Mainly anapasts and iambs. 3 stanzas of 5, ababa; and a 4th gone across the dark so far." 44 lines, alternates, 5-measure Page 245 1864. 217 Orpheus and Eurydice. F. Leighton.' (Quoted from the Royal Academy Catalogue.) 124 "But give them me-the mouth, the eyes, the brow! Will lap me round for ever, not to pass Out of its light, though darkness lie beyond! Of one immortal look! All woe that was Defied; no past is mine, no future! look at me!" 'Robert Browning, A fragment.'-From the Catalogue of the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1864, p. 13, where it is actually printed as prose: a mess-specially in lines 6-8-duly condemd by Punch, May 28, 1864, and the Observer before that. 1 stanza of 8, aab ccb dd. 5-measure iambics. 8 lines. Reprinted in the Selections of 1865, p. 215, and in Poet. Works, 1868, vi. 153, and there cald 'Eurydice to Orpheus: a picture by Frederick Leighton, A. R. A.”) [In 1867 Browning was elected an Honorary Fellow of Balliol, and on June 25, 1867, the degree of M.A. (Oxford) was conferd on him by diploma.] 66 1868. The Poetical Works of Robert Browning, M.A., Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Smith, Elder and Co., London. 18681 [in 6 volumes]. post 8vo. [For Foretalk, see Pauline, p. 37, above. There is one new Stanza of 8 lines in these Works: Deaf and Dumb. See note, p. 64.] 125 Vol. i, p. i-viii, 1-310. Pauline-Paracelsus--Strafford. See note, p. 64. King Victor and King Charles-Dramatic Lyrics A Blot in the 'Scutcheon-Colombe's Birthday— A Soul's Tragedy-Luria-Christmas-Eve and "It has been attempted to retain and to dispose the characteristics of the general poetry, whence this is an abstract, according to an order which should allow them the prominency and effect they seem to possess when considered in the larger, not exclusively the lesser works of the poet. A musician might say, such and such chords are repeated, others made subordinate by distribution, so that a single movement may imitate the progress of the whole symphony. But there are various ways of modulating up to and connecting any given harmonies; and it will be neither a surprise nor a pain to find that better could have been done, as to both selection and sequence, than, in the present case, all care and the profoundest veneration were able to do. R. B. London, November, 1865." In 1866 also, some "Lines on Zermatt Churchyard" appeard in The Times of Aug. 30, signed B,-that is, "Robert Browning," said Notes & Queries, 3rd Ser. xii. 246. But they are plainly not his. Tis in the Athenæum list for July 18, 1868. GENERAL INDEX TO POETICAL WORKS, 1868, 6 VOLS. 1 p. 74. "In a late edition were collected and redistributed the pieces first published in 1842, 1845 and 1855 respectively, under the titles of "Dramatic Lyrics," "Dramatic Romances," and "Men and Women." It is not worth while to disturb this arrangement. "Part of the Poems were inscribed to my dear friend John Kenyon: I hope the whole may obtain the honour of an association with his memory. R. B." [The Works of 1868, or most of them, were reprinted in the United States in a handy double-columnd form, 8 pages at a time, in the Chicago and Alton Railway Time-tables for 1872, or thereabouts.] 1868[-9]. THE RING AND THE BOOK. By Robert Browning, M.A., 126 Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. In four volumes. Smith, Elder and Co., London. 1868. Blank verse. 21,116 lines. Vol. i. I. The Ring and the Book, p. 1-74; 1416 lines. II. Half-Rome, p. 75-155; 1547 lines. III. The other Half-Rome, p. 157-245; 1694 lines. Vol. ii. IV. Tertium Quid, p. 1-72; 1640 lines. V. Count Guido Franceschini, p. 73-160; 2058 lines. VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi, p. 161-251; 2105 lines. 1 New: Vol. iii. VII. Pompilia, p. 1-89; 1845 lines. VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis, Pauperum Procurator, p. 90-174; 1805 lines. IX. Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. Cam. Apostol. Advocatus, p. 175-249; 1577 lines. "Only the prism's obstruction shows aright Only by Deafness may the vexed Love wreak As favoured mouth could never, through the eyes." [These lines were written in 1862 for Woolner's partly-draped group of Constance and Arthur, the deaf and dumb children of Sir Thomas Fairbairn, which was exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1862; but the lines did not appear in the Exhibition Catalogue.] Vol. iv. X. The Pope, p. 1-92; 2134 lines. XI. Guido [Franceschini], p. 93-195; 2425 lines. XII. The Book and the Ring, p. 197-235; 870 Îines: in all, 21,116 lines. Blank verse. [As to dates, vol. i is in the Athenæum list of Nov. 21, 1868; vol. ii in that of Dec. 26; vol. iii in that of Jan. 30, 1869; and vol. iv in that of Feb. 27, 1869.] 1871. Hervé Riel, in Cornhill Magazine, March, 1871, p. 257-260. 127 Dated, "Croisic,1 Sept. 30, 1867. Robert Browning." In 11 stanzas of from 6 lines to 21.2 In all, 140 lines. 1871. BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE: Including a Transcript from Euripi128 des. By Robert Browning. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1 "Mr. Browning dates his new poem from Le Croisic, the quaint little village whose sandbanks jut out into the Bay of Biscay near the mouth of the Loire, forming the peak of the great salt plains that stretch down from Guérande to the sea. Daily News, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 1871, in a very pretty Leader on the poem. 2 The rymes are, of Stanza 1. abaaba; 2. cdeecc dd; 3. fgf hgh ii ghg; 4. jj kk ll mjm mj; 5. nnon pppo; 6. qrqrr sggsrg tuut qvlvlq; 7. jj wewec lll xxlw yyjj; 8. zvvz bgbgbb fqAAƒq sBBs; 9. CCD EEDC ddd; 10. FFaa gGGgsgss; 11. HHq III qJqJq KK ss. (Riel rymes with tell, hell, bell, mell.) The measures are 4 and 2, anapæsts and tribrachs, varied with great skill. This spirited poem was sent to the Cornhill, because Browning was askt for a subscription to the Fund for sending food to Paris after the siege by the Germans in 1870-1. Tho he condemned Louis Napoleon's war, he wisht to help the French in their distress, and he sent to the Fund the £100 that Mr. George Smith gave him for Hervé Riel. The subject of the poem and its generous treatment surely manyfolded the goodwill of the gift. An English poet restord to France its 'Forgotten Worthy.' Englishman sang the praise of a French sailor's balking the English fleet. One of the nation whose boast is that her heroes need no other motive for their noble An deeds than ' England expects every man to do his duty,' showd that in France too,-whose citizens were accuzed of seeking glory and vainglory as their dearest gain, -—was a man who could act out Nelson's words with no thought of Nelson's end,-"A peerage or Westminster Abbey,"-but just do his duty because it lay before him, and put aside with a smile the reward offerd him for doing it: a real Man, an honour to the nation and the navy of which he was part. Mr. R. H. Shepherd has lent me a transcript, made by him in 1869, of an earlier MS version of Hervé Riel, with some readings less happy than those afterwards put into the poem when first printed. These follow : Stanza 1, line 2, meet for fight. St. 2, 1. 7, victors for victor. St. 3, 1. 15, The for Then the; 1. 16, What for Why, what; to pass for ships like these for have ships like these to pass; 1. 19, narrow channel for single narrow; 1. 21, With for And with; 1. 24, water for or water; 1. 25, vessel leaves the way for ship will leave the bay. St. 4, 1. 26, as for and; 1. 29, All for All that's; 1. 30, A for For a; 1. 34, Bid for Let. St. 5, 1. 37, no for But no. St. 6, 1. 51, eve for and eve; 1. 53, station'd for and anchored; 1. 54, ships for fleet; 1. 55, there's ample for me there's a ; 1. 58, the for this; 1. 59, Keep the twenty-one by for Make the others follow. St. 7, 1. 74, Takes for clears. St. 8, 1. 93, the hope for hope; 1. 94, Cry for Out burst; 1. 96, the for France's. St. 9: line 108 is 1. 109; 1. 109 is 108 with Who for You; 1. 110 is 1. 111; 1. 111 is 110 with nigh for near. St. 10, 1. 114, And for Then ; 1. 116, And for As; 1. 120, Bank for Point; 1. 121 and 122 are tranzpozed; 1. 