The Brownings Part 23

So let him wait G.o.d's instant men call years; Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul, Do out the duty!..."

In the entire range of Browning's heroines Pompilia is the most exalted and beautiful character.

CHAPTER X

1869-1880

"I am strong in the spirit, deep-thoughted, clear-eyed; I could walk, step for step, with an angel beside, On the heaven-heights of truth.

Oh, the soul keeps its youth

"'Twixt the heavens and the earth _can_ a poet despond?

O Life, O Beyond, Thou art strange, thou art sweet!"

IN SCOTLAND WITH THE STORYS--BROWNING'S CONVERSATION--AN AMUSING INCIDENT--WITH MILSAND AT ST. AUBIN'S--"RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY"--ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING'S GIFT FOR ART--ALFRED DOMETT ("WARING")--"BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE"--BROWNING AND TENNYSON-- "PACCHIAROTTO"--VISITS JOWETT AT OXFORD--DECLINES LORD RECTORs.h.i.+P OF ST. ANDREWS--"LA SAISIAZ"--ITALY REVISITED--THE DREAM OF ASOLO-- "IVANOVITCH"--PRIDE IN HIS SON'S SUCCESS--"DRAMATIC IDYLLS."

In the summer of 1869 the Storys, with their daughter, came from Rome and joined Browning with his sister and his son, for a holiday in Scotland.

They pa.s.sed some time at a little inn on Loch Achnault, where Lady Marian Alford also came, and there are still vivid reminiscences of picnic lunches on the heather, and of readings by the poet from "The Ring and the Book." Chapters from "Rob Roy" also contributed to the enjoyment of evenings when the three ladies of the party--Mrs. Story, Lady Marian, and the lovely young girl, Miss Edith Story--were glad to draw a little nearer to the blazing fire which, even in August, is not infrequently to be desired in Scotland. Lord Dufferin was also a friend of those days, and for the tower he had built at Clandeboye in the memory of his mother, Helen, Countess of Gifford, Browning wrote, soon after, his poem ent.i.tled "Helen's Tower." Mrs. Orr speaks of this poem as little known, and not included in his published works; but it is now to be found in all the complete editions of Browning. After this Arcadian sojourn Browning and his son, with Miss Browning, were the guests of Lady Ashburton at Loch Luichart Lodge.

For two or three years after the publication of "The Ring and the Book,"

Browning wrote little. The demands of friends and of an always enormous correspondence occupied much time; his son was growing into young manhood, and already manifesting his intense love of art, and his gifts as both painter and sculptor.

Browning's conversation was always fascinating. It was full of glancing allusion, wit, sparkle, and with that constant undertone of significance that may be serious or gay, but which always lingers with a certain impressiveness to haunt the mind of the listener. Dr. Hiram Corson, who may perhaps be regarded as Browning's greatest interpreter, speaks of one of his visits to the poet, in London, where the conversation turned from Sh.e.l.ley to Shakespeare. "He spoke with regret of the strangely limited reading of the Plays, even by those who believe themselves habitual and devoted readers," says Dr. Corson.

"At luncheon," continues Dr. Corson, "his talk was, as usual with him, rapid and off-hand. He gave but a _coup d'oeil_ to every subject that came up. In all subsequent talks with him, I never got the slightest impression from him of pride of intellect, though his was certainly one of the subtlest and most comprehensive intellects of his time. He was absolutely free from it; was saved from it by his spiritual vitality. His intellectual and his spiritual nature jointly operated. Nor did he ever show to me any pride of authors.h.i.+p; never made any independent allusion to his poetry. One might have supposed that his poetry, great and extensive as it was, was a parergon, a by-work, with him.

"I have no recollection of any saying of his, such as might be recorded for its wisdom or profundity. Never a brilliant thought crystallized in a single sentence. His talk was especially characterized by its cordiality and rapid flow. The 'member of society' and the poet seemed to be quite distinct.

"One day when Mrs. Corson and I were lunching with him in Warwick Crescent," said Dr. Corson, "he told us a most amusing incident. On that morning Browning was particularly 'an embodied joy.' He told several good stories, one of which showed that the enigmatical character attributed to his poetry by some of his critics was to him a good joke. I have no doubt he must have enjoyed the Douglas Jerrold story, that Jerrold, in endeavoring to read 'Sordello,' thought he had lost his mind.

