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Celebrating Robert Browning
Michael Timko
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Photogravure of Robert Browning,
1865, printed c. 1893
While some celebrate Robert Browning’s 200th birthday (May 7, 2012), most of the world is not aware of it. In stark contrast to the numerous celebrations going on in honor of Charles Dickens, whose 200th birthday we also celebrate this year, very little is being done to honor the author of many plays, poems, and the “inventor” of the dramatic monologue. Britain has even issued a stamp and put out a new coin for “the Inimitable,” as Dickens liked to call himself, but nothing has been done for Browning. For many good reasons we Americans ought to try to remedy this oversight.
Unlike Dickens, who led a very unstable early life, Robert Browning’s early years were quite different. He was born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell (a suburb of London), the first child of Robert and Sarah Anna Browning. His father, a clerk for the Bank of England, was interested in history, art, and music. His mother was an accomplished musician and deeply religious. Robert, educated at home, had access to his father’s large library. Fluent in French, Greek, Italian and Latin at an early age, Browning became a devout follower of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley. He spent part of a year at London University, but soon abandoned formal schooling and remained with his parents, financially dependent on them, until his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett in 1836.
Browning published a great deal in his lifetime, but he never has been as well known as Dickens, even in his own time. His first significant work was Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833). He then published Paracelsus (1835) and Sordello (1840). Needless to say, not one of these was as successful as Dickens’ novels. Browning himself had called Pauline an abortion, and Sordello became the butt of many jokes. Thomas Carlyle wrote that his wife Jane has read the poem through and had not been about to tell is if Sordello was a man and city or a book. Another reader was said to have commented, “I understood only two lines of the poem. The first, ŒI will tell the story of Sordello,’ and the last ŒI have told the story of Sordello.’” Dissatisfied with these efforts, Browning was to devote the next ten years to writing plays. While none of these efforts were a success, they were to provide him with the key to his most popular poetic genre: the dramatic monologue.
While Browning was influenced by the Romantic poets, he perfected a form that in many ways differed from the lyric poetry of Shelley, Keats, and Wordsworth. He is known today for his employment of the dramatic monologue, a literary genre that uses specific situations and poetic techniques. One dictionary of literary terms defines the dramatic monologue in this way: “a poem in which there is one imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience.” Another handbook is more detailed in its description: “The dramatic poem consists of the thoughts or spoken statement (or both) of one or more characters other than the poet himself in a particular life situation. It is dramatic rather than narrative since the character is not Œwritten about’ by the poet; rather, the poem consists of the character’s own thoughts or spoken statements. . . . A poem recording his speech is called a dramatic monologue.”
Browning wrote many dramatic monologues, many of which are still popular today, and his influence on our own American poets was significant. Among his best known dramatic monologues are “Porphyria’s Lover,” “My Last Duchess,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister,” “The Laboratory,” “The Lost Leader,” “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church,” “Fra Lippo Lippi,” and “Andrea del Sarto.” All of these are impressive examples of the genre: there is a speaker, a present or implied listener or listeners, and the “puzzle” concerning the speaker’s reliability. Is the speaker telling the truth, or is he or she to be trusted? In “My Last Duchess,” for instance, the Duke is speaking of his own last Duchess. He comments on her character, her likes and dislikes, all of which he finds disgusting. Reading between the lines, however, the listener discovers that the last Duchess was not at all as the Duke describes her. The evidence shows that he is not to be believed.
It is the same in all the other dramatic monologues of Browning. In “The Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” the listener soon learns that the monk who is speaking is not to be believed. Brother Lawrence, his main object of hate, is a likeable old Monk who follows all the religious beliefs and customs. In “The Bishop Orders His Tomb” we find, again, that the speaker is most unreliable. He is, in fact, a mercenary and grasping person who will do what he must to gain his goals and defeat his enemies. In two monologues that deal with artists, “Fra Lippo Lippi” and “Andrea del Sarto,” Browning explores the character of each and the listener is able to determine what made each of these famous painters turn out the way they did. Perhaps the best and most obvious example of Browning’s art in this genre is “Porphyria’s Lover.” In this poem we discover, after listening to the ramblings of the lover, that he has killed his innocent lover. Contrary to his assertions that she is proud and that she neglected him, even lighting the fire to warm him, he interprets her actions in such a way to try to convince us of his own views. In contrast to most of the other dramatic monologues, this poem is probably the least ambiguous. The reader is able quickly to determine the real nature of the speaker. However, in keeping with the nature of the genre itself, Brownng is able to have Porphyria’s lover reveal himself as an “unreliable” narrator.
Why, then, should we be aware of this poet’s birthday? While not as popular in his own time as Dickens, Browning had a great influence on our own American poets. Robert Stange, one of the authorities on Browning’s work, has characterized Browning’s influence in this way: “Browning’s influence on the poetry of our time has been more direct than that of any other Victorian but Hopkins. The reaction against didactic and exquisite verse became widespread in the twentieth century. Browning’s experiments in rhythm and diction, his achievement of a flexible monologue form, and his bold obscurity, opened up new possibilities in poetry. Through the influence of Ezra Pound and less directly of T.S. Eliot, the dramatic monologue has become the dominant form of contemporary poetry.” For this achievement, and many others, it is fitting that we wish Robert Browning a happy 200th birthday!
Michael Timko is Professor Emeritus (English) of the City
University of New York. He specializes in 19th-century
British and American literature. Prof. Timko edits 'Dickens
Studies Annual,' lectures, and is the author of several books
and numerous articles. He has written more than 25 articles
for The World & I Online.
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