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112-465: Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets . He was noted for irony , characterization , dark humour , social commentary , historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax . His early long poems Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for

224-753: A Liberal , supported the emancipation of women, and opposed slavery, expressing sympathy for the North in the American Civil War . Later in life, he even championed animal rights in several poems attacking vivisection. He was also a stalwart opponent of anti-Semitism, leading to speculation that Browning himself was Jewish. In 1877 he wrote a poem explaining "Why I am a Liberal" in which he declared: "Who then dares hold – emancipated thus / His fellow shall continue bound? Not I." Critical attention to Browning's politics has, in general, been sparse. Isobel Armstrong 's writing on dramatic monologues, as well as more recent work on

336-422: A paling fence with gunpowder. In 1804, Shelley entered Eton College , a period which he later recalled with loathing. He was subjected to particularly severe mob bullying which the perpetrators called "Shelley-baits". A number of biographers and contemporaries have attributed the bullying to Shelley's aloofness, nonconformity and refusal to take part in fagging . His peculiarities and violent rages earned him

448-478: A tour de force of dramatic poetry. Published in four parts from November 1868 to February 1869, the poem was a success both commercially and critically, and finally brought Browning the renown he had sought for nearly 40 years. The Robert Browning Society was formed in 1881 and his work was recognised as belonging within the British literary canon. In the remaining years of his life Browning travelled extensively. After

560-427: A Christian". Poems such as "Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day" seem to confirm this Christian faith, strengthened by his wife. However, many have dismissed the usefulness of these works at discovering Browning's own religious views due to the consistent use of dramatic monologue which regularly expresses hypothetical views which cannot be ascribed to the author himself. Now, don't, sir! Don't expose me! Just this once! This

672-469: A French revolutionary émigré and hosted a salon where Shelley was able to discuss politics, philosophy and vegetarianism. Mrs. Boinville became a confidante of Shelley during his marital crisis. During a breakdown, Shelley moved into Mrs. Boinville's home outside London. In February and March 1814, he became infatuated with her married daughter, Cornelia Turner, age eighteen, and wrote erotic poetry about her in his notebook. Following Ianthe's birth,

784-483: A Spanish Cloister . Ian Jack , in his introduction to the Oxford University Press edition of Browning's poems 1833–1864, comments that Thomas Hardy , Rudyard Kipling , Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot "all learned from Browning's exploration of the possibilities of dramatic poetry and of colloquial idiom". In Oscar Wilde's dialogue The Critic as Artist , Browning is given a famously ironical assessment: "He

896-489: A boating accident in 1822 at age 29. Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at Field Place , Warnham , Sussex , England. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley , 2nd Baronet of Castle Goring (1753–1844), a Whig Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1790 to 1792 and for Shoreham between 1806 and 1812, and his wife, Elizabeth Pilfold (1763–1846), the daughter of a successful butcher. He had four younger sisters and one much younger brother. Shelley's early childhood

1008-493: A brief visit to St Petersburg and began Paracelsus , which was published in 1835. The subject of the 16th-century savant and alchemist was probably suggested to him by the Comte Amédée de Ripart-Monclar, to whom it was dedicated. The publication had some commercial and critical success, being noticed by Wordsworth , Dickens , Landor , J. S. Mill and the already famous Tennyson . It is a monodrama without action, dealing with

1120-537: A communal household where all property would be shared. The Shelleys and Eliza spent December and January in Keswick where Shelley visited Robert Southey whose poetry he admired. Southey was taken with Shelley, even though there was a wide gulf between them politically, and predicted great things for him as a poet. Southey also informed Shelley that William Godwin , author of Political Justice , which had greatly influenced him in his youth, and which Shelley also admired,

1232-558: A daughter, Clara Everina Shelley. Soon after, Shelley left for London with Claire, which increased Mary's resentment towards her stepsister. Shelley was arrested for two days in London over money he owed, and attorneys visited Mary in Marlowe over Shelley's debts. Shelley took part in the literary and political circle that surrounded Leigh Hunt , and during this period he met William Hazlitt and John Keats . Shelley's major work during this time

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1344-548: A delusional episode triggered by stress. This was the first of a series of episodes in subsequent years where Shelley claimed to have been attacked by strangers during periods of personal crisis. Early in 1812, Shelley wrote, published and with Harriet personally distributed in Dublin three political tracts: An Address, to the Irish People; Proposals for an Association of Philanthropists; and Declaration of Rights . He also delivered

1456-469: A falling-out with his father. In late December 1810, Shelley had met Harriet Westbrook, a pupil at the same boarding school as Shelley's sisters. They corresponded frequently that winter and also after Shelley had been expelled from Oxford. Shelley expounded his radical ideas on politics, religion and marriage to Harriet, and they gradually convinced each other that she was oppressed by her father and at school. Shelley's infatuation with Harriet developed in

1568-468: A financial settlement with his father. On 23 June Harriet gave birth to a girl, Eliza Ianthe Shelley (known as Ianthe), and in the following months the relationship between Shelley and his wife deteriorated. Shelley resented the influence Harriet's sister had over her while Harriet was alienated from Shelley by his close friendship with an attractive widow, Mrs. Harriet de Boinville . Mrs. Boinville had married

