Class '2BA2A& 
 
 Book 
 
 ftgriglif F i c 1 
 
 copyright deposit. 
 
A. 9 
 
 if 
 
 PIPPA PASSES 
 
 A DRAMA 
 
AMONG 
 
 THE GREAT MASTERS 
 
 By 
 
 Walter E. Rowlands 
 
 Among the Great Masters of Literature 
 
 Among the Great Masters of Music 
 
 Among the Great Masters of Painting 
 
 Among the Great Masters of Oratory 
 
 i2mo, handsome cover design, boxed separately or 
 
 in sets 
 
 DANA ESTES & COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 
 
 Estes Press, 212 Summer Street, Boston 
 
-J. 
 
 im 
 
 f» 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 II M 
 
. " Ah, the clear morning ! I can see Saint Mark's ' ' 
 Photogravure. From drawing by Louis Meynelle. 
 
I 
 
 :> 
 
 i 
 
■ xA o1j 
 
 p^/vX 
 
 I DEDICATE 
 
 MY BEST INTENTIONS, IN THIS POEM, 
 
 ADMIRINGLY TO 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "ION," 
 
 AFFECTIONATELY TO 
 
 f&x. Sergeant CalfnurK 
 
 R. 
 London, 1841 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 " Pippa Passes" was published in 1841, 
 occupying the initial number of " Bells and 
 Pomegranates," and was first reprinted in the 
 "Poems" of 1849. Mr. Gosse says that 
 the general public was first won to Browning 
 by this drama. Certainly the play still re- 
 mains one of the most popular of the poet's 
 works. 
 
 The idea of " Pippa Passes " came to Brown- 
 ing one day in his youth while he was wan- 
 dering through Dulwich Wood. He heard 
 a gipsy-girl singing, and imagined some one 
 "walking thus alone through life; one ap- 
 parently too obscure to leave a trace of his 
 or her passage, yet exercising a lasting though 
 unconscious influence at every step." The 
 image took the shape of Felippa, or Pippa, 
 the little silk-winding girl of Asolo. No- 
 
viii Introduction 
 
 where in literature, probably, can be found a 
 more effective illustration of the Biblical text, 
 " A little child shall lead them." 
 
 The drama is a moral tonic. Even if a 
 reader could be found with the obtuseness 
 or hardihood to deny its brilliant workman- 
 ship, he would be forced to admit its whole- 
 some atmosphere and profound ethical motive. 
 The latter is summed up in Pippa's songs : 
 
 " All service ranks the same with God," 
 and 
 
 " God's in His heaven, — 
 All's right with the world ! " 
 
 The play will not yield half its beauties at 
 first reading. The person whose favorite 
 poets are Longfellow and Mrs. Hemans 
 may even think it very difficult in places ; 
 yet it is not at all obscure. It simply de- 
 mands, like all of Browning's writings, 
 exceedingly close attention. " Pippa Passes " 
 is a book to read, re-read, study, and love. 
 
Introduction ix 
 
 Browning himself, it will be remembered, dis- 
 claimed all intention of furnishing intellectual 
 amusement for an idle man. He thinks so 
 swiftly that it is never easy to follow him 
 without concentration of mind ; his thoughts 
 reach so high into the empyrean that they 
 are sometimes cloud-capped. 
 
 Yet a little hard climbing is tremendously 
 rewarding. What a view from the summit ! 
 All human nature lies before us in panorama, 
 and of no one of Browning's works is this 
 truer than of " Pippa Passes." " Its mental 
 basis," says Sharp, "what Rossetti called 
 'fundamental brain-work,' is as luminous, 
 depth within depth, as the morning air. By 
 its side the more obviously profound poems, 
 ' Bishop Blougram ' and the rest, are mere 
 skilled dialectics." The clarity as well as 
 profundity of the drama is also emphasized 
 by Mr. Stedman, who calls it "the most 
 simple and varied of Browning's plays — that 
 which shows every side of his genius, has 
 
x Introduction 
 
 most lightness and strength, and, all in all, 
 may be termed a representative poem." Mr. 
 William Vaughan Moody has recently char- 
 acterized it still more unequivocally as " that 
 perfect fruit of Browning's youthful imagina- 
 tion." 
 
