Robert Browning - The Complete Works of Robert Browning - Poems, Plays, Letters & Biographies in One Edition

*Mr. Fox reviewed ‘Strafford’ in the ‘True Sun’.

A second letter, undated, but evidently written a day or two later, refers to the promised notice, which had then appeared.

Tuesday Night.

No words can express my feelings: I happen to be much annoyed and unwell — but your most generous notice has almost made ‘my soul well and happy now.’

I thank you, my most kind, most constant friend, from my heart for your goodness — which is brave enough, just now. I am ever and increasingly yours, Robert Browning.

You will be glad to see me on the earliest occasion, will you not? I shall certainly come.

A letter from Miss Flower to Miss Sarah Fox (sister to the Rev. William Fox), at Norwich, contains the following passage, which evidently continues a chapter of London news:

‘Then ‘Strafford’; were you not pleased to hear of the success of one you must, I think, remember a very little boy, years ago. If not, you have often heard us speak of Robert Browning: and it is a great deal to have accomplished a successful tragedy, although he seems a good deal annoyed at the go of things behind the scenes, and declares he will never write a play again, as long as he lives. You have no idea of the ignorance and obstinacy of the whole set, with here and there an exception; think of his having to write out the meaning of the word ‘impeachment’, as some of them thought it meant ‘poaching’.’

On the first night, indeed, the fate of ‘Strafford’ hung in the balance; it was saved by Macready and Miss Helen Faucit. After this they must have been better supported, as it was received on the second night with enthusiasm by a full house. The catastrophe came after the fifth performance, with the desertion of the actor who had sustained the part of Pym. We cannot now judge whether, even under favourable circumstances, the play would have had as long a run as was intended; but the casting vote in favour of this view is given by the conduct of Mr. Osbaldistone, the manager, when it was submitted to him. The diary says, March 30, that he caught at it with avidity, and agreed to produce it without delay. The terms he offered to the author must also have been considered favourable in those days.

The play was published in April by Longman, this time not at the author’s expense; but it brought no return either to him or to his publisher. It was dedicated ‘in all affectionate admiration’ to William C. Macready.

We gain some personal glimpses of the Browning of 1835-6; one especially through Mrs. Bridell-Fox, who thus describes her first meeting with him:

‘I remember … when Mr. Browning entered the drawing-room, with a quick light step; and on hearing from me that my father was out, and in fact that nobody was at home but myself, he said: “It’s my birthday to-day; I’ll wait till they come in,” and sitting down to the piano, he added: “If it won’t disturb you, I’ll play till they do.” And as he turned to the instrument, the bells of some neighbouring church suddenly burst out with a frantic merry peal. It seemed, to my childish fancy, as if in response to the remark that it was his birthday. He was then slim and dark, and very handsome; and — may I hint it — just a trifle of a dandy, addicted to lemon-coloured kid-gloves and such things: quite “the glass of fashion and the mould of form.” But full of ambition, eager for success, eager for fame, and, what’s more, determined to conquer fame and to achieve success.’

I do not think his memory ever taxed him with foppishness, though he may have had the innocent personal vanity of an attractive young man at his first period of much seeing and being seen; but all we know of him at that time bears out the impression Mrs. Fox conveys, of a joyous, artless confidence in himself and in life, easily depressed, but quickly reasserting itself; and in which the eagerness for new experiences had freed itself from the rebellious impatience of boyish days. The self-confidence had its touches of flippancy and conceit; but on this side it must have been constantly counteracted by his gratitude for kindness, and by his enthusiastic appreciation of the merits of other men. His powers of feeling, indeed, greatly expended themselves in this way. He was very attractive to women and, as we have seen, warmly loved by very various types of men; but, except in its poetic sense, his emotional nature was by no means then in the ascendant: a fact difficult to realize when we remember the passion of his childhood’s love for mother and home, and the new and deep capabilities of affection to be developed in future days. The poet’s soul in him was feeling its wings; the realities of life had not yet begun to weight them.

We see him again at the ‘Ion’ supper, in the grace and modesty with which he received the honours then adjudged to him. The testimony has been said to come from Miss Mitford, but may easily have been supplied by Miss Haworth, who was also present on this occasion.

Mr. Browning’s impulse towards play-writing had not, as we have seen, begun with ‘Strafford’. It was still very far from being exhausted. And though he had struck out for himself another line of dramatic activity, his love for the higher theatrical life, and the legitimate inducements of the more lucrative and not necessarily less noble form of composition, might ultimately in some degree have prevailed with him if circumstances had been such as to educate his theatrical capabilities, and to reward them. His first acted drama was, however, an interlude to the production of the important group of poems which was to be completed by ‘Sordello’; and he alludes to this later work in an also discarded preface to ‘Strafford’, as one on which he had for some time been engaged. He even characterizes the Tragedy as an attempt ‘to freshen a jaded mind by diverting it to the healthy natures of a grand epoch.’ ‘Sordello’ again occupied him during the remainder of 1837 and the beginning of 1838; and by the spring of this year he must have been thankful to vary the scene and mode of his labours by means of a first visit to Italy. He announces his impending journey, with its immediate plan and purpose, in the following note:

To John Robertson, Esq.

Good Friday, 1838.

Dear Sir, — I was not fortunate enough to find you the day before yesterday — and must tell you very hurriedly that I sail this morning for Venice — intending to finish my poem among the scenes it describes. I shall have your good wishes I know. Believe me, in return, Dear sir, Yours faithfully and obliged, Robert Browning.

Mr. John Robertson had influence with the ‘Westminster Review’, either as editor, or member of its staff. He had been introduced to Mr. Browning by Miss Martineau; and, being a great admirer of ‘Paracelsus’, had promised careful attention for ‘Sordello’; but, when the time approached, he made conditions of early reading, &c., which Mr. Browning thought so unfair towards other magazines that he refused to fulfil them. He lost his review, and the goodwill of its intending writer; and even Miss Martineau was ever afterwards cooler towards him, though his attitude in the matter had been in some degree prompted by a chivalrous partisanship for her.

Table of Contents

1838-1841

First Italian Journey — Letters to Miss Haworth — Mr. John Kenyon — ’Sordello’ — Letter to Miss Flower — ’Pippa Passes’ — ’Bells and Pomegranates’.

Mr. Browning sailed from London with Captain Davidson of the ‘Norham Castle’, a merchant vessel bound for Trieste, on which he found himself the only passenger. A striking experience of the voyage, and some characteristic personal details, are given in the following letter to Miss Haworth. It is dated 1838, and was probably written before that year’s summer had closed.