Chapter 12

1888-1889

"Asolando"--Last Days in DeVere Gardens--Letters of Browning and Tennyson--Venetian Lingerings and Friends--Mrs. Bronson's Choice Circle--Browning's Letters to Mrs. Bronson--Asolo-- "In Ruby, Emerald, Chrysopras"--Last Meeting of Browning and Story--In Palazzo Rezzonico--Last Meeting with Dr. Corson-- Honored by Westminster Abbey--A Cross of Violets--Choral Music to Mrs. Browning's Poem, "The Sleep"--"And with God Be the Rest!" 269

Index 297

ILLUSTRATIONS

_In Photogravure_

PAGE

Robert Browning _Frontispiece_ From a drawing by Field Talfourd, Rome, 1855

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 39 From a drawing by Field Talfourd, Rome, 1855

_Engravings_

Busts of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning 2

Monument to Michael Angelo, by Vasari 80 Church of Santa Croce, Florence

Old Monastery at Vallombrosa 98

The Guardian Angel, Guercino 103 Church of San Agostino, Fano

Monument to Dante, by Stefano Ricci 108 Piazza di Santa Croce, Florence

Palazzo Vecchio, Florence 113

Statue of Savonarola, by E. Pazzi 116 Sala dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Fresco of Dante, by Giotto 121 The Bargello, Florence

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence (known as the Duomo) 126

The Ponte Vecchio and the Arno, Florence 142

Casa Guidi 146

The Clasped Hands of the Brownings 153 Cast in bronze from the model taken by Harriet Hosmer in Rome, 1853

The Campagna and Ruins of the Claudian Aqueducts, Rome 156

The Coronation of the Virgin, by Filippo Lippi 166 Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence

Andrea del Sarto. Portrait of the Artist and his Wife 170 Pitti Gallery, Florence

Equestrian Statue of Ferdinando de' Medici, by Giovanni da Bologna 174 Piazza dell' Annunziata, Florence

Villa Petraja, near Florence 178

Church of San Miniato, near Florence 182

The Palazzo Barberini, Via Quattro Fontane, Rome 188

The English Cemetery, Florence 197

Tomb of Elizabeth Barrett Browning 200

Kate Field 208 From the portrait by Elihu Vedder, Florence, 1860

The Pallazzo Riccardi, Florence 214

Bust of Robert Browning, by his Son 226

Portrait of Robert Browning in 1882, by his Son 242

Church of San Lorenzo, Florence 246

Portrait of Robert Barrett Browning, as a Child, 1859 263

Portrait of Robert Browning, by George Frederick Watts, R.A. 270

Mrs. Arthur Bronson, by Ellen Montalba, in Asolo 274

Miss Edith Bronson, (Comtessa Rucellai) 280

Portrait of Professor Hiram Corson, by J. Colin Forbes, R.A. 290

Palazzo Rezzonico, Venice 294

Engraved Facsimile of a letter from Robert Browning to Professor Hiram Corson 260

THE BROWNINGS THEIR LIFE AND ART