 "Pippa Passes" is less properly a drama 
 than, to quote Mr. William Sharp, " a lyrical 
 masque with interspersed dramatic episodes 
 and subsidiary interludes in prose." It is 
 hardly necessary to read a dozen lines in 
 order to be convinced that the play is essen- 
 tially unactable. There is no verisimilitude 
 in the speech of the little silk-winding girl ; 
 she uses language quite beyond the range, 
 or even the conception, of a peasant. The 
 whole drama is surcharged with the imagina- 
 tive language of pure poetry. Yet the per- 
 sonages — while they do not always talk in 
 character — are not the poet himself mas- 
 querading. They are strongly conceived, 
 individual, and consistent. It would seem, 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 therefore, as though their manner of speech 
 were due to some original theory of art en- 
 tertained by the author, rather than to care- 
 lessness or ignorance. Browning deliberately 
 sets out, it would appear, to disregard the 
 mere verity of facts in the interest of a 
 higher truth. If he abandons the actual 
 dialect of a mill-girl, he still expresses only 
 such emotions as she might easily have had. 
 It is not photography ; it is the real reach- 
 ing out into the ideal ; the prose of fact 
 married to the poetry of imagination. 
 Browning sets free the pent-up emotions in 
 the dumb little heart, and demonstrates 
 that he knows the child better even than 
 she knows herself. 
 
 But there are other reasons besides this 
 departure from commonplace verisimilitude, 
 which make this a reading drama rather than 
 a stage drama. The action lacks the unity 
 of a strongly executed plot. The leading 
 groups of characters are scarcely acquainted 
 
xii Introduction 
 
 with the fact of each other's existence. There 
 is no sub-plot or subtle interweaving of mo- 
 tives, and the main episodes themselves touch 
 without cohering. The principal Dramatis 
 Personce are connected in the reader's mind 
 only because the life of each is influenced by 
 the singing of Pippa. Never was a play 
 which escaped actual incoherence so episodi- 
 cal and loosely strung. 
 
 A still further objection to " Pippa Passes " 
 as a stage play lies in the fact that of the 
 four chief episodes three are fragmentary. 
 What do we know respecting the fate of 
 Luigi? What of the future of Jules and 
 Phene ? We do not learn even when or in 
 what manner the Bishop will see Pippa re- 
 stored to her rights. "Pippa Passes" is 
 assuredly a production of great brilliancy 
 and of extraordinary charm, but a successful 
 play in any conventional sense it can hardly 
 be called. It is a lyrical drama or a dramatic 
 poem. 
 
Introduction xiii 
 
 " Pippa Passes " is a group of four scenes, 
 together with a prologue, three interludes, 
 and an epilogue. The first two interludes 
 and the fourth scene are in prose. Half a 
 dozen beautiful songs are interspersed 
 throughout the play. 
 
 The characterization is varied in the ex- 
 treme. The persons who figure in the action 
 include street-girls, students, police officers, 
 a Catholic bishop, a sculptor, a wealthy land- 
 owner, and a young Italian conspirator. The 
 real heroine, of course, is — 
 
 " Pippa, who winds silk, 
 The whole year round, to earn just bread and milk." 
 
 We are introduced to her in her garret cham- 
 ber on the dawn of New Year's Day, her 
 one holiday in the year. She springs out of 
 bed at sunrise with the resolution to enjoy 
 to the full the day of unaccustomed leisure. 
 She is tempted to envy a little the fortunate 
 ones of Asolo whose holiday is continuous 
 
xiv Introduction 
 
 throughout the year : " Great haughty Ot- 
 tima," who has the passionate homage of her 
 lover, Sebald ; Jules, the artist, who is about 
 to wed Phene, a young girl of wonderful 
 beauty ; Luigi and his mother, " unmatched 
 ... for true content," and Monsignor, the 
 Bishop, "that holy and beloved priest," who 
 is expected from Rome to visit his brother's 
 home at Asolo. Pippa crowds down her 
 temptation to envious feeling, however, and 
 reflecting that God's love is best after all, 
 goes forth from her chamber with a light- 
 hearted song to enjoy her New Year's holi- 
 day. Now it happens that " Asolo' s four 
 happiest ones " are in grave moral peril, and 
 as they reach respectively the very crisis of 
 their spiritual destiny, Pippa passes, all un- 
 consciously, with a song on her lips which is 
 perfectly adapted to awaken the conscience 
 of the tempted soul and strengthen its waver- 
 ing choice of right. All of these folk whom 
 the silk-winding girl has thought so far 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 above her are saved from the danger which 
 threatens them, and their lives are vitally- 
 changed through her humble influence. When 
 evening comes Pippa climbs to her bare room 
 with a final happy song and falls asleep with- 
 out the least suspicion that her life or words 
 have been of interest or service to any one. 
 
