Contents

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

Ancestry—Parents—Boyhood—Influence of Shelley—Pauline

CHAPTER II

PARACELSUS AND SORDELLO

Visit to Russia—Paracelsus—His failures and attainments—Sordello, a companion poem—Its obscurity—Imaginative qualities—The history of a soul

CHAPTER III

THE MAKER OF PLAYS

New acquaintances—Hatcham—Macready—Strafford—Venice—Bells and Promegranates—A Blot on the 'Scutcheon—Characters of passion—Characters of intellect

CHAPTER IV

THE MAKER OF PLAYS—(continued)

Women of the dramas—Dramatic style—Pippa Passes—Dramatic Lyrics and Romances—Poems of Love and of Art

CHAPTER V

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

First letters to Miss Barrett—Meeting—Progress in friendship—Obstacles—Marriage

CHAPTER VI

EARLY YEARS IN ITALY

Correspondence of R.B. and E.B.B.—Journey to Italy—Pisa—Florence—Vallombrosa—Italian politics—Casa Guidi-Friends—Son born—Death of Browning's mother—Wanderings.

CHAPTER VII

CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY

Publication—Movements of Religious Thought—Dissent—Catholicism—Criticism—Difficulties of Christian life—Imaginative power of the poems—In Venice—Paris—England—Paris again—Coup d'état

CHAPTER VIII

FROM 1851 TO 1855

Essay on Shelley—New acquaintances—Milsand—George Sand—London—Casa Guidi—Spiritualism—Mr Sludge the Medium—Baths of Lucca—Rome—London—Tennyson's Maud

CHAPTER IX

MEN AND WOMEN

Rossetti's admiration—Beauty before teaching—The poet behind his poems—Isolated poems—Groups—Poems of love—Poems of Art—Poems of Religion

CHAPTER X

CLOSE OF MRS BROWNING'S LIFE

Paris—Kenyon's death—Legacies—Death of Mr Barrett—Winter in Florence—Havre—Rome—Louis Napoleon—Landor—Siena—Poems before Congress—Rome again—Modelling in Clay—Casa Guidi—Death of Mrs Browning

CHAPTER XI

LONDON: DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Desolation—Return to London—Pornic—Social life—Dramatis Personae—Poems of music—Poems of hope and aspiration—A Death in the Desert—Epilogue—Caliban upon Setebos—Poems of Love

CHAPTER XII

THE RING AND THE BOOK

Holiday excursions—Sainte Marie—Miss Barrett dies—Balliol College and Jowett—Origin of the Ring and the Book—Its Plan—The Persons—Count Guido—Pompilia—Caponsacchi—The Pope—Falsehood subserving truth

CHAPTER XIII

POEMS ON CLASSICAL SUBJECTS

Saint-Aubin—Milsand—Miss Thackeray—Hervé Riel—Miss Egerton-Smith—Summer wanderings—Balaustion's Adventure—Aristophanes' Apology—The Agamemnon

CHAPTER XIV

PROBLEM AND NARRATIVE POEMS

Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau—Fifine at the Fair—Red Cotton Night-Cap Country—The Inn Album—Pachiarotto and other Poems

CHAPTER XV

SOLITUDE AND SOCIETY

La Saisiaz—Immortality—Two Poets of Croisic—Browning in society—Daily habits—Browning as a talker—Italy—Asolo—Mountain retreats—Mrs Bronson—Venice

CHAPTER XVI

POET AND TEACHER IN OLD AGE

Popularity—Browning Society—Public honours—Dramatic Idyls—Spirit of acquiescence—Jocoseria—Ferishtah's Fancies

CHAPTER XVII

CLOSING WORKS AND DAYS

Parleyings—Asolando—Mrs Bronson—At Asolo—Venice—Death—Place in nineteenth-century poetry