The Elon College Weekly
VOL. I. New Series
BURLINGTON, N. C, TUESDAY. APRIL 5, 1910.
And Elon College, N. C.
NO. 8
Fatheringhatn’s Studies in the
Mind and Art of Robert
Browning.
This paper is to give, briefly, an im
pression got briefly from the book bearing
the above title.
Fatheringham published a series of
lectures in 1887 under this title,—lectures
that he had prepared six years before. In
I 888 a second edition, revised and en
larged by two new chapters, was issued,
and ten years later a third edition (the
one we read) revised, nearly all the mat
ter in five chapters being rewritten, and
three new chapters being added. The
book now contains the prefaces, one for
each edition, and all interesting. The in
troduction considers Browning in his rela
tion to the men and thought of his time,
and some observations on the influences
that operated upon him in the earlier
years of his literary work. As to Brown
ing’s rank, Fatheringham says, " it would
now, perhaps, be generally allowed that,
of the poets of the Victonan age. Brown
ing brought the strongest, richest and
most active mind to poetry, and was for
that and other reasons the keenest and
most powerful poetic, force of his time,*
and " in wealth and force of life and
passion and thought, in variet> and ener
gy of nature, and in a certain ShaKes-
pearean plav, breadth, and vitality of
mind, none of the Victorians have equal
led him." Tennyson was the favorite
poet of the Victorian age from the publi
cation of the 'Poems' of 1842, and
certainly from the issue of 'In Memoriam'
in I 85 I. " Browning did strong and
clear work as early as 1845, but not
until 1870 was his quality and power as
a poet broadly recognized."
The first chapter is a memoir of
Browning, rather interestingly told with
an attempt in the end to detect the three
stages of mind development, denying
Mrs. Orr’s assertion that there was no
mind development. Fotheringham un
dertakes to show that there are three pe
riods clearly enough defiend by the poe
try produced in each to fix dates. The
first is from 1832 to 1846, the second
from I 846 to 1 869, and the third from
I 869 to the poet’s death, I 889. But
if there were no knowledge of the poet’s
life extant nor no clue, other than inter
nal evidences, of mind development, to
date of the production of each poem, 1
am inclined to think Fotheringham would
have a hopeless task in his classification.
The other twenty chapters of the book
are taken up with a study, critical, expos
itory, literary and ethical, up to but not
including the " Ring and the Book " nor
any poems written after 1865.
Chapters two and three are devoted to
a criticism from the literary standpoint.
The qualities of the man and of the
artist are in the fact that, self-reliance and
conviction are in every line of his work:
the assurance of genius and of truth.
" During nearly forty years the poet, in
the strength of fidelity of genius, kept his
aim and maintained his work." In the be
ginning he was under the influence of
Byron and of Shelly, and possibly of
Keats. Later the influence of Greek
literature and " occult Philosophy " both of
which influenced " Pauline" increased as
the English poets lost in influence upon
him.
Browning cared more for literature of
fact than literature of form. This accounts,
in some degree, for his obscurity and
lack of polish in his verses. Unlike Ten
nyson, Browning took little interest in
social and political questions of his day,
but his interest in human nature, which
lies below social and political questions,
was intense, that was his field. Of
the two greatest fields in modern litera
ture—nature and humanity. Browning
chose, or rather found himself naturally in
the latter and was content to work there,
speaking through characters of history or
the imaginary personages of his romances.
In speaking of Browning’s obscurity
and its causes, our critic says, ' some
think they, [the obscurities] spring from
the nature of the poetry, and certainly
from Browning’s theory and practice of
his art.' Such readers think all these
difficulties are on the side of the poet.
" It is still worth while to correct these
mistakes, not only in justice to the poet,
but in the hope of preparing a way of
approach to him on the part of some who
could read hit,' if they would, and who
since tliey mij it, certainly ought, ana
lose b\ not dc.ng so. There is a real
objection, however, in the want of form
and fluency. But genius cannot fly with
its wings tied."
" The ' form ' of Browning’s work, by
which readers are often offended, springs
from and expresses its dramatic individua
lity, and its want of beauty—by which is
often meant merely melody and prose
—forms its dramatic realism." " It turns,
we say, on the poet’s dramatic realism,
and that is, perhaps, the right way to
meet the objection." Browning's dramatic
characters are not average minds; they
frequently are persons of large views—
wide visions, and what they see, if ex
pressed in a realistic form the dramatic
person’s understanding, the reader fails to
get the thought and see the beauty until
he has pondered a while on the meaning.
I think Fotheringham has pretty much
the idea that Browning was inspired to a
certain extent, which I believe also, but
he did not choose to lower the real value
of his message by speaking to the gentiles
in parables.
As to style, " casual, harsh, and ca
pricious, reckless, and grotesque as he
seems, he is in his best works ifiasterly
and sufficient," says Fotheringham. " He
is Shakespearean in fullness, rapidity, and
mastery of utterance. His style is, per
haps, the most vital and natural of recent
poets,—the fit medium and counterpart of
his matter; with great simplicity often,
great vivacity, with muscular quality and
grasp, and with nothing rhetorical or ob
trusive about it."
Looked at from the standpoint of clas
sic art, Browning’s style is not cutistic.
