"Great Writers."
EDITED BY
ERIC ROBERTSON AND FRANK T. MARZIALS.
LIFE OF BROWNING.
FOR FULL LIST OF THE VOLUMES IN THIS SERIES, SEECATALOGUE AT END OF BOOK
LIFE
OF
ROBERT BROWNING
BY
WILLIAM SHARP.
LONDON
WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED
PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1897
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
London, Robert Browning's birthplace; his immediate predecessors andcontemporaries in literature, art, and music; born May 7th, 1812; originof the Browning family; assertions as to its Semitic connectionapparently groundless; the poet a putative descendant of the CaptainMicaiah Browning mentioned by Macaulay; Robert Browning's mother ofScottish and German origin; his father a man of exceptional powers,artist, poet, critic, student; Mr. Browning's opinion of his son'swritings; the home in Camberwell; Robert Browning's childhood;concerning his optimism; his fondness for Carravaggio's "Andromedaand Perseus"; his poetic precocity; origin of "The Flight ofthe Duchess"; writes Byronic verse; is sent to school at Peckham;his holiday afternoons; sees London by night, from Herne Hill; thesignificance of the spectacle to him. Page 11.
CHAPTER II.
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 comesacross Shelley's "Dæmon of the World"; Mrs. Browningprocures Shelley's poems, also those of Keats,for her son; the perusal of these volumes proves an important event inhis poetic development; he leaves school when fourteen years old, andstudies at home under a tutor; attends a few lectures at UniversityCollege, 1829-30; chooses his career, at the age of twenty; earliestrecord of his utterances concerning his youthful life printed inCentury Magazine, 1881; he plans a series of monodramatic epics;Browning's life-work, collectively one monodramatic "epic";Shakspere'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 thepoet's works; quotations from "Pauline".Page 29.
CHAPTER III.
The public reception of "Pauline"; criticisms thereupon; Mr.Fox's notice in the Monthly Repository, and its results; DanteGabriel 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; makesthe acquaintance of Charles Dickens and "Ion" Talfourd; avolume 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"Ivàn Ivànovitch," published in DramaticIdyls, 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 of1834 and winter of 1835 commences "Sordello," writes"Paracelsus," and one or two short poems; his love for Venice; anew voice audible in "Johannes Agricola" and"Porphyria"; "Paracelsus,"published in 1835; his own explanation of it; his love of walking in thedark; some of "