' ^ .^^ 'l-^fi-t- Copyright K^. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. r BROWNING BROWNING BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES, APPRECIATIONS, AND SELECTIONS FROM HIS "FIFTY MEN AND WOMEN" BY PAULINE LEAVENS President of The New York Browning Society THE ALICE HARRIMAN COMPANY NEW YORK C^ SEATTLE 1910 .iH- Copyright, 1910 By Paulinb Leavens THE PREMIER PRESS NEW YORK CCI.A278476 TO E. L. B. CONTENTS Biographical Notes 11 The Brownings* Friends 23 Appreciations 27 Browning's Point of View - - - - - 51 Foreword to the Selections - - - - 67 Selections --------73 Books Recommended for Study by the New York Browning Society 127 IT is a distinct pleasure to render acknowledgment to the many pub- lishers who have graciously given permission to use most valuable ex- cerpts from their books : to Macmillan CBi, Co. for one from Life of Gladstone ; to the Century Co. for Browning in Asolo and Katherine de Kay Bronson's articles; to Crowell C^ Co. for Intro- duction to Camberwell Edition; to * The Outlook ' for Pigskin Library; to Charles Scribner's Sons for Sonnet from The White Bees; to Houghton, MiiBin CBi, Co. for Mrs. Orr's Life and Letters ; to Eaton CBi, Mains for Best in Brown- ing; to Dodd, Mead C^ Co. for Literary Interpretations; to Harper C^ Brothers for Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett; and to Mary E. Burt for Browning's Women. Thanks are also due to those who have written especially for this book and to Mr. F. Herbert Stead, London, Mrs. Le Verne W. Noyes and Mrs. Blanche Browne Gillies, of Chicago, Mrs. Ella B. Hallock, President of Southold Brown- ing Society, and Professor A. J. Arm- strong, of Georgetown University, for definite information which has been of great value. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES This Marriage was Bolemcized between us. /Zrfj^/?/^ Sk^^TtyTf-^m^ jCMy^^.mJt^^^^^^'^c^a^^r^ Facsimile ol entry m the Registet ol the Parish Churcb of St. Marylebone, Sept. 12th 1846. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES TJROWNING was born to the purple — not to the *^ ecclesiastical, nor the "gaudy gold, hard food for Midas," nor to the transitory crown of kings; but to the royal kingdom of Poetry, that luminous realm where God works, and man understands. In his childhood's home, religion, poetry, art, music were the daily life of the spirit. And love was there also, made manifest in fullness, and the overflowing beauty of nature all about that pleasant home gave the responsive child, and later the man, abundant oppor- tunity to hold communion with her visible forms, for it was in the love of nature he ever looked and listened. Then, with a natural child-love for bird and beast, he made friends with all possible specimens, and brought them home to a sjmipathetic mother who was his con- fidant. Later, they watched together the spider, that "extraordinarily fine fellow which spun its marvelous web over his desk," as he wrote Bells and Pomegran- ates. Later still it was, with his arm around her as was his custom whenever near, that he told her the secret of secrets, that he was going to elope with Elizabeth Barrett. To the end of his life he never II 12 BROWNING ceased to be interested in all living things, and in his last summer he whistled encouragingly to the lizards on the picturesque walls of Asolo as he had done fifty years before. When about five years old he wrote verses in imi- tation of Ossian, and "laid them up for posterity under the cushion of a great arm-chair," and it was at this period that his father who "was a scholar and knew Greek," taught him the Homeric poems and illustrated them with genuine moving pictures. The architecture of Troy was indicated by chairs and table, the cat impersonating the all-bewitching Helen, the pony standing in the stable aptly signified Achilles, medi- tating upon himself, while Towser and Tray repre- sented Agamemnon and Menelaus. The page-boy stood for Hector, and little Robert perched a-top the citadel enacting the part of Priam, "proud father of fifty sons," who had an eye single for the indiscreet Paris supposed to be immured under the footstool. Carlyle once confided to a friend that he thought of writing a life of Michael Angelo, and "mind ye, I'll no' say much about his art !" It would be quite as difficult to detach Browning from his poetry as Michael Angelo from his art. Before Brown- ing was twenty years of age he had determined that poetry should be the art thru which he would express his convictions, and he met with the sympathy of his father in this, who would gladly give his son the BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 13 opportunity of doing what had been denied himself. Browning always remembered this with the deepest gratitude. The home library consisted of six thousand books with many valuable drawings and pictures. Robert Browning, Senior, had a Dutch bias for pic- tures, and his son an Italian, hence the communion in that phase of art was not as complete as in Greek literature. The modern poets that came into Browning's read- ing at this time, exercising a strong influence, were Byron, Keats, and Shelley, especially the last. But a few years before, in that classic land where the "light waves lisp * Greece' " Byron had said his last words, "now I go to sleep," and his body had been refused burial in Westminster Abbey, and was laid in the family vault at Hucknell. The heart of Shelley had been torn from his burning body by Trelawny, while Byron and Leigh Hunt stood near, and buried under the cypresses in Rome. Atropos had cut the frail cord that held Keats to this earth life and his body was laid in the same ceme- tery. Shelley had some new ideas on sociology, and was indulging in higher criticism — more dangerous then even than now. Naturally Brovming's young in- quiring mind laid hold on these to his detriment, seem- ingly, for a while, but he acknowledged later that he had not read him aright. "Shelley opened up for this young and enthusiastic follower new vistas leading 14 BROWNING toward the Infinite, toward the unattainable best," says Professor Dowden. Pauline was the first poem put into the current of publication. It was original in form, filled with minute description of nature seen thru the eyes of devotee, and felt in the heart of the lover. It taxed the intel- lect. There are those who think poetry must either soothe or make you weep — and some of it does. Pauline was not a good "seller," and when Elizabeth Barrett wrote about sending to the bookseller for a copy, Browning smiled in glorious security, he having all of those unsold, which meant most of them, at the house-top. It was thirty years before he publicly acknowledged the authorship. Only a few years ago one stray copy brought three hundred and twenty-five guineas at a sale in London. Paracelsus, full of "erudition turned into poetry," came next on the current; then Sordello, Pippa Passes, A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, many Bells and Pomegranates — and Browning was sitting among the gods, youngest of them all. Carlyle was there, and Dickens, Tennyson, Thackeray, Mill, Hunt, Wordsworth and Landor. In the meantime. Browning had made his first trip into Italy to get local color for Sordello — which was well outlined before he went — and an idea, for what afterward became Pippa Passes. He went direct to Trieste, "then one step just from sea to land," and found Asolo ; and all who know Browning know Pippa BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 15 and Sordello — for different reasons — and that it was in Asolo that dear little Pippa sang out her happy heart and touched so many lives, and the beautiful and irresistible Palma led Sordello a willing captive. Asolo is a little city set among the hills long before Rome was, but now the crumbling walls, the ruined fortress, Queen Canaro's Castle, the arcaded streets do but suggest the ancient grandeur. The silk indus- try was long ago taken nearer to railroad centres, but one mill is still running, and the one where Pippa "wound silk all day long to earn just bread and milk'* has been converted into a Lace-School, and these are now social and economic centres, to both of which Mr. Robert Barrett Browning gives financial support in loving memory of his father. He also purchased the building so long desired by Browning, and it is called Pippa's Tower, and from this the beauty of the surrounding nature is unsurpassed; it is a sweet, ten- der poem that pulls at your heart-strings, enters your being, and compels the knowledge that you are an inseparable part of the Great Maker of all this har- mony. Asolo is easily accessible from Venice; and the Antique Inn offers a cordial welcome, a delicious cup of coffee, and a diminutive register where you may enroll your name among the elect who seek this shrine. Browning made a second trip to Italy, and was planning another with no premonition that he was standing in the gracious shadow of an all-important i6 BROWNING event that was coming on apace. Of this we leam in the published "Letters of Robert Browning and Eliza- beth Barrett," and there we read one of the sweetest love stories ever told, and feel the deepest gratitude that this sacred privilege is ours. But had they been given to us by any other hand we would feel that we merited the reproof Browning gives to the "foolish crowd of rushers-in upon genius who come and eat their bread and cheese on the high altar, and talk of reverence without one of its surest instincts — ^never quiet till they cut their initials on the cheek of the Medicean Venus to prove they worship her." It is an interesting point to note in these letters that Elizabeth Barrett's excel Browning's in erudition, and her lively sense of humor and exceedingly keen wit throws him quite into the penumbra — as a writer of letters. All the world knows the romantic beginning and ending of this correspondence, and of the memorable day when they met each other — for the first time out- side her father's house — and were married in Maryle- bone Church, not to meet again for a week, when they started for Italy, leaving a brief announcement of their marriage in the daily papers. This event held attention far beyond the traditional nine days. For these dwellers on Parnassus to follow the example of Jessica and Lorenzo was indeed worthy of attention! Wordsworth said: "So Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett are gone off BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 17 together. Well, I hope they understand each other, no one else could." This reminds us of Browning's opinion, given confidentially, that he would go a great distance to see a curl of Byron's hair or one of his gloves, yet could not get up enthusiasm enough to cross the room if Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey were all enshrined in the little china bottle within the limit of his vision. Mr. and Mrs. Browning stayed a few days in Paris, and on by charming degrees to Pisa for the winter, Wilson and the ubiquitous Flush in attendance. When Browning was asked by Miss Barrett if Flush might go to the "Siren's Isle" with them, his affirmative answer came promptly back ex- pressing a wonder that she ever had an approximation to a doubt about it. Was ever little dog so favored? With the exception of an occasional trip to Paris and London, the fifteen years of their ideal companion- ship was spent in Italy. "Casa Guidi" in Florence is made famous by them. Here the "King of the Mys- tics" and the "Daughter of Grecian Genius" lived a comparatively secluded life, yet with a sympathetic hand on the pulse of humanity, for never were poets or statesmen more vitally interested in the politicial and sociological issues of all nations, yet none ever rose higher into the realms of the ideal. Mrs. Jameson, who met them in Paris, wrote: "I know not how these two poet heads and poet hearts will get on in this prosaic worid;" but how extremely well they did i8 BROWNING "get on" has been told in many ways. Economy was often a necessary consideration, but "bills were made up every week and paid more regularly than bard beseems." "Penini's lessons were given and little trowsers creditably frilled and tucked" and yet six- teen thousand lines taken to England for publication. Here is an instance — there are many — ^to disprove that generally accepted idea that genius must be irre- sponsible, unmoral and averse to the sphere of com- mon duty. By the very virtue of their high calling they cannot be so ignoble. The crown of happiness had come with the birth of their son, and the pure delight of motherhood as expressed by Pompilia is the interpretation of Mrs. Browning's own joy. She once wrote: "Robert and I have taken up our parental duties with a perfect passion." Our pilgrim feet took us, when in Rome, to the Church of Lorenzo-in-Lucina, near the Corso, in which the much-loved Pompilia was baptized and married to Count Guido, and where lay "poor old Pietro," "kind, unwise Violante," and Pompilia after death. A full-length picture of Christ by Guido Reni hangs over the altar, and the lions still guard the doorway. Opposite Treve fountain, Castellani plies his imitative craft, surrounded by a rare collection of art treasures. "These are my jewels," he said with a smile, and when asked if he would give them to BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 19 Rome some day, "Oh, I don't know — after me the deluge," quickly came the classic reply. He knew Browning had m.entioned his name in a book, but why, he did not comprehend. Harriet Hosmer told the writer it was in Rome, about six years after the marriage, that she modeled the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Browning. In this rare piece of marble we see his hand, strong, beautiful, holding the other — so frail and delicate — tenderly, as he ever held her in his life, enveloping her with that supreme, personal love which, like God's, makes the receivers kneelers.