But Its realistic ruggedness is Gothic;—
Gothic art, and the hjgher art because a
more sufficient expression of life than if
he were classic in style. Then, to con
clude the literary criticism, we may sum
up the^ main ideas of the critic thus:
Browning was well qualified in m.nd and
soul to deal in a most vital way with
most vital poetic matter,—had greater
penetration and vigor than any other
poet of his day. He chose to express
his thought and feeling in the most natu
ral way, going direct to the heart of his
theme, unfettered and unhampered by
conventional niceties of his art, thus be
coming a law unto himself.
Chapters four, five and six are exposi
tory, dealing with " Pauline," " Paracel
sus," and " Sordello." The critic is too
much of an apologist here for me. Hav
ing studied all three of these poems, and
having put a whole day on " Sordello," I
am not of the same opinion as Fother
ingham in this one thing: that " Sordel
lo " is well worth study." There are ev
idences in his (Browning’s) correspond
ence with Elizabeth Barrett that he
thought of revising it, but I presume he
found it impossible, for it is incapable of
being so revised as to make a legible po
em,—it would have to be re-written.
Chapter seven is expository also and
deals with all the other dramatic
poems. Chapter eight is an exegetical
and critical study of the dramatic lyrics.
Chapters nine to twelve inclusive deal
with the literary and ethical aspect of the
subject. Browning’s poetry in its rela
tion to life cannot be compassed by
Matthew Arnold’s definition of literature,
viz; that literature is a criticism of life.
Browning’s poetry was more than a criti
cism of life; it was " an expression and
an interpretation of life, wise, large, and
free." Browning is both broad and pow
erful in his interpretation of life. So his
ethical and religious teaching has a liber
ality, yet a vigor of interpretation scarce
ly equalled. Goodness is not in rank or
degree but in quality. In the " Statue
and the Bust," over which many Brown
ing readers stumble, our critic sees this
ethical teaching; that a negative and an
indolent virtue is no virtue at all; that to
keep from action on immoral grounds is
Itself wrong; that the last danger and the
most hopeless wrong is to falter and to
conventionalize, to chill the heart, and
paralyze the will." "To live is our
only chance of coming right; to be dead
even while we live is the greatest of
wrongs both in Dante and in the Gos
pels." This is likely close to Browning’s
meaning but the poem teaches a hazard
ous doctrine. Browning is always con
crete and in this instance he is rather un
fortunate in the example chosen. The
religious poems and the poems on immor
tality are interestingly treated by Father
ingham but finding no marked dissent in
my own mind from his views, I pass on
to the psychological poems.
Here we have observations on " Cal
iban," "Bishop Blangram." Both are
treated somewhat exegetically, but with
no thought advanced that a careful read
ing had not already brought out.
A futher phychological study is in
" Sludge " the medium, chapter fourteen.
This and the two poems just noticed in
chapter thirteen, should be classed as
religious. Fatheringham is clearly right
in deciding that this is a satirical poem.
Though Browning represets Sludge as
the speaker, yet it is Browning’s own
mind expressing itself through the medium
of Sludge, who was indeed a medium.
If one did not know that Browning dis
agreed with his wife about mediums, yet
one could feel this poem to be Brown
ing’s argument against them, for no apolo
gist would show up his creed in such an
adverse way. Here Browning is a critic,
not an interpreter of life.
Passing from the so called phycholog
ical poems, we come to three chapters
on art. Here we have, first, the poems
on painting discussed, or rather explained,
secondly, the poems on poets and poems,
and thirdly the poems on music. Father
ingham raises the question as to whether
Browning really expressed the thoughts,
of the artist in question, in each poem or
his own thought and feeling under the
inspiration of the picture, poem or music,
whichever he might be treating. To my
mind, he expressed his own thought as a
critic of art. It was a favorite way in
the eighteenth century and part of the
nineteenth century for an author to get
himself expressed through some long lost
manuscript found and translated. Brown
ing has translated h itorical characters and
inidginary characters into his poems and
the stamp of the translator is on all of
them.
The chapter on dramatic romances
and ballads is expository and occasionally
critical.
Here Fatheringham’s superiority to Mrs.
Orr, as a maker of hand-book on Brown
ing is most clearly shown. In the be
ginning of chapter nineteen we have a
brief, concise discussion of how love
poetry for love’s sake grew out of chivalry.
Then follows an expository and critical
treatise of Browning’s love poetry.
Chapter twenty is about Browning’s
humor. "Some say Browning’s humor is
in his bias for the grotesque; others say
it is in his realistic mode and style of art,
and a few that his humor is best seen in
his dramatic breadth and power, and in
the fact that all he has to say of men
and life is said from a dramatic point of
view." Then follows an exposition of
of his most humorous poems.
Browning’s nature poetry is the subject
of the twenty-first, and last chapter. In
the following thought, Fatheringham ex
presses about the whole truth, as I have
seen it, regarding Browning’s nature
poetry: " Quick glimpses of landscape,
and rapid descriptions of natural facts,
occur frequently in Browning, and they
are good, though quite subordinate. In
not a few of the dramnatic lyrics you
find these, sometimes in a phrase only,
or a line, but fresh to the life." He
observes as others have done, that there
is less of nature as Browning grew older.
Finally we come to the epilogue, a
summary of the preceding twenty-one
chapters. All in all, this book is the
most satisfactory study of Browning I
have seen. W. P. L.
5-5-06.