, with the full weight of his poetic utterance,
+on the minds to which it is addressed. His challenge to Faith and Hope
+imposes itself far less through any intellectual plea which he can
+advance in its support, than through the unconscious testimony of all
+creative genius to the marvel of conscious life; through the passionate
+affirmation of his poetic and human nature, not only of the goodness and
+the beauty of that life, but of its reality and its persistence.
+
+We are told by Mr. Sharp that a new star appeared in Orion on the night
+on which Robert Browning died. The alleged fact is disproved by the
+statement of the Astronomer Royal, to whom it has been submitted; but it
+would have been a beautiful symbol of translation, such as affectionate
+fancy might gladly cherish if it were true. It is indeed true that
+on that twelfth of December, a vivid centre of light and warmth was
+extinguished upon our earth. The clouded brightness of many lives
+bears witness to the poet spirit which has departed, the glowing human
+presence which has passed away. We mourn the poet whom we have lost far
+less than we regret the man: for he had done his appointed work; and
+that work remains to us. But the two beings were in truth inseparable.
+The man is always present in the poet; the poet was dominant in the man.
+This fact can never be absent from our loving remembrance of him. No
+just estimate of his life and character will fail to give it weight.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Index
+
+[The Index is included only as a rough guide to what is in this book.
+The numbers in brackets indicate the number of index entries: as
+each reference, short or long, is counted as one, the numbers may be
+misleading if observed too closely.]
+
+
+     Abel, Mr. (musician) [1]
+     Adams, Mrs. Sarah Flower [2]
+     Albemarle, Lord [1]
+     Alford, Lady Marian [1]
+     Allingham, Mr. William [1]
+     American appreciation of Browning [1]
+     Ampere, M. [1]
+     Ancona [1]
+     Anderson, Mr. (actor) [1]
+     Arnold, Matthew [1]
+     Arnould, Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) [1]
+     Ashburton, Lady [1]
+     Asolo [4]
+     Associated Societies of Edinburgh, the [1]
+     Athenaeum, the (review of 'Pauline') [2]
+     Audierne (Finisterre, Brittany) [1]
+     Azeglio, Massimo d' [1]
+
+     Balzac's works, the Brownings' admiration of [2]
+     Barrett, Miss Arabel [4]
+     Barrett, Miss Henrietta (afterwards Mrs. Surtees Cook [Altham]) [2]
+     Barrett, Mr. (the poet's father-in-law) [3]
+     Barrett, Mr. Laurence (actor) [1]
+     Bartoli's 'De' Simboli trasportati al Morale' [1]
+     Benckhausen, Mr. (Russian consul-general) [1]
+     Benzon, Mr. Ernest [1]
+     Beranger, M. [2]
+     Berdoe, Dr. Edward:  his paper on 'Paracelsus, the Reformer of
+          Medicine' [1]
+     Biarritz [1]
+     Blackwood's Magazine (on 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon') [1]
+     Blagden, Miss Isa [5]
+     Blundell, Dr. (physician) [1]
+     Boyle, Dean (Salisbury) [1]
+     Boyle, Miss (niece of the Earl of Cork) [2]
+     Bridell-Fox, Mrs. [3]
+     Bronson, Mrs. Arthur [5]
+     Browning, Robert (grandfather of the poet):  account of his life,
+     two marriages, and two families [1]
+     Browning, Mrs. (step-grandmother of the poet) [2]
+     Browning, Robert (father of the poet):  marriage;
+     clerk in the Bank of England; comparison between him and his son;
+     scholarly and artistic tastes; simplicity and genuineness of
+          his character;
+     his strong health; Mr. Locker-Lampson's account of him;
+     his religious opinions; renewed relations with his father's widow
+     and second family; death [10]
+     Browning, Mrs. (the poet's mother):  her family; her nervous
+          temperament
+     transmitted to her son; her death [3]
+     Browning, Mr. Reuben (the poet's uncle),
+     (incl. Lord Beaconsfield's appreciation of his Latinity) [2]
+     Browning, Mr. William Shergold (the poet's uncle),
+     (incl. his literary work) [2]
+     Browning, Miss Jemima (the poet's aunt) [1]
+     Browning, Miss (the poet's sister),
+     (incl. comes to live with her brother) [16]
+     Browning, Robert:  1812-33--the notion of his Jewish
+          extraction disproved;
+     his family anciently established in Dorsetshire; his carelessness
+     as to genealogical record; account of his grandfather's life
+     and second marriage; his father's unhappy youth; his paternal
+          grandmother;
+     his father's position; comparison of father and son;
+     the father's use of grotesque rhymes in teaching him;
+     qualities he inherited from his mother; weak points in regard
+          to health
+     throughout his life; characteristics in early childhood;
+     great quickness in learning; an amusing prank; passion for his
+          mother;
