it is influenced and determined, to be generally discernible in its effects alone, and subordinate throughout, if not altogether excluded: and this for a reason. I have endeavoured to write a poem, not a drama: the canons of the drama are well known, and I cannot but think that, inasmuch as they have immediate regard to stage representation, the peculiar advantages they hold out are really such, only so long as the purpose for which they were at first instituted is kept in view. I do not very well understand what is called a Dramatic Poem, wherein all those restrictions only submitted to on account of compensating good in the original scheme are scrupulously retained, as though for some special fitness in themselves,—and all new facilities placed at an author's disposal by the vehicle he selects, as pertinaciously rejected. It is certain, however, that a work like mine depends more immediately on the intelligence and sympathy of the reader for its success; indeed, were my scenes stars, it must be his co-operating fancy which, supplying all chasms, shall connect the scattered lights into one constellation-a Lyre or a Crown. I trust for his indulgence towards a poem which had not been imagined six months ago; and that even should he think slightingly of the present (an experiment I am in no case likely to repeat) he will not be prejudiced against other productions which may follow in a more popular, and perhaps less difficult form. 15th March, 1835." [Paracelsus is the 1st piece in Poems, 2 vols, 1849; and in vol. iii. of Poetical Works, 3 vols, 1863; the 2nd piece in vol. i of Poetical Works, 6 vols, 1868 (p. 43-205).] 1835. The King: "A king lived long ago." 54 iambic lines in fours 7 (abab, abba, and aaaa), couplets, 3 singles, and a five. As (really 3) this Poem was in 1841 made Pippa's song in scene i. Act III. of Pippa Passes (and I've only just found it, Sept. 24, on my first day's work after 2 months in N. Wales), I give it Pippa's number (7), -as 107' its (next page), to avoid altering all my later numbers. Six lines were added,2 and others alterd, in 1841. 1 The original manuscripts of Browning's Paracelsus and Christmas Eve and Easter Day are in the Forster Collection at South Kensington.-S. 3 4 1836. Porphyria: "The rain set early in to-night:" 60 four-measure iambic lines in 12 fives, ababb. (Not alterd up to 1868, but cald "Porphyria's Lover" in 1863, Works, i. 310-12; and in 1868, iv. 299. § VI of (107) James Lee was written in 1835 or 1836.) Johannes Agricola. "There's Heaven above: and night by night." 60 four-measure iambic lines in 12 fives: ababb. Line 42,"With unexhausted blessedness," alterd in 1842, Bells, III, p. 13, to "By unexhausted power to bless." Title also alterd in 1863 (Works, i. 284) to "Johannes Agricola in Meditation." (See in 1825, Lord Dillon's Eccelino.-R. G.) 1836. Lines. "Still ailing, wind? wilt be appeased or no?" 6 stanzas 107' of 5, ababa, a 1, a 2 and b being 5-measure, b 2 four-measure, (really 6) and a 3 three-measure: 30 iambic lines. This poem, revized, was in 1864 reprinted in Dramatis Personæ as the first 6 stanzas of § VI of (107) "James Lee": see p. 59 and 60, n., below. These four poems (7', 3, 4, 107') are in The Monthly Repository, edited by W. J. Fox' (London: Charles Fox, 67 The edition of 1863, Works, iii. 50, cuts out lines 54-57 of the 1841 version, and for lines 58-60 has 1 Mr. Fox was the first noticer of Browning's boyish poems before he and the poet had met. Then they met once or twice. After some years Pauline was 5 UNIVER Paternoster Row; and William Tait, Edinburgh). The King is in vol. ix, New Series, p. 707-8; Porphyria and Johannes "ANTINOMIANS, so denominated for rejecting the Law as a thing of no use under the Gospel dispensation: they say, that good works do not further, nor evil works hinder salvation; that the child of God cannot sin, that God never chastiseth him, that murder, drunkenness, &c. are sins in the wicked but not in him, that the child of grace being once assured of salvation, afterwards never doubteth . . . that God doth not love any man for his holiness, that sanctification is no evidence of justification, &c. Pontanus, in his Catalogue of Heresies, says John Agricola was the author of this sect, A.D. 1535."