Thy work with no admixture of their own.”
* * * * *
... “Show beauty’s May, ere June
Undo the bud’s blush, leave a rose to cull
—No poppy neither! Yet less perfect-pure,
Divinely precious with life’s dew besprent.
Show saintliness that’s simply innocent
Of guessing sinnership exists.”
Among the less serious works, Pacchiarotto tells the story of a reformer-painter, suffering at the hands of the people who opposed him. With a decidedly humorous treatment, rollicking verse, and impossible rhymes, Browning carried on the poem to its conclusion of a fling at the critics of his own verse. Filippo Baldinucci simply retells a rather amusing story, quite distinct from any serious consideration of the painter as an artist, with an added conclusion which Browning imagined for himself. In like manner, Beatrice Signorini consists of a poetized version of some very personal history, which Browning took from Baldinucci. The husband of Beatrice, who was the painter Romanelli, fell in love with Artemisia Genteleschi, and having painted her portrait, showed it to his wife. She immediately destroyed it, Romanelli approved her spirit, and ever after loved her more.