"How lovely is this place in its solitude and seclusion, with its trees and shrubs and flowers, and above all its live mountain stream which supplies three fountains, and two delightful baths, a marvel of delicate delight framed in with trees--I bathe there twice a day--and then what wonderful views from the chalet on every side! Geneva lying under us, with the lake and the whole plain bounded by the Jura and our own Saleve, which latter seems rather close behind our house, and yet takes a hard hour and a half to ascend--all this you can imagine since you know the environs of the town; the peace and quiet move me the most--And I fancy I shall drowse out the two months or more, doing no more of serious work than reading--and that is virtuous renunciation of the glorious view to my right here--as I sit aerially like Euripides, and see the clouds come and go and the view change in correspondence with them. It will help me to get rid of the pain which attaches itself to the recollections of Lucerne and Berne "in the old days when the Greeks suffered so much," as Homer says. But a very real and sharp pain touched me here when I heard of the death of poor Virginia March whom I knew particularly, and parted with hardly a fortnight ago, leaving her affectionate and happy as ever. The tones of her voice as on one memorable occasion she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed repeatedly "Good friend!" are fresh still. Poor Virginia! ..."
Mr. Browning was more than quiescent during this stay in the Savoyard mountains. He was unusually depressed, and unusually disposed to regard the absence from home as a banishment; and he tried subsequently to account for this condition by the shadow which coming trouble sometimes casts before it. It was more probably due to the want of the sea air which he had enjoyed for so many years, and to that special oppressive heat of the Swiss valleys which ascends with them to almost their highest level. When he said that the Saleve seemed close behind the house, he was saying in other words that the sun beat back from, and the air was intercepted by it. We see, nevertheless, in his description of the surrounding scenery, a promise of the contemplative delight in natural beauty to be henceforth so conspicuous in his experience, and which seemed a new feature in it. He had hitherto approached every living thing with curious and sympathetic observation--this hardly requires saying of one who had animals for his first and always familiar friends. Flowers also attracted him by their perfume. But what he loved in nature was essentially its prefiguring of human existence, or its echo of it; and it never appeared, in either his works or his conversation, that he was much impressed by its inanimate forms--by even those larger phenomena of mountain and cloud-land on which the latter dwells. Such beauty as most appealed to him he had left behind with the joys and sorrows of his Italian life, and it had almost inevitably pa.s.sed out of his consideration. During years of his residence in London he never thought of the country as a source of pleasurable emotions, other than those contingent on renewed health; and the places to which he resorted had often not much beyond their health-giving qualities to recommend them; his appet.i.te for the beautiful had probably dwindled for lack of food. But when a friend once said to him: "You have not a great love for nature, have you?" he had replied: "Yes, I have, but I love men and women better;" and the admission, which conveyed more than it literally expressed, would have been true I believe at any, up to the present, period of his history. Even now he did not cease to love men and women best; but he found increasing enjoyment in the beauties of nature, above all as they opened upon him on the southern slopes of the Alps; and the delight of the aesthetic sense merged gradually in the satisfied craving for pure air and brilliant sunshine which marked his final struggle for physical life. A ring of enthusiasm comes into his letters from the mountains, and deepens as the years advance; doubtless enhanced by the great--perhaps too great--exhilaration which the Alpine atmosphere produced, but also in large measure independent of it. Each new place into which the summer carries him he declares more beautiful than the last. It possibly was so.
A touch of autumnal freshness had barely crept into the atmosphere of the Saleve, when a moral thunderbolt fell on the little group of persons domiciled at its base: Miss Egerton-Smith died, in what had seemed for her unusually good health, in the act of preparing for a mountain excursion with her friends--the words still almost on her lips in which she had given some directions for their comfort. Mr. Browning"s impressionable nervous system was for a moment paralyzed by the shock.
It revived in all the emotional and intellectual impulses which gave birth to "La Saisiaz".
