Category: Poetry
altogether such an one as thyself," and the object of the poem is to rebuke the anthropomorphic idea of God as it exists in minds of a narrow and unloving type. It is not a satire upon Christianity, as has been sometimes declared, but is an attempt to trace the evolution of th...
altogether such an one as thyself," and the object of the poem is to rebuke the anthropomorphic idea of God as it exists in minds of a narrow and unloving type. It is not a sati...
2. Book xviii.) He was scraped to death with an iron comb. _Perida_: a Jewishteacher of such infinite patience that the Talmud records that he repeated his lesson to a dull pupil four hundred times, and as even then he could not understand, four hundred...
16. BOOK XII., THE BOOK AND THE RING.--On Feb. 22nd, 1698, Guido and hisconfederates were executed. We have, in the concluding book of this long poem, the reports of the execution, and the comments made concerning it in Rome, from four persons. The...
29. Scene i. _Hollis_: Strafford was his brother-in-law, and so he took nopart in the proceedings against him. "_A blind moth-eaten law_": Strafford said on his trial that "it was two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this crime."-...
27. BOOK VI.--Line 100, _jacinth_ == hyacinth in mineralogy; a name given toseveral kinds of stone--topaz, etc.; _lodestone_: magnetic oxide of iron. l. 101, _flinders_: fragments (of shining metal). l. 142, _Cydippe_: an Athenian girl who met Acontius...
3. xxii. 22, says, "The soul of man is called lonely because it is separatedduring its union with the body from the universal soul, into which it is again received when it departs from its earthly companion." When Rabbi Ben Ezra, in Mr. Browning's poem,...
9. BOOK VI., GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI.--The court now hears the story ofCaponsacchi: he has been sent for to repeat the evidence which he gave on a former occasion, and to counsel the court in this extremity. It was six months ago, he says, that in...
14. BOOK X. [THE POPE.] As to a court of final appeal, the case has now comebefore the Pope, Guido having claimed "benefit of clergy." The Supreme Pontiff has made a prolonged study of the evidence adduced on the trials, and of the whole circumstances s...
8. BOOK V., COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINI.--We are now introduced to the personsof the drama themselves; and first to the Count, who is on his defence before the court for the murder. He has just been put to the torture, and with bones all loosened by the r...
22. BOOK VI.--Now has arisen the great temptation of Sordello. Is it to be theGreat Renunciation or the Fall? With the magnificent prospect before him of Chief of the Ghibellines, the Emperor cause; with the Emperor's badge on his neck; with Palma, his Gh...
10. BOOK VII., POMPILIA.--From her deathbed Pompilia tells the story of herlife: says how she is just seventeen years and five months old: 'tis writ so in the church's register, where she has five names--so laughable, she thinks. There will be more to...
15. BOOK XI., GUIDO--is now in the prison cell awaiting execution. He isvisited by Cardinal Acciaiuoli and Abate Panciatichi, who are to remain with him till the fatal moment. He is pleading with them for their aid; he reminds them of his noble bloo...
4. BOOK I.--When a Roman jeweller makes a ring, he mingles his pure gold witha certain amount of alloy, so as to enable it to bear file and hammer; but, the ring having been fashioned, the alloy is dissolved out with acid, and the ring in all its purity...
11. BOOK VIII., DOMINUS HYACINTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS, PAUPERUM PROCURATOR.--Inthis book we have the counsel on behalf of Count Guido at work in his study, preparing the defence which he is to make on behalf of his client. He is a family man, and his life...
24. BOOK III.--Line 2, _moonfern and trifoly_: plants which have supposedmagical and healing properties [S.]; _moonfern_, the same as moonwort--_Rumex lunaria_; _mystic trifoly_ == trefoil; "Herb Trinity" was used by St. Patrick to teach the mystery...
6. BOOK III., THE OTHER HALF ROME.--Little Pompilia lies dying in thehospital, stabbed through and through again. She had prayed that she might live long enough for confession and absolution. "Never before successful in a prayer," this had been a...
