ROBERT BROWNING.

501. Originality.- Robert Browning was strikingly original in his poetry and paid the penalty of originality. He developed a new vein in English literature; he set himself to explore the mysterious workings of the soul. He descended to greater depths than our poetical literature had before reached. Finding the conventional style of poetry unsuited to his purpose, he invented new forms. He devised the dramatic monologue, in which various states of the soul, in relation to outward circumstances, are powerfully portrayed. But this departure from conventional form did not at once find popular favor. Indeed, the public seemed for a time to resent this innovation; and so, like many other great original characters, he was slow in gaining recognition. Almost a half century of abundant labors elapsed before he reached what not a few regard as a foremost place among English poets.

502. Parentage.- Robert Browning was born at Camberwell, a suburb of London, May 7, 1812. His father was a man of vigorous constitution and scholarly taste; and for rare books he had, it is said, "the scent of a hound and the snap of a bulldog." With a passion for reading, he was strangely indifferent to what are known as creature comforts"; and his daughter declared that the announcement "There will be no dinner today," would only have elicited the placid reply, “All right, my dear, it is of no consequence." Browning's mother was described by Carlyle as "the true type of a Scottish gentlewoman"; and another said that she had no need to go to heaven, because she made it wherever she was. But she transmitted to her son a nervous constitution which, however helpful to his poetic sensibilities, added to his physical discomfort in the latter years of his life.

503. Period of Unrest.- His youthful period was one of

singular unrest. For a time he passed under the influence of Shelley and imbibed some of the radical tenets of "Queen Mab." Instead of attending one of the great public schools, he studied at home under private instructors. He acquired a good knowledge of French, and enriched his store of information by copious miscellaneous reading. For a short time he attended London University, but omitted logic and mathematics from his course of study. He gave himself seriously to the study of music, in which, as is apparent from his works, he made unusual attainments. In his eighteenth year he determined to adopt poetry as his vocation, a choice which was willingly acquiesced in by his father. As a preliminary step to this calling, he read and digested the whole of Johnson's "Dictionary" a fact that in a measure explains his almost unequalled mastery of the resources of our language.

504. "Pauline."-In 1833 Browning published his first poem "Pauline." Though in after years he spoke of it slightingly, it was a remarkable production for a young man who had not yet attained his majority. To a few discerning readers, among them John Stuart Mill, it gave promise of great things. Both in its melody and imagery it contains a perceptible echo of Shelley; but at the same time it reveals not a few of the author's distinguishing characteristics. The poem at first appeared anonymously; and it is a remarkable tribute to its excellence that D. G. Rossetti, meeting with it the first time in the British Museum, made a full copy of it. The poem is largely autobiographical and contains many fine passages.

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505. Paracelsus."-In 1835 he published his poem “Paracelsus," which shows a marked advance in maturity of thought and style as compared with "Pauline." It is a free, imaginative treatment of the historic Paracelsus, who flourished as a famous alchemist and physician at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Somewhat like Goethe's "Faust," the poem presents to us the eager aspirations, the daring efforts, and the ultimate failure of a soul in the pursuit of superhuman knowledge. In the preface to the first edition, the author states the fundamental principle of his dramatic pieces. "Instead of having recourse," he says, "to an external machinery of incidents

to create and evolve the crisis I desire to produce, I have ventured to display somewhat minutely the mood itself in its rise and progress, and have suffered the agency by which it is influenced and determined, to be generally discernible in its effects alone, and subordinate throughout, if not altogether excluded." This principle is so pervasive in Browning's poetry that it should be clearly understood.

506. "Sordello." In 1840 appeared "Sordello," a poem of six thousand lines, on which the poet had been working for several years. It illustrates his fondness for medieval themes; and though he made elaborate researches to furnish him a background, the principal interest of the poem is in the development of soul life. It presents Browning's peculiarities - his psychological analysis, his rapid movement of thought, and his sudden transitions in their most exaggerated form. It is obscure to an unsual degree and never can be popular beyond a very narrow circle. It has been variously judged by distinguished critics. Stedman pronounces it a fault throughout an unattractive prodigy," while Gosse professes to be able to "find a thousand reasons why 'Sordello' ought to be one of the most readable of books." The great majority of readers will agree with Stedman, and regret that the author's attempt to rewrite it in a more intelligible manner was a failure.

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507. Bells and Pomegranates."- With "Sordello" the poet completed the first stage of his development. Up to this time his work had been a reflection of his own experience. In some measure Paracelsus" and "Sordello " stood for Browning. But with the "Bells and Pomegranates" series, which appeared between 1841 and 1846, he entered into a broader sympathy with human life. He outgrew the trammels of self. "Bells and Pomegranates," a title signifying an alternation of poetry with thought, contains some of his choicest productions. The first of the series is the beautiful drama of "Pippa Passes," which consists of four scenes, with prologue, interludes, and epilogue. Its heroine is "a little black-eyed, pretty, singing Felippa, gay silk-winding girl," whose artless singing on a holi