did not publish. He was fond of the classic poets, and used to carry his son in his arins, singing him to sleep with Anacreon in the original, to the tune of 'A Cottage in a Wood.' He was a man of singular high-mindedness, the action of which quality once decided his path in life, and away from a more lucrative career than a clerkship in the Bank of England. He died not very long ago [14th June, 1866], never having had a day's illness until the last. His wife, the mother of the present Robert Browning, was of Scotch family." (University Magazine,' March, 1879.) 1852. Harper's New Monthly Magazine,' vol. iv. no. 22, pp. 505-7. Extracts from Miss Mary Russell Mitford's 'Personal Sketches and Reminiscences.' "Married Poets. - Elizabeth Barrett Browning-Robert Browning." "About four years ago she married Mr. Browning, and immediately accompanied him to Pisa. They then settled at Florence, and this summer I have had the exquisite pleasure of seeing her once more in London, with a lovely boy at her knee... The same visit to London that brought me acquainted with my beloved friend, Elizabeth Barrett, first gave me a sight of Mr. Browning. It was at a period that forms an epoch in the annals of the modern drama-the first representation of 'Ion'... it was our host's birthday, and no one present can forget the triumph of the evening.. A large party followed the poet home to supper, a party comprising distinguished persons of almost every class . . . healths were drunk and speeches spoken, and it fell to the lot of the young author of Paracelsus to respond to the toast of 'The Poets of England.' That he performed his task with grace and modesty, and that he looked still younger than he was, I well remember; but we were not introduced, and I knew him only by those successive works which redeemed the pledge that Paracelsus had, given, until this very summer, [1851] when going to London purposely to meet my beloved friend, I was by her presented to her husband." 1853. Six Months in Italy.' By George Stillman Hillard. In two Volumes.— Vol. I. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1853, pp. 139-140. "ROBERT AND ELIZABETH BROWNING. .... I trust I may be pardoned if I state that one of my most delightful associations with Florence, arises from the fact that here I made the acquaintance of Robert and Elizabeth Browning. These are even more familiar names in America than in England, and their poetry is probably more read and better understood with us than among their own countrymen. A happier home and a more perfect union than theirs it is not easy to imagine; and this completeness arises, not only from the rare qualities which each possesses, but from their adaptation to each other. Browning's conversation is like the poetry of Chaucer, or like his own simplified and made transparent. His countenance is so full of vigour, freshness, and refined power, that it seems impossible to think that he can ever grow old. His poetry is subtle, passionate, and profound; but he himself is simple, natural, and playful. He has the repose of a man who has lived much in the open air; with no nervous uneasiness and no unhealthy self-consciousness. Mrs. Browning is in many respects the correlative of her husband. As he is full of manly power, so she is a type of the most sensitive and delicate womanhood. She has been a great sufferer from ill health, and the marks of pain are stamped upon her person and manner. Her figure is slight, her countenance expressive of genius and sensibility, shaded by a veil of long brown locks: and her tremulous voice often flutters over her words, like the flame of a dying candle over the wick. I have never seen a human frame which seemed so nearly a transparent veil for a celestial and immortal spirit. She is a soul of fire enclosed in a shell of pearl. Her rare and fine genius needs no setting forth at my hands. She is also, what is not so generally known, a woman of uncommon, nay, profound learning, even measured by a masculine standard. Nor is she more remarkable for genius and learning than for sweetness of temper, tenderness of heart, depth of feeling, and purity of spirit. It is a privilege to know such beings singly and separately; but to see their powers quickened, and their happiness rounded, by the sacred tie of marriage, is a cause for peculiar and lasting gratitude. A union so complete as theirs in which the mind has nothing to crave, nor the heart to sigh for-is cordial to behold, and cheering to remember." pp. 113-14. 