A Brief History of the English Language and Literature Part 31

Among American expositors of Browning, Professor Corson is easily first. He has not only satisfied the English organization which devotes itself to the study of the poet, but, what is perhaps a severer test, he attracts the reader to whom Browning is only a name, and, in the compa.s.s of one small volume, educates him into the love and appreciation of the poet. If Browning is to be read in only a single volume, this, in my opinion, is the best; if he is to be studied zealously and exhaustively, Professor Corson's book is an excellent introduction to the complete series of his works.

_From +The Critic+:--

Ruskin, Browning, and Carlyle all have something in common: a vast message to deliver, a striking way of delivering it, and an over-mastering spirituality. In none of them is there mere smooth, smuck surface: all are filled with the fine wrinkles of thought wreaking itself on expression with many a Delphic writhing. A priest with a message cares little for the vocal vehicle; and yet the utterances of all three men are beautifully melodious. Chiefest of them all in his special poetic sphere appears to be Browning, and to him Professor Corson thinks our special studies should be directed.

This book is a valuable contribution to Browning lore, and will doubtless be welcomed by the Browning clubs of this country and England. It is easy to see that Professor Corson is more than an annotator: he is a poet himself, and on this account he is able to interpret Browning so sympathetically.

_From +The Unitarian Review+, Boston, March, 1887_:--

More than almost any other poet, Browning-- at least, his reader-- needs the help of a believing, cheery, and enthusiastic guide, to beguile the weary pilgrimage.

There is, as we have intimated, a fast-growing esoteric literature of exposition and comment,-- part of it simply the expression of the disciple's loyal homage, part of it designed to win and educate the reluctant Philistine intellect to the comforts of a true faith. In the latter cla.s.s we reckon the excellent work of Professor Corson, of Cornell University. More than half of it is, as it should be, made up of a selection from the shorter poems, giving each complete; while these include what is perhaps the most readable and one of the most characteristic of the narrative pieces, "The Flight of the d.u.c.h.ess," with which a beginner may well make his first attempt.

_From +The Christian Union+, New York_:--

Browning, like every other great original artist, has been compelled to wait upon the slow processes by which his own public has been educated.

It is doubtful if any other single work on Browning deserves to rank with this, with the exception of Professor Dowden's striking comparative study of Browning and Tennyson. Professor Corson's elucidation of the idea of personality in art as embodied in Mr.

Browning's poetry is the most luminous, the most adequate, and the most thoroughly helpful article that has ever been written on Browning's poetry. Those who study it carefully will discern in it a rare insight into the workings of one of the most subtle of modern minds, and a singularly clear and complete statement of the philosophy of life at which that mind has arrived. The chapters on Browning's obscurity and on his use of the dramatic monologue are also extremely suggestive and helpful; the selections from Browning's poems are admirably chosen, and, with the notes, make the best of all possible introductions to the study of Browning.

_From +Rev. Francis Tiffany+, in "The Boston Herald," Nov. 30, 1886_:--

The volume is well worthy the serious study of thinking men and women, for it embodies the results of years, not only of thorough investigation, but of the finest poetical appreciation. From beginning to end, it is pervaded with a fervid feeling that not to know Robert Browning is to lose something.

Professor Corson, in his chapter on "Browning's Obscurity," has done his best to smooth the path of the reader by explaining, and so removing from his way, those grammatical obstructions, habits of word inversion and baffling ellipses that stand as a lion in the path to so many of the poet's untried readers. This chapter is exceedingly well wrought out, and, once carefully studied, with the ill.u.s.trations given, can hardly fail to banish many a perplexity.

_From +The American+, Philadelphia_:--

Can Browning be made intelligible to the common mind? Ten years ago it was a.s.sumed that he could not. But of late years a different view has begun to prevail. And as all those who have addressed themselves seriously to the study of Browning report themselves as having found him repay the trouble he gave them, there has arisen very naturally an ambition to share in their fruitful experience. Hence the rise of Browning Societies on both sides of the Atlantic, and in the publication of a.n.a.lyses and discussions of his poems, and the preparation of such manuals as this of Professor Hiram Corson's.

Professor Corson is a Browningite of the first era. He owes nothing but encouragement to the new enthusiasm which has gathered around the writings of the Master, whom he recognized as such long before he had begun to attain any general recognition of his masterfulness.

