Life and Letters of Robert Browning [42]
and the Book',
and I do not like to use it without saying so. But it is one of those
which must have spontaneously suggested themselves
to many other of Mr. Browning's readers.
--
It was unfortunate that new difficulties of style should have added themselves
on this occasion to those of subject and treatment; and the reason of it
is not generally known. Mr. John Sterling had made some comments
on the wording of `Paracelsus'; and Miss Caroline Fox,
then quite a young woman, repeated them, with additions, to Miss Haworth,
who, in her turn, communicated them to Mr. Browning,
but without making quite clear to him the source from which they sprang.
He took the criticism much more seriously than it deserved,
and condensed the language of this his next important publication
into what was nearly its present form.
In leaving `Sordello' we emerge from the self-conscious stage
of Mr. Browning's imagination, and his work ceases to be autobiographic
in the sense in which, perhaps erroneously, we have hitherto felt it to be.
`Festus' and `Salinguerra' have already given promise
of the world of `Men and Women' into which he will now conduct us.
They will be inspired by every variety of conscious motive,
but never again by the old (real or imagined) self-centred,
self-directing Will. We have, indeed, already lost the sense of disparity
between the man and the poet; for the Browning of `Sordello'
was growing older, while the defects of the poem were in many respects
those of youth. In `Pippa Passes', published one year later,
the poet and the man show themselves full-grown. Each has entered
on the inheritance of the other.
Neither the imagination nor the passion of what Mr. Gosse so fitly calls
this `lyrical masque'* gives much scope for tenderness;
but the quality of humour is displayed in it for the first time;
as also a strongly marked philosophy of life -- or more properly,
of association -- from which its idea and development are derived.
In spite, however, of these evidences of general maturity,
Mr. Browning was still sometimes boyish in personal intercourse,
if we may judge from a letter to Miss Flower written at about the same time.
--
* These words, and a subsequent paragraph, are quoted from
Mr. Gosse's `Personalia'.
--
==
Monday night, March 9 (? 1841).
My dear Miss Flower, -- I have this moment received your very kind note --
of course, I understand your objections. How else? But they are
somewhat lightened already (confess -- nay `confess' is vile --
you will be rejoiced to holla from the house-top) -- will go on,
or rather go off, lightening, and will be -- oh, where WILL they be
half a dozen years hence?
Meantime praise what you can praise, do me all the good you can,
you and Mr. Fox (as if you will not!) for I have a head full of projects --
mean to song-write, play-write forthwith, -- and, believe me,
dear Miss Flower,
Yours ever faithfully,
Robert Browning.
By the way, you speak of `Pippa' -- could we not make some arrangement
about it? The lyrics WANT your music -- five or six in all -- how say you?
When these three plays are out I hope to build a huge Ode --
but `all goeth by God's Will.'
==
The loyal Alfred Domett now appears on the scene with a satirical poem,
inspired by an impertinent criticism on his friend.
I give its first two verses:
==
On a Certain Critique on `Pippa Passes'.
(Query -- Passes what? -- the critic's comprehension.)
Ho! everyone that by the nose is led,
Automatons of which the world is full,
Ye myriad bodies, each without a head,
That dangle from a critic's brainless skull,
Come, hearken to a deep discovery made,
A mighty truth now wondrously displayed.
A black squat beetle, vigorous for his size,
Pushing tail-first by every road that's wrong
The dung-ball of his dirty thoughts along
His tiny sphere of grovelling sympathies --
Has knocked himself full-butt, with blundering trouble,
Against
and I do not like to use it without saying so. But it is one of those
which must have spontaneously suggested themselves
to many other of Mr. Browning's readers.
--
It was unfortunate that new difficulties of style should have added themselves
on this occasion to those of subject and treatment; and the reason of it
is not generally known. Mr. John Sterling had made some comments
on the wording of `Paracelsus'; and Miss Caroline Fox,
then quite a young woman, repeated them, with additions, to Miss Haworth,
who, in her turn, communicated them to Mr. Browning,
but without making quite clear to him the source from which they sprang.
He took the criticism much more seriously than it deserved,
and condensed the language of this his next important publication
into what was nearly its present form.
In leaving `Sordello' we emerge from the self-conscious stage
of Mr. Browning's imagination, and his work ceases to be autobiographic
in the sense in which, perhaps erroneously, we have hitherto felt it to be.
`Festus' and `Salinguerra' have already given promise
of the world of `Men and Women' into which he will now conduct us.
They will be inspired by every variety of conscious motive,
but never again by the old (real or imagined) self-centred,
self-directing Will. We have, indeed, already lost the sense of disparity
between the man and the poet; for the Browning of `Sordello'
was growing older, while the defects of the poem were in many respects
those of youth. In `Pippa Passes', published one year later,
the poet and the man show themselves full-grown. Each has entered
on the inheritance of the other.
Neither the imagination nor the passion of what Mr. Gosse so fitly calls
this `lyrical masque'* gives much scope for tenderness;
but the quality of humour is displayed in it for the first time;
as also a strongly marked philosophy of life -- or more properly,
of association -- from which its idea and development are derived.
In spite, however, of these evidences of general maturity,
Mr. Browning was still sometimes boyish in personal intercourse,
if we may judge from a letter to Miss Flower written at about the same time.
--
* These words, and a subsequent paragraph, are quoted from
Mr. Gosse's `Personalia'.
--
==
Monday night, March 9 (? 1841).
My dear Miss Flower, -- I have this moment received your very kind note --
of course, I understand your objections. How else? But they are
somewhat lightened already (confess -- nay `confess' is vile --
you will be rejoiced to holla from the house-top) -- will go on,
or rather go off, lightening, and will be -- oh, where WILL they be
half a dozen years hence?
Meantime praise what you can praise, do me all the good you can,
you and Mr. Fox (as if you will not!) for I have a head full of projects --
mean to song-write, play-write forthwith, -- and, believe me,
dear Miss Flower,
Yours ever faithfully,
Robert Browning.
By the way, you speak of `Pippa' -- could we not make some arrangement
about it? The lyrics WANT your music -- five or six in all -- how say you?
When these three plays are out I hope to build a huge Ode --
but `all goeth by God's Will.'
==
The loyal Alfred Domett now appears on the scene with a satirical poem,
inspired by an impertinent criticism on his friend.
I give its first two verses:
==
On a Certain Critique on `Pippa Passes'.
(Query -- Passes what? -- the critic's comprehension.)
Ho! everyone that by the nose is led,
Automatons of which the world is full,
Ye myriad bodies, each without a head,
That dangle from a critic's brainless skull,
Come, hearken to a deep discovery made,
A mighty truth now wondrously displayed.
A black squat beetle, vigorous for his size,
Pushing tail-first by every road that's wrong
The dung-ball of his dirty thoughts along
His tiny sphere of grovelling sympathies --
Has knocked himself full-butt, with blundering trouble,
Against