 The other characters of the play offer 
 strong contrasts : Ottima, " magnificent in 
 sin," is a woman of courageous, independent 
 personality, wholly given over to a guilty 
 passion. Her aged and infirm husband, Luca, 
 has been killed by her lover, Sebald, and 
 herself, and Sebald is just suffering from a 
 new-born remorse. Ottima has all but suc- 
 ceeded in winning him back by her blandish- 
 ments when Pippa passes, singing " God's in 
 his heaven," and the man's disillusionment 
 is complete. Their conversation on the hill- 
 side, with its tragic ending, is justly pro- 
 nounced by the editors of the Camberwell 
 Browning, "one of the most tremendous 
 
xvi Introduction 
 
 scenes in all literature." Especially mar- 
 vellous is the passage recalling the thunder- 
 storm in the forest, — " Buried in woods we 
 lay, you recollect." There is nothing finer 
 in the whole range of modern poetry. 
 
 Jules, the artist, is the victim of a savage 
 practical joke, played upon him by his rival 
 artists, who envy and hate him. They have 
 decoyed him into a love affair with a beauti- 
 ful paid model, whom they have thrown in 
 his way, and whom he thinks to be possessed 
 of ideal purity. He has no sooner married 
 her than he discovers the imposture, and is 
 about to cast her off when Pippa passes sing- 
 ing the lovely song of Queen Katharine's 
 page. He instantly changes his purpose, 
 and resolves to awaken the latent soul of the 
 ignorant girl, who has been a party to the 
 deception, and finally decides to seek a new 
 future with his bride in her land of Greece. 
 
 Luigi is a young Italian patriot, who con- 
 ceives it to be his mission to kill the Emperor 
 
Introduction xvii 
 
 of Austria. He has an evening meeting with 
 his mother in a turret on the hillside near 
 Asolo. His mother endeavors to dissuade 
 him from his purpose, and he is about to 
 yield on being reminded of the proposed visit 
 of his betrothed in June ; but Pippa passes at 
 this moment, and her song strengthens his 
 wavering courage. He leaves the tower, 
 and thus escapes the police who have been 
 watching him. 
 
 Monsignor the Bishop has an interview 
 with his superintendent in the palace by the 
 Duomo regarding the estate of the Bishop's 
 late brother, which the ecclesiastic covets for 
 himself. Now it happens that Pippa, though 
 all unknown to herself, is the daughter of 
 the deceased brother, and thus the real heir- 
 ess of the estate. Maffeo tempts the Bishop 
 to remove the girl from his path, and explains 
 the trap already set for her ruin, soliciting 
 Monsignor's acquiescence in the plot. The 
 Bishop hesitates, torn between duty and 
 
xviii Introduction 
 
 covetousness, when Pippa passes, and her 
 song stabs his conscience. He has his evil 
 counsellor arrested and punished. By what 
 has truly been called "a beautiful piece of 
 dramatic justice," Pippa is shown to have 
 saved herself through having saved the 
 Bishop. 
 
 Boston^ Jttly ig, igo2. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 11 Ah, the clear morning ! I can see Saint 
 
 Mark's" (page 27) . . . Frontispiece 
 
 " Worship whom else ? For am I not, this day, 
 Whate'er I please ? " 17 
 
 " I kiss you now, dear Ottima, now, and now ! 
 
 This way " 43 
 
 " You by me, 
 And I by you ; this is your hand in mine, 
 And side by side we sit " 62 
 
 "Oh, you may come closer — we shall not eat 
 
 you!" 112 
 
 " Overhead the treetops meet, 
 
 Flowers and grass spring 'neath one's feet " . 126 
 
PERSONS 
 
 PlPPA. 
 
 Ottima. 
 
 Sebald. 
 
 Foreign Students. 
 
 Gottlieb. 
 
 Schramm. 
 
 Jules. 
 
 Phene. 
 
 Austrian Police. 
 
 Bluphocks. 
 
 Luigi and his Mother. 
 
 Poor Girls. 
 
 Monsignor and his Attendants. 
 
PIPPA PASSES 
 
 A DRAMA 
 
 New-Year's Day at Asolo in the Trevisan. — 
 A large, mean, airy chamber. A girl, Pippa, 
 from the silk-mills, springing out of bed. 
 
