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 LITERARY ANECDOTES OF 
 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
 
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 • 

 
 LITERARY • ANECDOTES 
 
 OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: 
 CONTRIBUTIONS • TOWARDS • A 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF THE PERIOD 
 
 EDITED BY W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., 
 LL.D., AND THOMAS J. WISE 
 
 London: HODDER & STOUGHTON 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW 
 MDCCCXCV
 
 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited 
 
 .AY.
 
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 CD 
 
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 PREFACE. 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 THE work, of which this is the first volume, has been 
 suggested by Nichols's well-known Literary Anecdotes of 
 the Eighteenth Century. The editors hope to provide in 
 it a considerable amount of fresh matter, illustrating the 
 life and work of British authors in the Nineteenth Century. 
 To a large extent they rely upon manuscript material, but 
 \b use will be made of practically inaccessible texts, and of 
 fugitive writings. While leading authors will receive due 
 ^ attention, much space will be devoted to the less-known 
 rxj writers of the period. It is intended to supply Biographies, 
 Letters hitherto unpublished, additions from Manuscript 
 sources to published works, together with a series of fullX 
 Bibliographies of the writings of the greater authors. Every 
 precaution has been taken to avoid the infringement of 
 copyright, and the editors hope that they will be forgiven 
 any involuntary transgression. Illustrations and numerous 
 facsimiles will be provided in each volume. Only one 
 thousand copies are to be printed, of which two hundred 
 
 297657
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 and fifty arc for America. The editors will not under 
 any circumstances reprint the work, but they reserve to 
 themselves the right to issue separately the various 
 Bibliographies, or any other section of it. 
 
 They arc greatly indebted to the kindness and courtesy 
 of man)- friends, among whom is especially to be men- 
 tioned Mr. II. Buxton Forman, who has contributed 
 extensively to the present volume. 
 
 The editors will gladly welcome any suggestions, cor- 
 rections, or contributions of suitable material. 
 
 (DON, November 1st, 1895.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE FOR SEDITION : 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory Note 3 
 
 (i.) The Information of John Scofield 5 
 
 (ii. ) Blake's Memorandum in Refutation of the Information and 
 
 Complaint of John Scofield 7 
 
 (iii.) The Speech of Counsellor Rose II 
 
 ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM AS ADVOCATE OF ALFRED 
 AND CHARLES TENNYSON: 
 
 Introductory Note 21 
 
 (i. ) Letter from A. H. Hallam to Leigh Hunt, enclosing Poems, 
 chiefly Lyrical, 1830, by Alfred Tennyson ; and Sonnets, 
 
 1830, by Charles Tennyson 24 
 
 (ii.) Letter from A. H. Hallam to Leigh Hunt, concerning 
 
 Shelley's Masque of Anarchy, and the Tennysons ... 26 
 
 MIDNIGHT : LINES ON THE DEATH OF ALFRED, LORD 
 
 TENNYSON. By H. Buxton Forman 29 
 
 AN OPINION ON TENNYSON. By Elizabeth Barrett 
 
 Browning ■>$ 
 
 THOMAS WADE : THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 By H. Buxton Forman 43 
 
 SONNET : To Certain Critics. By Thomas Wade 68
 
 VIII 
 
 CON TEN TS 
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. By Thomas Wade 
 
 69 
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. By Thomas 
 
 Wade 121 
 
 HELENA. By Thomas Wad 1; 139 
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON TAPERS 165 
 
 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF RICHARD HENRY 1IORNE. By 
 
 II. BOXTON FOKMAN 2J5 
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA ; OR, THE TASSION OF ANDREA 
 
 COMO. By Richard Henry Horne 249 
 
 HAWTHORN! IN THE SHADOW OF JOHNSON : 
 
 (i.) Explanatory Note 281 
 
 (ii. ) Uttoxeter: a rescued Essay by Nathaniel Hawthorne , . . 2S2 
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. By CHARLES WELLSs 
 
 (i.) Biographical Note. By II. Buxton Forman J91 
 
 (ii. ) A I Iramatic Scene 296 
 
 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM SHELLEY To LEIGH 
 
 HUNT: 
 
 Introductory Not< J21 
 
 1 "Loudon, Dec. 7///, 1S1 j " 326 
 
 "Afarlow, Dec. 8M,i8i6" |a8 
 "Marlcw, Aug. 16///, 1817 
 
 •■larch 13///, iSiS" 337 
 
 "Naples, Dee. 2211J, 1818" 339 
 ' ' Livomo, Sept. yd, 1 8 1 9 ' ' 344 
 " Pisa, April $fk, .820" . 348 
 
 I • .:..' 1 I ./, 1S22" 352 
 " Pisa, Man h 2nd, 1S22" 353 
 
 1, April iot/i, 1822" 356 
 
 (i.) Letter from She 
 
 lleytoH 
 
 tnt, date 
 
 .. 
 
 • 1 
 
 (iii.) 
 
 1 > 
 
 
 (iv.) 
 
 . 
 
 
 (v.l 
 
 » 
 
 
 (VI. 1 
 
 1 • 
 
 
 (viL) 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 (viii.) 
 
     
 
 
 (ix.) 
 
 1 
 
 
 (x.) 
 
 1 

 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MATERIALS FOR A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WRITINGS 
 IN PROSE AND VERSE OF ROBERT BROWNING : 
 
 (Part i.) Editiones Principes 361 
 
 ( ,, ii.) Contributions to Periodical Literature, etc 400 
 
 ( ,, iii.) Published Letters of Robert Browning 409 
 
 ( ,, iv.) An Alphabetical List of Robert Browning's Poems, 
 with References to the Positions of each in the 
 
 Various Editions of his Works 431 
 
 ( ,, v.) Collected Editions of the Poetical Works of Robert 
 
 Browning 55° 
 
 ( ,, vi.) Selections from the Poetical Works of Robert Browning 553 
 ( ,, vii.) Complete Volumes of Biography and Criticism . . . 557 
 ( ,,viii. ) Brmvningiana. — A List of the Principal Reviews and 
 Criticisms of Robert Browning and his Writings 
 contained in Books and Magazines, with a selec- 
 tion from the more important weekly and daily 
 
 Periodicals 578 
 
 INDEX 629
 
 :
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait of William Blake Frontispiece. 
 
 This portrait of William Blake is after the original finished oil sketch 
 from the life, and not from the more highly elaborated picture which Phillips 
 afterwards produced, and which is now in the National Portrait Gallery. 
 This life-sized sketch was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club Blake 
 Exhibition, and is now in the possession of a private collector, who has 
 allowed the use of the plate etched for him by the late poet-painter William 
 Bell Scott. This work is one of the strongest and most characteristic of 
 Scott's etchings, which, for purposes such as the present, possess the unusual 
 value of having been done on steel with the burin and not on copper with the 
 point. Save through a few proofs circulated in Scott's lifetime, the plate is 
 
 totally unknown. _ , 
 
 To face page 
 
 Part of Mrs. Browning's Opinion on Tennyson, revised by R. H. Home. 
 
 Fac-simile of the original Manuscript 39 
 
 Sonnet Birth mid Death by Thomas Wade. Fac-simile of the original 
 
 Holograph 7 1 
 
 Wade's Contention of Death and Love. From the rare original in the 
 
 Library of Mr. Buxton Forman - I2 3 
 
 Wade's Helena. From a copy of the rare original in the Library of 
 
 Mr. Buxton Forman 1 4 l 
 
 Commencement of the first sheet of Landor's The Mother's Tale. Fac- 
 simile of the original Manuscript 1 79 
 
 Landor's Dream of Youth and Beauty. Fac-simile of a portion of the 
 
 Holograph 2I2 
 
 Letter from W. S. Landor to Lady Blessington. Fac-simile of the last 
 
 page 22 6 
 
 Landor's Poem " What is really my Belief?'''' Fac-simile of the 
 
 Holograph 2 3°
 
 xi. ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 To face fag* 
 
 Richard Henry Home. Fac-simile of a Caricature, drawn by George 
 
 Gordon McCrac 237 
 
 Portrait of Charles Wells, photo-intaglio, from the miniature by 
 
 Wageman 291 
 
 A Dramatic Scene, by Charles Wells. Fac-simile of a page of the 
 
 original Holograph 299 
 
 Shelley's Letters to Leigh Hunt. Fac-simile of a portion of one of the 
 
 Holographs 330 
 
 Pauline, Robert Browning's First Book. From a copy in the original 
 
 drab boards in the Library of Mr. Walter B. Slater 361 
 
 Fac-simile of a Song from Pippa Passes, in Robert Browning's hand- 
 writing 365 
 
 Cleon, as originally printed in pamphlet form. From a copy in the 
 
 Library of Mr. Buxton Forman 373 
 
 The Statue and the Bust, as originally printed in pamphlet form. From 
 
 a copy in the Library of Mr. Buxton Forman 374 
 
 Cold Hair : the English " Copyright " Edition. From a copy in the 
 
 Library of Mr. Buxton Forman 376 
 
 Fac-simile of an extract from Balaustion s Adventure in Robert 
 
 Browning's handwriting 381 
 
 The suppressed volume of Shelley Letters, with Introduction by Robert 
 
 Browning. From a copy in the Library of Mr. Thos. J. Wise . . 392 
 Incident of the French Camp : first stanza. Fac-simile of Browning's 
 
 original Manuscript 482 

 
 THE TRIAL 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM BLAKE FOR SEDITION. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE FOR 
 
 SEDITION. 
 
 In August 1803, William Blake, poet, painter, and 
 engraver, was the hero of a perilous adventure whereby 
 his invaluable life might easily have been sacrificed on the 
 gallows. The beginning of the story is vividly told by him 
 in a letter to his friend Butts, printed at pages 190 to 193 
 in the first volume of Gilchrist's Life (edition of 1880); but 
 Gilchrist found great difficulty in obtaining external details 
 or data of any sort bearing on this episode. In the tiny, 
 quiet garden of the cottage at Felpham, rented by Blake 
 from the landlord of the Fox Inn, the visionary artist 
 came into collision with a brutal and drunken trooper of 
 dragoons, whom he ordered off the premises, and finally put 
 out of the garden. To avenge himself, the fellow, John 
 Scofield or Scholfield by name, trumped up a charge of 
 sedition and treason, alleging that Blake had said, " Damn 
 the King ! " and used other treasonable expressions. No 
 one supposes that he ever did anything of the kind ; but, 
 as it was a hanging matter, the adventure is one on which 
 full details are particularly desirable. It is difficult to 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 
 
 believe in the authenticity of the circumstances in which 
 111, ike's friends arc depicted as standing so staunchly by 
 him. His own letter might well be one of his extravagant 
 visions — sane as the method of narration is ; and the brief 
 record of The Sussex Advertiser fails to help the sense of 
 reality to any appreciable extent. The papers now given 
 from contemporary manuscripts lift the episode once for 
 all out of the land of dream. The sworn information of 
 Scofield and the rebutting memorandum of Blake arc as 
 cogent now as they were to the lawyers in 1803 and 1804 ; 
 and the traditional eloquence of Counsellor Rose passes 
 from tradition to history when one peruses the speech for 
 the defence as taken down in shorthand in the Court at 
 Chichester. The documents would have been invaluable 
 to Gilchrist, who would doubtless have included them in 
 the Life, had he had them. It remains for students of 
 Blake to read them into "Chapter XIX, Trial for Sedi- 
 tion," on their own account. Here they arc : it is only 
 necessary to premise that the " William " of Blake's 
 memorandum was the ostler at the Fox, who was doing 
 some work in the cottage garden ; and that Mrs. Hayncs 
 was a neighbour of the Blakcs at Felpham.
 
 I. THE INFORMATION OF JOHN 
 SCOFIELD. 
 
 The Information and Complaint of John Scofield, a 
 Private Soldier in His Majesty's First Regiment of 
 Dragoons, taken upon his Oath, this 15th Day of August, 
 1803, before me, One of His Majesty's Justices of the 
 Peace, in and for the County aforesaid. 
 
 Who saith, that on the twelfth Day of this Instant 
 August, at the Parish of Felpham, in the County aforesaid, 
 
 one Blake, a Miniature Painter, and now residing in 
 
 the said Parish of Felpham, did utter the following seditious 
 expressions, viz. : that we (meaning the People of England) 
 were like a Parcel of Children, that they would play with 
 themselves till they got scalded and burnt, that the French 
 knew our Strength very well, and if Bonaparte should come 
 he would be master of Europe in an Hour's Time, that 
 England might depend upon it, that when he set his Foot 
 on English Ground that every Englishman would have his 
 choice, whether to have his Throat cut, or to join the French, 
 and that he was a strong Man, and would certainly begin to 
 cut Throats, and the strongest Man must conquer — that he 
 damned the King of England — his country, and his subjects,
 
 6 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 
 
 that his Soldiers were all bound for Slaves, and all the Poor 
 People in general — that his Wife then came up, and said to 
 him, this is nothing to you at present, but that the King of 
 England would run himself so far into the Fire, that he might 
 get himself out again, and altho' she was but a Woman, she 
 would fight as long as she had a drop of blood in her — to 
 
 which the said Blake said, my Dear, you would not 
 
 fight against France — she replyed no, I would for Bona- 
 parte as long as I am able — that the said Blake, 
 
 then addressing himself to this Informant, said, tho' you arc 
 one of the King's Subjects, I have told what I have said 
 before greater People than you, and that this Informant 
 was sent by his Captain to Esquire Haylcy to hear what he 
 had to say, and to go and tell them — that his Wife then told 
 her said Husband to turn this Informant out of the Garden 
 — that this Informant thereupon turned round to go peace- 
 ably out, when the said Blake pushed this Deponant 
 
 out of the Garden into the Road down which he followed 
 this Informant, and twice took this Informant by the Collar, 
 without this Informant's making any Resistance and at 
 the same Time the said Blake damned the Kin-, and said 
 the Soldiers were all Slaves. 
 
 John Scofield.
 
 II. BLAKE'S MEMORANDUM IN REFU- 
 TATION OF THE INFORMATION AND 
 COMPLAINT OF JOHN SCHOLFIELD, 
 A PRIVATE SOLDIER, &c. 
 
 The Soldier has been heard to say repeatedly, that he 
 did not know how the Quarrel began, which he would not 
 say if such seditious words were spoken. 
 
 Mrs. Haynes evidences, that she saw me turn him down 
 the Road, and all the while we were at the Stable Door, 
 and that not one word of charge against me was uttered, 
 either relating to Sedition or any thing else ; all he did was 
 swearing and threatening. 
 
 Mr. Hosier heard him say that he would be revenged, and 
 would have me hanged if he could. He spoke this the 
 Day after my turning him out of the Garden. Hosier says 
 he is ready to give Evidence of this, if necessary. 
 
 The Soldier's Comrade swore before the Magistrates, 
 while I was present, that he had heard me utter seditious 
 words, at the Stable Door, and in particular, said, that he 
 heard me D — n the K — g. Now I have all the Persons 
 who were present at the Stable Door to witness that no 
 Word relating to Seditious Subjects was uttered, either by
 
 8 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 
 
 one Party or the other, and they arc ready on their Oaths, 
 to say that I did not utter such Words. 
 
 Mrs. Haynes says very sensibly, that she never heard 
 People quarrel, but they always charged each other with the 
 Offence, and repeated it to those around, therefore as the 
 Soldier charged not me with Seditious Words at that Time, 
 neither did his Comrade, the whole Charge must have been 
 fabricated in the Stable afterwards. 
 
 If we prove the Comrade perjured who swore that he 
 heard me D — n the K — g, I believe the whole Charge falls 
 to the Ground. 
 
 Mr. Coscns, owner of the Mill at Felpham, was passing 
 by in the Road, and saw me and the Soldier and William 
 standing near each other; he heard nothing, but says wc 
 certainly were not quarrelling. 
 
 The whole Distance that William could be at any Time 
 of the Conversation between me and the Soldier (supposing 
 such Conversation to have existed) is only 12 yards, and 
 
 W says that he was backwards and forwards in the 
 
 Garden. It was a still Day, there was no Wind stirring. 
 
 William says on his Oath, that the first Words that he 
 heard me speak to the Soldier were ordering him out of the 
 Garden ; the truth is, I did not speak to the Soldier till then, 
 and my ordering him out of the Garden was occasioned by 
 hi aying something that I thought insult? 
 
 The Time that I and the Soldier were together in the 
 Garden was not sufficient for me to have uttered the Things 
 that he allcdgcd. 
 
 The Soldier said to Mrs. Grinder, that it would be right 
 to have my House searched, as I might have Plans of the
 
 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 9 
 
 Country which I intended to send to the Enemy; he called 
 me a Military Painter ; I suppose mistaking the Words 
 Miniature Painter which he might have heard me called. I 
 think that this proves his having come into the Garden 
 with some bad Intention, or at least with a prejudiced Mind. 
 
 It is necessary to learn the Names of all that were present 
 at the Stable Door, that we may not have any Witnesses 
 brought against us, that were not there. 
 
 All the Persons present at the Stable Door were, Mrs. 
 Grinder and her Daughter, all the Time ; Mrs. Haynes and 
 her Daughter all the Time ; Mr. Grinder, part of the Time ; 
 Mr. Hayley's Gardener part of the Time. Mrs. Haynes 
 was present from my turning him out at my Gate, all the 
 rest of the Time. What passed in the Garden, there is 
 no Person but William and the Soldier, and myself can 
 know. 
 
 There was not any body in Grinder's Tap-room, but an 
 Old Man, named Jones, who (Mrs. Grinder says) did not 
 come out. He is the same Man who lately hurt his Hand, 
 and wears it in a sling. 
 
 The Soldier after he and his Comrade came together into 
 the Tap-room, threatened to knock William's Eyes out 
 (this was his often repeated Threat to me and to my Wife) 
 
 because W refused to go with him to Chichester, and 
 
 swear against me. William said that he would not take a 
 false Oath, for that he heard me say nothing of the Kind 
 {i.e. Sedition). Mr. Grinder then reproved the Soldier for 
 
 threatening William, and Mr. Grinder said, that W 
 
 should not go, because of those Threats, especially as he 
 was sure that no seditious Words were spoken.
 
 io THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 
 
 William's timidity in giving his Evidence before the 
 Magistrates, and his fear of uttering a Falsehood upon 
 Oath, proves him to be an honest Man, and is to me an 
 host of Strength. I am certain that if I had not turned 
 the Soldier out of my Garden, I never should have been 
 free from his Impertinence and Intrusion. 
 
 Mr. Hayley's Gardener came past at the Time of the 
 Contention at the Stable Door, and going to the Comrade 
 said to him, "Is your Comrade drunk?" a Proof that 
 he thought the Soldier abusive, and in an Intoxication 
 of Mind. 
 
 If such a Perjury as this can take effect, any Villain in 
 future may come and drag me and my Wife out of our 
 House, and beat us in the Garden, or use us as he please, 
 or is able, and afterwards go and swear our Lives away. 
 
 Is it not in the Power of any Thief who enters a Man's 
 Dwelling, and robs him, or misuses his Wife or Children, to 
 go and swear as this Man has sworn ?
 
 III. THE SPEECH OF COUNSELLOR 
 
 ROSE. 
 
 In Defence of Blake the Artist, at the Chichester Sessions, 
 fanaary nth, 1804, taken in shorthand by the Rev. 
 Mr. Youatt. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Jury, 
 
 I perfectly agree with my learned friend with regard 
 to the atrocity and malignity of the charge now laid 
 before you. I am also much obliged to him for having 
 given me the credit, that no justification or extenuation 
 of such a charge would have been attempted by me, 
 supposing the charge could have been proved to your 
 satisfaction ; and I must be permitted to say that it is a 
 credit which I deserve. If there be a man who can be 
 found guilty of such a transgression, he must apply to 
 some other person to defend him, if a palliation of such 
 an offence becomes part of the duty of his counsel. I 
 certainly think that such an offence is incapable of ex- 
 tenuation. My task is to shew that my client is not guilty 
 of the words imputed to him. It is not to shew that they
 
 12 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 
 
 are capable of any mitigated sense. We stand here not 
 merely in form, but in sincerity and truth, to declare that 
 we are not guilty. I am instructed to say, that Mr. Blake 
 is as loyal a subject as any man in this court : that he 
 feels as much indignation at the idea of exposing to 
 contempt or injury the sacred person of his sovereign 
 as any man : that his indignation is equal to that, which 
 I doubt not every one of you felt, when the charge was 
 first stated to you. 
 
 Gentlemen, this is a very uncommon accusation — it is 
 foreign to our natures and opposite to our habits. Do you 
 not hearj every day, from the mouths of thousands in the 
 streets the exclamation of God save the King ? it is the 
 language of every Englishman's lip, it is the effusion of 
 every Englishman's heart. The charge therefore laid in 
 the indictment, is an offence of so extraordinary a nature, 
 that evidence of the most clear, positive, and unobjection- 
 able kind is necessary to induce you to believe it. Extra- 
 ordinary vices, Gentlemen, are very rare, as well as extra- 
 ordinary virtues ; indeed, the term extraordinary implies 
 as much. 
 
 There is no doubt that the crime which is laid to the 
 charge of my client, is a crime of most extraordinary 
 malignity. I choose the term malignity purposely, for, 
 if the offence be clearly proved, I am willing to allow that 
 public malignity and indelible disgrace are fixed upon my 
 client. If, on the other hand, when you have heard the 
 witnesses which I shall call, you should be led to believe 
 that it is a fabrication for the purpose of answering some 
 scheme of revenge, you will have little difficulty in deciding
 
 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 13 
 
 that it is still greater malignity on the part of the witness 
 Scholfield. 
 
 Gentlemen, the greater the offence charged the greater the 
 improbability of its being true. I will state to you the 
 situation of Mr. Blake, and it will be for you to judge 
 whether it is probable he should be guilty of the crime 
 alleged. 
 
 He is an artist, who tho' not a native here, has lived 
 in your part of the country for two or three years. He is 
 an engraver. He was brought into this country by Mr. 
 Hayley, a gentleman well known to you, and whose 
 patriotism and loyalty have never been impeached. Blake 
 was previously known to Mr. Hayley. I think I need not 
 state that Mr. Hayley would never have brought Mr. Blake 
 into this part of the country, and given him encouragement 
 if he conceived it possible that he could have uttered these 
 sentiments. Mr. Hayley from his previous knowledge of 
 him was certain that he was not the seditious character 
 here represented. 
 
 Gentlemen, the story is very improbable if we farther 
 consider Mr. Blake's situation. Mr. Blake is engaged as 
 an engraver. He has a wife to support : that wife and 
 himself he has supported by his art — an art which has a 
 tendency, like all the other fine arts, to soften every 
 asperity of feeling and of character, and to secure the 
 bosom from the influence of those tumultuous and dis- 
 cordant passions, which destroy the happiness of man- 
 kind. If any men are likely to be exempt from angry 
 passions, it is such an one as Mr. Blake. He had resided 
 in this village for some time, when you have heard one
 
 14 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 
 
 day the witness Scholfield came into his garden for the 
 purpose of delivering a message to the ostler, there he 
 continues for some time without any apparent reason. 
 But I will just make this observation in addition to what 
 I have said of the great incredibility of so infamous a 
 crime being committed by such an individual ; the proof 
 adduced ought to be uniform, consistent and clear, so 
 much as to leave no doubt of the veracity of those 
 persons who come forward — not only so — it should proceed 
 from characters of unimpeachable credit. Those who 
 have acted in such a way, that you can be morally certain, 
 no temptation whatever will induce them to speak what 
 is not true. The first witness is in a different situation 
 from what he has been ; he was once in a superior, but 
 now appears in an inferior rank. Now, Gentlemen, merit 
 always promotes a man, misconduct degrades him ; mis- 
 conduct not only degrades him in his situation, but in the 
 consideration of all men, who know the circumstances. 
 This man was once a Serjeant, he is now a private. He 
 says he was degraded on account of drunkenness. He is 
 degraded, be it from what cause it may ; and he certainly 
 does not stand before you under the most favourable 
 circumstances, nor is he entitled to that credit which you 
 would have given him, if by his good conduct he had 
 continued in his former situation, or raised himself to a 
 higher. He tells you a story, which to be sure requires a 
 great deal of faith in order to believe it, because it is an 
 unaccountable story. He was in Blake's garden talking 
 to the ostler ; he came to tell him that he could not do 
 the job he was to do, for he was ordered to march to
 
 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 15 
 
 Chichester, that he had but few words to say, and no time 
 to spare, yet we find him lounging about, leaning against 
 the earden wall. That Mr. Blake came out and without 
 any provocation, without one word being spoken on eithcr 
 side, began to utter these expressions (the words in the 
 indictment). These expressions divide themselves into 
 two classes. Some of them deserve the reprobation which 
 my learned friend has bestowed upon them ; others are 
 so absurd and unintelligible, that he with all his ingenuity 
 has not attempted to explain them as cut-throat for cut- 
 throat. It does not appear what can be meant. If you 
 are able to understand them I honestly confess, that after 
 no small pains bestowed on the point, I cannot. The 
 witness at one time asserted that these words were spoken 
 to him, then he was doubting whether they were addressed 
 to Mrs. Blake ; at last he asserts again that they were 
 spoken to him. Gentlemen, you will take notice that the 
 ostler was all this time working in the garden. This gar- 
 den I shall be able to prove to you did not contain above 
 ten yards square : no words consequently could have been 
 uttered without every person in the garden hearing them, 
 especially when Scholfield acknowledged that they were 
 talking rather high. The ostler is allowed to have been 
 in the garden, he was in a situation to hear all that passed, 
 and he will prove to you by and by that he heard no such 
 expressions uttered by Mr. Blake. Here then, Gentlemen, 
 is a charge, attended with circumstances of the most extra- 
 ordinary nature. A man comes out of his house for the 
 purpose of addressing a malignant and unintelligible dis- 
 course to those who are most likely to injure him for it
 
 16 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 
 
 A person exerting such an art, tending to render him 
 indifferent to the factions and disputes of the world, 
 uttering this discourse without any inducement whatever, 
 and stated by the witness to have been uttered in the 
 presence of one who will presently tell you that no such 
 words were uttered. All this as to the words which are 
 represented to have been spoken to the soldier, and you 
 will not forget that the man who has given you this testi- 
 mony is a man who, so far from being thought worthy of 
 reward, has been degraded. 
 
 The second witness states that there was a noise 
 in the street, he was at work in the stable and came out 
 in consequence of the noise, he saw Mr. Blake and 
 Scholfield in the act of collaring each other and Mrs. 
 
 Grinder separated them. That Mrs. G was as near 
 
 to Blake as Cock was. He states that without any farther 
 provocation or hearing any words from Scholfield or Blake, 
 Blake uttered these words, " damn the king, damn the 
 
 country, you soldiers are all slaves." Mrs. G I shall 
 
 call to you, and she will state that she was as near Mr. 
 Blake as Cock was, and heard no such words. I would 
 observe, in order to shew that there is a small difference 
 between the testimony of Cock and Scholfield, that when 
 Scholfield was asked if anything had been uttered beside 
 the words which were spoken in the garden, he replied " no." 
 Scholfield confines himself to the words in the garden ; 
 the other says they were uttered before the public house. 
 If they were spoken in the garden the ostler must have 
 heard them. If they were uttered before the public house, 
 Mrs. G must have heard them too. I will call these
 
 THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 17 
 
 witnesses and you shall hear their account, you will then 
 agree with me that they totally overthrow the testimony 
 of these soldiers. 
 
 Of incidents connected with this abominable business no 
 further account is necessary. The appearance in Court of 
 Blake's good friend and " patron," Poet Hayley, to give 
 evidence as to the artist's character and habits, and that 
 at the risk of his own life, for he was under his doctor's 
 orders to keep quietly at home on account of a bad fall 
 from his horse — the sudden illness with which Counsellor 
 Rose was attacked on the day of the trial and from which 
 he never rallied — the triumphant acquittal of the poet- 
 painter — the grateful revival of his flagging friendship for 
 the dear old bore, Hayley — his grief for the sickness and 
 early death of Rose — and his recurrent allusions with pen 
 and pencil to the drunken brute Scofield — are all to be 
 found duly chronicled in Gilchrist's Life of Blake. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM 
 
 AS ADVOCATE OF 
 
 ALFRED and CHARLES TENNYSON 
 
 C 2
 
 ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM 
 
 AS ADVOCATE OF 
 
 ALFRED and CHARLES TENNYSON. 
 
 From the 4th of September 1830 till the 13th of 
 February 1832, Leigh Hunt was editing a " Daily Journal 
 of Literature and the Stage " called The Tatler. Alfred 
 and Charles Tennyson had come before the public as mere 
 boys in 1827, when the Poems by Two Brothers had been 
 purchased and published by Messrs. Jackson of Louth. 
 In 1830 those same two brothers came again before the 
 high court of critics, but this time separately. Poems, 
 Chiefly Lyrical, by Alfred Tennyson, appeared in London, 
 with the imprint of Effingham Wilson, while Sonnets and 
 Fugitive Pieces, by Charles Tennyson, Trin. Coll., with its 
 modest motto from Wordsworth — 
 
 The Sonnet's humble plot of ground — 
 
 came out at Cambridge — " published by B. Bridges, Market 
 Hill." Arthur Henry Hallam, son of the historian, was 
 also at Trinity College, and in intimate friendship with the 
 brother poets. Born in 181 1, he was the junior of Charles
 
 22 ARTHUR HENRY HALL AM. 
 
 by three years, and of Alfred by two. Nature had des- 
 tined young Hallam for far other greatness than that 
 reflected from the illustrious names of a man's companions ; 
 but the gods also loved him, and signified the same in the 
 usual manner. He "died young," in 1833, and was wept 
 by the poet whose greatness he so clearly saw and so 
 nobly set forth on more than one occasion. As the gods 
 reckon, to be enshrined in In Memoriam is a higher 
 guerdon than long life filled with pleasure and success. 
 For us of the end of the 19th century, looking back on 
 all these men and their doings, it is an open question 
 whether the gods did best for us in taking the man and 
 leaving the occasion for the immortal Song of Songs 
 which is Tennyson's. Tennyson in all circumstances must 
 have sung greatly to us : Arthur Henry Hallam might 
 have lived and served his race better than he served it 
 by dying. 
 
 It was a friendly act to the Tennysons, to Leigh Hunt, 
 and to posterity, to send those two delightful volumes with 
 the following admirable letter, which the Editor of The 
 Tatler fortunately preserved. The letter which follows 
 that, again, records in a fresh way an episode of Cambridge 
 life already familiar to the lovers of Shelley, and known as 
 the Revival of 1829 ; but it ends on the key-note of 
 Tennyson, " as is most fitting, just, and due." In Novem- 
 ber 1832, the volume of Poems bearing date 1833 was 
 about to appear with the Moxon imprint so long familiar 
 to the millions of Tennyson's readers, and associated 
 with times when the words " poetry and an honourable 
 poverty" no longer described the material condition of
 
 ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM. 23 
 
 the last Laureate. In one respect it is pleasant to think 
 that that far-seeing young man whom the gods loved 
 carried his twenty-two years' experiences into their con- 
 clave in an erroneous belief : the entry of Charles Tennyson 
 into the Church did not wholly alienate him from the 
 Muses. His Sonnets (1864), Small Tableaux (1868), and 
 Sonnets, Lyrics, and Translations (1873), were all published 
 under the name of "the Rev. Charles Turner" ; but, 
 although he had changed his name, he had not changed 
 his nature ; and when, in 1880, the volume of Collected 
 Sonnets, Old and New, by Charles Tennyson Turner, was 
 published, his name was once more wedded with that of his 
 great younger brother by the publication of that exquisite 
 copy of verses in which he is apostrophized as 
 
 True brother, only to be known 
 By those who love thee best — 
 
 and again as 
 
 True poet, surely to be found 
 When truth is found again. 
 
 The present Lord Tennyson, in a graceful biographical 
 note prefixed to that volume, records the verdict of his 
 illustrious father that " some of the sonnets have all the 
 tenderness of the Greek epigram, and that he ranks a few 
 of them among the noblest in our language." The letters 
 which follow are both hitherto unpublished.
 
 24 ARTHUR HENRY HALL AM. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 To the Editor of The Tatler. 
 
 Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge. 
 Tuesday, January nth [1831]. 
 
 Will you excuse the liberty that a perfect stranger to 
 you takes in sending you two little volumes of Poetry, 
 with which I cannot but think you will be pleased ? They 
 are the compositions of two brothers both very young 
 men, and both intimate friends of mine. The larger 
 volume was reviewed in the last number of The West- 
 minster Review (I believe by Dr. Bowring), and the high 
 praise bestowed upon it by the reviewer is not higher in 
 my opinion, and I hope in yours, than its merits demand. 
 I flatter myself you will, if you peruse this book, be 
 surprised and delighted to find a new prophet of those true 
 principles of Art which, in this country, you were among 
 the first to recommend both by precept and example. 
 Since the death of John Keats, the last lineal descendant 
 of Apollo, our English region of Parnassus has been 
 domineered over by kings of shreds and patches. But, 
 if I mistake not, the true heir is found : " if ever truth 
 were pregnant by circumstance, that which you hear you'll 
 swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The 
 mantle and the jewel about the neck ! The letters whose 
 character is known ! The majesty of the creature in re-
 
 ARTHUR HENR Y HALL AM. 2 5 
 
 semblance of its father, the affection of nobleness, and 
 many other evidences proclaim him, with all certainty, to 
 be the king's son." 
 
 The other, and smaller, volume, written by his brother, 
 contains poetry of a very different character, but sterling, 
 I think, and shewing a mind capable of noble thoughts, 
 although inferior in depth and range of powers to that 
 which I first described. Should you agree with me to any 
 extent in my judgment of these volumes, you will not 
 perhaps object to mentioning them favourably in The Tatler, 
 which I believe you at present conduct. 
 
 I do not suppose that either of these poets is likely to 
 become extensively or immediately popular : they write 
 not to the world at large, which " lieth in wickedness " and 
 bad taste, but to the elect Church of Urania, which we 
 know to be small and in tribulation. Now in this church 
 you have preferment, and what you preach will be con- 
 sidered by the faithful as a sound form of words. Should 
 you after all, Sir, not like these books, I can only hope 
 you will pardon the liberty that has been taken by one 
 who has derived pleasure and benefit from your writings, 
 and therefore subscribes himself as 
 
 Yours in gratitude and respect, 
 
 Arthur Henry Hallam. 
 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 
 4, Catherine Street, Strand, 
 London.
 
 26 ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 67, Wimpole Street, 
 
 London. 
 Nove?>iber 13th [1832]. 
 
 ALLOW me, Sir, to return you my sincere thanks for the 
 copy of Shelley's Masqiie of Anarchy you have presented 
 me through Mr. Moxon. I have read it with great 
 interest both for the author's sake, and the editor's. 
 
 While at Cambridge I partook largely in the enthusiasm 
 which animated many of my contemporaries, and indeed 
 formed us into a sort of sect in behalf of his character 
 and genius. 
 
 If I have since somewhat tempered that enthusiasm in 
 so far as it extended to some of his peculiar opinions, I 
 have not ceased, and shall not, to regard him as one of the 
 most remarkable men and greatest poets whom this country 
 (rich though it be in such) has produced. I happen to 
 possess a memorial of Shelley to which I attach some 
 value — a copy of Spinoza's Ethics, said to have belonged 
 to him, ana- which probably did so, if I may judge from 
 the pencil lines of approbation in the margin of several 
 passages. 
 
 For the courteous manner in which you have spoken of 
 my remarks on Rossetti, in a note which Mr. Moxon has 
 shewn me, I must also express my thankfulness. I had 
 thought you might be pleased with them on account of
 
 ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM. 27 
 
 the subject, so conversant as I know you to be with the 
 sunny literatures of the South. 
 
 I am afraid, however, my little pamphlet has many 
 more faults than you are willing to find with it. I wrote 
 it too hastily, and with few books at hand. One or two 
 inaccuracies there are, which a slight degree of attention 
 might have rectified — such as a foolish slip of the pen 
 about the date of Augustin. In your remark on the 
 usual failing of critics too fond of metaphysical refinement, 
 I entirely agree : in my own instance I endeavour to 
 guard against the temptation, but perhaps with little 
 success. 
 
 I hope soon to have the pleasure of presenting you 
 a second collection of poems by my friend Alfred Tennyson, 
 much superior in my judgment to the first, although I 
 thought, as you know, highly of those. His brother, the 
 author of the Sonnets, has entered the Church, 1 and is, 
 I fear, lost to the Muses. Alfred has resisted all attempts 
 to force him into a profession, preferring poetry and an 
 honourable poverty. 
 
 Believe me, Sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 A. H. HALLAM. 
 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 
 York Buildings. 
 
 1 Perhaps this expresses rather an intention than an accomplished fact. 
 The dates given by the present Lord Tennyson do not confirm the statement 
 in the text. In the biographical note already mentioned it is stated 
 that Charles Tennyson was born at Somersby on the 4th of July 1808, 
 graduated in 1832, was ordained in 1835, married Louisa Sellwood in 1837, 
 and died at Cheltenham on the 25th of April 1879, — followed in less than 
 a month by his wife.
 
 MIDNIGHT: 
 
 LINES ON THE DEATH OF ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, 
 
 BY 
 
 H. BUXTON FORMAN.
 
 MIDNIGHT: 
 
 5-6 OCTOBER, 1892. 
 
 The laurel greener from the brow 
 
 Of him who uttered nothing base. 
 
 Midnight ! and feebly comes his breath 
 
 Whose breath was ever fraught with song. 
 The life that was so whole and strong 
 
 Treads hard upon the heels of death. 
 
 And all the Land he loved so well, 
 
 The Land to which his golden tongue 
 Gave forth such songs as no man sung, 
 
 Is listening for the passing bell. 
 
 An hour and half an hour are past : 
 
 Hush ! can we hear his breathing yet ? 
 Nay, Death and he have clasped and met 
 
 The mellow voice is mute at last.
 
 32 H. BUXTON FORM AN. 
 
 And through our lands in every clime, 
 Where'er his English speech is heard, 
 A thousand wires have flashed the word 
 
 That he has passed beyond our time. 
 
 The wreath that Wordsworth left so green 
 He leaves all bright with magic flowers ; 
 They fall on his dead head in showers, 
 
 And kiss the lips where song has been. 
 
 O Laurel, greener from the head 
 
 Of him who uttered nothing base, 
 Hang thou for ever in thy place 
 
 Above the great old poet's head ! 
 
 For he whose soul, both young and old, 
 Was ever minted into verse, 
 Bequeaths his country nothing worse 
 
 Than mintage of the purest gold. 
 
 So be it thine, O Laurel Crown, 
 Fitly to mark the resting-place 
 Of him the last of all his race ; 
 
 For who so bold to take thee down ?
 
 AN 
 
 OPINION ON TENNYSON. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 AN OPINION ON TENNYSON. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 
 
 Towards the close of 1843, Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, 
 afterwards Mrs. Browning, was assiduously helping Richard 
 Henry Home in writing the two volumes of critical essays 
 published in 1844 under the title of A New Spirit of the 
 Age. In 1877 were published two volumes of Letters of 
 Elizabeth Browning, addressed to RicJiardHengist Home . . . 
 with Comments on Contemporaries} In this work much in- 
 formation is given as to the authorship of various parts 
 of A New Spirit of the Age, as for example that the article 
 on Tennyson was partly by Miss Barrett. In a letter ex- 
 tending from page 186 to page 193 of Vol. I., the poetess 
 says that a certain proof is returned "to-day, because I 
 foresee that even if I detain it till to-morrow I shall not 
 have time to write about Tennyson. So my words about 
 him must follow instead of accompanying it." Mr. Home 
 annotates the passage thus : " This refers to the article on 
 
 1 London, Richard Bentley and Son. Home's second name was Henry : 
 the substitution of Hengist was a latter-day fancy of his. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 ELIZABE TH BARRE TT BRO WNING. 
 
 Tennyson which was written by me, and sent in proof- 
 sheets for Miss Barrett to interpolate." And certainly 
 the article is mainly Home's, though with great indebtedness 
 to his coadjutor, and probably a good deal more than can 
 be demonstrated. It is doubtful, however, whether there 
 was much, if any, " interpolation " on proof-sheets in this 
 case. What she proposed to write and did write was a 
 substantive small essay — which she called " An Opinion," 
 and sent to Home with the following letter : 
 
 My dear Mr. Home, — I send you " an opinion " on 
 Tennyson. Use it or do not use it. He is a divine poet ; 
 but I have found it difficult (in the examination of my own 
 thoughts of him) to analyse his divinity and to determine 
 (even to myself) his particular aspect as a writer. What is 
 the reason of it ? It never struck me before. A true and 
 divine poet nevertheless. 
 
 Have you a portrait of him ? I hope so. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 E. B. B. 
 
 Mrs. Orme is better. 
 
 The " Opinion " was written upon post 8vo paper on one 
 side only ; and the leaves were numbered in a business-like 
 manner. How many there were, cannot now be stated with 
 certainty ; for Home cut most of them up for convenience 
 of intermixture with his own copy, — fastening the hetero- 
 geneous mass together with wafers. The manuscript thus 
 produced is in the library of Mr. Buxton Forman. It starts 
 with five pages of Home's "copy" ; and then comes the
 
 AN OPINION ON TENNYSON. 37 
 
 first leaf of Miss Barrett's " Opinion," unaltered, and reading 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The name of Alfred Tennyson is pressing slowly, 
 calmly, but surely, — with certain recognition but no loud 
 shouts of greeting, — from the lips of the discerners of poets, 
 of whom there remain a few even in the cast-iron ages, 
 along the lips of the less informed public, ' to its own 
 place ' in the starry house of names. That it is the name of 
 a true poet, the drowsy public exerts itself to acknowledge ; 
 testifying with a heavy lifting of the eyelid, to its conscious- 
 ness of a new light in one of the nearer sconces. This 
 poet's public is certainly awake to him, — although you would 
 not think so. And this public's poet, standing upon the 
 recognition of his own genius, begins to feel the ground 
 firm beneath his feet, — after no worse persecution than is 
 comprised in those charges of affectation, quaintness and 
 mannerism, which were bleated down the ranks of the 
 innocent " sillie " critics as they went one after another to 
 water. Let the toleration be chronicled to the honor of 
 England. And who knows ? — There may be hope from 
 this, and a few similar instances of misprision of the high 
 treason of poetry, that our country may conclude her grand 
 experience of a succession of poetical writers unequalled 
 in the modern world, by learning some ages hence to know 
 a poet when she sees one." 
 
 It would have been worth while to rescue this relic con- 
 nected with the names of three poets, if only to establish 
 that an inapposite epithet which appeared in the foregoing 
 passage as printed in A New Spirit of the Age was not 
 chargeable to Mrs. Browning. In the book we read " the 

 
 r*r 
 
 3S ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 
 
 stony house of names " : what she wrote was " The starry 
 house of names." Home would not have misread the 
 adjective, had he copied his correspondent's manuscript ; 
 but his printer did ; and the error was not discovered. 
 The last eight words of the passage are not of positively 
 certain origin ; but it is hardly to be doubted that Mrs. 
 Browning finished the sentence as shown. The final word 
 on the leaf, however, is " learning," the words " some ages 
 hence to know a poet when she sees him " being on different 
 paper in Home's writing. He then goes on for about nine 
 pages of his manuscript till he reaches the following 
 passage : 
 
 " But Tennyson and Shelley, more particularly, walk in 
 the common daylight in their ' singing clothes ' ; they are 
 silver voiced when they ask for salt, and say ' good morrow 
 to you ' in a cadence. They each have a poetical dialect ; 
 [here come in two more pieces of the poetess's ' Opinion,' 
 viz.] not such a one as Wordsworth deprecated when he 
 overthrew a system ; not a conventional poetical idiom, but 
 the very reverse of it — each poet fashioning his phrases upon 
 his own individuality ; and speaking" as if he were making 
 a language thus, for the first time, under those ' purple 
 eyes ' of the muse, which tinted every syllable as it was 
 uttered, with a separate benediction. 
 
 " Perhaps the first spell cast by Mr. Tennyson, the master 
 of many spells, he cast upon the ear. His power as a 
 versifier is remarkable. The measures flow softly or roll 
 nobly to his pen ; as well one as the other. He can gather 
 up his strength, like a serpent, in the silver coil of a line ; 
 or dart it out straight and free. Nay, he will write you 

 
 '< / ?i/~yfc~'z'V7/ itwp^c 0/ /-/^L ear/, /^e/^ fir/r<ms^Y *** 
 -%wT- ' /oj/~Cl, *y*o j d Jl~ ^/c <Mtr^ Tcvr/Q ^^^y 
 
 -s J ^ J 
 
 
 
 **» -, 
 
 PART OF M RS BROWNING'S OPINION ON TENNYSON. 
 
 REVISED BY R H . H ORNE. 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.
 
 AN OPINION ON TENNYSON. 39 
 
 a poem with nothing in it except music ; and as if its music 
 were everything it shall fill your soul. Be this said, not in 
 reproach ; but in honor of him and of the English language, 
 for the learned sweetness of his numbers. The Italian 
 poets may take counsel and envy 
 
 'Where Claribel down-lieth.'" 
 
 From the fact that Mrs. Browning wrote " down-lieth " 
 for " low-lieth," it seems clear that she adopted the rash 
 plan of quoting from memory. Home was on the alert 
 here, at all events ; for, on these two portions of the manu- 
 script of his correspondent, besides making one or two other 
 verbal changes, he corrected the quotation. After this 
 he goes on by himself for some twenty pages. Though 
 the following paragraph commences in his writing, it is 
 probably all hers : — 
 
 " Tennyson seldom uses the ego of poet-dom ; and when 
 he does you generally find that he does not refer to himself, 
 but to some imaginary person. He permits the reader to 
 behold the workings [the sentence ends in Miss Barrett's 
 writing, two more pieces of her dismembered essay follow- 
 ing here] of his individuality, only by the reflex action. He 
 comes out himself to sing a poem and goes back again ; or 
 rather sends his song out from his shadow under the leaf 
 as other nightingales do; and refuses to be expansive to 
 his public and open his heart on the hinge of music as 
 other poets do. We know nothing of him except that he 
 is a poet ; and this, although it is something to be sure, 
 does not help us to pronounce distinctly upon what may be 
 called the mental intention of his poetry.
 
 4o ELIZA BE TH BARRE TT BRO WNING. 
 
 " Whatever he writes is a complete work ; he holds the 
 unity of it as firmly in his hands as his CEnone's Paris 
 holds the apple — and there is nothing broken or incomplete 
 in his two full volumes. But for all this unity of every 
 separate poem produced by him, there is or appears to be 
 some vacillation of intention, in his poetry as a mass. To 
 any question upon the character of his works, the reply 
 rises obviously, — they are from dreamland ; and of the 
 majority of those which he has since produced, the same 
 answer should be returned. The exceptive instances are like 
 those of one who has not long awakened from his dreams. 
 But what 'dreams these have been, of what loveliness of 
 music, form, and colour, and what thought — our foregoing 
 remarks havevery faintly expressed and declared. In the 
 absence of any marked and perceptible design in his 
 poetical faith and purposes, Tennyson is not singular. 
 It would be equally difficult to decide the same question 
 with regard to several others ; nor perhaps is it necessary 
 to be decided. As the matter rests in this instance, 
 we have the idea of a poet (these volumes in our hands) 
 not in a fixed attitude ; not resolute as to means, not 
 determined as to end — sure of his power, sure of his 
 activity, but not sure of his objects. There appears to be 
 some want of the sanctification of a spiritual consistency. 
 We seem to look on while a man stands in preparation for 
 a noble course — while he tries the edge of his various arms 
 and examines the wheels of his chariots, and meditates full 
 of youth and capability down the long slope of glory. The 
 figure occurred to us suddenly, as an eagle might fly to our 
 left hand ; and, as admirers of Mr. Tennyson, we accept
 
 AN OPINION ON TENNYSON. 41 
 
 \ 
 
 the omen. One thing is sure. He has lived long enough for 
 
 the world not to let him die ; and to good purpose enough 
 already, to secure the perpetual vibration of the silver 
 chord of time, under the hand of another English poet." 
 
 Home's writing reappears in the words " they are from 
 dreamland " and extends to " as the matter rests in this 
 instance we have," after which there are two more pieces 
 of Miss Barrett's copy, forming what was probably the 
 close of her " opinion." 
 
 The chances are that, whether she " interpolated " a proof 
 or not, she saw one ; for either she or Home rejected after 
 all the concluding words of the foregoing passage, which do 
 not appear in A New Spirit of the Age. There is little doubt 
 that a good deal of what is in Home's autograph is really 
 hers, gathered either from her letters or copied from those 
 pieces of the manuscript " Opinion " which were not sub- 
 jected to the wafering process. The whole essay is a 
 perfectly legitimate example of collaboration ; Home acted 
 with full authority from his colleague ; and if, on the 
 whole, we would prefer to have her undiluted " Opinion,'' 
 we must remember that in 1844 Home was eminent as a 
 man of letters, while Miss Barrett was by no means the 
 fixed star in public estimation that she has since become 
 under the name of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 >
 
 THOMAS WADE: 
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 BY 
 
 H. BUXTON FORMAN.
 
 THOMAS WADE: 
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 With the sole exception of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, no 
 nineteenth century English poet whose merit equals that of 
 Thomas Wade has been so liberally neglected. In this 
 position, be it observed, no comparison is instituted as to 
 the merits of Beddoes and Wade, but merely as to the 
 neglect of those merits. On the whole the neglect of 
 Beddoes must be deemed the more flagrant ; for Beddoes 
 has been twice edited within some fifty years. When that 
 can be said of Wade, there may be another tale to tell. 
 Meantime it is a pleasant duty to give some account of 
 his doings, and offer to readers at this close of a great 
 commercial century some solid and trustworthy samples of 
 his wares. Start with the Sonnets, and read one, — you 
 will want to read the rest. Do so, — and you will go on 
 with the longer poems. If at the close Wade attempts to 
 slip through your fingers, and you exclaim with an oblique 
 eye on the Rev. Mr. Chadband, " You sent me forth to see 
 a poet — lo ! the pages are barren — I have seen but an eel," 
 some reader whose perceptions are truer will rebuke you,
 
 46 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 with a direct eye on Chadband, in the memorable words 
 " This is not the Ter-ewth ! " 
 
 Thomas Wade was born in 1805, so that, m 1825, when 
 his first volume of poems issued from the press, he was still 
 a minor. What was the literary situation into which the 
 book was ushered ? 
 
 The death of Keats in 1821, of Shelley in 1822, and 
 of Byron in 1824, extinguished, practically, for the time 
 being, that light of English song that had burned with such 
 astonishing brilliancy since it burst forth in its fulness 
 scarcely ten years earlier. It is true that, as early as 1770, 
 a contemned and solitary boy of Bristol had cast forth 
 certain sparks of a keenness and intensity which served to 
 show that the old lyric spirit was not dead in England but 
 only slumbering, and having done this had hurled himself 
 madly into the abyss of death, — true that in 1782 the real 
 commencement of modern English poetry had issued from 
 the hand of Blake in a mere pamphlet called Poetical Sketches 
 by W. B., — true that, still on the other side of 1800, 
 Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, had lighted up the flame 
 of renovated verse in the very Bristol which had cast out the 
 " parent spark"; but it was not until the three younger sons 
 of song had reached such maturity as they might, that the 
 full glory of the flame burst forth; and after the last of 
 these three had sung his latest note, there was a calm. 
 Coleridge still lived ; but he did no more such work as he 
 had put forth before the death of Keats. Wordsworth still 
 lived ; but he was organizing another order of things in the 
 domain of song, — " trying his hardest not to be a poet," 
 though unsuccessfully. W T ells, the comrade of Keats, whose
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 47 
 
 JosepJi and his Brethre?i bears date the very year of the 
 extinction, still lived ; but he uttered no audible note till 
 1876, when his remodelled poem was again offered to the 
 public ; and we have no lyric work from him, though it 
 is a sad fact that he produced and destroyed a good 
 deal. And yet the very next year after the death of Byron 
 there issued from the press the 'prentice work of a youth, 
 who, with " fit audience," might have kept alive, almost 
 single-handed, the fire that slept and smouldered through 
 the eighteenth century, and went out at the end of the first 
 quarter of the nineteenth. But men had refused to listen 
 to Keats and Shelley, — had only listened so attentively to 
 Byron because of a certain leaven in his works that somehow 
 suited their complaint, — had ignored Wells, and were ignor- 
 ing even Wordsworth and Coleridge ; and no spirit less than 
 Keats and Shelley might rise in the highest flights of song 
 without something like an appreciable human sympathy. 
 Thomas Wade, the youthful debutant of 1825, was a strong 
 and hardy spirit enough : he sang on manfully for a 
 time ; but audience failed, and he withdrew from public 
 appeal, — working on in a quiet way, known only to a few 
 intimates and specialists. 
 
 In The Examiner for the 16th of January 1825, appeared 
 an extract of thirty-six lines of verse, with half-a-dozen 
 preliminary lines of notice, to the effect that " a slight 
 volume of Poems by Thomas Wade " x had just been 
 published, the work of an author who, according to law, 
 
 1 Tasso and the Sisters : Tasso's Spij'it : The Nuptials of [uno : The 
 Skeletons : The Spirits of the Ocean. Poems. By Thomas Wade. London : 
 John Letts, Jun., Cornhill. 1825.
 
 48 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 had not reached the years of discretion." The critic adds, 
 " His powers, however, are anything but puerile ; and his 
 poems teem with passages which prove him to be a true son 
 of Apollo." Nor was this reception of Wade's first book 
 isolated : for in The Literary Gazette for the 15 th of January 
 in the same year the little volume was noticed in terms of 
 some civility. " There is taste, talent, and feeling in these 
 poems," said the reviewer; "a garden, often unweeded, 
 here and there injudiciously laid out, but still well situated, 
 and with both flowers and fruit. . . . We would advise Mr. 
 Wade against classical subjects; their poetry is a model by 
 itself, and their interest is exhausted ; and we think he has 
 enough of imagination to discover a mine, and live upon 
 its resources." 
 
 It is strange that the implacable enmity of The Literary 
 Gazette towards all the higher forms of poetic art should 
 have slept on this occasion without even one eye open ; for 
 Editor Jerdan need have been at no great pains to discover 
 that the young poet he was welcoming so condescendingly 
 was decidedly of the abhorred school of advanced thought. 
 Only six months before that time had Jerdan performed 
 one more indecent editorial war-dance on the grave of 
 Shelley, then lately deceased, and openly insulted his widow 
 by casting doubts on the sincerity of her grief; so we cannot 
 assume that Wade escaped through any cause but editorial 
 ignorance of the plumage of the new song-bird. That 
 Wade had " enough of imagination to discover a mine and 
 live upon its resources," the event showed, — the mine, by no 
 means such an one as the carrion creatures of the Gazette 
 would have stamped with their worthless approval, — the life
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 49 
 
 drawn from its resources that of intellectual and imaginative 
 exaltation and contemplation, and not of bread-winning 
 drudgery. And yet it was not altogether to be wondered 
 at that people like Jerdan, blind leaders of the blind, per- 
 petually wallowing in the ditch of envy, hatred, malice, 
 inanity, and vulgarity, should have found something to 
 praise in this little book ; for to tell plain truth, with all its 
 unmistakable qualities of the higher order, it had, as an 
 inalienable annex to its immaturity, enough of the common- 
 place rhymester to make it pass muster with commonplace 
 reviewers. There is exuberance, brusqueness of transition, 
 laxity of form, and meretriciousness of action, enough to 
 deceive a Jerdan or so into the belief that this fledgling was 
 to be a bird of gaudy plumage with the mediocre vocal 
 qualities characteristic of such birds ; and when the Gazette 
 was so polite, it no doubt ran its empty head against the 
 notion that, if this young man persevered, he might arrive 
 at some standard of excellence midway between the fluent 
 enthusiasm of Mrs. Hemans and the exuberant levity and 
 thin melody of Moore, — whose " toad-faced cupids" pleased 
 even the elite of the British public in the days when George 
 IV. was king. 
 
 But although there may be excuse for a Jerdan wel- 
 coming a juvenile Wade on mistaken grounds, it is a 
 wonder that the book in question should have been 
 allowed to disappear so wholly; for in it, as in later 
 books, though in a less degree, the true ring of poetry 
 is to be found. The Nuptials of Juno is a rambling 
 poem, written with great ease in a difficult metre (pttava 
 rima), and with much strong feeling for the beautiful; 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 but its beauties are still the barbaric beauties of a 
 wilderness. 
 
 There is nothing very original in its excellence, nothing 
 very heinous in its obsolete eighteenth century brocade ; 
 but the intermixture of these two elements shows at 
 once the true lover of beauty and the undisciplined youth. 
 It is the same with each of the five poems in the book. 
 In the longest of them, The Spirits of the Ocean, a chaotic 
 imagination enough is adorned with truly beautiful narra- 
 tions of sights and sounds and scents ; we even get a 
 sustained panoramic description of lovely objects, done 
 with an ease and perspicacity, and felt with a rectitude, 
 that would not have discredited (in his fresh youth) " Mr. 
 Morris of Parnassus." 
 
 The next trace we have of Wade is three years later : 
 in 1828 he made his first contribution to the drama, 1 and 
 that before the names of Home and Darley, Stephens and 
 Tomlins, were prominently associated with it, and the 
 genius of Browning and of Taylor was but obscurely at 
 work. The subject chosen by Wade for his first play was 
 the old story of patient Griselda, the names and scene 
 being of course altered to suit dramatic purposes. Woman's 
 Love was first performed at Covent Garden on the 17th 
 of December 1828 ; and two editions of it were published 
 in 1829. It was followed at an interval of little over a 
 year by a farce in two acts called The Phrenologists? put 
 
 1 Woman' 's Love; or, The Triumph of Patience. A Drama, in Five 
 Acts. First Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on Wednesday, 
 December 17th, 1828. London : Smith, Elder and Co., 65, Cornhill. 1829. 
 
 2 The Phrenolo.^sts. A Farce, in Two Acts. By Thomas Wade, Author 
 of Woman's Love, a Drama ; &c. First Performed at the Theatre Royal,
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 51 
 
 upon the boards at Covcnt Garden on the 12th of January 
 1830, with a cast including Mr. and Mrs. Robert Keeley, 
 Blanchard, and Bartley. Although not of very high merit, 
 it was a success : slight and sparkling, it is deficient in 
 real wit and humour ; but at the same time it is no doubt 
 broad enough in allusion to have appealed fairly well to 
 the groundlings of 1830 with the aid of the drolls who 
 were employed upon its representation. If the little book 
 published in the course of 1830 were as excellent as it is 
 rare, it would be indeed a treasure. So hard is it to find 
 that Wade's widow was unable to say whether it had ever 
 been printed or not. After the farce Wade brought out 
 a Tragedy, The Jew of Arragon} the motive of which 
 was to exalt the Jews to heroic stature and reprove the 
 Christian persecutions to which they have been subjected 
 not only in Arragon, but throughout Christendom. The 
 shrewd Mrs. Charles Kemble declared from the first that 
 in England — in the land of Rebecca and Rowena — a 
 tragedy so motived must be a crashing failure ; and her 
 misgivings were but too well founded ; for this really fine 
 play was literally howled off the stage — to be printed 
 with a dedication to the Jews of England and a defence 
 in which the Deputy Licenser, who had caused several 
 passages to be expunged, was attacked with that courage 
 
 Covent Garden, on Tuesday, January I2th, 1830. London : Sold by J. 
 Onwhyn, 4, Catherine-street, Strand : and may be had of all Booksellers, 
 1830. 
 
 1 The Jew of Arragon ; or, The Hebrew Queen. A Tragedy, in Five 
 Acts. By Thomas Wade, Author of Duke Andrea : or, Woman's Love, a 
 Drama. Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on Wednesday, 
 October 20th, 1830. London : Smith, Elder and Co., 65, Cornhill. 1830. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 of his opinions that always characterized Wade. Fanny 
 Kemble, who advised and encouraged the ambitious young 
 author, recorded in the spring of 1831 how bravely he 
 "took his damnation." 
 
 In truth Woman's Love and The Jew of Arragon, 
 produced in Wade's twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth years, 
 are both full of admirable qualities ; and, though they 
 serve to indicate that drama was not the forte of the 
 poet, they yet show a notable dramatic capacity, 
 dominated as it is by those idealistic qualities which 
 mark Wade out as serving under Marlowe and Shelley 
 rather than under Shakespeare and the realists. The 
 necessities of such a plot as that of Woman's Love 
 are wholly ideal. The unflawed patience of Bianca (the 
 Griselda of the drama) under such protracted and intense 
 torture as was inflicted upon her beautiful and sensitive 
 spiritual nature is a very far flight into the purely 
 imaginative region ; and we have some satisfaction in 
 reflecting that Duke Andrea, the suspicious and exacting 
 husband who wantonly deprives his wife of her child 
 for sixteen years, is a monster bred of the poet's brooding 
 over possible causes and effects, and not even remotely 
 from real experience. A less protracted trial than the 
 unremitting torture of sixteen years might have been in- 
 flicted and borne within the limits of the realistic school 
 of drama ; but when we consider that Duke Andrea's 
 only cause for this monstrous infliction is the suspicion 
 that the peerless woman he has raised from a humble 
 station to that of Duchess loves his state and not his 
 person — when we consider that the hapless Duchess
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 53 
 
 endures for sixteen years not only this strange barrier 
 between herself and her lord, but also the far more dread- 
 ful one of suspecting that he has had their child murdered 
 on the imputation that it was not his — we need hardly 
 go further to find the conviction that Wade's bent was 
 radically idealistic. Keen observance of human nature, 
 and brilliant draughtsmanship in the minor details of 
 character and speech, we get ; but all is dominated by 
 this ideal puerility of exaction on the Duke's part, this 
 ideal patience and imperturbable wifeliness of the Duchess. 
 Indeed, if Bianca ever comes up for judgment before 
 " the new woman," she will not escape without some 
 such epithet as " canine," used in the sense of a fawning 
 subserviency. 
 
 The Jew of Arragon, equally with Woman's Love, is on 
 the idealistic model, with its motive of an absorbing desire 
 on the part of a Jew, descended from Israel's kings, to 
 exalt his race at the expense of the tyrannical Christians 
 of Spain among whom he is living. His daughter being 
 conveniently enamoured of the Christian monarch, the 
 plan of action is that she should petition the King in 
 person to recall an edict just passed against the Jews. 
 Of course their success in this scheme involves their ruin 
 and death ; for the Spaniards, goaded by the subserviency 
 of the King to the Jew and his daughter, and by the 
 arrogance of these, revolt, and massacre every Hebrew 
 in Arragon except these two, who kill themselves. The 
 Jew, Xavier, whose end is thus tragic, is clearly intended 
 to be thought something of a hero ; but neither he nor 
 his daughter, Rachel (" The Hebrew Queen "), is so
 
 54 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 drawn as to enlist the reader's warmest sympathies ; 
 and, though the tragedy is far superior to such a fate as 
 it met at the hands of its Covent Garden audience, it was 
 not to be expected that it would be so well received as 
 Woman's Love. Which of these two works was written 
 first is uncertain ; but, except for the evidence of prior 
 publication, Woman's Love might well be a later work 
 than The Jew of A rragon. The tragedy is less perspicuous, 
 less organic in construction than the drama, less replete 
 with fine thought, and less excellent in style. But even 
 Woman's Love is somewhat wanting in ease of develope- 
 ment towards the close ; and Wade would probably never 
 have risen so high, relatively, in drama as he afterwards 
 did in lyric poetry. 
 
 The beauty-worship of Wade's volume of 1825 was 
 deficient in " high seriousness " ; but it is not so with his 
 later works. In these he is thoroughly serious from be- 
 ginning to end. The beauty-worship was still there ; but 
 the allegiance was divided between beauty and truth. 
 Indeed, in Woman's Love and T/ie Jew of Arragon he is 
 almost in revolt against his first idol, through a reaction, not 
 in the least abnormal in poetic developement, supervening 
 when the age of thought gradually supplants the age of 
 mere feeling, to be supplanted in turn by the age of 
 blended thought and feeling in due balance. 
 
 Wade is said to have written a historical drama entitled 
 Elfrida, which may or may not be extant in manuscript. 
 Another history play from his hand certainly exists, to 
 wit, The Life and Death of King Henry LL. } a Historical 
 Tragedy in Five Acts (as it will be Acted at the Royal
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 55 
 
 Utopian Theatre). The period of its composition is un- 
 certain ; the paper it is written on being water- marked 
 1827, and the sarcastic manuscript title-page dated 
 1837. It is a better play on the whole than either 
 Woman's Love or The Jew of Arragon ; and the subject 
 of " Fair Rosamund " is dealt with in a manner at once 
 powerful, tender, and dignified. Wade's bent, besides 
 being too idealistic for modern playgoers, was pre- 
 eminently lyric and contemplative. In 1835 he collected 
 the lyric poems he had been scattering freely through 
 the numbers of The Monthly Repository, and, adding 
 others to them, issued them in a volume of rare beauty 
 and full of precious qualities, such as should have grown 
 with due encouragement to something better still. 
 
 There is much in the choice of a title ; and Wade did 
 himself an injustice by selecting one that would be 
 a stumbling-block to booksellers, and would only suit a 
 narrow circle, even had there been in 1835 any approach 
 to an audience for poetry such as his. Mundi et Cordis : 
 de Rebus Sempiternis et Temporariis : Carmina •} — so leads 
 off his title-page ; and, though these words are followed by 
 the explanatory Poems and Sonnets, nothing could redeem 
 from neglect a book with such a name. Songs of the 
 Universe and the Heart might have had a doubtful chance ; 
 that name, indeed, Wade adopted on later title-pages 
 when referring to his authorship of this work ; but to the 
 few who care for the book it has been known by its 
 
 1 Mundi et Cordis : dc Rebus Sempiternis et Temporariis : Carmina. 
 Poems and Sonnets. By Thomas Wade. . . . London : John Miller, Henrietta- 
 street, Covent Garden. 1835.
 
 56 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 short Latin title of Mimdi et Cordis Carmina; and that 
 will be its designation in the future. Wade will not 
 be forgotten in the records of nineteenth century song, 
 though at the present moment he has been allowed to 
 drop almost below the horizon of that firmament so full 
 of stars that now and again one dips and is lost to 
 our ken, not so much because of inherent weakness as 
 from defect of vision in the observer. Even that keen and 
 appreciative critic on the other side of the Atlantic, Mr. 
 Edmund C. Stedman, missed in his Victorian Poets x a 
 good opportunity of telling the truth about this nearly lost 
 poet, and devoted only some nine lines to him, from which 
 we learn that the critic, writing with a copy of Mnndi et 
 Cordis Carmina before him, considers it " is marked with 
 the extravagance and turgidity which soon after broke out 
 among the rhapsodists, yet shows plainly the sensitive- 
 ness and passion of the poet." The contents arc also 
 characterized as " in sympathy with, and like, the early- 
 work of Shelley." Surely Wade has nothing in com- 
 mon with the " Rhapsodists," if by that expression Mr. 
 Stedman meant the group of poets generally known as 
 the " Spasmodic School," or the " Spasmodists " ; and his 
 sympathy with Shelley, and likeness to him, run right 
 through the Shelley chronology. Indeed this is the 
 most obvious and noteworthy feature observable in the 
 series of Wade's works at a first glance. 
 
 Even in the dedication of The Jew of Arragon there is 
 a passage on liberty of conscience and against the civil 
 
 1 London : Chatto and Wiridus, Piccadilly, 1876 ; and Cambridge, Mas- 
 sachusetts, 1887.
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 57 
 
 disabilities of the Jews, written in the very spirit of 
 Shelley, and ending with a quotation from Shelley's 
 Liberty ; and that Wade was in advance of his time in 
 that particular is sufficiently shown by the fact that he 
 lived to see a Jewish Prime Minister. It is doubtful 
 whether any poet of like powers was ever as open in his 
 devotion to another poet as Wade to Shelley: not only- 
 does he betray throughout the series of his works a close 
 study of the supreme lyrist, but he writes on texts from 
 him, and even addresses him explicitly as 
 
 " Holy and mighty Poet of the Spirit 
 That broods and breathes along the Universe ! " 
 
 It has been urged against Wade that he follows too 
 obviously the forms and expressions of his great model 
 and master ; but this simply means that he did not care 
 to disguise his discipleship, — that he saw nothing shame- 
 worthy in the debt which he, in common with all English 
 poets of note since Shelley's career began in earnest, 
 owed to the contemned and self-exiled singer : if he 
 found a thought or a phrase of Shelley's that struck 
 out a line of poetic thought in his own mind, he saw no 
 need to hide the source of his inspiration ; we love him 
 the better for his frank devotion to Shelley and Keats, 
 even when it makes him angry, as in the sonnet Shelley 
 and Keats and their " Reviewer" : 
 
 Two heavenly doves I saw, which were indeed 
 Sweet birds and gentle — like the immortal pair 
 That waft the Cyprian chariot through the air ;
 
 58 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 And with their songs made music, to exceed 
 All thought of what rich poesy might be : 
 At which, a crow, perch'd on a sullen tree, 
 Dingy and hoarse, made baser by their brightness, 
 Would fain be judge of melody and whiteness, 
 And caw'd dire sentence on those sweet-throat turtles ; 
 To which his fellow flock of carrion things 
 Croak'd clamorous assent : but still the wings 
 Of those pure birds are white amid the myrtles 
 Of every grove, where cull they nectared seed, 
 Whilst still on cold, dead flesh, those carrion creatures 
 feed. 
 
 No doubt there may still be found a crow or two 
 perching on " sullen trees " and judging " melody and 
 whiteness " to much the same result as that one of Wade's ; 
 and it would be well indeed if the crow genus could be 
 brought to feel the reality of a true and nobly uttered 
 word of Wade's about poets generally : 
 
 " Bitter and strong and manifold the strife 
 Which shakes them on that voyage ; every wave 
 Of feeling dashes o'er their weltering heart ; 
 And all the thunder and the flash of thought 
 Volleys and lightens round their fitful brain ; 
 And their high power, by which the world is wrought 
 To mightiest sympathies, is grasp'd in pain." 
 
 Of course Wade had faults of style and construction ; 
 nor would it be hard to find instances of technical defect 
 if that were the object ; but it is not. The aim here is
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 59 
 
 to show what has been lost, not what has been gained, in 
 the neglect of Wade ; and his technical imperfections are 
 comfortably swallowed with the thought that even the 
 greatest poets are open to censure on the score of all kinds 
 of imperfections. Men of repute have, indeed, been found 
 whose work is like Maud herself — 
 
 " Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null " ; 
 
 but these have never been the great among the sons of 
 song — and the works of Wade's own master show to the 
 instructed eye flaws and irregularities, almost inherent 
 in the very ardour and rhapsody of the highest forms of 
 lyric utterance. The instinct of Shelley, indeed, is 
 almost unerring — his inaccuracies and irregularities seldom 
 if ever, offend the inmost sense of perfection — and 
 though he, in common with most rapid and impetuous 
 writers, is specially beset with that bugbear of English 
 composition, the relative, he hardly ever uses the relative 
 with absolute gracelessness. In truth, however, this is 
 one of the points in which Wade is a faithful disciple, 
 perhaps without knowing it. Probably he had never 
 observed the defectiveness of English arising from the 
 constrained and constant use of relatives into which it 
 runs, unless the greatest watchfulness be exercised ; and, 
 much as Shelley must, for all his reputation for careless- 
 ness, have considered various minor details of composi- 
 tion, one feels pretty sure that he also was never forcibly 
 struck by the relative bugbear. But so gracious is his 
 composition both in prose and in verse, that, even when
 
 60 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 crammed full of relatives, as it often is, this defect is not 
 obtrusive. In Wade the same defect is occasionally 
 obtrusive. 
 
 Wade's ardent discipleship of Shelley is illustrated 
 by compositions on texts taken from his master, such 
 as the two sonnets written on titles taken from the lovely 
 passage : 
 
 " Daisies those pearled Arcturi of the Earth, 
 The constellated flower that never sets." 
 
 The sonnet To the Constellated Flower that Never Sets 
 is a really poetic enlargement on the suggestion of 
 Shelley's few words ; and the fact that its existence would 
 be unaccountable without Shelley does not detract one 
 whit from its beauty or its merit. It is full of a senti- 
 ment of respect for flower-life, thoroughly in the spirit 
 of Shelley ; it is not an imitation, not even a conscious 
 assimilation of idea or sentiment : an innate relation- 
 ship of natures, a special personal proclivity and pre- 
 dilection, led Wade not merely to take a text from 
 his master, and to love what his master thought and 
 said, but also to feel on any given subject much as one 
 would imagine Shelley feeling. The profound humane- 
 ness of the address to the animal creation in Alastor finds 
 its echo in Wade's sweet and tender love for flowers, 
 especially in a poem called The Life of Flowers, where he 
 works out more elaborately this same sentiment, going so 
 far as to appeal to his listener to believe in the sentient 
 being of flowers, " For Love's, if not Truth's, sake " — that 
 is to say, for the sake of respecting their existence. The
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. Gi 
 
 sonnet To the Pearled Arcturi of the Earth is one of 
 the choicest of these Shelley tributes in the Mundi et 
 Cordis Carmina. 
 
 In one other Shelley -study Wade, perhaps, challenged 
 comparison a little indiscreetly, by attempting a very 
 difficult and exacting metre, in which the master had 
 written one of his most popular poems, and one, too, 
 of triumphal perfection. The stanzas To a Glow-worm, 
 first printed in The Monthly Repository, and afterwards in 
 the Carmina, are in the metre of the poem To a Skylark ; 
 and, though this of Wade's has spiritual charm and melody, 
 the metre is so remarkable that one cannot get away from 
 the impression of those heights and depths, those 
 raptures of aspiration, which are the despair alike of 
 imitation and of criticism. Wade deserved to fail for 
 this piece of daring ; and that he did fail, the artificial 
 concluding stanza is evidence enough : 
 
 " Ne'er on leaf and blossom 
 Do thou shine again, 
 Till this weary bosom 
 
 Sleeps, beneath them lain ; 
 Then nightly on my grave for epitaph remain." 
 
 But this small failure was almost nothing to set against 
 the general excellence of the whole volume, and was 
 indeed only a relative failure by constraint of an over- 
 exacting comparison. Such a model was enough to make 
 any one write artificially. 
 
 The neglect of Mundi et Cordis Carmina is much less 
 intelligible than that of the poems issued subsequently.
 
 62 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 That was a substantial and elegant volume, and should 
 not have been lost sight of: they were thin pamphlets, in- 
 tended, it is true, to be bound by those who cared to 
 preserve them together ; but whether six people were 
 wise enough to do this, is doubtful. One set of these 
 poems so preserved has been seen by a living eye ; but 
 it is with great difficulty that any of them can be 
 found. 
 
 The Contention of Death and Love 1 is certainly one of 
 the most treasurable of all Wade's poems for lyric intensity, 
 graciousness of thought and interest of association. It, 
 again, was written on a text from Shelley, and in a metre 
 comparable*only to that of the Lines Written among the 
 Euganeany Hills. The subject is, as in most of Wade's 
 mature poems, the thinnest possible thread of connexion ; 
 but the clear personality of the imagery is thoroughly 
 Italian; and] the poem abounds with beautiful thoughts. 
 It must have been written in much personal sadness ; but 
 the happiness of touch in many passages will be clear to all 
 sympathetic readers. The allusion to Wells, and the poet's 
 note on him, will be found peculiarly interesting. Wade 
 just lived long enough to see the genius of Wells wake 
 up to receive its applause ; but whether he did see this 
 awakening, — the republication and reception of Joseph 
 and his Brethren, — is not recorded. To disarm criticism 
 beforehand in regard to the seemingly imperfect rhythm 
 of one line in the beautiful passage where Wells's name 
 comes in, it is suggested that Wade pronounced the 
 
 1 The Contention of Death and Love. A Poem. London : Edward 
 Moxon, Dover-street. 1837.
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 63 
 
 name Coleridge in three syllables (Co — ler — idge) as it 
 is recorded that one of the illustrious companions of that 
 illustrious poet invariably did. 
 
 But of all these pamphlet-poems, the most beautiful is 
 Helena} — this time, in form and subject, a clear study after 
 Keats, not Shelley, though the story of a young mother 
 whose baby was taken from her immediately after its birth, 
 only to be discovered dead, at the roots of a rose-tree sent 
 by the father, and tended with great care, is to some 
 extent racy of both soils. The image of Cythna's madness 
 after the birth of her child comes to the mind perforce; and, 
 though the tender madness of the bereaved mother of 
 course recalls in its differentia rather that of Isabella in The 
 Pot of Basil, the intense flow of her maternal impulses in 
 the guardianship of flowers again brings us back upon the 
 dominant influence of Shelley, — for here we trace the lovely- 
 lady in The Sensitive Plant. The treatment of a happily- 
 chosen variant of the Chaucerian stanza combines vigour 
 and delicacy, and marks Wade's highest point in metrical 
 attainment : throughout the poem the style is rich, mellow, 
 and felicitous. 
 
 The Shadozv-Seeher 2 is thinner and less tangible, because 
 almost wholly ideal ; but it has beauties of a high order, and 
 is given as issued, with Helena. The last of the series, 
 Prothanasia, z is in every way remarkable. It is written in 
 
 1 Helena. A Poem. By Thomas Wade. London : Edward Moxon, 
 Dover-street. 1837. 
 
 2 The Shadow-Seeker. A Poem. By Thomas Wade. London : Edward 
 Moxon, Dover-street. 1837. 
 
 3 Prothanasia ; and Other Poems. By Thomas Wade. London : John 
 Miller, Henrietta-street, Covent Garden. 1839.
 
 64 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 blank verse modelled after the Alastor of Shelley ; and in 
 several passages it shows the influence of that admirable 
 poem, — as well as in the general treatment of the sub- 
 ject, — that of a beautiful young woman who, influenced 
 by the eloquently expounded doctrines of a man of 
 striking powers, puts an end to her life rather than 
 preserve it and submit to the decay of youth and 
 beauty. It need hardly be said, however, that the 
 poet does not inculcate this doctrine in his poem, which 
 may probably be printed in a later volume of this 
 miscellany. 
 
 After Wade had ceased to issue in book or pamphlet 
 form his unregarded poems, he still appeared occasionally 
 as a contributor to magazines ; and his brother-in-law, 
 W. J. Linton, god-fathered many of these fugitive pieces 
 — including the Monologue of Konvad from Mickiewicz. 
 But, chiefly, Wade devoted himself to reforming the 
 periodical press in Jersey, where such reform was badly 
 enough needed ; and during one of the subsequent years of 
 his life he made a translation of the Inferno of Dante, still 
 unpublished. It is done in the English equivalent of the 
 original metre, terza rima, without the dissyllabic line- 
 end which Wade naturally found nearly as unfit for 
 such a purpose in English as the monosyllabic rhyme 
 would be in Italian. Wade was led to this task by the 
 consideration of Wright's failure at a time when Cayley 
 had not issued either of his four volumes. The manu- 
 script of Wade's version is inscribed on the first page, 
 "commenced on or about 16 July 1845"; and the last 
 page is dated "July 8, 1846." Cayley's Inferno, in the
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 65 
 
 same metre — the terza rima without the dissyllabic rhymes 
 (or with only such a proportion of them as comes naturally) 
 — was not published till 185 1 ; and it is possible that its 
 appearance may have prevented Wade from completing 
 and issuing his version. But, undeniable as are the 
 beauties and the value of Cayley's work, there is still 
 room for this translation of Wade's, which has at least 
 as high poetic qualities as the other, and, while less 
 erudite, is freer from antiquated eccentricities. Here is 
 Wade's version of the end of The Inferno : 
 
 Remote from Beelzebub, there is a place 
 
 As far as downward doth the Tomb extend, 
 Which not by vision, but by sound hath trace 
 
 Of a small brook, that thither doth descend 
 Along a hollowed rock which it hath worn 
 
 In its winding course, that gently doth impend. 
 My Guide and I upon that way forlorn 
 
 Entered to greet again the world sublime ; 
 And, holding all repose but as in scorn, 
 
 He first, I following, did we upward climb, 
 Until I saw the gracious heaven unfold 
 
 Its beautiful things, thro' a round opening dim : 
 And thence we pass'd, the stars to re-behold. 
 
 There is a misfortune which would doubtless have been 
 removed if the translator had proceeded with his work, and 
 rendered The Purgatorio and Paradiso. The last word in 
 each of the divisions of the Commedia is stelle : it is a pity, 
 even in rendering The Inferno only, that this significant 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 arrangement should not be followed ; and, in rendering the 
 three divisions, it must have become obvious that stars 
 should be the last word of each. A very simple change 
 would have compassed this in the foregoing version. If we 
 read the last line but two thus — 
 
 Until I saw where gracious heaven unbars, 
 
 we could read the last line thus — 
 
 And thence we pass'd to re-behold the stars. 
 
 Some such change would doubtless have been made ; and 
 it would have left Wade's version at least as admissible as 
 that of Cayley, who imports into the three final lines two 
 separate and original images, thus : 
 
 Until some splendours, borne by heaven's cars, 
 Across a rounded crevice kist our sight ; 
 We issued thence to re-behold the stars. 
 
 Wade while allowing himself that measure of paraphrase 
 without which it is impossible to translate, or rather trans- 
 mute, poetry of one language into poetry of another, is far 
 less lavish than Cayley in the importation of new imagery. 
 In the Lecture What does' Hamlet' Mean? 1 he showed 
 himself also an able and subtle critic and exponent of 
 
 1 " What does '■Hamlet' Mean?" A Lecture. Delivered before the 
 President and Members of the Jersey Mechanics' Institute. By Thomas 
 Wade, Author of Songs of the Universe and of the Heart, Prothanasia, &c, 
 &c. Printed at the Office of The British Press, Jersey ; and to be had of 
 Mr. John Miller, Bookseller, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London.
 
 THE POET AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 67 
 
 Shakespeare ; and no doubt a file of The British Press for 
 the period of his editing would yield much good prose 
 criticism, both social and literary, from his own pen. 
 
 A late prose jeu d' esprit remains among his unpublished 
 manuscripts, — What the Pentateuch {the Five Books) of 
 Moses, and the Book of Joshua, teach us to believe, by a Zulu 
 {Authorized Translation); and this and other writings 
 mark him as an advanced liberal in religion and thought. 
 He married Mrs. Bridgman (born Eager), the well-known 
 pianist, whose first husband had died in somewhat tragic 
 circumstances. Lucy Eager was the daughter of a musician, 
 had entered the musical profession at the age of fifteen, and 
 remained in it till almost the end of her long life. As 
 shown in some of the sonnets, Poetry and Music formed 
 a really vital bond between her and Wade, to whose 
 memory she was strongly devoted. They dwelt at Jersey 
 till the day of his death, which took place on the 19th 
 of September 1875. His widow lived to complete her 
 eighty-first year, and died in the spring of 1882. 
 
 Of the Fifty Sonnets here published consecutively, some 
 have been gathered in from such outlying sources as rare 
 periodicals and the almost introuvable tract Prothanasia, 
 and other Poems. The rest are now printed for the first 
 time, and are given from the poet's manuscripts. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 TO CERTAIN "CRITICS." 
 
 Dear Critics ! Gentle Judgers ! Why so prone 
 
 In my song's " mingled yarn " to note the worse alone ? 
 
 Clear-sighted for all specks ; to brightness blind ! 
 
 Nosed to pick one ill scent from out a flower-fed wind ! 
 
 Ear'd for one discord, sounding casually, 
 
 In a long breathing- while of tender harmony ! 
 
 Learn'd readers of the gravure o'er the porch ; 
 
 But, of th' esoteric ritual of the church 
 
 Untutor'd neophytes ! If not for heed 
 
 Of him whose passive soul is but a chosen reed, 
 
 From which the Universal Pan, soft-breathing, 
 
 Makes gentle music swell and soar, like incense 
 
 wreathing ; 
 Yet, for the sake of all the love he sings, 
 He prays ye — learn to sigh ; and grow less loveless things ! 
 
 T. W.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS WADE.
 
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 //?ju^//ji 
 
 SONNET BY THOMAS WADE 
 FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL HOLOGRAPH.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 
 
 I. 
 
 BIRTH AND DEATH. 
 
 Methinks the soul within the body held 
 
 Is as a little babe within the womb, 
 
 Which flutters in its antenatal tomb, 
 
 And stirs and heaves the prison where 'tis cell'd, 
 
 And struggles in strange darkness, undispell'd 
 
 By all its strivings towards the breath and bloom 
 
 Of that aurorean being soon to come — 
 
 Strivings of feebleness, by nothing quell'd : 
 
 And even as birth to the enfranchised child, 
 
 Which shows to its sweet senses all the vast 
 
 Of beauty, visible and audible, 
 
 Is death unto the spirit undefiled ; 
 
 Setting it free of limit and the past, 
 
 And all that in its prison-house befell. 
 
 I'jtk August 1838.
 
 72 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 II. 
 
 WHO MAY SAY ? 
 
 When the so-gracious frame of her whose heart 
 
 Obeys of mine the gentle monarchy, 
 
 Veils with itself its own sweet counterpart ; 
 
 Living like that, altho' invisibly, 
 
 And to appear hereafter, and expand 
 
 To human grace and glory ; who may say, 
 
 That that Great Whole which doth from eyes demand 
 
 Infinite adoration — the Vast Round 
 
 O' the Visible Universe — doth not enfold 
 
 A Second Self, which, on some destined day, 
 
 May into vision-startling being bound ; 
 
 And, in the vast of ages, wide unfold 
 
 Magnificence, to kindle and to live 
 
 After the model of its Primitive? 
 
 30/A August 1838.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 73 
 
 III. 
 
 THE NEAR ADVENT. 
 
 Now that the little fabric of our loves 
 
 Waits, at the very portal of the world, 
 
 The moment in which first shall be unfurl'd 
 
 The banner of its being ; and it moves, 
 
 With cadence gentle as the alight of doves 
 
 Toward light and breath ; be perfect peace upcurl'd 
 
 In thy deep heart, Dear ! and thy thoughts impearl'd 
 
 All, with the dews of joy ! For it behoves 
 
 That which creates to temper its creation 
 
 With balmiest elements of blessedness, 
 
 After great Nature's visible dictation ; 
 
 Who, when she teemeth with delicious spring, 
 
 Doth tend the coming birth with sunshining 
 
 And with bright rains and blandest airs caress. 
 
 25th October 1838.
 
 74 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A WARNING. 
 
 In the great work of Human Good, sweet Child ! 
 
 Be thou a new Messiah to the earth ! 
 
 Much thought and love made prelude to thy birth, 
 
 And passion by no violence defiled ; 
 
 Kindness and care upon thy coming smiled, 
 
 And brooded o'er thy helplessness and pain : 
 
 And, if intent by fate be made not vain, 
 
 Thou shalt be rear'd within all influence mild. 
 
 Ye who have children, hear ! — The mind of ages 
 
 Is in your hands, to fashion as ye will — 
 
 Ancillary to Nature and to God : 
 
 The distant future, waiting on your nod 
 
 For good perpetual or continuous ill, 
 
 Will stamp your praise or shame on its eternal page. 
 
 i$th December 1838.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS 75 
 
 V. 
 
 THE CHILD. 
 
 Germ of a world of thought ! that shall create 
 
 Thought-worlds, or else belie thy parentage — 
 
 What full profession doth thy spirit engage 
 
 Of all of which thine elders make debate, 
 
 And yet know nothing ? What they contemplate, 
 
 Is it even now thy fresh mind's heritage 
 
 To know and feel, without that surplusage 
 
 Of reasoning which doth reason agitate ? 
 
 There is no childish touch about thy look ; 
 
 But seriousness and seeming thought-result — 
 
 A still-unwritten, but arranged book, 
 
 Which we are all too eyeless to consult : 
 
 But it assures us, as the heavens do, 
 
 Of infinite beauty veil'd by that we view. 
 
 1 8//; December 1838.
 
 76 THOMAS WADE 
 
 VI. 
 
 TO MY CHILD. 
 
 Oh ! sink not from us, as a drop of dew, 
 
 From life's fresh rose to the obstructive sod, 
 
 Where ear may hear thee not, nor fond eye view ; 
 
 But our hearts strike against the sullen clod 
 
 For ever, till they break. On morning new 
 
 Never came instant night : and dearest God 
 
 Grant that to thy sweet dawn of human day 
 
 A glorious noon and placid eve be fated, 
 
 And that to whither goes poor dust alway 
 
 We may descend before thee ! — O, created 
 
 Of divine love and joy ! do not forsake us 
 
 In this thy bud of being ; but disclose 
 
 The fulness of life's flower, and therewith make us 
 
 A garden all of sweets, thou folded rose ! 
 
 22nd January 1839.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 77 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE FEAR. 
 
 The way this Child doth creep into my heart 
 Even fills my inmost being with alarm ; 
 For fears, which from my soul I cannot charm 
 By any aidance of hope's rainbow-art, 
 Oppress me yet, that we are doom'd to part, 
 And all his pretty looks and breath of balm 
 
 Hear requiem'd by the grave-wind's winter-psalm, 
 And childless to the home of love depart ! 
 
 But God is with him in his little ways, 
 
 His smiles and murmurs, cries and sufferings ; 
 
 And if he be retaken to the springs 
 
 From whence all being flows, we yet will praise 
 
 The All-Disposer with a grief serene, 
 
 And o'er our dead bud fold its memory's fadeless green ! 
 
 27th, March 1839.
 
 78 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE ENTREATY. 
 
 But, do not die ! Sweet Cherub ! do not die : 
 
 Yet fold within their human chrysalis 
 
 Thine angel-wings ! We cannot yet let fly 
 
 The spirit from our gazing and our kiss : 
 
 It is a new and life-essential bliss 
 
 We've reap'd from thine existence ; and the sky, 
 
 And all it girdleth, would but seem amiss 
 
 Without thy smile and little plaintive cry. 
 
 We've much to do with thee on earth, dear babe ! 
 
 To see thee stagger on thy tiny feet ; 
 
 To teach thee worded language — and so teach, 
 
 That thou hereafter may'st be as a stab, 
 
 Fatal, to wrong and woe. Live ! We must reach 
 
 The grave ere thou, Love-Incarnation sweet ! 
 
 2%th March 1839.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 79 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE RETURN. 
 
 Smile, Baby ! for thy Mother home is coming, 
 Again to clasp thee to her yearning heart ; 
 Both memory and hope her way illuming 
 To the calm nook wherein thou nestled art. 
 Thou canst not run to meet her, Baby dear ! 
 Nor hast sweet worded music on thy tongue 
 But thou the music of her voice canst hear, 
 And o'er thee see her tender gazings hung : 
 And little recollections, fond tho' dim, 
 Enkindled in thy soul thro' ear and eye 
 Shall lend thee graces of the cherubim 
 Saluted by the breath of deity : 
 Stir all thy tiny limbs, and softly trace 
 Sweet love-assurance on thy pretty face ! 
 
 31st March 1839.
 
 So THOMAS WADE. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE BARRIER-BOND. 
 
 I have seen flowers against each other's heart 
 Fearfully beaten by the sudden wind ; 
 Until, as if toward instant death declined, 
 Low they have hung, and mournfully, apart — 
 By one green blade alone from earth protected ; 
 Which, as they rose from out their state dejected, 
 Has with them risen, and a bond innected 
 Between them which no storm could unembind ! 
 Thus be it with our loves, my more than wife ! — 
 Too often sever'd by convulsive strife : 
 This gentle Infancy shall grow between 
 Our bosoms, as a bar 'gainst temper-harms ; 
 And oft as passion threats our peace serene, 
 We'll seek reproof within his little arms. 
 
 %th June 1839.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS 81 
 
 XL 
 HIGH-SPEAKINGS. 
 
 In the still vacancy of common hours, 
 
 We need these stirrings from the Universe — 
 
 High-speakings to us from Superior Powers, 
 
 Which of remote existences rehearse 
 
 And in dream-regions all the spirit immerse ; 
 
 And when they cease, or interlapse devours 
 
 The wonder of their utterance, our soul's sense 
 
 Frets, straining with divine impatience : 
 
 Most like a stepless and a wordless child, 
 
 Which listens to a sweet-toned instrument, 
 
 Touch'd by its mother's fingers, till beguiled 
 
 All into smiles and gestures eloquent ; 
 
 And the loved music ceasing, pines and cries 
 
 For still-renewal of its harmonies. 
 
 %th June 1839. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 S2 THOMAS WADE 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE FIRST DAY OF THE FOURTH YEAR. 
 
 Best celebration, next to that most dear, 
 
 Of this memorial day of chainless union, 
 
 Is the plain falling-off of such as wear 
 
 The mask of truth in their most false communion : 
 
 So, let them go ! — The fields and trees appear 
 
 Of fresher beauty, for the thoughts within us ; 
 
 And all that speaketh unto eye or ear, 
 
 Not of itself, but through our hearts, doth win us. 
 
 Rich were we then beyond all worldly store ; 
 
 But now that wealth is by comparison 
 
 From heap'd abundance made but seeming poor — 
 
 A Croesus meagred to a beggar's-son ! — • 
 
 For there at home our little Willy lies 
 
 With our earth-paradise in his sweet eyes ! 
 
 l"jtA August 1839.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 83 
 
 XIII. 
 
 TO BABY. 
 
 Thou art thy father's Soul, I do believe, 
 
 My golden-hair'd and radiant-visaged Child ! 
 
 Projected into light, and undefiled 
 
 By the dull flesh which makes it ache and grieve 
 
 Thro' thy brief scene, where shadow doth deceive, 
 
 Until by substance we are more beguiled : 
 
 With the strange thought I have both wept and smiled- 
 
 As one men suddenly from death reprieve. 
 
 O, speak to me of past and future things ! 
 
 Of whence thou earnest into this worn clay, 
 
 And whither thou dost tend in its decay. 
 
 Almost I seem to see cherubic wings 
 
 Ope from about thee, for swift heavenward flight ; 
 
 And I grow dust in their departing light ! 
 
 17th January 1840. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE RESULT. 
 
 From depths unfathomable that desire 
 
 Which gave us being, sprang ; and fathomless 
 
 The sources of that being. We were born, 
 
 To meet and gaze and mingle. From the morn, 
 
 And noon, and eve, and night, did we inspire 
 
 The spirit of a gradual consciousness, 
 
 And from the visage and the voice and hand 
 
 Of human minist' rings : and grew and grew — 
 
 Imbibing from the skies and stream and land, 
 
 With every straining sense, that sacred dew 
 
 By which the roots of Thought are nourished, 
 
 And Feeling into bud and fruit is fed : 
 
 And hence the love in which our hearts exult, 
 
 And this divinest Child, its full and last Result. 
 
 17th January 1S40. 

 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 85 
 
 XV. 
 
 Dear Lady mine ! in whose sweet company 
 
 I walk at morning, noon and eventide ; 
 
 Under cool trees, or placid streams beside ; 
 
 Smiling on all fair things with loving eye : 
 
 The pleasant grass beneath ; the leaves on high ; 
 
 The tender flowers, in all fair colours dyed ; 
 
 The glittering insects, in their sunshine pride ; 
 
 And the glad birds, singing melodiously ! 
 
 The thought of that drear hour when we must mingle 
 
 With dark dust under-ground, is solemn-sad, 
 
 And well might drive a human creature mad : 
 
 Yet e'en thro' that doth the quaint fancy tingle, 
 
 That our rechaos'd and soul-parted clay 
 
 Shall be the quiet nurse of such bright things as they ! 
 
 \%th May 1836.
 
 86 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE BURIED BUTTERFLY. 
 
 What lovely things are dead within the sky, 
 
 By our corporeal vision undiscern'd — 
 
 Extinguished suns, that once in glory burn'd ; 
 
 And blighted planets, mouldering gloomily 
 
 Beyond the girdle of the galaxy ; 
 
 And faded essences, in light inurn'd, 
 
 Of creatures spiritual, to that Deep return'd 
 
 From whence they sprang, in far Eternity — 
 
 This e'er to know is unto us forbidden ; 
 
 But much thereto concerning may we deem, 
 
 By inference from fact familiar : 
 
 Beneath those radiant flowers and bright grass hidden, 
 
 Withers a thing once golden as a star 
 
 And seeming unsubstantial as a dream. 
 
 1839.
 
 • 
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 87 
 
 XVII. 
 
 MUSIC AND LOVE. 
 
 Ah ! Music in an atmosphere of Love 
 
 A portion of the soul of Love becometh ; 
 
 The heard deep-blended with the harmony 
 
 That is unheard, but to the touch and eye 
 
 And innermost spirit of sweet life reveal'd : 
 
 But in an atmosphere of Music, Love 
 
 Is lost, and wilder'd from the simpleness 
 
 Of its most silent bliss — a murmuring dove, 
 
 In the dim woods which have its joys conceal'd, 
 
 By the loud chant of flocking birds invaded ; 
 
 A calm wildflower, that in soft fragrance bloometh, 
 
 By morn and eve divinely dew'd and shaded, 
 
 In art's strong perfumes drench'd. Ah ! strangely less 
 
 Doth Love sweet Music serve, than Music Love. 
 
 1839.
 
 88 THOMAS WADE 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 THE MIST OF FAMILIARITY. 
 
 In this Eternal, Universal Wonder ; 
 Of which we are part, and should percipient be ; 
 We move, indifferent, God's Blue Arch under — 
 By that dull mist, Familiarity, 
 Begirt, and sodden into apathy ! 
 Astonishment, nor dread, nor admiration, 
 Nor panting love, nor trembling adoration, 
 Our Life from its lethargic courses waking ; 
 Its little self of all things centre making, 
 Tho' need and death its sole circumference ! — 
 Even as the Savage Fisherman, when drew 
 Men from far lands, of speech and aspect new, 
 And of strange state, within his scope of view, 
 Fish'd on ; nor turn'd his head ; nor question'd — What ? 
 or, Whence ? 
 
 1839.
 
 • 
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 89 
 
 XIX. 
 VOLITION. 
 
 "The object of volition is not the cause of volition." — Hazlitt. 
 
 God will'd Creation ; but Creation was not 
 
 The cause of that Almighty Will of God, 
 
 But that great God's desire of emanation : 
 
 Beauty of Human Love the object is ; 
 
 But Love's sweet cause lives in the Soul's desire 
 
 For intellectual, sensual sympathies: 
 
 Seeing a plain-plumed bird, in whose deep throat 
 
 We know the richest power of music dwells, 
 
 We long to hear its linked melodies : 
 
 Scenting a far-off flower's most sweet perfume, 
 
 That gives its balm of life to every wind, 
 
 We crave to mark the beauty of its bloom : 
 
 But bird nor flower is that Volition's cause ; 
 
 But Music and fine Grace, graven on the Soul, like laws. 
 
 1839-
 
 90 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE NOLLEKENS. 1 
 
 Ah ! Vision fixed and substantialised 
 
 Of the Old Sculptor's youth ! — The one thing dream'd, 
 
 Which all his waking life antagonised 
 
 And from dull Hell his gasping age redeem'd ! — 
 
 Lord ! how she clings unto her lover there ! — 
 
 As sentiently and indissoluble 
 
 As his own veins unto the flesh they wear, 
 
 When thro' them pants the hot blood voluble ! — 
 
 Oh ! In such wondrous god-embracing fashion — 
 
 When first the Uncreated Soul Intense 
 
 Breathed love and life into Primeval Matter, 
 
 And melted it to form and grace and passion — 
 
 Clung the fond Universe to her Creator, 
 
 And taught Him all the powers of his own Effluence. 
 
 1839. 
 
 1 The subject of this sonnet is a statuette by the sculptor Nollekens, 
 formerly in the possession of " Orion " Home.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 91 
 
 XXI. 
 
 THE WHEEL OF TIME. 
 
 The Wheel of Time revolveth restlessly ; 
 
 From morn to night, from night to weary morn : 
 
 We kindle in the womb, and then are born, 
 
 And look upon the pauseless world, and cry ; 
 
 And then the ether-light of Infancy 
 
 Youth flushes with the purple of its morn ; 
 
 And then hot Manhood's noon is soon o'erworn, 
 
 And Age's eve comes on, and then we die. 
 
 The old world changes : valley becomes hill, 
 
 And mountain vale ; land sea, and ocean land ; 
 
 And cities deserts, deserts peopled be ; 
 
 The stars are failing, tho' they twinkle still ; 
 
 And nothing in all space doth firmly stand — 
 
 But round that Mighty Wheel all things whirl ceaselessly. 
 
 1839-
 
 92 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 A THOUGHT IN THE PRESENCE OF A DEAD 
 
 CHILD. 
 
 The aspect of sweet life ; and yet, not life ! 
 
 If thou, dear Child ! art dead ; and yet dost bear 
 
 Such vital hues upon thy visage fair ; 
 Showing calm living bliss, without the strife 
 Of being's pain and passion, and so rife 
 With sweetness, grace and love, that we not dare 
 To think that death dwells in corruption there — 
 How know we, that the clear and gorgeous Vault 
 With all the light of its star-studded azure, 
 Which to the Eternal doth our thought exalt, 
 Is not, this moment, but one glorious frame 
 That hath the hue of life without the flame ; 
 Death at the core of all, and dim erasure 
 Ready to overpall its glory-without-measure ? 
 
 1839.
 
 FIFT Y SONNE TS. 9 3 
 
 XXIII. 
 THE SILENCE. 
 
 Hush'd Nature, like a sweet soul slumbering, 
 
 Seems smiling thro' her dreams ; smiles of calm glory 
 
 That can but issue from a dream of God, 
 
 Her perfect Lover! By that transitory 
 
 Here-and-there flitting of a ghost of sound, 
 
 Silence remaineth in her peace profound 
 
 Inviolate as death ; and from the sod 
 
 The little stir that still is issuing, 
 
 From busy movements of an atom life, 
 
 Doth testify of that extreme repose 
 
 In which such motion is made audible, 
 
 And heard almost the drooping of the rose 
 
 Unto its twilight sleep resemblative, 
 
 And the soft fall of dews invisible. 
 
 1839.
 
 94 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 THE HALF-ASLEEP. 
 
 O, for the mighty 'wakening that aroused 
 
 The old-time Prophets to their missions high ; 
 
 And to blind Homer's inward sunlike eye 
 
 Show'd the heart's universe, where he caroused 
 
 Radiantly ; the Fishers poor unhoused, 
 
 And sent them forth to teach divinity; 
 
 And made our Milton his great dark defy, 
 
 To the light of one immortal theme espoused ! 
 
 But half asleep are those now most awake; 
 
 And, save calm-thoughted Wordsworth, we have none 
 
 Who for eternity put time at stake, 
 
 And hold a constant course as doth the sun : 
 
 We yield but drops, that no deep thirstings slake ; 
 
 And feebly cease ere we have well begun. 
 
 1839.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 95 
 
 XXV. 
 
 ON HEARING SOME FINE MUSIC ILL-PLAYED. 
 
 Not in the noting, or the instrument 
 
 Fine Music's sweet sufficiency doth live ; 
 
 But in the sight and touch executive 
 
 Of harmony's soul-active president, 
 
 Learn'd, and instinctive to her element. 
 
 How dull is Poesy which, read, doth give 
 
 Naught of its meanings clear-exempletive — 
 
 The poet lost, the reader evident ! 
 
 I have heard Spenser, Shakspeare, and sage Ben, 
 
 Made Sternhold, Hopkins, Watts, by mouths ungifted, 
 
 Which spake untutor'd by the heart and brain : 
 
 And thus it is how Weber, Beethoven, 
 
 Whom hearing, I have been to heaven lifted, 
 
 Now steep me in a discord-hell of pain.
 
 96 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 THE FACE.— I. 
 
 The "joy for ever" of a beauteous thing 
 
 Is effluent from its beauty's memory : 
 
 Itself and all its loveliness take wing, 
 
 And only fixed in the thoughts they lie, 
 
 A worshipp'd, but unseen, Divinity 
 
 Like God himself! I never shall forget 
 
 That lucent face, but for a moment met : 
 
 Itself and all its loveliness must die 
 
 In death, or deathward life's maturity ; 
 
 But, ever young and beauteous, in my dreaming 
 
 It shall contend for immortality, 
 
 Till o'er my dust the grass and flowers arc teeming 
 
 Nor perish then, if aught in this true page 
 
 May feed a dream thereof from age to age.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 97 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 THE FACE.— II. 
 
 It was a face that on the eyesight struck 
 
 Like the clear blue and starry arch of night, 
 
 When suddenly we quit a narrow chamber, 
 
 From the world's dust to teach our thoughts to clamber 
 
 To that invisible ether of delight 
 
 Which atmospheres the planets in their flight ! 
 
 With lips, and brow, and eyelids that did pluck 
 
 The gaze from all the circling flash of faces, 
 
 And fix it on its beauties' combination ; 
 
 So interfiexed, that, star by star, its graces 
 
 Were noted not ; but still, in constellation, 
 
 A harmony of grace, such as embraces 
 
 The innermost spirit with its concord 'fine" 
 
 But which sense cannot note by note define. 
 
 VOL. i. H
 
 98 • THMOAS WADE. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 POETRY AND SCIENCE. 
 
 A revelation of the essence of God 
 
 Is Poetry ; Science, of his effluence : 
 
 This, a revealing of the power of God ; 
 
 That, of his being is a vision intense : 
 
 This, a disclosure of the acts of God ; 
 
 That, God himself reveal'd to evidence. 
 
