Editor in Chief:-F. J. FURNIVALL, Esq., 3, St. George's Sq., Primrose Hill, N.W. Hon, Sec.-W. A. DALZIEL, Esq., 67, Victoria Road, Finsbury Park, N. To do honour to CHAUCER, and to let the lovers and students of him see how far the best unprinted Manuscripts of his works differd from the printed texts, this Society was founded in 1868. The founder (Mr. Furnivall) began with The Canterbury Tales, and has given of them (in parallel columns in Royal 4to) six of the best theretofore unprinted Manuscripts known. Inasmuch as the parallel arrangement necessitated the alteration of the places of certain tales in some of the MSS., a print of each MS. has been issued separately, following the order of its original. The first six MSS. printed have been the Ellesmere (by leave of the Earl of Ellesmere); the Hengwrt (by leave of W. W. E. Wynne, Esq.); the Camb. Univ. Libr., MS. Gg. 4. 27; the Corpus, Oxford; the Petworth (by leave of Lord Leconfield); and the Lansdowne 851 (Brit. Mus.). The Harleian 3374 will follow. : Of Chaucer's Minor Poems,-the MSS. of which are generally later than the best MSS. of the Canterbury Tales, all the available MSS. have been printed, so as to secure all the existing evidence for the true text. Of Chaucer's Troilus, a Parallel-Text of the 3 best MSS. has been issued, and a 4th text set opposite its englisht original, Boccaccio's Filostrato, is all in type. The Boece from the best MS. is now in type too. Mr. F. J. Furnivall has read and will read all the texts with their MSS. Autotypes of all the best Chaucer MSS. either have been or will be publisht. The Society's publications are issued in two Series, of which the first contains the texts of Chaucer's works; and the Second, such originals of and essays on these as can be procured, with other illustrative treatises, and Supplementary Tales. Messrs. Trübner & Co., of 57 & 59, Ludgate Hill, London, E. C., are the Society's publishers, Messrs. Clay and Taylor of Bungay its printers, and the Alliance Bank, Bartholomew Lane, London, E.C., its bankers. The yearly subscription is two guineas, due on every 1st January, beginning with Jan. 1, 1868. More Members are wanted. All the Society's Publications can still be had. Those of the first year have just been reprinted. Prof. Child of Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the Society's Honorary Secretary for America. Hon. Sec., W. A. DALZIEL, Esq., 67, Victoria Road, Finsbury Park, N. THE WYCLIF SOCIETY. Founded by Mr. Furnivall in March, 1882, to print the Latin Works of the great early Reformer, JOHN WYCLIF, which have, to England's shame, been left in manuscript for now 500 years. These Latin works are far more important than Wyclif's English ones. Subscription 1 guinea a year, to be sent to the Hon. Sec., J. W. Standerwick, General Post Office, E.C. Books I and II of Wyclif's chief work, Summa Theologiæ, will be issued in 1883. Probably Books III-V, and VI (De Veritate Scripturæ Sacrae) in 1884 and 1885. A volume of Wyclif's Polemical Writings, edited by Dr. R. Briddensieg, will be issued for 1882, early in January, 1883. The Honorary Secretary of the Ballad Society is Mr. W. A. Dalziel. The Honorary Secretary of the English Dialect Society is J. H. Nodal, Esq., The Grange, Heaton Moor, near Stockport. Subscription a guinea a year. The Hunterian Club, Glasgow, has reprinted in 4to the complete works Samuel Rowlands, is doing those of Lodge, &c. Subscription 2 guineas a year Hon. Sec., Mr. John Alexander, Regent Street, West, Glasgow. The Spenser Society, Manchester, 2 guineas a year, is reprinting the complete works of Taylor the Water-Poet, Withers, &c. Messrs. Simms, printers, Manchester The Honorary Secretary of the Index Society is Mr. Hy. B. Wheatley, 6 Minford Gardens, West Kensington Park, London, W. The Honorary Secretary of the Folk-Lore Society is Mr. Lawrence Gomme Castlenau, Barnes, London, S.W. Prof. E. Arber's excellent English Reprints, &c., are now publisht by him at the Mason College, Birmingham. He will send a Catalogue to any applicant. 1861. 'Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. 