+     fondness for animals; his collections; experiences of school life;
+     extensive reading in his father's library; early acquaintance
+     with old books; his early attempts in verse; spurious poems in
+          circulation;
+     'Incondita', the production of the twelve-year-old poet;
+     introduction to Mr. Fox; his boyish love and lasting affection
+     for Miss Flower; first acquaintance with Shelley's and Keats'
+          works;
+     his admiration for Shelley; home education under masters,
+     his manly accomplishments; his studies chiefly literary; love
+          of home;
+     associates of his youth:  Arnould and Domett; the Silverthornes;
+     his choice of poetry as a profession; other possible
+          professions considered;
+     admiration for good acting; his father's support in his
+          literary career;
+     reads and digests Johnson's Dictionary by way of preparation [37]
+     Browning, Robert:  1833-35--publication of 'Pauline';
+     correspondence with Mr. Fox; the poet's later opinion of it;
+     characteristics of the poem; Mr. Fox's review of it; other notices;
+     Browning's visit to Russia; contributions to the 'Monthly
+          Repository':
+     his first sonnet; the 'Trifler' (amateur periodical);
+     a comic defence of debt; preparing to publish 'Paracelsus';
+          friendship with
+     Count de Ripert-Monclar; Browning's treatment of 'Paracelsus';
+     the original Preface; John Forster's article on it in the
+          'Examiner' [16]
+     Browning, Robert:  1835-38--removal of the family to Hatcham;
+     renewed intimacy with his grandfather's second family;
+     friendly relations with Carlyle; recognition by men of the day;
+     introduction to Macready; first meeting with Forster;
+     Miss Euphrasia Fanny Haworth; at the 'Ion' supper; prospects
+          of 'Strafford';
+     its production and reception; a personal description of him at
+          this period;
+     Mr. John Robertson and the 'Westminster Review' [11]
+     Browning, Robert:  1838-44--first Italian journey; a striking
+          experience
+     of the voyage; preparations for writing other tragedies;
+     meeting with Mr. John Kenyon; appearance of 'Sordello';
+     mental developments; 'Pippa Passes'; Alfred Domett on the critics;
+     'Bells and Pomegranates'; explanation of its title.
+     List of the poems; 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon', written for
+          Macready;
+     Browning's later account and discussion of the breach between him
+     and Macready; 'Colombe's Birthday'; other dramas; The
+          'Dramatic Lyrics';
+     'The Lost Leader'; Browning's life before his second Italian
+          journey;
+     in Naples; visit to Mr. Trelawney at Leghorn [19]
+     Browning, Robert:  1844-55--introduction to Miss Barrett;
+     his admiration for her poetry; his proposal to her;
+     reasons for concealing the engagement; their marriage; journey
+          to Italy;
+     life at Pisa; Florence; Browning's request for appointment
+     on a British mission to the Vatican; settling in Casa Guidi;
+     Fano and Ancona; 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon' at Sadler's Wells;
+     birth of Browning's son, and death of his mother; wanderings
+          in Italy:
+     the Baths of Lucca; Venice; friendship with Margaret Fuller Ossoli;
+     winter in Paris; Carlyle; George Sand.  Close friendship
+     with M. Joseph Milsand; Milsand's appreciation of Browning;
+     new edition of Browning's poems; 'Christmas Eve and Easter Day';
+     the Essay on Shelley; summer in London; introduction to Dante
+          G. Rossetti;
+     again in Florence; production of 'Colombe's Birthday' (1853);
+     again at Lucca, Mr. and Mrs. W. Story; first winter in Rome;
+          the Kembles;
+     again in London (1855):  Tennyson, Ruskin [32]
+     Browning, Robert:  1855-61--publication of 'Men and Women';
+     'Karshook'; 'Two in the Campagna'; another winter in Paris:
+          Lady Elgin;
+     legacies to the Brownings from Mr. Kenyon; Mr. Browning's
+          little son;
+     a carnival masquerade; Spiritualism; 'Sludge the Medium';
+     Count Ginnasi's clairvoyance; at Siena; Walter Savage Landor;
+     illness of Mrs. Browning; American appreciation of Browning's
+          works;
+     his social life in Rome; last winter in Rome; Madame du Quaire;
+     Mrs. Browning's illness and death; the comet of 1861 [18]
+     Browning, Robert:  1861-69--Miss Blagden's helpful sympathy;
+     journey to England; feeling in regard to funeral ceremonies;
+     established in London with his son; Miss Arabel Barrett;
+     visit to Biarritz; origin of 'The Ring and the Book';
+     his views as to the publication of letters; new edition of his
+          works,
+     selection of poems.  Residence at Pornic; a meeting at Mr. F.
