Victorian Mages: Robert Browning's "Pietro of Abano" as a Critical Corollary to Alfred Tennyson's Merlin
Abstract Against the backdrop of Victorian celebrity culture, Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson conjure the literary trope of the magician in order to convey their poetic choices and to examine the relationship between the poet and his audience. Whereas Browning's magician, "Pietro of Abano" of Dramatic Idyls (1880) is subversive, odd and persecuted, the Poet Laureate's Merlin of the Idylls of the King (1859 1875) is acknowledged and well admired. This essay will explore Browning's Pietro as a critical response to Tennyson's Merlin, reflecting the complex personal relationship between the two poets, their stylistic differences and their dissimilar reception by their contemporaries.
Anglia