BROWNING

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 131, 6 June 1925, Page 17

BROWNING

"Robert Browning: Humanist." By A. Coinptoii-liickett. London: Herbert Jenkins. The series of that excellent Fireside Library issued by the House of Jenkins and edited by Mr. Compionliickett has been recently added -to l.v "Robert Browning: ITurnanist." "Aji". Compton-fiiekelt furnishes n- scholarly and helpful introduction coverinE fifty pa^'es, in which h e shows that Bcowih iug's vci'sc was not o/ Uir. rccoiidite character that BroEuing SoticLica ultea

made it appear; and he specially commends the poet to the present generation. Browning, as is shown, was free from any of the deadening influences (as they seem to some) of "the aesthetic and dialectical atmosphere of his time. . . . Political, religious, and social problems that touched the art of Tennyson and, to a less extent, that of Arnold and Swinburne, found little or no echo in Browning." Then he fashioned for himself a vigorous colloquial method of speech which is far more in accord with th e fashion of to-day than with that of his own time. Romantic in his outlook, Browning set this romanticism in a realistic framework. Mr. ComptonBickett doubts whether many Victorian readers ever appreciated the peculiar genius of the poet. He does not repeat the old story of Browning referring a young lady to her local Browning Society for elucidation, of a passage iv ono of hie poems which she asked the poet himself to make clear. Mr. ComptonRickett showß plainly enough that whatever differences oE opinion may bo held about Browning's religious philosophy, "there can be none about his humanism." A careful selection is-made from tho works of tho poet to illustrate his lovo and knowledge of Nature, of Men and Women', his Songs and Fantasies, and his Outlook on Life. Tho selections include some from "Pippa, PaEses," "Sardelo," "The Ring and tho Book " "James Lee's Wife," "Fra, Lippo Lippi," "Bishop Blaugrum's Apology," "Fifine at the Fair," and "Paracelsus." Possession of this volume is not only a key to Browning but an introduction ito the poet himself whose influence is stimulating, refining, and wholly to the good, in fact, of those who make his acquaintance.