* In Florence, at Casa Guidi, in the opal-dawn of a late June day, Elizabeth Barrett Browning closed her eyes on this earth-side of death, whispering "Beauti- ful," while a strong man was left desolate, crying, "I want her, I want her." At Venice, in Rezzonico Palace, twenty-eight years later, in the deepening twilight of an early December day, Robert Browning closed his eyes on this earth-side of death, kissing the little ring She wore, and whispering: "O thou soul of my soul ! I shall clasp thee again, And with God be the rest!" Pauline Leavens Whittier Hall, New York, December, 1910 * A bronze copy of these hands is in the rooms of the Chicago Woman's Club, in the Fine Axis Building, on Michigan Avenue. THE BROWNINGS' FRIENDS THE BROWNINGS' FRIENDS THINKING it might be an item of interest to note the names of the literati, artists and statesmen with whom Mr. and Mrs. Browning walked and talked we have appended this list. Hans Christian Andersen Matthew Arnold. Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Thomas Carlyle. Jane Carlyle. Hugh Arthur Clough. Moncure D. Conway. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Hiram Corson. Charlotte Cushman. Charles Dickens. Edward Dowden. George Elliott. Cannon Farrar. Helen Faucit. Kate Field. Frederick Jas. Furnivall. William Ewart Gladstone Giuseppe Garibaldi. Edmund Gosse. Frederick Harrison. Benjamin Robert Haydon Nathaniel Hawthorne. Thomas Hood. Harriet Hosmer. Leigh Hunt. William Holman Hunt. Mary Howitt. Anna Jameson. Fanny Kemble. John Kenyon. Charles Kingsley. Alphonse de Lamartine. Walter Savage Landor. Sir Frederick Leighton. Charles Lever. Henry Lewes. John Gibson Lockhart. 23 24 BROWNING James Russell Lowell. Edw'd Rob't Bulwer Lyt- ton (Owen Meredith). Edward George Earle Lytton. Sir John Millais. Harriet Martineau. James Martineau. Giuseppe Mazzini. Wm. Charles Macready. George Meredith. Mary Russell Mitford. William Morris. Dinah Maria Mulock (Mrs. Craik). Alfred De Musset. Mrs. Sutherland Orr. Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Theodore Parker. Coventry Patmore. Hiram Powers. Adelaide Procter. Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall). Christina Rossetti. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. William Michael Rossetti John Ruskin. George Sand. William Wetmore Story. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Charles Sumner. Algernon Charles Swinburne. Arthur Symons. Bayard Taylor. Serjeant Talfourd. Sir Alfred Tennyson. Frederick Tennyson. William Makepeace Thackeray. William Wordsworth. George Frederick Watts. APPRECIATIONS APPRECIATIONS THESE Appreciations from widely different sources, periods, and climes, are especially interesting at this time — the approaching Centenary. BROWNING How blind the toil that burrows like the mole In winding graveyard pathways, underground. For Browning's lineage ! What i£ men have found Poor footmen or rich merchants on the roll Of his forbears? Did they beget his soul? Nay, for he came of ancestry renowned Through all the world, — the poets laurel-crowned With wreaths from which the autumn takes no toll. The blazons on his poet-shield are these : The crimson sign of Shelley's heart on fire. The staff and script of Chaucer's pilgrimage. The golden globe of Shakespeare's human stage. The rose of Dante's deep divine desire. The tragic mask of wise Euripides. Henry Van Dyke 27 28 BROWNING BROWNING AT ASOLO This is the loggia Browning loved, High on the flank of the friendly town ; These are the hills that his keen eye roved, The green like a cataract leaping down To the plain that his pen gave new renown. There to the West what a range of blue ! — The very background Titian drew To his peerless Loves! O tranquil scene! Who than thy poet fondlier knew The peaks and the shore and the lore between? See ! yonder's his Venice, — the valiant Spire, Highest one of the perfect three. Guarding the others; the Palace choir, The Temple flashing with opal fire, — Bubble and foam of the sunlit sea. Yesterday he was part of it all, — Sat here, discerning cloud from snow In the flush of the Alpine afterglow, Or mused on the vineyard whose wine-stirred row Meets in a leafy bacchanal. Listen a moment — ^how oft did he ! — To the bells from Fontalto's distant tower. Leading the evening in . . . ah, me! Here breathes the whole soul of Italy, As one rose breathes with the breath of the bower. APPRECIATIONS 29 Sighs were meant for an hour like this When joy is keen as a thrust of pain. Do you wonder the poet's heart should miss This touch of rapture in Nature's kiss. And dream of Asolo over again? "Part of it yesterday!" we moan? Nay, he is part of it now, no fear. What most we love, we are that alone. His body lies under the minster stone. But the love of the warm heart lingers here. Robert Underwood Johnson Browning was a man of the world in the noble sense, — that sense in which the saints of the future are to be heart and soul one with their fellows. He saw clearly that this present is not to be put by for any future ; that there is no future save in the present. Other poets have chosen their paths through the vast growths of life and by virtue of some principle of selection and exclusion made a way for themselves. But Browning surrendered nothing; he would take life as a whole or he would reject it. He refused to be consoled by ignoring certain classes of facts or to be satisfied with fragments pieced together after some design of his own. He must have a vision of all the facts: and giving each its weight and place, he must make his peace with them, or else chaos and death are 30 BROWNING the only certainties. It is only the great souls that thus wrestle the whole night through and will not rest until God has revealed, not indeed His own name, but the name by which they shall henceforth know that to them the Universe is no longer voiceless and godless. Hamilton Wright Mabie Unless I very greatly mistake, judging from these two works ("Sordello" and "Pippa Passes"), you seem to possess a rare spiritual gift, poetical, pictorial, intel- lectual, by whatever name we may prefer calling it; to unfold which into articulate clearness is naturally the problem of problems for you. This noble endow- ment, it seems to me farther, you are not at present on the best way for unfolding; and if the world had loudly called itself content with these two poems, my surmise is, the world could have rendered you no fataler disservice than that same! Believe me, I speak with sincerity; and if I had not loved you well, I would not have spoken at all. If your own choice happened to point that way, I for one should hail it as a good omen that your next work were written in prose ! Carlyle I would rather have written the "Blot in the 'Scutcheon" than any other piece of modern times. There is no other man living who could produce such a work. Charles Dickens APPRECIATIONS 31 To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern that no shade of quality escapes it, and so quick to feel that discernment is but a hand playing with finely ordered variety on the chord of emotion, a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of know- ledge. George Eliot It is some time since we read a work of more un- equivocal power than "Paracelsus." We conclude that its author is a young man, as we do not recollect his having published before. If so, we may safely predict for him a brilliant career ... if he continues true to the promise of his genius. He possesses all the elements of a fine poet. John Forster Then I became very much addicted to Browning, and used to read him night and day. I have never myself quite understood what people meant, and still sometimes seem to mean, by the obscurity and "diffi- culty" of "Sordello." It is distinctly breathless, and it is unduly affected, but if anybody has got a brain at all that brain ought not to be very much exercised in following the fortunes of Sordello and Taurello, Al- beric, Adelaide, and the rest. . The "Ring and the Book" is so tyrannously long without any action ; so mercilessly voluble without jus- 32 BROWNING tification for the volubility; it has such a false air of wisdom and philosophy ... I remember think- ing of Porphyria's love, and wishing that someone had applied that person's drastic procedure to the poet on his own principles. George Saintsbury No one has made men think more ; no one has pene- trated further into the mystery of human destiny, into this conflict of the soul with its Divine spark and its infinite flight and of the inexorable laws necessity forges for us. — The Temps Mr. Browning's great merit will have been to have given his name to the woman he married. This respec- table old gentleman, in spite of his nobleness of inten- tion, has contributed above all to make English girls love two things which are least fitted for them : meta- physics and Florence, where they all dream of living in tete-a-tete with Botticelli. — Figaro Among Browning's readers gratitude exceeds ad- miration. To convene a meeting of his creditors would be difficult, for he was little indebted to any, but a multitude of his debtors confess obligations greater than they can estimate. The needy soul is Browning's best interpreter, as the hungry man best comprehends and relishes food. People who have neither suffered keenly nor felt deeply, nor questioned earnestly — APPRECIATIONS 33 whose inner life is pale, dull, inert, vapid, without aspi- ration, craving, perplexity, or intensity — are disquali- fied from comprehending and appreciating him. William V. Kelley Never for a moment did Browning give up his alle- giance to Christ. The poem "Saul," one of the noblest, if not the noblest, of all his poems, is the one most in- tensely religious. In no other poem is the claim of Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life of the world more profoundly or more beautifully asserted. Its climax "To see the Christ stand," is for Browning the highest word of poetry, of religion, and of life. Few, if any, poems in the language touch such depths of the religious life or induce within us the conviction that the incarnation of Christ, besides being the cen- tral fact of time, is the central fact of eternity as well. John Angus MacVannel Browning's best work ranks among the great mas- terpieces of literature because, like them, it is an inex- haustible well-spring of inspiration rewarding the reader with deeper perception of its truth and fresh appreciation of its beauty with each new reading. The supreme productions in literature are those that reveal their meaning more and more the oftener we return to them, and in this class, together with the masterpieces of Homer, Dante, Goethe and Shakspere, must be 34 BROWNING placed those poems of Browning in which he sets forth his essential message; — the doctrine that no achievement is final, that each new attainment is but the vantage-ground from which we climb to some higher expression of the spirit ; the conviction that the possibilities for moral and spiritual progress are liter- ally infinite to an eternal soul in its growth toward that image of the divine in which we were potentially made. Nor can we pay our poet any higher tribute than to say that he practiced what he preached, that his own life was his greatest work of art, that in his own pro- gressive unfolding he gave the world a living interpre- tation of his message. Alfred W. Martin The true function of the dramatist is to create men and women who think, speak and act not as we would have them, but as they must, and always with the ac- cent of their individual life. When the creation is a personality that conquers us by its intrinsic grace and charm, so that we feel that we would rather far be such an one in any misery or distress than to forego such excellence, then literature and ethics have met, right- eousness and art have kissed each other. So have they done in "Luria." John W. Chadwick Browning makes subtleties his perpetual pasture. Henry James APPRECIATIONS 35 We who have learned to drink large inspirations from his words are especially glad to know that he was not himself false to them in his life; that the man is even greater than the poet; and that in the unseen glory which he greeted with a cheer, we may expect to see him robed in eternal light, and dowered with im- mortal song. James Mudge Browning ! