The Brownings Part 32

9 o'clock, Monday Evening.

DEAREST MRS. BRONSON,--The improvement of last night is scarcely maintained this morning,--the action of the heart being weaker at moments. He is quite clear-headed, and is never tired of saving he feels better, "immensely better,--I don't suppose I could get up and walk about, in fact I know I could not, but I have no aches or pains,--quite comfortable, could not be more so,"--this is what he said a moment ago.

I will let you know if there is any change as the day goes on.

My love to you.

Yours, PEN.

The delightful relations that had always prevailed between the poet and his publishers were touchingly completed when, just before he breathed his last, came a telegram from George Murray Smith with its tidings of the interest with which "Asolando" was being received in England. And then this little note written on that memorable date of December 12, 1889, from Barrett Browning to Mrs. Bronson, tells the story of the poet's entrance on the new life.

PALAZZO REZZONICO,

10.30 P.M.

DEAREST FRIEND,--Our Beloved breathed his last as San Marco's clock struck ten,--without pain--unconsciously.

I was able to make him happy a little before he became unconscious by a telegram from Smith saying, "Reviews in all this day's papers most favorable, edition nearly exhausted."

He just murmured, "How gratifying."

Those were his last intelligible words.

Yours, PEN.

In that hour how could the son and the daughter who so loved him remember aught save the exquisite lines with which the poet had antic.i.p.ated the reunion with his "Lyric Love":

"Then a light, then thy breast, O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, And with G.o.d be the rest!"

In the grand _sala_ with its floor of black Italian marble and its lofty ceiling with exquisite fresco decoration, the simple and impressive service was held in Palazzo Rezzonico, and a fleet of gondolas, filled with friends and accompanied by the entire Venetian Syndic, bore the casket to its temporary resting-place in the chapel of San Michele, in the campo santo. The gondola that carried the casket had an angel, carved in wood, at the prow, and a lion at the stern. Dean Bradley, on behalf of Westminster Abbey, had telegraphed to Robert Barrett Browning, asking that the body of the poet might be laid within those honored walls; and as the cemetery in Florence wherein is Mrs. Browning's tomb had long been closed, this honor from England was accepted. The same honor of a final resting-place in Westminster Abbey was also extended for the removal of the body of Mrs. Browning, but their son rightly felt that he must yield to the wishes of Florence that her tomb be undisturbed, and it is fitting that it should remain in the Italy she so loved.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PALAZZO REZZONICO, VENICE

Owned by Robert Browning from 1888 to 1906. In the upper room, at the left-hand corner, the poet died.]

So a.s.sociated with her brother's life was Miss Sarianna Browning that the story would be incomplete not to add that she survived him many years,--a gracious and beloved presence. In the January following the poet's death, she said in a letter to Mrs. Bronson:

"I have already let a day pa.s.s without thanking you for the most beautiful locket, which I love even more for your sake than his. I shall always think of you, so good, so near, and so dearly loved by him. All your watchfulness over our smallest comfort,--how he felt it!... Bless you forever for all the joy you gave him at Asolo,--how happy he was! And how you were entwined in all our plans for the happy future we were to enjoy there! Think of him when you go back, as loving the whole place, and yourself, the embodiment of its sweetness."

Miss Browning died in her nephew's home, La Torre All' Antella, near Florence, in the spring of 1903, in her ninetieth year.

On the facade of the Palazzo Rezzonico the City of Venice placed this inscription to the memory of the poet:

A ROBERTO BROWNING MORTO IN QUESTO PALAZZO IL 12 DICEMBRE, 1889 VENEZIA POSE

"Open my heart and you will see Graved inside of it,--'Italy'"

It was on the last day of 1889 that the impressive rites were held in Westminster Abbey for Robert Browning. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dean of Windsor, an aid-de-camp representing Queen Victoria, Dean Bradley, the sub-dean, and many eminent canons, and Sir Frederick Bridge, of the Abbey choir, all were present among the officiating clergy. The casket under its purple pall, with a ma.s.sive cross of violets, and wreaths of lilies-of-the valley, and white roses (Mrs. Browning's favorite flower), was followed by the honorary pall-bearers including Hallam Tennyson, representing the Poet Laureate (whose health did not permit him to be present), Archdeacon Farrar, the Master of Balliol (representing Oxford), the Master of Trinity (representing Cambridge), Professor Ma.s.son (representing the University of Edinburgh), and George Murray Smith. The committal service was entirely choral, and Mrs. Browning's poem with its touching refrain,

"He giveth His beloved sleep!"

was chanted by the full vested choir of the Abbey, to music composed for the occasion by Sir Frederick Bridge. Preceding the Benediction, the entire vast concourse of people united in singing the hymn,

"O G.o.d, our help in ages past!"

As that great a.s.semblage turned away from the last rites in commemoration of the poet who produced the largest body of poetry, and the most valuable as a spiritual message, of any English poet, was there not wafted in the air the choral strains from some unseen angelic choir, that thrilled the venerable Abbey with celestial triumph:

"'Glory to G.o.d--to G.o.d!' he saith: Knowledge by suffering entereth, And Life is perfected by Death."

Footnotes:

[1] Letters of Robert Browning and Alfred Domett. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co.

[2] Life of Robert Browning. London: Walter Scott, Limited.

[3] La Vie et l'oeuvre de Elizabeth Browning, par Germaine-Marie Merlette; Licencie des lettres; Docteur de l'Universite de Paris.

[4] Red Letter Days of my Life. London: Richard Bentley and Son.

[5] "Letters of Robert Browning and Alfred Domett." New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company.

[6] Robert Browning: Life and Letters. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company.

[7] "La Vita e le Opere di Roberto et Elisabetta Barrett Browning. Rome: Societa Typografico-Editrice n.a.z.ionale."

[8] William Wetmore Story and his Friends. Boston: The Houghton-Mifflin Co.

[9] Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett. London: John Murray.

[10] Alfred Lord Tennyson. London and New York: The Macmillan Co.

[11] Life of Phillips Brooks. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co.

[12] Records of Tennyson, Ruskin, and Browning. London: The Macmillan Company.

[13] Life and Letters of Sir John Millais. London: Methuen and Co.