ing Guide Book' and Berdoe's 'Browning Cyclopædia' both confuse the two, attributing error to Browning in spite of his letter about it. This confusion was cleared up by Harriet Ford (Poet-lore, Dec., 1891, Vol. III., p. 648, ' Browning right about the Riccardi Palace.') — 36. Because of a crime, etc. refers to the destroying of the liberties of the Florentine republic by Cosimo dei Medici and his grandson, Lorenzo, who lived in the then Medici (now Riccardi) Palace, whose darkening of the street with its bulk symbolizes the crime which took the light from Florence. –94. Arno bowers. The palace by the Arno, the river flowing through Florence. -95. Petraja, a Florentine suburb.— 69. Robbia's craft. The Robbia family were skilled in shaping the bisque known as Della Robbia ware which was long one of the Florentine manufactures, and traces of which, when Browning wrote, still adorned the outer cornice of the palace.-202. John of Douay, sculptor, 1524-1608. The statue is one of his finest works. -237. De te, fabula! Concerning thee, this fable! ('Men and Women,' 1855.) R. 103. Love among the Ruins. A lover, meditating, draws a contrast showing how the ruined spot where he and the beloved one meet-"The single little turret that remains on the plains" from which kings were once wont to look forth -is more glorified by the perfect love existing between them than it has ever been in the past when the ancient city stood there with all its pomp of triumph and war, its folly and noise and sin. The poem was written in Rome in the winter of 185354 when Robert and Mrs. Browning were staying there.-21. hundred-gated circuit of a wall. The poet perhaps had in mind Homer's description of Thebes as the "hundred-gated" city. Rome never had more than twenty (or possibly a few over twenty) gates. Homer's epithet evidently applied to the gates of the temples, as Thebes was not a walled city. ('Men and Women,' 1855.) P. 105. Time's Revenges. An author soliloquizes in his garret over the fact that he possesses a friend who loves him and would do anything in his power to serve him, but for whom he cares almost nothing. At the same time he himself loves a woman to such distraction that he counts himself crowned with love's best crown while sacrificing his soul, his body, his peace, and his fame in brooding on his love, while she could calmly decree that he should roast at a slow fire if it would compass her frivolously ambitious designs. Thus his indifference to his friend is avenged by the indifference the lady shows toward him.-46. the Florentine, Dante. Used here, seemingly, as a symbol of the highest attainments in poesy, his (the speaker's) reverence for which is so great that he would rather put his cheek under his lady's foot than that poetry should suffer any indignity at his hands; yet in. spite of all the possibilities open to him through his enthusiasm for poetry, he prefers wasting his entire energies upon one unworthy of him. (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7— - Dramatic Romances and Lyrics,' 1845.) P. 107. Waring. In recounting the sudden disappearance from among his friends of a man proud and sensitive, who with fine powers of intellect yet incurred somewhat of disdain because of his failure to accomplish anything permanent, expression is given to the deep regret experienced by his friends now that he has left them, his absence having brought them to a truer realization of his worth. If only Waring would come back, the speaker, at least, would give him the sympathy and encouragement he craved instead of playing with his sensibilities as he had done. Conjectures are indulged in as to Waring's whereabouts. The speaker prefers to think of him as back in London preparing to astonish the world with some great masterpiece in art, music, or literature. Another speaker surprises all by telling how he had seen the "last of Waring" in a momentary meeting at Trieste, but the first speaker is certain that the star of Waring is destined to rise again above their horizon. -1. Waring. Alfred Domett (born at Camberwell Grove, Surrey, May 20, 1811), a friend of Browning's, distinguished as a poet and as a Colonial statesman and ruler. His first volume of poems was published in 1832. Some verses of his in Blackwood's, 1837, attracted much attention to him as a rising young poet. In 1841 he was called to the bar, and in 1842 went out to New Zealand among the earliest settlers. There he lived for thirty years, filling several important official positions. His unceremonious departure for New Zealand with no leave-takings was the occasion of Browning's poem, which is said by Mrs. Orr to give a lifelike sketch of Domett's character. His "star" did, however, rise again for his English friends, for