R640700G. Dramatis Personæ.
The Victoria Magazine, July 1864, pp. 282–283.
Listed in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 343.
To say that in this new volume we have an addition of so much as is here contained to our former stock of pure unadulterated Browning, would be, according to some, equivalent to a brief sentence of condemnation, while to others it would appear to be almost the highest praise that could be given. Such condemnation, or such praise, must be awarded to the collection of poems before us. These, as much as any of Mr. Browning’s previous works, except perhaps “Sordello,” demand faith and patience. The nut is undeniably hard to crack. Whether the kernel is worth the labour of getting at it, we shall not stay to argue, but content ourselves with offering a few hints to those who, while not included among Mr. Browning’s admirers, are yet willing to undergo some labour in qualifying themselves to judge fairly of his work.
In the first place, let it be well understood that Mr. Browning does not write for the people whom Mr. Henry Taylor has happily named “running readers.” His poetry is not to be taken up to occupy an idle moment or to charm away an incipient headache. People who want poetry to serve such ends as these must go elsewhere. Mr. Browning requires our best faculties and our undivided attention, at least during a first perusal. Sir Isaac Newton said, in reference to scientific discovery, “I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait until the first dawnings open by little and little into a full light.” A better method could scarcely be suggested for the study of Browning. But we want something more than merely to have our wits about us and to use them in a painstaking manner. Mr. Browning’s poems are almost invariably of the nature, if not in the form, of soliloquies, and, as such, they make a large call on the reader’s power of sympathy. We must put ourselves en rapport with the poet. He demands that we see through his eyes, hear with his ears, feel what he feels, know what he knows, and be always ready to follow him, without a moment’s notice, through every sudden, unannounced variation of mood, wherever he chooses to lead us. He does not tell us when a change has come o’er the spirit of his dream. We are left to find it out for ourselves, and to follow as we best may. This being the case, it is obvious that the enjoyment of Mr. Browning’s poetry depends, in an especial degree, on sympathy between the poet and the reader, and we may thus account for the fact that those who can endure Browning, generally carry their admiration to the point of enthusiasm. As his audience is small, so the few who can listen to him with pleasure comparatively seldom find a poet able to fulfil the measure of their demands.
But while attentive study in a sympathetic spirit is undoubtedly the first step towards the appreciation of Mr. Browning, as of all great masters, something may be gained by taking note of certain peculiarities of manner, which add to the difficulties of those to whom his style is unfamiliar. Such, for example, is his habit of dropping out words whenever they would be in the way. Often the insertion of “who” or “which” would clear up a phrase which at first sight is painfully ambiguous. Verbs, quite essential to the meaning, are constantly left out. Sometimes the mere omission of two or three humble propositions adds materially to the intricacy of a stanza. The excessive condensation of style thus produced is a positive drawback where the subject- [p. 283→] matter of itself demands close attention. The transposition of words to meet the exigencies of rhyme and metre is common in all verse, but we think Mr. Browning carries it to an extreme.
Anything like an analysis of the volume before us would obviously be incompatible with our limits, but we would just give a warning to beginners not to begin at the beginning. The title of the first poem, “James Lee,” sounds alluringly simple, but the poem itself is perhaps the hardest of the whole collection. The profound thought of the philosophical poems, such as “A Death in the Desert,” and “Caliban upon Setebos,” is easier to take hold of than the subtle feeling, exhaled rather than expressed, in “James Lee.” Some of the shorter poems are more “intelligible” and show less of the master hand, but all bear the stamp of originality. The present volume confirms the verdict which has already placed Mr. Browning in the foremost rank of modern poets.
Reviewed:
Dramatis Personæ (RB), London: Chapman & Hall, 1864.
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