+          Palgrave's;
+     his literary position in 1865; his own estimate of it;
+     death of his father; with his sister at Le Croisic;
+     Academic honours:  letter to the Master of Balliol (Dr. Scott);
+     curious circumstance connected with the death of Miss A. Barrett;
+     at Audierne; the uniform edition of his works; publication of
+     'The Ring and the Book'; inspiration of Pompilia [21]
+     Browning, Robert:  1869-73--'Helen's Tower'; at St.-Aubin;
+     escape from France during the war (1870); publication of
+     'Balaustion's Adventure' and 'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau';
+     'Herve Riel' sold for the benefit of French sufferers by the war;
+     'Fifine at the Fair'; mistaken theories of that work;
+     'Red Cotton Nightcap Country' [8]
+     Browning, Robert:  1873-78--his manner of life in London;
+     his love of music; friendship with Miss Egerton-Smith;
+     summers spent at Mers, Villers, Isle of Arran, and La Saisiaz;
+     'Aristophanes' Apology'; 'Pacchiarotto', 'The Inn Album',
+     the translation of the 'Agamemnon'; description of a visit to
+          Oxford;
+     visit to Cambridge; offered the Rectorships of the Universities
+     of Glasgow and St. Andrews; description of La Saisiaz;
+     sudden death of Miss Egerton-Smith; the poem 'La Saisiaz':
+     Browning's position towards Christianity; 'The Two Poets of
+          Croisic',
+     and Selections from his Works [13]
+     Browning, Robert:  1878-81--he revisits Italy; Spluegen;
+     Asolo; Venice; favourite Alpine retreats; friendly relations
+     with Mrs. Arthur Bronson; life in Venice; a tragedy at
+          Saint-Pierre;
+     the first series of 'Dramatic Idyls'; the second series,
+     'Jocoseria', and 'Ferishtah's Fancies' [10]
+     Browning, Robert:  1881-87--the Browning Society; Browning's
+          attitude
+     in regard to it; similar societies in England and America;
+     wide diffusion of Browning's works in America; lines for the
+          gravestone
+     of Mr. Levi Thaxter; President of the New Shakspere Society,
+     and member of the Wordsworth Society; Honorary President of
+     the Associated Societies of Edinburgh; appreciation of his
+          works in Italy;
+     sonnet to Goldoni; attempt to purchase the Palazzo Manzoni, Venice;
+     Saint-Moritz; Mrs. Bloomfield Moore; at Llangollen; loss of
+          old friends;
+     Foreign Correspondent to the Royal Academy; publication of
+          'Parleyings' [15]
+     Browning, Robert:  his character--constancy in friendship;
+     optimism and belief in a direct Providence; political principles;
+     character of his friendships; attitude towards his reviewers
+     and his readers; attitude towards his works; his method of work;
+     study of Spanish, Hebrew, and German; conversational powers
+     and the stores of his memory; nervous peculiarities; his
+          innate kindliness;
+     attitude towards women; final views on the Women's Suffrage
+          question [13]
+     Browning, Robert:  his last years--marriage of his son;
+     his change of abode; symptoms of declining strength;
+     new poems, and revision of the old; journey to Italy:
+          Primiero and Venice;
