New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-02

with 4 ragged little square pamphlet
chin duodecimo plaQuette in brown
boards came five and twenty years
,ne letter Of which this is a copy;
10 Warwick Crescent,
".
March 16, 81.
,Iy dear Smalley, a.. cD,.o. pai,-
nv Cnide. of which ! spoke,-you VIII
,a:se To observe, II contains the very
i.t IN of "Sordello," and the whole OF
"Pinpa Passes: the puohcatlon ran on
tIpp",,e months longer. till the Editor
ior hat che could not devote enough
l2,lnU 70 the necessary business of editing
GO, .oxe the occasion of begging your
.D4ance of the fac-simile reprint or
o.. earliest poem-a single copy or whlch
NY so,c--costs nearly as much as the
hoie original edition cost myself. so
aoos the whirligg of time bring ABOUT
his revenges!
Ever truly yours,
ROBERT BROWNING.
~ tbe Chicago Railway Guide l sup
,,oso mine may he the only surviving
corv. so perishable are such things in
,toir nature: as were Aldines and FL
vovirs both meant for common use
When Browning gave II me there re-
,cained 10 him no other, piece of gen.
.rositv which was like him; and like
him also was ii to think it no gem
orosity. OF scarce books merely because
,hev were scarce he was no lover. In his
library we're many which he valued for
other reasons; as inberitances, as gifts
Or for associations. Those not reserved
Cor such reasons he more than once
o0ered me. Take what YOU will aud
ANYTHING you care for. since YOU care for
,are books as rare books" !, of course
could not accept, but plainly he meant
mo 10 accept In this as in other things
there vas about him largeness OF
. nature which one could not but admire,
whether or not one admired his poetry
and his theories of poetry; which IT was
and il possible not to admire. However,
nv aim is not primarily criticism, but
memories Upon his death / wrote a
critical estimate which was published in
fneSS tpluulllN' A'''ii e'A''' = 49, 800
man. who said;
You were very cold about Browning.
Not about Browning; possibly about
his poetry"
You have no right to he cold about
either
stedmsn himself mingled sometimes
with his criticism some OF the heat
which glowed in his verses. IT was in
his nature, and when he liked man for
himself he liked what the man did.
When We discussed Browning,s gifts and
methods I think we did not greatly diff
fer.
Browning himself lived his life with an
intensity which passed from life into his
jifes work. He could not do anything
tepidly Whatever he cared for he ideal
lied: whether personal or impersonal. ]
have read more or less Of what has been
said about him on the occasion of his
centenary; often wondering whether he
would have liked il or not. The kind of
tribute he most valued was, naturally,
that which came to him latest; wide,
though very far from universal. recog-
milton of his genius in literature. For
the moment 1 prefer the word literature
10 the word poetry, 1t requires, with
reference 10 Browning. fewer limitations.
J suppose most critics would agree that
poetry must be, whatever else it is
thing Of beauty. But the sense and sen
Iment OF beauty were in Browning only
occs sional In that respect, and in some
others. he was of spiritual kin to Sar-
gent the painter. Sargent renders with
p convincing masterfulness whatever he
wishes 70 render; beauty,-that is, the
beauty Of women,-eXcepted. TO the
range Of his art there is hardly any other
limit than that; apd sometimes, though
rarely. not that. And Brownings poetry
has, in the mass, almost every high po-
etc quality except beauty; except the
one thing essential; the one thing for
The want Of which no aggregation Of
other splendors can make up.
Yet II you go to Browning himself you
find beauty; you find a man who cannot
live without it; whose soul is full Of il !;
who in his best hours expresses It, re-
produces II, and conveys IL with fulness
10 his readers as in his actual life and
person he conveyed it; whenever ne
chose. No man wanting in this sense
could have loved Italy as he loved it. I
think he never doubted that tho spirit of
beauty which was in him passed from
himself TO others. He might have said,
as Whistler said of his pictures, that his
poem was complete when IT denoted the
intention of the artist. Men say now
that his work has, and is likely to have
a deeper and more permanent influence
upon English speaking people than that
Of either Tennyson or Matthew Arnold
IL that be true. and in so far as 1t is
uue, the influence lie due to the thought;
cue to the character Of the poet and to
The man himself. far more than TO tho
netrical form in which he chose TO ex-
press himself. His supremacy is not
sonal and spiritual
Or look at 1t in another way: Brown
ing thought his genius dramatic: be-
heved he possessed the secret Of ORA
matte structure and effect But now
comes Sir Arthur Pinero. who In all
matters Of construction and in true dra-
matte art is master, and tells us that
OF the drama and OF dramatic methods
Browning knew little or nothing. Brown
ing believed the gift of fiction. the
processes Of the novelist, the secret Of
story telling, TO be his. But Mr.. Henry
James, who in all the subtleties of the