University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 3-1961 A Historical and Critical Study of Browning's Asolando Volume Paulina Estella Buhl University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Buhl, Paulina Estella, "A Historical and Critical Study of Browning's Asolando Volume. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1961. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2989 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Paulina Estella Buhl entitled "A Historical and Critical Study of Browning's Asolando Volume." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. Kenneth L. Knickerbocker, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Alwin Thaler, Bain T. Stewart, Reinhold Nordsieck, LeRoy Graf Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Copyl'ight by PAULINA ESTELLA BUHL 1961 March 2, 1961 To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Paulina Estella Buhl entitled 11A Historical and Critical Study of Browning's Asolando Volume ." I reconunend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the require­ ments for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. b��- �r;( �'=< Major Professor We have read this thesis and reconunend its acceptance: / Accepted for the Council: A HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL STUDY OF BR.OvlNING ' S ASOLANOO VOLUME A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of The University of Tennessee In Partial Ful fillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Paul:ina Estella Buhl March 1961 ACKNO�vLEDGEivJENT For wise direction of this study I am greatly indebted to Dean Kenneth Leslie Knickerbocker, whose keen interest , extensive background, and inexhaustible patience made possible its completion . Also for additional assistance and advice I am grateful to Professors Alwin Thaler, Bain T. Stewart , Reinhold Nordsieck, and LeRoy Graf . /"7 ,��(;(';() 1 ··''- t '• . ... ,{ ,,\\ . TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE CONPOSI'I'ION AND CRITICAL RECEPTION OF ASOLANDO • l II . THE PHILOSOPHICAL POEt-IS . 34 11Prologue11 35 11lmperante Augusto Natus Est--11 45 11Development11 62 11Rephan11 • • • 69 11Reverie11 80 11Epilogue11 • 94 III. THE LOVE POEif� •• 107 11Dubiety11 ..11 0 11Now11 117 11Humility11 , • 122 11Poetics11 . 126 11Summum Bonum11 . 131 11A Pearl, a Girl11 137 11Speculative11 . 142 ll',IJhite Witchcraft11 • . 147 11Bad Dreams" . • . 153 11Bad Dreams I" • 156 11Bad Dreams II11 . 159 11Bad Dreams III11 . 164 "Bad Dreams IV11 . 168 v CHAPTER PAGE 11 Inapprehensiveness11 . 172 11\vhich ?11 • • • • • 177 DJ • THE NARRATIVE POEHS 183 11Rosny11 . 184 11 The Cardinal and the Dog" • . 191 11The Pope and the Net'1 ..198 "The Bean-Feast'' . 204 11Muckle-Houth Meg . 210 11 Arcades Ambo11 • • . 217 HThe Lady and the P ainter11 • 220 11Ponte Dell' Angelo, Venice11 • 225 nBeatrice Signorini11 234 11Flute-Music, With an Accompaniment11 244 V. THE POSITION OF ASOLANDO IN BRC\:JNING1 S POE1'IC DEVELOP/VlENT 253 Sources 254 Subjects and Themes 268 Form • . 282 Imagery 296 Diction . • • 302 Conclusion • • • 303 BIBLIOGRAPHY . • • • . • 305 INTRODUC'riON Because Browning's late work has often been considered inferior to his early work and because his fame suffered a decline soon after his death, t9ere has been no thorough study of Asolando Fancies and Facts, his final volume. A close reading of these poems shows that this neglect is unjustifiable, for the collection contains some of Browning's best work after The Ring and the Book and reveals significant facts about his poetic development, coming as it does at the very end of his life. Therefore it is the purpose of this study to examine the volume as completely as possible, considering its composition and critical reception, analyzing each of the individual poems, and then relating the poems to the whole of Browning's work. In so doing, the study will show that Asolando is a carefully prepared volume with each poem related to a central theme, which is set forth in the subtitle, Fancies and Facts. The study will also show that although Browning's thought is more or less consistent throughout his work, the tone and techniques of this volume are much closer to those employed in the poems of his middle years, which are universally regarded as the high points of his poetic production, than they are to those used in the volumes immediately pre­ ceding Asolando. For purposes of convenience, the poems have been divided into three groups--philosophical poems, love poems, and narrative poems-­ following DeVane's classification. CHAPTER I THE CQII1POS ITION AND CRITICAL RECEPTION UF ASOLANDO Browning's poems , with a few exception s such as 1he Ring and the Book , seldom give many indications of th e conditions under wh ich they were composed . Asolando, however, because of the personal tone of some of the lyrics and because of the references to Asolo, does not follow the rule . Ye t in spite of this fact, no thorough study of the composition has been made , although ��s . Bronson did note in teresting points about the composition of a few of the poems in her general dis­ cussion of Brown ing's last visit to Asolo . 