Dared and Done

by Julia Markus

  In the morning, he woke up early at La Saisiaz, bathed, and waited, but Annie Smith didn’t come out of her room. “I looked through an opening in the curtain, and saw her kneeling on the ground—which her poor head had touched. I called my sister, who ran in—cried to me—and brought me to her side. She was quite warm—but dead.… She must have died standing and fallen as we found her. So, have I lost one of the most devoted friends I ever had in my life.”

  The shock of it overwhelmed him. Ten years before, quite unexpectedly, Arabel Barrett had died in his arms; sixteen years before, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, too, was buried in a foreign land among foreign onlookers. Vulnerable, shaken, unable to sit still waiting for burial instructions to be telegraphed, Robert once more bolted, assuaging grief the way he had done after his mother’s death, by climbing to the mountain’s top. On Mt. Salève the issue now became “ ‘was ending ending once and always, when you died?’ ”

  Is it fact to which I cleave,

  Is it fancy I but cherish, when I take upon my lips

  Phrase the solemn Tuscan fashioned, and declare the soul’s eclipse

  Not the soul’s extinction? take his “I believe and I declare—

  Certain am I—from this life I pass into a better, there

  Where that lady lives of whom enamored was my soul.

  The phrase from Dante, “the solemn Tuscan,” were the words Browning inscribed in Elizabeth’s Bible after she died. Did he still believe Dante’s words? Was Annie gone forever? Would he meet her again? Would he meet the great love of his life again?

  At sixty-five, gray-bearded and portly, now as famous in his own time as he would be in future time, looking like the dinner guest the young novelist Henry James watched closely and found so inscrutable, he chose for one moment to shout his faith on Mt. Salève so as to hear it in his own ears. As a young man he had once gone to Italy to follow in the footsteps of Shelley. His great enthusiasm for Shelley faded only after he learned how shabbily the poet had treated his first wife. Now he had climbed to the mountaintop, hoping, despairing, shouting out his faith to mankind in the pose of a Rousseau, a Byron, a Shelley.

  But he knew this was in vain. It was the life he led, the chances he took, the beliefs he held, the love he ardently accomplished that were important. “All our life is some form of religion, and all our action some belief,” he’d written to Elizabeth Barrett. What mattered was the heart’s whisper, the life’s example, not the Romantic pose, the loud shout. “Truth is truth in each degree / Thunderpealed by God to Nature, whispered by my soul to me,” he’d conclude in La Saisiaz.

  Thirty-one years before, he had written to his wife of one day that he would never forget her courage in marrying him. “What is a belief? My own eyes have seen—my heart will remember!” His audience might believe Robert Browning interpreted the ways of God to man. They might pluck “God’s in his Heaven, all’s right with the world” out of Pippa’s mouth and put it in his. But he was as contemporary a man as any in the Nineteenth Century. When he spoke as Andrea or Blougram or Mr. Sludge or this one time as Robert Browning, there were no certainties. At best, there was faith, there was love, there was courage. There was the way one lived one’s life.

  Dared and Done: at last I stand upon the summit, Dear and True!

  Singly dared and done: the climbing both of us were bound to do.

  Alone once more, Browning began his poem on the mountaintop. The personal parts recapture the past with love; the philosophic parts are thorny and difficult to read. He would later say of La Saisiaz that he could “proceed to nothing else till I had in some way put it all on paper.” The long work offered him what all of his poetry appeared to offer his readers: hope and consolation.

  NOTES

  Dates in brackets or with question marks are as they appear as catalogued or in print.

  INTRODUCTION

  1 “dear Miss Barrett”: All quotations from the love letters between EBB and RB are taken from The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1845–1846, edited by Elvan Kintner in two volumes. Often the quotes will be locatable through dates given in the text. When not, they will be identified in the notes by author, volume number, and date as in the following note. See Bibliography for full citations.

  2 “and I love you too”: RB, I, Jan. 10, 1845.

  3 “I never wanted them”: RB, I, Feb. 26, 1845.

  4 “more admirable for being beyond”: EBB, I, Jan. 15, 1845.

  5 of the young Browning: John Maynard, Browning’s Youth.

  DEATH OR LOVE

  1 greenish glow: See Althea Hayter, A Sultry Month, pp. 66–67.

  2 “Small face & sundries”: EBB to Haydon, Invisible Friends, edited by Willard Bissell Pope, Jan. 1, 1843.

