{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "ho\\nHfe^ ^S", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "Browning\\nStudy Programmes\\nBy\\nCharlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke\\nT is the poet speaks\\nBut if I, too, should try and speak at times,\\nLeading your love to where my love, perchance.\\nClimbed earlier, found a nest before you knew\\nWhy, bear with the poor climber, for love s sake\\nBalaustion s Ad venture^ lines 343\u00e2\u0080\u0094347.\\nNew York\\nThomas Y. Crowell Company\\nPublishers", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "TWO COPIES RECEIVED,\\nLibrary of Co ^p\u00c2\u00abt||^\\nOfftcB of tbs\\nAP^/3 mo\\nK9(tl\u00c2\u00bbt\u00c2\u00bbf of Copyrigki^\\n61137\\nCopyright, 1900\\nBy T. Y. Crowell Co\\nSECOND COPY.\\no QCrO", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS\\nPage\\nPREFACE xi\\nGENERAL INTRODUCTION xvii\\nJFirst ^ertcfi!\\nPOEMS OF ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 1-28\\nHow They Brought the Good News from Ghent to\\nAix Through the Metidja Muleykeh j Donald\\nTray Herve Riel Incident of the French Camp\\nEchetlos 5 Pheidippides.\\nFOLK POEMS 29-41\\nThe Boy and the Angel 5 The Twins The Pied\\nPiper of Hamelin Gold Hair A Story of Pornic 5\\nThe Cardinal and the Dog; Ponte dell Angelo, Venice;\\nThe Bean-Feast The Pope and the Net Muckle-\\nMouth Meg.\\nPHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 42-81\\nGarden Fancies The Laboratory 5 The Confessional;\\nCristina The Lost Mistress; A Woman s Last Word;\\nEvelyn Hope Love among the Ruins A Lovers\\nQuarrel Two in the Campagna A Serenade One\\nWay of Love, Another Way of Love; A Pretty Woman;\\nIn Three Days, In a Year Mesmerism The Glove\\nIn a Gondola A Light Woman The Last Ride To-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "VI CONTENTS\\nPHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE {continued) Page\\ngetherj Porphyria s Lover; Rudel to the Lady of\\nTripoli Dis Aliter Visum Too Late Confessions\\nYouth and Ar-t A Likeness Bifurcation Numpho-\\nleptos St. Martin s Summer; Solomon and Balkis\\nCristina and Monaldeschi Mary WoUstonecraft and\\nFuseli Adam, Lilith, and Eve Rosny Inapprehen-\\nsiveness Which Sonnet Eyes, calm beside thee.\\nA GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 82-101\\nLyrics from Pippa Passes Give her but a least\\nexcuse to love me You II love me yet Meeting at\\nNight Parting at Morning Song Nay but you who\\ndo not love her My Star Misconceptions One Way\\nof Love j Love in a Life Life in a Love Natural\\nMagic; Magical Nature; Prologue: Two Poets of\\nCroisic; Wanting is What?; Never the Time and\\nthe Place Lyrics Eagle, Melon-Seller, Shah Abbas,\\nThe Family, Mirab Shah, A Camel Driver, Two\\nCamels, Plot Culture, A Pillar at Sebzevar Epilogue to\\nFerishtah s Fancies; Now; Poetics; Summum Bonum;\\nA Pearl, a Girl Sonnet Eyes, calm beside thee.\\nPORTRAITS OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES 102-135\\nBy the Fireside Any Wife to Any Husband My\\nLast Duchess The Flight of the Duchess The Statue\\nand the Bust James Lee s Wife Fifine at the Fair\\nA Forgiveness; Bad Dreams; Beatrice Signorini.\\nART AND THE ARTIST 136-167\\nThe Guardian Angel Old Pictures in Florence\\nPictor Ignotus Fra Lippo Lippi Andrea del Sarto\\nThe Bishop Orders his Tomb Deaf and Dumb Eury-\\ndice to Orpheus A Face Pacchiarotto and How he\\nWorked in Distemper The Lady and the Painter.\\nMUSIC AND MUSICIANS 168-187\\nA Toccata of Galuppi s Master Hugues of Saxe-\\nGotha Abt Vogler Parleyings with Charles Avison\\nThe Founder of the Feast.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS vii\\nPage\\nTHE POET 188-217\\nThe Poet in Pauline Memorabilia Popularity j\\nTranscendentalism How it Strikes a Contemporary j\\nAt the Mermaid House; Shop; Touch him ne er\\nso lightly; Last Lyric in Ferishtah s Fancies;\\nPoetics Album Lines Goldoni The Names.\\nEVOLUTION OF RELIGION 218-252\\nSaul Christmas-Eve Easter-Day An Epistle con-\\ntaining the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish,\\nthe Arab Physician; Bishop Blougram s Apology;\\nCleon Rabbi Ben Ezra A Death in the Desert\\nCaliban upon Setebos.\\nTHE PRELATE 253-262\\nThe Monsignor in Pippa Passes, iv. The Nuncio\\nin The Return of the Druses, v. Ogniben in A\\nSoul s Tragedy, ii. The Bishop Orders his Tomb at\\nSt. Praxed s Church; Bishop Blougram s Apology;\\nAbate Paul, Canon Girolamo,. the Archbishop, Capon-\\nsacchi, and the Pope in **The Ring and the Book, x.\\nThe Pope and the Net The Bean-Feast.\\n^econU Verted\\nSINGLE POEM STUDIES\\nParacelsus 263\\nSoROELLO 281\\nStrafford 304\\nPippA Passes 322\\nKing Victor and King Charles 332\\nThe Return of the Druses 338\\nA Blot in the Scutcheon 352\\nColombe s Birthday 360\\nLuRiA 370", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "Viu CONTENTS\\nSINGLE POEM STUDIES [continued) Page\\nA Soul s Tragedy 384\\nIn a Balcony 392\\nChilde Roland 399\\nMr. Sludge, The Medium 4.10\\nThe Ring and the Book 423\\nRed Cotton Night-cap Country 448\\nThe Inn Album 455\\nPORTRAYALS OF NATIONAL LIFE\\nEnglish 466-481\\nStrafford Cavalier Tunes Parleying with Charles\\nAvison Clive The Lost Leader Why I am a\\nLiberal Jubilee Memorial Lines Halbert and Hob\\nNed Bratts 5 A Blot in the Scutcheon Martin Relph\\nThe Inn Album j Donald j Bishop Blougram s Apology\\nHome Thoughts from the Sea Nationality in Drinks\\nHome Thoughts from Abroad The Englishman in\\nItaly j De Gustibus.\\nItalian 482-496\\nSordello j Fra Lippo Lippi 5 Andrea del Sarto\\nPictor Ignotus The Bishop Orders his Tomb Old\\nPictures in Florence 5 Pietro of Abano A Gram-\\nmarian s Funeral My Last Duchess 5 The Statue and\\nthe Bust Cenciaja j Beatrice Signorini The Ring and\\nthe Book j In a Gondola A Toccata of Galuppi s j\\nLuria A Soul s Tragedy 5 King Victor and King\\nCharles Pippa Passes Italian in England j De\\nGustibus.\\nFrench 497-516\\nCount Gismond Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli 5 The\\nGlove 5 The Laboratory Herve Riel Two Poets of\\nCroisic 5 Incident of the French Camp Prince Hohen-\\nstiel-Schwangau Gold Hair A Legend of Pornic 5\\nRespectabihty j Apparent Failure 5 Red Cotton Night-\\ncap Countiy 5 Fifine at the Fair.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS IX\\nPORTRAYALS OF NATIONAL LIFE [continued) Page\\nGerman 517-5^4\\nFust and his Friends Johannes Agricola in Medita-\\ntion Paracelsus j Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha Abt\\nVogler.\\nSpanish 5^5-53\u00c2\u00b0\\nSoliloquy of the Spanish Cloister The Confessional\\nA Forgiveness j How it Strikes a Contemporary.\\nRussian SS^-SS^\\nIvan Ivanovitch.\\nJewish 537754^\\nSaul Rabbi Ben Ezra Holy-Cross Day 5 Filippo\\nBaldinucci.\\nRabbi?j}cal Legends Ben Karshook s Wisdom 5\\nJochanan Hakkadosh Moses the Meek Solomon and\\nBalkis Doctor\\nRoman 549~552^\\nImperante Augusto natus est j Protus 5 Instans\\nTyrannus 5 Pan and Luna.\\nGreek 553-5^4\\nArtemis Prologizes Ixion 5 Apollo and the Fates 5\\nPheidlppides 5 Echetlos Balaustion s Adventure\\nAristophanes Apology.\\nAUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEMS 585-594\\nDevelopment The Digression in Sordello, Book\\nIII. Waring 5 The Guardian Angel Women and\\nRoses 5 One Word More May and Death Third\\nSpeaker in Epilogue to Dramatis Personae Parts\\nof Book Land XII., The Ring and the Book;\\nEnd of Balaustion s Adventure; Prologue to Fi-\\nfine Pacchiarotto (closing stanzas) Epilogue to\\nPacchiarotto La Saisiaz Prologue to Jocoseria;\\nNever the Time and the Place Pambo j Epilogue to\\nFerishtah s Fancies To Edward Fitzgerald Why\\nI am a Liberal Epilogue to Asolando.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "X CONTENTS\\nPage\\nBROWNING S PHILOSOPHY 595-610\\nFerishtah s Fancies 5 Parleyings with Certain People\\nof Importance in their Day Pisgah Sights j Fears and\\nScruples; Rephan Reverie; Christmas-Eve and Easter-\\nDay Epilogue to Dramatis Personae La Saisiaz.\\nBROWNING S ARTISTRY 611-626\\nINDEX 627", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "Prefa\\nce\\nThere are now, perhaps always will be, two\\ncamps in which many of the readers of poetry\\nintrench themselves. One hedges itself about\\nwith walls of opposition to the study of poetry,\\nmaintaining that the poet is his own best inter-\\npreter. The other combats the opposition, by\\nslow siege as it were, not claiming, indeed, that\\nthe poet is not his own best interpreter, but con-\\ntending constantly that other means of approach\\nto him sorely need to be employed.\\nThe writers of this book, intended to be a\\ncontribution toward the building up of poetic\\nappreciation, think it only fair to confess that\\nthey do not belong, as active combatants, to\\neither of these hostile camps, for the simple\\nreason that they see no sufficient cause for\\nwarfare. If neither camp would attempt to\\ncoerce the other, each could the more wisely\\nfollow its own bent, or it is barely possible\\nfind a firm ground of reconciliation.\\nIn the first camp many of the true lovers of\\npoetry rally, whose aesthetic appreciation is spon-\\ntaneous, and whose delight in verse as an art", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "xii PREFACE\\nis inborn in the second, many of the lovers\\nof poetry, for the sake of what it illumines ethi-\\ncally or historically, are gathered. And with\\nthese who care supremely for poetry as an art\\nand for its appreciation as an inborn sense and\\nwith those who care for the ethical and historical\\nimplications of poetry and who hold, moreover,\\nthat the conscious cultivation of the instinctive\\nsense of verse as an art pays because it reveals\\nnew beauty, gives deeper pleasure, the writers\\nconfess, once more, that they have no quarrel.\\nRather do they feel with the one set of dispu-\\ntants the closest bonds of kinship, and with the\\nideals of the other the warmest sympathy.\\nThe aim they have set themselves is the\\nfriendly and pacific office of helping those only\\nwho desire such suggestions as they offer here,\\nand to help them in such a way that they may\\nhelp themselves the better to the bounty the\\npoet supplies.\\nThis book is based, therefore, as to its general\\ndesign, in its classifications, its Topics,\\nHints, and Queries for Discussion, on\\nthe gradual unfolding of the matter the poems\\ncontain, all or very nearly all of Browning s\\npoems being woven into its plan.\\nBeginning with the slighter and more obvious\\npoems, and with suggestions upon them, accord-\\ningly, which are often, perhaps, more obvious\\nthan some readers will need, but which others,\\nespecially young readers or those new to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "PREFACE xiii\\nBrowning, may possibly require, the pro-\\ngrammes proceed thence to the less simple\\npoems, and follow them on with suggestions\\nalso growing less simple, partly by reason of the\\ncomplex subjects, and partly because it is\\nintended to help the reader less and less. Hav-\\ning learned how to go on freely in the path\\nopened out to him, it is supposed that he will\\nnot require so many hints, but be able to pass\\non without continuous guidance, yet without\\nneglecting to notice all the steps in the processes\\nof poetic construction, which are pointed out\\nwith less detail or overleaped altogether in the\\nSecond Series of Programmes.\\nThe general order throughout is chronological,\\nso far as this is consistent with the considera-\\ntion, for the most part, of the easier and less\\ninvolved poems to begin with, and conclud-\\ning with poems more complicated or admit-\\nting of wider classifications or more abstract\\ngeneralizations.\\nDiscussions of m oot-questions indirectly grow-\\ning out of the subject-matter are intended to\\nfollow study of the work itself, as this is the\\nnucleus whence they are derived and should\\nreceive first attention.\\nThe cardinal principle of the whole plan is\\nthat all deductions, aesthetic, critical, ethical,\\nhowever personal impression and point of view\\nmay color them, should be based on thorough\\nacquaintance with what actually is in the poems.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "xiv PREFACE\\ninstead of on what is ofF-hand assumed to be in\\nthem. Most poets have suffered from such\\nassumptions, repeated till they were taken for\\ngranted, and have thence been compelled to\\nbear fault-finding and misunderstanding or praise\\nand glozing, as the case might be, all equally built\\non breath. Browning has suffered peculiarly,\\nand especially as an artist, from this sort of in-\\naccurate observation or inattention to just what is\\nin his work and just how and in what relation\\nit is expressed.\\nMere analysis, it is held, is not exact observa-\\ntion. Synthetic relation of all the parts of any\\nwork of art are necessary merely to its percep-\\ntion. Neither will one or two such perceptions\\ntell a straight story. Correlation of the charac-\\nteristics of a poet s work and method is the\\nonly fit foundation for genuine appreciation or\\ncriticism.\\nThose happily constituted persons who at a\\nglance are really able to set themselves in suffi-\\nciently close accord with poets of various genius\\nto get out of their work all there is in it of\\nbeauty and significance, are clearly best off alone.\\nWho can be justified in quarrelling with their\\nlight-winged happiness\\nOthers, better off with helpful fellowship, are\\nas clearly justified in less lonely appreciation of\\nthe ways of genius with mankind. And these\\nmay find clew, or stimulation, or merely the\\ntrusty staff of orderly arrangement supplied", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "PREFACE XV\\nthem in this attempt to direct, by suggestive\\noutlines, their steadfast scrutiny upon the whole\\nbody of Browning s work. To them the patient\\nbrooding of the alert and inquiring yet docile\\nintelligence may be the means of opening out\\nhalf-unsuspected traits of beauty and signifi-\\ncance, a work of art rewarding intimate at-\\ntention as a work of nature does when it yields\\nup its lurking loveliness to the steady eye of\\nthe painter bent on discerning it in its integrity\\nand symmetry.\\nBoston, No vembei j^ i8gg.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "General Introduction\\nWhat were life\\nDid soul stand still therein, forego her strife\\nThrough the ambiguous Present to the goal\\nOf some all-reconciling Future\\nParleyings With Gerard de Lairfsse.\\nThe poetic motive informing Browning s work is, in\\none word, aspiration, which moulds and develops the\\nvaried and complex personalities of the humanity he\\ndepicts, as the persistent energy of the scientist, holding\\nits never-wearying way, gives to the world of phenomena\\nits infinite array of shows and shapes. Aspiration a\\nreaching on and upwards is the primal energy under-\\nneath that law which we call progress. Through aspi-\\nration, ideals social, religious, artistic are formed}\\nand through it ideals perish, as it breaks away from them\\nto seek more complete realizations of truth. Aspiration,\\ntherefore, has its negative as well as its positive side.\\nWhile it ever urges the human soul to love and achieve-\\nment, through its very persistence the soul learns that\\nthe perfect flowering of its rare imaginings is not possible\\nof attainment in this life.\\nAssurance of the ultimate fulfilment of the ideal is one\\nof the forms in which Browning unfolds the workings\\nof this life principle, well illustrated in Abt Vogler,\\nwho has implicit faith in his own intuitions of a final\\nharmony j or in those poems where the crowning of\\naspiration in a supreme earthly love flashes upon the\\nunderstanding a clear vision of infinite love. But by far\\nb", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "xviii GENERAL INTRODUCTION\\nthe larger number of poems discloses the underlying\\nforce at work in ways more subtle and obscure, through\\nthe conflict of good and evil, of lower with higher ideals,\\neither as emphasized in great social movements. In the\\nstruggle between Individuals, or In struggles fought out\\non the battle-ground within every human soul.\\nWith a motive so all-inclusive, the whole panorama of\\nhuman life, with its loves and hates, its strivings and\\nfailures, Its half-reasonings and beguiling sophistries. Is\\nmaterial ready at hand for illustration. Browning, In-\\nspired with a democratic Incluslveness, allowed his choice\\nIn subject-matter to range through fields both new and\\nold, unploughed by any poet before him. Progress, to\\nbe Imaged forth in Its entirety, must be Interpreted, not\\nonly through the Individual soul, but through the collec-\\ntive soul of the human race; wherefore many phases of\\ncivilization and many attlrudes of mind must be detailed\\nfor service. There Is no choosing a subject, as a Tenny-\\nson might, on the ground that It will best point the\\nmoral of a preconceived theory of life; on the contrary,\\nevery such theory is bound to be of Interest as one of the\\nphenomena exhibited by the transcending principle.\\nFrom first to last Browning portrayed life either de-\\nveloping or at some crucial moment, the outcome of\\npast development, or the determinative Influence for\\nfuture growth or decay.\\nHis interest In the phenomena of life as a whole, freed\\nhim from the trammels of any literary cult. He steps\\nout from under the yoke of the classicist, where only\\ngods and heroes have leave to breathe and, equally,\\nfrom that of the romanticist, where kings and persons of\\nquality alone flourish. Wherever he found latent possi-\\nbilities of character, which might be made to expand\\nunder the glare of his brilliant imagination, whether In\\nhero, king, or knave, that being he chose to set before\\nhis readers as a living individuality to show whereof he\\nwas made, either through his own ruminations or through\\nthe force of circumstances.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "GENERAL INTRODUCTION xix\\nUpon examination it will be found that the sources,\\nmany and various, of Browning s subject-matter are\\nbroadly divisible into subjects derived from history, from\\npersonal experience or biography, from true incidents,\\npopular legend, the classics, and from his own fertile\\nimagination. Of these, history proper furnishes the\\nsmallest proportion. Strafford and King Victor\\nand King Charles are his only historical dramas, and\\nwith Sordello, and a few stray short poems, based on\\nhistorical incidents and persons, exhaust his drafts upon\\nhistory. Several more have a historical setting with fic-\\ntitious plot and typically historic characters, such as the\\nReturn of the Druses and Luria and still more\\nhave a historical atmosphere in which think and move\\ncreatures of his own fancy, such as My Last Duchess,\\nCount Gismond, In a Gondola. His most im-\\nportant work, The Ring and the Book, is founded\\non the true story of a Roman murder case. Others of\\nhis longer poems, developed from real occurrences, are\\nThe Inn Album, Red Cotton Night-Cap Coun-\\ntry, Ivan Ivanovitch, and some shorter poems. The\\nindividual living to develop the mind stuff of the world\\nrather than the individual playing a part in action, at-\\ntracted Browning, and we find a large percentage of his\\nsubjects between twenty and thirty poems to be\\ndramatic presentations of characters not distinguished for\\ntheir part in the history of action, but who have played\\na part more or less prominent in the history of thought\\nor art. Such are Paracelsus, Saul, Abt Vogler,\\nFra Lippo Lippi. Sometimes they appear In the\\ndisguise of a name not their own, as in Bishop Blou-\\ngram, for whom Cardinal Wiseman sat, Prince Ho-\\nhenstiel-Schwangau Napoleon, Mr. Sludge Home,\\nthe Spiritualist. The Pied Piper and Gold Hair\\nare familiar examples of legendary subjects. Greece\\nis drawn upon in the translation from the Greek of\\nAgamemnon, to which must be added Balaustion s\\nAdventure and Aristophanes Apology, both of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "XX GENERAL INTRODUCTION\\nwhich contain transcripts from Euripides 5 also Echet-\\nlos, Pheidippides/ Artemis Prologizes, and\\nIxion. There should furthermore be mentioned a\\nfew poems which grew out of suggestions furnished by\\npoetry, music, and art, as Cenciaja, A Toccata\\nof Galuppi s, The Guardian Angel. And last,\\nout of the pure stuif of imagination, have been fashioned\\nsome of his most lifelike characters. Sometimes, as al-\\nready stated, they move in an actual historical environ-\\nment, sometimes merely in an atmosphere of history,\\nand sometimes, detached from time and place, is pictured\\na human soul struggling with a passion universal to\\nmankind.\\nThis vast range of material is not by any means\\nchosen by the poet at random. There are several centres\\nof human thought, around which the genius of Browning\\nplays with exceptional power. Such, for example, are\\nthe ideas symbolized in human love and service, in art,\\nand in the Incarnation.\\nClustering about the instinct of human love, gathers\\nthickest a maze of poems bearing witness to the force,\\nsweetness, and versatility of Browning s treatment of the\\npurely personal emotions. The scope sweeps from\\nprimitive to consummate types, as if none conceivable\\nwere to be tabooed, or as if Aprile s desire, the poet in\\nParacelsus, had been Browning s own.\\nEvery passion sprung from man, conceived by man,\\nWould I express and clothe in its right form,\\nNo thought which ever stirred\\nA human breast should be untold all passions,\\nAll soft emotions, from the turbulent stir\\nWithin a heart fed with desires like mine,\\nTo the last comfort shutting the tired lids\\nOf him who sleeps the sultry noon away\\nBeneath the tent-tree by the wayside well.\\nYet the unifying current is clear through all differentia-\\ntions, because it is based on the vital fact of the psychical", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxi\\norigin of the emotion of love as desire, and capable, there-\\nfore, of a never-ending tendency to impel and reveal tlie\\nhighest potency of each individual soul. The conditions\\nunder which it acts may be favorable or not, the out-\\ngoing love may be satisfied or not, by eliciting and enjoy-\\ning love in return in any case, the test is equally good\\nto make a soul declare itself to wit, by its fruit, the\\nthing it does, and thus, through living out its own life,\\nto recruit both the general plan of the race and its own\\nindividual possibilities.\\nThe psychical vahie, of which the commonest instinct\\ntowards love, in any and every human creature, is capa-\\nble, relates all men to each other, and, pointing out the\\nimplicit use of each to each, permits none to be scorned\\nas having no part in the scheme, nor any to be denied\\nthe vision of some dim descried glory ever on before.\\nIt constitutes a revelation to every man of the Infinite,\\nincarnate within his own grasp and proof, a miracle\\nonly to be felt, differing in this from any attempt to\\nachieve the Absolute through act or deed or any product\\nof effort outside oneself, one instant of human conscious-\\nness enabling the laying hold on eternity.\\nSome of these poems represent the instinct of love\\nastir in modes that foster the transmutation of desire into\\nforce, no matter what obstacles beset it in others ego-\\ntism and conventionality chill and obstruct its saving rule,\\nalthough its way be smooth. The merely selfish expres-\\nsion of the common instinct is depicted in The Lab-\\noratory and My Last Duchess; the unselfish,\\nin One Way of Love. Its seeing faculty appears in\\nCristina and The Last Ride Together; but\\nits eyes are sealed until too late in The Confessional,\\nand in Constance in In a Balcony. It finds itself\\nexpressed in a conventionalized way in Numpholep-\\ntos V in a realistic way in Poetics. It is revealed\\nin Count Gismond as a rudimentary relation between\\nhusband and wife as ripe in By the Fireside. It is\\nstifled in Bifurcation, The Statue and the Bust,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "xxii GENERAL INTRODUCTION\\nYouth and Art/ Dis Aliter Visum it is self-\\nbaffled in A Forgiveness and In a Balcony j\\nbut has sway despite Death in Prospice and Never\\nthe Time and the Place. All these separate ways of\\nlove are glimpses at parts of human experience, which,\\nsince they can be correlated, illumine the course of\\ngrowth latent for any soul in a crisis of emotion. Other\\npoems still exemplify this by correlating various stages\\nof development occurring in the experience of one person,\\nthe original manifestation of love adding to itself a new\\npsychical value, as in James Lee s Wife.\\nTaken as a whole, Browning s broad and vital repre-\\nsentations of love reveal the related values of different\\nphases of personal experience and of each personal expe-\\nrience to every other 5 and, also, the bearing of ^ach and\\nall such experiences on human progress and on an ecstatic\\nconsciousness of the Infinite.\\nIn the manifestations of human energy commonly\\ncalled social, corresponding orbits of relative values are\\nbrought to light by Browning through his reconstruction\\nfrom life itself of numerous varying types of work and\\nconsequent service to humanity at large. The range\\nexemplified includes the exercise of his art by a Fra\\nLippo Lippi, an Abt Vogler, or a Cleon, the devotion to\\nhis study of a Grammarian or the public achievement of\\na Pheidippides, a Herve Riel, a Pym, a Strafford, or a\\nLuria. Browning shows a consciousness of the special\\ninfluence of certain historic periods of civic enthusiasm\\non the development of social ideals. The grim right-\\neousness of Pym s London, the glories of Athens and of\\nFlorence, are fitly celebrated. And in the whole pioneer\\nperiod which sowed the seed and set the shape of much\\nthat is not yet ripe for fulfilment in modern civilization\\nin the period of the Italian Renaissance, Browning s\\nimaginative conception found frame and flesh. In Sor-\\ndello he described the incipient democratic tendencies\\nof that period, anticipating the conclusions of its special\\nhistorians of Burckhardt, who characterized it as the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxvii\\nPauline/ was succeeded in Paracelsus by an\\nimaginary representation of a poet, Aprile, who, like\\nShelley, was the impersonation of spiritual love and\\nhuman ardor. In Sordello this fervent poetic type,\\nwhich yearns to bury itself in what it worships, again\\nappears. It is now contrasted and merged with a new\\nself-centred type of poet which holds its own conscious-\\nness aloof from its dreams, yet finds no dream or function\\nof life without as good a counterpart within itself. The\\ndistinction here made between what is called the sub-\\njective poet, such a one as Shelley, and the objective or\\ndramatic poet, such a one as Shakespeare, recurs in the\\nprose essay on Shelley, and some variety of one or the\\nother or hoped-for blending of both types animates all his\\nimpersonations of poets. Eglamor in Sordello is a\\nbardling of limited possibilities who is ennobled by his de-\\nvotion to his art. In The Glove Ronsard and Marot\\nare incidentally characterized and contrasted to the advan-\\ntage of the poet more deeply versed both in lore and life.\\nKeats appears in Popularity as a poet dowering the\\nworld and many imitators with a beauty never seen\\nbefore. Shelley again has a tribute of personal love in\\nMemorabilia. Euripides and Aristophanes owe to\\nBrowning, in Balaustion s Adventure and Aris-\\ntophanes Apology, the deepest appreciation and\\nsoundest criticism they have ever received at any one\\nman s hands.\\nShakespeare is directly defended, in At the Mer-\\nmaid, from charges of pessimism, derision of women,\\nand uneasy ambition to figure in court life, charges\\nmore or less involved in some modern conceptions of him\\nbased on an autobiographical reading of the Sonnets and\\nPlays. The sonnet theory is again directly combated in\\nHonsej and Shop may perhaps be taken as fall-\\ning in with these two. Both At the Mermaid and\\nHouse rest on a conception of Shakespeare as be-\\nlonging altogether to the objective type of poet. And\\nthe Shakespeare Sonnet, The Names, is in accord with", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "xxviii GENERAL INTRODUCTION\\na view which accepts him as the supreme dramatic\\ncreator.\\nIn the verses beginning Touch him ne er so lightly,\\nBrowning sings the way of pain and obstacle through\\nwhich pass the master poets who sum up great epochs of\\nnational life such a poet as Dante and who trans-\\nmute the bitterness of sorrow into the splendor of song.\\nExpressions concerning the philosophy of the poet s\\nart and self-development are to be found in Sordello,\\nThe Ring and the Book, and the Parleying with\\nChristopher Smart. In Transcendentalism and\\nHow it Strikes a Contemporary are celebrated the\\nvitality of the poet s gift, the keenness of the poet s\\nsight, the warmth and humanity of his heart and office.\\nThe whole range of his work on poetic art is in accord\\nin placing the poet somewhat less within the influence of\\nthe historic times to which he is related, than the artist\\nor even the musician. The poet s fortune is read aright\\nfor more than one age, if not for all time, in his intimate\\nand loving kinships with humanity, his clear outsight and\\ndeep insight upon the springs of life and progress, in the\\ndependency of his artistic power on his truth to his own\\nhighest energies and aspiration.\\nThe most exalted ideal towards which the human soul\\naspires is that of divine love, and this, as symbolized in\\nthe idea of the Incarnation, Browning has presented from\\nevery side. Even in so humble a thinker as Caliban, the\\ngerm of religious aspiration is discernible in his concep-\\ntion of a God above Setebos who, if not very positive in\\nhis possession of good qualities, is at least negative so far\\nas bad ones are concerned.\\nBrowning s work is rich in poems which revolve about\\nthis central idea. In David, the intensity of his human\\nlove exalts his conception of God from that of power into\\nthat of love, and with prophetic vision he sees the future\\nattainment of a religious ideal in which love like unto\\nhuman love shall have a place. What a powerful force\\nthis longing is in the human mind is again illustrated in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxix\\nCleon, the cultured Greek who, despite his broad sym-\\npathies and deep appreciation of all forms of beauty, feels\\nthat life is not capable of affording a realization of joy\\nsuch as the soul sees. Like Saul, an immortality of deed\\nhas no attractions for him 5 it is the assurance of a continu-\\ning personality that he wants. Karshish, the Arab, too,\\nis haunted by the idea of a God who is love but neither\\nin him nor in Cleon has the aspiration reached such a\\npoint that they are enabled to conceive of the ideal as\\nactual, though living at the time of Christ. In A\\nDeath in the Desert is presented the portrait of one\\nwho has seen the ideal incarnate.\\nOther phases of doubt and faith are pictured as affected\\nby more sophisticated stages of culture. While Cleon\\nand Karshish belong to a phase of development wherein\\nthe mind has not fully grasped the possibilities of such a\\nconception, a Bishop Blougram s doubts grow out of the\\nuncertainties of the nature of proof. Far from being sure,\\nlike David, that the incarnation will become a veritable\\ntruth, he can only hope that it may have been true, and\\nresolve to act as if he believed it were. Still another\\nphase of doubt is shown in Ferishtah s Fancies, where\\nthe belief in an actual incarnation is scouted by an Oriental\\nas preposterous.\\nThe assurance of divine love does not come to all\\nof Browning s characters through a belief in external\\nrevelation. For instance, in the Epilogue to Dramatis\\nPersonae, and in Fears and Scruples, it is through\\nthe experiencing of human love alone, reaching out toward\\nGod, which carries the conviction that there must be a\\nGod of love to receive it, though he may never have\\nmanifested himself in the fiesh. In Ferishtah s Fan-\\ncies, again, Ferishtah, who sternly reprimands the un-\\nbeliever already mentioned, seems to regard the ideal of\\nan actual incarnation as a human conception, but, never-\\ntheless, doing duty as a symbol of the Divine, and thus\\nhelping men to approach the Infinite.\\nIn giving a sketch of the general motive and content", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "XXX GENERAL INTRODUCTION\\nof Browning s work, we have treated it as essentially\\ndramatic. It Is to be noted, howes^er, that he has carried\\nhis observations of the realities of life into regions never\\napproached by any other poet, that Is, into the thoughts\\nand motives of humanity, the very sources of world\\nmovements, with the result that we do not see\\nhis characters in action so much as In the intellectual\\nfermentation, which Is not merely the concomitant but\\nthe initiation of action. This fact, namely, that his\\nimagination Invests the subjective side of man s life with\\nvitality, sets up a certain spiritual kinship between the\\npoet and his characters, and justifies the search for a\\nphilosophy which may be styled Browning s own yet,\\nthat any such search must be conducted with the utmost\\ndiscretion Is evidenced by the existence of many diversi-\\nties In opinion upon this subject. It is dangerous to re-\\ngard each poem as a mask from behind which Browning\\nin his own person peeps forth for the more one studies\\nhis creations, the more the peculiar Indivldualisms of\\ntheir natures assert themselves, and the more the poet\\nretires Into the background. Even admitting that there\\nare certain religious and philosophical Ideas upon which\\nmany of his dramatis persona dwell, each one presents\\nthem from his own point of view, and in a form of ex-\\npression suited to the particular character and circum-\\nstance. Moreover, the ever-recurring Idea In new modes\\nof expression is absolutely true to the life of thought in\\nthe world. It Is no more surprising that David, Rabbi\\nBen Ezra, the husband in Fifine at the Fair, and\\nParacelsus should have some points of philosophy in com-\\nmon, than that the wits of Plato, Buddha, Herbert\\nSpencer, and the North American Indians should occa-\\nsionally jump together. We have seen how he discrimi-\\nnates against no form of doubt or faith by allowing every\\nshade of opinion to be presented from the standpoint of\\none who holds it. This is external evidence of his friend-\\nliness toward all forms of effort that indicate a search for\\nthe truth. With which particular phase of truth the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxxi\\npoet himself is to be identified, it would be difficult to\\ndiscover, but it is not so impossible to deduce general\\nprinciples not only from the fact that aspiration is\\nplainly the informing spirit of his work, but because\\nfrom time to time this informing spirit forces itself to the\\nsurface in an expression avowedly the poet s own. From\\nsuch expressions, of which the third division of the\\nEpilogue to Dramatis Personae, Reverie in\\nAsolando, passages in Paracelsus, Sordello,\\nand Ferishtah s Fancies are examples, together with\\nthe whole trend of his work, his philosophy, broadly\\nspeaking, may be described as based upon the revelation\\nof divine love in every human being, through experience\\nof love reaching out toward an object which shall com-\\npletely satisfy aspiration. The partial manifestations of\\nlove include the feeling of gratitude awakened through\\nthe enjoyment of benefits received, like that felt by\\nFerishtah when he eats a cherry for breakfast the crea-\\ntive impulse, yearning to all-express itself in art 5 love\\nseeking its human complement and love seeking expres-\\nsion in service to humanity. Moral failure, resulting in\\nevil intellectual failure, resulting in ignorance, are\\nsimply the necessary means for the further develop-\\nment of the soul, and the continuance of the law of\\nprogress. While the revelation of God is thus en-\\ntirely subjective, his conception of God is both subjective\\nand objective. Looking forth upon the world, he sees\\nPower and Law exemplified looking within himself, he\\nsees Power and Law manifested as Love. God, then,\\nmust be both Power and Love, as Rabbi Ben Ezra dis-\\ncovered, and with this dramatic expression may be\\nparalleled the subjective expression of the same conclu-\\nsion in Reverie, the poet s last piece of profound\\nphilosophizing.\\nThe faculty for twofold gaze within and without, on\\nwhich Browning s reconciliation of Power and Love is\\nbuilt, has enabled him to effect a like reconciliation be-\\ntween Power in Art the ability to appropriate and project", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "xxxii GENERAL INTRODUCTION\\ninto form large swaths of fresh and living material and\\nLove in Art the ardor to charge and energize the whole\\nwith spiritual attractiveness and meaning.\\nThe analytic tendency, for which he is often cen-\\nsured, does not control, it subserves a much more notice-\\nable faculty for synthesis for seeing and reproducing\\nwholes.\\nAnother unusually happy balance of capabilities dis-\\ntinguishes Browning. The moral interests which weight\\nhis work with significance are lightened with an over-play\\nof humor a product of his double vision. With what\\ngenial facility he enters, for example, into Baldinucci s\\nsimple old man s nature, and lends the poet-wit to the\\nexquisite clumsiness of his joke against the Jews and\\nthen again, with what easy-going, wide-sw^eeping sym-\\npathy he enters into the complex course of law and cus-\\ntom which turns the laugh on Baldinucci, after all. So,\\nin this, as in many another such dramatic picture of\\npoor old human nature, the moral lesson is itself made\\ndramatic.\\nLend Browning but a little consideration, and the\\nopulence of his effects will convince you that these two-\\nfold counterpoised faculties have found way in the sort\\nof art which embodies them, because that alone was large\\nenough to befit them. Lyric, idyl, tale, fantasy, and\\nphilosophic imagining are enclosed in the all-embracing\\ndramatic frar^.e.\\nHis artistic invention, moreover, working within the\\ndramatic sphere, expended itself in perfecting a poetical\\nform peculiarly his own, the monologue.\\nHis monologues range from expressions of mood as\\nsimple as in the song, Nay, but you, who do not love\\nher, to those in which not only the complex feelings of\\nthe speaker are expressed, but complete pictures of a\\nsecond and sometimes a third character are given; or\\neven group? of characters as in Fra Lippo Lippi,\\nwhere the curious, alert Florentine guards are not all\\nportrayed with equal clearness, but are all made to emerge", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxxiii\\neffectively in a picturesque knot, showing here a hang-\\ndog face, and there a twinkling eye, or a brawny arm\\nelbowing a neighbor. By dexterous weaving in of allu-\\nsions, flashes of light are turned upon events and feelings\\nof the past, so adding harmonious depths to the general\\neffect.\\nHis diction is noticeable in that he uses a large propor-\\ntion of Saxon words, and, by so doing, gives a lifelike\\nnaturalness to his speech, especially in his shorter poems,\\nin which his characters do not talk as if they were con-\\nfined within metrical limits, but seemingly as if the un-\\nstilted ways of daily life were open to them. Yet in all\\nthis apparently natural flow of words, there is a harmony\\nof rhythm, a recurring stress of rhyme, and a condensa-\\ntion of thought that produce an effect of consummate\\nart, frequently enhanced by a subtle symbolism underly-\\ning the words. How simple in its mere external form is\\nthe little poem Appearances Two momentary scenes,\\na few words to each, yet there have been laid bare the\\nworldly, ambitious heart of one person and the true heart\\nof another, disappointed by the shattering of his Idol\\nand under all, symbolically, a universal truth.\\nThe obscurity with which Browning has been taxed so\\noften is largely due to his monologue form. It is apt\\nto be confusing at first, mainly because nothing like it\\nhas been met with before. The mind must be on the alert\\nto catch the power of every word, to see its individual force\\nand its relational force. Nothing, neither a scene nor an\\nevent, is described outright. Only in the course of the\\ntalk, references to events and scenes are made a part of\\nthe very warp and woof of the poem, and woven in with\\nsuch skilfulness by the poet that the entire scene or event\\nmay be reconstructed by those who have eyes to see.\\nA harmonizing of imagery and of rhythm and even\\nrhyme with the subject in hand is a marked characteristic\\nof Browning s verse.\\nIn the poems Meeting at Night and Parting at\\nMorning, the wave motion of the sea is indicated in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "xxxiv GENERAL INTRODUCTION\\nthe form, not only by the arrangement of the rhymes to\\nform a climax by bringing a couplet in the middle of the\\nstanza like the crest of the wave, but the thought, also,\\ngathers to a climax midway in the stanzas, and subsides\\ntoward their close.\\nThe measure of Pheidippides is a mixture of dactyls\\nand spondees, original with the poet, with a pause at the\\nend of each line, which reflects the firm-set eager purpose\\nof the patriotic Greek runner and the breath-obstructed\\nrhythm of his bounding flight.\\nIn James Lee s Wife, the metre is changed in each\\nlyric to chime in with the changing mood dictating each\\none and the imagery is in general chosen to mate every\\naspect of the thought dominating each mood. For ex-\\nample, in the second section, called By the Fireside,\\nthe fire of shipwreck wood is the metaphor made to yield\\nthe mood of the brooding wife a mould which takes the\\ncast of every sudden turn and cranny of her ill-forebod-\\ning reverie.\\nIn the grotesque, frequently double rhymes, and the\\nrough rhythm of The Flight of the Duchess, the\\nbluff, blunt manner of the huntsman who tells the story\\nis conveyed. The subtle change that passes over the\\nspirit of the tale as the rhythm falls tranquilly, with pure\\nrhymes, now, into the dreamy chant of the gypsy, is the\\nmore effective for the colloquial swing, stop, and start of\\nthe forester s gruff -voiced diction.\\nIt may be said that Browning has had always m mind\\nimaginary personalities, appearing in various guises and\\nliving under manifold circumstances, to guide him in\\nfashioning his style j and seldom is his art not keyed to\\nattune with the theme and motive it interprets. As an\\nartist he disclaimed the nice selection and employment\\nof a style in itself beautiful. As an artist, none the less,\\nhe chose to create in every given case a style fitly propor-\\ntioned to the design, finding in that dramatic relating of\\nthe style to the design a more vital beauty.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "Browning Study Programmes\\nPoems of Adventure and Heroism\\nPage\\nVoL Text Note\\nHow They Brought the Good News from\\nGhent to Aix iv 5 3^2\\nThrough the Metidja iv 8 363\\nMuleykeh xi 183 315\\nDonald xi 227 324\\nTray xi 147 306\\nHerveRiel ix 220 302\\nIncident of the French Camp iv 140 383\\nEchetlos xi 166 311\\nPheidippides xi 117 301\\n[References are to the Camberivell Broivning. T. Y. Crowell\\nCo., New York and Boston.]\\nI. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private\\nStudy. The Stories of the Poems and how they\\nare Told.\\nHints: i. How They Brought the Good\\nNews. Tell in a few words the gist of the story.\\nFor help in this see Camberwell Browning, volume\\nand page cited above.\\nNote that the story is told by one of the men who\\ntook part in the ride. How much do we learn in the\\nfirst stanza Simply that the three men galloped out\\ninto the midnight with a good-speed from the\\nI", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "2 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwatchman who opened the gate, and that the walls\\nechoed his salute. In the second stanza we learn how\\nthe three men all kept abreast of each other in the ride\\nand, more particularly, what the teller of the story\\ndid to make the riding easier for his horse, Roland\\nand there is a hint of Roland s superiority indicated\\nwhen he says that Roland galloped none the less\\nsteadily. What additions are made to the picture in\\nthe third stanza Not only that it had been a dark\\nnight, for the moon was setting when they started,\\nbut that the men had been galloping all night and that\\nmorning is now breaking and in the remark with which\\nJoris broke their continued silence, Yet there is\\ntime, we learn that they must reach their journey s\\nend before a certain hour or it will be too late. The\\nfourth and fifth stanzas are devoted to a description of\\nRoland as his master sees him, now the sun is up,\\nthrough the early morning mist. In the sixth stanza,\\nDirck s horse gives out and in the seventh, we have\\nthe picture of Joris and the speaker galloping along in\\nthe bright sunhght, and, through Joris again, we learn\\nthat their destination is Aix. In the eighth, Joris*s\\nroan gives out and Roland alone is left, and for the\\nfirst time we really know that they have been galloping\\nto Aix to save the city from its fate. In the ninth\\nstanza, we have the last stretch of the gallop, when the\\nrider does everything he can to lighten the weight for\\nRoland and to encourage him, with the result that he\\nreaches Aix before it is too late. In the tenth, the\\ngood horse Roland is rewarded by the last measure of\\nwine the burgesses of Aix had, from which we may\\ngather that the town was in a pretty bad way. If it\\nwere not for the title of this poem we should be com-\\npletely in the dark as to the purpose of the three horse-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 3\\nmen until we reach which stanza And how much\\ndoes that tell us\\nIn telling the story does the poet use many words\\nthat are hard to understand What are they, and\\nwhere do they occur\\nWhere are the towns which are mentioned in the\\nride\\n(For answers to these questions see Camberwel\\nBrow?nngy Vol. IV., p. 362.)\\nQueries for Discussion. Would the poem bt;\\nany more interesting if we knew exactly what the\\nnews was and what fate it saved Aix from What\\ndo you think makes it so interesting\\nWould it have been possible for a horse to gallop\\nas many miles as Browning represents Roland as doing\\nDo the little inaccuracies of the poet spoil the effect\\nof the poem\\nHints 2. Through the Metidja. What does\\nthis poem describe (See Camberwell Browning,\\nVol. IV., p. 363.)\\nIs this ride shared by as many riders as that of the\\npreceding poem How is its story told Notice\\nthat a series of events do not happen as in the first\\npoem. The story this lonely rider has to make known\\nto us is largely that of the emotions arising within him\\nbut is it only that From the first stanza we learn\\nthat he is trusting to his own heart to guide him\\nsomewhere. Swayed by his excited feelings, his\\nscrutiny of some one in whom the tribe he belongs to\\nare confiding is doubly keen, that is, he looks both\\nwith the eyes of sense and of insight, as I were\\ndouble-eyed. From what is said in the second\\nstanza it comes out that this some one is their chief,\\nwho has allied forces under him, and that it is to him", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "4 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe rider is speeding. We thus learn sympathetically\\nfrom the Arab rider himself the information given in\\nthe title. His fierce loyalty to his chief appears, also,\\nin this stanza through the defiant pride which makes\\nhim ask, if witnesses are denied him in the empty\\ndesert. This strange question excites not only our\\ncuriosity, but our sense of something uncanny. In\\nthe third stanza we gather from his mention of an\\ninner voice, that these witnesses are creatures of his\\nfancy, whom the sliding sands seem to disclose, and\\nthen, also, that they are dead men, homicides,\\nwho come boasting to the desert,, only to perish there.\\nWhat do you think is meant by homicides\\nYou guess that these are soldiers who come expecting\\nto kill the Arabs, and who are themselves killed.\\nWhat do you think of the rider s scornful question,\\nHas he lied Does this seem to imply that the\\nchief to whom the rider is so loyal rests under some\\nsuspicion with the other Arabs, and that these homi-\\ncides themselves had underestimated his strength\\nand craft as a leader of these desert tribes Do you\\nthink this broken and mysterious way of expressing\\nhimself natural and life-like, but a mistake because it\\nleaves the story obscure Or does it lead us to get\\nat this story better because we have to enter into the\\nfeehng of this desperate man to understand it In\\nthe fourth stanza he turns away from his own sensa-\\ntions to describe his horse. What does he say of him\\nWhat kind of a foot has a zebra Is the thigh of an\\nostrich strong How does this stanza increase the\\nimpression of hot haste and excitement In the last\\nstanza the sense of adventure and risk, and of the\\nintense tribal feeling of the rider is brought to a climax.\\nHow is this done By his mention of fate, and his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 5\\nreligion, and the blind faith that urges him to this ride,\\neven if it be to death. We seem to learn the story of\\nthis ride the best through learning the most of the rider.\\nSince he declares himself ready to die when the Prophet\\nand the Bride stop the blood swelling his veins so fiercely,\\nwe learn that his ride is taken in the face of great risks,\\nwith almost certain death in the end. Who are the\\nProphet and the Bride (See Camberwell Brownings\\nVol. IV., p. 364.)\\nQueries for Discussion. Is the ride described in\\nthis poem less thrilling than that of the first Or\\nmore so, because you learn from it more of the rider\\nand less of the horse Is it necessarily true that a\\nmore psychological view of an adventure is less inter-\\nesting than an external view\\nHints: 3. Muleykeh. What in a few\\nwords is the story of this poem (See Camberwell\\nBrownings Vol. XL, p. 315.) In the first four\\nstanzas we are introduced to the wonderful mare\\nMuleykeh and her master through the conversation of\\na stranger to Hoseyn and a friend. Notice the im-\\npression a stranger would get of Hoseyn from the\\npoor look of his tent and what the friend would\\nreply to show that he needed neither pity nor scorn.\\nWhat does he represent Hoseyn as laughing in his\\nsoul, that is, as thinking in a laughing mood?\\nWhat is his friend s opinion of his attitude Who\\ndoes the stranger decide to lavish his pity upon in the\\nfourth stanza, and why In the fifth stanza the poet\\ntakes up the story of Duhl s attempts to get the coveted\\nprize, Muleykeh. How does Hoseyn treat Duhl s\\noffer to buy her in the sixth stanza? To Duhl s\\nsecond attempt a year later to get Muleykeh by begging\\nher for his son, what is Hosevn s answer When", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nafter another year Duhl attempts to steal the Pearl,\\nwhat excuses does he make for his action To what\\ndoes Duhl refer in lines 58 and 59 He means to\\npoint out that Hoseyn was so generous that he had\\nkilled one of his horses to feast a chance-comer and had\\ngiven his robe to two poor singing girls, and knowing\\nthis he had ventured to play upon his generosity when\\nhe begged the Pearl from him. In line 65 it appears\\nthat he had sent a spy beforehand to find out where\\nthe Pearl was kept. What picture does he give us of\\nHoseyn and his mare as he found them And of\\nBuheyseh her sister Describe the incidents of the\\ntheft and the pursuit which followed. Describe the\\nlast view we get of Hoseyn.\\nQueries for Discussion. If Hoseyn had been rep-\\nresented as resisting the temptation to prove Muley-\\nkeh s unrivalled swiftness it would have made the\\nmare the centre of the poem, would it not, instead\\nof her master Is the poem made the more in-\\nteresting through Hoseyn s inner struggle being brought\\nout, or less so\\nHints 4. Donald. Give a summary, briefly,\\nof the story. (See Camherzvell Brozuning, Notes, Vol.\\nXI., p. 324.) Who is the speaker of the first two\\nlines of the poem, and to whom are they addressed,\\nthe reader, or the boys from Oxford To whom\\nis this explanation addressed, about the boys, where\\nthey were from, and how young they were The\\nscene of the poem and an account of what the boys\\nwere talking about is the theme of the following\\nstanzas leading up to the story of Donald. How many\\nof the stanzas are taken up with this preparatory frame-\\nwork for the story, and where does the actual story\\nitself begin? Notice that this preparatory setting of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 7\\nthe story is not merely descriptive, but descriptive in\\na dramatic way of the scene and the mood and talk\\nboth of the boys and the story-teller. How much is\\nmade known in this way of the scene inside the bothie?\\nWhat are the boys doing, and how does their opinion\\nof the value of Sport to a man differ from the\\nstory-teller s? But does the teller of the story say\\nwhat he thinks about Sport What is his opinion,\\ndo you think, and how do you know? Is Donald s\\nstory (lines 61\u00e2\u0080\u0094 224) really **just what he told us\\nhimself or the story-teller s version of it? Notice\\nhow many stanzas are devoted to putting before the\\neye the precise scene where Donald s adventure was\\nto take place, before Donald himself is mentioned.\\nThis picturesque manner of description belongs to the\\nstory throughout but observe that the interest inten-\\nsifies at the climax of the meeting with the stag (lines\\n144-168). Is this due merely to the excitement and\\nsuspense at this point, or, also, to the poet s way of\\ntelling about it Notice that the descriptive style\\nchanges to direct presentation, first, of Donald s\\nidea of the way out of the situation (lines 144 and\\n152), expressed dramadcally, just as Donald himself\\nthinks it and says it; and second, by the stag s ex-\\npression, not, of course, in words, but by action, of\\nhis understanding of what to do. The story-teller\\ndrops the past tense here, and speaks in the present\\ntense, as if the events described were at that moment\\ntaking place, reverting to the past tense again with the\\nreturn to his own feelings about Donald s act (lines\\n185\u00e2\u0080\u0094189). Show how the description he gives of\\nDonald s crippled state, and how the fellow made his\\nliving afterwards is again enlivened by the dramatic\\nstyle, in giving the comment of different people on", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDonald s adventure, including his own. Why does\\nhe himself hope he gave twice as much as the rest?\\nIs the quotation from Homer appropriately put in\\nthe mouth of the story-teller? Why Notice what\\none of the boys says (Hne 43). What does the\\nstory-teller mean, in lines 185\u00e2\u0080\u0094189, by saying he will\\ndare to place himself by God that he will venture\\nto judge as God To whom does he apply the\\nplain words he hears? What allusions in the\\npoem reveal the place in Great Britain where the\\nstory takes place? What is a bothie? Was\\ntheir iire made of coal or wood (See Hne 9.)\\nThe trivet, Glenlivet. (See Camberwell\\nBrow?iing,Vo\\\\. XL, p. 324.) The speaker seems to\\nbe satirical about there not having been any boasting or\\nare five score brace of grouse just enough to fill a game\\nbag? Ten hours stalk of the Royal (line 16).\\nWhy would this be an unheard-of feat What dif-\\nferent class of feats has the speaker succeeded in\\nExplain a Double-First, line 42. Where is\\nRoss-shire Some of the characteristics of the coun-\\ntry are mentioned in a single line (76). What are\\nthese What other words indicating the country are\\nthere in this poem? (See lines 79, 103, 107.)\\nWhat is the difference between a red deer and a\\nfallow deer What is the pastern (line 182)?\\nThere are two references to books in this poem.\\nWhich are they\\nQueries for Discussion. Is this poem a good argu-\\nment against Sport Is Donald s act only that of an\\nexceptionally unfeeling and ungenerous sportsman, do\\nyou think, or is Walter Scott right in saying what he\\ndoes about it? (Scott s opinion is given in notes to\\nthe poem already cited.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 9\\nHints: 5. Tray. Give a summed-up ac-\\ncount, (See Camberwell Brownings Vol. XI.,\\np. 306.) As a little introduction to the story of this\\npoem, notice that some one is represented as asking\\nthree bards for a tale which will satisfy his thirst of\\nsoul. He interrupts the first and the second bard, but\\ndecides to hear the third bard s tale of a beggar child.\\nNotice how this third bard tells the story pardy in\\nnarrative form and partly in dramatic form. Point out\\nwhere these changes in the manner of telling occur and\\nnotice that the transition from one to the other is\\nmade directly without any intermediate they sai^d\\nor he says. Is there any exception to this What\\nare the only aspects of the situation that appeal to the\\nbystanders Do you get the impression that the poet\\nwho tells the story is in sympathy with the dog rather\\nthan with the bystanders What is there in the man-\\nner of telling the story that gives you this impression\\nWhat unusual words are there in the poem For\\neke and habergeon see Notes, Camberwell\\nBrowningy Vol. XL, p. 306. Is helm an un-\\nusual word for helmet By vivisection is meant the\\nexperimenting upon animals while still alive, so that\\ntheir physical conditions and nervous action may be\\nobserved and knowledge gained thereby to be used in\\nthe surgical and medical treatment of human beings.\\nThis results, of course, in torture to the animal; and\\nBrowning was one of those who thought that any gains\\nwon by such means cost too much pain to the animal,\\nresulted in a dulling of human kindliness, and, in this\\ncase, was grossly stupid because useless. Is any especial\\nhero referred to in Sir Olaf Browning may have had\\nin mind King Olaf II. of Norway, called St. Olaf, who\\nwas very energetic in spreading Christianity throughout", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "lo BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhis kingdom, and was driven from his throne by Canute\\nin 1030. Or he may simply have used the name to\\nstand as a type of the medieval Christian Knight of\\nChivalry.\\nIs there anything in the poem to indicate where\\nthe incident occurred The only indication is in the\\nword **quay, which points to Paris because there\\nare quays (or quais) along the banks of the Seine\\nwhere little beggar girls might sit. On the other\\nhand. Tray is a good old English name for a dog,\\nused by Shakespeare in Lear, iii. 6, 65. As the\\nincident really occurred in Paris (see notes before\\ncited) Browning probably thought of the setting as\\nthere, while in every other particular he made the\\npoem English.\\nQuery for Discussion. Is this poem chiefly\\ninteresting because of its graphic description of a pic-\\nturesque event, or because of its pointing a moral\\nagainst vivisection and against that type of scientist which\\nthinks by external experiment to find out all the\\nsecrets of the inner nature\\nHints: 6. Herve Riel. The gist of this\\nstory may be given in a {t\\\\N words (see Camber-\\nzvell Brozvning, Vol. IX., p. 302), but it is to be\\nnoticed that only by giving some idea of how this\\nstory is told, can any notion be gained of the risk and\\nexcitement attending this adventure of piloting the\\nFrench ships into the harbor and saving them from the\\npursuing English fleet. Show how this patriotic ad-\\nventure is told. In the first stanza, what image gives\\nyou a picture of the whole situation What further\\nknowledge of it do you gain from the second stanza?\\nThe desperateness of the situation is shown how, in\\nthe third stanza By direct description How,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM II\\nthen Hew are the council and its decision described\\nin stanza iv., dramatically or narratively? The\\nnext stanza introduces the deliverer from a peril not\\nonly made known but accepted as hopeless. A gleam\\nof escape dawns with his appearance. How do you\\nget this impression Nothing definite comes out as\\nto the way of escape, but only that there is one, ac-\\ncording to this simple Breton sailor, until line 60\\nof stanza vi. Up to that point, however, how does\\nthe story get on The way of escape is only hinted\\nat, but the patriotism and ability and character of the\\ndeliverer are made clear, and with the close of the\\nstanza you not only know what the way out is going\\nto be, but you have a glowing sense of the capacity of\\nHerve to accomplish it. What makes you draw these\\nconclusions as to, first, his character, second, his\\npatriotism, third, his ability Notice that in stanza\\nvi. Herve is made to speak for himself directly.\\nDoes he boast? Is he right, then, in speaking so con-\\nfidently of himself and so bitterly of the other pilots\\nWhat do you think\\nLook up on the map the geographical and local\\nallusions in this poem, and explain their use here.\\n(See Camberwell Browning) Vol. XL, Notes, p. 303.)\\nWhich is the biggest ship Notice that this is the\\nflagship of Admiral Damfreville, and is spoken of as\\nhaving twelve and eighty guns. Is this an Eng-\\nlish or a French way of counting Quatre-z ingt-\\ndouze.^ What does Browning mean by the rank-\\non-rank of heroes flung pell-mell on the Louvre,\\nface and flank\\nQueries for Discussion. Does the interest of the\\npoem end with the end of the adventure Notice\\nthat if it did, stanza vii., which describes how the ships", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "12 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nentered the harbor safely and how Herve proved his\\nword, would properly end the poem, and all that comes\\nafter it would be superfluous. Is it If you think it\\nis not, say why, and show what interests you in the\\nfollowing stanzas, and how it is all made known.\\nNotice, as a sign that the hero of this adventure is\\nmore important than the adventure itself, graphic and\\nexciting as that is, that the title of the poem is Herve\\nRiel, and not How Herve Riel Steered the Ships\\ninto Harbor. Why is that sort of a title the right\\none for How they Brought the Good News, while\\nthe other suits this\\nHi?its 7. Echetlos (For account of the\\npoem see Camberwell Browni?tg, Vol. XI., Notes, p.\\nThis is a very simple and direct narrative. Two\\nstanzas are occupied with a general description of the\\nbattle of Marathon. In the third stanza one man is\\nsingled out for special description. What point\\nabout him is noted first In the fourth stanza a de-\\nscription of this man s appearance is given. How is\\nhe then described as helping the Greeks. What be-\\ncame of him when the battle was over and what did\\nthe Oracle say about it The final stanza gives a\\nreflection made by the poet, himself, upon the last\\nwords of the Oracle, 1. 27, The great deed ne er\\ngrows small, namely, that the great name too often\\ndoes, as illustrated in the case of what distinguished\\nAthenians\\nAre any unusual words used in this poem A\\nshare, 1. 12, is the broad blade of the plough that\\ncuts the ground. Tunnies, 1. 13, are fish belong-\\ning to the mackerel family, but somewhat different in\\nform and much larger than the ordinary mackerel.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 13\\nThose found in the Mediterranean sometimes weigh\\n1,000 pounds. Phalanx, 1. 16 In early Greek\\ntimes a body of soldiers formed in a square, in close\\nrank and file with their shields joined and their pikes\\ncrossing each other. For an account of Greek Oracles,\\nline 25, see Smith s History of Greece.\\nQueries for Discussion. Is the attitude of a genu-\\nine hero rightly to make light of honor due him as the\\ndoer of a great deed And is it necessarily a mis-\\ntake, as this poem suggests, for the public to honor the\\ndoer of a deed, instead of the deed itself.? Why.? Is\\nit right for a country to show its gratitude substantially\\nto its heroes but wrong for the heroes to accept too\\nmuch? Or what is the right principle to follow, and\\nwhat are the limitations that ought to govern a state s\\nexpression of honor to its heroes\\nHints: 8. Incident of the French Camp.\\nDoes Browning himself tell this story, or does he\\nassume that a Frenchman tells it How do you\\nknow What picture do you get of Napoleon in the\\nfirst stanza What sense is there in giving his thoughts\\nin the second stanza? Have they anything to do with\\nthe incident t What is the incident Notice how it\\nis told a rider gallops up, alights, tells news which\\nit takes the greatest nerve for him to stand up long\\nenough to give. How is this made known to you\\nWhen he has delivered his message what effect does it\\nhave upon the Emperor which reveals the connection\\nbetween his thoughts and such an incident The last\\nstanza adds to the effect of the story by showing that\\nnot even to the Emperor are his plans so important as\\nto make him ignore this young soldier s sacrifice of\\nhis life for them.\\nQueries for Discussion. In what does the climax", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "14 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof effect in this poem consist In its portrayal of love\\nof country, the glory of France, the character of\\nNapoleon, or the devotion of the youth\\nHints 9. Pheidippides. Give first a sketch\\nof the story. (See Camberwell Brownings Vol. XI.,\\nNotes, page 301.)\\nDo you get any idea from the first stanza as to the\\nscene of the poem or who is speaking All that is\\nevident is that some one is paying reverence to his\\ncountry and his gods, and especially to Pan, as a\\nsavior and patron. In the eighth line it appears that\\nthis person is addressing the Archons of Athens, stand-\\ning alive before them, and in the eleventh we learn,\\nby his repeating the order he had received from the\\nArchons, who he was, and what he was ordered to\\ndo. From the way in which he describes his run to\\nAthens, his breaking in upon the Spartans, and his\\nfeelings at the actions of the Spartans, should you say\\nthat this professional runner had the soul of a patriot t\\nObserve (line 41) how he describes himself as saved\\nfrom mouldering to ash only by the word Athens\\nin Sparta s reply. What further effect does Sparta s\\nperfidy have upon him He even accuses the gods of\\nhis land of bad faith. To what will he give his al-\\nlegiance in preference to them Is his meeting with\\nPan the chief event of the poem How does he say\\nthe god looked and spoke, and what does Pan give\\nhim as a pledge that he will help Athens What\\nfurther qualities of his character come out when\\nMiltiades questions him as to the reward he is to re-\\nceive himself? First his modesty in not relating what\\nPan had said of himself, and then his singleness of\\npurpose in being satisfied with a reward that simply\\npromised him release from the runner s toil. Observe", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 15\\nthe picture he draws of what he means to do after the\\nPersians have been conquered. What actually hap-\\npened to him after the battle of Marathon, showing\\nthat Pan had in mind a different sort of release from\\nhis toil from that Pheidippides had imagined\\nGive an account of the Greek gods and goddesses\\nmentioned in the poem. (See notes before cited.\\nFor further information, see Gayley s Mythology in\\nEnglish Literature or Smith s Dictionary of\\nClassical Mythology. Which was the special\\ntutelary deity of Athens Give an account of the\\ncustoms and superstitions mentioned.\\nQueries for Discussion. If you had no other\\nmeans of judging than this poem supplies, what should\\nyou say, from the character of Pheidippides, were the\\nmain characteristics of a patriot Does it detract from\\nthe loyalty of Pheidippides at all that he does not take\\nit in that the meed of his services will be death\\nWhat is the inner appropriateness to the theme of Pan,\\nthe rude earth-god being the best friend of Athens\\nDoes it mean that to the crude primal instinct of at-\\ntachment to the earth where one was born Athens owes\\nher salvation Is patriotism, because it is an elemen-\\ntary sentiment, Hkely to wane with the progress of\\ncivilization Or is it capable of development, and\\nhow, do you think, ought it to be developed So\\nthat a Sparta may be concerned in the welfare of an\\nAthens\\nII. Topic for Papery Classzvorky or Private Study.\\nWhy, and How the Deed Was Done.\\nHints If you look through these poems you may\\nsee that in all of them, except Donald, some risky\\nact is undertaken that contributes to the general good.\\nThe sportsman in Donald is seized with a sudden", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "l6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndesire to wreak his pleasure on the stag, at an oppor-\\ntune moment, and no other considerations have any\\nforce beside that merely selfish instinct. A critical\\ninstant comes and a risk to run presents itself to the\\nmind of Donald as to all the other actors in these\\npoems, but Donald alone runs the risk and does his\\ndeed without some kindly or social impulse in view.\\nIn Muleykeh Hoseyn is seized, at the opportune\\nchance when his mare is within his reach, with the\\ndisinterested impulse, arising from his love and pride\\nin her, which makes him act directly against his more\\nselfish caution as her owner. But in this poem, as in\\nDonald, the story told is of an exciting event with\\nan element of chance in it.\\nIt may be said that these are poems of adventure\\ntherefore but are they poems of equal heroism And\\nif one has more of the heroic in it than the other,\\nwhich do you think it is, and how does it come out\\nIn drawing your conclusions compare with the other\\npoems and ask how it is with these, also.\\nBecause all are stories of exciting events with an\\nelement of chance, and lead to a risk willingly under-\\ntaken for the sake of some end the actors think good\\nfor others, are they, therefore, all equally heroic\\nNotice the way the deeds were done and what they\\nwere done for in each case.\\nIn **How They Brought the Good News, and\\nThrough the Metidja, the object held in view by\\nthe riders is left a little vague. Still it is evident that\\nthe ride has, in both cases, a patriotic motive but is\\nthe peril equal What risk does the Arab rider run\\nAnd ask, in comparison with his, what the risk is for\\nDirck and Joris and Roland s rider and who the real\\nhero is who pays the price for the race to bring good", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 17\\nnews to Aix. In each of the three horse-poems the\\nhorses share differently in the result show how. In\\nhow many of these poems are human beings alone\\nconcerned in the deed done, and in which is the human\\ninterest the least important\\nIn Herve Riel, why the deed was done is as\\ndefinite as the how. In **Echetlos the why\\nis implied. In the Incident of a French Camp, is\\nthe way in which the young hero bears himself more\\nimportant to the reader than what he does Is it the\\nglory of France or devotion to his chief which inspires\\nhim\\nCompare the different heroes in the different poems\\n(i) as to whether they risk life or not, (2) whether\\nthe ends they seek are equally valuable, (3) whether\\nthey look for reward or not. Do you admire Herve\\nRiel more as Browning represents him, asking but for\\none day s leave, than as history records him, asking for\\na hfelong furlough (See Vol. IX., Notes, p. 302.)\\nIn thinking over the situations presented in the re-\\nmaining poems ask yourself in which the kindly mo-\\ntive the desire to meet a personal risk for a social\\ngood is the most mixed with the necessity to do harm\\nto some in order to do good to others\\nIn Herve Riel, for example, the salvation of\\nthe French fleet is an annoyance and chagrin to the\\nEnglish, and in Pheidippides and Echetlos\\nthe heroism that helps the Athenians spites the Spartans\\nand scatters the Persians, while the service done the\\nEmperor and the glory won for France in planting the\\nFrench colors in Ratisbon, however glorious and good\\nfrom the French point of view, is disastrously meant\\nfor the German people. But in Herve Riel is\\nthe benevolence accomplished for the French fraught", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "l8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwith as much malevolence to the English as the heroism\\nof the French youth in the Incident of the French\\nCamp is to the German city It might be said,\\nfrom an unpartisan point of view, that an act of heroism\\nin war is sometimes nobler, because more justifiable,\\nunder some circumstances than others.\\nAre all these poems written from a partisan point of\\nview that is, is the way of looking at the deed\\nAthenian in Pheidippides and French in the French\\npoems, or are there any indications that the deed itself\\nis more enthusiastically dwelt upon in Herve Riel,\\nand the characters of the Youth and the Emperor,\\nrather more than the deed alone, in the Incident of\\nthe French Camp\\nQueries for Discussion. Does the blind uncon-\\nsciousness of their deeds on the part of Roland and\\nTray make them less or more heroic in your opinion\\nthan Herve, Pheidippides, the French boy, or the\\nGreek peasant Are such acts finer in proportion to\\nthe unconsciousness of risk, or to the regardlessness of\\nrisk Is the human being capable, therefore, of\\ngreater possibilities of heroism and cowardice because he\\nis aware of the peril and understands better what end\\nhe seeks to accomplish\\nIs the service done by a Herve Riel in rescuing his\\ncountry s navy from destruction more exalting because\\nit is a deed that saves life than that of the French\\nyouth who helps his emperor in aggressive action\\nagainst life Should you say that an act of heroism\\nappealing to the universal heart was necessarily more\\nimpressive than one making a partisan appeal or not\\nIn estimating the value of heroism in thrilling the\\nspirit, is why the deed is done more important than\\nhow it is done In the poet s art of telling a story", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 19\\neffectively, it might depend more on the way of telling\\nit, and on whether the poet meant to lay his emphasis on\\nthe character of the actors, or on the quality of their\\nheroism.\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classzuork, or Private\\nStudy. The Historical Background.\\nHints In considering what historical background\\nthese poems have, the stories they tell or the imagi-\\nnation or skill of the poet in telling them may be put\\naside, and the elements of actual life-experience out of\\nwhich the poems were made remain to be kept in\\nview. It may then be seen that these foundation-\\nelements of life-experience are of several kinds. There\\nmay be some historical event or occurrences belonging\\nto the social life of man out of which the poem arose\\nor there may be some other poem or story or tradition\\non which this one is founded, in which case, social\\nlife or the general human experience is still the source\\nof the poem, but pushed a step farther back or, there\\nmay be, at the root of it, some experience of life be-\\nlonging to a single person. The first is what is com-\\nmonly understood to be the historical source the\\nsecond, the literary the third is ordinarily spoken of\\nas biographical. But all are alike traceable to that\\nprior experience of life which may be called, broadly\\nspeaking, the historical background. Bearing this in\\nmind, we may find some interesting differences in the\\nkind of historical background these poems have. Ask-\\ning now, for example, what foundation in history\\nthere was for How they brought the Good News,\\nwe find, first, that Browning denied any exact basis for\\nthe particular occurrence told (see what he says in notes\\nto the poem in the Camberwell Browning, Vol. IV.,\\np. 362), and yet that the story is connected not merely", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "20 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwith two real cities but with a very interesting chapter\\nin the history of modern Europe and that this inci-\\ndent, which Browning imagined, is a probable one\\nwhich might easily have been a real one, arising out of\\nthe siege of Aix and the union of Ghent with Aix to\\nresist the despotic control of Spain and that all this,\\nalthough it does not enter directly into the story of\\nthe poem, makes a sort of framework for it. If you\\nlike to know what the alliance of Holland and the other\\nStates of the Netherlands against Philip II. meant in\\nmodern history, and what it accomplished, turn to\\nMotley s Rise of the Dutch Republic, chapter viii.\\nTo the historic framework surrounding this little poem\\nwe owe thus a picturesque side-light. But you will see\\nthat the poem does not celebrate this historical line of\\nevents. It is the carrying of the good news, and not\\nthe news itself or its effects, which is the main thing\\nhere. What Browning says about the origin of this\\npoem, too (see notes cited), assures us that he has\\nmade more use of life in the shape of his own personal\\nexperience in riding York, than he has of life in\\nthe shape of historical or social experience. Still, this\\npersonal experience could scarcely be called autobio-\\ngraphical as it stands in the poem, here. It is to be\\nnoticed that although he has made more use of one\\nthan the other, he has made use both of personal and\\nhistorical life in the same way, that is, indirectly.\\nIn Through the Metidja there is scarcely\\neven an indirect use of personal experience but this\\npoem more distinctly, but still indirectly, makes use\\nof social experience. It involves another interesting\\nbit of historical life, still more modern, belonging to\\nthe present century and connected with a class of\\nevents still taking place, the subjugation, by the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 21\\nstronger and more civilized nations, of the weaker and\\nless developed races. In this case it is the coloniza-\\ntion of Algeria by France which led to the repeated\\nuprisings of the wild Arab tribes of this part of North\\nAfrica, led by their able and noble chieftain Abd-el-\\nKadr, against the French invaders of their country.-\\n(See Camberwell Browningy Notes, Vol. IV., p. 363,\\nfor the dates and the main events in Abd-el-Kadr s\\ncareer.) Notice how indefinitely, and yet pictur-\\nesquely Browning has used this historical background,\\nwhat allusions to the events of the Algerian revolt,\\nto the Arab character, customs, and religion he has\\nwoven into the poem, and the atmosphere of sympathy\\nwith which he has surrounded this desperately loyal\\nsubject of the Arab chief\\nIn comparison with these two poems what sort of\\nhistorical background may the other horse-poem,\\nMuleykeh, the two other animal-poems, Don-\\nald, and **Tray and the four remaining war-\\nincident poems be said to have Should you say that\\nthe sort of historical element underlying the first two\\npoems was of that sub-class of literary source which\\nrests on a folk-story or some such traditional tale Can\\nyou judge what sort of literary source a story has, even\\nif you do not know just what the original of that par-\\nticular story was How does the incident from which\\n**Tray arose (see notes to that poem, Camberwell\\nBrowning, Vol. XT., p. 306), differ from the older tra-\\nditional tale of ^Donald and the still older one of\\nMuleykeh, or the ancient classic stories of Echet-\\nlos and Pheidippides (See notes, Camberwell\\nBrowningy for information as to these.) Show in each\\ncase what use the poet has made of the historical ele-\\nment how he has enlivened and enriched it, and made", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "22 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nit savor of its original country and nationality and to\\nwhat end he has adapted it. Are the later poems of\\nthis series more complex in their historical, racial, or\\nmoral interest, than the earlier ones Bring this out\\nmore fully.\\n(Queries for Discussion. Does the actual occurrence\\nof any incident told of in a poem make it more vivid\\nand interesting or not Give the reasons in favor of\\nhistorical accuracy on the one side, and the superiority\\nof fact over fancy and then, on the other side, bring\\nout all that may be said in favor of the literary use of\\nhistory, and the truth to life that may be attained by\\nan artistic use of the imagination and then ask which\\ngives you the truer view of life, history or literature\\nIs the direct way of relating historical or personal\\nevents any more effective or lifehke than the indirect?\\nOr does that question also depend upon the manipula-\\ntion and the point of view Give examples of the\\ndirect and indirect. Are any of this series of poems\\ndirectly told? Is Donald an example of direct\\nrelation, or does it only assume to be an experience of\\nthe poet s own in story-telling in a Highland bothie\\nIV. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Artistry of the Poems.\\n[We use this word, artistry, because it is used\\nby Browning in The Ring and the Book to de-\\nnote the fashioning of the poem out of the raw material\\nof fact or thought and is more appropriate because\\nmore special than the word art.\\nHi?tts Concerning the rhythm of How They\\nBrought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, Joa-\\nquin Miller tells this interesting little anecdote. He\\nhad been invited by the Archbishop of Dublin to meet\\nBrowning, Dean Stanley, Houghton, and others.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 23\\nTwo of the archbishop s beautiful daughters had\\nbeen riding in the park with the Earl of Aberdeen.\\nAnd did you gallop? asked Browning of the\\nyounger beauty. I galloped, Joyce [Dirck] gal-\\nloped, we galloped all three. Then we all laughed\\nat the happy and hearty retort, and Browning, beating\\nthe time and clang of galloping horses feet on the\\ntable with his fingers, repeated the exact measure in\\nLatin from Virgil and the archbishop laughingly\\ntook it up, in Latin, where he left off. I then told\\nBrowning I had an order it was my first for a\\npoem, from the Oxford Magazine, and would like to\\nborrow the measure and spirit of his Good News\\nfor a prairie fire on the plains, driving buffalo and all\\nother life before it into the river. *Why not borrow\\nfrom Virgil as I did He is as rich as one of your\\ngold mines, while I am but a poor scribe. The Hne\\nBrowning quoted from Virgil was probably the cele-\\nbrated one descriptive of galloping horses Quadru-\\npedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.^ Notice,\\nhowever, that Browning has adapted this metre to suit\\nhimself. Instead of making Virgil s line of dactylic feet\\n(one accented and two unaccented syllables) ending\\nwith a spondee, he begins his lines always with one or\\ntwo extra unaccented syllables, and always ends the line\\nwith an extra accented syllable. By some, this poem is\\nscanned as anapaestic (two syllables unaccented and one\\naccented) ending with an iamb and sometimes beginning\\nwith an iamb (an unaccented and an accented syllable.)\\nBut we think it will be found that a delicate percep-\\ntion of sound will dictate the scanning of the poem as\\ndactylic, even if we had not Browning s word for it\\nthat he borrowed the rhythm of it from Virgil. In\\nreading the poem one feels that to a certain extent it", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "24 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nimitates the gallop of horses. Is this entirely due to\\nthe dactylic measure If this were so, then dactyls\\nwould always suggest galloping horses. (Compare\\nthe metre of Longfellow s Evangeline. The\\nsuggestion is probably gained more definitely through\\nthe regular recurrence of the final accented syllable to\\nevery line by means of which the sharp and regular\\nrhythm of a gallop is conveyed. The rhyming\\ncouplets also add to the rhythmic regularity Is an\\natmosphere of haste given to the poem by the direct\\nway in which the story is told\\nWhere are there any examples of poetic ornament,\\nand what are they (See lines 4, 5, 15, 19, 24,\\n39, 40, 41, 47.) Are there any allusions in the\\npoem which do not naturally grow out of the subject,\\nlike the references to the places they passed on their\\nride\\nThrough the Metidja also suggests the swift pace\\nof a horse, but the effect is gained in a very different\\nway. The first thing you will notice about this poem\\nis that it has but one rhyme sound all through, and\\nthat only one word, ride, is repeated; further,\\nbeside the end rhymes, there are a number of internal\\nrhymes. Contrast the rhythm of this poem with that\\nof the preceding poem and notice that it is anapaestic\\nwith two feet in each line for the greater part of the\\npoem, but that some of the lines are longer, having\\nthree feet, one anapaestic, and two iambic. Point\\nout these longer lines. Miss Ethel Davis, writing in\\nPoet-lore (August-September, 1893, Vol. V, p. 436),\\nsays of this poem On the first reading of* Through\\nthe Metidja, the twinship of form and matter is per-\\nhaps the most strongly marked. One hears in the\\nopening verse no word to picture the horse that car-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 25\\nries the speaker, but at once he becomes the central\\nfigure of the poem. His beating hoofs exhilarate, and\\nthe fresh, clear air animates, in spite of hnes which in\\nthemselves would surround the rider with dust and\\nheat. The man himself would be forgotten but for\\nthe added length of the sixth line. In that the motion\\nof the steed is gone, and one is brought back to the\\nfact that the thought dominates the gallop.\\nIs the undoubted prominence of the horse in this\\npoem due to the constant recurrence in the rhymes of\\nthe i sound, reminding one of the fact of the\\nriding, as well as to the constant refrain as I ride\\nShould you say that the rhythm suggested galloping,\\nor a more steady swing? Upon this Mr. Bulkeley\\nsays (London Browning Society Papers): What a\\njourney the Arab gets through with in the course of\\nthe day with his long easy strides As well as the\\nstress on the accented syllables of the verse, they also\\nhave quantity, the i sound being a very long\\nsound. Compare this with the preceding poem as to\\npoetical ornaments.\\nMuleykeh. The line in this poem has six ac-\\ncents, the majority of the feet being iambic, but there\\nis a good deal of irregularity. For example, in the\\nvery first line there are two anapaestic feet\\nIf a stranger passed the tent of Hoseyn, he cried A churl s.\\nAgain, line 3 begins with a trochaic foot and* the last\\nfoot is anapaestic\\nNay would a friend exclaim, he needs nor pity nor scorn.\\nPoint out all such irregularities. Are there any\\nperfectly regular lines The variety given to the\\nstanza by the irregularities is added to by the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "26 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nrhyme scheme which does not obtrude itself as in the\\nprevious poems. Notice that the first and fourth,\\nsecond and third, third and sixth lines rhyme. Is\\nthere much ornamentation of the verse in this poem\\nIs there any other line or phrase in the poem as beau-\\ntiful as line 72? Of this line Mr. Bulkeley writes\\n**How admirably not only the swiftness of Muleykeh\\nas she dashes past us to the goal, but, what we chiefly\\nsee, the hairy amplitude of the long tail and the rush\\nof the hoofs, are brought before us.\\nDonald presents still another variety of rhythm\\nand rhyming. In the first stanza, each line has three\\naccents, and anapaestic and iambic feet mixed. Notice\\nalso that every line ends with an extra short syllable\\n(called a weak or feminine ending), and that the\\nrhymes are in the second and fourth lines. Compare\\nthe remaining stanzas with this first one, and notice all\\nthe variations from it that may occur. When the\\nstory reaches its climax notice that the speaker uses\\nthe present tense instead of the past, which he has\\nbeen using, and that Donald s own words are given\\ndirectly. There is also considerable variation of the\\nrhythm. See, for examples, lines 189 to 196.\\nIs poetic imagery any more characteristic of this\\npoem than of the preceding\\n**.Tray. The principal irregularities of rhythm\\nin this poem are in the first stanza where the fifth line\\nis broken off after three feet so that it does not rhyme\\nwith the first and second lines as in all the other\\nstanzas, and the double rhymes ending in weak sylla-\\nbles, in lines 6, 9, 10, 28, and 29. Point out what\\nthe normal form of the verse is and any other varia-\\ntions you may discover in it.\\nHerve Riel, This poem is very fine as to rhythm.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "ADVENTURE AND HEROISM 2/\\nrhyme, and stanza-form. The majority of the lines\\nhave four stresses) but a good many have only two,\\nand several have three. The feet vary from one to\\nthree unaccented syllables followed by an accented\\nsyllable. In line 75 there is even a foot with five\\nunaccented syllables, thus\\nKeeps the passage as its inch of way were the wide seas profound.\\nMany of the short lines might be scanned as if they\\nhad three feet, thus\\nThen was called a council straight.\\nbut the ear tells one that such a line is more in har-\\nmony with the rest of the verse if scanned\\nThen was called a council straight.\\nThe effect of all these short syllables is to reflect the\\nexcitement of the situation and the necessity for\\nquick and decisive action.\\nNotice that the stanzas vary in length just as para-\\ngraphs in prose might, each stanza taking up a fresh\\nphase of the story. Compare the rhyming of the\\ndifferent stanzas with each other and notice also the\\nexamples of alliteration. Compare with the other\\npoems in this respect.\\n**Echetlos is comparatively simple in its form,\\nstanzas of three lines, all of which rhyme with each\\nother. The lines have six feet, mostly iambic, but\\nnotice the variations.\\nIncident of the French Camp. Notice how\\nsimple the rhyme and rhythm is in this, compared\\nwith Herve Riel, for example. The lines regu-\\nlarly alternate between four accents and three accents,\\nand the rhymes also alternate.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "28 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nPheidippides. The peculiarity of this poem is\\nthat, akhough the rhythm is iambic, most of the lines\\nbegin with an accented syllable, sometimes followed\\nby two unaccented, sometimes by one unaccented\\nsyllable.\\nThe rhymes are also distributed in a very curious\\nway. The first line rhymes with the seventh, the\\nsecond with the eighth, the third with the sixth and the\\nfourth with the fifth. Writing on Browning s Poetic\\nForm in Poet-lore (Vol. II., p. 234, June, 1890),\\nDr. D. G. Brinton says Not unfrequently. Brown-\\ning employs rhyme in such a manner that one must\\nregard it merely as a means of heightening his second-\\nary rhythm. The rhyming words are so far apart\\nthat we are aware only of a faint but melodious echo.\\nThe always artificial and somewhat mechanical effect\\nof rhyme is thus avoided, while its rhythmic essence is\\nretained. I illustrate this by a verse from Pheidip-\\npides a masterpiece of artistic skill.\\nDoes the language in this poem appear to you to be\\nricher and fuller than in any of the preceding poems t\\nIs this due to the nature and setting of the subject, or\\nto the use of poetical imagery\\n(^uer;j for Discussioit, From the study of these\\npoems, should you think Browning was lacking in\\npoetic form, as some people have said, or should you\\nthink rather that he showed consummate skill in adapt-\\ning his form to the needs of his thought", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "Folk Poems\\nPage.\\nVol. Text Note\\nThe Boy and the Angel iv 150 384\\nThe Twins iv 201 392\\nThe Pied Piper of Hamelin iv 209 393\\nGold Hair: A Story of Pornic v 147 305\\nThe Cardinal and the Dog xii 213 367\\nPonte deir Angelo, Venice* xii 222 370\\nThe Bean- Feast xii 216 368\\nThe Pope and the Net xii 214 368\\nMuckle-Mouth Meg xii 219 369\\nI. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nSketch of the Subject-matter of the Poems. For\\nhelp in this see notes to Carnberwell Browfting as\\nreferred to above.\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classworh, or Private Study,\\nHow the Story is Told.\\nHints: With the exception of Ponte dell*\\nAngelo* and The Pope and the Net, these\\npoems are all told in the simplest narrative style, and\\nthese two are merely given a semblance of the dramatic\\nmonologue form, the former by the fact that the story\\nis put into the mouth of the person who is rowing\\nthe boat, evidently the poet, and the latter, by its\\nbeing put into the mouth of a visitor to the Pope in\\nquestion. In either of these cases does the character\\nof the speaker affect the point of the poem in any\\nway When a poem is told as a simple story, it\\ngives the narrator an opportunity to intersperse com-\\nments of his own about the story. Are there any", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "30 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsuch comments in **The Boy and the Angel In\\nThe Twins, before the poet begins the little story,\\nhe expresses an opinion of Martin Luther and the\\nsort of fables he used to write so pointed in their\\nmoral that they stuck like burs. In the Pied Piper,\\nthe only comment made by the poet is at the end\\nwhere he addresses his little friend Willie Macready in\\nregard to the moral to be drawn from the story. In\\nthe three last stanzas of Gold Hair the poet also\\ndraws a moral. Does he intrude any remarks of his\\nown throughout the rest of the poem In The\\nCardinal and the Dog how much does the poet him-\\nself appear In **The Bean Feast he expresses an\\nopinion as to the story he is going to tell what is it\\nAnd in Muckle-Mouth Meg the poet is not ob-\\ntruded at all. Although the poems are all in simple\\nnarrative style, most of them are enlivened by quota-\\ntions which give them a dramatic effect. In which\\nof these poems under consideration is this dramatic\\neffect most marked\\nQuery for Discussioji. Since a dramatic effect is\\ngained both in the narrative poems and those in mono-\\nlogue form, what is the real difference between them\\nIII. Topic for Paper i Classworky or Private Study.\\nThe Folk-lore of these Poems.\\nOf all these poems the only one that is purely imagi-\\nnary is The Boy and the Angel. For suggestions as\\nto the sources of the others, see notes to Camberzvell\\nBrotvning as given above. Observe the differences in\\nthe nature of the stories. Some tell only of possible\\nevents, others have imaginative elements in them.\\nOf the imaginative stories is there any more prob-\\nable than another.? What are the imaginative ele-\\nments in each of the stories and what is their source", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "FOLK POEMS 31\\nIn **The Pied Piper of Hamelin the imaginative\\nelement is, of course, the effect of the piper s music\\non the rats and then upon the children. What\\nstories in mythology does this remind you of, and\\nwhat is the explanation of such stories See Hymn\\nto Hermes, translated by Shelley, also Mercury,\\nArion, Orpheus, in Gayley s Classic Myths in Eng-\\nlish Literature. These are myths of the wind as a\\nmusician Hermes, or the wind, is also the leader of\\nsouls to Hades after death. There are also many\\ntraces in folk-stories of a belief in the idea that the\\nsoul escaped from the body in the form of some little\\nanimal, a mouse or a bird. The story of the Pied\\nPiper combines all these mythical elements in a\\nsetting of reality. In the story of Gold Hair, it\\nseems so improbable that the girl should be able to\\nhide the gold coins in her hair that this story may be\\nsaid to have an imaginative element in it, also. In\\nThe Cardinal and the Dog the big black dog\\nmight be explained as a subjective hallucination due\\nto a diseased state of the mind, but in a superstitious\\nage such appearances of a disordered brain were con-\\nsidered veritable visions from the other world. In\\nthis case the dog was an emissary of the Devil come\\nto claim his own, as mentioned in the notes in the\\nCamberwell Brown mg. (See Fiske, Myths and\\nMyth-makers and Cox, Mythology of the Aryan\\nNations, for further information upon these mythical\\ndogs.)^\\nOr it might be explained simply as a story invented\\nby the Protestants, through their superstitious hor-\\nror over his illness and death, to cast discredit upon\\nthis Cardinal, who was especially their enemy.\\nWhich do you think the most likely?", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "32 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIn Ponte dell Angelo the imaginative element\\nis prominent and evidently belongs to the order of\\nlegend called explanatory, that is, it was probably in-\\nvented to account for the figure of the guardian angel.\\nThe poet has not worked up the subject matter in\\nany of these poems, but has simply put into verse the\\nstories as he found them.\\n(Queries for Discussion. Which do you find the most\\nentertaining of these stories, those with or those with-\\nout imaginative elements? Are there qualities in The\\nBoy and the Angel, Browning s own invention, that\\nplace it above all the other poems What should\\nyou say they were\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classwor^, or Private Study.\\nThe Inner Meaning of the Poems.\\nHints The simplicity belonging to the story and\\nway of telling it in this series of poetic tales belongs\\nalso to the meaning. Muckle-Mouth Meg can-\\nnot be said to have any deeper design than to be lively\\nand amusing. The moral lesson brought out in the\\nlast stanza of The Pied Piper is so hackneyed a\\nmaxim that it is put jokingly, the forced rhyme assisting,\\nto let the reader see that the poet is laughingly in\\nearnest while he points the moral and holds up a\\nwarning finger over the mischief befalling the man\\nwho refuses to pay the piper.\\nWhich of the other poems are entirely humorous in\\ntheir aim and implications What should you say\\nwas the moral of** The Pope and the Net That\\nhumility was a useless virtue except for the lower\\nclergy Or is the poem susceptible of a less jocular\\nmoral turn The virtues of another sort of a prelate\\nare illustrated in **The Bean Feast. This Pope\\nprofessed humility even after he became Pope, and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "FOLK POEMS 33\\nwhen it was not only of no advantage to himself but\\nwas of advantage to others. Yet, although the popular\\nstory of this good Pope is told in a more earnest way,\\nso that the lovable and benevolent qualities of the\\nkindly man arouse a glow of genuine esteem for him\\nwhich is, in itself, essentially moral, it may be noticed\\nthat the canny Pope who made humility useful to him-\\nself instead of to others, is written about in a similar\\nbroad and tolerant vein, as if the human characteristics\\nof each Pope, despite the fact that one was morally\\nsuperior to the other, were almost equally enjoyable to\\nthe poet, and made so, also, by his treatment of the\\ntwo stories, to the reader. Do the two stories enhance\\neach other, when their inner bearing with respect to\\nthese two contrasting characters is brought out It is\\nnot unusual for Browning to hang his portraits in this\\nway, putting two diirerent types side by side, as com-\\npanion pieces.\\nWhy is the Ponte dell Angelo story the most\\nnaive of all these folk-stories in its moral implication.?\\nNotice that the unethical conduct of the lawyer in\\nfleecing all his clients is counterbalanced by his prayers\\nto the Madonna, so that the story leaves it to be sup-\\nposed that God s fit punishment may be delayed re-\\npeatedly and finally remitted altogether through due\\nobservance of church ceremonies. What do you think\\nabout the morality of this\\nGold Hair has perhaps a quizzical quality. It\\nis ironical, half in earnest, but meaning something a\\nlitde different from what is expressly said. It is\\nwritten with a kind of teasing enjoyment, on the\\npoet s part, of a pious anecdote of a simple-minded\\nCatholic familv. So perhaps is The Cardinal and\\nthe Dog, written with a similar relish for Protestant\\n3", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0067.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "34 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsimple-mindedness in the credulity over the apparitioi\\\\\\nsent to scourge the enormous wickedness of the Car^\\ndinal, whose crime it was to be on the other side in the\\ngreat church controversy and its most stanch and\\nable friend. But how do you guess this The poem\\nis written entirely from the credulous standpoint, and\\nthe last line is in accord with this too, and yet it sug-\\ngests that the story is a partisan one. In the case of\\nGold Hair a more skeptical point of view is insin-\\nuated the point of view of the hearers of the legend\\nin an after-time (see lines 56-60), when the\\nmouth might twitch with a dubious smile. This\\nquizzical quality underlying the narration of the story\\nis not without a sober twist at the end (lines I 36-1 50),\\nwhich leaves one in doubt again whether or not a\\nmore serious moral is intended What are you in-\\nclined to think about this Is the poet really of the\\nopinion that the heart is desperately wicked, or is he\\neven here only pretending to be serious If so, what\\nis his meaning here Is he really more amused than\\nshocked over the miserhness of the girl, and disposed\\nto sympathize with her attachment to the things of\\nearth And what does his professed edification amount\\nto then Does he assent to the doctrine of original\\nsin, while meaning something a little different that\\nthe human heart is necessarily human, and full ot\\nearthly longings and is likely to be unnatural or per-\\nhaps hypocritical if it assumes to care only for heaven\\nWhich of the remaining poems of this series are per-\\nfectly serious in their moral implication Is the sportive-\\nness which has been noticed due in all cases to the intro-\\nduction somewhere in the poem of the poet s or some\\nother point of view than that of the original story-teller\\nWhich stories are told the most simply and directly", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0068.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "FOLK POEMS 35\\n**The Boy and the Angel, which is evidently-\\ndeeper and richer in its inner meaning than any\\nof the other poems, is told with absolute simplic-\\nity and without any of the doubleness belonging to\\nmost of the others yet it is to be noticed that the\\nmost pointed of its couplets is given, in parenthesis, as\\na comment of the narrator s and it happens that this was\\na later addition to the poem, first appearing in 1863.\\nIt is interesting, too, to learn that various other little\\ntouches that have deepened its significance were added,\\nafter its first appearance in Hood s Magazme in i 845,\\nupon its inclusion, later in the same year, in the\\nBells and Pomegranates Series, with other poems which\\nwe know were revised and sometimes changed in ac-\\ncordance with the criticism of Elizabeth Barrett, who\\nread the proofs. There is a passing mention in a letter\\nof hers to Browning (August 30, 1845, see Letters\\nof Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, vol. i. p.\\n180), which leads to the inference that she thought\\nthe inner meaning of this poem was open to objection\\non the score of its portrayal of the angel Gabriel.\\nLater (p. 261), she says, Theocrite overtakes\\nthat wish of mine which ran on so fast. The main\\nalterations made in the second version were the ad-\\ndition of lines 55-58, 63 and 64, 6q and 68, 71 and\\n72, and the final couplet, and the omission after line\\n74 of the following couplet\\nBe again the boy all curled\\nI will finish with the world.\\nThere were a few other slighter alterations which\\nserved to make the verse more regular without aff ect-\\ning the inner significance of the poem, but these cited\\nseem designed either to make the storv clearer, bv", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0069.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "36 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndetailing how the change was brought about, as in\\nlines 55 to 58, 63 and 64, or to render it more un-\\nmistakable that the moral lesson implied is not the\\nhopeless superiority of the angelic over the human but\\nrather the inimitable excellence of the human which\\nuplifts it and sets it side by side with the angelic. Theo-\\ncrite s little human praise had a quality so distinctly\\nits own that Gabriel s best efforts to rival it were in-\\neffectual. It was then in reality not at all inferior or to\\nbe disdained and the emphasis is laid not on the\\npoint that it was useless or presumptuous for Theocrite\\nto wish to praise God the Great-way as Pope,\\nbut rather on the point that not even angelic power can\\ndisplace the human. The omission of the couplet\\nquoted tends to redeem the archangel from any assump-\\ntion of superiority or charge of officiousness, and the\\ncouplet finally added puts boy and angel on the same\\nlevel as twin spirits in God s praise, the human and the\\nangelic not seeking to outrival but to supplement one\\nanother, They sought God, side by side.\\nQueries for Discussion. Do you think these alter-\\nations are improvements Do they justify themselves\\nby preventing the poem from being mistaken as leading\\nmerely to the hackneyed moral that every one must\\nstay in the place to which he was born t Is the spirit\\nof the poem aristocratic in the sense that it shows that\\nall cannot be equal, or is it democratic, in the sense\\nthat it shows that place or rank is unimportant and\\nthat different personalities, because each is of unique\\nvalue, are equal and never to be superseded by any\\nother Mr. George Willis Cooke says of this poem\\nThe lesson is the same as that of Pippa Passes,\\nAll service ranks the same with God, and therefore\\nwe are not to seek to escape from the tasks assigned", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0070.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "FOLK POEMS 37\\nto us. Do you agree with this But does not the\\npoem intimate, on the contrary, that in this case, at\\nany rate, all service did not rank the same with God,\\nsince he missed in Gabriel s praise a quality that only\\nTheocrite s had and does it follow, if it be accepted\\nthat the moral is essentially the same, that therefore\\nwe are not to seek to escape from the tasks assigned\\nus Or do you think that Elizabeth Barrett s\\nquarrel with the original version of the poem may\\nreally have been that its inner significance might be\\nmisinterpreted in this way Do the alterations tend\\nto make clear what the poet s design really amounts to\\nAnd do you think that this design is to illustrate the\\nvalue and significance to God of each and every human\\nindividuality But, in that case, why was not\\nTheocrite s praise of God when he was Pope as grate-\\nful as when he was a boy at his work-bench Or is\\nthis merely because his office as Pope was not his own,\\nbut thrust on him by the angel, so that the drift of the\\npoem remains the same, without emphasis upon the\\nquestion of rank, but only upon the question of indi-\\nvidual worth\\nThe interpretation of Gold Hair suggested in\\nthe Hints on that poem is that the naivete of the\\nguide-book story amused the poet, while he detected\\nin it, despite its simplicity, a wise kernel of perpetual\\ntruth, the truth belonging to a keen observation of human\\nfoibles. So, in re-telling the legend he gives it a whimsical\\ncast, but half accepts its old-time pious reflection upon\\nthe weaknesses of mortality, yet not without managing\\nto convey another more modern and more tolerant way\\nof regarding such weaknesses, as frailties so natural to\\nthe flesh that sin and blame scarcely belong to them,\\nso much as suspicion does to all the pretences of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0071.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "38 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhumanity to be saintly. Are you inclined to think\\nthis the right interpretation or not Will any other\\ninterpretation account as well for the humor of the\\npoem Why not Does it agree, in a way charac-\\nteristic of Browning, with the view of the human\\npresented in The Boy and the Angel, as having a\\ndistinct quality of its own through differing from the\\nheavenly which it must in vain strive to rival But\\ndo you think it morally good for man that he should\\naccept such a view of human nature Would\\nit be better for him to take the old pious view and be\\ndeceived, if it be deception, and to think that he may\\nbecome perfect, for fear lest he cease to attempt to\\nimprove Or, do you think it best for a human\\nbeing to be clear-sighted enough to recognize his\\nmerely human hmitations and yet to struggle to attain\\nthe utmost possible degree of development\\nV. Topic for Paper, Private Study, or Classwork.\\nThe Art of the Poems.\\nHints The art-form in The Boy and the\\nAngel is very simple. The lines have four stresses,\\nand each stanza has two lines rhymed. There is\\nsome variation in the distribution of the stresses.\\nSometimes the first syllable in the line is accented,\\nwhen the line is seven syllables in length, and some-\\ntimes the second syllable is accented. There are a\\nfew places where each syllable is accented without\\nany unaccented syllable between, for example in line\\n2, where Praise and God both have an ac-\\ncent, and in line 19, where every syllable is accented.\\nIs there any other line in the poem where Praise\\nGod is differently accented The language all\\nthrough this poem is exceedingly simple. The com-\\nparison in hne 25, **Like a rainbow s birth is the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0072.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "FOLK POEMS 39\\nonly one in the poem, is it not Is there not a cer-\\ntain charm in this very simple language exactly suited\\nto the subject\\nIn *The Twins the rhyme and rhythm scheme\\nis also very simple, the lines having three stresses and\\nthe first and third, second and fourth lines rhyming.\\nNotice if there are any variations in the distribution of\\nthe short Hnes.\\nIn the Pied Piper the lines usually have four\\nstresses, but the unaccented syllables are distributed\\nvery irregularly. Point out all the lines you find with\\na different number of accents. Point out the two-\\nsyllabled rhymes ending in short syllables, weak end-\\nings as they are called. Is there any regularity about\\nthe distribution of the rhymes About the length of\\nthe stanzas Are the shorter lines introduced at\\nstated places. The effect of all this variation of form\\nis to make the poem bright and rapid in movement.\\nGold Hair has lines with four stresses some-\\ntimes preceded by one, sometimes by two unaccented\\nsyllables. The very first stanza, however, begins with\\nan accented syllable followed by a pause. Are there\\nany other examples of this in the poem There are\\nalso some lines beginning with an accented syllable and\\nfollowed by a short syllable. The last line in each\\nstanza, however, the fifth, has only three stresses.\\nIs the fifth stanza of this poem the most poetical on\\naccount of its comparison between the sunset sky and\\nthe death of Gold- Hair Are there any other examples\\nof poetical figures in the poem\\nIn The Cardinal and the Dog the lines have\\nseven stresses, the accented syllable being preceded by\\nan unaccented one. In some cases the accent falls on\\nsyllables that seem short, while a syllable that seemj", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0073.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "40 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMTVIES\\nlong is unaccented; for example in the first line **the\\nis accented, and the word next to it, **high, is un-\\naccented. Do you find any other examples of this\\nDo you object to the roughness of this sort of accenting,\\nor does it remind you of the early English ballad form,\\nand so give a quaintness to the poem in keeping with\\nthe subject. Point out those lines which end with a\\nshort unaccented syllable. Notice that the stanzas\\nare of different lengths. Also that the rhyme scheme\\nis different for each stanza.\\nIn Ponte dell Angelo all the lines except the\\nlast have four stresses and that has three. Point out\\nall the variations you observe in the distribution of the\\nshort syllables. What is the rhyme scheme Are\\nthere any poetical figures in the poem\\nIn *The Bean Feast the lines have six stresses\\nwith a short syllable preceding the accented syllable,\\nwith some variations. For example, line i begins\\nwith an accented syllable followed by an unaccented\\none. Almost every hne has also an extra short syl-\\nlable after the accented syllable in the middle of\\nthe line, and sometimes two extra short syllables.\\nPoint out all such places and notice how the regularity\\nof this irregularity adds to the rhythmical effect of the\\npoem. The rhyme scheme is simple. Are there\\nany bad rhymes in the poem Is the rhythm of the\\nPope and the Net similar to that of The Bean\\nFeast. Point out any differences you may observe,\\nalso the difference in the length of the stanza and\\nthe rhymes. In Muckle-Mouth Meg the lines\\nalternate between three and four stresses, preceded\\nsometimes by two and sometimes by one unaccented\\nsyllable. There are two rhymes to each stanza,\\nalternating lines rhyming together. Sometimes the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0074.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "FOLK POEMS 41\\nrhymes are double, in wnich case the line ends with\\nan extra short syllable. Is there any regularity in the\\ndistribution of the double and single rhymes From\\nthe study of the distribution of stresses and unaccented\\nsyllables in these poems in how many different kinds\\nof metre are they Does the poet use alliteration\\nmuch in any of them What allusions are there (see\\nNotes, Cambei zvell Browning) and what sort of relation\\ndo they bear to the subject matter\\n(Queries for Discussion. Upon what do these\\npoems depend chiefly for their poetical effect, rhythm\\nand rhyme, poetic ornamentation, the imaginative\\nquahty of the subject-matter, their humor or the\\nterse dramatic way in which they are told\\nIs there any one of the group that you like better\\nthan all the rest, if so why Or do you like each\\none for its own special qualities", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0075.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "Phases of Romantic Love\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nGarden Fancies iv ii 365\\nThe Laboratory iv 19 366\\nThe Confessional iv 21 366\\nCristina iv 25 367\\nThe Lost Mistress iv 27 367\\nA Woman s Last Word iv 31 367\\nEvelyn Hope iv 33 367\\nLove among the Ruins iv 35 368\\nA Lovers Quarrel iv 38 368\\nTwo in the Campagna iv 103 378\\nA Serenade iv 107 378\\nOne Way of Love iv 109 379\\nAnother Way of Love j y ^/y\\nA Pretty Woman iv 112 379\\nIn Three Days iv 118 379\\nIn a Year j\\nMesmerism iv 156 385\\nThe Glove iv 162 385\\nIn a Gondola iv 184 389\\nA Light Woman iv 203 392\\nThe Last Ride Together iv 205 393\\nPorphyria s Lover iv 275 398\\nRudel to the Lady of Tripoli v 91 299\\nDis Aliter Visum v 158 306\\nToo Late v 164 307\\nConfessions v 213 313\\nYouth and Art v 218 314\\nA Likeness v 222 315\\nBifurcation ix 209 300\\nNumpholeptos ix 211 300\\nSt. Martin s Summer ix 2i6 301", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0076.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 43\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nSolomon and Balkis xi 236 325\\nCristina and Monaldeschi xi 240 326\\nMary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli xi 244 327\\nAdam, Lilith, and Eve xi 246 327\\nRosny xii 198 362\\nInapprehensiveness xii 211 366\\nWhich? xii 212 366\\nSonnet Eyes, calm beside thee xii 269 380\\nI. Topic for Paper, Private Study, or Ciasszvork.\\nThe Life of Love Illustrated in Browning s Shorter\\nPoems.\\nHints Characterize the various phases of love\\nbrought into light, grouping together those which have\\nsome mood or trait in common. The slighter and\\nmore evanescent moods of Inapprehensiveness,\\nand the sonnet, Eyes, calm beside thee may be\\nsaid to belong to latent love. Not the passion itself\\nbut the suppression of the passion felt to be ready to\\nspring into life is what is expressed in both of these\\npoems. Notice also whether the expression is direct,\\nwhether it is the possible lover who speaks and tells\\nthe story of his own mood, and whether in both cases\\nthe mood is betrayed in a purely lyrical form, or how\\nWhat other poems of this series may be classed vs^ith\\nthese on the score that they reveal a nascent or possible\\nbut undeveloped love In Garden Fancies the\\nlove portrayed has reached a later stage of develop-\\nment and yet still is in its dawn, and others of the\\npoems may be classed with these. If you decide that\\nA Likeness, **St. Martin s Summer, Youth\\nand Art, Dis Aliter Visum, Evelyn Hope,\\n**Too Late also belong to this class observe and\\npoint out which are the nearest like the first in the\\nslight character of the emotion betrayed and also", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0077.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "44 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwhat, besides their general resemblance, are the differ-\\nences among these in respect to the various circum-\\nstances which have checked or determined the develop-\\nment of the initial attraction. A Likeness, for\\nexample, is the veiled expression of a teasing memory\\nof a special personal attraction secretly cherished, which\\nhas been called up in the possible lover s mind by\\nsuch chance incidents as the poem relates, but which\\nno one guesses and which is kept unacknowledged.\\nIn all the other poems just mentioned the phases of\\nlove shown have been affected by obstacles of various\\nsorts. In Youth and Art, and **Dis Aliter\\nVisum the daw^ning attraction of the lovers for one\\nanother has been checked in its development by\\nworldly considerations. In Evelyn Hope the\\ndeath, and in Too Late the marriage and at last\\nthe death of the beloved woman have hindered the\\nlovers avowals, but instead, of being strong enough to\\ncheck the development of feeling, they have served in-\\nstead to awaken the lover to a more poignant realiza-\\ntion of its nature and promise. In St. Martin s\\nSummer quite another sort of obstacle thwarts the\\ndevelopment of the awakening attraction. The re-\\nmembrance of a deep and rich love, now past, besides\\nwhich any other seems but an imitation and pale re-\\nflection, intervenes like a ghost to cast over the present\\nlove a shadow of discredit. Which Num-\\npholeptos, A Pretty Woman, belong in a class\\nby themselves because they seem rather to be con-\\ncerned with the idea of love than with a specific per-\\nsonal impression. Therefore, it will be well to\\ndiscuss these more particularly under the following\\ntopic. But of all the other poems cited in this group,\\ndo any express a phase of love which has been left", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0078.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 45\\ndormant or has reached little more than a nascent\\nstage If you think none do, you may class the rest\\ntogether as expressive of fully awakened love, and then\\nconsider under what different conditions this love is\\nmanifested; and also, what various phases of love are\\nportrayed, as jealous love in The Laboratory, be-\\ntrayed love in The Confessional, subjected love in\\nA Woman s Last Word, specious love in A\\nLight Woman, and love triumphing over obstacles\\nof various sorts, or affected by them more or less fatally\\nin the others.\\nWhich of these poems are the more complex in\\ntheir personnel For example, in some of the poems\\nof both of these two classes of latent and awakened\\nlove, the expression of love the poem gives involves\\nnobody but the two lovers. In others it is the en-\\ntrance of the outer world upon the scene, either in\\nthe shape of other persons who actually take a part\\nin the poem or of personal considerations which affect\\nit indirectly, or merely as an external influence in the\\nmind of the lover, which occasions or qualifies the\\noutpouring of expression. Again, it may be noticed\\nthat this entrance of external influences under these\\ndifferent guises leads to various effects it may help to\\nmake the love stronger or more conscious, or may tend\\nto create the difficulties which beset its development.\\nIllustrate in the poems the different varieties of\\nmovement in the story and the ways in which the\\nlove and its expression is accordingly affected. Other\\nactors besides the lovers, outer influences too, for in-\\nstance, thwart the love and make it lead to tragical\\nconclusions in a large group of these poems, The\\nConfessional, The Laboratory, In a Gondola,\\nPorphyria s Lover, In a Balcony, Cristina", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0079.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "46 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nand Monaldeschi. In what respects does A Light\\nWoman belong to this group, and wherein does it\\ndiffer from it In which among these poems are the\\nlovers affected by the outer influence so that they them-\\nselves share in bringing about the tragedy, and thus\\nadd to the emotional intensity Outer influences of\\nstill another class make both the rapturous mood and\\nthe actual separation between the lovers in **Love\\namong the Ruins and Bifurcation. Ideals of\\nduty, in the one case, based upon social life, intervene\\nto disjoin the lovers, and in the other the intrusion\\nupon their happiness of the larger social lite and the\\nimposing achievements of the past but serves to make\\nfelt the more vitally their intensely human and merely\\npersonal emotion. Solomon and Balkis classes\\nwith these poems in the one respect that it touches on\\nthe effect of self-indulgence and worldly importance\\nupon a personal relation. It satirizes the sort of love-\\nsusceptibility growing in a vitiated way from such\\nroots of external influence, and shows its merely physi-\\ncal quality. Again in Rosny an external ideal of\\nfame and honor uses love as its instrument and sends\\nthe lover to his death. In Two in the Campagna\\na mood of the subtlest nature intervenes between the\\nlovers. It is an external influence that is absolutely\\nimmaterial and impersonal, felt to belong to the in-\\nfinite, because so vague and large and elusive, and yet\\ninterposing a nameless bafflement upon the human\\nyearning to encompass all within its love. In Mes-\\nmerism personal love is brought into a similar subtle\\ncontact with mysterious influences which it would\\nsubordinate to the service of personal desire to the\\nextent of gaining a dominance felt to be an unlawful\\nusurpation over the loved one s will. Compare with", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0080.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 47\\nthese poems of conflict between love and external in-\\nfluences of some sort, the little group of poems ex-\\npressing the conflict of love with the merely personal\\ndisagreements and selfishnesses of the lovers A\\nLovers Quarrel, A Woman s Last Word,\\nAnother Way of Love, and In a Year, notic-\\ning how in all of these discord arises, and how far it\\ngoes towards either the destruction of love, the sub-\\njugation of one personality by the other, or a reaction\\nof one against the other. The Lost Mistress, A\\nSerenade, Cristina, Mary Wollstonecraft,\\nand The Last Ride Together are alike in relating\\nnothing of the external or internal sources of friction\\ndisturbing the love-relation, and in expressing in\\nvarious ways the triumph of love over all slights and\\nwithout self-abasement in the soul of the rejected lover.\\nNotice throughout these poems how far they make\\nknown the different points of view of the two lovers\\nconcerned and also how the selfish subjugation of one\\nby the other, as in A Woman s Last Word, does\\nnot permit the attainment of such strength and psychi-\\ncal victory on the part of the less loved lover as the\\nspiritual isolation of the lover in Cristina.\\nOne Way of Love and Another Way of\\nLove, also In Three Days and In a Year,\\nseem to have been written as companion poems ex-\\npressing supplementary phases of love, the one pair\\nof poems presenting the opposite points of view toward\\nlove of two different kinds of lovers; the second pair,\\nof two points of view, the one a man s, the other the\\nwoman s, in the history of what may have been the\\nsame love, affected by time and change. It is a\\nwoman who speaks in In a Year j but is it justi-\\nfiable to suppose that in these two contrasted poems", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0081.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "48 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe two points of view are compared and meant to be\\ncharacteristic of any woman s and any man s nature,\\nor does Browning s treatment of love forbid the sup-\\nposition that it is always the man who is inconstant\\nIs he right or mistaken in this In the lover of\\nCristina and of **One Way of Love has he\\nportrayed an attitude of constancy and purely psychi-\\ncal love maintained without any return and in the face of\\nneglect which would be impossible in a man\\nCompare with Mary Wollstonecraft. Compare\\nwith Browning s other rejected lovers.\\nQueries for DiscussioJi. Is Browning s treatment\\nof love characterized by a wider range and greater\\ncomplexity than is usual in love-poems Compare\\nas to range and complexity with any modern poets\\nfor example, William Morris, Tennyson, Emerson,\\nWhitman, Lowell, Poe, Kipling, etc.\\nIt has been said by some who have admitted the\\nwider range of Browning that his very variety is a\\nsign of a certain aloofness of the poet from the emo-\\ntions he depicts that they are not his direct emotions,\\nbut his exploited emotions, the personal basis all art\\nmust have being deflected and rearranged to suit the\\nimagined points of view of different souls and that\\nthey are, therefore, externalized and shaped too much\\nby the intellect, the outcome growing too cold to stir\\nus. As Dr. Brinton says (see Facettes of Love\\nfrom Browning, Poet-lore y Vol. I. pp. 1\u00e2\u0080\u009428, Jan.,\\n1889), We can find many powerful and trenchant\\nportrayals of passion in his pages, yet his lines rarely\\ncause to vibrate a similar chord in the human heart.\\nThis writer concludes that his love poems fail to touch\\nthe heart and that they fail because his intellectual\\nnature constantly interferes with the full and free ex-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0082.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 49\\npression of the emotions, his theory of dramatic\\nworkmanship excluding direct self-expression, his\\npublic feels the poet s detachment, and the falsity of a\\ntheory of art which involves a sensitive shyness on the\\npart of the poet himself.\\nBut is it true that Browning s love poems do not\\ntouch his readers Have they a quality of their own,\\nwhich, although it may be discriminated as different in\\nkind as well as in degree and variety from the poems\\nof most other poets, is neither inferior in force and\\nardor, nor without an underlying basis of genuine and\\nvital personal experience If they have a recognizable\\nquality of this nature can the theory of art which\\nwould exclude his theory as defective be held to with-\\nout narrowness Would not a theory of art which\\nrecognized the inherent value of the two methods, of\\nboth the direct and the indirect use in art of personal\\nexperience, be the better to hold to, and justify the con-\\nclusion that the art decried, instead of being wrong,\\nwas an accession to literature of a rare and original\\nsort But is it altogether unprecedented Are there\\nprototypes of this variety in other dramatic art Is\\nnot the intellect, as well as experience, of right, an\\nelement in the transmuting of personality into a work\\nof art\\nDr. Brinton sums up his view as follows The\\nliving presence of this emotional personality is the\\nsecret of the perennial attraction of the very greatest\\nworks of art and the artist who deliberately rejects\\nthis will never touch that chord which makes the\\nwhole world kin, nor achieve his own best possible\\nresults. May the truth in this statement be ad-\\nmitted and yet made reconcilable with the recognition\\nin Browning s poems of an emotional personality\\n4", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0083.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "50 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nlivingly present but moulded and controlled to suit an\\nartistic purpose, building broad on the roots of\\nthings, or is it true that he deliberately rejects\\nthe emotional personality and **will never touch that\\nchord, etc.?\\nDoes a poet, on the other hand, who iimits his\\nwork to the expression of a personal experience, also\\nlimit his appreciation to the understanding of a person\\nwho has had a similar experience, and so run a greater\\nrisk of Hmitation and growing out of date than a poet\\nwho broadens his work in line with larger and differ-\\nentiated experience\\nIs the merely subjective class of poetical work more\\npermanent and powerful in its effects and fame than\\nthe dramatic and the epic\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Ideals of Love ImpHed in the Poems.\\nHi?its Can you derive from this series of poems\\nsome definition of love, as you think the poet must\\nhave conceived of it in order to have written of love\\nin all of them just as he has Are they ever contra-\\ndictory and if they are consistent in a general way,\\nin what does their unity, and in what do their differ-\\nences consist\\nThe differences in the quality of the love in The\\nLaboratory and in Cristina and Monaldeschi seem\\nto be utterly opposed to the love poured forth regard-\\nless of slight or resentment in A Serenade, One\\nWay of Love, Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli,\\nor Cristina. Yet one is neither induced to blame\\nthe revengeful little lady who so gloats over the pros-\\npect of poisoning her magnificent rival, or to withhold\\na certain sympathy from the justice in the wronged\\nCristina s revenge upon her ungrateful lover, at the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0084.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 51\\nsame time that one appreciates the steadfast purity of\\nthe love of PauHne s lover, the utterly self-regardless\\nstrength of Mary Wollstonecraft s love, or the ecstatic\\nvictory in the persistency of the love of the lover of\\nCristina. If the reader be inclined to blame or to feel\\ndistaste for any of these different ways of loving it is\\nrather to be attributed to his own prejudices than to\\nany bias Browning shows.\\nHow then can any predilection on the poet s part\\nbe perceived Can it be assumed that his sympathy\\ngoes out to all sorts of genuine feeling, whether leading\\nto commendable results and happy social reladons or\\nnot All such considerations, although not with-\\nout an importance of their own, are apparently sec-\\nondary, in any instance, to the supreme importance of\\nthe service of love to the lover through the revelation\\nit affords him of his essential nature, any kind of real\\nlove being a possible initiation into a disciplinary spirit-\\nual process.\\nThe differences to be noted, then, in the ideals of\\nlove in these poems, if this general theory is accepted,\\nare those that belong actually to real life, to different\\ncharacters under different circumstances, the underly-\\ning unity being the worth of all sorts of such emotions\\nand experiences in the development of the individual\\nsoul. How will such an hypothesis suit throughout\\nall these poems Can you find any that fits these\\nvarious poems better\\nThis one will account for the inclusion of such pen-\\netrating expositions of merely physical passion and\\ntriumphs of vengefulness as those of the fierce little\\nFrench lady of The Laboratory, and such ex-\\ntremely subtle spiritual yearnings for mastery over\\nanother and such triumphs of self-refrain as those of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0085.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "52 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe self-contained lover of Mesmerism. The first\\nideal of love, in The Laboratory, is in its ow^n\\nway as legitimately the outcome of a crude nature,\\ndriven by the goad of its own sensations, aiFected by\\ncircumstances and the environment of the time, and\\nopen to its special temptations, as the other, in Mes-\\nmerism, is of a highly developed psychical nature\\naspiring ambitiously to work out its inmost potencies\\nof spiritual yearning, and to assert over another an un-\\ndue spiritual aggression but instead of wreaking itself\\nout selfishly as in the first case, it finds a new channel\\nfor its love and desire in a final impulsion towards that\\nardent respect for the spiritual rights of the loved\\none which is the highest fruit of love and desire on\\nthe psychical basis.\\nWhy is it, do you suppose, that Browning has treated\\nof jealousy so slightly, and of male jealousy not at all\\nFor even Guido, in *The Ring and the Book, who\\npretends to be jealous, is not so. He acts in a way\\nhe could not if he really were so. Considering how\\nthe jealous husband is reiterated in Shakespeare, and\\nin literature, generally, it would seem that Browning\\nmust have been conscious of his own abstention\\nfrom this theme. Perhaps he avoided it because he\\ndesired to treat of love freshly and without imitation;\\nperhaps he had the deeper reason that it was not a\\nprominent feeling in his own experience at any\\nrate, in its extremer forms of vengefulness against\\neither the rival or the one supposed to be fickle and\\nso he had, instinctively and naturally, no desire to\\ntreat that which he could not so well render penetrat-\\ningly. Perhaps violent jealousy is a sentiment that\\nbelongs more especially to marriage and to that insti-\\ntution as it was formerly regulated, or to relations", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0086.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 53\\nwhere there has been a sense of assured possession on\\nwhich suspicion is afterward cast. However that may-\\nbe, it is interesting to notice, in this group of poems\\n(which excludes, for convenience, the illustrations of\\nmarried life to be discussed later) that the emotions\\nexcited toward a rival are not intense or malevolent,\\nsave in The Laboratory, and that the treatment\\nof it there seems to take it for granted that such an\\nemotion is a primitive one. In Cristina and\\nMonaldeschi, Cristina s jealousy is mixed with a\\nnobler rage; in fact she is not represented as desirous\\nto do any wrong against her rival, and although she\\nmight resent the rival s favor with Monaldeschi, she\\nis not made to punish him for this merely, but is made\\nto resent chiefly the indignity to herself wrought by his\\ninsincerity and untrustworthiness. Her own pain half\\nrises from the consciousness of her own nobility, the\\nloyalty and generousness of heart which has been\\ncheated of its deserts. More than all it rises from\\nher power, as a queen, to take upon herself the liberty\\nof pronouncing sentence and assuaging her sense both\\nof degradation and injustice. This power of judging\\nand punishing will, one may foresee, recoil upon her\\nlater, to harden her heart in a triumph of justice, if not\\nto torture it with mercy.\\nWhich of these two poems The Laboratory or\\nCristina and Monaldeschi is the more skilful por-\\ntrayal of jealousy And where does each fall in the\\nevolutionary scale upon which Browning has built his\\ndifferent ideals of love Can it be said that the lady\\nof The Laboratory has an ideal of love What\\nshould you say Cristina s was\\nTwo opposite ideals of love are designedly con-\\ntrasted in One Way of Love and Another Way", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0087.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "54 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof Love. The lover in the first poem sustains the\\npain of feeling that Pauline cares nothing for anything\\nhe can do to pleasure her, accepts the bitter conclusion\\nthat no charm can ever reside for her in his expression\\nof his love for her, and yet, unrequited as his love is,\\nhe not only persists in it so far as he himself is con-\\ncerned, but iDelieves in the blessedness of such love,\\nwere it possible under happier conditions. The lover\\nof Another Way of Love, on the other hand,\\ntires of the very perfection of the love conferred upon\\nhim and even while it is still in the bud doubts whether\\nit is not as indiiferent as his own love is. The genuine-\\nness of emotion that the one believes in, the other not\\nmerely finds tiresome but rates low. The first lover s\\nideal of love exalts the psychical element in it, so that\\nhe has something left for himself alone to hold to,\\neven if his love be not requited. The other behttles\\nlove, and, seeing in it but a temporary amusement or\\npassing gratification, he gets nothing but boredom even\\nout of a love that is requited. The retort of the un-\\nappreciated beloved one, in commenting upon this\\nstandpoint, suggests, as the outpouring of Pauline s\\ndoes, that whether love is a gain or not depends rather\\nupon what the lover himself thinks love to be, than\\nupon what reward it ofl ers him. The situation, she\\nseems to say is for you as you feel it. Out of\\nthe June weather and surfeit of sweetness go you must\\nto such artificial shut-within-doors joys as you prefer,\\nafter all. It is just the June season, as it were, of\\nassured love which tries a man s temper and shows\\nhis mettle. As for that love which he does not ap-\\npreciate, the assured and not yet fully ripened love and\\nbeauty for which the lady stands, is there not a po-\\ntency retained within that which is capable of devel-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0088.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 55\\noping in its own way Shall this not grow after its\\nown fashion, according to its own nature, and either\\nprepare for itself a due revenge, or make itself amends\\nfor the lack of appreciation accorded it. This sweet-\\nness and redness, of whose eternal sameness the\\nlover complains, may thus, without changing, indeed,\\nin a s\u00c2\u00ab\u00e2\u0080\u009ense, yet effect a certain change in the relations\\nof the pair which will give the more active love the\\nadvantage. So it may be said, that in this way June\\nmay grow new roses to repair the beauty of the\\nbower this lover has defaced and doing this, what-\\never effort it may cost her, and in spite of him, this\\nricher love of the lady will have accomplished some-\\nthing well worth while. And if, following thus the\\nlaw of her own life toward the ideal her love\\nsees, her love shall grow on to a delicious perfec-\\ntion of fullness and ripeness, she may then be in a\\nposition to consider whether she shall choose one who\\nwill be equal to appreciating such a love and adequate\\nto give hers a really reciprocal devotion in return, or\\nwhether, acting upon the bitter experience she has had,\\nshe will learn how to repel any approach, and using\\nher own natural weapons with added skill and an art-\\nfulness whose capability this knowledge of him has\\ndeveloped, punish and stop any further such depre-\\ndations.\\nDoes your interpretation of this poem agree with\\nthis one What does the poet mean by June\\nthe lady or the lady s love, or the opportunity open for\\nan ideal love-relation or love-influence And what is\\nmeant by June-lightning *A woman never\\nsacrifices herself but once, says Mrs. Linden in Ibsen s\\nDoll s House. Having learned once by such\\nbitter experience as the lady of Another Way of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0089.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "56 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nLove gains or anticipates from a love already giving\\nsign of breaking down, she learns hovi^ to be more wary\\nthe next time, and becomes herself an active foresee-\\ning agent in love, either for good or for evil. So,\\nacting on her experience of man and of spider\\nshe may use such sudden passion storms as are inci-\\ndent to the season of love, as to the season of June,\\nin order to clear scores with this nonchalant lover and\\nstop any fresh devastation with blasting spirit lightning.\\nIn love s fruition, in the blossom June wears on her\\nbosom, lie such revenges and such vengeance for\\nslights or scorn of a love once indulged in, as that\\nwhich Alphonse Daudet w^arned his sons against w^hen\\nhe wrote **Sapho for them.\\nHow would you sum up the outcome of these two\\nlittle poems, One Way of Love and Another\\nWay of Love The one poem represents a psychical\\nand the other a physical effect of love upon the men\\nlovers. How is it as to the women The lover\\nwho desires the more is, in the second poem, the\\nwoman. PauHne we know of merely as the loved\\none, and of her point of view we know only from\\nthe speaker that she does not love him but of the\\nstandpoint of the lady of Another Way of Love we\\nknow even more than we do of the lover of Pauline.\\nIn her conscious weighing of the situation and the\\npossibilities of this love relation for her, and her action\\nin consequence, whether the love may be shaped to\\nthis or that spiritual result, in all this there is a\\ntendency toward an impersonal expression of what\\nlove may be made to yield which makes her one of\\nthe most interesting examples of Browning s exalted\\ntypes of ill-requited lovers. She uses her special ex-\\nperience to weigh the worth of love. In a Year,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0090.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 57\\nalso, in showing the attitude toward love of an ill-\\nrequited woman lover, may be instanced as belonging\\nto the same class as **Cristina, since its final stanza\\nleads to the similar conclusion that unsuccessful love\\nis a doorway to spiritual perception of the Infinite\\nbeyond the Human.\\nMr. Nettleship, however, in the chapter in his vol-\\nume on Browning s Poems on Love, cites Another\\nWay of Love among the poems showing the effect\\nof successful love upon man, but ignores it as showing\\nthe effect of ill-requited love upon a woman. Speak-\\ning of poems which relate to the effect upon the\\nwoman of her love being despised, he says this situa-\\ntion is only twice delineated, namely in **The\\nLaboratory and **In a Year, and he goes on to\\nsay that in the poems which relate to the woman s\\nfeehngs we notice principally (where her love is\\nreturned) an absorption of her spirit into that of the\\nman, a blind clinging to some idea of God as formed\\nthrough education and association merely, and an ab-\\nsolute want of originality and of power to look at\\nthe passion of love in an abstract sense outside the\\nwoman herself and her lover.\\nIs this reference to In a Year, as evidence of\\na blind clinging to some idea of God, etc., quite\\njust to the conclusion of that poem How com-\\npletely is this statement justified by the woman s power\\nin Another Way of Love, to look at love in the\\nabstract\\nIt is desirable to inquire, also, if so sweeping a con-\\nclusion is to be made as to the characteristics of all\\nBrowning s women lovers, whether other poems or\\nplays, although not included in this programme, con-\\nfirm Mr. Netdeship. One play alone, published more", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0091.