Life and Letters of Robert Browning [26]
to any post
of activity and responsibility not unsuited to the training of a gentleman.
Soon after his return from Russia he applied for appointment
on a mission which was to be despatched to Persia; and the careless wording
of the answer which his application received made him think for a moment
that it had been granted. He was much disappointed when he learned,
through an interview with the `chief', that the place was otherwise filled.
In 1834 he began a little series of contributions to the `Monthly Repository',
extending into 1835-6, and consisting of five poems. The earliest of these
was a sonnet, not contained in any edition of Mr. Browning's works,
and which, I believe, first reappeared in Mr. Gosse's article
in the `Century Magazine', December 1881; now part of his `Personalia'.
The second, beginning `A king lived long ago', was to be published,
with alterations and additions, as one of `Pippa's' songs.
`Porphyria's Lover' and `Johannes Agricola in Meditation'
were reprinted together in `Bells and Pomegranates'
under the heading of `Madhouse Cells'. The fifth consisted of
the Lines beginning `Still ailing, Wind? wilt be appeased or no?'
afterwards introduced into the sixth section of `James Lee's Wife'.
The sonnet is not very striking, though hints of the poet's
future psychological subtlety are not wanting in it; but his most essential
dramatic quality reveals itself in the last three poems.
This winter of 1834-5 witnessed the birth, perhaps also the extinction,
of an amateur periodical, established by some of Mr. Browning's friends;
foremost among these the young Dowsons, afterwards connected
with Alfred Domett. The magazine was called the `Trifler',
and published in monthly numbers of about ten pages each.
It collapsed from lack of pocket-money on the part of the editors;
but Mr. Browning had written for it one letter, February 1833,
signed with his usual initial Z, and entitled `Some strictures on
a late article in the `Trifler'.' This boyish production sparkles with fun,
while affecting the lengthy quaintnesses of some obsolete modes of speech.
The article which it attacks was `A Dissertation on Debt and Debtors',
where the subject was, I imagine, treated in the orthodox way:
and he expends all his paradox in showing that indebtedness
is a necessary condition of human life, and all his sophistry in confusing it
with the abstract sense of obligation. It is, perhaps, scarcely fair
to call attention to such a mere argumentative and literary freak;
but there is something so comical in a defence of debt,
however transparent, proceeding from a man to whom never in his life
a bill can have been sent in twice, and who would always have preferred
ready-money payment to receiving a bill at all, that I may be forgiven
for quoting some passages from it.
==
For to be man is to be a debtor: -- hinting but slightly
at the grand and primeval debt implied in the idea of a creation,
as matter too hard for ears like thine, (for saith not Luther,
What hath a cow to do with nutmegs?) I must, nevertheless,
remind thee that all moralists have concurred in considering
this our mortal sojourn as indeed an uninterrupted state of debt,
and the world our dwelling-place as represented by nothing so aptly
as by an inn, wherein those who lodge most commodiously
have in perspective a proportionate score to reduce,*
and those who fare least delicately, but an insignificant shot to discharge --
or, as the tuneful Quarles well phraseth it --
He's most in DEBT who lingers out the day,
Who dies betimes has less and less to pay.
So far, therefore, from these sagacious ethics holding that
Debt cramps the energies of the soul, &c.
as thou pratest, 'tis plain that they have willed on the very outset
to inculcate this truth on the mind of every man, --
no barren and inconsequential dogma, but an effectual,
ever influencing and productive rule of life, -- that he is born a debtor,
lives a debtor -- aye, friend, and when thou diest, will not
some
of activity and responsibility not unsuited to the training of a gentleman.
Soon after his return from Russia he applied for appointment
on a mission which was to be despatched to Persia; and the careless wording
of the answer which his application received made him think for a moment
that it had been granted. He was much disappointed when he learned,
through an interview with the `chief', that the place was otherwise filled.
In 1834 he began a little series of contributions to the `Monthly Repository',
extending into 1835-6, and consisting of five poems. The earliest of these
was a sonnet, not contained in any edition of Mr. Browning's works,
and which, I believe, first reappeared in Mr. Gosse's article
in the `Century Magazine', December 1881; now part of his `Personalia'.
The second, beginning `A king lived long ago', was to be published,
with alterations and additions, as one of `Pippa's' songs.
`Porphyria's Lover' and `Johannes Agricola in Meditation'
were reprinted together in `Bells and Pomegranates'
under the heading of `Madhouse Cells'. The fifth consisted of
the Lines beginning `Still ailing, Wind? wilt be appeased or no?'
afterwards introduced into the sixth section of `James Lee's Wife'.
The sonnet is not very striking, though hints of the poet's
future psychological subtlety are not wanting in it; but his most essential
dramatic quality reveals itself in the last three poems.
This winter of 1834-5 witnessed the birth, perhaps also the extinction,
of an amateur periodical, established by some of Mr. Browning's friends;
foremost among these the young Dowsons, afterwards connected
with Alfred Domett. The magazine was called the `Trifler',
and published in monthly numbers of about ten pages each.
It collapsed from lack of pocket-money on the part of the editors;
but Mr. Browning had written for it one letter, February 1833,
signed with his usual initial Z, and entitled `Some strictures on
a late article in the `Trifler'.' This boyish production sparkles with fun,
while affecting the lengthy quaintnesses of some obsolete modes of speech.
The article which it attacks was `A Dissertation on Debt and Debtors',
where the subject was, I imagine, treated in the orthodox way:
and he expends all his paradox in showing that indebtedness
is a necessary condition of human life, and all his sophistry in confusing it
with the abstract sense of obligation. It is, perhaps, scarcely fair
to call attention to such a mere argumentative and literary freak;
but there is something so comical in a defence of debt,
however transparent, proceeding from a man to whom never in his life
a bill can have been sent in twice, and who would always have preferred
ready-money payment to receiving a bill at all, that I may be forgiven
for quoting some passages from it.
==
For to be man is to be a debtor: -- hinting but slightly
at the grand and primeval debt implied in the idea of a creation,
as matter too hard for ears like thine, (for saith not Luther,
What hath a cow to do with nutmegs?) I must, nevertheless,
remind thee that all moralists have concurred in considering
this our mortal sojourn as indeed an uninterrupted state of debt,
and the world our dwelling-place as represented by nothing so aptly
as by an inn, wherein those who lodge most commodiously
have in perspective a proportionate score to reduce,*
and those who fare least delicately, but an insignificant shot to discharge --
or, as the tuneful Quarles well phraseth it --
He's most in DEBT who lingers out the day,
Who dies betimes has less and less to pay.
So far, therefore, from these sagacious ethics holding that
Debt cramps the energies of the soul, &c.
as thou pratest, 'tis plain that they have willed on the very outset
to inculcate this truth on the mind of every man, --
no barren and inconsequential dogma, but an effectual,
ever influencing and productive rule of life, -- that he is born a debtor,
lives a debtor -- aye, friend, and when thou diest, will not
some