  3 disease of the spine: See The Brownings’ Correspondence, edited by Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson, vol. I, Supporting Documents, pp. 325–27. All further reference to this correspondence will be as Kelley, followed by volume number and page.

  4 with antibiotics: I want to thank Professor Corrine Davies for a conversation we had about bronchiectasis at the EBB Conference at Baylor University, November 4–6, 1993. She had come to a conclusion similar to my own, having seen a relative suffer from this disease, and mentioned that when having an attack the patient could not eat and lost about thirty pounds. EBB never ate when ill, something her father attributed to stubbornness. It might have been a physical symptom. In my opinion, this disease or some form of acute bronchitis (as her descendant Captain Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett suggested) plagued EBB.

  5 “a sign of suffering”: EBB, II, Aug. 27, 1846.

  6 “mean for me”: RB, I, Oct. 23, 1845.

  7 “clearly against” the father: EBB, I, Jan. 26, 1846.

  8 “one by one”: EBB, I, Aug. 20, 1845. Her characteristic “ . .” has been changed here in one place to dashes so as not to be mistaken for an ellipsis. “Exact” substituted for Kintner’s [ask > exact] for clarity.

  9 by his long hair: W. S. Seton-Kerr supplied his own memories of Edward Barrett to John H. Ingram, Esq., in a letter of Dec. 15, 1888, that is at Wellesley. He told Ingram, “I knew Edward Barrett very well.” He looked back to his diary. The weather had been “fine” on the day of the accident. “Edward Barrett’s body was found as you say, nearly a month afterwards.” He told Ingram, “It was recognized by his hair which was very long at the back.…” There were other signs as well.

  10 busts of the poets: Hayter, A Sultry Month, p. 57.

  11 “you know best”: RB, I, Oct. 23, 1845.

  12 expressly autobiographical: La Saisiaz was written in 1877 after the sudden death of his friend Annie Egerton Smith.

  13 “deader from henceforth”: EBB, I, Feb. 15, 1846.

  14 “not my fault”: EBB, II, Sept. 18, 1846.

  15 “and down over you”: RB, I, Nov. 16, 1845. One ellipsis converted to comma for clarity.

  16 “Come then”: EBB, I, May 15, 1845.

  17 “so few pleasures”: EBB, I, May 23, 1845.

  18 “so adroitly”: RB, I, May 24, 1845.

  19 “your suspicion should … clear up”: RB, II, Mar. 30, 1846.

  20 “so much good”: EBB, I, May 23, 1845.

  21 “Arabel thought I was dead”: EBB, I, Jan. 15, 1846.

  22 “washed his hands of me altogether”: EBB, I, Sept. 25, 1845.

  23 “I should be here”: RB, I, postmarked Sept. 25, 1845.

  24 “clear conception of them”: RB, I, Jan. 19, 1846.

  25 “accepted like the rest”: EBB, I, Oct. 11, 1845. In terms of keeping her siblings in the dark, EBB wrote compellingly to RB in the same letter of Jan. 15, 1846, in which she describes Moulton Barrett’s violence against Henrietta: “My brothers, it is quite necessary not to draw into a dangerous responsibility: I have felt that from the beginning, & shall continue to feel it—though I hear & can observe that they are full of suspicions & conjectures, which are never unkindly expressed. I told you once that we held hands faster in th
is house for the weight over our heads. But the absolute knowledge would be dangerous … with my sisters it is different, & I could not continue to conceal from them what they had under their eyes—and then, Henrietta is in a like position—It was not wrong of me to let them know it?—no?—”

  LOVERS’ LUCK

  1 “into April”: EBB, I, Nov. 10, 1845.

  2 “ ‘miraculous’ as the rest”: EBB, I, Jan. 15, 1846.

  3 “ ‘so glad to see me’ ”: EBB, I, Jan. 18, 1846.

  4 “more or less of it”: RB, I, Feb. 4, 1846.

  5 “all this to you”: EBB, I, Feb. 4, 1846.

  6 “not think such a thing”: EBB, I, Nov. 12, 1845.

  7 “less need for the opium”: RB, I, Feb. 24, 1846.

  8 “pretend to advise”: EBB, I, Feb. 12, 1846.

  9 “not persuade me”: EBB, II, Apr. 3, 1846.

  10 “I shall end my letter”: EBB, II, Apr. 7, 1846.

  11 “Your Ba”: EBB, II, Apr. 7, 1846, Tuesday evening.

