Victorian era has a great significance in the history of England. It is named after Queen Victoria who ruled the English throne for almost 64 years (1837-1901). During her reign, there was a peaceful atmosphere for a long time, which resulted in political and economic prosperity in Great Britain. At that time, science developed a lot and literature advanced to a great extent. Though it was a time for novel, it saw the rise of some famous poets like Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning. It should be mentioned here that Robert Browning was one of the most notable poets of the Victorian age.
Robert Browning is a very famous poet of the Victorian age. He got a huge reputation for his mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologue. It made him one of the notable poets of the Victorian age. At the beginning of his career, he became recognized as the husband of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of the most prominent female poets of the Victorian era. However, Robert Browning had to struggle a lot to establish himself. In his poems, we can see that he has taken characters from real-life experiences. In that sense, we can say that Victorian poetry, especially Browning’s poetry, is the poems of experience. As an example, we can mention the names of “Fra Lippo Lippi” and “Andrea del Sarto”.
“Fra Lippo Lippi” is one of the best poems written by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. It is obviously one of the widely-read poems written in that period. It is written in dramatic monologue.
“Fra Lippo Lippi” was first published in a collection of poems titled Men and Women in 1855. It is thought that Browning was inspired to write this poem after visiting Florence. The main character of this poem has been taken from the 15th century real-life painter Filippo Lippi who was a real Florentine monk. He was one of the renowned artists of his time. The poet came to know about him when he had spent some time in Italy. Browning got the description of Fra Lippo Lippi’s life from Giorgio Vasari’s book Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects.
If we look at the history then we can see that Fra Lippo Lippi was the son of a butcher. In 1412, he was born in Florence. When he was two years old, he became an orphan. After that, his aunt adopted him. However, when he was at the age of eight, he was sent to a community of monks. In 1452, when he was forty years old, he became a chaplain of a convent in Florence, and in 1457, he was appointed Rector of St. Quirico at Legais. He gained prosperity at this time but died poor in 1469. It is heard that he spent his money on numerous love affairs.
In this poem, we can see almost the same thing of this renowned artist. However, the poet has brought some changes in the poem and appealed to the intellect of the mind of the audience. Here, he is shown as a painter-monk. The main theme of this poem is to show the influence of the church on art. With this poem, the poet also criticizes church law and the canon. It also questions celibacy.
As it is written in a dramatic monologue, the speaker is of course Fra Lippo Lippi and the silent listeners are watchmen who have caught him prowling at night. As he has been patronized by Cosimo de Medici, he has little to fear from the guards. He proceeds on to share his difficult monastic life history with them.
He said that he remained confined to the magnificent house of Medici for three weeks, but he had escaped from there on that night on hearing some girls’ passing by. After spending a good time, he was returning home, but the watchmen caught him. He said that whatever he did was disgraceful for them, but he became a monk against his own will. He said,
“thought I;
By no means! Brief, they made a monk of me;
I did renounce the world, its pride and greed,
Palace, farm, villa, shop, and banking-house,
Trash, such as these poor devils of Medici
Have given their hearts to—all at eight years old.
Well, sir, I found in time, you may be sure,
‘Twas not for nothing — the good bellyful,
The warm serge and the rope that goes all round,
And day-long blessed idleness beside!”
When he was a small child, he became an orphan. At the age of eight, his aunt took him to a monastery to prevent him from being starved to death. As a result, a good sense of observation developed in him from an early age. It later helped him to become an accomplished painter.
He failed to prove his skill in mastering the Latin language, which is a quality required of a monk. His talent and skill as a painter earned him a place and security of living in the monastery. His realistic pictures were praised by the monks but failed to get approval from the prior and other superior monks. They said Fra Lippo Lippi not to think about legs and arms but to focus on portraying the soul. He showed his disagreement with this view. He says,
“A fine way to paint soul, by painting body
So ill, the eye can’t stop there, must go further
And can’t fare worse!”
According to him, physical beauty could easily combine with spirituality. He feels that all things, having been created by God, should be appreciated. He also said that one should discover the soul within oneself in the process of expressing gratitude to God.
He is totally against the view of using art for prophecy. Art should be based on direct experience because, in this way, an artist can portray the good world that God has created for us.
The poem that comes after that is “Andrea del Sarto” published in the volume of poems by Robert Browning, Men and Women. This poem talks about the Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto. Like Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto also lived and worked in Florence. Because of his technical perfection, he was highly acclaimed by his contemporary painters like Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
It is thought that whatever Fra Lippo Lippi started he carried it to the highest level. The whole poem talks about the craftsmanship of Andrea del Sarto and his frustration and marital relationship with Lucrezia. He was famous as a faultless painter. He could draw a picture in a perfect way. He says,
“I am bold to say
I can do with my pencil what I know,
What I see, what at bottom of my heart I wish for.”
Despite having such perfection, his paintings were lifeless. He had the absence of ambition and that divine fire of inspiration, which made the works of his more famous contemporaries lively. This is thought to be the main problem of del Sarto's work. These two lines given below are the best example of how an art should look like. It also shows the lacking of del Sarto in his art. The poet says,
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a Heaven for?”
It should be mentioned here that del Sarto is the speaker and his wife is the only listener of this poem. He spoke to his wife that he was appointed by the King of France, Francis, but he left France for Italy under the constant influence of his wife Lucrezia.
We can find del Sarto as a hypocrite. We can see him taking money from Francis with a promise of purchasing Italian artworks for the court. However, he did not return to France and spent all of the money on a house for himself and his wife in Italy. This poem finds Andrea in the house with the stolen money.
We can see him expressing grief for his worldly concerns that have kept him from fulfilling his promise as an artist. Technically his paintings were perfect, but they lacked the soul. He also said that though he succeeded technically where his contemporaries could not, their work eventually triumphs for its emotional and spiritual power.
In del Sarto’s character, we can see him too much possessive. He wants to control his wife. Even we can see that he condemns his wife for his failure as an artist. He was not active and vocally attacked his wife for not inspiring him. He wants to dominate his wife.
In conclusion, I would like to say that without experience, literature could not be much lively and visual. Readers lose their interest if they cannot find anything realistic or taken from the experience. Robert Browning has mixed his experience with imagination successfully.
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