5th ed. 1856, Boston, U.S.A. 1861. Harper's New Monthly Magazine,' No. 136, Sept., vol. xxiii. No. 136, p. 555, col. 2 (under "Editor's Easy Chair.' See too p. 563, col. 1). "Fourteen years ago (in 1847) this Easy Chair was sitting one day in his cool room in Florence-cool, although it was Italy and summer. A knock at the door was followed by the brisk entrance of one of the few men in Europe that Mr. Easy Chair then cared to see-Robert Browning. How delightful the hour that followed was, those at once know who know Robert Browning. It ended with a promise of meeting at Browning's tea-table that evening. "In the evening the same alert, robust, thoroughly English-looking man presented to his wife one of the thousand young Americans who had read with eager enthusiasm her then recently-published volumes, which had a more general and hearty welcome in the United States than any English poet since the time of Byron and Company, who were the poets of our fathers. "The visitor saw, seated at the tea-table of the great room of the palace in which they were living, a very small, very slight woman, with very long curls drooping forward, almost across the eyes, hanging to the bosom, and quite concealing the pale, small face, from which the piercing, inquiring eyes looked out sensitively at the stranger. Rising from her chair, she put out cordially the thin white hand of an invalid, and in a few moments they were pleasantly chatting while the husband strode up and down the room, joining in the conversation with a vigor, humor, eagerness, and affluence of curious lore which, with his trenchant thought and subtle sympathy, make him one of the most charming and inspiring of companions. "A few days after, the same party, with one or two more, went to Vallambrosa, where they passed two days. Mrs. Browning was still too much of an invalid to walk, but we sat under the great trees upon the lawn-like hill-sides near the convent, or in the seats in the dusky convent-chapel, while Robert Browning at the organ chased a fugue of Master Hugues, of Saxe-Gotha, or dreamed out upon twilight keys a faint-throbbing toccata of Galuppi's. "In all her conversation, so mild and tender and womanly, so true and intense and rich with rare learning, there was a girl-like simplicity and sensitiveness, and a womanly earnestness that took the heart captive. She was deeply and most intelligently interested in America and Americans, and felt kind of enthusiastic gratitude to them for their generous fondness of her poetry. "She had then been married not a year, and since then she has lived almost exclusively in Italy. Few Italians, and certainly no foreigner, are so saturated with the very spirit of Italy as her husband; and few Italians, and no foreigner, have been more enthusiastically devoted than she, to the political regeneration of that country. Her poems within a few years had been almost exclusively inspired by her Italian political sympathies, and have insensibly been much moulded in their expression by the style of her husband. "Without question or delay, Elizabeth Barrett Browning must be counted among the chief English poets of this century, and unquestionably the first English poet of her sex [Yes! Yes!]. And her memorable excellence will be that she was not only a singer, but a hearty active worker in her way, understanding her time, and trying, as she could, to help it. It is a curious juxtaposition, that of Don Juan' and 'Aurora Leigh,' and yet they are related in this, that they are the two great poems of modern English social life as felt by a man of the world and a religious woman, who were both poets. On the other hand, the literature of love has had few additions since the Vita Nuova, the sonnet of Shakespeare, and of Petrarch (if you like him), so true and sweet and subtle as Mrs. Browning's 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' [to her husband before their marriage]. And were they not repaid by the One word more, the last poem in Browning's last volume? (Men and Women, 1855). Her public fame will make her widely mentioned. Literature mourns a loss. But the private grief to the many who loved her is a deeper pang. Her death changes Italy and Europe to how many! If you would know what she was, read Browning's One word more (and 0 Lyric Love, &c.). He made no secret of it; why should another?" "This I say of me, but think of you, Love! This to you, yourself my moon of poets! Ah! but that's the world's side-there's the wonder- But the best is when I glide from out them, Silent silver lights and darks undreamed of, INSCRIPTION ON CASA GUIDI, VIA MAGGIO 9. 1872. Athenæum,' Feb. 3, p. 147. 1861. FLORENCE. Copied by T. W. C., April 17, 1876. 1873. 'Dublin Express,' Jan. 29. 'MISS BLAGDEN. There has just died at Florence, a lady well known in the world of letters. Miss Isa Blagden, the authoress of "Agnes Tremorne " was linked to Mr. BROWNING and his illustrious wife by the ties of the closest friendship. She nursed [that is, did not nurse] the poetess in her final illness. . .'