Life and Letters of Robert Browning [49]
entirely supported by amateurs,
the result fully justified Miss Mary Robinson (now Madame James Darmesteter)
in writing immediately afterwards in the Boston `Literary World':***
--
* Also in 1853 or 1854 at Boston.
** It had been played by amateurs, members of the Browning Society,
and their friends, at the house of Mr. Joseph King, in January 1882.
*** December 12, 1885; quoted in Mr. Arthur Symons'
`Introduction to the Study of Browning'.
--
==
`"Colombe's Birthday" is charming on the boards, clearer,
more direct in action, more full of delicate surprises
than one imagines it in print. With a very little cutting
it could be made an excellent acting play.'
==
Mr. Gosse has seen a first edition copy of it marked for acting,
and alludes in his `Personalia' to the greatly increased
knowledge of the stage which its minute directions displayed.
They told also of sad experience in the sacrifice of the poet
which the play-writer so often exacts: since they included the proviso
that unless a very good Valence could be found, a certain speech of his
should be left out. That speech is very important to the poetic,
and not less to the moral, purpose of the play: the triumph
of unworldly affections. It is that in which Valence defies the platitudes
so often launched against rank and power, and shows that these
may be very beautiful things -- in which he pleads for his rival,
and against his own heart. He is the better man of the two, and Colombe
has fallen genuinely in love with him. But the instincts of sovereignty
are not outgrown in one day however eventful, and the young duchess
has shown herself amply endowed with them. The Prince's offer promised much,
and it held still more. The time may come when she will need
that crowning memory of her husband's unselfishness and truth,
not to regret what she has done.
`King Victor and King Charles' and `The Return of the Druses' are both
admitted by competent judges to have good qualifications for the stage;
and Mr. Browning would have preferred seeing one of these acted
to witnessing the revival of `Strafford' or `A Blot in the 'Scutcheon',
from neither of which the best amateur performance could remove
the stigma of past, real or reputed, failure; and when once a friend
belonging to the Browning Society told him she had been seriously occupied
with the possibility of producing the Eastern play, he assented to the idea
with a simplicity that was almost touching, `It WAS written for the stage,'
he said, `and has only one scene.' He knew, however, that the single scene
was far from obviating all the difficulties of the case, and that the Society,
with its limited means, did the best it could.
I seldom hear any allusion to a passage in `King Victor and King Charles'
which I think more than rivals the famous utterance of Valence,
revealing as it does the same grasp of non-conventional truth,
while its occasion lends itself to a far deeper recognition of the mystery,
the frequent hopeless dilemma of our moral life. It is that
in which Polixena, the wife of Charles, entreats him for DUTY'S sake
to retain the crown, though he will earn, by so doing,
neither the credit of a virtuous deed nor the sure, persistent consciousness
of having performed one.
Four poems of the `Dramatic Lyrics' had appeared, as I have said,
in the `Monthly Repository'. Six of those included in
the `Dramatic Lyrics and Romances' were first published in `Hood's Magazine'
from June 1844 to April 1845, a month before Hood's death.
These poems were, `The Laboratory', `Claret and Tokay',
`Garden Fancies', `The Boy and the Angel', `The Tomb at St. Praxed's',
and `The Flight of the Duchess'. Mr. Hood's health had given way
under stress of work, and Mr. Browning with other friends
thus came forward to help him. The fact deserves remembering
in connection with his subsequent unbroken rule never to write for magazines.
He might always have made exceptions for friendly or philanthropic objects;
the appearance of `Herve Riel' in the
the result fully justified Miss Mary Robinson (now Madame James Darmesteter)
in writing immediately afterwards in the Boston `Literary World':***
--
* Also in 1853 or 1854 at Boston.
** It had been played by amateurs, members of the Browning Society,
and their friends, at the house of Mr. Joseph King, in January 1882.
*** December 12, 1885; quoted in Mr. Arthur Symons'
`Introduction to the Study of Browning'.
--
==
`"Colombe's Birthday" is charming on the boards, clearer,
more direct in action, more full of delicate surprises
than one imagines it in print. With a very little cutting
it could be made an excellent acting play.'
==
Mr. Gosse has seen a first edition copy of it marked for acting,
and alludes in his `Personalia' to the greatly increased
knowledge of the stage which its minute directions displayed.
They told also of sad experience in the sacrifice of the poet
which the play-writer so often exacts: since they included the proviso
that unless a very good Valence could be found, a certain speech of his
should be left out. That speech is very important to the poetic,
and not less to the moral, purpose of the play: the triumph
of unworldly affections. It is that in which Valence defies the platitudes
so often launched against rank and power, and shows that these
may be very beautiful things -- in which he pleads for his rival,
and against his own heart. He is the better man of the two, and Colombe
has fallen genuinely in love with him. But the instincts of sovereignty
are not outgrown in one day however eventful, and the young duchess
has shown herself amply endowed with them. The Prince's offer promised much,
and it held still more. The time may come when she will need
that crowning memory of her husband's unselfishness and truth,
not to regret what she has done.
`King Victor and King Charles' and `The Return of the Druses' are both
admitted by competent judges to have good qualifications for the stage;
and Mr. Browning would have preferred seeing one of these acted
to witnessing the revival of `Strafford' or `A Blot in the 'Scutcheon',
from neither of which the best amateur performance could remove
the stigma of past, real or reputed, failure; and when once a friend
belonging to the Browning Society told him she had been seriously occupied
with the possibility of producing the Eastern play, he assented to the idea
with a simplicity that was almost touching, `It WAS written for the stage,'
he said, `and has only one scene.' He knew, however, that the single scene
was far from obviating all the difficulties of the case, and that the Society,
with its limited means, did the best it could.
I seldom hear any allusion to a passage in `King Victor and King Charles'
which I think more than rivals the famous utterance of Valence,
revealing as it does the same grasp of non-conventional truth,
while its occasion lends itself to a far deeper recognition of the mystery,
the frequent hopeless dilemma of our moral life. It is that
in which Polixena, the wife of Charles, entreats him for DUTY'S sake
to retain the crown, though he will earn, by so doing,
neither the credit of a virtuous deed nor the sure, persistent consciousness
of having performed one.
Four poems of the `Dramatic Lyrics' had appeared, as I have said,
in the `Monthly Repository'. Six of those included in
the `Dramatic Lyrics and Romances' were first published in `Hood's Magazine'
from June 1844 to April 1845, a month before Hood's death.
These poems were, `The Laboratory', `Claret and Tokay',
`Garden Fancies', `The Boy and the Angel', `The Tomb at St. Praxed's',
and `The Flight of the Duchess'. Mr. Hood's health had given way
under stress of work, and Mr. Browning with other friends
thus came forward to help him. The fact deserves remembering
in connection with his subsequent unbroken rule never to write for magazines.
He might always have made exceptions for friendly or philanthropic objects;
the appearance of `Herve Riel' in the