1680-537: A formal career and ignored his parents' remonstrations by dedicating himself to poetry. He stayed at home until the age of 34, financially dependent on his family until his marriage. His father sponsored the publication of his son's poems. Some one shall somehow run a muck With this old world, for want of strife Sound asleep: contrive, contrive To rouse us, Waring! Who's alive? Our men scarce seem in earnest now: Distinguished names!—but 'tis, somehow, As if they played at being names Still more distinguished, like

1792-512: A further decline in Shelley's health and deepened Mary's depression. On 4 August she wrote: "We have now lived five years together; and if all the events of the five years were blotted out, I might be happy". Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! Drive my dead thoughts over

1904-546: A loan of £3,000 but had left most of the funds at the disposal of Godwin and Harriet, who was again pregnant. The financial arrangement with Godwin led to rumours that he had sold his daughters to Shelley. Shelley, Mary and Claire made their way across war-ravaged France where Shelley wrote to Harriet, asking her to meet them in Switzerland with the money he had left for her. Hearing nothing from Harriet in Switzerland, and unable to secure sufficient funds or suitable accommodation,

2016-558: A long period of depression and emotional estrangement from Shelley. The Shelleys moved to Naples on 1 December, where they stayed for three months. During this period Shelley was ill, depressed and almost suicidal: a state of mind reflected in his poem "Stanzas written in Dejection – December 1818, Near Naples". While in Naples, Shelley registered the birth and baptism of a baby girl, Elena Adelaide Shelley (born 27 December), naming himself as

2128-585: A long poem in heroic couplets, presented as the imaginary biography of the Mantuan bard spoken of by Dante in the Divine Comedy , canto 6 of Purgatory, set against a background of hate and conflict during the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines . This was published in 1840 and met with widespread derision, gaining him the reputation of wanton carelessness and obscurity. Tennyson, jokingly, commented that he only understood

2240-468: A lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem." Shelley's reputation fluctuated during the 20th century, but since the 1960s he has achieved increasing critical acclaim for the sweeping momentum of his poetic imagery, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist, and materialist ideas in his work. Among his best-known works are " Ozymandias " (1818), " Ode to

2352-671: A musical setting of Prospice in 1894 for baritone and string quartet. Stephen Banfield rates it highly among musical settings of Browning, calling it "one of his few very powerful compositions". It has been recorded by Martin Oxenham and the Bingham String Quartet. In 1914, the American modernist composer Charles Ives created the Robert Browning Overture , a dense and darkly dramatic piece with gloomy overtones reminiscent of

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2464-748: A prolonged legal battle, the Court of Chancery eventually awarded custody of Shelley and Harriet's children to foster parents, on the grounds that Shelley had abandoned his first wife for Mary without cause and was an atheist. In March 1817 the Shelleys moved to the village of Marlow, Buckinghamshire , where Shelley's friend Thomas Love Peacock lived. The Shelley household included Claire and her baby Allegra, both of whose presence Mary resented. Shelley's generosity with money and increasing debts also led to financial and marital stress, as did Godwin's frequent requests for financial help. On 2 September Mary gave birth to

2576-539: A quantity of essays on political, social, and philosophical issues. Much of this poetry and prose was not published in his lifetime, or only published in expurgated form, due to the risk of prosecution for political and religious libel. From the 1820s, his poems and political and ethical writings became popular in Owenist , Chartist , and radical political circles, and later drew admirers as diverse as Karl Marx , Mahatma Gandhi , and George Bernard Shaw . Shelley's life

2688-452: A reputation as a classical scholar and a tolerated eccentric. In his last term at Eton, his first novel Zastrozzi appeared and he had established a following among his fellow pupils. Prior to enrolling for University College, Oxford , in October 1810, Shelley completed Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire (written with his sister Elizabeth), the verse melodrama The Wandering Jew and

2800-469: A scathing review of the Revolt of Islam (and its earlier version Laon and Cythna ) in the conservative Quarterly Review . Shelley was angered by the personal attack on him in the article which he erroneously believed had been written by Southey. His bitterness over the review lasted for the rest of his life. On 12 November, Mary gave birth to a boy, Percy Florence Shelley . Around the time of Percy's birth,

2912-591: A series of long poems published in the early 1870s, of which Balaustion's Adventure and Red Cotton Night-Cap Country were the best-received, the volume Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper included an attack against Browning's critics, especially Alfred Austin , who was later to become Poet Laureate . According to some reports Browning became romantically involved with Louisa Caroline Stewart-Mackenzie , Lady Ashburton, but he refused her proposal of marriage, and did not remarry. In 1878, he revisited Italy for

3024-612: A speech at a meeting of O'Connell's Catholic Committee in which he called for Catholic emancipation , repeal of the Acts of Union and an end to the oppression of the Irish poor. Reports of Shelley's subversive activities were sent to the Home Secretary . Returning from Ireland, the Shelley household travelled to Wales, then Devon, where they again came under government surveillance for distributing subversive literature. Elizabeth Hitchener joined

3136-451: A spirit face materialized, which Home claimed was Browning's son who had died in infancy: Browning seized the "materialization" and discovered it to be Home's bare foot. To make the deception worse, Browning had never lost a son in infancy. After the séance, Browning wrote an angry letter to The Times , in which he said: "the whole display of hands, spirit utterances etc., was a cheat and imposture." In 1902 Browning's son Pen wrote: "Home