-C. 1874. Press (? Dublin paper),' March 7. "We regret to hear of the death, at Camberwell, on the 4th instant, of Mr. William Shergold Browning, uncle of the poet Mr. Robert Browning. Mr. W. S. Browning was 'himself a contributor to literature; his best-known work being a 'History of the Hugue nots.'"-C. 1875. Dublin Express,' Jan. 26. "The petition of persons engaged in professional and literary work, which has been presented to Parliament, against any interference with the New Forest, is signed, among others, by Mr. BROWNING, Mr. Carlyle, Mr. Ruskin."-C. 1876. The Times,' March 10. "Account of the Funeral of the late Lady Augusta Stanley, wife of the late Dean Stanley. One of the pall-bearers is Mr. Robert Browning.' 1876. The Times,' May 8. 'Representatives of Literature at the Mansion-House: ' the Lord Mayor's Dinner to them.-C. (Browning was got there by a promise that he should not be askt to speak. The Lord Mayor nevertheless came down on him to answer for 'Poetry,' but he refuzed, and Sir Francis Doyle was put on. He's not been to another Lord Mayor's dinner.) 1876. The Times,' Tuesday, Dec. 5. Among the Conveners of the National Conference on the Eastern Question-to protest against Lord Beaconsfield's action for Turkey and stop war with Russia, the 6th name is "Robert Browning.' (Opposite, 2 lines lower in the advertisement, is 'F. J. Furnivall.')—C. 1878. The Evening Mail, Dublin,' Jan. 7. 1. Telegram of the Press Association, saying that among a large number of adhesions to the Committee for securing the neutralization and free navigation of the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, was that of ROBERT BROWNING. 2. Insolent Leader against the Committee, Robert Browning, &c., for their 'attack upon Lord Beaconsfield.' -C. 1878. Light,' April 20. The memorial against war, which is to be presented to the Queen, includes such names as the following: The Dukes of Westminster and Bedford, the Earl of Shaftesbury . . . . Mr. ROBERT BROWNING. . .-C. .... 1878. Belfast News-Letter,' Aug. 20, from the 'Pictorial World.' "Mr. Carlyle, the philosopher, and Mr. Browning, the poet, are said to be once more friends again, after their little falling-out of a year or two back." [This is pure myth.] 1879. Dublin Express,' 27 Jan. Alfred Stanley Browning Tennyson [“ Goldenhaired Ally"], grandson of the poet, was christened on Saturday in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley, his godfather, presided, Mr. Robert Browning was also a sponsor, and Mrs. Richmond Thackeray Ritchie assisted."-C. Mrs. Ritchie is Thackeray's daughter. Browning dedicated Red Cotton Night-Cap Country to her.-F. 1879. Dublin Express,' June 16. "Action for Literary Libel. Common Pleas Division-London, Saturday.. [Richard Herne] Shepherd v. Francis [publisher of The Athenæum ']. This was an action to recover damages for alleged libels published of the plaintiff in the Athenæum,' for bringing out the 'Early Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,' and 'Literary Revivals-Forgotten Books worth remembering.' Mr. Sergeant Parry, for the defence, called Mr. ROBERT BROWNING, who said that he objected altogether to the publication of these poems.. (written by).. Mrs. Browning.. when she was only 14 years old,' &c. Cross-examind about the Shelley Letters.' Browning'in his preface, said that the forgd letters were perfectly worthless; and nearly all the forty pages of the preface were devoted to the literary character of Shelley. The Letters' were withdrawn the moment they were found to be forgeries, and the book was now one of the rarest.' 'Re-examined-Shelley, in his opinion, had written some of the greatest of English poems, and a sublime drama, as great as Shakspeare's. . .' The further hearing of the case was adjourned."—C. 1879. The Times,' June 17. 1. Report of both days of the above trial. "The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff-damages £150." 2. A Leader on the subject.-C. 1879. Athenæum,' June 21. Review of Mr. Shepherd's 'Waltoniana,' with a tag commenting on his action against the Paper, and Mr. S.'s copying Browning's Hervé Riel, &c. 66 1879. "On March 12, 1879, Mr. Robert Browning accepted the post of President" [of the New Shakspere Society]. Prospectus of the N. S. Soc. In the Daily News' of March 14 was a letter from a Correspondent announcing the fact, and quoting the passage from Prof. Spalding that is in the Browning Society's prospectus: Accepting this view, there could be no hesitation as to the living poet whom the dead professor's words pointed to. Mr. Robert Browning was the Committee's choice, and on their appeal he willingly accepted as an honour the post he was asked to take. He is surely the right man in the right place." 