1 occasion of Eugène Beauharnais' marriage with the Princess of Bavaria. zeal of artists for their art might grow and stifle their envy of fellowartists," he appeals to the "Philistines of Lilliput," his countrymen, "to awake from lethargic slumber," and to "Hear (music), See (scores), And think!" In 1814 Vogler died. During the last few months of his life he lived quietly at Darmstadt, occupied chiefly with the publication of his last works. (Nisard, Vie de L'Abbé Vogler, and Fétis, Biographie Universelle des Musiciens.) [Those who object that Abt Vogler should not have been taken as the type of a great Musician, because none of his work survives, are reminded that Browning takes Vogler as a great Extemporizer only, and dwells on the evanescence of his art. His title of 'Abbé' justifies the assumption of his deep religious feeling. I have heard Browning say that he thought Mendelssohn's extemporizing more wonderful than his writing.-F.] SCRAPS. Conducted 1850. 'Art and Poetry: Being Thoughts towards Nature.' principally by Artists.1 No. 4, April, p. 187-192. A plea justifying Browning's style, by W. M. Rossetti, under the heading "Reviews, Christmas Eve and Easter Day: by Robert Browning," a book not toucht on in the article: this style "is not, in many cases, that which is spoken of as something extraneous, dragged in aforethought, for the purpose of singularity, the result more truly of a most earnest and single-minded labor after the utmost rendering of idiomatic conversational truth; the rejection of all stop-gap words; about the most literal transcript of fact compatible with the ends of poetry and true feeling for Art." 1860. Nightingale Valley / a collection / including a great number / of the choicest Lyrics and short poems / in the English Language / edited by Giraldus. [Motto] London / Bell & Daldy, 186, Fleet Street / 1860. [A subsequent edition, 1862, adds, "Edited by William Allingham."] Contains, My Last Duchess; Protus; The Laboratory; Up in a Villa, &c.; May and Death. Note Q, page 143: "The Laboratory.-A Study of the present lyric will throw some light upon the principles of this wonderful Poet's Versification. Take this verse, for example, and emphasize the words given in italics :— 'He is with her; and they know that I know Where they are, what they do they believe my tears flow While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear Empty church to pray God in for them!-I am here."-T. W. CARSON. 1 The Title to Nos. 1 and 2, Jan. and Feb. 1850, is "The Germ: / Thoughts towards Nature / In Poetry, Literature, and Art." Nos. 3 and 4 are as abuv. 1861. Dante G. Rossetti. Early Italian Poets.' Preface, p. xi, refers to "Still, what if "a great living poet", and quotes 14 lines from Sordello, Bk, I 1873. Poems by the late Isa Blagden. With a Memoir by Alfred Austin. A few lines in the Memoir, p. xiv, saying it will be agreeable to Mr. Browning if record is made that Miss Blagden was kind to Mrs. Browning during her last illness. 1874. Giuseppe Chiarini, Poesie (Storie, Canti, Traduzioni di Heine. Traduzioni di Poesie Inglesi). In Livorno. Quotes on p. 5, Browning's 4 lines "Why take the artistic way to prove so much?" &c. Ring and Book, vol. iv. § xii. 841-4; has on p. 23, in the Al Lettore,' IV. p. 23, these lines on E. B. B. and R. B. (De Gustibus, 1. 43-4.) On p. 419, the latter verse is repeated, after 'Da Robert Browning,' and Up at a Villa-Down in the City is translated as "Su in Villa e giù in Città secondo la Distinzione fatta da un ragguardevole Personaggio Italiano." The attempt does not seem to me successful: witness the Virgin-procession bit, Ra ta plan, ra ta plan; suonano i pifferi "Suona mezzogiorno, e passa 1876. Bayard Taylor. 'The Echo Club, and other Literary Diversions,' p. 21, 25, 33. Discussion of Browning's style mainly, with four imitations of a bit of Sordello, of James Lee's Wife ('By the Sea'), of the Ring and the Book (Angelo orders his Dinner'), and of Love among the Ruins ('On the Track'). It says that "Browning is the most dramatic of poets since Shakspere" (p. 25), that Sordello is perplexity, not profundity (p. 27), and shows the care with which the writer has read that poem by observing that "we have a right to be vexed with Browning, when, in the dedicatory letter to the new edition of Sordello, he says that he had taken pains to make the work something 'which the many might, instead of what the few must like,' but after all, did not choose to publish the revised copy (!). However.. Browning has a royal brain, and we owe him too much to bear malice against him."