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The Browning School is a United States college preparatory school for boys founded in 1888 by John A. Browning. It offers study from Pre-Primary level (Kindergarten) through Form VI (12th Grade) and is ranked as one of the top private schools in New York City.^{[citation needed]} The Browning School is a member of the New York Interschool consortium.

History[link]

The Browning School was founded in 1888 by John A. Browning. Arthur Jones succeeded Browning as Headmaster in 1920 and moved the school from West 55th Street to its present location on East 62nd Street. Extracurricular activities expanded in his time. Jones retired in 1948 and Lyman B. Tobin, a Browning teacher for more than 30 years, became Browning’s third Headmaster.

In 1952, upon Tobin’s retirement, the school named Charles W. Cook ’38, an alumnus and teacher, as its fourth Headmaster. Under his leadership for thirty-six years, the Browning School expanded rapidly. After a lengthy fund-raising drive, the school bought the adjoining carriage house and rebuilt it. The new building opened in 1960. The school’s expansion continued in 1967, with the building of a larger gymnasium on the roof, and in the late 1970s, with the acquisition of an interest in the building next door.

In 1988, Stephen M. Clement, III became Browning’s fifth Headmaster. Today, the school has over 370 students, more than double its size fifty years ago, but it continues its emphasis on small classes and close personal attention. Browning also has completed a new library, four new science laboratories, two new art studios, and additional classrooms. In addition, Browning has increasingly taken advantage of affiliations with The Hewitt School, The Marymount School, Nightingale-Bamford and Interschool. Browning, Hewitt, Nightingale-Bamford and Marymount benefit from an informal affiliation which encourages shared opportunities for academics, the arts, and social activities for girls and boys. Interschool, a consortium of eight schools to enhance academic, extracurricular, and administrative sharing, consists of four schools for girls (Brearley, Chapin, Nightingale-Bamford, and Spence), two schools for boys (Browning and Collegiate), and two coeducational schools (Dalton and Trinity).

The Browning School just opened a the new gym!

52 East 62nd Street

Academics[link]

Browning has a selective admissions process with only a 30% acceptance rate of students. Browning does not admit students for 11th and 12th grades and very rarely for 10th grade.

There are approximately 30 boys per grade at Browning. A financial aid program ensures that the boys remain heterogeneous; as with many of its peer NYC schools, however, most of the boys have parents who can afford the high tuition. The school is private, functioning under a New York City non-profit statute enacted in the 1940s. Browning is controlled by a Board of Trustees, and the school is administered by a Headmaster.

Browning's Upper School (high school) curriculum consists of English, Math, Science, History, Modern Foreign Languages (Spanish or French), Classics (Latin), Music, Visual Art, Drama, Technology, and Physical Education.

Athletics[link]

Browning has soccer and cross country in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball, track, tennis and golf in the spring. Browning is a member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association and competes against schools such as Columbia Prep, Trevor Day, Trinity School, and Birch Wathen Lenox.

Notable alumni[link]

• John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1893
• Jamie Dimon '74
• Whitman Knapp '27
• Claiborne Pell '36
• Arthur Ochs Sulzberger '44
• Salvatore Ferragamo '76
• Thomas E. Lovejoy, III, Ph.D. '59
• Jeff Moss '59
• Thomas Oliphant '63
• Winthrop P. Rockefeller '66
• Paul Dano, Jr. '02
• Osborn Elliott '41
• Sargent Shriver '34
• Laurent Manuel '04

Affiliated organizations[link]

• New York Association of Independent Schools
• New York Interschool Association, Inc.

External links[link]

• Browning School website

Coordinates: 40°45′53.7″N 73°58′09.2″W / 40.764917°N 73.969222°W / 40.764917; -73.969222

Kurt Browning
Browning skates during the 2000 Stars on Ice tour
Personal information
Country represented	Canada
Born	(1966-06-18) June 18, 1966 (age 46)
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Medal record Men's Figure Skating Competitor for  Canada World Championships Gold 1993 Prague Men's singles Gold 1991 Munich Men's singles Gold 1990 Halifax Men's singles Gold 1989 Paris Men's singles Silver 1992 Oakland Men's singles

Kurt Browning, CM (born June 18, 1966) is a Canadian figure skater, choreographer and commentator. He is a four-time World Champion and four-time Canadian national champion.

