561. DeQuincey planned a series of approximately twenty papers, Sighs from the Depths," of which that here reprinted is one of the earliest. The series was never completed, only six being published. DeQuincey had himself experienced the sorrows he writes of,-the death of father and sisters, social ostracism, and a subjection to opium which might easily have driven him mad. 562. 79. On the foundation. Holding a scholarship. 98. The Parcæ. The Fates. 563. 159. Telegraphed. DeQuincey means simply signalled," or "communicated by signs." 195. Keys more than papal. The "papal keys are the keys of St. Peter, symbolic of the Pope's power. 564. 257. Pariah. An outcast. 294. The tents of Shem. Shem, son of Noah, was supposed to be the ancestor of the Jews and wandering races. 307. Cybele. See note on Childe Harold, iv., l. 10. 339. Eumenides. The "benevolent" or gracious ones," a euphemistic name for the Furies. 565. 380. Accomplished. Made perfect. LANDOR THE DEATH OF ARTEMIDORA 566. 11. Iris. Messenger of the gods, who liberated the souls of the dying by loosening their hair. IPHIGENEIA AND AGAMEMNON 567. Because Agamemnon had slain a stag sacred to Diana, the goddess held the Grecian fleet, gathered for the Trojan war, in port at Aulis. Calchas, the soothsayer, reported that according to the oracle the goddess's wrath would endure until Iphigeneia, daughter of Agamemnon, should be sacrificed to her. According to one form of the story, Diana did not allow the sacrifice to be consummated, but carried Iphigeneia to Tauris, where she became priestess. Compare with Landor's treatment, stanzas 26-29 of Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women. TENNYSON CENONE 570. Enone was a nymph of Mt. Ida near Troy, beloved by Paris, but deserted by him after Venus, as a reward for his decision that she was most beautiful of the goddesses, had promised him the fairest woman in the world, Helen, for his wife. 571. 39, 40. As yonder walls, etc. According to one form of the story Apollo raised the walls of Troy by playing on his lyre. 79. Peleus. It was at the marriage feast of Peleus and Thetis that the golden apple was thrown which caused the strife among the goddesses. 81. Iris. Messenger of the gods. 572. 102. Peacock. Juno's bird. 170, 171. Idalian, Paphian. At Idalia and Paphos, in Crete, were special shrines to Venus. 573. 220. The Abominable. Eris, goddess of strife. 574. 257. The Greek woman. Helen. 259. Cassandra. Daughter of Priam, gifted with a power of prophecy, but doomed never to be believed. She foretold the fall of Troy. THE LOTOS-EATERS Based on Homer's account of how Ulysses and his mariners touched at the land of the lotos, the eating of whose flower produced forgetfulness of home. A DREAM OF FAIR WOMEN 575. 5. Dan. Don, Master, from Latin dominus. 27. Tortoise. Latin testudo; the name applied to the mode of defence used by the Roman legionaries in attacking a walled city, the holding and interlocking of their shields over their heads to form a solid protection against missiles hurled from the walls. 576. 85. A lady. Helen of Troy. 100. One that stood beside. Iphigeneia, 577. 146. Canopus. One of the brightest stars of the southern sky. 155. The other. Octavius Cæsar. 578. 195. Her that died. Jephtha's daughter; cf. Judges, xi. Antony for that of Eleanor, wife of Rosamond's paramour." (Rolfe.) 579. 263. Captain of my dreams. Venus, the morning star. 266. Her who clasped. Margaret Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas More; after he was beheaded she took his head down from London Bridge where it was exposed, and when she died had it buried in her arms. 269. Her who knew. Eleanor, wife of Edward I, who accompanied her husband on the First Crusade, and when he was stabbed with a poisoned dagger, sucked out the poison with her lips. MORTE D'ARTHUR Written in 1835, first published in 1842; afterwards incorporated, with additions, in The Passing of Arthur in Idylls of the King. Cf. Malory's account, pp. 47 ƒƒ. 4. Lyonnesse. A legendary country, including part of Cornwall, now supposed to be submerged beneath the sea. 580. 21. Camelot. Arthur's capital. 23. Merlin. Arthur's magician and chief adviser. 31. Samite. A heavy silk, sometimes interwoven with gold thread. 581. 139. Northern morn. Aurora Borealis. 140. Moving isles. Icebergs. 147. Cf. the metrical effect of this line with that of 1. 65 and 1. 112. 582. 186-192. The contrast between the first five lines of this passage and the last two is one of the best examples in English verse of the fitting of sound to sense; for a similar effect cf. ll. 49-51. 