Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry

Robert Browning

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. Hiram Corson, LL. D. , Professor of English Literature in the Cornell University; Author of "An Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare", "A Primer of English Verse, chiefly in its Aesthetic and Organic Character", "The Aims of Literary Study", etc.

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• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819924197
• Langue: English

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ANINTRODUCTIONTOTHESTUDYOF ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRY

by Hiram Corson

 Hiram Corson, LL. D. , Professor of English Literature in the Cornell University; Author of “An Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare”, “A P rimer of English Verse, chiefly in its Aesthetic and Organic Character”, “The Aims of Lite rary Study”, etc.

“Subtlest Assertor of the Soul in song. ”

 {There are several Greek phrases in this book. AS CII cannot represent the Greek characters, so if you are interested in these phras es, use the following map. Hopefully these phrases will not be mistaken for another lang uage. . . .

 ASCII to Greek

A, a alpha

B, b beta

G, g gamma

D, d delta

E, e epsilon

Z, z zeta

H, h eta

Q, q theta

I, i iota

K, k kappa

L, l lambda

M, m mi/mu

N, n ni/nu

J, j ksi/xi

O, o omikron/omicron

P, p pi

R, r rho

S, s, c sigma

T, t tau

U, u ypsilon/upsilon

F, f phi

X, x chi/khi

Y, y psi

W, w omega

 ', `, /, \, ^ Accents, follow the vowel. You figu re them out. }

 {The following is transcribed from a letter (from Browning to Corson) which Corson chose to use in facsimile form to begin his text. U nfortunately (or fortunately), it will be regular text here. }

 19. Warwick Crescent. W.

 Dec. 28. '86

 My dear Dr. Corson,

 I waited some days after the arrival of your Book and Letter, thinking I might be able to say more of my sense of your goodness: but I can do no more now than a week ago. You “hope I shall not find too much to disapprove of”: what I ought to protest against, is “a load to sink a navy— too much honor”: how can I put aside your generosity, as if cold justice— however befitting myself— would be in bett er agreement with your nature? Let it remain as an assurance to younger poets that, after fifty years' work unattended by any conspicuous recognition, an over-payment may be mad e, if there be such another munificent appreciator as I have been privileged to find, in which case let them, even if more deserving, be equally grateful.

 I have not observed anything in need of correctio n in the notes. The “little Tablet” was a famous “Last Supper”, mentioned by Vasari, (page. 2 32), and gone astray long ago from the Church of S. Spirito: it turned up, according t o report, in some obscure corner, while I was in Florence, and was at once acquired by a stra nger. I saw it, genuine or no, a work of great beauty. (Page 156. ) “A canon”, in music, is a piece wherein the subject is repeated— in various keys: and being strictly obeye d in the repetition, becomes the “Canon”— the imperative law— to what follows. Fifty of such parts would be indeed a notable peal: to manage three is enough of an achie vement for a good musician.

 And now, — here is Christmas: all my best wishes go to you and Mrs Corson. Those of my sister also. She was indeed suffering from grave indisposition in the summer, but is happily recovered. I could not venture, under the c ircumstances, to expose her convalescence to the accidents of foreign travel: h ence our contenting ourselves with Wales rather than Italy. Shall you be again induced to visit us? Present or absent, you will remember me always, I trust, as

 Yours most affectionately,

 Robert Browning.

 “Quanta subtilitate ipsa corda hominum reserat, i ntimos mentis recessus explorat, varios animi motus perscrutatur. Quod ad tragoediam antiquiorem attinet, interpretatus est, uti nostis omnes, non modo Aeschylum quo nemo sublimior, sed etiam Euripidem quo nemo humanior; quo fit ut etiam illos qui Graec e nesciunt, misericordia tangat Alcestis, terrore tangat Hercules. Recentiora argum enta tragica cum lyrico quodam scribendi genere coniunxit, duas Musas et Melpomene n et Euterpen simul veneratus. Musicae miracula quis dignius cecinit? Pictoris Flo rentini sine fraude vitam quasi inter crepuscula vesperascentem coloribus quam vividis de pinxit. Vesperi quotiens, dum foco adsidemus, hoc iubente resurgit Italia. Vesperi nup er, dum huius idyllia forte meditabar, Cami inter arundines mihi videbar vocem magnam audi re clamantis, Pa\n o` me/gas ou' te/qnhken. Vivit adhuc Pan ipse, cum Marathonis mem oria et Pheidippidis velocitate immortali consociatus. ”

 — Eulogium pronounced by Mr. J. E. Sandys, Public Orator at the University of Cambridge, on presenting Mr. Browning for the honor ary degree of Doctor of Laws, June 10, 1879.

PREFACEI

The purpose of the present volume is to afford some aid and guidance in the study of Robert Browning's Poetry, which, being the most com plexly subjective of all English poetry, is, for that reason alone, the most difficu lt. And then the poet's favorite art-form, the dramatic, or, rather, psychologic, monologue, w hich is quite original with himself, and peculiarly adapted to the constitution of his geniu s and to the revelation of themselves by the several “dramatis personae”, presents certain s tructural difficulties, but difficulties which, with an increased familiarity, grow less and less. The exposition presented in the Introduction, of its constitution and skilful manag ement, and the Arguments given of the several poems included in the volume, will, it is h oped, reduce, if not altogether remove, the difficulties of this kind. In the same section of the Introduction, certain peculiarities of the poet's diction, which sometimes give a check to the reader's understanding of a passage, are presented and illustrated.

 I think it not necessary to offer any apology for my going all the way back to Chaucer, and noting the Ebb and Flow in English Poetry down to the present time, of the spirituality which constitutes the real life of poetry, and whic h should, as far as possible, be brought to the consciousness and appreciation of students. What I mean by spirituality is explained in my treatment of the subject. The degre e to which poetry is quickened with it should always enter into an estimate of its absolut e worth. It is that, indeed, which constitutes its absolute worth. The weight of thoug ht conveyed, whatever that be, will not compensate for the absence of it.

 The study of poetry, in our institutions of learn ing, so far as I have taken note of it, and the education induced thereby, are almost purely in tellectual. The student's spiritual nature is left to take care of itself; and the cons equence is that he becomes, at best, only a thinking and analyzing machine.

 The spiritual claims of the study of poetry are e specially demanded in the case of Browning's poetry. Browning is generally and truly regarded as the most intellectual of poets. No poetry in English literature, or in any l iterature, is more charged with discursive thought than his. But he is, at the same time, the most spiritual and transcendental of poets, the “subtlest assertor of the Soul in Song”. His thought is never an end to itself, but is always subservient to an ulterior spiritual end— always directed towards “a presentment of the correspondency of the universe t o Deity, of the natural to the spiritual, and of the actual to the ideal”; and it is all-impo rtant that students should be awakened, and made, as far as possible, responsive to this sp iritual end.

 The sections of the Introduction on Personality a nd Art were read before the Browning Society of London, in June, 1882. I have seen no re ason for changing or modifying, in any respect, the views therein expressed.

 The idea of personality as a quickening, regenera ting power, and the idea of art as an intermediate agency of personality, are, perhaps, t he most reiterated (implicitly, not explicitly) in Browning's poetry, and lead up to th e dominant idea of Christianity, the idea of a Divine Personality; the idea that the soul, to use an expression from his earliest poem, `Pauline', must “rest beneath some better ess ence than itself in weakness”.

 The notes to the poems will be found, I trust, to cover all points and features of the text which require explanation and elucidation. I have n ot, at any rate, wittingly passed by any real difficulties. Whether my explanations and inte rpretations will in all cases be acceptable, remains to be seen.

 Hiram Corson.