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Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an
whose mastery of , and in particular the , made him one of the foremost
poets. His poems are known for their , , dark humor, , historical , and challenging
in his poems are often
whose work functions as a
for poetry.
Browning's early career began promisingly, but was not a success. The long poem Pauline brought him to the attention of , and was followed by Paracelsus, which was praised by
and , but in 1840 the difficult , which was seen as wilfully obscure, brought his poetry into disrepute. His reputation took more than a decade to recover, during which time he moved away from the
forms of his early period and developed a more personal style.
In 1846 Browning married the older poet , who at the time was considerably better known than himself. So started one of history's most famous literary marriages. They went to live in Italy, a country he called 'my university,' and which features frequently in his work. By the time of her death in 1861, he had published the crucial collection . The collection
and the book-length
followed, and made him a leading British poet. He continued to write prolifically, but today it is largely the poetry he had written in this middle period on which his reputation rests.
When Browning died in 1889, he was regarded as a
and philosopher-poet who through his poetry had made contributions to Victorian social and political discourse – as in the poem , which some critics have seen as a comment on the recent . Unusually for a poet, societies for the study of his work were founded while he was still alive. Such
remained common in
until the early 20th century.
Browning's admirers have tended to temper their praise with reservations about the length and difficulty of his most ambitious poems, particularly The Ring and the Book. Nevertheless, they have included such eminent writers as , , , , , , and . Among living writers, 's
series and 's
make direct reference to Browning's work.
Today Browning's most critically esteemed poems include the monologues , , , and . His most popular poems include , , the
, the patriotic , and the children's poem . His abortive recital of the latter work during a dinner-party was recorded on an
, and is believed to be the oldest surviving recording made in England of a notable person.
Robert Browning was born in
in the parish of , , which now forms part of the
in south London. He was baptised on June 14, 1812, at Lock's Fields Independent Chapel, York Street, Walworth, the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning. His father was a well-paid clerk for the , earning about ?150 per year. Browning's paternal grandfather was a wealthy slave owner in , but Browning's father was an . Browning's father had been sent to the
to work on a sugar plantation, but, revolted by the slavery there, had returned to England. Browning's mother was a daughter of a German shipowner who had settled in
in Scotland, and his Scottish wife. Browning had one sister, Sarianna. Browning's paternal grandmother, Margaret Tittle, who had inherited a plantation in St Kitts, was rumoured within the family to have had some
mixed race ancestry. Author Julia Markus suggests St Kitts rather than Jamaica. Evidence is inconclusive. Robert's father, a literary collector, amassed a library of around 6,000 books, many of them rare. Thus, Robert was raised in a household of significant literary resources. His mother, to whom he was very close, was a devout
and a talented musician. His younger sister, Sarianna, also gifted, became her brother's companion in his later years, after the death of his wife in 1861. His father encouraged his children's interest in literature and the arts.
By twelve, Browning had written a book of poetry which he later destroyed when no publisher could be found. After being at one or two private schools, and showing an insuperable dislike of school life, he was educated at home by a tutor via the resources of his father's extensive library. By the age of fourteen he was fluent in French, , Italian and Latin. He became a great admirer of the , especially . Following the precedent of Shelley, Browning became an
and vegetarian, both of which he gave up later. At the age of sixteen, he studied Greek at
but left after his first year. His parents' staunch
prevented his studying at either
or , both then open only to members of the . He had inherited substantial musical ability through his mother, and composed arrangements of various songs. He refused a formal career and ignored his parents' remonstrations, dedicating himself to poetry. He stayed at home until the age of 34, financially dependent on his family until his marriage. His father sponsored the publication of his son's poems.
(ll. 192–200)
Some one shall somehow run a muck
With this old world, for want of strife
Sound asleep: contrive, contrive
To rouse us, Waring! Who's alive?
Our men scarce seem in earnest now:
Distinguished names!—but 'tis, somehow,
As if they played at being names
Still more distinguished, like the games
Of children.
Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics (1842)
In March 1833, Pauline, a fragment of a confession was published anonymously by Saunders and Otley at the expense of the author, the costs of printing having been borne by an aunt, Mrs Silverthorne. It is a long poem composed in homage to
and somewhat in his style. Originally Browning considered Pauline as the first of a series written by different aspects of himself, but he soon abandoned this idea. The press noticed the publication. W.J. Fox writing in the The Monthly Repository of April 1833 discerned merit in the work.
praised it in the . However, it sold no copies. Some years later, probably in 1850,
came across it in the Reading Room of the
and wrote to Browning, then in
to ask if he was the author. , however, wrote that the author suffered from an "intense and morbid self-consciousness". Later Browning was rather embarrassed by the work, and only included it in his collected poems of 1868 after making substantial changes and adding a preface in which he asked for indulgence for a boyish work.
In 1834 he accompanied the Chevalier George de Benkhausen, the Russian consul-general, on a brief visit to
and began Paracelsus, which was published in 1835. The subject of the
was probably suggested to him by the Comte Amédée de Ripart-Monclar, to whom it was dedicated. The publication had some commercial and critical success, being noticed by , , , J.S. Mill and the already famous . It is a monodrama without action, dealing with the problems confronting an intellectual trying to find his role in society. It gained him access to the London literary world.
As a result of his new contacts he met , who invited him to write a play. Strafford was performed five times. Browning then wrote two other plays, one of which was not performed, while the other failed, Browning having fallen out with Macready.
In 1838 he visited Italy, looking for background for , a long poem in heroic couplets, presented as the imaginary biography of the Mantuan bard spoken of by
in the , canto 6 of Purgatory, set against a background of hate and conflict during the Guelph-Ghibelline wars. This was published in 1840 and met with widespread derision, gaining him the reputation of wanton carelessness and obscurity. Tennyson commented that he only understood the first and last lines and Carlyle claimed that his wife had read the poem through and could not tell whether Sordello was a man, a city or a book.
Browning's reputation began to make a partial recovery with the publication, , of Bells and Pomegranates, a series of eight pamphlets, originally intended just to include his plays. Fortunately his publisher, Moxon, persuaded him to include some "dramatic lyrics", some of which had already appeared in periodicals.
Portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning.
In 1845, Browning met the poet , six years his elder, who lived as a semi-invalid in her father's house in , London. They began regularly corresponding and gradually a romance developed between them, leading to their marriage and journey to Italy (for Elizabeth's health) on 12 September 1846. The marriage was initially secret because Elizabeth's domineering father disapproved of marriage for any of his children. Mr. Barrett disinherited Elizabeth, as he did for each of his children who married: "The Mrs. Browning of popular imagination was a sweet, innocent young woman who suffered endless cruelties at the hands of a tyrannical papa but who nonetheless had the good fortune to fall in love with a dashing and handsome poet named Robert Browning." At her husband's insistence, the second edition of Elizabeth’s Poems included her love sonnets. The book increased her popularity and high critical regard, cementing her position as an eminent Victorian poet. Upon 's death in 1850, she was a serious contender to become , the position eventually going to .
From the time of their marriage and until Elizabeth's death, the Brownings lived in Italy, residing first in , and then, within a year, finding an apartment in
(now a museum to their memory). Their only child, , nicknamed "Penini" or "Pen", was born in 1849. In these years Browning was fascinated by, and learned from, the art and atmosphere of Italy. He would, in later life, describe Italy as his university. As Elizabeth had inherited money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy, and their relationship together was happy. However, the literary assault on Browning's work did not let up and he was critically dismissed further, by patrician writers such as , for the desertion of England for foreign lands.
(opening lines)
Now, don’t, sir! Don’t expose me! Just this once!
This was the first and only time, I’ll swear,—
Look at me,—see, I kneel,—the only time,
I swear, I ever cheated,—yes, by the soul
Of Her who hears—(your sainted mother, sir!)