+     last winter in England:  visit to Balliol College;
+     last visit to Italy:  Asolo once more; proposed purchase of
+          land there;
+     the 'Lines to Edward Fitzgerald'; with his son at Palazzo
+          Rezzonico;
+     last illness; death; funeral honours in Italy; 'Asolando' published
+     on the day of his death; his burial in Westminster Abbey;
+     the purport and tendency of his work [16]
+     Browning, Robert:  letters to--Bainton, Mr. George (Coventry) [1]
+     Blagden, Miss Isa [12]
+     Fitz-Gerald, Mrs. [8]
+     Flower, Miss [2]
+     Fox, Mr. [4]
+     Haworth, Miss E. F. [3]
+     Hickey, Miss E. H. [1]
+     Hill, Mr. Frank (editor of the 'Daily News') [2]
+     Hill, Mrs. Frank [1]
+     Keep, Miss [3]
+     Knight, Professor (St. Andrews) [5]
+     Lee, Miss (Maidstone) [1]
+     Leighton, Mr. (afterwards Sir Frederic) [4]
+     Martin, Mrs. Theodore (afterwards Lady) [2]
+     Moulton-Barrett, Mr. G. [2]
+     Quaire, Madame du [1]
+     Robertson, Mr. John (editor of 'Westminster Review', 1838) [1]
+     Scott, Rev. Dr. [1]
+     Skirrow, Mrs. Charles [4]
+     Smith, Mr. G. M. [3]
+     Browning, Robert:  Works of--'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon' [2]
+     'A Death in the Desert' [2]
+     'Agamemnon' [1]
+     'Andrea del Sarto' [1]
+     'Aristophanes' Apology' [1]
+     'Artemis Prologuizes' [1]
+     'Asolando' [5]
+     'At the Mermaid' [2]
+     'A Woman's Last Word' [1]
+     'Bad Dreams' [1]
+     'Balaustion's Adventure' [3]
+     'Bean Stripes' [1]
+     'Beatrice Signorini' [1]
+     'Bells and Pomegranates' (incl. meaning of the title,
+     and list of the dramas and poems) [7]
+     'Ben Karshook's Wisdom' [1]
+     'Bishop Blougram' [1]
+     'By the Fireside' [1]
+     'Childe Roland' [1]
+     'Christmas Eve and Easter Day' [2]
+     'Cleon' [1]
+     'Colombe's Birthday' [4]
+     'Crescentius, the Pope's Legate' [1]
+     'Cristina' [1]
+     'Dramatic Idyls' [4]
+     'Dramatic Lyrics' [1]
+     'Dramatis Personae' [5]
+     'Essay on Shelley' [1]
+     'Ferishtah's Fancies' [2]
+     'Fifine at the Fair' [2]
+     'Flute-Music' [1]
+     'Goldoni', sonnet to [1]
+     'Helen's Tower' (sonnet) [1]
+     'Herve Riel' (ballad) [2]
+     'Home Thoughts from the Sea' [1]
+     'How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix' [1]
+     'In a Balcony' [2]
+     'In a Gondola' [2]
+     'Ivan Ivanovitch' [3]
+     'James Lee's Wife' [3]
+     'Jocoseria' [1]
+     'Johannes Agricola in Meditation' [1]
+     'King Victor and King Charles' [3]
+     'La Saisiaz' [4]
+     'Luria' [1]
+     'Madhouse Cells' [1]
+     'Martin Relph' [1]
+     'May and Death' [1]
+     'Men and Women' [3]
+     'Ned Bratts' [1]
+     'Numpholeptos' [1]
+     'One Word More' [2]
+     'Pacchiarotto' [3]
+     'Paracelsus' [8]
+     'Parleyings' [2]
+     'Pauline' [10]
+     'Pippa Passes' (incl. the Preface to) [5]
+     'Ponte dell' Angelo' [1]
+     'Porphyria's Lover' [1]
+     'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' [3]
+     'Red Cotton Nightcap Country' [3]
+     'Rosny' [1]
+     'Saint Martin's Summer' [1]
+     'Saul' [1]
+     'Sludge the Medium' [2]
+     'Sordello' [7]
+     'Strafford' [3]