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, No man has walked along our road with step So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue So varied in discourse. Walter Savage Landor Everything Browningish is found here — the legal jauntiness, the knitted argumentation, the cunning prying into detail, the suppressed tenderness, the humanity, the salt intellectual humor Whatever else may be said of Mr. Browning and his work by way of criticism, it will be admitted on all hands that nowhere in literature can he found a man and a work more fascinating in their zvay. As for the man, he was crowned long ago, and we are not one 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. Robert Buchanan 36 BROWNING He is the intellectual phenomenon of the last half century, even if he is not the poetical aloe of modem English literature. His like we have never seen before In all true poetry the form of the thought is part of the thought, and never was this ab- solute law of literary aesthetics more flagrantly illus- trated than in the poetry of Robert Browning. To say that Browning is the greatest dramatic poet since Shakespeare is to say that he is the greatest poet, most excellent in what is the highest form of imaginative composition, because it is the most creative. Richard Grant White Browning is sometimes accused of having no form, but I find myself obliged to deny this premise. Browning not only has form, but is even multiform; not as changing with contradictory colors as might a chameleon, but as protean, like all life, and the more abundant the life the more multiform the expression. He seems akin to that centre of vitality which forgets that it is taking form, and is only conscious that it is. Thomas R. Slicer Robert Browning is the poet who makes the su- preme appeal to the spiritualized intellect. His phil- osophy reveals life in its wholeness, its failures being merely the experimental process by means of which man arrives at success. While Browning was not, I APPRECIATIONS 37 believe, a student of Hegel, his greater poems are yet absolutely permeated with the vital idealism of the Hegelian philosophy. Lilian Whiting Browning's whole theory of poetry is summed up in two lines in his first poem, Pauline: "And then thou saidst a perfect bard is one Who chronicled the stages of all life." This definition says nothing about Art, Beauty or Rhythm ; it declares the Poet primarily to be a Reporter of Life — and the greater variety of life he portrays the greater is his poetry. For this reason. Browning de- clared Shakespeare to be the greatest of all poets, be- cause he chronicled more stages of life than anyone else. This theory Browning elaborated in The Glove, Transcendentalism, How It Strikes a Contemporary, and the last part of The Ring and The Book. Wm. Lyon Phelps Browning uncovered his head in returning the salu- tation of a Priest, and touched his hat to the meanest peasant, who, after the manner of the country, lifted his own to greet the passing stranger. "I always salute the Church," he said. "I respect it." Katherine de Kay Bronson 38 BROWNING The greatest portrait Browning has given us is with- out doubt that of his wife. There are grand portraits of women that stand out, in my mind, above all others, namely, the portrait of Antigone, the one matchless woman of Greek poetry; the angel wife of Robert Browning; and the Beatrice of Dante. Dante expressed his wish to write of Beatrice as never man had v/ritten of women before; and I think the best critics of the day concede that Robert Brown- ing is the only poet since Dante that has ever reached his altitude. Mary E. Burt Yes, as I think it over, "The Ring and the Book" appears to me one of the great pen poems whose splen- dor can never suffer lasting eclipse, however it may have presently fallen into abeyance. It's such a great story and unfolded with such a magnificent breadth and noble fulness that one who blames it lightly blames himself heavily. William Dean Howells The principal aspiration of our age is a passionate longing for Truth, combined with a purity of intention, and a reverence of method in truth-seeking, such as has never been equaled in any age. It is an age of science, but also an age of faith in its sublimest and noblest aspect; an age of destruction if you will, but amidst the ruins of the temples of the past, may already be discovered the rising walls of a new temple, dedi- APPRECIATIONS 39 cated to a truly Spiritual Religion; an age of intense humanism; an age which has literally taken some of the sting of death, and some of the terrors from the grave, in such an age, what do we most need? A purer faith, a worthier philosophy, a higher standard of rectitude, deeper springs of conduct, more reality, less sham, and above all, a profounder confidence in God and our own truest selves. Among Humanity's greatest helpers in achieving such aims, must always stand the name of Robert Browning. J. Herman Randall The well known Chicagoan, James Charlton, general passenger agent for the Chicago and Alton Railroad, has the distinction of giving to the American public Browning's poems in a series of Railway Guides com- mencing in December, 1872, and closing in October, 1874. Mr. Charlton was sincerely desirous of giving his favorite poet such an audience as never another poet had. This unique method of treating the public to poetry pleased Browning and a complete set was sent him by his request and it is now in the archives of the British Museum. One of the greatest pleasures I have experienced in years of teaching has been the deep and abiding hold that the poetry of Robert Browning has taken upon 40 BROWNING my students. Year after year, echoes come from the Browning class bearing messages of thankfulness and love to the poet whose words and ideals have been so assimilated as to have a vital power in the active lives of these students. I say unhesitatingly that I believe no English poet, except Shakespeare, gives such genuine satisfaction as a reward for the time expended as Browning, and what is more, I believe that any intelligent, conscientious teacher with a fair amount of literary appreciation — and surely no other ought to teach literature — can arouse greater and more lasting enthusiasm among college students for Browning than for any other poet, — and I have no sympathy with the Browning fad — indeed, Brov/ning is not for the "fad- dist" — ^he is for the man whose soul hungers for the richest bounties poetry possesses. A. J. Armstrong An excellent solemn chiming, the passage from Dante makes with your "Sordello," and the "Sordello" deserves the labour which it needs, to make it appear the great work it is. I think that the principle of asso- ciation is too subtly in movement throughout it — so that while you are going straight forward you go at the same time round and round, until the progress involved in the motion is lost sight of by the lookers on. Elizabeth Barrett APPRECIATIONS 41 Browning is almost alone in the peculiar height and delicacy of his interpretation of womanhood, and Pom- pilia the crowning illustration of this. She is the heroic type of womanhood rising in per- fect response to every height of experience, discerning through utter sincerity and transparency of soul the truth in the highest relations of human life. There is infinite delicacy and yet depth in Brown- ing's reading of the secrets of the woman's soul, the glory and beauty of her motherhood. Pompilia is even nearer than Caponsacchi to The Truth. In each the supreme hunger to serve the good of the other, infi- nitely and forever, rather than to be made happy by or be loved and satisfied. Edward Howard Griggs Robert Browning's view of life, love, and immor- tality are three points by which to swing the broken arc of earth and the perfect round of heaven. Life — a riot of gladness, a man's sharing in the angel's high- est privilege of doing God's will : the faith that every- thing means good and means it intensely. Love — the Aladdin's lamp of the soul: Life's Sum- mum Bonum: the pulsing heart flood against which no barrier can or ought to stand. Immortality— the necessary working hypothesis of life: the one assumption that can fit good and evil, anguish and ecstacy : ignorance and omniscience : God 42 BROWNING and man into one exquisitely harmonious scheme at the end of which stands a human face, the Christ's human hand to receive men home. William Perry Eveland Humanity is made Sordello's companion-player on the stage of his life, so that the poem rightly conceived is not so metaphysical as is commonly supposed, but is virtually an experiment in the evolution of a poet and potential statesman by contact with the social world and popular needs lying outside of his individual nature. If in "Paracelsus," Browning's poem of Mind and Heart, the scheme of evolution unfolded was con- cerned with human origins, in the "Sordello," his poem of Will, the scheme was pushed a step farther, and dealt with social processes. Charlotte Porter I like very many and very different kinds of books, and do not for a moment attempt anything so prepos- terous as a continual comparison between books which may appeal to totally different needs, totally different sets of emotions. For instance, one correspondent pointed out to me that Tennyson was "trivial" com- pared to Browning, and another complained that I had omitted Walt Whitman; another asked why I put Longfellow "on a level" with Tennyson. I believe I did take Walt Whitman on one hunt, and I like Browning, Tennyson and Longfellow, all of them, APPRECIATIONS 43 without thinking it necessary to compare them. It is largely a matter of personal taste Nor does my liking for Tennyson prevent m.y caring greatly for "Childe Roland," "Love Among the Ruins," "Proteus" and nearly all the poems that I can understand, and some that I can merely guess at, in Browning. I do not feel the slightest need of trying to apply a common measuring-rule to these three poets, any more than I find it necessary to compare Keats with Shelley, or Shelley with Poe. I enjoy them all. Theodore Roosevelt The British Public, who unceasingly bragged of the Shakespeare of whom it knew little, and the Spencer and Dryden and the rest, of whom it knew practically nothing, ridiculed the idea that Browning could be of the regal caste of poets because he spoke a language that was not of the sort it was accustomed to. Brown- ing mixed no water with his ink, as Goethe said our modern poets do; there was often little music in his words, and the Sense was at times rather hard to grasp ; and so our strong, robust, gloriously sane poet "came to his own and his own received him not." He spoke vigorous, pregnant words, warm from his great, loving heart, and "poured for us wine" to brace our souls in the degenerate days when men were giving up God for the unknowable, and their faith in Chris- tianity for belief in "something not ourselves which 44 BROWNING makes for righteousness" ; he taught us a pure religion, reasonable and manly, robust and in harmony with the science of the age, and few would listen and fewer still would heed. Yet the age had such need of him! Edward Berdoe The character of Festus rivals that of Paracelsus in its strength and individuality. He embodies in a marvelous degree the ideal friend of humanity. Para- celsus would serve man and God, but Festus would serve God by loving man; he holds the praise of God to be: "The natural end and service of a man And holds such praise is best attained when man Attains the general welfare of his kind." Michal, the wife of Festus, is Browning's first at- tempt to portray a woman. She is little more than a vision, hardly individualized, and looks out among the stronger personalities of the poem like the shadowy face of an angel in some old painting. She is "Sweet Michal." Mrs. Fanny Holy The general belief expressed in the statement that he did not care about form is simply the most ridicu- lous criticism that could be conceived. It would be far nearer the truth to say that he cared more for form than any other English poet who ever lived. He APPRECIATIONS 45 was always moulding and modeling and inventing new forms. Among all his two hundred or three hundred poems, it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that there are half as many different meters as there are different poems. Gilbert Keith Chesterton Browning is cosmopolitan because he is following the human spirit in its countless avatars, its Protean changes, in every age and nation. He is interested in the human spirit whenever it lifts itself above the in- distinguishable mass of existence. Browning is not interested in humanity as the philanthropist or demo- crat, but as the artist and student of personality. He prefers to present extreme examples of human possi- bilities, to have new and peculiar poetic material. (Cf. Tennyson.) The vindictive Spanish monk jostles the modern skeptical bishop; Caliban's theology is as interesting as the aspirations of Andrea del Sarto. He sits now at the Mermaid with Shakspere and the rest, and now the spiritualist seance with Sludge, the Medium. In this ceaseless interest in personality, Browning has the insatiable curiosity that marked the Renaissance and that marks our times. The poet of the Renaissance is Shakspere; the poet of our own era is Browning. Frederick H. Sykes 46 BROWNING The first woman to notice in this long gallery of portraits is Balaustion, the largest, healthiest, happiest woman of the group. A creature of superb physique, a profound philosopher (except in love affairs, — neither men nor women are philosophers there), good natured but earnest, witty but serious. She is per- fectly natural, a far closer portrait of a real American girl than our own literature affords. She is a true girl in every respect, if Browning did paint his own attrib- utes into her character. When she is introduced to us she is sitting with four other girls; they are all seated easily together on the bank of a stream, their lips pursed up like crumpled rose leaves; they are lis- tening to the story of her adventure. Mary E. Burt Poets have described the beauties, the sublimities of nature; Browning was the first poet, so far as I know, who made a starved landscape poetical; by which I mean, such a landscape appeal to the spiritual nature of the reader. It is all important in the higher poetry that the concrete become a direct spiritual medium to the student, independently of any intel- lectual interpretation. The true function of poetry should be to induce an exercise of the spiritual nature. There are plenty of other things in this matter-of-fact world to induce an exercise of the bumptious intellect. Hiram Corson APPRECIATIONS 47 Instead of looking to perfection as an inheritance of earth such as is pictured by Shelley in symbols, cos- mic and spiritual, in the closing act of his "Prometheus Unbound," Browning's ideal grew to be eternal aeons of struggle and growth, relative evil always holding its appointed place as a spur toward further effort. Helen A. Clark BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW OPINIONS are volatile, convictions are dynamic. Browning consistently gave his opinion and unflinchingly expressed his convictions on art, music, science, evolution, immortality, and men