136, Sept., vol. xxiii. No. 135, p. 555, col. 2 under "Elitor's Easy Chair." See too p. 563, eol. 1). "Fourteen years ago in 1847 this Easy Chair was sitting one day in his cool room in Florence-cool, although it was Italy and summer. A knock at the door was followed by the brisk entrance of one of the few men in Europe that Mr. Easy Chair then cared to see-Robert Browning. How delightful the hour that followed was, those at once know who know Robert Browning. It ended with a promise of meeting at Browning's tea-table that evening. *“In the evening the same alert, robust, thoroughly English-looking man presented to his wife one of the thousand young Americans who had read with eager enthusiasm her then recently-published volumes, which had a more general and hearty welcome in the United States than any English poet since the time of Byron and Company, who were the poets of our fathers. "The visitor saw, seated at the tea-table of the great room of the palace in which they were living, a very small, very slight woman, with very long curls drooping forward, almost across the eyes, hanging to the bosom, and quite concealing the pale, small face, from which the piercing, inquiring eyes looked out sensitively at the stranger. Rising from her chair, she put out cordially the thin white hand of an invalid, and in a few moments they were pleasantly chatting while the husband strode up and down the room, joining in the conversation with a vigor, humor, eagerness, and affluence of curious lore which, with his trenchant thought and subtle sympathy, make him one of the most charming and inspiring of companions. "A few days after, the same party, with one or two more, went to Vallambrosa, where they passed two days. Mrs. Browning was still too much of an invalid to walk, but we sat under the great trees upon the lawn-like hill-sides near the convent, or in the seats in the dusky convent-chapel, while Robert Browning at the organ chased a fugue of Master Hugues, of Saxe-Gotha, or dreamed out upon twilight keys a faint-throbbing toccata of Galuppi's. "In all her conversation, so mild and tender and womanly, so true and intense and rich with rare learning, there was a girl-like simplicity and sensitiveness, and a womanly earnestness that took the heart captive. She was deeply and most intelligently interested in America and Americans, and felt a kind of enthusiastic gratitude to them for their generous fondness of her poetry. "She had then been married not a year, and since then she has lived almost exclusively in Italy. Few Italians, and certainly no foreigner, are so saturated with the very spirit of Italy as her husband; and few Italians, and no foreigner, have been more enthusiastically devoted than she, to the political regeneration of that country. Her poems within a few years had been almost exclusively inspired by her Italian political sympathies, and have insensibly been much moulded in their expression by the style of her husband. "Without question or delay, Elizabeth Barrett Browning must be counted among the chief English poets of this century, and unquestionably the first English poet of her sex [Yes! Yes!]. And her memorable excellence will be that she was not only a singer, but a hearty active worker in her way, understanding her time, and trying, as she could, to help it. It is a curious juxtaposition, that of Don Juan' and 'Aurora Leigh,' and yet they are related in this, that they are the two great poems of modern English social life as felt by a man of the world and a religious woman, who were both poets. On the other hand, the literature of love has had few additions since the Vita Nuova, the sonnet of Shakespeare, and of Petrarch (if you like him), so true and sweet and subtle as Mrs. Browning's 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' [to her husband before their marriage]. And were they not repaid by the One word more, the last poem in Browning's last volume ? (Men and Women, 1855). "Her public fame will make her widely mentioned. Literature mourns a loss. But the private grief to the many who loved her is a deeper pang. Her death changes Italy and Europe to how many! If you would know what she was, Food Browning's One word more (and O Lyric Love, &c.). He made no secret of y should another?" This I say of me, but think of you, Love! Ah! but that's the world's side-there's the wonder— INSCRIPTION ON CASA GUIDI, VIA MAGGIO 9. FLORENCE. ELISABETTA BARRET-BROWNING CHE IN CUORE DI DONNA CONCILIAVA SCIENZA DI DOTTO E SPIRITO DI POETA E FECE DEL SUO VERSO AUREO ANELLO FRA ITALIA E INGHILTERRA PONE QUESTA MEMORIA 1861. Copied by T. W. C., April 17, 1876. 1872. 'Athenæum,' Feb. 3, p. 147. “Mr. Robert Browning has given leave to Mr. Furnivall to reprint for the Chaucer Society those parts of Mrs. Barrett Browning's English Poets. . which relate to Chaucer. . . ."-C. 1873. 'Dublin Express,' Jan. 29. MISS BLAGDEN. There has just died at Florence, a lady well known in the world of letters... Miss Isa Blagden, the authoress of "Agnes Tremorne " was linked to Mr. BROWNING and his illustrious wife by the ties of the closest friendship. She nursed [that is, did not nurse] the poetess in her final illness. . .'-C. 1874. Press (? Dublin paper),' March 7. "We regret to hear of the death, at Camberwell, on the 4th instant, of Mr. William Shergold Browning, uncle of the poet Mr. Robert Browning. Mr. W. S. Browning was himself a contributor to literature; his best-known work being a History of the Huguenots.'"