The Project Gutenberg EBook of Robert Browning, by G. K. Chesterton

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Title: Robert Browning

Author: G. K. Chesterton

Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13342]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ROBERT BROWNING

BY

G.K. CHESTERTON

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
BROWNING IN EARLY LIFE 1

CHAPTER II
EARLY WORKS 34

CHAPTER III
BROWNING AND HIS MARRIAGE 55

CHAPTER IV
BROWNING IN ITALY 81

CHAPTER V
BROWNING IN LATER LIFE 105

CHAPTER VI
BROWNING AS A LITERARY ARTIST 133

CHAPTER VII
"THE RING AND THE BOOK" 160

CHAPTER VIII
THE PHILOSOPHY OF BROWNING 177

INDEX 203

ROBERT BROWNING

CHAPTER I

BROWNING IN EARLY LIFE

On the subject of Browning's work innumerable things have been said
and remain to be said; of his life, considered as a narrative of
facts, there is little or nothing to say. It was a lucid and public
and yet quiet life, which culminated in one great dramatic test of
character, and then fell back again into this union of quietude and
publicity. And yet, in spite of this, it is a great deal more
difficult to speak finally about his life than about his work. His
work has the mystery which belongs to the complex; his life the much
greater mystery which belongs to the simple. He was clever enough to
understand his own poetry; and if he understood it, we can understand
it. But he was also entirely unconscious and impulsive, and he was
never clever enough to understand his own character; consequently we
may be excused if that part of him which was hidden from him is partly
hidden from us. The subtle man is always immeasurably easier to
understand than the natural man; for the subtle man keeps a diary of
his moods, he practises the art of self-analysis and self-revelation,
and can tell us