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EDITOR'S NOTE
Robert Browning was the son of a Bank of
England clerk. He was born at Camberwell
on the 7th May, 1812. and while quite a boy
began to write verse. He declined to adopt
a profession, but declared from the first that
be had intended to be a poet and nothing else.
His earliest publication was Pauline, which
appeared anonymously in January. 1833.
This was not his first essay in literature. for
his father had printed for him privately a
volume of poems, Incondita, in 1824.
In the winter of 1833 he went to Russia.
He returned to London through Italy. where
he saw Venice for the first time. It was then
proposed that he should print his poems in
pamphlet form. The result. a few years later,
was Bells and PomegYa 11ates, in eight
numbers (1841-46). One of these famous
pamphlets contained Pippa Passes.
In 1846 Browning. then practically unknown.
married the most famous poetess of
the time, Elizabeth Barrett. The poet and
his wife went to Florence, where they made
their home. Browning returned to England
shortly after his wife's death in 1861. and for
the two following years he lived a life of
seclusion. The Ring and the B ook, published
in 1868-69. added to the increasing lustre of
his name. Although praised for his previous
works, it was only by a select group of
admirers, and it was not until this work appeared
that he secured the attention of the
wider reading puhlic, and became famous.
Robert Browning died at Venice in 1889.
and was buried in the Poets' Corner, Westminster
Abbey.
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