Chapter 21

Browning was an optimist with his last breath. In the _Prologue_ to _Asolando_, a conventional person is supposed to be addressing the poet: he says, "Of course your old age must be sad, because you have now lost all your youthful illusions. Once you looked on the earth with rose-colored spectacles, but now you see the naked and commonplace reality of the things you used to think so radiant."

Browning's answer is significant, and the figure he uses wonderfully apt. Suppose you are going to travel in Europe: you go to the optician, and you ask for a first-rate magnifying-glass, that you may scan the ocean, and view the remote corners of cathedrals. Now imagine him saying that he has for you something far better than that: he has a lovely kaleidoscope: apply your eye to the orifice, turn a little wheel, and you will behold all sorts of pretty colored rosettes. You would be naturally indignant. "Do you take me for a child to be amused with a rattle? I don't want pretty colors: I want something that will bring the object, _exactly as it is_, as near to my eyes as it can possibly be brought."

Indeed, when one buys a glass for a telescope, if one has sufficient cash, one buys a glass made of crown and flint glass placed together, which destroys color, which produces what is called an _achromatic_ lens. Now just as we judge of the value of a glass by its ability to bring things as they are within the range of our vision, so, says Browning, old age is much better than youth. In age our old eyes become achromatic. The rosy illusions of youth vanish, thank God for it! The colors which we imagined belonged to the object were in reality in our imperfect eyes--as we grow older these pretty colors disappear and we see what? We see life itself. Life is a greater and grander thing than any fool's illusion about it. The world of nature and man is infinitely more interesting and wonderful as it is than in any mistaken view of it. Therefore old age is better than youth.

PROLOGUE

1889

The Poet's age is sad: for why? In youth, the natural world could show No common object but his eye At once involved with alien glow-- His own soul's iris-bow.

"And now a flower is just a flower: Man, bird, beast are but beast, bird, man-- Simply themselves, uncinct by dower Of dyes which, when life's day began, Round each in glory ran."

Friend, did you need an optic glass, Which were your choice? A lens to drape In ruby, emerald, chrysopras, Each object--or reveal its shape Clear outlined, past escape,

The naked very thing?--so clear That, when you had the chance to gaze, You found its inmost self appear Through outer seeming-truth ablaze, Not falsehood's fancy-haze?

How many a year, my Asolo, Since--one step just from sea to land-- I found you, loved yet feared you so-- For natural objects seemed to stand Palpably fire-clothed! No--

No mastery of mine o'er these! Terror with beauty, like the Bush Burning but unconsumed. Bend knees, Drop eyes to earthward! Language? Tush! Silence 'tis awe decrees.

And now? The lambent flame is--where? Lost from the naked world: earth, sky, Hill, vale, tree, flower,--Italia's rare O'er-running beauty crowds the eye-- But flame? The Bush is bare.

Hill, vale, tree, flower--they stand distinct, Nature to know and name. What then? A Voice spoke thence which straight unlinked Fancy from fact: see, all's in ken: Has once my eyelid winked?

No, for the purged ear apprehends Earth's import, not the eye late dazed: The Voice said "Call my works thy friends! At Nature dost thou shrink amazed? God is it who transcends."

It is an interesting and dramatic parallel in literary history that Tennyson and Browning should each have published the last poem that appeared in his life-time in the same month of the same year, and that each farewell to the world should be so exactly characteristic of the poetic genius and spiritual temperament of the writer. In December, 1889, came from the press _Demeter and Other Poems_, closing with _Crossing the Bar_--came also _Asolando_, closing with the _Epilogue_. Tennyson's lyric is exquisite in its tints of sunset, a serene close to a long and calmly beautiful day. It is the perfect tone of dignified departure, with the admonition to refrain from weeping, with the quiet assurance that all is well. Browning's _Epilogue_ is full of excitement and strenuous rage: there is no hint of acquiescence; it is a wild charge with drum and trumpet on the hidden foe. Firm in the faith, full of plans for the future, he looks not on the darkening night, but on to-morrow's sunrise.