-Mrs. FitzGerald lent me the book. 1876. E. D. W. 'Verses.' Sonnet, "To R. Browning." Sonnet, "Browning and Shelley." 1879. G. Barnett Smith. Robert Browning, an article of 19 pp. in the 'International Review' for Feb. 1879. This appears to be, in substance, the same as the memoir in The Portrait.-T. LANE. 1880. 'The Pen,' June 19. Note from Mr. W. G. Kingsland, with an extract from a letter written to him by Browning in 1868 on the charge of obscurity. "I can have little doubt that my writing has been in the main too hard for many I should have been pleased to communicate with; but I never designedly tried to puzzle people, as some of my critics have supposed. On the other hand, I never pretended to offer such literature as should be a substitute for a cigar or a game at dominoes to an idle man. So, perhaps, on the whole I get my deserts, and something over—not a crowd, but a few I value more." XVIII. CONSCIENCE AND ART IN BROWNING. 1. Pauline. p. 346. BY THE REV. PROF. E. JOHNSON, M.A. 1. THE POET OF CONSCIENCE, p. 346. Conscience in Pauline, | 6. Analysis of Self-Consciousness, p. 2. The Historian of the Soul, p. 348. 5. Browning a Subjective Poet, p. 353. 9. Hopefulness of the Poet, p. 361. II. POINTS OF ART AND ÆSTHETIC, p. 362. 1. Use of Language, p. 362. 3. Music in Poetry: Poets of Ear and 4. Browning a Seer rather than Listener, p. 366. 5. Theories of the Poetic Function, p. 366. 6. Opinions on Esthetic and Art, p. 7. 368. Ascendancy of Spirit over Nature, p. 370. III. RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY, p. 372 1. Robert Browning a Mystic, p. 372. 2. Distinction of the Mystic and the Logician, p. 373. 3. Browning and Emerson, p. 375. 4. Christian Theology, p. 377. Ir has often been remarked, that through all that wondrous spiritual scenery into which the magical art of Browning has led us, there runs a deep current of conviction, self-consistent from first to last, upon all the serious subjects of human thought: upon religion, art, conduct; and in particular upon the calling and functions of the Poet. A patient and united endeavour to "disengage this current" seems to be required of us as the first condition of the fuller understanding of one who has employed his art so distinctly in the service of Didactic. To enjoy this poetry in patches can never suffice us. And if we have started with the notion that poetry or any other form of art may be detached from personal faith, we have soon found that either we must part company with such notion, or with Browning. In compliance with a request, I have to arrange a few imperfect notes on some points of interest, more particularly with reference to the earlier poems, Pauline, Paracel AT GRs corresponds with Caliban. Here we have the w, anst us, the day school, with no outlook beyond the amusements jimmolate present: the scene, a ball-room in Venice. We hear flash talk, scarcely led as the musician begins. - I can save of talking when I hear a master play!" Fetterar f the fire we have a music like the thin chirp of a tw city mutated in the monosyllabic verse, a sort of grownaylorua fi of affectations; a silly, inane music which brings is & casty vision of dead men and women, for whom life had toung people take their leasure, when the sea was warm in May? Then they et vou for their pleasure, till in due time, one by one, "am gach sare of the sound at a touch, as when Solomon willed buting up a world of real harmony-a world true because ideal. We are de bush it in, as at Saxe-Gotha, in a church in which the Oseng but one by one. We are watching a glorious cathedral Ses and theory is ever spreading, and the light is ever Reading higher and higher, until earth and heaven become he bounds of space and time are lost in an eternal present. pery race, and the pride of my soul was in sight." The lights are climbing from earth to the sky; we see terrace above tere shine feth, and the lights are spirits ascending heavenward, ere as in Jacob's vision of the angels, ascending ere they descended, and Reming as they lose themselves in the sky, a vision of a Church phant, such as Dante beheld in Paradise. mount and march like the excellent minion he was, her, one crowd but with many a crest, of gold as transparent as glass, oh his place to the rest." and up, until the sense of effort is gone, arthly endeavour is reached, and then the |