The Poet Robert Browning and His Kinsfolk
by his Cousin Cyrus Mason

The manuscript containing one of the few firsthand accounts of the Poet Robert Browning's family life is now available in an edition prepared by W. Craig Turner. Turner has meticulously transcribed and edited Mason's hand-written biography of the Browning family, which is a part of the collection of the Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor University. The edition includes extensive textual notes, a description of Cyrus Mason and his relation to Robert Browning, and an analysis of Mason's eccentricities and prejudices.

Foreword


Acknowledgments


Introduction


A Note on the Text


Short-Title Bibliography

Part One

Explains why the writer, the only surviving member of the Browning Family possessed of the necessary information, feels it a duty to refute published mis-statements.

Part Two

Traces the Poet's ancestors--"Bruning"--"Brounying"--and "Browning" by the aid of Christian Names and by writings in existing family Books, up to the period when the Grandfather of the Poet, left Woodyats in Dorsetshire for London.

Part Three

Describes the position of the Dorsetshire Brownings in London, their mode of life and the eudcation of the Poet's Father.

Part Four

Gives, from personal observation, particulars of the Poet's Courtship of Elizabeth Barrett, their Marriage and flight from England.

Part Five

Speaks of Family disappointment--changes in the New Cross Browning Household--the attempt of the Poet's Father to ameliorate his altered position and his banishment from England.

Textual Notes




Manuscript Alterations


Variant Spellings


Pencil Markings


Appendix I: Newspaper Accounts of Von Müller v. Browning


Appendix II: Newspaper Articles Based on Mason's Manuscript


Appendix III: Genealogy


Afterword






I. Ancestry


II. Family


III. Attitude