PR 
 
 V 
 
 
 ACADEMY ClASSiCS 
 
 SELECTIONS 
 
 FROM 
 
 BROWNING 
 
 
 ALIYl^AiDBACOiNf 
 
 
 lili£< 
 

 COrYRHGilT DEPOSIT. 
 
ROBERT BROWNING 
 
SELECTIONS 
 
 FROM 
 
 BROWNING'S POEMS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 J. CHARLES HAZZARD, Ph.D. 
 
 MACALESTER COLLEGE 
 ST PAUL. MINNESOTA 
 
 ^>9ic 
 
 ALLYN AND BACON 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
 ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 
 
/^^A- 
 •\\^ 
 
 ?.D^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1921 
 BY J. C. HAZZARD 
 
 SEP 24 '21 
 
 Wortoooli 33vESB 
 
 J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co, 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 §)CU622979 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This collection of the poems of Browning was pre- 
 pared for high-school students. It is intended to serve 
 as an introduction to the poetry of one whose poems 
 present difficulties even to scholars. Simplicity has 
 therefore been the guiding principle in the selection, the 
 arrangement, and the editing of the poems. 
 
 This edition includes all the poems which are on the 
 list of the College Entrance Requirements. The order 
 of arrangement is that which Browning himself pre- 
 ferred in the selection of his poems which he made and 
 published before his death. 
 
 The notes are purposely made complete and simple, for 
 there is much in Browning which requires interpretation, 
 even to pupils of good literary training. 
 
 It is the hope of the editor that the book will be the 
 means of interesting students in the poetry of "the man- 
 Hest, the strongest, the lifefulest, the deepest and the 
 thoughtfulest poet, the one most needing earnest study, 
 and the most worthy of it." If such be the case, the 
 book will not Jiave been writteij injvain. 
 
 - ^^ J. C. H. 
 
 February, 1921. 
 
 m 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 
 
 vii 
 
 Bibliography 
 
 xviii 
 
 Chronological Table 
 
 . xix 
 
 Text 
 
 
 My Star 
 
 I 
 
 A Face 
 
 I 
 
 My Last Duchess 
 
 2 
 
 Songs from Pippa Passes 
 
 4 
 
 Eurydice to Orpheus 
 
 5 
 
 "The Moth's Kiss, First!" 
 
 6 
 
 Meeting at Night 
 
 6 
 
 Parting at Morning 
 
 7 
 
 ' ' How They B rought the Good News from Ghent to Aix ' 
 
 7 
 
 Incident of the French Camp .... 
 
 9 
 
 The Lost Leader 
 
 II 
 
 Love among the Ruins ..... 
 
 12 
 
 Home-Thoughts, from Abroad .... 
 
 15 
 
 Home-Thoughts, from the Sea .... 
 
 i6 
 
 The Itahan in England ..... 
 
 i6 
 
 Up at a Villa — Down in the City 
 
 21 
 
 The Pied Piper of HameUn 
 
 25 
 
 ''De Gustibus— " 
 
 36 
 
 Memorabilia 
 
 37 
 
 Instans Tyrannus 
 
 38 
 
 Tray 
 
 41 
 
 Cavalier Tunes 
 
 42 
 
 Herve Riel ........ 
 
 • 45 
 
VI 
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pheidippides 
 
 
 . SI 
 
 The Patriot . 
 
 
 . . 58 
 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra . 
 
 
 . 59 
 
 Epilogue to AsolanJo 
 
 
 . 66 
 
 Notes 
 
 
 . . 69 
 
 Index of Titles . 
 
 
 . 93 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BROWNING'S LIFE 
 
 Robert Browning, the third of that name, was born 
 in Camberwell, a suburb of London, May 7, 181 2. He 
 was the eldest of three children. Robert Browning's 
 father, when a young man, had been sent by his father 
 to the West Indies, where he held a lucrative position 
 on a sugar plantation. But on account of his objections 
 to slavery, he gave up his place and returned to Eng- 
 land, where he became an official in the Bank of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Although the elder Browning was a successful business 
 man, his tastes were aesthetic and literary, and his leisure 
 was devoted to the study of classical and modern litera- 
 tures. He also had considerable skill as an artist, for he 
 drew vigorous pictures and caricatures of the patrons 
 of the Bank whom he was supposed to serve. According 
 to the statement of his son, he was also a skilled versifier. 
 As the father's position gave him a competence, he gener- 
 ously permitted his son to choose his life work without 
 regard to financial returns. ''He secured for me," says 
 the poet, "all the ease and comfort that a literary man 
 needs to do good work." 
 
 The poet's mother was Sarah Anne Wiedemann, the 
 daughter of a German ship owner settled in Dundee, 
 Scotland. She was possessed of a deep piety and an 
 artistic nature. "She was," says Carlyle, "the true 
 
 vii 
 
viii Introduction 
 
 type of a Scottish gentlewoman." The relation between 
 mother and son was unusually close. ''A divine woman," 
 he called her, and at her death in 1849 he gave way for a 
 time to overwhelming sorrow. 
 
 For the most part Browning's education was received 
 at home. Camberwell at that time was still rural enough 
 to permit him to wander about through woods and open 
 country. Here he learned to know nature, and early 
 developed that keen faculty of observation which char- 
 acterized him throughout his whole life. His love for 
 wild animals he seems to have inherited from his mother, 
 who encouraged him in his collecting, and he was con- 
 stantly bringing home pets of all sorts. 
 
 After he was ten years old he spent some time at a 
 private school in the neighborhood. When he was four- 
 teen, he first became acquainted with the poems of Shelley 
 and Keats. He tells us how he read these poets to the ac- 
 companiment of two nightingales in the trees of his 
 father's garden. From that time he felt himself conse- 
 crated to the high task of writing poetry. He began to 
 prepare himself for the work by "sedulous cultivation of 
 the powers of his mind" by study at home, and by travel 
 abroad. 
 
 For the next four years Browning had private tutors 
 at home. He studied music under various masters. To 
 strengthen his body he took lessons in dancing, riding, 
 boxing, and fencing. He kept up his work in art and 
 trained himself further by frequent visits to the museums. 
 At eighteen he was matriculated at the University of 
 London where he studied for two years. 
 
 In January, 1833, Browning published his first poem 
 Pauline, anonymously. In it we find many echoes of 
 
Introduction ix 
 
 Shelley, especially of Alastor. To certain critics the work 
 made a strong appeal, for in spite of its crudities they 
 recognized in it the promise of genius. The publication 
 of this poem was followed by a period of travel in Russia. 
 In 1835 Browning published Paracelsus, the first poem 
 to which he attached his name. This is a study of the 
 life of the early Renaissance alchemist, mystic, and 
 physician Paracelsus. Although the work was coolly 
 received and added nothing to Browning's popularity, 
 his genius was admitted by a group of critics, and he was 
 received into the foremost literary circles of London. 
 This was the means of making him acquainted ' with 
 such men as Macready, the actor, Dickens, Talfourd, 
 Leigh Hunt, Barry Cornwall, Wordsworth, and Landor. 
 
 On one occasion Macready proposed that Browning 
 write a play for him. Browning complied with the re- 
 quest and produced the pla)y Strafford, a drama founded 
 on the tragic career of Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of 
 Strafford, the minister of Charles I. The play was pro- 
 duced at Covent Garden Theater in 1837. After a brief 
 run it w^as withdrawn. 
 
 Browning turned his attention next to the completion 
 of a long poem Sordello on which he had been working for 
 some time and which he had laid aside for the drama. 
 In 1838 he visited Italy that he might see for himself the 
 scenes he was describing in his poem. "Italy w^as my 
 university," he was accustomed to say. In 1840 Sor- 
 dello was published. It did not add to Browning's repu- 
 tation. In fact its effect upon his fame as a poet was dis- 
 astrous. Many stories are told of the difficulties of 
 various persons in trying to read it. The publication of 
 this poem, so obscure in parts, marks the beginning of 
 
X Intrbduction 
 
 what Browning called the period of "prolonged deso- 
 lateness," when for twenty years his poems met with al- 
 most complete indifference in the land of his birth. 
 
 From 1 84 1 to 1846 he published a series of poems to 
 which he gave the somewhat fantastic name of "Bells 
 and Pomegranates j'^ a title suggested by a verse in Exodus. 
 By this name he intended to indicate "a mixture of music 
 with discoursing, sound with sense, poetry with thought." 
 Under this title he brought out eight numbers, includ- 
 ing Pip pa Passes, 1841, Dramatic Lyrics, 1842, Dramatic 
 Romances and Lyrics, 1845, and several of the dramas. 
 
 Of -Browning's dramas it must be said that they never 
 have and probably never will achieve popularity as act- 
 ing plays. They are too subjective, too analytic. "His 
 genius, bent as it was on the interpretation of spiritual 
 phenomena, could ill brook the demands of the acted 
 drama that all this interpretation should stop with visible, 
 intelligible, and satisfactory action, capable of histrionic 
 expression. Browning's eager penetration of the arcana 
 of life was too absorbing to permit him to call a halt when 
 the actor on the stage could go no farther." 
 
 At this time began Browning's courtship of Elizabeth 
 Barrett, whose works were beginning to be read widely. 
 In 1844 she had published a volume of poems which 
 Browning admired greatly. He wrote to her, express- 
 ing his appreciation of her work and asking permission to 
 call. As Miss Barrett was an invalid, having injured her 
 back by a fall from a horse, she at first refused to see 
 him. But later through the efforts of John Kenyon 
 the two were brought together. 
 
 Almost immediately Browning made her an offer of 
 marriage, which she at first declined on account of her 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 poor health. But Browning's masterful wooing was at 
 length rewarded and she consented to marry him. As 
 her father opposed her marrying at all, she and Browning 
 were secretly married on September 12, 1846, at Maryle- 
 bone Church, London. A week after their secret mar- 
 riage they started for Italy. Mrs. Browning made many 
 vain efforts to placate her obdurate father. He refused 
 to see her again and returned her letters unopened. This 
 wounded her deeply, for she had devotedly loved him. 
 
 Journeying by slow stages, the Brownings reached 
 Florence in April, 1847. In 1848 they found what was 
 to be their permanent home, the second floor of the Casa 
 Guidi, a shrine ever since consecrated to their memory. 
 Here they lived quietly and worked industriously. Both 
 of them became intensely interested in the efforts that 
 were being made by patriotic Italians to free their native 
 land, an interest frequently reflected in the poems of 
 both poets. 
 
 On March 9, 1849, their son Wiedemann, later known 
 as "Penini" or "Pen" Browning, was born. At about 
 this time Browning's mother died. He was a long time 
 in recovering from the loss. "He had loved his mother," 
 wrote Mrs. Browning, "as such passionate natures can 
 love, and I never saw a man so bowed down in an ex- 
 tremity of sorrow — never." 
 
 Duiing this long period of his life in Italy Browning 
 produced little; especially is this statement true if we 
 compare the output with his work during the richly pro- 
 ductive period from 1841 to 1846. In 1850 he published 
 Christmas Eve and Easter Day^ a long poem in two parts, 
 in which he treats of the arguments for Christianity, 
 and, five years later, in 1855, Men and Women, a collec- 
 
xii IntioducLion 
 
 tion of fifty-one poems, a group which has been called 
 the flower of his genius. "But though the record is 
 meager as to quantity, lovers of Browning's poetry would 
 be likely to regard this as not only a central period, 
 chronologically, but the period when he reached his 
 highest expression." 
 
 It is in this collection that he brought to perfection a 
 form of poetry which he uses more uniquely than does 
 any other poet, the dramatic monologue. This type 
 has the advantage of a dramatic effect without the dra- 
 matic form. There is only one speaker, but the effect 
 of the speech upon implied listeners is clearly brought 
 out. By this means the dramatic effect is obtained. 
 Noteworthy also is the great range of these poems. In 
 them we find represented all the varied aspects of Flor- 
 entine life. 
 
 On June 28, 1861, Mrs. Browning died. Until within 
 the last few years before her death her health had greatly 
 improved, and in addition to enjoying the social life of 
 the city in a limited degree, she w^as able to publish poems 
 that attracted more general notice than did the poems of 
 her husband. In 1851 she published Casa Guidi Win- 
 dows, a collection of poems, and in 1857 her long novel 
 in verse, Aurora Leigh. Although her strength had 
 been failing for some time, her death was unexpected 
 and was a great blow to her loving husband. It brought 
 to a close the beautiful and romantic life they had been 
 living in Florence and probably affected greatly the 
 remainder of Browning's career. 
 
 Almost immediately he left Italy for England and made 
 his home in London in a house in Warwick Crescent. 
 At first he gave himself up to his sorrow, living a life of 
 
Introduction xili 
 
 lonelinesSo In 1863 he published a new and complete 
 collection of his poetical works in three volumes. In 
 1864 appeared a collection called Dramatis Fersonae, 
 containing some of his greater poems, such as Rabbi Ben 
 Ezra, A Death in the Desert, and Abt Vogler. A recog- 
 nition of his growing fame is seen in the demand for 
 selections from his work and also in the conferring of 
 an honorary degree of M. A. by the University of Ox- 
 ford in 1867. Not long afterwards he was made an 
 honorary fellow of Balliol College. The University of 
 Cambridge conferred upon him the degree of Doctor, of 
 Civil Law in 1879 and the University of Oxford gave him 
 the same degree in 1882. 
 
 In 1863 he suddenly changed his habits and began to 
 accept invitations, entering again into the social life of 
 London. After the death of his father in 1866, he and 
 his sister Sarianna, who had become his constant com- 
 panion, lived together in London, although they fre- 
 quently passed their summers in Brittany, Wales, and 
 Scotland. Later he took his sister to Italy, although he 
 always avoided Florence. 
 
 In 1868 and 1869 Browning published a long work in 
 four volumes called The Ring and the Book. This he 
 destined to be his magnum opus and on it he had labored 
 for many years. During his residence in Florence he 
 had picked up at a book-stall an "old yellow Book" 
 which contained an account of a tragic story of the seven- 
 teenth century. This story he brooded over until he had 
 seen it in all its relations to humanity. The poem has a 
 novel structure. In it the story of the forced marriage 
 of the young girl Pompilia to the Count Guido, her 
 rescue from his clutches by the Canon Caponsacchi, 
 
xiv Introduction 
 
 her murder, the trial of the Count, the arguments of the 
 lawyers, and the review of the case by the Pope who 
 judged it, all are given. The story is retold ten times 
 from all different viewpoints. It is a series of dramatic 
 monologues, enlarged to fit the occasion. 
 
 In her commentary on Browning's works Mrs. Orr 
 traces the influence of Mrs. Browning in the character 
 of Pompilia. This work Browning seems to have intended 
 to be a monument to the memory of his dead wife, con- 
 secrated to her whom he always regarded as the superior 
 poetical genius and whose works he was never tired of 
 praising. "The simple truth is," he wrote to a friend, 
 "that she was the poet and I the clever person by com- 
 parison: remember her limited experience of all kinds, 
 and w^hat she made of it. Remember, on the other 
 hand, how my uninterrupted health and strength and 
 practice with the world have helped me." 
 
 In 1871 he published Balaustion's Adventure, in 1875 
 Aristophanes^ Apology, and in 1877 his translation of 
 The Agamemnon of Aeschylus. This group of poems repre- 
 sents Browning's criticism of Greek art and thought. 
 They are the fruits of his prolonged study of Greek poe- 
 try, especially of the Greek dramatists. During these 
 years, when fame had come to him, and he had been 
 honored during his lifetime beyond any other Enghsh 
 poet by having a society formed to study and interpret 
 his works. Browning led a semi-public life. 
 
 As his biographer Sharp states: "Everybody wished 
 him to come and dine ; and he did his utmost to gratify 
 everybody. He saw everything; read all the notable 
 books; kept himself acquainted with the leading con- 
 tents of the journals and magazines.; conducted a large 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 correspondence ; read new French, German, and Italian 
 books of mark; read and translated Euripides and 
 Aeschylus ; knew all the gossip of the literar}^ clubs, 
 salons, and the studios ; was a frequenter of afternoon 
 tea-parties ; and then, over and above it, he was Brown- 
 ing : the most profoundly subtle mind that has exer- 
 cised itself in poetry since Shakespeare." 
 
 Browning's later works, with the exception, perhaps, 
 of the Dramatic Idyls, added but little to his reputation. 
 He published The Red Cotton Night-Cap Country in 1873 
 and The Inn Album in 1875. These are long narrative 
 poems. The next collection of his poems Pacchiarotto 
 is marked by obscurities and oddities. The Dramatic 
 Idyls, 1879, 1880, however, contain some excellent work. 
 
 Browning's visits to Italy now became more frequent. 
 Still he avoided Florence on account of the sad memories 
 associated with that city. He revisited Asolo, where he 
 had laid the scene of Pippa Passes in his earlier days, and 
 here he gathered the last collection of his poems, to 
 which he gave the name of Asolando. Browning's son 
 had married and had taken up his permanent residence 
 at Venice and had bought the old Palazzo Rezzonica. 
 Here Browning came and after a brief illness died sud- 
 denly on December 12, i88g. By a coincidence Aso- 
 lando was published in London on the same day. Brown- 
 ing was buiied in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey 
 on the last day of the year. As a mark of respect to his 
 memory the Italian government placed a tablet on the wall 
 of the Palazzo Rezzonica with a suitable inscription which 
 closes with these lines from De Gustihus : 
 
 "Open my heart and you will see 
 Graved inside of it, 'Italy.'" 
 
XVI Introduction 
 
 BROWNING'S POETRY 
 
 One of the most impressive facts in Browning's wo-ks 
 is the immense variety of subjects with which he deals. 
 All ages, all varieties of experience, all periods of the 
 world's history are to be found in his pages. Brown- 
 ing takes all human life as his province. He proposes 
 to understand "God and his works and all God's inter- 
 course with the human soul." Nothing in man is too 
 insignificant or too remote to l^e included in his pages, 
 provided it have its effect on man's soul. 
 
 Browning has been called a romanticist by some critics 
 and has been claimed as a realist by the opposite camp. 
 Probably both sides are right within limits, for in the 
 freedom of choice whicli he displays in selecting his sub- 
 jects, Browning is clearly romantic, but in his method of 
 treating his chosen subject he is realistic. His choice 
 of subject seems to have been determined by the belief 
 that individual feeling and motive are the only true life. 
 His range of subject covers a great deal that is painful, 
 but nothing that is repulsive. His treatment of his sub- 
 ject is always picturesque. It raises a distinct image of 
 the person or action he intends to describe. 
 
 Browning may be regarded as a romanticist on account 
 of his invention or adaptation of a particular form of 
 verse for each occasion. As he beHeved that every cir- 
 cumstance, every occasion should be expressed by an 
 appropriate metrical form, he is constantly experiment- 
 ing with new and unusual metrical combinations. In 
 his work the metrical form suggests by its rhythm the 
 underlying idea of the poem, as for example in ''How 
 We Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," where 
 
Introduction xvii 
 
 the rhythm suggests the galloping of horses. His verse 
 is subordinate to his theory of the poetic art. Always 
 it was his principle that sense should not be sacrificed to 
 sound. Thought before expression, matter before form, 
 are marked characteristics of his work. This effort to 
 clothe his subject with a suitable form occasionally led him 
 into obscurity, but in most cases the effort was successful. 
 
 Browning's favorite method of treating a subject was 
 to examine it through the eyes of some suitable character 
 whom he selected or invented for the purpose. This 
 involved only a one-sided survey, a survey from only one 
 viewpoint. Sometimes this also causes obscurity, for 
 the reader forgets that the poet is not trying to give a 
 complete account of a certain event but only such a 
 partial one as his assumed character might obtain. 
 