-C. 1875. Dublin Express,' Jan. 26. "The petition of persons engaged in professional and literary work, which has been presented to Parliament, against any interference with the New Forest, is signed, among others, by Mr. BROWNING, Mr. Carlyle, Mr. Ruskin."-C. 1876. The Times,' March 10. "Account of the Funeral of the late Lady Augusta Stanley, wife of the late Dean Stanley. One of the pall-bearers is Mr. Robert Browning.' 1876. The Times,' May 8. Representatives of Literature at the Mansion-House: ' the Lord Mayor's Dinner to them.-C. (Browning was got there by a promise that he should not be askt to speak. The Lord Mayor nevertheless came down on him to answer for 'Poetry,' but he refuzed, and Sir Francis Doyle was put on. He's not been to another Lord Mayor's dinner.) 1876. The Times,' Tuesday, Dec. 5. Among the Conveners of the National Conference on the Eastern Question-to protest against Lord Beaconsfield's action for Turkey and stop war with Russia, the 6th name is "Robert Browning." (Opposite, 2 lines lower in the advertisement, is 'F. J. Furnivall.')—C. 1878. 'The Evening Mail, Dublin,' Jan. 7. 1. Telegram of the Press Association, saying that among a large number of adhesions to the Committee for securing the neutralization and free navigation of the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, was that of ROBERT BROWNING. 2. Insolent Leader against the Committee, Robert Browning, &c., for their 'attack upon Lord Beaconsfield.' -C. 1878. 'Light,' April 20. The memorial against war, which is to be presented to the Queen, includes such names as the following: The Dukes of Westminster and Bedford, the Earl of Shaftesbury. Mr. ROBERT BROWNING. . .—C. .... 1978. Belfast News-Letter,' Aug. 20, from the 'Pictorial World.' "Mr. Carlyle, the philosopher, and Mr. Browning, the poet, are said to be once more friends again, after their little falling-out of a year or two back." [This is pure myth.] 1879. Dublin Express,' 27 Jan. "Alfred Stanley Browning Tennyson [“Goldenhaired Ally"], grandson of the poet, was christened on Saturday in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley, his godfather, presided, Mr. Robert Browning was also a sponsor, and Mrs. Richmond Thackeray Ritchie assisted."-C. Mrs. Ritchie is Thackeray's daughter. Browning dedicated Red Cotton Night-Cap Country to her.--F. 1879. Dublin Express,' June 16. "Action for Literary Libel. Common Pleas Division-London, Saturday.. [Richard Herne] Shepherd v. Francis [publisher of 'The Athenæum ']. This was an action to recover damages for alleged libels published of the plaintiff in the Athenæum,' for bringing out the 'Early Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,' and 'Literary Revivals-Forgotten Books worth remembering.' Mr. Sergeant Parry, for the defence, called Mr. ROBERT BROWNING, who said that he objected altogether to the publication of these poems.. (written by).. Mrs. Browning.. when she was only 14 years old,' &c. Cross-examind about the Shelley Letters.' Browning'in his preface, said that the forgd letters were perfectly worthless; and nearly all the forty pages of the preface were devoted to the literary character of Shelley. The Letters' were withdrawn the moment they were found to be forgeries, and the book was now one of the rarest.'1 'Re-examined-Shelley, in his opinion, had written some of the greatest of English poems, and a sublime drama, as great as Shakspeare's. . .' The further hearing of the case was adjourned.”—C. 1879. The Times,' June 17. 1. Report of both days of the above trial. "The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff—damages £150." 2. A Leader on the subject.-C. 1879. Athenæum,' June 21. Review of Mr. Shepherd's 'Waltoniana,' with a tag commenting on his action against the Paper, and Mr. S.'s copying Browning's Hervé Riel, &c. 1879. "On March 12, 1879, Mr. Robert Browning accepted the post of President" [of the New Shakspere Society]. Prospectus of the N. S. Soc. In the 'Daily News' of March 14 was a letter from a Correspondent announcing the fact, and quoting the passage from Prof. Spalding that is in the Browning Society's prospectus: Accepting this view, there could be no hesitation as to the living poet whom the dead professor's words pointed to. Mr. Robert Browning was the Committee's choice, and on their appeal he willingly accepted as an honour the post he was asked to take. He is surely the right man in the right place." 