+     'The Epistle of Karshish' [1]
+     'The Flight of the Duchess' [1]
+     'The Inn Album' [3]
+     'The Lost Leader' [1]
+     'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' [1]
+     'The Return of the Druses' [3]
+     'The Ring and the Book' [3]
+     'The Two Poets of Croisic' [2]
+     'The Worst of It' [1]
+     'Two in the Campagna' [1]
+     'White Witchcraft' [1]
+     'Why I am a Liberal' (sonnet) [2]
+     'Women and Roses' [1]
+     Browning, Mrs. (the poet's wife:  Elizabeth Barrett
+          Moulton-Barrett):
+     Browning's introduction to her; her ill health;
+     the reasons for their secret marriage; causes of her ill health;
+     happiness of her married life; estrangement from her father;
+     her visit to Mrs. Theodore Martin; 'Aurora Leigh':  her
+          methods of work;
+     a legacy from Mr. Kenyon; her feeling about Spiritualism;
+     success of 'Aurora Leigh'; her sister's illness and death;
+     her own death; proposed reinterment in Westminster Abbey [14]
+     Browning, Mrs.:  extracts from her letters--on her husband's
+          devotion;
+     life in Pisa, and on French literature; Vallombrosa; their
+          acquaintances
+     in Florence; their dwelling in Piazza Pitti; 'Father Prout's' cure
+     for a sore throat; apartments in the Casa Guidi; visits to
+          Fano and Ancona;
+     Phelps's production of 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon';
+     birth of her son; the effect of his mother's death on her husband;
+     wanderings in northern Italy; the neighbourhood of Lucca;
+     Venice; life in Paris (1851); esteem for her husband's family;
+     description of George Sand; the personal appearance of that lady;
+     her impression of M. Joseph Milsand; the first performance
+     of 'Colombe's Birthday' (1853); Rome:  death in the Story family;
+     Mrs. Sartoris and the Kembles; society in Rome; a visit to Mr.
+          Ruskin;
+     about 'Penini'; description of a carnival masquerade
+          (Florence, 1857);
+     impressions of Landor; tribute to the unselfish character
+     of her father-in-law; on her husband's work; on the contrast
+     of his (then) appreciation in England and America;
+     Massimo d' Azeglio; on her sister Henrietta (Mrs. Surtees Cook);
+     on the death of Count Cavour [34]
+     Browning, Mr. Robert Wiedemann Barrett (the poet's son):  his
+          birth;
+     incidents of his childhood; his pet-name--Penini, Peni, Pen;
+     in charge of Miss Isa Blagden on his mother's death;
+     taken to England by his father; manner of his education;
+     studying art in Antwerp; with his father in Venice (1885); his
+          marriage;
+     purchase of the Rezzonico Palace (Venice); death of his father
+          there [14]
+     Browning, Mrs. R. Barrett [2]
+     Browning, Mr. Robert Jardine (Crown Prosecutor in New South
+          Wales) [1]
+     Browning Society, the:  its establishment [1]
+     Brownlow, Lord [1]
+     Bruce, Lady Augusta [1]
+     Bruce, Lady Charlotte (wife of Mr. F. Locker) [1]
+     Buckstone, Mr. (actor) [1]
+     Buloz, M. [1]
+     Burne Jones, Mr. [2]
+     Burns, Major (son of the poet) [1]
+
+     Californian Railway time-table edition of Browning's poems [1]