 Day! 
 
 Faster and more fast, 
 
 O'er night's brim, day boils at last ; 
 
 Boils, pure gold, o'er the cloud-cup's brim 
 
 Where spurting and suppressed it lay : 5 
 
 For not a froth-flake touched the rim 
 
 Of yonder gap in the solid gray 
 
 Of the eastern cloud, an hour away ; 
 
 But forth one wavelet, then another, curled, 
 
 Till the whole sunrise, not to be suppressed, 
 
12 Pippa Passes 
 
 Rose, reddened, and its seething breast TI 
 Flickered in bounds, grew gold, then over- 
 flowed the world. 
 
 Oh, Day, if I squander a wavelet of thee, 
 A mite of my twelve hours' treasure, 
 The least of thy gazes or glances 1 5 
 
 (Be they grants thou art bound to, or gifts 
 
 above measure), 
 One of thy choices, or one of thy chances 
 (Be they tasks God imposed thee, or freaks 
 
 at thy pleasure) — 
 My Day, if I squander such labor or leisure, 
 Then shame fall on Asolo, mischief on me ! 
 
 Thy long blue solemn hours serenely flow- 
 ing, 21 
 
 Whence earth, we feel, gets steady help and 
 good — 
 
 Thy fitful sunshine-minutes, coming, going, 
 
 In which earth turns from work in gamesome 
 mood — 
 
Pippa Passes 13 
 
 All shall be mine ! But thou must treat me 
 
 not 25 
 
 As the prosperous are treated, those who 
 
 live 
 At hand here, and enjoy the higher lot, 
 In readiness to take what thou wilt give, 
 And free to let alone what thou refusest ; 
 For, Day, my holiday, if thou ill-usest 3° 
 
 Me, who am only Pippa — old-year's sorrow, 
 Cast off last night, will come again to-morrow : 
 Whereas, if thou prove gentle, I shall borrow 
 Sufficient strength of thee for new-year's 
 
 sorrow. 
 All other men and women that this earth 35 
 Belongs to, who all days alike possess, 
 Make general plenty cure particular dearth, 
 Get more joy one way, if another less : 
 Thou art my single day God lends to leaven 
 What were all earth else with a feel of 
 
 heaven ; 4° 
 
 Sole light that helps me through the year, 
 
 thy sun's ! 
 
14 Pippa Passes 
 
 Try, now! Take Asolo's Four Happiest 
 Ones — 
 
 And let thy morning rain on that superb 
 
 Great haughty Ottima, can rain disturb 
 
 Her Sebald's homage ? All the while thy 
 rain 45 
 
 Beats fiercest on her shrub-house window- 
 pane, 
 
 He will but press the closer, breathe more 
 warm 
 
 Against her cheek ; how should she mind the 
 storm ? 
 
 And, morning past, if midday shed a gloom 
 
 O'er Jules and Phene, what care bride and 
 groom 5° 
 
 Save for their dear selves ? 'Tis their mar- 
 riage-day ; 
 
 And while they leave church, and go home 
 their way 
 
 Hand clasping hand, within each breast would 
 be 
 
 Sunbeams and pleasant weather spite of thee. 
 
Pippa Passes 15 
 
 Then, for another trial, obscure thy eve 55 
 With mist, will Luigi and his mother grieve — 
 The lady and her child, unmatched, forsooth, 
 She in her age, as Luigi in his youth, 
 For true content ? The cheerful town, 
 
 warm, close, 
 And safe, the sooner that thou art morose, 
 Receives them ! And yet once again, out- 
 break 61 
 In storm at night on Monsignor they 
 
 make 
 Such stir about — whom they expect from 
 
 Rome 
 To visit Asolo, his brothers' home, 
 And say here masses proper to release 6 5 
 A soul from pain — what storm dares hurt 
 
 his peace ? 
 Calm would he pray, with his own thoughts 
 
 to ward 
 Thy thunder off, nor want the angels' guard. 
 But Pippa — just one such mischance would 
 
 spoil 
 
1 6 Pippa Passes 
 
 Her day that lightens the next twelvemonth's 
 toil 70 
 
 At wearisome silk-winding, coil on coil ! 
 And here I let time slip for nought ! 
 Aha ! you foolhardy sunbeam, caught 
 With a single splash from my ewer ! 
 You that would mock the best pursuer, 75 
 Was my basin overdeep ? 
 One splash of water ruins you asleep, 
 And up, up, fleet your brilliant bits 
 Wheeling and counterwheeling, 
 Reeling, broken beyond healing — 80 
 
