154 p. i-viii (Dedicated to Mrs. Sutherland Orr). p. 1-201. Proem, p. 3-4 ("Good, to forgive "), 2-measure. 24 lines. La Saisiaz, A. E. S., September 14, 18771 ("Dared and done "), p. 5-82. 618 trochaic lines. Date at end ‘Nov. 9, 1877.' 642 lines. Proem, p. 85-6 ("Such a starved bank of moss " 2), 12 lines ; 3 verses of 4, abab, 2-measure; a 2 dactyls; b 2 spondees. The Two Poets of Croisic, p. 87-191 ('Fame!' Yes, I said it and you read it), 160 stanzas of 8, ababab cc, 5-measure iambics: 1280 lines. Epilogue, p. 193-201 ("What a pretty tale you told me"), 18 stanzas of 6, abab cc; b 3-measure, a & c 4-measure; trochaics, but b & c end with monosyllables. 108 lines. The three, 1400 lines. The whole volume, 2042 lines. 1879. "Oh Love, Love:" the Lyric of Euripides in his Hippolytus 155 (B.C. 428), l. 525 sqq., englisht: in J. P. Mahaffy's Euripides,in Macmillan's Eighteen-penny Series of Classical Writers, Edited by John Richard Green,-1879, p. 116, n. After quoting Euripides's 2 stanzas, Mr. Mahaffy says, p. 115: "Mr. Browning has honoured me (Dec. 18, 1878) with the following translation of these stanzas, so that the general reader may not miss the meaning or the spirit of the ode. The English metre, though not a strict reproduction, gives an excellent idea of the original. Hurled from the hands of Love, the boy with Zeus for sire. II. Idly, how idly, by the Alpheian river And in the Pythian shrines of Phoebus, quiver Blood-offerings from the bull, which Hellas heaps: While Love we worship not-the Lord of men! Worship not him, the very key who keeps Of Aphrodite, when She closes up her dearest chamber-portals : -Love, when he comes to mortals, Wide-wasting, through those deeps of woes beyond the deep!”4 1 This is the date of the death of "A. E. S.," Miss Anne Egerton Smith, the Proprietress of the Liverpool Mercury, a great admirer of Browning's, who was at La Saisiaz with him and his sister, and whose sudden death gave rise to the Poem, in which the Soul and the Future Life, and God's dealing with man are dealt with. There was a review in her paper of The Ring and the Book. 2 Calld "Apparitions" in Selections, 1880, p. 3. 3 Calld "A Tale" in Selections, 1880, p. 367. On p. 117, Mr. Mahaffy quotes "a fragment from the Cresphontes, as we have it in Mr. Browning's version (Arist. Apol., p. 179)." "Peace" to "banish Strife." 1879. DRAMATIC IDYLS by Robert Browning London Smith, Elder, and Co., 15 Waterloo Place 1879. p. i-vi, 1-143. 1131 lines. 156 157 158 159 160 161 CONTENTS. post 8vo. Page 1 ... 27 Martin Relph (My grandfather says), alternates: 7-measure 4's, aabb. Tray (Sing me a hero!), 9 stanzas of 5, aabba: 4-measure iambics. 107 [On Tuesday, June 10, 1879, the Honorary degree of LL.D. was conferd on Browning by the University of Cambridge.3] 1 "How perfectly rightly our poet passes from the iambs in Ivàn Ivànovitch when describing the wolves coming: "'Tis the régular pád | of the wolves | in pursuit | of the life | in the slédge |,' &c. Sense and sound go so admirably together. One hears the wolves."-E. H. Hickey. 2 "Protest against Vivisection. A memorial-signed by Sir Wm. Ferguson, Mr. Ruskin, Sir Wm. Erle, Mr. Carlyle, MR. BROWNING, Mr. Tennyson, the Bishop of Exeter, and the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas-publicly protesting against the horrible cruelties too often perpetrated under the colourable pretence of scientific vivisection, will be left on the table before the Council of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals."-Dublin Mail, 25 Jan. 1875.-T. W. Carson. 