ment, such as 'Hannah the Mother of Samuel and Eli the High Priest,' Solomon pondering the Flight of Time,'' Righteousness and Peace,' etc. Mr. Hart has, however, embraced many other subjects, including especially history and biography, among which may be noted his 'Galileo observing the Oscillations of the Lamp in the Cathedral of Pisa,' 'Milton visiting Galileo in the Prison of the Inquisition,' 'The Parting of Sir Thomas More and his Daughter,' 'The Three Inventors of Printing, Gutenberg, Fust, and Schöffer, studying the Invention of Moveable Types.' Mr. Hart has also produced several characteristic Shakspearian pictures, Othello and Iago,' 'Jessica,' etc.; and a few striking portraits, among which may be mentioned those of the Duke of Sussex and Sir Anthony Rothschild for the Jews' Hospital, Sir Moses Montefiore for another Jewish Institution, and Alderman Salomons for the Guildhall. When, on the retirement of Mr. Leslie from the office of the Professorship of Painting in the Royal Academy, that office became vacant, it was suggested to Mr. Hart that he should offer himself as a candidate, and in consequence he was elected, and delivered his first course in 1855,-his previous journey in Italy having qualified him for the duty of preparing a set of papers, which he continued to deliver until the close of the season of Academic teaching in March, 1863. His lectures during this period "show," says a contemporary, "that he not only possesses adequate professional learning for the office, but that by his earnest inculcation of intellectual exertion, of the necessity of a wide range of study, constant reference to the fundamental principles of art, observation of the predominant sentiment and essential characteristics of a composition, and of reflection, discrimination, and self-reliance in choice of subjects, he is a valuable guide-monitor to the enthusiastic student at the commencement of his career." ROBERT BROWNING. A POET who, at the age of fifty, can look back with satisfaction to thirty years of the inspiration of his muse, and to the third edition of his collected works, may fairly be said to have attained a point of eminence in literature. There are few writers of verse, however, whose earnest thoughts and high imaginings have been less promptly understood, and appreciated as the emanations of a poetic genius, than those of Robert Browning. His dramas, notwithstanding the advantage of having an admiring and zealous exponent, kept but a brief existence on the stage; his poems, extolled by some, were denounced by others as being of the mystical and spasmodic school, and one able critic went so far as to describe them as incomprehensible,-annoying the judgment by obscurity, and offending the ear by discord. "But we have read most of the pieces with pleasure," adds the same authority, "because we like to hear what a thoughtful, generous man has to say on a variety of subjects." Robert Browning was born in 1812, at Camberwell, and received his education at the London University. Music, painting, and the drama have in turn occupied his thoughts, and some of the best years of his life have been spent in Italy, in the society of a wife of yet higher poetic genius, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who died in 1861. Mr. Browning's first published work, 'Paracelsus,' a poem in five scenes, appeared in 1835. It is founded on Renauldin's history of one of the travelling literati of the early part of the sixteenth century, who spent their days in wandering from country to country, predicting the future by astrology and cheiromancy, evoking apparitions, and practising magic and alchemy; and was VOL. I. R inscribed by its author to his affectionate friend Amédée de Ripert-Monclar. Two years later, Mr. Browning appeared in the more difficult and arduous character of a tragic dramatist. In May, 1837, was produced at Covent Garden Theatre his historical tragedy of Strafford,' supported in the delineation of its principal characters by Macready, Vandenhoff, and Helen Faucit. It was not very successful. As an acting play, the interest fails after the third act, when Strafford is overthrown. The fourth act, in which he does not appear, somewhat lingers on the stage, amid the plots for his destruction and the vacillation of the King; and though his prison scene is touching, our sympathies are not sufficiently aroused for Charles, who is drawn more weak and treacherous throughout than even adverse history represents him. Mr. Browning made large amends, however, for this apparent want of sympathy for the royal martyr by his spirited Cavalier Tunes:' "God for King Charles! Pym and such carles To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous parles! Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup, Till you 're marching along, fifty score strong, : In 1840 appeared 'Sordello,' a poem in six books, and in 1841 the drama Pippa Passes,' with the following inscription :—“ I dedicate my best intentions in this poem, admiringly to the author of 'Ion,' affectionately to Mr. Serjeant Talfourd." Its opening is highly characteristic of what has been termed Mr. Browning's spasmodic style of utterance, full, however, of poetic fervour: "Day! Faster and more fast, O'er night's brim, day boils at last; Boils, pure gold, o'er the cloud-cup's brim For not a froth-flake touched the rim Of yonder gap in the solid gray Of the eastern cloud, an hour away; But forth one wavelet, then another, curled, Till the whole sunrise, not to be supprest, Rose, reddened, and its seething breast Flickered in bounds, grew gold, then overflowed the world. |