This philosophy is, however, ill-suited to the dark ministers of fate; and an oracular explosion from the earth's depths startles them back into sobriety; in which condition they repudiate the new knowledge which has been born of them, flinging it back on their accomplice with various expressions of disgust. They admit, nevertheless, that the web of human destiny often defeats their spinning; its intended good and evil change places with each other; the true significance of life is only revealed by death; and though they still refuse to yield to Apollo's demand, they compromise with it: Admetus shall live, if someone else will voluntarily die for him. It is true they neutralize their concession by deriding the idea of such a devoted person being found; and Apollo also shows himself a stranger to the decrees of the higher powers by making wrong guesses as to the event; but the whole episode is conceived in a humorous and very human spirit which especially reveals itself in the attitude of the contending parties towards each other. The Fates display throughout a proper contempt for what they regard as the showy but unsubstantial personality of the young god; and the natural antagonism of light and darkness, hope and despair, is as amusingly parodied in the mock deference and ill-disguised aversion with which he approaches them. Apollo finally vindicates Mr. Browning's optimistic theism by claiming the gifts of Bacchus, youngest of the gods, for the beneficent purpose and anterior wisdom of Zeus.

The one serious idea which runs through the poem is conveyed in its tribute to the power of wine: in other words, to the value of imagination as supplement to and interpreter of fact. Its partial, tentative, and yet efficient illumining of the dark places of life is vividly illustrated by Apollo: and he only changes his imagery when he speaks of Reason as doing the same work. It is the imaginative, not the scientific "reason" which Mr. Browning invokes as help in the perplexities of experience;[122] as it is the spiritual, and not scientific "experience" on which, in the subsequent discussions, he will so emphatically take his stand.[123]

In the first "parleying" Mr. Browning invokes the wisdom of BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE on certain problems of life: mainly those of the existence of evil and the limitations of human knowledge; and the optimistic views in which he believes Dr. Mandeville to concur with him are brought to bear on the more gloomy philosophy of Carlyle, some well-known utterances of whom are brought forward for confutation. The chief points of the argument are as follows:—

Carlyle complains that God never intervenes to check the tyranny of evil, so that it not only prevails in the present life, but for any sure indications which exist to the contrary may still do so in the life to come. It would be something, he thinks, if even triumphant wrong were checked, although (here we must read between the lines) this would be tantamount to the condoning of evil in all its less developed forms; better still if he who has the power to do so habitually crushed it at the birth.

Mr. Browning (alias Mandeville) replies by the parable of a garden in which beneficent and noxious plants grow side by side. "You must either," he declares, "admit—which you do not—that both good and evil were chance sown, or refer their joint presence to some necessary or pre-ordained connection between them. In the latter case you may use your judgment in pruning away the too great exuberance of the noxious plant, but if you destroy it once for all, you have frustrated the intentions of him who placed it there."

Carlyle reminds his opponent of that other parable, according to which it was an enemy who surreptitiously sowed the tares of evil, and these grow because no one can pull them out. Divine power and foresight are, in his opinion, incompatible with either theory, and both of these mistaken efforts on man's part to "cram" the infinite within the limits of his own mind and understand what passes understanding. He deprecates the folly of linking divine and human together on the strength of the short space which they may tread side by side, and the anthropomorphic spirit which subjects the one to the other by presenting the illimitable in human form.

Mr. Browning defends his position by an illustration of the use (as also abuse) of symbols spiritual and material; Carlyle retorts somewhat impatiently that in thinking of God we have no need of symbolism; we know Him as Immensity, Eternity, and other abstract qualities, and to fancy Him under human attributes is superfluous; and Mr. Browning dismisses this theology, with the intellectual curiosities and intellectual discontents which he knows in the present case to have accompanied it, in a modification of the Promethean myth—such a one as the more "human" Euripides might have imagined. "When the sun's light first broke upon the earth, and everywhere in and on this there was life, man was the only creature which did not rejoice: for he said, I alone am incomplete in my completeness; I am subject to a power which I alone have the intellect to recognize, hence the desire to grasp. I do not aspire to penetrate the hidden essence, the underlying mystery of the sun's force; but I crave possession of one beam of its light wherewith to render palpable to myself its unseen action in the universe. And Prometheus then revealed to him the 'artifice' of the burning-glass, through which henceforward he might enslave the sun's rays to his service while disrobing them of the essential brilliancy which no human sight could endure."

In the material uses of the burning-glass we have a parallel for the value of an intellectual or religious symbol. This too is a gathering point for impressions otherwise too diffuse; or, inversely conceived, a sign guiding the mental vision through spaces which would otherwise be blank. Its reduced or microcosmic presentment of facts too large for man's mental grasp suggests also an answer to those who bemoan the limitations of human knowledge. Characteristic remarks on this subject occur at the beginning of the poem.

Bernard de Mandeville figures throughout the "parleying" as author of "The Fable of the Bees"; and it is in this work that Mr. Browning discovers their special ground of sympathy. "The Fable of the Bees," also entitled "Private Vices Public Benefits," and again "The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves turned Honest," is meant to show that self-indulgence and self-seeking carried even to the extent of vice are required to stimulate the activities and secure the material well-being of a community. The doctrine, as originally set forth, had at least an appearance of cynicism, and is throughout not free from conscious or unconscious sophistry; and though the theological condemnation evoked by it was nothing short of insane, we cannot wonder that the morality of the author's purpose was impugned. He defends this, however, in successive additions to the work, asserting and re-asserting, by statement and illustration, that his object has been to expose the vices inherent to human society—in no sense to justify them; and Mr. Browning fully accepts the vindication and even regards it as superfluous. He sees nothing, either in the fable itself or the commentary first attached to it, which may not equally be covered by the Christian doctrine of original sin, or the philosophic acceptance of evil as a necessary concomitant, or condition, of good: and finds fresh guarantees for a sound moral intention in the bright humour and sound practical sense in which the book abounds. This judgment was formed (as I have already implied) very early in Mr. Browning's life, even before the appearance of "Pauline," and supplies a curious comment on any impression of mental immaturity which his own work of that period may have produced.

Bernard de Mandeville was a Dutch physician, born at Dort in the second half of the last century, but who settled in England after taking his degree. He published, besides "The Fable of the Bees," some works of a more professional kind. His name, as we know it, must have been Anglicized.

DANIEL BARTOLI was a Jesuit and historian of his order. Mr. Browning characterizes him in a footnote as "a learned and ingenious writer," and while acknowledging his blindness in matters of faith would gladly testify to his penetration in those of knowledge;[124] but the Don's editor, Angelo Cerutti, declares in the same note that his historical work so overflows with superstition and is so crammed with accounts of prodigious miracles as to make the reading it an infliction; and the saint-worship involved in this kind of narrative is the supposed text of the "parleying." Mr. Browning claims Don Bartoli's allegiance for a secular saint: a woman more divine in her non-miraculous virtues than some at least of those whom the Church has canonized, and whose existence has the merit of not being legendary. The saint in question was Marianne Pajot, daughter of the apothecary of Gaston Duke of Orleans; and her story, as Mr. Browning relates it, a well-known episode in the lives of Charles IV., Duke of Lorraine, and the Marquis de Lassay.

Charles of Lorraine fell violently in love with Marianne Pajot, whom he met at the "Luxembourg" when visiting Madame d'Orleans, his sister. She was "so fair, so modest, so virtuous, and so witty" that he did not hesitate to offer her his hand; and they were man and wife so far as legal formalities could make them when the Monarch (Louis XIV.) intervened. Charles had by a recent treaty made Louis his heir. This threatened no obstacle to his union, since a clause in the marriage contract barred all claims to succession on the part of the children who might be born of it. But "Madame" resented the mesalliance; she joined her persuasions with those of the Minister le Tellier; and the latter persuaded the young King, not absolutely to prevent the marriage, but to turn it to account. A paper was drawn up pledging the Duke to fresh concessions, and the bride was challenged in the King's name to obtain his signature to it. On this condition she was to be recognized as Duchess with all the honours due to her rank; failing this, she was to be banished to a convent. The alternative was offered to her at the nuptial banquet, at which le Tellier had appeared—a carriage and military escort awaiting him outside. She emphatically declined taking part in so disgraceful a compact:[125] and after doing her best to allay the Duke's wrath (which was for the moment terrible), calmly allowed the Minister to lead her away, leaving all the bystanders in tears. A few days later Marianne returned the jewels which Charles had given her, saying, it was not suitable that she should keep them "since she had not the honour of being his wife." He seems to have resigned her without farther protest.

De Lassay was much impressed by this occurrence, though at the time only ten years old. He too conceived an attachment for Marianne Pajot, and married her, being already a widower, at the age of twenty-three. Their union, dissolved a few years later by her death, was one of unclouded happiness on his part, of unmixed devotion on hers; and the moral dignity by which she had subjugated this somewhat weak and excitable nature was equally attested by the intensity of her husband's sorrow and by its transitoriness. The military and still more amorous adventures of the Marquis de Lassay make him a conspicuous figure in the annals of French Court life. He is indirectly connected with our own through a somewhat pale and artificial passion for Sophia Dorothea, the young Princess of Hanover, whose husband became ultimately George I. Mr. Browning indicates the later as well as earlier stages of de Lassay's career; he only follows that of the Duke of Lorraine into an imaginary though not impossible development. Charles had shown himself a being of smaller spiritual stature than his intended wife; and it was only too likely, Mr. Browning thinks, that the diamonds which should have graced her neck soon sparkled on that of some venal beauty whose challenge to his admiration proceeded from the opposite pole of womanhood. Nevertheless he feels kindly towards him. The nobler love was not dishonoured by the more ignoble fancy, since it could not be touched by it. Duke Charles was still faithful as a man may be.

With CHRISTOPHER SMART is an interrogative comment on the strange mental vicissitudes of this mediocre poet, whose one inspired work, "A Song to David," was produced in a mad-house[126]. Of this "Song" Rossetti has said (I quote the "Athenaeum" of Feb. 19, 1887) in a published letter to Mr. Caine, "This wonderful poem of Smart's is the only great accomplished poem of the last century. The unaccomplished ones are Chatterton's—of course I mean earlier than Blake or Coleridge, and without reckoning so exceptional a genius as Burns. A masterpiece of rich imagery, exhaustive resources, and reverberant sound." How Mr. Browning was impressed by such a work of genius, springing up from the dead level of the author's own and his contemporary life, he describes in a simile.

He is exploring a large house. He goes from room to room, finding everywhere evidence of decent taste and sufficient, but moderate, expenditure: nothing to repel and nothing to attract him in what he sees. He suddenly enters the chapel; and here all richness is massed, all fancy is embodied, art of all styles and periods is blended to one perfection. He passes from it into another suite of rooms, half fearful of fresh surprise; and decent mediocrity, respectable commonplace again meet him on every side. Thus, it seems to him, was the imagination of Christopher Smart for one moment transfigured by the flames of madness to resume for ever afterwards the prosaic character of its sanity; and he now asks the author of "A Song to David" how one who had thus touched the absolute in art could so decline from it. He assumes that the madness had but revealed the poet: whether or not the fiery outbreak was due to force suppressed or to particles of brain substance disturbed. Why was he after as before silent?

It might be urged in answer that the full glory of that vision did not return—that the strength and beauty of the universe never came to him again with so direct a message for the eye and ear of his fellow men. But, Mr. Browning continues, impressions of strength and beauty are only the materials of knowledge. They contain the lesson of life. And that lesson is not given in the reiterated vision of what is beautiful, but in the patient conversion into knowledge and motive of such impressions of beauty—in other words, of strength or power—as Man's natural existence affords. The poet's privilege, as the poet's duty, is not merely to impart the pleasure, but to aid the process of instruction. He only suggests the explanation to disclaim it in Smart's name.