This poem contains, besides its personal reference and a.s.sociation, elements of distinctive biographical interest. It is the author"s first--as also last--attempt to reconstruct his hope of immortality by a rational process based entirely on the fundamental facts of his own knowledge and consciousness--G.o.d and the human soul; and while the very a.s.sumption of these facts, as basis for reasoning, places him at issue with scientific thought, there is in his way of handling them a tribute to the scientific spirit, perhaps foreshadowed in the beautiful epilogue to "Dramatis Personae", but of which there is no trace in his earlier religious works. It is conclusive both in form and matter as to his heterodox att.i.tude towards Christianity. He was no less, in his way, a Christian when he wrote "La Saisiaz" than when he published "A Death in the Desert" and "Christmas Eve and Easter Day"; or at any period subsequent to that in which he accepted without questioning what he had learned at his mother"s knee. He has repeatedly written or declared in the words of Charles Lamb:* "If Christ entered the room I should fall on my knees;" and again, in those of Napoleon: "I am an understander of men, and _he_ was no man." He has even added: "If he had been, he would have been an impostor." But the arguments, in great part negative, set forth in "La Saisiaz" for the immortality of the soul, leave no place for the idea, however indefinite, of a Christian revelation on the subject. Christ remained for Mr. Browning a mystery and a message of Divine Love, but no messenger of Divine intention towards mankind.
* These words have more significance when taken with their context. "If Shakespeare was to come into the room, we should all rise up to meet him; but if that Person [meaning Christ] was to come into the room, we should all fall down and try to kiss the hem of his garment."
The dialogue between Fancy and Reason is not only an admission of uncertainty as to the future of the Soul: it is a plea for it; and as such it gathers up into its few words of direct statement, threads of reasoning which have been traceable throughout Mr. Browning"s work. In this plea for uncertainty lies also a full and frank acknowledgment of the value of the earthly life; and as interpreted by his general views, that value a.s.serts itself, not only in the means of probation which life affords, but in its existing conditions of happiness. No one, he declares, possessing the certainty of a future state would patiently and fully live out the present; and since the future can be only the ripened fruit of the present, its promise would be neutralized, as well as actual experience dwarfed, by a definite revelation. Nor, conversely, need the want of a certified future depress the present spiritual and moral life. It is in the nature of the Soul that it would suffer from the promise. The existence of G.o.d is a justification for hope. And since the certainty would be injurious to the Soul, hence destructive to itself, the doubt--in other words, the hope--becomes a sufficient approach to, a working subst.i.tute for it. It is pathetic to see how in spite of the convictions thus rooted in Mr. Browning"s mind, the expressed craving for more knowledge, for more light, will now and then escape him.
Even orthodox Christianity gives no a.s.surance of reunion to those whom death has separated. It is obvious that Mr. Browning"s poetic creed could hold no conviction regarding it. He hoped for such reunion in proportion as he wished. There must have been moments in his life when the wish in its pa.s.sion overleapt the bounds of hope. "Prospice" appears to prove this. But the wide range of imagination, no less than the lack of knowledge, forbade in him any forecast of the possibilities of the life to come. He believed that if granted, it would be an advance on the present--an accession of knowledge if not an increase of happiness. He was satisfied that whatever it gave, and whatever it withheld, it would be good. In his normal condition this sufficed to him.
"La Saisiaz" appeared in the early summer of 1878, and with it "The Two Poets of Croisic", which had been written immediately after it. The various incidents of this poem are strictly historical; they lead the way to a characteristic utterance of Mr. Browning"s philosophy of life to which I shall recur later.
In 1872 Mr. Browning had published a first series of selections from his works; it was to be followed by a second in 1880. In a preface to the earlier volume, he indicates the plan which he has followed in the choice and arrangement of poems; and some such intention runs also through the second; since he declined a suggestion made to him for the introduction or placing of a special poem, on the ground of its not conforming to the end he had in view. It is difficult, in the one case as in the other, to reconstruct the imagined personality to which his preface refers; and his words on the later occasion pointed rather to that idea of a chord of feeling which is raised by the correspondence of the first and last poems of the respective groups. But either clue may be followed with interest.
Chapter 18
1878-1884
He revisits Italy; Asolo; Letters to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald--Venice--Favourite Alpine Retreats--Mrs. Arthur Bronson--Life in Venice--A Tragedy at Saint-Pierre--Mr. Cholmondeley--Mr. Browning"s Patriotic Feeling; Extract from Letter to Mrs. Charles Skirrow--"Dramatic Idyls"--"Jocoseria"--"Ferishtah"s Fancies".
The catastrophe of La Saisiaz closed a comprehensive chapter in Mr.
