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JOSEPH ARNOULD ND ROBERT BROWNING: NEW LETTERS

1842-50) ND A VERSE EPISTLE

By DONALD SMALLEY

"

ARNOULD

wrote the cleverest, gratefullest

r l verse-thanks to me,

the

other day, for

these lyrics of mine," Robert Browning told

Alfred Domett in a letter of 1842, and brought

you

in so happily."l Joseph Arnould himself,

writing Domett some months later, spoke dis

paragingly of his epistle as very schoolboy

verses." Though they had said exactly what he

had felt at the time

and

still felt about the beauty

and power of Browning's recent poetry, Arnould

could not help fancying that his lines

had

given

Browning

a

bad opinion of my sincerity."

Arnould does less

than

justice to his verse

critique. He is sincere

to

the point of much tact

ful admonishment,

and

though his tone is ingenu

ous and his style colorful

rather

than polished, he

is selective and informed in many of his judg

ments. The epistle tells us much about this culti

vated

friend, and

it

suggests still more about

the

intellectual environment in which Browning

worked during the early 1840's while he was

trying to write dramas for the stage

and at

the

same time feeling his way toward his special sub

ject

and

manner. That Browning himself valued

Arnould's epistle is shown

by

his giving

it

(per

haps along with other poems)

to

Elizabeth Bar

rett; for on 1 May 1846 Elizabeth wrote: I am

delighted with the verses and quite surprised

by

Mr. Arnould's, having expected

to

find nothing

but love and law in them, and really, there is a

great deal besides. Hard

to

believe, it was, that a

university prize poet (who was

not

Tennyson)

could write such good verses."3 F. G. Kenyon,

when he was collecting Browning's letters to

Domett for Robert Browning and Alfred Domett

(1906), a book

that

also contains letters and ex

cerpts from letters of Arnould

to

Domett, seems

to

have had no knowledge of the whereabouts of

the verse epistle} Fortunate ly the manuscript

of

this piece, together with the accompanying letter

and six additional letters of Arnould's

to

Brown

ing written in the years 1846-50, has recently

come into the possession of Gordon N. Ray,

President of the John Simon Guggenheim Me

morial Foundation. Mr. Ray

has kindly made

them available for reproduction here.

Just

how early Browning formed an acquaint

ance with Joseph Arnould is uncertain. Brown

ing, Arnould,

and

Domett were all members of

The

Colloquial,"

an

informal neighborhood

90

social and literary society, in the late 1830's, as

well as of the closer knit group among

the

mem

bers of The Colloquial" that identified itself as

The Set."5 Browning's friendship with Domett,

however, was apparently on a somewhat formal

footing as late as March

1840;6 and

it was prob

ably still later that Browning developed any

thing like a close friendship with Arnould. Born

on 12 November 1814, son of a prosperous Cam

berwell physician, Joseph Arnould was some two

years younger than Browning and three years

younger than Domett. Arnould became a "uni

versity prize

poet

by

winning

the

N ewdigate

award for English verse at Oxford in 1834 with

his

The Hospice of St. Bernard,

an impressive

performance in its way, well above the average

of

prize verse. The poem is representative of its

maker: Arnould's warm, authentic, and vigor

ous imagination works happily within limits his

judges could approve. There is little venturing

beyond unexceptionable models from the last

century,

and

there are pervasive echoes from the

Latin classics.

7

Judging from his letters

to

Brown

ing and to Domett, Arnould appears

at

all times

to

have been on far better terms with tradition

both in his literary theory

and

in his way

of

life

1

F. G. Kenyon, Robert Browning and Alfred Domett 1906),

p.

49

13 December

1842).

Kenyon, in his full introduction

and running commentary upon the letters of Browning,

Domett, and Arnould

that

figure in this volume, provides a

valuable account of Browning's friendship with the two

men-and especially with Domett,

the

original of Browning's

Waring (1842) and the "Alfred, dear friend" addressed in the

concluding stanzas

of

The Guardian Angel

1855).

2

Ibid., pp.

87-88

(undated

but

probably late

1843

or early

1844).

I The Letters of Robert and Elizabeth Ba ett Browning,

1845-6 (1899),

II,

115.

4

Kenyon,

R B.

and

A

D.

p.

25.

i W. Hall Griffin, Early Friends of Robert Browning,"

The Contemporary Review, LXXXVlI (1905), 439 fI

I

W. H. Griffin and H. C. Minchin, The Life

of

Robert

Browning

(1910), p. 79.

In

the remainder of this paragraph,

biographical data not specifically annotated are based on

the entry for Arnould in DNB, First Supplement (1901),

1,78.

7 John Wilson Croker, who heard Arnould read the poem

before the Duke

of

Wellington on the Duke's being received

as Chancellor

of

the University

(1834),

pronounced the verses

very good"

DNB;

Kenyon, R.B.

and

A.D., p. 22). The

audience is said to have interrupted Arnould's reading fre

quently with loud cheers. See The Times for 12 June 1834,

p. 3, where an account is given and The Hospice of St.

Bernard

is printed in full, together with

its

learned notes.

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Donald Smalley

91

than

either of his two friends could be. Arnould

took a first in Greats at Oxford in 1836 and was

entered that fall at

the

Middle Temple, where

Domett, having abandoned his studies at Cam

bridge without a degree, put out a volume of

poems (1833) without acclaim,

and

spent several

months seeing the United States

and

Canada,

was settling down to the study of law.

s

In Jan

uary 1841 Arnould married Maria Ridgway, and

in November of the same year he was, along with

Domett, called to the Bar. For a few months

Arnould and

Domett

shared chambers, facing

their lean years together while they tried to build

up a practice in a time of severe national eco

nomic depression. By the following April, how

ever, Domett, who had perhaps

at

all times

chafed

at

the restraints of a legal career, bor

rowed seventy pounds from Arnould

and

took

ship to try his

hand

at farming in New Zealand.

9

There is no mention of Arnould in Browning's

first two letters

to

New Zealand;

and

in the third

Browning speaks

of

Arnould only

to

say that he

has

not

seen him since Domett

had

sailed five

months earlier. t is possible that without Ar

nould's declaring his enthusiasm for Browning's

recent poetry in the open

and

generous form of

the

verse epistle, the acquaintanceship between

the two men, with Domett no longer in London,

might not have gone farther.

At the

end of

November 1842, however, Arnould sent Brown

ing his verses upon

Dramatic Lyrics,

along with a

short

letter by way of preface.

10

My

dear Browning

Finding it utterly impossible to express in prose the

tumult

of

delight which your most noble Dramatic

Lyrics have given me I have ventured as you

will

see

to express, however imperfectly a tithe

of

what I felt

in the following most crude & hasty lines, dashed off at

haphazard in the intoxication of the moment. I wish

you could have seen the delight with which my

wife

&

myself devoured your Pomegranate the singing

of Bells we set up afterwards.

11

In such a store of

beauties I hardly venture to particularize,

but

I must

express my firm conviction that

Artemis will hence

forth stand alone by the side of Comus as the most

perfect gem of antiquity ever set in a modern language.

Madhouse Cells I think as perfect as the noblest

words & profoundest most passionate thoughts can

make a poem.

But you must let me grasp your hand

as a friend for Waring : which I read & reread with

tears in my eyes, I know you can guess why.

My

wife

x p r s s l ~ g s me to give you her most

heartfelt thanks for the deep delight gratification

you have conferred upon her. Directly I can escape

the trammels of law which now holds me prisoner from

dawn to dewy eve or rather gaslit night, I hope to

be able to accomplish with my

wife

our long projected

visit to Miss Browning. Meanwhile with our united

kind regards

18

Va [Victoria} Square

Nov.

27

th

,

1842

Believe me

most faithfully yours

Joseph Arnould

8 The Diary

of

Alfred Domete 1872-85,

ed. E.

A.

Horsman

(London: Oxford University Press, 1953), pp. 8-9.