These arguments are very typical of Mr. Browning's philosophy of Art: of his conviction that Art has no mission, its intuitions have no authority, distinct from moral and intellectual truth. He concludes the little sermon by denouncing that impatience of Fancy which would grasp the end of things before the beginning, and scale the heights of Knowledge, while rejecting Experience, through which, as by a ladder, we scale them step by step.

The lines in "Paracelsus," vol. ii., p. 36, which are in this view so appropriate to the case of Christopher Smart, bore reference to him. The main facts of his life may be found in any biographical dictionary.

With GEORGE BUBB DODINGTON is a lesson in the philosophy of intrigue, or the art of imposing on our fellow men. It is addressed to Bubb Dodington[127] as to an ambitious, obsequious, unscrupulous, and only partially successful courtier; and undertakes to show that, being (more or less) a knave, his conduct also proclaimed him a fool, and lost him the rewards of knavery. Mr. Browning does not concern himself with the moralities of the case; these, for the time being, are put out of court. He assumes, for the purposes of the discussion, that everyone is selfish and no one need be sincere, and that "George" was justified in labouring for his own advancement and cheating others, if possible, into subservience to it; but he argues that the aim being right, the means employed were wrong, and could only result in failure.

The argument begins and ends in the proposition, in itself a truism but which receives here a novel significance, that nothing in creation obeys its like, and that he who would mount by the backs of his fellow men must show some reason why they should lend them. In the olden time, we are reminded, such reasons were supplied by physical force; later, force was superseded by intelligence, i.e., wit or cunning; and this must now be supplemented by something deeper, because it has become the property of so many persons as to place no one person at an advantage. Bubb Dodington's methods have been those of simple cunning, and therefore they have not availed him. The multitude whom he cajoled have seen through his cajoleries, and have resented in these both the attempt to deceive them and the pretension—unfounded as it proved—to exalt himself at their expense.

How then can the multitude be deceived into subservience?—By the pretence of indifference to them. An impostor is always supposed to be in earnest. The commonplace impostor is so: he has staked everything on the appearance of being sincere. He, on the other hand, who is reckless in mendacity, who cheats with a laughing eye; who, while silently strenuous in a given cause, appears to take seriously neither it, himself, nor those on whom both depend, irresistibly strikes the vulgar as moved by something greater than himself or they. A "quack" he may be, but like the spiritualistic quack, he invokes the belief in the Supernatural, and perhaps shares it. He has the secret which Bubb Dodington had not.

It may be wondered why Mr. Browning treats the shallower political cunning as merely a foil to the deeper, instead of opposing to it something better than both: but he finds the natural contrast to the half-successful schemer in the wholly triumphant one: and the second picture, like the first, has been drawn from life. It is that of the late Lord Beaconsfield—as Mr. Browning sees him.

With FRANCIS FURINI is a defence of the study of the nude, based on the life and work of this Florentine painter (born 1600), who at the age of forty also became a priest. According to his biographer, Filippo Baldinucci,[128] Furini was not only a skilful artist, but a conscientious priest, and a good man. No reproach attached to him but that he attained a special charm of colouring through the practice of painting very young women undraped; and we may infer that he repented this from the current report that when he felt himself dying he entreated those about him to have his pictures burnt. But Baldinucci also relates that he had a specious answer ready for whoever remonstrated with him on thus endangering his soul. The answer, which he frankly quotes, is by no means "specious" in the sense in which it is made; and Mr. Browning cannot believe that a man so inspired by the true artistic passion as those words imply, could in any circumstances become ashamed of the acts to which they refer. "If," Furini says, "those scrupulous persons only knew what is the agony of endeavour with which the artist strives at faithfully imitating what he sees, they would also know how little room this leaves in him for the intrusion of alien" (immoral) "thoughts." Mr. Browning goes farther still. He asserts not only the innocence, but the religiousness, of the painter's art when directed towards the marvels of the female form. He declares its exercise, so directed, to be a subject, not of shame in the sight of the Creator, but of thanksgiving to Him, and also the best form in which human thanks can be conveyed; and he employs all the vividness of his illustration and all the force of his invective against the so-called artist who sees in the Divineness of female beauty only incitement to low desires; in the art which seeks to reproduce it only a cloak for their indulgence. His argument is very strong, and would be unanswerable, but for the touch of speciousness which Baldinucci by anticipation detects in it: Mr. Browning—as did Furini—regards the breach of formal chastity exclusively from the artist's point of view. But he may also argue that this will in the long run determine that of the spectator and that the model herself is from the first amenable to it.

Mr. Browning lays stress upon the technical skill which results from the close copying of nature, and by virtue of which Furini must be styled a good painter, whether or not a great one: and though he has never underrated the positive value of technical skill, we do not feel that in this third page of the "parleyings" he gives to the inspiring thought as high a relative place as in his earlier works. The old convictions reappear at pages 182-3 of vol. xvi., when he asserts the danger in which the skilled hand may involve the artistic soul, by stifling its insight into the spiritual essence of fleshly things or silencing its testimony to it; when, too, he admits that not the least worthy of the "sacred" ones have been thus betrayed. He still, however, maintains that the true offender against Art will ever be the mock artist—the Philistine—who sees cause of offence in it.

After proclaiming the religiousness of Art, Furini is called upon to unfold his theology: and he then passes to a confession of faith in which Mr. Browning's known personal Theism is contrasted with the scientific doctrines of Evolution. The Scientist and the Believer would as he distinguishes them join issue on the value of the artistic study of man, since man is for both of them the one essential object of knowledge; but the study (artistic or scientific) is, Mr. Browning considers, unrepaying in the one case, while it yields all necessary results in the other. According to the scientist, Man reigns supreme by his intelligence; according to the Believer, he is subject to all the helplessness of his ignorance. In reasoning, therefore, each from his own consciousness, the one finds his starting point at the summit of creation, the other virtually at the bottom of it. The Scientist acknowledges no mind beyond that of man; he seeks the impulse to life within itself, and can therefore only track it through the descending scale of being into the region of inorganic atoms and blind force. The believer refers that impulse to a conscious external First Cause, and is content to live surrounded by its mystery, entrenched within the facts of his own existence, guided (i.e., drawn upwards) by the progressive revelations which these convey to him.

It is so that Furini has lived and learned. He has found his lesson in the study of the human frame. There, as on a rock of experience, he has planted his foot, finding confusion and instability wherever he projected this beyond it; striking out sparks of knowledge at every stamp on the firm ground. He has learned that the Cause of Life is external, because he has seen how the soul permeates and impels the body, how it makes it an instrument of its own raptures and a sharer in them; and he believes that that which caused the soul and thus gifted it will ultimately silence the spiritual conflict with Evil and perfect Its own creation. He believes this because Evil has revealed itself to him as the necessary complement of Good—the antitype through which alone the type defines itself; as a condition of knowledge; as a test of what is right; as a motive to life and virtue so indispensable that it must exist as illusion if it did not exist as fact; because, therefore, its existence cannot detract from the goodness of the First Cause or the promise which that contains.

This constant assertion of the necessity of evil would land Mr. Browning in a dilemma, if the axiom were presented by him in any character of dogmatic truth: since it claims priority for certain laws of thought over a Being which, if Omnipotent, must have created them. But the anomaly disappears in the more floating outlines of a poetic personal experience; and Mr. Browning (alias Furini) once more assures us that what he "knows" of the nature and mode of action of the First Cause he knows for himself only. How it operates for others is of the essence of the mystery which enfolds him. Whether even the means of his own instruction is reality or illusion, fiction or fact, is beyond his ken; he is satisfied that it should be so.

Mr. Browning reverts to his defence of the nude in the description of a picture—exhibited last year at the Grosvenor Gallery—the subject of which he offers to Furini for treatment in the manner described.[129]

With GERARD DE LAIRESSE is a critical reminiscence of the unreal and mythological in art, and its immediate subject a Belgian painter, born at Liege, but who nourished at Amsterdam in the second half of the seventeenth century. De Lairesse was a man of varied artistic culture as well as versatile skill; but he was saturated with the pseudo-classical spirit of the later period of the renaissance; and landscape itself scarcely existed for him but as a setting for mythological incident or a subject for embellishment by it. This is curiously apparent in a treatise on the Art of Painting, which he composed, and, by a form of dictation, also illustrated, when at the age of fifty he had lost his sight. An English version of this fell into Mr. Browning's hands while he was yet a child, and the deep and, at the time, delightful impression which it made upon him is the motive of the present poem. Foremost in his memory is an imaginary "Walk,"[130] in which the exercise of fancy which the author practises and, Mr. Browning tells us, enjoins, is strikingly displayed by his "conjecturing" Phaeton's tomb from the evidence of a carved thunderbolt in an empty sepulchre, and the remains of the "Chariot of the Sun" from a piece of broken wheel and some similar fragment buried in the adjoining ground.

The remembrance converts itself into a question: the poet's fancy no longer peoples the earth with gods and goddesses; has his insight become less vivid? has the poetic spirit gone back? The answer is unwavering; retrogression is not in the creative plan. The poet does not go back. He is still as of yore a seer; he has only changed in this, that his chosen visions are of the soul; their objects are no longer visible unrealities, but the realities which are unseen. He can still, if he pleases, evoke those as these, and Mr. Browning proceeds to show it by calling up a series of dissolving views representing another "walk."

A majestic and varied landscape unfolds before us in the changing lights of a long summer's day; and at each appropriate artistic moment becomes the background of a mythological, idyllic, or semi-mythical scene. In the early dawn we see Prometheus amidst departing thunders chained to his rock:[131] the glutted, yet still hungering vulture cowering beside him; in the dews of morning, Artemis triumphant in her double character of huntress-queen and goddess of sudden death; in the heats of noon, Lyda and the Satyr, enacting the pathetic story of his passion and her indifference;[132] in the lengthening shadows, the approaching shock of the armies of Darius and Alexander;[133]—in the falling night, a dim, silent, deprecating figure: in other words, a ghost.

And here Mr. Browning bids the "fooling" stop; for he has touched the point of extreme divergence between the classic spirit and his own. The pallid vision which he repels speaks dumbly of pagan regret for what is past, of pagan hopelessness of the to-come. His religion, as we are again reminded, is one of hope. Let us, he says, do and not dream, look forward and not back; ascend the tree of existence into its ripening glory, not hastening over leaf or blossom, not dallying with them; leave Greek lore buried in its own ashes, and accept the evidence of life itself that extinction is impossible; that death—mystery though it is, calamity though it may be—ends nothing which has once begun. We may then greet the spring which we do not live to see in other words than those of the Greek bard; and the words suggested are those of a dainty lyric, in which the note of gladness seems to break with a little sob, and rings, perhaps, on that account the truer.[134]

With CHARLES AVISON might be called a reverie on music and musicians, but for the extraordinary vividness of the images and emotions which it conveys. It was induced, Mr. Browning tells us, by a picturesque little incident which set his thoughts vibrating to the impressions of the word "March": and supplies a parable for their instinctive flight into a discredited and forgotten past. They have been feeling for a piece of march-music; they have bridged the gulf which separates the school of Wagner and Brahms from that of Handel or Buononcini; they alight on Charles Avison's "Grand March."[135] It is a simple continuous air, such as hearts could beat to in the olden time, though flat and somewhat thin, and unrelieved by those caprices of modulation which are essential to modern ears; and as it repeats itself in Mr. Browning's brain, the persistent melody gains force from its very persistence: till it fills with the sound, as it were glows with the aerial clashings, of many martial instruments, till it strides in the lengthening, drum-accentuated motion of many marching feet. He ponders the fact that such melody has lost its power, and asks himself why this must be: since the once perfected can never be surpassed, and the music of Charles Avison was in its own day as inspiring and inspired—in other words, as perfect—as that for which it has been cast aside.

