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