Robert Browning: How to Know Him | Page 2

as I traversed the length of this street, it looked
squalid in the rain, and is indeed sufficiently unlovely. But in 1812 it
was a good residential locality, and not far away were fresh woods and
pastures.... The good health of Browning's father may be inferred from
the fact that he lived to be eighty-four, "without a day's illness;" he was
a practical, successful business man, an official in the Bank of England.
His love of literature and the arts is proved by the fact that he practised
them constantly for the pure joy of the working; he wrote reams and
reams of verse, without publishing a line. He had extraordinary facility
in composition, being able to write poetry even faster than his son.
Rossetti said that he had "a real genius for drawing." He owned a large
and valuable library, filled with curiosities of literature. Robert was
brought up among books, even in earliest youth turning over many a
quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. His latest biographers
have shown the powerful and permanent effects on his poetry of this
early reading.
Browning's father--while not a rich man--had sufficient income to give
his son every possible advantage in physical and intellectual training,
and to enable him to live without earning a cent; after Robert grew up,
he was absolutely free to devote his entire time and energy to writing
poetry, which, even to the day of his death, did not yield a livelihood.
The young poet was free from care, free from responsibility, and able
from childhood to old age to bring out the best that was in him. A
curious and exact parallel is found in the case of the great pessimist,
Schopenhauer, who never ceased to be grateful to his father for making
his whole life-work possible. In his later years, Browning wrote: "It
would have been quite
unpardonable in any case not to have done my
best. My dear father put me in a condition most favourable for the best
work I was capable of. When I think of the many authors who had to

fight their way through all sorts of difficulties I have no reason to be
proud of my achievements."
Browning's mother, whom he loved with passionate adoration, was a
healthy and sensible woman; better than all these gifts, she was deeply
religious, with sincere and unaffected piety. She was a Dissenter, a
Congregationalist, and brought up Robert in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, herself a noble example of her teachings. This evangelical
training had an incalculably strong influence on the spirit of Browning's
poetry. She loved music ardently, and when Robert was a boy, used to
play the piano to him in the twilight. He always said that he got his
devotion to music from her.
In these days, when there is such a strong reaction everywhere against
the elective system in education, it is interesting to remember that
Browning's education was simply the elective system pushed to its last
possibility. It is perhaps safe to say that no learned man in modern
times ever had so little of school and college. His education depended
absolutely and exclusively on his inclinations; he was encouraged to
study anything he wished. His father granted him perfect liberty, never
sent him to any "institution of learning," and allowed him to do exactly
as he chose, simply providing competent private instruction in
whatever subject the youth expressed any interest. Thus he learned
Greek, Latin, the modern languages, music (harmony and counterpoint,
as well as piano and organ), chemistry (a private laboratory was fitted
up in the house), history and art. Now every one knows that; so far as
definite acquisition of knowledge is concerned, our schools and
colleges-at least in America--leave much to be desired; our boys and
girls study the classics for years without being able to read a page at
sight; and the modern languages show a similarly meagre harvest. If
one wishes positive and practical results one must employ a private
tutor, or work alone in secret. The great advantages of our schools and
colleges--except in so far as they inspire intellectual
curiosity--are not
primarily of a scholarly nature; their strength lies in other directions.
The result of Browning's education was that at the age of twenty he
knew more than most college graduates ever know; and his knowledge
was at his full command. His favorite reading on the train, for example,

was a Greek play; one of the reasons why his poetry sometimes seems
so pedantic is simply because he never realised how ignorant most of
us really are. I suppose he did not believe that men could pass years in
school and university training and know so little. Yet the truth is, that
most boys, brought up as Browning was, would be