He tells us not to pity him. He is angry at the thought that people on the streets of London, when they hear of his death will say, "Poor Browning! He's gone! How he loved life!" Rather he wishes that just as in this life when a friend met him in the city with a face lighted up by the pleasure of the sudden encounter, with a shout of hearty welcome--so now, when your thoughts perhaps turn to me, let it not be with sorrow or pity, but with eager recognition. I shall be striving there as I strove here: greet me with a cheer!

EPILOGUE

1889

At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time, When you set your fancies free, Will they pass to where--by death, fools think, imprisoned-- Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so, --Pity me?

Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken! What had I on earth to do With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly? Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel --Being--who?

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake.

No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time Greet the unseen with a cheer! Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, "Strive and thrive!" cry "Speed,--fight on, fare ever There as here!"

INDEX

_Abt Vogler_. Addison, J., disgust for the Alps. _Andrea del Sarto_. _Another Way of Love_. _Apparent Failure_. _Artemis Prologises_. _Asolando, Prologue and Epilogue_. Asolo: Browning's visits to, its place in his work; last summer passed there. Austin, Alfred, compared with F. Thompson.

_Bad Dreams_. _Bells and Pomegranates_, meaning of title. _Bishop Blougram's Apology_. _Bishop Orders His Tomb, The_. _Blot in the 'Scutcheon, A_. _Boy and the Angel, The_. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett: engagement; her sonnets; described by her son; her ill health; invented name "Dramatic Lyric;" her assistance in R. Browning's poems. Browning, Robert: parentage and early life; education; visit to Russia; play-writing; first visit to Italy; marriage; travels in Italy and lives at Paris; domestic life in Florence described by Hawthorne; death; personal habits; peculiarities; piano-playing; enthusiasm; friendship with Tennyson; normality in appearance; excellence in character; his theory of poetry; his sonnets; his favorite feature the brow; fondness for yellow hair; his "rejected lovers,". Browning, Robert Barrett: death at Asolo; my conversation with. Bryant, W. C., visits Browning. Byron, Lord, lyrical power. _By the Fireside_.

_Caliban on Setebos_. Campion, T., his lyrical power compared with Donne's.

Carlyle, T.: travels to Paris with the Brownings; his smoking. _Cavalier Tunes_. _Charles Avison_. "_Childe Roland_." Choate, J. H., his remark on old age. _Christmas-Eve_. _Cleon_. _Clive_. _Confessions_. _Count Gismond_. _Cristina_.

_Death in the Desert, A_. _De Gustibus_. _Dis Aliter Visum_. Donne, J.: compared with Browning; compared with Campion. Dramatic Lyric, origin of name. _Dramatic Lyrics_. _Dramatic Romances_. _Dramatis Persons_.

Eliot, George, _Daniel Deronda and My Last Duchess_. Emerson, R. W.: pie and optimism; his opinion of Tennyson's _Ulysses_. _Epistle, An, Containing Strange Medical Experience of Karshish_. _Eurydice_. _Evelyn Hope_. "_Eyes Calm Beside Thee_".

_Face, A_. Fano: seldom visited; scene of picture of _Guardian Angel_. _Fifine at the Fair_; _Epilogue to_. Forster, J., his praise of _Paracelsus_. _Fra Lippo Lippi_. Fulda, L., his play _Schlaraffenland_ compared with _Rephan_.

_Garden Fancies, Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis_. _Glove, The_ Goethe, doctrine of elective affinities. _Gold Hair_. _Grammarian's Funeral, A_. Gray, T., early appreciation of mountain scenery. _Guardian Angel, The_,

Hallam, A. H., home in Wimpole Street. Hawthorne, N., visits Browning in Florence. _Holy Cross Day_. _Home-Thoughts, from, Abroad_. _Home-Thoughts, from the Sea_. _How It Strikes a Contemporary_. "_How They Brought the Good News_."

Ibsen, H.: an original genius; _When We Dead Awaken_, _A Doll's House_. _In a Balcony_. _In a Gondola_. _Incident of the French Camp_. _Ivàn Ivanovitch_.

