Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1979 Reaction to Religious Elements in the Poetry of Robert Browning: An Introduction and Annotated Bibliography Vincent P. Anderson Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Vincent P., "Reaction to Religious Elements in the Poetry of Robert Browning: An Introduction and Annotated Bibliography" (1979). Master's Theses. 3011. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/3011 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1979 Vincent P. Anderson -- -, D .:r .> I REACTION TO RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS IN THE POETRY OF ROBERT BROWNING: AN INTRODUCTION AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY by Vincent P. Anderson A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 1979 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The seeds from which this dissertation grew were planted several years ago in Dr. Martin Svaglic's graduate course on the Victorian poets. To Dr. Svaglic, then, I express my gratitude for help and encouragement extending from the very beginnings of this project to its recent conclusion. I also owe thanks to the other two members of my committee, Dr. Patrick Casey and Dr. John Shea, for their useful comments, criticism, and advice, especially on the introduction to the bibliography. The rich collection and capable staff of Chicago's Newberry Library were invaluable to me during the time I spent compiling this bibliography. Most of the entries, in fact, are the result of my searches among the shelves and card catalogues of the Newberry. Some of the items that seemed worthy of attention are in languages other than English; thus I am grateful to two of my colleagues at North Park College, Dr. Dwain Dedrick and Dr. Hans-Joachim Mollenhauer, for help in translation. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Sally for serving as editor, typist, and translator as well as for giving me steady encouragement and support during my work on this project. ii PREFACE A brief prefatory note is necessary to explain certain procedures I have followed in composing this bibliography and its introduction. Documentation in the introduction is not full and formal. When referring to Browning conunentary I have simply mentioned in the text itself such facts as the author (unless anonymous), the year of publication, and sometimes the title of the ar­ ticle, book, or journal. (The only page references in the text of the introduction are those attached to quota­ tions which are not repeated subsequently, along with appropriate page references, in the bibliography.) My assumption is that this minimum of information is suf­ ficient to send the reader to the proper entry in the bibliography itself for fuller documentation. Within the bibliography entries are arranged chronologically. In cases where several items appeared the same year I have ordered those items alphabetically. Finally, the reader should be alert to the fol­ lowing abbreviated designations used on occasion through­ out this dissertation: iii BSP Papers of the Browning Society Boston BSP Boston Browning Society Papers Broughton, Northup, Bibliography of Robert Browning, Pearsall 1830-1950 DA Dissertation Abstracts PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association of America iv VITA The author, Vincent Paul Anderson, is the son of Lars Anderson and Evelyn (Olson) Anderson. He was born February 11, 1943, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His elementary education was obtained in the pub­ lic schools of Excelsior, Minnesota, and secondary educa­ tion at Minnetonka High School (also in Excelsior) where he was graduated in 1961. In September, 1961, he entered Princeton University and in June, 1965, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts with a major in English. During 1965-66 he taught English at the Breck School, Minneapolis, Minnesota. In September, 1966, he entered Northwestern Uni- versity and in June, 1967, was awarded the degree of Master of Arts in English. In September, 1967, he was appointed Instructor in English at North Park College, Chicago, Illinois, and he remained on the staff there until June, 1970. In September, 1970, he was granted a Rockefeller Fellowship which he used to attend Harvard Divinity School for a year. v During 1971-72 he was on the English faculty of North Hennepin State Junior College, Minneapolis, Minne­ sota. In September, 1972, he returned to North Park, where he presently serves as Assistant Professor of English. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS • ii PREFACE iii VITA . v INTRODUCTION . 1 Part I 1833-1889 . 1 Part II 1890-1919 . 30 Part III 1920-1945 . 51 Part IV 1946-1978 . 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 91 Part I 1833-1889 . 91 Part II 1890-1919 . 154 Part III 1920-1945 . 241 Part IV 1946-1978 . 280 Part v Unpublished Dissertations . 376 LIST OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES CONSULTED 387 vii INTRODUCTION PART I 1833-1889 That religious subjects and themes are of great significance in Browning's poetry need not be argued. Any reader who goes far beyond "My Last Duchess" in his study of Browning is bound to notice much evidence of Browning's concern with religion. Such a concern is perceptible, at least in·a budding form, in the earliest poetry, and it re­ mains, growing in importance and becoming more explicit, in later poetry. Thus, to study Browning's poetic treatment of religious topics and issues can be, in itself, a worthy and fruitful endeavor: it leads to a better general under­ standing of the poet's work. And, as the following bib­ liography indicates, there are many indeed who have engaged in such studies. But an examination of this body of secondary material itself can be of some use as well. To be sure, it is hardly as important as the poetry it is based upon; however, some significance must be attached to these recorded responses to Browning because they tell us something about his readers, his era, his poetry, and-­ ultimately--something about the poet himself. The audi­ ence to which Browning speaks in this, the last quarter of 1 "' 2 the twentieth century, needs an awareness of these earlier reactions. They have, after all, helped shape our own re­ sponses to Browning and his work. And they have yielded many interesting--some even indispensable--insights into the religious ideas embodied in Browning's poetry. Finally, and almost incidentally, these reactions reveal an inter­ esting pattern in the changing perspectives on Browning's work, a pattern that offers a window through which to view key developments in intellectual and religious history over the past one hundred fifty years (since the publication of Pauline in 1833) • The Reverend w. J. Fox, who was one of Browning's early religious mentors, was also one of the young poet's earliest reviewers. Reviewing Pauline anonymously in 1833 for The Monthly Repository, Fox shows a clear understand­ ing that the poem, in its transparency, gives readers a glimpse of the spiritual condition of the young poet him­ self. Fox sees Browning, restless as he bears the burden of Shelley's early influence, "groping about after some­ thing to rest upon" and ultimately throw.i.ng himself "upon religion, like a hunted bird dropping into its own nest." But in this quest, God is not enough. It is apparent to Fox that Browning also experiences "a yearning after human sympathies and affections." Herein lies Fox's most note­ worthy observation; in fact, it is almost prophetic as it fixes on a characteristic that will be brought into sharper ... 3 focus by the religious vision presented in Browning's later work. For Browning, as many of his poems will sug- gest and as many of his commentators will emphasize, an examination of God's nature is inextricably bound up with the study of man's nature. Man rep+esenting God, man be- ing identified with God--these notions come to be replayed repeatedly in the poetry and in the commentary it evokes. And they lead, say some, to Browning's later almost exclu- sive practice of the dramatic monologue and also to his fascination with the powerful Christian doctrine of incar- nation. Both phenomena it can, and will, be said are evi- dence that Browning understood God to be revealing himself to man through man himself. The rush to associate Browning with Christianity, which culminated in the creation of the London Browning ., Society in the 1880's, did not begin as soon as readers perceived religious implications in the poetry. Fox's review gives evidence of that; he cites religious meanings but does not call them Christian. The Theologian's review of Paracelsus in 1845, however, turns our attention in a different direction. Although on the surface the Browning of Paracelsus hardly seems to proclaim a personal Chris- tian stance, this reviewer infers something else. He notes that the failure of Paracelsus's heroic quest for a kind of divine knowledge indicates severe limitations to the capa- bilities of intellect; it is thus concluded that the poem p 4 demonstrates the superiority of revelation over reason as a means to truth. That, says the reviewer, is "the very essence of Christianity." Not only does this review help initiate a trickle-- which later builds to flood stage--of commentary linking Browning's poetry with certain Christian doctrines and ideas; it also sounds another keynote in the response to Browning's religious ideas.