3248-405: A time – his 1840 poem Sordello was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to a more personal style. In 1846, he married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. By her death in 1861, he had published the collection Men and Women (1855). His Dramatis Personae (1864) and book-length epic poem The Ring and

3360-440: A traveller from an antique land, Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart.... Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name

3472-787: Is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818 Shelley and Mary returned to England in September 1816, and in early October they heard that Mary's half-sister Fanny Imlay had killed herself. Godwin believed that Fanny had been in love with Shelley, and Shelley himself suffered depression and guilt over her death, writing: "Friend had I known thy secret grief / Should we have parted so." Further tragedy followed in December when Shelley's estranged wife Harriet drowned herself in

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3584-547: Is a verse drama of rape, murder and incest based on the story of the Renaissance Count Cenci of Rome and his daughter Beatrice . Shelley completed the play in September and the first edition was published that year. It was to become one of his most popular works and the only one to have two authorised editions in his lifetime. Shelley's three-year-old son William died in June 1819, probably of malaria. The new tragedy caused

3696-455: Is an autobiographical poem which explores the relationship between Shelley and Byron and analyses Shelley's personal crises of 1818 and 1819. The poem was completed in the summer of 1819, but was not published in Shelley's lifetime. Prometheus Unbound is a long dramatic poem inspired by Aeschylus's retelling of the Prometheus myth. It was completed in late 1819 and published in 1820. The Cenci

3808-425: Is his involuntary unfolding of one of the largest, most enigmatic, and most multipersoned literary and human selves you can hope to encounter." More recently, critics such as Annmarie Drury, Hédi A. Jaouad, and Joseph Hankinson have shifted to focus on Browning's surprising receptivity to other cultures, languages, and literary traditions. His work has nevertheless had many detractors, and most of his voluminous output

3920-452: Is more" ( Andrea Del Sarto ), "It was roses, roses all the way" ( The Patriot ), and "God's in His heaven—All's right with the world!" ( Pippa Passes ). His critical reputation has traditionally rested mainly on his dramatic monologues , in which the words not only convey setting and action but reveal the speaker's character. In a Browning monologue, unlike a soliloquy , the meaning is not what

4032-405: Is not widely read. In a largely hostile essay Anthony Burgess wrote: "We all want to like Browning, but we find it very hard." Gerard Manley Hopkins and George Santayana were also critical. The latter expressed his views in the essay "The Poetry of Barbarism", which attacks Browning and Walt Whitman for what he regarded as their embrace of irrationality. The young Henry Walford Davies made

4144-502: Is possible that Mary, with Shelley's encouragement, was also having a sexual relationship with Hogg. In May Claire left the household, at Mary's insistence, to reside in Lynmouth. In August Shelley and Mary moved to Bishopsgate where Shelley worked on Alastor , a long poem in blank verse based on the myth of Narcissus and Echo . Alastor was published in an edition of 250 in early 1816 to poor sales and largely unfavourable reviews from

4256-545: Is the most Shakespearean creature since Shakespeare. If Shakespeare could sing with myriad lips, Browning could stammer through a thousand mouths. [...] Yes, Browning was great. And as what will he be remembered? As a poet? Ah, not as a poet! He will be remembered as a writer of fiction, as the most supreme writer of fiction, it may be, that we have ever had. His sense of dramatic situation was unrivalled, and, if he could not answer his own problems, he could at least put problems forth, and what more should an artist do? Considered from

4368-499: Is the most considerable poet in English since the major Romantics, surpassing his great contemporary rival Tennyson and the principal twentieth-century poets, including even Yeats , Hardy , and Wallace Stevens . But Browning is a very difficult poet, notoriously badly served by criticism , and ill-served also by his own accounts of what he was doing as a poet.... Yet when you read your way into his world, precisely his largest gift to you

4480-633: The Lake District , leaving Hogg in York. For a year from June 1811, Shelley was also involved in an intense platonic relationship with Elizabeth Hitchener , a 28-year-old unmarried schoolteacher of advanced views, with whom he was corresponding frequently. Hitchener, whom Shelley called the "sister of my soul" and "my second self", became his confidante and intellectual companion as he developed his views on politics, religion, ethics and personal relationships. Shelley proposed that she join him, Harriet and Eliza in

4592-520: The Peterloo Massacre of peaceful protesters in Manchester. Within two weeks he had completed one of his most famous political poems, The Mask of Anarchy , and despatched it to Leigh Hunt for publication. Hunt, however, decided not to publish it for fear of prosecution for seditious libel. The poem was only officially published in 1832. The Shelleys moved to Florence in October, where Shelley read

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4704-569: The Romantic poets , especially Shelley , whom he followed in becoming an atheist and a vegetarian. At 16, he studied Greek at University College London , but left after his first year. His parents' evangelical faith prevented his studying at either Oxford or Cambridge University , both then open only to members of the Church of England . He had inherited substantial musical ability through his mother, and composed arrangements of various songs. He refused

4816-500: The Second Viennese School . In 1917, the U.S. composer Margaret Hoberg Turrell composed a song based on Browning's poem "Love: Such a Starved Bank of Moss". In 1920, the U.S. composer Anne Stratton composed one based on Browning's poem "Parting at Morning". In 1930, the story of Browning and his wife was made into the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street , by Rudolph Besier . It was a success and brought popular fame to