Career[link]

Browning was both Canadian figure skating champion and World Champion four times. He represented Canada in three Winter Olympics, 1988 (finishing 8th overall), 1992 (6th) and 1994 (5th), and earned the privilege of carrying the Canadian flag during the opening ceremonies of the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway. Browning's other achievements include three Canadian Professional Championships, three World Professional Championships, a Lou Marsh Trophy for top Canadian Athlete (in 1990), Lionel Conacher Award winner (1990 and 1991), Order of Canada recipient (in 1990), an American Skating World Professional Skater of the Year Award (in 1998), and a Gustav Lussi Award from the Professional Skaters' Association (in 2001).

On March 25, 1988, at the 1988 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Browning landed the first ratified quadruple jump (a toe loop) in competition.^[1] This accomplishment is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Josef Sabovcik had previously landed a quad toe loop at the 1986 European Championships which was recognized at the event but then ruled invalid three weeks later.^[2] Browning later said, "I remember that there were a few people landing the jump (in practice) long before I did, and by watching them I was inspired to try it myself. After landing it, I certainly expected more skaters to start doing it in competition. I was surprised in the next few years when that really did not happen."^[2] Browning is also known for his footwork.

He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and Canada's Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000. He was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2001. He also appeared in the 2006 Fox television program Skating with Celebrities. Starting in 2009, he is the co-host of Battle of the Blades.

As a professional skater, Browning has had a long rivalry with Brian Boitano. At the 2006 Ice Wars competition, Browning narrowly defeated Boitano. As a commentator, Browning has made frequent appearances since turning professional in 1994. He has been a regular colour commentator for the CBC at major skating events since 2006.

Personal life[link]

Browning was born in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta and raised in Caroline, Alberta. He married Sonia Rodriguez, a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, on June 30, 1996. Their first son, Gabriel, was born on July 12, 2003 and their second son, Dillon, was born on August 14, 2007.

Browning's home in the Forest Hill area of Toronto suffered a fire on August 18, 2010.^[3][4]

Competitive highlights[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kurt Files

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kurt Browning

Ellen Browning Scripps (October 18, 1836 – August 3, 1932) was an American philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California.

Family history[link]

James Mogg Scripps was one of 6 children born in London, England in 1803. He was the youngest and dropped out of school when he was 13. ^[1]:p.2 He was apprenticed to Charles Lewis, the leading bookbinder of London where he learned the trade. ^[2]:p.2 James married his cousin Elizabeth Sabey in 1829 ^[3]:p.6 and had two children, only one of which lived to maturity, Elizabeth born in 1831.^[1]:p.2 Elizabeth Sabey died the day after the birth of Elizabeth.^[1]:p.2 2 years later James Mogg married Ellen Mary Saunders and they had 6 children 5 of who lived to adulthood, James Edmund, Ellen Browning, William Arminger, George Henry and John Mogg.^[1]:p.2 Ellen Browning Scripps was born on October 18, 1836 on South Moulton St in St. George Parish.^[1]:p.2 Ellen Mary Saunders died of breast cancer in 1841. ^[4]:p.2 After the failure of his bookbinding shop and having many mouths to feed, James Mogg made the decision to immigrate to America and in April 1844 the Francis Burr set sail with the 6 Scripps children and their father.^[2]:p.2After about a month at sea, the family landed and started the journey over land to Rushville, Illinois.^[1]:p.3 James Mogg met his third wife Julia Osborn in Cleveland, Ohio.^[1]:p.4 They were married in November 1844.^[2]:p.4 James and Julia had 5 children, Julia Anne, Thomas Osborn, Frederick Tudor, Eliza Virginia and Edward Willis or E. W. Scripps, the well-known newspaper tycoon and founder of E. W. Scripps Company.^[1]:p.4

Early life[link]

Ellen Browning Scripps was an imaginative, independent thinking child. As an older woman she recalls when she told her mother that she saw a lion on the front grass. Even though there was an iron cast lion statue, Ellen was sent to her room and told to ask for God's forgiveness for lying. Soon after, Ellen left her room and told her mother that "God had assured her that everything was alright and He often made the same mistake Himself."^[4]:p.8 At about age 5, Ellen hid her older brother James' key to his toy box. Her aunt caught her and told her it was a grievous sin to have committed. To which, Ellen retorted that she didn’t care if she went to hell or not.^[4]:p.8 James Mogg stated in letters sent to his father that James and Ellen teased and harassed their older half sister Elizabeth who had poor hearing.^[1]:p.3 However James Mogg also realized that unlike Elizabeth at 13 years old, 7 year old Ellen was already characterizing the competence and resourcefulness that she would be known for later in life.^[2]:p.3

