PAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHix
PAULINE: A FRAGMENT OF A CONFESSION[1]
Sonnet: "Eyes, calm beside thee, (Lady, couldst thou know!)"[11]
[PARACELSUS.]
I. Paracelsus aspires[12]
II. Paracelsus attains[19]
III. Paracelsus[25]
IV. Paracelsus aspires[34]
V. Paracelsus attains[40]
STRAFFORD: A TRAGEDY[49]
SORDELLO[74]
PIPPA PASSES: A DRAMA[128]
KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES: A TRAGEDY[145]
[DRAMATIC LYRICS.]
[Cavalier Tunes.]
I. Marching Along[163]
II. Give a Rouse[163]
III. Boot and Saddle[163]
The Lost Leader[164]
"How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"[164]
Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr[165]
Nationality in Drinks[166]
[Garden Fancies.]
I. The Flower's Name[166]
II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis[167]
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister[167]
The Laboratory[168]
The Confessional[169]
Cristina[169]
The Lost Mistress[170]
Earth's Immortalities[170]
Meeting at Night[170]
Parting at Morning[170]
Song: "Nay but you, who do not love her"[170]
A Woman's Last Word[171]
Evelyn Hope[171]
Love among the Ruins[171]
A Lovers' Quarrel[172]
Up at a Villa—Down in the City[174]
A Toccata of Galuppi's[175]
Old Pictures in Florence[176]
"De Gustibus—"[178]
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad[179]
Home-Thoughts, from the Sea[179]
Saul[179]
My Star[184]
By the Fireside[185]
Any Wife to Any Husband[187]
Two in the Campagna[189]
Misconceptions[189]
A Serenade at the Villa[189]
One Way of Love[190]
Another Way of Love[190]
A Pretty Woman[190]
Respectability[191]
Love in a Life[191]
Life in a Love[191]
In Three Days[192]
In a Year[192]
Women and Roses[193]
Before[193]
After[194]
The Guardian-Angel[194]
Memorabilia[195]
Popularity[195]
Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha[195]
THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES[197]
A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON[216]
COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY[230]
[DRAMATIC ROMANCES.]
Incident of the French Camp[251]
The Patriot[251]
My Last Duchess[252]
Count Gismond[252]
The Boy and the Angel[253]
Instans Tyrannus[254]
Mesmerism[255]
The Glove[256]
Time's Revenges[258]
The Italian in England[258]
The Englishman in Italy[260]
In a Gondola[262]
Waring[264]
The Twins[266]
A Light Woman[267]
The Last Ride Together[267]
The Pied Piper of Hamelin[268]
The Flight of the Duchess[271]
A Grammarian's Funeral[279]
The Heretic's Tragedy[280]
Holy-Cross Day[281]
Protus[283]
The Statue and the Bust[283]
Porphyria's Lover[286]
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"[287]
A SOUL'S TRAGEDY[289]
LURIA[299]
[CHRISTMAS-EVE AND EASTER-DAY.]
Christmas-Eve[316]
Easter-Day[327]
[MEN AND WOMEN.]
"Transcendentalism: A Poem in Twelve Books"[335]
How It Strikes a Contemporary[336]
Artemis Prologizes[337]
An Epistle, containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the
Arab Physician		[338]
Johannes Agricola in Meditation[341]
Pictor Ignotus[341]
Fra Lippo Lippi[342]
Andrea del Sarto[346]
The Bishop orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church[348]
Bishop Blougram's Apology[349]
Cleon[358]
Rudel To the Lady of Tripoli[361]
One Word More[361]
IN A BALCONY[364]
Ben Karshook's Wisdom[372]
[DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.]
James Lee's Wife.
I. James Lee's Wife speaks at the Window[373]
II. By the Fireside[373]
III. In the Doorway[373]
IV. Along the Beach[374]
V. On the Cliff[374]
VI. Reading a Book, under the Cliff[374]
VII. Among the Rocks[375]
VIII. Beside the Drawing-Board[375]
IX. On Deck[376]
Gold Hair: a Story of Pornic[376]
The Worst of It[378]
Dîs Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de Nos Jours[379]
Too Late[380]
Abt Vogler, after he has been extemporizing upon the Musical Instrument
of his Invention		[382]
Rabbi Ben Ezra[383]
A Death in the Desert[385]
Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island[392]
Confessions[394]
May and Death[395]
Deaf and Dumb: a Group by Woolner[395]
Prospice[395]