 Now grow together on the ceiling ! 
 That will task your wits. 
 Whoever it was quenched fire first, hoped to 
 
 see 
 Morsel after morsel flee 
 
 As merrily, as giddily — 8 5 
 
 Meantime, what lights my sunbeam on ? 
 Where settles by degrees the radiant cripple ? 
 Oh, is it surely blown, my martagon ? 
 New-blown and ruddy as Saint Agnes' nipple, 
 
Worship whom else ? For am I not, this day, 
 
 IVhate'er I please?" 
 
 Photogravure. From drawing by Louis Meynelle. 
 


Pippa Passes 17 
 
 Plump as the flesh-bunch on some Turk 
 bird's poll! 9° 
 
 Be sure if corals, branching 'neath the ripple 
 
 Of ocean, bud there, fairies watch unroll 
 
 Such turban-flowers ; I say, such lamps 
 disperse 
 
 Thick red flame through that dusk green 
 universe ! 
 
 I am queen of thee, floweret ; 95 
 
 And each fleshy blossom 
 
 Preserve I not — safer 
 
 Than leaves that embower it, 
 
 Or shells that embosom — 
 
 From weevil and chafer ? 100 
 
 Laugh through my pane, then ; solicit the bee ; 
 
 Gibe him, be sure ; and, in midst of thy glee, 
 
 Love thy queen, worship me ! 
 
 Worship whom else ? For am I not, this 
 
 day, 
 
 Whate'er I please ? What shall I please 
 
 to-day ? 105 
 
1 8 Pippa Passes 
 
 My morning, noon, eve, night — how spend 
 
 my day ? 
 To-morrow I must be Pippa, who winds 
 
 silk, 
 The whole year round, to earn just bread 
 
 and milk : 
 But, this one day, I have leave to go, 
 And play out my fancy's fullest games ; no 
 I may fancy all day — and it shall be so — 
 That I taste of the pleasures, am called by 
 
 the names 
 Of the Happiest Four in our Asolo ! 
 
 See ! Up the hillside yonder, through the 
 
 morning, 
 Some one shall love me, as the world calls 
 
 love: "5 
 
 I am no less than Ottima, take warning ! 
 The gardens, and the great stone house 
 
 above, 
 And other house for shrubs, all glass in 
 
 front, 
 
Pippa Passes 19 
 
 Are mine; where Sebald steals, as he is 
 
 wont, 
 To court me, while old Luca yet reposes ; 
 And therefore, till the shrub-house door 
 
 uncloses, 121 
 
 I — what now ? — give abundant cause for 
 
 prate 
 About me — Ottima, I mean — of late, 
 Too bold, too confident she'll still face down 
 The spitef ullest of talkers in our town — 
 How we talk in the little town below ! I26 
 
 But love, love, love — there's better love, 
 I know ! 
 This foolish love was only Day's first offer ; 
 I choose my next love to defy the scoffer : 
 For do not our Bride and Bridegroom sally 
 Out of Possagno church at noon ? J3 1 
 
 Their house looks over Orcana valley — 
 Why should I not be the bride as soon 
 As Ottima ? For I saw, beside, 
 Arrive last night that little bride — 135 
 
20 Pippa Passes 
 
 Saw, if you call it seeing her, one flash 
 
 Of the pale, snow-pure cheek and bright black 
 
 tresses, 
 Blacker than all except the black eyelash ; 
 I wonder she contrives those lids no dresses ! 
 So strict was she, the veil 140 
 
 Should cover close her pale 
 Pure cheeks — a bride to look at and scarce 
 
 touch, 
 Scarce touch, remember, Jules ! — for are 
 
 not such 
 Used to be tended, flower-like, every feature, 
 As if one's breath would fray the lily of a 
 
 creature ? 145 
 
 A soft and easy life these ladies lead ! 
 Whiteness in us were wonderful indeed. 
 Oh, save that brow its virgin dimness, 
 Keep that foot its lady primness, 
 Let those ankles never swerve I 5° 
 
 From their exquisite reserve, 
 Yet have to trip along the streets like me, 
 All but naked to the knee ! 
 
Pippa Passes 21 
 
 How will she ever grant her Jules a bliss 
 
 So startling as her real first infant kiss ? 
 