Browning"s habits and experience. It impelled him finally to break with the a.s.sociations of the last seventeen autumns, which he remembered more in their tedious or painful circ.u.mstances than in the unexciting pleasure and renewed physical health which he had derived from them. He was weary of the ever-recurring effort to uproot himself from his home life, only to become stationary in some more or less uninteresting northern spot. The always latent desire for Italy sprang up in him, and with it the often present thought and wish to give his sister the opportunity of seeing it.
Florence and Rome were not included in his scheme; he knew them both too well; but he hankered for Asolo and Venice. He determined, though as usual reluctantly, and not till the last moment, that they should move southwards in the August of 1878. Their route lay over the Spluegen; and having heard of a comfortable hotel near the summit of the Pa.s.s, they agreed to remain there till the heat had sufficiently abated to allow of the descent into Lombardy. The advantages of this first arrangement exceeded their expectations. It gave them solitude without the sense of loneliness. A little stream of travellers pa.s.sed constantly over the mountain, and they could shake hands with acquaintances at night, and know them gone in the morning. They dined at the table d"hote, but took all other meals alone, and slept in a detached wing or "dependance"
of the hotel. Their daily walks sometimes carried them down to the Via Mala; often to the top of the ascent, where they could rest, looking down into Italy; and would even be prolonged over a period of five hours and an extent of seventeen miles. Now, as always, the mountain air stimulated Mr. Browning"s physical energy; and on this occasion it also especially quickened his imaginative powers. He was preparing the first series of "Dramatic Idylls"; and several of these, including "Ivan Ivanovitch", were produced with such rapidity that Miss Browning refused to countenance a prolonged stay on the mountain, unless he worked at a more reasonable rate.
They did not linger on their way to Asolo and Venice, except for a night"s rest on the Lake of Como and two days at Verona. In their successive journeys through Northern Italy they visited by degrees all its notable cities, and it would be easy to recall, in order and detail, most of these yearly expeditions. But the account of them would chiefly resolve itself into a list of names and dates; for Mr. Browning had seldom a new impression to receive, even from localities which he had not seen before. I know that he and his sister were deeply struck by the deserted grandeurs of Ravenna; and that it stirred in both of them a memorable sensation to wander as they did for a whole day through the pinewoods consecrated by Dante. I am nevertheless not sure that when they performed the repeated round of picture-galleries and palaces, they were not sometimes simply paying their debt to opportunity, and as much for each other"s sake as for their own. Where all was Italy, there was little to gain or lose in one memorial of greatness, one object of beauty, visited or left unseen. But in Asolo, even in Venice, Mr.
Browning was seeking something more: the remembrance of his own actual and poetic youth. How far he found it in the former place we may infer from a letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald.
Sept. 28, 1878.
And from "Asolo", at last, dear friend! So can dreams come _false_.--S., who has been writing at the opposite side of the table, has told you about our journey and adventures, such as they were: but she cannot tell you the feelings with which I revisit this--to me--memorable place after above forty years" absence,--such things have begun and ended with me in the interval! It was _too_ strange when we reached the ruined tower on the hill-top yesterday, and I said "Let me try if the echo still exists which I discovered here," (you can produce it from only _one_ particular spot on a remainder of brickwork--) and thereupon it answered me plainly as ever, after all the silence: for some children from the adjoining "podere", happening to be outside, heard my voice and its result--and began trying to perform the feat--calling "Yes, yes"--all in vain: so, perhaps, the mighty secret will die with me! We shall probably stay here a day or two longer,--the air is so pure, the country so attractive: but we must go soon to Venice, stay our allotted time there, and then go homeward: you will of course address letters to Venice, not this place: it is a pleasure I promise myself that, on arriving I shall certainly hear you speak in a letter which I count upon finding.
The old inn here, to which I would fain have betaken myself, is gone--levelled to the ground: I remember it was much damaged by a recent earthquake, and the cracks and chasms may have threatened a downfall.
