Chapter I: Foreword

The present volume was initiated in Florence, and, from its first inception, invested with the cordial assent and the sympathetic encouragement of Robert Barrett Browning. One never-to-be-forgotten day, all ethereal light and loveliness, has left its picture in memory, when, in company with Mr. Browning and his life-long friend, the Marchesa Peruzzi di' Medici (_nata_ Story), the writer of this biography strolled with them under the host's orange trees and among the riotous roses of his Florentine villa, "La Torre All' Antella," listening to their sparkling conversation, replete with fascinating reminiscences. To Mr. Browning the tribute of thanks, whose full scope is known to the Recording Angel alone, is here offered; and there is the blending of both privilege and duty in grateful acknowledgements to Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Company for their courtesy in permitting the somewhat liberal drawing on their published Letters of both the Brownings, on which reliance had to be based in any effort to

"Call up the buried Past again,"

and construct the story, from season to season, so far as might be, of that wonderful interlude of the wedded life of the poets.

Yet any formality of thanks to this house is almost lost sight of in the rush of memories of that long and mutually-trusting friendship between the late George Murray Smith, the former head of this firm, and Robert Browning, a friendship which was one of the choicest treasures in both their lives.

To The Macmillan Company, the publishers for both the first and the present Lord Tennyson; To Houghton Mifflin Company; to Messrs. Dodd, Mead, & Company; to The Cornhill Magazine (to which the writer is indebted for some data regarding Browning and Professor Masson); to each and all, acknowledgments are offered for their courtesy which has invested with added charm a work than which none was ever more completely a labor of love.

To Edith, Contessa Rucellai (_nata_ Bronson), whose characteristically lovely kindness placed at the disposal of this volume a number of letters written by Robert Browning to her mother, Mrs. Arthur Bronson, special gratitude is offered.

"Poetry," said Mrs. Browning, "is its own exceeding great reward." Any effort, however remote its results from the ideal that haunted the writer, to interpret the lives of such transcendent genius and nobleness as those of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, must also be its own exceeding reward in leading to a passion of pursuit of all that is highest and holiest in the life that now is, and in that which is to come.

LILIAN WHITING

THE BRUNSWICK, BOSTON
Midsummer Days, 1911

CONTENTS

PAGE
CHAPTER I

1812-1833

The Most Exquisite Romance of Modern Life--Ancestry and Youth of
Robert Browning--Love of Music--Formative Influences--The
Fascination of Byron--A Home "Crammed with Books"--The Spell
of Shelley--"Incondita"--Poetic Vocation Definitely
Chosen--"Pauline" 1

CHAPTER II

1806-1832

Childhood and Early Youth of Elizabeth Barrett--Hope End--"Summer
Snow of Apple-Blossoms"--Her Bower of White Roses--"Living
with Visions"--The Malvern Hills--Hugh Stuart Boyd--Love of
Learning--"Juvenilia"--Impassioned Devotion to Poetry 16

CHAPTER III

1833-1841

Browning Visits Russia--"Paracelsus"--Recognition of Wordsworth
and Landor--"Strafford"--First Visit to Italy--Mrs. Carlyle's
Baffled Reading of "Sordello"--Lofty Motif of the Poem--The
Universal Problem of Life--Enthusiasm for Italy--The
Sibylline Leaves Yet to Unfold 26

CHAPTER IV

1833-1841

Elizabeth Barrett's Love for the Greek Poets--Lyrical Work--
Serious Entrance on Professional Literature--Noble Ideal
of Poetry--London Life--Kenyon--First Knowledge of Robert
Browning 44

CHAPTER V

1841-1846

"Bells and Pomegranates"--Arnould and Domett--"A Blot in the
'Scutcheon"--Macready--Second Visit to Italy--Miss Barrett's
Poetic Work--"Colombe's Birthday"--"Lady Geraldine's
Courtship"--"Romances and Lyrics"--Browning's First Letter
to Miss Barrett--The Poets Meet--Letters of Robert Browning
and Elizabeth Barrett--"Loves of the Poets"--Vita Nuova 67

CHAPTER VI

1846-1850

Marriage and Italy--"In That New World"--The Haunts of
Petrarca--The Magic Land--In Pisa--Vallombrosa--"Un Bel
Giro"--Guercino's Angel--Casa Guidi--Birth of Robert Barrett
Browning--Bagni di Lucca--"Sonnets from the Portuguese"--The
Enchantment of Italy 92

CHAPTER VII

1850-1855

"Casa Guidi Windows"--Society in Florence--Marchesa d'Ossoli--
Browning's Poetic Creed--Villeggiatura in Siena--Venice--
Brilliant Life in London--Paris and Milsand--Browning on
Shelley--In Florence--Idyllic Days in Bagni di Lucca--Mrs.
Browning's Spiritual Outlook--Delightful Winter in Rome--A
Poetic Pilgrimage--Harriet Hosmer--Characteristics of Mrs.
Browning 115

CHAPTER VIII

1855-1861

London Life--An Interlude in Paris--"Aurora Leigh"--Florentine
Days--"Men and Women"--The Hawthornes--"The Old Yellow
Book"--A Summer in Normandy--The Eternal City--The Storys and
Other Friends--Lilies of Florence--"It Is Beautiful!" 163

CHAPTER IX

1861-1869

The Completed Cycle--Letters to Friends--Browning's Devotion to
His Son--Warwick Crescent--"Dramatis Personae"--London Life--
Death of the Poet's Father--Sarianna Browning--Oxford Honors
the Poet--Death of Arabel Barrett--Audierne--"The Ring and
the Book" 199

CHAPTER X

1869-1880

In Scotland with the Storys--Browning's Conversation--An Amusing
Incident--With Milsand at St. Aubin's--"The Red Cotton
Night-cap Country"--Robert Barrett Browning's Gift for Art--
Alfred Domett ("Waring")--"Balaustion's Adventure"--Browning
and Tennyson--"Pacchiarotto"--Visits Jowett at Oxford--
Declines Lord Rectorship of St. Andrews--"La Saisiaz"--Italy
Revisited--The Dream of Asolo--"Ivanovitch"--Pride in His
Son's Success--"Dramatic Idylls" 221

CHAPTER XI

1880-1888

"Les Charmettes"--Venetian Days--Dr. Hiram Corson--The Browning
Society--Oxford Honors Browning--Katherine DeKay Bronson--
Honors from Edinburgh--Visit to Professor Masson--Italian
Recognition--Nancioni--The Goldoni Sonnet--At St. Moritz--
In Palazzo Giustiniani--"Ferishtah's Fancies"--Companionship
with His Son--Death of Milsand--Letters to Mrs. Bronson--
DeVere Gardens--Palazzo Rezzonico--Sunsets from the Lido--
Robert Barrett Browning's Gift in Portraiture 238