  12 “a child’s game”: RB, II, Apr. 8, 1846.

  13 “more darkness, more pain”: EBB, II, Apr. 8, 1846.

  14 “admission and retraction”: RB, II, Apr. 10, 1846.

  15 “whom I love wholly”: RB, II, Apr. 10, 1846.

  16 “even to tears”: EBB, II, Apr. 12, 1846.

  17 “with the strongest”: Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford come from the three volumes edited by Meredith B. Raymond and Mary Rose Sullivan and are noted EBB to MRM followed by volume number and date. In this case, it’s EBB to MRM, vol. II, Oct. 31, 1842.

  18 “nor aught else”: RB, II, Apr. 12, 1846.

  19 who was a cousin: Meredith B. Raymond, who is preparing a study of John Kenyon, informed me that Kenyon’s grandmother and Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett’s grandfather, Edward of Cinnamon Hill, were sister and brother.

  20 “possibility of such things”: EBB, II, Apr. 12, 1846.

  21 “singing song for song”: See Kintner, I, n. 7, p. 273. Landor sent the poem to Browning in appreciation of his Bells and Pomegranates. It “came to sound like prophecy to the two poets when they were planning their marriage and escape to Italy.” So, after November 1845, when Robert received it and showed it to Elizabeth, they made reference to the siren’s call through the correspondence.

  22 “between the leaves”: EBB, II, May I, 1846.

  23 “now doesn’t it”: EBB, II, Apr. 16, 1846.

  24 “expect it”: RB, II, Apr. 16, 1846.

  25 “dare to do it yet”: EBB, II, June 30, 1846.

  26 “London in Triumph”: Kelley, vol. 6, n. 143.

  27 “butt of laughter in Punch”: Kintner, II, p. 810.

  28 came to his: Kintner, II, p. 810.

  29 “Dearest dearest!—”: RB, II, June 23, 1846.

  30 “none of us be moved”: EBB, II, June 23, 1846.

  31 “a great man”: EBB, II, June 26, 1846.

  32 “mortified self love”: EBB, II, July 9, 1846.

  33 “instruct you”: RB, II, July 6, 1846.

  34 “for next summer”: Kelley, vol. 6, p. 144.

  35 “melancholy teaching”: EBB, II, July 6, 1846. In the letter of June 30 quoted on this page, EBB’s characteristic two-point ellipsis [ . .] has been deleted for clarity.

  36 “a young man”: EBB, II, June 21, 1846.

  37 “to make any difference”: EBB, II, Aug. 17, 1846.

  38 “inclined to go to sleep”: EBB, II, June 21, 1846.

  39 “comes nothing”: EBB, II, Aug. 5, 1846.

  40 “ ‘the man of the pomegranates’ ”: EBB, II, July 15, 1846.

  41 “But HOW”: EBB, II, July 28, 1846.

  42 “been married to-day”: RB, II, July 29, 1846.

  43 “would do as well”: EBB, II, Aug. 31, 1846.

  44 “in or out of the house”: EBB, II, Aug. 2, 1846.

  45 “beyond my power”: EBB, II, Aug. 28, 1846.

  46 “distinct from the other”: RB, II, Aug. 30, 1846.

  47 “a spendthrift doctor”: Letters of EBB to MRM, introduction, vol. I, p. xxviii.

  48 “this Papa of mine”: EBB to MRM, II, Oct. 27 (28), 1842.

  49 “darling Flush’s destiny”: EBB, II, Sept. 2, 1846.

  50 “too much for failing”: EBB, II, Sept. 2, 1846.

  51 “give you up to-morrow”: RB, II, Sept. 4, 1846.

  52 “that is true”: EBB to MRM, II, Sept. [16], 1843.

  53 “as Mr. Taylor”: EBB, II, Sept. 6, 1846.

  54 “everything with you”: RB, II, Sept. 10, 1846, Thursday morning.

  55 “not unfavourable”: RB, II, Sept. 10, 1846, 4 p.m. Thursday.

  56 “my heart will remember”: RB, II, Sept. 13, 1846.

  57 “which failed to me”: EBB, II, Sept. 13, 1846.

  58 “over our heads”: EBB, I, Jan. 15, 1846.

  59 “it is my hope”: EBB, II, Sept. 14, 1846.

  60 include the number 50: See EBB, II, letters of Sept. 15 and 16, 1846.

  61 “what could be the matter”: EBB, II, Sept. 16, 1846.

