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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Which is the proper text for an authoritative modern edition of Robert Browning's poems?
An analysis of Browning editions published during the past twenty-five years reveals that there has been a variety of answers to this question. The basis of many inexpensive reprints has been the sixteen-volume 1888-89 collection revised by Browning just before his death. More recently, at least two important editions–the Oxford Standard Authors volume, edited by Ian Jack, and the Ohio University Press variorum edition, edited by Roma A. King, Jr.–have adopted as their text the 1889 “reprint” of Browning's poems (though in the latter case the text is emended), which was issued after his death but incorporated many authorial revisions and corrections. A few editions have also reprinted earlier versions of the poems.
1. For a discussion of the significance of the Paracelsus manuscript, see the editors' preface, The Complete Works of Robert Browning, ed. King, Roma A. Jr, (Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 1969), I, xii.Google Scholar
Robert Browning's unpublished letters to George Smith are owned by the firm of John Murray Ltd., with whose permission they are quoted. The material in Appendix A is reproduced by permission of the Brown University Library. We are also indebted to Mr. Arthur Coyne for assistance in collating the Dykes Campbell copy of Browning's poems, and to Professor Roma A. King, Jr., for some useful advice.
2. The Brooming Society's Papers (London: Trübner, 1881), I, 38.Google Scholar
3. Knight, , Retrospects (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904), p. 91.Google Scholar
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9. New Letters of Robert Browning, ed. DeVane, William C. and Knickerbocker, Kenneth L. (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1950), p. 351.Google Scholar
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11. “Notes and News,” Academy, 33 (5 05 1888), 305.Google Scholar
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