The Browning Society Newsletter The Browning Society Newsletter
Issue No: 4 March 2020
most devoted friends [he] ever had in Outreach efforts by library faculty P r o m o t i n g [his] life” and whose death, Edmund and the development of the ABL’s Gosse later wrote, precipitated the end of Teaching Fellows Program have led to an “a second stage in Browning’s life—that increase in the number of Baylor gradu- browning’s life which had lasted since the death of his ate and undergraduate students visiting wife in 1861.” the library. This semester, 750 students in & legacy art, English, history, honors, journalism, and music classes spent time at the ABL. Promoting Browning’s Life and Some students received tours of the li- Legacy, the Annual Browning Lecture brary building and learned about the li- was given at the Graveside in Poets’ Cor- brary’s history and the lives and works of ner, Westminster Abbey on 13th Decem- the Brownings. Other students examined ber 2019 by Jenifer Borderud, Associate the library’s letters, manuscripts, and rare Librarian and Director of the Armstrong books and now know how to find, handle, Browning Library (ABL), Baylor, Texas, and analyze these primary source materi- USA. als. The ABL is leveraging technolo- While a graduate student at Baylor Uni- gy to broaden its reach. Our Browning versity in Waco, Texas, I received a re- and Victorian letters have been digitized search assistantship at Baylor’s Arm- and are available to scholars online any- strong Browning Library, or ABL as it is time, anywhere. The library’s Browning also known. The ABL, a research center Music Collection, which includes verse and museum dedicated to the study of the by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Brown- lives and works of Robert Browning and ing set to music, will be available online Elizabeth Barrett Browning, houses the in the near future. world’s largest collection of Browning Some of these digitization pro- materials as well as books, manuscripts, jects, such as our project to bring together periodicals, tracts, pamphlets, art, and digitized copies of Browning letters from other cultural artifacts to support research After completing my master’s in around the world, have resulted in part- on nineteenth-century literature and cul- English, earning a second graduate de- nerships with institutions in the United ture more broadly. Named by the BBC as gree in library and information studies, States and the United Kingdom, includ- one of the most beautiful college libraries and holding the position of rare books ing Eton College. The library’s digitized in America, the ABL also serves as a catalog librarian in Baylor’s Central Li- collections are also being incorporated cultural venue for the Baylor campus, braries, I was given the opportunity to into workshops led by the Baylor Librar- hosts numerous lectures, symposia, and return to the Armstrong Browning Li- ies on text data mining to encourage their concerts, and draws more than 30,000 brary and carry on the library’s mission use in digital humanities research. visitors a year. to promote the study and appreciation of The ABL has supported gradu- As a graduate student at the li- the Brownings and the wider field of ate and undergraduate students who brary, I assisted visiting scholars with nineteenth-century literature and culture. sought to tell the Brownings’ story their research, transcribed original letters, And this is an exciting time at the Arm- through videogames and virtual reality to and learned about the work of the li- strong Browning Library. see how these interactive and immersive brary’s curators. During this time, my The ABL’s collections of Brown- technologies impact learning. The library interest in Robert Browning was sparked ing materials and nineteenth-century let- also hosted a flightless, multisite confer- and deepened as I prepared my master’s ters, manuscripts, and rare books are ence on ecology and religion in nine- thesis, a critical edition of fifty-two let- growing, and we recently renovated col- teenth-century studies that virtually con- ters written by Browning and his sister lection storage space to ensure the long- nected five institutions in the US and the Sarianna to their friend Annie Egerton term preservation of the library’s original UK. An additional 600 people in 19 Smith. These letters, which begin in 1868 letters and manuscripts. countries participated in the conference and end in 1877, the year Smith died un- Each year, the library continues to online, demonstrating the feasibility of expectedly while spending a summer attract scholars from around the world this environmentally sustainable form of holiday with Browning