-Dictionary of all Religions, 1704. 'Porphyria' and 'Johannes Agricola,' transpozed, are cald 'Madhouse Cells,' I, II, in 1842, Bells and Pom. III, where they were first reprinted: see p. 45, below. 1837. STRAFFORD: an historical Tragedy. By Robert Browning, Author of "Paracelsus." London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orine, Brown, Green, and Longman, Paternoster Row. 1837. 8vo, p. i-vi, 1-131. Dedicated to William C. Macready, April 23, 1837. Preface, p. iii, iv. Dramatis Personæ1 (Theatre-Royal, Covent Garden, May 1, 1837), p. vi (also, "Nearly ready. Sordello, in six Books. By the Author of 'Paracelsus.'"). In 5 Acts. Blank verse. Act I, sc. i, 266 lines; ii, 297 lines; Act II, sc. i, 115 lines; sc. ii, 296 lines; Act III, sc. i, 62 lines; ii, 236 lines; iii, 97 lines; Act IV, sc. i, 141 lines; ii, 196 lines; iii, 103 lines; Act V, sc. i, 41 lines; ii, 350 lines in all, 2200 lines. PREFACE. "I had for some time been engaged in a Poem of a very different nature, when induced to make the present attempt; and am not without apprehension that my eagerness to freshen a jaded mind by diverting it to the healthy natures of a grand reviewd generously by Mr. Fox in 1833, and three years after, Browning sent him two poems for his Repository. Fox's review says: "The work before us. . . has truth and life in it, ... gave us the thrill, and laid hold of us with the power, the sensation of which has never yet failed us as a test of genius. Whoever the anony mous author may be, he is a poet. . . . We felt certain of Tennyson . . . we are not less certain of the author of Pauline. . . . The whole composition is of the spirit, spiritual. The scenery is in the chambers of thought; the agencies are powers and passions; the events are transitions from one state of spiritual existence to another. And yet the composition is not dreamy; there is on it a deep stamp of reality." 1 'Lady Percy, Countess of Carlisle-Helen Faucit, now Lady (Theodore) Martin.' On Macready's production of Strafford and The Blot in the Scutcheon, see his Reminiscences, &c., 1875. 6 epoch, may have operated unfavourably on the represented play, which is one of Action in Character, rather than Character in Action. To remedy this, in some degree, considerable curtailment will be necessary, and, in a few instances, the supplying details not required, I suppose, by the mere reader. While a trifling success would much gratify, failure will not wholly discourage me from another effort: experience is to come; and earnest endeavour may yet remove many disadvantages. "The portraits are, I think, faithful; and I am exceedingly fortunate in being able, in proof of this, to refer to the subtle and eloquent exposition of the characters of Eliot and Strafford, in the Lives of Eminent British Statesmen now in the course of publication in Lardner's Cyclopedia, by a writer [John Forster] whom I am proud to call my friend; and whose biographies of Hampden, Pym, and Vane, will, I am sure, fitly illustrate the present year-the Second Centenary of the Trial concerning Ship-Money. My Carlisle, however, is purely imaginary: I at first sketched her singular likeness roughly in, as suggested by Matthew and the memoir-writers -but it was too artificial, and the substituted outline is exclusively from Voiture and Waller. "The Italian boat-song in the last scene is from Redi's Bacco, long since naturalized in the joyous and delicate version of Leigh Hunt." [Strafford was reprinted (without the Preface) in the Poetical Works, 1863, 3 vols, where it's the last piece in vol. ii, p. 503-605; and in the Poetical Works, 1868, 6 vols, where it's the 3rd and last piece in vol. i, p. 207-310.] In 1840. SORDELLO. | By Robert Browning. | London: | Edward Moxon, Dover Street. | MDCCCXL. | post 8vo, p. i-iv, 1-253. 