he returned to London in 1871. The year following saw the publication of his 'Ranolf and Amohia,' a New Zealand poem, in the course of which he characterizes Browning as "Subtlest Asserter of the Soul in Song." He met Browning again in London, and was one of the vice-presidents of the London Browning Society. Died Nov. 12, 1877. — 15. I left his arm that night myself. Geo. W. Cooke points out that in his 'Living Authors of England' Thomas Powell describes this incident, the 'young author' mentioned being himself: — "We have a vivid recollection of the last time we saw him. It was at an evening party, a few days before he sailed from England; his intimate friend, Mr. Browning, was also present. It happened that the latter was introduced that evening for the first time to a young author who had just then appeared in the literary world. This, consequently, prevented the two friends from conversation, and they parted from each other without the slightest idea on Mr. Browning's part that he was seeing his old friend Domett for the last time. Some days after, when he found that Domett had sailed, he expressed in strong terms to the writer of this sketch the self-reproach he felt at having preferred the conversation of a stranger to that of his old associate." —54. Monstr'-inform'-ingens-horrend-ous, a slight transposition of part of a line in Virgil describing Polyphemus, “Monstrum horrendum informe ingens," a mon ster horrid, misshapen, huge.-55. Demoniaco-seraphic. These two lines form a compound of adjectives humorously used by Browning to express the inferiority of the writers he praised to Waring.—99. Ichabod, "Ichabod, the glory is departed," 1 Samuel iv. 21.—122. lambwhite maiden. Iphigenia, who was borne away to Taurus by Diana, when her father, Agamemnon, was about to sacrifice her to obtain favorable winds for his expedition to Troy.-152. Caldara Polidore, a celebrated painter, born in Milan, 1492, went to Rome and was employed by Raphael to paint the friezes in the Vatican, was murdered by a servant in Messina, 1543.— 155. Purcell. An eminent English musician, composer of church music, operas, songs, and instrumental music (1658-1695). Rosy Bowers. One of Purcell's most celebrated songs. 'From Rosie Bowers' is said to have been set in his last sickness, at which time he seems to have realized the poetical fable of the Swan and to have sung more sweetly as he approached nearer his dissolution, for it seems to us as if no one of his productions was so elevated, so pleasing, so expressive, and throughout so perfect as this." (Rees's Cyclopædia, 1819.) — 190. Garrick, David. An English actor, celebrated especially for his Shakespearian parts (1716–1779).— 193. Junius, the assumed name of a political writer who in 1769 began to issue in London a series of famous letters which opposed the ministry in power and denounced several eminent persons with severe invective and pungent sarcasm.— 195. Some Chatterton shall have the luck of calling Rowley into life. The chief claim to celebrity of Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) is the real or pretended discovery of poems said to have been written in the fifteenth century by Thomas Rowley, a priest of Bristol, and found in Radcliffe church, of which Chatterton's ancestors had been sextons for many years. They are now generally considered Chatterton's own. ('Bells and Pomegranates, No. 3- Dramatic Lyrics,' 1842.) P. 113. Home Thoughts from Abroad. Expresses the longing for home of one who when spring comes remembers the joyous, dainty beauties of the English spring. The gaudy melon flower at hand, symbolic of the rankness of a southern spring, is dull in comparison with the gay buttercups that little children love. (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7— Dramatic Romances and Lyrics,' 1845.) P. 113. The Italian in England. An Italian patriot who has taken part in an unsuccessful revolt against Austrian dominance, reflects upon the incidents of his escape and flight from Italy to the end that if he ever should have a thought beyond the welfare of Italy, he would wish first for the discomfiture of his enemies and then to go and see once more the noble woman who at the risk of her own life helped him to escape.. Though there is no exact historical incident upon which this poem is founded, it has a historical background. The Charles referred to (lines 8, 11, 20, 116, 125) is Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, of the younger branch of the house of Savoy. His having played with the patriot in his youth, as the poem says, is quite possible, for Charles was brought up as a simple citizen in a public school, and one of his chief friends was Alberta Nota, a writer of liberal principles, whom he made his secretary. As indicated in the poem, Charles at first declared himself in sympathy, though in a somewhat lukewarm manner, with the rising led by Santa Rosa against Austrian domination in 1823, and upon the abdication of Victor Emanuel he became regent of Turin. But when the king Charles Felix issued a denunciation against the new government, Charles Albert succumbed to the king's threats and left his friends in the lurch. Later the Austrians marched into the country, Santa Rosa was forced to retreat from Turin, and, with his friends, he who might well have been the very patriot of the poem, was obliged to fly from Italy.