Transcription
[Music] Hello everybody. Welcome to this video on a very illustrious couple in British literature: Robert Browning and his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Robert Browning is considered one of the foremost poets of the Victorian period. Did you know he was born in the same year as Charles Dickens, 1812? Compared to Tennyson, Browning was an optimist. You know, Tennyson was a pessimistic writer, but Browning is a robust optimist. He wrote and perfected the dramatic monologues. That also, you know, Browning was the son of a scholarly father; he had a lot of learning and he started writing in the year 1833. His first book was published in 1833: *Pauline, a Fragment of a Confession*. *Pauline, a Fragment of a Confession* is an introspective long poem. Now we are not surprised by that because most of his major poems later are introspective long poems. And *Pauline* is followed by *Paracelsus*. Two years later came *Paracelsus*. In this work, you see the development of a character, of a soul, and this character is a 16th-century alchemist. 16th century—uh, Browning's pet period. In 1840 came a verse romance called *Sordello*. All these are described in great detail in the encyclopedia, and you can look at it if you want. *Sordello* is a long poem, a long verse romance in heroic couplets. And what is the story of *Sordello*? The story is taken from Dante's *Purgatorio* in *Divine Comedy*. And here again you see a person's character psychologically delving into character—that is Browning's style. As you know, Browning went on to write a lot of dramatic poetry, dramatic monologues, collected in various books like *Dramatis Personae*, *Men and Women*, etc. Together, all these collections were called *Bells and Pomegranates*. *Bells and Pomegranates*—what a title! Actually, bells and pomegranates are decorations on a priestly costume, a Hebrew priestly costume. And bells refer to sound; pomegranates refer to sense. Sound and sense are combined in these poems—that is the meaning. *Bells and Pomegranates* is the larger name for the collection of dramatic monologues that he wrote, collections that he wrote. We will come to the dramatic monologues, but in 1841 there was a play that he wrote, a very famous play called *Pippa Passes*. Philippa, or Pippa, is a 14-year-old protagonist; she's a silk winder, and she is passing on stage. This is the only day that she gets free from her work, the New Year's Eve, and she is meeting several people on stage, like in the dramatic monologues. Here also you see the corruption of their character, the people's character that she meets. We see Pippa is innocent; she doesn't understand that they are corrupt people, but we understand—there is dramatic irony there. So *Pippa Passes* is like a series of dramatic monologues because you see the cross-section of characters' lives there. And then that is not the only play that he wrote; he went on to write many plays. *Stratford* is another important play. Tennyson also wrote plays, remember? Browning wrote plays; Tennyson also wrote plays. His plays are all set in the Renaissance period, historical plays, tragedies. *Stratford* is a historical tragedy, for example. It was written for an actor called McReady. And during this time, uh, Browning had met Elizabeth Barrett. Elizabeth Barrett was already a poet at that time; she was a little older than him, and her father was very strict. So the Brownings eloped to Florence. They lived the rest of their life there until Elizabeth's death, at least, and it is there that Browning's major works were all written. He lived in Florence; that is also why he took Italy as his theme. And Elizabeth died in 1861. Their son, Robert Wiedemann Browning, was also born at that time there in Florence.