All, except this last accident, was truth—
This little kind of slip!—and even this,
It was your own wine, sir, the good champagne,
(I took it for —you’re so kind)
Which put the folly in my head!
Dramatis Personae (1864)
Browning believed
to be fraud, and proved one of 's most adamant critics. When Browning and his wife
attended one of his séances on July 23, 1855, a spirit face materialized, which Home claimed was Browning's son who had died in infancy: Browning seized the "materialization" and discovered it to be Home's bare foot. To make the deception worse, Browning had never lost a son in infancy.
After the séance, Browning wrote an angry letter to , in which he said: "the whole display of hands, spirit utterances etc., was a cheat and imposture." In 1902 Browning's son
wrote: "Home was detected in a vulgar fraud." Elizabeth, however, was convinced that the phenomena she witnessed were genuine, and her discussions about Home with her husband were a constant source of disagreement.
(ll. 21–33)
He stood and watched the cobbler at his trade,
The man who slices lemons into drink,
The coffee-roaster's , and the boys
That volunteer to help him turn its winch.
He glanced o'er books on stalls with half an eye,
And fly-leaf ballads on the vendor's string,
And broad-edge bold-print posters by the wall.
He took such cognizance of men and things,
If any beat a horse,
If any cursed a woman,
Yet stared at nobody--you stared at him,
And found, less to your pleasure than surprise,
He seemed to know you and expect as much.
Men and Women (1855)
In Florence, probably from early in 1853, Browning worked on the poems that eventually comprised his two-volume , for which he is now well known, although in 1855, when they were published, they made relatively little impact.
In 1861 Elizabeth died. The following year Browning returned to London, taking Pen with him, who by then was 12 years old. They made their home in 17 Warwick Crescent, . It was only when he became part of the London literary scene—albeit while paying frequent visits to Italy (though never again to Florence)—that his reputation started to take off.
In 1868, after five years work, he completed and published the long blank-verse poem . Based on a convoluted murder-case from 1690s Rome, the poem is composed of twelve books: essentially ten lengthy dramatic monologues narrated by various characters in the story, showing their individual perspectives on events, bookended by an introduction and conclusion by Browning himself. Long even by Browning's standards (over twenty-thousand lines), The Ring and the Book was his most ambitious project and is arguab it has been called a tour de force of dramatic poetry. Published in four parts from November 1868 to February 1869, the poem was a success both commercially and critically, and finally brought Browning the renown he had sought for nearly forty years. The Robert Browning Society was formed in 1881 and his work was recognized as belonging within the British literary canon.
1882 caricature from
reading: "The Ring and Bookmaker from Red Cotton Nightcap country"
In the remaining years of his life Browning travelled extensively. After a series of long poems published in the early 1870s, of which Balaustion's Adventure and
were the best-received, the volume
included an attack against Browning's critics, especially , who was later to become . According to some reports Browning became romantically involved with Louisa, Lady Ashburton, but he refused her proposal of marriage, and did not remarry. In 1878, he revisited Italy for the first time in the seventeen years since Elizabeth's death, and returned there on several further occasions. In 1887, Browning produced the major work of his later years, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day. It finally presented the poet speaking in his own voice, engaging in a series of dialogues with long-forgotten figures of literary, artistic, and philosophic history. The Victorian public was baffled by this, and Browning returned to the brief, concise lyric for his last volume,
(1889), published on the day of his death.
Browning after death.
Browning died at his son's home
in Venice on 12 December 1889. H his grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of .
During his life Browning was awarded many distinctions. He was made
of Edinburgh, a life Governor of London University, and had the offer of the . But he turned down anything that involved public speaking.
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At a dinner party on 7 April 1889, at the home of Browning's friend the artist , an
recording was made on a white wax cylinder by 's British representative, . In the recording, which still exists, Browning recites part of How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix (and can be heard apologising when he forgets the words). When the recording was played in 1890 on the anniversary of his death, at a gathering of his admirers, it was said to be the first time anyone's voice "had been heard from beyond the grave."