Ibid., p. 14. On Domett's restlessness, see pp. 8-10.

10 The text of Arnould's letters requires relatively little

editing. His handwriting is legible, and his punctuation,

though erratic, seldom obscures the sense-except in one

particular. The exception is his habit of linking independent

clauses or even complex sentence units with colons or dashes,

so that two or more are often presented as a single lengthy

sentence without any real unifying focus. I have frequently

broken these meanderers into separate sentences. Wherever

a colon or dash seems remotely justified or particularly

ex

pressive of Arnould's mood (as especially in the letter of

16

October

1846

congratulating Browning upon his mar

riage), I have let Arnould's punctuation stand.

F. G.

Kenyon

in preparing Arnould's letters to Domett for R.B.

and A.D.

presumably faced the same problem and has provided me

with a precedent.

In

editing the verse epistle, feeling that. a poet should

be

allowed his own way with his lines, I have let Arnould's

idiosyncratic punctuation and capitalization stand except

where an occasional period or comma, inserted in brackets,

seems especially to be demanded. The manuscript of the

verse epistle contains a few cancels whid suggest that

Arnould wrote his epistle hurriedly and without resort to a

second draft. Examples: line

39,

Whose broad phylacteries

are [chased

]

scrolled chased ; line

67,

one

truth

half

phrased, another [thing] is behind ; line 155, Unread

the

riddle, let the mystery end is canceled in its entirety for

Make

plain all riddles, let all mysteries end[.]

11 Dramatic Lyrics appeared in the latter part of November

1842 as No. m of Bells atul Pomegranates (1841-46), a series

of inexpensive pamphlets ofIering Browning's new works to

the

public in small type and double columns. Though

Arnould in the letter and the accompanying verse epistle

speaks chiefly of the poems contained in Dramatic Lyrics,

he also discusses

Pippa Passes,

issued in April

1841, as

No.

I of the series, and

King

Victor and

King

Charles, whid

appeared on 12 March 1842, as No. n.

See

William Clyde

DeVane, A Browning Handbook, second edition (New York:

Appleton-Century-Crofts,

1956),

pp.

88

fI.

The poem that Arnould refers to farther along in the para

graph as Artemis is Artemis Prologuizes (Browning changed

the spelling to

Prologizes

in 1863 and

Madhouse Cells

was the

title under which

Johannes Agricola

in

Meditation

and

Porphyria s Lover were published as I and

n

without further

name, their separate titles first appearing in the collected

edition

of

Browning's poems in

1849

(see DeVane, A

Brown-

ing Handbook, pp. 123-125). Waring is Browning's famous

fancy portrait of Alfred Domett. Arnould testifies to its

likeness.

D Miss Browning: Sarianna Browning, the poet's sister,

two years his junior and the only other child of the family.

Sarianna, as my wife now always calls her, we are both

very

mud attaded

to; she is marvellously

l e v e r ~ u h

fine

clear animal

spirits-talks

mud and well, and yet withal s

so simply and deeply good-hearted that

it

is a real pleasure

to be with

her. -Arnould

to Domett (Kenyon, R.B.

and

A.D. p.

104,

28 July 1844).

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92

Joseph Arnauld and Robert Browning

[Arnould's Verse Epistle}

Forgive

me,

Browning, that I can't dispose

My rebel thoughts to wear the garb of prose,

But

seem impelled to deck them in a dress

Whose spangled skirts bewray their nakedness

The

fault, my friend, is yours; my ear is caught

In the sweet toils, my brain is music-fraught:

The

generous Nile-flood of your noble song

In golden richness, sweet, profound, strong

Has deluged all my soul, sown there seeds

of fruits flowers, perchance of vocal

reeds

My

spirit, friend is as the Theban cell

Shaken by it's earth-thundering oracle;

as a dark crypt into whose depths the hymn

of Evening floats when vesper lights burn dim

Up in the great cathedral; yours the song

Mine the dim cloisters which

it's

tones prolong

Thank

God for this my heart is not yet dead

Life has not yet all centered in the head,

The world's sworn bondman,

yet

at times I pine

in the pent damps of Labours o'er wrought mine,

At

times I gasp for purer air, and hate

The

self-forged chains to which our will gives weight,

Renew my spirit's youth, and share with you

God's chosen sons, your draughts of honey-dew.

Friend you have triumphed, with imperious skill,

And a strong energy

of

Stoic will,

Sage Lord

of

wealth unbounded you have taught

Language to be the minister of Thought;

No harlot handmaid, finically gay

Who seeks to rival

Her

she should obey,

No formal slave, whose niggard speech conceals

One half her sense, mars what

it

reveals,

No mystic priest whose smoke of rare perfume

Enwraps his Deity in three-fold gloom,

But

a sublime Interpreter; no doubt

With spells, & quaint devices hung about,

Floating in Persian robes, whose every fold

Is rich with ant ique gems classic gold.

Whose broad phylacteries are scrolled chased

With solemn texts by Hebrew prophets traced

Whose sandalled feet still leave whereer he treads,

Life's homeliest walks, or misery's lowliest sheds

Musk, nard cassia's aromatic smells

Brought from the ivory palace where he

dwells

and such should be the speech

of

those, who walk

With God Nature in familiar talk

Who sit beside the springs

of

thought,

that

flow

Beneath the haunted peaks,

that

seem aglow

With splendours inac[cJessible to those

Who plod the dust of Life's dull daily prose;

A noble thought will have a noble speech

And words be lofty as the tru ths they teach;

The Word the Idea are more than kin [:J

Before the ages they were born a Twin;

When the Divine Idea itself averred

A whole creation was its mighty Word;

When Love Divine itself to man addrest

Christ was the Word

that

made Love manifest.

And when a soul dwells high above the gaze

of Earth-bowed mortals in the wildering maze

of his own high creations, then be sure

The Word

that

shapes them will be deemed obscure;

and this because the thinker is possest

With what throngs round him in his inmost breast

[ J

There in himself he sees, he feels, he knows.

His

s t ~ u l i n

thought, to struggling language glows,

one truth half-phrased, another

is

behind

The swift succession tasks his labouring mind

Light makes him dark, too clear vision, blind.

So

it

will ever be; the full rich soul

O'erteemed with truths, too restless for controul

Chasing the fire-flies of thought

that

glance

Before, around him, in delirious dance

Clutching with too quick grasp each glittering prize

Impairs its beauty for the general

eyes-

Such was Sordello's fault

l3

all art, all man

All nature grasped

at

in one noble

plan-

All nature there, all man, all art was traced,

The

poet

saw, the poet had embraced;

But

n his extacy

of

soft delight

Too steeply soaring in his Godlike flight

He

half forgot the multitude he meant

To carry with him in his grand intent,

And left them gazing in bewildered crowds

at

gorgeous mists, skirts of gilded clouds

Which wrapt from them the empyrean blue

In whose pure void his revelling spirit flew

All

praise be his, the Poet 's he has learned

A noble lesson, and to Earth has turned,

Our beautiful, brave Earth, where not a sod

But, touched by Poetry, is quick with God [.J

Honour to him our Poet he has broke

From his freed neck

the

metaphysic yoke

[.J

He

tracks no more through the Serbonian bog

The wheels of Walter the Arch Mystagogue,l4

But

speaks, with Shakespeare's heart, in Shakespeare's

tongue

Great thoughts from his great soul

by

passion wrung

[ J

Honour to him our Poet who creates

Real human hearts with all their loves hates.

Ottima's queenly lust Sebald's

SCOWl16

11 Amould was apparently among those who found Sordello

1840) a baffling poem. Domett, to judge from Browning's

letter in reply to him (Kenyon, R.B. and A.D. pp. 28

II.

[March

1840]),

had been equally emphatic upon Browning's

need to write more plainly than he had done in

Sordello.

l

A gulf

profound as

that

Serbonian bog

Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,

Where armies whole have sunk

-

-Paradise

Lost 0.591-593

Walter, the arch mystagogue, is possibly Michael Walther

(1593-1662),

German theologian and author of The Golden

Key of the Ancients.

