of language he exerts the most facile mastery, and few poets have moved with such free and flowing step through the most complicated word-mazes of music and measure (p. 409). 1851. A second edition of Mr. Powell's volume of 1849 appeared in London two years later (under the title of 'Pictures of the Living Authors of Britain.' By Thomas Powell, author of 'Pictures of the Living Authors of America.' London: Partridge and Oakey, 1851), in which the notice of Browning occupies pp. 61-75. -S. (It contains the anecdote of Douglas Jerrold and Sordello.—T. W. C.) 1851. Revue des deux Mondes.' 6me Série. Tome xi. 15 Août 1851, p. 661-689. Article hy J. Milsand (of Dijon, to whom the revized 1863 edition of Sordello is dedicated, and whose review 'may still be read with advantage.'-E. Dowden, 1867), on 'La Poésie Anglaise depuis Byron.' [I. Alfred Tennyson.] II. Robert Browning. 1. Poems, 2 vols. [1849]; 2. Christmas-Eve and EasterDay, 1850. "M. Browning. est de la famille des Milton plutôt que des Shakspeare M. Browning est un Hercule. je ne m'étonnerais pas que M. Browning fût réservé à finir par la poesie épique. Son génie à lui, c'est de... revoir dans chaque fait un abrégé de la création... De tous les poètes que je sache il est le plus capable de résumer les conceptions de la religion, de la morale et de la science théorique de notre époque, en leur donnant un corps poétique, je veux dire des formes qui soient le beau approprié à ces abstractions... M. Milsand wrote another review of Browning, but where, I do not know. 1853. 'An Essay on the characteristic errors of our most distinguished living poets.' By Nicholas J. Gannon. Dublin: W. B. Kelly, 8 Grafton St., 1853 [a pamphlet, pp. 1-49]; pp. 25-32 deal with the incomprehensibility, &c. of R. B.-C. 1853. 'Six Months in Italy.' By George Stillman Hillard, 2 vols. [of Boston, America]. London: Murray, 1853, vol. i. pp. 139-40. 'Robert and Elizabeth Browning,' a personal description.-C. See 'Personal Notices' below, p. 108. 1853. 'Thalatta: a Book for the Sea-side.' Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Motto. "God's own profound 1853. Was above me, &c." p. 99, “Night and Morning." p. 197-9, “The Sad Rhyme.” "Over the sea our galleys went With cleaving prows, &c."-C. 1855. Browning's Men and Women, 1856. "The Rambler,' 1856, vol. v. pp. 54-71. This review is said to have been written by Cardinal Wiseman, the original of Bishop Blougram. See above, p. 54, note 2. 1856. George Brimley. 'Fraser's Mag.,' 1856, Jan., on Men and Women. This article is much in that well-known Trinity 'Superior-Being' style, which so tickles or irritates-the rest of the University, and which is as much regretted by the sensible members of the College as by its admirers outside. The review was not worthy of George Brimley, or at any rate was written in one of his ungenerous moods. And so his judicious friends thought. They left it out of their reprint of his 'Essays and Reviews.' (The "T. C. C." after his "G. B." at the end of the article, was not a joint reviewer, as I was once assured, but "Trinity College, Cambridge1".) 17 Oct. 1859. In John Forster's Life of Landor.' 2 vols. 1869. See II. 347. 1838. II. 424. Between 1840-45. II. 425. "Somewhat later (1845)" (sic). [Allusion to Luria and Soul's Tragedy.] II. 562, &c. Landor was assisted by R. B. with both care and cash, e.g. "I am now (6 Aug. 1859) in a cottage near Siena, which I owe to Browning, the kind friend who found it for me, whom I had seen only three or four times in my life, yet who made me the voluntary offer of what money I wanted, and who insists on managing my 1 The full name should be written when the College is mentioned; for, this spring, I was accused of blasphemy by several people for heading a Circular to some misguided acquaintances in the College and elsewhere, "To the Trinity and other withdrawers..." And one very popular member of a large dramatic club in London wrote to me complainingly, that no man there knew what "the Trinity" meant. affairs here, and paying for my lodgings and sustenance. Never was such generosity and such solicitude as this incomparable man has shown in my behalf."