125 is left out. St. 11, 1. 128, thing for feat; 1. 132, What the French for All that France; the English for England; 1. 136, Eye shall range for You shall look; it stop at for you come to. 3 That is, an englishing of his Alkestis. Lady Cowper suggested the poem, and bade Browning write it. '132 is a sequel to this work.'-S. Note the lines, 2650, &c., p. 168-170, on Sir F. Leighton's fine picture of Alkestis :"I know, too, a great Kaunian painter, strong As Herakles, though rosy with a robe Of grace that softens down the sinewy strength: BROWNING 2. 1871. Title, Leaf of Dedication to the Countess Cowper, with 4 lines from E. B. B. quoted on reverse, 170 pages of text, 1-170.-S. Blank verse. 2681 lines. (Out by Aug. 12.) 1871. PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. By Robert 129 Browning. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1871. (Out by Dec. 16.) p. i-iv, 1-148. Blank verse? 2160 lines. [On (Louis) Napoleon III, his motives, dreams and plans.1] 1872.2 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. By Robert Browning. London: Smith, 130 Elder, and Co., 15, Waterloo Place, 1872. p. i-xii, 1-171.3 132 sections, six-measure iambic rymed couplets — ryming Alexandrines-2342 lines, and "Epilogue. The Householder:" "Savage I was sitting in my house, late, lone 4 ". 4 stanzas of 8, abab, cded. Pages i-xii consist of half-title, title, quotation from Molière's Don Juan Acte 1er. Scène 3o (p. v), an Englishing of it by Browning in 7 six-measure iambic ryme-couplets, "Don Juan, might you please to help one give a guess ;" and "Prologue. Amphibian" (A Butterfly at sea). "The fancy I had to-day," 19 verses of 4, alternates, 3-measure iambics. In all, 2464 lines. 1873. RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY, or TURF AND TOWERS.5 By And he has made a picture of it all. There lies Alkestis dead, beneath the sun.. And the pretty Dedication to Lady Cowper: ".. this poem absolutely owes its existence to you. . . . how good and beautiful ought such a poem to be! . . . . suffer that it make. its nearest possible approach to those Greek qualities of goodness and beauty, by laying itself gratefully at your feet!" Who says, 'What better end can ladies' beauty serve, Than to inspire poets' tongues and heroes' souls?' 1 See, on his marriage, (56) A Lover's Quarrel,' st. 5. 2 In 1872 came out the third "Selections from the Poetical Works of Robert Browning" [First Series]; and in or about 1872 the Poetical Time-tables. 3 The Poem is a man's defence to his noble wife of his admiration for a very handsome, loose, gipsy dancing-woman, and a discussion of the questions involvd in the proceeding. It is a serio-fantastic discussion on the nature of sexual love and its relation to all other modes of aesthetic life, and turns mainly on the question whether such love best fulfils itself in constancy or in change, in devotion to one object, or in the appreciation of many."-Temple Bar, Feb. 1873, p. 315. 4 These lines are 4-measure, 5 This poem is the story of Mellerio, the Paris Jeweller, and was studied at the place of his ending, St. Aubyn in Normandy, from the law-papers uzed in the suit concerning his will. It was put in type with all the true names of persons and things; but, on a proof being submitted by Browning to his friend the present Chief Justice, Lord Coleridge, then Attorney-General, the latter thought that an action for libel might lie for what was said in the poem, however unlikely it was that such procedure would be taken. Thereupon fictitious names were substituted for the real ones in every case. Next year, the appeal against the judgment in favour of the will was dismist, and, I suppoze, the matter set at rest in accordance with the ethics of the poem. I believe that Browning means to restore the true names in his next edition of the poem. "The tale is that of a modern Ultramontane Catholic, driven into sheer madness by the conflicting emotions of illicit love which he cannot control, and hyperbolical religious devotion which he does not dare to resist."-Daily News, May 3, 1873. |