11

Allusions in the next twenty lines refer to the following

poems: "Ottima

Sebald": Pippa Passes; "Victor":

King Victor and King Charles, "Napoleon's": Incident of the

Frem h Camp; "Tourney Queen": Count Gismond, "Cava

lier": Cavalier Tunes; "madhouse cells": Johannes Agricola

in

Meditation and Porphyria s

LOfler;

"marble-brinked ca

nals": In a Gondola; "Cadmus' brood": Artemis Prologuizes;

"friendship":

Waring-based

as observed above, on the

personality of Alfred Domett.

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Donald Smalley

93

of stung remorse Victor's stealthy prowl

Into the "noon-day haunted chamber lG where

Lies the gilt toy,

whose

loss is his

despair-

Oh how

the dash

of that

quick-picturing pen

Turns history into act,

of

names makes men

Paints climes ages in a single scene,

Napoleon's envoy or the Tourney Queenl

Now with rough hearty

glee

royal cheer

Calls up the plumed booted Cavalier,

Now leads you captive his enchanted thralls

Th[rJough madhouse cells, or marble-brinked canals.

Then, potent wizard, with some high-built line

That

breathes

of

attic

flowers,

Lesbian wine

of

Cadmus' brood Pelops ancient race

Calls

down

Diana from her dwelling-place;

And then again with strokes as fondly true

As friendship linked to genius ever drew

He paints, till the strong likeness makes you

start

The much loved wandering brother

of

your heart

Honour my friend to you the task

is

done

The triumph sure, the palms

as

good as

won

[.J

Three giant strides each firmer, than the last

17

Have set you free--the peril's overpastj

That

quaking quicksand

filled

your friends with dread

There Keats nigh foundered, Landor still lies dead

But

you

are safe--erect godlike,

how

You spurn the slime of that inglorious slough [ J

Even yet perchance at moments we can trace

Some

lingering remnants

of

the pool's disgrace

But 'tis

at

moments

only-when

you tower

In

the full plenitude of easy power

or poised at rest on your triumphant wings

Sublimely hover o'er all subject things [ J

Foul fall the lynx-eyed snarler, who detects

Through his smoked glass

that

even your Sun has

specks [.]

Yet Browning other strides remain to take f:J

The thirst you kindle you alone can slake

Ours is a noble age, an age

of

faith

A resurrection after years

of

death[.J

The men who are the men

who

are to come

Their hopes, their fears, their aims must not be dumb[.J

Reawakened Love

&

Reverence

that

requires

A Priest to guide

it

to the Sacred fires,18

The boundless hope

of

something to supply

The want

of

that, which, while

we

want

we

die,

The strong assurance, dashed at times with doubt[,1

That

from our darkness Light must be struck out,

That

the dim twilight which now lowers o'er

all

Is but a cradle curtain not a pall,

That

the great hope, which swells the worlds great soul

Is impulse struggling to a glorious goal-

To teach us this by some undying word

Is your high mission-be it's mandate heard

Then dash the veils away, the curtain rend

Make plain all riddles, let all mysteries

end[.]

Let the throned Genius with majestic grace

Put by the mists

that

still obscure his face

Divide the vapours with

his

parting hand

And full before the world then Seer

&

Teacher standI

Three months after he

had

received

the

verse

epistle, Browning wrote Domett: "All

this

while,

characteristically enough, I do not write about

our friends-yours always, and certainly mine

now. Arnould is on the circuit, but

he

and his

wife have

been

zealous as

Christ

himself

on my

side. l. The phrase

on my

side" refers

to

Browning'S quarrel with

the manager

and

actor

William Charles

Macready

over

Macready's

pro

duction

of A Blot

in

the Scutcheon

on 11

Feb

ruary 1843 and

two

nights following. Arnould

was indeed a fierce

advocate

of Browning'S play.

He attended each of the

three

performances,

sitting

for the first and third in the boxes accom

panied

by Maria Arnould

and attending

alone on

the second

night in

the pit. The extended sum

mary

that

Arnould wrote Domett of the

three

performances and the quarrel between Browning

and Macready that

formed

the

background

for

the failure of the play remains our

most

valuable

eye-witness account. Arnould describes graphi

cally

the

dwindling audiences

and

the apathy

and emptiness of the great chilly

house on

the

third

nightj

but he declares

that

his and his

wife's delight

in

the

play

was nevertheless aug

mented at

this

third

performance

and would

have

gone

on

increasing to a thirtieth."20

Arnould's

enthusiasm

for A

Blot

in the

Scutcheon

carries over into his

next

letter to Domett. Here

he

compares Browning favorably

with

Webster,

whose Duchess of alfi and Vittoria Corombona

he had

been rereading.

In

"vigour, grandeur,

and

fire" he considers

the

two

dramatists much

alike.

Of

course," he continues,

in

intellect Browning

has

the

superiority.

But

Arnould is no mere

idolater, and

he

adds, Webster certainly beats

him in plot and

stage

effect, and also, to my

thinking in dramatic

style."21

Despite

his ad

miration

for A Blot in the Scutcheon, Arnould

had conceded

in the

first of the two

letters

deal

ing with

this play that it

showed want of

a

sus

tained interest to the

end of

the third act

which I need

not

tell you is for all purposes of

performance

the most unpardonable

fault."22

To

judge

from

the

verse epistle and from the

frankly

11

The

'noon-day haunted chamber' : King Victor and

King Charles II.i.190.

17

The

"three giant strides" are apparently the three num

bers of Bells and Pomegranates

that

had been published by

this time (see n.

l1)-three

steps Browning has taken from

the slough in which he had foundered in writing Sordello.

18 The lines following suggest the influence of Carlyle,

whom Arnould greatly admired (see Kenyon, R.B. and A.D.,

pp. 67-70, 141).

Kenyon,

R.B.

and A.D., p. 52 (13 December 1842).

0 Ibid., p.

66

(undated, but about

May

1843).

11

Ibid., p. 87 (undated,

but

probably

in

late 1843).

Ibid., pp. 66-67.

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94 Joseph Arnould and Robert Browning

unfavorable criticism (tactful

but

specific)

Arnould makes

of Browning's later work

in

his

letters to

Browning

in

1846-50,

it

is likely that

Arnould

made

his

opinions of

Browning's

dramas, strictures

as

well as praise, known to

Browning

in

person

in

the

years

1842-46.

Letters to Domett give evidence of frequent

meetings between Browning and Arnould in

the

first two years following

the

production of A Blot

in the

'Scutcheon.

In July 1844 Arnould expresses

to Domett his

gratitude

for Browning's

obtaining

him an

entrance

at last into Periodical Litera

ture, which I have long

been endeavouring

through less zealous friends to procure."23 Seven

months later, after

spending some

time in Italy,

Browning

writes, Arnould is a happiness to see

and know. Law does him no harm in the world;

and

I

send,

with

this, a

Review

with

an

article

of

his-'Rabelais '-which I know you will be de

lighted

with

as I have been."24 In 1846, Browning

became increasingly absorbed,

however, in his

courtship

(begun early

in

1845)

and the ap

proaching crisis in Wimpole

Street. In

mid-July

1846

he writes Domett

that

he does not see

Arnould as often as I ought

and

might."25

Nevertheless Browning's letters to Miss Barrett

in the last weeks before their

marriage

and elope

ment

record

an

evening in which Browning

established over the

protests

of

H. F.

Chorley but

to

Arnould's

great

satisfaction at

least

that

Richard Hengist Horne

was a

poet

and

more

over a dramatic one. 28

The first of Arnould's letters of 1846-50 to

Browning is dated within a month of the Brown

ings' elopement.27

18

Victoria Square, Pimlico

Oct. 16

t

1846

My dear Browning It

is of

no use at all trying to

ex-

press with pen paper the burst of congratulation

surprise & delight with which we (for Maria begs to be

included) hailed the announcement

of

your marriage

No-it lies not in mortal wits [sic]-one warm grasp

of

the hand, one quick glance

of

the eye might

do -

all else were tedious, and ineffectual:

so

do you and

Mrs. Browning both take the friendliest of greetings

the sincerest of good wishes from two hearts also

having for six years beat together as one[,] know what

a blessed thing the marriage

of

true minds" is, &

feel confident that yours

will

be "without impedi

ment."28

Pisa being your first fixed point, I despat[c]h this

thither trusting that you will have arrived there

before

it

and that Mrs. Browning will have ac

complished the journey as prosperously, as we hear

from your Sister, she had commenced it.

