Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/645

BROWNING. 569 BROWNLOW. light meat. Browning the dark." The laureate had a smoothness, a finish, and a grace whieh Browning rarely disphxys. though lie slunved at times that he could attain it; but from the cloying sweetness of Tennyson's Vcrgilian verses many will turn to the more manly and satisfy- ing, if more rugged, tone of the robuster poet. The force of the first of these comparative epi- thets will be seen at once by recalling the attitude of the unsuccessful lovers in "ilaud"' and "Locks- ley Hall" on the one side and '"The Last Eide Together" on the other. If the Komantic movement be taken to stand for the assertion of the individual, his rights and his liLierties, against the conventional order of the centuries, then Bro™ing was essentially a Romantic. Strongly inlluenccd as he was in his early years by Shelley, he preached a similar gos- pel of freedom from all restraints that hinder the growth of natural character. It was the "life of typical souls' that he set himself to write: and always it is the typical soul that interests him — whether struggling to emerge from the confining bands of the niediieval system, or expanding amidst all the intricate complexities of modern life, whieh he loved precisely because it made the game harder to play, and thus more of an intel- lectual exercise. Indeed, though he chose his subjects frequently from the bygone centuries. partly won by their picturesque quality and part- ly obeying the fashion of his time, even in the mediaeval period it was always the cliaracter which he sought to reproduce rather than, like Ilossetti. the environment. Typical souls, whether good or evil in the world's estimation: men or women indifferently (and that he could read the one as luierringly as the other needs no fur- ther witness than the poignant truth of his anal- ysis of a woman's heart in the poem 'Tn a Year") — these were his subjects, and in the life of those souls, eminent moments, as Dowden puts it — "'moments when life, caught up out of the ways of custom and low levels of prudence, takes its guidance and inspiration from a sudden dis- covery of truth through some high ardor of the heart." Browning as a poet may most fitly be classed with George Meredith as a novelist and Wagner as a composer. Alike. decried as obscure and unintelligible, they have all come to be rec- ognized by the thoughtful as supreme : and they are alike in their power to satisfy the deepest intellectual cravings with a fullness which is utterly beyond the power of their more popular rivals. The Browning Society, established in Loudon in 18S1 (four years after Professor Cor- son had founded the Cornell Browning Club), and the similar organizations throughout Eng- land and the United States, have by their discus- sions and publications done much to advance the study of his works. Bibliography. Only a few titles from the immense literature on Browning can be given here: Broicninf) .S'ocief.v Papers (London, 1881- 91) ; Bcrdoe. Sliidicis (London, 1895) ; S^Tiions. Introduction to the Stiiilii of Browninq (London, 1886); OvT. Uiinilhook (Xew York, 1892) ; Por- ter and Clark, lirovning Htud;i Prorirammes (Xew York, 1900) ; Cook, /{roiCHiHf/ Guide-Bnok (New York, 1891): Xettleship, Rohcrt Broun- ing: Essai/s and Thoughts (London, 1890) ; Fotheringham, Studies (London, 1898) ; Moli- neux. Browning Phrase-Book (Boston, 1896) ; Little, Essays (London, 1809) ; Orr, Life and Letters (Xew York, 1891): Sharp, Life (Lon- don, 1890) : Gosse, Personalia (Xew York, 1890); Waugh, Robert Broirning (London, lUOO). See also Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. BROWNISTS. A name current in England toward the end of the Sixteenth Century and applied indiscriminately to all seceders from the Established Church, among whom Robert Browne (q.v.) was especially prominent. His writing* (1582-83) were widely read and did much to foster those principles upon which the Separatist churches of England and Holland and the later Independent and Congregational churches of Eng- land and America were founded, but the extreme independency he advocated, together with his illibcrality, was so distasteful, and his return to the Church of England was regarded as such a disgraceful rclajisc. that, in general, the Sepa- ratists repudiated the appellation of 'Brownists' as inappropriate and slanderous. BRO'WrKr, JONES, AND ROB'INSON, The: AuvEXTiRES OF. A series of luiuiorous sketches, with e.xplanatory notes, by Richard Doyle (q.v.), the English caricaturist. Many of them appeared iu the London Punch; but they were later com- pleted for Bradbury and Evans, who published them in 1854. They deal with the mishaps of three middle-class citizens of London — one tall, one short, one fat — on their travels at home and f.broad. BROWN 'LEE, William Craig (1784-1800). An American clerg^Tuan. He was born in Tor- foot, Lancashire. Scotland, and studied at the University of Glasgow. After holding several jiastorates in Pennsylvania and Xew .Jersey, he became professor of Latin and Greek at Rutgers College in 1825. In the following year he w'as installed as one of the ministers of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in X'ew York City. He edited the Dutch Church Magazine (4 vols.) and published a number of independent works, among which are; The Christian Youtli's Book: Chris- tian Father at Home; History of the Western Apostolic Church; and The Wliigs of Scotland, a romance. BROWNIiOW, WiLLiAjf Gannawat (1805- 77). An American journalist, born in Wythe County, Va. He learned the trade of a carpenter, but in 1826 liecame a Methodist minister, and was for ten years an itinerant. He took an active p.art in politics and advocated the reelec- tion of Adams in 1S2S. In 18.39 he was editor of the Knoxville Whig, and his bold and quaint utterances soon gave him a wide reputation, and gained him the nickname of 'the fighting parson.' Though a strong advocate of slavery, he vigor- ously opposed secession on the ground that the South could best presen-e her institutions by remaining in the Union. For this reason his paper was suppressed, and he himself was first arrested, and later sent into the Federal lines. He returned to Tennessee in 1864. was elected (iovernor in 1865, and in 1809 was .sent to the United States Senate, where he remained until 1875. He had sold the Whig in 1869. but bought a controlling interest in it again in 1S75. He published The Iron Wheel Examined (1850), a reply to attacks on the Methodist Church, and Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession, with a Narratire of Personal Adven- tures Among the Rebels (1802).