Robert Browning

Vocation

Notable

Family

British poet from the age of 12 who ranks with Lord Tennyson as one of the giants of the Victorian age of poetry. In May 1846, he met 40-year-old invalid spinster Elizabeth Barrett, with whom he had corresponded for several months. The lovers married secretly on 12 September 1846. A week later, she slipped out of the house and eloped with Robert. They went to Paris and on to Italy, where they happily made their home at the Casa Guidi in Florence, both writing. Their romance and marriage gave rise to some of their finest work. Elizabeth's health improved for a while, and she had a son, but she was weakened by four miscarriages and her strength began to fail. She took to her bed with a cold, and on the morning of 29 June 1861, as Robert was feeding her consommé, he thought she seemed dazed. "Do you know me?" he asked. She kissed him repeatedly and told him how much she loved him. She died peacefully with a smile on her lips and her head against his shoulder. Her face was so composed that she looked like a young girl. Robert had a lifetime of sturdy good health, except for recurrent headaches. One afternoon in late November 1889 he caught a cold while walking in foggy weather on the Lido in Venice. Suffering from bronchitis he was put to bed in the Palazzo Rezzonico, his son's house. His devoted daughter-in-law poulticed him regularly until the bronchitis cleared up, but by then his heart was failing. On the afternoon of December 12 a telegram from London announced favorable reviews of his collection "Asolando." "How satisfying," murmured the poet. Soon after, he drifted off; that evening as the clock struck ten, Browning's massive chest heaved and he died. He was interred in Westminster Abbey. Died of a heart attack following a cold on 12 December 1889, Venice, Italy. Link to Wikipedia biography