GENERAL INDEX TO POETICAL WORKS, 1868, 6 VOLS. 1 p. 74. 180 (70) "Childe Roland to the Dark "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." Tower Came" 301 [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 lines 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.3 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 għg; 4. jj kk ll mjm mj; 5. nnon pppo; 6. qrqrr sggsrg tuut qvlvlq; 7. jj wcwcc 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 many folded 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 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. An 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; l. 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. F 1871. Title, Leaf of Delication to the Countess Cowper, with 4 lines from E. B. B. quited on reverse, 170 pages of text, 1-170.-S. Blank verse. 2651 lines. (Out by Aug. 12.) 1871. PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. By Robert 129 Browning. London: Smith, Eller, 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. By Robert Browning. 130 London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 15, Waterloo Place, 1872. p. i-xii, 1-171.3 132 sections, six-measure iambie rymed couplets — ryming Alexandrines — 2342 lines, and “Epilogue. The Householder: " Savage I was sitting in my house, late, lone 4 ”. 4 stanzas of 8, abib, eded. Pages i-xii consist of half-title, title, quotation from Molière's Don Juan Acte 1a. 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 æsthetic 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. These lines are 4-measure, 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. 131 132 Robert Browning. London Smith, Elder, and Co., 15, : Waterloo Place, 1873. p. i-vi, 1-282. Dated at end, p. 282, 'January 23, 1873.' Dedicated "To Miss Thackeray," since Mrs. Richmond Ritchie. Blank verse, 4247 lines. 1875. ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY including a Transcript from Euripides1 being the LAST Adventure of BALAUSTION By Robert Browning London Smith, Elder, and Co., 15 Waterloo Place 1875. p. i-viii, 1-366. Aristophanes' Apology, p. 1-208, 327-366; Herakles [the "Transcript from Euripides"], p. 209-327. In all, 5767 lines. Mainly blank verse, save choruses, &c. 1875. THE INN ALBUM. By Robert Browning. London: Smith, 133 Elder, and Co., 15, Waterloo Place, 1875. p. i-iv, 1-211 (in 8 Sections).2 Blank verse. 3078 lines. 1876. PACCHIAROTTO and how he worked in Distemper: with other Poems. By Robert Browning. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 15, Waterloo Place, 1876. p. i-viii, 1-241. 1 That is, from his tragedy of Herakles Mainomenos, or Hercules Furens. 2 Germand by E. Leo, 1877. "Das Fremdenbuch von Robert Browning. Aus dem Englischen von E. Leo. Autorisirte Uebersetzung. Hamburg. W. Mauke Söhne, vormals Perthes-Besser & Mauke." 1877. p. i-iv, 1-176. 66 ... The story told by Mr. Browning in this poem is, in its main outlines, a real one, that of Lord [De Ros], once a friend of the great Duke of Wellington, and about whom there is much in the Greville Memoirs. The original story was, of course, too repulsive to be adhered to in all its details, of, first, the gambling lord producing the portrait of the lady he had seduced and abandoned, and offering his expected dupe, but real beater, an introduction to the lady, as a bribe to induce him to wait for payment of the money he had won; secondly, the eager acceptance of the bribe by the young gambler, and the suicide of the lady from horror at the base proposal of her old seducer. (The story made a great sensation in London, over thirty years ago. . .) Readers of the Inn Album know how grandly Mr. Browning has lifted the base young gambler, through the renewal of that old love which the poet has invented, into one of the most pathetic creations of modern time, and has spared the baser old roué the degradation of the attempt to sell the love which was once his delight, and which, in the poem, he seeks to regain, with feelings one must hope are real, as the most prized possession of his life. As to the lady, the poet has covered her with no false glory or claim on our sympathy. From the first, she was a law unto herself; she gratified her own impulses, and she reaped the fruit of this. Her seducer has made his confession of his punishment, and has attributed, instead of misery, comfort and ease to her. She has to tell him, and the young man who has given her his whole heart, that that supposed comfort and ease have been to her simply hell; and tell, too, why she still prefers that hell to the renewed temptations of her beguiler, why she cannot accept the true love that, under other conditions, would have been her way back to heaven and life. What, then, can be her end? No higher power has she ever sought. Self-contained, she has sinned and suffered. She can no more. By her own hand she ends her life, and the curtain falls on the most profoundly touching and most powerful poem of modern times. The Inn Album not live? It will be in men's mouths when its detractors' ashes are in the dust, and their opinions, if unearthed by any painful antiquary, looked at with wonder and contempt."-5 Notes and Queries, v. 244-5, March 25, 1876. (I wrote this with reference to the review of the poem in the Spectator, and in the hope that its reviewer in The Academy might be led to repent of his misapprehension of it.) F? |