the winter of 1854-5. In all probability Mr. and Mrs. Browning remained in,
or as near as possible to, Florence, since their income was still too limited

for continuous travelling. They possibly talked of going to England,
but postponed it till the following year; we know that they went there

in 1855, taking his sister with them as they passed through Paris.
They did not this time take lodgings for the summer months,

but hired a house at 13 Dorset Street, Portman Square;
and there, on September 27, Tennyson read his new poem, `Maud',

to Mrs. Browning, while Rossetti, the only other person present
besides the family, privately drew his likeness in pen and ink.

The likeness has become well known; the conscious" target="_blank" title="a.无意识的；不觉察的">unconscious sitter must also,
by this time, be acquainted with it; but Miss Browning thinks

no one except herself, who was near Rossetti at the table, was at the moment
aware of its being made. All eyes must have been turned towards Tennyson,

seated by his hostess on the sofa. Miss Arabel Barrett was also of the party.
Some interesting words of Mrs. Browning's carry their date

in the allusion to Mr. Ruskin; but I cannot ascertain it more precisely:
==

`We went to Denmark Hill yesterday to have luncheon with them,
and see the Turners, which, by the way, are divine. I like Mr. Ruskin much,

and so does Robert. Very gentle, yet earnest, -- refined and truthful.
I like him very much. We count him one among the valuable acquaintances

made this year in England.'
==

Chapter 12
1855-1858

`Men and Women' -- `Karshook' -- `Two in the Campagna' -- Winter in Paris;
Lady Elgin -- `Aurora Leigh' -- Death of Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Barrett --

Penini -- Mrs. Browning's Letters to Miss Browning --
The Florentine Carnival -- Baths of Lucca -- Spiritualism --

Mr. Kirkup; Count Ginnasi -- Letter from Mr. Browning to Mr. Fox -- Havre.
The beautiful `One Word More' was dated from London in September;

and the fifty poems gathered together under the title of `Men and Women'
were published before the close of the year, in two volumes,

by Messrs. Chapman and Hall.* They are all familiar friends
to Mr. Browning's readers, in their first arrangement and appearance,

as in later redistributions and reprints; but one curious little fact
concerning them is perhaps not generally known. In the eighth line

of the fourteenth section of `One Word More' they were made to include
`Karshook (Ben Karshook's Wisdom)', which never was placed amongst them.

It was written in April 1854; and the dedication of the volume must have been,
as it so easily might be, in existence, before the author decided to omit it.

The wrong name, once given, was retained, I have no doubt,
from preference for its terminal sound; and `Karshook' only became `Karshish'

in the Tauchnitz copy of 1872, and in the English edition of 1889.
--

* The date is given in the edition of 1868 as London 185-;
in the Tauchnitz selection of 1872, London and Florence 184- and 185-;

in the new English edition 184- and 185-.
--

`Karshook' appeared in 1856 in `The Keepsake', edited by Miss Power;
but, as we are told on good authority, has been printed

in no edition or selection of the Poet's works. I am therefore justified
in inserting it here.

==
I

`Would a man 'scape the rod?'
Rabbi Ben Karshook saith,

`See that he turn to God
The day before his death.'

`Ay, could a man inquire
When it shall come!' I say.

The Rabbi's eye shoots fire --
`Then let him turn to-day!'

II
Quoth a young Sadducee:

`Reader of many rolls,
Is it so certain we

Have, as they tell us, souls?'
`Son, there is no reply!'

The Rabbi bit his beard:
`Certain, a soul have _I_ --

WE may have none,' he sneer'd.
Thus Karshook, the Hiram's-Hammer,

The Right-hand Temple-column,
Taught babes in grace their grammar,

And struck the simple, solemn.
==

Among this first collection of `Men and Women' was the poem
called `Two in the Campagna'. It is a vivid, yet enigmatical little study

of a restless spirit tantalized by glimpses of repose in love,
saddened and perplexed by the manner in which this eludes it.

Nothing that should impress one as more purely dramatic
ever fell from Mr. Browning's pen. We are told, nevertheless,

in Mr. Sharp's `Life', that a personal character no less actual
than that of the `Guardian Angel' has been claimed for it. The writer,

with characteristic delicacy, evades all discussion of the question;
but he concedes a great deal in his manner of doing so. The poem, he says,

conveys a sense of that necessary isolation of the individual soul
which resists the fusing power of the deepest love; and its meaning

cannot be personally -- because it is universally -- true.
I do not think Mr. Browning meant to emphasize this aspect of the mystery

of individual life, though the poem, in a certain sense, expresses it.
We have no reason to believe that he ever accepted it as constant;

and in no case could he have intended to refer its conditions to himself.
He was often isolated by the processes of his mind;

but there was in him no barrier to that larger emotionalsympathy
which we think of as sympathy of the soul. If this poem were true,

`One Word More' would be false, quite otherwise than in
that approach to exaggeration which is incidental to the poetic form.

The true keynote of `Two in the Campagna' is the pain of perpetual change,
and of the conscious, though unexplained, predestination to it.

Mr. Browning could have still less in common with such a state,
since one of the qualities for which he was most conspicuous

was the enormous power of anchorage which his affections possessed.
Only length of time and variety of experience could fully test this power

or fully display it; but the signs of it had not been absent
from even his earliest life. He loved fewer people in youth

than in advancing age: nature and circumstance combined to widen the range,
and vary the character of his human interests; but where once

love or friendship had struck a root, only a moral convulsion
could avail to dislodge it. I make no deduction from this statement

when I admit that the last and most emphatic words of the poem in question,
Only I discern --

Infinite passion, and the pain
Of finite hearts that yearn,

did probably come from the poet's heart, as they also found a deep echo
in that of his wife, who much loved them.

From London they returned to Paris for the winter of 1855-6.
The younger of the Kemble sisters, Mrs. Sartoris, was also there

with her family; and the pleasant meetings of the Campagna
renewed themselves for Mr. Browning, though in a different form.

He was also, with his sister, a constantvisitor at Lady Elgin's.
Both they and Mrs. Browning were greatly attached to her,

and she warmly reciprocated the feeling. As Mr. Locker's letter has told us,
Mr. Browning was in the habit of readingpoetry to her,

and when his sister had to announce his arrival from Italy or England,
she would say: `Robert is coming to nurse you, and read to you.'

Lady Elgin was by this time almost completely paralyzed.
She had lost the power of speech, and could only acknowledge

the little attentions which were paid to her by some gracefulpathetic gesture
of the left hand; but she retained her sensibilities to the last;

and Miss Browning received on one occasion a serious lesson
in the risk of ever assuming that the appearance of conscious" target="_blank" title="a.无意识的；不觉察的">unconsciousness

guarantees its reality. Lady Augusta Bruce had asked her,
in her mother's presence, how Mrs. Browning was; and,