Life and Letters of Robert Browning [111]
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,
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,