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "58 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthan ten years before Another Way of Love and\\nmost of the love-lyrics here considered, The Return\\nof the Druses, supplies a good contrary argument in\\nthe figure of Anael. Her character, in respect es-\\npecially to her sensitive testing of the quality of her\\nown and Djabal s love, is made the turning-point of\\nthe action. Again the capacity for withholding her\\nown predilections and testing the love of two men,\\nwhich is shown by Eulalia in A Soul s Tragedy\\n(1848), opens Mr. Nettleship s conclusion to further\\nquestion, when he says that In none [of the love\\npoems] which relate to the women do we observe the\\nwidth of view and intellectual power which are at-\\ntributed to the male lover.\\nIs Miss Scudder s opposite view better justified than\\nMr. Nettleship s or not when she says Love is\\nindeed to all these women supreme but that love has\\na broader outlook than the personal and limited hori-\\nzon of their relations to their lovers. Intense and pas-\\nsionate as this may be, there is in Browning no noble\\nwoman who does not look beyond, and see in the\\nlove whereby her own life is ruled, only the type and\\nsymbol of the broader bond which unites the world.\\nThe intuitive perception of abstract right, of the\\nworkings of the moral law, is the innate quahty of all\\nBrowning s women. Bitter is the suffering when the\\npersonal love clashes with the universal righteousness.\\nLove, narrow and individual in its first and most\\ncommon manifestation, broadens in noble natures into\\nthe deeper desire for service with all true souls it\\nrises at last into the link between the human and the\\nDivine. Thus inevitably and in simple consist-\\nency Browning gives his supreme reverence to women.\\nBecause of their moral pre-eminence he attributes to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0092.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 59\\nthem a special office in life, at once to inspire and\\nto serve. (See Womanhood in Modern Poetry,\\nPoet-lore, Vol. I., pp. 449-465, October, 1889.)\\nIs there more variety of nature and a wider range\\nof development indicated for the women than for the\\nmen in these poems r Note the cruder passion of the\\nwoman in The Laboratory, compared with the cool\\npower of judging the value of love shown by the woman\\nin *The Glove, and in Another Way of Love,\\nand, again, the spiritually refined and utterly devoted\\nlove of Mary Wollstonecraft and the heroine of In a\\nYear. Is there as wide a range of difference between\\nPorphyria s lover and Cristina s\\nIs there a tendency, in showing the effects of love\\non men in these poems, to create types whose love is\\nso eminently a psychical force and so independent of\\nrejection or misfortune that they are unusual elsewhere\\nin English literature and distinctive of Browning\\nThe evidence supplied by an oudine study of the\\nrejected lover as he or she appears in old ballads and\\nnovels suggests that it was considered ridiculous and\\nweak for a man to persist in loving despite bad treat-\\nment or without return, while for a woman it was\\npathetic and fine. Compare the love of Chaucer s\\npatient Griselda, and the Nut-brown Maid of that\\nballad, with Romeo s love for Rosalind, Juliet s prede-\\ncessor, in Shakespeare, and in Brooke s Palace of\\nPleasure, the story Shakespeare followed.\\nThere was little room in the position of woman\\nin knighdy society for a recognition of any other than\\na physical interest in love and a physical end, until,\\nthrough higher ideals of the demands of the individual\\nsoul there had been developed a higher plane of life.\\nThe speakers in Browning s One Way of Love,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0093.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "6o BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nThe Last Ride Together, and Cristina, above all\\nValence in *Colombe s Birthday, represent a modern\\nideal of the psychical worth of passion, an ideal\\ndeveloped from the feudal notions of love through\\ngreatly changed social conditions. (See remarks on\\nthis subject in Poet-lore Vol. II. pp. 37-38, Jan-\\nuary, 1890.)\\nOn the other hand, in the more sophisticated social\\nlife of Southern Europe at the earliest dawn of the\\nRenaissance period, ideals of romantic love were held\\nby the choicer spirits among the Neoplatonists, and\\nnotably by Dante, which bear an affinity to those\\nexpressed by Browning s exalted lovers. From the\\nconception o i love given to the world by Plato the\\nfiner side of the romantic love of early chivalry grew,\\nin the Middle Ages, through the admixture of a new\\nidea of the worth both of woman and the spiritual in\\nhumanity. This fresh admixture was due in part to\\nChristianity and the influence upon civilization of the\\nNorthern races and their more normal habits of life\\nand, through this admixture, romantic love seems to\\nhave been brought, as Mr. Cooke says, **toits highest\\nexpression in Dante and Petrarch, and revived in a\\nmodernized form by Browning. Plato imaginatively\\nproves that love is the great mediator, the eternal\\nreconciler, between severed human souls yearned\\nfor with the soul s utmost intensity, because it is an\\nanticipation, albeit indistinct, of an ideal union.\\nWith the later poets, especially of the Anthology, we\\ncome upon some lyric so unlike all that has gone\\nbefore in the Greek conception of woman, and the\\nlove between the sexes, that we cannot but see it is a\\nnew thing. It came to its perfection in the trou-\\nbadours, in chivalry, and in Dante The mediaeval", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0094.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 6l\\ninterpreters of romantic love turned to Plato as the\\ngreat teacher of its doctrines and spirit but they\\nmade the recipient of the love the source of inspiration\\nrather than the lover himself, as with Plato. Dante\\nsaid that Beatrice had revealed to him all virtue and all\\nwisdom. Petrarch blessed the happy moment which\\ndirected his heart to Laura, for she led him to the path of\\nvirtue. (See Browning s Interpretation of Romantic\\nLove, as compared with that of Plato, Dante, and\\nPetrarch, Poet-lore, Vol. VL, pp. 225-238.)\\nIn speaking of Plato s idea of love, although point-\\ning out that it was the love of man for man rather than\\nthe love of man and woman which concerned him,\\nMr. Cooke refers to the parable in the Symposium\\n(see Jowett s Plato s Dialogues, Vol. I., pp. 483-\\n486), relating how man was originally created in the\\nshape of a ball with four hands and feet and two faces,\\nand later was split in half to make the two sexes,\\nhence love being the desire of man for unity and the\\nwhole but this story, it should be remembered, is\\ntold in character by Aristophanes, and the sexual\\npoint of view it involves is opposed by Socrates, whose\\nteaching may be abridged as follows for comparison\\nwith Dante and Browning\\nDiotima, say Socrates, taught him that love maybe-\\ndescribed generally as the love of the everlasting pos-\\nsession of the good or the love of and birth in beauty.\\n*\u00c2\u00abA11 men are bringing to the birth in their bodies\\nand in their souls, because, **to the mortal, birth is\\na sort of eternity and immortahty and all men\\nwill necessarily desire immortality together with good,\\nif love is of the everlasting possession of the good.\\nShe explained to him, further, how the mortal body\\npartakes of immortality by undergoing a perpetual", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0095.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "62 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nprocess of loss and reparation, the old worn-out\\nmortality leaving another new and similar one behind,\\nbut the immortal partakes of immortality in another\\nway. Creative souls for there are men who\\nare more creative in their souls than in their bodies\\nconceive that which is proper for the soul to conceive.\\n(See Jowett s Dialogues of Plato: The Symposium,\\nVol. I., passages quoted, pp. 498-501.) Again in the\\nPhaedrus (Vol. I., pp. 557, 558, 570), love is\\ndescribed by Socrates as a madness or ecstasy, but\\nof two kinds, one produced by human infirmity, the\\nother by a divine release from the ordinary ways of\\nmen, and this sort of ecstasy belongs to the immor-\\ntal soul which is self-moving, never failing of self or\\nof motion, self-motion being the very idea and es-\\nsence of the soul. The body which is moved\\nfrom without is soulless; but that which is moved\\nfrom within has a soul without beginning and im-\\nmortal. In this highest madness of the soul, the\\nsight of the beauty of earth is a transport of recollec-\\ntion of true beauty, beheld in another world. Who-\\never feels it would like to fly away, but cannot. He\\nis like a bird fluttering and looking upward and care-\\nless of the world below, the object of his affections\\nbeing chosen according to the desire of his soul for a\\nsoul that has had a like nature and reverenced the\\nsame god, to whom their recollection clings, of whom\\n**they become possessed, and receive his character\\nand ways as far as man can participate in God.\\nThe lover of Cristina holds a like resistless\\nfaith in a remembered twinship of soul with the be-\\nloved one and the lover of* Evelyn Hope seeks\\nsatisfaction in a similar mystical realm of spiritual\\nbeing.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0096.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 63\\nRudel to the Lady of Tripoli, is an expression\\nof the outgrowth from platonic love toward that\\nwarmer, thoroughly romantic, and yet exaltedly de-\\nvoted love which belongs peculiarly to the chivalric\\nvein of the troubadour lover and others of Browning s\\nromantic poems exemplify, with historic fidelity, this\\nespecial phase of romantic love. (See Helen Leah\\nReed s Browning s Pictures of Chivalry, Poet-lorCy\\nVol. XL, pp. 588-601.)\\nSumming up the ground passed over, together with\\nthe few poems of this series still remaining to be sur-\\nveyed, it may be noticed that the whole has naturally\\narranged itself in three general groups the first, cov-\\nering the poems already named and discussed, which\\nexpress the effect of a personal experience, whether\\nhappy or not, upon the lover. The second group\\nexpresses the lover s judgment of an experience, less\\nrecent, his thought lingering reflectively over it and\\nweighing its value not merely to himself, or to his soul,\\nor to the beloved one, as in the first group, but in re-\\nlation to outside considerations. A Light Woman,\\nDis Aliter Visum, Confessions, Youth and\\nArt, Bifurcation, Rosny, deal thus with the\\nrelation of a love-experience to the moral or conven-\\ntional opinions of the outside world. The third\\ngroup embracing A Pretty Woman, Num-\\npholeptos, Solomon and Balkis, Adam, Lilith,\\nand Eve, Which expresses in a more abstract\\nway, as if in a parable embodying a veiled but intended\\nmeaning, some comment on love in general, or on\\ntypical love relations between men and women.\\nIn *A Light Woman the speaker has ventured\\nto interfere in the relations of his friend with an ob-\\njectionable woman from whom it seemed desirable to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0097.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "64 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nrescue him, and the meddler s success only leads him\\nto bitter reflections on his own presumption and the\\nfact that he himself is the least to be commended of\\nthe three. Is the ideal of love to be drawn from this\\npoem that love belongs essentially to the two souls\\nconcerned and should not be subject to the offhand\\ncondemnation and interference of those outside the\\nrelationship And observe whether such a conception\\nagrees with the ideals imphed as to the opinions of the\\nouter world in the other poems of this second group.\\nIn **Dis Aliter Visum and Youth and Art\\nthe worthlessness of external views of the socially fit\\nway to act in life are arraigned by the two speakers as\\nleading to less good moral results than the indulgence\\nof love despite social unfitness. The argument against\\nsuppression of the impulse to love seems to be that\\nthere is a vitality about obedience to a genuine emotion\\nof love compared with vvhich conventional inconven-\\nience is not only petty but nullifying, since the nature\\nschools itself in deference to such cautions only to\\ngrow insincere and fall a prey to degenerate relations\\nv^hich are destructive of spiritual impetus, not only\\nfor the characters of the two first concerned but for\\nthose with whom these become involved. In Bi-\\nfurcation a similar question is posed between love\\nand a course thought good socially, and this question\\nis left open. The intimation with which it closes is,\\nsays Dr. Brinton (see Browning on Unconventional\\nRelations, Poet-lore, Yo\\\\. IV., May, 1892, pp. 266-\\n271), that self-denial may be a greater sin than\\nself-indulgence. In Confessions a dying man\\nmaintains the joy and sweetness of an old love episode\\nagainst the ascetic notion of it as a dangerous and\\ndoubtful inclination of the flesh. Finally, in Rosny,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0098.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 6^\\nthe desire to gratify public opinion with the fame of a\\nwarrior-hero leads love to sacrifice his life to it.\\nSo in all the poems of this group there is an antithe-\\nsis between love and social opinion, and all tend toward\\nthe conclusion that love is closer to spirituality, and is to\\nthe individuals concerned in each case, therefore, a bet-\\nter guide than the external opinions of the social world.\\nIn tracing the ideals of love embodied in these\\npoems through the last group, ask whether, in these\\nmost critical and quizzical of Browning s love poems,\\nthere is any disagreement with the foregoing group.\\nIn A Pretty Woman the conclusion expressed is\\neven so far respectful of the individual nature and the\\nright to follow its own bent that its incapacity to\\nlove deeply, although accompanied by an exasperating\\nfacility to attract love, is acknowledged, and neither\\nirritation nor forcible possession is justified, but rather\\nsuch mere appreciation as that shown a rose one ad-\\nmires but leaves to itself unplucked and unsullied.\\nNumpholeptos expresses the devotion of the male\\nlover to the woman he has made an idol of. He\\nbends himself to the performance of the superhuman de-\\nmands this unreal woman-shape lays upon him. And\\nthe slavishness of the man to the hopeless and stultify-\\ning action which she is incapable of entering into or\\nreally rewarding is the legitimate result, the poem\\nsuggests, of this sort of fetichism in the relations of\\nmen and women. It is ignorance of actual life\\nwhich makes her exacting, and it is his worship which\\nmakes her artificially queen it over him as his moral\\nsuperior. The ideal of love, insinuated symbolically,\\nthrough the unsatisfactoriness of the relationship be-\\ntween this lover and his task-mistress, which the poem\\nsatirically exposes, is probably that, in place of this\\n5", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0099.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "66 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsort of fantastic, sentimental, unbalanced ensnarement\\nof the man by the woman, a more perfectly reciprocal\\nand healthy relationship may grow up between them\\nwhen they have become equally independent and self-\\npoised by actual contact with the real problems of life\\nand hard-won triumphs over them. (See Camberwell\\nBrownijig, Vol. IX., Notes, p. 301, for Browning s\\nexplanation of his meaning also, passage on Num-\\npholeptos in The Ideals of Womanhood held by\\nBrowning, Poet-lore^ Vol. IX., No. 3, p. 399.)\\nMrs. Glazebrook (see Browning Studies, pp.\\n195-203) writes of the allegory of the nymph in\\nthis poem as suggesting three alternatives She may\\nbe just some one individual woman, and the poem a\\nsimple love story told in allegorical form. But the\\nwhole tone, style, and effect of the poem seem to me\\nto forbid this narrow interpretation. Browning\\ntells stories of this kind simply, dramatically, circum-\\nstantially. Secondly, the nymph may be the\\npersonification of Philosophy. And this I believe her\\nto be in part. But I think she is more. There must\\nbe some good reason for that outburst at the end,\\nwhich makes so much of her being a woman of her\\nShe-intelligence, etc. And so I am brought\\nto the third alternadve, which is the one I hold. The\\nnymph is the ideal woman a modern Beatrice or\\nLaura, dwelling in a carefully guarded abode of\\npeace and virtue, sending forth the man to make his\\nway in life s careers, always exacting victory for him\\nin these, but not the stains and scars of the victor.\\nThese her untried experience of life does not permit\\nher to understand. So also Solomon and Balkis\\nsatirizes the male vanity and the feminine love of\\nallurement under which sensuality may mask as love.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0100.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 6^\\nAdam, Lilith, and Eve exemplifies the typical man\\nin a similar mutually self-fooling relationship with the\\ntwo typical classes of women, Lilith, the proud but\\nloyal-hearted Brunhild type. Eve, the softer but wilier\\nGudrun type. (See Mrs. Corson s Note, however.\\nPoet-lore, Vol. VIII., pp. 278-280, for an interpre-\\ntation diametrically opposite to this and to the one\\ngiven in the digest of this poem, Cambe?~well Browm?ig,\\nNotes, Vol. XL, p. 327.) Finally, Which in\\npresenting dramatically the ideals of love held by three\\ndifferent women seems to sum up this topic of Ideals\\nof Love, by indicating that the most essential require-\\nment in a lover is that his love shall have reference\\nto one alone.\\nQueries for Discussion. To what extent are\\nBrowning s love-poems dramatic, and to what extent\\ndoes there exist an agreement among them which\\nenables one to judge what ideals of love guided him\\nIs Mr. Stedman justified in speaking of Browning s\\nlove lyrics as attesting the boundless liberty and sov-\\nereignty of love, so that their moral is that\\nthe greatest sin does not consist in giving rein to our\\ndesires, but in stinting or too prudently repressing\\nthem (See Victorian Poets, pp. 322, 329.)\\nIf there is truth in this, what limitation of its ap-\\nplication, generally, should be made on the score\\nof the poet s satire in his more quizzical poems of\\nspurious love-relations and of his exemplifications\\nthroughout his work of developed love as essentially\\nspiritual\\nIs it an advance, morally and socially, that the men\\nlovers should be shown to be capable of such disinter-\\nested love as it was formerly supposed only women\\nwere likely to express?", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0101.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "68 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWhat elements of the love celebrated, typically, by\\nPlato and Dante belong to Browning s most exalted\\nlovers, and wherein has he added a strain of his own\\nIs his conception of the value of love to the soul of\\nthe lover more in accord, on the whole, wnth Dante s\\nreverence for woman, or with Plato s lonely regard\\nfor the spiritual and individual element of love which\\nthe Greek philosophy identified with the lover instead\\nof with the beloved one\\nIs the ideal of love held by Browning s exalted\\nlovers as social in its aim as Mr. Nettleship supposes\\nwhen he writes as follows\\nShould we consider the conclusions of Browning s\\nmale lovers as one whole, what use can we make of\\nthem, when thus blended If we believe with\\nCristina s lover, that we are here in this life, as dis-\\ntinguished from all other lives before and after, for the\\npurpose of loving somebody with Evelyn Hope s\\nlover, that, having fulfilled that condition here, we\\nshall surely enjoy it to the full in some future state\\nand with the lover in The Last Ride, that it is\\npossible that love enjoyed may be, not only one fulfil-\\nment of a future state, but that fruition which is more\\nglorious and all-satisfying than any other, we do but\\nintensify powers of which we are assuredly possessed,\\nand by the very nature of our hopes for their exercise,\\nelevate and purify our desires. Finding ourselves\\npossessed of certain instincts, whose development is\\nthe passion of love, and which claim exercise in one\\nway or another finding that not only as repro-\\nductive agents are these instincts in themselves of incal-\\nculable importance, but, moreover, that in their exercise\\nfor that purpose they expand our sympathetic powers,\\nand nourish and extend the power of action of our other", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0102.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 69\\nattributes we do but take another step, to learn first\\nthat perhaps the passion is but a symbol of the infinite\\nyearning of a first cause, a type of that boundless love\\nwhich, wedded to boundless power, has been imag-\\nined as the all-ruHng Deity and then that this very\\npassion, infinitely extended, may be the means of our\\nhelping untold millions as God s vice-gerents in other\\nexistences. Tf we believe that no love which\\nhas honestly sprung up in any man s breast can go\\nunrewarded altogether, lest thereby so much power be\\nlost in the machine of the universe; if we thus dare\\nto weld together the thoughts expressed in these three\\npoems, who shall say whether the little germ\\nof one man s love truly begun, for one woman, may\\nnot in some far-away life arise, an infinite passion, by\\nwhose glowing impulse the two shall mount upwards\\nAnd if for many lives he and she toil on, failing,\\nlearning, and accumulating force surely at last,\\nwhen division and duality are things of forgot-\\nten ages, the perfect human entity, taking throne at the\\nfoot of God, will wield the sceptre of power, instinct\\nwith the spirit of love, over the millions who are still\\ntoiling and cHmbing, and in the end the whole world\\nwill blend in the inconceivable splendor of a star that\\nblazes through an ever present eternity\\nHow does this way of regarding love accord with\\nBrowning s? Should you say that these poems\\nplaced emphasis on the spiritual side of love, regarding\\nit as essentially emotional and transcendent And is\\nthis view too much influenced by the idea of repro-\\nduction and too biassed by notions of institutional, even\\nmonarchical, forms of government to be perfectly m\\nharmony with the pcet Does love as Browning\\nconceives of it fulfil itself through personalitv, in order", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0103.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "70 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nultimately to establish the highest consciousness of the\\nindividual soul, and therefore, instead of blending all\\nsouls into likeness and unity, merely, as Mr. Nettleship\\nsupposes, does it, rather, branch into complexity and\\ndifferentiation, in order to reahze new power and make\\nnew sympathies possible\\nIs it likelier that greater injustice will be done the\\npoet by defining his ideal of love and giving it a pre-\\nscribed goal, than by regarding his love poems as an\\nartist s attempts to embody human ideals of an evolu-\\ntionary sort having a relative rather than an absolute\\nvalue, and expressing a general tendency rather than\\na specific aim Might his position toward his own\\npoems be that of one who held that although an abso-\\nlute ideal of perfect love would be desirable for man\\nto aspire toward, yet that it would be undesirable for\\nany one man to limit it for others or himself, no one\\nnature s experience and aspiration absorbing all the\\npossibilities, and each such experience and aspiration\\nbeing but a relative manifestation or partial mirroring\\nof the imagined Infinite Infinite Passion and the\\npain of finite hearts that yearn\\nIs romantic love to Browning a renunciation or a\\nrealization of personality Is self-sacrifice or self-\\nsatisfaction, soul-development or social progress its\\nmaster impulse But are such ends as these opposed\\nor supplementary Does self-sacrifice lead to soul\\ndevelopment or does it cramp the active energies of\\nthe spiritual nature and induce a passivity unfriendly\\nto progress Does self-satisfaction, on the other\\nhand, the wreaking of oneself on one s desires,\\ntend to satiate and, in a sense, debauch the energy,\\ngiving it the restlessness of over-activity If in either\\nway danger lies, where may the remedy be found", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0104.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 71\\nIs the solution a middle-way or a reference of the\\nquestion as to conduct, in each case, to the dictates of\\nthe individual soul in relation to its special environ-\\nment Does soul development depend upon social\\nprogress the more, or social progress create the better\\nconditions for soul development\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classzvorky or Private\\nStudy. The Poetic Workmanship.\\nHints It is interesting to notice that the four-\\nstressed measure predominates in this series of poems.\\nAt least twenty-two of the thirty-nine poems are\\nwritten in this way, and perhaps one other poem,\\nCrisdna, should be added to the number, for it\\nis ordinarily so scanned. Whether metrical facility\\nor poverty of ability as a metricist is betokened by the\\nevidence that this four-stressed measure is so often used,\\nmay be in part determined by a study of the differen-\\ntiation the poet has made in this kind of line in these\\npoems, and of how he has manipulated it to meet the\\ndramatic or emotional effects attained.\\nGarden Fancies is half taken up with description\\nof a past scene in a garden, and yet it is all the time\\nmore directly presentative of the describer. While\\nhe talks we see that he is pushing open the wicket\\ngate, and passing successively past the shrub, the box\\nalong one side of the gravel walk, the phlox, the roses\\nin a row, the flower with the Spanish name, all of\\nthem recalling to him incidents of the past scene when\\nhe walked through the garden with the lady who then\\nmade all these incidents enchanting and who now,\\nas he catches sight of her, farther on, makes him hurry\\noff toward her, flinging back, as he goes, after the\\nexpressive lines 41 and 42, cautions to the flower and\\ntaunts to the roses expressive of this lady s superior", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0105.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "72 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncharm. The state of emotional sensibility belonging to\\nthis lover comes out in the metaphors. Human feeling\\nis attributed to the hinges, which wince and murmur,\\nthe buds pout and flout and turn up their\\nfaces and notice how sunshine, sound,\\nspeech, song, and beauties are spoken of\\nas capable of human action, of Hngering, sleeping, wak-\\ning, and fleeing. Referring to line 20 in the Letters\\nof Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, Eliza-\\nbeth Barrett speaks of that beautiful and musical use\\nof the word meandering which I never remember\\nhaving seen used in relation to sound before. The\\ngeneral tone of the poem is one of smooth grace and\\ndelicate sentiment. Observe how the metrical form is\\nrelated to this effect. Although the four-stressed Hne\\nopens with an accented syllable for the first four lines,\\nand, similarly, at the beginning of other stanzas, es-\\npecially V. and vi., where there is an outburst of\\nimpulsive rapture, the lines, as a rule, open with unac-\\ncented syllables, and often, as in lines 7 and 8, for\\nexample, the poor snail, and forget it the\\nleaves, an extra unstressed syllable lengthens the\\niambic foot.\\nIn The Laboratory, the four-stressed Hne is\\noften begun with a stressed syllable followed by one,\\nand sometimes two, unstressed, the whole giving\\nan entirely opposite effect to that of The Flower s\\nName, an effect of abrupt excitabihty rather than\\nsmooth sensibility, of fierceness instead of sentiment.\\nThe way the metre serves the emotion it expresses,\\nso that the right rhetorical emphasis is in general agree-\\nment with the rhythm, has been noticed particularly\\nby Mr. William Allingham. He points the second\\nstanza for reading, thus", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0106.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 73\\nHe is with ker, and they knojv that know\\nWhere they are, what they do they believe my tears flow\\nWhile t/iev laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear\\nEmpty church, to pray God in for t/iem I am here.\\nThis calls attention to the strong antitheses made\\nbetween the pronouns, the tears, the laughter, the\\nchurch where the lovers think the lady is, the labora-\\ntory where she really is. Notice, also, the alternation\\nof stressed and unstressed or less stressed syllables as\\nhere marked. How far does the sense-emphasis coin-\\ncide with the metrical stress Scan the other stanzas,\\nmarking the metrical accents in the same way, and\\ninquire whether the lines of this poem are more often\\nopened with a stressed or weak syllable, and if the\\ndifferent effect of the poem as a whole is due to the\\nrhythm being essentially opposite to that of the pre-\\nceding poem, if it is made up chiefly, that is, of what\\nare called trochaic and dactylic feet (feet of two and\\nthree syllables opening with an accented and followed\\nby unaccented syllables); or whether it is made up\\nchiefly of what are called iambic and anapaestic feet\\n(feet of two and three syllables opening with light\\nand followed by stressed syllables), and if the different\\neffect of the whole is due, therefore, simply to the\\nfact that there are in this poem a greater number of\\nlines than in the preceding, which open with a stress.\\nIn the case of such Hnes as 9 it might be held that,\\nalthough it begins with a strong syllable followed by two\\nweak ones, this foot is not a dactyl, but, as frequently\\nin iambic verse, that the usual opening weak syllable\\nis dropped, and that after Grind a, a new and reg-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0107.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "74 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nular iambic foot, way moist, follows, the rest of the\\nline being made up of two anapssts.\\nFor the sake of unifying the metre throughout\\nwould it be better to scan such lines thus, or to ac-\\ncount them as exceptional Or is Mr. Arthur Beatty\\nright in classing the poem as trochaic and dactylic\\nIn his valuable little pamphlet on Browning s Verse\\nForm, he instances it as an example of the trochaic\\nlogaoedic, meaning by this that it is written in the\\nfree metre, called logaoedic by the Greek prosodists, in\\nwhich extra syllables were added at will to the foot,\\ndactyls being blent with trochees in the variety called\\ntrochaic, and anapaests with iambs in that called iambic,\\nin a way combining the unfettered movement of the\\nnoblest prose with the true poetic cadence.\\nThe rhyme scheme is simple, the stanza being made\\nup of two couplets. Are the double rhymes effective\\nNotice the power of speech attributed to the drop of\\npoison (line 31). Is it appropriate that the meta-\\nphors should be rare Had the lady an eye for color\\nWhat examples of eifective alliteration does the poem\\nafford\\n**The Confessional is the simplest of poems as\\nto metaphor and diction, and most regular as to the\\nrhythm, which is markedly that of a steadily iambic\\nfour-stressed line. Are there any elisions of the weak\\nsyllables of the foot at the beginning of the lines What\\nis the rhyme scheme Are there any double rhymes,\\nsuch as the **tightly **whitely, smithy\\nprithee, of The Laboratory What similes\\nare there, and how do these and the bare style suit the\\nspeaker\\nThe verse in Cristina may be classed either as\\nfour or eight stressed. Each pair of lines, as printed", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0108.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 75\\nin the apparently eight-line stanza, really constitutes\\nbut one poetic line or verse, each stanza being com-\\nposed of two couplets ending in double rhymes through-\\nout the poem. It may be questioned whether it\\nmight not be better often to scan each line as having\\nthree stresses, for example\\nThere are flashes struck from midnights\\nThere are fire-flames noondays kindle, etc.\\ninstead of\\nThere are flashes struck from midnights,\\nThere are fire-flames noondays kindle, etc.\\nThe second mode seems too regular to express the im-\\npatient half-injured scornfulness of mood natural to the\\nspeaker, who, according to the first mode, would fling\\nheadlong past his opening words towards his words\\nof main emphasis. But read the stanzas in the two\\nways, in the first, letting the voice pass lightly on to\\nflashes and fire and there marking the stress;\\nin the second, emphasizing the first and then every al-\\nternate syllable and judge for yourself. This first\\nmode would make each line open with a three-syl-\\nlabled foot of two weak, followed by a strong syllable,\\nthat is, with an anapsst, the remainder of the line being\\na two-syllabled foot, that is, iambic, and the verse, as a\\nwhole, a good example of the iambic logaoedic metre.\\nThe regular iambic rhythm of the four-stressed\\nverse of The Lost Mistress, the simple alternate\\nrhymed quatrain and quiet diction fit the dismissed\\nlover s gray mood. What he is saying of the eaves\\nand vine-buds intimates that he is standing in the door-\\nway bidding good-bye. What pertinence is there in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0109.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "76 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhis saying that the red turns gray Does this strike\\nhim as sadly Hke his own budding hope\\nIs Evelyn Hope an unquestionable example of\\ndactylic and trochaic metre Here, as in the other poems,\\nthe lines stressed at the opening are expressive of an\\nagitated emotional outburst, and the lines opening with\\nweak syllables signify the relief of a quieter mood.\\nThe last stanza, for example, in effect very serenely\\nsolemn, is characterized by an iambic rhythm through-\\nout. Notice the rhyme and stanza scheme. Are there\\nany double rhymes Observe the nature of the similes\\nand allusions.\\nSummarize the differences between the remaining\\npoems of four-stressed lines as to variety of rhythm, and\\nnew kinds of stanza and rhymes, for example, Two\\nin the Campagna, closes its stanza of five lines with\\na shorter line of three stresses which rhymes with the\\nfirst and third. Another Way of Love, while\\neach stanza closes with triplet verses having four stresses,\\nhas eight lines preceding with four rhymes elaborately\\ninterlinked. A Pretty Woman has a double\\nrhymed couplet of two stressed lines between its\\ndouble and sometimes triple rhyming first and fourth\\nlines. **In a Year has in its eight-hned stanza but\\ntwo lines, which are four-stressed the others have two\\nstresses, except the first, which has three. The songs\\nof In a Gondola frequently have short lines of two\\nstresses amid the normal four-stressed verse of this\\npoem, and at its close there is a transition for the last\\nseventeen lines to five stresses in the line, marking\\nnoticeably the change of mood with the change of\\nmetrical movement, as the lovers return, disembark,\\nand the man is surprised and stabbed. Each quatrain\\nof **A Light Woman closes with a three-stressed", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0110.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE -Jf\\nline which knits up the stanza and Confessions is\\nsimilarly constructed, so far as its quatrains, in iambic\\nmetre closing with a three-stressed line, are concerned,\\nyet it seems, to secure its more humorous and crisp effect\\nnot merely by the character and similes of the story,\\nwhich should be observed, but also by there being fewer\\nsyllables, generally, to the line. One of the main traits\\ndistinguishing The Last Ride Together from the\\nmany other poems having a four-stressed iambic line is\\nthe carefully interlocked rhyme of the eleven-lined\\nstanza. It serves to add an element of rhythm closely\\ncorresponding to the movement of thought and emo-\\ntion as vvell as a suggestion of horseback-riding. Com-\\npare with other poems of Br-owning s in which\\nhorseback-riding is in the rhythmic background\\nThe Ride from Ghent, Thro the Metidja,\\nBoot, Saddle, to Horse and Away. It is not pos-\\nsible to be thinking mainly of one s horse, what he is\\ndoing, how he is going when it is Our Last Ride\\nTogether, mine and hers comments Mr. Bulkeley\\n(see The Reasonable Rhythm of some of Brown-\\ning s Poems, London Browning Society Papers).\\nThough our hearts must throb with our horses motion,\\nand our thoughts fall into their rhythmic rise and fall,\\nyet the deeper feelings reign here, of love, regret, hope,\\nand it is not always consciously, though ever there,\\nthat the horses canter under us and yet, since thus\\nwe are together, would we than this animal cadence\\nwish for a better heaven Notice that the stanza is\\nmade up of two sets of paired couplets, the second set\\nhaving an additional line repeating its second rhyme,\\nboth sets being woven into one piece by the fifth and\\nthe last lines rhyming. How do the diction, allu-\\nsions, and metaphors correspond with the nature of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0111.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "78 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthis lover and reveal his culture and character in com-\\nparison, for instance, with those of Porphyria s\\nLover and what special qualities of its own has the\\nfour-stressed line of that poem Is the four-stressed\\nverse of Too Late given an effect quite different\\nfrom all the preceding poems, and how Notice the\\nrough yet vivid metaphors (see lines 21-24, S^-S^*\\n43-48, 75 and 76, 100-102, I lo-l 12, and so on) and\\nwhat they intimate of the kind of man this lover was.\\nCristina and Monaldeschi, Dis Aliter Visum,\\nMary Wollstonecraft, Adam, Lilith, and Eve,\\nWhich? and **Rosny, the remaining poems of\\nfour-stressed lines, have various interesting points of dif-\\nferentiation either in the preponderance of lines with\\nthe stress at the opening syllable, as in the first and last\\npoems, in both cases suiting the tragic intensity or in\\nthe preponderance of lines opening with a weak syl-\\nlable, as in the other poems or in the lengthening of\\nthe foot, and shortening of some of the lines to three-\\nstressed lines, as in Adam, Lilith, and Eve in add-\\ning a two-stressed refrain, as in Rosny or else in\\nthe varied rhyme and stanza structure and in the use\\nof double rhymes.\\nOf the remainder of this series of love poems, aside\\nfrom those discussed in the following programme,\\nnotice that A Woman s Last Word, **Love among\\nthe Ruins, A Lover s Quarrel, Mesmerism,\\nThe Glove, Youth and Art, ^A Likeness,\\nmay be grouped together on the basis of all having a\\nthree-stressed line. Solomon and Balkis is marked\\nby a six-stressed line.\\nConcerning the congruity existing between the metre\\nand the matter of A Woman s Last Word, Dr.\\nBrinton writes (see The New Poetic Form as shown", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0112.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 79\\nin Browning, Vol. II., pp. 234-246, May, 1890):\\nIn the short lines we seem to feel the broken,\\nhysterical sobbing of a woman. The primary rhythm\\nis reinforced by the unusual combination of rhyme and\\nrepetition, more, Love, before. Love, etc., while\\nthe secondary rhythm is carried on by an adroit\\ndisposition of consonantal tone-colors, contrasted at\\nwhat we may call the close of each sob, that is,\\ncarried through, but not beyond the shorter line. The\\nwhole poem is a model effort to bring poetic form into\\nrhythmical co-ordination with the natural physical\\nexpression of the emotion it describes. And he\\ncalls attention to the difference in treatment of a\\nquite contrasted mental state, as shown in that ex-\\nquisite composition Love among the Ruins. The\\nemotion is that of a confident lover walking leisurely\\nat eve to a trysting spot among the ruins where\\nhis girl awaits him. Precisely the same measure is\\nused for the shorter verse but, by a lengthening of the\\nalternate line, and a different adjustment of the secon-\\ndary rhythm, the whole effect is not merely altered\\nbut inverted. Instead of being a reflection of the\\nrhythm of broken sobs, it is that of long and calm in-\\nspirations with alternate rests.\\nAn interesting variation from- the agile double rhymes\\nthat characterize The Glove, should not be over-\\nlooked. When the lady speaks to Ronsard so earnestly,\\nthese change into single rhymes, recurring afterwards\\nto their normal dexterity. Elizabeth Barrett wrote\\nBrowning, in the Letters What a noble lion\\nyou give us, too, with the flash on his forehead and\\nleagues in the desert already as we look and\\nwith what a curious felicity you turn the subject\\nglove to another use and strike De Lorge s blow", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0113.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "8o BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nback on him with it, in the last paragraph of your\\nstory And the versification And the lady s speech\\nso calm and proud yet a little bitter.\\nMesmerism should not be passed over without\\nnodcing especially the suspension of the sense and\\nrhythm through stanza after stanza, and how^ this\\nbrings out the steady willing of the speaker. Where\\ndo the dashes stop at the ends of the stanzas, and how\\ndoes the alternation of suspension and pause fit the\\nrelief and the strain\\nThe-five-stressed Hne offers the common ground for\\nclassing together Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli,\\nBifurcation, Numpholeptos, and Inappre-\\nhensiveness. Each of these smaller groups may be\\npassed in review in the same way as the larger group\\nof poems with a four-stressed line, directing observa-\\ntion to the following points i the preponderance\\nof lines opening with an accented or an unaccented\\nsyllable; (2) the preponderant number of syllables\\nto each foot (3) the dramadc or musical effect of\\nehsions of weak syllables, or of the shift from strong\\nto weak; (4) the rhyme and stanza plan; (5) the\\nnature of the metaphors and allusions and their fitness\\n(6) whether the poem in part or as a whole is symbolic.\\nNumpholeptos illustrates what is meant by this\\nsixth point. A symbolical suggestion pervades the\\npoem that the nymph is an ideal woman who is the\\nidol of man instead of a human reality. The imagery\\nis the poetic means by which this is implied. This\\nimagery of a central light with colored light rays is\\nan inverse application of Dante s supernal light that\\nguides him heavenward, in the centre of which the poet\\nof chivalric love placed Beatrice, the **lady round\\nwhom splendors meet in homage. (See **Vita", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0114.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "PHASES OF ROMANTIC LOVE 8i\\nNuova, xliii. Purgatorio, xxix., foil. Par-\\nadise, XXX.). Browning de-theologizes this meta-\\nphor. He makes it human by insinuating the effect it\\nmight have on man to be led here in his life on earth\\nby such a guardian queen outward from the centre of\\nsuch light, instead of inward toward it in the pursuit of\\nangelic perfection in heaven. Dr. Berdoe, however,\\nin Browning s Science in Numpholeptos {^Poet-\\nlore,^^ Vol.11., pp. 617-624, Dec. 1890), after refer-\\nring to Dante s imagery, cites Browning s use of the\\nfigure drawn from the constitution of white Hght in\\nThe Ring and the Book, i. 1354, Sordello, v.\\n605, and Fifine, 897, to show that Browning was in\\nlove with this light metaphor, and in Numpholeptos\\nbuilt up a complete poem on this scientific foundation.\\nQueries for Discussion. Are Browning s free\\nrhythm and often unadorned diction to be considered\\nas appropriate dramatically or deficient poetically\\nAre his lines and metres that are frequently stressed\\nat the beginning to be censured when not in accord\\nwith his normal line and metre, or are they to be\\ntaken as meant to serve the purpose either of varying\\nand enriching the harmony of the v^rse or of in-\\ndicating a change of feeling\\nDo the double rhymes in these poems betoken either\\na certain fluency or playfulness of mood and does the\\npoet indulge in them when they are dramatically in-\\nappropriate to the speaker or do not suit the effect\\nIs the scientific or the hterary symbolism of the\\nhght image in Numpholeptos most in keeping with\\nthe meaning of the poem\\nWhich is more frequent in these poems, metaphor,\\nsimile, allegory, or symbolism t", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0115.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "A Group of Love Lyrics\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nLyrics from Pippa Passes Give her but a\\nleast excuse to love me i 208 258\\nYou ll love me yet i 225\\nMeeting at Night iv 29 367\\nParting at Morning iv 30 367\\nSong Nay but you who do not love her iv 30 367\\nMy Star iv 87 377\\nMisconceptions iv 106 378\\nOne Way of Love iv 109 379\\nLove in a Life iv 116 379\\nLife in a Love iv 117 379\\nNatural Magic ix 208 300\\nMagical Nature ix 209 300\\nPrologue: Two Poets of Croisic x 330 304\\nWanting is What? xi 227 323\\nNever the Time and the Place xi 285 337\\nLyric: Eagle xii 4 305\\nMelon-Seller xii 6 307\\nShah Abbas xii 10 308\\nThe Family xii 14 309\\nEpi\\nMirab Shah\\nas 3\\nA Camel Driver xii 30 313\\nTwo Camels xii 34 314\\nPlot Culture xii 40 315\\nA Pillar at Sebzevar xii 45 316\\nlogue Ferishtah s Fancies xii 61 319\\nNow xii 200 363\\nPoetics xii 201 363\\nSummum Bonum xii 202 364\\nA Pearl, a Girl xii 202 364\\nSonnet: Eyes, calm beside thee xii 269 380\\nI. Topic for Pdpe?\\\\ Classwork, or Private Study.\\n-The Story and Mood.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0116.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 83\\nHints For the story see notes to Camberwell\\nBrowning as given above. Observe how many of\\nthe poems may be said to have stories, or at least to\\nimply a situation, and how many of them are simply\\nthe expression of the lover s moods. In the first two\\nlyrics from Pippa Passes the lovers long for the\\nlove of the lady of their affection. The page, how-\\never, feels how hopeless it is that his lady should ever\\nhave any need of him, while in the other one there is\\nthe feeling of certainty that the seed of love has been\\nsown and must reach its fruition some time, and\\nthat not even death can prevent it. In Song the\\nlove is so intense that the lover can find no adequate\\nwords of praise, himself, but would have others gaze\\nupon his lady and express their admiration in praise,\\nwhile he keeps silent. In My Star, the feeling is\\nsomewhat of a contrast to that in Song. Here is\\na lover who instead of desiring all others to praise his\\nbeloved, is happy because he alone can appreciate her,\\nbecause to him only has she revealed her beauty of\\nsoul. This makes her peculiarly his and others are\\nwelcome to praise those more brilliant who make a\\nuniversal impression. Which do you consider repre-\\nsents the deeper of these two phases of feeling\\nIn Misconceptions there is reflected the mood of\\na lover who has been regarded merely as a stepping\\nstone to a true and abiding love, and has thus been\\nleft by his mistress to pine for a good which was not\\nhis. He does not rail at the perfidy of the inconstant\\nfair, but seems magnanimously to consider that he had\\nmistaken her graciousness toward him for love and had\\ngrown ecstatic upon insufficient grounds. The lover\\nin One Way of Love is one who, in spite of the\\nfact that he has spent his whole life in perfecting his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0117.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "84 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nlove for the lady s sake and at the end receives no\\nreturn for it, is yet able to bless all who win the\\nheaven of a perfect love. Love in a Life and\\nLife in a Love In the first, the lover seems to\\nconsider that unless he wins the lady of his heart, love\\nmust ever escape him, while in the second the lover\\nfeels that once having found the ideal, he has realized\\nthe full force of love and through the whole of his\\nlife his love must follow it whether the lady recipro-\\ncates or not. Which of these lovers has the deeper\\nnature, the one whose love does not blossom into full\\nlife without reciprocation, or the one whose love is suf-\\nficient for his life without the reciprocal love of the\\nloved one Do you think of any other interpretation\\nof the two moods expressed in these poems Might\\nthere be a more symbolical way of looking at them, as\\nindicated in the notes to the poems in the Camberwell\\nBrozvningy in which the poems would stand as\\nsymbols of an abstract ideal love\\nIn Natural Magic the lover expresses, by means\\nof symboHsm drawn from magic, the sudden trans-\\nformation in his life upon the advent of the beloved\\none. In Magical Nature the lover s mood is\\nsuch that he defies time to lessen his admiration of his\\nlady, declaring that her beauty has for him the perma-\\nnence of a jewel rather than that of a flower which\\ntime might fray. In the prologue to Two Poets of\\nCroisic the mood is the same as that in Magical\\nNature namely, the power of love to transform\\nlife from a dull and meaningless existence into one\\nhenceforth full of joy and gladness. Wandng is\\nWhat shows the same thing, only in this there is\\nthe desire and need for a love that has never come,\\nand while in Apparitions all was dark until love", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0118.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 85\\ncame, in the last the world is recognized as being\\nbeautiful but lacking the touch which will give mean-\\ning to its beauty. Which do you think the more likely\\ninterpretation, this or the one referred to in the Notes f\\n(See Camberwell Brownifig, Vol. XL, p. 227.)\\nIn Never the Time and the Place we have the\\nmood of a lover who is chafing under restraints imposed\\nby conditions, but who yet looks forward to reunion\\nwith the beloved one, even if it be not until after death.\\nObserve that there is but one of these lyrics wherein\\nexpression is given to a mood indicating that there are\\nthings of more importance in life than love, namely\\nthe second of the pair Meeting at Night and\\nParting at Morning. Whether it be interpreted\\nas spoken by the man or the woman, it shows that to\\nthis lover love is only an incident of his life. (For\\ndiscussion as to the meaning of these lyrics see Poet-\\nlore, Vol. VII., 1895, April, May, and June-July.)\\nC. R. Corson writes **The Arcanum of the Garden\\nof Eden has been revealed to them, the need of\\nwoman to man, the need of man to woman. It is\\nthis revelation that makes him find a path of gold in\\nall his endeavors to provide for her it has centupled\\nhis physical energies, nothing now too hard for him to\\nachieve all that her heart craves she shall have\\nthrough him. Another writer says: Don t you\\nread it like this Round the cape of a sudden came\\nthe sea (the man is speaking) and the sun looked over\\nthe mountain s rim and straight was a path of gold\\nfor him (the sun) And the need of a world of men\\nfor me (the man who must go back to the world of\\naction he left last night). How plain! Then there\\nis the third possibility that the woman is speaking, and\\nthat she realizes that there is a path of glory in the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0119.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "86 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nworld of men for him in which she cannot share and\\nfor which she longs in order that she might companion\\nhim on his life s way. Which of these interpretations\\ndo you think fits best, and which represents the most\\nexalted point of view\\nQueries for Discussiofi. In comparison with love-\\nlyrics by other poets should you say that these were\\nnoticeable for their lack of descriptions of personal\\nbeauty and do you feel that in consequence the in-\\ntensity of the expression is lessened Or is there rather\\na greater depth and sincerity of love implied in such\\nlyrics, because of their emphasis upon a perfect soul-\\nunion as the basis of love where the love is reciprocal,\\nand a sense of the immeasurable worth of love to the\\none who loves whether it calls out any return or not\\nWhich of these lyrics reaches upon the whole the\\nmost exalted expression of love, or are most of them\\nequally exalted in spirit, the differences of mood being\\ndue to different conditions\\nThe lyrics which are interspersed in Ferisl:tah s\\nFancies differ from those already considered, because\\nthey may be grouped together in a series, each one in\\nthe series giving expression to a mood growing out of\\nthe lives of two souls already united in a deep and true\\nlove. (For hints on these lyrics, see Notes, Camberwell\\nBrowning, Vol. XII., pp. 305, 307, 308, 309, 311,\\n3 3 S^Sj 316, 319.) Round us the wild creatures\\nsays a word against the tendency such a soul-wedded\\npair might have to become completely absorbed in each\\nother, and forget they had any duties to humanity.\\nWish no word unspoken expresses the feeling that\\neven injustice from the loved one is precious. In\\nYou groped your way across my room, the feeling\\nexpressed is, that under the enlightening influence of a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0120.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 87\\ntrue and constant love, all discords that enter into life\\nwill be but a ruffling of the surface of life s deep current,\\nsoon to disappear. In Man I am and man would be,\\nthe lover declares that he asks nothing more in this\\nlife than his own human perception of the human\\nbeauty and goodness in the one he loves. In\\n**Sothe head aches he declares that the bodily\\nweakness of the loved one is compensated for in her\\nstrength of mind and soul greater than his, though he\\nis physically so strong. In When I vexed you, he\\nwelcomes chidings for small faults, because he knows\\nin his own inmost consciousness that he has greater fail-\\nings, she does not suspect, which deserve far sterner\\nchidings than she ever gives. In Once I saw a\\nchemist, he declares that through the love he has\\nknown upon earth, he is able to conceive of heaven,\\nwhich, however, cannot transcend the bliss of earth\\nexcept in the fact that in heaven the bliss will last.\\nA reminiscent mood is also reflected in Verse\\nmaking showing that love had been with him so\\nperfectly spontaneous and certain that without and\\nmisgivings or calculations as to the results, he imme-\\ndiately told his love. In Not with my soul,\\nlove, he expresses the desire that their union shall\\nbe complete, emotionally as well as spiritually. In\\nAsk not one least word of praise his mood is that\\nof one to whom speech in praise of the loved one is\\nnot sufficiently subtle for the expression of his inmost\\nsoul a touch reveals his soul better.\\nThis series of glimpses into a life hallowed by a\\nperfect love is rounded out by the Epilogue to Fer-\\nishtah s Fancies, which reveals the fact that the loved\\none is dead, and now haunting fears and doubts be-\\nset the man, that all the glory and beauty he has seen", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0121.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "88 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nin the world, owes its existence entirely to the love\\nwhich has surrounded him in a halo of light. Is it\\npossible to read this series of lyrics connectedly with-\\nout feeling that they grew out of the poet s own ex-\\nperience in life\\nQueries for Discussion. How does this set of lyrics\\ncompare with the others in the centering of the thought\\nupon the spiritual rather than upon the material aspects\\nof life and love\\nThough these lyrics are not at all didactic, could\\nyou draw a lofty ideal of living from them\\nIn the remaining lyrics, point out any similarities of\\nmood with those already considered.\\nTaken as a whole, do you find a remarkable unity of\\nsentiment in all these lyrics, the differences being merely\\ndifferent phases of the same underlying sentiment\\nDo these lyrics, on account of the unity of sentiment,\\ngive the impression of being more purely subjective\\nthan Browning s work usually is\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nSymbolism and Workmanship of the Lyrics.\\nHi?its Of the two lyrics from Pippa Passes,\\nGive her but a least excuse to love me is the more\\ndramatic in form. In the two short stanzas a very\\ndefinite picture is presented of the Queen, the page, and\\nthe maiden. Observe that this is done without any de-\\nscription whatever of any of them. How is it done,\\nthen How much of the situation do you learn from\\nthe page s song alone From the one word given to\\nthe Queen, we are able to conjure up a picture of her,\\nattentive to, and evidently touched by the page s\\nsong, and this impression is made all the more strong\\nby contrast with the maiden, whose few words show\\nher careless and indifi-erent, not supposing the Queen", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0122.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 89\\nto be interested in the page s song. Notice that the\\nlatter part of each stanza is enclosed in parentheses,\\nthe form being indirect speech instead of direct\\nthat is, the name of the person speaking is mentioned,\\nand what they say is introduced by said in one\\nplace, cried in another, and so on. If it were\\nnot for this should we be able to guess at the person-\\nality of the boy who is singing and the person to\\nwhom he sings\\nDoes the second stanza express a phase of the\\nmood any more intense than the first Do you find\\nany figures of speech in this poem The line\\nMerely an earth to cleave, a sea to part, without\\nbeing imagery in the ordinary sense, is a symbolical\\nway of saying that nothing would be too arduous for\\nhim to undertake for his lady.\\nWho is Kate the Queen (See lines following the\\nlyric, and Camberwell Brownings Notes, V^ol. I., p.\\n58-)\\nThe rhythm of this poem is very irregular, the\\nnumber of feet and the kind of feet varying with each\\nline, for example, the first line of the first stanza has\\nfive stresses with the unaccented syllable following the\\naccented one the second, two feet, each of which is\\na single accented syllable followed by a pause in the\\nplace of an unaccented syllable. The third line\\nmight be scanned as having either five or six stresses.\\nIn the first instance, can and this would both\\nbe treated as short syllables; in the second, *How\\nwould be treated as an accented syllable followed by\\na pause in place of an unaccented syllable, and can\\nwould have an accent. Does it give the more musi-\\ncal effect to scan this line as having five stresses In\\ndeciding a point like this would it be best to be guided", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0123.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "90 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nby the musical effect The fourth Hne again has five\\nstresses, but they are preceded instead of followed by\\nthe unaccented syllables. The sixth line might be\\nscanned as having six stresses, in which case to\\nwould have an accent. Would it not, however,\\ngive a more musical effect to make **to and the\\nfollowing syllable e both short and so give the\\nline only five stresses The next hne has three\\nstresses, the first followed by a pause, the other two\\npreceded by the unaccented syllables. The seventh\\nline has four, the accented syllable sometimes fol-\\nlowed by two, sometimes by one unaccented sylla-\\nble, and with an extra unaccented syllable at the\\nbeginning of the line. The eighth has four, pre-\\nceded by two and sometimes by one unaccented sylla-\\nble. The last has three, followed sometimes by one,\\nsometimes by two unaccented syllables. The second\\nstanza has the same distribution of stresses to the\\nlines, except that the third and sixth lines of the stanza\\nboth have to be scanned with six stresses. For this\\nreason it may be that the poet meant the third and\\nsixth lines of the first stanza to be scanned with six\\nstresses, so making the two stanzas counterparts of\\neach other. There is some little variation in the\\nplacing of the short syllables. Point these out.\\nNotice that the rhymes are sometimes double and\\nsometimes single. Do you find this poem any the\\nless musical for its irregularity and complexity\\nThe second of the lyrics from Pippa Passes is\\nfar simpler in construction, but is a trifle more meta-\\nphorical in its expression. Point out which of the\\nlines express the feeling directly and which express it\\nby means of figures. The rhythm and rhymes are\\nalso simple, the lines alternating between four and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0124.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 91\\nthree stresses, the rhymes also alternating. What slight\\ndepartures are there from this regularity\\nIn Meeting at Night the first stanza paints in a\\nvery few words the evening landscape. The language\\nis perfectly straightforward and simple, breaking only\\nonce into the simile of the waves that leap in fiery\\nringlets. There is also sufficient action in it to indi-\\ncate the situation in the second stanza the scene is\\nsketched still further but loses itself in the climax of\\nthe situation. Is there any imagery at all in the\\nsecond stanza The background of sea-waves seems\\nto be suggested in this poem by the arrangement of\\nthe rhymes, the crest of the w^ave being in the middle\\nof the stanza, where the couplet occurs. In each\\nstanza there is also a climax of motion in these two\\nlines which dies away in the first in the quenching of\\nthe speed of the boat and in the second in the\\nsilent beating of two hearts. The lines all have four\\nstresses preceded sometimes by one, sometimes by\\ntwo unaccented syllables. Is there any regularity in\\nthe alternations of one and two short syllables There\\nare two places where two accented syllables come\\ntogether, in line i and line 10. In the first instance,\\ngray sea, it seems to add breadth to the picture\\nbecause of the longer time it takes to say it, while in\\nthe second instance emphasis is added.\\nPoint out the variations from the first two stanzas\\nin the third, Parting at Morning.\\nIn Song there is hardly any imagery. The\\nlover emphasizes his feeling through his admiration of\\nthe beloved one s golden tresses, an emblem of her\\nnature, which he declares is pure gold. Notice also that\\nthis lyric is not addressed to his lady, but to the people\\nwho do not love her, and whom he challenges to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0125.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "92 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwitness her worth. The lines have four stresses, the\\nfirst four in stanza i having the unaccented syllable\\nfollowing the accented one, and the last two having\\nthe unaccented syllable followed by the accented one.\\nThis results in giving the stanza four double rhymes\\nand two single rhymes. What variations do you ob-\\nserve in the second stanza\\nIn My Star, the expression all through is sym-\\nbolical, the beloved one being compared with a star, and\\nthis star being further particularized as like an angled\\nspar. For full explanation of this simile see notes to\\nthe poem in Camberwell Brozvn mg, Vol. IV., p. 377.\\nWhat other things is the Star compared with? In\\neach of these similes a different aspect of the beloved\\none s nature is pictured. Is there a mixed metaphor\\nin the last hne\\nThe first eight lines of this poem have two stresses\\nand the last five have four stresses. In the first and\\nthird the accented syllables are at the beginning and\\nthe end of the line. In the second and fourth, the\\nfirst accented syllable is preceded by two and the\\nsecond accented syllable is preceded by one unaccented\\nsyllable. This produces a pleasing secondary rhythm.\\nThe four following lines are accented in the same way.\\nIn the other lines the accented syllables are sometimes\\npreceded by one and sometimes by two unaccented\\nsyllables. Is there any regularity in this irregularity\\nforming a secondary rhythm similar to that noticed in\\nthe shorter lines Notice the distribution of the\\nrhymes and especially how the shorter lines and the\\nlonger lines are linked together by a rhyme in\\ncommon.\\nMisconceptions resembles My Star in the\\nsymbolism of the language. The thought is pre-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0126.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 93\\nsented in the first stanza symbolically, and in the\\nsecond one the same thought is interpreted. The\\nlines in this poem have three stresses, except the last\\ntwo^ which have four. The first line begins with a\\nstress and is followed with two short syllables, the\\nsecond accented syllable is also followed by two unac-\\ncented syllables, but the third by only one, these two\\nmaking the rhyme. Are there any variations from these\\narrangements of accents in any of the other four stressed\\nlines Line 6 has four stresses, the accented syllable be-\\ning followed by two unaccented syllables except at the\\nend of the line, where it is followed by only one un-\\naccented syllable. Is there any variation from this in\\nthe other longer lines The rhymes in this poem\\nare all double with only two to each stanza.\\nIn **One Way of Love, each stanza gives a little\\ndifferent phase of the thought with different symbolism.\\nRoses the lover had strewn for a month, merely with\\nthe chance that they might take his lady s eye. Then\\nfor many months he had striven to perfect his music,\\nhoping she might ask him to sing. Then, in the last\\nstanza, the climax of devotion is reached and at the\\nsame time the climax of renunciation. Is the lan-\\nguage in this poem at all figurative The rhythm is\\nregular almost all through, the only breaks being in\\nthe fifth line of each stanza, where the line begins and\\nends with an accented syllable. Also the sixth line of\\nthe third stanza begins with an accent. The rhymes\\nare also regular, every stanza being made up of three\\nrhymed couplets.\\nIn Love in a Life and Life in a Love is the\\nexpression more symboHstic than realistic Point out\\nany examples you may find of figures of speech in\\nthese two lyrics. Notice that the rhythm of these is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0127.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "94 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nvery irregular. The first three lines each have two\\nstresses occurring in different places in each line in\\nI, the first and last syllables have the stress in 2, the\\nsecond and last syllables have the stress in 3, the\\nthird and sixth have the stress. Notice the variety\\nin the distribution of short syllables in these three\\nlines, resulting in which one having the most syllables?\\nAll the remaining lines have fiDur stresses. In 4, the\\nsyllables with a stress are the first, third, sixth, and\\nninth in 5, the first, fourth, seventh, ninth in 6,\\nthe first, fourth, seventh, ninth in 7, the third, sixth,\\nninth, eleventh in 8, the second, fifth, eighth,\\neleventh. What variations in the distribution of\\nshort syllables result from this Do you- discover\\nany recurring rhythm in the irregularities either within\\nthe stanza or in comparing the two stanzas with each\\nother The rhyme scheme is also quite complicated,\\nthe first three lines rhyming respectively with the last\\nthree, the first two being single and the third a double\\nrhyme. Then, the two remaining lines in the middle\\nof the stanza rhyme together with a double rhyme.\\nWith so much irregularity of rhythm it might be sup-\\nposed that the effect would be that of prose rather\\nthan poetry, but it will be found when read that the\\nrhythm is smooth and harmonious. Life in a Love\\nhas still other irregularities. It begins and ends with\\nthree lines rhymed together, each of which has but\\none stress. All the remaining lines have four stresses\\ndistributed as follows: 4, second, fourth, sixth, eighth\\nsyllables 5, second, fifth, eighth, ninth 6, first,\\nthird, sixth, eighth 7, third, fifth, eighth, tenth\\n8, second, fifth, seventh, ninth 9, second, fifth,\\neighth, tenth; 10, third, fifth, eighth, tenth; 11,\\nsecond, fifth, eighth, tenth; 12, third, fifth, seventh.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0128.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 95\\nninth; 13, second, fourth, sixth, ninth i i/}., second,\\nfifth, eighth, tenth; 15, third, fifth, seventh, ninth;\\n16, second, fourth, seventh, ninth 17, second, fourth,\\nseventh, ninth 18, second, fifth, seventh, ninth 19,\\nthird, fifth, eighth, tenth. The rhymes are arranged\\nin groups of four, the first and second group have the\\nfirst and fourth hnes rhyming together, and the second\\nand third the two remaining groups have the first and\\nthird, second and fourth lines rhyming.\\nNatural Magic is another example of the symbol\\nbeing presented in the first stanza, and the feeling it\\nillustrates in the second stanza. Aside from this larger\\nsymbolism, is the language of the second stanza entirely\\nreahstic, or is the thought in this presented by means\\nof poetic figures The verse in this has three stresses\\nto the first, second, and last lines of the stanzas, and\\nfour to all the other lines. The general structure of\\nthe stanzas is that of an accented syllable preceded by\\ntwo unaccented syllables, but the variations are numer-\\nous for example, in line i, the first syllable has an\\naccent and the last has not; in lines 2 and 3, the first\\naccented syllable is preceded by only one unaccented\\nsyllable the rest of the line is regular. Line 4 is\\nregular, but 5, again, has only one unaccented syllable\\nat the beginning. 6 has an extra unaccented syllable\\nto end with. 7 and 8 both begin with only one\\nunaccented syllable and end with an extra unaccented,\\nand 9 is like i except that it, too, begins with one\\nunaccented syllable. Point out any variations from\\nthis you may find in the second stanza. The rhymes\\nin this poem have quite a complex arrangement,\\nI and 6 rhyme together with a double rhyme, and\\nbetween these is a quatrain of which the first and\\nfourth rhyme together and the second and third are", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0129.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "96 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsingle. Then line 6 forms with the remaining three\\nanother quatrain of which the first and fourth, second\\nand third lines rhyme, all double rhymes.\\nIn Magical Nature, how is the thought pre-\\nsented, in poetic figures or realistically Observe\\nthat rhyme and rhythm are both very simple in this\\nlittle poem, though even here there is some variation.\\nFor example, in the first stanza, lines i and 3 have\\nsix stresses, and 2 and 4 have seven while in the\\nsecond stanza, i and 4 have six, and 2 and 3 seven.\\nIn the second stanza, also, there is a single rhyme instead\\nof double rhymes between the second and fourth lines.\\nWhat irregularity in the metre results from this Is\\nthere any other irregularity in the metre\\nThe little lyric which makes the prologue to Two\\nPoets of Croisic, presents the thought in three differ-\\nent symbols, each more intense than the preceding\\none, and only in the very last line in the simple phrase\\n**That was thy face does it become apparent that it\\nis a love lyric. The rhythm consists of three and two\\nstresses. Line i has three, on the first, fourth, and\\nsixth syllables; 2, on the first and fourth 3, on the\\nfirst, fourth, and sixth and 4, on the first and fourth.\\nThe other stanzas are exactly the same, but it is to be\\nnoticed that the quantity of the unaccented syllable\\nstarved is so much greater than the other unac-\\ncented syllables in the first stanza that it has a very\\nstrong secondary accent, so much of a one, indeed,\\nthat if the form were not set by the other stanzas, it\\nwould seem more natural to scan this line as if it had\\nfour instead of three stresses. In this case the line\\nwould consist of two feet made up of an unaccented\\nsyllable between two accented syllables. Also in the\\nthird line of the third stanza, God s has a strong", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0130.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 97\\nsecondary accent, so strong that the line taken alone\\ncould just as well be scanned as having three stresses\\npreceded by three unaccented syllables. Yet the rhythm\\nof the whole poem is better preserved by scanning it\\nlike the other three stressed lines. The rhyme scheme\\nhere is perfectly simple.\\nIn Wanting is What the symbolism is so mys-\\ntically expressed that opinions differ as to the interpreta-\\ntion, as we have already seen. Aside from its larger\\nsymbolism, is the language of the poem figurative or\\nmetaphorical The rhythm is interesting from the\\nregularity of the irregularity. The first line of two\\nstresses, with two unaccented syllables between, sets\\nthe pattern for the rest of the stanza, every line of\\nwhich, through line i i, begins with the same arrange-\\nment of syllables. From line 5, through line 10,\\ntwo more stresses are added, with sometimes one,\\nsometimes two unaccented syllables preceding. Point\\nout these variations, also the lines where unaccented\\nsyllables are added at the end making double rhymes.\\nThe last three lines vary from the other short lines in\\nwhat way r Observe the arrangement of rhymes.\\nWhat peculiarities of rhyme and rhythm do you\\nobserve in Never the Time and the Place farther\\nthan that the lines vary in the number of stresses,\\nsome having four, some three, some two\\nQuery for Discussion. Is the beauty of these lyrics\\ndue almost entirely to the variety and harmony of\\ntheir rhythmical music, or is it helped on by alliteration\\nand choice of words\\nOn the whole, the Ferishtah s Fancies lyrics are\\nrealistic in language, though there are exceptions.\\nPoint out all the poetic symbols and images you may\\nobserve. The rhythm of these will be found to be\\n7", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0131.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "98 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmore regular than that of the lyrics so far considered.\\nRound us the wild creatures has six stresses, ex-\\ncept lines 4 and i 2, which have seven. The unac-\\ncented syllables follow the accented ones except at\\nthe end of the lines. The only other variation to be\\nnoted is the changing of places, in line i of the second\\naccented and unaccented syllables. Wish no word\\nunspoken has lines of six and seven stresses, 2, 5,\\nand 6 having seven, the relation of the accented to\\nthe unaccented syllables being the same as in the pre-\\nceding lyric. You groped your way across my\\nroom has seven stresses, the unaccented syllable\\npreceding the accented syllable. Do you observe any\\nirregularities at all in this Man I am and man\\nwould be has eight stresses, with the unaccented\\nsyllable following the accented syllable. So the\\nhead aches has four stresses to the line, with consid-\\nerable variation in the placing of the unaccented syl-\\nlables. For example, in line i the first, fourth,\\nseventh, ninth have the accent in 2 the first, fourth,\\nsixth, ninth in 3 the third, fifth, eighth, tenth\\nin 4 the first, fourth, sixth, eighth. Show what\\nother differences there are in the other stanzas.\\nWhen I vexed you has three stresses, preceded\\nsometimes by one, sometimes by two unaccented\\nsyllables. Observe also that there is sometimes an\\nextra unaccented syllable at the end of the Hne.\\nOnce I saw a chemist has six stresses to all the\\nlines but the last of each stanza, which has seven.\\nThe unaccented syllables follow the accented ones,\\nwith a few exceptions to be noted. Verse-making\\nwas least of my virtues has five stresses, with some-\\ntimes two, sometimes one unaccented syllable preced-\\ning. Line 2 is perhaps the hardest line in the poem", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0132.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS 99\\nto scan, but it will be found to run quite smoothly\\nif the accents are placed upon the third, sixth, ninth,\\ntwelfth, and fifteenth syllables. Notice that in this\\nline there are two unaccented syllables to every ac-\\ncented one. Are there any other lines similar to this\\none There is a slight variation in the printing of\\nthis poem in the nine-volume and latest two-volume\\nEnglish edition. The dwiberw ell Browning follows\\nthe latter, and prints the phrases And made verse\\nand I made love as part of the fourth line in each\\nstanza. Printed so, it simply adds another foot to the\\nline, which then has an internal rhyme. But in the nine-\\nvolume English edition, these phrases are printed in\\na line by themselves, and in that case each syllable\\nwould have a stress. Which seems to you the prefer-\\nable way of printing and scanning it\\nNot with my soul, love has five stresses, usually\\npreceded by a short syllable, though many of the lines\\nbegin with a stress which is followed by a short syl-\\nlable, thus bringing two short syllables together see\\nlines I, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10. The last line has but two\\nstresses, on the first and last syllables. Ask not one\\nleast word of praise has four stresses, with unac-\\ncented syllable following, the line ending, however,\\nwith an accent. Do you note any irregularines at all\\nin this poem\\nThe Epilogue varies in the number of stresses,\\nfor example, in the first stanza line i has five, fol-\\nlowed by an unaccented syllable; 2 has six, 3 has\\nsix, 4 has seven. Of the other stanzas, the second\\nhas: line i,six; 2, six 3, six; 4, seven. Third,\\nfourth, fifth, sixth, seventh stanzas i, six 2, seven;\\n3, six 4, seven.\\nNotice the various effects in the rhyming of these", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0133.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "lOO BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nlyrics and compare with the preceding group in regard\\nto their complexity.\\nOf the remaining lyrics, Now has four stresses\\nto the line. Poetics is somewhat irregular. In\\nthe first stanza, the stresses, in line i, fall on the first,\\nfourth, sixth, eighth, tenth syllables in 2, on the\\nfirst, fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, twelfth, fourteenth\\nin 3, on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh\\nin 4, on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh,\\nand thirteenth. In the second stanza, the stresses fall,\\nin line i, on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, sylla-\\nbles in 2, on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth,\\neleventh syllables in 3, on the first, third, fifth,\\nseventh, ninth, eleventh in 4, on the first, third, fifth,\\nseventh, ninth, eleventh. Summum Bonum has\\nlines of five stresses preceded by two unaccented syl-\\nlables, and lines of three stresses with sometimes one,\\nsometimes two unaccented syllables between. A\\nPearl, a Girl has four stresses, sometimes preceded by\\none, sometimes by two unaccented syllables. Point\\nout the variations.\\nThe sonnet form is used only occasionally by\\nBrowning, and from the irregularity of the stresses in\\nEyes, calm beside thee, it is evident that his muse\\nwas restive under its bonds. It is true that there are\\nfourteen lines and each line has five stresses, but the\\nshort syllables are varied in the poet s usual free\\nmanner, and the rhymes in the octette do not follow\\nthe prescribed order at all. Point out how it differs\\nfrom the usual sonnet form.\\nQueries for Discussion. Where the symbolism\\nin these poems is drawn from nature is it vague and\\ngeneral rather than special\\nWhat is its character when drawn from science", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0134.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "A GROUP OF LOVE LYRICS lOi\\nHow many different kinds of symbolism do you\\nobserve, and which kind predominates\\nFrom this study of the workmanship of these lyrics\\nshould you conclude that Browning could not write a\\nlyric, as some critics have said, or that his lyrics really\\nhave a more organic music than most other poets have\\nbeen able to compass\\nDoes this result from the fact that the liberties he\\ntakes in the distribution of accented and unaccented\\nsyllables make it possible for him to combine fre-\\nquently the sense accent with the rhythmical accent\\nat the same time that he escapes the wrenched accents\\nso likely to occur in strict rhythm If he has any\\nwrenched accents point out whether they are upon\\nweak syllables or whether strong syllables are left with-\\nout an accent, and discuss which produce the more\\nunpleasant effect.\\nCould it be said that, since a sense accent never falls\\non a weak syllable, a rhythmical accent on a weak\\nsyllable is more unpleasant than no accent on a strong\\nsyllable, when it has, as frequently, no sense accent", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0135.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "Portraits of Husbands and Wives\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nBy the Fireside iv 87 377\\nAny Wife to Any Husband iv 98 378\\nMy Last Duchess iv 143 384\\nThe Flight of the Duchess iv 219 393\\nThe Statue and the Bust iv 265 396\\nJames Lee s Wife v 132 303\\nFifine at the Fair ix 68 288\\nA Forgiveness ix 227 303\\nBad Dreams xii 204 365\\nBeatrice Signorini xii 229 370\\nCompare with these, Charles and Polyxena in King Victor\\nand King Charles, i. 237, 3275 Andrea del Sarto, v, 36,\\n284 5 Guido and Pompilia, Pietro and Violante, in The Ring and\\nthe Book, vi., vii. 5 the new Alkestis and Admetos, in Conclusion\\nto Balaustion s Adventure, viii. 80, 289 5 Doctor ix.\\n213, 321 Adam, Lilith, and Eve, ix. 246, 327 the duke and\\nthe druggist s daughter in Parleying with Daniel Bartoli, xii.\\n89, 326.\\nI. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Situation and the Characters.\\nHhits The story each of these poems has to tell\\nis, how the various characters are placed with reference\\nto the different situations they face. Their ways of\\nmeeting these situations reveal their nature. For\\ngeneral summaries of the subject-matter, see Camber-\\nzvell Browni?igy Notes, as cited above.\\nThe husband in By the Fireside imagines a\\nsituation he will have to meet when he is an old", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0136.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 103\\nman left alone by the younger generation. The\\nsituation he anticipates is sketched realistically in\\nstanzas i. and ii., so that we see him, by the fire,\\nsteadily turning the pages of an old Greek book hear\\nthe shutters flap in the November wind-skurries,\\nand the youngsters cautiously planning to steal out\\nwhile he is so absorbed. But stanza i. prepares us to\\nunderstand that this is only the frame of an external\\nsort of portrait. It is the soul s ripe autumnal hue,\\nand the music of her voices with which he is planning\\nto solace himself in life s November. It is an inward\\nportrait of himself that he will draw, in the act of\\nmentally realizing what his love for his wife and hers\\nfor him have meant.\\nThe Greek he pictures himself as deep in (stanza\\niii.) is, as he explains in stanzas iv. and v., but an\\noutside frame for an inside archway, a network of\\nimpressions and recollections opening a wide vista\\nthrough his hfe from age to youth and Italy. He\\npasses on through this to live his love over again,\\nbeginning more externally in descriptive first impres-\\nsions of out-door scenes enjoyed together in Italy\\n(stanzas vii. to xx.); then more and more internally\\npenetrating in the remainder of the poem to the signi-\\nficance to them of their joint emotions, to be realized\\nin old age, as these first impressions of the earlier part\\nof their day out-doors together were ripened for them,\\nat second view, on their return, in the evening.\\nNotice that stanzas xxi.-xxx. introduce this second\\ndivision of more introspective reminiscence with an\\napostrophe to his wife and the blest old age to which\\nsuch youth must lead. Then stanza xxxi. takes up\\nthe theme, dropped in stanza xx., of the bird there\\nspoken of, with a noonday picture of it sdlled by the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0137.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "I04 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmenace of two hawks. Stanza xxxii. rapidly takes\\nhis memory to afternoon, and the growing silence and\\nsignificance of evening. Stanzas xxxiii.\u00e2\u0080\u0094 xlvi. review\\nthe home-return and its feelings xlvii. presents the\\nclimax of emotion xlviii. links this with the out-door\\ninfluence and, finally, xhx.-liii. sum up this love\\nexperience as the potency for the distinctive fruitage\\nof his soul henceforth.\\nDiscuss further the descriptions, allusions, and anal-\\nogies employed. Do you think he was thinking,\\nliterally, of a learned book, or of that as a symbol of\\nthe volume of experiences age collects Is the book\\nreally, then, to be all prose, no verse or is he play-\\nfully seeing himself as others see him, especially\\nas children look upon an old man, as if for him the\\nromance of life is over, while he means to show it is\\nenhanced For information as to localities, the relation\\nof these with Mr. and Mrs. Browning, allusions, etc.,\\nsee Camberwell Brownmg. What idea does the\\npoem give you of the man personally, as to his sensi-\\nbility, observation of nature, culture, and character\\nWhat do you gather as to the woman\\n\u00c2\u00ab*Any Wife to Any Husband is a counterpart\\nportrait of a wife who, like the husband of By the\\nFireside, cleaves to the love she has experienced with\\nonly the more intensity when life is ripe. The situa-\\ntion she is facing her approaching death comes\\nout in the first stanza (line 6). She apprehends,\\nalthough her husband would be equally absorbed in his\\nlove for her could she live, that now he will not be.\\nThe inner situation implied in this, considered with\\nreference to her own and her husband s character,\\noccupies her outpouring throughout the poem.\\nWherein her husband will fail in devotion comes out", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0138.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 105\\nhow, in lines 7-24 Does she claim that his stead-\\nfastness is due merely to her personal charm Still,\\nher desire that his fidelity perfectly correspond with\\nher own ideal of love for them both bursts out again\\nin lines 25-33. In lines 34-48 what praise does she\\nagain give him, and what does this tell you of his\\ncharacter Finally (lines 49\u00e2\u0080\u009478), she expresses\\njust what the further point of view is which she\\nexclaims against with passion again (79-102), uphold-\\ning her own point of view, in stanzas xviii. and xix.,\\nmaintaining that he could do as much or more, in the\\ntwo following stanzas until with the last half-line of\\nthe poem she rises to a climax of desire for this and\\ndoubt of it. How far does the poem reveal the\\ncharacter of this wife and husband Is it a less objec-\\ntive portrait of the two than that given in **By the\\nFireside Why\\nWhat reason can you give to justify the guess that\\nthe first poem is a sort of dramatization of Browning\\nas a husband, and his point of vievv^ and the second a\\nsort of dramatization of Mrs. Browning, not neces-\\nsarily as his own wife, but as a type of such a\\nwoman s point of view\\nMy Last Duchess, The Flight of the\\nDuchess, and The Statue and the Bust belong\\ntogether in portraying husbands and wives whose\\nenvironment is not modern, as that of the two fore-\\ngoing poems is. They are all almost medieval.\\nEven the portraits of Guido and Pompilia in The\\nRing and the Book are appropriate to a period when\\nthe legal or generally accepted views of a husband s\\nauthority over a wife had become somewhat more\\nquestionable.\\nThe Flight of the Duchess, though it probably", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0139.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "lo6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nbelongs in its setting to a later time and a northern\\ncountry, Germany, ranks with the first two Italian\\npoems because of the mediaevalism affected by the\\nhusband, against which the Duchess revolted. The\\nsituation, accordingly, in all these poems is alike,\\nbeing largely created by exactions of the husband\\nenforced in a way foreign to the conditions allowable\\nbetween modern husbands and wives. The situations\\nsketched lie, therefore, in a more physical plane than\\nin the first two poems. In My Last Duchess,\\nfor example, instead of a situation created as in By\\nthe Fireside out of the husband s claim that the\\nlove experience of youth is spiritually fulfilled in old\\nage, or out of the wife s claim, in the following poem,\\nthat only absolute fidelity after the death of the wife\\nsuits the ideal beauty of a supreme love, is a situation\\nso far removed from these that it consists in a hus-\\nband s arranging with an envov for a successor to the\\nwife he had ordered should die. All that is involved\\nin this situation comes out in the course of this interview.\\nWhile exhibiting his last wife s portrait to this envoy,\\nthis husband shows her nature and his own, how\\nNotice that you gather at once, since he speaks of the\\npainting as that of his last Duchess looking as if she\\nwere alive, that she is now dead also, that he is a\\ncollector and appreciator of art that the two men are\\nstanding, since he invites the visitor to sit, etc. that\\nhe is sensitive now, and has been, to the admiration his\\nwife s beauty excites, since he warns his visitor, **by\\ndesign, that the artist was a monk, and then launches\\nout in details of resentment against the Duchess for\\nbeing of so gladsome a temperament that she showed\\ninterest in more than himself; that he was so proud\\nand taciturn in his demands that to order her death", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0140.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 107\\nwas the only way to maintain them. Observe the\\nthreatening effect, after this explanation, of the repe-\\ntition of his first words, There she stands as if\\nalive. How do you learn that the visitor has been\\nsitting during all the talk What other picturesque\\ndetails come out in the remaining lines to complete the\\nhusband s character and illustrate the situation\\nThe situation and the characters ot the husband and\\nwife in The Flight of the Duchess agree in\\nimportant respects with those in the preceding poem.\\nWherein do they differ, and in what are they alike\\nThe situation is made clear by one speaker, also\\nbut he is not a prominent personage in the story,\\nas in the other poem; and observe how many more\\npersonages are involved in the story, and how many\\nmore details and side-lights can and do come out,\\nbecause an observer, this huntsman, closely allied to\\nthe household, is telling the tale to a trusted friend.\\nShow how the situation is presented, so that the\\ncountry, the father and the mother of the present\\nDuke, the circumstances that led to the son s affecta-\\ntion of mediasvalism, the conventionalisms he intro-\\nduced, the wife he chose, the way she came to the\\ncastle, her nature and looks, her husband s notions of\\nwifely propriety, their effect on the bride, and finally\\nthe surprising events that followed are related with\\nfamiliarity and vividness: the hunt the coming of\\nthe Gipsies, the peculiar character and habits of\\nthe Northland Gipsies, and especially of the Gipsy\\ncrone her interview, first with the Duke, then\\nwith the Duchess her incantation and its effect, and\\nhow much of this and under what circumstances he,\\nthe story-teller, overheard or otherwise knew what\\nhappened when he came to himself, and how he", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0141.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "io8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhelped the two off on horseback and, last of all,\\nhow the thirty years since he last set eyes on the\\nDuchess have passed at the castle, and under what\\ncircumstances he is disburdening himself of the whole\\nstory, confessing his cherished loyalty to the runaway\\nDuchess and his scorn of his master the Duke.\\nHow does the poem lead you to explain the char-\\nacters of this husband and wife To account for\\nthe effect of the Gipsy s song upon Jacynth, the hunts-\\nman, the Gipsy herself, and the Duchess To\\ndelight in the flight that followed\\nAre the huntsman s final words, at the last line\\nof the poem, a fair summing up of the characters\\nand the situation What idea does his story-telling\\ngive of his own character Of his relations with\\nJacynth\\nThe relations of the husband and wife are not the\\nmain concern in The Statue and the Bust but\\nthe situation grows out of these, and through it we\\nget a glimpse of the husband s character as well as of\\nthe wife s, what sort of claims he makes upon her,\\nand how he enforces them, and how they do not, in\\nthis case, lead to the wife s flight. Show, in detail,\\nhow the whole story is brought out in narration of\\nwhut the Florentines tell about the statue, by giving\\ndramatically what the lady said, what the bridesmaids\\nsaw and whispered, what the Duke said and looked,\\nfelt and perhaps expressed the efl^ect of their inter-\\nview on the bridegroom s talk and action, and of this\\non the lovers desires, talk, and inaction and show,\\nfinally, how the poet s comment on their letting I\\ndare not wait upon I would applies to the situation\\nand the characters, remembering that the inquiry at\\nthis time is not to discuss the moralitv of his com-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0142.jp2"}, "143": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 109\\nment, but merely to get what is expressed in its rela-\\ntion to the story and the characters.\\nModern characters and a situation of a merely\\nspiritual kind between the husband and the wife\\nrelate James Lee s Wife with the iirst two\\npoems of this series rather than with those just re-\\nviewed. The lyrical treatment brings out the situa-\\ntion, which is merely the recognition by the wife\\nof the husband s estrangement, and presents the\\ncharacters of the two, through the emotional expres-\\nsion of the wife s love, in much the same manner as\\nin Any Wife to Any Husband. What are the\\ndifferent moods of the wife; and what do they tell\\nyou of the place where they are of herself, her\\nlove, her mind and tastes and development and of\\nher husband s nature In IV. Along the Beach\\nand IX. On Deck more comes out than in\\nthe other divisions of the poem as to her husband s\\npoint of view and personality and her own personal\\nappearance. What do you gather as to these How\\ndo you account for the extreme harshness of her refer-\\nence to her own hair and skin in stanza viii. of On\\nDeck Is this to be taken literally Notice how\\nthe sub-titles of the different divisions, At the\\nWindow, By the Fireside, etc., give a stage set-\\nting that suggests the terms of her expression. Might\\nthese similes as to her hair and skin be suggested by\\nthe cargo of the boat, logs and bales of hair, that\\nmay be imagined as piled near by her on the deck of\\na French coaster, or is it better to attribute these\\nsimiles to overstatement belonging to her characteristic\\nintensitv\\nA Forgiveness and Beatrice Signorini are\\ncounterpart pictures, in so far as both show how a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0143.jp2"}, "144": {"fulltext": "lie BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncertain type of husband and a certain type of wife\\nresented and treated an indulgence of their spouses in\\na superficial affair. The jealousy and pride of the\\nhusband of A Forgiveness leads to actual violence\\nagainst both the wife and her lover while that of\\nthe wife, Beatrice Signorini, leads her to a deed\\nof violence, less tragic but more effective, against the\\nrival s portrait. But point out the many differences,\\nboth in the manipulation of the story (which, in the\\none case, is through the medium of the husband s\\nmonologue giving his point of view, and in the other,\\nthrough the poet s narrative giving all points of view)\\nand in the elements entering into the jealousy and\\nthe differences in the characters of the three persons\\nin each poem.\\nContrast the rivals, particularly the insignificance\\nof the man in A Forgiveness, the superiority of\\nArtemisia and the effect of this difference.\\nIs jealousy the motive of the husband s act in A\\nForgiveness Why then did he wait to punish his\\nwife, and why did he punish her at all when he did,\\nsince he had then learned that she really loved himself?\\nBut if jealousy had no part in his act, why did he stab\\nthe rival? Consider whether **A Forgiveness is\\nreally a poem of forgiveness or revenge, or both, or\\nwhether the title is satiric. Can that be said to be\\nforgiveness which finds satisfaction only in the death\\nof the person forgiven Is there anything to show\\nthat the husband regretted his action Ask where\\nthe husband is when he tells his story to whom he\\nrelates it what he was, did he hold his position\\nof honor or trust through worth or birth and in\\nwhat line do you infer it was? Did this husband\\nlove his wife at first, and was she at all justified in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0144.jp2"}, "145": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES III\\nresenting his living so much away from her What\\nlight does this throw on her character Why did\\nshe take the course of action he describes Was it\\nthrough her lack of love for him, or was he at fault,\\nor were circumstances to blame Do you admire the\\npride shown thereafter by both On which did this\\ntrial by silence bear harder Do you think the\\nwife s second confession (of the truth this time)\\ndeserved the reception it got What do you think\\nof the motives of this husband and wife Was either\\nof them justified in the action taken Did the\\nhusband recognize the lover from the first? Note\\nthe lines, or his who wraps Still plain I seem\\nto see! About his head The idle cloak; also,\\nany other references to the same effect. Do you\\nsuppose the lover became a monk to elude the hus-\\nband s vengeance, or do you think he may have gone\\ninto the monastery because his life was completely\\nbroken, through the incident with the wife What\\nwas the monk s fate at last, and did he deserve it?\\nThe situation which disturbs the relations of Elvire\\nand her husband, when they visit Pornic fair and\\nsee Fifine, is a conflict, in practice rather than in\\ntheory, between their points of view as to how com-\\npletely a supreme love should assert its spiritual\\nascendency over lesser attractions. With reference to\\nthe wife, how does her situation and point of view\\ndiffer from or agree with that of the other wives in\\nthe preceding poems The husband in character and\\npoint of view is much the same as the husband of\\nAny Wife to Any Husband. Although Elvire is\\nwalking by his side, instead of about to die, like the\\nwife in the earlier poem, it is to be noticed that she\\ngrows shadowy from time to nrne. ?nd especially at", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0145.jp2"}, "146": {"fulltext": "112 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe end of the poem, as seen through her husband s\\neyes that this is in accordance with the argument he\\nis carrying on, wherein he makes the wife considered\\nas a phantom judge herself considered as the real wife.\\nIn this way she partakes of the nature of that purely\\nspiritual side of love with which he identifies her, and\\nof the experimental side, also, through which she, too,\\nmust be judged.\\nFollow his talk, not in particulars, but in its general\\ntrend, throughout the poem, in order to see what his\\nargument setting forth the situation as he sees it\\namounts to then notice what his action is, and judge,\\ntaking him at his word, how it agrees or can be\\nreconciled with the argument. What do both argu-\\nment and action reveal, the first as to his culture\\nand habits, aesthetic sensibility and taste, ideals and\\naspiration the second, as to his will and character\\nFor example, the general trend of his argument\\nadmits that there is a love which is essential and\\nsupreme for each two who feel it, but that this is\\nspiritual and absolute and can only be known rela-\\ntively. It is recognized the more clearly through\\nthe development of the individual consciousness, and\\nthat is developed by means of sense in relations with\\nothers in actual life.\\nHis opening speeches (stanzas vi.\u00e2\u0080\u0094 xiii.) oppose\\nconventional life to Bohemianism, and strive to find\\nthe secret of Fifine s real value as an individual, in\\ncontrast with Elvire and the other types of women\\nhe instances (lines 149\u00e2\u0080\u0094909).\\nWhat has this to do with the argument Concede\\nthat it illustrates the worth of each individual soul, and\\nthat this worth may be perceived by every one despite\\nimperfection through sympathetic relationship still.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0146.jp2"}, "147": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 113\\ndoes he need to have taken care to prepare the way\\nfor his final action (see stanza cxxxii.) to prove to\\nhimself in this case what he accepts in general\\nElvire objects (stanza Ix., see especially lines 917\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\n922), showing her distrust of sense as really minis-\\ntrant to soul. Notice all the speeches attributed to\\nher, how. they reveal her character slightly and\\nincidentally, but throw suspicion on his, preparing the\\nreader for this final action of his as being just what\\nshe guesses will follow his good argument for en-\\nabling the intuitions of the soul to transcend sense.\\nDespairing of explanation, in words, of the in-\\ndefinite emotional appeal sense makes to soul as in\\nmusic (Ixi.), he turns to nature (Ixii. and foil.), and\\nthen (lines 1009-1 143) hkens the use of the false\\nor fleeting and relative in human attachments to attain\\nthe true and ultimate in human development to motion\\nthrough the unstable, as in swimming, so that progress\\nis made and the need for light and air met also.\\nElvire objects (Ixix.) that if development through\\nthe recognition of individual value were what he really\\ndesired, he would look for it in all men and not in\\nwomen only. He acknowledges (lines 1 1 54-1 1 55)\\nthat this parry shifts his argument from the general\\nto the particular test, i. e. not whether the reasoning\\nis good, but whether he is reasoning disinterestedly\\nand will apply it disinterestedly. To meet this he\\nclaims (1162-1371) that the materialism and selfish-\\nness of men are not qualified to educe growth as the\\nidealism and unselfishness of women are.\\nAgain Elvire is made to object that if this be so,\\nthere is no need of a Fifine to do him such service\\nless well than the Elvire he acknowledges best. To\\nwhich he rejoins that a poorer craft induces the more\\n8", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0147.jp2"}, "148": {"fulltext": "114 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nskill in the manager. The use of any means is\\nto attain a genuine aim. It is the attraction of art\\nthat it uses means towards an end, transcends its\\nprocesses, does not pretend to be absolutely, but in\\nsimulating the truth teaches what reality is (1372\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\n1529). So, in general, through the perception of\\nlife without pretence that it is absolutely true or per-\\nmanent, a sense of truth, of permanence in flux itself,\\nis evolved. This is exemplified widely, in a dream he\\ntells (1539\u00e2\u0080\u00942226), with reference to human nature\\nand social relations. (See digest of the poem in\\nCamberwell Browningy Notes, Vol. IX., p. 288, also\\npassages in Introduction, pp. xiii, xvi-xxi.)\\nDoes the conclusion that the ripe nature knows\\nthe ascendency of soul and the good of constancy in\\nlove accuse the husband of lack of development\\nBut is Elvire as developed as he Are her ideas of\\nmarried constancy the fruit of experience, or intuition,\\nor convention\\nBad Dreams gives expression alternately to a\\nwife s and a husband s mood in regard to each other,\\nat a time when some discord of mistrust, on his part,\\nand consciousness of it, on her part, has broken in on\\nthe harmony of their love. The under consciousness\\nof this seems to have come out in these dreams they\\nhave which they tell each other. The first is ap-\\nparently the wife s. What does it reveal of her secret\\nuneasiness as to her husband s brooding t Does it\\nseem to be an unconscious revelation of her soul t\\nAnd should you judge from it that her love was true,\\ndeep The second is chiefly the dream of the hus-\\nband which he tells her. From the opening stanzas\\naddressed to her, before telling the dream itself,\\nwhat idea do you get of his blaming her and being", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0148.jp2"}, "149": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 115\\nprimed to accuse her of the nameless evil he has but\\ndreamed about her, yet puts faith in superstitiously, as\\nif it were real How do you get this idea Is the\\ndream itself of the toil of men and women at a dance\\nwithout gayety a sign of a morbid mind as to the\\nrelations of men and women What is the dream\\nIs it specific enough to suggest what his quarrel with\\nher may be As to the charge itself, how does it\\nreveal him as still shaken and under the spell of the\\ndream Notice his break oif (line 62), and the\\nprotestation, first, that his respect shall stay firm, and\\nthen, that now she is there in the flesh she must explain,\\nand not object that it was merely a dream, etc. She\\nfollows this with another dream (lines 86-100).\\nDo you think its absurdity and inconsequence really\\ndreamlike Do her dream and her manner about\\nhis convince you of her innocency of heart and\\nmood Can you suppose it merely a clever turning\\noff of the inquisitory air he has shown Bad\\nDreams, III., is supposably the man s dream and is\\nsuggestive, but so very vaguely so, of personal rela-\\ntions or situations, that one may fancy what he\\npleases about it. How would you explain its con-\\ngruity with the other dreams, and with the situation\\nbetween these two Does the implied meaning,\\nsuggested in Camberwell Brozvni?ig, Notes, p. 366,\\nsuit, or can you think of something closer to the\\nfigure of forest and city becoming a curse to each\\nother? The last dream is obviously the wife s. Has\\nit the same whimsical quality her second dream had\\nOr has it rather the pathetic, almost heart- worn\\ncharacter her first one had What should you infer\\nfrom that of the genuineness or slight nature of her\\nlove What does it tell you of his And do you", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0149.jp2"}, "150": {"fulltext": "Ii6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthink her impression of him as revealed in this last\\ndream is worth more than his of her\\nQueries for Discussion. Do the varieties of char-\\nacter presented in these portraits of husbands and\\nwives differ distinctly from one another; or may they\\nbe classed, with slight differences, under a few gen-\\neral types How many such are there, and how\\nmany may be added, or classed with these, on com-\\nparison with the husbands and wives in King Victor\\nand King Charles, Andrea del Sarto, The\\nRing and the Book, the Parleying with Daniel\\nBartoli, etc. (see list before given)\\nDo the situations differ much; and how often do\\nthey arise from the desire of one or the other for ex-\\nclusive devotion, from a rival s attractions, or outside\\nsocial relations\\nIs the husband s point of view in the first poem,\\nor the wife s in the second, the finer, in that he is taken\\nup with his own fidelity and has nothing to say as\\nto hers, while she is concerned that his shall equal\\nhers Is it a token of elevated love to desire that the\\nloved one s return should be perfectly reciprocal, or is\\nthis inconsistent with a high degree of individual de-\\nvelopment of character\\nIs there room for doubt that the Duke of Ferrara\\nhad his last Duchess put to death He succeeded\\nand he seems to be proud of it, says Professor Corson\\nIntroduction to Browning, p. 87), *Mn shutting\\noff all her life currents and we must suppose\\nthat she then sank slowly and uncomplainingly away.\\nI gave commands certainly must not be un-\\nderstood to mean commands for her death. Again\\n(preface to third edition), he says he referred to\\nBrowning the divided opinion as to the meaning", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0150.jp2"}, "151": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 117\\nof this expression that the poet made no reply, for\\na moment, and then said, meditatively, Yes, I meant\\nthat the commands were that she should be put to\\ndeath, and then, after a pause, added as if the\\nthought had just started in his mind, Or he might\\nhave had her shut up in a convent. Is this ques-\\ntion of consequence aesthetically or historically, or\\nboth? See Symonds s Renaissance in Italy, Vol.\\nIII., chapter vii., for historical examples of such mar-\\nital commands. Which action best suits the character\\nof the Duke and the Duchess How does it agree\\nwith the Riccardi s imprisonment of his wife in The\\nStatue and the Bust (See The Statue and the\\nBust, a Parable, Poet-lorCy Vol. X., p. 398, for a\\nsimilar instance.)\\nIn The Flight of the Duchess can any explana-\\ntion be made upon natural grounds for the change in the\\nappearance of the Gipsy Queen which the teller of\\nthe story noticed Was the wife s attraction towards\\nthe Gipsies one of race, freedom from artificial re-\\nstraint, or of an emotional and happy natural life as\\nopposed to a cold and formal subordination\\nIs James Lee s wife unlovable Is it a defect in\\nJames Lee s character, or is it natural that he should\\ntire of intensity\\nFor whom do we feel the most sympathy, the\\ndeceived priest, the deceived husband, or the deceiv-\\ning wife of A Forgiveness Whose love is the\\nsincerest\\nIs the argument of Elvire s husband sophistical, or\\nis he insincere, or is his will weak, and his character\\ncruder than his intellect\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Relationship and its Possibilities.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0151.jp2"}, "152": {"fulltext": "Il8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nHifits Observe what the nature of the relationship\\nis between these husbands and wives, and test its value\\nfor them by noticing what it is actually capable of\\nfor each in developing them and making life worth\\nmore to them.\\nThe husband, in By the Fireside, supplies his\\nown estimate of his relationship with his wife and of\\nits infinitely expansible worth to him in making his\\nlife worth while. And the wife, in the second poem,\\nis so far in agreement with such an idea of the per-\\npetual worth of a supreme love that for her it is ca-\\npable of absorbing her whole heart but, if we take\\nher word for it, it is not capable of so absorbing her\\nhusband s. If for him the relationship were equally\\nabsorbing, even in her absence, her idea of all its capa-\\nbilities for both of them would have been met. Would\\nthis prove to be development equally for him Might\\nhe not claim, as Elvire s husband does, that there are\\nother relationships and points of view in life, and that\\nit is a question for each individual nature to ask as to\\nwhat educes its quality most effectively? Would the\\nidea held by the husband of By the Fireside have\\nsatisfied the craving of this type of wife, and would it\\ncarry out the utmost capability of the relationship\\nIs there an intenser strain in the idea of the relation-\\nship held by James Lee s wife What can you de-\\nrive from the poem as to James Lee s idea of their\\nrelationship Is there any justification of his ennui\\nsuggested, or was it akin to that of the hero of An-\\nother Way of Love\\nIs the husband of By the Fireside, in a still\\ncloser sense, a supplementary figure to the wife of Any\\nWife to Any Husband because he is trying to meet\\nsuch a wife s idea of the possibilities of their relationship", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0152.jp2"}, "153": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 119\\nCan you judge how far he is indebted to her for the\\ninitiation of the idea in which he shares Notice,\\nmoreover, that, as Browning paints him, he is antici-\\npating what he will do in an old age not yet actually\\nreached. Compare St. Martin s Summer as a\\npicture of what such a husband might feel in presence\\nof an attraction after his wife s death, although he\\nrecognized it to be of a lesser sort. Which con-\\nquered in that poem Is he actually ghost be-\\nreft, or does he only fear to be\\nWhich of the husbands in the remaining poems\\nare more Hke the husband of By the Fireside,\\nin their idea of their marriage relationship and its\\npossibilities and which are more like James Lee\\nIs there in any of Browning s work any double of\\nthe husband of the first poem to be found (except\\nby implication in One Word More, The\\nWall Prologue to Pacchiarotto, Never the\\nTime and the Place, and other such thinly veiled\\nautobiographical poems outside of the lovers,\\nsuch as Valence in Colombe s Birthday, Capon-\\nsacchi in The Ring and the Book, etc. What\\ninference do you draw from this as to Browning s\\nobservation of life\\nThe desire of *Any Wife, James Lee s wife,\\nand Elvire for evolving from the married relationship\\nits utmost possibilities for mutual devotion might be\\ncalled the desire for exclusive possession on the spirit-\\nual plane and so corresponding with the desire of\\nthe husbands of My Last Duchess, The Flight\\nof the Duchess, The Statue and the Bust, for\\ngetting out of the relationship all it was selfishly\\nworth to them, which might be called the desire for\\nexclusive possession on the physical plane.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0153.jp2"}, "154": {"fulltext": "I20 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs Beatrice Signorini to be classed with this group\\nof wives Or in what respects does her idea of\\nthe relationship and its possibilities diiFer from theirs?\\nIs Francesco s relationship with her the highest pos-\\nsible for him What does Browning s way of telling\\nof his attraction for Artemisia intimate as to the pos-\\nsibility for a relationship which would conduce to\\nRomanelli s higher development were he capable of\\nfitly responding?\\nDoes the husband of Bad Dreams in his sus-\\npiciousness and exactions belong with the husbands\\nwho are disposed to consider the married relationship\\nas a field for impressing their will upon others Com-\\npare his ideas of marriage with those of the husband in\\nGeorge Meredith s Modern Love, as examples of\\nthe survival of dominating egotism mixed with the\\nrefinement of a modern husband of more than ordi-\\nnary sensibility.\\nThe husband of A Forgiveness is especially\\ninteresting because he presents an apparent contra-\\ndiction. He seems to have high ideas at first of the\\npossibilities of the relationship between himself and\\nhis wife, to scorn jealousy of the vulgar sort, and\\nto have the purest grief awakened when he dis-\\ncovers his wife s disloyalty. But later, his coldness\\nand disdain, his refined cruelty of silence and of ven-\\ngeance, finally, when he learns that her error was\\ndue to misguided love for him, show him to be in\\nhis different way as bent upon asserting his preroga-\\ntives as the Duke of Ferrara.\\nIs it a token of the desire for spiritual ascendency\\nwhich the wife of By the Fireside has and the\\nwife of Any Wife to Any Husband wants to have,\\nthat the wife of A Forgiveness is hungry for", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0154.jp2"}, "155": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 121\\ngreater love and a more spiritual power over her\\nhusband, and seeks to arouse his physical passions\\nfrom the intellectual control to which they are subject\\nIn so doing she, as it were, divides the physical and\\nspiritual elements of her love, feeding thus a jealous\\nreaction, amounting almost to hatred, against the love\\nthat seemed to her too superior and self-contained to\\nbe love. Show the similar lack of balance on his\\npart in the sequel. Did he not criticise her love\\nalso, and turn judge and executioner because it was\\nnot what he would have it Did either develop a\\nhigher phase of love in the course of the poem\\nWhat should you say was the idea of their married\\nrelationship held by Elvire s husband; and what that\\nof its possibilities Do the two disagree somewhat,\\nhis idea of their relationship being that he holds a\\nsimilar right to that the Duke of Ferrara claimed,\\nto get out of that, and all other relations beside, what\\nhe wanted while his ideas of the possibilities of the\\nrelationship are almost as exalted as those of the\\nhusband of By the Fireside.\\nQueries for Discussion. What should you say\\nwas the basic difficulty in the relations between the\\nunhappy or semi-happy pairs portrayed in this series\\nof poems and what the firmer ground of union in\\n*\u00c2\u00abBy the Fireside\\nShakespeare makes lago say that love is a per-\\nmission of the blood. He writes in his Sonnets\\n(cxvi.) that it is an ever-fixed mark, the star\\nto every wandering bark, Love s not Time s fool,\\nthough rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle s\\ncompass come. By which criterion will the relation-\\nships in these poems best be judged, and which will\\nbe accounted as having the highest possibilities t", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0155.jp2"}, "156": {"fulltext": "122 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs it due to the increasing importance in these\\npoems of the woman as an active and intellectual\\npower in the relationship, instead of a passive and\\nmerely physical element, that the type of love repre-\\nsented in **By the Fireside is the highest? If the\\nwives in some of these poems be considered to\\ndesire to exercise a sort of spiritual despotism, can it\\nbe said of this that it is a benevolent despotism tending\\ntoward the development of the higher values of the\\nrelationship, while the physical despotism exercised in\\nfact by certain of the husbands is crushing to any\\nlife or happiness But would it be better still to\\nhave no despotism even of a benevolent variety in\\nthe relationship\\nDoes By the Fireside show the highest capability\\nof the related power and characters of the husband and\\nthe wife because the physical and spiritual elements\\nof love are fused\\nIII. Topic for Paper y Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nThe Artistic Intention.\\nHints: What do these poems reveal of the poet s\\ndesign and of the means used to attain it\\nThe first two poems are framed to express a signifi-\\ncant personal mood the second, as its title shows,\\nbeing intended also to be somewhat more than per-\\nsonal, to be typical of the wifely attitude. The title,\\nBy the Fireside, also reveals design. With its\\nimplications of the close of the year, of cold and\\ndarkness, it suggests the right atmosphere for this poem\\nof anticipated old age. Use is intentionally made,\\ntoo, of autumn s pleasant hue, its woodland fruits,\\nand crimson-splashed leafage to symbolize happy old\\nage. Notice all such symbols. Point out the adapta-\\ntion to the theme of the imagery of the book, the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0156.jp2"}, "157": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 123\\nyoungsters, the branch-work vista. The figure as to\\nthe branch- work is doubtless suggested by the\\nforegoing fancy of the youngsters going to the hazel\\nwood. Observe that he speaks in stanza v. of the\\noutside frame of the branch-work as hke the hazel-trees,\\nthe inside as less material and external, a rarer\\nsort pertaining to the world of mind. Notice the\\nmetaphoric reference to Italy in stanza vi. Is it a\\nhappy figure to use in a poem written in memory and\\npraise of a wife The imagery employed in the\\nnature descriptions is of what kinds The mill or\\niron forge that breaks solitude in vain (line 35) is\\nhumanistic, one may say, in its implication, this\\nbuilding with human interest being likened to a little\\ninterruption of nature s large stillness the thread\\nof water, all that finds its way through the obstruction\\nthe torrent has piled in its own course (hne 40), and\\nthe silver spear-heads (44) are figures borrowed\\nfrom the similar look of material objects. But the\\nsimile of the small ferns teeth (50) is both human-\\nistic in its source and objectively graphic in effect.\\nNotice the humanistic image in stanza xxxii. and so on.\\nAre any of the figures used in the passage in the\\npoem describing the natural beauty of the Italian\\nscene especially adapted to the larger symbolism of the\\npoem, like the first references to the season of the\\nyear as corresponding to life s November, etc.\\nThe small bird (151) that sings except at noonday,\\nwhen a pair of hawks threaten it, seems to signify\\nmore than usual. What does it suggest of the danger\\nto love s song in the high noon of life.? Compare\\nwith the hawk that stalks on the bough where the\\nbirds are quarrelling, in A Woman s Last Word\\n(lines 5-1 1 Observe, also, the tree with its one", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0157.jp2"}, "158": {"fulltext": "124 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nlast leaf hanging, to which he likens his sleeping heart\\n(lines 201-215). Is this symbolic, a pictorial\\nallusion fleetingly suggestive of a subtle feeling, but\\nnot to be tracked out in Hteral detail or is it as elabo-\\nrately allegorical as Mr. Nettleship makes it in the\\nfollowing curious passage **I, in that early autumn\\ntime of my brain, stood there like an old wood-god\\nworshipping a nymph changed to a tree. I knew\\nthere was no chance for me to gain any token of love\\nfrom that tree with its one precious leaf, by any act of\\nmy own. I was not in that summer prime\\nwhen I could take by force of brain what gifts I\\nwould. But the tree was good to me. At the slight\\nwind of my unexpressed mad longing, it unfastened its\\nleaf. In that moment you fulfilled my hope.\\nIs stanza Hi. a part of this husband s reminiscences,\\nor is it written from his present standpoint, while his\\nwife is still sitting opposite to him and before the\\nanticipated autumn comes Does the recurrence in the\\nlast stanza to ideas expressed in the opening stanza\\nrepeat it needlessly, or serve intentionally to set\\nthe poem in the frame of a plan carrying out the\\nthought\\nThe metre in which the poet makes the man ex-\\npress himself is a four-stressed line, generally iambic,\\ngrouped in stanzas of five verses alternately rhyming\\nthe fifth line is shorter, with but three stresses, rhyming\\nwith the initial rhyme, and closing the stanza percep-\\ntibly to the ear.\\nThe longer five-stressed line of the second poem\\nlends to the ardent tone of** Any Wife a much more\\nmelancholy cadence. In comparison the verse of\\nBy the Fireside, although pensive, almost dreamy,\\nis both cheerier and less suppressed. Notice the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0158.jp2"}, "159": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 125\\ndifferent stanza and rhyme scheme how infrequently\\nthe stress falls on the first instead of the second syllable\\nof the foot compared with the foregoing poem how\\nmuch simpler the imagery is. Is it less humanistic,\\nbut more complete in its similarity to the idea\\nEspecially observe the obvious fitness of the tomb\\nmetaphor (lines 103-114) and the perfect beauty of\\nit in all its adaptation to the mood expressed.\\nDoes this difference in the range of the imagery\\nbetween the two poems serve the purpose of portray-\\ning the personality of the two distinct sorts of poetic\\nmind here finding dramatic expression, the one\\ntending to be both more fleetingly allusive and human-\\nistic in its fancies, like Robert Browning the other\\nmore purely lyric, subjective, and spontaneous, like\\nElizabeth Barrett Browning f\\nThe three following poems are contrived so as to\\nbring out personality chiefly, also but to do this in\\na much more complex way, and in a way both dra-\\nmatically and metrically suited to the spokesman in the\\nfirst two, and to the general air of a Florentine legend\\nin the third of the stories. They each depict more\\npersons than one, and these not subjectively nor by\\nallusion merely, as in the foregoing poems, but objec-\\ntively in relationship with others and amid various\\nsurroundings both of a concrete and a historic sort.\\nFor example, show how the fresco-painted, bronze-\\nadorned palace-hall at Ferrara makes the right back-\\nground for the Duke s tell-tale talk with the Count s\\nenvoy and how the flowing, rarely end-stopped,\\nfive-stressed verse, couplet-rhyming yet never notice-\\nably obtruding the rhyme, seems to be in general\\naccord with the manner of such a spokesman as the\\none through whose eyes this bit of life is seen.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0159.jp2"}, "160": {"fulltext": "126 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nThe whole country, with its occupants of diverse\\ncallings and customs, the castle, household, stable,\\netc., stand behind the second poem. Several differ-\\nent sets of social relationship such as those between\\nthe Kaiser, the Duke and his huntsmen, the rude\\nNorthland, sophisticated Paris, and free gipsy life\\nadd their larger semi-feudal environment to the story.\\nAnd the medium through which it is all set forth the\\nrough yet ready, couplet, triplet, and alternate rhymed,,\\noften perilously double and obtrusively rhymed verse,\\nracy with hunting terms, and imagery of a homely\\nout-doors kind is adapted to suit the tongue of the\\nkeen-eyed gamekeeper who helps the Duchess to\\nescape, and whose kind heart is susceptible enough to\\nbe impressed with the gipsy incantation song, so that\\nhe could record it faithfully as he does, in a sustained,\\nsinging, smooth and simple rhymed line, strongly con-\\ntrasting in all other respects, except that the line is also\\nfour-stressed, with his own speech. Collect examples\\nof the hunting terms, the allusions to active life, the\\nproverbial expressions and the references, when they\\nare of a literary sort, to familiar folk stories, such\\nas Orson and Esau. Are there any allusions that do\\nnot suit the spokesman Study the effect of the\\nrhymes, and the contrast with the Gipsy s song. (See\\nPoet-lore, Rhymes in Browning, Vol. II. y Sept.\\n1890, pp. 480-486.)\\nIs the terza-rima of The Statue and the Bust\\nan appropriate metre for that Florentine legend\\nWhy What allusions and similes (see Camberwell\\nBrowningy Vol. IV., p. 397) are there in this poem\\nand can you trace any choice in them Does even\\nthe imagery of the conclusion which is separable\\nfrom the legend itself, as the townsmen tell it suit", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0160.jp2"}, "161": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 127\\nthe Italian setting Notice the soldier-saints of\\nline 222, and the very Guelph, 234, and show\\ntheir pertinence.\\nThese poems so far considered reveal artistic inten-\\ntion in their imagery and metrical structure, as well\\nas in the manipulation of the subject matter. Regarded\\nas wholes, do they reveal artistic intention in broader\\nways In all of these three poems the design of the\\npoet to recreate the life and spirit of the Renaissance\\nperiod in general, and in particular its crudities as to\\nmarried life, may be studied with reference to the\\nhistory of that important epoch which forms the\\nthreshold of modern civilization. (See Camberwell\\nBrow?ii?igy passages on these poems in Introduction,\\nVol. IV., pp. xiv and xv, for further general hints.\\nAs to Riccardi s imprisonment of his bride, and what\\nthe Duke s admiration of her might have meant for\\nhim, see Browning s The Statue and the Bust, a\\nParable, by Prentiss Cummings, Poet-lore, Vol. X.,\\nNo. 3, pp. 397-416.)\\nIn the second and third of these three poems, the\\nintention to make them illustrate moral evolution is\\nalso revealed directly. In the first of this group,\\nMy Last Duchess, moral intention is only re-\\nvealed indirectly. There is no trace of artistic ma-\\nnipulation of the story to make it suggest an inner\\nmeaning. In the others what traces are there of a\\nsort of moral symbolism And how is this presented\\nNotice that this symbolism consists, in The Flight\\nof the Duchess, in drawing a contrast between a\\nsapless, egotistical, and imitative manner of life, and\\none irradiated with the warmth and movement of love\\nand freedom, so that the question is not, Was the\\nDuchess justified in running away with the Gipsy", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0161.jp2"}, "162": {"fulltext": "128 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nOueen, but, rather, is the Duke s death in life\\ncompatible with any spiritual progress at all\\nThe Statue and the Bust has been accused of\\na didactic purpose instead of artistic moral symbolism.\\nBut in this poem, as in The Flight of the Duchess,\\nis the design which is revealed one that tends towards\\nthe illumination of a basic moral principle, and not\\none that directs one how to act in a given case (See\\nMr. Cummings The Statue and the Bust, as cited\\nabove.)\\nWhich of the remaining poems of this series reveal\\nartistic intention, both historically and morally, as these\\ntwo poems do\\nJames Lee s Wife shows artistic design in the\\nway in which various details of its allusions suit the\\nlyrical mood, such as the comparisons with the lake\\nand swan, the dell and dove (Part I. lines 15-20),\\nthe ship rotting in port (Part II. 19\u00e2\u0080\u009424), the\\nwater striped like a snake, the fig leaf like a hand (III.\\n3 and 10). Instance others. In this it is like the first\\ntwo poems of this series. It shows also, like By\\nthe Fireside, a larger and more complex use of meta-\\nphors to illustrate the situation and the subject as a\\nwhole. For example, the change of season as a sym-\\nbol of change in love is the keynote of the poem. It\\nis struck in the first two stanzas lightly it reappears\\nin Part III.; it deepens in significance, to denote the\\nchange in all things spiritual in Part VI. (51\u00e2\u0080\u009480), and\\nin Part VII. it is metamorphosed still further to sym-\\nbolize the spiritual harvest of joy the earth gets out of\\nchange, and in Part VIII. to suggest the inner spiritual\\nbeauty, in contrast to external beauty, that may be got\\nout of the use of life as it is, whether ideal and per-\\nfect or not. The metrical and scenic adaptation of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0162.jp2"}, "163": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES I 29\\nthe different parts to express the different moods of\\nthe wife is manifold. (See reference to this in Cam-\\nberwell Browfiing, Vol. V., Introduction, p. xxiii.)\\nBad Dreams may be compared with this poem as\\nhaving parts differently made, to suit the lyrical design\\nin metre and metaphor. But is it as rich as James\\nLee s Wife in these respects Ask if each part in\\nboth poems has a plan of its own what it is, what\\ndifferences may be observed in the number of stresses\\nto the line, the stanza form, and the relation of the\\ntitle of each part of James Lee s Wife to the im-\\nagery and the mood. Neither of these poems reveals\\neither the historic or moral sort of artistic intention\\nnoticed in the preceding group.\\nThere are few allusions in A Forgiveness to\\nplace its historic background definitely before us. The\\nnames of the maids (line 48), the allusion to Don\\nQuixote (97) and to the order of the Golden Fleece,\\na Bourbon decoration peculiar to the Courts of\\nMadrid and Vienna (195), warrant the acceptance of\\nit, however, as a dramatic portrait of a husband and wife\\nintended to be as typically Spanish, perhaps of the\\nseventeenth century, as My Last Duchess is of\\nNorthern Italy in the age of the Despots. Like My\\nLast Duchess, it depicts the power a husband of rank\\nexercised at pleasure or displeasure over his wife s life\\nand like it, also, it presents this tragic transcript of\\nhousehold manners in a completely colorless way, so\\nfar as moral intention is concerned and this is done,\\nas in the earlier poem, necessarily, because the in-\\ncident and the characters are made known through the\\nmouth of the husband himself. In his grim talk with\\nthe priest, the main intention is to show the inex-\\norable pride of the Spanish statesman s personality,\\n9", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0163.jp2"}, "164": {"fulltext": "130 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwhose softening towards his wife and the priest meant\\nsimply that, having come to feel less contempt for them,\\nhe did them the honor to hate and kill them in cruel\\nways, each artistically appropriate. Notice particu-\\nlarly the description in A Forgiveness of the\\narms of Eastern workmanship and its relation to\\nthe character of the main actor and his deed of ven-\\ngeance. Do you feel any sympathy with this hus-\\nband, and if so, why r Is it due to the poet that you\\nfeel any, and how Are his dignity and his power\\nof will to work, to restrain himself (notice espe-\\ncially lines 292-304) to attain his ends, qualities that\\nmost excite your respect for his character, or your\\nsense of pathos that such a man should indulge in so\\ndesolate a vengeance? Are you sad, the poet\\nseems to ask, through this man s words (line 390),\\nthe subtlest sort of artistic indirection, for whose sake\\nhers, or mine, or his Is the verse metrically, and\\nas to rhyme, the same as that of My Last Duchess\\nStudy the monologue-form of A Forgiveness with a\\nview to exhibiting the skill shown in revealing the\\ncharacters of all the actors, so far as they relate to the\\nincident given, through the mouth of a single speaker.\\nShould you say that in Fifine at the Fair the artis-\\ntic intention of the poet is richer and more complex\\nthan in any of the other poems of this series Has it\\nhistoric intention To what time does it belong,\\njudging by its allusions Notice lines 528\u00e2\u0080\u0094535,\\n551, 706, 1 107, 1588. Could these denote any\\nother background than the nineteenth century And\\nwould you place Elvire s husband himself, as he is\\nbrought out in point of view and character as well as\\nculture, anywhere else than in modern times May\\none not be sure that Fifine at the Fair will in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0164.jp2"}, "165": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 131\\nthe next century or so as certainly betray the artistic\\nintention of the poet to paint a distinctively modern\\nhusband contemporaneous with us of to-day as in\\n**My Last Duchess to paint a husband of the late\\nRenaissance period\\nStill another sort of artistic intention revealed\\nthrough Hterature instead of history belongs to this\\npoem. Its motto from Moliere s Don Juan in-\\ndicates that the poet s design in writing the poem was\\nto take up the Don Juan theme in a way specially\\nsuited to meet the spiritual instead of the merely physi-\\ncal side of marriage generally brought forward. And\\nthis design is reinforced by the employment through\\nallusion of the interpretation by Euripides of the great\\nGreek marriage myth of Helen. (See, upon this\\nliterary evidence of artistic intention, passages in Cam-\\nberzuell Brow?ii?igy Vol. IX., pp. xv\u00e2\u0080\u0094 xviii). There\\nis in Fifine, in accord with this, an idea rather\\nsymbolistically suggested, that wives typically are\\nnearer spirit than flesh, and represent that side in the\\nrelationship and the aspiration toward the spiritual\\ngood of love, more purely than husbands do. Com-\\npare with By the Fireside, Any Wife to Any\\nHusband, the Prologue and Epilogue to Fifine,\\nand in the Parleying with Daniel Bartoli, the rela-\\ntions of the Duke and the druggist s daughter.\\nDo Elvire s brief remonstrances, as re-echoed by\\nthe husband, amount to anything, in showing the\\npoet s moral intention in the poem How otherwise\\nis any glimpse of it to be had, since, as in My Last\\nDuchess and A Forgiveness, the husband him-\\nself is the mouthpiece Does the poet make the\\napologist condemn himself? And does he take an\\nartistic means to do this or not In what wav, after", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0165.jp2"}, "166": {"fulltext": "132 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nall, could he be said to condemn himself? Is it of any-\\nthing further than lack of development In what\\nway does the epilogue show the poet s predisposition\\ntowards constancy in married love as the fruit of life\\nexperience, and how does this agree with the idea\\nof **By the Fireside and Any Wife to Any\\nHusband\\nWhat examples are there in Fifine of easy col-\\nloquialisms, humor, irony, picturesque and beautiful\\ndescription, etc.? Are any of these inappropriate to\\nthe character of the hero How does the long six-\\nstressed line suit his nimble mind (As to metre, see\\nCamberwell Brownings Introduction, p. xv.) Has\\nthe poem any metaphorical images that are prominendy\\nsymbolical of its larger meanings? Observe the series\\nof enlargements of the scene by similes seen in a dream,\\nof the crowd in St. Mark s Square, of the carni-\\nval of the whole world, of the Druid Temple, etc.\\nAlso, especially the use of the swimming metaphor\\nas used by the modern Don Juan, and as used\\nby the poet in the prologue Amphibian. Is\\nthe analogy of the butterfly to the certain soul\\nwhich early slipped its sheaf a reference to Elizabeth\\nBarrett Browning And do you think his different\\ndrift in his employment of the same metaphor, using\\nthe unstable element, in swimming, so as to rival prog-\\nress in the air, and likening his own disporting in\\npoetry on earth to the best mimicry possible to him\\nof her spiritual life in heaven, is this designed to\\nsymbolize the continued companionship of the poet s\\nlove and life with that of his wife, to whom he dedi-\\ncates his poem\\nThe manner of telling Beatrice Signorini s story\\ndiffers how from this and most of the preceding", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0166.jp2"}, "167": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 133\\npoems Is it a lyrical expression of a single person-\\nality like the first two in the series Is it a mono-\\nlogue How many characters appear How definite\\nan idea of them do you get Is their speech given\\ndirectly, and does the poet s view come out also, and\\nhow far Can this and The Statue and the Bust\\nbe said properly to be written like condensed novels\\nor short stories in verse Is the verse in metre and\\nrhyme like the monologues of this series\\nIs Artemisia one of Browning s best examples of\\nthe so-called New Woman, and how does the\\npoet s way of regarding her reveal his point of view\\ntoward genius in women\\nQueries for Discussion. What does The Statue\\nand the Bust imply Is this view,\\nWeakness of will in the case of the lovers in this\\npoem wrecked their lives for they were not strong\\nenough to follow either duty or love. (^Camberwell\\nBrow?ii?igy Introduction, Vol. IV., p. xv.) The\\nclosing stanzas point the moral against the palsy of the\\nwill, whose strenuous exercise is life s main gift.\\n(^Ibid.y Notes, Digest, p. 397.)\\nor is this view of the poet s moral intention warranted\\nby the poem,\\nPrudence and conventionality count for nothing\\nwith the poet. But conventionality counts in our\\nconduct of life. It may have been the crowning dis-\\naster to miss life for the man and w^oman if so, it\\nwas a sacrifice justly due to human society. The sacri-\\nfice and self-restraint may have atoned for much\\nthat was defective in their lives. (Browning Cyclo-\\npedia, p. 579.)\\nDid Browning have any allegorical intention in\\nThe Flight of the Duchess", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0167.jp2"}, "168": {"fulltext": "134 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDo you agree with this interpretation by Mrs.\\nOwen of the London Browning Society as put by Dr.\\nBerdoe\\nThe Duke represents our gross self; the retainer\\nwho tells the story represents the simple human nature\\nthat may either rise with the Duchess or sink with\\nthe Duke. The Duchess represents the soul, the\\nhighest part of our complex nature. The retainer aids\\nthe Duchess, or human nature aids the soul, to free\\nitself from the coarse, low, earth-nature, the Duke.\\nSo that the Flight of the Duchess is the supreme\\nmoment when the soul shakes off the bondage of self\\nand finds its true freedom in others.\\nIf it is merely a romance, has it none the less an\\ninner meaning of a general nature, and what should\\nyou say it was\\nHow is moral design justifiable in a work of art\\nShould it have none How do artists exemphfy this\\nquestion in their work Illustrate.\\nShould the artist make a distinction between an in-\\norganic crystallization of his inner meaning and an\\nimplication of it more or less unmistakable which\\ngrows out of his work and agrees with its artistic\\nstructure Is such a way of conveying moral inten-\\ntion an evidence of the highest artistic skill instead of\\nthe contrary? How has Browning done in these\\npoems Do his poems, whose artistic structure does\\nnot agree with conveying moral design, refrain from\\nit and in the poems which supply direct illustration\\nof their inner meaning, does their artistic construction\\npermit and suit it\\nDoes a comparison of these poems tend to show\\nthat it is a characteristic of Browning to make his\\nimagery agree with his situations and subject-matter", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0168.jp2"}, "169": {"fulltext": "HUSBANDS AND WIVES 135\\nDo they show that he, more than most poets, puts his\\nimagination into his characters so thoroughly that they\\nrarely make allusions inconsistent with the point of\\nview belonging to their time and character\\nElvire s husband says that Man takes all and\\ngives naught in order to develop himself, while\\nwoman s part is to bestow all and be absorbed, Wo-\\nmen grow you, and t is only men completely\\nformed, full-orbed, are fit to illustrate the leader\\nFifine, Ixxi.-lxxiv.) Francesco Romanelli says\\nof himself, Man by nature I exceed woman the\\nbounded my portion is he chose to think\\nquite other than a woman s: I may drink at many\\nwaters abler thereby, though impotent before\\nBeatrice Signorini, 66-131). The comment on\\nthis last view, apparently by Browning, is to the effect\\nthat Francesco s desire was unjustifiable to make Arte-\\nmisia s germ of individual genius what we term\\nthe very self, etc., his own. Which is the\\ntruer view to take of the relations of men and women,\\nor which, if both are true to life as it is, is the one\\nshowing the higher development in life and thought\\nCompare also Browning s statement that it were\\nthe better impulse, since he could not admit\\nArtemisia s art and her plain sufficiency of fact that\\nshe is she and I am I (line 70), if he wisely tram-\\npled on pride and grew hers, **not mine gain\\nnot her but lose myself. Upon this impulse, put\\naside by Francesco, the poet again comments Such\\nlove were true love love that way w^ho can Some\\none that s born half woman, not whole man. Does\\nthis betray Browning s view of the right trend in the\\nevolution of love", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0169.jp2"}, "170": {"fulltext": "Art and the Artist\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nThe Guardian Angel iv 127 380\\nOld Pictures in Florence iv 52 371\\nPictor Ignotus v 22 286\\nFra Lippo Lippi v 24 287\\nAndrea del Sarto v 36 289\\nThe Bishop Orders his Tomb v 45 291\\nDeaf and Dumb v 216 313\\nEurydice to Orpheus v 218 314\\nA Face v 221 314\\nPacchiarotto and How he Worked in Distemper ix 171 294\\nThe Lady and the Painter ix 221 370\\nI. Topic for Paper Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Subject-Matter and its Manner of Presentation.