Part 10 (1/2)

But with all its charm and happy associations, the little city was dull

”Even hu wrote to a friend The change to Florence was a welco had already been there, but to his wife it was as the fulfilo to that romantic old palace which will be for ever sociate with the author of ”Casa Guidi Windows,” but found accommodation in a more central locality

When the June heats came, husband and wife both declared for Ancona, the picturesque little tohich dreah so close to the sea, Ancona is in su it cooler than Florence, it was as though they had leapt right into a cauldron Alluding to itwrote to Horne, ”The heat was just the fiercest fire of your iination, and I _seethe_ to think of it at this distance”

It was a memorable journey all the sa stood by Dante's tomb, moved deeply by the pathetic inscription and by all the associations it evoked All along the coast froround to both, and endlessly fascinating; in the passing and repassing of the Apennines they had 'wonderful visions of beauty and glory' At Ancona itself, notwithstanding the heat, they spent a happy season Here Browning wrote one of the loveliest of his short poein in Guercino's picture in the chapel at Fano By the allusions in the sixth and eighth stanzas it is clear that the poem was inscribed to Alfred Do”

Doubtless it ritten for no other reason than the urgency of song, for in it are the loving allusions to his wife, ”_el with me too,” and ”my love is here” Three times they went to the chapel, he tells us in the seventh stanza, to drink in to their souls' content the beauty of ”dear Guercino's” picture Browning has rarely uttered the purely personal note of his inner life It is this that affords a peculiar value to ”The Guardian Angel,” over and above its technical beauty In the concluding lines of the stanzas I aives the supreme expression to as his deepest faith, his profoundest song-motive

”I would not look up thither past thy head Because the door opes, like that child, I know, For I should have thy gracious face instead, Thou bird of God! And wilt thou bend ether, And lift theently tether Me, as thy laar would be repaired!

I think how I should view the earth and skies And sea, when once again , with such different eyes

O world, as God hasthis, is love, and love is duty

What further ht for or declared?”

After the Adriatic coast was left, they hesitated as to returning to Florence, the doctors having laid such stress on the cli But she felt so sure of herself in her new strength that it was decided to adventure upon at least one winter in the queen-city They were fortunate in obtaining a residence in the old palace called Casa Guidi, in the Via Maggiore, over against the church of San Felice, and here, with a few brief intervals, they lived till death separated them

On the little terrace outside there was more noble verse fashi+oned in the artist's creative silence than we can ever be aware of: but what a sacred place it must ever be for the lover of poetry! There, one oone Ro and the Book,” and there, in the many years he dwelt in Casa Guidi, he wrote soh” was born, and enius Who has not looked at the old sunworn house and failed to think of that night when each squareof San Felice was agloith festival lights, and when the sus fell silently in broad flame from cloud to cloud: or has failed to hear, down the narrow street, a little child go singing, 'neath Casa Guidi s by the church, _O bella liberta, O bella!_

Better even than these, for happy dwelling upon, is the poe and day were full of work, study, or that pleasurable idleness which for the artist is so often his best inspiration Here, on the little terrace, they used to sit together, or walk slowly to and fro, in conversation that was only less eloquent than silence Here one day they received a letter fro's reply, and yet there are not a few of her poems ould miss rather than these chance words--delicate outlines left for the reader to fill in: ”We were reading your letter, together, on our little terrace--walking up and down reading it--I mean the letter to Robert--and then, at the end, suddenly turning, lo, just at the edge of the stones, just between the balustrades, and already fluttering in a breath of wind and about to fly away over San Felice's church, we caught a glimpse of the feather of a note to EBB How near ere to the loss of it, to be sure!”

Happier stilland suainst possible chills, the other bare-headed and with loosened coat, walked slowly to and fro in the dark, conscious of ”a busy human sense” below, but solitary on their balcony beyond the lamplit room

”While in and out the terrace-plants, and round One branch of tall datura, waxed and waned The la the white flower”

An American friend has put on record his impressions of the two poets, and their ho, and by hi There the visitor saw, ”seated at the tea-table of the great roo, a very s forward, al to the boso the pale, s eyes looked out sensitively at the stranger Rising from her chair, she put out cordially the thin white hand of an invalid, and in a few , while the husband strode up and down the rooerness, and affluence of curious lore which, with his trenchant thought and subtle sy of companions”

In the autumn the same friend, joined by one or two other acquaintances, ith the Brownings to Valloht, for whom the name had had a peculiar fascination ever since she had first encountered it in Milton

She was conveyed up the steep way towards the reat basket, without wheels, drawn by two oxen: though, as she tells Miss Mitford, she did not get into theturned away by the monks ”for the sin of womanhood” She was too hts, but loved to lie under the great chestnuts upon the hill-slopes near the convent At twilight they went to the little convent-chapel, and there Browning sat down at the organ and played some of those older h, fros in their life at Casa Guidi: froe Stillman Hillard, and WW Story I can find room, however, for but one excerpt:--

”Those who have known Casa Guidi as it was, could hardly enter the loved rooms now, and speak above a whisper They who have been so favoured, can never forget the square anterooreat picture and pianoforte, at which the boy Browning passed -rooroom filled with plaster-casts and studies, which was Mrs

Browning's retreat--and, dearest of all, the large drawing-room where _she_ always sat It opens upon a balcony filled with plants, and looks out upon the iron-grey church of Santa Felice

There was so about this room that seemed to make it a proper and especial haunt for poets The dark shadows and subdued light gave it a dreary look, which was enhanced by the tapestry-covered walls, and the old pictures of saints that looked out sadly froe bookcases constructed of speci were bri books Tables were covered with ifts of brother authors Dante's grave profile, a cast of Keats's face and brow taken after death, a pen-and-ink sketch of Tennyson, the genial face of John Kenyon, Mrs Browning's good friend and relative, little paintings of the boy Browning, all attracted the eye in turn, and gave rise to a thousand s A quaint s that always add an indescribable charlory of all, and that which sanctified all, was seated in a low ar-materials, books, and newspapers, was always by her side After her death, her husband had a careful water-colour drawing raved -room, where the mirror and one of the quaint chairs above named still are The low ar's study--with his father's desk, on which he has written all his poems”--(_WW Story_)

To Mr and Mrs Hawthorne, Mr Hillard, and Mr Story, in particular, we are indebted for several delightful glimpses into the ho in her ”ideal cha-roo of both, with the nus in antique Florentine fraes, carved bookcases craes, bric-a-brac in any quantity, but always artistic, flowers everywhere, and herself the frailest flower of all