Editing Elizabeth Barrett Browning (section)

===Early life===
Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born on (it is supposed) 6 March 1806 in Coxhoe Hall, between the villages of [[Coxhoe]] and [[Kelloe]] in County Durham, England. Her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke. However, biographers have suggested<ref name=":0">[[Fiona Sampson|Sampson, Fiona]] (2021). ''Two Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning''. Profile Books, p 33</ref> that, when she was christened on 9 March, she was already three or four months old, and that this was concealed because her parents had married only on 14 May 1805.{{Verification needed|date=September 2023}} Although she had already been baptised by a family friend in that first week of her life,<ref>Taplin, Gardner B. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Victorian Poets Before 1850. Ed. William E. Fredeman and Ira Bruce Nadel. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984. ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' Vol. 32. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 December 2014.</ref> she was baptised again, more publicly, on 10 February 1808 at Kelloe parish church, at the same time as her younger brother, Edward (known as Bro). He had been born in June 1807, 15 months after Elizabeth's stated date of birth. A private christening might seem unlikely for a family of standing, and while Bro's birth was celebrated with a holiday on the family's Caribbean plantations, Elizabeth's was not.<ref name=":0" />

Elizabeth was the eldest of 12 children (eight boys and four girls). Eleven lived to adulthood; one daughter died at the age of 3, when Elizabeth was 8. The children all had nicknames: Elizabeth was Ba. She rode her pony, went for family walks and picnics, socialised with other county families, and participated in home theatrical productions. Unlike her siblings, she immersed herself in books as often as she could get away from the social rituals of her family.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

In 1809, the family moved to [[Hope End]], a {{convert|500|acre|ha|adj=on}} estate near the [[Malvern Hills]] in [[Ledbury]], Herefordshire.<ref name="ONDB"/> Her father converted the Georgian house into stables and built a mansion of opulent Turkish design, which his wife described as something from the ''Arabian Nights' Entertainments''.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The interior's brass balustrades, mahogany doors inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and finely carved fireplaces were eventually complemented by lavish landscaping: ponds, grottos, kiosks, an ice house, a hothouse, and a subterranean passage from house to gardens.<ref name="Taylor, Beverly 1999">Taylor, Beverly. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Victorian Women Poets. Ed. William B. Thesing. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999. ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' Vol. 199. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 December 2014.</ref> Her time at Hope End inspired her in later life to write ''[[Aurora Leigh]]'' (1856), her most ambitious work, which went through more than 20 editions by 1900, but none from 1905 to 1978.<ref name="Taylor, Beverly 1999"/>

[[File:Elizabeth Barrett Browning 2.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1859]]

She was educated at home and tutored by Daniel McSwiney with her oldest brother.<ref>Dorothy Mermin (1989), ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Origins of a New Poetry'', University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|978-0226520391}}, pp. 19–20.</ref> She began writing verses at the age of four.<ref name="Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 2005">"Browning, Elizabeth Barrett: Introduction." Jessica Bomarito and Jeffrey W. Hunter (eds). ''Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion''. Vol. 2: 19th Century, Topics & Authors (A-B). Detroit: Gale, 2005. 467–469. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 December 2014.</ref> During the Hope End period, she was an intensely studious, precocious child.<ref name="ReferenceA">Taplin, Gardner B. ''The Life of Elizabeth Browning'' New Haven: Yale University Press (1957).</ref> She claimed that she was reading novels at age 6, having been entranced by [[Alexander Pope|Pope]]'s translations of [[Homer]] at age 8, studying [[Greek language|Greek]] at age 10, and writing her own [[Homeric epic]] ''[[The Battle of Marathon: A Poem]]'' at age 11.<ref name="ONDB"/>