1881. Journal of Education,' Feb. 1. Noticing Tennyson's dedication of his 'Ballads and other Poems' to his grandson Alfred, his son Lionel's eldest boy: "Golden-haired Ally, whose name is one with mine, Crazy with laughter and babble, and earth's new wine . . . . the writer says, "As an exact illustration of the second line, we may be pardoned for recalling a personal reminiscence. Mr. Browning was visiting the Poet Laureate at [Twickenham,] soon after the birth of his eldest son [Hallam], and, taking the boy from his father, who was not so well versed as he in handling infants, danced him up and down till the baby crowed with delight. 'Go on, Browning,' cried Mr. Tennyson, 'it's as good to the boy as a glass of champagne.'"-C. 1881 (?). A London Correspondent's Letter in a provincial paper. "The new Chinese Ambassador, a man of considerable literary ability, expressed a wish, shortly after his arrival in this country, of making the acquaintance of the principal English poets, and Mr. Browning was presented to him. The conversation turned to the compositions of the ambassador, who himself was a poet. 'What kind of poetry does his Excellency write,'-enquired Mr. See on this, 'Athenæum,' Oct. 5, 1872, p. 425; and the 'Dublin Mail,' Nov. 9, the Athenæum?), on B. W. Proctor's copy of the 'Letters' given him -C. Browning, 'Pastoral, humorous, lyric, or what?' There was a pause for a short time. At length the interpreter said that his Excellency thought his poetry would be better described as the 'enigmatic.'-'Surely,' replied Mr. Browning, 'there ought, then, to be the deepest sympathy between us, for that is just the criticism which is brought against my own works, and I believe it to be a just one.' p. 45. NOTES. The Pied Piper. Its Story is taken from one of the famous Familiar Letters of James Howell,-Section VI. Letter XLVII. To Mr. E. P. In the Index at the end, or "Extract of the choicest matters that go interwoven 'mongst these Letters," the following is cald "Of a miraculous accident happened in Hamelen in Germany." "Sir, "I saw such prodigious things daily don these few yeers, that I had resolv'd with my self to give over wondering at any thing; yet a passage happen'd this week, that forc'd me to wonder once more, because it is without parallell. It was, that som odd fellows went skulking up and down London-streets, and with Figs and Reasons allur'd little children, and so pourloyn'd them away from their parents, and carried them a Ship-board for beyond Sea, wher, by cutting their hair, and other divises, they so disguis'd them, that their parents could not know them. "This made me think upon that miraculous passage in Hamelen, a Town in Germany, which I hop'd to have pass'd through when I was in Hamburgh, had we return'd by Holland; which was thus, (nor would I relate it unto you, were not there som ground of truth for it). The said Town of Hamelen was annoyed with Rats and Mice; and it chanc'd, that a Pied-coated Piper came thither, who covenanted with the chief Burgers for such a reward, if he could free them quite from the said Vermin, nor would he demand it, till a twelvemonth, and a day after : The agreement being made, he began to play on his Pipes, and all the Rats, and the Mice, followed him to a great Lough hard by, where they all perish'd; so the Town was infested no more. At the end of the yeer, the Pied Piper return'd for his reward, the Burgers put him off with slightings, and neglect, offring him som small matter, which he refusing, and staying som dayes in the Town, one Sunday morning at High-Masse, when most people were at Church, he fell to play on his Pipes, and all the children up and down, follow'd him out of the Town, to a great Hill not far off, which rent in two, and open'd, and let him and the children in, and so clos'd up again: This happen'd a matter of two hundred and fifty yeers since [A.D. 1643-250=1393 A.D.2]; and in that Town, they date their Bills and Bonds, and other Instruments in Law, to this day from the yeer of the going out of their children: Besides, ther is a great piller of stone at the foot of the said Hill, wheron this story is engraven.3 "No more now, for this is enough in conscience for one time: So I am [Fleet, 1 Oct. 1643.] "Your most affectionate servitor, J. H." 1 Epistolæ Ho-Eliance. Familiar LETTERS Domestic and Forren; Divided into Six Sections, Partly Historicall, Politicall, Philosophicall, Upon Emergent Occasions: By J. H. Esq;: One of the Clerks of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell. London, Printed for Humphrey Moseley; and are to be sold at his shop at the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Churchyard, 1645. 2 This is the year in which Chaucer, out in the cold at Greenwich, most likely wrote his Envoy to Scogan then in the sun of Court-favour at Windsor. If Chaucer had but heard the story, how he would have liked to try his hand at it! 3 See M. Merimée's first chapter of his 'Chronique sous Charles I, where the story is also told.'-L. Etienne. BROWNING, 2. I |