Life of Robert Browning [0]
Life of Robert Browning
by William Sharp
Contents.
Chapter 1.
London, Robert Browning's birthplace; his immediate predecessors
and contemporaries in literature, art, and music; born May 7th, 1812;
origin of the Browning family; assertions as to its Semitic connection
apparently groundless; the poet a putative descendant
of the Captain Micaiah Browning mentioned by Macaulay;
Robert Browning's mother of Scottish and German origin;
his father a man of exceptional powers, artist, poet, critic, student;
Mr. Browning's opinion of his son's writings; the home in Camberwell;
Robert Browning's childhood; concerning his optimism;
his fondness for Carravaggio's "Andromeda and Perseus"; his poetic precocity;
origin of "The Flight of the Duchess"; writes Byronic verse;
is sent to school at Peckham; his holiday afternoons; sees London by night,
from Herne Hill; the significance of the spectacle to him.
Chapter 2.
He wishes to be a poet; writes in the style of Byron and Pope;
the "Death of Harold"; his poems, written when twelve years old,
shown to Miss Flower; the Rev. W. J. Fox's criticisms on them;
he comes across Shelley's "Daemon of the World"; Mrs. Browning
procures Shelley's poems, also those of Keats, for her son;
the perusal of these volumes proves an important event
in his poetic development; he leaves school when fourteen years old,
and studies at home under a tutor; attends a few lectures
at University College, 1829-30; chooses his career, at the age of twenty;
earliest record of his utterances concerning his youthful life printed
in `Century Magazine', 1881; he plans a series of monodramatic epics;
Browning's lifework, collectively one monodramatic "epic";
Shakespeare's and Browning's methods compared; Browning writes "Pauline"
in 1832; his own criticism on it; his parents' opinions;
his aunt's generous gift; the poem published in January 1833;
description of the poem; written under the inspiring stimulus of Shelley;
its autopsychical significance; its importance to the student
of the poet's works; quotations from "Pauline".
Chapter 3.
The public reception of "Pauline"; criticisms thereupon;
Mr. Fox's notice in the `Monthly Repository', and its results;
Dante Gabriel Rossetti reads "Pauline" and writes to the author;
Browning's reference to Tennyson's reading of "Maud" in 1855;
Browning frequents literary society; reads at the British Museum;
makes the acquaintance of Charles Dickens and "Ion" Talfourd;
a volume of poems by Tennyson published simultaneously with "Pauline";
in 1833 he commences his travels; goes to Russia; the sole record
of his experiences there to be found in the poem "Ivan Ivanovitch",
published in `Dramatic Idyls', 1879; his acquaintance with Mazzini;
Browning goes to Italy; visits Asolo, whence he drew hints
for "Sordello" and "Pippa Passes"; in 1834 he returns to Camberwell;
in autumn of 1834 and winter of 1835 commences "Sordello",
writes "Paracelsus", and one or two short poems; his love for Venice;
a new voice audible in "Johannes Agricola" and "Porphyria";
"Paracelsus", published in 1835; his own explanation of it;
his love of walking in the dark; some of "Paracelsus" and of "Strafford"
composed in a wood near Dulwich; concerning "Paracelsus" and Browning's
sympathy with the scientific spirit; description and scope of the poem;
quotations therefrom; estimate of the work, and its four lyrics.
Chapter 4.
Criticisms upon "Paracelsus", important one written by John Forster;
Browning meets Macready at the house of Mr. Fox; personal description
of the poet; Macready's opinion of the poem; Browning spends
New Year's Day, 1836, at the house of the tragedian and meets John Forster;
Macready urges him to write a play; his subsequent interview
with the tragedian; he plans a drama to be entitled "Narses";
meets Wordsworth and Walter Savage Landor at a supper party,
when the young poet is toasted, and Macready again proposes
that Browning should write a play, from which arose the idea of "Strafford";
his acquaintance