4928-617: The Serpentine . Harriet, pregnant and living alone at the time, believed that she had been abandoned by her new lover. In her suicide letter she asked Shelley to take custody of their son Charles but to leave their daughter in her sister Eliza's care. Shelley married Mary Godwin on 30 December, despite his philosophical objections to the institution. The marriage was intended to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet and to placate Godwin who had refused to see Shelley and Mary because of their previous adulterous relationship. After

5040-578: The West Indies to work on a sugar plantation but returned to England following a slave revolt. Browning's mother was the daughter of a German shipowner who had settled in Dundee , Scotland and his Scottish wife. His paternal grandmother, Margaret Tittle, had inherited a plantation in St Kitts and was rumoured in the family to have a mixed-race ancestry including some Jamaican blood, but author Julia Markus suggests she

5152-642: The Book (1868–1869) made him a leading poet. By his death in 1889, he was seen as a sage and philosopher-poet who had fed into Victorian social and political discourse. Societies for studying his work survived in Britain and the US into the 20th century. Browning was born in Walworth in the parish of Camberwell , Surrey, which now forms part of the Borough of Southwark in south London. He

5264-548: The French Alps inspired " Mont Blanc ", which has been described as an atheistic response to Coleridge's "Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamoni". During this tour, Shelley often signed guest books with a declaration that he was an atheist. These declarations were seen by other British tourists, including Southey, which hardened attitudes against Shelley back home. Relations between Byron and Shelley's party became strained when Byron

5376-593: The People on the Death of Princess Charlotte (November 1817). In December he wrote "Ozymandias", which is considered to be one of his finest sonnets, as part of a competition with friend and fellow poet Horace Smith . On 12 March 1818 the Shelleys and Claire left England to escape its "tyranny civil and religious". A doctor had also recommended that Shelley go to Italy for his chronic lung complaint, and Shelley had arranged to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron who

5488-557: The Shelleys moved frequently across London, Wales, the Lake District , Scotland and Berkshire to escape creditors and search for a home. In March 1814, Shelley remarried Harriet in London to settle any doubts about the legality of their Edinburgh wedding and secure the rights of their child. Nevertheless, the Shelleys lived apart for most of the following months, and Shelley reflected bitterly on: "my rash & heartless union with Harriet". In May 1814, Shelley began visiting his mentor Godwin almost daily, and soon fell in love with Mary ,

5600-617: The West Wind " (1819), " To a Skylark " (1820), " Adonais " (1821), the philosophical essay " The Necessity of Atheism " (1811), which his friend T. J. Hogg may have co-authored, and the political ballad " The Mask of Anarchy " (1819). His other major works include the verse dramas The Cenci (1819), Prometheus Unbound (1820) and Hellas (1822), and the long narrative poems Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1815), Julian and Maddalo (1819), Adonais (1821), and The Triumph of Life (1822). Shelley also wrote prose fiction and

5712-729: The World , Amy Levy 's Xantippe and A Minor Poet, and Felicia Hemans 's Arabella Stuart and Properzia Rossi are all exemplars of this technique. Algernon Charles Swinburne 's Hymn to Proserpine has been called a dramatic monologue vaguely reminiscent of Browning's work. Some American poets have also written poems in the genre—famous examples include Edgar Allan Poe 's " The Raven ". Post-Victorian examples include William Butler Yeats 's The Gift of Harun al-Rashid , Elizabeth Bishop 's Crusoe in England , and T.S. Eliot 's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Gerontion . A major study of

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5824-593: The audience in moral judgements, as in Albert Camus ' The Fall and Mohsin Hamid 's The Reluctant Fundamentalist . The Victorian period represented the high point of the dramatic monologue in English poetry. Other Victorian poets also used the form. Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote several, including Jenny and The Blessed Damozel ; Christina Rossetti wrote a number, including The Convent Threshold. Augusta Webster 's A Castaway, Circe , and The Happiest Girl in

5936-465: The birth and baptism on 27 February 1819, and the household left Naples for Rome the following day, leaving Elena with carers. Elena was to die in a poor suburb of Naples on 9 June 1820. In Rome, Shelley was in poor health, probably having developed nephritis and tuberculosis which later was in remission. Nevertheless, he made significant progress on three major works: Julian and Maddalo , Prometheus Unbound and The Cenci . Julian and Maddalo

6048-576: The bishops and heads of colleges at Oxford, and he was called to appear before the college's fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley . His refusal to answer questions put by college authorities regarding whether or not he authored the pamphlet resulted in his expulsion from Oxford on 25   March 1811, along with Hogg. Hearing of his son's expulsion, Shelley's father threatened to cut all contact with Shelley unless he agreed to return home and study under tutors appointed by him. Shelley's refusal to do so led to

6160-731: The bride and groom. (Shelley's father believed his son had married beneath him, as Harriet's father had earned his fortune in trade and was the owner of a tavern and coffee house.) Surviving on borrowed money, Shelley and Harriet stayed in Edinburgh for a month, with Hogg living under the same roof. The trio left for York in October, and Shelley went on to Sussex to settle matters with his father, leaving Harriet behind with Hogg. Shelley returned from his unsuccessful excursion to find that Eliza had moved in with Harriet and Hogg. Harriet confessed that Hogg had tried to seduce her while Shelley had been away. Shelley, Harriet and Eliza soon left for Keswick in