\\nHints: For abstracts of subject-matter of the\\npoems, see Notes to Carnberwell Browni?ig, as given\\nabove.\\nFor consideration as to treatment, these poems may-\\nbe grouped as descriptive of pictures, The Guar-\\ndian Angel, Eurydice to Orpheus, *AFace.\\nWith these may be included Deaf and Dumb,\\nthough the inspiration here is a group of statuary.\\nPacchiarotto is descriptive, being an account of\\nan incident in an artist s life. The most important\\nof the art poems, however, are in dramatic mono-\\nlogue form. All the remaining poems cited are in\\nthis form except the slight bit, The Lady and the\\nPainter, which is in drama form.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0170.jp2"}, "171": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 137\\nTaking up the simpler poems first, we may inquire\\ninto the poet s manner of translating a picture into\\nwords so that the reader may see it before him.\\nIt is to be observed in The Guardian Angel\\nthat there is no direct description of the picture, but\\nthat in giving expression to the emotions and thoughts\\naroused, the picture gradually appears in all its details.\\nIn stanza i., by means of the poet s address to the\\ngreat angel vind his expression of the desire that it\\nwould leave the child for him, we see that the\\npicture is of an angel and child, and that the angel\\nis ministering to the child. In the second stanza\\nhow much more of the picture do we see as the\\npoet imagines how the angel might step out to him\\nand guard him, as it does the child, that the angel s\\nwings are white, and that the child is praying on a\\ntomb, also that the angel is looking toward heaven\\nIn the third stanza what additional light is given\\nupon the position of the child, and how does the\\nthought of the poet here and in the next two stanzas\\ntranscend the picture (See the picture given as\\nfrontispiece to Vol. IV., Camberwell Brozv?ii?ig.) In\\nstanza vi. he turns from the picture to a friend, Alfred,\\nand addresses him, mentioning the artist, and giving\\nanother glimpse of the picture. Does this glimpse add\\nany fresh details In stanza vii. he tells his friend\\nhow he and his own angel (his wife) used to go and\\nsee the picture, and what reason does he now give for\\nhaving written the poem, and for whom does it appear\\nhe wrote it The last three stanzas give the poem\\nalmost the effect of a letter. Do you not think that\\nthe artistic effect of the poem is somewhat marred\\nby this personal touch at the end\\nIn Eurydice to Orpheus there is no description", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0171.jp2"}, "172": {"fulltext": "138 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof the picture, only the interpretation of the soul of\\nEurydice as the poet reads it in her face. Would\\nthe poem convey a definite impression without any\\nknowledge of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice\\nIn Deaf and Dumb, again, the group is not\\ndescribed in detail, but through the thought it in-\\nspires in the poet we feel rather than see its beauty.\\nA Face describes in more complete detail a\\npicture after -the manner of the early Tuscan art\\nwhich has been suggested by the beauty of the face.\\nNotice that this differs from the other poems in that\\nit reflects a mood of admiration for exquisite physical\\nbeauty, while the others breathe of spiritual beauty,\\nand, as already noted in the case of The Guardian\\nAngel, the emotions aroused by the picture in the\\npoet make the principal motif of the poem. (For\\nother picture-painting in words in Browning, see Cam-\\nberwell Browjiingy Vol. I., Pauline, lines 656-\\n667, Notes, p. 308; Vol. VIII., **Balaustion s\\nAdventure, lines 2672-2697, Notes, p. 299.)\\nPacchiarotto is in the form of a simple narra-\\ntive told in the poet s own person but some com-\\nplexity is introduced through the fact that the story\\nis not told for its own sake, but for the sake of a\\npersonal digression on the part of the poet, in which\\nhe points a moral against his own critics. (For\\nfurther discussion of this poem, see Programme The\\nAutobiographical Poems.\\nAmong those art poems which we have designated\\nas dramatic monologues, there is considerable variation\\nof treatment. Old Pictures in Florence, for\\nexample, being evidently an expression of the poet s\\nown thoughts, might more properly be called a solilo-\\nquy than a dramatic monologue, yet the style is so", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0172.jp2"}, "173": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 139\\nconversational, the poet frequently breaking out in\\ndirect address to some old artist-worthy or some\\ndull critic, that the effect is thoroughly lively and\\ndramatic.\\nHaving become familiar with the subject-matter of\\nthe monologues by aid of the notes, it is interesting\\nto inquire into the details of its presentation. Ifi\\nOld Pictures in Florence, the poet gives first\\n(stanzas i. and ii.) a general description of the scene that\\nmeets his gaze as he looks out over the villa-gate, un-\\ntil his attention is especially attracted by what Can\\nyou guess why Giotto s tower startled him? Per-\\nhaps because it suggests to him vivid thoughts concern-\\ning art and artists, out of which grow conceptions of\\nthe place the Campanile holds in the development of\\nart or else because it suddenly reminds him, as he\\nplayfully pretends, of a special claim he has on the\\nrecognition of artist -ghosts which it stings him to the\\nheart to feel that they have disregarded. This special\\nclaim seems to be that he is guiltless of the carelessness\\nwhich the world in general shows to the tentative work\\nof all artists and all stages of art. From the especial\\napostrophe to Giotto which the sight of the bell-tower\\ncalls out, in stanza iv. he falls into reminiscences of\\nwhat he had done on winter afternoons, in the course\\nof which he draws contrasts between the things that\\ninterest the men of Florence and that interest him,\\nthe old pictures. The neglect of these next brings to\\nhis mind the fame of the Rafaels, etc., and he pictures\\nwhat their state of mind may be in comparison with\\nthe wronged great souls, which causes him to wax\\nindignant at those of the little wit who cannot\\nappreciate these early artists, and results in his giving\\nthem instruction. What does he declare to be the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0173.jp2"}, "174": {"fulltext": "140 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncharacteristics of Greek art Observe the graphic way\\nin which he describes Greek art as presenting ideals of\\nbeauty and power to mankind which they aspired\\ntoward but could not attain unto. What did they\\nlearn from this constant consciousness of their own\\nweakness compared with the strength of Greek art\\nDoes the poet appear to consider the lesson learnt a\\ngood one\\nContinuing stanza xv. with his instructions,\\nwhat does he declare to be the very essence of\\ngrowth, and how did the early Italian painters dis-\\ncover this and illustrate in their works this new atti-\\ntude toward life In stanza xx. he turns from\\ninstructing to exhorting the unappreciative to give\\nhonor to those pioneer artists who began the great\\nrevolution. Here the poet has a beautiful fancy as to\\nthe future life what is it and how does his mood\\nchange in the next stanza In xxiii. he enlarges\\nupon his own love of these early artists, and goes on\\nto what he calls his especial grievance. Here (xxiv.)\\nfollows a humorous description of the ghosts of the\\nearly painters watching the whitewashing, etc. of\\ntheir pictures, then departing down the black streets\\nand the poet declares himself aggrieved that they never\\nreveal to him any of the lost treasures they must know\\nabout. Then he goes on to particularize those from\\nwhom he would expect nothing and those he thinks\\nmight remember him, leading up finally to Giotto,\\nagainst whom it now appears is his special grievance,\\nas was hinted in stanza iii. Describe what this griev-\\nance is and what he declares will be the final upshot.\\nIn anticipative gratitude at this result he takes up a\\nstrain of prophecy which continues to the end of the\\npoem. What is this prophecy", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0174.jp2"}, "175": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 141\\nIn **Pictor Ignotus we have a true dramatic\\nmonologue, though not at all a complex one, for it\\nportrays but one character, the unknown painter, who,\\nafter breaking forth with straightforward directness in\\nregard to his having been able to paint as well as the\\nyouth all are praising, goes on to explain how he had\\nnot been hindered by fate, why Because he had the\\ninspiration in his soul, observation equally penetrating\\nfor the mysteries of heaven, of his own soul, and of\\nlife around him and moreover the mechanical skill\\nto put into form his thoughts. Observe with what\\nexquisite language he now describes the emotions\\nand passions he might have portrayed. In line 23 he\\ndoubts for a moment whether he has not wasted his\\npowers. How does this feeling change in the next\\nline From the ecstasy he feels in the thought of\\nthe pictures he might have painted, he passes on to\\nthe thought of the happiness it would have been to\\nhave had these pictures loved and himself loved because\\nof them. He wakes now from these ecstasies to tell\\nwhy he could not follow his artistic inspiration, and\\nhad thus made his choice as he willed. Notice that\\nonly through description of the feelings he has as he\\nworks, do we learn for the first time what that work\\nreally was.\\nDoes this poem resemble The Guardian Angel\\nin that its living principle is the moods and emotions\\nof the artist, and the facts we learn in this case as to\\nhis talent, his character, and the conditions of his life,\\ndo not come out by means of any direct description,\\nbut as the necessary expression of his moods\\n**Fra Lippi Lippo is an example of a more\\ncomplex monologue. Observe how through Lippo s\\ntalk we get a complete picture, not only of Lippo", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0175.jp2"}, "176": {"fulltext": "142 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhimself, but of the functionaries who are detaining\\nhim, of the successive actions in the scene, and of the\\ntime and place where it is being enacted. Reading\\nthrough hne 44, what do you learn of him What\\ndo you learn of the looks of his detainers, and of\\ntheir actions After he has picked out the one he\\nsees to be most friendly, he proceeds to tell him how\\nhe comes to be wandering about the streets so late at\\nnight. What effect does his story have upon his\\nfriend (See line 76.)\\nSince the friendly individual s sympathy is not\\nwholly aroused by this tale, and he is inclined to\\nquestion how it is that a monk should enjoy such\\nescapades, the clever Lippo goes on to give an\\naccount of his childhood and the way he came to be\\na monk. Note Lippo s wit and humor as he tells\\nthis story. What came next? we may imagine\\nhis friend to inquire. To which he replied by telling\\nof the difficulties that beset the monks in discovering\\nwhat he was fit for. How d^id he show them what\\nhis natural bent was, and how does he say his ob-\\nservation as a child was sharpened The monks\\nwould have turned him adrift for his artistic pro-\\npensities, but what does the Prior say When\\nLippo is allowed to give rein to his talent, how and\\nwhat does he describe himself as painting And\\nhow did the monks regard it But what do the\\nPrior and the learned say about his art To their\\ncriticisms what does Lippo retort Having given\\nthis account of himself, he goes on (line 223) to\\napologize a little for himself. How And then to\\ntell how in spite of the fact that he is his own master\\nnow, the early criticisms still have their effect upon\\nhim. Is his question about whether they with their", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0176.jp2"}, "177": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST I43\\nLatin know, sarcastic, or the expression of a dor-\\nmant reverence for the opinion of those who are\\nlearned\\nThe result of this conflict in his nature between\\nhis natural bent and its suppression by criticism is, as\\nhe goes on to say, what Observe how, in the lines\\nfollowing this up to line 269, he forgets all restraint\\nand gives vent to his unvarnished opinion of those\\nwho criticise the realism of his work. At this point\\nhe grows stronger in his own opinion, and prophesies\\nthat such work as his will be the work of the future.\\nWho has he already as a pupil? Then he appeals to\\nhis friend to judge for himself as to whether his view\\nof life and art is not higher than the old one. What\\nsupposed objections does he meet and what are the\\nmain points in his argument Observe how he\\nworks up to a cHmax of feeling which shows that to\\nthe soul of Lippo beauty, natural and physical, was in\\nitself a divine revelation. He finishes with another\\noutbreak against the fools, and suddenly remember-\\ning himself, he grows humble and apologetic again,\\nand promises to make amends. What does he say he\\nwill do to make amends, and how does he character-\\nistically describe the picture which will make things\\nall right with the Church again It is evident that\\nhis arguments finally convinced his friend among the\\nguard who nabbed him, for he goes off home in\\nthe early morning light.\\nIs this long talk of Lippo s rendered natural through\\nthe fact that he and one of the guards took a fancy\\nto each other Can we suppose that his listener\\nappreciated all his remarks, or that he was simply\\ntaken with his manner and personality\\nIn Andrea del Sarto the presentadon is in the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0177.jp2"}, "178": {"fulltext": "144 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsame manner as in Fra Lippo Lippi. The reader\\nis immediately brouglit face to face with the hero of\\nthe poem. He is speaking, and in the course of his\\ntalk we see not only him but his wife, learn the sort\\nof relation that exists between them, and get a ghmpse\\nof their past life.\\nWhat is the time and the scene, and what is he prom-\\nising his wife he will do to-morrow But what does\\nhe desire to do at that moment? As he looks at\\nher, he sees in his mind s eye a picture of them-\\nselves how does he describe it From this he turns\\nto a comparison of his own style and capabilities as\\nan artist with those of other celebrated painters. Give\\nthe gist of what he says.\\nOverwhelmed here by the sense of his own lack,\\nhe gently upbraids his wife for not having been more\\nof an inspiration to him. Does he feel quite sure that\\nif she had been different he would have succeeded\\nbetter? Or does he seem to think that his life has\\nbeen ruled by a sort of divine fate Or has he some\\nsuspicion that his own lack of will-power is responsible\\nfor it (See line 139.) His conclusion that God will\\nreward or punish in the end, brings to his mind the\\nfact that it will be safer if he is not too much rewarded\\nin this world, and he falls into a reminiscence of his\\npast life. What comes out in regard to his life to\\nexplain his feeling that it will be safer if he does not\\nget too much award here He comes back to the\\npresent (line 175), and comparing Rafael s picture of\\nthe Virgin with his own for w^hich his wife sat, im-\\nagines what men might say of these two pictures.\\nThis puts him in mind of another reminiscence about\\nhimself. What was it At the thought of this\\npraise he ventures to grasp the chalk and correct the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0178.jp2"}, "179": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST I45\\narm in a picture of Rafael s. He had in his room a\\ncopy (see line 106). Why only does he care for the\\npraise\\nWe come now to the closing scene, the wife\\nsmiling because she hears the cousin s whistle; Andrea\\ngoing on talking, so filled with his own thoughts that\\nhe thinks the smile for him, and feeling a litde encour-\\naged, asking her to come inside. Then he realizes the\\ncousin has been calling. He recurs to his request made\\nat the beginning of the poem, and repeats his promise\\nand what does he declare will be the best thing about\\nthe money he is to receive Describe his final mood,\\nhis apology for his own sin, his vision of what he\\nmight do in heaven, and the recurring certainty that\\nhe would be overcome because of his wife,\\nLucrezia, and, finally, the triumph of his love over\\nevery other thought in the words as I choose, and\\nofhis unselfishness in his bidding her go to her cousin.\\nObserve how, by indirections as it were, the wife s\\npersonality is clearly presented (see hnes 4, 20\u00e2\u0080\u009433,\\n38, 54-56, 74-75, 1 17-132, 166, 199-202, 219-\\n223, 228, 241\u00e2\u0080\u0094243). Is Andrea more completely\\nunder one influence than Fra Lippo\\nIn The Bishop Orders his Tomb, we have a\\nconnoisseur in art instead of an artist. As a mono-\\nlogue, this is not quite so complex as the preceding\\none, because it is almost entirely a revelation of the\\nBishop s own character, the nephews whom he\\naddresses not appearing as very strong personalities\\nunless the old Bishop s fear that they would not exe-\\ncute his orders be taken as an index of their character.\\nBesides the Bishop s character, however, we learn\\nsomething of the incidents ofhis life. What are these\\nWe get, furthermore, a vivid picture of the splendor of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0179.jp2"}, "180": {"fulltext": "146 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhis tomb. Describe it. Observe all through the poem\\nhow subtly is portrayed in the Bishop the combination\\nof human nature with its passions and hates and en-\\nvies, and his churchly training that breaks out in\\npious exclamations from time to time also the jumble\\nof Greek and Christian art he wishes to have in his\\ntomb. In his ideal of his future enjoyment when he\\nis dead (see Hne 80 and fol. do his pagan or his\\nchurchly instincts conquer Do you feel at the end\\nthat he is not going to get his tomb, or that he is,\\nthrough a life of suspiciousness, afraid his nephews\\nwill not carry out his orders in spite of all he offers\\nthem\\nThe Lady and the Painter is a very simple\\npoem cast in dialogue form to point a moral which is\\nevidently the poet s own opinion. What is this\\nopinion\\n(Queries for Discussion, Is the manner of presen-\\ntation in each case especially suited to the subject in\\nhand\\nAre all these monologues dramatic, in the sense that\\nthey show movement in events If they do not\\nshow movement in events, in what does their dramatic\\nquality consist\\nII. Topic for Paper Classwork, or Private Study.\\nSources and Allusions in relation to Subject-\\nMatter.\\nHifits The poems in this group show a variety\\nin the nature of the sources as well as a variety in the\\nmanner of treatment. Pictures in two cases were the\\nsole source of inspiration, in another a group of statu-\\nary. In these instances the source is so intimately\\nconnected with the subject-matter, that in giving the\\nmanner of presentation, as in the preceding topic, all", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0180.jp2"}, "181": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 1 47\\nis said about the sources and their relation to the poems\\nthat need be said. The remainder of the poems may\\nbe classified, broadly speaking, as deriving their sub-\\nject-matter from biographical sources, namely, Fra\\nLippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto, Pacchia-\\nrotto from an artistic emotion, in Old Pictures,\\n*The Lady and the Painter, and *Face; from\\nhistorico-artistic conditions, in **Pictor Ignotus and\\nThe Bishop Orders his Tomb. The direct bio-\\ngraphical source of Fra Lippo Lippi is found in\\nVasari s Lives of the Italian Painters. As an ex-\\nample of how closely the poet modelled his facts upon\\nthose taken from Vasari, we may make the following\\ncomparisons (drawn from the Notes, Select Poems\\nof Browning, published by T. Y. Crowell Co.),\\nThe Carmelite Monk, Fra Filippo di Tommaso Lippi,\\nwas born in a bye street behind the convent.\\nSee the poem, line 7. Cosimo de Medici, wishing\\nhim to execute a work in his own palace, shut him up,\\nthat he might riot waste his time in running about\\nbut having endured this confinement for two days he\\nmade ropes with the sheets of his bed let him-\\nself down from the window and for several days\\ngave himself up to his amusements. See poem, lines\\n15, 47. **By the death of his father he was left a\\nfriendless orphan at the age of two years for\\nsome time under the care of Mona Lapaccia, his aunt,\\nwho brought him up with very great difficulty till his\\neighth year, when being no longer able to support the\\nburden, she placed him in the convent of the Car-\\nmelites. Placed with others under the care of a\\nmaster to see what could be done with him^ in\\nplace of studying he never did anything but daub his\\nbooks with caricatures, whereupon the prior deter-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0181.jp2"}, "182": {"fulltext": "148 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmined to give him opportunity for learning to\\ndraw. The chapel, then newly painted by Masaccio\\nhe frequented, and practising there surpassed\\nall the others while still very young painted\\na picture in the cloister with others in fresco\\namong these John the Baptist. See the poem,\\nlines 81, 129, 136, 196. For the nuns of Sant\\nAmbrogio he painted a most beautiful picture. See\\nthe poem, line 345. Vasari says that by means of this\\npicture he became known to Cosimo. Observe that\\nthis does not agree with the poem, as in that Lippo is\\nalready known to Cosimo when he promises to paint\\nthe picture of the coronation of the Virgin. It ap-\\npears that the poet is right here, and Vasari wrong.\\nSee notes to edition of Vasari cited below. Do you\\nobserve any other inaccuracies in the mere facts\\nFrom these extracts it m-ay be perceived that Brown-\\ning has turned a very dry record of events into a\\nliving reality, and how has he done this By so\\nseeing into the heart and impulses of the man that he\\nre-creates his personahty and enables us to see life as\\nit was seen by Lippo (For further study of the life\\nof Lippo, see Mrs. Jameson s Early Italian\\nPainters, also Vasari s Lives, edited by E. H.\\nE. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins, Chas. Scribner s\\nSons, N. Y.) Is there anv incident of Lippo s life\\nwhich might have suggested to him the incident in\\nthe poem of the little lily thing that encouraged\\nhim.? See hnes 370-387.\\nGive an account of the allusions in the poem (see\\nCamherwell Browning, Notes, Vol. V., p. 287), and\\nshow how they all grow naturally out of the subject-\\nmatter, that is, they do not come under the head of\\nembellishments. Even the flower-songs, though they", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0182.jp2"}, "183": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 149\\nadd greatly to the beauty of the poem, come perfectly\\nnaturally from the lips of Fra Lippo. (For further in-\\nformation as to these songs, see Poet-lore, Vol. II.,\\np. 262, or Miss Alma Strettel s Spanish and Italian\\nFolk-Songs.\\nVasari s Lives furnished the source for the\\ncharacterization of Andrea del Sarto also. In this\\ncase, however, there is the added source of the picture\\nof Andrea and his v/ife, which really forms the scene-\\nsetting and tone of the poem. (See Notes, Camber-\\nwell Browning, Vol. v., p. 289.)\\nAs in the case of Lippo, extracts may be made\\nfrom Vasari showing the facts that Browning trans-\\nmuted from dry bones into living realities. For ex-\\nample: He destroyed his own peace and estranged\\nhis friends by marrying Lucrezia di Baccio del Fede,\\na cap-maker s widow who ensnared him before her\\nhusband s death, and who delighted in trapping the\\nhearts of men he soon became jealous and\\nfound that he had fallen into the hands of an artful\\nwoman who made him do as she pleased in all things\\nbut although Andrea Hved in torment he yet\\naccounted it a high pleasure. See poem, line i fol.\\n**Art and nature combined to show all that may be\\ndone in painting when design, coloring, and invention\\nunite in the same person. Had this master possessed\\na somewhat bolder and more elevated mind\\nhe would have been without an equal. But there\\nwas a certain timidity of mind, a sort of diffidence\\nand want of force in his nature, which rendered it\\nimpossible that ardor and animation, which\\nare proper to the more exalted character should ever\\nappear in him. His figures are well drawn\\nfree from errors the coloring exquisite. See", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0183.jp2"}, "184": {"fulltext": "150 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\npoem, lines 60, 82, fol. Andrea understood the\\nmanagement of light and shade most perfectly, caus-\\ning the objects depicted to take their due degree of\\nprominence or to retire within the shadows. See\\npoem, line 98. If he had remained in Rome when\\nhe went thither to see the works of Raffaello and\\nMichelagnolo would eventually have attained\\nthe power of imparting a more elevated character\\nand increased force to his figures nay, there are\\nnot wanting those who affirm he would have\\nsurpassed all the artists of his time Raffaello\\nand other young artists whom he perceived to possess\\ngreat power deprived Andrea, timid as he was,\\nof courage to make trial of himself. See poem, line\\n76 fol. **Two pictures he had sent into France, ob-\\ntaining much admiration from King Francis\\nthat monarch was told he might prevail upon Andrea\\nto visit France the King therefore gave orders\\nthat a sum of money should be paid to Andrea for\\nthe expenses of the journey his arrival was\\nmarked by proofs of liberality and courtesy\\nhis labors rendering him so acceptable to the King\\nand the whole court, his departure from his native\\ncountry appeared to have conducted him from\\nwretchedness to felicity But one day\\ncame to him certain letters from Florence written to\\nhim by his wife with bitter complaints\\nMoved by all this he resolved to resume his chain\\nTaking the money which the King confided to\\nhim for the purchase of pictures and statues he\\nset off having sworn on the gospels to return\\nin a few months. Arrived in Florence, he lived\\njoyously with his wife for some time, making presents\\nto her father and sisters, but doing nothing for his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0184.jp2"}, "185": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 151\\nown parents, who died in poverty and misery.\\nWhen the period specified by the King had come\\nhe found himself at the end not only of his\\nown money but of that of the King re-\\nmained in Florence, therefore, procuring a livelihood\\nas he best might. See poem, line 149, fol. Though\\nnot bearing on the poem in any way, it will be found\\ninteresting to read in the notes to the edition of\\nVasari already mentioned of the attempts which\\nhave been made to prove that the story of Andrea s\\nembezzlement was false. In fact, the statement rests\\nentirely upon Vasari s authority, and excellent reasons\\nhave been adduced to show that he might easily have\\nbeen mistaken.\\nObserve with what sympathetic insight Browning\\nhas looked at the miserable record of this man, and\\nhow he has emphasized whatever of nobleness there\\nwas in his character, making not the least noble thing\\nabout him his devotion to his wife, whom he was\\nfated to love, whatever her faults might be.\\nAre the allusions in this poem related to the sub-\\nject-matter in the same way as those in Fra Lippo\\nLippi (For allusions, see Camberwell Browning,\\nNotes, Vol. v., p. 289.)\\nThe story told in Pacchiarotto is also derived\\nfrom Vasari, and is to be found in the commentary\\nof the Florence edition of his Lives printed in\\n1855. As an example of the way the poet has used\\nhis source in this poem, a few citations may be given\\nAmong the principal and most ardent of the\\nBardotti was our Giacomo, whose head was so turned\\nby the whims and vagaries of the State, that among\\nmany of his foolish pranks, it is related, that in a\\nroom of his house which was situated on the Via", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0185.jp2"}, "186": {"fulltext": "152 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nLaterino, he had painted many faces, so that, stand-\\ning in the midst of them, he appeared to be holding\\na long discussion, as if they in turn replied, and as\\ntheir lord revered and honored him.\\nThis is expanded into the account which runs\\nthrough seven stanzas (see v.-xi.) besides being led up\\nto by the four preceding stanzas. Point out the am-\\nplifications Browning has made upon this hint.\\nDuring the exile of Fabio and the murder of\\nAlessandro Bichi, a new sect of people sprung up in\\nSiena, who from their open avowals of lawless prin-\\nciples were called the Libertines. These, having\\nbecome arrogant, on account of success having been\\non their side in every faction against the tyrants of the\\ncity, as they called them, and even against foreign\\nenemies, these Libertines therefore meddled with\\nevery important scheme of the Republic, and tried\\nto gain all the honors and high offices for them-\\nselves. They called upon the common people\\nto aid them, making many promises to help them in\\nreturn, which was the occasion that the common\\npeople and artisans of lowest extraction were turned\\naside from their daily life, and their time occupied in\\nattending meetings where they listened to incendiary\\nlanguage against the affairs of the State. Out of\\nthese meetings sprung the Congregation or Academy\\ncalled the Bardotti, a name which really had no\\nother significance than that which they chose to give\\nit: an easy hfe at the pubhc expense. Compare\\nthis with stanzas xiii. and xiv.\\nThe Bardotti, believing circumstances to be of\\nbad augury for them, had recourse to the aid and\\ncounsels of a few citizens who formerly had favored\\nthem but receiving from them only reproofs for their", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0186.jp2"}, "187": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 153\\nmisdeeds, and no promises to protect them from\\njustice, and terrified by their impending fate, they fled\\nand hid themselves. II Pacchiarotto, likewise, seized\\nwith great terror, wandered about like one demented\\nthroughout the city, thinking the sheriff w^as always\\ndogging his footsteps in order to seize him and take\\nhim to prison. Finally he went into the parish\\nchurch of San Giovanni, and saw a tomb where but\\nrecently had been covered a dead body he pushed\\nit aside, and fixed himself there as best he could, and\\ncovered the tomb over with the stone. Here he\\nremained in intense suffering of mind and body during\\ntwo days, at the end of which time, half dead with\\nhunger and the insupportable stench of the corpse,\\nand covered with vermin, he fled through one of the\\ngates of the city, which leads to the house of refuge\\nof the brothers of the Observance. 11 Pacchiarotto,\\nwhen he thought the storm had passed, quietly re-\\nturned to Siena, and, having been made aware by\\nbitter experience what his follies had cost him, he\\nresolved to apply himself to his work and no longer\\nmeddle with the affairs of State.\\nCompare this with stanzas xvi.\u00e2\u0080\u0094 xx. See also\\nxxiii. At stanza xx. the poet declares he is going\\nto let his fancy have rein in the admonishment of the\\nAbbot. What is this admonishment, and how does\\nthe poet make Pacchiarotto reply Does this poem\\nlose in artistic force because of the fact that the inci-\\ndent is told and enlarged upon, simply to furnish a text\\ntor a philippic against critics This poem has a great\\nmany allusions, for explanation of which see Camber-\\nwell Browni?ig, Notes, Vol. IX., p. 294, Point out\\nhow they are related to the subject-matter.\\nIn Old Pictures in Florence the direct source", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0187.jp2"}, "188": {"fulltext": "154 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmight be said to be the incident of the poet s missing\\nan art treasure which fell into some one else s hands.\\nHowever, this is, in reality, only a sort of stage fix-\\nture throwing a side light of humor over the whole\\npoem, the true source being the poet s own artistic\\nenthusiasm for the works of the old painters, and out\\nof this grow his appreciations and his criticisms.\\nWould the poem have been any stronger as a criticism\\nof art if he had not toned it to this humorous incident?\\nDoes this incident, on the other hand, give the poem an\\nartistic value it might not otherwise have by making\\nthe thoughts that cluster around it less didactic Are\\nthey less didactic because they really grow out of an\\nemotional mood rather than a critical one\\nIn **Face the artistic appreciation of a beautiful\\nface gives rise to the imaging of the face as it would\\nlook in a picture.\\nAn emotion of indignation at those who wear bird s\\nfeathers in their hats and at those who object to the\\nnude in art is the source of the dialogue, in The\\nLady and the Painter, between an imaginary painter\\nand an imaginary lady. Does it result in a very\\nconvincing argument either way\\nIn the two remaining poems, Pictor Ignotus\\nand The Bishop Orders his Tomb, the characters\\nare imaginary, but they are set in an environment, and\\ntheir personality is such that they belong to an especial\\nhistorical epoch. The sources of such poems as these\\nare in the knowledge of all the forces that go to the\\nmaking of a certain period, \u00e2\u0080\u0094in this case, that of the\\nRenaissance in Italy. The Bishop is the type of\\ncharacter that might be produced by the influences at\\nwork. What were these (^qq Camberzuell Brozvn-\\ningy Notes, Vol. V., 291, Introduction, p. xvi, fol.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0188.jp2"}, "189": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 155\\nFor further information, see Ruskin s Stones of\\nVenice, Symonds s The Italian Renaissance, and\\nVernon Lee s Italian Studies.\\nObserve how completely this Renaissance spirit is\\nmade to breathe forth through the character of one\\nsingle man, and how completely the age dominates\\nthe personality of the man. Notice that the poem is\\nheaded **Rome, 15 Did the Renaissance move-\\nment differ in any of its characteristics here from those\\nin other Italian cities\\nIn Pictorlgnotus there is portrayed a personality\\nas different from the Bishop s as could well be im-\\nagined. How does it happen that he, too, is a picture\\nof the Renaissance The same two influences are\\nseen in him, are they not in his choosing to paint\\nreligious pictures and in his desire to paint life But\\nin this case the personality of the man is stronger than\\nthe age, and he deliberately chooses to suppress in him-\\nself the aspiration toward painting human life, not\\nbecause he would consider it any less noble art, but\\nbecause he reverences it so that he could not bear to\\nsubject it to just the sort of frivolous criticism that a\\nbishop might give it. Whereas in the Bishop\\nchurchly traditions were but a matter of form, in the\\npainter of Pictor Ignotus religion had entered\\ninto his very soul. (For further information, see books\\nreferred to above. Give an account of all the allusions,\\nand show in these latter poems how close the relation\\nis between them arid the subject-matter, and how\\nmany of them are introduced simply as embellishments\\nto the language.\\nQueries for Discussion. Is the poet justified in\\ninterpreting facts of history or biography to suit the\\nneeds of artistic presentation as he does in the poems", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0189.jp2"}, "190": {"fulltext": "156 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\non Andrea and Lippo, for example Upon this\\npoint Mr. Artliur Symons has to say Whether the\\npicture which suggested the poem is an authentic\\nwork of Andrea, or whether as experts are now\\npretty well agreed it is a work by an unknown\\nartist representing an imaginary man and woman, is,\\nof course, of no possible consequence in connection\\nwith the poem. Nor is it of any more importance\\nthat the Andrea of Vasari is in all probability not the\\nreal Andrea. Historic fact has nothing to do with\\npoetry it is mere material, the mere quarry of ideas\\nand the real truth of Mr. Browning s portrait of\\nAndrea would no more be impugned by the establish-\\nment of Vasari s inaccuracy, than the real truth of\\nShakespeare s portrait of Macbeth by the proof of the\\nuntrustworthiness of Holinshed.\\nIn which of these poems is the source most closely\\nrelated to the subject-matter, and in which of them\\ndoes the poet s imagination hold the largest place\\nAlong what different lines does the imagination\\nwork in these various poems\\nIII. Topic for Papery Classzuork, or Private Study.\\nThe Relations of Art to Character in Browning s\\nArtist Portraits.\\nHints: The unknown painter of Pictor Igno-\\ntus, Fra Lippo, Andrea del Sarto, and the Bishop of\\nSt. Praxed s step to the front upon the mention of\\nBrowning s artist portraits. We see at once that\\nthey represent four entirely different types of men.\\nHow would you describe their respective personalities\\nas gathered from the poems How is it made evi-\\ndent that the unknown artist was a man of- transcen-\\ndent genius Besides this, he was a lover of humanity,\\nwas he not How is this shown Was he a lover", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0190.jp2"}, "191": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 157\\nof humanity as it is, or rather as he thought it ought\\nto be Is there any touch of conceit in the desire\\nthat he should be loved on account of his pictures\\nWould you consider him a stronger character if he had\\ndone the best that was in him, regardless of how\\nhumanity might talk or act Or do you feel that his\\nsensitiveness in regard to the need of loving human\\nappreciation and sympathy is a peculiarly refined aspect\\nof his nature Is it not a feeling natural to the great\\nartist to revolt against the thought of the commercializ-\\ning of his art In speaking of this poem Mr. Symons\\nsays he has dreamed of painting great pictures and\\nwinning great fame, but shrinks equally from the at-\\ntempt and the reward an attempt which he is too\\nself-distrustful to make, a reward which he is too\\npainfully discriminating to enjoy. Do you perceive\\nanything in the poem to indicate that he was too\\ndistrustful of himself to make the attempt to\\npaint Does he not rather seem absolutely certain of\\nhis own powers (line 2\u00e2\u0080\u00943, No bar stayed me,\\nNever did fate forbid me, etc.) The reason he\\ndid not make the attempt was because he so reverenced\\nart and his own gift of art that he could not subject it\\nto the gross atmosphere of daily, worldly life, and so\\nhe chose to imprison his genius in monotonous frescos\\nfor the church why Not certainly because he\\ndesired to serve God this way, but because these\\npictures would be safe from the rude intrusion of un-\\nsympathetic humanity. Does he seem to regret his\\ndecision, or is he satisfied that fame would have been\\na poor exchange for the consciousness he possesses of\\na genius preserved unsullied from the world Com-\\npare him with Aprile in Paracelsus, Part II., lines\\n420-487. Observe that Aprile would have hked to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0191.jp2"}, "192": {"fulltext": "158 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nbe translated to heaven when he finished his work,\\nwhile this unknown painter wished to linger on earth.\\nWhat is the difference in these two natures Is it that\\none wished to give out love by means of his art, and\\nthe other wished to draw love to himself by means of\\nhis art Which would be the more human, and\\nwhich the more religious or aspiring attitude\\nHas Fra Lippo any sensitiveness of nature He is\\na lover of human life, like the unknown painter, but\\nthere is a difference. Is it that the unknown painter\\nloves the soul, the hopes, passions, aspirations of\\nman, while Lippo we discover to be an adorer of the\\nphysically beautiful? Are his arguments in favor of\\nthe beauty of the flesh convincing Notice that while\\nhe emphasizes external beauty, he by no means ignores\\nthe soul although he says, if you get simple\\nbeauty and nought else you get about the best thing\\nGod invents, in the same breath he says he never\\nsaw beauty with no soul at all. Yet the soul of\\nbeauty that Lippo sees is not quite the same as the\\nsoul the unknown painter sees, because one recognizes\\nthe divine essence of beauty, the other the divine\\nessence of human aspiration or religion. Which of\\nthese do you think is the larger conception of soul, or\\ndoes either of them include the other Might there\\nbe a third attitude larger still which would include\\nboth\\nWhile Lippo s nature is certainly not sensitive, does\\nhe not possess a certain amount of timidity through\\nhis early ecclesiastical training How does this\\ncome out Does his moral looseness come naturally\\nfrom his artistic attitude Does he give you the im-\\npression of being a bad man, that is, a man with\\ndesign to do as much harm as possible, or an impul-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0192.jp2"}, "193": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 159\\nsive man, filled with the joy of mere physical exist-\\nence, and unable to resist the pleasures of an occasional\\nworldly frolic In his revolt against the asceticism\\nof the early Church, he naturally goes too far the\\nother way. Are his theories of realism in advance of\\nhis practices in life Observe that in spite of his\\nrealism he has an idealistic tendency, for he says we\\nmust beat nature. Is he right when he says, We\\nlove first when we see them painted, things we have\\npassed perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see\\nDo you agree with him that beauty of form is neces-\\nsary for the highest expression of soul? Do you agree\\nwith him that more of a spiritual uplift may be gained\\nfrom the presentation of beautiful form than from pic-\\ntures with an avowed didactic purpose I (See lines\\n317-335.)\\nAndrea del Sarto has neither the idealism of\\nthe unI nown painter nor the joy in life of Lippo.\\nHe is depressed yet philosophical over the lack of\\npower he feels in himself. How is this made evi-\\ndent He points out just what his failures are, but\\nare his complaints at all bitter He has a vision of\\nwhat he might have done had his wife given him true\\nlove and sympathy, but he seems to feel that such\\nthoughts are vain, because it was she whom he per-\\nforce must love. It has been suggested that he could\\nscarcely be justified in blaming his wife for his failures in\\nlife, for the fault w^as with him in pouring his affection\\nupon so shallow and soulless a woman. But might it\\nnot be said, in reply to this, that love if genuine is\\ngiven in spite of whatever faults the loved one may\\nhave\\nCould any amount of love on his part justify his\\nstealing in order to gratify Lucrezia s whims or his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0193.jp2"}, "194": {"fulltext": "l6o BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nlooking over her flirtations with other men Yet\\neven in a New Jerusalem he cannot imagine himself\\npainting without his passion for Lucrezia, and this he\\nfeels will drag him down, and he will always be sur-\\npassed by Leonardo, Rafael, and Agnolo, who have\\nno wives. On the other hand, is not his love for\\nLucrezia the finest point in his character, its constancy,\\nits efFacement of self even to the point of sinning for\\nher sake The question is whether this is strength of\\nlove or weakness of character. Is there anything to be\\nsaid of Lucrezia except that she is utterly detestable\\nDoes he give correct impressions of his own work\\nAre his criticisms of the other artists and his compari-\\nsons of his own work with theirs good In the case\\nboth of Lippo and Andrea, has Browning conceived\\ntheir personaHties partly from the character of their\\npaintings\\nDo you feel sympathetic with Andrea as Browning\\nhas presented him, or disgusted with him His love\\nwas so powerful a force in his character that his will\\nwas weakened. If the fates had decreed that he\\nshould love one whose sympathy would have strength-\\nened his will, he might have accomplished that of\\nwhich he dreamed, but after all is said, he seems to\\nfeel that his love is of more importance to him than\\nanything else. Is this turn a characteristic one with\\nBrowning\\nIn contrast with these three, for all of whom we feel\\nsympathy for one reason or another, the Bishop ap-\\npears as an utterly unlovable old man. He loves art\\nand even his church solely for the sake of the personal\\nglory he can get out of it. Show how this is brought\\nout.\\nA still worse feeling is his rivalry with old Gandolf,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0194.jp2"}, "195": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST i6l\\nand his desire to rouse his old enemy s everlasting envy\\nwith his tomb. Has he one single redeeming quality\\n(For further remarks on the Bishop, see Programme on\\nThe Prelate.\\nQueries for Discussion. Is it shown in all of these\\npoems that the man affects his art more than he is\\naffected by it\\nWhich of these artists are portrayed with the most\\nconsistency Do Lippo and Andrea branch out into\\nabstract artistic principles not in keeping with their\\ncharacter\\nIf there are any such flights, is it not quite natural\\nfor human beings in their best moments of thought to\\nexpress ideals far beyond their general practice\\nIV. Topic for Papery Ciasswork, or Private Study.\\nArt Criticism in Browning s Art Poems.\\nHi?its The art monologues may all be taken\\nas illustrating different periods in the growth of art,\\nwhile in tw^o of them the speaker presents all there\\nis to be said for his especial manifestation in art.\\nIn Old Pictures in Florence the early Christian\\nartists receive directly from the poet their due share\\nof appreciation, especially as contrasted with the\\nGreek art. In Fra Lippo Lippi the reahst in\\nrevolt against those very pioneer Christian artists is\\nmade to defend his ground and to show the idealism\\nlurking in realism. Andrea, again, stands for formal-\\nism, his best defence being that the artists who are\\nperfect ifi technique though lacking in inspiration at\\nleast do the best they can. Besides the defence of\\nthe early Christian artists in Old Pictures in\\nFlorence, there is implied in the poem that all\\nexponents and schools of art are related parts of the\\ngeneral scheme of man s growth. That the poet\\nII", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0195.jp2"}, "196": {"fulltext": "l62 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nis in sympathy with all schools is shown by his\\nmasterly presentation in these various poems of the\\nclaims of each. This artistic creed receives further\\nexemplification in the Parleyings, in that with\\nGerard de Lairesse, whose special characteristic\\nwas the embellishment of every-day nature with\\nborrowed classical imaginings. (See Camberwell\\nBrowning, Notes, Vol. XII., p. 344.) Browning,\\nin talking with Gerard, comes to the conclusion (see\\nstanzas xiii. to end) that while art should go on to\\never-fresh manifestations and should not try to re-\\nsuscitate the past, yet past art manifestations are not\\nto be thrown away, but preserved for their worth as\\nthe blossoming of past phases of growth. Professor\\nDaniel Dorchester, writing of Browning s Philosophy\\nof Art, says An art critic, intent only upon literal\\naccuracy, would not accept the judgments expressed\\nin these poems without many quaHfications. He\\nwould cite, for example, the frescoes of Andrea del\\nSarto in the entrance court of Santa Annunciata in\\nFlorence, their great dignity, their fresh passion\\nand imagination, as evidence that Andrea was more\\nthan the clever realist Browning has described.\\nSandro, better known as Botticelli, is classified by\\nBrowning in his Old Pictures in Florence with\\nGiotto, Taddeo Gaddi, and Cimabue, but Botticelli\\nwas a pupil of Fra Lippo Lippi, who ushered in\\nthe next period of Italian art. Many such criticisms\\nmight be made, but they do not invalidate the truth\\nof Browning s art poems. His principle of classi-\\nfication transcends such minor distinctions, and is\\nconcerned with the exemplification in art of certain\\ntypes of character. Andrea del Sarto, it is true, oc-\\ncasionally rises to a great dignity of expression, but", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0196.jp2"}, "197": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 163\\nthe general level of his art was low, stereotyped, and\\nsordid. Botticelli, though a pupil of Lippi, had a\\nstrong individuality, and belonged in spirit to the\\nschool of Giotto. Few painters have made every\\npart of their work so tributary to an idea, or striven\\nmore earnestly after ideal beauty.\\nIn the poem, Old Pictures in Florence, Brown-\\ning shows that romantic art in its crude form is\\nsuperior to Greek art in its perfection, simply because\\nit manifests a higher ideal of the human soul. He\\nis not unmindful of the glory of the Grecian character\\nand art. The very atmosphere in which the Greeks\\nlived was pellucid, and their thought was like it.\\nThey had, too, an intense love of sensuous beauty\\nso nurtured that it became their master passion.\\nThe spirit of man for a time saw its ideal real-\\nized in the grand and beautiful forms of the Grecian\\ndivinities.\\nBut no sensuous representation, however excellent,\\ncould long seem an adequate expression to the de-\\nveloping soul of man.\\nSpirit alone can satisfy spirit, and only in its own\\nrealm, the inner realm of the soul, can it find its\\ntrue reality. In the decadence of Grecian art in pro-\\nportion as there was a surrender to outer vision and\\nas bodily charm was sought as an end, the human spirit\\nturned its gaze inward and communed with its own\\nloftier ideals. Then Christianity came, insisting\\nupon the Divine Spirit as the absolute ideal, and glori-\\nfying the soul at the expense of the body if need be.\\nThis spiritual beauty Mt was the mission of romantic\\nart to reveal. (Boston Browning Society Papers.)\\nObserve further that Lippo and Andrea represent\\ntwo different but actual types of the artists of the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0197.jp2"}, "198": {"fulltext": "164 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nRenaissance, while Pictor Ignotus and the\\nBishop represent two imaginary types of Renais-\\nsance artists, neither of whom takes any active part\\nin the development of art. Should you say that the\\nformer stood for the utmost idealism of this great\\nmovement, and the latter for its utmost grossness\\n(^For studies of the Renaissance, see books cited above\\nand Renaissance Pictures in Robert Browning s\\nPoetry, Poet-lore^ Vol. X., pp. 66-76, Jan. 1898.)\\nBy thus presenting these different types does\\nBrowning indicate more clearly than in any other\\nway the complexity of this movement\\nIn Pacchiarotto we have a criticism of the art-\\ncritic rather than of art, and although the application\\nis made to point at literary cridcs, the principle would\\napply just as well to art-critics, and this fundamental\\nprinciple is that critics cannot make all artists conform\\nto their notions of art any more than Pacchiarotto\\ncould reform the world and make everybody toe\\nthe mark according to his own notions, in other\\nwords, that the true artist or genius always transcends\\nthe cut and dried rules of the cridcs. What corner\\nof art criticism is touched upon in The Lady and\\nthe Painter For further expression of opinion on\\nthis subject, see the Parleyings, that with Francis\\nFurini, through stanza vii., also xi., line 557 to end.\\nQueries for Discussion. Is Browning s theory\\nthat art should find its own new expression with every\\nphase of life sound Is it opposed to the generally\\naccepted theory that there are definite standards in art\\nIs Greek art so little expressive of aspiration as\\nBrowning seems to think in Old Pictures in\\nFlorence\\nMight it be said that to-day we can get more of a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0198.jp2"}, "199": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 165\\nspiritual vision from Greek art by reading into its\\nperfect form our own ideals, while in the early\\nChristian art the poverty of form makes us see only\\nthe ascetic ideal of the early Christian\\nV. Topic for Paper Classworky or Private Study,\\nThe Workmanship of the Poems.\\nHi fits Notice the stanza-form of** The Guardian\\nAngel. It is made up of a quatrain, a couplet, and\\nan extra line binding the stanza together by rhyming\\nwith the first and third of the quatrain. Do you\\nobserve any other point about the rhyming How\\nmany accents are there to the line Js the verse so\\nregular that it may easily be scanned by feet What is\\nthe metre, and are there any irregularities Upon\\nwhat does this poem depend chiefly for its music,\\nharmonious combinations of words, alliteration, smooth\\nrhythm, or figures of speech\\nDoes the apparently careless cleverness of the rhymes\\nand the familiar, personal, almost chatting tone of\\nOld Pictures cheapen the dignity of its philoso-\\nphy, or does it accord with the poet s conception of\\nthe poem as a whole and add to its originality and\\neffectiveness How many accents are there to the\\nline? and what is the rhyme-scheme? Are there\\nany departures from the alternately rhyming lines of\\nthe opening stanzas, or any irregularities in the\\naccents Are there, any rhymes you consider faulty\\nor extravagant If there are such to you, when\\ntaken separately, can you, upon study of the context\\nand the air of the whole, show that they fall in well\\nin their places as related to the rest of the poem\\nWhat figures are there in the poem Examine the\\nappropriateness of each to the design of the poem and\\nto the sense, in its place.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0199.jp2"}, "200": {"fulltext": "l66 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nPictor Ignotus is made up of quatrains all joined\\ntogether in one long paragraph. The effect of this is\\nto make the verse flow continuously from beginning\\nto end, without the usual breaks in the thought caused\\nby the division into stanzas. What is the metre in\\nthis Point out any variations you may perceive.\\nThere are many beautiful poetic figures in this poem\\npoint them out, also the lines where alliteration\\noccurs.\\nNotice that the difference in management of subject-\\nmatter between **01d Pictures and Andrea del\\nSarto and Fra Lippo Lippi is matched by a\\ncorresponding difference in workmanship. Although\\na colloquial air is given the first poem by its easy pace\\nand rhymes, Fra Lippo is decidedly more repre-\\nsentative of easy talking, as it should be to convey its\\nsense of dramatic dialogue and incident. How is this\\neffect secured Notice that it is in blank verse, not\\nrhyme, and that its blank verse is facile, not stately.\\nIs this effect produced by the character of the language\\nand the shortness of the sentences How does\\nAndrea del Sarto differ? Is it more like Old\\nPictures or Fra Lippo as to its style of verse\\nHow does it differ from both How is the quieter\\nstyle of Andrea effected Is it suited to the subject-\\nmatter Examine and explain the appropriateness of\\nthe figures.\\nObserve the difference in the atmosphere of\\nLippo and Andrea, Lippo, sort of devil-\\nmay-care, breaking out every now and then into an\\nItalian love-song.\\nCompare the blank verse of The Bishop Orders\\nhis Tomb with that of the other two blank-verse\\npoems, and observe here the different atmosphere. Is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0200.jp2"}, "201": {"fulltext": "ART AND THE ARTIST 167\\nit due to any difference in the structure of the verse, or\\nsimply to the language put into the Bishop s mouth?\\nCompare the different stanza forms of **Deaf and\\nDumb, Eurydice to Orpheus, and Face,\\npointing out their different rhyme schemes, their\\nrhythms, and the character of the language, whether\\nprincipally realistic or figurative. Pacchiarotto is\\na decided contrast with all the other poems, with its\\nthree-stressed lines and double and triple rhymes all\\nthrough. Mr. Symons says of this poem: The\\nstory is funny enough in itself, and it points an ex-\\ncellent moral but it is chiefly interesting as a whim-\\nsical freak of verse, an extravaganza in staccato. The\\nrhyming is of its kind simply perfect. I think all\\nother experiments of the kind, however successful as a\\nwhole, let you see now and then that the author has\\nhad a hard piece of work to keep up his appearance of\\nease. In Pacchiarotto, there is no evidence of\\nthe strain. In the one remaining poem, The Lady\\nand the Painter, what are the verse characteristics\\nQueries for Discussioji, Is blank verse better suited\\nfor the presentation of character than rhymed verse,\\nbecause of the entire freedom it gives in the construc-\\ntion of sentences of any length Has Pictor\\nIgnotus, in spite of its rhymes, something of the\\nfreedom of blank verse\\nDo you find Browning s blank verse in these poems\\nmarked by much variation in the distribution of short\\nsyllables and of cssural pauses", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0201.jp2"}, "202": {"fulltext": "Music and Musicians\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nA Toccata of Galuppi s iv 48 369\\nMaster Hugues of Saxe-Gotha iv 133 382\\nAbtVogler v 169 308\\nParley! ngs with Charles Avison xii 154 349\\nThe Founder of the Feast xii 278 382\\nCompare David in Saul, iv. 66, Notes, 375; lines 942-973\\nand 1566-1689 in Fifine at the Fair, ix, 72, Notes, 288.\\nI. Topic for Paper y Classzuorky or Private Study.\\nThe Material and its Modelling.\\nHints A short account of the gist of each poem\\nmay be found in the Notes, Camberwell Brozuiiingy\\nas given above.\\nOf this group of poems how many of them have\\nto do with actual musicians (See notes to the\\npoems as given above. For further information, see\\nGrove s Dictionary of Music and Musicians;\\nalso papers by Mrs. Alexander Ireland on A Toc-\\ncata of Galuppi s, by Miss Helen J. Ormerod on\\n**Abt Vogler the Man and Andrea del Sarto\\nand Abt Vogler, Some Notes on Browning s\\nPoems Referring to Music, by Mrs. Turnbull on\\nAbt Vogler. These are all suggestive papers,\\nthough full of inaccuracies on technical musical points\\nwhich must be guarded against, and colored too much\\nin their interpretations by the supposition that the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0202.jp2"}, "203": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 169\\ncompositions in the poems must be regarded as\\nbeautiful specimens of musical art.\\nIt will be found that the relation of the musician to\\nthe poem he figures in varies considerably with the\\ndifferent poems. For instance, in **A Toccata of\\nGaluppi s it is a particular composition of this\\nmaster that starts the train of thought; in Master\\nHugues it is a particular form of composition; in\\nAbt Vogler the man and his relation as creator\\nto his music is the inspiration, while in Charles\\nAvison a special composition again gives rise to the\\nconversation with its composer. In only one of\\nthese poems is the musician whose name appears the\\nspeaker; which is it? Who is the speaker in the\\nother cases The language made use of in these\\npoems is so full of musical technicalities that, as a\\npreHminary to their proper comprehension, it is neces-\\nsary to explain these allusions. (For those in A\\nToccata, see Carnberwell Browtiingy Notes, Vol.\\nIV., p. 369.)\\nThis poem opens by the speaker s directly address-\\ning Galuppi as to the meaning he perceives in his\\nmusic. What does he declare is all that he can get\\nout of this old music? Describe the picture of Venice\\nand its life which the music calls up. Is this pic-\\nture of Venice true to the life at the time when\\nGaluppi lived (See Venice An Historical Sketch,\\nby Horatio E. Brown, chap. xxii.\\nNotice that the various modulations are made by\\nthe speaker to fit in with definite moods of the\\nVenetian belles and beaux he is^ imaging. What is the\\ngeneral tenor of these moods, thoughdess joyous-\\nness, or gayety with an undercurrent of fear In\\nstanza xi. the speaker makes a reflection upon the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0203.jp2"}, "204": {"fulltext": "fact that he thought he had wrung a secret from\\nnature what does he mean by this\\nPossibly he means that whenever he tries to be-\\nlieve that there was some immortal element even in\\nthe frivolous life of Venice, Galuppi s cold music\\ndissipates it all by speaking to him only of its decay\\nand death. If that is true of Venice, why not of\\nhimself too? The music does not comfort him with\\nanything better than a sarcastic fling at his knowledge\\nof physics and geology. Might a wider application\\nof the thought be made here, namely, that soul is\\nnot revealed any more in present-day culture than\\nit was in the frivolity of eighteenth-century Venice\\nIs there any indication that the speaker finds the\\nmusic of Galuppi beautiful What do we learn of\\nthe character of the speaker What seems to be the\\nmood induced in the listener by Galuppi s music?\\nDo you suppose that Galuppi was in a dismal mood\\nwhen he wrote it, or is its effect on the modern\\nlistener due solely to its old-fashioned quality\\nMrs. Ireland, writing of this poem in the London\\nBrowning Society Papers, says\\nWe feel assured that the Toccata treated of in\\nBrowning s poem must have possessed considerable\\nlight and shade, for while its joyous lightness con-\\njured up before the listener s mind the bewildering\\nvision of festal scenes in ancient Venice, while it drew\\naround him the balmy night of May, the intoxicating\\nfragrance of roses and love and youth, the atmosphere\\nsurcharged with fulness of sensuous life, there were\\nyet thrilling and tender cadences, surely some strains\\nthat had a dying fall, dissonances even, powerful\\nenough to interpose, with obtrusiveness, grim doubts\\nin the very heart and core of the charmed moment", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0204.jp2"}, "205": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 171\\ndoubts transient, quickly put aside or stifled, but\\nghastly in their suggestion of impending change,\\ndoom, and death.\\nThis opinion is based upon the supposition that\\nthe music is a direct reflection of the gay life of the\\ntime, with its underlying sense of decay, while from\\nour previous study of the poem it would appear that\\nthe music does not reflect the life directly, but only\\nthrough associations in the mind of the listener, who\\nfinds the Toccata anything but gay. He also im-\\nplies that while the suspensions and diminished\\nsevenths may have told them something, they did not\\ntell him anything. These intervals when used by the\\nmore modern harmonic writers produce rich effects,\\nbut by the earlier polyphonic writers they were apt\\nto be used in a sort of wooden and mechanical way.\\nIn Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha we get more\\nof the present scene than in **A Toccata. Is this\\ndone by any direct descriptions, or by means of side\\nremarks which the organist lets fall as he is struggling\\nwith the fugue? (For a sketch of fugue-form, see\\nNotes, Cambe?-zuell Browning, Vol. IV., p. 382.)\\nWhat do we learn of the scene of the poem in the\\nfirst ftvj stanzas What is the organist bent on dis-\\ncovering in the fugue of this composer What sort\\nof a composition is this fugue, as described by Brown-\\ning Compare the description in the poem with the\\naccount of a fugue given in the Notes. What con-\\nclusion does the organist at first come to in regard to\\nthe fugue Notice the comparison with the gilt roof\\nof the church over which is stretched a spider s web.\\nWhat moral of life suggests itself to him as a result of\\nthis comparison as to the moral possibly meant by the\\ncomposer? This conclusion not being exactly com-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0205.jp2"}, "206": {"fulltext": "172 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nplimentary to the fugue, how does he counteract it in\\nstanzas xxv. and xxvi. Returning to the fugue,\\nwhat does he declare finally in regard to the moral\\nWhat puts an end to his playing Why does he turn\\nfrom the fugue to Palestrina Palestrina was the first\\nto release music from the dry formalism into which it\\nhad fallen in the hands of the contrapuntal writers\\nit would, therefore, be a marked contrast to the fugue\\nhe had been playing and a relief to his feelings. It\\nhas been also proposed that Palestrina represents the\\nnoble music of the Church, which did not obscure the\\ntruth by its over-elaboration. Is this a good sugges-\\ntion Was over-elaboration a marlc of secular music\\nas opposed to that of the Church\\nIn these two poems is it the personality of the com-\\nposer or that of the one playing and speaking which\\ndominates the tone of the poem What mental picture\\ndo you form of their characters\\nIn **Abt Vogler we get an inside view of the\\ncreator of music, not as in the other poems merely\\nof an interpreter. The musician himself speaks,\\ngiving expression to the thoughts which have arisen\\nin him as he extemporizes. What does Abt Vogler\\ncompare his music to in the first verse What is the\\nstory of Solomon and his palace (Dr. Berdoe\\nsays Jewish legend gave Solomon sovereignty\\nover the demons, and a lordship over the powers of\\nnature. In the Moslem East these fables have found\\na resting-place in much of its literature from the Koran\\nonwards. Solomon was thought to have owed his\\npower over the spiritual world to the possession of a\\nseal on which the most great name of God was\\nengraved. See Lane, Arabian Nights, Introd.,\\nnote 2 1, and chapter i., note 15.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0206.jp2"}, "207": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 173\\nWhat is Vogler s first desire in regard to the\\nmusic How does he enlarge in stanzas ii. and iii.\\non the idea that the keys are the slaves of his will\\nWhat special appropriateness is there in speaking of\\nnotes in music as eager to do, and die What\\nmyths are there as to the raising of walls by music\\n(For a comparison of music with architecture, see\\n**The Boundaries of Music and Poetry, by Ambros.)\\nWhat visions does he seem to see as he rears his palace\\nof sound What contrast does he make between\\npainting, poetry, and music, in stanza vi. In stanza\\nvii. he declares that music is a direct inspiration\\nuntrammelled by laws. Is the Abbe right about this,\\nor is he carried away by his enthusiasm for his own\\nart When it is remembered that it took man four\\nthousand odd years to find out that it was agreeable\\nto sound three notes together in a chord, does it not\\nseem somewhat exaggerated to call it the fiash of the\\nwill that can Would it be more profound and\\nnone the less wonderful to call it the long struggle of\\nthe will that can. How does the Abbe illustrate\\nhis point here What does he mean by calling a\\nchord in music a star (See explanation given in\\nNotes, Ca?nberzveil B7 ow?iifigyTp. T,o().) Furthermore,\\nit may be said that a chord in music is like a piece of\\npolished stone which aids in the building of the art\\nedifice, and the flash of the individual will does indeed\\ncome in as the good Abbe rears his palace of sound\\n(viii.). Upon realizing that his palace of music is\\ngone, Vogler falls into a train of reflection. He first\\nasks what comfort it is to him that other palaces as\\nfine may be reared again, for he clings to the idea of\\npermanency, what was, shall be. What does he\\ngive as his belief in regard to good and evil in stanzas", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0207.jp2"}, "208": {"fulltext": "ix. and x. In xi., what attitude does he take in\\nregard to the failures of life as compared with discords\\nin music\\nA discord in music is an interval which must be\\nresolved that is, followed by a concord. A piece\\nof music, though it may begin with a discord, or, in\\ntechnical language, a dissonance, must always end\\nwith a concord. Contrary to the impression given in\\nthe line, discords are not the enemies of harmony,\\nbut its stanch allies. They do not exist merely to\\nmake concords more prized they exist because they\\nare beautiful in themselves and beautiful in relation\\nto concords.\\nUpon what is the faith of the Abbe founded, reason\\nor intuition God has a few of us whom he whis-\\npers in the ear. Tis we musicians know!\\nWhat is the mood expressed in the last stanza, and\\nhow does he illustrate it by means of musical symbol-\\nism (See Notes.)\\nIn Charles Avison the poet himself undis-\\nguisedly has a little talk with the once well-known\\nEnglish musician. How does he introduce the subject\\nDoes it strike you as being a perfectly natural train of\\nthought leading up to the subject, or does the transi-\\ntion from the introductory ruminations to the subject\\nproper seem forced on account of the pun It\\nhas the advantage at least of giving us a mental picture\\nof the poet at his window this cold March morning\\nwatching the black-cap, while his active mind flies\\nfrom thought to thought, weaving this interesting and\\nprofoundly philosophical poem. Observe how his\\nimagination plays about the thought of Avison s March\\nas it did about the black-cap. At stanza iv. he comes\\ndown to solid fact, and gives a description of the March", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0208.jp2"}, "209": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 175\\nin musical parlance. What other early musicians\\ncome to Browning s mind as a result of his thinking of\\nAvison s March, and how does he give us a glimpse\\nof the musical controversies of the day (For further\\ninformation on these, see junder names of musicians\\nmentioned in Grove s Dictionary of Music and\\nMusicians and Naumann s History of Music\\nIn stanza v. what musical problem presents itself to\\nhim when he compares Avison s evidence with\\nhis own feelings In stanza vi. he tackles the solution\\nof the problem. He starts with a premise that no\\ntruer truth is obtainable bv man than comes of music,\\nbut before proving this, he goes on to show first what\\nmusic cannot do. How does he attempt to define\\nthe soul, and what illustrative image does he use\\nThis digression on the nature of the soul leads up\\nto, and emphasizes the point the poet wishes to make\\nnamely, that music is more distinctively than any other\\nart the one which gives form to the moods, hates,\\nloves, joys, etc., of the soul, and her triumph\\nwould be complete if the forms in which music is cast\\nhad an element of permanence in them.\\nThis truth of the soul, then, is the truth that music\\ngives to man, is it not What does he say is the\\nhitch which balks her of full triumph And how\\ndoes music compare with the other arts in its power\\nto give permanent expression to a feeling? While\\nshe dredges deeper than the other arts, she seems\\neven less able than they to give a permanent form, as\\nhe shows by remarking upon the fact that the popular-\\nity of the old composer wanes as the new one comes\\ninto view. His mood changes at stanza ix. Instead\\nof noting the ever-new invasion, he facetiously imagines\\nhimself re-enlivening Avison s old March with modern", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0209.jp2"}, "210": {"fulltext": "176 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmusical appliances. Note the symbol he uses and his\\ndescription of how he will change the march. At\\nstanza x. he grows serious again, and tells Avison not\\nto fear any such irreverent innovation. In stanza xi.\\nhe quiets his doubts with the decision that even if the\\nsoul seeks ever-new forms of expression in music,\\nstill what has once lived can never die (compare with\\nAbt Vogler s There shall never be one lost good,\\nline 69). But what must we do in order to appre-\\nciate the great musicians of the past\\nYet, again, before rejoicing over this decision the\\nvoice of doubt must be listened to. The poet does\\nnot believe that past knowledge is all futile, that it\\nwas only ignorance instead of knowledge in the bud\\ndestined to blossom in time, yet he remembers that\\nold beliefs and opinions have passed away to give\\nplace to new ones, just as old tunes have. How is he\\nto reconcile this philosophical creed with what seem\\nto be facts of experience In stanza xiii. he attempts\\nthe reconciliation, which is to the effect that the un-\\nderlying truth is permanent, but that the manifestations\\nof the eternal verities whether in music or in beliefs\\nare constantly enlarging so that the older ones grow out\\nof date. Therefore he will rejoice Avison s March\\nmay be old-fashioned in form, but the march motive\\nwill bear resetting. As a final little quip he imagines\\nwhat Vv^ould be the effect of carrying a tune backwards\\ninstead of forwards, and concludes that by doing this\\nunsuspected beauties would be revealed in Avison s\\nMarch.\\nHe seems to feel this attitude as somewhat disloyal,\\nand ends by calling up a certain period of English\\nhistory especially marked by a progressive impulse, and\\nfor which he is loath to think there was not music", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0210.jp2"}, "211": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 177\\nfitted for the occasion. He will do what he can now\\nany way by celebrating it with a glorious subject\\n(theme for a fugue) of Bach s, and Avison shall help,\\nand he writes a poem in honor of the heroes of that\\nday those who took the first steps toward that Fed-\\nerated England he foresees in stanza xiv. Hne 388.\\nQueries for Debate. Do you remember to have\\nread in any other poet poems upon m^usic which\\nshowed such intimate acquaintanceship with its tech-\\nnical aspects Do you consider the use of these\\ntechnical terms unfitted for poetry, or an example of\\nthe fact that the realms of poetry may so be enlarged\\nby the poet who can use them poetically\\nIs David in **Saul allied with any of these\\nmusicians in his attitude toward music\\nWhat is the attitude of the speaker in Fifine at\\nthe Fair Is Schumann s Carnival used in\\nthis poem much as the Toccata is used Should\\nyou say that the principal difference is that in the\\nToccata the picture suggested by the music is a real-\\nistic, historical one, and the picture suggested by the\\nCarnival music to the man in Fifine grows\\nfrom a realistic image of the Carnival at Venice to a\\nphilosophical vision of human society (For musical\\nallusions and suggestions, see notes to Camberzvell\\nBrozvni?ig on **Saul, Vol. IV., p. 375 on Fifine\\nat the Fair, Vol. IX., p. 288. Also remarks on the\\nmusical poems in Introduction to these volumes.)\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Philosophy of Music Indicated.\\nHi?2ts The question has often been discussed\\nas to whether music is capable of giving any definite\\nimpression as to its meaning. In A Toccata the\\nmusic seems to give to the listener a very definite idea\\n12", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0211.jp2"}, "212": {"fulltext": "178 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof the life of Venice. Is it because there is anything\\nin the music corresponding exactly to the mood of the\\nlife at that time, or is it rather the historical sense of\\nthe listener who calls up the picture He knows\\nthe life of the time when Galuppi lived, and when he\\nhears the music, association of ideas causes him to see\\nthe picture. Is not the mood produced by the music,\\none of coldness and deadness, exactly the opposite of\\nthe brightness of Venetian life It cannot be said,\\nthen, that the Toccata gives a definite picture of\\nVenetian life, for it would have been powerless to\\nproduce it without the historic knowledge of Galuppi\\nand his times possessed by the listener.\\nOn the other hand, Schumann s Carnival\\nmentioned in Fifine deliberately attempts to put\\ninto music definite impressions. Much modern pro-\\ngramme music does the same thing, as well as much of\\nWagner s music. To a certain extent it seems to be\\nsuccessful, though a large proportion of the success is\\ndue to the fact that cues to the meaning of the music\\nare given either by deliberate descriptions, in acting,\\nor in the titling of the music. The closer the at-\\ntempt is toward the imitation of purely physical\\nsounds, such as the neighing of horses, the singing of\\nbirds, etc., the more successful it is. It is to be ob-\\nserved, however, that the man in Fifine very\\nsoon leaves the concrete picture of Pantalon and\\nColumbine, and through association, his historical\\nsense, and his philosophizing predilecdons is led far\\nafield by the music of Schumann.\\nIn Saul, again, the music of David has the\\ndesired effect upon Saul through association of ideas.\\nHas the organist in Master Hugues the same\\nhistorical sense as the listener in A Toccata", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0212.jp2"}, "213": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 179\\nOr does he try to draw a meaning directly from the\\nfugue Does he in the end catch any intent of the\\ncomposer, or does he merely attach a meaning to it\\nfrom the outside, a meaning, too, which is sug-\\ngested entirely by the external form of the fugue, and\\nnot at all by its soul Would a composition like this\\nfugue be necessarily possessed of any soul When\\ncontrapuntal writing was at its height, music was often\\nso much a matter of rules and calculations that, instead\\nof being the expression of the soul, it was merely an\\nexternal and mechanical arrangement of sounds.\\nObserve, then, that in these poems the hearer gets\\nout of the music very much what he puts into it\\nhimself. If he have a vivid imagination backed up by\\nsufficient knowledge, he can see historical pictures or\\nvisions of the whole of human society. If he be of\\na moralizing turn of mind, he can extract a moral\\nwhere none was intended. The question is whether\\nany of these attitudes toward music indicate a truly\\nmusical appreciation of music.\\nNow let us see what Vogler feels about it. In\\nAbt Vogler we do not have the effect of music\\non the listener, but its effect on its creator. Notice\\nthat Vogler does not attempt to express a definite\\nmeaning through his music, nor to find one after-\\nwards. The comparisons he uses are all with the\\nexternal form of music. What he builds is a beautifial\\npalace of sound the external manifestation of the\\nwish of his soul to reach toward heaven.\\nBy means of the wondrous beauty of his creation,\\nearth and heaven seem to touch, and he sees visions.\\nNot that the music in itself gives definite pictures of\\nvisions, but that the soul is so exalted by the beauty\\nof his music that it induces a mood for visions. The", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0213.jp2"}, "214": {"fulltext": "l8o BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nbeauty and the evanescence of the music suggest two\\ntrains of philosophical thought first, that any\\nattainment which reaches out toward beauty and truth\\nis a part of absolute beauty and truth, and is there-\\nfore eternal second, that the failure to attain the\\nperfect ideal of beauty and truth is in itself a proof that\\nthe perfect ideal will one day be realized; further,\\nthat all pain and evil is transitional, that its existence\\nfor a time is in order to add greater value to the\\njoy which is to follow.\\nThe Abbe s passion of soul is transformed into\\nbeauty in musical form through that musical beauty\\nwould be reflected a mood of aspiration, but nothing\\nmore definite to one who could appreciate it in a true\\nmusical spirit. (For music as a suggester of moods,\\nsee The Boundaries of Music and Poetry, by\\nAmbros. The trains of thought suggested are not\\nsuch as would be deduced from any special musical\\ncomposition, but grow from the analogies that may be\\ndrawn between the facts peculiar to musical extempori-\\nzation and musical form and life; namely, evanescence,\\nsuggestive of the passing of all things beauty, which\\nin its recognition gives a sense of the absolute con-\\ntrast between discords and concords, which suggests\\nthe contrast between good and evil and the harmony\\nresulting from the admixture of discords with con-\\ncords, suggesting that a completed view of life will\\nshow as great a harmony between good and evil.\\nNotice once more that these thoughts of the Abbe\\nare not the inspiration of the music, but follow as\\nanalogies after the music is finished. The sole in-\\nspiration of the music is his mood of aspiration.\\nWhen we come to Charles Avison, we find\\nthat the poet considers music to be the expression in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0214.jp2"}, "215": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS i8i\\nartistic form of the moods of the soul, of which Abt\\nVogler is the living example. There is no question\\nof its expressing anything more definite and concrete;\\nthe problem with him being, Why, since it does\\nexpress these most fundamental and abstract truths,\\nshould it lose its power, as time passes, for making\\na direct emotional appeal to the listener He is\\nobliged to come to the conclusion that musical ex-\\npression is relative, like all human expression. It is\\never trying fully to reveal the soul, but is hampered\\nby man s finiteness, yet, owing to this very lack, prog-\\nress toward new forms is possible. Autumxn comes.\\nSo much the better, which compares well with\\nAbt Vogler s What is our failure here but a\\ntriumph s evidence of the fulness of the days r What\\nhope is there for the music that is dead and gone\\nIt can only be made to speak again to us by the use\\nof just such historical and imaginative methods as\\nthose used by the man in **A Toccata.\\nIt has been suggested by Mr. Moseley, in Proceed-\\nings of the London Browning Societv, that Browning,\\nWagner, and Schopenhauer s views are identical. He\\nsays\\nSchopenhauer says it stands apart from all other\\narts in that it is not an imitation or reproduction of an\\nIdea of the things in the world, but Speech of our\\ndeepest innermost self. Whilst the other arts objec-\\ntivate the Will under mediation only, e. by means\\nof Ideas, music is the immediate objectivation and image\\nof the universal Will. It is by no means an image of\\nthe Ideas as the other arts are, but an Image of\\nthe Will itself: its effect so much more powerful\\nand penetrating than that of other arts for these\\nspeak of shadows only, whilst speaks of essentials.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0215.jp2"}, "216": {"fulltext": "l82 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWagner says The essence of music is this, that\\nwhich all other arts only indicate, through it and in\\nit becomes unquestionable certainty, absolute and\\nunequivocal truth (v. 247).\\nMelody tells the hidden story of the will in the\\nlight of consciousness paints each emotion, each\\nendeavor, each movement, all that reason gathers to-\\ngether under the wide and negative conception of\\nfeeling, and which it can no longer grasp as abstrac-\\ntions. Therefore also it has always been said that\\nmusic is the speech of feeling and of passion, as\\nlanguage is of reason. The invention of melody, the\\nexposition of all the deepest secrets of human desires\\nand feelings, is the work of genius, whose work is\\nhere, more obviously than elsewhere, free from all\\nreflection and conscious purpose, and may be called\\ninspiration. The composer reveals the innermost\\nessential being of the world, and expresses the pro-\\nfoundest wisdom in a language his reason does not\\nunderstand as a magnetic somnambulist gives account\\nof things of which she has no notion when awake.\\nWhat is the meaning of Abt Vogler, xii. Scho-\\npenhauer will explain\\nThe essential nature of man consists in this, that\\nhis Will strives, is satisfied and strives again, and so\\non for ever, nay that happiness and wellbeing consist\\nof this only, that the transition from wish to satisfac-\\ntion and from satisfaction to a new wish should go on\\nrapidly, as the failing of satisfaction produces suffer-\\ning just as the absence of a new wish produces long-\\ning. Thus, in accordance with this, the essentials of\\nmelody consist in a continuous deviation, swerving\\nfrom the key-note in a thousand ways, not only to\\nthe nearest harmonic notes, to the third or dominant.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0216.jp2"}, "217": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 183\\nbut to every tone, to the dissonant seventh, and to\\naugmented intervals yet followed, in the end, by a\\nReturn to the starting-point in all these ways melody\\nexpresses the manifold strivings of the Will whilst\\nby the final return to some harmonic note, or more\\ndefinitely, by a return to the key-note, its satisfaction\\nis expressed.\\nFrom what has preceded, should you say that the\\nopinions of the three are identical, or that Brown-\\ning s includes and goes beyond all because he recog-\\nnizes music s limitations Does the man in Fifine\\ndiffer from the poet in his musical philosophy except\\nin the mode of his expression\\nQueries for Discussion. Do you think it true\\nthat all music reflects the moods of the soul Could\\nit be said of merely imitative music\\nIs there not also much music which seems to be\\nput together from the outside rather than from the\\ninside, and not necessarily poor music, but music with\\nsomething of the artistic quality of arabesque patterns\\nDoes Browning anywhere state that all music is\\na reflection of soul-moods, or does he only contend\\nthat the power to do this is music s greatest\\nachievement\\nDoes he not insist too strongly upon the ephemeral\\nnature of musical expression Has not experience\\nproved that whenever the high-water mark of musicaf\\nexpression has been reached, it has survived in grea^\\nmusical works of art (For example, Handel s Ora-\\ntorios, Beethoven s Symphonies.)\\nIs Browning s philosophy of music further borne\\nout by the fact that these poems may be regarded as\\ntypes of various phases of musical development (See\\nremarks on musical poems in Introduction to these", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0217.jp2"}, "218": {"fulltext": "184 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nvolumes; also Naumann s History of Music\\nand Ritter s History of Music for accounts of\\nmusical development.)\\nIII. Topic for Paper i Classwork, or Private Study.\\nRhythm, Metre, and Ornament.\\nHints: A Toccata has eight stresses to the\\nline, made up of seven trochaic feet with an extra\\nstressed syllable at the end. The stanzas are of\\nthree lines, all rhyming together. Do you discover\\nany variations from the normal line On the w^hole,\\nthe form is monotonous, is it not and well repro-\\nduces the monotony of the old Toccata. But upon\\nthis monotonous rhythm are embroidered so many\\nlively thoughts, that the effect is a combination\\nof gayness with an undercurrent of dulness exactly\\nsuited to the subject of the poem. The musical\\nallusions have already been considered in relation to\\nthe subject-matter. Are there any allusions intro-\\nduced merely for ornament? How about other\\nforms of poetical ornamentation, similes, metaphors,\\nsymbols Are there many of them\\nMaster Hugues shows a little more variety in\\nthe construction of the stanza, two lines with three\\nstresses, two with four, and a last one with three\\nrhymes alternating, the last line rhyming with the first\\nand third lines. The normal foot of the verse is a\\ndactyl, but every line has an extra stressed syllable,\\nand sometimes an extra unstressed one after the stressed\\none.\\nObserve all these little variations, also the nature\\nof the rhymes, the double ones often being very in-\\ngenious. These rhymes have been found fault with\\nfor their uncouthness, but when you examine them,\\ndo you not find that they are mostly easy and natural.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0218.jp2"}, "219": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 185\\nand very well reflect the growing excitement of the\\norganist as he gets deeper and deeper into the diffi-\\nculties of the fugue The close of the struggle with\\nthe fugue is marked by what change in the form\\nThere are one or two elaborate comparisons in this\\npoem what are they, and which has the most intrinsic\\npoetic beauty Is the poem, on the whole, more\\nfigurative and more allusional in its language than the\\npreceding poem\\nIt would be difficult to find a greater contrast in\\nlanguage than that between the two poems already\\nspoken of and Abt Vogler. Point out the reasons\\nfor this contrast, noticing the far greater richness of\\nthe imagery, the wider and more exalted range of\\nthought, the smooth and harmonious flow of the\\nlanguage, depending largely upon alliteration. The\\nconstruction of stanza and line is simple, six stresses,\\nwith one and sometimes two unstressed syllables fol-\\nlowing, giving what Mr. Beatty calls iambic-logacedic\\nmetre then a final stressed syllable.\\nThere has been a good deal of talk as to the mean-\\ning of the line (52) That out of three sounds he\\nframe not a fourth sound, but a star. See explanation\\nsuggested in the Notes to Camberzvell Brownrng^ Vol.\\nv., p. 309. The whole phrase may be taken also as a\\nsymbol of the distinctive character of musical art as\\ncompared with other arts. Painting, for example,\\nimitates the harmonies of color found in nature, but\\nmusical harmonies seem to be the result of human\\ninvention entirely, which first chooses out certain\\nsounds and then chooses to combine them in stars of\\nsound. This is still true artistically, although science\\nhas discovered that, with the exception of the minor\\nthird, the fundamental intervals used in music are", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0219.jp2"}, "220": {"fulltext": "l86 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nfound combined in nature as partial vibrations (called\\novertones) of any vibrating body sounding a given\\nnote. The Abbe was, of course, not au^are of this\\nmodern scientific discovery. With regard to tlie\\nmusical allusions in this poem, are they used quite in\\nthe same way as they are in the others or do the\\ndifferent attitudes in the three poems necessarily\\nresult in a different use of the allusions\\nThe chief interest in the form in Charles Avison\\nis in the variety of grouping in the rhymes. The\\nmetre is that of blank verse, iambic pentameter.\\nAnother thing to be noticed is the way in which the\\nlines run on, line after line. How many end-stopped\\nlines are there in this poem of 433 lines In spite\\nof the fact that the sentences are mostly very long,\\nthe meaning is not difficult on that account, is it\\nWhich do you consider the most difficult passages,\\nand why And which do you consider the most\\nbeautiful passages, and why Although this poem is\\nso long and argumentative, do you not find the inter-\\nest kept up all through by the changes in mood\\nFor example, first, the poet s observation of the black-\\ncap second, his imagination rushing off at the thought\\nof the march third, the prosaic description of the\\nmarch fourth, the pondering over the problem fifth,\\nphilosophizing, first upon the soul, then upon the\\nprovinces of the arts sixth, an outbreak of humor,\\nwherein he tries to reinstate Avison seventh, more\\nphilosophy, in which his optimistic theories struggle\\nsomewhat with the data of experience eighth, a tri-\\numphant mood ninth, another attempt to prove the\\nworth of Avison s March by showing how much it\\nwas ahead of Elizabethan plain-song and, finally,\\ntriumph once more. Loath to think England s heroes\\nI", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0220.jp2"}, "221": {"fulltext": "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS 187\\nof the past did not have good music, he will make it\\nall right any way by cheering them now with music\\nto his choice, and, loyal to Avison, will let him help.\\nPerhaps it would not be stretching too much of a\\npoint to compare this poem to a musical composition\\nw^ith several themes that recur at different intervals,\\none soaring and imaginative, one questioning and\\nphilosophical, one light and humorous, one trium-\\nphant. Would it give the poem needed artistic unity\\nto think of it in this way Is there any passage in the\\npoem which would give direct credence to this idea\\nQueries for Discussion. What reasons can you\\nthink of which cause Browning always to dwell upon\\ninstrumental rather than vocal music? Is it another\\nsign of his originality in the treatment of the subject\\nShould you say that his musical poems prove that\\nthe poet was haunted by the fact of music s evanescent\\npower\\nDo you suppose this feeling of his was enhanced by\\nthe Wagner craze and the talk about the music of the\\nfuture which has agitated the musical world for so\\nmany years?\\nIs this talk dying out, and a recognition of the\\ngreatness of each musical age for its own special\\nqualities taking its place\\nThe poet s evident wish that there should not be\\none lost good in music indicates that he would have\\nhailed the sane attitude of the present, does it not", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0221.jp2"}, "222": {"fulltext": "The Poet\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nThe Poet in Pauline i i 301\\nMemorabilia iv 129 381\\nPopularity iv 130 381\\nTranscendentalism v i 281\\nHow it Strikes a Contemporary v 3 282\\nAt the Mermaid ix 191 298\\nHouse ix 197 298\\nShop ix 199 299\\nTouch him ne er so lightly x 226 323\\nLast Lyric in Ferishtah s Fancies xii 61 318\\nPoetics xii 201 363\\nAlbum Lines xii 273 381\\nGoldoni xii 274 381\\nThe Names xii 277 382\\nCompare Aprile in Paracelsus, part ii., vol i, 82, 309;\\nSordello, ii. 93, 309 Ronsard and Marot in The Glove,\\niv. 162, 185; passages in The Ring and the Book, parts i.\\nlines 410-470, 712-779, 1348-1365, xii. 835 foil.; Two\\nPoets of Croisic, lines 1210-1280, x. 235, 306; Parleying\\nwith Christopher Smart, xii. loi, 330. Sordello and\\nSmart belong as wholes under this subject, but they are taken\\nup later in Single Poem Studies, which maybe combined at\\npleasure with this programme, or excluded from it on account of\\ntheir length and subtlety.] On the poet considered as a writer of\\ndramas, see Aristophanes Apology; and on Browning with\\nreference to himself as poet, see Pacchiarotto and Epilogue,\\nand Pambo, ix. 171, 294, and xi. 286, 337.\\nConsult, also. Browning s Essay on Shelley given in Camberivell\\nBro-zunifigy vol. xii p. 383.\\nI. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Poet-Nature.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0222.jp2"}, "223": {"fulltext": "THE POET 189\\nHints: The inner nature of a poet is Brown-\\ning s earliest subject-matter. It is evidence of his\\ngenuineness as a budding artist intending to model\\nhuman life dramatically, that the theme he started out\\nwith, at twenty years of age, was one he really\\nknew.\\nThe way in which he presented the poet nature in\\nPauline is shapeless, and the sequence of ex-\\nperiences and confidences is confused (for digest, see\\nCamberwell Brozvni?ig, Notes, as cited above, and\\nIntroduction, pp. xxxix-xliv) but the characteristic\\ntraits of this poet s nature are clear a central\\nover-consciousness, capable, with development, not\\nonly of looking on at its own qualities and processes,\\nbut of disposing them at will and an insatiable thirst\\nfor knowledge and experience of all sorts. The\\nmain powers and habits of his mind are almost equally\\nclear a vitalizing imagination a trust in his own\\nclose relation to a higher power. The lack of de-\\nvelopment in the exercise of this central conscious-\\nness is evident in the planlessness of its expression.\\nThe way in which this insatiable thirst led to dis-\\nsipation in sensation, and to action and thought having\\nreference to self alone, so that a state of lovelessness\\nand godlessness followed, is almost a necessary result\\nof the natural play of a nature born with such charac-\\nteristics. But its deliverance is almost equally a fore-\\ngone conclusion and although the process of self-\\ndeliverance is indistinctly presented in the poem, the\\nmaterial from which it may be collected is supplied.\\nThe underlying confidence in the higher power of\\nGod obscured by the enjoyment of personal desires\\nwhich made self a centre, instead of God, or instead\\nof any other object of love not subordinate to self", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0223.jp2"}, "224": {"fulltext": "190 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nis finally restored by consciousness itself. The self,\\nbecome conscious of weakness and mortality, is led to\\na sense of the comfort of Pauline s love, and thence\\nto the old need of an infinite love. All the story this\\npoem has consists in this restoration of the self to its\\nprimal need. The rest of Pauline furnishes noth-\\ning else that throws light on the poet-nature, beyond\\nlovely example after example of the gift of vivid, beauty-\\nbestowing imagination, except for the light thrown upon\\none other similar reconciliation of a power of the poet-\\nnature inconsistent in its exercise with that nature\\nitself. This power is its craving f3r all knowledge, a\\ncraving inconsistent with the craving for appropriating\\nto itself all passion. The necessity of accommodating\\nthese two to each other awakens his will to use the one\\nfor the sake of the other. But in choosing between\\ngiving the rein to reason or to love, he is again and\\noften lost in difficulty, and so throughout Pauline\\nwe have the oscillations of a nature beginning to be\\naware of itself and trying to put its elements into\\ncoherent relation, but with failure or half-success.\\nIn comparison with this self-centred, self-aggran-\\ndizing poet-nature, the nature of Aprile, the poet of\\nParacelsus, is strong in an equally innate desire for\\nthe out-flowing of self. But in the exercise of his\\ndesire to love infinitely and be loved, Aprile fails also.\\nHis intuitional insight and sympathy were so com-\\nprehensive that the ready and serviceable means to\\nexpress them were missed or spurned by a will as\\nmuch too widely impassioned and reckless of control\\nas that of the poet of Pauline was too self-\\ncentred and adroit. The inborn tendency of the one\\npoet-nature to appropriate to itself all beauty of\\nknowledge and feeling is in Aprile a contrary ten-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0224.jp2"}, "225": {"fulltext": "THE POET 191\\ndency to dower all men with the beauty their own\\nnatures but dimly guess, and in so doing to gain his\\nreward, their love or that of the Infinite Love.\\nBrowning followed up these two first sketches of sup-\\nplementary poet-natures, by showing, in **Sordello,*\\nhow still another variety of the poet-nature, starting\\nout in life with as passionate a yearning as Aprile s to\\nspend itself in outgoing desire, and as self-centred a\\nmotive in enjoying it as that of the poet of Paul-\\nine, is tutored, by contact with social life, and\\nthrough accommodating, in the practical exercise of his\\nart, his gifts and desires with the difficulties en-\\ncountered, to learn something, finally, of the mastery\\nbelonging to the centralized consciousness and self-\\ncontrol of the poet of Pauline, and something of\\nthe social love belonging to Aprile s wide sympathy\\nwith humanity.\\nIn Sordello s case, however, it would seem that it\\nwas never a mere yearning of love for mankind, like\\nAprile s, although he came to feel that, which in-\\nstigated him to poetic creation, but the gratification of\\nan insuppressible v\\\\/ill. In this respect his nature is\\nmore akin to that of the poet of Pauline, whose\\ninitial impulse found its basis in self.\\nEglamor, the minor poet of Sordello, was of\\nstill another type, of less exalted gifts than any of these\\nhis brother poets, being merely the lowly yet loyal\\nslave of song, shaped by art, as it were, instead of\\naspiring to shape it. Although Aprilc may be\\nlinked with Eglamor in his desire to spend himself in\\noutflow, he is distinguished from him by the dramatic\\nbent of his genius. And though Eglamor may have\\nattained a greater measure of success than either Aprile\\nor the poet of Pauline, theirs were failures of a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0225.jp2"}, "226": {"fulltext": "192 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\npioneer sort, their schemes being ahead of their\\naccomplishment. They were both failures through\\ncomplexity of power, while Eglamor, being merely a\\nfaithful imitative workman, had no such complexities\\nof desires to satisfy.\\nBrowning s Essay on Shelley (see Camberwell\\nBrowning, Vol. XII., p. 383), after distinctly defin-\\ning the two great classes of poet-nature, ordinarily\\ncalled objective and subjective, the one as reproduc-\\ning things external, either scenic or human, with\\nreference to men the other as embodying his own\\nperceptions, not so much with reference to the\\nmany below as the One above calls attention to\\nthe fact that there is not so much essential dis-\\ntinction in the faculty of the two poets, as in the\\nadaptability of the objects used by either to the\\ndistinct purpose of each. The poet whose study\\nis himself with reference to the absolute intelligence\\nand whose usual material is Idea and Nature, and the\\npoet whose study is the doings of men and whose\\nusual material is human action and effect, may inter-\\nchange material and keep their disdnct purpose and\\nmode of working. Moreover, the two modes of\\nworking might be followed successively by the same\\npoet in perfection or there might be a mere run-\\nning in of the one faculty upon the other the\\nordinary circumstance.\\nHas Browning shown in the poet of PauHne a\\npoet with mixed gifts, his self-centred consciousness\\nbeing a gift adapting him to the work of the dramatic\\npoet, who is able to externalize his material so that it\\nmay appeal to the aggregate understanding of men\\nhis yearning towards a God rather than towards\\nhuman love being a gift of spiritual perception adapt-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0226.jp2"}, "227": {"fulltext": "THE POET\\n193\\ning him to the work of the subjective poet, whose\\nattempt is the embodiment of absolute truth, not\\nwhat man sees, but what God sees May such\\na confusion of gifts, although differently commingled,\\nwhich he also was not strong enough to master, have\\nbeen meant to characterize Aprile Both would\\nthen represent types of the poet-nature sketched as in\\nthe process of evolution while in Sordello a full-\\nlength portrait of a poet-nature, dowered distinctively\\nwith the will to create, seems to be presented as\\nhaving the capability to pass through successive stages\\nof development, both as to faculty and purpose.\\nThe references to Shelley in Pauline* forbid\\nthe supposition that Shelley is portrayed in the poet\\nof Pauline. What sort of poet-nature is presented,\\nand can you find any actual poet whom the descrip-\\ntion fits If there is a likeness to Shelley which comes\\nout in the evidently strong influence of Shelley upon\\nhim, in what does it consist.? Notice the essential\\ndifference, his distinctive self-consciousness which\\nShelley as distinctively lacked Would Keats or the\\nyoung Browning (not the ripe Browning) suit the\\ncharacter Say why\\nFor suggestions as to signs of Browning s sympathy\\nwith Shelley, see Florence Converse s Shelley s\\nInfluence on Browning (^Poet-iore, Vol. VII., pp.\\n*i8-2 8, January, 1895).\\nThe poet-nature is not directly treated in Mem-\\norabilia. It comes out, in that bit of homage to\\nShelley, only in the guise of the sense of inner event-\\nfulness the poet-nature has the power to stir so deeply.\\nIn Popularity, also, Keats is not directly praised,\\nbut is made an instance of the originality peculiar to the\\nrare and distinctive poet-nature which gives its work\\n13", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0227.jp2"}, "228": {"fulltext": "194- BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nso new and fresh a quality. So primitive and close to\\nnature is it, that it is at first misunderstood and\\ndespised, and afterwards slavishly imitated, not merely\\nby gentle and kindly Eglamors, but by grossly com-\\nmercial Nokeses and Stokeses, who reap the reward\\nKeats died without.\\nThe poet who poetizes general truths bare of illu-\\nsion is the subject of Transcendentalism. His\\nway of separating principles from their embodiment is\\ncompared with the metaphysical way of looking at\\nlife, by a brother-poet whose claim for any poet is\\nthat he ought to be like the magician, charming men\\nwith convincing apparitions of life instead of like the\\ntheologian, drawing abstractions from it. True in\\npractice to his theory of the poet, this brother-poet\\nsees a poem in the poet whose theory he criticises.\\nAnd this poem is made, by Browning himself, in\\naccordance with the same principle of poetic art. In\\nplace of launching out upon abstract principles, he\\n.presents a picture of two poets conferring together,\\nthus embodying vividly two diiFerent views of poetic\\nart.\\nBut how do you think this poem should be under-\\nstood Is it a genuine piece of criticism, as Mrs.\\nOrr declares or is it intended by Browning as an\\nanswer to his critics, as Dr. Berdoe thinks probable,\\nwho says It has been said of Mr. Browning s poetry\\nby a hundred competent writers that he does not sing,\\nbut philosophizes instead that he gives the world his\\nnaked thoughts, his analyses of souls not draped in the\\nbeauty of the poet s art, but in the form of stark-\\nnaked thought. There is no objection, says his\\ninterviewer, if he will but cast aside the harp which\\nhe does not play but only tunes and adjusts, and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0228.jp2"}, "229": {"fulltext": "THE POET 195\\nspeak his prose to Europe through the six-foot Swiss\\ntube which helps the hunter s voice from Alp to Alp.\\nThe fault is, that he utters thoughts to men thinking\\nthey care little for form or melody, as boys do. It\\nis quite otherwise he should interpret nature\\nwhich is full of mystery to the soul of man: as\\nJacob Boehme heard the plants speak, and told men\\nwhat they said or as John of Halberstadt, the magi-\\ncian, who by his will-power could create the flowers\\nBoehme thought about. The true poet is a poem\\nhimself, whatever be his utterance.\\nIs it a critic an interviewer, as Dr. Berdoe ex-\\nplains, or a brother-poet, as Browning says who\\nspeaks in this poem Is there a discrimination m.ade\\nbetween the way he should interpret Nature and\\nThought And is no discrimination made between\\nJacob Boehme s and John of Halberstadt s methods as\\nsymbols of different poetic methods Why, then,\\nare these methods introduced and contrasted Are\\nboth considered equally good, in the poem, as poetic\\nmethods? And is the gist of Transcendentalism,\\ntherefore, that the manner of the utterance is unim-\\nportant, because the true poet is a poem whatever\\nbe his utterance Or is it not rather that the manner\\nof utterance is important and that although the author\\nwriting out his bare thoughts may himself be a poem,\\nthe poem he writes is naught\\nShould the poem be interpreted symbolically, as\\nsuggested in Camberwell Brozc?ungy Vol. V., p. 281,\\nor taken literally, as Browning s apology to his\\ncritics If the latter, what does the apology amount\\nto as a defence\\nThe speaker of How it Strikes a Contemporary\\nis an idler of the poet s own town and time, whose", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0229.jp2"}, "230": {"fulltext": "196 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nconception of the poet-nature is colored by his point\\nof view. He misunderstands it, and falls far short\\nof appreciating its value, and yet he has a lurking sus-\\npicion of this man s mysterious importance, though\\nnaturally he construes this to be importance to the\\nKing, as a spy, instead of importance to a higher\\npower whence the poetic gift that marks him from\\nother men is derived. His townsman is himself finally\\nled to suggest this, as if he saw through his own com-\\nparison, at the end of the poem, in his talk about the\\npoet s death. How far can the account given of the\\npoet s life and habits by the townsman be trusted?\\nIs his observation of facts, for instance, as to what\\nthe poet looked at in the street, etc., to be depended\\nupon, but his interpretation of them to be taken with\\na grain of salt? How much allowance must be\\nmade for Browning s humorous treatment of the\\ntheme? What sort of nature does his contemporary s\\naccount of him lead you to suppose the poet had\\nTo what class of poet-nature did he belong Was he\\na poet of nature, a subjective poet, or a dramatist\\nWhy must he have been whatever you think the\\npoem authorizes you to conclude, and not a poet of\\neither of the other two sorts\\n*At the Mermaid, House, and Shop are\\na group of poems in which Browning had the poet-\\nnature of Shakespeare more or less directly in mind.\\nThey appear to have been called out by opposition to\\nthe theories of Shakespeare s personality uppermost\\nat about the time they were written, but which are\\nnow, a decade after Browning s death, undergoing\\nconsiderable modification in general consonance with\\nBrowning s view. (See particularly Sidney Lee s\\nShakespeare, as opposed to Tyler s Sonnets of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0230.jp2"}, "231": {"fulltext": "THE POET 197\\nShakespeare. For digests of the poems, see Camber-\\nwell Brownings Vol. IX., p. 298.) These theories\\nmight be briefly stated thus i that Shakespeare s life\\nmay be discovered in his work, and that cynicism toward\\nlife and especially toward women are revealed in it (2)\\nthat the Sonnets are autobiographical in detailed and\\nliteral ways; (3) that money was his main object in\\nwriting, and his care for becoming a gentleman of\\nlanded estate with tithes to collect and law-suits on\\nhand, the sufficient explanation of his career. The\\nthree poems successively take up some phase of\\nthese three suppositions.\\nIn At the Mermaid a scene is presented in\\nwhich Shakespeare is speaking in the midst of a circle\\nof his sherris-drinking contemporaries, frequenters of\\nthe Mermaid tavern. He refers to the partisan\\nquarrels and rival ambitions seething about him in\\nwhich he is vainly tempted to take an active part\\nclaiming for himself excuse both from the honors and\\nthe entanglements in which they would involve him.\\nBrowning makes him refer especially to the post of\\nchief poet and the price that has to be paid for it,\\nhomage to grandees and squabbles with rivals, in\\ncontrast with the life full of zest he lives aloof from\\ncynicism either as to Love, Fortune, or Fame.\\nHouse is less directly applicable to Shakespeare\\nbut, beneath the symbol used of a house open to a\\ngaping public, and his own refusal to make his privacy\\nopen to any but the spirit-sense in sonnet-singing, the\\nreference to investigations of Shakespeare s Sonnets\\nfor particulars of his private life is obvious. The\\ntenth stanza emphasizes this. The exclamation\\nHoity toity, etc., and the reminder that Shake-\\nspeare did what the speaker refuses to do, is put, dra-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0231.jp2"}, "232": {"fulltext": "198 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmatically, in the mouths of such investigators. On\\nthe rejoinder, which questions it, as much as to\\nsay, I, for one, do not accept this statement of yours,\\ndeclaring, on the contrary, that it is inconsistent\\nwith Shakespeare s character, is based a divination of\\nwhat that poet s nature really was; that is, so\\nsupremely dramatic in his plays that he himself must\\nhave had the soul corresponding to the dramatic\\nbent.\\nShop makes no reference to Shakespeare, but\\nis a supplementary poem to House, bringing up\\na companion symbol of a shop in which the whole\\nlife of the shop-keeper is swallowed up. It is a vivid\\nway of showing by an analogy what the theory of a\\nman like Shakespeare, having no glimpse beyond\\nmaterial success in his work, would make him out to\\nbe. Browning s own way of dealing with the fact\\nthat Shakespeare worked to meet the theatrical mar-\\nket, etc., may be inferred from the closing stanzas\\ncarrying on the parable (Hnes 90-110). Because\\nwe know nothing certainly of any inner life after his\\nretirement, which took place while not yet an old man,\\nit does not in the least follow that there was none.\\nNot external facts that there was any such life prove\\nit, but the poet-nature of the man does. Ask him-\\nself! (See line 91.) It is inconsistent with his\\npoet-nature to suppose all his music to be money\\nchink. Because he had to look out for material suc-\\ncess, and did so, does it therefore follow that there\\nwere no thoughts, fancies, loves, except what trade\\ncan give (See stanza xx.) Again, in the last two\\nstanzas, under the veil of the symbol of shop-keeping.\\nBrowning, for one, declares this theory of Shakespeare\\nmost unHkely and unnatural, and he asserts, on the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0232.jp2"}, "233": {"fulltext": "THE POET\\n99\\ncontrary, his protest against such absorption of the\\nsoul in the means of living that there was no life,\\nbeside, in so strong a way that the opposite idea is\\nintimated. (For further hints on Browning s im-\\nplications concerning Shakespeare in these poems, see\\nBrowning s Tribute to Shakespeare, Poet-lore\\nVol. III., pp. 216-221, April, 1 89 1.)\\nHow does The Names compare with these\\npoems in presenting a view of Shakespeare s nature?\\n(See Camberwell Browiiing, Vol. XII., Notes, for\\nexplanation of the figure used as to names.) What\\ndo you think of the sonnet as praise Could it be\\nhigher Is it characteristic of Browning, that his\\nSonnet in honor of Shakespeare does not draw out of\\nhim so graphic a picture of the great dramatist s nature\\nas these symbolic poems\\nBrowning explained in his Album Lines (^Camber-\\nwell Brozvnifigy Vol. XII., p. 273) that he was think-\\ning of Dante when he wrote Touch him ne er so\\nlightly, and of other such great national poets. How\\ndoes the poem suit this explanation 1 Notice that the\\nfirst stanza is a speech from the mouth of some critic\\nwhose attitude Browning represents as assuming to be\\nall-sufficient upon his subject. That subject is the\\npoet-soul, which he expounds to be an easy-singing\\nnature, blooming without inward struggle, like a flower.\\nThis view the poet, apparently, as interlocutor, com-\\nbats skeptically in the second stanza, in much the same\\nmanner as he questioned the view of Shakespeare s\\nsoul held by some critics as if it w^ere perfectly known\\nand understood. This he does merely by his doubt-\\ning Indeed V as if his recollection glanced at once\\nto historic examples of a contrary fact, where hard\\nconditions and all kinds of weather, good and bad.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0233.jp2"}, "234": {"fulltext": "200 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nslowly bred not so much jthe flowers of poetry and\\neasy recognition, but the tenacious tree, quietly grow-\\ning, which proves to be the heritage of more than one\\ngeneration. Observe the indirect implication that the\\ncritic s description does indeed apply to the lesser\\nthough not to the greater poet-nature. How true is\\nthe picture drawn in the second stanza to Dante\\nCompare the lines to Dante in Sordello, Book I.,\\nlin.-s 348-372.\\nIn his Sonnet on Goldoni one of these slighter poet-\\nnatures is praised. How is this done Is any\\nincapacity shown to appreciate the Venetian come-\\ndian s lighter form of genius, because of his emphasis in\\nthe Epilogue on the enduring importance to the world\\nof a weightier kind of poet, like Dante\\nWhat conclusions may be drawn from the fact that\\nmany of Browning s portraits of poets have reference\\nto actual historic poets How many are imaginative\\nAnd how many are partly historical or typical\\nQueries for Discussion. Is there reason to suppose\\nthat Cervantes stood for the portrait of the poet-\\nnature drawn in How it Strikes a Contemporary\\nor is it better to suppose it stands for any typically\\ndramatic poet\\nIs Browning s conception of Shakespeare in At\\nthe Mermaid a proof of his correct insight r Is\\nhis opposition in House to the autobiographical\\ntheory of Shakespeare s Sonnets jusdfiable\\nDo Browning s portrayals of the poet reveal his\\npredilection for originality in poetry, as opposed to\\nimitative and technical excellence, and for the dramatic\\nor vividly objective modes of poetical work, instead\\nof the pictorial or didactic and generalizing If so,\\ndoes this revelation of his sympathies show that his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0234.jp2"}, "235": {"fulltext": "THE POET 201\\nown poetry did, in his judgment, belong to this objec-\\ntive class of work or that he had no knowledge of\\nhimself?\\nHow does Browning s treatment of the poet in\\nthese poems compare with that of his contemporaries,\\nTennyson s, for example, in The Poet, The\\nPoet s Mind, Lucretius, To Victor Hugo,\\nTo Dante, To Virgil, The Dead Prophet\\nII. Topic for- Papery Classzuorky or Discussion.\\nThe Poet and the World.\\nHints In which of the poems cited in this series\\nis the poet s relation with the world brought out?\\nIn Pauline, the beautiful imagery (lines 151-\\n205) which is employed to picture what Shelley was\\nto the young poet and what he finds him to be to the\\nworld, at first neglectful of him, is almost the only\\nflattering reference to the general public the young\\npoet s confidences to Pauline afford. World s\\ninfluence upon himself (see lines 349-354) was\\ndeemed so deteriorating that only loneliness could\\ncure him after it. Shelley, and a world of choice\\nspirits, select, and known to him in books, are really,\\nexcept for Pauline, his links of sympathy with the\\noutside world but these he does not account as\\nreal life, and although the enthusiasm for that\\nwhich he has received from Shelley, and the plan to\\nhelp men which he has derived from Plato, deter-\\nmine his plan to look on real life, the life all new\\nto him (lines 441\u00e2\u0080\u0094464), he is not only disappointed\\nand disillusionized with the world when he does try\\nto know something of it, but content to have it so,\\nsince his own powers are strengthened by the experi-\\nence. Even the influence of the select souls of poets\\nover men begins to seem vain and his only comfort is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0235.jp2"}, "236": {"fulltext": "202 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nin his own homage to them (529\u00e2\u0080\u0094569 and 690\u00e2\u0080\u0094697),\\nand to England, clang to somewhat desperately and\\nalmost as a conventional form or mere menial habit.\\nPauline s suggestion that **a perfect bard was one\\nwho chronicled the stages of all life (883) em-\\nbodies the most luminous conception of the world as\\nrelated to the poet which the poem contains, and the\\nmost hopeful to the young poet, for it helps him out\\nof his maze and urges him to tell at least his own\\nstory as an example of one stage of life, which may,\\nindeed, as he divines (i 009-1 021), open up to him\\nthe beauty and validity of other stages of life.\\nAprile s first word, on the other hand, is of the\\nGod-given office of the poet to the world, and his\\nbeautiful song in Paracelsus, Book il., lines 281\\n339, is an anguished lament over the unexerted powers\\nof dead poets who left the world they were to loosen,\\nbound. Nor has he an altogether vague conception\\nof what the poet may do to fullil his office in saying\\nbetter than he for the lowest hind his own\\nheart s language.\\nBut in Sordello the poet who created Aprile\\nhas taken a long step onward in social experience\\nwhen he sets out to show not merely the value of the\\npoet to the world, but of the world to the poet. (See\\nthe brief general digest of Sordello, Camberiuell\\nBrozvnifigy Vol. II., pp. 309 and 310; also the In-\\ntroduction, pp. vii-x.)\\nHow do Memorabilia and Popularity\\nillustrate the poet s relation with the world? Are\\nthey indicative, like Sordelb, of a treatment of the\\npoet by Browning from a more sophisticated point of\\nview, because they place in contrast the sympathetic\\nand the unsympathetic relation of a poet with the pub-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0236.jp2"}, "237": {"fulltext": "THE POET 203\\nlie? This comes out in IMemorabilia, through the\\nspeaker s keen sense of the unusual and significant in\\nmerely once seeing and speaking with Shelley, and\\nthrough the indifference of the person who did see him\\nand speak to him. How does this little poem in its\\nfirst two stanzas alone and through the mouth of but\\none speaker manage to give you such an impression of\\nthe poet in his relation to these two persons Are\\nthe seventh and eighth hnes the most tell-tale in giv-\\ning the two points of view Notice in what daz-\\nzlingly high relief the inner eventfulness of Shelley to\\nthe speaker is put by the simile of the moors and the\\nfeather in the other two stanzas.\\nIn Popularity the contrast between public\\nsympathy and indifference to spiritual originality in a\\npoet is drawn by presenting the effect of his new\\nquality on the one man who when he saw him knew\\nhim and named him a star, man s **star, God s glow-\\nworm (lines 4-6), and who, foreseeing the increas-\\ning homage his poetry w ill win in the future, attempts\\nto draw him as he stands, in the present, with few or\\nnone noticing him or marvelling over the spoils his\\nskill has brought to land out of the great deep (lines\\n21-25). Then this contrast between public sym-\\npathy and indiff^erence is made still stronger by bring-\\ning into the picture a third and a fourth class of public\\nopinion the third is represented by the bystander who\\ncould criticise and quote tradition on classic examples\\nof just the sort of artistic result this poet has rediscov-\\nered the native material for (lines 31\u00e2\u0080\u009440) and the\\nfourth is represented by the train of imitators who\\ncatch up some dilution of this rediscovered poetic\\nmaterial, and thrive on the use of that for which the\\npoet received no such reward. Tkese two classes of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0237.jp2"}, "238": {"fulltext": "204 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe public show not indifference, but stupidity in their\\nrelation to the poet and his work. They lack the\\nalertness of understanding to appreciate the poet\\npromptly, but neither the knowledge that might have\\nhelped them to be wiser, nor the ready talent and\\nmerely technical dexterity that enable them to get\\nsome good for themselves out of the master-poet s\\noriginal toil. Observe, too, that a special touch is\\ngiven each one of the train of imitators, who show\\nboth their nature and the momentum of Keats s fame\\nin the fact that Hobbs only hints blue very con-\\nservatively, while Nobbs Sprints it venturously, and\\nNokes and Stokes compete with each other in rashly\\nazure feats.\\nThe relation of the poet to the world illustrated in\\nTranscendentalism amounts to the assertion of a\\ngeneral poetic principle. If the poem is to be taken\\nas genuine in its critical import, it implies that imagery\\nor symbolism, the draping of naked thoughts in\\nsights and sounds, is the essential difference between\\npoetry and prose; and that this is what the developed\\nmind, that is, the reader whose intellectual and esthetic\\nsensibility is really cultured and mature, desires above\\nall else in poetry. Notice that the supposition that\\nboys seek for images and melody, and men for reason,\\nin poetry is put in the mouth of the boy-poet and that\\na deepening of the import of his argument is the turn\\nthe other poet gives this in his rejoinder. It is\\nquite otherwise, says he. In youth objects do not\\nstrike us as wonderful, we take them for granted, and\\nonly concern ourselves about their hidden meaning\\nbut when we know more of life, we prize life itself and\\nhail every evidence of its power and beauty. Is this\\nnot true of mankind in general as well as of individuals;", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0238.jp2"}, "239": {"fulltext": "THE POET 205\\nthe early concern of races, in their infancy, being to\\nattach supernatural doctrines and unreal origins to nat-\\nural objects, which later in intellectual development\\nthe mind of man has been content to observe and\\ninvestigate for their own sake, recognizing in these\\nobjects themselves their native vitality and beauty\\nThis suggests, perhaps, not only that science is a later\\ngrowth than theology, but also that realism in the\\nsense of interest in real life is a later product in liter-\\nature including poetry than romanticism in the\\nsense of unreal or impossible life. If the poet s\\nstrongest and closest relation with his public consists,\\nthen, in his presentation of life to that public, does it\\nnot also reveal the supplementary general poetic prin-\\nciple that the poet must depend upon objective life to\\nconvey to his public thoughts and reason In other\\nwords, does it follow, because poetry must make use\\nof objects, that it shall not transcend the objective and\\ngive forth spiritual truths by means of them.? Or what\\nis the trend of Transcendentalism Does the in-\\nterrupting poet object to the boy poet because he\\nthinks he ought not to introduce thoughts or reason in\\npoetry, or only because his method of introducing\\nthem is not an effective and wise one, is not an\\nartistic method\\nNeither the sophisticated man who is amused at\\nanother s starting when he hears this favored one has\\nactually met Shelley, as in Memorabilia nor the\\nappreciative man in Popularity, who recognizes a\\nKeats as soon as he sees him; nor dull scholars who\\nknow all about the classics but never could get any\\ninspiration out of Lempriere s Dictionary or their\\nown sense of beauty, as Keats did nor yet clever\\nminor poets who took their cue from the new poet", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0239.jp2"}, "240": {"fulltext": "2o6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nnor the brother-poet who cautions an ardent boy in\\nhis poetic attempts, as in Transcendentalism but\\nquite a different sort of member of the general public\\nis presented with relation to a poet in How it\\nStrikes a Contemporary. How would you describe\\nhim from the clews the poemf gives Would you take\\nhim to be familiar with any book at all It seems\\nto be more than he would do to glance **with half\\nan eye at the books on the stall in the street,\\nthe fly-leaf ballads, or the broad-edge bold-print\\nposters on the wall, the notice of which by the\\npoet he is talking about is among his proofs of the\\ncognizance the strange fellow took **of men and\\nthings. And what conclusions do you draw of him\\nfrom the other ways in which he, who could never\\nwrite a verse, describes the only poet he ever knew in\\nhis life How does he describe this poet s clothes,\\nand notice what he lets fall about his own his breath-\\ning himself on the promenade at the unfashionable\\nhour, his bloodlessness, and the fact that he found\\nno truth in one report, since the poor man\\nlived quite another kind of life, etc. Does this\\nyoung Spanish dandy describe himself more unmistak-\\nably than he describes the post. Is he not an example\\nof the vague and mysterious effect a poet of widespread\\nfame might have on a gay and credulous unlettered\\nyoung man about town\\nIn the Shakespearian group of poems the poet\\nexposes the envy and ready suspicions of evil born\\nof a facility in persons generally for judging the most\\ndifferent personility by themselves, which makes\\nthem love to blur a shining mark, unable to under-\\nstand its distinction and grudging to yield it the\\nadvantage of its own nature over theirs.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0240.jp2"}, "241": {"fulltext": "THE POET 207\\nAt the Mermaid, in particular, brings out more\\ndirectly than the preceding poems the inner portrait\\nof the central figure, the poet himself, Shakespeare.\\nAs Browning conceives him, what sort of a man is he\\nin his relation with the world Notice the light\\nopinion he has of the insight of the good fellows\\nabout him (lines 9-12). He is not likely to open\\nhis heart expansively to the roomful (see stanza v.).\\nHe is alive to the weaknesses of humanity, and keenly\\naware of the unlovely itch it has to find that the\\nbard is weak and human too (as if that were at all\\nstrange!), and he declares, therefore, that just because\\nhe knows he is mortal, he will not enjoy such grovel-\\nling, but, shutting the door to that sort of thing,\\ncleave for himself to the uplift of his work, leaving\\nthem their choice in what concerns themselves, not\\nhim (lines 41-56 and 69-72). But though he\\nseems not to claim that weaknesses do not belong to\\nhim, their fellow-man, he does maintain that revel-\\nling in the fact of weakness and meanness and the\\nimperfections of life is not his foible; his outlook is\\nrosy, not grim scorning neither high nor low, finding\\nhimself akin to opposite natures, he does not scout\\nmankind and, as for womankind, blesses his good\\nfortune, which, if not theirs, may be, he insinuates,\\nbecause their treatment of her called out the response\\nthey blame (lines 73-120). This being his relation\\nwith the public about him, the relation of his work\\nand himself to fame, which starts him in his mono-\\nlogue (stanza i.), is that of one who lays no claim to\\nspecial honor in his own day and as to the future\\nhe does not anticipate, but awaits judgment (stanzas\\nxvi. and xviii.). What is the meaning of the\\nseventeenth stanza in showing the relation of Shake-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0241.jp2"}, "242": {"fulltext": "2o8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nspeare s work and personality to the world Does\\nit intimate that the outpourings of a poet s weakness\\ndo not assimilate with the life of other men except\\nin an external way, and that instead of reaching the\\nheart of the world they pass away without per-\\nmanently affecting it Is this peculiarly true of\\nShakespeare s weaknesses, whatever they may have\\nbeen\\nThat what makes the poet s inner life distinctively\\nhis own must necessarily be deeper than externalities,\\nis the gist of House. That rich evidence of\\ngenius in a poet s work must have been based on\\nmore of individual life than can meet the world s eye,\\nis the implication of Shop.\\nDoes the contention of Touch him ne er so\\nlightly, that the world-poet s growth is not an\\neasy process, accord with the view of Shakespeare\\npresented\\nVerse-making is compared with love-making in re-\\nlation to the poet, in the lyric following Cherries\\nin Ferishtah s Fancies, in order to show how it is\\na process of infinite capabilities, not merely in what\\nhas been done, but in all that might be, so that the\\nmost one can do in it is little enough while love-\\nmaking, although also of infinite significance, is so\\ncondensed in each experience of love that the least\\neach one can feel is enough. Verse-making as an\\noccupation in its relation to the world, the subject\\nof the, last lyric, asserts that the poet may justly\\nregard the fame that brings love as irrelevant to his\\nartistic aims. If he poured his whole life recklessly\\ninto his work for the sake of what it would bring\\nhim, taking no joy in life himself, then he might com-\\nplain with reason if love were lacking. But reward", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0242.jp2"}, "243": {"fulltext": "THE POET\\n209\\nand aim of another sort inciting him, and his life for its\\nown sake being good, praise or just judgment will be\\nwelcome, but love must not affect his design.\\nDo you think this an ungracious expression of the\\nrelation between the poet and the world, or does the\\nself-poise expected on either side, of the poet and his\\nappreciators, appeal to you as a fine element afford-\\ning a better co-relation, one tending to awaken a\\nmore genuine regard on both sides\\nMetaphors drawn from nature, the accepted mode\\nof using imagery in love lyrics, are found to be an in-\\nsufficient kind of art in Poetics, compared with\\nsimiles drawm from human appearance. Does this\\nevolved kind of poetics suggest that the relation of\\nmankind to the poet is fundamental, affecting even\\nhis technique^ the stuff out of which he must\\nweave his choicest comparisons being human nature\\nitself?\\nQueries for Discussion. Is Browning s way of\\ntreating of the poet in relation to his public, so as\\nto present a variety of the personalities composing\\nthat public, a common trait of poems on the poet\\nCompare and discuss, for example, with the poems\\non poets by Tennyson before cited.\\nDoes Browning s philosophy of poetic art, as re-\\nvealed in these poems, rank him with the critics\\nwho hold to the theory of art for art s sake or with\\nthose who believe in art for life s sake\\nDoes the drift of the Parleying with Christopher\\nSmart summed up in the closing verses, **Live\\nand learn, not first learn and then live, is our con-\\ncern, apply especially to poetic art, and is it con-\\nsistent with the general poetic principle illustrated in\\nTranscendentalism f\\n14", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0243.jp2"}, "244": {"fulltext": "2IO BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWould it be a sound criticism to judge of a poet s\\ngenius, as Browning suggests in **The Two Poets of\\nCroisic, to ask if he led a happy life\\nShould the true poet sing to the masses, not to the\\nfew, as Naddo says in Sordello and if Browning\\ndoes not agree with him, is he wrong? (See Sor-\\ndello, Book III., lines 784-815.)\\nWhat should be the poet s attitude toward his\\ncritics? And what should be the critic s attitude\\ntoward the poet\\nin. Topic for Paper, Class-work, or Private\\nStudy. Browning s Poetics in the Poet-Poems.\\nHints: When you look inquiringly at Paul-\\nine to discover the artistic reason why its imagery\\nand poetic atmosphere differ so markedly from the\\nrest of Browning s work in which the poet is the\\nsubject, the redundancy of its similes is perhaps the\\nmost noticeable difference you can put your finger on.\\nFor example, when the young poet realizes that the\\ncynicism as to mankind and life, which seemed at\\nfirst to leave him freer and stronger than ever, isolat-\\ning him from any outward aim or devotion, was the\\ndefect of his special quahty of a distinct self-conscious-\\nness, or over-consciousness, and was weakening actu-\\nally, instead of strengthening, the powers he so\\ndelighted in, he expresses this in a series of original\\nand striking images, so that they get in one another s\\nway, and he embroiders these images with such\\npicturesque details that the details block the road of\\nthe image itself. So, in Hnes 90-123, he likens this\\ncourse astray of his soul to the circuit of a celestial\\nbody, once free to revolve at large, but now confined\\nto a subordinate path about an inferior orb. Then the\\nsense that this is a direct result of his own nature is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0244.jp2"}, "245": {"fulltext": "THE POET 21 I\\nvividly put as a feeling visiting him in dreams that\\nhe himself is the fate he flees from and then, suc-\\ncessively, two images of this same situation of self-\\ndisenchantment, each more elaborate than the other,\\npicture it again, the first that of the swan, like a\\nmoonbeam, kept with him, in the ocean-cave where\\nhe is, till it loses its beauty then, second, that of a\\nradiant god growing less radiant on earth while he\\nsings of heaven to a young witch who lured him\\nfrom his home. Notice all the details that are added\\nto these similes.\\nAgain, in lines 172-200, what succession of figures\\nillustrates that which has been already said figuratively\\n(156\u00e2\u0080\u0094160), about his half-pleasure, half-disappoint-\\nment, in finding that Shelley s genius was the world s\\nand not alone his own delight What other such\\nsimiles are there Are the figures in Pauline\\nmostly drawn from celestial and natural objects\\nAnd when human analogies are used, how are they\\nqualified by a strange or semi-human aspect Notice\\nlines 451-456, 956 and 957, 1027, etc. Which\\nallusions and figures are drawm from classic legends\\n(For explanation of these, see Camberzuell Brownings\\nVol. I., p. 301.) Do these similes suit the poet of\\nPauline especially Although they fit the char-\\nacter and are an integral part of his confessions, do\\nyou feel sure that they w^ere due to design, or that\\nthey were in part, at any rate, natural to the young\\nBrowning\\nMemorabilia and Popularity are in strong\\ncontrast, in their comparatively simple imagery, with\\nthe richness of Pauline. Do they give you the\\nimpression of employing a single image more continu-\\nously, in all its ins and outs, to fit the idea intended", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0245.jp2"}, "246": {"fulltext": "212 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nto be brought out, and of selection of the one, unem-\\nbarrassed with others that might throng to mind as the\\nmost forcible for the embodiment of the idea Notice\\nwhat these images are. In Memorabilia the\\nmetaphor is the moulted eagle feather picked up on\\nthe moors. The feather is an event. The moors,\\nmiles of them, are blank except for this. This meta-\\nphor of double comparison given in the two closing\\nstanzas is co-extensive with the idea the poem conveys.\\nIn it, in fact, the poem consists, for the two preceding\\nstanzas bat lead up to this, themselves containing but\\nthe bare account of the meeting with the man who\\nhad once met Shelley. After the picking up of the\\nfeather is described and we hear how it is put inside\\nthe speaker s breast, and that he forgets the rest,\\nthere is no explanation, no application of the simile\\nto the particular instance of the meeting with Shelley.\\nIs any needed? Is this a peculiarly vivid and strong\\nway of using imagery or do you think it obscure\\nIn Popularity the main image used is that of the\\nfisher who has brought to land a netful of the shells\\nwhich secreted the famous Tyrian dye. This sym-\\nbol for the post whose originality of genius has\\nbrought the world an infinitely expansible product\\nthat can lend beauty and value everywhere, is unfolded\\nin new relations with the idea throughout nine of the\\nthirteen stanzas. Notice that no direct reference is\\nmade to the subject of the comparison till the last\\nwords are reached and yet how the significance\\ngrows, and how the reader s intelligence is made\\nready to catch the full force of the allusion to Keats\\nwhen it does come. Notice, especially, the beauty\\nof the picture of the whelks with the charm of the\\nsea-wet still on them, in the eighth stanza and of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0246.jp2"}, "247": {"fulltext": "THE POET 213\\nthe contrast of that picture with the splendor of the\\ngold-robed king amid his Tyrian-blue hangings, in\\nthe next stanza and of that again with the picture\\nin the tenth stanza of the gold and blue flower whose\\nbeauty the bee is drunken with. Do you think the\\ngrotesque quality of the Tyrian dye imagery in the\\nfinal stanzas, by contrast with the beauty of that of\\nthe earlier stanzas, is too rough Or is the rudeness\\nof the application to Hobbs et al. suitably indicative\\nof the disdain the Keats enthusiast who is speaking\\nfeels for the thrifty copyists, and therefore as much\\nin keeping with the plan of the poem as the magical\\nsea-touch is in the working up of the image as to the\\noriginality of Keats in the eighth stanza Point out\\nthe meaning of the metaphors employed in the second\\nand third stanzas. The poet whose light is a star to\\nthe one who knew his worth from the first, is con-\\nceived of as to God a glow-worm and God is\\nimagined as holding him guardingly in his hand, as\\none might hold a glow-worm out in his hand, keeping\\nit safe there and letting out its light at need to show\\nthe way in the dark world. There is a contrast\\ndrawn also between the originality of the poet who\\nholds the future through the present (lineS 13-1 5), and\\nthe imitativeness of the writers who paint the future\\nfrom the past (hne 59) instead of from the present,\\nas Keats did.\\nBoth Popularity and Memorabilia are writ-\\nten in iambic, four-stressed verse arranged in short\\nand simple stanzas, alternately rhymed. What differ-\\nences are there in the stanza form in the tw^o poems\\nDo double rhymes occur In which is the stress\\nchanged the oftener so as to fall upon the first syllable\\nof the foot Where do you put the stress in line", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0247.jp2"}, "248": {"fulltext": "214 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nII of Memorabilia, and lines i8, 20, and 55 of\\nPopularity\\nTranscendentalism, which is written in blank\\nverse like Pauline, having the same number of\\nstresses to the line and being without rhyme, has quite\\na different effect as regards metre, has it not How\\ndo you account for that And why is it that How\\nit Strikes a Contemporary impresses you at once as\\nbelonging to the same class with Transcendentalism\\nas to metre and poetic manner How are the meta-\\nphors of the harp as opposed to the horn, the flowers\\nwith tongues, to the sudden rose itself employed\\nto bring out the central idea of the poem\\nAre there very few similes in the poem And\\naside from the symbol of the king suggesting a\\nmightier King, is there any symbolism fitting and\\nmaking known the central idea, as in Memorabilia,\\nPopularity, and Transcendentalism What\\nis there in the composition of the poem to account for\\nthis poetic baldness Is there any reason why it is\\nappropriate\\n**At the Mermaid is distinguished in metre\\nfrom the other poems of the Shakespearian group, all\\nof which have a four-stressed line, not merely by its\\ndifferent stanza form, and notice that this is different\\nin each poem, but also by its steadily trochaic foot.