In 1820, Mr Barrett privately published ''The Battle of Marathon'', an epic-style poem, but all copies remained within the family.<ref name="Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 2005"/> Her mother compiled the child's poetry into collections of "Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett". Her father called her the "Poet Laureate of Hope End" and encouraged her work. The result is one of the larger collections of juvenilia of any English writer. [[Mary Russell Mitford]] described the young Elizabeth at this time as having "a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on each side of a most expressive face; large, tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, and a smile like a sunbeam."{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

At about this time, Elizabeth began to battle an illness, which the medical science of the time was unable to diagnose.<ref name="ONDB"/> All three sisters came down with the syndrome, but it lasted only with Elizabeth. She had intense head and spinal pain with loss of mobility. Various biographies link this to a riding accident at the time (she fell while trying to dismount a horse), but there is no evidence to support the link. Sent to recover at the Gloucester spa, she was treated – in the absence of symptoms supporting another diagnosis – for a spinal problem.<ref name="Taylor, Beverly 1999"/> This illness continued for the rest of her life, and it is believed to be unrelated to the lung disease that she developed in 1837.<ref name="ONDB"/>

She began to take opiates for the pain, [[laudanum]] (an [[opium]] concoction) followed by morphine, then commonly prescribed. She became dependent on them for much of her adulthood; the use from an early age may well have contributed to her frail health. Biographers such as Alethea Hayter have suggested this dependency have contributed to the wild vividness of her imagination and the poetry that it produced.<ref name="ONDB"/><ref>Hayter, Alethea (1962). ''Mrs. Browning: A Poet's Work and Its Setting''. Faber and Faber, pp. 61–66.</ref>

By 1821, she had read [[Mary Wollstonecraft]]'s ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]'' (1792), and she become a passionate supporter of Wollstonecraft's political ideas.<ref name="ONDB"/> The child's intellectual fascination with the classics and metaphysics was reflected in a religious intensity that she later described as "not the deep persuasion of the mild Christian but the wild visions of an enthusiast."<ref>Everett, Glenn (2002). ''Life of Elizabeth Browning''.</ref> The Barretts attended services at the nearest [[Dissenter|Dissenting]] chapel, and Edward was active in Bible and [[Missionary#The British missionary societies|missionary societies]].

[[File:Panasonic GM5 black 8GB 13 1040230.JPG|thumb|upright|Blue plaque outside "Belle Vue" in Sidmouth, Devon, where Elizabeth Barrett lived with her family from 1833 to 1835]]

Elizabeth's mother died in 1828, and is buried at St Michael's Church, Ledbury, next to her daughter Mary. Sarah Graham-Clarke, Elizabeth's aunt, helped to care for the children, and she had clashes with Elizabeth's strong will. In 1831, Elizabeth's grandmother, Elizabeth Moulton, died. Following lawsuits and the abolition of slavery, Mr Barrett incurred great financial and investment losses that forced him to sell Hope End. Although the family was never poor, the place was seized and sold to satisfy creditors. Always secretive in his financial dealings, he would not discuss his situation, and the family was haunted by the idea that they might have to move to Jamaica.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

From 1833 to 1835, she was living with her family at Belle Vue in Sidmouth. The site has now been renamed Cedar Shade and redeveloped. A blue plaque at the entrance to the site attests to its previous existence. In 1838, some years after the sale of Hope End, the family settled at 50 [[Wimpole Street]], Marylebone, London.<ref name="ONDB"/>

During 1837–1838, the poet was struck with illness again, with symptoms today suggesting [[Tuberculosis|tuberculous]] ulceration of the lungs. The same year, at her physician's insistence, she moved from London to Torquay on the Devonshire coast. Her former home now forms part of the Regina Hotel. Two tragedies then struck. In February 1840, her brother Samuel died of a fever in Jamaica, then her favourite brother Edward (Bro) was drowned in a sailing accident in Torquay in July. These events had a serious effect on her already fragile health. She felt guilty as her father had disapproved of Edward's trip to Torquay. She wrote to Mitford: "That was a very near escape from madness, absolute hopeless madness".<ref name="ONDB"/> The family returned to Wimpole Street in 1841.