6272-489: The conservative press. On 24 January 1816, Mary gave birth to William Shelley. Shelley was delighted to have another son, but was suffering from the strain of prolonged financial negotiations with his father, Harriet and William Godwin. Shelley showed signs of delusional behaviour and was contemplating an escape to the continent. Claire initiated a sexual relationship with Lord Byron in April 1816, just before his self-exile on

6384-545: The continent, and then arranged for Byron to meet Shelley, Mary, and her in Geneva. Shelley admired Byron's poetry and had sent him Queen Mab and other poems. Shelley's party arrived in Geneva in May and rented a house close to Villa Diodati , on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Byron was staying. There Shelley, Byron and the others engaged in discussions about literature, science and "various philosophical doctrines". One night, while Byron

6496-528: The couple in the United States. The role of Elizabeth became a signature role for the actress Katharine Cornell . It was twice adapted into film. It was also the basis of the stage musical Robert and Elizabeth , with music by Ron Grainer and book and lyrics by Ronald Millar . Browning is an important character in Michael Dibdin 's 1986 novel A rich full death . "God's in his heaven – All's right in

6608-520: The death of his wife in 1861. His father encouraged his children's interest in literature and the arts. By the age of 12, Browning had written a book of poetry, which he later destroyed for want of a publisher. After attending one or two private schools and showing an insuperable dislike of school life, he was educated at home by a tutor, using the resources of his father's library. By 14 he was fluent in French, Greek , Italian and Latin. He became an admirer of

6720-733: The dramatic monologue was published in 1977 by Alan Sinfield . Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( / b ɪ ʃ / BISH ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets . A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning , Algernon Charles Swinburne , Thomas Hardy , and W. B. Yeats . American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman,

6832-443: The estate, and a financial settlement between Shelley and his father (now Sir Timothy), however, was not concluded until April the following year. In February 1815, Mary gave premature birth to a baby girl who died ten days later, deepening her depression. In the following weeks, Mary became close to Hogg who temporarily moved into the household. Shelley was almost certainly having a sexual relationship with Claire at this time, and it

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6944-425: The father and falsely naming Mary as the mother. The parentage of Elena has never been conclusively established. Biographers have variously speculated that she was adopted by Shelley to console Mary for the loss of Clara, that she was Shelley's child by Claire, that she was his child by his servant Elise Foggi, or that she was the child of a "mysterious lady" who had followed Shelley to the continent. Shelley registered

7056-631: The first and last lines. Jane Welsh Carlyle , wife of Thomas Carlyle (a friend of Browning's who deeply influenced Browning's poetry), quipped that she read the poem through and "could not tell whether Sordello was a [sic] 'a book, a city, or a man'". Browning's reputation began to make a partial recovery with the publication, 1841–1846, of Bells and Pomegranates , a series of eight pamphlets, originally intended just to include his plays. Fortunately for Browning's career, his publisher, Moxon, persuaded him to include some "dramatic lyrics", some of which had already appeared in periodicals. In 1845, Browning met

7168-750: The first of a series written by different aspects of himself, but he soon abandoned this idea. The press noticed the publication. W. J. Fox writing in The Monthly Repository of April 1833 discerned merit in the work. Allan Cunningham praised it in the Athenaeum . However, it sold no copies. Some years later, probably in 1850, Dante Gabriel Rossetti came across it in the Reading Room of the British Museum and wrote to Browning, then in Florence , to ask if he

7280-474: The first time in the seventeen years since Elizabeth's death, and returned there on several further occasions. In 1887, Browning produced the major work of his later years, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day . It finally presented the poet speaking in his own voice, engaging in a series of dialogues with long-forgotten figures of literary, artistic, and philosophic history. The Victorian public

7392-427: The games Of children. Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics (1842) In March 1833, " Pauline, a Fragment of a Confession " was published anonymously by Saunders and Otley at the expense of the author, Robert Browning, who received the money from his aunt, Mrs Silverthorne. It is a long poem composed in homage to the poet Shelley and somewhat in his style. Originally Browning considered Pauline as

7504-468: The gothic novel St. Irvine; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance (published 1811). At Oxford Shelley attended few lectures, instead spending long hours reading and conducting scientific experiments in the laboratory he set up in his room. He met a fellow student, Thomas Jefferson Hogg , who became his closest friend. Shelley became increasingly politicised under Hogg's influence, developing strong radical and anti-Christian views. Such views were dangerous in

7616-541: The household in Devon, but several months later had a falling out with the Shelleys and left. The Shelley household had settled in Tremadog , Wales, in September 1812, where Shelley worked on Queen Mab , a utopian allegory with extensive notes preaching atheism, free love, republicanism and vegetarianism. The poem was published the following year in a private edition of 250 copies, although few were initially distributed because of

7728-437: The influence of Coriolanus on Browning's politics, has attempted to situate the poet's political sensibility at the centre of his practice. Browning was raised in an evangelical non-conformist household. However, after his reading of Shelley he is said to have briefly become an atheist. Browning is also said to have made an uncharacteristic admission of faith to Alfred Domett, when he is said to have admired Byron's poetry "as

