Chapter I: Front Matter

THE TEMPLE BIOGRAPHIES

Edited by Dugald Macfadyen, M.A.

Robert Browning

ROBERT BROWNING

BY EDWARD DOWDEN

LITT.D., D.C.L., LL.D.

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN

1904

If I, too, should try and speak at times,
Leading your love to where my love, perchance,
Climbed earlier, found a nest before you knew,
Why, bear with the poor climber, for love's sake.

--_Balaustion's Adventure_.

Editor's Preface

"In the case of those whom the public has learned to honour and admire, there is a _biography of the mind_--the phrase is Mr Gladstone's--that is a matter of deep interest." In a life of Robert Browning it is especially true that the biography we want is of this nature, for its events are to be classed rather among achievements of the human spirit than as objective incidents, and its interest depends only in a secondary sense on circumstance or movement in the public eye. The special function of the present book in the growing library of Browning literature is to give such a biography of Browning's mind, associating his poems with their date and origin, as may throw some light on his inward development. Browning has become to many, in a measure which he could hardly have conceived possible himself, one of the authoritative interpreters of the spiritual factors in human life. His tonic optimism dissipates the grey atmosphere of materialism, which has obscured the sunclad heights of life as effectually as a fog. To see life through Browning's eyes is to see it shot through and through with spiritual issues, with a background of eternal destiny; and to come appreciably nearer than the general consciousness of our time to seeing it steadily and seeing it whole. Those who prize his influence know how to value everything which throws light on the path by which he reached his resolute and confident outlook.

It is almost possible to count on the fingers of one hand the few men who could successfully write a book of this character and scope. The Editor believes that, in the present case, one of the very few has been found who had the qualifications required. Much of the apparent obscurity of Browning is due to his habit of climbing up a precipice of thought, and then kicking away the ladder by which he climbed. Dr Dowden has with singular success readjusted the steps, so that readers may follow the poet's climb. Those who are not daunted by the Paracelsus and Sordello chapter, where the subject requires some close and patient attention, will find vigorous narrative and pellucid exposition interwoven in such a way as to keep them in intimate and constantly closer touch with the "biography of Browning's mind."

D.M.

Preface

An attempt is made in this volume to tell the story of Browning's life, including, as part of it, a notice of his books, which may be regarded as the chief of "his acts and all that he did." I have tried to keep my reader in constant contact with Browning's mind and art, and thus a sense of the growth and development of his genius ought to form itself before the close.

The materials accessible for a biography, apart from Browning's published writings, are not copious. He destroyed many letters; many, no doubt, are in private hands. For some parts of his life I have been able to add little to what Mrs Orr tells. But since her biography of Browning was published a good deal of interesting matter has appeared. The publication of "The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning" has enabled me to construct a short, close-knit narrative of the incidents that led up to Browning's marriage. From that date until the death of Mrs Browning her "Letters," edited by Mr Kenyon, has been my chief source. My method has not been that of quotation, but the substance of many letters is fused, as far as was possible, into a brief, continuous story. Two privately issued volumes of Browning's letters, edited by Mr T.J. Wise, and Mr Wise's "Browning Bibliography" have been of service to me. Mr Gosse's "Robert Browning, Personalia," Mrs Ritchie's "Tennyson, Ruskin and Browning," the "Life of Tennyson" by his son, Mr Henry James's volumes on W.W. Story, letters of Dante Rossetti, the diary of Mr W.M. Rossetti, with other writings of his, memoirs, reminiscences or autobiographies of Lady Martin, F.T. Palgrave, Jowett, Sir James Paget, Gavan Duffy, Robert Buchanan, Rudolf Lehmann, W.J. Stillman, T.A. Trollope, Miss F.P. Cobbe, Miss Swanwick, and others have been consulted. And several interesting articles in periodicals, in particular Mrs Arthur Bronson's articles "Browning in Venice" and "Browning in Asolo," have contributed to my narrative. For some information about Browning's father and mother, and his connection with York Street Independent Chapel, I am indebted to Mr F. Herbert Stead, Warden of "The Robert Browning Settlement," Walworth. I thank Messrs Smith, Elder and Co., as representing Mr R. Barrett Browning, for permission to make such quotations as I have ventured to make from copyright letters. I thank the general Editor of this series, the Rev. D. Macfadyen, for kind and valuable suggestions.