1 It is therefore necessary and desirable to examine the background of the collection before looking at any of the individual poems . Although Asolando reveals a distinc tive tone of its own, it also displays many of the characteristics found in the entire body of Browning 's poetry . Two of these characteristics influenced the corn- position of his final volume . One of the se was Browning 's buoyant vitality, which remained with him almost to the end and was clearly reveal ed in his poetry , and the other was his great and constant love for Italy . To many students of Browning it seems quite appropriate that his last volume should have been published on the day of his death and that it should have been prepared in Italy and should have a strong Italian tone. l Katherine C. DeKay Bronson , "Browning in Asolo, " 'The Century l1lagaz ine, NS XXXVII (April , 1900), 923, 929-30. 2 About his continued vigor and strength many comments were made by those who were with him during the last months of his life. For example, in the summer of 1889 Kingsland told of a visit he had recently had with the poet and said Browning 11still bears his weight of years with a rejuvenescence that is delightful to behold. There is something truly inspiring about the hearty ring of his voice and the gladness of his 2 laugh.11 A month later Kingsland continued in the same vein: 11Hr. Browning, at seventy-seven ye ars of age, is, to all appearance, hale 3 and hearty, and in full possession of intellectual strength and power. n Just two months before his death, according to Hrs. Bronson, the poet was not only looking forward to purchasing a house in Asolo but was planning how he and she could sigr�l each other by means of colored flags. It was true, she added, that occasionally he would comment that he might not live long to enjoy the house but that his son could always use it; such graveness, however, was always momentary, and he would 4 declare he was good for another ten years. 2ivilliam G. Kingsland, nour London Letter,11 dated July 12, 1889, Poet-Lore, I (August, 1889), 390. 3Kingsland, "Our London Letter," dated August 6, 1889, Poet-Lore, I (September, 1889), 441. 4Bronson, p. 925. See also Hiram Corson, nRecollections of Robert Browning,11 Nation, L (January 9, 1890), 28-9; nsome Browning Reminiscences, 11 Bookman (London), I (January, 1892), 135-6; W. Hall Griffin and Harry Christopher Minchin, The Life of Robert Browning With Notices of His �"/ritings, His Family, � His Friends ( New York, 1910) , p. 282 . 3 Not only did Browning retain his vigor and youthful air, but he also kept many of the enthusiasms of his youth. Italy as a whole he always loved, but in his final volume he chose to memorialize the hill town of Asolo, one of the first towns he visited on his first trip to 5 Italy in 1838. He had come to Asolo because Dante had aroused his 6 interest in Sordello, but during the four days he spent wandering over the countryside, he became fascinated not only with landmarks such as Romano, the ancestral home of the Ezzelini family, but also with the picturesqueness of the walled tov·l11. and the beauty of the surrounding country. (Asolo affords good views of the Alps on the north and of Venice, which lies some thirty miles southeast across the Revisian Plain.?) The town's significance for students of both literature and history was also important for him. He visited the castle \·lhich in the fifteenth century had been the site of the court of Catherine Cornaro, the Queen of Cyprus, often called the 11Sovereign lady of Asolo. 118 'vvhen political pressures, following the death of her husband and son, had forced Catherine to surrender the throne of Cyprus to Venice and to submit to exile, she had been given the town of Asolo and the castle outside its �dlls.9 Browning knew and often told the story of 6 5ariffin and Minchin, p.