Life and Letters of Robert Browning [13]
for him as the best in the neighbourhood;
and both there and under the preparatory training of that gentleman's sisters,
the young Robert was well and kindly cared for. The Misses Ready
especially concerned themselves with the spiritual welfare of their pupils.
The periodical hair-brushings were accompanied by the singing,
and fell naturally into the measure, of Watts's hymns;
and Mr. Browning has given his friends some very hearty laughs
by illustrating with voice and gesture the ferocious emphasis
with which the brush would swoop down in the accentuated syllables
of the following lines:
Lord, 'tis a pleasant thing to stand
In gardens planted by Thy hand.
. . . . .
Fools never raise their thoughts so high,
Like `brutes' they live, like BRUTES they die.
He even compelled his mother to laugh at it, though it was
sorely against her nature to lend herself to any burlesquing
of piously intended things.* He had become a bigger boy
since the episode of the cistern, and had probably in some degree
outgrown the intense piety of his earlier childhood.
This little incident seems to prove it. On the whole, however,
his religious instincts did not need strengthening,
though his sense of humour might get the better of them for a moment;
and of secular instruction he seems to have received as little
from the one set of teachers as from the other. I do not suppose
that the mental training at Mr. Ready's was more shallow or more mechanical
than that of most other schools of his own or, indeed, of a much later period;
but the brilliant abilities of Robert Browning inspired him
with a certain contempt for it, as also for the average schoolboy intelligence
to which it was apparently adapted. It must be for this reason that,
as he himself declared, he never gained a prize, although these rewards
were showered in such profusion that the only difficulty was to avoid them;
and if he did not make friends at school (for this also
has been somewhere observed),** it can only be explained in the same way.
He was at an intolerant age, and if his schoolfellows struck him
as more backward or more stupid than they need be, he is not likely
to have taken pains to conceal the impression. It is difficult,
at all events, to think of him as unsociable, and his talents
certainly had their amusing side. Miss Browning tells me that
he made his schoolfellows act plays, some of which he had written for them;
and he delighted his friends, not long ago, by mimicking
his own solemn appearance on some breaking-up or commemorative day,
when, according to programme, `Master Browning' ascended a platform
in the presence of assembled parents and friends, and, in best jacket,
white gloves, and carefully curled hair, with a circular bow to the company
and the then prescribed waving of alternate arms, delivered a high-flown
rhymed address of his own composition.
--
* In spite of this ludicrous association Mr. Browning always recognized
great merit in Watts's hymns, and still more in Dr. Watts himself,
who had devoted to this comparatively humble work intellectual powers
competent to far higher things.
** It was in no case literally true. William, afterwards Sir William, Channel
was leaving Mr. Ready when Browning went to him; but a friendly
acquaintance began, and was afterwards continued, between the two boys;
and a closer friendship, formed with a younger brother Frank,
was only interrupted by his death. Another school friend or acquaintance
recalled himself as such to the poet's memory some ten or twelve years ago.
A man who has reached the age at which his boyhood becomes
of interest to the world may even have survived many such relations.
--
And during the busy idleness of his schooldays, or, at all events,
in the holidays in which he rested from it, he was learning,
as perhaps only those do learn whose real education is derived from home.
His father's house was, Miss Browning tells me, literally crammed with books;
and both there and under the preparatory training of that gentleman's sisters,
the young Robert was well and kindly cared for. The Misses Ready
especially concerned themselves with the spiritual welfare of their pupils.
The periodical hair-brushings were accompanied by the singing,
and fell naturally into the measure, of Watts's hymns;
and Mr. Browning has given his friends some very hearty laughs
by illustrating with voice and gesture the ferocious emphasis
with which the brush would swoop down in the accentuated syllables
of the following lines:
Lord, 'tis a pleasant thing to stand
In gardens planted by Thy hand.
. . . . .
Fools never raise their thoughts so high,
Like `brutes' they live, like BRUTES they die.
He even compelled his mother to laugh at it, though it was
sorely against her nature to lend herself to any burlesquing
of piously intended things.* He had become a bigger boy
since the episode of the cistern, and had probably in some degree
outgrown the intense piety of his earlier childhood.
This little incident seems to prove it. On the whole, however,
his religious instincts did not need strengthening,
though his sense of humour might get the better of them for a moment;
and of secular instruction he seems to have received as little
from the one set of teachers as from the other. I do not suppose
that the mental training at Mr. Ready's was more shallow or more mechanical
than that of most other schools of his own or, indeed, of a much later period;
but the brilliant abilities of Robert Browning inspired him
with a certain contempt for it, as also for the average schoolboy intelligence
to which it was apparently adapted. It must be for this reason that,
as he himself declared, he never gained a prize, although these rewards
were showered in such profusion that the only difficulty was to avoid them;
and if he did not make friends at school (for this also
has been somewhere observed),** it can only be explained in the same way.
He was at an intolerant age, and if his schoolfellows struck him
as more backward or more stupid than they need be, he is not likely
to have taken pains to conceal the impression. It is difficult,
at all events, to think of him as unsociable, and his talents
certainly had their amusing side. Miss Browning tells me that
he made his schoolfellows act plays, some of which he had written for them;
and he delighted his friends, not long ago, by mimicking
his own solemn appearance on some breaking-up or commemorative day,
when, according to programme, `Master Browning' ascended a platform
in the presence of assembled parents and friends, and, in best jacket,
white gloves, and carefully curled hair, with a circular bow to the company
and the then prescribed waving of alternate arms, delivered a high-flown
rhymed address of his own composition.
--
* In spite of this ludicrous association Mr. Browning always recognized
great merit in Watts's hymns, and still more in Dr. Watts himself,
who had devoted to this comparatively humble work intellectual powers
competent to far higher things.
** It was in no case literally true. William, afterwards Sir William, Channel
was leaving Mr. Ready when Browning went to him; but a friendly
acquaintance began, and was afterwards continued, between the two boys;
and a closer friendship, formed with a younger brother Frank,
was only interrupted by his death. Another school friend or acquaintance
recalled himself as such to the poet's memory some ten or twelve years ago.
A man who has reached the age at which his boyhood becomes
of interest to the world may even have survived many such relations.
--
And during the busy idleness of his schooldays, or, at all events,
in the holidays in which he rested from it, he was learning,
as perhaps only those do learn whose real education is derived from home.
His father's house was, Miss Browning tells me, literally crammed with books;