7840-590: The length and difficulty of his most ambitious poems, particularly Sordello and, to a lesser extent, The Ring and the Book . Nevertheless, they have included such eminent writers as Henry James , Oscar Wilde , George Bernard Shaw , G. K. Chesterton , Ezra Pound , Graham Greene , Evelyn Waugh , Jorge Luis Borges , and Vladimir Nabokov . Among living writers, Stephen King 's The Dark Tower series, A. S. Byatt 's Possession , and Maggie O'Farrell 's The Marriage Portrait refer directly to Browning's work. Today Browning's critically most esteemed poems include

7952-547: The monologues Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came , Fra Lippo Lippi , Andrea Del Sarto , and My Last Duchess . His most popular poems include Porphyria's Lover , How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix , the diptych Meeting at Night , the patriotic Home Thoughts from Abroad , and the children's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin . His abortive dinner-party recital of How They Brought The Good News

8064-568: The months following his expulsion, when he was under severe emotional strain due to the conflict with his family, his bitterness over the breakdown of his romance with his cousin Harriet Grove, and his unfounded belief that he might have a fatal illness. At the same time, Harriet Westbrook's elder sister Eliza, to whom Harriet was very close, encouraged the young girl's romance with Shelley. Shelley's correspondence with Harriet intensified in July, while he

8176-406: The most part, imply a concentrated narrative. Poems such as William Wordsworth 's Tintern Abbey and Percy Bysshe Shelley 's Mont Blanc , to name two famous examples, offered a model of close psychological observation and philosophical or pseudo-philosophical inquiry described in a specific setting. The conversation poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge are perhaps a better precedent. The genre

8288-671: The nickname "Mad Shelley". His interest in the occult and science continued, and contemporaries describe him giving an electric shock to a master, blowing up a tree stump with gunpowder and attempting to raise spirits with occult rituals. In his senior years, Shelley came under the influence of a part-time teacher, James Lind , who encouraged his interest in the occult and introduced him to liberal and radical authors. Shelley also developed an interest in Plato and idealist philosophy which he pursued in later years through self-study. According to Richard Holmes , Shelley, by his leaving year, had gained

8400-408: The poem is composed of 12 books: essentially 10 lengthy dramatic monologues narrated by various characters in the story, showing their individual perspectives on events, bookended by an introduction and conclusion by Browning himself. Long even by Browning's standards (over twenty-thousand lines), The Ring and the Book was his most ambitious project and is arguably his greatest work; it has been called

8512-502: The poems that eventually composed his two-volume Men and Women , for which he is now well known, although in 1855, when they were published, they made relatively little impact. In 1861, Elizabeth died in Florence. Among those whom he found consoling in that period was the novelist and poet Isa Blagden , with whom he and his wife had a voluminous correspondence. The following year Browning returned to London, taking Pen with him, who by then

8624-607: The poet Elizabeth Barrett , six years his senior, who lived as a semi-invalid in her father's house in Wimpole Street , London. They began regularly corresponding and gradually a romance developed between them, leading to their marriage and journey to Italy (for Elizabeth's health) on 12 September 1846. The marriage was initially secret because Elizabeth's domineering father disapproved of marriage for any of his children. Mr. Barrett disinherited Elizabeth, as he did each of his children who married: "The Mrs. Browning of popular imagination

8736-416: The point of view of a creator of character he ranks next to him who made Hamlet . Had he been articulate, he might have sat beside him. The only man who can touch the hem of his garment is George Meredith . Meredith is a prose Browning, and so is Browning. He used poetry as a medium for writing in prose." Probably the most adulatory judgment of Browning by a modern critic comes from Harold Bloom : "Browning

8848-457: The problems confronting an intellectual trying to find his role in society. It gained him access to the London literary world. As a result of his new contacts he met Macready , who invited him to write a play. Strafford was performed five times. Browning then wrote two other plays, one of which was not performed, while the other failed, Browning having fallen out with Macready. In 1838, he visited Italy looking for background for Sordello ,

8960-522: The reactionary political climate prevailing during Britain's war with Napoleonic France, and Shelley's father warned him against Hogg's influence. In the winter of 1810–1811, Shelley published a series of anonymous political poems and tracts: Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson , The Necessity of Atheism (written in collaboration with Hogg) and A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things . Shelley mailed The Necessity of Atheism to all

9072-442: The recording, which still exists, Browning recites part of How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix (and can be heard apologising when he forgets the words). When the recording was played in 1890 on the anniversary of his death, at a gathering of his admirers, it was said to be the first time anyone's voice "had been heard from beyond the grave." Browning's admirers have tended to temper their praise with reservations about

9184-485: The reinstatement of Shelley's allowance. With Harriet's allowance also restored, Shelley now had the funds for his Irish venture. Their departure for Ireland was precipitated by increasing hostility towards the Shelley household from their landlord and neighbours who were alarmed by Shelley's scientific experiments, pistol shooting and radical political views. As tension mounted, Shelley claimed he had been attacked in his home by ruffians, an event which might have been real or

9296-462: The risk of prosecution for seditious and religious libel. In February 1813, Shelley claimed he was attacked in his home at night. The incident might have been real, a hallucination brought on by stress, or a hoax staged by Shelley in order to escape government surveillance, creditors and his entanglements in local politics. The Shelleys and Eliza fled to Ireland, then London. Back in England, Shelley's debts mounted as he tried unsuccessfully to reach