This Stella d"Oro is, however, much such an unperverted "locanda" as its predecessor--primitive indeed are the arrangements and unsophisticate the ways: but there is cleanliness, abundance of goodwill, and the sweet Italian smile at every mistake: we get on excellently. To be sure never was such a perfect fellow-traveller, for my purposes, as S., so that I have no subject of concern--if things suit me they suit her--and vice-versa. I daresay she will have told you how we trudged together, this morning to Possagno--through a lovely country: how we saw all the wonders--and a wonder of detestability is the paint-performance of the great man!--and how, on our return, we found the little town enjoying high market day, and its privilege of roaring and screaming over a bargain. It confuses me altogether,--but at Venice I may write more comfortably. You will till then, Dear Friend, remember me ever as yours affectionately, Robert Browning.
If the tone of this does not express disappointment, it has none of the rapture which his last visit was to inspire. The charm which forty years of remembrance had cast around the little city on the hill was dispelled for, at all events, the time being. The hot weather and dust-covered landscape, with the more than primitive accommodation of which he spoke in a letter to another friend, may have contributed something to this result.
At Venice the travellers fared better in some essential respects.
A London acquaintance, who pa.s.sed them on their way to Italy, had recommended a cool and quiet hotel there, the Albergo dell" Universo.
The house, Palazzo Brandolin-Rota, was situated on the shady side of the Grand Ca.n.a.l, just below the Accademia and the Suspension Bridge. The open stretches of the Giudecca lay not far behind; and a sc.r.a.p of garden and a clean and open little street made pleasant the approach from back and side. It accommodated few persons in proportion to its size, and fewer still took up their abode there; for it was managed by a lady of good birth and fallen fortunes whose home and patrimony it had been; and her husband, a retired Austrian officer, and two grown-up daughters did not lighten her task. Every year the fortunes sank lower; the upper storey of the house was already falling into decay, and the fine old furniture pa.s.sing into the brokers" or private buyers" hands. It still, however, afforded sufficiently comfortable, and, by reason of its very drawbacks, desirable quarters to Mr. Browning. It perhaps turned the scale in favour of his return to Venice; for the lady whose hospitality he was to enjoy there was as yet unknown to him; and nothing would have induced him to enter, with his eyes open, one of the English-haunted hotels, in which acquaintance, old and new, would daily greet him in the public rooms or jostle him in the corridors.
He and his sister remained at the Universo for a fortnight; their programme did not this year include a longer stay; but it gave them time to decide that no place could better suit them for an autumn holiday than Venice, or better lend itself to a preparatory sojourn among the Alps; and the plan of their next, and, though they did not know it, many a following summer, was thus sketched out before the homeward journey had begun.
Mr. Browning did not forget his work, even while resting from it; if indeed he did rest entirely on this occasion. He consulted a Russian lady whom he met at the hotel, on the names he was introducing in "Ivan Ivanovitch". It would be interesting to know what suggestions or corrections she made, and how far they adapted themselves to the rhythm already established, or compelled changes in it; but the one alternative would as little have troubled him as the other. Mrs. Browning told Mr.
Prinsep that her husband could never alter the wording of a poem without rewriting it, indeed, practically converting it into another; though he more than once tried to do so at her instigation. But to the end of his life he could at any moment recast a line or pa.s.sage for the sake of greater correctness, and leave all that was essential in it untouched.
Seven times more in the eleven years which remained to him, Mr. Browning spent the autumn in Venice. Once also, in 1882, he had proceeded towards it as far as Verona, when the floods which marked the autumn of that year arrested his farther course. Each time he had halted first in some more or less elevated spot, generally suggested by his French friend, Monsieur Dourlans, himself an inveterate wanderer, whose inclinations also tempted him off the beaten track. The places he most enjoyed were Saint-Pierre la Chartreuse, and Gressoney Saint-Jean, where he stayed respectively in 1881 and 1882, 1883 and 1885. Both of these had the drawbacks, and what might easily have been the dangers, of remoteness from the civilized world. But this weighed with him so little, that he remained there in each case till the weather had broken, though there was no sheltered conveyance in which he and his sister could travel down; and on the later occasions at least, circ.u.mstances might easily have combined to prevent their departure for an indefinite time. He became, indeed, so attached to Gressoney, with its beautiful outlook upon Monte Rosa, that nothing I believe would have hindered his returning, or at least contemplating a return to it, but the great fatigue to his sister of the mule ride up the mountain, by a path which made walking, wherever possible, the easier course. They did walk _down_ it in the early October of 1885, and completed the hard seven hours"
trudge to San Martino d"Aosta, without an atom of refreshment or a minute"s rest.