He finds his answer in the special relation of this art to the life of man. Music resembles painting and poetry in the essential characteristic that her province is not Mind but Soul—the swaying sea of emotion which underlies the firm ground of attainable, if often recondite, fact. All three have this in common with the activities of Mind that they strive for the same result; they aim at recording feeling as science registers facts. The two latter in some measure attain this end, because they deal with those definite moments of the soul's experience which share the nature of fact. But music dredges deeper in the emotional sea. She draws forth and embodies the more mysterious, more evanescent, more fluid realities of the soul's life; and so, effecting more than the sister arts, she yet succeeds less. Her forms remain; the spirit ebbs away from them. As, however, Mr. Browning's own experience has shown, the departed spirit may return—

"... Off they steal— How gently, dawn-doomed phantoms! back come they Full-blooded with new crimson of broad day— Passion made palpable once more." (P. 232.)

The revived passion may breathe under the name of another man; it may stir again in the utterance of one dead and forgotten; and Mr. Browning, borrowing the language of chemistry, invokes the reactive processes through which its many-coloured flamelets may spring to life.[136] He then passes by an insensible—because to him very natural—transition from the realities of feeling to those of thought, and to the underlying truth from which both series derive: and combats the idea that in thought, any more than in feeling, the present can disprove the past, the once true reveal itself as delusion. Time—otherwise growth—widens the range as it complicates the necessities of musical, i.e. emotional expression. It destroys the enfolding fictions which shield without concealing the earlier stages of intellectual truth. But the emotions were in existence before music began; and Truth was potentially "at full" within us when as it were reborn to grow and bud and blossom for the mind of man.[137] Therefore, he has said, addressing Avison's March, "Blare it forth, bold C Major!" and "Therefore," he continues, in a swift return of fancy:—

"... Bang the drums, Blow the trumps, Avison! March-motive? That's Truth which endures resetting. Sharps and flats, Lavish at need, shall dance athwart thy score When ophicleide and bombardon's uproar Mate the approaching trample, even now Big in the distance—or my ears deceive— Of federated England, fitly weave March-music for the future!" (P. 237.)

The musical transformation is for a moment followed back to the days of Elizabethan plain-song, and then arrested at those of Avison, where he may be imagined as joining chorus with Bach in celebrating the struggle for English liberty. The closing stanzas are written to the music of Avison's March, which is also given[138] at the end of the poem, and throws a helpful light on its more technical parts.

FUST AND HIS FRIENDS is based on a version of the Faust legend which identifies the inventor of printing with Dr. Faust, and contains allusions to some of the incidents of Goethe's double poem: the magical drinking bout of the first part, and the appearance of the Grecian Helen in the second; but whereas the popular tradition makes Fust's great discovery the fruit of his alliance with the powers of Evil, Mr. Browning represents it as an act of atonement for the figurative devil-worship which was involved in a disorderly and ostentatious life. Fust has by his own admission sinned to this extent.[139] He has obeyed the father of lies. He has also accepted with thankfulness the chance of redeeming his soul by a signal service rendered to the cause of Truth. The process of engraving on gold, furtively witnessed in a Tuscan workshop, has suggested to him the manufacture of metallic types, and he has been for years secluded with the conception of his printing-press, and glowing visions of that winged word which should one day fly forth at his command. Complacent ignorance and stupidity have buzzed freely about him as he sat unaided and alone in what Mr. Browning poetically depicts as the prolonged travail of a portentous mental birth; and, as we are led to imagine, much well-meant remonstrance and advice rebounded from his closed door. But at the moment in question the door is open, for the work of Fust is complete. Seven "Friends" present themselves prepared to lecture him for his good and for that of their city (Mayence) which is endangered by his compact with the Devil; and the ensuing intensely humorous colloquy supplies him with the fitting occasion for distributing specimens of his new art and displaying the mechanism through which its apparent magic is achieved. He then pours forth his soul in an impassioned utterance, half soliloquy, half prayer, in which gratitude for his own redemption tempers the sense of triumph in the world-wide intellectual deliverance he has been privileged to effect, and becomes a tribute of adoration to that Absolute of Creative Knowledge, the law of which he has obeyed; which stirs in the unconsciousness of the ore and plant, and impels man to Its realization step by step in the ever-receding, ever-present vision of his own ignorance.

He owns, however, when the talk is resumed, that his happiness is not free from cloud: since the wings which he has given to truth will also aid the diffusion of falsehood; and the note of humour returns to the situation when this contingency asserts itself in the mind of some of the "friends." These worthies have passed through the descending scale of feeling proper to such persons on such an occasion. They have received Fust's invention as diabolical—as wonderful—as very simple after all; and now the fact stares them in the face that, printing being so simple, the Hussite may publish his heresies as well as the Churchman his truth, and the old sure remedy of burning him and his talk together will no longer avail. One of the two Divines on whom this impresses itself had indeed "been struck by it from the first."

The poem concludes with a joke on the name of Huss, which (I am told) is the Bohemian equivalent for "goose," and his reported prophecy of the advent and the triumph of Luther: which prophecy Fust re-echoes.[140]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 121: We must remark that these arguments are not directed against Atheism and its naturalistic philosophy, which supplies, in Mr. Browning's judgment, a consistent, if erroneous, solution of the problem. They only attack the position of those who would retain the belief in a personal God, and yet divest Him of every quality which makes such a Being thinkable.]

[Footnote 122: It has been wrongly inferred from the passage in question that Mr. Browning admits the pretensions of science to solve the problems of the universe.]

[Footnote 123: The "goddess-sent plague" woven by Lachesis into the destiny of Admetus was a vengeance of Artemis which befell him on the day of his marriage. He had slighted her by omitting the usual sacrifice, and in punishment of this she sent a crowd of serpents to meet him in the nuptial chamber; but Apollo effected a reconciliation between them.]

[Footnote 124: He had, as a young man, so great an admiration for one of Bartoli's works, "De' Simboli trasportati al Morale," that when he travelled he always carried it with him.]

[Footnote 125: Her reply was that if she possessed any influence over M. de Lorraine she would never use it to make him do anything so contrary to his honour and to his interests; she already sufficiently reproached herself for the marriage to which his friendship for her had impelled him; and would rather be "Marianne" to the end of her days than become Duchess on such conditions The reply has been necessarily modified in Mr. Browning's more poetic rendering of the scene]

[Footnote 126: Indented,—for want of writing materials,—with a key on the wainscot of his cell.]

[Footnote 127: Created Lord Melcombe a year before his death: sufficiently known by his diary from March, 1748, to Feb., 1761. See its character in the Preface to the original edition by his relation, Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, 1784. Other notices will be found in "Edgeworth on Education," Belsham's "George II.," and Hawkins' "Life of Johnson."]

[Footnote 128: Furini is also honourably mentioned in Pilkington's "Dictionary of Painters," revised by Fuseli, and till the middle of the present century the authoritative work on the subject. It is stated in the edition of 1805 that "many of his paintings are in Florence, which are deemed to add honour to the valuable collections of the nobility of that city."]

[Footnote 129: The allusion in vol. xvi. p. 195, to the old artificer who could make men "believe" instead of merely "fancy" that what he presented to them was real, refers especially to the Greek painter Zeuxis; but it is suggested by the generally realistic character of Greek art.]

[Footnote 130: Described at p. 253 and onwards under the heading "Painter-like Beauty in the Open Air."]

[Footnote 131: The last line and a half of the eighth stanza was directly suggested by the tragedy of AEschylus; the thunderstorm by another version of the Promethean myth.]

[Footnote 132: See Shelley's translation from Moschus.]

[Footnote 133: Battle of Arbela.]

[Footnote 134: These lines were published in 1886 in the little volume entitled "The New Amphion."]

[Footnote 135: Organist of Newcastle about 1750; author of "An Essay on Musical Expression" and other works.]

[Footnote 136: The "Relfe" spoken of in this connection was Mr. Browning's music-master: a learned contrapuntist.]

[Footnote 137: In interpreting this passage I have somewhat exceeded the letter, but only to emphasize the spirit of Mr. Browning's words.]

[Footnote 138: From an MS. copy formerly in the possession of Mr. Browning's father.]

[Footnote 139: The wealth to which he alludes was justly imputed to him, as the real Fust was a goldsmith's son.]

[Footnote 140: The relation of John Fust to the popular legend is pleasantly set forth in Mr. Sutherland Edwards' little book, "The Faust Legend: Its Origin and Development."]



NOTE.

The following note shows Mr. Browning in a more pronounced attitude towards the opponents of the new Greek spelling than does that which, by his desire, I inserted in my first edition; but the last mood was in this case only a natural development of the first:—

"I have just noticed in this month's 'Nineteenth Century' that it is inquired by a humorous objector to the practice of spelling (under exceptional conditions) Greek proper names as they are spelt in Greek literature, why the same principle should not be adopted by 'AEgyptologists, Hebraists, Sanscrittists, Accadians, Moabites, Hittites, and Cuneiformists?' Adopt it, by all means, whenever the particular language enjoyed by any fortunate possessor of these shall, like Greek, have been for about three hundred years insisted upon in England as an acquisition of paramount importance, at school and college, for every aspirant to distinction in learning, even at the cost of six or seven years' study—a sacrifice considered well worth making for even an imperfect acquaintance with 'the most perfect language in the world.' Further, it will be adopted whenever the letters substituted for those in ordinary English use shall do no more than represent to the unscholarly what the scholar accepts without scruple when, for the hundredth time, he reads the word which, for once, he has occasion to write in English, and which he concludes must be as euphonic as the rest of a language renowned for euphony. And, finally, the practice will be adopted whenever the substituted letters effect no sort of organic change so as to jostle the word from its pride of place in English verse or prose. 'Themistokles' fits in quietly everywhere, with or without the k: but in a certain poetical translation I remember, by a young friend, of the Anabasis, beginning thus felicitously, 'Cyrus the Great and Artaxerxes (Whose temper bloodier than a Turk's is) Were children both of the mild, pious, And happy monarch, King Darius,'—who fails to see that, although a correct 'Kuraush' may pass, yet 'Darayavush' disturbs the metre as well as the rhyme? It seems, however, that 'Themistokles' may be winked at: not so the 'harsh and subversive Kirke.' But let the objector ask somebody with no knowledge to subvert, how he supposes 'Circe' is spelt in Greek, and the answer will be 'with a soft c.' Inform him that no such letter exists, and he guesses, 'Then with s, if there be anything like it' Tell him that, to eye and ear equally, his own k answers the purpose, and you have, at all events, taught him that much, if little enough—and why does he live unless to learn a little?"

"R. B."

Jan. 4, 1866.



A CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BROWNING'S WORKS.

1833. PAULINE; A FRAGMENT OF A CONFESSION. 8vo. Saunders and Otley, 1833. Dated at the end "Richmond, Oct. 22, 1832." Reprinted in the six vol. editions of the Poetical Works, 1868, and later. Also reprinted from the original edition and edited by T. J. Wise, 1886.

1834. SONNET, "Eyes calm beside thee (Lady couldst thou know!") Dated Aug. 17, 1834, and signed "Z." Monthly Repository, vol. viii., N.S., 1834, p. 712. Not reprinted by Mr. Browning.

1835. PARACELSUS. By Robert Browning. 8vo. Effingham Wilson, 1835. Reprinted in Poems, 2 vols. 1849, and in Poetical Works later, but without Preface, dated 15th March, 1835.

1835. THE KING. "A king lived long ago." 54 lines signed "Z," in the Monthly Repository, vol. ix., N.S., 1835, pp. 707-8. Afterwards given in Pippa Passes (sc. I, act iii.) with six additional lines.

