The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1884-03-05
Gushing Over a Dead Snake.

1t is a fortunate thing for Jealous be-
levers in heredity that in most cases
men Of great genius have married women
of no genius at all, and vice versa for it
gives them an opportunity to charge all
the commonplace children of such mar
riages to the account to the common
place partner In the union. Perhaps
the most notable case the world has ever
known of the marriage of a man ard a
woman both Of commanding and splendid
genius was that Of Robert and Elizabeth
Barrett Browning. If, then, the only
child Ct this most exceptional marriage
had not been touched By the divine FIRE
it would have been q serious difficulty
for the apostles of heredity. Fortu-
nately, they have in young Robert Bar
rett Browning, a shining confirmation of
their theories, for he is certainly the fit
son Of his parents, though nature made
him an artist instead of a poet. One is
now accustomed to expect good work
from him as a painter but | was Ger
tainly not prepared for what | saw when
the door of his little studio, in The Latin
Quarter Of Paris, opened the other day
70 admit me.
IN that studio is a statue, before which
| stood delighted. Its subject is the
nymph Dryope wooed BY Apollo. Every
body remembers the story, in the My
thologies, Of Dryope-how Dryope, the
daughter OF King Dryops, passed much
Of her time with the Hamadryads, on
Mount Seta; aud how the great god
Apollo, saw and loved her. He first
presented himself to her 10 the form OF
a tortoise. She took him on her lap, but
he was SO beautiful a tortoise that all
the other nymphs gathered round to S e
him, which Was not at all what the ardent
god desired. He instantly turned him
| self, therefore, into the great serpent, the
Python, and coiled and clung around
Dryope, while all the others ran away.
1t is this moment on which young
Browning has seized. The girl stands
there, proud and graceful in her nude
beauty, while round her the Python
coils, rearing his head almost to the level
of her lips. Does she feel his divinity,
and tremble at the knowledge ofhis pow.
err? Her head is slightly thrown back
her proud eyes still refuse him, but her
full lips seem almost ready to be woD.
In one moment more you can see she will
have surrendered, heart and soul. 1t is
a most happily chosen instant. All ter
ror has been charmed away by dawning
love yet maiden pride still holds the
beautiful form erect, still shines from the
not quite consenting eyes. The figure is
freely and beautifully modelled the
Python is admirably studied but the ex-
preston of the girls face is the triumph
of the artist.
1t is an intensely realistic piece of work
quite in the spirit Of the modern French
school. Dryope is a study from the life.
In the studio | saw the model who had
stood for it. with the great, live snake
coiling around her, and her face was the
statues own. | asked if 1T was not almost
cruel to make her pose thus. snake en-
braced; but the sculptor assured ME
hat she was very fond of the serpent.
When she first saw him she was much
afraid, but Mr.. Browning did not ask
her to pose till he had kept his snake
ship in the studio for some time under
the charge Of a snake charmer, and the
| girl had become thoroughly accustomed
to him, and no longer shrank from his
strange embrace.
The snake himself was a veritable
Python, from Senegal, and had been res
ide1t for some time at the Antwerp
Museum of Natural History. He was a
creature of noble mind and gentle nature,
as benftted his high descent. Pythons
are not poisonous, but of the boa con-
>trictor type. and only kill their foes by
crushing them. The embrace of this
one might easily have been fatal, for he
was ten feet long and very large. But
he never SO much as frightened his coils
uncomfortably round the model, during
the weary hours and days in which she
stood with him entwined about her, while
the statue grew.
Mr.. Browning showed me the box
which was the Python's home when his
working hours were over. | say UaS,
for alas for art, this good apd kindly
snake is dead. He died during the
absence from Paris Of Adele, the model
and when she came back, and saw his
empty house, and was told Of his death,
she burst into tears for during their
| close association she had grown to love
him as if he had been a human friend.
Robt. Browning, pere, has visited Paris
to see the Dryope, aud IS SO much d.
lighted with it that he will have it put
into bronze; and we shall see it in that
enduring form next summer in London
| To,,e. H,,,Hon