29th, 1840-"Price 6s. 6d. boards: Sordello, a Poem by Robert Browning," and the first letter from Browning to Domett was sent with a presentation copy of this little volume with its blue paper covers and tawny unlettered back. As indicative of the early stage of the friendship, the title-page bore the formal inscription, "Alfred Domett, Esq., with R. B.'s best regards." The accompanying letter, consisting simply of two sentences, was undated, except for the enigmatical words, "Saturday night, St. Perpetua's Day!" Truly, a Sordello-like inscription; but like many Bother Sordello puzzles, easy of solu tion; for St. Perpetua's Day, as the almanac explains, is March 7th, which in 1840 fell on a Saturday. But the question still remains as to why Browning should speak at all of so unusual a Saint. The reason, however, is simple. The Rev. W. Johnson Fox, Browning's "literary father," had written the first cordial review he ever received, that on Pauline, in 1833; and in expressing his thanks Browning declared, "I shall never write a line without thinking of the source of my first praise." In 1835 Paracelsus also was welcomed by Mr. Fox, who soon afterwards introduced, at his own home, Browning and Macready, and thus indirectly contributed to the production of Strafford, in 1837. Browning, therefore, of course, at once sent a copy of Sordello to Mr. Fox. But with Mr. Fox lived Miss Eliza Flower, who was tenderly attached to Browning, and he to her; indeed, as Mrs. Orr truly says, "If, in spite of his denials, any woman inspired Pauline, it can have been no other than she." It is this intimacy which explains the reference to St. Perpetua, for Miss Flower's sister, "Mr. Wise also identified the Miss Flower, to whom the letter was addressed, with Miss Sarah Flower, afterwards "Mrs. Adams," as he explains. But, in 1842, she had been married eight years. Mr. Wise's further state Sarah-author of "Nearer My God to Thee" was at that time at work upon her forthcoming poetical drama, which from the name of the saint with whose life it dealt was called Vivia Perpetua. Such details may seen trivial, but are not wholly so, for although Browning's reply to Miss Eliza Flower's letter of acknowledgment of Sordello has been twice reprinted, it has been inevitably misunderstood by both its editors for lack of doing exactly what Browning asked Domett to do with regard to St. Perpetua's day-i.e., consult the almanac. This reply of Browning, as given by Mrs. Orr (Life, p. 110), is simply headed, "Monday night, March 9," to which she added the date [? 1841]; Mr. T. J. Wise, to whom students of Browning are in many ways indebted, unfortunately replaced this by [1842]." The almanac would have informed both editors that it was in 1840 that March 9 fell on a Monday, thus showing that the misunderstood letter distinctly referred to Sordello, which had been published only nine days before; and also reminding them of a much more important fact that the "three plays" Browning alluded to were those mentioned at the end of the Sordello volume as "Nearly ready. Pippa Passes, King Victor and King Charles, Mansoor the Hierophant. Dramas by R.B." These plays-the name of the last being changed before publication to The Return of the Druses-were therefore sufficiently well in hand to be advertised in February, 1840, although not published till 1841, 1842 and 1843. It was of Sordello that Landor wrote to Forster, "I only wish he (B.) would atticize a little. Few of the Athenians had such a quarry on their property, ment that Mrs. Adams "is supposed to have at least partially inspired 'Pauline," " is another little slip. He meant, of course, Eliza Flower, the elder sister. but they constructed better roads for the conveyance of the material." Domett, in writing to thank Browning for the poem, expressed the same view in other words, and even hinted that he considered Browning was being "difficult on system." He had from the first and ever retained a deep admiration for the beauties of the poem, and in the copy which Browning sent him -it lies beside me as I write the most striking passages are boldly marked in the margin, while a series of cross references and marginal notes forms a kind of analysis or running commentary. Some of these notes, indeed, as the quotation given below from the Diary explains, are in the handwriting of Browning, who, when Domett lent him the volume, was particularly pleased to find that his friend had even copied out on one blank fly-leaf Dante's description of Sordello in the Antepurgatorio, and had himself made his own metrical translation of it on another blank page. The Diary has a somewhat interesting entry in regard to this much-travelled copy of Sordello. In March, 1872, immediately after the renewal of the old intimacy, Domett was discussing with Browning some points in connection with the Toccata of Galuppi's, and ventured upon a suggestion as to one expression in it. Browning did not at all agree with him. Domett's comment is : Browning, I saw, had not lost the good-humored patience with which he could listen to friendly criticism on any of his works. I have proof of this in a copy of the original edition of Sordello, which he sent me when it first appeared. The poem is undoubtedly somewhat obscure, though curiously enough much more so in the more "objective" (so to speak) incidents of the story than in its subjective phases, that is in the narrative of the hero's varying moods of mind or the philosophical reflections of the poet. Accordingly, I had