-Landor to Forster, II. 562.-C. See below, under 1869. 1860. Reliques of Father Prout.' New Ed. London: Bohn, 1860. Preface, p. 4. From Florence the poet Browning has sent for this edition some lines lately found in the Euganeian hills, traced on a marble slab that covered the bones of Pietro di Abano, held in his old age to be an astrologer : "Studiando le mie cifre col compasso, Perchè del mio saper si fa gran chiasso, E gl' ignoranti m'hanno mosso guerra' of which epitaph the poet has supplied this vernacular, rendering verbatim : 66 'Studying my cyphers with the compass, I find I shall soon be under the daisy ; Because of my lore, folks make such a rumpus, That every dull dog is thereat unaisy." [See Notes, p. 114.] 1880. Dramatic Lyrics. Second Series, p. 67, 68, notes. 1861. Browning and Landor. 'Essays on English Literature.' By Thomas McNicoll. London: Basil Montagu Pickering, 1861, pp. 298-309.-S. 1863. 'Fraser.' Feb. 1863, pp. 240-256. Signed 'Shirley.' On Robert Browning.-C. 1863. National Review,' No. 34, Oct. 1863, vol. xlvii. pp. 417-446. The Poetical Works of Robert Browning. Three volumes. Third edition. Chapman and Hall. By R. H. Hutton: afterwards republished in his 'Literary Essays,' 1871.-C. 1864. Robert Browning.' By Moncure D. Conway. 'The Victoria Magazine' (London, Emily Faithfull), February 1864, vol. ii. No. x. pp. 228-316. The poem of Pauline is mentioned in the earlier part of this article, four years before its republication.-S. 1864. Edinburgh Review,' Oct., pp. 537-565, on Poems, 1863; and Dramatis Persona, 1864. 1864. Robert Browning's Poetry and The Edinburgh Review.' Letter to the Editor of The Reader,' signed "Gerald Massey. -'Reader,' November 26, 1864 (vol. iv. fol. 674-675). A scathing exposure of the incompetence and of the slipshod style of the reviewer of Robert Browning's Poems in the 'Edinburgh' of October, 1864.-S. 1864. Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning; or Pure, Ornate, and Grotesque Art in English Poetry.' 'National Review,' New Series, No. 1, November, 1864 (Chapman and Hall). Reprinted in Literary Studies' by the late Walter Bagehot. London: Longmans, 1879, vol. ii. pp. 338-390.-S. The Browning part begins on p. 375. What Mr. Bagehot says is not very deep, or complete, tho it is keen. "Grotesque art deals not with normal types, but with abnormal specimens . . . (it) works by contrast.. Mr. Browning is an artist working by incongruity. He puts together things which no one else would have produced or tried to produce. No one ever read him without seeing, not only his great ability, but his great mind... he is great, not in mere accomplishments, but in himself. He has applied a hard strong intellect to real life... to the problems of his age. He has striven to know what is. His heart is in what he says. He is at once a student of mysticism, and a citizen of the world. He puts down what is good for the naughty, and what is naughty for the good (p. 56). He is the most of a realist, and the least of an idealist, of any poet we know." p. 62. 186?. Photographic Portraits of Men of Eminence, with Biographical Memoirs.' London Bennet, 186-, pp. 109-112. Robert Browning, with Photo by E. Edwards.-C. 1 The poor man found it 'a subject of amazement that poems of so obscure and uninviting a character should find numerous readers; thought his [B's] works were deficient in the qualities we should desire to find [in] them, and didn't believe they would survive, except as a curiosity and a puzzle.' 1865. A Campaigner at Home.' By Shirley Jn. Skelton, Advocate, Edinburgh. London: Longmans, &c., 1865, pp. 274-283. Robert Browning,' a reprint of the article in Fraser's Magazine,' Feb. 1863.-C. Sympathetic and worth reading. 1865. Browning's Poems. Quarterly Review,' July, 1865 (vol. cxviii. pp. 77-105), on Dramatis Persona 1864, and Poems 3 vols., 1863.-3. 