第112章 Chapter 22(4)

On arriving at San Michele,the firemen again received their burden,and bore it to the chapel in which its place had been reserved.

When 'Pauline'first appeared,the Author had received,he never learned from whom,a sprig of laurel enclosed with this quotation from the poem,Trust in signs and omens.

Very beautiful garlands were now piled about his bier,offerings of friendship and affection.Conspicuous among these was the ceremonial structure of metallic foliage and porcelain flowers,inscribed 'Venezia a Roberto Browning',which represented the Municipality of Venice.On the coffin lay one comprehensive symbol of the fulfilled prophecy:a wreath of laurel-leaves which his son had placed there.

A final honour was decreed to the great English Poet by the city in which he had died;the affixing of a memorial tablet to the outer wall of the Rezzonico Palace.Since these pages were first written,the tablet has been placed.It bears the following inion:

AROBERTO BROWNING

MORTO IN QUESTO PALAZZO

IL 12DICEMBRE 1889

VENEZIA

POSE

Below this,in the right-hand corner appear two lines selected from his works:

Open my heart and you will see Graved inside of it,'Italy'.

Nor were these the only expressions of Italian respect and sympathy.

The municipality of Florence sent its message of condolence.

Asolo,poor in all but memories,itself bore the expenses of a mural tablet for the house which Mr.Browning had occupied.It is now known that Signor Crispi would have appealed to Parliament to rescind the exclusion from the Florentine cemetery,if the motive for doing so had been less promptly removed.

Mr.Browning's own country had indeed opened a way for the reunion of the husband and wife.The idea had rapidly shaped itself in the public mind that,since they might not rest side by side in Italy,they should be placed together among the great of their own land;and it was understood that the Dean would sanction Mrs.Browning's interment in the Abbey,if a formal application to this end were made to him.

But Mr.Barrett Browning could not reconcile himself to the thought of disturbing his mother's grave,so long consecrated to Florence by her warm love and by its grateful remembrance;and at the desire of both surviving members of the family the suggestion was set aside.

Two days after his temporary funeral,privately and at night,all that remained of Robert Browning was conveyed to the railway station;and thence,by a trusted servant,to England.The family followed within twenty-four hours,having made the necessary preparations for a long absence from Venice;and,travelling with the utmost speed,arrived in London on the same day.The house in De Vere Gardens received its master once more.

'Asolando'was published on the day of Mr.Browning's death.

The report of his illness had quickened public interest in the forthcoming work,and his son had the satisfaction of telling him of its already realized success,while he could still receive a warm,if momentary,pleasure from the intelligence.

The circumstances of its appearance place it beyond ordinary criticism;they place it beyond even an impartial analysis of its contents.

It includes one or two poems to which we would gladly assign a much earlier date;I have been told on good authority that we may do this in regard to one of them.It is difficult to refer the 'Epilogue' to a coherent mood of any period of its author's life.

It is certain,however,that by far the greater part of the little volume was written in 1888-89,and I believe all that is most serious in it was the product of the later year.It possesses for many readers the inspiration of farewell words;for all of us it has their pathos.

He was buried in Westminster Abbey,in Poets'Corner,on the 31st of December,1889.In this tardy act of national recognition England claimed her own.A densely packed,reverent and sympathetic crowd of his countrymen and countrywomen assisted at the consignment of the dead poet to his historic resting place.Three verses of Mrs.Browning's poem,'The Sleep',set to music by Dr.Bridge,were sung for the first time on this occasion.