Robert Browning

“Thebourgeoisnature indifficulties”: The Crisis of Liberalism in Robert Browning'sAristophanes’ Apology

“…has been characterized as a monologue masquerading as a dialogue," and here Aristophanes criticizes Euripides for precisely this: for claiming to represent "truth" despite rejecting dialogue with the manifold apertures of the "sphere of life," in favor of a single perspective. 27 Opposed to this, Aristophanes claims mobility and a dynamic art form that can represent all life: 28 Here, however, aberrations in "rhyme and metre" are constitutive of a dynamic and shifting energy, which itself represents the content of Aristophanes' claims. From one line to the next, the dominant meter is submerged only to then emerge again: "Little and Bad exist, are natural / Then let me know them, and be twice as great"-an irregular line that begins and ends with dactyls is followed by a regular iambic pentameter.…”

“…Browning's liking for Rabelais and for the comedy of Aristophanes exemplifies his own ability at least to perceive the attractiveness of this position." 33 Browning himself stated that "I have a huge love for Rabelais" in a letter to Walter Herries Pollock dated 28 June 1879. 34 He also mentions Rabelais in three of his poems: Red Cotton Night-Cap Country (1873) as well as "A Likeness" and "Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis," from Dramatis Personae (1864) and Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845), respectively.…”

The Man, the Butterfly, and the Heaven above: A Comparative Look at Robert Browning and Chinese Philosophy

“…Henry Jones in Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher appreciates Browning as a poet who has given us “a philosophy of life,” and “interpreted the world anew in the light of a dominant idea” (15). Woolford John and Daniel Karlin, for example, have an entire chapter in their book on Browning devoted to the poet’s intricate though often masked philosophical ideas (187–229). They recognize that the “main difficulty in discussing Browning’s philosophy is the nature of the evidence,” and “that Browning read a lot of philosophy, is hard to prove” (187, 192).…”