Editing Elizabeth Barrett Browning (section)

===Robert Browning and Italy===
[[File:Elizabeth Barrett Browning with her son Pen.jpg|thumb|right|Elizabeth Barrett Browning with her son Pen, 1860]]
[[File:Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning MET DT8282.jpg|thumb|''[[Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning]]'', 1853 by [[Harriet Hosmer]].]]
Her 1844 volume ''Poems'' made her one of the more popular writers in the country and inspired [[Robert Browning]] to write to her. He wrote "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett," praising their "fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought."<ref name="ONDB"/>

Kenyon arranged for Browning to meet Elizabeth on 20 May 1845, in her rooms, and so began one of the most famous courtships in literature. Elizabeth had produced a large amount of work, but Browning had a great influence on her subsequent writing as did she on his: Two of Barrett's most famous pieces were written after she met Browning, ''[[Sonnets from the Portuguese]]''<ref name="Burr">{{cite book|author=Elizabeth Barrett Browning|title=Sonnets from the Portuguese: A Celebration of Love|date=15 August 1986|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-74501-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sonnetsfromportu00brow_1}}</ref> and ''Aurora Leigh''. Robert's ''[[Men and Women (poetry collection)|Men and Women]]'' is also a product of that time.

Some critics state that her activity was, in some ways, in decay before she met Browning: "Until her relationship with Robert Browning began in 1845, Barrett's willingness to engage in public discourse about social issues and about aesthetic issues in poetry, which had been so strong in her youth, gradually diminished, as did her physical health. As an intellectual presence and a physical being, she was becoming a shadow of herself."<ref name="Pollock, Mary Sanders 2003"/>

[[File:Lettre de Robert Browning à Elizabeth Barrett Browning datée en 1846.jpg|left|thumb|Letter from [[Robert Browning]] to Elizabeth Barrett, 10 September 1846]]

The courtship and marriage between Robert Browning and Elizabeth were made secretly as she knew her father would disapprove. After a private marriage at [[St Marylebone Parish Church]], they honeymooned in Paris and then moved to Italy in September 1846, which became their home almost continuously until her death. Elizabeth's loyal [[lady's maid]] Elizabeth Wilson witnessed the marriage and accompanied the couple to Italy.<ref name="ONDB"/>

Mr Barrett disinherited Elizabeth as he did each of his children who married. Elizabeth had foreseen her father's anger but had not anticipated her brothers' rejection.<ref name="ONDB"/> As Elizabeth had some money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy. The Brownings were well respected and even famous. Elizabeth grew stronger, and in 1849, at the age of 43, between four miscarriages, she gave birth to a son, [[Robert Barrett Browning|Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning]], whom they called Pen. Their son later married, but had no legitimate children.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

At her husband's insistence, Elizabeth's second edition of ''Poems'' included her love sonnets; as a result, her popularity increased (as did critical regard), and her artistic position was confirmed. During the years of her marriage, her literary reputation far surpassed that of her poet-husband; when visitors came to their home in Florence, she was invariably the greater attraction.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Poetry |date=25 May 2023 |title=Elizabeth Barrett Browning |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/elizabeth-barrett-browning |access-date=25 May 2023 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}}</ref>

The couple came to know a wide circle of artists and writers, including [[William Makepeace Thackeray]], sculptor [[Harriet Hosmer]] (who, she wrote, seemed to be the "perfectly emancipated female") and [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]. In 1849, she met [[Margaret Fuller]]; Carlyle in 1851; French novelist [[George Sand]] in 1852, whom she had long admired. Among her intimate friends in Florence was the writer [[Isa Blagden]], whom she encouraged to write novels.<ref>"Isa Blagden", in: ''The Brownings' Correspondence''. [http://www.browningscorrespondence.com/biographical-sketches/?id=123. Retrieved 13 May 2015.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031817/http://www.browningscorrespondence.com/biographical-sketches/?id=123. |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> They met [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Alfred Tennyson]] in Paris, and [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]], [[Samuel Rogers]] and the Carlyles in London, later befriending [[Charles Kingsley]] and [[John Ruskin]].<ref name="ONDB"/>