And when are you coming back amongst us? or

rather is

not

that

a most unfair question to

put

yet,

when you have no right to tolerate the putting of any

questions at

all, and an undisputed claim to live

wholly in the happiness

of

the present, without a

thought about the future:-I asked the question be

cause somehow it came spontaneously to the very

tip of my pen-: in fact it is the mere expression in

words, of

what

we

are constantly asking ourselves:

a sort

of

obstinate questioning which creates within

us

the only sort

of

drawback to the delight which the

tidings

of

your marriage spread amongst us: we think

in fact of certain dark intimations scattered by you

to our secret dismay

of

intentions to remain some

indefinite time in the Paradise

of

Exiles: "years"

we

think

we

remember,

but

can only hope this

will

not

be true & that our ears deceived

us

through the me

dium of our apprehensions. I hardly know though

whether amid the autumnal fogs & cold rains of a

London October,

we

ought ever to wish you back from

that peaceful ci[ty]29 between the mountains and the

Sea where the [inlhabitancy

of

man seems least to

have stained the clear beauty of Nature; where all is

tranquil & harmonious alike in the sunny silence of

the streets, and the shadowy solitude

of

the Campo

Santo. You, who

at

once find out everything, and

are fond

of

walking,

will

have explored & appreciated

the beauty of that winding walk upon the great dike

which stays the overfiowings of the Arno and leads

on through a fruitful wilderness

of

orchards & vine

yards to the foot

of

the mountains which shut in the

Eastern sky. It used to strike me that in all Italy,

which is saying a strong thing there is no more lovely

walk.

But

I must not make myself miserable by let

ting my thoughts carry me out

of

London into Pisa.

There are

no

news here which you care about or

which you will not learn from those London papers

which are as accessible in Pisa as in Pall-Mall:

Chorley

o

has not yet returned from his trip & is now

13

Ibid., p.

104 (28

July 1844).

f Ibid., p. 110 (23 February 1845). Arnould's "Rabelais"

appeared in The New Quarterly for January 1845. After he

had completed his treatise on marine insurance and the law

(published in 1848), Arnould became a regular contributor to

the Daily News. He was offered (but refused) the editorship

of this journal, whose editors in earlier years had been

Charles Dickens and John Forster. See Griffin, "Early

Friends of Robert Browning," p. 430.

2

Kenyon,

R.B. and A.D.,

p. 130

(13

July 1846).

26 Letters of R B and E.B.B., II, 410 (1O August 1846).

17

The marriage had taken place on 12 September, but

Elizabeth had then returned to the Barrett residence in

Wimpole Street until the elopement on 19 September 1846.

18

Shakespeare, Sonnet 116.

i A tear in the letter requires emendations, indicated

by

brackets, here and a few words farther on in the same

sentence.

10

Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-72), chief literary and

music critic of The Athenaeum, lived three doors from the

Arnoulds in Victoria Square. Browning had introduced the

Arnoulds to Chorley. Christopher Dowson, mentioned in the

next sentence of Arnould's letter, was a fellow member of

The Colloquial." He had married Domett's sister. See

Griffin, Early Friends of Robert Browning," pp. 43()-431,

434.

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at Paris. Dowson has I dare say written to you: do

you remember that night how thoroughly you mysti

fied us, & I never dreaming

of

what was to be (how

could

I

be

so

leaden ) fancied

that

as

we

were to meet

at

Wanstead

31

I

need not be keeping about Hatcham.

Beast

that

I

was-yea

swinish in my stupidity. An

affecting little incident occurred yesterday. Miss

Browning sent me those cigars (delicious )

that

you

spoke of. I received them as the solemn legacy of your

bachelorhood-"sooty retainers," "fine negroes" for

whose maladroit services you had no more need.82

As

their fragrant fumes rise round me, I need not say

that the generous

testator

is vividly recalled and

my eyes glisten through the smoke as

I

fancy myself

grasping your hand in a paroxysm of congratulation

which I feel too painfully how imperfectly I have con

veyed to you in words. Maria unites with

me

in kindest

regards to you and all the kindest expressions

of

good

will

which usage will allow us to proffer or Mrs.

Browning to receive.

Ever your sincere friend

J.

Arnould

The Brownings

must

have

received

Arnould's

letter of

16

October not

long

after settling them

selves at Pisa early in that month. Seven weeks

after

his first

letter

to

Pisa, Arnould has heard

from

Browning and writes a second. Arnould al

ludes to the difficult course of Browning's

court

ship with

sympathy

but

with restraint-a

restraint he had felt less

need to

exercise in writ

ing a spirited account of Mr. Barrett's tyranny

over

his

daughter to Domett

a few

days

earlier.aa

18

Victoria Square, Pimlico

Dec

r

.6th 1846

My

dear Browning. I ought to have thanked you be

fore this for the most delightful letter I ever received

in my life; both from the warm expressions of regard

which

it

contained for myself (would

that

I were

worthy

of

them): and from the gratifying tidings

of

the restoration

of

Mrs. Browning's health &, (though

this we knew beforehand) your very perfect happi

ness at Pisa. Indeed, my dear friend, with love, mar

riage, & delightful literary occupation you have given

me a picture

of an

existence which would be perfect

anywhere, and hardly wanted the graceful solitude

of Pisa to lend it an additional charm. Before receiving

this you will have heard that I have (provisionally on

your Mrs Browning's approbation) accepted the

office of Trustee to your Mar[r]iage settlement,

at

the

request

of

your Sister & Mr Kenyon." Need I say

that I did

so

with a feeling of high gratification a

sense of great honour in acting for such friends. (May

I venture on the plural already-as I

feel

it, pardon

my

writing

it): & with such a

magnificent co

trustee as

Mr. Kenyon. Of course, my dear friend, I have now

heard aU-were I with you in the body I should con

vey the impression the narrative made upon me with

one warm grasp

of

the hand.

Let

me, as I can only

communicate my thoughts on paper do

so

by

a silence

which I feel will be at once more expressive and be

coming than words-which would either be totally

inadequate to convey the feelings

of

which my heart

is full, or, if less measured, might renew in yours the

sorrow the anger to which your noble nature

will

I

know never allow you to give utterance.

I

feel

that

I should be insulting both you & myself by attempting

to express in writing how completely

I

sympathize

with admire your whole conduct.

Owing to Maria's continued indisposition from in

fluenza we have not been able to go down to Hatcham

as much as we could have wished, and as we mean to

do, now that she is better:

we

had however a most

delightful evening there last Saturday: one of the old

evenings, in which

we

should have indeed missed you

irreparably had

we

not made up for it by talking in

cessantly about you. I was very glad to see Mrs.

Browning looking, for her, decidedly well: quite

cheerful free from pain. Your Sister I had not seen

looking

so well

for a very long time.

I have written to Domett, as I thought you would

wish me to, fully confidentially about the whole

business. You know what a fine fellow he is how

entirely this will

fill

his large heart with joy. Yesterday

evening

at

Chorley's I had the high gratification

of

meeting for the first time that noble minded man, Mr.