 Much has been written about Browning's philosophy 
 of life. Although a complete system of philosophy may 
 be deduced from his works, Browning was concerned 
 rather with man as an individual than with man in the 
 abstract. To him each case was a separate study, for he 
 read the meaning of life and measured its value from the 
 point of view of the individual, not from that of society. 
 Action, energy, daring, persistence are the virtures which 
 he commends for their own sakes, while their opposites 
 he strongly condemns. 
 
 But he does not consider this life as final. We are 
 placed here, he thinks, for the purpose of growing enough 
 to enable us to take our part in another life beyond this 
 one. Here we are surrounded by limitations which baffle 
 and retard our growth. Through these limitations come 
 failures, which prevent us from being content with our con- 
 dition. There is something within us, some divine spark, 
 
xviii Introduction 
 
 which IS always spurring us on and urging us to endeavor 
 to transcend these hmitations and reach out for what is 
 beyond. But we must find cut what these limitations 
 are and work within them, or life would become nothing 
 but vain discontent with our condition. This constant 
 battle between our aspirations and our limitations makes 
 up the stress of life. ''Thus, the purpose of life is not 
 the attainment of any specific end, either selfish or heroic, 
 but rather the continued progress of the human spirit in 
 its chosen course." 
 
 Browning was an optimist. He believed that no ex- 
 perience is wasted, that all life is good in its way. Even 
 the so-called "evils of life" are not without some good. 
 If we would remedy them, we need more of the good qual- 
 ities, the opposite of the evil. Browning's attitude towards 
 life cannot be better stated than he himself has expressed 
 it in one of the stanzas of his last poem. The Epilogue to 
 Asolando, where he says that he is — 
 
 " One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, 
 Never doubted clouds would break, 
 
 Never dreamed, tho' right were worsted, wrong would triumph, 
 Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
 Sleep to wake." 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 For complete bibliography, see the Bibliography of Biography 
 and Criticism by J. P. Anderson printed in the Life of Robert Brown- 
 ing by William Sharp. 
 The Complete Works of Robert Browning, 17 vols., ed. A. Birrell and 
 
 F. G. Kenyon. Smith, Elder & Company. 
 Complete Works, 12 vols., ed. Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke. 
 The Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning, Cam- 
 bridge Edition, i vol., ed. H. E. Scudder. 
 The Browning Cyclopcsdia. Edward Berdoe. 
 
Introduction ' xix 
 
 The Poetry of Robert Browning. Stopford Brooke. 
 
 An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry. Hiram 
 
 Corson. 
 The Life of Robert Browning. Temple Biographies. Reprinted 
 
 in Everyman's Library. Edward Dowden. 
 Critical Kit-Kats. Edmund W. Gosse. 
 
 Robert Browning. Modern English Writers. C. H. Herford. 
 Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher. Sir Henry Jones. 
 A Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning. Mrs. S. Orr. 
 Life and Letters of Robert Browning. Mrs. S. Orr and Sir F. G. Kenyon. 
 Browning: How to Know Him. William Lyon Phelps. 
 Life of Robert Browning. William Sharp. (The standard biography.) 
 An Introduction to the Study of Browning. Arthur Symons. 
 The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. Two volumes. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 March 6, 1806. Elizabeth Barrett born at Coxhoe, county of 
 
 Durham. 
 May 7, 181 2. Robert Browning born in Camberwell, London. 
 
 1825. Browning read Shelley and Keats. 
 
 1826. Browning left Mr. Ready's school. 
 
 1827. Alfred and Charles Tennyson : Poems by Two 
 
 Brothers. 
 1830, hXixedTtnny son: Poems, chiefly Lyrical. 
 1833. Browning : Pauline, published anonymously. 
 
 Tennyson : Poems. 
 1833-1834. Browning travelled in Russia and Italy. 
 1835. Browning : Paracelsus. 
 1837. Browning: Strafford. Acted May i at Covent 
 
 Garden Theater. 
 
 1840. Browning : Sordello. 
 
 1841. Browning: Pippa Passes. 
 
 1842. Browning: Dramatic Lyrics. 
 Tennyson : Poems. 
 
 1843. Browning : A Blot in the ^Scutcheon. 
 
 1844. Elizabeth Barrett : Poems. 
 Browning : Colombe's Birthday. 
 
XX 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Jan. lo, 1845. Correspondence between Robert Browning and 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett begun. 
 May 20, Their first meeting. 
 
 Browning : Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. 
 Sept. 12, 1846. Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett married 
 
 at Marylebone Church, London. 
 Oct., 1846 to April, 1847. In Pisa. 
 April 20, 1847. Took up their residence at Florence. 
 March 9, 1849. Birth of Wiedemann Browning. 
 March Browning's mother died. 
 
 1850. Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnets from the 
 
 Portuguese. 
 
 1850. Browning : Christmas Eve and Easter Day. 
 Tennyson : In Memoriam. 
 
 185 1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Casa Guidi Windows. 
 1855. Browning : Men and Women. 
 
 1857. Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Aurora Leigh. 
 June i860. Browning found the "Yellow Book." 
 
 June 29, 1 86 1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning died. 
 July Browning left Florence and resided in London. 
 
 1864. 
 1868. 
 1871. 
 
 1872. 
 1873. 
 1875. 
 
 1876. 
 
 1877. 
 
 1878. 
 
 1879. 
 
 1880. 
 1883. 
 1884. 
 
 Browning : Dramatis Personae. 
 
 Browning : The Ring and the Book, finished 1869. 
 
 Browning: Balaustion's Adventure. 
 
 Browning : Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau. 
 
 Browning : Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 Browning : Red Cotton Night-Cap Country. 
 
 Browning : Aristophanes' Apology. 
 
 Browning : The Inn Album. 
 
 Browning : Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in 
 
 Distemper. 
 Browning : The Agamemnon of Aeschylus translated. 
 Browning : La Saisiaz; The Two Poets of Croisic. 
 Browning revisits Italy for the first time after his 
 
 wife's death. 
 Browning : Dramatic Idyls, First Series. 
 Browning : Dramatic Idyls, Second Series. 
 Browning : Jocoseria. 
 Browning : Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
Introduction xxi 
 
 Dec. 12, 1889. Browning: Asnlando. 
 
 Dec. 12, Robert Browning died in the Palazzo Rezzonica 
 
 in Venice. 
 Dec. 31. Buried in Westminster Abbey, 
 
BROWNING'S POEMS 
 
 MY STAR 
 
 All that I know 
 
 Of a certain star 
 Is, it can throw 
 
 (Like the angled spar) 
 Now a dart of red, 5 
 
 Now a dart of blue ; 
 Till my friends have said 
 They would fain see, too, 
 My star that dartles the red and the blue ! 
 Then it stops like a bird ; like a flower, hangs furled : 10 
 They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. 
 What matter to me if their star is a world ? 
 
 Mine has opened its soul to me ; therefore I love it. 
 
 A FACE 
 
 If one could have that little head of hers 
 
 Painted upon a background of pale gold, 
 Such as the Tuscan's early art prefers ! 
 
 No shade encroaching on the matchless mould 
 Of those two lips, which should be opening soft 5 
 
 In the pure profile ; not as when she laughs. 
 For that spoils all : but rather as if aloft 
 
 Yon hyacinth, she loves so, leaned its staff's 
 Burthen of honey-coloured buds to kiss 
 And capture 'twixt the lips apart for this. 10 
 
2 Browning's Poems 
 
 Then her lithe neck, three fingers might surround, 
 How it should waver on the pale gold ground 
 Up to the fruit-shaped, perfect chin it lifts ! 
 I know, Correggio loves to mass, in rifts 
 Of heaven, his angel faces, orb on orb is 
 
 Breaking its outline, burning shades absorb : 
 But these are only massed there, I should think, 
 Waiting to see some wonder momently 
 Grow out, stand full, fade slow against the sky 
 (That's the pale ground you'd see this sweet face by) , 20 
 All heaven, meanwhile, condensed into one eye 
 Which fears to lose the wonder, should it wink. 
 
 MY LAST DUCHESS 
 
 FERRARA 
 
 That's my last Duchess painted on the wall. 
 
 Looking as if she were alive. I call 
 
 That piece a wonder, now : Fra Pandolf 's hands 
 
 Worked busily a day, and there she stands. 
 
 Will't please you sit and look at her? I said s 
 
 " Fra Pandolf " by design, for never read 
 
 Strangers like you that pictured countenance, 
 
 The depth and passion of its earnest glance, 
 
 But to myself they turned (since none puts by 
 
 The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 10 
 
 And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst. 
 
 How such a glance came there ; so, not the first 
 
 Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not 
 
 Her husband's presence only, called that spot 
 
 Of joy into the Duchess' cheek : perhaps 15 
 
 Fra PandoK chanced to say " Her mantle laps 
 
My Last Duchess 3 
 
 Over my lady's wrist too much," or " Paint 
 
 Must never hope to reproduce the faint 
 
 Half -flush that dies along her throat : " such stuff 
 
 Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough 20 
 
 For calling up that spot of joy. She had 
 
 A heart — how shall I say ? — too soon made glad, 
 
 Too easily impressed ; she liked whate'er 
 
 She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. 
 
 Sir, 'twas all one ! My favour at her breast, 25 
 
 The dropping of the daylight in the West, 
 
 The bough of cherries some ofl&cious fool 
 
 Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 
 
 She rode with round the terrace — all and each 
 
 Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 30 
 
 Or blush, at least. She thanked men, — good ! but thanked 
 
 Somehow — I know not how — as if she ranked 
 
 My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name 
 
 With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame 
 
 This sort of trifling ? Even had you skill 35 
 
 In speech — (which I have not) — to make your will 
 
 Quite clear to such an one, and say, " Just this 
 
 Or that in you disgusts me ; here you miss, 
 
 Or there exceed the mark " — and if she let 
 
 Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set 40 
 
 Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, 
 
 — E'en then would be some stooping ; and I choose 
 
 Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt. 
 
 Whene'er I passed her ; but who passed without 
 
 Much the same smile? This grew ; I gave commands ; 45 
 
 Then all smfles stopped together. There she stands 
 
 As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet 
 
 The company below, then. I repeat. 
 
4 Browning's Poems 
 
 The Count your master's known munificence 
 
 Is ample warrant that no just pretence so 
 
 Of mine for dowry will be disallowed ; 
 
 Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed 
 
 At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go 
 
 Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, 
 
 Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, 55 
 
 Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me ! 
 
 SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES 
 
 I 
 
 The year's at the spring 
 
 And day's at the morn ; 
 
 Morning's at seven ; 
 
 The hill-side's dew-pearled ; 
 
 The lark's on the wing ; 5 
 
 The snail's on the thorn : 
 
 God's in his heaven — 
 
 All's right with the world ! 
 
 II 
 
 Give her but a least excuse to love me ! 
 
 When — where — 10 
 
 How ' — can this arm establish her above me, 
 
 If fortune fixed her as my lady there, 
 
 There already, to eternally reprove me? 
 
 (" Hist ! " — said Kate the Queen ; 
 
 But " Oh ! " — cried the maiden, binding her tresses, 15 
 
 " 'Tis only a page that carols unseen. 
 
 Crumbling your hounds their messes ! ") 
 
Eurydice to Orpheus 5 
 
 Is she wronged ? — To the rescue of her honour, 
 
 My heart ! 
 
 Is she poor ? — What costs it to be styled a donor ? 20 
 
 Merely an earth to cleave, a sea to part. 
 
 But that fortune should have thrust all this upon her ! 
 
 {" Nay, list ! " — bade Kate the Queen ; 
 
 And still cried the maiden, binding her tresses, 
 
 " 'Tis only a page that carols unseen 25 
 
 Fitting your hawks their jesses ! ") 
 
 III 
 
 You'll love me yet ! — and I can tarry 
 
 Your love's protracted growing : 
 June reared that bunch of flowers you carry, 
 
 From seeds of April's sowing. 30 
 
 I plant a heartful now : some seed 
 
 At least is sure to strike. 
 And yield — what you'll not pluck indeed, 
 
 Not love, but, may be, like. 
 
 You'll look at least on love's remains, ss 
 
 A grave's one violet : 
 Your look ? — that pays a thousand pains. 
 
 What's death ? You'll love me yet ! 
 
 EURYDICE TO ORPHEUS 
 
 A PICTURE BY LEIGHTON 
 
 But give them me, the mouth, the eyes, the brow ! 
 Let them once more absorb me ! One look now 
 
 Will lap me round forever, not to pass 
 Out of its light, though darkness He beyond : 
 
Browning's Poems 
 
 Hold me but safe again within the bond 
 
 Of one immortal look ! All woe that was, 
 Forgotten, and all terror that may be. 
 Defied, — no past is mine, no future : look at me 
 
 "THE MOTH'S KISS, FIRST!" 
 
 The moth's kiss, first ! 
 
 Kiss me as if you made believe 
 
 You were not sure, this eve, 
 
 How my face, your flower, had pursed 
 
 Its petals up ; so, here and there 
 
 You brush it, till I grow aware 
 
 Who wants me, and wide ope I burst. 
 
 The bee's kiss, now ! 
 Kiss me as if you entered gay 
 My heart at some noonday, 
 A bud that dares not disallow 
 The claim, so all is rendered up, 
 And passively its shattered cup 
 Over your head to sleep I bow. 
 
 MEETING AT NIGHT 
 
 The gray sea and the long black land ; 
 And the yellow half -moon large and low ; 
 And the startled httle waves that leap 
 In fiery ringlets from their sleep. 
 As I gain the cove with pushing prow, 
 And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. 
 
The Good News from Ghent to Aix 7 
 
 Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach ; 
 
 Three fields to cross till a farm appears ; 
 
 A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch 
 
 And blue spurt of a lighted match, 10 
 
 And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears, 
 
 Than the two hearts beating each to each ! 
 
 PARTING AT MORNING 
 
 Round the cape of a sudden came the sea. 
 And the sun looked over the mountain's rim ; 
 And straight was a path of gold for him, is 
 
 And the need of a world of men for me. 
 
 "HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS 
 FROM GHENT TO AIX" 
 
 I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ; 
 
 I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three ; 
 
 " Good speed !" cried the watch, as the gatebolts undrew ; 
 
 '' Speed !" echoed the wall to us galloping through ; 
 
 Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 5 
 
 And into the midnight we galloped abreast. 
 
 Not a word to each other ; we kept the great pace 
 
 Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; 
 
 I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight. 
 
 Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right, 10 
 
 Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, 
 
 Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. 
 
 'Twas moonset at starting ; but while we drew near 
 Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear ; 
 
8 Browning's Poems 
 
 At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see ; is 
 
 At Diiffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be ; 
 And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half -chime, 
 So, Joris broke silence with, " Yet there is time !" 
 
 At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun, 
 
 And against him the cattle stood black every one, 20 
 
 To stare thro' the mist at us galloping past. 
 
 And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last. 
 
 With resolute shoulders, each butting away 
 
 The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray : 
 
 And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back 25 
 For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track ; 
 And one eye's black intelligence, — ever that glance 
 O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance ! 
 And the thick heavy spum-flakes which aye and anon 
 His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on. 30 
 
 By Hasselt, Dirck groaned ; and cried Joris, " Stay spur ! 
 Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, 
 We'll remember at Aix " — for one heard the quick wheeze 
 Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees. 
 And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank, - 35 
 
 As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank. 
 
 So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, 
 
 Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky ; 
 
 The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, 
 
 'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff ; 40 
 
 Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white. 
 
 And " Gallop," gasped Joris, '' for Aix is in sight ! " 
 
Incident of the French Camp 9 
 
 '' How they'll greet us ! " — and all in a moment his roan 
 Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone ; 
 And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight 45 
 Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, 
 With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim. 
 And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim. 
 
 Then I cast loose my buff coat, each holster let fall, 
 Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all, 50 
 
 Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear. 
 Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer ; 
 Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or 
 
 good. 
 Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood. 
 
 And all I remember is — friends flocking round 55 
 
 As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground ; 
 And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine, 
 As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine. 
 Which (the burgesses voted by common consent) 
 Was no more than his due who brought good news from 
 Ghent. 60 
 
 INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP 
 
 You know, we French stormed Ratisbon : 
 
 A mile or so away. 
 On a little mound. Napoleon 
 
 Stood on our storming-day ; 
 With neck out-thrust, you fancy how, 5 
 
 Legs wide, arms locked behind. 
 As if to balance the prone brow 
 
 Oppressive with its mind. 
 
lo Browning's Poems 
 
 Just as perhaps he mused " My plans 
 
 That soar, to earth may fall, lo 
 
 Let once my army-leader Lannes 
 
 Waver at yonder wall," — 
 Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew 
 
 A rider, bound on bound 
 Full-galloping ; nor bridle drew 15 
 
 Until he reached the mound. 
 
 Then off there flung in smihng joy, 
 
 And held himself erect 
 By just his horse's mane, a boy : 
 
 You hardly could suspect — 20 
 
 (So tight he kept his lips compressed, 
 
 Scarce any blood came through) 
 You looked twice ere you saw his breast 
 
 Was all but shot in two. 
 
 '* Well," cried he, " Emperor, by God's grace 25 
 
 We've got you Ratisbon ! 
 The Marshal's in the market-place. 
 
 And you'll be there anon 
 To see your flag-bird flap his vans 
 
 Where I, to heart's desire, 30 
 
 Perched him ! " The chief's eye flashed ; his plans 
 
 Soared up again like fire. 
 
 The chief's eye flashed ; but presently 
 
 Softened itself, as sheathes 
 A film the mother-eagle's eye 35 
 
 When her bruised eaglet breathes ; 
 
The Lost Leader ii 
 
 " You're wounded ! " " Nay," the soldier's pride 
 
 Touched to the quick, he said : 
 " I'm killed. Sire ! " And his chief beside 
 
 Smiling the boy fell dead. 40 
 
 THE LOST LEADER 
 
 Just for a handful of silver he left us, 
 
 Just for a riband to stick in his coat — 
 Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, 
 
 Lost all the others she lets us devote ; 
 They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, s 
 
 So much was theirs who so little allowed : 
 How all our copper had gone for his service ! 
 
 Rags — were they purple, his heart had been proud ! 
 We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him, 
 
 Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, 10 
 
 Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, 
 
 Made him our pattern to live and to die ! 
 Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, 
 
 Burns, Shelley, were with us, — they watch from their 
 graves ! 
 He alone breaks from the van and the freemen, is 
 
 — He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves ! 
 
 We shall march prospering, — not thro' his presence ; 
 
 Songs may inspirit us, — not from his lyre ; 
 Deeds will be done, — while he boasts his quiescence, 
 
 Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire : 20 
 
 Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more, 
 
 One task more declined, one more footpath untrod, 
 One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels. 
 
 One wrong more to man, one more insult to God I 
 
12 Browning's Poems 
 
 Life's night begins : let him never come back to us ! 25 
 
 There would be doubt, hesitation and pain, 
 Forced praise on our part — the glimmer of twilight, 
 
 Never glad confident morning again ! 
 Best fight on well, for we taught him — strike gallantly, 
 
 Menace our heart ere we master his own ; 30 
 
 Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us, 
 
 Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne ! 
 
 LOVE AMONG THE RUINS 
 
 Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles, 
 
 Miles and miles 
 On the solitary pastures where our sheep 
 
 Half -asleep 
 Tinkle homeward thro' the twihght, stray or stop s 
 
 As they crop — 
 Was the site once of a city great and gay, 
 
 (So they say) 
 Of our country's very capital, its prince 
 
 Ages since 10 
 
 Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far 
 
 Peace or war. 
 