"But to Browning's story. He said, 'I was visited by the Chinese minister and his attaches, without having been previously informed of their coming. Before they entered, I had noticed from my window a crowd in the street, which had been attracted by the celestials in their national rigs, who were just then getting out of their carriages, I not knowing then what manner of visitors I was to have.

Soon the interpreter announced at the drawing-room door, "His Excellency, the Chinese Minister and his attaches." As they entered, the interpreter presented them, individually, first, of course, his Excellency, the Minister, and then the rest in order of rank. It was quite an impressive occasion. Recovering myself, I said to the interpreter: "To what am I indebted for this great honor?" He replied: "You are a distinguished poet in your country, and so is his Excellency in his." We did obeisance to each other. I then asked the character of his Excellency's poetry. The interpreter replied, "Chiefly poetical enigmas." Grasping his Excellency's hand, I said, "I salute you as a brother."'

"Browning told this story while walking up and down the room. When he said, 'I salute you as a brother,' he made the motion of a most hearty hand-shake."

Mrs. Arthur Bronson, than whom Mr. Browning never had a more sympathetic and all-comprehending friend, said that if she tried to recall Robert Browning's words it was as though she had talked to a being apart from other men. "My feeling may seem exaggerated," she smiled, "but it was only natural, when considering my vivid sense of his moral and intellectual greatness. His talk was not abstruse and intricate, like some of his writings. Far from it. As a rule he seemed rather to avoid deep and serious subjects. There was no loss, for everything he chose to say was well said. A familiar story, grave or gay, when clothed with his words, and accentuated by his expressive gestures and the mobility of his countenance, had all the charm of novelty; while a comic anecdote from his lips sparkled with wit, born of his own keen sense of humor. I found in him that most rare combination of a powerful personality united to a nature tenderly sympathetic."

Another who knew him well perpetrated the _mot_ that "Tennyson hides behind his laurels, and Browning behind the man of the world." Henry James, whose gift of subtle a.n.a.lysis was never more felicitously revealed than in his expressions about Browning, declared that the poet had two personalities: one, the man of the world, who walked abroad, talked, did his duty; the other, the Poet,--"an inscrutable personage,--who sat at home and knew, as well he might, in what quarters of that sphere to look for suitable company. The poet and the man of the world were disa.s.sociated in him as they can rarely elsewhere have been."

For three or four summers after this sojourn in Scotland the Brownings were at St. Aubin, in Brittany, where they had a cottage "not two steps away" from that of his friend Milsand. In the early mornings Browning would be seen pacing the sands, reading from his little Greek copy of Homer; and in the late afternoons the two friends would stroll on the Normandy beach with their arms around each other's shoulders. They are described as very different in appearance,--Browning vigorous and buoyant, Milsand nervous, thin, reserved,--but akin in a certain delicate sensitiveness, a swift susceptibility to impressions. Of Browning Milsand said that what he really valued most was his kindness, his simple, open, radiant goodness. "All the chords of sympathy vibrated in his strong voice," added Milsand. The French critic was very fond of the poet's son, and in reference to him he once said: "The father has reason to be happy that in walking before he has opened a path for his son, instead of making him stumble." As has been seen, in Mrs. Browning's letters, she always shared her husband's enthusiasm for Milsand, and the latter had said that he felt in her "that s.h.i.+ning superiority always concealing itself under her unconscious goodness and lovely simplicity."

On Sundays at St. Aubin's, Browning frequently accompanied Milsand to the little chapel of Chateau-Blagny, for Protestant wors.h.i.+pers. From his cottage Browning could gaze across the bay to the lighthouse at Havre, and he "saw with a thrill" the spot where he once pa.s.sed a summer with his wife.

Italian recollections sometimes rose before his inner vision. To Isa Blagden, who had gone to Siena, he wrote that he could "see the fig-tree under which Ba sat, reading and writing, poor old Landor's oak opposite."

Of Milsand he wrote to a friend: "I never knew or shall know his like among men," and to Milsand, who had a.s.sisted him in some proof-reading, he wrote acknowledging his "invaluable a.s.sistance," and said:

"The fact is, in the case of a writer with my peculiarities and habits, somebody quite ignorant of what I may have meant to write, and only occupied with what is really written, ought to supervise the thing produced. I won't attempt to thank you, dearest friend.... The poem will reach you in about a fortnight. I look forward with all confidence and such delight to finding us all together again in the autumn. All love to your wife and daughter. R. B."