1836. PORPHYRIA. "The rain set early in to-night." Sixty lines signed "Z," in Monthly Repository, vol. x., N.S., 1836, pp. 43-4. Afterwards appeared in Bells and Pomegranates under the heading "Madhouse Cells II." Was called "Porphyria's Lover" in the Works, 1863 and after.

1836. JOHANNES AGRICOLA. "There's Heaven above; and night by night." Sixty lines signed "Z," in Monthly Repository, vol. x., N.S., 1836, pp. 45-6. Reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates under the heading "Madhouse Cells I."

1836. LINES. "Still ailing, wind? wilt be appeased or no?" Six stanzas signed "Z," in the Monthly Repository, vol. x., N.S., 1836, pp. 270-71. Reappeared in Dramatis Personae (1864) as the first six stanzas of section vi. of "James Lee."

1837. STRAFFORD: AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY. By Robert Browning. 8vo. Longmans, 1837. Acted at Covent Garden Theatre, May 1, 1837. Reprinted without preface in Poetical Works, 863, and later. Acting edition, for the North London Collegiate School for Girls, 1882, 8vo. An edition (including preface of 1837) with notes and preface by Miss E. H. Hickey, and introduction by S. R. Gardiner, LL.D., 1884, 8vo.

1840. SORDELLO. By Robert Browning. 8vo. E. Moxon, 1840. Revised edition with prefatory letter to J. Milsand, in Poetical Works, 3 vols. 1863, and later.

1841-6. BELLS AND POMEGRANATES. Eight numbers in wrappers, Rl. 8vo., 1841-46, as follows:—

1841. No. 1. PIPPA PASSES. By Robert Browning. London, E. Moxon, 1841.

1842. No. 2. KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES. By Robert Browning. London, E. Moxon, 1842.

1842. No. 3. DRAMATIC LYRICS. By Robert Browning, London, E. Moxon, 1842.

Contents:

Cavalier Times. I. Marching Along, p. 3.—II. Give a Rouse, p. 3.—III. My Wife Gertrude, p. 3. [III. afterwards "Boot and Saddle."]

Italy and France. I. Italy ["My last Duchess."]—II. France ["Count Gismond"], p. 4.

Camp and Cloister. I. Camp (French), p. 5.—II. Cloister (Spanish), p. 6.

In a Gondola, p. 7.

Artemis Prologuizes, p. 9.

Waring. I. "What's becomes of Waring?"—II. "When I last saw Waring," p. 10.

Queen Worship. I. Rudel and the Lady of Tripoli.—II. Cristina, p. 12.

Madhouse Cells. I. Johannes Agricola [of 1836.] II. Porphyria [of 1836], p. 13.

Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr, p. 14.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, p. 14.

1843. No. 4. THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES. A Tragedy in five acts. By Robert Browning. London, E. Moxon, 1843.

1843. No. 5. A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON. A Tragedy in three acts. By Robert Browning. London, E. Moxon, 1843. Acted at Drury Lane Theatre, Feb. 11, 1843.

1844. No. 6. COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY; A Play in five acts. By Robert Browning. London, E. Moxon, 1844. Acted at the Haymarket, April 25, 1853.

1845. No. 7. DRAMATIC ROMANCES AND LYRICS By Robert Browning. London, E. Moxon, 1845.

Contents:

How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, p. 3.

Pictor Ignotus. Florence, 15—, p. 4.

Italy in England. [Called "The Italian in England" in the Poems, 1849], p. 4.

England in Italy. [Called "The Englishman in Italy" in Poems, 1849], p. 5.

The Lost Leader, p. 8.

The Lost Mistress, p. 8.

Home Thoughts from Abroad. I. "Oh, to be in England."—II. "Here's to Nelson's Memory." [Put after Claret and Tokay, in Poet. Works, 1863, under "Nationality in Drinks."]—III. "Nobly, nobly Cape St. Vincent," p. 8. ["Home Thoughts from the Sea."]

The Tomb at St. Praxed's, p. 9.

Garden Fancies. I. The Flower's Name.—II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis, p. 10.

France and Spain. I. The Laboratory (Ancien Regime).—II. The Confessional, p. 11.

The Flight of the Duchess, p. 12.

Earth's Immortalities. I. "See, as the prettiest graves."—II. "So the year's done with," p. 19.

Song. "Nay, but you, who do not love her," p. 19.

The Boy and the Angel. [A fresh couplet added on republication in Poet. Works, 1868,] p. 19.

Night and Morning. I. Night.—II. Morning. [Called "Meeting at Night" and "Parting at Morning" in 1863], p. 20.

Claret and Tokay. I. "My heart sunk with our Claret-flask." II. "Up jumped Tokay on our table." [These grouped together, with "Here's to Nelson's Memory," as "Nationality in Drinks," No. 37 in Poet. Works, 1863,] p. 20.

Saul [Part the First, only; completed in Men and Women, 1855,] p. 21.

Time's Revenges, p. 22.

The Glove. (Peter Ronsard loquitur), p 23.

1846. No. 8, and Last. LURIA; and A SOUL'S TRAGEDY. By Robert Browning. London, E. Moxon, 1846.

Luria. A Tragedy in five acts, p. 2.

A Soul's Tragedy. Part First, being what was called the Poetry of Chiappino's Life; and Part Second, its Prose. [With Preface to A Soul's Tragedy not reprinted], p. 21.

1844. THE LABORATORY (Ancien Regime). By Robert Browning, in Hood's Magazine, vol. i., 1844, pp. 513-14. Reprinted in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7), 1845, as the first of two poems called France and Spain.

1844. CLARET AND TOKAY. By Robert Browning. ["My heart sunk with our Claret-flask," and "Up jumped Tokay on our table"], in Hood's Magazine, vol. i., 1844, p. 525. Reprinted in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7), 1845.

1844. GARDEN FANCIES. By Robert Browning. I. The Flower's Name.—II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis. In Hood's Magazine, vol. ii., pp. 140-42, 1844. Revised and enlarged in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (Bells and Pom., No. 7), 1845.

1844. THE BOY AND THE ANGEL. By Robert Browning. In Hood's Magazine, vol. ii., pp. 140-42. Enlarged in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7), 1845.

1845. THE TOMB AT ST. PRAXED'S (ROME 15—). By Robert Browning. In Hood's Magazine, vol. iii., pp. 237-9, 1845. Enlarged in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7) in same year. Reappeared in Works, 1863, and after, with the title "The Bishop Orders his Tomb in St. Praxed's Church."

1845. THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS. By Robert Browning. Part the first, in Hood's Magazine, vol. iii., pp. 313-18, 1845. Part II. appeared when the first part was reprinted in Bells and Pomegranates, No. 7, in the same year, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics.

1849. POEMS BY ROBERT BROWNING. A New Edition [but the first collection under a collective title]. 2 vols., 8vo. Chapman and Hall, 1849.

Contents: vol. i. Paracelsus, p. 1. Pippa Passes, a Drama, p. 163. King Victor and King Charles, a Tragedy, p. 231. Colombe's Birthday, a Play, p. 302.

Vol. ii. A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, a Tragedy, p. 1. The Return of the Druses, a Tragedy, p. 61. Luria, a Tragedy, p. 139. A Soul's Tragedy, p. 211. Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, p. 253; 38 of the 41 pieces in Bells and Pomegranates, Nos. 3 and 7, the three omitted being Claret, Tokay, and Here's to Nelson's Memory.

1850. CHRISTMAS-EVE AND EASTER-DAY. A Poem. By Robert Browning. 8vo. Chapman and Hall, 1850. Reprinted in Works, 1863, and after.

1852. Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley. With an Introductory ESSAY BY ROBERT BROWNING. London, E. Moxon, 1852. 8vo. [The Essay is on Shelley—not on the "Letters," which were afterwards discovered to be spurious, with one exception.] The Essay was reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, Part I., 1881. Edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall. Another reprint, edited by W Tyas Harden, appeared in 1888, 8vo.

1854. Two POEMS. By Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Chapman and Hall, 1854. Price Sixpence. The poem by Robert Browning here is "The Twins," and is dated "Rome, March 30th, 1854." Reprinted in Men and Women, 1855, and in Works, 1863 and after. The "Two Poems" were printed by Miss Arabella Barrett for sale at a bazaar in aid of a "Refuge for Young Destitute Girls." Mrs. Browning's contribution was "A Plea for the Ragged Schools of London."

1855. MEN AND WOMEN. By Robert Browning. In two vols. 8vo. London, Chapman and Hall.

Contents: Vol. I.—

Love Among the Ruins, p. 1. A Lover's Quarrel, p. 17. Evelyn Hope, p. 19. Up at a Villa—Down in the City, p. 23. A Woman's Last Word, p. 31. Fra Lippo Lippi, p. 35. A Toccata of Galuppi's, p. 56. By the Fire-side, p. 63. Any Wife to Any Husband, p. 81. An Epistle concerning the strange Medical Experience of Karshish the Arab Physician, p. 90. Mesmerism, p. 107. A Serenade at the Villa, p. 117. My Star, p. 122. Instans Tyrannus, p. 123. A Pretty Woman, p. 128. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came," p. 134. Respectability, p. 149. A Light Woman, p. 151. The Statue and the Bust, p. 156. Love in a Life, p. 173 Life in a Love, p. 175. How it Strikes a Contemporary, p. 177 The Last Ride together, p. 184. The Patriot. An Old Story, p. 191. Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha, p. 194. Bishop Blougram's Apology, p. 205. Memorabilia, p. 259.

Contents of Vol. II.:

Andrea del Sarto, p. 1. Before, p. 15. After, p. 19. In Three Days, p. 21. In a Year, p. 24. Old Pictures in Florence, p. 30. In a Balcony, p. 49. Saul, p. 111. "De Gustibus," p. 147. Women and Roses, p. 150. Protus, p. 154. Holy-Cross Day, p. 158. The Guardian Angel, p 167. Cleon, p. 171. The Twins, p. 190. Popularity, p. 193. The Heretic's Tragedy, p. 198. Two in the Campagna, p. 205. A Grammarian's Funeral, p. 210. One Way of Love, p. 218. Another Way of Love, p. 220. "Transcendentalism" p. 223. Misconceptions, p. 227. One Word More. To E. B. B., p. 229.

1856. BEN KARSHOOK'S WISDOM. By Robert Browning. Twenty lines in The Keepsake for 1856, edited by Miss Power. Never reprinted by Mr. Browning. The poem seems to be alluded to in "One Word More."

1857. MAY AND DEATH. By Robert Browning. In The Keepsake for 1857. Reprinted in Dramatis Personae, 1864, and in Works 1868, and after.

1863. THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Third edition. Three vols., 8vo. London, Chapman and Hall, 1863. No new poems in this collection. It was re-issued as "Fourth Edition" in 1865.

Contents: Vol. I.

LYRICS.

Cavalier Times:— I. Marching Along, p. 1. II. Give a Rouse, p. 2. III. Boot and Saddle, p. 3. The Lost Leader, p. 4. How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, p. 6. Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kader, p. 9. Nationality in Drinks:— I. Claret, p. 11. II. Tokay, p. 11. III. Beer (Nelson), p. 12. Garden Fancies:— I. The Flower's Name, p. 13. II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis, p. 15. III. Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, p. 18. The Laboratory, p. 21. The Confessional, p. 24. Cristina, p. 27. The Lost Mistress, p. 30 Earth's Immortalities, p. 31. Meeting at Night, p. 32. Parting at Morning, p. 33. Song ("Nay but you"), p. 33. A Woman's Last Word, p. 34. Evelyn Hope, p. 36. Love Among the Ruins, p. 38. A Lover's Quarrel, p. 42. Up at a Villa—Down in the City, p. 49 A Toccata of Galuppi's, p. 54. Old Pictures in Florence, p. 58. "De Gustibus ——" p. 70. Home Thoughts, from Abroad, p. 72. Home Thoughts, from the Sea, p. 73. Saul, p. 74. My Star, p. 98. By the Fireside, p. 98. Any Wife to any Husband, p. 110. Two in the Campagna, p. 116. Misconceptions, p. 119. A Serenade at the Villa, p. 119. One Way of Love, p. 122. Another Way of Love, p. 123. A Pretty Woman, p. 125. Respectability, p. 129. Love in a Life, p. 130. Life in a Love, p. 131. In Three Days, p. 132. In a Year, p. 133. Women and Roses, p. 137. Before, p. 139. After, p. 141. The Guardian Angel—A Picture at Fano, p. 142. Memorabilia, p. 145. Popularity, p. 146. Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha, p. 149.