Afterward Ellen would say that she had two governing motives as a little girl. One was that she was always scared that she would make a fool of herself and the other was that she could never hurt someone else’s feelings.^[1]:p.3

It is clear that Ellen was a vivacious young girl who had a strong independent will. However she was also an avid reader. After her mother's death, Ellen was sent to a boarding school. When she was there, Ellen's Bible and Anglican Book of Prayer, given by her aunt and grandmother respectfully, were confiscated because "so young a child should not pretend to read or even understand the Bible" and as Albert Britt states in his autobiography of Ellen she probably did understand the passages she was reading in the Bible. ^[1]:p.2 At any rate, Ellen was an enthusiastic reader. Luckily her father brought his collection of books with them from England. Although the children were not forced to read nor did they have much schooling, Ellen loved to read and excelled in her education.^[1]:p.6 She studied Latin in elementary school and given good grades by her teachers.^[1]:p.7 Ellen’s love of reading was passed on to her brother Edward Willis through recitations of Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Scott.^[1]:p.8

Ellen also played a large part in family life on the new farm in Rushville. She was expected to carry the milk from the milking barn to the cellar as well as follow the goslings to make sure none drowned in the pond.^[1]:p.4 The Scripps children had a very strict upbringing. They were the last to eat if company was over and Julia, Ellen’s step-mother, would whip all of the children when one was into trouble to make sure that they did not get away with the crime.^[1]:p.7 Ellen helped run the household, doing cooking, cleaning, sewing, and washing from age 10 until the day she left for good in 1873.^[4]:p.18 In her later years she said she recalled only unhappy childhood memories.^[4]:p.18

Ellen had one noted romance. A young boy at a picnic asked if he could walk her home. She agreed but said nothing to him during the entire walk. When her elder sister Elizabeth approached them, the boy asked if she lived here. Ellen finally spoke one word: yes. And thus ended the fling.^[1]:p.5

Education[link]

Ellen Browning Scripps was not given any money for a college education so she taught school for 2 years and saved her money.^[1]:p.15 In 1856 she was admitted to the Female Collegiate Department at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.^[4]:p.19 The women studied in separate classes from the men and the program was only 3 years long, unlike the men’s programs, which were 4 years. Also women were not given diplomas, only certificates. However in 1870 Ellen Browning Scripps received a degree once the college became co-ed. (Preece 16) In 1911 Ellen Browning was awarded a Doctorate of Letters from Knox College.^[1]:p.16 She was the only child of James Mogg Scripps to attend college.^[1]:p.16 She went back to Rushville and continued to work as a teacher, albeit the highest paid teacher in the county, making $50 a month.^[1]:p.16

Newspaper journalist[link]

While Ellen Browning was at college her brother James Edmund had become an owner and publisher of The Detroit Advertiser and merged it with the Detroit Tribune. James then convinced Ellen she should take a job as a copy editor. So she did.^[1]:p.18 Ellen had to quit because of her father’s failing health. She was so concerned that she slept in a chair next to her father’s bed with a string tied to her finger so if he woke up she would get woken up.^[1]:p.18 A fire in 1873 burned down the Detroit Tribune building and helped the Scripps family ^[1]:p.21 James Collected $20,000 from the insurance and Edward made $1000 on the melted lead type stamps.^[1]:p.21 This allowed James to reinvest the money and start a new company paper The Detroit News.^[1]:p.21 Ellen became copy editor again after her father’s death the same year and made approximately $20 a week. Ellen and James convinced their brother George to sell his farm and invest in the newspaper.^[1]:p.21

A rift between brothers caused Edward to move to Cleveland and in 1879 he started his own paper, The Penny Press.^[4]:p.50 Even though they were splitting apart, James helped him finance the start up Edward needed about $10,000.^[4]:p.48 The paper was started during a time of increasing literacy and it became hugely popular

Ellen started a column in the paper called "Miscellany". It was a column of trivial news supplemented with historical facts.^[1]:p.22 This column began as a filler piece but then became well received and expected by the public.^[1]:p.22 She pioneered the concept of the feature article.

