1889; funeral in Westminster Abbey; Sonnet by
George Meredith; new star in Orion; R. Browning's place in literature;
Summary, etc. Page 176.

NOTE.

In all important respects I leave this volume to speak for itself. For
obvious reasons it does not pretend to be more than a _Memoire pour
servir_: in the nature of things, the definitive biography cannot appear
for many years to come. None the less gratefully may I take the present
opportunity to express my indebtedness to Mr. R. Barrett Browning, and
to other relatives and intimate friends of Robert Browning, who have
given me serviceable information, and otherwise rendered kindly aid. For
some of the hitherto unpublished details my thanks are, in particular,
due to Mrs. Fraser Corkran and Miss Alice Corkran, and to other old
friends of the poet and his family, here, in Italy, and in America;
though in one or two instances, I may add, I had them from Robert
Browning himself. It is with pleasure that I further acknowledge my
indebtedness to Dr. Furnivall, for the loan of the advance-proofs of his
privately-printed pamphlet on "Browning's Ancestors"; and to the
Browning Society's Publications--particularly to Mrs. Sutherland Orr's
and Dr. Furnivall's biographical and bibliographical contributions
thereto; to Mr. Gosse's biographical article in the _Century Magazine_
for 1881; to Mr. Ingram's _Life of E.B. Browning_; and to the _Memoirs
of Anna Jameson_, the _Italian Note-Books_ of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr.
G.S. Hillard's _Six Months in Italy_ (1853), and the Lives and
Correspondence of Macready, Miss Mitford, Leigh Hunt, and Walter Savage
Landor. I regret that the imperative need of concision has prevented the
insertion of many of the letters, anecdotes, and reminiscences, so
generously placed at my disposal; but possibly I may have succeeded in
educing from them some essential part of that light which they
undoubtedly cast upon the personality and genius of the poet.

LIFE OF BROWNING.

CHAPTER I.

It must, to admirers of Browning's writings, appear singularly
appropriate that so cosmopolitan a poet was born in London. It would
seem as though something of that mighty complex life, so confusedly
petty to the narrow vision, so grandiose and even majestic to the larger
ken, had blent with his being from the first. What fitter birthplace for
the poet whom a comrade has called the "Subtlest Assertor of the Soul in
Song," the poet whose writings are ind