 Now, — the country does not even boast a tree, 
 
 As you see. 
 To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills is 
 
 From the hills 
 Intersect and give a name to, (else they rlin 
 
 Into one) 
 Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires 
 
 Up like fires 20 
 
Love Among the Ruins 13 
 
 O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall 
 
 Bounding all, 
 Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed, 
 
 Twelve abreast. 
 
 And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass 25 
 
 Never was ! 
 Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads 
 
 And embeds 
 Every vestige of the city, guessed alone. 
 
 Stock or stone — 30 
 
 Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe 
 
 Long ago ; 
 Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame 
 
 Struck them tame ; 
 And that glory and that shame alike, the gold 35 
 
 Bought and sold. 
 
 Now, — the single little turret that remains 
 
 On the plains, 
 By the caper overrooted, by the gourd 
 
 Overscored, 40 
 
 While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks 
 
 Through the chinks — 
 Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time 
 
 Sprang sublime, 
 And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced 45 
 
 As they raced, 
 And the monarch and his minions and his dames 
 
 Viewed the games. 
 
 And I know, while thus the quiet-coloured eve 
 
 Smiles to leave so 
 
14 Browning's Poems 
 
 To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece 
 
 In such peace, 
 And the slopes and rills in undistinguished gray 
 
 Melt away — 
 That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair S5 
 
 Waits me there 
 In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul 
 
 For the goal, 
 When the king looked, where she looks now, breath- 
 less, dumb 
 
 Till I come. 60 
 
 But he looked upon the city, every side, 
 
 Far and wide. 
 All the mountains topped with temples, all the 
 glades' 
 
 Colonnades, 
 All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts, — and then, 65 
 
 All the men ! 
 When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand, 
 
 Either hand 
 On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace 
 
 Of my face, 7° 
 
 Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech 
 
 Each on each. 
 
 In one year they sent a million fighters forth 
 
 South and North, 
 And they built their gods a brazen pillar high 75 
 
 As the sky. 
 Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force — 
 
 Gold, of course. 
 
Home-thoughts, from Abroad 15 
 
 Oh heart ! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns ! 
 
 Earth's returns 80 
 
 For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin ! 
 
 Shut them in. 
 With their triumphs and their glories and the rest ! 
 
 Love is best. 
 
 HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 
 
 Oh, to be in England 
 
 Now that April's there, 
 
 And whoever wakes in England 
 
 Sees, some morning, unaware, 
 
 That the lowest boughs and. the brushwood sheaf 5 
 
 Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf. 
 
 While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough 
 
 In England — now ! 
 
 And after April, when May follows, 
 
 And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows ! 10 
 
 Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge 
 
 Leans to the field and scatters on the clover 
 
 Blossoms and dewdrops — at the bent spray's edge — 
 
 That's the wise thrush ; he sings each song twice over, 
 
 Lest you should think he never could recapture is 
 
 The first fine careless rapture ! 
 
 And though the fields look rough with hoary dew. 
 
 All will be gay when noontide wakes anew 
 
 The buttercups, the little children's dower 
 
 — Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower ! 20 
 
i6 Browning's Poems 
 
 HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA 
 
 Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-west 
 
 died away ; 
 Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz 
 
 Bay; 
 Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay ; 
 In the dimmest North-east distance dawned Gibraltar 
 
 grand and gray ; 
 *' Here and here did England help me : how can I help 
 
 England?" — say, s 
 
 Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and 
 
 pray, 
 While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa. 
 
 THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND 
 
 That second time they hunted me 
 
 From hill to plain, from shore to sea. 
 
 And Austria, hounding far and wide 
 
 Her blood-hounds through the country-side, 
 
 Breathed hot and instant on my trace, — 
 
 I made six days a hiding-place 
 
 Of that dry green old aqueduct 
 
 Where I and Charles, when boys, have plucked 
 
 The fire-flies from the roof above. 
 
 Bright creeping through the moss they love : 
 
 — How long it seems since Charles was lost ! 
 
 Six days the soldiers crossed and crossed 
 
 The country in my very sight ; 
 
 And when that peril ceased at night, 
 
The Italian in England 17 
 
 The sky broke out in red dismay 15 
 
 With signal fires ; well, there I lay 
 
 Close covered o'er in my recess, 
 
 Up to the neck in ferns and cress. 
 
 Thinking on Metternich our friend, 
 
 And Charles's miserable end, 20 
 
 And much beside, two days ; the third, 
 
 Hunger o'ercame me when I heard 
 
 The peasants from the village go 
 
 To work among the maize ; you know, 
 
 With us in Lombardy, they bring 25 
 
 Provisions packed on mules, a string 
 
 With little bells that cheer their task. 
 
 And casks, and boughs on every cask 
 
 To keep the sun's heat from the wine ; 
 
 These I let pass in jingling line, 30 
 
 And, close on them, dear noisy crew, 
 
 The peasants from the village, too ; 
 
 For at the very rear would troop 
 
 Their wives and sisters in a group 
 
 To help, I knew. When these had passed, 35 
 
 I threw my glove to strike the last. 
 
 Taking the chance : she did not start. 
 
 Much less cry out, but stooped apart, 
 
 One instant rapidly glanced round, 
 
 And saw me beckon from the ground ; 40 
 
 A wild bush grows and hides my crypt ; 
 
 She picked my glove up while she stripped 
 
 A branch off, then rejoined the rest 
 
 With that ; my glove lay in her breast. 
 
 Then I drew breath : they disappeared : 45 
 
 It was for Italy I feared. 
 
1 8 Browning's Poems 
 
 An hour, and she returned alone 
 Exactly where my glove was thrown. 
 Meanwhile came many thoughts ; on me 
 Rested the hopes of Italy ; 50 
 
 I had devised a certain tale 
 , Which, when 'twas told her, could not fail 
 Persuade a peasant of its truth ; 
 I meant to call a freak of youth 
 
 This hiding, and give hopes of pay, 55 
 
 And no temptation to betray. 
 But when I saw that woman's face, 
 Its calm simplicity of grace. 
 Our Italy's own attitude 
 
 In which she walked thus far, and stood, 60 
 
 Planting each naked foot so firm. 
 To crush the snake and spare the worm — 
 At first sight of her eyes, I said, 
 '' I am that man upon whose head 
 They fix the price, because I hate 65 
 
 The Austrians over us : the State 
 Will give you gold — oh, gold so much ! — 
 If you betray me to their clutch. 
 And be your death, for aught I know. 
 If once they find you saved their foe. 70 
 
 Now, you must bring me food and drink, 
 And also paper, pen, and ink. 
 And carry safe what I shall write 
 To Padua, which you'll reach at night 
 Before the duomo shuts ; go in, 75 
 
 And wait till Tenebrae begin ; 
 Walk to the third confessional. 
 Between the pillar and the wall, 
 
The Italian In England 19 
 
 And kneeling whisper, Whence comes peace f 
 
 Say it a second time, then cease ; 80 
 
 And if the voice inside returns, 
 
 From Christ and Freedom; what concerns 
 
 The cause of Peace? — for answer, slip 
 
 My letter where you placed your lip ; 
 
 Then come back happy we have done 8s 
 
 Our mother service — I, the son. 
 
 As you the daughter of our land ! " 
 
 Three mornings more, she took her stand 
 In the same place, with the same eyes : 
 I was no surer of sunrise go 
 
 Than of her coming. We conferred 
 Of her own prospects, and I heard 
 She had a lover — stout and tall, 
 She said — then let her eyelids fall, 
 " He could do much" — as if some doubt 95 
 
 Entered her heart, — then, passing out, 
 " She could not speak for others, who 
 Had other thoughts ; herself she knew : " 
 And so she brought me drink and food. 
 After four days, the scouts pursued 10c 
 
 Another path ; at last arrived 
 The help my Paduan friends contrived 
 To furnish me : she brought the news. 
 For the first time I could not choose 
 But kiss her hand, and lay my own 105 
 
 Upon her head — " This faith was shown 
 To Italy, our mother ; she 
 Uses my hand and blesses thee." 
 She followed down to the sea-shore ; 
 I left and never saw her more. no 
 
20 Browning's Poems 
 
 How very long since I have thought 
 Concerning — much less wished for — aught 
 Beside the good of Italy, 
 For which I live and mean to die ! 
 I never was in love ; and since 115 
 
 Charles proved false, what shall now convince 
 My inmost heart I have a friend ? 
 However, if I pleased to spend 
 Real wishes on myself — say, three — 
 I know at least what one should be. 120 
 
 I would grasp Metternich until 
 I felt his red wet throat distil 
 In blood through these two hands. And next 
 
 — Nor much for that am I perplexed — 
 
 Charles, perjured traitor, for his part, 125 
 
 Should die slow of a broken heart 
 Under his new employers. Last 
 
 — Ah, there, what should I wish ? For fast 
 Do I grow old and out of strength. 
 
 If I resolved to seek at length 130 
 
 My father's house again, how scared 
 They all would look, and unprepared ! 
 My brothers live in Austria's pay 
 
 — Disowned me long ago, men say ; 
 
 And all my early mates who used 13s 
 
 To praise me so — perhaps induced 
 
 More than one early step of mine — 
 
 Are turning wise : while some opine 
 
 " Freedom grows license," some suspect 
 
 " Haste breeds delay," and recollect 140 
 
 They always said, such premature 
 
 Beginnings never could endure ! 
 
Up at a Villa — Down In the City 21 
 
 So, with a sullen '' All's for best," 
 
 The land seems settling to its rest. 
 
 I thiak then, I should wish to stand 14s 
 
 This evening in that dear, lost land. 
 
 Over the sea the thousand miles. 
 
 And know if yet that woman smiles 
 
 With the calm smile ; some little farm 
 
 She lives in there, no doubt : what harm 150 
 
 If I sat on the door-side bench. 
 
 And, while her spindle made a trench 
 
 Fantastically in the dust. 
 
 Inquired of all her fortunes — just 
 
 Her children's ages and their names, 15s 
 
 And what may be the husband's aims 
 
 For each of them. I'd talk this out, 
 
 And sit there, for an hour about, 
 
 Then kiss her hand once more, and lay 
 
 Mine on her head, and go my way. 160 
 
 So much for idle wishing — how 
 It steals the time ! To business now. 
 
 UP AT A VILLA — DOWN IN THE CITY 
 
 (as distinguished by an ITALIAN PERSON OF 
 
 quality) 
 
 Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare, 
 The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city- 
 square ; 
 Ah, such a life, such a Hfe, as one leads at the window 
 there ! 
 
22 Browning's Poems 
 
 Something to see, by Bacchus, something to hear, at 
 
 least ! 
 There, the whole day long, one's life is a perfect feast ; s 
 While up at a villa one lives, I maintain it, no more than 
 
 a beast. 
 
 Well now, look at our villa ! stuck like the horn of a bull 
 Just on a mountain-edge as bare as the creature's skull. 
 Save a mere shag of a bush with hardly a leaf to pull ! 
 — I scratch my own, sometimes, to see if the hair's 
 turned wool. lo 
 
 But the city, oh the city — the square with the houses ! 
 
 Why? 
 They are stone-faced, white as a curd, there's something 
 
 to take the eye ! 
 Houses in four straight lines, not a single front awry ; 
 You watch who crosses and gossips, who saunters, who 
 
 hurries by ; 
 Green blinds, as a matter of course, to draw when the sun 
 
 gets high ; is 
 
 And the shops with fanciful signs which are painted 
 
 properly. 
 
 What of a villa? Though winter be over in March by 
 
 rights, 
 'Tis May perhaps ere the snow shall have withered well 
 
 off the heights : 
 You've the brown ploughed land before, where the oxen 
 
 steam and wheeze. 
 And the hills over-smoked behind by the faint gray 
 
 olive-trees. 20 
 
up at a Villa — Down in the City 23 
 
 Is it better in May, I ask you ? You've summer all at once ; 
 In a day he leaps complete with a few strong April suns. 
 'Mid the sharp short emerald wheat, scarce risen three 
 
 fingers well, 
 The wild tulip, at end of its tube, blows out its great red 
 
 bell 
 Like a thin clear bubble of blood, for the children to pick 
 
 and sell. 25 
 
 Is it ever hot in the square ? There's a fountain to spout 
 
 and splash ! 
 In the shade it sings and springs ; in the shine such foam- 
 bows flash 
 On the horses with curling fish-tails, that prance and 
 
 paddle and pash 
 Round the lady atop in her conch — fifty gazers do not 
 
 abash. 
 Though all that she wears is some weeds round her waist 
 
 in a sort of sash. 30 
 
 All the year long at the villa, nothing to see though you 
 linger. 
 
 Except yon cypress that points like death's lean lifted fore- 
 finger. 
 
 Some think fireflies pretty, when they mix i' the corn and 
 mingle, 
 
 Or thrid the stinking hemp till the stalks of it seem a-tingle. 
 
 Late August or early September, the stunning cicala is 
 shrifl, 35 
 
 And the bees keep their tiresome whine round the resinous 
 firs on the hill. 
 
 Enough of the seasons, — I spare you the months of the 
 fever and chiU. 
 
24 Browning's Poems 
 
 Ere you open your eyes in the city, the blessed church-bells 
 
 begin : 
 No sooner the bells leave off than the diligence rattles in : 
 You get the pick of the news, and it costs you never a 
 
 pin. 40 
 
 By-and-by there's the travelling doctor gives pills, lets 
 
 blood, draws teeth ; 
 Or the Pulcinello-trumpet breaks up the market beneath. 
 At the post-office such a scene-picture — the new play, 
 
 piping hot ! 
 And a notice how, only this morning, three liberal thieves 
 
 were shot. 
 Above it, behold the Archbishop's most fatherly of 
 
 rebukes, 4S 
 
 And beneath with his crown and his lion, some little new 
 
 law of the Duke's ! 
 Or a sonnet with flowery marge, to the Reverend Don So- 
 and-so 
 Who is Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, Saint Jerome and 
 
 Cicero, 
 *' And moreover," (the sonnet goes rhyming,) " the skirts 
 
 of Saint Paul has reached. 
 Having preached us those six Lent-lectures more unctu- 
 ous than ever he preached." 50 
 Noon strikes, — here sweeps the procession ! our Lady 
 
 borne smiling and smart 
 With a pink gauze gown all spangles, and seven swords 
 
 stuck in her heart ! 
 Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the 
 
 fife; 
 No keeping one's haunches still : it's the greatest pleasure 
 
 in life. 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 25 
 
 But bless you, it's dear — it's dear! fowls, wine, at 
 
 double the rate. 5s 
 
 They have clapped a new tax upon salt, and what oil pays 
 
 passing the gate 
 It's a horror to think of. And so, the villa for me, not the 
 
 city ! 
 Beggars can scarcely be choosers : but still — ah, the pity, 
 
 the pity ! 
 Look, tw^o and two go the priests, then the monks with 
 
 cowls and sandals. 
 And the penitents dressed in white shirts, a-holding 
 
 the yellow candles ; 60 
 
 One, he carries a flag up straight, and another a cross with 
 
 handles, 
 And the Duke's guard brings up the rear, for the better 
 
 prevention of scandals : 
 Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife. 
 Oh, a day in the city-square, there is no such pleasure in 
 
 in life ! 
 
 THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 
 
 A child's story 
 
 I 
 Hamelin Town's in Brunswick, 
 
 By famous Hanover city ; 
 The river Weser, deep and wide, 
 Washes its wall on the southern side ; 
 A pleasanter spot you never spied ; 5 
 
 But, when begins my ditty. 
 Almost five hundred years ago, 
 To see the townsfolk suffer so 
 
 From vermin, was a pity. 
 
26 Browning's Poems 
 
 II 
 Rats ! lo 
 
 They fought the dogs and killed the cats, 
 
 And bit the babies in the cradles, 
 And ate the cheeses out of the vats, 
 
 And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles, 
 Split open the kegs of salted sprats, 15 
 
 Made nests inside men's Sunday hats. 
 And even spoiled the women's chats 
 By drowning their speaking 
 With shrieking and squeaking 
 In fifty different sharps and fiats. 20 
 
 III 
 
 At last the people in a body 
 
 To the Town Hall came flocking. 
 *' 'Tis clear," cried they, " our Mayor's a noddy; 
 And as for our Corporation — shocking 
 To think we buy gowns lined with ermine 25 
 
 For dolts that can't or won't determine 
 What's best to rid us of our vermin ! 
 You hope, because you're old and obese. 
 To find in the furry civic robe ease ? 
 
 Rouse up, sirs ! Give your brains a racking 30 
 
 To find the remedy we're lacking, 
 Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing ! " 
 At this the Mayor and Corporation 
 Quaked with a mighty consternation. 
 
 IV 
 
 An hour they sat in council, 35 
 
 At length the Mayor broke silence : 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 27 
 
 " For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell, 
 
 I wish I were a mile hence ! 
 It's easy to bid one rack one's brain — 
 I'm sure my poor head aches again, 40 
 
 I've scratched it so, and all in vain. 
 Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap ! " 
 Just as he said this, what should hap 
 At the chamber door but a gentle tap ? 
 " Bless us,'^ cried the Mayor, " what's that? " 4S 
 
 (With the Corporation as he sat, 
 Looking little though wondrous fat ; 
 Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister 
 Than a too-long-opened oyster. 
 
 Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous 50 
 
 For a plate of turtle green and glutinous) 
 '' Only a scraping of shoes on the mat? 
 Anything like the sound of a rat 
 Makes my heart go pit-a-pat ! " 
 
 V 
 
 " Come in ! " — the Mayor cried, looking bigger : 55 
 
 And in did come the strangest figure ! 
 
 His queer long coat from heel to head 
 
 Was half of yellow and half of red, 
 
 And he himself was tall and thin, 
 
 With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, 60 
 
 And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin. 
 
 No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin, 
 
 But lips where smiles went out and in ; 
 
 There was no guessing his kith and kin : 
 
 And nobody could enough admire 65 
 
 The tall man and his quaint attire. 
 
28 Browning's Poems 
 
 Quoth one : " It's as my great-grandsire, 
 
 Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone, 
 
 Had walked this way from his painted tombstone ! " 
 
 VI 
 
 He advanced to the council-table : 70 
 
 And, '' Please your honours," said he, " I'm able, 
 By means of a secret charm, to draw ' 
 
 All creatures living beneath the sun, 
 
 That creep or swim or fly or run, 
 After me so as you never saw ! 75 
 
 And I chiefly use my charm 
 On creatures that do people harm. 
 The mole and toad and newt and viper ; 
 And people call me the Pied Piper." 
 (And here they noticed round his neck 80 
 
 A scarf of red and yellow stripe. 
 To match with his coat of the self-same cheque ; 
 
 And at the scarf's end hung a pipe ; 
 And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying 
 As if impatient to be playing 85 
 
 Upon this pipe, as low it dangled 
 Over his vesture so old-fangled.) 
 " Yet," said he, " poor piper as I am, 
 In Tartary I freed the Cham, 
 
 Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats ; 90 
 
 I eased in Asia the Nizam 
 
 Of a monstrous brood of vampire-bats : 
 And as for what your brain bewilders. 
 
 If I can rid your town of rats 
 Will you give me a thousand guilders? " 9S 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 29 
 
 " One? fifty thousand ! " — was the exclamation 
 Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation. 
 
