An Exploration of E.B. Browning’s use of form: with respect to Shakespeare, Petrarch and the traditional Ballad

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s relationship to Shakespeare is well known, and has been described by scholars as a “dialectic of trust [and] reciprocal enhancement” (qtd. in Marshall 467). However, Browning does not merely transcribe Shakespeare’s work, but rather explores his use of language in order to apply his concepts in the Victorian age (Marshall 468). One especially hears the echo of Shakespeare when reading “The Romaunt of the Page,” in which Browning mirrors his use of cross-dressing in Twelfth Night as a means of critiquing Petrarchan constructs of love. Shakespeare’s comedy explores popular constructs of gender and love using the guise of mistaken identities and cross-dressing. Similarly, Browning uses cross-dressing to illuminate the superficial nature of Petrarchan love poetry and deconstruct the Victorian notions of gender and the separate sphere ideology.  

The “doctrine of separate spheres” was a Victorian concept that defined the separate areas of influence, both public and private, which were assigned to men and women. Women were assigned the private sphere, where they stood to ““[guard] the fireside comforts” (Ellis 57) of their husband, brother or father while he struggled in the world of industry. This concept of spheres played a large role in defining Victorian concepts of gender and separating the societal roles of men and women. Browning’s use of cross-dressing in “The Romaunt of the Page” serves to illuminate the instability of these constructs of sexuality and gender, and to expose the unjust inequality that such constructs conferred.

            Browning’s creates the character of a young page, who is really the knight’s lady in disguise. This is essentially a woman who has “laid down the silks she wore,” (The Romaunt of the Page 24.186) and stepped out of her private sphere in order to follow her husband into battle. Using this character Browning is able emphasize the insincerity in the Petrarchan idealization of love, and the limitations of the Victorian’s definitions of gender. While the knight idealizes his love and obsesses over the idea of love, as is Petrarchan tradition, he is unable to recognize her standing in front of him. His love is not for the lady herself, but rather for the idea of her “golden brooch and glossy vest” (The Romaunt of the Page 24. 200), “Her little hand . . . [and] her tender tears” (The Romaunt of the Page 24.211-12). When confronted with the reality of love, the Petrarchan ideal is reduced to an uninspiring fragmentation of the female body (Ake 379).  To add tragedy to tragedy, Browning’s knight then declares that any lady who dared to step out of her defining sphere would be “unwomaned” (The Romaunt of the Page 24.196) in doing so.  Browning illuminates the fact that a Victorian woman is not only imprisoned within her private sphere, but also defined (in very essence) by it.

            In “The Romaunt of the Page” Browning also engages with the cultural discourse of Victorian medievalism (Saunders 585). She uses said discourse to evoke medieval chivalric images and demonstrate the injustice of gender inequality during the Victorian age (Saunders, 586). Scholars note that her creative use of the ballad allows her to emphasize the preservation of gender inequalities based on the power structures of medieval society (Saunders 586). Browning engages in the language of courtly love, but twists the traditional roles of the passive female beloved and active male lover in order to propose gender equality (Saunders 588). She starts the poem with a traditional tale of a crusading knight, told in traditional Ballad form with tetrameter and trimester pairs. However, as she begins to twist this traditional tale in stanza XI there is a shift in poetic form to paired lines of tetrameter in stanza XII. It is at this point in the poem, that Browning first begins to suggest that the knight’s loyal page might actually be his passive lady love. Browning uses this shift in form to mirror her refashioning of equality between male and female lovers. As she reveals the true identity of the character of the page, Browning begins to introduce her unique character of an “active, medieval military woman” (Saunders 587). The ending of Browning’s poem depicts the martyring of this woman, which harkens to Browning’s own opinions about the consequences of women’s activity in the public sphere (Saunders 594).  Her successful use of the traditional Ballad form allows her to deconstruct the separate sphere ideology and illuminate the medieval roots of the Victorian’s modern concepts of gender.

Works Cited

Ake, Jamie. “Glimpsing a ‘Lesbian’ Poetics in Twelfth Night.” SEL Studies in English Literature    43.2 (2003): 375—394. 15 March 2009    <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/studies_in_english_literature/v043/43.2ake.html>.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “The Romaunt of the Page.” The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. Ed. Thomas J. and Vivienne J. Rundle. Peterborough: Broadview Press,  1999. 50—56.

Ellis, Sarah Stickney. “The Women of England, their social duties, and domestic   habits.”Victorian Prose: An Anthology. Eds. Mundhenk, Rosemary J., and LuAnn M. Fletcher. New York: Columbia UP, 1999. 53—57.

Marshall, Gail. “Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Shakespeare: Translating the Language of Intimacy.”           Victorian Poetry 44.4 (2006): 467—486. 23 September 2010            http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/journals/victorian_poetry/v044/44.4saunders.html.

Saunders, Clare B. “"Judge no more what ladies do": Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Active Medievalism,       the Female Troubadour, and Joan of Arc.” Victorian Poetry 44.4 (2006): 585—597. 23  September 2010 http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/journals/victorian_poetry/v044/44.4saunders.html.