Paris--Kenyon's death--Legacies--Death of Mr Barrett--Winter in Florence--Havre--Rome--Louis Napoleon--Landor--Siena--Poems before Congress--Rome again--Modelling in Clay--Casa Guidi--Death of Mrs Browning CHAPTER XI LONDON: DRAMATIS PERSONAE Desolation--Return to London--Pornic--Social life--Dramatis Personae--Poems of music--Poems of hope and aspiration--A Death in the Desert--Epilogue--Caliban upon Setebos--Poems of Love CHAPTER XII THE RING AND THE BOOK Holiday excursions--Sainte Marie--Miss Barrett dies--Balliol College and Jowett--Origin of the Ring and the Book--Its Plan--The Persons--Count Guido--Pompilia--Caponsacchi--The Pope--Falsehood subserving truth CHAPTER XIII POEMS ON CLASSICAL SUBJECTS Saint-Aubin--Milsand--Miss Thackeray--Hervé Riel--Miss Egerton-Smith--Summer wanderings--Balaustion's Adventure--Aristophanes' Apology--The Agamemnon CHAPTER XIV PROBLEM AND NARRATIVE POEMS Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau--Fifine at the Fair--Red Cotton Night-Cap Country--The Inn Album--Pachiarotto and other Poems CHAPTER XV SOLITUDE AND SOCIETY La Saisiaz--Immortality--Two Poets of Croisic--Browning in society--Daily habits--Browning as a talker--Italy--Asolo--Mountain retreats--Mrs Bronson--Venice CHAPTER XVI POET AND TEACHER IN OLD AGE Popularity--Browning Society--Public honours--Dramatic Idyls--Spirit of acquiescence--Jocoseria--Ferishtah's Fancies CHAPTER XVII CLOSING WORKS AND DAYS Parleyings--Asolando--Mrs Bronson--At Asolo--Venice--Death--Place in nineteenth-century poetry List of Illustrations ROBERT BROWNING, _from a portrait in oil, for which he sat to R.W. Curtis at Venice, 1880, reproduced by kind permission of D.S. Curtis, Esq. (photogravure)_ MAIN STREET OF ASOLO, SHOWING BROWNING'S HOUSE, _from a drawing by Miss D. Noyes_ ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, _from a drawing in chalk by Field Talfourd in the National Portrait Gallery_ ROBERT BROWNING, _from an engraving by J.G. Armytage_ THE VIA BOCCA DI LEONE, ROME, IN WHICH THE BROWNINGS STAYED, _a photograph_ PORTRAIT OF FILIPPO LIPPI, BY HIMSELF, _a detail from the fresco in the Cathedral at Prato, from a photograph by Alinari_ ANDREA DEL SARTO, _from a print after the portrait by himself in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_ PIAZZA DI SAN LORENZO, FLORENCE, WHERE "THE BOOK" WAS FOUND BY BROWNING, _from a photograph by Alinari_ THE PALAZZO GIUSTINIANI, VENICE, _from a drawing by Miss N. Erichsen_ SPECIMEN OF BROWNING'S HANDWRITING, _from a letter to D.S. Curtis, Esq._ ROBERT BROWNING, _from a photograph (photogravure)_ THE PALAZZO REZZONICO, VENICE, _from a drawing by Miss Katherine Kimball_ Chapter I Childhood and Youth