2 Mr. R. H. Shepherd writes:-'On the fly-leaf of a copy of the original edition of Pauline, formerly in my possession, was the following note in the author's handwriting: "Pauline-written in pursuance of a foolish plan I forget, "or have no wish to remember; involving the assumption of "several distinct characters: the world was never to guess that "such an opera, such a comedy, such a speech proceeded from "the same notable person. Mr. V. A. (see page second) was "Poet of the party, and predestined to cut no inconsiderable 'figure. Only this crab' (I find set down in my copy) "remains of the shapely Tree of Life in my fools' Paradise.' "(I cannot muster resolution to deal with the printers' "blunders after the American fashion, and bid people 'for "jocularity" read "synthesis" to the end of the chapter.) "to "Dec. 14, 1838."' [In 1834, Browning spent some time in Russia.] 1835. PARACELSUS. By Robert Browning. London. Published by Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange. MDCCCXXxv. p. i-xi, 1-216, post 8vo. Inscribed to the Comte A. de Ripart-Monclar.' Blank verse and songs, 4152 lines.1 Time 1507-1541. In 5 Parts. I. Paracelsus aspires, 1507, p. 1-41; II. Paracelsus attains, 1521, p. 42-71; III. Paracelsus, 1526, p. 72-123; IV. Paracelsus aspires, 1528, p. 124-156; V. Paracelsus attains, 1541, p. 157-200. Note 201-216. Songs, mainly 4-measure: 1. "Lost, lost! yet come," II. 297-339, iii. 42, ed. 1863; 2. "Heap cassia, sandal-buds and stripes" (2 stanzas of 8 fourmeasure lines each, ababbccc), IV. 191-206, iii. 101; 3. “Over the sea our galleys went," IV. 451-523, iii. 110-113; 4. "Thus the Mayne glideth," V. 419-447, in couplets, iii. 135. Forewords: not reprinted : "I am anxious that the reader should not, at the very outset,―mistaking my performance for one of a class with which it has nothing in common,-judge it by principles on which it has never been moulded, and subject it to a standard to which it was never meant to conform. I therefore anticipate his discovery, that it is an attempt, probably more novel than happy, to reverse the method usually adopted by writers whose aim it is to set forth any phenomenon of the mind or the passions, by the operation of persons and events; and that, instead of having recourse to an external machinery of incidents to create and evolve the crisis I desire to produce, I have ventured to display somewhat minutely the mood itself in its rise and progress, and have suffered the agency by which 1 Part 1992 lines; II, 661; III, 1055; IV, 695; V, 909: in all, 4152 lines. The lin inted from the Works, 1863. 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 171 (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. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning: see (104) One Word More; (118) Prospice; (126) The Ring and the Book, I. 1391-1416, "O lyric Love", and Bk. iv end; (128) Balaustion's Adventure, p. iv, 168; (130) Prol. and Epilogue to Fifine, ? and the wife, § 38; (134) Prol. to Pacchiarotto, p. 2, and (151) Epilogue to it.) 37 England in Italy; later, The Englishman in Italy" 66 ... "The poets ... 123 Epilogue: First, Second, and Third Speakers ... 132 Euripides, a Transcript from [his Herakles Mai nomenos]: "The last Adventure of Balaustion' 1875 Aristoph. Apol., 209 |