ROMANCES.

Incident of the French Camp, p. 156 The Patriot. An Old Story, p. 158. My Last Duchess. Ferrara, p. 159. Count Gismond. Aix in Provence, p. 162. The Boy and the Angel, p. 167. Instans Tyrannus, p. 171. Mesmerism, p. 174. The Glove, p. 180. Time's Revenge, p. 187. The Italian in England, p. 189. The Englishman in Italy—Piano di Sorrento, p. 195. In a Gondola, p. 205. Waring, p. 215. The Twins, p. 225. A Light Woman, p. 226. The Last Ride together, p. 229. The Pied Piper of Hamelin; a Child's Story, p. 234. The Flight of the Duchess, 246. A Grammarian's Funeral, p. 278. Johannes Agricola in Meditation, p. 284. The Heretic's Tragedy—A Middle-Age Interlude, p. 286. Holy-Cross Day, p. 291. Protus, p. 297. The Statue and the Bust, p. 299. Porphyria's Lover, p. 310. "Child Roland to the Dark Tower came," p. 312.

Contents of Vol. II.

TRAGEDIES AND OTHER PLAYS.

Pippa Passes—A Drama, p. 1. King Victor and King Charles—A Tragedy, p. 68. The Return of the Druses—A Tragedy, p. 140. A Blot in the 'Scutcheon—A Tragedy, p. 216. Colombe's Birthday—A Play, p. 275. Luria—A Tragedy, p. 357. A Soul's Tragedy, p. 428. In a Balcony—A Scene, p. 468. Strafford—A Tragedy, p. 503.

Contents of Vol. III.

Paracelsus, p. 1. Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day, p. 163. Sordello, p. 252.

1863. SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 8vo. London, Chapman and Hall, 1863. The editors of this first selection were John Foster and B. W. Procter ("Barry Cornwall"). The volume was re-issued in 1869 with the imprint of Smith, Elder & Co.

1864. DRAMATIS PERSONAE. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Chapman and Hall, 1864. Second edition published same year.

Contents.

James Lee, p. 3. [This appears as "James Lee's Wife" in the Poetical Works, 1868 and after.] Gold Hair: a Legend of Pornic, p. 27. The Worst of it, p. 37. Dis aliter visum; or, Le Byron de nos Jours, p. 47. Too Late, p. 57. Abt Vogler, p. 67. Rabbi ben Ezra, p. 77. Death in the Desert, p. 91. Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island, p. 123. Confessions, p. 139. May and Death, p. 145. Prospice, p. 149. Youth and Art, p. 153. A Face, p. 161. A Likeness, p. 165. Mr. Sludge, "the Medium," p. 171. Apparent Failure, p. 239. Epilogue, p. 245.

Three of the above poems were reprinted from advance sheets in the Atlantic Monthly (Boston, U. S.), vol. xiii., 1864, viz., Gold Hair, May, pp. 596-599; Prospice, May, p. 694; Under the Cliff (part of James Lee), May, pp. 737-8.

1864. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. Eight lines in the Royal Academy Catalogue for 1864, in F. Leighton's (now P.R.A.) picture so named. First collected in Poetical Works, 1868, under the title of "Eurydice to Orpheus, a Picture by Fred Leighton, A.R.A."

1864. POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Fourth edition. A reprint of the Third edition (which see under "1863").

1865. A SELECTION FROM THE WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Square post 8vo. "Moxon's Miniature Poets," E. Moxon & Co., 1865. With Dedication to Alfred Tennyson; and a photographic portrait of Robert Browning.

1866. A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 8vo. London, Chapman and Hall, 1866. EDITED by Robert Browning, and has a PREFACE signed "R. B.," and dated "London, November, 1865."

1866. Last Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 8vo. London, Chapman & Hall, 1862. THE DEDICATION ("To Grateful Florence," etc.), and "ADVERTISEMENT" (dated "London, February, 1862"), written by Robert Browning. See Browning Soc. Papers [additions to Bibliography], Parts I. and II., 1881, pp. 111, 162.

1868. THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Six vols. London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1868. There is only one new piece in this collection, viz., Deaf and Dumb; written for a marble group of two children by T. Woolner in the International Exhibition of 1862.

Contents of Vol. I.

Pauline, p. 1. Paracelsus, p. 43. Strafford, p. 207.

Contents of Vol. II.

Sordello, p. 1. Pippa Passes, p. 219.

Contents of Vol. III.

King Victor and King Charles, p. 1. Dramatic Lyrics:— Cavalier Tunes, p. 75. The Lost Leader, p. 78. How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, p. 80. Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr, p. 83. Nationality in Drinks, p. 85. Garden Fancies, p. 87. Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, p. 92. The Laboratory, p. 95. The Confessional, p. 98. Cristina, p. 101. The Lost Mistress, p. 104. Earth's Immortalities, p. 105. Meeting at Night, p, 106. Parting at Morning, p. 107. Song ("Nay but you "), p. 107. A Woman's last Word, p. 108. Evelyn Hope, p. 110. Love among the Ruins, p. 112. A Lovers' Quarrel, 115. Up at a Villa-Down in the City, p. 122. A Toccata of Galuppi's, p. 127. Old Pictures in Florence, p. 131. "De Gustibus ——" p. 143. Home Thoughts from Abroad, p. 145. Home Thoughts from the Sea, p. 146. Saul, p. 146. My Star, p. 170. By the Fire-side, p. 170. Any Wife to any Husband, p. 182 Two in the Campagna, p. 188. Misconceptions, p. 191. A Serenade at the Villa, p. 191. One Way of Love, p. 194. Another Way of Love, p. 195. A Pretty Woman, p. 197. Respectability, p. 201. Love in a Life, p. 202. Life in a Love, p. 203. In Three Days, p. 204. In a Year, p. 205. Women and Roses, p. 209. Before, p. 211. After, p. 213. The Guardian Angel, p. 214. Memorabilia, p. 217. Popularity, p. 218. Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha, p. 221. The Return of the Druses, p. 229.

Contents of Vol. IV.

A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, 1. Colombe's Birthday, p. 61. Dramatic Romances:— Incident of the French Camp, p. 147. The Patriot, p. 149. My Last Duchess, p. 150. Count Gismond, p. 153. The Boy and the Angel, p. 158. Instans Tyrannus, p. 162. Mesmerism, p. 165. The Glove, p. 171. Time's Revenges, p. 178. The Italian in England, p. 180. The Englishman in Italy, p. 186. In a Gondola, p. 196. Waring, p. 206. The Twins, p. 216. A Light Woman, p. 217. The Last Ride together, p. 220. The Pied Piper of Hamelin, p. 225. The Flight of the Duchess, 237. A Grammarian's Funeral, p. 270. The Heretic's Tragedy, p. 275. Holy-Cross Day, p. 280. Protus, p. 286. The Statue and the Bust, p. 288. Porphyria's Lover, p. 299. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came," p. 301.

Contents of Vol. V.

A Soul's Tragedy, p. 1. Luria, p. 43. Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day, p. 115. Men and Women:— "Transcendentalism; a Poem in Twelve Books," p. 207. How it strikes a Contemporary, p. 209. Artemis Prologizes, p. 213. An Epistle (Karshish), p. 218. Johannes Agricola in Meditation, p. 229. Pictor Ignotus, p. 231. Fra Lippo Lippi, p. 234. Andrea del Sarto, p. 248. The Bishop orders his Tomb at St. Praxed's Church, p. 257. Bishop Blougram's Apology, p. 262. Cleon, p. 299. Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli, p. 311. One Word More, p. 313.

Contents of Vol. VI.

In a Balcony, p. 1. Dramatis Personae:— James Lee's Wife, p. 41. Gold Hair; a Story of Pornic, p. 62. The Worst of it, p. 70. Dis aliter visum; or, Le Byron de nos Jours, p. 77. Too Late, p. 85. Abt Vogler, p. 92. Rabbi ben Ezra, p. 99. A Death in the Desert, p. 110. Caliban upon Setebos, p. 136. Confessions, p. 148. May and Death, p. 150. Deaf and Dumb: a group by Woolner, p. 151 Prospice, p. 152. Eurydice to Orpheus; a Picture by Leighton, p. 153. Youth and Art, p. 154. A Face, p. 158. A Likeness, p. 159. Mr. Sludge, "the Medium," p. 162. Apparent Failure, p. 219. Epilogue (Three Speakers) p. 222.

1868-9. THE RING AND THE BOOK. By Robert Browning. In four vols., 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., vols. i., ii., 1868; vols. iii., iv., 1869. The volumes were issued one by one, between November 1868 and February 1869. A "second edition," four volumes, appeared 1869.

1871. HERVE RIEL. In the Cornhill Magazine, March, 1871, pp. 257-60. Is dated "Croisic, Sept. 30th, 1867." Reprinted in Pacchiarotto, &c., 1876.

1871. BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE: INCLUDING A TRANSCRIPT FROM EURIPIDES. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1871. With dedication to the Countess Cowper dated July 22, 1871. A third edition appeared in 1881. The Last Adventure of Balaustion, in Aristophanes' Apology, &c., 1875, in a sequel to this work.

1871. PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU: SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1871.

1872. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co. 1872.

1872. SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1872. With a preface dated "London, May 14th, 1872." "Dedicated to Alfred Tennyson."

1872. THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. (The Tauchnitz selection). Two vols., 8vo. Leipzig; "Collection of British Authors." As this is a "copyright edition," the selection must have been either made or sanctioned by Mr. Browning.

1872-4. COMPLETE WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. A reprint from the latest English edition. 8vo. Chicago. Nos. 1-19 of the "Official Guide of the Chicago and Alton R.R. and Monthly Reprint and Advertiser." Edited by the manager of the railway, Mr. James Charlton. A copy is in the British Museum.

1873. RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY, OR TURF AND TOWERS. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1873. Dated at the end "January 23, 1873." Dedicated "To Miss Thackeray."

1875. ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY, INCLUDING A TRANSCRIPT FROM EURIPIDES, BEING THE LAST ADVENTURE OF BALAUSTION. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1875. The "Transcript" is "Herakles."

1875. THE INN ALBUM. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1875.

A translation of this work into German by E. Leo: "Das Fremdenbuch," Hamburg, 1877.

1876. PACCHIAROTTO AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER: WITH OTHER POEMS. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1876.

Contents.

Prologue. ("O the old wall here.") [Called "A Wall" in the selection of 1880], p. 1. Of Pacchiarotto and how he worked in Distemper, p. 4. At the "Mermaid," p. 47. House, p. 60. Shop, p. 64. Pisgah-Sights, I., p. 75. Pisgah-Sights, II., p. 78. Fears and Scruples, p. 83. Natural Magic, p. 88. Magical Nature, p. 90. Bifurcation, p. 91. Numpholeptos, p. 95. Appearances, p. 106. St. Martin's Summer, p. 108 Herve Riel, p. 117. A Forgiveness, p. 131. Cenciaja, p. 162. Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial, p. 184 Epilogue ["'The Poets pour us wine,'"] p. 223.

