Life of Robert Browning

by William Sharp.





Contents.



Chapter 1.

London, Robert Browning's birthplace; his immediate predecessors
and contemporaries in literature, art, and music; born May 7th, 1812;
origin of the Browning family; assertions as to its Semitic connection
apparently groundless; the poet a putative descendant
of the Captain Micaiah Browning mentioned by Macaulay;
Robert Browning's mother of Scottish and German origin;
his father a man of exceptional powers, artist, poet, critic, student;
Mr. Browning's opinion of his son's writings; the home in Camberwell;
Robert Browning's childhood; concerning his optimism;
his fondness for Carravaggio's "Andromeda and Perseus"; his poetic precocity;
origin of "The Flight of the Duchess"; writes Byronic verse;
is sent to school at Peckham; his holiday afternoons; sees London by night,
from Herne Hill; the significance of the spectacle to him.


Chapter 2.