583. 242. One good custom should corrupt the world. "E. g., chivalry, by formation of habit or by any other means.' (Tennyson's note.) 259. Avilion. See Malory, p. 48. ULYSSES "The poem was written soon after Arthur Hallam's death, and it gives the feeling about the need of going forward and braving the struggle of life perhaps more simply than anything in In Memoriam." (Tennyson's note.) 10. Rainy Hyades. The constellation Hyades was associated by the ancients with stormy weather. 584. 26. Every hour is saved. Every hour that is saved is something more. IN MEMORIAM 590. Composed in memory of Arthur Henry Hallam, whose acquaintance Tennyson made at Cambridge, and who was later engaged to Tennyson's sister. He died at Vienna in 1833, and the lyrics composing the poem were written at various times between then and 1850, the date of their final arrangement and publication. 5. Orbs of light and shade. Sun and moon, not eyes, as has sometimes been suggested. 591. 1. Wild bird. The nightingale, whose song has always been celebrated for passionate mingling of joy and pain. 2. Quicks. Quickset; slips, especially of hawthorn, set to form a hedge. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE 594. Written to commemorate a fatal charge at Balaclava in the Crimean War, 1854; the poem was based on a phrase in the London Times's account of the battle: "Some one had blundered." NORTHERN FARMER Written in the Lincolnshire dialect." It is a vivid piece out of the great comedy of man, not of its mere mirth, but of that elemental humorousness of things which belongs to the lives of the brutes as well as to ourselves, that steady quaintness of the ancient earth and all who are born of her... continually met in the peasant and farmer class." (Stopford Brooke: Tennyson, His Art and Relation to Modern Life). THE REVENGE 597. Tennyson found the story in Raleigh's spirited account; see p. 103. RIZPAH 599. Based on an incident read by Tennyson in a magazine. For significance of title see 2 Samuel, xxi. 600. 73. Election and Reprobation. Calvinistic doctrines; all men were supposed to be damned for original sin, except a chosen few whom God elected for salvation. MERLIN AND THE GLEAM 601. An allegory of Tennyson's literary life. For commentary see the preface to the present Lord Tennyson's Memoir of his father. CROSSING THE BAR 603. Tennyson directed that this poem should be placed at the end of all collected editions of his works. BROWNING CAVALIER TUNES In these three dashing lyrics Browning reflects the spirit of reckless loyalty to the King, and contempt for the Puritans, which animated the supporters of Charles I. MARCHING ALONG 2. Crop-headed. The Puritans wore their hair cut short in contrast with the Cavaliers, whose long curls fell upon their shoulders. Roundheads," the name frequently applied to the Puritans, has the same implication. Parliament. The Long Parliament, controlled by the Puritan party. 603. 7. Pym. One of the Puritan leaders in the Long Parliament, as were Hampden, Hazelrig, Fiennes, and Sir Henry Vane the Younger (ll. 13-14). 15. Rupert. Prince Rupert, nephew of Charles I, and leader of the Royalist cavalry. 22. Nottingham. Where Charles raised his standard at the opening of the Civil War in 1642. MEMORABILIA 615. The speaker, in contrast with the person he addresses, is so intense an admirer of Shelley that it seems to him that if he could once have seen and spoken with the poet the meeting would have dwarfed in importance all the other events of his life. Browning in his youth admired Shelley greatly. MY LAST DUCHESS The dramatic monologue, Browning's favorite poetic form, and one which he uses with the utmost skill, presents some difficulty to the reader on account of its directness and compression. It differs from the soliloquy, e. g., of Shakespeare, in that the presence of a second person, a listener, is to be inferred; oftentimes the speaker responds to a question or gesture, implied only in the answer, on the part of this silent listener. Cf. My Last Duchess, 11. 53-54. It is a good plan for the student to read the poem through once or twice in an effort to get the situation and some conception of the speaker's character before trying to discover the meaning of each line. The poem may then be studied in detail; it should be noted that no break in the thought, no interjection, is without its significance. The speaker is Duke of Ferrara, one of the oldest and proudest of the Italian communes. There could be no greater contrast in character than that between the Duke of impeccable manners and exquisite artistic taste, but selfish to the core and absolutely heartless-and the young Duchess-naïve, filled with the joy of life, whose graciousness springs from a heart pure and generous. 