-19. Metternich. The distinguished Austrian diplomatist and determined enemy of Austrian independence. -76. Tenebræ, darkness. "The office of matins and lauds, for the three last days in Holy Week. Fifteen lighted candles are placed on a triangular stand, and at the conclusion of each psalm one is put out till a single candle is left at the top of the triangle. The extinction of the other candles is said to figure the growing darkness of the world at the time of the Crucifixion. The last candle (which is not extinguished, but hidden behind the altar for a few moments) represents Christ, over whom Death could not prevail" (Dr. Berdoe). (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7- Dramatic Romances and Lyrics,' 1845.) P. 117. The Englishman in Italy. A graphic, humorous picture of peasant life on the plain of Sorrento is here presented by an Englishman, who tells his memories of various scenes grown familiar to his foreign eyes in order to keep a little peasant girl amused during the gloom of the Scirocco, just as he is preoccupying himself in Italy, while in his own England another sort of tempest is abroad and men are actually debating in parliament the use of abolishing the gloom of a human Scirocco, namely, the misery caused by the corn-laws.— 3. Scirocco. A fierce hot wind from Africa crossing the Mediterranean in autumn. 100. Isles of the Siren. The three islands off the coast, one and one half miles from Crapolla, supposed to be those described in the Odyssey (Bk. xii. and xxiii.) where the sirens sang, and referred to by Virgil in Æneid v. 1125. 125. Feast of the Rosary. The anniversary of the battle of Lepanto, where the Turkish fleet was destroyed by the Catholic powers of Europe, and for which victory our Lady of the Rosary receives annual thanks.-145. Corn-laws. In October, 1845, Sir Robert Peel, England's prime minister, asked his cabinet to concur with him in relieving - the people from the duty on corn or grain-stuffs, repealing the law passed by the parliament of 1815 in the interest of land-holders. It excited the stormy opposition to which the poem refers, resulting, however, in the passing of Peel's bill in June, 1846.186. Calvano. Browning is not sure he used the right name for the great mountain opposite Sorrento. ('Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7- Dramatic Romances and Lyrics,' 1845.) P. 120. Up at a Villa-Down in the City. A humorous portraiture of a pleasure-loving Italian nobleman who contrasts the boredom of life in the country with the excitements of town-life, and sighs over the expense of the city which condemns him to his rustic villa.-52. Seven Swords. Figurative of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, and contrasting naïvely with the pink gauze and spangles. -56. Tax on salt. . . oil pays passing the gate. Italy's system of revenue included a tax on salt, and the octroi, or town dues, must be paid on all provisions entering the city-gates. ('Men and Women,' 1855.) P. 123. Pictor Ignotus is a reverie characteristic of a monastic painter of the Renaissance who recognizes, in the genius of a youth whose pictures are praised, a gift akin to his own, but which he has never so exercised, spite of the joy such free human expression and recognition of his power would have given him, because he could not bear to submit his art to worldly contact. So, he has chosen to sink his name in unknown service to the Church, and to devote his fancy to pure and beautiful, but cold and monotonous, repetitions of sacred themes. His gentle regret that his own pictures will moulder unvisited is half wonderment that the youth can endure the sullying of his work by secular fame. (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7 Dramatic Romances and Lyrics,' 1845.) P. 124. Fra Lippo Lippi is a dramatic monologue which incidentally conveys the whole story of the occurrence the poem starts from the seizure of Fra Lippo by the City Guards, past midnight, in an equivocal neighborhood—and the lively talk that arose thereupon; outlines the character and past life of the artist-monk and the subordinate personalities