 The Spirit of all things felt before he knew ; 
 
 And from his feeling was his knowledge drawn — 
 
 Effect divine of a diviner cause ! 
 
 So from the heart the head hath its prime laws ; 
 
 For Poetry's noon-hues our souls imbue 
 
 Ere Science breaks on them with her cold dawn. 
 
 O, self-proud Head ! bow down thy Science high 
 
 To the creator Heart and its great Poetry !
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 
 
 99 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 COMPANIONSHIP. 
 
 God cannot feel alone ; for unto Him 
 
 The Love of All Things is companionship — 
 
 Whether express'd by human hand and lip, 
 
 Or quivering wing within the forest dim, 
 
 Or silent gaze of flowers ; or which o'erbrim 
 
 Doth not in act or look, but lieth deep 
 
 Folded in brain and bosom, like a sleep, 
 
 And singing to itself a dreamy hymn ! 
 
 And thus should Man of heavy solitude 
 
 Break the dead clasp ; and of all living creatures 
 
 Make the enjoyment and the love his love 
 
 And glee and dear associates : there be features 
 
 Of tenderness and joy in things endued 
 
 With plainest aspect, the dull'd spirit to move. 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 THE FALLERS-SHORT. 
 
 When Great Men are not great, we needs must mourn, 
 
 More than for all the pranks of Littleness ; 
 
 For that short-falling doth increase the weight 
 
 Our spirits bear beneath this dust forlorn. 
 
 Great Men are solid harbour-holding banks 
 
 Bounding the weltering waves of Life's distress ; 
 
 And when they sink and fail us, we are left 
 
 Upon a shoreless ocean, hope-bereft. 
 
 O ye of lofty souls ! what is there here, 
 
 In this poor antepast to the Eternal, 
 
 To lure ye to the glory-wrecking shoals 
 
 That should but tempt the idler voyager ? 
 
 Your spirits in a Timeless mould are cast, 
 
 And should disdain to shrink within the mean Diurnal.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. ior 
 
 XXXI. 
 THE SWAN. 
 
 O, blended majesty and grace of motion ! 
 
 Majestic as a billow of the ocean ; 
 
 And graceful as a matron's bosom heaving ! 
 
 At the first coming of the twilight wan, 
 
 The crystal of the river whitely cleaving, 
 
 O'er his fair shadow floats a state-proud swan ! 
 
 His wings upreared and curved ; his fine neck arching ; 
 
 His eyes to either shore intently peering ; 
 
 His progress silent as the mighty marching 
 
 Of earth and all the planets round the sun ! 
 
 He naught divergeth from his forth-careering 
 
 Till the far haven of his rest is won ; 
 
 Where her close-nestled young his fond mate tendeth, 
 
 And her upraised neck to greet his coming bendeth !
 
 io2 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 When we behold the air-suspended sword 
 
 O'er human joy for ever pendulous ; 
 
 And see the earthly pitfalls 'waiting us 
 
 Thickly along life's way ; of act or word 
 
 We grow incapable, and fain would wait 
 
 Stirless and speechless for the coming state, 
 
 Wherein the millions of the past abide — 
 
 Their dust, their deeds, and their recorded pride : 
 
 And our vow'd spirits (like the devotees 
 
 In attitudinal monotony 
 
 Transfix'd in Indian forests, till the trees 
 
 O'ergrow them, and the wild birds build thereon) 
 
 Seem stricken to their place eternally, 
 
 And no more vital than a stock or stone.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 103 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 The life continual, the fast flow of things, 
 
 That welters round about us ; every year 
 
 Bearing the next upon its changing wings, 
 
 And disappearing but to reappear 
 
 Like-visaged, tho' transfigured ; rise and setting 
 
 Of sun and moon, planets, and starry crowds ; 
 
 Coming and going of the solemn clouds ; 
 
 Wild play of storms and streams, and billows, fretting 
 
 The ever-shifting girdle of the ocean ; 
 
 The bursting of green buds, and fall of leaves ; 
 
 The unfolding and decay of gracious flowers ; 
 
 The music and the silence of the hours, 
 
 Still alternating : 'tis all this reprieves 
 
 Our spirits from their trance, to sweet commotion.
 
 io4 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 THE "POETRY OF EARTH." 
 
 " The Poetry of Earth is never dead," 
 
 Even in the cluster'd haunts of plodding men. 
 
 Before a door in citied underground, 
 
 Lies a man-loving, faith-expression'd hound — 
 
 To pastoral hills forth sending us ; to den 
 
 Of daring bandit ; and to regions dread 
 
 Of mountain-snows, where others of its kind 
 
 Tend upon man's, as with a human mind : 
 
 A golden beetle on the dusty steps 
 
 Crawls, of a wayside-plying vehicle, 
 
 Where wending men swarm thick and gloomily- 
 
 We gaze ; and see beneath the ripening sky 
 
 The harvest glisten ; and that creature creeps 
 
 Upon the sunny corn, radiantly visible !
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 105 
 
 XXXV. 
 THE SERE OAK LEAVES. 
 
 Why do ye rustle in this vernal wind, 
 
 Sere Leaves ! shaking a drear prophetic shroud 
 
 Over the very cradle of the Spring ? 
 
 Like pertinacious Age, with warnings loud, 
 
 Dinning the grave into an infant's mind, 
 
 And shadowing death on life's first imaging! 
 
 Why to these teeming branches do ye cling 
 
 And with your argument renascence cloud ; 
 
 Whilst every creature of new birth is proud, 
 
 And in unstain'd existence revelling ? 
 
 Fall, and a grave within the centre find ! 
 
 And do not thus, whilst all the sweet birds sing, 
 
 The insects glitter, and the flower'd grass waves, 
 
 Blight us with thoughts of winter and our graves !
 
 ioS THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 THE SWAN-AVIARY. 
 
 A thousand swans are o'er the waters sailing, 
 And others in the reeds and rushes? brood, 
 And some are flying o'er the sunny flood ; 
 And all move with a grandeur so prevailing, 
 That long we stand without a breath-inhaling, 
 In admiration of their multitude, 
 And the majestic grace with which endued 
 They float upon the waves, their pride regaling. 
 The sky is blue and golden ; clear as glass, 
 The sea sweeps richly on the glowing shingle ; 
 All vernal hues in the near woods commingle ; 
 And exquisite beauty waves along the grass ; 
 But these things seem but humbly tributary 
 To the white pomp of that vast aviary !
 
 FIFTY SONNETS. 107 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 SPIRIT SOLACE. 
 Perpetual moanings from the troubled sea 
 Of human thought, and wail from the vex'd wind 
 Of mortal feeling, fill our life's wide air : 
 Yet, let thereof the breather not despair : 
 For wind and wave obey a high decree, 
 Which we perceive not in this transit blind 
 From body unto soul. Oh ! the clear calm 
 Of that wild ocean, and its sunlit splendours, 
 And even the rainbows of its tempests fierce, 
 Beget a tranquil spirit-trance, which renders 
 Its terrors dreadless : and the flower-fed balm 
 Of that wind, lull'd to zephyr, doth so pierce 
 The immortal senses with an odorous hope, 
 That earth seems verged on heaven, and all heaven's 
 portals ope. 
 
 1S48.
 
 io8 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 DECEMBER— MAY. 
 
 " So sweet a day it is, that even December, 
 
 On the strange freshness of whose alter'd lip 
 
 I drink this balmy breath — despite the bare 
 
 And silent trees, and meadows flower-forsaken — 
 
 Seems beating with the pulse of joyous May ! " 
 
 Thus said I, with a feeling all of May, 
 
 One gentle daytime bland of late December, 
 
 On the strange freshness of whose alter'd lip 
 
 I breathed mild airs of spring : and lo ! the bare 
 
 And silent trees, and meadows flower-forsaken, 
 
 Grew leaf'd and musical, and flower-adorn'd ; 
 
 And near and far spake out the cuckoo's soul ! — 
 
 " Ah, God ! " methought, " these things are in the soul ; 
 
 And from Within is the Without adorn'd." 
 
 1843.
 
 FIFTY SONNETS 109 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 THE SUN AND THE DAISY. 
 
 The temper'd Sun, down-verging to the West, 
 
 Shone full upon one Daisy's lonely bloom ; 
 
 Of a bleak bank the solitary guest, 
 
 And only spirit risen from Winter's tomb ! 
 
 But fair and bright and perfect-orb'd it gleam'd ; 
 
 And, as the Sun the cold encircling sky, 
 
 To gild the barrenness around it seem'd, 
 
 And claim'd as constant tribute from the eye. 
 
 And worthily : for that vast globe of fire, 
 
 Unto the vision which no space controll'd, 
 
 Would show minute, compared with glories higher, 
 
 As unto ours that little disc of gold : 
 
 'Tis our poor faculties make large and small, 
 
 Where the same boundless wonder mantles all. 
 
 1843.
 
 no THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XL. 
 
 THE ACCOMPANIMENT. 
 
 The lark, as I did read her sweetest letter, 
 
 Sang heavenward in divine accompaniment ; 
 
 And as its gentle meanings ceased to fetter, 
 
 At intervals, all sense o' the outward ear, 
 
 I heard that loud bird-music piercing clear 
 
 The freshness of the morning element, 
 
 Descending as its minstrel made ascent 
 
 And timed to the soft written argument. 
 
 In Love is all-embracing sympathy : 
 
 All accents of the song of that high bird, 
 
 All modulations of its melody, 
 
 Were answer'd by that letter's spirit and word ; 
 
 And the far bird re-echoed, tone for tone, 
 
 The love-notes which my tranced eye trembled on.
 
 FIFTY SONNE TS. 1 1 1 
 
 XLL 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 To an illustrious teacher of men; upon his non-vindication 
 of Shelley from tlie aspersions of a common-place babbler. 
 
 All his pain'd life was nail'd and crucified 
 
 By selfish men, of hearts conventional : 
 
 And since his death, he many deaths hath died 
 
 On dull men's tongues ; his godhead full denied, 
 
 His memory scourged, and rudely vilified, 
 
 And pierced by ruffians in its holy side. 
 
 Then should'st thou not, thou Man Imperial ! 
 
 Whose thoughts do govern thought amidst us all, 
 
 Be worse than Pilate ; in not being the thrall 
 
 Of place, as he, and yet abandoning 
 
 The sacred name of Shelley, deified, 
 
 To vulgar mockery, without championing 
 
 His spirit divine. O, marvel, shame and loss : 
 
 Our Pilate is turn'd Jew, and strains the Cross ! 
 
 1839-
 
 112 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 THE MAN-" GOD." 
 
 It cannot last — this story of a manger 
 Being the Godhead's cradle ! — " Miracles," 
 Dealt upon fish and swine and jars-of-water ! 
 Which, to the ceaseless Miracle that wells 
 Forth from th' unfathom'd Universe, are folly, 
 By Man the Knave to Man the Fool made holy. 
 Should we not laugh to know that flies and worms 
 Fabled that Godhead in their atom forms ? 
 And what are we, but insects of an hour ? — 
 Yet deeming that the Eternal God could cower 
 In our vile flesh his Omnipresent Fire ! 
 It cannot last ! — The Prophets of the Lyre, 
 And all men of great thought, do make it stranger 
 To brain and heart. God's " Son " !— Why not God's 
 " Daughter " ? 
 
 An Adorer of Jesus the Man ; but 
 
 a Contemner of Christ the " God." 
 
 1839.
 
 FIFT V SONNE TS 113 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 TRACES. 
 
 Thy name upon the sands, my Spirit's bride ! 
 Lo ! I have writ ; and the fast-coming sea 
 Advances, that will sweep it utterly 
 Out of all mark and meaning: but the tide, 
 And the sleek shore o'er which its waters glide, 
 Newly configurate and changed shall be- 
 By that impressure, though invisibly, 
 And ever with the touch thereof abide: — 
 And thus, thy name, thy beauty, and thy love, 
 Whose traces Time's obliterating ocean 
 Hath wash'd from out my action-smoothed mind, 
 Shall, with a fix'd effect, be intertwined 
 Therewith eternally, and deep inwove 
 With Time's own everlasting voice and motion. 
 
 1S45. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 H4 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XLIV.— XLV. 
 
 BEETHOVEN'S "SONATA WITH THE FUNERAL 
 
 MARCH." 
 
 Man is a noble animal : in ashes 
 
 " Splendid, and pompous in the grave ; nativities 
 
 " And deaths with equal lustres solemnizing ; 
 
 " Nor ceremonies, in his nature's infamy, 
 
 " Of bravery omitting." — Thus, in majesty 
 
 Of words like pyramids o'er death-bones rising, 
 
 Spake he 1 who saw things from their cloud-acclivities, 
 
 Where light from high above blinds and abashes : 
 
 And thus this mighty music speaks sublimely, 
 
 The dark scene it proclaimeth glorifying ; 
 
 Evolving the Eternal from the Timely ; 
 
 And seems attending, as its death-note rolls, 
 
 An awful army of triumphant souls, 
 
 Toward Eternity in thunder flying. 
 
 1 Sir Thomas Browne.
 
 FIFTY SONNE TS. 1 1 5 
 
 And, from the instrument it seemeth not 
 
 The grandeur of its harmony ariseth, 
 
 Which life in death with more than life surpriseth ; 
 
 But from the soul of her who, like a thought, 
 
 Sits there entranced ; herself and all forgot 
 
 That lives and moves around her ; and compriseth 
 
 Within herself the marvel she deviseth — 
 
 A music upon music's self begot ! 
 
 It cometh from her like to shrouded light 
 
 From the great Sun, eclipsed ; like echoes loud 
 
 From billow-beaten rocks, when in the night 
 
 The struggling elements wage starless war ; 
 
 Like solemn thunder from a midnight cloud ; 
 
 Or awful winds from caves oracular. 
 
 1S45. 
 
 I 2
 
 u6 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 CHRISTMAS 1866. 
 
 He stopp'd beneath the mistletoe, and kiss'd 
 
 Imaginary lips — and then he wept ; 
 
 Lips which an everlasting silence kept 
 
 Within a far-off grave, but did exist 
 
 For him most livingly in memory, 
 
 With love and music that could never die, 
 
 Save with himself : and then, this weakness fled, 
 
 If weakness were it, he the revel sought; 
 
 Its joyous spirit in his spirit caught, 
 
 And only sadness in some minor thought : 
 
 " Why did I weep ? " unto himself he said ; 
 " Youth, beauty, love, are all renascent here, 
 " Making a spring time of the dying year ; 
 ■"And what is gone, I do not think is dead."
 
 FIFTY SONNE TS. 117 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 WRITTEN AFTER HEARING GREAT MUSIC. 
 
 Pianoforte ! ne'er before, perchance, 
 
 Thy alien name with English verse was blent ; 
 
 But now 'tis meet thou to that place advance, 
 
 As rival to whatever instrument : 
 
 This Priestess of thy spirit-mysteries 
 
 Makes thee oracular ; and harmonies 
 
 Soar from beneath her touch, which sing aloud 
 
 Of things imagined, but not seen nor known : 
 
 The rush of angels' wings ; the flit of elves' ; 
 
 The creatures of the rainbow and bright cloud ; 
 
 And the loved Dead, who in our dreams appear : 
 
 Cramer and Hummel, 'tis believed, arc gone ; 
 
 Yet in this heaven-of-sound we seem to hear, 
 
 Not echoes of them, but their living selves. 
 
 St. Helier, 31 March 1869.
 
 u 8 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 WRITTEN AFTER HAVING RECEIVED A 
 PRESENT OF FLOWERS. 
 
 I do not know, but (such is Fantasy ! ) 
 
 I could believe these flowers are musical, 
 
 However silent unto our deaf hearing: 
 
 At least they speak to me of Music's crown, 
 
 And tell of great Musicians whom men name — 
 
 Mozart, Beethoven, at the height of fame, 
 
 And others, gifted but of less renown, 
 
 And their Interpreter, accomplish'd high, 
 
 Whose power compels their thoughts to reappearing, 
 
 And their clear inspiration doth recall, 
 
 In its rich eloquence ethereal, 
 
 And beam it bright around us ! Flowers must die ; 
 
 And so must we, and all things ; yet there seems 
 
 Still, something deathless amid all our dreams. 
 
 17 April 1869.
 
 FIFTY SONNE TS. 1 1 9 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 A TRIBUTE TO THE PRESENT, AND A 
 REMINISCENCE OF THE FAR PAST. 
 
 Written after having heard a Lady Play B[eethoven]'s * * * 
 
 Sovereign Creatrix of the World of Sound 
 Which vibrates on the raptly-listening ear, 1 
 Thou breath'st a meaning subtle and profound 
 Through every note whose beating pulse we hear : 
 Of One Beloved we feel the end of life, 
 The suffering, fear and hope, and then the death, 
 And next the tears and sobs and wailing strife 
 Of those who mourn the cease of that dear breath ; 
 Then the black funeral from whose clouding rolls 
 The dark at length, until the adoring eye 
 Sees radiant armies of triumphant souls 
 In thunder pacing towards eternity. 
 Beethoven's spirit shines englass'd in Thine, 
 Which mirrors all its depths and effluence divine ! 
 
 26 November 1869. 
 
 — y 
 
 1 The Sonnet headed "The Rivalry," at page 255 of Mundi et Cordis 
 
 Carmina, is built up from the same opening theme as this, but with a 
 
 difference : — 
 
 Ah ! Sweet Creatrix of that World of Sound 
 
 That vibrates on my ever-listening ear, 
 
 and for a thought almost identical with that of the last couplet but one, see 
 the final couplet of Sonnet No. XLIV in the present series.
 
 i2o THOMAS WADE. 
 
 L. 
 
 TO THE PIANOFORTE. 
 
 Nobly, Piano ! hast thou held thy place 
 
 (Inspired by brain-and-hcart-enkindled hands) 
 
 In strength, in sweetness, majesty and grace, 
 
 Beside the Frame loud bruited in the lands, 
 
 In which it higher laud than thine commands : 
 
 Unjustly, seems it : I would rather hear, 
 
 In the rapt stillness of this peopled room, 
 
 From thy roused depths — when, even as now, inform'd 
 
 (Thy coldness into passionate utterance warm'd) 
 
 By this High Priestess of thy Mysteries — 
 
 Beethoven's Pathos and dread March of doom, 
 
 In their great melodies and harmonies, 
 
 Than from all sound-shrines, gather'd to one sphere, 
 
 In Palace, or in full-throng'd Theatre ! 
 
 13 February 187 I.
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH 
 AND LOVE. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS WADE.
 
 
 Wade's Contention of Death and Love. 
 From the rare original in the Library of Mr. Buxton Forman.
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 " I am worn away ; 
 " And Death and Love are yet contending for their prey." 
 
 Shelley. — Dedication to '■'■The Revolt of Islam.'''' 
 
 IN a serene leaf-latticed chamber 
 
 A Dying Poet calmly slept ; 
 
 And dreams about his brain did clamber, 
 
 Which, like his waking thoughts, o'erswept 
 
 The narrow Present, and flow'd far 
 
 Into the Unceasing and the Boundless, 
 
 With stir and voice oracular — 
 
 Whilst round him all was still and soundless. 
 
 He dream'd not of the common things 
 That make the joy or woe of breath 
 To one whose spirit hath no wings 
 To leave the common world beneath ; 
 But, as the Vast and the Eternal 
 Fill'd all his vision'd Phantasy, 
 It peopled them, in pomp supernal,
 
 124 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 With Incarnations, livingly, 
 
 Of Power and Beauty, Strength and Grace, 
 
 And Love and Hope and Ecstasy, 
 
 And Sorrow, with her twilight face : 
 
 And Men, the Lights of History, 
 
 And Women, crown'd with gather'd fame, 
 
 Glode in procession beamingly 
 
 Through his all-seeing Soul ; and, then, 
 
 Creations of Immortal Pen, 
 
 Pencil and Chisel — each a name 
 
 To wing the heart with plumes of flame ! — 
 
 Frequent and flashing, fast and bright ; 
 
 Like meteors through electric night. 
 
 Around his dying-couch were stooping, 
 With burthen of their sorrow drooping, 
 Five stricken Creatures, weepingly. 
 One was a Matron old and grey, 
 In all whose wrinkles agony, 
 Like a writhing serpent, lay ; 
 And whose pale eyes, suffused and dim, 
 Grew death-film'd as they look'd on him. 
 And Three were sweetly fair and young ; 
 And they around each other clung, 
 And so together o'er him hung —
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. 125 
 
 As three chill'd roses faintly glow 
 
 O'er the white winter's shroud of snow ; 
 
 Or, as three cluster'd stars on high 
 
 Gleam on the pale air tremblingly : 
 
 And those four bewailing Creatures 
 
 All wore the Dying Dreamer's features ; 
 
 And every change death wrought in his, 
 
 Grief mirror'd in their semblances. 
 
 The Fifth was clad in robes of mourning ; 
 
 But not for him for whom she mourn'd — 
 
 That Dying Singer there, adorning 
 
 His dreams with her, so song-adorn'd ! 
 
 Her soul breathed in that failing Glory, 
 
 Whose life was the lone promontory 
 
 From which her love and fond hopes all 
 
 Gazed on Life's waters, and the sky — 
 
 Lit with star-dreams majestical — 
 
 Of Love's far immortality. 
 
 She stood apart ; her madden'd eyes 
 
 Terribly glaring with great wo, 
 
 And flashing, like tempestuous skies, 
 
 Upon that pale, calm earth below. 
 
 He heard no sound of their lamenting, 
 Unless their speech and sobbings low,
 
 126 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 And that Intense-One's stifled venting- 
 
 fc> 
 
 The pangs of hope's last overthrow, 
 
 Did mingle with the Voices sweet 
 
 Which his dreaming sense did greet ; 
 
 And real with unreal sound 
 
 Blent in his cavern'd brain profound, 
 
 Went circling through its mystic cells, 
 
 And issued thence in oracles ; 
 
 And spake unto his vision'd ear 
 
 In accents eloquently clear, 
 
 Whose silver'd music did impart 
 
 Speed to the faint blood in his heart ; 
 
 And his soul imbibed all 
 
 Its melodies ethereal — 
 
 As the ether, therewith ringing, 
 
 Drinks the sweet lark's matin-singing. 
 
 And, oh ! might they have heard, as he, 
 That converse of his dying dream, 
 They could have borne most tranquilly 
 The widowing of their loves supreme : 
 Learning from that talk divine, 
 That the subtle fire which feeds 
 Souls whose words are their great deeds 
 Cannot perish ; therefore, he,
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. \vr 
 
 Whose spirit was its radiant shrine, 
 Must endure immortally ! 
 
 Before his dreaming vision floated 
 
 Two Forms serenely feminine ; 
 
 Intent upon him, and devoted 
 
 To that bright spirit's dim decline. 
 
 One, was robed in a white shroud — 
 
 Such as haunted eyes may see, 
 
 Through their drops of misery, 
 
 In the fresh-closed sepulchre 
 
 Of a love-slain virgin dear — 
 
 Like the pale moon in pallid cloud, 
 
 When the sleeted winds on earth are loud 
 
 And the dull sky is winter-brow'd : 
 
 Pale were her cheeks, and pale each hand, 
 
 And her forehead very pale ; 
 
 And her eyes, by thin brows spann'd, 
 
 Moved not in their low-lidded spheres, 
 
 Where gleam'd they like two frozen tears, 
 
 Or transparent ice-struck dews 
 
 Reflecting winter's dead-leaf hues : 
 
 Her white lips did no breath exhale, 
 
 Even when they spake ; and her words all
 
 128 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 Seem'd wandering echoes mystical. 
 
 The other, was a rosy thing ; 
 
 But the pallor mirroring 
 
 Of her unlike sister there, 
 
 Half that pale aspect she did wear, 
 
 Though her warm native-colours play'd 
 
 Through it, as the sun through shade. 
 
 She robeless was, that lovely Form ; 
 
 But her bright tresses mantled warm 
 
 Adown her throbbing beauties all, 
 
 And mazily around them curl'd — 
 
 As might a gentle waterfall 
 
 Down marble rubied and impearl'd. 
 
 Her eyes — like those blue flowers serene 
 
 Which constellate on banklets green 
 
 When the spring's bland touch invokes 
 
 Breath in all which winter chokes — 
 
 Seem'd dim with their own radiancy ; 
 
 Whilst tears flowed from them silently, 
 
 And o'er her tresses dripp'd and river'd : 
 
 And wild words from her curved lips quiver'd — 
 
 Like tones from a wind-finger'd lyre ; 
 
 Till e'en her ghastly Sister shiver'd 
 
 And burn'd with their all-vital fire. 

 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. 129 
 
 This like-and-unlike sisterhood, 
 Were Death and Love. 
 
 The Poet's blood 
 Gather'd around his heart, as Death, 
 Within her shrouded arms to wreathe 
 His weak limbs, stoop'd unto his rest : 
 But Love thrust her sweet face beneath 
 Death's coming hands, and fondly prest 
 Them upward from her Dear-One's face, 
 And fenced him with her strong embrace ; 
 That Death did still at distance stay — 
 But near'd, alas ! and near'd alway. 
 Then, ere the Poet waked to die, 
 He heard this spectral colloquy : — 
 
 " What wouldst thou with this sacred breath ? 
 Even I do almost loathe thee, Death, 
 Though oft thou bringest soothing balm 
 To my deep wounds, and blessed calm 
 Unto that rude sea, tempest-tost, 
 Where still my sailing hopes are lost. 
 O, is there not exhaustless prey 
 Awaiting thee on earth's highway ; 
 Where the rushing common crowd 
 VOL. 1. K
 
 130 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 Seek the workshop and the trough, 
 
 And at all things holy scoff 
 
 With laughter and blasphemings loud ? 
 
 Many a palace, many a den, 
 
 Is there, in the haunts of men, 
 
 Whence thou mayst pluck each denizen ; 
 
 Nor leave, with all thy gorged food, 
 
 One gap in human grace or good ; 
 
 Nor from Life's clod one drop o' the leaven 
 
 Steal, that makes it swell with heaven ! 
 
 Why com'st thou, then — pale, dismal Death ! 
 
 To suck this music-hallow'd breath ? 
 
 To whelm these eyes in dark eclipse, 
 
 Which beam'd joy through the heart of pain ; 
 
 And set thy seal on these sweet lips, 
 
 That they may never sing again 
 
 Songs that are wing'd things of light 
 
 Burning through Life's vapory night ? 
 
 To sting the bliss of all these hearts, 
 
 In which, through him, thy poison darts ; 
 
 And all their panting multitude 
 
 Of hopes, drown deep in tears and blood ? 
 
 O, tarry, pallid sister Death ! 
 
 Let Age come for my Dear-One's breath ! 
 
 And not until his Fame be wed 

 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. 131 
 
 To Time, and full-accomplished ; 
 
 And not until this Matron old 
 
 Turn peacefully to ashes cold ; 
 
 And not until these Sisters Three 
 
 Toward their graves tend peacefully 
 
 And, oh ! not till this Mourner dim 
 
 Be ready to depart with him. 
 
 I pray thee, Death ! sweet sister Death ! 
 
 Let Age come for my Dear-One's breath ! " 
 
 " O, why direct the mission'd dove ? 
 His hour is come, sweet sister Love ! 
 Upbraid me not ! I cannot err ; 
 Being the fated minister 
 Of Fate, in whose most sovereign eye 
 Each human thing moves equally. 
 The common throng which thy displeasure 
 Loadeth, with such onerous measure, 
 Bear sparklets of that fire divine 
 So starlike in this Child of thine : 
 And he and they are nothing more 
 Than little glow-worms on a shore 
 On which the billows everlasting 
 Of Time their mighty wrecks are casting, 
 
 K 2
 
 132 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 And on which o'erarched Space 
 
 Still looketh with eternal face. 
 
 Sister ! thy spirit magnifies ; 
 
 And to thee two cherish'd eyes 
 
 Do seem as glorious as the skies, 
 
 And dower'd with as great destinies : 
 
 But 'tis not so. Be meek and dumb ! 
 
 I tell thee that his hour is come : 
 
 And as for Sorrowers, what are they 
 
 But dust beneath my trampling way ? 
 
 And, say, if Song were aught to me, 
 
 Thinkst thou that I, whose strong decree 
 
 Swept Homer from Ionian air 
 
 When his allotted years were run, 
 
 And Dante from Italia's sun 
 
 When all his griefs accomplish'd were ; 
 
 Down-looking Chaucer from his theme, 
 
 And Spenser from his Faery dream, 
 
 And Shakspeare from his own great world, 
 
 And Milton from his starr'd-throne, hurl'd, 
 
 Ere their fames were half-unfurl'd : 
 
 I, who in later days have driven 
 
 Sweet Bards in earliest youth to heaven — 
 
 Shelley and Keats ; and crash'd the bridge 
 
 That bore the life of Coleridge
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. 133 
 
 Over my gulfs : that I, who still, 
 Upon his Thought's sublimest hill, 
 Tarry for Wordsworth — he who won 
 Renown from out Detraction's jaws ; 
 Who wait for sweet-lipp'd Tennyson ; 
 And prepare my shapeless cells 
 For the coming dust of Wells, 
 Whose genius sleeps for its applause : 
 Think'st thou that I, whose mission strong 
 Hath reach'd these mighty spirits of Song — 
 Or soon will reach — can pause for him ? 
 Amid these suns a taper dim ; 
 A mortal babe 'mid Seraphim ! " 
 
 At this, Love wept a passion-dew, 
 And ghostly as her Sister grew ; 
 And made a wreck of her bright hair, 
 Tress by tress, with sobs, unzoning — 
 As winds the golden sun-clouds tear, 
 With a melancholy moaning: 
 Till very Death felt pain for her, 
 And masqued thus as a comforter — 
 Alas for Love, when Death to her 
 Is last poor solace-minister ! —
 
 134 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 " O, be thou solaced, wailing Sister ! 
 
 Of his Essence, charm'd resister 
 
 Of my subtlest poisons all ! 
 
 That which in his deep brain wrought 
 
 All those glowing forms of thought 
 
 Which people his sweet Poesy, 
 
 Nothing know I : funeral 
 
 And the grave my knowledge bound ; 
 
 And a trust in Destiny 
 
 May be thy firm assurance-ground 
 
 That 'twill not perish utterly. 
 
 But picture not his mortal clay 
 
 As a loathsome thing alway 
 
 Festering in my clammy cells : 
 
 Life will reclaim its particles, 
 
 One by one, and spread them wide 
 
 O'er the fresh earth glorified : 
 
 The green o' the grass, the blush o' the flower, 
 
 Shall draw from them their lustrous grace 
 
 And thrilling sun and kindly shower 
 
 Visit their calm biding-place ; 
 
 And odors from their beauty freed 
 
 Shall the bland airs of springtime feed ; 
 
 And evening and morning-dew 
 
 The sweetness where they dwell imbue :
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. 135 
 
 The butterflies their gladness sunny, 
 
 And burnish'd bees their luscious honey, 
 
 Shall suck from them ; and vernal singing, 
 
 From ecstatic bird-life springing, 
 
 For ever be around them ringing ; 
 
 And, in perpetual rebirth, 
 
 Still shall they smile a light on earth ! 
 
 And if all this not comfort thee, 
 
 Bethink thee that his Memory 
 
 Shall not droop its soaring pinion, 
 
 For ages, to my black dominion; 
 
 And, haply, not till my vast robe 
 
 Wrap this total under-globe, 
 
 And all its breath and stir and thought 
 
 Refold into primeval Naught ! " 
 
 " His Memory ! his Memory ! " 
 
 Cried starting Love, far echoingly : 
 
 " It shall not die, it cannot die — 
 
 His song-embalmed Memory ! 
 
 His throbbing Verse, his burning Verse, 
 
 Shall breathe it through the Universe 
 
 With a ceaseless spirit-pant, 
 
 Love's divine arch-ministrant ! 
 
 It shall speak in all sweet things ;
 
 136 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 And with it I will load my wings, 
 
 And waft it thorough skies and waters, 
 
 And over earth's green hills and plains, 
 
 And through her caverns, rocks and woods, 
 
 And her most desert solitudes ; 
 
 And into human hearts and brains, 
 
 And the blood of human veins ! 
 
 And even these, my wailing daughters, 
 
 Shall hear its music deep and holy, 
 
 And list away their melancholy ! 
 
 It shall bloom in every flower, 
 
 And mantle green o'er ancient trees ; 
 
 The rainbow-winged insectries, 
 
 And birds and rills, shall sound its power ; 
 
 And the mighty bass of seas, 
 
 And the wind's wild harmonies ! 
 
 It shall float in every cloud ; 
 
 And thunder in the tempest loud, 
 
 And glitter in the tempest-light ; 
 
 And it shall look from heaven, through 
 
 The unfathom'd depths of ether blue ! 
 
 And the Sun — artificer 
 
 Of that pomp magnificent 
 
 Of golden-vapor'd mansionry 
 
 In which are far involved and blent,
 
 THE CONTENTION OF DEATH AND LOVE. 137 
 
 With complication infinite, 
 
 Structures piled and broad and high, 
 
 That seem, to the used eye of man, 
 
 Sky-cities metropolitan — 
 
 Shall be to Space a minister 
 
 Of its glories, burningly ! 
 
 And the ever-fainting Moon 
 
 Shall smile it from her silver swoon ; 
 
 And in every circling Planet 
 
 Shall the eye of Passion scan it ; 
 
 The Constellations, radiantly, 
 
 And the belting Galaxy, 
 
 Shall arch it, with a splendorous grace 
 
 O'er the awful brow of Space ! — 
 
 His Memory ! His Memory ! 
 
 Fed by his Song eternally : 
 
 His Song, which shall a music be 
 
 Amid the Earth's grand vocalings 
 
 As round the golden Sun she swings, 
 
 With solemn-sounding melodies, 
 
 And harmonious chorusings 
 
 Of earthquake, thunder, winds and seas, 
 
 And voices of all living things ! " 
 
 THE END.
 
 138 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 The name of Wells illustrates this Lyric. That it should be needful here 
 to state, that Mr. Wells is the author of a great Poem, in the dramatic 
 form, entitled "Joseph and his Brethren," and published many years 
 since, is a disgrace to our best and leading Reviewers, whose most holy 
 duty it should be to dispel the clouds which veil genius from the public 
 eye : "bis dat qui cito dat ;" but these gentlemen ever tarry till the force 
 of its own fire has done the work ; and then they sedulously hasten, one 
 and all, to assure the world that a new glory is burning in the heaven 
 of Mind ! 
 
 Of the noble Poem of Mr. Wells, one personally but a stranger to 
 him can say, with a fervid conviction of the truth of his assertion, that, 
 to go from the "Paradise Lost," the "Samson Agonistes," the "Antony 
 and Cleopatra," to the finer — and they not few — passages and scenes of 
 " Joseph and his Brethren," is but to sail in spirit down one and the same 
 stream of sublime, subtle, and unsurpassed Poetry.
 
 HELENA. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS WADE.
 
 \' t fyAM&,* 
 
 HELENA. 
 
 BY THOMAS WADE. 
 
 10HDOS 
 
 EDWARD MOXON; DOVER STREET 
 
 1837. 
 
 Wade's Helena. 
 From a copy of the rare original in the Library of Mr. Rnxton Forman.
 
 HELENA. 1 
 
 i. 
 
 To Love inhaloed with self-plenitude, 
 Is no without-door world. For Helena — 
 Tho' shining is the moon in her calm mood, 
 And the stream plaining, fretful runaway ! 
 And nightingales are singing in the wood — 
 No nightingales are glad, no stream is pining, 
 And no calm moon is in the concave shining ! 
 
 II. 
 
 For she is in her bower with Agathon ; 
 And in his face she sees her universe, 
 
 1 The subject of this poem was suggested to its author by a tale narrated to 
 him by a poetry-adoring friend of his, to whom he had been reading Keats' 
 divinely beautiful version of the pathetic novella of Boccacio — "Isabella; or, 
 The Pot of Basil." The principal incident of the one story will be found to 
 bear much "unlike likeness" to that of the other. This somewhat immaterial 
 circumstance is here intimated, merely that the author's "anticipation" may 
 forestall the critic's "discovery."
 
 142 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 And hears it in his voice, whose every tone 
 Into her spirit's depths did keenly pierce ; 
 And in his passion, as within a zone, 
 All her fair world of woman's beauty lay — 
 Soft, dim and swooning as the Starry-Way. 
 
 III. 
 
 At the top step of bliss we nearest are 
 
 To the first downward ledge of misery ; 
 
 And thus with Helena the truth did fare : 
 
 In all her senses bow'd them passively 
 
 To the great love to which they servile were ; 
 
 And touch, sight, hearing, were therewith imbued, 
 
 And all-absorb'd in its infinitude. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A sense of love was all with Helena : 
 
 A sense of beauty ruled in Agathon, 
 
 And of a power o'er beauty : to allay 
 
 His intense love of loveliness, he won 
 
 Sweet souls to love him — in the selfsame way 
 
 As he would gather buds and blushing flowers, 
 
 And fondle them to death in silent hours.
 
 HELENA. 143 
 
 V. 
 But when dull clouds of circumstance between 
 Him and the heart he brighten'd louring came, 
 He staid not for the darkness of the scene, 
 In which he shared not ; but the lambent flame 
 Of his incessant radiance o'er serene 
 And happier creatures, in its wandering, fell ; 
 And still his thought made heavens to veil its hell. 
 
 VI. 
 
 He glozed o'er fact with fancy's imagery ; 
 And tho' all hapless things for him were dead, 
 They still were deathless in his memory ; 
 And still the passion of his musing fed, 
 Which prey'd upon their light incessantly ; 
 And made a Paradise of shadows brave, 
 Whose substances were sorrowing to their grave. 
 
 VII. 
 Ah ! this was very sad for Helena ; 
 For heavenly Helena all sad and drear ! 
 After that night, there came a slow dismay 
 Over her soul, till madness sprang from fear ; 
 And reckless Agathon was far away 
 From the green hovel in a lonely lane, 
 Where woke she from her raving trance of pain.
 
 144 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 VIII. 
 Beside her bed there watch'd a wrinkled dame, 
 With careful eye and hand the lady tending ; 
 And ever sedulously went and came, 
 A loving-kindness with quick duty blending. — 
 Why o'er her paleness flits a hue of flame ? 
 Why turn her eyes from vacant wandering, 
 To looks that seem to seek some precious thing ? 
 
 IX. 
 Poor Helena comes back to consciousness. 
 " Thou long wert with me," said she, " hidden creature ! 
 "And my love reach'd thee thro' my deep distress, 
 " With doting on thine unseen form and feature ; 
 " And in a dream of strange mysteriousness, 
 " Surely, I felt thee leave me ? saw thine eyes 
 " And tiny hands ? and heard thy feeble cries ? 
 
 x. 
 " Vacant I feel thy long-abiding place ; 
 " And yet, nor see nor hear thee ! Where, oh ! where, 
 " Vanish'd the beauty of thy little face — 
 " A cherub's, in the cloud of my despair ? 
 " Nurse ! bring my child to my intense embrace, 
 " For with this longing all my heart is shook ! " — 
 There was no comfort in the matron's look.
 
 HELENA. 145 
 
 XI. 
 " That cavalier," responded she — with speech 
 Which seem'd to tremble at its own drear sound — 
 " Who brought thee hither, when the months did reach 
 " The limit of their nature-fixed bound, 
 " Return'd, with one attendant — I beseech 
 " Thy best of patience, lady ! — and they bore, 
 " Whilst thou wert tranced, thy infant from my door. 
 
 XII. 
 " And — ' Tell her,' said to me thy noble friend, 
 " ' That in good time this faithful servitor 
 " ' Will at her own good pleasure reattend 
 " ' Her safely homeward.' " " And he said no more ? " 
 Cried Helena, with accents that did rend 
 The heart that utter'd and the ears that heard, 
 With all the human woe that fills a word ! 
 
 XIII. 
 " No more ; but with his kisses he did bring 
 ' The glowing crimson to thy pallid cheek." 
 Sweet Helena smiled sadly ; murmuring, 
 Now, of false Agathon, with Warnings meek 
 Of his forswearing and abandoning ; 
 And now loud-calling, with great sorrow wild, 
 For restoration of her little child. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XIV. 
 No lover's kisses stay'd her bootless raving ; 
 No child was given to her stretching arms : 
 But soon the servitor came to her, craving 
 That she would heal her grief with comfort-balms, 
 Nor longer seek for things beyond her having ; 
 But straightway with him to her home return, 
 That her dear kindred there might cease to mourn. 
 
 XV. 
 
 And at length homeward did she weeping go ; 
 
 And found fresh wrinkles on her mother's cheek, 
 
 And greyer hairs upon her father's brow, 
 
 Grown of the sorrow which they did not speak ; 
 
 For but to kill would be upbraiding now : 
 
 And so they nothing blamed, and question'd naught ; 
 
 And ways to solace their dear daughter sought. 
 
 XVI. 
 Their dwelling with all pleasant things they fill'd 
 Which God's dear mercy hath for humankind : 
 Small birds in cages wide their joyance trill'd ; 
 But these she from their prison unconfined, 
 And gave a fatal freedom, that but kill'd : 
 
 Sweet lyres, wind-finger'd, in the casements play'd ; 
 
 But they her griefs with deeper grief o'erlaid :
 
 HELENA. 147 
 
 XVII. 
 
 And painting was to her but sembled woe ; 
 And song the pampering food of agony ; 
 And music but an echoing of the throe 
 Which trembled in her bosom torturingly : 
 Upon house-creatures would her hand bestow 
 No fond caress ; and friend nor servant ever 
 Might cheer her, with their best of heart-endeavour 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 At length, a solace mild she found in flowers 
 
 That grow on herby banks and grassy meadows ; 
 
 And both her waking and her dreaming hours 
 
 She feasted with them and their vision'd shadows — 
 
 Transplanting them into her garden-bowers 
 
 In storied vases of clear porcelain ; 
 
 And near them let no haughty blooms remain. 
 
 XIX. 
 Gorgeous exotics, the art-fostered boast 
 Of those who joy in flower-menageries ; 
 Nor all the proud and statelier garden-host 
 Of lilies tall and globed peonies ; 
 Nor gaudy tulips, raised at florist's cost ; 
 Formal ranunculus, nor iris fine, 
 Drew from her fancy one regard divine. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XX. 
 
 But, daisies, primroses and violets ; 
 
 Cowslips, and bird's-eye-flowers — so heavenly blue, 
 
 The adoring eye their transient date forgets, 
 
 And sees undying love in their sweet hue — 
 
 Windflowers, light Zephyr's airy coronets ; 
 
 And all wild blooms that keep their own pure natures, 
 
 Free from the touch of meddling human creatures : 
 
 XXI. 
 Of these she unafflicted prisoners made, 
 Wrapt in their native mould, and moss, and grass, 
 And treasured them in many a garden-glade ; 
 And never did she by their beauty pass 
 Without a pause of tears, whose silence said — 
 " Such little flowers as these do sleep and wave 
 "Amid the dews upon my baby's grave?" 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Whence came the Rose-tree, in its costly vase, 
 
 Amid those creatures meek of banks and fields ? 
 
 There had it not even yesternight a place ; 
 
 But this fair morning to their eyes it yields 
 
 A vision of intense, but placid grace ; 
 
 All robed in bud and bloom, and light and dew — 
 
 As sunrise' self had beam'd it on the view !
 
 HELENA. 149 
 
 XXIII. 
 And Helena stood gazing on its glory ; 
 Tranced as a soul that sees its own strange thought 
 Air-figured, with precision transitory ; 
 Till with her wonder grief grew inter-wrought, 
 And words slept in her eyes which spake her sorry 
 That her fond-tended flock of little flowers 
 Should underserve this pride of garden-bowers. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Resentfully she pluck'd it, bud and bloom ; 
 And made a shower, silent as love-looks, fall 
 Of its rich blossom-leaves ; that final doom 
 Seem'd close awaiting on its beauty all — 
 When Helena, with doubly-clouded gloom 
 Stirring its earth, lay startled finger on 
 A tablet, superwrit — " From Agathon. 
 
 xxv. 
 
 " I saw thy love's fruit, in its birth death-stricken, 
 
 " Was doom'd to darkness in its dawn of life ; 
 
 " And sought to spare thee all the forms that sicken 
 
 " The soul of grief, and all the vulgar strife 
 
 " That greets the evidence of pulse that quicken 
 
 " Too surely at the leap of blood to blood, 
 
 " And all the babble of the multitude.
 
 150 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 ' The bud that from the blooms of our sweet pleasure 
 " Derived its life, being dead, and seen of none, 
 
 ' Thy maiden honour shall have no erasure : 
 " Men's eyes, and not the cloud, make shade i' the sun. 
 " O, still thy love for me, deep-hearted, treasure ! 
 "And this assurance in thy soul receive — 
 " Thou in my thought a deathless thought dost live. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 ' I wander o'er the earth ; and common make 
 " All that to thee great faith had sanctified : 
 
 1 Yet hoard this grace of flowers for my bad sake, 
 "And tend it as thy child with mother's pride ; 
 " It to thy inmost bower of musing take ; 
 " Be with it ever whilst its roses bloom, 
 "And thou alone its time-dried stem entomb!" 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 She read, and wept ; and wept, and read, and read ; 
 
 And with her tears the tree gleam'd dewily : 
 
 The delicate leaves which she had scattered 
 
 She, one by one, collected heedfully, 
 
 And made her bosom their sad funeral-bed ; 
 
 And wofully her trembling hand upbraided, 
 
 Whose ignorance their sacred source invaded.
 
 HELENA. f5i 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 What human hands had in the night convcy'd 
 That Rose-tree to her garden's far recesses 
 Could no one tell : and so, her maidens made 
 Strange stories of it, as they wreathed their tresses 
 Where in dim light dull chamber-shadows play'd ; 
 And made their own inventions their belief, 
 And superstitions of their lady's grief. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Unnoted now of mourning Helena 
 
 The little flowers that love the grass and moss : 
 
 Upon her Rose-tree tendeth she alway ; 
 
 And every moment deems eternal loss 
 
 In which she near it doth not weep and pray, 
 
 Or sit in dreamings of the awful past, 
 
 And of the lulling death that comes at last. 
 
 XXXI. 
 One night, she slumber'd on a couch star-lit, 
 Her Rose-tree breathing balm o'er her soft sleeping ; 
 When slowly all its flowers grew interknit, 
 And clung together in a dewy',weeping ; 
 And mystic lights did thro' their blent leaves flit — 
 Like gemm'd rings twinkling thro' a silken glove, 
 Or stars thro' cloudlets on heaven's zone of love.
 
 152 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXXII. 
 And then, like golden insects gently paining 
 A little bloom by feeding on its life, 
 A something seem'd to be their veins constraining, 
 And they to writhe with some disturbing strife ; 
 And from their crowd arose a balmy plaining — 
 As sweet as from May-flowers come southern gales, 
 And dulcet as the notes of nightingales. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 Till, from the midst, the heart of all those roses, 
 A little child looks forth seraphical ; 
 And its joy-throbbing limbs warm interposes 
 Among the Rose-tree's tiny branches all : 
 Its pretty hand the clustering green uncloses, 
 And blush-like leaves, and emerald, o'er her eyes 
 Scatters, with chuckled infant-ecstasies. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 She knew it was the never-clasped creature 
 Which long and painfully her frame embower'd ; 
 For such the radiant smile, and such the feature, 
 That oft thro' all her waking visions shower'd 
 Intense conviction to her craving nature ; 
 And up she sprang to kiss its face endear'd — 
 It vanish'd playfully ; and reappear'd ;
 
 HELENA. 153 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 And said, with voice more faintly audible 
 
 Than wave of bird-wing thro' the dim twilight — 
 
 " When we shall meet again, I may not tell ; 
 
 " But when a death-air doth the Rose-tree blight 
 
 " Thy babe to thee shall be perceptible ; 
 
 " But not as now — and pray, sweet mother ! pray, 
 
 " Against the woe to follow that decay." 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 Again she leap'd to clasp its beaming form ; 
 Again it vanish'd, and return'd no more : 
 And then she started from her slumber warm, 
 And all her hair and all her garments tore, 
 In her despair ; and all her soul in storm 
 Was raging, with dread sense of that transition 
 To fact accursed from beatific vision. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Is the sweet Rose-tree dying ? Every star 
 
 Of early sunlight wears the radiant veil, 
 
 And the glad flowers awake and dew-dropp'd are ; 
 
 But all its buds and blooms are drooping, pale, 
 
 And of a latent death oracular : 
 
 And Helena is calm'd from her despair 
 
 By the sad aspect of its glories fair.
 
 154 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 " But when a death-air doth the Rose-tree blight 
 " Thy babe to thee shall be perceptible ; 
 " But not as now ! " Those dream-words, at the sight 
 Of that blight-stricken planf, brain echoing fell 
 Upon her heart, with meanings infinite ; 
 Re-echoed in those words of Agathon, 
 That she should dig the fair tree's grave alone. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 "Against the woe to follow that decay, 
 
 " Sweet mother ! pray." She wrung her piteous hands ; 
 
 And on her trembling knees to God did pray, 
 
 That he would loose from her the painful bands 
 
 Of life that kept her from her babe away ; 
 
 And then all tears she sank — like love-eyed flowers, 
 
 Wept to their heavy death by thunder-showers. 
 
 XL. 
 What was to come she knew not ; but, to come 
 Some fearful thing there was, she felt and knew. 
 Morn after morn, eve after eve, the doom 
 Of her adored Rose-tree nearer drew, 
 Which faded in green leaf, and bud, and bloom : 
 And oft she sat all thought, in love and fear, 
 How to avert the terror felt so near.
 
 HELEN/1. 155 
 
 XLI. 
 " Companion sweet ! wherefrom, in blessed dreams, 
 " My little cherub ever shines on me, 
 " And the bright spirit of thy blossoms seems ; 
 " Mine only bliss of earth ! memorial-tree ! 
 " Upon whose every leaf are love-writ themes 
 " Whose purity nor crimes nor wrongs deprave — 
 " O, do not die ! or, die upon my grave ! " 
 
 XLII. 
 
 Poor blighted willow ! o'er the plaintive river 
 Of her profound woe fading, in whose depth 
 All precious things lay buried, thus she ever 
 For her fast-dying Rose-tree moan'd and wept ; 
 Until a gentle handmaid, with endeavour 
 Of dear heart-duty, said that needful space 
 For its quick growth had fail'd it in its vase : 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 And to her lady she a larger brought, 
 
 Figured with those sweet stories ancient 
 
 Which tell of youths and maidens passion-fraught 
 
 Changed into flowers of sweetness eminent, 
 
 With the fine skill of poet-sculptor wrought ; 
 
 And with the Rose-tree, and the vases twain, 
 
 Sat Helena ; and would alone remain.
 
 156 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 XLIV. 
 As if a midnight deed of death were plann'd 
 (So weigh'd her task on her instinctive heart !) 
 She first extinguish'd, with a creeping hand, 
 The tapers that robb'd darkness of its part ; 
 Save one which in a dim recess did stand : 
 And then all stealthily did haste to clamber 
 From forth the bower'd casement of her chamber. 
 
 XLV. 
 Of winding paths the foliage she divided ; 
 Startling small birds from their light slumberings, 
 And little moths, which from the green leaves glided, 
 With sembled music on their pearly wings 
 And letter'd gold : a glade in which she prided 
 Herself with her wild flowers, she now did tread, 
 And saw them in the lurid moonlight dead ; 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 Nor paused to sigh or weep ; but, all intent 
 On preservation of her Rose-tree's life, 
 Into a honeysuckle-bower she went, 
 And took therefrom a curved garden-knife 
 And a pearl-hafted delving instrument : 
 These in the foldings of her robe she buried, 
 And back into her lonely chamber hurried.
 
 HELENA. 157 
 
 XLVII. 
 Far night it was — and all the household slept : 
 Only, the watch-dogs bay'd the flitting moon, 
 Deform'd and white, by fast clouds overswept ; 
 The bats were sporting in their dismal noon ; 
 Low, sullen winds thro' all the dark leaves crept ; 
 The frogs were croaking from a stagnant moat, 
 Fitfully echoed from the nighthawk's throat. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 The portals all she barr'd ; and by the gloom 
 Of moon and taper, which the clouds and wind 
 Made intermit with darkness thro' the room, 
 The mould around the vase she 'gan unbind, 
 To free her Rose-tree from that narrow tomb ; 
 And dug beneath its roots with tenderest care, 
 And gently raised the black mass to the air. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 By one strong fibre a strange something swung 
 That with its load made shake her feverish hand, 
 And the dread vision-words like thunder rung 
 Thro' all her beating soul : still she did stand 
 As a white gravestone churchyard-yews among : 
 The wind blew out the taper, and the clouds 
 Choked the dim-gasping moon in tempest-shrouds.
 
 158 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 L. 
 Terror ! what show'd the grey dawn's coming bland ? 
 A woman, with ope mouth and glaring eyes, 
 Maniacally laughing : in one hand 
 Holding a Rose-tree towards the placid skies, 
 As to spell-bind them with that awful wand ; 
 And with the other on her dead-child's face — 
 A clod among the root-clods at its base ! 
 
 LI. 
 
 O, misery ! O, utter misery ! 
 
 Sorrow, the bitter blood of love's full heart 
 
 Kills, kills, quite kills ! O, dismal agony ! 
 
 That air which passion cloth to life impart 
 
 Can end in desolation, mournfully ; 
 
 In beauty wreck'd, and reason all astray, 
 
 And dotage on a piece of livid clay ! 
 
 LII. 
 
 Alas, for the poor wits of Helena ! 
 
 Even as. a quivering cloud they long had fared 
 
 Which doth insensibly in heaven decay, 
 
 Unnotedly by subtle airs impair'd ; 
 
 And now a tempest-gale had swept that way, 
 
 Impelling it, with fierce and thunderous wings, 
 
 To wild and fragmentary wanderings.
 
 HELENA. 1 59 
 
 LIIL 
 
 Now did she weep ; and now chant long and cheerily, 
 
 As to the morning joy's inebriate bird ; 
 
 Now hollowly laugh loud ; and then most drearily 
 
 Moan with a vacant gazing, without word ; 
 
 Then dance, with swingings bacchanal ; till wearily 
 
 She sank into a brief-enduring trance — 
 
 With madness lined upon her countenance ! 
 
 Liv. 
 At soft alarums at her chamber-door, 
 She started to her feet ; and in its vase 
 The terror-veiling Rose-tree placed once more ; 
 And to her garden-grotto hied apace, 
 And set it on its cool-recessed floor ; 
 And gave strange mandates to her people all 
 For celebration of its funeral. 
 
 LV. 
 
 They saw that she was mad ; and all she did 
 
 And all she said, to that dire cause assign'd ; 
 
 And all that she fantastically bid 
 
 Obey'd, still soothing thus her raging mind : 
 
 And she the secret in her grotto hid 
 
 Continually fondled, day and night, 
 
 And shut it with her Rose-tree from all sight
 
 160 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 LVI. 
 She freed it tenderly from root and mould 
 Of the now wither'd thing to which it cleaved ; 
 And in her grotto-fountain clear and cold 
 Its earth-defiled body gently laved ; 
 And each small tangled hair she did unfold, 
 And perfumed oils to each administer ; 
 And steep'd its little limbs in lavender. 
 
 LVII. 
 And then, enwrapp'd in a purpureal vest, 
 She laid it on her soft lap lovingly, 
 And over all its face her lips imprest ; 
 And sang to it a low-voiced lullaby, 
 And fondled it to her blue- veined breast ; 
 And never mother o'er her health-rosed child 
 With more impassion'd mother-fondness smiled. 
 
 LVIII. 
 A gurgle from the still fount of her heart 
 Rose to the loud air of her storm-torn mind, 
 As thus her madness played its reason-part, 
 And sigh'd sweet peace about her. O, to find 
 A fond dream realized, love so doth start 
 Into fulfilment, that the grave's due bones 
 With life's aurorean beauty it enzones !
 
 HELENA. i6r 
 
 LIX. 
 " Dead is my sweet babe, and must buried be ; 
 " We may not keep the dust we love, for ever : 
 " Go with thee graveward shall thine own Rose-tree, 
 "And I, dear baby! will forsake thee never; 
 " But soon beneath the sod will come, to see 
 " How spring the fresh flowers from thy pillow drear . 
 " We three will have one rest, my baby dear ! " 
 
 LX. 
 Thus murmur'd Helena, as she enwreathed 
 The tiny clay with all the balmiest flowers 
 That ceaseless fragrance thro' her garden breathed 
 In procreant greeting to their paramours, 
 And with her Rose-tree's ruins all-o'erdeath'd ; 
 And slowly swathed it in a shroud of white, 
 O'ergarlanded with pearls, of circling light. 
 
 LXI. 
 
 The precious relic in the vase she laid, 
 And with its former mould recover'd it : 
 The vase with ivy green she did embraid, 
 With eglantine and woodbine interknit ; 
 And a gold-broider'd silken cloth she made, 
 To bind in sumptuous foldings over all ; 
 And closed it in an ivory coffin small. 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 LXII. 
 
 No learned music ; soul-impenetrating, 
 Supreme in the authority of sounds, 
 Death-ceremonies with great pomp enstating ; 
 Was heard in Helena's lone garden-grounds, 
 As all her servants stood her will awaiting 
 Around the little grave prepared there 
 For sad interment of her Rose-tree fair : 
 
 LXIII. 
 But, as she lower'd it to its burial, 
 And as the hiding earth around it fell, 
 She moan'd a low dirge o'er its funeral — 
 " Sweet death-in-life, and life-in-death, farewell ! " 
 She said, with hollow voice — "within the pall 
 " Of my involving heart I fold thee still, 
 " And it shall warm thee in thy slumbers chill ! 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! there nothing is 'twixt life and death ; 
 " For I have seen thine eyes of heaven-hue, 
 " And felt upon my cheek thy violet breath, 
 " And kiss'd upon thy cheek the rose's dew ; 
 " And so, where now thy beauty slumbereth, 
 " Wilt thou in my blown Rose-tree reappear : 
 " We three will have one waking, baby dear ! "
 
 HELENA. 163 
 
 LXV. 
 They cannot laugh, those vacant servitors, 
 Altho' they deem it all mad mockery ; 
 But each, in fear, the mournful scene deplores, 
 And muses on the hour when he must die ; 
 And sees the picture which he most abhors — 
 Himself encomn'd, and to darkness thrust, 
 And worms the sole life in his livid dust. 
 
 LXVI. 
 Mad, mad, to her last hour, was Helena ! 
 Of naught but rose-trees was her eager care : 
 With anxious eye she watch'd for their decay, 
 And their most living grace was her despair : 
 Vase after vase she broke ; and sobb'd dismay 
 And agony of heart, to there behold 
 Nothing but matted roots and clotted mould. 
 
 LXVII. 
 And where her Rose-tree had its garden-grave, 
 The icy winds upon her bare frame beating, 
 They found her, shatter'd as a breaking wave, 
 One winter-midnight ; of the ground entreating 
 With piteous cries, some instant boon to have 
 And clutching with her nails the frozen sod, 
 And praying for her buried babe to God ! 
 
 M 2
 
 164 THOMAS WADE. 
 
 LXVIII. 
 They bore her to her chamber ; and there grew 
 Over poor Helena, before she died, 
 A faintest consciousness : but all she knew, 
 Was of her Rose-tree and its stricken pride ; 
 And when another in her pining view 
 Was placed, with hope to comfort, she but smiled 
 At the kind cheat, and would not be beguiled. 
 
 LXIX. 
 " Let me be buried with my Rose-tree sweet ; 
 " For then I may have dreams to light the grave ! " 
 Thus, in that gleam of sense, did she entreat ; 
 And then anew of fearful things did rave, 
 Until her throbbing heart-pulse ceased to beat : 
 Her prayer with those who heard was sanctified ; 
 And she was buried by her baby's side. 
 
 LXX. 
 
 And, what of Agathon ? What of a cloud 
 Of sun and mist, that pauseth o'er the hills ? 
 What, of a lark which ether-beams enshroud ? 
 What, of a rose whose balm the soft air fills ? 
 A zephyr by whose breath frail flowers are bow'd ? 
 What, of a hue ? a tone ? a look ? — a thought, 
 Which even the pensive thinker fixeth not ? 
 
 THE END.
 
 THE 
 
 LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 Of Walter Savage Landor, born in 1775 and deceased 
 in 1864, and of Margaret Countess of Blessington, born in 
 1790 and deceased in 1849, so much that is easily accessible 
 has been written, that the following documents do not need 
 any large introduction of a biographical kind. Their chief 
 constituent is a literal transcript from a voluminous bundle 
 of papers in the autograph of Landor. On some of these, 
 or on duplicates or transcripts of them, biographers have 
 already drawn ; and much of the verse embodied in these 
 manuscripts has been collected into Landor's Poetical 
 Works. The epistolary portion fills up lacuna in the 
 already large section devoted to Landor in The Literary 
 Life and Correspondence of tJie Countess of Blessington} in 
 which, by the by, one of the shorter letters was printed 
 entire. For the rest, Landor's views on the use of words, on 
 spelling, and so forth, were so individual, and his difficulties 
 in getting friends and printers to follow them so great, 
 that, apart from larger variations of text occurring in those 
 pieces which have appeared before, it is well worth while 
 to give the papers literally from the holographs. 
 
 Lady Blessington's account of her first meeting with 
 
 1 By R. R. Madden, M.R.I. A. Three volumes. Newby, 1855.
 
 1 68 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 Landor is from that diary which she ultimately published 
 under the title of The Idler in Italy ; x and Landor's 
 account of his first acquaintance with her was addressed 
 to the Editor of The AtJienceum. 
 
 Of the paper numbered III in the present series it is 
 necessary to say that it is the complement of passages in 
 Forster's Walter Savage Landor, a Biography, 2 and the 
 Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess. In 
 both those works there is much about the adventures of 
 that delightful book the Citation and Examination of 
 William Shakspeare? of which the manuscript was en- 
 trusted to Nathaniel Parker Willis to carry from Florence 
 to London and deliver to Lady Blessington. Landor first 
 wrote to her about it on the 8th of April 1834 : he thought 
 it would sell ; and he was desirous to hurry it out and give 
 the proceeds to a distressed old schoolfellow ; but Lady 
 Blessington could not get him any money for it ! The 
 Essex and Spenser conversation at the end of the volume 
 was an after-thought ; and its due appearance in the same 
 book as the Citation and Examination was a matter of 
 much anxiety to him. As to Lady Blessington's efficiency 
 in revising the press, he does not appear to have been so 
 much exercised beforehand; but, when he got the book 
 early in 1835, he was greatly put out at finding it very 
 incorrectly printed. The language which he used to 
 Southey about it might be characterized as " painful " and 
 " free," if not " frequent " ; but it was by no means un- 
 
 1 Two volumes, Colburn, 1839. 
 
 2 Two volumes, Chapman and Hall, 1869. 
 
 3 Saunders and Otley, 1834.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 169 
 
 measured for the occasion, the errors of the press being in 
 truth numerous and abominable. Fortunately, however, he 
 had the opportunity of correcting the text in his lifetime ; 
 and we are not left with a corrupt version of this admirable 
 masterpiece. 
 
 For the greater part of the papers no further comment 
 is necessary than can be conveniently supplied in foot- 
 notes. That Landor should have made his fair corre- 
 spondent so many presents in verse and prose — and these 
 are but a tithe of what he gave her — with freedom to 
 print them in her annuals, confers now on the volumes 
 of The Book of Beauty and The Keepsake perhaps their best 
 title to be "collected" or preserved. It says but little 
 for the taste of the public that, while her ladyship's 
 literary earnings are variously estimated at £1,000 and 
 £2,500 a year, she could not get the Citation and Examin- 
 ation of William Shakspeare printed except at Landor's cost, 
 and could not, apparently, make use of anything like the 
 mass of verse and prose which he was willing to give her 
 as padding for her Books of Beauty ! 
 
 I. Biographical Note, written by WALTER 
 SAVAGE LANDOR for MARGARET 
 COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. 
 
 Walter Landor, of Ipsley Court, in the county of 
 Warwick, married first, Maria, only daughter and heiress 
 of J. Wright, Esq., by whom he had an only daughter, 
 married to her cousin, Humphrey Arden, Esq., of
 
 170 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 Longcroft, in Staffordshire ; secondly Elizabeth, eldet . 
 daughter and co-heiress of Charles Savage, of Tachebrooke, 
 who brought about eighty thousand pounds into the 
 family. The eldest child of this marriage, Walter Savage 
 Landor, was born January 30th, 1775. He was educated 
 at Rugby ; his private tutor was Dr. John Sleath, after- 
 wards master of St. Paul's School. When he had reached 
 the head of the school, he was too young for college, and 
 was placed under the private tuition of Mr. Langley, of 
 Ashbourne. After a year, he was entered at Trinity 
 College, Oxford, where the learned Benwell was his 
 private tutor. At the peace of Amiens he went to France, 
 but returned at the end of the year. 
 
 In 1808, on the first insurrection of Spain, in June, he 
 joined the Viceroy of Gallicia, Blake. The Madrid Gazette 
 of August mentions a gift from him of twenty thousand 
 reals. On the extinction of the Constitution, he returned 
 to Don P. Cavallos the tokens of royal approbation in no 
 measured terms. In 181 1, he married Julia, daughter of 
 J. Thuillier de Malaperte, Baron de Nieuveville, first 
 gentleman of the bed-chamber to Charles the Eighth. 
 He was residing at Tours, when after the battle of 
 Waterloo, many other Englishmen to the number of 
 four thousand went away. He wrote to Carnot that he 
 had no confidence in the moderation or honour of the 
 Emperor, but resolved to stay because he considered the 
 danger to be greater in the midst of a broken army. A 
 week afterwards, when this man occupied Tours, his house 
 was the only one without a billet. In the autumn of 
 that year he retired to Italy. For seven or eight years
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 1 7 1 
 
 . occupied the Palazzo Medici in Florence, and then 
 bought the celebrated villa of Count Gherardesca, at 
 Fiesole, with its gardens, and two farms, immediately under 
 the ancient Villa of Lorenzo de Medici. His visits to 
 England have been few and short. 
 
 II. Extract from the DIARY of MARGARET 
 COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. 
 
 [June 1827.] Made the acquaintance of Walter Savage 
 Landor, ten days ago, 1 and have seen him nearly every 
 day since. There are some people, and he is of those, 
 whom one cannot designate as " Mr." I should as soon 
 think of adding the word to his name, as in talking of some 
 of the great writers of old, to prefix it to theirs. Of 
 Walter Savage Landor's genius, his " Imaginary Con- 
 versations " had, previously to our meeting, left me in no 
 doubt : of the elevation of his mind, the nobleness of his 
 thoughts, and the manly tenderness which is a peculiar 
 attribute of superior men, and strongly characterises him, 
 I had learned to form a just estimate ; but the high 
 breeding and urbanity of his manners, which are very 
 striking, I had not been taught to expect ; for those who 
 spoke of him to me, although sincere admirers of his, had 
 not named them. His avoidance of general society, 
 though courted to enter it, his dignified reserve, when 
 
 1 From when the ten days are to be counted, the diary does not divulge. 
 Although it was begun in a business-like way on the 25th of August 1822, and 
 dated from day to day, the headings in the 1827 portion are but the names of 
 the months, no indication being given on what day the writing was done.
 
 172 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 brought in contact with those he disapproves ; and his 
 fearless courage in following the dictates of a lofty mind, 
 had somehow or other given the erroneous impression, 
 that his manners were, if not somewhat abrupt, at least 
 singular. This is not the case, or if it be, the only singu- 
 larity I can discern, is a more than ordinary politeness 
 towards women — a singularity that I heartily wish was one 
 no longer. The politeness of Landor has nothing of the 
 troublesome officiousness of a petit-maitre, nor the oppres- 
 sive ceremoniousness of a fine gentleman of l'ancien regime ; 
 it is grave and respectful, without his ever losing sight 
 of what is due to himself, when most assiduously practis- 
 ing the urbanity due to others. There is a natural dignity 
 which appertains to him, that suits perfectly with the style 
 of his conversation and his general appearance. His 
 head is one of the most intellectual ones imaginable, and 
 would serve as a good illustration in support of the 
 theories of Phrenologists. The forehead broad and 
 prominent ; the mental organs largely developed ; the 
 eyes quick and intelligent, and the mouth full of benevo- 
 lence. The first glance at Landor satisfies one that he 
 can be no ordinary person ; and his remarks convince 
 one of the originality of his mind, and the deep stores of 
 erudition treasured in it. It is not often that a man so 
 profoundly erudite as Landor, preserves this racy origin- 
 ality, which, — as the skins, employed in Spain to contain 
 wines, impart a certain flavour to all that passes through 
 them, — gives a colour to all that he has acquired. He 
 reads of the ancients, thinks, lives with, and dreams of 
 them ; has imbued his thoughts with their lofty aspirations,
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 173 
 
 and noble contempt of what is unworthy ; and yet retains 
 the peculiarities that distinguish him from them, as well 
 as from the common herd of men. These peculiarities 
 consist in a fearless and uncompromising expression of 
 his thoughts, incompatible with a mundane policy ; the 
 practice of a profuse generosity towards the unfortunate ; 
 a simplicity in his own mode of life, in which the in- 
 dulgence of selfish gratifications is rigidly excluded ; and 
 a sternness of mind, and a tenderness of heart, that would 
 lead him to brave a tyrant on his throne, or to soothe a 
 wailing infant with a woman's softness. These are the 
 characteristics of Walter Savage Landor ; who may justly 
 be considered one of the most admirable writers of his 
 day, as well as one of the most remarkable and original 
 
 men. 
 
 ****** 
 
 [August 1827.] The evenings are passed in enjoying 
 the delicious freshness of the Cascina, or in driving in the 
 pleasant environs ; until the shades of night send us 
 home to enjoy iced tea and sorbetto in our charming 
 pavilion overlooking the Arno, where a few friends 
 assemble every evening. Walter Savage Landor seldom 
 misses his accustomed visit, and his real conversations are 
 quite as delightful as his imaginary ones. In listening to 
 the elevated sentiments and fine observations of this 
 eloquent man, the mind is carried back to other times : 
 and one could fancy oneself attending to the converse of 
 a philosopher of antiquity, instead of that of an individual 
 of the nineteenth century ; though, to be sure, one of the 
 most remarkable persons of this, or any age.
 
 1 74 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 
 
 III. Quarto Sheet, VERSE and PROSE, addressed 
 OUTSIDE, Right Honble. The Countess of Blessing- 
 ton, Seamore Place, London, SENT FROM ITALY, 
 UNDATED, BUT POST-MARKED/?//^ 12, 1834. 
 
 ON A TOMB ERECTED IN THE CHURCHYARD 
 
 OF LLANBEDR IN DENBYSHIRE, 
 by Joseph Ablett Esq. for Himself and Family. 
 
 O parent Earth ! in thy retreats 
 
 My heart with holier fervor beats, 
 
 And fearlessly, thou knowest well, 
 
 Contemplates the sepulchral cell : 
 
 Guard, parent Earth, these trees, these flowers, 
 
 These refuges from wintery hours, 
 
 Where every plant from every clime 
 
 Renews with joy its native prime 
 
 Long may the fane o'er this lone sod 
 
 Lift its meek head towards its God, 
 
 And gather round the tomes of truth 
 
 Its bending elds and blooming youth, 
 
 And long too may the linden wave 
 
 O'er timely and untimely grave ; 
 
 But, if the virtuous be thy pride, 
 
 Keep this one tomb unoccupied !
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 175 
 
 TO A DRAGON FLY. 
 
 Life, priest and poet say, is but a dream . . 
 I wish no happier one than to be laid 
 Under some cool syringas scented shade, 
 Or wavy willow by the running stream 
 Brimful of moral, where the dragon fly 
 Wanders as careless and content as I. 
 
 Thanks for this fancy, insect king, 
 Of lofty crest and purple wing, 
 Who with indifference givest up 
 The waterlily's golden cup, 
 To come again and overlook 
 What I am writing in my book. 
 Believe me, most who read this line 
 Will read with hornier eyes than thine ; 
 And yet their souls shall live for ever, 
 And thine drop dead into the river ! 
 God pardon them, O insect king, 
 Who fancy so unjust a thing ! 
 
 These verses were returned to me at my request, and 
 I am sorry they did not come in time to be sent last 
 week. I keep no copies of the trifles I have written. I
 
 176 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 have corrected in one place those to my creatures, and 
 have added several stanzas on the other side. I have 
 desired that a conversation of Essex and Spenser may be 
 sent you with the [MS. illegible]. The Essex and Spenser 
 may be subjoined to the Shakespeare and Lucy. This will 
 add to the Vol. nearly all that it wants for size. 
 
 Each unreservedly child-hearted still, g ; t should 
 
 Nor crawl like 1 Storno round our olive-mill. be P rmted - 
 
 I shall bequeath you more than eastern tales 
 For fondest Faery's favorite devise ; 
 
 My orange ailes, my choir of nightingales, 
 My sunny moonshine of Italian skies, 
 Shewing the calmness of the bravely wise 
 
 To heaven and earth ; Kosciusko, Hofer, George 
 The staid Virginian, standing side by side . . 
 
 To strike such men how vainly kinglets forge 
 The brittle playthings of their puny pride, 
 Tho grave old women counsel [?] them and guide ! 
 
 I've dropt my Inventory on the stair, 
 
 Whisking the flies from those three heads that o'er 
 
 All other heads rise eminent, but these 
 
 I should have added to the moonshine store 
 
 Three hundred books, worth thirty crowns and more. 
 
 1 Storno, an old ox.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 177 
 
 Reverence the early, love the later bard, 
 Nor think it very faulty that he live : 
 
 The dead have left you richly, but tis hard 
 
 If those who leave be prized o'er those who give. 
 Shall none but marble heads our crowns receive ? 
 
 Ye all arc thoughtful ; yet, some vacant hour 
 Of Youth divinest Idleness requires ; 
 
 She wooes the quiet Spirit to her bower, 
 The restless blinks before her embery fires, 
 And close behind creep petulant desires. 
 
 Dear boys &c. 
 
 To be added to the Title-page of the Examination &c. 
 To which is added 
 A Conference of Master Edmund Spenser, a gentleman 
 of note, 
 
 with the Earle of Essex, 
 touching the state of Ireland Anno Dom : 1598. 1 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 To the same worthy man who preserved the Examination 
 of Shakspeare we are indebted for what he entitles, on the 
 
 1 The addition was duly made to the title-page of the Citation and 
 Examination, save that " 1598" was misprinted " 1595." The Preface was 
 also inserted between the Citation and the Essex and Spenser. 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 i ;3 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 cover, A Conference of Master Edmund Spenser &c zvith 
 </ie Earle of Essex. 
 
 It must be confessed that this Conference throws little 
 light upon the Great Rebellion of Ireland. Nevertheless 
 there are some curious minds, which perhaps may take an 
 interest in the conversation of two illustrious men, one 
 distinguished by his genius, the other by the favour of 
 his sovereign. The Editor, it will be perceived, is but little 
 practised in the ways of literature, much less is he gifted 
 by that prophetick spirit which can anticipate the judge- 
 ment of the Publick. It may be that he is too idle or 
 too apathetick to think anxiously or much about the 
 matter. And yet he has been amused, in his earlier days, 
 at watching the first appearance of such few books as he 
 believed to be the production of some powerful intellect. 
 He has seen people slowly rise up to them, like carp in a 
 pond when food is thrown among them ; some of which carp 
 snatch suddenly at a morsel, and swallow it ; others touch 
 it gently with their barbs, pass deliberately by, and 
 leave it ; others wriggle and rub against it more disdain- 
 fully ; others in sober truth know not what to make of it, 
 swim round and round it, eye it on the sunny side, eye it on 
 the shady, approach it, question it, shoulder it, flap it with 
 the tail, turn it over, look askance at it, take a pea-shell or a 
 worm instead of it, and plunge again their contented heads 
 into the comfortable mud. After some seasons the same 
 food will suit their stomachs better. 
 
 The Editor has seen all this, and been an actor in it, 
 whether at Chantilly or Fontainbleau is indifferent to 
 the reader ; and it has occurred to him that Shaks-
 
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 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 179 
 
 pearc and Spenser were thrown among such carp, and 
 began to be relished (the worst of course first) after many 
 years. He is certain that these two publications can 
 interest only the antiquary and biographer ; enough, if 
 even such find their account in them. 
 
 The Printer will please to alter the name Sylvanus (near 
 the end) for Edmund. 1 
 
 IV. Two Quarto Sheets, VERSE and PROSE, ad- 
 dressed outside, Right Honblc. The Countess 
 of Blessington, Seamore Place, London, NEITHER 
 DATED NOR POST-MARKED, BUT PRESUMABLY 
 WRITTEN IN Jl 1 'arch 1835. 
 
 "You are prudent in never ;having undertaken, what 
 nearly all our poets have done, to describe a girl dying for 
 love. It would puzzle you to say anything new upon it." 
 M I shall not try." 
 
 The promise was broken the next morning. 
 
 THE MOTHER'S TALE. 
 
 I never knew but one who died for love, 
 
 Among the maidens glorified in heaven 
 
 For this most pure most patient martyrdom, 
 
 This direction may refer to page 268 or page 269 of the original edition, 
 on each of which, as printed in 1834, the name Edmund occurs and may 
 possibly have been substituted for Sylvanus. 
 
 N 2
 
 i So THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS 
 
 And most courageous ; if courageous he l 
 Who graspt and held the Persian prow, until 
 (Wielded by desperate fear) the scymetar 
 Gleam'd on the sea, and it ran red below 
 From the hand severd and the arm that yet 
 Threaten'd, ere brave men drew aside the brave. 
 If this be courage (and was man's e'er more ? ) 
 Sublimer, holier, doth God's breath inspire 
 Into the tenderer breast and frailer form, 
 Erect when Fortune and when Fate oppose, 
 Erect when Hope, its only help, is gone, 
 Nor yielding till Death's friendlier voice says, yield f 
 
 I must away, great warrior, greater bard ! 
 From thee and Greece ; away, to milder scenes 
 Not milder sufferings. 
 
 In my ear was pour'd 
 The piteous story from the mother's lips, 
 Who laid her hand on mine, and oftentimes 
 With idle finger moved my pliant veins 
 And lookt on them, nor knew on what she lookt r 
 The while her tale went on ; for she had found 
 One who hath never dared to stir from grief, 
 Or interrupt its utterance in its hour, 
 
 1 Eschylus.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 181 
 
 Or blusht, where child was lost, to be a child. 
 Abruptly she began, abruptly closed. 
 
 " He was an Ensign, and, whatever woes 
 He brought on me and mine, a good young man 
 Modest in speech and manners, fond of books, 
 Such as we find in all these little towns, 
 And ready to be led aside by love 
 To any covert with a castle near, 
 Or cottage on the riverside or moor, 
 No matter which : — the comfortable house 
 And street, with shops along it, scare off love. 
 I am grown bitter, I do fear me, Sir, 
 In talking thus, but I have lost my child 
 By these wild fancies of a wayward world, 
 Different from what contented us erewhile. 
 William (he told me I must call him so, 
 And christian names methinks not ill beseem 
 The christian, and bring kindness at the sound) 
 William dwelt here, above ; nor long before 
 I could perceive that Lucy went away 
 When he came in to speak to me, and tried 
 To see as little of him as she might. 
 I askt had he offended her ; she said 
 He was incapable of doing wrong.
 
 1 82 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 I blamed her for her rudeness ; she replied 
 She was not rude ; and yet those very words 
 Were nearer rudeness than she ever spake 
 Until that hour. 
 
 Month after month flew by, 
 And both seem'd lonely, tho they never lived 
 More than few steps asunder ; I do think 
 She fled from love, and he strove hard with it, 
 But neither ownd they did : he often came 
 To tell me something, and lookt round the room,. 
 And fixt his eyes on the one vacant chair 
 Before the table, and the work unroll'd. 
 At last he found her quite alone, and then 
 Avowd the tenderest and the purest love, 
 Askt her consent only to speak with me 
 And press his suit thereafter. 
 
 She declared 
 She never could . . and tears flowd plenteously. 
 I enterd ; nor did she, as many do, 
 Hide her face from me, or abase it more, 
 Neither did he, but told what he had said 
 And she had answered : I reproved her much 
 For ignorance of duty, and neglect 
 Of such an honour.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PA PERS. 1 83 
 
 Then he took my hand, 
 And swore no earthly views should ever turn 
 His eyes from that adored one. 
 
 "May I hope, 
 Sweet Lucy ? may I pause from my despair 
 I should say rather ? . . even that were bliss. 
 Speak! is that bliss forbidden?" She replied, 
 " You think me worthy of great happiness, 
 But Fortune has not thought so : I am poor, 
 And you are (or you will be) rich ; tis thus 
 All marriages should be ; but marriages 
 Alone are suitable that suit with pride, 
 With prejudice, with avarice . . enough 
 If dead men's bones have hallowed them, if wax 
 From twenty hives some hundred summers past, 
 And seals ere lion bore a lion's form 
 Or lily had grown up to lilihood, 
 Hang from crisp parchments over them, and stand 
 Their sponsors, and besprinkle them with dust, 
 Or herald prime and furbish them anew. 
 They must please all in two whole families, 
 Excepting those who marry. We are both 
 Alike God's creatures, but the World claims one, 
 The other is rejected of the World.
 
 l«4 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 Hated I well could be for loving you, 
 For loving me you must not be despised." 
 
 " Lucy then loves me ! " cried the youth, " She loves 
 me!" 
 And prest her to his heart, and seizd her hand, 
 " And ever will I hold it, till her lips 
 In whose one breath is all my life contain'd 
 Say It is thine." 
 
 Ah ! twere but time ill-spent 
 To follow them thro love ; twere walking o'er 
 A meadow in the spring, where, every step, 
 The grass and beauteous flowers are all the same, 
 And ever were and ever will be so. 
 But now the season was at hand, when rush 
 Into salt water all whom smoky town 
 Had hardened in the skin, whom cards and dice 
 Had crampt, whom luxury unstrung, whom dance 
 Thro starlight into sunshine, and whom routs 
 (Not always do we call things by their names 
 So aptly) swoln with irksomeness and spite, 
 Vomited forth : here meet they all again, 
 Glum and askance, the closer the less neighbours; 
 And those who late were chatty, now are seen 
 Primly apart, like hop-poles without hops,
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 1 8 5 
 
 Lank, listless, helpless, useless, and unlovely. 
 
 Here many would lay out their happiness, 
 
 And many be content to waste another's : 
 
 Of these was one whose name shall rest untold, 
 
 Young is he, and (God aiding) may be better. 
 
 With a bright ribband and a horse upon it 
 
 Full-gallop . . first of orders I surmise . . 
 
 He must have done rare service to his king 
 
 Before he wore a sabre or a beard 
 
 To win all this ; but won it all he had, 
 
 And wore it too as bravely. This young man 
 
 Was passing thro our town toward the coast, 
 
 Heedless and ignorant, as elder men 
 
 And sager may have been, what spirit moves 
 
 Upon those waters, that unpausing sea, 
 
 Which heaves with God's own image, ever pure, 
 
 And ministers in mightiness to Earth 
 
 Plenty and health and beauty and delight ; 
 
 Of all created things beneath the skies 
 
 The only one that mortal may not mar. 
 
 Here met he William, whom he knew at school 
 And shewd him his gay lady, and desired 
 That William would shew his. With gravity 
 Did William listen, and at last confess 
 Ties far more holy that should soon unite
 
 1 86 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 With him a lowly maid. The captain heard 
 Deridingly his chapter of romance, 
 Such did he call it . . 
 
 " Introduce me, pray, 
 To the fair bride elect." 
 
 " When bride " said he, 
 " And proudly then ; yes, you and all my friends." 
 
 So far I know, what followed I know not, 
 Only that William often spent the day 
 With these great folks : at first, when he returned 
 He was more fond than ever of my child : 
 Soon after, he came late into the house, 
 Then later ; and one day, twas Saturday, 
 He said to me he should go home to ask 
 His father's approbation of the match, 
 And hoped, and doubted not, his full consent. 
 Alas ! I little knew that one who goes 
 For this consent has given up his own. 
 He went . . O Sir ! he went . . my talc is told . . 
 He wrote to me . . but I have said it all . . 
 He wrote . . My Lucy caught the letter up 
 And kist it, redd it, dropt it on the floor, 
 Seized it again, again with eyes brim-full 
 Gaz'd, and again dropt it, despondingly. 
 O Sir ! did I not say my tale is told !
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 187 
 
 Twas Sunday, and the bells had nearly done, 
 When Lucy called to me and urged my haste ; 
 I said I could not leave her ; for she lookt 
 Paler, and spoke more feebly : then I raved 
 Against the false one who had caused her death. 
 She caught my arm . . 
 
 " No, Lucy ! no," cried I, 
 " Not death : you yet are young, and may live on 
 With spirits, health, and beauty, all restored, 
 These many years." 
 
 She smiled on me, and said, 
 " Hope it not, mother ! lest one pang the more 
 Befall you ; wish me better things than life ; 
 But above all, sweet mother ! " and she sighd, 
 " Think not I die for William and for love. 
 Many have gone before their twentieth year, 
 Mine is half over ; many, now in bliss, 
 Have learnt to read God's will at earlier dawn, 
 And crost life's threshold strewn with freshest flowers 
 Trippingly and alert, to meet a friend, 
 A father, who (they knew) awaited them. 
 Many have had short notice to quit home, 
 And, when they left it, left it unprepared : 
 I, mother, I have been two years in dying
 
 i.88 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 And one day more : should ever he know this, 
 Tvvould comfort him, for he must think of me. 
 But am I not too proud for one so near" . . . 
 She would not say. . I shriekt and said it. . death ! 
 She prest my hand, and her smile sank away. 
 She would console, I would not be consoled. 
 " O let me think then I shall die for him, 
 But say no more to pain me ! let me love, 
 And love him, when I cannot, for my sake." 
 
 SI umber came over her ; one faint sob broke it . . 
 And then came heavier slumber ; naught broke that." 
 
 She pausd ; I too sat silent : she resumed, 
 For Love and Sorrow drop not at the grave 
 The image of the cherisht one within. 
 Too confident upon her strength recalled, 
 She would have mounted into brighter days 
 For hours when youth was cool and all things calm, 
 Saying to me, with evener voice and mien, 
 " Lucy, when last you saw her, was a child." 
 
 "And is, if angel be, a child again" 
 Said I. 
 
 She claspt her hands above her head 
 And rusht away, leaving me all alone. 
 The chamberdoor stood open, and her brow 
 Had sunk into her pillow, but no rest
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 189 
 
 Was there ; she sought one at the darker side 
 Of the same bed, o'er which some oval thing 
 Shook gently, pendent from a silken chord. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 We must give up all idea of an Imaginary 
 Conversation for your next volume. They are all lost, it 
 seems. Those of Marvel and Parker, of Petrarc and 
 Boccaccio, were among my best. But I have written more 
 than enough. If I allow myself the folly of regretting, 
 I should perhaps regret that many insertions, and many 
 corrections, of those already published, are gone. My 
 Johnson and Tooke would have formed a separate book, 
 and highly necessary for the restoration of our lan- 
 guage. We are getting worse and worse. I perceive that 
 you yourself permit such a spelling as wo. Pray what 
 do you call the extremity of the foot, if indeed it retains 
 any English name at all ? This is a question more 
 decorously asked in writing than in person. Let me 
 entreat of you to retain my orthography in the poem I 
 send you, lest I should appear to countenance any violation 
 any innovation, of our language. There never was, and 
 never could be, such a word as cherishV, as claspW, as 
 shriekW, as crossW, as droppV, as pressW. And if you 
 inserted the e, you had destroyed the verse. I would 
 retain both crossed and exost, dropp^ and dropt &c. &c. 
 But we ought to use in writing the words we use in 
 speaking, and we should write them as we speak them, 
 consistently with analogy. I write as Englishmen wrote
 
 190 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 before literary men courted the vulgar, or gentlemen were 
 the hirelings of booksellers ; and I have not altered any 
 word whatever ; I have restored the rights of many. I 
 have invented two : subsidence, which was wanted ; and 
 I Hi hood, in this poem, which will be admitted from its 
 propriety and be untouched from its position. Aristo- 
 phanes and Plautus invented many words : they were the 
 greatest inventors of them in their respective nations ; 
 nevertheless they were considered the purest writers. It 
 is only when dandies dare to stick in an artificial flower 
 that the thing becomes absurd and ridiculous. Nothing 
 can last that is written by fingers with a dozen rings upon 
 them, because when men are absorbed by vanity, they have 
 neither time nor vigour to enter into the hearts of others, 
 and can touch only frills and gilt buttons. Well, I am ready 
 to give up all my wds to the literary fund ; but, as my 
 father was subject to the gout, I am afraid of cramping 
 my tds, and, as the merciful man is merciful unto his beast, 
 it goes against my conscience to curtail my \\oxso.-shds. 
 As for fds, I don't mind 'em. 
 
 Yours, Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Very sincerely 
 
 W. S. L. 
 
 Your letter is this moment brought to me. Surely 
 I must be the most negligent man in the world not to have 
 given you my opinion of Grace Cassidy and the Friends. 
 They are both written with great elegance, and show 
 nothing like haste, excepting that vividnesss which springs 
 from quickness of apprehension and the seizure of first
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSING 7 ON PA PEA'S. 1 9 1 
 
 impressions. I admire the Friends even more than 
 Grace. 1 
 
 The corrected Imaginary Conversations, and the un- 
 published volume, are irreparably lost. Mr. Willises 
 friend never consigned them to the person he mentions, 
 who is extremely angry that this person (whoever he is — 
 for Mr. Willis never gave me his name) should have said 
 so. I am very happy to hear of Mr. Willises new poems. 
 He writes with great clearness and purity, and deserves 
 all the success he has obtained. 2 
 
 V. Quarto Sheet, addressed outside, Right Honble. 
 The Countess of Blessington, Gore House, Kensington, 
 NOT DATED, BUT POST-MARKED Bristol, March 19, 
 1836. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Your letter, with all its kindness on its wing, 
 followed me from Derbyshire to Bath, and from Bath to 
 Clifton, where I am. Really I do not know whether I 
 shall have the courage to make a visit to London. What 
 would charm everybody else, disheartens me. I am not 
 indifferent to grace, to wit, to friendship, more than formerly 
 — but I tremble at literary men. I am inclined to believe 
 
 1 The reference is to two of Lady Blessington's novels, Grace Casszdy, or 
 the Repealers (3 vols., Bentley, 1833) and The Two Friends (3 vols., Saunders 
 and Otley, 1835). These are mentioned in a letter she wrote to him on the 
 16th of March 1835 as having been sent to him " by a Mr. Stanley"; and 
 this may be presumed to be Landor's reply on the subject. 
 
 2 Landor's corrected copy of the volumes of Imaginary Conversations 
 already published, with the manuscript of an additional volume, then 
 unpublished, were taken away by Willis on the plea of publication in America. 
 See Forster, Vol. II. pp. 271-3.
 
 192 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 that I can have the best of them to myself for as little as 
 a plate of strawberries at this season, and can avoid the 
 dust of the little skirmishes in which they are perpetually 
 engaged. They do not like one another, they would 
 dislike me. Beside, I am out of spirits at dinner if there 
 are more than five or six people. To confess the truth, 
 I like best dining quite alone, taking my glass of water, 
 my coffee, and my siesta — uniting as much of the Christian 
 as I remember with as much of the Turk as I can. 
 There may be something wolfish in this solitariness — I 
 cannot help it — I acknowledge that when I look at myself 
 I seem rather too like little Red-Ridinghood's grand- 
 mama. Cleverness, learning, eloquence, are capital things. 
 When they are brought round to me, I take my spoonful, 
 but I do not desire the fumes of them at table. Ah, poor 
 Gell ! 1 and what is become of his dogs ? If I hear they are 
 not in kind hands, I will go over to Naples and adopt 
 them. Good Tito Mattei ! Gell gave him a fine taste for 
 musick. But he had not such a heart to give him as there 
 was already in that shaggy breast. Your reflections are 
 as just on the loss of friends as on other occasions which 
 befall us more frequently. But even pious people do not 
 think so much of God, when they are in possession of 
 everything they can desire, as when they feel some sudden 
 want. We know that our friends are ours : we rest upon 
 that rich confidence ; when they are gone, we begin to 
 know that they are not ours, and that, however much we 
 have, we have nothing that can replace them. When 
 
 1 Sir William Gell, who died in 1836, was the same topographer whom 
 Byron described variously in different editions of the English Bards as 
 "classic Gell" and "rapid Gell."
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 193 
 
 1 was at Bath the other day, I called on a lady whom I had 
 not seen for more than twenty years — she was then a 
 child, a girl rather. In the course of conversation she 
 asked me whether I remembered a Charade I had made 
 for her mother. I protested I never made one in my life, 
 and believed most religiously that I was protesting the 
 truth. What was my astonishment when she produced in 
 my own handwriting these words — which she would not 
 give me back, but allowed me to transcribe in pencil. 
 
 S. Did you ever find out a Charade ? 
 
 L. I never tried. 
 
 S. Could you make one ? 
 
 L. I could make God knows what if you would help me. 
 
 S. Make a Charade then, and I will help you if you are 
 at fault. 
 
 Charade. 
 
 The first is very near a tree ; 
 The last my heart has done for thee. 
 Since thy first thoughts of me I troubled 
 Thoult find that I am more than doubled. 1 
 
 1 The answer does not appear in the papers : perhaps the following will 
 do: — 
 
 The first three letters, T, R, E, 
 
 Seem to be very near a tree. 
 
 Fools say " my heart has bled for thee ! " 
 
 And T, R, E, B, L, E, D, 
 
 You'll find if you your head have troubled, 
 
 Is trebled, which is more than doubled. 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 1 94 THE LANDOR-BLESSING 1 ON PAPERS. 
 
 VI. Quarto Half-sheet, without address, date, or 
 
 POST-MARK. 
 
 Tho Southey's poetry to you should seem 
 Not worth five shillings (as you say) per ream, 
 Courage ! good wary Wordsworth ! and disburse 
 The whole amount from that reluctant purse. 
 Here, take my word, tis neither shame nor sin 
 To hazard . . throwing all your own stuff in. 
 
 No more on daisies and on pilewort fed 
 
 By tiresome Duddon's ever troubled bed, 
 
 Lo ! Grasmere's cuckoo leaves these tranquil scenes 
 
 For cities, shovel hats, and dandy deans, 
 
 And, prickt with spicy cheer and portly nod, 
 
 Devoutly fathers Slaughter upon God. 1 
 
 1 In the Tkanksgiving Ode on the Battle of Waterloo, Wordsworth had 
 
 written 
 
 . . . Almighty God ! 
 But thy most dreaded instrument 
 In working out a pure intent 
 Is man arrayed for mutual slaughter ? 
 Yea, Carnage is thy daughter. 
 
 On which Shelley, in Peter Bell the Third, is thus hard : — 
 
 Then Peter wrote odes to the Devil ; — 
 
 In one of which he meekly said : 
 
 "May Carnage and Slaughter, 
 
 Thy niece and thy daughter, 
 
 May Rapine and Famine, 
 
 Thy gorge ever cramming 
 
 Glut thee with living and dead ! 
 
 and more to the same result. Landor's brevity is better and more scathing.
 
 THE LANDOR- BLESSING TON P/IPERS. 195 
 
 VII. Ouarto Sheet, PROSE and VERSE, without 
 address, date, or post-mark ; probably 
 belonging to i 836. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 I am looking forward to the end of the present 
 month when I hope to have the happiness of spending two 
 or three days at Gore House. Colonel Stopford, my 
 brother-in-law, is in London, and I shall take the liberty 
 of presenting him to your Ladyship, as a most intelligent, 
 brave, and honorable man, the only Governor in South 
 America who has perfectly done his duty. He had the 
 province of Cumana, and is come over to England partly 
 for the education of an only daughter, and partly to find 
 richer men than himself who may be induced to join 
 with him in working the richest mines in America, which 
 are his property. He is no schemer, and has brought with 
 him authentic documents to prove the quality of the ore 
 and the facility of working it. If you will grant me per- 
 mission, I will tell him to send to you his printed state- 
 ment of these particulars. I have never seen him : I am 
 anxious to see him : he has invited me, over and over again 
 — but to leave Bath at this moment (as at the past moments) 
 is impossible. 
 
 Among your Italian poets have you the Abbate Orlando 
 Selvaggi ? He has written one thing which interests me from 
 its simplicity. I will transcribe it. Perhaps Miss Power x 
 
 1 Lady Blessington's niece. 
 
 O 2
 
 196 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 may set it to music. If so, I would give my head to 
 be able to sing it, and more than my head to have the 
 courage. 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Your very obliged, 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 
 La Vigilia di Partenza : dall' Abbate 
 Orlando Selvaggi. 
 
 Ben riposa 
 
 La mia Rosa ! 
 
 Se non sia 
 
 La Rosa mia, 
 Dolce Sonno ! lasci almeno 
 Che nel tuo piu chieto seno 
 
 Ouclla Rosa, 
 Cara a me sopra ogni cosa, 
 
 Ben riposa ! 
 
 Ben riposa ! 
 
 Somebody wrote upon it — 
 
 Orlando ! Orlando ! non sei troppa audace 
 
 Ogni speranza tolta 
 
 Ora (la prima volta) 
 Per donna chiedi sonno, per te pace.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 197 
 
 VIII. Quarto Sheet, PROSE and VERSE, addressed 
 OUTSIDE, Right Honble. Countess of Blessington, 
 Gore House, Kensington, NOT SIGNED, DATED, OR 
 LEGIBLY POST-MARKED ; BUT BELONGING TO 
 April 1837. 1 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Mr. Hall has been making me a visit this morning, 
 and he brings me the painful intelligence that you are still 
 very unwell. I will not say how much it grieves me, nor 
 attempt to say it. I am afraid it interrupts all your pleasures 
 and all your studies — if indeed these are not the same thing. 
 Can I be of any use to you ? Tell me what it is, and think it 
 done. In reward for this, do desire some one about you to 
 tell me that you are recovering a little, and hope that your 
 health is following the steps of Spring — slow enough ! When 
 you are well again, you must not occupy yourself so long 
 in the morning with anything that requires much attention. 
 I will send you, or bring you, fifty things for the Book of 
 Beauty — I will never write anything that is not yours. 
 
 Looking over the old papers I might burn, and separat- 
 ing them from those I might not, I found an old letter 
 scored over with pencil and containing the last scene of 
 my Orestes. Will it do for the Book of Beauty ? 
 
 Orestes maddened. 
 Heavy and murderous dreams, O my Electra, 
 Have drag'd me from myself! 
 
 Is this Mycenae ? 
 
 1 The date of this letter is certain, within a few days. Lady Blessington 
 wrote to Landor on the 19th of April 1837 — "A thousand thanks for your 
 most kind offer of literary assistance, and for the charming scene frcm your 
 Orestes, which is full of power. "
 
 198 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 Are we . . . are all who should be . . . in our house ? 
 
 Living ? unhurt ? our father here ? our mother ? 
 
 Why that deep gasp ? for 'twas not sigh nor groan. 
 
 She then, 'twas she who fell : when ? how ? reply not : 
 
 Yea, yea, speak out at once, that my full heart 
 
 May meet it, and may share with thee in all, 
 
 In all, but that one thing. 
 
 It was a dream. 
 We may share all. 
 
 They live ; both live ; say so. 
 ELECTRA. 
 The Gods have placed them from us, and there rolls 
 Between us that dark river . . . 
 
 Orestes. 
 
 Blood! blood! blood! 
 I see it roll ; I see the hand above it, 
 Imploring ; I see her. 
 
 Hiss me not back, 
 Ye snake-hair'd maids ! I will look on ; I will 
 Hear the words gurgle thro that cursed stream, 
 And catch that hand . . that hand which slew my father ? 
 It cannot be . . how could it slay my father ? 
 Death to the slave who said it ! Slay my father ! 
 It tost me up to him to earn a smile, 
 And was a smile, then, such a precious boon, 
 And royal state and proud affection nothing ? 
 Ay, and you too, Electra, she once taught 
 To take the sceptre from him at the door 
 And place it in the vestibule, against 
 The spear of Pallas, where it used to stand.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS 199 
 
 Where is it now? methinks I saw it not. 
 How we have trembled to' be seen to move it, 
 Both looking up lest that stern face should frown 
 Which always gazed on Zeus right opposite ! 
 
 {after a pause?) 
 Oh ! could but one tear more fall from my eyes ! 
 It would shake off those horrid visages 
 And melt them into air. 
 
 I am not yours, 
 Fell Goddesses ! a just and generous Power, 
 A bright-hair'd God, directed me : and thus 
 Abased is he whom such a God inspired ! 
 
 {another pause). 
 
 Into whose kingdom went they ? did they go 
 
 Together ? 
 
 Electra. 
 
 Oh ! they were not long apart. 
 
 Orestes. 
 
 I know why thou art pale ; I know whose head 
 Thy flower-like hands have garlanded ; I know 
 For whom thou hast unbraided all thy love : 
 He well deserves it ; he shall have it all. 
 Come, cheer thee, my Electra ! 
 
 {She throws herself upon his neck in great agony? 
 
 I am strong, 
 But cannot bear thy brow upon my neck, 
 I cannot bear these writhings, these loud sobs . . 
 By all the Gods! I think thou art half- mad . . 
 I must away . . follow me not . . stand there. 
 
 END.
 
 zoo THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 IX. Quarto Sheet, PROSE and VERSE, addressed 
 OUTSIDE, Rigid Honble. The Countess of Blessing- 
 ton, Gore House, Kensington, UNDATED, BUT POST- 
 MARKED Bath, May 27, 1838. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 How shall I ever thank you for a thousandth part of 
 your kindness to me ! Poor Mrs. B, who is nearly out of 
 her senses at her sufferings, begs me to express her gratitude 
 for the interest you have taken in her behalf. Yesterday I 
 wrote to my sisters for the picture of my two children. 
 Arnold may come in somewhere as a page, since there is a 
 place for two. When he comes, in this childish form of 
 him, I will send him. Meanwhile I may as well transcribe 
 some verses I wrote this morning — in answer to a letter 
 from Vienna : 
 
 Ianthe ! Since our parting day 
 Pleasure and you were far away. 
 Leave you then all that strove to please 
 In proud Vienna's palaces, 
 To soothe your Landor's heart agen, 
 And roam once more our hazel glen ? 
 Formerly you have held my hand 
 Along the lane where now I stand, 
 In idle sadness looking round 
 The lonely disenchanted ground, 
 And take my pencil out, and wait 
 To lay the paper on this gate.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 201 
 
 About my temples what a hum 
 Of freshly wakened thought is come ! 
 Ah ! not without a throb or two 
 That shake me as they used to do. 
 A stone there is in yonder nook 
 Which once I borrowed of the brook, 
 And the first hind who fain would cross 
 Must leap five yards, or feel its loss. 
 You sate beside me on that stone, 
 Rather (not much) too wide for one : 
 Suggesting to our arms and knees 
 Most whimsical contrivances. 
 Unsteady stone ! and never quite 
 (Tho often very near it) right ; 
 And putting to sore shifts my wit 
 To roll it out, then steady it, 
 And then to prove that it must be 
 Too hard for anyone but me. 
 Ianthe, come ! ere June declines 
 We'll write upon it all these lines. 
 
 Best regards to my very kind and most delightful friend 
 Count D'Orsay. 
 
 I remain, 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 Your very obliged and affectionate friend, 
 W. S. Landor.
 
 202 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 X. Quarto Sheet, addressed outside, The Countess 
 of Blessingtou, Gore House, Kensington, POST- 
 MARKED Bath, July 12, 1838. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Brown's book on the Sonnets and character of 
 Shakespeare followed me to Bath : 1 I wish it had been 
 sent to Gore House, that your Ladyship might have given 
 me your opinion of it. To me it appears that there is 
 
 1 Lest any unwary reader should go off with the opinion that there are "no 
 pertickler p'ints 'bout this" Brown "more'n any other" Brown, be it recorded 
 that the book referred to was written by one whose small holding in the broad 
 domain of English Literature is secured in perpetuity through his friendship 
 and co-operation with Keats. Brown's book is still one of great distinction 
 in the crowd of Shakespearian literature. As it is not to be met with every- 
 day, here follows its title : — Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems. Being his 
 Sonnets clearly developed with his Character dratvn chiefly from his Works, by 
 
 Charles Armiatge Brown London : James Bohn, 12, King William 
 
 Street, West Strand. 1838. And to soothe the consciences of all mutual 
 admiration societies of to-day, what less can be done than to set Brown's 
 dedication to Landor over against Landor's praise of the book so dedicated ? 
 
 To Walter Savage Landor, Esq. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 To you I first communicated at Florence my explanation of Shake- 
 speare's Sonnets. The interest you felt, and your desire that I should publish 
 the discovery, have induced me, though after a lapse of ten years, to enter on 
 the serious, and, perhaps, unpardonable task, of solving a literary difficulty. 
 
 When a silent man once begins to speak, he is sometimes apt to make up 
 for lost time. You will see that I talk of many matters besides the Sonnets ; 
 for which the late discoveries of Mr. Collier are partly accountable ; but 
 chiefly I have been incited by an earnest wish to raise the ungracious veil 
 that has so long obscured the fame of our grand poet and philosopher. 
 
 The ablest critic must be the kindliest ; otherwise I should fear to lay this 
 volume before you, lest you should feel compelled to express an equally 
 public dissent from some parts of my observations. 
 