\\nThe trochaic beat is kept up with almost no excep-\\ntions. Do you find any To do this without\\nwrenching the accents, and so driving sense-emphasis\\nand metrical emphasis at the same pace, makes an\\neffect of an imperturbable speaker, one who is both\\nself-poised and powerful or do you derive from the\\npoem an impression of this sort In what lines do you\\nfind the normal measure humored a little Notice,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0248.jp2"}, "249": {"fulltext": "THE POET 215\\nwith this query in mind, lines 28, 41, 58, and ask if\\nthese are any of them hnes where elision or repeti-\\ntion of a word causes an external unevenness which\\nthe sense- emphasis, because of its internal influence,\\nrightly cures Notice the rhymes and double rhymes\\noccurring in the Shakespearian group. Are there more\\ndepartures from the normal iambic metre of Shop\\nand the anapsstic of House than in At the\\nMermaid from its trochaic metre The metaphors\\nused throughout At the Mermaid are various and\\nunusual. Notice what these are for example, sowi7ig\\nsong-sedition blozvn up by ambition, and bubble-Y\\\\xv^y\\netc. breeding insight use to pay Lord my duty,\\nas applied to Shakespeare s religion, and use to own a\\nlord, as applied to his respect for title and rank, which\\nare favorite topics of dispute largess; gold, brass,\\nand orichalc, the first representing an idealistic view,\\nthe second a derogatory one, the third a rational see-\\ning of things as mixed of good and evil threw\\nVenus y^lc. (For allusions, see Camberzuell Browning,\\nNotes, Vol. IX., p. 298.) Are they appropriate to\\nthe speaker\\nThe German phrase Weltschmerz (line 132)\\nseems decidedly inappropriate. Is it a modern ex-\\npression, and not likely to have been used in the\\nElizabethan period Are the Bible references, Ba-\\nlaam-like (line 92), and the quotation from the\\nGospels Matthew xv. 17, Mark vii. 19 (lines 135\\nand 136) in keeping with Shakespeare s diction as\\nwe know it in the Plays Notice the final hit at\\nJonson (lines 143 and 144), who was reputed to be\\nenvious of Shakespeare, and who did succeed Daniel in\\nthe laureateship.\\nIn House and Shop metaphors of so many", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0249.jp2"}, "250": {"fulltext": "2i6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nkinds are not used. Instead there is a continuous\\nsymbolism carried on throughout each poem. AH\\nthe figures used in the one poem suit the house\\ncomparison, as in the other they suit the **shop\\ncomparison. Point these out, and show how they are\\napphed in each of these poems. Sometimes there is a\\ndouble appropriateness in these comparisons, as in the\\nsuggestion of the shop-keeper s studying the Ti?neSy as\\nif it were not merely intended to bring up the picture\\nof the man reading the newspaper while he swept the\\nmoney in his cash drawer, but also to recall Shake-\\nspeare s phrase in Hamlet of the study of the\\ndramatist being to show forth the body of the time\\nits form and pressure. Instance others having this\\ndouble reference to Shakespeare. Why should there\\nbe this difference in the way the imagery is employed\\nin **At the Mermaid and in the two following\\npoems t Is there a reason for it And what do you\\nthink it is t Notice that this mode of using an image\\nin all its ins and outs to symbolize the leading idea is like\\nthat followed in Memorabilia and Popularity,\\nwhile At the Mermaid and How it Strikes a\\nContemporary are more ahke in using another mode,\\nand yet that they differ in using in the one case a\\ngreat deal of imagery and in the other only a bare\\nsimile or so. Why Does each suit its speaker\\nTrace out the application of the figure to the idea\\nas it is put first in the mouth of the first speaker in\\nTouch him ne er so lightly, and, then, in the\\nrejoinder giving a different point of view. Is the\\nsame measure kept up in the Album Lines t Does\\nthe same metaphor recur in these Album Lines, and\\nhow is it adapted now to suit still a third purpose\\nThe lyric from Ferishtah is not -idorned with", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0250.jp2"}, "251": {"fulltext": "THE POET 217\\neither metaphors or symbolism. What sort of\\ncharm has it Merely the grace of well-adjusted\\nrhythm and rhyme\\nPoetics, like this lyric, has five-stressed lines\\nalternately rhymed, bat without the double- rhymed\\ncouplet which concludes each stanza of the lyric.\\nBut Poetics is like Touch him ne er so lightly\\nin using the same metaphors in different ways to suit\\nthe expression of two different speakers regarding\\npoetics. Do you also find the poem as a whole\\nsymbolic of the larger meaning, suggested in the\\nsecond part of this programme, that the poet s poetics\\ndepend upon humanizing his metaphors\\nHow do Goldoni and The Names compare\\nas sonnets with the earlier sonnet by Browning, Eyes,\\ncalm beside thee (For articles showing the different\\nsonnet forms in use, see E. B. Brownlow s Wyatt s\\nSonnets and their Sources, and Curiosities in\\nSonnet Literature, Poet-lore^ Vol. III., pp. 127 and\\n545, March and November, 1891.)\\nQueries for DiscussioJi. Is Browning dramatic both\\nin ardstic form and in conception, even when he is\\ngiving forth specific truths with relation to poetic art\\nBut if it be granted that he presents different points\\nof view, can it be claimed that he does not show his\\npreference for a special point of view as regards the\\npoet and poetic art\\nDoes he present the purely lyrical art of the sub-\\njective poet as fairly as the more objective art of the\\ndramadc poet", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0251.jp2"}, "252": {"fulltext": "Evolution of Religion\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nSaul iv 66 375\\nChristmas-Eve iv 286 399\\nEaster-Day iv 327 403\\nAn Epistle containing the Strange Medical Ex-\\nperience of Karshish, the Arab Physician v 10 283\\nBishop Blougram s Apology v 49 ^93\\nCleon V 80 297\\nRabbi Ben Ezra v 175 S^o\\nA Death in the Desert v 183 311\\nCaliban upon Setebos v 204 312\\nI. Topic for Papery Classworky or Private Study.\\nThe Subject- Matter and Characterization.\\nHi?its Sketches of the subject-matter of the\\npoems may be found in the Notes to the Camberwell\\nBrow?iingy as given above. By following these\\nthrough in connection with the poems. Browning s\\nmanner of presenting his themes may be seen in greater\\nrelief\\nIn Caliban we have the untutored thoughts of an\\nundeveloped savage about God. Is he Hke Shake-\\nspeare s Caliban- in the possession of considerable in-\\ntelligence and an appreciation of natural beauty\\nNotice the peculiarity of the verb in the third person\\nwithout any pronoun, which Caliban almost always\\nuses when speaking of himself. This peculiarity is\\ncharacteristic of language in a low stage of develop-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0252.jp2"}, "253": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 2l 9\\nment, when distinction between first, second, and\\nthird person is either vague or entirely laclcing.\\nWhere does he represent himself as lying in the first\\nstanza, and what little events in nature does he de-\\nscribe as taking place around him Why does he\\nthink it will be safer for him to talk about God now\\nthan in the winter, and who does he mean would be\\nvexed if he heard him, Prosper ox God What\\ndwelling does he assign to Setebos, and of what does\\nhe make him the creator Is it true to life that a\\nsavage should regard the moon as cold, or is that a\\nfact known only to modern science? Notice the\\nlogicalness with which he gives a reason for his prop-\\nosition in regard to Setebos. What are his reasons,\\nand with what poetical simile does he illustrate\\nGoing on to give further particulars as to the creations\\nof Setebos, what further reason does he give for the\\ncreative activity of Setebos, and what argument does\\nhe use to show that he could not have made things\\non any other account Notice the illustration he\\nuses, putting himself in the place of the capricious\\ncreator, and what conclusion he comes to. What\\nfurther step does Caliban take in the next stanza as to\\nwhat the capriciousness of Setebos shows, and what\\nillustration does he use to clinch his argument What\\nmodification does he make in the character already\\ngiven Setebos, and what quality does he add, and\\nhow does his illustration resemble the previous ones\\nHaving decided that Setebos is rough and ill at\\nease, with his inquirmg nature Cahban must have a\\nreason for it. To account for this he has to imagine\\na cause behind Setebos. Is he quite clear as to its being\\na cause or an efi ect What are the characteristics of\\nthe Quiet And how does he illustrate by his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0253.jp2"}, "254": {"fulltext": "220 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nown feelings Is his feeling in regard to the quails\\nquite consistent with his pleasure in making and mar-\\nring clay, or does it show a little glimpse of aspiration\\nin his nature not before observable He immediately\\ndecides that he is more interested in Setebos than in\\nthe Quiet. What new idea does Caliban add in\\nthe second statement just following of the reason for\\nSetebos creating the world, and how does he illustrate\\nout of his own experience What difference of opin-\\nion was there between Caliban and his dam about\\nSetebos and the Quiet, and what further reason\\ndoes Caliban give to prove that he is right in attribut-\\ning creation to Setebos What are Caliban s con-\\nclusions in regard to the supposition that Setebos may\\nlike what profits him Notice again his illustrations\\nfrom his own experience. What examples of the\\nwantonness of Setebos does he give in the next stanza,\\nand what does he conclude as to the way to please\\nhim? What is the only hope that things will ever\\nchange, and what other point of disagreement between\\nCaliban and his dam is brought out How does\\nCaliban think he would best order his life to escape\\nthe ire of Setebos What happens now in the midst\\nof Cahban s theologizing, and how does it affect him?\\nIn Cleon we follow Cleon s thoughts as he\\nwrites a letter to Protus in answer to one received\\nfrom him with generous gifts. The opening lines of\\nthe poem are the greeting of the letter, after which\\nCleon goes on to speak of the gifts he has received.\\nNotice how he does not enumerable them, but with a\\nfew powerful strokes portrays the scene of the unlading\\nof the galley. Not only do we get an idea of the\\nrichness of the gifts sent, but we also receive a definite\\nimpression of the dwelling-place of Cleon.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0254.jp2"}, "255": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 221\\nWhat do you gather from the next stanza in regard\\nto the character of Protus What do we learn of\\nCleon himself in the next stanza in his answer to\\nProtus that all he has heard of him is true Notice\\nthat Cleon is a universal artist, and how he argues\\nviiat a universal composite mind such as his is greater\\nthan the mind of the specialist. To a judge who\\nonly sees one way at once, the composite mind does\\nnot look so great as the mind of the past great in one\\nthing. Then he shows how life is like a huge mosaic,\\nevery man being a figure in the pattern, and that prog-\\nress is not the blotting out of what has gone before,\\nbut the combining of all the parts into a perfect pic-\\nture. The divine men of old had each reached at\\nsome one point the outmost verge of man s faculties,\\nand who can ever reach farther than they did in any\\none direction Show the appropriateness of the\\nillustration of the sphere. What fiction does Cleon\\nsay he once wrote out in his desire to vindicate the\\npurpose of Zeus in man s life, a thing which his\\nsoul cried out to Zeus to know But though this is\\na dream, what does he say is not a dream? And\\nsince all material things progress, can it be possible,\\nhe asks, that the soul deteriorates How does he\\nmake himself stand as a proof that the soul does not\\ndeteriorate Does he show modesty or egotism in\\nthis instancing of himself as an example of soul-\\nprogress In the next stanza what do we learn in\\nregard to Protus s attitude toward death, and what he\\nthinks Cleon s must be Before answering this ques-\\ntion he goes off on a long course of reasoning. Does\\nhe decide that admiration grows with knowledge, or\\ndoes he seem to think it debatable What case does\\nhe suppose in order to present his argument more", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0255.jp2"}, "256": {"fulltext": "222 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nforcibly? Notice the contrast he draws between\\nnature outside of man and man. Instead, however,\\nof asking Zeus to add to man the quality of being able\\nto realize and understand the joy and beauty of life,\\nwhat does he think might more reasonably have been\\nasked And why does the possession of consciousness\\nseem so horrible to him How does Cleon prove to\\nhimself that Zeus, in spite of this awful failure of the\\nflesh to attain to the heights of joy seen by the soul,\\nhas not created man to suffer simply for his own delight\\nStill, is there any sign to show that Zeus cares\\nAnd so what is the final dismal conclusion as to\\nprogress\\nIn answer to the supposition of Protus that Cleon\\nin his art-works finds joy and will gain immortality,\\nwhat question does he put to the King, and how does\\nhe illustrate the fact that an accurate view of joy is\\nnot the same as feeling joy Is the thought that his\\nwork lives any consolation to him How does he\\nfeel that death is even doubly horrible to him What\\ndoes he dare imagine at times to be his need What\\nhint of Cleon s attitude to Christianity is given in the\\nlast stanza, and to whom does it appear that Protus\\nwished to send a letter if he could find from Cleon\\nwhere it should be delivered\\nSum up now in a few words the conception of\\nGod held by Caliban and that held by Cleon.\\nIn Saul, the poet David is speaking. How\\ndoes he say Abner greeted him Through this greet-\\ning do we learn what the mission of David is How\\ndoes David describe Saul s appearance Notice the\\norder in which David plays his tunes, beginning with\\nthose appealing to the love of nature and ending with\\nwhat Note the effect upon Saul.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0256.jp2"}, "257": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 223\\nDavid sings again, stanza iv. now, and instead of\\nmerely telling about the tunes he played, he quotes\\nthe words of the song. What does he celebrate in\\nthis song, and how is Saul affected Note the beauty\\nof David s description of Saul s partial response to his\\nmusic, David s growing desire to make the proper\\nappeal to the King, and his attempt in the next song.\\nStill, though the King is pleased by the immortality\\nof deed promised him in this, the sign of his cure\\nis yet lacking. In this scene David s love for Saul\\nreaches its chmax, and in what does this result\\nNotice that he drops his harp and song here, changes\\nfrom the poet to the prophet. It is to be observed,\\nalso, that, although the truth comes upon him with\\nthe force of a revelation, he yet supplements it with\\nhis own reasoning powers. Show in what way he\\ndoes this. Does Browning s portraiture of David as\\na poet, thinker, and prophet, agree with the impression\\nwe get of him from the Bible\\nNotice the contrast between the attitude of Cleon\\nand Ben Ezra. Although the Hebrew considers age\\nthe best, what does he feel about the hopes and fears\\nof youth He does not remonstrate on account of\\nthem, but prizes them. Notice the poetical imagery\\nof the second stanza. In saying (iv.) that it were a\\npoor vaunt of life were man but made to feed on joy,\\nhe is again opposed to Cleon. What does he rejoice\\nover and welcome, and what comforts him Failure,\\nso horrible to Cleon, is a joy to Ben Ezra. What\\ndoes he recognize with Cleon is the distinction be-\\ntween man and brute Do they not equally recog-\\nnize the inadequateness of the flesh to keep pace with\\nthe soul Just as after declaring old age superior he\\nthen proceeds to show the need and use of youth as a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0257.jp2"}, "258": {"fulltext": "224\\nBROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncomplement, so after declaring the superiority of the\\nsoul Ezra proceeds to show the use and need of the\\nflesh. The beauty of all material things appears to\\nhim, and he is filled with the goodness of life and\\npraise for its Creator. Whatever failure may appear\\nin the flesh, he has faith that the maker will sometime\\nremake complete.\\nDoes he indicate in the next two stanzas a desire\\nthat the remaking complete will be to raise the flesh\\nso that it will be as equal to the soul s needs as the\\nbrutes is to theirs, since, pleasant as the flesh is now,\\nthe soul always yearns for rest He hopes that we\\nmay not always say that progress is in spite of flesh,\\nbut that flesh helps soul as soul helps flesh.\\nIn xiii. he returns to the first thought of welcoming\\nage. Show how he enlarges upon the idea, and what\\nhe considers are all the advantages of old age, and\\nwhat is best suited to youth in contrast with old age\\nup to stanza xxiii.\\nWhat does he decide (xxiii.) are the important\\nthings in life (xxvi. Enlarging upon the simile\\nof the potter s wheel, what ideas does he evolve\\nfrom it about the permanence of truth Explain the\\nforce of the imagery in xxix. (xxx. The imagery in\\nthis stanza is somewhat obscure, but life having\\nalready been compared to a vase or cup, Ben Ezra\\nmeans by this imagery that the uses of life to God are\\nthe important things to be considered, that our lives\\nare the cup for the festive board of the Lord. When\\nthe cup is finally complete, what need to think of the\\nstress of earth s wheel? What is the concluding\\nthought of the poem\\nAn Epistle is a companion picture to Cleon,\\npresenting in a letter the attitude of a learned Arab", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0258.jp2"}, "259": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 225\\ntoward the great fact of that time. He introduces\\nhimself and the person to whom he is writing in the\\ngreeting of the letter. How much do you learn of\\nboth in this preliminary greeting Note, in the next\\nparagraph, how he begins his letter by talking of any-\\nthing and everything but the one thing he really wants\\nto talk about. Who do we learn is to carry the\\nletter f In the next paragraph his anxiety to tell his\\nexperience gets the better of his reluctance. Can\\nyou guess what are the causes of his reluctance to tell\\nObserve the off-hand way in which he begins to tell\\nthe story. Does he betray his deep interest in it as\\nhe goes on Is it the fact of the cure that impresses\\nhim most, or the effect of the cure upon Lazarus s\\nmind\\nHow does he describe Lazarus and his manner of\\nlooking at life Is it this which makes Karshish think\\nthe cure of a different nature from those he has been\\nused to in his medical experience\\nIs the difficulty with Lazarus that, in his larger view\\nof life, he has given up the exercise of human initia-\\ntive and has become a sort of fatalist\\nNotice the Arab s apologetic manner when telling\\nwhat Lazarus says of the Nazarene who cured him\\nhis attempt to dismiss it as a trivial matter, while he\\nturns to things of more moment like the blue-flower-\\ning borage his return to the subject again in spite\\nof himself, and his evident wish that such a story might\\nbe true.\\nNotice the differences between the learning of Cleon\\nand that of Karshish. Which seems to have the more\\nneed of a new religion, and which seems to be more\\ndeeply sceptical\\nWhat do you learn from the first stanza of A\\n15", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0259.jp2"}, "260": {"fulltext": "226 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDeath in the Desert as to the nature and form of\\nthe communication which the speaker in the poem is\\nto make In the next eight paragraphs what scene is\\nvividly portrayed by Pamphylax in his parchment?\\nIs there anything so far to indicate whose death-bed\\nis being described Has sufficient of the personality\\nof the dying man been revealed to make the stanzas\\nfollowing intelligible Explain how he describes him-\\nself to be so withdrawn into his depths that his\\nconsciousness of his own or others personality is\\ndimmed and he could believe those about him to be\\nJames and Peter, or even John himself. How does\\nthe speaker of the poem expound the doctrine of the\\ndying man in regard to the soul, and how does this\\nexplain his feelings as he describes them in the preced-\\ning stanza\\nWith what image does he further explain his sensa-\\ntions in the next stanza, and how does he reveal who\\nhe really is? What doubt suggests itself to him, and\\nwhat account of his past life does he give in the nexl\\ntwo stanzas What idea do we receive of his age\\nand of his influence as long as he is alive Sum up the\\narguments used by him in the next stanza as assurance\\nfor those unborn generations who have not themselves\\nseen or heard, and who he feels will have doubts of\\nthe truth. Are the arguments in the nature of proof,\\nor are they simply an expression of his own over-\\nwhelming sense of the truth of what he has seen and\\nheard\\nIs the main thought to be gained from the follow-\\ning stanza that the reahzation of divine love is the\\nmost important need of man, and that just how it was\\nrevealed to man is not so important as the fact that it\\nhas been revealed in some way", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0260.jp2"}, "261": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 227\\nIn the next stanza is there any force in his argu-\\nment as a proof of the truth of what he has seen, or\\nis it rather a reiteration of the fact that he is sure of it\\nhimself? What arguments of the doubter does John\\nnext present, and how does he meet them The first\\nargument he presents he calls the Pagan s teaching.\\nHow does he modify it in the next following stanza\\nPoint out the essential difference in the two arguments,\\nand also the points of resemblance. In the next\\nstanza what reasons does he give for the weakness of\\nwhat he calls the Pagan s teaching What further\\nquestionings of the doubter does he then present\\nSum up his final arguments. Does he not allow\\nsome good in a Pagan s way of arriving at the truth\\nthat is, a yearning for it until he crystallizes it into\\na set form which is an image at least of the truth\\nWhat are the few remaining stanzas (except the last)\\ntaken up with What is meant in the last stanza by\\nCerinthus being lost What other passage in the\\npoem throws light on the attitude of Cerinthus\\nFrom his whole course of argument do you get the\\nimpression that John s belief rests upon faith and not\\nupon reason\\nHow is the scene of the poem presented in the first\\nstanza of Bishop Blougram Notice how the\\nBishop next touches off what he supposes to be the\\nattitude of Gigadibs towards him in his social capacity.\\nIs this a true reading of Gigadibs s character, or is the\\nBishop so used to having court paid to him that he\\ntakes it for granted a poor literary man will feel hon-\\nored by his attentions Through the Bishop s talk,\\nwhat sort of criticism do we learn Gigadibs had been\\nmaking\\nWhat do you think of the Bishop s ideal of taking", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0261.jp2"}, "262": {"fulltext": "228 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthings as we find them and making them as fair as\\npossible, in comparison with Gigadibs s, of forming an\\nideal of life which we try to realize (See lines 86-99.)\\nDoes the simile which the Bishop brings forward to\\nillustrate the two ideals do justice to Gigadibs s, con-\\nsidering that the Bishop, by following his ideal, could\\nsurround himself with just such treasures as he uses to\\npoint his argument against Gigadibs, while Gigadibs,\\nin following his ideal, would be likely to have little\\nmaterial comfort of any sort What do you think of\\nthe Bishop s argument that one cannot stay fixed in\\nunbehef any more than he can in belief? Notice\\nhis remark to the effect that one feels round to find\\nsome 567156 in which accepted beliefs may be the\\nWay, the Truth, the Life. Having proved to his\\nsatisfaction that one must either have a life of doubt\\ndiversified by faith or of faith diversified by doubt,\\nwhat utilitarian reasons does he give for himself pre-\\nferring the former Since he can get what he best\\nlikes this way, and cannot get it without announcing\\nto the world his unequivocal belief, he turns his belief\\nside toward the world and keeps his doubts to himself.\\nHe next proceeds to show why, having reached this\\nconviction, he chose the most absolute form of faith.\\nHow does his utiUtarianism assert itself here\\nDoes Gigadibs appear to be impressed with the\\nweight of the Bishop s arguments How would the\\nBishop defend himself, suppose he were to admit\\nGigadibs s implications that he is a beast Is his\\nargument here sound, or has it a touch of sophistry\\nIt is equivalent to saying, God has made me selfish,\\ncomfort-loving, and power-loving, therefore I will\\nmake myself as much stronger in these ways as I\\ncan, However, he isn t going to admit himself so", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0262.jp2"}, "263": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 229\\nlow, and answering to the objection that the world\\nwill think him either a fool or a knave, what further\\nutilitarian argument does he bring forth\\nAs Gigadibs still refuses to admire him, he wants\\nto know if he would like him to be a Napoleon or a\\nShakespeare. Are his reasons for not attempting any\\nsuch ideals thoroughly in character\\nWhat does Blougram reply to Gigadibs s objection\\nthat such imperfect faith cannot accomplish faith s\\nwork any better than unbelief?\\nDoes Blougram s reply (line 600) seem to mean\\nthat the existence of doubt gives the human will a\\nchance to choose between faith and doubt, and the\\nmore doubts one has,, the more praiseworthy it is to\\nwill to keep oneself in an attitude of faith\\nDo you agree with Blougram that belief can be a\\nmatter of will Or must it be a matter of conviction\\nWhat do you think of Blougram s argument that\\ncreation is meant to hide God all it can In saying\\nthat with him faith means perpetual unbelief, he\\nimplies that belief and faith are not correlative terms,\\nbut the very preservation of faith depends upon un-\\nbelief, because its value consists in its being held to in\\nthe face of all odds. Notice his various illustrations\\nof this point.\\nWhat has the Bishop to say to the objection of\\nGigadibs, that he views life narrowly and grossly\\nDo you agree with his argument, that when you are\\nliving in the world you may as well take all the world\\nhas to offer and be worldly Gigadibs still holds out\\nthat it would be better frankly to confess his attitude\\ntoward the world. And here the Bishop pounces on\\nhim. Is his (Gigadibs s) basis of ethical conduct upon\\nany more truthful basis than the Bishop s faith", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0263.jp2"}, "264": {"fulltext": "230 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nHe finally rounds out his argument by showing that\\nhe has more worldly gains to show in his life than\\nGigadibs will ever have, which proves his way the\\nbest. The Bishop admits that there is one sort of life\\nwhich would be better than his what is it\\nWhat practical effect does the Bishop s talk have on\\nGigadibs Point out the false steps in the Bishop s\\nargument. Is whatever he says of good rendered false\\nby his constantly proving his points on the basis of\\ntheir practical, material advantage to himself?\\nIf Gigadibs had been as subtle in argument as the\\nBishop, could he have beaten him\\nFor further suggestions on Christmas-Eve and\\nEaster-Day than those given in the Notes, see\\nIntroduction to Vol. IV. Ca?nberwell Browning.\\nFollow carefully the thought-moods as sketched in the\\nabstract of these two poems, and notice the forms of\\nexpression in which they are clothed as indicated in\\nthe Introduction. Contrast the attitude of mind of\\nsuch a character as the speaker in this poem with\\nthat of Blougram s, the one who is religious because\\nhe deliberately chooses religion as the most expedient\\nscheme of life, the other whose whole soul is filled\\nwith religious aspiration, the one whose doubts\\nrevolve about orthodox creeds, the other who realizes\\nthat the truth or falsity of orthodox creeds does not\\naffect the essential truths of religion, namely, that\\nGod is Love and Power, revealable to every human\\nsoul directly, through its recognition of power in the\\nuniverse and of love in its own heart. There would\\nhave been room in this man s theology for a Bishop\\nBlougram, would there not The Bishop s special\\nway of holding on to faith was probably the only way\\nin which he could catch even a glimpse of the eternal", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0264.jp2"}, "265": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 231\\nverities of religion, just as the Dissenters had their way\\nof praising God.\\nQueries for Discussion. How many of the char-\\nacters in these poems are drawn from actual life\\nHow many of the poems may be said to have\\nsources, and how many of them are purely imaginary\\nDr. Charles G. Ames, writing upon Caliban\\nin the published volume of Boston Browning Society\\nPapers, says\\nThree things I get directly from the poem i\\nIt is a satire upon all who plant themselves upon the\\nnarrow island of individualism and think to reach com-\\npleteness of character and culture without sharing the\\ncommon life of the world. (2) It is a protest against\\nthe vagaries of the understanding, divorced from the\\ndeeper reason and the moral sense (3) But\\nchiefly, I think, the poet means it as a satire upon all\\nreligious theories which construct a divinity out of the\\nimperfections of humanity, instead of submitting hu-\\nmanity to be inspired and moulded by the perfections\\nof divinity.\\nDo you think Browning had any such didactic pur-\\npose in writing this poem, or that he merely de-\\nsired to present graphically a low phase of religious\\naspiration\\nDoes this prevent one from drawing any moral\\nlesson at all from the poem\\nDo you draw the same lessons or different ones from\\nthose suggested by Mr. Ames\\nIs the portraiture of John in agreement with his\\npersonality as derivable from the New Testament\\nOn this point Mrs. M. G. Glazebrook says, in her\\npaper on A Death in the Desert in the published\\nvolume of Browning Studies", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0265.jp2"}, "266": {"fulltext": "23 2 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWe have again the loved and loving disciple v^^ho\\nleant on his Master s breast at supper, and in his old\\nage continually bade his little children, love one an-\\nother. He is learned in Greek philosophy and spec-\\nulative, as the author of the Gospel called by his name\\nmust have been mystical and visionary as became\\nhim who had received the revelation of Patmos. He\\nis full of the responsibility which rests upon him as the\\nlast survivor of those who had seen and known Christ;\\nfearful, also, of the heresies and Anti-Christs al-\\nready beginning to disturb the Church, of whom the\\nEbionites, or followers of Cerinthus, who denied his\\nLord s divinity, give him cause for most anxiety.\\nn. Topic for Paper, Classworh, or Private Study.\\nPhases of Religious Thought Illustrated in these\\nPoems.\\nHints Each one of these poems may be re-\\ngarded as marking an especial phase of religious de-\\nvelopment. Beginning with Caliban, who stands for\\nthe natural, uncultured reasoning of the savage,\\nSaul next gives the essence of the prophetic period\\nof Jewish religious development. In Cleon We have\\nthe cultured, intellectual reasoning of a Greek at a\\ntime when any inspiration the Greek religion ever had\\nhas been dissipated in the light of cold reason, yet\\nthere is present the same religious yearning as there is\\nin David. An Episde gives still another view,\\nthat of an Arab confronted with the problem of the\\nnew revealed religion.\\nA Death in the Desert gives the reminiscent\\nmood of the man who was actually a contemporary of\\nthe event prophesied by David. Rabbi Ben Ezra\\ngives that of a Jew of later date. In Bishop Blou-\\ngram and Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day we", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0266.jp2"}, "267": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 233\\ncome down to religious reasoning of the nineteenth\\ncentury.\\nGive an account of the attributes of Setebos as con-\\nceived by Caliban. Show how Caliban s conception\\nis a mingling of his observations of the processes of\\nnature and his own interpretations of these processes.\\nHad he observed in nature any other qualities than\\nthose of capriciousness and cruelty Is his interpreta-\\ntion colored by the treatment he has received from\\nProspero Notice how his illustrations are all drawn\\nfrom his own experience.\\nWhy do you suppose he thought the stars were not\\nmade by Setebos Perhaps because they seemed to\\nhim to be beyond the reach of that god s capricious-\\nness. Is his notion that above Setebos reigns another\\nGod, the Quiet, indicative of aspiration, though of a\\nvery rude sort, in Caliban s nature\\nIs there any trace of love in Caliban s reasoning.?\\nHad he experienced any love in his life Setebos is\\na god of power only, but is he a god of Omnipotent\\npower Notice that Caliban is not quite sure whether\\nhe was made by the Quiet or whether he conquered\\nthe Quiet. Does this suggest to your mind the Greek\\nmyth of Saturn and Jupiter?\\nIs there any suggestion of an embryonic problem\\nof evil in Caliban s mind.? (See line 170 fol.)\\nCaliban s solution of the existence of evil is that Setebos\\ndoes all for his own amusement. Should you say, on\\nthe whole, that Caliban is a little better than the god\\nhe imagines If so, how does he show it What is\\nhis opinion about an after-life Having discovered\\njust what Caliban s religious conceptions are, it will\\nbe interesting to show how close they are to a true\\nsavage religion.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0267.jp2"}, "268": {"fulltext": "234 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nMr. Arthur Symons says, in speaking of this poem\\nI think Mr. Huxley has said that the poem is a\\ntruly scientific representation of the development of\\nreligious ideas in primitive man. Unfortunately\\nscholars are not all agreed as to the exact nature of\\nprimitive religious ideas, some contending that fear\\nplayed a large part in the origin of religion, others\\nthat love was the root of religious aspiration, and others\\nthat religion originated in ancestor worship. There\\nare still other theories to be considered, and if it be\\ndesired to go into the matter thoroughly, the following\\nbooks may be consulted: Fiske s Myths and Myth-\\nMakers, chapter on The Primeval Ghost World;\\nalso his Idea of God; Tylor s Primitive Cul-\\nture; Max Miiller s Essays on The Science of\\nReligion, in Chips from a German Workshop\\nand Contributions to the Science of Mythology\\nAndrew Lang s Custom and Myth and Myth,\\nRitual and Religion; Dr. D. G. Brinton s Re-\\nligions of Primitive Peoples.\\nIt may be said that Caliban s theology fits in best\\nwith the assumption that savage religion began with\\nancestor worship mingled with the emotion of fear,\\nfrom which would finally come the god who made all\\nthings. Having arrived at that stage, it is easy to\\nimagine a thinking savage wondering why his god\\ntreated his creations in the way he did, and then\\ndrawing conclusions as to his nature.\\nTurning to Saul, what do you find are the chief\\ncharacteristics of David s religious conceptions? He\\nhas discovered a god in nature, just as Caliban\\ndid how do his concepdons of this god in nature\\ndiffer from those of Caliban How does his concep-\\ntion of God become enlarged Is this enlarged con-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0268.jp2"}, "269": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 235\\nception a reflection of his own nature, just as Caliban s\\nwas a reflection of his David, however, is conscious\\nthat in loving more than he had supposed God loved,\\nhe is putting himself above God, and so the truth\\nbreaks in upon him that God s love must be greater\\nthan his, a m.ere man s, and that, being all-powerful, he\\ncan accomplish what he (David) can only aspire to\\ndo. Is there anything in the poem to indicate that\\nDavid s prophecy was the result of a supernatural\\nrevelation, or does it seem to be the natural unfolding\\nof God s spirit within David so that he sees far ahead\\nof other men For light upon Browning s truthful-\\nness in the portraiture of this period of religious\\naspiration, see Darmesteter s Selected Essays, trans,\\nby Helen B. Jastrow, and the Essay on Saul in\\nJ. T. Nettleship s Robert Browning: Essays and\\nThoughts.\\nIn Cleon the crude observation and sensations of\\nthe savage have given place to the cultured observation\\nand sensations of the Greek. He has advanced far\\nbeyond that stage where his God is a reflection of\\nhimself Zeus is really a survival from a more\\nsavage age, which fails to come up to the require-\\nments of Cleon. Thence his great disquietude, and\\nhis reaching out toward a conception of God that\\nincludes the idea of love and care. But while Cahban\\nbases his reasoning on merely personal experiences,\\nCleon bases his not only upon his own experiences,\\nbut upon the sympathy v^hich he feels with others.\\nAware of the existence of love in himself and others,\\nhe longs for some sign that love is the ruling quahty\\nof the Divine mind. The sign of this love would be\\nthe assurance that joy such as the soul sees might one\\nday be in truth experienced, and that the progress of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0269.jp2"}, "270": {"fulltext": "236 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe soul, which is the distinctive mark of man as sepa-\\nrated from th^ brute, is not to end in nothing.\\nDo you agree with Cleon that the sympathetic mind\\nwhich enters into sympathy with all forms of art and\\nreaches a high point, if not the highest in the creation\\nof all, is a more developed mind than that which is\\nspecially developed in one direction and thereby\\nreaches the highest point Do you think that the\\nhighest enjoyment comes from direct experience or\\nactive participation, or from entering into sympathy\\nwith the experience of others Can sympathy be\\nentire without a personal knowledge of the same thing\\nFor example, is one happier playing the piano him-\\nself, even if he does it only moderately well, or\\nlistening to a great performer Or can one really\\nenjoy great playing if he has not tried to do the same\\nthing himself? Which is the ideal of Cleon\\nNotice that Saul and Cleon both want the same\\nassurance, that of personal immortality. Has Cleon\\nany notion of evolution? Do you agree with him\\nthat new things do not blot out the old, but that all\\npersist to form at last a completed whole Notice\\nthat Cleon rejects just the sort of manifestation from\\nthe infinite that he longs for. Why do you suppose\\nthat is Because he listens only to the dictates of his\\nintellect, and not at all to the dictates of his heart\\nDoes Browning s Cleon truly portray Greek thought\\nat the time of Christ (For information on this point,\\nsee Zeller s A History of Eclecticism in Greek\\nPhilosophy, Lewes s History of Philosophy,\\nVol. I., Eighth and Ninth Epochs.)\\nIn A Death in the Desert the God of love\\nis made manifest. Against all supposable doubts\\nJohn holds firm ground, yet he is very liberal in his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0270.jp2"}, "271": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 237\\nattitude toward those who have had aspirations leading\\nto truth. Observe how John sketches the stages of\\nreligious belief in the passage beginning, first, like a\\nbrute obliged by facts to learn, like Caliban next, as\\nman may, obliged by his own mind, like Cleon.\\nBut even such reasoners about God as Caliban and\\nCleon do it through the gift of God, note passage\\nfollowing. And all this is midway help till the\\nfact be reached indeed through the divine incarna-\\ntion. He accepts the fact of man s anthropomorphic\\nconceptions of God, and declares that they have\\nglimmers of truth, but that in Christ we have the\\ntruth indeed no subjective conception emanating\\nfrom the mind of man, but an objective truth.\\nWhat do you think of John s theory of the mira-\\ncles Is his ground very strong, or does it leave a\\nloop-hole for a natural instead of a supernatural ex-\\nplanation of them What is the theory of life to\\nbe deduced from this poem Mrs. Glazebrook thus\\nsums it up: Man s life consists in never ceasing\\nprogress. The god-like power is imparted to him\\ngradually, and step by step he approaches nearer to\\nabsolute truth to divine perfection. But in this\\nmortal life the goal can never be attained the ideal\\nwhich he strives to realize here, exists only in heaven,\\nand awaits him as a reward of all his faithful efforts.\\nFor, should he cease to strive, and renounce the\\ndivine ideals, he forfeits his right to life, and brings\\nupon himself the condemnation of death. What re-\\nlation to John s theories of life has his belief in regard\\nto the relations of the body, mind, and soul Upon\\nthis point Professor Corson writes, in his Intro-\\nduction to the Study of Browning The doctrine\\nof the trinal unity of man (the what Does, what", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0271.jp2"}, "272": {"fulltext": "238 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nKnows, what Is) ascribed to John (Hnes 82-104)\\nand upon which his discourse may be said to pro-\\nceed, leads up to the presentation of the final stage\\nof the Christian life on earth that stage when\\nman has won his way to the Kingdom of the what\\nIs within himself, and when he no longer needs\\nthe outward supports to his faith which he needed\\nbefore he passed from the what Knows. Chris-\\ntianity is a religion which is only secondarily a\\ndoctrine addressed to the what Knows. It is\\nfirst of all a religion whose fountain-head is a Per-\\nsonality in whom all that is spiritually potential in\\nman was realized, and in responding to whom\\nthe soul of man is quickened and regenerated.\\nWould such a theory of life as this have been possible\\nto John, or is it very suggestive of nineteenth-century\\nphilosophy This poem was written with a view to\\nanswering the attacks made upon the historical bases\\nof Christianity by such men as Strauss and Renan.\\nTo quote Mrs. Glazebrook again, *In the critical\\nexamination of the evangelical records, the Fourth\\nGospel suffered most. Strauss pronounced it\\nto be a controversial work, written late in the second\\ncentury after Christ, by a profound theologian of the\\nGreek Gnostic and anti-Jewish school, whose design\\nwas not to add another to the existing biographies of\\nChrist, not to represent him as a real man, nor to\\ngive an account of any human life, but to produce\\nan elaborate theological work in which, under the\\nveil of allegory, the Neo-platonic conception of Christ\\nas the Logos, the realized Word of God, the divine\\nprinciple of light and life should be developed.\\nIf it be desired to pursue these investigations further,\\nsee Renan s **Life of Christ, and Strauss s Life", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0272.jp2"}, "273": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 239\\nof Christ which has been translated by George\\nEliot; also Mrs. Glazebrook s article on A Death\\nin the Desert in Browning Studies.\\nIn An Epistle is there any definite presen-\\ntation of a conception of God There is depicted\\nrather the effect on character of a glimpse of life from\\nthe divine standpoint. According to Karshish, the\\neffect has not been altogether good upon Lazarus.\\nIs that because an infinite view of life showing how\\nall works together for good, confuses a finite intelli-\\ngence, so that he is no longer able to direct his will\\ntoward working for any positive ideal, but leaves\\nhimself too much in the hands of God and is guided\\ntherefore by emotions On the other hand, perhaps\\nKarshish did not rightly interpret the character of\\nLazarus, because his own mind was biassed by a too\\nconfined and narrow view of life. Which do you\\nthink more likely It will be interesting here to\\ncompare what the poet says, evidently in his own\\nperson, in Two Poets of Croisic (lines 464\u00e2\u0080\u0094528).\\nHow does the attitude of Karshish difler from\\nthat of Cleon? Should you say that he was not as\\nconscious as Cleon of the need of a new revelation\\nin religion, yet that he could more easily be con-\\nvinced of its truth\\nOf what race were the Arabs, and what was their\\nreligion at that time Were they distinguished for\\ntheir scientific attainments, as the poem indicates\\n(For information on these topics, see Encyclopsedia\\nBritannica, article Arabia.\\nIn Rabbi Ben Ezra we find that the Rabbi\\nagrees with Cleon as to the progress of the human\\nsoul. But Cleon s progress is an intellectual progress,\\nwhile Ezra s is a spiritual progress. While Cleon", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0273.jp2"}, "274": {"fulltext": "240 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nlongs for the enjoyment of the full development of\\nself, Ezra longs for the full development of self only\\nthat he may give delight to his Creator. Where\\nCleon s aspirations make the failure to attain them\\nseem a black horror, Ezra s aspirations fill him v^^ith\\nhope. He belongs to the race that has full assurance\\nof the existence of a God who watches over the affairs\\nof men, but a God jealous of his own prerogatives.\\nIs there much assurance of the love of God as Ezra\\nconceives him Is he not rather like a perfect archi-\\ntect who fashions men for his own glory, differing\\nfrom CaHban s God mainly in the fact that, instead of\\nenjoying the suffering which he causes mankind, he\\nadministers it with love as a means of perfecting man\\nto grace the after time\\nHow truthful a representation of Jewish opinion is\\nthis poem (For this see Camberwell Browning, Notes,\\np. 311.) Miss Mary M. Cohen, writing on Brown-\\ning s Hebraic Sympathies {^Poet-lore y Vol. III., pp.\\n250-254, May, 1 891), says that in this poem Brown-\\ning has seized the essence of Jewish faith and hope,\\nholding it aloft in the crystal of language. There is\\nno doubt that the writer had drunk deeply at the well\\nof Hebraic thought not otherwise could he have com-\\nposed verses which in their majestic music and their\\nnoble meaning seem to echo something of the solemn\\nearnestness and inspiration of Isaiah or Job.\\nIn Bishop Blougram we have reflected all the\\nintellectual doubts of a cultured man of the nineteenth\\ncentury, and a way of meeting them peculiar to a\\ncertain type of mind. Suppose belief is swept away\\nas it was in the Bishop s case, is there anything\\nagainst his argument, that it will be best for himself\\nand humanicv if he retain what was once his belief as", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0274.jp2"}, "275": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 241\\na living ideal, in the faith that it has a better chance\\nof being the truth than an ideal based upon unbelief?\\nBut does not the Bishop utterly stultify himself by\\nmaking the good he wishes to gain almost absolutely\\nselfish and worldly, and also by posing to the world\\nas a sincere and devout believer The effect of un-\\nbehef in this century has been to send a good many\\nintellectual men into the Church of Rome. Does\\nBrowning in this poem present truthfully the bases of\\ntheir faith, at the same time that in Blcugram he\\nportrays a type of a worldly nature rather than that\\nof a pious nature? Notice Cardinal Wiseman s criti-\\ncism of the poem quoted in Notes, Camberwell\\nB? ow?n?igy p. 295. For comparison with Browning s\\ntreatment of the subject, see Ward s **The Life and\\nTimes of Cardinal Wiseman, chap, xxiii.; Wise-\\nman s Lectures on Science and Revealed Religion.\\nIn Christmas-Eve the religious attitude is given\\nof a man who sees that the truth of rehgion is not in\\noutward forms or dogmas, which vary according to\\nthe needs of different individuals, but that it is in the\\nfundamental aspiration of every soul toward God.\\nWhat does the speaker give as the basis of his own\\nindividual faith Should you say that his belief was\\ndependent upon the acceptance of historical Christian-\\nity, or does he use some of its dogmas as symbols of\\nthe highest possible conceptions in religion Is he\\nright in insisting that he cannot express truth for any\\none but himself?\\nIn Easter-Day the difHculties of living a\\nChristian life are discussed. What are these diffi-\\nculties What relation should this life have to an\\ninfinite beyond Compare Bishop Blougram s ideals\\nof living with the speaker s in this poem. Contrast\\n16", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0275.jp2"}, "276": {"fulltext": "242 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthis poet s way of facing and answering doubts with\\nthe Bishop s. What is the difference in the nature\\nof the doubts of a Cleon, the Bishop, and those\\nexpressed in Easter-Day Do the ideals ex-\\npressed in Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day\\nappeal to you as being both rational and mystical, and\\nfull of deep religious conviction despite the doubts,\\nnot answered certainly with orthodox arguments\\nQueries for Discussion. It has been objected that\\nCaliban s theology is not truly primitive, but might\\nit be said that the intention of Browning is not so\\nmuch to give an exact representation of savage ideas\\nof God, as to show how the conception of God is\\ncolored by the experiences and observations of man\\nin undeveloped stages of mind Dr. Berdoe con-\\nsiders Caliban s theology to be much like that of\\nCalvin (of whom an account may be found in the\\nEncyclopaedia Britannica, Account of Calvin).\\nDo you see the resemblances\\nWriting upon this point in Poet-lore (Vol. III.,\\np. 294, May, 1 891), Dr. Hugh A. Clarke says:\\nThese anthropomorphic conceptions of deity have,\\nwhen presented in their native ugliness with the\\ndirectness and incisiveness of this poem, so repellent\\nan aspect that we feel compelled to repudiate them,\\nfor ourselves if not for our neighbors. But they are\\nin some form or another so universal, and the faculty\\nof seeing motes in each other s eyes being equally so,\\nit is not to be wondered at that this poem has been\\nused as a stone to throw, now at the Agnostic, now\\nat the Calvinist, now at the Evangelical. That it\\nhits every one at whom it is thrown is the best proof\\nthat the throwers would do well to examine their\\nown domestic architecture to discover whether or", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0276.jp2"}, "277": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 243\\nnot there was an over-sufficiency of glass in its\\nconstruction.\\nIs the prophecy put into David s mouth, in Saul,\\nmore explicit than is warranted by the prophetic ut-\\nterances attributed to the real David See Psalms ii.,\\nviii., xiv., xxii., xl., xlv., Ixviii., Ixix., Ixxxix., xci.\\nMiss Cohen, in the article already cited, says I find\\nthe poet astonishingly correct, as a rule, in his grasp of\\nthe Hebraic nature. In but one poem does he seem\\nto me to introduce a feature with which I can justly\\nfind fault I mean the anachronism and unfitness of\\nattaching the Trinitarian idea to such a distinctly\\nJewish poem as Saul.\\nDo the conclusions of A Death in the Desert\\nseem to you to form a strong argument against Strauss\\nand Renan Or does it seem to you that there is a\\ncertain begging of the question, not only on account\\nof the fact that there are weak points in the argument,\\nbut because the poet has made the mouthpiece of his\\narguments John himself Upon these points Mrs.\\nGlazebrook remarks that The tendency of the argu-\\nment is to diminish the importance of the original\\nevents historical or traditional on which the Chris-\\ntian religion is based. It is not worth while, the\\nwriter seems to say to Strauss and his followers, to\\noccupy ourselves with discussions about miracles and\\nevents, which are said to have taken place a long time\\nago, and can now neither be denied nor proved.\\nWhat we are concerned with is Christianity as it is\\nnow as a religion which the human mind has, through\\nmany generations, developed, purified, spiritualized\\nAnd which has reacted on human nature and made it\\nwijer and nobler. But it m.ay in return very\\njustly be asked if Mr. Browning can really intend to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0277.jp2"}, "278": {"fulltext": "244 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nadvocate that something less than perfect truthfuhiess,\\nwhich woald be implied in the continued unquestion-\\ning acceptance of a dogmatic rehgion in its entirety,\\nafter the bases of many of its doctrines have been\\nimpugned. All that we know of Mr. Brown-\\ning s candour and keenness of perception forbids us to\\naccept such a conclusion. But it is quite consistent\\nvs^ith his custom.iry method to have put the case against\\nStrauss in this forcible, dramatic form. His reli-\\ngious sense was revolted by the assumption that there\\nwas nothing in Christianity which could survive the\\ndestruction of the miraculous and supernatural elements\\nin its history. He desired to represent Christianity as\\nan entirely spiritual religion, independent of external,\\nmaterial agencies.\\nAre these poems all thoroughly dramatic in their\\npresentation of religious thought, or are there certain\\nresemblances of thought in them which show Brown-\\nLig s own bias toward a philosophy of evolution\\nIf they are not all entirely dramatic, which single\\npoem would you instance as reflecting most nearly the\\npoet s own standpoint\\nWhich do you consider presents the most developed\\npoint of view\\nIII. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nForm and Ornamentation.\\nHints All these poems are in monologue form,\\nthough they differ considerably in the manner of\\npresentation. Caliban, for example, gives directly\\nthe thoughts of the speaker, and only these, but with-\\nout any explicit description of his life. An excellent\\nidea of the way he spends his time is revealed by\\nmeans of the illustrations which he uses. These il-\\nlustrations, therefore, serve three purposes to make", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0278.jp2"}, "279": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION\\n245\\nclear his thought, to give a glimpse of his way of liv-\\ning, and to show that his conception of Setebos is the\\nresult of his own experiences. In Saul the action\\nis not present, as it is in Caliban, but David gives\\na description of an event that has happened to him,\\ntelling what he himself had done and felt, what\\nAbner had said, how Saul had looked, what he did,\\nand so on, always using the indirect method of pre-\\nsenting the thought. In Cleon the action is pres-\\nent again we follow him as he writes his letter to\\nProtus, in the course of which w^e get not only Cleon s\\nthoughts, but frequent glimpses of the thoughts of\\nProtus by means of Cleon s answers, and furthermore,\\nowing to the nature of the questions put by Protus, we\\nget a complete view of Cleon s personality again, by\\nmeans of the illustrations introduced, we get a com-\\nplete picture of the scene. Is there any word of\\ndirect description of the scene, or is it in every in-\\nstance introduced as the accompaniment of a thought\\nAn Epistle bears somewhat the same sort of rela-\\ntion to Cleon, artistically, as *Saul does to\\nCaliban. Although we follow Karshish as he\\nwrites his letter, the action is past instead of present,\\nbecause he tells of an event that has happened to him.\\nDo we learn as much about the personality of Karshish\\nas we do about that of Cleon Is any glimpse gained\\nof the personality of Abib, to whom he is writing.?\\nDo we get as explicit a picture of the conditions un-\\nder which the letter is being written as in Cleon\\nOf what present events is a view given\\nIn A Death in the Desert the speaker does\\nnot reveal himself at all he is little more than the\\nmouthpiece for the document of Pamphylax. The\\ndocument gives an account of the scene of John s", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0279.jp2"}, "280": {"fulltext": "246 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndeath and of what he said on his death-bed. But\\nthere is the complexity so often seen in Browning s\\nmonologues, through John s imagining the arguments\\nof the doubters, so that there are really two lines of\\nthought carried on in the poem.\\nNotice that the little the speaker in the poem has to\\nsay is put in brackets. How much do his remarks\\nbear upon the arguments of the poem What Pam-\\nphylax says is printed direct, except when he is quot-\\ning his own past remarks. All that John says is\\nquoted, all that his imagined opponents say is single\\nquoted. Is there anything at all given of the occasion\\nand surroundings of the speaker What is given of\\nthe occasion of Pamphylax s relation of the story\\nDoes the whole scene in the desert come out through\\nthe direct description of Pamphylax, or is some of it\\nbrought out in the course of John s talk Rabbi\\nBen Ezra is the simplest of the monologues. It\\nmight be called a lyrical expression of the mood of the\\nRabbi, by means of which we discover his attitude\\ntoward life and God. Is there either action or scene\\nportrayed, or any hint of any other personaHty In\\nBJougram, again, a situation in the present is de-\\npicted. The Bishop does all the actual talking, but a\\nclear idea of the remarks of Mr. Gigadibs may be\\ngathered from the Bishop s replies to him. Is the\\nmanner of the poem more like **Cleon than it is\\nlike that of any of the others under consideration\\nPoint out the resemblances. Christmas-Eve comes\\nunder another head again. The speaker tells of an\\nadventure he had, and of the visions he had in the\\nmidst of it. The scene, the visions, the thought, and\\nthe emotions are all presented by means of direct de-\\nscription, and the only direct actor in the poem is the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0280.jp2"}, "281": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 24.^\\nspeaker, and all the action he tells about is past.\\nEaster-Day is different again. There are two\\nspeakers in it, one talking directly, the other talking\\nin quotation marks, so that, instead of getting the\\nother personality through the answers of the speaker\\nin the poem, as in **Blougram and Cleon, we\\nget them by means of exact quotation of his remarks.\\nTo which of the other poems is it the nearest approach\\nin form\\nThe structure of these poems does not offer any\\ndifficulties. Caliban, Cleon, An Epistle,\\nA Death in the Desert, and Blougram are all\\nin blank verse. Does this include all that are most\\ndramatic in general treatment In which of these is\\nthe blank verse most regular, and in which is it least\\nregular Does alliteration play any considerable part\\nin the effect produced in these poems r Is tone\\ngained chiefly by the character of the language rather\\nthan through the structure of the verse In Cali-\\nban, for example, the especial peculiarity of language\\nis the use of the third person for the first. Now,\\nwhile Caliban does not get a very satisfactory religious\\ndoctrine out of his observation of nature, he certainly\\nmakes his observations with acuteness, and expresses\\nthem in picturesque and vivid language. This might\\nnot seem fitting to a savage intellect, but an examina-\\ntion of savage myths will reveal the fact that savages\\nwere very acute observers of natural phenomena, that\\nthey clothed their observations in metaphorical and\\nsymbolic language which often attained great poetic\\nbeauty. As instances of this we may mention the\\nPolynesian myth of The Separation of Rangi and\\nPapa to be found in Tylor s Primitive Culture,\\nand the North American Indian tale of the Red", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0281.jp2"}, "282": {"fulltext": "248 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nSwan given by Schoolcraft. Are Caliban s obser-\\nvations of nature true to natural history For example,\\ndo fishes get frozen in wedges of ice and afterwards\\nescape into the warm water, and do crabs march in a\\nprocession down to the sea Naturally, Caliban uses\\nno allusions that do not come within the immediate\\nrange of his observation. Does Shakespeare s Cahban\\nuse language equally remarkable for poetic beauty\\nIn Cleon the language everywhere suggests the\\nlife and culture of Greece. Observation of nature, pure\\nand simple, is at a discount. Everything is refined\\nupon, as the woman with the crocus vest that refines\\nupon the women of Cleon s youth. Do you find any\\nexception to the fact that his illustrations are drawn\\nfrom the realm of man s artistic effx]irts In his con-\\ntrasting of animals with man, his observation is that\\nof the scientist rather than that of the lover of nature,\\nis it not What does he say, however, to show that\\nhe has an appreciation of nature, though it is not his\\nchief delight His chief delight is the beauty of\\nyoung and active manhood and beautiful womanhood.\\nIs not the language of art and science combined with\\nadmiration of human beauty thoroughly characteristic\\nof Grecian civilization, and does it not as surely give\\nthe tone to this poem as Caliban s nature illustrations\\ndo Point out all the poetical comparisons used by\\nCleon, and show from what aspects of life he draws\\nthem. Is his language on the whole as full of images\\nas Caliban s Are the allusions all such as belong of\\nnecessity to his time (For allusions, see Camberwell\\nBrow?ii?2g, Vol. v.. Notes, p. 297.)\\nIn An Epistle the references are nearly all\\nstrictly in line with the profession of Karshish, and so\\nillustrative of the particular phase of medical science", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0282.jp2"}, "283": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 249\\npractised at that time that they cannot be understood\\nwithout special explanations. (See Camberwell Brown-\\ning, Vol. v.. Notes, p. 283.) Is the talk very full\\nof images otherwise, or chiefly noticeable for its\\ndirectness\\nNotice that in A Death in the Desert refer-\\nences to secular learning of any kind are almost entirely\\nabsent. There are, however, references to Pagan\\nreligion. Point these out. Notice, also, that while\\nmuch of the language is simple and direct, it breaks\\nout now and then into some glowing gem of language\\nlike that in lines 204 and 205,\\nBut shudderingly, scarce a shred between\\nLie bare to the universal prick of light.\\nLike Cleon, Blougram is a cultured man, but the\\nthings mentioned by Cleon are few in comparison\\nwith those mentioned by Blougram. His language is\\nfull of references to history, art, literature, ancient and\\nmodern. His remarks about himself show him to be\\nsurrounded with luxury, with feminine adoration,\\nto have unlimited power and influence, in fact. Aside\\nfrom this richness of reference, observe the figures\\nused, and compare the poem with Karshish and Cleon\\nin this respect. (For allusions see Camberwell Brozv?i-\\ning. Vol. v.. Notes, p. 295.)\\nThe remaining poems are all rhymed. Saul is\\nin rhymed couplets, except at a few points in the\\npoem, where there is a rhymed triplet introduced.\\nThe rhythm flows easily, with six beats to the line,\\nthe normal foot being anapsstic. Still greater ease is\\ngiven by the fact that the stanzas vary in length, and\\nfrequently end with part of a line, the next stanza\\ntaking up the rest of the line and often completing the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0283.jp2"}, "284": {"fulltext": "250 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nrhymed couplet. Rabbi Ben Ezra has a more\\ncomplicated stanza, two rhymed couplets of three feet\\neach, iambic, separated by a six-foot line that rhymes\\nwith a last seven-foot line. Christmas-Eve and\\nEaster-Day have four beats to the line, with\\nvarious arrangements of short syllables and rhymes, so\\nthat the effect of the verse is lively, and possibly not\\nquite so dignified as the subject demands. What do\\nyou think Whatever lack there may be in the\\nstructure of the verse is, however, counteracted by the\\ndiction and style, which passes from the humorous\\ndescription full of lifelikeness of the congregation in\\nthe little chapel to the chaste redcence and power in\\nthe presentation of the vision.\\nIf there are any differences in the internal structure\\nof the verse, that is, in the varying of short syllables\\nand rhymes to agree with the changes in mood, note\\nthem. Easter-Day, Mr. Arthur Symons says,\\n**like its predecessor, is written in lines of four\\nbeats each, but the general effect is totally dissimilar.\\nHere the verse is reduced to its barest constituents\\nevery line is, syllabically as well as accentually, of\\nequal length and the lines run in pairs, without one\\ndouble rhyme throughout. The tone and contents of\\nthe two poems (though also in a sense derived from\\nthe same elements) are in similar contrast. Easter-\\nDay, despite a momentary touch or glimmer, here\\nand there, of grave humour, is thoroughly serious in\\nmanner and continuously solemn in subject. These\\npoems differentiate themselves from all the others in\\nthis group, through their imaginative and symbolical\\nquality. Saul toward the end touches the same\\nsort of imaginadve ecstasy (show how), but David s\\nvision does not reach the vivid objective presentation of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0284.jp2"}, "285": {"fulltext": "EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 251\\nthose in the two later poems. There are many inter-\\nesting allusions in the two poems, for explanation of\\nwhich see Camberwell Broiu?ii?ig, Vol. IV., Notes,\\npp. 400, 404. Contrast the way in which they are\\nbrought in with their use in the other poems.\\nA study of the effects of alliteration will be found\\ninteresting in connection with the rhymed group. In\\nmaking comparisons notice that appreciation of nature\\nis as much an attribute of David as it is of Caliban,\\nbut his appreciation smacks of pastoral rather than\\nsavage life, and includes human hfe in its vision, and\\nfurthermore is infused wdth the fervor of the joy of\\nliving instead of the fear of the joy of living. The\\nchief ornaments of this poem are the lyrical outbursts\\nin song of David. For opinions as to their truthful-\\nness to the time, see Camberwell Brow?u?igy Vol. IV.,\\nNotes, p. 376, Point out all references and figures of\\nspeech which add to the beauty of the diction. Com-\\npare the nature of the language used by Rabbi Ben\\nEzra. Does the nature of the references and illus-\\ntrations in this group of rhymed poems determine the\\ntone of the poem as much as it does in the group of\\nblank-verse poems\\nQueries for Discussion. In how many ways can\\nyou trace the influence of Shakespeare s Caliban on\\nBrowning s Caliban\\n**Saul has been considered by some critics to\\nbe the finest single poem of Browning s. Mr.\\nSymons remarks: Indeed it seems to unite almost\\nevery poetic gift in consummate and perfect fusion\\nmusic, song, the beauty of nature, the joy of life, the\\nglory and greatness of man, the might of love, human\\nand divine all these are set to an orchestral accom-\\npaniment of magnificent continuous harmony, now", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0285.jp2"}, "286": {"fulltext": "252 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhushed as the wind among the woods at evening,\\nnow strong and sonorous as the storm-wind battling\\nwith the mountain pine. Though the poem may-\\nbe worthy all this praise, do you feel that there are\\nother poems in this group finer, because more absolutely\\noriginal in treatment\\nDo you think the artistic force of A Death in\\nthe Desert somewhat weakened by the compli-\\ncated series of speakers or do you think it an artistic\\ndevice to place John in perspective, so surrounding\\nhim in mystery, at the same time that there is a\\ndirect line of connection with the present speaker\\nWould not Bishop Blougram preserve its artistic\\nunity better if the poet had not added those explana-\\ntory stanzas at the end\\nDoes it seem like an apology on the poet s part for\\nhaving drawn the Bishop in such uncomplimentary\\ncolors, and an attempt to shift the blame upon\\nGigadibs, by insinuating that he was not worth a\\nbetter argument If this were true, would it be\\nbetter or worse for the Bishop\\nFrom the study of these poems do you get an impres-\\nsion of the power and variety of Browning s genius", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0286.jp2"}, "287": {"fulltext": "Page\\nText\\nNote\\n177\\nI\\n257\\n317\\n293\\n332\\n45\\n49\\n291\\n293\\n163\\n214\\n216\\n353\\n368\\n368\\nThe Prelate\\nVol.\\nThe Monsignor in Pippa Passes, iv. i\\nThe Nuncio in **The Return of the Druses, v. iii\\nOgniben in A Soul s Tragedy, ii iii\\nThe Bishop Orders his Tomb at St. Praxed s\\nChurch V\\nBishop Blougram s Apology v\\nAbate Paul, Canon Girolamo, the Archbishop,\\nCaponsacchi, and the Pope in The Ring and\\nthe Book, x vi\\nThe Pope and the Net xii\\nThe Bean-Feast xii\\nTopic for Paper y Glassworks or Private Study.\\nBrowning s Prelates A Character Study.\\nHi?its Before bringing his first prelate on the\\nstage in Pippa Passes, Browning lets us know from\\nPippa how highly he was thought of, and then from\\nBluphocks how lightly he was regarded. Moreover,\\nBluphocks not only casts doubt upon him, but impli-\\ncates him in the plot against Pippa. Pippa s words\\n(Introduction, lines 62-68 and 181-186) reflect that\\nclass of pubhc opinion which takes the holiness of an\\nexalted prelate for granted but those of Bluphocks\\n(Part II. lines 329-370) represent public opinion no\\nmore trustworthy, that of a class of sceptics as ready\\nto distrust a priest because his profession is holiness as\\nthe pious are to assume him to be good because of it.\\nShould either be accepted Does the poet give these\\ntwo points of view to awaken curiosity and interest in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0287.jp2"}, "288": {"fulltext": "254 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nan independent scrutiny of the character himself when\\nhe appears But notice that he makes Bluphocks give\\na clew to the plot which may be taken as a fact al-\\nthough it comes through a scoundrel. Does Blu-\\nphocks rightly implicate the priest in it\\nAs the Bishop bows his attendants out, the extreme\\npoliteness and, especially, the humility of his saying\\nthat he chiefly desires life now that he may recom-\\npense them, seem a little dubious. Is he too conde-\\nscending Does he mean it And the addition,\\nspoken aside, Most I know something of already,\\nmay indicate a system of spying on them, and that\\nhe has such a conception of his duty to his office as\\nShakespeare makes Angelo have in Measure for\\nMeasure, to ferret out evil and punish the sin-\\nner, instead of rescuing the sinned against. Or is this\\na hit at the Intendant Is the Monsignor an abste-\\nmious man, or is there any reason to suspect him of\\nforced asceticism (lines 4, 23\u00e2\u0080\u0094 25, 119\u00e2\u0080\u0094 121). Why\\ndo you think the Intendant is bashful about taking\\nthe dainties (See also 1. 68.) Does he feel un-\\neasy, and have his own slippery deeds made him so,\\nor his fear of the Bishop s capacity in the same line?\\nMaybe he has noticed the Sicilian s surprise that a\\nrepast has been prepared, and thought the remark was\\nintended to forestall a fear that there was any intention\\nto poison him. But is this likely at the date of the\\nplay (The references to Prince Metternich and\\nAustrian tyranny permit an approximation of the date.)\\nIs it a revelation of the Bishop s character that his\\ntalk flows so affably on, between his thrusts at the\\nIntendant, in picturesque descriptions of midsummer\\nheat at Messina, and in dissertations, a propos of Jules,\\non the prospects for a new school of art What do", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0288.jp2"}, "289": {"fulltext": "THE PRELATE 255\\nyou gather from the talk otherwise as to the Bishop s\\nantecedents and character and his intentions toward sin\\nand the particular sinner before him When the In-\\ntendant, shrewdly suspecting that the Bishop is not\\naverse to profiting by the crimes he means to make a\\nvirtue of detecting and punishing, checkmates him\\nby saying that it has happened in this case, as in\\nall the old stories, that the child was not killed, but is\\nready to produce (171 177), notice the effect on the\\nBishop. Does the Intendant s rejoinder betoken that\\nhis lordship was choleric and tried to strike him\\nDoes this justify the Intendant in thinking his guess\\nright, that the Bishop is not anxious to be assured c\u00c2\u00a3\\nthe child s safety What is his reason for letting the\\nBishop know that Carlo of Cesena is in the secret too,\\nand has been blackmailing him In which speech is\\nthe Monsignor s real feeling betrayed, where he cries,\\nLiar or, I would you spoke truth for once\\nDoes the Intendant judge rightly as to his secret de-\\nsire to appear good without really being so, in his final\\nproposition Does Pippa s song expose the Bishop s\\ntrue aspiration toward righteousness Or does it act-\\nually v/arm into life a tendency to be as good as he\\nappears, which was but latent before Notice Pippa s\\nfinal remark upon the Bishop (lines 272\u00e2\u0080\u0094280). Does\\nher insight throw the right light on his character\\nIn comparison with .this Bishop, does the Nuncio of\\n**The Return of the Druses show a greater or less\\ninsincerity in his professions of love for his sheep\\nIs it due to his greater danger that he is so much\\nkeener-witted, or is his nature both stronger in fibre\\nand more frankly material in its secret desires and in\\nits assumption of mastery over the people, than that\\nof the Monsignor Notice Djabal s previous knowl-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0289.jp2"}, "290": {"fulltext": "256 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nedge of him as Luke of Stamboul (lines 166, 210),\\nand what this implies. Also his purchase of the\\nPrefectship (32\u00e2\u0080\u009440), and his use of the dead Prefect s\\nsunken treasure ship, containing the price he himself\\nhad brought him, into a means to win over the unini-\\ntiated Druses by giving them to understand they were\\nintended as the gift of the Church to them. His\\nmind dwells on those bezants. Notice his idea of a\\nmiracle (184). But the situation was desperate, as\\nhis own account of it shows (20\u00e2\u0080\u009430) and the mutter\\namong the Orientals hemming him in Tear him\\nbrings out his powers of mind in defence against their\\nmerely physical advantage over him. When he finds\\nhow effective his bluff Ye dare not, etc., is, does\\nhe weaken or strengthen our admiration of his pluck\\nby taking the opposite tack Said I, refrain from\\ntearing me? I pray ye tear me! Shall I, etc.\\nDoes his silence when new persons or new events\\ncome into calculation, and his instant seizure of any\\nhint about them that may be turned to his advantage,\\nreveal an unusual combination of powers, caution\\nand astuteness with alertness and adroitness Exem-\\nplify this.\\nIs there any sign in the Nuncio of the art-loving\\ntastes of the Monsignor His utter worldliness, his\\nhard-headedness about the supernatural, are his strong\\npoints. Notice that his last speech is the confident\\nchallenge to Djabal to exalt himself. This comes, too,\\nafter Anael s death, which has not shaken him for an\\ninstant. Does this distinguish him from the Mon-\\nsignor, again, whose half-and-half virtue is his weak\\npoint He is much less confidently worldly than\\nthe Nuncio, and is capable of being frightened emo-\\ntionally, as it were, while a physical fright, fear for", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0290.jp2"}, "291": {"fulltext": "THE PRELATE 257\\nhis life, and concern for the loss of both bezants and\\nbishopric are what wring the heart of the Nuncio.\\nOgniben is not put in a situation which brings out his\\nown secret foibles, but in one which makes use of his\\ncharacteristic combination of affability and shrewdness\\nto bring out the secret foibles of Chiappino. He\\nknows beforehand that the Prefect is not killed, and he\\nhas been informed, too, as to w^ho really dealt the\\nblow, so he has to manage Chiappino, whose princi-\\nples he has reason to suspect, with reference to an-\\nother man of worth, Luitolfo, whom he does not fear,\\nand he acquits himself of his task, both with relation\\nto them and to the Church he serves, with insight,\\ntact, and intelligence. He consciously brings to light\\nall Chiappino s lurking infidelity, as Pippa uncon-\\nsciously wakens all the allegiance to good lying dor-\\nmant in the Monsignor s pious intentions. Show\\nhow ably he does this. But, after all, does his success\\ndepend at bottom on Chiappino himself? Would\\nOgniben show to as good advantage if he had a sin-\\ncere character to grapple with The quality in him\\nthat is not exalted, and which would be detected, one\\nmay guess, if he had to deal with a revolter vvhom he\\ncould not add to his list of three-and-twenty leaders\\nof revolts, is his disbehef in disinterestedness. Would\\nhe not appear as much at a disadvantage as Braccio,\\nfor example, if he had a Luria to bring to justice He\\nis unable to conceive of liberty as anything but a pretext\\nfor self-aggrandizement, and he is as sceptical about dis-\\ninterestedness as the Nuncio is about Druse miracles.\\nThe Bishop who builds his tomb at St. Praxed s\\nChurch agrees with the Monsignor of Pippa Passes\\nin his artistic tastes; and the Nuncio is a boor, com-\\npared to him, in love of material advantage. His joy\\n17", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0291.jp2"}, "292": {"fulltext": "258 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nin beauty is so thoroughly sensuous, so utterly un-\\naware of the existence of such a thing as inward beauty\\nin art, that he is like a child beside his sophisticated\\nfellow- prelates, and represents a stage of unconscious-\\nness of self so undeveloped that it can only be com-\\npared with that of the evangelical parish-priest in\\nThe Inn Album (Part IV. lines 240-415), who,\\nalthough so opposite to him in any esthetic capacity as\\nin any similarity of outward environment, is scarcely\\nmore crude in knowledge of himself. The arrested de-\\nvelopment of the uncultured evangelical English clergy-\\nman of the present century and the unawakenedness\\nof the cultured Italian prelate of the Renaissance are\\nequally ugly in character, from a spiritual point of\\nview although one may jusdy take more pleasure in\\nthe Italian than the Englishman, because he is a\\nnatural product of an early stage of European civiliza-\\ntion, while the Englishman is an unnatural growth,\\nthwarting the legitimate progress of modern life.\\nThere is, however, litde insincerity or doubleness\\nof aim in either of them. They have the virtue of\\nprimitive types. The man whose moral possibilities are\\nawakening can be more of a hypocrite or a potential\\nvillain than one who has not yet reached the transi-\\ntional phase where choice begins to be consciously\\ntaken and villany or virtue may result. There is\\none token that the Bishop feels guilty. He hesitates\\nover telling how to find the buried lump of lapis lazuli\\nsecredy saved when his church was on fire (lines 33-\\n50) Does this suggest the necessity for caution merely,\\nor does his conscience trouble him a little Are there\\nany other such signs of uneasiness t (3-9.) The\\nmixture of Bible phrase with Pagan emblems some-\\ntimes suggests not only that his mind naturally betrays", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0292.jp2"}, "293": {"fulltext": "THE PRELATE 259\\nthe Pagan taste belonging to an Italian, but also that\\nhe covers his greater delight in the latter with a pose\\nin the professional line expected of him.\\nThe desire to get the better of a rival, to excite\\nenvy, and occupy a place of power and importance in\\npublic opinion, is the impulse that moves Bishop\\nBlougram to make his apology as it moved the Bishop\\nof St. Praxed s to make his dying requests. What\\nother similarities of character are there between the\\ntwo men (See Cambei well Brownings Vol. V., In-\\ntroduction, pp. xviii and xix.) In sophistication,\\nbrain-power, materialism, and adroitness. Bishop Blou-\\ngram is a Nuncio raised to the highest power and\\nin affability, fluency, and social gifts, as well as in\\nhis scepticism toward disinterestedness, he is a cooler\\nhand than Ogniben. Nevertheless, in just the fact\\nthat Gigadibs s criticism of his sincerity makes him as\\ndesirous to subjugate him as the Bishop of St. Praxed s\\nwas to get the better of old Gandolf in his grave and\\ntorture him with envy, the poet lets us discern\\nthrough his uneasiness of conscience about this the\\nweak point in his character, and also the shifting of\\nthe m.oral ideals of the nineteenth century, which the\\nBishop vaguely feels, towards a genuine love of man\\nand against such claims as his for personal power,\\nluxury, and rank.\\nIs Gigadibs the nonentity he is commonly supposed\\nto be Or is he very important to the poem in the\\nlight he throws on its purport Notice that he is\\nrepresented as being led to action of an unexpected\\nkind by this talk. And how do you deem the fact\\nshould be interpreted, as a comment on the Bishop s\\nargument and character, that, instead of sitting with\\nBlougram this many a year, as the Bishop thinks", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0293.jp2"}, "294": {"fulltext": "26o BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhe will, he does **not sit five minutes (lines 1005\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\n1014), being seized with a sudden healthy vehe-\\nmence to put into practice in a new world a simpler\\nway of life, in closer accord with the last chapter of\\nSt. John\\nDoes this imply that the Christianity the Bishop\\nprofesses is opposed, in its exaltation of favored persons\\nto material comfort and prominence, to the social ardor\\nand ministry to others which was Christ s last bidding\\nto his disciples in that chapter\\nThe Churchmen whose characters are more or less\\nfully portrayed in The Ring and the Book may\\nbe best seen, first, from the standpoint of the chief\\nand wisest one of them, the Pope, Then the ac-\\ncounts given of them elsewhere in the poem from\\nother points of view may be collected and compared\\nwith his especially those of Caponsacchi given by\\nhimself, in Part VI., and Pompilia, in Part VII.,\\nboth of him and of the others.\\nThe Pope characterizes the Abate as a fox, all\\ncraft but no violence; the young Canon Girolamo,\\nas the hybrid, neither fox nor wolf, neither\\ncraft nor violence wholly the Archbishop as a knight\\nenfeebled by the gold and silk of the Church s favor,\\nwho, instead of championing the victim, took part\\nwith the wolf against her. His judgment of them all\\nis based upon his own conception of the shepherd s\\nproper office being to feed the sheep, and disregard\\nthe lust and pride of life. From disheartenment over\\ntheir moral failure he turns with cheer to Capon-\\nsacchi s **use of soldiership, self-abnegation, freedom\\nfrom all fear, loyalty. Is his view of all these\\nChurchmen just Is his stern, unbiassed judgment\\nagainst those he so grieves, for the sake of the Church,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0294.jp2"}, "295": {"fulltext": "THE PRELATE 261\\nespecially to condemn, a high proof of his own disin-\\nterestedness Notice, also, that he has to face some\\nscandal against the Church he honors to defend\\nCaponsacchi, and not to let off Guido. Religion s\\nparasite he calls him. Is his reprimand of Capon-\\nsacchi a moral weakening on his part from the high\\nstand he has taken or is it sincere and natural from\\nhis clerical point of view Notice, too, that he has\\nno idea of the purity of love for a priest, but is again\\ntrue to his clerical ideals in praising Caponsacchi for\\nresisting love (11. 1 164-1 187). In what respects does\\nhe over-praise and under-praise Caponsacchi (See\\nCamberwell Browning, Vol. V., Introductory Essay,\\np. XXX, and compare with Caponsacchi s own ac-\\ncount of his action and motives.)\\nNot only in his sentence of Guido is the Pope s\\nfidelity to what he thinks right attested. He is above\\nbias and seeks truth outside the pale of ecclesiasticism,\\nreviewing the past and forecasting the future in quest\\nof truth. Yet, despite his fears lest it was the world s\\nenmity that gave the early Christians their spiritual\\ninsight and vigor, and that the world s approval of\\nthe Church as an established institution deadens the\\nardor of her sons for virtue and tends to make the\\npolitic and thrifty seem to them the only wisdom\\n(11. 1821-1831); despite the suspicion that the natural\\nman has it in him to exceed in virtue any warmth\\nby law and hght by rule (11. 15 27-1 5 50); despite\\nhis foreboding that in an age to come there may be\\na few able to reach an unauthoritative truth and\\ncorrect the portrait by the living face, man s God,\\nby God s God in the mind of man; despite\\nall these undaunted adventurings of a brave mind, a\\npure and disinterested love of the trutn, the Pope does", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0295.jp2"}, "296": {"fulltext": "262 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nnot for an instant question his own duty and preroga-\\ntive as the head of the Church to smite with all his\\nauthority the wrong he sees (11. 19 50-1 9 54).\\nIn Browning s last book, **Asolando, companion\\nsketches of two prelates appear, one as wily and yet\\nalmost as naively hypocritical in his self-seeking as the\\nNuncio, and the other as true-hearted as the Pope of\\nThe Ring and the Book. But is this Pope of The\\nBean-Feast as acute and subtle as Antonio Pignatelli r\\nHow do you derive from this short poem that he was\\nsimple-minded and lovable And from the other\\nlightly written piece, how is it that you gather an\\nimpression of the hit being against the people who\\nwere disarmed from cavil at the fisherman s origin\\nby his external humility, rather than against the\\nhumor-loving Pope who saw through them\\nQueries for Discussio?i. What effect would a song\\nof Pippa s have to deter the Nuncio of* The Return of\\nthe Druses from a profitable tacit assent to a crime\\nWas Browning true to nature in portraying in the Mon-\\nsignor a man who could be swayed by Pippa s song\\nWould the Pope of The Ring and the Book\\napprove of Bishop Blougram judged by this Pope s\\nidea of the Church as the embodiment of the rule,\\nthat Man is born nowise to content himself, but\\nplease God, which of these prelates would deserve\\nhis commendation\\nIs this Pope alone enough to justify the priesthood\\nfor all the slurs its unworthy members cast upon it\\nOr does he rather justify human nature, which can be\\nso sound and genuine that neither hierarchy nor partisan-\\nship can bend it from the love of the truth", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0296.jp2"}, "297": {"fulltext": "Browning Study Programmes\\nSECOND SERIES\\nSingle Poem Studies; Paracelsus\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nParacelsus i 35 308\\nI. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Ideal of Paracelsus, Proposed Methods of\\nAttainment, and Festus s Criticism. (Part I.) (For\\nhints upon this and following topics, see Notes as given\\nabove and Introduction to Vol. I.)\\nQueries for Investigatiofi and Discussio?i. In his\\nrelations w^ith his friends does Paracelsus show himself\\ncapable of great depths of affection\\nDoes the weakness of his ideal as he presents it to\\nhis friends consist in its insistence that truth is latent\\nwithin the soul of man, needing only the discovery\\nof proper outside stimuli to make it blossom forth\\nin his assumption that he of all men has been chosen\\nby God to attain absolute knowledge in his throw-\\ning over of all past wisdom as aids in his search\\nor in his determination to seek good for men while\\nremaining aloof from them\\nIs there any resemblance between the theories of\\nParacelsus and Herbert Sp^encer s exposition of life as", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0297.jp2"}, "298": {"fulltext": "264 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe continuous adjustment of inner relations to outer\\nrelations (For sketch of the working of this principle\\nin evolution, see John Fiske s Through Nature to\\nGod, chap, viii.)\\nIf it be admitted that Paracelsus had hit upon a\\nright principle, that intuition (or inner relation) de-\\nvelops by means of a v^^ay being opened up from\\noutside (the effect of external stimuli), then would the\\nchief flaw in his ideal be that he claimed too great\\nabsoluteness for the knowledge when gained\\nHas not this mistake been made by modern scien-\\ntists who have confused knowledge of phenomena\\nwith knowledge of causes\\nIf his principle was right, what was there wrong\\nabout his method of investigation Was it that he\\nsought to find direct analogies between soul and nature\\nby means of arbitrary signs and symbols instead of by\\nmeans of experimental experience\\nDid Paracelsus show his good sense, however, in\\nhis objections to the wisdom of the sages, whom he\\nrejected\\nDoes Festus do him justice Do his criticisms\\nshow him more friendly than penetrating\\nDo you consider the ideal of Festus which Michal\\nechoes that one must receive appreciation and have\\nlove for one s work the highest, or is there some-\\nthing noble in the determination to do good and forego\\nthe reward of appreciation Is it best of all to do good\\nthough sympathy for one s efforts be lacking, yet to\\nbe conscious of the need of sympathy, and respond to\\nit when it comes\\nII. Topic for Paper y Ciassworky or Private Study.\\nMethods Found Wanting, and through Aprile a\\nNew Conception of Life Revealed. (Part II.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0298.jp2"}, "299": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 265\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. What\\nvarious tendencies are at war with one another in the\\nmood of Paracelsus as he appears at the house of the\\nGreek conjurer\\nDoes he show any intuition at all of the true cause\\nof his failure\\nDoes not this passage, up to line 280, seem to you\\na remarkable presentation of the character of a man\\nwith a proud and dauntless spirit, brought to bay at\\nlast, now catching at the hated conjuring methods in\\nthe hope of some respite, now struggling to keep his\\nideal pure and to retain faith in himself? In this\\nterrible struggle of his spirit does he seem in danger of\\nlosing his mind If this were so, might the appear-\\nance of Aprile be explained as a hallucination\\nIs the song heard outside meant to apply especially\\nto Aprile, or to both Aprile and Paracelsus\\nDo Aprile s ideals of art show a democratic inclu-\\nsiveness Can art be made democratic without ceasing\\nto be art (See Tolstoy on this point in What is\\nArt Are Tolstoy s arguments biassed by the fact\\nthat in his democracy he tends to bring all intelligence\\nto a universal plane, instead of recognizing the needs of\\nvarious grades of intelligence\\nDoes Aprile mistake the nature of Paracelsus and\\nhis achievements by calling him a poet and his king\\nDoes he show at the end that he has discovered his\\nmistake\\nWas Aprile s error not so much that he denied\\nknowledge, but that he desired to encompass the\\ninfinite in his love instead of patiently touching it here\\nand there through man s means?\\nIs the statement made by Paracelsus, that each had\\nfailed through not recognizing each other s worth as", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0299.jp2"}, "300": {"fulltext": "266 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntypical of love and knowledge, the whole of the\\ntruth\\nDoes Paracelsus really understand the drift of Aprile s\\nremark, Yes I see now. God is the perfect poet,\\nwho in His person acts his own creations\\nAprile has been said to stand as a type of the Re-\\nnaissance. Did the Renaissance tend in the direction\\nof greater democracy in art (See Symonds, Vernon\\nLee, Burckhardt, on the Renaissance.) Was not\\nParacelsus himself just as much a fruit of the\\nRenaissance\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nHow Paracelsus Puts his New View of Life into\\nPractice. (Part IIL)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Does\\nParacelsus show in this part that he had mistaken the\\ndrift of Aprile s lesson of Love\\nDoes he say anything to lead you to suppose that\\nhe confuses the idea of love with that of mere artistic\\nappreciation\\nIs he right in insisting on the integrity of his nature,\\nwhich is that of a scientist, not of an artist\\nIs his irritation at Festus uncalled for or are\\nFestus s attempts to sympathize with him somewhat\\nblundering\\nDo you gather from the talk of Paracelsus in this\\npart that he had any belief in magic, or that he some-\\ntimes played upon people s creduHty by using the pre-\\nvailing superstitions of the age\\nIn his attitude toward his pupils at Basel, does he\\nshow any signs of love toward them Just why does\\nhe desire to pass on his knowledge to them Is there\\nanything to be said in defence of his pupils for turn-\\ning against him", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0300.jp2"}, "301": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 267\\nIs he right when he says that only drastic measures\\nwill impress upon his listeners that he is a pioneer in\\nnew fields of knowledge\\nIn his description of his services to knowledge in\\nthis part, does he give a good idea of the real Paracel-\\nsus (See Dr. Berdoe s article on Paracelsus the\\nReformer of Medicine, in his volume of Essays\\nentitled Browning s Message to his Time, or same\\nin London Browning Society Papers.)\\nIV. Topic for Papery Ciasswork, or Private Study.\\nFailure and its Effect upon his Mood and Actions.\\n(Part IV.\\nQueries for hwestigation and Discussion. Is\\nthere any wounded vanity in the feeling of Paracelsus\\nwhen he finds his disciples have turned against him\\nIs his scorn and anger at their stupidity and jealousy\\njustified\\nDoes he proceed upon his fresh quest of knowledge\\nwith any assurance of success\\nDoes he make any remarks in this act which em-\\nphasize the fact that Aprile was mistaken in addressing\\nhim as a poet t\\nDoes he show a remarkable power of self-criticism\\nWhy does his knowledge of himself do him no\\ngood\\nDoes he take a step in advance when he decides\\nthat knowledge may be gained from emotion and\\nexperience as well as from observation Is this, do\\nyou think, what Aprile meant by loving infinitely\\nFor the attainment of universal sympathy is it\\nnecessary that one should go through all human\\nexperience t\\nDo the remarks of Festus serve principally as a foil\\nto bring out Paracelsus", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0301.jp2"}, "302": {"fulltext": "268 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDo the lyrics in this part fitly symbolize phases of\\nParacelsus s mood\\nV. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nCriticism of his Past Beliefs and Development of his\\nPhilosophy. (Part V.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Do the\\nopening remarks of Festus in this part have value prin-\\ncipally as presenting all the details of the scene\\nIs the mood of Paracelsus rather one of disappoint-\\nment and regret in his preliminary ravings on his\\ndeath-bed than of scorn and bravado, as in the last\\nscene\\nWhat scenes of his past life seem to haunt him, and\\nto which of them does he make especial reference\\nDoes he, in the course of the talk about himself\\nhere and in previous acts, give a good idea of the way\\nin which the world regarded him\\nWhat points are there in common between his\\nfinal utterances on a life philosophy and the modern\\ntheories of evolution\\nDoes he carry the principles of evolution into the\\nemotional and spiritual realms of life as well as the\\nphysical\\nWhat does he declare to be the moving force in all\\nthis process of development, and what is the ideal\\ntoward which it tends\\nIs Paracelsus in line with modern thought in his\\nphilosophy (For parallelisms in thought between\\nParacelsus and Herbert Spencer, see comparison of\\nthe poem with Spencer s Data of Ethics, in Poet-\\nkre, Vol. I., p. 11 7, March, 1889. Further com-\\nparisons may be drawn from Spencer s First\\nPrinciples, John Fiske s Cosmic Philosophy,\\nJoseph LeConte s Evolution and its Relation to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0302.jp2"}, "303": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 269\\nReligious Thought; Henry Drummond s The\\nAscent of Man.\\nVI. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Historical Paracelsus and his Relation to his\\nAge Compared with Browning s Portrayal of Him.\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. Are the\\nfive scenes given by Browning in the life of Paracel-\\nsus founded upon any actual incidents Browning s\\nown account may be consulted for this, to which\\nmay be added the information that, according to Van\\nHelmont s account, Tartari Historia, Paracelsus\\ncame to Constantinople in 1 5 2 1 and received there the\\nPhilosopher s Stone. In the knguage of Paracelsus,\\naccording to Hartmann, **The Philosopher s Stone\\nwas an allegorical expression, meaning the principle of\\nwisdom upon which the philosopher who has obtained\\nit by practical experience may fully rely.\\nHow many of the actual events in the life of Para-\\ncelsus can you trace through the poem, and how\\ndoes the poet present them (Franz Hartmann s\\nLife of Paracelsus may be consulted; also the\\naccount in the Encyclopedia Britannica.\\nDoes Browning speak truly when he says he had\\nchanged the facts of his life but little\\nIs it very easy to see, however, that Browning\\nadded to his knowledge of the historical account of\\nParacelsus some knowledge of his work, which he\\nused in developing the character of the man\\nDid the real Paracelsus believe that there existed in\\nall an inmost core and centre of truth and did he\\nconsider knowledge could only be found by such\\nmethods as those adopted by the poet s Paracelsus;\\nand had he the same sort of faith in his great mission\\nThe following quotations from the works of Para-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0303.jp2"}, "304": {"fulltext": "270 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncelsus cited by Hartmann throw light on this subject\\nAll numbers are multiples of one, all sciences con-\\nverge to a common point, all wisdom comes out of\\none centre, and the number of wisdom is one. The\\nlight of wisdom radiates into the world, and mani-\\nfests itself in various ways according to the substance\\nin which it manifests itself. We may grow into\\nknowledge, but we cannot grow knowledge ourselves,\\nbecause in ourselves is nothing but what has been depos-\\nited there by God. De Fundamento Sapientiae.\\n**It is a great truth which you should seriously con-\\nsider, that there is nothing in heaven or upon the earth\\nwhich does not also exist in man, and God who is in\\nheaven exists also in man, and the two are but One.\\nWhoever desires to be a practical philosopher ought\\nto be able to indicate heaven and hell in the Microcosm,\\nand to find everything in man which exists upon the\\nearth so that the corresponding things of the one\\nand the other appear to him as one, separated by\\nnothing else but the form. He must be able to turn\\nthe exterior into the interior. It is the knowl-\\nedge of the upper firmament that enables us to know\\nthe lower firmament in man, and which teaches in\\nwhat manner the former continually acts upon and\\ninterrelates with the latter. The soul does not\\nperceive the external or internal physical construction\\nof herbs and roots, but it intuitively perceives their\\npowers and virtues, and recognizes at once their\\nsignatumy The knowledge to which we are en-\\ntitled is not confined within the limits of our own\\ncountry and does not run after us, but waits until we\\ngo in search of it. No one becomes a master of prac-\\ntical experience in his own house, neither will he find\\na teacher of the secrets of nature in the corners of his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0304.jp2"}, "305": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 271\\nown room. He who wants to study the book\\nof nature must wander with his feet over its leaves.\\nEvery part of the world represents a page in\\nthe book of nature, and all the pages together form\\nthe book that contains her great revelations. I\\nknow that the monarchy [of mind] will belong to me,\\nthat mine will be the honor.\\nIs there anything among the writings of Paracelsus\\nto justify the scorn of the conjurer he shows his de-\\nsire to find the secret of making gold so that he might\\nshow of how litde importance he considered it and\\nhis several flings at magic\\nDrawing upon Hartmann again, we may quote the\\nfollowing from Paracelsus Magic and Sorcery are\\ntwo entirely different things and there is as much dif-\\nference between them as there is between light and\\ndarkness, and between white and black. Magic is\\nthe greatest wisdom and the knowledge of supernat-\\nural powers. To use wisdom, no external cere-\\nmonies and conjurations are required. The making\\nof circles and the burning of incense are all tomfoolery\\nand temptation, by which only evil spirits are at-\\ntracted. **What shall I say to you about all your\\nalchemical prescriptions, about all your retorts and\\nbottles, crucibles, mortars, and glasses, of all your\\ncomplicated processes of distilling, melting, cohibiting,\\ncoagulating, sublimating, precipitating and filtering,\\nof all the tomfoolery for which you throw away your\\ntime and money Hartmann says Although Par-\\nacelsus asserts that it is possible to make gold and\\nsilver by chemical means, and that some persons have\\nsucceeded in making it, still he condemns such experi-\\nments as useless. (See, also, Camberwell Brownings\\nVol. I., Introduction.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0305.jp2"}, "306": {"fulltext": "272 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs it possible that Browning confused magic with\\nsorcery, and meant Paracelsus to make his flings\\nagainst the latter\\nDid Paracelsus, as Browning shows, discount the\\nvalue of love in the first part of his life, and come to\\na realization of it afterwards\\nOn this point Dr. Berdoe says: The real Para-\\ncelsus, as we find him in his works, was full of love\\nfor humanity and it is much more probable that he\\nlearned his lesson while travelling, and mixing among\\nthe poor and wretched, and while a prisoner in Tar-\\ntary, where he doubtless imbibed much Buddhist and\\noccult lore from the philosophers of Samarcand, than\\nthat anything like the Constantinople drama was en-\\nacted. Be this as it may, we have abundant evidence\\nin the many extant works of Paracelsus that he was\\nthoroughly imbued with the spirit and doctrines of the\\nEastern occultism, and was full of love for humanity.\\nA quotation from his *De Fundamento Sapientiae must\\nsuffice He who foolishly believes is foolish with-\\nout knowledge there can be no faith. God does not\\ndesire that we should remain in darkness and igno-\\nrance. We should be all recipients of the Divine\\nwisdom. We caq learn to know God only by\\nbecoming wise. To become like God we must\\nbecome attracted to God, and the power that attracts\\nus is love. Love to God will be kindled in our\\nhearts by an ardent love for humanity and a love\\nfor humanity will be caused by a love to God.\\nPossibly Browning developed the tale that Paracelsus\\nreceived the Philosopher s Stone (wisdom) into\\nthe scene with Aprile.\\nBy love does Browning mean merely affectionate\\nhuman relations, or an attitude of mind toward man", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0306.jp2"}, "307": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 273\\nand the universe, which recognizes a beneficent pur-\\npose in the universe and therefore sympathizes with\\nhumanity in its struggles toward the light, its failures\\nand its partial triumphs\\nOn this point Professor Royce says, in his paper\\nThe Problem of Paracelsus Boston Browning\\nSociety Papers, p. 229) Is it Nature, or is it\\nSpirit is it the physical world, or the moral world\\nis it the outer order of natural events, or is it the\\nconscious life of mankind in their social, their moral,\\ntheir emotional relations is it the world as the\\nstudent of natural wonders, or the world as the lover\\nof human life, the artist, the portrayer of passion,\\ncomprehends it in fine, is it the world of the\\npowers of nature or the world of the heart of man,\\nthat is the most likely and adequate to furnish facts\\ncapable of illustrating and embodying the divine\\npurpose\\nIs Aprile a vision or an actual mad poet How\\nmuch in Part III. is a development from hints as to\\nthe character of Paracelsus, and how much is due to\\nBrowning s imaginative interpretation of the facts\\nFor example, do you find anything to indicate that\\nParacelsus had an overwhelming sense of failure in his\\nwork, or is that a necessary deduction made by the\\npoet, on account of his vast pretensions to knowledge\\nBrowning evidently accepts the view held by the\\nenemies of Paracelsus, that he led a dissipated life and\\nwas frequently intoxicated, developing this point of\\nview in the fourth act. Is it Browning s intention\\nto interpret the underlying causes of Paracelsus s action,\\nand so vindicate him while accepting the worst that\\ncould be said of him\\nDoes Paracelsus, in speaking of Michal s death, mean", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0307.jp2"}, "308": {"fulltext": "274 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthat her spirit has attained immortality, or that her\\nspirit still lives on earth\\nThe life of man is an astral effluvium or a\\nbalsamic impression, a heavenly and invisible iire, an\\nenclosed essence or spirit. We have no better terms\\nto describe it. The death of man is nothing else but\\nthe end of his daily labor, or taking away the ether of\\nlife, a disappearance of the vital balsam, an extinction\\nof the natural light, a re-entering into the matrix of\\nthe mother. The natural man possesses the elements\\nof the Earth, and the Earth is his mother, and he re-\\nenters into her and loses his natural flesh but the\\nreal man will be re-born at the day of resurrection\\ninto another spiritual and glorified body. De\\nNatura Rerum.\\nWhat are the points in common between the philoso-\\nphy of the real Paracelsus and Browning s Paracelsus,\\nand how does the latter transcend the former\\nHartmann says that Paracelsus considered Man\\nas such, the highest being in existence, because\\nin him Nature has reached the culmination of her\\nevolutionary efforts. In him are contained all the\\npowers and all the substances that exist in the world,\\nand he constitutes a world of his own. In him\\nwisdom may become manifest, and the powers of his\\nsoul good as well as evil may be developed to\\nan extent little dreamed of by our speculative philos-\\nophers. In him are contained all the Ccelestiay\\nTerrestria, U/i^osa, and ^eria. Again Hartmann\\ndescribes his philosophy The object of man s\\nexistence is to become perfectly happy, and the\\nshortest way to become so is to be perfect and happy\\nnow, and not wait for a possibility to become so in a\\nfuture state of existence. All may be happy, but", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0308.jp2"}, "309": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 275\\nonly the highest happiness is enduring, and permanent\\nhappiness can be obtained only by permanent good-\\nness. The highest a man can feel and think is his\\nhighest ideal, and the higher we rise in the scale of\\nexistence and the more our knowledge expands, the\\nhigher will be our ideal. (Other citations may be\\nfound in Hartmann s book to the same effect. This\\nbook is chiefly valuable for its quotations from the\\nworks of Paracelsus, and for its complete list of his\\nworks. Being written from the point of view of a\\nmodern theosophist, its opinions are probably some-\\nwhat biassed, though they agree in the main with the\\nardclesin the Encyclopaedia Britannica.\\nDo the personalities of Festus and Michal take\\nhold of the imagination\\nArthur Symons says: Festus, Michal s husband,\\nthe friend and adviser of Paracelsus, is a man of simple\\nnature and thoughtful mind, cautious yet not cold,\\nclear-sighted rather than far-seeing, yet not without\\nenthusiasm perhaps a little narrow and common-\\nplace, as the prudent are apt to be. Michal\\nis faint in outline and very quiet in presence, but though\\nshe scarcely speaks twenty lines, her face remains with\\nus like a beautiful face seen once and never to be for-\\ngotten. There is something already in her tentative\\ndelineation, of that piercing and overpowering tender-\\nness which glorifies the poet of Pompilia.\\nOf these two, Mrs. Fanny Holy, in her Outline\\nStudy of Paracelsus, says The character of Festus\\nrivals that of Paracelsus in its strength and individuality.\\nHe embodies in a marvellous degree the ideal friend of\\nhumanity. Paracelsus would serve man and God, but\\nFestus would serve God by loving man. Michal,\\nthe wife of Festus, is Browning s first attempt to por-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0309.jp2"}, "310": {"fulltext": "276 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntray a woman. She is little more than a vision, hardly\\nindividualized, and looks out among the stronger per-\\nsonalities of the poem Hke the shadowy face of an angel\\nin some old painting. She is Sweet Michal. She\\nweeps like a child when Aureole would leave them;\\nshe sings when all alone.\\nMichal carries but small part in the long talk be-\\ntween the friends on that parting night, in the little\\ngarden at Wurtzburg.\\nIt is significant that Aureole constantly addresses\\nMichal, and puts words into her mouth as though\\ndivining her thoughts. It is Michal who first discerns\\nthat Aureole s faith and purpose are settled and not to\\nbe shaken.\\nShe listens to Aureole s passionate declaration, that\\nat times, he dreamed of having spent one life the sage s\\nway.\\nShe declares that Aureole is God s commissary, but\\nwarns him man should be very humble, while he is\\nvery proud. Then follows the final appeal of Aureole,\\nto which they both listen, awed into submission to his\\nwill at last.\\n**Both declare assent. The sun sinks behind Saint\\nSaviour s, the eve deepens, till the great moon and\\nthe mottled owls warn them the parting hour is\\nnear.\\nVII. Topic for Paper, Classzvork, or Private\\nStudy. The Poem as a Work of Art.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion, Has\\nthis poem any of the characteristics of a true drama in\\nthe development of motive, the management of plot,\\nthe arrangement of situations, the portrayal of charac-\\nter If not, upon what grounds may it be claimed\\nas an organic work of art", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0310.jp2"}, "311": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 277\\nGustav Freytag, defining What is Dramatic\\nsays An action, in itself, is not dramatic. Passionate\\nfeeling, in itself, is not dramatic. Not the presentation\\nof a passion for itself, but of a passion which leads to\\naction, is the business of dramatic art not the presenta-\\ntion of an event for itself, but for its effect on a human\\nsoul is the dramatist s mission. The exposition of\\npassionate emotions as such, is in the province of the\\nlyric poet the depicting of thrilling events is the task\\nof the epic poet.\\nMr. Fotheringham says of this poem If\\ndrama of any sort be made, we must have persona\\nvitally acting and reacting on each other, and\\ntogether bringing the conclusion; and if the drama\\ncould never be played, never be spoken, it must\\nstill be evolved under its conditions in and through its\\ndramatis personce. Now we are probably pretty well\\nagreed that Paracelsus does not fulfil these condi-\\ntions or meet these tests. We have said that the per-\\nsonce are not persons. Aprile is a type, even Festus.\\nParacelsus is vital and fairly defined, but the persons\\ndo not steadily act and react on each other to evolve\\nthe conclusions. Paracelsus alone acts. It is\\ntrue the others have some influence on him, largely\\npassive, indirect but the drama of his career in its\\npower and its weakness springs chiefly from within.\\nThe development is the development of the mind and\\ncharacter, of the genius of Paracelsus the others, even\\nFestus, and Festus even in the last scene, -are quite\\nsubsidiary to the play of his mind and will.\\nUpon this point Mr. Symons says What is not\\na drama, though in dialogue, nor yet an epic, except\\nin length, can scarcely be considered properly artistic\\nin form.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0311.jp2"}, "312": {"fulltext": "278 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs there anything in the constitution of things which\\nforbids a poet to invent a new form if he wishes to do\\nso Why should the poem not be called a dramatic\\nsoul-epic dramatic, because expression is given direct\\nby means of talk soul, to limit the range of expres-\\nsion to spiritual instead of physical action epic, to\\nlimit the character interest to the hero\\nWould the organic unity of such a poetic form\\ndepend upon the consistent connecting of the moods\\nof the soul, and the entire subordination of other char-\\nacters to the purposes of foils to the hero\\nWould this agree with Browning s own conception\\nof the poem In the preface to his first edition he\\nwrote: Instead of having recourse to an external\\nmachinery of incidents to create and evolve the crisis\\nI desire to produce, I have ventured to display\\nsomewhat minutely the mood itself in its rise and\\nprogress, and have suffered the agency by which it\\nis influenced to be generally discernible in its effects\\nalone, and subordinate throughout if not altogether\\nexcluded.\\nAlthough the poem is primarily occupied with the\\nmoods of Paracelsus s soul, in giving expression to\\nthese does he transmit, so to speak, a sort of back-\\nground of action and opinion which gives a vivid im-\\npression of his times, and many of the men who were\\ncontemporary with him\\nWhat is the character of the beautiful nature ima-\\ngery in this poem Is it noticeable for the attaching\\nof active human qualities to nature, and are the allu-\\nsions to nature introduced principally as descriptions\\nof the scene or as comparisons and metaphors illustra-\\ntive of the thought\\nFrom what other sources are allusions drawn in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0312.jp2"}, "313": {"fulltext": "PARACELSUS 279\\nParacelsus, and how are they introduced, as ref-\\nerences, as comparisons, or in various ways\\nWhen these more evident ornaments oi style are all\\npointed out, is the diction as a whole remarkable for\\nthe nice choice of words, intensive in meaning and\\nharmonious in sound\\nWhat are the characteristics of the blank verse in\\nthis poem, run-on lines, variety in pauses, and ar-\\nrangement effect\\nWhat artistic elements do you find in the fine\\nlyrics which further adorn it\\nMr. Fotheringham writes, in his Studies of the\\nMind and Art of Browning The poem has grave\\nfaults and defects of structure, quality, and style. It\\nis diffuse. The dramatic situation and motives are by\\nno means clear. The characters or the types for\\nthe figures are rather types than persons are by no\\nmeans distinct. The speeches are numerous and\\nlengthy too many and too long, often. And there\\nis at times that excess of phrase and color which\\nyoung romanticists mostly fall into. Do you con-\\nsider this criticism shows lack of proper understanding\\nand appreciation or do you prefer it to that of Mr.\\nSymons, who comparing Paracelsus with such a\\npoem as Bailey s **Festus and others of that brood,\\nsays: But it is distinguished from this prolific pro-\\ngeny not onlv by a finer and firmer imagination, a\\ntruer poetic richness, but by a moderation, a concrete-\\nness, a grip, which are certainly all its own. In few\\nof Mr. Browning s poems are there so many individ-\\nual lines and single passages which we are so apt to\\npause on, to read again and again, for the mere enjoy-\\nment of their splendid sound and color. And this\\nfor a reason. The large and lofty character of Para-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0313.jp2"}, "314": {"fulltext": "28o BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncelsus, the avoidance of much external detail, and the\\nhigh tension at which thought and emotion are kept\\nthroughout, permit the poet to use his full resources\\nof style and diction without producing an effect of\\nunreality or extravagance.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0314.jp2"}, "315": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: Sordello\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nSordello i 93 309\\nI, Topic for Papery Classworhy or Private Study.\\nThe Poet s Dream Life. (As told in Book I. For\\nhints on this and the following topics, see the general\\ndigest and the more detailed summaries of each book\\ngiven in the Notes, also the Introduction, to the\\nCamberwell Broivningy as cited above.)\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. Is the\\naccount of Bordello s youth applicable to the child-\\nhood of mankind in general, or merely to the boy-\\nhood of a poet\\nMiss A. Tolman Smith, in Browning s Bor-\\ndello A Study in the Psychology of Childhood\\n{Poet-iorey Vol. VI., pp. 238-243, May, 1894),\\nsays\\nRousseau expressed the wish that some discreet\\nperson would give us a treatise on the art of observing\\nchildren Now the study of children has\\nbecome a passion. We have laboratory inves-\\ntigations, delicate tests of the sensorium, velocity of\\nnerve currents, motor locaHzations after the\\nanalytic method of Descartes. It is not the obser-\\nvation which Rousseau intended Soul is a\\nsynthesis. We really do not know it at all, unless we", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0315.jp2"}, "316": {"fulltext": "282 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nknow it as an active totality. In [poets] the\\nsynthesis is most complete hence Soul as interpreted\\nby them is the soul of our individual self-conscious-\\nness The first book [of Sordello is purely\\na study of childhood in the method of a poet who\\nspeaks not after the traditions of a school or a craft\\nbut by insight It is a poet s soul whose\\ndevelopment we are watching, a poet s soul re-\\nvealed through a poet And yet I fancy a\\npoet s soul revealed through a poet differs from the\\ncommon only by degrees of intensiveness. (See\\nremainder of this article for further hints.)\\nWhat sort of a poet is Sordello, and is there any-\\nthing about his nature as a poet which makes his\\ncareer of more importance to the world at large than\\nthat of any other kind of poet\\nReferring to the two classes of poets described in\\nthe first book. Dr. C. C. Everett, in *Sordello The\\nHero as Poet {Poet-lore y Vol. VIII., pp. 243-256,\\nMay, 1896), writes\\nA little singularly, while we have thus presented\\nto us different classes of mind that seem to be anti-\\nthetic to one another, Sordello appears to belong to\\nthem both. The description of the gentler class\\nstarts from the portraiture of Sordello and the\\ndescription of the second class passes into a portraiture\\nof the same.\\nIs this a confusion in Browning s thought which\\ncauses an indefensible perplexity to the reader, or is it\\ndone with design, and is Dr. Everett s conjecture\\nright, that perhaps one represents his earlier, and\\nthe other his somewhat later experience\\nIs the second class of poet treated by Browning as\\nif, because he had the centrahzed consciousness which", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0316.jp2"}, "317": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 283\\nis the sign of dramatic capacity, he were the fruit of\\na higher human evolution, and the token of a higher\\nstage of development for all mankind\\nBut in that case is it likely that he would be so\\ndependent on the world and reality as Sordello dis-\\ncovers himself to be Is this a mistake of Brown-\\ning s Does the more highly evolved man grow\\nmore dependent on his fellows with development or\\nless Is the artist, that is, the man whose will\\nmust wreak itself on expression and creation, the\\nhighest type of man, or the enfeebled and epileptic\\nvictim of his genius Lombroso diagnoses in his book\\non *The Man of Genius Does Lombroso dis-\\ncriminate between different classes of faculty in men\\nof genius And does he show any perception of the\\ndifhculty involved, with reference to evolution, in as-\\nsuming what is normal and what abnormal\\nHow is the imaginative consciousness, the peculiar\\ngift of the poet, able to further the advance of man-\\nkind Because, through its energy, potency is\\nliberated to set the consciousness of other men at work\\nin their own way, promoting thus their development?\\nMay evolution proceed on the psychical plane of\\nhuman life through psychical influences and habits\\nII. Topic for Paper Ciasszuork, or Private Study,\\nThe Awakening to Social Life. (See Book II.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion, Why\\nshould the poet exclaim Steal aside, and die,\\nSordello this is real, and this abjure, when he\\ncomes upon the crowd round the pavilion, and\\nknows that Palma is there Is it because as poet he\\nshould devote himself to art, for art s sake, and for-\\nswear any special pleasures for the sake of representing\\nall", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0317.jp2"}, "318": {"fulltext": "284 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWhat type of poet does Eglamor represent Is he\\nmore lovable than Sordello\\nWhat class of critic does Browning mean to satirize\\nin Naddo Why is Naddo not right in counselling\\nSordello to build on the human heart And how\\nfar is Sordello justified in his counter claim that his\\nown heart is human, and that he is equally bound to\\nbuild on that Should a poet never rise higher than\\nhis audience Does future fame for the poet depend\\nupon his work s suiting the emotions, thoughts, and\\nideals of the majority of men, or of the minority of\\nmen those most evolved who will indue time\\nbecome the majority What relation to the theory\\nof evolution in poetic art has the philosophy of art\\nimpHed in Sordello\\nWhich of the factors of the social life now put in\\ntouch, at this phase of his career, with Sordello comes\\nto have the strongest influence upon him, competi-\\ntion, fame, or criticism Do they affect him favorably\\nor unfavorably Does it follow, because his love of\\nsupremacy and applause and his desire to forestall\\nunfavorable criticism brought his personality and poetic\\ngenius out for display upon new planes of action,\\nleading finally to disillusionment and self-disgust,\\nthat they were not serviceable to him Flow\\nWhy did he fail as a poet And what sort of failure\\nis meant, failure with respect to his own ideals, or\\nhis fame his actual accomplishment, or possible\\naccomplishment\\nIII. Tropic for Paper Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nThe Relapse toward Nature. (Book II. from line\\n937 to end, and Book III.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. How\\ndo you account for the dispassionateness of nature", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0318.jp2"}, "319": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 285\\nhaving power to soothe Sordello so perfectly, yet\\nhaving so brief an effect upon him What had the\\nearthquake to do with it And why did it suggest\\ndeath\\nThis period of calm in the midst of Sordello s life\\nmay be compared with the scene in Goethe s Faust\\ndescribing a like period of retreat and recuperation\\nbefore the second part of Faust s career began. What\\nimportant resemblance and differences do you note\\nbetween them Bordello s sense of life, and of long-\\ning to taste its meaning more deeply, is at its height\\nnow nature and art alike seem properly now but\\ntributary to real human life, while to Faust comes\\nnow a period when life is made tributary to art.\\nDoes his Gretchen make her appeal upon the physi-\\ncal side of his nature, and is she only typically sugges-\\ntive of other light and leading How is it with\\nSordello s Palma\\nWhat has Palma to do with Sordello s entry upon\\nthe second and most important cycle of his career\\nIs she little more than a lay figure in the poem, as\\nDr. Everett says, in Sordello as Man i^Poet-lorCy\\nVol. VIII., pp. 313-325, June, 1896), and is her\\nlonging for some master-spirit to control her life rather\\nsentimental than real Or does Browning represent\\nher as having the closest possible influence upon the\\nsocial phase of Sordello s life and instead of depicting\\nher merely as longing for some master-spirit to\\ncontrol her life, portray her as the initiator of action,\\nso that she intelligently seeks for some out-soul\\nwhom she can serve yet control, and through whom\\nshe can play an active part on the stage of Italian life,\\nas Adelaide did through Ecelin?\\nWhat is the significance of Browning s use in Sor-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0319.jp2"}, "320": {"fulltext": "286 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndello of the word Will Is it a symbol for the in-\\nward energy and desire to initiate action, on which all\\nindividual and social progress rests And is Sordello\\nimportant to the world of his day, because so richly\\ndowered with the spiritual vitality that craves exercise,\\ncould he but be imbued with a sense of his unity\\nwith the social life, and make it serve his pleasure, not\\nby subordinating it to his own self-expression, but by\\nstimulating it through his art to action\\nWhat does the digression (line 593 to close of\\nBook III.) in which Browning speaks of his own\\nwork and his relation to it, amount to in brief?\\nThat Sordello was one of those poets whose concep-\\ntion of life was larger than his art, and of his own\\npersonal life as larger than his art-life And that he.\\nBrowning, in telling his story, had it in view to\\ncelebrate the claims of the warped and undeveloped\\npart of humanity to true hfe and happiness, along the\\nsame path of choice the most developed take\\nWhy is it that the worst of the three classes of\\npoets described (866\u00e2\u0080\u0094710), those who say they have\\nseen, are frequently the most popular Because they\\nare the easiest to follow, since they only have to be\\ntaken at their word Or because they belong to the\\nearhest stage of development and find more men on\\ntheir level Why is the second class, the descriptive\\npoet, generally more appreciated than the makers-see,\\nwho, like Browning himself, fail to make some people\\nsee at all Is this perhaps because theirs is an art\\nthat requires its appreciators to help themselves\\nIn the digest of the Camberwell Brow?nngy Vol. II.,\\np. 333, the first example of the kind of poet who\\nfinds disclosures in each face and writes so as to make\\nthis seen, is attributed to the third, the dramatic kind", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0320.jp2"}, "321": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 287\\nof poet the second example, of Plara s youth, etc.,\\nto the second, the pictorial poet and the third\\nexample, saying that Lucio is sad, to the merely sub-\\njective poet. The explanation given by other com-\\nmentators, as to which example belongs to which\\npoet, does not agree with this. Which is right\\nMrs. Orr says Corresponding instances follow\\nand then, in a note on this, The third of these\\nis very characteristic of the state of Bordello s, and\\ntherefore, at that moment, of his author s mind. The\\npoet who makes others see is he who deals with ab-\\nstractions who makes the mood do duty for the man.\\nHandbook to R. Browning s Works, sixth edition,\\nby Mrs. Sutherland Orr, p. 42.)\\nIs this exactly opposed to Browning s view of the\\nmakers-see\\nProfessor Alexander says A poet of the highest\\nclass is represented as explaining that which an extract\\nfrom a poet of the most superficial kind reveals to him\\nsomething very different from what its author intended.\\nThe imaginary auditor admits that the poet has pene-\\ntrated, through the superficial appearance, to the gist\\nof the matter. Whereupon the poet demands that his\\nauditor should trust his revelations in cases where the\\nauditor cannot follow him. Professor Alexander here\\nadds in a note This seems to be the general sense\\nbut the present writer confesses his inability to follow\\nin detail the speech put in the mouth of this poet of\\nthe Third Class. Introduction to Browning, by\\nW. J. Alexander, p. 161.)\\nAre all three of these examples of the different kind\\nof poetic work done by three classes of poets adduced\\nby Browning, in order to prove to the im.aginary\\nauditors whom he makes reply suitably after each such", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0321.jp2"}, "322": {"fulltext": "288 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nexample his own ability as over-poet to understand\\npoets and exhibit their relations to mankind, and his\\nclaim, therefore, to be trusted as a guide in the realm\\nof consciousness he proposes to explore\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Re-entry upon the Social Stage as Champion\\nof the People. (Book IV.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is the\\nfirst result of Sordello s craving to know what real life\\nis for its own sake, instead of for the sake of making use\\nof it effectively in a poem, likely to make him more\\nsympathetic with the degraded masses of the people, or\\nto disgust him with them\\nWhat effect would it have on his art, to make it\\nless governed by the principle of selection, and less\\ndominated by the choice of the beautiful in subject-\\nmatter And if so, is this an argument for the poet\\nnot to know life as it is, but remain shut up in dreams\\nabout it What is the bearing of this second part of\\nSordello s career on the question to-day agitating liter-\\nary criticism as to realism and idealism in subject-\\nmatter, as to inclusiveness or exclusiveness in the\\nwriter s choice of what is fit to receive artistic treat-\\nment Where does Browning stand, with the\\nso-called classicist or the democrat in art Is his\\nview a reconciliation of the two\\nWhat part has Taurello Salinguerra had in life\\nDo you agree with Browning that the quality in which\\nTaurello differed from Sordello carelessness of prom-\\ninence shamed Sordello; or was Taurello s lack of\\npersonal ambition, which had made him play second in\\nrank where he was first in ability, a serious defect in\\nhis character Had the death of his bride, Retrude,\\nanything to do with it r", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0322.jp2"}, "323": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 289\\nIs Taurello, as Mr. W. M. Rossetti holds, the per-\\nsonage in Sordello best reahzed as a creature of\\nflesh and blood, acting the part of a man in a man-\\nlike spirit, and Sordello, in contrast, rather a poor\\ncreature\\nWere Bordello s aspirations, as they finally shaped\\nthemselves at the close of Book V., totally alien,\\nas Mr. Rossetti again says, to the human thought of\\nhis time\\nV. Topic for Paper Classzvorky or Private Study,\\nThe Poet as Reconciler of Parties and Savior of\\nthe People. (Book V.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. What\\nrelation to democratic progress and to Bordello s\\nideals has the philosophy of history brought out in the\\nsyntheses, given at the beginning of Book V., of the\\nsuccessive stages of the life of the world\\nWhat influence have the women of the poem had in\\nmoulding the events of the story and directing the\\ntrend of Italian politics t (See note on line 604, p.\\n379, Vol. II., Camberwell Browning.) What had\\nAdelaide to do with determining the life of Taurello\\nand of Sordello What effect had Palma, first, upon\\nTaurello, in his hesitation whether to take the chief\\nplace himself or not then, upon Sordello in his recent\\nmidnight debate with her, at the watch-fire, on Italian\\npolitics (end of Book IV.), and now in constituting\\nhis personal temptation\\nMr. Nettleship says, in his chapter on Sordello,\\nin Robert Browning: Essays and Thoughts, p.\\n118: Adelaide s motive in saving him [Sordello]\\nappears to have been to make him in due time head of\\nthe Ghibellins. Was Adelaide s motive exactly the\\nreverse of this, to conceal his real birth, and prevent\\n19", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0323.jp2"}, "324": {"fulltext": "290 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhim from becoming head of the Ghibellins He con-\\ntinues Her reason for her present concealment\\nwas that she did not choose to let Ecelin know the\\ntruth until Sordello was old enough to take the station\\nshe intended for him and it has been suggested to me\\nthat her reason for keeping Taurello in ignorance was\\nthat she saw he would have no care to assert his real\\nplace if he thought he had no son to succeed him, and\\nthat he could thus be kept more securely in the service\\nof Ecelin. I think this suggestion is valuable but\\nthat her real motive was a desire that Taurello s\\naggrandizement should be wrought by her hands alone.\\nIs whoever made this suggestion to Mr. Nettleship\\nmuch clearer-sighted than he was himself on this\\npoint and is his own idea about it directly gainsaid\\nby Palma (Book V., lines 801-808), who says that\\nAdelaide swore her, Palma, not to tell Ecelin, and gave\\nher to understand that she, Adelaide, had feared to\\ntell the vs^hole to Ecelin, lest he should be so bungling\\nas to let it out and mar the fortunes of his own family\\n(See digest of this passage, Caniberwell Browning,\\np. 345, also note on line 757, p. 389.)\\nDoes Browning s treatment of the relations of\\nPalma with Sordello suggest that if the hero had been\\nintellectually more open to her influence and insight,\\nhis decision as regards the accomplishment of his\\nsocial aims would have been better\\nVI. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Poet as Statesman. (^Book VI.)\\nQueries for hivestigatio?i and Discussion. Why\\ndid Sordello fail as statesman Because he lacked\\npower to reconcile his ideal mission with the practi-\\ncal urgencies of the moment, on the one side, and with\\nthe moral necessity, on the other side, to conquer his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0324.jp2"}, "325": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 291\\ntemptation to gratify his personal desires (See In-\\ntroduction, Vol. II., Camberwell Brow7nng.^\\nOr did he fail because as a poet he was bound to\\nfail In the article before cited Miss A. Tolman\\nSmith says: With Sordello these [self-] determi-\\nnations are perpetually changing and ever fail to\\nrealize themselves as deeds. Herein the author\\nmaintains the unity of his purpose, which is to\\nreveal the poet soul. For the true poet, the ideal\\ndeed. What he prophesies in rapture other men\\nperform. Thus is his mission fulfilled.\\nBut is this Browning s idea If so, wherein con-\\nsisted the failure he speaks of? Is it inconsistent\\nwith the true poet s ideal that he should be to some\\ndegree practically concerned in the gradual realiza-\\ntion of it Does Browning hold that Sordello ought\\nin this way to have failed Jf so, would he blame\\nDante not only for desiring action but for attempting\\nto bring it about Does he not rather blame Sor-\\ndello for not acting, and regret that Dante s would-be\\nscheme of action came too late to be feasible\\nBut why, then, does he praise Eglamor in comparison\\nwith Sordello (Book VI. 797-818)? Is this in keeping\\nor not with his idea (III, 864-930) of there being at\\npresent three classes of poets the worst, those who\\nsay to the world that they have seen, that is, the least\\npowerful kind of subjective poet the better, those\\nwho say what they saw, that is, the more powerful,\\npictorial kind of subjective poet the best, those who\\nso see and speak that they make others see for them-\\nselves, that is, the objective or dramatic poet and,\\nfurthermore, of still another class of poet that may\\ncome to be in the future, the poet who shall ex-\\nceed in value to the world the man of action, that is.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0325.jp2"}, "326": {"fulltext": "292\\nBROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe poet who sees and himself uses what he sees\\n(III. 916-927)? It is to these poets that Browning\\ngives Sordello to be turned and tried. Why Is\\nit not because they who shall be successful in this\\npushing of poetic insight and power into practical social\\naction will know how to recognize Sordello as a\\npioneer in the same path, although he failed and fell\\nby the wayside? Does his praise of Eglamor, by\\ncomparison, then, consist in commending him for\\naccomplishing all that was in him to accomplish, each\\npoet or person being properly to blame only for not\\nfulfilling his faculty and does his blame of Sordello\\nconsist, then, in his failure to fulfil his higher capa-\\nbilities of desire to direct and impel social action\\nIs the question Sordello s failure opens up this:\\nMay a poet-nature occupy with profit such a position\\nwith reference to the world as was open to Sordello\\nthat is, not of action, merely, which it is to be\\nnoticed was to be Salinguerra s office, but of the\\noversight, planning, and direction of action, its\\nwill s will\\nWill it be well for the world when behind the\\npolitician s hand works the synthetic planning of the\\npoet s brain Has it not been well for the world\\nwhenever such idealizing statesmanship has to some\\ndegree made use of practical opportunity and method\\nDo the affairs of the world especially now, when\\nnational boundaries are breaking up and races are\\ncoalescing cry out for men of large and loving ideals,\\nnot litde loveless utihties, to stand at the helm and\\nserve the people s advance?\\nDean Church sums up the second portion of Sor-\\ndello as the opening of new thoughts and a new\\nlife to Sordello under the influence of Pal ma. She", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0326.jp2"}, "327": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 293\\nhas taught him that Hfe needs a worthy object [and\\nDean Church might have added that his art needed\\nHfe] He opens his eyes and sees in palpable proof\\nthe miseries of his fellows. But how to remedy it\\nThe great spell of the Middle Ages, the name of\\nRome, acts upon him. He learns its emptiness.\\nGreat factions divide society with great and equal\\nand monstrous crimes. He learns who he is.\\nSalinguerra would make him head of a power which\\nshould crush all the petty tyrannies and be able to defy\\nPope and Emperor. What is there to do Browning\\ndoes not tell us. Is this fair to Browning,? How\\ndoes Dean Church get the explanation he adds\\nSordello sees his mission but somehow fails to fulfil\\nit resists the temptation that would divert him from\\nit [leadership for its own sake, for love of power],\\nresists it in its gross sense, and yet because he\\nmissed something which he wished should go to him,\\nnot he to it therefore Dante justly finds him\\namong the greatly neghgent the well-intentioned\\nleaders of mankind those who see great things and\\nwant to do them, but do not see their way to build\\nthem up step by step. Does not Browning tell just\\nthis\\nSordello as Browning presents him, says James\\nFotheringham, in Studies of the Mind and Art of\\nRobert Browning, p. 163, *Ms your poetic idealist,\\ndealing first with the things of art, and then called to\\ndeal with the things of life, and finding his ideal in\\nthe way of his handling either effectively.\\nIs Sordello s difficulty to some degree that of\\nevery mind which finds it impossible to satisfy its\\nhighest aims In which case, what is the worst,\\nthe better, and the best course to follow the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0327.jp2"}, "328": {"fulltext": "294 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nselfish needs, because the ideal is seen to be impracti-\\ncable to refrain from following these, because\\nthey are not ideal? to recognize that the ideal is\\nand must ever be, so far as man can see, impracti-\\ncable, and yet to be attained, step by step, if while\\nmaintaining the personal life the aim be constantly to\\napproach the ideal\\nIn the final book, weighing the old dilemma\\nbetween good and evil, how much of evil ought to\\nbe removed, how much left to breed with good, in\\ntime, a better good, he forswears the interference\\nof mastery over man s Now, and chooses instead that\\nspiritual power of sympathy and vision which shall\\nhelp its utmost to advance man s Then. The\\nPurport of Browning s and Whitman s Democracy,\\nPoet-lore, Vol. VII., pp. 556-566, Novembei,\\n1895.)\\nBut in interfering with mastery over man s Now\\nto direct affairs under the imperfect conditions of the\\ntime yet with reference to his ideals would he not\\nhave to accommodate actuality and ideals in doubtful\\nways And was it not better for him to keep his\\nideals unflawed by opportunist methods Is Browning\\nwrong, then, on a moral ground, for blaming his poet\\nthat he did not resolve to take up statesmanship t\\nIf in every-day life, however, one refused to accom-\\nmodate ideals and feasibility, one would come to a stand-\\nstill, or die, as Sordello did. Is there any choice in\\nways of realizing the ideal, with reference to the\\ndemands of the time Does Browning suggest the\\ncl(;w\\nVII. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private\\nStudy. The Historic Background.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Are", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0328.jp2"}, "329": {"fulltext": "BORDELLO 295\\nthe syntheses of successive historic epochs given in\\nBook V. (124\u00e2\u0080\u0094 211) true and enlightening viev^^s over\\nthe main steps of European social evolution\\nIs Browning s employment of the story of Cres-\\ncentius, in Book IV., to suggest to Sordello a better\\npolitical method to make use of for the advancement\\nof the people than either the Pope s or the Emperor s,\\na fanciful notion, or one full of genuine historical\\ninterest and appropriateness (For general suggestions,\\nsee Camberwell Brow7iingyNo\\\\. II., Introduction, pp.\\nXXV and xxvi for details, Milman s Latin Christian-\\nity and other histories of the Middle Ages.)\\nIs Sordello true to history in a vital way,\\nin reconstructing the life and ferment of the century\\nwhich initiated the Renaissance movement\\nMr. George Willis Cooke, in The Poetic Limi-\\ntations of Sordello (^Poet-lorey Vol. IV., pp. 612-\\n617, December, 1892), considers that Browning\\nhas not been true to history his facts are not the facts\\nof the age he describes He makes an age of\\nfeeling to be an age of metaphysical introspection and\\nsubjectivity an age of immense activity to be an\\nage of metaphysical questioning an age of senti-\\nment to be an age of intellectual seriousness. In fact,\\nthe age of Sordello w^as rarely serious, and did not give\\nitself to earnest questioning of any kind.\\nCan this indictment be rebutted on two counts\\nfirst, that Browning presents the age on the whole as\\none of feeling and sentiment and immense activity, and\\nonly presents with relation to it a rarely conscious\\npoetic activity whose introspection is thus especially\\naccounted for second, that Browning s presentation\\nof Sordello himself as a pioneering nature is a rational\\nrescue from semi-oblivion of just such lives as must", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0329.jp2"}, "330": {"fulltext": "296 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhave preceded Dante s life to make his possible. Is\\nit justifiable to assert that this age did not give itself\\nto earnest questioning of any kind For tell-tale\\nevidence of the earnest questioning preparing the\\nway of civilization in the thirteenth century, notice the\\nindependent personal thought of Frederick II., Bor-\\ndello s Emperor the religious theories upheld by the\\nPaulicians, or St. Francis, or St. Elizabeth the facts that\\nthe main universities of Europe were founded, and\\nmany scientific inventions broached, in the first half of\\nthe thirteenth century. The awakening of the in-\\ndividual soul is not only the distinctive trait of the\\nRenaissance, says Burckhardt, but its deep cause.