1867. Robert Browning.' Two Papers (unsigned) in 'The Contemporary Review' of January and February, 1867. (London: Alex. Strahan, vol. iv. pp. 1-15, 133148). S. Thoughtful and able articles well worth reading. See p. 26 n., above. 1867. 'Fraser's Magazine,' Oct. pp. 518-530. "Mr. Browning's Sordello. First Paper" signed Edward Dowden.' Two Papers were accepted by Charles Kingsley when editing the Magazine for Mr. Froude during his absence. On his return, Mr. Froude, wrongly and unhappily for Browning students, declined the second Paper, and it has never been printed. 1868. Athenæum,' Dec. 26, pp. 875-6, on The Ring and the Book, vol. i. “Everything Browningish is found here-the legal jauntiness, the knitted argumentation, the cunning prying into detail, the suppressed tenderness, the humanity,the salt intellectual humour, not open and social, like that of Dickens, but with a similar tendency. Whatever else may be said of Mr. Browning and his work, by way of minor criticism, it will be admitted on all hands that nowhere in any literature can be found a man and a work more fascinating in their way. As for the man, he was crowned long ago; and we are not of those who grumble because one king has a better seat than another, an easier cushion, a finer light-in the great Temple. A king is a king, and each will choose his place. The article was by Robert Buchanan, and a revized version of it was publisht in his 'Master-Spirits,' 1873: see below, p. 100. 1868. Essays on Robert Browning's Poetry,' by John T. Nettleship. London: Macmillan and Co. 1868, pp. i.-viii. 1-305. Contents. Preface v. vi. Contents: Introduction, p. 1; Poems on Love, 13; The Flight of the Duchess, 62; Waring, 79; Before and After,' 109; Childe Roland, 120; Sordello (with a sketch of the story), 155; Saul, 235; the Digression in Sordello, 279; Epilogue, 299-305. A worthful book, nearly out of print. 1868. David Gray, and other Essays, chiefly on Poetry.' By Robert Buchanan. London: S. Low & Co., 1868 (pp. 32-6) on 'emotional ratiocination.' Contrasting a passage from the Epistle of Karshish-(" He holds on firmly to some thread of life" to "Divorced even now by premature full growth")-and another from A Death in the Desert in which John the Evangelist is supposed.. to review the arguments in the Leben Jesu' against miracles-("I say that man was made to grow, not stop," to "Thou hast it; use it, and forthwith, or die!")—Mr. B. says Both these passages are ratiocinative; yet one is a poem, the other not even art. There is a flash of ecstacy through the strangely cautious description of Karsheesh; every syllable is weighed and thoughtful, yet everywhere the lines swell into perfect feeling. What shall be said, however, to St. John on Strauss? The violence of the imaginative effort to reach St. John's 1 "One word on the obscurity of Sordello. It arises not so much from peculiarities of style, and the involved structure of occasional sentences ( . . . as a rule, the style of Sordello is vigorously straightforward), as from the unrelaxing demand which is made throughout upon the intellectual and imaginative energy and alertness of the reader. The truth is, Mr. Browning has given too much in l couple of hundred pages; there is not a line of the poem which is not as full of matter as a line can be; so that if the ten syllables sometimes seem to start and give way under the strain, we need not wonder. We come to no places in Sordello where we can rest and dream or look up at the sky. Ideas, emotions, images, analyses, descriptions, still come crowding on. There is too much of everything; we cannot see the wood for the trees. Towards the end of the third book Mr. Browning interrupts the story that he may 'pause and breathe.' That is an apt expression; but Mr. Browning seems unable to slacken the motion of the mi d, and during this breathing-space heart and brain, perceptive and reflective power are almost more busily at work than ever." pp. 518-19. views on miracles precludes all emotion1; and because there is no emotion, false notes occur in every page of the poem. The mind has forced itself into a certain attitude, instead of suffering itself to be coerced by powerful feeling' (p. 56, note): 'It might be curious to note in detail how far Browning's orthodoxy is in advance even of our most liberal orthodoxy.' 