9408-527: The sixteen-year-old daughter of Godwin and the late feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft . Shelley and Mary declared their love for each other during a visit to her mother's grave in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church on 26 June. When Shelley told Godwin that he intended to leave Harriet and live with Mary, his mentor banished him from the house and forbade Mary from seeing him. Shelley and Mary eloped to Europe on 28 July, taking Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont with them. Before leaving, Shelley had secured

9520-422: The speaker voluntarily reveals but what he inadvertently gives away, usually while rationalising past actions or special pleading his case to a silent auditor. These monologues have been influential, and today the best of them are often treated by teachers and lecturers as paradigm cases of the monologue form. One such example used by teachers today is his satirisation of the sadistic attitude in his Soliloquy in

9632-523: The three travelled to Germany and Holland before returning to England on 13 September. Shelley spent the next few months trying to raise loans and avoid bailiffs. Mary was pregnant, lonely, depressed and ill. Her mood was not improved when she heard that, on 30 November, Harriet had given birth to Charles Bysshe Shelley, heir to the Shelley fortune and baronetcy. This was followed, in early January 1815, by news that Shelley's grandfather, Sir Bysshe , had died leaving an estate worth £220,000. The settlement of

9744-485: The universe Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! And, by the incantation of this verse, Scatter, as from unextinguished hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened Earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? From "Ode to the West Wind", 1819 The Shelleys were now living in Livorno where, in September, Shelley heard of

9856-421: The vendor's string, And broad-edge bold-print posters by the wall. He took such cognizance of men and things, If any beat a horse, you felt he saw; If any cursed a woman, he took note; Yet stared at nobody—you stared at him, And found, less to your pleasure than surprise, He seemed to know you and expect as much. Men and Women (1855) In Florence, probably from early in 1853, Browning worked on

9968-453: The volumes in which they were published. (His only notable prose work, with the exception of his letters, is his Essay on Shelley .) Dramatic monologue One of the most important influences on the development of the dramatic monologue is romantic poetry . However, the long, personal lyrics typical of the Romantic period are not dramatic monologues, in the sense that they do not, for

10080-499: The world", an excerpt from his poem, Pippa Passes, is the slogan for the fictional organisation NERV from Hideaki Anno 's 1995 anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion . A memorial plaque on the site of Browning's London home, in Warwick Crescent, Maida Vale , was unveiled on 11 December 1993. This section lists the plays and volumes of poetry Browning published in his lifetime. Some individually notable poems are also listed, under

10192-565: Was Laon and Cythna , a long narrative poem featuring incest and attacks on religion. It was hastily withdrawn after publication due to fears of prosecution for religious libel, and was re-edited and reissued as The Revolt of Islam in January 1818. Shelley also published two political tracts under a pseudonym: A Proposal for putting Reform to the Vote throughout the Kingdom (March 1817) and An Address to

10304-427: Was Kittitian rather than Jamaican. The evidence is inconclusive. Robert's father, a literary collector, had a library of some 6,000 books; many of them were rare so that Robert grew up in a household with significant literary resources. His mother, to whom he was close, was a devout nonconformist and a talented musician. His younger sister, Sarianna, also gifted, became her brother's companion in his later years, after

10416-426: Was 12 years old. They made their home in 17 Warwick Crescent , Maida Vale . It was only when he became part of the London literary scene—albeit while paying frequent visits to Italy (though never again to Florence)—that his reputation started to take off. In 1868, after five years' work, he completed and published the long blank-verse poem The Ring and the Book . Based on a convoluted murder-case from 1690s Rome,

10528-552: Was a serious contender to become Poet Laureate , the position eventually going to Tennyson . From the time of their marriage and until Elizabeth's death, the Brownings lived in Italy, residing first in Pisa , and then, within a year, finding an apartment in Florence at Casa Guidi (now a museum to their memory). Their only child, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning , nicknamed "Penini" or "Pen",

10640-470: Was a sweet, innocent young woman who suffered endless cruelties at the hands of a tyrannical papa but who nonetheless had the good fortune to fall in love with a dashing and handsome poet named Robert Browning." At her husband's insistence, the second edition of Elizabeth's Poems included her love sonnets. The book increased her popularity and high critical regard, cementing her position as an eminent Victorian poet. Upon William Wordsworth 's death in 1850, she

10752-592: Was also developed by Felicia Hemans and Letitia Elizabeth Landon , beginning in the latter's case with her long poem The Improvisatrice . The novel and plays have also been important influences on the dramatic monologue, particularly as a means of characterization. Dramatic monologues are a way of expressing the views of a character and offering the audience greater insight into that character's feelings. Dramatic monologues can also be used in novels to tell stories, as in Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein , and to implicate

10864-571: Was baffled by this, and Browning returned to the brief, concise lyric for his last volume, Asolando (1889), published on the day of his death. Browning died at his son's home Ca' Rezzonico in Venice on 12 December 1889. He was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey ; his grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson . During his life Browning was awarded many distinctions. He

10976-502: Was baptised on 14 June 1812, at Lock's Fields Independent Chapel, York Street, Walworth, the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning. His father was a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England , earning about £150 per year. Browning's paternal grandfather was a slave owner in Saint Kitts, West Indies , but Browning's father was an abolitionist . Browning's father had been sent to

