A Victorian Love Affair
By Dr Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD
On December 13, 1889, more than one and a quarter centuries ago, The New York Times carried the obituary of the famed Victorian poet and playwright, Robert Browning, and noted that “he had many traits that attracted friends, but it was Mrs Browning, more than her husband, who kept so many charming friends about them.”
nybrowning.org
Elizabeth Barrett, even before she knew Robert Browning, had established herself as a preeminent poet of the Victorian period. Especially after the publication of her collection Poems in 1844 her fame had spread widely. While literary critics continue to debate whether Elizabeth Barrett or her husband, Browning, was the superior poet, there is no disagreement that the 573 passionate love letters they exchanged during their courtship over a period of some twenty months (January1845-September1846) have enormously enriched English literature. Notably, they provide some fascinating insights into the start, evolution and eventually denouement of their love affair.
These letters have been the property of Wellesley College, the renowned women’s college in Boston, which has forged a historic bond with Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. The college founder, Henry Durant, considered Elizabeth a strong role model for his female students to follow. Aware of its special relationship to Elizabeth, Robert Browning donated to the college after his wife’s death her hand-written poem, Little Mattie. In 1930, Wellesley College’s then president, Caroline Hazard, purchased the entire collection of letters and donated them to the college library where they have been housed since then, well preserved and protected. However, while the transcripts have been available for some time, the original letters because of concerns for their preservation have been accessible only to a limited few, such as selected research scholars.
This situation was remedied recently when, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2012, the college released the digitalized version of the letters online. For the first time, anyone interested in researching them or viewing them can do so, with all their blemishes, faded sentences, corrections, and cross-outs visible. The very first letter from young Browning sent in1845 effused “I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett.” Yet, five months were to pass before they would meet face to face for the first time.
Browning had grown up in a family much involved in literary pursuits and fine arts. His father was an avid collector of rare books while his mother was an accomplished musician. Browning authored a book of poetry while he was twelve years old, but was discouraged when he failed to find a publisher for it. For many years he struggled to get recognition among the literary elite with scant success. Many critics found his poetry and references obscure and hard to appreciate. Eventually, his greatest success came in his creation of single characters in his poems that revealed themselves through their dramatic monologues, uncovering dimensions of their personality that the reader could not have surmised on his own. One of his most celebrated books published in 1868, The Ring and the Book, an epic-length poem, which is over twenty-thousand lines long, is about a case of murder in Rome in 1698, involving romance, jealousy and a trial. It finally brought him the fame and recognition he had yearned for so long.
Browning’s life took a dramatic turn when he got romantically involved with Elizabeth Barrett, another poet six years his senior, who was an invalid and living under the influence of her authoritarian father. Already a well-established and a prolific writer, she was acutely concerned about the wide social disparities of Victorian England. Her poem, The Cry of the Children, published in 1842, drew attention to the inhumane child labor practices prevalent at the time. Publication of her Poems drew Browning’s attention to her literary talents and poetical gifts. Soon after they met, she wrote in a letter addressed to him, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” The line later became the part of her famous sonnet included in her collection of poems “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” dedicated to her husband. It is credited as being one of the most popular love lyrics in the English language.
Barrett’s father strongly disapproved their romantic relationship as he had the romantic affairs of his other daughters. She, however, was ready to unshackle herself from his hold. Browning and Barrett were married in September 1846 in secret. Her father promptly disinherited her.
Barrett had been in ill health for a long time. The warm, salubrious Italian climate had attracted several eighteenth-century English romantic poets -- John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron. After their wedding on doctor’s advice, Browning and Barrett moved to Florence, Italy, hoping that the warm winters would improve her health. The years they spent there were their happiest and probably the most creative period of their lives. Her long novel in poetry, Aurora Leigh, depicting the difficultly of a female writer valiantly trying to balance her work and love life, mirrored her own life story and gained much popularity.
The story-book romance of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning ended when she died on June 29, 1861, at the age of 55 in the arms of her husband. She had suffered for years from an untreatable lung disease, undiagnosed at the time. Browning abandoned his permanent residence in Italy following her death and travelled extensively. He received major recognition when, in 1881, the Browning Society was formed in England as a tribute to his prolific literary contributions. He died in 1889 in Venice, Italy, but his final wish to be buried in Florence close to his wife could not be realized and he was interred, instead, in Westminster Abbey, London.
(Dr Syed Amir is a former Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, and a health science administrator, US National Institutes of Health)