Abroad for family health[link]

Edward’s health was precarious during this time and his doctors encouraged him to travel abroad.^[4]:p.53 Ellen offered to go with him on this trip. They went to Algeria, Italy, Germany, Paris and other places in Europe. Ellen wrote letters back to the Penny Press about their travels and thus became the first foreign correspondent.^[1]:p.45 Upon returning to America Ellen became a women's rights activist after seeing how women in these other countries were treated.^[1]:p.45 Ellen returned to her copy-editing job at the Detroit News, but it was not the same after her absence and she left shortly after.^[1]:p.48 She went to Cuba in 1884 with Edward and sister Annie to sightsee. ^[4]:p.58 She returned home and soon after James was sick with gallbladder problems. Ellen and James traveled Italy to regain his health.^[4]:p.62 While they were gone Edward’s son was stillborn and he was devastated.

Westward bound to California[link]

Ellen Browning's sister had moved to San Francisco due to the harsh climate of the Midwest winters.^[4]:p.65 Soon after Ellen, Fred and Edward moved to San Diego.^[4]:p.65 Edward quickly bought a piece of land financed by Ellen and named it Miramar Ranch. Soon Fred had built the family a house and Edward had moved his family out to California.^[4]:p.65 Ellen lived with her brothers and family until 1897 when she bought land in La Jolla and had a house built on the coast.^[4]:p.66 Her sister Virginia, or Ginny, lived with her in the house in La Jolla. Ellen and Ginny were quite the compliment to one another. Ellen was quite, clean, shy, and introverted. Whereas, Ginny was boisterous, bold and extroverted.^[4]:p.83 The two women became prominent citizens of the small beach town.

Inheritance and donations[link]

When George died, Ellen inherited a large amount of his wealth, which James did not agree with.^[4]:p.72 James sued for the right to George's money shortly there after because most of George's wealth was in the Detroit News.^[4]:p.72 Ellen won the suit and added immensely to the wealth she already had accumulated. She would get approximately $36,000 a year from George's will. Most of this money got invested into the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. She regretted receiving such a large amount and felt her wealth was to be held in trust for humanity.

Ellen gave generously to the people of La Jolla. She donated the first public park near downtown La Jolla Cove, as well as the Torrey Pines State Park.^[4] After a stay in the hospital due to a broken hip, Ellen donated to the Scripps Memorial Hospital and helped fund the Scripps Research Clinic.^[4]:p.86 Education was quite important to Ellen and she donated accordingly spending money founding the Bishop’s School in La Jolla, the Scripps College in Claremont and Scripps Institute of Oceanography. In 1924, while recovering from a broken hip, she became interested in medicine and founded Scripps Hospital and Scripps Metabolic Clinic. These organizations eventually became The Scripps Research Institute, and two of the core providers now comprising Scripps Health—Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and Scripps Clinic. Her home was transformed into a art museum and still open in La Jolla.

Death[link]

Ellen Browning Scripps died in her La Jolla home on October 3, 1932, a few weeks before her 96th birthday.^[1]:p.112

Legacy[link]

Scripps was nominated and inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in 2007 hosted by Women's Museum of California, Commission on the Status of Women, University of California, San Diego Women's Center, and San Diego State University Women's Studies.

The following are institutions she helped to establish or fund:

• Scripps Institute of Oceanography est. 1903 formerly known as the Marine Biological Association
• La Jolla Women's Club
• The Children's Pool est. 1931
• Community Welfare Building
• Scripps Aquarium, La Jolla (now Birch Aquarium at Scripps)
• Scripps Public Park
• Torrey Pines State Park
• Scripps Memorial Hospital
• Scripps Metabolic Clinic
• Scripps College in Claremont, CA
• Bishop's School in La Jolla, CA (Land was donated by Virginia Scripps)
• Scripps Cottage at San Diego State University
• Founded the La Jolla Public Library
• Donations to
  • Pomona College
  • Knox College
  • San Diego Zoo
  • San Diego YMCA and YWCA

See also[link]

• List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s - 22 Feb. 1926

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• "In California", Time, February 22, 1926. Scripps appeared on the cover, the first from San Diego
• Heilbron, Carl (1936). History of San Diego County. San Diego Press Club.  Biography, pp. 92–94; includes portrait
• Molly McClain, "The Scripps Family's San Diego Experiment," The Journal of San Diego History 56, nos. 1-2 (2010).
• Molly McClain, "The La Jolla of Ellen Browning Scripps," The Journal of San Diego History 57, no. 4 (2011)

External links[link]