 VII 
 
 Into the street the Piper stept, 
 
 Smihng first a httle smile, 
 As if he knew what magic slept 100 
 
 In his quiet pipe the while ; 
 Then, like a musical adept. 
 To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled, 
 And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled, 
 Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled ; 105 
 
 And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered, 
 You heard as if an army muttered ; 
 And the muttering grew to a grumbling ; 
 And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling ; 
 And out of the houses the rats came tumbling. no 
 
 Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, 
 Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, 
 Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, 
 
 Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins. 
 Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, us 
 
 Families by tens and dozens. 
 Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives — 
 Followed the Piper for their lives. 
 From street to street he piped advancing. 
 And step for step they followed dancing, 120 
 
 Until they came to the river Weser, 
 
 Wherein all plunged and perished ! 
 — Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar, 
 Swam across and lived to carry 
 
 (As he, the manuscript he cherished) 125 
 
30 Browning's Poems 
 
 To Rat-land home his commentary : 
 
 Which was, " At the first shrill notes of the pipe, 
 
 I heard a sound as of scraping tripe, 
 
 And putting apples, wondrous ripe, 
 
 Into a cider-press's gripe : 130 
 
 And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards. 
 
 And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards. 
 
 And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks. 
 
 And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks : 
 
 And it seemed as if a voice 135 
 
 (Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery 
 Is breathed) called out, ' Oh rats, rejoice ! 
 
 The world is grown to one vast dry saltery ! 
 So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon, 
 Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon ! ' 140 
 
 And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon, 
 All ready staved, like a great sun shone 
 Glorious scarce an inch before me, 
 Just as methought it said, ' Come, bore me ! ' 
 — I found the Weser rolling o'er me." 145 
 
 VIII 
 
 You should have heard the Hamelin people 
 
 Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple. 
 
 " Go," cried the Mayor, " and get long poles, 
 
 Poke out the nests and block up the holes ! 
 
 Consult with carpenters and builders, 150 
 
 And leave in our town not even a trace 
 
 Of the rats ! " — when suddenly, up the face 
 
 Of the Piper perked in the market-place. 
 
 With a, " First, if you please, my thousand guilders !" 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 31 
 
 IX 
 
 A thousand guilders ! The Mayor looked blue ; 155 
 
 So did the Corporation too. 
 
 For council dinners made rare havoc 
 
 With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock ; 
 
 And half the money would replenish 
 
 Their cellar's biggest butt with Rhenish. 160 
 
 To pay this sum to a wandering fellow 
 
 With a gipsy coat of red and yellow ! 
 
 " Beside," quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink, 
 
 " Our business was done at the river's brink ; 
 
 We saw with our eyes the vermin sink, 165 
 
 And what's dead can't come to life, I think. 
 
 So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink 
 
 From the duty of giving you something for drink, 
 
 And a matter of money to put in your poke ; 
 
 But as for the guilders, what we spoke 170 
 
 Of them, as you very well know, was in joke. 
 
 Beside, our losses have made us thrifty. 
 
 A thousand guilders ! Come, take fifty ! " 
 
 The Piper's face fell, and he cried, 
 
 " No trifling ! I can't wait, beside ! 175 
 
 I've promised to visit by dinner time 
 
 Bagdat, and accept the prime 
 
 Of the Head-Cook's pottage, all he's rich in, 
 
 For having left, in the Caliph's kitchen, 
 
 Of a nest of scorpions no survivor : 180 
 
 With him I proved no bargain-driver. 
 
 With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver ! 
 
32 Browning's Poems 
 
 And folks who put me in a passion 
 May find me pipe after another fashion." 
 
 XI 
 
 " How? " cried the Mayor, " d'ye think I brook 185 
 
 Being worse treated than a Cook ? 
 
 Insulted by a lazy ribald 
 
 With idle pipe and vesture piebald ? 
 
 You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst, 
 
 Blow your pipe there till you burst ! " 190 
 
 xn 
 Once more he stept into the street, 
 
 And to his lips again 
 Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane ; 
 
 And ere he blew three notes (such sweet 
 Soft notes as yet musician's cunning 195 
 
 Never gave the enraptured air) 
 There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling 
 Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling ; 
 Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering, 
 Little hands clapping and Httle tongues chattering, 200 
 And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering. 
 Out came the children running. 
 All the little boys and girls, 
 With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls. 
 
 And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls, 205 
 
 Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after 
 The wonderful music with shouting and laughter. 
 
 XIII 
 
 The Mayor was dumb and the Council stood 
 As if they were changed into blocks of wood, 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 33 
 
 Unable to move a step, or cry 210 
 
 To the children merrily skipping by, 
 
 — Could only follow with the eye 
 
 That joyous crowd at the Piper's back. 
 
 But how the Mayor was on the rack. 
 
 And the wretched Council's bosoms beat, 215 
 
 As the Piper turned from the High Street 
 
 To where the Weser rolled its waters 
 
 Right in the way of their sons and daughters ! 
 
 However he turned from South to West, 
 
 And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed, 220 
 
 And after him the children pressed ; 
 
 Great was the joy in every breast. 
 
 " He never can cross that mighty top ! 
 
 He's forced to let the piping drop. 
 
 And we shall see our children stop ! " 225 
 
 When, lo, as they reached the mountain-side, 
 
 A wondrous portal opened wide, 
 
 As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed ; 
 
 And the Piper advanced and the children followed, 
 
 And when all were in to the very last, 230 
 
 The door in the mountain-side shut fast. 
 
 Did I say, all? No ! One was lame. 
 
 And could not dance the whole of the way ; 
 And in after years, if you would blame 
 
 His sadness, he was used to say, — 235 
 
 " It's dull in our town since my playmates left ! 
 I can't forget that I'm bereft 
 Of all the pleasant sights they see. 
 Which the Piper also promised me. 
 
 For he led us, he said, to a joyous land, 240 
 
 Joining the town and just at hand, 
 
34 Browning's Poems 
 
 Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew 
 
 And flowers put forth a fairer hue, 
 
 And everything was strange and new ; 
 
 The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here, 245 
 
 And their dogs outran our fallow deer, 
 
 And honey-bees had lost their stings, 
 
 And horses were born with eagles' wings : 
 
 And just as I became assured 
 
 My lame foot would be speedily cured, 250 
 
 The music stopped and I stood still. 
 
 And found myself outside the hill. 
 
 Left alone against my will, 
 
 To go now limping as before, 
 
 And never hear of that country more ! " 255 
 
 XIV 
 
 Alas, alas for Hamelin ! 
 
 There came into many a burgher's pate 
 
 A text which says that heaven's gate 
 
 Opes to the rich at as easy rate 
 As the needle's eye takes a camel in ! 260 
 
 The Mayor sent East, West, North, and South, 
 To offer the Piper, by word of mouth. 
 
 Wherever it was men's lot to find him. 
 Silver and gold to his heart's content, 
 If he'd only return the way he went, 265 
 
 And bring the children behind him. 
 But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavour, 
 And Piper and dancers were gone forever, 
 They made a decree that lawyers never 
 
 Should think their records dated duly 270 
 
 If, after the day of the month and year, 
 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 35 
 
 These words did not as well appear, 
 ^'And so long after what happened here 
 
 On the Twenty-second of July, 
 Thirteen hundred and seventy-six : " 275 
 
 And the better in memory to fix 
 The place of the children's last retreat, 
 They called it, the Pied Piper's Street — 
 Where any one playing on pipe or tabor 
 Was sure for the future to lose his labour. 280 
 
 Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern 
 
 To shock with mirth a street so solemn ; 
 But opposite the place of the cavern 
 
 They wrote the story on a column. 
 And on the great church-window painted 285 
 
 The same, to make the world acquainted 
 How their children were stolen away, 
 And there it stands to this very day. 
 And I must not omit to say 
 
 That in Transylvania there's a tribe 290 
 
 Of alien people who ascribe 
 The outlandish ways and dress 
 On which their neighbours lay such stress, 
 To their fathers and mothers having risen 
 Out of some subterraneous prison 295 
 
 Into which they were trepanned 
 Long time ago in a mighty band 
 Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land, 
 But how or why, they don't understand. 
 
 XV 
 
 So, Willy, let me and you be wipers 300 
 
 Of scores out with all men — especially pipers ! 
 
36 Browning's Poems 
 
 And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice, 
 If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise ! 
 
 *'DE GUSTIBUS " 
 
 Your ghost will walk, you lover of trees, 
 
 (If our loves remain) 
 
 In an English lane. 
 By a cornfield-side a-flutter with poppies. 
 Hark, those two in the hazel coppice — s 
 
 A boy and a girl, if the good fates please. 
 
 Making love, say, — 
 
 The happier they ! 
 Draw yourself up from the light of the moon, 
 And let them pass, as they will too soon, 10 
 
 With the bean-flowers' boon. 
 
 And the blackbird's tune, 
 
 And May, and June ! 
 
 What I love best in all the world 
 
 Is a castle, precipice-encurled, is 
 
 In a gash of the wind-grieved Apennine. 
 
 Or look for me, old fellow of mine, 
 
 (If I get my head from out the mouth 
 
 O' the grave, and loose my spirit's bands. 
 
 And come again to the land of lands) — 20 
 
 In a sea-side house to the farther South, 
 
 Where the baked cicala dies of drouth, 
 
 And one sharp tree — 'tis a cypress — stands. 
 
 By the many hundred years red-rusted, 
 
 Rough iron-spiked, ripe fruit-o'ercrusted, 25 
 
Memorabilia 37 
 
 My sentinel to guard the sands 
 
 To the water's edge. For, what expands 
 
 Before the house, but the great opaque 
 
 Blue breadth of sea without a break ? 
 
 While, in the house, for ever crumbles 30 
 
 Some fragment of the frescoed walls. 
 
 From blisters where a scorpion sprawls. 
 
 A girl bare-footed brings, and tumbles 
 
 Down on the pavement, green-flesh melons, 
 
 And says there's news to-day — the king 35 
 
 Was shot at, touched in the liver-wing. 
 
 Goes with his Bourbon arm in a sling : 
 
 — She hopes they have not caught the felons. 
 
 Italy, my Italy ! 
 
 Queen Mary's saying serves for me — 40 
 
 (When fortune's malice 
 
 Lost her — Calais) — 
 Open my heart and you will see 
 Graved inside of it, "Italy." 
 
 Such lovers old are I and she : 45 
 
 So it always was, so shall ever be ! 
 
 MEMORABILIA 
 
 Ah, did you once see Shelley plain, 
 And did he stop and speak to you, 
 
 And did you speak to him again ? 
 How strange it seems and new ! 
 
 But you were living before that, s 
 
 And also you are living after ; 
 And the memory I started at — 
 
 My starting moves your laughter. 
 
38 Browning's Poems 
 
 I crossed a moor, with a name of its own 
 
 And a certain use in the world no doubt, 10 
 
 Yet a hand's-breadth of it shines alone 
 'Mid the blank miles round about : 
 
 For there I picked up on the heather, 
 
 And there I put inside my breast 
 A moulted feather, an eagle-feather ! 15 
 
 Well, I forget the rest. 
 
 INSTANS TYRANNUS 
 
 I 
 
 Or the milhon or two, more or less, 
 I rule and possess, 
 One man, for some cause undefined. 
 Was least to my mind. 
 
 II 
 I struck him, he grovelled of course — S 
 
 For, what was his force? 
 I pinned him to earth with my weight 
 And persistence of hate : 
 
 And he lay, would not moan, would not curse, 
 As his lot might be worse. 10 
 
 III 
 ''Were the object less mean, would he stand 
 At the swing of my hand ! 
 For obscurity helps him and blots 
 The hole where he squats." 
 
 So, I set my five wits on the stretch - 15 
 
 To inveigle the wretch. 
 
Instans Tyrannus 39 
 
 All in vain ! Gold and jewels I threw, 
 
 Still he couched there perdue ; 
 
 I tempted his blood and his flesh, 
 
 Hid in roses my mesh, 20 
 
 Choicest cates and the flagon's best spilth : 
 
 Stifl he kept to his filth. 
 
 IV 
 
 Had he kith now or kin, were access 
 
 To his heart, did I press : 
 
 Just a son or a mother to seize ! 25 
 
 No such booty as these. 
 
 Were it simply a friend to pursue 
 
 'Mid my million or two, 
 
 Who could pay me in person or pelf 
 
 What he owes me himself ! 30 
 
 No : I could not but smile through my chafe : 
 
 For the fellow lay safe 
 
 As his mates do, the midge and the nit, 
 
 — Through minuteness, to wit. 
 
 V 
 
 Then a humor more great took its place 35 
 
 At the thought of his face. 
 
 The droops, the low cares of the mouth, 
 
 The trouble uncouth 
 
 'Twixt the brows, all that air one is fain 
 
 To put out of its pain. 40 
 
 And, " no ! " I admonished myself, 
 
 " Is one mocked by an elf. 
 
 Is one baflied by toad or by rat ? 
 
 The gravamen's in that ! 
 
40 Browning's Poems 
 
 How the lion, who crouches to suit 4S 
 
 His back to my foot, 
 
 Would admire that I stand in debate ! 
 
 But the small turns the great 
 
 If it vexes you, — that is the thing ! 
 
 Toad or rat vex the king ? 50 
 
 Though I waste half my realm to unearth 
 
 Toad or rat, 'tis well worth ! " 
 
 VI 
 
 So, I soberly laid my last plan 
 
 To extinguish the man. 
 
 Round his creep-hole, with never a break, 55 
 
 Ran my fires for his sake ; 
 
 Over-head, did my thunder combine 
 
 With my underground mine : 
 
 Till I looked from my labor content 
 
 To enjoy the event. 60 
 
 VII 
 
 When sudden . . . how think ye, the end? 
 
 Did I say " without friend " ? 
 
 Say rather, from marge to blue marge 
 
 The whole sky grew his targe 
 
 With the sun's self for visible boss, 65 
 
 While an Arm ran across 
 
 Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast 
 
 Where the wretch was safe prest ! 
 
 Do you see? Just my vengeance complete. 
 
 The man sprang to his feet, 70 
 
 Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed ! 
 
 — So, Z" was afraid ! 
 
Tray 41 
 
 TRAY 
 
 Sing me a hero ! Quench my thirst 
 Of souls, ye bards ! 
 
 Quoth Bard the first : 
 " Sir Olaf, the good knight, did don 
 His helm and eke his habergeon "... 
 Sir Olaf and his bard — ! 5 
 
 " That sin-scathed brow " (quoth Bard the second), 
 
 ^' That eye wide ope as though Fate beckoned 
 
 My hero to some steep, beneath 
 
 Which precipice smiled tempting death "... 
 
 You too without your host have reckoned ! 10 
 
 " A beggar-child " (let's hear this third !) 
 
 '' Sat on a quay's edge : like a bird 
 
 Sang to herself at careless play, 
 
 And fell into the stream. ' Dismay ! 
 
 Help, you the standers-by ! ' None stirred. is 
 
 " Bystanders reason, think of wives 
 
 And children ere they risk their lives. 
 
 Over the balustrade has bounced 
 
 A mere instinctive dog, and pounced 
 
 Plumb on the prize. ' How well he dives ! 20 
 
 " *Up he comes with the child, see, tight 
 
 In mouth, alive too, clutched from quite 
 
 A depth of ten feet — twelve, I bet ! 
 
 Good dog ! What, off again? There's yet 
 
 Another child to save ? All right ! 25 
 
42 Browning's Poems 
 
 " ' How strange we saw no other fall ! 
 
 It's instinct in the animal. 
 
 Good dog ! But he's a long while under : 
 
 If he got drowned I should not wonder — 
 
 Strong current, that against the wall ! 30 
 
 " ' Here he comes, holds in mouth this time 
 
 — What may the thing be? Well, that's prime ! 
 
 Now, did you ever? Reason reigns 
 
 In man alone, since all Tray's pains 
 
 Have fished — the child's doll from the sHme ! ' 35 
 
 " And so, amid the laughter gay. 
 
 Trotted my hero off, — old Tray, — 
 
 Till somebody, prerogatived 
 
 With reason, reasoned : ' Why he dived. 
 
 His brain would show us, I should say. 40 
 
 " ' John, go and catch — or, if needs be. 
 
 Purchase — that animal for me ! 
 
 By vivisection, at expense 
 
 Of half-an-hour and eighteenpence, 
 
 How brain secretes dog's soul, we'll see ! ' " 45 
 
 CAVALIER TUNES 
 I 
 
 MARCHING ALONG 
 
 Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King, 
 
 Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing : 
 
 And, pressing a troop unable to stoop 
 
 And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop. 
 
Cavalier Tunes 43 
 
 Marched them along, fifty-score strong, 5 
 
 Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 
 
 God for King Charles ! Pym and such carles 
 
 To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous paries ! 
 
 Cavaliers, up ! Lips from the cup. 
 
 Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup 10 
 
 Till you're — 
 
 Chorus. — Marching along, fifty-score strong, 
 
 Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 
 
 Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knell 
 Serve Hazelrig, Fiennes, and young Harry as well ! 
 England, good cheer ! Rupert is near ! 15 
 
 Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here, 
 
 Chorus. — Marching along, fifty-score strong, 
 
 Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song f 
 
 Then, God for King Charles ! Pym and his snarls 
 To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles ! 20 
 
 Hold by the right, you double your might ; 
 So, onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight, 
 Chorus. — March we along, fifty-score strong. 
 
 Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song! 
 
 II 
 
 GIVE A ROUSE 
 
 King Charles, and who'll do him right now? 
 King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now? 
 Give a rouse : here's, in hell's despite now, 
 King Charles ! , 
 
44 Browning's Poems 
 
 Who gave me the goods that went since? S 
 
 Who raised me the house that sank once? 
 Who helped me to gold I spent since ? 
 Who found me in wine you drank once? 
 Chorus. — 
 
 King Charles, and whoHl do him right now? 
 
 King Charles, and who^s ripe for fight now ? lo 
 
 Give a rouse: here's, in helVs despite now, 
 
 King Charles ! 
 
 To whom used my boy George quaff else, 
 
 By the old fool's side that begot him ? 
 
 For whom did he cheer and laugh else, 15 
 
 While Noll's damned troopers shot him ? 
 Chorus. — 
 
 King Charles, and whoHl do him right now? 
 King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now f 
 Give a rouse: here's, in helVs despite now, 
 King Charles! 20 
 
 III 
 
 BOOT AND SADDLE 
 
 Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! 
 Rescue my castle before the hot day 
 Brightens to blue from its silvery gray. 
 
 Chorus. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! 
 
 Ride past the suburbs, asleep as you'd say ; 5 
 
 Many's the friend there, will listen and pray 
 " God's luck to gallants that strike up the lay — 
 Chorus. — Boots, saddle, to horse, and away! " 
 
Herve Riel 45 
 
 Forty miles off, like a roebuck at bay, 
 Flouts Castle Brancepeth the Roundheads' array: 10 
 
 Who laughs, " Good fellows ere this, by my fay, 
 Chorus. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! " 
 
 Who ? My wife Gertrude ; that, honest and gay, 
 Laughs when you talk of surrendering, '' Nay ! 
 I've better counsellors ; what counsel they ? 15 
 
 CHORUS. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away I " 
 
 HERVE RIEL 
 
 On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, 
 
 Did the English fight the French, — woe to France ! 
 And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the 
 
 blue. 
 Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks 
 pursue. 
 Came crowding ship on ship to Saint-Malo on the 
 Ranee, 5 
 
 With the English fleet in view. 
 
 II 
 
 'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full 
 chase ; 
 First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Dam- 
 freville ; 
 
 Close on him fled, great and small. 
 Twenty-two good ships in all; 10 
 
 And they signalled to the place 
 " Help the winners of a race ! 
 
4-6 Browning's Poems 
 
 Get us guidance, give us harbour, take us quick — or, 
 quicker still. 
 Here's the English can and will ! " 
 
 III 
 
 Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leapt on 
 
 board ; 15 
 
 " Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to 
 
 pass? " laughed they: 
 
 '^ Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred 
 
 and scored, — 
 Shall the ' Formidable ' here, with her twelve and eighty 
 guns. 
 Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow way, 
 Trust to enter — where 'tis ticklish for a craft of twenty 
 tons, 20 
 
 And with flow at full beside ? 
 Now, 'tis slackest ebb of tide. 
 Reach the mooring? Rather say, 
 While rock stands or water runs. 
 