3. Frà. Brother. Pandolf, an imaginary character, is a monk, like so many of the painters of the Italian Renaissance. 616. 9. Since none puts by, etc. The parenthesis gives a hint of the Duke's esteem for the picture: he values it not at all as a reminder of his Duchess, but simply as a work of art, and as such, is careful to protect it from possible harm. 45, 6. I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. Generally interpreted to mean that the Duke gave orders for the lady's death. In reply to a question by Corson, Browning himself said, “ Yes, I meant that the commands were that she be put to death," adding after a pause, "Or he might have had her shut up in a convent." 53, 4. Nay, we'll go Together down, sir. The envoy, in deference to the Duke's birth, has dropped back, but the Duke, with perfect condescension, calls him forward to a position of equality. 56. Claus of Innsbruck, Another imaginary artist, IN A GONDOLA 617. 22. The Three. Enemies of the man, unidentified; one seems to be closely related to the woman: cf. 1. 107 618. 127. Giudecca. One of the canals of Venice. 619. 186–192. The pictures seem to be imaginary, though the artists are well known. Haste-thee-Luke. A nickname for Luca Giordano, a Neapolitan. A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL As My Last Duchess illustrates the artistic taste of the Renaissance period, and The Bishop Orders His Tomb the love of luxury, so this poem exemplifies the devotion to pure learning which characterized some of the Renaissance scholars. Grammarian should be taken in a rather wide sense; it is equivalent to philologist, one who loves learning. Certain of the Grammarian's disciples are carrying the body of their master for burial in one of the Italian hill towns. 26. 'Ware the beholders! An adjuration to the pall-bearers to make a good appearance before spectators: "There are people watching us-put your best foot forward!" 620. 33, 34. Apollo was god of song and poetry, and patron of manly beauty; the implication is, therefore, that the Grammarian was not only a handsome man in his youth, but that, if he had chosen, he might have written lyric poetry. 45, 46. The world Bent on escaping. The masterpieces of classical literature which had for centuries lain mouldering in libraries. 50. Gowned. Put on the scholar's gown. 621. 129-131. Hoti, Oun, De. Greek particles. Though to some these might have seemed subjects so minute as to be ridiculous, the Grammarian had said the last word on them. THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB "The Bishop embodies certain tendencies of the Renaissance. No one who studies that marvellous period, whether in its history, its literature, or its plastic art, can fail to be profoundly struck by the way in which Paganism and Christianity, philosophic scepticism and gross superstition, the antique and the modern, enthusiastic love of the beautiful and vile immorality, were all mingled together without much, if any, consciousness of incompatibility or inconsistency." (W. J. Alexander: Introduction to the Poetry of Robert Browning.) Ruskin says, in Modern Painters: "I know no other piece of modern English, prose or poetry, in which there is so much told, as in these lines, of the Renaissance spirit-its world liness, inconsistency, pride, hypocrisy, ignorance of itself, love of art, of luxury, and of good Latin." 621. 5. Gandolf. A fellow churchman of the Bishop's, and a rival in matters ecclesiastic and secular. 8. And as she died so must we die our- 21. The epistle-side. The right-hand 622. 29. Peach-blossom marble. Particularly fine marble of a pinkish hue. an 31. Onion-stone. Italian cipollino (little onion), inferior greenish marble, readily splitting into thin layers, like the coats of an onion. 46. Frascati. A wealthy summer resort near Rome. 49. Jesu Church. Il Gesu, the church of the Jesuits, in which is an image of God, bearing a representation of the earth, made of lapis lazuli. 51, 2. Job, vii: 6, 9. "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. . . . So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more." 55. My frieze. Running around the sarcophagus, beneath the slab of basalt. 