Kenyon. Need I say that I was as delighted as all else

who meet him must be

by

the frank, cordial & un

affected goodness

of

his whole manner, transparent

dress

of

a noble, genial nature. Having

so

pleasant a

common topic as yourself

we

speedily became very

friendly I shall not be surprised if I have to thank

you for another most agreeable addition to my list

of

acquaintances.

All success to the revision

of

Paracelsus & the Bells

Pomegranates:

6

I can fancy no pleasanter occupa

tion for the six weeks of Italian winter. We [shall] all

be eager here to see the results.

Of

course as one of the

pit audience in the great literary theatre I say run

"Wanstea.d" refers to the Dowsons' country home at

Woodford in the borough

of

Wanstead and Woodford (in

Essex), frequently visited by the Arnoulds and Sarianna and

Robert Browning. See Griffin, "Early Friends of Robert

Browning," pp. 434-435, 439; Kenyon, R.B.

and

A.D. pp.

26-27,39-40,

89, 93-94.

"Hatcham":

The

Browning family had moved from

Camberwell to a larger house

at

Hatcham in 1840.

31

This passage is the only evidence

we

have, to my knowl

edge,

that

Browning was

at

any time in his life a smoker of

tobacco.

See

Kenyon, R.B. and A.D. pp. 133-136 30 November

1846). t

s

likely

that

Sarianna Browning was the source for

much

of

the detail in this valuable account.

t John Kenyon, wealthy patron of the arts and intimate

friend of both Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (he

was her second cousin and was instrumental in Browning's

first writing her). See Griffin and Minchin, Life

of

Robert

Browning passim.

Paracelsus

(1835)

and many of the pieces

that

had ap

peared in Bells and Pomegranates (1841-46) were revised for

Browning's first collected edition of 1849. Paracelsus and

Pippa Passes underwent especially thorough revision. See

DeVane, A Browning Handbook pp. 49, 91,102

ff.

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Joseph rnould and Robert Browning

the risk of all things for the sake of being clear;

sacrifice the private boxes to the gallery, the coteries

to the multitude, as far as is practicably consistent

with the plan

of

revision; but, of course don t let us

miss one of the

characteristic features or well known

hues which have long since settled so deeply into all

our

hearts:-in

fact I know you will not do this.

I fully enter into your

utter

distaste for London

news. I you know live within

the

bills

of

mortality,

but

not in London, in the ordinary sense of the word

therefore know nothing which would bear po[sting;J36

besides I know you have many friends who will keep

you constantly supplied with all literary

news-and

indeed

my

dear Browning I feel very unaffectedly

how little more a letter of mine can convey to you

except a mere evidence of the truth sincerity with

which I am ever shall be your faithful friend. I hope

Mrs. Browning will allow me to offer her

my

very

kind regards you believe me to be

as ever your true friend

Joseph Arnould

[Added on three of

the

four folds surrounding

the

address:}

My

dear Mr. Browning. I hope you thoroughly under

stood when my husband wrote last time, that nothing

but the blindness from which I was just then suffer

ing could have prevented me sending with

my

own

hand

my

warmest congratulations to you and Mrs.

Browning, for believe me none of your friends could

have felt more truly and deeply rejoiced at your hap

piness, than I did,

do

I am so delighted that you

love Pisa. You have found out one old walk (the

grassy bank

by

the

side of the Arno) , is

it

not

lovely?

We resided there two months so I have many grateful

memories of it. I spent a long happy day with Mrs.

Browning Sarianna about a week back

and

they

were so good as to wish me to go down again before

Xmas which I intend to do. We missed you very much

but we rejoiced in the cause of your absence. t would

be folly in me to

attempt

to give you any news for

you know my quiet life and Joe will have told you all

I know, so I will only beg you to present my sincerest

regards to Mrs. Browning

(I

would if I could, express

how proud I feel

at

the prospect of making her ac

quaintance)

and

with kindest regards to yourself

every sincere wish for your happiness in all things

Believe me always

Your very sincere friend

Maria Arnould

On Saturday we had the pleasure of meeting at Mr.

Chorley's

that

dear good noble man Mr. Kenyon.

Arnould s next

letter,

written

twelve

months

later, sums up

a year s personal

and

literary

news.

The

Brownings

had in the

previous

spring

taken residence in Florence and

were now

leading

a life something like that which Arnauld imagines

for them in his letter, contrasting the delights of

Florence

and

literary pursuits with his

own

pro

saic life in

London.

18

Victoria Square, PimJico. Dec.

19

th

j47

Very welcome, my dear Browning, was the sight of

your hand writing once more, truly on my

part

it

ought

to

have been acknowledged earlier:

but

you

live so constant ly in our thoughts here; you

yours are so often the subject of our words,

that

the

only forgetfulness I can reproach myself with, in not

writing, is that of not telling you how much

we

think

talk of you: it seems to me

that

yourself Mrs.

Robert Browning are the most frequently kindly

talked of people, of any whose names are current in

this great, jealous, generally oblivious London so

ciety, as far at least as my little knowledge of it

extends. t is impossible,

at

all events I find it so,

not

to envy you your life of

study

repose in Florence,

a city of all others I think, delightful, to those who

will lead their own life in it, let the noisy shallow

stream of gossip scandal, which there runs per

petually, foam away as

it

will without heeding it.

You have air clear, though cold, libraries, stores of

art, a cheerful smiling country, silent streets, great

churches, cloudless moonlights for thought that

higher energy of creative invention, to expand in: well

exchanged all this, to

my

mind, for the smoke stir

of this dim spot where with low thoughted cares we

toil on after money, or power, or pleasure. I am still

climbing, without much encouragement up the stub

born ascents of the Law: for rapid climbing in that

direction, as in fact for rapid climbing anywhere, you

want nimbleness

shiftiness of foot, hand eye,

which unluckily for me I don t possess. All I can

bring to the work is a certain toughness of sinew,

strength of mind, an indomitable resolution never

to bate heart of hope. I believe I may say after

6

years

that

I am some

few

decided steps in advance,

only last week had my first opportunity, which I have

long wanted, of making a speech in Court in a case of

some importance to my client: wherein those who

should be able to judge of such things tell me I ac

quitted myself

not

discreditably. Then I am

at

length on the eve of publishing a Law Book which has

cost me (man of genius don t smile at such plodding)

4 years

of

the best labour pains I could bestow on

it

l7

therefore, i I am

not

an absolute dolt, ought

to

do something for me. At all events therefore, my

dear friend, to put an end to this egotism (strongest

proof of my confidence in your friendship)-if I fail

I shall have the satisfaction of knowing

that

to the

best of

my

powers I have striven

not

to fail, shall

take

failure as the just verdict of men on

my

want

of ability.

We have been very quiet for some months past. I

know you will be sorry to hear that my dear wife has

been for some time a great invalid; for the last year

she had been complaining (this

is of

course com

pletely entre nous as old friends): Having at length

prevailed upon her to undergo an examination

it

ap-

311

A tear

in

the margin of the letter makes necessary th c

emendation.

1 1

This work is more fully described below, in Arnould's

letter of 1848

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97

peared that she had been for some long time labouring

under that very distressing,

but

I believe not un

common malady with women prolapsus uteri; which

in all probability had for months

i

not years been

producing that debility of which she

at

times used to

complain. I sent her down immediately to the sea side

where she has now been for 6 weeks & I am delighted

to say appears completely renovated, will, as I am

assured

by

the first medical advice in London, get

completely sound. I should hardly have told you all

this thus explicitly were

it

not in order to account

(what nothing but the Truth could explain) for

the

depression

of

health spirits which has quite pre

vented her from seeing her friends, especially your

sister Mrs. Browning, so often as she could have

wished. I trust that, after Xmas, all this may be

altered. I have not heard from Domett since I wrote

to you last, nor have I any positive information as

to his present exact position with Governor

Grey:38

but

this I know,

that

on Grey's first going

out

as

governor, Domett was singled out by him in a very

marked way; he took him in his company to Auck

land (Govt station in the North Island), talked a

great deal & very confidentially about plans

of

gov

ernment, &c, which was very natural as

Domett

had

been throughout advocating the very line of policy

which Grey went determined to carry out. I think

from all this

it

is most probable

that

our friend has

ere this received some appointment, which will

at all

events enable him to live on there, until the oppor

tunity offers of something more valuable. You know

how little would suffice Domett; ship biscuit, a bed,

a room, fire & grog when required. Meantime I am

very anxiously looking for his next let ter from which I

shall learn something positive.