My study of Browning's poems is chronological. I recognise the disadvantages of this method, but I also perceive certain advantages. Many years ago in "Studies in Literature" I attempted a general view of Browning's work, and wrote, as long ago as 1867, a careful study of _Sordello_. What I now write may suffer as well as gain from a familiarity of so many years with his writings. But to make them visible objects to me I have tried to put his poems outside myself, and approach them with a fresh mind. Whether I have failed or partly succeeded I am unable to determine.

The analysis of _La Saisiaz_ appeared--substantially--in the little Magazine of the Home Reading Union, and one or two other short passages are recovered from uncollected articles of mine. I have incorporated in my criticism a short passage from one of my wife's articles on Browning in _The Dark Blue Magazine_, making such modifications as suited my purpose, and she has contributed a passage to the pages which close this volume.

I had the privilege of some personal acquaintance with Browning, and have several cordial letters of his addressed to my wife and to myself. These I have not thought it right to use.

E.D.

Contents

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

Ancestry--Parents--Boyhood--Influence of Shelley--Pauline

CHAPTER II

PARACELSUS AND SORDELLO

Visit to Russia--Paracelsus--His failures and attainments--Sordello, a companion poem--Its obscurity--Imaginative qualities--The history of a soul

CHAPTER III

THE MAKER OF PLAYS

New acquaintances--Hatcham--Macready--Strafford--Venice--Bells and Promegranates--A Blot on the 'Scutcheon--Characters of passion--Characters of intellect

CHAPTER IV

THE MAKER OF PLAYS--_(continued)_

Women of the dramas--Dramatic style--Pippa Passes--Dramatic Lyrics and Romances--Poems of Love and of Art

CHAPTER V

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

First letters to Miss Barrett--Meeting--Progress in friendship--Obstacles--Marriage

CHAPTER VI

EARLY YEARS IN ITALY

Correspondence of R.B. and E.B.B.--Journey to Italy--Pisa--Florence--Vallombrosa--Italian politics--Casa Guidi-Friends--Son born--Death of Browning's mother--Wanderings.

CHAPTER VII

CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY

Publication--Movements of Religious Thought--Dissent--Catholicism--Criticism--Difficulties of Christian life--Imaginative power of the poems--In Venice--Paris--England--Paris again--Coup d'état

CHAPTER VIII

FROM 1851 TO 1855

Essay on Shelley--New acquaintances--Milsand--George Sand--London--Casa Guidi--Spiritualism--Mr Sludge the Medium--Baths of Lucca--Rome--London--Tennyson's Maud

CHAPTER IX

MEN AND WOMEN

Rossetti's admiration--Beauty before teaching--The poet behind his poems--Isolated poems--Groups--Poems of love--Poems of Art--Poems of Religion

CHAPTER X

CLOSE OF MRS BROWNING'S LIFE

Paris--Kenyon's death--Legacies--Death of Mr Barrett--Winter in Florence--Havre--Rome--Louis Napoleon--Landor--Siena--Poems before Congress--Rome again--Modelling in Clay--Casa Guidi--Death of Mrs Browning

CHAPTER XI

LONDON: DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Desolation--Return to London--Pornic--Social life--Dramatis Personae--Poems of music--Poems of hope and aspiration--A Death in the Desert--Epilogue--Caliban upon Setebos--Poems of Love

CHAPTER XII

THE RING AND THE BOOK

Holiday excursions--Sainte Marie--Miss Barrett dies--Balliol College and Jowett--Origin of the Ring and the Book--Its Plan--The Persons--Count Guido--Pompilia--Caponsacchi--The Pope--Falsehood subserving truth

CHAPTER XIII

POEMS ON CLASSICAL SUBJECTS

Saint-Aubin--Milsand--Miss Thackeray--Hervé Riel--Miss Egerton-Smith--Summer wanderings--Balaustion's Adventure--Aristophanes' Apology--The Agamemnon

CHAPTER XIV

PROBLEM AND NARRATIVE POEMS

Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau--Fifine at the Fair--Red Cotton Night-Cap Country--The Inn Album--Pachiarotto and other Poems

CHAPTER XV

SOLITUDE AND SOCIETY

La Saisiaz--Immortality--Two Poets of Croisic--Browning in society--Daily habits--Browning as a talker--Italy--Asolo--Mountain retreats--Mrs Bronson--Venice

CHAPTER XVI

POET AND TEACHER IN OLD AGE

Popularity--Browning Society--Public honours--Dramatic Idyls--Spirit of acquiescence--Jocoseria--Ferishtah's Fancies