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

‘If anybody wants small talk by handfuls, of glittering dust swept out of salons, here’s Mr. Thackeray besides! …’

Rome: March 29.

‘… We see a good deal of the Kembles here, and like them both, especially Fanny, who is looking magnificent still, with her black hair and radiant smile. A very noble creature indeed. Somewhat unelastic, unpliant to the age, attached to the old modes of thought and convention — but noble in qualities and defects. I like her much. She thinks me credulous and full of dreams — but does not despise me for that reason — which is good and tolerant of her, and pleasant too, for I should not be quite easy under her contempt. Mrs. Sartoris is genial and generous — her milk has had time to stand to cream in her happy family relations, which poor Fanny Kemble’s has not had. Mrs. Sartoris’ house has the best society in Rome — and exquisite music of course. We met Lockhart there, and my husband sees a good deal of him — more than I do — because of the access of cold weather lately which has kept me at home chiefly. Robert went down to the seaside, on a day’s excursion with him and the Sartorises — and I hear found favour in his sight. Said the critic, “I like Browning — he isn’t at all like a damned literary man.” That’s a compliment, I believe, according to your dictionary. It made me laugh and think of you directly… . Robert has been sitting for his picture to Mr. Fisher, the English artist who painted Mr. Kenyon and Landor. You remember those pictures in Mr. Kenyon’s house in London. Well, he has painted Robert’s, and it is an admirable likeness. The expression is an exceptional expression, but highly characteristic… .’

May 19.

‘… To leave Rome will fill me with barbarian complacency. I don’t pretend to have a ray of sentiment about Rome. It’s a palimpsest Rome, a watering-place written over the antique, and I haven’t taken to it as a poet should I suppose. And let us speak the truth above all things. I am strongly a creature of association, and the associations of the place have not been personally favourable to me. Among the rest, my child, the light of my eyes, has been more unwell than I ever saw him… . The pleasantest days in Rome we have spent with the Kembles, the two sisters, who are charming and excellent both of them, in different ways, and certainly they have given us some excellent hours in the Campagna, upon picnic excursions — they, and certain of their friends; for instance, M. Ampere, the member of the French Institute, who is witty and agreeable, M. Goltz, the Austrian minister, who is an agreeable man, and Mr. Lyons, the son of Sir Edmund, &c. The talk was almost too brilliant for the sentiment of the scenery, but it harmonized entirely with the mayonnaise and champagne… .’

It must have been on one of the excursions here described that an incident took place, which Mr. Browning relates with characteristic comments in a letter to Mrs. FitzGerald, of July 15, 1882. The picnic party had strolled away to some distant spot. Mrs. Browning was not strong enough to join them, and her husband, as a matter of course, stayed with her; which act of consideration prompted Mrs. Kemble to exclaim that he was the only man she had ever known who behaved like a Christian to his wife. She was, when he wrote this letter, reading his works for the first time, and had expressed admiration for them; but, he continued, none of the kind things she said to him on that subject could move him as did those words in the Campagna. Mrs. Kemble would have modified her statement in later years, for the sake of one English and one American husband now closely related to her. Even then, perhaps, she did not make it without inward reserve. But she will forgive me, I am sure, for having repeated it.

Mr. Browning also refers to her Memoirs, which he had just read, and says: ‘I saw her in those [I conclude earlier] days much oftener than is set down, but she scarcely noticed me; though I always liked her extremely.’

Another of Mrs. Browning’s letters is written from Florence, June 6 (‘54):

‘… We mean to stay at Florence a week or two longer and then go northward. I love Florence — the place looks exquisitely beautiful in its garden ground of vineyards and olive trees, sung round by the nightingales day and night… . If you take one thing with another, there is no place in the world like Florence, I am persuaded, for a place to live in — cheap, tranquil, cheerful, beautiful, within the limits of civilization yet out of the crush of it… . We have spent two delicious evenings at villas outside the gates, one with young Lytton, Sir Edward’s son, of whom I have told you, I think. I like him … we both do … from the bottom of our hearts. Then, our friend, Frederick Tennyson, the new poet, we are delighted to see again.

… . .

‘… Mrs. Sartoris has been here on her way to Rome, spending most of her time with us … singing passionately and talking eloquently. She is really charming… .’

I have no record of that northward journey or of the experiences of the winter of 1854-5. In all probability Mr. and Mrs. Browning remained in, or as near as possible to, Florence, since their income was still too limited for continuous travelling. They possibly talked of going to England, but postponed it till the following year; we know that they went there in 1855, taking his sister with them as they passed through Paris. They did not this time take lodgings for the summer months, but hired a house at 13 Dorset Street, Portman Square; and there, on September 27, Tennyson read his new poem, ‘Maud’, to Mrs. Browning, while Rossetti, the only other person present besides the family, privately drew his likeness in pen and ink. The likeness has become well known; the unconscious sitter must also, by this time, be acquainted with it; but Miss Browning thinks no one except herself, who was near Rossetti at the table, was at the moment aware of its being made. All eyes must have been turned towards Tennyson, seated by his hostess on the sofa. Miss Arabel Barrett was also of the party.

Some interesting words of Mrs. Browning’s carry their date in the allusion to Mr. Ruskin; but I cannot ascertain it more precisely:

‘We went to Denmark Hill yesterday to have luncheon with them, and see the Turners, which, by the way, are divine. I like Mr. Ruskin much, and so does Robert. Very gentle, yet earnest, — refined and truthful. I like him very much. We count him one among the valuable acquaintances made this year in England.’

Table of Contents

1855-1858

‘Men and Women’ — ’Karshook’ — ’Two in the Campagna’ — Winter in Paris; Lady Elgin — ’Aurora Leigh’ — Death of Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Barrett — Penini — Mrs. Browning’s Letters to Miss Browning — The Florentine Carnival — Baths of Lucca — Spiritualism — Mr. Kirkup; Count Ginnasi — Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Fox — Havre.

The beautiful ‘One Word More’ was dated from London in September; and the fifty poems gathered together under the title of ‘Men and Women’ were published before the close of the year, in two volumes, by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. *They are all familiar friends to Mr. Browning’s readers, in their first arrangement and appearance, as in later redistributions and reprints; but one curious little fact concerning them is perhaps not generally known. In the eighth line of the fourteenth section of ‘One Word More’ they were made to include ‘Karshook (Ben Karshook’s Wisdom)’, which never was placed amongst them. It was written in April 1854; and the dedication of the volume must have been, as it so easily might be, in existence, before the author decided to omit it. The wrong name, once given, was retained, I have no doubt, from preference for its terminal sound; and ‘Karshook’ only became ‘Karshish’ in the Tauchnitz copy of 1872, and in the English edition of 1889.