I see a great deal of Chorley; a valuable friendship

which is not the least

of

the benefits for which I have

to thank you. His life is one

of the

most desperate

hard

work-over

work in fact. I wish he could only

grasp one decided success: this he wants at present

very much; besides his journalism he is doing a great

deal just now in the translation of operas (chiefly

French-the

Iphigenia

of the

Ritter Gluck among

the number) for Mons. Jullien,39 who is giving English

Opera at

Drury

Lane.

The

work is lucrative, but

laborious from the high pressure speed

at

which

it

is

required to be done: his play, I was in great hopes,

was to have been acted

at

the Princesse's [sic],

but

Maddox, the manager, was

it

seems

so

disheartened

at the result of the Philip Van Artevelde that he has

declared finally against

any

more new plays: so

that

unless Miss Cushman takes the play with her else

where I fear

it

will not be brought out at all. As to

the Philip Van Artevelde the critics all pronounced

it nought as an acting play. I confess I could

not

agree in their verdict, for, though wanting in light

ness & event,

yet

there was a nobleness & grandeur

about the character

of

Philip as developed by Mac

ready, & a power & interest about many

of

the scenes,

which gave me, & seemed to me calculated to give

any moderately cultivated audience, very high pleas

ure. Dickens,

in

the conduct of his present story,

'Dombey Son' seems to me sadly degenerating from

the humourist of native English growth, into the senti

mentalist

of

a half French, half German & to my mind

wholly insupportable

school-the

clear raciness

of

style & vigour of thought, as it seems to me, gone, &

in its stead melodramatic vehemence of action, alter

nating with most morbid anatomy of the inner men &

women

of

his tale--a sense

of

unreality & effort in the

whole business which when one recollects his old

felicity & facility is painful. Tennyson is on the eve of

publication [of] The Princess: a Medley & as you

may imagine 'the Town' is on the tiptoe of expecta

tion. My dear Browning do you know the German

transcendental writers

at

all, especially

Fichte 40

An

enterprising American bookseller here has been trans

lating all his exoteric works i.e. all except his Formal

System of Metaphysics-the titles will show you the

nature of the Books[:] The destination

of Man

The

Nature & Vocation of the Scholar . Charac

teristics of the present Age Religion or the Holy life

(last

not

yet published). I have been reading them

with that engrossing, rapt, concentrated attention

which no book can command except one which speaks

to the very soul of the reader: formalized in Fichte's

books I find what has long been hovering vaguely

before my own mind as truth: especially on Religion

& Christianity. Do read them. They are not costly.

The price of the hither to published is as follows[:)

Characteristics of th Present Age 7 s Vocation of th

Scholar 2 s The Destination

of

an 3 s 6 d The Nature

of

the Scholar

6

s in

all

18

s 6 d.

May

I send them

to you: I am sure you could find grand food for

thought in them: to my mind the most satisfactory

word which has

yet

been spoken about

that

which is

of supreme interest to all men. You will find yourself

in a IIchool where Carlyle evidently has been a most

88 Governor (Sir George) Grey had given Domett a seat in

the Legislative Council, an appointment

that

led to further

administrative posts. Domett's political activities in New

Zealand are described at length in the introduction to Diary

of Alfred Domett ed. Horsman, pp. 15-39. They culminated

in Domett's being made Prime Minister of New Zealand in

1862-63.

ID Louis Antoine Jullien (1812-60), French composer and

director, was a familiar figure in the world

of

popular music

in England in the 1840's. The opera Iphigmie

n

Aulide of

Christoph Willibald Gluck

(1714--87),

based on Racine's

play, was especially well known. Gluck's later work, Iphi-

g ~ n i

n Tauride was based on a play of Corneille's. Gluck

had been knighted (made a

Ritter by

the Pope.

In the sentence following: John Medex Maddox (1789-

1861) managed the Princess Theater. Henry Taylor's drama

Philip Van Artevelde first published in

1834,

had been more

popular in printed form than on the stage, where

it

had

been withdrawn after six performances. Charlotte Saunders

Cushman (1816-76) was a distinguished American actress

who was drawing large audiences in England in the later

1840's. Previously, in the Walnut Street Theater of Phila

delphia, she had acted as her own stage manager.

40 Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), the German meta

physical philosopher. A new edition of his works, prepared

by

his son, had been issued in Germany within the previous two

years (1845-46).

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Joseph Arnould and Robert Browning

earnest student: the manner even closely resembling

Carlyle in his loftier graver moods; I mean when he

does not give himself up to the grotesque whimsicality

which he seems to have caught from Richter. Alto

gether I think you must read these works. Tell me

about

it

when you write next my dear Browning,

if

not too exacting, let me ask for a letter soon.

f

you

knew the pleasure your letters give me, I should not

ask this in vain. I should so like you to give me the

benefit of your thoughts on such great subjects as

that

of the Progress of the Race as developed after

Fichte's theory in his book n[ow?]41 named Charac

teristics of the Present age, which in [re]ality contains

his whole plan of world history: [it] would be an in

finite refreshment

to

my mind i f you would con

descend occasionally to hold commune

[sic]

with it on

such points & then too I think our letters, having some

worthier end than mere gossip might be more fre

quent. I trust Mrs. Browning's health will continue

improving. Give my kindest regards to Browning

his wife when you write were my wife's general

orders-while you take give mine Believe me your

warmly attached Friend

J.

Arnould

4

Again there is an interval of something more

than a year between Arnould's letters. This time,

however, Arnould has news of

immediate

con

cern

to

Browning; for

on

27

November

1848

Samuel

Phelps, who

had

acted the part of Tresh

am

in

A Blot

in the

Scutcheon

during

its

first

brief

run

in 1843,

had brought out

the

play

with

his company at Sadler's Wells

Theater

for

six

nights

(Phelps

was

to

stage

the

play in the next

year for an additional two

performances).

13 Markham Square. Chelsea

Dec 26th 1848

Dear Browning Chorley myself, with many other

of your friends, were all

at

your play on the first night

of its representation at Saddler's Wells. Chorley told

me he should write at once to express, as he can so

well, the delight gratification which

we

in common

with a crowded audience felt, at the revival of your

noble play. t was indeed a grand triumph Phelps

did his

part

thoroughly well both as actor manager.

The

papers will have informed you of its success since

then.

My

dear Browning I am thoroughly ashamed of

having let nearly a year dribble away in a succession

of petty cares & small concerns without having been

down to Hatcham. My poor wife during the greater

part

of that time has been away from Town en

deavouring to restore

at

the sea side her health which

has been very much shattered lately, during the

time she was in London we were fully occupied in the

pleasant employment of moving from our old house in

Victoria Square to our present abode (the address of

which is as above) situated about a mile further west,

in Chelsea, about 200 yards from Carlyle's residence.