1869. Athenæum,' March 20, pp. 399-400, on The Ring and the Book, vols. ii. iii and iv. "At last, the opus magnum of our generation lies before the world. . . . The fascination of the work is still so strong upon us, our eyes are still so spell-bound by the immortal features of Pompilia (which shine through the troubled mists of the story with almost insufferable beauty), that we feel it difficult to write calmly and without exaggeration; yet we must record at once our conviction, not merely that The Ring and the Book is beyond all parallel the supremest poetical achievement of our time, but that it is the most precious and profound spiritual treasure that England has produced since the days of Shakspeare. Its intellectual greatness is as nothing compared with its transcendent spiritual teaching. 6 1869. Walter Savage Landor, a Biography,' by John Forster. 2 vols. London : Chapman & Hall, Piccadilly, 1869. Vol. II. p. 374, calls R. B. " our Paracelsus." p. 424 wishes R. B. would "atticise a little." pp. 562-574. Life in Italy with R. B.'s assistance.-C. 1869. Browning in 1869.' 'Cornhill Magazine,' No. 110, February, 1869, vol. xix. pp. 249-256.-S. A mildish affair: p. 254 is the best part of it. 1869. On The Ring and the Book. By John Morley. Fortnightly Review,' March, 1869, vol. v. new series, pp. 331-343.-S. An able and generous article. 1869. Quarterly,' April, 1869, on 'Modern English Poets,' pp. 328-359. A few sensible pages are on Br.'s poems and The Ring and the Book. 1869. Echoes,' April 10, on The Ring and the Book.-C. 1869. Alfred Austin, in 'Temple Bar,' June, vol. xxvi. pp. 316-333.-S. Reprinted in 1870. This article is strongly against Browning. Mr. Austin has since repented of it. See the entry '1870. The Poetry of the Period.' 1869. The Ring and the Book. 164-186).-S. 'Edinburgh Review,' July 1869 (vol. cxxx. pp. 1869.London Quarterly Review,' July 1869, on Browning's Poetry—all then publisht.3 1869. 'Robert Browning and the Epic of Psychology.' Reprinted from the 'London Quarterly Review,' July, 1869. Printed for private circulation; pp. 1-37. "The list printed above [at head of article] is, we believe, a complete bibliographical catalogue of Browning's works" (p. 6).-C. 1869. North British Review,' Oct. 1869, pp. 97-128. Mr. Browning's Latest Poetry. [Ring and Book.]-C. 1 Would a dying man reasoning calmly on miracles show emotion? 2 1871. Prof. Sidney Colvin has a few lines in the 'Fortnightly Rev.', Oct. 1871, p. 470, on these "amazing volumes" and "the pregnant genius" in them, "into which are packed thought enough, experience enough, tragedy enough, comedy enough, poetry enough. . . to overstock not a book but a library. . . inexhaustible vivacity of humour, burning tenderness, knowledge of life and literature pressed down and running over, a masterly range of style-but much above all, a trenchant human insight guided by such manly nobility of instinct as helps him [R. B.] to strike straight at the substance of truth, as well as to grasp each of its differing shadows in turn.' 3 Discusses the two main present schools of English poetry, the Idyllic (led by Tennyson) and the Psychological, led by Browning, noting the Renaissance of the Rossettis and the Chaucer of Win. Morris-and then deals with Browning, who has taken "for a nobler stage the soul itself," from Pauline to the Ring and the Book, on which latter the review is really written. It claims W. W. Story's Graffiti d'Italia' as a solid result of working in Browning's method without imitation of style. Also, 'A Roman Lawyer at Jerusalem-First Century,' in 'Blackwood's Mag.' for Oct. 1868. 1869. Mr. Tennyson and Mr. Browning.' By Edward Dowden, M. A. [in 1868]. 'Afternoon Lectures on Literature and Art' (Dublin), Fifth Series, 1869, pp. 139-179.-S. Reprinted and revized in Prof. Dowden's 'Studies in Literature,' 1789-1877, C. K. Paul and Co. 1878. By all means to be read and studied. 