and his sister, who use the library’s collections to ad- professional conferencing. provide a glimpse into Browning’s rela- vance their dissertations, articles, and Of interest to those Browning So- tionship with Smith, revealing their book projects. These scholars become ciety members traveling to Italy in the shared appreciation of music and travel part of the Baylor community, sharing coming year, the ABL is proud to host and their intimate knowledge of each their research in public lectures and infor- the annual dinner and meeting of the other’s households. The letters also serve mal gatherings of faculty and students Fano Club. This past summer, over 30 as a record of Browning’s friendship with and attending campus-wide events. people joined the ranks of this exclusive Smith, whom he described as “one of the club, founded by Browning scholar Wil- liam Lyon Phelps in 1912. To become a member, one must travel to Fano, Italy, at Pilgrim’s Point”. view Guercino’s painting The Guardian The Brownings Angel, which inspired Browning to write a poem of the same name, and send a postcard to the Armstrong Browning Li- and slavery brary requesting membership in the club. By tradition, Fano Club members are The President delivered Simon Avery’s invited to the ABL for a dinner in honor paper at the 2019 Annual Commemora- of Browning’s birthday each spring. tion of the Marriage of Robert Browning Members in attendance tell stories of with Elizabeth Barrett which took place their trip to Fano, and the youngest mem- at St Marylebone Parish Church on 12th ber present reads Browning’s poem to the September 1846. group. The paper addressed the highly On behalf of Baylor University complex relationship between the Brown- and the Armstrong Browning Library, ings and slavery raising some difficult thank you for allowing me to share some and challenging issues – both about the of the good work happening at the ABL. I poets themselves and about the wider am deeply honored to be part of this cere- political culture of the eighteenth and mony commemorating Robert Browning, nineteenth centuries. and it is my hope that The Browning So- So much of the history of the Brit- ciety and the Armstrong Browning Li- Simon Avery is Reader in in Nineteenth- ish slave trade often remains untold, and Century Literature and Culture, of the brary will continue to work together to this silencing is something which both the celebrate and promote Browning’s life University of Westminster Brownings in their own day and modern and legacy. historians in ours have sought to address. The talk focused mainly on Eliza- beth’s poetic responses to slavery but also DATES for your addressed the question of how Robert reflected upon slavery. For both poets, diary in 2020 the legacy of slavery was undoubtedly problematic and haunting. Browning Sunday 2020 at St Maryle- bone Parish Church, commemorating the marriage of Elizabeth Barrett to Rob- ert Browning, will be on Sunday 13 September. The Choral Eucharist at 11.00am will include a presentation of work by Robert and Elizabeth given by well-known actors. This will be followed by lunch (£20 per head with wine), an afternoon of readings from the works of Robert and Elizabeth and afternoon tea.
At the heart of Elizabeth’s poetry, The annual Wreath-Laying ceremony at Jennifer Borderud is Associate Librarian from her first compositions to the last, is Robert Browning's grave in Poets' Cor- and director of the Armstrong Browning a concern with the push for equality, lib- ner in Westminster Abbey will take Library (ABL). She previously held posi- erty and freedom from structures of op- place on Friday 18th December, 2020, tions as access and outreach librarian at pression. Her poetic voice is one which following Choral Evensong (5pm). After the ABL and as rare books catalog li- speaks for the rights of women, the work- the Wreath Laying and Lecture we shall brarian in the Central Libraries at Baylor ing classes, children, animals and whole repair for refreshments to The Two University. She received both her BA and countries – Greece and Italy – which Chairmen (just a few minutes’ walk form her MA in English from Baylor Universi- were fighting for independence and unifi- the Abbey). Tickets (to include refresh- ty and her MS in Information Studies cation. ments) £20.00 available from the Secre- from the University of Texas at Austin. Of course, many writers in the late tary or via St Marylebone Parish Church. While writing her master’s thesis, Brown- -eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries ing's Companion Dear and True: The had addressed the issue of slavery and The 4th Annual St Marylebone Festival Letters of Robert and Sarianna