The Temple Biographies
Edited by Dugald Macfadyen, M.A.
Robert Browning
Robert Browning,from a portrait in oil,for which he sat to R.W. Curtis at Venice 1880.
ROBERT BROWNING
BY
EDWARD DOWDEN
LITT.D., D.C.L., LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THEUNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN
1904LONDON: J.M. DENT & CO.NEW YORK; E.P. DUTTON & CO.
If I, too, should try and speak at times,
Leading your love to where my love, perchance,
Climbed earlier, found a nest before you knew,
Why, bear with the poor climber, for love's sake.
—Balaustion's Adventure.>
Editor's Preface
"In the case of those whom the public has learned tohonour and admire, there is a biography of the mind—thephrase is Mr Gladstone's—that is a matter ofdeep interest." In a life of Robert Browning it isespecially true that the biography we want is of thisnature, for its events are to be classed rather amongachievements of the human spirit than as objectiveincidents, and its interest depends only in a secondarysense on circumstance or movement in the public eye.The special function of the present book in the growinglibrary of Browning literature is to give such a biographyof Browning's mind, associating his poemswith their date and origin, as may throw some lighton his inward development. Browning has become tomany, in a measure which he could hardly have conceivedpossible himself, one of the authoritativeinterpreters of the spiritual factors in human life.His tonic optimism dissipates the grey atmosphere ofmaterialism, which has obscured the sunclad heightsof life as effectually as a fog. To see life throughBrowning's eyes is to see it shot through and throughwith spiritual issues, with a background of eternaldestiny; and to come appreciably nearer than thegeneral consciousness of our time to seeing it steadilyand seeing it whole. Those who prize his influenceknow how to value everything which throws light onthe path by which he reached his resolute and confidentoutlook.
It is almost possible to count on the fingers of onehand the few men who could successfully write a bookof this character and scope. The Editor believes that,in the present case, one of the very few has been foundwho had the qualifications required. Much of theapparent obscurity of Browning is due to his habit ofclimbing up a precipice of thought, and then kickingaway the ladder by which he climbed. Dr Dowdenhas with singular success readjusted the steps, so thatreaders may follow the poet's climb. Those who arenot daunted by the Paracelsus and Sordello chapter,where the subject requires some close and patientattention, will find vigorous narrative and pellucidexposition interwoven in such a way as to keep themin intimate and constantly closer touch with the"biography of Browning's mind."
D.M.
Preface
An attempt is