1877. THE AGAMEMNON OF AESCHYLUS, transcribed by ROBERT BROWNING. 8vo., Smith, Elder & Co., 1877, with preface dated London, October 1st, 1877.

1877. FAVOURITE POEMS. By Robert Browning. [A selection]. Illustrated, pp. 96, 16mo. Boston, James R. Osgood & Co., 1877. [The Vest-Pocket Series of Standard and Popular Authors].

1878. LA SAISIAZ: THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC. By Robert Browning. 8vo. Smith, Elder & Co., 1878. "Dedicated to Mrs. Sutherland Orr." La Saisiaz is dated "November 9th, 1877," and The Two Poets of Croisic, "January 15th, 1878." The Proem to the Two Poets of Croisic was named "Apparitions" in the Selections of 1880.

1879. "OH LOVE, LOVE." Two Stanzas—eighteen lines translated from the Hippolytus of Euripides, contributed to Mr. J. P. Mahaffy's Euripides, p. 115, Macmillan, 1879. Not included in any collection of Robert Browning's Poems. Reprinted in Browning Soc. (Bibliography) Papers, pt. 1, 1881, p. 69.

1879. DRAMATIC IDYLS. By Robert Browning. Post 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1879.

Contents.

Martin Relph, p. 1. Pheidippides, p. 27. Halbert and Hob, p. 45. Ivan Ivanovitch, p. 57. Tray, p. 101. Ned Bratts, p. 107.

1879. "THE BLIND MAN TO THE MAIDEN SAID." Poem, twenty lines, in "The Hour Will Come," by Wilhelmine von Hillern, translated from the German by Mrs. Clara Bell (vol. ii., p. 174). London, 8vo. Quoted in Whitehall Review, March 1, 1883, with statement that the English version of the poem is by Mr. Browning. Reprinted with some particulars in the Browning Society's Papers, pt. ii., p. 410, 1883.

1880. DRAMATIC IDYLS. Second Series. By Robert Browning. Post 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1880.

Contents.

[Proem] ("You are sick, that's sure"), p. vii. Echetlos, p. 1. Clive, p. 9. Muleykeh, p. 43. Pietro of Abano, p. 61. Doctor ——, p. 113. Pan and Luna, p. 137. [Epilogue], ("Touch him ne'er so lightly"), p. 149.

Ten additional lines to this epilogue have been published—"Thus I wrote in London, musing," &c. These lines appeared in the Century Magazine (Scribner's), vol. 25, 1882, pp. 159, 160, and were there said to have been written in an autograph album, October 14th, 1880. They were reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, pt. iii., p. 48*, November, 1882, but have been withdrawn from the Society's later issues.

1880. SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Second Series. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1880. The First Series appeared in 1872. Both were reprinted in 1884.

1882. A SELECTION FROM THE WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. With a Memoir of the Author, and explanatory notes, by F. H. Ahn, 8vo. Berlin, 1882. This is vol. viii. of Ahn's Collection of British and American Standard Authors.

1883. JOCOSERIA. By Robert Browning. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1883.

Contents.

Wanting is—What? p. 1. Donald, p. 5. Solomon and Balkis, p. 25. Cristina and Monaldeschi, p. 33. Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli, p. 45. Adam, Lilith, and Eve, p. 51. Ixion, p. 55. Jochanan Hakkadosh, p. 71. Never the Time and the Place, p. 133. Pambo, p. 137.

1883. LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC POEMS SELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Edited by E. T. Mason. 8vo. New York, 1883.

[1883.] SELECTIONS FROM THE POETRY OF ROBERT BROWNING. With an Introduction by R. G. White, 8vo. New York.

1883. SONNET ON GOLDONI. Dated "Venice, Nov. 27, 1883," and written for the Album of the Committee of the Goldoni Monument at Venice, where it appears upon the first page. Printed in the Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 8, 1883, and in the Browning Society's Papers, pt. v., p. 98*, 1884.

1883. PARAPHRASE FROM HORACE. (On Singers). [Horace's "Omnibus hoc vitium est cantoribus," etc.] Four lines written impromptu for Mr. Felix Moscheles. Published in the Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 12, 1883, and in the Browning Society's Papers, pt. v. p. 99*, 1884.

1884. SONNET ON RAWDON BROWN. Dated Nov. 28. 1883, and published in the. Century Magazine, vol. 27, Feb. 1884, p. 640. Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, pt. v., p. 132*, 1884.

1884. THE FOUNDER OF THE FEAST.—A Sonnet. Inscribed by Mr. Browning in the Album presented to Mr. Arthur Chappell, director of the St. James's Hall Popular Concerts, etc. (The World, April 16, 1884). Reprinted in the Browning Society's Papers, pt. vii., p. 18*, 1884. The sonnet is dated "April 5th, 1884."

1884. THE NAMES. Sonnet on Shakspeare. On page 1 of the "Shaksperian Show Book" of the Shaksperian Show held at the Albert Hall, May 29-31, 1884. The poem is dated "March 12, '84," and was published in the Pall Mall Gazette, May 29, 1884, and in the Browning Society's Papers, pt. v., p. 105*.

1884. "The Divine Order, and other Sermons and Addresses. By the late Thomas Jones." Edited by Brynmor Jones; with a short INTRODUCTION by Robert Browning. London, 1884, 8vo.

1884. FERISHTAH'S FANCIES. By Robert Browning 8vo. Smith, Elder & Co., 1884.

Contents:

Prologue ("Pray Reader"), p 1. 1. The Eagle, p. 5. 2. The Melon-Seller, p. 9. 3. Shah Abbas, p 13. 4. The Family, p. 25. 5. The Sun, p. 33. 6. Mihrab Shah, p. 46. 7. A Camel-Driver, p. 59, 8. Two Camels, p. 69. 9. Cherries, p. 78. 10. Plot-Culture, p. 87. 11. A Pillar at Sebzevah, p. 93. 12. A Bean-Stripe; also Apple-eating, p. 105. Epilogue ["Oh, Love—no Love!"] p. 140.

1884. SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Two series. 2 vols. 8vo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1884. A reprint of the two series, which appeared respectively in 1872 and 1880.

1884. THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN. By Robert Browning. London, Robert Dunthorne, 1884. Small 4to. Not published for sale, but printed by Mr. Browning's permission "to accompany Mr. Macbeth's Etchings, after the late G. J. Pinwell's drawings illustrating its subject."

1885. POMEGRANATES FROM AN ENGLISH GARDEN: A SELECTION FROM THE POEMS OF ROBERT BROWNING. With Introduction and Notes by John Munro Gibson. New York, 1885, 8vo.

1885. WHY I AM A LIBERAL. Sonnet contributed to "Why I am a Liberal," edited by Andrew Reid. London, Cassell & Co., n.d. [1885]. Not collected by Mr. Browning, but reprinted in Browning Society's Papers, October, 1885, p. 89*, and in "Sonnets of the Century," edited by W. Sharp, 1886.

1886. Spring Song ("Dance, yellows and whites and reds!") contributed to The New Amphion: being the Book of the Edinburgh University Union Fancy Fair. Edinburgh University Press, 1886, p. 1. (Reappeared in Lairesse in Parleyings, &c., p. 189).

1886. SELECT POEMS OF ROBERT BROWNING, with notes by W. J. Rolfe and H. E. Mersey. New York, 1886, 8vo.

1887. PARLEYINGS WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE IN THEIR DAY; to wit:

Bernard de Mandeville, Daniel Bartoli, Christopher Smart, George Bubb Dodington, Francis Furini, Gerard de Lairesse, and Charles Avison.

Introduced by A Dialogue between Apollo and The Fates; concluded by another between John Fust and his Friends. By Robert Browning. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1887, 8vo. Dedicated "In Memoriam J. Milsand, obit. iv. Sept. MDCCCLXXXVI. Absens absentem auditque videtque."

1888-9. THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Sixteen vols. 8vo. Smith, Elder & Co., 1888-9. All the works collected by the author, excepting only Asolando.

Contents.

Pauline, vol. i., p. 1. Sordello, vol. i., p. 47. Paracelsus, vol. ii., p. 1. Strafford, vol. ii., p. 187. Pippa Passes, vol. iii., p. 1 King Victor and King Charles, vol. iii., p. 81. Return of the Druses, vol. iii., p. 167. A Soul's Tragedy, vol. iii., p. 257. A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, vol. iv., p. 1. Colombe's Birthday, vol. iv., p. 71. Men and Women, vol. iv., p. 171. Dramatic Romances, vol. v., p. 1. Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day, vol. v., p. 209. Dramatic Lyrics, vol. vi., p. 1. Luria, vol. vi., p. 209. In a Balcony, vol. vii., p. 1. Dramatis Personae, vol. vii., p. 45. The Ring and the Book. Books 1 to 4, vol. viii., p. 1. " " Books 5 to 8, vol. ix., p. 1. " " Books 9 to 12, vol. x., p. 1. Balaustion's Adventure, vol xi., p. 1. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, vol. xi., p. 123. Fifine at the Fair, vol. xi., p. 211. Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, vol. xii., p. 1. The Inn Album, vol. xii., p. 179. Aristophanes' Apology, including a Transcript from Euripides, being the Last Adventure of Balaustion, vol. xiii., p. 1. The Agamemnon of AEschylus, vol. xiii., p. 259. Pacchiarotto, and how he worked in Distemper; with other Poems, vol. xiv., p. 1. La Saisiaz: and The Two Poets of Croisic, vol. xiv., p. 153. Dramatic Idyls. First series, vol. xv., p. 1. " " Second series, vol. xv., p. 85. Jocoseria, vol. xv., p. 165. Ferishtah's Fancies, vol. xvi., p. 1. Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in their Day, vol. xvi., p. 93.

[1889]. THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN. By Robert Browning. With 35 illustrations by Kate Greenaway. Pp. 64, Routledge & Sons, 4to.

1889. FIVE LINES (beginning "Wind wafted from the sunset"), on a picture by Mr. Felix Moscheles, "The Isle's Enchantress." Printed in the Pall Mall Gazette for March 26, 1889.

1889-90. The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In six volumes. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1889-90. 8vo. Vol. i. contains a PREFATORY NOTE signed "R. B.," and dated "29, De Vere Gardens, W., December 10, 1887" ["1887" must be a misprint for 1888, as the "Prefatory Note" mentions a Memoir of E. B. Browning by John H. Ingram, which was published in September, 1888].

1890. ASOLANDO: FANCIES AND FACTS. By Robert Browning. 8vo. Smith, Elder & Co., 1890. With dedication "To Mrs. Arthur Bronson." Now (1891) in its eighth edition. The dedication is dated "Asolo, October 15, 1889." The volume was published on the day of the poet's death, December 12, 1889.

Contents.

Prologue ("The Poet's age is sad; for why?") p. 1. Rosny, p. 5. Dubiety, p. 8. Now, p. 10. Humility, p. 11. Poetics, p. 12. Summum Bonum, p. 13. A Pearl, a Girl, p. 14. Speculative, p. 15. White Witchcraft, p. 17. Bad Dreams, I., II., III., IV., p. 19. Inapprehensiveness, p. 34. Which? p. 37. The Cardinal and the Dog, p. 40. The Pope and the Net, p. 42 The Bean-Feast, p. 46. Muckle-Mouth Meg, p. 52. Arcades ambo, p. 56. The Lady and the Painter, p. 58. Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice, p. 61. Beatrice Signorini, p. 76. Flute Music, with an Accompaniment, p. 99. "Imperante Augusto natus est ——," p. 112. Development, p. 123. Rephan, p. 131. Reverie, p. 141. Epilogue ("At the midnight, in the silence of the sleep-time"), p. 156.

1890. Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. With PREFATORY NOTE by R. B. 16mo. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1890.