Browning often the most telling interrogations of featuring literature and music connected to Annie Egerton Smith, she held a grad- the problems of slavery were offered by with St Marylebone will take place be- uate assistantship with former ABL direc- women writers. Poets such as Hannah tween 18th and 24th July 2020 in St tor Mairi Rennie. She resides in Waco, More, Anna Barbauld and Amelia Opie, Marylebone Parish Church. Performances Texas, with her husband Josh and their for example, deal with the horrors of will take place each day and tickets may two children. slavery in the wake of the developing be bought on the door or via the Festival abolitionist movement. And novelists website: www.stmarylebonefestival.com
such as Jane Austen in Mansfield Park and Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre used the language of slavery to reflect covertly on the position of women in the patriar- chal systems of the Regency and early- Victorian periods. But arguably none of these texts is as bold in its treatment of slavery as Elizabeth Barrett’s poem of the mid-1840s, the astonishing dramatic monologue entitled “The Runaway Slave boy who appears to be working as a ‘I love your verses with all my Life in a new chimney sweep. A woman is slumped in heart, dear Miss Barrett’, opens his first the bottom left-hand corner, while a car- correspondence in January 1845; and riage tries to negotiate the crowd on the then, a few sentences latter, comes the rhythm right-hand side. The scene is vibrant and unflinching assertion that ‘I do, as I say, it becomes hard for the viewer to know love these books with all my heart–and I St Marylebone Parish Church where to rest their eye amongst it all. And love you too’, a declaration which initiat- and the Browning: ‘Life in a then, in the upper right-hand corner of the ed a correspondence which would consist New Rhythm’ adapted from a text canvas is a depiction of the top half of St of 573 letters and which would also lead Marylebone Parish Church with its tower to 92 visits by Robert to Elizabeth’s room by Simon Avery and performed by and columns. This is an image of urban at Wimpole Street, all of them conducted Peter Wight, Neil Stuke, Helen street life on Marylebone Road at the end clandestinely so that the developing rela- Fospero and Nick Barber as part of of the 1820s – its diversity, its vitality, tionship would be kept secret from Eliza- the 2019 Commemoration of the with the parish church presiding over it beth’s overbearing and controlling father. Brownings marriage in St Maryle- all both as a kind of moral guardian for Elizabeth, who had suffered many years the area and associated with the modern of ill health, mostly confined to her home, bone Parish Church. world and the rapid expansion of the bur- had been growing more active as her rela- geoning metropolis. This was the world tionship with Robert progressed – she left in which Elizabeth wrote from her home her room, left the house, and travelled at 50 Wimpole Street. Politically engaged around London more as she steadily pre-
from an early age, she followed her father pared herself for the new life which could and brother in a commitment to Whig be in the offing. politics with its concern for the legal, Suddenly, that new life was upon civil and religious rights of the individual. them as Mr Barrett announced that they By the time the Barrett family would be leaving London in a month’s moved to London, Elizabeth had already time in order that the house could be established herself as a challenging poet cleaned and redecorated. Robert immedi-
who had produced works dealing with ately recognised what he called ‘the ex- St Marylebone Parish Church’s issues such as the abuses of press- treme perilousness of delay’ and pushed strong literary associations are well ganging, Latin American politics, styles for the swift completion of their plans. known: dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheri- of political leadership and, following her On 12 September 1846, in one of dan married here, poet Lord Byron, nov- great hero Lord Byron, the Greek War of the most momentous events in the history elist Wilkie Collins and the son of Independence. of nineteenth-century literature, they were Charles Dickens were all baptised here From her Wimpole Street room, married, attended only by their two wit- and the list goes on. But what did St Elizabeth could dedicate herself to this nesses, Elizabeth’s maid, Elizabeth Wil- Marylebone Parish Church and the sur- work with few interruptions, developing son, and Robert’s cousin, James Sil- rounding area mean to the Brownings? her position as commentator upon some verthorne. A depiction of Marylebone