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account for him. He began writing about the case in autumn 1864 and, working on it for three hours every morning, completed the poemʹs 21,000 lines, divided into twelve books, in spring 1868. Browning chose a new publisher for his poem: Smith, Elder & Co., whose senior partner, George Murray Smith, the poet had known since 1843. Initially contemplating serial publication in magazines, the poet and his new publisher finally decided on the appearance of the poem in four volumes. Named The Ring and the Book, perhaps because this suggested the poetʹs own initials, the volumes were published in monthly instalments in the last two months of 1868 and the first two of 1869. In the first book, Browning, barely disguised as the narrator, offers three versions of the murder case and instructs his audience to choose the true account. In the following ten books Browning presents the accounts and interpretations of various figures, including ‘Half‐Rome’; ‘The Other Half‐Rome’; Count Guido; the priest accused of adultery; and Pompilia herself, whose account is ostensibly related on her deathbed. Even the pope is given a book of the poem in which to state his views on the murder. In book 12 the narrator again offers several versions of the story, and the audience for whom this piece of Roman history has been resuscitated is presented not with the poetʹs claim of truth, but with a kind of documental drama from which they must decide for themselves. At the end of this work, Browning asks the reader to take away: This lesson, that our human speech is naught, Our human testimony false, our fame And human estimation words and wind. Why take the artistic way to prove so much? Because, it is the glory and good of Art, That Art remains the one way possible Of speaking truth, to mouths like mine, at least. (The Ring and the Book, XII.834–40) In Browningʹs view, a right interpretation of the case, like that of the Bible, is almost provisional: an approximation for the time being. But, ultimately, this does not devalue the attempt to seek out that truth. The ‘British public, ye who like me not’ (I.405, 1371) were wooed and won, as Browningʹs wish that it ‘may like me yet, / (Marry and amen!)’ (XII.831) was finally fulfilled. Sales were high, and reviews were adulatory, The Athenaeum of 20 March 1869 calling The Ring and the Book ‘the opus magnum of our generation … the most precious and profound spiritual treasure that England has produced since the days of Shakspeare’. Even the queen was impressed by the poetʹs new reputation, inviting him to an audience in March along with Carlyle and two other eminent men. About the same time Browning also received and declined an invitation to become lord rector of St Andrews University. But the pleasure in public acclaim was lessened when he seems to have learned of his sonʹs sexual activities in Brittany the previous summer. And at about this time he became seriously ill and for several months remained housebound. The Lady Ashburton episode During summer 1869, with Browning unable to enjoy his usual holiday in Brittany, he, Sarianna, and Pen joined the Storys in Scotland, where he had never been before. Plagued by the bad weather and uncomfortable lodgings, they received an invitation to the ‘lodge’ at Loch Luichart to visit Louisa, the widowed Lady Ashburton, whom Browning had known since before her marriage to the wealthy second Baron Ashburton. Although he had earlier refused such an invitation, Browning, along with the others, felt compelled by her insistence to accept the invitation. Some days after they arrived, Lady Ashburton apparently suggested that since both he and she were widowed and struggling to bring up a child, their marriage might be felicitous. Browning was politely evasive, and seems to have defused the situation, for when he and his party left, everyone was cheerful. Browning and the Storys went on to visit their friends George and Rosalind Howard (later earl and countess of Carlisle) at their castle in Cumberland. There the Storysʹ 25‐year‐old unmarried daughter, Edith (Edy or
Edie), confided to her hostess that Lady Ashburton had declared her love for the poet, that Browning had asked Edieʹs advice, and that she had advised him that it was not right to marry a woman simply for her position and his sonʹs sake. Edie further reported that a letter had come from Lady Ashburton wishing to settle the matter and that Browning had replied saying no. Edie also claimed that Browning was in love with her and was forcing his attentions on her, but Rosalind Howard did not believe her on this point, and assumed that the passion she ascribed to the poet was probably Edieʹs own for him. Browning returned to London in September and for the next seven or eight months was often away from Warwick Crescent, visiting the country houses of the great and famous, and visiting Pen at Christ Church, Oxford, where he had arranged for his admission, believing it to be easier than Balliol. In June 1870 Pen failed