 Not a ship will leave the bay ! " 25 
 
 « 
 
 IV 
 
 Then was called a council straight. 
 
 Brief and bitter the debate : 
 
 ''Here's the English at our heels; would you have them 
 
 take in tow 
 All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow, 
 For a prize to Plymouth Sound ? 30 
 
 Better run the ships aground ! " 
 
 (Ended Damfreville his speech.) 
 
Herve Ricl 47 
 
 '' Not a minute more to wait ! 
 
 Let the Captains all and each 
 
 Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the 
 beach ! 35 
 
 France must undergo her fate. 
 
 V 
 
 Give the word ! " But no such word 
 Was ever spoke or heard ; 
 
 For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid all 
 these 
 — A Captain ? A Lieutenant ? A Mate — first, second, 
 third ? 40 
 
 No such man of mark, and meet 
 With his betters to compete ! 
 
 But a simple Breton sailor pressed by Tourville for the 
 fleet, 
 A poor coasting-pilot he, Herve Riel the Croisickese. 
 
 VI 
 
 And ''What mockery or malice have we here?" cries 
 Herve Riel : 45 
 
 "Are you mad, you Malouins? Are you cowards, 
 fools, or rogues? 
 
 Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who took the soundings, 
 tell 
 
 On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell 
 'Twixt the ofiEing here and Greve where the river dis- 
 embogues ? 
 
 Are you bought by English gold ? Is it love the lying's 
 for ? 50 
 
48 Browning's Poems 
 
 Morn and eve, night and day, 
 Have I piloted your bay. 
 Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor. 
 Burn the fleet and ruin France? That were worse than 
 fifty Hogues ! 
 Sirs, they know I speak the truth ! Sirs, believe 
 me there's a way ! S5 
 
 Only let me lead the line. 
 
 Have the biggest ship to steer, 
 Get this ' Formidable ' clear. 
 Make the others follow mine. 
 
 And I lead them, most and least, by a passage I know 
 well, 60 
 
 Right to Solidor past Greve, 
 
 And there lay them safe and sound ; 
 And if one ship misbehave, — 
 — Keel so much as grate the ground. 
 Why, I've nothing but my life, — here's my head ! " 
 cries Herve Riel. 65 
 
 VII 
 
 Not a minute more to wait. 
 
 " Steer us in, then, small and great ! 
 
 Take the helm, lead the hne, save the squadron ! " cried 
 its chief. 
 Captains, give the sailor place ! 
 
 He is Admiral, in brief. 70 
 
 Still the north-wind, by God's .grace ! 
 See the noble fellow's face 
 As the big ship, with a bound. 
 Clears the entry like a hound, 
 
Herve Ricl ^ 49 
 
 Keeps the passage, as its inch of way were the wide sea's 
 profound ! 75 
 
 See, safe thro' shoal and rock, 
 
 How they follow in a flock, 
 Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the 
 ground, 
 
 Not a spar that comes to grief ! 
 The peril, see, is past, 80 
 
 All are harboured to the last. 
 
 And just as Herve Riel hollas " Anchor ! " — sure as fate, 
 Up the English come, — too late ! 
 
 VIII 
 
 So, the storm subsides to calm : 
 
 They see the green trees wave 85 
 
 On the heights o'erlooking Greve. 
 Hearts that bled are stanched with balm. 
 " Just our rapture to enhance. 
 
 Let the English rake the bay. 
 Gnash their teeth and glare askance 90 
 
 As they cannonade away ! 
 'Neath rampired Solidor pleasant riding on the Ranee ! " 
 How hope succeeds despair on each Captain's countenance ! 
 Out burst all with one accord, 
 
 " This is Paradise for Hell ! q5 
 
 Let France, let France's King 
 
 Thank the man that did the thing ! " 
 What a shout, and all one word, '^ Herve Riel ! " 
 As he stepped in front once more, 
 
 Not a symptom of surprise 100 
 
 In the frank blue Breton eyes. 
 Just the same man as before. 
 
50 Browning's Poems 
 
 IX 
 
 Then said Damfreville, " My friend, 
 I must speak out at the end, 
 
 Though I find the speaking hard. 105 
 
 Praise is deeper than the hps : 
 You have saved the King his ships. 
 
 You must name your own reward. 
 'Faith, our sun was near edipse ! 
 
 Demand whate'er you will, no 
 
 France remains your debtor still. 
 
 Ask to heart's content and have ! or my name's not Dam- 
 freville." ' 
 
 Then a beam of fun outbroke 
 
 On the bearded mouth that spoke, 
 
 As the honest heart laughed through ns 
 
 Those frank eyes of Breton blue : 
 
 " Since I needs must say my say, 
 
 Since on board the duty's done, 
 
 And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it but 
 a run ? — 
 Since 'tis ask and have, I may — 120 
 
 Since the others go ashore — 
 Come ! A good whole holiday ! 
 
 Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle 
 Aurore ! " 
 
 That he asked and that he got, — nothing more. 
 
 XI 
 
 Name and deed alike are lost: 125 
 
 Not a pillar nor a post 
 
Pheidippides 51 
 
 In his Croisic keeps alive the feat as it befell ; 
 Not a head in white and black 
 On a single fishing-smack, 
 In memory of the man but for whom had gone to wrack 130 
 
 All that France saved from the fight whence England 
 bore the bell. 
 Go to Paris : rank on rank 
 
 Search the heroes flung pell-mell 
 On the Louvre, face and flank ! 
 
 You shall look long enough ere you come to Herve 
 Riel. 135 
 
 So, for better and for worse, 
 Herve Riel, accept my verse ! 
 In my verse, Herve Riel, do thou once more 
 Save the squadron, honour France, love thy wife the Belle 
 Aurore ! 
 
 PHEIDIPPIDES 
 
 Xat/oere, vtKcu/xev 
 
 First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock ! 
 
 Gods of my birthplace, daemons and heroes, honour to all ! 
 
 Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal 
 in praise 
 
 — Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the aegis and 
 spear ! 
 
 Also, ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer, 5 
 
 Now, henceforth and forever, — O latest to whom I up- 
 raise 
 
 Hand and heart and voice ! For Athens, leave pasture 
 and flock ! 
 
 Present to help, potent to save, Pan — patron I call ! 
 
^2 Browning's Poems 
 
 Archons of Athens, topped .by the tettix, see, T return ! 
 
 See, 'tis myself here standing aUve, no spectre that 
 speaks ! lo 
 
 Crowned with the myrtle, did you command me, Athens 
 and you, 
 
 '^ Run, Pheidippides, run and race, reach Sparta for aid ! 
 
 Persia has come, we are here, where is She? " Your com- 
 mand I obeyed. 
 
 Ran and raced : Uke stubble, some field which a fire runs 
 through. 
 
 Was the space between city and city: two days, two 
 nights did I burn 15 
 
 Over the hills, under the dales, down pits and up peaks. 
 
 Into their midst I broke: breath served but for "Persia 
 has come ! 
 
 Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and 
 earth ; 
 
 Razed to the ground is Erctria — but Athens, shall Athens 
 sink, 
 
 Drop into dust and die — the flower of Hellas utterly die , 20 
 
 Die, with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, 
 the stander-by? 
 
 Answer me quick, what help, what hand do you stretch 
 o'er destruction's brink? 
 
 How, — when? No care for my limbs! — there's light- 
 ning in all and some — 
 
 Fresh and fit your message to bear, once lips give it birth ! " 
 
 O my Athens — Sparta love thee ? Did Sparta respond? 25 
 Every face of her leered in a furrow of envy, mistrust. 
 Malice, — each eye of her gave me its glitter of gratified 
 hate ! 
 
Pheldlppides 53 
 
 Gravely they turned to take counsel, to cast for excuses. 
 
 I stood 
 Quivering, — the limbs of me fretting as fire frets, an inch 
 
 from dry wood : 
 " Persia has come, Athens asks aid, and still they debate ? 30 
 Thunder, thou Zeus ! Athene, are Spartans a quarry 
 
 beyond 
 Swing of thy spear? Phoibos and Artemis, clang them 
 
 ' Ye must ' ! " 
 
 No bolt launched from Olympos ! Lo, their answer at 
 
 last! 
 " Has Persia come, — does Athens ask aid, — may Sparta 
 
 befriend ? 
 Nowise precipitate judgment — too weighty the issue at 
 
 stake ! 35 
 
 Count we no time lost time which lags through respect to 
 
 the gods ! 
 Ponder that precept of old, ' No warfare, whatever the 
 
 odds 
 In your favour, so long as the moon, half-orbed, is unable 
 
 to take 
 Full-circle her state in the sky ! ' Already she rounds to it 
 
 fast : 
 Athens must wait, patient as we — who judgment sus- 
 pend." 40 
 
 Athens, — except for that sparkle, — thy name, I had 
 
 mouldered to ash ! 
 That sent a blaze through my blood ; off, off and away was 
 
 I back. 
 
54 Browning's Poems 
 
 — Not one word to waste, one look to lose on the false and 
 
 the vile ! 
 Yet " O gods of my land ! " I cried, as each hillock and 
 
 plain. 
 Wood and stream, I knew, I named, rushing past them 
 
 again, 45 
 
 " Have ye kept faith, proved mindful of honours we paid 
 
 you erewhile ? 
 Vain was the filleted victim, the fulsome libation ! Too 
 
 rash 
 Love in its choice, paid you so largely service so slack ! 
 
 " Oak and olive and bay, — I bid you cease to enwreathe 
 Brows made bold by your leaf ! Fade at the Persian's 
 
 foot, 50 
 
 You that, our patrons were pledged, should never adorn a 
 
 slave ! 
 Rather I hail thee, Parnes, — trust to thy wild waste tract ! 
 Treeless, herbless, lifeless mountain ! What matter if 
 
 slacked 
 My speed may hardly be, for homage to crag and to cave 
 No diety deigns to drape with verdure? at least I can 
 
 breathe, 55 
 
 Fear in thee no fraud from the blind, no lie from the 
 
 mute ! " 
 
 Such my cry as, rapid, I ran over Parnes' ridge ; 
 Gully and gap I clambered and cleared till, sudden, a bar 
 Jutted, a stoppage of stone against me, blocking the way. 
 Right ! for I minded the hollow to traverse, the fissure 
 
 across : 60 
 
 " Where I could enter, there I depart by ! Night in the 
 
 fosse ? 
 
Pheidippides 55 
 
 Athens to aid? Though the dive were through Erebos, 
 
 thus I obey — 
 Out of the day dive, into the day as bravely arise ! No 
 
 bridge 
 Better ! " — when — ha ! what was it I came on, of 
 
 wonders that are? 
 
 There, in the cool of a cleft, sat he — majestical Pan : 65 
 Ivy drooped wanton, kissed his head, moss cushioned his 
 
 hoof : 
 All the great god was good in the eyes grave-kindly — the 
 
 curl 
 Carved on the bearded cheek, amused at a mortal's awe. 
 As, under the human trunk, the goat-thighs grand I 
 
 saw. 
 " Halt, Pheidippides ! " — halt I did, my brain of a 
 
 whirl : 70 
 
 ^' Hither to me ! Why pale in my presence ? " he gracious 
 
 began : 
 " How is it, — Athens, only in Hellas, holds me aloof? 
 
 " Athens, she only, rears me no fane, makes me no feast ! 
 
 Wherefore? Than I what godship to Athens more help- 
 ful of old? 
 
 Ay, and still, and for ever her friend! Test Pan, trust 
 me! 75 
 
 Go, bid Athens take heart, laugh Persia to scorn, have 
 faith 
 
 In the temples and tombs ! Go, say to Athens, ' The 
 Goat-God saith : 
 
 When Persia — so much as strews not the soil — is cast in 
 the sea, 
 
56 Browning's Poems 
 
 Then praise Pan who fought in the ranks with your most 
 
 and least, 
 Goat-thigh to greaved- thigh, made one cause with the 
 
 free and the bold ! ' 80 
 
 " Say Pan saith : ' Let this, foreshowing the place, be the 
 
 pledge ! ' " 
 (Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I bear 
 — Fennel — I grasped it a-tremble with dew — whatever 
 
 it bode) 
 " While, as for thee "... But enough ! He was gone. 
 
 If I ran hitherto — 
 Be sure that, the rest of my journey, I ran no longer, but 
 
 flew. 85 
 
 Parnes to Athens — earth no more, the air was my road : 
 Here am I back. Praise Pan, we stand no more on the 
 
 razor's edge ! 
 Pan for Athens, Pan for me ! I too have a guerdon rare ! 
 
 Then spoke Miltiades, " And thee, best runner of Greece, 
 Whose limbs did duty indeed, — what gift is promised 
 
 thyself ? go 
 
 Tell it us straightway, — Athens the mother demands of 
 
 her son ! " 
 Rosily blushed the youth : he paused : but, lifting at length 
 His eyes from the ground, it seemed as he gathered the 
 
 rest of his strength 
 Into the utterance — " Pan spoke thus : ' For what thou 
 
 hast done 
 Count on a worthy reward ! Henceforth be allowed thee 
 
 release 95 
 
Pheldlppldes 57 
 
 From the racer's toil, no vulgar reward in praise or in 
 pelf ! ' 
 
 " I am bold to believe, Pan means reward the most to my 
 
 mind ! 
 Fight I shall, with our foremost, wherever this fennel 
 
 may grow, — 
 Pound — Pan helping us — Persia to dust, and, under the 
 
 deep. 
 Whelm her away for ever ; and then, — no Athens to 
 
 save, — 100 
 
 Marry a certain maid, I know keeps faith to the brave, — 
 Hie to my house and home : and, when my children shall 
 
 creep ♦ 
 
 Close to my knees, — recount how the God was awful yet 
 
 kind, 
 Promised their sire reward to the full — rewarding him — 
 
 so ! " 
 
 Unforeseeing one ! Yes, he fought on the Marathon 
 day : 105 
 
 So, when Persia was dust, all cried " To Akropolis ! 
 
 Run, Pheidippides, one race more ! the meed is thy due ! 
 
 ' Athens is saved, thank Pan,' go shout ! " He flung down 
 his shield. 
 
 Ran like fire once more : and the space 'twixt the Fennel- 
 field 
 
 And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs 
 through, no 
 
 Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine 
 through clay, 
 
 Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died — the bliss ! 
 
58 Browning's Poems 
 
 So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of 
 
 salute 
 Is still " Rejoice ! " — his word which brought rejoicing 
 
 indeed. 
 So is Pheidippides happy for ever, — the noble strong 
 
 man 115 
 
 Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom 
 
 a god loved so well ; 
 He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was 
 
 suffered to tell 
 Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began, 
 So to end gloriously — once to shout, thereafter be mute : 
 " Athens is saved ! " — Pheidippides dies in the shout 
 
 for his meed. 120 
 
 THE PATRIOT 
 
 It was roses, roses, all the way. 
 
 With myrtle mixed in my path like mad : 
 
 The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway, 
 The church-spires flamed, such flags they had, 
 
 A year ago on this very day. 5 
 
 The air broke into a mist with bells. 
 
 The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries. 
 
 Had I said, " Good folk, mere noise repels — 
 But give me your sun from yonder skies ! " 
 
 They had answered, " And afterward, what else? " 10 
 
 Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun 
 
 To give it my loving friends to keep ! 
 Naught man could do, have I left undone : 
 
 And you see my harvest, what I reap 
 This very day, now a year is run. 15 
 
Rabbi Ben Ezra 59 
 
 There's nobody on the house-tops now — 
 Just a palsied few at the windows set ; 
 
 For the best of the sight is, all allow, 
 At the Shambles' Gate — or, better yet, 
 
 By the very scaffold's foot, I trow. 20 
 
 I go in the rain, and, more than needs, 
 
 A rope cuts both my wrists behind ; 
 And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds. 
 
 For they fling, whoever has a mind. 
 Stones at me for my year's misdeeds. 25 
 
 Thus I entered, and thus I go ! 
 
 In triumphs, people have dropped down dead. 
 " Paid by the world, what dost thou owe 
 
 Me? " — God might question ; now instead, 
 'Tis God shall repay : I am safer so. 30 
 
 RABBI BEN EZRA 
 
 Grow old along with me ! 
 
 The best is yet to be. 
 The last of life, for which the first was made : 
 
 Our times are in His hand 
 
 Who saith " A whole I planned, 5 
 
 Youth shows but half ; trust God : see all nor be afraid ! " 
 
 Not that, amassing flowers. 
 
 Youth sighed " Which rose make ours, 
 
 Which lily leave and then as best recall? " 
 
 Not that, admiring stars, 10 
 
 It yearned " Nor Jove, nor Mars ; 
 
 Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends 
 them all ! " 
 
6o Browning's Poems 
 
 Not for such hopes and fears 
 
 AnnulHng youth's brief years, 
 Do I remonstrate : folly wide the mark ! 15 
 
 Rather I prize the doubt 
 
 Low kinds exist without, 
 Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. 
 
 Poor vaunt of life indeed. 
 
 Were man but formed to feed 20 
 
 On joy, to solely seek and find and feast : 
 
 Such feasting ended, then 
 
 As sure an end to men ; 
 Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw- 
 crammed beast ? 
 
 Rejoice we are allied 25 
 
 To That which doth provide 
 And not partake, effect and not receive ! 
 
 A spark disturbs our clod ; 
 
 Nearer we hold of God 
 Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe. 30 
 
 Then, welcome each rebuff 
 
 That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
 Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go ! 
 
 Be our joys three-parts pain ! 
 
 Strive, and hold cheap the strain ; 35 
 
 Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! 
 
 For thence, — a paradox 
 
 Which comforts while it mocks, — 
 Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail : 
 
 What I aspired to be, 40 
 
 And was not, comforts me : 
 A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale. 
 
Rabbi Ben Ezra 6i 
 
 What is he but a brute 
 
 Whose flesh has soul to suit, 
 Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play ? 45 
 
 To man, propose this test — 
 
 Thy body at its best, 
 How far can that project thy soul on its lone way? 
 
 Yet gifts should prove their use : 
 
 I own the Past profuse so 
 
 Of power each side, perfection every turn : 
 
 Eyes, ears took in their dole. 
 
 Brain treasured up the whole ; 
 Should not the heart beat once " How good to live and 
 learn"? 
 
 Not once beat " Praise be Thine ! ss 
 
 I see the whole design, 
 I, who saw power, see now Love perfect too: 
 
 Perfect I call Thy plan : 
 
 Thanks that I was a man ! 
 Maker, remake, complete, — I trust what Thou shalt 
 do ! " 60 
 
 For pleasant is this flesh ; 
 
 Our soul, in its rose-mesh 
 Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest: 
 
 Would we some prize might hold 
 
 To match those manifold 65 
 
 Possessions of the brute, — gain most, as we did best ! 
 
 Let us not always say 
 '' Spite of this flesh to-day 
 I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole [ " 
 
62 Browning's Poems 
 
 As the bird wings and sings, 70 
 
 Let us cry '' All good things 
 Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps 
 soul ! " 
 
 Therefore I summon age 
 
 To grant youth's heritage, 
 Life's struggle having so far reached its term : 75 
 
 Thence shall I pass, approved 
 
 A man, for aye removed 
 From the developed brute ; a god though in the germ. 
 
 And I shall thereupon 
 
 Take rest, ere I be gone 80 
 
 Once more on my adventure brave and new : 
 
 Fearless and unperplexed. 
 
 When I wage battle next. 
 What weapons to select, what armour to indue. 
 