+     Cambo [1]
+     Cambridge, Browning's visit to [1]
+     Campbell Dykes, Mr. J. [6]
+     Carducci, Countess (Rome) [1]
+     Carlyle, Mr. Thomas [6]
+     Carlyle, Mrs. Thomas (incl. anecdote) [2]
+     Carnarvon, Lord [1]
+     Carnival masquerade, a [1]
+     Cartwright, Mr. and Mrs. (of Aynhoe) [3]
+     Casa Guidi (Browning's residence at Florence) [2]
+     Cattermole, Mr. [1]
+     Cavour, Count, death of [1]
+     Channel, Mr. (afterwards Sir William), and Frank [1]
+     Chapman & Hall, Messrs. (publishers) [2]
+     Cholmondeley, Mr. (Condover) [3]
+     Chorley, Mr. [1]
+     Cini, Dr. (Venice) [1]
+     Clairvoyance, an instance of [1]
+     Coddington, Miss Fannie (afterwards Mrs. R. Barrett Browning) [1]
+     Colvin, Mr. Sidney [1]
+     Corkran, Mrs. Fraser [2]
+     Cornaro, Catharine [3]
+     Cornhill Magazine:  why 'Herve Riel' appeared in it [2]
+     Corson, Professor [1]
+     Crosse, Mrs. Andrew [1]
+     'Croxall's Fables', Browning's early fondness for [1]
+     Curtis, Mr. [1]
+
+     Dale, Mr. (actor) [1]
+     Davidson, Captain (of the 'Norham Castle', 1838) [2]
+     Davies, Rev. Llewellyn [1]
+     Debt, Browning's mock defence of (in the 'Trifler') [1]
+     Dickens, Charles [5]
+     Domett, Alfred (incl. 'On a certain Critique of Pippa Passes') [3]
+     Dourlans, M. Gustave [1]
+     Doyle, Sir Francis H. [1]
+     Dufferin, Lord [1]
+     Dulwich Gallery [1]
+
+     Eclectic Review, the (review of Browning's works) [1]
+     Eden, Mr. Frederic [1]
+     Egerton-Smith, Miss [2]
+     Elgin, Lady [3]
+     Elstree (Macready's residence) [2]
+     Elton, Mr. (actor) [1]
+     Engadine, the [2]
+     Examiner (review of 'Paracelsus') [1]
+
+     Fano [1]
+     'Father Prout' (Mr. Mahoney) [1]
+     Faucit, Miss Helen--as Lady Carlisle in 'Strafford'; as Mildred
+     in 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon'; as Colombe in 'Colombe's
+          Birthday' [3]
+     Fiori, Margherita (Browning's nurse) [1]
+     Fisher, Mr. (artist) [1]
+     Fitzgerald, Mr. Edward [1]
+     Fitz-Gerald, Mrs. [1]
+     Florence [6]
+     Flower, Miss [5]
+     Flower, Mr. Benjamin (editor of the 'Cambridge Intelligencer') [1]
+     Fontainebleau [1]
+     Forster, Mr. John [11]
+     Fortia, Marquis de [1]
+     Fox, Miss Caroline [1]
+     Fox, Miss Sarah [1]
+     Fox, Mr. W. J. (incl. election for Oldham) [10]
+     Furnivall, Dr. [5]
+
+     Gaisford, Mr., and Lady Alice [1]
+     Galuppi, Baldassaro [1]
+     Gibraltar [1]
+     Ginnasi, Count (Ravenna) [1]
+     Giustiniani-Recanati, Palazzo (Venice) [1]
+     Gladstone, Mr. [1]
+     Glasgow, University of [1]
+     Goldoni, Browning's sonnet to [1]
+     Goltz, M. (Austrian Minister at Rome) [1]
+     Gosse's 'Personalia' [4]
+     Green, Mr. [1]
+     Gressoney Saint-Jean [1]
+     Guerande (Brittany) [1]
+     Guidi Palace (Casa Guidi) [1]
+     Gurney, Rev. Archer [1]
+
+     Hanmer, Sir John (afterwards Lord Hanmer) [1]
+     Haworth, Miss Euphrasia Fanny [2]
+     Haworth, Mr. Frederick [1]
+     Hawthorne, Nathaniel [1]
+     Hazlitt, Mr. [1]
+     Heyermans, M. (artist; Antwerp) [1]
+     Hickey, Miss E. H. [2]
+     Hill, Mr. Frank (editor of the 'Daily News', 1884) [1]
+     Hood, Mr. Thomas [1]