\\nGebhart speaks of the profound idealism of the middle\\nages. Vernon Lee and Symonds, in common with\\nother students of Italian history, recognize the original\\nimpulse of its movement in the early mediaeval revival\\nwhich Browning has seized upon for Sordello s\\nbackground.\\nMr. James Fotheringham takes the view that **the\\npoem departs from history, in his Studies of the\\nMind and Art of Browning, pp. 144-146, but\\nseems to have no authority other than his reading of\\nSismondi As Sismondi says, the age was one of brill-\\niant chivalric virtues and atrocious crimes an age of\\nheroes and monsters among whom the figure of Sor-\\ndello seems strange and out of place. Why Does\\nBrowning fail to represent these atrocities vividly\\n(See IV., 12-21,99-107,261-291, 342-348 v.,\\n769-776.)\\n*This kind of romance, continues Mr. Fother-\\ningham, based on the suggestions rather than the\\nfacts of history, and attaching historic names to figures\\nso different from the people who bore them, is open", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0330.jp2"}, "331": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 297\\nto criticism, and pure invention would have advan-\\ntages but we must take what has stimulated a poet s\\nmind, and regard the poetic and spiritual results as our\\nproper gain.\\nCan it be held that Browning knew history more\\nthoroughly than his critics\\nThe most instructed of his critics on the historical\\nside, however. Dean Church, admits that Browning\\nis a wide reader and draws his illustrative materials\\nfrom sources locked and sealed to us outsiders.\\nAgain Sismondi and Milman will give us the\\nhistory of the time, not quite the same as Browning s,\\nbut something like the only thing that does not seem\\narbitrary is the geography. (Essay on Sordello in\\nDante and Other Essays, by R. W. Church, pp.\\n221-260.)\\nCan it also be held thi^t there is a distinct historical\\nvalue in such a poet s synthetic reconstruction of the\\nlife of an important period And that it is as such\\nnot only superior to history in vitality and picturesque-\\nness, but also superior to **pure inventions, how-\\never poetic and spiritual, which do not draw their sus-\\ntenance from actual life\\nIs Sordello such a work? Although it be\\nconceded to be embarrassed in its historic effectiveness\\nby the soul-development of the hero, can it claim to\\nbe a prodigious exemplar of a poet s power to illumi-\\nnate a recondite period\\nVIII. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private\\nStudy, Dante s Influence on Browning s Sordello.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is\\nSordello virtually Browning s explanation of\\nDante his attempt to account for him as a poetic\\nand political phenomenon which, according to Brown-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0331.jp2"}, "332": {"fulltext": "298 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ning s evolutionary way of regarding all life, must have\\nhad a forerunner or some imperfect preceding type\\nDean Church, in the essay on **Sordello already\\ncited, w^rites\\nWho was Sordello, and what makes Browning\\nchoose him for a subject He was plainly a dis-\\ntinguished person in his time, a cunning craftsman in\\nchoice and use of language but, if this was all, his\\nname would only rank with a number of others.\\nHe may have been something more than a writer\\nor speaker he may have been a ruler, though that is\\ndoubtful. We know him because he was so\\nmuch to Dante. Through three cantos he is the com-\\npanion and guide and we learn Dante s judgment\\non Sordello he is more self-centred and in guise\\nhaughtier than even the rulers and judges in whose\\ncompany he awaits cleansing and he is placed among\\nthose who had great opportunities and great thoughts\\nthe men of great chances and great failures The\\nfilling up of the story of Sordello is plainly suggested\\nby the fact we do not say the history, or the charac-\\nter, but the fact and existence of such a creation of\\nhuman experience and human purpose as Dante s\\npoem Dante s course was shaped by two master in-\\nfluences for himself passionate and enduring love\\nfor Society, the enthusiasm for righteous government\\nThe progress from love and from art to great\\npublic thoughts and wonderful achievements for man-\\nkind which Dante accomphshed, Sordello failed in.\\nAgain, in his essay on Dante, Dean Church explains\\nhow the occasion of the unfolding of Dante s poetic\\ngift was, what is not ordinarily held to be a source\\nof poetical inspiration, the political life. The\\nfactions of Florence made Dante a great poet.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0332.jp2"}, "333": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 299\\nWhat comparisons and contrasts with Dante does\\nSordello suggest? Is Sordello s devotion to Palma\\nmore secular than Dante s to Beatrice?\\nIs Dante s Imperialism less progressive than Sor-\\ndello s dream of democracy\\n**The picture of Sordello s solitary boyhood\\nself-centred, self-pleasing, gradually unfolding his strong\\nimaginative nature suggests a contrast v^ith the\\ncity life of the boy described in the Vita Nuova,\\nsays Dean Church.\\nNo set of men, writes Church (in his Essay\\non Dante, p. 90), in pointing out how independent\\nin his political ideas was the so-called Ghibellin poet,\\nwould have joined more heartily with all opponents,\\nGuelf, Black, White, and Green, or even Boniface VIII.,\\nto keep out such an emperor as Dante imagined, than\\nthe Ghibellin nobles Dante s was a dream in\\nthe Middle Ages, in divided Italy of a real and\\nnadonal government based on justice and law. It was\\nthe dream of a real state.\\nIs Palma Browning s comment on Beatrice s in-\\nfluence over Dante\\nSee Camberwell Browimigy Vol. II., Introduction,\\npp. vii, viii, and xx-xxvii, for hints on Dante s influence\\non Sordello. For allusions in the poem to the women\\nDante mentions, and to the importance of the influence\\nof those women of the Middle Ages who essayed to\\nplay a part in life by means of the ideals of service to\\nthem which chivalry supplied, see the same volume,\\npp. 372, 373, 379, 388, 390. Strange to say. Dean\\nChurch, whose studious knowledge of Dante would\\nenable him at once, one would suppose, to turn to the\\npassages in Dante to which Browning alludes when he\\nwrites of Palma and the swooning sphere (VI.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0333.jp2"}, "334": {"fulltext": "300 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\n993), and Fomalhaut (V. 430), says he does\\nnot know what they refer to.\\nIX. Topic for Papery Classworky or Private Study.\\nSordello as a Work of Art.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is\\nSordello an example of the hopelessness of a\\nyoung and original poet s attempting to follow the\\nadmonishment of critics, since in deference to them he\\ntried to make descriptive and analytic a creative\\ndesign which the bent of his mind could but make\\ndramatic at times, and the harder at other times for\\nhis narrative explanations (As in the digression of\\nBook III., and in Book I. in which he evidently tries\\nto supply the reader with author s preface, stage setting,\\nand dra?natis persona y and general plan of the period\\nand the part the hero is to play.)\\nIs it good (I ask, as one unversed in technical\\nconstruction), says Mr. Nettleship, that the\\nhistory should be told as it is backwards The\\nopening scene occurs just before Bordello s death and\\nwhen we are already somewhat exhausted with the\\neffort of understanding that opening scene, we are\\nruthlessly hurried back to the beginning of the real\\naction of the story.\\nHow does this mode strike you after you have the\\nclew that these opening lines are as it were picturesque\\nstage directions Compare with George Eliot s\\nDaniel Deronda, which gives as prelude a scene\\nin advance of the opening of the story as a foretaste of\\nthe heroine s quality. And after you understand that\\nSordello is to be a type of the class of poet who,\\nlike Browning, combines with the insight of the sub-\\njective poet the social instinct and creative faculty of\\nthe dramatic poet, does the digression in Book III.\\nstrike you as inappropriate", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0334.jp2"}, "335": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO\\n301\\nMr. Mabie, in his Essay on Robert Browning in\\nEssays in Literary Criticism, p. 137, says *Sor-\\ndello is distinctly defective as a work of art because\\nthe conception was evidently not mastered at the\\nstart and the undeniable confusion and obscurity\\nof the poem are due largely to this offence against the\\nprimary law of art.\\nHow can it be proved that the conception was not\\nmastered at the start? Mr. Mabie says evidently,\\nand gives no further information. Does the poem\\nsupply any evidence that the poet had from the start\\na conception of what he meant to do And does\\nthat conception itself, because of its largeness, account\\nfor some of the difficulties of its readers\\nAre the artistic defects of Sordello in great\\nmeasure the results of its peculiar quality as a creative\\nwork, e, its design to show the development of\\nsuch a poet as Sordello, who was not merely a\\npoet but potentially a social leader, and to show this\\ndevelopment with relation to a chaotic period which\\ninitiated a long-reaching political movement\\nWhat relation to the design of Sordello has\\nthe passage bringing in the idea of the Incarnation\\nShould it be taken theologically and literally as Brown-\\ning s expression of Sordello s need of Christ\\nDr. C. C. Everett, in the second of his papers on\\nSordello {Poet-lore, Vol. VIIL, p. 320), says:\\nI am not sure that this last passage does not give\\nwhat was, in the author s mind, the culmination and\\nsignificance of the whole poem. It points to the\\ndivine-human revelation which might bring peace and\\nguidance into the troubled and doubtful lives of men\\nSordello had felt that the failure of his life had\\nbeen caused by the lack of some overmastering and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0335.jp2"}, "336": {"fulltext": "302 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndirecting power. However this may be, the\\napostrophe was introduced with marvellous rhetorical\\nskill. It distracts our attention from Sordello at the\\nvery moment when his mental struggle reached its\\ncrisis.\\nIs it better to take this passage symbolically? Is\\nit Browning s explanation of what Sordello needed to\\nenable him to unite the ideal with the practical for\\nthe service of mankind, made known to the reader\\nthrough the use of the idea of the Incarnation as a\\nsymbol of a like union between the divine and the\\nhuman for the service of mankind Love enabled the\\ndivine mediation, stooping to the flesh. Love was\\nwhat Sordello needed to give his will the ardor and\\npatience necessary to shape his theories toward practi-\\ncal action for the betterment of the people crushed\\nbetween rival cruelties.\\nIf this idea of the Incarnation is a symbol directly\\napplicable here, is it an apostrophe not meant to dis-\\ntract, but rather to attract attention to the crisis in\\nSordello s mental struggle?\\nIs it an artistic error to introduce dramatic and lyric\\ninsets in the structure of a poem professedly narrative\\nOr do these give it vividness, color, and music, so\\nthat with all its difficulties it is sure to be found allur-\\ning? Notice that even in the digression in Book III.\\nit does not suffice the poet to digress by one mouth,\\nhe holds dialogues with various imagined auditors and\\nwith his poetic mistress. Humanity, and takes her on\\nhis knee, and dries her eyes, too and he writes speci-\\nmen poems for three different poets.\\nDo the couplet rhymes of the pentameter verse make\\none dizzy in whirling after them, as a speaker once\\ncomplained in a London Browning Society discussion.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0336.jp2"}, "337": {"fulltext": "SORDELLO 303\\nand are they therefore to be condemned, or are they a\\nproof of the young writer s vigor and fluency\\nIs the imagery strikingly uncommon, beautiful, and\\nat times bizarre Or is it too unusual and bizarre to\\nbe easily followed, and therefore to be condemned\\nIs the artistic complexity of Sordello, in general,\\nso diverse as to prevent it from living long as a poetic\\ncreation Or is it likely to attract interest increasingly\\non account of its extraordinary richness", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0337.jp2"}, "338": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: Strafford\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nStrafford ii i 277\\nI. Topic for Paper Classwork, or Private Study.\\nEngland s Fate Will Strafford Side with King or Peo-\\nple (Act I. For digests of this and following acts,\\nand historical allusions throughout, see Camberwell\\nBrowning, as cited above for general criticism. Intro-\\nduction, pp. vii, viii, xi-xviii.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. How\\ndoes this act illustrate the political situation in England\\nat the time of the opening of the play through\\ndescription, mainly, or through character-painting and\\nincidental description Which method do you think\\nmore dramatic\\nIs the view given in scene i. too much broken up\\nto be intelligible, or the more vivid for being the sub-\\nject of dialogue Even Shakespeare sometimes explains\\nhis situations by putting a description of events pre-\\nceding the action in the mouth of one actor telHng\\nanother (see, in **The Tempest, Prospero s de-\\nscription to Miranda in Cymbeline, the first gen-\\ntleman s description of affairs to second gentleman)\\nand in many other lesser but able dramatists it is often\\ndone. Is it a good way, because it is unmistakable", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0338.jp2"}, "339": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD\\nS ^S\\nor is the way of doing this, indirectly, through de-\\npicting the impressions and apprehensions the situation\\nhas upon the characters who will initiate the action,\\nbetter because more dramatic, even if it does require\\nmore alertness on the part of the auditors to gather up\\nthe clews If so, why is it more dramatic Be-\\ncause more like life, more bound up with different\\nhuman personalities and points of view\\nFreytag (in his Technique of the Drama, p. 19)\\npoints out, what is often mistakenly regarded in com-\\nmon talk and criticism upon Browning and other\\nmodern dramatists, that action, in itself, is not\\ndramatic. Passionate feeling in itself is not dramatic.\\nThe depicting of thrilling events is the task of the epic\\npoet the exposition of passionate emotions, as such,\\nis in the province of the lyric poet. Not the presen-\\ntation of a passion for itself, but of a passion which\\nleads to action, is the business of dramatic art not the\\npresentadon of an event for itself, but for its effect on\\na human soul, is the dramatist s mission.\\nDoes Strafford indicate, from its start in Act I.,\\nthat it is designed to show the action in its effect on\\nhuman souls, and the progress of the action through\\nthe effect on it of changing human character For\\nexample, the first scene indicates, does it not, that the\\ncoming action involving England s fate depends upon\\nthe character of Wentworth with relation to the char-\\nacters of Pym on the one side, and Charles on the\\nother. Is it the effect of Pym s character, the pres-\\ntige of his opinion and capability, on Hampden first,\\nand, secondarily, on the others, which restrains them\\nfrom taking the violent action they would otherwise\\nbe led to adopt because of the effect upon them of\\nWentworth s character, and their apprehensions of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0339.jp2"}, "340": {"fulltext": "3o6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwhat he can do for the King and against England Is\\nthis way of illustrating the action a necessary result of\\nthe actual facts and of modern conditions in general\\nSince if it were a case of conspiracy and assassina-\\ntion of Wentworth, a deed would be the direct conse-\\nquence of that first scene, but as it is a case of slower\\nlegal action and sentence (such as belonged to the fact,\\nand, in general, must belong to such action under the\\nconditions of modern civiHzation), action in character\\nis the next step towards mitiating the chmax.\\nIs it shallow criticism, then, to object to Strafford\\nbecause, as its author himself says, it is a drama of\\nAction in Character rather than Character in\\nAction Or, if it is legitimate criticism, must the\\ndrama be confined to the portrayal of external deeds\\nbrought about exclusively by force or by external\\nmeans of action And must the most characteristic\\nactivities of modern life taking place under modern\\nconditions, therefore, be debarred from dramatic ren-\\ndering and only past events of more heroic days, or\\nthe same kind of events, nowadays in bad odor and\\ncalled criminal rather than heroic, be considered fit\\nfor the stage\\nIs the same method of elucidating the action by\\nshowing character incubating the course it will take,\\nfollowed in the second scene And does this come\\nout through the relations of Lady Carlisle, Wentworth,\\nPym, and Charles, in that scene, as, in the first scene,\\nthrough the relations of the Parliamentarians to Pym\\nand Pym to Wentworth\\nIs Hampden weak because he relied so much on\\nPym Is Pym weak because he put his trust in\\nWentworth, and would not undertake his task for\\nEngland until he was assured Wentworth would not", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0340.jp2"}, "341": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 307\\nWas it entirely love for their friends that so influenced\\nthem, or also love for England Is love a weakening\\nemotion\\nIn Wentworth s case was it love for Charles that\\ninfluenced him mainly, and did he choose him instead\\nof the People or does the poet hint that his idea was\\nto unify the people under Charles\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classivorky or Private Study.\\nStrafford s Ministry His Fate one with the King s.\\n(Act II.)\\nQueries for bivestigation and Discussion. Does\\nStrafford s pohcy change still further with this act\\nafter the scene with the King And is it a change\\nthat is a natural result of his character and his devo-\\ntion to the King, in relation with the King s character\\nHaving attempted to guide the King, he finds that he\\nmust now make the best of the King s acts, whatever\\nthey are.\\nIs he justly called the great Apostate j\\nConcerning his apostasy, Mr. H. D. Trail, in his\\nLife of Strafford, says, in brief:\\nThe most credible explanation [of his political\\nchange] is not the most creditable the most excusa-\\ntory is the least convincing. In supporting the Par-\\nliamentarians, in 1628, he was either sincere or not.\\nIf sincere, i he may have become convinced that\\nhis views were mistaken and his party dangerous\\n(2) he may have yielded to Charles because fasci-\\nnated by him, and espousing his cause in the hope to\\naccommodate the legitimate claims of royal prerogative\\nwith the rightful liberties of the subject (3) he may\\nhave been bribed. Or, if never sincere, his action\\nin 1628 was in order to show his value during\\npreferment.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0341.jp2"}, "342": {"fulltext": "3o8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIn the Life of Strafford in Forster s Eminent\\nBritish Statesmen (which has been suspected to be\\nin part Browning s, a collaboration confirmed by\\nElizabeth Barrett s remarks about the book in the\\nLove Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth\\nBarrett still another view of Wentworth s apostasy\\nappears in a passage bearing every mark of having\\nbeen written by Browning All Wentworth s\\nmovements appear to be perfecdy natural and in-\\ntelligible if his true character be kept in view. From\\nthe very intensity of the aristocratic principle within\\nhim, arose his hesitation in espousing at once the\\ninterests of the court. This, justly and carefully\\nconsidered, will be found the solution of his re-\\nluctant advances and still more reluctant retreats.\\nThe intervendon of a favorite [Buckingham] was\\nhardly supportable by one whose ambition would\\nbe satisfied with nothing short of the dignity of be-\\ncoming the King s mistress, to be cherished and\\ncourted by none but himself Wentworth s con-\\nduct, at the last, was forced upon him by circum-\\nstances but his energetic support of the Petition of\\nRights was only the completion of a series of hints,\\nall of which had been more or less intelligible\\nEven in all these circumstances, when many steps\\nwere forced upon him, which his proud spirit but\\npoorly submitted to, and wronged itself in submitdng\\nto, it is yet possible to perceive a quality in his nature\\nwhich was afterward more fully developed. Li\\none word, what it is desired to impress upon the\\nreader, before the delineation of Wentworth in his\\nafter-years, is this that he was consistent to himself\\nthroughout. I have always considered that much\\ngood wrath is thrown away upon what is usually", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0342.jp2"}, "343": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 309\\ncalled apostasy.* In the majority of cases, if the\\ncircumstances are thoroughly examined, it will be\\nfound that there has been no such thing\\nthose who carry their researches into the moral na-\\nture of mankind, cannot do better than impress upon\\ntheir minds, at the outset, that in the regions they ex-\\nplore, they are to expect no monsters Let him\\n[Wentworth] be judged sternly, but in no unphilo-\\nsophic spirit. In turning from the bright band of\\npatriot brothers to the solitary Strafford a star\\nwhich dwelt apart we have to contemplate no ex-\\ntinguished splendour, razed and blotted from the book\\nof life. Lustrous, indeed, as was the gathering of\\nthe lights in the political heaven of this great time,\\neven that radiant cluster might have exulted in the\\naccession of the comet beautiful and fierce, which\\ntarried awhile within its limits ere it dashed athwart\\nwith train of flame. But it was governed by other\\nlaws than were owned by its golden associates, and\\nimpelled by a contrary yet no less irresistible force,\\nthan that which restrained them within their eternal\\norbits it left them, never to float into that azure\\nheaven again.\\nIs this the impression the play presents And\\nwhat other points of view contribute their light upon\\nStrafford s character, and in what way do they rein-\\nforce the general picture What was Pym s opinion\\nof him, and Lady Carlisle s the younger Vane s,\\nthe elder Vane s, and that of the Court party\\nWhat has Lady Carlisle to do with the action\\nHas her character any importance in its action upon\\nStrafford s and the King s? (See especially the sec-\\nond scene of this act, 217-221, and Lady Carlisle s\\naside, 225\u00e2\u0080\u0094228 also remarks on Lady Carlisle in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0343.jp2"}, "344": {"fulltext": "3IO BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nCamberwell Browfiing^ Vol. II., Introduction, pp.\\nxii-xvii, and Notes, p. 292.)\\nIs the climax of this act reached when Strafford\\nthrows himself into the breach to cover the King s\\nconfusion, as Pym and his friends enter and interrupt\\nStrafford s reproaches? Or when Pym calls upon\\nStrafford to keep tryst Is it a mistake to identify\\nVane with the menace of the future against Strafford,\\nfor which Pym stands at this point.? Or is this\\nquick speech of Vane s in keeping every way first as\\nirrepressible, if Vane was present, who spoke more-\\nover for the party back of Pym, and, second, as\\ncontrasting with the impulsive character of Vane the\\nslow and cautious but steadfast character of England s\\nchampion How do you interpret Pym s words\\nI 59-16 1 I Do they throw any light on the motive\\nof his previous reluctance to move against Strafford\\ntill he was sure he did not mean England well\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Impeachment: Pym for the People versus\\nStrafford for the King. (Act III.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. What\\nare the springs of the action in this act Do they\\nall develop legitimately from the last Is it action\\nin the character of Pym which now brings about the\\nclish between the new political movement on whose\\nbehalf he acts, and Strafford, whom he singles out as\\nleader for the King? What other factors have their\\nshare in the clash, and are they all motived dramati-\\ncally in the same way, i. e.y do they proceed from\\nhuman will into outward act, instead of the contrary\\nHow is it with the Court party and the Queen\\nTheir enmity now became more active than before\\nagainst Strafford. Is this underplotting of theirs a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0344.jp2"}, "345": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 311\\nneedless complexity in the plot or a necessary ele-\\nment in it If so, why Does it unfold from the\\naction in Strafford s character, in relation with the\\nKing s, since the more closely he binds himself to\\nthe King, the more he rouses the jealousy of the\\nCourt as well as the opposition of the Parliamenta-\\nrians Could the King have taken counteraction at\\nonce against the threatened impeachment And if\\nso, is his passivity at this point the root of the action\\nWhat had the Queen to do with it\\nAll influences of character and human will in the\\nplay, as well as in its events the reverses his army\\nmeets with the Scots converge here against Straf-\\nford. Lady Carlisle s intervention with the Queen\\nis in vain. How is it, then, that Strafford makes any\\nstand at all, and what is to hinder the play from\\nending here Is it well managed that Strafford should\\nseem to stem the tide alone Is this next step rooted\\nin action in character also Strafford s ambition,\\nwhich seemed the strongest element in his aims at\\nfirst, made him in Act I. desire to guide the King s\\ncourse in Act II. his personal loyalty and love for the\\nKing become dominant and make him desire to re-\\ntrieve the King s blunders; despairing to guide, he is\\ncontent to make the best of the King s way. Now,\\nin Act III., the pressure of the crisis develops another\\nphase of his character, its supreme ability and will-\\npower. As he tells Lady Carlisle, in scene ii. i 50\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\n162, *he tried obedience thoroughly, and suffered\\nthe results when he took the King s wild plan\\nthen he resolved to take his own lead henceforth. So,\\nat this instant of greatest peril, Strafford gives the im-\\npression of greatest strength.\\nProf. S. R. Gardiner points out (Introduction to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0345.jp2"}, "346": {"fulltext": "312 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nMiss Rickey s Strafford, pp. ix-xiv) that Brown-\\ning brought out the moral qualities of his hero by\\nstrengthening whatever personal feeling may have\\nentwined itself in the political attachment between\\nStrafford and Charles till it becomes the very basis\\nof Strafford s life, the keynote of his character. It\\nremained for the poet, adds Professor Gardiner, to\\nimpress his readers with Strafford s intellectual greatness.\\nThe historian who tries to do that will have much\\nto say on his constitutional views and his Irish govern-\\nment, but a dramatist who tried to follow in such\\na path would only make himself ridiculous. Mr.\\nBrowning understood the force of the remark of the\\nGreek philosopher, that Homer makes us realize\\nHelen s beauty most, by speaking of the impression\\nwhich it made upon the old men who looked on her.\\nMr. Browning brings out Strafford s greatness by\\nshowing the impression which he made on Pym and\\nLady Carlisle.\\nTrue and penetrating as this is, is it all that Brown-\\ning does to bring home to his auditors a sense of\\nStrafford s ability Do the impressions of his charac-\\nter here spoken of belong to the earlier periods of the\\nplay, and refer rather more to Pym s clinging belief in\\nhis disinterestedness, and to Lady Carlisle s conviction,\\nalmost fear of his loyalty, than to the high opinion\\nthey have of his power The fear his enemies have\\nof him. Vane and Rudyard on the one side, and his\\nCourt rivals on the other, testify more especially to\\nhis intellectual power, do they not What does this\\nact do to bring these impressions to a climax, and\\nmake Strafford seem most formidable when most alone\\nand most threatened\\nIs it a mistake to create a hero not dominated by", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0346.jp2"}, "347": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 313\\na single unchanging purpose And having shown\\nhim as passing through successive phases of attitude\\ntowards Charles and his own career, till he seems\\nsupreme, what dramatic purpose is served by making\\nhis downfall at the close of the third act so abject Is\\nhis accusation that the King has trapped him incon-\\nsistent with his devotion? Why from the impulse\\nto suicide does he change to submission\\nIs the scene at cross purposes between Lady Carlisle\\nand Strafford when she is talking about his impeach-\\nment, and he is talking about that of his enemies\\nunnecessarily blind Is it artificial or natural\\nIs it a stage slip to put an attractive woman\\nin so unpleasant a position as she holds? Or is\\nProfessor Gardiner right in showing the dramatic\\npurpose of this when he says that what Browning\\nneeds *Ms her admiration of Strafford, not Strafford s\\nadmiration of her. He takes care to show that she\\nwas not, as vulgar rumour supposed, Strafford s mis-\\ntress. The impression of Strafford s greatness is brought\\nmore completely home to the spectator or the reader,\\nbecause of the effect which it produces upon one\\nwho has given her heart without return. (As to\\nStrafford s own testimony to Lady Carlisle in her\\nrelations with him, see quotation, Camberwell Brown-\\nvig. Vol. II., close of note on II. 3, p. 293.)\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Trial The Issue Trembles in the Balance.\\n(Act IV.)\\nQueries for Investigatio?i and Discussio7i. Is it\\nconsistent in Hollis as a Parliamentarian and, so,\\nagainst the prerogative of the King, to be so sarcastic\\nabout the King s non-intervention on Strafford s\\nbehalf? Or is his view in the first scene of Act IV.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0347.jp2"}, "348": {"fulltext": "314 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\none which rates the King as low as he would any\\nother man who lets another suffer in his stead But\\nis not a king excusable for expecting such loyalty and\\naccepting it Is not humanity at large more to blame\\nthan the King for nursing in him the idea that his life\\ntranscends all other lives (See Camberwell Brown-\\ningy Vol. II., Introduction, p. xvii.)\\nIs Society as guilty under repubhcan as under\\nmonarchical government of asserting its right that\\nindividuals should be its scapegoats?\\nIs Lady Carlisle a true royalist Does Browning do\\nwell to make her revolt against all her antecedents and\\nbringing-up in this scene? (See her aside, lines 1 16-\\n121.)\\nWhat is Browning s object in representing the trial\\nby anteroom scenes, bustle, and messengers to and fro,\\nand broken description of what happens inside the great\\nHall, instead of presenting Westminster Hall itself?\\nIs the formal pomp of such scenes on the stage apt\\nto look theatrically stiif and hollow to the modern eye\\nAnd is it appropriate with the design of the play that\\nthe trial scene is conducted as it is, as suggested in the\\nintroduction (^Camberwell Brownings Vol. II., p.\\nxviii) Or is here an opportunity lost for enriching\\nthe play with an imposing spectacle But even from\\nthe spectacular point of view was it better not to spoil\\nwith a repetition the spectacle of the House of Lords\\nin full conclave suddenly presented at the close of the\\nthird act, as the doors open wide, and Strafford kneels\\nIs this brief glimpse of the Hall and the judges who\\nare to hear the case, and whom Strafford then recog-\\nnizes as symbolic of England, the more effective for\\nits briefness Above all, is it better in this place than\\nit could be in a fourth act For it is to be remem-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0348.jp2"}, "349": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 315\\nbered, of course, that this act following the third, which\\nproperly exhibits the climax, presents the downward\\nmovement, about to culminate in the fifth act, as\\nhovering between the hero s fall or rescue.\\nHas Browning overburdened the chances for Straf-\\nford s rescue by doubling his opportunities for escape,\\nfirst opening the possibility of bringing up the army to\\nforce his deliverance, and then the second possibihty\\nof the charges falling through because of Strafford s\\nable refutation Or has he made the most skilful use\\nof the actual facts in the case (see Notes, Camberwell\\nBrowning) y and so as to show incidentally, also, in the\\nstrongest hght the characters of the King and Strafford\\nand the dominance of Pym over the whole action as\\nwell as over Strafford s single-handed, almost successful\\ndeliverance of himself? What dramatic advantage is\\nthere in mailing Vane, Rudyard, Fiennes, all turn\\nagainst Pym and Hampden in demurring against the\\nBill of Attainder Is it to isolate Pym as the para-\\nmount man, again, on his side just as Strafford is\\nisolated on the other side, by making him return the\\nKing s scheme and stand in solitary strength against\\nhis destiny\\nThe most difficult part of the drama, Freytag\\nreminds his readers Technique of the Drama, p.\\n133) is the sequence of scenes in the downward move-\\nment specially in powerful plays, in which the\\nheroes are the directing force, do these dangers enter\\nmost. Up to the chmax, the interest has been firmly\\nfixed in the direction in which the chief characters are\\nmoving. A pause ensues. Suspense must now\\nbe excited in what is new. For this new forces, perhaps\\nnev/ roles must be introduced On account of this\\nthere is already danger in distraction and tne breaking", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0349.jp2"}, "350": {"fulltext": "3i6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nup of scenic effects. And yet, it must be added, the\\nhostility of the counter party toward the hero cannot\\nalways be easily concentrated in one person nor in\\none situation sometimes it is necessary to show how\\nfrequently, now and again, it beats upon the soul of\\nthe hero and in this way in contrast with the unity\\nand firm advance of the first half of the play, the\\nsecond may be ruptured, in many parts, restless this\\nis particularly the case with historical subjects, where\\nit is most difficult to compose the counter-party of a\\nfew characters only. And yet the return demands a\\nstrong bringing out and intensifying of the scenic effects,\\non account of the satisfaction already accorded the\\nhearer, and on account of the greater significance of\\nthe struggle. Therefore the first law for the construc-\\ntion is that the number of persons be limited as\\nmuch as possible, and that the effects be comprised in\\ngreat scenes. All the art of technique, all the power\\nof invention, are necessary to insure here an advance in\\ninterest Only great strokes, great effects. Even\\nthe episodes must have a certain significance, a certain\\nenergy.\\nIn the light of these remarks on fourth-act con-\\nstruction, admittedly one of the fine points in dra-\\nmaturgy, what do you think of the way in which\\nBrowning has effected a gradual isolation of Strafford\\non the one side and Pym on the other Notice that\\nhe has done this despite the new forces introduced\\nwhich might have deterred or complicated the action.\\nHow has he woven, moreover, into the closer identifi-\\ncation of Pym and Strafford with the opposing policies\\nthey represent, an increasing significance In what\\ndoes this significance consist? And where does it\\ncome out the strongest", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0350.jp2"}, "351": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 317\\nThe King s scheme to bring up the army was,\\nhistorically, the turning-point in Strafford s destiny.\\n(See note 88, p. 303, Camberwell Brozunifig.) Is\\nit such that it could be made use of on the stage as well\\nas that which Browning substituted for it and after all,\\nif it could be made use of, would it take the place of\\nthe prior inner history of the relation of the King to\\nthe Bill of Attainder and Strafford s execution, as well\\nas scene iii. does\\nTwice in the course of a week [April, 1641]\\nPym was admitted to the King, records Gardiner in\\nhis History. What passed between them we have\\nno means of knowing.\\nThe last of these interviews Browning has imagined\\nfor us, and in it he has motived the catastrophe of\\nStrafford which ensues in the last act. Is Pym s\\ngrimness as the embodiment of England s will but made\\nthe more awful for the personal tenderness of his\\nwarning to the King, as man to man, and the\\ndesperation of Charles s reply (69\u00e2\u0080\u009483) Is it strange\\nor natural that Pym should be ready to save the King\\nat such cost\\nAfter this boldly significant scene, is Lady Carlisle s\\nentrance and speech a futility, a weakness, or a\\nspiritual relief? Does she understand Is her intui-\\ntion as perfect as ever\\nV. Topic for Paper, Ciasswork, or Private Stud\\nPym Acts for England Strafford Dies for the King.\\n(Act V.)\\nQueries for bwestigation a?id Discussion?. Why is\\nthe first scene of this act again with Lady Carlisle\\nIs it to explain what was left hanging at the close of\\nAct IV. Should it have been letl: so Why Is\\nit merely a trick to turn the auditor s interest anew", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0351.jp2"}, "352": {"fulltext": "31 8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nand unnecessarily to the act whose catastrophe is\\ncertain What reasons underlie it Is it desirable,\\naesthetically, that the gentle and the compassionate\\nand the noble should weave some charm about the\\ncoming tragedy And what value, from the point of\\nview of character, has the representation of all this in\\nLady Carlisle s person\\nFreytag (p. 136) reminds the playwright that\\n**it is hazardous to hasten to the end without inter-\\nruption. Just at the time when the weight of an evil\\ndestiny has long burdened the hero, for whom the\\nactive sympathy of the audience is hoping relief,\\nalthough rational consideration makes the inherent\\nnecessity of his destruction very evident, in such a\\ncase, it is an old unpretentious device, to give the\\naudience for a few moments a prospect of relief\\nthe dying Edmund must revoke the command to kill\\nLear Father Lorenzo may still enter before the\\nmoment when Romeo kills himself Macbeth is\\nstill invulnerable from any man born of woman even\\nwhen Birnam Wood is approaching. Yet it re-\\nquires a fine sensibility to make good use of this force.\\nIt must not be insignificant or it will not have the\\ndesired effect it must be made to grow out of the\\naction and out of the characters it must not come\\nout so prominently that it essentially changes the\\nrelative position of the parties. Above the rising\\npossibility, the spectator must always perceive the\\ndownward compelling force of what has preceded.\\nDoes this scene fulfil Freytag s requirements judi-\\nciously\\nThe last act gathers to a focus all the sunny\\nthreads of human interest that irradiate the play.\\nLady Carlisle s affection plans Strafford s escape from", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0352.jp2"}, "353": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 319\\nthe Tower, while he sits in prison with his children\\nabout him, for a breathing-space at peace, in a happy\\nisland of childish song and prattle. Dramatic\\nMotive in Browning s Strafford, Poet-lore, Vol.\\nv., pp. 515-526, October, 1893.)\\nAre these two children lifelike Do they differ\\nin character Is the scene overwrought in its pathet-\\nicalness, or the right foil for the coming scaffold scene t\\nIn introducing the King in the guise of Hollis s\\ncloaked attendant, has the dramatist made Royalty\\nneedlessly weak or more poignantly pitiable t Does\\nStrafford guess who he is, before he is made known\\nIs the scene needlessly prolonged, or is it worked up\\nto give the more effectively Strafford s last act of\\ngenerous loyalty, to bless the King Has Brown-\\ning overwrought the figure of Strafford here with\\nexaggerated nobility (See Camberwell Browning,\\nVol. II., Note 138, p. 307.) Or is his refusal to\\nattempt escape lest it would stain his children, but his\\nagreement to sacrifice their honor for his King s safety,\\na stroke too much of the willing sacrifice Is Brown-\\ning ethically right in portraying such a man so\\nattractively\\nWhy is Pym less attractive Is he not equally\\ndisinterested and devoted Is the tragically heroic\\nor the successfully heroic, in general, more attractive\\nShould Pym s speech be shortened here, as some\\npersons have held Is Strafford s foreboding of\\ntheir meeting a superstitious or a natural one\\nShould the last dialogue between Pym and Strafford\\nhave been given without historical warrant for its\\nhaving taken place What part does it play in the\\ndesign of the drama as a whole Whether Pym and\\nStrafford ever said a word about the future possibilities", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0353.jp2"}, "354": {"fulltext": "320 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof Pym s again acting for England and Charles being\\nbeheaded this time, were such facts not implied in\\ntheir present relation\\nIs Strafford undramatic because its interest is\\npolitical\\nThe interest of politics is mainly indirect. Straf-\\nford is impeached, not merely because he is hated, or\\nbecause he has done evil things, but because he is\\nexpected to do more evil things, writes Professor\\nGardiner. Such possibilities of future evil, vv^hich\\nthe historian is bound to consider, are, however,\\nessentially undramatic. The poet can at most only\\navail himself of them as a background for the scenes in\\nwhich the characters or the passions of his personages\\nare developed. Still less can he bring upon the stage\\npersonages who discuss the bearing and meaning of\\nacts of Parliament, as Pym and Strafford did in real\\nlife. From beginning to the end of the play the\\npersonal relations between the actors are exaggerated\\nat the expense of the political.\\nBut is it not truer to say that the political relations\\nare those that have been exaggerated, and that the\\nproper proportions of the two have been restored to\\ntheir right dimensions and relationship In taking this\\nway to meet the difficulties of his subject, which Pro-\\nfessor Gardiner of course approves in the poet, has the\\nway been taken not merely to meet the technical and\\nliterary difficulties, but to give back to the political\\nand historical conditions and their outcome, as we\\nhave them drily recorded, the primary source of their\\nexistence Whether actually just as presented in\\nBrowning s play or not, life and the personal relations\\nof real characters influencing events were originally\\nbehind all such social movements.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0354.jp2"}, "355": {"fulltext": "STRAFFORD 32I\\n**Such movements are, after all, not impersonal\\nbut personal (article before cited, Dramatic Motive\\nin Browning s Strafford, p. 517). They are\\nthe complex issue of many human wills. Personality,\\nthen, really holds sway over the possibilities of the\\nfuture, as it does over the private course of every\\nsingle action in the struggle. The poet s use, there-\\nfore, in this play, of these possibilities of the\\nfuture is not abstract and historical, but living and\\ndramatic.\\nWhy then, if so originally motived in life and so\\nrepresented in the play, are they not admirably suited\\nfor dramatic material\\nIs the idea that they are not, a literary prejudice\\n21", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0355.jp2"}, "356": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: Pippa Passes\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nPippa Passes i 177 317\\nI, Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nDramatic Motive and its Movement in **Pippa Passes.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. The\\ndramatic motive of Pippa Passes is the conflict of\\nunconscious Good with Evil. The Good in the person\\nof Pippa appears first upon the scene. How are\\nher relations with Evil foreshadowed in the first\\nscene.? Interpreted in the light of her goodness, how\\ndo the various people upon whose lives she is to\\nhave so great an influence appear to her\\nThe first evil she comes in contact with is that\\nof a terrible crime already accomplished. Has she\\nany sort of external relation with either of the parties\\nto this crime\\nIs Pippa s influence upon Sebald altogether for\\ngood (See opinion expressed in Introduction to\\nVol. I., Camberwell Browning. Does she have\\nany direct influence on Ottima or is Ottima only\\nafl^ected through Sebald Is the instantaneous eff^ect\\nof Pippa on Sebald probably due to the fact that he\\nhad already begun to repent his deed\\nOttima being stronger than Sebald in sacrificing all\\nmoral considerations to her love, is she also stronger\\nin her repentance t", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0356.jp2"}, "357": {"fulltext": "PIPPA PASSES 323\\nWhy do you suppose the wicked students who\\nwere plotting against Jules were not affected when\\nPippa passed singing?\\nThe evil Pippa next comes in contact with is not\\nthat of the actors in a crime, but of the dupes in a\\ncrime. Does the influence of her song then consist\\nin its arousing Jules to a higher ideal of life than he\\nhad ever before conceived of? Does it have any\\neffect on Phene, or is she, too, influenced only by\\nJules Would Jules so easily have been affected by\\nPippa s song if he had not already loved Phene, and\\nbeen ready to take a view of the situation which\\nwould save her\\nUp to this point has there been any indication\\nthat evil influences were at work against Pippa\\nWhat comes out about this in the talk of Bluphocks\\nand the policemen Why is it that Pippa s song\\ndoes not effect any change of heart in the villain\\nBluphocks\\nIn the case of Luigi, there is no crime for which\\nrepentance is necessary, no higher ideal to be aroused,\\nonly a purpose which has wavered through temptation,\\nto be strengthened. Does Pippa s song have any\\neffect upon Luigi s mother?\\nIn the scene with the street-girls, how does the\\nplot thicken about Pippa\\nFinally, in the scene with the Monsignor, the\\nevil influences about Pippa culminate. In this do we\\nget the first hint as to who she really is and why evil\\nhas been plotted against her In this case her influ-\\nence is exerted to prevent a crime, and that crime is\\nagainst herself.\\nTracing the movement all through, at which points\\ndoes her influence attain its greatest power, and at", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0357.jp2"}, "358": {"fulltext": "324 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwhich points its least Is it harder to prevent a crime,\\nas she did in the case of the Monsignor, or to cause\\nrepentance, as in the case of Sebald Is it harder to\\nstrengthen a wavering purpose, as she did in the case of\\nLuigi, or to arouse a new ideal, as in the case of Jules\\nWas the crime contemplated against herself the\\nclimax of the evils with which she came in contact,\\nor only the climax in relation to herself?\\nCan the climaxes and denouement in this drama be\\ncompared with the conventional conduct of a drama\\nAccording to the accepted rules of drama, the first\\nact should strike the keynote of the action, which\\nIs unfolded in the second act, while in the third there\\nis a clash of the different elements of the action making\\na climax in the fourth the elements of the action\\nare quieter, but slowly gather strength for the final\\nclimax and denouement in the fifth act.\\nMay each episode up to the last one be said to\\niiave its own minor dramatic motive, which does not\\ncome in contact with the main dramatic motive except\\nat the crucial moment of Pippa s passing\\nIn the scene preliminary to the episode of Luigi\\nand his mother, although the plot begins to thicken\\nabout Pippa, it is kept perfectly distinct, is it not, from\\nthe following episode, with which she has the same\\nconnection as in the preceding- ones\\nIs the last scene where Pippa returns to her room\\nin the nature of an epilogue, or is it a needed part of\\nthe action to bring the chief actor in the drama prom-\\ninently forward again, and, furthermore, to emphasize\\nthe fact of her isolation, and unconsciousness of the\\npart she has been playing in the dramas of Asolo and\\nthe drama of her own life\\nIn making her influence felt more in some cases", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0358.jp2"}, "359": {"fulltext": "PIPPA PASSES 325\\nthan in others and not felt at all in some, do you\\nsuppose Browning means to indicate that the seed\\nof goodness must fall upon ground that is ready to\\nreceive it, else it will be of no avail\\nDo you think the words of Pippa s songs would\\nhave had as much of an effect, if purity and goodness\\nhad not breathed through Pippa s voice\\nWhile this drama does not have the interplay of\\ncharacters, and the complexities of plot usual to most\\ndramas, do you not find it presents a very vivid and\\nrealistic picture of life in a town, just because of the\\nisolation of the diiferent groups from each other, and\\nPippa s isolation from all\\nSlight as each episode is, does not each one imply\\npossibilities of a complete phase of existence, first, a\\nrich plebeian class, with its selfishness leading to\\ncrime next, an artist class with its jealousies leading\\nto revenge third, a noble class with its high motives\\nleading to patriotism fourth, a pampered religious class\\nwith its greed leading to crime\\nAre all these pictures true to the Italy of that time\\n(For hints, see Thayer s *^The Dawn of ItaHan\\nIndependence; Cesaresco s The Liberation of\\nItaly.\\nHas the poem any other basis in reality than is given\\nit by its geographical and historical atmospheres\\nOf its inception Mrs. Orr tells that Browning Mvas\\nwalking alone in a wood near Dulvvich when the\\nimage flashed upon him of some one walking thus\\nalone through life one apparently too obscure to\\nleave a trace of his or her passage, yet exercising\\na lasting though unconscious influence at every step of\\nit and the image shaped itself into the little silk-\\nwinder of Asolo.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0359.jp2"}, "360": {"fulltext": "326 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nII. Topic for Paper i Classwork, or Private Study.\\nCharacter Groups.\\nQueries for Investigatiofi a?id Discussion. Does\\nBrowning mean to portray in Pippa an ordinary child,\\nor a child of unusual artistic ability, as well as of\\na natural aspiration toward goodness and an unquestion-\\ning faith in God s love?\\nIs her goodness that of innocence, or does she with\\nfull knowledge prefer goodness to badness\\nPippa has been criticised as being too developed in\\nher reasoning, her observation, her choice of language,\\nand the style of her songs. Mr. Edmund Clarence\\nStedman declares that she talks hke a Paracelsus in\\npantalettes.\\nWhen you come to analyze these points, do you\\nfind her philosophy so very complex, her observa-\\ntion extend beyond the range 0I her daily life, her\\nlanguage introducing any images or references beyond\\nthe realm of her experience\\nUpon this point Mrs. Isabel Francis Bellows, in an\\narticle on Pippa Passes {^Poet-lore y Vol. VI., p.\\n133, March, 1894), says: Pippa is the nearest, t\\nthink, to the Shakespearian woman, in the simplicity\\nof her soul and the directness of her aims, but her\\nholiday pleasures are purely and consciously intellec-\\ntual she does look before and after, and she does at\\ntimes speak pure Browning. Admitting this, we are\\nnot, however, compelled to admit that she is a Para-\\ncelsus in pantalettes her thoughts are not at all the\\nthoughts of Paracelsus, and like Shakespeare s Perdita,\\nPippa is of a noble race. Pippa s thoughts do not, per-\\nhaps, transcend her breeding more than those of Perdita;\\nand the two high-born, low-bred maidens have much\\nin common, in their love of nature and flowers, their", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0360.jp2"}, "361": {"fulltext": "PIPPA PASSES 327\\nbright innocence and gayety, and their trustful cour-\\nage and faith. A special characteristic of Pippa is\\nher great purity, which carries her unscathed through\\nall the dangers and snares that beset her path. It\\nis not the cow-like innocence of Eve, for Pippa\\npossesses a knowledge of good and evil She\\nrecognizes the relations between Ottima and Sebald,\\nand criticises the holy Monsignor s air of pride with\\na kind of broad tolerance that would be unusual in\\na young girl, if it were not that she is possessed of the\\nwisdom drawn from the self-denial and austerity of\\nher life. (See also opinion expressed in Introduc-\\ntion to Vol. I., Camberwell Brownifig. For a hint as\\nto her age, see scene with Monsignor.)\\nWhich has the more intense and the more sincere\\nnature, Sebald or Ottima\\nIs Sebald so upset by his deed that for the time\\nbeing he is almost out of his mind t\\nWhich of the following opinions do you feel to be\\nthe most just.?\\nMr. Symons s, The representation of Ottima\\nand Sebald, the Italian and the German, is a singularly\\nacute study of the Italian and the German races.\\nSebald, in a sudden access of brutal rage, has killed\\nthe old doting husband, but his conscience, too feeble\\nto stay his hand before, is awake to torture him after\\nthe deed. But Ottima is steadfast in evil, with the\\nItalian conscienceless resoluteness. She can no more\\nfeel either fear or remorse than Clytemnestra.\\nMr. Fotheringham s, Sin is horrible, and the\\nstrong, just, divine order rules, calm and mighty.\\nSebald kills himself in his remorse, and Ottima shows\\nthe nobler side of passion in possible self-sacrifice.\\nProfessor Walker s (Greater Victorian Poets),", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0361.jp2"}, "362": {"fulltext": "328 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIn more respects than one this grand sketch chal-\\nlenges comparison with the play of Macbeth\\nBrowning agrees with Shakespeare in representing the\\nwoman as less remorseful after the crime than the\\nman Lady Macbeth for a great ambition and\\nOttima for a great love determine upon a crime.\\nThe whole being of each is absorbed in the one idea.\\nThere is no other way but crime to the end, or none\\nwhich headlong impatience will consider. The end\\nthey have determined upon they must have, and they\\naccept the means to it. Not that they do not feel\\nthe crime Lady Macbeth s sleep-walking scene\\nproves how deeply she felt it. But while her mind\\nretains its balance she resolutely turns her face away\\nfrom the crime, and in the case of Ottima there is\\nnever a hint that she wishes the past undone\\nOttima loves Sebald better for the crime, she justifies\\nit, she is quite unmoved by the song of Pippa. What\\ndoes stir her is not the crime, but the sense to which\\nshe soon awakes that Sebald s love is gone,\\nSebald s whole nature is not immersed in the crime\\nit has only stained, not drenched his mind. Nor does\\nhe, like Ottima, find in his passion the full satis-\\nfaction of his entire being.\\n(See also opinion expressed in Introduction to\\nVol. I., Camberwell Browning,^\\nDoes Phene convince you of the innate purity of\\nher soul in spite of the life she had been forced to\\nlead\\nDoes the action of Jules seem to be almost too\\nexalted to be possible, or is it just what one would\\nexpect of any just and high-minded man?\\nMary R. Baldwin, writing in Poet-lore on Jules\\nand Du Maurier s Little Billee (Vol. IX., p. 575,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0362.jp2"}, "363": {"fulltext": "PIPPA PASSES 329\\nOct.-Dec. 1 897) says: The Jules of Pippa Passes\\nwho finds his Psyche baffling his best efforts toward\\nexpression, always eluding the most skilful strokes of\\nhis chisel, and who, by virtue of his high ideals and\\nunbending purpose to reach them and his refusal to\\ndebase his thought of womanhood, has directed\\ntoward himself the hatred of his fellow artists, be-\\ncause their aims are low becomes in Browning s\\nhands a masterpiece whose awful experience of defeat\\nis made his opportunity. Phene, the model, offered\\nby the vicious leader among Jules s enemies for the\\npurpose of insulting his standards and entrapping him\\ninto a degrading marriage, also with the hope of ruin-\\ning him in his career as an artist, suddenly, under\\nthe influence of his nature, feels within her the flutter\\nof her soul. The sensitive spirit of the artist springs\\nto the recognition of the idea of an imprisoned Psyche\\nappealing to him for release, and his whole self is\\nfilled with a longing to free it. He will break all the\\nstatues to which he has given long days and months\\nof labor, and surrender himself to the divine impulse\\nof trying to develop a human soul, living apart, with\\nnothing to vitiate his purest and deepest impressions\\nof art.\\nFrom Luigi s conversation do you get the impres-\\nsion that he was an impulsive and enthusiastic young\\nman, with a great love of nature and the beautiful\\nthings of life\\nDoes the proposed murder of the King seem a\\ncrime, as he views it\\nDo you get the impression that his mother is really\\narguing with him as to the merits of his proposed\\naction, or that, her mind already made up against it,\\nshe is trying tactfully to draw him away from it with-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0363.jp2"}, "364": {"fulltext": "330 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nout rousing his opposition by decided opposition on\\nher part\\nDoes she do it so cleverly that if it had not been\\nfor Pippa s song she might have succeeded in dissuad-\\ning Luigi\\nWas the Intendant not justified in thinking that the\\nMonsignor would fall an easy prey to his propo-\\nsition, considering the sort of proposition the Mon-\\nsignor had just made to him\\nOf the array of villains in this play which appears\\nto you to be the worst one\\nAmong the slighter groups of characters which two\\nshow signs of regeneration\\nThe only woman in the play besides Pippa who\\nexerts any influence is Phene is that because men are\\nmore likely to be influenced by the presence of good-\\nness than by intellectual persuasion such as that used\\nby Ottima and Luigi s mother\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nArtistic Effects.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Do the\\nirregularities in the verse used by Pippa suit well with\\nher childlikeness and her changes of mood, sometimes\\ngay, sometimes grave\\nIntensity and rapidity are the qualities of the scene\\nbetween Sebald and Ottima how is this accomplislied\\nIs there a calm sense of joyousness expressed in the\\ntalk of Jules before Pippa sings t Is the ardst soul\\nrevealed in all his references and allusions\\nIs there any change in the style after Pippa sings t\\nWith Luigi and his mother we seem to get the im-\\npression of a suppressed calm before a heart-rending\\ncalamity. How is this produced By his seeming\\nindifference to her, and her emotional restraint t", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0364.jp2"}, "365": {"fulltext": "PIPPA PASSES 331\\nDo these effects of style come out partly through\\nthe language used and partly in the management of the\\nmetre\\nDo the several lapses into prose add to the artistic\\ncontrasts, and bear out still further the suiting of style\\nto the characters\\nOf the lyrics in the poem can all be said to have a\\ndistinctive charm based upon different qualities of\\nthought and mood and style\\nDoes the poem Phene repeats have also its charm as\\na dramatically expressed mood of fiendishness\\nOf this play Mr. Symons says It is Mr. Brown-\\ning s most perfect work. As a whole, he has never\\nwritten anything to equal it in artistic symmetry\\nwhile a single scene that between Ottima and\\nSebald reaches the highest level of tragic utterance\\nwhich he has ever attained.\\nDoes this opinion show more appreciation of the\\npossibilities in new forms of art than the following by\\nProfessor Walker The repetition of the device,\\nand the externality of the relation between Pippa and\\nthe other characters stamp the work as a phantasy,\\nand deprive it of all right to compete, as a whole,\\nwith the great triumphs of art though, as a detached\\npassage, the one scene of Ottima and Sebald will bear\\ncomparison with any.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0365.jp2"}, "366": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies King Victor\\nAND King Charles\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nKing Victor and King Charles 1^37 3^7\\nTopic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nMotive and Interplay of Character.\\nQuestions for bwestigation and Discussion. Might\\nthe motive of this play be described as the influence\\nof a deep filial love and loyalty to the King upon\\ncharacter\\nHas the play any plot interest\\nDoes the interest depend chiefly upon the situations\\ngrowing out of mental misunderstandings betvi^een the\\ncharacters\\nThe play opens w^ith a conversation between\\nCharles and Polyxena in which he indulges in remi-\\nniscences of his past Hfe and complaints of the life they\\nare now forced to lead. Upon what historical facts is\\nthis conversation based, and how has Browning en-\\nlarged upon them (For hints on this and other his-\\ntorical points, see Camberwell Browning, Vol. I.,\\nNotes, pp. 329-331 fol.)\\nWhat preliminary impressions as to the characteris-\\ntics of Charles and Polyxena, and their relations to\\neach other, do you get from this conversation", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0366.jp2"}, "367": {"fulltext": "KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES 333\\nIn the scene between D Ormea, Charles, and Poly-\\nxena which follows, is D Ormea already trying to be-\\nfriend Charles, or is he thinking solely of protecting\\nhimself from the odium that will fall upon him for\\nVictor s deeds if Victor abdicates\\nIs Charles s misunderstanding of D Ormea and his\\nwrong conclusions as to the King s scheme due to his\\nstupidity, to his morbid depreciation of himself, or to\\nthe fact that his mind was prepossessed with the idea\\nthat D Ormea would give him counsel only with the\\nintention of harming him\\nDoes Charles, in spite of his own fears of his father s\\ndesigns, show irritation at any one s else suspicion of\\nhim\\nDoes Polyxena show greater intelligence than\\nCharles in doubting that Charles s conclusions as to\\nhis father s purposes are right\\nPart II. opens with a soliloquy by Victor, continu-\\ning with a conversation between Victor and D Ormea\\npreparatory to the scene of the abdication what in-\\nformation as to the state of affairs and as to D Ormea s\\nhistory comes out, and how much of it is based upon\\nfact\\nDoes Victor show himself absolutely selfish and\\ncallous\\nDoes D Ormea speak the truth when he tells\\nCharles he has pleaded wholly in his interest? Or\\ndid he, in speaking for himself, do by the way a ser-\\nvice to Charles\\nHow do Charles and Victor misunderstand each\\nother in the subsequent conversation\\nIs it because Charles has his mind set upon the idea\\nthat Victor and his ministers have been laying plots to\\nmake him resign his inheritance himself, that he is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0367.jp2"}, "368": {"fulltext": "334 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nfinally so completely taken in by Victor when Victor\\ninsists upon his accepting the crown\\nIn the succeeding scene between D Ormea and\\nVictor, is Victor right in supposing that D Ormea is\\ntrying to make him reconsider his action in abdicating,\\nby showing him that his schemes will not work,\\nthat he will get the blame any way, and that he will\\nnot be able to return as he hopes to\\nDo you think that Victor wavers a moment when\\nhe hears the shouts for King Charles\\nPolyxena, having had her suspicions aroused as to a\\nplot, is not so easily pacified as Charles. Do her\\nremarks and the questions she puts to Victor show\\nthat she is on the right track Charles s revulsion of\\nfeeling in favor of his father is so great that he accepts\\nD Ormea as his minister without a word, and turns\\nfrom Polyxena on account of her suspicion. Is either\\nof them penetrating enough to see the true drift of\\nD Ormea s remarks\\nIs it inconsistent in Polyxena to try to dissuade\\nCharles in the first place from resigning his heirship,\\nand now to try to make the King take his crown\\nagain? (See opinion expressed in Introduction, Cam-\\nberwell Browningy Vol. I.)\\nIn Part I., Second Year, is it made perfectly clear\\nthat D Ormea is truly desirous of serving Charles and\\nPolyxena\\nIs D Ormea s sincerity proved by the fact that he\\nsticks to his purpose of trying to protect Charles from\\nhis father, although Polyxena is unfriendly to him\\nbecause she thinks him in league with Victor, and\\nCharles is indignant at him for casting suspicion on\\nVictor\\nDoes Charles really feel so sure of his father s", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0368.jp2"}, "369": {"fulltext": "KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES 335\\nintegrity, or is it his own fear that Victor will not\\nprove true, that makes him turn against even Polvxena\\nin his anxiety to save his father s honor?\\nWhen no room is left for him to doubt any longer\\nthe intentions of Victor, and he tries to mislead\\nPolyxena and D Ormea as to these intentions, does he\\nbelieve himself to have succeeded, or does he show\\nby the irritation of his action that he knows they know\\nthe truth\\nDoes the poet succeed in this part in making us\\nfeel some sympathy for Victor, by representing him\\nas a man whose powers are breaking down, and who\\nfeels the need in his old age of the pomp and circum-\\nstance of rule he had been used to Or is this atti-\\ntude of mind mere simulation on Victor s part, his\\nreal stand being represented in his choleric outbreak\\nagainst growing democratic principles in government\\nIn the last part, what final ruse does Charles in-\\ndulge in to show his dislike of D Ormea because of\\nthe latter s knowledge as to his father\\nAt the same time that he gives D Ormea the im-\\npression that he believes the reports about his father\\nfalse, and that he (D Ormea) will not be able to\\nprove his charges, he yet authorizes the arrest, because\\nhe knows the charges against his father are true. By\\nthis he accomplishes first the satisfaction of not ac-\\nknowledging to D Ormea his indebtedness, second the\\nsatisfaction of having his father completely in his power\\nto punish, and then giving him what he asks for.\\nIs not this a very strong dramatic situation, but\\ndoes it not show weakness on Charles s part\\nShould he not have preferred the good of his\\npeople above the mere preserving of a filial attitude\\nWhat does Polyxena think", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0369.jp2"}, "370": {"fulltext": "336 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs loyalty to an unworthy object which to be\\nmaintained leads to injustice to others a virtue\\nWhich character is the most sincere and straight-\\nforward all through Which is the least sincere and\\nworks only for his own ends? Which, because of an\\nideal, has his nature warped toward insincerity And\\nwhich triumphs over conditions and becomes sincere\\nAre the characters of Charles and Victor developed\\nfrom the hints in history as to their characters\\nAre Polyxena and D Ormea more dependent upon\\nthe poet s imagination\\nMr. Symons says of Polyxena From first to last\\nshe sees through Charles, Victor, and D Ormea,\\nwho neither understand one another nor perhaps\\nthemselves from first to last she is the same clear-\\nheaded, decisive, consistent woman, loyal always to\\nlove, but always yet more loyal toward truth.\\nDoes this exaggerate somewhat her powers of pene-\\ntration Did she not suspect D Ormea of plotting\\nagainst Charles to the last and was it not some-\\ntime before she saw through Victor, and did she\\nknow that Charles all through was acting a part in\\nhis insistence upon Victor s integrity\\nOf Charles Mr. Symons speaks as having good\\nintentions and vacillating will. Should you not\\nsay, rather, that his will to honor his father was so\\nstrong that it overcame every other consideration\\n(Note what Polyxena says, King Charles, Part\\nII., lines 335-344.)\\nOf Victor he says he is an impressive study of\\nthe old age of crafty men the futile wiliness\\nof decrepit and persevering craft, though we are\\nscarcely made to feel the once potent personality of\\nthe man, or to understand the influence which his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0370.jp2"}, "371": {"fulltext": "KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES 337\\nmere word or presence still has upon his son. Do\\nyou agree with this, or do you think the influence is\\nunderstandable upon the ground that Charles was\\nimmensely flattered by his father s confidence in his\\npower to straighten out the aftairs of the kingdom,\\nand was always overwhelmed by the slightest marks\\nof affection\\nOf D Orm.ea he says: D Ormea, who check-\\nmates all the schemes of his old master, is a most curious\\nand subtle study of one who serves God at the devil s\\nbidding, as he himself confesses in the cynical frank-\\nness of his continual ironical self-criticism. After\\ntwenty years of unsuccessful intrigue, he has learned\\nby experience that honesty is the best policy. But at\\nevery step his evil reputation clogs and impedes his\\nhonest action, and the very men whom he is now\\nmost sincere in helping are the most mistrustful of his\\nsincerity. Does this do full justice to D Ormea\\nDoes he act sincerely because he finds honesty the\\nbest policy, or because he really desires to be of\\nsome use in the world\\nArtistically speaking, is there anything especially\\nnoteworthy in this drama beyond smooth diction and\\nan occasional poetic flight\\nAre the allusions mostly of a historical nature,\\nlending color and life to the situations", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0371.jp2"}, "372": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: The Return\\nOF THE Druses\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nThe Return of the Druses iii i 293\\nI. Topic for Papery Classzvorky or Private Study.\\nThe Dawn of Druse Deliverance Shall it come\\nthrough the Hakeem or Loys (Act I. For synthetic\\nviews of this and following acts, see the digests Cam-\\nberwell Brow?ii?igy also Introduction, pp. vii xx, and\\nfor allusions to Druse history and doctrine. Notes, as\\ncited above.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is the\\nunfolding of the dramatic situation, in Act I., accom-\\nplished skilfully Is it clear, but lifeHke, and its\\nexposition so distributed among the actors that the\\nspectators need have no sense of an elaborate expla-\\nnation being made\\nIn his paper on The Return of the Druses,\\nMr. Gamaliel Bradford, Jr., says Nearly the whole\\nof the first act is occupied in making clear the situation,\\nthough with a good deal of bustle and vivacity.\\nVarious subordinate Druses are introduced, anxious to\\nbegin their rebellion by pillage. They are checked by\\nKhalil, who thus has an opportunity to repeat to them\\nand the audience what has been done for them and is\\nto be done by Djabal, the prophet, the Messiah, the\\nreincarnation of Hakeem, who is to be their leader.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0372.jp2"}, "373": {"fulltext": "THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 339\\nNote that the same device is employed by Shakespeare,\\nwho makes Prospero in wrath chide the mutinous Ariel\\nby recalling to him details necessary to explain the\\nplay. It is one of the many expedients invented by\\ndramatists to avoid the dreary necessity of telling the\\naudience what it ought to know, better at any rate\\nthan the bald prologues of Euripides or the eternal\\ntvjo-gentlem en- meeting of the lazy Fletcher. Boston\\nBrowning Society Papers, p. 272.)\\nThe office of the first act in the construction of a\\ndrama is, however, not merely to exhibit the preced-\\ning causes of the action, the antecedents and relation\\nof the hero to the movement he is preparing but,\\nalso, to give a glimpse of some counter- play against\\nhim which is held back from manifesting itself de-\\ncidedly, until the second act. Is Browning neglectful\\nof this important element of preparation for a struggle\\nHow does he present it\\n**What the drama presents, let Freytag remind\\nus, since his work is generally accepted as an exposi-\\ntion of the general rules of dramatic construction estab-\\nlished by the usage of great writers is always a\\nstruggle, which, with strong perturbations of soul, the\\nhero wages against opposing forces. And as the hero\\nmust be endowed with a strong life, with a certain\\none-sidedness, and be in embarrassment, the opposing\\npower must be made visible in a human representative.\\nWho is this representative in Browning s first act who\\ngives us in his person a glimpse of some threatening\\ncounter-play against the hero s plot of action? Is it\\nwell to learn his importance so gradually and bhndly\\nas one does in this act t How long is it after he is\\nmentioned before his possible future importance in the\\nimpending revolt against the Prefect s rule looms up 1", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0373.jp2"}, "374": {"fulltext": "340 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDoes Browning succeed very well in making it\\nseem natural and reasonable in Loys not to tell at once\\nwhy he has returned to the island\\nOn this point Mr. Bradford comments that Loys\\nrefrains from discovering his appointment and his\\nhopes of benefiting his Druse friends, and that it is\\nan important element in the action that he should so\\nrefrain, but he adds I am not sure that it is wholly\\nconsistent with the open boyish character of Loys,\\nwho would be more likely to proclaim it at once and\\ntoss his cap in the air.\\nThis objection seems to be well founded on the\\ncharacter of Loys but is there not a good reason or\\ntwo insinuated dexterously by the poet for his silence\\nhere If his friendship for Djabal is not enough to\\nkeep him quiet till he has told him first, how about his\\nlove for Anael, and its efi^ect also upon the perplexed\\nmood in which he stands at the close of Act I.\\nWhat does Act L reveal of the character of Loys\\nIs Act I. vivid as an opening spectacle Would it\\nbe eiFective on the stage\\nAre all the main characters introduced by mention\\nin this act, and how tell-tale is the mention\\nII. Topic for Paper, CJasswork, or Private Study.\\nThe Hakeem and his Bride Falter. Loys s Weight\\nin the Scale. (Act II.)\\nQueries for Investigatio7i a?id Discussion. Is the\\nmotive of this drama the Incarnation, as suggested in\\nthe Introduction to the Camberzvell Brow twig (Vol.\\nIII., p. viii)\\nWill any other motive elucidate the structure of the\\nplay as well\\nIs this motive too abstract to be the shaping influ-\\nence of a dramatic action 1 Or in a drama, as in other", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0374.jp2"}, "375": {"fulltext": "THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 341\\nworks of art, is the question, properly, not what\\nmaterial is used, but how it is used Is it, in this\\nplay, so closely adapted to suit the unfolding of a stir-\\nring and eventful plot, and so blent with human im-\\npulses and desires and aims that it loses its abstract\\ntheological aspect and becomes a living factor in\\naction\\nIf it is historically true that such a doctrine has\\nvitally affected the character of a race and the events\\noccurring to it, either by behef or scepticism, is it,\\ntherefore, profoundly suited to receive dramatic treat-\\nment r Why not\\nIn this case, what connection has faith in the Druse\\ndoctrine of the Incarnation with the-dehverance of the\\nDruse nation\\nWhat connection has the human love of Djabal and\\nAnael for each other with doubt of it\\nIs the influence of Loys upon Anael and Djabal\\nnatural What element of conflict with their notion\\nof the Incarnation does the Frank Knight-Hospitaller\\nbring into the plot\\nHow are the relations of Djabal, Anael, and Loys\\nto one another and to the lever which is to raise the\\nDruse revolt the Incarnation brought into play\\nand counterplay in Act II., so as to make the action\\nseem doubtful, as it should seem, at this stage of the\\nmovement, while yet these very elements of doubt and\\nlove are the means of initiating the action about to\\nfollow\\nWhat part has Khahl to play Is it an unim-\\nportant part Is he disconnected with the In-\\ncarnation motive Is any one of the characters\\ndisconnected with it\\nIs the mutual hesitation of Djabal and his bride", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0375.jp2"}, "376": {"fulltext": "342 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\na means of delaying or precipitating the climax of the\\nfollowing act Is it skilfully managed Or are the\\ntwo long asides which take place during their inter-\\nview awkward If what these asides accomplish is\\nessentially necessary for the action, are they therefore\\ngood Could the same effect have been accom-\\nplished without any stage awkwardness, by some other\\nexpedient\\nThe reason for asides on the stage seems to be the\\nneed to give conflicting inner points of view to the\\naudience without making them known to the actors.\\nWhat has been the usage in regard to them Is\\nthere a tendency in the most modern play writing to\\nreform such usage in accord with a more realistic art,\\nwhich in this act would have modified Browning s\\nasides to advantage\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Hakeem Forced to Act. The Prefect Goes\\nto his Doom. Loys is Disillusionized. (Act. III.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Wherein\\ndoes the climax of the action consist as brought out\\nin this act\\nA series of conflicting effects are wrought out\\nsuccessively through the relations of Anael and Loys, of\\nDjabal and Anael, of Loys and the Prefect, and finally,\\nthrough the relations of the Prefect to the impending\\ndeed which is to start the insurrection. Are these\\neffects so manifold that too varied an excitement\\nresults Or are all these strands of the action inter-\\nwoven so as to deepen continuously the suspense and\\nintensity\\nIs it a mistake or a merit in the construction of this\\nart that its outcome is not put into effect till the first\\nscene of the next act, and that this outcome the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0376.jp2"}, "377": {"fulltext": "THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 343\\nPrefect s assassination, which is to be the signal for the\\nDrase revolt seems to be imminent at the hands of\\nDjabal, although he has been struggling against it\\nWhy are we left in the dark about what the crucial\\ntest of faith and love is which Anael is contemplating\\nDoes this add an unnecessary element of agitation and\\nsuspense to the plot? Or since Djabal s unsettlement\\nof all his plans is due to Anael, and Loys s perplex-\\nities are also due to Anael, is it especially appropriate\\nthat she shall become the unsuspected rallying- point\\nof the action here, instead of Djabal, who only seems\\nto be, while she really is, that rallying-point\\nIt is at this stage in the development of a drama\\nthat the dramatist disposes his material according to\\nwhether he means his hero to push his way on, strug-\\ngling actively for the mastery until the catastrophe is\\nreached, as Macbeth does, for example, or whether he\\nshall henceforth be dominated, as Othello is, by some\\ncounter-force. Djabal has hitherto actively directed\\nhis future, and until now has felt free and able to\\nconsult his own will. In this act he finds his own\\npast course in the way of his new desires and plans.\\nIt compels him to proceed as he had originally in-\\ntended before he had questioned the honesty of his\\ncourse. The counter-force should loom up here.\\nDoes it\\nIs this counter-force, w^hich is destined to direct\\nthe course of events in the remainder of the play,\\nobscure because it comes from an unexpected quarter,\\nbecause the public is in the habit of looking to\\nrivals of the hero in love, like Loys, or competitors\\nfor power, like the Nuncio, for such a counter-force,\\ninstead of to a woman who loves the hero Or is it\\nobscure because intentionally it has not been indicated", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0377.jp2"}, "378": {"fulltext": "344 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nclearly, since at this stage of the game it would be\\nimpolitic to do so\\nIs it desirable -or not that the audience should get\\na clew or two to the coming action, but not be able\\nto guess certainly what is in store for it\\nHow has Browning manipulated his material here\\nwith reference to the oncoming action Why is\\nAnael given the key to the situation by having the\\nring intrusted to her which will throw open the palace\\ndoors to the people Is this accidental, or significant,\\nand in agreement with the structure of the play\\nDoes Browning leave too much room for the actress\\nto make the part of Anael portentous and full of\\nmeaning, so as to excite without enlightening the\\naudience Is his art at fault in depending so much\\non the actors ability to follow and interpret the trend\\nof the play sympathetically\\nIs this act, in particular, one that would gain in\\nclarity by being put on the stage instead of being read?\\nLoys is virtually liberated from fulfilhng his vows to\\nknighthood by the Prefect s revelation to him of the\\nsecret iniquities of the order. Freed from his per-\\nplexities, he is able now to indulge his love for Anael,\\nto take his place as Prefect, and to make all known\\nto Djabal. Does this promise to be of direct impor-\\ntance in the action, or is it too late Moreover, is\\nthe audience so assured by this time of Anael s love\\nfor Djabal, that it must be aware that Loys can only\\naffect the plot externally\\nIs it fitting that Loys s power to check Djabal shall\\ndepend at this point on Anael, and that the audience\\nmust centre on her future course what curiosity and\\ninterest it has in the young Frank s success in love?\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classzvork, or Private Study.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0378.jp2"}, "379": {"fulltext": "THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 345\\nAnael Proves her Doubt. The Hakeem Confesses\\nthe Truth, but Holds to his Mission. The Nuncio\\nArrives. (Act. IV.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. The\\nheroine of the play becomes the hero in the opening\\nscene of Act IV. That is, the active role which\\nDjabal has assumed is suddenly taken up by that\\nperson who during the latter part of the climax act\\n(Act III.) has been steadily budding into prominence\\nas the leader of the coming counter-action, from the\\nmoment that Djabal has to give up the initiating of\\nevents, and is forced to succum.b to his own past.\\nIs this scene not only original and thrilHng, but\\nwholly in accord with the artistic design and structure\\nof the drama and with the character-interest Mr.\\nArthur Symons, in writing of this scene Introduc-\\ntion to Browning, p. 60), which he considers mag-\\nnificent and the finest in the play, calls attention to\\nthe singularly impressive touch of poetry and stage-\\ncraft in a certain line of it, where Djabal and Anael\\nmeet, at the moment when she has done the deed\\nwhich he is waiting to do. Unconscious of what she\\nhas done, he tells her to go\\nI slay him here,\\nAnd here you ruin all. Why speak you not\\nAnael, the Prefect comes [Anael screams.\\nThis mere stage-direction is a really great dramatic\\nstroke. With this involuntary scream (and the shud-\\nder and start aside one imagines, to see if the dead\\nman really is coming) a great actress might thrill an\\naudience.\\nIs this play, as a whole, rich or poor in such dra-\\nmatic opportunities", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0379.jp2"}, "380": {"fulltext": "346 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nCommenting on Djabal s speech as he goes to kill\\nthe Prefect, and the surprise when, dashing the curtains\\naside, he discovers Anael, Mr. Bradford, in the paper\\nalready cited, asks Could any nerves forbear to\\nthrill at that? Although he accounts this, and the\\nmany other kindred eiFects in this drama as picturesque\\nand dexterous, he questions whether it is deeply enough\\nrooted in human nature to be worthy of Browning.\\nAnd afterwards? Flow does it help us the least in\\nthe world to get at Djabal s character, which is all\\nthat interests now?\\nBut is this not precisely the scene which is based\\nprofoundly upon Anael s nature? In it has she not\\nput to a supreme test her love and the doubts which\\ncontended within her for the victory over her faith\\nin the Hakeem And is it not precisely this deed\\nof hers which constitutes a searching test of Djabal s\\nrecently awakened desires to play an honest part,\\nnot the god s, but a man s And does it not directly\\nhelp us to get at Djabal s character, not merely for its\\nown sake, since that is not quite all that interests\\nnow, but for the sake of learning what effect his\\ncharacter, in the light of this deed, will now have upon\\nhis future course and upon the impending Druse\\nrevolution\\nWhat does Anael s act bring about? Is it natural\\nand effective that it should make Djabal confess the\\nwhole truth to her Is it equally natural that this\\nconfession should awaken the revulsion it does in\\nAnael, and then should push her to urge that Djabal\\nshall confess himself as fully to the public\\nWhat light does his refusal to do this throw upon\\nhis character Does it not present it as still balancing\\nbetween his fundamental mysticism, and the necessi-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0380.jp2"}, "381": {"fulltext": "THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 347\\nties of his life s mission, on the one side, and his\\nnewly aroused fealty to truth and love, and the criti-\\ncism of Oriental methods which Western ideas of life\\nhave started in his mind, on the other side\\nIs it true to life, in general, that a hero physically\\nbrave and habitually adroit in manipulating public\\naffairs, should prefer to seem more than he is,\\nto lack moral courage to be as honest in public as\\nhe is willing to be in private, at least, until after\\nhe has gained his point, and accomplished a public\\nservice\\nIs it exclusively an Oriental trait to justify deception\\nof the public on the plea that it is for the public\\ngood Is the European, in fact, as Djabal intimates\\n(lines 125-130), apt to be more hypocritical, because\\nmore aware of the equivocalness of his public policy,\\nthan the Oriental Do recent American and Euro-\\npean politics supply such instances\\nWould it have been wise in Djabal to have deceived\\nAnael herself here, when she makes her second appeal\\n(lines 86-94)\\nIf he could have done it, would it have been a proof\\nof the depth of his love for her, or of its shallowness\\nIs it a tribute to Anael s character that he could\\nnever bear to deceive her and could not do so now\\nIs it a proof of his masculine stupidity, however,\\nthat while he thinks so highly of her character and\\nhas had such a proof of her moral courage, and heard,\\nmoreover, how ready she is to dare to follow truth at\\nany cost, he thoroughly underrates her moral nerve\\nand intellectual capacity to direct the action herself\\nor to obstruct in any way the course he has now\\ndetermined upon?\\nDoes Browning account convincingly for Djabal s", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0381.jp2"}, "382": {"fulltext": "348 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncharacter being of such mixed mettle, part typically\\nOriental, part sceptical\\nIs Browning wrong in depicting so exalted a nature\\nas Anael s in an Oriental woman\\n\u00c2\u00ab*In Anael, as in Djabal, though in a less degree,\\nsays Mr. Bradford, there is a very strong mixture\\nof the nineteenth century and if you wish to feel\\nthis fully, I should advise reading Pierre Loti s\\nRoman d un Spahi, where you will find the\\ncharacter of an Oriental woman portrayed in a very\\ndifferent fashion.\\nBut is it not a manifestly superficial proceeding to\\nclass all Orientals together without discrimination\\nDoes Browning write from a deeper knowledge of\\ndifferent quaUties and degrees of development in the\\nOriental than Loti does Does Loti view all women\\nwith bias\\nWhat warrant is there for exhibidng an initiated\\nDruse of the Sheik s family as an instructed and\\nheterodox type of the Oriental, so much so, indeed,\\nthat he furnishes one of the nearest mediaeval pro-\\ngenitors of that species of nineteenth-century agnos-\\ntic whose scepticism has led him so far as to believe\\nfirmly in the Unknowable What warrant, moreover,\\nis there for depicting an inidate Druse maiden of the\\npurest blood and an unusually secluded household, as\\ndistinguished for intellectual acuteness and emotional\\nenergy, far above the usual slavish inmate of an\\nOriental harem (See Camberwell Brozu?2i?igy Vol.\\nIII., Notes 20, p. 303, and 116, p. 304, for informa-\\ntion on the philosophy distinctive of the Druse Ockal,\\nand for the learning which the initiate Druse woman\\nof rank was free to attain.\\nDoes Loys put the hero in the shade Is he too", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0382.jp2"}, "383": {"fulltext": "THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 349\\nfresh, or the soul of truth? Is he as dis-\\ninterested in his attachment to the Druses as he\\nthinks he is? Is he depicted as Djabal s moral\\nsuperior in depth of virtue Or is he merely his\\nsuperior in intention, and as to desires as yet un-\\ntempted and untried Does Leys appear to ad-\\nvantage or disadvantage beside him in the dialogue\\nbetween them after the guard has disclosed the Pre-\\nfect s death and the Druse revolt?\\nWhy is Act IV. so continuously eventful and full\\nof surprise Is it too much so for a properly con-\\nstructed fourth act Or is the w^ay it proceeds the\\nlegitimate result of Browning s design This, on\\nanalysis, seems to be to have the plot follow Djabal s\\nlead up to the climax. Act III., and then to follow\\nthe counter-movement, centred in Anael and disput-\\ning the sway of the original movement, up to the\\ncatastrophe. Act V.\\nIs this a confusion of the plot of event, or a totally\\noriginal way of combining the qualities of the old\\ndrama of action and outcome with the new drama of\\nwill and initiation of action\\nV. Topic for Paper y Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Nuncio and Loys Indulge their Last Hopes.\\nAnael Betrays but Saves the Hakeem and the Druses.\\n(Act V.)\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. After\\nan act so spirited as Act IV. is, there ought to be a\\nmass of effects in the final act to round out the\\nplot perfecdy. How does it meet this dramatic\\nnecessity, as to crowd and spectacular background,\\nas to spirited dialogue, and as to unexpected turns\\nof event\\nIs there humor in this act", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0383.jp2"}, "384": {"fulltext": "350 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nHas it an element of pathos\\nIs the play, as a whole, a remarkable blend of rich\\nspectacle and thrilling plot, joined with character-\\ndevelopment and symbolism And does the structure\\nof the piece betoken this, by carrying on the plot in two\\ncurrents directly conducing toward the catastrophe, one\\nmovement steadily falling towards the final events of a\\nsuccessful revolution, and a second steadily thwarting\\nthe other, in order to educe a higher spiritual denoue-\\nment Does this explain why the tragical deaths of\\nhero and heroine are none the less triumphant, and the\\ndehverance of the Druses after all accomplished\\nWhat is the bearing of the Nuncio s part in the\\naction For his character, see programme on The\\nPrelate.\\nIs Christianity represented well by comparison with\\nthe Druse religion in this play in the persons of Loys,\\nthe Prefect, and the Nuncio\\nIs the coming of the Venetian admiral anything\\nmore than ornamental\\nDoes the final act bring Khalil, Loys, Djabal, and\\nAnael all to the climax of their spiritual possibilities in\\ncharacter? How is this accomplished in each case,\\nconsistently with their foregoing parts Though Loys,\\nKhalil, and Anael have some life and reahty, says\\nProfessor Walker (\u00c2\u00ab\u00c2\u00abThe Greater Victorian Poets,\\np. 189), *Mt is hardly sufficient to give the play its\\nproper balance. Is this observation hard on Brown-\\ning, or on Professor Walker s comprehension of\\nBrowning s design\\nShould Anael be condemned as disloyal to her own\\npeople and to her lover Is she loyal to them in a\\ndeeper and truer sense\\nDoes she play the part of the Hamza, symbolizing", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0384.jp2"}, "385": {"fulltext": "THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 351\\nin the drama the Universal Intelligence, who completes\\nthe revelation of the Hakeem to man, as suggested\\nin the Camberwell Brow fling (Vol. III., Introduction,\\np. xii)\\nWhat growth in grace and honesty of character,\\nmaking himself wellnigh what he seemed to be and\\nwas not before, does Djabal owe to her Was her\\nlast test of his love for her and his regard for the truth\\nmore successful than her earlier ones Compare with\\nher scene with Djabal in Act IV.\\nWhy does she salute Djabal as Hakeem Is\\nshe deceived? Does she wish to delude others, to\\nsave Djabal at the expense of her own veracity Is\\nthe essential nature of love revealed to her in that\\npoignant moment, and does she express her sense of\\nthe half-divine, half-human quality of love in her last\\ncry, completing so her revelation of the symbolic\\ntruth of the Incarnation (See, on this query, Cam-\\nberwell Brow?ii?ig, Vol. III., Introduction, pp. xii,\\nxiii, xvi, xvii, xix, and xx.)\\nDoes Djabal also come to understand that a deeper\\ntruth belongs to his role of Hakeem than he suspected.?\\nIn what different and characteristic ways do the others\\ntake it (See Introduction, before cited, for remarks\\non this and other of these queries.)\\nAre the diction and imagery of the play suited to its\\nOriental environment", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0385.jp2"}, "386": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: A Blot in\\nTHE Scutcheon.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nA Blot in the Scutcheon iu 69 306\\nTopic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Situation Its Effect upon the Characters and its\\nArtistic Presentation.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. (For\\naccount of the situation, see notes to Camberwell\\nBrowning as given above.) How much of the situa-\\ntion comes out in the first scene with the retainers,\\nand how is a note of foreboding and trouble struck in\\nthe midst of the curiosity and delight of the retainers\\nHas the poet succeeded in characterizing the dif-\\nferent retainers vividly with a few dexterous touches,\\nand so made this first scene both lively and natural\\nIn the second scene we are introduced to all the\\nremaining characters except Mildred. Should you de-\\nscribe Thorold, as he appears in this scene, to be a man\\nvery proud of his ancient and irreproachable line\\nMertoun, to be a young man caring more for individ-\\nual worth than for family grandeur Guendolen to\\nbe a woman of wit and wisdom, with a much better\\nhead than Austin and Austin to be a man of warm\\naffections, blundering honesty, but very little penetra-\\ntion, and in all intellectual things following the lead of\\nGuendolen", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0386.jp2"}, "387": {"fulltext": "A BLOT IN THE SCUTCHEON 353\\nDo the hesitation at times in Mertoun s manner\\nand the criticisms of Guendolen echoed by Austin\\nalso strike a note of trouble to come But is there\\nany hint of what that trouble is to be\\nIn the opening of the third scene, where Guendolen\\nand Mildred talk, is it very evident that something is\\nwrong, but do you get any idea of what it is until\\nMertoun enters her window What has Guendolen\\nsaid in this conversation to throw still further light on\\nthe ideals of Thorold\\nIn the scene between Mildred and Mertoun what\\nrevelation is made of their respective characters\\nDoes he show that he feels such supreme love as\\ntheirs makes any sin they may have been guilty of\\ndwindle into insignificance Is he justified in so feel-\\ning, and does it show the depth and sincerity of his\\nlove\\nWith Mildred, the notions of right and wrong are\\nmore fixed. She has sinned against her cherished\\nideal, and cannot see any way in which the sin can be\\nwiped out except through punishment. Holding the\\nideal she did, could she have felt any other way\\nDoes she, however, show, by the end of the scene,\\nthat had the situation developed differently she might\\nagain have been happy r Does the language in this\\nscene express intense emotional fervor\\nIn Act II., when the worst of all blows falls upon\\nThorold, does he show his innate fineness of character\\nin his manner of taking it, and also, from what hints\\nwe can gain, in the way he declares he will act In\\nhis interview with Mildred what changes his intention\\nand makes him lose entire control of himself Was\\nhe justified in so quickly jumping to the most evil con-\\nstruction of Mildred s actions.? In any case, should\\n23", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0387.jp2"}, "388": {"fulltext": "354 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhe not have investigated further before he decided\\nupon action\\nHas Browning made of Guendolen in this scene a\\ntype of w^oman s noblest friendship and intuition\\nWas Mildred too much overwhelmed with the\\nsense of her own guilt to make any defence, or was\\nshe chiefly anxious to shield her lover Was it any\\nwonder that the tortured girl could not see any way\\nout of the dilemma and so put herself in a position to\\nbe horribly misjudged If she had told the whole\\ntruth to Thorold, do you think the tragedy would\\nhave been prevented\\nHow is the one other chance to prevent the tragedy\\nlost\\nDo you get the impression, in the opening of the\\nthird act, that Thorold had been struggling with his\\npassion of rage, but is irresistibly drawn by it to the\\nspot where he may meet the man who has done him\\nsuch wrong When he finds out that Mildred s\\nlover is Mertoun, does he act entirely consistently\\nwith what he had told Mildred in the first place in\\nthe morning, namely, that she might marry her lover,\\nand he would do all to shield her, etc. The revul-\\nsion of feeHng when he discovered that the lover and\\nMertoun were one and the same, instead of minimiz-\\ning the sin as Guendolen felt, seemed in his eyes to\\nmaximize it was this because of the deception that\\nhad been practised upon him, or because of the sin\\nitself?\\nDoes Mertoun explain satisfactorily in his dying\\nspeech how it was he did not take the straightforward\\npath in the first place Is it not perfectly natural\\nthat a young and modest youth should have an awe of\\nthe distinguished head of a great family, and be afraid", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0388.jp2"}, "389": {"fulltext": "A BLOT IN THE SCUTCHEON 355\\nto press his suit for fear he might lose Is it he who\\nis to blame so much as a condition of society where\\none man rules all the doings of his family?\\nDo Mertoun and Mildred both see at the end that\\na higher law than man s law would exonerate them,\\nand that Thorold had sinned more in taking into his\\nown hands their punishment than they had sinned in\\ntheir love\\nCould argument or reason have convinced Thorold\\nof this, or only the awakening which came through\\nthe death he himself dealt Mertoun\\nDoes the peculiar pathos of this play grow out of\\nthe fact that three pure, good, and innocent people\\nbecome strangled in the meshes of conventional ideals\\nwhich regard such love as that of Mildred and\\nMertoun a sin, no matter what the conditions, and\\nwhich consider that no subsequent action can expiate\\nsuch a sin\\nIf they had all known what they realized at the\\nlast, would the tragedy have happened\\nWhile the situation in this play could be outlined\\nin a few words, its power consists in its moving pres-\\nentation of the emotions of the various actors in the\\ndrama from Gerard up to Thorold in Gerard do we\\nsee love in conflict with loyalty in Mildred, love\\nin conflict with a preconceived ideal, bringing the\\nemotions of fear, grief, humiliation, and finally triumph\\nand forgiveness, in its train in Thorold, love in con-\\nflict with the honor of his family in Mertoun, love\\nin conflict with awe of a great personage and finally,\\nin Guendolen, love large and whole\\nIs the language everywhere suited to the intensity\\nof the emotion\\nThe moral and artistic aspects of this play have", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0389.jp2"}, "390": {"fulltext": "356 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ncalled forth a number of diverse opinions. Mr.\\nArthur Symons says The whole action is passion-\\nately pathetic, and it is infused with a twofold\\ntragedy, the tragedy of the sin and that of the\\nmisunderstanding, the last and final tragedy which\\nhangs on a word, a word spoken when only too late\\nto save three lives. This irony of circumstance is at\\nonce the source of earth s saddest discords, and the\\nmotive of art s truest tragedies. It takes the place,\\nin our modern world, of that Necessity, the irresist-\\nible Fate of the Greeks and is not less impressive\\nbecause it arises from the impulse and unreasoning\\nwilfulness of man rather than from the implacable\\ninsistency of God. It is with perfect justice, both\\nmoral and artistic, that the fatal crisis, though medi-\\nately the result of accident, of error, is shown to be\\nthe consequence and the punishment of wrong, A\\ntragedy resulting from the mistakes of the wholly\\ninnocent would jar on our sense of right, and could\\nnever produce a legitimate work of art. In this\\nplay, each of the characters calls down upon his own\\nhead the suffering which at first seems to be a mere\\ncaprice and confusion of chance.\\nLooked at in this way, do not the suffering and\\nthe punishment seem entirely out of proportion to the\\nsins committed\\nDoes not the tragedy of this play rather consist in\\nthe fact that the punishment is disproportionate to\\nthe sin, and yet that, given the characters and their\\nideals, it could not be averted, because to none of\\nthem had come the larger view of human life which\\nrecognizes that sin against conventional standards may\\ngrow out of exaltation of character instead of from\\ndegeneration of character?", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0390.jp2"}, "391": {"fulltext": "A BLOT IN THE SCUTCHEON 357\\nProfessor Walker remarks The great fault\\nof *A Blot in the Scutcheon is that in it the\\nmoral situation overtops the characters, whereas the\\ntrue dramatic method is to express the moral only in\\nand through the characters. Mildred s character\\nis almost summed up in the moral situation in which\\nshe is placed there is no opportunity to know her\\notherwise.\\nIf this were true, the denouement would seem to\\nbe the only one possible, while what we actually\\nfeel is that the denouement might have been different\\nwith dijfferent characters therefore the characters\\ndominate the situation, not the situation the characters\\nSuppose it be admitted that Mildred s character\\nis summed up in the situation, is that necessarily a\\nfault Would a young woman in such a coil of\\nsorrow and shame be likely to show much of her\\ncharacter that was not related to the problem Could\\nsuch a problem help being dominant\\nMr. Sharp s criticism is that the play **has the\\nradical fault characteristic of writers of sensational\\nfiction, a too promiscuous clearing the ground by\\nsyncope and suicide. Given the passion of Tho-\\nrold, who murdered Mertoun, which is a frequent\\nenough sort of passion to be perfecdy natural, even\\nto-day, do not the other two deaths follow naturally,\\nMildred s from a broken heart (not an unknown\\noccurrence) and Thorold s by his own hand r\\nMr. Symons, though perhaps mistaking the motive\\nof the play, has a thorough appreciation of its beauty.\\nHe says The language has a rich simplicity of the\\nhighest dramatic value, quick with passion, pregnant\\nwith thought, and masterly in imaginadon the plot\\nand characters are perhaps more interesting and affect-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0391.jp2"}, "392": {"fulltext": "35^ BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ning than in any of the other plays while the effect\\nof the whole is impressive from its unity.\\nOther criticisms appreciative of the play are Mr.\\nSkelton s, who calls it **one of the most perfectly\\nconceived and perfectly executed tragedies in the\\nlanguage and Charles Dickens declared he knew no\\nlove like that of Mildred and Mertoun, no passion\\nlike it, no moulding of a splendid thing after its con-\\nception like it, and that he would rather have written\\nthis play than any other play of modern times. (For\\nanother appreciative opinion, see Introduction to Vol.\\nIII., Ca?nberwell Brow?img.)\\nDo the criticisms against the play here given show\\nnot only a cut and dried definition of what a drama\\nought to be, but also a misunderstanding of the motive\\nof the drama, which they interpret as being the old\\none of sin and its retribution, instead of the new one\\nof sin and its relativity\\nProfessor Lounsbury, in an article in the Atlantic\\nMonthly for December, 1899, under the caption A\\nPhilistine View, declares that there is a *Mack of\\nadequate motive for the existence of the situation in\\nwhich the lovers are represented as being at the time\\nthe play opens. And this is followed by a succession\\nof acts, each one of which seems to vie with the one\\npreceding in folly, if not surpass it. It is simply\\nimpossible to conceive rational beings in real life con-\\nducting themselves with so thorough a disregard of\\nordinary sense. If it were admitted that the char-\\nacters do not act like nineteenth-century college gradu-\\nates, could not their actions be defended as natural to\\nthe England of the Georgian Era, when the head of\\na great family was indeed awe-inspiring, old-style\\nromance dominant, and girls were not instructed in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0392.jp2"}, "393": {"fulltext": "A BLOT IN THE SCUTCHEON 359\\nall knowledge, as they are now and also on the\\nground that highly strung, sensitive people may at any\\ntime act irrationally under stress of great emotion\\nWould there be any tragedy or sorrow or regret in\\nlife if human beings acted only rationally\\nOne of his points is that the clever Guendolen gives\\nup al] effort when she finds Thorold has gone off (see\\nact ii., lines 434-443). On the contrary, does she\\nnot distinctly say that she and Austin will go and\\nseek for Thorold And in the next act is not the\\nimpression distinctly given that they had been looking\\nfor him all day (For further remarks on this article,\\nsee Poet-lore, January, 1900.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0393.jp2"}, "394": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: Colombe s\\nBirthday\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nColombe s Birthday iii 122 314\\nI. Topic for Paper y Classzuorky or Private Study.\\nThe Forces of Selfishness and Unselfishness at Work\\naround the Unconscious Colombe. (Act I.)\\nQuestions for Investigation and Discussion, How\\nmuch of the situation, past and present, comes out in\\nthe talk of the courtiers\\nIs it true regard for Colombe that causes all the\\ncourtiers to shirk the responsibility of carrying the\\nannouncement to her of the change in her aiFairs, or\\ndoes it grow out of their consciousness of their dis-\\nloyalty in not rallying round her whom they had so\\nrecently crowned with acclamation Was their meek\\nacceptance of the Duke due to any moral recognition\\nof his right, or merely to the selfish desire to provide\\nfor themselves under any circumstances Is there any-\\nthing to choose between these courtiers\\nHow is it at once made evident that Valence is a\\nman of a different stamp\\nDoes this act serve clearly to oudine the influences\\nwhich are to affect Colombe s life\\nIs there any hint at all that Valence is in love with\\nher?", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0394.jp2"}, "395": {"fulltext": "COLOMBE S BIRTHDAY 361\\nII. Topic for Paper y Classwork, or Private Study.\\nColombe Awakes to the Realities of Life, Learns a\\nTruer Source of her Right to Rule, and supported by\\nValence Decides to Defy Berthold. (Act II,)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Does\\nColombe s reasoning about the reports she has heard\\nof her cousin s intentions, and her easy allayment of\\nfears, growing out of the lapse of attention to her-\\nself, show how innocent she is of the ways of the\\nworld\\nIs the fineness of her nature shown by her immedi-\\nate response to Valence when he pleads the cause of\\nCleves, and also by her immediate relinquishment of\\nthe crown, or does the latter show that she has taken\\ntoo personal a view of her position, and has laid\\ngreater stress upon personal devotion to herself than\\nupon the duties her position imposed upon her\\nHow does Valence bring her to a realization of her\\nduties? Is he justified in basing her right to rule upon\\nthe need of Cleves to have just such a heart as hers\\nto sympathize with its wrongs, instead of upon the\\nsuffrage of Pope or King, etc.\\nAlthough the courtiers are impressed with the actions\\nof both Vale;ice and Colombe, especially Guibert, how\\ndo they show themselves true to their instincts the\\nmoment Berthold is announced t\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classic ork, or Private Study.\\nThe Effect of Colombe s Defiance upon Berthold\\nand of Valence upon Colombe. (Act III.)\\nQueries for hwestigation and Discussion. Does it\\nappear, from the remarks of Melchior and Berthold\\nand the latter s action upon Colombe s defiance, that\\nBerthold is a man who enjoys a little opposition\\nAre we to suppose that his past love episode and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0395.jp2"}, "396": {"fulltext": "362 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhis disappointment really seared his heart, or that am-\\nbition had always been his strongest motive\\nWhen Colombe comes actually into his presence,\\nshe wavers and is on the point of admitting his claim.\\nWhat decides her to make a stand against him, the\\nthought of the wrongs of Cleves or the thought of her\\nown degradation from power\\nDoes she show herself to have developed much in\\nthis scene\\nDoes Valence in making her defiance for her also\\nforget the wrongs of Cleves\\nThe courtiers do not seem to be deceived as to the\\ninner motive of his allegiance to Colombe. Is it be-\\ncause they cannot imagine such a stand as that taken\\nby Valence to be based upon anything but self-interest\\nin some form or other, or because the fervor of his\\nmanner belied him\\nCould Berthold afford to be deferential, knowing he\\nhad all the power on his side\\nWas some sense of justice in his heart touched, or\\ndid he scent afar a danger in the fascination of\\nColombe s personality, since it could raise up for her\\nsuch a valiant defender as Valence\\nHow much does Colombe mean when she says to\\nValence, You spoke and I am saved Does she\\nrefer simply to her position as Duchess, or has Valence\\nin his speech awakened her to her true duties again\\nFrom the actions of Valence so far, can it be pre-\\ndicted that he will give an unbiassed judgment on the\\nquestion of the respecdve rights of Colombe and Ber-\\nthold, even if it should tell against his own chances\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nColombe, given the Choice between Love and the\\nWorld, Hesitates. (Act IV.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0396.jp2"}, "397": {"fulltext": "COLOMBE S BIRTHDAY 363\\nQiieries for Investigation and Discussion. Do the\\ncourtiers again show their absolute selfishness and their\\nlack of comprehension of anything but base motives\\nin the opening scene of this act\\nIs Valence hypercritical in regard to himself when\\nhe discovers he has been working for his own benefit\\nmore than for that of Cleves Do you not feel cer-\\ntain that under any circumstances he would have taken\\nup the cause of Cleves Because great personal hap-\\npiness is opening before him, need he necessarily neg-\\nlect his people If it came to a point where he must\\nchoose between his love for Colombe and his cham-\\npionship of the people, which ought to be his\\nchoice\\nWhat far worse complication is introduced into tlie\\nproblem by Berthold s offer of his hand to Colombe\\nIs Berthold s misunderstanding of Valence s manner\\nof taking this announcement natural to a man in his\\nexalted position Is his obtuseness further illustrated\\nby his offering a post to Valence\\nIn the subsequent scene between Valence and\\nColombe, does she know all the time that it is herself\\nValence loves, and talks as she does in order to en-\\ncourage him to make a declaration or is she uncer-\\ntain whether he loves her or not, and is anxious to\\nreassure herself? or is she surprised when she finds it\\nis herself? Is she flattered by the offer of Berthold\\nWhy does she leave Valence in doubt as to her inten-\\ntions because she is not certain which way she will\\ndecide, or because she wants to see for herself whether\\nValence has correctly reported the attitude of Berthold,\\nor because she wants to do Valence the honor oF\\naccepting him in the presence of Berthold\\nDoes Valence plead the cause of Berthold as disin-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0397.jp2"}, "398": {"fulltext": "364 BRO^A^NING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nterestedly as he might Is this because of a selfish\\ndesire to have her himself, or because he is burning to\\nhave her live up to the highest ideal and remain faith-\\nful to herself and to the love he believ^es she has al-\\nready shown him\\nIs he right in thinking she has shown him her love\\nIf he had loved her and did not know whether she\\nloved him or not, would it have been more honorable\\nin him not to make such a point of the Duke s lack of\\nlove But knowing it, as he thinks, must he in\\njustice to the sanctity of love let her know that she\\nwould be exchanging love for position merely\\nDoes Colombe have a momentary disillusionment\\nwhen she declares that nothing s what it calls itself/\\nfeeling that selfishness, after all, underlies devotion,\\nzeal, faith, loyalty, or is she indulging in a little\\nplayful thrust at something which she really considers\\nsupreme\\nHas not her own love been roused because of the\\nservice to herself rather than because Valence took the\\npart of the suiFering people\\nIs it quite kind in her to compare Valence, after\\nthe earnest and passionate appeal he has just made to\\nher, to a hawk in the valley Does this last speech\\nof hers leave one in doubt as to whether she could\\nnot be won by Berthold if he were to use the right\\ntactics\\nMiss Vida D. Scudder s view upon Colombe s feel-\\ning in regard to Valence s love is of interest here Of\\ninstinctive truth to the broader law, there is an exqui-\\nsite instance in that idyllic drama Colombe s Birth-\\nday. The young Duchess, deserted by her friends,\\nfinds, in her dark moment of despair of human truth,\\nher only help in the loyalty of one young advocate.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0398.jp2"}, "399": {"fulltext": "COLOMBE S BIRTHDAY 365\\nThis Valence finally declares that love for her has\\nactuated his service. She loves him in return, yet\\nthe first knowledge of his love stirs in her no joy it\\ntouches her with keenest pain. Thus personal joy\\nin the offered love is merged for her in sorrow, that she\\nhas lost the broader, finer service. Womanhood\\nin Modern Poetry, Poet-lore Vol. I., p. 449, Octo-\\nber, 1889.)\\nV. Topic for Paper, Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nThe Triumph of Love in Colombe and Valence.\\n(Act V.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion, From\\nBerthold s confidences to Melchior, would it appear\\nthat his scheme to marry Colombe was not so disin-\\nterested as he would have it appear Or is he sim-\\nply trying to baffle Melchior s conclusions as to his\\ncharacter t\\nIn her interview with Berthold does it appear that\\nColombe is only interested in testing him as a man,\\nand that the fact that she might be Empress weighs as\\nnothing in the scale If he had appealed to her as a\\nman, would it have proved her fickle to have accepted\\nhim, or merely that her love for Valence had only\\nbeen incipient, and that her nature responded to the\\nbest she had yet encountered, but would respond more\\ncompletely if a still higher nature were to meet hers\\nIn any case, is not the standpoint of Valence nobler,\\nwho recognizes love as the highest good, and that it is\\nbased on a spiritual kinship quite separable from ques-\\ntions of service and disinterestedness, upon which\\nColombe seems inclined to think it based Do you\\nnot feel sure that he would have continued to love\\nColombe even if she had proved false to love\\nIn declaring that his desire would be only to evolve", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0399.jp2"}, "400": {"fulltext": "365 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe love of one he loved even if it were for another,\\nand in asking for the redress of the wrongs of Cleves,\\ndoes Valence reach a point of unselfish devotion which\\nshould prove to Colombe that if service grows out of\\nlove and desires the reward of love, love, on the other\\nhand, is capable of the most exalted sacrifice of self\\nDoes she finally learn the true value of love\\nDoes Berthold, also, rise to the highest possible to\\nsuch a nature as his, when he waives the low-bred\\nimplications and selfish propositions of the courtiers\\nand declares that her possible feeling for Valence is of\\nno moment to him, who makes her a proposition for\\nher to accept or not as she will, and should she\\ndecide for him would trust his honor with her im-\\nplicitly\\nTo sum up these three characters, might it be said\\nthat Valence is a man of the highest ideals, who\\nnever wavers in the practical applications of them, and\\nbeing such is the only one who criticises himself for\\nnot being absolutely disinterested in seeking Colombe,\\nbut who realizes that love is a gift that must not be\\ndishonored Of Colombe can it be said that she has\\nnot yet developed beyond the stage where she is more\\ninterested in having other people fulfil what she con-\\nceives as their duty to her than in recognizing her\\nduty to them Even to the end she assumes the\\nposition of the judge of others, though her possibilities\\nof development are revealed in the fact that she\\nchooses the highest when it is presented to her. She\\nresponds to high ideals, but does not seem capable of\\ninitiating them herself. Is this a popular ideal of\\nwoman s nature Of Berthold may it be said that\\nhe is a man whose course in life is fixed, and, though\\ncapable of appreciating higher ideals than his own, is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0400.jp2"}, "401": {"fulltext": "COLOMBE S BIRTHDAY 367\\nsuspicious of the possibility of such ideals existing, and\\nincapable of following them himself?\\nVI. Topic f 07 Paper Classzuorky or Private Study.\\nObservations on the Art of this Drama.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is this\\na drama of action or a drama of situation Is what\\naction there is the result of the situations, or are the\\nsituations the result of the actions, or is there an inter-\\nchange of both\\nDoes the chief interest of the drama, however,\\ncentre upon the presentation of the characters and their\\ndevelopment in relation to the various situations they\\nare called upon to face\\nUpon this point Mr. Symons says the play is\\nmainly concerned with inward rather than outward\\naction in which the characters themselves, what they\\nare in their own souls, what they think of themselves,\\nand what others think of them constitute the chief\\ninterest, the interest of the characters as they influence\\none another or external events being, however intense,\\nin itself distinctly secondary.\\nDo you find that the characters all stand out as dis-\\ntinct personalities aside from their various attitudes to\\nthe problems involved What sort of references and\\nallusions are used by them all respectively Does the\\nlanguage of Melchior betray the scholar of Valence,\\n;he man of wisdom, and the lover of the people as\\nwell as of Colombe of Berthold, the astute observer\\nof the signs of the times as well as the victorious\\nOuke of Colombe, the girl made for happiness as well\\nas the developing woman facing the problems of life\\nDoes the Duke especially suit his manner to whom-\\never he is talking (For allusions, see Camberzvell\\nBrowning, Vol. III., Notes, p. 321.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0401.jp2"}, "402": {"fulltext": "368 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDoes Melchior or Sabyne have anything to do with\\nthe play, except as foils to show certain aspects of the\\ncharacters of Berthold and Colombe respectively\\nDoes either of them influence any one s action\\nWhat do you find to be the characteristics of the\\nblank verse in this play, very regular or with con-\\nsiderable variations in the accents and the endings of\\nthe hnes, etc.\\nAre some of the speeches too long to be effective\\non the stage When you come to examine even the\\nlongest, do you feel that anything could be left out\\nwithout seriously damaging the thought If this is\\nso, might it not be possible to deliver them in such a\\nway that they would seem entirely in place In\\nmodern conversation does not one person frequently\\ntalk at some length\\nProfessor Walker Greater Victorian Poets\\nsays of this play that *Mt is a finer and subtler piece\\nthan any of the plays preceding it. After having\\nstudied these preceding plays, would you consider\\nthis assertion, while showing an appreciation of this\\nplay, shows lack of appreciation in regard to the\\nothers? He goes on to say: The characters are\\ninteresting. Valence is grand with his fire and elo-\\nquence and unselfishness. Berthold is a fine study of\\nthe man of the world, clear-sighted, selfish, yet capa-\\nble of generosity, and with something of a heart,\\nthough he is too deeply involved in afi^airs to follow\\nits dictates. In his reading of others he makes mis-\\ntakes, through trusting too much to the selfish view.\\nHis confidant, Melchior, the student-observer of life,\\nless entangled in affairs than Berthold, and less inclined\\nto measure all with the measure that fits most, is right\\nin the case of Valence and Colombe where Berthold", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0402.jp2"}, "403": {"fulltext": "COLOMBE S BIRTHDAY 369\\nis wrong. Colombe herself is rather the centre round\\nwhich the others play than a figure of great interest\\nfor her own sake. Of the courtiers, Guibert is\\nworthy of study. In him the struggles of a disposi-\\ntion naturally good with the tendencies begotten of\\ndemoralizing surroundings and mean companionships\\nare exceedingly well depicted. Contact with Valence\\nrouses in him the better nature which would else have\\nslept, and in the end he rises to the height of follow-\\ning the ruined fortunes of his mistress/\\nIs this a just appreciation except in the case of\\nColombe? Does Symons s appreciation of Colombe\\nfit the case better\\nColombe, the veritable heroine of the drama, is, if\\nnot the completest full-length portrait of a woman\\nthat Mr. Browning has drawn, certainly both one of\\nthe sweetest and one of the completest. Her character\\ndevelops during the course of the play and it\\nleaves her a nobler and stronger, yet not less charm-\\ning woman than it found her. At the first and\\nyet final trial, she is proved and found to be of\\nnoble metal. The gay girlishness of the young\\nDuchess, her joyous and generous light heart her\\nwomanliness, her earnestness, her clear, deep, noble\\nnature, attract us from the first words, and leave us,\\nafter the hour we have spent in her presence, with the\\ninalienable uplifting memory that we have of some\\nwomen we meet for an hour or a moment, in the\\nworld or in books.\\nIf this is true, is it Colombe s personality rather\\nthan her strength of character that produces the effect\\n(For further opinions, see Introduction to Vol. III.,\\nCamherwell Brow7ii?ig, pp. xxi, xxv. j\\n24", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0403.jp2"}, "404": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: Luria\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nLuria i ^95 3^4\\nI. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nBraccio s Decision. (Act I.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. The\\nopinions of three different persons about Luria are\\ngiven before he enters upon the scene. Do they\\ndiffer greatly, and what light do they throw upon\\nthe nature of his abihty as a general and upon his\\ncharacter\\nIs Braccio inconsistent in holding to the theory\\nthat self-interest is the master-impulse with mankind,\\nwhen he speaks as he does to his Secretary (lines\\n61-70)?\\nOn what is the Secretary s appeal based that\\nBraccio should love himself, and therefore not condemn\\na guiltless man on the fear that he may not be\\nable to stand having so much power himself?\\nIs the Secretary right in rating intellectual astute-\\nness as far more dangerous than any brute force can\\nbe?\\nWhy is Braccio, the champion of brain-rule, so\\ncomplimentary to the brute-force embodied in Luria\\nthat he fears it Does this fact of his fearing it\\ninsinuate that he half unconsciously suspects in Luria", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0404.jp2"}, "405": {"fulltext": "LURIA 371\\nthe presence of a subtler force, and that, while he is\\nbelittling it, he really envies, as a rival, its possible\\ninfluence over Florence\\nWhat bearing upon the main event of this act,\\nwhich is Braccio s decision against Luria, has the\\nsketch of the Duomo with the Moorish front Is\\nthis striking architectural idea useful here in a double\\nway to symbolize Luria s love for Florence, and\\nBraccio s fear of Luria for her sake (See Cam-\\nberwell Browningy Vol. IlL, note 121, p. 330, for\\nthe evidence that Browning s dramatic fancy here hit\\nupon an actual plan.)\\nDo Luria s presence and talk bear out the opinion\\nof him derived from the others before he entered\\nWhat significance has the second striking image of\\nthis act, the image of the tidal wave and the gulf\\nstream subsiding inland (lines 320-330), as applied to\\nLuria s relation to Florence\\nIs Domizia the most obscurely painted and least\\ninteresting of the characters of this act Or does\\nshe pique curiosity here, and promise development\\nIs it clever or stupid in the astute Braccio to be\\nso swayed by Luria s talk Does he seize upon it\\nas an excuse for the course he has inwardly resolved\\nupon, or is it natural that he should be alarmed and\\nconvinced by any sign from Luria that he is less\\nlacking in penetration than he has given him credit\\nfor being\\nIs the outcome of the talk about Luria, the grudging\\npraise of Puccio, the suspicious jealousy for Florence\\nof Braccio, and the disinterested observation of him\\nby the Secretary, well calculated to make us wary of\\nhim, or to make us see that his nature has a largeness\\nfar beyond theirs", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0405.jp2"}, "406": {"fulltext": "372 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDoes this act throw light upon the quality of his\\nintelligence, as well as upon the generosity of his\\nnature What proofs of the artistic in him are\\ngiven And is the evidence such as to show that\\nhis perceptions were lively and facile merely, or that\\nhis sympathies were genial In whom is the source\\nof the action of this drama centred, as shown in this\\nact\\nII. Topic for Paper i Classworky or Private Study.\\nLuria s Decision. (Act II.)\\nQueries for hivestigation afid Discussion. Is\\nLuria Braccio s opposite, or Husain Does Husain,\\nthat is, stand more for the racial and physical quality\\nto which Braccio is opposed and against which he is\\nworking, than Luria does Why\\nThe last act gave an unfriendly outside view ot\\nDomizia and of her place and aim in being near Luria\\n(lines 172\u00e2\u0080\u0094184). How far does her own revelation of\\nherself in this act agree with it Is justice or ven-\\ngeance her desire Is her revenge only for the sake\\nof her house or also to tutor Florence\\nWhat is told of Tiburzio, both in Act I. and II.,\\nbefore he arrives on the scene What is his office\\nin the dramatic action\\nIs Luria too severely symmetrical in its struc-\\nture, having on the one side, in Act I., a movement\\ncentred in Braccio standing for Florence, and acting\\nthrough Puccio against Luria and in Act II., on\\nthe other side, a counter-movement proceeding from\\nHusain s instinctive racial fears of the Florentines, and\\nfinding through Tiburzio, standing for Pisa, a means\\nwhereby Luria may circumvent Braccio s plot against\\nhim Or is this equally balanced dramatic action\\nespecially appropriate for a drama of this kind, in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0406.jp2"}, "407": {"fulltext": "LURIA 373\\nwhich the characters are few, typical, and ideal of\\ntheir different kinds, and all intentionally subordinated\\nto the revelation of a single exalted personality\\nIn being thus chastely fashioned in strong con-\\ntrast, for example, to The Return of the Druses,\\nwherein events are not altogether so subordinated to\\nthe display of character, and wherein cross-purpose, sur-\\nprise, and complex interwoven movements and public\\ninterests are brought visibly upon the stage in being\\nthus chastely fashioned, is **Luria a proof, not of\\nBrowning s predilections for a precisely balanced\\ndramatic form, but of his capacity to work out in-\\ntentionally diverse dramatic forms\\nLuria is appealed to on his most sensitive side when\\nTiburzio supposes that he, being an alien, will be\\nready to take revenge on Florence. But is his pride\\nin being as true to Florence as one born her son\\ncould be, the real reason why he refuses to read the\\nletter\\nDoes he doubt Tiburzio If not, why then does\\nhe wait and test his Florentines by actual interview\\nbefore deciding Is it because he really is, as he\\nwishes to be, half Florentine in cast of mind, and\\nbecause he hopes to find in them some need for his\\nnative intuition which w^ill prove that he is capable\\nof being of the deepest use to them yet, by supplying\\nthem with a quality they lack\\nIs his conclusion, namely, to clench the obliga-\\ntion they relieve him from, to conquer evil by not\\nresisting it, or to resist it by spirit, not by force,\\nactually a conclusion born of a union of the intel-\\nlectual and emotional qualities of human nature?\\nWhat warrant is there for the supposition that\\nChrist s doctrine of conquering malevolence by non-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0407.jp2"}, "408": {"fulltext": "374 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nresistance is the fruit of a blending of typically West-\\nern and Oriental philosophy\\nAre the main steps in the action of the drama skil-\\nfully marked by the stage business of the letter\\nBraccio s decision in Act I. is exemplified in his slow-\\ntearing of the first letter, and sending this which in\\nAct II. in the hands of Luria marks the second step\\nin the story. How would Luria tear that paper\\nwhen he bids the trumpet answer, slowly Does\\nhe hesitate\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nHow will Florence reward Luria (Act III.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is Luria\\nthe only one of the characters who comes out in high\\nrelief in Act III.?\\nHow do Braccio and Puccio and Tiburzio, each\\nin his own way, as well as Luria, show their\\nmettle\\nBraccio, says Mr. Chadwick, in his paper on\\nLuria {Poet-lore, Vol. VI., pp. 251-264,\\nMay, 1894, or same in Boston Browning Society\\nPapers, pp. 249-263), is devoted to a worthy-\\nend the good of Florence her safety, her\\npre-eminence. Nor does he stain his fair intentions\\nwith foul acts, if I may turn about Sir Thomas\\nBrowne. He is completely his own dupe. In argu-\\ning that Luria must abuse his power and victory he\\nthinks that he is going on the broad sure ground,\\nthe corruption of man s heart. Even if he had felt\\nless confident of this, he would have given Florence\\nand not Luria the benefit of his doubt. Ques-\\ntioning the obvious good of other men is pretty sure\\nto find the flaw it seeks. This is Braccio s sin.\\nHis is that casuist s return on the simpHcity, nay, the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0408.jp2"}, "409": {"fulltext": "LURIA 375\\ncoherent unity of the moral sentiment, which paralyzes\\nfaith. His defect, whatever Browning meant it\\nto appear, was not excess of intellect or lack of heart,\\nbut that he had in him the mind of Rochefoucauld,\\nand not the mind of Christ.\\nIn Braccio, writes Professor H. M. Pancoast\\nLuria Its Story and Motive, Part II., Poet-\\nlore, Vol. II., pp. 19-26), **we have the embodi-\\nment of the cool instructed intellect. The character\\nis not only a natural one in itself, it has deep his-\\ntoric truth. It was this very pride of pure intel-\\nlect, the deification of mind and of culture, that chilled\\nwhatever there may have been of generous ardor or\\nof religious aspiration in the Florentine civilization.\\nMr. J. A. Symonds s words on Macchiavelli he quotes\\nagain as singularly applicable to Browning s Braccio,\\nin whom, also, may be traced the spirit of an age\\ndevoid of moral sensibility, penetration in analysis\\nit has, but is deficient in faith, hope, enthusiasm, and\\nstability of character. The dry light of the intellect\\ndetermined their judgment of men, as well as their\\ntheories of government. Luria, by contrast, con-\\ntinues Professor Pancoast, stands beside the highest\\nand most characteristic product of this Florentine\\ncivilization, the half- civilized Luria, in the integrity of\\nhis God-given manhood.\\nIs the essence of the antithesis between these two\\nin this drama, the antithesis of heart against head,\\nspontaneity against reflection, impulse against calcula-\\ntion, as Mr. Chad wick says, or is it rather the\\nantithesis between intellect unwarmed by sympathy,\\nand the emotional nature enlightened and guided by\\nreason and experience Would Husain and not\\nLuria stand precisely in contrast to Braccio, if tlie", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0409.jp2"}, "410": {"fulltext": "376 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nopposition were drawn merely between heart on the\\none side and head on the other\\nIs the contrast drawn between Luria and Braccio\\ndependent further on an antithesis between the cor-\\nporate and the individual life And does Luria s\\nmoral triumph over the principle for which Braccio\\nstands, that the State is of more value than any one\\nman, imply that the man is of more value than the\\nState\\n**The whole position taken by Braccio, says\\nProfessor Pancoast, *Ms substantially that of the school\\nof historians of which perhaps Buckle is the first and\\nTolstoy the last conspicuous example, thinkers who\\nare inclined to reduce to a minimum the value of the\\nindividual in human affairs. But to Browning, whose\\nconception of life is not scientific but passionate, whose\\ninterest centres rather on the destiny of the single soul\\nthan on the progress of an impersonal social revolution,\\nthe inspired man is greater than institutions.\\nMay it again be questioned whether the marrow of\\nthe antithesis drawn between the individual and the\\ncorporate life consists merely in the exaltation of the\\nsingle soul or the inspired man over the social\\ncollectivity May it be held that the instructive contrast\\nmade is rather between a Braccio s love of Florence\\nand a Luria s love and that Luria s is not less service-\\nable to her, but more so, for the very reason that it is\\nnot inconsistent with individual integrity, and that it is\\nnot furthered by the suppression or subjection or\\nbelittlement in any way of the single soul of any\\none of its citizens, but by his utmost possible\\ndevelopment\\nIs Domizia s view really the precise opposite of\\nBraccio s, since she upholds the superiority of the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0410.jp2"}, "411": {"fulltext": "LURIA 377\\nindividual over the State, and would have Luria teach\\nFlorence and is her social code any less erroneous in\\nits emphasis on the one side than Braccio s on the\\nother r\\nWhy does Luria pardon her Because she has\\nintended to make use of him just as Braccio has,\\nthough with a different aim in view as a mere pawn\\nin her plans with reference to Florence\\nWhat is Luria s view, at the close of this act, of\\nthe servant s right to resent his reward from the city\\nhe loves Luckily, he stands visibly furnished,\\nthrough Tiburzio s proposition, with unimpugnable\\npower to smite back, so that if he decides to turn the\\nother cheek it will not be misunderstood and taken as\\nan evidence that he could do nothing else.\\nIs it significant that he who is supposed by most\\ncommentators to be representative of sheer heart,\\nalways suspends definitive action till knowledge adds\\nauthorization to his intuitive perception of what the\\nsituation is going to be Braccio the astute is not so\\ncautious as to wait until Luria s sentence had arrived\\nbefore transferring the command to Puccio but does\\nLuria forget that he is unauthorized till then to lay his\\noffice down\\nBut is this suspense of Luria s a dramatic device\\nor is it more than that, an effect useful at this point,\\nbut also based on the truth of Luria s character as\\nshown throughout the play\\nIs it, perhaps, meant to be intimated that thoroughly\\nwise and effective action is a product, not of the brain,\\nbut of an instructed heart\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nShall Luria punish Florence? (Act IV.)\\nQueries for Investigatio?i and Discussion. Does", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0411.jp2"}, "412": {"fulltext": "3/8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nPuccio s character grow in the course of the play\\nWhy Is he first to see the value of Luria s combina-\\ntion of heart with brain, disinterestedness with ability\\nWhat light does his rebuke, in this act, of the blood-\\nless policy as senseless throw upon the situation\\nWhat does Husain s advice to Luria contribute to\\nthis double question of the play at this juncture, first,\\nwhat Luria would best do, and, second, what is the\\ninner meaning of his action as an exemplar for the\\nFlorentines\\nIs Domizia altogether without majesty and right on\\nher side in her demand that corporate Florence be\\ntaught the worth of man s cause?\\nHow is it that Luria s way of teaching the same\\nlesson goes closer to the reformation of the evil In\\nrefraining from resenting the indignity to himself as a\\npersonal one, does he point out that what he does\\nresent is the indignity which Florence forces upon\\nany genuine service of her\\nV. Topic for Paper i Classzuorky or Private Study.\\nThe Punishment. (Act V.)\\nQueries for I?westigatio?i and Discussion, Is the\\nfact that the reader or an audience know that Luria\\nhas taken poison when Act V. begins, a drawback to\\nthe interest of the conclusion\\nWhat is it that is to be watched with interest in\\nthis act The effect on the other characters The\\nunfolding of the ability and disinterestedness all along\\nfelt to be native to Luria Or is there still room for\\ndoubt as to his course\\nIn the series of dialogues between Luria and the\\ndifferent characters circling about him, what revela-\\ntions are made of him, and how do they affect each of\\nthe Florentines", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0412.jp2"}, "413": {"fulltext": "LURIA 379\\nWas Puccio s talk with the Secretary in the last act\\neffective in creating a little apprehension lest Luria\\nmight turn out to be the wise man whom op-\\npression made mad, as Puccio expresses it (Act IV.\\nline 1 6) And although the taking of the poison re-\\nassures one that Luria loves Florence, does it make it\\nsure that he will not give her other cause to mourn him\\nWhat sort of cause for this does he really give her,\\nfirst as general, in the interview with Puccio, then\\nas Minister of Justice, in the interview with the\\nSecretary\\nIf these two interviews are both conducted in the\\ninterest of Florence, first, against external foes, and,\\nsecond, against more insidious internal foes of her own\\nblood, but perhaps created by her own injustice, how\\nare the remaining interviews made useful to her\\nThe first two are planned by Luria, and he sum-\\nmons Puccio and the Secretary to him to instruct them,\\nas it were, in his last will for Florence. The others\\nare not of his summoning. Yet in what sense are\\nthey the result of his initiative\\nIn what different ways do they testify to his life-\\nwork for Florence, and what principles of true\\npatriotism and right relationing of the citizen to the\\nState do they bring out\\nToDomizia, says Professor Pancoast, in the\\narticle already cited, and here we touch the. vital\\npurpose of the play to Domizia it seems that he\\nhas retaught to the hard dry brain of the North\\nthe value of those deep and holy feelings which had\\nbeen lost in the pride of the intellect. Her answer to\\nLuria s lament over what seems to him his neglected\\nmission sums up the main thought of the play. She\\nspeaks of Luria of one who has", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0413.jp2"}, "414": {"fulltext": "380 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nbrought fresh stuff\\nFor us to mould, interpret and prove right,\\nNew feeling fresh from God, which, could we know\\nC the instant, where had been our need of it\\nWhose life re-teaches us what life should be,\\nWhat faith is, loyalty and simpleness.\\nI have no doubt that in this speech we have not\\nmerely the utterance of Domizia, but the deUberate\\nconviction of the poet himself speaking through her.