 Youth ended, I shall try 85 
 
 My gain or loss thereby ; 
 Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold : 
 
 And I shall weigh the same, 
 
 Give life its praise or blame : 
 Young, all lay in dispute ; I shall know, being old. 90 
 
 For note, when evening shuts, 
 
 A certain moment cuts 
 The deed off, calls the glory from the gray : 
 
 A whisper from the west 
 
 Shoots — " Add this to the rest, 95 
 
 Take it and try its worth : here dies another day." 
 
Rabbi Ben Ezra 63 
 
 So, still within this life, 
 
 Though lifted o'er its strife. 
 Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, 
 
 " This rage was right i' the main, 100 
 
 That acquiescence vain : 
 The Future I may face now I have proved the Past." 
 
 For more is not reserved 
 
 To man, with soul just nerved 
 To act to-morrow what he learns to-day : 105 
 
 Here, work enough to watch 
 
 The Master work, and catch 
 Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. 
 
 As it was better, youth 
 
 Should strive, through acts uncouth no 
 
 Toward making, than repose on aught found made : 
 
 So, better, age, exempt 
 
 From strife, should know, than tempt 
 Further. Thou waitedst age : wait death nor be afraid ! 
 
 Enough now, if the Right 115 
 
 And Good and Infinite 
 Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own, 
 
 With knowledge absolute. 
 
 Subject to no dispute 
 From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone. 120 
 
 Be there, for once and all. 
 
 Severed great minds from small. 
 Announced to each his station in the Past ! 
 
 Was I, the world arraigned, 
 
 Were they, my soul disdained, 125 
 
 Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last ! 
 
64 Browning's Poems 
 
 Now, who shall arbitrate? 
 
 Ten men love what I hate, 
 Shun what I follow, slight what I receive ; 
 
 Ten, who in ears and eyes 130 
 
 Match me : we all surmise, 
 They this thing, and I that : whom shall my soul believe ? 
 
 Not on the vulgar mass 
 
 Called " work," must sentence pass. 
 Things done, that took the eye and had the price ; 135 
 
 O'er which, from level stand. 
 
 The low world laid its hand. 
 Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice : 
 
 But all, the world's coarse thumb 
 
 And finger failed to plumb, 140 
 
 So passed in making up the main account ; 
 
 All instincts immature. 
 
 All purposes unsure. 
 That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's 
 amount : 
 
 Thoughts hardly to be packed 145 
 
 Into a narrow act. 
 Fancies that broke through language and escaped ; 
 
 All I could never be. 
 
 All, men ignored in me. 
 This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher 
 
 shaped. 150 
 
 Ay, note that Potter's wheel, 
 That metaphor ! and feel 
 Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay, — 
 
Rabbi Ben Ezra 65 
 
 Thou, to whom fools propound, 
 When the wine makes its round, 155 
 
 " Since life fleets, all is change ; the Past gone, seize to- 
 day ! " 
 
 Fool ! All that is, at all, 
 
 Lasts ever, past recall ; 
 Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure : 
 
 What entered into thee, 160 
 
 That was, is, and shall be : 
 Time's wheel runs back or stops : Potter and clay endure. 
 
 He fixed thee, mid this dance 
 
 Of plastic circumstance, 
 This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest : 165 
 
 Machinery just meant 
 
 To give thy soul its bent. 
 Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed. 
 
 What though the earlier grooves 
 
 Which ran the laughing loves 170 
 
 Around thy base, no longer pause and press? 
 
 What thought, about thy rim. 
 
 Skull-things in order grim 
 Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress? 
 
 Look not thou down but up ! 17s 
 
 To uses of a cup, 
 The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal. 
 
 The new wine's foaming flow. 
 
 The Master's lips aglow ! 
 Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what need'st thou with 
 earth's wheel ? 180 
 
66 Browning's Poems 
 
 But I need, now as then, 
 
 Thee, God, who mouldest men ; 
 And since, not even while the whirl was worst, 
 
 Did I, — to the wheel of Hfe 
 
 With shapes and colours rife, 185 
 
 Bound dizzily, — mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst : 
 
 So, take and use Thy work : 
 
 Amend what flaws may lurk. 
 What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! 
 
 My times be in Thy hand ! 190 
 
 Perfect the cup as planned ! 
 Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same ! 
 
 EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO 
 
 At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time. 
 
 When you set your fancies free. 
 Will they pass to where — by death, fools think, im- 
 prisoned — 
 Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so 
 
 — Pity me ? 5 
 
 Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken ! 
 
 What had I on earth to do 
 With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly? 
 Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel 
 
 — Being — who ? 10 
 
 One who never turned his back but marched breast for- 
 ward. 
 Never doubted clouds would break, 
 
Epilogue to Asolando 67 
 
 Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would 
 
 triumph, 
 Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
 
 Sleep to wake. 15 
 
 No, at noonday in the bustle of man's worktime 
 
 Greet the unseen with a cheer ! 
 Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, 
 " Strive and thrive ! " cry " Speed, — fight on, fare ever 
 There as here ! " 20 
 
NOTES 
 
 MY STAR 
 
 First published in Men and Women, 1855. A love lyric 
 supposed to refer to Mrs. Browning, It is a tribute to the 
 personal element in love, " showing how the soul of the loved 
 one reveals itself fully to the sympathetic insight of the lover 
 alone, who, having this revelation, cares nothing if the choice 
 of others be more distinguished." 
 
 4. angled spar : a prism, which has the property of breaking 
 up light into its component parts. 
 
 9. dartles : darts, probably a word coined by Browning. 
 
 11. They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it : 
 others can study and know the planets, he cares to know only 
 his star. 
 
 A FACE 
 
 A portrait of a beautiful girl painted in words by a poet 
 who had all the sympathies of an artist. " No poem in the 
 volume of Dramatis Personce is connected with pictorial art, 
 unless it be the few lines entitled A Face, lines of which Emily 
 Patmore, the wife of Coventry Patmore, the poet, was the sub- 
 ject, and written, as Browning seldom wrote, for the mere 
 record of beauty. That ' little head of hers ' is transferred 
 to Browning's panel in the manner of an early Tuscan piece 
 of ideal loveliness." (Dowden : Life of Browning.) 
 
 3. Tuscan's art : the early Tuscan artists frequently painted 
 portraits upon a background of gold. 
 
 9. Burthen : burden, load. 
 
 11. lithe : easily bent, limber. 
 
 69 
 
70 Browning's Poems 
 
 14. Correggio : Antonio AUegri da Correggio, a famous Lom- 
 bard painter. 
 
 MY LAST DUCHESS 
 
 First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. This is one of 
 the earHest specimens of the " dramatic monologues," a variety 
 of verse which became Browning's favorite form. The poem 
 depicts jealousy which has no love in it. A widowed Duke of 
 Ferrara is showing a portrait of his former wife to the envoy 
 of some nobleman whose daughter he is trying to marry. The 
 remarks of the Duke are intended to convey to the envoy and 
 through him to the lady what he demands in his new wife, — the 
 concentration of her whole being on himself and the utmost 
 devotion to his will, Mr. Arthur Symonds says : " The poem 
 is a subtle study in the jealousy of egoism, not a study so much 
 as a creation ; and it places before us, as if bitten out by the 
 etcher's acid, a typical autocrat of the Renaissance, with his 
 serene self-composure of selfishness, quiet, uncompromising 
 cruelty, and genuine devotion to art." Note that although the 
 verses rhyme the effect is that of blank verse. 
 
 The Duke speaks throughout the whole poem. 
 
 3. Fra Pandolf : Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck are 
 imaginary artists. 
 
 40. lessoned : note the use of this word as a verb. 
 
 47. Will't please you rise : The envoy rises from his seat 
 and he and the Duke start for the stairs. 
 
 48. I repeat, etc. : the Duke, in spite of his protestations, is 
 anxious to get a good dowry with his new wife. 
 
 63. Nay, we'll go Together down, sir : the acme of courtesy. 
 
 SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES 
 
 These three songs are taken from Browning's play, Pippa 
 Passes, which describes the course of one day in the life of an 
 Italian girl, Felippa or Pippa. The first song is the pure joy 
 of living. The last two verses of it are frequently quoted. 
 
Notes 71 
 
 The second song is the lament of a young page that his lady 
 is so far above him as to prevent his serving her. The third 
 is a love song, expressincr the patience of a lover. 
 
 II. 14. Kate the Queen: Catharine Cornaro, the widow of 
 James II, King of Cyprus. After the death of her husband, 
 Catharine abdicated her throne in favor of the Repubhc 
 of Venice, which granted her a palace at Asolo. There she 
 lived a peaceful idyllic life, greatly loved by all, for many 
 years. 
 
 26. jesses : little leather thongs or silk strings fastened on 
 the legs of hawks in the sport of hawking. The leash by which 
 the hawk was held was fastened to these thongs. When the 
 hawk was sent up after a bird the leash was untied, leaving the 
 jesses on the hawk's legs. 
 
 III. 27. tarry : wait for. 
 28. protracted: slow. 
 
 EURYDICE TO ORPHEUS 
 
 First published in the Royal Academy Catalogue, 1864; 
 reprinted in the Selections, 1865. " It represents Orpheus 
 leading Eurydice away from the infernal regions, but with an 
 impUed variation on the story of her subsequent return to 
 them. She was restored to Orpheus on the condition of his not 
 looking at her until they reached the upper world ; and, as the 
 legend goes, the condition proved too hard for him to fulfil. 
 But the face of Leighton's Eurydice wears an intensity of 
 longing which seems to challenge the forbidden look, and makes 
 her responsible for it. The poem thus interprets the expression 
 and translates it into words." (Mrs. Orr: Handbook to 
 Browning's Works.) 
 
 Eurydice is speaking, just before she is carried back into 
 Hades. 
 
 1. But give them me : But give to me the mouth, the eyes, 
 the brow. 
 
72 Browning's Poems 
 
 "THE MOTH'S KISS, FIRST" 
 
 These little songs are from the long dramatic poem In a 
 Gondola. The woman sings them. 
 
 4. pursed : contracted, folded up. 
 7. ope : poetic form for open. 
 
 MEETING AT NIGHT — PARTING AT 
 MORNING 
 
 First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
 The speaker is a lover who seeks his beloved from whom he 
 has to part at morn. These poems are noteworthy for their 
 fusion of human emotion and natural scenery. 
 
 15-16. him : the sun. The lover contrasts the sun's path 
 of gold with his need of returning to the world of men and the 
 work of the day. 
 
 "HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM 
 GHENT TO AIX" 
 
 First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
 " A rousing good story, of which the key-note is the galloping 
 of hard-pushed horses." This poem was written during Brown- 
 ing's first journey to Italy in 1838. The incident is imaginary. 
 Of the poem Browning says : "I wrote it under the bulwark 
 of a vessel off the African coast, after I had been at sea long 
 enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop on the back 
 of a certain good horse * York' then in my stables at home." 
 Two of the horses falling dead by the way, the good steed 
 Roland is left to reach the goal and save Aix. The distance 
 from Ghent to Aix-la-Chapelle is over ninety miles. Hasselt 
 is about eighty miles from Ghent ; Dalhem is in sight of Aix. 
 Looz and Tongres are off the direct route. Note how the meter 
 suggests the galloping of horses. 
 
 1. I : the imaginary person who is telling the story. 
 
 5. postern : the gate through which they had left the city. 
 
Notes 73 
 
 10. pique : the point of the saddle. 
 
 13. 'Twas moonset: the ride was made between midnight 
 of one day and sunset of the next. 
 
 17. Mecheln: the contracted form of Mechelen, Flemish 
 for Mechlin. The cathedral tower has its set of chimes. 
 
 43. roan : a horse of a roan color. Roan is a bay, sorrel, or 
 chestnut color, with some white or gray hairs interspersed. 
 
 44. croup : the rump or buttocks of a horse. 
 
 49. buff-coat : a thick leather coat. 
 
 50. jack-boots : long boots coming above the knee and 
 adding considerably to the weight of the rider. 
 
 59. burgesses : magistrates of the town. 
 
 INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAM? 
 
 First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. In 1809 Napoleon 
 stormed Ratisbon, a city of Bavaria. The incident narrated 
 in this poem is true, but the hero was a man, not a boy. It 
 illustrates the heroism that Napoleon was able to inspire in 
 his men. An old trooper of Napoleon's is telling the story. 
 
 1. Ratisbon : Ratisbon has endured seventeen sieges, the 
 last one being that of Napoleon in 1809. 
 
 5. With neck out-thrust : there are a number of pictures of 
 Napoleon in this attitude. 
 
 11, Lannes : Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello, one of 
 Napoleon's marshals. 
 
 29. flag-bird : eagle on the standard. Vans : wings. 
 
 THE LOST LEADER 
 
 First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
 A lament over the defection of a loved and honored chief. 
 It was suggested by Wordsworth's abandonment of the liberal 
 cause. Browning says of this poem : "I can only answer, 
 with something of shame and contrition, that I undoubtedly 
 had Wordsworth in mind, but simply as a model ; you know 
 an artist takes one or two striking traits in the features of his 
 
74 Browning's Poems 
 
 model and uses them to start his fancy on a flight which may 
 end far enough from the good man or woman who happened 
 to be sitting for nose or eye. I thought of the great Poet's 
 abandonment of LiberaHsm at an unlucky juncture, and no 
 repaying consequence that I could ever see. But once call 
 my fancy portrait Wordsworth, and how much more ought 
 one to say !" Perhaps we may consider this as a denial. The 
 first of the poem can be applied to Wordsworth only remotely, 
 as Wordsworth, although pensioned, never was decorated 
 with an order. Compare Whittier's Ichabod in which the poet 
 records his feelings at what he judged to be a defection of 
 Daniel Webster from the cause of freedom. 
 
 Wordsworth, when a young man, held very liberal or revo- 
 lutionary views. After the French Revolution he abandoned 
 those ideas and became a conservative. The person speaking 
 is supposed to be a liberal who is indignant with Wordsworth 
 because he had deserted the liberal cause. 
 
 2. riband : ribbon of a medal or order of nobility. 
 
 3. one gift : success. 
 
 8. Rags : we could have given him only rags to wear as 
 a reward for being one of us. If he had been noble enough to 
 think our rags as fine apparel as king's garments, he would 
 have been proud to wear them. 
 
 13. Shakespeare was of us : Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, 
 and Shelley were favorable to the liberal cause while they Hved. 
 Now from their graves they are watching and waiting for the 
 cause to be successful. He who might have been numbered 
 with these great ones alone has fallen away. 
 
 19. quiescence : inactivity in the liberal cause. Deeds 
 will be done, but not by him. 
 
 20. crouch : in the attitude of subjection. 
 
 20. whom the rest bade aspire : the allusion is to the efforts 
 of the liberals to inspire the lower classes to improve their 
 condition. 
 
 28. Never glad confident morning again : even if he should 
 
Notes 75 
 
 return after his apostasy, we could not have the same confident 
 feeling toward him as before. 
 
 LOVE AMONG THE RUINS 
 
 First published in Men and Women, 1855. In this poem is 
 depicted a pastoral solitude where are buried the remains of an 
 ancient city, fabulous in its magnificence and strength. The 
 speaker is to meet his sweetheart in a ruined turret that marks 
 the spot where the king of the city used to watch the racing 
 chariots as they circled it in their course. He is absorbed in 
 a melancholy contemplation of the transitoriness of human 
 glory. Against this fleeting background stands out clearly 
 the only thing that is eternal, which is Love. 
 
 No historical city is meant, but Browning may have had in 
 mind the Homeric Thebes or perhaps Babylon, certainly not 
 Rome, as some have suggested. 
 
 The metrical form of the poem is unusual. Note how the 
 short even-numbered verses serve as echoes for the verses 
 preceding. 
 
 5. Tinkle : notice the suggestiveness of this word. It pic- 
 tures the tinkling of the sheep bells as the sheep move slowly 
 homeward, stopping and feeding on the way. 
 
 39. caper : a low shrub growing on old walls in fissures of 
 rocks in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. 
 
 40. Overscored : crossed back and forth. 
 47. minions : courtiers. 
 
 61. folding: shutting up in the folds, many-tinkling fleece : 
 the fleece is used here for the sheep with their bells. 
 
 57. caught soul : became filled with a desire to reach the goal. 
 66. causeys : causeways. 
 
 HOME -THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 
 
 First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
 A loving reminiscence of an English April and May by one who 
 is living in Italy and whose heart is yearning for the delights 
 
76 Browning's Poems 
 
 of spring in his native England. Appreciation is heightened 
 by contrast, the buttercup being pronounced far brighter than 
 the " gaudy melon-flower" which the exiled Englishman has 
 at this moment before him. This is one of the few poems in 
 which Browning uses the scenery of his own country. 
 
 6. bole : the body or trunk of a tree. 
 
 14. he sings each song twice over : an instance of Brown- 
 ing's keen observation of the phenomena of nature. 
 
 19. the little children's dower : the buttercups are nature's 
 free gift to children. 
 
 HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA 
 
 First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
 An utterance of patriotic pride aroused by the sight of Tra- 
 falgar. One of the few poems in which Browning shows his 
 English patriotism. 
 
 1. Cape Saint Vincent : the southwestern point of Portugal, 
 the scene of Nelson's brilUant victory over the Spanish, 1797. 
 
 2. Cadiz Bay : on the southeastern coast of Spain. An 
 English fleet overcame a Spanish fleet there in 1596. 
 
 3. Trafalgar: here Nelson won his great victory, October 21, 
 1805, over the French fleet, — the victory which freed England 
 from the menace of invasion by Napoleon. 
 
 7. Jove's planet : the planet Jupiter. 
 
 THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND 
 
 First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. In 
 1844 Browning visited Italy and wrote this poem. It does 
 not represent any definite historical incident, but such as 
 might have occurred in the life of some Italian patriot who had 
 fled from Italy and was now an exile living in England. As 
 the patriot reflects upon the incidents of his escape and flight 
 from Italy, the wish comes to him that he may see the dis- 
 comfiture of his enemies and that he may revisit Italy and see 
 
Notes "jfj 
 
 once more the woman who had aided him to escape even at 
 the risk of her own Hfe. 
 
 3. Austria: at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Austria was 
 given Lombardy and Venetia. Although most of the inhabi- 
 tants submitted to the foreign rule, there were always small 
 bands of patriots who endeavored to throw off the Austrian 
 yoke and to make Italy independent. Both Browning and 
 Mrs. Browning were in sympathy with these efforts, and both 
 have frequent allusions to the liberation of Italy in their works. 
 
 8. Charles: Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, of the 
 younger branch of the house of Savoy. As indicated in the 
 poem, in his youth he was m sj^mpathy with Hberal principles, 
 but later left his friends in the lurch and went over to the 
 Austrian side. 
 
 19. Metternich : a famous Austrian diplomat, an enemy of 
 Italian freedom, friend : sarcastic. 
 
 20. Charles's miserable end : see note on Charles, line 8. 
 41. crypt : hiding place, 
 
 75. duomo : the famous cathedral of St. Anthony at Padua. 
 
 76. Tenebrae : darkness. The service commemorative of 
 the Crucifixion, in which fifteen lighted candles are put out 
 one at a time, symbolizing the growing darkness of the world 
 up to the time of the Crucifixion. 
 
 82. From Christ and Freedom : the watchword agreed upon 
 between the Patriot and his friends, 
 
 111. How very long, etc. : " How very long is it since I have 
 thought of aught else beside the good of Italy !" 
 
 116. Charles : see note on Charles, line 8, 
 
 127. Under his new employers : the government of Austria. 
 
 161. So much for idle wishing : note how this gives a 
 realistic touch to the poem. 
 
 UP AT A VILLA — DOWN IN THE CITY 
 
 First published in Men and Women, 1855. A view of fife 
 as seen by an Italian of quality who does not care for country 
 
78 Browning's Poems 
 
 life but who is too poor to live in the city. It is a Hvely de- 
 scription of the amusing things of city life as contrasted with 
 the dulness of life in a villa. 
 