1881. Journal of Education,' Feb. 1. Noticing Tennyson's dedication of his 'Ballads and other Poems' to his grandson Alfred, his son Lionel's eldest boy: "Golden-haired Ally, whose name is one with mine, Crazy with laughter and babble, and earth's new wine.. the writer says, "As an exact illustration of the second line, we may be pardoned for recalling a personal reminiscence. Mr. Browning was visiting the Poet Laureate at [Twickenham,] soon after the birth of his eldest son [Hallam], and, taking the boy from his father, who was not so well versed as he in handling_infants, danced him up and down till the baby crowed with delight. 'Go on, Browning,' cried Mr. Tennyson, 'it's as good to the boy as a glass of champagne.'"-C. 1881 (?). A London Correspondent's Letter in a provincial paper. "The new Chinese Ambassador, a man of considerable literary ability, expressed a wish, shortly after his arrival in this country, of making the acquaintance of the principal English poets, and Mr. Browning was presented to him. The conversation turned to the compositions of the ambassador, who himself was a poet. 'What kind of poetry does his Excellency write,'-enquired Mr. See on this, 'Athenæum,' Oct. 5, 1872, p. 425; and the 'Dublin Mail,' Nov. 9, 1874 (from the Athenæum '), on B. W. Proctor's copy of the 'Letters' given him by Browning.-C. Browning, Pastoral, humorous, lyric, or what?' There was a pause for a short time. At length the interpreter said that his Excellency thought his poetry would be better described as the 'enigmatic.'-'Surely,' replied Mr. Browning, there ought, then, to be the deepest sympathy between us, for that is just the criticism which is brought against my own works, and I believe it to be a just one.'' P. 45. NOTES. The Pied Piper. Its Story is taken from one of the famous Familiar Letters of James Howell,-Section VI. Letter XLVII. To Mr. E. P. In the Index at the end, or "Extract of the choicest matters that go interwoven 'mongst these Letters," the following is cald "Of a miraculous accident happened in Hamelen in Germany." 'Sir, "I saw such prodigious things daily don these few yeers, that I had resolv'd with my self to give over wondering at any thing; yet a passage happen'd this week, that forc'd me to wonder once more, because it is without parallell. It was, that som odd fellows went skulking up and down London-streets, and with Figs and Reasons allur'd little children, and so pourloyn'd them away from their parents, and carried them a Ship-board for beyond Sea, wher, by cutting their hair, and other divises, they so disguis'd them, that their parents could not know them. "This made me think upon that miraculous passage in Hamelen, a Town in Germany, which I hop'd to have pass'd through when I was in Hamburgh, had we return'd by Holland; which was thus, (nor would I relate it unto you, were not there som ground of truth for it). The said Town of Hamelen was annoyed with Rats and Mice; and it chanc'd, that a Pied-coated Piper came thither, who covenanted with the chief Burgers for such a reward, if he could free them quite from the said Vermin, nor would he demand it, till a twelvemonth, and a day after: The agreement being made, he began to play on his Pipes, and all the Rats, and the Mice, followed him to a great Lough hard by, where they all perish'd; so the Town was infested no more. At the end of the yeer, the Pied Piper return'd for his reward, the Burgers put him off with slightings, and neglect, offring him som small matter, which he refusing, and staying som dayes in the Town, one Sunday morn ing at High-Masse, when most people were at Church, he fell to play on his Pipes, and all the children up and down, follow'd him out of the Town, to a great Hill not far off, which rent in two, and open'd, and let him and the children in, and so clos'd up again: This happen'd a matter of two hundred and fifty yeers since [A.D. 1643-250=1393 A.D.2]; and in that Town, they date their Bills and Bonds, and other Instruments in Law, to this day from the yeer of the going out of their children: Besides, ther is a great piller of stone at the foot of the said Hill, wheron this story is engraven.3 "No more now, for this is enough in conscience for one time: So I am [Fleet, 1 Oct. 1643.] "Your most affectionate servitor, J. H." 1 Epistola Ho-Eliana. Familiar LETTERS Domestic and Forren; Divided into Six Sections, Partly Historicall, Politicall, Philosophicall, Upon Emergent Occasions: By J. H. Esq;: One of the Clerks of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell. London, Printed for Humphrey Moseley; and are to be sold at his shop at the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Churchyard, 1645. 2 This is the year in which Chaucer, out in the cold at Greenwich, most likely wrote his Envoy to Scogan then in the sun of Court-favour at Windsor. If Chaucer had but heard the story, how he would have liked to try his hand at it! 3 See M. Merimée's first chapter of his 'Chronique sous Charles I, where the story is also told.'-L. Etienne. BROWNING, 2. I |