^{Note 50 in page 538} Charlotte Street Portland Place

I am indebted to Professors C. K. Hyder and K. L. Knickerbocker for generous assistance with the revision of this article.

^{Note 1 in page 538} Oswald Doughty, A Victorian Romantic (London, 1949), p. 55, and Frances Winwar, Poor Splendid Wings (Boston, 1933), p. 20.

^{Note 2 in page 538} Quotation is by kind permission of the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Brief excerpts from a few of the letters are given on pp. 57-58 in The Browning Collections, a catalogue prepared for Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge (London, 1913).

All Huntington manuscripts cited in this article are identified in the square brackets by their call numbers.

^{Note 3 in page 538} Frequently referred to in published sources, this letter was mistakenly assigned by William Michael Rossetti to 1850 {Some Reminiscences, I [New York, 1906], 233-234). Most biographies have perpetuated this error, though in Frances Winwar, The Immortal Lovers (New York, 1950), p. 211, and in New Letters of Robert Browning, ed. W. C. De Vane and K. L. Knickerbocker (New Haven, 1950), p. 128, n. 1, the date is given correctly as 1847. The second paragraph of this letter is partially reproduced in The Browning Collections, p. 57.

^{Note 4 in page 538} This letter was written when Rossetti signed himself “G. Dante,” “Gabriel,” or “Gabriel Dante” instead of “Dante Gabriel.”

^{Note 5 in page 538} Though undated, this letter must have been written in 1851, after the Brownings' return to England in July and before their departure for Paris in October. Rossetti lived at 17 Newman Street from 1849 through part of 1851.

^{Note 6 in page 538} Buchanan Read was the American poet-painter whom Rossetti met through William Allingham.

^{Note 7 in page 539} Cf. Some Reminiscences, I, 234: “My brother's first actua^lsight of Browning appears to have been in 1852. Allingham, who knew something of the latter, then called upon him in London, and Rossetti was privileged to accompany him.” Browning, writing some thirty years after the event, also gave it as his recollection that Allingham had brought him and Rossetti together. See his letter to William Sharp (ca. 1883) in Letters of Robert Browning, ed. Thurman L. Hood (New Haven, 1933), p. 220: “A year or two after [Rossetti's inquiry about the authorship of Pauline], I had a visit in London from Mr. (William) Allingham and a friend—who proved to be Rossetti.”

^{Note 8 in page 539} The envelope is postmarked 26 Sept. 1855. On 27 Sept. Rossetti and his brother called on Browning. Tennyson, also a guest, read Maud aloud while Rossetti, unobserved, did a pen-and-ink drawing of him {Some Reminiscences, I, 236).

^{Note 9 in page 539} This may have been Harriet Hosmer, the young American sculptress. See Harriet Hosmer, Letters and Memories, ed. Cornelia Carr (London, 1913), pp. 33-34.

^{Note 10 in page 539} This is likely a reference to The Blessed Damozel. See Rossetti's letter to Ford Maddox Brown in Ruskin, Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelitism, Papers, 1854 to 1862, ed. W. M. Rossetti (London, 1899), p. 103: “What do you think? Browning quoted to me some of that ere blessed Damozel.”

^{Note 11 in page 539} Ibid., pp. 224-225.

^{Note 12 in page 539} Of this portrait Browning wrote to William Sharp in 1883 : “When I heard he [Rossetti] was a painter I insisted on calling on him, though he declared he had nothing to show

me—which was far enough from the case. Subsequently, on another of my returns to London, he painted my portrait, not, I fancy, in oils, but water-colours, and finished it in Paris shortly after“ (Letters of Robert Browning, p. 220).

^{Note 13 in page 540} Coventry Patmore contributed some prose and verse to the Pre-Raphaelite magazine, the Germ, and introduced Rossetti and his brother to Allingham and Tennyson (Some Reminiscences, I, 83-86).

