'Gigi (the host)had furnished a first-rate dinner,and his usual tap of excellent wine.('Vino del Popolo'he called it.)The 'Osteria'had filled;the combatants were placed opposite each other on either side of a small table on which stood two 'mezzi'--long glass bottles holding about a quart apiece.For a moment the two poets eyed each other like two cocks seeking an opportunity to engage.
Then through the crowd a stalwart carpenter,a constant attendant of Gigi's,elbowed his way.He leaned over the table with a hand on each shoulder,and in a neatly turned couplet he then addressed the rival bards.
'"You two,"he said,"for the honour of Rome,must do your best,for there is now listening to you a great Poet from England."'Having said this,he bowed to Browning,and swaggered back to his place in the crowd,amid the applause of the on-lookers.
'It is not necessary to recount how the two Improvisatori poetized,even if I remembered,which I do not.
'On another occasion,when Browning and Story were dining with us,we had a little orchestra (mandolins,two guitars,and a lute,)to play to us.
The music consisted chiefly of well-known popular airs.
While they were playing with great fervour the Hymn to Garibaldi --an air strictly forbidden by the Papal Government,three blows at the door resounded through the 'Osteria'.The music stopped in a moment.
I saw Gigi was very pale as he walked down the room.There was a short parley at the door.It opened,and a sergeant and two Papal gendarmes marched solemnly up to the counter from which drink was supplied.
There was a dead silence while Gigi supplied them with large measures of wine,which the gendarmes leisurely imbibed.
Then as solemnly they marched out again,with their heads well in the air,looking neither to the right nor the left.Most discreet if not incorruptible guardians of the peace!When the door was shut the music began again;but Gigi was so earnest in his protestations,that my friend Browning suggested we should get into carriages and drive to see the Coliseum by moonlight.And so we sallied forth,to the great relief of poor Gigi,to whom it meant,if reported,several months of imprisonment,and complete ruin.
'In after-years Browning frequently recounted with delight this night march.
'"We drove down the Corso in two carriages,"he would say.
"In one were our musicians,in the other we sat.Yes!and the people all asked,'who are these who make all this parade?'At last some one said,'Without doubt these are the fellows who won the lottery,'
and everybody cried,'Of course these are the lucky men who have won.'"'
The two persons whom Mr.Browning saw most,and most intimately,during this and the ensuing winter,were probably Mr.and Mrs.Story.
Allusion has already been made to the opening of the acquaintance at the Baths of Lucca in 1853,to its continuance in Rome in '53and '54,and to the artistic pursuits which then brought the two men into close and frequent contact with each other.These friendly relations were cemented by their children,who were of about the same age;and after Mrs.Browning's death,Miss Browning took her place in the pleasant intercourse which renewed itself whenever their respective visits to Italy and to England again brought the two families together.A no less lasting and truly affectionate intimacy was now also growing up with Mr.Cartwright and his wife --the Cartwrights (of Aynhoe)of whom mention was made in the Siena letter to F.Leighton;and this too was subsequently to include their daughter,now Mrs.Guy Le Strange,and Mr.Browning's sister.
I cannot quite ascertain when the poet first knew Mr.Odo Russell,and his mother,Lady William Russell,who was also during this,or at all events the following winter,in Rome;and whom afterwards in London he regularly visited until her death;but the acquaintance was already entering on the stage in which it would spread as a matter of course through every branch of the family.His first country visit,when he had returned to England,was paid with his son to Woburn Abbey.
We are now indeed fully confronted with one of the great difficulties of Mr.Browning's biography:that of giving a sufficient idea of the growing extent and growing variety of his social relations.
It is evident from the fragments of his wife's correspondence that during,as well as after,his married life,he always and everywhere knew everyone whom it could interest him to know.These acquaintances constantly ripened into friendliness,friendliness into friendship.They were necessarily often marked by interesting circumstances or distinctive character.
To follow them one by one,would add not chapters,but volumes,to our history.The time has not yet come at which this could even be undertaken;and any attempt at systematic selection would create a false impression of the whole.I must therefore be still content to touch upon such passages of Mr.Browning's social experience as lie in the course of a comparatively brief record;leaving all such as are not directly included in it to speak indirectly for themselves.
Mrs.Browning writes again,in 1859:
'Massimo d'Azeglio came to see us,and talked nobly,with that noble head of his.I was far prouder of his coming than of another personal distinction you will guess at,though I don't pretend to have been insensible to that.'
Dr.--afterwards Cardinal --Manning was also among the distinguished or interesting persons whom they knew in Rome.
Another,undated extract might refer to the early summer of 1859or 1860,when a meeting with the father and sister must have been once more in contemplation.
Casa Guidi.
'My dearest Sarianna,--I am delighted to say that we have arrived,and see our dear Florence --the Queen of Italy,after all ...
A comfort is that Robert is considered here to be looking better than he ever was known to look --and this,notwithstanding the greyness of his beard ...