Eurydice to Orpheus: a Picture by Leighton[395]
Youth and Art[396]
A Face[396]
A Likeness[396]
Mr. Sludge, "the Medium"[397]
Apparent Failure[412]
Epilogue[413]
[THE RING AND THE BOOK.]
I. The Ring and the Book[414]
II. Half-Rome[427]
III. The Other Half-Rome[441]
IV. Tertium Quid[456]
V. Count Guido Franceschini[471]
VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi[489]
VII. Pompilia[508]
VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis, Pauperum Procurator[525]
IX. Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. Cam. Apostol.
Advocatus		[540]
X. The Pope[554]
XI. Guido[572]
XII. The Book and the Ring[594]
Helen's Tower[601]
BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE, including a Transcript from Euripides,[602]
ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY, including a Transcript from Euripides,
being the Last Adventure of Balaustion		[628]
PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY[681]
[FIFINE AT THE FAIR.]
Prologue[701]
Fifine at the Fair[702]
Epilogue[735]
RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; OR TURF AND TOWERS[736]
THE INN ALBUM[773]
[PACCHIAROTTO, WITH OTHER POEMS.]
Prologue[802]
Of Pacchiarotto, and how he worked in Distemper[802]
At the "Mermaid"[807]
House[808]
Shop[809]
Pisgah-Sights[810]
Fears and Scruples[811]
Natural Magic[811]
Magical Nature[812]
Bifurcation[812]
Numpholeptos[812]
Appearances[814]
St. Martin's Summer[814]
Herve Riel[815]
A Forgiveness[817]
Cenciaja[820]
Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial[823]
Epilogue[827]
THE AGAMEMNON OF ÆSCHYLUS[830]
LA SAISIAZ[849]
THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC[859]
Oh Love! Love[874]
[DRAMATIC IDYLS: FIRST SERIES.]
Martin Relph[875]
Pheidippides[877]
Halbert and Hob[879]
Ivan Ivanovitch[880]
Tray[887]
Ned Bratts[887]
[DRAMATIC IDYLS: SECOND SERIES.]
Prologue[892]
Echetlos[892]
Clive[893]
Muléykeh[897]
Pietro of Abano[899]
Doctor ——[906]
Pan and Luna[909]
Touch him ne'er so lightly[910]
The Blind Man to the Maiden[910]
Goldoni[910]
[JOCOSERIA.]
Wanting is—What?[911]
Donald[911]
Solomon and Balkis[913]
Cristina and Monaldeschi[914]
Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli[916]
Adam, Lilith, and Eve[916]
Ixion[916]
Jochanan Hakkadosh[918]
Never the Time and the Place[928]
Pambo[928]
[FERISHTAH'S FANCIES.]
Prologue[929]
I. The Eagle[929]
II. The Melon-Seller[930]
III. Shah Abbas[930]
IV. The Family[932]
V. The Sun[933]
VI. Mihrab Shah[934]
VII. A Camel-Driver[936]
VIII. Two Camels[937]
IX. Cherries[938]
X. Plot-Culture[939]
XI. A Pillar at Sebzevar[940]
XII. A Bean-Stripe: also Apple-Eating[942]
Epilogue[946]
Rawdon Brown[947]
The Founder of the Feast[947]
The Names[947]
Epitaph on Levi Lincoln Thaxter[947]
Why I am a Liberal[948]
[PARLEYINGS WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE IN THEIR DAY.]
Apollo and the Fates[948]
With Bernard de Mandeville[952]
With Daniel Bartoli[955]
With Christopher Smart[959]
With George Bubb Dodington[961]
With Francis Furini[964]
With Gerard de Lairesse[970]
With Charles Avison[974]
Fust and his Friends: an Epilogue[979]
[ASOLANDO: FANCIES AND FACTS.]
Prologue[987]
Rosny[987]
Dubiety[987]
Now[988]
Humility[988]
Poetics[988]
Summum Bonum[988]
A Pearl, a Girl[988]
Speculative[988]
White Witchcraft[989]
Bad Dreams. I.[989]
Bad Dreams. II.[989]
Bad Dreams. III.[990]
Bad Dreams. IV.[990]
Inapprehensiveness[991]
Which?[991]
The Cardinal and the Dog[991]
The Pope and the Net[992]
The Bean-Feast[992]
Muckle-Mouth Meg[993]
Arcades Ambo[993]
The Lady and the Painter[993]
Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice[994]
Beatrice Signorini[996]
Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment[999]
"Imperante Augusto natus est—"[1001]
Development[1002]
Rephan[1003]
Reverie[1005]
Epilogue[1007]
[APPENDIX.]
I. An Essay on Shelley[1008]
II. Notes and Illustrations[1014]
III. A List of Mr. Browning's Poems and Dramas, arranged in the order of
first publication in book form[1023]
INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF POEMS[1027]
GENERAL INDEX OF TITLES[1031]