1890. POCKET VOLUME OF SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1890, 16mo.

*** In the "Bibliography" attached to Mr. William Sharp's "Life of Robert Browning" (London, W. Scott, 1890), under Section II., "Single Works," appear the following entries:—

(1) "Cleon. Moxon: London, 1855. 8vo. Reprinted in Men and Women."

(2) "Gold Hair: a Legend of Pornic. [London], 1864. 8vo. Reprinted in Dramatis Personae."

(3) "The Statue and the Bust. Moxon: London, 1855. 8vo. Reprinted in Men and Women."

(4) Mr. Sharp also (p. 173) mentions a leaflet containing "Prospice."

Pamphlets bearing the titles of the first and third certainly exist, and this may also be the case with regard to the second and fourth; but as nothing is known of the history of any one of the four, all are excluded from the foregoing Bibliography.



AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ROBERT BROWNING'S WORKS,

BEING AN INDEX TO THE FOREGOING BIBLIOGRAPHY AND TO THE COLLECTED EDITIONS OF 1868 AND 1889-90.

Page of In 6 vols. In 16 vols. Bibliography. Title. Date. edit. 1868 edit. 1889-90 vol. & page. vol. & page.

367 ABD-EL-KADR, Through the Metidja to 1842 iii. 83 vi. 13 377 Abt Vogler 1864 vi. 92 vii. 101 387 Adam, Lilith, and Eve 1883 xv. 197 384 AEschylus, The Agamemnon of 1877 xiii. 259 372 After 1855 iii. 213 vi. 186 384 Agamemnon of AEschylus, The 1877 xiii. 259 386 Ahn, F. H., Selections by 1882 367 Aix in Provence. See Count Gismond 1842 iv. 153 v. 11 382 Alkestis, Euripides', a translation from. See Balaustion's Adventure 1871 xi. 1 383 Amphibian (Prol. to Fifine) 1872 xi. 215 389 Amphion, The New Contribution to, "Spring Song" 1886 xvi. 219 372 Andrea del Sarto 1855 v. 248 iv. 221 372 Another Way of Love 1855 iii. 195 vi. 161 371 Any Wife to any Husband 1855 iii. 182 vi. 142 390 Apollo and the Fates, Dialogue between 1887 xvi. 97 377 Apparent Failure 1864 vi. 219 vii. 246 385 Apparitions (Proem, Two Poets of Croisic) 1878 xiv. 207 384 Appearances 1876 xiv. 70 388 Apple-eating 1884 xvi. 69 392 Arcades ambo 1890 383 Aristophanes' Apology 1875 xiii. 1 367 Artemis Prologuizes 1842 v. 213 iv. 181 377 Atlantic Monthly, see "Dramatis Personae" 1864 392 Asolando: Fancies and Facts 1890 384 At the "Mermaid" 1876 xiv. 31 390 Avison, Charles, Parleying with 1887 xvi. 221 393 "At the midnight" (Epilogue to Asolando) 1890

372 B., E. B. (Mrs. Browning), To ["One Word More"] 1855 v. 313 iv. 296 392 Bad Dreams 1890 383 Balaustion, The Last Adventure of. See Aristophanes' Apology. 1875 xiii. 1 382 Balaustion's Adventure 1871 xi. 1 389 Bartoli, Daniel, Parleying with 1887 xvi. 132 392 Bean-Feast, The 1890 388 Bean-stripe, A 1884 xvi. 69 392 Beatrice Signorini 1890 368 Beer, Nationality in Drinks 1845 iii. 85 vi. 16 372 Before 1855 iii. 211 vi. 183 366 Bells and Pomegranates 1841-46 372 Ben Karshook's Wisdom 1856 384 Bifurcation 1876 xiv. 61 372 Bishop Blougram's Apology 1855 v. 262 iv. 71 369 Bishop (The) orders his Tomb at St. Praxed's 1845 v. 257 iv. 232 385 "Blind man (The) to the maiden said" (translation) 1879 367 Blot (A) in the Scutcheon 1843 iv. 1 iv. 1 367 Boot and Saddle ["My Wife," etc.] 1842 iii. 75 vi. 6 369 Boy and the Angel, The 1844 iv. 158 v. 19 387 Brown, Rawdon, Sonnet on 1884 372 B[rowning], E. B., To 1855 v. 313 iv. 296 377 Browning, Mrs. Selection from her Poetry. Edited by R. B. 1866 378 —— Last Poems. Edited by R. B. 1866 391 —— Edition of the Poems of (6 vols.) 1889-90 384 Burial, The Privilege of. See Filippo Baldinucci 1876 xiv. 117 371 By the Fire-side 1855 iii. 170 vi. 126 376 Byron (Le) de nos Jours 1864 vi. 77 vii. 85

377 Caliban upon Setebos 1864 vi. 136 vii. 149 388 Camel-Driver, A 1884 xvi. 40 367 Camp and Cloister 1842 iv. 147 v. 3 392 Cardinal (The) and the Dog 1890 367 Cavalier Tunes 1842 iii. 75 vi. 3 384 Cenciaja 1876 xiv. 104 387 Chappell, (Arthur,) Sonnet to 1884 388 Cherries 1884 xvi. 53 371 "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came" 1855 iv. 301 v. 194 370 Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day 1850 v. 115 v. 209 369 Claret and Tokay 1844 iii. 85 vi. 16 372 Cleon 1855 v. 299 iv. 279 386 Clive 1880 xv. 88 367 Cloister (Spanish) 1842 iii. 92 vi. 26 367 Colombe's Birthday 1844 iv. 61 iv. 71 368 Confessional, The 1845 iii. 98 vi. 34 377 Confessions 1864 vi. 148 vii. 162 367 Count Gismond, Aix in Provence 1842 iv. 153 v. 11 367 Cristina 1842 iii. 101 vi. 39 387 Cristina and Monaldeschi 1883 xv. 188 385 Croisic, The Two Poets of 1878 xiv. 219 382 Cornhill Magazine, contribution to. See Herve Riel 1871 377 David, etc. (Epil. to Dram. Personae) 1864 vi. 222 vii. 250 378 Deaf and Dumb 1868 vi. 151 vii. 167 377 Death in the Desert, A 1864 vi. 110 vii. 120 372 "De Gustibus ——" 1855 iii. 143 vi. 92 393 Development 1890 376 Dis aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de nos Jours 1864 vi. 77 vii. 85 388 "Divine Order," Introduction to 1884 386 Doctor —— 1880 xv. 146 390 Dodington, George Bubb, Parleying with 1887 xvi. 160 387 Donald 1883 xv. 169 385 Dramatic Idyls [First Series] 1879 xv. 1 386 —— Second Series 1880 xv. 85 366 Dramatic Lyrics 1842 iii. 73 vi. 1 367 Dramatic Romances and Lyrics 1845 { iii. 73 v. 3 { iv. 145 vi. 1 376 Dramatis Personae 1864 vi. 41 vii. 45 368 Drinks, Nationality in 1844 iii. 85 vi. 16 392 Dubiety 1890 370 Duchess, Flight of the 1845 iv. 237 v. 116

388 Eagle, The 1884 xv. 6 368 Earth's Immortalities 1845 iii. 105 vi. 45 386 Echetlos 1880 xv. 85 368 England in Italy 1845 iv. 180 v. 47 368 "England, Oh to be in," 1845 iii. 145 vi. 95 368 Englishman in Italy, The 1845 iv. 180 v. 54 377 Epilogue ("Dram. Personae") 1864 vi. 222 vii. 250 384 —— (Pacchiarotto) 1876 xiv. 141 385 —— (La Saisiaz) 1878 xiv. 273 386 —— (Dramatic Idyls II.) 1880 xv. 164 388 —— (Ferishtah's Fancies) 1884 xvi. 90 390 —— (Parleyings, etc.) 1887 xvi. 241 393 —— (Asolando) 1890 371 Epistle (An) concerning the strange Medical Experience of Karshish, etc. 1855 v. 218 iv. 186 377 Eurydice to Orpheus 1864 vi. 153 vii. 170 382 Euripides, A Transcript from (Alkestis). See Balaustion's Adventure 1871 xi. 1 383 —— A Transcript from (Herakles Mainomenos) 1875 xiii. 147 385 —— two stanzas from Hippolytus 1879 371 Evelyn Hope 1855 iii. 110 vi. 51 365 "Eyes calm beside thee" (Sonnet) 1834

377 Face, A 1864 vi. 158 vii. 176 368 Fame and Love. See Earth's Immortalities 1845 iii. 105 vi. 45 388 Family, The 1884 xvi. 19 384 Fears and Scruples 1876 xiv. 54 388 Ferishtah's Fancies 1884 xvi. 1 383 Fifine at the Fair 1872 xi. 211 384 Filippo Baldinucci 1876 xiv. 117 371 Fireside, By the 1855 iii. 170 vi. 126 370 Flight of the Duchess, The 1845 iv. 237 v. 116 369 Flower's Name, The 1844 iii. 87 vi. 19 392 Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment 1890 384 Forgiveness, A 1876 xiv. 86 387 Founder of the Feast, The 1884 371 Fra Lippo Lippi 1855 v. 234 iv. 205 367 France [Italy and France] 1842 iv. 153 v. 11 368 France and Spain. See "Confessional" and "Laboratory" 367 French Camp, Incident of the 1842 iv. 147 v. 3 390 Furini (Francis), Parleying with 1887 xvi. 175 370 Furnivall, Dr. F. J., his edition of Browning's essay on Shelley 1881 387 Fuseli, M. Wollstonecraft and 1883 xv. 195 390 Fust and his Friends, Dialogue between 1887 xvi. 241

366 Gardiner, S. R., and Miss E. H. Hickey, Edition of Strafford by 1884 369 Garden Fancies 1844 iii. 87 vi. 19 367 Ghent to Aix, How they brought the good news from 1845 iii. 80 vi. 9 389 Gibson, J. M., Selection by 1885 367 Give a Rouse 1842 iii. 75 vi. 5 368 Glove, The 1845 iv. 171 v. 36 376 Gold Hair: a Legend of Pornic 1864 vi. 62 vii. 69 387 Goldoni, Sonnet on 1883 367 Gondola, In a 1842 iv. 196 v. 66 385 "Good to forgive" (Prol. to La Saisiaz) 1878 xiv. 155 372 Grammarian's Funeral, A 1855 iv. 270 v. 154 391 Greenaway, Miss Kate, illustrated edition of the Pied Piper [1889] 372 Guardian-Angel, The 1855 iii. 214 vi. 187

385 Halbert and Hob 1879 xv. 26 383 Herakles. See Aristophanes' Apology 1875 xiii. 147 368 "Here's to Nelson's Memory" 1845 iii. 85 vi. 16 372 Heretic's Tragedy, The 1855 iv. 275 v. 161 389 Hersey, H. E., and Rolfe, W .J., Selection by 1880 382 Herve Riel 1871 xiv. 77 366 Hickey, Miss E. H., and Gardiner, S. R., Edit. of Strafford by 1884 383 Hohenstiel-Schwangau (Prince) 1871 xi. 123 372 Holy-Cross Day 1855 iv. 280 v. 167 368 Home-Thoughts, from Abroad 1845 iii. 145 vi. 95 368 Home Thoughts, from the Sea 1845 iii. 146 vi. 97 Hood's Magazine, contributions to 369 —— (The Laboratory) 1844 iii. 95 vi. 30 369 —— (Claret, etc.) 1844 iii. 85 vi. 16 369 —— (Garden Fancies) 1844 iii. 87 vi. 19 369 —— (Boy and the Angel) 1844 iv. 158 v. 19 369 —— (Tomb at St. Praxed's) 1845 v. 257 iv. 232 370 —— (Flight of the Duchess) 1845 iv. 237 v. 116 387 Horace, Paraphrase from 1883 385 "Hour Will Come, The," translation in 1879 384 House 1876 xiv. 39 383 Householder, The (Epil. to Fifine) 1872 xi. 342 372 How it strikes a Contemporary 1855 v. 209 iv. 176 367 "How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" 1845 iii. 80 vi. 9 372 Hugues (Master) of Saxe-Gotha 1855 iii. 221 vi. 196 392 Humility 1890 385 Hippolytus, Two Stanzas from 1879