  62 “a large one”: RB, II, Sept. 17, 1846.

  RIDING AN ENCHANTED HORSE

  1 “persuading her to rest”: Anna Jameson wrote five letters to Lady Noel Byron in England describing her trip from Paris to Pisa with the Brownings and her niece Gerardine. These autograph letters are dated Paris, 22–23 September, 24 September, 26–29 September; Avignon, 7–9 October; and Pisa, 15 October 1846. They are at the Pierpont Morgan Library, MA 1325, and are quoted with the kind permission of the library.

  2 “my wife EBB … RB”: Unpublished letter from EBB to her sister Arabel, dated “Paris. Sat. Hotel de la Ville de Paris.” One hundred thirteen unpublished letters of EBB to her sister are held at the Berg Collection, New York Public Library, and are quoted by the library’s kind permission. Referred to as EBB to Arabel, Berg, date. More than 115 from EBB to Arabel letters are still in family hands, and passages are quoted from them by the kind permission of Captain Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett. These letters are referred to as GEM-B, followed by the date.

  3 painter of miniatures: See Clara Thomas, Love and Work Enough, to which I am indebted in this section about Anna Jameson’s family.

  4 “dreadfully anxious about me”: EBB to Arabel, Berg, Sat., Hotel de la Ville de Paris. Except when indicated otherwise, all quotes from EBB in Paris are from this unpublished letter to her sister.

  5 “so anxious and terrified”: The letters to her two sisters are from Twenty-Two Unpublished Letters of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning Addressed to Henrietta and Arabel Moulton-Barrett, and will be referred to as Twenty-Two Letters, with date, in this case, Oct. 2, 1846.

  6 “considering my solitude”: EBB to MRM, II, May 24, 1843.

  7 “beyond them all”: EBB to MRM, III, Friday, Sept. 18, 1846.

  8 “mistake during a trance”: All letters to Julia Martin are from The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, edited by Frederic G. Kenyon, 2 vols., and are listed as Kenyon, volume number, and date—in this case, Kenyon, vol. I, Oct. 20?, 1846.

  9 “so many good wishes”: Twenty-Two Letters, Oct. 2, 1846.

  10 “relation or friend”: EBB to Arabel, Berg, Sat. Hotel de la Ville de Paris.

  11 “in such … danger”: EBB to Arabel, Berg, Oct. 1846.

  12 “between you two”: Twenty-Two Letters, Oct. 2, 1846.

  “THE RUNAWAY SLAVE”

  1 “I am sure”: Twenty-Two Letters, Nov. 24, 1846.

  2 “in my life”: Kenyon, I, Nov. 5 [1846].

  3 “prose or rhyme”: EBB to Henrietta, Twenty-Two Letters, Jan. 7 [1847].

  4 “dish of oranges”: EBB to MRM, III, Dec. 19 [1846].

  5 “ ‘you are transformed’ ”: EBB to Julia Martin, Kenyon, I, Oct. 20?, 1846.

  6 “as much as is prudent”: RB to Arabel, Berg, Feb. 8, 1847.

  7 “in eight days”: EBB to Arabel, Mar. 6–9, 1847, Browning Institute Studies 5 (1977).


  8 “any other family in England”: Kenyon, I, Nov. 5 [1846].

  9 “sorrow they can desire”: Twenty-Two Letters, Nov. 24, 1846.

  10 “Everyone, except you”: Twenty-Two Letters, Jan. 7 [1847].

  11 “dealt with tenderly”: Berg, Feb. 24, 1847.

  12 his master’s plantain: The manuscript “Austin was a Creole negro slave” in Richard Barrett’s hand is in the Berg Collection. It is reprinted in Richard Barrett’s Journal, edited by Thomas Brott and Philip Kelley.

  13 Jeannette Marks: I am indebted to Jeannette Marks’s The Family of the Barretts and have made use of her study all through the Jamaican part of this section. Her papers are held at Wellesley College, her alma mater. Her preliminary studies and typescripts of The Family of the Barretts are ample evidence of her painstaking and scholarly method. At times it seemed to me that her typescripts were less opaque than her printed book. John Maynard, in a footnote, suggested that her conclusions about Robert Browning’s blood were a matter of believing what she wanted to believe. But she meticulously went back over two hundred years of documents in Jamaica in researching the book—a book dealing with colonization, slavery, and mixed blood that was ahead of its time—even for its author.