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.[1]

If one sought to build any genealogical structure to account for Robert Browning's genius, he would find but slight foundation in fact, though what he found would be substantial so far as it went. Browning's father was a bank clerk in London; his father again was a bank clerk. Both of these Brownings were christened Robert. The father of the poet's grandfather was Thomas Browning, an innkeeper and small proprietor in Dorsetshire, and his stock apparently was west-country English. Browning himself liked to believe that an earlier ancestor was a certain Captain Micaiah Browning who raised the siege of Derry in 1689 by an act of personal bravery which cost him his life. It is most to the point that Browning was London born with two generations of city Londoners behind him. His mother was Sarah Anne—a name which became Sarianna in the poet's sister—Wiedemann, the Scottish daughter of a Hamburg German, a shipowner in Dundee.

The characters of the poet's parents are clearly defined. Robert Browning, senior, was a man of business who performed his business duties punctiliously, and by frugality acquired a tolerably comfortable fortune, but he was not a money-making man; his real life was in his books and in the gratification of literary and æsthetic tastes. He was a voracious reader, and in a prudent way a book and print collector. "It was his habit," says Mrs. Orr, "when he bought a book—which was generally an old one allowing of this addition—to have some pages of blank paper bound into it. These he filled with notes, chronological tables, or such other supplementary matter as would enhance the interest, or assist the mastering, of its contents: all written in a clear and firm, though by no means formal, handwriting." He had a talent for versifying which he used for his entertainment; he had a cheerful nature and that genuine sociability which made him a delightful companion in the small circle which satisfied his simple, ingenuous nature. He was born and bred in the Church of England, but in middle life became by choice a Dissenter, though never an exclusive one.

Mrs. Browning, the poet's mother, was once described by Carlyle as "the true type of a Scottish gentlewoman." She inherited from her father a love for music and drawing which in him was manifested in execution, in her in good taste and appreciation. She was a woman of serene, gentle and affectionate nature, and of simple, earnest religious belief. She was brought up in the kirk of Scotland, but, like her husband, connected herself in middle life with the Congregationalists. She communicated of her own religious conviction to her children; it is said that she handed down also a nervous organization.

Of these parents Robert Browning was born in the parish of St. Giles, Camberwell, London, May 7, 1812. He was the oldest of the small family, having two sisters, one, Clara, who died in childhood, and Sarianna, two years younger than himself, who outlived him. The country in which he was born and where he spent his childhood has been delightfully described by his great contemporary, Ruskin, whose Herne Hill was in the immediate neighborhood. Camberwell at that time was a suburb of London, with rural spaces and near access to the open country, though the stony foot of the metropolis was already stepping outward upon the pleasant lanes and fields. There was room for gardening and the keeping of pets, while the country gave opportunity for forays into nature's fastnesses. The boy kept owls and monkeys, magpies and hedgehogs, an eagle, snakes even, and was touched with the collector's pride, as when he started a collection of rare creatures with a couple of lady-birds brought home one winter day and placed in a box lined with cotton wool and labelled, "Animals found surviving in the depths of a severe winter." It is easy for a reader of his poems to detect the close, sympathetic observation which he disclosed for all lower life.

Indeed the characteristics of his mind as seen in his writings afterward were readily disclosed in the evidence which remains to us of his boyhood. He was insatiably curious and he was imaginatively dramatic, and he had from the first the sane and generous aid of his parents in both these particulars. His father was passionately fond of children, and gave his own that best of gifts, appreciative companionship. "He was fond," says Mr. Sharp in his Life of Browning, "of taking the little Robert in his arms and walking to and fro with him in the dusk in 'the library,' soothing the child to sleep by singing to him snatches of Anacreon in the original to a favorite old tune of his, 'A Cottage in a Wood;'" and again the same biographer says: "One of his own [Robert's] recollections was that of sitting on his father's knees in the library, and listening with enthralled attention to the Tale of Troy, with marvellous illustrations among the glowing coals in the fireplace; with, below all, the vaguely heard accompaniment—from the neighboring room, where Mrs. Browning sat 'in her chief happiness, her hour of darkness and solitude and music'—of a wild Gaelic lament, with its insistent falling cadences."

The boy had an indifferent experience of formal schooling in his youth. The more fertilizing influence of his intellectual taste was found in his father's books. As has been said, his father had an intelligent and cultivated love of books, and eagerly shared his knowledge and his treasures with his boy. A seventeenth century edition of Quarles's Emblems, the first edition of Robinson Crusoe, an early edition of Milton, bought for him by his father, old Bibles, a wide range of Elizabethan literature—these were pastures in which the boy browsed. Besides, he knew the eighteenth century writers, Walpole, Junius, and even Voltaire being included by the catholic minded father. The special acquaintance with Greek came later, but Latin he began early.