The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-05-24
CONCERNING BOOKS.
BY e. CAvAzzA.

Robert Browning. Personalia. By Ed
mund Gosse. Among the mass of literature
relative to Browning and his works, this
little monograph by Mr.. Gosse is distin-
guished for its verityIand value. The author
does not attempt exposition or comment, but
Is content to give an account, as simple as it
Is authoritative, of the main facts of Mr..
Browning's life. Beside the peculiarly SYM
pathetic qualities of the nature and the art
OF MIR. Gosse, which render him an ideal
biographer of poets, he had also the advan-
tage OF long neighborhood and friendship
with Mr.. Browning.
Ten years ago the Browning cultus had
not yet been proclaimed, and the details of
the poets life excited only a moderate de-
gree OF interest aud were generally un-
known or mis-stated. Mr.. Gosse had sew
eral times suggested to Mr.. Browning the
desirability of an authentic biography, but
the hint was not taken. In February. 1881.
however, annoyed by new fable purporting
to be his history, Mr.. Browning sent for Mr..
Gosse and expressed his willingness to COL
lAborate In biographical sketch, declaring
himself tired of this tangle of facts and fan
cies." Morning after morning, MI. Gosse
came to the study of Mr.. Browning, pro-
v,dad with list of nnas+io~s -ttsct ---~--
copiously answered by the poet as he paced
about his room. In this way was collected
mass of facts, anecdotes and opinions
afterward put into shape by Mr.. Gosse and
submitted to the revision of Mr.. Browning.
His judgment cancelled much that would
have been of great interest; but his biogra-
pher, of course, faithfully followed his in
structions and destroyed the rejected notes.
The article which resulted was printed in
the Century Magazine of December, 1881 !;
and now, republshed for the salts faction of
popular demand, forms the large part of
the volume of Personalia. The other essay
included. is record of the Personal Impress
sions received by Mr.. Gosse during his init
mate acquaintance with Mr.. Browning.
These are singularly sensitive and charac-
teristic, and narrated with the charm of per-
feet refinement and lack of self-conscious-
ness. 1t is easy to imagine Mr.. Browning In
his own study, with sole listener to his
talk that assumed 1.-THE volume and the tu-
mutt Of cascade. His voice rose to a
shout, sank to whisper. ran up and
down the gamut of conversational mel
ody," as he walked about his nearer, sin
front, behind, on this side, on that, weaving
magic circles. now with gesticulating arms
thrown high, now grovelling on the floor to
find some reference In a folio, talking all the
while, redundant turmoil of thoughts, fan
cies and "reminiscences flowing from those
generous lips" A still more beautiful
sketch is that of Browning in the Fellows
Garden of Trinity College, seated under a
tree, while ''the blue sky was cloudless
above, summer foliage hemmed us round in
green mist, a pink mountain of double
may in bloom rose in 'front.'" And the birds.
not afraid, came peering at the poet as he
talked OF his youth, his determination to be
poet and nothing else, the literary isolation
of his early and middle life, the mem cries of
his loves and hatreds and his years in Italy
when her sons were aiming to free her from
the rule of the stranger.
Mr.. Gosse has given fine tribute, COM
plete within its limits, to the memory of the
great poet lately dead; and these Personalia
will be found Indispensable to the student
and lover of the works of Robert Browning.
Boston: Houghton, Miffiin & Co. Port
land: Loring, Short & Harmon. Price, rs
cents.)
Poems. By John Hay. In this new edi-
ton OF Mr.. Hays verse, are included his
poems OF twenty years ago Little Brooches,
Jim Bludso, and the other Pike County bal
lads that won for him such immediate and
wide popularity. His Wanderlieder, written
somewhat later, are impressions of Europe.
an travel, strongly republican and humanita-
rian in tone. OF these Boudoir Prophecies
is extremely clever, and A Triumph of Order
Is sketch with the mingling of pathos and
rowdyism in which Mr.. Hay is SO fortunate.
MY Castle In Spain is purely ideal in fancy.
Under the subtitle New and Old are COL
lected various poems of more or less recent
date. Among these The Advance Guard is
vivid and imaginative; A Haunted Room is
a picturesque sonnet, delicately wrought ::
The Stirrup Cup has direct and sincere
note; A Dream Of Bric-a- Brac catalogues
comically museum of Japanese curios
Liberty is superb cry of alteration. In his
treatment of the elegiac OSTRICH. Mr.. HAYS
metrical art Is sometimes at fault; his ear
does not seem to distinguish the accentual
values upon which English limitations of an
tique metres must chiefly depend. A group
of translations from several modern Ian
guages concludes the volume. Boston:
Mifiin & Co.; Portland: Loring,
Short e. Harmon. Price $1.25).