+     Horne, Mr. [1]
+     Hugo, Victor [1]
+
+     Ion, the Ion supper [1]
+
+     Jameson, Mrs. Anna [1]
+     Jebb-Dyke, Mrs. [1]
+     Jerningham, Miss [1]
+     Jersey [1]
+     Jewsbury, Miss Geraldine [1]
+     Joachim, Professor [1]
+     Jones, Mr. Edward Burne [1]
+     Jones, Rev. Thomas [1]
+     Jowett, Dr. [3]
+
+     Kean, Mr. Edmund [1]
+     Keats [1]
+     Keepsake, The [1]
+     Kemble, Mrs. Fanny [1]
+     Kenyon, Mr. John [5]
+     King, Mr. Joseph [1]
+     Kirkup, Mr. [2]
+     Knight, Professor (St. Andrews) [2]
+
+     Lamartine, M. de [1]
+     Lamb, Charles [1]
+     Landor, Walter Savage [5]
+     La Saisiaz [2]
+     Layard, Sir Henry and Lady [2]
+     Le Croisic (Brittany) [1]
+     Leigh Hunt [1]
+     Leighton, Mr. (afterwards Sir Frederic) [2]
+     'Les Charmettes' (Chambery:  Rousseau's residence) [1]
+     Le Strange, Mrs. Guy [1]
+     Lewis, Miss (Harpton) [1]
+     Literary Gazette (review of 'Pauline') [1]
+     Literary World, the Boston, U.S. (on 'Colombe's Birthday') [1]
+     Llangollen [2]
+     Llantysilio Church [1]
+     Lloyd, Captain [1]
+     Locker, Mr. F. (now Mr. Locker-Lampson) [2]
+     Lockhart [1]
+     Lucca [4]
+     Lyons, Mr. (son of Sir Edmund) [1]
+     Lytton, Mr. (now Lord) [3]
+
+     Maclise, Mr. (artist) [2]
+     Macready, Mr. [5]
+     Macready, Willy (eldest son of the actor):  his illustrations
+     to the 'Pied Piper' [1]
+     Mahoney, Rev. Francis ('Father Prout') [1]
+     Manning, Rev. Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) [1]
+     Manzoni Palace (Venice) [1]
+     Martin, Lady [3]
+     Martin, Sir Theodore [1]
+     Martineau, Miss [4]
+     Mazzini, Signor [1]
+     Melvill, Rev. H. (afterwards Canon) [2]
+     Meredith, Mr. George [1]
+     Mill, Mr. J. S. [3]
+     Milnes, Mr. Monckton (afterwards Lord Houghton) [4]
+     Milsand, M. Joseph [4]
+     Minich, Dr. (Venice) [1]
+     Mitford, Miss [3]
+     Mocenigo, Countess (Venice) [1]
+     Mohl, Madame [2]
+     Monthly Repository (incl. Browning's contributions to) [4]
+     Moore, Mrs. Bloomfield [2]
+     Morgan, Lady [1]
+     Morison, Mr. James Cotter [1]
+     Mortimer, Mr. [2]
+     Moulton-Barrett, Mr. George [3]
+     Moxon, Mr. (publisher) [4]
+     Murray, Miss Alma (actress) [1]
+     Musset, Alfred and Paul de [1]
+
+     Naples [1]
+     National Magazine, the:  Mrs. Browning's portrait in (1859) [1]
+     Nencioni, Professor (Florence) [1]
+     Nettleship, Mr. J. T. [1]
+     New Shakspere Society [1]
+     Noel, Mr. Roden [1]
+
+     Ogle, Dr. John [1]
+     Ogle, Miss (author of 'A Lost Love') [1]
+     Osbaldistone, Mr. (manager of Covent Garden Theatre, 1836) [1]
+     Ossoli, Countess Margaret Fuller [1]
+     Oxford (incl. Browning's visit to, 1877) [2]
+
+     Palgrave, Mr. Francis [1]
+     Palgrave, Mr. Reginald [1]
+     Paris [2]
+     Patterson, Monsignor [1]
+     Phelps, Mr. (actor) [3]
+     Pirate-ship, wreck of [1]
+     Pisa [1]
+     Poetical contest, a Roman [1]
+     Pollock, Sir Frederick (1843) [1]
+     Pornic [2]
+     Powell, Mr. Thomas [2]
+     Power, Miss (editor of 'The Keepsake') [1]
+     Powers, Mr. (American sculptor) [1]
+     Primiero [1]
+     Prinsep, Mr. Val [6]
+     Pritchard, Captain [1]