• Ellen Browning Scripps
• Biography from History of San Diego County by Carl Heilbron, 1936
• E.W. Scripps Papers, Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries, Athens, Ohio. Manuscript collection, primarily correspondence.
• "How Scripps Institution Came To San Diego", The Journal of San Diego History 27:3 (Summer 1981) by Elizabeth N. Shor
• "How Ellen Scripps Brought Ancient Egypt to San Diego", The Journal of San Diego History 38:2 (1992) by Bruce Kamerling
• "Anna and Albert Valentien: The Arts and Crafts Movement in San Diego", The Journal of San Diego History 24:3 (1978) by Bruce Kamerling
• "Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
• Biography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• "The Bishop's School, 1909-2009", The Journal of San Diego History 54:4 (2009) by Molly McClain

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (April 2010) Don't speak French? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the French article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|fr|Robert Browning}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Robert Browning
Photogravure of Robert Browning in 1865
Born	7 May 1812 (1812-05-07) Camberwell, London, England
Died	12 December 1889(1889-12-12) (aged 77) Venice, Italy
Occupation	Poet
Notable work(s)	The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Porphyria's Lover, The Ring and the Book, Men and Women, My Last Duchess
Influences Shakespeare, Percy Shelley,
Influenced Pound, Eliot, Frost, Harold Bloom
Signature

Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.

Early years[link]

Browning was born in Camberwell - a district now forming part of the borough of Southwark in South London, England - the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning.^[1][2] His father was a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England, earning about £150 per year.^[3] Browning’s paternal grandfather was a wealthy slave owner in Saint Kitts, West Indies, but Browning's father was an abolitionist. Browning's father had been sent to the West Indies to work on a sugar plantation, but revolted by the slavery there, he returned to England. Browning’s mother was a daughter of a German shipowner who had settled in Dundee, and his Scottish wife. Browning had one sister, Sarianna. Browning's paternal grandmother, Margaret Tittle, who had inherited a plantation in St Kitts, was rumoured within the family to have had some Jamaican mixed race ancestry but there is little evidence for this. It seems to be only an anecdotal family story.^[4] Robert's father, a literary collector, amassed a library of around 6,000 books, many of them rare. Thus, Robert was raised in a household of significant literary resources. His mother, to whom he was very close, was a devout nonconformist and a talented musician.^[1] His younger sister, Sarianna, also gifted, became her brother's companion in his later years, after the death of his wife in 1861. His father encouraged his children's interest in literature and the arts.^[1]

By twelve, Browning had written a book of poetry which he later destroyed when no publisher could be found. After being at one or two private schools, and showing an insuperable dislike to school life, he was educated at home by a tutor via the resources of his father's extensive library.^[1] By the age of fourteen he was fluent in French, Greek, Italian and Latin. He became a great admirer of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley. Following the precedent of Shelley, Browning became an atheist and vegetarian, both of which he gave up later. At the age of sixteen, he studied Greek at University College London but left after his first year.^[1] His parents' staunch evangelical faith prevented his studying at either Oxford University or Cambridge University, both then open only to members of the Church of England.^[1] He had inherited substantial musical ability through his mother, and composed arrangements of various songs. He refused a formal career and ignored his parents' remonstrations, dedicating himself to poetry. He stayed at home until the age of 34, financially dependent on his family until his marriage. His father sponsored the publication of his son's poems.^[1] Browning travelled widely, joining a British diplomatic mission to Russia in 1834, later journeying to Italy 1838 and 1844.^[1]

Middle years[link]

Portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning.

Browning's career began with the publication of the anonymous poem Pauline. The piece, which disappeared without notice, would embarrass him for the rest of his life.^[1] The long poem Paracelsus, about the renowned doctor and alchemist, had no general popularity; nevertheless, it gained the notice of Thomas Carlyle, Wordsworth, and other men of letters, and gave him a reputation as a poet of distinguished promise on the London scene. Browning came to befriend Charles Dickens, John Forster, Harriet Martineau and Carlyle, as well as William Charles Macready who encouraged Browning to write the play Strafford, performed in 1837 by Macready and Helen Faucit.^[5] It was no great success but Browning was encouraged enough to try again, going on to write eight plays in all, including Pippa Passes (1841) and A Soul's Tragedy (1846). These followed the publication of the experimental and politically radical long poem Sordello (1840), which was met with widespread derision, gaining him the reputation of wanton careless and obscurity. Tennyson commented that he only understood the first and last lines and Carlyle claimed that his wife had read the poem through and could not tell whether Sordello was a man, a city or a book.^[5] His reputation would not rise again for 25 years.^[5]

