Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell, England, a middle-class suburb of London. In Browning's early childhood, his German-Scottish religious mother, Sarah Anna Wiedemann, was a pianist and an evangelical Christian; similarly, his father, Robert Browning, worked as a bank clerk, artist, scholar, collected books and pictures, and was an antiques dealer. Browning's father had a rare book collection of more than 6,000 volumes. His works included Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French, Italian and Spanish. Most of Browning's education came from his father, and by the age of five he was already proficient in reading and writing. When Browning was fourteen, he learned Latin, Greek, and French. When Browning was twelve years old, he wrote a volume of Byronic verse entitled Incondota. His parents tried to have it published, but without success. At the age of fourteen, he was educated at home by various tutors until he was sixteen. They taught him music, dancing, drawing and horse riding. Browning had a passion for writing poetry, but apparently Browning did not write any poems from the age of thirty....