One of the great attractions of Saint-Pierre was the vicinity of the Grande Chartreuse, to which Mr. Browning made frequent expeditions, staying there through the night in order to hear the midnight ma.s.s. Miss Browning also once attempted the visit, but was not allowed to enter the monastery. She slept in the adjoining convent.
The brother and sister were again at the Universo in 1879, 1880, and 1881; but the crash was rapidly approaching, and soon afterwards it came. The old Palazzo pa.s.sed into other hands, and after a short period of private ownership was consigned to the purposes of an Art Gallery.
In 1880, however, they had been introduced by Mrs. Story to an American resident, Mrs. Arthur Bronson, and entered into most friendly relations with her; and when, after a year"s interval, they were again contemplating an autumn in Venice, she placed at their disposal a suite of rooms in the Palazzo Giustiniani Recanati, which formed a supplement to her own house--making the offer with a kindly urgency which forbade all thought of declining it. They inhabited these for a second time in 1885, keeping house for themselves in the simple but comfortable foreign manner they both so well enjoyed, only dining and spending the evening with their friend. But when, in 1888, they were going, as they thought, to repeat the arrangement, they found, to their surprise, a little apartment prepared for them under Mrs. Bronson"s own roof. This act of hospitality involved a special kindness on her part, of which Mr.
Browning only became aware at the close of a prolonged stay; and a sense of increased grat.i.tude added itself to the affectionate regard with which his hostess had already inspired both his sister and him. So far as he is concerned, the fact need only be indicated. It is fully expressed in the preface to "Asolando".
During the first and fresher period of Mr. Browning"s visits to Venice, he found a pa.s.sing attraction in its society. It held an historical element which harmonized well with the decayed magnificence of the city, its old-world repose, and the comparatively simple modes of intercourse still prevailing there. Mrs. Bronson"s "salon" was hospitably open whenever her health allowed; but her natural refinement, and the conservatism which so strongly marks the higher cla.s.s of Americans, preserved it from the heterogeneous character which Anglo-foreign sociability so often a.s.sumes. Very interesting, even important names lent their prestige to her circle; and those of Don Carlos and his family, of Prince and Princess Iturbide, of Prince and Princess Metternich, and of Princess Montenegro, were on the list of her "habitues", and, in the case of the royal Spaniards, of her friends. It need hardly be said that the great English poet, with his fast spreading reputation and his infinite social charm, was kindly welcomed and warmly appreciated amongst them.
English and American acquaintances also congregated in Venice, or pa.s.sed through it from London, Florence, and Rome. Those resident in Italy could make their visits coincide with those of Mr. Browning and his sister, or undertake the journey for the sake of seeing them; while the outward conditions of life were such as to render friendly intercourse more satisfactory, and common social civilities less irksome than they could be at home. Mr. Browning was, however, already too advanced in years, too familiar with everything which the world can give, to be long affected by the novelty of these experiences. It was inevitable that the need of rest, though often for the moment forgotten, should a.s.sert itself more and more. He gradually declined on the society of a small number of resident or semi-resident friends; and, due exception being made for the hospitalities of his temporary home, became indebted to the kindness of Sir Henry and Lady Layard, of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis of Palazzo Barbaro, and of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Eden, for most of the social pleasure and comfort of his later residences in Venice.
Part of a letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald gives an insight into the character of his life there: all the stronger that it was written under a temporary depression which it partly serves to explain.
Albergo dell" Universo, Venezia, Italia: Sept. 24, "81.
"Dear Friend,--On arriving here I found your letter to my great satisfaction--and yesterday brought the "Sat.u.r.day Review"--for which, many thanks.
"We left our strange but lovely place on the 18th, reaching Chambery at evening,--stayed the next day there,--walking, among other diversions to "Les Charmettes", the famous abode of Rousseau--kept much as when he left it: I visited it with my wife perhaps twenty-five years ago, and played so much of "Rousseau"s Dream" as could be effected on his antique harpsichord: this time I attempted the same feat, but only two notes or thereabouts out of the octave would answer the touch. Next morning we proceeded to Turin, and on Wednesday got here, in the middle of the last night of the Congress Carnival--rowing up the Ca.n.a.l to our Albergo through a dazzling blaze of lights and throng of boats,--there being, if we are told truly, 50,000 strangers in the city. Rooms had been secured for us, however: and the festivities are at an end, to my great joy,--for Venice is resuming its old quiet aspect--the only one I value at all. Our American friends wanted to take us in their gondola to see the princ.i.p.al illuminations _after_ the "Serenade", which was not over before midnight--but I was contented with _that_--being tired and indisposed for talking, and, having seen and heard quite enough from our own balcony, went to bed: S. having betaken her to her own room long before.
