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[8]. [Gibson], John (1790-1866). A famous sculptor.
[12]. [Grisi], Giulia. A celebrated singer (1811-1869).
[18]. In [allusion] to the asceticism of the Hindoo religious devotees.
[58]. [bals]-parés. Fancy-dress balls.
The poem is half-humorous, half-serious. The speaker, in her imaginary conversation, gives her own history and that of the man she thinks she might have loved. The story is on the[page 244] "Maud Muller" motive, but with less of sentimentality. The setting suggests the life of art students in Paris, or in some Italian city. The poem is a plea for the freedom of the individuality of a soul against the restrictions imposed by conventional standards of value. Its touches of humor, of human nature, and its summary of two lives in brief, are admirably done. Its rhymes sometimes need the indulgence accorded to humorous writing.
A TALE. (PAGE [61].)
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The source of the story is an epigram given in Mackail's Select Epigrams from Greek Anthology. It is one of the happiest pieces of Browning's lighter work.
[65]. [Lotte], or Charlotte. A character in Goethe's Sorrows of Werther, said to be drawn from the heroine of one of Goethe's earlier love-affairs.