_James Lee's Wife_. _Jocoseria, Prologue to_. _Johannes Agricola in Meditation_. Jonson, B., his remarks on Donne.

_Karshish (see Epistle, An_). Keats, J.: prosody in _Endymion_; _Bright Star_; his conception of Beauty; preface to _Endymion_; his doctrine; of beauty. Kipling, R., allusions to Browning in _Stalky and Co_.

_Laboratory, The_. Landor, W. S., his poetic tribute to Browning. Lanier, S., his criticism of _The Ring and the Book_. _La Saisiag, Prologue_ to. _Last Ride Together, The_. LeMoyne, Sarah Gowell, her reading aloud _Meeting at Night_. Lessing, G. E., his: remark about truth. Longfellow, H. W.: a better sonneteer than either Tennyson or Browning; _Paul Revere's Ride_ compared with "_How They Brought," etc_. _Lost Leader, The_. _Lost Mistress, The_. _Love Among the Ruins_. _Lover's Quarrel, A_. _Luria_.

_Macbeth_: German translation of; pessimistic speech by. Macready, W. C., relations with Browning. Maeterlinck, M.: scene in _Monna Vanna_ taken from _Luria_; his praise of Browning's poetry.

_Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha_ _Meeting at Night_ _Men and Women_ _Mesmerism_ Mill, J. S., his opinion of _Pauline_ _Mulèykeh_ _My Last Duchess_ _My Star_

_Nationality in Drinks_

_Old Pictures in Florence_ Omar Khayyam, his figure of the Potter compared with Browning's, _One Way of Love_ _One Word More_

_Pacchiarotto_: _Epilogue_ to, _Prologue_ to, _Paracelsus_ _Parting at Morning (see Meeting at Night_) _Pauline_ _Pippa Passes_ Pope: popularity of _Essay on Man_, his prosody compared with that of Keats. _Porphyria's Lover_ _Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau_ _Prospice_

_Rabbi Ben Ezra_ _Rephan_ _Respectability_ _Reverie_ _Ring and the Book, The_ Rossetti, D. G.: draws picture of Tennyson; his opinion of _Pauline_. Rossetti, W. M., meets the Brownings and the Tennysons. _Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli_ Ruskin, J., his remark on _The Bishop Orders His Tomb_.

_Saul_ Schiller, F.: his poem _Der Handschuh_; his poem _Das Ideal und das Leben_. Schopenhauer, A.: father's financial help similar to Browning's; his late-coming fame similar to Browning's, his remark on Rafael's _St. Cecilia_. Schumann, R. and Mrs., presentation to the Scandinavian king. Shakespeare, W., Browning declares him to be the supreme poet. Sharp, W., characterization of _Sordello_. Shelley, P. B.: his vegetarianism imitated by Browning; his lyrical power. _Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis_ (see _Garden Fancies_). _Sludge (Mr. ) the Medium_. _Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister_. _Soul's Tragedy, A_. _Sordello_. _Statue and the Bust, The_. Stedman (mother of the poet, E.C.), her remarks on the health of Mrs. Browning in Florence. _Summum Bonum_.

Tennyson, A.: reading aloud from _Maud_; Browning's letter to him; a genius for adaptation; wrote to please critics; compared with Browning; his lyrical power; his lyrics compared with Browning's; wrote no good sonnets; _Lotos-Eaters_; _Ulysses_; _Crossing the Bar_; _St. Agnes' Eve_ compared with _Johannes Agricola_; _Locksley Hall_; his "rejected lovers" compared with Browning's; his criticism of _The Laboratory_; _Crossing the Bar_ compared with _Epilogue to Asolando_. Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_. Thompson, F., his poetry compared with Austin's. _Time's Revenges_. _Toccata of Galuppi's_. _Transcendentalism_. _Twins, The_. _Two Poets of Croisic_, the _Epilogue_ to. _Up at a Villa--Down in the City_. Wagner, R.: his originality; his slow-coming fame; his operas. _Which_. Wister, O., criticism of Browning's poetry in his novel _The Virginian_. Wordsworth, W.: served as model for _The Lost Leader_; his sincere love of the country.

_Youth and Art_.