 While writers of seeming novelties gain popularity in spite of a slovenly and
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 203 
 
 admirable good sense in every part, and, in some, great 
 shrewdness and perspicacity. What singularly delights 
 me is the purity of style. Nothing can be clearer ; and 
 very often it is elegant and graceful. 
 
 Pray let me hear how you like Fisher's portrait of 
 me, and whether Valentini's work improves. I have 
 done with every kind of labour, except a line or two as 
 I walk. The only specimen I can give you is a very 
 indifferent one : the occasion is obvious enough. 
 
 Why, why repine, my pensive friend, 
 
 At pleasures slipt away ? 
 Some the stern Fates will never lend, 
 
 And all refuse to stay. 
 
 I see the rainbow in the sky, 
 
 The dew upon the grass . . 
 I see them, and I ask not why 
 
 They glimmer or they pass. 
 
 With folded arms I linger not 
 
 And look for them in vain 
 In this or in some other spot 
 
 I know they'll shine again. 
 
 July 5- 
 
 Will you have the goodness to tell me where can be 
 
 vitiated style, let me congratulate you on having enforced the attention of our 
 countrymen by original thought, clothed in pure and expressive English. 
 
 May you long continue to delight and instruct us, nursing our best impulses 
 into active virtues ! T remain, ever, 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 The Author.
 
 204 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 procured those elastic stockings from which a year (or 
 thereabouts) since, you received so much benefit ? 
 Believe me, 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Your ever obliged Servant, 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 
 XI. Quarto Sheet, PROSE and VERSE, addressed 
 OUTSIDE, The Countess of Blessington, Gore House, 
 Kensington, UNDATED, BUT POST-MARKED Bath, 
 Oct. 15, 1838. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 The address of Miss Garrow is Torquay. 1 Mr. 
 D' Israeli's note is a very obliging one. He tells me he 
 does not know whether I have written a century too late 
 or too early. The fact is, a century ago I should have had 
 but fifty readers, chiefly in Oxford and Cambridge, and for 
 the sake of calling me names, about a sarcasm on Plato or 
 a derogation from the dignity of Pompey. Now at present 
 I have a hundred and fifty at the very least, altho I 
 have created a hundred and twenty of them. Tell him all 
 this when you see him, and assure him that if I had a 
 thousand readers I should be quite out of conceit with 
 myself — for it is impossible that so large a body of people 
 can judge correctly of what is excellent. I received more 
 
 1 Miss Theodosia Garrow contributed much verse to Heath's Book of Beauty 
 and The Keepsake — some of it by no means unworthy of the kindness Landor 
 expressed towards it.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 205 
 
 pleasure from my Lucullus, my Epicurus, and my Diogenes, 
 than I could receive from not only extensive popularity, 
 but from eternal fame. They satisfied my heart, which is 
 larger than the World's, and nearer home. I forgot to tell 
 you that I fell in Milson Street and sprained my ancle. A 
 booby dropt some mortar from his hod, which I sett my 
 foot upon. If I could throw my leg over a cloud it might 
 be taken for a rainbow — not one colour missing. How- 
 ever I hope in a day or two to get out of doors again, for 
 I can live only in the open air. Yesterday I met with these 
 verses of Parny. 
 
 On passe par differens gouts 
 En passant par differens ages : 
 
 Plaisir est lc bonhcur des fous, 
 Bonheur est le plaisir des sages. 
 
 To which I wrote this reply. 
 
 Volage est Plaisir : cntre nous, 
 
 Bonheur est un peu difficile ; 
 
 En vain j'ai cherche son asile . . 
 Laissez-moi restcr chcz les fous. 
 
 Specimen of a new translation of the Henriade. 
 
 I sing the conquering hero of France and Mayenne too, 
 The King of all his subjects, and father of no few ; 
 One never outmanoeuvred at rapier or intrigue, 
 Who bullied down the Spaniard, and fairly lickt the Ligue. 
 Descend from Heaven's top-gallery, O Verity august ! 
 And sprinkle on my writing your finest pinkest dust, &c
 
 206 THE LAND0R-BLESSING70N PAPERS. 
 
 Did I ever send you these ? — 
 
 Anne Boleyn ! tho I may be wrong 
 To think thee fit for tragic songf, 
 
 O CM 
 
 Yet cannot I, to sing or sigh on, 
 Prefer a dock or dandelion. 1 
 
 You remember, no doubt, those of Lord Byron, " Give 
 
 me the dark and lustrous eye " — a young lady very Byronical 
 
 was pleased to say she should not expect any better except 
 
 from me. You may well imagine the expression was a 
 
 little maline. It cost me no trouble to give her these — 
 
 Give me the eyes that look on mine, 
 And, when they see them dimly shine, 
 
 Are moister than they were : 
 Give me the eyes that fain would find 
 Some relicks of a youthful mind 
 
 Amid the wrecks of care. 
 
 Give me the eyes that catch at last 
 A few faint glimpses of the past, 
 
 And, as the arkite dove 
 Descried the long-lost olive-bough, 
 In me discover even now 
 
 A heart that once could love 
 
 I never had the courage ' 2 to transcribe, while I kept the 
 copy now long lost, the verses which were like these, but, 
 I think, not quite the same. 
 
 1 Two Dramatic Scenes on the subject of Anne Boleyn appeared towards 
 the end of the year 1838 in the Book of Beauty for 1839. 
 
 2 Fide Madden, he must have been mistaken, for the poem is given in the
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 207 
 
 Beauty's pure native gems, ye golden hairs 
 
 Once mingled with my own, 
 While soft desires, ah me ! were all the cares 
 
 Two idle hearts had known ! 
 
 How is it, when I take ye from the shrine 
 
 Which holds one treasure yet, 
 That ye (now all of Nancy that is mine !) 
 
 Shrink from my fond regret ? 
 
 Ye leaves that droopt not with the plant that bore ye, 
 
 Start ye before my breath ? 
 
 Shrink ye from tender Love who would adore ye, 
 
 O ye who felt not Death ! 
 
 W. S. L. 
 
 XII. Quarto Sheet, addressed outside, Tlie Countess 
 of Blessington, Gore House, Kensington, NOT 
 DATED, BUT POST-MARKED Bath, Apr. 22, l83[9]. x 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Every day that there has blown an easterly wind, 
 I have been anxious lest there should be a recurrence 
 of your old sufferings in the trachea. It will delight me 
 to learn that my apprehensions have been vain. Do not 
 
 Life and Literary Correspondence as an enclosure to a letter dated the 22nd 
 of February 1837. 
 
 1 The subject of this letter fixes the date, though the last figure in the post- 
 mark failed. Andrea of Hungary and Giovanna of Naples (Bentley, 1839) had 
 just appeared, with the prefatory announcement, "Any profits which may 
 arise to the Author from this Edition, he has requested the Publisher will 
 transmit to Grace Darling."
 
 2o8 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 think me negligent if my tragedies have never yet reacht 
 their most desired theater, Gore House. I was in ex- 
 pectation that the March winds would have puffed away 
 all the dramatical dust with which people's eyes have 
 been blinded latterly, and that my Giovanna might have 
 come forth in the beginning of April, far from the pop- 
 ulace, without impediment as without pretension. Mr. 
 Bentley, after he had printed all but the three last sheets, 
 stopt suddenly, two months ago. No doubt, he received 
 a valuable consideration (as the price of roguery is called) 
 for this dexterity. Forster, Dickens, and James, are up 
 in arms against him. James has put him into the Court 
 of Chancery. Dickens has advised me to write him a 
 contemptuous letter. To write at all to people of that 
 description is not sufficiently contemptuous. I have 
 ordered the printing to be begun by another publisher, 
 at my own expense, leaving the edition now ready for 
 sale, on this worthy's hands. Moderate as is my ex- 
 penditure, more moderate than even the small income 
 I allow myself, could not I have saved a miserable ten 
 pounds for Grace Darling, without any business with 
 publishers ! I have always suffered for doing what I 
 had once resolved never to do. The punishment is just. 
 I forgot to say that I have been troubled with a little 
 of the influenza. Two years ago, I escaped it at Clifton, 
 when everybody else had it. The distemper is catching. 
 When it has left me totally, I hope once more to enjoy 
 a few walks with you round your garden, and to bend 
 down those tall and stately lilacs, not without a salute 
 to three or four of the finest before I let them go again. —
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 209 
 
 I wrote the following on my grave Walter, on whom 
 Milnes has written so much better — indeed better than 
 any man living could write. 
 
 My serious son ! I see thee look 
 
 First on the picture, then the book : 
 
 I catch thy wish that thou couldst paint 
 
 The yearnings of the extatic Saint. 
 
 Give it not up, my serious son ! 
 
 But wish again, and it is done. 
 
 Seldom will any fail who tries 
 
 With patient hand and stedfast eyes, 
 
 And wooes the true with such pure sighs. 
 
 W. S. L. 
 
 XIII. Quarto Sheet and a half,addressed outside, 
 The Countess of Blessington, Gore House, Ken- 
 sington, NOT DATED, BUT WITH A FAINT Bath 
 POST-MARK, PROBABLY OF July J or 1 7, 1839. 1 
 
 It was a dream or vision in which I beheld what I am 
 now attempting to recall. A figure was passing me, fresh 
 and bright and promising as Morn. All was verdant, all 
 was sunny, all was pleasurable, round about it. While I 
 stood gazing and loitering, it had already passed. But 
 although the joyous eyes, the brow adorned with flowers, 
 the lips half-open, the bosom open quite, the arms at one 
 
 1 There is no doubt as to the year, 1839. Landor reconsidered this Dream : 
 a small portion of it, and that very much altered, was published in The Keep- 
 sake for 1847. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 2 1 o THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 
 
 moment in act of embracing, at another of pursuing with 
 a like intensity, were visible no longer, yet there was some- 
 what even in its flight which captivated the soul, and was 
 followed by aspirations and sighs. 
 
 " Why leave me ? " said I, " Why leave me ? " No 
 answer was vouchsafed : the figure had disappeared. 
 Turning round, disconsolate, there stood before me a female 
 form, more lovely stil. It occurred to my memory that 
 in former days I had seen them both together, and indeed 
 had enjoyed no small portion of their regard. But my 
 senses were now confused ; and in my enthusiasm I cried, 
 " O which art thou among the Blessed ? Art thou Venus 
 in pursuit of thy son ? He has just now gone by." She 
 seemed but little pleased at my question ; nay, disappointed 
 rather. And yet how could that be ? Did I not believe 
 her, and did I not call her, a goddess ? 
 
 Would she be more ? Yes, it was evident she would. 
 Nevertheless, I continued to think in my dream that, 
 although it was no fault or intention of mine if I had 
 humiliated her, I ought to deprecate her displeasure. No 
 doubt, I expressed in my countenance an acceptable sign 
 of contrition ; for she smiled over her shoulder. I was 
 instantly at ease again, and began to grow confident 
 that I had been right in my first conjecture. How- 
 ever, after a moment's pause, she answered, blandly and 
 innocently, " I am not Venus ; she is only my repre- 
 sentative; and only a part of my authority belongs to 
 her." Modest as she looked, I thought her (and yet 
 how could I gaze on her and think so ?) indiscreet in 
 her expressions. She knew my thoughts, and, casting one
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 2 1 1 
 
 more smile into the midst of them, put them all in con- 
 fusion and disorder. " You fancy me indiscreet " said she : 
 " but you never, in time past, blamed me for little indis- 
 cretions : nor shall you now . My power has always been 
 augmented by indescribable and scarcely discernible imper- 
 fections. At what do you gaze and wonder ? Have you 
 forgotten the prime object of your worship, Beauty?" I 
 fell before her, clasped her knees, kissed her feet, and felt 
 her hand, as formerly, on my head : I felt its warmth and 
 softness : I recollected the crowns it had placed there for 
 active services and ardent faith. There she held it. She 
 looked into my eyes ; and began to tell me how often I 
 had looked into hers ; and to remind me where it happened ; 
 and to relate and dwell prolixly on stories of brief delights ; 
 and to repeat old enigmas, in whose composition and 
 solution there was only one Sphynx and one Edipus ; and 
 childish names, constructed, like the nests of swallows, 
 with moist and pairing bills. Finally she retraced odd 
 figures, drawn formerly upon the table with apparent 
 negligence, by fingers dipt in water purposely, or by laying 
 nuts and raisins in the form of letters, rapidly or slowly, 
 according to the situation and apprehension of the learner. 
 Then continued she, " While you and your beloved were 
 inserting a Greek letter into her name, giving it a charm 
 and a melody it wanted, what did you think of me ? for 
 never was my presence more manifest." To which, after 
 a pause, I answered, " At first I fancied I saw precipices 
 and gulphs at hand, and clouds that threatened lightening 
 in the horizon. But as soon as thine eyes were turned 
 towards them, the precipices all subsided ; the gulphs closed 
 
 r 2
 
 212 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 up ; the clouds resembled, in their calmness and clearness 
 and indefinable boundary, the Milky Way ; and the light- 
 ening was only the laughter of the skies." She smiled : 
 " And now let me go," she said, " for I never stay long 
 behind." 
 
 " Behind whom ? " 
 
 " That impetuous impatient fugitive, Youth." 
 
 " Alas ! I was scarcely aware that he had gone " said I 
 " since my eyes were fixt on thee. But tell me where are 
 my friends and thine, O heavenly one ! tell me where is the 
 framer, with me, of that soft name which one Hellenic letter 
 made complete. 1 That name, flying off my pen at her com- 
 mand, has been caught up since by poets who never saw 
 her ; and the magic of its syllables, repeated after me, has 
 given life and celebrity to empty images, to fictile clay." 
 
 " I can remain " said she " but a little while with any. 
 I lingered as long as possible with your Ianthe, and I left 
 all the Graces at her side. Is there any other of whom 
 you would remind me ? " 
 
 Although I had forgotten no one of those I had ever 
 loved, I was silent. Perhaps she mistook my taciturnity 
 for indifference, while in truth I was inhaling deeply the 
 freshness of sweet reminiscences, such as she alone could 
 breathe into my breast. 
 
 "There is another" said I, hesitating ;" one other, not 
 long absent from me ; one to whom any passion of mine 
 would be a profanation. In her behalf I implore the 
 continuance of thy presence : and may none participate 
 with me in the tranquillity of delight with which it has 
 
 1 Ian0e.
 
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 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 213 
 
 been permitted me to behold her. May she be adored by 
 all men worthy to approach her, glorified as she is by the 
 endowments and privileges thou, when most heavenly, hast 
 bestowed, and which every Power above has lavished on 
 her in the same profusion." 
 
 " She engages me wholly " was the reply. " Youth, who 
 hurried away from you, is now with her : I must bid you 
 farewell, and rejoin them." 
 
 Thus began, continued, and ended (I know not how 
 many years ago) my Dream of Youth and Beauty. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington 
 
 Here is another vision. What a dreamer ! You 
 will perceive, and indeed by too many marks and erasures, 
 that I have taken some trouble with it, trifling as it is. 
 As the little stones that are worked for ornament require 
 more attention than those we mend roads with, so do the 
 writings which are intended to amuse and please require 
 more nicety than such as are to improve the world by 
 their weight or correct it by their sharpness. I am reading 
 a book by Dr. Verity of Paris, which he had the kindness 
 to send me, on the changes produced by the nervous 
 system on civilization. He tells us, what I cannot think, 
 that civilization has always been progressive. If it has, 
 it has for ages and ages been in the gout and on crutches. 
 All nations have something of it, and all want something. 
 The wild North-American hears in dignified silence the 
 scoffs of those vile barbarians who deal in slaves. He 
 never interrupts the person who is speaking, and reserves 
 all violent gestures for the tomahawk, after a solemn
 
 214 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 declaration of war. Yet a member of the British or even 
 of the French Parliament would have the impudence to 
 tell me that his assembly gives evidence of higher civiliza- 
 tion. The very opposites to the North-Americans are the 
 Chinese. In internal policy they far excel the Europeans ; 
 and, altho highly commercial, the government consents 
 to lose incalculable revenues rather than admit a drug 
 which demoralizes the people. Which affords the higher 
 proof of civilization — the casting of opium into the 
 canals of China or the erecting of gin-shops in the streets 
 of London ? In fact, no nation is, or ever was, half civilized. 
 How the Arts flourished in the reign of Elizabeth, and the 
 Sciences in George 4th's ! Yet what odious monsters ! 
 — without one virtue. Henry 8 was warm in friendship — 
 Mary, both in love and religion. Nearer our times, look 
 at Swift and Rousseau — Moralists ! philosophers ! Two 
 such scoundrels are nowhere to be found out of royalty. 
 Henry 8 and Nero would never have acted as Rousseau 
 did, when he permitted the poor girl his fellow servant 
 to be punished for his theft — and tho they might burn 
 seditious sectaries, would never have lighted up those sad 
 slow fires which consumed Vanessa and Stella. Where 
 and what is our civilization ? 
 
 I had pointed badly my Galileo — there should have been 
 a semicolon after " penitentiary " in the 8th line, and no 
 stop after '■'locality." And p. 52, line 6, " eglantine^-," and 
 there should be ' no ' over ' others" line 20, p. 49. P. 54, 
 line 2, for "grow" "grew." I note these places only for 
 your own copy. I hope the gloom and dampness of the 
 weather do not affect your spirits and delay your con-
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 2 1 5 
 
 valesccnce. What can Miss Power think of it, even after 
 
 Canada ! I presume Ct. D'Orsay is with the hounds — the 
 
 season is excellent for them. Alas ! I see no chance at 
 
 present of my preferment in being made either hound or 
 
 hunter. 
 
 But I am very truly 
 
 Your Ladyship's obliged 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 
 My obedience and her volition were simultaneous, were 
 one. It was no more a merit in me, than it is a merit in 
 the corn or herbage to bend before the breath of Summer. 
 Alike we raise our heads again the fresher for it : alike 
 we live and flourish by accomplishing the laws of our 
 nature. My companion and I inclined our foreheads at 
 the same moment. Was it . . - 1 
 
 XIV. Quarto Sheet, headed " PLEASURE, YOUTH, 
 AND AGE : AN ALLEGORY," addressed 
 OUTSIDE, The Countess of Blessington, Gore 
 House, Kensington, NOT DATED, BUT POST- 
 MARKED Bath, July 9, i83[c/]. 2 
 
 I BELIEVE I was dreaming, but I cannot say to a certainty 
 whether I was or not, for I might have been dozing or 
 musing, when two beautiful forms stood before me, whose 
 features I remember to have seen elsewhere, although 
 
 1 This appears to have been connected with a missing piece of paper. 
 
 2 The figure 9 failed in the post-mark ; but this is probably the vision with 
 which Lady Blessington was so "charmed" in the autumn of 1839 as to 
 promise it a place in the Book of Beauty for 1841.
 
 2 1 6 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 
 
 neither of them had come near me lately. There was a 
 hedge between us : the banks were covered with anemone 
 and primrose, hyacynth [sic] and narcissus : and among 
 them was the earliest violet, which smells the sweetest, and 
 is single. Above these was that rose whose foliage is for 
 ever fragrant, and which many of us are fond of pressing 
 in our books, and of looking at from time to time, long 
 after we have laid it by. I leaned over it in my idleness, 
 and saw many stems hard and prickly, many leaves harsh 
 and rough ; other stems were smooth and pliant, other 
 leaves tender and transparent ; some had been darkened 
 by only being touched, and some had been bent down and 
 left to die. Several beside were the flexible plants, several 
 the crisp and glossy, several with long tendrils that clomb 
 over the inclosure, and began to open their buds, in those 
 places only where the sun was on them. The hedge itself 
 was a very old one, and made up of inequalities. It had 
 gaps in it, here and there, which it would be difficult to 
 leap over or push through ; yet it was easy not only to 
 catch athwart it what was said, but also to discover the 
 speakers. Their backs were toward me : one was some- 
 what shorter than the other, and seemed to be a boy : this, 
 as might be expected, was at first the bolder ; but by in- 
 sensible degrees he appeared to have communicated no 
 little of his manners to his compliant listener. Although 
 I could see the face of neither, I saw plainly their 
 arms and hands, reposing where each other's form was 
 best adapted to support them in their self-abandonment. 
 Statuaries have represented the Graces in the same 
 attitude.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 217 
 
 The nearer we are to pleasure, the less we are contented 
 to be where we are. 
 
 I wish they would turn round, thought I : but m3' 
 unspoken words gave way to their articulated. I know not 
 whether anyone would be amused by a repetition of them : 
 I am afraid the young might turn aside confounded, as if 
 there were somewhat of the mocker or betrayer in me ; 
 and the elderly might grow angry, as if I flouted their com- 
 posure and transgressed their gravity. Unwelcome as my 
 reception on either side may be, I will however take the 
 liberty of recording that in this conversation there were 
 few doubts started, and apparently on purpose for pro- 
 testations. There also were short sweet songs, marvellously 
 interrupted : and then arose a warm ^exhalation of low ob- 
 scure murmurs, no less sweet and no less transitory, though 
 permitted to pass unbroken and to die in peace. 
 
 The day was, you will have observed, an early spring day 
 and, as is usual at this season of the year, the weather was 
 inconstant. A few drops of rain fell softly, which the two 
 lovely Beings kissed from each other's hair and cheeks, and 
 shoulders. But after a while they became less sedulous in 
 this occupation ; presently it seemed to weary them ; they 
 then complained that the day was growing chilly : at last 
 they said reciprocally, 
 
 Had tt not been for yon I should never have come hither. 
 The girlish said peevishly, j<??/ soon are tired: the boyish 
 tauntingly, Yon first tired me. 
 
 They looked at each other no longer with arms interlaced, 
 but dropping at full length and languidly. The taller one, 
 who ought from experience to have been the wiser, said,
 
 218 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 I will look out for some one else : the shorter cried, The 
 sooner the better. 
 
 A few small whitish clouds had been for some time 
 crossing the heavens, then tawny, then dun ; and sundry 
 were the signs of a thunderstorm at a distance : but scarcely 
 were these words uttered, when hailstones pattered on their 
 naked feet, and they lifted and shifted them uneasily. The 
 boy was froward, as you have seen, and he laid on the other 
 all the blame of the hailstones nay he was so ungrateful as 
 to add : that, even without them, he always felt chilly soon 
 after he had met her. Impetuous as he looked I could 
 hardly have imagined he was so reprobate and reproachful. 
 Before I was aware, and perhaps even before he himself 
 was, he had sprung away. In vain did his beautiful com- 
 panion call to him. Her countenance was, however, much 
 the same as before ; and the last words she said, were, 
 
 If y oti fancy I shall weep for y on, indeed yon are mistaken. 
 I leave tears for those who leave vie : when I am once out of 
 sight you will find them. 
 
 Away they both went. Now, said I to myself, I may 
 cross over and see what they have been about. Great was 
 my surprise, unspeakable my horror, to perceive that I 
 had nearly set both feet on a languid and decrepit old 
 creature, who now occupied the very place whereon the 
 boisterous one had been standing. He looked morosely 
 and maliciously at me, but would not stir. Disappointed, 
 and indisposed to converse with him, I would have turned 
 away : but he, who had appeared so unwilling to move, 
 was come close behind me. Pretending that I never 
 had noticed him, I looked up among the trees, where
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 219 
 
 many birds had been singing, blythcly, but had now 
 left off. 
 
 What are you looking at there ? cried the gruff old 
 man. . . You might spend your time better tJian in staring 
 at the names of yon idlers. 
 
 I lowered my eyes, and saw, about breast-high, two 
 names inscribed on the soft smooth bark of a blossom- 
 ing mimosa. They were united : they were surmounted 
 by a coronel of roses and amaranths, likewise graven, 
 and very recently, for they still were shining in the 
 exuberant juiciness of the tender tree. Rather than look 
 again at the troublesome old man, whose paces were 
 quicker than could have been expected from the debility of 
 his limbs, I continued to keep my attention fixt upon the 
 names, like one unable to read them. Red and rheumy as 
 were his eyes, he soon detected my simulation. 
 
 If you were as ignorant as you wish to be thought, said he 
 one of the names belongs to the falsest of Beings, and the other 
 to the most credulous : Pleasure and Youth. He drew out 
 prolixly and with a tremulous jeer these offensive appella- 
 tions, and coughed so in the paroxism of his scorn that I 
 was ready to catch him in my arms. 
 
 A nd now you know who they are : pretty names, ay ! 
 
 Yours, said I, bowing profoundly, / presume, is Age. 
 
 And what then ? cried he angrily. If you had not come 
 to vie I should not have come to you. 
 
 Believe me, answered I submissively, it was quite uninten- 
 tional on my part ; there are few on whose privacy I should 
 be less willing to intrude. Be assured I dropt upon you 
 unaware.
 
 220 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 More shame for you ! grumbled he. You would rather be 
 
 with yon coiiple of idlers : you are as fond ', no doubt, as they 
 
 are, of lonely places : you look tip wistfully at those precious 
 
 devices of theirs ; but the traces will be soon obliterated : a 
 
 few days are enough for it. 
 
 Whether it was at this observation, or whether at the 
 
 sunshine (for the day was now serene again) falling on those 
 
 names so gracefully united, my tenderness was awakened ; 
 
 and clasping the mimosa, I pressed my lips, and then my 
 
 cheek, and then my forehead, against them. He fancied 
 
 me delirious, and he groaned. 1 was near doing the same : 
 
 certainly I sighed when I thought of the departed : yet I 
 
 had seen the one but once, and long ago, and the other not 
 
 often since. The worst of all was, the cross old man, instead 
 
 of leaving me alone, came up closer. He wheezed and 
 
 tottered, yet I could not gain even a furlong in advance on 
 
 him : indeed I felt that my steps were becoming less firm 
 
 and less elastic every instant. At last I caught a little of 
 
 his ill-humour, and was about to tell him my mind ; 
 
 when suddenly I saw before me two young persons, 
 
 evidently sisters, of admirable grace and beauty, who, 
 
 had they not been vested in white from the shoulders 
 
 to the feet, and moreover had they not looked as if 
 
 they never could disagree, might have been taken for 
 
 the very two who had just now gone off separately. 
 
 Never were countenances more ingenuous, never were 
 
 voices sweeter. They seemed to be asking one another 
 
 which of them should speak to me first ; for both were 
 
 diffident. At length she who was the graver, and had 
 
 the darker eyes and longer eyelashes, took my hand with
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 221 
 
 some timidity (I thought) and more concern, and thus 
 expostulated. 
 
 " It ill becomes you, of all men living, to be quarrelsome 
 or discontented. You have idled away much of your time 
 in regarding the giddy ones we met on the road. It 
 would be a still worse idleness to debate with the querulous 
 and infirm." 
 
 Observing that I was moved, as everyone must have 
 been at such a gentleness of reproof, such a modesty of 
 wisdom, she began to comfort me, by singing in that 
 language which seemed her native one, and in which 
 alone (I am inclined to believe) the angels sing above. 
 The first accents she uttered brought back again the 
 lovely couple she had mentioned. They looked over her 
 shoulder at me, and smiled more enchantingly than ever. 
 It was only by a sudden pang (I cannot tell whence arising) 
 I was made sensible that one of them now for certain had 
 imperceptibly slipt away from me. The other, when she 
 observed a shade of melancholy come over me, nodded 
 toward me, laying her hand on the parted hair of my 
 monitress, and said, 
 
 Never mind ! He indeed has left you ; but We are not 
 gone yet. 
 
 I have no doubt the old man was watching and listen- 
 ing all the while ; that he was vext at what he saw 
 and heard ; and that he is ready to play me some spiteful 
 trick, at the earliest opportunity. I am told that at 
 times he strikes a prodigiously hard blow, and knocks 
 one on the head in a moment without a word of warning ; 
 and I have been advised to stand on my guard. I will do
 
 222 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 no such a thing, however. Thenceforward I have had the 
 start of him, and have thought very little about him : 
 Indeed I can bring to mind nothing more relating to him, 
 at present, than this strange and somewhat visionary- 
 adventure. 
 
 Walter Savage Landor. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Will you pardon me. so many interlineations ? We 
 workers in ivory must be minute. Never have I bestowed 
 so much labour on so small a performance. I hope you 
 will think it worthy of a place, not in the forthcoming but 
 in the following Book of Beauty. 
 
 Your Ladyship's ever obliged 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 
 XV. Quarto Sheet, addressed outside, The Countess 
 of Blessington, Gore House, Kensington, MARKED 
 "Paid" in LANDOR'S writing, undated, 
 BUT POST-MARKED Bath, Jan. 27, 1840. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 I know you hate letter-writing, and I suspect 
 you hate letter-receiving — so pray do not consider this 
 as anything in the shape of a letter. It will be only a 
 duet in an Opera which I began to write in Italy, and 
 of which I can recollect no more than what is before 
 you.
 
 the landor-blessington papers 223 
 
 Babbo. 
 
 Ho veduto viso muto 
 Spesse volte risguardasti, 
 E ti avverto che (son certo) 
 Tende reti per pigliasti. 
 Forse non rimproverei, 
 Ma, flgliola mia, saprei 
 Cosa vuola, cosa fa. 
 
 FlGLIOLA. 
 
 Lo non so, non so perche, 
 Babbo mio ! ma piace a me ; 
 E un pochino di diletto 
 Col carino giovinetto 
 Mamma non rimprovera. 
 
 Babbo. 
 
 Cosa sento ? cosa dici ? 
 
 Cosa dici ? cosa sento ? 
 
 L' uom' di rado al male e lento, 
 
 Voi sempre improvvisatrici. 
 
 And now I entreat Miss Power to accept this as my 
 
 Italian exercise, and to send me one of hers in return. 
 
 Verse is perhaps more easy to her than prose in this 
 
 delightful language. 
 
 Ever dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Your obliged 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 Kindest regards to Count D'Orsay.
 
 224 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 XVI. Quarto Sheet.PROSE and VERSE, addressed 
 OUTSIDE, The Countess of Blessington, Gore House, 
 Kensington, UNDATED, BUT POST-MARKED Bath, 
 Sept. 25, 1840. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Last week I sent your Ladyship a little poem, 1 to 
 which I thought I had given the last hand. Ignorant 
 whether you might not perhaps, at some future time, 
 think it deserving of a place in the Book of Beauty, or 
 elsewhere, and indeed not thinking about its destination, 
 I did not add the Envoi. You will find it on the other 
 side, with a correction or two. 
 
 Believe me ever 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 With best compliments to your charming nieces, 
 
 Your obliged 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 Correct. 
 
 Stanza 2, for mud-built — outer. 
 Stanza 3, for lies down — Pants hard. 
 Stanza 6, r. She gazed ere. 
 
 1 The Nightingale and Rose, — evidently meant to be divided into stanzas, 
 though it was not so divided in the two-volume collection of the Works. On 
 the 28th of September 1840, Lady Blessington replied thus : — 
 
 "It gave me great pleasure to see your writing again, and to be assured 
 you were well, of which pleasing fact I had the most satisfactory proof, in a 
 poem so full of fancy and grace, that it could only have emanated from a 
 healthy mind and body. The tuneful bird inspired of old by the Persian rose, 
 warbled not more harmoniously its praise than do you that of the English 
 rose, which posterity will know through your beautiful verses."
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSING TON PAPERS. 2 2 5 
 
 Stanza 12, for appear d — appears - . 
 
 Stanza 17, for his birth, alas! — his very birth. 
 
 Last Stanza, But only in those. 
 
 Envoi. 
 
 Lady of all my lays ! 
 
 Accept the tribute due ; 
 And, if a word of praise 
 
 Or smile descend from you, 
 I will not look about 
 
 To catch such crumbs as fall 
 Among the rabble rout 
 
 That crowds the choral hall, 
 Nor chide the deaf man's choice 
 
 When o'er the Rose's bird 
 The low unvarying voice 
 
 Of cuckoo is prefer'd. 
 
 Insert after — 
 
 " Of them it sought its doom " 
 
 Wanting was one delight, 
 
 The one she could not give, 
 He thought, alas ! she might . . 
 
 He thought so, nor would live. 
 Ever some cruel spell 
 
 Hangs fastened, tho unseen, 
 To those who love too well 
 
 And sing too well between. 
 
 *t> 
 
 At the fond heart &c. &c. 
 VOL. 1.
 
 226 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 XVII. Octavo Sheet, not dated or addressed, but 
 
 BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN ON THE 
 ist of January 1845. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Before I open any other letter, I must thank you for 
 the graceful lines you have written to me. They will keep 
 my breast warmer and adorn me more than the waistcoat. 
 Nothing can be dearer to me than your recollection, accom- 
 panied by such invariable kindness. Every friend I have 
 in the world knows how highly I esteem your noble 
 qualities, and I never lose an opportunity of expatiating 
 on them. You have left me nothing to wish but a 
 favourable account of your health, and a few words about 
 my other friends at Gore House. To morrow I am pro- 
 mised your new novel. With your knowledge of the 
 world and, what is rarer, of the human heart, the man 
 is glorified who enjoys your approbation — what then if 
 he enjoys your friendship ! Often and often in this 
 foggy weather have I trembled lest you should have had 
 a return of the bronchitis. But I am credibly informed 
 that the sun has visited London twice in the month of 
 December. Let us hope that such a phenomenon may 
 portend no mischief to the nation. 
 
 To thee I call 
 O Sun ! to tell thee how I love thy beams, 
 That bring to my remembrance the blue skies 
 Of Italy, so brightened by thy smile.
 
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 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 227 
 
 It is well I have left off poetry, or certainly I should 
 be as jealous of a certain young lady as any other man 
 is of " the youth who sits beside her." 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 Ever yr. obliged 
 
 W. S. Landor. 
 
 XVIII. Octavo Sheet, with portion of envelope 
 ADDRESSED, The Countess of Blessington, Gore 
 House, Kensington, AND SAID TO HAVE BEEN 
 POST-MARKED May II, 1 846. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Forster left me yesterday, after staying only Satur- 
 day. Before the present hour I did entertain the hope 
 of presenting my Works to you, decently bound. But 
 he tells me I must wait about a fortnight. Nevertheless, 
 if you should happen to have room for me, I shall be 
 delighted to pay my respects to you at Gore House 
 within a few days. Before the end of next week I 
 must return to Bath again, in order to accompany some 
 friends into Devonshire. 
 I remain, 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 Your ever obliged, 
 
 W. Landor. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS 
 
 XIX. VERSES addressed TO WALTER SAVAGE 
 LANDOR by MARGARET COUNTESS 
 OF BLESSINGTON on the \oth of Feb- 
 ruary 1849. 
 
 THE muse who loved thee in thy youth, 
 With such a fervency and truth, 
 Forsakes thee not, but fond as fair, 
 Still joys thy solitude to share, 
 And blandly has seduced old time, 
 To let thee write, as in thy prime. 
 Though seventy-five years may have flown, 
 The calculation we'll not own, 
 It must be false, for ne'er did age 
 Indite so pure and sweet a page, 
 Inspired by beauty, as I see 
 Breathe in the verse that comes from thee. 
 Long may'st thou live, the world to show 
 That time can't chill the brilliant glow 
 Of minds like thine, to whom 'tis given 
 To keep the flame, till they reach Heaven.
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 229 
 
 XX. Quarto Sheet, PROSE and VERSE, without 
 address, date, or post-mark. 
 
 Dear Lady Blessington, 
 
 What thanks ought I to return for such excellent 
 and flattering verses. The flattery does not constitute the 
 excellence, but certainly enhances it. For we old men are 
 strangely fond of being thought capable of making some 
 impression, however slight, on the young and beautiful. 
 However, in sober sadness, I must protest that the only one 
 I make is on the calm unimpassioned heart of the friendly 
 and intellectual. To think of more would be folly — to aim 
 at more would be worse. You have occasioned me to write 
 some bad verses by cowering over me with good ones. 
 
 That lovely name adorns my song 
 
 And dwells upon my heart. 
 Tremble then every other tongue ! 
 
 Tears from all eyes then start ! 
 
 These are the sights I love to see. 
 
 I love to see around 
 Youths breathing hard on bended knee 
 
 Upon that Holy ground. 
 
 I wave the incense all the while, 
 
 I stand above the rest, 
 I feel within the angelic smile, 
 
 I bless, and I am blest.
 
 230 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 "WHAT IS REALLY MY BELIEF?" 
 
 My faith is this. I do believe 
 That ladies never would deceive, 
 And that the little fault of Eve 
 Is very easy to retrieve. 
 
 She lost us immortality, 
 But in good earnest what care I, 
 If you receive my latest sigh 
 And give me one — before I die. 
 
 W. S. L. 
 
 XXL Remarks on MARGARET COUNTESS of 
 BLESSINGTON by WALTER SAVAGE 
 LANDOR. 
 
 I HEAR that Dr. Madden has published Lady Blessing- 
 ton's Correspondence. Severe illness has prevented my 
 looking into it, so that I am ignorant what parts of my 
 letters it may contain. Permission was asked of me by 
 one of the family to make a selection of them, under a 
 promise that it should be done sparingly and discreetly; 
 and I entertain no doubt that such has been the case. My 
 letters have always been of such a nature, and intention- 
 ally, that any publisher must be ruined who should under- 
 take the printing. There may, however, be a few sen- 
 tences, here and there, not uninteresting to my corre-
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 231 
 
 spondent. The hope of rendering a trifling service to a 
 member of Lady Blessington's family was my sole motive 
 for compliance. 
 
 I will now state my first acquaintance with her Lady- 
 ship. Residing in the Palazzo Medici at Florence, the 
 quinsey, my annual visitant for fifty seasons, confined 
 me to my room. At that time my old friend Francis 
 Hare, who had been at Pisa on a visit to Lord and Lady 
 Blessington, said at breakfast that he must return in- 
 stantly to Florence. Lord and Lady B. joked with him 
 on so sudden a move, and insisted on knowing the true 
 reason for it. When he mentioned my name and my 
 sickness, Lord Blessington said, 
 
 " You don't mean Walter Landor ! " 
 
 " The very man," replied Hare. 
 
 His Lordship rang the bell, and ordered horses to be 
 put instantly to his carriage. He had gone to Pisa for 
 his health, and had rented a house on a term of six 
 months, of which only four had expired. The next 
 morning my servant entered my inner drawing-room, 
 where I was lying on a sofa, and announced Lord Bles- 
 sington. I said I knew no such person. He immediately 
 entered, and said, 
 
 " Come, come, Landor ! I never thought you would 
 refuse to see an old friend. If you don't know Blessington, 
 you may remember Mountjoy." 
 
 Twenty years before, when Lord Mountjoy was under 
 the tuition of Dr. Randolph, he was always at the parties 
 of Lady Belmore, at whose house I visited, more par- 
 ticularly when there were few besides her own family. I
 
 232 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 should not have remembered Lord Mountjoy. In those 
 days he was somewhat fat for so young a man ; he had 
 now become emaciated. In a few days he brought his 
 lady " to see me and make me well again." 
 
 They remained at Florence all that year, and nearly 
 all the next. In the spring, and until the end of autumn, 
 I went every evening from my villa and spent it in their 
 society. Among the celebrities I met there was Pocrio, 
 and, for several weeks, the Count di Camaldoli, who had 
 been Prime Minister of Naples, the Duke de Richelieu too, 
 and D'Orsay's sister, the Duchesse de Guiche, beside a few 
 of the distinguished Florentines. 
 
 When I returned to England, soon after Lord Blessing- 
 ton's death, my first visit was to the Countess. Never 
 was man treated with more cordiality. Her parties con- 
 tained more of remarkable personages than ever were 
 assembled in any other house, excepting perhaps Madame 
 de StaeTs. In the month of the Coronation more men 
 illustrious in rank, in genius, and in science, met at Gore 
 House, either at dinner or after, than ever were assembled 
 in any palace. 
 
 Enough has been said vituperatory about the mistress of 
 that mansion. I disbelieve in the tales of her last friendship : 
 an earlier one affords more cause for admiration than for 
 censure. She had been attached to a very handsome man, 
 whose habit of gaming ended, as it often does end, and 
 always should, in utter ruin and expatriation. She re- 
 solved to follow him. At that time she resided at 
 Brighton. Lord Blessington was also there, and heard 
 of her distress. He had seen enough of her to love her
 
 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 233 
 
 ardently : but instead of making any proposal to her, 
 he wrote a request to know whether " a thousand pounds 
 or two " could bring back her friend in safety. She 
 answered as only a generous heart can answer one 
 equally generous, and wrote immediately to the person 
 concerned. He replied that he was ruined beyond re- 
 demption, and never could return to England, nor stand 
 between her and fortune. Lord Blessington, on receiving 
 this intelligence, called on her. 
 
 The exile received from her one hundred pounds 
 quarterly until his death. She made an ample allowance 
 to her father and her brother, and brought his children 
 to live with her. Lord Blessington told me that he offered 
 her an addition of a thousand pounds to her jointure 
 of three, and could not prevail on her to accept the 
 addition. 
 
 Virtuous ladies ! instead of censuring her faults, at- 
 tempt to imitate her virtues. Believe that, if any excess 
 may be run into, the excess of tenderness is quite as 
 pardonable as that of malignity and rancour. 
 
 Walter Savage Landor. 
 
 XXII. A Personal Note on the BLESSINGTON 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WRITTEN BY WALTER 
 
 SAVAGE LANDOR. 
 
 May I trespass once more, sir, on your valuable pages ? 
 In the " Life and Correspondence of Lady Blessington," 
 the learned Editor, who notices me so kindly, has pointed
 
 234 THE LANDOR-BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 
 
 out a mistake of mine on Lord Blessington's vote on the 
 Union. It would be unbecoming in me to offer any de- 
 fence by pointing out my authority. But in the account 
 of my life I find a slight inaccuracy, which, although of 
 no importance to the public, I will rectify. My private 
 tutor at Rugby was Dr. John Sleath, afterwards Master 
 of St. Paul's School. Again, let me remark that I never 
 was under the care of my godfather, General Powell, in 
 London, nor was he ever there while I was. Out of kind- 
 ness to my father, an old friend, he told him he would give 
 me a commission in the army if I would " abstain from 
 sporting my republican opinions." My reply was, " No 
 man shall ever tie my tongue ; many thanks to the 
 General." He made the offer to my next brother. But 
 the rectory of Colton was destined for a second son : it 
 was at that time held by my uncle. My brother Charles 
 rented the tythes to the squire of the parish, who paid 
 him £1,000 a year for them. In London, I accepted no 
 hospitalities, and received few visits, occupied in studying 
 Italian, and in improving my knowledge of Greek. Permit 
 me, sir, to offer, through you, my acknowledgement of 
 the friendly courtesy of Dr. Madden. 
 
 /^x^e^c^- /^c^y^y^—^^
 
 A BRIEF ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 RICHARD HENRY HORNE, 
 
 By H. Buxton Forman.

 
 
 at 
 
 l£>~zt*/ 
 
 
 )A| T^n 
 
 in a. 
 
 RICHARD HENRY HORNE, 
 
 Commissioner of Gold Fields. 
 
 Fac simile of a Caricature, drawn by George Gordon McCrae.
 
 A BRIEF ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 Richard Henry Horne was born at Edmonton on the 
 1st of January 1803. His father had means ; but, running 
 through them too soon, entered the army and moved to 
 Guernsey, where, having placed Richard at school, he died 
 prematurely. The widow returned with three sons to 
 Edmonton ; and Richard went to a school kept there by 
 the Rev. W. Williams. Thence, designed for the army, he 
 passed to Sandhurst, where, after two years, he caricatured 
 the head master and took part in a rebellion. This led to 
 his removal ; and he began to educate himself for a literary 
 career — aiming chiefly at poetry, of which he wrote much 
 in his teens. In 1825 he joined Captain Thurlow Smith, 
 R.N., as a midshipman in the Mexican Expedition. He 
 went through the war, was at the siege of Vera Cruz and 
 the taking of San Juan Ulloa, was taken prisoner and 
 narrowly escaped being shot as such, got away, and, 
 though he knew little of Spanish and less of surgery, was 
 employed in translating Spanish despatches &c, and filled 
 the post of surgeon in the cock-pit. As boarding officer
 
 238 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 he took several prizes, and finished with the yellow fever, 
 his only illness save his last. Quit of the fever, and de- 
 frauded of his prize-money, he left the Mexican service, 
 cruised off the Floridas, landed at New York, ascended the 
 Erie Canal, visited several Indian tribes, broke two of his 
 ribs at Niagara Falls, lost all his money there at billiards, 
 and worked his passage up the St. Lawrence. He stayed 
 at Montreal, Quebec, and some Canadian farms, visited the 
 cod-fisheries of Newfoundland, and sailed from Nova Scotia 
 in a homeward bound timber-ship. During these years he 
 carried his life constantly in his hand. Always an ardent 
 and powerful swimmer, he gained, while bathing in the 
 Bay of Vera Cruz, no easy victory in a race with a shark. 
 He was shipwrecked in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (and so, 
 by the bye, got credited in later years with The Adventures 
 of Naufragus, which he did not write). In the course of 
 his voyage home, the crew of the timber-ship mutinied, 
 and Home took part with the captain and two mates in 
 quelling the mutineers and nailing them under hatches. 
 Lastly, the cargo took fire. But Home was not born to be 
 drowned, burnt, murdered, or swallowed by a shark ; and, 
 having reached England, he reopened his studies and 
 pursued his courtship of the Muse, writing and destroying 
 a philosophical poem, an oriental poem, and much beside 
 that is not individually recorded. 
 
 He entered on his public career as a poet in the columns 
 of The Athenczum, a long minor poem entitled Hecatompylos 
 having filled a page in one of the early numbers of 1828 
 when Silk Buckingham was editor ; but his first book 
 was the once famous Exposition of the False Medium
 
 RICHARD HENR V HORNE. 239 
 
 and Barriers excluding Men of Genius from the Public 
 (1833), which made a host of enemies for the Expositor. 
 The frontispiece, a portrait of Cardinal Bentivoglio, was 
 drawn on the lithographic stone by the author. The 
 Exposition was followed in 1834 by a curious volume, 
 a mixture of prose and verse, which Home has since 
 described as an allegory and satire — Spirit of Peers 
 and People: a National Tragi- Comedy, by the author of 
 the Exposition of the False Medium, &c. It was as the 
 author of the Exposition that Home now contributed 
 articles to The Monthly Repository, which he edited for 
 a time, and to other periodicals. In 1837 appeared 
 Cosmo de' Medici, an Historical Tragedy ; The Death of 
 Marlowe, a Tragedy in One Act; and an edition of 
 Hazlitt's Characteristics, with an introduction by Home. 
 
 To this period belongs a curious pamphlet entitled The 
 Russian Catechism, with Explanatory Notes. In 1839 he 
 wrote an introduction to Black's translation of Schlegel's 
 Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature; and in 1840 
 appeared Gregory VII., a Tragedy, to which was prefixed 
 an Essay on Tragic Influence. In 1840 also Home 
 assisted in a book entitled Heads of the People ; and in 
 1 84 1 he took a leading part in a volume styled The Poems 
 of Geoffrey Chaucer Modernized, to which he contributed 
 a long introduction and three of the modernized poems, 
 other contributors being Wordsworth, Leigh Hunt and 
 Elizabeth Barrett Barrett. To this year, also, belongs 
 The History of Napoleon, a compilation for which Home 
 was mainly responsible, but in which he was assisted by 
 Mary Gillies, known as " Harriet Myrtle." Another
 
 240 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 pseudonymous work, The Life of Van Amburg, the Brute 
 Tamer, with Anecdotes of his Extraordinary Pupils, by 
 EpJiraim Watts, Citizen of New York, came out undated 
 in 1841. Soon after the appointment (20 October 1840) 
 of a Royal Commission on the Employment of Children 
 and Young Persons in Mines and Manufactures, Home 
 was employed as a Sub-Commissioner. On the 30th of 
 January 1843, the Commissioners finished reporting to Her 
 Majesty ; and Home shortly made a fresh appeal to the 
 world of letters : Orion, an Epic Poem in Three Books, 
 serious and stately, was offered " chaffingly " for one 
 farthing to a public who would not buy poetry. Of Orion, 
 they consumed three editions on those terms, and then 
 three more, the fourth at is. and the sixth at 2s. 6d., all in 
 1843. The publisher realized something upon the work, but 
 went bankrupt ; and the poet never had a penny for Orion 
 then, or indeed for any one of the five editions published 
 subsequently. One of his dramatic works, The Fetches, 
 came out in Findeiis Tableaux, edited by Miss Mitford ; 
 and in 1844 appeared A New Spirit of the Age, edited 
 by R. H. Home, in two volumes, now prized not only for 
 their contents, but for their portrait illustrations. " Edited " 
 does not fully describe Home's part in them, for he wrote 
 a great portion of the contents ; but he was assisted by 
 Elizabeth Barrett to a very considerable extent, and 
 also by Robert Bell. Ballad Romances, a volume includ- 
 ing The Ballad of Delora, was published in 1846, as 
 were also two books for children issued anonymously, The 
 Good-natured Bear, a Story for Children of all Ages, and 
 Memoirs of a Loudon Doll, written by Herself ; edited by
 
 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 241 
 
 Mrs. Fairstar. In 1848 he published Judas Iscariot, a 
 Miracle Play in Two Acts, with other Poems ; and in 1849 
 Gottlieb Einhalter, or the Philanthropic Assassin, which had 
 appeared in Howitt's Journal, was separately republished 
 under the title of Murder Heroes. In 1850 appeared 
 anonymously The Poor Artist, or Seven Eye- Sights and 
 One Object ; and in the same year The Duchess oj Malji, 
 a Tragedy in Five Acts, by John Webster, 161 2, reconstructed 
 Jor Stage Representation by R. H. Home. This first period 
 of his literary career may be said to close with The 
 Dreamer and the Worker, a Story oj the Present Time, 
 printed in Douglas Jerrold's Magazine, and issued in 1851 
 in two volumes, largely revised. 
 
 In 1852 he went with William Howitt to dig for gold in 
 Australia. He arrived in September, and was at once made 
 Commander of the Melbourne Gold Escort. Showing great 
 practical sagacity and power of conducting active affairs, 
 he was selected for the several appointments of Com- 
 missioner of Crown Lands for the Gold Fields (1853-4), 
 Territorial Magistrate (1855), Commissioner of the Yan 
 Yean Water Supply (1858-9), and Registrar of Mines. 
 He entered with zest into various athletic exercises, 
 especially swimming ; and it is recorded on the silver 
 mounting of a prize claret-bottle that he won the same 
 for grace and agility displayed in swimming when thrown 
 over the side of a ship, bound hand and foot, or words 
 to that purport. The feat is certainly no mere tradition ; 
 and credible witnesses were lately living who had seen him 
 do the same in England since his return. Nor was litera- 
 ture entirely neglected during the Australian residence. 
 VOL. I. r
 
 242 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 Home did not break off the literary connexion he had 
 formed with Charles Dickens as a writer in Houselwld 
 Words ; and he made frequent appearances in the colonial 
 press. Australian Facts and Prospects, to which is pre- 
 fixed "the Author's Australian Autobiography," appeared 
 in London, in his absence, in 1859; Prometheus the Fire- 
 Bringer, a lyrical drama, published in Edinburgh in 1864, 
 was written in the bush — written there, indeed, a second 
 time from memory, for the first manuscript was lost ; and 
 several other works composed in Australia remain unpub- 
 lished. In 1869, dissatisfied with the failure of the 
 Victorian Government to fulfil what he conceived to be 
 its obligations to him, Home returned to England on 
 board the sailing ship " Lady Jocelyn," the journal of 
 which, The Lady Jocelyn Weekly Mail, was printed. 
 
 On finally settling down in England, he was again 
 constantly before the public in the magazines and news- 
 papers, and in fresh books and new editions. Suffice it to 
 mention The Great Peacemaker, a Submarine Dialogue 
 (1872) ; The Tragic Story of Emilia Dardno, Marchioness 
 of Albarozzi (Harper's Magazine, November 1874) ; a new 
 edition of Cosmo de y Medici, with a collection of mis- 
 cellaneous poems (1875); Letters of Elizabeth Barrett 
 Browning to Richard Hengist* Home, with Comments on 
 Contemporaries, edited by S. R. Townshend Mayer (1877) '■> 
 The Countess Von Labanoff, or the Three Lovers, a 
 Novelette, reprinted from The New Quarterly Magazine 
 (1877) ; Laura Dibalzo, or the Patriot Martyrs, a 
 
 * With characteristic waywardness he dropped the name of Henry, which, he 
 said, he "had not chosen," for that of Hengist, borne by an Australian friend !
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE 243 
 
 Tragedy (1880); Bible Tragedies (1881, containing John 
 the Baptist, or the Valour of the Soul ; Rahman, the 
 Apocryphal Book of fob's Wife, and a reprint of fudas 
 Iscariot) ; King Nihil' s Round-Table, or the Regicide's 
 Symposium, a Dramatic Scene (1881); and Sithron, the 
 Star-Stricken (1883). This last of Home's printed books 
 is described on the title-page as " Translated (ala bereket 
 Allah) from an ancient Arabic manuscript, by Salem ben 
 Uzair, of Bassora " ; but there is now no indiscretion in 
 mentioning the authorship of a very curious work criticizing 
 the atrocities of King David, and somewhat gratuitously 
 endeavouring to undermine by satire the belief in the 
 covenant between Jehovah and Abraham celebrated at the 
 feast of the Circumcision. Home became a Civil List pen- 
 sioner in 1874. His pension was at first £50 a year ; but, just 
 before Lord Beaconsfield left office in 1880, arrangements 
 were made to double it. In the last year or two of his life 
 the veteran man of letters found his eyesight becoming 
 defective ; and finally he was almost blind ; but in all 
 other respects he was in great bodily and mental vigour up 
 to the summer of 1883, when he contracted the illness 
 of which he died. This mental vigour indeed caused him 
 to chafe at the younger generation or two of readers who 
 knew not Orion, or knew it but as a " farthing tradition " ; 
 and the old athlete was ever ready to back with a powerful 
 body any quarrel into which a powerful but impatient 
 intellect might lead him. There were but few among his 
 intimates with whom he had not quarrelled more or less ; 
 but one or two remain who cherish his memory for what 
 was strong and noble and generous in the wayward old 
 
 R 2
 
 244 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 Titan. One of these, who enjoyed his intimacy for almost 
 the whole of the time passed in England between Home's 
 return from Australia and his death, still loves to be 
 garrulous to the younger generation of the incidents he 
 witnessed from 1870 till 1883 as he watched 
 
 " The great Orion sloping slowly towards the West." 
 
 He tells many tales illustrative of the great bodily strength 
 of Home, whose impetuosity it was so often his mission to 
 curb that the poet playfully gave him the name of Akinetos 
 (" Sage Akinetos, chainer of the wheel "). The following 
 dialogue is one of these reminiscences : — 
 
 (Scene — two rooms in Northumberland Street in Maryle- 
 bone — door open betweeji them ; in the front room 
 furniture, books, papers, dust, and lumber — in the back 
 room a bed — Orion lying in it on his back — his left hand 
 to the wall — at his right, on a chair, a pair of gigantic 
 dumb-bells^ 
 
 Enter AKINETOS. 
 
 AKINETOS. Well, my friend, how goes it to-day ? 
 
 ORION. Much the same, thanks ! 
 
 Akinetos. Why these vast dumb-bells ? Surely you're 
 not allowed your cold tub and dumb-bell practice yet ? 
 
 ORION. No, not yet ; but I expect to be soon ; and I 
 like to be able to try my muscles now and then. 
 
 AKINETOS. You don't look really ill, you know. Is 
 there any pain ? 
 
 ORION. No pain — only discomfort. 
 
 AKINETOS. What is the discomfort?
 
 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 245 
 
 ORION. I cannot get my throat moist. There is a dry 
 place at the back that keeps dry even while I drink. 
 
 AKINETOS. And you maintain your strength ? 
 
 ORION. Yes, and a fair appetite. As to muscular 
 strength, look here. I can take up those dumb-bells, which 
 weigh half a hundredweight, with my left hand, lift them 
 across my chest, and deposit them on the bed between me 
 and the wall — {suiting the action to the words). There ! 
 
 AKINETOS. Well, well! We shall have you back in 
 your cold tub again, yet ! 
 
 Shortly after this incident, Home rallied sufficiently to 
 be removed to Margate, the invigorating air of which place 
 he eagerly desired to breathe. But at 81 even Margate 
 air will scarcely annul the effects of typhoid ; and Orion 
 disappeared below the western horizon on the 13th of 
 March 1884. The poet was buried at Margate on the 18th 
 of the same month, leaving behind him many unpublished 
 poems, dramas, and romances, among them a long poem in 
 Spenserian stanza called John Femcliffe ; a blank verse 
 poem which he regarded as his magnum opus, entitled 
 Ancient Idols ; or, the Fall of the Gods; a tragedy on the 
 subject of Charlotte Corday ; and a remarkable little drama 
 in five scenes, entitled Te Ayah : a Maori Tragedy. 
 
 There are many things which go far to account for 
 the comparative indifference of the public to him in 
 his old age. No doubt Home scattered himself too 
 much, or rather circumstance diverted his energies into 
 too many channels. His central bent was for work 
 of a high kind — for poetry and drama in the grand
 
 246 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 manner ; and, if he had not the luck to hold the 
 public during his long life, he had at all events the 
 satisfaction of being a poet for poets. Edgar Poe, the 
 Brownings, Tennyson, the late L.ord Houghton, Rossetti, 
 Swinburne, and many others, appreciated to the full 
 what was best in his work. The late Mr. Roden Noel, dis- 
 satisfied with an obituary notice published in a literary 
 journal, addressed to its editor the following admirable 
 letter : — 
 
 London : March 24, 1884. 
 
 MAY I say that I was a little surprised at the tone of your 
 obituary notice of Mr. R. H. Home — especially at your 
 apparent implication that he would be remembered only by 
 his association with Mrs. Browning ? With all my love and 
 reverence for Mrs. Browning, I hardly think that probable. 
 I have always felt that R. H. Home is one of the few 
 modern poets likely to be remembered by future generations 
 — at all events by the students of our literature — as having 
 written really good and memorable poetry. I have never 
 myself, indeed, been able thoroughly to sympathize with the 
 almost unqualified eulogium which (if I remember rightly) 
 Edgar Poe once passed upon Orion, although there is 
 assuredly very much to admire in it. But in an age singu- 
 larly unfruitful in English dramatic poetry of a high order, 
 Home's Cosmo de' Medici and The Death of Marlowe stand 
 out as not unworthy of a place beside Colomde's Birthday, 
 The Blot on the 'Scutcheon, and Pippa Passes. You mention 
 the poet's want of " popularity." And, indeed, I have been 
 credibly informed that " the public " knows little of Home's
 
 RICHARD HENR V HORNE. 247 
 
 dramas. I can only express my sincere sympathy with the 
 bellua multorum capitinn in its deprivation, as well as my 
 (not too confident) hope that something may yet occur to 
 deliver it from the parlous state which such ignorant indiffer- 
 ence would seem to argue. But the poetry is good poetry 
 
 " for a' that." 
 
 Roden Noel. 
 
 It is in deference to the wish of a greater poet than the 
 Hon. Roden Noel that The Ballad of Delora is now reprinted 
 in its original form. Robert Browning, writing to Home 
 on the 8th of January 1846 a letter of sincere admiration 
 for the whole contents of the Ballad Romances, then just 
 published, exclaimed — " Delora remains Delora ! For the 
 whole thanks and admiration, now and ever, my dear 
 Home, . . . And remember that the suppression of the 
 notes to Delora is only the printer's affair. " * This is at 
 length to be duly and practically remembered. Here 
 follows the poem, as originally printed in that scarce 
 periodical The Monthly Repository, with its garniture of 
 side-notes in the manner of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, 
 and its passionate ruggedness untouched by that ever-re- 
 vising pen which outlasted so many years both the magazine 
 and the two editions of the Ballad Romances whose printer 
 could not or would not give the side-notes. 
 
 The bellna multorum capitum referred to in Mr. Noel's 
 letter has not been generous to Home, who did honest 
 work for it all his life, and much noble work too. The 
 
 * See Letters from Robert Browning to Various Corj-espondents, edited by 
 Thomas J. Wise. 8vo, 1895, vol. i., pp. 12-14.
 
 248 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 " many-headed " has never forgiven the poet for the con- 
 ditions of sale fixed for Orion: it was thrown at the 
 many-headed for a farthing ; and the publisher was en- 
 joined to withhold it from all who asked for Orton. With 
 the many-headed it is even as with the late Mr. Rands's 
 " fine rhinoceros " when the sailor takes its charge through 
 a tree, and then, having fastened its horn with a nut and 
 screw on the other side, proceeds to chaff the creature — 
 of whom the poet sings — 
 
 Now chaff is what he cannot bear ; 
 He thinks it is not on the square. 
 
 Home had chaffed the many-headed ; and it would pay 
 him in kind to the end. It was not generous, I repeat, to 
 remind him forever that his chief poem was but a farthing 
 affair after all ; but the many-headed is often merciless to its 
 poets till they are dead and sometimes afterwards. " Who 
 was he, forsooth ? " — " Oh ! the man that wrote the farthing 
 epic 1 " Now " Orion, the farthing epic," was a collocation 
 of terms which never failed to exasperate the strong old 
 poet, critic, dramatist, historian, and man of varied action 
 and accomplishment, whose career, dear reader, we have 
 glanced at together, and of whose work a sample is here 
 rescued from obscurity and presented to the public anew. 
 In truth it is a gross injustice to remember Orion only 
 because of its price and Home only because of Orion ; 
 and it may be predicted with confidence that sooner or 
 later he, who enjoyed much well-merited fame of sorts in 
 his day, will have " one day more."
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE PASSION OF ANDREA COMO. 
 
 BY 
 
 R. H. HORNE.
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA ; 
 
 OK, 
 
 THE PASSION OF ANDREA COMO. 
 
 LONG years are gone, and I am old : 
 My locks once wore the lion's gold ; 
 Life's winter now, with double smart, 
 Sheds frost upon my head and heart ; 
 And thus I stand a lonely tree 
 All bare and desolate to see, 
 And worse within, since 'reft of thee ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 Andrea Como, 
 standing in utter 
 desolation and soli- 
 tude, poureth forth 
 the impassioned his- 
 tory of his soul. 
 
 Delora ! — name of many woes ! 
 How coffln'd passion freshly glows 
 At that, sweet sound of melody ! 
 For thou wert bliss and bane to me ; 
 And I ne'er since have clos'd mine eyes 
 When day-light died within the skies 
 Without most agonizing sighs ; 
 Delora !
 
 252 
 
 Deep love, that 
 melteth all things to 
 its own level, as an 
 absorbing beatitude, 
 must ever be a primi- 
 tive element, like to 
 the grand simplicity 
 of the sea and the 
 heavens, which are 
 also as children in 
 the eye of Eternity. 
 
 The sublime face 
 of Nature, even as 
 the features of the 
 mind, is of cameleon 
 existence, and taketh 
 its colours from the 
 human heart. Where- 
 of it comes, that we 
 have more seasons 
 and more senses, in 
 perception, than hath 
 e'er been set down 
 in our calendars and 
 philosophies. 
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 I was a hunter of the woods, 
 Who scaled the rocks and stemm'd the floods ; 
 Bounding with strength my course I sped, 
 And felt Heav'n's glory round my head ; 
 I never dream'd that one so free 
 And ocean-wild, enslav'd could be, — 
 But I became a child for thee ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 I saw her at her father's door, 
 Toying with his long locks all hoar ; 
 While dim he smiled, and fondled down 
 The braided jasmine from her own. 
 Her liquid eye a moment turn'd ; 
 With chasten'd love my bosom yearn'd, 
 Till time gave hope, and then it burn'd ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 Her tender love at length I won ; 
 The old man bless'd me as his son : 
 Fresh glory was in Heav'n — the woods 
 Shone in fresh gold — the crystal floods 
 Mirror'd anew fair Nature's face ; 
 My speed was lightning in the chase, 
 My heart began a fresher race ; 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 = 53 
 
 Mine eyes deep glow'd, then shed rich tears 
 I felt as young as infant years ; 
 Myself I scarcely knew, thus thrill'd 
 Like passion-flow'rs with dew o'erfill'd. 
 I well might fear a maid so fair 
 Would dread my rough and wild wood air, 
 And say, " Go hug the mountain bear ! " 
 Delora ! 
 
 I won her : as a devotee 
 Before his shrine, so sacredly 
 Did I my hope divine behold, 
 Nor dar'd unto my breast to fold ; 
 Until her father, smiling quaint, 
 Shook his white head and whispered faint, 
 " She is too artless for a Saint ! " 
 Delora ! 
 
 Yet still the maiden would not wed, 
 For sixteen summers o'er her head 
 In cloudy chariot had not roll'd 
 The beauty of their virgin gold : 
 And so she pray'd me to forbear 
 My ardent suit, with such sweet air 
 As real innocence doth wear : 
 Delora ! 
 
 Nor less might we 
 say of the beneficent 
 and beatified Lady 
 of Magdala, who hath 
 been mis-judged of all 
 ages, she having lack- 
 ed art to cover the 
 divine feeling that 
 impelled her to follow 
 and minister to one 
 who had ' ' no place 
 whereon to lay his 
 head."
 
 254 
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 Meantime a Neapolitan lord, 
 Greater by title than by sword, 
 Pass'd thro' our vale and saw the maid 
 His forky tongue in poison play'd ! 
 She shrank before his bold address ; 
 Her father begg'd him not to press 
 A suit that did his child distress : 
 Delora ! 
 
 And the old man 
 pointeth to Andrea 
 Como with a finger 
 of pride, while his 
 mind smileth con- 
 tempt on the great 
 lord. 
 
 But Andrea Como 
 answereth for himself 
 and Nature. 
 
 With haughty and astonish'd mien 
 Awhile he stood ; " And well, I ween, 
 Some wood-born clown, with farm and vine, 
 Hath sworn to wed this girl of thine ; 
 But let him till," quoth he, " his lands, 
 She'll scorn the press of vulgar hands ! " 
 " True," said her father ; " there he stands ! " 
 Delora ! 
 
 " Noble ! that wood-born clown am I — 
 Yon maiden owes me constancy ; 
 My heart ploughs not the vassal earth, 
 Proud as the mountains of my birth ; 
 What if my hands should dress the vine, 
 Or drive a herd of sheep or swine ? 
 My soul might measure stars with thine ! " 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 255 
 
 It is a cunning cheat of pride 
 To deign no answer when defied. 
 To sneer he strove with lips all pale ; 
 It fail'd him like a trick that's stale, 
 And he departed haughtily, 
 With train and station proud to see, 
 And left us on our own green lea : 
 Delora ! 
 
 That night upon my sleep there came 
 A dream of roaring, sense of flame, 
 And springing from my couch, I found 
 My cottage burning all around ! 
 Thro' the red smouldering door I burst, 
 But suffocated with the gust, 
 I fell among the smoking dust ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 Ere I could rise, upon me sprang 
 Four armed men with iron clang ! 
 And one I grasp and crush his mail, 
 Until his breath and being fail ; 
 The others, after struggle long, 
 
 5ind down my arms with many a thong, 
 
 ind swiftly hurry me along ; 
 Delora !
 
 256 
 
 Andrea Como, 
 raised up from his 
 dark endurance, gaz- 
 eth across the broad 
 ocean in the morning 
 twilight, as one to 
 whom a resurrection 
 and fresh life bringeth 
 no meeting with the 
 single object of his 
 soul ! 
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 They dragg'd me to the wild sea-shore, 
 Chok'd with hot dust and rage and gore. 
 And in a ship's dark hold I lay- 
 Gasping and tossing night and day, 
 Till suffer'd on the deck to be, 
 I rose, and saw the wide, blear sea — 
 And groaning thought of thee — of thee, 
 Delora ! 
 
 Day, night and day, 'twas ceaseless work, 
 Else they had toss'd me to the shark, 
 Or starv'd me. Ne'er my spirit strong 
 Had lent my body to this wrong, 
 But that a hope I treasur'd fond, 
 A will that ever could respond, 
 A deep, deep love, all words beyond : 
 Delora ! 
 
 Pass, pass, feloni- 
 ous Time ! — thou 
 canst not rob this 
 man's heart of one 
 feeling ; thou canst 
 not change its flowers, 
 or dry up its roots ; 
 neither canst thou 
 dismantle the watch- 
 tower of his enduring 
 passion. 
 
 Arriv'd, they sold me for a slave ! 
 I curs'd not, nor did idly rave, 
 But fainting at the burning oar, 
 Month after month my state I bore : 
 And when years pass'd, like endless seas, 
 My high-wrought heart scorn'd time's degrees, 
 Still sighing to each passing breeze, 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 2$7 
 
 Five years, — and then my chains I burst, 
 And on the homeward wave was toss'd. 
 My swelling bosom yearn'd for wings, 
 My pulse was fancy's echoings ; 
 Each morning did my spirit leap 
 From its brief rest in feverish sleep, 
 And instant sped across the deep : 
 Delora ! 
 
 Again upon the wild sea-shore 
 I stood. What fears my bosom tore ! 
 The agonizing doubts of wrong 
 To my sweet love, I'd borne thus long, 
 Soon ended by some certainty ! 
 I dar'd not think which it might be, 
 Deep bliss, or deep calamity ! 
 Delora ! 
 
 I sought their cottage near the wood : 
 No cot was there! Where it had stood, 
 Weeds and the thorn-set bramble flowers, 
 Faint glistening with the cold dew showers, 
 Were wash'd anew by scalding tears, 
 Bitter'd with gall distill'd from years! 
 VOL. I.
 
 258 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 Vain grief — no more ! I sped me straight, 
 Haughty from wretchedness so great, 
 And tower'd before the tyrant's gate ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Oh, grievous world ! Oh, truth and right ! 
 Integrity, where is thy might ? 
 Riches and rank, titles and fear, 
 Oppress our life — scoff at our bier ! 
 His vassals seiz'd me, beat me down. 
 And chain'd me — chain'd me, flesh and 
 
 bone ! 
 Oh, for the thews of Samson gone ! 
 But I ne'er felt my power was flown ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Fainting with wounds, thought's sharper pangs 
 Darkness and thirst and hunger's fangs, 
 They bore me to a ship, and soon 
 The sea and sky, and sun and moon, 
 Were all we saw, until again, 
 With aching heart and aching brain, 
 I was a slave and wore a chain ! 
 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 I curs'd not men or stars, but firm 
 Bore the unutterable wrong. My arm 
 Was oft uplifted in my dreams ; 
 It fell — and chaos utter'd screams ! 
 But manhood quiet rul'd the day. 
 Ere two years' patience held its sway, 
 I fled, and dash'd my chain away ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Again upon the wild sea-shore 
 I stood : my full heart was all core, 
 All passion, love and stern resolve. 
 Let time spin on, let suns revolve, 
 I change not. At the palace gates 
 My boar-spear smote its iron plates : 
 " Tell him — Andrea Como waits ! " 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 =59 
 
 The Imagination of 
 the strong and in- 
 jured, bereft of its 
 attendant faculties, 
 wanders like some 
 glorious demon into 
 other worlds, peopling 
 them with new forms 
 of tyranny, in order 
 to multiply the solemn 
 curses of denuncia- 
 tion, and extermin- 
 ating blows. Not so 
 the wakeful soul of 
 true power, whose 
 combined faculties 
 have but a truthful 
 singleness of aim. 
 
 The porter with a ghastly face 
 Went ; then returned with ponderous mace, 
 And wall'd behind the loop-holed porch, 
 Lower'd with a leering, hound-like crouch. 
 Three days, unto that noble's shame, 
 At sun-rise and at sun-set flame, 
 I smote the gates, and said the same ! 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 "Tell him, Andrea 
 Como waits ! " Cer- 
 tainly, as the sun 
 riseth and setteth, the 
 injured passion up- 
 lifteth its lofty Mem- 
 nonian voice. 
 
 S 2
 
 26o RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 Then came some officers of law, 
 With snake-like eyes and lanking jaw, 
 And charg'd me to appear in court 
 To answer crimes of fell import. 
 Law spoke : I was condemned, — and cast 
 For death ; the noble's word had past ; 
 And in a jail they held me fast ! 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Oft I escap'd — as oft again 
 In different provinces was ta'en ; 
 Till free once more, swift, swift I fly 
 To the green vales of Lombardy, 
 When spent, half famish'd, wan, and gone, 
 I sought one eve a cottage lone 
 And saw my love ! my life ! my own 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Our breathless cry, our gush of tears — 
 Oh Love ! 'twas weakness that endears 
 My present thought, if then 'twere shame 
 To melt my manhood. Words now came, 
 And we recounted all the past ; 
 And though I slurr'd my sufferance vast, 
 My breath grew short, thy tears flow'd fast 
 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 261 
 
 When I was borne across the deep, 
 The snake o'er innocence did creep 
 And held Delora in his walls. 
 But she fell sick amid his thralls, 
 And constant madness feigned, until 
 Watching a time, she fled his will, 
 And with her father 'scaped from ill ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Beseeching her 10 
 taste of the gross and 
 gaudy fruit of the tree 
 of Ignorance . 
 
 If it be madness to 
 be constant in love, 
 even to the last drop 
 of life, wherein, then, 
 consisteth the beauty 
 of a sound intelli- 
 gence ? 
 
 To Naples straight ! I told my wrong 
 In many a group and market throng, 
 And at the palace gates I smote ; 
 Till imps of state who fang by rote 
 Seiz'd me : my crimes they gravely show ; 
 " Oh ! " whined the crowd, " if it be so"— 
 Hole slinking worms! — "why he must go!" 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 My trial came : firm, I repell'd ; 
 The proofs all fail'd — yet I was held ! 
 And in the end, by some foul fee, 
 I was unshackl'd privately, 
 And o'er the seas once more was sent, 
 With spirit griev'd and heart deep rent ; 
 Tho' never conquer'd, almost spent ; 
 
 Delora !
 
 262 
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 And thus the mind, 
 in its throes of agony, 
 and far-reachings at 
 relief, struggleth to 
 measure and com- 
 pound with Eternity. 
 
 Some error strange preserv'd my life, 
 Another met the murderous knife : 
 They wrote, " Andrea Como's gone ! " 
 But in a dungeon I was thrown, 
 And there in solid dark remain'd, 
 Till darkness by sad light was grain'd — 
 Like hell by purgatory stain'd : 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 What time this chasm, peopled with ill, 
 I bore companion'd by my will, 
 I know not : Oh, it tries the strength, 
 When pain's account turns round from length ; 
 Confounded, seeming without end, 
 A tortur'd serpent's dizzy blend, — 
 Like reckoning with a fiend as friend ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 It chanc'd an earthquake fiaw'd the land, 
 And shook my dungeon walls to sand. 
 Bruis'd, I escaped ; the waves I cross'd, 
 And twice was wreck'd, on land oft lost ; 
 Detain'd by bandits, chas'd thro' woods 
 By wolves and panthers ; hemm'd with floods ; 
 Gaunt-fed on berries, roots, and buds ; 
 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 Again upon the wild sea-shore 
 We stood. / stood there. Ocean's roar 
 Was round me, e'en as Time's hath been, — 
 With not much more effect, I ween. 
 To Lombardy I soon had flown ; 
 There found her sire — my love was gone ! 
 I paus'd but for one inward groan ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 To Naples straight ! With lofty mien 
 Before the palace I was seen. 
 My boar spear smote upon the gates ; 
 " Tell him — Andrea Como waits ! " 
 I heard him on his couch of pain 
 Yell from his fortress in cracked strain, 
 " Blisrht him ! and blast him ! what, again ? " 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 263 
 
 The triumph over 
 excessive calamity and 
 injustice,uplifteth An- 
 drea Como to a sense 
 of majestic station. 
 But sufficiently great 
 as a Man, he quickly 
 recovereth his natural 
 position. 
 
 At sun-down did I this renew, 
 But wary grown, ere dusk withdrew, 
 And hied me to my native hills. 
 Briefly I told my countless ills, 
 Then with some brothers of the woods, 
 Enough for all his vassal broods, 
 Return'd across the rocks and floods ; 
 
 Delora !
 
 264 
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 At night we ranged before the walls : 
 A well-known voice with wildness calls ! 
 She sees me from the turret high : 
 "Thou'rt saved, Delora !— hither fly!" 
 The gates we force, the warder seize, 
 She comes ! — I hear her garment's breeze ; 
 Folded in these fond arms ! — in these ? 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Infinite satisfaction. 
 The greatness of feel- 
 ing in Andrea Como 
 taketh away all sense 
 of revenge. Even his 
 contempt hath more 
 of sport than bitter- 
 ness. 
 
 If this were bliss, 'twere doubly so 
 To find the tyrant's lustful glow 
 Infirm disease had foil'd, since he 
 Had thus again oppress'd the free. 
 Oh, in my dungeon had I known 
 That he on palsied couch was thrown, 
 I had suppress'd each rising groan ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 I wedded her at sun-rise bright, 
 And bore her in her garments white 
 Straight to the palace : at the gates 
 My strong spear smote upon the plates ; 
 " Say thus — Andrea's virgin bride 
 Sends health to the great lord inside ! " 
 So we departed, side by side ; 
 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 With heart too full for festive glee, 
 I bore her to fair Lombardy. 
 Years had not chang'd thy seraph face, 
 Years never can thy love erase ; 
 Years had not dimm'd thy lips, thine eyes — 
 From the grey stone I sudden rise, 
 And clasp my hands to vacant skies ! 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 265 
 
 In Lombardy I ne'er had staid, 
 And distant far had borne the maid, 
 But that the noble late was gone 
 To banishment, of titles shorn 
 For misdemeanours 'gainst the state ; 
 Embezzlement of riches great, 
 Pawning his pride for dross and slate ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Which causeth 
 Andrea Como to feel 
 some pity for him. 
 
 A morn — nay, was it quite a day 
 Before my Heaven pass'd away ? 
 Wandering one eve near a dim pile 
 Whose moss-grown ruins seem'd to smile 
 Pale answers to the sun's farewell ; 
 We sat upon a grassy swell 
 Some legend of the place to teH : 
 
 Delora !
 
 266 
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE 
 
 When soon my love rose up and sped 
 To gather wild flowers for my head, 
 As she was wont in sportive guise, 
 While I look'd on, with grave, fond eyes. 
 And now she vanish' d thro' an arch 
 Of that void pile — a ruin'd porch, 
 Or gateway — eager in her search : 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 And long I sat in silence there 
 Amid the dim and silent air, 
 Till silence into wonder grew, 
 And vivid apprehensions flew 
 Athwart my brain ! I rose the while, 
 And striving at such fear to smile, 
 Walk'd thro' the gateway of the pile : 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Like his own ghost : 
 an unnatural mockery 
 of himself. 
 
 I saw the dewy wild weeds weeping, 
 I saw the flowers in twilight sleeping, 
 I saw the green mounds and the walls 
 That form'd the courts and ruin'd halls ; 
 But all was void ! Then hurriedly 
 My voice I rais'd and called for thee ! 
 And hollow echo came to me ! 
 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 26 
 
 With hasty stride each turn I traced, 
 For some fresh woe my nerves I braced ; 
 No flowers, or courts, or walls, or mound 
 I saw, nor heard I any sound 
 Beside her echoed name ; my brain, 
 Fill'd with her image e'en to pain, 
 Sought her — sought, sought — and sought in 
 vain ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 The rack-round night at length was gone ; 
 Hope found me in the vacant morn, 
 Still thro' the gusty pile pursuing 
 Its death-like courts and roofless ruin ; 
 Imploring — grasping — or standing on 
 The stony ribs of the skeleton ; 
 Till every crevice was explor'd, 
 Each weed-tuft known, each fragment scor'd, 
 To find my heart's sole hope and hoard ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Now thro' the pile direct I cross 
 Tow'rds the south entrance ; with my loss 
 Still warring to out-bar despair : 
 The wide, blank common meets me there !
 
 268 
 
 Uplifting and de- 
 scending in their misty 
 sheets between earth 
 and heaven, till fin- 
 ally absorbed. 
 
 RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 Oh ! thou cold sweep of land ! — waste, wild, 
 Suffering speeds o'er thee — thou art fill'd — 
 Thy dews are desolate hearts distilled ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Oft would I mount by shatter'd stair 
 The battlements ; and station'd there, 
 Eye all the fields and woods around, 
 And note each spot, each shade of ground. 
 Thus days and nights, clouds, star-beams sped, 
 Till spent in frame down sank my head, 
 As one among the quiet dead ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 When that my fever was allay'd, 
 I rose as gaunt as any shade 
 And cross'd unto the far off strand. 
 The exil'd lord ne'er reach'd that land ! 
 His ship was lost upon the main. 
 I rov'd the world — and rov'd in vain ! 
 And to this spot return'd again ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Ever, for ever, Years roll'd away — and years may roll, 
 
 awaiteth he the same. 
 
 But seated on the green -sward knoll,
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA 
 
 269 
 
 Fronting the archway where I last 
 Beheld Delora's form, I cast 
 Mine eyes for ever on the place 
 For ever vacant — hoping space 
 Would render up to my embrace, 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 And still I gaze, and hope to see 
 Her form appear, and fly to me ! 
 She lov'd me fondly ; — with that thought 
 Brief bliss, long agony, are bought ! 
 Oh ! from thy dark, uncertain doom, 
 Once issue ere I seek the tomb, 
 Or call me — and I come ! I come ! 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Peasants and travellers oft pass'd, 
 And looks of fear and pity cast : 
 I scarcely noted they were near, —   
 My rapt soul glows, but dwells not here ; 
 Therefore they said that I was mad, 
 For years to sit thus gaunt and sad ; 
 But I most passion'd reason had ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 He wisheth to 
 die, but only at her 
 call ; that so he may 
 die into impassioned 
 Life.
 
 27o RICHARD HENR Y HORNE. 
 
 Delora, spirit of my heart ! 
 Delora, we can never part ! 
 I see thy form ! angelic bare 
 Thou float'st amid thine auburn hair ! 
 Delora, templed shrine of bliss — 
 Thou fad'st without one clasping kiss, 
 And maddening space takes this, and this ! 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Oh, man of ease ! Oh, moderate fool ! 
 Stunted with dulness, fed by rule, 
 Carping at passion with a whine, 
 How dar'st thou limit God's design ? 
 The self-pois'd sun, the changeless sea, 
 Emblem'd the elements in me ; 
 But I was as a child with thee, 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 Now I am old, haggard and poor, 
 Delora ; now doth winter frore 
 Knot up my joints : the wild wind whistles 
 Thro' my coarse hair, and thro' the thistles 
 That on the battlement forlorn 
 Nod like the shades of warriors gone, 
 In haze of twilight, even and morn ; 
 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 271 
 
 The wild goat cries i' the ruin'd hall ; 
 The fiend-faced wolf looks thro' the wall ; 
 The hoarse rooks sail, and war and wail, 
 O'er the cleft towers, till evening pale ; 
 The goblin owl leaves her ivy old, 
 There to hoot in moonshine cold ; 
 While dim glides by Oblivion vast, — 
 Wan image of the spectral past ! 
 But ne'er one look on me he cast ; 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 In the tenth year of this my state, 
 This vigil against Time and Fate ! 
 There pass'd one eve an aged lord, 
 Roving alone by conscience gor'd. 
 Instant I knew him ! — fain he would 
 Move by, but quick as mounting blood 
 I toweringly before him stood ! 
 
 Delora ! 
 
 The King over 
 time and nature, and 
 all that exist in them, 
 except those things 
 which pass upward 
 from man to God. 
 And yet Oblivion 
 gazeth not upon An- 
 drea Como, knowing 
 him for one who will 
 defy his power unto 
 the last possible limit 
 of mortality, and be- 
 yond also, with the 
 full scope of his im 
 mortal soul. 
 
 As when a murderer sees the ghost 
 Of one thro' life he'd injured most, 
 After long years rise in his path, 
 Dilated with immortal wrath !
 
 272 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 So look'd he ; and his jewel'd sword 
 And, like an eter- Hung like a by-word ! Thus o'eraw'd, 
 
 nal spirit, Andrea TT , , , , , , , , , 
 
 Como confronted his Hc r ° ck d > th ° r °° ted t0 the SWErd ! 
 arch-enemy. Delora ! 
 
 " Lo ! I, the man who smote thy gates, 
 Still live ! — Andrea Como waits ! 
 Not twice ten years of wrongs and pains 
 Have wrought my fall : Shame eat thy chains ! 
 As dust that fell from me ; and now 
 We two grey men must titles show ! 
 Hark ! — Retribution ! — I, or thou ! " 
 Delora ! 
 
 Aghast, he reel'd ; yet feigning proud, 
 With dubious accent cried aloud, — 
 " I stole her not — poor wretch forbear ! " 
 I seized the poor wretch by the hair, 
 And to a torrent's dizzy verge 
 With many a gasp and wrench did urge, 
 And held him o'er the boiling surge ! 
 Delora ! 
 
 " Thou worm at Nature's footstool ! — thou 
 Unworthy shape of man ! — what blow
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 Can quit my wrongs ? " — I loos'd his form, 
 And shook the grey hairs from my palm : 
 " Tho' through the cataract's raging crown 
 My hand could swing thee howling down, 
 Go — pardon'd by the wood-born clown ! " 
 Delora ! 
 
 273 
 
 Yes, my deep injuries, su stain' d 
 From youth to age — life wasted, waned — 
 Mortal revenge can never quit ; 
 Poor — feminine — inadequate. 
 Placed 'neath my heel, this lord had borne 
 My soul's immeasurable scorn, 
 Which too much honoured such a pawn ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 The years roll on, and still I yearn 
 Beyond the grave tow'rds passion's bourne ; 
 And still my form upon the mound 
 Fronting the archway's wreck is found. 
 Green is this bank as when my bride 
 Was seated on it by my side ; 
 
 While I — while thou ! 
 
 Delora ! 
 VOL. I. 
 
 The "feigned 
 pride " of convention 
 (no less than its real 
 pride) had striven in 
 vain to imitate and 
 compete with Nature. 
 But was it not con- 
 science that spoke out 
 inversely, when he 
 cried — he had stolen 
 her not ?
 
 274 
 
 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 In the simplicity of 
 his own nature, he 
 doubteth how an exile 
 should work such deep 
 treachery from across 
 the sea. 
 
 For then it would 
 prove his constant 
 vigil to be all in vain. 
 
 Full well I know, amid that pile 
 Are caverns reaching many a mile ; 
 And thus, sometimes I doubting deem 
 My love was stolen ; yet such a dream 
 Of her removal and her death 
 By that lord lecher's withering breath, 
 I quick discard, — my pride beneath : 
 Delora ! 
 
 And yet, a passing wish at times 
 To know she's dead my fix'd will climbs, 
 And draws it down from passion great, 
 I' the weakness of this mortal state, 
 Unto the deep desire of peace ; 
 To gush out all — and die, and cease — 
 And find with thee a bless'd release, 
 Delora ! 
 
 And oh ! I oft, as martyr faint 
 With torment, hath denied his Saint, 
 Have question'd whether manhood high 
 Against all hope should lingering die 
 For any sweet and trancy flower ? 
 But thou from destiny had'st dower 
 To win my soul, absorb my power ; 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 275 
 
 And thus again I ever turn 
 To hug my pang-fed sufferance stern ; 
 Yet, though my being ne'er can cower 
 It cannot ward the wasting hour : 
 Identity, half changed with age, 
 Is passing like a finish'd page, — 
 Yet still I grasp my palsied gage ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 Sometimes, forgetful of my strength, 
 My fortitude's eternal length, 
 I whirl my clench'd hand in the air 
 And threaten with a deadly glare ; 
 Between my teeth fierce whispers thrill, 
 " Beware of him who can, and will ! " 
 Oh God ! Oh Nature ! nerve me still : 
 Delora ! 
 
 And thus alone through crawling years, 
 Clogg'd with my groans and slow, parch'd tears ; 
 While aye the press without hath been, 
 Driven to the unconquer'd power within ; 
 I seem to have risen o'er my state, 
 O'er time, and o'er myself of late ; 
 Mix'd with the elements of fate ! 
 Delora ! 
 
 At an ideal enemy, 
 the feeling having 
 become a generalized 
 abstraction by its 
 prolonged intensity. 
 Perhaps at the sun, 
 wishing it could stand 
 fixed as on Gibeon, 
 for that he felt old 
 age overcoming him. 
 
 Creep on, poor 
 many-jointed worms ; 
 ye shall not draw your 
 film over this passion, 
 nor feed upon its deep 
 vitality of ever-verd- 
 ant truth. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 Great, concentrated, high-wrought, pure, 
 Intense, impassion'd will to endure, 
 Power over solitude, strong as forlorn 1 
 Old watcher of the waking morn 
 As a grey father doth his child ; 
 Let elements be mix'd and piled, 
 We move not, be they calm or wild ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 Oh, passion'd will ! and can I say 
 Love rules alone this dull, cold clay ? 
 Once glow'd it like Elysium's morn, 
 Ages of bliss each moment born ! 
 The continuity of My heart's core now hath lost its fire, 
 
 his will hath placed it- TT . T . , , , 
 
 , ru , , , ,, Hopeless, I yearn with deep desire 
 
 self beyond all self-re- r ' J r 
 
 prieve. It hath be- t see once more — foi^ bless, expire ! 
 
 come the slave of its 
 
 own excessive action. Delora ! 
 
 Fain would he die, 
 
 but not without .some T j mc ^j c g Qn and ^j the same 
 
 attainment of his 
 
 object, be it only the I feed and hold my hovering flame : 
 shadow of attain- 
 ment. In darkness oft or mute star-light, 
 
 I sit and listen all the night 
 
 To the far roaring of the sea, — 
 
 Like slumbering Eternity ; 
 
 While dead trees sigh, and whisper me 
 
 Delora !
 
 THE BALLAD OF DELORA. 
 
 What state is mine ! How have I risen 
 By love's despair ! — what vastness given, 
 Since, like a fix'd petrific tomb 
 I bore my epitaph o'er doom ! 
 My mind now roves thro' many a shore, 
 With powers it never knew before ; 
 Thoughts, shapes, and actions, in degree 
 Tremendous — Titan-like — and free — 
 Passion-created imagery ! 
 Delora ! 
 
 77 
 
 But visions now too thick throng in, 
 And Time and Solitude must win, 
 And mould the long-resisting one. 
 Therefore, ere with wild dreams o'er-run, 
 These records will I leave behind, 
 Like love's last sighs pour'd on the wind, — 
 A cold, cold world is all they'll find ; 
 Delora ! 
 
 My life beyond all natural length 
 Holds out, tho' destitute of ^strength: 
 So stiff my limbs, my pulse so low, 
 I'm like the Image of my woe ! 
 
 The self-sustaining 
 strength whereby he 
 bore himself above 
 the power of these 
 great Influences, hath 
 failed at last. His 
 imagination is filled 
 and wrought up be- 
 yond his nature to 
 endure. His unroof- 
 ed mind hath let in 
 all comers, and in- 
 sanity hath just grasp- 
 ed old age by his 
 white hair. Where- 
 of the strong man 
 is conscious, and pre- 
 pares.
 
 278 
 
 RICHARD HENRY HORNE. 
 
 I feel my blood hath ebb'd away, 
 And moveless sit, from day to day, 
 A statue conscious of its clay ! 
 Delora ! 
 
 I heard a voice i' the air last night, 
 When the hoarse fog hung smoky white- 
 " Image of Passion ! — love, grief, will, 
 But man no more ; time shall not fill 
 Thy measure, till earth change to Sky ! " 
 And as the accents echoing die, 
 Voices in myriads seem to sigh, — 
 Delora ! 
 
 Even Time sorrow- 
 eth o'er the grave of 
 one whom he had 
 almost thought des- 
 tined to survive him, 
 and that he himself 
 at last should rest. 
 But Andrea Como 
 sleepeth with Delora 
 in celestial passion, 
 beyond the Father of 
 Years. 
 
 Cold are the winds on northern lea ; 
 Cold is the winter o'er the sea : 
 Howl, winds ! gripe, winter ! shatter, wave I 
 Mankind, do all ! — behold this Grave ! 
 Seasons roll on, as morn on morn : 
 So ages pass : oh, world forlorn ! 
 The dead smile pity at thy scorn. 
 Time, ever childless and heart-bare, 
 Begins to mourn, and crave an heir. 
 Andrea Como sleeps — sleeps where ? 
 Delora !
 
 UTTOXETER. 
 
 BY 
 
 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
 
 HAWTHORNE IN THE SHADOW OF 
 
 JOHNSON. 
 
 No two men could be much more unlike than Samuel 
 Johnson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. There is scarcely a 
 point of contact. And yet — perhaps the more for that 
 very reason — few lovers of the great Doctor can have failed 
 to be charmed by that delightful chapter in a delightful 
 book, the chapter relating to Lichfield and Uttoxeter in 
 Our Old Home. As narrated in the book which appeared 
 in 1863, the romantic puritan's story of his visit to the City 
 and Town which are peculiarly sacred to the memory of 
 the severe lexicographer, poet, and man of letters, bears the 
 marks not only of sympathetic thought but of that careful 
 workmanship which we expect from the author of The 
 Scarlet Letter. The deep impression of the ponderous 
 Doctor's personality on the greatest of transatlantic 
 romancists is woven into the topographical narrative with 
 elaborate skill. In this chapter of Our Old Home is 
 embodied a little essay on Uttoxeter which Hawthorne had 
 contributed six years earlier to The Keepsake. It is an ex- 
 quisite little essay — fresh, spontaneous, sensitive, unaffected, 
 the method not too elaborate for the substance, and the 
 simplicity unobscured by subsequent reflexion. Those to 
 whom Johnson and Hawthorne are dear will be thankful 
 to have it in its primal form.
 
 UTTOXETER. 
 
 BY 
 
 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 
 
 At Lichfield, in St. Mary's Square, I saw a statue of Dr. 
 Johnson, elevated on a stone pedestal, some ten or twelve 
 feet high. The statue is colossal (though perhaps not much 
 more so than the mountainous Doctor) and sits in a chair 
 with a pile of big books underneath it, looking down upon 
 the spectator with a broad, heavy, benignant countenance 
 very like Johnson's portraits. The figure is immensely 
 massive — a vast ponderosity of stone, not finely spiritualised, 
 nor, indeed, funy humanised, but rather resembling a great 
 boulder than a man. On the pedestal are three bas-reliefs ; 
 in the first, Johnson is represented as a mere baby, seated 
 on an old man's shoulders, resting his chin on the bald 
 head which he embraces with his arms, and listening to 
 the preaching of Dr. Sacheverell ; in the second tablet he 
 is seen riding to school on the backs of two of his comrades, 
 while a third boy supports him in the rear. The third 
 bas-relief possesses, to my mind, a good deal of pathos. 
 It shows Johnson in the market-place of Uttoxeter, doing
 
 UTTOXETER. 283 
 
 penance for an act of disobedience to his father, committed 
 fifty years before. He stands bare-headed, very sad and 
 woe-begone, with the wind and rain driving hard against 
 him ; while some market-people and children gaze awe- 
 stricken into his face, and an aged man and woman, with 
 clasped hands, are praying for him. These latter personages 
 I fancy (though, in queer proximity, there are some living 
 ducks and dead poultry), represent the spirits of Johnson's 
 father and mother, lending what aid they can to lighten his 
 half-century's burden of remorse. 
 
 I never heard of this statue before ; it seems to have 
 no reputation as a work of art, and very probably may 
 deserve none. Yet I found it somewhat touching and effec- 
 tive, perhaps because my interest in the character of that 
 sturdiest old Englishman has always been peculiarly strong ; 
 and especially the above-described bas-relief freshened my 
 sense of a wonderful beauty and pathos in the incident which 
 it commemorates. So, the next day, I left Lichfield for 
 Uttoxeter, on a purely sentimental pilgrimage (by railway 
 however,) to see the spot where Johnson performed his 
 penance. Boswell, I think, speaks of the town (its name 
 is pronounced Yute-oxeter), as being about nine miles from 
 Lichfield, but the map would indicate a greater distance ; 
 and by rail, passing from one line to another, it is as much 
 as eighteen. I have always had an idea of old Michael 
 Johnson journeying thither on foot, on the morning of 
 market-days, selling books through the busy hours, and 
 returning home at night. This could not well have been. 
 
 Arriving at the Uttoxeter station, the first thing I saw, 
 in a convenient vicinity, was the tower and tall grey spire
 
 284 NA THANIEL HA WTHORNE. 
 
 of a church. It is but a very short walk from the station 
 up into the town. It had been my previous impression 
 that the market-place of Uttoxeter lay immediately round 
 about the church ; and, if I remember the narrative aright, 
 Johnson describes his father's book-stall as standing in the 
 market-place, close beside the sacred edifice. But the church 
 has merely a street of ordinary width passing around it ; 
 while the market-place, though near at hand, is not really 
 contiguous ; nor would its throng and bustle be apt to over- 
 flow their bounds and surge against the churchyard and the 
 old grey tower. Nevertheless, a walk of a minute or two 
 would bring a person from the centre of the market-place 
 to the church-door ; and Michael Johnson might very well 
 have placed his stall, and have laid out his literary ware, 
 in the corner at the tower's base, — better there, perhaps, 
 than in the busy centre of an agricultural market. But 
 the picturesqueness and full impressiveness of the story 
 require that Johnson, doing his penance, should have been 
 the very nucleus of the crowd — the midmost man of the 
 market-place — a central figure of Memory and Remorse, 
 contrasting with, and overpowering the sultry materialism 
 around him. I am resolved, therefore, that the true site of 
 his penance was in the middle of the market-place. 
 
 This is a pretty, spacious, and irregular vacuity, sur- 
 rounded by houses and shops, some of them old, with red- 
 tiled roofs ; others wearing a pretence of newness, but 
 probably as old as the rest. In these ancient English towns 
 you see many houses with modern fronts, but if you peep 
 or penetrate inside, you often find an antique arrangement, 
 — old rafters, intricate passages, balustraded staircases; and
 
 UTTOXETER. 285 
 
 discover that the spruce exterior is but a patch on some 
 stalwart remnant of days gone by. England never gives 
 up anything old, as long as it is possible to patch it. The 
 people of Uttoxeter seemed very idle in the warm summer 
 day, and stood in little groups about the market-place ; 
 leisurely chatting, and staring at me, as they would not 
 stare if strangers were more plentiful. I question if Uttoxeter 
 ever saw an American before. And as an American, I was 
 struck by the numbers of old persons tottering about, and 
 leaning on sticks ; old persons in knee-breeches, and all the 
 other traditional costume of the last century. Old places 
 seem to produce old people, as by a natural propriety ; or 
 perhaps the secret is, that old age has a tendency to hide 
 itself when it might otherwise be brought into contact 
 with new edifices and new things, but comes freely forth 
 and meets the eye of man, amid the sympathies of a decay- 
 ing town. The only other thing that greatly impressed me 
 in Uttoxeter was the abundance of public-houses, one at 
 every step or two ; Red Lions, White Harts, Bulls' Heads, 
 Mitres, Cross Keys, and I know not what besides. These 
 are, probably, for the accommodation of the agricultural 
 visitors on market-day. At any rate, I appeared to be 
 the only guest in Uttoxeter, on the day of my visit, and 
 had but an infinitesimal portion of patronage to distribute 
 amongst so many inns. 
 
 I stepped into one of these rustic hostelries, and got my 
 dinner — bacon and greens, and a chop, and a gooseberry 
 pudding — enough for six yeomen, besides ale ; all for a 
 shilling and sixpence. This hospitable inn was called the 
 Nag's Head, and, standing beside the market-place, was as
 
 286 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 
 
 likely as any other to have entertained old Michael Johnson 
 in the days when he used to come hither to sell books. 
 He, perhaps, had eaten his bacon and greens, and drunk 
 his ale, and smoked his pipe, in the very room where I now 
 sat ; a low, ancient room, with a red-brick floor and a 
 whitewashed ceiling, traversed by bare, rough beams ; the 
 whole in the rudest fashion, but extremely neat. Neither 
 did the room lack ornament, the walls being hung with 
 engravings of prize-oxen, and other pretty prints, and the 
 mantelpiece adorned with earthenware figures of shep- 
 herdesses. But still, as I sipped my ale, I glanced through 
 the window into the sunny market-place, and wished that I 
 could honestly fix on one spot rather than another, as 
 likely to have been the holy site where Johnson stood to 
 do his penance. 
 
 How strange and stupid it is, that tradition should not 
 have marked and kept in mind the very place ! How 
 shameful (nothing less than that) that there should be no 
 local memorial of this incident, as beautiful and as touching 
 a passage as can be cited out of any human life ! no 
 inscription of it, almost as sacred as a verse of Scripture, 
 on the wall of the church ! no statue of the venerable and 
 illustrious penitent in the market-place, to throw a whole- 
 some awe over its traffic, its earthliness, its selfishness ! 
 Such a statue, if the piety of man did not raise it, might 
 almost have been expected to grow up out of the pave- 
 ment of its own accord, on the spot that had been watered 
 by Johnson's remorseful tears, and by the rain that dripped 
 from him. 
 
 Well, my pilgrimage had not turned out a very successful
 
 UTTOXETER. 287 
 
 one. There being no train till late in the afternoon, I spent, 
 I know not how many hours, in Uttoxeter, and, to say the 
 truth, was heartily tired of it ; my penance being a great 
 deal longer than Dr. Johnson's. Moreover, I forgot, until it 
 was too late, to snatch the opportunity to repent of some 
 of my own sins. While waiting at the station, I asked a 
 boy who sat near me, (a school-boy, some twelve or thirteen 
 years old, whom I should take to be a clergyman's son) — I 
 asked him whether he had ever heard the story of Dr. 
 Johnson, how he stood an hour doing penance beside that 
 church, whose spire rose before us. The boy stared, and 
 answered, " No." I inquired if no such story was known 
 or talked about in Uttoxeter. " No," said the boy ; " not 
 that I ever heard of!" Just think of the absurd little 
 town, knowing nothing of its one memorable incident, 
 which sanctifies it to the heart of a stranger from three 
 thousand miles over the sea ! Just think of the fathers 
 and mothers of Uttoxeter never telling their children this 
 sad and lovely story, which might have such a blessed in- 
 fluence on their young days, and spare them so many a 
 pang hereafter ! 
 
 But, personally, I had no right to find fault with these 
 good people ; for I myself had felt little or no impression 
 from the scene ; and my experience has been similar in 
 many another spot, even of far deeper consecration than 
 Uttoxeter. At Stratford-on-Avon — even at Westminster 
 Abbey, on my first visit — I was as little moved as any stone 
 of the pavement. These visits to the identical scenes of 
 poetical or historic interest inevitably cause an encounter 
 and a shock of the Actual with the Ideal, in which the
 
 288 NA THANIEL HA WTHORNE. 
 
 latter — unless stronger than in my own case — is very apt to 
 be overpowered. My emotions always come before, or 
 afterwards ; and I cannot help envying those happier 
 tourists, who can time and tune themselves so accurately, 
 that their raptures (as I presume from their printed de- 
 scriptions) are sure to gush up just on the very spot, and 
 precisely at the right moment.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 vol. i. u

 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE, 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 The circumstances in which the following Dramatic 
 Scene now comes before the public for the first time need 
 some explanation ; and indeed the popularity of the 
 author still falls so far short of his merits, notwithstanding 
 the efforts made by such eminent men of letters as Richard 
 Henry Home, Algernon Charles Swinburne and the late 
 Dante Gabriel Rossetti to obtain him his due, that a brief 
 account of his life is by no means out of place. 
 
 Charles Jeremiah Wells was born in the year 1800. 
 His parentage was of the middle class ; and he was 
 educated at Edmonton, where the young Keatses were 
 living with their grandmother Jennings, and where Home 
 was living with his widowed mother. He thus became 
 acquainted in early life, not only with Keats, but also with 
 Home, and other men of distinction. Though not a good 
 scholar, and constitutionally indolent, he had great natural 
 force of character, and having duly got through his years of 
 tutelage, entered on the profession of a solicitor, for which 
 
 U 2
 
 292 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 his parents had designed him. With Home, afterwards 
 author of Orion, he was very intimate in youth ; and with 
 the Keatses he was also in such close relations as to have 
 been unable to resist a bent for practical joking which led 
 to more than one rupture, and one of a serious kind. 
 
 He was the " friend who sent Keats some roses," and 
 furnished him thereby with the subject of one of the 
 sonnets in his first volume of Poems published in 1817. 
 At that time there had been no quarrel so serious but that 
 a few roses sent from Wells to Keats had power to whisper 
 " of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquell'd." But it 
 was at no great distance of time from then that Keats dis- 
 covered in this same friend the author of some letters to poor 
 Tom Keats purporting to come from a lady, and exercising 
 such a painful effect on the moribund youth as to induce 
 Keats, after his brother's death, to refer to the practical 
 joker as " that degraded Wells," and talk about being " rats- 
 bane to his vanity " and " prudently revengeful." 
 