\\nBut does the poet, by speaking not only through\\nDomizia but through all his characters, and by let-\\nting their own natures shape their utterance, designedly\\nconvince us of a little larger truth even than this,\\nnamely, that in such sympathetic appreciation of an\\nopposite nature as Luria has shown for the Florentine\\nnature without the renunciation of his own distinctive\\nnative gifts and bent, consists the mission of each\\nperson to every other which enables not only the\\nright development of each, but the best possible\\npatriotism and social progress\\nIs this the inner meaning of democracy which Italy,\\nand above all Florence, at the head of her cities, was\\nso near to in the Renaissance period, and missed for\\nlack of, so disastrously\\nDid Luria love Domizia Was lov^e only pos-\\nsible between them now What pathos do their last\\nwords add to the story\\nWhy did the poet have to poison Luria Could\\nhe rightly have made the play end happily\\nIs Tiburzio s testimony to be taken as the poet s\\nown moral inference And does it mean that a man\\nof genius and insight is of more value than the mass of\\nmen in himself; or in making his superior value de-\\npendent on his service to mankind, as a model of a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0414.jp2"}, "415": {"fulltext": "LURIA 381\\ncompleter life than theirs, does it mean that the devel-\\nopment of each man s highest capability is the supreme\\nconcern for a nation\\nHow does such a social moral as this apply to the\\npresent political situation\\nIs it clear how Braccio and Husain are convinced\\nIs this play one that reaches success through eliciting\\nfrom its auditors a kindred temper to that of its central\\ncharacter, marked by a glow of sympathetic intelli-\\ngence and intuition rather than by any external excite-\\nment over its events\\nIs its lack of humor against it? Or would humor\\nobtrude here a jarring note\\nIs its lack of any traits of wickedness or wilful per-\\nversity, ordinary carnal-mindedness, or petty human\\nquirks of any sort, especially is its lack of personal\\nlove-relations unusual in Browning\\nIs the absence of such human touches a mistake, or\\nis it v^ell calculated to enhance the extraordinary ideal-\\nistic high-mindedness of the piece even its least lofty\\ncharacters being in earnest and conscious of their\\nbearings\\nYet can Luria be called cold or statuesque while\\nit is so irradiated with enthusiasm\\nIf not the best of Browning s dramas, wrote\\nJames Russell Lowell, in the North American Review\\nfor 1848, Mt is certainly one of the most striking in\\nits clearness of purpose, the energetic rapidity of its\\nmovement, the harmony of its details, the natural\\nattraction with which they all tend toward and at last\\nend in the consummation, and in the simplicity and\\nconcentration of its tragic element.\\nBrowning himself said of Luria, in writing to\\nElizabeth Barrett in 1846, that it was for a purely", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0415.jp2"}, "416": {"fulltext": "382 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nimaginary stage, very simple and straightforward.\\nAnd while he was composing the play, he spoke to her\\nof my Braccio and Puccio (a pale discontented man)\\nand Tiburzio (the Pisan, good true fellow, this one),\\nand Domizia, the Lady all these with their\\nworldly wisdom and Tuscan shrewd ways and for\\nme the misfortune is, I sympathise just as much with\\nthese as with golden-hearted Luria.\\nLater, when Miss Barrett was reading as far as the\\nfourth act, she asked, *Is he to die so F Can you\\nmean it I can scarcely resign myself to it even\\nas an act of necessity I mean to the act, as\\nLuria s act, whether it is final or not the act of\\nsuicide being so unheroical. But you are a dramatic\\npoet and right, perhaps, where, as a didactic poet,\\nyou would have been wrong, and after the first shock,\\nI begin to see that your Luria is the man Luria, and\\nthat his sun lights him so far and not farther than\\nso, and to understand the natural reaction of all that\\ngenerous trust and hopefulness, what naturally it would\\nbe. Also, it is satisfactory that Domizia, having put\\nher woman s part off to the last, should be too late\\nwith it it will be a righteous retribution. I had\\nfancied that her object was to isolate him, to make his\\nmilitary glory and national recompense ring hollowly\\nto his ears, and so commend herself, drawing back\\nthe veil.\\nTo this. Browning replied that he had wished just\\nthose feeHngs to be in her mind about Domizia and\\nLuria s death. The last act throws light back on\\nall, T hope. Observe only, that Luria would stand, if\\nI have plied him effectually with adverse influences, in\\nsuch a position as to render any other end impossible\\nwithout the hurt to Florence which his religion is to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0416.jp2"}, "417": {"fulltext": "LURIA 383\\navoid inflicting passively awaiting, for instance, the\\nsentence and punishment to come at night, would as\\nsurely inflict it as taking part with her foes. His aim\\nis to prevent the harm she will do herself by striking\\nhim, so he moves aside from the blow.\\nAgain, after reading the fifth act, Elizabeth Barrett\\nwrote of how she had been possessed by **Luria,*\\nmoved and affected without the ordinary means and\\ndialect of pathos, by its calm attitude of moral\\ngrandeur Ah Domizia! would it hurt her to\\nmake her more a woman a little I wonder\\nBrowning acknowledged in reply that her special\\ncolor as he first conceived the play had faded. It\\nwas but a bright hne, and the more distinctly deep\\nthat it was so narrow. One of my half dozen words\\non my scrap of paper pro memoria was, under the\\nAct V. she loves to which I could .not bring\\nit, you see Yet the play requires it still I\\nmeant that she should propose to go to Pisa with him\\nand begin a new life. I will try and remember\\nwhat my whole character did mean it was, in two\\nwords, understood at the time by panther s beauty.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0417.jp2"}, "418": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: A Soul s\\nTragedy\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nA Soul s Tragedy iii 257 332\\nI. Topic for P apery Classworky or Private Study.\\nChiappino s Character Revealed by Circumstances.\\n(For sketch of the story, see Ca?nberwell Brozv?ii?igy\\nNotes, as given above.)\\nQueries for Investigatioji a?id Discussioji. In\\nChiappino s first conversation with Eulalia does he\\ngive the impression that he is not so much a martyr\\nto the truth as he would have Eulalia think\\nHis comparisons between Luitolfo and himself, his\\nirritation at the favors he has received from Luitolfo\\nindicate, do thev not, that his present mood is due to\\nwounded vanity rather more than to disappointment\\nat his failure to realize his high ideals.?\\nShould you say that his principal desire had been\\nto put himself above other men and make himself con-\\nspicuous for his own self-gratification instead of with\\nthe idea of bettering society t\\nDoes it seem at all probable that a man of his\\nevidently egotistical stamp would hesitate to express\\nhis love for any one upon the grounds which he\\ninforms Eulalia had deterred him Is it possible that\\nhis love for her was largely a feeling of rivalry toward", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0418.jp2"}, "419": {"fulltext": "A SOUL S TRAGEDY 385\\nhis friend On the other hand, might it be argued\\nthat his schemes for the regeneration of the State were\\nsincere, but that constant failure to achieve any suc-\\ncess, and finally the taking of his love away from him\\nby the man who seemed to succeed everywhere when\\nhe failed, and who emphasized this fact by acts of\\nfriendship lightly done, caused his patience to give\\nout, and, so, he took a natural if not very exalted\\ncomfort in regarding himself as a martyr and railing\\nagainst his best friends\\nAlthough Chiappino means to belittle Luitolfo to\\nEulaha in this talk, is it not easy to see that he\\nhas been a true friend to Chiappino, and that his\\ncharacter is that of a man prone to see good in others,\\nand who, though he does not think the government\\nperfect, believes that better results will come through\\nworking quietly and tactfully for reforms than by the\\nmethods of the revolutionist such as Chiappino uses r\\nDoes Eulalia show any signs of being affected by\\nChiappino s declaration of love to her, combined with\\nhis criticisms of Luitolfo, and his assertions that she\\ndoes not love Luitolfo\\nWhat may he said of Chiappino s argument that\\nthere s no right nor rearon in the world unless\\nlove given calls out a return of love Does Eulalia\\nseem to give credence to this remark of his by reply-\\ning that she did not know he loved her\\nChiappino s ill- humor is at its height, when Lui-\\ntolfo enters and belies all the former s ill-natured\\ncriticism by announcing that he has just killed the\\nProvost. Does Chiappino save Luitolfo and take his\\ndeed upon himself for love of Luitolfo, or because he\\nsees a chance h.ere to cover himself with glory?\\nWas Luitolfo s dazed manner due to cowardice, as\\n25", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0419.jp2"}, "420": {"fulltext": "386 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nChiappino tries to insinuate, or to the fact of the\\nnatural excitement following a deed which must in\\nitself have been most distasteful to a man of Luitolfo s\\npacific disposition\\nCould anything but his absent-mindedness have\\nexcused Luitolfo s letting himself be saved by\\nChiappino\\nFrom Eulaha s speech as she and Chiappino stand\\nthere alone awaiting the approaching populace, would\\nit appear that this last deed of Chiappino s had made\\na profound impression upon her Does she seem to\\nthink dying with this hero preferable to living with\\nLuitolfo\\nIs Chiappino at all occupied with Eulalia at this\\npoint or is he thinking only of himself as the hero\\nof the occasion\\nIf the play ended here, and Chiappino was to be\\njudged by this sacrifice of his Hfe, would the ver-\\ndict be that, in spite of his egotism and vanity, he was\\na noble fellow or that this was a crowning piece of\\negotism, and that for the sake of the notoriety of dying\\na martyr he could willingly give up life\\nNow begins the test of Chiappino s sincerity in the\\nunexpected change given to the situation by the fact\\nthat instead of the guards seeking justice upon the\\nmurderer of the Provost it is the revolted populace\\nwhich comes and which regards him as their savior.\\nChiappino knows what he ought to do, but gives a\\nreason for acting otherwise. Do you think this a\\nsincere reason, or does he evolve it in order to salve\\nhis own conscience and answer the criticism of Eula-\\nlia s eyes Or is he now, and has he always been\\ndeceived as to his own nature\\nFrom Luitolfo s conversation with the bystanders", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0420.jp2"}, "421": {"fulltext": "A SOUL S TRAGEDY 387\\nin the second act, how does it appear Chiappino has\\nbeen following up his first step in deceit From\\nLuitolfo s aside (line 205), is it made clear that\\nEulalia is in league with Ogniben to lead Chiappino\\non to reveal himself fully, and that she tells Luitolfo\\nthat Chiappino is in urgent danger, in order to find\\nout whether Luitolfo, still faithful, will immediately\\ncome to the rescue of his friend\\nLuitolfo implies (line 36) that he had received dailv\\nintelligence from some sure friend of how matters were\\nproceeding. His friend had evidently told him that\\nthe Provost was not dead, but did he know of Chiap-\\npino s ambition toward the Provostship If he had,\\nwould he have exclaimed, he must confront Chiap-\\npino and Eulalia before he can believe they have been\\nkeeping him away in order to carry out the scheme\\noutlined by the bystanders May we conclude that\\nthe friend was Eulalia, and that she has been playing\\na part with both men, in order to bring things to\\na point where it can be proved to her own and every\\none s else satisfaction that Chiappino is a fraud at\\nbottom, and that Luitolfo is the honorable, truthful\\nman\\nIn his arguments in defence of his actions does\\nChiappino still deceive himself as to his own pur-\\nposes Is he so blinded by his own egotism that he\\nreally imagines himself to be acting in a highly praise-\\nworthy manner, and that his vision has actually\\nbecome enlarged\\nHe throws off, first his principles, then his love,\\nthen his friend, and in each instance produces an\\nargument in defence of his action. Can anything be\\nsaid in favor of his first argument that if you cannot\\naccomplish your ideal of a state, it is well to use the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0421.jp2"}, "422": {"fulltext": "388 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nold methods, and through them approach a little\\nnearer the ideal Might the good of such a course\\ndepend upon the sincerity of the person following it,\\nor would it be altogether evil on account of its com-\\npromise with the ideal Is there anything to be said\\nin defence of Chiappino s argument that his concep-\\ntion of love has widened Had it really widened, or\\ndid he show himself incapable of appreciating love at\\nall in its highest and widest sense His argument for\\nthrowing off his friend shows him at his lowest\\nwhy\\nThe scene following here is a sarcastic defence of\\nChiappino s action by Ogniben. Should men be\\njudged by their promises rather than by their perform-\\nances, as Ogniben says Might it depend upon\\nwhether a man strove for his ideal sincerely and yet\\nfailed, or whether he repudiated his ideal entirely\\nLittle Bindo, for example, performed much, though\\nnot all, while Chiappino performed nothing.\\nIs Ogniben right when he says the nature that can\\nrespond to another nature at every point is the greater\\nof the two\\nIs he truly carrying out Chiappino s principles\\nwhen he advises him to give the best of himself to his\\nlove\\nIs Ogniben right when he says that differences con-\\nsist more in the form of expression of a truth than in\\nits essence This, however, does not apply to\\nChiappino s case, for is there not a fundamental differ-\\nence between government through the consent of the\\ngoverned, and government through the authority of\\nthe governor Could they be called different expres-\\nsions of the same truth\\nIs there a certain amount of truth in Ogniben s", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0422.jp2"}, "423": {"fulltext": "A SOUL S TRAGEDY 389\\ncontention that progress comes in the long run through\\nthe opposition to progress as well as through those\\nwho seek to change the present system of things\\nDoes the fact that you recognize how your antagonist\\nis helping things on excuse you from strenuous work\\non your own side, as Ogniben insinuates to Chiappino\\nChiappino catching at the bait, Ogniben lets him\\ndown gendy by declaring that a due proportion\\nshould be observed between the amount of good seen\\nin the antagonist and the greater amount to be recog-\\nnized on one s own side. How otherwise could one\\nhave an ideal\\nIs Chiappino, when he finds the emancipated slave\\nso disgusting for adopting the methods of the oppres-\\nsors, aware that he is criticising himself?\\nOgniben replies by laughing in his sleeve at the\\ndemocracy of men of genius, and ironically declares\\nthat since they pull down God, there is some hope of\\ntheir being saved at the last day because they put\\nthemselves up instead. Does Chiappino take Ogniben\\nin earnest about this\\nDuring the latter part of this conversation does\\nChiappino begin to suspect that Ogniben is fooling\\nhim r Or is he so completely fooled that he forgets\\nto defer to Ogniben and falls into his accustomed habit\\nof setthng ethical problems\\nIs it natural that when he discovers himself com-\\npletely unmasked he should have nothing to say Or\\ndoes he really hesitate when it is a question of bringing\\nLuitolfo to justice\\nWas Eulalia jusdfied for the. end she had in view\\nthe vindication of Luitolfo in misleading Chiappino\\nas she must have done By so doing would she not\\ngive Chiappino good cause for criticism of her", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0423.jp2"}, "424": {"fulltext": "390 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nAlthough Luitolf3 is admirable for his honesty and\\nfaithfulness and bravery, does he give the impression of\\nlacking the power of initiative\\nII. Topic for Paper y Classzuorky or Private Study,\\nArtistic Aspects of the Play.\\nQueries for Investigatiori and Discussion. As the\\nplay has but two acts, can it be called a drama\\nAlthough it does not follow the approved model for\\na drama, it may be said to have certain dramatic quali-\\nties for example, the first act leads up to a fine situation\\nboth scenically and spiritually. Chiappino seems to\\nreach the climax of possibilities in his character, when\\nall is suddenly changed by the unexpected action of\\nthe populace. Luitolfo is for a moment eclipsed in\\nChiappino s glory, Eulalia is for a moment dazzled.\\nIn the second act there is a parallel motive. Chiappino\\nis on the point of attaining worldly success, when\\nOgniben acts in an unexpected manner and Chiappino\\nis now eclipsed Luitolfo comes from under the cloud.\\nEulalia gives her undivided allegiance to Luitolfo.\\nThe conversations between Chiappino and Eulalia\\nand that between Chiappino and Ogniben are perhaps\\ntoo long to be thoroughly dramatic, but are they not\\nwonderfully clever as reflecting the personality of the\\nrespective characters Does the scene between Lui-\\ntolfo and the bystanders lack in dramatic effective-\\nness, yet have its own sort of effectiveness in showing\\nby slight hints what has passed during Luitolfo s\\nabsence, and in revealing further the character of the\\npopulace, of Ogniben and of Chiappino (For further\\nremarks on Ogniben, see programme The Prelate.\\nIs it fitting that the first act should be written in\\npoetic form and the second in prose form\\nIs the language of the play rich in allusions or", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0424.jp2"}, "425": {"fulltext": "A SOULS TRAGEDY 391\\npoetic imagery (See Camberwell Brownings Vol.\\nIII., Notes, p. 332.)\\nMr. Symons considers that in this play Chiappino\\nfills and possesses the scene that, of the other char-\\nacters, Eulalia is an observer, Luitolfo a foil, Ogniben\\na touchstone.\\nAlthough Eulalia does not appear much in the\\naction, do you not get the impression that she had a\\ngreat deal to do during that month in bringing Chi-\\nappino to his just deserts\\nMr. Fotheringham thinks Ogniben the true hero of\\nthe piece, and that the piece is not a play, but forcibly\\ndramatic. Ogniben is the most definite impersona-\\ntion in the dramas. The interest is in the characters\\nthe development and catastrophe are in the soul, not\\nin events, and the incidents are clearly invented to\\npresent this.\\nWhile there are other just as definite impersonations\\nas Ogniben, may it be said that Brow^ning has drawn\\nno other character so full of cool, cynical humor allied\\nw^ith intellectual subtlety", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0425.jp2"}, "426": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies In a\\nBalcony\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nIn a Balcony v loi 302\\nTopic for Paper Classzuorky or Private Study.\\nThe Relation of the Characters to the Crisis.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. What\\nstarts the action in In a Balcony Asking\\nthe Queen for consent to Norbert s marriage with\\nConstance Or is it the mode of asking her as-\\nsent which gave rise to the difficulties of the second\\nsituation, and thence to the tragic cHmax\\nThere are three distinct situations in this little play.\\nThe first is brought out in the opening love-scene\\nbetween Norbert and Constance the second, in the\\nQueen s interview with Constance the third, in the\\nrelations of the Queen and the lovers, leading directly\\nto the coming of the guard and to the lovers last\\nkiss. How are these three situations made to in-\\nfluence one another successively\\nIs there much that is necessary for the auditor to\\nknow of what took place before the scene opens in\\norder to understand the story What is it, and how\\nis knowledge of it conveyed Why should Con-\\nstance tell Norbert what he knows as well as she,\\nthat he is minister, the Que n s favorite, having done", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0426.jp2"}, "427": {"fulltext": "IN A BALCONY 393\\na wonderful year s work, etc. (lines 51\u00e2\u0080\u009462)? Is\\nthis a natural part of her speech for her present aim\\nWhat else comes out revealing the situation\\nWhat share of responsibility has each of the three\\ncharacters in the issue\\nDid the wish of Constance for Norbert s future\\nworldly success mean that she did not want him to\\nmarry her at all Her speech (lines 19-38) may be\\nconstrued how that she loves him so much that\\nshe does not wish to handicap his brilliant future by\\nhaving him give her an unnecessary name Did she\\nwant him to marry the Queen Did she prefer, at\\nleast, their long-planned chance-meetings, deep\\ntelegraphs, etc. to marriage? Or did she simply\\nfear to give up this secret but assured mutual love for\\na mere name at too great a risk Does she therefore\\nonly desire him so diplomatically to manage his\\nrequest for her of the Queen that it shall not entail\\nupon him any loss of distinction\\nShe claims that she loves the Queen and under-\\nstands her, and that she can be generous but not so\\neasily just. Does she understand herself as well, and\\nhow does her dictum that women hate a debt as men\\na gift apply to her own self here Does she want\\nto repay the Queen for her justice in taking her\\nup because she was the Queen s kinswoman and if\\nshe had less consciousness of that as a debt, would she\\nhave been more direct in her policy now\\nIs she right in saying that if she could do the ask-\\ning she could manoeuvre it cleverly In that case\\nis the tragedy to follow all Norbert s fault for his\\nclumsy management Or hers for having a crooked\\npolicy Or is it most hers for intervening and over-\\nruling another sort of nature to do her way Is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0427.jp2"}, "428": {"fulltext": "394 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nindirect management the besetting sin of women\\nFrom this and the kindred feminine tendency to self-\\nsacrifice, does the fault of Constance come which now\\nstarts the tragedy\\nBut ought Norbert to have consented to adopt her\\nway Is it natural for men to take ruling from a\\nwoman in this way (lines 330-338) when they\\nwould in no other more rational way be persuaded to\\na given view\\nIf such self-sacrifice and indirect influence as\\ncharacterizes Constance s action are usual with\\nwomen, has social life culdvated this in them till it\\nhas become second nature, or is it instinctive Should\\nit be reformed Can it be\\nDoes the Queen prove to be what Constance thinks\\nshe is\\nShe comes, first of all, after the mistaken inter-\\nview with Norbert, to Constance, ready not to credit\\nher hopes of his love till Constance has spoken.\\nWhy does she appeal first to Constance Is this\\nwise and clear-sighted, and also ajffectionate, loyal,\\nand straightforward\\nWhen Constance then responds as she does to the\\nQueen s trust, the tragedy is let loose. She could\\nhave done all she had done without doing the Queen\\nthe wrong of misleading her here. Or can anything\\nbe said in defence of her reply She could have with-\\ndrawn from her course here this opportunity having\\nbeen given her. Why does she not For Norbert s\\nsake How far had she a right to mislead another\\nfor the sake of the man she loved How far had\\nshe a right to commit him to what was not true for\\nthe sake of his material success Is this reply of\\nConstance s the crisis of the foregoing action", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0428.jp2"}, "429": {"fulltext": "IN A BALCONY 395\\nPerhaps Constance is obtuse here, and does not\\ntake it in that the Queen has been misled. If so\\nher **True is stupid rather than cruel, to the\\nQueen at least. Judging from Constance s words\\nduring the rest of the scene with the Queen, should\\nit be considered that she was aware of where her\\npolicy was now leading Is her surprise only due\\nto the revelation of the Queen s fervid heart Was\\nit this only the Queen s love which she had not\\ncounted upon\\nWhat is the worth of Constance s He shall\\n(Hne 581) Has the Queen so revealed the strength\\nof soul to love within her, that Constance is really\\nabashed by her own proved inferiority and feels that\\nthis nature has indeed regal rights Or does she\\nonly pity her?\\nWhat concern for Norbert has she here Is she\\nreally lacking in sincere love for him Is her re-\\nnunciation of him the product of mixed motives,\\nself-sacrifice both for his sake and the Queen s, joined\\nwith the knowledge that she already has his love,\\nwhich nothing can take from her, and that she can\\nwell afford not to have everything, since she has so\\nmuch Is her decision, then, noble and magnani-\\nmous, as has been said, marked by that altruism\\nof motherhness which is the inherent trait in all\\ngood women Or is it the decision of a radi-\\ncally insincere and inconstant nature, as has also\\nbeen said Or rather is it the natural decision of a\\nmore immature yet perhaps also more complex\\nnature than that of either Norbert or the Queen,\\nand of a nature, moreover, whose dependent posi-\\ntion in life and at the court necessarily made it a\\nless self-poised and masterly nature than either of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0429.jp2"}, "430": {"fulltext": "396 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntheirs, but one even more prone to manage to have\\nits way r\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2Constance, says Mr. Wedmore (as quoted by Mr.\\nSymons), is a character peculiarly wily for goodness,\\ncuriously rich in resource for unalloyed and inexperi-\\nenced virtue. Mr. Symons adds his own view of\\nher love, which he thinks was true and intense up to\\nthe measure of her capacity but her nature was, in-\\nstinctively, less outspoken and truthful than Norbert s,\\nmore subtle, more reasoning. At the critical moment\\nshe is seized by a whirl of emotions, and, with very\\nfeminine but singularly unloverHke instinct, she re-\\nsolves, as she would phrase it, to sacrifice herself not\\nseeing that she is insulting her lover by the very notion\\nof his accepting such a sacrifice. Her character has\\nnot the pure and steadfast nobility of Norbert s, but it\\nis truly devoted and very human. The Queen, un-\\nlike Constance, but like Norbert, is simple and single\\nin nature. She is a tragic and intense figure, at once\\npathetic and terrible. The part allotted to her is as\\nvivid, poignant, and affecting as words can make it.\\n1 am not aware that the peculiarly pregnant motive\\nthe hidden longing for love in a starved and stunted\\nnature, clogged with restrictions of state and ceremony,\\nharassed and hampered by circumstances, and by the\\nweight of advancing years the passionate longing\\nsuddenly met, as it seems, with reward, and breaking\\nout into a great flame of love and ardour, only to be\\nrudely and finally quenched I am not aware that\\nthis motive has ever elsewhere been worked out in\\ndramatic poetry. As here developed, it is among the\\ngreat situations in literature.\\nOf Norbert Mrs. Alice Kent Robertson writes {Poet-\\nlore^ Vol. II., pp. 310-314, June, 1890): He", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0430.jp2"}, "431": {"fulltext": "IN A BALCONY 397\\nis an exceptional man in this that love and not ambi-\\ntion is his ruling motive. Through the intricacies\\nof state-craft [he] has worked his way, keeping one\\naim in view retaining his simplicity and integrity,\\nand finally through love alone, is enticed to a mode\\nof action foreign to his nature. Not a brilliant\\nman this, perhaps, but what is better, a purposeful\\none the advocate of truth as the strong thing,\\nhe illumines by its steady beam the sinuous path of\\nhuman endeavor, thereby cheering the heart and re-\\nviving one s hope of the heroic. Constance is the\\ncharacter upon which discussion centres, because so\\nvery human, therefore complex, therefore interesting.\\nHer critics are too eager to prove her either\\ngood or bad, drawing too arbitrary an ethical line\\nthrough her fascinatingly complex personality. She is\\nneither saint nor sinner, but, like a large proportion\\nof the human race, compounded of both. Human\\nnature should first be interesting, says Matthew\\nArnold. Whatever may be said for or against Con-\\nstance she meets this requirement.\\nBut does Constance grow in stature and in capacity\\nfor love of a riper sort, like that of Norbert and the\\nQueen in the course of the final scene with them\\nThrough what steps does she attain to this climax of\\nher capacity for love What does she mean when\\nNorbert returns by telling him she is his now^ and\\nnot until now, that, before, he was hers\\nDoes Norbert understand her present mood till\\nthe Queen enters and the dialogue reveals it How\\nlarge a share does the Queen have in this dialogue and\\nin ridding the situation of its difficulties before she\\nleaves Is her silence, from the close of her reply to\\nNorbert after being directly appealed to by him, a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0431.jp2"}, "432": {"fulltext": "398 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmagnificently significant dramatic effect, because so\\ntrue to nature r Or is it too true for art, giving not\\nenough chance for the actress of the part to make\\nknown to an audience her revulsion of feeling, from\\nwhich the tragic conclusion springs Should she\\nhave been made to swoon Why not Or to say\\nsome terse word What assistance has Browning lent\\nthe facial expression and attitude, which must be the\\nactress s only means of interpreting her feeling here,\\nin Norbert s words (hne 885) and is this trifling\\nobservation clew enough to what is passing within\\nthe Queen s dizzy silence?\\nDo Norbert and Constance anticipate what the\\nQueen s silent departure is presently to mean for\\nthem\\nCan the Queen be blamed for the tragedy\\nMast personal love always be selfish Is this what\\nConstance learns Or is it that it must be individual,\\nand take no liberties with the natures of other indi-\\nvidual souls, either for love s sake or for pity\\nIs the choice of imagery, the fluency of the blank\\nverse, such as to fit this little dramatic episode with\\nespecial harmony", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0432.jp2"}, "433": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies Childe\\nRoland\\nChilde Roland\\nCompare Prospice\\nPage\\nVol. Text\\nNote\\niv 277\\nV 217\\n398\\n314\\nTopic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Mood and Symbolism of Childe Roland s Quest.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. In the\\nstory of this knight s quest are the incidents shadowy\\nand indefinite, or are they realistic\\nIs there any picture in the series portraying the\\nstages of his progress from beginning to end of the\\npoem which is not visually vivid Do you derive\\ndefinite particulars as to shape, color, quality, sur-\\nroundings, and associations\\nYet does this graphically presented journey at any\\npoint make you feel that it should be taken as a literal\\nnarrative of events that once really occurred\\nAnd, on the other hand, while it is not to be taken\\nas an actual journey, although all its scenes are sharply\\noutlined to the eye, do you feel, either, that these\\nqualities of definiteness make it present an intellectually\\ndistinct conception to the eve of the mind\\nYet are not the scenes of the poem as vivid to you\\nemotionally as they are visually\\nIf this is the effect of the poem on you, namely,\\nto see its incidents and feel them vividly, but neither", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0433.jp2"}, "434": {"fulltext": "400 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nto see them intellectually with unmistakable definite-\\nness and logical coherence, nor to conceive of them as\\nactual occurrences, should you not conclude that the\\nartistic design of the poem is to present images awaken-\\ning sensations and impressions, instead of thoughts or\\nfacts, and in this insensible way to convey the mood\\nand inspirational atmosphere of a series of personal\\nspiritual experiences tending toward a climax of as-\\npiration in Childe Roland s will\\nWhat do you think of the hoary cripple of the\\nopening stanza Need he be taken as an allegorical\\nfigure representing the sceptic in religion, the cynic of\\nlove, the genius of the materialistic nineteenth century,\\nthe herald of death or disease, a tempter to agnosti-\\ncism or atheism, or vivisectionist medical science or\\nanv other particular allegorical type among the many\\nsuch emblematic ideas suggested, so much as an ex-\\nternal embodiment of the hero s inward feeling\\nIs all the imagery here just as much a token of the\\nspeaker s mental attitude as the air-drawn dagger is of\\nMacbeth s, when it marshalled him the way that he\\nwas going\\nIs the artistic usefulness of the vivid picturing here,\\ntherefore, to induce the right impression of Childe\\nRoland s mood of imperturbable disillusionment in the\\nface of which he sets out on the ominous plain to end\\nhis quest for the Round Tower\\nInstead of this undertaking being mistaken, sinful,\\nor weak, as it has been assumed to be in order to\\nmake it suit the various allegorical interpretations, is it\\nnot brave, intrepid to the last degree\\nDoes it not make the whole idea of the quest in-\\nconsistent if it is supposed from the outset to be one\\nwhich ought not to have been undertaken And is", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0434.jp2"}, "435": {"fulltext": "CHILDE ROLAND 401\\nso persistent a pursuit of the Tower, as a chosen quest,\\nreckless of risk, disdainful of hatred, the attitude of a\\nweakling, a self-indulgent spiritless soul\\nIs the presentation of views of human nature in the\\npoem, the effect upon the sick man (lines 25\u00e2\u0080\u009436)\\nof his friends taking him for as good as dead already,\\nthe memories of school-fellows turned to for cheer\\n(lines 85\u00e2\u0080\u0094103), becoming a mockery, a presenta-\\ntion of relative value to the hero s mood, rather than\\nof intrinsic value in the story The mood of deso-\\nlation within him, the subjective renunciation of\\ncherished illusions in preference to a cheat, are\\nthese what they portend\\nThe presentation of Nature, too, growing as it\\ndoes from the merely barren to the disgustingly\\nhideous, from the oppressively monotonous to the\\nsuddenly sinister, brutal, and cruel, the alternately\\nsickening, unmeaning, and malicious, is all this\\nsignificant of the successive outlooks of one aware of\\nall life s disheartenments and mocking contradictions\\nwho is yet bent upon testing all to the full, without\\nswerving from the course\\nDoes the final scene depict a mood of failure and\\nwarning to others, then, or of spiritual victory and\\nincitement to others\\nWhy did he address his quest from the first to the\\nTower, if merely to find it meant disaster Why had\\nhe spent a lite in training for the sight (line 180)\\nIs the proper end of his quest, then, to attest human\\ncapacity, ta win a sense of energy from the most\\npoignant comprehension of what despair and failure\\nmean for all humanity and has meant to its chosen\\nheroes One proof in his own person, then, of\\nhuman valor to withstand such spiritual fatalism would\\n26", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0435.jp2"}, "436": {"fulltext": "402 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nredeem the despair of all his faltering predecessors and\\nbear witness to all men of the ability of humankind.\\nIs this what Childe Roland did as he set the slug-\\nhorn to his lips\\nWill any more specific meaning so perfectly suit\\nthe poem and satisfy so many readers that it may be\\naccepted as its complete purport as consistently and\\nunanimously, for example, as the allegory of Bunyan s\\nPilgrim s Progress suits that graphic but unmis-\\ntakably allegorical journey\\nDo any of the following theories satisfy the dtmands\\nthe poem makes upon your sympathy\\nMr. Kirkman, at one of the early meetings of the\\nLondon Browning Society, considered that Childe\\nRoland was suggested by the ballad of Burd Ellen\\nreferred to in Shakespeare, but had an allegorical\\naim. For him it was the quintessence of cultured\\nthought upon death a continuance of the old\\nBallad Romance of Childe Roland found in\\nR. Jamieson s Illustrations of Northern Antiquities\\na few strong shreds of the traditional romance as\\nwarp woven in with his own wondrously\\nsubtle and consistent woof Childe Roland\\nmay very probably have more than one meaning one it\\nmust have, and that one must needs be something in\\nhuman experience. There are overwhelming\\nreasons for concluding that this poem describes after the\\nmanner of an allegory the sensations of a sick man very\\nnear to death. Browning, who has thrown his whole\\nindividuality into so many varieties of human life and\\ndevelopment of souls, throws himself with all the\\nplacid almost unsuspected might of his most subtle\\ngenius into the final stage of human development.\\nThere is the most close resemblance between Pros-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0436.jp2"}, "437": {"fulltext": "CHILDE ROLAND 403\\npice and Childe Roland. They are constructed\\nupon the same keynote. One might be called a pro-\\nlogue to the other. Of all subjects of thought\\nwhich combine the lights of science and religion we\\nneed healthy thought on Death. Physiologists give\\nus the physical aspect of it divines for the most\\npart retain the erroneous view of it as the king of\\nterrors, ignoring it as the necessary result of organiza-\\ntion. The moral aspect of it is reduced neither to\\nmoral system, to peace, nor to practicability. The\\ndeath of the soul is altogether confounded with the\\nphysical dissolution of the body. This poem is the\\nonly philosophical account of death free from the poor\\nperishable stubble of conventional phraseology. (Lon-\\ndon Browning Society Papers, Part III., pp. *2l-*24.)\\nTreating of Browning s Childe Roland and its\\nDanish source, M. Sears Brooks follows a similar\\ntrack, finding a moral suggestion in the Dark Tower of\\nthe unknown invisible world which is nearer than we\\nthink. Do not the crippled intelligences of this\\nworld inspire us with doubt even while pointing in the\\nright direction After a life spent in training for\\nthe sight, he sees the Tower only at the moment of\\ndissolution. The fear of death and the bitterness of\\ndeath.is past. He set the slug-horn to his lips, and\\ndauntless blew the note of victory I Who but Brown-\\ning could lead us thus to the gates of the Eternal\\nThe spiritual conception of the quest, call it fancy or\\nwhat not, with which Browning has clothed this\\nthought, is indefinite and disjointed only to those who\\nfail to see in the round squat turret, blind as the\\nfool s heart, the stony riddle which vexes all the\\nworld. (Poet-/oreyVo\\\\. IV., pp. 425-428, August-\\nSeptember, 1892.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0437.jp2"}, "438": {"fulltext": "404 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nAt a meeting of the Syracuse Browning Society\\nMrs. J. L. Bagg professed the poem thoroughly\\nunsatisfactory, unless it meant an allegory as specific as\\nthis: *The hoary cripple is Hope, who deludes\\nwith false promises. The ominous tract\\nis the land where reason rules. Processes of the intel-\\nlect hide rather than reveal the Dark Tower\\nthe stronghold of the mysteries of life and death\\nthe whence, why, and whither of the soul. This\\nquest [is] the effort to solve the insoluble. The\\nBand [is] all thoughtful courageous souls who in\\nthe ages have sought for light on these problems and\\nfailed to find it He turns from the highway of\\nHope into the vast plains of imagination, specu-\\nlation, illusion. He has forsaken the safe road\\nof reality, knowledge, experience. The stiff blind\\nhorse may be Pegasus, the winged steed overworked,\\noverstrained in these fields of haze and fantasy.\\nThe sudden little river sweeping away the rem-\\nnant of reason. [So] abandonment to the un-\\nchecked fancy leads to insanity. With brake,\\nwheel, harrow he tortures himself to fix more firmly\\nhis belief in the superstitions, fancies, insanities, of his\\ndisordered vision. A great black bird, the mes-\\nsenger of the destroying angel. The plain\\nchanged to mountains. So in great crises there\\ncomes sudden disappearance of the unrealities\\nthe true appears, mountains to be scaled\\nevery-day duties done. Shall I join the\\nBand whose wail is Lost lost Am I defeated\\nbecause I cannot speak the Open Sesame that shall\\ndisclose the Dark Tower s secrets No A sluggard\\nI have been. To my lips I set my dilatory horn, sum-\\nmoning every power of my being to waken from", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0438.jp2"}, "439": {"fulltext": "CHILDE ROLAND 405\\ndreaming, to redeem the far-spent day by beifig and\\ndoing Lesson of the Poem. The secrets of\\nthe universe are not to be discovered by exercise of the\\nreason, nor reached by flights of fancy, nor duties\\nloyally done recompensed by revealment. A\\nlife of becoming, beingy and doing is not loss, nor failure,\\nthough the Dark Tower forever tantahze and\\nwithhold. (Syracuse Browning Club, pp. 11-14.)\\nTo Mrs. R. G. Gratz Allen, also, in The Journey\\nof Childe Roland, the poem tells the story of a\\npilgrim who, disregarding his first keen intuitions,\\nobeys the suggestion of the hoary deceiver at the stile,\\nand turns aside into the malarial meadow of sophistry\\nand pathless chaos, wandering hither and thither, find-\\ning himself at last surrounded by the ugly heights of\\nDoubting Castle, one more victim of Giant Despair\\nhe is fully aware of the object of the cripple.\\nHerein consists Roland s sin he chooses to be\\nled astray. The soul has lost its way and cannot\\nretrace its steps. Virtue once dethroned will\\nnever return to take her place. The soul of\\nRoland, however much it has stumbled and wandered,\\nis redeemed through [the final] shrill trumpet-blast of\\nwarning to those on the plains below.\\nThis is not challenge that were indeed mere brag-\\ngadocio. It is simply the tersest statement of an awful\\nfate given in the haste of death. It is not the heroism\\nof constant allegiance to an ideal, but rather the\\nmajesty of despair; the divine throe of benevolence.\\n{Poet-lore, Vol. II., pp. 578-585, November, 1890.)\\nIn the discussion at the London Browning Society,\\nafter Mr. Kirkman s paper on Childe Roland, Dr.\\nFurnivall said he had asked Browning if it was an\\nallegory, and in answer had on three separate occasions", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0439.jp2"}, "440": {"fulltext": "4o6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nreceived an emphatic No; that it was simply a\\ndramatic creation called forth by a line of Shakespeare s.\\nMr. Sargent had come to the conclusion that it had\\nnothing to do with death. The idea in the poet s\\nmind was suggested by the ballad, simply the\\nstory of a man setting out on an adventure who\\nfinding after great labour the result was not what he\\nexpected or hoped for, yet goes on bravely\\nfinding the work of life neither grand nor romantic, yet\\ngoes on unfalteringly. Miss Drewry looked upon\\nthe poem as an allegory of life. The Dark Tower\\nmeant Truth. Mrs. Orr, in commenting on this dis-\\ncussion, sympathized especially with Miss Drewry, and\\nheld that while Browning would deprecate the assertion\\nthat he meant in any poem something not given in his\\nwords, he would consider himself understood by any\\nmind which found in it the reflection of some crisis in\\nits own life. I have always seen in the poem\\nthe picture of a dream-like struggle in which\\ncourage is stimulated by fear and difficulties are out of\\nproportion to their visible cause, and the goal only\\neludes us to show that it was close at hand, and attain-\\nment may alike prove victory or defeat. This\\ncertainly is the mood of the poem, whatever its idea\\nmight be and there is nothing incompatible with such\\na mood in supposing that the idea of a striving after\\ntruth underlay it: for truth, as Browning describes it, is\\nalways relative and shifting and may look like a tower,\\nbut behaves like a will-o -the-wisp.\\nThe following anti-allegorical view of the poem,\\ngiven by Mr. Arlo Bates, in the Critic, May 8,\\n1886, was called out by a paraphrase of the poem by\\nMr. J. Esten Cooke, accompanied by a perplexed\\nappeal for some explanation of his query, Is the Dark", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0440.jp2"}, "441": {"fulltext": "CHILDE ROLAND\\n407\\nTower the tower of unfaith, and is the poet describ-\\ning the drift of his age The difficulty of\\nmost people who stumble over Browning seems to be\\na forgetting of the prime principle that the essential\\nquality of the highest poetry is that it says something\\nthat can be said in no other way. Poetry of the\\nhighest order has a message of which it is at\\nonce the substance and the vehicle. Therefore, how-\\never interesting an allegorical interpretation like that\\noffered by Mr. Cooke may be, it must from the nature\\nof the case be unsatisfactory. Yet it is sometimes\\npossible to give a clew that helps another into the\\npoet s mood so without meaning to analyze, to ex-\\npound, and least of all to explain a poem from which\\nI would fain keep my hands as reverently as from the\\nArk, I ask the poet s pardon for saying that to me\\nChilde Roland is the most supreme expression of\\nnoble allegiance to an ideal the most absolute\\nfaithfulness to a principle regardless of all else.\\nIneffable weariness begins the poem. Then\\nnegative objective desolation. Then subjective\\nmisery. Then a suggestion of conflict that\\nbrings an overwhelming impression that all the powers\\nof evil actively pervade the place then the Round\\nTower What does it matter what the tower signi-\\nfies whether it be this, that, or the other If the\\npoem means anything, it means, I arri sure, everything\\nin this line. The essential thing is that, after a life-\\ntime pledged to this whatever the ideal be the\\nopportunity has come after a cumulative series of dis-\\nappointments, and more than all amid an overwhelming\\nsense that failure must be certain where so many have\\nfailed where nature and unseen foes and the ghosts of\\nall his baffled comrades stand watching for his destruc-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0441.jp2"}, "442": {"fulltext": "4o8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntion, where defeat is certain and its ignominy already-\\ncried aloud by the winds of heaven. And the sub-\\nlime climax comes in the constancy of the hero.\\nThe nominal issue of the conflict is no matter, because\\nthe real issue is here with the universe against him,\\nwith the realization of all this, dauntless he gives his\\nchallenge o One cannot read it without a ting-\\nling in every fibre of his being, and a stinging doubt\\nwhether in such case he might not have been found\\nwanting. I cannot conceive of anything more com-\\nplete, more noble, more inspiring.\\nCan all the allegorical interpretations here illustrated\\nbe questioned on the score of contradicting the poem\\nitself or being self-contradictory in some way\\nWhy should the poet, if he meant to show spiritual\\nfailure or physical death, represent his hero as telling\\nhis own story Would a dead or a morally lost man\\nsurvive to tell his story in the first person In com-\\nparison with Prospice, which is evidently a **look\\nforward toward death, does the framing of this poem\\nadmit of the future tense, as that does, and the anticipa-\\ntion of the eternal life to be won from the Arch\\nFear Are there such differences between the two\\npoems -with reference, for example, to the dull\\npersistence despite imminent failure in Childe\\nRoland in contrast with the vigorous fight with an\\nanticipated fear in Prospice, to the solitude of the\\none and the glow of love over the other as to make\\nit evident that the sorer trials of the soul enduring\\nlife are painted in the one, the summoning of the\\nsenses to bridge the momentary anguish of death, in\\nthe other\\nIs the influence of Bunyan s allegory accountable\\nfor the theory of Childe Roland which makes his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0442.jp2"}, "443": {"fulltext": "CHILDE ROLAND 409\\nquest a culpable lapse into unfaith in orthodox reli-\\ngion Why should the poet call a fall from grace\\na quest\\nIs it best in one s reading of this poem to be\\ncontent with the mood which certainly can be derived\\nfrom it, without narrowing its symboHsm to any\\nexclusive train of allegorical ideas, and without foisting\\nideas upon the poet which at best must be doubtfully\\nhis Does the limitation necessary to pin its large\\nsymbolism to any particular allegory limit its beauty\\nand emotional force, and its allusional applicability to\\nuniversal exper.ence", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0443.jp2"}, "444": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: Mr. Sludge,\\n*The Medium\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nMr. Sludge, The Medium v 224 315\\nI. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Intellectual and Moral Attributes of Mr. Sludge.\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. When.\\nMr. Sludge first appears upon the scene, he is in an\\nabject state of penitence seemingly, asking forgiveness\\nof his patron for this his first fault in cheating. How\\ndoes his patron evidently receive his first excuse, that\\nhis mistake was due to the last glass of Catawba\\nSludge produces a good effect with the undeveloped\\nspirit that owes him a grudge, but counteracts the\\nimpression by bringing in his patron s sainted mother\\nagain. He finally gains control of the situation by\\npromising to gratify the curiosity of his patron, and\\nreveal the tricks of the trade in return for money and\\nsilence.\\nDoes Mr. Sludge hit a truth when he declares the\\npeople who encourage mediums are just as much to\\nblame as the mediums themselves, and that they are\\nlike birds hanging with half a claw to a perch made of\\ntheir conceit in their own opinions, being quite un-\\nconscious of the shakiness of their own perch, but\\nvery much alive to the shakiness of their neighbors*\\nperches", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0444.jp2"}, "445": {"fulltext": "MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 411\\nIn the illustrations Mr. Sludge elaborates to prove\\nthis point, does he not show a clever appreciation of\\nthe ways of humanity\\nDoes he make a pretty fair case out for David by\\nhis showing how the encouragement of the company\\ndrags the boy farther and farther along the road of\\nromancing, but that the final dive into falsehood com-\\nplete comes only when one of the company professes\\nscepticism, and David, to save all the others from\\nbeing dubbed fools, must be upheld at any cost\\nWould a doubting Thomas be likely to settle the\\nquestion in the way Mr. Sludge says, by concluding\\nthat David s tales are not any harder to swallow than\\nthose of Captain Sparks would be\\nTo the objection that David should pay the penalty\\nfor the half-lie in the first place, Mr. Sludge makes\\nthe most natural rejoinder would you in the same\\nplace have done any differently Does he succeed\\nin showing how hard it would be to confess that first\\nhalf-lie when all the influences were directed toward\\nhis not doing it\\nIs it true to human nature that people when they\\nare infatuated with an idea will excuse and over-\\nlook and palliate any facts that might upset their\\naith as Sludge represents his patrons as doing when\\nthey excuse his mistakes on the score of his being only\\na medium by means of which undeveloped spirits\\nsometimes play tricks, or else of his being merely\\nhuman, so that what the spirits say may not be per-\\nfectly expressed by him. The infatuation must be\\nvery great that would accept the Shakers Hymn in\\nG for a thirty-third sonata of Beethoven (Beethoven\\nwrote thirty-two piano sonatas). Does Sludge here\\nprobably exaggerate the credulity of his followers", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0445.jp2"}, "446": {"fulltext": "41 2\\nBROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nHe answers that objection himself by saying that\\nthe guests at a private sea?ice are not going to cast\\ndiscredit upon their host s medium any more than\\nupon his wine, but his patron interposes that they do\\ndoubt sometimes. Sludge s nimble wit is ready for\\nthis contingency, however. In that case his patrons\\nwill declare that the doubts produced a bad atmos-\\nphere for the medium. And should this argument\\nfail, there is a last resource do you think the last\\nresource proposed by Sludge would be efficacious\\nHere (line 381) Sludge gives a touching picture\\nof himself longing for truth, feeling hatred of the\\npeople who are ruining his soul does he seem to\\nhave any notion that regeneration should come through\\nhimself?\\nBut having gone so far, the step from lying to\\ncheating is easily made, especially when his patrons\\nkeep urging him to give further illustrations of his\\npower. Does this excuse him\\nHaving shown how the desire of his patrons has\\nled him on from point to point in his attempts to\\nmeet their requirements. Sludge next proceeds to\\ndivulge some of the methods by which he accomplishes\\nhis results (line 434). Does the credulity of his\\naudience also help him here\\nDoes the description he gives of the way mediums\\nget information about everybody serve fully to explain\\nall cases of so-called mind reading, as well as supposed\\ncommunications from the other world\\nHaving shown how he manages to know things\\nthat everybody would say he could not know, he\\nthen proceeds to show how, once let people accept\\nunquestioningly the imposture, it is possible to make\\nthem swallow almost anything.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0446.jp2"}, "447": {"fulltext": "MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 413\\nHe is quite right, is he not, when he objects to\\nfeeling any sort of gratitude to the people who have\\nled him into all this\\nIn his strictures upon the women who come to\\nconsult him, does he mean to insinuate that he took\\nsome liberties with them on the score that heavenly\\nmanners would be more free than those allowed on\\nearth And that he did this partly in revenge for\\nthe way they treated him, coddling him, that is,\\nonly on the ground that he was a medium\\nWhat do you think of his next argument, that he\\nbolstered up religion, and that the best way to\\nmeet the lies of the doubters is to exaggerate lies on\\nthe other side\\nMiss Stokes, in getting a Hve coal from the\\nspirit world through Sludge, has proved the existence\\nof the soul is not this a gain, even if it come by\\nmeans of cheating So thinks Sludge.\\nHe will even go farther he finds a certain pleasure in\\nthese lies for their own sake. Is this consistent with\\nhis desire for truth previously expressed (line 694)?\\nHe, however, reiterates that one does not go into\\nthe mid-bog of lying without some qualms or with-\\nout encouragement, and when the lie is discovered,\\nsuch an outcry is made that one would suppose he\\nhad been guilty of treating Miss Stokes with indignity.\\nHe asks only that justice may be done him, and the\\npart his followers have had in his fall considered.\\nIn line 732 fol. he hits at the scientific investiga-\\ntors of spiritual phenomena, then at the novelists who\\nmake use of spiritualism to embellish their stories, then\\nat the social light who uses it to make himself con-\\nspicuous and important. From Sludge s point of view,\\nare his strictures of these different classes justified", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0447.jp2"}, "448": {"fulltext": "414 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nFrom line 792 on, he proceeds to build himself up\\ninstead of tearing down his patrons. He admits all\\nhis cheating, and then proceeds to show how even\\nbehind his cheating there is a mysterious something\\nwhich he cannot comprehend, and which makes him\\nfeel that he does not do things of himself. Are the\\nsteps in this argument well taken In its application\\nto himself, however, does he not make the mistake of\\nsupposing there is a constant external interference of\\na mysterious force in the affairs of every-day life,\\ninstead of life itself being a manifestation of an under-\\nlying, constant, mysterious force\\nIs he not perfectly consistent, when he insists that\\nthe warnings he gets from stars and apple-pips are just\\nas likely to be real as his patrons more internal warn-\\nings not to go on a journey, etc.\\nIn his argument that nowadays small things have\\nbecome great, he is using a true scientific illustration, is\\nhe not And he truly presents the deductions that\\npreachers make from it, but how does he again misapply\\nit to his own case in representing himself as a child\\nDoes he make a good point when he says that\\neverybody has some unexplained occurrences in his\\nlife, and lets them remain unexplained while he\\nseizes upon such occurrences and builds a system out\\nof them How much of this latter part of the talk is\\nmeant to bolster himself up against the objection that\\nhe is too humble an instrument to have such an\\nacquaintance with the ways of the Infinite\\nHe enlarges once more (line 1280) upon the fact\\nthat he is not so sure his cheating is cheating does he\\nhere follow out an argument entirely opposed to the\\none in which he said all the lying and cheating grew\\nout of the first half-lie Now truth grows out of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0448.jp2"}, "449": {"fulltext": "MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 415\\nthe first lie. Is there any high philosophical sense in\\nwhich Sludge s dictum,\\nI tell you, sir, in one sense, I believe\\nNothing at all, that everybody can,\\nWill, and does cheat but in another sense\\n1 m ready to believe my very self\\nThat every cheat s inspired, and every lie\\nQuick with a germ of truth,\\nEven if there be any philosophical sense in which it\\nmight be said to be true, it is not a doctrine suitable\\nto ethics or the conduct of life, is it\\nHis last defence is that he makes life more agree-\\nable and more of a success to people than they can\\nmake it for themselves, and why should he be blamed,\\nany more than a poet, who tells about things that\\nnever happened He simply acts the same sort of\\nthing that they write. What is the moral difference\\nbetween a poet and a Sludge\\nWhat effect does the defence have on his patron,\\nand how does Sludge reveal the thorough degradation\\nof his character in his final attitude toward his patron\\nIt may be said that Sludge s intellectual qualities\\ninclude a penetrating observation of humanity s foibles,\\nand a wide acquaintanceship with religious and philo-\\nsophical thoughts of the century, in fact, he might\\nbe called a picker up of learning s crumbs in many\\ndirections, and, though not always getting his learn-\\ning straight, he had a wonderful, inborn facilit) for\\nillustrating all his points with graphic examples and\\napt images. Has he not also a knack for twisting any\\nphilosophical or religious opinions he knows of into\\nsophistical arguments in defence of his own practices\\nDoes this result in his saying many things that are\\nin themselves true, but which in his application of\\nthem become false", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0449.jp2"}, "450": {"fulltext": "4l6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nHis moral qualities, on the other hand, are resolva-\\nble into absolute egotism. His aim in life is to ben-\\nefit himself materially, and in order to do this he\\nmakes use of the weaknesses he sees about him, and\\nthough he despises his patrons, does not scorn their\\nhelp. In those eloquent bursts of oratory where he\\ndescribes himself as longing for the truth and even\\ngoes so far as to represent himself as sacrificing the\\nintegrity of his own soul for the benefit of society,\\nis he expressing genuine emotion, or only, after his\\nhabit, playing upon the credulity of his patron, Mr.\\nHorsefall\\nThe main proposition in his whole contention is\\nthat, suppose him to be a cheat and found out in his\\ncheating, he does not deserve the ill-treatment he gets\\nfrom society, because so many classes are tarred with\\nthe same stick, not only those who are doubting\\nand yet really anxious to be convinced of supernatural\\ncommunications, but the cold-blooded investigator\\nwho scouts everything, but enjoys the investigations\\nthe novelist or poet who scouts, but caters to the\\npublic taste for mystery the diner-out who disbeheves,\\nbut makes it an interesting fad in conversation.\\nWhile there is certainly truth in what he says and\\nhe really teaches a good moral lesson to these various\\nclasses in society to the effect that it would be better\\nfor them not to deceive themselves, and better for\\nthem to have larger charity for men Hke Sludge, does\\nhe show his moral obliquity by never applying the\\nlesson to himself, and by considering himself justified in\\ncheating because others cheat To excuse your own\\nsins on the ground that other people sin, is the lowest\\npossible form of defence, is it nor\\nIn the second part of his defence it might be intel-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0450.jp2"}, "451": {"fulltext": "MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 417\\nlectual obliquity instead of moral obliquity which\\nmakes Sludge fail to see the distinctions between a\\nwide application and an egotistical application of the\\ntruths of the mysteries of the universe. Did he really\\nbelieve that he received warnings from stars and apple-\\npips, or was he again giving his patron something\\nwhich he thought would tell in his favor r\\nAside from the particular type of character under\\nscrutiny in this poem, can it be said to be a fair\\npresentation of spiritism as it is now understood or\\ndoes it reflect the poet s own absolute disbelief in any\\nspiritualistic phenomena whatever\\nIs it not a clever stroke of genius on Browning s\\npart to make a medium damn the w^hole spiritualistic\\nmovement, in the course of his defence of his ow n\\npractices\\nThis experience of Browning s own was recorded\\nin the London Spectator thirty years ago (Jan.\\n30, 1869), by a Mr. James Know^les Mr.\\nRobert Browning, of whose keen study of the\\nsubject his poem of Mr. Sludge the Medium would\\nbe alone sufficient proof, tells me that when he was\\nin Florence, some years since, an Italian nobleman\\n(a Count Ginnasi of Ravenna), visiting at Florence,\\nwas brought to his house, without previous introduc-\\ntion, by an intimate friend. The Count professed to\\nhave great mesmeric or clairvoyant faculties, and de-\\nclared, in reply to Mr. Browning s avowed scepticism,\\nthat he would undertake to convince him somehow^\\nor other of his powers. He then asked Mr. Browning\\nwhether he had anything about him then and there\\nwhich he could hand to him, and which was in any\\nway a relic or memento. This, Mr. Browning\\nthought, was because he habitually wore no sort of\\n27", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0451.jp2"}, "452": {"fulltext": "41 8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntrinket or ornament, not even a watch-guard, and\\nmight, therefore, turn out to be a safe challenge.\\nBut it so happened that by a curious accident he was\\nthen wearing under his coat-sleeves some gold wrist-\\nstuds to his shirt, which he had quite recently taken\\ninto use, in the absence (by mistake of a sempstress)\\nof his ordinary wrist-buttons. He had never before\\nworn them in Florence or elsewhere, and had found\\nthem in some old drawer where they had lain forgot-\\nten for years. One of these gold studs he took out\\nand handed to the Count, who held it in his hand\\nawhile, looking earnestly in Mr. Browning s face,\\nand then said as if much impressed, C e qualche\\ncos a che mi grida nelP orrecchio, Uccismie, uccisi-\\nofie! There is something here which cries\\nout in my ear, Murder, murder\\nAnd truly [says Mr. Browning] those very studs\\nwere taken from the dead body of a great-uncle of\\nmine, who was violently killed on his estate in St.\\nKitt s, nearly eighty years ago. These, with a gold\\nwatch and other personal objects of value, were pro-\\nduced in a court of justice as proof that robbery had\\nnot been the purpose of the slaughter, which was\\neffected by his own slaves. They were then trans-\\nmitted to my grandfather, who had his initials engraved\\non them, and wore them all his life. They were\\ntaken out of the night-gown in which he died, and\\ngiven to me, not my father. I may add, that I tried\\nto get Count Ginnasi to use his clairvoyance on this\\ntermination of ownership also and that he ?iearly\\nhit upon something like the fact, mentioning a bed in\\na room but he failed in attempting to describe the\\nroom situation of the bed with respect to windows\\nand door. The occurrence of my great-uncle s mur-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0452.jp2"}, "453": {"fulltext": "MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 419\\nder was known only to myself, of all men in Florence,\\nas certainly was also my possession of the studs.\\nMrs. Orr says that Browning affirmed, in a letter of\\nJuly 21, 1883, that the account is correct in every\\nparticular, but he added these significant words My\\nown explanation of the matter has been that the shrewd\\nItalian felt his way by the involuntary help of my\\nown eyes and face.\\nWriting on the subject of Mr. Sludge and\\nModern Spiritualism, in Poet-lore (Vol. III., pp.\\n84\u00e2\u0080\u009486, February, 1891), Dr. Morris Jastrow says:\\nThat Sludge is for the poet the type of the spirit\\nmedium, and not merely a worthless individual who\\nhappens to be in the spiritualists camp, is clearly\\nindicated by the title Mr. Sludge The Medium.\\nTo my mind it is equally beyond dispute that the\\ninterpretation of modern spiritualism which results\\nfrom the portrayal of Sludge is the one which Brown-\\ning himself accepts, or at least accepted at the time\\nof writing the poem. For him, modern spiritualism\\nis merely another term for fraud and deception.\\nIt consists of two parties the foolish who are\\ndeceived, and the scoundrels who practise deceit. In\\naccounting for its existence, he takes into consideration\\nbut one factor, the desire of weak natures for mys-\\ntery. The supply of mediums is regulated simply by\\nthe demand for them.\\nThis view I hold to be both superficial and un-\\nsatisfactory. No great movement, whether in the\\nsocial, political, or religious field, can be explained by\\na small motive, and dishonesty and fraud are small\\nmotives. The fraud and deception are attendant\\ncircumstances they are not the causes of the move-\\nment, and as little as they can account for the rise of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0453.jp2"}, "454": {"fulltext": "42.0 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nspiritualism, can they answer the question as to its\\nvogue. There are two reasons, it seems to me,\\nfor the rise and spread of modern spiritualism, the\\none of a general character, the other of a special.\\nThe general one, which applies to other ages as\\nwell as our own, is the proneness of the human mind\\nfor mysticism. The other reason of a special\\ncharacter as applying more particularly to our own\\nage, is the strong reasoning spirit prevailing among\\nus.\\nDoes not Sludge s argument go to prove Mr.\\nJastrow s first general reason Does he imply that\\nit is the desire to be deceived that gives rise to spirit-\\nualism Or that it is the proneness for mystery in\\nthe human mind which makes it easy to deceive\\npeople, and helps on the growth of fraud In fact.\\nBrowning and Dr. Jastrow are really of one mind as\\nto the nature of the initiative cause, are they not\\n(For other excellent studies of Sludge, see Mr.\\nSludge The Medium, by F. B. Hornbrooke, in\\nBoston Browning Society Papers, and on Mr.\\nSludge The Medium/ by Edwin Johnson, in\\nLondon Browning Society Papers, Part VII.)\\nII. Topic for Paper y Classzuork, or Private Study.\\nStyle of the Poem.\\nQueries for hivestigation a id Discussion. The\\npoem is, of course, a monologue, so that whatever\\nglimpses we get of Mr. Horsefall and the other\\npatrons come through Sludge, usually in quotation\\nmarks. Do you get a vivid impression as to the\\npersonalities he thus introduces\\nAn interesting feature of his style is his direct way\\nof introducing supposable scenes and conversations, in\\nillustration of the points he is making in his argument,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0454.jp2"}, "455": {"fulltext": "MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 42I\\nfor example, the imaginary David and his encourageis.\\nCaptain Sparks with his war tales, the hard-headed\\nlavi^yer Humgruffin. The scene in which he figures\\n(line 450 fol.) is quite complicated. Mr. Horsefall\\nis supposed to take Sludge s place and try some\\nspiritualistic feats upon Humgruffin, and fails, which\\nproves, of course, that Sludge has supernatural powers,\\nfor if they detect the spurious character of the writing\\nin one case, they could detect it in the case of Sludge,\\nas a lady present in this imaginary scene is represented\\nas observing, and to whom Sludge replies outside, not\\ninside, the scene. Do these illustrations, into which\\nSludge falls and falls out with no warning, make the\\nstyle confusing, until the reader becomes perfectly\\nfamiliar with Sludge s methods of speech\\nAnother interesting point about his language is its\\ncolloquialness. It is full of slang and hints of allu-\\nsions, for example, very like a whale, which he\\nprobably did not know was in Hamlet, and ref-\\nerences sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect.\\nIt has been objected that Browning made a slip in\\nmaking him say V notes, for the Americans call\\nthem **V s. Otherwise, has the poet made his\\nAmerican allusions correctly\\nDo all these points in style give atmosphere and\\ndramatic truthfulness to the portraiture of Sludge\\nObjections have been made to this poem, on the\\nscore that it contained no musical lines and that it\\nwas too dialectical to be poetical would you answ^er\\nto this, that though the style is not in itself musical,\\nit is in perfect harmony with the subject of the poem,\\nand if it were any more musical we should not see\\nSludge as we do And that the dialectics are not in-\\ntroduced as an end, but as a means for showing up", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0455.jp2"}, "456": {"fulltext": "422 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nSludge through his manner of turning argument to\\naccount\\nMr. Edwin Johnson says Looking at the piece\\nas a whole, the language and the structure seem to be\\nquite what they ought to be, and we don t want any-\\nthing altered.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0456.jp2"}, "457": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: The Ring\\nAND THE Book\\nThe Ring and the Book Vols, vi., vii., Text and Notes\\nI. Topic for Paper, Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nThe Plot of Incident. (Book I.)\\nThe Introductory Essay in Camberwell Brownifig\\n(Vol. VI., pp. vii-xxxvi) and the digests prefixed\\nto each division of the poem give suggestions on\\nthis and the following Topics and Queries. Compare,\\nalso, the Raw Material of The Ring and the\\nBook (Appendix, Vol. VII., pp. 331-341).\\n(Queries for hwestigatio?i and Discussion, Is the\\nplot of incident or the plot of character of greater\\ninterest to modern readers\\nIs it a mistake on Browning s part to relieve the\\ninterest in the plot of incident at once by telling the\\nstory in Book I. Or is it a sign of his skill, the poem\\nbeing designed in this respect so as to enrich the plot\\ninterest by making it more complex, and to throw the\\ninterest more upon the relation of the characters to the\\nstory\\nWhy does Browning, in drawing his analogy be-\\ntween the way in which the pure gold was hammered,\\nfiled, embossed, and made a ring by use of an alloy,\\nand the way in which the pure crude fact preserved in\\nhis old yellow book will be wrought into a story by\\nthe use of fancy, compare the bare fact with the goJd,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0457.jp2"}, "458": {"fulltext": "424 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nand the fancy with the alloy Is this a strange pro-\\nceeding for a poet? Should he not have let fancy\\nstand for the more precious material instead of mere\\nalloy\\nIs his idea that the office of fancy is to make pos-\\nsible the revitalization of the facts, and that, this done,\\nthe fancy is like the alloy, an alien element, separable\\nfrom that which it has shaped and set in order, the\\nreality itself, just as it all took place, now left intact\\nand whole (See Introductory Essay, p. x.)\\nIs this a sound conception of the relation of the\\npoet s imagination to facts and life Is the convinc-\\ning presentment of Hfe the proper aim of the poet and\\nthe artist\\nIs this the reason why a work of art in which the\\nart is prominent, so that it is more noticeable than that\\nwhich it portrays, is not artistic And is this why a\\nhistoric work in which facts predominate over the life\\nthat made them is not so true as a work of art dealing\\neven with inaccurate historic material\\nDoes such a view of the office of imagination de-\\ngrade genius, or give it endless room to ennoble life\\nWill one proof of Browning s success in rekindling\\nthe life locked up between the covers of his yellow\\nbook be that the later divisions of this poem will in-\\ncrease our interest over that felt in this first book, in\\nwhich he himself tells us just how he fancies all took\\nplace, so that the story will seem even more alive\\napart from his relation to it\\nIs this why an argument or mere recital of what\\nhappened is duller than a story of hozv it happened,\\nzvho made it happen, etc.\\nWhat light does this throw on the comparative\\nmerits of a plot of incident and a plot of character", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0458.jp2"}, "459": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 425\\nWhat does Browning mean by lines 1323-1356?\\nThat his design will be to incite in his readers some-\\nthing of the pleasure of the historic sense, by putting\\nthem in sympathy with real life of a long time ago,\\nand to do this in no unreal or merely romantic manner,\\nbut to indicate the continuity of the modern life with\\nthat past life, accomplishing this real feat in the cloud-\\nland of the imagination This, he adds, he might do\\nby a selective process. Does he choose rather not\\none aspect, but many different points of view with\\ndesign from the first, as these lines show (See In-\\ntroductory Essay, p. viii.)\\nWhat does he gain by this method Higher art,\\nmore truth, fuller life\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classworh, or Discussion.\\nThe Typical Group of Characters Half-Rome, or\\nThe Married Man s Opinion. (Book II.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is the\\nspeaker who represents Half-Rome typical or indi-\\nvidual\\nWhat sort of pubhc opinion does he represent in\\nspeaking of Violante and Pietro, Guido and Pompiha,\\nand the escape with Caponsacchi\\nHow does he show bias, and what evidence of it\\ncan you point out\\nDoes his desire to be gazette of the news to the\\nman he is gossiping with, and to influence his opinion,\\nlead you to guess anything of his story\\nDo his portraits of old Luca Cini and the young\\ncurate Carlo reveal humor and knowledge of human\\nnature\\nDoes he show shrewdness in his way of telling\\nhow the murder came to pass Is his narration to be\\ndepended upon for some qualities, if not altogether for", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0459.jp2"}, "460": {"fulltext": "26 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe facts Is his cynical picture, for example, of the\\ncold comfort Gaido s friends proffer him lifelike\\nWhat is his moral outlook upon life Is his talk\\nso skilfully contrived by the poet as to give you a clew\\nto what his judgment in such a case as this is worth\\nWhat is his view of domestic lynch law\\nIn considering that the civil process of justice is a\\nblundering and inadequate way to cure such wrongs\\nas he supposes to be Guido s, is he altogether ill-\\nadvised Is his alternative proposition to make every\\nhusband his own judge and executioner one that\\nthrows light on the difficulty or on his own character\\nand personal grievances\\nIn his character and point of view is he historically\\ntrue to a full half of public opinion in the seventeenth\\ncentury?\\nIs his distinction between the wrongs done a man\\npersonally and those done him as to his property and\\nthe capacity of the law to redress them, well taken\\nHow would it apply to-day in comparison with then\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Ciasszuork, or Discussion.\\nThe Typical Group of Characters The Other Half-\\nRome, or the Bachelor s Opinion. (Book III.)\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. What\\nare the main differences between the views of the\\ncharacters in this murder case held by Half-Rome and\\nby the Other Half- Rome\\nIs the speaker who represents the Other Half-Rome\\na younger man than the one whose view has just been\\nheard Or is he less of a conservative and more the\\nliberal of his day and generation\\nIs his sentimental view of Pompilia due to his bach-\\nelorhood or to his general social outlook\\nIs he more charitable than Half-Rome toward", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0460.jp2"}, "461": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 4.27\\nMolinisin as well as toward Violante Is his theory\\napplied to the Cardinal that Trust s politic, suspi-\\ncion does the harm (line 484), one that explains\\nhis own easy-going disposition, and points the contrast\\nbetween the portion of public opinion he represents\\nand that represented by Half- Rome\\nIs he justified in thinking that Violante s confession\\ndid not right her falsity, and that some less superficial\\nway of setting wrong right needed to be devised\\nIn what opinions of the way this murder came\\nabout and of its principals do these two speakers agree\\nDo they regard the nobility and the Roman priest-\\nhood in the same way\\nHow does the second speaker s view of the justice\\nof legal processes agree with that of the first speaker\\nWhat different construction does this second speaker\\nput upon the letters, both the first one to the Abate and\\nthe others that purported to pass between Caponsacchi\\nand Pompilia Which construction is the more\\nconvincing\\nIs the evidence cited by the second speaker given\\nmore circumstantially, as if he had followed the case\\nmore closely, depending less upon hearsay and his own\\nconjecture, than the other Is his monologue more\\ndramatic, giving the story each one has to tell Is the\\nfirst monologue more descriptive\\nWhat contrasts do the two present in the way in\\nwhich they speak of Pompilia s motherhood, and\\nin the inferences they draw from Guido s calling\\nCaponsacchi outside the door\\nWhat is the moral outlook of this speaker with\\nreference to Guido s right to discipline his wife to\\nthe Governor s and the Archbishop s friendly pre-\\nsumptions in favor of the husband and, finally.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0461.jp2"}, "462": {"fulltext": "428 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nto the conclusion that Guido was the real enemy of\\nsociety\\nHas the poet contrived to throw into these mono-\\nlogues a lifelike air of eager excitement over the moot-\\npoints and of delight in having so extraordinary a case\\nto talk about\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Discussio?i.\\nThe Typical Group Tertium Quid, or the Aristocratic\\nObserver. (Book IV.)\\nQueries for Inz estigatio?i and Discussion. Is the\\nconclusion justifiable that the dispassionateness of\\nTertium Quid is no more trustworthy than the parti-\\nsanship of the others\\nIs the conclusion that dispassionateness guides to\\nno truer knowledge than partisanship opposed to the\\nauthority science arrogates\\nIs this conclusion confirmatory of the principle of\\ndemocracy that each man may contribute to any result\\na needed and valuable element\\nIs it the points in which these three speakers agree\\nthat are trustv^^orthy Or those in which they differ\\nHas that which is especially characteristic of each\\nvalue in the story, whether it shows insight or whether\\nit shows prejudice And in this sense, of revealing\\nrelative value, is the poet jus tified in permitting us to\\nget so little actually out of them, because we get so\\nmuch in seeing how large truth is, and of what variously\\nmodifiable elements public opinion is composed\\nWhat light does this monologue throw on the\\nspeaker s character and attainments\\nIs Tertium Quid s point of view really essentially\\ndifferent from Half- Rome s in the opinion taken of\\nPietro, Violante, and Pompilia, and in his high regard\\nfor Guide s possession of rank", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0462.jp2"}, "463": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 429\\nWhat does distinguish his monologue especially,\\nthen Its disdain of the commonalty as a whole Its\\nutter inconsequence r The insincerity which prevents\\nhim from comJng to any conclusion, since he is not\\nreally interested in the case at all, as the other speakers\\nare, except to make use of it for the sake of exhibiting\\nhis own cleverness to persons of quality\\nDoes he agree with the other two speakers in his\\nlight opinion of the law?\\nAre the closing lines cf this monologue proof of\\nBrowning s ironic way of regarding his pretensions to\\nsuperiority? (See Introductory Essay, p. xix.\\nThe dullest account of all, writes Dr. F. B.\\nHornbrooke, is that by Tertium Quid, who tries to\\ngive a colorless statement of affairs. But we learn\\nfrom his study -why he is uninteresting. It is because\\nhe does not take any side, and has no sympathy with\\nanybody. If passionate advocacy sees only one\\naspect of the truth, passionless indifference misses what\\nis most vital. Feeling is blind to some things, but\\napathy is blind to everything. Some of the\\nTeachings of The Ring and the Book, Poet-lore^\\nVol. I., pp. 314-320, July, 1889.)\\nV. Topic for Paper y Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Central Group of Characters The Count.\\n(Book V.)\\nQueries for Ifwestigatio?i and Discussion. Does\\nthe Count show by the manner of his plea what his\\nview of life was\\nAre his politeness and smooth humility in opening\\nhis speech overdone Does his gentleness give an\\nimpression of genuineness or pohcy How does his\\nsuave beginning match with his brutal way of regarding\\nhis marriage", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0463.jp2"}, "464": {"fulltext": "430 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs his defence of himself an implicit attack upon\\nSociety, since he holds that if he is to blame he is to\\nblame for a course based on Society s pet institutions,\\nnobility, the Church, marriage\\nDoes judgment of the Count depend upon the\\nquestion whether his view of marriage was a good one\\nor not Or does it depend upon his character and\\nits defects, his egotism, avarice, cunning, cruelty\\nIs there any connection between his view of marriage\\nand his bad qualities\\nAre his attempts to justify himself, as to the letter\\nto the Abate he wrote in Pompilia s name, his threaten-\\nings of her when he ought, by his account, to have\\nbeen cruel, his fear to avenge his wrongs till law had\\nspoken, his arousing from dull despair at the news of\\nhis son s birth to right this crowning injustice, are\\nall these clever, but unconvincing on account of the\\nman s personality, perceived despite them Or are\\nthey to be considered as sincere and in keeping with\\nthe degree of development that the man had reached\\nIs the weakest part of his defence that which makes\\nhim claim that he was alternately moved to hesitation\\nand rapt away by impulse to slay the three or that\\nwhich makes him pose as the reformer of manners, the\\nrestorer of the antique virtues of marriage, whose\\nvindicatio.n is his due from society for his services to\\nit Are these two or three lines of defence consistent\\nwith one another\\nVI. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study,\\nThe Central Group of Characters Caponsacchi.\\n(Book VI.)\\nQueries for Investigatioii and Discussion. Does\\nCaponsacchi s utter lack of any solicitude to ingrati-\\nate himself with the Judges, whom he upbraids for", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0464.jp2"}, "465": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 43 1\\ntheir shallow judgment, contrast strongly, at the outset,\\nwith Guido s truckling manner, and give the keynote\\nto his frank and direct personality Does his evidence\\nconvince the more for this\\nIs his story, as he says, the story of the good\\nPompilia did to him What are the main stages in\\nthis spiritual development\\nDoes Caponsacchi s own story bear out the opinion\\nof those critics who say that he immediately obeyed\\nthe impulse to help Pompilia Which would be the\\nmore admirable, hesitation or immediate decision\\nDoes the answer depend upon the purity of his aims\\n(See Camberwell Brozv?iing, Vol. VI., Introductory\\nEssay, pp. xxi and xxii.)\\nIs the insight of each of these two, Pompilia and\\nCaponsacchi, with regard to each other, proof of their\\nlove, or is their high order of intuitional intelligence\\nthe basis of their recognition of each other s purity\\nWhy did not Caponsacchi like two special things\\nPompilia said (lines 1212-1214, 1249-1254).?\\nWhy did he hke this other (lines i 290-1 298)\\nIs Caponsacchi s foreboding of ill at Castelnuovo\\nnatural\\nIs the impulse to kill the evil man, which Browning\\nmakes Caponsacchi regret he did not satisfy, and which\\nrouses Pompilia to her attack, morally justifiable\\nIs Caponsacchi s explanation of Guido s relation to\\nPompilia (Hnes 1759-1771) a proof of insight, as\\nmuch as his explanation of her relation to himself\\nDoes it make Pompilia the central motive force of the\\npoem\\nWhat is his instinct worth upon the right\\npunishment for Guido, not death, but leaving him\\nto himself, out of God s ken or man s care", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0465.jp2"}, "466": {"fulltext": "432 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs the ideal of life to which Pompilia led him one\\nthat would take him outside the Church\\nVII. Topic for Paper, Glassworks or Private Study.\\nThe Central Group of Characters Pompilia. (Book\\nVII.)\\nQueries for hwestigation and Discussion. Is the\\ncharacter morally the strongest in the poem the one\\nwith the wisest head\\nDoes her monologue give the clearest and least\\nbiassed account of all the events and characters of the\\nstory\\nWhat is her view of Violante s deception Is it\\nmorally and intellectually profound Does her anal-\\nogy of the plants being left to grow where God\\nplants them prove too much, and make human inter-\\nference of any sort with life unjustifiable Or is\\nthere a right caution underlying the figure, if it be\\ntaken less literally, against such interference as in any\\nway violates the individual quality of the nature one\\nmay assume to dispose of for its good How does\\nthis apply to Violante s arrangement for her marriage\\nWas Violante s wrong, then, not the adoption of\\nPompilia, but the deceit about it, through that deceit s\\nso warping her own nature that she was led to con-\\nceive the second idea of setting her first step right, and\\nso on This marriage is really what Pompilia tests\\nher by, is it not And is she right\\nIf Pompilia had been less genuine and reasonable,\\nand had not taken Guido as if he were genuine and\\nreasonable, would she have aroused his animosity to\\nsuch a fatal degree But in that case would his evil\\nsoul have had a greater effect on hers, and saved her\\nsome material and physical harm at the expense of her\\nown integrity", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0466.jp2"}, "467": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 433\\nIs crookedness fought best with a good that is\\nthrough expediency made half crooked itself, or with\\nthe straightest policy of which one is capable\\nIs Pompilia justified in her revolt against her hus-\\nband, because their souls were estranged\\nDoes her story, because it shows her personahty in\\nits incorruptibility and instinctive capacity for real\\nwisdom, explain why Guido hated her and plotted to\\nconquer her by ruining her, and also why Capon-\\nsacchi loved her and was uplifted by her\\nDoes she really misunderstand Caponsacchi s atti-\\ntude of hesitancy and moral struggle, at first, in the\\nproject to rescue her, or is her intuition clear here,\\nalso (See Camberwell BrozvnmgyNo\\\\. VI., Introduc-\\ntory Essay, p. xxvi.)\\nWhy was Pompilia s motherhood necessary to what\\nconquest she had over Guido Is it fitting that his\\ndeepest wrong to her should leave her soul unscathed,\\nand be the means of saving her to punish him Why\\ndoes it do this Why does it lend will to her dull\\ndesire\\nWould she be less or more admirable if for her\\nown sake, instead of for her child s sake, she had\\nresented cruelty and injustice and fled\\nIs it consistent with her character that her\\nbrave onslaught upon Guido at the Inn should be\\njustified by her as for Caponsacchi s sake, instead of\\nfor either her own or the child s sake\\nThe question may arise, writes Mrs. Alice Kent\\nRobertson, given the facts of Pompilia s birth, her\\nignorance, her extreme youth, is her development\\ninto the perfect soul Caponsacchi s language\\nconsistent t\\nI believe age, as commonly reckoned, to be a\\n28", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0467.jp2"}, "468": {"fulltext": "434 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nvery small factor in the development of character\\nthat inheritance and experience are all. Though it\\nwould seem that Pompilia, by her woful lot, were\\nexpiating the sins of her parents, from them or from\\nsome far-away ancestor she must have inherited a\\nsomewhat that, from the first, marks her the child of\\npurity however it may be, the miracle is here.\\nLeaving the question of inheritance, we know\\nthat the benefit acquired from book knowledge is\\ncomparative, that it is by experiejue alone we learn.\\nIn its light the discipline of life takes on alto-\\ngether new meaning and becomes replete with hope.\\nSo it is with our Pompilia. Does she seem to\\nspeak with the tongue of angels, by her wisdom far\\nexceeding the limit of her age and condition, she\\nhiows because she has suffered. Moreover, who shall\\nestimate the extent of the vision that comes to dying\\neyes But suffering is not the sole factor in her\\ndevelopment joy is born with the advent of her\\nchild, and through maternity is the woman perfected.\\nWith this new joy is woven another, the\\nwhile a voice within Pompilia sings to Rome, to\\nRome, her necessity puts finger forth and summons\\nCaponsacchi. (^Poet-lore, Vol. L, pp. 263-269,\\nJune, 1889.)\\nVIII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Institutional Group of Characters The Legal\\nExperts Advocate De Archangelis (Book VIII.)\\nand Doctor Bottinius (Book IX.).\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Do the\\npleas of the two lawyers throw any light on the case\\nDo they reveal very distinctly their different per-\\nsonalities Can a picture of the general appearance\\nand manner of these two men be derived from the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0468.jp2"}, "469": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 435\\nway in which the poet has made them present their\\ncase Which is the more sohd and which the more\\nbrilliant lawyer What clew to their different fame\\nand nature is given by the plenteous Latin of the one\\nand the varied and light literary allusions of the\\nother How much are the pleas of these two law-\\nyers due to their own characters? How much to their\\nprofessional habits and methods Does either one of\\nthem clear the character of his client\\nIs Law as an institution to attain social equity and\\njustice satirized in these two books? (See Introductory\\nbefore cited, p. xxvii.)\\nAre the closing lines of each lawyer s talk, when\\nhe has finished his plea and makes comment upon his\\nlabor (Book VIII., lines 1 790-1 793, and Book IX.,\\nlines 1561-1568), consummate touches of real life,\\nvitalizing the aims of the two men in their profession\\nIs the speech of each uninteresting in itself, but\\ninteresting in the portrayal of human nature\\nIX. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nThe Institutional Group of Characters The Pope.\\n(BookX.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Does\\nthe Pope s verdict embody Browning s judgment of\\nthe characters, or are his opinions peculiarly his own,\\nand his character, therefore, a dramatic portrait (See\\nIntroductory Essav, before cited also programme,\\n**The Prelate.\\nIs his view of Caponsacchi such a view as Brown-\\ning would have held\\nDoes it follow, because his judgments of the Arch-\\nbishop, the Convertites, of Guido and his brothers\\nare severe, that therefore he is the genuine Robert\\nBrowning who has sat on the papal throne, as Prof.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0469.jp2"}, "470": {"fulltext": "436 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nC. C. Shackford says? The Pope, Poet-lore,\\nVol. I., pp. 309-314.) As a matter of fact, did not\\nthe poet represent this Pope s judgment of the case\\naccording to the record t He reconstructs processes,\\nbut are they not implied in the sentence rendered\\nBut does the poet, in making this Pope have an in-\\ntuitive vision of the doubt that will revolutionize dog-\\nmatic religion yet leave religious or spiritual Hfe\\nessentially the stronger, transcend the bounds of\\npossibility in the character of a genuinely devout and\\nthoughtful Pope of the end of his century\\nHas Browning grasped, with relation to this char-\\nacter of the Pope, the prominent characteristics of the\\ntime as to the religious ferment which Molinism\\nexcited, and which was so in the air that allusion to it\\nin every book of this poem is perfectly in place\\nDoes a superior and exalted yet veritable human\\npersonality emerge before the reader of this book\\nX. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Effect of his Sentence on Guido. (Book XI.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. What\\nright has Guido to his claim that he is the victim of\\nthe Society that sentences him\\nIs his dependence upon Society for his moral backing\\nsuch as to imply that he has never had any principles\\nof his own? Is virtue necessarily an individual and\\nnot a social possession And is virtue, if based merely\\nupon general social usage instead of being the fruit\\nof personal moral experience, aspiration, and will,\\nundeserving of the name\\nLet Browning remove that false plea of Pompilia s\\nfor her wicked husband, says a reviewer So he\\nwas made, he nowise made himself Is this a false\\nplea", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0470.jp2"}, "471": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 437\\nIf Guido s virtues so-called, that is, his allegiance\\nto established Church and State are not in any active\\nsense his own, how about his vices Are these less\\npassively his own As soon as he openly and unequivo-\\ncally expresses them, being forced to it by his desper-\\nate case, are they not felt to be the least dishonorable\\npart of him\\nIs this what Pompilia meant when she said, in God s\\nface is light, but in His shadow healing, too let\\nGuido touch the shadow and be healed\\nIs passing through guilt by sincerity one way to\\ncome to a realization of what stanch morahty is\\nAnd is the passage from an ambiguous to an open\\nmalevolence the one way for Guido to begin his\\nspiritual development\\nHis arraignment of society s hollowness, in so far\\nas it is keen and just, and not merely a cloak for him-\\nself, awakens some intellectual respect, does it not\\nAnd when at last he leaves pretence as of no further\\nuse to him, do his essential and sincere paganism\\nand atheism, now revealed, excite awe rather than\\ncontempt\\nBut does Guido s second monologue add any new\\ntraits of character to his first, or merely bring them\\nout from their fawning lurking-places?\\nDoes it reveal more conceivably his hatred ot\\nPompilia\\nIs Guido s claim to be fiercely vicious, strong, and\\nmanly in his hate, real or a sham Does he first\\nnow when the death psalm-singers arrive become him-\\nself aware enough to acknowledge the real weakness\\nof his soul\\nWhy does the ethical climax of Guido s career\\nhinge upon his genuine good opinion of Pompilia", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0471.jp2"}, "472": {"fulltext": "438 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nXI. Topic for Paper, Classzuork, or Private Study.\\nFinal Results of the Sentence, Public and Personal.\\n(Book XIL)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is the\\ntwelfth book superfluous Or does the Venetian\\ntraveller s account of Guido and the Pope give a facet\\nof town opinion on Guido and the Pope which prop-\\nerly supplements the poem\\nWhy should the lawyers be brought in again Is\\ntheir transposition of parts, as to Guido and Pom-\\npilia, too ironical, or in keeping with their first\\nappearance\\nDoes the interest stop with Guido s outcry at the\\nend of Book XI., or would the reader not be content\\nwithout hearing of Pompilia s death and her child?\\nDo the conclusions of the Augustinian friar repre-\\nsent the final outcome as the poet regards it\\nXII. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private\\nStudy. The Historical Background.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. What\\nliterary characteristics of the seventeenth century are\\nillustrated in the poem?\\nIs the impression given by the poem of a transitional\\nphase in the religious attitude of the world historically\\ntrue\\nWas Molinism really a dangerous heresy, or a\\ntheory of the dignity of human nature, which had an\\nelement of truth that was valuable As professed\\nby Fenelon and Madame Guyon, was Molinism the\\nreligious impetus of the day See Molinos the\\nQuietist, by John Bigelow, and Shorthouse s\\nGolden Thoughts from the Spiritual Guide of Miguel\\nMolinos also, McClintock and Strong s Biblical\\nEncyclopaedia, Vol. VI., article Molinism, Plati-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0472.jp2"}, "473": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 439\\nna s Lives of the Popes, Fenelon s writings on\\nMolinism and **The Life of Madame Guy on.\\nIs the presentation of law and custom as it is given\\nthrough Guido, Half-Rome, the Venetian traveller,\\nand the lawyers, historically accurate\\nXin. Topic for Paper, Classzvorky or Private\\nStudy. Artistic Design and Style.\\nQueries for I?ivestigatio?i and Discussio?i. Would\\nthe poem be more perfect artistically or less so if the\\ninstitutional group of characters was omitted\\nWe can understand why the two lawyers are\\nintroduced, says Professor Walker, but we should\\nacquiesce in their introduction only if we found them\\nequal to the other characters. Is it fair, however,\\nto expect that a poet should so far disregard nature as\\nto make all his characters equal\\nThe speeches of the opposing lawyers carry\\nrealism to an intolerable prosaic extreme, writes Mr.\\nE. C. Stedman Victorian Poets, pp. 334,\\n335). Is this one of the faults of *The Ring and\\nthe Book; or have the lawyers an integral part in\\nthe design, and a place, also, in the light and shade\\nof the whole as a social picture of the great case of the\\nday, and as a humorous relief from the intense coloring\\nof the central group of characters. (See Introductory\\nEssay, before cited.) Have they, moreover, their\\nconvincing place as characters true to life and the\\nhumors of life\\nThe eiFect [of the design] is stereoscopic,\\nyou see the facts from ever new points of view,\\nlittle by little the real truth is evolved from the chaos\\nof testimony little by little the real motives of the\\nactors become manifest. As the process goes on, you\\ncatch yourself speculating about each of the dramatis", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0473.jp2"}, "474": {"fulltext": "440 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nperson^y as if he were a character in real Hfe, The\\ncomplexity of human motive, the wonderful inter-\\naction of character and circumstance, the vastness of\\nthe soul all these begin to dawn upon you, writes\\nDr. A. H. Strong (Lecture on Poetry and Robert\\nBrowning, Philosophy and Religion, p. 530).\\n**Guido s fate might have been left uncertain until\\nthe end with no loss that we can discover, and with\\nvery considerable advantage, says a reviewer in\\nSt. Paulas. What is to be said for and against this?\\nWith the plot of incident the dominant interest, would\\nthe plot of character thrive as well\\nIs Browning s introduction of himself in the first\\nbook as the artist re-creating the story an artistic\\nmistake Is it a departure from his socially conceived\\nstructure of the poem, or a fulfilment of it\\nIs the style of each monologue diff^erent, and adapted\\nto suit the character of the speaker? How is this\\nshown\\nPompilia s speech surely should be devoid of literary\\nallusions and classical quotations, and be marked by the\\nutmost simplicity and sweetness. Is it The Pope s\\nruminations, to be characteristic of Innocent XII., should\\nbe those of a grave but not frigid nature they should\\nbe redolent of Church history and philosophical lore,\\nand warm with a protecting sympathy for the com-\\nmon people. Caponsacchi s indignant and grief-\\nsmitten speech should not be bare of signs of courtly\\nand literate allusions. Do the allusions and diction of\\nthese and the other books arise from the nature of the\\ncharacters and suit them dramatically Why, for\\nexample, does Guido talk of his omoplat Is this a\\npedantry of Browning s or a pedantry of Guido s,\\nwho was skilled, he tells us, in anatomy Could", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0474.jp2"}, "475": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 44I\\nsuch a character as De Archangelis help regaling the\\nrudges with amusing quirks of Latinitv or Bottini\\nJesist quoting Virgil and telling anecdotes of the\\nsaints\\nIs it a sign of the unevenness of the work, as\\nhas been said, that the speeches of Pompilia, Capon-\\nsacchi, and the Pope are so distinguished above the\\nrest for poetic beauty or is there dramatic reason why\\nthese should be so distinguished And, also, that the\\nothers should not be\\nWhenever the style rises towards an exalted or\\npurely lyric strain, as in the passage at the end of the\\nfirst book addressed to Mrs. Browning as Lyric\\nLove, is this in keeping? Have the rougher pas-\\nsages a different but equally valid justification\\nIs The Ring and the Book a work of which\\na great part might be lost without detriment to the\\nworld, as has been said by Professor Walker, or is\\nit a prodigious example of the truth of Mr. Birrell s\\nstatement in Obiter Dicta that it is plain truth\\nto say, no other English poet, living or dead, Shake-\\nspeare excepted, has so heaped up -human interest for\\nhis readers\\nIs the inner meaning of The Ring and the Book\\nseparable from its artistic structure or conveyed by it\\nWhat is its inner meaning That, although truth\\nis a relative thing only, and not to be attained through\\nhuman testimony nor through mere intellectual pro-\\ncesses, it is yet real in its relation to life, and in the\\nappeal it makes to the intuitional intelligence of each\\nindividual soul\\nIs the idea of the supremacy of the individual over\\nhis own career an implicit lesson of the poem How\\ndoes Pompilia s story illustrate this? Let Brown-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0475.jp2"}, "476": {"fulltext": "442 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ning get rid of that unpleasant conversation with the\\nArchbishop, says a reviewer. Would the poem be\\nstronger philosophically, if this clash between the\\nChurch and the individual conscience were left out\\nIs Browning partial to the artist in claiming for\\nfancy so large a share in the revelation of truth In\\nwhat special sense does he use the terms **fact and\\ntruth\\nIs the verse of The Ring and the Book related\\norganically to its design\\nIf so, the emotion belonging to each character por-\\ntrayed will suit it and the circumstances under which\\nit is acting, and the expression will aiFect the verse so\\nthat it will attain a high degree of intrinsic beauty in\\nsome of the books where this sort of beauty suits the\\naim, and in others will attain only a relative beauty,\\nhowever high in degree, as measured by its lower\\nlevel of success in the diflFerent aim here desired and\\nthence it will follow that persons judging by standards\\nof beauty in verse which regard form as separable\\nfrom content and to be manipulated and liked in it-\\nself, will approve of certain of the books, Pompiha,\\nCaponsacchi, **The Pope (inconsistently in-\\ncluding both of Guido s speeches also, perhaps, and\\nother bits here and there), and condemn the others.\\nIs this why Mr. Sharp, for example, representing\\nmany others, says that The Ring and the Book\\nenshrines poetry which no other than our greatest could\\nhave written, and has depths to which many of\\nfar inferior power have not descended Is he\\nwrong, therefore, in concluding that it is, regarded as\\nan artistic whole, the most magnificent failure in our\\nliterature, since he is judging it as an artistic whole\\nwithout reference to its artistic design", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0476.jp2"}, "477": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 443\\nIs it fair to condemn a man for failing in doing\\nwhat he did not mean to do, and to try him by the\\nrequirements of a design the judge might have had in his\\nplace if he had been doing the man s work, but which\\nthe man himself did not have, while he did have an-\\nother distinctly revealed and illustrated\\nIs the judgment of many of the critics unconvincing\\nbecause irrelevant, the question being not what is\\nsuperior verse, but whether, in each case, the verse is\\neffectively made one with the emotion and character\\nportrayed\\nDoes The Ring and the Book as an artistic whole\\nbring out the character interest of each of its parts with\\nappropriate verse-expression, so that form and content\\nare organically related, and all the parts made contribu-\\ntory again to the whole as a symmetrical organism\\nMr. Arthur Beatty perceives a great and organic\\ndifference in the general character and atmos-\\nphere of the several books which is due **in no\\nslight degree to its dramatic character. For ex-\\nample, in Half-Rome, wherein the speaker is the\\nmarried man jealous of his wife, who sides with\\nGuido, the verse is characterized by no ornament\\nwhich is incompatible with a poetic interpretation of\\nthe low views of life represented by him. The\\nverse of the Other Half- Rome in which a chivalrous\\nbachelor speaks, is far different. His eyes are\\nraised to\\nLittle Pompilia, with the patient brow\\nAnd lamentable smile on those poor lips,\\nAnd under the white hospital array,\\nA flower-like body,\\nand he sees all in relation to her. These the opening\\nhues give its whole atmosphere; and it is distinguished", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0477.jp2"}, "478": {"fulltext": "444 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nby its frequent beautiful imagery, especially of flowers.\\nThe verse is singularly sweet.\\nExamining with reference to the strophe, or group\\nof lines constituting a single flow of thought or emo-\\ntion, the monologues of the main characters, Mr.\\nBeatty finds that those in the first monologue of\\nGuido average seventeen lines, in the last, ten lines.\\nCaponsacchi s average nine and a half lines, Pompilia s\\nnine, and the Pope s fifteen and a half. These fig-\\nures show that the Pope, in keeping with his character,\\nemploys strophes which are longer than the average\\nlength of any other character. He goes over the\\ncase, weighs, ponders, and lets flow his thoughts forth.\\nThe substratum of Pompilia s and Caponsacchi s words,\\non the other hand, is not thought, but a subhme emo-\\ntion. Their verse is therefore more intense, with its\\nshorter and burning periods. Though Pompilia s\\nstrophes average almost as long as Caponsacchi s,\\nhis often run to a greater length than any of hers.\\nHe speaks rapidly, angrily speech that smites\\n*blow after blow. Pompilia s speech is the low\\nsighing of a soul after the loud ones in beau-\\ntifully equitable verse. The change in form of\\nthe strophes of the first and last speeches of Guido is\\nvery significant. In the first he speaks as Count\\nGuido, surrounded with the conventionalities of a\\nproud and exclusive society, now with mock\\nmildness, now with passion, always with the most\\ncrafty argument But in the second as a\\ncondemned man all the sham drops away.\\nAgain examining these monologues as to metres,\\nMr. Beatty records that the use made of them in the\\ndifferent books shows a fine sense of characterization.\\nPompilia and the Pope use the largest percentage of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0478.jp2"}, "479": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 445\\nthe iambic line, seventy and sixty -three per cent re-\\nspectively. In their calm and, in a sense, dispassion-\\nate view of the case, they are calm and measured in\\ntheir verse. Their use of the trochaic-logaoedic verse\\n[made up of trochaic and dactylic metre] is about the\\nsame twenty seven per cent. Of the agitated iambic-\\nlogacedic [iambic and anapaestic] they make a very\\nslight use only three and ten per cent respectively.\\nIn the rapid angry speech of Caponsacchi the percent-\\nage of iambic lines falls to fifty-six and the tro-\\nchaic-logaoedic to twenty-three, .the agitated\\niambic-logacedic rises to twenty-one per cent. Guido\\nin his first defence has a percentage of fifty-two of\\niambic lines, twenty-four each of trochaic-logaoedic\\nand iambic-logaoedic. In his second speech sixty-one\\nper cent of the lines are iambic, fifty-three trochaic-\\nlogaoedic, and only six per cent iambic-logaoedic.\\nThis last change is significant in the highest degree.\\nIn his earnest plea for life there is no place for\\naught but earnest words.\\nAgain, as to the caesural pause, another important\\nelement of blank verse, Mr. Beatty s scrutiny shows\\nthat the Pope s lines are marked by regularity of the\\ncaesura, producing a closer verse and a corresponding\\nlack of variety in the cadences. The feminine cssura,\\nthe pause coming after an unaccented syllable, giving\\na more broken flow to the verse and indicating emo-\\ntion or mental disturbance, and the masculine, the\\npause coming after an accented syllable and expressive\\nof equanimity and calm reason, are used equitably by\\nthe Pope, fifty per cent of each. Pompilia shows a\\npreference for the masculine caesura, using sixty- three\\nper cent to forty-seven per cent of the feminine.\\nGuido in his first speech uses sixty-six per cent of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0479.jp2"}, "480": {"fulltext": "446 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nfeminine, and in the last speech fift\\\\^-two per cent, a\\nchange significant of the altered mood. Capon-\\nsacchi s verse is smoother, using forty-five per cent of\\nfeminine to fifty-five per cent of mascuHne caesuras.\\nAs to the place of the c^sura, it is remarkable that for\\nthe masculine c^sura after the second accent, mak-\\ning the most equable rhythm possible in English verse,\\nPompilia shows a decided preference. In\\nthese placings of the caesura Caponsacchi shows a\\n**wide variety of rhythms; the Pope the greatest\\nvariety, the movement of his verse being freer and\\nbolder than any of the others. Guido s two speeches\\nreflect a difference corresponding with that evidenced\\nin other respects.\\nThe fusion affected in blank verse by run-on lines\\naffords another evidence of characteristic differences,\\nupon which Mr. Beatty reports that Pompilia s\\nVerse remains more within the limits of the line than\\nthe others. Her thought moves in smaller\\ncircles, and is at the extreme from the Pope.\\nGuido and Caponsacchi take a middle place, al-\\nthough Guido has rather the most.\\nThe test of appropriate effectiveness in reading\\naloud should give in a more synthetic way corrobora-\\ntion of such detailed analysis as this. Does it Tn all\\nsuch observations as to the dramatic character of verse,\\npersonal impression decides, of course but it may be\\nclaimed that it dq,es not decide arbitrarilv, and that the\\nconclusion is based upon evidence which is derived\\nfrom the facts.\\nIn his Primer of English Verse (p. 224),\\nProfessor Corson afiirms that All things considered,\\nthe greatest achievement of the century in blank\\nverse is Robert Browning s The Ring and the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0480.jp2"}, "481": {"fulltext": "THE RING AND THE BOOK 447\\nBook. I don t mean the greatest in bulk (although\\nit is that, having 21,134 verses, double the number\\nof the Paradise Lost I mean the greatest achieve-\\nment in the effective use of blank verse in the treat-\\nment of a great subject really the greatest subject,\\nwhen viewed aright, which has been treated in English\\nPoetry vastly greater in its bearings upon the\\nhighest education of man than that of the Paradise\\nLost. Its blank verse, while having a most complex\\nvariety of character, is the most dramatic blank verse\\nsince the Elizabethan era. Having read the entire\\npoem aloud to classes every year for several years, I\\nfeel prepared to speak of the transcendent merits\\nof the verse. One reads it without a sense almost of\\nthere being anything artificial in the construction of\\nthe language and by artificial I mean put consciously\\ninto shape. Of course it zvds put consciously into\\nshape; but one gets the impression that the poet\\nthought and felt spontaneously in blank verse. And\\nit is always verse though the reader has but a mini-\\nmum of metre consciousness. And the method of\\nthe thought is always poetic. This is saying much,\\nbut not too much. All moods of the mind are in the\\npoem, expressed in Protean verse.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0481.jp2"}, "482": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies Red Cotton\\nNight-cap Country\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nRed Cotton Night-cap Country x i 283\\nTopic for Paper y Classzvorky or Private Study.\\nThe Story and its Relation to the Style.\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. The story\\nalone is quite simple, as may be seen by the abstract\\ngiven in the Notes referred to above but, as Browning\\ntreats it, it becomes complex, not only on account of\\nthe character portrayal he has woven into it, but also\\nbecause of the way in which he has chosen to tell the\\nstory. The poet, instead of relating it in simple narra-\\ntive form, beginning at the beginning and marshalling\\nevents as they occurred, casts the poem in the f)rm\\nof a conversation with his friend Miss Thackeray.\\nHaving done this, would it be at all natural for him\\nto plunge right into the story the moment he met\\nhis friend On the other hand, would it be natural\\nfor him to talk for a thousand lines and more before\\nhe begins his story t However this might be, are\\nany ends served by this long preliminary talk (Parti.)\\nvi^ith his friend t\\nAlthough it seems like a discursive sort of talk\\nleading nowhere in particular, does not the poet con-\\nstandy give infprmation as to the country which", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0482.jp2"}, "483": {"fulltext": "RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY 449\\nformed the general surroundings, the church which had\\na special connection with the story, and the house which\\nwas the actual abode of the actors in the drama Does\\nthe lengthy discussion on night-caps and fiddles carry\\nthe thought onward toward the story, or serve only as\\na humorous embellishment of the conversation\\nIs the first indication of the tint, as it were, of\\nthe story given when the poet asks the question\\n(line 332), Why not Red Cotton Night-cap\\nCountry? Is not this a distinct step in the direc-\\ntion of the story\\nHaving at last pointed out the spot where he de-\\nclares he will prove that a night-cap of visionary red\\ngleams, and having mentioned the owner s name, he\\nproceeds to tease his companion by not telling her his\\nreasons for considering this the veritable red spot is\\nthis teasing talk merely a humorous adornment to the\\nconversation, or is it full of hints as to the real facts\\nof the hero s life, combined with misleading infer-\\nences Are there some hints such as that in lines\\n737\u00e2\u0080\u0094739, He had an open hand Or stop\\nI use the wrong expression here, An open purse,\\nwhich cannot be understood until the story has been\\ntold\\nWhen even the description of the heroine reveals\\nnothing worse than that she wore a wig. Miss Thack-\\neray is represented as making a most conventional sum-\\nmary of the facts she has gathered, and declares he has\\nfailed to prove that any glimmer of red can be found\\nin this white-cotton night-cap neighborhood. Does\\nthis long speech, though not carrying the story on at\\nall directly, yet indirectly do so, by furnishing a cli-\\nmax of wrong inferences which forces the poet to\\ndivulge his bit of tragedy at last\\n29", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0483.jp2"}, "484": {"fulltext": "450 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nBefore telling the story, however (Part II.)* ^he\\npoet has a preliminary word to say what is the gist\\nof the elaborate image the poet here unfolds\\nDo you agree with his conclusions that that part of\\nopinion surviving from the past which stands firm\\nshould be left standing as long as it is any use for\\nthe guidance of individuals or society, and that that\\npart which has become mere rubbish should be cleared\\naway, and a fresh building up of opinion begin\\nThis image is introduced to show that Miranda\\nwas one who could not tell which was still firm and\\nwhich was rotten, so he tried climbing by means\\nof both the rubbish and the towers does the figure\\nof **turf and towers stand as a symbol for the in-\\nfluences affecting Miranda s life, as Red Cotton\\nNight-cap Country stands for the action which\\nresulted from these influences\\nIn describing the unquestioning, rehgious side of\\nMiranda s mind, what further information does the\\npoet give about Miranda s church Why does he\\nmention Voltaire and Rabelais as symbolic of influ-\\nences which might affect Miranda s faith Does the\\npoet refer to any actual incident or facts of Talley-\\nrand s life in his reference to Prince Vertgalant (line\\n226) What is the appropriateness of the allusion\\nto Sganarelle\\nIn lines 266 fol. does the poet represent the spirit\\nof Sganarelle as working within Miranda, and is that\\nspirit one which tempts him to the ways of Vert-\\ngalant rather than to the ways of Eldobert\\nDo these rather obscure passages give a foretaste of\\nthe manner of man Miranda is? In lines 331-354\\nthe poet introduces the image of a tent on the turf;\\ndoes this give another foretaste as to Miranda s life", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0484.jp2"}, "485": {"fulltext": "RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY 451\\nFrom line 355, does the style become less discur-\\nsive, so that the facts of the story succeed each other\\nmore rapidly Is there something in the tone of the\\nstyle which makes you suspect that Clara de Mille-\\nfleurs is not telling the truth in her first story\\nAlthough the poet says, Monsieur Leonce Miranda\\nheard too true a tale, he adds, perhaps I may\\nsubjoin too trite.\\nWhat do you gather as to the poet s attitude toward\\nClara in the digression from the story he makes at\\nline 679 fol.\\nAlthough the story now moves forward, all the\\ntime, is the style constantly embellished by figurative\\nways of presenting the facts and remarks upon the\\nmoral aspects of the situation Does the poet seem\\nto insinuate in some of his remarks that living in such\\na tent erected on **turf was in itself not so bad\\nas Miranda s failing to recognize the permanent ele-\\nments of good in it, so that he had to quiet his con-\\nscience by regarding it as something he would make\\nup for, later on in his life\\nIn lines 136-189 (Part III.) there is a fine ex-\\nample of the fitting of nature imagery to the mood at\\nthe time are there any other examples of this sort in\\nthe poem\\nWhen the poet quotes does he give the impression\\nthat he is quoting the exact words of the actors, or\\nrather that he is imagining what they might say\\nDoes the poet give any direct description of the\\nCousinry\\nWhat impression does he give of them, and how\\ndoes he manage it\\nWhat image does he invent for Miranda s new\\nattempt to justify his way of living", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0485.jp2"}, "486": {"fulltext": "452 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nFrom the digression (lines 713 fol.) does Browning\\ngive decided hints as to the sort of advice he thinks\\nMiranda should have had from his friend Milsand\\nIncidentally, this is a beautiful tribute to his friend\\nMilsand, is it not\\nDo you agree with the poet s conclusions (lines\\n786\u00e2\u0080\u0094860) that it is useless to try to change the basis\\nof any one s faith, but that the ethical apphcations to\\nthe affairs of daily life may be modified to suit new\\ncontingencies Was this something the advisers he\\nsought did not clearly see\\nDoes the poet show disapproval of the way the\\nChurch treated the matter Does he give any hint of\\nthe way he thinks it should have acted Would such\\naction as he hints at have been consistent with the\\nway it had acted on other occasions where the\\ncircumstances were different Or would it have\\nagreed with the sort of advice Milsand might have\\ngiven Miranda Is Browning, therefore, sarcastic\\nwhen he says the Church should not have hesitated to\\nsay, Each from the other go, you guilty ones\\n(line 931).\\nIn Part IV. the poet explains that it is the poet s\\nprovince to give a man s thoughts, the newspaper s\\npart to give his words does he exercise the preroga-\\ntive of putting Miranda s thoughts into language which\\nwould probably not occur to Miranda Does it none\\nthe less reflect truly Miranda s soul\\nDoes the language he puts in Clara s mouth when\\nshe answers the cousins also turn into poetry her\\nthoughts rather than what she may actually have been\\nsupposed to say\\nIn interpreting the souls of these two, does he show\\nhis sympathy for them and understanding of them", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0486.jp2"}, "487": {"fulltext": "RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY 453\\nbetter than he does when he gives the final criticism\\nof their respective characters\\nDoes his doubt of Clara s capacity to love truly,\\nshow that even the poet has some prejudices\\nMight she not have been so constituted that she\\ncould not see what would be the right action any\\nbetter than Miranda, whose power of true loving the\\npoet never doubts\\nDo you agree with the suggestion in the Introduc-\\ntion (see Camberwell Broiv?iing, Vol. IX.), that\\nBrowning is himself in this poem on the side of love\\nOr do you think he believes Clara and Miranda ought\\nto have separated\\nIs not Clara right when she says that their love for\\neach other saved them both, and made their lives far\\nbetter than they would otherwise have been\\nIs it not greater justice to realize that those who have\\nsinned may be regenerated, and that society should give\\nthem the chance to live a whole and complete life,\\nrather than doom them either to the continuance of\\nsin or to the mutilation of their best instincts\\nIs lack of will power to make a decision the special\\nsin most objected to by Browning in Miranda\\n(Compare The Statue and the Bust, also Introduc-\\ntion, Camberwell Brozv?ii?igy Vol. IX.)\\nWhat were the political and religious movements\\nof Miranda s day in France as reflected in this poem\\n(See Camberwell Browningy Notes, Vol. IX., p.\\n283, for allusions. For further information see Taine s\\nModern Regime, Vol. II., Chap. 4; Forbes s\\n**Life of Napoleon III. Legge s Pius IX. the\\nStory of his Life.\\nIn referring to the description of the **meek,\\nhitherto, un- Murray ed bathing place, Professor Walker", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0487.jp2"}, "488": {"fulltext": "454 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsays The manner in which the poet there introduces\\nhimself and his tastes and habits is full of meaning.\\nIn a simple picture of nature there would be no place\\nfor him but there is place when the object is to\\ngive prominence to the eiFect of nature upon man, not\\nvisually alone, but in his life. His principal\\nobject is not to paint nature, but rather to illustrate the\\npleasures human life derives from nature. For this\\npurpose multiplicity of points of contact, rather\\nthan orderhness or artistic arrangement, is important.\\nIn this particular case is the poet s object not so much\\nto show the relation of nature to his own enjoyment\\nof it as it is to present the scene setting for the story\\nMr. Symons says of Miranda and Clara: **This\\nman and woman are analyzed with exquisite skill but\\nthey are not in the strict sense inventions, creations\\nwe understand rather than see them. Only towards\\nthe end, where the facts leave freer play for the poetic\\nimpulse, do they rise into sharp vividness of dramatic\\nHfe and speech. Nothing in the poem equals in\\nintensity the great soliloquy of Miranda before his\\nstrange and suicidal leap, and the speech of Clara to\\nthe Cousinry. Here we pass at a bound from\\nchronicling to creation and however splendid the\\nchronicle, this is a great step. Would this poem\\nhave gained by dramatic treatment all through, or\\nwould a charm peculiar to itself have been lost in\\nthis way Does the charm consist largely in the way\\nwe see the poet s own mind working with the facts\\nand presenting them always in an atmosphere which\\nseems to be compounded of his own sympathies and\\nopinions, and those of society, which he subtly\\nsatirizes", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0488.jp2"}, "489": {"fulltext": "Single Poem Studies: The Inn\\nAlbum\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nThe Inn Album x 132 296\\nI. Topic for Papery Class-work y or Private Study.\\nThe Dialogue and its Management.\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. Is the\\nstage setting of this poem typically English What\\nsigns of its English quality are noticeable and are\\nthese marked, not merely by familiarity such as belongs\\nto English scene painting by other English poets, but\\nby the keener observation and frequently ironical\\ntouch of the cosmopolitan who knows his own country\\nthe better for knowing other countries well\\nIs the realism of the dialogue too prosaic for a poem\\nOr is the verse so dexterously blent with lifeHke talk\\nthat the realism gives the line freshness and **go,\\nwhile the metre unobtrusively confers upon the dia-\\nlogue the restraint and compressed vigor that a novel\\nin prose usually lacks\\nIs The Inn Album a more successful novel in\\nverse than the Red Cotton Night-cap Country,\\nbecause it joins the quicker action of the drama with\\nthe story-telling quality of the novel, and so strips\\naway discursiveness of all sorts\\nAre the descriptive parts of the poem graphic and\\nterse to such a degree that they are virtually little but", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0489.jp2"}, "490": {"fulltext": "456 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nstage directions Is the movement brisk How-\\nmuch time does it occupy\\nDoes the setting of the poem show dexterity in\\nmanaging that all the scenes, except one, shall take\\nplace in the Inn parlor, and yet so naturally arrang-\\ning the exits and entrances that the characters appear\\ntete-a-tete successively, so far as is necessary for car-\\nrying on the plot of their cross-relationship How\\nis this effected\\nIs the part the Inn Album passively plays all\\nthrough the dialogue artificial, or a natural incident\\nmade use of ingeniously\\nHow do the various tete-a-tetes open up the little\\nplot, and bringing the three main characters into closer\\nand closer contact, take the steps leading to the last\\nintense situation and tragic end (See digests of the\\nparts of the poem, in Notes, Camberwell Browning\\nas cited.)\\nIs the second appearance of the girl, outside the\\nclosed door, at the end of the poem, where her light\\ngay voice and bantering talk are heard, while she her-\\nself remains unseen, a refreshing foil to the grim scene\\ninside, and an original conclusion Or does it leave\\nthe story in too unfinished a state as regards the future\\nof the younger pair\\nIs the dialogue especially English, and appropriate\\nto the middle of the nineteenth century\\nThe opening speech of the nobleman gamester, at\\nthe beginning of the poem, alludes to Browning (lines\\n14-18) in a depreciating way. Is this in question-\\nable taste on the poet s part Or is it in place, here,\\namong the various references to modern English\\nwriters, as a natural contemporaneous hit, and one\\nfairly representative of common criticism upor. Brown-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0490.jp2"}, "491": {"fulltext": "THE INN ALBUM 457\\ning as an artist Does it help to mirror the time,\\nthen, and does the irony of the poet upon his critics in\\nbringing forward thus their fun at his expense, outdo\\nthem?\\nDoes the reference to Wagner and then to Beetho-\\nven at the end of the poem (Hnes 46\u00e2\u0080\u009450, and see\\nnote thereon, p. 303), similarly reflect a characteristic\\nof the time in moot criticism of Wagner Or does\\nit in this case, in giving the girl s opinion, imply\\nBrowning s also, that Beethoven was worth fifty\\nsuch How do these compare with other such\\nallusions in the poem as to reflecting pubHc opinion of\\nthe time\\nIs this poem the more lifelike for being rich in\\nlocal color of this kind, and will this contribute\\ntoward its increasing value and interest as a transcript\\nof typical English nineteenth-century life in the\\nfuture Or is it likelier to lose interest on this\\naccount\\nWhat other aesthetic characteristics contribute to\\ngive this dialogue its especial flavor Is the allusion\\n(Part II., lines 42-75) to the cousin s music at\\nthree guineas an hour, and the semi-grand piano\\nshe has to use while her master has the table top,\\nand the use made of this as illustrative imagery an\\nappropriate bit of realistic symbolism And the elm-\\ntree whose beauty so feeds the eye of the elder\\nwoman in her talk with the girl (Part III., lines 59-69,\\n241-251), is this one of many such essentially Eng-\\nlish objects made use of to bring out character and\\nplot in a way that suits the scene and dialogue\\nWhich of these realistic figures and allusions are\\nhumorous\\nDoes the speech of the two younger characters in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0491.jp2"}, "492": {"fulltext": "458 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe dialogue show freshness and inexperience in com-\\nparison with that of the older man and woman\\nHow is this effected\\nIs the element of surprise in the plot well man-\\naged Is the reader led to divine the relationships\\nexisting between the characters, and so to follow\\nreadily the thread that is knitting the plot but later\\nto be carried to the loosing of the knot without guess-\\ning how it will be managed In the talk of the\\ntwo men, for example, is it clear guessing enough,\\nexcept to them, that they have loved the same woman,\\nand in the talk of the two women, that the elder one\\ncannot be as happy as the younger one supposes she\\nis But it is a mystery what the older man is going\\nto do to make the woman obey him, or how she is\\ngoing to get out of the difficulty, so that on top of\\nher apparent acceptance of the youth the final tragedy\\ncomes with the suddenness of fate.\\nDoes The Inn Album, together with the Red\\nCotton Night-cap Country, show, as Mr. James\\nFotheringham has put it, **a pathological rather than\\nan aesthetic or ethical curiosity and development\\nIs it marked by diffuseness, as Mr. Alexander says\\nall Browning s work after 1868 is\\nIs **The Inn Album so concise, vigorous, and\\nunspeculative in the conduct of the dialogue that the\\ncommon classification of it as belonging with the more\\ndiscursive works of this period of Browning s writing\\nshows a manifest inaccuracy or a stupid lack of criti-\\ncal discernment\\nIs it, in management of plot and directness of dia-\\nlogue, **more nearly similar in form to the pure\\ndrama, as one of Browning s English critics, Mr.\\nArthur Symons, has been enough unprejudiced by the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0492.jp2"}, "493": {"fulltext": "THE INN ALBUM 459\\nfree treatment of a home subject to see, than any\\nother of all Mr. Browning s poems not cast in the\\ndramatic form r\\nWe have a thread of narrative, but only a thread\\nconnecting dramatic situations, says Professor Walker\\nalso; and comment there is none. The curtain falls\\nbefore the eifect of the last tragic scene is disclosed\\nit is left to the imagination. And each character\\nhas spoken for and interpreted itself.\\nII. Topic for Paper Classzvorky or Private Study.\\nThe Characters.\\nQueries for Investigatio7i and Discussiofi. Does\\nthe first speaker give an equivocal impression of quiet\\nreserve that may be strength of character and that may\\nbe merely pose How early does his bearing begin\\nto awake suspicion Is he right in taking the young\\nfellow s friendly proffer to cancel the gaming debt\\njust as he does Or is there room here for a little\\nsuspicion of so much virtue in a gambler s honor\\nWhen, after having confided to the youth his real\\ncharacter as it comes out in his account of why he is\\nnot a success in life, is one led to believe him to be\\nin earnest in his conviction that in her life s prize\\nwas grasped at, gained, and then let go He has just\\nsaid he hated his love (Part II., line 107). Which is\\nthe pose Did he really hate her for ill-starring his\\nfuture\\nIs the boy contemptible in his readiness to admire\\nbrilliant sins and aristocratic looseness or likable on\\naccount of his freshness and weakness with a man to\\nwhom he thinks he owes friendship\\nHow much of the glamour of such arrogant self-\\nindulgence as that of the gamester noble is due to his\\nrank and artificial social importance", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0493.jp2"}, "494": {"fulltext": "460 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs the girl in her ardent friendship for the older\\nschoolmate refreshing and natural, and without the\\nstain of weak admiration of the cynical that is a part\\nof the boy s relation with his man friend\\nShe and the boy are both more talkative and free\\nof fancy than their two friends. Is this lifehke and\\nsuitable to the conditions of the case in both of these\\ninterviews\\nIs the older woman so much of a sphinx that one\\nbegins to suspect her too Or is it soon evident\\nthat her nature is self-contained from suffering and not\\nfrom any lack of frankness Whenever she does\\nfind it requisite to tell anything, does she speak with\\nthe utmost directness, and follow it up with words\\nwhich most unflinchingly impart the main truth\\nDoes she leave any doubt as to her love of her\\nyounger schoolmate And yet, is it a very warm\\nfriendship, which after an unequivocal expression of\\nunhappiness from the one friend is met by the other s\\nobeying her bidding and leaving her at once Or is\\nit such a shock to the girl, especially with her own\\nmarriage pending, that her going is natural Or is it\\nthat the stronger nature of the woman and the sense\\nof her self-controlled suffering awe her, checking\\nher gay volubility, and making her feel that the most\\ndelicate sympathy she can show is silence, and doing\\nas she is bidden\\nMiss E. D. West, in her paper on An Aspect of\\nBrowning s Villains (in Browning Studies of\\nthe London Browning Society, pp. 106-129), con-\\nsiders that there are indications of the unused better\\nself in the hateful elder man of The Inn Album.\\n**This man has keen intellectual perceptions of moral\\ndistinctions he nowhere calls evil good. He has", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0494.jp2"}, "495": {"fulltext": "THE INN ALBUM 461\\nsubtle discernment of the quality of the earthly bless-\\nings he has forfeited. Just herein does the tragedy of\\nhis life lie in his clear vision of the heaven of noble\\nhuman love between which and himself a great gulf\\nhas, by his own act, been set. His heart has become\\nbound in coils and coils of guileful motives, yet it as-\\nserts itself in a direct sincerity for once. This once\\nis when he reverts in the talk wkh. the boy to the\\nlove experience which might have been the means to\\nhim of gaining success.\\nAnd later on, continues Miss West, the pas-\\nsionate appeal to the woman from whose love he had\\nshut himself out by his grievous wronging of her, has\\na strange sort of pathos by reason of its being\\nprompted by complicated impulses of a twofold\\nnature, only one part base. We, the readers, are\\ngiven insight into the half genuineness of his transient\\nfeeling while sbe, his former victim, is seen by us\\nas discerning in his entreaty only the latest device of\\nhis guile. Sbe does not perceive that this appeal\\nmade thus to her by the w^orld-hardened man is not\\nwholly the utterance of a mere lustful desire, but\\nis in some measure also the last despairing gasp after\\na heaven of good, made by a soul as it sinks down into\\nan earthly hell of vileness. She is, in his eyes, a sym-\\nbol of the better life that he might have attained to,\\nand has missed.\\nThat he is still capable of thus feeling, that,\\neven perverted, the desire of self-surrender to a nature\\nwhich has seemed to him to represent v^hat is high-\\nest and best and most real finds even a temporary\\nplace in his heart, is an evidence of his being not\\nwholly dead in sin.\\nDoes the large deliberate look of the w^oman", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0495.jp2"}, "496": {"fulltext": "462 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwhen the man makes this proposition to her gain\\nour trust that it can read this villain more deeply\\nIs she one of Browning s intuitional characters whose\\ndecisions are unerring\\nDoes he indeed feel her superiority, as Miss West\\nintimates, and the blight his consciousness of his\\nwrong course with her has cast upon his life but\\ndoes he feel this as Guido felt Pompilia s moral\\npower, to resent it and strive to overcome it by guile\\nIs his course naturally the same, first, by craft to en-\\nsnare it and is his way of doing this suspicious of\\nplaying on her womanly vanity as to the influence she\\nretains over him yet second, by the less hidden\\nattempt by threat to force her to ruin herself?\\nIs it likelier that the lady feels his power almost\\noverwhelming her once more, and that in the des-\\nperate moral necessity her soul feels to protect herself\\nfrom him, she steels her heart more violently than\\nconsiderately against an overture with a good impulse\\nin it, which had she recognized with less scorn she\\ncould have encouraged without yielding to it herself?\\nIs the suggestion to this effect made in the Intro-\\nduction {^Camherzvell Brozujiingy Vol. X., p. xiii) the\\nmost probable\\nWas scorn, however, although it might move\\nhim first to do his worst to outwit it, so that he could\\nstill be the arch-scorner, the one token of proven\\ndefeat and stupidity on his part which could sting his\\nsoul into doubt of the wisdom of the habit of cynical\\nsuperiority and imperious selfishness at the root of his\\nmalevolence\\nWhat signs betray him, and which of these con-\\nstructions of him in his relations with her do they\\nauthorize", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0496.jp2"}, "497": {"fulltext": "THE INN ALBUM 463\\nCan the woman be justilied for taking the course\\nshe did, marrying for labor s sake and without frank-\\nness as to her past, even to save herself from worse\\nwreckage How much allowance must be made for\\nher necessity to take to public work of some absorbing\\nkind at a time now fifty or more years back\\nwhen there was scarcely any career open for a\\nwoman s energies, almost none in her position as a\\nclergyman s daughter in England, except as married\\nIt has been said of* The Inn Album that every\\ncharacter is either mean, or weak, or vile. Do you\\nfeel, on the contrary, that the girl is charming, pure,\\nand not without proof of the capacity for goodness\\nand wisdom that the boy, although weak and snob-\\nbish in his respect for the devilish nobleman, is loyal,\\nfrank, and intelligent in grain that the woman s\\nonly weakness is the depth and lavish generosity of\\na singularly noble heart, and that her sensibility and\\nintellect are of a high order\\nAs to the lago of the piece, is his nature so strong,\\nexcept for his assumption of privilege to make all\\nothers the inferior ministers of his amusement or\\nprofit, that he arouses the keenest interest, awakening\\nconcern for his squandered powers, at the same time\\nthat his course excites our moral hatred and our\\nartistic pleasure\\nIs the plot most indebted to him or to his victim\\nAlthough he initiates the plot, does she direct its\\ncourse despite him and does she hold in her\\nhand all possibility of redeeming him as well as\\nherself, and the abihty to make the younger man and\\nwoman happy or miserable Is it just, but hard, that\\nher own deception of her husband should be the\\nmeans of the man s last wrong to her?", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0497.jp2"}, "498": {"fulltext": "464 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nThe parson s beautiful daughter, writes Miss\\nWest, in the article before cited, would, without the\\nadvent of her seducer, have vegetated on, lily-like,\\nthrough some ordinary lot of life, never attaining to\\nthe sorrowful grandeur of soul to which the ruin of\\nher peace raised her. But, in the [character of the\\nworker of evil] as presented to us by Browning, is\\nthere not significance beyond the actual part [which\\nhe plays]\\nIs the principle of the explanation of the good\\nworked by evil through personality, suggested by\\nBrowning here, the spiritual illumining of a dark\\npicture\\nUpon this point Miss West again writes\\nTruly, if Browning maintains his hopeful theory\\nabout humanity, nobody can say that he shirks put-\\nting it to a very severe test. The adjective shal-\\nlow which so currently affixes itself now to the noun\\noptimism is hardly applicable to the theory as held\\nby the thinker who admits thus the obligation to find\\nroom in it for the fact that humanity comprises ex-\\nistences so hateful as these [this English nobleman\\nand the Italian nobleman, Guido]\\n**The question cannot be evaded, and he shows no\\ndesire to evade it Is there in human nature, in\\nthese its concrete forms, potentiality of final deliver-\\nance from the evil in it, given only time enough for\\nthe work To this question his answer is affirma-\\ntive expressed, indeed, in no definite formula, but\\ndiscoverable in and through his art.