Robert Browning

Abstract

Robert Browning Suzanne Bailey (bio) Philip Kelly, Edward Hagan, and Linda M. Lewis's new volume 28 of The Brownings' Correspondence has been several years in the making and offers one of the more intriguing glimpses into the Brownings' lives. We hear more of Robert Browning's voice in the surviving letters from this period and can follow some of the epistolary conversations on the illness and death from cancer of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sister Henrietta. This year is also significant in marking the publication of volumes 5 and 6 of The Poems of Browning, edited by John Woolford, Daniel Karlin, and Joseph Phelan and focused entirely on Browning's The Ring and the Book (1868–1869). Among themes in books and articles this year, there is an interest in exploring historical events or encounters that may have been woven into Browning's poems and that may shed some light on his creative process. Claire Simmons examines Victorian records of the lunar rainbow and Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day (1850); Joseph Phelan connects Browning's friendship with Lady William Russell to the mysterious portrait in "A Likeness" (1864). Browning's influence on other artists is evident in a striking number of publications, including Patricia Rigg's book on the Victorian poet Mary Robinson, an essay on Richard Henry Wilde, and critical work on more contemporary poets such as Stevie Smith, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, and Paul Muldoon. The Victorianist and poet Jason Camlot writes a monologue in the style of Browning in a recent poetry collection, while Jane Manning uncovers allusions to Browning's life in a Gary Carpenter composition for mezzo-soprano. In addition to historical allusions and poetic intertexts, essays this year touch on Browning and nineteenth-century literary currents and on themes of labor and money. [End Page 356] ________ The Brownings' Correspondence, volume 28, May 1860–February 1861 (Winfield, Kan.: Wedgestone, 2022) Volume 28 of the Correspondence contains a more extensive collection of letters from Browning than in past volumes, such that one can follow how he deals with challenges such as his ongoing stewardship of Walter Savage Landor and his affairs, as well as the progress of his sister-in-law's illness and Browning's managing of the impact on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who had suffered health setbacks. The letters are written in the context of the aftermath of the Treaty of Turin in March 1860, by which the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice were ceded to France. Barrett Browning is pained by the loss of Savoy and records Browning's comment on Napoleon III: "It was a great action; but he has taken eighteen pence for it, which is a pity" (p. 3). During the period covered in the volume, the Brownings leave Rome in May for several months in Siena, returning to Florence in October 1860 and to Rome in November. Letters include Browning's correspondence with Walter Savage Landor, who sends Browning his thoughts on Shakespeare, in addition to other literary commentary. Barrett Browning also shares the interesting news that Browning "has been writing a good deal this winter," "working at a long poem which I have not seen a line of, and producing short lyrics which I have seen, & may declare most worthy of him" (p. 10). Barrett Browning's remarks suggest a renewal in Browning's writing of poetry, and she also suggests something of her poetic relationship with him in the remarks that follow: "For me if I have attained anything of force & freedom by living near . . . the oak, < . . . > the better for me—But I hope you don't think I mimic < him, or > lose my individuality" (p. 10). She repeats the news with slightly more detail to William Allingham, suggesting that Browning's activity has extended through the winter of 1859–1860: "Robert is writing, not political poems, but a poem in books, a line of which I have not seen—and also certain exquisite lyrics . . . Neither he nor I have been idle this winter, nor mean to be idle this summer—" (p. 16). William Allingham replies with interest that "the news of Mr. Browning's growing Poem is of the best one...