and things generally. And it is a distinct pleasure to add these excerpts given over his own signature. WHY I AM A LIBERAL "Why?" Because all I haply can and do. All that I am, now, all I hope to be,— Whence comes it save from fortune setting free Body and soul the purpose to pursue, God traced for both? If fetters, not a few. Of prejudice, convention, fall from me. These shall I bid men— each in his degree Also God-guided— bear, and gayly too? But little do or can the best of us : That little is achieved through Liberty. Who, then, dares hold, emancipated thus. His fellow shall continue bound? Not I, Who live, love, labor freely, nor discuss A brother's right to freedom. That is "Why." 51 52 BROWNING A lady asked Browning to write an inscription for her gift to Gladstone on the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage. Browning answered: "Surely your kind- ness, even your sympathy, will be extended to me when I say with sorrow indeed that I am unable now conscientiously to do what, but a few years ago I would have, at least, attempted with such pleasure and pride as might almost promise success. I have re- ceived much kindness from that extraordinary person- age, and what my admiration for his transcendent abilities was and ever will be, there is no need to speak of: but I am forced to altogether deplore his present attitude with respect to the liberal party, of which I am the humblest unit, am still a member, and as such, grieved to the heart by every fresh utterance of his which comes to my knowledge. Were I in position to explain publicly how much the personal feeling is independent of the political aversion, all would be easy, but I am a mere man of Letters, and by the sim- ple inscription, which would truly testify to what is endearing unalterable in my esteem, I should lead people — as well those who know me as those who do not — to believe my approbation extended far beyond the bounds which unfortunately circumscribe it now. All this — even more — ^was on my mind as I sat last evening at the same table with the brilliantly-gifted man whom once — but that *once' is too sad to remem- ber." Right Hon. John Morley — Life of Gladstone BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW 53 Another testimony to the vitality of Browning study at the present time reaches us in the shape of a daintily printed leaflet, issued by the San Francisco Browning Society, a souvenir of one of its mornings spent in consideration of "Bishop Blougram's Apol- ogy." The leaflet shows the thoroughness of a group of enthusiastic students. It contains a brief account of the poems, including an interesting refer- ence to its real hero. Cardinal Wiseman, and eight or ten pages of notes, some of which are admirably sug- gestive. The fragment of a letter of Browning's which is included is worth quoting : "The most curious notice I ever had was from Car- dinal Wiseman, on Blougram— i.^., himself. It was in 'The Rambler,' a Catholic journal of those days, and certified to be his by Father Prout, who said no- body else would have dared put it in. The review praises the poem for its 'fertility of illustration and felicity of argument,' and says that, 'though utterly mistaken in the very groundwork of religion, though starting from the most unworthy notions of the work of a Catholic bishop, and defending a self-indulgence, every honest man must feel to be disgraceful, [it] is yet, in its way, triumphant.' " And what easy work these novelists have of it ! A dramatic poet has to make you love or admire his men and women— they must do and say all that you are 54 BROWNING to see and hear — really do it in your face, say it in your ears and it is wholly for you in your power, to name, characterize, and so praise or blame what is so said and done, so if you don't perceive of yourself there is no standing by for the Author and telling you. But with these novelists — a scrape of the pen — out- blurting of a phrase and the miracle is achieved . . . . pray what think you of Bulwer's begin- ning a character by informing that same was endowed with perfect genius — genius ! — Letters, Vol. I By this time you have got my little book ("Hohen- stiel") and seen for yourself whether I make the best or the worst of the case. I think, in the main, he meant to do what I say, and, but for weakness — grown more apparent in his last years than formerly — would have done what I say he did not. I thought badly of him at the beginning of his career, et pour cause: better afterward, on the strength of the prom- ises he made, and gave indications of intending to redeem. I think him very weak in the last miserable year. At his worst I prefer him to Thiers's best. I am told my little thing is succeeding — sold 1,400 in the first five days, and before any notice appeared. I re- member that the year I made the little rough sketch in Rome, i860, my account for the last six months with Chapman was — nil, not one copy disposed of. . . . "Balustion"— the second edition is in the press, I think BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW 55 I told you. Two thousand five hundred in five months is a good sale for the likes of me. Mrs. Sutherland Orr — Life and Letters Edmund Gosse asked Mr. Browning what poems of moderate length represented him fairly, and the an- swer was : "If I knew what moderation exactly meant the choice would be easier. Let me say at a venture — lyrical, "Saul," or "Abt Vogler;'* narrative, "A For- giveness;" dramatic, "Caliban Upon Setebos;" idyllic (in a Greek sense), "Clive." Which means that being restricted to four dips in the lucky-bag I should not object to be judged by these samples so far as they go, for there is somewhat beyond still." My dear young friends, some people are good enough to say that my writings are sometimes unin- telligible; but I hope to make myself intelligible to you now when I say how affected and impressed I am by this noble, this magnificent welcome which you have given one so unworthy as myself. You dear young men, how I love you all! Llangollen, Sept., 1886 56 BROWNING Time has kindly co-operated with my disindina- tion to write the poetry and the criticism besides. The readers I am at last privileged to expect, meet me fully half-way ; and if, from the fitting standpoint, they must still "censure me in their wisdom" they have previously "awakened their senses that they may the better judge." Nor do I apprehend any more charges of being willfully obscure, unconscientiously careless, or perversely harsh. Having hitherto done my utmost in the art to which my life is a devotion, I cannot engage to in- crease the effort; but I conceive that there may be helpful light, as well as reassuring warmth, in the attention and sympathy I gratefully acknowledge. London, May 14, 1872 I wrote "Sordello" twenty-five years ago for only a few, counting even in these on somewhat more care about its subject than they really had. My own faults of expression were m.any ; but with care for a man or book such would be surmounted, and without it, what avails the faultlessness of either? I blame nobody, least of all myself, who did my best then and since; for I lately gave time and pains to turn my work into what the many might, — instead of what the few must, — like: but after all, I imagined another thing at first, and therefore leave it as I find it. The historical decoration was purposely of no more BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW 57 importance than a background requires ; and my stress lay on the incidents in the development of a soul ; little else is worth study. I, at least, always thought so — you, with many known and unknown to me, think so, — others may one day think so. Browning seemed as full of dramatic interest in reading "In a Balcony" as if he had just written it for our benefit One who sat near him said that it was a natural sequence that the step of the guard should be heard coming to take Norbert to his doom, as, with a nature like the queen's, who had known only one hour of joy in her sterile life, vengeance swift and terrible would follow on the sudden destruction of her happiness. "Now, I don't quite think that," answered Brown- ing, as if he were following out the play as a spectator. "The queen has a large and passionate temperament, which had only once been touched and brought into intense life. "She would have died by a knife in her heart. The guard would have come to carry away her dead body. "But I imagine that most people interpret it as I do," was the reply. "Then," said Browning, with quick interest, don't you think it would be well to put it in the stage direc- tions, and have it seem that they were carrying her across the back of the stage?" Katherine de Kay Bronson 58 BROWNING The subjective poet is impelled to embody the thing he perceives, and not so much with the reference to many below as to the One above him, the supreme Intelligence which apprehends all things in their abso- lute truth, — an ultimate view ever aspired to, if but partially attained, by the poet's own soul. Not what man sees but what God sees, — the Ideas of Plato, seeds of creation lying burning on the Divine Hand, — it is toward these that he struggles. Not with the combination of humanity in action, but with the primal elements of humanity, he has to do ; and he digs where he stands, — preferring to seek them in his own soul as the nearest reflex of that absolute Mind. — Essay on Shelley For it is with this world, as starting point and basis alike that we shall always have to concern ourselves: the world is not to be learned and thrown aside, but reverted to and relearned. The spiritual comprehen- sion may be infinitely subtilized, but the raw material it operates upon must remain. There may be no end of the poets who communicate to us what they feel in an object with reference to their own individuality; what it was before they saw it in reference to the aggregate human mind will be as desirable to know as ever. — Essay on Shelley BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW 59 Greatness in a work suggests an adequate instru- mentality; and none of the lower incitements, how- ever they may avail to initiate or even affect many considerable displays of powers, simulating to nobler inspiration, to which they are mistakenly referred, have been found able under the ordinary conditions of humanity, to task themselves to the end of so exact- ing a performance as a poet's complete work. — Essay on Shelley Gradually he (Shelley) was learning that the best way of removing abuses is to stand fast by truth. Truth is one, as they are manifold; and innumerable negative effects are produced by the upholding of one positive principle. —Essay on Shelley 1 concede, however, in respect to the subject of our study as well as some few other illustrious examples, that the unmistakable quality of the verse would be evidence enough, under usual circumstances, not only of the kind and degree of the intellectual but of the moral constitution of Shelley ; the whole personality of the poet shining forward from the poems, without much need of going further to seek it. — Essay on Shelley 6o BROWNING But Art, — wherein man nowise speaks to men, Only to mankind, — Art may tell a truth Obliquely, do the thing shall breed the thought, Nor wrong the thought, missing the mediate word. So may you paint your picture, twice show truth Beyond mere imagery on the wall, — So, note by note, bring music from your mind. Deeper than ever e'en Beethoven dived, — So write a book shall mean beyond the facts. Suffice the eye and save the soul beside. — Part XII, The Ring and the Book Shakespeare! — to such name's sounding, what suc- ceeds Fitly as silence? Falter forth the spell, — Act follows word, the speaker knows full well, Nor tampers with its m.agic more than needs. Two names there are: That which the Hebrew reads With his soul only: if from lips it fell. Echo, back thundered by earth, heaven and hell. Would own, "Thou didst create us !" Naught impedes. We voice the other name, man's most of might. Awesomely, lovingly: let awe and love Mutely await their working, leave to sight All of the issue as — below — above — Shakespeare's creation rises: one remove, Though dread — this finite from that infinite. BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW 6i The preliminary step to following Christ, is the leaving the dead to bury their dead — not clamoring on His doctrine for an especial solution of difficulties which are referable to the general problem of the uni- verse. — Essay on Shelley All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee: All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem: In the core of one pearl aU the shade and the shine of the sea: Breath and bloom, shade and shine, — ^wonder, wealth, and — ^how far above them — Truth, that's brighter than gem, Trust, that's purer than pearl, — Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe — all were for me In the kiss of one girl. 62 BROWNING "The Poet's age is sad: for why? In youth, the natural world could show No common object but his eye At once involved with alien glow — His own souFs iris-bow. "And now a flower is just a flower : Man, bird, beast are but beast, bird, man — Simply themselves, uncinct by dower Of dyes which, when life's day began, Round each in glory ran." Friend, did you need an optic glass. Which were your choice ? A lens to drape In ruby, emerald, chrysopras, Each object — or reveal its shape Clear outlined, past escape. The naked very thing? — so clear That, when you had the chance to gaze. You found its inmost self appear Through outer seeming — truth ablaze, Not falsehood's fancy-haze? How many a year, my Asolo, Since — one step just from sea to land — I found you, loved yet feared you so — For natural objects seemed to stand Palpably fire-clothed! No — BROWNING'S POINT OF VIEW 63 No mastery