LETTERS OF BROWNING FAMILY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 277, 23 November 1936, Page 10

LETTERS OF BROWNING FAMILY

Glimpses of Two Lives

r pilE REl'l 'I’ATION of the Biownings has gained as much by the puetiy of their lives as by the poetiy they wrote. Indeed, much of the affection people have lor them is due to lhe fact that they lived as they wrote—a rare enough thing, says ihe Sydney Of course, their age was suited for fixing lyrically. That may seem a htiangc thing tu say of the hard, practical Victorian age, when money was worshipped and the machine was conquering man, and the social code wa-‘ rigid as a straitjacket. But lhe very restriction and formality of the period threw into relief tin? colourful lives of those who dared to be themselves —as Robert, and Li/abisii did. Their letters have already become classics in their own livid. Nuw a new and most interesting collection has been published—one which, in the original, was sold in New York for Jii.oihi dollars. That price is nut, of course, an indication of intrinsic worth, hut it is expressive of the grip these two Victorian writers and lovers have on people’s minds. 'The new letters deal with the life of lhe Brownings after their elopement from Elizabeth’s house in Wimpulv street. Elizabeth writes to her sisters of the first, letters she received from her family on arrival in France. “Robert,” she says “wanted to sit by me while 1 read them, but, 1 would not let him. They were very hard letters, those from dearest Papa and dearest George. To the first 1 had to low my head. But for George, 1 thought it. hard, J. confess, that he should have written to me so with a -sword.” She tells later ol a letter from M>• Kenyon, who had introduced them, who loved them, and who later left them a “My dearest E. 8.8., i received part of yuur husband’s letters yesterday. T> speak briefly, as I must. I sympat hi with all you have both been thinking and feeling. Nothing but what is gen-

ero.is in thought ami avium would coma from Jou and Browning.” “I’apa,” says IJizabeth in :in<>ii;cr letter, “thinks 1 have ><;bl mv suui for geuiui . . mere geniu>! " But Browning’s father reacted dit-, ferently. “He considered him of ng«- !•• and never thought. of i nterfei in”, otherwibe than of saying at. tlic l;i-4 moment, ’(iixe your wile a ki-s fur me. ’ ‘ ’ Browuing wrote to Elizabctli’s osiers, “if they -saw her, as I haw th* happiness to see her, so .htinye.: u a fair prospect of life an.! ci.jmj .t.eai, tor many car.-, to cumu . . Im e could nut i‘u very angry, I am buic!’“ " So :l.c story giv-. inc story ->f. their love, their marriage which >,ai so bewailed ami . u.-cus.-iUI. tl.< .r trace's ti.iougi; the Europe of time) time, their ;il'e in .'•tiange pmces. L’!;vn» which slvadiiy i.eiu •••• n.uie, ui doubt, because of i :.e stimulus uf in a husband's dynamic pt-rsvnality than be 4 li-.li pills” which .-.he swallowed, ur tin* ihubail, viuani ut iailar, and otb.-i* i'icdii aim ni.s servant- amj Irietidb piocribcd. There are stories ol flat h inting, ufi liou.-chuld ecomunic.-, uf Elizabeth 'a 111 s i • c n'■ t • that they hire, a piano fut* Robert lu piay, though R'oberi though* 1 it an uu juslihcd expense. They pai-® wine . . 'Those weie great, days v"' some ways . . ami dincu off ous Italian iouds cheaply. Turkcv, slurgcoiij cheese cake-, lor “two shill* ings eight pence” was one meal. But in l.sbl 1 Jizabelh’s health saddenly failed. The sympat hot ic. editor of Ibis series, William Rose Benet, r'Hicludcs book with a spicmlid ami touching pi--lure of her death. “Elizabeth’s niuullb curled bravely at the corners. II ah ways had. It was her habit to smile. But now, actually, the pain had ebb'd away —and before her head fell forward on his shoulder, she looked al him in Iriii* and profound happiness, van as her last smile must be. ‘Howl Ido you leel” asked her husband, i lier- ! i.-hiiig her, li.'ird y daring Io breathe. “ ‘Beautiful’ said Elizabeth Barret Br-wnin-.-'

Window and door screens which electrocute insects are coining into use in restaurant kitchens and other places where food is handled. Current: Four watts per screen.