of the group of officers; and makes all this cohere towards the presentation of Fra Lippo as a type of the more realistic and secular artist of the Renaissance who valued flesh, and protested against the ascetic spirit which strove to isolate the soul. The poem's presentation of Fra Lippo (1412-1469) breathes life into the passages from Vasari's Lives which it follows thus: Vasari: "The Carmelite Monk Fra Filippo di Tommaso Lippi was born in a bye street. . . behind the Convent." Browning: 7. “The Carmine's very Cloister." Vasari: "Cosimo de Medici, wishing him to execute a work in his own palace, shut him up, that he might not waste his time in running about;: but having endured this confinement for two days he made ropes with the sheets of his bed let himself down from a window and for several days gave himself up to his amusements." Brng.: 15. Lodging with a friend Cosimo of the Medici," etc. 47. "Three weeks shut within my mew, etc., Into shreds it went," etc. [Browning apologizes a little for the Frate by making the confinement three weeks instead of two days, and giving him only one night's revelry.] Vasari: "By the death of his father he was left a friendless orphan at the age of two years . . . for some time under the care of Mona Lapaccia, his aunt, who brought him up with very great difficulty till his eighth year, when, being no longer able to support the burden, she placed him in the Convent of the Carmelites Placed with others under the care of a master to . . . see what could be done with him; in place of studying he never did anything but daub his books with caricatures, whereupon the prior determined to give him. opportunity for learning to draw. The chapel, then newly painted by Masaccio, ... 44 he frequented, and practising there . . . surpassed all the others . . . while still very young painted a picture in the cloister . . . with others in fresco ... among these John the Baptist." Brng.: 81. "I was a baby when my mother died," etc.; 129. "I drew men's faces on my copy books," etc.; 136. “Nay, quoth the Prior," etc.; 196. Herodias I would say," etc. Vasari: "For the nuns of Sant' Ambrogio he painted a most beautiful picture." [The Virgin crowned with angels and saints, now in Florence at the Belle Arti. Vasari says by means of it he became known to Cosimo. Browning on the other hand crowns his poem with Lippo's description of this picture as an expiation for his pranks.] Brng.: 345." I shall paint a piece . . . Something in Sant' Ambrogio's," etc.— 23. pilchards, a kind of fish.— 53. Flower o' the broom. Of the many varieties of folksongs in Italy that which furnished Browning with a model for Lippo's songs is called a stornello. The name is variously derived. Some take it as merely short for ritornello, others derive it from a storno, to sing against each other, because the peasants sing them at their work, and as one ends a song, another caps it with a fresh one, and so on. These stornelli consist of three lines. The first usually contains the name of a flower which sets the rhyme, and is five syllables long. Thea the love theme is told in two lines of eleven syllables each, agreeing by rhyme, assonance, or repetition with the first, "Flower of the fern! Wherever you pass by, the grass springs green The last two lines lose a syllable in the translation. The address to the flower usually has no connection with the sentiment expressed in the lines following, a very evident example of which are these, "Flower of the broom bough! If you want a husband make you one of dough, Dress him up and put him in the window for a show." In some cases, salt, pepper, lemons, and even cigars are used in the first line instead of flowers. The first line may be looked upon as a burden set at the beginning instead of, as is more familiar to us, at the end. There are also stornelli formed of three lines of eleven syllables without any burden. Browning has made Lippo's songs of only two lines, but he has strictly followed the rule of making the first line, containing the address to the flower, of five syllables. The Tuscany versions of two of the songs used by Browning are as follows:- "Flower of the pine! Call me not ever happy heart again, But call me heavy heart, O comrades mine." "Flower of the broom! Unwed thy mother keeps thee not to lose That flower from the window of the room." 68. Saint Laurence. The church of San Lorenzo.-121. The Eight. The magistrases of Florence. — 130. antiphonary, the Roman Service-Book, containing all that is sung in the choir- the antiphones, responses, etc.; it was compiled by Gregory the Grat.-131. Joined arms and legs to the long music-notes. The musical notation of Lippo's day was entirely different from ours, the notes being square and oblong |