in the of the most pressing concerns of the day – There would be a week between early nineteenth century when the Brown- industrialisation, slavery the problems of the marriage service and the couple leav- ings knew it can be found among the capitalism, women’s rights – as well as ing London, a week in which Elizabeth amazing array of nineteenth-century art writing some of the most beautiful and was constantly nervous that what they housed in Tate Britain. ‘Punch or May challenging religious poetry of the centu- had done would be discovered. The par- Day’ painted in 1829 by Benjamin Robert ry. Indeed, when Robert met Elizabeth ish church’s bells heard by Elizabeth as Haydon (who was himself baptised and she was already an internationally ac- she sat in the drawing room at Wimpole married in the parish church), gives a claimed writer and, a few years later, she Street, served to increase her anxiety and glimpse of the fast-changing streets of would be a contender for the post of Poet sense of guilt and she was even con- central London. Laureate on the death of Wordsworth in cerned that someone might go through the 1850. parish church’s register, find her and In contrast to Elizabeth, the young Robert’s signatures from the service, and Robert Browning was, by 1846, still inform the newspapers. At the same time, emerging as a poet, although increasingly however, and in the months afterwards, recognised as a fascinating new voice the Brownings reflected in letters on what with works like Sordello and Pippa Pass- the ceremony at St Marylebone had es. Growing up in Camberwell in South meant to them. Writing at 1pm the very East London, Robert was, like Elizabeth, day they were married, Robert, in his primarily self-educated at home and sup- typical exuberance, told Elizabeth that ported by his family. she had ‘given him the highest, com- The Brownings’ courtship began pletest proof of love that ever one human when Robert was shown a highly comple- being gave another. I am all gratitude . . . mentary reference to his poetry in Eliza- all pride that my life has been so crowned Haydon was well known to the beth’s 1844 poem, ‘Lady Geraldine’s by you’. In return, the next day Elizabeth Barrett family and he and Elizabeth were Courtship’. Celebrating his work as part wrote to Robert that, during the ceremo- to correspond for several years. of the new modern literature of the age, ny: “I thought, that, of the many, many Haydon’s ‘Punch or May Day’ focuses the poem’s speaker talks of reading women who have stood where I stood, upon a busy urban scene. People of all ‘From Browning some “Pomegranate” and to the same end, not one of them all classes rub along together in this picture which, if cut deep down the middle,/ perhaps, not one perhaps, since that build- and appear to fill the canvas to bursting Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a ing was a church, has had reasons strong with colour and activity. On the left-hand veined humanity’. As a result, Robert as mine, for an absolute trust and devo- side stands a Punch and Judy show, wrote that initial letter which, nineteen tion towards the man she married, – not watched by a whole array of figures – months later, would find him and Eliza- one!” ladies and gentlemen, a soldier, a farmer beth standing together here in St Maryle- Three weeks later, when in the whose pocket is being picked, and a small bone Parish Church. Loire en route to Italy, Elizabeth was more forthcoming with details of that Obituary: Monica Foot, press and tele- morning when she told Arabella and Hen- THE Love poems of vision journalist, anarchist, feminist, rietta that, after the ceremony, she and trade union activist and long-term mem- Robert: “parted, as we met, at the door of ber of The Browning Society, died aged Marylebone Church – he kissed me at the Robert BROWNING 80 during the late spring of 2019. She communion table, & not a word passed was a long-time National Union of Jour- after. I looked like death, he has said The 2019 Annual General Meeting con- nalists activist and served on its executive since”. Indeed, so great was the emotion- cluded with a reading of some of the committee. In 1995 she retired early from al strain for Elizabeth that she had very Love Poems of Robert Browning intro- her job in Birmingham to dedicate more nearly passed out on the way to the duced by Michael Meredith. Members time to her beloved allotment, her vora- church and, supported by Wilson, she had and their guests read from the texts which cious reading habit and her aim of seeing had to stop off to buy smelling salts from included — Song: ‘Nay but you, who do every single Shakespeare play performed the chemist! not love her . . . , Ask not one least word on stage. She is survived by her sons, What the Brownings went on to of praise, Now, Love Among the Ruins, Matt and John, by her grandchildren, find and create in their marriage was, by Two in the Campagna, In the Doorway, Lorenzo, Joe, Natasha and Corinna, and all accounts, nothing short of remarkable: by her sister, Mary, and brother, Robert. a relationship between two devoted part- A Woman’s Last Word, The Lost Mis- ners who developed together both person- tress, Confessions, Inapprehensiveness, A ally and professionally. The marriage was Serenade at the Villa, Humility, Sum- THE BROWNING not without its problems, but their mutual mum Bonum, Love in a Life, Life in a respect and understanding of the other Love , In a Gondola, A Lovers’ Quarrel person’s needs was to last for fifteen and The Householder Society years until Elizabeth’s death in 1861, a period which was remarkably creative for Meeting at Night them both. www.browningsociety.org The grey sea and the long black land; In 1931, another innovative writer The Browning Society was re-formed in associated with London, Virginia Woolf, And the yellow half-moon large and low; gave a sense of what the Brownings were 1969 to provide a focus for contemporary remembered for in the interwar period. In And the startled little waves that leap interest in Robert and Elizabeth Barrett an essay on Aurora Leigh, arguably Eliz- Browning. The Society arranges an annu- abeth’s greatest contrition to literature, In fiery ringlets from their sleep, al programme of lectures, visits, etc., in which was published the same year as London and elsewhere. The aims of the Rudolph Bessier’s The Barretts of Wim- As I gain the cove with pushing prow, pole Street was becoming popular, Woolf Society are to widen the appreciation and wrote: “By one of those ironies of fashion And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. understanding of the poetry of the that might have amused the Brownings Brownings and other Victorian writers themselves, it seems likely that they are Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach; and poets, and to collect items of literary now far better known in the flesh than and biographical interest. For an account they have ever been in the spirit. Passion- Three fields to cross till a farm appears; ate lovers, in curls and side whiskers, of The Browning Society formed during oppressed, defiant, eloping – in this guise A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch the poet's lifetime, see William S. Peter- thousands of people must know and love son's Interrogating the Oracle: A History the Brownings who have never read a And blue spurt of a lighted match, of the London Browning Society (Athens, line of their poetry . . . but we all know Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1969). how Miss Barrett lay on her sofa; how And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and Membership of the Society is open to all. she escaped from the dark house in Wim- fears, pole Street one September morning; how The Society's activities centre on London Than the two hearts beating each to she met health and happiness, freedom, and the South East, but members who each! and Robert Browning in the church round live elsewhere in Britain and overseas are the corner”. kept in touch through the Newsletter and In 1846, when they married, this Parting at Morning regular interchanges of news and infor- parish church was still only 30 years old, mation. a response to the new modern urbanisa- Round the cape of a sudden came the tion of the city. It seems fitting that these sea, two poets who were themselves so com- For membership and enquiries: mitted to the modern – in terms of em- And the sun looked over the mountain's bracing new modern ideas, developing rim: new modern poetic forms, and engaging Jim Smith, 64 Blythe Vale, London, SE6 with new modern subject matters – were And straight was a path of gold for him, 4NW— [email protected] to marry here. It took real commitment, organisa- And the need of a world of men for me. tion and daring to do what the Brownings did on September 12th 1846; St Maryle- bone Parish Church marks the start of Members might like to know that their new lives together as poets and lov- Michael Meredith’s book A Centenary ers. But as the final lines of Elizabeth’s Selection from Robert Browning’s Poet- last letter to Robert before they left Lon- ry, 1989, ISBN 0-930252-25-X, in which don suggest, “none are so bold as the many of these poems appear is available timid, when they are fairly roused’. from online from many sources.
Simon Avery is Reader in in Nineteenth- Century Literature and Culture at UoW.