In 1845, Browning met the poet Elizabeth Barrett, six years his elder, who lived as a semi-invalid in her father's house in Wimpole Street, London. They began regularly corresponding and gradually a romance developed between them, leading to their marriage and journey to Italy (for Elizabeth's health) on 12 September 1846.^[5] The marriage was initially secret because Elizabeth's domineering father disapproved of marriage for any of his children. Mr. Barrett disinherited Elizabeth, as he did for each of his children who married: “The Mrs. Browning of popular imagination was a sweet, innocent young woman who suffered endless cruelties at the hands of a tyrannical papa but who nonetheless had the good fortune to fall in love with a dashing and handsome poet named Robert Browning. ”^[6] At her husband's insistence, the second edition of Elizabeth’s Poems included her love sonnets. The book increased her popularity and high critical regard, cementing her position as an eminent Victorian poet. Upon William Wordsworth's death in 1850, she was a serious contender to become Poet Laureate, the position eventually going to Tennyson.

1882 caricature from Punch Magazine reading: "The Ring and Bookmaker from Red Cotton Nightcap country"

From the time of their marriage and until Elizabeth's death, the Brownings lived in Italy, residing first in Pisa, and then, within a year, finding an apartment in Florence at Casa Guidi (now a museum to their memory).^[5] Their only child, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, nicknamed "Penini" or "Pen", was born in 1849.^[5] In these years Browning was fascinated by and learned from the art and atmosphere of Italy. He would, in later life, describe Italy as his university. As Elizabeth had inherited money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy, and their relationship together was happy. However, the literary assault on Browning's work did not let up and he was critically dismissed further, by patrician writers such as Charles Kingsley, for the desertion of England for foreign lands.^[5] In Florence, probably from early in 1853, Browning worked on the poems that eventually comprised his two-volume Men and Women, for which he is now well known;^[5] in 1855, however, when these were published, they made relatively little impact. It was only after his wife's death, in 1861, when he returned to England and became part of the London literary scene—albeit while paying frequent visits to Italy— (though never again to Florence) that his reputation started to take off.^[5]

In 1868, after five years work, he completed and published the long blank-verse poem The Ring and the Book. Based on a convoluted murder-case from 1690s Rome, the poem is composed of twelve books, essentially ten lengthy dramatic monologues narrated by the various characters in the story, showing their individual perspectives on events, bookended by an introduction and conclusion by Browning himself. Long, even by Browning's own standards (over twenty thousand lines), The Ring and the Book was the poet's most ambitious project and arguably his greatest work; it has been praised as a tour de force of dramatic poetry.^[7] Published separately in four volumes from November 1868 through to February 1869, the poem was a success both commercially and critically, and finally brought Browning the renown he had sought for nearly forty years.^[7] The Robert Browning Society was formed in 1881 and his work was recognised as belonging within the British literary canon.^[7]

Last years and death[link]

Browning after death.

In the remaining years of his life Browning travelled extensively. After a series of long poems published in the early 1870s, of which Balaustion's Adventure and Red Cotton Night-Cap Country were the best-received.^[7] The volume Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper included an attack against Browning's critics, especially Alfred Austin, later to become Poet Laureate. According to some reports Browning became romantically involved with Louisa, Lady Ashburton, but he refused her proposal of marriage, and did not re-marry. In 1878, he revisited Italy for the first time in the seventeen years since Elizabeth's death, and returned there on several further occasions. In 1887, Browning produced the major work of his later years, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance In Their Day. It finally presented the poet speaking in his own voice, engaging in a series of dialogues with long-forgotten figures of literary, artistic, and philosophic history. The Victorian public was baffled by this, and Browning returned to the brief, concise lyric for his last volume, Asolando (1889), published on the day of his death.^[7]

Browning died at his son's home Ca' Rezzonico in Venice on 12 December 1889.^[7] He was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey; his grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson.^[7]

Browning was awarded many distinctions. He was made LL.D. of Edinburgh, a life Governor of London University, and had the offer of the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow. But he turned down anything that involved public speaking.

Browning's poetic style[link]

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2011)

Robert Browning during his later years.