Now you might be interested in knowing more about the dramatic monologues. There are so many famous poems that many of you would know. Let me just tell you some of, about some of them. *A Toccata of Galuppi's*—*Apt Vogler*. *Apt* means a musician talking about a musical instrument of his own invention—that is part of the title itself, the longer title itself. *Andrea del Sarto* is a dramatic monologue where an artist, a painter, Andrea del Sarto, is talking about his own life. His wife, Lucrezia, is a silent listener. Lucrezia is a corrupt woman, and she corrupted Andrea. Andrea loves her, and he paints for her, but because she is not the right kind of inspiration, his paintings lack life. Even though Andrea is the faultless painter technically, he cannot rise to the level of Michelangelo or Raphael—that is the theme of *Andrea del Sarto*. You might have heard of this poem; otherwise, I have also recited the poem and put a video; you can listen to it. It's an amazing poem, actually. And then there is another important poem, *The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church*. A bishop is on his deathbed. When somebody's on his deathbed, he will be thinking about the afterlife, and he will be caring for his soul; he'll be repenting his sins. But not our bishop. This bishop, he's on his deathbed, and he's concerned only about the tomb that he should be built. He wants a lapis lazuli to be decorating his tomb. He shows his corruption even on his deathbed, but he doesn't care for his soul at all. And then there is a poem, *Caliban Upon Setebos*. *Caliban Upon Setebos* is about Caliban, Shakespeare's Caliban, talking about the goddess Setebos that he believes in, obviously revealing his corruption. Then *Fra Lippo Lippi*. What do you mean by *Fra*? *Fra* means brother, priests. *Fra Lippo Lippi* is a Florentine painter. He is going out at night for some suspicious activity, and the Medici watchman—Medici means the royal family that were ruling at that time—the watchmen of the Medici family, the Medici watchmen are interrogating our Fra Lippo Lippi—that is a scene in the poem. Then there is *The Grammarian's Funeral*. A grammarian has died, and his body is being carried for burial. One of his students carrying the body is the speaker, and this student is talking about his master. The grammarian gave a lot of importance to grammar, but he did not care for his soul; he did not care for ethics, you know—that is the theme in *The Grammarian's Funeral*. The subtitle is *Shortly After the Revival of Learning in Europe*. Then there are very famous poems like *My Last Duchess*. The Duke of Ferrara killed his wife because she was too easy to please; she did not care for his 900-year-old name. And then he is talking to the emissary of Count, the messenger from Count; he is actually going to fix his next marriage, but he is inadvertently revealing his corrupt character. You might also have heard of poems like *Porphyria's Lover*, *Prospice*, *Rabbi Ben Ezra*—very famous poems. *Rabbi Ben Ezra* is about old age. "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be." Did you know, guys, the tagline of *Tess* is "the best is yet to be"? I took it from *Rabbi Ben Ezra*. I am also telling you, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be." We can all learn together, reach the peak of our careers together; there is no limit to any of us. The sky is the limit because we can learn and learn and learn, past whatever exams we want, have awesome careers as teachers and scholars. You are with me, I am with you, I'm there, don't worry, the best is yet to be. Remember *Rabbi Ben Ezra*. Then there are other poems also that I have discussed here. Browning's masterpiece is a massive poem called *The Ring and the Book*. It is a series of dramatic monologues that he published from 1868 to 1869. Actually, he based it on some real murder story, the murder story of a young woman, Pompilia, being murdered by her own husband—that is the story. *The Ring and the Book* is a very discursive story. And Browning was a very prolific writer; he was very active; uh, he wrote a lot, did a lot of things; uh, he produced a translation of Aeschylus' *Agamemnon* also. And when Browning died, he left a legacy of a rich volume of poetry.
Now I have to talk to you a little bit about Browning's style. While Tennyson wrote in an easy, manly, fluid, beautifully, you know, subdued style, a picturesque style, Browning wrote in an obscure style. Browning's style was difficult; Browning's style was deliberately obscure—that means he did not explain very much; it was not easy; it was elliptical, and this is probably an early modernist element in Browning, I feel. And his style was rough, rugged, angular. He brought alive his characters through descriptions and language. Sometimes he showed verbal music through writing; rhythmic effects were all very cleverly manipulated, you know, sometimes in his poetry, but that was not the main focus. He did not just write words for the sake of verbal music; he did not write words just for the sake of description. However, Tennyson did that. Did you watch the video on Tennyson? Browning never did that. For Browning, what was most important was to capture in a single image a world of meaning. He brought alive characters and situations like that. His wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was born in 1806, and she lived until 1861. She was the eldest of 12 children, and her father was very strict. She was also an invalid; she had diseases that made her even bedridden for some time, and she was a very sensitive, beautiful woman, beautiful in the sense of character, amazing woman. And she started writing poetry; some of her poems were published, and Browning and others noticed these poems. She was a very brilliant student and very, uh, beautiful writer, probably even more beautiful than Robert Browning himself. She also produced a translation of Aeschylus' *Prometheus Bound*, while Robert Browning translated *Agamemnon*; his wife translated *Prometheus Bound*. Remember her first collection, *The Seraphim and Other Poems*, was received well by the critics. There was a poem that Browning especially noticed and wrote to Elizabeth about it; it is *Lady Geraldine's Courtship*. It was when one of her brothers died that her health really deteriorated; she became bedridden, and that is when, uh, she was also in love with Robert Browning. They eloped to Florence. She was greatly encouraged and promoted by the journal *The Athenaeum*. Later on, when in 1850 our William Wordsworth died, *The Athenaeum* even proposed Elizabeth Barrett Browning as the next poet laureate, but her greatest work, *Aurora Leigh*, had not been written at that time. She was not accepted for the post anyway. They lived in Casa Guidi in Florence, where Elizabeth Barrett wrote *Casa Guidi Windows*. That is a very famous collection that she wrote at this time. There, there had been, uh, published a few of, a very famous poems; you might have heard of it; it is prescribed in universities. One is *The Cry of the Children*. *The Cry of the Children* is a social theme, has a social theme, and *The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point*. That is another very famous, uh, poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, all written at the same time as *Casa Guidi Windows* and in Florence. She published a very important book—do you know what that is? *Sonnets from the Portuguese*. It is a collection of love poetry. At first, she did not want to publish it because it was very personal; it was Robert Browning himself who wanted her to publish it. *Sonnets from the Portuguese* is a collection of 44 sonnets, and it was published in 1850, the year in which William Wordsworth died. Why Portuguese? Because she was influenced by a Portuguese poet, and Robert Browning also called Elizabeth "my little Portuguese"—that is a reason why it is called *Sonnets from the Portuguese*. And "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"—that is a very famous sonnet from *Sonnets from the Portuguese*.