of mine o*er these! Terror with beauty, like the Bush Burning but unconsumed. Bend knees, Drop eyes to earthward! Language? Tush! Silence 't is awe decrees. And now? The lambent flame is — where? Lost from the naked world: earth, sky. Hill, vale, tree, flower, — Italians rare O'er-running beauty crowds the eye — But flame? The Bush is bare. Hill, vale, tree, flower — they stand distinct, Nature to know and name. What then? A Voice spoke thence which straight unlinked Fancy from fact: see, all's in ken: Has once my eyelid vnnked? No, for the purged ear apprehends Earth's import, not the eye late dazed: The Voice said "Call my works thy friends! At Nature dost thou shrink amazed? God is it who transcends." — Prologue"^ Asolo, Sept. 6, 1889 *T0 MRS. ARTHUR BRONSON To whom but you, dear Friend, should I dedicate verses — some few writ- ten, all of them supervised, in the comfort of your presence, and with yet another experience of the gracious hospitality now bestowed on me since so many a year, — adding a charm even to my residences at Venice, and leaving me little regret for the surprise and delight at my visits to Atolo in bygoae days? * * » FOREWORD TO SELECTIONS FOREWORD TO SELECTIONS a A RT helps us to see : hundreds can talk for one ^* who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see: to see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one." This salient truth was spoken by Ruskin, our great high priest of art, a personal friend and neighbor of Browning, as Carlyle was also. These three were co- workers for the coming on of the kingdom of heaven — and the greatest of these? Browning. In considering the relative value of the fine arts, we must first take cognizance of the all embracing, exceed- ing difficult Art of Living, a problem each and all must solve every day because Eternity is here and now. This pulsating, recording Art takes high precedence, Poetry follows, a loving, close second for the obvious reason that it is the incisive, subtle, interpreter of its supreme predecessor. Life; and the study of literature from the earliest to the latest reign has taught us that Poetry is its quintessence, by the virtue of the poet's power to see. Art — holding that it always signifies the struggle towards perfection — is the manifestation of the Infinite thru the medium of the Finite. The Art 67 68 BROWNING of Living is our ideal, expressed in action. This is not catalogued in the school curriculum, Life alone is the teacher. All other arts are ideals embodied in form, and Life is here the teacher also. In so far as we reach toward our ideals thru action, reduce the imperfect form to the near-perfect, dissolve discordant sounds into deep melody, do we lay hold on the Infinite. Poets have the transcendent power to "see clearly," and it is a delight to stand close to a clear-thinking mind, com- bined with a tender, boundless sympathy, and an un- swerving faith in the indissoluble bond between every soul and its Maker. Such a poet is Robert Browning. It is never just to a dramatist to credit him person- ally with the opinions or convictions expressed by the children of his brain. Surely young Hamlet's agoniz- ing wail, "Frailty, thy name is woman," can not be Shakespeare's sober dictum, whatever we may think of that incident of "the second-best feather bed." In the following pages Browning's "fifty men and women" speak for themselves — in their own name, and it would be somewhat difficult to gather an equal num- ber of men and women from the pages of any other author whose lustre would dim the stars in this galaxy. Here we have the incomparable Balaustion ; the ideal Colombe, leaving the dukedom and hastening to Cleves with the heroic Valence ; Domizia, rising respon- sive to the nobility of Luria ; elusive Aprile, shrinking Ignotus, politic Ogniben, Cleon, whose culture hides FOREWORD TO SELECTIONS 69 the hope of immortality; suffering Mildred, the in- effably tender Mertoun, the brave Anael, despicable Sebald, ready to save himself and leave the woman he has wronged ; Jules, gladly breaking his paltry models up that he may attain to greater heights by the new vision. The necessary limit-line of this book prevents many other "Men and Women" from expressing their views, and also excludes innumerable choice bits of love and lore to be found in the almost inexhaustible store- house of erudition from which we have gathered these. SELECTIONS SELECTIONS THERE they are, my fifty men and women, Naming me the fifty poems finished ! Take them, Love, the book and me together : Where the heart lies, let the brain lie also. One Word More* How can we guard our unbelief, Make it bear fruit to us ? — the problem here. Just where we are safest, there's a sunset-touch, A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, A chorus-ending from Euripides, — And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears As old and new at once as nature's self. To rap and knock and enter in our soul. Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring, Round the ancient idol, on his base again, — The grand Perhaps ! Bishop Blougram — Bishop Bloiigram's Apology Why crown whom Zeus has crowned before? Balaustion — Balaustion' s Adventure [•Originally appended to the collection of Poems called "Men and Women," the greater portion of which has now been, more correctly, distrihuted iinder the other titles of this edition. — R. B.] 73 74 BROWNING So let him wait God's instant men call years : Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul, Do out the duty ! Through such souls alone God stooping shows sufficient of His light For us i' the dark to rise by. And I rise. Pompilia — The Ring and the Book And for the rest, I cannot tell thy messenger aright Where to deliver what he bears of thine To one called Paulus; we have heard his fame Indeed, if Christus be not one with him — I know not, nor am troubled m^uch to know. Thou canst not think a mere barbarian Jew As Paulus proves to be, one circumcised. Hath access to a secret shut from us? Thou wrongest our Philosophy, O king, In stooping to inquire of such an one, As if his answer could impose at all! He writeth, doth he? well, and he may write. Oh, the Jew findeth scholars! certain slaves Who touched on this same isle, preached him and Christ ; And (as I gathered from a by-stander) Their doctrine could be held by no sane man. Cleon — Cleon SELECTIONS 75 I have heard of those who seemed Resourceless in prosperity, — you thought Sorrow might slay them when she listed ; yet Did they so gather up their diffused strength At her first menace, that they bade her strike, And stood and laughed her subtlest skill to scorn. Oh ! 'tis not so with me ! Mildred — A Blot ill the 'Scutcheon The love of peace, care for the family. Contentment with what's bad but might be worse — Good movements these! and good, too, discontent, So long as that spurs good, which might be best, Into becoming better, anyhow. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau (Napoleon III) — Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau I have done with being judged. I stand here guiltless in thought, word and deed. To the point that I apprise you — in contempt For all misapprehending ignorance Of the human heart, much more the mind of Christ, — That I assuredly did bow, was blessed By the revelation of Pompilia. Caponsacchi — The Ring and the Book 76 BROWNING God must be glad one loves His world so much. I can give news of earth to all the dead Who ask me: — last year's sunsets, and great stars That had a right to come first and see ebb The crimson wave that drifts the sun away — Those crescent moons with notched and burning rims That strengthened into sharp fire, and there stood, Impatient of the azure — and that day In March, a double rainbow, moonlit summer nights — May's warm, slov/, j^ellow moonlit summer nights — Gone are they, but I have them in my soul! Luigi — Pippa Passes The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life: Try to be Shakespeare! Bishop Blougram — Bishop Blou gram's Apology I know that the great For pleasure born, should still be on the watch To exclude pleasure when a Duty offers: Even as, the lowly too for Duty bom. May ever snatch a pleasure if in reach: Both will have plenty of their birthright, Sir! Valence — Colomhe's Birthday SELECTIOlSfS 77 Truth is the strong thing. Let man's life be true ! And love's the truth of mine. Time prove the rest! Norbert — In a Balcony I trust in God — the right shall be the right And other than the wrong while He endures : I trust in my own soul, that can perceive The outward and the inward, nature's good And God's: so, seeing these men and myself. Having a right to speak, thus do I speak. Chiappino — A Sours Tragedy I take aught That teaches me their wrongs with greater pride Than this your ducal circlet. The Duchess — Colomhe's Birthday God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear. To give sign, we and they are his children, one family here. David — Saul The valley-level has its hawks no doubt: May not the rock-top have its eagles, too? The Duchess — Colomhe's Birthday 78 BROWNING You creature with the eyes! If I could look forever up to them, As now you let me, I believe, all sin. All memory of wrong done, suffering borne, Would drop down, low and lower, to the earth Whence all that's low comes, and there touch and stay — Never to overtake the rest of me. All that, unspotted, reaches up to you. Drawn by those eyes! What rises is myself, Not m.e the shame and suffering; but they sink. Are left, I rise above them. Keep me so Above the world! Phene — Pippa Passes I am for noble Aureole, God! I am upon his side, come weal or woe, His portion shall be mine. He has done well. I would have sinned, had I been strong enough, As he has sinned. Reward him or I waive Reward ! If thou canst find no place for him. He shall be king elsewhere, and I will be His slave forever. There are two of us. Festus — Paracelsus SELECTIONS 79 And wisely. (He is Anael's brother, pure As AnaeFs self.) Go say, I come to her. Haste! I will follow you. Oh, not confess To these, the blinded multitude — confess. Before at least the fortune of my deed Half-authorize its means! Only to her Let me confess my fault, who in my path Curled up like incense from a Mage-king's tomb When he would have the wayfarer descend Through the earth's rift and bear hid treasure forth ! How should child's carelessness prove manhood's crime Till now that I, whose lone youth hurried past, Letting each joy 'scape for the Druses' sake. At length recover in one Druse all joy? Were her brow brighter, her eyes richer, still Would I confess. On the gulf's verge I pause. How could I slay the Prefect, thus and thus? Anael, be mine to guard me, not destroy ! Djabal — The Return of the Druses Moreover, say that certain sin there seem. The proper process of unsinning sin Is to begin well-doing somehow else. Tertium Quid — The Ring and the Book 8o BROWNING A pretty woman's worth some pains to see, Nor is she spoiled, I take it, if a crown Complete the forehead pale or tresses pure . Guibert — Colomhe's Birthday Djabal, I knew your secret from the first: Djabal, when first I saw you . . . (by our porch You leant, and pressed the tinkling veil away, And one fringe fell behind your neck — I see!) . . . I knew you were not human, for I said "This dim secluded house where the sea beats Is heaven to me — my people's huts are hell To them ; this august form will follow me, Mix with the waves his voice will, — I have him; And they, the Prefect ! Oh, my happiness Rounds to the full whether I choose or no ! His eyes met mine, he was about to speak, His hand grew damp — surely he meant to say He let me love him : in that moment's bliss I shall forget my people pine for home — They pass and they repass with pallid eyes!" I vowed at once a certain vow ; this vow — Not to embrace you till my tribe was saved. Embrace me! Anael — The Return of the Druses SELECTIONS 8i Ay, Anael, Anael,— is that said at last? Louder than all, that would be said, I knew! What does abjuring mean, confessing mean, To the people? Till that woman crossed my path, On went I, solely for my people's sake : I saw her, and I then first saw myself. And slackened pace: "if I should prove indeed Hakeem— with Anael by !" D jabal —■The Return of the Druses Trade in the dear Druses? Blood and sweat traffic? Spare what yesterday We heard enough of! Drove I in the Isle A profitable game? Learn wit, my son. Which you'll need shortly! Did it never breed Suspicion in you, all was not pure profit. When I, the insatiate . ,.