3 The Cambridge Chronicle of June 14, 1879, says: "Of Mr. Browning, the Orator [Mr. J. E. Sandys] spoke in particularly complimentary language, and after referring to his poems, as being, like Pindar's, vocal to the wise,' he referred in glowing terms to Mr. Browning's deep knowledge of human nature, his intellectual subtlety, and his power of psychological analysis. He also spoke of his devotion to the muse of the drama as well as to the muse of lyric verse; to his exemplification of the power of music in Saul' and 'Abt Vogler,' and to the picture which he has painted of the life of the blameless painter of Florence in his twilight poem, 'Andrea del Sarto,' concluding as follows:-'Vesperi quotiens,""&c. The Athenæum of June 23, 1879, prints Mr. Sandys's 'felicitous eulogium': "Quanta subtilitate ipsa corda hominum reserat, intimos mentis recessus explorat, varios animi motus perscrutatur. Quod ad tragœdiam antiquiorem attinet, interpretatus est, uti nostis omnes, non modo Eschylum quo nemo sublimior, sed etiam Euripidem quo nemo humanior; quo fit ut etiam illos qui Græce nesciunt, misericordia tangat Alcestis, terrore tangat Hercules, Recentiora argumenta tragica cum lyrico quodam scribendi genere coniunxit, duas Musas et Melpomenen et Euterpen simul veneratus. Musica miracula quis dignius cecinit? Pictoris Florentini sine fraude vitam quasi inter crepuscula vesperas centem coloribus quam vividis depinxit. Vesperi quotiens, dum foco adsidemus, hoc iubente resurgit Italia. Vesperi nuper, dum huius idyllia forte meditabar, Cami inter arundines mihi videbar vocem magnam audire clamantis, Пav o piyaç où TέOvηKEV. Vivit adhuc Pan ipse, cum Marathonis memoria ["Echetlos"] et Pheidippidis velocitate immortali consociatus." 1880.1 DRAMATIC IDYLS. Second Series. By Robert Browning. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 15, Waterloo Place, 1880. p. i-viii, 1-149, post 8vo. 1212 lines. 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 CONTENTS. [Proem (You are sick, that's sure), 1 stanza of 6, ababab; 1 of 5, ... Clive (I and Clive were friends), ryme-couplets; 6-measure, mainly ... ... ... ... ... Page vii] 1 43 61 Doctor (A Rabbi told me), 86 linkt stanzas: 85 ede, ded, efe, &c.), st. 86 of 4. 5-measure iambics. Pan and Luna (O worthy of belief), 13 stanzas of 104 iambic lines [Epilogue (Touch him ne'er so lightly, into song he broke), 2 stanzas of 5, ababb. 10 lines. 6-measure trochaics (54) On the Poet Objective and Subjective; on the Latter's Aim; on SHELLEY as Man and Poet. By Robert Browning. (Being a Reprint of the Introductory Essay to [25 spurious] "Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley." Moxon, 1852.) Publisht for the Browning Society, by N. Trübner & Co., 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London, 1881, p. 1-20. 564 lines. Pages 3-4 contain A Foretalk by F. J. Furnivall; p. 5-19 the Essay; p. 19-20 the Prospectus of the Browning Society (by F. J. F.), dated 27 July, 1881. BROWNING'S PRINTED LETTERS. 1841. Letter to Laman Blanchard [April, 1841], dated "Craven Cottage, Saturday," and signed "Robert Browning.2" Printed in the Memoir, by Blanchard Jerrold, prefixed to The Poetical Works of Laman Blanchard. Lond. Chatto & Windus, 1876, pp. 6-8.-S. [1845.] Letter to Henry Fothergill Chorley, on his novel of Pomfret. [1860.] on his novel of Roccabella.3 Printed in the "Autobiography, Memoir and Letters of Henry Fothergill Chorley, compiled by Henry G. Hewlett." Lond. Bentley, 1873, vol. ii. pp. 25-26; 169-174.-S. 1 In 1880 was publisht "Selections from the Poetical Works of Robert Browning, Second Series. London Smith, Elder and Co., 15 Waterloo Place 1880," See p. 79-80. 2 It describes his journey from Camberwell to Bond Street, in quest of the 'Offerings.'"-Memoir, p. 6.-T. W. Carson. 3 Pref. p. vii, Thanks to R. B. for leave to print letters. i. 212, Intimacy with R. B.-T. W. Carson. 1846. Letter to R. H. Horne, dated Pisa, Dec. 4 [1846], in "Letters of E. B. B. to R. H. Horne," ed. S. R. T. Mayer, 1877, vol. ii, p. 182-3. Another, dated London, Sept. 24 [1851], written by E. B. B. "for Robert as well as myself, and signd [? by her] 'Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.'"-ib. p. 194-5. 1849. Letter to William Etty, R. A., dated " Bagni di Lucca, Sept. 21, 1849," and signed "Robert Browning." Printed in the "Life of William Etty, R.A. By Alexander Gilchrist" (Lond. 1855), vol. ii. pp. 280-81.-S. 1857. A Letter from Robert Browning1 to Leigh Hunt (dated Bagni di Lucca, 6th October, 1857),-is printed in The Correspondence of Leigh Hunt, edited by his Eldest Son. London: Smith and Elder, 1862, vol. ii. pp. 274-67.