r sister, also
highly gifted, who was the sympathetic companion of his later years. In
his childhood he was distinguished by his love of poetry and natural
history. At 12 he had written a book of poetry which he destroyed when he
could not find a publisher. After being at one or two private schools,
and showing an insuperable dislike to school life, he was _ed._ by a
tutor, and thereafter studied Greek at Univ. Coll., London. Through his
mother he inherited some musical talent, and composed settings, for
various songs. His first _pub._ was _Pauline_, which appeared anonymously
in 1833, but attracted little attention. In 1834 he paid his first visit
to Italy, in which so much of his future life was to be passed. The
publication of _Paracelsus_ in 1835, though the poem had no general
popularity, gained the notice of Carlyle, Wordsworth, and other men of
letters, and gave him a reputation as a poet of distinguished promise.
Two years later his drama of _Stratford_ was performed by his friend
Macready and Helen Faucit, and in 1840 the most difficult and obscure of
his works, _Sordello_, appeared; but, except with a select few, did
little to increase his reputation. It was followed by _Bells and
Pomegranates_ (containing _Pippa Passes_) (1841), _A Blot in the
'Scutcheon_ (drama) (1843), _Luria_ and _A Soul's Tragedy_ (1846). In
this year he married Miss Elizabeth Barrett (_q.v._), the poetess, a
union of ideal happiness. Thereafter his home until his wife's death in
1861 was in Italy, chiefly at Florence. In 1850 he wrote _Christmas Eve
and Easter Day_, and in 1855 appeared _Men and Women_. After the death of
Mrs. Browning he returned to England, paying, however, frequent visits to
Italy. Settling in London he published successively _Dramatis Personae_
(1864), _The Ring and the Book_ (1868-69), his greatest work,
_Balaustion's Adventure_, and _Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau_ (1871),
_Fifine at the Fair_ (1872), _Red Cotton Night-cap Country_ (1873), _The
Inn Album_ (1875), _Pacchiarotto_ (1876), translation of _Agamemnon_
(1879), _La Saisiaz_, etc. (1878), _Dramatic Idylls_ (1879 and 1880),
_Asolando_ (1889) appeared on the day of his death. To the great majority
of readers, probably, B. is best known by some of his short poems, such
as, to name a few, "Rabbi Ben Ezra," "How they brought the good News to
Aix," "Evelyn Hope," "The Pied Piper of Hammelin," "A Grammarian's
Funeral," "A Death in the Desert." It was long before Englan