scribbled in pencil on the book two or three impatient remarks, such as "Who says this?" "What does this mean?" &c. Some time after Browning asked me to let him see my copy of the poem, which I lent him. He returned it with two or three pencil notes of his own, answering my questions. But I was amused many years afterwards, in New Zealand, on the appearance of a second edition of Sordello [in 1863] to find he had altered, I think, all the passages I had hinted objections to or questioned the meaning of. One instance is curious. Speaking of a picture by Guidone at Siena [Sordello, Bk I., 577-583], in the first edition, the poet says: A painful birth must be Matured ere San Eufemio's [sic] sacristy Or transept gather fruits of one great gaze At the noon-sun: look you! An orange haze The same blue stripe round that—and, i' the midst, Thy spectral whiteness, mother-maid. who didst Pursue the dizzy painter! I had written carelessly in pencil on the margin "Rather the moon, from the description;" and also, "Why cut off the 'n'," against the next line. In the edition of 1863 the passage stands: Gather fruits of one great gaze At the moon: look you! The same orange haze, The same blue stripe round that—and, in the midst, Thy spectral whiteness, Mother-maid. The alterations here made are, as Domett says, "curious" rather than important, except as indicating that minute attention to detail which marks Browning's revision of his poem when once he had decided that it was inadvisable to attempt, as he had for a time contemplated, to re-write it. The question, however, "Why cut off the 'n'?" in the expression "' the midst." was one which it would have troubled Browning to answer, for he seems to have had no settled convictions in re gard to its presence or absence. Some years ago, on reading through a series of proofs of Browning's poems corrected by himself, then in the possession of Mr. Moncure Conway, one could not but be struck by the fact that the cases in which what had at first been printed as "on" or "in" and was on revision changed to o' or i', were hardly, if at all, more numerous than those in which the shortened form had been replaced by the longer. Presumably the varying emphasis laid by the poet on the words as he read and re-read his lines at various times decided the matter; the usage was certainly no mere mannerism. made. The copy of Sordello referred to above was that which Browning returned to Domett when he sent to New Zealand the first of the fourteen letters of which mention has been These letters are chiefly interesting as affording evidence of Browning's love for his friend. It is often difficult, indeed, to realize that they are written by one man to another. He signs himself as affectionately, at times, as he afterwards did to Miss Barrett; he thinks and talks of his absent friend; he can hardly realize, so near does Domett seem in spirit, that they are severed so far; he longs for a letter; when it comes he is jubilant, but writes eagerly for another. With books, newspapers and reviews he sends scraps of literary gossip and impromptu criticism, but Arnould's letters perhaps excel those of Browning in this respect and in some others. One event of the summer of 1843 is of interest. Browning was then visiting the pretty cottage in Epping Forest where Chris. Dowson and his wife, Domett's sister Mary, spent the summer months. Here he occupied his time in copying his friend's scattered poems from the family albums, and wrote afterwards to New Zealand in hearty praise of them, particularly of "Hougoumont" and "A Glee for Win ter." The former poem contrasts the peaceful scene of 1837, with the sight of fruit-trees and daisies, and the sound of bees, doves and skylarks, with the ghastly sights and sounds of the battlefield of 1815: Oh God! what are we? Do we then Form part of this material scene? Can thirty thousand thinking men Fall-and but leave the fields more green? The "Glee for Winter" is the poem which led Christopher North to declare that Domett had "the prime virtue of a song-writer-a heart." Hence, rude Winter! crabbed old fellow, Never merry, never mellow! What will kill this dull old fellow? Dear old songs for ever new- The heartfelt character of this lyric sprang from the fact that it was largely a record of the real experiences of Domett's own home. A letter from the sister of Sir Frederick Young thus describes that home: "We can well remember that bright, unconventional, if somewhat rough house in the [Camberwell] Grove, where there was always such a lively atmosphere of freedom, interest and gay fun. We used to go round there whenever we could, when we used so often to stay with our Not that shadows did not fall upon that home, for the same song speaks of "bereavements mourned in common," such as the death of Domett's mother when he was a boy of six, and that of his brother Edward, Browning's schoolfellow. Another great sorrow was commemorated in some hexameter verses addressed directly to Browning's Woodford hostess, which he would copy with peculiar sympathy. The lines are called "A soul of goodness in things evil," and tell of the sad days, in 1841, when blindness had fallen upon Domett's father, and of the sight-giving operation which ensued : There in his darkness the Old Man, hoary with seventy wintersLionlike equal to all-lording it sternly o'er pain, endured his anguish; and then followed the "triumph," when light once more Gladdened the eyes that of yore gleamed as he oft would recount Feats of Sea-Captains, our grand ones! These are noticeable words; for the tales of "our grand ones," told by the truly "lion-like" Captain Domett, and by the brisk, dapper, little, grayhaired Captain Pritchard count for much in the evolution of Browning's stirring lines : Nobly, nobly Cape St. Vincent to the north-west died away; Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz bay; Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay; In the dimmest north-east distance, dawned Gibraltar grand and gray; "Here and here did England help me,how can I help England?”