 4. by Bacchus : " Per Baccho" — Italians still swear by 
 the wine-god. 
 
 13. awry : out of line. 
 
 27. foam-bows : miniature rainbows. 
 
 28. pash: strike violently, dash. 
 
 29. conch : shell. 
 
 33. corn : any small grain, but not the maize of America. 
 
 34. thrid: thread. 
 
 35. cicala : the cricket, whose note stuns the ear. 
 39. diligence : mail coach. 
 
 42. Pulcinello-trumpet : the trumpet announcing the begin 
 ning of the Punch and Judy show. 
 
 43. scene-picture : formerly in Italian towns it was custom- 
 ary to post in some conspicuous place, as at the post-ofifice, 
 copies of decrees, censure of the clergy, edicts of the local lord, 
 poems, notices of sermons, and other matters of general interest. 
 
 44. liberal thieves : the party striving for Italian in- 
 dependence. 
 
 47. flowery marge : the margin decorated with floral designs. 
 
 48. Dante: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321, the most cele- 
 brated Italian poet, 
 
 Boccaccio: Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313-1375, a celebrated 
 Italian novelist and poet. 
 
 Petrarca: Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, 1304-1374, one 
 of the most famous of Italian poets and scholars. He is 
 famous for his sonnets. 
 
 Saint Jerome : a famous father of the Latin Church, 340-420. 
 He published the Latin version of the Bible known as the 
 Vulgate. 
 
 Cicero : Marcus TulHus Cicero, 106 B.C.-43 B.C., the most 
 celebrated orator, philosopher, and statesman of Rome. 
 
 51. our Lady : the Virgin Mary, the seven swords symboHzing 
 
Notes 79 
 
 her sorrows and contrasting naively with the pink gauze and 
 spangles. 
 
 56. tax upon salt : a reference to the taxes imposed on all 
 provisions coming into the city. 
 
 THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 
 
 First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. This poem was 
 written to amuse Httle Willie Macready, the son of Macready, 
 the actor. It is based on one of the numerous legends that deal 
 with the subject of cheating magicians of a promised reward 
 for service rendered, and of the revenge they take. According 
 to Verstegan, " A piper named Bunting undertook for a certain 
 sum of money to free the town of Hamelin, in Brunswick, of 
 the rats which infested it ; but when he had drowned all the 
 rats in the river Weser, the townsmen refused to pay the sum 
 agreed upon. The piper, in revenge, collected the children of 
 Hamelin, and enticed them by his piping into a cavern in the 
 side of the mountain Koppenberg, which instantly closed upon 
 them." 
 
 This poem is an allegory the meaning of which is given in 
 Stanza XV. 
 
 For a beautiful dramatic treatment of this theme, see Mrs. 
 Josephine Preston Peabody's The Piper. 
 
 Browning's poem is chiefly remarkable for its rollicking 
 wealth of rhymes. 
 
 15. sprats : a small fish often confused with herring. 
 
 23. noddy: simpleton, fool. 
 
 25. gowns lined with ermine : in Europe civic officers 
 formerly were furnished with gorgeous uniforms including 
 robes lined or trimmed with ermine. These they wore when- 
 ever they appeared in public. 
 
 26. dolts: blockheads. 
 50. paunch: stomach. 
 
 68. Trump of Doom's: the sound of the angel Gabriel's 
 horn which is to arouse the dead. 
 
8o Browning's Poems 
 
 87. old-fangled : old-fashioned. 
 
 89. Cham : usually KJian, the title of the ruler of the Tartar 
 Empire. 
 
 91. Nizam: the title of the sovereign of Hyderabad in India. 
 
 123. Julius Caesar: Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar, Act I, 
 Scene 2. 
 
 136. psaltery: a musical instrument of the zither group, 
 having many strings which are plucked with the fingers. 
 
 138. dry saltery : a place for curing meat or fish by drying 
 and salting. 
 
 139. nuncheon : luncheon. 
 141. puncheon : barrel. 
 
 153. perked: to perk is to toss up the head with affected 
 smartness. 
 
 169. poke: pouch or pocket. 
 
 177. Bagdat : Bagdad, prime : the choice portion ; com- 
 pare, prime ribs of beef. 
 
 182. bate: lower the amount, reduct ; compare, rebate, 
 stiver : a small Dutch coin. 
 
 188. piebald : party-colored, alluding to the dress of the 
 Piper. 
 
 260. needle's eye : Matthew XIX, 24, " It is easier for 
 a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man 
 to enter into the kingdom of God." 
 
 296. trepanned : usually written trapanned, ensnared. 
 
 "DE GUSTIBUS — " 
 
 First published in Men and Women, 1855. The expression 
 is De gustihus non disputandum, " there is no accounting for 
 tastes." In exquisite contrast Browning sets his two loves, 
 England and Italy. There is a suggestion of the long struggle 
 of Italy for freedom at the close of the poem. 
 
 2. our loves remain : if after death we love the same things 
 we loved in life. 
 
 4. cornfield : a field of grain with poppies fluttering in it. 
 
Notes 8 1 
 
 11. bean-flowers' boon : the delicious scent of a field of 
 beans in blossom, 
 
 15. precipice-encurled: surrounded by precipices. 
 22. cicala : the cricket. 
 
 35. the king : another allusion to the efforts of the Italian 
 patriots to free their country from foreign dominion. 
 
 36. liver-wing : the right wing under which the liver was 
 placed when the bird was roasted. Here it is used for the right 
 arm. 
 
 40. Queen Mary's saying : Mary Tudor grieved so for the 
 loss of Calais in 1588 that she said the word would be found 
 written on her heart 
 
 MEMORABILIA 
 
 First published in Men and Women, 1855. Memorabilia 
 renders homage to Shelley by signalizing the moment when 
 an unappreciative person's remembrance of him was made 
 known, like a moor blank of interest save for the space where 
 the sign of an eagle's flight was found and prized. Professor 
 Corson thinks that the eagle feather "causes an isolated flash 
 of association with the poet of atmosphere, the winds, and 
 the clouds." 
 
 INSTANS TYRANNUS 
 
 First published in Men and Women, 1855. Instans Tyr annus 
 is a phrase taken from a well-known ode of Horace, meaning 
 " Threatening tyrant." The poem supposes that for some un- 
 known reason a poor, contemptible man was the object of the 
 tyrant's hate. The tyrant becomes exasperated by the very 
 insignificance of the creature : he struck him, tried to bribe 
 him, tempted his flesh and blood. But at the critical moment, 
 the victim threw himself on the protection of God. The 
 wretch 
 
 " caught at God's skirts and prayed! 
 So, / was afraid I " 
 
82 Browning's Poems 
 
 It shows how strong the weakest man may become when he 
 is in the right and has the force of good on his side. 
 
 15. So, I set my five wits on the stretch : i.e. I tried every 
 means to tempt him, to bribe him, to harm him through his 
 friends or relatives, but in vain. He was so obscure that he 
 could not be harmed by any of these means. 
 
 18. perdue : hidden. 
 
 21. cates : dainties, spilth : that which is spilled ; here the 
 wine. 
 
 29. pelf : booty ; compare, to pilfer. 
 
 31. chafe : impatience. 
 
 33. nit : the egg of some minute insect. 
 
 35. humor : idea. 
 
 44. gravamen : grievance. 
 
 63. marge : margin, edge. 
 
 64. targe : shield. 
 
 65. boss : the stud on the center of a shield. 
 
 TRAY 
 
 First published in Dramatic Idyls, 1879. The writer of the 
 poem is urging three bards to tell him a tale of a hero with a 
 soul. The first bard begins a tale of a knight, but is soon 
 stopped. The second bard begins a blood-curdling tale, but 
 also fails to satisfy the hearer and is stopped likewise. Then 
 the third bard begins a good story of the dog Tray, the real 
 theme of the poem. The last touch in this praise of Tray is the 
 picture of the unconscious inferiority of one of the bystanders, 
 who so little appreciates the spiritual quality of heroism that 
 he proposes to vivisect the dog's brain and locate his valor. 
 The incident of the dog was actually witnessed by a friend of 
 Browning's in Paris. 
 
 4. helm: helmet, eke: also, in addition, habergeon: a 
 coat of linked mail covering the neck and breast. 
 
 7. ope : poetic form for open. 
 
 19. instinctive dog: i.e. an animal which acts on instinct. 
 
Notes 83 
 
 22. in mouth : in (his) mouth. 
 
 32. prime : first-rate, capital. For another use of this word 
 compare The Pied Piper, Hne 177. 
 
 41. John : the servant of the bystander who is speaking. 
 
 43. at expense : at (the) expense. Browning frequently 
 uses this short, crabbed style, omitting articles, prepositions, 
 conjunctions, and all other words not absolutely necessary for 
 the sense. This characteristic tends to cause obscurity, but 
 it makes the style more vigorous. 
 
 CAVALIER TUNES 
 
 First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. The Cavalier 
 Tunes consist of three rousing songs, with chorus, full of 
 enthusiasm for the cause of King Charles and of defiance for 
 his opponents, the Roundheads. Note the difference in rhythm. 
 The first suggests the swing of marching men, the second is 
 a drinking song, and the third suggests galloping horsemen. 
 
 I. Marching Along 
 
 Note that the first, third, and fifth verses of each stanza 
 rhyme in the middle as well as at the end. 
 
 1. Kentish Sir Byng : no particular person is meant. The 
 name was chosen, perhaps, to rhyme with King. It is used 
 for a typical Kentish squire, loyal to King Charles. 
 
 2. Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing : telling them 
 to " go hang." crop-headed : as the shop workers from the 
 towns who fought on the side of the Puritans wore their hair 
 closely cropped the Puritan Parliament was called " crop- 
 headed." 
 
 3. pressing : impressing, enrolling by force. 
 
 4. rogues : the Roundheads, the opponents of King Charles. 
 7. Pym : John Pym was one of the leaders of the Parliament 
 
 party. John Hampden, verse 13, was another. Hampden 
 was an advocate for the people against the right of the king 
 to exact the ship-money tax. carles : churls, low fellows. 
 
84 Browning's Poems 
 
 8. paries: speeches. 
 
 14. Hazelrig : Sir Arthur Hazelrig, an important adherent 
 of OHver Cromwell. He was one of the five members of ParHa- 
 ment King Charles tried to impeach in 1642. Fiennes: 
 Nathaniel Fiennes was a rigid Presbyterian and a leading 
 adherent of OHver Cromwell, young Harry : son of Sir Henry 
 Vane, Secretary of State to King Charles. He held different 
 views from those of his father and became distinguished as a 
 Liberal. 
 
 15. Rupert: Prince Rupert of the Palatine, a nephew of 
 King Charles, was a noted cavalry leader of the RoyaHsts. 
 He proved himself a brave but imprudent soldier. 
 
 22. Nottingham: the King himself gave the signal for the 
 beginning of the war by raising the royal standard at Notting- 
 ham in 1642. 
 
 II. Give a Rouse 
 
 Browning may have had in mind Shakespeare's use of the 
 word " Rouse" for the shout that accompanies drinking. 
 1. do him right : maintain that he's right, support him. 
 5. goods that went since : confiscated by the Puritans. 
 
 16. NoU's damned troopers: Oliver Cromwell's own com- 
 pany of horse, noted for their discipHne and valor. Noll is 
 short for Oliver. 
 
 III. Boot and Saddle 
 
 The original title of this song was " My Wife Gertrude." 
 It is supposed to be sung by a party of Royalists who are riding 
 to the rescue of Castle Brancepeth, which was besieged by the 
 Puritans. 
 
 9. roebuck : the male of the deer. 
 
 10. Flouts: mocks at, scoffs at. Castle Brancepeth: a 
 Royalist stronghold near Durham. 
 
 11. fay : faith, loyalty. 
 
Notes - 85 
 
 HERVE RIEL 
 
 Published in Pacchiarotto, 1876. This stirring ballad was 
 first published in The Cornhill Magazine in 187 1 and the 
 proceeds, one hundred pounds sterling, were given to the fund 
 for the sufferers from the siege of Paris. The poem is a gracious 
 tribute from an Englishman to the French, and shows how a 
 Frenchman can do a great service to his country and ask but 
 an insignificant reward. The story is historical. In the war 
 between the English and Dutch and the French, after the 
 battle of La Hogue, 1692, the French fleet was in danger of 
 capture by the English. A simple Breton sailor guided the 
 fleet through a channel which the pilots declared impassable 
 and thus saved it from capture by the English. In the oflicial 
 account the sailor is said to have asked for dismissal from the 
 service as his reward. Browning, however, made the story 
 more dramatic by contrasting the greatness of the achievement 
 and the slightness of the reward the sailor asked for and re- 
 ceived. 
 
 4. Like a crowd of frightened porpoises (which) a shoal of 
 sharks pursue. 
 
 5. Saint-Malo : a seaport at the mouth of the Ranee. 
 
 8. Damfreville : the commander of the French squadron 
 which was fleeing. 
 
 17. starboard : right side, port : left side. 
 
 21. with flow at full beside : even when the tide is high. 
 
 30. Plymouth Sound : an English naval station. 
 
 43. pressed: see note on pressing, Marching Along, line 3. 
 Tourville : the French admiral. 
 
 44. Croisickese : a native of Croisic, a small town in Brittany. 
 46. Malouins : inhabitants of Saint-Malo. 
 
 49. Greve : the sands between Saint-Malo and Mount 
 Saint Michel, disembogues : empties. 
 
 50. Is it love the lying's for? i.e. Do you he for the mere love 
 of it? 
 
86 Browning's Poems 
 
 61. Solidor: at the mouth of the Ranee. 
 
 82. hollas: calls, cries out, shouts. 
 
 128. a head in white and black: a figurehead on a ship. 
 
 131. bore the bell : gained the victory. 
 
 134. Louvre: the Palace of the Louvre in Paris is the great 
 national gallery where are gathered statues or portraits of the 
 great men of France. There one searches in vain for a statue 
 of Herve Riel. 
 
 PHEIDIPPIDES 
 
 First published in Dramatic Idyls, 1879. 
 
 Xa/pere, vlkQ/xcp. Rejoice ; we conquer. 
 
 The facts related in this poem belong to Greek legendary 
 history, and are told by Herodotus and other writers. " When 
 Athens was threatened by the invading Persians, she sent 
 a running messenger to Sparta, to demand help against the 
 foreign foe. The mission was unsuccessful. But the ' runner' 
 Pheidippides fell in on his return with the god Pan ; and though 
 alone among the Greeks the Athenians had refused to honor 
 him, Pan promised to fight with them in the coming battle. 
 Pheidippides was present, when this battle — that of Mara- 
 thon — was fought and won. He ' ran' once more, to an- 
 nounce the victory at Athens ; and fell, dead, with the words 
 'Rejoice; we conquer!' on his lips." (Handbook to Brown- 
 ing's Works.) 
 
 2. daemons : tutelary divinities, between men and gods. 
 
 4. Her of the aegis and spear: Pallas Athena. The aegis 
 was a shield having on it the head of the Gorgon Medusa, and 
 was worn by Pallas Athena. 
 
 5. ye of the bow and the buskin : Diana, the huntress, whose 
 statues often represent her as wearing the buskin or high 
 hunting boot. 
 
 8. Pan : the god of the forest. He was represented as half 
 man and half goat and his appearance caused people to be 
 frightened ; hence from the name of the god comes the word 
 
Notes 87 
 
 " panic." The belie! was that Pan turned the tide of battle 
 at Marathon by filling the enemy with terror. 
 
 9. Archons : the chief magistrates of Athens were called 
 archons, rulers, tettix : the grasshopper. " The Athenians 
 sometimes wore golden grasshoppers in their hair as badges of 
 honor, because these insects are supposed to spring from the 
 ground, and thus they showed that they were sprung from the 
 original inhabitants of the country." (Berdoe : Browning 
 Cyclopaedia.) 
 
 12. reach Sparta : in the southernmost part of Greece, about 
 140 miles from Athens. 
 
 13. Persia has come : Darius the Great, at the head of an 
 immense Persian force, invaded Greece, 4^3 B.C., but was 
 defeated in the battle of Marathon. 
 
 18. water and earth : Darius sent heralds into all parts of 
 Greece to require, according to the custom of the Persians 
 when they wished to exact submission, water and earth, as 
 these two elements were the symbols of freedom. 
 
 19. Eretria : a city on the island of Eubcea, north of Athens. 
 
 31. quarry : prey. 
 
 32. Phoibus: Phoebus Apollo. 
 
 38. the moon, half-orbed : " The Spartans wished to help 
 the Athenians, but were unable to give them any present 
 succor, as they did not like to break their established law. It 
 was the ninth day of the first decade, and they could not march 
 out of Sparta on the ninth, when the moon had not reached the 
 full. So they waited for the full of the moon." Herodotus. 
 
 41. except for that sparkle : were it not for the fervor which 
 the name of Athens inspires, I would have burnt up with the 
 rage that was in me. 
 
 47. filleted victim : the head of a victim for sacrifice was 
 decorated with ribbons, fulsome libation: a libation was an 
 offering of oil or wine poured on the ground in honor of some 
 god. fulsome : lavish, copious, abundant. 
 
 49. Oak and olive and bay : the leaves of the oak, olive, and 
 
88 Browning's Poems 
 
 bay or laurel were used for making wreaths or crowns, the 
 marks of honor. 
 
 52. Parnes : Herodotus calls the mountain Parthenion. 
 
 62. Erebos: Hades. 
 
 65. majestical Pan : " Pan was the protecting deity of 
 flocks and herds and hunters. He was represented by the 
 ancients with a pug nose, very hairy, and with horns and feet 
 of a goat. He was described as wandering about in the woods 
 and dales and hills, playing with the nymphs and looking after 
 the flocks. ... He was the god of prophecy, and there were 
 oracles of Pan." (Berdoe : Browning Cyclopaedia.) Read 
 Mrs. Browning's poem The Dead Pan. 
 
 72. Athens . . . holds me aloof: up to this time 
 Athens had refused to give Pan the usual honors of worship. 
 
 73. fane ; shrine, altar. 
 
 80. Goat-thigh to greaved-thigh : Pan with his thighs of 
 a goat would fight side by side with the Athenians whose 
 thighs were protected by leg armor or greaves. 
 
 83. Fennel . . . whatever it bode : what it meant 
 was that the great battle was to be fought in a fennel field, 
 Marathon, as fennel in Greek is Marathon. 
 
 87. we stand no more on the razor's edge : a Greek pro- 
 verbial expression for extreme peril. 
 
 88. guerdon: prize. 
 
 89. Miltiades : one of the ten Athenian generals command- 
 ing the army that won the battle. 
 
 96. pelf : see note on Instans Tyrannus, line 29. 
 
 106. Akropolis: the citadel of a Greek city was called 
 Akropolis. 
 
 107. meed : reward. 
 
 THE PATRIOT 
 
 • 
 
 First published in Men and Women, 1855. " An old story," 
 because in all ages men have experienced this fickleness of 
 popular favor. Only a year ago, the " patriot" entered the 
 
Notes 89 
 
 city a hero, amid the. shouts of the people. To-day he passes 
 out of it on his way to execution. He is " safer so," he thinks, 
 for the reward men have withheld awaits him at the hands of 
 God. Perhaps Browning caught a hint for this poem from 
 his life in Florence, where Italian patriots were trying to 
 liberate their country. 
 