\\nIs the woman s suicide inevitable artistically.? Why\\ndoes Browning call the threat against her written in the\\nAlbum a warrant Does he imply that her poison-\\ning of herself was in a sense not her own deed, and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0498.jp2"}, "499": {"fulltext": "THE INN ALBUM 465\\nustifiable in self-defence This is a part of the real\\nevent on which the story was based. (See Notes,\\n-Camberzveli Browningy as cited, for particulars.)\\nDid the young man understand fully what she had\\ndone when he throttled her persecutor, and w^as his\\nact justifiable\\nIs her clearing of him from any legal process against\\nhim by her last writing in the Album strictly true\\nWas it just and right, and essentially true\\nWould the law have taken cognizance of such wrong\\nand remedied it, if she and the younger man had not\\nrighted it as they did\\nIf it were put upon the stage, what would be the\\nartistic effect of this last scene, wherein the young\\nman, alone, silent, all turmoil over, is hearing the in-\\nnocent voice of the girl, outside the door, while him-\\nself standing between the dead bodies of this man and\\nwoman whom each of them had called friend\\n30", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0499.jp2"}, "500": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life\\nEnglish\\nI. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nHistoric Illustrations of Political Life.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Notes\\nStrafford (1639-1642) i i 277\\nCavalier Tunes 1642-51, Civil War period) iv i 361\\nParleying with Charles Avison, lines 381\\nto end 1 745 circa^ Preston Pans and\\nCulloden) xii 167 355\\n*Clive (1774, Indian Empire) xi 168 312\\n**The Lost Leader (middle nineteenth century\\nreaction) iv 4 362\\nWhy I am a Liberal (1885) xii 279 383\\nJubilee Memorial Lines (1887) xii 279 383\\nFor special studies of Strafford and Avison,\\nsee programme, Single Poem Studies and Music\\nand Musicians, and for all these poems. Intro-\\nductions and Notes, Camberwell Browning, as cited\\nabove.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is it\\nin the light of an ideal of democratic advance toward\\nsuch a federated England, as he speaks of, at the\\nclose of Charles Avison, that Browning has con-\\nceived his historic illustrations of English political life\\nDoes he show in them that political progress has\\nbeen effected through reaction as well as advance.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0500.jp2"}, "501": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 467\\nbut without relaxing the inevitableness of the general\\ntendency toward the development of every unit of\\nhumanity, that is, toward democracy?\\nIs Browning patriotic without being either insular or\\nimperial\\nIs Strafford conceived in an impartial spirit,\\nso that the honest impulses of the time are exhibited,\\nanimating both sides of the political struggle, between\\nthe divine right of kings to govern and the people s\\nright to authorize government Yet is there any\\nequivocalness as to which issue best embodies progress\\nWhat does he mean in ^Charles Avison (line\\n390) when he says, Suppose back, and not for-\\nward, transformation goes\\nIs the general sense of stanzas xv. and xvi. to show\\nhow politically in English history the transformation\\nfrom the dominance of royal right to that of human\\nright was effected through the initial forward move-\\nment represented by Pym, despite the succeeding\\nbackward movements which modified the practical\\nresult Though night succeeds day, as the poet s\\nfancy puts it, heading, hacking and hanging of\\nrecusants under the Restoration following the success\\nof anti-Royahsm, there is no night nor day as to the\\npurpose animating the whole movement, for it is, in\\nessence, one, and goes forward. And though what\\nis practically effected is merely the substitution of\\nroyalty by consent for royalty by divine right, still, the\\nreactionary forces against which England marched at\\nPreston Pans and Culloden were quelled in that shape\\nof absolute as opposed to constitutional monarchy,\\nand pushed from the path of England s progress.\\nThus a new right, that of the people, arose in\\nmodern society, says Drury, in opposition to the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0501.jp2"}, "502": {"fulltext": "468 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nabsolute right of kings, and humanity entered upon a\\nnew stage of its journey. Feudalism had been an\\nadvance over Carlovingian barbarism. Royalty had\\nbeen likewise an advance over mediaeval feudalism.\\nAfter having constituted the modern nations, developed\\ncommerce and industry, favored the blossoming of the\\narts and letters, royalty undertook to render its ab-\\nsolute right eternal and demanded of the Catholic\\nChurch to aid it in maintaining itself therein. Eng-\\nland had the good fortune, thanks to her insular posi-\\ntion and to her traditions [and thanks, also, to Pym,\\nsays Browning, thanks to his personal ideals, initiative,\\nand energy], to grasp the principle which was destined\\nto be that of the future. To her wisdom she already\\nowes two centuries of tranquillity amid the ruins\\ncrumbling around her. (See Grosvenor s Drury s\\nGeneral History of the World and Green s\\nHistory of the English People.\\nWhy does the poet make Strafford from the\\nblock, and foes as well as friends (lines 426 and\\n427) shout Pym, our citizen Does he seem\\nto recognize here that the conservative element is as\\nnecessary as the radical for progress or only that the\\ninitiator of a fresh political impetus is clearer-sighted and\\nstronger-willed in accomplishing through struggle with\\nhis opponents what all honest citizens desire, however\\nthey differ as to method the progress of their country,\\nand that to him, therefore, the credit is mainly due f\\nIs Browning, in his Cavalier Tunes, inconsistent\\nwith his elsewhere implied political philosophy, be-\\ncause he enters so sympathetically into the personal\\npoint of view of the Cavaliers rallying to the support\\nof the falling house of the Stuarts, and reflects so\\nattractively their bluff and intrepid fidelity", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0502.jp2"}, "503": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 469\\nWhat is the purport of Browning s picture of the\\nman who gave England India Does it illustrate\\nthat the moral courage it takes to decide to pursue one s\\nown life regardless of honor or dishonor, to be cut\\noff from public advantage and undisturbed by that\\nfact, is a more fundamental test of a man s worth to\\nhis country than the physical courage to face risk\\nwhich gave it an empire\\nIs Clive s point of view, when he felt the cold\\nmuzzle of the pistol touch his forehead, that not death\\nbut an obscure life was to be feared, and such blasting\\nof his ambition for future distinction that suicide would\\nbe his only resource\\nIs the old man, who recalls the anecdote, right\\nin making it suggest the personal application to his\\nown life that if he had felt less regard for the right\\nand more for wealth and honor, he, in his degree, so\\nfar as his ability permitted, would have acted as Clive\\nhad in his degree and that, however he and all the\\nworld admire the ruthlessness and cunning of a man\\nendowed with such powers as Clive s, still they admire\\nhim very much as they admire a tiger who murders\\nhalf a village, not for the deed but for the quality the\\nbrute shows and that in the ]ong run not such traits\\nof aggression but spiritual traits of character increase ir\\nvalue and significance\\nShould work of the sort Clive did for a nation be pri-\\nvileged, morally, as work for an individual ought not to\\nbe Is there one moral standard for a private citizen\\nand another for the public official or the soldier\\nIn giving to this real story of Clive (see Notes,\\nCa?nberwell Brow7iing for information), these cross-\\nlights of interpretation as to real courage and\\nreal virtue, does the poet indicate the half-corrupt", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0503.jp2"}, "504": {"fulltext": "470 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nand at best temporary value to civilization of the\\npolicy of aggressive military imperialism instituted\\nby Clive and that the real tasks of civilization will\\nhave to be taken up on a different plane ultimately\\nWhat comment on the poem and on Clive s policy\\ndoes Clive 3 suicide imply?\\nAs to the act itself, was it courage or fear, as Clive\\nsuspects Compare this way of meeting death with\\nthat of Prospice. Would just that temper of mind\\nin face of death be possible to a man whose life had\\nbeen spent in aggression and violence\\nWhat impression does the poem present of the per-\\nsonality of the great unhappy hero, Clive, and of\\nthe nameless old soldier who was his comrade and one\\nof the underlings at PLissy\\nVivid passing pictures of other characteristic figures\\nare given, incidentally, in the course of the old man s\\nmonologue, in its spirited, by turns chatty and rumi-\\nnating couplets the graceless boy who half laughs at his\\nold father s delight in telling the pet anecdote of his\\nfamous friend the eleven choice military spirits, Cap-\\ntain This and Major That, who none of them\\ndemurred a word, in time of need, in favor of **Sir\\nCounting House and Cocky himself, who, cheat\\nas he was, seems to deserve Clive s interposition as the\\nbest one of the gamester circle. Are they all effective in\\nbringing into higher relief the nobler figures of Clive\\nand his quiet old comrade poring over old times And\\nhow do all of the group illustrate English military life\\nWhether The Lost Leader be considered with\\nreference to Wordsworth and his abandonment of\\nliberalism at an unlucky juncture for *Mio repaying\\nconsequence, that I could ever see (for Browning s\\nown words about it, turn to Camberwell Brownings", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0504.jp2"}, "505": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 471\\nVol. IV., Notes, p, 362), or to any such prominent\\nliberal s defection from the people s party to the re-\\nactionary movement, in either case it illustrates the\\ncritical political situation of the middle of the century\\nand the almost desperate rallying, largely in fear of\\nFrance, to resist the most obviously wise liberating\\nmeasures, lest freedom should broaden down from pre-\\ncedent to precedent too smoothly and effectually. (See\\nNotes, cited above, as to the Parliamentary bills of the\\ntime relating to religious, political, and educational\\nfreedom which Wordsworth opposed.)\\nDoes the poem as a whole accord with the love of\\nthe progress of liberty implied in the dramatic and\\nmore directly historical poems How does the last\\npart (lines 25 to end) especially agree with the idea\\nexpressed in ^Avison of political transformation\\nbeing effected through going back as w^ell as forward\\nIs it in agreement with it that the lost leader is bidden\\nnever to come back, but to fight on and menace the side\\nthat once was his, until strength is given it to master\\nhim and his new devotion\\nWhat is the new knowledge, then? Is it\\nknowledge of the inevitableness of the people s progress,\\nagainst which energy cannot but assist through eliciting\\ngreater energy to accomplish it\\nWhat does found the one gift of which fortune\\nbereft us imply? That the honor of the laureate-\\nship, the one gift the people could not confer, had\\nbeen put in the hands of privilege through the curious\\ncombination of circumstances which made the revolu-\\ntion in England half abortive, so that political liberty\\nwas gained in great measure, but with the retention of\\nmonarchy and nobility\\nIs it significant of Browning s political sincerity and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0505.jp2"}, "506": {"fulltext": "472 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof his integrity as a poet, that his Jubilee Memorial\\nLines did not take their color from the blazoning of\\nthe window they were written to accompany (See\\nCamberwell Browiwtg^ Notes, Vol. XII., p. 385, for\\ndescription of the window. Was it due to the gener-\\nally uninspiring nature of set themes, that he failed to\\nhonor the Queen and the Empire more particularly,\\ndo you suppose or because it rightly seemed better\\nto him to give, in a Church, all honor to a higher\\nPower or because his patriotism was always con-\\nsistently of a sort that transcended the bounds of\\ntemporary institutions, and that held constantly in view\\nfurther progress towards democratic ideals\\nIs the little political credo^ Why I am a Liberal,\\nlarge enough to meet definitely the problems pre-\\nsented by political conditions that have arisen since\\nBrowning s death\\nHow does this confession of faith answer the\\nquestions suggested by the Jubilee Memorial lines\\nIs it in keeping with the general trend of his treatment\\nof political progress in England in this group of poems\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nPhases of Social Life.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nHalbert and Hob xi 124 303\\nNed Bratts (1672) xi 149 306\\nA Blot in the Scutcheon (early eighteenth\\ncentury) iii 69 306\\nMartin Relph (middle eighteenth century) xi 107 300\\nThe Inn Album (1839 c/Vffl) x 132 296\\nDonald (middle nineteenth century) xi 227 324\\nBishop Blougram s Apology (late nineteenth\\ncentury) xi 49 293\\nCompare Arcades Ambo, xii., 220, 369.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0506.jp2"}, "507": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 473\\nConsult foregoing programmes on **A Blot in the\\nScutcheon and The Inn Album, Poems of\\nAdventure and Heroism for Donald, and The\\nEvolution of Religion and The Prelate for\\nBishop Blougram s Apology; for these and the\\nrest of the poems of this group, see, also. Introductions\\nand Notes in Camberwell Brownings as here cited.\\nQueries for Investigatmi a?id Discussion. Is\\nBrowning s portrait in Halbert and Hob of the\\ninner relationship suddenly set up between a father\\nand son, never before joined in any other common\\nfeeling that was not physical, a revelation of the way\\nin which national life must always have begun\\nIs the situation one that belongs to the beginnings\\nof social life everywhere Is Enghsh life closer to\\nsuch historic savage beginnings than that of any other\\nEuropean nation How has Browning given an\\nEnglish coloring to the universal story For Aris-\\ntotle s version, see Notes on the poem as cited.\\nWhat view of crime intentionally committed against\\nsociety as a later product of life than uncouth wildness\\nis intimated by the fact that Halbert and Hob were\\nnot robbers or active offenders, but merely savage,\\ntotally undeveloped either by kindly or malicious\\nassociations\\nWas the son s heeding of his father s experience,\\nunder similar circumstances, and loosing of his hold\\nupon his throat, therefore, a result of heredity acting\\nthrough the physical nature, or of mental influence\\nbringing an external fact to bear upon his brain and\\nheart, through comprehension, imagination, and sym-\\npathy What does the poet mean by it\\nWhat relation has the idea of God to this climax of\\na common experience between the father and the son", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0507.jp2"}, "508": {"fulltext": "474 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDid **God embody to them in the light of this\\nstrange new experience an external fear or mystery\\nIs the suggestion to which this poem points, that\\na reason out of nature must turn such hard hearts\\nsoft, one which leads to the idea that human right-\\neousness and mercy are only to be derived from an\\nexternal God, or to the idea that the gradual modifi-\\ncation of brutal, merely selfish instincts is due to seeing\\nthings from more than one point of view, in short, to\\nsocial intercourse\\nDoes this story suggest that scientists are apt to\\nattach too much importance to the investigation of the\\nmerely physical side of social influence, and that the\\nfield of heredity, in the sense of the transmission of\\nprior life through physical relationship, is too narrow\\nto account for all, even if it were known to account\\nfor the larger part of family and racial development\\nWhere do Ned Bratts and his wife. Tabby, stand in\\nthe scale of social development with relation to Halbert\\nand Hob Are their sins, although of a less savage\\nand more criminal kind, of so rude and roystering\\na nature that they seem to belong to a primitive\\nperiod\\nAre they and the court scene, upon which the\\ntwain burst in with eagerness to be hung and saved,\\ncharacteristically English and in what respects is the\\nwhole picture true to the general aspect of this historic\\nperiod the twelfth year of the Restoration\\nIs the portrayal of **the gentles, enjoying the\\nsentencing to whipping, branding, and nose-slitdng of\\nPuritans caught at prayer, based on facts\\nDoes the presentation of the time to be gathered\\nfrom the records of the Restoration period (see Pepys s\\nDiary, the dramas of Wycherly and Mrs. Aphra", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0508.jp2"}, "509": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 475\\nBehn, Bishop Burnet s History of my own Times\\nwarrant both the contrast in attitude between the\\nQuaHty and the **Folk, which is exhibited in\\nthis poem, and their fundamental kinship in crude\\nfeeling\\nIs the humor of the poem too farcical Is it in\\nthis respect thoroughly in keeping with the historic\\nquahty its broad realism reveals\\nWhat value has the poem as an explanation of the\\ngreat literary phenomenon of the time, Bunyan s\\nPilgrim s Progress\\nAs an exposition of Bunyan s hold upon the popu-\\nlar instinct and upon the secret of his awakening a\\nrude and strongly animal people through fear toward a\\nless boisterously Pagan life, and a piety characteristic\\nof the English nation, is Ned Bratts as artistic as\\nit is convincing\\nHow is the material managed so as to give the\\neffect of a day and an incident as lurid as Bratts s\\nmuch-feared hell The hot season and its effects\\nupon crops, country, cattle, and people strike inward\\nmore and more. The stewing court packed with\\nidlers has a still more sweltering sensation when noise\\nis added to the impression, hoots and yells announcing\\nthe brass-bold pair, brick-built of beef and\\nbeer. Then comes the blurting confession, rounded\\ninto the ear with provincial obsolete English, and\\nthe momentary hush that follows it is drowned in a\\nstrident uproar.\\nWhat sort of beauty belongs to the poem The\\ndramatic beauty of means perfectly adapted to a vital\\neffect\\nTo pass from Ned Bratts to **A Blot in the\\nScutcheon, and to realize that both are constructed", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0509.jp2"}, "510": {"fulltext": "476 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nto reveal different phases of English life, probably not\\nmuch more than half a century apart, is to have a\\nlively appreciation of Browning s artistic versatility and\\nevolutionary method in depicting life. Is the national\\npeace and prosperity belonging to England in the\\nearly Georgian period such as to support the settled\\nrefinement and studious habits shovv^n in the main\\ncharacters of A Blot\\nIs the social morality of this play a fixed quantity,\\nas Mr. Henry Jones finds fault with it for being\\nBrowning as a Dramatic Poet, Poet-lore, Vol. VI.,\\npp. 13-28, January, 1894), or is the whole plot\\nfounded, on the contrary, on the hollowness of social\\nmorality considered as a fixed quantity adding a rigid\\ndignity to a family Is the sense of irretrievable\\nsin in Mildred, as she at first feels it and is the\\ntouch of unreality in the character of Tresham, as\\nMr. Jones complains, the necessary result of an ab-\\nnormal idea of family honor And is it so de-\\npicted in the drama in order to be dissolved and\\nreduced by the tragic climax into something more real\\nand human, an individualized moral basis\\nFrom a historical point of view is the play morally\\nin advance of the time Has the nineteenth century\\nyet lived up to it\\nThe main interest of Martin Relph is personal,\\nand it has only the slightest link with history.\\nWhat traces in the background refate it to the early\\nGeorgian era t\\nIs Martin s confession an honest one, or a sham\\nWas he really to blame for the girl s death, and does\\nhe know it\\nDoes such a sudden test of a man s good will as\\ncame to Relph afford a fair glimpse of a nature s capa-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0510.jp2"}, "511": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 477\\nbility for good, or would only such an opportunity to\\nprobe a soul s value be really trustworthy which gave\\ntime for a sober second thought Would a more\\ndeveloped nature respond more quickly to an appeal\\nto its good will than a rudimentary one, like Relph s\\nOr are all natures alike put to a sore trial when jeal-\\nousy complicates the question\\nWould any representation of Enghsh life fail in\\nnaturalness, if gaming and sport had no part in them\\nHow are these presented in *The Inn Album and\\nDonald Does Browning show in these poems\\nand in Clive an un-English prejudice against both\\nof these amusements Or does his personal view\\nfind only an implied expression in Donald against\\nthe common assumption that sport brings out a\\nman s courage\\nDoes Browning s idea of courage in that poem as\\nwell as in Clive go deeper than mere physical\\nrisk\\nIs there also in Donald, as in his bit of verse\\non vivisection, Arcades Ambo, a special sense of\\nchivalry in shielding brutes from man s abuse because\\nof their helplessness and inequality with the human\\nbeing\\nIs he right in considering that the deserter and the\\nvivisectionist are equally guilty of cowardice\\nIn what other respects are **The Inn Album\\nand Donald especially English For instance, as\\nto allusions, background, characters, and such char-\\nacteristic episodes as the lady s description in The\\nInn Album of her husband and his parish. Concern-\\ning the latter. Professor Walker points out that Brown-\\ning has there given the most powerful expression to\\nhis negative criticism of forms of popular belief that", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0511.jp2"}, "512": {"fulltext": "478 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhave played a large part in the life of England. They\\nare closely related to Ned Bratts, wherein a similar\\nreligion of fear is depicted, but at that earlier stage of\\nnational life it is a healthier religion, grotesque and\\ncrude as it may be, because the sentiments to which\\nit appealed are primitive, and not nineteenth-century\\nsurvivals, betokening starved and stunted human\\nnatures.\\nIn The Inn Album, the nameless heroine,\\ndriven by the wrong that clouds her life to marry an\\nobscure and narrow-minded country clergyman, de-\\nscribes her existence w^ith him. The description is a\\nfaithful picture of life from which all interests except\\nthe interest of evangelical Christianity have withered\\naway. It is not, and is not meant to be, a picture of\\nthe greater and larger-spirited evangelicals for the\\nlarger spirits of all sects and pardes invariably overleap\\ntheir boundaries. But it is true to evangelicalism as\\nseen by a small mind some fifty years ago. The\\nlimits of the husband s powers and attainments are\\ncarefully defined. He is a drudge not harmless,\\nfor to describe him so would be to do him at once\\ninjustice and more than justice. Life, for him, has been\\nconstantly narrowing. Any scholarship he ever had\\nis gone dropt or flung behind. He has had no\\nyouth, his January joins December. The influ-\\nence of an unenlightened theology on a nature small\\nto begin with is easily conceived. Heaven be-\\ncomes a vulgar bribe, and Hell a vulgar threat.\\nThe former he left wisely undescribed, but Hell\\nhe made explicit [Part IV., Hnes 240-415].\\nThere is probably nowhere a more powerful expo-\\nsure of beliefs which, though inherently absurd, have\\nbeen gravely taught and widely believed. The", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0512.jp2"}, "513": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 479\\nnearest parallel is perhaps the satires of Burns, with\\ntheir merciless exposure of the extreme forms of\\nCalvinism.\\nIs the criticism of doubt-sapped religion adorned with\\nculture s fruits, in Bishop Blougram s Apology,\\nany less penetrating, or the picture any less typical,\\nthan this in **The Inn Album of the parish priest\\nwho in youth perhaps read Dickens\\nIs there any correspondence in the ground of criti-\\ncism between these two different but equally represen-\\ntative English clergymen What is that common\\nground Is it materialism in both cases, though in\\nthe one suppressed all natural exercise, and in the\\nother dominant, polished, and self-satisfied, which\\ncase-hardens the spiritual-aspiration and benumbs\\ngrowth\\nWhat part does the assumption of superiority of\\nclass and position have throughout most of this group\\nof Browning s English poems Is the claim to aris-\\ntocracy and social rank indirectly treated as a source of\\nmoral weakness, or simply represented incidentally\\nIn Bishop Blougram, especially, what part does\\nhis consciousness of social superiority to Gigadibs and\\nhis desire to hold on to his supremacy play in his\\nportrayal\\nIs this bishop as representative, so far as his mate-\\nrialism and desire to overtop his fellows are concerned,\\nof the elements of decay and moral weakness in the\\nnineteenth century, as the bishop of St. Praxed s is\\nof the like elements in the Central Renaissance\\nperiod\\nAre materialism and the desire for over-lordship\\nthe enemies besetting the progress of human civiliza-\\ntion to-dav", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0513.jp2"}, "514": {"fulltext": "Page\\nText Note\\n66\\n375\\nlO\\n364\\n65\\n375\\n175\\n388\\n63\\n374\\n480 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIII. Topic for Paper y Classwork, or Private Study.\\nEnglish Love of Country.\\nVol.\\nHome Thoughts from the Sea (179 7- 1805)\\nNationality in Drinks (1805)\\nHome Thoughts from Abroad\\nThe Englishman in Italy (1846)\\nDe Gustibus (modern)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Eng-\\nland s supremacy over the seas established by Nelson\\ndespite the growing powder of France under the great\\nNapoleon, and constituting almost the only check to\\nhis schemes, and so maintaining England intact, this\\nservice rendered in the name of England to all her\\ncitizens, is the poet s theme of praise and prayer in\\nHome-Thoughts from the Sea. In Nationality\\nin Drinks Nelson, again, is the hero, any trifling\\nanecdote of whom goes well with the toast to his\\nmemory. Are these patriotic tributes to England s\\nsea-power more inspiriting, because fuller of human\\ninterest, than the love of the land at springtime\\nwhich finds expression in **Home Thoughts from\\nAbroad\\nAre the unreal fancies suggested by the claret\\nof France and the tokay of Germany compared to\\nthe merest incidental recollection of the hero. Nelson,\\nsuggested by the beer of England, a patriot s natural\\nway of making his own country the most important\\neven in trifles But is it fair t\\nIs its history or its natural aspect the most satisfy-\\ning element of attraction to the lover of his country\\nMust the historv of his country always disappoint\\nthe patriot at some times", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0514.jp2"}, "515": {"fulltext": "ENGLISH NATIONAL LIFE 481\\nBrowning wrote, in Home Thoughts from\\nAbroad, of the superiority of even England s butter-\\ncups over Italy s gaudy melon-flower. Ten years\\nlater, in De Gustibus, he contrasted the lover of\\nEnghsh trees and lanes and fleeting girl and boy\\nloves, greatly to their disadvantage beside the speaker s\\nlove for an old castle in the Apennines, or an Italian\\nsea-side house to the southward, and a people awake\\nto revolt against the Bourbons, even in the shape\\nof the barefoot girl who brings in- melons. Did\\nBrowning change in his feeling for England If\\nso, can you imagine why Compare with Elizabeth\\nBarrett Browning s Preface to her Napoleon III. in\\nItaly and Other Poems; and with England s his-\\ntorical attitude of non-sympathy with republican up-\\nrisings in other countries. Or is it only to be supposed\\nthat Browning wrote these two poems to express, two\\ndifferent moods\\nIn The Englishman in Italy, however, does he\\nagain express, beneath all his pleasure in the unwonted\\nbeauty of an Italian scene, a deep-seated dissatisfaction\\nwith the slowness and hesitancy of England to take a\\nmanifestly humane and liberating step by passing the\\nlong-agitated Corn laws If this were so, is he more\\nor less a lover of England\\n31", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0515.jp2"}, "516": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life:\\nItalian\\nI. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study,\\n-Art in the Renaissance Period.\\nPage\\nVol.\\nText\\nNote\\nii\\n93\\n909\\nV\\n24\\n287\\nV\\n36\\n289\\nV\\n22\\n286\\nV\\n45\\n291\\niv\\n52\\n371\\nSordello (i 184-1280)\\nFra Lippo Lippi (1412-1496)\\nAndrea del Sarto 1486-153 1\\nPictor Ignotus (Florence, 15\\nThe Bishop Orders his Tomb (Rome, 15\\nOld Pictures in Florence (critical)\\nFor special studies of these poems, see Camberwell\\nBrow7iingy Introductions and Notes as referred to\\nabove, and programmes The Poet and **Art\\nand the Artist.\\n(Queries for I?westigatio?i and Discussioti. If we\\ntake from Burckhardt, Pater, Symonds, Vernon Lee,\\nand such other writers as Michelet, Emile Gebhart,\\nMarc Monnier, who have uncovered the Renaissance\\nstores for us, those traits which they agree upon as\\ncharacteristic of the period, we shall have as our\\nclews to guide us through the mazes of the subject\\nthese main threads i A new pohtical and civic\\ntendency, and therewith a new way of wielding war\\nas an instrument of subtle statecraft a subordination\\nof brawn to brain (2) A new passion for culture.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0516.jp2"}, "517": {"fulltext": "ITALIAN NATIONAL LIFE 483\\nand therewith a revival of antique traditions, a new\\nscientific curiosity for knowledge, a new faculty for\\nart, plastic, pictorial/ and poetic (3) A new con-\\nception of love and (4) A new devotion to spiritual\\nideals. Courthope, who has perhaps the latest vv^ord\\non the subject, says The Renaissance is a phrase\\nat once misleading and obscure. It seems in itself\\nto mean new birth. But by some writers it is\\nemployed to signify a new-born spirit of revolt against\\nthe trammels of ecclesiastical authority and tradition,\\nwhile others use ij: in a more restricted sense, as indi-\\ncating a freshly awakened interest in the principles of\\nclassical literature, which had been allowed to slumber\\nthrough the darkness of the Middle Ages. Neither\\nof these definitions, however, can be said to cover all\\nthe facts of the case. For on the one hand the pio-\\nneers of the movement were the Schoolmen, who were\\nalso the most powerful defenders of the authority of\\nthe Church and on the other, the stream of classical\\nculture, however feeble and shrunken in volume, had\\nnever entirely ceased to flow. The Renaissance was\\nin fact a tendency inherent in the condition of things,\\nand it was promoted from different quarters by the\\nindependent action of all the greatest minds of the\\nthirteenth and fourteenth centuries. By some\\nthe ideas derived from their new studies were thrown\\ninto the logical form natural to them from their\\nscholastic training others expressed their emotions\\nin lyrical verse and others again, of a more lively\\nor less reflecdve turn, imitated directly the objects\\nimmediately before their eyes. But they all wrote\\nin their native tongues, and accordingly, while the\\nRenaissance allied itself everywhere with the cause\\nof political liberty, it at the same time developed the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0517.jp2"}, "518": {"fulltext": "484 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nseparate life of every European nation, by perfecting\\nthe structure of each national language.\\nDoes Browning show, in his portrayal of Sordello,\\nthat to his mind the supreme force at work in the\\nRenaissance was the awakening of a new political and\\ncivic spirit r That its master-motive was what Burck-\\nhardt calls the awakening of **the individual in love\\nwith his own possibilities, which Vernon Lee speaks\\nof as the movement for mediaeval democratic prog-\\nress which Symonds describes as **the persistent\\neffort after liberty of the unconquerable soul of Man,\\nand what we should call to-day the democratic ideal\\nAs represented in Sordello, did the Renaissance\\nconsist in the slavish imitations of classical ideals, or\\nin the absorption of a spirit akin to the ancient spirit\\nwhich made for social and artistic ideals of a similar\\nnature\\nIn his manner of artistic expression in literature,\\nwhat did Sordello do that was afterwards completed\\nby Dante\\nIn what language had the literature of Italy been\\nwritten up to that time\\nIn what way do we find the movement for liberty\\nworking in Fra Lippo Lippi\\nDid the revolt against the authority of the Church\\nwhich was one of the elements in the Renaissance\\ninclude a revolt against its authority in moral matters\\nas well as against its authority in intellectual and\\nreligious matters\\nDoes Andrea del Sarto, as Browning has portrayed\\nhim, stand for the type of artist that reflects an in-\\nspired age simply because he was born in it, while he\\nwould have been incapable of inaugurating such an age\\nand is incapable of taking the inspiradon farther on-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0518.jp2"}, "519": {"fulltext": "ITALIAN NATIONAL LIFE 485\\nward Does he perfect the techjiique of art until the\\ninner meaning is in danger of being lost\\nIf his age had been as uninspired as himself, would\\nhe have been able to indulge in such pertinent self-\\ncriticism\\nIn Pictor Ignotus do you discover any signs of\\nthe Renaissance spirit How is it influenced by the\\nunknown painter s own personality\\nIs the Bishop at the opposite extreme from Fra\\nLippo Lippi in his attitude toward the Church, or is\\nhis desire to save in his tomb some of his wealth from\\nthe Pope (see Camberwell Brozvni?igy Notes, Vol. V.,\\np. 293) a sign that he had also revolted from the author-\\nity of the Church\\nHas the effect of the revival of learning on him\\nbeen to inspire him with the desire to develop his\\npossibilities\\nIs his artistic attitude an undigested conglomerate\\nof the past and the present growing out of an external\\nappreciation of the worth of the past\\nBurckhardt writes We must insist that it was not\\nthe revival of antiquity alone, but its union with the\\ngenius of the Italian people which achieved the con-\\nquest of the western world. Does Browning in these\\npoems show still more than this namely, that its\\neffect in influencing the character of individuals differed\\nas their characters difi^ered, and therefore bad influences\\nas well as good influences resulted\\nBesides illustrating so clearly the moving forces in\\nthe Renaissance, does the poet also give vivid pictures in\\nthese poems of the manners of the times\\nThe poems may be compared with accounts of the\\nmanners of the times given by Symonds in his\\nHistory of the Renaissance.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0519.jp2"}, "520": {"fulltext": "486 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDo you agree with Dr. Burton that poetry is a\\nbetter vehicle for making the life of any time live\\nbefore us than the dry records of history\\nOf Sordello Dr. Burton says In our quest for\\nRenaissance pictures Sordello often rewards us.\\nThe Guelph and Ghibelline feuds and the Lombard\\nLeague are interwoven with the personal history of the\\nprotagonist, and if after a reading of the poem we do not\\nunder sta?id those far-away and involved internecine\\nquarrels, we do have ideas or images of medieval life\\nits hot gusts of passion, its political ambitions, its\\nfierce coarse brutalities, its lyric episodes of love, its\\nmanifold picturesqueness such as no mere chronicle\\ncould have given us. And this because a poet,\\nsaturating himself with contemporaneous documents in\\nthe British Museum, and thereafter visiting the scenes he\\nwould depict, really was able to reconstruct a long-\\ndone piece of human action so that it had body and\\nsoul, heat and substance. Again, of Fra Lippo\\nLippi he says: In dramatic pieces like this and\\nthe still greater Andrea del Sarto we are let into\\nthe very heart and get the blood beat of the blooming-\\ntime of creative painting. If ever a phase of life\\nwere done from the inside, as we say, it is here.\\n(See Poet-lorcy Vol. X., pp. 66-76, No. I, 1898\\nRenaissance Pictures in Browning by Richard\\nBurton.) Old Pictures in Florence is interest-\\ning in this connection because in it the poet shows\\nthe value of the early painters in the inauguration\\nof new ideals in painting. Was it learning that set\\nthese painters off on a new tack, or did they have\\nan inborn instinct toward more natural methods in\\nart\\nBrowning might have chosen to portray greater", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0520.jp2"}, "521": {"fulltext": "ITALIAN NATIONAL LIFE 487\\nnames in art during this period, but may have chosen\\nfor several reasons to portray the lesser. For ex-\\nample, would the clash between the great impulse\\nof the time and individuals come out more dis-\\ntinctly when those individuals did not stand as the\\ncomplete representatives of that time s highest achieve-\\nments And would not greater interest attach to\\nthose who were in the daw^n of a movement, and,\\nthough failing themselves, pointed out the way to\\nthose who were to come after them Is this the\\ncase with Sordello\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study,\\nLearning in the Renaissance Period.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nPietro of Abano (1249-1315) xi 190 315\\nA Grammarian s Funeral (shortly after the\\nRevival of Learning in Europe iv 248 394\\nFor hints upon these poems, see Camberwell\\nBrowningy Notes, as given above.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. In\\nPietro of Abano we have presented to us two\\ncharacters for study, the learned Pietro and the deceit-\\nful Greek. Was it usual at that time for one man to\\ninclude so many branches of learning as the poet says\\nPietro did In these days of the revival of learning,\\nwas it usual for the Church to persecute the learned,\\nbecause they were supposed to have become possessed\\nof magic powers by evil means This was one of\\nthe natural consequences, was it not, of that phase of\\nthe movement which revolted against the Church\\n(For history of the battles science has had to fight,\\nsee Draper s Intellectual Development of Europe", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0521.jp2"}, "522": {"fulltext": "488 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nand Andrew D. White s The Conflict between\\nScience and Theology. Was this feeling against\\nthe learned shared by the unlettered people who were\\nstill under Church guidance While knowledge in art\\nmatters had attained full development, knowledge in\\nscience was in its infancy. What were the sciences\\nas then practised, and whence was the knowledge\\nderived (See books mentioned above.) Browning\\nhas represented Pietro to be the magician the people\\nthought him, and which he doubtless thought himself,\\nbut might it be questioned whether he thought him-\\nself capable of just the kind of miracles the poet\\nrepresents him as performing\\nWere Greeks in the habit of going to Italy at this\\ntime, and has Browning any historical foundation for\\nrepresenting a Greek with the sort of character he\\ngives this Greek Does he not resemble strongly\\nGeorge Ehot s Tito Melema in Romola\\nWas Plato in especial favor in Italy (See\\nDraper s Intellectual Development of Europe\\nfor Cosimo de Medici s attitude toward Plato.)\\nIs the Greek s theory of ruling people for their\\ngood in harmony or at variance with the ideals of\\nthe Renaissance?\\nWhat the Greek actually did was to rule them for\\nhis own good. Is that a danger which underlies all\\ngovernment based upon such principles Did Plato\\n(see Notes) require a well-nigh impossibly developed\\nman to make his theory work as it should\\nThe Grammarian is quite another type of the\\nlearned man. He is occupied with learning simply\\nfor its own sake. His department of learning not\\ntaking him in the direction of magic, would he have\\nbeen likely to subject himself to the ill-will of either", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0522.jp2"}, "523": {"fulltext": "ITALIAN NATIONAL LIFE 489\\nChurch or people Does he truly represent one\\nphase of learning in this period\\nAlthough his desire has been to become possessed\\nof the utmost knowledge^ he reahzed that his aims\\ncould never be attained upon earth, and trusted in a\\nfuture life to complete the earthly life. Of this poem\\nDr. Burton writes, in the article before cited I know\\nof no lyric of the poet s more representative of his\\npeculiar and virile strength than this, in that it makes\\nvibrant and thoroughly emotional an apparently un-\\npromising theme. In relation to the Renaissance,\\nthe revival of learning, the moral is the higher inspira-\\ntion derived from the new wine of the classics, sa\\nthat what in later times has cooled down too often to\\na dry-as-dust study of the husks of knowledge, is\\nshown to be, at the start, a veritable revelling in the\\ndelights of the fruit, the celestial fruit which for its\\nmeet enjoyment called for more than a life span, and\\nlooked forward, as Hutton has it, to an eternal\\ncareer. *A Grammarian s Funeral, then, is\\na noble vindication of the possibilities rather than the\\nprobabilities of that calling, having its historic inter-\\nest in the implied high aims in scholarship of the time\\ncontrasted with later periods. No one Renaissance\\ncharacteristic stands out in higher relief than this of\\nlearning.\\nDoes the atmosphere of these two poems seem as\\nthoroughly Italian as those before considered\\nWould the fact that the first one is narrative instead\\nof dramatic make a difference in its impression of\\nreality\\nWhile scholars like unto the Grammarian existed\\nat that time, does it seem probable that he would have\\nhad such a circle of appreciators or is there some-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0523.jp2"}, "524": {"fulltext": "490 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthing in the appreciation of him which seems to\\nsmack of the broad sympathies of a Browning\\nDoes the rhythm of this poem seem to suggest\\nthe cUmbing feet of the followers who are carrying\\nthe body of their master to the mountain top for\\nburial\\nIf you feel this, should you say it was due to the\\nhalting eifect produced by the alternation of short\\nlines with weak endings\\nOf these two poems, which has the greater number\\nof allusions reflecting the time in which the scene is\\nlaid\\nWhat are the chief characteristics of the art of\\n*Pietro of Abano, and how does it differ from A\\nGrammarian s Funeral\\nMr. Symons declares it to be a fine picture\\nof true grotesque art, full of pungent humour, acute-\\nness, worldly wisdom, and clever phrasing and rhym-\\ning. It is written in a capital comic metre of Mr.\\nBrowning s construction. The poet gives the metre\\nin the music appended. Singing a note to every\\nword, it gives four stresses to the line, the feet being\\nmade up as follows first foot, four syllables second,\\ntwo third, four fourth, two. In the second line\\nthe feet all have four syllables. The third is the\\nsame as the first the fourth, the same as the second\\nexcept at the end. Does this sort of rhythm based\\nupon a musical lilt have an effect of greater freedom\\nthan the ordinary poetic freedom, or does it seem more\\nconstrained If it seems constrained, is it because\\nthe element of quantity is made more prominent than\\nit usually is in English verse\\nIII. Topic for Paper Classwork, or Private Study.\\nLife and Manners in the Renaissance Period.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0524.jp2"}, "525": {"fulltext": "ITALIAN NATIONAL LIFE 491\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nMy Last Duchess iv 143 384\\nThe Statue and the Bust (1587) iv 265 396\\nCenciaja (1599) ix 240 305\\nBeatrice Signorini (middle seventeenth cen-\\ntuvy) xii 229 370\\nThe Ring and the Book (1698). vi i 325\\nIn a Gondola iv 184 389\\nA Toccata of Galuppi s (1706-1785) iv 48 369\\nFor special study of these poems, see Camberzvell\\nBrowfiingy Introduction and Notes as given above,\\nand programmes on Husbands and Wives, Music\\nand Musicians, and The Ring and the Book.\\n(Queries for I?ivestigatio?i a?id Discussion. Are\\nthe husbands represented in these poems fair types of\\nthe Italian husband\\nWere murders such as those described in these\\npoems common occurrences during the centuries they\\ncover\\nDid the interference of the Church and State in\\nmoral matters increase or decrease after the inaugura-\\ntion of the Renaissance What do these poems\\nshow on that head\\nWere the methods of the Church and State in\\npunishing delinquents similar to those practised by\\nindividual husbands that considered themselves ag-\\ngrieved in any way\\nWhen did heresies against the Church of Rome\\nfirst begin to flourish, and how had heretics been\\ntreated Were Molinists subjected to persecution\\nat the time of the scene of The Ring and the\\nBook\\nHad the Renaissance influence in Italy died out\\nby this time Had the Church gained control again r", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0525.jp2"}, "526": {"fulltext": "492 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWere the officials of the Church, popes and cardinals,\\nbetter men morally than they had been in the re-\\nnowned days of the Renaissance\\nWhat effect did the character of the popes have\\non persecution Do you get the impression from\\n**The Ring and the Book that, although Italy\\nwas not so glorious in art and culture, the people\\nwere coming into a more individual life than they had\\nenjoyed Is this true to history\\nIn how many of these poems do you find reflec-\\ntions of the art spirit of the time, and what relations\\nhave the art to the rest of the story\\nIn Cenciaja we have a picture of the way\\nso-called justice was administered, and the personal\\nreasons that sometimes served as an excuse for the\\nexecution of the innocent. Are there hints at the\\ncorruption of the highest officials of the Church in\\nany of the other poems, or is this the only one that\\ngives a gHmpse of this phase in the life of the time\\n**In a Gondola and **A Toccata both speak\\nof the decay of Venice. Were the mysterious\\nthree that the lovers are afraid of in the former\\na sub-committee of the Council of Ten formed in the\\nlatter days of the Venetian Republic, whose duty it\\nwas among other things to administer justice upon\\nmoral offenders. Or were they probably the brothers\\nand husband of the lady, as suggested in the Notes\\nHas the poet pictured here just the sort of episode\\nlikely to occur in these dying days of Venice\\nWhat differences in manners and customs do you\\nobserve between The Ring and the Book and\\nSordello For example, in the treatment of\\nwomen, in the relations of Church and State By\\nthe time of Guido was the trial of the criminal a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0526.jp2"}, "527": {"fulltext": "ITALIAN NATIONAL LIFE 493\\nmore assured thing than it had been Were inquisi-\\ntorial methods, however, still in vogue\\nThe several cities in which the scenes of these\\npoems are laid are Ferrara, Florence, Rome, and\\nVenice, What differences were there in the govern-\\nment of these cities, and consequently in their customs\\nAre these differences indicated in the poems in any-\\nway\\nDo these poems reflect the social life of the time as\\nvividly as the art poems reflect the art life\\nFor information upon all these questions, the books\\nupon the Renaissance already cited may be consulted\\nalso Milman s Latin Christianity, Draper s In-\\ntellectual Development of Europe, first eight\\nchapters in W. R. Thayer s The Dawn of Italian\\nIndependence, Hazlitt s Florentine Republic,\\nPerren s History of Florence trans, by Lynch,\\nHoratio F. Brown s Historical Sketch of the Re-\\npublic of Venice.\\nIV. Topic for Paper y Classworky or Private\\nStudy. Phases of Political Life.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nLuria (1406) Hi 195 324\\nA Soul s Tragedy (15 iii 257 332\\nKing Victor and King Charles (1730) i 237 327\\nPippa Passes (1830 i 177 317\\nItalian in England (18 iv 170 387\\nDe Gustibus (i8 iv 63 374\\nFor special studies of these poems, see Camberwell\\nBrownings Introductions and Notes, as given above\\nalso programmes on Luria, A Soul s Tragedy,\\nKing Victor and King Charles, Pippa Passes.\\nQueries for hives ligation and Discussion. How", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0527.jp2"}, "528": {"fulltext": "494 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndo the relations of history to the story differ in this\\ngroup of poems\\nWhat were the conditions of Florence at the time\\nwhen Luria served it as General Has Brown-\\ning truly reflected them (See Napier s Florentine\\nHistory, chap. xxix. in Vol. III.)\\nAre the suspiciousness and doubleness Florentine\\ncharacteristics\\nThough no such mercenary general as Luria ex-\\nisted, such a character as his is easily imaginable. In\\ncreating this character and setting him in this Floren-\\ntine environment, has the poet combined history and\\nimagination in such a way as to produce a striking\\ndramatic situation Are such combinations of truth\\nand imagination more legitimate in art than the delib-\\nerate changing of historical facts for artistic purposes,\\nas the poet has done in King Victor and King\\nCharles\\nHas the poet developed Luria upon the foundation\\nof a true Oriental temperament What sort of\\npeople were there among the so-called barbarian\\nMoors, and what had been the nature of the civiliza-\\ntion they introduced into Europe (See Prescott s\\nConquest of Granada, and Draper s **Litellectual\\nDevelopment of Europe, chap, xvi.)\\nDoes this play, besides its character-interest, sym-\\nbolize the marriage of Oriental and Occidental ideals,\\nas the second part of Goethe s Faust symbolizes\\nthe marriage of Greek and Northern ideals\\nWere leaders of revolt as frequent in Italy as\\nBrowning makes Ogniben in A Soul s Tragedy\\ndeclare\\nDo the histories of any of these leaders of revolt\\nresemble that of Chiappino Were these revolts", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0528.jp2"}, "529": {"fulltext": "ITALIAN NATIONAL LIFE 495\\nagainst petty local tyrants And did the Church\\nfrequently settle things by taking them into its own\\nhands\\nMight A Soul s Tragedy be said to be typical\\nof a historical condition prevailing in Italy at that\\ntime, rather than a picture of any actual occurrence r\\nDoes the atmosphere in this poem seem to be espe-\\ncially Italian, or is its Italian setting rather external\\nthan anything else, the ethical problem being supreme\\nWhat connection is there between the Kings of\\nSardinia and Italian history Has Browning drawn\\nKing Victor and King Charles better or worse than\\nthey appeared in history\\nHas he made copious use of historical facts in the\\ncreation of the atmosphere of the play Is the delib-\\nerate change in facts that he makes at the end allow-\\nable for the artistic purpose of unifying Charles s\\ncharacter, and making it consistent throughout (For\\nhints on the history, see Camberwell Browfiing,\\nNotes, p. 287 fol.)\\nIn Pippa Passes the civilization belongs to our\\npresent century, and crimes such as those committed\\nin Asolo are still recorded in our own daily papers.\\nThe special atmosphere here comes, however, through\\nlocal color and the background of historical events\\nindicated through the Austrian police and Luigi.\\nWhat actual state of things in Italy is reflected\\nthrough them (See W. R. Thayer s The\\nDawn of Italian Independence and Cesaresco s\\nThe Liberation of Italy.\\nDoes the Italian in England give a more com-\\nplete picture of the condition of things in Italy during\\nthe struggle for independence than can be gained\\nfrom Pippa Passes (For history, see Camber-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0529.jp2"}, "530": {"fulltext": "496 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwell Brownings Notes, Vol. IV., p. 387 fol.\\nalso Histories cited above.)\\nIs this poem trebly interesting because of the beau-\\ntiful incident it relates, the fine character drawing of\\nthe man, and its reflection of a most interesting period\\nof Italian history\\nIn De Gustibus we have the poet s own feel-\\ning in regard to Italy expressed. Though it refers\\nespecially to the country, may it be taken as a symbol of\\nthe poet s deep interest in the art and life of Italy as\\nreflected in his sympathetic portrayals\\nAdded to his historical interest, is his living sym-\\npathy for the Italian struggle for independence.\\nThough he has not expressed this with the lyrical\\nfervor that Mrs. Browning did (see her poems Casa\\nGuidi Windows, First News from Villa Franca,\\nand others of her Italian poems), has he none the less\\nexpressed it in his exquisite dramatic sketch of an inci-\\ndent characteristic of the struggle in The Italian in\\nEngland", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0530.jp2"}, "531": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life\\nFrench\\nI. Topic for Papery Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nPictures of Historic Life,\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nCount Gismond (twelfth century) iv 145 384\\nRudel to the Lady of Tripoli (twelfth cen-\\ntury) V 91 299\\nThe Glove (1540 c/rf^) iv 162 385\\nThe Laboratory (Ancien Regime) iv 19 366\\nHerve Riel (1692) ix 220 302\\nTwo Poets of Croisic (seventeenth and\\neighteenth centuries) x 230 304\\nFor hints on the first four poems of this group, see\\nthe programme on Phases of Romantic Love; for\\nHerve Riel, programme on Poems of Adven-\\nture and Heroism; for the last poem, also, compare\\nprogramme on The Poet; also Introductions and\\nNotes in Camberwell Brozvning, as cited.\\nQueries for lnvestigatio7i and Discussion, Does\\nCount Gismond present a true picture of Proven-\\n9al life and chivalry\\nAs a love-story, is the poem representative of the\\npossibilities of the time, or is it purer and simpler than\\nis probable for that period\\nDoes it properly belong to the dawn of chivalry in\\nFrance (as is here supposed) or to the later four-\\nteenth century chivalry Why\\n32", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0531.jp2"}, "532": {"fulltext": "498 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWas the abandonment of all claims of a selfish kind,\\nthe devotion and platonic quality of the love Rudel\\nshows, the real flower of chivalry, its characteristic\\nexpression\\nAre its simplicity and almost childlike strain due to\\nits romantic French quaHty How does it compare,\\nfor example, with Dante s expression of an equally\\nchivalric love for Beatrice in the Vita Nuova\\nIs it possible to trace the reason for the contrast in the\\nnature of the devotion shown by the two lovers to\\ntheir differences as individuals merely, or to the differ-\\nences between them as members of a primitive Prank-\\nish and an older Italian stock (For information\\nupon Rudel as a poet, see Justin H. Smith s **The\\nTroubadours at Home, Vol. II., pp. 303-312 also\\nupon customs in holding such tourneys as the one\\ndescribed in Count Gismond, see Helen Leah\\nReed s Browning s Pictures of Chivalry, Poet-lore^\\nVol. XL, pp. 588-601, No. 4, 1899 also Vernon\\nLee s Euphorion, Vol. II., chapter on Medieval\\nLove; Mills s History of Chivalry; Hallam s\\nMiddle Ages, Vol.11., p. 456; Guizot s His-\\ntory of Civilization, Vol. III., Lecture VII. For\\noriginal romances of France, King Arthur and the\\nTable Round, Tales after the old French of\\nChrestien of Troyes, by W. W. Newell, and\\nMalory s Morte d Arthur.\\nIn The Glove a picture of the decadence of\\nchivalric love tests appears under Francis I., the\\nking who consciously sought to imitate and prolong\\nthe old days of chivalry. For this reason it shows all\\nthe more strikingly both the natural decay through\\nselfishness of the old impulse to perform feats of valor\\nand take any risk that a knight s lady might assign.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0532.jp2"}, "533": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 499\\nand the rise of a- new impulse, opposed to raere courtly\\nimitation of deeds of prowess, but holding to that\\nwhich was true in it, unselfishness in love. How are\\nthese elements of decay under old forms and re-birth\\nin a new spirit illustrated in the knight De Lorge and\\nthe Court party on the one side, and the lady, Ron-\\nsard, and her nameless, unknightly lover on the other\\nside\\nHow do the three poets Rudel, Marot, and\\nRonsard exemplify the national spirit of France with\\nreference to the dawn and passing of chivalry\\nIs the fact of formalism in chivalry due to chivalric\\nideals becoming the fashion, patronized by the king\\nand codifiied into customs from which falsity as well as\\nsincerity could win glory What comment does the\\npoem supply on this point of court corruption in the\\ndegrading relation of the king with his knight, De Lorge,\\nand his wife\\nBut how does all this agree with the representations\\nof cyclopaedias (Zell s Cyclopaedia, for example) and\\nold-fashioned histories on chivalry, which attribute\\ngrossness to twelfth century chivalry and refinement\\nto fourteenth century chivalry Is Browning s rep-\\nresentation truer to life, in its implication that the\\nyouth of the chivalric movement, while it must afford\\nexamples of grossness, must also afford examples of\\ngenuineness, and for the same reason, i. e. because it\\nwas originally a natural growth, while its successful\\nold age, as an institution of feudal courts, must afford\\nexamples of mere formalism and corruption\\nIn The Laboratory the transfer of the scene to\\na period in French civilizadon where agencies of a less\\nmuscular kind take the place of love tourneys and tests\\nis noticeable. The potion takes the place of the sword.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0533.jp2"}, "534": {"fulltext": "500 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe medical skill of the Arabic or flVIoorish physicians\\nand alchemists disputes influence in European life and\\nlove with the brute force of the native Frank. This\\nis an agency, too, that a woman may handle. Does\\nthe use by women of poison, especially in France,\\nmake The Laboratory a characteristic picture of\\nlife under the old regime\\nWhat incident of the foreign policy of Louis XIV.\\nresulted in the disaster to the French navy from which\\nBrowning s peasant hero Herve Riel delivered it\\nIs the honor France loves to pay her illustrious\\nmen of all kinds one that it is well a nation should\\nconfer, but that the heroes themselves should be as\\nindiiFerent of receiving as Herve Riel was\\nIs it the deed of the Breton pilot that Browning\\nhonors in this poem or his matter-of-course way of\\ndoing it\\nDoes the incident itself account for the spirited\\ninterest the poem excites Or is it due to the thrill-\\ning sense of sympathy with France and desire that\\nshe should escape shame, together with the personal\\ninterest in the hero s success, which the poet s skill\\nworks up, so bringing out the noble human quality in\\nan incident altogether lacking in showiness\\nAs comment on a fame-loving nation, does Herve\\nRiel as well as **The Two Poets of Croisic\\nsuggest some deep-searching criticism on the incon-\\nsistencies and disproportion belonging to public opinion\\nof that which is deserving of honor\\nWas public readiness to believe in the significance\\nof the lightning stroke that crumbled the ducal crown\\nthe real basis of Rene Gentilhomme s fame as\\nprophet-poet\\nWhat, in comparison with his fame, was the repu-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0534.jp2"}, "535": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 501\\ntation of Desforges worth In deriving his title to\\nhonor from the susceptibility of La Roque and Voltaire\\nto feminine glamour, was his own share in his renown\\nless important than Rene s, since Rene wrote his one\\nfamous poem in the whirl and prepossession of an\\nimpression that God had spoken veritably to him\\nDoes such sincerity have everything or nothing to\\ndo with fame Although it may make a work like-\\nlier to be powerful in expression and so abler to\\nimpress others, must it of necessity do so, because\\nof its sincerity\\nHas cleverly calculated insincerity, on the other\\nhand, such as Desforges s sister advocated, a great\\ndeal to do with fame, as in his case it proved, but\\nnothing to do with worth\\nIs it conceivable that, in both cases, or either case,\\nthe work might have been fine without any reference\\nto the conditions of sincerity or insincerity under\\nwhich it m.ade its appeal to the public, and yet in\\nboth cases have had no recognizable effect at all\\nupon the world\\nIs good work sure not to be lost If its recogni-\\ntion and fame are dependent upon happy conditions,\\nand upon a public not only aware of the author s\\nwork, in the first place, so that it can know what it\\nis, but, moreover, sufficiently in touch with him\\nspiritually to appreciate its high, quality, if all\\nthis must be presupposed before a work of original\\ngenius can have any chance at fame, is it not much\\nmore probable that great work has been produced by\\ngenius ahead of its time or at a time when the public\\nwas not open to its influence, and so failed to be\\ncherished, than that this conjunction of circumstances\\nhas never occurred", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0535.jp2"}, "536": {"fulltext": "502 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs it likelier that mediocre work can find its public\\nquicker than good work can\\nIs it less likely to stay popular Or does that\\ndepend, also, upon what public evolution is with\\nreference to the work whether movement at the\\ntime is revolutionary and after it reactionary, and\\nhow long a period passes before a phase of public\\ndevelopment capable of getting into sympathy with\\nthat work is attained, and whether, during that time,\\ncircumstances may cause the loss of the work alto-\\ngether As examples of this possibility, look up\\nthe vicissitudes as to the work of the greatest Greek\\nwriters, ^schylus, Sophokles, Euripides, Sappho,\\nthe first two unquestionably appreciated by their\\npublic the second two, for different reasons, more\\nor less debatably appreciated.\\nAfter the death of Julian and Libanius, one is\\ntempted to think that nobody was really interested\\nin literature any more but certain books had long\\nbeen conventionally established in the schools as\\nclassics, and these continued to be read in ever-\\ndwindling numbers, till the fall of Constantinople\\nand the Renaissance. The eccentricities of the\\ntradition would form material for a large volume.\\nAs in Latin it has zealously preserved Vergil and\\nAvianus the fabulist, so in Greek it has multiplied\\nthe MSS. of Homer and of Apollonius the Kitian\\nOn Sprains. As in Latin it practically lost\\nLucretius save for the accident of a single MS., and\\nentirely lost Calvus, so in Greek it came near to\\nlosing ^schylus, and preserved the most beautiful\\nof the Homeric hymns only by inadvertence. In\\ngeneral, it cared for nothing that was not useful in\\ndaily life, like treatises on mechanics aod medicine.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0536.jp2"}, "537": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 503\\nor else suitable for reading in schools. Such writers\\nas Sappho, Epicharmus, Democritus, Menander,\\nChrysippus, have left only a few disjointed fragments\\nto show us what precious books were allowed to die\\nthrough the mere nervelessness of Byzantium.\\nRome and Alexandria liked order and style\\nthey did not care to copy out the more tumultuous\\nwriters. The mystics and ascetics, the more uncom-\\npromising philosophers, the ardent democrats and\\nenthusiasts generally, have been for the most part\\nsuppressed. (Prof. Gilbert Murray s History\\nof Ancient Greek Literature, p. 2.)\\nWhat has been the fact, historically, as to the public\\nfame of modern writers For information as to\\nShakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, Coleridge,\\netc., and the relativity of fame in general with reference\\nto The Two Poets of Croisic, see The Value\\nof Contemporary Judgment {Poet-lore, Vol. V.,\\npp. 201-209, April, 1893).\\nIf genius runs the risk of being overrun by medi-\\nocrity gaining through favorable circumstances such\\nvogue as befell these two poets of Croisic, and of being\\nsuppressed altogether by lack of public culture, is an\\ninstructed, unbiassed, and sympathetic pubhc opinion a\\nvital need everywhere r\\nIn depicting the precarious conditions for fame in a\\ncountry so sensitive to honor, and so superior to most\\nother countries in affording opportunities and accord-\\ning praise to excellence, is it to be inferred that Brown-\\ning considered French enthusiasm for literary or artistic\\ntalent was in itself a vv^eakness\\nIn French Enthusiasms Satirized in Browning s\\nTwo Poets of Croisic, Dr. H. E. Cushman points\\nout that during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0537.jp2"}, "538": {"fulltext": "504 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nturies when the two poets of Croisic lived, that ancient\\nregime of France was peculiarly adapted to bring into\\nlurid light the enthusiasms of which humanity is capa-\\nble. The court of Louis XIII. was the beginning,\\nthe court of Louis XIV. the maturity, and the court\\nof Louis XV. the ending of the dignified, good-man-\\nnered, and most courtly court of European monarchy.\\nThe two poets of Croisic lived in a society in which\\norder, suitability, and politeness were the ruling ideas,\\nimpersonated by the adults and taught to the children.\\nNever has politeness turned casuistry into its service to\\nsuch a degree and elaborated its manners for such\\nstudied effects. There is no place nor time where we\\nshould less expect enthusiasms than the time and society\\nthat became enthusiastic over Rene Gentilhomme and\\nPaul Desforges Maillard. Consequendy the enthu-\\nsiasms stand out the more plainly.\\nIt was the eighteenth century when French\\nsociety was most supremely ordered and the individuals\\nthereof apparently in perfect self-control that there\\nappeared that age of enthusiasm called the sentimental\\nperiod, which later, among the common people, had\\nits counterpart in the French Revolution. It was this\\npohte crowd that affected now to admire the country,\\nnow to return to nature now it was a delight in sim-\\nplicity. The Queen had a village for herself at the\\nTrianon, where, as some one says, dressed in a frock\\nof white cambric muslin and a gauze neck handker-\\nchief, and with a white straw hat, she fished in the\\nlake and saw her cows milked. What, suppose you,\\ndid the individual Frenchman or Frenchwoman care\\nabout muslin, cows, fish, and simplicity Then there\\narose enthusiasms for village people, for the sentiment\\nof tenderness, for the feeling of natural affection.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0538.jp2"}, "539": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 505\\nThen polite society turned to religions, to consider-\\ning the soul. It practised trying to be human.\\nThese were some of the many enthusiasms of that\\nsociety of which The Two Poets is a criticism.\\nIt was the most polite society in the w^orld, but as a\\nsociety it was capable of enthusiasm that in extent and\\nintensity have scarcely been equalled.\\nThe French enthusiasm, as the subject under\\ncriticism of Browning in this poem, is a social enthu-\\nsiasm. A social body is an organic being with less\\nthan human traits, caprice, sense of responsibility, etc.\\nThe satire involved here is directed at civilization in\\nwhich such enthusiasms could be very frequent, for\\nsuch a civilization is a reversion to savagery. Yet\\nsuch hypnotic enthusiasms are perfectly natural to the\\nFrench mind because of its tendency to isolate the\\npresent moment from its associations. (^Poet-lore\\nVol. XL, pp. 382-395, No. 3, 1899.)\\nAs a criticism of French enthusiasm, is the poem a\\nsatire upon artistic enthusiasm or upon civilization in\\ngeneral, or merely upon elements that thwart and bias\\nits effectiveness as an instrument in the recognition of\\nartistic worth Instead of being a hit at the inferiority\\nof French judgment because of its French quality of\\nenthusiasm, or because of its social quality, in com-\\nparison with an unenthusiastic, unsocialized apprecia-\\ntion of a work of art, if there is such a thing, is\\nthe poem, on the contrary, an exposition merely of\\nthe imperfect conditions under which fame is attain-\\nable, implying, consequently, the lack of an impartial\\nand instructed public opinion Is the poem, there-\\nfore, with reference to its story, a subtle corrective of\\nelements of credulity, as in Rene s case of gallantry,\\nas in Paul s case and of general dependence upon", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0539.jp2"}, "540": {"fulltext": "5o6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe authority of critics, as in the case of La Roque s\\nand Voltaire s prestige with the public all of which\\nare detrimental to the right direction of enthusiasm\\nIn *The Two Poets of Croisic, two friends,\\napparently an elderly poet and a young woman, seated\\nbeside a log fire in Brittany, are watching the flaring up\\nand dying out of the colored flames rising from the\\ndriftwood, while the poet talks and tells his com-\\npanion stories. Is this scene-setting of the poem well\\nsuited to its subject and significance\\nWhat relation to the theme have the Prologue and\\nEpilogue Is the latter told by the young woman\\nHow do you gather this Is it in response to the\\nman s request? (See closing lines of The Two\\nPoets.\\nOf the story of the two Croisikese poets, Mr.\\nArthur Symons writes that the first part as preserved,\\non account of Voltaire s relation with it, is told pretty\\nliterally; but that the sequel is somewhat altered.\\nVoltaire s revenge when the cheat was discov-\\nered, so far from being prompt and immediate, was\\ntreacherously dissimulated, and its accomplishment\\ndeferred for more than one long-subsequent occasion.\\nDesforges lived to have the last word, in assisting at\\nthe first representation of Piron s Metromanie, in\\nwhich Voltaire s humiliation is perpetuated for as\\nlong as that sprightly and popular comedy shall be\\nremembered.\\nAs to the metrical effects of the poem, the same\\nwriter calls attention to the fact that although the poem\\nis written in ottava rima, there is not one double\\nrhyme from beginning to end. It is difficult to see\\nwhy Mr. Browning, a finer master of grotesque com-\\npound rhymes than Byron, should have so carefully", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0540.jp2"}, "541": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 507\\navoided them in a metre which, as in Byron s hands,\\nowes no little of its effect to a clever introduction of such\\nrhymes. The lines (again of set purpose, it is evident)\\noverlap one another without an end-pause, where in\\nItalian it is almost universal, namely, after the sixth\\nline. The result of the innovation is far from success-\\nful it destroys the flow of the verse and gives it an\\nair of abruptness. Of the liveliness, vivacity, and\\npungency of the tale no idea can be given by\\nquotation.\\nIt may be taken for granted that the metrical singu-\\nlarities thus noted were intentional. What was the\\npoet s design? To make the story seem like one told\\nby the fireside, and to give it the abrupter effect of talk\\nII. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nGlimpses of the Bonapartes.\\nIncident of the French Camp 1806)\\nPrince Hohenstiel-Schwangau 1868\\nCompare programme on Poems of Adventure and\\nHeroism for more special study of the first of these\\npoems see also, and for the second poem especially. In-\\ntroduction and Notes, Camherwell Browriing, as cited.\\nQueries for hivestigation a?id Discussio?i. Are the\\ntraits of both Napoleon I. and Napoleon III., as\\nBrowning has brought them out in these two poems^\\npeculiarly characteristic of the two men and of their\\nrelations with France\\nWhat elements of national glory are emphasized in\\nthe Incident of the French Camp, and what in\\nPrince Hohenstiel\\nAre the military setting of the first poem and the\\nPage\\n^ol. Text\\nNote\\niv 140\\n383\\nix I\\n275", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0541.jp2"}, "542": {"fulltext": "5o8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nutterly selfless devotion of the youth, significant of the\\nman and the time therein painted And in the second\\npoem what is told of the different period and the\\nsecond Bonaparte s place with reference to it, simply\\nby revealing the loneliness of the Emperor, who is\\nimagining his confidences poured forth to a woman s\\nsympathetic ears while he smokes and dreams Is\\nthis difference in the two poems, as pictures in the\\nhistoric life of France, traceable to the contrasts\\nbetween the characters of the two rulers and the\\ndevotion they could call forth in their people Or is\\nit due, even more, to the historic conditions as to the\\nrelations of France with the rest of Europe and to the\\nanti-heroic national sentiment which had displaced\\nsuch enthusiasm as the youth of the first poem\\nrepresents\\nWas the war feeling of France after the Revolution,\\nelicited as it was against the coalition of all the kings of\\nEurope to stamp out the life of the young Republic, a\\nhealthy national sentiment, only deteriorating slowly\\nunder the empire, when its victorious self-assertion\\ntook up less and less defensible projects of aggression\\nHow far should you characterize the quality of the\\nnational sentiment as healthy under the second\\nNapoleon, with reference, for example, to the Italian\\nwars referred to in Prince Hohenstiel, and to the\\nwar with Germany, on the threshold of which the\\nEmperor is represented in this poem as hesitating\\nIs it a mistake commonly made by historians and\\nby the public to attach importance to the two Bona-\\npartes exclusively as responsible for the distinctive life\\nof France at the epochs when they respectively\\nrepresented her Does the atmosphere of these\\npoems indirectly tend to correct this by implying the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0542.jp2"}, "543": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 509\\nrelation the successes of the one and the ultimate fail-\\nure of the other bore to the national sentiment they\\ninterpreted\\nWhat important resemblance in uncle and nephew\\naccompanies in these two poems the differences glanced\\nat in the vitality, magnetic quality, and following of\\nthe two men Is it shrewdly designed by the poet\\nthat, in the first poem, the musing of Napoleon should\\nbe presented as the main trait in the sketch of him\\nthere presented, as he stands contemplating the possi-\\nbility of the failure of all his plans if there is a\\nmoment s wavering of the battle line (lines 3-12)\\nIs the climax realistic that, with the assurance of victory\\nthe boy brought him, his plans are represented again\\nto be the main interest, The chief s eye flashed;\\nhis plans soared up again like fire\\nIn the second poem, is the musing of Napoleon III.\\nequally a true characteristic But under what difi^er-\\nent circumstances as to only half-expected failure and\\nreal disaster in the outcome, is the pose caught by the\\npoet for this second, more finished portrait\\nDifferent ranges of plans for boulevard and theatre\\nbuilding and so on, for alleviation of poverty along with\\nsuppression of Fourierism and Proudhonism, are made\\nthe subject-matter of the second Emperor s aims. Are\\nthese characteristic both of the man and the time\\nTo what extent is the nephew himself a subject\\nlike the boy of the first poem of the personal mag-\\nnetism of the first Napoleon\\nHas Browning brought this out effectively and with\\nhistorical fidelity in Prince Hohenstiel r What, for\\nexample, in his defence of himself does the Prince\\nmean by the two blots and the line he draws between\\nthem instead of making another blot", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0543.jp2"}, "544": {"fulltext": "5IO BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nThese two blots are a pictorial parable, giving at a\\nstroke the gist of one of the most important of Louis\\nNapoleon s early pamphlets on the policy of the first\\nNapoleon, Des Idees Napoleoniennes, What he\\nreally did in that pamphlet was simply to draw the\\nline of connection five inches long and tolerably\\nstraight between le frincipe d^autoritCy the principle\\nof authority, in other words the Empire of my uncle,\\nand r orgajivzation democratique, the government by\\nuniversal suffrage, recognizing the will of the people as\\nthe source of Bonapartist authority, or to adapt one of\\nhis own effective phrases in the proclamation of 1857,\\nthe only sovereign I may recognize in France is the\\nPeople. In his own account to his mother of\\nthe unsuccessful Strasbourg attempt that sent him to\\nAmerica he gives the dialogue between the Command-\\ning General and himself thus\\nWhat would you have done if you had been suc-\\ncessful I would have given France the Empire.\\nYou would have overturned the Government I\\nwould have submitted the Empire to the vote of the\\nPeople.\\nWhat he wanted to do theoretically in his pamph-\\nlets and vainly in the two abortive little buds of revolu-\\ntion at Strasbourg and Boulogne he held on to and came\\nto do actually later after the many set-backs and vicissi-\\ntudes the world knows. And as to what meant cer-\\ntain things he did of old which puzzled Europe\\nwhy, you 11 find them plain merely in the expansion\\nof this metaphor of the two blots he found ready to his\\nhand and attempted to connect.\\nIn many a speech he indicates as clearly what\\nhis abhorrence of making a third blot meant. In\\nhis Message of 1849 to the Legislative Assembly", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0544.jp2"}, "545": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 511\\nof the Republic, he said I will not cradle the\\npeople in illusions and Utopias. My course is defi-\\nnite and shall consist on the one side in boldly\\ntaking the initiative in ameliorations and on\\nthe other side, in repressing with severity\\ndisorderly and anarchical schemes. In his letter of\\n1849 Prince Napoleon-Jerome he raps his radical\\ncousin s knuckles very sharply to give him distinctly to\\nunderstand that he will maintain nothing but the\\nm.ost moderate policy. The casual references Brown-\\ning makes his Prince introduce to Proudhon, Fourier,\\nand Comte serve to remind us not only of the deep-\\nreaching ideas that were mooted at this time in France,\\nbut also that the second Emperor carried out his pro-\\ngramme against such ideas by depriving Fourier s\\nfriend, Comte, of his professorship at the Paris Poly-\\ntechnic School, and by imprisoning Proudhon twice\\nfor uttering those criticisms upon property which\\nthe w^orld has not yet done discussing. The\\none fact in Louis Napoleon s background of life\\nbeing emulation of Napoleon the Great, and the\\nsecond, as incontrovertibly present in the social atmos-\\nphere of Europe in the seething middle of the nineteenth\\ncentury, being the uprising people, the course of\\npolitical achievement adopted by a man capable only of\\ncarrying incompleteness on a stage would be to\\nattempt a fusion of the two pre-established facts,\\nattaining rule through democratic means, but per-\\nmitting no rash radical measures to create a third\\nstrange fact to complicate the simple aim of making use\\nof what already is. Therefore the means he had to\\ntake were to restrain extremists and idealists (of\\nwhom he was one himself once when he was only\\nan aspiring voice of liberty in Italy in i 83 i, as a young", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0545.jp2"}, "546": {"fulltext": "512 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhothead not having more material interests to consider)\\nand to befriend in material ways the retarded bulk of\\nthe people.\\nThe equable sustainment and unification of all parts\\nof the body politic was his one political doctrine and\\naim. A simple policy in theory, but in practice as\\nhard a job as an Imperator ever had, and as perilous,\\nsince he must hold a foot on two inherently opposite\\ntendencies and hold steady what never stays still.\\nThe position of strain required to keep the balance\\nmight be understood as passiveness by those who did\\nnot see against what obstacles the pose was maintained.\\nSo the energy of the Laocoon might seem somnolency\\nto those from whom the coils of the serpent were\\nhidden. (See Modern Imperialism as shown in\\nBrowning s Prince Hohenstiel, Poet- lore, January,\\n1900.)\\nHow are the other exemplifications of his policy\\nbrought forward by the Prince illustrated by the\\nhistorical facts (See Introduction and Notes in\\nCamberwell Brownings as cited, for information also\\nDrury s History of France, Victor Hugo s His-\\ntory of a Crime and Napoleon the Less, also\\nThe Works of Napoleon III., and contemporaneous\\naccounts. In reading these make due allowance for\\npartisanship on all sides-)\\nWhat does Browning s picture of the third Bona-\\nparte amount to as criticism Does it represent a\\nhypocrite or a man of good intentions and fair ability,\\nwithout enough originality or force to strike out new\\nmethods\\nWhy does he fail, according to Browning, when he\\nhad so long been successful and serviceable Is it\\nbecause he was too weak to maintain a position in the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0546.jp2"}, "547": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 513\\nnature of things becoming untenable Upon this\\nquestion the article already cited continues\\nBrowning s criticism of Louis Napoleon s acts in\\nthe second part of the poem is as unexplicit as his\\ninterpretation of his character. In explaining what\\nhis policy was he has made him imply its inherent\\nweakness and temporary worth. The self-glorification,\\nthe self-destroying self-indulgence of the Bonapartist\\nambition, slumbering at the heart of the humanitarian\\nenthusiasms which genuinely attracted him, growing\\nmore and more powerful within him, are more and\\nmore disqualifying him from keeping an equable bal-\\nance between two essentially opposed ideals the\\nprinciples of authority and of democratic progress. The\\nspirit of the time, moreover, and the intrigues of his\\nown reactionary court are combining to make it\\nincreasingly hard to keep the equipoise, even if he\\npersonally were not finding the force to contend with\\nthe exigencies of his own policy failing him.\\nIII. Topic foj- Pape? Ciasswork, or Private\\nStudy. Pictures of Social Life.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nGold Hair A Legend of Pornic v 147 305\\nRespectability (1850, circa) iv 115 405\\nApparent Failure (1856) v 273 316\\nRed Cotton Night-cap Country 1850-18 70) xi 2 83\\nFifine at the Fair (1872) ix 68 288\\nFor more special study of Red Cotton Night-cap\\nCountry, turn to Single Poem Studies; of\\n**Fifine to programme Portraits of Husbands\\nand Wives and of Gold Hair to programme\\nof Folk Poems; also, for all, and especiallv the\\nlast two poems, to Introductions and Notes in Camher-\\nwell Brownifig, as cited.\\n33", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0547.jp2"}, "548": {"fulltext": "514 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nQueries for Investigatioji and Discussion. Is there\\na resemblance between the primitive, almost legendary,\\nlife touched upon in Gold Hair and the sophisti-\\ncated nineteenth-century life painted in the Red\\nCotton Night-cap Country Is the link between\\nthem, the modified yet continuous power of the\\nChurch in French society to dominate the natural\\ndesires of the flesh Or is it rather the unsuppressible\\nlove of life and enjoyment inherent in the race which\\ncauses its piety perpetually to contend with its pleasures\\nIs the main danger of this accommodation between\\nartistic, life-enjoying instincts and a largely formal\\nreligion that it makes a sincere and thoroughly ration-\\nalized habit of life difficult?\\nWhat reason do the two poems mentioned afford\\nthat Browning meant each, in its different way and\\nperiod of time, to illustrate these influences and char-\\nacteristics of French life\\nThe religious moral of the Pornic legend, against\\nthe innate wickedness of man s heart, is often taken in\\nearnest. Should it be And, if so, how does it\\nagree with his more obvious illustration in the nine-\\nteenth-century true-story poem of the logical incon-\\nsistencies and self- stultifying weakness of Miranda s\\nallegiance to the conventional churchly ideals of sin\\nDoes he acknowledge that his course was evil, while\\nat the same time persisting in it and experiencing the\\nvalue of a genuine emotion\\nWhy doss Browning treat the hypocrisy and decep-\\ntion of the golden-haired girl of Pornic so lightly in\\ncomparison with this doubleness of Miranda, which he\\nseems to expose to view as an intellectually unhealthy\\ncondition for moral development Does the time\\nmake the difference", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0548.jp2"}, "549": {"fulltext": "FRENCH NATIONAL LIFE 515\\nIn Respectability a case of more wilful revolt\\nagainst conventional ideals is presented. Is it equally\\ncharacteristic of the same general conditions in French\\nsocial life\\nThe anomalies and difficulties behind the revolt are\\nnot expressed as in the longer poem, but a general\\njustification of the course the pair have taken is implied\\nin the speaker s monologue. Where do they stand\\nwith reference to the others as exponents of French\\nsocial life Is their position intellectually stronger and\\nmorally weaker than that of Miranda\\nWhat light does the suggestion that George Sand\\nand Alfred de Musset are here presented throw\\nupon it r\\nIn the person of Fifine and her Gypsy companions\\nthe extreme opposition to any recognized conventional\\nideals, either more or less formal, genuinely religious,\\nor really rational, is presented. The relation of Elvire\\nand of Elvire s husband to this mode of life is French\\nin stage-setting merely, and in situation is not pecul-\\niarly French.\\nIn the local color, impressions of scenes and people,\\nand in picturesque effects that are peculiar to Brittany\\nand Normandy, are Browning s French poems especially\\neffective What passages are particularly pictorial\\nIn the verses that celebrate the little grewsome build-\\ning so closely associated with life in Paris, the Morgue,\\nwhat has Browning done to characterize the subject\\nDoes the quality of Apparent Failure come out\\nbest in the French allusions and associations (for these,\\nsee Notes) and in the little descriptive touches that with\\nbrief words make the scene inside the building stand\\nout Is the moral comment expressed in the con-\\ncluding stanza the main point of the poem Or", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0549.jp2"}, "550": {"fulltext": "5i6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nis it rather in the implication of the whole that fail-\\nure of the most desperate kind, such as is depicted\\nhere, is only apparent failure, that the genuineness of\\nsoul which has so brought the wretchedest, of their\\nown will, to face death s unknown, proves human\\nworth and dignity\\nWhy did the poet think, both when he saw the\\nthree men enthroned each on his copper couch,\\nand, later, when thinking it over, that their sin was\\natoned (lines 21-27) Was he thinking of any-\\nkind of atonement, except that which their own exer-\\ncise of their human desire to conquer the evils of life\\nhad wrought\\nIs the human daring in the face of death here recog-\\nnized virtually the same as that which exalts the soul\\nin **Prospice, although it is the reverse unhappy\\nside of the universal experience", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0550.jp2"}, "551": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life\\nGerman\\nTopic for Paper, Classzvorky or Private Study.\\nPhases of Intellectual and Artistic Development in\\nGermany.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nFust and his Friends (1457) xii 170 356\\nJohannes Agricola in Meditation (1492-\\n1566) V 20 286\\nParacelsus (1493-1 541) i 35 308\\nMaster Hugues of Saxe-Gotha iv 133 382\\nAbtVogler (1749-1814) v 169 308\\nFor special hints on these poems, see Introduc-\\ntions and Notes to Camberzvell Brownifig, as given\\nabove also programmes Music and Musicians\\nand Paracelsus.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Fust\\nand his Friends is an exceedingly lively dialogue\\nbetween the inventor of printing and his ignorant\\nfriends who imagine him to have made a compact\\nwith the devil.\\nHow has Browning combined truth with legend in\\nthis poem Was the real John Fust ever accused of\\nmagic There is a story to the effect that he was\\narrested as a magician in Paris, on account of the ex-\\nactness of the copies of the Bible which he took there\\non sale, but the storv is said to be untrue.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0551.jp2"}, "552": {"fulltext": "5l8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nWas the real Faust accused of being a magician\\nThe Legend of Dr. Faustus, Bayard Taylor says,\\nfirst took form in the sixteenth century, while the\\nbelief in witchcraft and diabolical agencies was still prev-\\nalent among the people. The earliest edition of the\\nstory, upon which all later variations were based, ap-\\npeared in 1587. There was an actual Dr. Faust,\\nborn in 1490, who studied at the University of Wit-\\ntenberg, and is said to have been acquainted with\\nMelanchthon. What special reasons there were for\\nmaking him the hero of a story, cannot be ascertained\\nwith any certainty but the charge of a compact\\nwith evil spirits was frequently made against any\\nman of more than usual knowledge. Even Luther\\nbelieved in the constant activity of a personal and vis-\\nible devil, whom he imagined he sometimes beheld.\\nThe behefin witchcraft survived among the peo-\\nple long after law and theology had discarded it, and\\na dramatized version of Faust was one of the favor-\\nite plays given in puppet theatres, at fairs, or other\\npopular festivals. See chapter on Goethe s Faust\\nin Biiyard Taylor s Studies in German Literature.\\nWhat was the state of belief in regard to magical\\nagencies at this time (See Andrew D. White s\\nThe Warfare of Science with Theology, Vol. L,\\nchaps, xi. and xii., and Draper s Intellectual Devel-\\nopment of Europe, chaps, xiii. and xviii., p. 407\\nThe Philosophical Peculiarities of the Age of\\nFaith.\\nWas the Fust of this poem right when he feared\\nhis printing would disseminate lies as well as the\\ntruth\\nOn the whole, does this little poem reflect the\\natmosphere of the time, while in the person of Fust", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0552.jp2"}, "553": {"fulltext": "GERMAN NATIONAL LIFE 519\\nit symbolizes the nineteenth-century attitude of what\\nwe might call the mystical scientist\\nHow does Fust s philosophy, written near the end\\nof Browning s life, compare with that of Paracelsus,\\nwritten near the beginning\\nIn Johannes Agricola has Browning succeeded\\nin making the doctrine of predestination beautiful from\\nan artistic point of view, at the same time that he has\\nexhibited the loathsomeness of such a belief\\nIs this effect gained through the fact of the poet s\\nhaving entered into the devout and trusting spirit of\\nthe man George Willis Cooke (see Notes) says\\nBrowning has not exactly represented his standpoint.\\nWhat were the beliefs of Agricola, and how did he\\ndiffer from Luther? (See E?icyclopadia Britawnica^\\narticles Antinomians and Agricola.\\nIn the person of Paracelsus we see reflected the re-\\nvolt against the thought of that time combined with\\nsurvivals of a past learning. What was the religious\\nand intellectual state of Germany then existing\\nThese passages from Draper s Intellectual Devel-\\nopment of Europe serve to illustrate in part the\\nconditions at that time: **To this denial of papal\\nauthority he [Luther] soon added a dissent from the\\ndoctrines of purgatory, auricular confession, absolution.\\nIt was now that the grand idea which had hitherto\\nsilently lain at the bottom of the whole movement\\nemerged into prominence the right of individual\\njudgment under the dogma that it is not papal\\nauthority which should be the guide of life, but the\\nBible, and that the Bible is to be interpreted by pri-\\nvate judgment. At this moment there was but\\none course for the Italian court to take with the\\naudacious offender, for this new doctrine was", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0553.jp2"}, "554": {"fulltext": "520 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndangerous to the last extreme. Luther was\\ntherefore ordered to recant, and to burn his own works,\\nunder penalty, if disobedient, of being excommuni-\\ncated, and delivered over unto Satan. But Luther\\nwas not to be intimidated nay, more, he retaliated.\\nHe denounced the pope. He called upon all\\nChristian princes to shake off his tyranny. In the\\npresence of a great concourse of applauding specta-\\ntors, he committed the volumes of the canon law\\nand the bull of excommunication to the flames.\\nThe Emperor Charles V. found it necessary to use\\nall his influence to check the spreading Reforma-\\ntion. But it was already too late, for Luther had\\nobtained the firm support of many personages of\\ninfluence, and his doctrines were finding defenders\\namong some of the ablest men in Europe. While\\nGermany was agitated to her centre, a like revolt\\nagainst Italian supremacy broke out in Switzerland,\\nand found a leader in Zuinghus.\\nEven at this early period the inevitable course of\\nevents was beginning to be plainly displayed in sec-\\ntarian decomposition for while the German and\\nSwiss Reformers agreed in their relation toward the\\npapal authority, they differed widely from each other\\non some important doctrinal points.\\nAlso these passages from White s Warfare of\\nScience with Theology\\nThe impulse thus given to childish fear and\\nhatred against the investigation of nature was felt for\\ncenturies more and more chemistry came to be\\nknown as one of the seven devilish arts. Thus\\nbegan a long series of demonstrations against magic\\nfrom the centre of Christendom. In 1437, and\\nagain in 1445, Pope Eugene IV. issued bulls ex-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0554.jp2"}, "555": {"fulltext": "GERMAN NATIONAL LIFE 521\\nhorting inquisitors to be more diligent in searching\\nout and delivering over to punishment magicians and\\nwitches who produced bad weather, the result being\\nthat persecution received a fearful impulse. But the\\nworst came forty years later still, when in 1484 there\\ncame the yet more terrible bull of Pope Innocent\\nVIII. known as Summis Desiderafites, which let in-\\nquisitors loose upon Germany, with Sprenger at their\\nhead, armed with the Witch Hammer. Similar\\nbulls were issued in 1504 by Julius II., and in 1523\\nby Adrian VI.\\n**The system of repression thus begun lasted for\\nhundreds of years. The Reformation did little to\\nchange it, and in Germany, where Catholics and\\nProtestants vied with each other in proving their\\northodoxy, it was at its worst. On German soil more\\nthan one hundred thousand victims are believed to\\nhave been sacrificed to it between the middle of the\\nfifteenth and the middle of the sixteenth centuries.\\nOf course, the atmosphere created by this per-\\nsecution of magicians was deadly to any open begin-\\nnings of experimental science.\\n**Yet, injurious as this all was to the evolution of\\nscience, there was developed something in many\\nrespects more destructive and this was the influence\\nof mystic theology, penetrating, permeating, vitiating,\\nsterilizing nearly every branch of science for hundreds\\nof years.\\nIn chemistry we have the same theologic ten-\\ndency to magic, and, as a result, a muddle of science\\nand theology, which from one point of view seems\\nblasphemous and from another idiotic, but which,\\nnone the less, sterilized physical investigation for ages.\\nThe greatest theologians contributed to the welter of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0555.jp2"}, "556": {"fulltext": "522 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nunreason from which this pseudo-science was de-\\nveloped.\\nStrong investigators, like Arnold of Villanova,\\nRaymond Lully, Basil Valentine, Paracelsus, and their\\ncompeers, were thus drawn far out of the only paths\\nwhich led to fruitful truths. White furthermore\\nspeaks of several instances where Paracelsus showed\\nhis independence of judgment. For example, he\\nwrote to Zuinglius against the prevailing belief that\\ncomets were balls of fire flung from the right hand\\nof an angry God to warn the grovelling dwellers of\\nearth. He also called attention to the reverbera-\\ntion of cannon as explaining the rolling of thunder, but\\nhe was confronted by one of his greatest contempo-\\nraries. Jean Bodin declared thunder to be a\\nflaming exhalation set in motion by evil spirits, and\\nhurled downward with a great crash and a horrible\\nsmell of sulphur. Of his service to medicine White\\nsays *In the sixteenth century Paracelsus appears\\na great genius, doing much to develop medicine be-\\nyond the reach of sacred and scholastic tradition,\\nthough still fettered by many superstitions. Again,\\nIn the beginning of the sixteenth century, cases of\\npossession on a large scale began to be brought\\nwithin the scope of medical research, and the man\\nwho led in this evolution of medical science was Para-\\ncelsus, He it was who first bade modern Europe\\nthink for a moment upon the idea that these diseases\\nare inflicted neither by saints nor demons, and that\\nthe dancing possession is simply a form of disease,\\nof which the cure may be effected by. proper remedies\\nand regimen.\\nBy what methods has Browning reproduced the\\natmosphere of the time in the poem", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0556.jp2"}, "557": {"fulltext": "GERMAN NATIONAL LIFE\\nS^i\\nWhence had the learnmg of Paracelsus s time been\\nderived (See Draper, especially Chap. XIII.) Is\\nthis also suggested in the poem\\nWhat was the attitude of the real Paracelsus toward\\nLuther\\nDo these three poems each show different effects of\\nthe Renaissance as it passed into Germany\\nMaster Hugues of Saxe-Gotha is so purely\\nimaginary that it cannot be definitely compared with\\nany historical period. Nevertheless, does it not seem\\nto breathe the atmosphere of all the old polvphonic\\nwriters who flourished in Germany in the fifteenth,\\nsixteenth, and seventeenth centuries\\nThe name of Palestrina is the one definite clew in\\nthe poem. What w^as his place in musical develop-\\nment (See Symonds s Itahan Renaissance.\\nIs there anything in Abt Vogler that reflects\\neither a phase of musical or philosophical development\\nin Germany What place did Vogler hold in Ger-\\nman music\\nDoes the aspiration of the poem well symbolize the\\ndawn of the romantic period in German music which\\nwas being inaugurated b)^ Beethoven during Vogler s\\nlife Would it be possible to imagine a greater con-\\ntrast than that between his inspired extemporizing and\\nthe complicated manufacture of the fugue by Hugues\\nSo, may these poems be said to symbolize the begin-\\nning of German music in the polyphonic school and\\nits climax in the romantic school\\nThough these poems thus stand for phases in\\nmusical growth in Germany, is their chief interest in\\ntheir abstracdy musical and moral significance\\nIn this whole group of poems is the interest more\\nindividual and less national than it is in many, if not\\nall, of the Italian group", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0557.jp2"}, "558": {"fulltext": "524 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nTwo other poems might be included under Ger-\\nmany, though not under the present topic First,\\nThe Flight of the Duchess. Although there is\\nnothing to indicate the exact scene where the poem is\\nlaid, can you gather from the references in the poem\\nthat the scene is Germany, and that it is near the sea\\nIt might be somewhere in the Saxony provinces, as\\nthere they have copper and salt.\\nFrom the fact that this German Duke brought his\\nideas for imitating chivalry from Paris, what French\\nking might have been upon the throne\\nHow are the habits of the Gypsies reflected in this\\npoem (See Borrow s Gypsies in Spain, also\\narticle on Gypsies in Encyclop/^dia Britan?iica.^\\nThe second one is Colombe s Birthday, which\\nin its names is suggestive of France.\\nHow do these French names come to belong to\\nGerman Duchies\\nThe incidents in this play have only the faintest\\nresemblance to the history of the succession to Juliers,\\nbut is there not some of the atmosphere of the time in\\nthe fact of Berthold s succession being assured by Pope\\nand Emperor instead of its being decided upon its\\nmerits, as Berthold himself hints (see Act V. line lo)?\\nAlso in the wrongs that the city of Cleves suffered t\\nWith these poems, as with the others, the aspects\\nof historical hfe in them are entirely subordinate to the\\ncharacter interest yet do they serve as an illustration\\nof the fact that Browning varies the settings in which\\nhe puts his characters as much as he does their individ-\\nuality, and makes them reflect more or less definitely\\nhistorical epochs", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0558.jp2"}, "559": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life\\nSpanish\\nTopic for Papery Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nPictures of Life in Spain.\\nSoliloquy of the Spanish Cloister\\nThe Confessional\\nA Forgiveness middle eighteenth century r)\\nHow it Strikes a Contemporary seventeenth\\ncentury?) .o., v 3 282\\nVol. Text Note\\n16 365\\n21 366\\n227 303\\nFor further study of the three last poems, see pro-\\ngrammes Phases of Romantic Love, Husbands\\nand Wives, and The Poet; for all, see, also.\\nIntroductions and Notes in Camberwell Brozv?tingy as\\ncited.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. In\\nSpain, Buckle maintains History of Civilization,\\nVol. I., p. 177), the Church has, from a very\\nearly period, possessed more authority, and the clergy\\nhave been more influential than in any other country.\\nThe long struggle of Spain against the Arab inva-\\nsions, being both political and religious, identified the\\nChurch with the national life. During eight cen-\\nturies, says Buckle again, this compact between\\nChurch and State was a necessity forced upon the\\nSpaniards by the peculiarities of their position and\\nafter the necessity had subsided, it naturally happened", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0559.jp2"}, "560": {"fulltext": "526 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthat the association of ideas survived the original\\ndanger, and that an impression had been made upon\\nthe popular mind which it was hardly possible to\\nefface. (See Chapter I. on Outlines of the His-\\ntory of the Spanish Intellect, in Vol. II., cited\\nabove.)\\nHow do the first two poems of this group illustrate,\\nas peculiarly Spanish, the influence of monastic life\\nPart of the instinctive hatred felt by the monk who\\nis watching good Brother Lawrence in the Solilo-\\nquy, and describing him as he waters his damned\\nflower-pots, trims his bushes, and picks his melons,\\nmay have found well-nigh justification for abhorrence\\nof such a fellow in Spanish prejudice against any skil-\\nful industry because the Moriscoes and infidels\\nwere good at the same sort of tasks. Does the Bar-\\nbary Corsair allusion (line 3 i reveal another Spanish\\nprejudice\\nIs imputing the Arian heresy to him, in stanza v.,\\na token of a deep-seated historical Spanish aversion\\nAfter the subversion of the Roman Empire, the\\nfirst leading fact in the history of Spain is the settle-\\nment of the Visigoths, and the establishment of their\\nopinions. They, as well as the Suevi, who imme-\\ndiately preceded them, were Arians, and Spain, during\\na hundred and fifty years, became the rallying point\\nof that famous heresy. Clovis regarded\\nby the Church as the champion of the faith, attacked\\nthe unbelieving Visigoths. His successors, moved by\\nthe same motives, pursued the same policy a war\\nfor national independence became a war for national\\nreligion late in the sixth century, the Latin\\nclergy converted their Visigothic masters, and the\\nSpanish government, becoming orthodox, naturally", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0560.jp2"}, "561": {"fulltext": "SPANISH NATIONAL LIFE 527\\nconferred upon its teachers an authority equal to that\\nwielded by the Arian hierarchy.\\nWhy is it that the humor of the poem seems to\\nreach its climax of deliciousness in the desire to curse\\nBrother Lawrence into Manicheeism (see Camberwell\\nBrowning, Vol. IV., note 56, p. 366, for information\\nas to this Oriental heresy) through himself making a\\ncheating compact with Satan\\nDoes the conjuration he begins (line 70) suggest\\nArabic words How do they contrast with the inter-\\nruption of the call to vesper service, and the Latin\\nHail Mary following\\nDoes the humorousness of this cloister picture\\ndetract at all from the force of the situation as a moral\\ncomment of an implicit sort on the evils of monastic\\nlife\\nThere are, says Miss West Browning\\nStudies, p. 125), **some of Browning s pictures of\\nevil that explain themselves to us better if accepted as\\nmere studies of this or that attitude of feeling rather\\nthan as portraits of character. To seek in these for\\nany traces of good in evil would be not to the point.\\nAn instance of this is the highly-finished study of one\\nphase of human hatred the hatred felt not for any\\ndefinite injury done, but on account of the groundless\\nantipathy (of which probably most people have had\\nsome slight experience), intensified by the compulsory\\ncomradeship in the oppressive monotony of the con-\\nventual life. I refer of course to the Soliloquy of that\\nSpanish monk who is shown to us as looking on, with\\na hideous snarl of g-r-r-r at the inoffensive garden-\\ning operations of the obnoxious Brother Lawrence,\\nwhose melon-flowers of the fruit-sort he had been\\nat the trouble to keep close-nipped on the sly.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0561.jp2"}, "562": {"fulltext": "528 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\n**Here we have simply a study of a morbid mental\\ncondition, resulting from the unhealthy inactivity of\\nthe cloister routine and as to what the real nature of\\nthis very unamiable monk would have been had his\\nenergies found legitimate scope in the outer world.\\nBrowning does not, of course, undertake to say.\\nProbably, since his cloistered feelings were anything\\nbut languid, even in the midst of the sluggishly-peace-\\nful influences surrounding him, there may have been\\nin him a good deal of force of character, which he\\nmight have turned to better account under luckier\\ncircumstances.\\nDo you get a clear picture of Brother Lawrence s\\ninnocent obtuseness, however, and to the point of\\nhalf sympathy with the other brother s view of his\\nprovokingness\\nAre there any indications of date either in this or\\nthe following poem\\nIs the name of the girl s lover, Beltran, signifi-\\ncant of Gypsy or Moorish blood Does the poem\\nleave the expulsion of the Moriscoes suggestively in\\nits background\\nWhat confirmation of the united interest and action\\nof Church and State, such as this poem of The\\nConfessional exemplifies, is afforded by Spanish\\nhistory\\nWhat types of priest are represented in these two\\nand in the following poem\\nIs the cruel refinement of the husband of A\\nForgiveness typical of a Spanish nature polished but\\nnot changed by culture\\nIs the power of the Church in Spain characteris-\\ntically exhibited in The Confessional, or were\\nsuch instances rare", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0562.jp2"}, "563": {"fulltext": "SPANISH NATIONAL LIFE 529\\nHow does the picture there presented of priestly\\npower so exerted agree with the picture in A\\nForgiveness of another confession, where the man\\nwho is confessing dares to stab his Father Confessor\\nIs this probable under the circumstances, for a man\\nof so much brain, power, and rank as the husband in\\nthat poem is represented as having\\nIn what period in the history of Spain are such a\\ncharacter and such an incident of power against a priest\\nlikeliest to have appeared\\nDoes the time of the poem belong to the period of\\nforeign influence, expulsion of the Jesuits, and attacks\\non the Inquisition peculiar to the reign of Charles III.\\nOr may it be ascribed better to the nineteenth-cen-\\ntury attempts at nadonal regeneration\\nThe mere existence of a modern yet probably not\\ncontemporaneous statesman of so much ability as the\\nman in A Forgiveness is represented as having\\nwould make him, according to Buckle, almost impos-\\nsible either during the rule of the Austrian dynasty\\nbefore the middle eighteenth century, or in the re-\\nactionary period of Charles V., which followed.\\nEnsenada, the well-known minister of Ferdinand\\nVI., was appalled by the darkness and apathy of the\\nnation, which he tried, but tried in vain to remove.\\nWhen he was at the head of affairs in the middle of\\nthe eighteenth century, he publicly declared that in\\nSpain there was no professorship of public law, or of\\nphysics, or of anatomy, or of botany there were no\\ngood maps of Spain, and no person who knew how\\nto construct them. All the maps they had came from\\nFrance and Holland. The only remedy seemed to\\nbe foreign aid. Even the fine arts, in which the\\nSpaniards had formerly excelled, partook of the general\\n34", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0563.jp2"}, "564": {"fulltext": "53\u00c2\u00a9 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndegeneracy. (See Buckle, pp. 49 fol. for graphic\\nevidence of the decline of Spain after the expulsion\\nof the Moriscoes in 1609, and the influence of the\\nChurch in prostrating intellect and energy.) Books\\nunless they were books of devotion were deemed\\nutterly useless. Until the eighteenth century Ma-\\ndrid did not possess a single public library. So\\nlate as the year 1771, the University of Salamanca\\npubhcly refused to allow the discoveries of Newton to\\nbe taught, and assigned as a reason that the system of\\nNewton was not so consonant with revealed religion as\\nthe system of Aristotle.\\nWhat Hkelihood is there of the Spanish dramatic poet\\npainted in How it Strikes a Contemporary belong-\\ning to the early period of Spain s literary glory, and\\nthat Cervantes, Shakespeare s contemporary, is hinted\\nat?\\nWhat evidence is there even then of the national\\ncharacteristics of the average Spaniard, and how is it\\nshown in the talk of the young ValladoHd dandy about\\nthis eccentric man, the Corregidor Are piety and\\nlack of intellectual curiosity and alertness, despite\\nmuch goodness of nature and a lovable gayety, indicated\\nin the speaker in this poem\\nIs the saintly death-scene of the Corregidor in\\naccord with the history of Cervantes He became\\na monk a few years before his death. (See Ticknor s\\nHistory of Spanish Literature.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0564.jp2"}, "565": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life\\nRussian\\nTopic for Paper i Classwork, or Private Study.\\nA Russian Folk-Story.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nIvan Ivanovitch xi 128 304\\nCompare the little descriptive picture of Russia in Pauline,\\nlines 950-954.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Who\\ntells the story Since it is told by a Russian as an\\nexample of a Russian carpenter s characteristic habits,\\nand as a tale told to Russian children, time out of\\nmind, for the sake of the moral, ought it to be\\nexpected that it embodies the same sort of moral\\nedification for a modern public, and that the poet s\\nview of the situation is meant to appear in Ivan s act\\nOr should it not rather be regarded as a typical folk-\\ntale displaying, along with Russian life and ways of\\nthought, a primitive rather than an absolute moral\\nIs Mr. Walker somewhat blinded to the integral\\nartistic and historic aspects of the poem when he con-\\nsiders that the whole piece was devised by Browning\\nfor the sake of the moral judgment to which the story\\nleads and of the act in which it was expressed, and\\n**not for the sake of the miserable woman who died\\nby it, nor for the ghastly tale itself The", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0565.jp2"}, "566": {"fulltext": "532 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nGreater Victorian Poets, p. 159.) Is this too\\nmuch like taking the story as little Russian children\\nare expected to take it, and being so led away\\nby the realism of the poem that the poem itself is\\nignored\\nIs what is said about the tale as one belonging to\\nRussian hearts as they were in Peter s time, before\\nFrench and German ideals of life had modified Slav\\ninstincts, significant What is the bearing of this on\\nthe final situation\\nBut in adding I wager t is as old to you as the story\\nof Adam and Eve, does the poet make the speaker\\nintimate that it is based on fundamental ways of\\nlooking at life, elementary views of the relations of\\nmen and women doubtless embodied for the poet in\\nthe stories of many another race\\nIs it significant, also, that the name of the story\\nrelated in this poem, as known to the Russian, is not\\nIvan Ivanovitch, but The Judgment of God\\nDoes the re-titling by Browning have the effect of\\nputting the judgment where it properly belongs, upon\\nthe dramatic figure of the carpenter,, and upon him as\\na representative, also, of Russian public opinion\\nFor it is to be considered that this name is an epitome\\nof Russian character, as much as John Bull is of\\nEnglish or Brother Jonathan of American charac-\\nter. (See note 35, p. 305, Camberwell Browningy\\nas cited.)\\nIs this poem rightly called a dramatic idyl Why 1\\nWhat does the word idyl mean\\nAre the pictorial presentations of the group watch-\\ning Ivan ply his axe in the cold morning air, the horse\\nand sledge stumbling into the market-place, the bring-\\ning to life of the half-frozen woman, etc., any more", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0566.jp2"}, "567": {"fulltext": "RUSSIAN NATIONAL LIFE 533\\nor any less successful in their way than the talk of\\nIvan and the group, and the dramatic narrative told\\nthem by the resuscitated Louscha.\\nIs Louscha a better talker than the rest are, that her\\nstory is so much more vivid Or is this realism of\\nhers due to the poet But is he not justified in making\\nher tell her story with effectiveness, since she has an ex-\\nperience to relate which must have cut to the quick,\\nand which she instinctively feels must be told vividly\\nif she is to account successfully for her own course\\nin returning alone\\nIs it to be understood that Louscha tells the story a\\nlittle to her advantage, but that behind her words (lines\\nI 35\u00e2\u0080\u0094149) is indication of a frightful choice really being\\nmade between the pair of twin-pigeons Did she\\nassist the wolves choice of Stiopka, the undersized\\nslip And how about Terentii when his turn comes\\nWhat is meant by No fear, this time, your mother\\nflings Flings I flung Never but think\\na woman, after all? Is this inadvertent con-\\nfession Or is it merely acknowledgment of mental\\nhesitation And, after this, is the representation she\\nmakes of herself as falling as she ought quite\\non the babe she guards, and are her questions, Move\\nhence? Could I do more? as convincing as\\nshe would have them\\nAnd yet all through her anguished, nervous story is\\nit not obvious that she knows her life as a woman will\\nseem of very little consequence to that group of bearded\\npeasants, and that she is only hoping desperately for a\\nlittle pity, a little mercy from the one most affectionate\\nto her personally\\nAre her last words upon life and its sweetness (lines\\n239\u00e2\u0080\u0094248) a self-accusation which challenges her sen-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0567.jp2"}, "568": {"fulltext": "534 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntence, as Mrs. Orr says Although they do imply a\\nsense of her weakness, and, instead of helping her, call\\ndown upon her the most inflexible judgment, the most\\nsummary punishment, do these last words of hers make\\na piteous appeal to Ivan s strength and affection to save\\nher, as one who is weak and selfish indeed, and yet\\nused to affection and indulgence, and not unnaturally\\nlife-loving\\nIs there any reason to suppose, for example, that so\\nfar as Martin Relph s failure to be heroic is concerned\\nin the face of the sudden need that tested him (see that\\npoem, Camberwell Brozvning, Vol. IV., p. 107 also\\nIntroduction, pp. xiv-xvii), he was as guilty as Lou-\\nscha was Is she judged with less indulgence for her\\nweakness and cowardice because of the sterner sense\\nof the heroic in Ivan as a man of primitive mould\\nbecause she failed repeatedly to take the strong, self-\\nsacrificing course or because she was a mother\\nCould it be urged that Ivan was right from his\\npoint of view, and yet that from a less rudimentary\\npoint of view of Society at large no one man has\\na right to judge and award to another immediate\\ncapital punishment\\nIs Ivan more defensible for his judgment from both\\npoints of view his time and personality, as the poet\\nreveals them, being considered than the present-\\nday critic who would commend the justice of such a\\npunishment in such a case\\nIs it likely that the poet so commended it Is it\\nlikelier that he might discriminate between act and\\nman and appreciate Ivan to the full, while he both\\npitied Louscha and despised her course, entering into\\neach point of view with sympathy Is the poem\\nitself sufficient proof of this relative point of view", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0568.jp2"}, "569": {"fulltext": "RUSSIAN NATIONAL LIFE 535\\nDoes the poet say a word except through the mouths\\nof the characters and of the Russian who tells the story\\nDoes this story-teller give his point of view except in\\nthe general way, already referred to, at the opening of\\nhis tale in his talk with the poet\\nJn giving the speeches showing the two ways in\\nwhich the two judges look upon Ivan s deed, does the\\nlord represent the more modern view, the priest the\\ntraditional view What do you think of their argu-\\nments Is Louscha finally condemned by priest and\\npeople not as an individual but as a mother, and Ivan s\\nact therefore adjudged as just on this score\\nIf Ivan had been found skulking behind the Sacred\\nPictures, as the lord surmised, would this have been\\na presumption that he had done what he considered a\\ndoubtful deed As he was not, may it be assumed\\nthat he was justified in his own conscience\\nIs the essential test, at bottom of the ethical question\\nhere involved, not social but personal, whether Ivan\\nand Louscha felt themselves to be guilty Ivan clears\\nhimself by this test does Louscha\\nIs this personal application of their acts the only cer-\\ntain moral touchstone the poem suggests\\nOne character w^e do find which cannot\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2be made to fit in with his creed of universal hope\\nthe mother of Ivan Ivanovitch. She is perhaps\\nBrowning s solitary unredeemable human being,\\nwrites Miss West, in paper before cited. There\\nis discernible in her no soul which could be cleansed\\nfrom guilt by any purgatorial process, no passion\\nwhich might be transmuted from force of evil to force\\nof good. To such a creature Ivan s axe brings simple\\nannihilation nothing of her survives to be consigned\\nto future reclaiming discipline. Her fault had not been", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0569.jp2"}, "570": {"fulltext": "536 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nmoral, had not been sin, to be punished by pain in-\\nflicted on the soul it was merely the uncounteracted\\nprimary instinct of self-preservation, and as such it is\\nfitliest dealt with by the simple depriving her, without\\nfarther penalty, of the very life which she had secured\\nfor herself at so horrible a cost. It is not as if any\\nmother-instinct in her had striven with the self-pre-\\nserving instinct, and had been overborne by it in a\\nmoment of frenzied fear. No no revulsion of im-\\npulse occurs when she arrives alone at the village no\\nwish that she had been sacrificed for her children, or\\nthat she had shared their fate. In the complacent\\nsense of peace and satisfaction with which she views\\nher own sole and single safety, what hope is there of\\nany regeneration for her, by any conceivable process\\nThe impression left with us at the last is, that this thing\\nin the semblance of woman is a bit of creation lower\\nin the scale of existence than the brutes, and has no\\nlot or part in the destiny of humanity. We are satis-\\nfied to think that the headless body and severed head\\nare all that remain of Louscha when the strong-\\narmed carpenter has dealt his righteous blow. And\\nwe feel that the dramatist is content thus to leave her.\\nDo you agree with this Is Loiascha worse than\\nGuido, and the man in The Inn Album, and does\\nthe poem so show her\\nAre the poet s picturesque glimpses of the survivals\\nof communal life and customs among the Russians in\\naccordance with the records Compare with Step-\\nniak s Communal Life in Russia.\\nDoes Ivan Ivanovitch give evidence of any failure in\\npower, on the part of the poet of sixty -seven, to ima-\\ngine and portray concretely and picturesquely an inci-\\ndent and a scene peculiar to a crude populace", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0570.jp2"}, "571": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life\\nJewish\\nTopic for Papery Classworky or Private Study.\\nJewish Life and Legend.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\n**Saul (Tenth century B. c. iv 66 375\\nRabbi Ben Ezra (twelfth century) v 175 310\\nHoly-Cross Day (early seventeenth century) iv 257 395\\nFilippo Baldinucci (late seventeenth century) ix 250 306\\nRabbinical Legends\\nBen Karshook s Wisdom xii 270 380\\nJochanan Hakkadosh xi 254 330\\nMoses the Meek xi 284 337\\nSolomon and Balkis xi 236 325\\nDoctor xi 213 321\\nFor special treatment of the first two poems, the pro-\\ngramme on the Evolution of Religion should be\\nconsulted, and Phases of Romantic Love for\\nSolomon and Balkis. See, also, Camberwell\\nBrowfiingy Introductions and Notes, as here cited.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discusssion. Brown-\\ning s Jewish poems fall into two groups, one based on\\nhistoric life, and one on Rabbinical tradition having, it\\nmay be, an element of actual life, but, in general, a\\nlarger admixture of the unreal and fanciful.\\nSaul, already specially considered in a foregoing\\nprogramme, is widely separated from the other poems", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0571.jp2"}, "572": {"fulltext": "538 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof the historic group, not only in time, bat in conditions\\nhistoric and national, for it celebrates a vital moment\\nin the early history of the ruling dynasty of the prosper-\\nous Jewish kingdom, when its first two kings met\\ntogether, and the promise of a climax of Jewish\\nspiritual influence over the world was made by the\\npoet the subject of young David s song.\\nHow much at odds this spiritual importance of the\\nJew in the Gentile world came to be with the integrity\\nof Jewish material prosperity, as a nationality, is the\\nfact underlying the remaining poems of this group.\\nAlthough in Rabbi Ben Ezra, also, the main interest\\nis rather religious and philosophical than historical\\n(and it is, therefore, more fully treated under the sub-\\nject of the Evolution of Religion the historic\\nassociations of the dispersion of the Jews over the\\nChristian world come out necessarily, in the personaUty\\nof Ibn Ezra, the Spanish Rabbi of the twelfth century,\\nwho is the mouthpiece of this poem, and who in\\nHoly-Cross Day is mouthpiece, also, of the pro-\\ntest of his persecuted race against those who maintained\\nChrist in word and defied Him in deed. Do both\\nSaul and Rabbi Ben Ezra deepen in meaning\\nwhen they are linked together and with the later\\nJewish poems depicting the contumely and outrage the\\njews suffered from the followers of the gentle Jew of\\nNazareth\\nViewed in relation with the history of his race in\\nits initiation of Christianity and its persecution by\\nChristendom, does the religious philosophy expressed\\nin Rabbi Ben Ezra suit the trials and the develop-\\nment through pain and loss of the Jews, as a race,\\nin fulfilment of some higher spiritual purpose of God\\nin which the thinker may have faith, as well as it", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0572.jp2"}, "573": {"fulltext": "JEWISH NATIONAL LIFE 539\\nsuits that to which it is more obviously applied, the\\ntrials and the growing old of the individual\\nMay not the Jewish race rejoice, for example, in\\nbeing allied to that which provides rather than that\\nwhich partakes, which has effected and not received,\\nholding nearer of the God who gives than of His\\ntribes that take Might it not be the hope of the\\ndevout Jew, to-day, who, in the light of the religious\\nevolution of mankind, regarded the contribution his\\nrace had rendered to the idea of God, that the\\nresplendent and happy youth and unfortunate obstacle-\\nbeset old age of his scattered nation had been alike\\nuseful in moulding the cup for the Master s lips, a\\nuse justifying all pains of the process What other\\ncorrespondences do you find in the historical appli-\\ncations of the poem to the race\\nIt has been urged that the poet was wrong in mak-\\ning David approach, in Saul, an idea so abhorrent to\\nHebraic monotheism as the Incarnation. But although\\nit is evident enough that the Messianic idea was con-\\nceived in the shape of Power, as Browning would\\nput it, by Jewish minds in general, is not the historic\\nfact indisputable that in the shape of Love it found\\nexemplification, for the world in general, in the person\\nof a Jew, and that this existence and doctrine, owed\\nthus to che Jewish race, must have had roots in its\\npast Could it not be rationally accounted for, more-\\nover, as an idea, at whatever time any nature, aware\\nthat it loves more compassionately than the God it\\nadores, would come to attribute no less power of loving\\nbut more to the Creator than the creature, and thence\\nto attribute to Him an effective stooping to the human\\nto save and help Is not this the way Browning\\nmakes it come to David in the ardor of feeling for Saul,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0573.jp2"}, "574": {"fulltext": "540 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nand in the inspirational mood of his improvisation as\\npoet Do you find this convincing as a mode of\\nshowing the historic evolution of the idea\\nIt has been claimed by modern Jews, on the other\\nhand, that the desire of Rabbi Ben Ezra (lines 61-72),\\nthat flesh might some day help soul as much as soul\\nhelps flesh, is thoroughly Hebraic. Is it not an idea\\nclosely related in spirit to the idea of the divine in-\\ndwelling in the body, and the body responding to the\\nfiner needs of that indwelling divinity Is the\\nabhorrent idea of the Incarnation very distant from,\\nthis admittedly Jewish desire\\nIt is Ben Ezra s Song of Death, which the Jews,\\nwho are supposed to be sitting in silent meditation over\\nthe sermon they have heard, repeat under their breath,\\nin Holy-Cross Day. Does this expression of the\\nrelation of the Jews to the creed which the life of\\ntheir Christian persecutors contradicts agree with the\\nhistoric ofEce of the Hebrew to the Gentile idea of\\nGod Is it the same philosophy of the use of evil to\\neduce higher spiritual value, machinery just meant\\nto give the soul its bent, applied here to their\\nnation s watch and ward, till Christ really come,\\nwhich finds expression in the earlier poem\\nDoes the contrast between the mockery and guying\\nof the outrageously gruff realistic first part of Holy-\\nCross Day and the exalted lyrical strain of the\\n^Song of Death mar the unity of the poem, or is it\\nessentially appropriate, and therefore merely an effective\\nchange of mood, introducing the theme in a new light\\nHow are the smoothness and solemnity of the verse\\nwhich are as characteristic of the last as the explosive-\\nness and roughness are of the first of the poem effected\\nwithout changing the four-stressed line", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0574.jp2"}, "575": {"fulltext": "JEWISH NATIONAL LIFE 541\\nWhat is meant by the hand which gutted my\\npurse would throttle my creed\\nA passage in Coryat s Crudities relates that the\\nmaine impediment to the conversion of the Jews\\nliving in Italy is that **all their goods are confiscated\\nas soon as they embrace Christianity. Because\\nwhereas many of them does raise their fortune by usury\\nit is therefore decreed by the Pope and other\\nfree Princes that they shall make a restitution of\\ntheir ill-gotten goods, and so disclogge their soules and\\nconsciences when they are admitted by holy baptism\\ninto the bosom of Christ s Church.\\nWas Ibn Ezra historically and actually one who\\nwas capable of enunciating such a view of Judaism\\nas the Song of Death expresses, and such a philosophy\\nof the spiritual uses of misfortunes and physical or\\nexternal ills of all sorts as the poem Rabbi Ben\\nEzra illuminates\\nAs to the Jew in Spain, Dr. Draper quotes the\\nSpanish writer Cabanis as saying, They were our\\nfactors and bankers before we knew how to read\\nthey were also our first physicians. To this it may\\nbe added, continues Draper, that they were, for\\ncenturies together, the only men in Europe who saw\\nthe course of human affairs from the most general\\npoint of view. These men were infusing strong\\ncommon sense into the literature of western Europe\\nin ages of concealment and mystification. A pres-\\nentation of the joint Jewish, Arabic, and Hellenic\\ninfluence upon the foundation of colleges, upon\\nthe initiation of critical and scientific thought, is also\\ngiven by Draper. (See Intellectual Development of\\nEurope, pp. 413 foil.) Of Ben Ezra he speaks as\\na **Jew of Toledo who was one of a distinguished line", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0575.jp2"}, "576": {"fulltext": "542 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof learned Spanish Hebrews, and who was at once\\na physician, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer,\\ncritic, poet. (See also Camberzvell Browningy Notes,\\nand for persecution as well as status of the Jew in early\\nEuropean history, article Israel in Encyclopaedia\\nBritannicay Milman s History of the Jews, and\\nespecially Gr^tz s History of the Jews.\\nIs Browning s treatment of Jewish persecution and\\nChristian prejudice in Filippo Baldinucci, markedly\\ncharacterized by an evolutionary view of the his-\\ntoric conflict between Jew and Christian And does\\nthis exemplification of the insensible yet decided\\ngrowth of tolerance towards the Jew from the time\\nof Uncle Filippo, who tells the story, to that of his\\nlittle boy nephew who has to be told that the Jews\\nmust not be pelted an indication of the design to\\nshow historic development in all. these poems Do\\nyou find it significant of Browning s point of view\\nthat the final part of this poem is one he has imagined,\\nand carries out in this direction the historic develop-\\nment of religious sectarian prejudice\\nIs the weakening of the childlike faith belonging\\nto early Christianity, which Baldinucci mourns as ex-\\nhibited in the decline of zeal against the Jews,\\naccompanied by a more truly religious spirit Is\\nthere some truth in Baldinucci s claim that it denotes\\nlatitudinarianism and scepticism Or is a certain\\namount of scepticism good, separating the spirit and\\nthe letter of Christian doctrine, the essential from the\\nnon-essential, and so liberating a view of all sects as\\nembodying partial truth, and encouraging an attitude\\nof mind toward all mankind which is more thoroughly\\nreligious\\nIs the poet right in intimating in this poem that", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0576.jp2"}, "577": {"fulltext": "JEWISH NATIONAL LIFE 543\\nthis liberalizing tendency of civilization has modified\\nJewish as well as Christian religious literalism\\nIs the implication the poem suggests, that Art has\\nbeen an important factor in bringing about this mutual\\ntoleration, justified by facts\\nWhy have the Jews, whose accomplishments in\\nlearning, science, music, and poesy have been notable,\\ncomparatively so little signalized the genius of their\\nrace in painting and sculpture\\nThe Cardinal s reply to the Jew who finds it hard\\nto see why the Christians prize Pagan pictures of\\nJupiter, is that since they are all lies they are indif-\\nferent matters as religious expressions, but that their\\ndrawing and coloring are truth. And the Jew, there-\\nfore, adopts the same reasoning in regard to pictures\\nof the Madonna. Is this impiety of even-handed\\napplication of the Christian view of Pagan art to\\nChristian art as well all that the poem suggests Is\\nthe poet right in making Baldinucci see nothing more\\nin it But does it not suggest, to the modern reader,\\nthe poet s point of view, of which Baldinucci never\\ndreamed although he brings it out indirectly; namely,\\nthat Pagan, Christian, and Jewish modes of religious\\nthought are reconcilable through the fundamental\\nspiritual meaning they may all manifest, if viewed\\nwith relation to the historic development of the human\\nmind\\nProfessor Barnet, in Browning s Jews and Shake-\\nspeare s Jew Browning Studies, London Brown-\\ning Society, p. 265), points out still another side to\\nthis explanation of Christian admiration of Pagan art,\\nbesides the sinister one suggested by the Cardinal,\\nand that is, that to the greatest spirits of the Renais-\\nsance the traditions of Greek and Roman and Hebrew", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0577.jp2"}, "578": {"fulltext": "544 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwere all true in a peculiar sense and all at the same\\ntime^ To the Italians the Pagan world was direct\\nancestor, and they were only in part de-Paganized by\\nChristianity. See, in The Ring and the Book (Book\\nXI., lines 1 9 10\u00e2\u0080\u00942001), what Browning makes Guido\\nsay. As Professor Barnet continues, They half beheved\\nin their Ledas and Ganymedes and Jupiters the lives\\nlived around them, if not their own, showed it. But\\nthey also believed in Christ and Calvary, and there-\\nfore they were not averse to painting themselves and\\ntheir contemporaries at the foot of the Cross. Now\\nthe Jews could never see things in this light. They\\nwere obstinate, undoubtedly, and they had never\\nallowed their definite convictions and traditions to be\\nsapped by imaginative art. Their interpretation of\\ntradition, therefore, was not artistic it was literal.\\nMoses and Aaron and David were all the more real\\nbecause the Jews had never seen differing representa-\\ntions of them in art. They had all the realness of\\nabstraction. There is nothing like Art for destroying\\nreligions that depend on this or that attitude towards\\nhistorical facts. Hell cannot be believed in after it\\nhas been painted. It is outside the regions of fact\\nthat religions are strong.\\nBut if the fine arts in addressing themselves pri-\\nmarily to external presentation of facts to the eye, are\\nan element in the criticism of religious ideas, there is\\nanother art, of poetry, which the Jews did profess,\\nwhich has a tendency to restore the balance from\\nmaterial scepticism to spiritual belief, and which does\\ntend toward an artistic instead of a literal interpreta-\\ntion of tradition. Does this explain the spiritual\\ninterpretation of Judaism as reconcilable with Chris-\\ntianity in essence, which the poet David implicitly.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0578.jp2"}, "579": {"fulltext": "JEWISH NATIONAL LIFE 545\\nand the philosopher poet Rabbi Ben Ezra explicitly,\\nhave been construed by Browning to give in Saul\\nand the Song of Death\\nMr. Andrew D. White reminds the reader, in his\\nHistory of the Warfare of Science with Theology\\n(p. 300), that it was the rabbis of Palestine and\\nthe Hellenized Jews of Alexandria who began **the\\nvast theological structure of oracular interpretation\\napplied to the Bible. The disporting of the mind,\\nwhether dry, formal, or fanciful to absurdity, or pun-\\ngent and human, is not lacking in interest to a poet\\nwho is interested in all phases of historic development,\\nand the representation among Browning s Jewish\\n^poems of such a range of comment, anecdote, and\\ntradition as the Rabbis recorded in the Talmud, is\\nevidence of how synthetic his imaginative glance at\\nnational characteristics was.\\nIn Ben Karshook s Wisdom a glimpse is given\\nof the ironical insight of a typical Rabbi. Beside the\\nwit of the aphorisms attributed to Karshook, does the\\nlittle poem convey a notion of the Rabbi s personality\\nDoes the eye that shoots fire somehow impart the\\nfact that he saw through the questioner and was indig-\\nnant at him as a thoroughly materialistic self-loving\\nmember of the congregation, who while desirous of\\nsaving himself was anxious not to relinquish any\\nsooner than need be his delights in Egypt s flesh-\\npots So again, with the second questioner, does\\nthe Rabbi s sneer suggest that his query was seen\\nto be a result of a dilettante scepticism which was\\nreally more doubtful of others having souls than that\\nthe inquirer himself lacked one\\nMoses the Meek is an example of the out-\\nrageously fabulizing temper of some of the Rabbinical\\n35", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0579.jp2"}, "580": {"fulltext": "546 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nlegends. Since this one is an invention, and likely to\\nhave no precise counterpart in these legends, is it too\\ngrotesque and useless a bit of fanciful fun for the poet\\nto have indulged in Or is it, as an exemplar of\\nthat kind of thing in Jewish traditional comment, of\\nvalue enough, in its way, to occupy the marginal\\nposition, as it were, which is given it here in con-\\nnection with the legendary element in **Jochanan\\nHakkadosh\\nWhat is the secret of life according to Jochanan s\\nlast experience Justifiable only in part he finds it,\\nand therefore always disappointing when viewed sec-\\ntionally from the standpoint of lover, warrior, states-\\nman, and poet. When viewed as a whole whose\\nparts are interlinked and related and mutually neces-\\nsary to each other with all their qualities of relative\\ngood and bad, there is suddenly a sense that there is\\nnothing wrong anywhere. The knowledge that good\\nmarred with evil in every partial experience is better\\nin the total scheme, because there more potential for\\nlarger future good than the sheer good alone which he\\nhas been discontentedly desiring in each field of human\\neffort and finding impossible, now overpowers him\\nwith dehght, and makes him recognize the ecstasy to\\nbe enjoyed from Hfe s gift of consciousness, which\\nenables him to follow and take part in the evolution\\nof the spiritual usefulness of all life s processes.\\nIs this closely in agreement with Rabbi Ben Ezra s\\nview of the good of life when we have faith to see it\\nwhole\\nIs Tsaddik s idea of the holy man s secret coming\\nfrom the abandonment of the flesh and the attainment\\nof a purely spiritual consciousness while still in life ironi-\\ncally meant to be shown as utterly on the wrong tack", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0580.jp2"}, "581": {"fulltext": "JEWISH NATIONAL LIFE 547\\nIs it precisely the reconciliation of flesh with spirit, of\\nall sectionalism and division with unity that constitutes\\nthe vision of Hfe s secret which floods his last moments\\nin the flesh with rapture\\nIs this opposed to the Oriental or Transcendental\\nview of the absolute, and of the unity underlying and\\nembracing human life Is it a further phase of that\\nphilosophy, because the relative and the individual are\\njust as necessary as the absolute and universal, in fact\\nare the means requisite to their realization more and\\nmore by each soul for itself?\\nBrowning meant to reveal in this poem, it is said\\n(see Notes, Carjiberzvell Browni7ig, as cited), the essen-\\ntially Jewish philosophy of life to correspond with the\\nessentially Christian philosophy expressed by St. John\\nin The Death in the Desert. In what does the\\ndifference consist In an especially sensuous instead\\nof an especially idealistic way of regarding human\\ndevelopment And does the agreement consist in the\\nrevelation in both of a progressive unity in life, all\\nphases of experience on the sensuous side of life being\\nregarded by Jochanan Hakkadosh as all phases of\\nbelief are regarded by St. John on the idealistic side,\\nas a continuously enlightening process\\nSolomon and Balkis and Doctor two\\nsportive renderings of Rabbinical legends, the second\\nthe nearest to the wholly farcical (possibly Ned\\nBratts excepted) to which the poet ever came,\\nrepresent the many anecdotes on the relations of men\\nand women scattered through the Talmudic writings.\\nAre these characteristic of the Jewish mind also\\nIs a distrust of women and a disdain of relationship\\nwith them shown frequently in the Talmudic and\\nother Jewish writings along with an almost inconsis-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0581.jp2"}, "582": {"fulltext": "548 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntent recognition of feminine power, and an almost\\nsuperstitious dread of the relationship as of fundamental\\npower over men\\nThe ideal quality in the Greek variant of the\\nAlkestis story, The Just One (referred to in Notes\\non Doctor in Camberwell Brozvning), brings\\nout the strongly sensuous quality, and the bias against\\nwomen which belongs characteristically to the Jewish\\nway of telling a kindred story. Are the less flattering\\npresentations of the Jewish cast of mind, here intimated\\non the side affecting women, inconsistent with the\\npresentation of the typically Jewish nature in the\\nother poems\\nIs there a taint, if not of Oriental impurity, at least\\nof Oriental contempt of women, in the average or\\ntraditional Jewish attitude Or does Browning s\\npicture of the Hebrew lack counterbalancing anecdotes\\nthat might have illustrated a more equal and spiritual\\nrelationship", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0582.jp2"}, "583": {"fulltext": "Portrayals of National Life\\nRoman\\nTopic for Paper y Classwork, or Private Study.\\nIncidents of Roman Life.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nImperante Augusto natus est xii 247 375\\n*Protus iv 263 396\\nInstans Tyranntis iv 154 384\\nPan and Luna xi 222 322\\nSee Cambertvell Broivning, as cited.