We were walking up and down the great hall of the Palazzo Rezzonico, when, in the course of what I was telling him about the study of his works in the United States, I alluded to the divided opinion as to the meaning of the above expression in ‘My Last Duchess’, some understanding that the commands were to put the Duchess to death, and others, as I have explained the expression on p. 87 of this volume (last paragraph). {For etext use, section III (Browning’s Obscurity) of the Introduction, sixth paragraph before the end of the section.} He made no reply, for a moment, and then said, meditatively, “Yes, I meant that the commands were that she should be put to death.” And then, after a pause, he added, with a characteristic dash of expression, and as if the thought had just started in his mind, “Or he might have had her shut up in a convent.” This was to me very significant. When he wrote the expression, “I gave commands”, etc., he may not have thought definitely what the commands were, more than that they put a stop to the smiles of the sweet Duchess, which provoked the contemptible jealousy of the Duke. This was all his art purpose required, and his mind did not go beyond it. I thought how many vain discussions take place in Browning Clubs, about little points which are outside of the range of the artistic motive of a composition, and how many minds are occupied with anything and everything under the sun, except the one thing needful (the artistic or spiritual motive), the result being “as if one should be ignorant of nothing concerning the scent of violets, except the scent itself.”
H.C.
CONTENTS
[ I. The Spiritual Ebb and Flow exhibited in English Poetry ]
[ II. The Idea of Personality and of Art as an intermediate agency of Personality ]
[ 2. The Idea of Personality as embodied in Browning’s Poetry. ]
[ 3. Art as an Intermediate Agency of Personality. ]
[ III. Mr. Browning’s “Obscurity”. ]
[ V. Arguments of the Poems. ]
[ The Flight of the Duchess. ]
[ Home-Thoughts from Abroad. ]
[ Home-Thoughts from the Sea. ]
[ The Bishop orders his Tomb. ]
[ ‘Touch him ne’er so lightly’, etc. ]
[ How it strikes a Contemporary. ]
[ An Epistle containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish ]
[ Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister. ]
[ Epilogue to ‘The Two Poets of Croisic’. ]
[ Home Thoughts, from Abroad. ]
[ Home Thoughts, from the Sea. ]
[ The Bishop orders his Tomb. ]
[ How it strikes a Contemporary. ]
[ An Epistle containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish ]
[ Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister. ]
[ A LIST OF CRITICISMS OF BROWNING’S WORKS. ]
[ Notes on the Genius of Robert Browning. By James Thomson. ]