6 Books. 5-measure iambic couplet-ryme. Reprinted (and revis'd) in Poetical Works, 3 vols, 1863: it's the 3rd and last piece in vol. iii, p. 251-465, where it has the following Dedication or Forewords (whose italics are mine) and fresh head-lines :— "To J. MILSAND, OF DIJON. "Dear Friend,-Let the next poem be introduced by your name, and so repay all trouble it ever cost me. I wrote it twenty-five years ago1 for only a few, counting even in these on somewhat more care about its subject than they really had. My own faults of expression were many; but with care for a man or book, such would be surmounted, and without it what avails the faultlessness of either? I blame nobody, least of all myself, who did my best then and since; for I lately gave That is, in round numbers; really 23 years: the poem is dated and was written in 1840. time and pains to turn my work1 into what the many might,— London, June 9, 1863. In the 1863 edition, Sordello has 5981 lines: Book I, 1000 lines; Bk. II, 1016; Bk. III, 1022; Bk. IV, 1031; Bk. V, 1026; Bk. VI, 886 lines. The odd line in Bk. IV is 1. 281, the last in p. 370. Sordello was also reprinted (with Dedication) in Poetical Works, 6 vols, 1868, where it's the 1st piece in vol. ii, p. 1-217. 1841-6. BELLS AND POMEGRANATES.2 (8 nos.: All in yellow paper covers.) 1841. No. L-PIPPA PASSES. By Robert Browning, Author of "Para 7 celsus." London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXLI. Royal 8vo, 2 cols, p. 1-16. P. 2 is 'Advertisement,' and Dedication to Serjeant Talfourd. Price 6d. sewed. Biank verse mainly, with 7 songs, and prose. Proem-couplets, triplets, fours, fives, a 6, 7, and 8; 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-measure,iambic (214 lines). I. Morning (i. 282 lines; ii. prose, 161 lines). II. Noon (i. 327 lines; ii. prose, 83 lines). III. Evening (i. 229 lines; ii. 91 lines). IV. Night (prose and a song, 221 lines). Epilogue-couplets, triplets, fours, fives, sixes, sevens, and an eight; 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-measure, iambs, with trochees, anapasts, and amphibrachs (114 lines). In all, 1722 lines. 1 See in the Appendix, notes of all the fresh and ryme-changed lines of the poem in the revized edition. But very many other lines were alterd, tho' their old rymes were kept. 2 On this title, see below, p. 51. 31. "All service ranks the same with God," 2 stanzas of 6, aa, bb, cc, 4-measure iambics, in Proem, lines 190-201; 2. A 2-measure anapæstic triplet, "Let the watching lids wink;" and 3. Pippa's 2-measure song, "The Year's at the spring," 8 lines, iambs and anapæsts, abcd, abcd, in Act I, sc. i; 4. (besides Lutwyche's 4-measure letter, "I am a painter who cannot paint," 52 lines, in iambs, anapæsts, and dactyls) Pippa's trochaic song, "Give her but a least excuse to love me," 2 stanzas of 9, ababa, cdcd-trochees, anapasts, iambs-in Act II, sc. i; 5. Pippa's song, "A King lived long ago," in fours, couplets, triplets, a five and a single, 57 iambic and anapæstic lines, 3- and 4-measure (in scene i), with 6. (in scene ii) the Second Girl's Song, "You'll love me yet! and I can tarry," 3 verses of 4, abab, a 4-measure, b 3-, 12 iambic lines, in Act III; 7. "Overhead the tree-tops meet," a seven, aa bb ce d, and nine, eee ff gg hh, 4-measure, 3-, and 5-, trochees, iambs, and anapæsts, at the end of Act IV. The Epilogue ends with the 1st, 5th (slightly alterd), and 6th lines of Pippa's first Song, "All service." For Song 5, "A King," see 7', p. 39, above. |