New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-05-31
ROBERT BROWNING.
MRS. SUTHERLAND oRR'S LIFE"

LIFE AND s,l LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING; Or, ny
PIP. xii, e4s. Houghton, NlfHn q Co
Mrs. Orr begins her biography by referring to
two curious errors which found currency during
the lifetime of Robert Browning One was to the
effect that he had Jewish blood in his veins. Inc
other credited him with strain of African blood
The first legend is supposed TO have arisen from tne
interest he took in the Hebrew language anu
hterature-though it does not appear irom ''iS
chronicle that he learned Hebrew until ne was
well past middle age. The second story musV
have had origin in the fact that his grandfather
was planter in the West Indies For nei.ner
was there says Mrs. Orr, the least real founoation
Robert Brownings father. of whom an almost UNI
duly long account is given here was clerk In inc
Bank of England. Having some private means
and not liking his occupation, he retred from pusi
ness earlv and devoted himself to art and htera-
ture He collected a considerable hbrary-some
six thousand volumes--and he knew his own DOCKS
as few owners Of private Libraries do. This literary
bent he transmitted to his famous son, whose ecu
cation for the most part carried on at home under
tutors. was strongly influenced by free access to
the paternal books Brownings mother was ue'
clared by Carlyle to be the true type of Scottish
gcntlewoman'; but she Scotch only on the
maternal side her father having been Hamburg
German a shipowner named Wiedemann.
Mrs Browning was a delicate woman, and her
son inherited her physical frailty in part, though
he enjoyed fair health and was able to do great
deal of work. AS child he showed a strong feel'
ing for poetry, and begun to rhyme at very early
age 1t is said that when his head was little
higher than the table he used to walk round 1t.
improvising couplets as ne went, to the great
amusement Of those who heard him. So 1t may
truly be said of him that
ale lsp'd in numbers. for the numbers carne'
Mrs Orr has not been able to throw much light
upon the genesis Of that peculiar style which dis
tinguishes him from all other poets, ancient or
modern but she hazards the conjecture that 1T was
connected with some deficiencies in his educauon
and particularly with his neglect oil logic ana
mathematics. No doubt he was to considerable
extent sef-eduoated, and missed the advantages OIL
system in his intellectual training. On the other
hand, he probably derived more originality from
his fathers methods than he would have acquired
at school and college. AS boy he was fiery, i'm
patient capricious, but not, apparently, iona OF
boyish sports and recreations He chose his voca-
ton early and he had his fathers hearty approval
Of that choice-an almost unique circumstance in
the history of great poets. But BrowninSs career
was to be marked by greater peculiarities than
this He had no baptism of fire to undergo
Goethe's declaration that he who has not eaten
hardly earned bread moistened with tears knows
not the Heavenly Powers would have condemned
young Robert Browning fer he entered life July
equipped so far as material needs were concerned
His affiiction was to take quite another form,
and one through which no elevating experience
could come He was to find the public ear closed
to him. He was to see his poetry rejected not for
q day. but for whole generation He was TO
suffer that hope deferred which maketh the heart
sick Yet his failure to find welcome did not
lad Nh
the same experience, and was soured and emolt-
tered by it. Browning waited his quarter OF
century, and made no moan and showed no resent
ment II is true that even from the first-from the
publication Of Pauline" he had or two
stanch friends among English men of letters, and
that by degrees little circle Of admirers grew up
about him. B6t his books did not sell any The
more, and for years the only arrangement he could
make with the publishers was TO guarantee all the
expenses himself His first printed poem was I'M
deniably crude and young, and nothing else was TO
have been expected 1t had indications of power,
of course but it distinctly a youthful and
callow performance, and separated by wide In
terval of development though not of time from its
immediate successor Paracelsus. In the latter
remarkable poem the evidences of maturity were so
abundant that one Of his earliest appreciative
critics was inclined to think it the work of man
in middle age or the decline of life. Now here
was q clear proof that genius was at work. Tor III
is one of the attributes and distinguishing marks
of genius that it penetrates by what in our psy
Geological ignorance call intuition. TO truths
transcending the teachings Of experience. The
great creative artists, whether in prose or verse,
have all possessed this gift
"Paraoelsus" is a great poem, produced by
young man of twenty-five, and what heightens its
greatness is the striking originality of its thought
49, - Oil Cat
was utterly beyond the intellectual grasp of Brit
ish Philistinism, and Philistnism then controlled
the organs of criticism. 1t was not
until new generation had risen-a genera
alton permeated by the renaissance spirit of the
second half of the century, that Brownng's deeper
poetry came to be appreciated Previous to that
time few of his dramatic pieces had been well
received. THE Pied Piper of Hamelin," Mad
house Cells" "Dramats Personae," Cavalier
Songs and such like brisk and ringing verses.
could be understood without difficulty. Even
the plays were partly mastered. Mrs. Orr APP
pears to think that these really adapted to
the requirements of the stage, and some of them
have. been played with measure Of success.
But Browning, like Tennyson, was too much a
poet to make concessions TO the material needs
Of the acting drama. Macready undertook to put
"Straford" and "The Blot on the Scutcheon"
upon the stage, and but for his unfortunate
quarrel with Browning might have done we'll
with the latter. Not we'll according to modern
standards, for no run" could have been obtained
for either of those plays and probably it would
have been wiser not to seek for dramatic fame
In that way.
Notwithstanding disappointments which were
persistent Browning pursued the even tenor
of his way, and wrote and published stanchly
and steadily. If poet have il borne in upon
him that he has message for the world, it must
be hard for him to find that world turning deaf
ear TO him, and it must tend TO discourage him
If he is not strong TO labor and to wait. Brown
ing could do both happily, and he seems to have
derived from this period of courageous endurance
only certain indiferenceto criticism. This was