 Keats's Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, &c. 
 appeared in 1820 : in 1821 came out The Garden of 
 Florence &c. by John Hamilton Reynolds; and in 1822 
 Wells published anonymously his first book, Stories after 
 Natzwe. In all three books the influence of Boccaccio 
 is evident ; and tradition ascribes to Wells a motive of 
 emulation. Keats and Reynolds had a joint scheme to 
 pay a tribute to Boccaccio by versifying certain of his 
 stories, which ultimately appeared disconnectedly in the 
 two volumes of poems named ; and Wells is thought to 
 have intended, with some pique, to show his friends, in 
 the prose Stories after Nature, in what coin tribute to
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 293 
 
 Boccaccio should be paid. As to the relative positions of 
 the Stories after Nature and Joseph and his Brethren, as 
 regards time of composition, there is no certainty. Wells 
 claimed to have written Joseph and his Brethren when he 
 was twenty years old. It was published about the end of 
 1823 — when he was twenty-three years old — under the 
 pseudonym of " H. L. Howard." The public and the 
 critics neglected Joseph and his Brethren as assiduously 
 as its author neglected his law business ; and before very 
 long he not only gave up his profession, but practically ac- 
 cepted the verdict of his contemporaries that literature 
 was not his vocation. He lived in the country pursuing 
 sport and horticulture. In or about 1840 he took up his 
 residence in Brittany ; and subsequently he was a Professor 
 at Quimper. He wrote a historical romance which was not 
 published, and a tragic story called Claribel which was 
 printed in the Illuminated Magazine in 1845. In October 
 1846 and June 1847 appeared in Fraser's Magazine, "A 
 Boar-Hunt in Brittany" and a "sequel" entitled "Love- 
 Passages in the Life of Perron the Breton " ; and he com- 
 posed from time to time in his long life much verse and 
 prose, among other things two tragedies entitled Dunstan 
 ' and Tancrede, a poem believed to have been called Bacchus 
 and Silenus, and a tragic story of intrigue and revenge. 
 
 Before 1850, stimulated by the admiration of a select 
 few, he revised Joseph and his Brethren; but, although 
 Mr. Swinburne published an essay on the poem with 
 extracts from the revision, the copy meant for republication 
 mysteriously disappeared, and it was not until 1876 that, 
 having again completed the work of revision, he published
 
 294 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 the edition of the poem by which it is now known. Mean- 
 time his wife, formerly a Miss Hill, had died, and he had 
 made up his mind to destroy all his work remaining in 
 manuscript. That he did so was afterwards a subject of 
 some little regret to him ; but he had all through his life a 
 superb indifference to fame ; and whatever he wrote must 
 have been the result of impulse. Between 1876 and 1878 
 he again revised Joseph and his Brethren, interpolating im- 
 portant scenes and passages which remain unpublished, but 
 safe in the Library of the present writer, who helped him 
 in the revision of 1876, and saw it through the press. The 
 book as finally revised is entitled SepJienatJi-PJiaanecJi, and 
 is dedicated to Home, to whose Chancer Modernized he 
 contributed a so-called sonnet, and with whom he had come 
 into correspondence again latterly. Wells's last years were 
 passed at Marseilles, where he died on the 17th of February 
 1879. That there should be so small a mass of his literary 
 work is explained partly by the indolence of his disposition 
 and partly by the holocaust already mentioned. To avoid 
 an undue addition which enterprising booksellers desire 
 from time to time to make to that mass, it is necessary to 
 record that he was not the author of Dramas Adapted for 
 the Representation of Young Persons (1820), although the 
 book was published by the same firm as fosepJi and his 
 Brethren, Messrs. Whittaker, and bore on the title-page the 
 name of " H. Howard." 
 
 When the altered copy of the edition of 1824, from 
 which the edition of 1876 was printed, had been copiously 
 written upon, many interpolations were added on separate 
 paper, with instructions for their insertion — sometimes of
 
 A DRAMA TIC SCENE. 295 
 
 the vaguest kind. Most of these were embodied in the 
 new edition ; but the following scene gave rise to a dis- 
 cussion ; and in the end it was agreed to omit it as an 
 undue interruption of the poem's movement — a composi- 
 tion having too little dependence on what would have pre- 
 ceded and followed it. The original intention was to place 
 it between the two scenes which are now the fifth and sixth 
 in Act IV. That is to say, it would have followed the line, 
 
 The secret is too big for one frail breast 
 
 — at page 225 of the first edition of the book, and would have 
 come between pages 228 and 229 of the revised edition of 
 1876. It is no insignificant comment on the discussion 
 whether the scene should go in or not, that when Wells 
 again went over his work and prepared the unpublished 
 third edition, the place assigned to this same scene (much 
 altered) was considerably earlier in the poem. In this final 
 version of his latest years, it is at the close of the third Act, 
 after page 201 of the 1876 edition, that Pharaoh and the am- 
 bassadors appear in conclave and pave the way for the fine 
 discussion between the Egyptian monarch and Joseph on the 
 relative merits of Nile-side polytheism and Hebrew mono- 
 theism. Remarkable as Wells's work always is, the thought- 
 fulness of this dialogue and the distinction of the style would 
 scarcely reconcile those who love Joseph and his Brethren for 
 its dramatic and human qualities to so solid an interrup- 
 tion of the business of getting on with the poem. But these 
 same lovers of Wells's work cannot but rejoice at the pre- 
 servation of the scene as a striking example of his mood 
 of sustained reflexion. H. BUXTON FORMAN.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 
 Pharaoh's Palace: 
 
 Pharaoh Enthroned in State— Court — Officers 
 
 — Ambassadors, &c. 
 
 Enter Joseph. 
 
 I cast myself at Pharaoh's royal feet : 
 
 Thou didst desire my presence ; lo ! I am here. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 Ruler in Egypt, this is my command : — 
 Ambassadors from several potent states 
 Are here in Council : they are come to me 
 Loaded with treasure, royal brotherhood, 
 To purchase, and entreat our utmost aid, 
 For that the hand of famine being abroad 
 Hath fallen rudely on their several powers.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 297 
 
 Egypt alone hath 'scaped this general wreck, 
 Which in its desolation withereth 
 These powers to the bone. O ruler, say 
 What counsel in thy wisdom canst thou give. 
 Remember thee we are for nought in this, 
 Setting aside both interest and desire, 
 Longing to aid them in their languishment ; 
 And thy decision is as Fate's decree, 
 From which I can admit of no appeal. 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 This is a general matter of much weight. 
 The fate of Egypt trembles in the scale ; 
 So I commend it to the King of heaven — 
 The God of justice is the God of love, 
 And chastisement is love where sin is death. 
 Two things must be considered severally : 
 The Will supreme, and then the will of man. 
 To purge the nations He has seen it wise 
 They should be yielded up to famine's arms : 
 But He hath made exception of this land, 
 Revealing to the ear of Egypt's King 
 The secret movements of his destiny. 
 So far His will is manifest and clear ; 
 But in these revelations I perceive
 
 298 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 No reservation beyond Egypt's good ; 
 
 Nor was provision made for other states 
 
 Of Egypt's succours beyond Egypt's self. 
 
 So far 'tis doubtful if 'twas His intent 
 
 That Egypt should become a granary 
 
 To bind the hands of His just punishment. 
 
 Turn we from revelation wrath divine 
 
 And question human judgment, we perceive 
 
 The surplus of the seven years of wealth 
 
 More than sufficient for the years of dearth : 
 
 But as this surplus is but Egypt's own, 
 
 Of which these nations plenty form no part, 
 
 Ponder well that your beneficence 
 
 Strain not upon your own security, 
 
 And thus so much as you shall cede to them 
 
 In just proportion shall you lack yourself.* 
 
 First, therefore, King, do justice to thine own, 
 
 Nor sacrifice their rights to stranger hands : 
 
 profit by the means that God has given, 
 And tempt not thou the Providence divine. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 Behold, Ambassadors, yourselves have heard 
 Justice and wisdom ; common prudence bids 
 
 1 should deny your suit : it grieves me sore.
 
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 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 299 
 
 Commend me to your masters. Each of you, 
 
 Following your several necessities, 
 
 Shall be well furnished for your journey back. 
 
 Joseph. 
 Stay yet awhile and listen to the King. 
 Thus it appeareth, but it is not so ; 
 For the two questions still in presence weigh : — 
 First the permission of His holy will, 
 Which may be judged by the abundance given ; 
 Second, beyond the shadow of a doubt, 
 That Egypt's privilege be all secure. 
 To solve this doubt I have forecast with care 
 Egypt's resources for the time to come — 
 The utmost limit of the seven years. 
 After sufficiency of all the best 
 Has been reserved in full perfection, 
 A marvellous surplus still remains in hand. 
 Permitting, as I said, within abuse 
 Of a vast profitable charity. 
 Pharaoh hath but to sav, Do thus and thus ! 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 Truly, as you say, 'tis wonderful 
 That the abundance in exception made 
 Equals the general dearth and penury.
 
 
 3 oo CHARLES WELLS 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 'Tis nothing strange to him whose spirit dwells 
 Within the knowledge of our Deity. 
 God's blessing has no limit, and its love 
 Filleth the wide immensity of heaven, 
 Its charity overfioods upon the earth. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 'Tis great and glorious and wondrous indeed. 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 For full two years our parsimonious hands 
 
 Furnish the fainting nations who still live. 
 
 E'en as the racing rivers of the earth 
 
 Into the ocean pour their waters out, 
 
 So from the states which circle Egypt round 
 
 Flows the strong current of their foreign gold : 
 
 The royal treasury which was a lake 
 
 Has now become a sea. Fear not, O King, 
 
 Wisdom and prudence and sweet charity 
 
 Will make great Pharaoh greater than he is ; 
 
 For I prophetical repeat once more, 
 
 In the five years of famine yet to come 
 
 The surplus is enough to furnish forth
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 301 
 
 And save from perishing these different states ; 
 
 That the abundance given for seven years, 
 
 Being preserved in full perfection, 
 
 Was so replete, immeasurably vast, 
 
 That Egypt's King may plate his thoughts with gold 
 
 And on his royal head may wear a crown — 
 
 Mysterious light incomparably bright, 
 
 Formed of the lives of men, millions of stars 
 
 Surpassing all the jewels of the mine, 
 
 Or rocks, or mountains, or the sombre depths, 
 
 The unsounded oozy bottom of the sea. 
 
 'Tis a proud thought, O King of Kings, that all 
 
 The mighty nations come to vail their pride 
 
 And draw their daily breath at Pharaoh's hand, 
 
 The special gift of Jacob's Deity. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 To you, Ambassadors, I recommend 
 A serious counsel for your governors : 
 Be frugal in the aid that may be given, 
 Fearing it be the last. 
 
 ist Ambassador. 
 
 Great Pharaoh, live ! — 
 I speak for all these honoured potentates. —
 
 )2 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 Here on our knees our several masters tend 
 Their gratitude, their envy, and their love —   
 Their envy, above all, that Egypt is thrice blessed 
 In thee, great King, thy ruler, and his God. 
 
 [Exeunt Ambassadors. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 How is it, Joseph, when a lord in power 
 
 Grows into greater power, and doth possess 
 
 In full security, his sov'rcign's grace, 
 
 His face shoots forth more beams than doth the sun ? 
 
 Men flock to gild them at their lucent rays, 
 
 And the lie fortune casts his golden net, 
 
 Whose smile is glory and whose frown a grave. 
 
 But thou, thou wearest a sober cheerfulness, 
 
 A certain sweet and modest majesty ; 
 
 And from the very first you never joyed, 
 
 Nor met your grandeur with an equal smile. 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 The joy I feel is like the God I serve, 
 Invisible as vast : 
 
 And will not quit the middle of my heart 
 To bask upon the surface of my face ; 
 Because I am not, nor will ever be,
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 303 
 
 The secret object of my proper joy. 
 His glory and His honour doth absorb 
 My action, soul, and my identity : — 
 An insect that's attracted by the sun, 
 A wandering atom in his glorious space, 
 So am I, lost in Love's humility. 
 Ah ! couldst thou feel the ardour of a soul 
 Abandoned to the glory of its God, 
 Where all the faculties so melt and blend, 
 Adoring His eternal majesty, 
 In love, obedience, sweet amenity, — 
 You would not wonder. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 This is very strange : 
 I never felt thus in our sacrifice : 
 Yet Egypt's gods are older than the stars, 
 Coeval with the moon, gigantic powers 
 And such as yet were never known or seen 
 In any nation on the earth besides. 
 Perplexity and doubt and feverish hope, 
 A certain awe near neighbour to despair — 
 As dreading their oracular decree — 
 Are the chief sentiments which they inspire ;
 
 304 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 But never this sweet union of love, 
 And the soul's ecstasy is all unknown : 
 Whence comes this difference 'twixt our deities ? 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 Ah ! mighty Pharaoh, question me no more : 
 Oft hast thou spoken of the benefits 
 Thou didst intend to heap upon my head, 
 And wonderest at my want of gratitude. 
 'Tis true I calculate on naught to come 
 Save in the holy will of Him I serve ; 
 For man is fickle and fantastical, 
 And ever writes "To-morrow" in the sand. 
 In answering thee I might give grave offence 
 And turn these favours into punishment. 
 Thus the decree of Providence were crossed 
 In its mid-execution and design ; 
 Nor is there aught of honour to be gained : 
 The God of Jacob is his God alone. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 I am amazed at this, and something more 
 
 Than curiosity doth urge me on, 
 
 For that thy God is all invisible, 
 
 Yet hath such empire o'er the human heart.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 305 
 
 Joseph, I love thee, and will nothing change 
 In my resolves : once more I do command — 
 What is the difference twixt thy God and mine ? 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 I bend in all obedience to the Kinsr, 
 
 Though 'tis a dangerous thing you ask of me. — 
 
 Humble thy royal ear unto the truth ; 
 
 Nor fear, nor stripes, imprisonment, or death 
 
 Shall check my tongue or limit my report 
 
 When there is question of the living God. 
 
 Thy gods are legion ; in their separate wills 
 
 Each one lays claim to universal power : 
 
 Behold the first and chief absurdity. 
 
 Then they are made of wood and stone and earth, 
 
 O'ercoloured with a thousand mysteries 
 
 Without beginning and without an end. 
 
 And though they were thrice older than the moon, 
 
 And she again a thousand times her age, 
 
 Still they are nought but wood and stone and earth ; 
 
 The son but worships what the father made, 
 
 The type of ignorance in their substances. 
 
 O King, the sacred majesty of truth 
 
 Lives not in mean equivocation. 
 
 Such are thy oracles with double tongue, 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 3 o6 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 A living lie unto their proper selves ; 
 
 More often dumb in utter ignorance. 
 
 Witness thy dream. Great Pharaoh did command 
 
 Of all the magi and of all the gods 
 
 Of Egypt to develop in his ear 
 
 This secret which sore troubled his repose. 
 
 Was not their silence, ignorance, or disdain 
 
 Worthless alike unto their worshippers ? 
 
 Behold the King, abandoned by his gods, 
 
 Abandons them in turn ; obliged to seek 
 
 Another Deity at stranger hands, 
 
 And thus by hazard stumbles on the truth. 
 
 To which is due conviction, gratitude — 
 
 Or his, whom he has served from infancy 
 
 With an enslaved spirit led by fear ? 
 
 Or mine to whom he turned in despair ? 
 
 Who at a word unfolds the secret page 
 
 Of sweet salvation to th' Egyptian King 
 
 And his devoted land, who else were lost 
 
 In the dumb ignorance of Egypt's gods? 
 
 The faith that springeth not from heavenly grace 
 
 Is doubly blind, O King.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 307 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 I am not myself; 
 A strange confusion worketh in my mind, 
 Where mystery and truth in strife contend, 
 Like two great powers for the mastery. 
 What thou hast said against our deities 
 I leave between our deities and thee : 
 Their proper honour is their proper cause. 
 In spite of my convictions from the first 
 A power invisible doth sway my heart, 
 Making me love thy fearless honesty. 
 Now speak thou of thy God. 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 A heart all burning must a prophet own ; 
 A tongue like lightning whose all riving fire 
 Lays bare the marble entrails of the rock ; 
 A voice like thunder when it broke the spell, 
 And the first shock of its artillery 
 Rolled over chaos : Lo ! when silence pale 
 Woke sudden from her supine lethargy, 
 Gathering her robe of misty centuries, 
 Fled trembling from her solitary throne, 
 Before instinctive new created life, 
 
 x 2
 
 3 o8 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 Never to reign again. 
 
 Then his imagination should be veiled, 
 
 Seeing the outward heavens as a sheet 
 
 Of outspread azure sown with living sparks, 
 
 The sea a water drop and the sphered globe, 
 
 Rolling attractive round the sun in space; 
 
 Himself no bigger than a plate of gold, 
 
 And man for what he is. 
 
 Then by inverted power he might take in 
 
 (Its standard being its proper excellence) 
 
 A ray of that high glory which resides 
 
 In vast immensity mysterious, 
 
 Whose attribute demands no more than space, 
 
 Where knowledge merges into prescience. 
 
 Therein resides his procreative Will, 
 
 Which by a thought in silence all sublime, 
 
 A word, from nothingness created all 
 
 By the enkindling of His passive will ; 
 
 And all of which, except the soul of man, 
 
 Shall pass away to nothingness again : 
 
 Nothing that is shall be save that alone. 
 
 Then what am I, O King, in this decree 
 
 Unless it be the shadow of a shade ? 
 
 A prophet must be faith personified, 
 
 Having nor life, nor will, desire, design,
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 309 
 
 Save for th' eternal glory of his God, 
 
 And all dissolved in human charity. 
 
 O earthly power of Egypt's majesty, 
 
 Say that you stood erect on yonder cloud, 
 
 That moulds its glowing beauty in the east ; 
 
 And being so high with vision magnified, 
 
 Seeing beyond the circle of the earth, 
 
 E'en to the silver walls that shut out space ; 
 
 And piercing through the centre of the world, 
 
 Could take in either heaven ; then multiply 
 
 The lost immensity ten thousandfold ; — 
 
 Yet still it were too narrow and confined 
 
 For the immeasurable limit where 
 
 The living God sits throned for evermore. 
 
 What that the mind of man can designate 
 
 Is vast enough to hold eternity : 
 
 Ah ! then the spirit of this mighty power 
 
 That was, and is, and shall for ever be — 
 
 Oh ! what is He ? 
 
 The glory of his own magnificence ; 
 
 Burning in beauty as he sat alone, 
 
 Himself enough for his Divinity. 
 
 At length that love too strong to be restrained, 
 
 Primeval essence of his Deity, 
 
 O'erflowed its bounds, and charity had life ;
 
 310 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 And excellence departing from him formed 
 
 In subtle spirit beauty exquisite — 
 
 The bright angelic hosts who straightway thronged, 
 
 Myriads on myriads, countless, numberless, 
 
 E'en as the sands upheaved by the wind, 
 
 Or water drops descending from the sky, 
 
 Or leaves in autumn when the eastern blast 
 
 Searches the forests and lays bare the groves ; 
 
 And still they come thicker than flakes of snow 
 
 Silvering the space of northern hemisphere, 
 
 A tribute to his bounty and his love. 
 
 Now as that love which had created them 
 
 Was in its essence perfect and entire, 
 
 Permitting that supremacy divine, 
 
 Following in degree of each perfection, 
 
 Should be partaken by the new create ; 
 
 So nothing less than like abandonment, 
 
 Or could they offer or could He receive, 
 
 Hence 'tis a principle progenerate 
 
 Of the eternal wisdom that the will — 
 
 The seat of merit, justice, liberty — 
 
 Is of a free unbiassed quality, 
 
 Open to make election good or bad : — 
 
 Ah ! there it is in the good or evil scales, 
 
 Pre-eminence in presence and two wills —
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 311 
 
 The false and true, the mighty and the weak — 
 
 Or infinite or finite God's and man's. 
 
 Oh wondrous wisdom, procreative power, 
 
 Preserving still the balance of the world, 
 
 Which in the will of man goes all to wreck ; 
 
 For he who leads the blind foresees the gulf, 
 
 And with a hand prepared, a second will, 
 
 Recovers his permission and restores 
 
 The ruin that his enemies have made — 
 
 Malice and folly both obliterate : 
 
 And on its axis evermore renewed 
 
 The world rolls on towards the final hour. 
 
 Ah ! the perfection, as it was, should be 
 
 The will of God, the will of man but one. 
 
 Hard to imagine, harder to believe, 
 
 That spirits formed at His paternal hands 
 
 Should swerve in their election : — So it was 
 
 For following their chief a grievous third, 
 
 Ungrateful, ignominious, and vile, 
 
 Rose 'gainst their Maker. " I will reign," said he, 
 
 " Blinded alike with ignorance and pride, 
 
 And my swoll'n heart shall rule : and I will be 
 
 Equal to the Omnipotent." The words 
 
 Still lingered on his self-devoted lips, 
 
 And he and his measure their utmost length
 
 2 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 In the profoundest depths of living hell — 
 
 A realm of glory for a realm of fire 
 
 For spirits ethereal that can never die. 
 
 With jealous eye let man o'er-read his heart, 
 
 Lest there the hated spark should burn, concealed — 
 
 Rebellion in sophisticated garb, 
 
 Cloak of distinction 'twixt the fool and wise : 
 
 There is no middle course, or love or hate, 
 
 The God of heaven or the prince of hell. 
 
 Ah ! who is he so hardy or so blind 
 
 To join the demon and to share his fate ? 
 
 But the angelic band who loving sealed 
 
 The freedom of the will in gratitude, 
 
 Bending, adoring, and in saintly choirs, 
 
 Singing eternal harmony celest, 
 
 Their being gave, and love for love returned ; 
 
 And thus confirmed in everlasting grace 
 
 Were taken to the bosom of their God, 
 
 Exalted, raised on their eternal thrones 
 
 Of emerald, sapphire, and translucent gold, 
 
 With crowns more rich in lustre than the stars, 
 
 Possessors of the eternal treasury, 
 
 Beauty and peace, celestial harmony, 
 
 Absorbed in ecstasies of sleepless love, 
 
 Blissful for ever and for evermore.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 3*3 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 Now by my sword of justice, but your words 
 
 Create a mutiny within my breast ; 
 
 For needs I must and do applaud, admire, 
 
 Yet sacrifice amiss — I do possess 
 
 The attributes of faith yet have it not, 
 
 Perforce believing in my unbelief; 
 
 Descend to earth and speak thou now of man, 
 
 Is he too creature of thy Deity ? 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 The jewel'd sceptre that you wield, O King, 
 Is it not thine ? yet how much more thine own 
 Hadst thou created it of empty space, 
 And formed it of thy fancy and thy will ! 
 Time was when man was not, and now he is. 
 Ah ! once again the fathomless abyss 
 Of God's paternal love did kindling rise, 
 Creating man in his perfection ; 
 Gave him a body graceful to behold, 
 A temple sacred in its purity, 
 A brain to govern, and a heart to love ; 
 And breathed within him an immortal soul 
 Linking his nature to his Deity.
 
 314 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 But here again the will of man is free, 
 Virtue and vice are open to his choice — 
 The gates of heaven and the gates of hell : 
 Yet naught unholy e'er can enter heaven, 
 Where reigns the truth in calm sublimity. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 Ruler in Egypt, favoured of thy God, 
 Foreseeing and foreknowing, ever wise, — 
 Mount the imperial steps unto our throne, 
 And (mutual honour) sit thou by our side. 
 I see my kingdom as a thronged ship 
 Carrying a gallant sail before the wind : 
 Behold her founder on the secret rocks, 
 Wreck'd beyond hope in famine's lingering grasp ; 
 Thy wisdom, Hebrew, saved us from this doom, 
 And he must needs be faithful to his King 
 Who is so favoured : faithful to his God. 
 How truly 'tis exemplified in thee, 
 Knowledge is power ! 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 A sleeping giant is a giant still : 
 
 To know is not to do: Wisdom is power, 
 
 And wisdom but begins where knowledge ends.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 315 
 
 Where 'tis not passive, morbid, or supine, 
 Knowledge is thus a means unto an end. 
 The Power supreme, ere it created man, 
 Was passive knowledge — power in action, 
 Which in its sov'reign wisdom peopled space. 
 The knowledge had existed from the first, 
 And so it might have rested till the end : 
 Then man's immortal soul had never been. 
 Weigh every act in wisdom's golden scales — 
 In such a soil the tree will grow to heaven, 
 Though rooted in the earth. 
 The mind of man, that wondrous element, 
 One of his chiefest works omnipotent, 
 Was first created in its purity ; 
 And complicated thought, good action, 
 In meet and peaceful harmony combined, 
 Till an unruly movement of the will 
 Gave birth to passion ! Then straightway 
 This giant, blind and deaf and boisterous, 
 Like sudden tempest in a day serene, 
 Planted with violence and rebellion 
 Upon the scarce defended citadel 
 (For conscience is a latent quality) ; 
 Calm in its confidence the human mind, 
 Dethroned reason, lost the greater half
 
 316 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 Of her legitimate authority. 
 
 Then the half traitor with the will combined, 
 
 The fair and false imagination — 
 
 That vessel rudderless with silken sails, 
 
 Fitful and eager for each varying wind 
 
 Impulsive mistress of the elements ; 
 
 Whose ribs of burnished and refulgent gold, 
 
 And planks encrusted over like a mine, 
 
 Dazzles in jewels fascinates the eye 
 
 As if a rainbow had become opaque 
 
 In its transparent gorgeousness, and all 
 
 Its liquid beauty blest with silvery light 
 
 Fixed and substantial ; 
 
 While the ethereal weepeth tears of joy : 
 
 Thus she and her twin sister Fancy sail 
 
 Over the surface of the wondering world. 
 
 The highest point of intellect in man 
 
 Is that which was and ever ought to be — 
 
 A reasoning imagination, 
 
 Leaving a wide gap in Eternity. 
 
 O Egypt's King, thy servant bending low 
 
 Prostrates himself before thy royal throne, 
 
 Asking a boon at thy all gracious hands — 
 
 A boon wherein the secret happiness 
 
 Of Pharaoh's servant liveth or must die.
 
 A DRAMATIC SCENE. 317 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 Rise, Joseph, rise ; the spirit of the King 
 
 Doth yearn to serve thee. Tell me then, I pray, 
 
 To whom is Egypt ? or to him who reigns 
 
 Or who preserved both Egypt and the King ? 
 
 'Tis justice and not generosity. 
 
 The self-same breath that beareth thy desire 
 
 Doth execute thy will. 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 Pharaoh doth know 
 A weary distance in the Canaan land 
 I left my father and my brethren : 
 The doubt and danger of their life or death 
 Long cast a shadow o'er thy servant's heart. 
 Now God hath so directed circumstance 
 That I am master of their destinies ; 
 E'en now they grapple feebly with their fate, 
 And 'neath the hand of famine must lay low — 
 To rest in Canaan and their graves is one. 
 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 There's no comparison in these demands. 
 Those we have sent away with scant supply
 
 318 CHARLES WELLS. 
 
 Were strangers numberless whose only claim 
 
 Was gentle pity's superfluity. 
 
 Thou art the bread of Egypt : shall thy sire 
 
 Fall by the well and die of hollow want ? 
 
 Give me the map of our vicinity ; 
 
 Of all the country winding round about 
 
 Within the precincts of our royal state 
 
 I know no land so sweetly watered, 
 
 So rich, so fertile, prosperous as this ; 
 
 Besides, it touches on thy government, 
 
 And therefore will not tempt thee from our side. 
 
 Take thou this Ramasis unto thy sire 
 
 And all his house. The day that they come in 
 
 Command the heralds at the city gates 
 
 At trumpet's sound proclaim our royal will : 
 
 Where Pharaoh loves there let the people bow 
 
 And woe to him, stranger or Egypt born, 
 
 Who honors not thy sire and brethren : 
 
 The highest of the land shall fear the King. 
 
 Look to thy government and so farewell. 
 
 [Exit Pharaoh and Court.
 
 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 SHELLEY TO LEIGH HUNT.
 
 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 SHELLEY TO LEIGH HUNT. 
 
 MORE letters from Percy Bysshe Shelley to James Henry 
 Leigh Hunt ! Delightful old quarto letters, folded, tucked, 
 and sealed (the seals broken now, or the paper cut round 
 them, of course), — addressed in that large, liberal, princely 
 writing, with quite considerable sums marked by Post 
 Office clerks on the addresses of them to be collected on 
 delivery — not a sign of a postage stamp, on all the lot, — not 
 even one letter with the word " Paid " written by the sender ! 
 As we untie the dusty string, and spread them out, and see 
 even the very doublings often covered with Shelley's 
 writing, we are struck by the absence of any doubt as to 
 the order in which the several pages and various sections of 
 the doublings are to be read : no ! Shelley's letter-writing 
 was too impetuous, rather say too spontaneous, for that 
 kind of scrappiness which a letter represents when you 
 have to sort up its parts and construct the composition 
 theoretically. They flow to the end, and finish when they 
 must — to wit when he has said what he has to say. 
 The very sight of the yellowed old paper and brown ink, 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 even without the postal differentia just described, is enough 
 to take us back three quarters of a century ; and gladly 
 enough one goes that distance to find such good company 
 as that of Shelley and Hunt. 
 
 The mere settling of the letters in chronological order 
 illustrates an important point in the soul-life of Shelley : 
 one looks eagerly at the dates and finds (for Shelley seldom 
 omitted to date his letters) that with one exception the 
 hoarded letters of this precious bundle represent the true 
 Shelley. Not one of them was written in the year when the 
 true Shelley was born, the year 1814 ; only one was written 
 before that year, namely in 1813, the year of Queen Mafr, 
 the last and best work of the preliminary or portentous 
 Shelley ; and all the rest are alive with the heart's blood 
 and intellectual ferment of that unique personality that 
 started suddenly into fulness of life when it came into 
 contact with a notable personality of the other sex, Mary 
 Wollstonecraft Godwin. 
 
 How curiously the first two letters illustrate this strange 
 new birth of Shelley, those who run may read — the one 
 written at the end of 18 13, baldly and naively stating a 
 case for the atheism of Milton, asking Hunt whether he 
 really had god-fathered such a case, and talking of emotions 
 much as they talk who have none — the other written just 
 two years later, full of deep feeling and affection, laying 
 bare the soul of one vitally interested in the personalities 
 of his friends and their artistic creations rather than in 
 barren disquisitions on theism and atheism and the trial of 
 grave questions by narrow intellectual criteria. 
 
 But for the unquestionable genuineness of the holograph,
 
 SHELLE V TO LEIGH HUNT. 323 
 
 the first letter is just such a mechanical piece of position- 
 stating as tempted Byron the letter-forger to think that, 
 with a little application to the art of imitative caligraphy, 
 he could supply the material for a few Shelley letters, at all 
 events good enough to sell. But just as, in George Eliot's 
 nobly audacious phrase, 
 
 God could not make Antonio's violins 
 Without Antonio, 
 
 so, the Devil himself could not have made that second letter 
 without Shelley : that is a letter of the true Shelley, in 
 which, to keep up the figure, the father of lies could by no 
 possibility have part or lot. 
 
 When once that point in the Shelley chronology is 
 reached, there is no record of retrogression : variety, yes, 
 and progress ; but never any more letters, however trifling 
 or matter of fact the subject, behind which it is possible 
 not to see this particular personality, — intellect, emotions^ 
 imagination, all alive, and creating fresh combinations of 
 language and thought. 
 
 Therefore, to come back to the starting point, it is matter 
 of congratulation that this dusty old bundle of letters, ten 
 in number, includes but one of earlier date than the year 
 1 8 16 — the year of Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude. 
 
 Before the intending visitor to this new Shelley and 
 Hunt show goes through the turnstile, he will like a glance 
 at the circumstances in which those two poets first became 
 acquainted. Shelley, it will be remembered, was born on 
 the 4th of August 1792, — Hunt on the 19th of October 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 1784, so that he was well settled in the saddle for his race 
 through life while the other was but a stripling hanging 
 about the paddock and casting longing eyes on the 
 favourites. On the first favourite, Pegasus, he had had 
 more than one canter round, but had not ridden for 
 anything like real business, whereas Hunt had been riding 
 hard for dear life — if not on Pegasus, still on some of that 
 stock. His early poems, indeed, Juvenilia, had appeared 
 in 1801, when Shelley was but nine years old ; he had been 
 a journalist and especially a theatrical critic since 1804, 
 publishing his volume of Critical Essays on the Performers 
 of the London Theatres in 1807, to be followed by his 
 Classic Tales in the same year; and in 1808 he and his 
 brother had set up The Examiner. It was as editor of that 
 able and influential paper on the liberal side that Shelley in 
 181 1 addressed him, a stranger, from University College, 
 Oxford ; and at that time another of Hunt's ventures, The 
 Reflector, was in course of publication. Between that time 
 and the beginning of 18 13 there was not much communi- 
 cation between Shelley and Hunt ; but on the 3rd of 
 February 181 3, Hunt was consigned to Horsemonger Lane 
 Gaol for libelling the Prince Regent ; and this misfortune 
 went far to found that close friendship which lasted till 
 Shelley's death. Shelley made Hunt a " princely offer" of 
 assistance, which Hunt refused ; but he could not refuse to 
 receive his would-be benefactor in his prison ; and, though 
 he had not seen much of him before, their seedling intimacy 
 could not but thrive in the hot-bed of misfortune. 
 
 No doubt there was something more or less theatrical 
 in the manner of writing when Shelley made his princely
 
 SHELLEY TO LELGH HUNT. 325 
 
 offer (to pay the Hunt's fine) ; and such an offer would 
 need much backing of personal attention. It was an offer 
 sprung of intellectual conviction and rash uncalculating 
 impulse ; and the first paragraph of the second letter in 
 our bundle shows clearly enough that the heart-to-heart 
 intimacy of Shelley and Hunt really came about when it 
 was Shelley who needed sympathy, Hunt who tendered it, 
 and Shelley again who sprang to meet it. 
 
 How little they really knew of each other before the end 
 of 1 8 16 is established on the evidence of this one letter, 
 in which Hunt is presumed not even to know that Shelley 
 takes in The Examiner, and Shelley tries his new friend's 
 friendship by a frank, not to say gauche, confession of 
 ignorance that that friend had written any poetry beside 
 Rimini. Indeed the letter yields us two delicious tableaux : 
 
 Tableau I, Shelley eagerly seeking a copy of The 
 Examiner for Sunday the 1st of December 18 16, which had 
 contained an article by Hunt on Young Poets (one of 
 whom was Shelley). 
 
 Tableau II, Hunt, the author of The Feast of the Poets 
 and other Poems (18 14) and The Descent of Liberty, a Mask 
 (181 5), dragging wildly at his voluminous hair and ex- 
 claiming, " What ! This man — who wanted to pay my fine 
 and came to see me in gaol — doesn't even know that I 
 have published of all things The Descent of Liberty ?" 
 
 Curtain ! And when it goes up again, may the reader 
 enjoy and benefit by the varied drama shadowed forth in 
 these delightful letters, with such fiddling of foot-notes as 
 occasion may require by way of accompaniment.
 
 J 
 
 26 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Skinner Street, 
 
 London. 
 December yt/i, 18 13. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 It was stated to me yesterday by Mr. James Ogilvie, 1 
 the Orator, that you had informed him that it was now 
 known from incontestable authority that Milton died 
 embracing the creed of Atheism. 
 
 I should take it as a particular favour if you would have 
 the goodness to tell me whether this statement of Mr. 
 Ogilvie is correct ; and if so, what is the authority from 
 which you spoke. 
 
 If I may so accommodate an expression of St. Paul, 
 " After the way which men call Atheism, so worship I the 
 God of my fathers " — so that the information I seek could 
 not give me any pain ; nor is it possible I should make an 
 
 1 The Rev. James Ogilvie, D.D., Chaplain to Lord Forbes, and curate of 
 Egham, was a man of very decided character, having been driven home from 
 Virginia, at the beginning of the first American war, because he declined to 
 renounce his allegiance. He published a controversial tract on Prophecy and 
 Sermons on Various Subjects ; and he may have been the person alluded to, 
 as he was still living after 1813. There was also living then a Dr. John 
 Ogilvie, who published a large number of works, including an Inquiry into the 
 Causes of Infidelity and Scepticism, and other things, which points to him as a 
 likelier person than Dr. James Ogilvie to be the hero of this letter of Shelley's. 
 For the reference to St. Paul, see the 24th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, 
 which, it will be remembered, is about "a certain orator named Tertullus," 
 who accused Paul of being "a pestilent fellow."
 
 SHELLEY TO LEIGH HUNT. 327 
 
 ill use of it. And whatever I might hereafter at any time 
 say on the subject, it could not be necessary to join your 
 name with it to your annoyance. 
 
 I am, my dear Sir, 
 
 With much regard, yours, 
 P. B. Shelley. 
 
 To 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq.
 
 328 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Marlow. 
 December %th, 1816. 
 
 I have received both your letters yesterday and to-day, 
 and I accuse myself that my precipitancy should have 
 given you the vexation you express. Your letters, how- 
 ever, give me unmingled pleasure, and that of a very 
 exalted kind. I have not in all my intercourse with man- 
 kind experienced sympathy and kindness with which I 
 have been so affected, or which my whole being has so 
 sprung forward to meet and to return. My communica- 
 tions with you shall be such as to attempt to deserve this 
 fortunate distinction. Meanwhile, let me lay aside pre- 
 liminaries and their reserve ; let me talk with you as with 
 an old friend. 
 
 First, I will answer your questions. By some fatality I 
 have seen every Examiner, but that of last week. Since I 
 received your letter yesterday, I have made every exertion 
 to get a sight of it, unsuccessfully. All the people who 
 take it in here have forwarded it to their friends at a 
 distance. I hear there is one at a village five miles off; as 
 it is very uncertain whether I shall be able to procure it, I 
 will accept your kind offer of sending it to me. I take in 
 the Examiner generally, and therefore will not trouble you 
 to send your own copy.
 
 SHELLE Y TO LEIGH HUNT. 329 
 
 Next, will I own the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty ? l I 
 do not care — as you like. And yet the poem was com- 
 posed under the influence of feelings which agitated me 
 even to tears, so that I think it deserves a better fate than 
 the being linked with so stigmatised and unpopular a name 
 (so far as it is known) as mine. You will say that it is not 
 thus, — that I am morbidly sensitive to what I esteem the 
 injustice of neglect — but I do not say that I am unjustly 
 neglected, — the oblivion which overtook my little attempt of 
 Alastor I am ready to acknowledge was sufficiently merited 
 in itself ; but then it was not accorded in the correct pro- 
 portion considering the success of the most contemptible 
 drivellings. I am undeceived in the belief that I have 
 powers deeply to interest, or substantially to improve, 
 mankind. How far my conduct and my opinions have 
 rendered the zeal and ardour with which I have engaged in 
 the attempt ineffectual, I know not. Self-love prompts me 
 to assign much weight to a cause which perhaps has none. 
 But thus much I do not seek to conceal from myself, 
 that I am an outcast from human society ; my name is 
 execrated by all those who understand its entire import, — 
 by those very beings whose happiness I ardently desire. I 
 am an object of compassion to a few more benevolent than 
 the rest, all else abhor and avoid me. With you, and 
 perhaps some others (though in a less degree, I fear) my 
 gentleness and sincerity find favour, because they are 
 
 1 This question was settled thus : the Hymn appeared in The Examiner for 
 the 19th of January 1817 ; and, though Hunt had already announced it to 
 come out with the signature Elfin Knight, it was printed with that of Percy 
 B. Shelley.
 
 Jj"- 
 
 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 themselves gentle and sincere : they believe in self-devotion 
 and generosity because they are themselves generous and 
 self-devoted. Perhaps I shouldhave shrunk from persisting 
 in the task which I had undertaken in early life, of opposing 
 myself in these evil times and among these evil tongues, to 
 what I esteem misery and vice ; if I must have lived in the 
 solitude of the heart. Fortunately my domestic circle 
 incloses that within it which compensates for the loss. But 
 these are subjects for conversation, and I find that in using 
 the privilege which you have permitted me of friendship, I 
 have indulged in that quantity of self-love which only 
 friendship can excuse or endure. 
 
 When will you send me your poems ? I never knew that 
 you had published any other than Rimini} with which I was 
 exceedingly delighted, — the story of the poem has an interest 
 of a very uncommon and irresistible character, — though it 
 appeared to me that you have subjected yourself to some 
 rules in the composition which fetter your genius, and 
 diminish the effect of the conceptions. Tho in one sense 
 I am no poet, I am not so insensible to poetry as to 
 read Rimini unmoved. — When will you send me your other 
 poems ? 
 
 Peacock is the author of Headlong Hall, — he expresses 
 himself much pleased by your approbation — indeed it is 
 approbation which many would be happy to acquire ! He 
 is now writing Melincourt in the same style, but, as I judge, 
 far superior to Headlong Hall. He is an amiable man, of 
 great learning, considerable taste, an enemy to every shape 
 
 1 The Story of Rimini was published in 1816. It is curious to find Shelley 
 harping on the quasi-incestuous motive of that mediocre poem.
 
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 SHELLEY TO LEIGH HUNT. 331 
 
 of tyranny and superstitious imposture. I am now on the 
 point of taking the lease of a house 1 among these woody 
 hills, these sweet green fields, and this delightful river — 
 where, if I should ever have the happiness of seeing you, 
 I will introduce you to Peacock. I have nothing to do in 
 London, but I am most strongly tempted to come, only to 
 spend one evening with you ; and if I can I will, though I 
 am anxious as soon as my employments here are finished 
 to return to Bath. 
 
 Last of all — you are in distress for a few hundred 
 Pounds ; — I saw Lord Byron at Geneva, who expressed for 
 [sic] me the high esteem which he felt for your character 
 and worth. — I cannot doubt that he would hesitate in con- 
 tributing at least £100 towards extricating one whom he 
 regards so highly from a state of embarrassment. I have 
 heard from him lately, dated from Milan ; and as he has 
 entrusted me with one or two commissions, I do not doubt 
 but my letter would reach him by the direction he gave 
 me. If you feel any delicacy on the subject, may I write 
 to him about it ? My letter shall express that zeal for your 
 interests which I truly feel, and which would not confine 
 
 1 Before settling at Marlow Shelley was the guest of Thomas Love Peacock 
 at that place. It was not till the end of February 181 7 that the poet and his 
 belongings moved to Marlow ; and even then " the Albion House," as it was 
 called, was not ready for their occupation, which was entered upon in the 
 second week of March. Between the announcement made to Hunt in this 
 letter and the fulfilment of the intention expressed, things of the direst import 
 occurred. Hookham's letter, announcing the suicide of Harriett Shelley, was 
 dated the 13th of December, and reached Shelley at Bath, whither he had gone 
 since writing to Hunt from Marlow. How he at once rushed off to London, 
 on the vain errand of trying to obtain possession of his children, Ianthe and 
 Charles, and what happened in that connexion, are matters already familiar to 
 us in Dowden's Life of Shelley.
 
 332 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 itself to these barren protestations if I had the smallest 
 superfluity. 
 
 My friend accepts your interest and is contented to be a 
 Hebrew for your sake. But a request is made in return 
 which in courtesy cannot be refused. There is some little 
 luxury, some enjoyment of taste or fancy you have refused 
 yourself, because you have not felt, through the difficulty of 
 your situation, that you were entitled to indulge yourself in 
 it. You are entreated — and a refusal would give more pain 
 than you are willing to inflict — to employ the enclosed in 
 making yourself a present of this luxury, that may remind 
 you of this not unfriendly contest, which has conferred a 
 value on £$ which I believe it never had before. 1 
 
 1 will send you an Alastor. 
 
 [Addressed outside.] 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 Vale of Health, 
 Hampstead, 
 
 Near London. 
 
 1 The name one naturally associates with this pleasant lender, who 
 accepts interest to put the borrower at ease, and then sends it back as a 
 present, — is Horace Smith.
 
 SHELLE Y TO LEIGH HUNT. 333 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Marlow. 
 August i6t/i, 1817. 
 [Written by Mary Shelley.'] 
 
 My Dear Marianne, 
 
 In writing your congratulations to Shelley on his 
 birthday did not your naughty heart smite you with 
 remorse ? Did you not promise to look at some brooches, 
 and send me the descriptions and prices ? — But the Ajh of 
 August arrived and I had no present ! x 
 
 I am exceedingly obliged to you for the loan of the caps. 
 But a nurse. I have a great aversion to the having a 
 Marlow woman, — but I must be provided by the 20th. 2 
 What am I to do ? I dare say Mrs. Lucas is out at 
 present, but she may be disengaged by that time. 
 
 I am sorry to observe by your letter that you are in low 
 spirits. Cheer up, my dear little girl, and resolve to be 
 happy. Let me know how it is with you, and how your 
 health is as your time advances. If it were of any use I 
 would say a word or two against your continuing to wear 
 stays. Such confinement cannot be either good for you or 
 
 1 Shelley with a brooch ! Truly we live and learn. How big was it to be, 
 and what was he to fasten with it ? Not a fly-away necktie that should fail to 
 prevent that obstreperous shirt collar of his from exposing his unruly throat, 
 surely ? Mrs. Hunt evidently knew better. 
 
 2 It was not, in fact, till the 2nd of September that Shelley's daughter 
 Clara was born.
 
 334 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 the child ; and as to shape, I am sure they are very far 
 from becoming. 
 
 We are all well here. Our dog, who is a malicious beast 
 whom we intend to send away, has again bitten poor little 
 William without any provocation, for I was with him, and 
 he went up to him to stroke his face when the dog snapped 
 at his fingers. Miss Alba 1 is perfectly well and thriving. 
 She crows like a little cock, although (as Shelley bids me 
 say) she is a hen. 
 
 Our sensations of indignation have been a little excited 
 this morning by the decision of the master of Chancery. 
 He says the children are to go to this old clergyman in 
 Warwickshire, who is to stand instead of a parent. An 
 old fellow whom no one knows, and [who] never saw the 
 children. This is somewhat beyond credibility did we not 
 see it in black and white. Longdill is very angry that his 
 proposition is rejected, and means to appeal from the 
 master to the Lord Chancellor. 
 
 I cannot find the sheet of Mrs. J. W. I send you two or 
 three things of yours — the stone cup and the soap dish 
 must wait until some one goes up to town. 
 
 I am afraid Hunt takes no exercise or he would not be so 
 ill. I see however that you go to the play tolerably often. 
 How are you amused ? 
 
 The gown must not be dear. But you are as good 
 a judge as I of what to give Milly as a kind of payment 
 from Miss Clifford's mamma for the trouble she has had. 
 
 Longdill 2 thought £100 per annum sufficient for both 
 
 1 The infant daughter of Byron and Claire Clairmont, better known as 
 Allegra. 2 Shelley's lawyer.
 
 SHELLEY TO LELGH HUNT. 335 
 
 Shelley's children, to provide them with clothes and every- 
 thing. Why then should we pay £70 for A[lba] ? 
 
 The country is very pleasant just now, but I see nothing 
 of it beyond the garden. I am ennuied as you may easily 
 imagine from want of exercise which I cannot take. The 
 cold bath is of great benefit to me. By the bye, what are 
 we to do with it ? Have you a place for its reception ? It 
 is of such use for H[unt]'s health that you ought not to be 
 without it ; we can easily get another. If you should 
 chance to hear of any very amusing book send it in the 
 parcel if you can borrow it from Oilier. 
 
 Adieu. Take care of yourself, and do not be dispirited. 
 All will be well one day I do not doubt 
 
 I send you £3. 
 
 Shelley sends his love to you all, and thanks for your 
 
 good wishes and promised present. Pray when is this 
 
 intended parcel to come ? 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 M. W. S. 
 
 [IVritteti by Shelley.] 
 
 I will write to Hunt to-morrow or the day after. Mean- 
 while kindest remembrances to all, and thanks for your 
 dreams in my favour. Your incantations have not been 
 quite powerful enough to expel evil from all revolutions of 
 time. Poor Mary's book 1 came back with a refusal, which 
 has put me rather in ill spirits ? Does any kind friend of 
 yours, Marianne, know any bookseller, or has any influence 
 with one ? Any of those good-tempered Robinsons ? All 
 these things are affairs of interest and preconception. 
 
 1 Frankenstein was offered to Oilier, who declined it, as did also Murray.
 
 336 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 You have seen Clarke about this loan. Well, is there 
 any proposal— anything in bodily shape ? My signature 
 makes any security infallible in fact though not in law, — 
 even if they would not take Hunt's. I shall have more to 
 say on this. 1 
 
 The while — 
 
 Your faithful friend, 
 P. B. S. 
 
 To 
 Mrs. Hunt. 
 
 1 In the eventful period between the dates of this letter and the next, 
 Shelley's longest work had been printed and published under the title of Laon 
 and Cythna, withdrawn from circulation, very largely altered by means of 
 cancel-leaves, and published again as The Revolt of Islam. The house and 
 neighbourhood in which he had settled "forever" had lost sufficient of their 
 charms to make their abandonment not only possible but urgently desirable ; 
 and the Shelleys had decided to make their way to Italy, little dreaming that 
 the farewell to England was farewell for ever, at least so far as four of them 
 were concerned — Shelley, William, Clara, and Allegra.
 
 SHELLE Y TO LEIGH HUNT. 337 
 
 LETTER IV. 1 
 
 Calais. 
 March 13th, 1818. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 After a stormy but very short voyage we have 
 arrived at Calais, and are at this moment on the point of 
 proceeding. We are all very well, and in excellent spirits. 
 Motion has always this effect upon the blood, even when 
 the mind knows that there are causes for dejection. 
 
 With respect to Taylor and Hess[e]y I am ready to 
 certify, if necessary in a Court of Justice, that one of 
 them said he would give up his copyright for the .£20 ; 
 and that in lieu of that he would accept the profits of 
 Rimini until it was paid. 
 
 Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 P. B. Shelley. 
 Pray write to Milan. 
 
 1 This little letter is of great price as settling satisfactorily a point of friend- 
 ship. On the evening of the 10th of March the Hunts paid their farewell visit 
 at the lodgings of the Shelleys in Great Russell Street. Shelley fell into a 
 deep sleep ; and it was decided not to rouse him, as he was to leave England 
 with his family on the nth. The Hunts went home; and the earliest 
 published letter after the nth is that written from Lyons on the 22nd of 
 March, in which Shelley upbraids Hunt thus : — " Why did you not wake me 
 that night before we left England, you and Marianne ? I take this as rather 
 an unkind piece of kindness in you . . . tell Marianne she defrauded me of a 
 kiss ..." Eleven days to think of that ! And certainly it did seem strange that 
 people so affectionately intimate as the Shelleys were with the Hunts should 
 not have sent word from Calais of their safe passage. Well, here is the 
 "missing word," written after a night's rest at Calais. 
 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 338 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 [Written by Mary Shelley, .] 
 
 Shelley is full of business, and desires me to finish this 
 hasty notice of our safety. The children are in high 
 spirits, and very well. Our passage was stormy but very 
 short. Both Alba and William were sick, but they were 
 very good, and slept all the time. We now depart for 
 Italy, with fine weather, and good hopes. 
 
 Farewell my dear Friend, may you be happy. 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 Mary W. S. 
 
 [Addressed otttside.] 
 Mr. Leigh Hunt, 
 
 13, Lisson Grove North, 
 Paddington, 
 London. 
 Angleterre.
 
 SHELLS Y TO LEIGH HUNT. 339 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Naples. 
 December 22nd, 1818. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 A letter from you is always so pleasant that one 
 never feels less inclined to complain of the long absence 
 of such a pleasure than at the moment when it is conferred. 
 Neither Ollier's parcel nor any of the letters it contains 
 have arrived. I do confess we had been saying now 
 and then, " Well, this is just like Hunt " — as indeed 
 it was a little ; but we never attributed your silence to 
 neglect or want of affection. You don't tell me if your 
 book is published yet, or is about to be published soon. 
 As to my little poem, I can only lament that it is not more 
 worthy of the lady whose name it bears ; though it may 
 derive, it cannot confer, honour on the situation where you 
 have placed it. 1 
 
 I saw the Quarterly at Venice, and was much pleased 
 with the Review of Frankenstein 2 though it distorts the 
 
 1 Marianne 's Dream first appeared in Leigh Hunt's Literary Pocket-Book 
 for 18 1 9, the first number of that excessively rare series of books. The 
 poem represents a real dream of Mrs. Leigh Hunt's, and is now the chief 
 stimulus of collectors in the vain quest for a copy of the book. 
 
 2 Not being "cast down with ae rebute," Shelley had found a publisher 
 (Lackington) for his wife's wonderful novel, of which he had himself written 
 the preface, she being otherwise engaged. The same number of the Quarterly 
 which greeted Lackington's venture contained a notice of Leigh Hunt's 
 Foliage, in which Keats, finding himself vituperated without any mention of 
 his name, was afforded the opportunity for a bon mot : " I have more than a 
 laurel from the Quarterly Reviewers for they have smothered me in 'Foliage.'" 
 
 Z 2
 
 34o A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 story. As to what relates to yourself and me, it makes 
 me melancholy to consider the dreadful wickedness of heart 
 which could have prompted such expressions as those with 
 which the anonymous writer exults over my domestic 
 calamities, and the perversion of understanding with 
 which he paints your character. There can be no doubt, 
 with respect to me, that personal hatred is intermingled 
 with the rage of faction. I know that Southey on one 
 occasion said to a friend of his that he on his own know- 
 ledge knew me to be the blackest of villains. When we 
 consider who makes this accusation, and against whom, 
 I need only rebut such an accusation by silence and a 
 smile. I thought, indeed, of writing to Southey ; but that, 
 as he is really guilty, would have only exposed me to 
 misrepresentation, and I shall on my return * seek an oppor- 
 tunity of expostulating with him in person, and enquiring 
 by what injury I have awakened in his heart such dreadful 
 hatred ; and if, indeed, I have injured him unintentionally, to 
 endeavour to repair it ; and if not, to require that he should 
 produce his proof of my meriting the appellation he employs. 
 As far as the public is concerned, it is not for him whom 
 Southey accuses, but for him whom all the wise and good 
 among his contemporaries accuse of delinquency to all 
 public faith and honour, to defend himself. Besides, I 
 never will be a party in making my private affairs or those 
 of others to be topics of general discussion. Who can 
 
 1 He never returned ; but he wrote. Professor Dowden found the letters 
 
 among the Southey papers which he edited and published in the volume entitled 
 
 The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles, to which are added 
 
 Correspondence with Shelley, and Southey 's Breams. [Dublin University Press 
 
 Series] Dublin, 1881.
 
 SHELLEY TO LELGH HUNT. 341 
 
 know them but the actors ? And if they have erred, or 
 often when they have not erred, is there not pain enough 
 to punish them ? My public character as a writer of 
 verses — as a speculator on politics, or morals, or religion — 
 as the adherent of any party or cause — is public property ; 
 and my good faith or ill faith in conducting these, my 
 talent, my penetration, or my stupidity, are all subjects 
 of criticism. I am almost certain that Southey, not 
 Gifford, wrote that criticism on your poems. I never saw 
 Gifford in my life, and it is impossible that he should have 
 taken a personal hatred to me. Gifford is a bitter partisan, 
 and has a very muddled head ; but I hear from those who 
 know him that he is rather a mild man personally, and I 
 don't know that he has ever changed sides. So much for 
 myself. As far as you are concerned, I can imagine why 
 Southey should dislike you, as the Examiner has been the 
 crown of thorns worn by this unredeemed Redeemer for 
 many years. 
 
 Do you ever see Peacock ? He will tell you all about 
 where we go, what we do or see ; and, as I write him an 
 account of these things, I do not like writing twice over 
 the same things. There are two Italies — one composed of 
 the green earth and transparent sea, and the mighty ruins 
 of ancient time, and aerial mountains, and the warm and 
 radiant atmosphere which is interfused through all things, 
 the other consists of the Italians of the present day, their 
 works and ways. The one is the most sublime and lovely 
 contemplation that can be conceived by the imagination 
 of man ; the other is the most degraded, disgusting and 
 odious. What do you think ? Young women of rank actually
 
 342 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 eat — you will never guess what — garlick ! Our poor friend 
 Lord Byron is quite corrupted by living among these 
 people ; and, in fact, is going on in a way not very worthy 
 of him. We talked a good deal about you, and among other 
 things he said that he wished you would come to Italy, 
 and bade me tell you that he would lend you the money 
 for the journey (£400 or ,£500) if you were prevented by 
 that consideration. Pray could you not make it in some 
 way even profitable to visit this astonishing country ? We 
 return to Venice next Spring. What an inexpressible 
 pleasure it would give us to meet you there ! I fear (if 
 you will allow me to touch on so delicate a subject) it 
 would be hardly possible for you to bring all your family, 
 but you would know best. I should not wonder if Peacock 
 would join you, and then the ensuing Spring we would all 
 return together. Italy has the advantage of being exceeding 
 cheap, when you are once there ; particularly if you go to 
 market yourself, otherwise the cheating makes it approach 
 English prices. If you are indifferent as to seeing France, 
 you may sail from London to Livorno, and we would meet 
 then a month earlier than at Venice. I don't think you need 
 feel at all uncomfortable at accepting Lord Byron's offer, 
 (if / could make it, you know that I would not give you 
 this advice) as 'twas very frankly made, and it would 
 not only give him great pleasure, but might do him great 
 service, to have your society. Write to me quickly what 
 you think of this plan, on which my imagination delights 
 itself. 
 
 Mine and Mary's love to Marianne and Miss K[ent] and 
 all the little ones. Now pray write directly, addressed as
 
 SHELLE V TO LEIGH HUNT. 343 
 
 usual to Livorno, because I shall be in a fever until I know 
 whether you are coming or no. I ought to say I have 
 neither good health nor good spirits just now, and that 
 your visit would be a relief to both. 
 
 Most affectionately and sincerely your friend, 
 
 P. B. S. 
 
 [Written by Mary Shelley.] 
 
 Oilier has orders to pay Marianne £5. I owe her part 
 of it, and with the other I wish her to pay £1. 10. o. to the 
 tailor who made my habit if he calls for it. His charge 
 will be more, but do not pay it him. 
 
 [Addressed outside. ] 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 
 8, York Buildings, 
 New Road, 
 London. 
 Jnghilterra.
 
 344 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER VI. 1 
 
 LlVORNO. 
 September $rd, 1 8 19. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 At length has arrived Ollier's parcel, and with it 
 the portrait. What a delightful present ! It is almost 
 yourself, and we sat talking with it, and of it, all the 
 evening. There wants nothing but that deepest and 
 most earnest look with which you sometimes draw aside 
 the veil of your nature when you talk with us, and 
 the liquid lustre of the eyes. But it is an admirable 
 portrait and admirably expresses you — it is a great 
 pleasure to us to possess it, a pleasure in time of need, 
 coming to us when there are few others. How we wish it 
 were you and not your picture ! How I wish we were 
 with you ! 
 
 This parcel, you know, and all its letters, are now a 
 year old — some older. There are all kinds of dates, from 
 March to August, and " your date," to use Shakspeare's 
 expression, " is better in a pie or a pudding, than in your 
 letter." — " Virginity," Parolles says, but letters are the same 
 thing in another shape. 
 
 With it came, too, Lamb's Works. I have looked at 
 
 1 This letter has long been before the public in one form or another, and is 
 printed from the holograph in the Bundle for the sake of restoring some 
 fine passages formerly omitted from it. Its complete recovery is very 
 fortunate.
 
 . SHELLE Y TO LEIGH HUNT. 345 
 
 none of the other books yet. What a lovely thing is his 
 Rosamond Gray ! How much knowledge of the sweetest 
 and deepest parts of our nature in it ! When I think of 
 such a mind as Lamb's — when I see how unnoticed remain 
 things of such exquisite and complete perfection, what 
 should I hope for myself, if I had not higher objects in 
 view than fame ? 
 
 I have seen too little of Italy, and of pictures. Perhaps 
 Peacock has shown you some of my letters to him. But 
 at Rome I was very ill, seldom able to go out without a 
 carriage : and though I kept horses for two months there, 
 yet there is so much to see ! Perhaps I attended more 
 to sculpture than painting, its forms being more easily 
 intelligible than that of the latter. Yet, I saw the famous 
 works of Raffaele, whom I agree with the whole world in 
 thinking the finest painter. Why, I can tell you another 
 time. With respect to Michael Angelo I dissent, and 
 think with astonishment and indignation of the common 
 notion that he equals, and in some respects exceeds,. 
 Raffaele. He seems to me to have no sense of moral 
 dignity and loveliness ; and the energy for which he has 
 been so much praised, appears to me to be a certain rude, 
 external, mechanical quality, in comparison with anything 
 possessed by Raffaele, or even much inferior artists. His 
 famous painting in the Sixtine Chapel seems to me 
 deficient in beauty and majesty, both in the conception 
 and the execution. It might have contained all the 
 forms of terror and delight — and it is a dull and 
 wicked emblem of a dull and wicked thing. Jesus 
 Christ is like an angry pot-boy, and God like an old
 
 346 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 ale-house keeper looking out of window. He has been 
 called the Dante of painting ; but if we find some of the 
 gross and strong outlines which are employed in the most 
 distasteful passages of the Inferno, where shall we find your 
 Francesca — where the spirit coming over the sea in a boat, 
 like Mars rising from the vapours of the horizon — where 
 Matilda gathering flowers, and all the exquisite tenderness, 
 and sensibility, and ideal beauty, in which Dante excelled 
 all poets except Shakspeare ? 
 
 As to Michael Angelo's Moses — but you have a cast of 
 that in England. I write these things, heaven knows why ? 
 
 I have written something and finished it, different from 
 anything else, and a new attempt for me ; and I mean to 
 dedicate it to you. 1 I should not have done so without 
 your approbation, but I asked your picture last night, and 
 it smiled assent. If I did not think it in some degree 
 worthy of you, I would not make you a public offering of 
 it. I expect to have to write to you soon about it. If 
 Oilier is not turned Jew, Christian, or become infected with 
 the Murrain, 2 he will publish it. Don't let him be frightened, 
 for it is nothing which, by any courtesy of language, can 
 be termed either moral or immoral. 
 
 Mary has written to Marianne for a parcel, in which I 
 beg you will make Oilier enclose what you know would 
 most interest me — your Calendar^ (a sweet extract from 
 
 1 The Ccnci. 
 
 " This jest at Mr. Murray's expense grew out of his relations with Byron 
 during the Don Juan period. 
 
 3 A Calendar of Observers was the leading article in Hunt's Literary 
 Pocket-Book for 1820, which contained also Robin Hood, a Child, and other 
 poems by him.
 
 SHELLE Y TO LEIGH HUNT. 347 
 
 which I saw in the Examiner), and the other poems be- 
 longing to you ; and, for some friends of mine, my 
 Eclogue} This parcel, which must be sent instantly, will 
 reach me by October, but don't trust letters to it, except 
 just a line or so. When you write, write by the post. 
 
 Ever your affectionate, 
 
 P. B. S. 
 
 [Addressed outside.] 
 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 
 "Examiner" Office, 
 
 19, Catharine Street, 
 London. 
 Angleterre. 
 
 1 Rosalind and Helen.
 
 343 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Pisa. 
 
 April $th, 1S20. 
 
 My Dearest Friend, 
 
 You may conceive the surprise and sorrow with 
 which I hear both from you and Bessy, whom I wrote 
 to for the purpose of having some information about 
 your money affairs, that you have undergone all the tor- 
 ments which your letter describes. When I reflect too 
 that I begun for you what I was unable to finish, and 
 that having intended to set you free, I left you in the 
 midst of those accumulating perplexities from which you 
 must have suffered so dreadfully, these regrets touch me 
 personally. But your letter persuades me that things 
 will go on better, and meanwhile I may see you. 
 
 There is one subject connected with the actual state 
 of my financial imbecility about which I wish your assist- 
 ance. I believe the bills for my piano and for yours 
 came due this year. Of course you know that in the 
 question of a just debt I am totally incapable of taking 
 advantage of my residence abroad, and especially in a 
 debt so contracted. But I have not the money to pay 
 it instantly. Could you solicit for me a renewal of it ? 
 Of course the pianoforte maker is afraid of the ultimate 
 payment, or I would do anything he requires to assure 
 him of it further. And I would consent to make him 
 any compensation he chose for the delay ; and if he will
 
 SHELLE Y TO LEIGH HUNT. 349 
 
 accept nothing of that kind, will do my best when it is 
 in my power to make him no loser by his forbearance. 
 I forget how this affair was arranged, but if I rightly 
 recollect it was through Novello's mediation. I cannot 
 but be anxious to stand well in the estimation of so 
 excellent and friendly a person as Novcllo, and I should 
 therefore consider it as a special act of friendship in you 
 to explain this business, and arrange it for me without 
 loss of time. 
 
 We are living here very considerably within our income, 
 on which we have unfortunately heavy claims which I 
 will take another occasion of explaining. But if we go 
 on as now we shall soon get up. We have pleasant 
 apartments on the Arno, at the top of a house, where 
 we just begin to feel our strength, for we have been 
 cooped up in narrow rooms all this severe winter, and I 
 have been irritated to death for the want of a study. 
 I have done nothing therefore until this month, and now 
 we begin our accustomed literary occupations. We see 
 no one but an Irish lady and her husband, who are settled 
 here. She is everything that is amiable and wise ; and 
 he is very agreeable. You will think it my fate either 
 to find or to imagine some lady of 45, very unprejudiced 
 and philosophical, who has entered deeply into the best 
 and selectest spirit of the age ; with enchanting manners, 
 and a disposition rather to like me, in every town that I 
 inhabit. But certainly such this lady is. 
 
 We shall remain in Pisa until June, when we migrate 
 to the Baths of Lucca ; and after that our destination is 
 uncertain. Much stress is laid upon a still more southern
 
 35o A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 climate for my health, which has suffered dreadfully this 
 winter ; and if I could believe that Spain would be 
 effectual, I might possibly be tempted to make a voyage 
 thither, on account of the glorious events of which it is at 
 this moment the theatre. You know my passion for 
 a republic, or anything which approaches it. 
 
 I am extremely curious to see your tragedy. It appears 
 to me that you excel in the power of delineating passion ; 
 and, what is more necessary, of connecting and develop- 
 ing it. This latter part of a dramatic writer's business is 
 to me an incredible effort ; if I have in any degree suc- 
 ceeded, I shall have at least earned the applause. But 
 to you this is easy. As to your being out of conceit with 
 your tragedy, I assure myself that it is only the effect of 
 criticism upon the nerves. At all events the moment it is 
 printed send it to me. Meanwhile I am curious to hear 
 what you think of mine. I am afraid the subject will not 
 please you, but at least you will read my justification of it 
 in the preface. I lay much stress upon that argument 
 against a diversity of opinion to be produced by works of 
 imagination. The very Theatre rejected it with expres- 
 sions of the greatest insolence. 1 I feel persuaded that they 
 must have guessed at the author. But about all this I 
 don't much care. But of all that I have lately sent, 
 Prometheus is my favourite. 
 
 We hear that there is no chance of seeing you in Italy — 
 and yet how much you would enjoy it — and how much we 
 should enjoy your society ! For you should come to 
 
 1 It would be interesting indeed to see w.hat the Covent Garden managers 
 said in rejecting The Cenci, offered to them through Thomas Love Peacock.
 
 SHELLEY TO LEIGH HUNT. 351 
 
 Rome, which is the metropolis of taste and memory still, — 
 and we would see the fine pictures and statues together, 
 and the ruins, things greater than I can give you a con- 
 ception of. 
 
 For the present adieu. Write to me especially about 
 your affairs, and whether they proceed in the same good 
 train. 
 
 Adieu. — Mary desires her love to you all. 
 
 Your affectionate, 
 
 P. B. S. 
 
 I don't remember if I acknowledged the receipt of 
 Robin Hood 1 — no more did you of Peter Bell? There's tit 
 for tat ! I thought the introductory verses very pretty, 
 but I think you diluted yourself by the measure you chose. 
 Then Thornton's esquisse de la legislation, from which no 
 doubt both Bentham and Beccaria have plagiarised all 
 their discourses, accommodating them to the notions of the 
 vulgar. Then on my side is the letter to Carlisle, in which 
 I must tell you I was considerably interested. 
 
 [Addressed outside. ] 
 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 
 13, Mortimer Terrace, 
 
 Kentish Town — near London, 
 Inghilterra. 
 
 1 Charles Oilier, who was an excellent critic, thought very highly of this 
 poem, which Hunt chose to leave buried in the Literary Pocket-Book. It is 
 a long poem, 133 lines. 
 
 2 Peter Bell the Thi7-d had been sent in manuscript to Hunt enclosed in a 
 letter from Shelley dated the 2nd of November 1819.
 
 JJ' 
 
 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Leghorn. 
 February 23rd, 1822. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 I have only a single instant to tell you that I 
 cannot cash Lord Byron's bills for you 1 .... of the £250 
 who will pay you on Lady Day. It was better to wait a 
 week or so, than lose so enormous a percentage. I have 
 written to Brookes to pay you this, while I keep Lord 
 Byron's bills to answer my engagements, and send you 
 this. The additional 36 pounds which shall be sent in a 
 few posts you must lose upon, but that is of less moment. 
 
 Remember it is Brookes and Co., Chancery Lane. — Do 
 not apply for payment before the 2$th. 
 
 I'll write next post. — Kindest love to Marianne, and 
 pray don't delay in letting me hear how you are all 
 getting on. — 
 
 [Addressed outside.] 
 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 
 Plymouth, 
 
 Devonshire. 
 Angleterre. 
 
 1 The signature to this letter has been cut out with scissors, which causes 
 several words on the first page to be missing. The seal remains unbroken.
 
 SHELLEY TO LELGH HUNT. 353 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Pisa. 
 March 2nd, 1822. 
 
 My Dearest Friend, 
 
 My last two letters have, I fear, given you some 
 uneasiness, or at least inflicted that portion of it which I 
 felt in writing them. The aspect of affairs has somewhat 
 changed since the date of that in which I expressed a 
 repugnance to a continuance of intimacy with Lord Byron, 
 so close as that which now exists ; at least, it has changed 
 so far as regards you and the intended journal. 1 He ex- 
 presses again the greatest eagerness to undertake it, and 
 proceed with it, as well as the greatest confidence in you 
 as his associate. He is for ever dilating upon his im- 
 patience of your delay, and his disappointment at your 
 not having already arrived. He renews his expressions of 
 disregard for the opinion of those who advised him against 
 this alliance with you, and I imagine it will be no very 
 difficult task to execute that which you have assigned me — 
 to keep him in heart with the project until your arrival. 
 Meanwhile, let my last letters, as far as they regard Lord 
 Byron, be as if they had not been written. Particular 
 
 1 This of course refers to the much discussed scheme of a periodical publica- 
 tion to be written mainly by Byron, Shelley, and Hunt, and edited by Hunt. 
 The tangible result of the scheme, the four numbers of The Liberal, Verse and 
 Prose from the South, has long been one of those books "without which no 
 gentleman's library is complete." 
 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 354 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 circumstances, or rather, I should say, particular disposi- 
 tions in Lord Byron's character, render the close and 
 exclusive intimacy with him in which I find myself in- 
 tolerable to me ; thus much, my best friend, I will confess 
 and confide to you. No feelings of my own shall injure or 
 interfere with what is now nearest to them — your interest, 
 and I will take care to preserve the little influence I may 
 have over this Proteus in whom such strange extremes are 
 reconciled, until we meet — which we now must at all 
 events, soon do. 
 
 Lord Byron shewed me your letter to him which arrived 
 with mine yesterday. How shall I thank you for your 
 generous and delicate defence and explanation of my 
 motives ? I fear no misinterpretation from you, and from 
 any one else I despise and defy it. 
 
 So you think I can make nothing of Charles the First ; 
 Tanto peggio. Indeed I have written nothing for this two 
 months : a slight circumstance gave a new train to my 
 ideas, and shattered the fragile edifice when half built. 
 What motives have I to write ? I had motives, and I 
 thank the God of my own heart they were totally different 
 from those of the other apes of humanity who make mouths 
 in the glass of time. But what are those motives now ? 
 The only inspiration of an ordinary kind I could descend 
 to acknowledge would be the earning £100 for you ; and 
 that it seems I cannot. 
 
 Poor Marianne, how ill she seems to have been ! Give 
 my best love to her, and tell her I hope she is better, and 
 that I know as soon as she can resolve to set sail, that she 
 will be better. Your rooms are still ready for you at Lord
 
 SHELLEY TO LEIGH HUNT. 355 
 
 Byron's. I am afraid they will be rather hot in the summer ; 
 they were delightful winter rooms. My post [MS. illegible] 
 must be transformed by your delay into a paulo post 
 futurum. 
 
 Lord Byron begs me to ask you to send the enclosed 
 letter to London in an enclosure, stating when you mean 
 to sail, and in what ship. It is addressed to the wife of 
 his valet Fletcher, who wishes to come out to join him 
 under your protection, and, I need not tell you to promise 
 
 her safety and comfort All happiness attend you, 
 
 my best friend, and believe that I am watching over your 
 interests with the vigilance of painful affection. Mary will 
 write next post. 
 
 Adieu. 
 
 Yours, S. 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Pisa. 
 April loth, 1822. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 I write in the firm hope and persuasion that you have 
 already set sail, and that this letter will undergo the 
 lingering and obscure revolutions of those which are 
 directed by people who return from a voyage round the 
 world by Cape Horn, to those who are set off on a voyage 
 round the world by the Cape of Good Hope. 1 
 
 You will, I hope, have received the £220 from Brookes 
 before this ; as well as my order upon them, which I think 
 I sent to you. It is of no consequence whether I did or 
 not, as Brookes have orders to pay this sum to you, and 
 would have done so even without your application — though 
 it was quite right to take this precaution. 
 
 Lord Byron has the greatest anxiety for your arrival, 
 and is now always urging me to press you to depart. I 
 
 1 Peacock has left on record the following brief statement bearing on this 
 subject : — " Mr. Hunt and his family were to have embarked for Italy in 
 September 1821 ; but the vessel was delayed till the 16th of November. 
 They were detained three weeks by bad weather at Ramsgate, and were 
 beaten up and down channel till the 22nd of December, when they put in at 
 Dartmouth. Mrs. Hunt being too ill to proceed, they went to Plymouth, 
 resumed their voyage in another vessel on the 13th of May 1822, and arrived 
 at Leghorn about the end of June, having been nine months from the time of 
 their engagement with the first vessel in finding their way to Italy. In the 
 present days of railways and steam navigation, this reads like a modern 
 version of the return of Ulysses."
 
 SHELLEY TO LEIGH HUNT. 357 
 
 know that you need no spur. I said what I thought with 
 regard to Lord Byron, nor would I have breathed a 
 syllable of my feelings in any ear but yours ; but with you, 
 I would, and 1 may think aloud. Perhaps time has 
 corrected me, and I am become, like those whom I 
 formerly condemned, misanthropical and suspicious. If 
 so, do you cure me ; nor should I wonder, for if friendship 
 is the medicine of such diseases I may well say that mine 
 have been long neglected — and how deep the wounds have 
 been, you partly know, and partly can conjecture. Cer- 
 tain it is, that Lord Byron has made me bitterly feel 
 the inferiority which the world has presumed to place 
 between us, and which subsists no where in reality but in 
 our own talents, which are not our own but Nature's — or 
 in our rank, which is not our own but Fortune's. 
 
 I will tell you more of this when we meet. I did 
 wrong in carrying this jealousy of my Lord Byron into his 
 loan to you, or rather to me ; and you in the superiority 
 of a wise and tranquil nature have well corrected and justly 
 reproved me. And plan your account with finding much 
 in me to correct and to reprove. Alas, how am I fallen 
 from the boasted purity in which you knew me once 
 exulting ! 
 
 How is poor Marianne ? My anxiety for Jier is greater 
 than for any of you, and I dread the consequences of the 
 English winter from which she could not escape ! Give 
 my most affectionate love to her, and tell her we will 
 soon get her well here. Write before you set off. Your 
 house is still ready for you. We are obliged to go into 
 the country both for mine and Mary's health, to whom the
 
 358 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 
 
 sea air is necessary ; but the moment I hear of your 
 arrival, I shall set off, if already in the country, and join 
 you. 
 
 Yours affectionately and ever, 
 
 P. B. S. 
 
 [Addressed oittside.] 
 Leigh Hunt, Esq., 
 Stonehouse, 
 
 Plymouth, 
 
 Devon. 
 Inghilterra.
 
 MATERIALS FOR A BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 OF THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT 
 BROWNING.

 
 
 PAULINE, 
 
 FHAGMENT OF A CONFESSION 
 
 ! , l..r.^1(r^l*J""l' 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 5AVN0ERB AND OTLEY. CONDUIT STRff.T 
 
 I S14. 
 
 Pauline, Robert Browning's First Book. 
 From a copy in the original drab boards in the; Library of Mr. Walter B. Slater.
 
 MATERIALS FOR A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 THE WRITINGS IN PROSE AND 
 VERSE OF ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 PART I. 
 EDITIONES PRINCIPES, ETC. 
 
 (*■) 
 
 [PAULINE: 1833.] 
 
 Pauline ; / A / Fragment of a Confession. / Plus ne suis ce 
 que j'ai ete, / Et ne le scaurois jamais etre. / Marot. / 
 London : / Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. / 1833. 
 
 Collation: — Large i2mo., pp. 71: consisting of Title-page, as 
 above (with imprint "London: / Ibotson and Palmer, 
 Printers, Savoy Street, Strand, 1 ' 1 at the foot of the reverse), 
 pp. 1-2 ; Extract from " H. Cor. Agrippa, De Occult. Phil." 
 dated " London, January, 1833. V.A. XX." 1 with blank 
 reverse, pp. 3-4; and Text, pp. 5-71. The headline is 
 Pauline throughout, upon both sides of the page. The 
 imprint is repeated at the foot of p. 71. The poem is 
 dated at the end, '■'■Richmond, October 22, 1832." 
 
 1 In a letter dated November 5th, 1886, addressed to Mr. T. J. Wise, Mr. 
 Browning writes : "V.A. XX. is the Latin abbreviation of 'Vixi annos '— I 
 was twenty years old — that is, the imaginary subject of the poem was of 
 that age."
 
 362 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Issued in drab boards, with white paper back-label bearing the 
 single word ' Pauline.' 
 
 Reprinted in the 6 vol. edition of 1868, where it forms the first 
 poem in Vol. I. 
 
 When inserting the poem in his collected Works, Mr. Browning recast 
 entirely the whole of the punctuation, a change which rendered clear and 
 simple several passages which had before seemed somewhat involved. 
 The minute and careful manner in which this was done will be readily 
 seen if a close comparison between the two versions be made, for the 
 variations in the pointing number at least two or three in every line. 
 Beyond the correction of one or two printers' errors, however, the 
 text was allowed to remain almost intact, only two fresh readings 
 being introduced. The first of these is on page 30, where the asterisks 
 are removed, and their place supplied by the following : — 
 
 " And my choice fell 
 Not so much on a system as a man " 
 
 The second change will be found on page 33 of the original edition, 
 where the last line 
 
 "Well I remember * * * *" 
 is quietly dropped. 
 
 Pauline is one of the scarcest volumes in the list of modern poetical 
 rarities. As much as ^63 has been paid for an " uncut " copy in 
 original condition. 
 
 Second Editio7i : 1 886. 
 No other separate edition of Pauline was published until 1886, when 
 a facsimile reprint was prepared with Mr. Browning's permission, and 
 issued by the Browning Society to its members. The following is a 
 transcript of the title-page : — 
 
 Pauline ; / A Fragment of a Confession. / By / Robert 
 Browning. / A Reprint of the Original Edition of 1833. / 
 Edited / by Thomas J. Wise. / London : / Printed by 
 Richard Clay and Sons. / 1886. 
 
 The collation is identical with that given for the first edition, with 
 the addition of twelve preliminary pages, as follows : Half-
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 363 
 
 title, Title-page (as above), Certificate of issue, Fly-title to 
 Prefatory Note (each with blank reverse), pp. i-viii ; Pre- 
 fatory Note pp. ix-xi ; and p. xii, blank. 
 Issued in drab boards, with white paper back-label, precisely similar 
 to the binding of the first edition. Four hundred copies were 
 printed. There were also twenty-five copies upon large hand- 
 made paper, and four upon pure vellum. The size of these was 
 demy octavo. 
 
 (2.) 
 
 [Paracelsus: 1835.] 
 
 Paracelsus. / by Robert Browning. / London : / Published 
 by / Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange. / MDCCCXXXV. 
 
 Collation : — Small octavo, pp. xii + 216 : consisting of Half-title 
 (with imprint : " London : / Printed by G. Eccles, 101 Fen- 
 church Street" upon the centre of the reverse), pp. i-ii ; 
 Title-page, as above (with blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Dedi- 
 cation " To the Comte A. De Ripert-Monclar " (with blank 
 reverse) pp. v-vi ; Preface pp. vii-ix ; p. x is blank ; " Per- 
 sons " (with blank reverse), pp. xi-xii ; Text, pp. 1-200; 
 and Note pp. 201-216. There are headlines throughout. 
 The imprint — " G. Eccles, Printer, 10 1 Fetichurch street, 
 London " — is repeated at the foot of last page. 
 
 Issued in drab boards, with white paper back-label. The 
 
 published price was Six Shillings. 
 
 First reprinted in the two volumes of collected Poems, issued by 
 
 Chapman & Hall in 1849. 
 
 (3.) 
 [Strafford : 1837.] 
 Strafford : / An Historical Tragedy. / By / RobertBrowning/ 
 Author of ' Paracelsus.' / London : Printed for / Longman, 
 Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, / Paternoster- 
 Row. / 1837.
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ation : — Oc p. viii+132: consisting of Title-page, as 
 
 above (with blank reverse, imprint at foot : " London : 
 F x Nem-street-squure "), pp. i-ii : 
 
 Dedication, "To J C M . Esq.* (with blank 
 
 reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Preface, pp. v-vi : Dramatis Personae 
 • :th advertisement of S i upon the reverse) pp. vii- 
 
 viii : and Text, pp. 1-131. There are headlines throughout. 
 The imprint is repeated upon the reverse of the last page. 
 [ssoed in drab-coloured paper wrappers, with white paper label 
 ~ de. which reads — "S l ru f ord; A* IBs ca T\ \ ." . By I 
 :. - ; Pria ±s." 
 The Manuscript of Strafford is preserved in the Forster Library. 
 at South Kensington Museum. 
 
 In 1SS2 an "Acting Edition" was printed (in small SvcO for the 
 ; of the pupils of the North London Collegiate School for Girls. 
 Another edition, small Sv.\. was published in 1SS4. with a preface 
 by Miss E. H. Hickey, and an introduction by S. R. Gardiner. 
 
 (40 
 
 [SORDELLO : I S40.] 
 
 Sordello. By Robert Browning. London : Edward 
 Moxon, Dover Street / MDCCCXL. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. iv+253 : consisting of Half-title 
 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii : Tide-page, as above (with 
 
 imprint u London: Bradh . Evans, Printers, j 
 
 :.:rs" upon the centre of the reverse) pp. iii-iv; 
 
 and Text pp. 1-253. The headline is Sordello throughout, 
 
 upon both sides of the page. The imprint is repeated 
 
 upon the reverse of | : - 3 
 
 Issued in drab boards, with white paper back-label. The 
 
 published pric. Six Shillings and Sixpence. The book 
 
 sold slowly, and whilst still on hand the change in fashion (from 
 
 1 boards ' to ' cloth ') took place, and copies were afterwards made

 
 
 FAC-SIM1LE OF A SONG FROM PI PPA PASSES, IN 
 
 ROBERT BROW MINGS HAND WRITING.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 365 
 
 up in dark-green cloth, lettered in gilt across the back, Sordello / 
 B. Browning. Some thirty years or so later the ' Remainder ' 
 copies were put up in grass-green morocco-grained cloth, with the 
 original back-label. These were sold by Messrs. W. H. Smith 
 and Son, at 2s. apiece. The present value is about ^5. 
 
 Sordello was also first reprinted in the two volumes of collected 
 Poems, issued by Chapman and Hall in 1849. 
 
 (5-) 
 [Bells and Pomegranates: 1841 — 6.] 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. 1. — Pippa Passes. / By 
 Robert Browning, / Author of " Paracelsus." / London : / 
 Edward Moxon, Dover Street. / MDCCCXLL 
 
 Collation: — Royal octavo, pp. 16: consisting of Title-page, as 
 above (with Advertisement upon the reverse), pp. 1 — 2 ; 
 and Text pp. 3 — 16. There are headlines throughout. 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, 1 with the title-page (enclosed 
 with an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 front ; Price Sixpence being added at top, and the imprint— 
 " Bradbury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars" — at foot. 2 
 
 The Advertisemejit mentioned above, which has not been reprinted 
 in any later edition, reads as follows : — 
 
 " Two or three years ago I wrote a Play, about which the chief matter 
 I much care to recollect at present, is, that a Pit-full of good-natured 
 people applauded it : ever since I have been desirous of doing something 
 in the same way that should better reward their attention. What 
 
 1 The colour of these wrappers varies somewhat in different examples : some 
 being a pale cream colour, whilst others are a light brown. 
 
 2 Page 4 of the wrappers of each part contains a list of " Cheap Editions of 
 Popular Works " published by Moxon. Advertisements of Paracelsus, Sordello, 
 and Bells and Pomegranates appear upon p. 3 of the wrappers of all except 
 No. 1.
 
 366 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 follows I mean for the first of a series of Dratnatical Pieces, to come out 
 at intervals j and I amuse myself by fancying that the cheap mode in 
 which they appear will for once help me to a sort of Pit-audience 
 again. Of course such a work must go on no longer than it is liked; 
 and to provide against a certain and but too possible conti?ige?icy ; 
 let me hasten to say now — what, if I were sure of success, I would try 
 to say circumstaritially enough at the close — that I dedicate my best 
 intentions most admiririgly to the author of ' Ion ' — most affectionately 
 to Serjeant Talfourd. " Robert Browning? 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. ii. — King Victor and King 
 Charles. / By Robert Browning, / Author of " Paracelsus," / 
 London : / Edward Moxon, Dover Street. / MDCCCXLII. 
 
 Collation : — Royal octavo, pp. 20 : consisting of Half-title x (with 
 blank reverse) pp. 1 — 2 ; Title-page as above (with Adver- 
 tisement upon the reverse), pp. 3 — 4 ; and Text pp. 5 — 20. 
 There are headlines throughout. 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, with the title-page (enclosed 
 within an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 front ; Price One Shilling being added at top, and the imprint 
 — as before — at foot. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. iii. — Dramatic Lyrics. / By 
 Robert Browning, / Author of " Paracelsus." / London : / 
 Edward Moxon, Dover Street, / MDCCCXLII. 
 
 Collation : — Royal octavo, pp. 1 6 : consisting of Title-page as 
 above (with Advertisement upon reverse) pp. 1 — 2 ; and 
 Text, pp. 3 — 16. There are headlines throughout. 
 
 1 When binding the eight numbers into one volume this Half-title should, 
 of course, be inserted at the commencement of the book.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 V>7 
 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, with the title-page (enclosed 
 within an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 front ; Price One Shilling being added at top, and the imprint — 
 as before — at foot. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Cavalier Tunes : — 
 
 (i) Marching along 3 
 
 (ii) Give a Rouse 3 
 
 (iii) My Wife Gertrude ... 3 
 
 Italy and France 4 
 
 Camp and Cloister 5 
 
 In a Gondola 7 
 
 Artemis Prologuizes 9 
 
 Waring 10 
 
 Page 
 
 Queen-Worship : — 
 
 (i) Rudel and the Lady of 
 Tripoli 12 
 
 (ii) Cristina " 12 
 
 Madhouse Cells 13 
 
 Through the Metidja to Abd- 
 
 el-Kadr. 1842 14 
 
 The Pied Piper of Hamelin 14 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. iv. — The Return of the 
 Druses. / A Tragedy. /In Five Acts. / By Robert Browning. / 
 Author of " Paracelsus." / London : / Edward Moxon, 
 Dover Street. / mdcccxliii. 
 
 Collation: — Royal octavo, pp. 19 : consisting of Title-page, as above 
 
 (with list of Persons upon the reverse) pp. 1 — 2 ; and Text 
 
 pp. 3 — 19. There are headlines throughout. Messrs. 
 
 Bradbury and Evans' imprint is placed in the centre of 
 
 the reverse of p. 19. 
 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, with the title-page (enclosed 
 
 within an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 
 front ; Price One Shilling being added at top, and the imprint — as 
 
 before — at foot. 
 
 The Return of the Druses was originally christened Mansoor the 
 Hierofihant, and under this title it was duly advertised at the end of
 
 368 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the 1840 edition of Sordello. Thanks are due to Mr. Edmund Gosse 
 for the loan of the following very interesting note : — 
 
 "19, Warwick Crescent, W., 
 
 June 4th, 1879. 
 " Dear Mr. Gosse, 
 
 " ' Mansoor ' was one of the names of the third Vatemite Caliph, 
 Biamvallah, — but the word ' Hierophant ' was used inadvertently. I 
 changed the title to ' The Return of the Druses] and the name to 
 ' Djabal.' It is very good of you to care about the circumstance. 
 
 " May I say how much I was delighted yesterday at the Grosvenor by 
 the two jewel-like pictures 1 which I had somehow failed to observe 
 
 before ? 
 
 " Ever truly yours, 
 
 " Robert Browning." 
 
 ■S5" 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. v. — A Blot in the 'Scutcheon. / 
 A Tragedy, /In three Acts. / By Robert Browning, / 
 Author of " Paracelsus." / London : / Edward Moxon, 
 Dover Street. / MDCCCXLIII. 
 
 Collation : — Royal octavo, pp. 16 : consisting of Title-page, as above 
 
 (with list of Persons upon the reverse) pp. 1 — 2 ; and Text 
 
 pp. 3 — 16. There are headlines throughout. Messrs. 
 
 Bradbury and Evans' imprint occurs at the foot of p. 16. 
 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, with the title-page (enclosed 
 
 within an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 
 front ; Price One Shilling being added at top, and the imprint — as 
 
 before — at foot. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
 Part V. is the only one of the eight numbers of Bells and Pome- 
 granates which passed into a Second Edition. This latter agrees 
 with the First Edition in every particular, save that it has the words 
 Second Edition above the publisher's imprint upon both title-page 
 and wrapper. 
 
 1 Two landscapes by Mrs. Edmund Gosse.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 369 
 
 No. 6. 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. vi. — Colombe's Birthday. / 
 A Play, / in Five Acts. / By Robert Browning, / Author of 
 " Paracelsus." / "Ivy and violet, what do ye here, j With blossom 
 and shoot in the warm spring-weather^ / Hiding the arms of 
 MoncJienci and Vere ? " / Hanmer. / London : / Edward 
 Moxon, Dover Street. / MDCCCXLIV. 
 
 Collation :— Royal octavo, pp. 20 : consisting of Title-page, as above 
 
 (with Dedication — To Barry Cornwall — and list of Persons 
 
 upon the reverse) pp. 1 — 2 ; and Text pp. 3 — 20. There 
 
 are headlines throughout. Messrs. Bradbury and Evans' 
 
 imprint occurs at the foot of p. 20. 
 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, with the title-page (enclosed 
 
 within an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 
 front ; Price One Shilling being added at top, and the imprint — as 
 
 before — at foot. 
 
 The manuscript of Colombe's Birthday, which is preserved in the 
 Library of Mr. Buxton Forman, may be safely said to be the only 
 extant manuscript of Browning's poetry of this period, — that is to say, 
 the period covered by the composition of the numerous poems and 
 dramas issued under the general title of Bells and Fomegranates. In 
 those days the poet's sister was his amanuensis, copying the poems 
 and plays from scraps and rough drafts which were destroyed as the 
 "copy" went to the press. In the single case of Colombe's Birthday, 
 Browning himself made a fair copy. This he did for Charles Kean 
 and his wife, who were so much taken with the play that they under- 
 took to act it, but after an interval during which it was to be kept in 
 manuscript ; and that interval was longer than the poet cared to keep 
 the work back. He therefore withdrew the manuscript and sent it to 
 press as No. VI. of Bells and Pomegranates; and, when it was 
 returned by the printer, very little the worse for the vicissitudes of 
 the workshop, Browning's father had it bound. How it came to be 
 offered for public sale the author did not know. It is a beautifully 
 neat folio manuscript written upon 30 sheets of blue foolscap paper, 
 on one side only. Each sheet is numbered in the poet's handwriting 
 VOL. I. BE
 
 37o 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 on the first leaf. Of the 60 leaves the first bears the title, list of 
 dramatis persona, &c. : the rest are numbered " 1 " to " 59 " in 
 another hand, doubtless that of the foreman who gave out the 
 " copy " to the compositors, whose names are written at the top of 
 the various portions of the manuscript allotted to them. — See also in 
 The Athenaum, September 1st and i$th, 1894; also in Letters from 
 Robert Browning to Various Correspondents, Vol. i, 1895, pp. 55-56. 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. vii. / Dramatic Romances 
 and Lyrics. / By Robert Browning, / Author of "Paracelsus."/ 
 London : / Edward Moxon, Dover Street. / MDCCCXLV. 
 
 Collation : — Royal octavo, pp. 24 : consisting of Title-page, as above 
 (with Dedication — To John Kenyon — and Contents upon the 
 reverse) pp. 1—2 ; and Text pp. 3 — 24. There are head- 
 lines throughout. Messrs. Bradbury and Evans' imprint 
 occurs at the foot of p. 20. 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, with the title-page (enclosed 
 within an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 front ; Price Two Shillings being added at top, and the imprint — 
 
 as before — at foot. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 " How they brought the Good 
 
 News from Ghent to Aix".. 3 
 
 Pictor Ignotus 4 
 
 Italy in England 4 
 
 England in Italy 5 
 
 The Lost Leader 8 
 
 The Lost Mistress 8 
 
 Home Thoughts from Abroad 8 
 
 The Tomb at St. Praxed's ... 9 
 Garden Fancies : — 
 
 (i) The Flower's Name 10 
 
 (ii) Sibrandus Schamabur- 
 
 gensis 10 
 
 Page 
 
 France and Spain : — 
 
 (i) The Laboratory n 
 
 (ii) The Confessional 11 
 
 The Flight of the Duchess ... 12 
 
 Earth's Immortalities 19 
 
 Song : " Nay but you, who do 
 
 not love her" 19 
 
 The Boy and the Angel 19 
 
 Night and Morning 20 
 
 Claret and Tokay 20 
 
 Saul 21 
 
 Time's Revenges 22 
 
 The Glove 23
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 371 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. / No. viii. and last. / Luria ; / and / 
 A Soul's Tragedy. / By Robert Browning, / Author of 
 " Paracelsus." / London : / Edward Moxon, Dover Street. / 
 MDCCCXLVI. 
 
 Collation : — Royal octavo, pp. 32 : consisting of Title-page, as 
 above (with imprint— London : Bradbury and Evans, 
 Printers, Whitefriars — in the centre of the reverse) pp. 
 1 — 2 ; Dedication to Walter Savage Landor (with list of 
 Persons upon the reverse) pp. 3 — 4 ; Text of Luria pp. 
 5 — 20 ; Fly-title to A Soul's Tragedy (with note of ex- 
 planation upon the reverse) pp. 21 — 22 ; and Text of A 
 Soul's Tragedy pp. 23 — 32. There are headlines through- 
 out. Messrs. Bradbury and Evans' imprint occurs at the 
 foot of p. 20. 
 Issued in yellow paper wrappers, with the Title-page (enclosed 
 within an ornamental double ruled frame) reproduced upon the 
 front : Price Two Shillings and Sixpence being added at top, and 
 the imprint — as before — at foot. 
 
 The 'Note of explanation' mentioned above, which has not been 
 reprinted, reads as follows : — 
 
 " Here ends my first Series of "' Bells and Pomegranates' and I take 
 the opportunity of explaining, in reply to inquiries, that I only meant 
 by that title to indicate an endeavour towards something like an 
 alternation, or mixture, of music with discoursing, sound with sense, 
 poetry with thought ; which looks too ambitious, thus expressed, so 
 the symbol was preferred. It is little to the purpose, that such is 
 actually one of the most familiar of the many Rabbinical (and Patristic) 
 acceptations of the phrase ; because I confess that, letting authority 
 alone, I supposed the bare words, in such juxtaposition, would 
 sufficiently convey the desired meaning. ' Faith and good works ' is 
 another fancy, for instance, and perhaps no easier to arrive at : yet 
 Giotto placed a pomegranate fruit in the hand of Dante, and Raffaelle 
 crowned his Theology {in the ' Camera delta Segnatura') with blossoms 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 of the same ; as if the Bellari and Vasari would be sure to come 
 after, and explain that it was merely ' simbolo delle buone opere — il 
 qual Pomogranato fu pero usato nelle vesti del Pontefice appresso gli 
 Ebrei.' " R. B." 
 
 Note. — The text of Bells and Pomegranates is printed in double 
 columns, surrounded by plain rules. 
 
 Collected issue. 
 Upon the completion of the series 'remainder' copies of the eight 
 numbers of Bells and Pomegranates were made up into one volume, 
 and issued in dark stamped cloth of various colours. All such 
 ' remainder ' copies contain the second Edition of Part V., and, ot 
 course, do not include the original wrappers. 
 
 (6.) 
 [Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day : 1850.] 
 
 Christmas-Eve / and / Easter-Day. / A Poem / By Robert 
 Browning. / London: / Chapman & Hall, 186, Strand. / 
 1850. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. iv+142, consisting of : Half-title 
 (containing advertisement of Poetical Works of Robert 
 Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning upon the 
 reverse) and Title-page, as above (with imprint in centre 
 of the reverse — " London : / Bradbury and Evans, 
 Printers, Whitefriars "), pp. i-iv ; and Text pp. 1-142. 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint — "London : 
 Bradbury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars " — is in centre 
 of blank leaf at end of book. 
 Issued in 1850, in dark-green cloth, lettered in gilt across the 
 back : "Christmas- Eve j and / Easter-Day / Robert Browning." 
 
 Christmas-Eve 
 
 Contents. 
 
 
 Page 1 
 
 Page 
 80 
 
 The Manuscript of this book is preserved in the Forster Library, at 
 South Kensington.

 
 CLEON 
 
 BOBZKt DROWNING 
 
 LONDON 
 
 HWAJtD MOXON, DOVCT STREET 
 
 Itib 
 
 C/<w*, as originally printed in pamphlet form. 
 From a copy in the Library of Mr. Buxton Forman.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 373 
 
 (7-) 
 [CLEON : 1855.] 
 
 Cleon : / By / Robert Browning. / London : / Edward 
 Moxon, Dover Street. / 1855. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. 1-23, consisting of: Half-title (with 
 blank reverse) pp. 1-2 ; Title-page, as above (with imprint : 
 " London : / Bradbury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars" 
 in centre of the reverse), pp. 3-4 ; and Text pp. 5-23. 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint is repeated 
 at the foot of the last page. 
 Issued in coloured paper wrappers, unlettered. Printed the same 
 year in Men and Women, 1855, vol. ii. pp. 1 71-189. 
 
 (8.) 
 [The Statue and the Bust: 1855.] 
 
 The / Statue and the Bust. / By / Robert Browning. / 
 London : / Edward Moxon, Dover Street. / 1855. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. 1-22, consisting of: Half-title (with 
 
 imprint on the centre of the reverse : " London : / Bradbury 
 
 and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars ") pp. 3-4 ; and Text pp. 
 
 5-22. There are headlines throughout. 
 
 Issued in coloured paper wrappers, unlettered. Printed the same 
 
 year in Men and Women, 1855, vol. i. pp. 156-172. 
 
 (9.) 
 
 [Men and Women : 1855.] 
 
 Men and Women. / By / Robert Browning. / In Two 
 Volumes. / Vol. i. [Vol. ii.] / London : / Chapman and 
 Hall, 193, Piccadilly. / 1855.
 
 374 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Collation: [Vol. i.] : — Foolscap octavo, pp. iv+260, consisting 
 of: Title-page, as above (with imprint — " London : / Brad- 
 bury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars " — in centre of 
 reverse), pp. i-ii ; Contents pp. iii-iv ; and Text pp. 1-260. 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint — '■'•Brad- 
 bury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars " — is repeated at 
 foot of last page. 
 Issued in green cloth boards, lettered in gilt across the back : 
 " Men / and Wometi, / Robt. Browning. / Vol. i. [Vol ii.~\ j Chap- 
 man and Hall" The published price was Twelve Shillings. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Love among the Ruins. 
 
 Page 
 I 
 
 A Lovers' Quarrel 7 
 
 Evelyn Hope 19 
 
 Up at a Villa — down in the 
 City. (As Distinguished 
 by an Italian Person of 
 
 Quality.) 23 
 
 A Woman's Last Word ... 31 
 
 Fra Lippo Lippi 35 
 
 A Toccata of Galuppi's 56 
 
 By the Fireside 63 
 
 Any Wife to Any Husband 81 
 An Epistle containing the 
 Strange Medical Experi- 
 ence of Karshish, the 
 
 Arab Physician 90 
 
 M esmeri sm 107 
 
 A Serenade at the Villa ... 117 
 
 Page 
 My Star 122 
 
 Instans Tyrannus 123 
 
 A Pretty Woman 128 
 
 "Childe Roland to the 
 
 Dark Tower came" 134 
 
 Respectability 149 
 
 A Light Woman 151 
 
 The Statue and the Bust... 156 
 
 Love in a Life 173 
 
 Life in a Love 175 
 
 How it strikes a Contem- 
 porary 177 
 
 The Last Ride Together ... 184 
 The Patriot— An old Story 191 
 Master Hugues of Saxe- 
 
 Gotha 194 
 
 Bishop Blougram's Apology 205 
 Memorabilia 259 
 
 Collation: [Vol. ii.] : — Foolscap octavo, pp. iv+242, consisting 
 of: Title-page, as above (with imprint — " London : j Brad- 
 bury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars " — in centre of 
 reverse), pp. i-ii ; Contents pp. iii-iv ; and Text pp. 1-242. 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint — "Brad-
 
 
 
 111 
 
 z 
 
 STATUI AND THE BUST. 
 
 -4 
 
 
 V , 
 
 Ml 
 
 -= 
 
 HI 
 
 ^ 
 
 " 
 
 = 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 —^ 
 
 Ill llll 
 
 — 
 
 icwdon 
 
 — 
 
 £OWaRD MOXON, DOVER STREET. 
 
 -E 
 
 
 The Statue and the Bust, as originally printed in pamphlet form. 
 From a copy in the Library of Mr. Buxton Forman.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 375 
 
 bury and Evans, Printers, Whitefriars "• — is in centre of 
 blank leaf of last page. 
 
 Upon the publication of Men and Women, Mr. Browning forwarded 
 a copy to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and followed his gift by a letter 
 (dated 102, Rue de Grenelle, Paris, October 29th, 1855) containing the 
 following interesting list of Errata : — 
 
 " By the way, let me tell you something. I perceive some b hinders 
 in my poems, which I shall not, I think, draw attention to, but quietly 
 correct hereafter. 1 But it happens imluckily that the worst of them 
 occur just in a thing [Old Pictures in Florence} I would have you like 
 if it might be — so, please alter the following in your copy, before you 
 begin it, won't you-? " 
 
 Vol. II. 
 Page 34, line 3, all their work is — their work is. 
 7, That a— dele That. 
 
 35 4, there's its transit — then sec Iran. 
 
 36 3, Change the line to (" Earth here, rebuked by Olympus 
 
 there " ) 
 36 4, You grew — And grew. 
 
 39 6, His face — Man's face. 
 13, the Hopes — new hopes. 
 
 40 6, Which if on the earth — dele the. 
 
 1, Change the line to : " Give these, I exhort you, their 
 guerdon and glory." 
 44 11, For " Rot or are left to the mercies still," read " Their 
 
 pictures are left to the mercies still." 
 
 46 11, For " But a kind of Witanagemot," read " But a kind 
 
 of sober Witanagemot." 
 13, For "To ponder Freedom restored to Florence," 
 read, " Shall ponder, once Freedom restored to 
 Florence." 
 
 47 12, For "Turning the Bell-tower's altaltissimo," read 
 
 " And turn the bell-tower's alt to allissimo." 
 
 188 18, one called — him called. 
 
 189 3, one circumcised — and circumcised. 
 231 4, with it — cried too. 
 
 1 These corrections have all been made in the later editions of the poems.
 
 376 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Andrea del Sarto. (Called 
 " The Faultless Paint- 
 er") i 
 
 Before 15 
 
 After 19 
 
 In Three Days 21 
 
 In a Year 24 
 
 Old Pictures in Florence... 30 
 In a Balcony. — First Part 49 
 In a Balcony. — Second Part 70 
 In a Balcony.— Third Part 88 
 
 Saul in 
 
 " De Gustibus— " 147 
 
 Women and Roses 150 
 
 Protus 154 
 
 Holy-Cross Day. (On 
 which the Jews were 
 forced to attend an 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Page 
 
 Annual Christian Sermon 
 
 inRome) 158 
 
 The Guardian-Angel : A 
 
 Picture at Fano 167 
 
 Cleon 171 
 
 The Twins 190 
 
 Popularity 193 
 
 The Heretic's Tragedy. A 
 
 Middle-Age Interlude ... 198 
 
 Two in the Campagna 205 
 
 A Grammarian's Funeral... 210 
 
 One Way of Love 218 
 
 Another Way of Love 220 
 
 " Transcendentalism " : A 
 
 Poem in Twelve Books... 223 
 
 Misconceptions 227 
 
 One Word More, To 
 
 E. B. B 229 
 
 Men and Women was never reprinted separately. The Poems 
 it contains were incorporated in the succeeding collected editions. 
 With the exception of In a Balcony they were distributed under the 
 respective headings of Dramatic Lyrics, Dramatic Romances, and Men 
 and Women. It is to be noted that the three divisions into which 
 In a Balcony was originally broken disappeared in this edition, where 
 it was reprinted as a one-act drama. 
 