58. Tripod, thyrsus. Both Pagan symbols: the former connected with the worship of Apollo, whose priestess at Delphi sat upon a tripod when receiving the divine inspiration; the latter the vinewreathed staff carried by the followers of Bacchus. 74. Brown. I. e., with age. 77. Tully's. Cicero's, whose Latin style 82. God made and eaten. I. e., in the 87. Crook. Symbol of the Bishop's authority as shepherd of his people. 623. 95. Saint Praxed at his sermon on the mount. The dying man's mind confuses the two elements of his bas-relief mentioned in 59-60. Praxed was a female saint. 99. Elucescebat. The correct form is elucebat; this is presumably an example of Gandolf's" gaudy ware," 1. 78. 101. Cf. Genesis, xlvii: 9: " And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." 623. 108. Visor. A mask, like those worn by ancient actors. Term. A bust terminating in a square pedestal, like the representations of Terminus, god of boundaries. 109. Lynx. An animal which figures largely in representations of the Bacchic orgies. All the objects mentioned in 11. 107-110 are commonly found on ancient sarcophagi. 116. Gritstone. A coarse sandstone. ANDREA DEL SARTO "This poem was suggested by a portrait of Andrea and his wife, painted by himself and now hanging in the Pitti Gallery at Florence. Andrea is a painter who ranks high among the contemporaries of Raphael and Michel Angelo, especially by reason of his technical execution, which was so perfect as to win for him the surname of The Faultless Painter.' Early in life he enjoyed the favor of Francis I, at whose court he for a time resided; but having received a large sum of money from Francis for the purchase of works of art in Italy, he, under the influence of his wife, a beautiful but unprincipled woman, embezzled it, applying it to the erection of a house for himself at Florence." (W. J. Alexander: Introduction to the Poetry of Robert Browning.) 15. Fiesole. A hill town near Florence. 26. Serpentining. Suggesting a certain sinuous, undulant type of beauty. 35-40. The key-note of the poem. 624. 57. Cartoon. A preliminary sketch, or working design. 82. Low-pulsed forthright craftsman's 93. Morello. A spur of the Apennines, Urbino, died 1520. Raphael, born in 106. Vasari. Italian painter and writer of the 16th century, author of Lives of the Painters; he includes a life of Andrea, to which Browning is indebted for material in this poem. 625. 130. Agnolo. Michel Angelo. 146. The Paris lords. Courtiers of Francis I, who would have reproached Andrea for his embezzlement. 150. Fontainebleau. A royal palace near Paris. 153. Humane. Francis was a great patron of arts and letters, of the humanities. 155. Mouth's good mark that made the smile. Apparently means no more than smiling mouth. 626. 210. Cue-owls. So-called from the sound of their call; the Italian form is chiù. 220. Cousin. Lucrezia's gallant, who whistles for her to come to him. 626. 241. Scudi. Plural of scudo, a coin worth about a dollar; scudo means shield, and the coin bore on the obverse the shield of the prince who issued it. 627. 263. Leonard. Leonardo da Vinci. PROSPICE Written in the autumn following Mrs. Browning's death. The title means "Look forward." ABT VOGLER Abt (Abbé) Vogler (1749-1814), a German Catholic priest, and famous musician. He invented a new form of the organ, called the orchestrion, upon which he gave performances all over Europe, his improvisations being especially remarkable. 3. Solomon. According to Mohammedan legends, Solomon, thanks to a ring on which was engraved the name of God (1. 7), had control over the demons and genii of the underworld. 628. 23. Rome's dome. The dome of St. Peter's. 34. Protoplast. "The first-formed," the 629. 91. Common chord. The chord produced by the combination of any note with its third and fifth. 93. A ninth. An interval exceeding an octave by a tone (major), or by a semitone (minor). 96. C Major. The natural scale, having neither sharps nor flats. The last six lines of the poem give symbolic expression to the idea that from his supernal visions the musician descends gradually to the realities of every day. RABBI BEN EZRA Ben Ezra was a distinguished Jewish scholar of the twelfth century, noted especially for his commentaries on the Old Testament. The ideas expressed in the poem were to some extent suggested to the poet by Ben Ezra's writings, but Browning develops them in his own way, and makes the poem one of the best expressions of his philosophy of life. 17. Low kinds. The lower animals, living |