Browning is now popularly known for such poems as , , , and , and also for certain famous lines: "Grow old along with me!" (), "A man's reach should exceed his grasp" (), and "God’s in His heaven—All’s right with the world!" ().
His critical reputation rests mainly on his , in which the words not only convey setting and action but reveal the speaker's character. In a Browning monologue, unlike a , the meaning is not what the speaker voluntarily reveals but what he inadvertently gives away, usually while
past actions or
his case to a silent auditor. These monologues have been influential, and today the best of them are often treated by teachers and lecturers as paradigm cases of the monologue form. Ian Jack, in his introduction to the Oxford University Press edition of Browning's poems , comments that , ,
"all learned from Browning's exploration of the possibilities of dramatic poetry and of colloquial idiom".
His work has nevertheless had many detractors, and most of his voluminous output is not widely read. In a largely hostile essay
wrote: "We all want to like Browning, but we find it very hard."
were also critical. The latter expressed his views in the essay "The Poetry of Barbarism," which attacks Browning and
for what he regarded as their embrace of irrationality.
A memorial plaque for a member of the , engraved with a quotation from the Epilogue to Browning's Asolando. The inscription reads: "In Loving Memory of Louisa A. M. McGrigor Commandant V.A.D. Cornwall 22. Who died on service, March 31, 1917. Erected by her fellow workers in the British Red Cross Society, Women Unionist Association, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Friends. One who never turned her back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake."
In 1914 American modernist composer
created the Robert Browning Overture, a dense and darkly dramatic piece with gloomy overtones reminiscent of the .
In 1930 the story of Browning and his wife was made into the play , by . It was a success and brought popular fame to the couple in the United States. The role of Elizabeth became a signature role for the actress . It was twice adapted into film. It was also the basis of the stage musical , with music by
and book and lyrics by .
('s 1948 play or one of several film adaptations), a pupil makes a parting present to his teacher of an inscribed copy of Browning's translation of the .
was chiefly inspired by Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, whose full text was included in the final volume's appendix.
Gabrielle Kimm's novel His Last Duchess is inspired by My Last Duchess.
A memorial plaque on the site of Browning's London home, Warwick Crescent, was unveiled on 11 December 1993.
Browning Close in , is named after Robert Browning.
Browning Street in , is located in an area known as Poets' Corner and is also named after him.
Browning Street in , is named after him, in an area known as Poets' Corner.
Browning Street and Robert Browning School in , near to his birthplace in , are named after him.
This section lists the plays and volumes of poetry Browning published in his lifetime. Some individually notable poems are also listed, under the volumes in which they were published. (His only notable
work, with the exception of his letters, is his Essay on Shelley.)
leads the children out of . Illustration by
to the Robert Browning version of the tale.
Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
Strafford (play) (1837)
(play) (1841)
The Year's at the Spring
Bells and Pomegranates No. II: King Victor and King Charles (play) (1842)
Bells and Pomegranates No. IV: The Return of the Druses (play) (1843)
Bells and Pomegranates No. V: A Blot in the 'Scutcheon (play) (1843)
Bells and Pomegranates No. VI: Colombe's Birthday (play) (1844)
The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
Bells and Pomegranates No. VIII:
and A Soul's Tragedy (plays) (1846)
The Patriot
The Last Ride Together
Memorabilia
How It Strikes a Contemporary
The Statue and the Bust
A Grammarian's Funeral
An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician
Bishop Blougram’s Apology
Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha
By the Fire-side
Abt Vogler
Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"
A Death in the Desert
(1868–69)
Balaustion's Adventure (1871)
Fifine at the Fair (1872)
Aristophanes' Apology (1875)
Thamuris Marching
The Inn Album (1875)
Numpholeptos
The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (1877)
La Saisiaz and The Two Poets of Croisic (1878)
Dramatic Idylls (1879)
Dramatic Idylls: Second Series (1880)
Pan and Luna
Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day (1887)
Asolando (1889)
Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment
Bad Dreams III
Refer baptism here:
Browning, Robert. Ed. Karlin, Daniel (2004) Selected Poems Penguin p9
John Maynard, Browning's Youth
Dared and done: the marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning Knopf, 1995, University of Michigan p112
The dramatic imagination of Robert Browning: a literary life (2007) Richard S. Kennedy, Donald S. Hair, University of Missouri Press p7
Chesterton, G K (1903). Robert Browning (1951 edition). London: Macmillan Interactive Publishing.  .