Did I tell you in my last letter, as I ought,

that

Carlyle whom I happened to meet one forenoon

at

John Chorley's, where I smoked a cigar with him,

desired me to convey to you his very kind regards

best wishes, speaking of you

at

the same time in a

manner which would have, I know, gratified you to

hear. I have not

yet

had time to go through your new

edition

43

but I am looking forward to it as one of the

great treats

of

my leisure. I like much your external

shape from what I can hear learn think

it

not

unlikely

that

you may be much more widely circu

lated in cloth

at 16

s than in the former little well

beloved tracts at 2 s 6 d. Your life at Florence is en

viably happy: had I the energy, or one thousandth part

of the energy you have, I should desire nothing so much

as such a life. Being as I am I know

that

nothing can

keep me from lethargy, except the coarser stimuli of

love of gold power: under the influence of which I

can, I find, do lawyer's drudgery with sufficient

patience industry; as yet with very lenten remu

neration-which

however I

trust

is a little on the in

crease. My book, which you are kind enough to ask

about

is

one of those

{J {fJ\a a{3L{JAta

which poor

Charles Lamb use[d] to rank with some better com

pany than they deserve. 'Tis a treatise on Sea-In

surance

&

Shipping which has taken me 3 years a

half of the utmost labour I could supply: a huge heap

of letterpress in 2 thick 8vo vols. with marginal notes,

endless references an index of about 150 pages. t

has been successful in Westminster Hall is now

bringing me the natural fruits of such work, in the shape

of mercantile cases to advise upon, disputed points

of maritime law to clear

up-in

short, the success as

far as it goes of this book, & a growing conviction that

it

is bette r to be able to do one thing thoroughly, than

several imperfectly, has more than ever made me

resolute to give myself up wholly entirely

to

the

study of the Law, as much of the practice thereof as

the patient labour of many years may ultimately en

title me to. My wife's failing health, some little

share in the general loss arising from the Railway

Mania of the year/45 have combined to make the

past year one of some uneasiness. But I am very

happy to say that the first cause is very fast being

removed by a rapid I hope permanent improvement

in Maria's health, as to the latte r, I rely fully on

4 A tear in the page makes emendations in brackets neces

sary here and at two more points in the same sentence.

41

The last words (those following while) are written up the

right-hand margin.

48 Arnould, it appears,

had

been sent an advance copy

of

the

collected edition of 1849 (see above, n. 35).

44

In this catalogue of books which are

no

books-biblia

a biblia I reCKon Court Calendars, Directories, Pocket

Books, Draught Boards botmd and lettered

at

the back,

Scientific Treatises, Almanacks, Statutes at Large

-Charles Lamb, Detached Thoughts on Books and Read

ing, The Last Essays

of FJia

(1833), paragraph 3.

In

his

short whimsical autobiography, Charles Lamb speaks of his

literary works collected in two slight crown octavos and

pompously christen'd his works, tho' in fact they were his

Recreations, and his true works may be found on the shelves

of Leaden Hall Street, filling some hundred Folios. Lamb's

essay The Superannuated Man contains a similar senti

ment.

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Donald Smalley

99

being in a year or two in the receipt of more than

sufficient professional emolument, to satisfy our

moderate wishes, & in the meanwhile nothing worse

has befallen us than being obliged to see less of our

kind friends than

we

formerly used to do. Corragio &

operanza are always my watchwords, & with the com

parative restoration of my wife's health, I feel fully

equal, with the best hopes for the future,

of

facing a

thousand times more than any difficulties

that

are

likely to meet us. Let this detail, perhaps impertinent,'

explain in some degree, I know

it

cannot excuse, our

having suffered

so

long a time to pass without having

seen your sister. We mean to go there immediately

on our return to town (we are now for the Xmas

week at my father's in the country)45 & thenceforward

trust there will be no more such breaks in so pleasant

an intercourse. My wife begs to join with me in kindest

regards & all the good wishes

of

this (with us) Christ

mas Season to Mrs. Browning & yourself & believe me

Yours ever most faithfully

J Arnould

Two events of profound importance in the life

of the Brownings impelled Arnould to write again

within three months. On 9 March

1849

Robert

Wiedemann

Barrett ( Pen )

Browning. only

child of Robert and Elizabeth, was born. A few

days after this happy occasion, news came of

the

death of Browning's mother, Sarah Anna Wiede

mann Browning, an event that affected the poet

so deeply

that

he was unable to master his grief

and depression for some months.'s Arnould's

letter, written shortly after the death of Brown

ing's mother, shows Arnould's characteristic

sensitivity and tact.

13

Markham Square, Chelsea

March 23

rd

, 1849

My dear friend 'Ere you receive this you will know

why

it

is

that

you have not heard earlier from me. A

letter which I had written off

at

once on first seeing

the good tidings of your being a father in the Times

was just stopped 'ere I posted it, by a note from your

sister. To have sent

it

containing as

it

did an unquali

fied expression

of

our great joy & thankfulness

at

the

most happy news

of

your having had a son born to

you & of your dear wife's being so well, would have

been a sort of falseness & hypocrisy of which I could

not have been guilty; so I have thought

it

better to

wait till you knew all. My dear Browning I have no

right whatever to steal in between you &

the

great

sorrow you must feel for the loss of her whom to know

was to love. On such a grief to such a spirit as yours

silence is the only sympathy: for condolence, con

solation & such like I will whisper not a word. Of one

thing only be assured [ J that, when the first overflow

of sorrow has subsided in the hearts of your sister &

father,

it

shall be our care to do what little, & little

I fear

it

will be that we

can-to

mitigate in some de

gree their distress. Indeed, indeed I feel that I have

been sadly wanting for a long time in proper shew of

kindliness-but most truly

it

has been in show [sic}

only-you know how absurdly even a small distance

(in space) acts on selfish Londoners. If you also con

sider that my

wife

has been much away & etc--that

I have been in all senses struggling, & as yet without

more than a distant gleam of ultimate success, at a

most time-engrossing profession, you will have per

haps some sort

of

ground not to hate me for remiss

ness which I can never forgive, with regard to which I

can only resolve it shall not again be. But my dear

friend I can now no longer refrain from expressing the

deep heartfelt joy which both Maria & myself have

felt & feel, (for the feeling is really & strangely present

both with her & with

me

on all occasions) at your

happy entrance into the joy of being a father.

May

the Allgiver pour out the abundance of his blessing

upon you and your dear wife & your boy. Maria &

myself cannot help looking forward to the happiness,

the deep true happiness that awaits the father & the

mother in tending & forming such a noble boy as yours

must be. As he advances we shall be most eager to

hear all about him & shall do

so

from his dear Aunt in

England.

Nay

who knows whether now

that our

Italy

shines o'er with civil swords 47-& friends in

England want comfort-that

we

may not, when the

mother & child may safely travel, see you all back for

a summer at all events.

But of

this more at another

season: &

so of

your book too about which I had so

much to say

that

now I fear you would throw aside

as impertinence, if said. One thing only I will say, that

I could not have supposed the mere difference of type

& form could have made

so

advantageous a difference

in the ease & pleasure

of

the reading. One thing more

I must say[,]

that

I like all the alterations I have made

out, except only those in over the Sea our galleys

went, 'S which I had grown too fond of in its original

beauty ever to like

so

well in any other form. I was in

Chapman & Hall's, on another account, last Tuesday

& was told in answer to a query,

that

the sale was

going on very steadily. But I must tell you more

about this & such like matters

at

another time when

your mind will be more apt for them. Now, dear

friend, I will do no more than convey to you, & beg

you to convey to your dear wife, every good sincere,

& heartfelt wish for the happiness health & welfare

of yourself, her & your boy-both from my wife &

your ever afft. friend

J

Arnould

The last of the six letters of 1846-50 is devoted

almost wholly to Browning's Christmas-Eve and

Easter-Day a volume containing Browning's two

companion poems upon religious belief in the

a Amould's father owned a country home called White

cross, .. a lovely old house on the Thames near Wallingford

in Berkshire. (Kenyon,

R.B. and A.D.

p. 21.)

The

LeUers o

Elizabeth Barrett Browning ed. F. G

Kenyon (New York,

1897).

I,

396-403.

7 Anthony and Cleopatra I.iii.44-45.

48

The

lyric

chanted by Paracelsus in

Act IV,

11.

450-522,

of Paracelsus.

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Joseph Arnould and Robert Browning

mid-nineteenth

century.

t had been published

on 1 April 1850, less than a month earlier.