12. BOOK IX., JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTTINIUS (FISCI ET REV. CAM.APOSTOL. ADVOCATUS).--Bottinius is the Public Prosecutor, and has to present the case against the Count and his confederates. He is not a family man, and seems to have but a low...
5. BOOK II., HALF ROME.--A great crowd had assembled at the church of St.Lorenzo-in-Lucina, hard by the Corso, to view the bodies of the murdered Comparini exposed to view before the altar. It was at this very church where Pompilia was baptised, brou...
26. BOOK V.--Line 6, _Palatine_, one invested with royal privileges andrights. l. 16, _atria_, halls or principal rooms in Roman houses. l. 17, _stibadium_, a half-round reclining couch used by Romans near their baths. l. 18, _lustral vase_: used i...
23. BOOK II.--Line 68, _Jongleurs_: minstrels who accompanied the troubadours,and who sometimes did a little jugglery. l. 71, _Elys_: "Elys, then, is merely the ideal subject, with such a name, of Eglamour's poem, and referred to in other places as his (S...
28. vi. 2): the Israelites for their sins were oppressed by Midian, and werecompelled to hide from them in dens and caves of the mountains. _Gideon_: the Israelites prayed to God for deliverance from their enemies, and an angel sent Gideon, who destroye...
25. BOOK IV.--Line 24, _quitch-grass_ == couch-grass or dog-grass; it rootsdeeply, and is not easily killed. l. 24, "_loathy mallows_": loathsome mallows, probably because they grow in ditches and in churchyards. l. 34, _Legate Montelungo_: Gregorio di...
7. BOOK IV., TERTIUM QUID.--"A third something," siding neither wholly withGuido nor with his victim, attempts to arrive at a judicial conclusion apportioning in a superior manner blame now on one side now on the other, and, by granting on each side so...
33. Book VI., l. 614:--The story is referred to in Pindar's "Fourth Pythian Ode," where he speaks of "Jove's golden eagles." These were placed near the Delphic tripod, and probably gave rise to the st...
19. BOOK III.--Once more at his old home, Mantua becomes but a dream.Sordello, well or ill, is exhausted: rather than imperfectly reveal himself, he will remain unrevealed. He will remain himself, instead of attempting to project his soul into ot...
32. Book IX., l. 1109. "_The sole joke of Thucydides._" Mr. F. C. Snow,writing from Oxford to the _Daily News_, says: "Browning was misled by a scholiast. The ancient critics said, 'Here the lion laughs,' with reference to the passage of Thucydides...
21. BOOK V.--The splendid dream of a New Rome has vanished from Sordello'smind ere night; his enthusiasm is chilled, and arch by arch the vision has dissolved. Mankind cannot be exalted of a sudden; the work of ages cannot be done in a day. The New Ro...
17. BOOK I.--The poem in its first scene places us in imagination in Veronasix hundred years ago. A restless group has gathered in its market-place to discuss the news which has arrived,--that their prince, Count Richard of St. Boniface, the great supp...
13. Book VIII., with the first note thereto. l. 887, _Cornelius Tacitus_, acelebrated Roman historian, born in the reign of Nero. l. 893, "_Thalassian-pure_": Thalassius was a beautiful young Roman in the reign of Romulus. At the rape of the Sabines, a...
20. BOOK IV.--The description of the unhappy position of Ferrara, "the ladycity," for which both Guelf and Ghibelline contended, opens the fourth book. Sordello is here with Palma. He has seen the dreadful condition of the people, and has espoused thei...
18. BOOK II. shows us Sordello setting forth on a bright spring day, full ofhope that he will meet Palma. Arriving at Mantua, he finds a Court of Love, in which his lady sits enthroned as queen, and the troubadour Eglamor contending for her prize agains...
31. Book VIII., l. 329. The torture referred to by De Archangelis as the_Vigiliarum_, is evidently identical with that called the "Vigilia" and which is described in Hare's _Walks in Rome_. "Upon a high joint-stool, the seat about a span large, and,...
30. Book I. "_O Lyric Love_," etc. The following letter was sent to me aslikely to be interesting on account of Mr. Browning's own explanation of his terms _Whiteness_ and _Wanness_. My correspondent says: "I happen to have an original letter from R....