Part 4 (2/2)

One admirable trait, however, Mr Moulton Barrett did possess--he was nearly always away fron that Miss Barrett should winter abroad was still under consideration, but the place now fixed upon was Pisa Suddenly, in ed to announce that ”it is all over with Pisa” Her father had vetoed the undutiful project, and had ceased to pay her his evening visits; only in his separate and private orisons were all her sins reh to give her a chance of recovery was bitter, yet it could not be denied Her life was now a thing of value to herself, for it was precious to another She beat against the bars of her cage; planned a rebellious flight;shi+ps and berths; but she could not travel alone; and she would not subject either of her sisters to the heavy displeasure of the ruler of the house Robert Browning held strong opinions on the duty of resisting evil, and if evil assuuise of parental authority it is none the _less_--he believed--to be resisted To submit to the will of another is often easy; to act on one's own best judgiven us to put to use; to be passively obedient is really to evade probation--so with al set forth a cardinal article of his creed; but Elizabeth Barrett was not, like hihter,” and, after all, London in 1845 was not bleak and grey as it had been a year previously--”for reasons,” to adopt a reiterated word of the correspondence, ”for reasons”

On two later occasions Browning sang the saainst the enemies of God and with a little too much vehemence--not to say truculence--as is the ith earnest believers His gentler correspondent could not tolerate the thought of duelling, and she disapproved of punishood opinion of society--not for hiood opinion is a possession which may, like other possessions, be defended at the risk of a man's life, and as for capital punishment, is not evil to be suppressed at any price? Is not a miscreant to be expelled out of God's world? The difference of opinion was the first that had arisen between the friends, and Browning's words carried with theht that they could in any thing stand apart Happily the theoretical fire-eater had faith superior to his own arguht as finer than his own;--and he is let off with a gratified rebuke for preternatural subarure The other application of his doctrine of resisting evil was even s and the preacher was instant certainly out of season Not the least ie in the Wimpole Street house was Miss Barrett's devoted co to his mistress Flushi+e alas; yet to his lot some canine errors fell; he eyed a visitor's umbrella with suspicion; he resented perhaps the presence of a rival; he did not behave nicely to a poet who had not written verses in his honour; for which he was duly rebuked by his mistress--the punishs of cakes by the intruder When the day for their flight drew near Miss Barrett proposed somewhat timidly that her ratefully confident that Flush could not be left behind Just at this anxious -stealers, presided over by the arch-fiend Taylor, bore Flushi+e away into the horror of so to capture and his ransom must be in proportion to his resistance There was a terrible tradition of a lady who had haggled about the su's head in a parcel Miss Barrett was eager to part with her six guineas and rescue her faithful co fro a cohter” and arainst the iniquity of such a bargain It is sou compelled to admit that if Italian banditti were to carry off his ”Ba,” he would pay down every farthing he ht have in the world to recover her, and this before he entered on that chase of fifty years which was not to terminate until he had shot doith his own hand the receiver of the infa been for the present abandoned, friendshi+p, now acknowledged to be more than friendshi+p, resureed, were not to be too frequent--three in each fortnight ht have to be exchanged for Thursday or Saturday for Monday, if on the first elected day Miss Mitford--dear and generous friend--threatened to cos and art-criticism, or some unknown lion-huntress who had thrown her toils, or kindly Mr Kenyon, who knew of Browning's visits, and hen he called would peer through his all-scrutinising spectacles with an air of excessive penetration or too extreme unconsciousness And there were times--later on--when an avalanche of aunts and uncles would precipitate itself on Wimpole Street--perspicacious aunts and aapata from an impatient niece--to whom indeed they were dear--the cry ”The barbarians are upon us” Miss Barrett's sisters, the gentle Henrietta, who preferred a waltz to the best sermon of an Independent minister, and the more serious Arabel, who preferred the sermon of an Independent minister to the best waltz, were informed of the actual state of affairs They were trustworthy and sympathetic; Henrietta had special reasons of her own for sympathy; Captain Surtees Cook, who afterwards beca affairs with her in the drawing-roo the poet--”the ranates” as he was named by Mr Barrett--held converse on literature with Elizabeth in the upper chamber The household was honeycombed with treasons