Milsand, writing of Browning in the _Revue_, revealed his high appreciation of the poet when he said: "Browning suggests a power even greater than his achievement. He speaks like a spirit who is able to do that which to past centuries has been almost impossible."

It was St. Aubin that furnished Browning with material for his poem, "Red Cotton Night-cap Country," the t.i.tle of which was suggested by Miss Thackeray (now Lady Ritchie) who had a cottage there one summer, near those of Browning and Milsand. Browning and his sister occupied one of the most primitive of cottages, but the location was beautiful, perched on the cliff of St. Aubin, and commanded a changeful panorama of sea and sky.

"The sitting-room door opened to the garden and the sea beyond--a fresh-swept bare floor, a table, three straw chairs, one book upon the table,--the only book he had with him. The bedrooms were as bare as the sitting-room, but there was a little dumb piano standing in a corner, on which he used to practice in the early morning. Mr. Browning declared they were perfectly satisfied with their little house; that his brains, squeezed as dry as a sponge, were only ready for fresh air."[12] As all Browning readers will remember, "Red Cotton Night-cap Country" is dedicated to Miss Thackeray.

In the succeeding autumn Browning pa.s.sed some weeks at Fontainebleau, where he was absorbed in reading aeschylus, and in making an especial study of the great dramatist. It was perhaps at this time that he conceived the idea of translating the Agamemnon, which, he says in his preface, "was commanded of me by my venerated friend Thomas Carlyle, and rewarded it will be if I am permitted to dignify it by the prefatory insertion of his dear and n.o.ble name."

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUST OF ROBERT BROWNING, BY HIS SON,

ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING.

In the possession of the sculptor at his villa near Florence.]

Before the close of this year Browning had also complied with a request from Tauchnitz to prepare for publication a selection from the poems of Mrs. Browning. This Tauchnitz Edition of Mrs. Browning will always retain its interest as representing her husband's favorites among her poems. "The Rhyme of the d.u.c.h.ess May," with its artistic symmetry and exquisite execution, was of course included. This poem may be said to exhibit all Mrs. Browning's poetic characteristics.

Encouraged by Millais, Robert Barrett Browning had seriously entered on the study of painting, his first master being M. Heyermans in Antwerp. In 1875 Frederick Lehmann had expressed high appreciation of a work of the young artist, the study of a monk absorbed in reading a book,--a picture that he liked so well as subsequently to purchase it. Another picture by Barrett Browning was ent.i.tled "The Armorer," and found a place in the Royal Academy of that year, and was purchased by a Member of Parliament who was also something of a connoisseur in art. In this season was inaugurated the annual "private view" of the paintings of the poet's son, which were exhibited in a house in Queen's Gate Gardens and attracted much attention. In his son's success Browning took great pride and pleasure. On the sale of the picture to the M. P., Browning wrote to Millais:

19, WARWICK CRESCENT, May 10, 1878.

MY BELOVED MILLAIS,--You will be gladdened in the kind heart of you to learn that Pen's picture has been bought by Mr. Fielder, a perfect stranger to both of us. You know what your share has been in his success, and it cannot but do a world of good to a young fellow whose fault was never that of being insensible to an obligation.

Ever Affectionately Yours,

ROBERT BROWNING.[13]

In 1871 Browning had been appointed Life Governor of the University of London, an honor that he particularly appreciated as indicating the interest of students in his poetry. In the late winter of 1872, after an absence of thirty years, Alfred Domett again appeared. He had vanished

"like a ghost at break of day,"

and like a ghost he returned, calling at once on his friend in Warwick Crescent. A letter from Miss Browning to Domett explains itself:

19, WARWICK CRESCENT,

UPPER WESTBOURNE TERRACE, Feb. 1872.

MY DEAR MR. DOMETT,--My brother was so sorry to miss you yesterday; he is a man of many engagements, and unfortunately is engaged every evening next week, or I would ask you to join our family dinner as soon as possible--but meanwhile, as he is impatient to see you, will you be very kind and come to lunch with us on Monday at one o'clock?

We shall be delighted to meet you. If you cannot come on Monday, name some other morning.