+     Procter, Mr. Bryan Waller (Barry Cornwall) [4]
+
+     Quaire, Madame du [2]
+     Quarles' Emblemes [1]
+
+     Ravenna [1]
+     Ready, the two Misses, preparatory school [3]
+     Ready, Rev. Thomas (Browning's first schoolmaster) [2]
+     Regan, Miss [1]
+     Reid, Mr. Andrew [1]
+     Relfe, Mr. John (musician) [1]
+     Rezzonico Palace (Venice), the [2]
+     Richmond, Rev. Thomas [1]
+     Ripert-Monclar, Count de [4]
+     Robertson, Mr. John (editor of 'Westminster Review', 1838) [1]
+     Robinson, Miss Mary (now Mrs. James Darmesteter) [1]
+     Rome [2]
+     Rossetti, Mr. Dante Gabriel (incl. death of his wife) [4]
+     Ruskin, Mr. [1]
+     Russell, Lady William [1]
+     Russell, Mr. Odo (afterwards Lord Ampthill) [2]
+
+     Sabatier, Madame [1]
+     Saleve, the [2]
+     Sand, George [2]
+     Sartoris, Mrs. [4]
+     Saunders & Otley, Messrs. [2]
+     Scott, Rev. Dr. (Master of Balliol, 1867) [1]
+     Scotti, Mr. [1]
+     Scottish Art Review, the, Mr. Mortimer's 'Note on Browning' in [1]
+     Seraverra [1]
+     Sharp, Mr. [4]
+     Shelley (incl. Browning's Essay on; his grave) [4]
+     Shrewsbury, Lord [1]
+     Sidgwick, Mr. A. [1]
+     Siena [2]
+     Silverthorne, Mrs. [2]
+     Simeon, Sir John [1]
+     Smith, Miss (second wife of the poet's grandfather) [1]
+     Smith, Mr. George Murray [1]
+     Southey [1]
+     Spezzia [1]
+     Spiritualism (incl. a pretending medium) [2]
+     Spluegen [1]
+     St. Andrews University [1]
+     St.-Aubin (M. Milsand's residence) [2]
+     St.-Enogat (near Dinard) [1]
+     St.-Pierre la Chartreuse (incl. a tragic occurrence there) [2]
+     Stanley, Dean [1]
+     Stanley, Lady Augusta [1]
+     Stendhal, Henri [2]
+     Sterling, Mr. John [1]
+     Stirling, Mrs. (actress) [1]
+     Story, Mr. and Mrs. William [7]
+     Sturtevant, Miss [1]
+     Sue, Eugene [1]
+
+     Tablets, Memorial [3]
+     Tait's Magazine [1]
+     Talfourd, Serjeant [3]
+     Taylor, Sir Henry [1]
+     Tennyson, Mr. Alfred (afterwards Lord Tennyson) [2]
+     Tennyson, Mr. Frederick [1]
+     Thackeray, Miss Annie [1]
+     Thackeray, Mr. W. M. [2]
+     Thaxter, Mrs. (Celia) (Boston, U.S.) [1]
+     Thaxter, Mr. Levi (Boston, U.S.) [1]
+     Thomson, Mr. James:  his application of the term 'Gothic'
+     to Browning's work [1]
+     Tittle, Miss Margaret [1]
+     Trelawney, Mr. E. J. (1844) [1]
+     Trifler, The (amateur magazine) [1]
+     True Sun, the (review of 'Strafford') [1]
+
+     Universo, Hotel dell' (Venice) [1]
+
+     Vallombrosa [1]
+     Venice [6]
+     Vigna, Dr. da (Venice) [1]
+
+     Wagner [1]
+     Warburton, Mr. Eliot [1]
+     Watts, Dr. [1]
+     Westminster, Dean of [2]
+     Widman, Counts [1]
+     Wiedemann, Mr. William [1]
+     Williams, Rev. J. D. W. (vicar of Bottisham, Cambs.) [1]
+     Wilson (Mrs. Browning's maid) [6]
+     Wilson, Mr. Effingham (publisher) [1]
+     Wiseman, Mrs. (mother of Cardinal Wiseman) [1]
+     Wolseley, Lady [1]
+     Wolseley, Lord [1]
+     Woolner, Mr. [1]
+     Wordsworth [3]
+     Wordsworth Society, the [2]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Letters of Robert Browning, by 
+Mrs. Sutherland Orr
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