 (10.) 
 
 [Gold Hair: 1864.] 
 A Legend of Pornic. 
 
 / By / Robert 
 
 Gold Hair: / 
 Browning. / 1864. 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo, pp. 1-15, consisting of: Half-title (with 
 blank reverse) pp. 1-2 ; Title-page, as above (with imprint 
 — " London : Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford 
 Street and Charing Cross 1 ' — at foot of the reverse), pp.
 
 
 Gold Hair: the English " Copyright " Edition. 
 From a copy bound in morocco by Tout, in the Library of Mr. Buxton Forman.
 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 377 
 
 3-4 ; and Text pp. 5-15- There are headlines throughout. 
 
 The imprint is repeated at the foot of the last page. 
 Stitched in paper wrappers, unlettered, and reserved for private 
 circulation only. Printed in the Atlantic Monthly, vol. xiii., 
 1864, PP- S96-599- Reprinted in Dramatis Persontc, 1864, 
 pp. 27, as one poem of twenty-seven stanzas. 
 
 The only variation that occurs in the text of Gold Hair as printed 
 privately in 1864, and as given in The Atlantic Monthly, is in the 
 spelling of the word " armour " in stanza 16 — 
 
 " A baron with armour-adornments quaint" — 
 
 and in the fact that the sections and stanzas are numbered in the 
 former, but not in the latter. The difference in spelling is, of course, 
 a mere matter of English and American printing offices. 
 
 The first edition of Dramatis Persona; also gives the poem textually 
 as in the private print ; but in the second edition three fresh stanzas 
 were added. For this addition George Eliot was responsible. The 
 great novelist remarked upon reading the poem that its motive was 
 not made sufficiently clear at the point where the money is discovered. 
 Browning took away her copy of the book after one of the renowned 
 Sunday gatherings at the Priory, and brought it back at another with 
 the following three stanzas added. These were intended for insertion 
 between two on page 32, but were written upon the blank space at 
 page 34, the final lines extending on to the half-title of the next poem, 
 The Worst of It :— 
 
 21. 
 
 [Hid there ? Why ? Could the girl be wont 
 
 (She, the stainless soul) to treasure up 
 Money, earth's trash and Heaven's affront ? 
 
 Had a spider found out the communion-cup, 
 Was a toad in the christening font ? 
 
 22. 
 
 Truth is truth : too true it was. 
 
 Gold! She hoarded and hugged it first, 
 Longed for it, leaned o'er it, loved it — alas — 
 
 Till the humour grew to a head and burst, 
 And she cried, at the final pass, —
 
 378 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 23- 
 
 " Talk not of God, my heart is stone / 
 Nor lover nor friend — be gold for both ! 
 
 Gold I lack; and, my all, my own, 
 It shall hide in my hair. I scarce die loth, 
 
 If they let my hair alone ! " 
 
 The copy of the book in which these stanzas were written passed into 
 the hands of Charles Lee Lewes, with the rest of the Priory treasures. 
 As a matter of minor bibliographical detail it may be mentioned 
 that copies of the separate print of Gold Hair — as also of the separate 
 issues of Cleon and The Statue and the Bust — occasionally occur bound 
 up at the end of cloth copies of the first collected edition of the Poems 
 (2 vols., 1849), and of the first edition of Christmas Eve and Easter 
 Day ; they may, however, have been so inserted in such copies only 
 of the books in question as were given away as presents by their 
 author. 
 
 (II.) 
 
 [Dramatis Persons: 1864.] 
 
 Dramatis Personam. / By / Robert Browning. / London : / 
 Chapman and Hall, / 93 Piccadilly. / 1864. 
 
 Collation: — Crown octavo, pp. vi + 250, consisting of: Half- 
 title (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above 
 (with imprint — "London: Printed by W. Clowes and 
 Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross " — at foot of the 
 reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Contents pp. v-vi ; and Text pp. 
 1-250. Each of the eighteen poems is preceded by a fly- 
 title (with blank reverse). There are headlines throughout. 
 The imprint is repeated at the foot of the last page — 
 " London : Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford 
 Street j and Charing Cross." 
 
 Issued in 1864, in cloth boards of a dull red colour, lettered 
 
 in gilt across the back : " Dramatis Personal / Robert Browning." 
 
 The published price was Seven Shillings.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 379 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 James Lee 3 
 
 Gold Hair : A Legend of 
 
 Pornic 27 
 
 The Worst of it 37 
 
 Dis Aliter Visum ; or, Le 
 
 Byron de nos Jours 47 
 
 Too Late 57 
 
 Page 
 
 Natural Theology in the 
 
 Island 123 
 
 Confessions 139 
 
 May and Death 145 
 
 Prospice 147 
 
 Youth and Art 153 
 
 A Face 161 
 
 Abt Vogler 67 A Likeness 165 
 
 RabbiBenEzra 77 Mr. Sludge," The Medium" 171 
 
 A Death in the Desert 91 Apparent Failure 239 
 
 Caliban upon Setebos ; or, Epilogue 245 
 
 Secoftd Edition. 
 
 The Second Edition of Dramatis Persona was also issued in 1864. 
 The poems were afterwards incorporated in the collected edition of 
 1868, when several changes were made in the text. For instance, in 
 the fifteenth section of A Death in the Desert, after the line "Is not 
 His love at issue still with sin," there follows in the first edition the 
 line " Closed with and cast and conquered, crucified." This line is 
 omitted altogether in the 1868 edition. The changes in the text of 
 Gold Hair and James Lee are highly interesting, and suffice to make 
 the second edition of Dramatis Personce a volume of considerable 
 importance in the eyes of the Browning student. 
 
 (12.) 
 
 [The Ring and the Book: 1868.] 
 
 The / Ring and the Book. / By / Robert Browning, / M.A., / 
 Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. / In Four 
 Volumes. / Vol. I. [Vol. II., &c] / Smith, Elder and Co., 
 London. / 1868. / [The Right of Translation is reserved.] 
 
 Collation [vol. L] -.—Post octavo, pp. iv + 246, consisting of: Title- 
 page, as above (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii; Contents 
 (with blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; and Text pp. 1-246. There
 
 380 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 are headlines throughout. The imprint — " London : j 
 Printed by Smith, Elder, and Co., / Old Bailey, E.C." — is in 
 the centre of last page. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Pacre 
 
 I. The Ring and the Book i 
 
 II. Half-Rome 75 
 
 Page 
 
 III. The other Half- Rome 157 
 
 Collation [vol. ii.] : — Post octavo, pp. iv + 252, consisting of: Title- 
 page, as above (with blank reverse), pp.. i-ii ; Contents (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv; and Text pp. 1-252. There are 
 headlines throughout. The imprint — " London j Printed by 
 Smith, Elder, and Co. j Old Bailey, E.C." — is in the centre 
 of last page. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 IV. Tertium Quid 1 
 
 V. Count Guido Frances- 
 
 Page 
 chini 73 
 
 VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi 161 
 
 Collation [vol. iii.] : — Post octavo, pp. iv-t- 250, consisting of : Title- 
 page, as above (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Contents (with 
 blank reverse) pp. iii-iv; and Text pp. 1-250. There are 
 headlines throughout. The imprint — "London J Printed by 
 Smith, Elder, and Co., j Old Bailey, E.C" — is in centre of 
 last page. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Page 
 
 VII. Pompilia I 
 
 VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus 
 de Archangelis, Pauper- 
 um Procurator 90 
 
 IX. Juris Doctor Johannes- 
 Baptista Bottinius, Fisci 
 et Rev. Cam. Apostol. 
 Advocatus 175 
 
 Collation [vol. iv.] : — Post octavo, pp. iv + 236, consisting of: Title- 
 page, as above (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Contents (with 
 blank reverse) pp. iii-iv; and Text pp. 1-236. There are 
 headlines throughout. The imprint — "London j Printed 
 by Smith, Elder, and Co., / Old Bailey, E.C." — is in centre 
 of last page.
 
 : J fhc dJC rt /Ml w^h^ 4 fc> 1-vHiJ^u^ tut,. 
 
 crtvU *y 
 
 Jkr^ £u4i 6^ ^Ju#& <*}*** j**-** 
 
 {Ud \ hiir*J tw<-*i £UiS<Uf J %*> t^J^^J *&■ • 
 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF AN EXTRACT FROM BALAUST10NS ADVENTURE 
 
 IN ROBERT BROWNINGS HAND-WRITING
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 3S1 
 
 
 Contents. 
 
 X. The Pope 
 
 Page 
 
 1 
 
 Page 
 
 XII. The Book and the 
 
 XI. Guido 
 
 93 
 
 Ring 197 
 
 Issued in dark-green cloth boards, bevelled, lettered in gilt across 
 the back : " The Ring and the Book / Robert Browning / Vol. I. 
 [ Vol. II. 6°^.] / Smith, Elder, &> Co." The published price was 
 Seven Shillings and Sixpence each volume. 
 
 The volumes were published separately :— Vol. i. in November, 
 1868; vol. ii. in December, 1868; vol. iii. in January, 1869; vol. iv. 
 in February, 1869. A Second Edition was issued in brown cloth 
 boards. 
 
 The manuscript of The Ring and the Book is in the possession of 
 Mr. George Smith. 
 
 'o v 
 
 (13.) 
 
 [Balaustion's Adventure: i 87 i .] 
 
 Balaustion's Adventure : / Including / a Transcript from 
 Euripides. / By / Robert Browning. / London : / Smith, 
 Elder and Co., 15 Waterloo Place. / 1871. / The Right of 
 Translation is reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. iv+ 170, consisting of : Title-page, 
 as above (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Dedication To the 
 Countess Cowper (with quotation from Mrs. Browning's 
 Wine of Cyprus upon the reverse) pp. iii-iv ; and Text pp. 
 1-170. The head-line is Balaustioii's Adventure through- 
 out, upon both sides of the page. At the close of the book 
 is an unnumbered leaf, with Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co.'s 
 imprint upon its recto. 
 Issued in cloth boards, bevelled, of a reddish-brown colour, lettered 
 in gilt across the back : "Balaustion's / Adventure / By / Robert 
 Browning / Smith / Elder 6° Co." The published price was 
 Five Shillings.
 
 382 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 This book is now in the Third Edition. No variations occur in 
 the text. 
 
 (14.) 
 
 [Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau : 1871.] 
 Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, / Saviour of Society. / By / 
 Robert Browning. / Smith, Elder and Co., London. / 1871. / 
 The Right of Translation is Reserved. 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo, pp. iv+ 148, consisting of: Title-page, as 
 
 above (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Motto (with blank 
 
 reverse), iii-iv ; and Text pp. 1-148. There are headlines 
 
 throughout. The imprint — " London : Pri?ited by Smith, 
 
 Elder 6° Co., Old Bailey, E.C." — is at foot of last page. 
 
 Issued in dark-blue bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 
 the back: '■'•Prince / LLohenstiel-/ ScMvangau j By Robert / Browning / 
 
 London j Smith, Elder 6° Co." The published price was Five 
 
 Shillings. 
 
 (15.) 
 
 [FlFINE AT THE FAIR: 1 872.] 
 
 Fifine at the Fair / By / Robert Browning / London / 
 Smith, Elder and Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 1872 / The 
 Right of Translation is reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. xii-f-171, consisting of: Half-title 
 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv; extract from Moliere's Don Juan 
 
 (with translation upon reverse) pp. v-vi ; Prologue pp. 
 
 vii-xii ; Text pp. 1-168 ; and Epilogue pp. 169-171. There 
 
 are headlines throughout. The imprint — " London : / 
 
 Printed by Smith, Elder & Co., / Old Bailey, E.C." — is 
 
 upon reverse of last page. 
 
 Issued in dark-brown bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 
 the back : " Fifine / at the / Fair / By / Robert / Browning / 
 
 Smith / Elder & Co." The published price was Five Shillings.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 383 
 
 (16.) 
 
 [Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: 1873.] 
 
 Red Cotton Night-Cap Country / or / Turf and Towers / 
 By / Robert Browning / London / Smith, Elder, & Co., 
 15 Waterloo Place / 1873 / The right of translation is 
 reserved. The published price was Nine Shillings. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. iv+282, consisting of: Title-page, 
 as above (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Dedication " To 
 Miss Thackeray " (with blank reverse) pp. iii-iv ; and Text 
 pp. 1-282. There are headlines throughout. The imprint 
 — " London : Printed by / Spottiswoode and Co., New-street 
 Square j and Parliament Street " — is at the foot of the last 
 page. 
 
 Issued in dark-green bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 
 the back: "Red Cotton / Night-Cap j Country j By j Robert 
 
 Browning j Smith, Eider 6° Co." 
 
 The manuscript of Red Cotton Night-Cap Country is in the possession 
 of Mrs. George Smith. 
 
 (17.) 
 
 [Aristophanes' Apology: 1875.] 
 
 Aristophanes' Apology / including / A Transcript from 
 Euripides / Being the / Last Adventure of Balaustion / 
 By / Robert Browning / London / Smith, Elder, & Co., 1 5 
 Waterloo Place / 1875 / All rights reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. vi + 366, consisting of: Half-title 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Motto (with blank reverse), pp. 
 v-vi ; and Text pp. 1-336. There are headlines throughout. 
 The imprint — "London: Printed by J Spottiswoode cV Co.,
 
 384 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Neiv-street Square / and Parliament Street " — is at the foot 
 
 of the last page. 
 Issued in dark olive-green bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt 
 across the back : "Aristophanes' Apology j By / Robert Browning / 
 Smith, Elder 6° Co." The published price was Ten Shillings 
 and Sixpence. 
 
 (18.) 
 
 [The Inn Album: 1875.] 
 
 The / Inn Album / By / Robert Browning / London / Smith, 
 Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 1875 / All rights 
 reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. iv + 211, consisting of : Half-title 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv; and Text pp. 1-2 n. Upon the 
 reverse of the last page is a series of advertisements of 
 poems of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Brown- 
 ing. There are headlines throughout. The imprint — 
 " London : Printed by I Spottiswoode and Co., / New-street 
 Square / and Parliament Street" — occurs at the foot of 
 
 p. 211. 
 
 Issued in dark-green bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 the back : " The j Inn / Album / By j Robert j Browning / 
 London / Smith, Elder, &■ Co." The published price was Seven 
 Shillings. 
 
 (19.) 
 
 [Pacchiarotto : 1876.] 
 
 Pacchiarotto / and / How he Worked in Distemper : / with 
 other Poems. / By / Robert Browning. / London / Smith, 
 Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place. / 1876. / All rights reserved.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 385 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. viii+241, consisting of : Blank leaf 
 
 pp. i-ii ; Half-title (with blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Title-page, 
 
 as above (with blank reverse), pp. v-vi ; Contents, pp. vii-viii ; 
 
 and Text, pp. 1-241. There are headlines throughout. 
 
 The imprint — "London: Printed by / Spottiswoode and 
 
 Co., New-street Square / and Parliament Street" — is in the 
 
 centre of the reverse of the last page. 
 
 Issued in slate-coloured bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt 
 
 across the back — "Pacchiarotto / and / other Poems / By j Robert / 
 
 Browning j Smith, Elder 6° Co." The published price was 
 
 Seven Shillings and Sixpence. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Prologue 1 
 
 Of Pacchiarotto, and How 
 
 he Worked in Distemper 4 
 
 At the " Mermaid " 47 
 
 House 60 
 
 Shop 64 
 
 Pisgah-Sights. 1 75 
 
 Pisgah-Sights. 2 78 
 
 Fears and Scruples 83 
 
 Natural Magic 88 
 
 Magical Nature 90 
 
 Page 
 
 Bifurcation 91 
 
 Numpholeptos 95 
 
 Appearances 106 
 
 St. Martin's Summer 108 
 
 Herve Riel 117 
 
 A Forgiveness 131 
 
 Cenciaja 162 
 
 Filippo Baldinucci on the 
 
 privilege of Burial 184 
 
 Epilogue .. 223 
 
 A letter addressed by Mr. Browning to Mr. Edmund Gosse on 
 July 25th, 1876, contains the following interesting reference to 
 Pacchiarotto : — 
 
 " Let me tell yon there are some odd pieces of oversight in the book — 
 attributable to my own carelessness, I believe. Especially, in a poem x 
 written while the earlier sheets were passing through the press, 
 read {page 194), for ' aloft '—'from bier' 2 : (213) for ' crowns '— 
 
 1 Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial. A Reminiscence of A.D. 
 1676. 
 
 2 Stanza 16, line 2 : 
 
 In just a lady borne aloft [from bier\ 
 VOL. I. C C
 
 386 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 1 crowned'' 1 : and (214) for ' disbursed" 1 — ' unpursed.' 2 There is also 
 {page 164) in the 8/h line a ' who' for i how.'' z The punctuation — 
 as is the way with printed verse — has bee?i suffered to slip out 
 of the endings, and confuse the sense in many instances. In Nuni- 
 pholeptos (p. 97) the Sth line should run : ' So grant me— love — whole, 
 sole', etc? 4 
 
 1 Stanza 45, line 2 : 
 
 Resolve me 1 Can it be, the crowns, — [crowned, — ]. 
 2 -Stanza 45, line 7 : 
 
 Only for Mary 's sake, disbursed \unpursed\ 
 
 3 Cenciaja, Page 164, line 8 : 
 
 Relating who [hozv] the penalty was paid. 
 
 4 As printed the line reads : 
 
 Love, the love whole and sole without alloy ! 
 
 (20.) 
 
 [The Agamemnon of tEschylus: 1877.] 
 
 The Agamemnon of yEschylus / Transcribed by / Robert 
 Browning / London / Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo 
 Place / 1877 / All rights reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. xii+ 148, consisting of : Half-title 
 (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Preface, pp. v-xi ; p. xii is blank ; 
 Fly-title (with a list of Persons of the Drama upon the 
 the reverse), pp. 1-2 ; and Text, pp. 3-148. There are head- 
 lines throughout. The imprint — "Loudon: Printed by 
 Spottiszvoode and Co., Netv-street Square / and Parliament 
 Street" — is at the foot of the last page. 
 Issued in dark-green bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 the back: " Agamemnon j of / sEschylus / Robert Browning / 
 Smith j Elder c^ Co." The published price was Five Shillings.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 387 
 
 (21.) 
 
 [La Saisiaz: 1878.] 
 
 La Saisiaz : / The Two Poets of / Croisic : / By / Robert 
 Browning, / London: /Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo 
 Place. / 1878. / [All rights reserved.] 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. viii+202, consisting of: Half-title 
 
 (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Dedication (with blank 
 
 reverse) " To Mrs. Sutherland Orr," pp. v-vi ; Contents 
 
 (with blank reverse), pp. vii-viii ; and Text, pp. 1-201. 
 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint — " London ; 
 
 Printed by j Spottiswoode and Co., New-street Square / 
 
 and Parliament Street" — is upon the reverse of the last 
 
 page. Each of the two poems is preceded by a fly-title, 
 
 with blank reverse. 
 
 Issued in bluish-green bevelled boards, lettered in gilt across the 
 
 back : " La Saisiaz : / The / Two / Poets j of / Croisic / By / 
 
 Robert / Browning / Smith, Elder 6° Co" The published price 
 
 was Seven Shillings and Sixpence. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Prologue 1 
 
 La Saisiaz 5 
 
 Prologue 85 
 
 Page 
 Two Poets of Croisic 87 
 
 Epilogue 193 
 
 (22.) 
 
 [Dramatic Idyls: First Series: 1879.] 
 
 Dramatic Idyls / By / Robert Browning / London / Smith, 
 Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 1879 / All rights reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. vi — 143, consisting of: Half-title, 
 Title-page, and Contents (each with blank reverse), pp. i-vi ; 
 
 C C 2
 
 388 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and Text, pp. 1-143. Each of the six poems composing 
 
 the volume is preceded by a fly-title, with blank reverse. 
 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint — " London : 
 
 Printed by / Spottiswoode and Co., New-street Square / 
 
 and Parliament Street" — is at the foot of the last page. 
 
 Issued in ' old-gold ' bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 
 the back : " Dramatic Idyls / Robert Browning / Smith, / Elder 
 
 6° Co" The published price was five shillings. Some copies 
 
 were bound from quire stock, after the publication of the Second 
 
 Series ; these have " First Series " across the back, below the 
 
 title. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ivan Ivanovitch 57 
 
 Tray 1 o 1 
 
 Page 
 
 Martin Relph 1 
 
 Pheidippides 27 
 
 H albert and Hob 45 
 
 Ned Bratts 107 
 
 The first series of Dramatic Idyls is now in its Second Edition. 
 No variations were made in the text. 
 
 (230 
 
 [Dramatic Idyls : Second Series : 1880.] 
 
 Dramatic Idyls / Second Series / By / Robert Browning / 
 London / Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 1880 / 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. viii+149, consisting of: Half-title 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Contents (with blank reverse), 
 pp. v-vi ; Prologue (with blank reverse) pp. vii-viii ; and 
 Text pp. 1-147 ; p. 148 is blank; and Epilogue p. 149. 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint — " Londoti : 
 Printed by / Spottiswoode and Co., New-street Square j and 
 Parliament Street " — is at the foot of last page, which is 
 unnumbered.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 389 
 
 Issued in dark-brown bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 the back : " Dramatic \ Idyls j Second Series / Robert Browning / 
 Smith I Elder &> Co." The published price was Five Shillings. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Echetlos 1 
 
 Clive 9 
 
 Muleykeh 43 
 
 Page 
 
 Pietro of Abano 61 
 
 Doctor 113 
 
 Pan and Luna 137 
 
 (24.) 
 [JOCOSERIA : 1883.] 
 
 Jocoseria / By / Robert Browning / London / Smith, Elder, 
 & Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 1883 / [All rights reserved] 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. vi+144, consisting of: Half-title 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Contents (with blank reverse) 
 pp. v-vi ; and Text pp. 1-144. There are headlines 
 throughout. The imprint — " London : Printed by j Spottis- 
 woode and Co., New-street Square j and Parliament Street P 
 — is at foot of last page. Each of the ten poems com- 
 posing the volume is preceded by a fly-title, with blank 
 reverse. 
 
 Issued in dark-red bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 
 the back : " Jocoseria / Robert J Browning / Smith j Elder 6° Co." 
 
 The published price was Five Shillings. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Wanting is — what? 1 
 
 Donald 5 
 
 Solomon and Balkis 23 
 
 Christina and Monaldeschi 33 
 Mary Wollstonecraft and 
 
 Fuseli 45 
 
 Page 
 
 Adam, Lilith, and Eve 51 
 
 Ixion 55 
 
 Jochanan Hakkadosh 71 
 
 Never the Time and the 
 
 Place 133 
 
 Pambo 137 
 
 Jocoseria has passed into a Third Edition, but the text throughout 
 
 has remained unchanged.
 
 39 o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (25-) 
 
 [Ferishtah's Fancies: 1884.] 
 
 Ferishtah's Fancies / By / Robert Browning / London / 
 Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 1884 / [All rights 
 reserved.'] 
 
 Collation :— Post octavo, pp. vi+144, consisting of: Half-title 
 
 (with quotations from Jeremy Collier and Shakspeare upon 
 
 the reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with blank 
 
 reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Contents (with blank reverse), pp. v-vi ; 
 
 and Text, pp. 1-144. There are headlines throughout. 
 
 The imprint — " Spottiswoode a- 5 Co., Printers, New-street 
 
 Square, London " — is at the foot of the last page. 
 
 Issued in November, 1884, in olive-green bevelled cloth boards, 
 
 lettered in gilt across the back : " Ferishtah's Fancies / Robert 
 
 Browning \ Smith / Elder 6- Co." The published price was Five 
 
 Shillings 
 
 o" 
 
 Contcnts. 
 
 Page 
 
 Prologue 1 
 
 The Eagle 5 
 
 The Melon-Seller 9 
 
 Shah Abbas 13 
 
 The Family 25 
 
 The Sun 33 
 
 Mihrab Shah 46 
 
 A Camel-Driver 59 
 
 ' Ferishtah's Fancies ' also has passed into a Third Edition, the text 
 remaining unaltered. 
 
 Page 
 
 Two Camels 69 
 
 Cherries 78 
 
 Plot Culture 87 
 
 A Pillar at Sebzevah 93 
 
 A Bean-Stripe : also Apple- 
 Eating 105 
 
 Epilogue 14° 
 
 *o 
 
 (26.) 
 
 [Parleyings: 1887.] 
 Parleyings with certain People / of importance in their 
 day : / To wit : Bernard de Mandeville, / Daniel Bartoli, / 
 Christopher Smart, / George Bubb Dodington, / Francis
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 391 
 
 Furini, / Gerard de Lairesse, / and Charles Avison. / Intro- 
 duced by / A Dialogue between Apollo and the Fates ; / 
 concluded by / another between John Fust and his Friends. 
 By Robert Browning. / London : / Smith, Elder, & Co., 1 5 
 Waterloo Place. / 1887. / {All rights reserved.'] 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. viii + 268, consisting of: Half-title 
 
 (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv; Dedication {"In Memoriam j 
 
 J. Milsand / Obiit iv Sept. mdlxxxvi 1 / Absens absentem 
 
 auditque videtque "), with blank reverse, pp. v-vi ; Contents 
 
 (with blank reverse), pp. vii-viii ; and Text, pp. 1-268. 
 
 There are headlines throughout. The imprint — ■" Spottis- 
 
 woode cV Co., Printers, Netv-sireet Square, London " — is at 
 
 the foot of the last page. 
 
 Issued in light-brown bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across 
 
 the back : " Parleyings / with j certain j people j By j Robert 
 
 Browning / Smith, Elder 6° Co." The published price was Ten 
 
 Shillings. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Apollo and the Fates— A 
 
 Prologue 1 
 
 With Bernard de Mande- 
 
 ville 29 
 
 With Daniel Bartoli 51 
 
 With Christopher Smart ... J7 
 
 Page 
 
 With George Bubb Doding- 
 ton 97 
 
 With Francis Furini 121 
 
 With Gerard de Lairesse 161 
 
 With Charles Avison 191 
 
 Fust and his Friends : an 
 
 Epilogue 221 
 
 1 This is of course a misprint for mdccclxxxvi. 
 
 (27-) 
 
 [Essay on Shelley: 1888.] 
 
 An Essay / on / Percy Bysshe Shelley / By / Robert 
 Browning / Being a Reprint of the Introductory Essay 
 prefixed to the volume of / [25 spurious] Letters of Shelley
 
 392 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 published by / Edward Moxon in 1852. / Edited / By W. 
 Tyas Harden / London / Published for the Shelley Society / 
 By Reeves and Turner 196 Strand / 1888. 
 
 Collation : — Octavo, pp. 27, as follows : Half-title (with Certificate 
 of Issue upon the reverse), pp. 1-2 ; Title-page, as above 
 (with blank reverse), pp. 3-4 ; Fly-title to Introduction 
 (with blank reverse), pp. 5-6 ; Introduction, pp. 7-8 ; Pre- 
 lude (a reprint of Browning's Memorabilia — with blank 
 reverse), pp. 9-10 ; and Text of the 'Essay,' pp. 11-27. 
 The imprint — " London : / Printed by Richard Clay &* 
 Sons, Bread Street Hill, j February, 1888" — is upon the 
 reverse of the last page. There is a headline throughout. 
 Issued in green paper boards, lettered both upon the side and 
 up the back. Five hundred copies were printed, all upon Dutch 
 hand-made paper. Four additional examples were privately 
 printed upon pure vellum. Some copies have an inserted slip 
 containing two Errata. The volume was a gift to the Shelley 
 Society from the editor, Mr. W. Tyas Harden. The published 
 price was Six Shillings. 
 
 As duly set forth upon the title-page transcribed above, Mr. 
 Browning's Essay was first printed in an octavo volume of Letters, 
 presumably by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published by Moxon in 1852, 
 with the following title : — Letters I of I Percy Bysshe Shelley / With 
 an Introductory Essay, I by I Robert Browning, I London : j Edward 
 Moxon, Dover Street, — 1852. Pp. viii + 165. Air. Browning's ' Essay ' 
 occupies pp. 1-44. 
 
 It is not necessary to enter here into any detailed account of the 
 letters themselves, more especially as the matter belongs to the 
 bibliography of Shelley rather than to that of Browning. Suffice it to 
 say briefly that the letters, together with a number of spurious Byron 
 manuscripts, were in all probability produced by an individual who 
 styled himself the natural son of Lord Byron. They were in the first 
 instance bought of William White, a bookseller of Pall Mall, who con- 
 signed them to Messrs. Sotheby's rooms for sale by public auction. They 
 were there purchased by Mr. Edward Moxon, who at once proceeded 

 
 t ^wmwmm zssnttnzssss^ 
 
 LtTTtR? 
 
 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 
 
 with Ml OTTUDOi-TlTFTUSSf 
 
 ROHBT BROWKWti 
 
 IOKDOK. 
 
 nrwxxlt Moniy, DOVER STREFT 
 
 l«!2. 
 
 The suppressed volume of Shelley Letters, with Introduction by Robert Browning. 
 From a copy in the original purple cloth in the Library of Mr. Thos. J. Wise.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 393 
 
 to publish them, and at whose suggestion Mr. Browning undertook to 
 supply a suitable introduction. Mr. Browning (who was then — 
 December, 1851 — in Paris) told Mr. Wise that henever sawthe original 
 holographs, having been provided either with manuscript copies of the 
 letters, or printed proofs of the book, he was uncertain which. Upon 
 ascertaining that the documents were forgeries, Moxon withdrew the 
 volume from circulation. The whole of the facts were commented 
 upon by the Athcnceum, and White replied in a pamphlet (which ran 
 to two editions, both of which have now become of considerable 
 scarcity) entitled ' The Calumnies of the " Athentzum " Exposed] &C. 1 
 The original letters were presented by Moxon to the Manuscript 
 Department of the British Museum, where they may now be seen 
 and consulted. 
 
 1 The / Calumnies I of f The " Athenaum" Journal exposed. / Mr. 
 White's / Letter I to j Mr. Murray, / on the subject of the / Byron, Shelley, 
 and Keats MSS. j " Calumny will sear Virtue itself" — Shakespeare. 
 London: / William White, Pall Mall / mdccclii. — Octavo, pp. 15. The 
 Second Edition extended to pp. 16, and was considerably revised. The tract 
 has never been reprinted. 
 
 (28.) 
 
 [ASOLANDO: 1890.] 
 
 Asolando : / Fancies and Facts. / By / Robert Browning. / 
 London : / Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place. / 1890. / 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. viii + 15S, consisting of: Half-title 
 
 (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Dedication " To Mrs. Arthur 
 
 Bronson," pp. v-vi; Contents, pp. vii-viii ; and Text, pp. 
 
 1-158. There are headlines throughout. The imprint — 
 
 " Printed by / Spottiswoode and Co., New-street Square j 
 
 London " — is at the foot of the last page. 
 
 Though dated "1890," this volume was issued in December, 1889, 
 
 in bright-red bevelled cloth boards, lettered in gilt across back : 
 
 "Asolando j Robert Browning / Smith j Elder 6° Co" It was 
 
 published at Five Shillings.
 
 394 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Prologue 
 
 i 
 
 Rosny 5 
 
 Dubiety 8 
 
 Now 10 
 
 Humility 11 
 
 Poetics 12 
 
 Summum Bonum 13 
 
 A Pearl, A Girl 14 
 
 Speculative 16 
 
 White Witchcraft 17 
 
 Bad Dreams : 1 19 
 
 Page 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 20 
 
 27 
 
 30 
 
 Inapprehensiveness 34 
 
 Which? 37 
 
 The Cardinal and the Dog 40 
 
 The Pope and the Net 42 
 
 The Bean-Feast 46 
 
 Muckle-mouth Meg 52 
 
 Arcades Ambo 56 
 
 The Lady and the Painter 58 
 Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice 61 
 
 Beatrice Signorini 76 
 
 Flute-Music, with an Ac- 
 companiment 99 
 
 " Imperante Augusto natus 
 
 est — " 112 
 
 Development 123 
 
 Rephan 131 
 
 Reverie 141 
 
 Epilogue 156 
 
 The demand for Asoiando, consequent upon the decease of its 
 author, was very considerable, and it passed rapidly into a Seventh 
 Edition. The text of all is uniform. 
 
 (29.) 
 
 [Prose Life of Strafford: 1892.] 
 
 Robert Browning's / Prose / Life of Strafford, / with an In- 
 troduction / by C. H. Firth, M.A., Oxon., / and / Fore- 
 words / by F. J. Furnivall, M.A., Hon. Dr. Phil. / Publisht 
 for / The Browning Society / By Kegan Paul, Trench, 
 Triibner & Co. / London. 1892. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. lxxvi + 319 : consisting of Half- 
 title (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above 
 (with imprint : " Richard Clay &> Sons, Limited / London 
 a?id Bungay " upon the centre of the reverse), pp. iii-iv ; 
 Forewords by F. J. Furnivall, pp. v-xii; Introduction by
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 39 
 
 JV? 
 
 C. H. Firth, pp. xiii-lxxvi; Text, pp. 1-278 ; Appendices, pp. 
 
 279-303; and Index, pp. 304-319. There are headlines 
 
 throughout. The imprint is repeated upon the reverse of 
 
 the last page. 
 Issued in cloth boards, lettered across the back, uniform with the 
 17 Vol. edition of Robert Browning's Works. The published 
 price was is. 6d. Five hundred copies were printed. 
 
 Two Hundred and Fifty large hand-made paper copies were also 
 printed in demy octavo, and bound in straw-coloured buckram, with 
 white paper back-label, uniform with the large paper copies of the 
 1 7 Vol. edition of the Works. The price of these was 1 2s. 6d. 
 net. The book was issued simultaneously in America by Messrs. 
 Estes and Lauriat, of Boston. 
 
 The above Life of Strafford, only in 1892 first attributed to Robert 
 Browning, was originally published in 1836 as the work of John 
 Forster in a volume of Lives of Eminent British Statesmen in 
 Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopcedia. Dr. Furnivall's reasons for fathering 
 the work upon Browning are set forth at length in his clever Fore- 
 words. His arguments, however, are far from being absolutely con- 
 vincing, though the following passage is, as evidence, sufficiently 
 direct : — 
 
 Three times during his life did Browtiing speak to me about his 
 prose Life of Strafford. The first time he said only — in the course of 
 chat — that very few people had any idea of how much he had helpt 
 John Forster in it. The second time he told me at letigth that one day 
 he went to see Forster and found him very ill, and anxious about the 
 ' Life of Strafford? which he had pro mist to write at once, to complete 
 a volume of ' Lives of Eminent British Statesmen ' for Lardner's 
 Cabinet Cyclopcedia. Forster hadfinisht the Life of Eliot — the first in 
 the volume — and had just begun that of Strafford, for which he had 
 made full collections and extracts; bid illness had come on, he couldn't 
 work, the book ought to be completed forthwith, as it was due in the 
 serial issue of volumes j what was he to do ? ' Oh,' said Browning, 
 ' don't trouble about it. I'll take your papers and do it for you' Forster 
 thankt his young friend heartily, Browning put the Strafford papers 
 under his arm, walkt off, workt hard,finisht the Life, and it came out
 
 396 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 to time in 1836, to Forster' s great relief, and past under his name. A 
 third time — in the spring (9/1889, 1 think, almost the last time I saw 
 Browning — he began to tell me how he had written almost all Forster 3 s 
 ' Life of Strafford' j but I stopt him by saying that he'd told me before, 
 and we went on to chat of something else. 
 
 At the first and second times, I had the ' Eminent British Statesmen ' 
 on my shelves, and once thought of reading the Life of Strafford and 
 asking the poet to poi?it out his large share of it to me. But life in 
 London is such a hurry that anything which gets into a busy man's 
 head is driven out by another thing within the next half-hour. Later, 
 my '•Statesmen' volumes we?it to o?ie of the Free Libraries that 
 appeal d to me for books, and I never lookt at the '•Life of Strafford' 
 till after Browning's death. Then Prof. S. R. Gardiner one day in 
 the British Museum renewd our talk of some years before about this 
 Life. I took it off the shelves, read the last paragraph and felt — as 
 every other Browning student will feel — that I could swear it was 
 Browning's. 
 
 On the other hand it is only fair to state that the surviving relatives 
 of both Browning and Forster are firm in their assertions that the 
 Life was the work of the Biographer, and not that of the Poet. But 
 perhaps it is best to print without further comment the two following 
 letters which sufficiently introduce and explain themselves : — 
 
 Palace-Gate House, Kensington, W. 
 
 July 10th, 1894. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 An announcement that you are preparing a Bibliography of 
 Mr. Browning's Works must be my plea for troubling you with this 
 note. It has reference to the extraordinary claim which has been set 
 up by Dr. Furnivall for Mr. Browning 's authorship of nearly the 
 whole of my husband's " Life of Strafford:' Against this claim, so 
 distressing to me, I make the most emphatic protest. I enclose you a 
 copy of a letter from Mr. Browning 's son on the subject, and also add 
 an extract from a subsequent letter to my niece, in which he says : 
 " Mrs. Forster is most welcome to make what use she likes of the whole 
 of mine dated Feb. ijth, 1893." 
 
 Mr. Browning's own acknowledgment to his friend Mr. Forster is 
 to be found in the first edition of his tragedy of '" Strafford." I also
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 397 
 
 take leave to forward you a copy of the letter Mr. Charles Kent sent 
 to " The Times" after Dr. Fumivall brought out the book in 1892, 
 •which may have escaped your notice. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours f u'thfully, 
 
 Eliza Ann Forsler. 
 
 T.J. Wise, Esq. 
 
 Palazzo Rezzonico, Venice. 
 
 February 27th, 1893. 
 My Dear Mrs. Forster, 
 
 Your kind letter reached me after some little delay, or I 'would 
 have written to thank you sooner. 
 
 Let me say at once that I have long ceased having anything to do 
 with Dr. Fumivall, nor have I seen his book; but I presume, and 
 gather from what you write, that he has been claiming the authorship 
 of Mr. Forster 's " Life of Strafford" for my father— in which case he 
 has done this in spite of all I could do to prevent him, and in oppo- 
 sition to my earnest desire, expressed soon after my father's death. It 
 is a fact that my father assisted Mr. Forster, who was more or less 
 incapacitated from working by indisposition and domestic anxiety — / 
 believe his father was ill— but I need not say that that would not 
 justify any claim of authorship .' No letters of Mr. Forster could be 
 found throwing any light oft the matter, and the only ones in my 
 possession are of a later date. These, of course, I will lend yoic with 
 great pleasui'e when I return to Venice. 
 
 I am indeed sorry that you have been pained in this way. My 
 
 father would, I am sure, have been indignant at such a proceeding, 
 
 and I, as I have said, opposed it to my utmost when the subject was 
 
 brought up by Dr. Fumivall. I am much obliged for the copy of my 
 
 father's letter which you kindly send me, although I needed no 
 
 reminding of the f-iendship betwee?i him and Mr. Forster. My aunt, 
 
 who is with me, asks to be affectionately remembered. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Mrs. Forster, always 
 
 and with warmest regard, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 R. Barrett Browning. 
 
 I am writing from A solo.
 
 39S A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 But the weightiest argument against Mr. Browning's assumed 
 authorship of the prose Life of Strafford is probably the second 
 paragraph of the Preface to the first edition (published in 1837) of his 
 own Historical Tragedy : — 
 
 " The portraits are, I think, faithful ; and I am fortunate in being 
 able, in proof of this, to refer to the subtle and eloqimit exposition of 
 the characters of Eliot and Strafford, in the Lives of Eminent British 
 Statesmen now in course of publication in Lardner's Cyclopaedia, by a 
 ■writer whom I am proud to call my friend; and whose biographies of 
 Hampden, Pym, and Vane will, I am sure, fitly illustrate the present 
 year — the Second Centenary of the Trial concerning Ship- Money. My 
 Carlisle, however, is purely imaginary : I at first sketched her singular 
 likeness roughly in, as suggested by Matthew and the memoir writers 
 — but it was too artificial, and the substituted outline is exclusively 
 from Voiture and Waller.' 1 '' 
 
 It is difficult to believe that Mr. Browning would have referred to 
 the Life as " subtle and eloquent " had the major portion of the work 
 in question been the product of his own pen. 
 
 (SO.) 
 
 [Letters: 1895.] 
 
 Letters / from / Robert Browning / to / Various Corre- 
 spondents. / Edited by Thomas J. Wise. / Volume One. / 
 London : Privately Printed. / 1895. 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo, pp. xii + 98, consisting of : Half-title 
 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Certificate of issue (with blank 
 
 reverse), pp. v-vi ; Contents, pp. vii-xii ; and Text, pp. 1-98. 
 
 There are headlines throughout. Facing the last page is a 
 
 leaf with the colophon of The Ashley Library upon its recto. 
 
 Issued (in June, 1895) in plum-coloured cloth boards, bevelled, 
 
 lettered in gilt across the back : " Letters / Vol. L. / Robert / 
 
 Browning / 1895." The volume forms one of "The Ashley 
 
 Library " series of Privately Printed Books. Thirty copies were
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 399 
 
 printed upon Whatman's hand-made paper, and Four upon 
 fine Vellum. An additional Forty copies were printed on ordinary 
 paper for distribution to members of the Browning Society. 
 These were stitched in pale green paper wrappers, lettered " The 
 Browtiing Society. / Robert Brozanitig's Letters, j Vol. I. / 
 London : / Printed for Members of the Browning Society only.) 
 1895 " upon the front cover. All copies contain as frontispiece 
 a facsimile, upon ' Japanese vellum ' paper, of a holograph letter 
 from Robert Browning to the Editor. 
 
 The xxxiii. letters which the volume contains are addressed to Miss 
 Sarah Flower (1 letter), John Macready (1 letter), Mr. Christopher 
 Dowson, Junr. (1 letter), Richard Henry Home (2 letters), Edward 
 Moxon (1 letter), Dante G. Rossetti (1 letter), Mr. E. S. Dallas (1 
 letter), Mr. W. G. Kingsland (1 letter), Rev. Alexander B. Grosart 
 (1 letter), Mr. John H. Ingram (4 letters), a ' Lady Correspondent ' 
 (1 letter), Mr. Edmund Gosse (4 letters), Mr. H. Buxton Forman (3 
 letters), Mr. George Bamett Smith (1 letter), and Dr. F. J. Furnivall (10 
 letters). 
 
 Two more volumes, completing the series, are in the press, and will 
 be issued shortly.
 
 4oo A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICAL 
 LITERATURE, ETC. 
 
 (i.) 
 
 The Monthly Repository, Vol. viii, New Series, 1834, p. 712. 
 
 SONNET. (" Eyes, calm beside tliee, Lady, conldst thou 
 know ! ") 
 
 Reprinted in Browning Society 's Papers, Part XII, p. 36*. 
 
 (2.) 
 The Monthly Repository, Vol. ix, New Series, 1835, pp. 707 — 708. 
 
 The King. ("A King lived long ago.") 
 
 Reprinted (with considerable variations) in Bells and Pome- 
 granates, No. I, 1 841, p. 12, where it forms one of Pippa's songs 
 in Pippa Passes. 
 
 (3.) 
 The Monthly Repository, Vol. x, New Series, 1836, pp. 43 — 44. 
 
 PORPHYRIA. (" The rain set early in to-night") 
 
 Reprinted (under the title of Madhouse Cells — II) in Bells and 
 Pomegranates, No. Ill, 1842, p. 13. 
 
 (4.) 
 The Monthly Repository, Vol. x, New Series, 1 836, pp. 45 — 46. 
 
 JOHANNES AGRICOLA. {''There's Heaven above; and 
 night by night") 
 
 Reprinted (under the title of Madhouse Cells — I) in Bells and 
 Pomegranates, No. Ill, 1842, p. 13.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 401 
 
 (5-) 
 The Monthly Repository \ Vol. x, New Series, 1836, pp. 270—271. 
 
 Lines. (" Still ailing, zvind ? Wilt be appeased or no ? ") 
 
 Reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. xiii, July, 1864, pp. 
 737—738. Afterwards included in Dramatis Persona, 1864, 
 where it forms the first six stanzas of Section VI of James Lee. 
 
 (6.) 
 Hood's Magazine, Vol. i, No. VI, June, 1844, pp. 513 — 514. 
 
 The Laboratory (Ancien Regime). 
 
 Reprinted (under the title of France and Spain) in Bells and 
 Pomegranates, No. VII, 1845, p. 11. 
 
 (7-) 
 Hoods Magazine, Vol. i, No. VI, June, 1844, p. 525. 
 
 Claret and Tokay. 
 
 Reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates, No. VII, 1845, PP- 
 20 — 21. 
 
 (8.) 
 
 Hoods Magazine, Vol. ii, No. VII, July, 1844, pp. 45 — 48. 
 
 Garden Fancies. I. The Flower 's Name ; II. Sibrandns 
 ScJiafnabu rgens is. 
 
 Reprinted in Bells and Pomegratiates, No. VII, 1845, pp. 
 10 — 11. 
 
 (9.) 
 Hoods Magazine, Vol. ii, No. VIII, August, 1844, pp. 140—142. 
 
 The Boy and the Angel. 
 
 Reprinted (with considerable variations, and the addition of 
 five new couplets) in Bells and Pomegranates, No. VII, 1845, 
 pp. 1 g — 20. 
 
 YOL. I. D D
 
 4o2 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (10.) 
 Hood's Magazine, Vol. iii, No. Ill, March, 1845, pp. 237 — 239. 
 
 The Tomb at St. Praxed's (Rome 15 — ). 
 
 Reprinted in Bells and Pomcgra7iates, No. VII, 1845, p. 9. 
 
 (II.) 
 
 Hoods Magazine, Vol. iii, No. IV, April, 1845, pp. 313—318. 
 
 The Flight of the Duchess. Part the First. 
 
 Reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates, No. VII, pp. 12 — 19. 
 
 (12.) 
 Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London, 1852, pp. 1 — 44. 
 
 Introductory Essay by Robert Browning. 
 
 Reprinted separately, as follows : — An Essay I on j Percy 
 Bysshe Shelley I By j Robert Browning /..../ Edited / by W* 
 Tyas Harden / London j .... I 1888. Octavo, pp. 27. 
 Also included in the Browning Society's Papers, Part I, 
 pp. 5—19. 
 
 (I3-) 
 
 The Keepsake, 1856, p. 16. 
 
 Ben KARSHOOK's Wisdom. (" ' Would a man 'scape the 
 rod'?") 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part I, p. 56. 
 It has not been included in any collection of Mr. Browning's 
 poems. 
 
 (14.) 
 The Keepsake, 1857, p. 164. 
 
 May and Death. (" 7" wish that when yon died last 
 May.") 
 
 Reprinted (with some variations) in Dramatis Persons, 1864, 
 p. 145-
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 403 
 
 (15.) 
 Last Poems. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. London, 1862. 
 
 Dedication ("To Grateful 'Florence'") by Robert 
 Browning, p. v. 
 
 Prefatory Note (styled Advertisement) by Robert 
 Browning, p. vii. 
 
 Mrs. Browning died at Florence on June 29th, 1861, and the 
 volume was posthumous. It was arranged and edited by- 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 (16.) 
 
 The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets. By Elizabeth 
 Barrett Browning. London, 1863, pp. iii — iv. 
 
 PREFACE (styled Advertisement) BY ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 This volume was also posthumous. Its contents were re- 
 printed from the pages of The Athenceum. 
 
 (17.) 
 Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogue, 1864, p. 13. 
 
 ORPHEUS and Eurydice. ("But give them me — the 
 mouth, the eyes, the brow ! ") 
 
 Reprinted in the Selections from the Works of Robert Browning 
 ("Moxon's Miniature Poets"), 1865, p. 215, under the title 
 " Eurydice to Orpheus. A Picture by Frederick Leighton, 
 A.R.A."; and in the Poetical Works of 1868, where it is in- 
 serted in Dramatis Personce. 
 
 (18.) 
 The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. xiii, May, 1864, pp. 596—599. 
 
 Gold Hair •. A Legend of Pornic. 
 
 Printed privately in pamphlet form, as follows -.—Gold Hair : / 
 A Legend of Pornic. / By / Robert Browning. / 1864. Post 
 octavo, pp. 1 5. 
 
 D D 2
 
 4 04 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Also reprinted in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 27—34. In the 
 Second Edition of Dramatis Persona, 1864, three fresh 
 stanzas were added. They were inserted between stanzas 20 
 and 21. 
 
 (19.) 
 The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. xiii, June, 1864, p. 694. 
 
 PROSPICE. (" Fear death ? — to feel the fog in my throat?} 
 
 Reprinted, with slight changes in one or two lines, in Dramatis 
 Persona, 1864, pp. 149 — 150. 
 
 (20.) 
 
 A Selection from the Poetry of Elisabeth Barrett Browning. First 
 Series. London, 1866, p. v. 
 
 Prefatory Note by Robert Browning. 
 
 Reprinted in all later editions of the Selections. 
 
 (21.) 
 The Comhill Magazine, Vol. xxiii, March, 1871, pp. 257—260. 
 
 Herve Riel. 
 
 Reprinted in Pacchiarotto and other Poems, 1876, p. 117. 
 
 (22.) 
 
 The Hour will Come. By Wilhelmine von Hillern. Translated from 
 the German by Clara Bell. London [1879], Vo1 - "j P- j 74- 
 
 SONG. (" The Blind Man to the Maiden said.") 
 
 Reprinted in the Whitehall Review, March 1, 1883; also in 
 Browning Society's Papers, Part IV., p. 410. 
 
 (23.) 
 Euripides. By J. P. Mahaffy. (Macmillan's Classical Writers.) 
 
 London, 1879, p. 116. 
 
 Lyric of Euripides. (" Oh Love, Love, thou that from 
 the eyes diffuses t. u ) 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part I., p. 69.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 405 
 
 (24-) 
 77a? Century. Vol. xxv, 1882, pp. 159—160. 
 
 Ten NEW LINES TO " Touch him ne'er so lightly " 
 {Dramatic Idyls, Second Scries, 1880, p. 149). (" Thus 
 I wrote in London, musing on my betters'.'} 
 
 These lines were printed in The Century without Mr. Browning's 
 consent ; they have not been added to any reprint of the original 
 verses, as they were not intended to form a permanent addition 
 thereto. They were reprinted in the first edition of the Brown- 
 ing Society 's Papers, Part IV, p. 48. At Mr. Browning's request 
 the lines were cancelled, and did not appear in later issues of 
 the Part. 
 
 (25.) 
 The Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 8, 1883. 
 
 SONNET ON GOLDONI. (" Goldoni, — good, gay ; sunniest of 
 
 souls, ") 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part V, p. 98*. 
 
 (26.) 
 The Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 13, 1883. 
 
 Paraphrase from Horace. ("All singers, trust me, 
 have this common vice") 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part V, p. 99*. 
 
 (27-) 
 The Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 28, 1883. 
 
 Helen's Tower. (" Who hears of Helen's Tower, may 
 dream perchance'') 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part V, p. 97*.
 
 406 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (28.) 
 The Century Magazine, Vol. xxvii, February, 1884, p. 640. 
 
 Sonnet on Rawdon Brown. (" Sighed Rawdon Brown: 
 1 Yes, I'm departing, Toni ! ' ") 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part V, p. 132*. 
 
 (29.) 
 The World, April 16, 1884. 
 
 The Founder of the Feast. (" ■' Enter my palace', if a 
 prince should say — ") 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part VII, p. 18*. 
 
 (30.) 
 
 The Divine Order and other Sermons and Addresses. By the late 
 Thomas Jones. London, 1884. 
 
 Introduction by Robert Browning. 
 
 (3i.) 
 
 The Shaksperean Show Book, 1884, p. 1. 
 
 The Names. (" Shakespeare ? — to such name's sounditig, 
 ivhat succeeds?'} 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part V, p. 105*. 
 
 (32.) 
 Why am la Liberal? Edited by Andrew Reid. London, 1885, p. 1 1. 
 
 Why am I a Liberal ? ("   Why ? ' Because all I haply 
 can and do!'} 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part VIII, p. 92*
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 407 
 
 (S3-) 
 
 The New Amphion. The Book of the Edinburgh University Union 
 
 Fancy Fair, 1886, p. 1. 
 
 SPRING SONG. (" Dance, yellows and whites and reds /"), 
 
 with a full page illustration by Elizabeth Gulland. 
 
 Reprinted in Parleyings, VI, " Gerard de Lairesse," p. 1 89. 
 
 (34.) 
 
 Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, London : 
 Smith, Elder & Co., 1887. 
 
 Prefatory Note by Robert Browning, occupying 
 three unnumbered pages inserted between Title-page 
 and Dedication. 
 
 Only a portion of the copies issued contain this Preface, which 
 was designed to controvert certain statements made by the 
 author of a (then) recent Memoir of Elizabeth Barrett 
 Browning. 
 
 '.->• 
 
 (350 
 
 Lines accompanying Memorial of the Queen's Jubilee, in St. 
 Margaret's Church, Westminster [1887]. 
 
 Memorial Lines. (" Fifty years' flight ! wherein shoidd 
 he rejoice? ) 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part X, p. 234*. 
 
 (36.) 
 The Athenccum, No. 3,220, July 13, 1889, p. 64. 
 
 To Edward Fitzgerald. (" / chanced upon a new book 
 yesterday!') Dated "July 8, 1889." 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part XI, p. 347*
 
 403 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 These unhappy lines were occasioned by the following passage 
 in one of FitzGerald's letters printed by Mr. Aldis Wright 
 in The Life and Letters of Edward Fit 2 Gerald ': — 
 
 " Mrs. Browning's death is rather a relief to me, I must say. 
 No more Aurora Leighs, thank God.' A woman of real genius, 
 I know ; but what is the upshot of it all ! She and her sex had 
 better mind the kitchen and the children; and perhaps the poor. 
 Except in such things as little novels, they only devote them- 
 selves to what men do much better, leaving that which men do 
 worse or not at all." 
 
 Despite the fact that the words do not bear the meaning Mr. 
 Browning attached to them, their retention in a letter published 
 during the life-time of the husband of the dead poetess betrayed 
 a sad lack of editorial discretion. Although Mr. Browning after- 
 wards acknowledged that the conclusion at which he had arrived 
 upon a first hasty perusal of the letter was erroneous, he never 
 formally withdrew his bitter verses ; at the same time he 
 refrained from reviving them when issuing the final (17 vol.) 
 edition of his collected works. 
 
 In the succeeding number {July 10th) of The Athenceum 
 appeared the following letter : — 
 
 Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge, July 16, 1889. 
 
 / find that by a grave oversight I have allowed a sentence to 
 stand in one of Edward FitzGerald's letters which has stirred 
 the just resentment of Mr. Browning. FitzGerald's expression 
 was evidently thrown off with the freedom that men permit 
 themselves in correspondence with their intimate friends; and I 
 feel how great an injustice I have done to FitzGerald in making 
 public what was but the careless outburst of a passing mood, 
 and thus investing it with a significance which was never de- 
 signed. That I should have allowed a passage to remain which 
 has so wronged the dead and pained the living causes me, I need 
 not say, extreme vexation, and I can only beg publicly to express 
 my sincere regret. 
 
 William Aldis Wright.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 409 
 
 PART III. 
 
 PUBLISHED LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 This list includes only such letters as have appeared at various 
 times in scattered volumes, in magazines, or in the columns of 
 the public press. They are arranged according to the date of 
 publication. For Mr. Browning's ' collected ' letters see ante, Part I. 
 
 PP- 393-399- 
 
 (I.) 
 
 Life of William Etty, R.A. By Alexander Gilchrist. 
 London, 8vo., 1855. Letter to William Etty. 
 
 (2.) 
 
 The Correspondence of Leigh Hunt. Edited by his Eldest 
 Son. London: 8vo, 1862, Vol. ii, pp. 264 — 266. 
 Letter to Leigh Hunt on Atirora Leigh, Keats's 
 Lamia, Isabella, &c, and a manuscript (originally 
 preserved by Captain Roberts) of Shelley's Indian 
 Serenade. Some interesting variations of the text 
 between this MS. and the version of the Serenade 
 printed in the PostJinmous Poems are given by- 
 Mr. Browning. The close of the letter mentions j:he 
 lock of Milton's hair given by Hunt to Mr. Browning. 1 
 Signed " R. B.," and dated Bagni di Lucca, 6th 
 October, 1857. 
 
 1 This lock of Milton's hair was one of Mr. Browning's most cherished 
 treasures. He never tired of exhibiting it to his friends.
 
 4io A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (3-) 
 The Daily News, February 10th, 1871. Letter to the 
 Editor stating that his contribution to the French 
 Relief Fund was the payment by his publishers 
 for a lyrical poem [Herve Riel\ Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " 19 Warwick Crescent, W. 
 Feb. 9" [1871]. 
 
 (4-) 
 
 The Daily News, November 21st, 1874. Letter to the 
 
 Editor of The Daily News, referring to the " Doctrine 
 
 of the enclitic De " in the poem of the Grammarian's 
 
 Funeral. Signed " R. B.," and dated " Nov. 20 " 
 
 [IS74]. 
 
 (5-) 
 
 The Poetical Works of Laman Blanchard, London, 8vo, 
 
 1876, pp. 6-8. Letter to Laman Blanchard. 
 
 (6.) 
 The Prose Works of William Wordsworth. Edited by Rev. 
 Alexander B. Grosart. London, 1876. Vol. i. p. 
 xxxvii. Letter to the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, 
 on the poem of The Lost Leader and Wordsworth. 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " 19 Warwick 
 Crescent, Feb. 24, 1875." Reprinted in Letters from 
 Robert Brozuning to Various Correspondents, Edited by 
 Thos.f. Wise, 1895, Vol. i., pp. 28-29. 
 
 (7-) 
 Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edited by H. Buxton For- 
 man. London, 1876- 1880, Vol. ii, pp. 418-420.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 411 
 
 Letter to Mr. Buxton Forman on the value to be 
 attached to the termination " aia " in the poem 
 Cenciaja. Signed " Robert Browning," and dated 
 "19 Warwick Crescent, W., July, 27 '76." 
 
 (8.) 
 Letters of ElizabetJi Barrett Broivning addressed to R. H. 
 Home. Edited by S. R. TownsJiend Mayer. 2 Vols. 
 London, 8vo, 1S77. 
 
 (1) Page 182. Letter to R. H. Home, chiefly regarding 
 
 Mrs. Browning's improvement in health. Signed 
 " R. Browning," and dated " Pisa, Dec. 4." 
 
 (2) Page 194. Letter to R. H. Home [in the hand-writing 
 
 of Mrs. Browning], announcing their departure from 
 England, and the despatch of the new editions of 
 their works. Signed " Robert and Elizabeth Barrett 
 Browning," and dated "London, September 24th, 
 [1851]." 
 
 (9-) 
 The Times, November 20th, 1877. Letter to the Editor of 
 The Times concerning his nomination as a candidate 
 for the Lord Rectorship of St. Andrews. He ex- 
 plains that directly he heard of his nomination he 
 wrote declining the honour, " as I had found myself 
 compelled to do on some former occasions." Signed 
 " Robert Browning," and dated "19 Warwick Crescent, 
 Nov. 19." [1877.] 
 
 (10.) 
 The A cademy, December 20th, 1 S78. Letter to Dr. Furnivall.
 
 412 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (II.) 
 
 The Pall Mall Gazette, June, 1 888. Letter to a correspond- 
 ent on the beauty of the vale of Llangollen : " I 
 received an impression of the beauty around me 
 which continued ineffaceable during all subsequent 
 experience of varied foreign scenery, mountain, 
 valley, and river." Signed " Robert Browning," 
 and dated " 29 De Vere Gardens, June 5, 1888." 
 
 (12.) 
 
 TJie Athenceum, December 21st, 1889, p. 860. Letter to 
 Mr. Charles Kent, accompanying a copy of Volume 
 3 of the new collected edition of the Poetical Works. 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " 29 De Vere 
 Gardens, W., 28 August, 1889." 
 
 (IS-) 
 
 The Browning Society s Papers, 1889-90, Part XI, p. 338*. 
 Extract (undated and unsigned) from a Letter to 
 Dr. Furnivall on the meaning of the poem Num- 
 plioleptos. 
 
 (14.) 
 
 The Browning Society's Papers, 1 889-1 890, Part XII. 
 
 (1) Page 41*. Letter to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, congratu- 
 lating him upon his birthday. Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " 29 De Vere Gardens, W., 
 August $th, 1889." 
 
 Also printed in The Academy, No. 922, for January \th, 1892, p. 8. — 
 thence copied extensively by the Daily Press.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 413 
 
 (2) Page 65*. Letter to Theodore Tilton : " I have lost 
 
 the explanation of American affairs, but I assure 
 you of my belief in the justice and my confidence in 
 the triumph of the great cause. For the righteous- 
 ness of the principle I want no information. God 
 prosper it and its defenders." Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " St. Enogat, pres Dinard, 
 France, Sept. n, 1861." 
 
 (3) Page 122*. Letter to Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, thanking 
 
 her for her " goodness in caring so effectually for my 
 interest with Messrs. Houghton and Mifflin." Signed 
 " Robert Browning," and dated "19 Warwick Crescent 
 W., Nov. 7, '84." 
 
 (15.) 
 
 Life of Robert Browning By William Sharp. London, 
 8vo, 1890. 
 
 (1) Page 53. Letter to Mr. Sharp on " Rossetti's Pauline 
 
 letter " — " It was to the effect that the writer, per- 
 sonally and altogether unknown to me, had come 
 upon a poem in the British Museum . . . that he 
 judged to be mine, but could not be sure, and wished 
 me to pronounce in the matter — which I did." Neither 
 signature nor date is given. 
 
 (2) Page 189. Letter to Mr. Edmund Yates, apropos of 
 
 the Browning Society : " I cannot wish harm to a 
 Society of — with a few exceptions — names unknown 
 to me, who are busied about my books so disin- 
 terestedly." The signature and date are not given. 
 
 (3) Page 191. Letter to "Alma" [a child-friend of
 
 414 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Mr. Browning's], detailing a conversation with the 
 Shah, in which the latter requested the gift of a 
 volume of his poems. Signed " Robert Browning," 
 and dated "29 De Vere Gardens,W., 6th July, 1889." 
 
 (16.) 
 
 The Academy, No. 922, January 4///, 1890, p. 8. Letter to 
 Lord Tennyson, congratulating him upon his birth- 
 day. Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " 29 
 De Vere Gardens, W. Aug. 5, 1889." 
 
 (17.) 
 Alma Murray} Portrait as Beatrice Cenci, with Critical 
 Notice, containing four Letters from Robert Browning. 
 London, Svo, 1891. 
 
 (1) Page 6. Letter to Mrs. Forman, upon her " admirable 
 
 impersonation of that most difficult of all characters 
 to personate " {i.e. Beatrice Cenci). Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated "May 8th, 1886." This letter 
 is also printed in the Note-book of the Shelley Society, 
 Part I., 1888, p. 105. 
 
 (2) Page 6 {at foot). Letter to Mrs. Forman, acknowledging 
 
 receipt of her " charming photograph " in character 
 as Beatrice Cenci. Signed " Robert Browning," and 
 dated "29 De Vere Gardens, W. May gth, 1888." 
 
 (3) Page 7. Letter to Mrs. Forman, upon her performance 
 
 of Colombe in Colombe's Birthday. Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " Venice, December 2gth, 
 1885." 
 
 1 " Alma Murray," the stage-name of Mrs. Alfred Forman.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBER T BRO WNINC. 4 1 5 
 
 (4) Page 8. Letter to Mrs. Forman, mentioning " how 
 beautifully and how powerfully she acted the part 
 of Mildred in A Blot in the 'Scutcheon." Signed 
 " Robert Browning," and dated "March, 1888." 
 
 (18.) 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. ii, No. 2, February, 1890, p. 10 1. Letter to 
 the printers of Asolando [Messrs. Spottiswoode & Co.] 
 expressing his "gratitude for the admirable super- 
 vision of the gentleman whose care to correct my 
 mistakes or oversights has so greatly obliged me." 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " 29 De Vere 
 Gardens, June 5, 1889." 
 
 (190 
 
 The Jewish CJironicle, 1890. Letter to Mr. O. J. Simon on 
 
 the religious persecutions in Russia in the winter of 
 
 1881-82. Signed "Robert Browning," and dated 
 
 "Feb. 2, '82." 
 
 (20.) 
 
 The Nonconformist, 1890. Letter to a lady on the love 
 and power of God : " It is a great thing, the greatest, 
 that a human being should have passed the probation 
 of life, and sum up its experience in a witness to the 
 power and love of God." Signed "Robert Browning," 
 and, dated " 19, Warwick Crescent, W., May 11, '76." 
 This letter is also printed in Kingsland's Robert 
 Broivning : Chief Poet of the Age, p. 83. Also in 
 Letters from Robert Browning to Various Corre- 
 spondents, Edited by Tlios. J. Wise, 1895, Vol. i, pp. 
 35-33.
 
 416 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (21.) 
 
 Robert Browning : Chief Poet of the Age. New Edition. 
 By William G. Kingsland. London, 8vo, 1890. 
 
 (1) Page ii. Letter to Mr. W. G. Kingsland : " How can I 
 
 be other than most grateful to you for your generous 
 belief in me ? — unwarranted as it may be by any- 
 thing I have succeeded in doing, although some- 
 what justified, perhaps, by what I would fain have 
 done if I could." Signed " Robert Browning," and 
 dated " 19, Warwick Crescent, W., March lyth, 
 1887." 
 
 (2) Page 6. Letter to Mr. Thos. J. Wise on " the early 
 
 editions of Shelley. . . obtained for me some time 
 before 1830 (or even earlier), in the regular way, 
 from Hunt and Clarke, in consequence of a direction 
 I obtained from the Literary Gazette. . . I got at the 
 same time, nearly, Endymion, and Lamia, &c, just as 
 if they had been published a week before — and not 
 years after the death of Keats." Dated "March 
 3rd, 1886." Signature not given. 
 
 (3) Page 8. Letter to Mr. Thos. J. Wise concerning his 
 
 facsimile reprint of the original edition of Pauline : 
 " I really have said my little say about the little book 
 already elsewhere, and should only increase words 
 without knowledge. . . There was a note of ex- 
 planation in the copy I gave John Forster, — which 
 contained also a criticism by John Mill." Signed 
 " Robert Browning," and dated "November 5, 1866." 
 
 (4) Page 13. Extract from a letter referring to his having 
 
 re-written Sordello : " I did certainly at one time
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 417 
 
 intend to re-write much of it, but changed my mind." 
 Signature and date not given. 
 
 (5) Page 25. Letter to Mr. Thos. J. Wise, answering certain 
 
 queries concerning The Statue and the Bust. Signed 
 " Robert Browning," and dated "Jan. 8th, '87." 
 
 (6) Page 32. Letter to Mr. W. G. Kingsland explanatory 
 
 of the poem Fears and Scruples. Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " 19, Warwick Crescent, W., 
 Feb. gth, '85." 
 
 (7) Page 35. Letter to Mr. W. G. Kingsland on the subject 
 
 of a proposed cheap volume of selections from his 
 poems. Signed "Robert Browning," and dated " 19 
 Warwick Crescent, Jan. 6th, '86." 
 
 (8) Facing Page 36. Facsimile of a letter addressed to 
 
 Mr. W. G. Kingsland telling of the death of " my 
 belovedest of friends, Milsand." Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " Hand Hotel, Llangollen, N. 
 Wales, Sept. 6, '86." 
 
 (9) Page 46. Letter to Mr. W. G. Kingsland acknowledg- 
 
 ing receipt of magazines [Poet Lore] from America. 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " 29 Be Vere 
 Gardens, W.,Aug. 26, '89." 
 
 (10) Page 56. Letter to Mr. W. G. Kingsland on the 
 
 alleged obscurity of his poems : " I can have little 
 doubt but that my writing has been, in the main, 
 too hard for many I should have been pleased to 
 communicate with ; but I never designedly tried to 
 puzzle people, as some of my critics have supposed. 
 On the other hand, I never pretended to offer such 
 literature as should be a substitute for a cigar, or a 
 
 E E
 
 4 i 8 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 game at dominoes to an idle man." Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " 19 Warwick Crescent, W., 
 Nov. 27, '68." Reprinted in Letters from Robert 
 Broivning to Various Correspondents, Edited by 
 Thomas J. Wise, 1895, Vol. i, pp. 25-26. 
 
 (22.) 
 
 Poet Lore, 1890, p. 108. Letter to Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps 
 concerning the New Shakspere Society and Mr. 
 Browning's position as president. Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated "Jan. 27, '8 1." 
 
 (23.) 
 Merry England, 1890. Letter to Mr. Meynell concerning 
 the merits of some " prose and verse " brought to his 
 notice. Signed "Robert Browning," and dated "Aso/o, 
 Veneto, Ltalia, Oct. 7, '89." 
 
 (24.) 
 
 Browning 's Message to his Time. By Edward Berdoe. 
 London, 8vo, 1890. 
 
 (1) Page 6. Letter to Dr. Berdoe acknowledging a com- 
 munication concerning the help received from Mr. 
 Browning's writings. Signed " Robert Browning," 
 and dated "19 Warwick Crescent, W. Jan. 12, 
 1885." 
 
 This letter is also given in facsimile upon an un- 
 numbered leaf facing p. 6. 
 (2) Letter (given in facsimile upon an unnumbered leaf 
 facing p. 127) to Dr. Berdoe, expressing "my sense
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 4^9 
 
 of the obligation your goodness lays me under by 
 the paper in which you so generously estimate my 
 attempts to make use of the few materials of a scien- 
 tific nature I have had any opportunity of collecting." 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " 19, War- 
 wick Crescent, W. June n, '85." 
 (3) Page 218. Letter to Dr. Berdoe stating his willingness 
 to become a patron of a proposed Anti-vivisectionist 
 Hospital. Signed " Robert Browning," dated " 29 
 De Vere Gardens, W. August 27th, 1889." 
 This letter is also given in facsimile upon an un- 
 numbered leaf, facing p. 218. 
 
 (25.) 
 Poet Lore, Vol. ii, No. 5, May, 1890, p. 283. 
 
 An article containing many extracts from various 
 letters of Robert Browning. 
 
 (26.) 
 
 The Critic (New York), Oct. 2$th, 1890. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Irving concerning a reminiscence of 
 Kean, and asking his acceptance of the empty purse 
 found upon Kean after his death. Signed " Robert 
 Browning ; " undated. 
 
 (27-) 
 Poet Lore, vol. iii, No. 10, October 1891, p. 524. 
 
 Article upon Mrs. Sutherland Orr's Life of Robert 
 Browning; containing extracts from various letters 
 not quoted by Mrs. Orr. 
 
 E E 2
 
 4 2o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (28.) 
 Life and Letters of Robert Browning. By Mrs. Sutherland 
 Orr. London, Svo, 1891. 
 
 (1) Page 55. Letter to Rev. W. J. Fox concerning the 
 
 approaching issue of Pauline. Signed ;l R. B." 
 (Undated.) 
 
 (2) Page 55. Letter to Rev. W. J. Fox accompanying copies 
 
 of Pauline. Signed " R. Browning." (Undated.) 
 
 (3) Page 56. Letter to Rev. W. J. Fox referring to a pro- 
 
 bably favourable notice of Pauline. Signed " R. B." 
 (Undated, but post-marked " March 29, 1833.") 
 
 (4) Page 57. Letter to Rev. W. J. Fox conveying thanks 
 
 for the notice of Pauline. Signed " Robert Brown- 
 ing," and dated " March 31, 1833." 
 
 (5) Page 68. Letter to Rev. W. J. Fox on Paracelsus : " I 
 
 hope my poem will turn out not utterly unworthy 
 your kind interest, and more deserving your favour 
 than anything of mine you have as yet seen." 
 Signed " Robt. Browning," and dated "April 2, 
 
 1835." 
 
 (6) Page 69. Letter to Rev. W. J. Fox on the securing a 
 
 publisher for Paracelsus, and other matters. Un- 
 signed, but dated " April 16." 
 
 (7) Page 90. Two letters to Rev. W. J. Fox on Strafford. 
 
 Both signed " Robert Browning," and both undated. 
 
 (8) Page 95. Letter to John Robertson, Esq., informing 
 
 him that he had that morning sailed for Venice, 
 " intending to finish my poem [Sordello] among the 
 scenes it describes." Signed "Robert Browning," 
 and dated " Good Friday, 1838."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 421 
 
 (9) Page 96. Letter to Miss Haworth relating his adven- 
 
 tures in Italy, and other matters. Signed " R. B.," 
 and dated " 1838." 
 
 (10) Page 102. Letter to Miss Haworth on Rev. W. J. Fox 
 
 — " who used to write in reviews when I was a boy, 
 and to whom my verses, written at the ripe age of 
 twelve and thirteen, were shown : which verses he 
 praised not a little ; which praise comforted me not 
 a little." (Signature and date not given.) 
 
 (11) Page no. Letter to Miss Flower: "Praise what you 
 
 can praise, do me all the good you can, you and Mr. 
 Fox (as if you will not ! ) for I have a head full of 
 projects." Signed " Robert Browning." Date not 
 given. This letter is printed in full in Letters from 
 Robert Browning to Various Correspondents. Edited 
 by Thomas J. Wise, 1895, vol. i, pp. 3-4, where it is 
 dated "London, March gth [1842]." 
 12) Page 118. Letter to Mr. Hill on Macready and the 
 performance of A Blot in the 'Scutcheon at Drury 
 Lane, in February 1843. Signed " Robert Browning," 
 and dated "19 Warwick Crescent: Dec. 15, 1884." 
 (13) Page 123. Letter to Mr. Hill containing a last word 
 regarding the reputed failure of A Blot in the 
 'Scutcheon at Drury Lane in Feb. 1843 : " I would 
 submit to anybody drawing a conclusion from one or 
 two facts past contradiction, whether that play could 
 have thoroughly failed which was not only not with- 
 drawn at once, but acted three nights in the same 
 week." Signed " Robert Browning," and dated 
 December 21, 1884."
 
 422 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (14) Page 132. Letter to Miss Lee on the Lost Leader and 
 
 Wordsworth controversy : " I thought of the great 
 Poet's abandonment of liberalism, at an unlucky 
 juncture, and no repaying consequence that I could 
 ever see. But — once call my fancy portrait Words- 
 worth — and how much more ought one to say — how 
 much more would not I have attempted to say." 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " Villers-sur- 
 mer, Calvados, France : Sept. 7, '75." 
 
 (15) Page 133. Extract from an undated letter to Miss 
 
 Haworth, detailing the writing an impromptu verse 
 for a picture by Maclise. Signed " Robert Brown- 
 ing." Undated. 
 (16.) Page 135. Letter to Miss Flower relating apparently 
 to the publication of Hymns, &c. Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and headed "New Cross, Hatcham, 
 Surrey : Tuesday morning." Precise date not given. 
 
 (17) Page 135. Letter to Miss Flower expressing his ad- 
 
 miration for her music. Signature and date not given. 
 
 (18) Page 193. Letter to Lady (then Mrs. Theodore) 
 
 Martin [Helen Faucit] on the projected performance 
 of Colombes Birthday. Signature not given, but 
 dated "Florence : Jan. 31, '53." 
 
 (19) Page 222. Letter to W. J. Fox (written in continu- 
 
 ation of a letter of Mrs. Browning's), asseverating 
 his old feelings of friendship and goodwill. Signed 
 " Robert Browning," but undated. 
 
 (20) Page 226. Letter to Mr. (now Sir Frederic) Leighton, 
 
 on various matters. Signed " R. Browning," and 
 dated "Kingdom of Piedmont, Siena: Oct. 9, '59."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 423 
 
 (21) Page 242. Letter to Mr. (now Sir Frederic) 
 
 Leighton anticipatory of his movements. Signed 
 " Robert Browning," and dated " Florence : "July 
 19, '6 1." 
 
 (22) Page 249. Letter to Miss Haworth, narrating the cir- 
 
 cumstances of his wife's death : " At four o'clock 
 there were symptoms that alarmed me. . . . Then 
 came what my heart will keep till I see her again, 
 and longer — the most perfect expression of her love 
 to me within my whole knowledge of her. Always 
 smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's — and 
 in a few minutes she died in my arms ; her head on 
 my cheek." Signed " Robert Browning," and dated 
 " Florence : July 20, 1861." 
 
 (23) Page 251. Extract from a letter to Miss Blagden, on 
 
 the subject of the provisional disinterment of his 
 wife's remains. Unsigned, but dated "Sept. '61." 
 
 (24) Page 256. Letter to Madame du Ouaire concerning 
 
 the best course to pursue as to the education of his 
 son. Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " M. 
 Chauvin St.-Enogat pres Dinard, He et Vilaine : 
 Aug. 17, '61." 
 
 (25) Page 258. Letter to Miss Blagden : " My heart is 
 
 sore for a great calamity just befallen poor Rossetti. 
 . . . There has hardly been a day when have not 
 thought, 'if I can, to-morrow, I will go and see him, 
 and thank him for his book, and return his sister's 
 poems.' Poor, dear fellow ! " Signature not given : 
 dated "Feb. 15, '62." 
 
 (26) Page 259. Letter to Miss Blagden, on his~stay at St.
 
 
 424 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Jean de Luz. Signature not given : dated "Biarritz, 
 Maison Gastonbide : Sept. 19, '62." 
 
 (27) Page 261. Letter to Miss Blagden on his being 
 
 " pestered with applications for leave to write the 
 Life of my wife — I have refused — and there's an 
 end." Signature not given : dated "Jan. 19, '63." 
 
 (28) Page 268. Letter to Miss Blagden on the " gossiping 
 
 going about" concerning himself and his books. 
 Signature not given : dated "August '65." 
 
 (29) Pages 271 — 273. Short extracts from letters to Miss 
 
 Blagden. Unsigned : dated respectively "Sept. '65," 
 "Feb. 19, '66," and "May 19, '66." 
 
 (30) Page 273. Letter to Miss Blagden on the death of his 
 
 father — " this good, unworldly, kind-hearted religious 
 man, whose powers, natural and acquired, would so 
 easily have made him a notable man, had he known 
 what vanity or ambition or the love of money or 
 social influence meant." Signature not given : dated 
 "Jime 20, '66." 
 
 (31) Page 276. Letter to Dr. Scott, Master of Balliol, 
 
 acknowledging the distinction of Honorary Fellow of 
 Balliol College which had been conferred upon him. 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated "19, Warwick 
 Crescent: Oct. 21, '67." 
 
 (32) Pages 277—284. Short extracts from letters to Miss 
 
 Blagden, and others, on various topics. 
 (33) Page 286. Letter to Miss Blagden : " Florence would 
 be irritating, and, on the whole, insufferable — Yet I 
 never hear of anyone going thither but my heart is 
 twitched." Signature not given : dated "Feb. 24."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 425 
 
 (34) Page 287. Letter to Miss Blagden, touching on 
 
 various reminiscences. Signature not given : dated 
 "St. Aubin : August 19, 1870." 
 
 (35) Letter to Mr. George Smith, asking him to buy the 
 
 right of printing a poem \Herve Rief\ in the Pall 
 Mall, or the Cor nhill Magazine, the proceeds to go to 
 the relief of the distressed people of Paris : " Would, 
 for the love of France, that this were a Song of a 
 Wren — then should the guineas equal the lines ; as it 
 is, do what you safely may for the song of a Robin — 
 Browning," dated "Feb. 4, '71." 
 
 (36) Page 291. Letter to Miss Blagden on the poem Prince 
 
 Hohenstiel-ScJiwangau : " I am told my little thing 
 is succeeding — sold 1,400 in the first five days, and 
 before any notice appeared." Signature not given : 
 dated "Jan. 1872." 
 
 (37) Page 309. Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald on his visit to 
 
 Oxford. Signed " R. Browning," and dated "Jan. 
 20, 1877." 
 
 (38) Page 312. Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald on "the harm- 
 
 less drolleries of the young men" [at Oxford]. 
 Signed " R. Browning " ; date not given. 
 
 (39) Page 314. Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald on his sojourn at 
 
 La Saisiaz. Signature not given : dated "August 
 17, 1877." 
 
 (40) Page 324. Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald describing his 
 
 visit to Asolo after an absence of forty years. Signed 
 "Robert Browning," and dated "Sept. 28, 1878." 
 
 (41) Page 332. Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald giving an 
 
 account of his residence in Venice. Signature not
 
 26 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 given : dated "Albergo deW Universo, Venezia, Italia : 
 Sept. 24, '81." 
 
 (42) Pages 336 — 339. Extracts from letters, signatures and 
 
 dates not given. 
 
 (43) Page 346. Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald on the Brown- 
 
 ing Society and the close of its first session : " They 
 always treat me gently in Punch — why don't you do 
 the same by the Browning Society ? They give 
 their time for nothing, offer their little entertainment 
 for nothing, and certainly get next to nothing in the 
 way of thanks — unless from myself, who feel grate- 
 ful to the faces I shall never see, the voices I shall 
 never hear." Signed "R. Browning:" date not given. 
 
 (44) Page 353. Letter to Miss Hickey on her annotated 
 
 edition of Strafford for the use of students. Signed 
 " Robert Browning " : and dated " 19, Warwick Cres- 
 cent, W., February 15, 1884." 
 
 (45) Page 354. Letter to Professor Knight on the varia- 
 
 tions in the text of Wordsworth's poem, The Daisy : 
 " Your method of giving the original text, and sub- 
 joining in a note the variations, each with its proper 
 date, is incontestably preferable to any other." 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated "19, Warwick 
 Crescent, W. : July 9, '80." 
 
 (46) Page 355. Letter to Professor Knight on the classify- 
 
 ing of Wordsworth's poems : " In my heart I fear I 
 should do it almost chronologically — so immeasur- 
 ably superior seem to me the ' first sprightly run- 
 nings.' " Signed " Robert Browning," and dated 
 " 19, Warwick Crescent, W. : March 23, '87."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 427 
 
 (47) Page 359. Letter to Mrs. Charles Skirrow on his 
 
 anticipated purchase of the Manzoni Palace, on the 
 Canal Grande, Venice. Signed " Robert Browning " : 
 and dated " Palazzo Giustiniani Recanati, S. Mo'ise : 
 Nov. 15, '85." 
 
 (48) Page 378. Letter to Mrs. Hill on an " impromptu 
 
 sonnet " — correctly printed in the Century, but in- 
 correctly extracted by the Pall Mall : " So does the 
 charge of unintelligibility attach itself to your poor 
 friend — who can kick nobody." Signed " Robert 
 Browning" : dated "Jan. 31, 1884." 
 
 (49) Page 391. Letter to Professor Knight on his un- 
 
 willingness to speak at public festivals. Signed 
 " Robert Browning," and dated " 19, Warwick Cres- 
 cent, W. : May 9, '84." 
 
 (50) Page 402. Letter to Mr. George Bainton on any 
 
 special " influence " that may have moulded his 
 " style." Signed " Robert Browning," and dated 
 " 29, De Vere Gardens : Oct. 6, '87." 
 
 (51) Page 403. Letter to Mr. Smith concerning certain 
 
 corrections in Pauline. Signed " Robert Brown- 
 ing," and dated " 29, De Vere Gardens, W. : Feb. 
 27, '88." 
 
 (52) Page 405. Letter to Lady Martin, mentioning the 
 
 acquisition, by his son, of the Rezzonico Palace, in 
 Venice. Signed " Robert Browning," and dated 
 " 29, De Vere Gardens, W. : Aug: 12, '88." 
 
 (53) Page 407. Letter to Miss Keep, on his sojourn at 
 
 Primiero : " It is, I am more and more confirmed in 
 believing, the most beautiful place I was ever
 
 428 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 resident in." Signature not given : dated " Pri- 
 miero : Sept. 7, '88." 
 
 (54) Page 409. Letter to Professor Knight on his view of 
 
 the position and function of Poetry : " Philosophy 
 first, and Poetry, which is its highest outcome, after- 
 ward — and much harm has been done by reversing 
 the natural process." Signed " Robert Browning," 
 and dated "29, De Vere Gardens, W. : June 16, 
 1889." 
 
 (55) Page 413. Letter to Mrs. Fitz-Gerald on Asolo. The 
 
 signature is not given : dated " Oct. 8, 1889." 
 
 (56) Page 414. Letter to Mrs. Skirrow, on his stay at 
 
 Asolo. Signed " Robert Browning " : dated 
 " Oct. 15." 
 
 (57) Page 415. Letter to Mr. George Smith descriptive of 
 
 Asolo : " The one thing I am disappointed in is to 
 find that the silk-cultivation with all the pretty 
 girls who were engaged in it are transported to 
 Cornuda and other places." Signed " Robert 
 Browning," and dated " Asolo, Veneto, Italia : Oct. 
 22, '89." 
 
 (58) Page 420. Letter to Mr. George Moulton-Barrett 
 
 descriptive of Asolo — " which strikes me, — as it did 
 fifty years ago, which is something to say, con- 
 sidering that, properly speaking, it was the first spot 
 of Italian soil I ever set foot upon — having pro- 
 ceeded to Venice by sea, and thence here." The 
 signature is not given : dated " Asolo, Veneto : Oct. 
 22, '89." 
 
 (59) Page 423. Letter to Miss Keep on his arrival at
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 429 
 
 Venice — " magnificently lodged in this vast palazzo 
 which my son has really shown himself fit to possess, 
 so surprising are his restorations and improvements." 
 The signature is not given, but dated " gth of 
 November." 
 
 (29.) 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. IV, No. 5, May, 1892, p. 233. Article 
 entitled Excerpts from a SJieafof Broivning Letters, 
 containing extracts from many letters by Robert 
 Browning. 
 
 (30.) 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. IV, Nos. 8 and 9, Aug.-Sept. 1892, p. 473. 
 Letter to a correspondent distinguishing "between 
 the good of having the poetical temperament, and 
 the not-good of attempting to make poetry one's 
 self, except in the extraordinary cases where there 
 is original creative power added to the merely sensi- 
 tive and appreciative, — valuable and distinguishing 
 as these are." Signed " Robert Browning," and 
 dated " 19, Warwick Crescent, Upper Westbonrne 
 Terrace, W. Apr. 27, '66." 
 
 (31.) 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. V, No. 5, May, 1893, p. 231. 
 
 (1) Page 231. Letter to Mr. W. G. Kingsland ex- 
 planatory of his apparent neglect in replying to a 
 communication. Signed "Robert Browning," and 
 dated "June, 1889."
 
 43o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (32.) 
 (2) Page 232. Letter to a lady [Miss C. G. Bar- 
 nard] stating how much he valued "all such 
 sympathy as you are pleased to express ; " and 
 assuring her that " I am the better for having heard 
 of your care to see me while it was yet possible." 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " Warwick 
 Crescent, May, 1884." 
 
 (330 
 The Daily Chronicle, July igth, 1895. Letter to Messrs. 
 Fields, Osgood & Co. regarding the Trans- Atlantic 
 publishing arrangements for The Ring and the Book. 
 Signed " Robert Browning," and dated " September 
 2nd, 1868." 
 %* The Chronicle avowedly reproduced this letter from 
 the Catalogue of an American firm of Autograph- 
 dealers. 
 
 (34-) 
 The Critic (New York). Letter to Mr. Edmund Gosse 
 selecting the four of his poems he would prefer to 
 have inserted in a volume of poetical selections : 
 " Let me say — at a venture — lyrical : Saul or 
 Abt Vogler ; narrative : A Forgiveness ; dramatic : 
 Caliban upon Setebos ; idyllic (in the Greek sense) : 
 Clive." Signed " Robert Browning," and dated "19 
 Warwick Crescent, W., March 15, 1885."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 431 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 An alphabetical list of Robert Browning's Poems, with references 
 to the positions of each in the various editions of his works. 
 
 A Blot in the 'Scutcheon. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1843, No. v. pp. 
 
 3-20. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. p. 1-60. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. ii. p. 216-274. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. p. 1-60. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. p. 1-70. 
 
 This play was first performed at Drury Lane on February nth, 
 1843, when Miss Helen Faucit (now Lady Martin) took the 
 part of Mildred Tresham, Mrs. Stirling that of Guendolen 
 Tresham, Mr. Phelps Lord Tresham, Mr. Hudson Austin 
 Tresham, Mr. Anderson Henry Earl Mertoun, and Mr. Bennett 
 Gerard. The circumstances attending the production of the 
 play, as also its rehearsal, were by no means favourable to its 
 success, and must in any case have militated against it. The 
 Exa?niner (Feb. 18, 1843) remarks that " of the performance we 
 have little to say, but that we think it was on the whole under- 
 acted." Some measure of success, however, was vouchsafed the 
 play — for we are told that at the close of the performance 
 " the applause greatly predominated." 
 
 On the 27th of November, 1848 — some five years later — the play 
 was revived by Mr. Phelps, at Sadler's Wells Theatre, and on 
 this occasion was a decided success. Mr. Phelps himself took 
 the part of Lord Tresham, Miss Cooper that of Mildred 
 Tresham, and Miss Huldart Guendolen Tresham, Mr. Dickin- 
 son representing Earl Mertoun. It was excellently mounted, 
 and well acted — evidently giving satisfaction to a numerous 
 audience. 
 
 Not for some seven-and-thirty years after Mr. Phelps's revival 
 was A Blot in the 'Scutcheon again put on the boards : when
 
 432 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 on May 2nd, 1885, it was performed at St. George's Hall, under 
 the direction of Mr. Charles Fry, and was a most interesting 
 performance, Mr. Browning himself being present in a private 
 box. Three years later (March 18th, 1888) a still more interest- 
 ing revival of the play has to be recorded, on this occasion 
 under the auspices of the Browning Society. It was performed 
 in the Olympic Theatre, and there was an excellent caste — Miss 
 Alma Murray (now Mrs. Alfred Forman) taking the part of 
 Mildred Tresham, a part which was rendered with refined 
 delicacy and grace of conception, and was indeed an intel- 
 lectual performance of a very high order. Mr. Browning and 
 his sister were present on this occasion also. 
 In March, 1885, Mr. Lawrence Barrett gave a very successful 
 performance of the play at Boston, U.S.A. 
 
 A ftrofios of the first performance of A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, 
 Lady Martin (formerly Miss Helen Faucit) writes as follows in 
 Blackwood's Magazine for March, 1881 : "It seems but yester- 
 day that I sat in the green-room at the reading of Robert 
 Browning's beautiful drama A Blot in the 'Scutcheon. As a 
 rule, Mr. Macready always read the new plays. But owing, I 
 suppose, to some stress of business, the task was entrusted on 
 this occasion to the head prompter, a man . . . wholly unfitted 
 to bring out, or even to understand, Mr. Browning's meaning. 
 Consequently, the delicate, subtle lines were twisted, perverted, 
 and sometimes even made ridiculous in his hands. My ' cruel 
 father ' (Mr. Elton) was a warm admirer of the poet. He sat 
 writhing and indignant, and tried by gentle asides to make me 
 see the real meaning of the verse. But somehow the mischief 
 proved irreparable, for a few of the actors during the rehearsals 
 chose to continue to misunderstand the text, and never took 
 the interest in the play which they would have done had Mr. 
 Macready read it — for he had great power as a reader. I 
 always thought it was chiefly because of this co?itretemps that a 
 play so thoroughly dramatic failed, despite its painful story, to 
 make the great success which was justly its due." 
 Writing in 1842 to Forster, Charles Dickens says : — " Brown- 
 ing's play [A Blot in the 'Scutcheon] has thrown me into a 
 perfect passion of sorrow. To say that there is anything in its
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 433 
 
 • subject save what is lovely, true, deeply affecting, full of the 
 
 best emotion, the most earnest feeling, and the most true and 
 . tender source of interest, is to say that there is no light in the 
 sun, and no heat in the blood. It is full of genius, natural and 
 great thoughts, profound and yet simple, and yet beautiful in its 
 vigour. I know nothing that is so affecting, nothing in any 
 book I have ever read, as Mildred's recurrence to that : ' I was 
 so young — I had no mother.' I know no love like it, no passion 
 like it, no moulding of a splendid thing after its conception, like 
 it. And I swear it is a tragedy that MUST be played : and must 
 be played, moreover, by Macready. There are some things 
 that I would have changed if I could (they are very slight, 
 mostly broken lines) ; and I assuredly would have the old 
 servant begin his tale upon the scene; and be taken by the 
 throat, or drawn upon, by his master, in its commencement. 
 But the tragedy I shall never forget, or less vividly remember 
 than I do now. And if you tell Browning that I have seen it, 
 tell him that I believe from my soul there is no man living (and 
 not many dead) who could produce such a work." 
 In reference to this letter, it may be desirable to note that Mr. 
 Browning had lent the manuscript of his tragedy to John 
 Forster, who took upon himself to pass it on to Charles Dickens 
 — in the belief, as he says, " that it would profoundly touch him." 
 That Forster was not mistaken in this belief is evident from the 
 above letter. Unfortunately, however, he kept its contents to 
 himself — and some thirty years were to elapse ere the poet 
 knew how deeply his work had touched the great novelist. The 
 letter was made public for the first time in Forster 's Life of 
 Dickens [vol. ii. pp. 24-25] ; and Mr. Browning made no secret 
 of his regret that the nature of its contents had been so long 
 withheld : naturally feeling that such an expression of opinion 
 from one so prominently before the public would have been 
 invaluable to himself and his work at that period of his career. 
 
 A Camel-driver. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishlah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 59-67. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 40-46. 
 VOL. I F F
 
 434 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 A Death in the Desert. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 89-119. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 1 10-135. 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 120-148. 
 
 In revising this poem for subsequent editions, no alteration 
 seems to have been made save in one instance — when a whole 
 line was omitted. It would be interesting to know whether this 
 was deleted by the poet, or was a mistake on the part of the 
 printer : this latter, however, being hardly a tenable hypothesis, 
 as such a blunder would scarcely have escaped the notice of the 
 printer's " reader." In the original edition, from line 212, the 
 reading was as follows : 
 
 " Is not his love at issue still with sin, 
 
 Closed with and cast and conquered, crucified 
 Visibly when a wrong is done on earth ? " 
 
 The poem now reading — 
 
 " Is not his love at issue still with sin, 
 Visibly when a wrong is done on earth ? " 
 
 A Grammarian's Funeral. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 210-217. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 278-284. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 270-275. 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 154-160. 
 
 In the Daily News of Nov. 21, 1874, appeared the following 
 letter from Mr. Browning : " Sir — In a clever article this morning 
 you speak of ' the doctrine of the enclitic De ' — ' which, with 
 all deference to Mr. Browning, in point of fact does not exist.' 
 No, not to Mr. Browning : but pray defer to Herr Buttmann, 
 
 whose fifth list of ' enclitics ' ends with ' the inseparable De ' 
 
 or to Curtius, whose fifth list ends also with ' De (meaning 
 "towards" and as a demonstrative appendage).' That this is not 
 to be confounded with the accentuated ' De, meaning but,' was 
 the ' doctrine ' which the Grammarian bequeathed to those 
 capable of receiving it."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 435 
 
 A Face. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 161- 162. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. p. 158. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 176-177 
 
 A Forgiveness. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 131-161. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 86-103. 
 
 A Light Woman. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 1 51-155. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 226-228. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 217-220. 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. 92-95. 
 
 A Likeness. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 163-168. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 159-161. 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 178-18 1. 
 
 A Lover's Quarrel. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 7-18. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 42-48. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 11 5-122. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 58-65. 
 
 A Pearl, A Girl. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 14-15. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. p. 12. 
 
 A Pillar at Sebzevah. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah 's Fancies, 1884, pp. 93-103. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 62-68. 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 A Pretty Woman. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 128-134. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 125-128. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 197-200. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 163-167. 
 
 A Serenade at the Villa. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. p. 117-121. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 1 19-122. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 191-194- 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 155-158. 
 
 A Soul's Tragedy. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. viii. 
 
 pp. 21-32. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 211-251. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 428-467. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 1-41. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iii. pp. 257-302. 
 
 So well known and so widely circulated is the anecdote about 
 Douglas Jerrold and Sordello, that the following extract from 
 that writer's magazine {Douglas Jerrohfs Shilling Magazine, 
 June 1846) will be of more than ordinary interest: "A Souls 
 Tragedy is one of the most intensely dramatic works ever 
 penned. The deepest emotions and the nicest traits of charac- 
 ter are developed by the mere external conduct and expression. 
 The villain of the piece is a thorough human villain, and the 
 unfolding his villainy is a masterly exposition of the degrada- 
 tions and weakness of human nature. The truly good and the 
 noble are equally powerfully pourtrayed, and Mr. Browning has 
 fulfilled the mission of the poet and the dramatist by giving 
 new and valuable illustrations of our human nature. The 
 theatre and Mr. Browning's dramas are never likely to come in 
 contact ; not at all events until, as in the early days of our true 
 drama, the most refined minds, and therefore the comparatively 
 few, again visit the playhouse as a place to study nature and 
 philosophy. The high drama was always played in its entirety,
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 437 
 
 and always must be, to the reflecting few. When we have 
 another ' Globe ' or ' Blackfriars,' containing a few hundred 
 cultivated spectators, Mr. Browning's dramas may be per- 
 formed." 
 
 A Toccata of Galuppi's. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 56-62. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 54-58. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 127-130. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 72-76. 
 
 In her Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy, " Vernon Lee " 
 says of the Venetian Baldassarre Galuppi, surnamed Buranello, 
 that he was " an immensely prolific composer, and abounded in 
 melody, tender, pathetic, and brilliant, which in its extreme 
 simplicity and slightness occasionally rose to the highest 
 beauty. . . He defined the requisites of his art to Burney in 
 very moderate terms—' Chiarezza, vaghezza, e buona modula- 
 zione' — clearness, beauty, and good modulation, without 
 troubling himself much about any others. . . Galuppi was a 
 model of the respectable modest artist, living quietly on a 
 moderate fortune, busy with his art and the education of his 
 numerous children ; beloved and revered by his fellow artists ; 
 and, when some fifteen years later [than 1770] he died, honoured 
 by them with a splendid funeral, at which all the Venetian 
 musicians performed, the great Pachierotti writing to Burney 
 that he had ' sung with much devotion to obtain a rest for 
 Buranello's (Galuppi's) soul.' " 
 
 Ritter, in his History of Music (p. 245), has a concise but 
 expressive notice of Galuppi : " Balthasar Galuppi, called 
 Buranello (1706-1785), a pupil of Lotti, also composed many 
 comic operas. The main features of his operas are melodic 
 elegance, and lively and spirited comic forms ; but they are 
 rather thin and weak in their execution. He was a great 
 favourite during his lifetime." 
 
 Concerning the technical musical allusions in this poem, which 
 are all found in the seventh, eighth, and ninth verses, Miss 
 Helen A. Clarke writes as follows {Poet Lore, Vol. ii. pp. 546- 
 547] : The " lesser thirds " are of course minor thirds, and are
 
 438 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 of common occurrence, but the diminished sixth is an interval 
 rarely used, ordinarily a diminished sixth (seven semitones), 
 exactly the same interval as a perfect fifth, instead of giving a 
 plaintive, mournful or minor impression, would suggest a feeling 
 of rest and satisfaction. As I have said, however, there is one 
 way in which it can be used, — as a suspension, in which the root 
 of the chord on the lowered super-tonic of the scale is suspended 
 from above into the chord with added seventh on the super- 
 tonic, making a diminished sixth between the root of the first 
 and the third of the second chord. The effect of this pro- 
 gression is most dismal, and possibly Browning had it in mind, 
 though it is doubtful almost to certainty if Galuppi knew any- 
 thing of it. Whether it be an anachronism or not, or whether 
 it is used in a scientifically accurate way or not, the figure is 
 true enough poetically, for a diminished interval — namely, some- 
 thing less than normal — would naturally suggest an effect of 
 sadness. 
 
 Suspensions are notes which are held over from one chord into 
 another, and must be made according to certain musical rules 
 as strict as the laws of the Medes and Persians. This holding 
 over of a note always produces a dissonance, and must be 
 followed by a concord, — in other words a solution. Sevenths 
 are very important dissonances in music, and a commiserating 
 seventh is most likely the variety called a minor seventh. Being 
 a somewhat less mournful interval than the lesser thirds and 
 the diminished sixths, whether real or imaginary, yet not so final 
 as " those solutions " which seem to put an end to all uncertainty, 
 and therefore to life, they arouse in the listeners to Galuppi's 
 playing a hope that life may last, although in a sort of disson- 
 antal, Wagnerian fashion. The " commiserating sevenths " 
 are closely connected with the " dominant's persistence " in the 
 next verse. 
 
 "Hark ! the dominant's persistence till it must be answered to : 
 So an octave struck the answer." 
 
 The dominant chord in music is the chord written on the fifth 
 degree of the scale, and it almost always has a seventh added 
 to it, and in a large percentage of cases is followed by the tonic,
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 439 
 
 the chord on the first degree of the scale. Now, in fugue form 
 a theme is first presented in the tonic key, then the same theme 
 is repeated in the dominant key, the latter being called the 
 answer ; after further contrapuntal wanderings of the theme the 
 fugue comes to what is called an episode, after which the theme 
 is presented first, in the dominant. " Hark ! the dominant's 
 persistence " alludes to this musical fact ; but according to rule 
 this dominant must be answered in the tonic an octave above 
 the first presentation of the theme, and " So an octave struck 
 the answer." Thus the inexorable solution comes in after the 
 dominant's persistence. Although life seemed possible with 
 commiserating sevenths, the tonic, a resistless fate, strikes the 
 answer that all must end— an answer which the frivolous people 
 of Venice failed to perceive, and went on with their kissing. 
 The notion of the tonic key as a relentless fate seems to suit 
 well with the formal music of the days of Galuppi, while the 
 more hopeful tonic key of Abt Vogler, " the C major of this 
 life," indicates that fate and the tonic key have both fallen more 
 under man's control. 
 
 A Woman's Last Word. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 31-34. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 34-35. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 108-109. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 48-50. 
 
 Abt Vogler. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona:, 1864, pp. 67-75. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 92-98. 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 101-108. 
 
 Abt Vogler (Georg Joseph Vogler) 1 was born at Pleicchart, a 
 suburb of Wiirtzburg, on June 15, 1749. He was educated by 
 
 1 See Abt Georg Joseph Vogler: sein Leben, Charahter, und musikalischer 
 System, Sec, by Dr. Karl Emil von Schafhautl ; also Sir G. Grove's Dictionary 
 of Music and Musicians. An excellent epitome of the life and work of Abt 
 Vogler, from the pen of Miss Helen Ormerod, will be found in the Browning 
 Society' 's Papers, Part x. p. 221.
 
 440 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Jesuits, and soon gave evidence of those brilliant qualities by 
 which he was distinguished. At an early age — and indeed 
 throughout his life — he was possessed by an untiring industry, 
 courage and piety ; while he was specially endowed with an 
 aptitude for music, and an extraordinary linguistic facility. As 
 an instance of this latter, it is related that during five months 
 spent in Spain, Africa and Greece he confessed fifteen hundred 
 persons in twelve different languages ! It was an important 
 moment in his life when, on the point of entering the Franciscan 
 monastery at Wiirtzburg, he received the appointment of al- 
 moner to the Elector. His fame as a musician soon spread, and 
 Weber, at the age of seven, was placed under his tuition. In 
 1773 he visited Italy, studying under the best teachers Padua 
 could afford. In 1775 he returned to Mannheim, where he was 
 appointed Court chaplain and Vice-Kapelhueister. It was at 
 Mannheim he founded his first school of music. In 1780 he fol- 
 lowed the Elector to Munich, and visited Paris in the December 
 of that year, giving a series of organ recitals. He then passed 
 over to England, and expounded to the Royal Society, under the 
 presidency of Sir Joseph Banks, his views upon organ-construc- 
 tion. In 1784 he was Kapellmeister 2X Munich, where he brought 
 out his opera of Castor and Pollux ; thence he proceeded to 
 Berlin and Diisseldorf — where he was led to endeavour to render 
 in music the impression made upon him by the pictures in the 
 galleries of these two places. In 1786 he visited Sweden — two 
 years later departing thence for Russia, where he made a tour 
 of the celebrated organs and organ-builders of that country. 
 Now it was that he came to a decision to construct on his own 
 plan a portable organ, which he called "orchestrion" — en- 
 gaging the Swedish organ-builder Racknitz to carry out his 
 plans. It had been his life-long endeavour to invent a portable 
 organ on which to perform at his recitals, and his efforts were 
 at last to meet with success. He had now the " instrument of 
 his own invention " of which Browning speaks, and the plan of 
 it led him to form schemes for the remodelling and simplifi- 
 cation of existing organs. In his own " orchestrion " he com- 
 bined his inventions and improvements ; conveying it with him 
 from place to place. " It was about three feet square, and higher
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 441 
 
 in the middle than the sides ; it contained about goo pipes, had 
 shutters for crescendos and diminuendos, and naturally the reed 
 stops were free reeds." In 1790, Vogler again visited England ; 
 afterwards proceeding to Darmstadt, where he received a series 
 of ovations. In 1796 he was in Paris, amid the throes of events 
 happening there, and where he studied the national songs of 
 the Revolution. In 1798 he again left Stockholm, where he had 
 founded his second school of music. In 1803 he was invited to 
 Vienna, and there produced his Castor and Pollux — returning 
 to Munich two years later to superintend the performance 
 of his opera before Napoleon. He subsequently accepted an 
 invitation to Darmstadt, where for some years he resided in 
 peace and honour, and whither Weber and Meyerbeer went to 
 be his pupils. He died of apoplexy on May 6, 1814, loaded 
 with honours, and with every proof of love and esteem. 
 