Browning, Robert (2009). Roberts, A Karlin, Daniel, ed. The Major Works. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford University Press.  .
"III". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 volumes (pub ) XIII.
Stevenson, Sarah.
Ian Jack, ed. (1970). "Introduction and Chronology". Browning Poetical Works . Oxford University Press.  .  .
Browning, Robert. Ed. Karlin, Daniel (2004) Selected Poems Penguin
Browning, Robert. Ed. Karlin, Daniel (2004) Selected Poems Penguin p10
Peterson, William S. Sonnets From The Portuguese. Massachusetts: Barre Publishing, 1977.
. (1989). Robert Browning: A Life Within Life. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 157-158.
. (2009). After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Oxford. p. 373.
"The poet attended one of Home's seances where a face was materialized, which, Home's spirit guide announced, was that of Browning's dead son Browning seized the supposed materialized head, and it turned out to be the bare foot of Home. The deception was not helped by the fact that Browning never had lost a son in infancy."
. (1911). The Newer Spiritualism. Henry Holt and Company. p. 45
. (2011 reprint edition). Originally published in 1924. A Magician Among the Spirits. Cambridge University Press. p. 42.
. (2005). The First Psychic: The Extraordinary Mystery of a Notorious Victorian Wizard. Little, Brown & Company. p. 50.
Browning, Robert. Ed. Karlin, Daniel (2004) Selected Poems Penguin p11
, retrieved 2 May 2009
Kreilkamp, Ivan, "Voice and the Victorian storyteller." Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 190. , . Retrieved 2 May 2009
. "Personal gossip about the writers-Browning." Page 8. Retrieved 2 May 2009.
Browning (1970). "Introduction". In Ian Jack. Browning Poetical Works . Oxford University Press.  .  .
Burgess, Anthony
, 14 April 1966, p.19. Accessed 19 October 2013
City of Westminster green plaques
Anonymous (1873). . Illustrated by . London: Tinsley Brothers 2010.
3rd Ed. (Swan Sonnenschein, 1897)
. Robert Browning (Macmillan, 1903)
DeVane, William Clyde. A Browning handbook. 2nd. Ed. (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955)
Drew, Philip. The poetry of Robert Browning: A critical introduction. (Methuen, 1970)
. Browning: A Private Life. (HarperCollins, 2004)
Garrett, Martin ed., Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning: Interviews and Recollections. (Macmillan, 2000)
Garrett, Martin. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. (British Library Writers' Lives). (British Library, 2001)
Hudson, Gertrude Reese. Robert Browning's literary life from first work to masterpiece. (Texas, 1992)
Karlin, Daniel. The courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. (Oxford, 1985)
Kelley, Philip et al. (Eds.) The Brownings' correspondence. 21 vols. to date. (Wedgestone, 1984–) (Complete letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning to 1855.)
Litzinger, Boyd and Smalley, Donald (eds.) Robert Browning: the Critical Heritage. (Routledge, 1995)
Markus, Julia. Dared and Done: the Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning (Bloomsbury, 1995)
Maynard, John. Browning's youth. (Harvard Univ. Press, 1977)
Ryals, Clyde de L. The Life of Robert Browning: a Critical Biography. (Blackwell, 1993)
Woolford, John and Karlin, Daniel. Robert Browning. (Longman, 1996)
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