 Oh, no, — not envy, this ! *56 
 
 Not envy, sure ! — for if you gave me 
 
 Leave to take or to refuse, 
 
 In earnest, do you think I'd choose 
 
 That sort of new love to enslave me ? 160 
 
 Mine should have lapped me round from the 
 
 beginning, 
 As little fear of losing it as winning ; 
 Lovers grow cold, men learn to hate their 
 
 wives, 
 And only parents' love can last our lives. 
 At eve the Son and Mother, gentle pair, 165 
 Commune inside our turret ; what prevents 
 My being Luigi ? While that mossy lair 
 Of lizards through the winter-time, is stirred 
 With each to each imparting sweet intents 
 For this new year, as brooding bird to bird 
 (For I observe of late, the evening walk 171 
 Of Luigi and his mother always ends 
 Inside our ruined turret, where they talk, 
 
22 Pippa Passes 
 
 Calmer than lovers, yet more kind than 
 
 friends), 
 Let me be cared about, kept out of harm, 
 And schemed for, safe in love as with a 
 
 charm ; J 76 
 
 Let me be Luigi ! — If I only knew 
 What was my mother's face — my father, 
 
 too! 
 
 Nay, if you come to that, best love of all 
 
 Is God's ; then why not have God's love 
 
 befall 180 
 
 Myself as, in the palace by the Dome, 
 Monsignor? — who to-night will bless the 
 
 home 
 Of his dead brother ; and God will bless in 
 
 turn 
 That heart which beats, those eyes which 
 
 mildly burn 
 With love for all men ! I, to-night at 
 
 least, 185 
 
 Would be that holy and beloved priest. 
 
Pippa Passes 23 
 
 Now wait ! — even I already seem to share 
 In God's love : what does New- Year's hymn 
 
 declare ? 
 What other meaning do these verses bear ? 
 
 All service ranks the same with God. 19° 
 
 If now, as formerly he trod 
 
 Paradise, his presence fills 
 
 Our earth, each only as God wills 
 
 Can work — God's puppets, best and worst, 
 
 Are we ; there is no last nor first. x 95 
 
 Say not " a small event ! " Why " small ? " 
 Costs it more pain that this ye call 
 A "great event" should come to pass, 
 Than that ? Untwine me from the mass 
 Of deeds which make up life one deed 
 Power shall fall short in or exceed ! 201 
 
 And more of it and more of it ! — oh, 
 
 yes — 
 I will pass each, and see their happiness, 
 
24 Pippa Passes 
 
 And envy none — being just as great, no 
 
 doubt, 
 Useful to men, and dear to God, as they ! 
 A pretty thing to care about 206 
 
 So mightily, this single holiday ! 
 But let the sun shine ! Wherefore repine ? 
 With thee to lead me, O Day of mine, 
 Down the grass-path gray with dew, 210 
 
 Under the pine-wood blind with boughs, 
 Where the swallow never flew 
 Nor yet cicala dared carouse — 
 No, dared carouse ! \She enters the street. 
 
 I. — Morning. Up the Hillside, inside the Shrub- 
 house. Luca's Wife, Ottama, and her para- 
 mour, the German Sebald. 
 
 sebald \sings\ 
 
 Let the watching lids wink ! 
 Day's ablaze with eyes, think — 
 Deep into the night, drink ! 
 
Pippa Passes 25 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Night ? Such may be your Rhineland nights, 
 perhaps ; 
 
 But this blood-red beam through the shutter's 
 chink — 5 
 
 We call such light the morning's : let us 
 see ! 
 
 Mind how you grope your way, though ! 
 How these tall 
 
 Naked geraniums straggle ! Push the lat- 
 tice 
 
 Behind that frame ! — Nay, do I bid you ? — 
 Sebald, 
 
 It shakes the dust down on me ! Why, of 
 course IO 
 
 The slide-bolt catches. — Well, are you con- 
 tent, 
 
 Or must I find you something else to spoil ? 
 
 Kiss and be friends, my Sebald ! Is it full 
 morning ? 
 
 Oh, don't speak then ! 
 