—say. Is it to be wondered that when, in 1877, Domett collected and added to these early poems he desired to associate Browning with his volume? This he proposed at first to do by using as a title the words from "Waring"-Hedgeside chance-blades; but realizing that the bond between himself and his friend would be made more evident to his readers by means of a dedication, he wrote: To (if ever there were one!) "a mighty poet and a subtle-souled psychologist" -to Robert Browning, this little book, with a hearty wish the tribute were worthier, is affectionately ascribed. Browning was deeply touched by this dedication, and also by the memories awakened by the inclusion among the "Flotsam" of the lines Domett had sent to him in manuscript in 1841 "on a certain critique on Pippa Passes." These lines began with an expression of scorn for the small-mindedness of the unnamed critic, who is compared to a black squat beetle which Has knocked himself full-butt with blundering trouble, Against a Mountain he can neither double Nor ever hope to scale. So, like a free, Pert, self-complacent Scarabæus, he Takes it into his horny head to swearThere's no such thing as any mountain there! Domett's best poetry is undoubtedly to be found in his Ranolf and Amohia, which exhibits, as Tennyson truly said, "intellectual subtlety, great powers of delineating delicious scenery and imaginative fire." The poem is a long one of fourteen thousand lines-some four thousand longer than Paradise Lostand the narrative portion is neither wearied of the civilization of the West, sails to New Zealand, where he saves the life of the lovely Maori maiden, Amohia, and loves her. This is resented by the villain of the story, the wicked priest Kangapo, who desires to gain the hand of Amohia for the chief he serves: Ranolf therefore escapes. When the suit of the Maori chieftain is urged upon Amohia, she too flees-swimming across the lake by moonlight. The lovers are united, but the wiles of Kangapo secure their separation, and Ranolf, believing Amohia to be dead, is about to return to Europe alone, when he discovers her, and they take ship together. Of the poem as a whole Mr. Hutton, in a long and sympathetic review in the Spectator, said, "It is hardly a complete poem, but it is full of poetry ... its author is a man of great originality and buoyant imaginative life. No one who really understands the book can help thoroughly enjoying it, whatever he may think of it as a work of art." With this judgment no one, I believe, could quarrel. Like many other long poems it will be appreciated in portions, and it will appeal or has appealed-to two kinds of readers: those who enjoy the treatment of what Browning termed "subjects of all others the most urgent for expression," subjects connected with the "development of a soul," and those who delight in beautiful description. The former readers will turn to passages such as the long and the very able account of the philosophical education of Ranolf in Book I., and its reflections upon the difficulty of choosing as a profession law, medicine or divinity. In connection with this last occurs a Jassage on Ritualism, much appreciated by the author of Christmas Eve, and pronounced by Tennyson to be "an arrow that hits the bull's-eye." Who, asks Domett, Would think to quell the Evil all about With candlesticks and censers? satisfy The crave for Infinite Good that cannot die With trim and tinselled haberdashery? . Would any heart remorse had desperate driven, Or milder sense of "Sin" abased, on heaven In accents guided by the gamut call, And do-re-mi-sol-fa the God of all? The lover of descriptive poetry will rejoice in the splendid description by the son and brother of a sea-captain, of furling the ship's sails, and will perhaps almost echo the words of Domett's friend, Joseph Arnould, "Your descriptions of scenery are the most real and vivid I know of in any poet, and by your attention to form and color you place your readers in the very midst of the lakes, forests and mountains of New Zealand. What a lovely land it must be!" As one who has visited many of the spots described by Domett, and who was privileged to see the lovely pink and white terraces in all their exquisite beauty and glory, I can endorse much, but not quite all, of Arnould's eulogy. What Browning felt on reading his friend's poem he has himself expressed :— I don't know, though I cannot but care a good deal, how the poem may have been received and valued; but I am sure it is a great and astonishing performance, of very varied beauty and power. I rank it under nothing-taken altogether-nothing that has appeared in my day and generation for subtle, yet clear writing about subjects of all others the most urgent for expression and the least easy in treatment: while the affluence of illustration, and dexterity in bringing to bear upon the story every possible aid from every imaginable quarter, and that with such treasures new and old of language and |