 Adam, Lilith, and Eve. 
 
 First appeared mjocoscria, 1883, pp. 51-54. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 197-198. 
 
 After. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 19-20. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 141- 142. 
 Ditto ditto 1 868, Vol. iii. pp. 213-214. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 186. 
 
 "All singers, trust me, have this common vice." 
 
 First appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 13, 1883. 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society' 's Papers, Part v. p. 99*. 
 
 These lines were not included by Mr. Browning in the final, 
 
 17 vol., edition of his works. 
 
 This stanza is a translation of the well-known lines of Horace — 
 
 Omnibus hoc vitium est cantoribus inter amicos 
 Ut nunquam inducant animum cantare rogati ; 
 Injussi, nunquam desistant. 
 
 They were Englished (impromptu) for Mr. Felix Moscheles, the 
 painter ; who, having asked Mr. Browning if he knew of a good
 
 44? A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 translation of them, was answered by the Poet himself supply- 
 ing the following free version : — 
 
 "All singers, trust me, have this common vice : 
 To sing 'mid friends, you'll have to ask them twice. 
 If you don't ask them, 'tis another thing, 
 Until the judgment-day be sure they'll sing." 
 
 AMPHIBIAN (" The fancy I had to-day "). 
 
 First appeared in Fijine at the Fair, 1872, pp. vii-xii. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xi. pp. 215-219. 
 This poem forms the prologue to Fijine at the Fair. 
 
 An Epistle concerning the strange Medical 
 Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 90-106. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 332-343. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 218-229. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 186-198. 
 
 Andrea del Sarto. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 1-14. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 360-369. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 248-257. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. p. 221-231. 
 
 As is probably known to most readers, this poem was suggested 
 to Mr. Browning by Andrea del Sarto's portrait of himself and 
 his wife Lucrezia, in the Pitti Palace, Florence. Writing from 
 Florence [to Dr. Furnivall] apropos of this picture, Mr. Ernest 
 Radford says : " Any one who has sat, as I have, looking at the 
 picture of which I write, will feel that the poem is true — not 
 merely typically, but historically. The catalogue says : ' The 
 painter, seen in three-corner face, appears by the gesture of his 
 left hand to appeal to his wife, Lucrezia Fede. His right hand 
 rests on her shoulder [his arm is around her, I may remark — an 
 act of tenderness which has much to do with the pathos of the 
 composition]. Lucrezia is presented in full face, with a golden
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 443 
 
 chain on her neck, and a letter in her hand.' The artist and 
 his wife are represented at half length. Andrea turns towards 
 her with a pleading expression on his face — a face not so beau- 
 tiful as that in the splendid portrait in the National Gallery ; 
 but when once felt it strikes a deeper chord. It wears an 
 expression that cannot be forgotten— that nothing can suggest 
 but the poem of Browning. Andrea's right arm, as I said, is 
 round her ; he leans forward as if searching her face for the 
 strength that has gone from himself. She is beautiful. I have 
 seen the face (varied as a musician varies his theme) in a hun- 
 dred pictures. She holds the letter in her hand, and looks 
 neither at that nor at him, but straight out of the canvas. And 
 the beautiful face, with the red-brown hair, is passive and un- 
 ruffled, and awfully expressionless. Byron speaks of the ' one 
 simile for a proud angry woman, and that's thunder ! ' There 
 is ' silent thunder ' in this face, if ever there was, though there 
 is no anger. It suggests only a very mild, and at the same time 
 immutable determination to have ' her own way.' It seems 
 rather a personification of obstinacy in the female type than a 
 portrait. She is a magnificent Rosamund Viney, and will lure her 
 husband to his own damnation as kindly and surely as George 
 Eliot's heroine does the unfortunate Lydgate. . . . Really, whilst 
 looking at it the words of the poem come little by little into my 
 mind, and it seems as if I had read them in Andrea's face. 
 And so now, when I read it in my room, the picture is almost 
 as vividly before me as when I am in the gallery, so completely 
 do the two seem complementary." — {Browning Society's Papers, 
 Part ii., pp. 160-161. Dr. Furnivall remarks that the letter of 
 Mr. Radford (who at the time was not aware that the poem had 
 been directly inspired by the picture) " is at once a witness to 
 his own penetration, and to the power and truth of Browning's 
 creative art — which makes us claim him as the greatest ' Maker ' 
 and master of characterisation since Shakespere."] 
 Of Lucrezia as seen in Andrea's pictures, Mr. William Mercer 
 also writes : " Lucrezia may be traced beyond dispute in the 
 Madonna del Sacco and in the Birth of the Virgin, to be seen 
 in the cloister and cortile of the church of the Annunziata, also 
 in the Madonna called ' of the Harpies ' in the Tribuna of the
 
 444 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Uffizi Gallery. Most exquisite among all, she appears in the 
 girlish profile of the Madonna in the Pitti Palace in the paint- 
 ing of the Holy Family, so called for want of a better title, 
 although San Giuseppe is absent. But there is no need to travel 
 outside the cloister of the Scalzo ; for in one of the scenes 
 depicting the life of St. John the Baptist, the soft, sweet face 
 that haunted and pursued the painter even to the Court of the 
 French King Francis, is ever present, and as Herodias glances 
 across a table in seeming confidence of sure recognition." 
 
 As to the accuracy of Browning's reading of the painter's life- 
 history, Mr. Frederick Wedmore (a very high authority) says : 
 " All the real Andrea del Sarto — at all events as men knew him 
 when Mr. Browning wrote— is in this poem. That is his portrait, 
 his history ; its form, almost autobiography : incidents in the 
 development — yes, also in the decay — of a soul." 
 
 Another Way of Love. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 220-222. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 123-124. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 195-196. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 161-162. 
 
 Any Wife to any Husband. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 81-89. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 110-115. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 182-1S7. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 142-149. 
 
 Apollo and the Fates. 
 
 First appeared in Parley ings, 1887, pp. 1-2S. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 97-116. 
 
 This poem forms the Prologue to the volume called Parleying* 
 ■with certain People of Importance in their Day. 
 
 Apparent Failure. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Personcc, 1864, pp. 237-242. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 219-221. 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 246-249
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 445 
 
 Written to keep alive the memory of a once famous building in 
 Paris, Mr. Browning in this poem sits in judgment on the 
 bodies of three drowned men, which he saw exposed in the 
 Morgue in that city in the summer of 1856. 
 
 Appearances. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 106-107. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, Vol. xiv. p. 70. 
 
 Arcades Ambo. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 56-57. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. p. 47. 
 
 Aristophanes' Apology ; including a Transcript from 
 Euripides. Being the last Adventure of Balaustion. 
 
 First appeared (1875) in one vol. See ante, p. 383, No. 17. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiii. pp. 1-258. 
 
 " It appears," says Mr. Bury, " that Browning has been pecu- 
 liarly drawn to a period in the history of the Hellenic spirit 
 which, unlike his own century in other respects, resembles it in 
 a moral and religious restlessness which produces a need o 
 escape. In Aristophanes' Apology he shows how Euripides 
 met this need, and exhibits the saving power, which he ascribes 
 to his poetry, in the hopefulness of Balaustion. It may be 
 objected that in many respects the character of Balaustion is an 
 anachronism, that she is not a Greek but a modern woman. 
 As a point of fact the objection is true as well as obvious ; but 
 there is a reason for this modern character. Euripides was the 
 first Greek who pointed beyond the Greek to a new world ; the 
 beginnings of the modern spirit appear in him. And Balaustion 
 is the interpretess of Euripides, who brings forth to light what 
 is latent in his poetry, and therefore her soul must have a 
 certain consonance with the modern world." — [Browning 
 Society's Papers, Part viii. p. 79.] 
 
 Artemis Prologizes. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, No. iii. p. 9. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 280-284. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 327-331.
 
 446 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. v. pp. 213-217. 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 181-185. 
 
 This poem had been destined to form part of a longer compo- 
 sition, and was suggested by the Hippolytos of Euripides. 
 Mr. Browning writes concerning it : "I had better say perhaps 
 that the above is nearly all retained of a tragedy I composed, 
 much against my endeavour, while in bed with a fever two years 
 ago — it went farther into the story of Hippolytus and Aricia ; 
 but when I got well, putting only thus much down at once, I 
 soon forgot the remainder." 
 
 Some deviations from the first version of this poem may be 
 duly noted here. For instance, lines 24-26, originally reading — 
 
 " But when Hippolutos exclaimed with rage 
 Against the miserable Queen, she judged 
 Intolerable life," 
 
 now reads — 
 
 " Hippolutos exclaiming in his rage 
 
 Against the fury of the Queen, she judged 
 Life insupportable." 
 
 And in the last line, for the more sonorous — 
 
 " In fitting silence the event await," 
 
 we now have — 
 
 "Await, in fitting silence, the event." 
 
 " Ask not one least word of praise." 
 
 First appeared in Feris/ita/i's Fancies, 1884, p. 104. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1889, Vol. xvi. p. 68. 
 
 At the " Mermaid." 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 47-59. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 31-38. 
 
 "£AT THE MIDNIGHT IN THE SILENCE OF THE SLEEP 
 TIME." 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 156-157. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 130- 131.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 447 
 
 This poem is the Epilogue to Asolando ; and is of especial 
 interest in that it is understood to have been the last poem 
 written by Mr. Browning. 
 
 Avison, Charles, Parleying with. 
 
 First appeared in Parley ings, 1887, pp. 191-220. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 221-240. 
 
 Charles Avison, a musician, was born in Newcastle about 17 10. 
 
 After studying in Italy, he returned to England and became a 
 
 pupil under Geminiani. He was appointed organist of St. 
 
 Nicholas Church, Newcastle, in 1736. His celebrated Essay 
 
 on Musical Expression appeared in 1752, and startled the 
 
 musical world by putting the French and Italian schools of 
 
 music above the German, headed by Handel himself. This 
 
 book led to a controversy with Dr. Hayes, in which, according to 
 
 the Dictionary of National Biography (from which we glean 
 
 these facts), " Hayes had the best of the argument, though 
 
 Avison was superior from a literary point of view." Avison was 
 
 said to be a man of much culture and polish, and issued several 
 
 sets of sonatas and concertos. He died in 1770. 
 
 It is interesting to note that, on May 28, 1890, a new tombstone, 
 
 erected over the grave of Charles Avison, in St. Andrew's 
 
 Churchyard, Newcastle, was unveiled, with all due ceremony. 
 
 In connection with this event, Mr. Barrett Browning wrote : 
 
 " The ceremony would have a deep interest for me, as you can 
 
 understand ; for my father was really pleased to think he had 
 
 been able to call attention to Charles Avison with such good 
 
 result." The following lines from Mr. Browning's poem were 
 
 inscribed on the tombstone : — 
 
 " On the list 
 Of worthies who by help of pipe or wire 
 Expressed in sound rough rage or soft desire 
 Thou whilom of Newcastle organist." 
 
 Bad Dreams. I. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, p. 19. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, vol. xvii. p. 16.
 
 448 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Bad Dreams. II. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 18S9, pp. 20-26. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii pp. 17-22. 
 
 Bad Dreams. III. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 27-29. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 23-25. 
 
 Bad Dreams. IV. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 30-33. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 26-28. 
 
 Balaustiox, the Last Adventure of. See Arts* 
 
 top/lanes' Apology. 
 
 Balaustion's Adventure ; including a Transcript 
 from Euripides. 
 
 First appeared (1871) in one Vol. See ante, p. 381, No. 13. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xi. pp. 1-122. 
 
 The structure upon which Balaustion's Adventure was raised 
 may be found in the following description by Plutarch of 
 the fate of the Athenians defeated under Nikias by the 
 Syracusans : Some there were who owed their preservation to 
 Euripides. Of all the Grecians, his was the muse whom the 
 Sicilians were most in love with. From every stranger that 
 landed in their island they gleaned every small specimen or 
 portion of his works, and communicated it with pleasure to each 
 other. It is said that on this occasion a number of Athenians, 
 upon their return home, went to Euripides, and thanked him 
 in the most respectful manner for their obligations to his pen ; 
 some having been enfranchised for teaching their masters what 
 they remembered of his poems, and others having got refresh- 
 ments when they were wandering about after the battle for 
 singing a few of his verses. Nor is this to be wondered at, 
 since they tell us that when a ship from Caunus, which happened 
 to be pursued by pirates, was going to take shelter in one of
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 449 
 
 their ports, the Sicilians at first refused to admit her, but upon 
 asking the crew whether they knew any of the verses of Euri- 
 pides, and having answered in the affirmative, they received 
 both them and their vessel. 
 
 Bartoli, Daniel, Parleying with. 
 
 First appeared in Parleyings, 1887, pp. 51-75. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 132-147. 
 
 Daniel Bartoli — who was born at Ferrara in 1608 and died at 
 Rome in 1685 — was a learned Jesuit: his chief work being a 
 history of his Order, in six volumes, published at various times. 
 It is crowded with stories of miracles, and is enriched with facts 
 drawn from the Vatican records, and from memoires sent him 
 by friends in England. His style is much esteemed by Italians 
 for its purity and precision ; while his manner of life is said to 
 have been correct and virtuous. 
 
 Beatrice Signorini. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 76-98. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 62-81. 
 
 Before. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, v °l- «■ PP- 15-18. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863/^Vol. i. pp 139-141. 
 Ditto ditto, 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 211-213. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 183-185. 
 
 Bells and Pomegranates. 
 
 i. Pipfia Passes, first appeared in 1841, pp. 1-16. 
 
 ii. King Victor and King Charles, „ „ 1S42, pp. 1-20. 
 Dramatic Lyrics, „ „ 1842, pp. 1-16. 
 
 The Return of the Druses, „ „ 1843, PP- 1-19- 
 
 v. A Blot in the' Scutcheon, „ „ 1843, pp. 1-16. 
 
 vi. Colombo s Birthday, „ „ 1844, pp. 1-24. 
 
 vii. Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, „ „ 1845, pp. 1-24. 
 viii. Luria and A Soul's Tragedy, „ „ 1845, PP- 1-32. 
 
 G G 
 
 111. 
 iv.
 
 450 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 " I had hardly ended my first conversation [in their student 
 days] with Rossetti," says Mr. W. Holman Hunt, " when he asked 
 me if I knew Browning. I confessed I did not. Quickly he 
 lent me the paper-covered volume of Bells and Pomegranates. 
 . . . We discussed together the English and Tuscan poets ; but 
 there was no poet more honoured by us than Browning. At 
 that time Browning was not found in every house ; few knew 
 his name — but that made him the more welcome to them. At 
 that time, he remembered a certain barrister, Serjeant Thomas, 
 saying that ' a great fuss had been made about one Browning, 
 but it had all ended in smoke,' and that was then the general 
 opinion. Since then, however, his reputation had grown and 
 was still growing, and was now built on a sound and solid 
 basis." — [Browning Society's Papers, Part iv, 64*.] 
 
 Ben Karshook's Wisdom. 
 
 First appeared in The Keepsake, 1856, p. 16. 
 Reprinted in Browning Society's Papers, Part i. p. 56. 
 Ditto, W. G. Kingsland's Robert Browning: Chief Poet of the 
 Age, p. 26 ; also in Sharpens Life of Robert Browning, p. 167. 
 
 " Karshook (Heb. : a Thistle)," writes Mr. Browning, in 1881, 
 " belongs to the snarling verses I remember to have written, 
 but forget for whom." 
 
 This poem appeared in The Keepsake for 1856, under the 
 editorship of Miss Power, and was dated " Rome, April 27th 
 1854." As the "snarling verses "have not been reprinted in 
 any edition of Mr. Browning's works, they are inserted here — 
 in the exact form in which they appeared in The Keepsake : — 
 
 I. 
 
 " Would a man 'scape the rod ?" 
 
 Rabbi Ben Karshook saith, 
 " See that he turn to God, 
 
 The day before his death." 
 
 ' ' Ay, could a man inquire, 
 
 When it shall come ! " I say. 
 The Rabbi's eye shoots fire — 
 
 ' ' Then let him turn to-day ! "
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 451 
 
 II. 
 
 Quoth a young Sadducce : 
 
 " Reader of many rolls, 
 Is it so certain we 
 
 Have, as they tell us, souls?" 
 
 " Son, there is no reply ! " 
 
 The Rabbi bit his beard : 
 " Certain, a soul have / — 
 
 We may have none," he sneered. 
 
 Thus Karshook, the Hiram's-Hammer, 
 
 The Right-hand Temple-column, 
 Taught babes in grace their grammar, 
 
 And struck the simple, solemn. 
 
 Bifurcation. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 91-94. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 61-62. 
 
 Bishop Blougram's Apology. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 205-258. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. 374-410. 
 Ditto ditto, 1868, Vol. v. pp. 262-298. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 238-278. 
 
 Writing to Dr. Furnivall in August 1881, Mr. Browning says : 
 "The most curious notice I ever had was from Cardinal 
 Wiseman on Blongram—i.e., himself. It was in the Rambler, 
 a Catholic journal of those days, and certified to be his by 
 Father Prout, who said nobody else would have dared put it in." 
 
 BOOT AND SADDLE (originally My Wife Gertrude). See 
 Cavalier Tunes. 
 
 By the Fireside. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 63-80. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 98-110. 
 Ditto ditto, 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 170-182. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 126-141. 
 
 G G 2
 
 452 a bibliography of 
 
 Caliban upon Setebos ; or, Natural Theology in 
 the Island. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona', 1864, pp. 121-135. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 136-147. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 149-161. 
 
 In the first edition of this poem there was a motto prefixed, 
 which gave a clear indication of the drift of the argument : 
 " Thou thoughtedst that I was altogether such a one as thyself." 
 When the poem was reprinted in the collected edition of 1868, 
 this motto was, strangely enough, omitted. On calling Mr. 
 Browning's attention to this circumstance, he at once admitted 
 the gravity of the omission, and remarked that it must have 
 been due to the carelessness of the printer, who had possibly 
 mislaid the printed leaf of copy : he, however, said he would 
 take care it was restored in any subsequent edition. 
 Concerning the character of Setebos, the following quotation 
 from the Hukluyt Society's Englishing of Magellaris Voyage, 
 and from Purchas his Pi/grimes (from which we get a reference 
 to the origin of Shakspere's Setebos), may be of interest : He 
 comes from Patagonia, from among the people whom the 
 captain Magellan named " Pataghom," on account of their big 
 feet. In 1519, the captain put irons upon the feet of two giants, 
 and " when they saw the trick which had been played them, 
 they began to be enraged and to foam like bulls, crying out very 
 loud ' Setebos J that is to say, the great devil, that he should help 
 them." And " when one of them dies, ten or twelve devils ap- 
 pear, and dance all round the dead man. It seems that these 
 are painted, and one of these enemies is taller than the others, 
 and makes a greater noise, and more mirth than the others : 
 that is whence these people have taken the custom of painting 
 their faces and bodies, as has been said. The greatest of these 
 devils is called in their language Setebos, and the others 
 Chelcule." Again, Purchas says of the surviving giant, " On a 
 time as one made a Crosse before him and kissed it, shewing 
 it unto him, hee suddenly cried Setebos, and declared by signes 
 that if they made any more Crosses, Setebos would enter into
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 453 
 
 his body, and make him burst. But when in fine hee saw no 
 hurt came thereof, hee tooke the Crosse, and embraced and 
 kissed it oftentimes, desiring that hee might be a Christian 
 before his death. Hee was therefore baptized, and named Paul." 
 This, Dr. Furnivall points out, was the original Setebos ; and 
 he infers that Shakespere, " fifteen years before Purchas was in 
 print (1636), had got hold of the name from some sailor, and 
 had put Setebos into the Tempest : Shakespere's conception of 
 Setebos being that he is the god of Caliban's dam, yet such a 
 poor god, that Prospero, who was powerful only in his books, 
 could subdue Setebos and make him his vassel." Concerning 
 the character of Caliban, Mr. Cotter Morison remarks that it 
 was quite natural " that Browning's attention should be drawn 
 to the strange figure of Caliban — one of the most singular 
 creations of Shakespere's fancy. What an opportunity was 
 offered by ' the freckled whelp, hag-born,' for subtle analysis 
 and grotesque humour ! ' The poisonous slave got by the devil 
 himself upon his wicked dam ' is a monster indeed ; but he has a 
 human element within his monsterhood. But there is nothing 
 very complex and subtle in Shakespere's conception of Caliban. 
 His physical form apart, he is little more than a depraved, 
 brutish and malicious man. One cannot say that Shakespere 
 has taken much pains with the character ; we see little more 
 than the surface of such mind as he has ; his sulky anger, his 
 fear of cramps and side stitches ' that shall pen his breath up,' 
 his vindictive rage against the enchanter. This deficiency has 
 been supplied by Browning in the most magnificent grotesque 
 work of his poem. The proper province of grotesque would 
 seem to be the exhibition of fanciful power by the artist ; not 
 beauty or truth in the literal sense, but inventive affluence of 
 unreal yet absurdly comic forms, with just a flavour of the 
 terrible added, to give a grim dignity, and save from the triviality 
 of caricature. Our best grotesques belong to the art of the 
 sculptor or modeller, as in mediaeval and oriental work. In 
 literature the grotesque does not seem to rise with the same 
 spontaneity; the tendency there is either to broad farce or 
 delicate comedy. Browning, however, has produced in this 
 poem a grotesque in language which is as solid and sharp in
 
 454 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 outline as if by ' Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for us.' " — 
 [Browning Society 's Papers, Part v. p. 489.] 
 
 Cavalier Tunes. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, No. iii. p. 3. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 255-258. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 1-4. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 75-78. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 3-6. 
 
 Cenciaja. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 162-183. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 104-116. 
 
 The facts of the Santa Croce case narrated in this poem were 
 obtained by Mr. Browning from a MS. volume of memorials of 
 Italian crime, in the possession of Sir John Simeon, who 
 published it in the series of the Philobiblon Society — a version 
 of the Cenci narrative differing in a few particulars from that 
 which inspired Shelley to write his tragedy. 
 " Mr. Browning's Cenciaja," says Mr. Buxton Forman, " deals 
 with the episode of Paolo Santa Croce, the matricide, whose 
 crime had so disastrous a bearing on the issue of the Cenci 
 tragedy. The main fact, on which Shelley places no very 
 marked stress, though he introduces it, is that, when the fate 
 of Beatrice and her brother and step-brother still hung in the 
 balance, Paolo Santa Croce killed his mother and made good 
 his escape, whereon the Pope became absolutely inflexible in 
 his resolution that the three guilty Cenci should die. Mr. 
 Browning details in Cenciaja the motives, not only of Paolo 
 Santa Croce, but also of Cardinal Aldobrandino, the Pope's 
 nephew, in incriminating Paolo's brother, Onofrio Santa Croce, 
 and hunting him down to execution ; and it is a noteworthy 
 thing that this same Cardinal, whose deadly hatred availed to 
 bring Onofrio Santa Croce to a disgraceful death, had also, 
 indirectly, ruined the Cenci family. It was he who benefited 
 so largely by the continuance of Count Francesco Cenci in his 
 high-priced crimes ; and but for him, the ' wickedest man on
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 455 
 
 record,' as Landor calls Cenci, would probably have perished 
 before his daughter had been set in the dire necessity of com- 
 passing his death. How far Aldobrandino may have been 
 interested in extinguishing the family, of whom only the 
 innocent Bernardo escaped with difficulty, it were hazardous 
 to surmise ; but probably his enormous influence with the Pope 
 would be against them. The story of Onofrio and this 
 diabolical dignitary of the Church is within every one's reach, 
 and should be read by all who are interested in those by-paths 
 of history which have fed the imaginations of our greatest 
 poets." 
 
 " Having occasion," continues Mr. Buxton Forman, "to write to 
 Mr. Browning, I asked him the precise value we were to attach 
 to the terminal aja in the title of his poem, and I received the 
 following answer from the poet : ' "Aia " is generally an accumu- 
 lative yet depreciative termination : " Cenciaja " — a bundle of 
 rags — a trifle. The proverb means " Every poor creature will 
 be pressing into the company of his betters," and I used it to 
 deprecate the notion that I intended anything of the kind. Is 
 it any contribution to " all connected with Shelley," if I mention 
 that my " Book" {The Ring and the Book 1 ) has a reference to 
 the reason given by Farinacci, the advocate of the Cenci, of his 
 failure in the defence of Beatrice ? " Fuise punitam Beatricem " 
 (he declares), "poena ultimi supplicii, non quia ex intervallo 
 occidi mandavit insidiantem suo honori, sed quia ejus excep- 
 tionem non probavitibi. Prout, et idem firmiter sperabatur de 
 sorore Beatrice si propositam excusationem probasset, pront non 
 probavit? That is, she was expected to avow the main outrage, 
 and did not : in conformity with her words, " That which I ought 
 to confess, that will I confess ; that to which I ought to assent, 
 to that I assent ; and that which I ought to deny, that will I 
 deny." " Here is another Cenciaja ! ' " 
 
 Cherries. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 78-85. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 53-57. 
 
 1 Of course, says Mr. Forman, this reference is to the "old square yellow 
 book," giving the actual details of the tragedy — not to Mr. Browning's poem.
 
 456 a bibliography of 
 
 "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came." 
 
 First appeared in Men and Wo7nen, Vol. i. pp. 135-148. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. 1, pp. 312-320. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 301-310. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 194-205. 
 This poem, Mr. Browning tells us, was " only a fantaisie" 
 written "because it pleased his fancy." The incident of the 
 horse, " his every bone a-stare," was imagined from a red horse 
 with a glaring eye standing behind a dun one, on the right 
 hand of a large tapestry that used to hang in his drawing-room. 
 
 Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day. 
 
 First appeared in 1850, pp. 1-142. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. iii. pp. 163-251. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 115-204. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 209-307. 
 
 This poem was written in Florence in 1850, and published in 
 London the same year. It is probably unnecessary to remark 
 that the curious would search in vain for the identity of the 
 "little chapel" — for (as Mr. Browning once said in conversation 
 with Mr. W. G. Kingsland), " all the incidents are imaginary — 
 save the lunar rainbow : I saw that." 
 
 Various alterations have been made in the text of this poem ; 
 those in Christmas Eve being for the most part verbal. In 
 Easter Day, however, the deviations from the first edition are 
 more numerous. For instance — in the original edition, section 
 v. commences : 
 
 " I see ! 
 
 You would grow smoothly as a tree, 
 
 Soar heavenward, straightly up like fire — 
 
 God bless you — there's your world entire 
 
 Needing no faith, if you think fit ; " 
 
 This passage now reads — 
 
 "I see! 
 You would grow as a natural tree, 
 Stand as a rock, soar up like fire. 
 The world's so perfect and entire, 
 Quite above faith, so right and fit ! '
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 457 
 
 Again, in section xiii, lines n to 15 in the original edition — 
 
 Seeing that as I carry through 
 
 My purpose, if my words in you 
 
 Find veritable listeners, 
 
 My story, reason's self avers 
 
 Must needs be false — the happy chance ! — 
 
 Now read : 
 
 Seeing that if I carry through 
 My purpose, if my words in you 
 Find a live actual listener, 
 My story, reason must aver 
 False after all — the happy chance ! 
 
 In some cases the alterations appear to be distinctly for the 
 better — as, for instance, in section xiv, lines 69-70, which, 
 originally reading 
 
 Your progressing is slower — right 
 "We deal with progressing, not flight, 
 
 Now stand : 
 
 Your progressing is slower — right ! 
 "We deal with progress and not flight. 
 
 The alterations in punctuation are numerous, and in many 
 cases the capital letters are changed to lower case. 
 
 Cleon. 
 
 Printed in London, in pamphlet form, privately, 1855. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 17 1- 189. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 410-423. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 299-311. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 279-293. 
 
 Clive. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idylls II., 1880, pp. 9-42. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 88-107. 
 
 Colombe's Birthday. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1844, No. vi. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. i. pp. 303-385.
 
 45§ A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 275-356. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 61-143. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 71-169. 
 
 Writing to Mr. C. Dovvson, March 10, 1844, Mr. Browning says : 
 " Yesterday I read my play [Colombe's Birthday] to him [Charles 
 Kean] and his charming wife, who is to take the principal part. 
 All went off au mteux — but — he wants to keep it till ' Easter 
 next year/ and unpublished all the time ! His engagement at 
 the Haymarket, next May, is merely for twelve nights, he says. 
 .... My play will take him two months at least to study, he 
 being a special slow head, and after the Haymarket engagement 
 nothing is to be done till this time next year. Of all which 
 notable pieces of information I was apprised for the first time 
 after the play was read and approved of, for it certainly never 
 entered into my head that anybody, even an actor, could need 
 a couple of months to study a part, only, in a piece, which I 
 could match with such another in less time by a good deal. 
 But though I could do such a thing, I have a head — that aches 
 oftener now than of old — to take care of ; and, therefore, will 
 do no such thing as let this new work lie stifled for a year and 
 odd, and work double tides to bring out something as likely to 
 be popular this present season. For something I must print, or 
 risk the hold, such as it is, I have at present on my public — and, 
 on consideration of the two other productions I have by me in 
 a state of forwardness, neither seems nearly so proper for the 
 requirements of the moment as this play ; and two or three 
 hundred pounds will pay me but indifferently for hazarding the 
 good fortune which appears slowly but not unmistakably setting 
 in upon me just now. You will not wonder therefore that — 
 though I was so far taken by surprise as to promise Kean a 
 copy for Scotland and a fortnight's grace to come to terms in 
 before I either published the play or accepted any other party's 
 offer — I say, you will not wonder if I have determined to print 
 it directly. Acting on the best advice I sent it to press yesterday, 
 and merely put the right of the acting at his disposal — if he 
 will purchase it with such a drawback as Macready would ; for 
 I fear the only other alternative I shall allow — that of his 
 getting up the part for next May — is quite beyond his power.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 459 
 
 The poorest man of letters (if really of letters) I ever knew is of 
 far higher talent than the best actor I ever expect to know ; nor 
 is there one spangle too many, one rouge-smutch too much on 
 their outside man, for the inward. Can't study a speech in a 
 month ! God help them, and bless you ! " — \_Lctters from 
 Robert Browning, edited by T. J. Wise. Vol. i. pp. 7-1 1.] 
 So printed Colombe's Birthday accordingly was — and for 
 " acting " had to await an interval of nine years : when, on the 
 25th of April, 1853, it was produced at the Haymarket Theatre, 
 and aroused considerable interest in literary circles. Miss Helen 
 Faucit (now Lady Martin) undertook the character of Colombe, 
 Mr. Barry Sullivan impersonating Valence. " It was feared," 
 says the Athena um (April 25th, 1853), " that on performance, this 
 fine poem would scarcely be intelligible to a mixed audience. 
 Miss Faucit, however, by her skill, made them perfectly under- 
 stand it, ... . and we can record its apparent perfect success 
 on the first night." The play evidently excited considerable 
 admiration and sympathy ; but, as in the case of other of Mr. 
 Browning's plays, the " acting " (with the one exception of Miss 
 Faucit) seems to have been somewhat dubious. Indeed, it 
 would appear that to this cause is to be traced the apparent 
 failure of Mr. Browning's plays as "acting" dramas. On this 
 point, the Literary Gazette (April 30th, 1853) says that if Colombe's 
 Birthday does not succeed upon the stage, " it is from no fault 
 
 in itself, but partly from want of power in the actors The 
 
 play demands performers of a higher stamp than are now upon 
 
 the stage Speeches which are full of broken emotion, 
 
 and where a great actor would electrify the house, fall cold and 
 meaningless from Mr. Sullivan's lips." The Colombe of Miss 
 Helen Faucit, however, " is a portraiture in which Mr. Brown- 
 ing's conception receives all the completeness and enrichment 
 which a great actress is able to bestow. . . . Through the 
 finished delicacy of the details, the traces of great latent power 
 are evident, which, while they help to elevate our impression of 
 the character of Colombe, increase our admiration of the powers 
 of the actress who so skilfully subordinates her genius to perfect 
 harmony with the Poet's idea. Her clear and melodious 
 enunciation of the dialogue and delicate phases of emotion seem
 
 460 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 to discover a force and beauty in the poem which is not else- 
 where apparent." The Examiner (April 30th, 1853) also remarks 
 that " if the great beauty of the contrast between the characters 
 of Berthold and Valence could only have been better exhibited 
 by the actors," the play might remain longer on the stage." 
 Colombe 's Birthday was also produced at the Harvard Athenaeum, 
 Boston, U.S.A., either in 1853 or 1854; and. Mr. Moncure D. 
 Conway (who was present) writes that he " saw a vast miscel- 
 laneous crowd hanging with breathless attention upon every 
 word of this interview [Act iv.] — every heart evidently feeling 
 each word as an electric touch, and all giving vent at last to 
 their emotion in round after round of hearty applause." 
 On November 19th, 1885, the play was revived by the Brown- 
 ing Society at St. George's Hall, that " most poetical of 
 actresses" (as Mr. Browning aptly termed her), Miss Alma 
 Murray (Mrs. Alfred Forman), taking the part of Colombe. It 
 was a most finished performance ; and, as in the case of 
 Miss Faucit some thirty-two years previously, was a main factor 
 in the undoubted success of the play on this occasion. 
 
 Confessions. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persons, 1864, pp. 137-141. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 148-149. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. p. 162-164. 
 
 Count Gismond. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. p. 4, 
 under the heading, Italy and France, II. France. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 260-265. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 162-167. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 153-158. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 11- 18. 
 
 The incident related here is purely imaginary — appertaining, 
 as is self-evident, to the days of chivalry. It may be pointed 
 out that in the poem as now printed there are various altera- 
 tions from the original text. In stanza 1, last line, formerly
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 461 
 
 reading " 'twas with full strength," now reads " with all his 
 strength." In stanza viii. line 4, instead of 
 
 " The victor with his . . . there, 'twill last," 
 we now have 
 
 "The victor's crown, but . . . there 'twill last." 
 Again, in stanza xvi. line 2, originally reading 
 
 " Was finished, there lay prone the Knight," 
 
 now reads — 
 
 " Was finished, prone lay the false knight." 
 And in line 4, in lieu of " My Knight flew at him," we now 
 read, " Gismond flew at him." 
 
 COUNT Guido Franceschini. See The Ring and the 
 Book. 
 
 Cristina. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. p. 12, 
 under the heading, Qiteen Worship, II. Cristina. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. i. pp. 297-299. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 27-30. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 101-104. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 39-42. 
 
 In this poem there are to be duly noted some variations between 
 the earlier and later readings. For instance, in the earlier 
 version, the last lines of the last stanza were as follows : — 
 
 That just holds out the proving 
 
 Our powers, alone and blended — 
 And then, come next life quickly, 
 
 This life will have been ended ! 
 
 They now read- 
 Life will just hold out the proving 
 
 Both our powers, alone and blended : 
 And then, come next life quickly ! 
 This world's use will have been ended.
 
 462 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Cristina AND Monaldeschi. 
 
 First appeared in Jocoseria, 1883, pp. 33-44. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 188-194. 
 
 In Lord Malmesbury's Memoirs of an Ex-Minister (1884, Vol. 
 i. p. 30) we read as follows : " Mr. Hill presented me at Court 
 before I left Naples [in 1829]. . . . The Queen [Maria Isabella, 
 second wife of Francis I., King of the two Sicilies] and the 
 young and handsome Princess Cristina, afterwards Queen of 
 Spain, were present. The latter was said at the time to be the 
 cause of more than one inflammable victim languishing in 
 prison for having too openly admired this royal coquette, 
 whose manners with men foretold her future life after her 
 marriage to old Ferdinand [VII., King of Spain]. When she 
 came up to me in the circle, walking behind her mother, she 
 stopped, and took hold of one of the buttons of my uniform, to 
 see, as she said, the inscription upon it, the Queen indignantly 
 calling upon her to come on." 
 
 In her own Memoirs, Cristina gives a striking account of the 
 Marquis Monaldeschi. She describes him as "a gentleman of 
 most handsome person and fine manners, who from the first 
 moment reigned exclusively over my heart." " Italy," she says, 
 " was a scene of enchantment to me when I met him there. 
 The beautiful, proud Monaldeschi opened a new world to me." 
 Monaldeschi, however, after having taken every advantage of his 
 position, reaping riches and honours to himself, wearied of his 
 royal mistress and sought new attractions. It is, in fact, the 
 closing scene of Queen Cristina's liason with her Grand 
 Equerry which inspired Browning to give us his fine poem. 
 The poet chooses the moment when Cristina's eyes were 
 opened to the treachery of her lover ; how her passion for him 
 had been his " stock in trade " to amuse and interest a younger 
 mistress in Rome. On learning this treachery, the maddened 
 Queen arranged an interview with the Marquis in the picture 
 gallery in the Palace of Fontainebleau. She was accompanied 
 by an official of her Court, and had at hand a priest from the 
 neighbouring Convent of the Maturins, armed with copies of 
 Monaldeschi's letters to the Roman lady (which had come into
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 463 
 
 the Queen's possession through a certain Cardinal Azzolino), 
 and which were to serve as his death-warrant. The originals 
 she had on her own person. Added to this, she had in the 
 background her Captain of the Guard, Sentinelli, with two other 
 officers. It is from this point that Browning's poem opens. In 
 the Galerie des Cerfs was a picture of Henri II. and Diane de 
 Poictiers. 1 To this picture the Queen leads the Marquis, 
 pointing out the motto on the frame — " Quis separabit ? " [" The 
 crescent," writes Mrs. Ireland, " was the natural sign of Diane, 
 but the salamander of Francois I. needs some explanation. As 
 a bold, brave, and imperious youth, his father, to restrain his 
 ardent nature, placed him at the age of thirteen in the care of a 
 wise governor, Le Chevalier de Boissy, who, to express his 
 tender and watchful care of his fiery-minded pupil, gave him for 
 his device or crest the salamander, with the legend ' Nutrisco 
 et extinguo (Je le nourris et je luteins).' This device of the 
 salamander still exists on some of the old carvings and paintings 
 at Fontainebleau."] Cristina renews her attack. " Stand, 
 Sir! Read! Quis separabit?' 1 ' 1 It was true one vow had 
 bound them. In the little church of Avon (a village on the 
 east side of the park at Fontainebleau) they had stood, "on a 
 memorable evening, close to the benitier in a supreme moment. 
 Before them lay an ancient tombstone : and here, pointing to 
 the marble slab at their feet, the Marquis had vowed that as 
 that grave kept a silence over the corpse which lay beneath, so 
 would his love and trust hold fast the secret of Cristina's love 
 to all eternity. Now she was scorned, her pride outraged, and 
 felt she must assert her dignity. But the Marquis was ' silent ' 
 — and the priest and assassins approaching, she granted herself 
 the bitter pleasure of such [personal revenge as was possible." 
 It is curious to note that in October, 1657, Cristina, suspicious 
 of Monaldeschi, had led him on to a conversation touching a 
 similar unfaithfulness. " What," said the queen, " does a man 
 deserve who should so have betrayed a woman ? " " Instant 
 death," replied Monaldeschi. " It is well," said she ; " I will 
 
 1 Mr. Browning made a curious slip in this poem, making Francis I. the 
 lover of Diane de Poictiers, whereas it was his son, Henri II., who was for 
 a time infatuated with her.
 
 464 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 remember your words." A word as to the rival painters men- 
 tioned in the poem may be interpolated here. Francois Prima- 
 ticcio, who died in 1570 at Bologna, was the rival of Maitre 
 Roux or " Le Roux" ; but Primaticcio was first in the field, 
 and a terrible jealousy arose between the two painters. Prima- 
 ticcio was the pet pupil of Giulio Romano. Rosso, who died 
 in 1 541, was a pupil of Michael Angelo. Both were patronised 
 by Francois I., and both largely contributed to the mag- 
 nificent decorations of the palace. Primaticcio had been sent 
 to Italy by the King, nominally to collect works of art ; 
 and it was only after Rosso's untimely death that he returned. 
 Rosso had ill-luck ; he was only forty-five at the time of his 
 death, and poisoned himself from bitter remorse at having 
 falsely accused his friend Pellegrini. \Broivning Society's 
 Papers, Part xiii. p. 103.] 
 
 " Dance, Yellows and Whites and Reds ! " 
 
 First appeared in The New Amphion, 1886, p. 1. 
 Reprinted in Parley ings, vi., " Gerard de Lairesse," p. 189. 
 
 These lines were printed as A Spring Song in The New Am- 
 phion (" The Book of the Edinburgh University Union Fancy 
 Fair"), 1886, and were accompanied with a full-page illustration 
 by Elizabeth Gulland. They were subsequently inserted at 
 the close of the Parleying with " Gerard de Lairesse." 
 
 Deaf and Dumb : a Group by Woolner. 
 
 First appeared in Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. p. 151. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. p. 167. 
 
 These lines were written in 1862 for Woolnei-'s partly-draped 
 group of Constance and Arthur (the deaf and dumb children of 
 Sir Thomas Fairbairn), which was exhibited in the International 
 Exhibition of 1S62. 
 
 "De Gustibus — " 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 147-149. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 70-72. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 143-144. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 92-93.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 465 
 
 Development. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 18S9, pp. 123-130. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 102-108. 
 
 Dis aliter Visum ; or, Le Byron de Nos Jours. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persons, 1864, pp. 45-54. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 77-84. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 85-93. 
 
 Doctor . 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls II. 1880, pp. 1 13-136. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 146-158. 
 
 Dodington, George Bubb, Parleying with. 
 
 First appeared in Parleyings, 1887, pp. 97-119. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 160-174. 
 
 George Bubb Dodington, who was born in 1691, was " the son 
 of a gentleman of good fortune named Bubb." He was edu- 
 cated at Oxford, and in 171 5 was elected member of Parlia- 
 ment for Winchelsea, and not long after this he was sent as 
 envoy to Madrid. In 1720 he inherited the estate of Eastbury, 
 in Dorsetshire, and took the name of Dodington. His career 
 was full of political vicissitudes of a discreditable kind — by 
 which he obtained a large share of the prizes in the political 
 world. He held various offices — mostly in connexion with the 
 navy, to which he was more than once treasurer. He was a 
 great favourite with Lord Bute, from whom he received the 
 title of Lord Melcombe. He was fond of surrounding himself 
 with the noted men of the day, whom he entertained at his 
 country seat. Both Pope and Churchill wrote in abuse of him, 
 and Hogarth has immortalised his wig in his Orders of 
 Periwigs. He died in 1726. 
 
 Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis, Pauperum 
 PROCURATOR. See The Ring and the Book. 
 VOL. 1 H H
 
 466 a bibliography of 
 
 Donald. 
 
 First appeared injocoscria, 1883, pp. 5-22. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 169-181. 
 
 In The Keepsake for 1832 will be found an interesting narrative 
 from the pen of Sir Walter Scott, which bears so striking a 
 resemblance to this poem that the following brief summary is 
 appended : 
 
 " The story," writes Sir Walter, " is an old one : the actor and 
 sufferer not being a very aged man, when I heard the anecdote 
 in my early youth. Duncan, for so I shall call him, had been 
 engaged in the affair of 1746, with others of his clan. On the 
 one side of his body he retained the proportions and firmness of 
 an active mountaineer ; on the other, he was a disabled cripple, 
 scarce able to limp along the streets. The cause which reduced 
 him to this state of infirmity was singular. Twenty years or 
 more before I knew Duncan, he assisted his brothers in farming 
 a large grazing in the Highlands. It chanced that a sheep or 
 goat was missed from the flock, and Duncan went himself in 
 quest of the fugitive. In the course of his researches he was 
 induced to ascend a small and narrow path, leading to the top 
 of a high precipice. It was not much more than two feet broad, 
 so rugged and difficult, and, at the same time, so terrible, that 
 it would have been impracticable to any but the light step and 
 steady brain of the Highlander. The precipice on the right 
 rose like a wall, and on the left sunk to a depth which it was 
 giddy to look down upon. He had more than half ascended 
 the precipice, when in midway he encountered a buck of the 
 red-deer species coming down the cliff by the same path in an 
 opposite direction. Neither party had the power of retreating, 
 for the stag had not room to turn himself in the narrow path, 
 and if Duncan had turned his back to go down, he knew enough 
 of the creature's habits to be certain that he would rush upon 
 him while engaged in the difficulties of the retreat. They stood 
 therefore perfectly still, and looked at each other in mutual em- 
 barrassment for some space. At length the deer, which was one 
 of the largest size, began to lower his formidable antlers, as they 
 do when they are brought to bay. Duncan saw the danger, and,
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 467 
 
 as a last resource, stretched himself on the little ledge of rock, 
 not making the least motion for fear of alarming the animal. 
 They remained in this posture for three or four hours. At length 
 the buck approached towards Duncan very slowly; he came close 
 to the Highlander, when the devil, or the untamable love of 
 sport, began to overcome Duncan's fears. Seeing the animal 
 proceed so gently, he totally forgot not only the dangers of his 
 position, but the implicit compact which certainly might have 
 been inferred from the circumstances of the situation. With 
 one hand Duncan seized the deer's horn, whilst with the other 
 he drew his dirk. But in the same instant the buck bounded 
 over the precipice, carrying the Highlander along with him. 
 Fortune ordered that the deer should fall undermost, and be 
 killed on the spot, while Duncan escaped with life, but with the 
 fracture of a leg, an arm, and three ribs. I never could approve 
 of Duncan's conduct towards the deer in a moral point of view, 
 but I have given you the story exactly as I recollect it." 
 
 " Don Juan, might you please to help one give 
 a Guess." 
 
 First appeared in Fifine at the Fair, 1872, p. vi. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xi. p. 214. 
 
 These lines form a motto to Fifine at the Fair, and were trans- 
 lated from Molicre. 
 
 Dramatic Idyls: First Series. 
 
 First appeared (1879) in one Vol. See ante, p. 387, No. 22. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 1-80. 
 
 Dramatic Idyls : Second Series. 
 
 First appeared (1880) in one Vol. See ante, p. 388, No. 23. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, xv. pp. 81-163. 
 
 Dramatic Lyrics. 
 
 This was the title given to No. iii. (1842) of Bells and Pome- 
 granates, which consisted of sixteen poems ; afterwards re- 
 arranged in separate sections of the various collected editions 
 of the Poems. 
 
 H H 2
 
 468 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. 
 
 This was the title given to No. vii. of Bells and Pomegranates 
 (1845), which consisted of twenty poems ; these were afterwards 
 rearranged in separate sections of the various collected editions 
 of the Poems. 
 
 Dramatis Persons. 
 
 First appeared (1864) in one Vol. See ante, p. 378, No. n. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 41-222. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 43-255. 
 
 Dubiety. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 8-9. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1S94, Vol. xvii. pp. 6-7. 
 
 Earth's Immortalities. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 19. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 393-394. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 31-32. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 105-106. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 45. 
 
 EASTER Day. See Christmas Eve and Easter Day. 
 
 ECHETLOS. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls II. 1880, pp. 1-7. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 85-87. 
 
 Epilogues. 
 
 "At the midnight, in the silence of the sleep-time" — see Asolando. 
 
 " First Speaker, as David ; " " Second Speaker, as Renan ; " 
 
 " Third Speaker " — see Dramatis Persons. 
 
 Fust and his Friends — see Parleyings. 
 
 " Good to Forgive " (" Pisgah Sights, 3 ") — see La Saisiaz. 
 
 " Oh, Love — no, Love ! " — see Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
 The Householder — see Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 " The poets pour us wine " — see Pacchiarotto. 
 
 "Touch him ne'er so lightly" — see Dramatic Idyls II. 
 
 " What a pretty tale you told me " — see The Two Poets of Croisic.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT DROWNING. 469 
 
 Euripides : Transcripts from. See Balaustion's 
 Adventure and Aristophanes' Apology. 
 
 Eurydice to Orpheus. 
 
 First appeared in the Royal Academy Catalogue, 1864, p. 13, 
 
 under the title Orpheus and Eurydice. 
 Reprinted, Selections, 1865, p. 215. 
 Ditto, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. p. 153. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. p. 170. 
 
 These lines were interpretive of a picture by Sir Frederick 
 Leighton, representing Orpheus leading Eurydice from Hades. 
 So charmed were the nether gods with the music of Orpheus, 
 that they consented to restore Eurydice to him on condition 
 that he would refrain from looking at her till they had passed 
 out of the nether world. To this Orpheus agreed ; but desire 
 proved too strong for him, and, like Lot's wife, he looked — and 
 lost. Mrs. Orr says, in her invaluable Handbook : " The face of 
 Leighton's Eurydice wears an intensity of longing which seems 
 to challenge the forbidden look, and make her responsible for 
 it. The poem thus interprets the expression, and translates it 
 into words." 
 
 Evelyn Hope. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. p. 19. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 36-38. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 110-112. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 51-53. 
 
 Eyes, calm beside thee, (Lady could'st thou 
 know !). 
 
 First appeared in The Monthly Repository, Vol. viii. p. 712. 
 Reprinted in The Browning Society's Papers, Part xii. p. 36* 
 
 When published in The Monthly Repository, this sonnet 
 appeared under the signature "Z." It was not included by 
 Mr. Browning in the final, seventeen vol., edition of his Works : 
 it is therefore quoted here.
 
 47Q A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Eyes, calm beside thee, (Lady could'st thou know !) 
 
 May turn away thick with fast-gathering tears : 
 I glance not where all gaze : thrilling and low 
 
 Their passionate praises reach thee — my cheek wears 
 Alone no wonder when thou passest by ; 
 Thy tremulous lids bent and suffused reply 
 To the irrepressible homage which doth glow 
 
 On every lip but mine : if in thine ears 
 Their accents linger — and thou dost recall 
 
 Me as I stood, still, guarded, very pale, 
 Beside each votarist whose lighted brow 
 Wore worship like an aureole, " O'er them all 
 
 My beauty," thou wilt murmur, "did prevail 
 Save that one only : " — Lady couldst thou know ! 
 
 Fears and Scruples. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 83-87. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 54-57. 
 
 In a letter (addressed to Mr. W. G. Kingsland) Mr. Browning 
 has made the following remarks regarding Fears and 
 Scruples : — 
 
 " Where there is a genuine love of the 'letters' and 
 ' actions ' of the invisible 'friend,' — however these may be 
 disadvantaged by an inability to meet the objections to their 
 authenticity or historical value urged by ' experts ' who assume 
 the privilege of learning over ignora?ice, — it would indeed be a 
 wrong to the wisdom and goodness of the 'friend' if he were 
 supposed capable of overlooking the actual ' love ' and only con- 
 sidering the ' ignora?ice ' which, failing to in any degree affect 
 ' love,' is really the highest evidence that ' love ' exists." 
 
 Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
 First appeared (1884) in one Vol. See ante, p. 390, No. 25. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 1-92. 
 
 Writing to a correspondent in October 1884, Mr. Browning says : 
 " I hope and believe that one or two careful readings of the 
 poem [Ferishtali] will make its sense clear enough. Above all, 
 pray allow for the poet's inventiveness in any case, and do not
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 471 
 
 suppose there is more than a thin disguise of a few Persian 
 names and allusions. There was no such person as Ferishtah ; 
 and the stories are all inventions. The Hebrew quotations are 
 put in for a purpose, as a direct acknowledgment that certain 
 doctrines may be found in the Old Book which the Concocters 
 of Novel Schemes of Morality put forth as discoveries of their 
 own." 
 
 Confirmatory of the "inventiveness" mentioned here, the 
 following mottoes are given on the blank reverse of the half- 
 title page of this volume : — 
 
 ' His genius was jocular, but, when disposed, he could be very serious.' 
 — Article ' Shakespear,' Jeremy Collier's Historical &c. Dictionary, 
 second edition, 1701. 
 
 ' You, Sir, I entertain you for one of my Hundred ; only, I do not like 
 the fashion of your garments : you will say they are Persian ; but let 
 them be changed.' — King Lear, Act iii., sc. 6. 
 
 FlFINE AT THE FAIR. 
 
 First appeared (1872) in one Vol. See ante, p. 382, No. 15. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xi. pp. 211-343. 
 
 It is interesting to note that " Fifine " had an " original " — being 
 sketched from the recollection of a certain Gipsy whom the poet 
 once saw at Pornic. 
 
 " Fifty Years' Flight ! wherein should he 
 rejoice." 
 
 First appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Reprinted in W. G. Kingsland's Robert Browning : Chief Poet 
 of the Age, p. 31. 
 
 These lines were written, by request, for a memorial window, 
 commemorative of the Queen's Jubilee, placed in St. Margaret's 
 Church, "Westminster. They have not been reprinted in any 
 edition of Mr. Browning's works ; and are as follows — 
 
 " Fifty years' flight ! wherein should he rejoice 
 
 Who hailed their birth, who as they die decays ! 
 This — England echoes his attesting voice ; 
 
 Wondrous and well — thanks Ancient Thou of days."
 
 472 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1S76, pp. 184-222. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1SS9, Vol. xiv. pp. 1 17-140. 
 
 " Fire is in the Flint : true, once a Spark 
 escapes." 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah's Fancies, 1884, p. 45. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, Vol. xvi. p. 3 1 . 
 
 Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 99-1 11. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 82-92. 
 
 Fra Lippo Lippi. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 35-55. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. p. 346-359. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 234-24S. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 205-220. 
 
 Apropos of the brief lyric breaks in this blank-verse poem, Miss 
 Helen Clarke writes : " These little love-songs are called 
 stornelli, and consist of three lines : the first, of five syllables, 
 usually contains the name of a flower, which sets the rhyme ; 
 then the love theme is told in two lines of eleven syllables, 
 each agreeing by rhyme, assonance, or repetition with the first. 
 The address to the flower usually has no connection with the 
 sentiment expressed in the following lines." 
 Concerning the reference to the Prior's niece (line 387), it may 
 be interesting to compare Landor's view in his Imaginary Con- 
 versation between Fra Filippo Lippi and Pope Eugenius the 
 Fourth : — 
 
 Filippo. In fact, there were only two genuine abbates, the 
 third was Donna Lisetta, the good canonico's pretty niece, who 
 looks so archly at your Holiness when you bend your knees 
 before her at bed-time. 
 
 Eugenius. How? Where? 
 
 Filippo. She is the angel on the right hand side of the Holy
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 473 
 
 Family, with a tip of amethyst-coloured wing over a basket 
 of figs and pomegranates. I painted her from memory; 
 she was then only fifteen, and worthy to be the niece of an 
 archbishop. . . . 
 
 Eugenius. Poor soul ! So this is the angel with the 
 amethyst-coloured wing ? I thought she looked wanton. 
 
 Furini, Francis, Parleying with. 
 
 First appeared in Parleyings, 1887, pp. 121- 159. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 175-200. 
 
 Francis Furini was born at Florence, in the year 1600. He 
 took orders at the age of 40, and remained an exemplary parish 
 priest until his death in 1649. In his earlier career he was 
 especially famous for his painting of the nude figure. It is, 
 indeed, complained by one of his French biographers that he 
 painted the nude too well to be quite proper — pointing to the 
 Adam and Eve in the Pitti Palace in proof of this assertion. 
 The painter may have thought so too— for it is said that on 
 his death-bed he desired all his pictures of the nude to be col- 
 lected and destroyed. If this was so, his wishes were thwarted ; 
 for most private galleries in Florence have specimens of his 
 art. 
 
 Fust and His Friends. 
 
 First appeared in Parleyings, 1887, pp. 221-268. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 241-275. 
 
 This poem forms the Epilogue to Parleyings with certain People 
 of Importance in their Day. 
 
 Garden Fancies. 
 
 First appeared in Hood s Magazine, Vol. ii. (July 1844), PP- 
 
 45-48. 
 Reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 10. 
 Ditto, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 349-354. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 13-18. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 87-92. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 19-25.
 
 474 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Giuseppe Caponsacchi. See The Ring and the Book. 
 
 In explanation of lines 1666, 1667 of this monologue — 
 
 " Verse, quotha ? Bembo's verse ! When Saint John wrote 
 The tract, ' De Tribus,' I wrote this to match " — 
 
 Dr. Berdoe in his most useful ' Browning Cyclopaedia ' 
 (p. 421) says that " Caponsacchi refers to the three heavenly 
 witnesses, a verse held by all commentators to be an 
 interpolated passage — as much as to say, I wrote these 
 verses when St. John wrote the surrendered verse — that is, 
 I did not write them at all." In contradistinction to this, Dr. 
 Hiram Corson writes that the professor of Romance Languages 
 in Cornell University (Mr. T. F. Crane) suggests that the tract 
 referred to is the legendary work known as the De Tribus 
 Impostoribus, the three impostors being Moses, Christ, and 
 Mohammed. " Such a work abundantly satisfies the idea 
 involved in the Canon's speech ; and I am quite assured, after 
 looking into the extensive material on the subject, contained in 
 the White historical library of the University, that the Canon 
 refers to this legendary work. It was whispered through three 
 or four centuries, that such a blasphemous work existed some- 
 where, nobody knew where, or by whom ; the result being 
 finally that several works appeared, each pretending to be the 
 original work, where there may have been no original." 
 
 Give A ROUSE. See Cavalier Tunes. 
 Gold Hair: A Story of Pornic. 
 
 First appeared in The Atlantic Monthly for May 1864. 
 
 Also printed in London, in Pamphlet form, privately, 1864. 
 
 Reprinted in Dramatis Personce, 1864, pp. 25-34. 
 
 Ditto, Dramatis Persona, second edition, 1864. 
 
 Ditto, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 62-69. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 69-77. 
 
 In The Atlantic Monthly, the pamphlet of 1864, and the first 
 edition of Dramatis Persona, this poem consisted of twenty-
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 475 
 
 seven stanzas ; but in the second edition of Dramatis Persona 
 three fresh stanzas were added — the poem thus consisting of 
 thirty stanzas. The fresh stanzas are those now numbered 
 21, 22, and 23. 
 
 " GOLDONI, — GOOD, GAY, SUNNIEST OF SOULS." 
 
 First appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 8, 1883. 
 Reprinted in The Browning Society's Papers, Part v. p. 98*. 
 Ditto, W. G. Kingsland's Robert Browning : Chief Poet of the 
 Age, p. 30. 
 
 This sonnet was written for the " Album " of the Committee of 
 the Goldoni monument at Venice. Not having been reprinted 
 in any edition of Mr. Browning's works, the lines are here 
 given as they appear on the first page of the " Album " : — 
 
 Goldoni, — good, gay, sunniest of souls, — 
 
 Glassing half Venice in that verse of thine, — 
 
 What though it just reflect the shade and shine 
 Of common life, nor render, as it rolls, 
 Grandeur and gloom ? Sufficient for thy shoals 
 
 Was Carnival : Parini's depths enshrine 
 
 Secrets unsuited to that opaline 
 Surface of things which laughs along thy scrolls. 
 There throng the People : how they come and go, 
 
 Lisp the soft language, flaunt the bright garb — see — 
 On Piazza, Calle, under Portico 
 
 And over Bridge ! Dear King of Comedy, 
 Be honoured ! Thou that didst love Venice so, 
 
 Venice and we who love her, all love thee ! 
 
 " Gone now ! All gone across the dark so 
 
 FAR." 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 246-248. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 223-224. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 251-253. 
 
 This poem is the " Second Speaker, as Renan" of the Epilogue 
 to Dramatis Persona.
 
 476 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 "Good to Forgive." 
 
 First appeared in La Saisiaz, 1878, pp. 3-4. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 155-156. 
 
 This poem is the proem to La Saisaiz. It is printed in the 
 . second series of Selections as Pisgah Sights, 3. 
 
 GuiDO. See The Ring and the Book. 
 
 ■^ 
 
 Halbert and Hob. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls I. 1879, PP- 45—55- 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 26-31. 
 
 Half-Rome. See The Ring and the Book. 
 Helen's Tower. 
 
 First appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 28, 1883. 
 Reprinted in The Browning Society's Papers, Part v. p. 97*. 
 Ditto, W. G. Kingsland's Robert Browning: Chief Poet of the 
 Age, p. 28. 
 
 This fine sonnet was written apropos of the Tower erected by 
 the Earl of Dufferin to the memory of his mother, Helen, 
 Countess of Gifford, at Clandeboye, Ireland. The sonnet is 
 dated 1S70, but it was not publicly acknowledged until 1883 : 
 Mr. Browning consenting to its publication on learning that 
 Lord Tennyson had published the lines he had written on the 
 same subject. As the sonnet is not included in the collected 
 edition of Mr. Browning's Poems it is quoted here : — 
 
 Who hears of Helen's Tower, may dream perchance 
 
 How the Greek Beauty from the Scaean Gate 
 
 Gazed on old friends unanimous in hate, 
 Death-doom'd because of her fair countenance. 
 Hearts would leap otherwise at thy advance, 
 
 Lady, to whom this Tower, is consecrate ! 
 
 Like hers, thy face once made all eyes elate, 
 Yet, unlike hers, was blessed by every glance.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 477 
 
 The Tower of Hate is outworn, far and strange : 
 
 A transitory shame of long ago, 
 
 It dies into the sand from which it sprang ; 
 But thine, Love's rock-built Tower, shalt fear no change : 
 
 God's self laid stable earth's foundations so, 
 
 When all the morning stars together sang. 
 
 " Here's to Nelson's memory." See Nationality in 
 Drinks. 
 
 HervE Riel. 
 
 First appeared in The Cornhill Magazine, March, 1871, pp. 
 
 257-260. 
 Reprinted in PaccMarotto, 1876, pp. 1 17-130. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 77-85. 
 
 This poem was written in 1867 — although not published till 
 1871. It appeared — against Mr. Browning's usual custom — in 
 the Cornhill because he desired to give a subscription to the 
 Fund on behalf of the French after the siege of Paris by the 
 Germans in 1870-71 : he accordingly sent the ^100 given by 
 Mr. Smith for the poem to that fund. When the poem ap- 
 peared the facts of the story seem to have been forgotten, and 
 were denied at St. Malo ; but on the reports to the French 
 Admiralty of the time being looked up, they were found to be 
 correct. It seems, however, that Browning was mistaken in 
 stating that Herve Riel was granted but one day's holiday in 
 which to see his wife, " La Belle Aurore " — that is, if the Notes 
 sur le Croisic (par Caillo Jeune) are correct : " Ce brave homme 
 ne demanda pour recompense d'un service aussi signale, qu'un 
 conge absolu pour rejoindre sa femme, qu'il nommait la Belle 
 Aurore." Under date December 16th, 1881, Mr. Browning 
 writes to Dr. Furnivall : " Where do you find that the holiday 
 of Herve Riel was for more than a day — his whole life-time ? If 
 it is to be found I have strangely overlooked it." That he 
 had overlooked it is evident from a further letter, dated 
 December 20th, 1881, when he again writes to Dr. Fumivall : 
 " You are undoubtedly right, and I have mistaken the meaning 
 of the phrase — I suppose through thinking that, if the coasting- 
 pilot's business ended with reaching land, he might claim as a
 
 478 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 right to be let go : otherwise an absolute discharge seems to 
 approach in importance a substantial reward. Still — truth 
 above all things ; so treat the matter as you please." 
 
 Holy-Cross Day. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 158-166. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 291-296. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 280-285. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 167-174 
 
 Home-Thoughts, from Abroad. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, No. vii. p. 8. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 343-344. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 72-73. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 145. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 95-96. 
 
 In Bells and Pomegranates, No. vii. p. 8, under the heading 
 
 Home Thoughts, from Abroad, are included three poems : the 
 
 poem now so-called being No. 1 ; Here's to Nelson's memory 
 
 (now printed under the title Nationality in Drinks) as 
 
 No. 2 ; and the poem now called Home Thoughts, from the 
 
 Sea, as No. 3. 
 
 Home-Thoughts from the Sea. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 8. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. p. 344. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. p. 73. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 146. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 97. 
 
 House. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 60-63. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 39-41. 
 
 How it Strikes a Contemporary. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 177-183. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 323-327. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 209-212. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 176-180.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 479 
 
 " HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT 
 TO AlX." 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, No. vii. p. 3. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 318-320. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 6-9. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 80-83. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 9-12. 
 
 u There is no sort of historical foundation," writes Browning, 
 "about Good News from Ghent: I wrote it under the bul- 
 wark of a vessel off the African coast, after I had been at sea long 
 enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop on the back of 
 a certain good horse ' York, 5 then in my stable at home. It was 
 written in pencil on the fly-leaf of Bartoli's Simboli, I remember." 
 For the towns on the route the poet may have referred to an 
 atlas on board the vessel ; but the riders evidently went by the 
 longest route. Dr. W. J. Rolfe {Poet Lore, Vol. iv. pp. 379-380) 
 thus describes the " course " : " Aix-la-Chapelle is a little south 
 of east from Ghent, and the distance in a straight line, as I 
 measure it on four different maps, no two of which are on the 
 same scale, is about 105 miles. It is a level country for most of 
 the way ; but if Browning had tried to gallop over it at one stretch, 
 his good steed ' York ' would probably have given out sooner 
 than Dirck's did in the poem. The riders at the start take a 
 course a little north of east to Lokeren, twelve miles distant, 
 and thence due east to Boom, sixteen miles further. The next 
 town mentioned is Diiffeld, or Duffel, about twelve miles east 
 of Boom. It is six miles north of Mecheln, or Mechlin, the 
 ' half-chime ' from the lofty cathedral tower of which the riders 
 are said to hear. We are not to suppose that they pass through 
 Mechlin, which would be quite out of the course they are taking ; 
 but if Browning had had a better map, he would probably have 
 made them steer directly to that city from Ghent. From 
 Duffel they pass on to Aerschot, fifteen miles more ; and thence, 
 twenty-four miles, to Hasselt, the capital of the province of 
 Limbourg. From Hasselt we should expect them to make for 
 Maastricht, or Maestricht ; but they turn almost at aright angle 
 and go seven or eight miles due south to Loos. Thence they
 
 480 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 aim for Aix again, and proceed to Tongres (the French form 
 of the Flemish Tongeren), six and a-half miles further. From 
 Tongres to Aix it is about twenty-seven miles in a straight 
 course ; but the only landmark the poem gives us for this stretch 
 is in the line, ' Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white " 
 — that is, the cupola of the ' octagon ' of the Cathedral at Aix. 
 Dalhem is to be found on no map that I have seen, nor is it 
 mentioned in the guide-books or gazetteers. It would seem to 
 be a village near Aix, but I can learn of none such. On one 
 of Bartholomew's maps I find a Dael/ieim, some five miles 
 south of the line from Tongres to Aix, and about seventeen 
 miles from the latter. Charlemagne's ' dome-spire' cannot be 
 visible from this place, but I suspect that it is the Dalhem of 
 the poem. It will be seen that by the route described it is at 
 least 1 20 miles from Ghent to Aix, if a straight line is taken 
 from Tongres to the latter city. One hundred and twenty-five 
 miles would probably be nearer the true total. The more direct 
 course from Hasselt to Aix through Maastricht would have 
 been about seven miles shorter." 
 
 Humility. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, p. 11. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. p. 9. 
 
 " Imperante Augusto Natus Est — " 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 1 12-122. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 93-101. 
 
 In a Balcony. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 49-110. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 468-502. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 1-40. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 1-41. 
 
 On the evening of Friday, November 28, 1884, In a Balcony 
 was, for the first time, put upon the stage. The performance 
 took place at the Princes' Hall, and was given under the 
 auspices of the Browning Society. Constance was portrayed
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 481 
 
 by Miss Alma Murray (Mrs. Alfred Forman) ; the Queen by 
 Miss Nora Gerstenberg ; and Norbert by Mr. Philip Beck. 
 Mr. Frederick Wedmore, writing in The Academy of December 6, 
 18S4, says, : "Miss Alma Murray's Constance was nothing less 
 than a great performance, instinct with intelligence, grace, and 
 fire. The more exacting was the situation, the more evident 
 became the capacity of the actress to grapple with it. It was 
 the performance of an artist who had thought of all the part 
 contained, and had understood it — who knew how to compose 
 a role as a whole, and how to execute it, alike in its least and 
 its most important detail. It is long since our stage has seen 
 an interpretation more picturesque or more moving." 
 
 In a Gondola. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. pp. 6-9. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 271-280. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 205-214. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 196-205. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 66-77. 
 
 The opening stanza of this poem was originally written to 
 illustrate a picture by Maclise. Charles Dickens, writing to 
 Maclise in 1844, says: "In a certain picture called The 
 Serenade, for which Browning wrote that verse in Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields, you, O Mac, painted a sky." Browning, however, 
 writing to Dr. Fumivall on September 15, 1881, gives the follow- 
 ing details : " I wrote the Venice stanza to illustrate Maclise's 
 picture, for which he was anxious to get some line or two. I 
 had not seen it, but, from Forster's description, gave it to him, 
 in his room, impromptu. Maclise (a friend of my own) 
 painted the whole thing, not the sky merely. When I did see 
 it I thought the serenader too jolly, somewhat, for the notion 
 I got from Forster, and I took up the subject in my own way." 
 This poem has been considerably revised since it first appeared 
 in Bells and Pomegranates. For instance, in line 87, where in 
 the original version we have 
 
 " Lie back ; could I improve you? " 
 VOL. I I I
 
 4 82 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 we now read 
 
 " Lie back ; could thought of mine improve you ? " 
 and in line 104, in place of 
 
 " He and the Couple catch at last," 
 we now have 
 
 " What if the Three should catch at last." 
 
 But in lines 17 1-1 77 a still more extensive revision has been 
 made. In place of the original reading — 
 
 " Breathes slumbrously as if some elf 
 Went in and out tall chords his wings 
 Get murmurs from whene'er they graze 
 As may an angel thro' the maze 
 Of pillars on God's quest have gone 
 At guilty glorious Babylon " — 
 
 the passage now reads : 
 
 " Breathes slumberously, as if some elf 
 Went in and out the chords, his wings 
 Make murmur, wheresoe'er they graze, 
 As an angel may, between the maze 
 Of midnight palace-pillars, on 
 And on, to sow God's plagues, have gone 
 Through guilty glorious Babylon." 
 
 In a Year. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. p. 24. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 133-137. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 205-208. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 175-179. 
 
 In Three Days. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. p. 21. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 132-133. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 204-205. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1S89, Vol. vi. 172-174. 
 
 Incident of the French Camp. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Po7?iegra?iates, No. iii. p. 5, under 
 the heading of Camp and Cloister, 1, Camp.
 
 JtUuH+aZZc (M r hcU*LU>* j 
 
 4*™ w/L nJ- fcucSh ^ &k {**** fa* , 
 
 INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP : FIRST STANZA 
 FAG-SIMILE OF BROWNINGS ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 483 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. i. pp. 266-267. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 156-157. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 147-148. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 3-5. 
 
 INSTANS TYRANNUS. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. p. 123. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 171- 173. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 162-164. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 24-27. 
 
 Introductory Essay to " Letters of Percy Bysshe 
 Shelley." 
 
 First appeared in 1852. 
 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part i. 1881. 
 
 Ditto, in Pamphlet form, 1888. 
 
 Ivan IvAnovitch. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls I. 1879, PP- 59-100. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 32-56. 
 
 IXION. 
 
 First appeared in /ocoseria, 1883, pp. 55-69. 
 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 199-208. 
 
 It has been pointed out by Mrs. Orr {Handbook to the Works 
 
 of Robert Browning, p. 13) that the alternative hexameter and 
 
 pentameter is employed by Mr. Browning for the only time in 
 
 this poem : the measure cleverly " imitating the turning of the 
 
 wheel on which Ixion is bound." 
 
 James Lee's Wife. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 1-24. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 41-61. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 45-68. 
 
 When issued originally in Dramatis Persona this Poem was 
 
 112
 
 484 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 entitled James Lee : but four years later, in the collected 
 edition of his works, Mr. Browning changed it to James Lee's 
 Wife. There are some alterations in the punctuation, and 
 also in the capitaling, of the 1868 edition ; but the only alter- 
 ation of real importance is the long addition to the eighth 
 section of the Poem. In the original edition this section 
 consisted of the first subsection as it now stands, beginning 
 
 "As like as a Hand to another Hand : " 
 And ending 
 
 " Still from one's soulless finger tips." 
 Then followed two lines as subsection 2 — 
 
 " Go, little girl, with the poor coarse hand ! 
 I have my lesson, shall understand." 
 
 In the edition of 1868, two new subsections were added: the 
 one consisting of twenty-two lines, now forming subsection 2 : 
 
 II. 
 
 Tis a clay cast, the perfect thing, 
 
 From Hand live once, dead long ago : 
 Princess-like it wears the ring 
 
 To fancy's eye, by which we know 
 That here at length a master found 
 
 His match, a proud lone soul its mate, 
 As soaring genius sank to ground 
 
 And pencil could not emulate 
 The beauty in this, — how free, how fine 
 To fear almost ! — of the limit-line. 
 Long ago the god, like me 
 The worm, learned, each in our degree : 
 Looked and loved, learned and drew, 
 
 Drew and learned and loved again, 
 While fast the happy minutes flew, 
 
 Till beauty mounted into his brain 
 And on the finger which outvied 
 
 His art he placed the ring that 's there, 
 Still by fancy's eye descried, 
 
 In token of a marriage rare : 
 For him on earth, his art's despair, 
 For him in heaven, his soul's fit bride.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 485 
 The other of thirty-nine lines, forming subsection 3 : 
 
 III. 
 
 Little girl with the poor coarse hand 
 
 I turned from to a cold clay cast — 
 I have my lesson, understand 
 
 The worth of flesh and blood at last ! 
 Nothing but beauty in a Hand ? . 
 
 Because he could not change the hue, 
 
 Mend the lines and make them true 
 To this which met his soul's demand, — 
 
 Would Da Vinci turn from you ? 
 I hear him laugh my woes to scorn — 
 ' ' The fool forsooth is all forlorn 
 " Because the beauty, she thinks best, 
 " Lived long ago or was never born, — 
 " Because no beauty bears the test. 
 " In this rough peasant Hand ! Confessed 
 " 'Art is null and study void ! ' 
 "So sayest thou ? So said not I, 
 " Who threw the faulty pencil by, 
 " And years instead of hours employed, 
 " Learning the veritable use 
 " Of flesh and bone and nerve beneath 
 " Lines and hue of the outer sheath, 
 " If haply I might reproduce 
 " One motive of the mechanism, 
 ' ' Flesh and bone and nerve that make 
 " The poorest coarsest human hand 
 "An object worthy to be scanned 
 " A whole life long for their sole sake. 
 " Shall earth and the cramped moment-space 
 " Yield the heavenly crowning grace ? 
 " Now the parts and then the whole ! 
 " Who art thou, with stinted soul 
 "And stunted body, thus to cry 
 
 I love, — shall that be life's strait dole ? 
 " 'I must live beloved or die ! ' 
 " This peasant hand that spins the wool 
 And bakes the bread, why lives it on, 
 " Poor and coarse with beauty gone, — 
 " What use survives the beauty? Fool ! "
 
 486 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 closing with the two lines originally forming subsection 2 : 
 
 " Go, little girl with the poor coarse hand ! 
 I have my lesson, shall understand." 
 
 The poem is, as all readers of Browning are aware, descriptive, 
 by a series of lyrical verses, of an unhappy married life, as far 
 as it has its effect on the mood, and at last on the critical 
 conduct, of the wife. The husband, it would seem, we are 
 meant to know little about — and to this is of course attri- 
 butable the subsequent change of title. The poem is the more 
 noteworthy as containing specimens of Browning's work of 
 three different kinds and times — that is, so far as we can judge, 
 of 1836, 1864, and 1 868. 
 
 JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH. 
 
 First appeared in Jocoseria, 1883, pp. 71-131. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 209-255. 
 
 The scene of this poem, writes Miss Cohen {Jewish Messenger, 
 March 4, 1887) is laid at Schiphas (probably Sheeraz, on the 
 Bendimir, as Browning writes it, no doubt Bundemeer, one of 
 the chief rivers in the province of Farsiztan, in Persia). Mr. 
 Browning writes concerning it : " This story can have no better 
 authority than that of the treatise, existing dispersedly in 
 fragments of rabbinical writing. The two Hebrew quota- 
 tions — put in to give a grave look to what is mere fun and 
 invention — being translated amount to, first, ' A collection of 
 many lies,' and the second an old saying ' From Moses to 
 Moses arose none like Moses.' " This, Miss Cohen points 
 out, refers, of course, to the Moses of the Bible and to the 
 distinguished Maimonides of the twelfth century. 
 
 JOCOSERIA. 
 
 First appeared (1883) in one Vol. See ante, p. 389, No. 24. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 165-260. 
 
 Johannes Agricola in Meditation. 
 
 First appeared in the Monthly Repository, 1836, Vol. x. p. 45. 
 Reprinted, Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. ii. p. 13.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 487 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 300-302. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 284-286. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1 868, Vol. v. pp. 229-230. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 199-201. 
 
 Following the heading of this poem as it originally appeared 
 in The Monthly Repository [where the poem was called Mad- 
 house Cells. 1] was the following quotation from the Dictionary 
 of all Religions (1704): " Antinomians, so denominated for 
 rejecting the law as a thing of no use under the gospel 
 dispensation : they say that good works do not further, nor 
 evil works hinder salvation ; that the child of God cannot 
 sin, that God never chastiseth him, that murder, drunkenness, 
 &c, are sins in the wicked but not in him, that the child of 
 grace being once assured of salvation, afterwards never 
 doubteth .... that God doth not love any man for his holi- 
 ness, that sanctification is no evidence of justification, &c. 
 Pontanus, in his Catalogue of Heresies, says John Agricola 
 was the author of this sect, a.d. 1535." 
 
 In the reprint of 1849, tne ^ e was given as 1. — Madhouse 
 Cell ; the sub-title being Johannes Agricola i?t Meditation. In 
 the 1863 edition, however, the heading of the poem was given 
 as Johannes Agricola in Meditation. 
 
 Juris Doctor Johannes -Baptista Bottinius, Fisci 
 et Rev. Cam. Apostol. Advocatus. See The Ring 
 and the Book. 
 
 King Victor and King Charles. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. ii. pp. 5- 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. i. pp. 231-302. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 68-139. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 1-72. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iii. 81-165. 
 
 KENTISH Sir Byng. See Cavalier Tunes.
 
 488 a bibliography of 
 
 Lairesse, Gerard de, Parleying with. 
 
 First appeared in Parleyings, 1887, pp. 161-189. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 201-220. 
 
 Gerard de Lairesse, a Flemish painter, was born at Liege in 
 1640. At the age of fifteen he produced portraits and historical 
 pictures. Notwithstanding that he was of deformed figure, 
 he was very fond of dress, and was of dissipated life. The 
 Dutch called him their "second Raphael" — Hemskirk being 
 the first. For many years he painted at Amsterdam, and to- 
 wards the end of his career was much troubled by his eyesight 
 — at times being quite blind. Exceedingly fond of teaching, 
 he was always willing to communicate his method of work to 
 students. 
 
 His name is generally associated with a Treatise on the Art of 
 Painting ; but there appears to be some doubt as to whether he 
 actually wrote it. He was very eccentric in his method of work : 
 having prepared his canvas, he would take his violin, and, sitting 
 down before it, play for some time, then, putting down the instru- 
 ment, would rapidly sketch in the picture — resuming his fiddle 
 when needing fresh inspiration for his work. He died in 1711. 
 
 La Saisiaz. 
 
 First appeared (1878), with The Two Poets of Croisic, in one 
 
 Vol. See ante, p. 387, No. 21. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 153-204. 
 
 This poem was inspired by the sudden death of Miss Anne 
 Egerton Smith (the Proprietress of the Liverpool Mercury), 
 at La Saisiaz, September 14, 1877 — where she had been enjoy- 
 ing the companionship of Mr. Browning and his sister : the 
 poem being so called, Mrs. Orr tells us, from the name of the 
 villa (" La Saisiaz ") in which they had resided. 
 
 Life in a Love. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. p. 90 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. p. 131. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 203. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 171.
 
 the writings of robert browning. 489 
 Love among the Ruins. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 1-6. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 38-42. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 112-115. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 54-57. 
 
 Love in a Life. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 173- 174. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. p. 130. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 202. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 170. 
 
 LURIA. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No.viii.pp. 1-20. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 139-210. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 357-427. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 43-114. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 205-289. 
 
 This tragedy deals with one of many hereditary outbreaks of 
 feud between Florence and Pisa. Mr. Browning appears to 
 have in mind the struggle between the two cities, which took 
 place almost at the beginning of the fifteenth century, although 
 he does not hamper himself by too strict an observance of 
 actual facts. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the 
 early death of Galeazzo Visconti had put an end for a time to 
 the power of that ambitious and dangerous family in Florence. 
 But Pisa, the old enemy of the Florentines, had fallen under the 
 tyrannous supremacy of a member of the hated house of 
 Visconti, — Gabriello Maria, a son of Gian Galeazzo. Florence 
 had thus a new cause of grievance against Pisa ; she detested 
 not only the city, but its ruler. In 1404 she fitted out an 
 expedition against Pisa, and two years later captured the city 
 after a long and cruel siege. This is, apparently, the bare 
 historical foundation of the play. 
 
 Luria — " the last attempt for the present at dramatic poetry " — 
 was dedicated to Walter Savage Landor — who replied in his 
 characteristic yet kindly fashion : " Accept my thanks for the 
 richest of Easter offerings made to any one for many years. I
 
 49° A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 staid at home last evening on purpose to read Luria, and if I 
 lost any good music (as I certainly did) I was well compensated 
 in kind. To day I intend to devote the rainy hours entirely to 
 The SouPs Tragedy. . . . Go on and pass us poor devils ! If 
 you do not go far ahead of me, I will crack my whip at you and 
 make you spring forward." 
 
 In another letter, Landor takes up Luria again, remarking : " I 
 have written to Browning, a great poet, a very great poet 
 indeed, as the world will have to agree with us in thinking. 
 The sudden close of Luria is very grand ; but preceding it, I 
 fear there is rather too much of argumentation and reflection. 
 It is continued too long after the Moor has taken poison. I 
 may be wrong, but if it is so you will see him and tell him. 
 God grant that he may live to be much greater than he is, high 
 as he stands above most of the living." 
 
 The key-note of this play would seem to be struck in the fine 
 parallel between the people of Florence led to the field by Luria 
 and the unfinished Cathedral — the pride of the people, "joined 
 to a Moorish front " (Act i. lines 121-126). On this matter, Mr. 
 Ernest Radford mokes the following interesting observations 
 {vide Browning Society's Papers, Part ii. pp. 251-252) : "The 
 reader who does not know Florence, who has not indeed some 
 knowledge of its architecture, will hardly perceive how apt is 
 the parallel : he will not realise how fine an instance it affords 
 of Browning's searching intelligence in every matter of art. At 
 Florence, in the small and hardly visited Museum called ' Opera 
 del Duomo,' one may see models and plans relating to the 
 Cathedral of all dates, from the time of Arnolfo (its original 
 designer) until now. The building, it is well known, has 
 remained unfinished. For more than 500 years the art-loving 
 Florentines impatiently expected its completion, and Florentine 
 artists throughout that time have had it for their highest hope 
 to be found worthy of the work. And, curiously enough, there 
 is, amongst many designs in the Museum which bear witness 
 to this honourable ambition and diligent effort, one which 
 accords with the poet's thought 
 
 " a fancy, how a Moorish front 
 
 Might join to, and complete, the body."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 491 
 
 It is a design which dwells in the memory. It is imaginative, 
 and more poetical perhaps than any of those which a stricter 
 taste prefers. It is not quite compatible, yet it is not wholly 
 incongruous. The influence of the East was strong upon Arnolfo 
 when, in the late 13th century, he made his plan. The archi- 
 tect has realised also an idea of Browning's (see Old Pictures in 
 Florence), that the spire which formed part of its original design 
 should be added to the Campanile of Giotto. The Campanile 
 is detached, but its west side is flush with the facade, and 
 practically, where alterations are in question, it must be 
 considered as part of the Cathedral. The tower with the short 
 spire added, small pinnacles or minarets on the shoulders of the 
 fagade, and the great dome with its sub-domes in the rear, have 
 an appearance almost Eastern. Few, I have said, would realise 
 that the work might so be treated, yet one architect at least 
 has done so, and Browning has realised it too. For it is an 
 interesting fact that Browning has not seen the design I 
 have just described, which embodies so precisely the ideas 
 expressed in his verse." 
 
 Mr. James Russell Lowell also writes of Litria : " If not the 
 best, it is certainly one of the most striking of his dramas in its 
 clearness of purpose, the energetic rapidity of its movement, 
 the harmony of its details, the natural attraction with which 
 they all tend toward and at last end in the consummation, and 
 in the simplicity and concentration of its tragic element." 
 
 Magical Nature. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, p. 90. . 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. p. 60. 
 
 Mandeville, Bernard de, Parleying with. 
 
 First appeared in Parleyings, 1887, pp. 29-50. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 117-131. 
 
 Bernard de Mandeville was born at Dort, in Holland, in the 
 year 1670. He became a student of medicine, and eventually 
 took up his residence in London. In 1714 he issued The 
 Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turned Honest — a work which
 
 492 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 was subsequently (1723) enlarged into The Fable of the Bees, or 
 Private Vices, Public Benefits. It is this latter work by which 
 Mandeville is now best known. It was, however, condemned 
 as of pernicious tendency by the grand jury of Middlesex. A 
 second part of the Fable was afterwards published by Man- 
 deville — who claimed an ironical meaning for his arguments in 
 favour of vice. He wrote other treatises on questions of social 
 polity, etc. ; but his personal character, says The Pall Mall 
 Gazette (Jan. 18, 1887), is reported to have been by no means 
 worthy of respect. For instance — it is stated that he was paid by 
 distillers to write in different periodicals in favour of the custom 
 of indulging in spirituous liquors ; while it is reported by Sir John 
 Hawkins that he was " a great flatterer of certain vulgar Dutch 
 merchants," from whom he received a pension. The first Earl of 
 Macclesfield was his chief patron ; and it was as his guest that 
 Mandeville met Addison, whom he afterwards described as " a 
 parson in a tye wig." He died in 1733. 
 
 Man I am and Man would be, Love. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishlah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 31-32. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 22-23. 
 
 MARCHING ALONG. See Cavalier Tunes. 
 Martin Relph. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls I. pp 1-26 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 3-16. 
 
 Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli. 
 
 First appeared mjocoseria, 1883, pp. 45-49. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 195-196. 
 
 Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotiia. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. p. 194-204. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 149-155. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 221-227. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 196-204
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 493 
 
 May and Death. 
 
 First appeared in The Keepsake, 1857. 
 Reprinted, Dramatis Persons, 1864, pp. 143 146. 
 Ditto, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 150-151. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 165-166. 
 
 When reprinted in Dramatis Persona, some new readings were 
 substituted — as for instance (line 1 5) " save a sole streak," in 
 place of "except a streak." 
 
 The "plant" alluded to in stanza 4 of this poem is doubtless 
 the Polygonum Persicaria, or Spotted Persicaria. It is a 
 common weed, with purple stains on its rather large leaves — 
 these spots varying in size and vividness of colour according to 
 the nature of the soil where it grows. A legend attached to the 
 plant attributes these stains to the blood of Christ having fallen 
 on the leaves growing below the cross. 
 
 Meeting at Night. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 20. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. p. 399. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. p. 32. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 106. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 46. 
 
 Memorabilia. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1S55, Vol. i. p. 259. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. p. 145. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 217. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 190-191. 
 
 Mr. W. G. Kingsland writes : " I remember on one occasion 
 Browning narrating the incident that inspired these stanzas. 
 He was in the shop of a then well-known London bookseller, 
 when a stranger to himself entered, and commenced a conversa- 
 tion with the bookseller on Shelley — stating, inter alia, that he 
 had both seen and spoken to him. While thus conversing, the 
 stranger suddenly turned round, and burst into a laugh on 
 observing how Browning was ' staring at him ' with blanched
 
 494 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 face : ' and,' said the poet, ' I have not yet forgotten how 
 strangely the sight of one who had spoken with Shelley 
 affected me.'" {Poet Lore, Vol. ii., 1890, p. 131.) 
 
 Men and Women. 
 
 First appeared (1855) in Two Vols. See ante, p. 373, No. 7. 
 
 In these volumes the title belongs to fifty poems then pub- 
 lished, with an Epilogue addressed to Mrs. Browning, entitled 
 One Word More. The poems are mainly monologues — utter- 
 ances each of a single speaker : but in some the lyric note 
 predominates more distinctly than in others ; and one {In a 
 Balcony) is a drama. In the collected editions, the title Men 
 and Women is given to a comparatively small number of poems, 
 not, of course, including In a Balcony ; the rest are distributed 
 under the two headings Dramatic Lyrics and Dramatic 
 Romances. 
 
 Mesmerism. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 107-116. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 174-180. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 165-171. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 28-35. 
 
 Mihrab Shah. 
 
 First appeared in FerishtaJUs Fancies, 1884, pp. 46-56. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 32-38. 
 
 Misconceptions. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. p. 227-228. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. p. 119. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 191. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 154. 
 
 5-i- 
 
 Mr. Sludge, " The Medium." 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona; 1864, pp. 169-236. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol vi. pp. 162-218. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 182-245.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 495 
 
 MUCKLE-MOUTH MEG. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 52-55. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 44-46- 
 
 MULEYKEH. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls II., 1880, pp. 43~59- 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 108-116. 
 
 "My heart sank with our Claret-flask." See 
 Nationality in Drinks. 
 
 My Last Duchess. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates (under the heading 
 
 Italy and France), 1842, No. iii. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 258-260. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 1 59-161. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 150-152. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 8-10. 
 In this poem, Fra Pandolf and his picture, Claus of Innsbruck, 
 and the bronze Neptune taming a sea horse, are all imaginary. 
 The Duke's avowed design when he "said Fra Pandolf," was 
 to call attention to the bright smile portrayed by the artist on 
 his Last Duchess's countenance, and in reply to an anticipated 
 look of inquiry, to impress on the Envoy and on the Count his 
 master the necessity for dignity of demeanour and obedience 
 on the part of the future Duchess. 
 
 My Star. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. p. 122. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. p. 98. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 170. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 125. 
 
 Nationality in Drinks. 
 
 First appeared in Hood's Magazine, June 1844, Vol. i. p. 525, 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 11-12. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 85-86. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 16-18.
 
 496 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Natural Magic. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1 876, pp. 88-89. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 58-59. 
 
 Ned Bratts. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls I. 1879, PP- I0 7 -I 43- 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 60-80. 
 
 The original of Ned Bratts is doubtless to be found in the story 
 of " old Tod," narrated in John Bunyan's Life and Death of 
 Mr. Badman [1680]. Indeed, Dr. Furnivall says this story, 
 which Browning had read in his boyhood, " was distinctly in 
 the poet's mind " when he wrote the poem at the Splugen, far 
 from books. Bunyan's narrative takes the form of a dialogue 
 between Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive, and the former relates 
 the " story concerning one old Tod, that was hanged about 
 Twenty years or more, at Hartford." Here is the story : "At 
 a Summer Assizes holden at Hartford, while the Judge was sit- 
 ting upon the Bench, comes this old Tod into the Court, cloathed 
 in a green Suit, with his Leathern Girdle in his hand, his bosom 
 open, and all in a dung sweat, as if he had run for his Life ; and 
 being come in, he spake aloud as follows : My Lord, said he, 
 Here is the veryest Rogue that breaths upon the face of the 
 earth. I have been a Thief from a Child: When I was but a 
 little one, I gave my self to rob Orchards, and to do other such 
 like wicked things, and I have continued a Thief ever since. 
 My Lord, there has not been a Robbery committed thus many 
 years, within so many miles of this place, but I have either been 
 at it or privy to it. 
 
 " The Judge thought the fellow was mad, but after some confer- 
 ence with some of the Justices, they agreed to Indict him ; and 
 so they did, of several felonious Actions ; to all of which he 
 heartily confessed Guilty, and so was hanged with his Wife at 
 the same time. ... As for the truth of this Story, the Relator 
 told me that he was at the same time himself in the Court, and 
 stood within less than two yards of old Tod, when he heard 
 him aloud to utter the words."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 497 
 
 Never the Time and the Place. 
 
 First appeared in Jocoseria, 1883, pp. 133-136. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 256-257. 
 
 " Not with my Soul, Love." 
 
 First appeared in FerishtaJi's Fancies, 1884, pp. 91-92. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 61-62. 
 
 Now. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, p. 10. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. p. 8. 
 
 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 95-105. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 63-69. 
 
 Concerning this poem, Mr. Browning (in a letter addressed to 
 Dr. Furnivall) writes as follows : " Is not the key to the mean- 
 ing of the poem in its title — vvp$okt\irros [caught or entranced by 
 a Nymph], not yvvainepao-Trjs [a woman-lover] ? An allegory, 
 that is, of an impossible ideal object of love, accepted conven- 
 tionally as such by a man who, all the while, cannot quite blind 
 himself to the demonstrable fact that the possessor of knowledge 
 and purity obtained without the natural consequences of obtain- 
 ing them by achievement — not inheritance — such a being is 
 imaginary, not real, a nymph and no woman : and only such an 
 one would be ignorant of and surprised at the results of a 
 lover's endeavour to emulate the qualities which the beloved is 
 entitled to consider as pre-existent to earthly experience, and 
 independent of its inevitable results. 
 
 " I had no particular woman in my mind ; certainly never 
 intended to personify wisdom, philosophy, or any other abstrac- 
 tion ; and the orb, raying colour out of whiteness, was altogether 
 a fancy of my own. The ' seven spirits ' are in the Apocalypse, 
 also in Coleridge and Byron : a common image." 
 
 "O the Old Wall here." 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 1-2. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 3-4. 
 VOL. I. K K
 
 498 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 This poem forms the Prologue to Pacchiarotto and how he 
 Worked in Distemper: with other Poems. It is printed in the 
 second series of Selections under the title of A Wall. 
 
 Oh Love, Love ! 
 
 First appeared in Mahaffy's Euripides^ 1879. 
 Reprinted, Browning Society's Papers, Part i. p. 69. 
 This was a rendering into English of two stanzas of Euripides 1 
 Hippolytus, and has not been reprinted in any edition of Mr. 
 Browning's Poems. The lines are as follows : — 
 
 I. 
 . Oh Love, Love, thou that from the eyes diffusest 
 
 Yearning, and on the soul sweet grace inducest — 
 
 Souls against whom thy hostile march is made — 
 
 Never to me be manifest in ire, 
 
 Nor, out of time and tune, my peace invade ! 
 
 Since neither from the fire — 
 
 No, nor the stars — is launched a bolt more mighty 
 
 Than that of Aphrodite 
 
 Hurled from the hands of Love, the boy with Zeus for sire. 
 
 II. 
 Idly, how idly, by the Alpheian river 
 And in the Pythian shrines of Phoebus, quiver 
 Blood-offerings from the bull, which Hellas heaps : 
 While Love we worship not — the Lord of men ! 
 Worship not him, the very key who keeps 
 Of Aphrodite, when 
 She closes up her dearest chamber-portals : 
 
 Love, when he comes to mortals, 
 
 Wide-wasting, through those deeps of woes beyond the deep ! 
 
 Oh, Love — no, Love! All the noise below, 
 Love." 
 
 First appeared in Ferishlah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 140-143. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 90-92. 
 
 This poem is the Epilogue to Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
 1 Macmillan's Classical Writers : Euripides, by Prof. Mahaffy. MacmillaB 
 and Co.
 
 the writings of robert browning. 499 
 Old Pictures in Florence. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 30-48. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 58-70. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 131-142. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 77-91. 
 
 In the Second Series of Selections (1880), Mr. Browning ap- 
 pended a note to this poem replying to Professor Colvin's 
 "condemnation" of the line 
 
 " You're wroth — can you slay your snake like Apollo?" 
 
 A fierce controversy has for many a day raged about A polio's 
 attitude in this statue. Has he just shot his arrow (the view 
 adopted by Browning, and supported in the "Note")? Is he 
 about to shoot, or is he grasping the JEgis in battle ? Since 
 the date of the Poet's Note, the controversy has been briskly 
 continued — the witness both for and against the aegis theory 
 having been the Stroganoff statuette, first noticed by Stephani 
 in i860, as proving that Apollo held the aegis. In 1882, 
 Furtwangler declared that an examination 'of the Stroganoff 
 Apollo convinced him that the god held whatever he may have 
 held far too daintily for it to be the aegis. This opinion for a 
 time seemed to have petrified the gorgon, but that it was 
 ineffectual appears by the later advocacy of Kieseritzky, who 
 says that his examination of the statuette convinced him that 
 the aegis theory is correct. The whole history of the con- 
 troversy will be found summarised in Mrs. Mitchell's History of 
 Ancient Sculpture (London, 1SS3, pp. 621-626). It is pointed out 
 by " K," in " Browning Notes and Queries " {Browning Society's 
 Papers, part vii., p. 10*) that " Mrs. Mitchell is evidently, at 
 heart, with Furtwangler (and Browning) and not with Colvin 
 and Kieseritzky, but she ventures only to call the aegis theory 
 ' unpleasant.' " 
 
 " ON THE FIRST OF THE FEAST OF FEASTS." 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Personce, 1864, pp. 245-246. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 222-223. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 250-251. 
 
 K K 2
 
 500 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 This poem is the " First Speaker, as David," in the Epilogue 
 to Dramatis Persona. 
 
 " Once I saw a Chemist take a Pinch of Powder." 
 
 First appeared in Ferisklak's Fancies, 1884, pp. 76-77- 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 51-52. 
 
 One Way of Love. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. p. 30. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 122-123. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 194-195. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 159-160. 
 
 One Word More. To E. B. B. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. p. 229. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 425-432. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 313-321. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 296-305. 
 
 This poem forms the Epilogue to Men and Women, and is, in 
 effect, the dedication of the fifty poems originally appearing 
 under this title, to Mrs. Browning. 
 
 Concerning the Dante allusions in this poem, Mr. W. M. Rossetti 
 writes in the Academy (1891) : "I understand the allusions, but 
 Browning is far from accurate in them. 
 
 1. Towards the end of the Vita Nuova, Dante says that, on the 
 first anniversary of the death of Beatrice, he began drawing an 
 angel, but was interrupted by certain people of distinction, who 
 entered on a visit. Browning is, therefore, wrong in intimating 
 that the angel was painted to please Beatrice. 
 
 2. Then Browning says that the pen with which Dante drew 
 the angel was, perhaps, corroded by the hot ink in which it had 
 previously been dipped for the purpose of denouncing a certain 
 wretch, — i.e., one of the persons named in his Inferno. This 
 about the ink, as such, is Browning's own figure of speech, not 
 got out of Dante. 
 
 3. Then Browning speaks of Dante's having his 'left hand i' 
 the hair o' the wicked,' etc. This refers to Inferno, Canto 32, 
 where Dante meets (among the traitors to their country) a
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 501 
 
 certain Bocca degli Abati, a notorious Florentine traitor, dead 
 some years back, and Dante clutches and tears at Bocca's hair 
 to compel him to name himself, which Bocca would much rather 
 not do. 
 
 4. Next Browning speak of this Bocca as being a ' live man.' 
 Here Browning confounds two separate incidents. Bocca is not 
 only damned, but also dead ; but, further on — Canto 33 — Dante 
 meets another man, a traitor against his familiar friend. This 
 traitor is Frate Alberigo, one of the Manfredi family, of 
 Faenza. This Frate Alberigo was, though damned, not, in fact, 
 dead ; he was still alive, and Dante makes it out that traitors of 
 this sort are liable to have their souls sent to hell before the 
 death of their bodies. A certain Branca d'Oria, Genoese, is in 
 like case, — damned, but not dead. 
 
 5. Browning proceeds to speak of the wretch going ' festering 
 through Florence.' This is a relapse into his mistake, — the con- 
 founding of the dead Florentine Bocca degli Abati with the 
 living (though damned) Faentine and Genoese traitors, Frate 
 Alberigo and Branca d'Oria, who had nothing to do with 
 Florence." 
 
 PACCHIAROTTO, AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 
 
 First appeared (1876) in one Vol. See ante, p. 384, No. 19. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 1-241. 
 
 PAMBO. 
 
 First appeared in Jocoseria, 1883, pp. 137-143. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 258-260. 
 
 Pan and Luna. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls II. 1880, pp. 137-147. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 159-163. 
 
 Paracelsus. 
 
 First appeared (1835) in one Vol. See ante, p. 363, No. 2. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. i. pp. 1-162. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. iii. pp. 1-162. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. i. pp. 43-206. 
 
 Ditto Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. ii. pp. 1 186.
 
 502 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 For the edition of 1863, this poem underwent considerable 
 revision — several lines being omitted, fresh ones inserted, and 
 many verbal changes made in the text. For instance — in the 
 edition of 1835, p. 13 : 
 
 As you had your own soul : accordingly 
 I could go further back, and trace each bough 
 Of this wide branching tree even to its birth ; 
 Each full-grown passion to its outspring faint ; 
 But I shall only dwell upon the intents — 
 
 appears in the edition of 1863 (p. 10) as one line only. 
 " As you had your own soul and those intents." 
 Mr. Browning always held he had been true to the real 
 character of Paracelsus in his poem ; he was likewise well 
 versed in the works of this pioneer of modern chemists. In this 
 connection it may be well to give here the following summary 
 from the Encyclopedia Britannica (9th ed., 1875, i., p. 465 — 
 467) : " Paracelsus is the prophet of a revolution in general 
 science. ' Madman, charlatan, impostor,' no name is too bad 
 for him with the historians, and yet they are forced to confess 
 that this impudent adventurer brought about a necessary 
 revolution. Thomas Thompson is very severe .... He would 
 have wished, forsooth, the revolutionist of Basle to have de- 
 livered before his young and enthusiastic audience 'the sober 
 lectures of a professor of a university.' Dryasdusts are fond 
 of falling into such anachronisms : a far truer estimate of 
 Paracelsus has been given us by Mr. Browning in the drama 
 which bears his name. There are souls of fire always enveloped 
 in clouds, from which ever and anon the lightnings of genius 
 flash forth, who bear humanity towards a goal, foreseen rather 
 than seen by themselves, by a rough and rugged road with 
 endless turns and windings. Such a nature was Paracelsus. 
 He was the greatest traveller in that age of scientific travellers ; 
 he practised medicine as the doctor of the poor, and inaugurated 
 lectures in the vulgar tongue. . . . Nature, as he views it, is 
 not a clear and intelligible system of which the form declares 
 the essence ; no, it is mysterious. There is a spirit at work 
 beneath the outside shell. What is written on this shell, no 
 one can read but the initiated who have learned to separate the
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 503 
 
 real and the apparent. By making the viscera the seat of 
 diseases, Paracelsus claims to be the founder of the organicists ; 
 by his chemistry of the blood — mercury which evaporates, 
 sulphur which burns, salt which is constant — he is answerable 
 for the blunderings of Maitre Purgon ; by his archeus, the 
 grand motor and regulator of the astrology of the body, he is 
 the ancestor in a direct line of animism, and collaterally of 
 modern Hippocratism or vitalism of the Montpelier school. In 
 short, it is hard to name anything that cannot be found in the 
 works of this mad genius, who, in spite of the jars and jolts of 
 his wild career, still manages to keep the road without upsetting 
 either at Paris or Montpelier. What, we may ask, would modern 
 therapeutics be without the opium and mercury of Paracelsus — 
 without the laudanum of his disciple Quercetan, physician to 
 Henry IV. ? When this charlatan had substituted for astro- 
 logical influence a simple parallelism, it was easy for Van 
 Helmont to rid modern science of this simple parallelism. 
 Besides all this, Paracelsus was a real doctor. ... a patient 
 was dining with him ninety-nine days after he had been pro- 
 nounced in extremis . . . those strange bodies which escaped 
 from the retorts of the masters of the sacred art were called by 
 them ' souls ' ; their successors, on a closer acquaintance, called 
 them ' spirits.' Basil Vatentin and Paracelsus, recognising 
 their importance in the transmutation of bodies, gave to them 
 the name of mercury. Van Helmont studied them more 
 minutely, and invented the name 'gas.' Hence modern 
 chemistry was born." 
 
 In a note to Paracelsus, Browning says that " Bombast his 
 proper name, probably acquired, from the characteristic phrase- 
 ology of his lectures, that unlucky signification which it has ever 
 since retained." Professor W. J. Rolfe, however, points out 
 that Bombast has really no connexion whatever with Paracelsus, 
 as one may see by reference to any standard English dictionary. 
 The word was originally applied to the soft down of the cotton- 
 plant, or " cotton-wool " as it is popularly called. Gerard, in his 
 Herbal (1597) says that this is " called in English and French, 
 Cotton, Bombaste, and Bombace," and Sandys, in his Travels 
 (161 5), referring to the cotton-plant, says : " The head, ripening,
 
 504 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 • breaks/and is delivered of a white, soft Bombast." Cotton and 
 certain stuffs made of cotton being often used as padding for 
 clothes, bombast came to be applied to padding and stuffing in 
 both a literal and a figurative sense, and hence to inflated and 
 turgid language. The verb (to swell out, render turgid) is 
 found as early as 1573, in Reginald Scot's Hop Garden. " Not 
 bumbasting the same with the figures and flowers of rhetoric." 
 Florio, in his Montaigne (1603) has the expression, " Bumbast 
 his labours with high swelling and heaven — disembowelling 
 words." Every student of Shakespeare is familar with the use 
 of the word in Robert Greene's famous fling at the dramatist 
 (1594): "An upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that, 
 with his Tyger's heart wrapt in a Player's hide, supposes he is 
 as well able to bumbast out a blank verse as the best of you." 
 The noun in the figurative sense is used by Nashe (dedication 
 to Greene's Menaphon) in (1589): "To outbrave better pens 
 with the swelling bumbast of a bragging blanke verse." Shake- 
 speare has the word, literally, in /. Henry IV. (ii. 4, 359) 
 where Hal calls Falstaff "my sweet creature of bombast" 
 (" a stuffed man," as Beatrice puts it) ; figuratively in Othello 
 
 (i- i, 13), 
 
 with a bombast circumstance, 
 
 Horribly stuff 'd with epithets of war ; 
 
 and with a punning double sense in Love's Labour's Lost, 
 
 (v. 2, 791) : 
 
 At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy, 
 As bombast and as lining to the time. 
 