1870. 'St. Paul's Magazine,' Dec. on Browning's Poems. 1871. Jan. 1870. The Poetry of the Period.' By Alfred Austin. London: Richard Bentley, 1870. The paper on Mr. Browning occupies pp. 38 to 76. It originally appeared in Temple Bar,' for June, 1869 (vol. xxvi. pp. 316-333). In a recent paper in Macmillan's Magazine' the author states that this volume has long been out of print, and that he will never consent to its reappearance.—S. 1870. Modern Men of Letters honestly criticised.' By J. Hain Friswell. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1870. This book was suppressed on account of an action for libel instituted by Mr. Sala against the publishers, in which heavy damages were awarded. The chapter devoted to Robert Browning occupies pp. 117-131.-S. 1870. A Household Book of English Poetry,' selected and arranged with notes, by Richard Chenevix Trench, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin, Second edition, revised. London: Macmillan and Co., 1870. p. 333-340, The Pied Piper of Hamelin ; p. 366, Home Thoughts from Abroad; p. 368, Home Thoughts from the Sea.-C. 1870. The Gentle Philosopher, or Home Thoughts for Home Thinkers.' London : James Blackwood and Co., Paternoster Row; no date. [?G. Friswell.] "Respectfully inscribed to that great poet and true man, Robert Browning.”—C. 1870. Louis Étienne, in the 'Revue des Deux Mondes,' Sec. Periode, tome 85, p. 704735, on the Poet. Works, 1868, and the Ring and the Book, 1868-9. "M. Browning.. procédait, à n'en pas douter, de Shelley (p. 706)... Son premier poème porte la marque visible de l'école de Shelley. Paracelse est une âme inquiète, ardente à la recherche du savoir. . son héros meurt triste à la fois et résigné, comme l'Alastor de Shelley (p. 707). . . II. Imaginez un poète qui se sent né pour le drame et qui pourtant n'a pas en lui le démon de l'action, c'est-à-dire, la logique des combinaisons multiples naissant de la passion humaine et l'entraînant vers un dénoûment final; voilà l'écrivain dont nous essayons de tracer la physionomie (p. 715).,. il simplifie souvent le drame.. et il le place dans une seule âme. S'il n'a pas l'invention d'un Shakspeare ou d'un Molière pour.. le mouvement des situations, des incidens, des péripéties, il a du moins leur faculté précieuse de n'être plus soi et d'entrer dans l'âme d'un autre" (p. 717). . [He then contrasts well the noble elevation of Saul with the humour and vigour of Fra Lippo (but says in a note that Fra Lippo was not the master, but the pupil of Masaccio, and survived him 36 [that is, 26] years), and then reviews the Ring and the Book, concluding that its method is not a fit one for poetry. The creation of Men and Women is Browning's forte :] "Il était appelé a faire revivre les hommes du passé, non pour les mettre en mouvement, non pour les précipiter dans l'action, mais uniquement pour le plaisir de les voir respirer, reprendre la vie, le sentiment et la parole... M. Browning a créé Saül, Pompilia, une foule d'autres personnages vrais et vivans; que faut-il davantage à son ambition?"-p. 735. Thompson Cooper's Bibl. Dict. gives the dates, Masaccio died 1443, Fra Filippo Lippi was poisoned (1469) by the relations of a female whom he had seduced, and by whom he had a son, Filippino Lippi (b. 1460; died 1505), who was also a celebrated painter.' Hole gives the same dates. 1871. Browning's Poems. The Ring and the Book. By E. J. H[asell]. ་ 'The Saint Paul's Magazine,' December 1870, and January 1871. London: Strahan and Co., vol. vii. pp. 257-276, 377-397.-S. 1871. Robert Browning's new Poem [Hervé Riel]. Letter to the editor of The Echo,' signed "The Author of "Tennysoniana.' [R. H. Shepherd.] Printed in The Echo,' Wednesday, February 15, 1871.-S. [Mr. S. says that the text of the poem uzed by him in his anticipatory notice of Hervé Riel was the MS. one of which he has let me note the variations above, page 65, note.-F.] 1871. 'Daily News,' Tuesday, Feb. 28. A Leader, an admirable one-on Hervé Riel.-C. See p. 65, note 1. |