26 Pippa Passes 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Ay, thus it used to be ! 
 Ever your house was, I remember, shut 15 
 Till midday ; I observed that, as I strolled 
 On mornings thro' the vale here : country 
 
 girls 
 Were noisy, washing garments in the brook, 
 Hinds drove the slow white oxen up the 
 
 hills ; 
 But no, your house was mute, would ope no 
 
 eye ! 2 ° 
 
 And wisely ; you were plotting one thing 
 
 there, 
 Nature another outside. I looked up — 
 Rough white wood shutters, rusty iron bars, 
 Silent as death, blind in a flood of light. 
 Oh, I remember ! — and the peasants laughed 
 And said, " The old man sleeps with the 
 
 young wife ! " 2 6 
 
 This house was his, this chair, this window 
 
 — his! 
 
Pippa Passes 27 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Ah, the clear morning ! I can see Saint 
 
 Mark's ; 
 That black streak is the belfry. Stop : 
 
 Vicenza 
 Should lie — there's Padua, plain enough, 
 
 that blue ! 3° 
 
 Look o'er my shoulder, follow my ringer ! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Morning ? 
 It seems to me a night with a sun added. 
 Where's dew, where' s freshness ? That 
 
 bruised plant, I bruised 
 In getting thro' the lattice yester-eve, 
 Droops as it did. See, here's my elbow's 
 
 mark 35 
 
 r the dust o' the sill. 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Oh, shut the lattice, pray ! 
 
28 Pippa Passes 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Let me lean out. I cannot scent blood here 
 Foul as the morn may be. 
 
 There, shut the world out ! 
 How do you feel now, Ottima ? There, 
 
 curse 
 The world, and all outside ! Let us throw 
 
 off 40 
 
 This mask : how do you bear yourself ? 
 
 Let's out 
 With all of it ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Best never speak of it. 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Best speak again and yet again of it, 
 
 Till words cease to be more than words. 
 
 " His blood," 
 For instance — let those two words mean 
 
 "His blood" 45 
 
Pippa Passes 29 
 
 And nothing more. Notice, I'll say them 
 
 now, 
 « His blood." 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Assuredly if I repented 
 
 The deed — 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Repent ? who should repent, or why ? 
 What puts that in your head ? Did I once 
 
 say 
 That I repented ? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 No, I said the deed — 5° 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 " The deed " and " the event " — just now it 
 
 was 
 "Our passion's fruit" — the devil take such 
 
 cant ! 
 
30 Pippa Passes 
 
 Say, once and always, Luca was a wittol, 
 I am his cutthroat, you are — 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Here's the wine ; 
 I brought it when we left the house above, 
 And glasses too — wine of both sorts. 
 Black ? white then ? 56 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 But am not I his cutthroat ? What are 
 you? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 There trudges on his business from the 
 
 Duomo 
 Benet the Capuchin, with his brown hood 
 And bare feet — always in one place at 
 
 church, 60 
 
 Close under the stone wall by the south 
 
 entry ; 
 I used to take him for a brown cold piece 
 
Pippa Passes 31 
 
 Of the wall's self, as out of it he rose 
 To let me pass — at first, I say, I used — 
 Now, so has that dumb figure fastened on 
 me, 65 
 
 I rather should account the plastered wall 
 A piece of him, so chilly does it strike. 
 This, Sebald ? 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 No, the white wine — the white wine ! 
 Well, Ottima, I promised no new year 
 Should rise on us the ancient shameful 
 
 way, 70 
 
 Nor does it rise : pour on ! To your black 
 
 eyes ! 
 Do you remember last damned New- Year's 
 
 day? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 You brought those foreign prints. We 
 
 looked at them 
 Over the wine and fruit. I had to scheme 
 
32 Pippa Passes 
 
 To get him from the fire. Nothing but 
 saying 75 
 
 His own set wants the proof-mark, roused 
 him up 
 
 To hunt them out. 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Hark you, Ottima, 
 One thing's to guard against. We'll not 
 
 make much 
 One of the other — that is, not make more 
 Parade of warmth, childish officious coil, 80 
 Than yesterday — as if, sweet, I supposed 
 Proof upon proof were needed now, now first, 
 To show I love you — yes, still love you — 
 
 love you 
 In spite of Luca and what's come to him — 
 Sure sign we had him ever in our thoughts, 
 White sneering old reproachful face and all ! 
 We'll even quarrel, love, at times, as if 
 We still could lose each other, were not tied 
 By this — conceive you ? 
 
Pippa Passes 33 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Love! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Not tied so sure ! 
 