his examinations and was forced to leave Christ Church. Browning became disconsolate and angry with his son not only for his academic failures but also for his spendthrift nature and idleness. In summer 1871 Browning and Pen set off for another holiday in Scotland. Pen had visited Lady Ashburton and her daughter earlier in the year at their home in the south, and perhaps because of this, they again visited Loch Luichart. Lady Ashburton raised the issue of marriage once more, and Browning told her that his heart lay buried in Florence and any attractiveness of marriage lay in its advantage to Pen. Browning left the next day, realizing that her vanity was wounded. She nevertheless wrote to him in derogatory language, he reported to a friend, and she also told others that he had ill‐treated her. Thereafter he met her only on large social occasions and viewed her as contemptible and unworthy of conversation. Long poems of the 1870s In spring 1871 Browning began composing a poem published in August of the same year: Balaustionʹs Adventure: Including a Transcript from Euripides. The greater part of the poem is the young Balaustionʹs account of the performance of the first extant drama by Euripides, the Alcestis of 438 BC. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had admired Euripides, and the motto of the poem comes from her Wine of Cyprus (1844). The poem is a modern adaptation, rather than a strict translation, forming what Browning called a ‘transcript’— scenes are shortened and deleted, the Chorusʹs role is reduced, and the descriptions and actions of the main characters are altered. The general movement of the play differs from that of the original, with Balaustionʹs interpretation shoring up her main concern of salvation through love and art. Her account interweaves her commentary on the characters with Euripides dramatic colloquies, so that Admetus learns the meaning of love and loss, while Heracles is Christianized into a god‐man devoted to relieving the sufferings of others. What Balaustion in effect presents is a ‘higher criticism’ of the play that looks beyond the actual text in an attempt to grasp Euripides essential meaning. Some critics feel that the poem has autobiographical elements, with the portraits of Alcestis and Admetus ‘affected by points of resemblance to Mrs Browning and the poet himself’ (Poems, 1.1170). Admetus, for instance, is insistent that he will not remarry, and this emphasis may well have derived from Browningʹs recent experience with Lady Ashburton. In the epilogue Balaustion is revealed as the mask of the poet, who, quoting from his late wife and still smarting from earlier critical neglect, nevertheless asserts his self‐confidence by asking in the final line ‘Why crown whom Zeus has crowned in soul before?’ It was well received at the time, with the 2500 copies of the first edition quickly selling out. While in Scotland, Browning began to write a poem conceived of in rough draft in Rome in 1860. Prince Hohenstiel‐Schwangau, Saviour of Society (December 1871) was based on the career of Napoleon III, who had been defeated (to Browningʹs delight) by the Germans the previous year, and had taken refuge in England. Although he had never shared his wifeʹs enthusiasm for the emperor, Browning had on occasion seen some good in him. In the poem, a long monologue, he addresses the problem of why people with good intentions fail to pursue them, in the end showing that this person who claims to be a man of action is merely an indecisive homme sensuel. The poem sold well initially, 1400 copies in five days, but sales soon tailed off. Reviewers were also baffled by a work which asks the reader to be both sympathetic and judgemental of the monologuist, and although Browning himself thought it to be ‘a sample of my very best work’ (Poems, 1.1177) it is now among the least read of his poems.
Page 1 and 2: The lives of the poets from The Dic
Page 3 and 4: this on Armageddon, ‘altering the
Page 5 and 6: Yet in the first stricken month, Te
Page 7 and 8: His wife was of unique importance t
Page 9 and 10: So at last, in May 1842, Tennyson i
Page 11 and 12: which he mentioned to Milnes in 183
Page 13 and 14: Tennysonʹs Arthurian interests wer
Page 15 and 16: would have been cured of his sorrow
Page 17 and 18: He told very accurately, almost in
Page 19 and 20: Very imperfect as it is, it is neve
Page 21 and 22: would stay. Here, of all things, wa
Page 23 and 24: the seaside. As a young girl she wa
Page 25 and 26: then at 30 Torrington Square (she l
Page 27 and 28: Victorian Verse (1987) allots her t
Page 29 and 30: voraciously, Browning soon became a
Page 31 and 32: Browningʹs conception of the poem
Page 33 and 34: was settled when he agreed that the
Page 35 and 36: By early June 1854 the Brownings we
Page 37: In London Browning and Pen took tem
Page 41 and 42: When published on 15 April 1875, Ar
Page 43 and 44: are three points of view to be cons
Page 45 and 46: ed., Robert Browning and Alfred Dom

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