 \Poet Lore, Vol. iii. p. 104.] 
 
 Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in 
 their Day. 
 
 To wit : Bernard de Mandeville, 
 Daniel Bartoli, 
 Christopher Smart, 
 George Bubb Dodington, 
 Francis Furini, 
 Gerard de Lairesse, 
 and Charles Avison.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 505 
 
 Introduced by 
 
 A Dialogue between Apollo and the Fates. 
 Concluded by 
 
 Another between John Fust and his Friends. 
 First appeared (1887) in one Vol. See ante, p. 390, No. 26. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 1-275. 
 
 Parting at Morning. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates (under the title 
 
 "Morning"), 1845, No. vii. p. 20. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. p. 399. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. p. 33. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 107. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 46. 
 
 Pauline ; a Fragment of a Confession. 
 
 First appeared (1833) in one Vol. See ante, p. 361, No. 1. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. i. pp. 1-42. 
 
 Ditto 1886, a facsimile of the original edition of 1833. 
 
 Edited by Thos. J. Wise. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. i. pp. 1-45. 
 Pauline was not accorded a place among Mr. Browning's 
 collected works till it appeared in the edition of 1868 — when it 
 was reprinted for the first time : the poet evidently deploring 
 the necessity (owing to the probable publication of surreptitious 
 editions) which led to the re-issue. 
 
 On a fly-leaf of an original edition of Pauline, Browning 
 (according to Mr. R. N. Shepherd) wrote (under date December 
 14, 1838) : " Pauline written in pursuance of a foolish plan I for- 
 get, or have no wish to remember ; involving the assumption of 
 several distinct characters : the world was never to guess that 
 such an opera, such a comedy, such a speech proceeded from 
 the same notable person. Mr. V. A. (see page second) was 
 Poet of the party, and predestined to cut no inconsiderable 
 figure. ' Only this crab ' (I find set down in my copy) remains 
 of the shapely Tree of Life in my Fool's Paradise." 
 The following " pretty conceit " (from the Monthly Repository)
 
 506 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 regarding the genesis of Pauline, had its " foundation in fact," 
 Mr. Browning having lent his copy of Rosalind and Helen to 
 
 Miss Flower, and which she lost in a wood : " Last autumn L 
 
 dropped a poem of Shelley's clown there in the wood ; amongst 
 the thick, damp, rotting leaves, and this spring someone found 
 a delicate exotic-looking plant, growing wild on the very spot, 
 with Pauline hanging from its slender stalk. Unripe fruit it 
 may be, but of pleasant flavour and promise, and a mellower 
 produce, it may be hoped, will follow." 
 
 The whole of the pretty " huitain " of Marot's, the first two 
 lines of which form the motto to Pauline, reads thus : — 
 
 " Plus ne suis ce que j'ay este, 
 Et ne le saurois jamais estre : 
 Mon beau printemps et mon este 
 Ont faict le saut par la fenestre. 
 Amour, tu as este mon maistre, 
 Je t'ay servy sur tous les dieux, 
 O si je povois deux fois naistre, 
 Comme je te servirois mieulx ! " 
 
 Pheidippides. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls, i, pp. 27-44. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 17-25. 
 
 This poem, Mrs. Orr tells us {Handbook to the Works oj 
 Robert Browning, p. 13), is written in a measure of Mr. 
 Browning's own — being composed of dactyles and spondees, 
 each line ending with a half-foot or pause. It is certainly well 
 adapted to the character of the poem. 
 
 Pictor Ignotus. Florence, 15 — 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 4. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 321-323. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 343-345. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 231-234. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 202-204. 
 
 In this poem as now printed will be found various deviations 
 from its first form. In line 23, the first reading was 
 
 "Men, women, children, hath it spilt, my cup?"
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 507 
 
 This now reads — 
 
 " O human faces, hath it spilt, my cup?" 
 
 And in lines 45 to 48, the first version was — 
 
 " Mixed with my loving ones there trooped — for what ? 
 Who summoned those cold faces which begun 
 To press on me and judge me ? As asquat 
 And shrinking from the soldiery a nun, — 
 
 This stands now — 
 
 " Mixed with my loving trusting ones, there trooped 
 . . . Who summoned those cold faces that begun 
 To press on me and judge me ? Though I stooped 
 Shrinking, as from the soldiery a nun," 
 
 PlETRO OF ABANO. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls II. 1880, pp. 61-111. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 1 17-145. 
 
 Peter of Abano — Petrus de Apono or Petrus de Padua — was 
 an Italian physician and alchemist, born at Abano near Padua 
 in 1246. It is related of him that he studied Greek at Constanti- 
 nople, mathematics at Padua, and to have been made Doctor of 
 Medicine and Philosophy at Paris. He then returned to Padua, 
 where he was professor of medicine, and followed the Arabian 
 physicians, especially Averroes. His reputation was great, and 
 his fees enormous. Jealous of his wealth and renown, his 
 enemies denounced him to the Inquisition as a magician ; and 
 probably had he not in the meantime died a natural death 
 (about 1320), he would have been burnt. However, his corpse 
 was ordered to be burnt : but as that had been purloined by a 
 friend, his portrait was publicly burnt by the executioner. In 
 1 560 a Latin epitaph to his memory was put up in the church 
 of St. Augustin. His best known work is his Conciliator differ- 
 eiitiarum qua inter philosophos et medicos versantur (Mantua, 
 1472, and Venice, 1476). 
 
 In Bishop Thirlwall's Letters to a Friend (1881, Vol. ii.pp. 77-79), 
 there is a story somewhat resembling Peter's : "A young 
 student calls on Don Manuel at Seville, and asks for a spell to 
 get him along in life. Don Manuel calls to his housekeeper, 
 * Jacinta, roast the partridges. Don Diego will stay to dinner.'
 
 508 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 The student makes a grand career : is Dean, Bishop, and then 
 Pope soon after he is forty. When Don Manuel calls on him 
 in Rome, he threatens the magician, who has made him, with 
 the prisons of the Holy Office : and then hears Don Manuel 
 call out, ' Jacinta, you need not put down the partridges. Don 
 Diego will not stay to dinner.' And, lo ! Diego found himself at 
 Don Manuel's door, — with his way yet to make in the world." 
 
 Pippa Passes. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, i^i, No. i. pp. 1-16. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. i. pp. 163-230. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 1-67. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. ii. pp. 219-287. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1S89, Vol. iii. pp. 1-79. 
 
 As noted above, Pippa Passes first appeared in 1 841, in No. I. 
 of Bells and Pomegranates, and was not reprinted until eight 
 years later, when it was included in the two-volume edition of 
 the Poems of 1849. ^ n the meantime it had undergone con- 
 siderable revision, and had been greatly enlarged. As the 
 original series of Bells and Pomegranates is rendered practically 
 inaccessible to the general reader by reason of its scarcity, it 
 may be of more than ordinary interest to specify some of the 
 more important variations. These will also serve to illustrate 
 the amount of revision to which several of Mr. Browning's 
 works were submitted. 
 
 In the second section of the Prologue — after the line now read- 
 ing " Then shame fall on Asolo, mischief on me " — the original 
 version consists of the following twenty-seven lines : — 
 
 But in turn, Day, treat me not 
 
 As happy tribes — so happy tribes ! who live 
 
 At hand — the common, other creatures' lot — 
 
 Ready to take when thou wilt give, 
 
 Prepared to pass what thou refusest ; 
 
 Day, 'tis but Pippa thou ill-usest 
 
 If thou prove sullen, me, whose old year's sorrow 
 
 Who except thee can chase before to-morrow, 
 
 Seest thou, my day ? Pippa's — who mean to borrow 
 
 Only of thee strength against new year's sorrow :
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 509 
 
 For let thy morning scowl on that superb 
 
 Great haughty Ottima — can scowl disturb 
 
 Her Sebald's homage? And if noon shed gloom 
 
 O'er Jules and Phene — what care bride and groom 
 
 Save for their dear selves? Then, obscure thy eve 
 
 With mist — will Luigi and Madonna grieve 
 
 — The mother and the child — unmatched, forsooth, 
 
 She in her age as Luigi in his youth, 
 
 For true content ? And once again, outbreak 
 
 In storm at night on Monsignor they make 
 
 Such stir to-day about, who foregoes Rome 
 
 To visit Asolo, his brother's home, 
 
 And say there masses proper to release 
 
 The soul from pain — what storm dares hurt that peace? 
 
 But Pippa — just one such mischance would spoil, 
 
 Bethink thee, utterly next twelvemonth's toil 
 
 At wearisome silk-winding, coil on coil ! 
 
 If the reader will compare this with the present version, he will 
 find that it is not only altered almost past recognition, but that 
 it now consists of fifty-one lines in place of the seven-and- 
 twenty quoted above. In the next section — " Worship whom 
 else ? for am I not this Day" — seven lines have been added to 
 the original three ; while the following section, commencing in 
 the original — 
 
 Up the hill-side, thro' the morning, 
 
 Love me as I love ! 
 
 I am Ottima, take warning ! — 
 
 now reads : — 
 
 See ! Up the Hill-side yonder, through the morning, 
 Some one shall love me, as the world calls love : 
 I am no less than Ottima, take warning ! 
 
 It is interesting to note that the first of Pippa's songs — " All 
 service ranks the same with God " — has only one or two merely 
 verbal alterations ; but the section following has been exten- 
 sively altered ; while seven lines have been deleted therefrom. 
 The original stands thus : — 
 
 And more of it, and more of it — oh, yes ! 
 So that my passing, and each happiness 
 I pass, will be alike important — prove 
 That true ! Oh yes — the brother,
 
 510 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 The bride, the lover, and the mother, — 
 
 Only to pass whom will remove — 
 
 Whom a mere look at half will cure 
 
 The Past, and help me to endure 
 
 The Coming ... I am just as great, no doubt, 
 
 As they ! 
 
 A pretty thing to care about 
 
 So mightily — this single holiday ! 
 
 Why repine ? 
 
 With thee to lead me, Day of mine, 
 
 Down the grass path gray with dew, 
 
 'Neath the pine-wood, blind with boughs, 
 
 Where the swallow never flew 
 
 As yet, nor cicale dared carouse : 
 
 No, dared carouse ! 
 
 For the purpose of more immediate reference it may be well to 
 append the version as it now reads : — 
 
 And more of it, and more of it ! — oh yes — 
 I will pass each, and see their happiness, 
 And envy none — being just as great, no doubt, 
 Useful to men, and dear to God, as they ! 
 A pretty thing to care about 
 So mightily, this single holiday ! 
 But let the sun shine ! Wherefore repine ? 
 — With thee to lead me, O Day of mine, 
 Down the grass-path grey with dew, 
 Under the pine-wood, blind with boughs, 
 Where the swallow never flew 
 Nor yet cicala dared carouse — 
 No, dared carouse ! 
 
 In scene 2 (noon) the additions and alterations are equally 
 extensive. As one specimen — and perhaps the most interesting 
 — out of many, we will subjoin the original version of the 
 Allegory commencing " I am a painter who cannot paint." It is 
 printed in the ordinary Roman type, and not (as now) in italics : 
 and the reader will not fail to note, in comparing it with the 
 present version, how immeasurably for the better Browning's 
 alterations were : — 
 
 The Bard said, do one thing I can — 
 Love a man and hate a man
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 5" 
 
 Supremely : thus my love began. 
 
 Thro' the Valley of Love I went, 
 
 In its lovingest spot to abide ; 
 
 And just on the verge where I pitched my tent 
 
 Dwelt Hate beside — 
 
 (And the bridegroom asked what the bard's smile meant 
 
 Of his bride. ) 
 
 Next Hate I traversed, the Grove, 
 
 In its hatefullest nook to dwell — 
 
 And lo, where I flung myself prone, couched Love 
 
 Next cell. 
 
 (For not I, said the bard, but those black bride's eyes above 
 
 Should tell !) 
 (Then Lutwyche said you probably would ask, 
 " You have black eyes, love, — you are sure enough 
 My beautiful bride — do you, as he sings, tell 
 What needs some exposition — what is this ? " 
 . . . And I am to go on, without a word,) 
 
 Once when I loved I would enlace 
 
 Breast, eyelids, hands, feet, form and face 
 
 Of her I loved in one embrace — 
 
 And, when I hated, I would plunge 
 
 My sword, and wipe with the first lunge 
 
 My foe's whole life out like a spunge : 
 
 — But if I would love and hate more 
 
 Than ever man hated or loved before — 
 
 Would seek in the Valley of Love 
 
 The spot, or in Hatred's grove 
 
 The spot where my soul may reach 
 
 The essence, nought less, of each . . . 
 (Here he said, if you interrupted me 
 With, " There must be some error, — who induced you 
 To speak this jargon ? " — I was to reply 
 Simply — " Await till . . . until . . " I must say 
 Last rhyme again— ) 
 
 . . The essence, nought less, of each — 
 
 The Hate of all Hates, or the Love 
 
 Of all Loves in its glen or its grove, 
 
 — I find them the very warders 
 
 Each of the other's borders. 
 
 So most I love when Love's disguised 
 
 In Hate's garb — 'tis when Hate's surprised 
 
 In Love's weed that I hate most ; ask
 
 512 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 How Love can smile thro' Hate's barred iron casque, 
 Hate grin thro' Love's rose-braided mask, 
 Of thy bride, Giulio ! 
 
 (Then you, " Oh, not mine — 
 Preserve the real name of the foolish song ! " 
 But I must answer, " Giulio — Jules — 'tis Jules !) 
 Thus, I, Jules, hating thee 
 Sought long and painfully. . . 
 
 [Jules interposes. 
 
 There are likewise many variations in scene 3, together with 
 many additions. In Pippa's song, however ("A King lived long 
 ago "), the following lines (immediately after " At his wondrous 
 forest rites ") are omitted from the present version : — 
 
 But which the God's self granted him 
 For setting free each felon limb 
 Because of earthly murder done 
 Faded till other hope was none. 
 
 Concerning the word " twats " in line 95 of the epilogue of this 
 poem — 
 
 Then, owl and bats, cowls and twats, — 
 
 Mr. W. J. Rolfe says : " ' Twats ' is in no dictionary. We now 
 have it from the poet (through Dr. Furnivall) that he got the 
 word from the Royalist rhymes entitled ' Vanity of Vanities,' on 
 Sir Harry Vane's picture. Vane is charged with being a 
 Jesuit : — 
 
 'Tis said they will give him a cardinal's hat : 
 They sooner will give him an old nun's twat. 
 
 ' The word struck me,' says Browning, ' as a distinctive part 
 of a nun's attire that might fitly pair off with the cowl appro- 
 priated to a monk." It has been pointed out, however, that the 
 word may be found in its place in Wright's Dictionary; while 
 it is probably still in provincial use. 
 
 Writing in 1870, Sir John Kaye says : "What a story it \Pippa 
 Passes] is — or rather what a sheaf of stories ! It quite settled 
 the question as to whether Robert Browning was a great 
 dramatic poet — not a playwright, but a dramatic poet. Strafford 
 had been written and acted before this, but the question was 
 still an open one, when that magnificent scene in the garden- 
 house between Sebald and Ottima — the very concentrated
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBER T BRO IVNING. 5 1 3 
 
 essence of Tragedy, than which there is nothing more terrible 
 in any Greek drama extant— settled the question for ever. 
 But such a scene would be no more fit for theatrical represen- 
 tation in these days than the Agamemnon." 
 
 PlSGAH-SlGHTS, I, 2. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1S76, pp. 75-82. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 49-53. 
 In the collected edition of 1889, the Proem to La Saisias 
 (" Good to forgive ") was printed as " Pisgah-Sights, 3." 
 
 Plot-Culture. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 87-91. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 58-61. 
 
 Poetics. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, p. 12. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. p. 10. 
 
 POMPILIA. See The Ring and the Book. 
 
 Ponte Dell' Angelo, Venice. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 61-75. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 50-61. 
 
 Popularity. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. p. 193-197. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 146-148. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 218-220. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 192-195. 
 
 Porphyria's Lover. 
 
 First appeared in The Monthly Repository, Vol. x. pp. 43-46. 
 Reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates, No. iii. p. 13. 
 Ditto Poems, 1849, PP- 302-303. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 310-312. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 299-300. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 191-193. 
 VOL. I L L
 
 514 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 This poem was originally called Porphyria ; in Bells and 
 Pomegranates it was called Madhouse Cells, 2 ; in the edition 
 of 1849, 2 - Madhouse Cells, with Porphyria^ Lover as a sub- 
 title; but in the 1863 and subsequent editions it is given as 
 above. 
 
 Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau ; Saviour of 
 Society. 
 
 First appeared (187 1) in one Vol. See ante, p. 382, No. 14. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xi. p. 123-210. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, who is depicted under the pseudonym Hohen- 
 stiel Schwangau, was, says Mr. C. H. Herford, no unpromising 
 subject for Mr. Browning. " He had ruled France for 
 twenty years with as much iron as he dared and as much show 
 of liberalism as he had face for — not escaping however to be 
 regarded by a majority of thinking persons as a renegade to the 
 cause of which he had been the most influencial advocate. The 
 poem is a subtle study of the insidious intellectual influences 
 which lie in wait for the Radical on his accession to power, and 
 allure him in the name of principle, of human sympathy, nay 
 of democratic fellow-feeling itself, to tread the primrose path 
 of official conservatism, with a glib Non possumus ready on his 
 lips for all his ardent and enterprising comrades of old." 
 It may be interesting to note that "the grim guardian of 
 this Square," referred to on page 14, of this poem was an 
 equestrian statue of George I. — which had for some time, 
 from its dilapidated condition, &c, been the occasion of much 
 merriment : so much so, that certain wags set themselves to 
 the task of calling public attention to the Square's "guardian" 
 by a practical joke: and one morning the "horse" was found to 
 have been " pieballed " during the night, while the effigy of the 
 king clasped a broom-handle. The statue was removed soon 
 after this. 
 
 Pray, Reader, have you eaten ortolans ? 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 1-4. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 3-5.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBER T BRO WNING. 5 1 5 
 
 This poem is the prologue to Ferishiah's Fancies. It is 
 interesting to note that in Pippa Passes there is also a reference 
 to " ortolans " — in the scene (iii.) where the " poor girls " are 
 gossiping " on the steps " ; one of whom says : — 
 " Do you pretend you ever tasted lampreys 
 
 And ortolans ? Giovita, of the palace, 
 
 Engaged (but there's no trusting him) to slice me 
 
 Polenta with a knife that had cut up 
 
 An ortolan." 
 
 Prologues. 
 
 Amphibian (" The Fancy I had to-day ") — see Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 Apollo and the Fates — see Parleyings. 
 
 " Good to forgive " — see La Saisiaz. 
 
 " O the old wall here " — see Pacchiarotto. 
 
 " Pray, Reader, have you ever eaten ortolans ?" — seeFerishtah's 
 
 Fancies. 
 " Such a starved bank of moss " — see The Two Poets ofCroisic. 
 " The Poet's age is sad : for why ?" — see Asolando. 
 " You are sick, that's sure— they say : " — see Dramatic Idyls II. 
 " Wanting is — what ? " — see Jocoseria. 
 
 PROSPICE. 
 
 First appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. xiii. p. 694. 
 Also printed in London, in Pamphlet form, privately, 1864. 
 Reprinted in Dramatis Persons, 1864, pp. 149-150. 
 Ditto Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 152-153. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 168-169. 
 No separate edition of "Prospice," printed as a " leaflet" or 
 " half -sheet let, n was ever printed, though Mr. William Sharp 
 incorrectly states that such exist. See his " Life of Browning," 
 1890, p. 173- 
 
 PROTUS. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 154-157 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 297-299. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 286-288. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 175-177. 
 
 L L 2
 
 516 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Rabbi Ben-Ezra. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Personce, 1864, pp. 75-109. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 99-109. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 109-119. 
 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra (or Ibn Ezra) was a learned Jew ; of whom M. 
 Friedlander (in an Introduction to a translation of the Rabbi's 
 Commentary on Isaiah) gives some interesting particulars. He 
 was born at Toledo, in Spain, about 1092 or 1093 (according to 
 Graetz, 1088). He was poor, but was nevertheless a hard 
 student, and composed poems wherewith to " adorn his own, 
 his Hebrew nation." He wrote many treatises — on Hebrew 
 grammar, astronomy, mathematics, &c, as also commentaries 
 on the books of the Bible ; and two pamphlets in England " for 
 a certain Salomon of London." He died in 1167, at the age of 
 75. It was evident Ibn Ezra believed in a future life, — for he 
 says : " Your soul shall live for ever after the death of the body, 
 or you will receive new life through Messiah, when you will 
 return to the Divine Law." Dr. Furnivall remarks that of the 
 potter's clay passage he has only a translation, " shall man be 
 esteemed as the potter's clay," and " no comment that could 
 have given Browning a hint for the use of the metaphor in his 
 poem, even if he had seen Ibn Ezra's commentary." 
 
 Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, or Turf and 
 Towers. 
 
 First appeared (1873) in one Vol. See ante, p. 383, No. 16. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xii. pp. 1-177. 
 
 This poem embodies the story of Mellerio, the Paris jeweller, 
 and was studied at St. Aubyn, in Normandy, from the docu- 
 ments used in the law-suit concerning his will. Dr. Furnivall 
 writes : " It was put in type with all the true names of persons 
 and things ; but on a proof being submitted by Browning to 
 his friend Lord Coleridge [the late Lord Chief Justice], then 
 Attorney-General, the latter thought that an action for libel 
 might lie for what was said in the poem, however unlikely it 
 was that such procedure would be taken. Thereupon fictitious
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 517 
 
 names were substituted for the real ones in every case. Next 
 year, the appeal against the judgment in favour of the will was 
 dismissed, and, I suppose, the matter set at rest in accordance 
 with the ethics of the poem. I believe that Browning means 
 to restore the names in the next edition of his poem." These 
 names were duly made public by the poet. 
 The poem was dedicated to Miss Anne Thackeray — who, in a 
 measure, was also responsible for the title. In the summer of 
 1872, Mr. Browning and Miss Thackeray happened to meet 
 at St. Aubin : and she, in humorous banter, termed the 
 district "White Cotton Nightcap Country" — as much from its 
 somnolent appearance as from the universal white cap of the 
 women. Mr. Browning, however, with the awful tragedy of 
 Clairvaux in mind, considered Red Cotton Nightcap Country 
 the juster appellation — and at once hit upon it as the title of 
 his poem. 
 
 Rephan. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 131-140. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 109-116. 
 
 In a work entitled The Contributions of Q. Q., by Jane Taylor, 
 is a prose sketch called " How it Strikes a Stranger," and it 
 was the recollection of this that suggested Rephan to Brown- 
 ing. Jane Taylor was one of the earliest writers of books 
 for children, and especially of religious books. She was the 
 second sister of Isaac Taylor, the author of The Natural 
 History of Enthusiasm, The Physical Theory of Another Life, 
 The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, and other works. The greater 
 part of her life was spent at Ongar, 1 and with her sister Ann 
 she wrote Hymns for Infant Minds. She also wrote Display, 
 a novel ; Essays in Rhyme; Morals and Manners, and The 
 Contributions of Q. Q. Her 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, 
 and My Mother, are now the best known of her poems. She 
 died in 1824, at the age of forty, her " Memoirs" being written 
 
 1 In a note to Rephan, Browning says the poem was suggested by the 
 recollection of a story by Jane Taylor, of Norwich : this was evidently a 
 slip of the pen for Ongar.
 
 
 5i8 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 by her brother Isaac, and published in connexion with her 
 correspondence. 
 
 Respectability. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 149-150. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. p. 129. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 201. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 168. 
 
 Reverie. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 141-155. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 1 17-129. 
 
 ROSNY. 
 
 First appeared m Asolando, 1889, pp. 5-7. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 4-5. 
 
 " Round Us the wild creatures, overhead the 
 
 TREES." 
 
 First appeared in Feris/ila/i's Fancies, 1884, p. 8. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. p. 7-8. 
 
 RUDEL TO THE LADY OF TRIPOLI. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. p. 12. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 295-296. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 423-424. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 31 1-3 1 3. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 294-295. 
 
 In the first version of this poem the opening lines read as 
 follows : — 
 
 " I know a Mount the Sun perceives 
 First when he visits, last, too, when he leaves 
 The world ; and it repays 
 The day-long glory of his gaze 
 
 By no change of its large calm steadfast front of snow. 
 A Flower I know, — "
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 519 
 
 In the edition of 1868, they were thus printed : — 
 
 " I know a Mount, the gracious Sun perceives 
 First, when he visits, last, too, when he leaves 
 The world ; and, vainly favoured, it repays 
 The daydong glory of his steadfast gaze 
 By no change of its large calm front of snow, 
 And underneath the Mount, a Flower I know." 
 
 Saul. 
 
 First appeared — sections 1-9 — in Bells and Pomegranates, No 
 vii. p. 21 ; sections 10-19 being added to the poem on its 
 appearance in Men and Women, 1855 (Vol. ii. pp. 111-146). 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, PP- 400-406. 
 
 Ditto Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 111-146. 
 
 Ditto Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 74-97. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 146-169. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 98-124. 
 
 The first nine sections or strophes of Saul were as stated above 
 issued in No. vii of the Bells and Pomegranates series, in 1845 : 
 the last ten sections being added when the poem was re-issued 
 in Men and Women. The first version was printed in short 
 lines — three feet in one and two in the next. When revising it, 
 however, Mr. Browning printed it in what we now feel to be 
 the more suitable and dignified pentameter. In finally re- 
 vising the poem, Mr. Browning made various alterations : the 
 scope of which may be noted by appending the last few lines 
 of Section ix., as given in the original version : 
 
 " On one head the joy and the pride, 
 Even rage like the throe 
 That opes the rock, helps its glad labour, 
 And lets the gold go — 
 And ambition that sees a sun lead it — 
 Oh, all of these— all 
 Combine to unite in one creature — 
 Saul ! " 
 
 The present version reading — 
 " On one head, all the beauty and strength, love and rage (like the throe 
 That, a-work in the rock, helps its labour and lets the gold go), 
 High ambition and deeds which surpass it, fame crowning it, — all 
 Brought to blaze on the head of one creature — King Saul ! "
 
 52o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Selections from the Poetical Works of Robert Browning, 
 
 1863. 
 A Selection from the Works of Robert Browning, 1865. 
 Selections from the Poetical Works of Robert Browning, 
 
 First Series, 1872. 
 Selections from the Poetical Works of Robert Browning, 
 
 Second Series, 1880. 
 
 Shah Abbas. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtali's Fancies, 1884, pp. 13-23. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 12-18. 
 
 Shop. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 64-74. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 42-48. 
 
 SlBRANDUS SCHAFNABURGENSIS. See Garden Fancies, 2. 
 Sighed Rawdon Brown : " Yes, I'm departing, Toni ! " 
 
 First appeared in The Century Magazine, February 1884. 
 Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part v. p. 132*. 
 
 This sonnet has not been reprinted in any edition of Mr. 
 Browning's poems. Mr. Rawdon Brown was an Englishman 
 of much culture, and well known to visitors in Venice. He 
 originally went there on a short visit, with a definite object in 
 view, — and ended by staying there for forty years : in fact, till 
 his death in the summer of 1883. So great was his love for 
 Venice, that some one invented an " apocryphal story " about 
 him — which was related by Mr. Browning in the sonnet — which 
 is as follows : 
 
 " Tutti ga i so gusti, e mi go i mii " * ( Venetian saying) 
 
 Sighed Rawdon Brown : "Yes, I'm departing, Toni ! 
 
 I needs must, just this once before I die, 
 
 Revisit England : Anglus Brown am I, 
 Although my heart's Venetian. Yes, old crony — 
 
 1 <' 
 
 Everybody follows his taste, and I follow mine."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 521 
 
 Venice and London — London's ' Death the bony ' 
 
 Compared with Life — that's Venice ! What a sky, 
 A sea, this morning ! One last look ! Good-bye, 
 
 Ca Pesaro ! No, lion — I'm a coney 
 
 To weep ! I'm dazzled ; 'tis that sun I view 
 
 Rippling the . . . the . . . Cospetto, Toni ! Down 
 With carpet-bag, and off with valise-straps ! 
 
 " Bella Venezia, non ti lascio piu ! " 
 
 Nor did Brown ever leave her : well, perhaps 
 
 Browning, next week, may find himself quite Brown ! 
 
 Smart, Christopher, Parleying with. 
 
 First appeared in Parlcyings, 1887, pp. 77-95. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 148-159. 
 
 It was at the village of Shipborne, in Kent, in the year 1722, 
 that Christopher Smart was born. He early displayed poetical 
 talent, and at the age of eleven is said to have written a 
 remarkable poem. He was about this age when he went to 
 Durham — finding powerful protectors in Lord Barnard and the 
 Duchess of Cleveland: the latter of whom sent him to Cambridge, 
 allowing him ^40 a year until her death in 1742. He did well 
 at college, gaining the Seatonian five times, and becoming a 
 Fellow of Pembroke College. From a brief account of his 
 career in The Pall Mall Gazette (Jan. iS, 1887), it would appear 
 that he had imbibed an unfortunate tendency for dissipation 
 and the companionship of well-to-do folk ; while his reckless- 
 ness in money matters and tendency to convivial excess 
 caused him to be in constant distress. Otherwise his con- 
 duct seems to have been blameless, and his principles strict. 
 He was very popular among his friends ; but was a shy 
 man, somewhat vain, and sensitive regarding his personal 
 appearance, which was rather ill-favoured. From Cam- 
 bridge he came to London, mixing in the literary society 
 which was adorned by Dr. Johnson, Dr. Burney, Garrick, and 
 Dr. James — all of whom helped him in his frequent pecuniary 
 troubles. He married Miss Carnan, a step-daughter of Mr. 
 John Newbery, the publisher. In 1752, Smart published a 
 collection of his poems, which were attacked in the Monthly
 
 522 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Reviewby Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Hill. The poet avenged this 
 in 1753 in the Hilliard — a most bitter satire. In 1755 Smart 
 had an attack of insanity, which, although not of a violent or 
 dangerous character, necessitated his confinement in a mad- 
 house. It was there he composed his fine and lofty poem The 
 Song to David. After a time he recovered his reason, and pro- 
 duced other works — notably some Fables. Gradually his powers 
 failed, he got hopelessly into debt, and died in 1770 in the rules 
 of the King's Bench prison. 
 
 " SO, THE HEAD ACHES AND THE LIMBS ARE FAINT ! " 
 
 First appeared in FerishtaJv 's Fancies, 1884, pp. 57-58. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 38-39. 
 
 Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. p. 6, 
 
 under the title of Cloister (Spanish). 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. p. 268-271. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. p. 18-21. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 92-95. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 26-29. 
 
 Solomon and Balkis. 
 
 First appeared in Jocoseria, 1883, pp. 21-32. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 182-187. 
 
 SONG (" Nay, but you who do not love her "). 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. 
 
 p. 19. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. p. 394. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. p. 33. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. p. 107. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. p. 47. 
 
 Sordello. 
 
 First appeared (1840) in one Vol. See ante, p. 364, No. 4. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. iii. pp. 251-464.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 523 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. ii. pp. 1-218. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. i. pp. 47-289. 
 
 Writing in 1838 to Miss Haworth, Mr. Browning thus refers to 
 Sordello : " You will see Sordello in a trice if the fagging fit 
 holds. I did not write six lines while absent (except a scene in 
 a play, jotted down as we sailed thro' the Straits of Gibraltar) — 
 but I did hammer out some four, two of which are addressed 
 to you, two to the Queen — the whole to go in Book III. — 
 perhaps. I called you ' Eyebright ' — meaning a simple and 
 sad sort of translation of ' Euphrasia ' into my own language : 
 folks would know who Euphrasia, or Fanny, was — and I should 
 not know Ianthe or Clemanthe." 
 
 Sordello, issued as here stated in 1840, was not republished till 
 1863 — when it was included in the three-volume edition of the 
 Poem, forming the last poem in the third volume. Strangely 
 enough, it was omitted in the two-volume edition of 1849. 
 In a letter to one of his correspondents a few years since, 
 Mr. Browning says : " I did certainly at one time intend to re- 
 write much of it, but changed my mind, — and the edition which 
 I reprinted was the same in all respects as its predecessor — 
 only with an elucidatory heading to each page, and some few 
 alterations, presumably for the better, in the text, such as occur 
 in most of my works." 
 
 The " few alterations," however, were fairly numerous — several 
 fresh lines being added, while in many cases the rhymes were 
 changed. 
 
 Speculative. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, p. 16. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. p. 13. 
 
 " Still ailing, wind ? Wilt be appeased or no ? " 
 
 First appeared in The Monthly Repository, Vol. x. New 
 
 Series, 1836, pp. 270-271. 
 
 Reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. xiii. July, 1864, 
 
 pp. 737-738. 
 
 These lines were subsequently included in Dramatis Persona:, 
 
 1864, forming the first six stanzas of Section vi. of James Lee.
 
 5=4 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 St. Martin's Summer. 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, 1876, pp. 108-116. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 71-76. 
 
 Strafford. 
 
 First appeared (1837) in one Vol. See ante, p. 363, No. 3. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 503-605. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. i. pp. 207-310. 
 
 Ditto "Acting Edition," 1881, and " School Edition," 1884. 
 
 See ante, p. 364. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. ii. pp. 187-307. 
 On the 26th of May, 1836, Robert Browning — in the company of 
 Landor, Wordsworth, Macready, and others — had been dining 
 with Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, the author of Ion. As they were 
 leaving the house, Macready overtook Browning, and said to 
 him : "Write a play, Browning, and keep me from going to 
 America." The poet took the great actor at his word, and at 
 once queried—" Shall it be historical and English ? What do 
 you say to a drama on Strafford ? " Such was the genesis of 
 Robert Browning's first play. On the 3rd of the following 
 August, Macready writes in his journal : " Forster told me that 
 Browning had fixed on Strafford for the subject of a tragedy ; 
 he could not have hit upon one that I could more readily have 
 concurred in." The subject of Strafford was doubtless in the 
 poet's mind when Macready asked him to write a tragedy, for 
 he had been not long before revising the manuscript of a life of 
 Strafford for his friend Forster (who had been overtaken by 
 illness) ; and the subject was therefore ready to hand. 
 It was produced on the 1st of May, 1837, at the Theatre-Royal, 
 Covent Garden. The part of Strafford was taken by Macready 
 — whose acting is said to have been most forcible and striking. 
 Miss Helen Faucit (now Lady Martin) represented Lady 
 Carlisle — playing, the Literary Gazette (May 6, 1837) says, 
 "with great taste and effect." Pym was entrusted to Mr. 
 Vandenhoff s hands, Mr. Webster taking the part of the young 
 Vane. As to the success of the play opinion seems to be equally 
 divided; though the Examiner (May 14, 1837) strikes an 
 optimistic note : " Strafford was winning its way into even
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING, 5-5 
 
 greater success than we had ventured to hope for it ; but Mr. 
 Vandenhoff's secession from the theatre has caused its tem- 
 porary withdrawal. It will be only temporary, we trust ; no 
 less in justice to the great genius of the author, than to the 
 fervid applause with which its last performance was received 
 by an admirably filled house." Despite this praise, the tragedy 
 does not seem to have had fair play — for in the preceding issue 
 of the Examiner we are told that it " was most infamously got 
 up," and that even Mr. Macready was not "so fine as he is 
 wont to be." Then, too, we learn that "the rest of the 
 performers, with the exception of Miss Faucit, they were a barn 
 wonder to look at ! Mr. Vandenhoff was positively nauseous, 
 with his whining, drawling, and slouching, in Pym j and Mr. 
 Webster whimpered in somewhat too juvenile a fashion through 
 Young Vane. Some one should have stepped out of the pit, 
 and thrust Mr. Dale [the King~\ from the stage. Any thing 
 should have been done, rather than that such exhibitions should 
 be allowed to disgrace the stage of a ' national ' theatre." This 
 is strong, but then the writer (John Forster) speaks with some 
 semblance of authority : and he also arrives at the conclusion 
 that, although he does not think it will take a permanent hold of 
 the stage, it " was produced . . . with all the evidences of a 
 decided success." 
 
 That Strafford did not take a permanent hold of the stage may 
 be evidenced from the fact that it was not until the 21st of 
 December, 1886, that it was again put upon the boards : it 
 being on this occasion revived by the Browning Society, at the 
 Strand Theatre. There was an excellent caste, and the per- 
 formance seems to have been in every way successful. 
 Strafford was again performed on February 12, 1890, at the 
 Oxford Theatre, by members of the University Dramatic 
 Society. The acting version was prepared by Mr. W. Courtney, 
 and Mr. Alma Tadema designed the various scenes. It was, on 
 the whole, decidedly successful — and seven performances in all 
 were given. 
 
 Browning himself has told us that his Lady Carlisle is purely 
 imaginary : " I at first sketched her singular likeness roughly 
 in, as suggested by Matthews and the memoir writers — but it 
 was too artificial, and the substituted outline is exclusively from
 
 526 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Voiture and Waller." Keeping this in mind, the following 
 translation from the French of Voiture is of especial interest. 
 The letter is addressed " To Mr. Gordon, London," and is 
 numbered xlix. in Letters and other Works of Voiture (1709): 
 " The pleasantest thoughts I had, have been of you or of the 
 things I saw through your kindness. You will easily guess 
 that I do not mean by this the Tower, or the lions you showed 
 me. In one human being you let me see more treasures than 
 there are there, and even more lions and leopards. It will not 
 be difficult for you to guess after this that I speak of the 
 Countess of Carlisle. For there is nobody else of whom this 
 good and evil can be said. No matter how dangerous it is to 
 let the memory dwell upon her, I have not, so far, been able to 
 keep mine from it, and quite honestly, I would not give the 
 picture of her that lingers in my mind, for all the loveliest 
 things I have seen in my life. I must confess that she is an 
 enchanting personality, and there would not be a woman under 
 heaven so worthy of affection, if she only knew what it was, and 
 if she had as sensitive a nature as she has a reasonable mind. 
 But with the temperament we know she possesses, there is 
 nothing to be said except that she is the most lovable of all 
 things not good, and the most delightful poison that Nature 
 ever concocted. My dread of her wit nearly decided me not to 
 send you these verses, for I know she is a judge in all things of 
 the good, and the bad, and all the kindness that ought to reside 
 in the will, with her is concentrated in the judgment. Still it 
 hardly matters to me if she condemn them. I do not even 
 wish them better, since I composed them before I had the 
 honor of meeting her, and I should be very sorry to have 
 praised or blamed anything to perfection until that occasion, 
 for I reserve perfect praise and perfect blame for herself." 
 
 ' Such a Starved Bank of Moss." 
 
 First appeared in the La Saisiaz volume, 1878, pp. 85-86, 
 where it forms the proem to the Two Poets of Croisic 
 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 207-208. 
 
 No alteration in text. In the Selections (second series) this 
 poem is called Apparitions.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT DROWNING. 527 
 
 SUMMUM BONUM. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1S89, p. 13. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. p. 1 1. 
 
 Tertium Quid. See The Ring and the Book. 
 The Agamemnon of ^Eschylus. 
 
 First appeared (1877) in one Vol. See, ante, p. 386, No. 20. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiii. p. 259-357. 
 
 Writing in 1877 Mr. Browning says : " My work, I hope, is 
 closer to the original than any ' crib,' and wants no praise for 
 anything of my own." 
 
 The Bean-Feast. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 46-51. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 39-43. 
 
 The Bishop orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's 
 Church. 
 
 First appeared in Hood's Magazine, Vol. iii. p. 237. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 345-349. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 369-373. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 257-262. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 232-237. 
 
 This now celebrated " tomb " is, it need hardly be said, entirely 
 imaginary — nevertheless, the curious in such matters have, on 
 due inquiry accompanied with befitting " fee," had duly pointed 
 out to them the tomb beneath which the remains of the 
 fastidious bishop were said to repose. 
 
 Referring to a line in this poem, Mr. Browning wrote to Dante 
 Gabriel Rossetti (May 29, 1856) as follows: "I remember 
 you asked me some questions of which one comes to mind of a 
 sudden — 'elucesco' is dog-latin rather— the true word would 
 be ' eluceo ' — and Ulpian, the golden Jurist, is a copper latinist 
 — see about him in any Biographical Dictionary."
 
 528 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 "The blind man to the maiden said." 
 
 First appeared in The Hour will Come, 1879, Vol. ii. p. 174. 
 Reprinted, Whitehall Review, March 1, 1883. 
 Ditto, Browning Society's Papers, Part iv. p. 410. 
 
 These lines were Englished by Mr. Browning for Miss Clara 
 Bell, and appear in her translation of Wilhelmine von 
 Hillern's tale The Hour will Come?- A note is appended to the 
 verses, " The translator is indebted for these verses to the kind- 
 ness of a friend." They are as follows : 
 
 The blind man to the maiden said : 
 
 ' O thou of hearts the truest, 
 Thy countenance is hid from me, 
 Let not my questions anger thee ! 
 
 Speak, though in words the fewest ! 
 
 ' Tell me what kind of eyes are thine ? 
 
 Dark eyes, or light ones rather?' 
 ' My eyes are a decided brown 
 So much at least — by looking down — 
 
 From the brook's glass I gather. ' 
 
 ' And is it red — thy little mouth ? 
 
 That too the blind must care for ! ' 
 ' Ah, I would tell that soon to thee, 
 Only — none yet has told it me. 
 
 I cannot answer therefore ! ' 
 
 ' But dost thou ask what heart I have 
 
 There hesitate I never ! 
 In thine own breast 'tis borne, and so 
 'Tis thine in weal and thine in woe, 
 
 For life, for death, — thine ever ! ' 
 
 The BOOK and the Ring. See The Ring and the Book. 
 
 1 The Hour will Come. A Tale of an Alpine Cloister. By Wilhelmine 
 von Hillern. From the German by Clara Bell. In two volumes. Leipzig 
 [1879]. London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.
 
 the writings of robert browning. 529 
 The Boy and the Angel. 
 
 First appeared in Hood's Magazine, August 1844, Vol. ii. pp. 
 
 140-142. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 395-398. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 167-170. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 1 58-161. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 19-23. 
 
 Several changes have been made in this poem since its first 
 publication. In the Bells and Pomegranates of 1845, five fresh 
 couplets were inserted, and one was substituted for an old one, 
 several minor changes also being effected. One fresh couplet 
 was also inserted in the edition of 1863, namely (inserted after 
 " and ever lived on earth content "), — 
 
 (" He did God's will ; to him, all one 
 If on the earth or in the sun. ) 
 
 As illustrative of the alterations, we may note that the lines 
 
 " Be again the boy all curl'd ; 
 I will finish with the world," 
 
 appearing in Hood's Magazine were changed to the more 
 euphonious 
 
 ' ' Back to the cell and poor employ, 
 Resume the craftsman and the boy ! " 
 
 The Cardinal and the Dog. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 40-41. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 34-35. 
 
 The incident related in this poem is put by Browning in the 
 year 1522, and he tells us the Legate was Crescenzio. Moreri, 
 in his Dictionnaire Historique, gives an account of Cres- 
 cenzio, which has been thus Englished : " Marcel Crescentio, 
 Cardinal Bishop of Marsico, in the kingdom of Naples, was 
 born in Rome, of one of the most noble and ancient families. 
 From his youth he made great progress in letters, particularly 
 in civil and canon law. He had a canonship in the Church of 
 St. Mary Major, and was also given the office of the auditor of 
 VOL. I MM
 
 53° 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the Rota. Then Pope Clement VII. named him for the 
 bishopric of Marsico, and Paul III. made him Cardinal (June 2, 
 1542). Crescentio was Protector of the Order of Citeaux, per- 
 petual Legate at Bologna, Bishop of Conserans, etc. Julius III. 
 made him Legate to preside at the Council of Trent, and he 
 presided there at the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
 fifteenth sessions. The latter ended in 1552, and the Cardinal 
 Crescentio, who was ill, remained in Trent. Rumour said that 
 his malady came upon him in this way : After working almost 
 the whole of the night of March 20, to write to the Pope, as 
 he arose from his seat he imagined that he saw a dog that 
 opened its jaws frightfully, and appeared to him with its flaming 
 eyes and low-hanging ears as if mad, and about to attack him. 
 Crescentio called his servants at once, and made them bring 
 lights, but the dog could not be found. The Cardinal, terrified 
 by this spectre, fell into a deep melancholy, and then immedi- 
 ately into a sickness which made him despair of recovery, 
 although his friends and physicians assured him there was 
 nothing to fear. This is the story about the end of Cardinal 
 Crescentio, who died at Verona the 1st of June, 1552. It could 
 have been invented only by ill-meaning people, who lacked 
 respect for the council." 
 
 The Confessional. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 11. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. i. pp. 357-360. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 24-27. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 98-101. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 34-3S. 
 
 The Eagle. 
 
 First appeared in Feris/ita/i's Fancies, 1884, PP- S~7- 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 6-8. 
 
 The Englishman in Italy. 
 
 First appeared in Bells >and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 5, 
 under the title of England in Italy.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 531. 
 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 330-340. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 195-205. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 186-196. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 54-65. 
 
 The Family. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishlah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 25-30. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 19-23. 
 
 The Flight of the Duchess. 
 
 First appearance in Hood's Magazine, 1845, Vol. iii. p. 313. 
 Reprinted (with additional sections), Bells and Pomegranates, 
 
 No. vii. p. 13. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 360-393. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 246-278. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 237-269. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 1 16-153. 
 
 The Flower's Name. See Garden Fancies. 
 The Founder of the Feast. 
 
 First appeared in The World, April 16, 1884. 
 Reprinted in Browning Society's Papers, Part vii. p. 18*. 
 Ditto W. G. Kingsland's Robert Browning : Chief Poet of the 
 Age, p. 30. 
 
 This sonnet was inscribed by Mr. Browning in the Album pre- 
 sented to Mr. Arthur Chappell (so well and worthily known in 
 connexion with the St. James' Hall Saturday and Monday 
 Popular Concerts). It has not been printed in any edition of 
 Mr. Browning's poems ; and is as follows : 
 
 " Enter my palace," if a prince should say — 
 
 "Feast with the Painters! See, in bounteous row, 
 They range from Titian up to Angelo ! " 
 
 Could we be silent at the rich survey? 
 
 A host so kindly, in as great a way 
 Invites to banquet, substitutes for show 
 Sound that's diviner still, and bids us know 
 
 Bach like Beethoven ; are we thankless, pray ? 
 
 M M 2
 
 532 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Thanks, then, to Arthur Chappell, — thanks to him 
 Whose every guest henceforth not idly vaunts, 
 "Sense has received the utmost Nature grants, 
 
 My cup was filled with rapture to the brim, 
 
 When, night by night — ah, memory, how it haunts ! — 
 Music was poured by perfect ministrants, 
 
 By Halle, Schumann, Piatti, Joachim." 
 
 The Glove. 
 
 First appearance in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii„ 
 
 P- 23. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 409-416. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 180-187. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 171-178. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 36-43. 
 This poem — the story of which has also been told by Schiller 
 and Leigh Hunt — is of especial interest on account of the wide 
 departure taken by Mr. Browning from the facts as narrated 
 in the commonly accepted version. 
 
 The Guardian Angel : a Picture at Fano. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 167-170. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 142-145. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 214-216. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 187-189. 
 This poem was suggested to Mr. Browning by a picture in the 
 church of St. Augustine, at Fano, attributed to Guercino. An 
 angel is represented, standing, with wings outstretched, by a 
 little child — whose hands the angel is joining in the attitude of 
 prayer: while its gaze is directed skyward — whence cherubs 
 are looking down. The " Alfred, dear friend," of stanza vi. was 
 Mr. Alfred Domett, some time Prime Minister of New Zealand. 
 [See Waring, p. 546.] 
 
 The Heretic's Tragedy ; a Middle-Age Interlude. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 198-204. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 286-290. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 275-279. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Woilcs, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 161-166.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 533 
 
 The Householder. 
 
 First appeared in Fifine at the Fair, 1872, pp. 169-171. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xii. pp. 342-343. 
 
 The Inn Album. 
 
 First appeared (1875) in one Vol. See ante, p. 384, No. 18. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xii. pp. 181-311. 
 
 Writing in Notes and Queries (March 25, 1876), Dr. Furnivall 
 says : " The story told by Mr. Browning in this poem is, in its 
 
 main outlines, a real one, that of Lord , once a friend 
 
 of the great Duke of Wellington, and about whom there is much 
 in the Greville Memoirs. The original story was, of course, 
 too repulsive to be adhered to in all its details of, first, the 
 gambling lord producing the portrait of the lady he had seduced 
 and abandoned, and offering his expected dupe, but real beater, 
 an introduction to the lady, as a bribe to induce him to wait for 
 payment of the money he had won ; secondly, the eager ac- 
 ceptance of the bribe by the young gambler, and the suicide of 
 the lady from horror at the base proposal of her old seducer. 
 (The story made a great sensation in London over thirty years 
 ago.) Readers know how Mr. Browning has lifted the base 
 young gambler, through the renewal of that old love which the 
 poet has invented, into one of the most pathetic creations of 
 modern times, and has spared the baser old roue the degradation 
 of the attempt to sell the love which was once his delight." 
 
 The Italian in England. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates (under the title of 
 
 Italy in England, 1845, No. vii. p. 4. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 324-329. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 189-195. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 180-186. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 47-53. 
 
 Mrs. Orr remarks in her Handbook : " Mr. Browning is proud 
 to remember that Mazzini informed him he had read this 
 poem to certain of his fellow exiles in England, to show how an 
 Englishman could sympathise with them."
 
 534 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 The King (" A King lived long ago "). 
 
 First appeared in The Monthly Repository, Vol. ix. New Series, 
 
 1835, pp. 707-708. 
 Reprinted, Bells and Pomegranates, No. i. 1841, p. 12. 
 When reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates, this poem was 
 incorporated (with considerable variations) in Pippa Passes, 
 where it is given as one of Pippa's songs. 
 
 The Laboratory. 
 
 First appeared in Hood's Magazine, Vol. i. p. 513. 
 Reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 11. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 354-357. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 21-23. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 95-97. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 30-33. 
 
 The Lady and the Painter. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 18S9, pp. 58-60. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 48-49. 
 
 The Last Ride Together. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, vol. i. pp. 184-190. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 229-234. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 220-224. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 96-107. 
 
 The Lost Leader. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 8. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 340-341. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 4-5. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 78-79. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 7-8. 
 
 " / did in my hasty youth presume to use the great and vene- 
 rated personality of Wordsworth as a sort of pai?iter's model, 
 one from which this or the other particular feature may be 
 selected and turned to account : had I intended more, above 
 all, such a boldness as pourtraying the entire man, I should
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 535 
 
 not have talked about ' handfuls of silver and bits of riband. ' 
 These never influenced the change of politics in the great poet ; 
 whose defection, nevertheless, accompanied as it was by a regular 
 face-about of his special party, was to my juvenile apprehension, 
 and even mature consideration, an event to deplore? [Letter to 
 Rev. A. B. Grosart. See Letters from Robert Browning, Edited 
 by T.J. Wise, Vol. i. pp. 28-29.] 
 
 The Lost Mistress. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1845, Vol. vii. p. 8. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 342-343. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 30-31. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 104-105. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 43-44. 
 
 The Melon-Seller. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 9-12. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 9-1 1. 
 
 The Names. 
 
 First appeared in The Shaksperean Show-Book, 1884. 
 Reprinted in The Pall Mall Gazette, May 29, 1 884. 
 Ditto in The Browning Society's Papers, Part v. p. 105*. 
 Ditto W. G. Kingsland's Robert Browning : Chief Poet of the 
 Age, p. 79. 
 
 This sonnet was contributed to the Shakesperean Show-Book of 
 the Shaksperean Show held at the Albert Hall, London, in 
 May 1884, on behalf of the Hospital for Women in the Fulham 
 Road, London. Not having been reprinted in any edition of 
 Mr. Browning's poems, it is here quoted : 
 
 Shakspeare ! — to such name's sounding what succeeds, 
 Fitly as silence? Falter forth the spell, — 
 Act follows word, the speaker knows full well, 
 
 Nor tampers with its magic more than needs. 
 
 Two names there are : That which the Hebrew reads 
 With his soul only : if from lips it fell, 
 Echo, back thundered by earth, heaven and hell, 
 
 Would own "Thou did'st create us ! " Nought impedes.
 
 536 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 We voice the other name, man's most of might, 
 
 Awesomely, lovingly : let awe and love 
 Mutely await their working, leave to sight 
 
 All of the issue as — below — above — 
 
 Shakspeare's creation rises : one remove, 
 Though dread — this finite from that infinite. 
 
 The Other Half-Rome. See The Ring and the Book, 
 
 & 
 
 The Patriot : an old Story. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, vol. i. pp. 191-193. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 158-159. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 149-150. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 6-7. 
 
 The Pied Piper of Hamelin : a Child's Story. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. 
 
 pp. 14-16. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 306-317. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 234-245. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 225-236. 
 
 Ditto, 1880, illustrated by Jane E. Cook. 
 Ditto {no date), illustrated by Kate Greenaway. 
 Ditto, 1884, in pamphlet form, to accompany Mr. Macbeth's 
 
 etchings. 
 [For full particulars regarding the above three separate re- 
 prints of " The Pied Piper of Hamelin " see under Part VI. 
 " Selections?} 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 102-115. 
 
 This ever-delightful child's poem was written for, and inscribed 
 to William Macready— the eldest son of the celebrated actor. 
 The young Macready had evidently much talent for drawing, 
 and on one occasion he asked Mr. Browning to give him some 
 subject for illustration. Mr. Browning thereupon wrote a short 
 poem, founded upon an old account of the death of the Pope's 
 Legate at the Council of Trent — which poem has never been 
 printed. It will be preferable, however, to give this interesting
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 537 
 
 episode in Mr. Browning's own words. Writing to Dr. Furnivall 
 in October 1881, the poet says :— "The ' W. M. the Younger' 
 was poor William Macready's eldest boy— dead, a few years 
 ago. He had a talent for drawing, and asked me to give him 
 some little things to illustrate ; so I made a bit of a poem out 
 of an old account of the death of the Pope's legate at the 
 Council of Trent — which he made such clever drawings for, that 
 I tried at a more picturesque subject, the Piper. I still possess 
 the half-dozen of the designs he gave me. If you care to have 
 the Legend of the Legate I am sure you are welcome to it, 
 when I can transcribe it from the page of the old book it 
 remains upon— unprinted hitherto."— {Letters of Robert Brown- 
 ing, edited by T. J. Wise, vol. i. pp. 76-77-] 
 The story of the " Piper " seems to have been taken from one of 
 the "Familiar Letters" of James Howell 1 (Section vi. Letter 
 xlvii.) : " Hamelen, a Town in Germany, which I hop'd to have 
 pass'd through when I was in Hamburgh (nor would I relate 
 it unto you were there not there som ground of truth for it). 
 The said Town of Hamelen was annoyed with Rats and Mice ; 
 and it chane'd, that a Pied-coated Piper came thither, who 
 covenanted with the chief Burgers for such a reward, if he could 
 free them quite from the said Vermin, nor would he demand it, 
 tilha twelvemonth and a day after : The agreement being made, 
 he began to play on his Pipes, and all the Rats, and the Mice, 
 followed him to a great Lough hard by, where they all 
 perish'd ; so the Town was infested no more. At the end 
 of the yeer, the Pied Piper return'd for his reward, the 
 Burgers put him off with slightings, and neglect, offering him 
 som small matter, which he refusing, and staying som dayes 
 in the Town, one Sunday morning, at High-Masse, when most 
 people were at Church, he fell to play on his Pipes, and all the 
 children up and down, follow'd him out of the Town, to a great 
 Hill not far off, which rent in two, and open'd, and let him and 
 
 1 Epistolce Ho-Eliana. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren ; Divided 
 into Six Sections, Partly Historically Politicall, Philosophica.il, Upon Emergent 
 Occasions ; by/. H. Esq.; One of the Clerks of His Majesties most Honour- 
 able Privy Councelf. London, Printed for Humphrey Moseley ; and are to be 
 sold at his shop at the Prince's Arms in S. PauVs Churchyard, 1645.
 
 538 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the children in, and so clos'd up again : This happen'd a matter 
 of two hundred and fifty years since ; and in that Town, they 
 date their Bills and Bonds, and other Instruments of Law, to 
 this day from the yeer of the going out of their children. Be- 
 sides, ther is a great piller of stone at the foot of the said Hill, 
 whereon this story is engraven." 
 
 "The Poet's Age is Sad: for why?" 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 18S9, pp. 1-4. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1S94, Vol. xvii. pp. 1-3. 
 
 This poem is the Prologue to Asolando. 
 
 "The Poets pour us wine.". 
 
 First appeared in Pacchiarotto, and other Poems, 1876, pp. 
 
 223-241. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 141-152. 
 
 These lines form the Epilogue to Pacchiarotto and other Poems : 
 the first line of the Epilogue being a quotation from Mrs. 
 Browning's poem Wine of Cyprus. 
 
 The Pope. See The Ring and the Book. 
 The Pope and the Net. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 42-45. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 36-38. 
 
 The Return of the Druses. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1843, No. iv. 
 
 pp. I-19. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 61-137. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. ii. pp. 140-215. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 229-305. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iii. pp. 167-255.
 
 the writings of robert browning. 539 
 The Ring and the Book. 
 
 First appeared (1868- 1869) in four volumes, each divided into 
 three monologues, separately headed with the speaker's names : 
 save the first and twelfth, in which Browning is himself the 
 speaker. These sub-titles are as follows : — 
 
 I. The Ring and the Book (Vol. i. pp. 1-745 Poetical Works, 
 1889, Vol. viii. pp. 1-57). 
 II. Half -Rome (Vol. i. pp. 75-155 ; Poetical Works, 1889, Vol, 
 viii. pp. 58-119). 
 
 III. The Other Half- Rome (Vol. i. pp. 157-245 5 Poetical Works, 
 
 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 120-187). 
 
 IV. Tertium Quid (Vol. ii. pp. 1-72 ; Poetical Works, 1889, 
 
 Vol. viii. pp. 188-253). 
 V. Count Guido Franceschini (Vol. ii. pp. 73-160; Poetical 
 
 Works, 1889, Vol. ix. pp. 1-82). 
 VI. Giuseppe Capotisacchi (Vol. ii. pp. 161-25 1 ; Poetical Works, 
 1889, Vol. ix. pp. 83-166). 
 VII. Po7npilia (Vol. iii. pp. 1-89; Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. 
 ix. pp. 167-241). 
 VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis,Pauperum Procurator 
 (Vol. iii. pp. 90-174; Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. ix. pp. 
 
 242-3I3)- 
 IX. Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. 
 
 Cam. Apostol. Advocatus (Vol. iii. pp. 175-249 5 Poetical 
 
 Works, 1889, Vol. x. pp. 1-63). 
 X. The Pofe (Vol. iv. pp. 1-92 ; Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. x. 
 
 pp. 64-148). 
 XI. Guido (Vol. iv. pp. 93-195; Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. x. 
 
 pp. I49-279)- 
 XII. The Book and the Ring (Vol. iv. pp. 197-235; Poetical 
 Works, Vol. x. pp. 244-279). 
 
 The Ring and the Book. See The Ring and the 
 
 Book — of which the first section is thus entitled. 
 
 In reference to a passage in this section of the Ring and the 
 
 Book (Vol. i. Part i. lines 679-772) George Eliot writes as follows 
 
 to Miss Hennell (February 15, 1869) : " I have looked back to the
 
 54o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 verses in Browning's Poem about Elisha, and I find no mystery 
 in them. The foregoing context for three pages describes 
 that function of genius which revivifies the past. Man, says 
 Browning (I am writing from recollection of his general mean- 
 ing), cannot create, but he can restore : the poet gives 
 forth of his own spirit, and reanimates the forms that lie breath- 
 less. His use of Elisha's story is manifestly symbolical, as his 
 mention of Faust is— the illustration which he abandons the 
 moment before, to take up that of the Hebrew seer. I presume 
 you did not read the context yourself, but only had the two 
 concluding verses pointed out or quoted to you by your friend. 
 It is one of the afflictions of authorship to know that the brains 
 which should be used in understanding a book are wasted in 
 discussing the hastiest misconceptions about it ; and I am sure 
 you will sympathise enough in this affliction to set any one 
 right when you can about this quotation from Browning." 
 
 The Statue and the Bust. 
 
 First appeared in pamphlet form, 1855. 
 
 Reprinted, Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 156-172. 
 
 Ditto, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 299-309. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 288-298. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 17S-190. 
 
 In regard to this poem it has been pointed out that " the pile 
 that the mighty shadow throws " across the Via Larga is the 
 Medici Palace where Duke Ferdinand lived and gave his 
 evening party, and not the Riccardi Palace in the Piazza dell' 
 Annunziata, which the " statue watches from the square." 
 Answering certain queries concerning this matter, Mr. 
 Browning writes (Jan. 8th, 1887): "The lady was the wife of 
 Riccardi, and the Duke — Ferdinand, just as the poem says. As 
 it was built by, and inhabited by the Medici till sold, long after, 
 to the Riccardi, — it was not from the Duke's palace, but a 
 window in that of the Riccardi, that the lady gazed at her 
 lover riding by. The statue is still in its place, looking at the 
 window under which ' now is the empty shrine.' Can anything be 
 clearer?" On this point Dr. W. J. Rolfe writes : "By 'that of
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 541 
 
 the Riccardi ' I think now that he meant the other palace, and 
 not the one he has just mentioned as sold to the Riccardi by 
 the Medici. If he had written 'that of the Riccardi in the 
 Piazza dell' Annunziata,' his meaning would have been clear." 
 Dr. Rolfe also points out that Browning is guilty of an anachron- 
 ism in making the bust a product of " Robbia's craft." Luca della 
 Robbia died in 1482, and Andrea in 1528. No doubt the poet 
 had in mind one of these artists ; but the " bust must be sup- 
 posed to be made at about the same time as the statue, 
 which was in 160S. Giovanni, the son of Andrea, and the only 
 other of the Robbia family worth mentioning, died about 1 530." 
 {Poet Lore, Vol. iii. p. 287.] 
 
 The Sun. 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtafts Fancies, 1884, pp. 33-45. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 24-31. 
 
 The Twins. 
 
 First appeared in 1854, in " Two Poems by E. B. B. and R. B." 
 Reprinted in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. p. 190. 
 Ditto, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 225-226. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 216-217. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. p. 90. 
 
 The pamphlet in which this poem first appeared is now exces- 
 sively rare. It consisted of sixteen pages, comprising The 
 Twins by Robert Browning, and A Plea for the Ragged Schools 
 of London, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Poems were 
 printed by Miss Arabella Barrett (Mrs. Browning's sister) for 
 sale at a Bazaar on behalf of the " Refuge for Young Destitute 
 Girls," which she established in or about 1854. This Refuge 
 was one of the first of its kind, and is still in existence. 
 
 The Two Poets of Croisic. 
 
 First appeared (1878), with La Saisiaz, in one vol. See ante, 
 
 p. 387, No. 21. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 205-273.
 
 542 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 This poem is an episode in the biography of two French poets, 
 whose respective " Poetical Work" enjoyed but a brief reputa- 
 tion. Mrs. Orr [Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning, 
 p. 256] gives us a brief but succinct account of their career. 
 The first, Rene Gentilhomme, was born in 16 10, and becoming 
 page to the Prince of Conde, occupied his leisure hours in the 
 composition of complimentary verses. One day, while writing 
 an ode, a storm broke over the place— the lightning shattering 
 a marble crown which stood on a pedestal in the room. At 
 this time, Conde was thought to be the future King of France — 
 Louis XIII. being childless, as also his brother Gaston. This 
 incident the poet took as an omen, and thereupon made his 
 " ode" into a prophecy — declaring that the Prince's hopes were 
 at an end, as a Dauphin would be born the next year. In the 
 event, a Dauphin was born, and Rene received the title of 
 Royal Poet. However, he wrote little after this, and his one 
 volume of verse was soon forgotten. 
 
 The second Poet — Paul Desforges Maillard — was born some 
 hundred years later, and occupied his early manhood in writing 
 society verses. At length he competed for a prize offered by 
 the Academy for the best poetical effusion commemorative of 
 the progress of navigation during the last reign. His poem, 
 however, was returned — to be afterwards submitted to the 
 editor of a publication called The Mercury. The editor, La 
 Roque, gave a due meed of praise to the poem, but declined to 
 publish it— he not daring to offend the Academy. Paul thereupon 
 charged the editor with cowardice — who retaliated by telling 
 the Poet his work was execrable. Now it was that Paul's sister 
 came upon the scene. She persuaded him to let her copy out 
 some of the weakest of his poems or songs, and send them to 
 La Roque as her own composition. This was done, — and as 
 she was known by another name than her brother's, the strata- 
 gem succeeded. The fame of the lady grew apace — so much 
 so, that La Roque (in writing) made love to her ; while the 
 great Voltaire himself was smitten. At this juncture, Paul 
 interposed — not caring to be kept in the background any 
 longer. He therefore proceeded to Paris, and introduced him- 
 self as the much admired Poetess. La Roque pretended to
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 543 
 
 enjoy the joke — but Voltaire waxed exceeding bitter : and the 
 Poet was strongly advised to clear out of Paris. Paul reprinted 
 the poems in his own name : but they fell fiat this time— and 
 he, too, was forgotten as speedily as Rene. 
 
 The Worst of it. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 35-43. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 70-76. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 78-84. 
 
 Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. p. 14. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vo1 - »• PP- 3°4-3° 6 - 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 9-1 1. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 83-85. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 13-15. 
 
 " Thus I wrote in London, musing on my betters." 
 
 First appeared in The Century, Vol. xxv. 1882, pp. 159-160. 
 Reprinted in The Browning Society 's Papers (first edition), 
 
 Part iv. p. 48*. 
 These lines were printed in The Century as forming ten new 
 lines to " Touch him ne'er so lightly " {Dramatic Idyls, Second 
 Series, 1880, p. 149); they have not, however, been added to 
 any reprint of the original verses, as they were not intended to 
 form a permanent addition thereto — and were, indeed, printed 
 in The Century without Mr. Browning's consent : at whose 
 request the lines were cancelled from The Browning Societfs 
 Papers — only appearing in the first edition of Part iv. 
 As standing by themselves, and apart from the lines to which 
 they were added in The Century, they are here quoted : 
 
 " Thus I wrote in London, musing on my betters, 
 Poets dead and gone : and lo, the critics cried, 
 ' Out on such a boast ! ' as if I dreamed that fetters 
 Binding Dante, bind up — me ! as if true pride 
 Were not also humble !
 
 544 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 So I smiled and sighed 
 As I oped your book in Venice this bright morning, 
 Sweet new friend of mine ! and felt the clay or sand, 
 Whatsoe'er my soil be, — break — for praise or scorning — 
 Out in grateful fancies — weeds ; but weeds expand 
 Almost into flowers — held by such a kindly hand ! " 
 
 Time's Revenges. 
 
 First appeared in Bells a?id Pomegranates, 1845, No. vii. p. 22. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 407-409. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 187-189. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 178-180. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1886, Vol. v. pp. 44-46. 
 
 In the first edition of this poem, following line 54, we read — 
 
 " As all my genius, all my learning 
 Leave me, where there's no returning." 
 
 These lines are now omitted. 
 
 To Edward Fitzgerald. (" I chanced upon a new 
 book yesterday.") 
 First appeared in the Athenceum, July, 1889. 
 Reprinted in The Browning Society 's Papers, Part xi. p. 347*. 
 Not included in any edition of Mr. Browning's Poems. 
 
 For full particulars concerning this sonnet see ante, pp. 
 407-408. As a matter of literary history, and to render this 
 Bibliography as complete as possible, it is here reprinted from 
 the Browning Society's Papers. 
 
 I chanced upon a new book yesterday: 
 I opened it, and, where my finger lay 
 
 'Twixt page and uncut page, these words I read — 
 Some six or seven at most — and learned thereby 
 That you, Fitzgerald, whom by ear and eye 
 
 She never knew, "thanked God my wife was dead." 
 
 Ay, dead ! and were yourself alive, good Fitz, 
 How to return you thanks would task my wits ; 
 
 Kicking you seems the common lot of curs — 
 While more appropriate greeting lends you grace : 
 Surely to spit there glorifies your face 
 
 Spitting — from lips once sanctified by Hers.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 545 
 
 Too Late. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona:, 1864, pp. 55-63. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 85-91. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 94-100. 
 
 " Touch him ne'er so lightly, into song he 
 
 BROKE." 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls II., 1880, p. 149. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. p. 164. 
 
 These lines appear as the Epilogue to the Second Series of 
 Dramatic Idyls. 
 
 Transcendentalism : a Poem in Twelve Books. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 223-226. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 321-323. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. v. pp. 207-209. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. iv. pp. 173-175. 
 
 Tray. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls I., 1879, pp. 103-106. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. pp. 57-59. 
 
 Two Camels. 
 
 First appeared in FerishtaKs Fancies, 1884, pp. 69-76. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 47-52. 
 
 TWO IN THE CAMPAGNA. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 205-209 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 116-118. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 188-190. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 150-153. 
 
 Up at a Villa — Down in the City. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. i. pp. 23-30; 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 49-53. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 122-127. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 66-71. 
 VOL. I N N
 
 !) 
 
 546 a bibliography of 
 
 "Verse-making was least of my virtues 
 
 First appeared in FerishtaJCs Fancies, 1884, pp. 85-86. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. p. 57. 
 
 " Wanting is — what ? " 
 
 First appeared in Jocoseria, 1883, p. 3. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. p. 167. 
 
 Waring. 
 
 First appeared in Bells and Pomegranates, 1842, No. iii. 
 
 pp. 10-11. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1849, Vol. ii. pp. 285-294. 
 Ditto ditto 1863, Vol. i. pp. 215-224. 
 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iv. pp. 206-215. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. v. pp. 78-89. 
 The original of Waring was Mr. Alfred Domett, who was born 
 at Camberwell, May 20, 181 1. In 1829 he matriculated at 
 Cambridge ; and in 1833 publisheda volume of poems. He was 
 called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1841. For a time 
 he lingered in London Society, and is said to have been " one of 
 the handsomest and most attractive men there." In 1842 he 
 was induced to emigrate to New Zealand, and some interesting 
 particulars of his career in that colony will be found in Mr. 
 William Gisborne's New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen, 1840/0 
 1885 (London, 1886). Six years after his arrival in the colony 
 he was appointed Colonial Secretary for the province of New 
 Munster ; and in 1851 secretary for the whole of New Zealand. 
 He eventually became Premier of that Colony ; afterwards 
 holding other appointments ; and returning to England in 
 1 87 1. In 1872 he published his chief poem — Ranolf and 
 Amohia, a South Sea Day Dream, a work descriptive of the 
 scenery of New Zealand, and of the legends, character and 
 habits of the Maori inhabitants. In this poem (Canto xix. 
 pp. 342-3) he paid the following warm tribute to the genius of 
 his old friend, Mr. Browning : 
 
 ' Strange melodies ' 
 That lustrous Song-Child languished to impart, 
 Breathing his boundless Love through boundless Art —
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 547 
 
 Impassioned Seraph, from his mint of gold 
 
 By our full-handed Master-Maker flung ; 
 
 By him, whose lays, like eagles, still upwheeling 
 
 To that shy Empyrean of high feeling, 
 
 Float steadiest in the luminous fold on fold 
 
 Of wonder-cloud around its sun-depths rolled. 
 
 Whether he paint, all patience and pure snow, 
 
 Pompilia's fluttering innocence unsoiled ; — 
 
 In verse, though fresh as dew, one lava flow 
 
 In fervour — with rich Titian-dyes aglow — 
 
 Paint Paracelsus to grand frenzy stung, 
 
 Quixotic dreams and fiery quackeries foiled ; — 
 
 Or — of Sordello's delicate Spirit unstrung 
 
 For action, in its vast Ideal's glare 
 
 Blasting the Real to its own dumb despair, — 
 
 On that Venetian water-lapped stair-flight, 
 
 In words condensed to diamond, indite 
 
 A lay dark — splendid as star-spangled Night : — 
 
 Still — though the pulses of the world-wide throng 
 
 He wields, with racy life-blood beat so strong — 
 
 Subtlest Assertor of the Soul in song ! 
 
 His other works were Venice, a poem (1839) '■> Narrative of 
 the Wairoa Massacre (1843) ; Petition to the House of Commons 
 for the Recall of Governor Fitzroy ; Ordinances of New 
 Zealand, classified (1850) ; and Flotsam andfetsam, Rhymes old 
 and new (1877). He died at Kensington, in November 1887. 
 
 " What a Pretty Tale you told me." 
 
 These lines first appeared in La Saisiaz and The Two Poets 
 of Croisic, 1878, pp. 193-201, and form the Epilogue to the 
 volume. 
 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xiv. pp. 273-279. 
 
 No alteration in text. In the Selections of 1885 this poem is 
 
 entitled " A Tale." 
 
 "When I vexed you and you chid me." 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah's Fancies, 1884, p. 68. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. pp. 45-46. 
 
 N N 2
 
 548 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Which ? 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 37~39- 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 31-33. 
 
 White Witchcraft. 
 
 First appeared in Asolando, 1889, pp. 17-18. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1894, Vol. xvii. pp. 14-15. 
 
 " WHY FROM THE WORLD ? " FERISHTAH SMILED,. 
 
 "SHOULD THANKS." 
 
 First appeared in FerishtaKs Fancies, 1884, p. 139. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. p. 89. 
 
 Why am I a Liberal? 
 
 First appeared in a work entitled Why am la Liberal? 1 1885, 
 
 p. 11. 
 Reprinted in The Browning Society's Papers, Part viii. p. 92*. 
 
 This sonnet was written in answer to a request for the reason 
 of the Poet's political faith. Not having been reprinted in any 
 edition of Mr. Browning's Works, the lines are here quoted : 
 
 " Why?" Because all I haply can and do, 
 All that I am now, all I hope to be, — 
 Whence comes it save from fortune setting free 
 Body and soul the purpose to pursue, 
 God traced for both ? If fetters, not a few, 
 Of prejudice, convention, fall from me, 
 These shall I bid men — each in his degree 
 Also God-guided — bear, and gaily too ? 
 
 But little do or can the best of us : 
 
 That little is achieved through Liberty. 
 Who, then, dares hold — emancipated thus — 
 
 His fellow shall continue bound? Not I 
 Who live, love, labour freely, nor discuss 
 
 A brother's right to freedom. That is " Why." 
 
 ] Why am I a Liberal ? Edited by Andrew Reid. London, Cassell and 
 Co., 1885.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 549 
 
 "Wish no word unspoken, want no look away!" 
 
 First appeared in FerishtaKs Fancies, 1884, p. 12. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. p. 11. 
 
 " Witless alike of will and way divine." 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 248-250. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 225-227. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 253-255. 
 
 This poem is the "Third Speaker" in the Epilogue to 
 Dramatis Persona, and is representative of the attitude of Mr. 
 Browning himself towards the views expressed by the two pre- 
 ceding Speakers {David and Renan). 
 
 Women and Roses. 
 
 First appeared in Men and Women, 1855, Vol. ii. pp. 150-153. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1863, Vol. i. pp. 137-138. 
 Ditto ditto 1868, Vol. iii. pp. 209-211. 
 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vi. pp. 180-182. 
 
 " YOU ARE SICK, THAT'S SURE," THEY SAY. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatic Idyls II., 1880, on unnumbered 
 
 leaf, as a prologue. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xv. p. 83. 
 
 "YOU GROPED YOUR WAY ACROSS MY ROOM." 
 
 First appeared in Ferishtah's Fancies, 1884, pp. 23-24. 
 Reprinted, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. xvi. p. 18. 
 
 Youth and Art. 
 
 First appeared in Dramatis Persona, 1864, pp. 1 51-157. 
 Reprinted, Poems, 1868, Vol. vi. pp. 154-157. 
 Ditto, Poetical Works, 1889, Vol. vii. pp. 171-175.
 
 55o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 PART V. 
 COLLECTED EDITIONS. 
 
 (I.) 
 
 [First Collected Edition : 1 849.] 
 
 Poems / By / Robert Browning. / In Two Volumes. / 
 Vol. I. [Vol. II.] /A New Edition. / London : / Chapman 
 & Hall, 186, Strand. / 1849. 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo. Vol. i, pp. vi + 385 ; Vol. ii, pp. viii + 
 
 416. 
 Issued in dark green cloth boards, gilt lettered. 
 
 P. v of Vol. i contains the following prefatory note : — 
 
 " Many of these pieces were out of print, the rest had been with- 
 drawn from circulation, when the corrected edition, now submitted 
 to the reader, was prepared. The various Poems and Dramas have 
 received the author's most careful revision. December, 1848." 
 
 These two volumes contain only Paracelsus and Bells and Pome- 
 granates — three poems {Claret, Tokay, and Here's to Nelsorts Memory) 
 being omitted. 
 
 (2.) 
 [Second Collected Edition : 1863.] 
 
 The Poetical Works / of / Robert Browning. / Vol. i / 
 Lyrics, Romances, Men, and Women. / [ Vol. ii, with Con- 
 tents ; Vol. Hi, with Contents] Third Edition *. / London : 
 Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly. / 1863. 
 
 * This ' ' Third Edition " is somewhat misleading. It does not mean that 
 the present is the Third Edition of the three volumes, but that the poems 
 contained in them were now for the third time printed : viz. 1st, in their 
 original editions — 2nd, in the 2 vol. edition of 1849 — and 3rd, in the present 
 3 vol. edition.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 551 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo. Vol. i, pp. xiv + 432 ; Vol. ii, pp. vi + 
 
 605 ; Vol. iii, pp. vi + 465. 
 Issued in dark brown cloth boards, gilt lettered. Several of the 
 poems included in these volumes underwent slight textual revision. 
 
 In addition to the General Titles as given above, each volume was 
 supplied with a distinct title-page in order that, by the removal of the 
 General Title, it might stand as a work complete in itself. Thus 
 rebound copies frequently occur having the individual titles only, and 
 no General Title. These separate title-pages read as follows : — 
 
 Vol. I. Lyrics, Romances, / Men, and Women. / By / Robert 
 
 Browning. / London : / Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly. / 
 
 1863. 
 Vol. II. Tragedies and / Other Plays. / By / Robert Browning. / 
 
 London : / Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly. / 1863. 
 Vol. III. Paracelsus, / Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day, / Sordello. / 
 
 By / Robert Browning. / London : / Chapman and Hall, 
 
 193, Piccadilly. / 1863. 
 
 Note : This edition was reprinted, from stereo plates, in 1865, the General 
 title-pages reading "Fourth Edition." 
 
 (3.) 
 
 [ Third Collected Edition : 1 868.] 
 
 The Poetical Works / of / Robert Browning, / M.A., / 
 Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. / Vol. i. / 
 Pauline — Paracelsus — Strafford. / [Vol. ii, etc, with con- 
 tents] London : / Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 
 1868. 
 
 Collation : — Vol. i, pp. viii + 310. Vol. iv, pp. iv + 310. 
 
 „ ii, ,, iv+287. „ v, „ iv + 321. 
 
 „ iii, „ iv + 305. „ vi, „ iv+233. 
 Size post 8vo. Issued in cloth boards, lettered in gold across the 
 back. Several times reprinted from stereo plates, no alterations 
 being made in the text.
 
 552 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (4.) 
 [ Complete Edition : i S 8 8- 1 S 94.] 
 
 The Poetical Works / of / Robert Browning / Vol. i. 
 [Vol. ii, etc, with contents} / Pauline — Sordello / London / 
 Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place / 18SS. 
 
 Collation :— Vol. i, pp. X+2S9. Vol. ix, pp. vi + 313. 
 „ ii, ., vi+307. „ x. ., vi+279. 
 - iii, >j vi+302. „ xi, „ vi + 343- 
 „ iv, ., vi + 305. „ xii, „ vi + 311. 
 v, „ vi+307. „ xiii, „ vi+3S7. 
 vi, „ vii + 289. „ xiv, „ vi+279. 
 vii, „ vi+255. „ xv, „ vi + 260. 
 „ viii, „ viii + 253. „ xvi, „ vi+292. 
 Vol. xvii, pp. viii + 307. 
 Issued in cloth boards, lettered in gilt across the back. Also two 
 hundred and fifty Large (hand-made) Paper copies ; these were 
 issued in straw-coloured buckram boards, with white paper back- 
 label. 
 
 Illustrations. 
 
 Portrait of Robert Browning (1835) Frontispiece to Vol. iii. 
 
 n „ „ » ( l8 59) h h vii - 
 
 Scudo of Innocent XII „ „ viii. 
 
 Portrait of Guido Franceschini „ „ x. 
 
 „ „ Robert Browning (18S2) „ „ xvi- 
 
 55 
 
 * * 
 
 "** Vol. xvii, published in 1S94, was edited by Dr. Berdoe. It includes 
 an Appendix of Biographical and Historical Notes.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 553 
 
 PART VI. 
 SELECTIONS. 
 
 [T/ie two Tauchnitz volumes of 1872, and other exotic series 
 of Selections, are not included in the following list, as they 
 do not come within the scope of tJie present Bibliography^ 
 
 (1.) 
 
 Selections / from the / Poetical Works / of / Robert 
 Browning. / London : / Chapman and Hall, / 193, 
 Piccadilly. / 1863. 
 
 Collation : — Foolscap octavo, pp. xii + 411. 
 Issued in cloth boards, gilt lettered. The selections were made 
 by John Forster. The volume is dedicated to Bryan Walter 
 Procter (Barry Cornwall). 
 
 (2.) 
 
 Moxon's Miniature Poets. / A / Selection from / the 
 Works / of / Robert Browning. / {Publishers' Monogram} / 
 London : / Edward Moxon & Co., Dover Street. / 1865. 
 
 Collation : — Small square octavo, printed in half-sheets, pp. 
 viii + 224. A portrait of Robert Browning, engraved by 
 J. H. Baker after a photograph by W. Jeffrey, forms the 
 frontispiece. 
 Issued in cloth boards, gilt lettered, and covered with an orna- 
 mental design by John Leighton, F.S.A. This design is in gold 
 upon the front, and ' blind ' upon the back cover. The Dedi- 
 cation is to Alfred Tennyson. Also issued in Sixpenny Parts. 
 
 (3.) 
 Selections / from / The Poetical Works / of / Robert
 
 554 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Browning. / London : / Smith, Elder & Co., 15, Waterloo 
 Place. / 1872. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. xii + 348. 
 
 Issued in cloth boards, gilt lettered. Also dedicated to Alfred 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 Reprinted frequently from stereotype plates. 
 
 (4.) 
 
 Selections from / the Poetical Works / of Robert Brown- 
 ing / Second Series / London / Smith, Elder, & Co., 15, 
 Waterloo Place / 1880. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. viii + 371. 
 
 Issued in cloth boards, gilt lettered. 
 
 In common with the First Series this volume has also frequently 
 
 been reprinted from stereotype plates. 
 
 New Edition. 
 
 In 1884 a new and cheaper edition of both Series of Selections was 
 published. These were exact reprints of the earlier volumes, but set 
 up in smaller types thinly leaded. 
 
 The collation is : — 
 First Series : — Crown octavo, pp. xi -f- 288. 
 Second Series : — Crown octavo, pp. vi + 297. 
 
 (5-) 
 The Pied Piper of Hamelin / by / Robert Browning. / 
 Illustrated by Jane E. Cook, / author of " The Sculptor 
 Caught Napping," / King Alfred's Schools, Wantage, Berks./ 
 Reproduced by the Autotype Company's Process of 
 Permanent Facsimile. / London : / This Illustrated Edition 
 of the " Pied Piper of Hamelin " is published with the / 
 kind permission of Mr. Robert Browning. / 1880.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING 555 
 
 Collation: — Oblong folio, pp. 12, plus 9 plates with page of 
 
 letterpress to each. The poem occupies pp. 8 — 12. 
 Issued in green cloth boards, gilt lettered. 
 
 (6.) 
 The Pied Piper / of Hamelin / by Robert Browning / 
 [Publishers monogram'] / London / Robt. Dunthorne / 
 1884. 
 
 Collation : — Small square octavo, pp. 16 [unpaged]. Printed, at 
 
 the Chiswick Press, in red and black. 
 Issued in mottled-grey paper wrapper, lettered upon the front. 
 The pamphlet was not placed upon sale. It was printed to 
 accompany Mr. Macbeth's etching, after a drawing by the late 
 G. J. Dinwell, illustrating Mr. Browning's poem, and was dis- 
 tributed only to subscribers for the special copies of the same. 
 
 (70 
 Pomegranates / from an English Garden : / A Selection 
 from the Poems of / Robert Browning. / With Introduction 
 and Notes by John Monro Gibson. / " Or from Browning 
 some ' Pomegranate', which, if cut / deep down tlie middle, j 
 Shows a heart within, blood-tinctured, of a veined j human- 
 ity." / Lady Geraldine's Courtship, j Phillips & Hunt, New 
 York. / 1885. 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo, pp. vi-t- 137. 
 
 Issued in white vellum boards, with coloured leather back-labeL 
 The book was published in London by Messrs. J. W. Jarvis & 
 Son, then of King William Street, Strand W.C. 1 It was set up by 
 
 1 Volumes of Selections from Mr. Browning 's Works, as well as 
 volumes of Biography and Criticism, published originally in the United 
 States or elsewhere abroad, have been included in k this Bibliography 
 only when they have been simultaneously issued in this country.
 
 
 556 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Messrs. Henderson, Rait & Spalding, Marylebone Lane, London, 
 and the stereotype plates forwarded to America. 
 
 (8.) 
 The Pied Piper / of/ Hamelin /by / Robert Browning / with 
 35 Illustrations / by / Kate Greenaway / Engraved and 
 printed in Colours by Edmund Evans / London / George 
 Routledge and Sons / Broadway, Ludgate Hill / Glasgow 
 and New York. [No date, but published in the Autumn of 
 1 888.] 
 
 Collation : — Quarto, pp. 64. 
 Issued in Illustrated paper boards. 
 
 (9.) 
 A few Impressions / from / The Poems of Robert Brown- 
 ing. / By / Emily Atkinson. / London : / Kegan Paul, 
 Trench, Triibner & Co., Ld. [No date.] 
 
 Collation : — Quarto, pp. 112, printed upon one side of the pages 
 
 only. 
 Issued in illustrated paper boards, backed with canvas. 
 
 (10.) 
 
 PocketVolume/of / Selections / from / The Poetical Works/ 
 of/ Robert Browning / London / Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 
 Waterloo Place / 1890. 
 
 Collation : — 321110, pp. viii + 319. 
 
 Issued in marbled paper boards, backed with cloth, gilt lettered.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 557 
 
 PART VII. 
 
 COMPLETE VOLUMES OF BIOGRAPHY AND 
 
 CRITICISM. 
 
 (*0 
 
 Essays / on / Robert Browning's / Poetry / by / John T. 
 Nettleship / London / Macmillan and Co. / 1868. 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo, pp. viii + 305 : consisting of Half-title 
 (with publishers' Monogram on reverse) pp. i-ii; Title- 
 page (with imprint in centre of reverse) pp. iii-iv ; Preface 
 . v-vi ; Contents (with blank reverse) pp. vii-viii ; and Text 
 pp. 1-305. The imprint is repeated on the reverse of last 
 page. 
 Issued in light brown cloth boards, lettered in gilt across the back 
 " Essays / on / Robert / Browning's / Poetry j Nettleship " / 
 
 Macmillan & Co. 
 
 [New Edition.'] 
 
 Robert Browning / Essays and Thoughts / by / John T. 
 Nettleship / London / Elkin Mathews, Vigo Street, W. / 
 1890. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. xii + 454 : consisting of Half-title 
 
 (with blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; Title-page (with imprint in 
 
 centre of blank reverse) pp. iii-iv ; Dedication to Robert 
 
 Browning (with blank reverse) pp. v-vi ; Prefatory note 
 
 (with blank reverse) pp. vii-viii ; Contents pp. ix-x ; 
 
 Preface xi-xii ; and Text pp. 1-454. 
 
 Issued in brown buckram bevelled boards, lettered in gilt across 
 
 back " Robert Browning J Essays / and / Thoughts / J.T. Nettle- 
 
 ship j Elkin Mathews" There were also seventy-five copies on 
 
 large Whatman paper.
 
 558 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (2.) 
 
 Balaustion's Adventure. / Reprinted from the London 
 Quarterly Review, / January, 1872. / For Private Circula- 
 tion. / [By H. Buxton Forman.] London : / Printed by 
 Beveridge and Fraser, / Fullwood's Rents, Holborn. 
 
 Collation : — Demy octavo, pp. 1 + 24 : consisting of Title-page 
 
 1, and Text 2-24. 
 Issued without wrapper, stitched, the text commencing on the 
 reverse of the title-page. 
 
 (3-) 
 Browning's Women / by / Mary E. Burt / With an Intro- 
 duction by / Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D., LL.D. / 
 Chicago / Charles H. Kerr & Company / 175 Dearborn 
 Street / 1877. 
 
 Collation: — i6mo, pp. xii-f 1-225: consisting of Title-page 
 
 (with imprint and " copyright " on blank reverse) pp. i-ii ; 
 
 Dedication to " Jenkin Lloyd Jones and his first Browning 
 
 Club " (with blank reverse) pp. iii-iv ; Contents (with 
 
 blank reverse) pp. v-vi ; Preface (with blank reverse) pp. 
 
 vii-viii ; Introduction (with blank reverse) pp. ix-xii ; 
 
 and Text pp. 1-225. 
 
 Issued in dark blue cloth boards, with gilt top, and lettered in 
 
 gilt on front cover : " Brownings Women / Mary E. Burt." Also 
 
 gilt lettered across the back " Browtiing's Women / Burt." 
 
 (4.) 
 
 Sordello / A Story from Robert Browning / By / Frederick 
 May Holland / Author of the " Reign of the Stoics " / New 
 York / G. P. Putnam's Sons / 27 and 29 West 23d Street / 
 1881.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 559 
 
 Collation : — Small square octavo, pp. 29 : consisting of Title- 
 page, as above (with imprint upon the reverse) pp. 1-2 ; 
 and Text pp. 3-29. 
 Issued in stiff drab paper wrappers, with "Sordello j Frederick May 
 Hot/and" printed upon the front. The pamphlet was issued as 
 an experiment, very few copies being printed. It was afterwards 
 included (with^ considerable alterations) in Stories from Robert 
 Browning, by F. May Holland, London, 1882 — (See post, No. 7). 
 
 (5.) 
 The / Browning Society's Papers. / 1881-4 / [Contents.] 
 Publisht for / The Browning Society / by N. Trubner & 
 Co., 57 & 59, Ludgate Hill, / London, E.C., 188 1-4 / 
 Price Ten Shillings. 
 
 Issued in grey paper wrappers, the second and third pages of 
 which contain Advertisements of other Societies ; the fourth page 
 being devoted to an announcement of the officers, list of meetings, 
 &c, of the Browning Society. The Papers were issued in 
 " Parts," the intention being to complete them in Three 
 Volumes. Fourteen Parts have been issued up to date, as 
 follows : Vol. i, Parts i-v ; Vol. ii, Parts vii-xi ; Vol. iii, Parts 
 xii-xiii. Several of the earlier numbers have been reprinted, 
 many corrections being made in the text — particularly in the 
 Bibliography contained in Part I, 
 
 Part I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Title 1 
 
 Foretalk, by F. J. Fur- 
 
 nivall 3-4 
 
 Browning's Essay on 
 
 Shelley 5-19 
 
 1 It is impossible to bestow too great praise upon Dr. FumivaH's admirable 
 Bibliography, which has been made use of to the fullest extent in preparing 
 the present work. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Browning Society 19-20 
 A Bibliography of 
 
 Robert Browning, 
 
 1833-1881, by F. J. 
 
 Furnivall 1 21-72
 
 560 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Appendix : — 
 
 1. The Six Volumes 
 of Selections, with 
 contents 
 
 2. Changed Rhymes 
 and fresh lines in 
 Sordello, 1863 ... 
 
 3. Sample of changed 
 and new lines in 
 Paracelsus, 1 863 
 
 4. Trial-List of Cri- 
 ticisms and No- 
 
 ^ge p a ge 
 
 tices of Browning's 
 
 Works, &c 89-108 
 
 5. Personal Notices 108-113 
 
 73-So Notes 113-114 
 
 Poem by James Thomp- 
 son : " E. E. B. 
 80-87 1 86 1 " 
 
 Advertisement of Works 
 by Robert and Eliza- 
 87-89 beth Barrett Brown- 
 
 ii5 
 
 116 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Page 
 
 Additions to the Biblio- 
 graphy of Robert 
 Browning, by F. J. 
 Furnivall 117- 170 
 
 Address at the Inau- 
 gural Meeting of the 
 Society, by Rev. J. 
 Kirkman 171-190 
 
 Pietro of Abano and 
 Dramatic Idyls II. 
 by Rev. J. Sharpe... 191-197 
 
 Analysis of Fifine at 
 the Fair, by J. T. 
 Nettleship 199-230 
 
 Classification of Brown- 
 ing's Poems, by J. T. 
 Nettleship 231-234 
 
 Page 
 
 Classification of Brown- 
 ing's Poems, by Mrs. 
 
 Orr 235-238 
 
 Notes on the Genius of 
 
 Robert Browning, by 
 
 James Thomson ... 239-250 
 On the Moorish Front 
 
 to the Duomo of 
 
 Florence in Luria, 
 
 by Ernest Radford 251-252 
 On the Original of Ned 
 
 Bratts, by Ernest 
 
 Radford 253-254 
 
 Fijine at the Fair, by 
 
 Rev. J. Sharpe 355—257 
 
 Monthly Abstract i*-2o* 
 
 Part III. 
 
 Page 
 
 On Browning's Philo- 
 sophy, by John 
 Bury, B.A 259-277 
 
 Page 
 
 On Bishop Blougram, 
 by Prof. Johnson ... 279-292
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 561 
 
 Page Page 
 
 Personality, and Art, 
 &c, as treated by 
 Browning, by Prof. 
 Corson, LL.D 293-321 
 
 The Religious Teach- 
 ing of Browning, by 
 Miss Beale 323-338 
 
 A Short Account of the 
 
 AbbeVogler 339-343 
 
 On Conscience and 
 
 Art in Browning, by 
 
 Prof. Johnson 345-380 
 
 The Monthly Abstract, 
 
 &c i*-4S* 
 
 Browning's Intuition, 
 
 by J. T. Nettleship 381-396 
 
 Some Points in Brown- 
 ing's View of Life, 
 by Prof. Westcott ... 397-410 
 
 One Aspect of Brown- 
 
 Part IV. 
 
 Page 
 
 ing's Villains, by 
 
 Miss E. D. West ... 411-434 
 Browning's Poems on 
 God and Immor- 
 
 Page 
 
 tality, by W. F. 
 
 Revell 435-454 
 
 James Lee's Wife, by 
 
 Rev. H. J. Bulkeley 455-467 
 
 On Abt Vogler, by 
 
 Mrs. Turnbull 469-476 
 
 The Monthly Abstract, 
 &c 49*-84* 
 
 First and Second Re- 
 ports, &c i-xvi 
 
 Part V. 
 
 Page 
 
 Page 
 
 The Monthly Abstract 85*-i34* 
 
 Programme of Enter- 
 tainments I35*-I53* 
 
 Third Report of Com- 
 mittee xvii.-xxiii. 
 
 Some Prominent Points 
 in Browning's Teach- 
 ing, by W. A. Raleigh 477-488 
 
 Caliban on Setebos, by 
 J. Cotter Morison ... 489-498 
 
 Iti a Balcony, by Mrs. 
 
 Turnbull 499-502 
 
 [Part VI. has not yet been published, but it will certainly be 
 
 issued during 1896.] 
 
 Part VII. 
 
 P: 
 
 Is Browning Dramatic ? 
 by Arthur Symons... 
 
 Mr. Sludge the Medi- 
 um, by Prof. Johnson 
 
 Browning as a Scientific 
 Poet, by E. Berdoe. . 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Monthly Abstract 
 
 Page 
 I*-SS* 
 
 I-I2 
 
 Fourth Report of Corn- 
 
 
 
 
 i.— viii. 
 
 13-32 
 
 Programme of Enter- 
 
 
 
 tainments 
 
 1-16 
 
 33-53 
 

 
 562 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 On the Development of 
 Browning's Genius, 
 byJ.T. Nettleship... 
 
 On Aristophanes' Apo- 
 logy, by J. B. Bury... 
 
 On " TheAvowal of Val- 
 ence," by Leonard S. 
 Outram 
 
 On Andrea del Sarto, 
 by Albert Fleming... 
 
 Browning as a Land- 
 scape Painter, by 
 Howard S. Pearson 
 
 Part 
 
 Page 
 
 55-77 
 79-86 
 
 87-94 
 95-102 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Page 
 
 On the Reasonable 
 
 Rhythm of some 
 
 of Mr. Browning's 
 
 Poems, by Rev. H. J. 
 
 Bulkeley, M.A 119-131 
 
 Prince Hohenstief- 
 
 Schwangau, by C. H. 
 
 Herford, M.A 133-145. 
 
 The Monthly Abstract 89*- 164* 
 Fifth Report of Com- 
 mittee, 1885-6 1-7 
 
 On the Performance of 
 Strafford, by Dr. 
 Todhunter 
 
 On A Death in the 
 Desert, by Mrs. 
 Glazebrook 
 
 A Grammatical Analy- 
 sis of "O Lyric Love," 
 by Dr. Furnivall 
 
 On Browning's Views of 
 Life, by W. F. Revell 
 
 On Browning's Estim- 
 ate of Life, by Ed. 
 Berdoe 
 
 On Browning's Jew and 
 Shakespeare's Jew, 
 by Prof. Barnett 
 
 On Abt Vogler, by Miss 
 Helen Ormerod 
 
 103-118 
 
 Part IX 
 
 Page 
 
 147-152 
 
 I53-I64 
 
 165-168 
 
 Part X. 
 
 Page 
 
 Page 
 
 On the Parleyings with 
 
 Certain People, by 
 
 Arthur Symons 169-179 
 
 On the Musical Poems 
 
 of Browning, by Miss 
 
 Helen Ormerod 180-195 
 
 The Monthly Abstract i65*-2i2* 
 Sixth Annual Report of 
 
 Committee xvii.-xxiv 
 
 Page 
 
 On Browning as a 
 197-199 Teacher of the Nine- 
 
 teenth Century, by 
 Miss C. M. White- 
 
 200-206 head 237-263 
 
 On Sau/, by Miss Stod- 
 
 dart 264-274 
 
 207-220 The Monthly Abstract 2i3*-285* 
 
 Seventh Report of Com- 
 221-236 mittee, &c xxv.-xxxii.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 563 
 
 Part XI. 
 
 Page 
 
 On Paracelsus: the Re- 
 former of Medicine, 
 by Ed. Berdoe 275-296 
 
 Andrea del Sarto and 
 Abt Vogler, by Helen 
 J. Ormerod 297-311 
 
 La Saisiaz, by Rev. W. 
 
 Robertson 312-332 
 
 On the Difficulties and 
 Obscurities encoun- 
 tered in a study of 
 Browning's Poems, 
 by J. B. Oldham, B. A. 333-348 
 
 On Prince Hohenstiel- 
 
 Page 
 
 Schwangan, by Jos. 
 
 King,jun 349-362 
 
 "On A Toccata of 
 
 Galippi's," by Mrs. 
 
 Alexander Ireland... 363-370 
 Numpholeptos and 
 
 Browning's Women, 
 
 by Mrs. Glazebrook 371-379 
 The Wife - love and 
 
 Friend-love of Rob- 
 ert Browning, by Rev. 
 
 J. J. G. Graham 380-400 
 
 The Monthly Abstract 287*-353* 
 Eighth Annual Report xxxiii.-xl. 
 
 On an Analysis of Sor- 
 dello, by Prof. W. J. 
 Alexander 
 
 Robert Browning's An- 
 cestors, by F. J. Fur- 
 nivall 
 
 Some Remarks on 
 Browning's treat- 
 ment of Parenthood, 
 by Mrs. Alexander 
 Ireland 
 
 On the Line Number- 
 ing, fresh lines, &c, 
 
 Part 
 
 Page 
 1-25 
 
 26-45 
 
 46-52 
 
 XII. 
 
 Page 
 
 in The Ring and the 
 
 Bo °k 53-63 
 
 The Value of Brown- 
 ing's Work, by W. F. 
 Revell 64-81 
 
 Taurello Salinguerra, 
 &c, by W. M. Ros- 
 setti 82-97 
 
 Periodicals noticing 
 
 Browning's death ... 98-101 
 
 The Monthly Abstract i*-i26* 
 
 Ninth Annual Report., i.-viii 
 
 On Browning's Cris- 
 tina and Monaldes- 
 
 Part XIII. 
 
 Page 
 
 Page 
 chi, by Mrs. Alex- 
 ander Ireland 103-114 
 
 2
 
 564 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Page Page 
 
 How Browning strikes Balauslion's Adven- 
 
 a Scandinavian, by ture as a beautiful 
 
 Jon Stefansson, M.A. 1 15-123 Misrepresentation of 
 
 The Value of Brown- the Original, by R. G. 
 
 ing's Work (Part ii.), Moulton, M.A 148-167 
 
 by W. F. Revell 124-138 Programmes, &c I27*-I33* 
 
 Browning's Dramatic 
 Method in Narrative, 
 
 by James B. Oldham 139-147 
 
 Tenth Annual Report.. ix.-xii. 
 
 {Illustrations. ) 
 
 (6.) 
 
 Illustrations / to / Browning's Poems / Part I. / {Contents : 
 Part II. with Contents] With a / Notice of the Artists and 
 the Pictures / by / Ernest Radford. / Published for / the 
 Browning Society / by N. Triibner & Co., 57 and 59, Lud- 
 gate Hill, / London, E.C. 1882 / Price Ten Shillings. 
 
 Collation : — Quarto, pp. i-viii : consisting of Title-page (with 
 notice of Illustrations on reverse), pp. i-ii ; and Text, 
 pp. iii-viii. 
 Issued in mottled-grey paper boards, Part I. in 1882, and Part II. 
 in 1883. 
 
 Contents. 
 Part I. 
 
 1. The Coronation of the Virgin, from the Painting by Fra Lippo 
 Lippi in the Accademia delle Belle Arti at Florence, described in 
 Browning's Fra Lippo Lippi, lines 347-387. 
 
 2. Andrea del Sarto and his Wife, from the Painting by Andrea del 
 Sarto in the Pitti Palace, Florence, which gave rise to Browning's 
 Andrea del Sarto. 
 
 3. The Angel and the Child, from the Picture by Guercino in a 
 chapel at Fano, on the Adriatic, which is the subject of Browning's 
 Guardiaft Angel. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 4. A Photogravure, by Dawson's process, of Mr. C. Fairfax Murray's
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 565 
 
 Copy of Andrea del Sarto's painting of himself and his wife, which 
 gave rise to Browning's Andrea del Sarto. 
 
 5. A Woodbury Type engraving of Robert Browning, from a Photo- 
 graph by Fradelle. (Presented by Mrs. Sutherland Orr.) 
 
 Note. — With this Part was issued Woodbury-type engravings of 
 Robert Browning (from Fradelle's photograph), in demy octavo for the 
 Society's Papers ; and in foolscap octavo for any volume of Brown- 
 ing's poems (both presented by Mrs. Sutherland Orr). Also reduc- 
 tions in foolscap octavo, for Browning's poems, of the Andrea (No. 4, 
 Part II.) ; and of the Fra Lippo's Coronation, and Guercino's Angel 
 and Child (Nos. 1 and 2 of the Illustrations, Part I.). 
 
 (7.) 
 Stories from Robert Browning. / By / Frederick May- 
 Holland, / Author of / ' The Reign of the Stoics.' / With 
 an Introduction by / Mrs. Sutherland Orr. / London : 
 George Bell and Sons, / York Street, Covent Garden. / 
 1882. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. xlviii + 228 : consisting of Half- 
 title (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page (with imprint 
 at foot of the reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Contents (with blank 
 reverse), pp. v-vi ; Preface pp. vii-ix ; p. x is blank ; Intro- 
 duction pp. xi-xlvii; p. xlviii is blank; and Text pp. 1-228. 
 The imprint is repeated at the foot of the last page. 
 Issued in orange coloured bevelled cloth boards, lettered in 
 gilt across the back : " Stories j from / Browning j Holland / 
 G. Bell &* Sons." Also lettered in gilt upon the front cover. 
 