> . and so forth— was bent On having a partaker in my rule? Why did I yield this Nuncio half the gain, If not that I might also shift— what on him? Half of the peril, Loys ! Prefect —The Return of the Druses Yes, I see now. God is the perfect Poet, Who in His person acts His own creations. Aprile — Paracelsus 82 BROWNING And am I not the Prefect now? Is it my fate to be the only one Able to win her love, the only one Unable to accept her love? The past Breaks up beneath my footing : came I here This morn as to a slave, to set her free And take her thanks, and then spend day by day Content beside her in the Isle? What works This knowledge in me now? Her eye has broken The faint disguise away: for Anael's sake I left the Isle, for her espoused the cause Of the Druses, all for her I thought, till now. To live without! As I must live ! To-day Ordains me Knight, forbids me . . . never shall Forbid me to profess myself, heart, arm, Thy soldier! Loys — The Return of the Druses The common problem, yours, mine, everyone's. Is — not to fancy what were fair in life Provided it could be, — but, finding first What may be, then find how to make it fair Up to our means : a very different thing ! Bishop Blougram — Bishop Blougram* s Apology SELECTIONS 83 Were I elect like you, I would encircle me with love, and raise A rampart of my fellows. Festus — Paracelsus We shall not meet in this world nor the next, But where will God be absent? In His face Is life, but in His shadow healing too ; Let Guido touch the shadow and be healed. Pompilia — TJie Ring and the Book Thou art my single holiday God lends to leaven What were all earth else with a feel of heaven. To-morrow I must be Pippa who winds silk The whole year round, to earn just bread and milk: But this one day I have leave to go, And play out my fancy's fullest games; I may fancy all day — and it shall be so — That I taste of the pleasures, am called by the names Of the Happiest Four in our Asolo ! Pippa — Pippa Passes 84 BROWNING Lied is a rough phrase: say he fell from the truth In climbing towards it! — sure less faulty so Than had he sat him down and stayed content With thy safe orthodoxy, "White all white, White everywhere for certain I should see Did I but understand how white is black. As clearer sense than mine would." Clearer sense, — Whose may that be? mere human eyes I boast. And such distinguish colors in the main, However any tongue, that's human too. Please to report the matter. Ferishtah — Fe risk fan's Fancies What's midnight doubt before the dayspring's faith? Bishop Blougram — Bishop Blougram' s Apology Sirs: I obeyed. Obedience v/as too strange — This new thing that had been struck into me. By the look o' the lady, — to dare disobey The first authoritative word. 'Twas God's. I had been lifted to the level of her, Could take such sounds into my sense. Caponsacchi — The Ring and the Book SELECTIONS 85 Rather tear men out the heart O' the truth! Sordello — Sordello . . . 'Tis man's cause! Fail thou, and thine own fall is least to dread. Luria — Luria My business is not to remake myself, » But make the absolute best of what God made. I Bishop Blougram — Bishop Blougram's Apology The more I thank God, like my grandmother,* For making me a little lower than The angels honor-clothed and glory-crowned: This is the honor,— that no thing I know, Feel or conceive, but I can make my own Somehow, by use of hand or head or heart: This is the glory,— that in all conceived, Or felt or known, I recognize a mind Not mine but like mine, — for the double joy, — Making all things for me and me for Him. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau (Napoleon III) — Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau Empress Josephine 86 BROWNING I proclaim The angel in thee, and reject the sprites Which ineffectual crowd about his strength, And mingle with his work and claim a share ! Unconsciously to the augustest end Thou hast arisen : second not in rank So much as time, to him who first ordained That Florence, thou art to destroy, should be. Yet him a star, too, guided, who broke first The pride of lonely power, the life apart. And made the eminences, each to each. Lean o'er the level world and let it lie Safe from the thunder henceforth *neath their tops; So the few famous men of old combined. And let the multitude rise underneath. And reach them and unite — so Florence grew : Braccio speaks true, it is well worth the price. Domizia — Luria First of the first, Such I pronounce Pompilia, then as now Perfect in whiteness : ... Go past me And get thy praise — and be not far to seek Presently when I follow if I may! The Pope — The Ring and the Book SELECTIONS 87 The prize is the process: knowledge means Ever-renewed assurance by defeat That victory is somehow still to reach, But love is victory, the prize itself. Ferishtah — Ferishtah' s Fancies *Twas a text Whereon folks preached and praised, the district through. "Oh make us happy and you make us good! It all comes of God giving her a child: Such graces follow God's best earthly gift." Tertium Quid — The Ring and the Book Then You were wrong, you see; that's well to see though late: That's all we may expect of man this side The grave; his good is — knowing he is bad. Thus will it be with us when the books ope And we stand at the bar on judgment day. Caponsacchi — The Ring and the Book 88 BROWNING Rejoice we are allied To that which doth provide And not partake, effect and not receive! A spark disturbs our clod; Nearer we hold of God Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe. Rabbi Ben Ezra — Rabbi Ben Ezra Then, welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough. Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go! Be our joys three parts pain ! Strive and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe ! Rabbi Ben Ezra — Rabbi Ben Ezra Yet gifts should prove their use: I own the past profuse Of power each side, perfection every turn: Eyes, ears took in their dole. Brain treasured up the whole ; Should not the heart beat once "How good to live and learn?" Rabbi Ben Ezra — Rabbi Ben Ezra SELECTIONS 89 There's not the meanest woman in the world. Not she I least could love in all the world, Whom, did she love me, had love proved itself, I dare insult as you insult me now. Constance, I could say, if it must be said, "Take back the soul you offer, I keep mine!" But — "Take the soul still quivering on your hand, The soul so offered, which I cannot use, And, please you, give it to some playful friend, For — what's the trifle he requites me with?" I, tempt a woman, to amuse a man, That two may mock her heart if it succumb? No: fearing God and standing 'neath His heaven, I would not dare insult a woman so. Were she the meanest woman in the world, And he, I cared to please, ten emperors! Norbert — In a Balcony I cannot chain my soul : it will not rest In its clay prison, this most narrow sphere: It has strange impulse, tendency, desire Which nowise I account for nor explain, But cannot stifle, being bound to trust All feelings equally, to hear all sides. The Lover — Pauline go BROWNING But how carve way i' the life that lies before, If bent on groaning ever for the past? • Balaustion — Balaustion' s Adventure False I will never — rash I would not be! This is indeed my birthday — soul and body, Its hours have done on me the work of years. You hold the requisition : ponder it ! If I have right, my duty's plain: if he — Say so, nor ever change a tone of voice! At night you meet the Prince ; meet me at eve ! Till when, farewell! This discomposes you? Believe in your nature, and its force Of renovating mine ! I take my stand Only as under me the earth is firm. The Duchess — Colomhes Birthday Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for? All is silver-grey, Placid and perfect with my art: the worse! I know both v/hat I want and what might gain; And yet how profitless to know, to sigh "Had I been two, another and myself. Our head would have o'erlooked the world!" No doubt. Andrea del Sarto — Andrea del Sarto SELECTIONS 91 Be a god and hold me With a charm ! Be a man and fold me With thine arm ! Teach me, only teach, Love ! As I ought I will speak thy speech, Love, Think thy thought. ^^^ ^^^^ — A Woman's Last Word So, for her sake, as yours, I tell you twice That women hate a debt as men a gift. If I were you, I could obtain this grace — Could lay the whole I did to love's account. Nor yet be very false as courtiers go — Declaring my success was recompense; It would be so, in fact: what were it else? And then, once loose her generosity, — Oh, how I see it!— then, were I but you, To turn it, let it seem to move itself, And make it offer what I really take. Accepting just, in the poor cousin's hand. Her value as the next thing to the Queen's — Since none love Queens directly, none dare that. And a thing's shadow or a name's mere echo Suffices those who miss the name and thing! Constance — In a Balcony 92 BROWNING How soon a smile of God can change the world! How we are made for happiness — how work Grows play, adversity a winning fight ! True, I have lost so many years: what then? Many remain: God has been very good. You, stay here! 'Tis as different from dreams, From the mind's cold calm estimate of bliss. As these stone statues from the flesh and blood. The comfort thou hast caused mankind, God's moon! The Queen — In a Balcony For the main criminal I have no hope Except in such a suddenness of fate. I stood at Naples once, a night so dark I could have scarce conjectured there was earth Anywhere, sky or sea or world at all: But the night's black was burst through by a blaze — Thunder struck blow on blow, earth groaned and bore, Through her whole length of mountain visible : There lay the city thick and plain with spires. And like a ghost disshrouded, white the sea. So may the truth be flashed out by one blow. And Guido see, one instant, and be saved. Else I avert my face, nor follow him Into that sad obscure sequestered state Where God unmakes but to remake the soul SELECTIONS 93 He else made first in vain; which must not be. Enough, for I may die this very night, And how should I dare die, this man let live? The Pope — The Ring and the Book Knowledge and power have rights. But ignorance and weakness have rights too. There needs no crucial effort to find truth If here or there or anywhere about : We ought to turn each side, try hard and see, And if we can't, be glad we've earned at least The right, by one laborious proof the more, To graze in peace earth's pleasant pasturage. Men are not angels, neither are they brutes : Something we may see, all we cannot see. Bishop Blougram — Bishop Blougram's Apology As I dare approach that Heaven Which has not bade a living thing despair, Which needs no code to keep its grace from stain, But bids the vilest worm that turns on it Desist and be forgiven, — I — forgive not. But bless you, Thorold, from my soul of souls ! Mildred — A Blot in the 'Scutcheon 94 BROWNING To have to do with nothing but the true, The good, the eternal, — and these, not alone In the main current of the general life, But small experiences of every day, Concerns of the particular hearth and home. Caponsacchi — The Ring and the Book There was a young fellow here, Jules, a foreign sculptor, I did my utmost to advance, that the Church might be a gainer by us both: he was going on hope- fully enough, and of a sudden he notifies to me some marvelous change that has happened in his notions of art. Here's his letter : "He never had a clearly conceived ideal within his brain till to-day. "Yet since his hand could manage a chisel, he has practised expressing other men's ideals; and, in the very perfection he has attained, he foresees an ultimate failure: his unconscious hand will pursue its pre- scribed course of old years, and will reproduce with a fatal expertness the ancient types, let the novel one appear never so palpably to his spirit. There is but one method of escape : confiding the virgin type to as chaste a hand, he will turn painter instead of sculptor, and paint, not carve, its characteristics." Monsignor — Pip pa Passes SELECTIONS 95 Gladness be with thee, Helper of our world! I think this is the authentic sign and seal Of Godship, that it ever waxes glad," And more glad, until gladness blossoms, bursts Into a rage to suffer for mankind, And recommence at sorrow : drops like seed After the blossom, ultimate of all. Say, does the seed scorn earth and seek the sun? Surely it has no other end and aim Than to drop, once more die into the ground, Taste cold and darkness and oblivion there : And thence rise, tree-like, grow through pain to joy. More joy and most joy, — do man good again. Balaustion -^ — Balaustion' s Adventure The power I sought for man, seemed God's. In this conjuncture, as I prayed to die, A strange adventure made me know, one sin Had spotted my career from its uprise ; I saw Aprile — ^my Aprile there! And as the poor melodious wretch disburthened His heart, and moaned his weakness in my ear, I learned my own deep error; love's undoing Taught me the worth of love in man's estate, And what proportion love should hold with power In his right constitution; love preceding 96 BROWNING Power, and with much power, always much more love; Love still too straitened in his present means, And earnest for new power to set love free. Paracelsus — Paracelsus "Stay!" she said. "Keep at least one soul unspecked With crime, that's spotless hitherto — your own! Kill me who court the blessing, who alone Was, am, and shall be guilty, first to last! The man lay helpless in the toils I cast About him, helpless as the statue there Against that strangling bell-flower's bondage: tear Away and tread to dust the parasite. But do the passive marble no despite ! I love him as I hate you. Kill me! Strike At one blow both infinitudes alike Out of existence — ^hate and love! Whence love? That's safe inside my heart, nor will remove For any searching of your steel, I think." The Wife — A Forgiveness She had A heart — ^how shall I say? — ^too soon made glad. Too easily impressed ; she liked whate'er She looked on, and her looks went everjrwhere. Sir, 'twas all one! My favor at her breast. SELECTIONS 97 The dropping of the daylight in the West, The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule She rode with round the terrace — all and each Would draw from her alike the approving speech, Or blush, at least. She thanked men,— good! but thanked Somehow — I know not how — as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame This sort of trifling? The Duke — My Last Duchess Oh ! to love less what one has injured ! Dove, Whose pinion I have rashly hurt, my breast- Shall my heart's warmth not nurse thee into strength? Flower I have crushed, shall I not care for thee? Bloom o'er my crest, my fight-mark and device ! Mildred, I love you and you love me ! Mertoun — A Blot in the 'Scutcheon Suppose I've made her eyes all right and blue, Can't I take breath and try to add life's flash. And then add soul and heighten them three-fold? Or say there's beauty with no soul at all — (I never saw it — put the case the same — ) 98 BROWNING If you get simple beauty and naught