How do I love Florence?
Let me count the ways….
A few weeks ago, I took a
short tour of Italy, stopping in Venice, Florence, and Pisa all within five
days. It is true that you can’t see everything in that short amount of time,
but what I did see convinced me that what novelists, painters, and poets have
often said is valid—Italy is a one-of-a-kind place. Its balmy weather and
ancient atmosphere inspires all kinds of creativity. It is no wonder why famous
poets Elizabeth and Robert Browning moved to Florence as soon as they were
married. And it was fortunate for me that their old apartments are still
maintained by a museum open to the public.
Elizabeth
was born in England in 1806. She was a very well educated child, studying Latin
and Greek. As a very young girl, she was also exposed to Shakespeare and
Milton. These studies certainly nurtured her creativity and supported her
future literary pursuits. In fact, by age twelve she had already written four
books of couplets, showing poetic potential before she was even a teenager.
However
easily writing and scholastics came to Elizabeth, she was also destined to
struggle throughout her life with a mysterious disease.
Doctors and literary scholars have since raked Elizabeth’s writing for clues of what this disease could have been, but no one is certain. Regardless, the disease made her tired and weak, and her doctor prescribed opium to deal with the symptoms. This prescription did little to soothe her. In fact, if it wasn’t for the tender attention of Robert Browning, Elizabeth might have succumbed to her mysterious disease much sooner. This attention sparked a love affair that inspired many of Elizabeth’s most famous poems and greatly impacted the literary world.
Doctors and literary scholars have since raked Elizabeth’s writing for clues of what this disease could have been, but no one is certain. Regardless, the disease made her tired and weak, and her doctor prescribed opium to deal with the symptoms. This prescription did little to soothe her. In fact, if it wasn’t for the tender attention of Robert Browning, Elizabeth might have succumbed to her mysterious disease much sooner. This attention sparked a love affair that inspired many of Elizabeth’s most famous poems and greatly impacted the literary world.
Elizabeth
caught the eye of fellow poet Robert Browning after she published Poems in 1844. This work won her
considerable fame and regard among her literary contemporaries, and Robert was
so inspired by Elizabeth’s poetry that he wrote to her, expressing his
admiration for her writing. This correspondence began a very famous and
intriguing romance between the pair. Elizabeth, sickly and six years older than
Robert, often wondered at his love for her.
In
fact, she confessed her doubts of Robert’s affection in one of her works, Sonnets from the Portuguese, which she
wrote after their courtship began. Eventually Elizabeth and Robert decided to
marry, against the will of Elizabeth’s father, who disinherited her for getting
married without his blessing. (In fact, Elizabeth’s father never approved of
his children’s marriages, and disinherited each child who went against his
wishes.) Nevertheless, Elizabeth and Robert sanctified their forbidden love and
moved to Florence as soon as they were wed. Once moving there, Elizabeth
published the second volume to her Poems.
The love sonnets of this sequel won her even more regard and esteem in the
public’s eye. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died of her mysterious illness in her
husband’s arms in 1861.
I
was fortunate enough to walk through the old Florentine rooms of this famous
couple. I surveyed the massive shelves of Browning poetry and the quaint
drawing room. In Florence the couple lived in simplicity. However, what the
apartment lacked in style it made up for in literary significance. In one room,
I poured over Elizabeth’s old letters and writings and held in my hand the
famous writer’s pen.
Elizabeth
Browning leaves behind a legacy of beautiful poetry. With Robert Browning, she
had a love affair that greatly altered literature created at the time, and
which still lives with us today.
Source:
By Kelly Young