BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett, English poet : b. Coxhoe Hall, Durham, 6 March 1806; d. Florence, Italy, 30 June 1861. Her father, Edward Moulton, or Moulton-Barrett, as soon after her birth he began to write his name, was a country gentleman who resided at the foot of the Malvern Hills, and in this beautiful retreat Elizabeth's girlhood was passed. She early began to commit her thoughts to writing, and in 1826 appeared her volume entitled 'An Essay on Mind and Other Poems,' anonymously published. Viewed as the production of a young woman of 20, this book is indeed a remarkable one; but in after years its author was so dis satisfied with it that she omitted it in the col lected editions of her poems. In 1833 appeared a translation by her of the 'Prometheus Bound' of tEschylus. A collection entitled The Sera phim and Other Poems' was produced in 1838, the principal piece being a lyric drama shadow ing forth the feelings and emotions which may be supposed to have been excited in an angelic being by the spectacle of the crucifixion. Both in this and in a subsequent work, 'The Drama of Exile' (1840), she chose for her theme the fall and redemption of man, subjects on which Milton had already employed his genius, and in the treatment of which, though exhibiting much grandeur and sublimity, Mrs. Browning can scarcely be said to have approached him. Always feeble in health, she was now nearly brought to the verge of the grave by the rup ture of a blood vessel, and having been taken to Devonshire to promote her recovery, re ceived there a severe shock from the drowning of a favorite brother. For several years she was confined to a darkened chamber, and saw only a few of her most intimate friends, hut nevertheless continued to busy herself with study and composition. Her health was at length partially restored and in 1846 she was married to Robert Browning, already well known in the literary world as a poet and dramatist. After their union they went to Italy, and continued subsequently to reside for the most part in Florence. In 1850 a collected edition of Mrs. Browning's works appeared in two volumes, including several new poems, and among others 'Lady Geraldine's Courtship,' one of the finest of her productions, and re markable, it is said, as having been composed in the incredibly short space of 12 hours. Her from the Portuguese,' included in this volume, were written after her engagement, and first privately printed. They have no parallel for excellence in their peculiar kind in our literature. 'Casa Guidi Windows,' a poem on
the struggles of the Italians for liberty in 1848 49, appeared in 1851. The longest and most finished of all her works, 'Aurora Leigh,' a romantic narrative and didactic poem in blank verse, was published in 1857. Her last volume, 'Poems Before Congress,' appeared in 1860, and cannot be said to have added greatly to her reputation. Several detached pieces of hers appeared from time to time in the Cornhill Magacine, up to the period of her death. 'Last Poems,' by Mrs. Browning, published by Robert Browning in 1862, and 'Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets,' translations and essays of hers published by Browning in 1863, were followed in 1866 by his publication of 'Selec tions from the Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning' (2d series, 1880). The 'Letters of E. B. Browning,' edited by Frederick G. Ken yon (1897), are a definitive presentation of her character and career in a selection from a very large mass of correspondence collected by Mr. Browning himself. It is a chronicle, and prac tically a life, by reason of the character of the letters and the addition of connecting links of narrative. The letters give an unusually full and interesting revelation of the course of her life. Mrs. Browning's poetry is characterized by much pathos and depth of feeling, combined with great vividness and powers of description. It partakes eminently of the modern English school, as represented by Tennyson and others, at times obscure and transcendental, hut ani mated throughout by the most noble and ex alted sentiments, and illuminated from time to time by flashes which, in their bearings on the unseen world of mind and spirit, seem almost supernatural. She is described by George Mac donald as "the princess of poets,* in idea noble, in phrase magnificent. In their married life she and Robert found mutual happiness and help, the good influences of which are reciprocally manifested in their writings. See AURORA LEIGH ; SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE.
'Letters of Robert Brown ing and Elizabeth Barrett Browning' (edited by Kenyon, 2 vols., New York 1899); Bayne, 'Two Great English Women' (London 1881); Ingram, 'Elizabeth Barrett Browning' (Boston 1888) ; Lubbock, P., 'Elizabeth Barrett Brown ing in Her Letters' (London 1906); Whiting, L., 'Study of E. B. Browning' (Boston 1899); 'The Brownings: Their Life and Art' (1911).