else, You get about the best thing God invents : That's somewhat: and you'll find the soul you have missed, Within yourself, when you return Him thanks. Fra Lippo Lippi — Fra Lippo Lippi What dost thou verily trip upon a word. Confound the accurate view of what joy is (Caught somewhat clearer by my eyes than thine) With feeling joy? confound the knowing how And showing how to live (my faculty) With actually living? — Otherwise Where is the artist's vantage o'er the king? Because in my great epos I display How divers men young, strong, fair, wise, can act — Is this as though I acted? if I paint, Carve the young Phoebus, am I therefore young? Methinks I'm older that I bowed myself The many years of pain that taught me art! Indeed, to know is something, and to prove How all this beauty might be enjoyed, is more : But, knowing naught, to enjoy is something too. Yon rower, with the moulded muscles there. Lowering the sail, is nearer it than I. I can write love-odes: thy fair slave's an ode. SELECTIONS 99 I get to sing of love, when grown too gray For being beloved: she turns to that young man, The muscles all a-ripple on his back. Cleon — Cleon I often am much wearier than you think This evening more than usual : and it seems As if — forgive now — should you let me sit Here by the window, with your hand in mine, And look a half hour forth on Fiesole, Both of one mind, as married people use, Quietly, quietly the evening through, I might get up to-morrow to my work Cheerful and fresh as ever. Let us try. To-morrow, how you shall be glad for this ! Your soft hand is a woman of itself. And mine, the man's bared breast she curls inside. Andrea del Sarto — Andrea del Sarto "Since I could die now of the truth concealed. Yet dare not, must not die— so seems revealed The Virgin's mind to me — for death means peace, Wherein no lawful part have I whose lease Of life and punishment the truth avowed May haply lengthen,— let me push the shroud Away, that steals to mufile ere is just My penance-fire in snow! I dare — I must 100 BROWNING Live, by avowal of the truth — this truth — I loved you ! Thanks for the fresh serpent's tooth That, by a prompt new pang more exquisite Than all preceding torture, proves me right! I loved you yet I lost you ! May I go Burn to the ashes, now my shame you know?" The Wife — A Forgiveness Who summoned those cold laces that begun To press on me and judge me? Though I stooped Shrinking as from the soldiery a nun, They drew me forth, and spite of me . . . enough ! These buy and sell our pictures, take and give. Count them for garniture and household stuff. And where they live needs must our picture live And see their faces, listen to their prate, Partakers of their daily pettiness. Discussed of, — "This I love, or this I hate, This likes me more, and this affects me less !" Wherefore I choose my portion. If at whiles My heart sinks, as monotonous I paint These endless cloisters and eternal isles With the same series. Virgin, Babe, and Saint, With the same cold, calm, beautiful regard, — At least no merchant traffics in my heart. Pictor Ignotus — Pictor Ignotus SELECTIONS loi But this does overwhelm me with surprise, Touch me to terror— not that faith, the pearl. Should be let lie by fishers wanting food,— Nor seen and handled by a certain few Critical and contemptuous, straight consigned To shore and shingle for the pebble it proves,— But that, when haply found and known and named By thy residue made rich for evermore, These,— these favored ones, should in a trice Turn, and with double zest go dredge for welks. Mud- worms that make the savory soup! The Pope — The Ring and the Book Then, Lady Blanche, it less would move In heart and soul of me disgust Did you strip off those spoils you wear. And stand— for thanks, not shillings— bare, To help Art like any Model there. She well knew what absolved her— praise In me for God's surpassing good. Who granted to my reverent gaze A type of purest womanhood. You — clothed with murder of His best Of harmless beings— stand the test! What is it you know? He — The Lady and the Painter 102 BROWNING If you loved only what were worth your love, Love were clear gain and wholly well for you: Make the low nature better by your throes ! Give earth yourself, go up for gain above. James Lee's Wife Little girl with the poor coarse hand I turned from to a cold clay cast — I have my lesson, understand The worth of flesh and blood at last. Nothing but beauty in a hand? Because he could not change the hue, Mend the lines and make them true To this which met his soul's demand, — Would Da Vinci turn from you? James Lee's Wife Life! Yet the very cup whose extreme dull Dregs, even, I would quaff, was dashed, at full, Aside so oft; the death I fly, revealed So oft a better life this life concealed. And which sage, champion, martyr, through each path Have hunted fearlessly — the horrid bath. The crippling-irons and the fiery chair. 'T was well for them ; let me become aware As they, and I relinquished life, too ! Let What masters life disclose itself ! Forget SELECTIONS 103 Vain ordinances, I have one appeal — I feel, am what I feel, know what I feel ; So much is truth to me. What Is, then? Since One object, viewed diversely, may evince Beauty and ugliness — this way attract. That way repel,— why gloze upon the fact? Why must a single of the sides be right? What bids choose this and leave the opposite? Where's abstract Right for me? — in youth endued With Right still present, still to be pursued, Thro' all the interchange of circles, rife Each with its proper law and mode of life, Each to be dwelt at ease in : where, to sway Absolute with the Kaiser, or obey Implicit with his serf of fluttering heart. Or, like a sudden thought of God's, to start Up, Brutus in the presence, then go shout That some should pick the unstrung jewels out — Each, well. Sordello — Sordello What my soul? See thus far and no farther? When doors great and small, Nine-and-ninety flew open at our touch, should the hundredth appall? In the least things have faith, yet distrust in the greatest of all? Do I find love so full in my nature God's ultimate gift. 104 BROWNING That I doubt His own love can compete with it? Here, the parts shift? Here, the creature surpass the Creator — the end, what began? Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all for this man, And dare doubt He alone shall not help him, who yet alone can? Would it ever have entered my mind, the bare will, much less power. To bestow on this Saul what I sang of, the marvelous dower Of the life he was gifted and filled with? to make such a soul. Such a body, and then such an earth for insphering the whole? David — Saul How plainly is true greatness charactered By such unconscious sport as Luria's here, Strength sharing least the secret of itself ! Be it with head that schemes or hand that acts. Such save the world which none but they could save, Yet think whatever they did, that world could do. Domizia — Liiria SELECTIONS 105 Now, I'll say something to remember. I trust in nature for the stable laws Of beauty and utility. — Spring shall plant. And Autumn gamer to the end of time : I trust in God — the right shall be the right And other than the wrong, while he endures : I trust in my own soul, that can perceive The outward and the inward, nature's good And God's : so, seeing these men and myself. Having a right to speak, thus do I speak. I'll not curse — God bears with them, well may I — But I — protest against their claiming me. I simply say, if that's allowable, I would not (broadly) do as they have done. Chiappino — A Soul's Tragedy What's poetry except a power that makes? And, speaking to one's sense, inspires the rest. Pressing them all into its service ; so That who sees painting, seems to hear as well The speech that's proper for the painted mouth ; And who hears music, feels his solitude Peopled at once — for how count heart-beats plain Unless a company, with hearts which beat, Come close to the musician, seen or no? And who receives true verse at eye or ear. Takes in (with verse) time, place, and person too, io6 BROWNING So, links each sense on to its sister-sense, Grace-like : and what if but one sense of three Front you at once? The sidelong pair conceive Through faintest touch of finest finger-tips, — Hear, see, and feel, in faith's simplicity. Alike, what one was sole recipient of : Who hears the poem, therefore, sees the play. Balaustion — Balaustion' s Adventure Our duty is to live one life, not two ! Balaustion — Balaustion' s Adventure For all, love greatens and glorifies Till God's a-glow to the loving eyes. In what was mere earth before. Jaijies Lee's Wife Was the trial sore? Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time! Why come temptation but for a man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot. And so be pedestaled in triumph. The Pope SELECTIONS 107 The moral sense grows but by exercise. 'Tis even as man grew probatively Initiated in Godship, set to make A fairer moral world than this he finds. Guess now what shall be known hereafter. The Pope Foolish Jules! and yet, after all, why foolish? He may — probably will, fail egregiously; but if there should arise a new painter, will it not be in some such way by a poet now, or a musician — spirits who have conceived and perfected an ideal through some other channel — transferring it to this, and escaping our con- ventional roads by pure ignorance of them. Monsignor — Pippa Passes He's gone. Oh ! I'll believe him every word ! I was so young, I loved him so, I had No mother, God forgot me, and I fell. There may be pardon yet; all's doubt beyond. Surely the bitterness of death is passed! _^.,^ , ^ ^ Mildred — A Blot in the 'Scutcheon 'Tis work for work's sake that man's needing: Let him work on and on as if speeding Work's end, but not dream of succeeding. Pacchiarotto — Pacchiarotto io8 BROWNING Saints to do us good Must be in heaven, I seem to understand. We never find them saints before at least. Caponsacchi — The Ring and the Book I talk impertinently, and you hear All the same. This it is to have to do With honest hearts : they easily may err, But in the main they wish well to truth. Caponsacchi — The Ring and the Book Man shrinks to naught If matched with symbols of immensity; Must quail, forsooth, before a quiet sky Or sea, too little for their quietude. Eglamor — S or del 1 Hans must not bum Kant's house above his head Because he Ceinnot understand Kant's book. And still less must his pastor bum Kant's self Because Kant understands some books too well. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau (Napoleon III) — Prince Hohcnstiel-Schzvangau SELECTIONS 109 Right promptly done is twice right : right delayed Turns wrong. Dominus Hyacinthus De Archangelis — The Ring and the Book There's heaven above, and night by night I look right through its gorgeous roof ; No suns and moons though e'er so bright Avail to stop me ; splendor-proof I keep the brood of stars aloof: For I intend to get to God, For 'tis to God I speed so fast. For in God's breast, my own abode. Those shoals of dazzling glory, passed, I lay my spirit down at last. Agricola — Johannes of Agricola in Meditation How inexhaustibly the spirit grows ! One object, she seemed erewhile bom to reach With her whole energies and die content, — So like a wall at the world's edge it stood. With naught beyond the world to live for, is that reached? Already are new undreamed energies Outgrowing under, and extending farther To a new object; there's another world. Domizia — Luria no BROWNING Let us not always say "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul." Rabbi Ben Ezra — Rabbi Ben Ezra For more is not reserved To man, with soul just nerved To act to-morrow what he learns to-day; Here, work enough to watch The Master work, and catch Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. Rabbi Ben Ezra — Rabbi Ben Ezra To Ancona — Greece — some isle! I wanted silence only ! there is clay Everywhere. One may do whatever one likes In art ; the only thing is, to make sure That one does like it — which takes pains to know. Scatter all this, my Phene — this mad dream! Who, what is Lutwyche, what Natalia's friends. What the whole world except our love — my own. Own Phene? But I told you, did I not. Ere ni^ht we travel for your land — some isle SELECTIONS in With the sea's silence on it? Stand aside— I do but break these paltry models up To begin art afresh. Jules — Pippa Passes There is no good of life but love, but love ! What else looks good is some shade flung from love- Love gilds it, gives it worth. The Queen — In a Balcony Because not one of Berthold's words and looks Had gone with love's presentment of a flower To the beloved; because bold confidence, Open superiority, free pride — Love owns not. Valence — Colomhes Birthday Hear Cleves! Whose haggard craftsman rose to starve this day, Starve now, and will lie down at night to starve, Sure of a like to-morrow — but as sure Of a most unlike to-morrow — after — that. Since end things must, end howsoe'er things may. What curbs the brute-force instinct in its hour? What makes — instead of rising, all as one. And teaching fingers, so expert to wield Their tool, the broadsword's play or carbine's trick— What makes that there's an easier help, they think. 