^{Note 14 in page 540} That Rossetti's scheme fell short of his expectations is borne out by his letter of 8 Jan. 1856 to Allingham: “In London I showed Browning Miss Siddal's drawing from Pippa Passes, with which he was delighted beyond measure, and wanted excessively to know her. However, though afterwards she was in Paris at the same time that he and I were, he only met her once for a few minutes: she being very unwell then and averse to going anywhere: and Mrs. B. being forbidden to go out, and so unable to call” (Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William Allingham, 1854-1870, ed. George B. Hill, London, 1897, pp. 161-162).

^{Note 15 in page 540} James Hannay, the Scottish writer who began with naval tales, later entered journalism and became editor of the Edinburgh Courant. He was an intimate of the Rossetti brothers.

^{Note 16 in page 540} On 31 Oct. 1855 Browning instructed Edward Chapman, the publisher, to send Rossetti a presentation copy of Men and Women, which was published in two volumes on 17 Nov. 1855 (New Letters of Robert Browning, p. 82).

^{Note 17 in page 541} Letters of Robert Browning, p. 41.

^{Note 18 in page 541} On 8 Jan. 1856 Rossetti wrote to Allingham: “After much delay I have only just got hold of it [the Page portrait]…” (Letters of Rossetti to Allingham, p. 162).

^{Note 19 in page 541} Letters of Robert Browning, p. 41.

^{Note 20 in page 541} William Holman Hunt, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, had just spent two years in Palestine, where he had painted “The Scapegoat” and other religious subjects.

^{Note 21 in page 541} At this time Elizabeth Siddal was in Nice for her health.

^{Note 22 in page 541} “Of the False Ideal:—First, Religious” (Vol. iii, Ch. iv).

^{Note 23 in page 541} In the original the last two sentences of this paragraph are written in the margin. An account of the “long spell” is given in Rossetti's letter to Allingham, 8 Jan. 1856: “Ruskin, on reading Men and Women (and with it some of the other works which he didn't know before), declared them re-belliously to be a mass of conundrums, and compelled me to sit down before him and lay siege for one whole night; the result of which was that he sent me next morning a bulky letter to be forwarded to B., in which I trust he told him he was the greatest man since Shakespeare” (Letters of Rossetti to Allingham, p. 163).

^{Note 24 in page 541} Cf. Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, i.ii.191-194. The German mystical idea of a Doppelgänger, man's soul or self meeting himself, obsessed Rossetti. In 1860, during his honeymoon, he made a pen-and-ink copy of “How They Met Themselves,” which he had sketched years earlier. Pictured wandering in a wood are two lovers, who meet their own apparitions, a portent of approaching death.

^{Note 25 in page 541} David Masson was Professor of English, first at University Coll., London, afterwards at Edinburgh Univ. At one time editor of Macmillan's Mag., he later became historiographer for Scotland. His review of Men and Women appeared in the Brit. Quart. Rev., 1 Jan. 1856, pp. 151-180.

^{Note 26 in page 542} See Browning's Old Pictures in Florence, 1. 246. The “Jewel of Giamschid” is a large ruby.

^{Note 27 in page 542} This review appeared in Fraser's Mag. (Jan. 1856), pp. 105-116. George Brimley was the principal literary authority of the Spectator. Referring to him as “the cheekiest of human products,” Rossetti complained: “This man, less than two years ago, had not read a line of Browning, as I know through my brother; and I have no doubt he has just read him up to write this article; which opens, nevertheless, with accusations against R. B. of nothing less than personal selfishness and vanity, so plumply put as to be justifiable by nothing less than personal intimacy of many years” (Letters of Rossetti to Allingham, p. 160).

^{Note 28 in page 542} Alexander Munro, the Scottish sculptor to whom Rossetti revealed the secret meaning of “P. R. B.”

