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Swinburne and Browning had a curious and contradictory relationship. As an undergraduate at Oxford, Swinburne admired Browning; Rikky Rooksby claims Swinburne “imitated” the other poet’s works (1997:54). But after Browning called Swinburne’s poems “moral mistakes, redeemed by much intellectual ability,” their relationship became strained (cited in Rooksby 1997:84). The dispute escalated when Browning accepted the position of titular head of The New Shakspere [sic] Society in 1879. Swinburne, at odds with the founder F.J.Furnivall for years, wrote to Browning asking him to resign, but Browning weathered the storm and served out his two-year term. On the occasion of Browning’s death, however, Swinburne composed seven laudatory verses, entitled A Sequence of Sonnets on the Death of Robert Browning. On Swinburne’s own appropriation of Shakespeare, see Sawyer 1997.
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