For the hu incidents Miss Barrett had a lively sense, and she found so with them; but with a nature essentially truthful like hers the necessity of concealment was a cause of distress The position was no less painful to Browning, and in the end it beca ways in the shallows, in the depths were flawless truth and inviolable love What sentirow effusive over was here the simplest and yet always a ht us together so wonderfully, holding two souls in his hand”[37] In thewords of each correspondent nois expressed; it is the common wave of human passion, the common love of ht, and over which the iris of beauty ever and anon appears with--it is true--an unusual intensity And so in reading the letters we have no sense of prying into secrets; there are no secrets to be discovered; what is most intimate is hest point of attainh you or by you or in you even, your good was all ood, and _is_” ”Let me be too near to be seen Once I used to be ht to _ht” ”I love your love too much And _that_ is the worst fault, my beloved, I can ever find in my love of _you_” These are sentences that tell of what can be no private possession, being as liberal and free as our light and air And if the shadow of a cloud appears--appears and passes away--it is a shadow that has floated over many other hearts beside that of the writer: ”How dreadfully natural it would be toand no e of tokens, the old sy, a picture, a child's penholder--are good enough for these lovers, as they had been for others before theathered up and is delivered from the alloy of superficial circu which we are in the presence of womanhood--woht--as much as in that of an individual wo without reserve affects us as no disclosure, but simply as an adequate expression of the truth universal

One obstacle to the prospective nitude; Miss Barrett, with a new joy in life, new hopes, new interests, gained in health and strength from month to month The winter of 1845-46 was unusually mild In January one day she walked--walked, and was not carried--downstairs to the drawing-roo came early that year; in the first week of February lilacs and hawthorn were in bud, elders in leaf, thrushes and white-throats in full song In April Miss Barrett gave pledges of her confidence in the future by buying a bonnet; a little like a Quaker's, it seemed to her, but the learned pronounced it fashi+onable Early in May, that bonnet, with its owner and Arabel and Flush, appeared in Regent's Park, while sunshi+ne was filtering through the leaves The invalid left her carriage, set foot upon the green grass, reached up and plucked a little laburnu about like phantoms of life,” and felt that she alone and the idea of one as absent were real--”and Flush,” she adds with a touch of remorse, ”and Flush a little too” Many drives and walks followed; at the end of May she feloniously gathered some pansies, the flowers of Paracelsus, and this notwithstanding the protest of Arabel, in the Botanical Gardens, and felt the unspeakable beauty of the corass Later in the year wild roses were found at Hampstead; and on a uided by kind and learned Mrs Jaers's collection On yet another occasion it was Mr Kenyon who drove her to see the strange new sight of the Great Western train co in; the spectators procured chairs, but the rush of people and the earth-thunder of the engine almost overcame Miss Barrett's nerves, which on a later trial shrank also froan of the Abbey Sundays ca if not in a pew at least in the secluded vestry of a Chapel, and joining unseen in those simple forether so of the sick had been effected

Money difficulty there was none Browning, it is true, was not in a position to undertake the expenses of even such a simple household economy as they both desired He was prepared to seek for any honourable service--diplomatic or other--if that were necessary But Miss Barrett was resolved against task-hich ht divert him from his proper vocation as a poet And, thanks to the affection of an uncle, she had means--some 400 a year, capable of considerable increase by re-investh for two persons who could be content with plain living in Italy Browning still urged that he should be the bread-winner; he implored that her money should be ainst his action could be founded on any ; but she remained firm, and would consent only to its transference to her two sisters in the event of his death And so the hts of both the friends

Having the great patience of love, Browning would not put the least pressure upon Miss Barrett as to the date of their ood, then he would wait Buttowards the desired end In January he begged her to ”begin thinking”; before that reed that they should look forward to the late summer or early autumn as the time of their departure to Italy Not until March would Miss Barrett pereent desire, she declared that she illing to chain him, rivet him--”Do you feel how the little fine chain twists round and round you? do you hear the stroke of the riveting?” But the links were of a kind to be loosed if need be at a moment's notice June came, and with it a proposal from a well-intentioned friend, Miss Bayley, to accoe of abode seemed likely to benefit her health Miss Barrett was prepared to accept the offer if it seeht it expedient, to wait for another year His voice was given, with such decision as was possible, in favour of their adhering to the plan formed for the end of summer; they both felt the present position hazardous and tor; to wear the mask for another year would suffocate thely during the suuide-books to Italy;of the merits of this place of residence and of that Shall it be Sorrento? Shall it be La Cava? or Pisa? or Ravenna? or, for the matter of that, would not Seven Dials be as happy a choice as any, if only they could live and work side by side?

There isof the comparative ease and the co in favour of reaching Italy by way of France And as the ti of ti seems hardly to have been an expert May Mr Kenyon be told? Or is it not kinder and wiser to spare hi? Mrs Jameson, who had made a friendly proposal similar to that of Miss Bayley,--may she be half-told? Or shall she be invited to join the travellers on their way?

