Life and Letters of Robert Browning [41]
poems, as the manifestation of the self-conscious
spiritual ambitions which were involved in that history.
This first imaginative mood was also outgrowing itself
in the very act of self-expression; for the tragedies written
before the conclusion of `Sordello' impress us as the product
of a different mental state -- as the work of a more balanced imagination
and a more mature mind.
It would be interesting to learn how Mr. Browning's typical poet
became embodied in this mediaeval form: whether the half-mythical character
of the real Sordello presented him as a fitting subject for imaginative
psychological treatment, or whether the circumstances among which he moved
seemed the best adapted to the development of the intended type.
The inspiration may have come through the study of Dante, and his testimony
to the creative influence of Sordello on their mother-tongue.
That period of Italian history must also have assumed,
if it did not already possess, a great charm for Mr. Browning's fancy,
since he studied no less than thirty works upon it,
which were to contribute little more to his dramatic picture
than what he calls `decoration', or `background'. But the one guide
which he has given us to the reading of the poem is his assertion
that its historical circumstance is only to be regarded as background;
and the extent to which he identified himself with the figure of Sordello
has been proved by his continued belief that its prominence
was throughout maintained. He could still declare, so late as 1863,
in his preface to the reprint of the work, that his `stress' in writing it
had lain `on the incidents in the development of a soul, little else'
being to his mind `worth study'. I cannot therefore help thinking
that recent investigations of the life and character of the actual poet,
however in themselves praiseworthy and interesting, have been often
in some degree a mistake; because, directly or indirectly,
they referred Mr. Browning's Sordello to an historical reality,
which his author had grasped, as far as was then possible,
but to which he was never intended to conform.
Sordello's story does exhibit the development of a soul; or rather,
the sudden awakening of a self-regarding nature to the claims of other men --
the sudden, though slowly prepared, expansion of the narrower
into the larger self, the selfish into the sympathetic existence;
and this takes place in accordance with Mr. Browning's here expressed belief
that poetry is the appointed vehicle for all lasting truths;
that the true poet must be their exponent. The work is thus obviously,
in point of moral utterance, an advance on `Pauline'.
Its metaphysics are, also, more distinctly formulated than those
of either `Pauline' or `Paracelsus'; and the frequent use of the term Will
in its metaphysical sense so strongly points to German associations
that it is difficult to realize their absence, then and always,
from Mr. Browning's mind. But he was emphatic in his assurance that
he knew neither the German philosophers nor their reflection in Coleridge,
who would have seemed a likely medium between them and him. Miss Martineau
once said to him that he had no need to study German thought, since his mind
was German enough -- by which she possibly meant too German -- already.
The poem also impresses us by a Gothic richness of detail,*
the picturesque counterpart of its intricacy of thought,
and, perhaps for this very reason, never so fully displayed
in any subsequent work. Mr. Browning's genuinely modest attitude towards it
could not preclude the consciousness of the many imaginative beauties
which its unpopular character had served to conceal; and he was glad to find,
some years ago, that `Sordello' was represented in a collection
of descriptive passages which a friend of his was proposing to make.
`There is a great deal of that in it,' he said, `and it has always
been overlooked.'
--
* The term Gothic has been applied to Mr. Browning's work, I believe,
by Mr. James Thomson, in writing of `The Ring
spiritual ambitions which were involved in that history.
This first imaginative mood was also outgrowing itself
in the very act of self-expression; for the tragedies written
before the conclusion of `Sordello' impress us as the product
of a different mental state -- as the work of a more balanced imagination
and a more mature mind.
It would be interesting to learn how Mr. Browning's typical poet
became embodied in this mediaeval form: whether the half-mythical character
of the real Sordello presented him as a fitting subject for imaginative
psychological treatment, or whether the circumstances among which he moved
seemed the best adapted to the development of the intended type.
The inspiration may have come through the study of Dante, and his testimony
to the creative influence of Sordello on their mother-tongue.
That period of Italian history must also have assumed,
if it did not already possess, a great charm for Mr. Browning's fancy,
since he studied no less than thirty works upon it,
which were to contribute little more to his dramatic picture
than what he calls `decoration', or `background'. But the one guide
which he has given us to the reading of the poem is his assertion
that its historical circumstance is only to be regarded as background;
and the extent to which he identified himself with the figure of Sordello
has been proved by his continued belief that its prominence
was throughout maintained. He could still declare, so late as 1863,
in his preface to the reprint of the work, that his `stress' in writing it
had lain `on the incidents in the development of a soul, little else'
being to his mind `worth study'. I cannot therefore help thinking
that recent investigations of the life and character of the actual poet,
however in themselves praiseworthy and interesting, have been often
in some degree a mistake; because, directly or indirectly,
they referred Mr. Browning's Sordello to an historical reality,
which his author had grasped, as far as was then possible,
but to which he was never intended to conform.
Sordello's story does exhibit the development of a soul; or rather,
the sudden awakening of a self-regarding nature to the claims of other men --
the sudden, though slowly prepared, expansion of the narrower
into the larger self, the selfish into the sympathetic existence;
and this takes place in accordance with Mr. Browning's here expressed belief
that poetry is the appointed vehicle for all lasting truths;
that the true poet must be their exponent. The work is thus obviously,
in point of moral utterance, an advance on `Pauline'.
Its metaphysics are, also, more distinctly formulated than those
of either `Pauline' or `Paracelsus'; and the frequent use of the term Will
in its metaphysical sense so strongly points to German associations
that it is difficult to realize their absence, then and always,
from Mr. Browning's mind. But he was emphatic in his assurance that
he knew neither the German philosophers nor their reflection in Coleridge,
who would have seemed a likely medium between them and him. Miss Martineau
once said to him that he had no need to study German thought, since his mind
was German enough -- by which she possibly meant too German -- already.
The poem also impresses us by a Gothic richness of detail,*
the picturesque counterpart of its intricacy of thought,
and, perhaps for this very reason, never so fully displayed
in any subsequent work. Mr. Browning's genuinely modest attitude towards it
could not preclude the consciousness of the many imaginative beauties
which its unpopular character had served to conceal; and he was glad to find,
some years ago, that `Sordello' was represented in a collection
of descriptive passages which a friend of his was proposing to make.
`There is a great deal of that in it,' he said, `and it has always
been overlooked.'
--
* The term Gothic has been applied to Mr. Browning's work, I believe,
by Mr. James Thomson, in writing of `The Ring