\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussio??. Is the\\npoint of this poem, so vividly picturing the terrifying\\ngood fortune of the Emperor Augustus, the contrast\\nof the material dominance of Imperialism with that\\nsubtler power of the spirit, typified in the birth of\\nChrist Is such subtler power always bound to\\nsupersede the coarser power\\nIs the effect of the nameless fear of his own dizzy\\nheight above the world, shown by Augustus, enhanced\\nin the poem, by its being reflected through the terror\\nit strikes in one of his subjects\\nHow is the incident of the Emperor s fear of his\\nown predominance introduced by the Senator who\\ntells the story of his meeting the Emperor disguised as\\na beggar Can the poet be convicted of leaving any-\\nthing of historical importance out that would add to\\nthe intellectual as well as the material aggrandizement", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0583.jp2"}, "584": {"fulltext": "550 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof Caesar Yet has he compressed all such mention\\neasily and naturally into the talk How do the\\nrecords of Augustus s career corroborate all that is\\nhere brought out (See Notes, Camberwell Brozv?i-\\ning Mommsen s History of Rome.\\nIs this monologue flashing the daily life of Impe-\\nrial Rome upon the eye, and shrivelling the sense with\\nthe sudden force and significance of the contrast be-\\ntween human power and assurance, and craven human\\ndread cowering before it knows not what a striking\\nproof of the continuity of poetic gift in the poet of\\nseventy-seven, and one that gainsays the common say-\\ning that his later work nowhere shows the objective\\nfaculty that marked the early monologues\\nIs it like the early monologues, which present\\ntypical or historical figures, in style of verse as well\\nas in synthetic condensation and in picturesqueness\\nAre the relations of the Latin poets to their patrons\\nimplied in the mention here of Varus and Horace true\\nto the Golden Age of Augustus\\nThe military necessities of Imperialism and the\\nvicissitudes they brought in their train are portrayed in\\nProtus. None of Browning s readers have as yet\\nbeen able to find its prototype in the history of the\\nByzantine Empire can you\\nYet is it none the less essentially true to history,\\nif merely a poetic invention\\nIs the presentation of the contrast between Protus,\\nthe Prince Imperial, and the rough usurper, John the\\nPannonian, as derived from looking at two busts, in\\nitself characteristically Roman, capturing the fancy with\\nthe reminder of the long rows of emperors busts\\nwe count by scores which have come to be asso-\\nciated in every mind with the antique customa-^-y", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0584.jp2"}, "585": {"fulltext": "ROMAN NATIONAL LIFE 551\\nhonors paid to dynasties of Roman rulers Does\\ntheir number also suggest the possibility of unknown\\nspaces of history where these two busts might easily\\nhave remained unremarked till the poet s eye singled\\nthem out and investigated their annals\\nThe first and last lines, describing two imaginary\\nbusts, says Mr, Symons, **are a fine instance of\\nBrowning s power of translating sense into sound.\\nCompare the smooth and sweet melody of the opening\\nlines\\nOne loves a baby-face with violets there\\nViolets instead of laurels in the hair,\\nAs they were all the little locks could bear\\nwith the rasping vigor and strength of sound which\\npoint the contrast of the conclusion\\nHere s John the Smith s rough-hammered head. Great eye,\\nGross jaw and griped lips do what granite can\\nTo give you the Crown-grasper. What a man\\nInstans Tyrannus is, probably, not only linked\\nwith the foregoing Roman poems by the fact that it is\\nbased on the suggestion of a line or two from the\\nAugustan poet, Horace, which is its obvious connec-\\ntion with the Latin Empire, but also because it exem-\\nplifies the sort of tyranny that often could have been\\nasserted under Roman rule, even if it is not peculiar\\nto the days of Imperial Rome. Is its moral point in\\nclose accord with that of the first poem of this group\\nWould the circumstances described as belonging to\\nthe tyrant and to the man agree with any other rela-\\ntionship than one between an emperor and an insig-\\nnificant subject Who else but an Emperor or\\nnational ruler of supreme power would have, as this\\ntyrant has, a million or two subjects, the wealth and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0585.jp2"}, "586": {"fulltext": "552 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nseductions to corrupt the soul he hated, the power to\\ninjure him through his family or friends, if he had\\nany such to suppress him utterly at last\\nIs it eternally true as an exemphlication of any\\nnational or individual authority exercised to oppress\\na man or a nation against right and justice, if the\\noppressed make an appeal to the higher authority of\\nright and justice\\nDoes it imply that the triumph of the higher author-\\nity over the tyrant necessarily prevents the material\\nevil to the man And if this were what is meant,\\nwould it be true Or does it claim, not that the\\ntriumph of right is always maintained on the material\\nbasis, but that on the spiritual plane of life it holds,\\nthe man who appeals to justice is not corrupted by the\\noppression from which he suffers, and the tyrant is\\nhimself morally shaken, and so convicted of the exist-\\nence of a power mightier than his own\\nPan and Luna illustrates the Roman mythology,\\narising not from its own original conception of cosmic\\nlife, but on that of the greater nation it conquered, and\\nwhose ideas made a conquest of Rome, Greece.\\nHow much has the poet changed the myth, in\\natmosphere and spiritual meaning, from the way Virgil\\nput it originally", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0586.jp2"}, "587": {"fulltext": "Page\\nText\\nNote\\n6\\n282\\n247\\n328\\n64\\n319\\n117\\n301\\n166\\n3\\nPortrayals of National Life\\nGreek\\nI. Topic for Paper y dasszcork, or Private Study.\\nGreek Myths and Legends as Developed by Browning.\\nVol,\\nArtemis Prologizes v\\nIxion X\\nApollo and the Fates xi\\nPheidippides x\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0\u00e2\u0080\u00a2^Echetlos x\\nHints on these poems may be found in the Notes to\\nthe Ca7?iberzvell Brow?ii?ig, as given above, and in the\\nIntroduction to Vol. VIII. also programme Poems\\nof Heroism and Adventure.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. What\\nis the story of Hippolutos as told in the play by Eurip-\\nides (See Vol. I. of the translation from Eurip-\\nides in Bohn s Classical Library. How much of\\nthe play has Browning woven into the poem Where\\nmay the incidents of the revival of Hippolutos and his\\nlove for one of the nymphs of Artemis be found\\n(See other sources of the myth in Virgil, the ^neid.\\nBook VII.; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 15; Ovid,\\nFasti, 6 also the play of Seneca on Hippolutos.)\\nThis beautiful fragment is only the prologue of what\\nwas intended to be a play. Were such prologues char-\\nacteristic of the plays of Euripides", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0587.jp2"}, "588": {"fulltext": "554 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nIs this prologue of Browning s, however, richer than\\nthose of Euripides in its presentation of the personality\\nof the speaker, through the weaving into her talk of\\nreferences to her own habits and the customs which\\nare observed in regard to her He makes her combine\\nthe quahties of Hecate with those of Diana. How\\ndoes he do this (For information on the flowers\\nsacred to the gods and customs observed in their wor-\\nship, see Friends s Flowers and Flower-lore\\nRobinson s Greek Antiquities.\\nIs Asclepios described anywhere in Greek literature\\nas effecting his cures by such practical methods as\\nBrowning makes him use (See the Iliad, Book V.,\\nfor description of Peon s healing of the wounded Mars.\\nPaeon is the physician of the Iliad.)\\nDoes Browning follow the classical representations\\nof ^Esculapius In classical portraiture he is repre-\\nsented with a large beard, holding in his hand a staff\\nround which was wreathed a serpent his other hand\\nwas supported on the head of a serpent. Does the\\nstyle in this poem seem to remind one of the large\\ncalmness of a Greek statue\\nIn Ixion the poet uses a Greek myth, and intro-\\nduces into it a large symbolical interpretation such as it\\ncould not have had in the first place. This poem has\\nbeen said to be intended principally as an argument\\nagainst eternal punishment, and the endurance of Ixion\\nhas been compared with that of Prometheus. Do the\\npoints noted in the remarks following show that such\\nan interpretation does not account for all the implica-\\ntions in the poem But why, it might very well be\\nasked, did Browning, if he intended to make another\\nPrometheus, choose Ixion for his theme.? And the\\nanswer is evident, because in the story of Ixion he", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0588.jp2"}, "589": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 555\\nfound some quality different from any which existed\\nin the story of Prometheus, and which was especially\\nsuited to the end he had in view.\\nThe kernel of the myth of Prometheus as developed\\nby ^schylus is proud, unflinching suffering of punish-\\nment, inflicted, not by a god justly angry for sin against\\nhimself, but by a god sternly mindful of his owm pre-\\nrogatives, whose only right is might, and jealous of any\\ninterference in behalf of the race w^hich he detested,\\nthe race of man. Thus Prometheus stands out as a\\nhero in Greek mythology, a mediator between man\\nand the blind anger of a god of unconditional power\\nand Prometheus, with an equally blind belief in fate,\\naccepts while he defies the punishment inflicted by\\nZeus. He tacitly acknowledges the right of Zeus to\\npunish him, since he confesses his deeds to be sins, but\\nnevertheless, he would do exactly the same thing over\\nagain.\\nBy my choice, my choice\\nI freely sinned I will confess my sin\\nAnd helping mortals found mine own despair.\\nOn the other hand, Ixion never appears in classic\\nlore as a hero. He has been called the Cain of\\nGreece, because he was the first, as Pindar says,\\nto introduce to mortal men the murder of kin not\\nunaccompanied by cunning. Zeus appears, how-\\never, to have shown more leniency to him for the\\ncrime of killing his father-in-law than he ever did to\\nPrometheus, as he not only purified him from the mur-\\nder, but invited him to a seat among the gods. But\\nto quote Pindar again, he found his prosperity too\\ngreat to bear, when with infatuate mind he became\\nenamoured of Hera. Thus his conceit drave\\nhim to an act of enormous follv, but the man soon", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0589.jp2"}, "590": {"fulltext": "556 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsuiFered his deserts and received an exquisite torture.\\nIxion, then, in direct contrast to Prometheus, stands\\nforth an embodiment of the most detestable of sins,\\nperpetrated simply for personal ends. To depict such\\na man as this in an attitude of defiance, and yet to jus-\\ntify his defiance, is a far more difficult problem than to\\njustify the already admired heroism of Prometheus.\\n(See Editorial article in Poet-lore^ Vol. V., p. 626,\\nDecember, 1893.)\\nThe first point Ixion makes in his defence is that\\nsin is an aberration of sense that it comes through\\nthe ignorance of the soul whose rush upon the\\nreal is clogged by sense. Does this thought have\\nany parallel in Greek thought\\nIn Plato s Dialogues there are many hints to the\\neffect that virtue results from knowledge. For exam-\\nple, in the Protagoras Socrates says: **Then, I\\nsaid, if the pleasant is the good, nobody does any-\\nthing under the idea or conviction that some other\\nthing would be better and is also attainable, when he\\nmight do the better. And this inferiority of a man to\\nhimself is merely ignorance, as the superiority of a\\nman to himself is wisdom and is not ignorance\\nthe having a false opinion and being deceived about\\nimportant matters\\nThen, I said, no man voluntarily pursues evil, or\\nthat which he thinks to be evil.\\nBut in the parable of the den in the seventh book\\nof the Republic this idea is presented very clearly.\\n(See Jowett s translation of the Dialogues of Plato,\\nVol. II.) The abstract of the parable as given by\\nJowett is as follows\\nImagine human beings living in a sort of under-\\nground den, which has a mouth wide open towards", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0590.jp2"}, "591": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE\\n557\\nthe light, and behind them a breastwork such as\\nmarionette players might use for a screen and there\\nis a way beyond the breastwork along which passen-\\ngers are moving, holding in their hands various works\\nof art, and among them images of men and animals,\\nwood and stone, and some of the passers are talking\\nand others silent. They are ourselves, and they see\\nnothing but the shadows which the fire throws on the\\nwall of the cave to these they give names, and if we\\nadd an echo which returns from the wall, the voices\\nof the passengers will seem to proceed from the\\nshadows. Suppose now that you suddenly turn them\\nround and make them look with pain and grief to\\nthemselves at the real images will they believe them\\nto be real Will not their eyes be dazzled, and will\\nthey not try to get away from the fire to something\\nwhich they can behold without blinking And sup-\\npose further, that they are dragged up a steep and\\nrugged ascent into the presence of the sun himself, will\\nnot their eyes be darkened with the excess of light\\nSome time will pass before they get the habit of per-\\nceiving at all and at first they will be able to per-\\nceive only shadows and reflections in the water then\\nthey will recognize the moon and the stars and will at\\nlength behold the sun in his own proper place as he\\nis. Last of all they will conclude this is he who\\ngives us the year and the seasons, and is the author of\\nall that we see. How will they rejoice in passing\\nfrom the darkness to light How worthless to them\\nwill seem the honors and glories of the den out of\\nwhich they came.\\nThe remarks of Socrates in interpreting the allegory\\nare especially pertinent to Ixion*s contention. The\\nprison is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0591.jp2"}, "592": {"fulltext": "558 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsun, the ascent and vision of the things above you may\\ntruly regard as the upward progress of the soul into the\\nintellectual world.\\nBut if this is true, then certain professors of\\neducation must be mistaken in saying that they\\ncan put a knowledge into the soul which was not\\nthere before, like giving eyes to the blind.\\nWhereas our argument shows that the power is\\nalready in the soul and that as the eye cannot\\nturn from darkness to light without the whole body,\\nso too, when the eye of the soul is turned round, the\\nwhole soul must be turned from the world of gen-\\neration into that of being, and become able to endure\\nthe sight of being, and of the brightest and best of\\nbeing that is to say, of the good, illustrating further\\nwith the attitude of a clever rogue, But what if\\nthere had been a circumcision of such natures in the\\ndays of their youth and they had been severed from\\nthe leaden weights, as I may call them, with which\\nthey are born into this world, which hang on to sen-\\nsual pleasures, such as those of eating and drinking,\\nand drag them down and turn the vision of their souls\\nabout the things which are below if, I say, they had\\nbeen released from them and turned round to the\\ntruth, the very same faculty in these very same persons\\nwould have seen the other as keenly as they now see\\nthat on which their eye is fixed.\\nIs the idea that Zeus is responsible for evil to be\\nfound in Plato, or does he insist that God is the author\\nof good only\\nIs Ixion right when he contends that, knowledge of\\nthe good being gained, to keep on punishing the\\nwrongdoer serves no purpose but that of hate\\nIxion presents what he considers would be a better", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0592.jp2"}, "593": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 559\\nway to treat sinners. Does this mean that his con-\\nception of God is higher than his belief about God\\nNow, as to the nature of the sin. Browning makes\\nit distinctly to be arrogance, following the Latin ver-\\nsion of the myth. In Lucian s dialogue between\\nHera and Zeus, the stress is laid upon the arrogance\\nof Ixion. Jupiter declares that Ixion shall pay the\\npenalty not of his love for that surely is not so\\ndreadful a crime but of his loud boasting.\\nDoes the poet mean to imply by emphasizing this\\npoint that Ixion s sin was his attempt, in becoming\\nthe friend of Zeus and the lover of Hera, to ape\\ndivine power and love, and through the failure which\\nattended him symbolized in his being hurled into Hell\\nthat is through realizing that he could not be more\\nthan suffering, struggling man, he also realized that\\nZeus was only man s conception of God (See lines\\n91-92.)\\nBut though Zeus is thus dethroned, is all lost\\nThrough the struggles and the sufferings and the\\nbafflements of the flesh a rainbow of hope is formed\\nby means of which he descries far beyond Zeus a\\nreality of ineffable purity toward which he will ever\\nstrive.\\nAt that point in the poem where Ixion realizes\\nthat his conception of God is higher than his belief\\nabout God, and therefore the God he has worshipped\\nhas been only a figment of the imagination, he be-\\ncomes a nineteenth-century philosopher, who per-\\nceives that though the basis of any particular religious\\ndoctrine be swept away, the eternal essence of religion\\nstill remains, and toward the absolute Good man must\\nalways strive while recognizing, as Ixion in his arro-\\ngance did not, that man cannot know the whole nature", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0593.jp2"}, "594": {"fulltext": "560 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nof God. Does this change from Greek thought to\\nmodern thought spoil the artistic unity of the poem\\nUpon this point Mr. Nettleship remarks: **By a\\ntransition wholly unaccounted for by the artistic basis\\nof the poem, the king Ixion proceeds to express ideas\\nsuch as could not possibly enter the mind of a man\\nbelieving in the fact, however unjust, of man s being\\npunished by Gods whose notions of right and wrong\\ncould only be formulated by the word tyranny. In\\nfact, Ixion on his v/heel, after the process as stated\\nabove, proceeds to prophesy. He retains the image\\nof the wheel with its rainbow, and states his case in\\neffect thus I am now suffering the eternal pains which\\nmy God Zeus has unjustly awarded me for an act of\\nmere folly and therefore I say that Zeus is not a real\\nGod, only a hollow phantasm created by man s imagi-\\nnation and which must one day fall and vanish.\\nThat of course is a reductio ad absurdum as coming\\nfrom a man who believes himself to be actually suffer-\\ning eternal torment of his body made immortal for the\\npurpose of torment as an unjust punishment inflicted\\non him by a God who he believed was real enough\\nwhen actually dooming him. Would this incon-\\nsistency vanish if the whole poem is taken as a symbol\\nof the development of the human race through the\\ndifferent phases of religious conceptions\\nThis poem has a curious rhythm which suggests\\nthe turning of the wheel. The lines have six stresses,\\nand every second line has two stressed syllables to-\\ngether in the middle of the line. Is the effect of the\\nwheel added to by the fact that the poem is not\\ndivided by stanzas and has very {qsn periods\\nIn Apollo and the Fates Browning imagines the\\nscene which took place between them when Apollo", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0594.jp2"}, "595": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 561\\nasked the extension of the life of Admetus, but it is to\\nbe observed that he has made this scene symboHze a\\nphilosophy which belongs to the nineteenth century.\\nWhat is that philosophy as interpreted in the Notes\\nto the Camberwell Browfiing?\\nIs there anything to justify Browning s making the\\nBacchus cult stand for the birth of love and aspiration\\nin mankind The root idea in the Bacchus myth\\nseems to have been stirred by a sense of the poten-\\ntiality of life in jthe teeming earth, thence by the\\ndivinity of Zeus was the fiery fluid attar distilled to\\nbecome a joyous god stinging his votaries to a delirium\\nof delight. Mr. Walter Pater makes a similar ex-\\nplanation. It was the lightning of Heaven upon the\\ndew, liberating a liquid joy and persuading to a divine\\necstasy. (See Editorial, Poet-lore Vol. IX., p. 455.\\nAn idea of the worship of Bacchus may be gained\\nfrom The Bacchae, by Euripides, Bohn s Edition,\\nVol. I.)\\nThis poem has sometimes been objected to as being\\nincoherent and unpleasant on account of the incident\\nof Apollo s making the Fates drunk.\\nMight it be answered to these objections, first,\\nthat the incident is founded upon an actual myth, and\\nsecond, that the poem has a sort of concentrated\\nstrength and savage largeness which suits well with the\\nidea of nature personifications as understood by primi-\\ntive mankind, and which is still visible enough in the\\nculture- mythology of Greece and may be seen in the\\nBacchas of Euripides, therefore all unpleasantness\\nconnected with the intoxication of the Fates is removed\\nif we regard it as a symbol representing the awakening\\nof blind law through feeling?\\nThe rhythm in this poem as m the last one is very", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0595.jp2"}, "596": {"fulltext": "562 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ninteresting. Thie normal line has four beats. How is\\nthe placing of the short syllables varied Do these\\nvariations, together with the concentration of style, give\\nthe poem its rugged, almost uncouth effect\\nIn Pheidippides and **Echetlos we have\\nlegends of the battle of Marathon. As the stories\\nmay be found in Herodotus, we may make a direct\\ncomparison with the Greek source. How much and\\nin what ways has the poet enlarged upon the accounts\\ngiven in Herodotus Does Herodotus give any hint\\nthat the Spartans did not wish to help the Athenians,\\nand made their superstition about the moon an excuse\\nUpon this point Smith says in his History of\\nGreece As soon as the news of the fall of Ere-\\ntria reached Athens, the courier Pheidippides was sent\\nto Sparta to solicit assistance. Such was his extraor-\\ndinary speed of foot, that he performed this journey\\nof one hundred and fifty miles in forty-eight hours.\\nThe Spartans promised their aid but their supersti-\\ntion rendered their promise ineffectual, since it wanted\\na few days to the full moon, and it was contrary to\\ntheir religious customs to commence a march during\\nthis interval. The reason given by the Spartans for\\ntheir delay does not appear to have been a pretext\\nand this instance is only one among many of that\\nblind attachment to ancient forms which characterize\\nthis people throughout the whole period of their\\nhistory.\\nIn treating Sparta s action the way he has, did\\nthe poet gain a point which could be used to great\\nartistic effect in the poem\\nIs it well to take such liberties with history for the\\nsake of art Might it be argued that although the\\nSpartans were sincere in the reasons they gave, a fiery", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0596.jp2"}, "597": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 563\\nyouth who had run one hundred and forty miles and\\nwho knew the extent of the danger and whose reli-\\ngion was different, might suspect their sincerity, and so\\nBrowning represented Pheidippides s opinion\\nLooking back over this group of poems founded on\\nGreek subjects, we see that each one treats the subject-\\nmatter somewhat differently. In Artemis Prolo-\\ngizes the myth is taken just as it stands from classical\\nsources, but the relation of it is put into the mouth of\\nthe goddess, and what enlargement there is is in the\\nportrayal of the goddess s personality but this en-\\nlargement is confined strictly within classical limits.\\nIn **Ixion also, the letter of the myth is adhered\\nto, but Ixion is developed into a philosopher com-\\nbining both Greek and modern elements, and thus he\\nbecomes a type of humanity. In Apollo and the\\nFates out of a mere hint is developed a whole\\ndramatic scene along lines which make of it an alle-\\ngory of the workings of the universal forces of life.\\nIn Pheidippides the legend serves as litde more\\nthan the background for the development of the\\ncharacters of Pheidippides and Pan, while in Echet-\\nlos there is nothing but the simple relation of the\\nstory, with a Httle local color added and a moral at\\nthe end, in the style of the morals attached to fables.\\nOwing to these various treatments do we get, in some\\nof these poems, pictures of Greek ideals, and in others\\nthe relations of Greek ideals to modern ideals\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nGreek Literary Life.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nBalaustion s Adventure viii i 285\\nAristophanes Apology viii 90 299", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0597.jp2"}, "598": {"fulltext": "564 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nFor special studies of these poems, see the Introduc-\\ntion and Notes to Camberwell Brow?wig, as given\\nabove.\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussio?i. From\\nthe introductory lines of this poem to line 357, what\\nis to be learned of the present scene, of the adventure\\nBalaustion has had, of her own personality, of the state\\nof opinion in Athens and outside of Athens in regard\\nto Euripides How much of this is based upon his-\\ntory, and how much of it is due to the imagination of\\nthe poet (See Notes to Cambei-well Brozvning. An\\nexcellent account of the life and work of Euripides may\\nbe found in G. Murray s Ancient Greek Literature.\\nSee also Jebb s Classical Greek Poetry; Perry s\\nHistory of Greek Literature.\\nDoes Balaustion have a premonition of what modern\\nacting is when she uses the expressions referring to the\\nway the actors looked when they spoke and so horrified\\nthe whipper-snapper critic of the day, who could not\\nof course imagihe acting without a mask (See lines\\n304-316.)\\nIs her explanation of the relation of the arts being so\\nclose that one always brings up another a true one\\nMight this depend upon the imaginative power of the\\nrecipient of the artistic impression as well as upon the\\nartist s power of representing things vividly\\nThe setting of the subject thus being presented, the\\nmain business of the poem begins, which is a transla-\\ntion of the Alkestis of Euripides, with apprecia-\\ntive and interpretative comment by Balaustion. The\\ntranslation may be compared with the literal translation\\ngiven in the Bohn Edition of Euripides, and also with\\nArthur S. Way s in Euripides in English Verse.\\nDo Balaustion s descriptions of the action of the play", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0598.jp2"}, "599": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 565\\nadd materially to the vividness with which it comes be-\\nfore the reader, so that he feels himself actually in the\\nplace of an ancient Greek looking at the play\\nDoes it seem to you that Death did not heed what\\nApollo said, and that Apollo w^as prophesying to him-\\nself rather than addressing Death, as Balaustion says\\nIs Balaustion s conclusion that Alkestis now saw\\neverything in its right relation, and was no longer\\ndeceived by the protestations of Admetos justified by\\nthe fact that she now no longer addressed any remarks\\nto her husband, but spoke to her children\\nDoes Balaustion make a good criticism w^hen she says\\nAdmetos muttered now^ this, now that ineptitude\\nDoes the speech Alkestis afterwards addresses to\\nAdmetos show still more clearly that she is not very\\nmuch impressed with the nobleness of her husband,\\nor his realization of the greatness of the sacrifice she is\\nmaking\\nDoes Balaustion penetrate to the weakness of Adme-\\ntos s nature in the criticism following his protestations\\nthat he will not marry again\\nDo you agree with Balaustion that Admetos began\\nto realize the full significance of what had happened as\\nsoon as his wife was dead\\nDoes Balaustion succeed in representing the fine\\ndramatic effect of the entrance of Herakles with all his\\noutside health and freshness upon this scene of woe, all\\nthe more dismal because of its revelation of the selfish-\\nness of Admetos\\nDo you think that Balaustion in her appreciation of\\nHerakles has really penetrated the purpose of Euripides\\nin portraying him as he did\\nIs she right in supposing that Herakles was not told\\nof the death of Alkestis because thev all felt ashamed to", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0599.jp2"}, "600": {"fulltext": "566 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntell him the story of their own selfishness, or was it a\\npoint of honor with the Greeks that a guest should be\\nentertained without regard to private sorrows Hos-\\npitality was one of the cherished ideals of Greece. But,\\nin this instance, might not Euripides have meant to give\\njust the impression which Balaustion gets, for he was\\nlargely a revolter against Greek religious and social\\nideals Besides, is it not shown, later on in the play,\\nthat Herakles was astonished that he had not been told\\nFurthermore, whether Balaustion really took the mean-\\ning of Euripides or not, is it not an interesting and\\nperfecdy possible interpretation of the action of Ad-\\nmetos and the household when Herakles appeared\\nIs Alkestis right again when she says Admetos saw in\\nhis father a reflection of himself, and so hated him all\\nthe more for his refusal to die for his son\\nDid the friends interpose, as Balaustion thinks, be-\\ncause they realized love s champion here had left an\\nundefended point or two the antagonist might profit\\nby\\nAre her comparisons between the characters of the\\ntwo men as they appear in this painful wrangle just\\nDo you feel, as Balaustion did, that Admetos was\\nbeginning to see his own action in a less selfish light\\nwhen his father left\\nDoes Balaustion make a good defence of Herakles\\nagainst the criticism of the old servant with whom\\nCharope seemed to sympathize\\nIs it also a penetrating observation of hers that\\nwhen Admetos begins to realize the truth he grows\\nlike his wife and speaks quietly instead of wailing\\nabout his misfortune\\nIn the version proposed by Balaustion, does she hit\\nupon the only way in which it would be possible for", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0600.jp2"}, "601": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 567\\nAlkestis to make the sacrifice, and not only preserve the\\nhonor of her husband but show him to be as unselfish\\nand noble as she\\nDoes the version proposed by Balaustion- strike you\\nas being an especially appropriate one for a young girl\\nto have invented and if so, why (See Introduction\\nto Camberwell BrowJimg, Vol. VIII., for remarks\\nupon this subject.)\\nDoes this exquisitely pure and ideal version of the\\nstory agree with the fact of her valiant defence of\\nHerakles in his cups (For remarks upon this, see\\nalso Introduction.)\\nProfessor R. G. Moulton, in a paper before the\\nLondon Browning Society, criticised the interpretation\\nof the Alkestis made by Balaustion in this poem,\\nas a Beautiful Misrepresentation of the Original,\\nHis arguments briefly are that Admetos is not to be\\nconsidered as an individual, but rather as the repre-\\nsentative of the state, and, as such, was the dispenser\\nof the glorious hospitality which was a religion with\\nthe Greeks and that since the Greek ideal demanded\\nthe sacrifice of the individual to the state, it never\\nentered the head of Admetos or of any one else that he\\nshould not be saved at any cost. He concludes there-\\nfore that not only Admetos is not selfish, but, on the\\ncontrary, he is as eminent for unselfishness in his\\nsphere of life as Alkestis proves in her own. He\\nsays\\nIf Admetos is in fact selfish, how comes it that no\\npersonage in the whole pla^^ catches this idea? no\\none, that is, except Pheres, whose words go for\\nnothing, since he never discovers this selfishness of\\nAdmetos until he is impelled to fasten on another the\\naccusation which has been hurled at himself Except", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0601.jp2"}, "602": {"fulltext": "568 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nPheres, all regard Admetos as the sublime type of\\ngenerosity. Apollo, as representing the gods, uses the\\nunexpected word holy to describe the demeanour\\nwith which his mortal protector cherished him during\\nthe trouble that drove him to earth in human shape.\\nThe Chorus, who, it is well known, represent in a\\nGreek play public opinion, and are a channel by\\nwhich* the author insinuates the lesson of the story, at\\none point of the action cannot restrain their admira-\\ntion, and devote an ode to the lofty character of their\\nking. And Herakles, so grandly represented by\\nBrowning himself as the unselfish toiler for others,\\nfeels at one moment that he has been outdone in\\ngenerosity by Admetos. There can be no question,\\nthen, what Euripides thought about the character of\\nAdmetos. And will the objector seriously contend\\nthat Euripides has, without intending it, presented a\\ncharacter which must in fact be pronounced selfish\\nThe suggestion that the poet who created Alkestis did\\nnot know selfishness when he saw it, seems to me an\\nimprobability far greater than the improbability that\\nBrowning and the English readers should go wrong.\\nWhy should the positive opinion of Pheres that\\nAdmetos was selfish be dismissed as of no account\\nwhile the silence of the chorus should be taken as an\\nindication that Euripides did not consider Admetos\\nselfish Again, if Admetos stands for the glory of the\\nstate, how does it happen that no hint of this is given\\nin the play And if hospitality was such an under-\\nstood duty, why did the old servant grow so indignant\\nat the entertaining of Herakles, and why did Herakles\\nconsider that Admetos had done such a praiseworthy\\nthing in hiding his grief from him and entertaining\\nhim", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0602.jp2"}, "603": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 569\\nCommenting on Professor Moulton s view, an\\nEditorial in Poet-lore (Vol. III., p. 41) says Such\\nan ideal certainly argues not merely unselfishness but\\naltruism on the part of the individual, but what does\\nit argue on the part of the state or the representative\\nof the state Surely, not only selfishness but pure\\negoism. That few people, even in Greek times, had\\nreached this altruistic height is shown by the fact that,\\nof all the friends and relatives of Admetos, his wife\\nalone was willing to make the sacrifice. From the\\nremarks of the chorus and Admetos we should con-\\nclude that, like most of the Greeks, they thought the\\npractical working of the ideal should be relegated to\\nthe old men and women. It is easy to believe in self-\\nsacrifice for the glory of the state when some one else\\nis to make it. But, naturally, the one upon whom\\nthis duty is thrust, being of the same selfish nature as\\nthe other members of the state, objects to performing\\nit, and retaliates, as Pheres does, by tracing back the\\nselfishness to its true fountain-head, in the state, other-\\nwise Admetos, who, according to Professor Moulton,\\nequals the state. And so Alkestis becomes the sole\\nrepresentative of the altruistic side of the Greek ideal,\\nwhile Admetos, whether considered as individual or\\nas state, represents the egoistic side, and Pheres grasps\\nmore nearly the balance between the two, akin to our\\nmodern notions. To plead for Admetos on the ground\\nthat he represented the state is merely to shift the\\nground of the inquiry, for, in either case, the true\\nground of inquiry is Was he conscious of a higher\\nideal than that of the subordination of the individual\\nto the state, or did he, in ignorance of a higher ideal,\\nfiilfil the best that was in him\\nBalaustion makes his consciousness gradually awaken", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0603.jp2"}, "604": {"fulltext": "570 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nto the fact that Alkestis is happier in making the\\nsacrifice than he is in retaining his life, and so he\\nrealizes the selfishness he had shown in the first place\\nDoes the play seem to you to fit this interpretation or\\nnot\\nThere is one thing to be remembered the story\\nwas fixed when Euripides took it for his subject, so\\nthat the events must remain as they are. Then it de-\\npended upon the poet to develop the characters\\naccording to his own ideals.\\nDr. Philip S. Moxom makes a good argument against\\nProfessor Moulton s view in a paper in the published\\nvolume of Boston Browning Society Papers (also\\nin Poet-lore y Vol. VIII., pp. 425-432), the conclu-\\nsions of which are that Alkestis dies for Admetos, not\\nas the head of the state, but as her husband and the\\nfather and natural protector of her children, rather than\\nlive, a widow, without him, or form a new union. It\\nis not even for love of Admetos that she dies for\\nwhile she shows a high sense of wifely duty, there is\\nno trace of any passionate fondness for her weak and\\nselfish husband she recognizes her doom as the\\ndecree of the Fates, and accepts it; yet, in accepting\\nit, protests her freedom to have chosen otherwise.\\nProfessor Moulton finally sums up his position as\\nfollows\\nAnd this brings me to what I consider the real\\nmotive of the play, the conception which underlies the\\nwhole, and welds the separate parts into a unity.\\nEuripides is the great anticipator of the modern world\\nin the world of antiquity he catches the ideals of the\\nages to come without losing the ideals of his own\\ntimes. In this play he is painting a conflict, not between\\ntwo characters the selfish Admetos and the devoted", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0604.jp2"}, "605": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 571\\nAlcestis but between two ideals: the ancient ideal\\nof public splendour, and the modern ideal of domestic\\nlove. An apprentice in the art of poetry could strike\\nthe rough contrast between the devoted wife and the\\ngross husband the great master is attracted by a more\\nsubde problem to make each party worthy of the\\nother, and let the contest be between the different sides\\nof life represented by each. Euripides is following\\nhere his favourite bent he is taking a thread of\\nmodern realism, and insinuating it into the midst of\\nthe tragic grandeur which is the natural field of his art.\\nAt the opening of the play we see nothing but the\\nsacred splendour of life which is embodied in the\\nApollo of the prologue, and which has been saved to\\nthe world, though by the sad sacrifice of Alcestis.\\nThe queen herself is an ardent votary of the cause for\\nwhich she is to die, and treats the day of her fate as a\\nfestal occasion. But there comes a point when this\\nunbroken dignity of mien begins to give way under\\nthe pressure of the human feeling suppressed. The\\nhuman feeling spreads froiji Alcestis to the servant who\\ntells the tale, and she catches the doubt whether their\\nlord will not have lost as much as he has gained by the\\nvicarious death. The cloud of doubt spreads to the\\nChorus Admetos is possessed by it the prominence\\nof the human feeling in contrast with the safety of\\nthe cause is for ever growing the scene with Pheres,\\nhowever unjust to the character of Admetos, assists the\\nstory by throwing the two sides of the situation into\\nsharp conflict until, in the final speech of Admetos,\\nthe cloud of domestic sorrow has blotted out all the\\nsplendour of sacred hospitality, and love is supreme.\\nThen comes the deliverance, and the discord is har-\\nmonised in the glimpse of earthly love and sacred", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0605.jp2"}, "606": {"fulltext": "572 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsplendour once more united, while behind towers the\\ngenial god-man who has worked it all. The play\\nfinds its unity, not in the selfishness of Admetos and\\nhis repentance, but in the ideal of family affection\\ngradually enthroning itself side by side with the\\ngrandeur of public life.\\nIn these remarks does he not partially stultify his\\nown ground of criticism and suggest an interpretation\\nin harmony, if not identical, with that of Balaustion\\nDr. Moxom seemed to feel this, for he says, In\\nhis later statement, as to a conflict between two ideals\\nconstituting the real motive of the play, there is some\\ntruth, but it entirely defeats his contention that Brown-\\ning has misrepresented Euripides. He goes on to\\nsay, May not the real motive of the play have\\nbeen deeper still May not Euripides, not denying,\\nbut implicitly recognizing the common ideals both of\\ndevotion to the State and of hospitality, really have\\nsought to set forth the very thought which Browning\\nhas so finely developed, namely, the contrast between\\nthe selfishness of Admetos and the self-sacrifice of\\nAlkestis, and the regeneration of Admetos s character\\nby the discipline of the tragic experience through\\nwhich he passed, leading him to self-knowledge,\\nrepentance, and the attainment of a nobler spirit\\nIn the opening of* Aristophanes Apology, what\\nhistorical incident does Balaustion dwell upon in her\\ntalk with her husband What effect has it had upon\\ntheir actions and upon Balaustion s spirits What is\\nthe mood which leads her to tell of her second\\nadventure with Aristophanes How much of an\\nidea do you get of the literary life of Athens and the\\nrelations between Aristophanes and Euripides before\\nshe tells actually of her adventure How does", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0606.jp2"}, "607": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 573\\nEuthukles appear Does it seem inartistic for Ba-\\nlaustion to recite to Euthukles the part he had taken in\\ndefending Euripides Is this accounted for by the\\nfact that Balaustion says, I somehow speak to unseen\\nauditors. Not yoUy but Euthukles had entered,\\netc. (Line 242.)\\nIs her description of the entrance of Aristophanes\\nupon their peaceful privacy both graphic and sarcastic,\\nso that the keynote of her attitude toward Aristophanes\\nis struck Is it quite evident that in spite of her dis-\\napproval of Aristophanes his personality makes upon\\nher an impression of his power Do we see the\\nexalted personality of Balaustion through the effect her\\nmere presence has, first on Aristophanes, then on the\\nchorus Does his change of mood in the midst of his\\neulogy upon drink arise from his memory of the\\nsomething that happened (Line 741.) In\\nwelcoming him does Balaustion speak altogether sin-\\ncerely, or does she rather address what she thinks he\\nmight be than what she thinks he really is\\nIn Aristophanes reply to her welcome do we see\\nglimpses of two or three characteristics of the man\\nin his admiration of Balaustion s manner rather than\\nof her matter, indicating his susceptibility to beauty\\nin what he would like to do with Comedy, showing\\nhis vanity in the fact that he does nothing, showing\\nhis lack of will toward any real reform Does Balaus-\\ntion s question as to whether he has changed his\\nmethods of attacking vice imply a reprimand, or is she\\nasking for information.?\\nIn giving his reasons why he wrote the plays which\\nEuthukles did not like, what moods, showing his char-\\nacter, does he pass through In objecting to the\\nmethods of Euripides, does he mingle a sneer at the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0607.jp2"}, "608": {"fulltext": "574 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nman Does he also show that, besides being fond of\\nhis own coarser methods, he especially enjoys receiving\\nthe applause of the multitude Does he show that\\nbis self-love is wounded when he is stigmatized as\\nwine-lees-poet And that his success is not quite\\nas complete as he would like, since laws are made\\nagainst Comedy by the Archons, and the writers of\\nComedy are stinted in their allowance from the gov-\\nernment for the costumes of the chorus But is he\\nspecially aggrieved at the fact that Euripides takes no\\nnotice of the hits Aristophanes makes at him\\nDoes it appear that Aristophanes wrote the Grass-\\nhoppers in deference to those who found fault with\\nhim This play is lost, but does Browning make\\nAristophanes describe it in a manner that reflects his\\ncharacteristics He declares that Ameipsias took the\\nprize away from him. (This he did upon two occa-\\nsions, but the plays were The Clouds, which was\\nbeaten by the Connus of Ameipsias, and The\\nBirds, beaten by **The Revellers.\\nDoes the account Aristophanes gives of the refur-\\nbished Thesmophoriazousai agree with the play as\\nwe have it It was acted twice in slightly different\\nversions, which would justify the poet s giving a ver-\\nsion different from the one extant. (See the Plays of\\nAristophanes, translated in Bohn Edition.)\\nHas not Browning produced a fine dramatic effect\\nin making Sophokles announce to Aristophanes and\\nhis revellers at the feast that he will mourn Euripides\\nby having his chorus appear next month clothed in\\nblack and ungarlanded Plumptre, in his Biographical\\nNotice of Sophokles, speaks of this tradition which, in\\nspite of some uncertainty, is **too interesting and too\\nhonorable to be passed over. The news of the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0608.jp2"}, "609": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 575\\ndeath of Euripides having come to Athens, Sophokles,\\nthen, in extreme old age, a few months before his\\ndeath, was bringing out a tragedy. In honor of the\\nmemory of his great rival, in token of his forgetting\\nall feelings of jealous emulation, if he had ever known\\nthem, he appeared on the stage at the head of a\\nchorus, clad in mourning apparel, and without the\\nwreaths which the members of a choral company\\nusually wore on their entrance and laid on the altar.\\nIs the scene following the appearance of Sophokles\\nthoroughly natural in its portrayal of the gossiping,\\nunkind remarks about Sophokles and Euripides Does\\nthe poet in this scene bring in very cleverly actual\\ntraditions in regard to Sophokles (See Notes, Cam-\\nberwell Brozvtiingy lines 123 4- 1257.)\\nDo the grounds upon which the youthful Strattis\\npraises the Good Genius in Comedy reflect the\\nopinions previously expressed by Aristophanes\\nIs there anything in the attitude of Aristophanes\\ntoward Euripides upon which his sudden defence of\\nhim could be based Professor Murray calls attention\\nto the fact that Aristophanes curiously enough imitates\\nEuripides to a noteworthy extent so much so that\\nCratinus invented a word, Euripid-aristophanize, to\\ndescribe the style of the two and, secondly, he must,\\nto judge from his parodies, have read and re-read\\nEuripides till he knew him practically by heart.\\nAristophanes attributes his own sentiment to his\\nstate of half-intoxication, but how do the company\\ntake it And how does the weakness of character\\nshown by Aristophanes come out in the way he\\nrepaired things, as he says? (Line 1465.)\\nWhat effect does his discovery of the portrait, the\\nmusical instrument, and the manuscript of Euripides", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0609.jp2"}, "610": {"fulltext": "5/6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nhave on him, and how does Balaustion warn Aris-\\ntophanes that she will suffer no desecration of the\\nmemory of her idol\\nDoes he reach the lowest depth of smallness and\\nvindictiveness when he wishes the dead who have\\ncriticised him and at whom he has slung his shafts of\\nill humor, could see how things will be a few years\\nhence when his greatness is proved And when he\\ndeclares he had always taken care himself to pulverize\\nthe brood while they were alive, though this has its\\ndrawback, for those he blackens become immortal\\nthrough his prowess\\nDoes Balaustion, in the sarcasm of her reply to this,\\nshow what an unreasonable stand Aristophanes takes\\nagainst Euripides, since they are both working for the\\nsame reforms\\nDoes Aristophanes directly answer her objections\\nto his methods of reform, or does he in the long pas-\\nsage following (lines 176 1\u00e2\u0080\u00942709), simply restate his\\nposition at greater length\\nHis first point is that Tragedy holds itself aloof\\nfrom the world (i 764-1 770); his second, that\\nComedy is coeval with the birth of freedom. How\\ndoes he proceed to show this? (Lines 1783-1838.)\\nDoes the sketch he gives of the rise of Comedy agree\\nwith the historical accounts of its rise (See Murray s\\nAncient Greek Literature, Chapter IX., The\\nDrama.\\nHow does Aristophanes say he improved on this\\nancient comedy, and how is his description of his\\nwork borne out by his own plays (See especially\\nThe Knights for Cleon, Acharnians for\\nLamachos, **The Clouds for Sokrates).\\nIn referring to the difficulties thrown in his way by", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0610.jp2"}, "611": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 577\\nthe Archons, he describes a reformed comedy, such\\nas he pretends Balaustion and Euthukles would like\\nDoes he in this description show himself incapable of\\nappreciating a true reform Does the Plutos,\\nwhich is Aristophanes attempt at Middle Comedy,\\nanswer in any way this description (See Bohn s\\nEdition.)\\nThe third point he makes is against the idealism of\\nEuripides, in favor of his own realism. (Lines 1949\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\n1974.) Was Euripides actually a realist, though of a\\ndifferent order from Aristophanes Arthur S. Way,\\nin the Preface to Vol. II. of his translation of Euripi-\\ndes, thus sums up his characteristics More perhaps\\nthan any other ancient writer, he reveals to us the\\ntrue inner Greek life, lays bare the secrets of its\\nhearts. The sad, earnest faces grow upon us,\\nthe hearts that strain beneath the burden of duty, the\\nsouls that weary over the problems of right and\\nwrong, the voices that moan the unanswered question\\ntouching the mystery of suffering, the women who\\nbeat against the bars of convention and prescription,\\nwho wail for sympathy and plead for truth these\\nwho were too mean for ^schylus regard, too unideal\\nfor Sophocles, these of whom Socrates took no heed,\\nto whom he left no legacy, to whose heart-hunger\\nPlato offered the stones of his ideal city to all such,\\nEuripides stretched the brother hand of one who had\\nalso passed through deep waters, who had faced the\\nspectres of the mind, who sighed with them that were\\ndesolate and oppressed, who came close to each be-\\nreaved heart, sorrowing with stricken parents, and\\nloving the little children.\\nHis next point is that Euripides has revolted against\\nthe ancient poetical traditions. Is this true of Euripides\\n37", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0611.jp2"}, "612": {"fulltext": "578 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nFrom the consideration of the degeneration of\\nEuripides, he passes on to bemoan the general degen-\\neration of the times at the hands of the philosophers.\\nFrom the point of view of Aristophanes as an orthodox\\nbeliever in the ancient Greek gods, was he justified\\nin his fears that these new theories would throw dis-\\ncredit upon the myths To us, however, does this\\nmovement among the thinkers of the time indicate an\\nimmense step toward the truth\\nAlong with the belief in the old gods goes in Aris-\\ntophanes a belief in the pleasures of sense. When he\\ncriticises Euripides for his idealism, does he really mean\\nhis morality Does he not himself prove the realism\\nof Euripides in the remarks he puts into the mouth of\\nEuripides (Lines 2 1 1 4-2 1 40.\\nDoes Aristophanes show that he misunderstands\\nEuripides because he cannot imagine a religious atti-\\ntude that is not based on a belief in the reality of the\\nancient gods and because his moral ideals were\\nahead of those which Aristophanes gods inculcated\\n(Lines 2 140-2 15 2.)\\nIn his outbreak (lines 21 52-2189) does he make\\nthe artistic criticism that only some subjects are fitted\\nfor poetry, while Euripides is inclined to include all\\nthings; and the social criticism, that slaves and women\\nare necessarily inferior beings to men (For the\\ntreatment of women by Euripides, see The Ideals\\nof Womanhood held by Browning and the Greek\\nDramatists, Poet-lore^ Vol. IX., pp. 385-400.)\\nIn his beautiful words about the spell under which\\nthe true poet works, does Aristophanes seem to con-\\ntradict his own aims in poetry as before described\\nIs there any such contradiction in his own work,\\nwhich Browning has thus subtly worked into the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0612.jp2"}, "613": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 579\\nportrayal of his personality Murray says His\\nmost characteristic quality, perhaps, is his combina-\\ntion of the wildest and broadest farce on the one\\nhand, with the most exquisite lyric beauty on the\\nother.\\nIn giving the opinion of Hellas, does Aristophanes\\nshow that Euripides had a certain popularity in spite\\nof his failure to take the prize very often This is\\nborne out by history, is it not Was his popularity\\ngreater out of Athens than in it (See Introduc-\\ntion to Vol. II. of Way s Euripides in English\\nVerse.\\nWhat reasons does he give for choosing Comedy\\ninstead of Tragedy And how does he make this an\\noccasion for another dig at Euripides\\nWhat were Satyr plays and what was the custom\\nin regard to them (See Chapter on Drama in\\nMurray s Ancient Greek Literature.\\nAfter pointing out how he has succeeded in cor-\\nrecting the abuses of the times with his Comedy, how\\ndoes he declare Comedy accomplishes these good\\nresults,? Is there some truth in his conclusion that\\nthe ignorant will be more impressed with invectives\\nhurled against an enemy than with arguments Is\\nhis reason for making fun of Bacchos consistent with\\nhis reasons for making fun of Lamachos or Euripides\\nHe makes fun of Bacchos in order to show how\\nentirely that god is superior to his own portrayal of\\nhim, while he makes fun of Lamachos, the general,\\nin order to show how bad war is, and of Euripides\\nin order to show how bad his artistic, moral, and\\nreligious principles are.\\nDoes it look very much as if, as he went on, he\\nbecame so fond of slander for its own sake that he", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0613.jp2"}, "614": {"fulltext": "580 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ndared anything in that line, and had to invent fresh\\narguments for its usefulness as a moral implement\\nDoes a reading of the plays of Aristophanes bear this\\nout?\\nIn the opening of her reply to Aristophanes, does\\nBalaustion exhibit a blending of courtesy and sarcasm\\ncalculated to flatter Aristophanes, and at the same\\ntime show him how little his arguments have con-\\nvinced her\\nThe first point she makes against him is that\\nComedy did not arise with freedom the second, that\\nAristophanes, by his own showing, has improved upon\\nit so that he may be considered the inventor ojf it,\\nand therefore cannot claim ancient authority. Are\\nthese good points, and are they supported by the\\nhistorical facts in the case His methods being\\nproved new, what point does she make against the\\nnewness of his aims for reform\\nAfter sketching briefly his methods for carrying out\\nhis reforms, in order to assure herself that she has\\nnot misunderstood him, she proceeds to show that\\nnone of the reforms he talks about have been accom-\\nplished, and why does she declare they fail\\nIn her attack upon his way of showing the advan-\\ntages of peace over war, she makes her point against\\nthe sort of pleasures Aristophanes praises as belonging\\nto peace. Would there be anything against Aristoph-\\nanes method of showing the advantages of peace\\nif he presented high ideals of the happiness growing\\nout of peace\\nDoes Balaustion seem to distinguish here between\\nhis principle, which is good, and his manner of carrying\\nit out, which is bad\\nIs she not entirely right in her conclusion that", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0614.jp2"}, "615": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 581\\nwhatever power there may be in invective is weak-\\nened by carrying invective to the point of lying, and\\nthat in doing this Aristophanes has degenerated from,\\ninstead of improving upon, the old Comedy\\nFinally, she shows that he not only depends upon\\nlies for making his hits against his enemies, but that\\nhe lies about what he himself intends to do, in fact\\nthat his whole fabric of Comedy rests upon lies, and\\ntherefore it cannot succeed as a reforming influence,\\nsuch an influence being possible only to truth.\\nIs this conclusion of hers justified by the inconsis-\\ntencies in the argument of Aristophanes as Browning\\npresents it Could it be supported by a study of the\\nplays in relation to the remarks made in the various\\nParabases of the plays\\nHaving shown that every statement he has made\\nis false, she finally declares that he has not used his\\npowers in inventing anything really new, for all that\\nhe has done has been done by his contemporaries in\\nComedy before him. Is this also borne out by hints\\nfrom the literary history of the time\\nIn her attack upon him has Balaustion cleverly\\npicked out his most vulnerable spot, his lack of\\nsincerity and truthfulness, and by not attacking his\\nfundamental theories has she implied that it was not\\nworth while to attack the theories of a man so insin-\\ncere that he would invent a new one to suit every\\noccasion Such theories might, abstractly speaking,\\nhave truth in them, but as presented by Aristophanes\\nthey were worthless.\\nDoes Balaustion also show her cleverness in not\\nattempting to prove that Euripides has done any good\\nto his age, and her inborn conviction that his influence\\nin the long run must be for good in considering that", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0615.jp2"}, "616": {"fulltext": "582 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nthe best defence of Euripides will be found in one of\\nhis own plays\\nThe translation of the **Herakles following is\\nrelated to the subject only upon the question of its\\nvalue as a translation. For those whose knowledge\\nof Greek is insufficient to decide this matter for them-\\nselves, a comparison may be made with the literal\\ntranslation in the Bohn Edition and Arthur S. Way s\\npoetical translation in Euripides in English Verse.\\nMr. Way says that, unhappily for succeeding trans-\\nlators, the Madness of Herakles has already been\\ngiven by Browning to English readers.\\nIt is evident, is it not, that this play of Euripides\\nsoftens and impresses Aristophanes, whose defence of\\nhimself takes a humbler tack, though it draws a dis-\\ntinction between himself and Euripides which is not\\nwarranted exactly by the facts\\nIs the exit of Aristophanes thoroughly character-\\nistic in its throwing off of any serious impressions\\nand his confident putting of himself at the top\\nagain\\nDoes Balaustion show at the end that she had some\\ncomprehension of the fact that Aristophanes was not\\nquite as bad as she thought him, since it might be that\\nhe had not conceived of any ideals better than those he\\ndefended\\nIn the closing scenes has Browning again com-\\nbined history with imagination in a way that makes\\nthe fall of Athens a living reality to us\\nIn the consideration of these two poems as criticisms\\nof Euripides and Aristophanes, it should be remembered\\nthat Browning, if not the first, was among the first to\\nre-instate Euripides, who had been deeply appreciated\\nby the great minds following him both among the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0616.jp2"}, "617": {"fulltext": "GREEK NATIONAL LIFE 583\\nancients and in medieval times, but who had been the\\nsubject for a hundred years of utterly unappreciative\\ncriticism at the hands of the dry-as-dust Classicists,\\nand that now a recognition of his true worth is grow-\\ning in every direction. (Mahaffy, Jebb, Murray, and\\nWay may be consulted upon this point.)\\nOf Browning s Greek work there remains only the\\ntranslation of Agamemnon and the fragment O\\nLove! Love. Many have said of the Agamemnon\\nthat it is more difficult to read than the very difficult\\nGreek. This difficulty grows out of the attempt to\\nreflect the ruggedness of the Greek style, which\\nBrowning avowed was his purpose.\\nMrs. Orr says, in her Life and Letters Mr.\\nBrowning s deep feeling for the humanities of Greek\\nliterature, and his almost passionate love for language,\\ncontrasted strongly with his refusal to regard even the\\nfirst of Greek writers as models of hterary style. The\\npretensions raised for them on this ground were incon-\\nceivable to him and his translation of the Agamem-\\nnon, pubHshed 1877, was partly made, I am con-\\nvinced, for the pleasure of exposing these claims and of\\nrebuking them.\\nIn spite of the difficulties, which are not insur-\\nmountable, is it not a satisfaction to have so master-\\nful a reflection of the characteristics of the Greek\\n(This translation may be compared with Potter s and\\nPlumptre s.)\\nIs the lyric translated from Euripides for Mahaffy\\nbeyond criticism, so exquisitely beautiful is the same\\n(Besides the articles already mentioned, interesting\\nopinions and suggestions may be gathered from these\\npapers in the published volume of the Boston Brown-\\ning Society Papers The Classical Element in", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0617.jp2"}, "618": {"fulltext": "584 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nBrowning s Poetry, by William Cranston Lawton\\nThe Greek Spirit in Shelley and Browning, by\\nVida D. Scudder Homer and Browning, by Pren-\\ntiss Cummings. In the London Browning Society\\nPapers On Aristophanes Apology, by J. B. Bury,\\nPart VIII.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0618.jp2"}, "619": {"fulltext": "Autobiographical Poems\\nTopic for Papery Cinssworky or Private Study.\\nGlimpses of Browning Himself.\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nDevelopment xii 252 378\\nThe Digression in Sordello, Book III., lines\\n593-1022 ii 173 329\\nWaring iv 193 390\\nThe Guardian Angel iv 127 380\\nWomen and Roses iv 122 380\\nOne Word More v 93 299\\nMay and Death V215313\\nThird Speaker in Epilogue to Dramatis Personae v 276 317\\nParts of Book I. and XII., The Ring and the f vi i 325\\nBook vii 329 361\\nEnd of Balaustion s Adventure vii 88 299\\nPrologue to Fifine ix 69 288\\nPacchiarotto (closing stanzas) ix 171 294\\nEpilogue to Pacchiarotto ix 266 307\\nLa Saisiaz xi 70 294\\nPrologue to Jocoseria xi 166 311\\nNever the Time and the Place xi 285 337\\nPambo xi 286 337\\nEpilogue to Ferishtah s Fancies xii 61 319\\nTo Edward Fitzgerald xii 280 383\\nWhy I am a Liberal xii 279 383\\nEpilogue to Asolando xii 267 380\\nGeneral Suggestions. The story Browning tells, in\\nDevelopment, of the slow degrees by which the\\ngrowing boy becomes aware of what a great people s\\nliterary masterpieces really mean, is an image of devel-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0619.jp2"}, "620": {"fulltext": "586 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nopment in the general life of all mankind, and of the\\ngradual attainment unto a closer and closer apprehen-\\nsion of truth through the dreams and fancies of\\nimmaturity. (For a concise account of Homeric facts\\nand criticism, see Murray s Ancient Greek Litera-\\nture, Chap. I.) But it has an obvious autobio-\\ngraphical interest also, and gives the earhest glimpse\\nBrov^ning affords us of his own boyhood.\\nHis father, Robert Browning the elder, was, in\\nfact, a scholar and knew Greek, and not in a per-\\nfunctory way, but familiarly. He knew by heart the\\nfirst book of the Iliad, as a schoolboy, and it\\nwas one of his amusements at school, says Mrs.\\nOrr, in her Life and Letters of the son, to\\norganize Homeric combats among the boys, in which\\nthe fighting was carried on in the manner of the\\nGreeks and Trojans, and he and his friend Kenyon\\nwould arm themselves with swords and shields, and\\nhack at each other lustily, exciting themselves to battle\\nby insulting speeches derived from the Homeric text.\\nIt is said of him that he used to soothe the poet to\\nsleep, when a child, by humming to him an ode of\\nAnacreon. This story of the game he contrived of\\nthe Siege of Troy, through which the budding poet\\nof five years learned who was who and what was\\nwhat in the famous tale of the Iliad, is apparently\\nwhat actually took place. It is a picture of judi-\\nciously helpful and friendly relations between father\\nand son, inspiring enough in this particular instance,\\nbut exemplifying an ideal parenthood throughout hfe,\\nin many more such ways, of which this poem may be\\ntaken as a memorial.\\nThe son said of the father, upon his death in his\\neighty-fifth year, a characteristic word, casting light", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0620.jp2"}, "621": {"fulltext": "AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEMS 587\\nupon his own feeling for his wife as well as for his\\nfather this good, unworldly, kind-hearted,\\nreligious man, whose powers, natural and acquired,\\nwould so easily have made him a notable man, had he\\nknown what vanity or ambition or the love of money\\nor social influence meant. As it is, he was known by\\nhalf-a-dozen friends. He was worthy of being Ba s\\nfather out of the whole world, only he, so far as\\nmy experience goes. She loved him and he said,\\nvery recently, while gazing at her portrait, that only\\nthat picture had put into his head that there might\\nbe such a thing as the worship of the images of\\nsaints.\\nThe character of Robert Browning, Senior, might\\nbe shown to be in itself an explanation of the favorable\\nconditions his son enjoyed for his life and work as a\\npoet. Information bearing on this may be gleaned\\nfrom Mrs. Orr s account. Life and Letters of\\nRobert Browning see also Letters of Robert Brown-\\ning and Elizabeth Barrett, and **The Letters of\\nElizabeth Barrett Browning.\\nIn the digression in the third book of Sordello,\\nBrowning gives a glimpse of what his ideals were as a\\nyoung poet. In this he directly tells how he had\\npledged his art to serve the cause of the people. He\\nconfesses that his ardor for all the world s oppressed\\nones had undergone some change. He no longer\\nrequired only the completely good which his first\\ndreams for them had pictured. Now he would open\\nout all opportunities for them, leaving it for them to\\ndevelop freely their own powers in their own way,\\nthrough evil as well as good. He thus reaffirms but\\nthe more deeply the original devotion of his art to the\\npeople, choosing that the race shall be his Muse, and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0621.jp2"}, "622": {"fulltext": "588 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nadapting his art, therefore, to suit more inclusive needs\\nthan those of the nicely selective.\\nIn the succinct expression of his political views,\\ndrawn from him by the question, Why I am a\\nLiberal, many years after this, in 1885, only four\\nyears before his death, the principle of liberty and\\nopportunity for development for living, loving,\\nlaboring freely is the same broadly inclusive one\\nupon which he stood at the threshold of his career.\\nThe dependence of every one for any advance upon\\nconditions that are favorable, as well as upon Hberty,\\nis here also distinctly stated; fortune must set\\nfree bodv and soul to pursue the purpose God\\ntraced for both. It seems, therefore, does it not?\\nas if it would be long before Browning s political and\\nsocial creed would grow out of date by being super-\\nseded in practical desire for human progress.\\nThe broad hint of what his personal democratic\\nideals for man found requisite, as given here, and the\\npersonal ardor for its attainment, expressed in Bor-\\ndello, may be corroborated by placing in correlation\\nwith these revelations of himself various subtler hints\\nand implications throughout his work (see Browning\\nas the Poet of Democracy, Oscar L. Triggs, Poet-\\nlore, Vol. IV., pp. 481-490, October, 1892, and\\nThe Purport of Browning s and Whitman s Democ-\\nracy, an editorial article in Poet-lore^ Vol. V.,\\npp. 556-566, November, 1895), and also by com-\\nparison of passages in the Letters (volumes already\\ncited) which show how his sympathies went out, for\\nexample, to Abd el Kadr, and to strugglers for hberty\\neverywhere, in Italy, or in the United States when\\nit was a question of freeing the slaves, or in England\\nwhen it was a question of the landlords corn laws, etc.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0622.jp2"}, "623": {"fulltext": "AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEMS 589\\nThe greater number of direct glimpses of his ideas\\nand feelings which his work affords the reader come\\nout in expressions of personal love.\\nIn Waring his friendship for Alfred Domett\\nappears, and in a way which shows how sensitively\\nencouraging he deemed it right friends should be to\\nthe aims and undertakings, literary, artistic, or other-\\nwise, of one another.\\nIn The Guardian Angel a tender warmth of\\nheart expresses itself in a desire to bring together, in\\nan association with a work of art suggesting cherishing\\nand guardian care, his old friend. Domett, and his new-\\nwon wife.\\nMay and Death is a little tribute of the heart to\\nanother early friend, his cousin, Charles Silverthorne.\\nLater, in the closing lines of** Balaustion s Adven-\\nture, the picture of a friend is spoken of. Sir Frederick\\nLeighton s Death of Alkestis (see frontispiece to\\nVol. VIII., Camberwell Browning), in close relation\\nwith a personal mention of his wife s poem, Wine\\nof Cyprus, with its lyrical epithet for Euripides.\\nIn One Word More, as in **The Ring and\\nthe Book, at its opening and its close, direct dedica-\\ntion of his heart s supreme homage is publicly and, as\\nit were, ceremonially offered to his wife.\\nBesides these unmistakable addresses to her, there is\\na chain of personal lyricism almost continuously pres-\\nent throughout his prologues and epilogues. These\\nare so perfectly suited to the temper of the devotion,\\nelsewhere more manifestly shown, that, veiled as they\\nare in a reserved beauty that blends with the work\\nthey accompany, it may readily be argued that it is\\nright to place them with the other lyrics more frankly\\ndedicated to her. The clews, scattered here and there.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0623.jp2"}, "624": {"fulltext": "590 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nwhich the various volumes of* Letters supply, may be\\nadduced to reinforce the claim that the Prologue and\\nEpilogue to Fifine, to Jocoseria Wanting\\nis What and Never the Time and the Place\\nand the Epilogue to Ferishtah s Fancies are all\\nspiritual expressions of personal devotion to the Lyric\\nLove of his life, although so couched generally as to\\nfit in with the special subject and temper of the poems\\nthey introduce or follow. The Prologue and Epi-\\nlogue to **Fifine, for example, in their relation both\\nto Mrs. Browning and to the poem, may be shown to\\nbe an open secret to the sympathetic reader, and the\\nsimilar appropriateness of the other prologues here cited\\nto their theme and to this personal relationship may be\\ntraced in the same way. It may be claimed, in short,\\nthat the lyrist in her constantly educed the lyrist in him.\\nThe perpetuity of the poet s exalted emotional loy-\\nalty towards Elizabeth Barrett Browning, during the\\nalmost thirty years elapsing between her death in the\\nsummer of 1861 and his own in December, 1889, is\\nfinally exemplified in the heat of his indignation against\\nMr. Edward Fitzgerald. In lines that were almost\\nhis last, he was stirred to resent, on the day he first\\nlearned of it, that a man whom his wife had never\\nseen had thanked God that she was dead.\\nWomen and Roses, at first sight, it may seem,\\nhas little claim to be placed with the chain of lyrical\\noutbursts associated with his companion poet. The\\nunusual praise of women of all time, past, present, and\\nto come, which is the motive of this lyric, as praise\\nflowing from his knowledge and love of one woman,\\nby whom all that all other women could be was inter-\\npreted and revealed, and through whom, therefore,\\nthey all make but indirectly their appeal to him, consti-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0624.jp2"}, "625": {"fulltext": "AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEMS 59I\\ntute it a lyric of homage so eminent that to leave this out\\nwould be to ignore the captain jewel in the carcanet.\\nInternal evidence of this lyric being based on a special\\npersonal feeling need not be alone depended upon. The\\nfact recorded by Mrs. Orr (see Life and Letters\\nthat the poem was suggested by some flowers sent to\\nhis wife further warrants the placing of it here as an\\nautobiographical glimpse.\\nWhat Browning s own personal ideas of religion\\nwere has been confidently outlined and dissertated upon\\noften, without much caution to discriminate dramatic\\nfrom purely subjective expression. Upon what mo-\\nbile, many-faceted evidence most of these confident\\ndeductions rest, may be perceived when all his poems\\nupon religion are set in order and relation one to\\nanother. Aside from Christmas Day (see pro-\\ngramme The Evolution of Religion for special\\nstudy of this poem), there is no directly personal\\nexpression as to religion in relation to revealed Chris-\\ntianity which is not uttered through some dramatic\\nmask and placed in relation to a background of its\\nown as belonging to a special phase of development,\\nexcept in the case of the Third Speaker in the Epi-\\nlogue to Dramatis Personam and in La Saisiaz.\\nIn both of these the attitude held may be shown to be\\nthat of one who waives authoritative assurance of the\\nrelation of God to the soul, and who finds it rationally\\nand emotionally sufficient to accept assurance felt indi-\\nvidually. His last personal expression in Reverie\\nof his speculative religious philosophy parts altogether\\nwith authority, and accords with La Saisiaz and the\\nThird Speaker, and justifies this general conclusion while\\nattaining to an expression transcending in serenity both\\nof these earlier expressions.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0625.jp2"}, "626": {"fulltext": "592 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nNot until late in life, and after much ignoring,\\ndid Browning betray himself personally in relation\\nto the censure of critics. When the general public\\nwas showing unmistakable signs of awakening to a\\nperception of his poetic power, and certain superficial\\nwriters, as if alarmed at the consequences, if such\\noriginality won the day despite them, renewed attack\\nwith an animosity and assumption of authority as\\ndefenders of Art peculiarly hard to bear, since what\\nhe had written was never undesigned, whatever else\\nit might be, he then broke out upon such crit-\\nicasters, particularly on Alfred Austin, with a half-\\ngleeful big giant s fierceness, in Pacchiarotto, at the\\npygmy duplicity of their high concern for Art. (See\\nNotes on this poem, Camberwell Brow7ii?igy Vol. IX.,\\np. 296.) In Pambo he asserted his steadfast\\nattempt to hold to his aim and look to his expression\\nof it. Having done both his life long, he accounted it\\nfair to conclude that his defects were defects of his\\nquality. People accuse me of not taking pains\\nI take nothing but pains! Mrs. Orr writes that she\\nheard him say. And in the Epilogue to Pacchia-\\nrotto, also, questioning the devotion his critical public\\npretended to the antique poets, since it contents itself\\nwith but five or six of Shakespeare s forty works, and\\nwith mere drips and drops from Milton s four great\\npoems, he reminds them that the sweetness and music\\nthey profess to adore in the elder poets is the result of a\\nquality that inures to art as to wine, from time s effect.\\nThe history of originality in genius, he imphes, goes\\nto show that art, like wine, which endures time s test,\\nis poured in stark strength, and mellowed by age.\\nIf he himself has grudged nothing of might in the juice\\nhe has poured and leaves to the future s verdict, he has", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0626.jp2"}, "627": {"fulltext": "AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEMS 593\\nno reason to be troubled over the result beforehand, least\\nof all to be disturbed as to these critics manifesdy in-\\nsincere devotion to those classics upon which they pro-\\nfess to base their condemnation.\\nFinally, in the Epilogue to Asolando he says a\\nword for himself as one who never faltered in any\\nof these his devotions, whether of love, of social and\\nreligious faith, of art, but in his especial place, from\\nthe line of advance, where he was placed, pressed\\nsteadily onward.\\nQueries for Discussion. Is it fair to Browning to\\naffirm that he expresses his personal opinions through\\nhis characters\\nWould considering that he does so be to attribute to\\nhim far more circumscribed and precise views of life\\nand thought than could be made to agree with the\\nlarge general principles, or the specifically individual\\nstandpoints which his certainly autobiographical poems\\ndo reveal to be his\\nWhat should you conclude was the fundamental\\nprinciple alike underlying all his manifestly subjective\\nexpressions: (i) as to Society, in general, which he\\nwould have as free to develop as he himself has been\\n(2) as to Faith, which he would have every man feel\\nas cheeringly as he himself has felt it (3) as to Love\\nand Friendship, as necessarily personal, and which\\nwere to him inspiriting and continuing Is the fun-\\ndamental principle underlying all his subjective ex-\\npressions the independent worth and validity of each\\nindividual soul\\nIf so, is this principle inconsistent with the use of\\nhis own characters to give expression, not to their rela-\\ntive points of view, but to his own as absolute\\nIs the only expression through his characters of his", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0627.jp2"}, "628": {"fulltext": "594 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nown way of thinking, which would be natural for a\\nman holding the view he does of himself, as shown in\\nhis autobiographical poems, an expression of the rela-\\ntion of each character to its own special environment,\\nnature, and development, as he has artistically con-\\nceived these to be in each case\\nIs it characteristic of Browning, judging from the\\nfew poems he has written which do reveal himself\\ndirectly, to alter, disguise, and cast side lights upon\\nwhatsoever material of any sort he does make use of\\nwhich is peculiar to himself, or in any way private\\nand personal (E. g., the references to Landor and\\nEuphrasia at end of Book III., Sordello see\\nNotes on same in Camberzuell Browning or the\\nprologue and epilogues, mentioned, which are bhndly\\ndedicated to Mrs. Browning.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0628.jp2"}, "629": {"fulltext": "Browning s Philosophy\\nPage\\nVol. Text Note\\nFerishtah s Fancies xii i 305\\nParleyings with Certain People of Importance\\nin their Day xii 64 3 1 9\\nPisgah Sights ix 203 299\\nFears and Scruples ix 206 299\\nRephan xii 256 379\\nReverie xii 260 380\\nChristmas-Eve and Easter-Day iv 286 399\\nEpilogue to Dramatis Personae v 276 317\\nLaSaisiaz xi 70 294\\nI. Topic for Paper i Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Thought Side of Brownmg s Philosophy.\\nGeneral Suggestio?ts. In considering Browning s\\nphilosophy it will be interesting to observe, first, what\\nhis attitude is to the great doctrine of the nineteenth\\ncentury, namely. Evolution. Three passages in par-\\nticular may be instanced as illustrating directly this doc-\\ntrine one in Paracelsus (Vol. I., p. 35, Part V.,\\nlines 642-883); in Bernard de Mandeville (Vol.\\nXII., p. 79, stanzas ix., x., xi. in Francis Furini\\n(Vol. XII., p. 120, stanzas ix., x.). In each case\\nthe doctrine of development is influenced by the\\nspeaker s way of looking at it. In the first it is God s\\nlove which unfolds this stupendous drama of develop-\\nment and continues it in the realm of mind and spirit\\never toward his own perfection. In the second the", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0629.jp2"}, "630": {"fulltext": "596 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nsun is the moving power in calling forth the life of\\nearth in the third the search for the cause ends in\\nignorance. Again, in the first the belief that the\\nmoving power is God s love is wholly intuitional, in\\nkeeping with the personality of Paracelsus. In the\\nsecond the idea is presented in a thoroughly scientific\\nmanner, the sun actually being the stimulator of\\nlife in all its various stages but if we look at the\\npassage more closely, we shall see that the speaker\\nuses the sun and its action as a symbol of divine force,\\nwhich, by the help of Prometheus, is revealed to man\\nas love through his own human experiences of blessed-\\nness. (See Introduction, Vol. XII., Camberwell\\nBrozvnifig.) The result is the same as in the previous\\npassage, but it is reached by reasoning instead of being\\nmerely stated. In the third is presented the purely\\nscientific method of seeking the cause of phenomena,\\nwhich, it is acknowledged by all thinkers, ends in\\nignorance and the speaker accepts this, as far as it\\ngoes, but adds that it may be supplemented by human\\nconsciousness, which realizes itself to be the result of\\na cause, and through its manifestations in human pas-\\nsions gets a glimmer of the nature of that cause.\\nBrowning s whole work will be found to be per-\\nmeated with the doctrines of development and progress\\nand the correlative doctrine, relativity, exemplified in\\nfailure, intellectual, moral, artistic.\\nIt is impossible to point out all the passages in\\nwhich this doctrine is illustrated, but among the most\\nstriking are the following: in Sordello (Vol.\\nII., p. 93, Book v., lines 98-233), which gives a\\nvision of historical development or social ideals from\\nthe time of Charlemagne to Sordello **Cleon\\n(Vol. v., p. 80, lines 60-151), showing intellectual", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0630.jp2"}, "631": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S PHILOSOPHY 597\\ndevelopment (lines 189\u00e2\u0080\u0094220), showing the develop-\\nment from beast to man Rabbi Ben Ezra (Vol.\\nv., p. 175, stanzas xii., xiii., xiv., xv.), which illus-\\ntrates the development from youth to age A\\nDeath in the Desert (Vol. V., p. 183, lines 424-\\n447 and 453-473), which illustrates the develop-\\nment of religious conceptions Fifine at the Fair\\n(Vol. IX., p. 68i,hnes 1885-2047 and 2160-2199),\\nwhich illustrates the fact that all human expressions,\\nwhether in art, morals, or religion, develop toward\\nthe truth, though never giving complete expression to\\nit; The Sun (Vol. XII., p. 14, lines 18-62),\\nwhich illustrates symbolically the development of the\\nreligious conception of a cause to be worshipped from\\nsomething palpable to the impalpable, inconceivable\\nCharles Avison (Vol. XII., p. 1 54, lines 322-\\n381), which illustrates the thought that underneath\\nall changes truth persists, and that every expression\\nhas its permanent value as a revealer of the truth.\\nThe doctrine of evolution is also illustrated in the\\npoet s work by the fact that in his portrayals of\\nnational life he has chosen periods and figures which\\nemphasize steps in the progress of civilization and\\nsometimes degeneration (also a phenomenon of evolu-\\ntion). It comes out in his art poems and his music\\npoems and in his innumerable short sketches of\\nmen and women, character is seen at crucial moments,\\ntaking it forwards and sometimes backwards, and\\nfinally the whole range of his men and women illus-\\ntrate higher and lower stages of soul development.\\nFrom the poet s scientific attitude to his metaphysi-\\ncal atdtude is an easy transition. The latter has\\nalready been indicated in many of the passages cited.\\nThe basis of his religious belief he finds in human", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0631.jp2"}, "632": {"fulltext": "598 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nconsciousness as manifested in feeling rather than in\\nthought or knowledge. On the side of feeling, he\\nbelieves mankind realizes more completely its kinship\\nwith the divine force that moves the world. This\\nworld-force he calls Love, which in humanity becomes\\nan aspiration toward an ultimate ideal of perfection.\\nThis aspiration shows itself in many ways, from an\\nattitude of gratefulness for gifts received to a recogni-\\ntion of the divine element in human love, both in its\\nromantic and its social phases. The proof that love\\nis more directly revealed than knowledge lies in the\\nfact that intellectual effort, be it exerted never so\\nstrenuously, is unable to attain any knowledge of the\\nunderlying cause of things. In the failure which\\nalways meets it, however, there is ever the assurance\\nthat absolute knowledge is yet to reach, and there-\\nfore that it exists though the human intellect cannot\\ngrasp it. On the other hand, the exaltation that\\ncomes of love and aspiration is something actually\\nexperienced and therefore known.\\nAlong with the idea of aspiration goes its shadow,\\nfailure of attainment, and so evil is born. The ques-\\ntion as to the origin and the use of evil frequently\\noccupies Browning. God being manifest in Love,\\nthen evil must be permitted by him for some good\\nend. As we fail to attain absolute knowledge, so we\\nfail to attain absolute good. One of the offices of evil,\\nthen, is to assure us that good is yet to attain and so\\nkeep spurring us on to try and attain it. Another\\noffice of evil, as manifested in pain, is to give rise to\\nthe beautiful virtues of pity and sympathy and endur-\\nance. Another is that if evil had not existed we\\nshould not have been able to appreciate good, that\\nis, that the two ideas are relative to each other, and", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0632.jp2"}, "633": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S PHILOSOPHY 599\\nwithout one we could not have the other. It must\\nbe asked here, however, if evil is so productive of\\ngood, why should any one work against it and the\\npoet s reply is that evil exists for the purpose of\\ndeveloping the soul by means of the strenuous efforts\\nit must make to overcome the evil.\\nThe most complete presentation of this phase in\\nthe poet s philosophy will be found in the following\\npoems: in *\u00c2\u00abA Pillar at Sebzevar (Vol. XII., p.\\n41), which emphasizes the worth of love over\\nknowledge; Cherries (Vol. XII., p. 34), em-\\nphasizing the worth of love in the humble form of\\nthanks for the pleasure derived from eating cher-\\nries Plot Culture (Vol. XII., p. 315), em-\\nphasizing the worth of emotional love Mihrab\\nShah (Vol. XII., p. 20), showing how pain in the\\nworld is a necessary element for the development of\\nLove; A Bean-Stripe also, Apple- Eadng (Vol.\\nXII., p. 46, line 290 to the end), illustrating the\\npoint that God is known through the mystery of feeling\\nwhich seeks the cause of this feeling in grateful ac-\\nknowledgment. Other passages to be noted are in\\nBernard de Mandeville (lines 1-131), which\\ndeclares that out of the effort to overcome evil results\\ngood, therefore we should not wish our lives to be\\nutterly untouched by evil. In Francis Furini\\n(Vol. XII., p. 120), the need of evil in order that\\ngood may be recognized is dwelt upon (lines 410\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nThese same thoughts are illustrated again in a\\nseries of speculative lyrics, written from time to\\ntime; namely, Pisgah Sights (Vol. IX., p. 203,\\nNo. I. and II. shows how evil and good seem\\nreconciled in life to one who is just dying Fears", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0633.jp2"}, "634": {"fulltext": "6oo BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nand Scruples (Vol. IX., p. 206) reasons that\\nGod must be love because man loves Rephan\\n(Vol. XII., p. 256) proves the need of evil as a\\nspur to effort; Reverie (Vol. XII., p. 380)\\nargues that the nature of God in its ultimate essence\\nmust be Love.\\nAnother slight transition brings us to the more\\npurely religious aspects of his thought, including his\\nattitude toward the religious doctrines of the past, his\\nown conception of God, and his attitude toward God\\nand immortality.\\nA study of his religious poems reveals the fact that\\nhe considers Christianity to be peculiarly the religion of\\nlove, and that as such it is the highest religious concep-\\ntion attained by humanity. But it also reveals the\\nfact that he does not interpret it hterally to himself,\\nbut as a symbol of the sort of revelation he believes in\\nas possible to every human being. He believes, as\\nwe have already seen, under the passages cited on\\nevolution, that religious conceptions evolve, and that\\neach conception holds the inner truth for humanity,\\nthough the outward form of it may grow intellectually\\ninsufficient as knowledge increases. But this drop-\\nping away of an old form must not be regarded for\\none moment as affecting the central, eternal truth of\\nreligion and the good growing out of it as eternal.\\nWhile he reasons that Love is the most essential\\nelement of the divine nature, his conception of God\\nincludes the attribute of Power, as we see in the poem\\nReverie, already cited. The atdtude to be held\\ntoward the Infinite should be religious and human\\nrather than philosophical, because the philosophical\\nattitude is likely to paralyze the human will. For\\nexample, while the philosophical attitude gives us a", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0634.jp2"}, "635": {"fulltext": "BROWNINGS PHILOSOPHY 6oi\\nlarge conception of God as permitting evil for a good\\npurpose, the human attitude is to follow its inborn\\nimpulse to overcome evil, and realize that its attempts\\nto explain evil are, after all, only human. His attitude\\ntoward immortality is a stanch belief in it, though he\\nconfesses he has no indubitable proof to offer for it.\\nSimply he believes in God and the soul, and in his\\nown consciousness liv^es the assurance that the soul is\\nimmortal. Only so can the Love of God be recon-\\nciled in his mind with the evil and failure in this\\nworld.\\nFinally, he insists that his religious conceptions are\\nthose which make the truth of religion clear to him,\\nbut he does not attempt to force them upon any one\\nelse, for others may only be able to see the truth in\\nanother way. The poems which illustrate these ideas\\nmost clearly are the following In Christmas Eve\\n(Vol. IV., p. 286) we find expressed his belief that all\\nreligions have their centre of truth, and that his is for\\nhimself alone, and in Hnes 271-375 his conception\\nof the nature of God is given. The Epilogue to\\nDramatis Personae (Vol. V., p. 276) emphasizes\\nthe fact that Browning s own standpoint is not reached\\nthrough the authority of a special historical revelation,\\nbut through that of an individual revelation in his own\\nheart. This is also shown in Easter-Day (Vol.\\nIV., p. 327). The speaker (probably the poet)\\nasks himself the question as to the worth of the his-\\ntorical story of the redempdon to him. He answers\\nin a vision that shows its spiritual worth to him as an\\nideal that could only have been suggested by divine\\nLove manifesting itself in the heart of man, but as\\na historical actuality it seems he could not accept it\\nwithout doubt. (See lines loio to end.)", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0635.jp2"}, "636": {"fulltext": "6o2 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nThe Sun (Vol. XII. p. 14) points out that\\nthe human conception of God must have an element\\nof the Infinite in it. Compare with The Pope\\n(Vol. VII., p. 163, lines 1841-1881).\\nPoems illustrating the poet s attitude toward God\\nare The Melon-Seller (Vol. XII., p. 4),\\nwhich inculcates the doctrine that reverses are to\\nbe accepted cheerfully as being more one s due than\\ngood. The Family (Vol. XII., p. 11) teaches\\nthat man should not try to ape God s wisdom, but\\nshould, when he sees anything that seems to him wrong,\\npray God to change it. In other words, it is an\\nargument against adopting the fatalistic attitude of\\naccepting without resistance whatever evil befalls instead\\nof trying to remove it.\\nThe chief poem on Immortality is La Saisiaz\\n(Vol. XI., p, 70 see special digest of this in Notes).\\nAbt Vogler (Vol. V., p. 169) also looks forward to\\na heaven where the broken arcs of earth will be com-\\npleted. Paracelsus (Vol. I., p. 35) sees a flying\\npoint of bliss remote where pleasure climbs its heights\\nforever and forever (Part V., lines 640-651). In\\nOne Word More (Vol. V., p. 93) the poet\\nspeaks of attaining other heights in other lives, and in\\n**01d Pictures in Florence (Vol. IV., p. 52) he\\nexpresses desire for rest rather than attainment in the\\nfuture life (see stanzas xxi. and xxii.).\\nQueries for Discussion. Do the passages bearing\\nupon Evolution cited show that we always hear\\nBrowning speaking through his characters\\nHas not Evolution been an idea prevalent in the\\nworld for so long a time in diiFerent forms that\\nit would naturally find expression through many\\nminds", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0636.jp2"}, "637": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S PHILOSOPHY 603\\nDoes the personality of the speakers in all cases\\nmodify the idea\\nAre there any passages where we feel sure we have\\nthe poet s own opinion\\nBrowning s acceptance of the doctrine of Evolution\\nis generally acknowledged, possibly because it has been\\nwellnigh universally accepted, so that no partisans have\\nany desire to claim him as opposed to it. No doubt\\nsuch a partisan could make an argument if he wished\\nto do so. It is otherwise, however, with his religious\\nand philosophical attitude. He has been claimed by\\nmany to be a Christian in the most orthodox sense.\\nAn able discussion upon him from this point of view\\nmay be found in Miss Vida D. Scudder s Life of\\nthe Spirit in Modern English Poets. He has also\\nbeen criticised for basing his philosophy upon the\\nrevelation of feeling instead of upon the higher reason.\\nThis is discussed by Henry Jones in his Browning\\nas a Religious and Philosophical Teacher. Other\\narticles which take a view more or less in harmony\\nwith the facts as indicated in this study are in the Lon-\\ndon Browning Society Papers Browning s Phi-\\nlosophy, by John Bury in Part IIL The Religious\\nTeaching of Browning, by Miss Dorothea Beale,\\nPart in.; Some Prominent Points in Browning s\\nTeaching, by W. A. Raleigh, Part V. Browning s\\nTheism, by Josiah Royce, Boston Browning\\nSociety Papers. The Introduction to this work\\nand the Introduction to Vol. XII. of the Camber-\\nwell Br ozv fling should be consulted also for further\\nhints.\\nWhatever you may decide for yourself is his attitude\\ntoward Christianity in its historical aspect, may it not\\nbe said that his religious attitude preserves the spirit of", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0637.jp2"}, "638": {"fulltext": "6o4 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nChristianity which is love to God and man, and that\\nin the face of all the doubts and the pessimism let loose\\nupon this century through the non-comprehension of\\nscience and the despair at evil, he inspires an\\nunbounded trust in his own Pippa s words,\\nGod s in his heaven,\\nAll s right with the world\\nII. Topic for Paper, Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Practical Side of Browning s Philosophy.\\nGeneral Suggestions. When we come to con-\\nsider the bearing of Browning s philosophy upon\\nindividual action, we find that he believes every in-\\ndividual should have an ideal, and that the human\\nwill should be exercised in choosing a path in life\\nwhich will lead towards the accomplishment of that\\nideal. No matter if failure results, the will should\\nnever falter and faith never be lost. So important does\\nhe consider the will, that it appears to him preferable\\nthat a human being should exercise the will in the\\nfollowing out of a bad path, rather than stagnate\\nthrough inability to choose any path at all.\\nAs to the direction in which choice should go, he\\ndeclares that one ought to be true to his own nature.\\nHe even finds a glimmer of hope for the criminal on\\nthe ground that he has been working out the truth of\\nhis nature, for example, in the case of Guido, who\\nPompilia thinks may have been acting according to\\nthe truth of his nature, and for whom there may be\\nhealing in God s shadow. He possibly thinks, with\\nIxion, that sin is the result of the darkening of the soul\\nby the meshes of sense. At any rate, he does not\\nbelieve in eternal punishment, arguing that sin brings\\nits own punishment along with it in this life. Further-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0638.jp2"}, "639": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S PHILOSOPHY 605\\nmore, he does not presume to decide what is right\\nand what is wrong for anybody but himself.\\nThe most exalted human manifestation to him is\\nlove which is unselfish and constant in its devotion. A\\nsin against love is a sin against the highest truth of\\nwhich the nature is capable.\\nA natural result of his insistence upon the worth of\\nthe individual is his social attitude, which is liberal and\\ndemocratic.\\nIllustrations of these points may be found in Francis\\nFurini .(Vol. XII., p. 120), in which stress is laid\\nupon man s part to fight the evils he sees, God s\\nplan being that evil, though meant for good, should\\nseem wrong to man, in order that he should have the\\nmoral spur of needing to overcome it in the Pope in\\nThe Ring and the Book (Vol. VII., p. 163),\\nwhose conclusion is that *Mife s business is just the terri-\\nble choice (see line 1233). In The Two Poets of\\nCroisic (Vol. X., p. 230) the paralysis of the will\\ngrowing out of a vision from an infinite point of view\\nis objected to the same thought is touched upon in\\nAn Epistle (Vol. V., p. 10). Paralysis of the will\\nwas the sin in The Statue and the Bust (Vol. IV.,\\np. 265). In The Eagle (Vol. XII., p. 3) it\\nis pointed out that man s will should lead him to live\\nin the midst of the world of men doing good. In A\\nCamel-Driver (Vol. XII., p. 26) the argument is\\nthat though eternal punishment would be unjust,\\nmankind should punish the evil-doer, because punish-\\nment is a means of teaching in other words, it is\\nman s will fighting against evil.\\nIn Two Camels (Vol. XII., p. 30) it is\\nclaimed that in order to do one s work in the world\\nof increasing its happiness, one must h?iozv happiness,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0639.jp2"}, "640": {"fulltext": "6o6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\ntherefore it is not well to renounce joy, for one s own\\nsake, but to cultivate it for the sake of others. In **A\\nBean-Stripe also, Apple-Eating (Vol. XII., p; 46)\\nthe difficulty of deciding what is evil and what is not\\nevil is emphasized, and the lesson taught that only what\\ncomes home direcdy to one as evil should be striven\\nagainst (see lines 243-245).\\nWhen cold from over-mounts spikes through and through\\nBlood, bone and marrow of Ferishtah, then,\\nTime to look out for shelter.\\nAbout the evils of the world which he cannot\\nreach, Ferishtah thinks it better not to worry, but\\nleave them in God s hands, and dwell upon the fact\\nof the good in the world which sheds a light over the\\nblack of evil, so that life is on the whole gray, that is,\\nnearer white than black.\\nMiranda, in Red-Cotton Night-cap Country, is\\nan example of weakness of will, on account of which\\nthe poet thought him a failure (see programme on\\nthis poem.) Clara, on the other hand, he considers\\nmore of a success, because she lived out her nature to\\nthe best of her ability. Sordello (Vol. II., p. 93)\\nis an example of the struggle of the will with refer-\\nence to personal morality and social good.\\nIllustrations of the reverence due to love are so\\nnumerous that it will be possible to point out only a\\nfew of the instances. Taking the characters in the\\nlonger poems, Paracelsus was undone because he\\ndid not recognize the worth of love in man s estate;\\nStrafford s motive of action was love for the king, while\\nin Pym personal love and love for a great principle\\nwere at war, and Pym chose the higher ideal the\\nguiding principle in the life of Charles was love for", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0640.jp2"}, "641": {"fulltext": "BROWNINGS PHILOSOPHY 607\\nhis father Victor Valence and Norbert reverence\\nlove as the great truth of existence, and not to respond\\nto it and be true to it would be to cast a shadow upon\\nGod s own light. The speaker in the little poem\\nCristina feels love to be a revelation. The\\nDuchess in **The Flight of the Duchess could not\\nlive without the regenerating influence of love.\\nAndrea del Sarto feels love to be the great truth of his\\nlife in spite of the faithlessness of the beloved.\\nCaponsacchi and Pompilia felt love to be a revelation\\nfrom above. Browning dubs the lady in Daniel\\nBartoli (Vol. XII., p. 89) a saint, because she\\nreverences love by making the only choice consistent\\nwith the preservation of its honor.\\nIn Why I am a Liberal (Vol. XII., p. 279)\\nthe poet s democracy comes out in his belief that\\nevery one should have freedom to live, love and labor\\nfreely. In the digression in Sordello (Vol. II.,\\np. 93) his liberal opinions find direct expression (see\\nprogramme on this poem and on autobiographical\\npoems) also in Charles Avison (Vol. XII., p. i 54,\\nstanzas xiv. and xvi.). The Lost Leader (Vol.\\nIV., p. 41) also illustrates his liberal position. Indirectly\\nit may be seen in his treatment of historical subjects, as in\\nStrafford (see programme on this poem) in Luigi s\\npart in Pippa Passes (Vol. I., p. 177) in King\\nVictor s fear of the democratic tendencies ot his son\\nin King Victor and King Charles (lines 310-319\\nof Part I., Second Year, Vol. I., p. 237) in\\nBerthold s fear of the growth of democracy in\\nColombe s Birthday (lines 22-45 of Act V.,\\nVol. III., p. 122) in Chiappino, in A Soul s\\nTragedy, whose soul s tragedy was his failure to\\nlive out the democratic ideal of liberty which he pro-\\nfessed (Vol. III., p. 257).", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0641.jp2"}, "642": {"fulltext": "6o8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nAlthough, in accordance with Browning s moral\\nattitude toward life, every one should strive for the at-\\ntainment of an ideal, if that ideal is not attained in life, it\\nis not to be considered a cause of regret, but an evidence\\nof the fact that another life exists in which attainment\\nmay be realized. Thus, Rabbi Ben Ezra is thankful for\\nwhat he aspired to be and was not (Vol. V.,p. 169,\\nlines 38-41); Abt Vogler declares our failure here to\\nbe a triumph s evidence for the fulness of the days\\n(Vol. III., p. 169, lines 81-82). Optimism in the\\nface of failure is illustrated symbolically in **Childe\\nRoland (Vol. IV., p. 277), and directly in the\\nEpilogue to Asolando (Vol. XII., p. 267).\\nQueries for Investigation a?id Discussion. Do you\\nfind Browning s moral attitude to be entirely in har-\\nmony with his philosophical and religious attitude\\nIn basing his religious faith upon the direct revela-\\ntion of human aspiration in mankind, and his moral\\nfaith upon the power of will to achieve ideals, has\\nBrowning successfully rebutted the pessimism of the\\nnineteenth century which has followed upon the scien-\\ntific demolition of some of the old grounds of belief?\\nDoes he successfully meet the difficulty he evidently\\nfeels in attributing the origin of evil to the Omniscient\\nPower of the universe, that difficulty being the\\ndanger that -such a belief may tend to fatalism and the\\nstagnation of the will\\nIf good and evil are equally the creation of an\\nOmniscient Power, it may be asked why should man-\\nkind will to follow one more than the other to which\\nmight it be answered, that the belief in the superiority\\nof goodness over evil has been a constantly present\\naspiration of the human mind, and since an Omniscient\\nPower has created both evil and good, is it not reason-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0642.jp2"}, "643": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S PHILOSOPHY 609\\nable to suppose that he is also the implanter of a belief\\nthat good is better than evil Is this, literally speak-\\ning, the answer Browning gives\\nWhether his grounds for the basis of moral action\\nbe considered sufficient or not, in his own personal\\nconviction of the necessity for following a high moral\\nideal that is, loyalty to truth is he not one of the\\ngreatest, perhaps the greatest, moral power in nine-\\nteenth-century literature\\nIII. Topic for Paper Classworky or Private Study.\\nThe Esthetic side of Browning s Philosophy.\\nQueries for hivestigation and Discussion. How\\nare Browning s ideas oi aspiration, truth to reahty,\\nrelativity of attainment, the worth of the human soul\\nas the starting-point of life, and the need of will-power\\nillustrated in his expressions on art\\nFor aspiration in art, as necessary for its highest\\ndevelopment, see Andrea del Sarto (Vol. V.,\\np. 36), **Abt Vogler (Vol. V., p. 169). For rela-\\ntivity of attainment, see Old Pictures in Florence\\n(Vol. IV., p. 52), Charles Avison (Vol. XII.,\\np. 154). (See also studies of these poems in the\\nprogrammes Music and Musicians, Art and the\\nArtist. For the worth of the human soul as\\nrevealed in the human body, see Fra Lippo Lippi\\n(Vol. v., p. 24), Francis Furini (Vol. XII.,\\np. 120), and *The Lady and the Painter (Vol.\\nXII., p. 221), For truth to actuality in art, see\\nGerard de Lairesse (Vol. XII., p. 140). For\\nthe exercise of the will in artistic creation, see the\\npassage in Pauline (Vol. I., p. i, lines 268\u00e2\u0080\u0094280).\\nSordello (Vol. II., p. 93) shows the struggle\\nof the will for artistic mastery, and in Christopher\\nSmart (Vol. XII., p. toi) the place of the will\\n39", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0643.jp2"}, "644": {"fulltext": "6lo BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nin shaping artistic inspiration toward worthy ends is\\nindicated.\\nDoes Browning s own worlc further exemplify the\\nharmony between his aesthetic standpoint and his phi-\\nlosophy in his persistent treatment of the struggles and\\naspirations of the human soul, and in his portrayal of\\nsouls, both evil and humble, indicating his belief in the\\nintrinsic worth of all souls and their fitness for artistic\\ntreatment", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0644.jp2"}, "645": {"fulltext": "Browning s Artistry\\nI. Topic for Paper y Classzvork, or Private Study.\\nThe Metrical Factors of Browning s Style.\\nGeneral Suggestions. In studying Browning s\\nverse-form it will be found most profitable and con-\\nvenient not to begin quite at random, but to attempt\\nan examination, for example, of rhyme and rhythm\\nas the two main factors of metrical effect in a few\\nrepresentative poems belonging to several different\\nclasses. Scrutiny may be directed upon poems offer-\\ning general resemblances in metre but decided differ-\\nences in mood, and belonging to work of various dates,\\nearly and late. Such a selection might include, for\\ninstance, as a specimen line of investigation, the couplet-\\nrhymed pentameter of serious narrative used in Sor-\\ndello, and the same measure, somewhat differently\\nmanipulated, in **The Parleying with Bernard de\\nMandeville the purely lyrical rhymed verse of\\nYou 11 Love Me Yet, one of the early lyrics, in\\nPippa Passes, and Round Us the Wild Creatures,\\none of the latest lyrics, in Ferishtah s Fancies\\nthe unrhymed blank verse of such a drama as **The\\nReturn of the Druses, of the colloquial dramatic\\nmonologues Fra Lippo, Bishop Blougram, and\\nA Forgiveness, a later work, and the musing mono-\\nlogues, better called soliloquies, of Caliban and\\nthe Pope, in *The Ring and the Book; the\\nrhymed verse, six-stressed, used in the lyrical Abt", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0645.jp2"}, "646": {"fulltext": "6i2 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nVogler, in the dramatic idyl **Mu]eykeh and in\\nthe jocose Solomon and Balkis or, again, the\\nthree-stressed rhymed verse of two personal poems\\nof such contrasting temper as Pacchiarotto and\\nReverie.\\nIt might be supposed, since Browning s art has been\\noften decidedly condemned, that observation of its char-\\nacteristic traits had been made which warranted such\\ncondemnation but this is not the case. Adverse gen-\\neralizations have been common, but special observation\\nis rare, and there is comparatively little help prepared\\nfor the earnest student of poetic principles and effects.\\nThe foregoing programmes offer some suggestions,\\nespecially those of the first series, where more detailed\\nstudy was attempted, and the Introductions to the\\nCamberwell Brozvni?ig. (See, also, articles before\\ncited on Browning s Form and Rhyme, in Poet-lore^\\nVol. II., pp. 234, 300, 480 Vol. v., pp. 258,\\n436 on The Reasonable Rhythm of some of Mr.\\nBrowning s Poems, in London Browning Society\\nPapers, Part VIII., Vol. II.)\\nThe Introduction to Browning of Mr. Arthur\\nSymons is the only one among the various Browning\\nhandbooks that considers metrical artistic effects.\\nProf. Hiram Corson s Primer of English Verse\\nshould be consulted for its passages on Browning, and,\\nif procurable, Mr. Arthur Beatty s thesis on Brown-\\ning s Verse Form. (Gummere s Handbook of\\nPoetics and Brewer s Orthometry may be used\\nas reference-books on the general subject of metrical\\nart.)\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Is it\\nevident, from the frequency with which Browning\\nuses unrhymed verse for dramatic, and rhymed verse", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0646.jp2"}, "647": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S ARTISTRY 613\\nfor lyrical effects, that he does so designedly In his\\nlater work is it obvious that his long-practised skill with\\nrhyme and irregular rhythm enables him to attain easy\\ncolloquial and dramatic effects with rhyme also\\nDoes classified observation of his use of free rhythm\\n(similar to that called by the Greeks pedestrian-metre,\\npartaking of the flexibility of prose, and marked in Eng-\\nlish by stress, and by the intercalation at will of one or\\nmore weak syllables) reveal carelessness or adroit adap-\\ntation to the general impression he sought to awaken\\nWhat does the fact of his use of a measure super-\\nficially the same in poems essentially different in effect\\nargue as to his metrical proficiency that his ear for\\nverse-music was rough and crude, and his feeling for\\nmelody simple, or that his ear was extraordinarily sen-\\nsitive, and led him to vary and shade each instrument\\nof mere melody which a given metre could supply\\nhim, so as to unfold from it complex and unusual\\nharmonies\\nDoes the evidence his work provides show that he\\nlacked the mastery requisite to manipulate his form at\\npleasure, so that it should subserve his design and take\\ncolor from his mood, instead of getting the upper hand\\nof him Refer to specific poems, with this question\\nin mind, and discuss it in the light of the evidence\\nthey aff-ord.\\nAre Browning s bad rhymes numerous and without\\nany excuse for their oddity except the necessity of get-\\nting a rhyme Or are his rhymes generally good, un-\\ncommonly various and rich, his bad rhymes infrequent\\nAre the greater number of his rhymes unnoticeable,\\nbecause blent in the verse-flow so perfectly\\nWhen his rhymes are obtrusive, odd, or forced, are\\nthey oftener than not dramadcally justifiable That", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0647.jp2"}, "648": {"fulltext": "6l4 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nis, are they accounted for, either on the score of the\\nstrong sense-emphasis, the spirited declamation of the\\nspeaker who is the mouthpiece of the poem, the whim-\\nsical or sportive nature of the piece, or the abrupt blurt-\\ning sort of talk habitual to the character, or suitable at\\nthe time to the frame of mind presented?\\nFor example, in The Grammarian s Funeral\\n(Vol. IV., p. 248, lines 98 and 100), where there is\\na forced rhyme, is there a special sense-emphasis on\\nfar and on **bad, due to the opposition between\\nthings of near and remote profit to the soul and between\\nthe conception of what is good and bad, which makes\\nfar gain and bargain mate more perfectly?\\nAnd does the spirited partisanship of the speaker for the\\nGrammarian, who practical people would say had no\\ncommon sense, further tend to humor this rhyme\\nWhat evidence of design to suit the whimsical hu-\\nmor of the piece do the obtrusive rhymes of Pacchia-\\nrotto (Vol. IX., p. 171) afford?\\nDo the odd rhymes of The Flight of the Duchess\\n(Vol. IV., p. 219) exemplify design again, because\\nthey suit the character and the manner of the hunts-\\nman who is relieving his mind by confiding the story\\nto the ear of a friend with whom he feels familiar\\nIn this poem, also, does the change in the quality of\\nthe rhymes as well as the rhythm, in lines 567-688\\ncorroborate the inference that the poet designedly\\nmade his rhymes subject to oddity during the direct\\ntalk of the huntsman, and here subject to the charm\\nexercised by the gypsy\\nDoes Browning s work elsewhere often indicate that\\nthis sort of modelling of his rhymes and rhythm, so that\\nthey betray the impress of character and habit or of\\nsudden emotion, is intentional", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0648.jp2"}, "649": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S ARTISTRY 615\\nII. Topic for Papery Classwork, or Private Study.\\nThe Element of Language and Symbol.\\nGeneral Suggestio/is. The preceding programmes\\nunder the topics considering the art of the poems therein\\nincluded may be referred to also the General Intro-\\nduction to this volume, and Introductions to the Cam-\\nberwell Broiv7iing throughout, for remarks bearing on\\nthis topic elsewhere, for this and the two following\\ndivisions of the present programme, there is little to\\nconsult that gives the student hints Hkely to be of as-\\nsistance. A valuable general study of Browning s\\ndiction, on the philological rather than the poetic\\nside, by Mr. O. F. Emerson, will be found in Mod-\\nern Language Notes (April, 1889, briefly quoted in\\nPoet-lore, Vol. I., pp. 291-292, June, 1889) and\\nan interesting paper on *The Nature Element in\\nBrowning s Poetry, by Mrs. E. E. Marean, gives\\nsuggestions on imagery drawn from Nature Boston\\nBrowning Society Papers, pp. 471\u00e2\u0080\u0094487).\\nObservation of the diction and the similes and meta-\\nphors used in the range of work, early and late, before\\nsuggested as affording a line of investigation upon char-\\nacteristics of rhyme and rhythm, may be followed here\\nto advantage, or any of the groups of poems cited in\\nthe foregoing programmes may be taken up.\\nStudy, for example, of Bishop Blougram\\n(Vol. v., p. 49), an early monologue (1855),\\nwould bring out the contemporaneous quality of the\\nEnglish the range taken by the allusions, and that those\\nmost prominent were to Shakespeare, for instance, upon\\nwhom, by the way. Cardinal Wiseman wrote the\\nunexalted, unimpassioned, yet clever and clear similes,\\nas those to the sea- voyage and the outfit requisite for a\\ncabin, or those to the traveller passing through different\\nzones of climates and the clothes he would need.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0649.jp2"}, "650": {"fulltext": "6l6 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nStudy, again, of a later monologue, A Forgive-\\nness (1876), would reveal the absence of peculi-\\narity in the language, on the whole the Spanish\\nallusions the fact that the prominent imagery of the\\npoem related to the arms of Eastern workmanship,\\nabout which the refined cruelty of the speaker s fancy\\napparently loved to play (Vol. IX., p. 227, lines\\n248-277), and to the comparison of men of violent\\npassions to bulls (292\u00e2\u0080\u0094301).\\nThe wealth, variety, and oddity of the imagery in\\nSordello, and the degree in which it was adapted\\nto the subject of the moment, as **the thunder\\nphrase of-^schylus echoing like a sword s grid-\\ning screech braying a shield, or the starry pala-\\ndin Sidney s silver speech turning intense as\\na trumpet sounding in the knights to tilt (Vol. II.,\\np. 93, lines 65 fol.), if representatively brought\\nforward, could be compared with the imagery sug-\\ngested by the subject of the Parleying with Bernard de\\nMandeville in one of Browning s latest poems (Vol.\\nXII., p. 279), wherein the main images are appropri-\\nately related to the sun. (See **Sun Symbolism in\\nBrowning, Poet-lore Vol. XL, pp. 55-73, January,\\nIt will be interesting, in general, in examining the\\nsubject of imagery in Browning, to notice whether the\\nmetaphors are drawn from the cosmic or out-door\\nnature side of life or the human nature side whether\\nthey apply to the poem fractionally, that is, merely to\\npassages in the poem, or whether they apply to it as a\\nwhole, that is, to the entire theme. In the latter case\\nthey belong more properly to symbolism than to meta-\\nphor, and are often less evident, but certainly not less\\npoetic or skilful.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0650.jp2"}, "651": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S ARTISTRY 617\\nAmong the dramatic romances, for example, which\\nhave an element of the narrative and often ot the\\nlyrical, also, although expressed through a dramatic\\npersonality, there is one, The Patriot (Vol. IV.,\\np. 142), whose imagery, if studied, would be seen to\\nbe drawn from the human side of life, and to belong\\nespecially to the passage where it appears, although\\nalso suited to the general theme. The roses and\\nmyrtle, of which the patriot speaks in the opening\\nverses, are said to be mixed in his path like mad, a\\ngraphic way both of putting before the eye the flowery\\nconfusion, and of reminding himself of the frenzy of\\nexcitement over him which the crowds had when they\\nstrewed his pathway, by the comparison of the look\\nof the heaped intermixture of roses and myrtle with\\nthe human quality. So, again, the house-roofs are\\ndescribed as if they were alive themselves, and not\\nmerely crowded on top and at windows with onlookers,\\nthey seem to heave and szuay, etc. The sixth hne,\\nin the same way, carries a metaphor the air broke\\ninto a mist with bells which suggests not only\\nthe vibrations which actually make the atmosphere\\nquiver with vagueness, like that of a mist, but also\\nthe human sense-impression which the repeated con-\\ncussion of merry bells produces.\\nAnother one of these brief dramatic romances may\\nbe cited, again, to show that study of its imagery\\nwould reveal very little of the direct sort of metaphor\\nor simile, and that what imagery may here be observed\\nis of the symbohc kind. It is not the graphic variety\\nof symbolism, either, throwing light on the thought,\\nlike the rainbow in Ixion, but the impressionistic\\nvariety, influencing the mood, as the symbolism of\\nChilde Roland does, and thus making the reader", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0651.jp2"}, "652": {"fulltext": "6i8 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\naware of the feelings the speaker is outpouring and of\\ntheir larger significance with reference to the general\\ndrift of the poem. The first stanza of Time s\\nRevenges (Vol. IV., p. 1 68), as a whole, through the\\nimpression it gives of the speaker s fame, which has\\nbrought him through his books, on the spiritual side\\nof him therefore, the devotion of an unknown friend,\\nillustrates by analogy and contrast his frame of mind\\ntoward a frivolous lady. She appeals to him on the\\nsensual side, and arouses in him an obsession that\\nmakes him eager to sacrifice fame, with all it could\\nmean or promise, to her utter recklessness of him.\\nThe two sides of this position, displaying his effective\\nfame and ineffective love, illustrate figuratively the\\nrelativities time fosters, and symbolize, as a whole, in\\nthis humanistic, dramatic way, very much the same\\ntheme as another little poem, Earth s Immortalities\\n(Vol. IV., p. 28), presented there in the opposite\\nway, lyrically and pictorially.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion. Does\\nBrowning generally adapt his diction and allusions to\\ntone in with the character, the time, and general\\neffect he means to present As, for example, in\\nGuido in The Ring and the Book he uses\\nElizabethanisms and brutally frank descriptive terms in\\nNed Bratts provincial obsolete English suiting\\nBunyan s time.\\nIs the censure of his style due in some degree to\\nunusual allusions and epithets which constitute the\\nmeans whereby he gives his pictures of historic life\\ntheir color and local background t Do such character-\\nistics of design in diction convict his work of a diflficulty\\nthat shows wilful obscurity, or of a careful artistry that\\nwill repay study", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0652.jp2"}, "653": {"fulltext": "BROWNINGS ARTISTRY 619\\nIs his use of imagery so varied, by his adaptation of\\nit to suit his various characters, that some of his work\\nwill either be bare of metaphor, because it would not\\nbe in character for the personality depicted to use it,\\nor employ little that is intrinsically rich or in any way\\ninappropriate to the mood and habits of thought he is\\nindulging, or else rise only occasionally to a lyrical or\\npicturesque climax under stress of sudden emotion or a\\npoetic memory As, for example, in Prince Hohen-\\nstiel figures are used that are prosaic and practical for\\nthe most part, but when France and Italy are con-\\nsidered in a way likely to evoke the Prince s enthusiasm\\nor memories of an adventurous youth, the style rises\\ninto lyrical beauty.\\nHow is it when the character is poetic, as in the\\npoet of Pauline, of Sordello, At the Mer-\\nmaid What evidence is there of successive mental\\nattitudes more or less disposed alternately to graphic\\ndescription, to reasoning, to emotional expression in\\npassages where the poet is speaking in his own person,\\nas in La Saisiaz and the digression in the third\\nbook of Sordello\\nAre any of Browning s poems allegories in the same\\nway that Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress is, or that\\nSpenser s Faerie Queene is\\nWhat is the difference between allegory and sym-\\nbolism r And how does Browning s work illustrate\\nany difference\\nDoes the poet s work supply proof that his imagery,\\non account of its adaptability to his characters, and\\nalso on account of its allusional and symbolistic quali-\\nties, is richer, more varied and complex than is, at\\nfirst, obvious, when the same simple use of imagery is\\nlooked for which less original or less dramatic modern\\npoets employ", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0653.jp2"}, "654": {"fulltext": "620 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nDoes Browning show a lack of ability to invent\\nstriking imagery of the sort that is only incidentally\\nornamental, applicable to a fractional part of his poem,\\nor to a sudden picture occurring in the midst of a pas-\\nsage For example, such touches as The wroth sea-\\nwaves edged with foam, white as the bitten lips of\\nhate, **The herded pines commune and have\\ndeep thoughts Paracelsus Was it speech\\nhalf-asleep or song half-awake A ridge of short,\\nsharp broken hills like an old lion s cheek-teeth\\n*The Flight of the Duchess The sprinkled\\nisles, lily on lily, that o erlace the sea, and laugh\\ntheir pride when the light wave lisps Greece\\nCleon The finger of God, a flash of the will\\nthat can Abt Vogler Pouring Heaven into\\nthis shut house of life Transcendentalism\\nTb learn not only by a comet s rush, but a rose s\\nbirth, not by the grandeur, God, but the com-\\nfort, Christ The Ring and the Book Pro-\\nfound purple of noon oppression, light wile o the\\nwest wind (**Jochanan Hakkadosh Morn\\nis breaking there. The granite ridge pricks through the\\nmist, turns gold as wrong turns right. O laughters\\nmanifold of ocean s ripple at dull earth s despair\\nParleyings Gerard de Lairesse Under be-\\nfriending trees, when shy buds venture out, Amid\\nwhirl and roar of the elemental flame which star-flecks\\nheaven s dark floor Reverie\\nAre such passages unusual and peculiar to the early\\npoems, or are they, like these examples, scattered\\nthroughout the whole range of Browning s work\\nDoes scientific imagery play an important part in\\nBrowning s poetry Is it correctly used Is it often\\ntransformed to suit his own purposes For examples.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0654.jp2"}, "655": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S ARTISTRY 621\\nnote the metaphor of the polarization of light in the\\nangled spar in My Star; Once I saw a\\nchemist take a pinch of powder, in the lyric in Fe-\\nrishtah s Fancies the image of the light rays of\\nthe color spectrum in Numpholeptos, etc.\\nIs Browning s imagery largely drawn from the cos-\\nmic, out-door side of life, or is it mainly derived from\\nthe human side\\nIII. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nArtistic Theme and Mood.\\nGe7ieral Suggestions. The General Introduction\\nof the present volume classifies Browning s subject-\\nmatter; and the first paper in the series of Annals of\\na Quiet Browning Club, on Choice of Subject-\\nMatter in Poets, considers characteristics of Brown-\\ning s subject-matter in comparison with Chaucer s,\\nSpenser s, and Tennyson s Chaucer and Spenser\\nare prototypes of two poetical tendencies that have\\ngone on developing side by side in English literature\\nChaucer, democratic, interested supremely in the per-\\nsonalities of men and women, representing the real,\\nand Spenser, aristocratic, interested in imaging forth an\\nideal of manhood Chaucer drawing his lessons\\nout of the real actions of humanity, Spenser framing\\nhis story so that it will illustrate the moral he wishes\\nto inculcate In the present era Tennyson and\\nBrowning have represented, broadly speaking, these\\ntwo tendencies Even hurried survey of the field\\nreveals the fact that Browning s range of choice in\\nsubject-matter is infinitely wider and his method of\\ndeveloping it far more varied than that of any other\\nEnghsh poet.\\nHe seems the first to have completely shaken\\nhimself free of the trammels of classic and medieval", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0655.jp2"}, "656": {"fulltext": "622 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nliterature. There are no echoes of Arthur and his\\nknights in his poetry, the shadows of the Greek gods\\nand goddesses exert no spell. When he deals with a\\nclassic subject he does it with a critical conscious-\\nness of the fitness of the subject for his special end at\\nthe time In fine, the whole range of thought\\nand emotion is, truly speaking, the raw material of\\nBrowning s subject-matter. {Poet-lore yNo\\\\. VII., pp.\\n356-366 see also discussion thereon, pp. 436-446.)\\nThe fashioning of the subject-matter from a special\\nstandpoint so as to diffuse over it an atmosphere of\\nhumor is illustrated by one of the Garden Fan-\\ncies, whose very title forebodes a prank of some kind,\\nSibrandus Schafnaburgensis (Vol. IV., p. 13).\\nThe subject-matter is nothing more than the burial\\nof a pedantic book, but the creative standpoint, so to\\nspeak, from whence the theme is fashioned is shown\\nin the attitude toward the tiresome pedant and in\\nthe gleefulness of getting the better of him, and this\\nis more truly the subject of the poem than the incident\\nof the burial is. As Elizabeth Barrett said of it, it\\nhas quite the damp smell of funguses and the sense\\nof creeping things through and through it. Yet all\\nthis is incidental to the humorous mood. The final\\nstroke of rescuing the book from the growing pains of\\nbeing stabbed through with a fungus at chapter six,\\nand replacing it on a shelf with less lively compan-\\nions, to **^r) -rot at ease, is the climax of irony at the\\npedant s expense.\\nIs the humorous temper toward his subject often\\nevident in Browning s work What different aspects\\nof this enjoying-from-the-outside point of view come\\nout, for example, in How it Strikes a Contempo-\\nrary, Confessions, Pacchiarotto", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0656.jp2"}, "657": {"fulltext": "BROWNING S ARTISTRY 623\\nIs** Up at a Villa Down in the City (Vol.\\nIV., p. 44) the better or worse, as a character-sketch\\nof an Italian s genuine feeling toward the banalities of\\nrusticity and the cheering bustle of town-life, because\\nof the jocular air the poet has suffused over the talk\\nHow is this accomplished Although as the story-\\nteller he does not appear, is he not present, making us\\nlaugh with him\\nA peculiarly odd and grim humor is imparted, simi-\\nlarly, in The Heretic s Tragedy (Vol. IV., p.\\n253). An atmosphere of burlesque surrounds it, al-\\nthough it recounts a veritable historic scene of the\\nfourteenth century in Paris, and puts it pictorially be-\\nfore the eye in all its barbarous religious ferocity. But\\nis either its historic or its pictorial quality the main\\nthing in the poem The note prefixed by the poet\\nshows that it is not as an account of the burning of\\nJacques du Molay and an incident of the dissensions\\nof the Church during the French dominance over the\\npapacy, that the poem was conceived, but as a repro-\\nduction of a pious version of that event rendered in\\ncanticle-form to be sung at festivals in Flanders, some\\ntwo centuries afterwards. It illustrates, then, not the\\nFrench historic event, but an artistic rendering in com-\\nmemoration of it marked by religious fiawete and the\\nquaint, stiff loyalty belonging to Flemish art, and sound-\\ning the same note in literary form which is familiar to\\nmost of us in the pictures of Memling, and others of\\nthe early church painters. Aside from the light the\\npoet s prefatory hint sheds upon his design, is it not\\nevident, in the poem, that not direct narration or pic-\\nturesqueness is aimed at, but the indirect presentation\\nof an event become traditional, conventionally artistic,\\nand almost hallowed through the partisanship of zeal-", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0657.jp2"}, "658": {"fulltext": "624 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\nous and credulous minds Do not the inconsistencies\\nto the modern eye, of burning a man for the heresy of\\nholding that God was good and merciful, in order\\nto re-estabHsh the contrary infinitudes of God s\\njustice and menace, come out more humorously for the\\nindirect structure of the poem Does not the grotesque\\nart of the canticle through its refrains having a double\\nmeaning, and its figures of the burning martyr offered\\nas a rose of hell to the rose of Sharon, conveying both\\nthe sardonic absurdity it all is to modern thought and\\nthe palpable, much-relished hit it all was to the medi-\\naeval mind have everything to do with giving the\\npiece its peculiar atmosphere of humor\\nIs this double-edged quality, through which any\\nobjective event is set in the light of contrasting human\\nmoods or points of view, the secret of Browning s\\nsympathetic humor\\nIV. Topic for Paper, Classworky or Private Study.\\nDesign and Harmony.\\nQueries for Investigation and Discussion, The\\ntreatment of The Ring and the Book, the dramas,\\nthe larger poems, The Inn Album, Sordello,\\netc., as to motive and artistic effect, in this volume and\\nin the Ctf;w,^^r^6 Introductions, will assist in pointing\\nout with reference to these works what is meant by\\nharmonizing all the parts of a play or poem to accord\\nwith its main motive; when the component parts of a\\nwork are manipulated constantly and consistently from\\nbeginning to end to suit a synthetic idea, all the\\nlesser matters of poetic workmanship, rhyme, rhythm,\\ndiction, imagery, even subject-matter, also sink into\\nthis general trend, while contributing each a due share\\ntoward the mutual harmony.\\nAre Browning s design and harmony very often so", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0658.jp2"}, "659": {"fulltext": "BROWNINGS ARTISTRY 625\\ninclusive of smaller effects that are frequently in other\\npoets ends in themselves, that his work is censured for\\ntraits that assume special meaning and beauty when\\nthey are understood as appropriately subordinated to\\nthe general plan\\nIs this subordination of the various constituents of\\na poem to an inclusive design characteristic of all\\nBrowning s larger works\\nDoes it distinguish many of his shorter poems, as\\n**Childe Roland, Development, Imperante\\nAugusto natus est, and many other of the poems\\ntypical of special periods of historic life\\nIs the social or historic and always evolutionary motive\\nwhich underlies all the details and determines the\\nmodelling of so many of his poems a new and original\\nfactor in the creation of poetry, and alone enough to\\nsignalize Browning s genius\\nDoes this gift of creative design and harmony mani-\\nfest itself in his earlier work, and in his later work give\\nevidence of falling off, or of deepening in capacity to\\neffect its will upon subtler material\\nIn surveying the general scope of his work from\\nfirst to last with reference to artistic power, facihty\\nand variety of effectiveness in the dramatic, narrative,\\nand lyrical modes characteristic of him, do you find that\\nthose who consider his later work to be less artistic\\nthan his first are right, or that tbey exhibit an inability\\nto understand what his characteristics as an artist are,\\nand a lack of sufficient knowledge of the material they\\npronounce upon\\nDoes observation of the work of Browning on the\\nside of his artistry, in all the respects here suggested,\\ngo to prove him to be an irregular genius crude and\\ncareless in artistic workmanship, or a genius whose\\n40", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0659.jp2"}, "660": {"fulltext": "626 BROWNING STUDY PROGRAMMES\\noriginality was exerted equally in shaping varied and\\nappropriate artistic outlets for his creative spirit and in\\npouring it forth\\nDoes Browning himself give the sufficient clew to\\nthe characteristic quality of his subject-matter and the\\nart that sets it forth in his Epilogue to Pacchiarotto\\nMart s thoughts and loves and hates\\nEarth is my vineyard, these grew there\\nFrom grape of the ground, I made or marred\\nMy vintage.", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0660.jp2"}, "661": {"fulltext": "INDEX\\nPOEMS IN PROGRAMMES\\nAbt Vogler, 1 68, 517, 602,\\n608\\nAdam, Lilith, and Eve, 43, 102\\nAgamemnon of ^schylus, The,\\n583\\nAlbum Lines, 188\\nAlkestis, 564\\nAndrea del Sarto, 102, 136,\\n482, 607\\nAnother Way of Love, 42\\nAny Wife to Any Husband, 102\\nApollo and the Fates, 553\\nApparent Failure, 513\\nArcades Ambo, 472\\nAristophanes Apology, 188, 563\\nArtemis Prologizes, 553\\nAt the Mermaid, 188\\nBad Dreams, 102\\nBalaustion s Adventure, 563,\\n585 5 Conclusion, 102\\nBean-Feast, The, 29, 253\\nBean-Stripe, A: also, Apple-Eat-\\ning, 599, 606 5 Lyric to, 188\\nBeatrice Signorini, 102, 491\\nBen Karshook s Wisdom, 537\\nBernard de Mandeville, Parley-\\nings with, 595, 599\\nBifurcation, 42\\nBishop Blougram s Apology,\\n218, 253, 472,615\\nBishop, The, Orders his Tomb,\\n136, 253,482\\nBlot in the Scutcheon, A, 352,\\n47a\\nBoy and the Angel, The, 29\\nBy the Fireside, 102\\nCaliban upon Setebos, 218\\nCamel- Driver, A, 605 Lyric\\nto, 82\\nCardinal and the Dog, The,\\n29\\nCavalier Tunes, 466\\nCenciaja, 491\\nCharles Avison, Parleyings with,\\n168, 466, 597, 607\\nCherries, 599\\nChilde Roland, 399, 608, 617\\nChristmas-Eve and Easter-Day,\\n218, 595, 601\\nChristopher Smart, Parleyings\\nwith, 188, 609\\nCleon, 218, 596\\nClive, 466\\nColombe s Birthday, 360, 524,\\n607\\nConfessional, The, 29, 512\\nConfessions, 42\\nCount Gismond, 497\\nCristina, 42, 607\\ni Cristina and .Vionaldeschi, 42", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0661.jp2"}, "662": {"fulltext": "628\\nINDEX\\nDaniel Bartoli, Parleyings\\nwith, 1 02, 607\\nDeaf and Dumb, 136\\nDeath in the Desert, A, 218, 597\\nDe Gustibus, 480, 493\\nDevelopment, 585\\nDis Aliter Visum, 42\\nDoctor 537\\nDonald, i, 472\\nEagle, The, 605 5 Lyric to, 82\\nEarth s Immortalities, 170, 618\\nEaster-Day, 218, 595, 60 1\\nEchetlos, I, 553\\nEdward Fitzgerald, To, 585\\nEnglishman in Italy, The, 480\\nEpilogue (to Asolando), 585,\\n608\\nEpilogue (to Dramatis Personae),\\n585, 595 601 _\\nEpilogue (to Ferishtah s Fan-\\ncies), 82, 585\\nEpilogue (to Pacchiarotto), 188,\\nEpistle, An, containing the\\nStrange Medical Experience of\\nKarshish, the Arab Physician,\\n218, 605\\nEurydice to Orpheus, 136\\nEvelyn Hope, 42\\nFace, A, 136\\nFamily, The, 602 5 Lyric to, 82\\nFears and Scruples, 595, 599\\nFerishtah s Fancies, 595 Lyrics\\nfrom, 82\\nFifine at the Fair, 102, 168,\\n.513, 597\\nFilippo Baldinucci, 537\\nFlight of the Duchess, The,\\n102, 524, 607, 614\\nFlower s Name, The, 42\\nP orgiveness, A, 102, 525, 616\\nFounder of the Feast, The, 168\\nFra Lippo Lippi, 136, 482\\nFrancis Furini, Parleyings with,\\n595, 599, 605\\nFust and his Friends, 517\\nGarden Fancies, 42\\nGerard de Lairesse, Parleyings\\nwith, 609\\nGlove, The, 42, 188, 497\\nGold Hair, 29, 513\\nGoldoni, 188\\nGrammarian s Funeral, A, 487,\\n614\\nGuardian Angel, The, 136, 585\\nHalbert and Hob, 472\\nHerakles, 582\\nHeretic s Tragedy, The, 623\\nHerve Riel, i, 497\\nHoly- Cross Day, 537\\nHome Thoughts ^from Abroad,\\n480\\nHome Thoughts from the Sea,\\n480\\nHouse, 188\\nHow it Strikes a Contemporary,\\n188, 525\\nHow They Brought the Good\\nNews, I\\nImperante Augusto natus\\nest 549\\nIn a Balcony, 392, 607\\nIn a Gondola, 42, 491\\nInapprehensiveness, 43\\nIn a Year, 42\\nIncident of the French Camp,", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0662.jp2"}, "663": {"fulltext": "INDEX\\n62(\\nInn Album, The, 253, 455, 472\\nInstans Tyrannus, 549\\nIn Three Days, 42\\nItalian in England, The, 493\\nIvan Ivanovitch, 531\\nIxion, 553, 617\\nJames Lee s Wife, 102\\nJochanan Hakkadosh, 537\\nJohannes Agricola, 517\\nJubilee Memorial Lines, 466\\nKing Victor and King Charles,\\nI02, 332, 493, 606\\nLaboratory, The, 42, 497\\nLady and the Painter, The, 136\\nLa Saisiaz, 585, 595, 602\\nLast Ride Together, The, 42\\nLife in a Love, 82\\nLight Woman, A, 42\\nLikeness, A, 42\\nLost Leader, The, 466, 607\\nLost Mistress, The, 42\\nLove among the Ruins, 42\\nLove in a Life, 82\\nLovers Quarrel, A, 42\\nLuria, 370, 493\\nMagical Nature, 82\\nMartin Relph, 472\\nMary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli,\\n43\\nMaster Hugues of Saxe-Gotha,\\n168, 517\\nMay and Death, 585\\nMeeting at Night, 82\\nMelon-Seller, The, 602 j Lyric\\nto, 82\\nMemorabilia, 188\\nMesmerism, 42\\nMisconceptions, 82\\nMihrab Shah, 599 Lyric to, 82\\nMr. Sludge, The Medium,\\n410\\nMoses the Meek, 537\\nMuckle-Mouth Meg, 29\\nMuleykeh, i\\nMy Last Duchess, 102, 491\\nMy Star, 82, 621\\nNames, The, 188\\nNationality in Drinks, 480\\nNatural Magic, 82\\nNed Bratts, 472, 618\\nNever the Time and the Place,\\n82, 585\\nNow, 82\\nNumpholeptos, 42, 621\\nOh Love Love, 583\\nOld Pictures in Florence, 136,\\n482, 602\\nOne Way of Love, 42, 82\\nOne Word More, 585, 602\\nPacchiarotto, 136, 188, 614\\nPambo, 188, 585\\nPan and Luna, 549\\nParacelsus, 188, 263, 517, 595,\\n602, 606\\nParleyings with Certain People\\nof Importance in their Day,\\n595\\nParting at Morning, 82\\nPatriot, The, 617\\nPauline, 188, 531\\nPearl, a Girl, A, 82\\nPheidippides, i, 553\\nPictor Ignotus, 136, 482\\nPied Piper of Hamelin, The, 29\\nPietro of Abano, 487", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0663.jp2"}, "664": {"fulltext": "630\\nINDEX\\nPillar at Sebzevar, A, 599 5\\nLyric to, 82\\nPippa Passes, 253, 322, 493;\\nLyrics from, 82\\nPisgah-Sights, 595, 599\\nPlot Culture, 599 5 Lyric to,\\n82\\nPoetics, 82, 188\\nPonte deir Angelo, Venice, 29\\nPope and the Net, The, 29,\\n253\\nPopularity, 188\\nPorphyria s Lover, 42\\nPretty Woman, A, 42\\nPrince Hohenstiel-Schwangau,\\nSaviour of Society, 507\\nPrologue (to Fifine at the Fair),\\n585\\nPrologue to Jocoseria 585\\nPrologue (to Pacchiarotto), 585\\nPrologue (to The Two Poets of\\nCroisic), 82\\nProspice, 399\\nProtus, 549\\nRabbi Ben Ezra, 218, 537,\\n597, 608\\nRed Cotton Night-cap Country;\\nor. Turf and Tow^ers, 488,\\n513, 606\\nRephan, 595, 600\\nRespectability, 513\\nReturn of the Druses, The,\\n253, 338\\nReverie, 595, 600\\nRing and the Book, The, 102,\\n188, 253, 423, 491, 583,\\n602, 605, 607, 618\\nRosny, 43\\nRudel to the Lady of Tripoli,\\n42, 497\\nSt. Martin s Summer, 42\\nSaul, 168, 218, 537\\nSerenade at the Villa, A, 42\\nShah Abbas, Lyric to, 82\\nShop, 188\\nSibrandus Schafnaburgensis,\\n622\\nSoliloquy of the Spanish Cloister,\\n525\\nSolomon and Balkis, 43, 537\\nSong Nay but you, who do\\nnot love her, 82\\nSonnet Eyes, calm beside\\nthee, 43, 82\\nSordello, 188, 281, 482, 585,\\n596, 607, 616\\nSoul s Tragedy, A, 253, 384,\\n493, 607\\nStatue and the Bust, The, 102,\\n491, 605\\nStrafford, 304, 466, 606\\nSummum Bonum, 82\\nSun, The, 597, 602\\nThrough the Metidja to Abd-\\nel-Kadr, i\\nTime s Revenges, 618\\nToccata of Galuppi s, A, 168,\\n491\\nToo Late, 42\\nTouch him ne er so lightly,\\n188\\nTranscendentalism A Poem\\nin Twelve Books, 188\\nTray, i\\nTwins, The, 29\\nTwo Camels, 605 Lyric to, 82,\\n621\\nTwo in the Campagna, 42\\nTwo Poets of Croisic, The, 188.\\n497, 605", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0664.jp2"}, "665": {"fulltext": "INDEX\\n631\\nUp at a Villa Down in the\\nCity, 623\\nWanting is What 82\\nWaring, 585\\nWhich 43\\nWhy I am a Liberal, 466, 585,\\n607\\nWoman s Last Word, A, 42\\nWomen and Roses, 585\\nYouth and Art, 42", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0665.jp2"}, "666": {"fulltext": "\u00e2\u0080\u00a2I If\\n13S", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0666.jp2"}, "667": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0667.jp2"}, "668": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0668.jp2"}, "669": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0669.jp2"}, "670": {"fulltext": "-nt.\\ns\\nd^\\n^.^ii^*^ .V\\n*/..iL^ ;V X.\\nV\\n.Oc\\nW^:\\nC\\nV\\nv^ o 4\\n.^y V\\nv-^\\n.0 0.\\nx^^\\nc\\nN \\\\V\\nx\\n,X^^ ^z^-\\ns v\\n.0 o.\\n^.i.:o^^^ .S^ ^^f^ M\\nL\\nov- s A\\n-^z. Vo\\n0^\\nv^\\nA -7% ^^^^r^/ \\\\0C)\\ns^\\n(1 N\\n0^\\nV\\nOO^\\nV^\\n^Z- s^ cf;^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process.\\n-vC^ -i.^ f^ Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide\\nX ^U\\n,-0\\nTreatment Date: March 2009\\nPreservationTechnologies\\n,\\\\V A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION\\n111 Thomson Park Drive\\n/A\\n-tp\\ni^. ^fe// -P\\nCranberry Township, PA 16066\\n(724)779-2111", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0670.jp2"}, "671": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0671.jp2"}, "672": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3307", "width": "1942", "jp2-path": "browningstudypro00port_0672.jp2"}}