Browning has helped him to a deeper sense of the spiritual life present in the older current of English poetry. He finds in him the "subtlest a.s.sertor of the soul in song," and the n.o.blest example of the spiritual element in our modern verse. He thinks that no greater mistake has been made with regard to him, than to treat him merely as the most intellectual of our poets. He is that, but far more; he is the most spiritual of our poets also.

All or nearly all his poems are character-studies of the deeper sort, and hence the naturalness with which they fall into the form of dramatic monologues. It is true, as Mr. Corson says, that the liberties our poet takes in the collocation of words, the complexity of constructions, and some of his verbal liberties, are of a nature to increase the difficulty the careless reader finds. But there are poems and pa.s.sages of his which present none of these minor stumbling-blocks, but of which no reader will make anything until he has acquired the poet's interest in personality, its G.o.d-given mission as a force for the world's regeneration, and its innate intimacy with divine forces. But we believe that with Mr. Corson's aids-- notes as well as preliminary a.n.a.lyses-- they can be mastered by any earnest student; and certainly few things in literature so well repay the trouble.

+F. A. March+, _Prof. in Lafayette Coll_.: Let me congratulate you on having brought out so eloquent a book, and acute, as Professor Corson's Browning. I hope it pays as well in money as it must in good name.

+Rev. Joseph Cook+, _Boston_: Professor Corson's Introduction to Robert Browning's Poetry appears to me to be admirably adapted to its purposes. It forms an attractive porch to a great and intricate cathedral. (_Feb. 21, 1887._)

+Louise M. Hodgkins+, _Prof. of English Literature, Wellesley Coll._: I consider it the most illuminating textbook which has yet been published on Browning's poems. (_March 12, 1887._)

+F. H. Giddings+, in _"The Paper World," Springfield, Ma.s.s._: It is a stimulating, wisely helpful book. The arguments of the poems are explained in luminous prose paragraphs that take the reader directly into the heart of the poet's meaning. Chapters on Browning's obscurity and Browning's verse clear away, or rather show the reader how to overcome by his own efforts, the admitted difficulties presented by Browning's style. These chapters bear the true test; they enable the attentive reader to see, as Professor Corson sees, that such features of Browning's diction are seldom to be condemned, but often impart a peculiar crispness to the expressions in which they occur.

The opening chapter of the book is the finest, truest introduction to the study of English literature, as a whole, that any American writer has yet produced.

This chapter leads naturally to a profound and n.o.ble essay, of which it would be impossible to convey any adequate conception in a paragraph. It prepares the reader for an appreciation of Browning's loftiest work. (_March, 1887._)

+Melville B. Anderson+, _Prof. of English Literature, Purdue Univ., in "The Dial," Chicago_: The arguments to the poems are made with rare judgment. Many mature readers have hitherto been repelled from Browning by real difficulties such as obstruct the way to the inner sanctuary of every great poet's thought. Such readers may well be glad of some sort of a path up the rude steeps the poet has climbed and whither he beckons all who can to follow him.

(_January, 1887._)

+Queries+, _Buffalo, N.Y._: It is the most noteworthy treatise on the poetry of Browning yet published. Professor Corson is well informed upon the poetic literature of the age, is an admirably clear writer, and brings to the subject he has in hand ample knowledge and due-- we had almost said undue-- reverence. It has been a labor of love, and he has performed it well. The book will be a popular one, as readers who are not familiar with or do not understand Browning's poetry either from incompetency, indolence, or lack of time, can here gain a fair idea of Browning's poetical aims, influence, and works without much effort, or the expense of intellectual effort. Persons who have made a study of Browning's poetry will welcome it as a matter of course. (_December, 1886._)

+Education+, _Boston_: Any effort to aid and guide the young in the study of Robert Browning's poetry is to be commended. But when the editor is able to grasp the hidden meaning and make conspicuous the poetic beauties of so famous an author, and, withal, give such clever hints, directions, and guidance to the understanding and the enjoyment of the poems, he lays us all under unusual obligations. It is to be hoped that this book will come into general use in the high schools, academies, and colleges of America. It is beautifully printed, in clear type, on good paper, and is well bound.

(_February, 1887._)

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