112 BROWNING For you, whose name so few of them can spell, Whose face scarce one of them in every hundred saw- You simply have to understand their wrongs, And wrongs will vanish — so, still trades are plied, And swords lie rusting, and myself stand here? There is a vision in the heart of each Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness To wrong and pain, and knowledge of its cure; And these embodied in a woman's form That best transmits them, pure as first received. From God above her, to mankind below. Will you derive your rule from such a ground, Or rather hold it by the suffrage, say, Of this man — this — and this? Valence — Colomhe's Birthday I answered, "He will come." And, all day, I sent prayer like incense up To God the strong, God the beneficent, God ever mindful in all strife and strait. Who, for our own good, makes the need extreme. Till at the last he puts forth might and saves. Pompilia — The Ring and the Book SELECTIONS 113 Yet seems this patriotism The easiest virtue for a selfish man To acquire ! He loves himself, and next, the world — If he must love beyond — but naught between: As a short-sighted man sees naught midway His body and the sun above. Mother — Pip pa Passes Why, you must deal with people broadly. Begin at a distance from this matter and say, — New truths, old truths! sirs, there is nothing new possible to be re- vealed to us in the moral world ; we know all we shall ever know : and it is for simply reminding us, by their various respective expedients, how we do know this and the other matter, that men get called prophets, poets and the like. A philosopher's life is spent in dis- covering that, of the half-dozen truths he knew when a child, such an one is a lie, as the world states it in set terms; and then, after a weary lapse of years, and plenty of hard-thinking, it becomes a truth again after all, as he happens newly to consider it and view it in a different relation with the others: and so he re- states it, to the confusion of somebody else in good time. As for adding to the original stock of truths,— impossible! Thus, you see the expression of them is the grand business: — you have got a truth in your head about the right way of governing people, and you took a mode of expressing it which now you 114 BROWNING confess to be imperfect. But what then? There is truth in falsehood, falsehood in truth. No man ever told one great truth, that I know, without the help of a good dozen of lies at least, generally unconscious ones. Ogniben — A Soul's Tragedy Sure he's arrived, The tell-tale cuckoo — Spring's his confidant. And he lets out her April purposes!) Or — better go at once to modern time — He has — they have — in fact, I understand But can't restate the matter; that's my boast: Others could reason it out to you, and prove Things they have made me feel. Luigi — Pippa Passes "Your heart's queen, you dethrone her? So should I!" " 'twas mere vanity. Not love, set that task to humanity !" The King — TJie Glove Be sure they sleep not whom God needs. Paracelsus — Paracelsus SELECTIONS 115 "Yea, my King," I began, "thou dost well in rejecting mere comforts that spring From the mere mortal life held in common by man and by beasts: In our flesh grows the branch of this life, in our soul it bears fruit." David — Saul Keep but God's model safe, new men will rise, To take its mould, and other days to prove How great a good was Luria's glory. Tiburzio — Luria How dared I let expand the force Within me, till some out-soul, whose resource It grew for, should direct it? Every law Of life, its every fitness, every flaw. Must One determine whose corporeal shape Would be no other than the prime escape And revelation to me of a Will Orb-like o'ershrouded and inscrutable Above, save at the point which, I should know. Shone that myself, my powers, might overflow So far, so much; as now it signified Which earthly shape it henceforth chose my guide. Whose mortal lip selected to declare ii6 BROWNING Its oracles, what fleshly garb would wear —The first of intimations, whom to love ; The next, how love him. Palma — Sordello You have the fellow-craftsman's sympathy. There's none cares, like a fellow of the craft, For the all-unestimated sum of pains That go to a success the world can see; They praise then, but the best they never know — While you know! So, if envy mix with it. Hate even, still the bottom-praise of all. Whatever be the dregs, that drop's pure gold! — For nothing's like it; nothing else records Those daily, nightly drippings in the dark Of the heart's blood, the world lets drop away Forever — so, pure gold that praise must be! And I have yours, my soldier ! Luria — Luria How strange! Look at the woman here with the new soul. Like my own Psyche — fresh upon her lips Alit the visionary butterfly. Waiting my word to enter and make bright. Or flutter off and leave all blank as first. This body had no soul before, but slept Or stirred, was beauteous or ungainly, free SELECTIONS riy From taint or foul with stain, as outward things Fastened their image on its passiveness; Now, it will wake, feel, live — or die again ! Shall to produce form out of unshaped stuff Be art — and, further, to evoke a soul From form be nothing? This new soul is mine! Jules — Pippa Passes I am judged. There burns a truer light of God in them. In their vexed beating stuffed and stopped-up brain. Heart, or whatever else, than goes on to prompt This low-pulsed forthright craftsman's hand of mine. Their work drop groundward, but themselves I know Reach many a time a heaven that's shut to me, Enter and take their place there sure enough, Though they come back and cannot tell the world. My works are nearer heaven, but I sit here. Andrea del Sarto — Andrea del Sarto All service ranks the same with God : If now, as formerly he trod; Paradise, his presence fills Our earth, each only as God wills Can work — God's puppets, best and worst. Are we, there is no last nor first. Pippa — Pippa Passes ii8 BROWNING And doth it, not enter my mind (as my warm tears attest), These good things given, to go on, and give one more, the best? Ay, to save and redeem and restore him, maintain at the height This perfection, — succeed with life's dayspring, death's minute of night? Interpose at the difficult minute, snatch Saul the mis- take, Saul the failure, the ruin he seems now, — and bid him awake From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find himself set Clear and safe in new light and new life, — a new harmony yet To be run, and continued and ended — who knows? — or endure! The man taught enough by life's dream, of the rest to make sure; By the pain-throb, triumphantly winning intensified bliss, And the next world's reward and repose, by the strug- gles in this. David — Saul SELECTIONS 119 The year's at the Spring And day's at the morn ; Morning's at seven ; The hillside's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing ; The snail's on the thorn : God's in his heaven — Airs right with the world I Pippa — Pippa Passes In my own heart love had not been made wise To trace love's faint beginnings in mankind, To know even hate is but a mask of love's, To see a good in evil, and a hope In ill-success; to sympathize, be proud Of their half-reasons, faint aspirings, dim Struggles for truth, their poorest fallacies, Their prejudice and fears and cares and doubts; All with a touch of nobleness, despite Their error, upward tending all though weak. Like plants in mines which never saw the sun, But dream of him, and guess where he may be, And do their best to climb and get to him. All this I knew not, and I failed. Paracelsus — Paracelsus 120 BROWNING Whereat the hero, who was truth itself, Let out the smile again, repressed awhile Like fountain-brilliance one forbids to play. He did too many grandnesses, to note Much in the meaner things about his path : And stepping there, with face towards the sun, Stopped seldom to pluck weeds or ask their names. Therefore he took Admetos at the word: This trouble must not hinder any more A true heart from good will and pleasant ways. And so, the great arm, which had slain the snake, Strained his friend's head a moment in embrace On that broad breast beneath the lion's hide. Till the king's cheek winced at the thick rough gold; And then strode off, with who had care of him. To the remote guest-chamber: glad to give Poor flesh and blood their respite and relief In the interval 'twixt fight and fight again — All for the world's sake. Our eyes followed him, Be sure, till those mid-doors shut us outside. The king, too, watched great Herakles go off All faith, love, and obedience to a friend. Balaustion — Balanstion*s Adventure Let love trust friend, and love demand its like. Luria — Luria SELECTIONS I2i Faster and more fast. O'er night's brim day boils at last: Boils, pure gold, o'er the cloud-cup's brim Where spurting and suppressed it lay, For not a froth-flake touched the rim Of yonder gap in the solid grey Of the eastern cloud, an hour away; But forth one wavelet, then another, curled Till the whole sunrise, not to be suppressed. Rose, reddened, and its seething breast Flickered in bounds, grew gold, then overflowed the world. Pippa — Pippa Passes All regulated by the single care I' the last resort — that I made thoroughly serve The when and how, toiled where was need, reposed As resolutely at the proper point, Braved sorrow, courted joy, to just one end: Namely, that just the creature I was bound To be, I should become, nor thwart at all God's purpose in creation. I conceive No other duty possible to man, — Highest mind, lowest mind, — no other law By which to judge life failure or success: What folk called being saved or cast away! Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau (Napoleon III) — Prince Hohenstiel-Schwanzau 122 BROWNING All tnat IS at all Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure ; What entered into thee. That was, is, and shall be: Time's wheel runs back or stops; Potter and clay. Rabbi Ben Ezra — Rabbi Ben Ezra He recognized that for great minds i' the world There is no trial like the appropriate one Of leaving little minds their liberty Of littleness to blunder on through life. Now aiming at right ends by foolish means, Now, at absurd achievement through the aid Of good and wise endeavor — to acquiesce In folly's life-long privilege, though with power To do the little minds the good they need. Despite themselves, by just abolishing Their right to play the part and fill the place I' the scheme of things He schemed who made a like Great minds and little minds, saw use for each. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau (Napoleon III) — Prince Hohenstiel-Schzvangau When is man strong until he feels alone? Valence — Colombe's Birthday SELECTIONS 123 Say not "a small event!" Why "small"? Costs it more pain than this, ye call A "great event," should come to pass. Than that? Untv^ine one from the mass Of deeds which make up life, one deed Power shall fall short in or exceed 1 Pippa — Pippa Passes Overhead the treetops meet, Flowers and grass spring 'neath one's feet; There was naught above me, naught below, My childhood had not learned to know : For, what are the voices of birds — Ah, and of beasts, — but words, our words, Only so much more sweet? The knowledge of that with my life begun. But I had so near made out the sun. And counted your stars, the seven and one. Like the fingers of my hand : Nay, I could all but understand Wherefore through heaven the white moon ranges ; And just when out of her soft fifty changes No unfamiliar face might overlook me — Suddenly God took me. Pippa — Pippa Passes 124 BROWNING Conceded! In turn concede to me. Such things have been as a mutual flame Your soul's locked fast: but love for a key You might let it loose, till I grew the same In your eyes as in mine you stand! Strange plea. James Lee's Wife To learn not only by the comet's rush But a rose's birth, — not by the grandeur, God — But the comfort, Christ. Caponsacchi — The Ring and the Book God bless me ! I can pray no more to-night. No doubt, some way or other, hymns say right All service ranks the same with God — With God, whose puppets, best and zvorst, Are we: there is no last or first. Pippa — Pippa Passes BOOKS FOR REFERENCE BOOKS FOR REFERENCE Recommended by the NeziP York Browning Society Browning's England (Illustrated) Browning's Italy (Illustrated) Helen Archibald Clarke. The Baker & Taylor Co. Best in Browning, The Rev. James Mudge, D.D. Eaton & Mains. Browning, Man and Poet Elizabeth Luther Cary. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Browning Guide Book George Willis Cooke. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Browning: Biographical Notes, Appreciations and Selections, Pauline Leavens. The Alice Harriman Co. Elizabeth Barrett Brcv/ning Martha Foote Crov/. Eaton & Mains. Florence in the Poetry of the Brownings Anna Benneson McMahon. McCIurg & Co. Introduction to Study of Browning Arthur Symons. E. P. Button & Co. Introduction to the Study of Browning Hiram Corson, LL.D. Heath & Co. Interpretation, An (The Ring and the Book) Francis Bickford Hornblower, D.D. Little, Brown & Co. Bible in Browning, The Minnie Gresham Machen. Macmillan Co. Browning and Dogma Ethel M. Naish. Macmillan Co. Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher Henry Jones, LL.D. Macmillan Co. 127 128 BROWNING Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Edited by Frederic G. Kenyon. Macmillan Co. Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, Harper and Brothers. Life of Browning Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Macmillan Co. Poetry of Robert Browning, The Stopford A. Brooke, M.A. Crowell & Co. Pippa Passes (Illustrated) Margaret Armstrong. Dodd, Mead Co. Poems of Robert Browning (Everyman's Library). E. P. Button & Co. Poems of Robert Browning Edited by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke. Crowell & Co. Primer of Browning Edward Bedoe. E. P. Button & Co. Robert Browning. Essays and Thoughts John T. Nettleship. Charles Scribner's Sons. Robert Browning Edward Bowden. Button & Co. Robert Browning Charles H. Herford. Bodd, Mead Co. Robert Browning Personalia Edmond Gosse. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Robert Browning's Complete Works (Illustrated) Editions de luxe (Asolo), (Assisi), (Florentine). Introduction by Wm. Lyon Phelps. Fred Be Fau & Co. Vitality of Browning, The Thomas Marc Parrott. James Pott & Co. DEC 23 1S10