^{Note 29 in page 542} This was the first Lady Ashburton, formerly Lady Harriet Baring, whose possessive interest in Carlyle kindled speculations in certain quarters. In a letter dated 27 Jan. 1856 [HM 12907], Carlyle gave Browning the following account of her reading: “We were at a County House in Hampshire, during Christmas time; and the entertainment of two evenings, much the best two that turned up, was reading (superlatively well-done) out of Browning's Men and Women. The Old Corregidor ('How it appears to a Contemporary'), that Devils 'Bishop and Gigadibs' : we sat (being intelligent creatures, all) in rapt attention, with the little ruffles of assent (chiefly nasal, laughter being prohibited as it were), and understood everything,—as indeed the melodious clear Voice (Lady Ashburton's) had beforehand taken care to do. Two Evenings, the best two we had; and good hopes there were of more, had not unluckily our reading genius 'caught cold,' and left us eclipsed thenceforth. Her Ladyship has one of the finest strong Lady-voices, and also one of finest intellects capable of comprehending big and little; reads, therefore, without being the least of 'a reader,' better than any person I have heard.”

^{Note 30 in page 542} On 24 Nov. 1855 Rossetti had written Allingham as follows: “What a magnificent series is Men and Women. Of course you have it half by heart ere this. The comparative stagnation, even among those I see, and complete torpor elsewhere, which greet this my Elixir of Life, are awful signs of the time to me—‘and I must hold my peace!‘—for it isn't fair to Browning (besides, indeed, being too much trouble) to bicker and flicker about it. I fancy we shall agree pretty well on favourites, though one's mind has no right to be quite made up so soon on such a subject” (Letters of Rossetti to Allingham, pp. 156-157).

^{Note 31 in page 542} Jane Wills Sandford, a woman of means, had been introduced to Mrs. Browning in Florence. They became intimate friends.

^{Note 32 in page 542} At this time Ruskin made frequent purchases of Rossetti's paintings and paid generously for them.

^{Note 33 in page 542} See Fra Lippo Lip pi, 1. 44.

^{Note 34 in page 542} The Brownings had changed their quarters in Paris from 102 Rue de Grenelle, Faubourg St. Germain, to 3 Rue du Colysée, off the Champs-Elysées.

^{Note 35 in page 542} Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, son of the poet; known as Penini or Pen.

^{Note 36 in page 543} An allusion to Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

^{Note 37 in page 543} On 27 March 1856 Browning wrote Harriet Hosmer: “We are told the Academy always strains a point to do homage to the work of a stranger, but Mr. Page's work can have nothing to fear. All we can do (and so little) is done, and I hope and believe that the portrait will do the rest for itself” (Harriet Hosmer, Letters and Memories, pp. 65-66). A letter from Rossetti to Browning in May 1856 (not in the Huntington group) refers to the Academy's rejection of the Page portrait (see The Browning Collections, p. 57).

^{Note 38 in page 543} Sir Charles Eastlake (1793-1865), President of the Royal Academy.

^{Note 39 in page 543} A reference to the water color which Rossetti had done of Browning.

^{Note 40 in page 543} Later Colonel Gillum, a prominent philanthropist, who bought some of Rossetti's paintings.

^{Note 41 in page 543} “I have felt something like a bug ever since reading Aurora Leigh,” Rossetti told Allingham. “Oh, the wonder of it! and oh, the bore of writing about it.” According to Allingham, who gave William Michael Rossetti as his source, Dante Gabriel, “towards 1845-47, was a semi-idolater of Mrs. Browning; but in more mature years he saw very clearly the defects (along with the beauties) of her tendencies and style” (Letters of Rossetti to Allingham, pp. 189 and 196).

^{Note 42 in page 543} Valentine C. Prinsep, a disciple of Rossetti, was later elected to the Royal Academy.

^{Note 43 in page 544} See W. C. De Vane, “The Harlot and the Thoughtful Young Man: A Study of the Relation between Rossetti's Jenny and Browning's Pifine at the Fair,” Studies in Philology, xxrx (July 1932), 463-484; Doughty, A Victorian Romantic, p. 449; Letters of Rossetti to Allingham, pp. 196-197; and Letters of Robert Browning, pp. 137-138.

^{Note 44 in page 544} See Letters of Rossetti to Allingham, p. 170.