 The "Stories" included are those of Strafford — Sordello — Luria — 
 The Adventures of Balaustion — A Blot on the ''Scutcheon — The 
 Ping and the Book — Pippa Passes — The Return of the Druses — 
 and Colombe's Birthday. 
 
 (8.) 
 The Browning Society / 1884-5 / Hercules Wrestling with
 
 566 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Death / for the body of Alcestis / A Picture painted in 
 1 87 1 by / Sir Frederick Leighton / P.R.A. 
 
 This print was taken by kind permission of Sir B. Samuelson, 
 Bart., M.P., and presented to the members of the Browning Society 
 by the painter (one of its Vice-Presidents) in Sept. 1884. It was 
 issued in a wrapper on the inside of which were printed the lines 
 from Balaustioti's Adventure illustrated by the picture. 
 
 (9.) 
 Robert Browning / The Thoughts of a Poet on Art and 
 Faith. / A Lecture / Delivered to the Birmingham Central 
 Literary Association, / March 27th, 1885. / By / Howard 
 S. Pearson. / Price Sixpence. / Published for the Com- 
 mittee of the Birmingham Central Literary Association, 
 by / Cornish Brothers, 37, New Street. 
 
 Collation : — Demy quarto, pp. 2 + 27 : consisting of Title-page, as 
 above (with imprint in centre of reverse), pp. 1-2 ; and 
 Text, pp. 3-27. 
 
 Issued in drab-coloured paper wrappers, on the front page of which 
 
 is a reprint of the title. 
 
 (10.) 
 
 A Handbook / to the Works of / Robert Browning / by / 
 Mrs. Sutherland Orr. / " No pause i' the leading and the 
 light ! " / The Ring and the Book, vol. iii., p. 70. / London : 
 George Bell & Sons, / York Street, Covent Garden. / 1885. / 
 [ The right of translation is reserved.'] 
 
 Collation : — Foolscap octavo, pp. xiii + 332 : consisting of Half- 
 title (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above 
 (with imprint at bottom of reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Contents, 
 pp. ix— xiii ; Text, pp. 1-328 ; and Index, pp. 329-332.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 567 
 
 Issued in olive-green cloth boards, lettered in gilt across the back : 
 " Handbook j to j Robert / Browning's j Works J Mrs. S. Orr j 
 George Bell and Sons." 
 
 The above is a description of the first edition of this work ; but there 
 have been several subsequent editions, in which various corrections, &c, 
 have been made. 
 
 (II.) 
 
 Miss Alma Murray's / Constance / in / Robert Brown- 
 ing's " In a Balcony." / A paper by / B. L. Mosely, LL.B. / 
 Barrister-at-Laiv. j Read to the Browning Society / on the 
 27th of February, 1885. / Reprinted from The Theatre 
 for May, 1885. / For private distribution only. / London, 
 1885. 
 
 Collation : — Royal, pp. 1-8 : consisting of Title-page, as above 
 
 (with blank reverse) pp. 1-2 ; and Text, pp. 2-8. 
 Issued in cream-tinted wrapper, lettered " Miss Alma Murray's j 
 Constance j in j Robert Browning's ' In a Balcony.' j A paper by j 
 B. L. Mosely, LL.B. j Barrister-at-Law" upon the front. 
 
 (12.) 
 
 Sordello's Story / Retold in Prose / by / Annie Wall / 
 [Publishers' device.] Boston and New York / Houghton, 
 Mifflin and Company / The Riverside Press, Cambridge / 
 1886. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. 6 + 145 : consisting of Title-page, 
 as above (with " copyright " in centre and imprint at foot of 
 reverse), pp. 1-2 ; Dedication (with blank reverse), pp. 3-4 ; 
 Quotation from Dante (with blank reverse), pp. 5-6 ; and 
 Text, pp. 7-145- 
 Issued in dark yellow cloth boards, gilt lettered across the back, 
 " Sordello's Story j Annie Wall j LLougliton, Mifflin e^ Co."
 
 56S A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 An / Introduction / to the Study of/ Robert Browning's 
 Poetry. / By / Hiram Corson, LL.D., / Professor of Rhetoric 
 and English Literature in the / Cornell University. / 
 " Subtlest Assertor of the Soul in song." / Boston : / D. C. 
 Heath & Co., Publishers. / 1886. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. x + 338 : consisting of Title-page, 
 as above (with "copyright" and imprint in centre and at 
 end respectively of blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; motto (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Preface, pp. v-vii ; p. viii is 
 blank; Contents, pp. ix-x ; and Text, pp. 1-338. 
 
 Issued in dark-blue cloth boards, lettered in gilt across the back : 
 
 " Introduction j to j Browning / Corson / D. C. Heath 6° Co / 
 
 Boston" 
 
 (14.) 
 
 Robert Browning's Poetry / " The development of a soul ; 
 little else is worth study" / Outline Studies / Published for 
 the Chicago Browning Society / Chicago / Charles H. 
 Kerr & Company / 175 Dearborn Street / 1886. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. 4 + 50 : consisting of Title-page 
 (with "copyright " in centre of reverse), pp. 1 — 2 ; Contents 
 (with prefatory note on reverse), pp. 3 — 4 ; and Text, pp. 
 
 5-5°- 
 Issued in light yellow paper wrapper, with " Robert Brownings 
 
 Poetry " printed across centre. A limited number of copies were 
 
 placed on sale in London. 
 
 (I5-) 
 
 Sordello : / A History and a Poem. / By Caroline H. Dall. / 
 Boston : / Roberts Brothers. / 1886. 
 
 Collation : — Royal, pp. 4 + 36 : consisting of Title-page, as above
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 5^9 
 
 (with reverse, containing notice of copyright and imprint 
 in centre and at end respectively), pp. i — 2 : prefatory 
 "note," pp. 3—4 ; and Text, pp. 5—36. 
 
 Issued in light grey wrapper, with the Title-page reproduced upon 
 
 the front cover. 
 
 (16.) 
 
 An / Introduction / to / the study of / Browning / by / 
 Arthur Symons / Cassell & Company, Limited / London, 
 Paris, New York, & Melbourne / 1886 / [All rights 
 reserved.] 
 
 Collation: — Crown octavo, pp. viii + 216: consisting of Title- 
 page (with quotation from Landor on reverse), pp. i-ii ; 
 Dedication to George Meredith (with blank reverse), pp. 
 iii-iv ; Preface, pp. v-vi ; Contents (with blank reverse), 
 pp. vii-viii; and Text, pp. 1-2 16. 
 
 Issued in dark green bevelled boards, lettered in gilt across the 
 
 back " Introduction j to I Browning j Symons." 
 
 Studies in the Poetry / of / Robert Browning / by / James 
 Fotheringham / London / Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 
 1 Paternoster Square / 1887. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. xii + 382 : consisting of Title-page 
 
 (with quotations on reverse), pp. i-ii ; Preface, pp. iii-viii ; 
 
 Contents, pp. ix-x ; Reference List of Poems, pp. xi-xii ; 
 
 and Text, pp. 1-382. 
 
 Issued in dark blue cloth boards, gilt lettered across the back 
 
 " Studies j in the / Poetry / of j Robert / Browning j Bothering 
 
 ham j Kegan Paul, Trench 6° Co." The front cover is also 
 
 lettered " Studies in the Poetry / of Robert Browning."
 
 57o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (18.) 
 
 Robert Browning : / Chief Poet of the Age. / An Essay / 
 Addressed primarily to beginners in the Study of / 
 Browning's Poems / By / William G. Kingsland / London / 
 J. W. Jarvis & Son / 28 King William Street, Strand / 
 1887. 
 
 Collation : — Square i6mo, pp. 1-47 : consisting of Title-page 
 (with blank reverse), pp. 1-2; Dedicatory Sonnet "to 
 Robert Browning " (with blank reverse), pp. 3-4 ; and Text, 
 pp. 5-47. The imprint is in centre of reverse of last 
 page. 
 
 Issued in drab-coloured paper boards ; with the title-page reprinted 
 
 upon the front. A portrait of Mr. Browning forms the frontispiece. 
 
 Thirty copies on large hand-made paper were also issued. 
 
 [Second Edition?^ 
 
 Robert Browning : / Chief Poet of the Age. / By / William 
 G. Kingsland / New Edition, / With Biographical and other 
 Additions / London : / J. W. Jarvis & Son, / 28 King 
 William Street, Strand / 1890. 
 
 Collation: — Small octavo, pp. vi+136: consisting of Half- 
 title (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page (with imprint 
 on reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Preface, pp. v-vii ; Dedicatory 
 Sonnet, p. viii ; and Text, pp. 1-136. The imprint is re- 
 peated at foot of last page. 
 Issued in fawn-coloured cloth boards, gilt lettered across the back 
 " Browning j Kingsland j 1890." A portrait of Mr. Browning 
 forms the frontispiece. Fifty copies were also printed on large 
 hand-made paper.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 571 
 
 (19.) 
 
 Sordcllo / An Outline Analysis of/ Mr. Browning's Poem / 
 by / Jcanie Morison / author of / ' The Purpose of the 
 Ages ; ' ' Gordon : an Our Day Idyll ; ' / ' Ane Booke of 
 Ballades/ etc. / William Blackwood and Sons / Edinburgh 
 and London / MDCCCLXXXIX. / All Rights reserved. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. vi + 1 1 5 : consisting of Half-title 
 (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page (with blank 
 reverse), pp. iii-iv; Dedication to the Members of the 
 Edinburgh Women-Students' Browning Club, with blank 
 reverse, pp. v-vij and Text, pp. 1-115. The imprint is 
 at the foot of the last page. 
 
 Issued in dark red cloth boards, with trimmed edges, and lettered 
 
 in gilt across the back : " Analysis j of j Sordello / Jeanie / 
 
 Morison j Win. Blackwood / 6° Sons." 
 
 (20.) 
 
 Robert Browning. / Nineteenth Century Authors. / Louise 
 Manning Hodgkins. / D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. [1889.] 
 
 Collation : — Small octavo, pp. iv + 8 : consisting of Title-page, 
 
 as above (with blank reverse) ; and Text, pp. 1 — S. 
 Issued stitched, without wrappers. Circulated gratis. A number 
 of copies were distributed among the Members of the Browning 
 Society. 
 
 (21.) 
 
 Robert Browning / Personalia / by / Edmund Gosse / 
 Boston and New York / Houghton, Mifflin and Company / 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge / 1890. 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. 1-96 : consisting of Title (with
 
 572 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 imprint in centre of reverse), 1-2 ; Preface, 3-9 (blank 
 reverse, 10); Contents (with blank reverse), n-12; Half- 
 title (with blank reverse), 13-14 ; Text, 15-96. 
 Issued in Indian red cloth boards, with gilt top, and lettered in 
 gilt on front cover : " Robert Browning I Personalia / By Edmund / 
 Gosse " / ; also lettered across back " Robert j Browning / Per- 
 sonalia I Gosse j Houghton / Mifflin &> Co" There is a portrait 
 of Robert Browning as frontispiece. 
 
 A portion of the impression of this book was purchased by 
 T. Fisher Unwin, who issued these copies in London with his 
 own imprint upon the title-page, and upon the cover, in place 
 of that of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. as detailed above. 
 They were put up in vellum bevelled boards, gilt lettered. 
 There were also ten copies printed upon large paper. 
 
 (22.) 
 
 Robert Browning. / Read before the / Literary and Philo- 
 sophical Society of Liverpool. / April 28th, 1890 / By / 
 Gerald H. Rendall. 
 
 Collation : — Demy octavo, pp. ii + 20 : consisting of Title-page, 
 as above (with blank reverse), pp. i — ii ; and Text, pp. 
 1 — 20. 
 
 Issued in light mottled-grey wrapper, with the Title-page reprinted 
 
 upon the front. 
 
 (23-) 
 Life / of / Robert Browning / by / William Sharp / Lon- 
 don : / Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane. / 1890. / {All 
 riglits reserved.) 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. ii + 219 + xxii: consisting of 
 Half-title, pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with blank re- 
 verse), pp. 1-2; Contents, pp. 3-8; prefatory "note"
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 573 
 
 pp. 9-10; Text, pp. n-212 ; Index, pp. 213-219; and 
 Bibliography, pp. i-xxii. 
 Issued in dark blue cloth boards, lettered in gilt across the back, 
 " Life of J Robert Browning j William Sharp / Walter Scott.'' 
 
 This work formed one of the volumes of the " Great Writers' 
 series. Large Paper copies were also printed, the size being demy 
 octavo. 
 
 (24-) 
 
 Browning's / Message to his Time : / His Religion, Philo- 
 sophy, and Science / By Edward Berdoe / Member of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons of England ; / Licentiate of the 
 Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh) ; / Member of the 
 British Medical Association ; / etc., etc. / [Quotation from 
 Emerson] London : / Swan Sonnenschein & Co., / Pater- 
 noster Square. / 1890. 
 
 Collation : — Octavo, pp. iv + 222 : consisting of Title-page, as 
 above (with imprint in centre of reverse), pp. i-ii ; Dedi- 
 cation (with contents in centre of reverse), pp. mi-iv ; 
 and Text, pp. 1-222. 
 Issued in dark red bevelled cloth boards, gilt lettered^ across the 
 back : " Browning's j Message j to j his Time / Berdoe / Sonnen- 
 schein." 
 
 (25-) 
 
 Life and Letters / of / Robert Browning / by / Mrs. 
 Sutherland Orr / London / Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo 
 Place / 1 89 1 / [All rights reserved.'] 
 
 Collation : — Crown octavo, pp. xiii + 451 : consisting of Half-title 
 (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with 
 blank reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Preface, pp. v-vi ; Contents, 
 pp. vii-xiii ; Text, pp. 1-438 ; and Index, pp. 439-451.
 
 574 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Issued in dark yellow cloth boards, gilt lettered across the back, 
 " Life I and / Letters I of I Robert / Browning / Mrs. Sutherland 
 Orr J Smith, Elder &> Co." 
 
 (26.) 
 
 Robert Browning / and the Drama / A Note / by / Walter 
 Fairfax / London / Reeves and Turner 196 Strand / 1891. 
 
 Collation : — Royal, pp. 2 + 20 : consisting of Title-page, as above 
 
 (with blank reverse), pp. 1-2 ; and Text, pp. 3-20. 
 Issued in light grey wrappers, with the Title-page reproduced 
 upon the front, and on the reverse an advertisement of a forth- 
 coming work by the same author. 
 
 (27-) 
 
 A Primer on Browning / By F. Mary Wilson / London / 
 Macmillan and Co. / and New York / 1891 / All rights 
 reserved. 
 
 Collation: — Small octavo, pp. viii + 248 : consisting of Half-title 
 (with publishers' monogram upon the reverse), pp. i-ii ; 
 Title-page, as above (with blank reverse), pp. iii-iv; Con- 
 tents, pp. v-vii ; p. viii is blank ; and Text, pp. 1-248. 
 The imprint occurs at the foot of the last page. 
 Issued in bright red coloured cloth boards, with trimmed edges, 
 lettered in gilt across the back : " A / Primer / on / Browning j 
 F. Mary / Wilson j Macmillan 6° Co." Also lettered in black 
 upon the front cover. 
 
 (28.) 
 
 Browning's / Criticism of Life / By / William F. Revell / 
 Author of " Ethical Forecasts," etc. / With a Frontispiece /
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 57 S 
 
 [Pt/b/is/iers device] London / Swan Sonncnschcin & Co. / 
 New York: Macmillan & Co. / 1892. 
 
 Collation: — Post octavo, pp. x+116: consisting of Half-title 
 (with advertisements of The Dilettante Library upon the 
 reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above (with imprint in the 
 centre of the reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Dedication (" To my 
 Wife " — with blank reverse), pp. v-vi ; Preface, pp. vii-viii ; 
 Contents (with blank reverse), pp. ix-x; and Text, pp. 1-1 16. 
 The imprint is repeated at the foot of the last page. 
 Issued in dark brown bevelled cloth boards, with trimmed edges, 
 and lettered in gilt across the back : " Browning's / Criticism / of 
 Life I Revell j Sonnenschein." The Frontispiece is a portrait of 
 Robert Browning, taken after death. 
 
 (29.) 
 
 Of / " Fifine at the Fair " / " Christmas Eve and Easter 
 Day " / and / other of Mr. Browning's Poems / by / Jeanie 
 Morison / William Blackwood and Sons / Edinburgh and 
 London / MDCCCXCII. 
 
 Collation :— Crown octavo, pp. viii + 99 : consisting of Half- 
 title (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page (with blank 
 reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Dedication to Miss Browning (with 
 blank reverse), pp. v-vi ; Contents (with quotation from 
 faster Day on reverse), pp. vii-viii ; and Text, pp. 1-96- 
 The imprint is at foot of last page. 
 
 Issued in dark red cloth boards, with trimmed edges, and lettered 
 
 in gilt across the back : " Of j Fifine / at the / Fair J Jeanie / 
 
 Morison / Wm. Blackwood / 6° Sons." 
 
 (30.) 
 The / Browning Cyclopaedia / A Guide to the Study of
 
 576 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the Works / of / Robert Browning. / With / Copious Ex- 
 planatory Notes and References / on all Difficult Passages. / 
 By / Edward Berdoe, / Licentiate of the Royal College of 
 Physicians, Edinburgh ; member of / the Royal College 
 of Surgeons, England, etc. etc. / Author of <l Browning's 
 Message to his Time," " Browning as a Scientific / Poet," 
 etc., etc. / London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. /New York: 
 Macmillan & Co. / 1892. 
 
 Collation : — Post octavo, pp. xx + 572 : consisting of Half-title (with 
 advertisement on reverse), pp. i-ii ; Title-page, as above 
 (with imprint at foot of reverse), pp. iii-iv ; Dedication 
 (with blank reverse), pp. v-vi ; Preface vii-x ; " Unsolved 
 Difficulties," study-books, etc., pp. xi-xx; and Text, pp. 
 
 i-572. 
 Issued in red cloth boards, gilt lettered across back : " The / 
 Brotvning / Cyclopozdia / Berdoe / Sonnenschein. " 
 
 (31.) 
 Browning Studies / being / Select Papers by Members / of 
 the / Browning Society / Edited, with an Introduction /by/ 
 Edward Berdoe, M.R.C.S., &c, / Author of " The Browning 
 Cyclopaedia," " Browning's Message to his Time," &c, &c. / 
 London / George Allen, 156, Charing Cross Road / 1895 / 
 {All rights reserved.'] 
 
 Collation : — Octavo, pp. xiv + 331. 
 Issued in cloth boards, lettered in gilt. 
 
 The entire Contents of this volume were reprinted from the Browning 
 Society's Papers. 
 
 (32.) 
 An Introduction / to / Robert Browning. / A Criticism of
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 577 
 
 the Purpose and / Method of his Earlier / Works. / By / 
 Bancroft Cooke. / London : Simpkin, Marshall & Co. / 
 Liverpool : Adam Holden, 48, Church Street. / Price one 
 shilling. 
 
 Collation : — Demy octavo, pp. ii + 40 : consisting of Half-title 
 (with blank reverse), pp. i-ii; Title-page, as above (with 
 blank reverse), pp. 1-2 ; and Text, pp. 3-40. 
 Issued in light grey paper wrappers, lettered "An Introduction f to j 
 Robert Browning" upon the front. The pamphlet is undated. 
 
 VOL. I. P P
 
 57S A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 PART VI IT. 
 
 BROWNINGIANA. 
 
 A list of the principal reviews and criticisms of Robert Brown- 
 ing and his writings contained in books and magazines, with a 
 selection from the more important weekly and daily periodicals. 
 
 (i.) The Monthly Repository, Vol. vii., New Series, April 
 1833, pp. 252-262. Review of Pauline, by W. J. Fox. 
 " Whoever the anonymous author may be, he is a poet. 
 We felt certain of Tennyson, before we saw his book, by a 
 few verses which had straggled into a newspaper ; we are 
 none the less certain of the author of Pauline? 
 
 (2.) The Literary Gazette, March lyd, 1833, p. 183. 
 Notice of Pauline : " Somewhat mystical, somewhat poeti- 
 cal, somewhat sensual, and not a little unintelligible — this 
 is a dreary volume, without an object, and unfit for 
 publication." 
 
 (3.) The Athenceum, April 6th, 1833, p. 216. A review 
 of Pauline: "Not a little true poetry in this very little 
 book." 
 
 (4.) Taifs Edinburgh Magazine, No. 17, August, 1833. 
 Notices Pauline : " A piece of pure bewilderment." 
 
 (5.) Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. ii., New Series, 
 November, 1835. A notice of Paracelsus in half-a-dozen 
 lines — yet noteworthy. " It is a dramatic poem, constructed 
 upon the model of Philip van Artevelde ; but the author says 
 no. His composition is a poem not a drama. Yet what 
 we consider the finest passages in the poem are decidedly 
 dramatic."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 579 
 
 (6.) The Athe?uzum, August 2nd, 1835, p. 640. Notice 
 of Paracelsus : " There is talent in this dramatic poem, but 
 it is dreamy and obscure." 
 
 (7.) The Examiner, September 6th, 1835, pp. 563-565. 
 Review of Paracelsus, by John Forster. " It is some time 
 since we read a work of more unequivocal power than 
 this. ... Its author . . . possesses all the elements of a 
 fine poet." 
 
 (8.) Leigh Hunt's London Journal, Vol. ii., November 
 21st, 1835, pp. 405-408. Review of Paracelsus — presum- 
 ably the work of Leigh Hunt himself. " There is a hidden 
 soul in its harmony which must be first unwound — a retir- 
 ing grace in its unwonted forms of phraseology which 
 must be won before the poetry can be rightly enjoyed or 
 understood." 
 
 (9.) The Monthly Repository, No. 107, November, 1835, 
 pp. 716-727. On Paracelsus. 
 
 (10.) New Monthly Magazine, Vol. xlvi., March, 1836, 
 pp. 289-308. Review of Paracelsus, by John Forster. 
 " Opens a deeper vein of thought, of feeling, and of passion, 
 than any poet has attempted for years. . . . Mr. Browning 
 is a man of genius, he has in himself all the elements of a 
 great poet philosophical as well as dramatic." 
 
 (11.) Eraser's Magazine, March, 1836, p. 363-374. "As- 
 inarii Scenici," are on Paracelsus. 
 
 (12.) New Monthly Magazine, Vol. xlviii., September, 
 
 1836. Sonnets to the Author of Paracelsus. 
 
 (13.) Literary Gazette, May 6th, 1837, PP- 283-284. 
 
 Review of Strafford: " There is" much vigour in Strafford, 
 
 and much genuine poetry." 
 
 r p 2
 
 580 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (14.) The Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1837. On the 
 performance of Strafford at Covent Garden. 
 
 (15.) The Literary Gazette, May 6th, 1837, p. 292. 
 On " the acting " of Strafford. 
 
 (16.) The Examiner, May Jth, 1837, pp. 294-295. On 
 Strafford, by John Forster. " This is the work of a writer 
 who is capable of achieving the highest objects and triumphs 
 of dramatic literature. They are not achieved here ; but 
 here they lie, ' in the rough,' before every reader. Strafford 
 suggests the most brilliant career of dramatic authorship 
 that has been known in our time. We are not sure that it 
 will be realised ; . . . but we are not without reasons for 
 strong hope, since we were the first to hazard a prediction 
 on the publication of Paracelsus, which has already been 
 fulfilled — being then doubtful whether that great poem was 
 the work of mature age, or of extreme youth." 
 
 (17.) TJie Examiner, May 14th, 1837. On the play of 
 Strafford, by John Forster. " The deep and touching feel- 
 ing of her [Miss Faucit's] Carlisle in the tragedy of 
 Strafford has given us the warmest hopes of her success 
 [as Imoge?i\." 
 
 (18.) Edinburgh Review, Vol. lxv., July, 1837. On 
 Strafford. 
 
 (19.) Revue des deux Mondes, fyne Serie, Tome xxii., 
 April, 1840. On Paracelsus. " Paracelse, ceuvre qui 
 porte, comme on le voit, toutes les traces d'un esprit 
 superieur, mais . . ne se rapproche du drame que par son 
 libre." 
 
 (20.) The Literary Gazette, February iSth, 1843. On 
 the performance of A Blot in the 'Scutcheon.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 581 
 
 (21.) Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1843. Review of 
 Bells and Pomegranates, No. i.-iv. " We take it that Mr. 
 Browning in poetry, as Mr. Turner in painting, writes for 
 his own gratification and to his own will, without much 
 regard to the approbation or applause of his readers. He 
 is master of passions that sway the human heart." 
 
 (22.) A New Spirit of the Age. Edited by R. H. 
 Home, 1844, Vol. ii., pp. 153-186. The notice of Browning 
 here given is accompanied by a portrait engraved by J. C. 
 Armytage. 
 
 (23.) The Theologian, 1845, No. 6, Vol. ii., pp. 276-282. 
 Review of Paracelsus : " The poetry in which the drama is 
 embodied is of the very highest order: worthy indeed 
 of its author, for whom we scruple not to challenge 
 admiration and acknowledgment as the first poet of 
 the day." 
 
 (24.) Douglas ferrolds Shilling Magazine, No. xiii., Dec- 
 ember 1845. Review [presumably by Douglas Jerrold] 
 of Bells and Pomegranates, No. vii. : " Verbiage, fluency, 
 hackneyed phraseology are abhorred by Mr. Browning, 
 and he will go far out of his way to avoid them ; and in so 
 doing he may sometimes miss the finest expression of his 
 thought. But this it is which makes his verses and whole 
 poems as fresh and cheering as if he was the first poet 
 that had learnt to write. Nor is this originality confined 
 to his phraseology, but extends itself to his versification, 
 which to ears bedazed with the slimy monotony of the 
 common versification may be considered rugged and dis- 
 torted. To the reader impregnated with the passion of 
 the matter, it starts, however, into a harmony new, con-
 
 582 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 genial, and invigorating. In fact, Mr. Browning is a poet, 
 and if so, the form and quality of his verse must be as 
 novel as his thoughts." 
 
 (25.) Walter Savage Landor's Works, 1846, Vol. ii., 
 p. 673. Poem " To Robert Browning." 
 
 " Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's ; 
 Therefore on him no speech ! And brief for thee, 
 Browning ! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, 
 No man hath walked along our roads with step 
 So active, so enquiring eye, or tongue 
 So varied in discourse." 
 
 (26.) Papers on Literature and Art, by S. Margaret 
 Fuller, 1846. An account of Browning's Poems will be 
 found on pp. 31-45. 
 
 (27.) Douglas Jerrold's Shilling Magazine, No. xviii., 
 June, 1846. Review of No. viii Bells and Pomegranates 
 [presumably by Douglas Jerrold] : " Mr. Browning is, in 
 our opinion, a great poet, and it is probable he is also a 
 great man. We say this because there seems to be in him 
 
 a thorough hatred and scorn of the ad captandum school 
 
 His delight is in his own might, not in the vain plaudits 
 of those who mistake skill for genius, and smartness for 
 originality. If the comparative neglect of the many is 
 displeasing to him, at all events, Coriolanus-like he will 
 not show his scars. . . . He understands character and 
 human emotion profoundly, and delineates it powerfully. 
 He never aids the reader by narrative or obtrusion of him- 
 self. There are character, passion, and poetry flung down 
 on the paper, and it is certainly the reader's fault or 
 misfortune if he does not perceive them."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 583 
 
 (28.) The Examiner, February iSth, 1848. On A Blot 
 in the 'Scutcheon. " In performance it was successful : a 
 result which it had been hardly safe to predict of a work 
 of so much rare beauty and of such decisive originality." 
 
 (29.) The Athen&um, December 2nd, 1848. On A Blot 
 in the 'Sc?itcheon. " The play as now acted commanded 
 well-deserved applause ; giving satisfaction to a numerous 
 though not overflowing audience." 
 
 (30.) The Examiner, December gth, 1848. On A Blot 
 in the 'Scutcheon. 
 
 (31.) North American Review, Vol. lxvi., April, 1848, 
 p. 394. Review of J. Russell Lowell, " On Browning's 
 Humour " : " His humour is as genuine as that of Carlyle, 
 and his laugh ... is always sincere and hearty, and 
 there is a tone of meaning in it which always sets us 
 thinking." 
 
 (32.) Eclectic Review, 4th Series, xxvi., 1849, PP- 
 203-214. Review of the Poems (2 vols., 1849) and 
 Sordello. "This is a great and original poet. It is 
 plain that to be genuine and true, was, rightly, his great 
 aim." 
 
 (33.) The Living Authors of England, by Thomas 
 Powell (New York), 1849. The notice of Robert Browning 
 to be found on pp. 71-85. 
 
 (34.) Massachusetts Quarterly Review, No. xi., June, 
 1850. Review of Browning's Poems (2 vols., 1849). " We 
 bespeak for every future line of Mr. Browning a cordial 
 welcome here." 
 
 (35.) Littell's Living Age (Boston, U.S.A.), 1850, 
 No. 315, xxv., pp. 403-409. "Mr. Browning will yet win
 
 584 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 his laurel, and be admitted for what he truly is, one of the 
 most original poets of his time." 
 
 (36.) The Germ. No. 4 (1850) ; pp. 187-192. On 
 Browning's Christmas Eve and Easter Day, by W. M. 
 Rossetti. 
 
 (37.) Revue des deux Mondes, 6me Serie, Tome xi., 
 Aotti, 1851, pp. 661-689, article by J. Milsand. "Mr. 
 Browning belongs to the family of Milton rather than 
 of Shakespeare. His peculiar genius is that he sees in 
 every fact an epitome of creation. I know of no poet 
 as capable of gathering up the religious, moral, and scientific 
 conceptions of our time and clothing them in poetic form." 
 
 (38.) The Examiner, April 30th, 1853. On Colombe' s 
 Birthday. "The applause was unmixed at the close of 
 the play, and many passages as it proceeded had excited 
 evident admiration and sympathy." 
 
 (39.) The Athenaeum, Api'il yoth, 1853. On Colombe 's 
 Birthday. " That the performance will become popular it 
 is not for the critic to determine ; but we can record its 
 apparent perfect success on the first night." 
 
 (40.) The Literary Gazette, April loth, 1853. On 
 Colombe 's Birthday. " Colo7)ibe's Birthday was well known 
 to possess true dramatic interest, while it was rich, both in 
 poetical elements and in characters drawn with masterly 
 
 lines and worthy the illustration of high histrionic powers 
 
 The story is handled throughout with a freshness and 
 originality of manner, equally confounding to the ' fast ' 
 and the conventional school of critics, but which produced 
 a marked result, in the close and fascinated attention of 
 the audience."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 585 
 
 (41.) Six Months in Italy, by G. S. Hillard, 1853. 
 Vol. i., pp. 139-140, contains a personal notice of Robert 
 and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 (42.) Modem Painters, by John Ruskin, 1856, Vol. iv., 
 pp. 377-379. Notices especially The Bishop orders his 
 tomb in St. Praxed's Church : " The worst of it is that 
 this kind of concentrated writing needs so much solution 
 before the reader can fairly get the good of it, that 
 people's patience fails them, and they give the thing up 
 as insoluble." 
 
 (43-) The Rambler, Vol. v., January, 1856, pp. 54-71. 
 Review of Men and Women [by Cardinal Wiseman]. " We 
 thank Mr. Browning, sceptical and reckless as he is, for a 
 rare treat in these thoughtful and able volumes. . . . Though 
 much of their matter is extremely offensive to Catholics, 
 yet beneath the surface there is an undercurrent of thought 
 that is by no means inconsistent with our religion ; and if 
 Mr. Browning is a man of will and action, and not a mere 
 dreamer and talker, we should never feel surprise at his 
 conversion." 
 
 (44.) Fraser's Magazine, January, 1856. Review of 
 Men and Women. 
 
 (45.) Revue Contemporaire, 107c Livraison, September 
 i$th, 1856. Article by J. Milsand, on Men and Women. 
 
 (46.) Bentley's Miscellany, Vol. xxxix (1856), pp. 64-70. 
 On Men and Women. 
 
 (47.) British Quarterly Review, Vol. xxiii (1856), pp. 
 1 51-180. On Men and Women. 
 
 (48.) Dublin University Magazine, Vol. xlvii. (1856), 
 pp. 673-675. On Men and Women.
 
 586 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (4g.) Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. vi. (1856), pp. 21-28. 
 On Men and Women. 
 
 (50.) T/ie Westminster Review, Vol. ix. (New Series, 
 1856), pp. 290-296. On Men and Women. 
 
 (51.) Tfie Christian Remembrancer, Vol. xxxix., New 
 Series, October, 1857. An article specially emphasising 
 Browning's strong Christian feeling. 
 
 (52.) The Wanderer, by Owen Meredith (the second 
 Lord Lytton), 1859. In the dedicatory poem to "J. F." 
 [John Forster] occur a dozen lines on Robert Browning. 
 
 " Spake of that friend who dwells among 
 The Apennine, and there hath strung 
 A harp of Anakim." 
 
 (53.) The North British Review, May, 1861, pp. 350- 
 374. " On the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning." 
 " Browning is one of the half-dozen original minds now 
 amongst us who are fountain-heads of creative thought. 
 No other living poet has sounded such depths of human 
 feeling, or can smite the soul with such a rush of kindling 
 energy." 
 
 (54.) Fraser's Magazine, February, 1863, pp. 240-250. 
 On " Robert Browning." Signed " Shirley." 
 
 (55.) The Eclectic Review, No. 23, New Series, May, 
 1863, pp. 436-454. On the Selections of 1863, by E. 
 Paxton Hood. 
 
 (56.) National Review, Vol. xlvii., No. 34, October, 1863, 
 pp. 417-466. Review of the three-volume edition of 
 Browning's Poems, by R. H. Hutton. 
 
 (57.) TJie Victoria Magazine, No. x., February, 1864, 
 pp. 228-316. Article "Robert Browning," by Moncure D.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 587 
 
 Conway. In this article Pauline was mentioned — four 
 years prior to its republication. 
 
 (58.) The Eclectic and Congregational Review, July, 
 1864, pp. 61-72. On "Robert Browning's New Volume" 
 {Dramatis Persona], by E. Paxton Hood. "Most far- 
 seeing, most deeply feeling, most erudite and reverent of 
 living poets." 
 
 (59.) The Edinburgh Review, October, 1864, pp. 537-565. 
 Review of the Poems (1863) and Dramatis Persona;. 
 
 (60.) The Reader, Vol. iv., November 26th, 1864, pp. 
 674-675. " Robert Browning's Poetry and Tfie Edinburgh 
 Review." A letter, signed " Gerald Massey," on the incom- 
 petence of TJie Edinburgh Reviewer of Browning's Poems. 
 
 (61.) National Review, New Series, No. 1, November, 
 1864. Article on "Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning," 
 by Walter Bagshot. " Mr. Browning is at once a student 
 of mysticism, and a citizen of the world. He puts down 
 what is good for the naughty, and what is naughty for the 
 good. He is the most of a realist, and the least of an 
 idealist, of any poet we know." 
 
 (62.) Tlie Quarterly Review, Vol. cxviii., July, 1865, pp. 
 77-105. Review of Dramatis Personce (1864) and Poems 
 (1863). " A writer of Mr. Browning's powers ought to be 
 better understood than he is, and the discrepancy lessened 
 betwixt what is know?i of him by the few, and what is 
 thought of him by the many. He has qualities such as 
 should be cherished by the age we live in, for it needs 
 them. His poetry ought to be taken as a tonic. . . . His 
 genius is flexible as it is fertile. . . . His poetry is not to 
 be dipped into or skimmed lightly with swallow flights of
 
 588 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 attention. Its pearls must be dived for. It must be 
 read, studied and dwelt with for awhile. . . . Coming fresh 
 from a great deal of nineteenth-century poetry to that 
 of Mr. Browning, we are in a new world altogether. . . . 
 The new land is well worth exploring ; it possesses 
 treasures that will repay us richly. The poetry of Mr. 
 Browning is thoroughly sanative, masculine, bracing in its 
 influence. It breathes into modern verse a breath of new 
 life and more vigorous health, with its aroma of a newly- 
 turned and virgin soil." 
 
 (63.) The Contemporary Review, Vol. iv., January and 
 February, 1867, pp. 1-15, 133-148. Two unsigned papers 
 on Robert Browning: the Poems being classified under 
 three headings — (1) Poems dramatic in their structure ; (2) 
 Lyrics and Romances, dramatic in character, though not in 
 structure, and dealing chiefly with passions that have man, 
 as such, for their object ; (3) Poems representing forms, 
 true or false, healthy or morbid, of religious life. 
 
 (64.) Fraser's Magazine, October, 1867, pp. 518-530. 
 First paper on Sordello (the second paper was not published), 
 signed " Edward Dowden." " The obscurity of Sordello 
 arises not so much from peculiarities of style, and the 
 involved structure of occasional sentences, as from the 
 unrelaxing demand which is made throughout upon the 
 intellectual and imaginative energy and alertness of the 
 reader. Mr. Browning has given too much in his couple 
 of hundred pages ; there is not a line of the poem which 
 is not as full of matter as a line can be. . . . There is 
 too much of everything ; we cannot see the wood for 
 the trees."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 589 
 
 (65.) Nuova Antologia di Scienze, Lettere edArti, Vol. v., 
 Fasc. vii., Luglio, 1867. Firenze, pp. 468-481: " Poeti e 
 Romanzieri Inglesi Contemporanei. 1. Robert Browning." 
 A Review of the Poetical Works (1864) and Dramatis 
 Persona. 
 
 (66.) David Gray, and other Essays, chiefly on Poetry, by 
 Robert Buchanan, 1868. On pp. 32-36 are remarks on 
 Karshish and A Death in the Desert : "It might be curious 
 to note in detail how far Browning's orthodoxy is in advance 
 even of our most liberal orthodoxy." 
 
 (67.) Daily Telegraph, November 4th, 1868. On "Mr. 
 Browning's New Poem " [The Ring and the Book, Vol. i.] : 
 " This first fourth part of a new poem, entituled The Ring 
 and The Book, is calculated to distress the average reader, 
 and to delight the elect, as much as anything from the 
 same pen. The orthodox will say there was never a story 
 told worse ; the faithful disciple will aver that the great 
 master is riper than ever, and more and more wonderful in 
 the manner by which he cuts open the hearts of men and lays 
 his demonstrating finger upon the nerves of their sins 
 and virtues, their sorrows and joys. Its analysis is more 
 piercing than ever : its easy hold of motive, its living 
 reproduction of life, its hard, sure grasp of character, its 
 infinite variety, its burning colour, its various and copious 
 erudition, its spontaneity, sweep, and literary muscle, are 
 of the author's very best. . . . The blank verse of The Ring 
 and The Book clatters sometimes, as is the musician's wont, 
 like the hoofs in Good News from Ghent; and sometimes, 
 as is his wont also, makes the most orderly and unexpected 
 melody to which deep thoughts can be set. Prose of the
 
 59o A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 most work-a-day sort is hammered into ten or eleven feet 
 of strong, uncouth stuff, for whole pages ; and then, into 
 this metallic work, like the finest inlaying of Florentine 
 gold, or soft appliques of Limoges enamels, come lovely 
 passages of perfect harmony — showing that this black- 
 smithery in speech is for subtle purposes, and never for 
 lack of precious metal, nor of skill to work fine." 
 
 (68.) The Athenceum, December 26, 1868, pp. 875-876. 
 On The Ring and tlie Book (Vol. i.), by Robert Buchanan. 
 " Everything Browningish is found here — the legal jaunti- 
 ness, the knitted argumentation, the cunning prying into 
 detail, the suppressed tenderness, the humanity, the 
 salt intellectual humour : nowhere in any literature can 
 be found a man and a work more fascinating in their 
 way." 
 
 (69.) Eclectic and Congregational Review, December, 1868. 
 Review of the Poetical Works (1868), by E. Paxton Hood. 
 " More robust poet or writer our language has not pro- 
 duced. . . . We hail Mr. Browning as one of the surest 
 aids to faith in the present, and one most certain of 
 immortality in time, as one of the greatest poets of the 
 future." 
 
 (70.) North British Review, December, 1868, pp. 353-408. 
 On " Browning's Poetical Works," by Dr. J. Hutchinson 
 Stirling. 
 
 (71.) Macmillaris Magazine, January, 1869. Review 
 of The Ring and the Book, by J. Addington Symonds. 
 
 (72.) The Cornhill Magazine, Vol. xix., February, 1869, 
 pp. 249-256. Article "Browning in 1869." 
 
 (73.) The Fortnightly Review, Vol. v., New Series,
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING 591 
 
 March, 1869, pp. 331-343. On The Ring and the Book, by 
 John Morley. 
 
 (74.) The Athenceum, March 20th, 1869, pp. 399-400. 
 On The Ring and the Book (Vols, ii., iii., iv.). By Robert 
 Buchanan. Reprinted, with considerable revision in Master 
 Spirits, 1873, pp. 89-109. "At last, the opus magnum of 
 our generation lies before the world. . . . This is beyond all 
 parallel the supremest poetical achievement of our time, 
 and the most precious and profound spiritual treasure that 
 England has produced since the days of Shakespeare." 
 
 (75.) Dublin Review, Vol. xiii. (N. S., 1869), pp. 48-62 
 On The Ring and the Book. 
 
 (76.) Chambers' Journal, July 24th, 1869, pp. 473-476. 
 On The Ring and the Book. 
 
 (77.) Tinsley's Magazine, Vol. iii. (1869), pp. 665-674. 
 On The Ring and the Book. 
 
 (78.) The Quarterly Review, April, 1869, pp. 328-359. 
 Article on " Modern English Poets." 
 
 (79.) Temple Bar, Vol. xxvi., June, 1869, pp. 316-333. 
 Article on the " Poetry of the Period," by Alfred Austin. 
 
 (80.) The Edinburgh Review, Vol. cxxx., July, 1869, 
 pp. 164-186. On The Ring and the Book. 
 
 (81.) The London Quarterly Revieiv, July, 1869. On 
 Browning's poetry. 
 
 (82.) North British Revieiv, October, 1869, pp. 97-128 
 Article on " Mr. Browning's latest poetry." 
 
 (83.) The Edinburgh Review, July, 1869, pp. 164-18" 
 Review of The Ring and the Book. 
 
 (84.) North British Review, Vol. Ii. (1870), pf 
 On The Ring and the Book.
 
 97 
 
 592 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (85.) St. Paul's Magazine, December, 1870, January, 1871. 
 Papers on Browning's Poems. 
 
 (86.) Modern Men of Letters Honestly Criticised. By 
 J. Hain Friswell. London, 1870. The chapter devoted to 
 Browning occupies pp. 11 7-1 31. 
 
 (87.) Revue des deux Mondes, Sec. Periode, tome 85, 
 
 1870, pp. 704-735. On the Poetical Works (1868) and 
 The Ring and the Book, by Louis Etienne. 
 
 (88.) St. James's Magazine, Vol. vii., New Series, August, 
 
 1 87 1, pp. 485-496. Article "Robert Browning's First 
 Poem," by R. H. Shepherd. 
 
 (89.) The Athenceum, August 12th, '" 1871, pp. 199-200. 
 Review of Balaustion 's Adventure. 
 
 (go.) The Contemporary Review, September, 1871, pp. 
 . 284-296. Review of Balaustion 's Adventure, by " Matthew 
 Browne." 
 
 (91.) The Academy, September 1st, 1871. Review of 
 Balaustion, by G. A. Simcox. 
 
 (92.) The Fortnightly Review, October, 1871, p. 470. A 
 reference by Professor Sidney Colvin " to these amazing 
 volumes [The Ring and the Book], . . . into which are 
 packed thought enough, experience enough, tragedy 
 enough, comedy enough, poetry enough, ... to overstock 
 not a book but a library. . . . An inexhaustible vivacity of 
 humour, burning tenderness, knowledge of life and litera- 
 ture pressed down and running over, a masterly range of 
 style — but above all, a trenchant human insight guided by 
 such manly nobility of instinct as helps ' the poet ' to make 
 ^126. straight at the substance of truth, as well as to grasp each 
 
 of its differing shadows in turn."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 593 
 
 (93.) The FortnigJitly Review, October 1st, 1871. Re- 
 view of Balaustiou's Adventure, by Sidney Colvin, 
 
 (94.) The Times, October 6th, 1871. Review of Balaus- 
 tiou's Adventure : " The poem is a garden of delights to 
 those whose taste has been educated to appreciate its 
 theme." 
 
 (95.) Essays, Theological and Literary, by R. H. Hutton, 
 1 87 1. The chapter dealing with Browning will be found 
 in Vol. ii., pp. 190-247. 
 
 (96.) Our Living Poets : An Essay in Criticism, by 
 H. Buxton Forman, 1871. Chapter iv., pp. 103-152, deals 
 with Browning's work. 
 
 (97.) The Dark Blue, Vol. ii., October and November, 
 1871, pp. 171-184, 305-319. "Browning as a Preacher," 
 by Miss E. Dickinson West. " Browning's poetry has one 
 characteristic which gives its teaching peculiar influence 
 over contemporary minds. I mean the way in which, all 
 the while being perfectly free from egotism, it brings its 
 readers, in some inexplicable way into a contact with the 
 real self of the author. Once you succeed in construing 
 the complicated thinking and feeling of this or that passage 
 of his, you feel, not that you are seeing something that a 
 man has made, but that you are in the immediate presence 
 of the man himself." 
 
 (98.) The Fortnightly Reviezv, Vol. x., New Series, 
 October, 1871, pp. 478-490. Review of Balaustion's Ad- 
 venture, by Sidney Colvin. " From the point of view of 
 scholarship, Mr. Browning's translation [of Euripides' 
 Alkestis] must, in the main, be confessed a model of facile 
 felicity." 
 
 VOL. I Q Q
 
 594 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (99.) The St. James's Magazine, Vol. viii., New Series, 
 October, 1871, pp. 83-91. Review of Balanstiori s Adven- 
 ture. 
 
 (100.) The Examiner, December 2yd, 1871, pp. 1267- 
 1 268. Review of Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangan. 
 
 (101.) The Athenczum, December 23rd, 1871, pp. 827- 
 828. Review of Prince HoJienstiel-ScJiwangau. 
 
 (102.) The EdinburgJi Review, Vol. cxxxv., January, 
 1872, pp. 221-249. Review of Balaustion 's Adventure. 
 
 (103.) Illustrated London News, January 1 $th, 1872. On 
 Prince Holienstiel- Schwangau. 
 
 (104.) The Academy, January l$th, 1872. On Prince 
 Hohenstiel- Schwangati . 
 
 (105.) Once a Week, February lyth, 1872, pp. 164-167, 
 On " Robert Browning." 
 
 (106.) The 'Academy, Jidy 1st, 1872. On Fijine at the 
 Fair, by F. Wed more. 
 
 (107.) The Echo, July 6th, 1872. A notice of Fijine at 
 the Fair. 
 
 (108.) The Guardian, September 2$th, 1872, pp. 121 5- 
 12 16. Reviews Fijine at the Fair. 
 
 (109.) New York Daily Tribune, May 5/^,1873. Review 
 of Red Cotton Night-cap Country. 
 
 (no.) Penn Monthly (Philadelphia), September, 1873. 
 Article on Red Cotton Night-cap Country. " One chief 
 interest of the poem is its masterly analysis of the 
 paroxysm of religious enthusiasm that at present possesses 
 France. . . . Miranda is one of the best drawn of a group 
 of characters that only Browning in modern times has 
 attempted, the self-deceiving semi-hypocrites."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 595 
 
 (in.) The Day of Rest, January iSth and 25/^, 1873. 
 On " Browning's Christmas Eve," by George Macdonald, 
 LL.D. " The verse is full of life and vigour, flagging 
 never. The argumentative power is indeed wonderful ; 
 the arguments themselves powerful in their simplicity, and 
 embodied in words of admirable force." 
 
 (112.) Temple Bar, February, 1873, pp. 315-328. On 
 Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 (113.) Daily News, May $th, 1873. Review of Red 
 Cotton Night-cap Country. 
 
 (114.) The Athenczum, May 10th, 1873. Review of Red 
 Cotton Night-cap Country. 
 
 (115.) The Acaderny, May 10th, 1873. Review of Red 
 Cottofi Night-cap Country, by G. A. Simcox. 
 
 (116.) The Academy, June 2nd, 1873. On Red Cotton 
 Night-cap Country, by G. A. Simcox. 
 
 (117.) Illustrated London News, Jtine 21st, 1873. On 
 Red Cotton Night-cap Country. 
 
 (118.) Contemporary Review, June, 1873, pp. 83-106. 
 Review of Red Cotton Night-cap Country, signed "A. Orr." 
 
 (119.) St. Paul's Magazine, June, 1873, pp. 680-699 ; 
 also July, 1873, pp. 49-66. On "Euripides in Modern 
 English — Browning's Balaustion." 
 
 (120.) A Comparative Estimate of Modern English Poets, 
 by J. Devey, M.A., of the Inner Temple, 1873. The 
 chapter on Browning occupies pp. 376-421. 
 
 (121.) Contemporary Review, May, 1874, pp. 934-965. 
 On " Mr. Browning's place in Literature," by A. Orr. 
 
 (122.) The Acadetny, April ijth, 1875, pp. 513-514. 
 Review of Aristophanes' 1 Apology, by J. A. Symonds. 
 
 Q Q 2
 
 596 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (123.) The Hour, April igth, 1875. Review of Aristo- 
 phanes' Apology. 
 
 (124.) The Manchester Guardian, June 21st, 1875. 
 Review of AristopJianes' Apology. 
 
 (125.) London Quarterly Review, Vol. xliv. (1875), pp. 
 354-376. On Aristophanes' Apology. 
 
 (126.) Introduction to the Works of George Chapman, by 
 Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1875. Pp. 17-19 on Sordello. 
 " He [Browning] is something too much the reverse of 
 obscure ; he is too brilliant and subtle for the ready reader of 
 a ready writer to follow with any certainty the track of an 
 intelligence which moves with such incessant rapidity." 
 
 (127.) The Guardian, June gth, 1875. On Aristophanes' 
 Apology. 
 
 (128.) The Times, October 4th, 1875. Review of A risto- 
 phanes' Apology. 
 
 (129.) The Athenceum, November 2 Jth, 1875, pp. 701-702. 
 On The Inn Album. 
 
 (130.) The Academy, November 2jth, 1875, pp. 543— 
 544. On The bin Album, by J. A. Symonds. 
 
 (131.) The Guardian, December 1st, 1875. On The Inn 
 Album. 
 
 (132.) The Spectator, December nth, 1875, pp. 1555- 
 1 557. On The Inn Album. 
 
 (133.) The Examiner, December nth, 1875, pp. 1389- 
 1390. On The Inn Album. 
 
 (134.) Victorian Poets, by E. C. Stedman, 1876. Pp. 
 293-341 on Robert Browning. 
 
 (135.) Macmillans Magazine, Vol. xxxiii., February, 1876, 
 pp. 347-354. On The Inn Album, by A. C. Bradley.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 597 
 
 (136.) The Athenceum, J idy 22nd, 1876, pp. 101-102. On 
 Pacchiarotto. " Etching ... is a species of shorthand. 
 Mr. Browning is, and always has been, an etcher." 
 
 (137.) The Nation, Vol. xxii. (1876), pp. 49-50. On The 
 Inn Album, by Henry James, Junior. 
 
 (138.) The Academy, July 29th, 1876. On Pacchiarotto, 
 by Professor Dowden. 
 
 (139.) The Guardian, September 27 th, [1876. On 
 Pacchiarotto. 
 
 (140.) The Athenceum, October 27th, 1S77. On The 
 Agamemnon of Alschylus. 
 
 (141.) The Academy, November yd, 1877. On The 
 Agamemnon of JEschylus, by J. A. Symonds. " The 
 Herculean achievement of a scholar-poet's ripe genius." 
 
 (142.) The Athenceum, May 2$t/i, 1878, pp. 661-664. On 
 La Saisiaz, by Theodore Watts. " No poet since Burns — 
 none, perhaps, since Shakespeare — has known and felt as 
 deeply as Mr. Browning, the pathos of human life . . . none 
 realises, as he does, the unutterable pathos of the tangled 
 web as a whole." 
 
 (143.) The Academy, J tine 1st, 1878. On La Saisiaz and 
 The Two Poets of Croisic, by G. A. Simcox. " We get 
 one of the most forcible statements in the English language 
 of the unsatisfactory nature of the conditions we live 
 under, and of the illusory nature of all the palliations 
 suggested by them who wish to discredit the old one, that 
 there is a better life to come." 
 
 (144.) The Saturday Review, June i$th, 1878. On La 
 Saisiaz and The Two Poets of Croisic.
 
 598 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (145.) Church Quarterly Review, October, 1878, pp. 65-92. 
 On Browning 's Poems, by the Hon. and Rev. A. Lyttelton. 
 " We cannot fail to learn from Mr. Browning's poems a 
 higher and nobler, because a truer, conception of mankind ; 
 for he bases his sympathy with men, and his firm belief in 
 their great destiny, on a truth that can never alter, the 
 truth that God is love." 
 
 (146.) The Guardian, December 4th, 1878. On La Saisiaz 
 and The Two Poets of Croisic. 
 
 (147.) Daily Free Press, April 28th, 1879. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (First Series). 
 
 (148.) Glasgow Herald, April 28th, 1879. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (First Series). 
 
 (149.) The Congregationalist, Vol. viii., 1879, pp. 915-922. 
 On Robert Browning. 
 
 (150.) The Fifeshire Journal, May 27th, 1879. Review 
 of Dramatic Idyls (First Series), by Thomas Boyne. 
 
 (151.) John Bull, May lyth, 1879. Notice of Dramatic 
 Idyls (First Series). 
 
 (152.) The International Review, February, 1879. On 
 " The general aspects of Browning's poetry," by G. Barnett 
 Smith. 
 
 (153.) The Contemporary Review, Vol. xxxv., May, 1879, 
 pp. 289-302. On Dramatic Idyls (First Series), by Mrs. 
 Sutherland Orr. 
 
 (154.) The AtJienmim, May 10th, 1879. On Dramatic 
 Idyls (First Series), by Theodore Watts. 
 
 (155.) The Academy, May 10th, 1879. On Dramatic Idyls 
 (First Series), by F. Wedmore.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 599 
 
 (156.) The Spectator, May 31st, 1879. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (First Series). 
 
 (157.) The New Quarterly Magazine, July 1879, pp. 
 225-228. Review of Dramatic Idyls (I.) " Mr. Browning 
 has plunged once more into the recesses of his dramatic 
 imagination, and drawn forth a group of men and women. 
 .... In dramatising the less noble elements of human nature 
 Mr. Browning has also judged them. He has brought 
 them to the test of life, and accepted its verdict. The 
 Dramatic Idyls combine the large suggestiveness of his 
 more abstract studies of character with a concentrated 
 truth which is their own. In this, if in no other sense, he 
 has surpassed himself." 
 
 (158.) Edinburgh Courant, July 26th, 1879. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (First Series). 
 
 (159.) The Glasgow Evening Citizen, July 24th, 1880. 
 Review of Dramatic Idyls (Second Series). 
 
 (160.) The Pen, June \2th and igt/i, 1880. On Robert 
 Browning. " One of the most original personalities of 
 contemporary literature." 
 
 (161.) The Athenczum, July 10th, 1880, pp. 39 _ 4!- O n 
 Dramatic Idyls (Second Series). " The volume is full of 
 power, picturesqueness and beauty, and displays the 
 astonishing agility of intellect, which has always been a 
 characteristic of Mr. Browning's poetry, ^nd which years 
 seem not to weaken, but rather to strengthen." 
 
 (162.) The Literary World, July 23rd, 1880. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (Second Series). 
 
 (163.) The Times, Augiist 23rd,' 1880. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (Second Series).
 
 600 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (164.) The Guardian, September 22nd, 1880. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (Second Series). 
 
 (165.) British Quarterly Review, October 1st, 1880. 
 Notice of Dramatic Idyls (Second Series). 
 
 (166.) The Standard, July 8th, 1880. Review of 
 Dramatic Idyls (Second Series). 
 
 (167.) Pall Mall Gazette, July 26th, 1880. Notice of 
 Dramatic Idyls (Second Series). 
 
 (168.) Poets in the Pulpit, by Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A., 
 
 1880. Robert Browning, pp. 1 16-143. 
 
 (169.) The Islington Gazette, January 1st, 1881. "To 
 Robert Browning," sonnet by William G. Kingsland. 
 
 (170.) The Gentle7na?i s Magazine, December, 1881, pp. 
 682-695. Review of The Ring and the Book, by James 
 Thomson. 
 
 (171.) The Century Magazine, December, 1881, pp. 189- 
 200. " The Early Writings of Robert Browning," by Mr. 
 E. W. Gosse. 
 
 (172.) The Cambridge Review, Vol. iii. December yth, 
 
 1 88 1. On "Robert Browning's Poems." 
 
 (173.) The Academy, December 31st, 1881. Letter from 
 Dr. Furnivall on " Mr. Browning's Thunderstorms " — Otti- 
 mer's in Pippa Passes and the Pope's in The Ring and the 
 Book (Vol. iv. pp. 91-92) — and asking whether they can be 
 matched in English literature. 
 
 (174.) The Academy, December 17th, 1881. Sonnet "To 
 Robert Browning, on re-reading some poems long unread," 
 by Miss E. Dickinson West. 
 
 (175.) Journal oj Education, May 1st, 1882, pp. 139-143.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 601 
 
 " On the Love Poems of Browning," by Arthur Sidgwick, 
 M.A. 
 
 (176.) The Islington Gazette, May 8t/i, 1882. "To Robert 
 Browning, on the attainment of his 70th birthday," sonnet 
 by William G. Kingsland. 
 
 (177.) Macmillan's Magazine, Vol. xlvi. (1882), pp. 205- 
 219. " Some Thoughts on Browning," by M. A. Lewis. 
 
 (178.) Fortnightly Review, June, 1883. O n "Robert 
 Browning, writer of Plays," by W. L. Courtney. 
 
 (179.) The National Review, Vol. i., 1883, pp. 548-561. 
 On Jocoseria, by W. J. Courthope. 
 
 (180.) The Gentleman's Magazine, 1883, pp. 624-630. 
 On Jocoseria, by R. H. Shepherd. 
 
 (181.) The Athenceum, March 24th, 1883, pp. 367-368. 
 On Jocoseria. 
 
 (182.) Tlie Academy, Vol. xxiii., 1883, pp. 213-214. On 
 Jocoseria, by J. A. Symonds. 
 
 (183.) The Spectator, March lyth, 1883, pp. 351-353. On 
 Jocoseria. 
 
 (184.) The Leisure Hour, July, 1883, pp. 396-404. On 
 " The Brownings " — a review of their life and work. 
 
 (185.) Revtie politique et Litteraire, June 23rd, 1883. A 
 criticism of Mr. Browning's poetry, by M. Leo Quesnil. 
 " Because he is highly spiritual, Mr. Browning belongs to 
 the family of poets ; and because he is more than any other 
 man animated by the love of truth, he belongs to that 
 exceptional class of writers who rise up from time to time 
 to refresh the sources of thought." 
 
 (186.) The Islington Gazette, October $rd, gth, and iSth, 
 1883. "Half-hours with Robert Browning," by W.
 
 602 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 Kingsland. A series of comments (with illustrative extracts) 
 on Browning's poems. 
 
 (187.) British Quarterly Review, July 1st, 1884. Article 
 on Browning, by C. J. Vaughan. 
 
 (188.) The Athenceum, December 6th, 1884, pp. 725-727. 
 On FerishtaJi 's Fancies. 
 
 (189.) The Saturday Review, Vol. lviii. (1884), pp. 727- 
 728. On Ferisktak's Fancies. 
 
 (190.) The Spectator, December 6th, 1884, pp. 1614-1616. 
 On Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
 (191.) The Academy, December 13th, 1884, pp. 385-386. 
 On Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
 (192.) Obiter Dicta, 1884, pp. 55-95. "On the Alleged 
 Obscurity of Mr. Browning's Poetry " [by A. Birrell]. 
 ' It is plain truth to say that no other English poet living 
 or dead, Shakespeare excepted, has so heaped up human 
 interest for his readers as has Robert Browning . . . the 
 Danton of modern poetry. He is so unmistakably and deli- 
 ciously alive. A word about Sordello. We have all heard of 
 the young architect who forgot to put a staircase in his house, 
 which contained fine rooms but no way of getting into 
 them. Sordello is a poem without a staircase. The author, 
 still in his twenties, essayed a high thing. He partially 
 failed ; and the British public . . . has never ceased girding 
 at him, because forty-two years ago, he published at his 
 own charges, a little book of two hundred and fifty pages, 
 which even such of them as were then able to read could 
 not understand." 
 
 ( J 93-) Young England : A Magazine for Boys and Girls, 
 No. 48, September, 1885. On Browning's Pied Piper of
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 603 
 
 Hamelin and The Boy and the Angel, by William G. 
 Kingsland. 
 
 (194.) Macmillaris Magazine, February, 1887. Article 
 on Sordello, by Dean Church. 
 
 (195.) The Jewish Messenger, March 4th, 1887. Review 
 of Jochanan Hakkadosh [Jocoseria] from the Jewish point of 
 view, by Miss Mary M. Cohen. " Surely there are not so 
 many Christian poets who have wrought out with exquisite 
 finish the highest Hebrew ideals that we, as Jews, can afford 
 to neglect the study and appreciation of the work of a 
 master-mind like Browning. ... In Jochanan, he attests the 
 spiritual triumph of the Jew, and in such a way as to send 
 us from the fountain of truth laden with living waters to 
 rejoice other souls." 
 
 (196.) The Manchester Quarterly, Vol. vi., 1887, pp. 148- 
 159. On Browning } s Sonnets, by B. Sagar. 
 
 (197.) The Athenceum, December 21st, 1889, pp. 856-860. 
 On Robert Browning, by Joseph Jacobs. " No English 
 poet has felt like Browning the pathos of the battle of life. 
 Yet keenly as he felt it, he did not despair nor bid the 
 world despair. His philosophy of life was eminently manly, 
 and has brought cheer to many a despairing soul. His 
 influence is of the very highest kind. ... It acts as a moral 
 tonic to be brought in contact with such a manly, cheery 
 soul, that does not faintly trust the larger hope, but is con- 
 fidently sure that in aiming at the highest we are doing the 
 best for our best selves." 
 
 (198.) Atalanta, February, 1889, pp. 361-364. "On 
 Robert Browning," by Edmund Gosse. 
 
 (199.) The Woman's World, November, 1889, pp. 47—50.
 
 604 A BIBLIOGRAPHY 01 
 
 " On Types of Womanhood in Browning," by A. E. 
 Ireland. 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. i., 1889. 
 
 (200.) January, pp. 1—27. Paper on "Facettes of Love : 
 from Browning," by Daniel G. Brinton. 
 
 (201.) January, pp. 39-45. " A Reference Index to 
 Pauline." 
 
 (202.) February, pp. 57-63. " Remarks on some passages 
 in Rabbi Ben Ezra," by H. L. Wayland. " The style seems 
 to me sometimes careless and even negligent. I do not 
 always see the nexus between a verse and that which 
 follows it ; the handfuls of pearls are grouped together 
 almost by chance, rather than marshalled in order by the 
 understanding ; if the pearls are strung, the string is of the 
 frailest." 
 
 (203.) March, pp. 11 8-1 27. Paper on "Paracelsus and 
 the Data of Ethics," by Helen A. Clarke. " In the closing 
 speech of Paracelsus, his language rises to a prophetic 
 height ; he seems to have been vouchsafed a vision of 
 future thought which carries us immediately to the Syn- 
 thetic Philosophy of Herbert Spencer, the final outcome of 
 which is the Data of Ethics. That Browning should have 
 so epitomised the modern philosophy of evolution seems 
 the more remarkable when we consider that Paracelsus was 
 published some twenty-five years before either Darwin or 
 Spencer." 
 
 (204.) March, pp. 137-140. "A Reference Index to 
 Strafford.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 605 
 
 (205.) May, pp. 236-240. "A Reference Index to 
 Strafford." 
 
 (206.) June, pp. 253-260. On Pompilia, by Alice Kent 
 Robertson. " I look upon Pompilia as Browning's highest 
 type of woman. Mildred and Pippa may be classed with 
 her, making, as it were, a sort of trinity, in that they are all 
 of the same womanly fibre." 
 
 (207.) June, pp. 269-273. On Caponsacchi, by Henry G. 
 Spaulding. " In the entire literature that deals with a 
 passionate mutual trust between man and woman I doubt if 
 there is anything so transcendently beautiful as Browning's 
 description in the Caponsacchi monologue of the priest's 
 journey towards Rome with Pompilia? 
 
 (208.) June, pp. 283-286. " Historical allusions in 
 Strafford:' 
 
 (209.) July, pp. 309-314. On The Pope, by C. Chauncy 
 Shackford. 
 
 (210.) July, pp. 314-320. "Some of the teachings of 
 The Ring and the Book" by Frances B. Hornbrooke. 
 
 (211.) July, pp. 332-336. " Historical allusions in 
 Strafford." 
 
 (212.) August, pp. 353-363. "Browning's Science," by 
 Edward Berdoe. 
 
 (213.) August, pp. 372-375. " Historical allusions in 
 Strafford." 
 
 (214.) September, pp. 408-421. On "Browning versus 
 Browning," by Harrison S. Morris. " In Mr. Browning's 
 tendency towards the psychological drama we may find a 
 point of departure between his own artistic and inartistic 
 methods. ... In Sludge we have the argumentative method
 
 606 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 unrelieved by the artistic. The author is constantly turn- 
 ing the mind of his lay figure towards us in new points 
 of view, the better to bring out his own conceptions 
 of spiritualism and its effects on the average human 
 mind." 
 
 (215.) September, pp. 424-426. On Sordello. 
 (216.) September, pp. 426-430. " Historical allusions in 
 Strafford? 
 
 (217.) September, pp. 430-431. "A List of Musical 
 Settings to Browning's Words." 
 
 (218.) October, pp. 449-465. "Womanhood in Modern 
 Poetry," by Vida D. Scudder. This article includes a 
 clever analysis of Browning's women : " There is no other 
 poet of our day who, with equal sympathetic power, has 
 entered into the very heart of woman and thence spoken to 
 the world. With amazing versatility he renders type after 
 type, aspect after aspect, of the feminine nature. If we 
 would gauge the genuineness of the new attitude assumed 
 towards woman by modern thought, we cannot do better 
 than to study the women of Browning." 
 
 (219.) October, pp. 470-479. "The true greatness of 
 Browning," by Alice Groff. " To recognise Browning's true 
 greatness we must cease to contemplate his powers from 
 any one sole point of view." 
 
 (220.) October, pp. 491-492. "On the sixteen-volume 
 edition of Browning's Poems," by W. G. Kingsland. 
 
 (221.) November, pp. 51 1-5 14. "Historical allusions in 
 Strafordr 
 
 (222.) November, pp. 520-522. On Browning's revision of 
 Pauline.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 607 
 
 (223.) November, pp. 531-536. "A Browning Reference 
 List." 
 
 (224.) December,^. 553-560. "Lurid: Its Story and its 
 Motive," by Henry S. Pancoast. 
 
 (225.) December, pp. 562-565. " Historical allusions in 
 Strafford? 
 
 (226.) The Makers of Modern English, by W. J. Dawson, 
 1890. Contains six chapters (pp. 270-327) on Browning's 
 poems. 
 
 (227.) The Argosy, February, 1890, pp. 108-114. On 
 Robert Browning, by E. F. Bridell-Fox. 
 
 (228.) New Church Magazine, February, 1890, pp. 49-58. 
 On Robert Browning, by C. E. Rowe. 
 
 (229.) The Month, February, 1890, pp. 173-190. On 
 Browning as a Religious Teacher, by Rev. J. Rickaby. 
 
 (230.) Good Words, February, 1890, pp. 87-93. On 
 Robert Browning, by R. H. Hutton. 
 
 (231.) The Gentleman's Magazine, February, 1890, pp. 
 177-184. On Browning as a Teacher, by Mrs. Alexander 
 Ireland. 
 
 (232.) Time, January, 1890, pp. 90-96. On Browning as 
 a Theologian, by N. W. Massingham. 
 
 (233.) The Fortnightly Review, January, 1890, pp. 1-4. 
 Sequence of Sonnets on the Death of Browning, by A. C. 
 Swinburne. 
 
 (234.) Macmillan's Magazine, February, 1890, p. 258. To 
 Robert Browning, by Aubrey de Vere. 
 
 (235.) Blackwood 's Edinburgh Magazine, January, 
 1890, p. 112. To Robert Browning, by Sir Theodore 
 Martin.
 
 6o8 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (236.) Art Review, January, 1890, pp. 28-32. Note on 
 Robert Browning, by W. Mortimer. 
 
 (237.) The Congregational Review, January, 1890, pp. 
 56-57. On Robert Browning, by Ruth J. Pitt. 
 
 (238.) Expository Times, February, 1890, pp. no-ill. 
 On Robert Browning, by Rev. Professor Salmond. 
 
 (239.) The Speaker, January 4th, 1890, pp. 16-17. On 
 Robert Browning, by A. Birrell. 
 
 (240.) The National Rev iezv, January, 1890, pp. 592-597. 
 On Robert Browning, by H. D. Traill. 
 
 (241.) The Contemporary Review, January, 1890, pp. 
 141-152. On Robert Browning, by Stopford A. Brooke. 
 
 (242.) The Magazine oj Art, April, 1890, pp. 1 81-188 ; 
 May, 1890, pp. 246-252. On the Portraits of Robert 
 Browning, by W. M. Rossetti : " I have seen a small photo- 
 graph of Browning and his French friend Milsand [taken 
 by Mr. Barrett Browning presumably in the summer of 1887, 
 and given by the Poet to Mr. W. G. Kingsland towards the 
 close of that year], nearly full length, looking at the head 
 of an old woman, painted by Mr. Barrett Browning. The 
 photograph shows Browning and Milsand standing before 
 the oil picture set on an easel ; the former leans his left 
 hand on the shoulder of the latter, while the fingers of the 
 right hand, with arm akimbo, are spread out wide along 
 his flank. The face is serious and observant in profile ; 
 the forehead coming noticeably tall. . . . One is pleased 
 to know from this record what Milsand was like. He is 
 hardly so tall as Browning, somewhat younger, with beard, 
 and a good crop of hair partly grey, a strong compact fore- 
 head, a partially aquiline nose, and a reflective air."
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 609 
 
 (243.) Lippiucott's Magazine, 1890, pp. 683-691. On 
 Robert Browning, by C. J. B.-M. [Mrs. Bloomfield 
 Moore]. 
 
 (244.) Merry England, January, 1890. On Robert 
 Browning. 
 
 (245.) London Quarterly Review, January, 1890. On 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 (246.) The Builder, February, 1890. On Robert Brown- 
 ing. 
 
 (247.) The Jewish Quarterly, April, 1890. On Robert 
 Browning. 
 
 (248.) Modem Language Notes, April, 1890. On 
 " The Grammatical Forms in The Ring and the Book," by- 
 Oliver F. Emerson. " No poet of the present century pre- 
 sents so many peculiarities of diction as does Browning. 
 He shows an intimate acquaintance with the forms and 
 vocabulary of former periods. He uses deliberately and 
 consistently, so that it cannot be considered mere affectation, 
 a number of forms not common in nineteenth-century 
 English. His language is a remarkable example of the 
 flexibility of our tongue and of the freedom with which it 
 incorporates additions from the most diverse sources. All 
 these reasons may make Browning's poetry more difficult 
 to the ordinary reader, but they add materially to the 
 interest of the student of English. The grammatical 
 peculiarities of Browning's verse are, in most cases, the 
 result of a desire for greater compactness of expression, and 
 include the omission of words usually considered necessary 
 but such as are easily supplied from the context. Some 
 constructions used with great frequency are those of English 
 VOL. I R R
 
 610 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 in an earlier period, and may be attributed to Browning's 
 exceptional familiarity with the Elizabethan writers. 
 Examples of these are the old dative, the more frequent use 
 of the subjunctive, and the common employment of one 
 part of speech for another." 
 
 (249.) The Quarterly Reviezv, April, 1890. On Robert 
 Browning. " Browning is our greatest modern seer. He 
 carried with him something of Byron's energy, Keats' artistic 
 joy, Shelley's ideal passion, and Wordsworth's transcen- 
 dentalism into the scientific age which succeeded the 
 romantic period." 
 
 (250.) The Manchester Quarterly Review, April, 1890. 
 On Robert Browning. 
 
 (251.) Primitive Methodist Quarterly, April, 1890. Essay 
 on Robert Browning. " So original, so various, so virile, 
 with such plastic gifts, we shall never see his like again." 
 
 (252.) Journal des Dcbats, September 20th and 21st, 1890. 
 On Browning, by Paul Desjardins. " In literature he is 
 great as a dramatist ; for the gift of being best pleased, 
 most interested in action — the gift of valour — is the char- 
 acteristic of the drama, and, in that essential, none surpass 
 him." 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. ii., 1890 : — 
 
 (253.) January, pp. 19-26. "Luria : Its Story and its 
 Motive " (Part ii.), by Henry S. Pancoast. 
 
 (254.) January, pp. 28-29. " On the Musical Allusions 
 in the twelfth stanza of Abt Vogler," by Helen A. 
 Clarke.
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 611 
 
 (255.) January, pp. 37-38. " The Difference between 
 One Way of Love and Another Way of Love" by Charlotte 
 Porter. 
 
 (256.) January, pp. 39-49. Browning Society of the 
 New Century Club — Memorial Meeting in honour of the 
 memory of Robert Browning. 
 
 (257.) February, pp. 88-89. " Syllabus for Study of The 
 Flight of the Duchess." 
 
 (258.) February, pp. 94-100. Review of Asolando, by 
 Helen A. Clarke. 
 
 ( 2 59-) February, pp. 100-111. Browning Memorial 
 Notes. 
 
 (260.) March, pp. 130-133. "Personal Recollections of 
 Browning," by William G. Kingsland. 
 
 (261.) March, pp. 145-152. Proceedings of the Browning 
 Society of the New Century Club of Philadelphia. 
 
 (262.) March, pp. 152-155. The Boston Browning 
 Memorial Service. 
 
 (263.) April, pp. 193-195. "Divided" — poem on the 
 burial places of Robert and Elizabeth Browning, by 
 Ursula Tannenforst. 
 
 (264.) April, pp. 198-199. Suggestions for discussion of 
 King Victor and King Charles. 
 
 (265.) April, pp. 212-221. On Browning's Strafford, 
 &c. 
 
 (266.) May, pp. 234-246. " The New Poetic Form as 
 shown in Browning," by Daniel G. Brinton. " Browning 
 treats rhyme merely as a subordinate element of tone- 
 colour .... and we find in his work so many instances 
 of profound insight into verbal harmonies, such singular 
 
 R R 2
 
 612 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 strength of poetic grouping, and such a marvellous grasp 
 of the rhythmic properties of the English language, that we 
 must assign him a rank second to no English poet of this 
 century." 
 
 (267.) May, pp. 278-283. On the Musical Poems of 
 Browning, &c. 
 
 (268.) June, pp. 300-305. On " Browning's Form," by 
 Francis Howard Williams. "With regard to the purely 
 technical part of verse-building, we are inevitably led to one 
 conclusion concerning Browning's form and his theory of 
 poetry as an art based upon rhythm and melody, namely, 
 that in all his greatest themes he has held the matter of his 
 philosophy so far above the manner of its expression, that 
 his longest works fall outside the category of literary works 
 of art. In his shorter lyrics, however, the form is true 
 because it gives adequate expression to so true an in- 
 spiration." 
 
 (269.) June, pp. 310-314. "The Tragic Motive of In a 
 Balcony," by Alice Kent Robertson. " The tragic motive 
 of the poem is engendered by the juxtaposition of truth 
 and worldly ambition, and the inevitable struggle between 
 them for ascendency. Truth, as it ever must be, is trium- 
 phant ; but, in this case, at a tremendous cost." 
 
 (270.) June, pp. 332-336. On "Browning as a Teacher 
 of Religion," by George Willis Cooke. 
 
 (271.) July, pp. 345-360. " The Alkestis of Euripides 
 and of Browning," by C. A. Wurtzburg. " There is a close 
 link between the poet who was conscious of the need for 
 the eternal truths afterwards embodied in Christianity, and 
 the poet who holds so firmly to those eternal truths, while
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 613 
 
 distinguishing so clearly between the essentials of the 
 Christian religion and the accretions which time has laid 
 upon it." 
 
 (272.) July, pp. 379-384. Programme of the Browning 
 Society of the New Century Club. 
 
 (273.) July, pp. 390-392. " Is Browning a Theist ? " 
 
 (274.) August, pp. 421-423. "The Humour of Carlyle 
 and Browning." 
 
 (275.) August, pp. 480-486. "A Study of Rhymes in 
 Browning," by Elizabeth M. Clark. 
 
 (276.) November, pp. 578-585. "The Journey of Childe 
 Roland," by R. J. Gratz. " Childe Roland tells the story of 
 a pilgrim who, disregarding his first keen intuitions, 
 obeys the suggestions of the hoary deceiver at the stile, 
 and turns aside into the malarial meadow of sophistry and 
 pathless chaos, finding himself at last by the ugly heights 
 of Doubting Castle." 
 
 (277.) November, pp. 604-607. " Browning's Standpoint," 
 by L. Wright. 
 
 (278.) December, pp. 617-624. " Browning's Science as 
 shown in Numpholeptos" by Edward Berdoe. 
 
 (279.) December, pp. 625-634. " The Lotus Symbolism 
 in Homer, Theocritus, Moschus, Tennyson, and Browning," 
 by Anna R. Brown. 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. iii., 1891 : — 
 
 (280.) January, pp. 45-47. On a criticism of Browning's 
 Numpholeptos, by C. W. DufReld.
 
 614 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (281.) January, pp. 53-56. On Pietro of Abano, &c. 
 
 (282.) February, pp. 75-87. "Mr. Sludge and Modern 
 Spiritualism," by Morris Jastrow, jun. " In explanation of 
 Browning's view of modern spiritualism, it may properly be 
 urged that he wrote Mr. Sludge at a time when spiritualism 
 was simply pooh-poohed in intellectual circles, and when 
 scientists were unwilling to undertake a serious examina- 
 tion of the phenomena connected with it. Were a Brown- 
 ing to-day to expound his views of spiritualism in a poem 
 like the one we have been considering, he would select as 
 his type of a medium not a great scoundrel like Sludge, 
 but a hysterical hypnotized maiden from the hospital of 
 Salpetriere in Paris." 
 
 (283.) February, pp. 87-93. " A Comparative Study of 
 Wordsworth's MicJiael, Tennyson's Enoch Arden, Browning's 
 Andrea del Sarto," by Vida D. Scudder. " The three poems 
 show the idea of development slowly dawning. Absent in 
 Wordsworth, it appears in Tennyson as steadfastness under 
 grievous conditions, though character is not yet won through 
 internal struggle. In Browning the development-idea is 
 perfect and supreme." 
 
 (284.) February, pp. 101-105. Browning "Notes," &c. 
 
 (285.) February, pp. 107-111. On T/ie Patriot, Echetlos, 
 &c. 
 
 (286.) March, pp. 154-155. Browning and the Shelley 
 Society, by W. G. Kingsland. " Browning had been very 
 warmly requested to become president of the Shelley 
 Society at the time of its formation. There can be little 
 doubt he would have accepted this office, but the ' Harriet 
 question ' stood in the way. Browning was honest to the
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 615 
 
 core, and as he considered that by becoming president 
 of such a society he would be endorsing all Shelley's 
 actions, he at once refused the request on the ground that 
 he could not uphold Shelley with regard to his treatment 
 of his first wife." 
 
 (287.) March, pp. 159-162. Browning Queries answered. 
 
 (288.) March, pp. 162-163. On A Pretty Woman, &c. 
 
 (289.) April, pp. 216-221. On "Browning's Tribute to 
 Shakespeare," by Charlotte Porter. 
 
 (290.) May, pp. 250-254. " Browning's Hebraic Sym- 
 pathies," by Mary M. Cohen. " The value of the 
 Hebrew element in Browning's poems is that it does 
 much to remove prejudice, and to place the philo- 
 sophy of the Jew in its true place among the world's 
 < Credos.' " 
 
 (291.) May, pp. 254-257. " The Idea of God in The Sun " 
 (see Ferishtah's Fancies), by Daniel G. Brinton. 
 
 (292.) May, pp. 260-269. " Musical Symbolism in 
 Browning," by Helen A. Clarke. " Browning is so much 
 a musician and so much a poet that he has seen the 
 essential difference between the two arts. He has not 
 allowed his poetical form to be hampered by the idea that 
 its music could be made to correspond in any way with 
 music's music, and his aim has been to differentiate 
 poetical rhythm from musical rhythm, knowing that only 
 by so doing could the unfettered progress of poesy be 
 brought about." 
 
 (293.) May, pp. 284-287. " The Riccardi Palace of The 
 Statue and the Bust" by W. J. Rolfe. 
 
 (294.) May, pp. 292-293. On Caliban, Clcon, &c.
 
 616 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (295.) June — July, pp. 350-353. "The Secret of Pippa's 
 Power." 
 
 (296.) June — July, pp. 366-368. Notes on Browning 
 Books. 
 
 (297.) June — July, pp. 329-382. On the poems in 
 Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
 (298.) October, pp. 521-522. "Browning Study Hints." 
 
 (299.) October, pp. 522-528. "New Browning Letters 
 and Mrs. Orr's Lije of Browning" by William G. Kings- 
 land. "The Life of Robert Browning has yet to be 
 written." 
 
 (300.) October, pp. 534-536. On Browning's use of the 
 Pomegranate, and the symbolism attaching to it. 
 
 (301.) October, pp. 540-541. On Numpholeptos, by Mrs. 
 Douglass. 
 
 (302.) November, pp. 577-588. "Variants of Browning's 
 Pietro of Abano" by Charlotte Porter. 
 
 (303.) November, pp. 588-589. Browning Study Hints. 
 
 (304.) November, pp. 590-592. On various Browning 
 societies. 
 
 (305.) December, pp. 637-639. Browning Study Hints. 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. iv. 1 892 : — 
 
 (3°6.) January, pp. 39-41. "Browning Study Hints: 
 Colombds Birthday" 
 
 (307.) February, pp. 57-64. " The Epilogues of Brown- 
 ing : Their Artistic Significance," by D. G. Brinton. 
 " Browning uniformly treats the epilogue as an element
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 617 
 
 not of dramatic but of lyrical poetry. That with him it 
 approaches the form of the soliloquy, and is intended to 
 bring about a direct and personal relation between himself 
 and his reader. That his epilogues are the only portions 
 of his writings in which he avowedly drops the dramatic 
 turn of his genius, and expresses his own sentiments as a 
 man. That in this respect they constitute the most valu- 
 able material of all his writings for those who would seek 
 the individuality of the poet in his productions." 
 
 (308.) February, pp. 109-110. "On the Relations of 
 Magic and Science in Marlowe's Festus, Goethe's Faust, 
 and Browning's Fust and his Friends" by Dr. Edward 
 Brooks. 
 
 (309.) March, pp. 164.-166. "On Certain Resem- 
 blances between Browning's Paidine and Balzac's Louis 
 Lambert." 
 
 (310.) May, pp. 233-238. "Excerpts from a Sheaf of 
 Browning Letters," by William G. Kingsland. Extracts, 
 with comments, from various hitherto unpublished letters 
 of Browning. 
 
 (311.) May, pp. 238-243. "The Relation of Nature to 
 Man in Browning," by Francis Howard Williams. " The 
 relation of Nature to Man in Browning is the relation 
 which an inferior product bears to a superior product. 
 A tree is the present embodiment of forces acting through 
 countless evolutionary stages. So also is a man ; but 
 Browning believes that the man has been through many 
 more stages — that he is much farther advanced. Hence he 
 finds in human life and feeling a higher inspiration than 
 he finds in external nature."
 
 618 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (312.) May, pp. 243-254. "A Study of Browning's 
 Ixion," by George D. Latimer. " As a poem — on the 
 artistic side certainly — Ixion is a failure. It lacks the 
 qualities that have always been associated with verse — 
 the clearness of thought, the melody of expression, the 
 appeal to sentiment. Ixion is not emotional ; it is didactic. 
 That we feel is the real fault. The poet has been so intent 
 on instruction that he has disregarded literary expression. 
 Ixion is a great hulking creature — some Titan of strength 
 and will that is trying to conceal himself in the diaphanous 
 drapery of the Muses, but at whose approach the Graces 
 flee away with startled cries." 
 
 (313.) May, pp. 261-266. " Browning's Mesmerism from 
 a Scientific Point of View," by Frances Emily White. 
 " Browning was no spiritualist in the common acceptation 
 of this term ; but that he could have given a logical reason 
 for the want of faith that was in him does not appear 
 in the records." 
 
 (314.) May, pp. 266-271. "Browning on Unconven- 
 tional Relations," by Daniel G. Brinton. " The evidence 
 submitted [Too Late, Bifurcation, Respectability, etc.] is 
 ample to show that Browning repeatedly treats with dis- 
 respect and contempt the conventionally established 
 relations between the sexes, and elevates above all such 
 conventionalities the autocracy of romantic love and poetic 
 passion." 
 
 (315.) May, pp. 271-274. "Love and Duty in Tennyson 
 and Browning," by E. F. R. Stitt. 
 
 (316.) May, pp. 276-283. " Recent Browning Books." 
 
 {V-I^S June-July, pp. 378-380. " From Ghent to Aix : "
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 619 
 
 a description, by W. J. Rolfe, of the country through which 
 the riders passed on their celebrated " gallop." 
 
 (318.) August-September, pp. 425-428. "Browning's 
 CJiilde Roland and its Danish Source," by M. Sears 
 Brooks. 
 
 (319.) August-September, pp. 471-474. On "A Packet 
 of Browning Books." 
 
 (320.) October, pp. 481-490. "Robert Browning as the 
 Poet of the Democracy," by Oscar L. Triggs. " Browning, 
 whose message, in its emphasis given first to the self and 
 secondly to love, is, I submit, the very creed of emancipa- 
 tion and democracy." 
 
 (321.) October, pp. 524-526. On Dr. Furnivall's theory 
 that Forster's Life of Strafford was written by Browning, 
 by William G. Kingsland. 
 
 (322.) November, pp. 567-568. " The Source of 
 Browning's Optimism," by Mary M. Cohen. " Why does 
 Browning dive into the depths of human sin and emerge 
 still smiling, hopeful, even triumphant ? Wherefore does 
 he choose to dwell upon vileness and treachery, upon 
 licentiousness and cruelty, with such daring, such frankness 
 and fulness as few English poets have ever displayed ? It 
 was this — Browning was filled from head to foot with a 
 philosophic conviction of the ultimate established purity of 
 men and women. He derived this from his religious, 
 reverent faith in a righteous Heavenly Father and a law- 
 abiding, self-controlling community." 
 
 (323.) November, pp. 612-616. " The Poetic Limitations 
 of Sordet/o," by George Willis Cooke. " Browning has not 
 been true to history ; his facts are not the facts of the age
 
 620 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 he describes. He has projected himself into a past age ; 
 he has thrown into that age the thoughts, sentiments and 
 convictions of his own. He makes an age of feeling to be 
 an age of metaphysical introspection and subjectivity. He 
 makes an age of immense activity to be an age of meta- 
 physical questioning and doubt. He makes an age of 
 sentiment to be an age of intellectual seriousness. In fact, 
 the age of Sordello was rarely serious, and did not give 
 itself to earnest questioning of any kind. His metaphysics 
 have led Browning into obscurity. The literary method of 
 the poem is false, its metaphysics pernicious, and its 
 theory of life vicious." 
 
 (324.) Browning and Whitman : A Study in Democracy, 
 by Oscar L. Triggs, 1893. 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. v. 1893 : — 
 
 (325.) January, pp. 27-34. " The Democracy of Aprile" 
 by Charles G. Ames. " The burning interest which Aprilc 
 feels in humanity — the democratic interest which makes 
 him look out on the world of men as a product and reflection 
 of the love of God — is in sharp contrast with the cold 
 grandeur and proud isolation of spirit which have made 
 Paracelsus contemptuous towards history, unwilling to 
 avail himself of other men's learning, unsympathetic to- 
 wards the struggles of mankind, and indifferent even to 
 their applause." 
 
 (326.) January, pp. 48-49. "A Browning Musical Query," 
 by Dr. Rolfe. The query raised is whether " Radaminta," 
 in the Parleying tvitJi diaries Avison, should not be
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 621 
 
 " Radamisto " — Handel having written an opera with this 
 latter name (first performed in 1720), and " Rinaldo " 
 also being his work. Further on in the same parleying 
 " Hudl " is mentioned : it is suggested that this is a cor- 
 ruption of " Handel," as " Radaminta " probably is of 
 " Radamisto." 
 
 (327.) May, pp. 229-236. "Robert Browning — the 
 Man : some further Reminiscences," by William G. 
 Kingsland. 
 
 (328.) May, pp. 237-247. "Aristophanes' Philosophy of 
 Poetry according to Browning," by Helen Leah Reed. 
 " Browning, with a poet's insight, reaches and brings into 
 full light the deep philosophy underlying the sparkling 
 surface of Aristophanes' comedies." 
 
 (329.) May, pp. 247-253. "Ideals of Beauty in Keats 
 and Browning," by Alice Groff. " In Keats' hands the gods 
 are seen as ideal human beings ; in Browning's, men are 
 revealed as potential gods." 
 
 (330.) May, pp. 258-266. "Browning's Mastery of 
 Rhyme," by W. J. Rolfe. " This mastery is shown by the 
 fact that he rarely, if ever, violates the law which forbids 
 the least intrusion of the rhyme as rhyme — that is, as any- 
 thing less than the best word in the language for the idea 
 in hand. His mastery in rhyme is also shown in the re- 
 markable variety of his stanza forms ; and by the frequency 
 and facility of rhyming in what the recent Shakespeare 
 critics call ' run-on lines,' in distinction from ' end-stopt ' 
 lines, the former having no natural break or pause at the 
 end as the latter have." 
 
 (331.) May, pp. 266-272. " Browning's Mildred," by
 
 622 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 J. J. Britton. " It seems to me that The Blot in the 
 * Scutcheon must be held to be the finest acting-tragedy of 
 modern days. It equals in force and pathos, and in the 
 sense of cumulative doom, the wonderful ' Broken Heart ' 
 of John Ford. But the verse of Ford cannot be compared 
 to the fervour and fire of Browning's." 
 
 (332.) May, pp. 277-283. " Browning Books of the 
 Year." 
 
 (333-) May, pp. 286-288. " Recollections of Browning," 
 by Moncure D. Conway. 
 
 (334.) May, p. 288. " Browning," a sonnet, by C. E. D. 
 Phelps. 
 
 (335.) August-September, pp. 436-442. "The Poetic 
 Structure of Browning's Shorter Lyrics," by Ethel 
 Davis. 
 
 (336.) August-September, pp. 453-455. "Browning 
 Study-hints : Three Poems relating to Married Life." 
 
 (337.) October, pp. 515-526. "A Dramatic Motive in 
 Browning's Strafford," by Charlotte Porter. 
 
 (338.) November, pp. 562-564. "An Objection to 
 Browning's Caliban considered," by Maude Wilkinson. 
 
 (339-) December, pp. 626-635. "An Interpretation of 
 Browning's Ixion," by Helen A. Clarke. " Ixion is not 
 merely an argument against eternal punishment, nor a 
 picture of heroic suffering, though he who will may draw 
 these lessons from it, but it is a tremendous symbol of the 
 spiritual development of man. Pure in its essence, the 
 spirit learns through the obstructions of sense to yearn for 
 ever for higher attainment, and this constitutes the especial 
 blessedness of man as contrasted with Zeus. He, like the
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 623 
 
 Pythagorean Father of Number, is the conditioned one ; 
 but man is privileged through all aeons of time to break 
 through conditions." 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. vi., 1894: — 
 
 (340.) January, pp. 13-28. "Browning as a Dramatic 
 Poet," by Henry Jones. " Browning's dramas are never 
 placed, like Shakespeare's, frankly in the outer world, but 
 in the world of emotions and passions, and volitions and 
 thoughts. His dramas are in his characters, and his 
 characters are not in the world, but in some section cut 
 out of it. . . . The demands which the drama makes, 
 poised as it is on the point of interaction between the outer 
 and inner worlds, cannot be met by one whose soul ever 
 dwells amidst the fundamental elements of life, delighting 
 in the great principles constitutive of man and the world. 
 The greatest works of Browning are neither narrative nor 
 dramatic nor reflective, because they are all three. The 
 ordinary distinctions fail in his case ; he breaks through 
 our limitations and definitions just because he is a great 
 poet, adding a new quality to our literature." 
 
 (341.) March, pp. 133-150. "On Pippa Passes" by 
 Isabel Frances Bellows. " It can be found to contain, in 
 one form or another, the germs of nearly every one of 
 Browning's feelings and beliefs about religion, philosophy, 
 humanity, art and nature, elaborated and made luminous 
 elsewhere by his great lyric and dramatic poems and 
 monologues."
 
 624 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 (342.) May, pp. 225-237. "On Browning's Interpreta- 
 tion of Romantic Love as compared with that of Plato, 
 Dante, and Petrarch," by George Willis Cooke. " Dante 
 and Petrarch attributed all that was pure and noble in 
 them to the influence of the women they loved. We 
 cannot read Evelyn Hope, Cristina, or other of Browning's 
 poems, without feeling that he has lived with Plato or 
 Petrarch. He writes as a modern poet, reverencing 
 woman, finding in her an eternal charm ; because of her 
 equality with himself she is other, weaker and yet nobler. 
 Though a modern, the spirit of chivalry remains with him ; 
 and the very heart of romantic love he has reproduced in 
 some of the finest of his lyrical poems." 
 
 (343.) May, pp. 238-243. "On Browning's Sorde//o: a 
 Study in the Psychology of Childhood," by A. Tolman 
 Smith. 
 
 (344.) May, pp. 244-248. " Browning : the Poet of the 
 People," by W. H. Anderson. "Browning — who belongs 
 more truly to all than any other of our modern poets ; who 
 comes nearer than any of them to our ideal of greatness — 
 universality." 
 
 (345.) May, pp. 251-264. "Browning's Luria," by John 
 White Chadwick. 
 
 ' (346.) May, pp. 264-268. " Browning Rarities," by 
 William G. Kingsland. An account of " rare editions " of 
 separate poems of Robert and Elizabeth Browning. 
 
 (347.) June-July, pp. 373-374. Note by Hiram Corson 
 on " Browning's ' Sagacious Swede,' " mentioned in the 
 Pope's monologue in The Ring and the Book. In his 
 Browning Cyclopaedia, Dr. Berdoe says this was Sweden-
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT DROWNING. 625 
 
 borg ; but Mr. Corson points out that if this was so, Brown- 
 ing committed an anachronism — for at the date of the 
 Pope's monologue (Jan. 21, 1698), Swedenborg was "but 
 ten years, three weeks, and two days' old." 
 
 (348.) November, pp. 555-559. " Forster's Life of Straf- 
 ford: Is it Forster's or Browning's?" by William G. 
 Kingsland. An article strongly negativing the idea that 
 this " Life " is, in substance, the work of Browning, and 
 quoting various authorities in proof of his contention. " To 
 my own mind — and to the minds of others far more 
 competent to judge than I am — there can be no doubt 
 whatever that the work, in substance and as a whole, was 
 written by John Forster ; that owing to his illness Browning 
 kindly took away his manuscript, correcting, and super- 
 vising it for the printer (possibly altering or interpolating 
 a passage here or there) ; that he subsequently corrected 
 the proof-sheets : but there his kindness ended." 
 
 (349.) December, pp. 585-592. " Luria and Othello : 
 Types and art compared," by L. A. Sherman. " There is 
 no sublimer type in literature than Hermione of The 
 
 Winter's Tale ; and what Shakespeare has done with her, 
 
 Browning has done with Luria." 
 
 Poet Lore, Vol. vii., 1895 : — 
 
 (35°0 fanuary, pp. 18-28. "Shelley's Influence on 
 Browning," by Florence Converse. "A Shelley had to 
 dream of gods before a Browning could know what men 
 might be ; a Shelley had to see a vision of the liberty of 
 mankind before a Browning could labour to aid the freedom 
 of individual man. The Shelley vision is dim, obscure, 
 
 VOL. 1. S S
 
 626 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 unsatisfactory ; the Browning labour, appearing at first sight 
 to be along so different a line, so far away from the vision, 
 leaves us at times ethically confused and baffled. But 
 through this labour, this vigorous thinking, Browning has 
 grasped a truth that Shelley groped after : ' All's love, yet 
 all's law.' " 
 
 (351.) January, pp. 32-34. " Colombe 's Birthday as a 
 one-act play." 
 
 (352.) Jamiary, pp. 55-56. On the Narrative Poems of 
 Browning, etc. 
 
 (353.) April, pp. 223-224. " Meetijig at Night and 
 Parting at Morning" by C. R. Corson. " In these few 
 lines, all landscape seemingly, I read the whole secret of 
 humanity, — its mysterious raison d'etre ; no different philo- 
 sophy, however, from that which the poet teaches in the 
 rest of his works." 
 
 (354-) May, pp. 225-240. " Annals of a Quiet Brown- 
 ing Club," by " I. N. Cog, Historian." 
 
 (355.) May, pp. 240-254. On "Mr. Sludge, the Medium? 
 by Francis B. Hornbrooke. 
 
 (356.) June-July, pp. 356-366. "Annals of a Quiet 
 Browning Club " (II.), by " I. N. Cog." 
 
 (357.) June-July, pp. 374-37 6 . On " Meeting at Night 
 and Parting at Morning" by Bliss Carman. " In lieu 
 of finding in these lines a ' whole system of philosophy,' I 
 have to confess I only find a very pretty little story of how 
 a man rowed across a bay one night to see his sweetheart, 
 and how he felt the next morning." 
 
 (358.) The Bible Christian Magazine, February, 1895, pp. 
 83-91. The first of a series of articles on Robert Brown-
 
 THE WRITINGS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 627 
 
 ing, by T. Ruddle, B.A. " Extraordinary as it may appear 
 I have found the average readers of our own Magazine 
 will listen to the story of Browning's life and an examina- 
 tion of some of his plays and poems with close and in- 
 telligent interest ; and it is certainly worth an effort to 
 bring a few of our friends into sympathetic contact with 
 the most powerful and most helpful mind of the nineteenth 
 century." 
 
 S S 2
 
 INDEX.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bibliography of Robert Browning, 361 
 Blake, William, The Trial of, for Sedition, 3 
 
 Blake's Memorandum in refutation of the charge, 7 
 
 The Information of John Scofield, 5 
 
 The Speech of Counsellor Rose, 1 1 
 Blessington, Margaret Countess of. See Landor-Blessington Papers. 
 Browning, E. Barrett, on Tennyson, 35 
 
 Browning, Robert, Materials for a Bibliography of the writings of, 361 
 Contention of Death and Love, The, by Thomas Wade, 1 23 
 Delora, The Ballad of , by R. H. Home, 251 
 Dramatic Scene, by Charles Wells, 296 
 Forman, H. Buxton, A brief account of the life of Charles Wells, 291 
 
 Lines on the Death of Lord Tennyson, 31 
 
 on Thomas Wade, 45 
 
 A brief account of Richard Henry Home, 235 
 
 Hallam, Arthur Henry, on Alfred and Charles Tennyson, 21 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Uttoxeter, 282 
 Helena, by Thomas Wade, 141 
 
 (Thomas Wade's) suggested by Keats' Lsabella, or The Pot of Basil, 141 
 
 Home, R. H., A brief account of, 235 
 
 The Ballad of Delora, 251 
 
 Home, R. H., and Mrs. Browning on Tennyson, 35 
 Hunt, Leigh, A bundle of letters from Shelley to, 321 
 
   Letters to, from Arthur Henry Hallam, advocating the'merits of 
 
 poems by Alfred and Charles Tennyson, 24 
 Johnson, Hawthorne in the Shadow of, 28 1 
 Landor-Blessington Papers, The — 
 
 Introduction, 167 
 
 Biographical Note, written by W. S. Landor for Lady Blessington, 169 
 
 Extract from Diary of Lady Blessington, 171 
 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing On a Tomb erected in the Church- 
 yard of Llanbedr, 174
 
 632 INDEX. 
 
 Landor-Blessington Papers — continued : — 
 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing To a Dragon Fly and Essex and 
 
 Spenser, 175 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing The Mother 's Tale, 1 79 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, on his orthography, &c, 189 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing a Charade, 193 
 Verses on Wordsworth's estimation of Southey, and on his views of 
 
 Slaughter, 194 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, introducing Colonel Stopford and transcribing 
 
 La Vigilia di Partenza by the Abbate Orlando Selvaggi, 195 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, enclosing the conclusion of his Orestes, 197 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing verses to Ianthe, 200 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, with verses : 
 
 " Why, why repine, my pensive friend?" 202 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing the following verses : 
 
 Reply to verses of Parny 
 
 Specimen of a new translation of the Henriade 
 
 "Anne Boleyn ! tho' I may be wrong " 
 
 " Give me the eyes that look on mine " 
 
 " Beauty's pure native gems, ye golden hairs," 204 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, with verses : 
 
 " My serious son ! i see thee look," 207 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, consisting of his Dream of Youth and Beauty , 
 
 209 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, criticising Dr. Verity's book on the changes 
 
 produced by the nervous system on civilisation, 213 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, enclosing his 
 
 "Pleasure, Youth, and Age : an Allegory," 215 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing the words for a duet in Italian, 222 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing corrections and Envoi for his 
 
 Nightingale and Rose, 224 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, with verses : 
 
 "To thee I call," 226 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, proposing to visit her at Gore House, 227 
 Verses addressed to Landor by Lady Blessington, 228 
 Letter to Lady Blessington, containing three stanzas in reply to above, and 
 
 a short poem entitled " What is really my Belief?" 229 
 Remarks on Lady Blessington by Landor, 230 
 Personal Note on the Blessington correspondence by Landor, 233 
 Midnight, Lines on the Death of Lord Tennyson, by H. Buxton Forman, 31 
 Noel, Roden, on R. H. Home, 246 
 Rose, Counsellor, Speech on behalf of William Blake, 1 1 
 Scofielcl, John, The Information of, against William Blake, 5
 
 INDEX. 633 
 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, A bundle of letters from, to Leigh Hunt, 321 
 
 Arthur H. Hallam's appreciation of, 26 
 
 Slaughter, Landor on Wordsworth's views of, 194 
 
 Tatler, The, Letters from Arthur H. Hallam to Hunt as Editor of, 24 
 Tennyson, Alfred and Charles, Note on their early poems, 21 
 Tennyson, Lord, An opinion on, by E. Barrett Browning, 35 
 
 Lines on the Death of, by H. Buxton Forman, 31 
 
 To Certain " Critics," Sonnet by Thomas Wade, 68 
 
 Uttoxeter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 282 
 Wade, Thomas — Fifty Sonnets by — 
 
 Birth and Death, 71 
 
 Who may say ? 72 
 
 The near Advent, 73 
 
 A Warning, 74 
 
 The Child, 75 
 
 To my Child, 76 
 
 The Fear, 77 
 
 The Entreaty, 78 
 
 The Return, 79 
 
 The Barrier- Bond, 80 
 
 High-Speakings, 81 
 
 The first Day of the fourth Year, 82 
 
 To Baby, 83 
 
 The Result, 84 
 
 " Dear Lady mine ! in whose sweet company," 85 
 
 The buried Butterfly, 86 
 
 Music and Love, 87 
 
 The Mist of Familiarity, 88 
 
 Volition, 89 
 
 The Nollekens, 90 
 
 The Wheel of Time, 91 
 
 A Thought in the Presence of a dead Child, 92 
 
 The Silence, 93 
 
 The Half-asleep, 94 
 
 On hearing some fine Music ill-played, 95 
 
 The Face— I., 96 
 
 The Face — II., 97 
 
 Poetry and Science, 98 
 
 Companionship, 99 
 
 The Fallers-Short, 100 
 
 The Swan, 101 
 
 " When we behold the air-suspended sword," 102 
 " The life continual, the fast flow of things," 103
 
 634 INDEX. 
 
 Wade, Thomas — Fifty Sonnets by — continued : — 
 
 The " Poetry of Earth," 104 
 
 The sere Oak Leaves, 105 
 
 The Swan-Aviary, 106 
 
 Spirit Solace, 107 
 
 December-May, 108 
 
 The Sun and the Daisy, 109 
 
 The Accompaniment, no 
 
 The Crucifixion, 1 1 1 
 
 The Man-" God," 112 
 
 Traces, 113 
 
 Beethoven's "Sonata with the Funeral March," I, 114 
 
 2, 115 
 
 Christmas 1866, 116 
 
 Written after hearing great Music, 117 
 
 Written after having received a Present of Flowers, 118 
 
 A Tribute to the Present, and a Reminiscence of the far Past, 119 
 
 To the Pianoforte, 1 20 
 Wade, Thomas, Helena, 141 
 
 — on Charles Wells, 138 
 
 • The Contention of Death and Love, 123 
 
 The Poet and his surroundings, 45 
 
 To Certain " Critics" a sonnet by, 68 
 
 Wells, Charles, A brief account of the life of, 291 
 
 A Dramatic Scene, 296 
 
 Note on, by Thomas Wade, 138 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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