370 Introduction [On Shelley] 1852 388 Introduction to the "Divine Order" 1884 393 "Imperante Augusto natus est—" 1890 372 In a Balcony 1855 vi. 1 vii. 1 367 In a Gondola 1842 iv. 196 v. 66 372 In a Year 1855 iii. 205 vi. 175 372 In Three Days 1855 iii. 204 vi. 172 392 Inapprehensiveness 1890 367 Incident in the French Camp 1842 iv. 147 v. 3 383 Inn Album, The 1875 xii. 179 384 —— Translation of, by Leo 1875 371 Instans Tyrannus 1855 iv. 162 v. 24 368 Italian in England, The 1845 iv. 180 v. 47 367 Italy [Italy and France] 1842 iv. 150 v. 8 368 Italy in England 1845 iv. 180 v. 47 385 Ivan Ivanovitch 1879 xv. 32 387 Ixion 1883 xv. 199

376 James Lee [James Lee's Wife] 1864 vi. 41 vii. 45 387 Jochanan Hakkadosh 1883 xv. 209 366 Johannes Agricola 1836 v. 229 iv. 199 386 Jocoseria 1883 xv. 165 388 Jones's "Divine Order." Introduction to 1884

371 Karshish, the Arab Physician 1855 v. 218 iv. 186 372 Karshook's (Ben) Wisdom 1856 372 Keepsake, The, contribution to 1856 373 —— —— 1857 vi. 150 vii. 165 367 "Kentish Sir Byng." ["Marching along"] 1842 iii. 75 vi. 3 365 King, The (Pippa Passes) 1835 ii. 219 iii. 1 366 King Victor and King Charles 1842 iii. 1 iii. 81 367 "King Charles, and who'll do him right now?" ["Give a rouse"] 1842 iii. 75 vi. 5

385 La Saisiaz 1878 xiv. 153 369 Laboratory, The 1844 iii. 95 vi. 30 392 Lady (The) and the Painter 1890 365 "Lady, could'st thou know!" 1834 390 Lairesse, Gerard de, ("Parleying") 1887 xvi. 201 372 Last Ride Together, The 1855 iv. 220 v. 96 377 Leighton, A Picture by Fred. See Orpheus and Eurydice 1864 vi. 153 vii. 170 384 Leo, E., translation of the Inn Album 1877 372 Life in a Love 1855 iii. 203 vi. 171 371 Light Woman, A 1855 iv. 217 v. 92 377 Likeness, A 1864 vi. 151 vii. 178 368 Lost Leader, The 1845 iii. 78 vi. 7 368 Lost Mistress, The 1845 iii. 104 vi. 43 372 Love, Another Way of 1855 iii. 195 vi. 161 368 Love and Fame. See Earth's Immortalities 1845 iii. 105 vi. 45 371 Love among the Ruins 1855 iii. 112 vi. 54 371 Love in a Life 1855 iii. 202 vi. 170 372 Love, One Way of 1855 iii. 194 vi. 159 371 Lovers' Quarrel, A 1855 iii. 115 vi. 58 369 Luria 1846 v. 43 vi. 209

389 Macbeth's etchings, Pied Piper 1884 367 Madhouse Cells 1842 v. 229 iv. 199 384 Magical Nature 1876 xiv. 60 389 Mandeville, Bernard de, Parleying with 1887 xvi. 117 367 Marching Along 1842 iii. 75 vi. 3 385 Martin Relph 1879 xv. 3 387 Mason, E. T., Selection by 1883 372 Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha 1855 iii. 221 vi. 196 373 May and Death 1857 vi. 150 vii. 165 368 Meeting at Night 1845 iii. 106 vi. 46 388 Melon-Seller, The 1884 xvi. 9 372 Memorabilia 1855 iii. 217 vi. 190 371 Men and Women 1855 v. 205 iv. 171 384 "Mermaid," At the 1876 xi. 31 371 Mesmerism 1855 iv. 165 v. 28 388 Mihrab Shah 1884 xvi. 32 372 Misconceptions 1855 iii. 191 vi. 154 368 Morning [Night and Morning] 1845 iii. 107 vi. 46 391 Moscheles, F., Lines on a Picture by 1889 377 Mr. Sludge, the "Medium" 1864 vi. 162 vii. 182 365 Monthly Repository, Poem in 1834 365 —— See "A King lived long ago" (in Pippa Passes) 1835 ii. 219 iii. 1 365 ——- "Porphyria" 1836 iv. 299 v. 191 366 ——- "Johannes Agricola" 1836 v. 229 iv. 199 366 ——- "Still ailing, wind?" See James Lee 1836 vi. 41 vii. 45 392 Muckle-mouth Meg 1890 386 Muleykeh 1880 xv. 108 367 My Last Duchess 1842 iv. 150 v. 8 371 My Star 1855 iii. 170 vi. 125 367 "My Wife Gertrude" (afterwards Boot and Saddle) 1842 iii. 75 vi. 6

388 Names, The (Sonnet) 1884 368 Nationality in Drinks 1844 iii. 85 vi. 16 384 Natural Magic 1876 xiv. 58 377 Natural Theology (Caliban upon Setebos) 1864 vi. 136 xiv. 58 368 "Nay, but you who do not love her" 1845 iii. 107 vi. 47 385 Ned Bratts 1879 xv. 60 368 "Nelson's Memory, Here's to" 1845 iii. 85 vi. 16 387 Never the Time and the Place 1883 xv. 256 368 Night [Night and Morning] 1845 iii. 106 vi. 46 368 "Nobly Cape St. Vincent" 1845 iii. 145 vi. 97 392 Now 1890 384 Numpholeptos 1876 xiv. 63

385 "Oh Love, Love" 1879 388 "Oh, Love—no, Love!" 1884 xvi. 90 368 "Oh to be in England" 1845 iii. 145 vi. 95 372 Old Pictures in Florence 1855 iii. 131 vi. 77 372 One Way of Love 1855 iii. 194 vi. 159 372 One Word more 1855 v. 313 iv. 296 377 Orpheus and Eurydice 1864 vi. 153 vii. 170 384 "O the old wall here" 1876 xiv. 3

384 Pacchiarotto 1876 xiv. 1 387 Pambo 1883 xv. 258 386 Pan and Luna 1880 xv. 159 365 Paracelsus 1835 i. 43 ii. 1 389 Parleyings with Certain People of Importance 1887 xvi. 93 368 Parting at Morning 1845 iii. 107 vi. 46 372 Patriot, The 1855 iv. 149 v. 6 365 Pauline 1833 i. 1 i. 1 392 Pearl (A), a Girl 1890 385 Pheidippides 1879 xv. 17 367 Pictor Ignotus 1845 v. 231 iv. 222 367 Pied Piper of Hamelin 1842 iv. 225 v. 102 389 —— (separate reprint) 1884 391 —— (with illustrations) 1889 386 Pietro of Abano 1880 xv. 117 388 Pillar (A) at Sebzevah 1884 vi. 62 389 Pinwell and Macbeth's illustrations to Pied Piper 1884 366 Pippa Passes 1841 ii. 219 iii. 1 384 Pisgah-Sights, I. and II. 1876 xiv. 49 388 Plot-Culture 1884 xvi. 58 Poems and Poetical Works. See under "Works," also "Selections" 392 Poetics 1890 384 "Poets, (The), pour us wine" 1876 xiv. 141 389 Pomegranates (Selections by Gibson) 1885 392 Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice 1890 372 Popularity 1855 iii. 218 vi. 192 392 Pope (The) and the Net 1890 376 Pornic. Gold Hair, a Legend of 1864 vi. 62 vii. 69 365 Porphyria ["Porphyria's Lover"] 1836 iv. 299 v. 191 371 Pretty Woman, A 1855 iii. 197 vi. 163 383 Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau 1871 xi. 123 388 "Pray, Reader, have you eaten ortolans?" (Prologue) 1884 xvi. 3 383 Prologue (Fifine at the Fair) 1872 xi. 115 384 —— (Pacchiarotto) 1876 xiv. 3 385 —— (La Saisiaz) 1878 xiv. 155 385 —— (Two Poets) 1878 xiv. 207 386 —— (Dramatic Idyls II.) 1880 xv. 83 386 —— (Jocoseria) 1883 xv. 167 388 —— (Ferishtah's Fancies) 1884 xvi. 3 389 —— (Parleyings, etc.) 1887 xvi. 97 392 —— (Asolando) 1890 377 Prospice 1864 vi. 152 vii. 168 372 Protus 1855 iv. 286 v. 175

367 Queen Worship [Rudel, etc.] 1842 v. 311 iv. 294

377 Rabbi Ben-Ezra 1864 vi. 99 vii. 109 383 Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 1873 xii. 1 393 Rephan 1890 371 Respectability 1855 iii. 201 vi. 168 367 Return of the Druses, The 1843 iii. 229 iii. 167 393 Reverie 1890 382 Ring and the Book, The 1868-9 viii. ix. x. 389 Rolfe, W. J., and Hersey, H. E., Selections by 1886 392 Rosny 1890 367 Rudel and the Lady of Tripoli 1842 v. 311 iv. 294

384 St. Martin's Summer 1876 xiv. 71 369 St. Praxed's, The Tomb at 1845 v. 257 iv. 232 368 "St. Vincent, Nobly Cape" 1845 iii. 145 vi. 97 385 Saisiaz, La 1878 xiv. 153 368 Saul, Part I. 1845 iii. 146 vi. 98 372 —— Part II. 1855 iii. 146 vi. 98 376 Selections from Browning's Works 1863 377 —— (Moxon's) 1865 383 —— (Tauchnitz, Leipzig) 1872 383 —— [First Series] 1872 and 1884 384 —— (Boston, U. S.) 1877 386 —— Second Series 1880 and 1884 386 —— by F. H. Ahn 1882 387 —— by E. T. Mason 1883 387 —— by R. G. White 1883 389 —— by J. M. Gibson 1885 389 —— by Rolfe and Hersey 1886 393 —— Pocket Volume 1890 371 Serenade (A) at the Villa 1855 iii. 191 vi. 155 388 Shah Abbas 1884 xvi. 12 388 Shakespeare, Sonnet on 1884 370 Shelley, Essay on 1852 384 Shop 1876 xiv. 42 369 Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis 1844 iii. 87 vi. 19 377 Sludge, Mr., the "Medium" 1864 vi. 162 vii. 182 390 Smart, Christopher, Parleying with 1887 xvi. 148 387 Solomon and Balkis 1883 xv. 182 367 Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister 1842 iii. 92 vi. 26 368 Song, "Nay but," etc 1845 iii. 107 vi. 47 365 Sonnet ("Eyes calm besides thee") 1834 366 Sordello 1840 ii. 1 i. 47 369 Soul's Tragedy, A 1846 v. 1 iii. 257 392 Speculative 1890 389 Spring Song 1886 xvi. 219 371 Statue and the Bust, The 1855 iv. 288 v. 178 366 "Still ailing, wind?" (James Lee) 1836 vi. 41 vii. 45 366 Strafford 1837 i. 207 ii. 187 385 "Such a starved bank of moss" [Proem to Two Poets of Croisic] 1878 xiv. 207 392 Summum Bonum 1890 388 Sun, The 1884 xvi. 24