"Next day we took stock of our acquaintances,--found that the Storys, on whom we had counted for company, were at Vallombrosa, though the two sons have a studio here--other friends are in sufficient number however--and last evening we began our visits by a very cla.s.sical one--to the Countess Mocenigo, in her palace which Byron occupied: she is a charming widow since two years,--young, pretty and of the prettiest manners: she showed us all the rooms Byron had lived in,--and I wrote my name in her alb.u.m _on_ the desk himself wrote the last canto of "Ch.
Harold" and "Beppo" upon. There was a small party: we were taken and introduced by the Layards who are kind as ever, and I met old friends--Lord Aberdare, Charles Bowen, and others. While I write comes a deliciously fresh "bouquet" from Mrs. Bronson, an American lady,--in short we shall find a week or two amusing enough; though--where are the pinewoods, mountains and torrents, and wonderful air? Venice is under a cloud,--dull and threatening,--though we were apprehensive of heat, arriving, as we did, ten days earlier than last year... ."
The evening"s programme was occasionally varied by a visit to one of the theatres. The plays given were chiefly in the Venetian dialect, and needed previous study for their enjoyment; but Mr. Browning a.s.sisted at one musical performance which strongly appealed to his historical and artistic sensibilities: that of the "Barbiere" of Paisiello in the Rossini theatre and in the presence of Wagner, which took place in the autumn of 1880.
Although the manner of his sojourn in the Italian city placed all the resources of resident life at his command, Mr. Browning never abjured the active habits of the English traveller. He daily walked with his sister, as he did in the mountains, for walking"s sake, as well as for the delight of what his expeditions showed him; and the facilities which they supplied for this healthful pleasurable exercise were to his mind one of the great merits of his autumn residences in Italy. He explored Venice in all directions, and learned to know its many points of beauty and interest, as those cannot who believe it is only to be seen from a gondola; and when he had visited its every corner, he fell back on a favourite stroll along the Riva to the public garden and back again; never failing to leave the house at about the same hour of the day.
Later still, when a friend"s gondola was always at hand, and air and sunshine were the one thing needful, he would be carried to the Lido, and take a long stretch on its farther sh.o.r.e.
The letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald, from which I have already quoted, concludes with the account of a tragic occurrence which took place at Saint-Pierre just before his departure, and in which Mr. Browning"s intuitions had played a striking part.
"And what do you think befell us in this abode of peace and innocence?
Our journey was delayed for three hours in consequence of the one mule of the village being requisitioned by the "Juge d"Instruction" from Gren.o.ble, come to enquire into a murder committed two days before.
My sister and I used once a day to walk for a couple of hours up a mountain-road of the most lovely description, and stop at the summit whence we looked down upon the minute hamlet of St.-Pierre d"Entremont,--even more secluded than our own: then we got back to our own aforesaid. And in this Paradisial place, they found, yesterday week, a murdered man--frightfully mutilated--who had been caught apparently in the act of stealing potatoes in a field: such a crime had never occurred in the memory of the oldest of our folk. Who was the murderer is the mystery--whether the field"s owner--in his irritation at discovering the robber,--or one of a band of similar "charbonniers" (for they suppose the man to be a Piedmontese of that occupation) remains to be proved: they began by imprisoning the owner, who denies his guilt energetically. Now the odd thing is, that, either the day of, or after the murder,--as I and S. were looking at the utter solitude, I had the fancy "What should I do if I suddenly came upon a dead body in this field? Go and proclaim it--and subject myself to all the vexations inflicted by the French way of procedure (which begins by a.s.suming that you may be the criminal)--or neglect an obvious duty, and return silently." I, of course, saw that the former was the only proper course, whatever the annoyance involved. And, all the while, there was just about to be the very same incident for the trouble of somebody."