Now Elizabeth Barrett Browning was actively involved in a lot of noble causes, you know, during this time, anti-slavery movements, um, movements to liberate underprivileged people of all kinds, including the working classes. This was very popular in the Victorian age, not only in England but also in America, and Elizabeth Barrett was seriously touched by these ideas that flourished at this time. In their house in Florence, I think so many other writers assembled to meet Elizabeth Barrett, to talk to her, and she became like a cultural leader in some ways, uh, she was a very intelligent woman who had very strong, free ideas about a lot of things. So that aspect of Elizabeth Barrett's life and work is very important. And then came her very well-known work, *Aurora Leigh*. *Aurora Leigh* is an epic novel published in 1856, and it is definitely a masterpiece. It is written in nine books, which is the number of the Sibyl, while traditionally epics are written in twelve books; *Aurora Leigh* is written in nine books. *Aurora Leigh* is a woman poet; we see her from her childhood, how she grew up under her very scholarly father, how she wanted to write; she became very independent in thinking. Her cousin, Romney, who was dedicated to noble causes and helping the poor, he wanted to marry her, but Romney did not appreciate her writing, and she did not accept Romney, and she moves to the city, and she starts writing; she starts exploring possibilities for women; it was very difficult in those days. Meanwhile, what happened to Romney? Romney got interested in a poor girl called Marian; he wanted to marry her; there was another lady who was interested in Romney who fell in love with Romney; there were confusions because of this triangular relationship; and then Marian got raped, and she got separated from Romney; he had not married her; and, uh, Aurora finds Marian. It's a long story like that; it progresses like that; and at the end, Romney and Aurora meet again, and then Aurora decides to marry Romney; they get united at the end. This is the long story of *Aurora Leigh*, told in verse. It is called a verse novel or an epic novel in blank verse, it is written, and it is a classic masterpiece, beautiful verse, you know. When I teach you, when I introduce you to books like this that are very, very important, and I tell you they are very important, please make it a point to read some of it, at least to the opening lines, because NTA, NTNET expects you to have a curiosity; they expect you to read on your own, to research on your own. In the days of the internet, you have no excuse for not reading. So do a little bit of reading and research on your own; then you will get to know the style of authors—that is very, very important. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a very unique style. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning wrote love letters to each other, and Virginia Woolf read these love letters; she got inspired by the love letters. They were published, and Virginia Woolf famously wrote *Flush*. *Flush* is the autobiography, pseudo-autobiography, of course, pseudo-autobiography of Elizabeth Browning's cocker spaniel dog. *Flush* was written after she wrote some very high modernist novels, and she wanted some relief from it—that is why Virginia Woolf wrote *Flush*. Elizabeth Barrett Browning—that's another interesting thing I, I would like to tell you. She lived in 50 Wimpole Street. That house where she lived in is very important. There is also a movie on her, *Wimpole Street*. If you search, you will find out. So these are all some additional information on these two illustrious writers of the Victorian period. Robert Browning Foundation was made even while Robert Browning was alive; he was that influential. And Robert Wiedemann Browning, I mentioned him already, he, he grew up into a painter and poet. So that is about this couple. Please read their poetry; original poems of Browning are very, very important. I will also ask you some questions in YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, etc. Please follow me, and all the best in your reading. Thank you very much until the next video. Video bye. You.