ROBERT BROWNING was born in 1812 in London and began writing poetry when he was twenty-one. His career suffered for many years and was revived largely by the publication of his great masterpiece "The Ring and the Book." In 1846 he eloped to Italy with Elizabeth Barrett. After her death in 1861, Browning returned to England. Awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University and an honorary fellowship of Balliol College, Oxford, Browning died in 1889.