Robert Browning: How to Know Him. William Lyon Phelps

VII

       SAUL

       THE GUARDIAN-ANGEL

       CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS; OR, NATURAL THEOLOGY IN THE ISLAND

       RABBI BEN EZRA

       XIV

       XXXII

       ABT VOGLER

       PROSPICE

       APPARENT FAILURE

       REPHAN

       PROLOGUE

       EPILOGUE

       INDEX

      CHAPTER

      I THE MAN

      II BROWNING'S THEORY OF POETRY

      III LYRICS

      IV DRAMATIC LYRICS

      V DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES

      VI POEMS OF PARADOX

      VII BROWNING'S OPTIMISM

      INDEX

      LIST OF POEMS

       Table of Contents

      ABT VOGLER

      ANDREA DEL SARTO

      APPARENT FAILURE

      BAD DREAMS

      BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB, THE

      CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS

      CAVALIER TUNES

      "CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME"

      CONFESSIONS

      COUNT GISMOND

      CRISTINA

      EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO

      EPILOGUE TO FEFINE AT THE FAIR

      EPISTLE (AN) CONTAINING THE STRANGE MEDICAL EXPERIENCE OF KARSHISH

      EVELYN HOPE

      EYES CALM BESIDE THEE

      FACE, A

      GLOVE, THE

      GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL, A

      GUARDIAN-ANGEL, THE

      HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD

      HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA

      HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY

      "HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX"

      JAMES LEE'S WIFE (two stanzas from)

      JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION

      LABORATORY, THE

      LAST RIDE TOGETHER, THE

      LOST LEADER, THE

      LOST MISTRESS, THE

      LOVE AMONG THE RUINS

      MEETING AT NIGHT

      MY LAST DUCHESS

      MY STAR

      NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE

      ONE WAY OF LOVE

      ONE WORD MORE

      OVER THE SEA OUR GALLEYS WENT

      PARTING AT MORNING

      PORPHYRIA'S LOVER

      PROLOGUE TO ASOLANDO

      PROLOGUE TO JOCOSERIA

      PROLOGUE TO LA SAISIAZ

      PROLOGUE TO PACCHIAROTTO

      PROLOGUE TO THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC

      PROSPICE

      RABBI BEN EZRA

      REPHAN

      RESPECTABILITY

      SAUL

      SIBRANDUS SCHAFNABURGENSIS

      SOLILOQUY OF THE SPANISH CLOISTER

      SONG FROM A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON

      SONGS FROM PARACELSUS

      SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES

      STATUE (THE) AND THE BUST

      SUMMUM BONUM

      "TRANSCENDENTALISM"

      UP AT A VILLA—DOWN IN THE CITY

      WHICH?

      BROWNING

       Table of Contents

I

       Table of Contents

      THE MAN

      If we enter this world from some other state of existence, it seems certain that in the obscure pre-natal country, the power of free choice—so stormily debated by philosophers and theologians here—does not exist. Millions of earth's infants are handicapped at the start by having parents who lack health, money, brains, and character; and in many cases the environment is no better than the ancestry. "God plants us where we grow," said Pompilia, and we can not save the rose by placing it on the tree-top. Robert Browning, who was perhaps the happiest man in the nineteenth century, was particularly fortunate in his advent. Of the entire population of the planet in the year of grace 1812, he could hardly have selected a better father and mother than were chosen for him; and the place of his birth was just what it should have been, the biggest town on earth. All his life long he was emphatically a city man, dwelling in London, Florence, Paris, and Venice, never remaining long in rural surroundings.

      Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Southampton Street, Camberwell, London, a suburb on the southern side of the river. One hundred years later, as I traversed the length of this street, it looked squalid in the rain, and is indeed sufficiently unlovely. But in 1812 it was a good residential locality, and not far away were fresh woods and pastures. … The good health of Browning's father may be inferred from the fact that he lived to be eighty-four, "without a day's illness;" he was a practical, successful business man, an official in the Bank of England. His love of literature and the arts is proved by the fact that he practised them