 12. To give it (to) my loving friends to keep. 
 
 17. set: placed there by their friends as they could not go 
 to the place of execution on account of their crippled con- 
 dition. In this stanza Browning gives a picture of the people 
 formerly wild with enthusiasm over the " patriot," but now 
 aU crowding to get the best places to see him executed. 
 
 RABBI BEN EZRA 
 
 First published in Dramatis PersoncB, 1864. Rabbi Ben 
 Ezra, or Ibn Ezra, was a learned Jew of the eleventh century. 
 He was poor, but studied hard and wrote many treatises on 
 Hebrew grammar, astronomy, mathematics, and commen- 
 taries on the books of the Bible. " The most striking feature 
 of Rabbi Ben Ezra's philosophy is his estimate of age. Accord- 
 ing to him the soul is eternal, but it completes the first stage 
 of its experience in the earthly life ; and the climax of the 
 earthly life is attained, not in the middle of it, but at its close. 
 Age is therefore a period, not only of rest, but of fruition." 
 (Handbook to Browning's Works.) 
 
 So far as we can judge from the remains of the old Jewish 
 rabbi's works, Browning has faithfully represented his 
 philosophy. The aged rabbi is addressing some young friend. 
 He says that we should not remonstrate with the hopes and 
 aspirations of youth, but should encourage them. Satis- 
 faction with mere material things is a sign of the brute. Yet 
 we must not despise the flesh, for the highest achievement is 
 where the flesh and spirit work in harmony. Keeping this 
 always before us we shall be ready for age, in the summing 
 up of life's gains and losses. x'VU imperfect plans, the half- 
 
90 Browning's Poems 
 
 achieved deeds, the things dreamed of but not dared — these 
 are to count with God. In death comes the fruition of all 
 youth and the consummation of age. Compare with this 
 thought Tennyson's St. Simeon Stylites for an account of 
 a lower form of ascetic ideal. 
 
 7. Not that, amassing flowers, etc. : I do not remonstrate 
 that youth, amassing flowers, sighed " Which rose make ours, 
 which lily leave, and then change my choice?" 
 
 24. Irks care : does care irk . . . does doubt fret. 
 
 29. Nearer we hold of God : have title to a nearer relation- 
 ship with God. 
 
 37. paradox: a statement that is apparently contradictory. 
 
 40. What I aspired to be : " 'tis not what man does which 
 exalts him but what man would do." Saul, 296. 
 
 47. Thy body at its best: how far can the body help the 
 soul on its lone way. 
 
 50. Past : the past of his own life. 
 
 52. dole : part, share. 
 
 57. I, who saw power, see now Love perfect too : in my 
 youth I saw God as power only ; now I see him as love also. 
 
 68. Spite of this flesh to-day : the old idea of the flesh as 
 something we must subdue. 
 
 75. term : end, limit. 
 
 77. for aye : for ever. 
 
 84. indue : put on. 
 
 87. Leave the fire ashes : " fire" is the conflicts of life, 
 " gold" is whatever has proved to be of permanent worth, 
 while " ashes" is used for whatever has failed to stand the 
 test of time. 
 
 92. A certain moment: the moment between the fading 
 of the sunset and the coming of the darkness of night. This is 
 the time to appraise the work of the day. So old age is the 
 period for appraising the life of the past. 
 
 105. To act to-morrow what he learns to-day: to put into 
 action to-morrow what he has learned to-day. 
 
Notes 91 
 
 109. As it was better, etc. : youth should not be content 
 with what has been gained, but should ever strive upward 
 toward something better, even if its work is crude. 
 
 124. Was I, the world arraigned: the relative pronouns are 
 omitted. " Was I (whom) the world arraigned or were they 
 (whom) my soul disdained, right?" 
 
 135. that took the eye and had the price : cheap, tawdry 
 things that easily measure up to the world's low standard. 
 
 138. trice : an instant of time. 
 
 150. whose wheel the pitcher shaped : the metaphor of the 
 potter's wheel is quite common. Compare Is. 64, 8, ''But 
 now, Lord, thou art our father ; we are the clay and thou 
 art our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand." Compare 
 also Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, stanzas 
 83-90. 
 
 169. What though the earlier grooves, etc. : as the pitcher 
 grows in the hands of the potter, no longer the tools press 
 laughing loves, symbolical of youth, in the clay, but graver 
 objects, symboHcal of age, take their place as the potter finishes 
 the rim. 
 
 EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO 
 
 The last poem that Browning wrote, his ultimate expression 
 of his noble optimism. " One evening just before his death 
 illness, the poet was reading this from a proof to his daughter- 
 in-law and his sister. He said : ' It almost looks like bragging 
 to say this, and as if I ought to cancel it ; but it's the simple 
 truth ; and as it's true, it shall stand.' " Compare Tennyson's 
 Crossing the Bar. 
 
INDEX OF TITLES 
 
 The references are to pages. The first reference is to the text ; the 
 second, to the notes. 
 
 Boot and Saddle, 44, 84. 
 Cavalier Tunes, 42, 83. 
 "De Gustibus— ," 36, 80. 
 Epilogue to Asolando, 66, 91. 
 Eurydice to Orpheus, 5, 71. 
 Face, A, i, 69. 
 Give a Rouse, 43, 84. 
 Herv6 Riel, 45, 85. 
 
 Home-Thoughts, from Abroad, 15, 75. 
 Home-Thoughts, from the Sea, 16, 76. 
 
 "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," 7, 72. 
 Incident of the French Camp, 9, 73. 
 Instans Tyrannus, 38, 81. 
 Italian in England, The, 16, 76. 
 Lost Leader, The, 11, 73. 
 Love among the Ruins, 12, 75. 
 Marching Along, 42, 83. 
 Meeting at Night, 6, 72. 
 Memorabilia, 2>ly 81. 
 "Moth's Kiss, First, The," 6, 72. 
 My Last Duchess, 2, 70. 
 My Star, i, 69. 
 Parting at Morning, 7, 72. 
 Patriot, The, 58, 88. 
 Pheidippides, 51, 86, 
 Pied Piper of Hamelin, The, 25, 7g. 
 Pippa Passes, Songs from, 4, 70. 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra, 59, 89. 
 Tray, 41, 82. 
 
 Up at a Villa — Down in the City, 21, 77. 
 
 93 
 
ADVERTISEMENTS 
 
The Academy Classics 
 
 T^HE Academy Classics are now issued in pocket size and 
 ■■■ are bound in new and attractive covers. The little 
 volumes will be an ornament to any library. Nearly every 
 volume has a half-tone portrait of the author, and many are 
 illustrated from original drawings. The prices will be found 
 very reasonable when the excellent quahty of print, paper, 
 and binding is considered. 
 
 Each volume is provided with introductory matter, ade- 
 quate notes, and other helps. These are always the work 
 of a teacher of reputation, whose name is a guarantee of 
 sound and judicious annotation. 
 
 The following books are now ready : — 
 
 ADDISON. De Cover ley Papers 
 
 Edited by SAMUEL Thurber. 
 
 This volume contains thirty-seven papers of which twenty have 
 Sir Roger as the main theme, and seventeen mention him in 
 such a way as to throw further hght on his character. 
 The book contains a portrait of Addison. 
 
 Select Essays 
 Edited by SAMUEL THURBER. 
 
 The editor has aimed to bring together such papers from the 
 Spectator, the Tatler, the Guardian, and the Freeholder as will 
 prove most readable to youth of high school age. There are 
 seventy selections in all, including the De Coverley Papers and 
 selections from Addison's Stories and his Hymns, The book 
 contains also Macaulay's Essay on Addison and a portrait of 
 Addison. 
 
 ARNOLD. Essays in Criticism 
 
 Edited by Susan S. Sheridan. 
 
 The essays are those on the Study of Poetry, on Keats, and on 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Rugby Chapel 
 
 Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems. 
 Sohrab '.nd Rustum 
 Edited by G. A. Watrous. (In Three Narrative Poems. 
 
The Academy Classics 
 
 BLACKMORE. Lorna Doone 
 
 Edited by R. Adelaide Witham. 
 
 This edition is printed on bible paper and is uniform with Ivanhoe. 
 The editor has made a visit to the Doone country, and this gives 
 special interest to her notes and comments. 
 
 BURKE, Conciliation with the Colonies 
 Edited by C. B. Bradley. 
 
 This book contains the complete speech, and a sketch of the 
 Enghsh Constitution and Government. 
 The frontispiece is a portrait of Burke. 
 
 BURNS. Selections 
 
 Edited by Lois G. HUFFORD. 
 
 The selections are forty-five in number and include The Cotter's 
 Saturday Night, Tam O'Shanter, The Vision, The Brigs of Ayr, 
 and all the more familiar short poems and songs. 
 The book contains a portrait of Burns. 
 
 BYRON. The Prisoner of Chillon 
 
 Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems 
 
 CARLYLE. Essay on Burns 
 Edited by H. W. BOYNTON. 
 
 In addition to the Essay on Burns, this edition contains The 
 Vision and The Cotter's Saturday Night. It thus meets the 
 College Entrance Requirements for the Essay on Burns and a 
 selection from Burns 's poems. The volume has a portrait of 
 Carlyle. 
 
 Selections 
 
 Edited by H, W. BOYNTON, 
 
 This volume includes material for the elementary study of Carlyle 
 in his earliest and most fruitful period. It contains the Essays 
 on Burns, on History, on Boswell's Life of Johnson, and selec- 
 tions from Heroes and Hero- Worship (the introduction; the 
 Hero as Poet — Dante, Shakespeare ; and the Hero as Man of 
 Letters — Johnson, Rousseau, Burns). 
 
 COLERIDGE. The Ancient Mariner 
 
 Edited by G. A. WaTROUS. (In Three Narrative Poem' 
 
 COWPER. John Gilpin's Ride 
 
 Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems. 
 
 2 
 
The Academy Classics 
 
 / 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT. Silas Marner 
 
 Edited by W. PATTERSON Atkinson. 
 
 The introduction contains a brief life of George Eliot, an account 
 of the writing of Silas Marner, and a short list of works on the 
 author. There is a portrait of the author. 
 
 EMERSON. Select Essays and Poems 
 
 Edited by Eva March Tappan. 
 
 The Essays are those on Compensation, Self-reliance, and 
 Manners. There are also nine of the best-known poems. A 
 feature of the book is the suggestive questions at the bottom of 
 each page which keep the pupil's attention on the alert and at 
 the same time aid in the interpretation of the text. 
 This edition has a portrait of Emerson. 
 
 GOLDSMITH. The Vicar of Wakefield 
 
 Edited by R. Adelaide Witham. 
 
 The introduction to the work contams a Bibliography of the Life 
 of Goldsmith, a Bibliogi'aphy of Criticism, a Life of Goidsmith ar- 
 ranged by topics, a Table of Masterpieces published during his 
 life, and an appreciation of Goldsmith's style. 
 There is a portrait of the author. 
 
 The Traveller and the Deserted Village 
 Edited by G. A. Watrous. (In Selected Poems. 
 
 GRAY. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and The Progress 
 of Poesy. 
 Edited by G. A. Watrous. (In Selected Poems. 
 
 I IRVING. Life of Goldsmith 
 
 Edited by R, Adelaide Witham. 
 
 The editor has furnished a Life of Irving arranged by topics, with 
 references to Pierre Irving's life of his uncle. There is also an 
 arrangement of the text by topics, for convenience in assigning 
 the reading. The book has a useful list of the works of Irving 
 side by side with contemporary American Literature. The frontis- 
 piece is a portrait of Irving. 
 
 The Sketch-Book 
 
 Edited by Elmer E. Wentworth. 
 
 This is the most attractive edition of the complete Sketch-Book 
 published at a reasonable price. Print, paper, and binding are ex- 
 cellent. The book contains a portrait of Irving. 
 
 3 
 
The Academy Classics 
 
 IRVING. Selections from The Sketch-Book 
 
 Edited by Elmer E, Wentworth. 
 
 This edition contains Irving's original Preface and Advertise- 
 ment, The Author's Account of Himself, The Voyage, The Wife, 
 Rip Van Winkle, Sunday in London, The Art of Bookmaking, 
 The Country Church, The Mutability of Literature, The Spectre 
 Bridegroom, Westminster Abbey, Christmas, The Stage Coach, 
 Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Stratford-on-Avon, To my Books, 
 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 These selections furnish the pupil with over two hundred pages 
 of reading from the Sketch-Book. 
 
 LOWELL. The Vision of Sir Launfal and Other Poems 
 Edited by Dr. F. R. Lane. 
 
 Besides the Vision of Sir Launfal there are thirteen poems, includ- 
 ing such passages from the Fable for Critics as refer to prominent 
 American men of letters. The selections are Summer Storm, 
 AUegra, The Rose, Rhoecus, To a Pine Tree, To the Past, The 
 Oak, The Birch Tree, To the Dandelion, On a Portrait of Dante 
 by Giotto, A Fable for Critics. W^at Mr. Robinson thinks, The 
 Courtin'. The book contains a pfortr9.it )f Lowell. 
 
 MACAULAY. Select Essays 
 Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 This selection comprises the essays on Milton, Bunyan, Johnson, 
 Goldsmith, and Madame D Arblay, thus giving illustrations both of 
 Macaulay's earlier and of his later style. The subjects of the essays 
 are such as to bring them into close relation with the study of 
 English Literature. A portrait of Macaulay is included. 
 
 Historical Essays 
 
 Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 This selection includes the essays on Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, 
 and both the essays on the Earl of Chatham. The text in each 
 case is given entire. A map of India, giving the location of places 
 named in the essays, is included and there is also a portrait oi 
 Macaulay. 
 
 MACAULAY. Edited by SAMUEL Thurber 
 Essay on Addison Essay on Johnson 
 
 Essay on Lord Clive Essay on Milton 
 
 Essays on Milton and Addison Essay on Chatham 
 
 One volume. 
 
The Academy Classics 
 
 MACAULAY. Essay on Warren Hastings 
 Edited by JOSEPH V. Denney. 
 
 This edition will be found especially useful to pupils in composition 
 who are studying Macaulay for structure. The essay affords con- 
 spicuously excellent illustrations of all four forms of discourse, — 
 narration, description, exposition, and argumentation. The book 
 has a sketch of Macaulay's life, a bibliography, and also a map of 
 India and a portrait of Macaulay. 
 
 MILTON. Minor Poems 
 
 Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 
 L'AUegro ; II Penseroso ; Comus ; Lycidas ; Arcades ; On the 
 Nativity; On Shakespeare; At a Solemn Music; Sonnets. The 
 edition has an introduction, notes, and a portrait of Milton. 
 
 Paradise Lost, Books I and II 
 
 Edited by Henry W. Boynton. 
 
 This edition has the first two books of Paradise Lost complete and 
 a r6sum6 of the rest of the epic, with quotations of notable passages. 
 The introduction has two plans and a description of the Milton ic 
 universe. The frontispiece of this edition is a reproduction of 
 Munkacsy's paining of the blind Milton dictating Paradise Lost to 
 his daughters. 
 
 POPE, The Rape of the Lock 
 
 Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems. 
 
 An Essay on Criticism 
 Edited by GEORGE A. Watrous. (In Selected Poems. 
 
 SCOTT. Ivanhoe ' 
 
 Edited by A. Marion Merrill. 
 
 This edition is unusually complete both in introductory matter and 
 in notes. It is printed on bible paper to make it uniform in size 
 with the other volumes of the Academy Classics. The book is 
 illustrated from original drawings. 
 
 The Lady of the Lake 
 Edited by G. B. AiTON. 
 
 In addition to the introduction and notes, this edition contains a 
 map of the Trosachs and vicinity and a portrait of Scott. 
 
 Marmion 
 • Edited by Mary E. Adams. 
 
 This edition contains an introduction, notes, a glossary, a map d 
 the Marmion country, and a portrait of Scott. 
 
 6 
 
The Academy Classics 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. New Editions. Edited by Samuel Thurber, Jr. 
 Merchant of Venice. Julius Caesar. Macbeth. (At Press.) 
 
 Each volume is illustrated by handsome half-tones, showing the 
 pirincipal characters and incidents, and contains very full notes, a 
 list of familiar quotations, together with a study of the structural 
 elements of the play, a discussion of the sources and historical set- 
 ting, and a list of topics for written compositions. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
 As You Like It. Macbeth. The Tempest. 
 
 Hamlet (with Pearson's Questions on Hamlet). 
 
 SPENCER. The Philosophy of Style 
 
 With Wright's Essay on Style. Edited by F. N . Scott. 
 The Introduction is biographical and critical. 
 
 STEVENSON. Treasure Island 
 
 Edited by W. D. Lewis. 
 
 This edition has a short introduction and a life of Stevenson. 
 Very few notes are provided. A complete glossary explains all 
 the unusual terms used in the story. 
 The book contains illustrations from original drawings and a map 
 
 An Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey 
 
 Edited by James Cloyd Bowman. 
 
 This edition contains not only maps of these interesting journeys 
 but also many half-tone illustrations. The Introduction contains 
 a life of Stevensop and a bibliography. 
 
 TENNYSON. Enoch Arden 
 
 Edited by GEORGE A. WatrouS. (In TAree Narrative Poems 
 
 Idylls of the King 
 
 Edited by H. W. BOYNTON. 
 
 This edition contains The Coming of Arthur, Gareth and Lynette, 
 Lancelot and Elaine, The Holy Grail. The Passing of Arthur. 
 Thus it has all the Selections of the College Entrance Require- 
 ments both for reading and for study. There is a portrait of the 
 author for a frontispiece. 
 
 6 
 
The Academy Classics 
 
 WEBSTER. Reply to Hayne 
 Edited by C. B. Bradley. 
 
 This edition contains a brief life of Webster and an account of the 
 circumstances under which the speech was delivered. There is a 
 portrait of Webster. 
 
 Four English Poems 
 
 Edited by L. D. Syle. 
 
 The Rape of the Lock, John Gilpin's Ride, The Prisoner of 
 Chillon, and Rugby Chapel. This edition has an introduction, 
 notes, and a portrait of Lord Byron. 
 
 Selected Poems from Pope, Gray, and Goldsmith 
 
 Edited by GEORGE A. Watrous. . 
 
 The poems included are Pope's Essay on Criticism, Gray's Elegy 
 and Progress of Poesy, and Goldsmith's Traveller and Deserted 
 Village. The book has an introduction, notes, and a portrait of 
 Pope! 
 
 Three Narrative Poems 
 
 Edited by GEORGE A. WATROUS. 
 
 This volume contains The Ancient Mariner, Sohrab and Rustum, 
 and Enoch Arden. A map makes plain the geography of Sohrab 
 and Rustum. 
 
 Two of the selections in this book — The Ancient Mariner and 
 Sohrab and Rustum — appear in the College Entrance Require- 
 ments in English. There is a portrait of Coleridge. 
 
 The Short-Story 
 
 Edited by W. PATTERSON Atkinson. 
 
 The selections are Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, Edgar 
 Allan Poe's The Gold Bug and The Purloined Letter, Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne's Howe's Masquerade and The Bicthmark, Francis 
 Bret Harte's The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Robert Louis Stevenson's 
 The Sire de Maletroit's Door and Markheim, Rudyard Kipling's 
 Wee Willie Winkie. 
 
 In addition to the well-chosen selection of stories, the book contains 
 a practical Introduction, setting forth the development of the short- 
 story in its various forms. There is also a study of the short-story 
 as an example of narrative writing, which makes the book of 
 practical use to classes in English composition. Helpful notes on 
 each of the stories are included. The Short-Story is illustrated 
 with portraits of the authors represented. 
 
 7 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 388 878 2 # 
 
 %:.l:':xi