Browning is often known by some of his short poems, such as Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess,Rabbi Ben Ezra, How they brought the good News to Aix, Evelyn Hope, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, A Grammarian's Funeral, A Death in the Desert. Initially, Browning was not regarded as a great poet, since his subjects were often recondite and lay beyond the ken and sympathy of the great bulk of readers; and owing, partly to the subtle links connecting the ideas and partly to his often extremely condensed and rugged expression, the treatment of theme was often difficult and obscure.

Browning’s fame today rests mainly on his dramatic monologues, in which the words not only convey setting and action but also reveal the speaker’s character. Unlike a soliloquy, the meaning in a Browning dramatic monologue is not what the speaker directly reveals but what he inadvertently "gives away" about himself in the process of rationalizing past actions, or "special-pleading" his case to a silent auditor in the poem. Rather than thinking out loud, the character composes a self-defence which the reader, as "juror," is challenged to see through. Browning chooses some of the most debased, extreme and even criminally psychotic characters, no doubt for the challenge of building a sympathetic case for a character who does not deserve one and to cause the reader to squirm at the temptation to acquit a character who may be a homicidal psychopath. One of his more sensational dramatic monologues is Porphyria's Lover.

The Pied Piper leads the children out of Hamelin. Illustration by Kate Greenaway to the Robert Browning version of the tale.

Yet it is by carefully reading the far more sophisticated and cultivated rhetoric of the aristocratic and civilized Duke of My Last Duchess, perhaps the most frequently cited example of the poet's dramatic monologue form, that the attentive reader discovers the most horrific example of a mind totally mad despite its eloquence in expressing itself. The duchess, we learn, was murdered not because of infidelity, not because of a lack of gratitude for her position, and not, finally, because of the simple pleasures she took in common everyday occurrences. She is reduced to an objet d'art in the Duke's collection of paintings and statues because the Duke equates his instructing her to behave like a duchess with "stooping," an action of which his megalomaniac pride is incapable. In other monologues, such as Fra Lippo Lippi, Browning takes an ostensibly unsavory or immoral character and challenges us to discover the goodness, or life-affirming qualities, that often put the speaker's contemporaneous judges to shame. In The Ring and the Book Browning writes an epic-length poem in which he justifies the ways of God to humanity through twelve extended blank verse monologues spoken by the principals in a trial about a murder. These monologues greatly influenced many later poets, including T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, high modernists, the latter singling out in his Cantos Browning's convoluted psychological poem Sordello about a frustrated 13-century troubadour, as the poem he must work to distance himself from. These concerns reflected Victorian society in the late 19th century.

But he remains too much the prophet-poet and descendant of Percy Shelley to settle for the conceits, puns, and verbal play of the Metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century. His is a modern sensibility, all too aware of the arguments against the vulnerable position of one of his simple characters, who recites: "God's in His Heaven; All's right with the world." Browning endorses such a position because he sees an immanent deity that, far from remaining in a transcendent heaven, is indivisible from temporal process, assuring that in the fullness of theological time there is ample cause for celebrating life.

History of sound recording[link]

At a dinner party on 7 April 1889, at the home of Browning's friend the artist Rudolf Lehmann, an Edison cylinder phonograph recording was made on a white wax cylinder by Edison's British representative, George Gouraud. In the recording, which still exists, Browning recites part of "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" (and can be heard apologizing when he forgets the words).^[8] When the recording was played in 1890 on the anniversary of his death, at a gathering of his admirers, it was said to be the first time anyone's voice "had been heard from beyond the grave."^[9][10]

Complete list of works[link]

• Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
• Paracelsus (1835)
• Strafford (play) (1837)
• Sordello (1840)
• Bells and Pomegranates No. I: Pippa Passes (play) (1841)
• Bells and Pomegranates No. II: King Victor and King Charles (play) (1842)
• Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics (1842)
  • "Porphyria's Lover"
  • "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"
  • "My Last Duchess"
  • "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"
  • "Count Gismond"
  • "Johannes Agricola in Meditation"
• Bells and Pomegranates No. IV: The Return of the Druses (play) (1843)
• Bells and Pomegranates No. V: A Blot in the 'Scutcheon (play) (1843)
• Bells and Pomegranates No. VI: Colombe's Birthday (play) (1844)
• Bells and Pomegranates No. VII: Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845)
  • "The Laboratory"
  • "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"
  • "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church"
  • "The Lost Leader"
  • "Home Thoughts from Abroad"
• Bells and Pomegranates No. VIII: Luria and A Soul's Tragedy (plays) (1846)
• Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day (1850)
• Men and Women (1855)
  • "Love Among the Ruins"
  • "The Last Ride Together"
  • "A Toccata of Galuppi's"
  • "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"
  • "Fra Lippo Lippi"
  • "Andrea Del Sarto"
  • "The Patriot/ An Old Story"
  • "A Grammarian's Funeral"
  • "An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician"
• Dramatis Personae (1864)
  • "Caliban upon Setebos"
  • "Rabbi Ben Ezra"
• The Ring and the Book (1868-9)
• Balaustion's Adventure (1871)
• Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society (1871)
• Fifine at the Fair (1872)
• Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, or, Turf and Towers (1873)
• Aristophanes' Apology (1875)
• The Inn Album (1875)
• Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper (1876)
• The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (1877)