11088-509: Was born in 1849. In these years Browning was fascinated by, and learned from, the art and atmosphere of Italy. He would, in later life, describe Italy as his university. As Elizabeth had inherited money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy, and their relationship together was happy. However, the literary assault on Browning's work did not let up and he was critically dismissed further, by patrician writers such as Charles Kingsley , for deserting England. Browning identified as

11200-523: Was bullied and unhappy at the school and sometimes responded with violent rage. He also began suffering from the nightmares, hallucinations and sleep walking that were to periodically affect him throughout his life. Shelley developed an interest in science which supplemented his voracious reading of tales of mystery, romance and the supernatural. During his holidays at Field Place, his sisters were often terrified at being subjected to his experiments with gunpowder , acids and electricity. Back at school he blew up

11312-460: Was detected in a vulgar fraud." Elizabeth, however, was convinced that the phenomena she witnessed were genuine, and her discussions about Home with her husband were a constant source of disagreement. He stood and watched the cobbler at his trade, The man who slices lemons into drink, The coffee-roaster's brazier , and the boys That volunteer to help him turn its winch. He glanced o'er books on stalls with half an eye, And fly-leaf ballads on

11424-462: Was holidaying in Wales, and in response to her urgent pleas for his protection, he returned to London in early August. Putting aside his philosophical objections to matrimony, he left with the sixteen-year-old Harriet for Edinburgh on 25 August 1811, and they were married there on the 28th. Hearing of the elopement, Harriet's father, John Westbrook, and Shelley's father, Timothy, cut off the allowances of

11536-472: Was made LL.D. of Edinburgh, a life Governor of London University, and had the offer of the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow . But he turned down anything that involved public speaking. At a dinner party on 7 April 1889, at the home of Browning's friend the artist Rudolf Lehmann , an Edison cylinder phonograph recording was made on a white wax cylinder by Edison 's British representative, George Gouraud . In

11648-402: Was marked by family crises, ill health, and a backlash against his atheism , political views, and defiance of social conventions. He went into permanent self-exile in Italy in 1818 and over the next four years produced what Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill call "some of the finest poetry of the Romantic period". His second wife, Mary Shelley , was the author of Frankenstein . He died in

11760-479: Was now in Venice. After travelling some months through France and Italy, Shelley left Mary and baby Clara at Bagni di Lucca (in today's Tuscany) while he travelled with Claire to Venice to see Byron and make arrangements for visiting Allegra. Byron invited the Shelleys to stay at his summer residence at Este , and Shelley urged Mary to meet him there. Clara became seriously ill on the journey and died on 24 September in Venice. Following Clara's death, Mary fell into

11872-417: Was reciting Coleridge's Christabel , Shelley suffered a severe panic attack with hallucinations. The previous night Mary had had a more productive vision or nightmare which inspired her novel Frankenstein . Shelley and Byron then took a boating tour around Lake Geneva, which inspired Shelley to write his " Hymn to Intellectual Beauty ", his first substantial poem since Alastor . A tour of Chamonix in

11984-608: Was recorded on an Edison wax cylinder , and is believed to be one of the oldest surviving recordings made in the United Kingdom of a notable person (a recording of Sir Arthur Sullivan 's voice was made about six months earlier). Browning is now popularly known for such poems as Porphyria's Lover , My Last Duchess , How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix , and The Pied Piper of Hamelin , and also for certain famous lines: "Grow old along with me!" ( Rabbi Ben Ezra ), "A man's reach should exceed his grasp" and "Less

12096-522: Was sheltered and mostly happy. He was particularly close to his sisters and his mother, who encouraged him to hunt, fish and ride. At age six, he was sent to a day school run by the vicar of Warnham church, where he displayed an impressive memory and gift for languages . In 1802 he entered the Syon House Academy of Brentford , Middlesex , where his cousin Thomas Medwin was a pupil. Shelley

12208-465: Was still alive. Shelley wrote to Godwin, offering himself as his devoted disciple. Godwin, who had modified many of his earlier radical views, advised Shelley to reconcile with his father, become a scholar before he published anything else, and give up his avowed plans for political agitation in Ireland. Meanwhile, Shelley had met his father's patron, Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk , who helped secure

12320-535: Was the author. John Stuart Mill , however, wrote that the author suffered from an "intense and morbid self-consciousness". Later Browning was rather embarrassed by the work, and only included it in his collected poems of 1868 after making substantial changes and adding a preface in which he asked for indulgence for a boyish work. In 1834, he accompanied the Chevalier George de Benkhausen, the Russian consul-general, on

12432-618: Was the first and only time, I'll swear,— Look at me,—see, I kneel,—the only time, I swear, I ever cheated,—yes, by the soul Of Her who hears—(your sainted mother, sir!) All, except this last accident, was truth— This little kind of slip!—and even this, It was your own wine, sir, the good champagne, (I took it for Catawba —you're so kind) Which put the folly in my head! Dramatis Personae (1864) Browning believed spiritualism to be fraud, and proved one of Daniel Dunglas Home 's most adamant critics. When Browning and his wife Elizabeth attended one of his séances on 23 July 1855,

12544-399: Was told that Claire was pregnant with his child. Shelley, Mary, and Claire left Switzerland in late August, with arrangements for the expected baby still unclear, although Shelley made provision for Claire and the baby in his will. In January 1817 Claire gave birth to a daughter by Byron who she named Alba, but later renamed Allegra in accordance with Byron's wishes. Ozymandias I met

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