What books shall be brought? What baggage? And howbe conveyed out of 50 Winant to Miss Barrett's feelings to practise reserve on such a matter as this with her father Her happier companion had informed his father and mother of their plans, and had obtained fro a suift, sufficient to cover the immediate expenses of the journey Mr Barrett was entitled to all respect, and as for affection he received froh toto her heart But she believed that she had virtually no choice; her nerves were not of iron; the roaring of the Great Western express she ry father A loud voice, and a violent ”scene,” such as she had witnessed, until she fainted, when Henrietta was the culprit, would have put an end to the Italian project through mere physical collapse and ruin Far better therefore to withdraw quietly fro in all earnestness for reconciliation

[Illustration: Yours very truly, Robert Browning _Fro by_ JG ARMYTAGE]

As suers and difficulties accu, ”is cru from beneath our feet with its chances and opportunities” In one of the early days of August a thunder-storer than usual at Wi was the lesser terror of the day, for in the evening entered Mr Barrett to his daughter with disagreeable questioning, and presently caaze of stern displeasure--”It appears that _thatcloud passed, but it was felt that visits to be prudent must be rare; for the first tie Barrett, a kindly brother distinguished by his constant air of dignity and importance, was commissioned to hire a country house for the fae, while paperers and painters were to busy themselves at Wimpole Street The moment for iht be lost for the year 1846 ”Wewhen this intelligence arrived

Next day a , Saturday, September 12th, accompanied by her ht, left her father's house with feet that trembled; she procured a fly, fortified her shaken nerves with a dose of sal volatile at a chee service was celebrated in the presence of titnesses As she stood and knelt her central feeling was one of measureless trust, a deep rest upon assured foundations; other women who had stood there supported by their nearest kinsfolk--parents or sisters--had one happiness she did not know; she needed it less because she was happier than they[38] Then husband and wife parted Mrs Browning drove to the house of her blind friend, Mr Boyd, who had been -room sofa she rested and sipped his Cyprus wine; by and by arrived her sisters with grave faces; the carriage was driven to Ha happiness of the autumnal air and sunshi+ne; after which the three sisters returned to their father's house; the wedding-ring was regretfully taken off; and the prayer arose in Mrs Browning's heart that if sorrow or injury should ever follow upon what had happened that day for either of the two, it ain visit at 50 Wih to know that his ell, and kept all these things gladly, treht his life had ”borne flower and fruit”[39] On the Monday hich succeeded the e the Barrett family were to move to the country house that had been taken at Little Bookhaone by since the wedding, Mrs Browning and Wilson, left what had been her home Flush arned to make no demonstration, and he behaved with admirable discretion It was ”dreadful” to cause pain to her father by a voluntary act; but another feeling sustained her:--”You _only_! As if one said _God only_ And we shall have _Hison's, the stationer and bookseller's, they found Browning, and a little later husband and wife, with the brave Wilson and the discreet Flush, were speeding froood time to catch the boat for Havre A north wind blew thelish coast In the newspaper announce rejected the suggestion that on this occasion, and with reference to the great event of his life, he should be defined to the public as ”the author of _Paracelsus_”

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 35: _Letters of EBB_, i 288]

[Footnote 36: See _Letters of RB and EBB_, i 281]

[Footnote 37: EBB to RB, March 30, 1846]

[Footnote 38: EBB to RB, Sept 14, 1846]

[Footnote 39: RB to EBB, Sept 14, 1846]

Chapter VI

Early Years in Italy

The letters from which this story has been drawn have from first to last one burden; in them deep answers to deep; they happily are of a nature to escape far from the pedantries of literary criticis quite equals his correspondent in the discovery of rare and exquisite thoughts and feelings; or that his felicity in giving them expression is as frequent as hers Even on inal than hers, less penetrating, less illu writes to afford her areatly amused, a little aard and laborious She flashes forth a e entirely vital; he, with a habit of mind of which he was conscious and which often influences his poetry, fastens intensely on a single point and proceeds to muffle this in circumstance, assured that it will be all the ht instant arrives and requires this; but -power is demanded fro a person or a scene in a few decisive lines; the gift of Carlyle, the gift of Carlyle's brilliant wife is not theirs, perhaps because acid is needed to bite an etcher's plate And, indeed, many of the minor notabilities of 1845, whose naht hardly have repaid an etcher's intensity of selective vision Aroups of spirits who presented theh not to expect that their names should be reround It is, however, strange that Browning who created somen and women should in his letters have struck out no swift indelible piece of portraiture; even here his is the inferior touch And yet throughout the whole correspondence we cannot but be aware that his is the more massive and the more complex nature; his intellect has hardier thews; his passion has an energy which corresponds with its mass; his will sustains his passion and projects it forward And towards Miss Barrett his strength is seen as gentleness, his energy as an inexhaustible patience of hope