Dear Browning

S Pump Court, Temple

April 25

th

1850

Our excellent friend Mr. Kenyon kindly affords me

a corner in his cover for these

few

lines: I have read

re-read marked learned

really

inwardly digested your

last Poem. I need not say

that

my creed is still rather

with 'Paracelsus'

as

he was, than as he is;

but

this I

think I can most honestly say has not one whit in

terfered with my powers of appreciation; for as to all

you say about German Professorships Straussism I

agree to a word. Well then I must say quite honestly

that

though your master hand has never dashed on the

canvas the colours of poetry more grandly, though

none but yourself could have written the Poem yet, as

a

whole it

is

less satisfactory to me than some of your

earlier inspirations. Call

me

limited, narrow, academic

what you wish, but I cannot quite like the grotesque,4V

wonderful inventive

&

ingenious as

it

is [,] of your

opening,

&

this not so much

on

the ground of any mere

individual dislike on my own part, as from the feeling

that

it

may be a stumbling block to so many weaker

brethren in the critic world. In this however I find

myself opposed to many

who

would, I should have

fancied a priori taken

[sic]

the same view as myself,

Chorley preeminent among the number. I have never

known him I think so enthusiastic about anything

of yours, and the grotesque he admired particularly,

from the vigorous contrast it lent to the 'strains of

higher mood' which abound in the Poem: & I know

that

one

of

the main grievances

of

his critical life was

his inability to get the reviewal of your work in the

Athenaeum, which was done by an incompetent

hand. Still I don't agree with him & in all the sin

cerity

of

friendship should venture to ask you to

think twice before you again allow your wondrous

facility for all the ingenuities of Hudibrastic verse to

carry you so far aloof from the sympathies of readers

of severer taste. As to the superb magnificences of

your poem-your moonrise, your night-rainbow, your

St. Peter's, your visioned Form, your theory of

Christian

Art-they

are in the memories and filling

the hearts of hundreds of your true admirers. I have

never read any book which more compelled me to go

on suo fiatu

iO

or which left more indelible impressions.

I have been doing my possible to urge your Sister

to move more into our neighbourhood-Chelsea or

Brompton, where she would find many friends who in

a busy London life are

now

prevented from seeing her

as often as they would wish. Do add your urgency to

the same request. My wife, I should tell you,

is

wholly

entirely a devotee has spoken sharp words to me

for the exceptions I have ventured to make to the

Poem. She begs to join me in best good wishes &

kindest regards to yourself and Mr:o. Browning & I a.m

dear Browning

ever faithfully yours

J.

Arnould

Arnould's

judgments on

Christmas-Eve and

Easter-Day

in

the

letter

just given seem curiously

divided, with the praise

heartier

than it would

need be i it were

intended

merely

to

soften the

unfavorable

criticisms

that

Arnould feIt he owed

Browning as a sincere friend. From less satis

factory to never

more

grandly, superb

magnificences, and the like is a wide distance.

Throughout the eight years of the correspond

ence, however, from the verse epistle of 1842

through the letter

of 1850, Arnould's

judgments

frequently face two ways, his enthusiasms

at

variance with his

doubts about

Browning'S

un

orthodox style. Arnould

had

pronounced a simi

larly divided judgment upon Carlyle's

Past and

Present. He

had described this work to

Domett

as

written in a strain of style more hugely, enor

mously, chaotic and volcanic than even Carlyle

had yet

employed.

I

am

sorry

for

this,

Arnould

had continued. I think the book would

have

done a million times

the

good it is

ever

likely

to

do

now,

i he had

not, as

though wantonly

and

with

horse-laughter, driven away from his pages

all who have ever sworn by Addison and rejoiced

in the harmony of Robertson. 51 t is a question,

however,

whether

Arnould did not

in

actuality

respond more strongly than he himself realized to

the special rhetoric of Carlyle and the flexile, col

loquial idiom Browning was in process of develop

ing

in

1842-50 as he gradually worked his

way

from the manner of

Paracelsus (1835)

toward his

highly individual

style

and subject

matter

in

Men and Women

(1855). Arnould had ended his

critique for Domett by giving Past and Present

his enthusiastic approval, pronouncing i t

in spite

of all his strictures the

most

satisfactory thing

Carlyle has done; 52

and

he later wrote Domett,

Browning

and Carlyle are my

two

crowning

men

amongst the highest English minds of the

day. 53 Though Arnould wished Carlyle would

write more directly and plainly-more as he did

when he wrote

the

life of Burns, 54

Sartor Re

sartus and Past and Present, not the

biography

of

Burns,

are,

one

gathers,65

the

works on which

Arnould based his high

estimate

of Carlyle'S

genius.

On

the whole, Arnould's enthusiasms

seem

to have

offered

him

a better guide than his

41 Grotesque is here a noun.

10 Suo flatu: [sailing] under its own breeze.

11 Kenyon, R B and A D., pp. 68-69 (undated but

about May 1843).

51

Ibid., p. 70.

8 Ibid., p. 141 19 September 1847).

14

Ibid., p. 69 (undated

but

about May 1843).

Arnould wrote Domett tl1at Browning's

Pauline

was a

strange, wild in some parts singularly magnificent) poet

biography

. . .

in fact, psychologically speaking, his 'Sartor

Resartus'.

-Ibid.,

p.141 19 September 1847). Italics mine.

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101

critical theory: he had a feel for authentic work.

It

led him to continue

to

pay homage to

Browning's genius in years when Browning could

claim few appreciators.

Only scattered references link Browning

and

Arnould after

1850.

In

December

1851

Arnould

wrote Domett that he had seen the Brownings,

though only briefly, while they were in London.

He is

absolutely

the same man: her I like of all

things-full of quiet genius. M

In

1859, Arnould

accepted

the

post of Judge of the Supreme Court

at Bombay and

the

knighthood which the ap

pointment carried with it.

57

Arnould's leaving

England made awkward his continuing as a

trustee of Browning's marriage settlement, but

he agreed to keep the responsibility rather than

cause Browning undue inconvenience.

58

In 1868

Arnould (from Bombay) informed

Domett

(who

was still in New Zealand) that he had not written

to or heard from Browning since the death of

Mrs. Browning seven years earli

erj

59 but the end

ing of the correspondence, he assured

Domett

at

a later date, was quite as much through

my

fault as his. Though Browning was by now a

popular figure in London society and made a

god of, Arnould was sure that Domett would

find Browning delighted to see him upon his re

turn.

GO

Domett did go back to England, and

Arnould's prediction proved justified.

Domett's

Diary

(1872-85) records at length how cordially

the intimacy with Browning was resumed

and

continued.

Though Arnould was apparently in England

from time to time,

it

was to Italy rather

than

England

that

he retired upon leaving

India

in

1869.

61

There is no record

of

a meeting between

Arnould

and

Browning after 1851. Even at that

date, Arnould was becoming increasingly ab

sorbed in the demands of his prospering legal

practice.

62

The letters of 1842-50 reflect the

period of closest relationship between Arnould

and Browning.

They

provide us with a helpful

complement

to

the letters of Kenyon's

Robert

Browning and Alfred Domett

and add to

our

knowledge of an aspect of Browning's life during

crucial years in the forming of the poet.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Urbana

4 Ibid., p. 142.

17

Ibid., p.

24.

8 The

Letters of the Brownings to

George

Barrett eds. Paul

Landis and Ronald Freeman (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press,

1958), pp.

244--281

passim.

fi8

Kenyon, R B. and A D. p. 143.

eo Ibid., p.

143

also ( date torn off but later ).

e W. Hall Griffin, Robert Browning and Alfred Domett,

The Contemporary

Review

LXXXVlI (1905), p.

104

n.; Kenyon,

R

B. and

A

D. pp. 24-25. Arnould died

at

Florence in

1886.

a

Kenyon, R B and A D. pp. 23-24; Griffin, Early

Friends of Robert Browning, p. 430.