-S. 1871. Letter to the Editor of The Daily News, dated 19, Warwick Crescent, W., Feb. 9,' and signd Robert Browning,' in The Daily News of Feb. 10, 1871, saying that his contribution to the French Relief Fund was his publishers' payment for a lyrical poem [Hervé Riel], and not for The Ring and the Book.-T. W. C. 1874. Letter to the Editor of The Daily News, dated, Nov. 20, in Daily News, Nov. 21, 1874. Reprinted above, p. 56. 1875. Letter to the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, on the poem of The Lost Leader and Wordsworth, dated "19 Warwick-crescent, Feb. 24, 1875," and signed "Robert Browning." Printed on p. xxxvii. of the Editor's Preface, prefixed to the first volume of "The Prose Works of William Wordsworth. Edited by the Rev. A. B. Grosart." London: Edward Moxon, Son and Co., 1876.-S. 1877. The Lord Rectorship of St. Andrew's. Letter to the Editor of The Times, dated "19 Warwick-crescent, Nov. 19," and signed "Robert Browning," saying that directly he had been told of his nomination as a candidate, he wrote to decline the honour, "as I had found myself compelled to do on some former occasions."-Times, Tuesday, November 20, 1877.—S. 1878. Letter to F. J. F. in The Academy, Dec. 20, 1878, saying that he (R. B.) always took Mrs. Browning's line on Chaucer, "That mark upon his lips is wine" (Vision of Poets, 1844), “to be a proof of the geniality and joviality of Chaucer." 1881. Letter-in the PIGSBROOK AND CO. Controversy to Mr. J. Orchard Halliwell Phillipps, not meant for printing, and printed by Mr. Hl.-P., without the writer's leave, in Jan. or Feb. 1881. 1 The Postscript is signed Elizabeth Barrett Browning. On p. 268-271 is a Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Browning, signed Leigh Hunt. In vol. i, p. 316, is also a Letter to Robert Browning, dated 'Chelsea, 15 April' [1839], signed Leigh Hunt. See also the Preface, vol. i, p. vii.-T. W. Carson. APPENDIX. I. THE "SELECTIONS" FROM BROWNING'S WORKS. II. THE CHANGED-RYME AND FRESH LINES IN SORDELLO, 1863. III. SAMPLE OF THE END-CHANGED, FRESH, AND LEFT-OUT LINES IN "PARACELSUS," eds. 1835 & 1863. IV. TRIAL-LIST OF CRITICISMS AND NOTICES OF BROWNING'S WORKS. V. PERSONAL NOTICES. I. 1863. SELECTIONS | FROM THE POETICAL WORKS | OF | ROBERT BROWNING. London: | Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly, 1863. [Made by John Forster (author of the Life of Goldsmith, &c. &c.), "whom I am proud to call my friend."-Dedication to Strafford, p. 18, above, and the poet Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall), to whom Colombe's Birthday was dedicated, a very old friend, whom Browning, when in town, visited Sunday by Sunday till his death.] p. i-xii, 1-411. 16mo. PREFACE. 'This volume is published with Mr. Browning's sanction; but for the choice of the particular pieces he is in no respect responsible. The rule observed in the Selections has been to avoid giving mere fragments. Everything is presented, as far as was found practicable, in a complete form. 'Mr. Browning's leading poems, "Paracelsus," "Sordello," and "Christmas Eve and Easter Day," appear by such portions only as could be so detached that they should possess an independent and intelligible interest. His dramas, "Strafford," "Pippa Passes," "King Victor and King Charles," "The "Return of the Druses," "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon," "Colombe's Birthday," and "Luria," are represented each by separate acts or scenes, constituting pictures of character in themselves complete. His "Dramatic Lyrics," and "Men and Women," have been laid under contribution exclusively for poems without omission or abridgment. 'The volume originated with two friends, who, from the first appearance of "Paracelsus," have regarded its writer as among the few great poets of the century; who have seen this opinion, since, gain ground with the best readers and critics; and who believe that such a selection as the present may go far to render it universal. 'The manner of an original writer, always marked and peculiar, often prevents his general acceptance, until the novelty. has worn off. This, for the most part, is what is meant when certain forms of poetical genius are said to be too subtle for immediate enjoyment. Friendships likely to be lasting, are |