Life of Robert Browning | Page 5

Rome; record of work; "Pen's"
illness; "Ben Karshook's Wisdom"; return to Florence; (1856) "Men
and Women" published; the Brownings go to London; in summer
"Aurora Leigh" issued; 1858, Mrs. Browning's waning health; 1855-64
comparatively unproductive period with R. Browning; record of work;
July 1855, they travel to Normandy; "Legend of Pornic"; Mrs.
Browning's ardent interest in the Italian struggle of 1859; winter in
Rome; "Poems before Congress"; her last poem, "North and South";
death of Mrs. Browning at Casa Guidi, 28th June 1861.
Chapter 9
.
Browning's allusions to death of his wife; Miss Browning resides with
her brother from 1866; 1868, collected works published; first part of
"The Ring and the Book" published in November 1866; "Herve Riel"
written; Browning's growing popularity; Tauchnitz editions of his
poems in 1872; also first book of selections; dedication to Lord
Tennyson; 1877, he goes to La Saisiaz, near Geneva; "La Saisiaz" and
"The Two Poets of Croisic" published 1878; Browning's later poems;
Browning Society established 1881; Browning's letter thereupon to Mr.
Yates; trips abroad; his London residences; his last letter to Tennyson;
revisits Asolo; Palazzo Rezzonico; his belief in immortality; his death,
Thursday, Dec. 12th, 1889; funeral in Westminster Abbey; Sonnet by
George Meredith; new star in Orion; R. Browning's place in literature;
Summary, etc.

Note.

In all important respects I leave this volume to speak for itself. For
obvious reasons it does not pretend to be more than a `Memoire pour
servir': in the nature of things, the definitive biography cannot appear
for many years to come. None the less gratefully may I take the present

opportunity to express my indebtedness to Mr. R. Barrett Browning,
and to other relatives and intimate friends of Robert Browning, who
have given me serviceable information, and otherwise rendered kindly
aid. For some of the hitherto unpublished details my thanks are, in
particular, due to Mrs. Fraser Corkran and Miss Alice Corkran, and to
other old friends of the poet and his family, here, in Italy, and in
America; though in one or two instances, I may add, I had them from
Robert Browning himself. It is with pleasure that I further acknowledge
my indebtedness to Dr. Furnivall, for the loan of the advance-proofs of
his privately-printed pamphlet on "Browning's Ancestors"; and to the
Browning Society's Publications -- particularly to Mrs. Sutherland Orr's
and Dr. Furnivall's biographical and bibliographical contributions
thereto; to Mr. Gosse's biographical article in the `Century Magazine'
for 1881; to Mr. Ingram's `Life of E. B. Browning'; and to the
`Memoirs of Anna Jameson', the `Italian Note-Books' of Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Mr. G. S. Hillard's `Six Months in Italy' (1853), and the
Lives and Correspondence of Macready, Miss Mitford, Leigh Hunt,
and Walter Savage Landor. I regret that the imperative need of
concision has prevented the insertion of many of the letters, anecdotes,
and reminiscences, so generously placed at my disposal; but possibly I
may have succeeded in educing from them some essential part of that
light which they undoubtedly cast upon the personality and genius of
the poet.

------------------------ Life of Robert Browning. ------------------------

Chapter 1
.

It must, to admirers of Browning's writings, appear singularly
appropriate that so cosmopolitan a poet was born in London. It would
seem as though something of that mighty complex life, so confusedly
petty to the narrow vision, so grandiose and even majestic to the larger
ken, had blent with his being from the first. What fitter birthplace for
the poet whom a comrade has called the "Subtlest Assertor of the Soul
in Song", the poet whose writings are indeed a mirror of the age?

A man may be in all things a Londoner and yet be a provincial. The
accident of birthplace does not necessarily involve parochialism of the
soul. It is not the village which produces the Hampden, but the
Hampden who immortalises the village. It is a favourite jest of Rusticus
that his urban brother has the manner of Omniscience and the
knowledge of a parish beadle. Nevertheless, though the strongest blood
insurgent in the metropolitan heart is not that which is native to it, one
might well be proud to have had one's atom-pulse atune from the first
with the large rhythm of the national life at its turbulent, congested, but
ever ebullient centre. Certainly Browning was not the man to be
ashamed of his being a Londoner, much less to deny his natal place. He
was proud of it: through good sense, no doubt, but possibly also
through some instinctive apprehension of the fact that the great city
was indeed the fit mother of such a son. "Ashamed of having been born
in the greatest city of the world!" he exclaimed on one occasion; "what
an extraordinary thing to say! It suggests a wavelet in a muddy shallow