Memorial plaque: "In Loving Memory of Louisa A. M. McGrigor Commandant V.A.D. Cornwall 22. Who died on service, March 31, 1917. Erected by her fellow workers in the British Red Cross Society, Women Unionist Association, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Friends."
Followed by a quote from Robert Browning's Epilogue to Asolando.
One who never turned her back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted. wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake

• La Saisiaz and The Two Poets of Croisic (1878)
• Dramatic Idylls (1879)
• Dramatic Idylls: Second Series (1880)
• Jocoseria (1883)
• Ferishtah's Fancies (1884)
• Parleyings with Certain People of Importance In Their Day (1887)
• Asolando (1889)
  • Prospice

Legacy and cultural references[link]

In 1930 the story of Browning and his wife Elizabeth was made into a play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, by Rudolph Besier. The play was a success and brought popular fame to the couple in the United States. The role of Elizabeth became a signature role for the actress Katharine Cornell. It was twice adapted into film.

The basis of Terence Rattigan's 1948 play is a pupil making a parting present to his teacher of an inscribed copy of what is referred to as The Browning Version (Robert Browning's translation of The Agamemnon of Aeschylus).

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Anonymous (1873). Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day. Illustrated by Waddy, Frederick. London: Tinsley Brothers. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cartoon_portraits_and_biographical_sketches_of_men_of_the_day/Robert_Browning. Retrieved 2010-12-28. 
• Chesterton, G.K. Robert Browning (Macmillan, 1903)
• DeVane, William Clyde. A Browning handbook. 2nd. Ed. (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955)
• Drew, Philip. The poetry of Robert Browning: A critical introduction. (Methuen, 1970)
• Finlayson, Iain. Browning: A Private Life. (HarperCollins, 2004)
• Garrett, Martin ed., Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning: Interviews and Recollections. (Macmillan, 2000)
• Garrett, Martin. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. (British Library Writers' Lives). (British Library, 2001)
• Hudson, Gertrude Reese. Robert Browning's literary life from first work to masterpiece. (Texas, 1992)
• Karlin, Daniel. The courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. (Oxford, 1985)
• Kelley, Philip et al. (Eds.) The Brownings' correspondence. 19 vols. to date. (Wedgestone, 1984-) (Complete letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning to 1853.)
• Litzinger, Boyd and Smalley, Donald (eds.) Robert Browning: the Critical Heritage. (Routledge, 1995)
• Markus, Julia. Dared and Done: the Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning (Bloomsbury, 1995)
• Maynard, John. Browning's youth. (Harvard Univ. Press, 1977)
• Ryals, Clyde de L. The Life of Robert Browning: a Critical Biography. (Blackwell, 1993)
• Woolford, John and Karlin, Daniel. Robert Browning. (Longman, 1996)

External links[link]

poetry portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robert Browning

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Robert Browning

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Browning

• Profile and poems written and audio at the Poetry Archive
• Profile and poems at the Poetry Foundation
• Profile and poems at Poets.org
• The Brownings: A Research Guide (Baylor University)
• The Browning Letters Project (Baylor University)
• The Browning Society
• Works by Robert Browning at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Robert Browning in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by Robert Browning in e-book
• An analysis of "Home Thoughts, From Abroad"
• Browning archive at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin
• Works by Robert Browning, from the Internet Archive
• The British Library - Robert Browning read by Robert Hardy and Greg Wise Hear audio recordings of Browning's poetry with accompanying biography and discussion

Greg Browning (born 14 February 1953) is a retired field hockey player from Australia, who won the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.^[1]

He was also Australia's youngest senior team player, making his debut at 16 years of age. He is currently the coach of the Queensland Blades in the Australian Hockey League.^[2]

References[link]

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