 Because tho* I was wrought upon, have 
 
 struck 9° 
 
 His insolence back into him — am I 
 
 So surely yours ? — therefore, forever yours ? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Love, to be wise (one counsel pays another), 
 Should we have — months ago, when first 
 
 we loved, 
 For instance that May morning we two stole 
 Under the green ascent of sycamores — 9 6 
 If we had come upon a thing like that 
 Suddenly — 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 " A thing " — there again — "a thing ! " 
 
34 Pippa Passes 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Then, Venus' body, had we come upon 
 My husband Luca Gaddi's murdered corpse 
 Within there, at his couch-foot, covered 
 close — ioi 
 
 Would you have pored upon it ? Why per- 
 sist 
 In poring now upon it ? For 'tis here 
 As much as there in the deserted house — 
 You cannot rid your eyes of it. For me, 
 Now he is dead I hate him worse ; I hate — 
 Dare you stay here ? I would go back and 
 
 hold 
 His two dead hands, and say, "I hate you 
 
 worse, 
 Luca, than — " 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Off, off — take your hands off mine ! 
 
 'Tis the hot evening — off ! oh, morning, is 
 
 it? no 
 
Pippa Passes 35 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 There's one thing must be done — you 
 
 , know what thing. 
 Come in and help to carry. We may sleep 
 Anywhere in the whole wide house to-night. 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 What would come, think you, if we let him 
 
 lie 
 Just as he is ? Let him lie there until II 5 
 The angels take him ! He is turned by 
 
 this 
 Off from his face beside, as you wiH see. 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 This dusty pane might serve for looking- 
 glass. 
 
 Three, four — four gray hairs ! Is it so you 
 said 119 
 
 A plait of hair should wave across my neck ? 
 
 No — this way. 
 
36 Pippa Passes 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Ottima, I would give your neck, 
 Each splendid shoulder, both those breasts 
 
 of yours, 
 That this were undone ! Killing ! Kill the 
 
 world 
 So Luca lives again ! — ay, lives to sputter 
 His fulsome dotage on you — yes, and feign 
 Surprise that I return at eve to sup, 126 
 
 When all the morning I was loitering here — 
 Bid me despatch my business and begone. 
 I would — 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 See! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 No, I'll finish ! Do you think 
 I fear to speak the bare truth once for all ? 
 All we have talked of is, at bottom, fine 131 
 To suffer ; there's a recompense in guilt ; 
 
Pippa Passes 37 
 
 One must be venturous and fortunate : 
 What is one young for, else ? In age we'll 
 
 sigh 
 O'er the wild, reckless, wicked days flown 
 
 over ; 135 
 
 Still we have lived : the vice was in its place. 
 But to have eaten Luca's bread, have worn 
 His clothes, have felt his money swell my 
 
 purse — 
 Do lovers in romances sin that way ? 
 Why, I was starving when I used to call 140 
 And teach you music, starving while you 
 
 plucked me 
 These flowers to smell ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 My poor lost friend ! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 He gave me 
 Life, nothing less ; what if he did reproach 
 My perfidy, and threaten, and do more — 
 
38 Pippa Passes 
 
 Had he no right ? What was to wonder 
 at ? M5 
 
 He sat by us at table quietly — 
 
 Why must you lean across till our cheeks 
 touch'd ? 
 
 Could he do less than make pretence to 
 strike ? 
 
 'Tis not the crime's sake — I'd commit ten 
 crimes 
 
 Greater, to have this crime wiped out, un- 
 done ! I 5° 
 
 And you — O, how feel you ? feel you for 
 me? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Well then, I love you better now than ever, 
 And best — look at me while I speak to 
 
 you — 
 Best for the crime ; nor do I grieve, in truth, 
 This mask, this simulated ignorance, x 55 
 
 This affectation of simplicity, 
 Falls off our crime ; this naked crime of ours 
 
Pippa Passes 39 
 
 May not, now, be looked over — look it 
 
 down ! 
 Great? let it be great; but the joys it 
 
 brought, 
 Pay they or no its price ? Come : they or it ! 
 Speak not ! The past, would you give up 
 
 the past l61 
 
 Such as it is, pleasure and crime together ? 
 Give up that noon I owned my love for you ? 
 The garden's silence ! even the single bee 
 Persisting in his toil suddenly stopped, 165 
 And where he hid you only could surmise 
 By some campanula's chalice set a-swing. 
 Who stammered, " Yes, I love you ? " 
 And when I ventured to receive you here, 
 Made you steal hither in the mornings — 170 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 When 
 I used to look up 'neath the shrub-house here, 
 Till the red fire on its glazed windows spread 
 To a yellow haze ? 
 
40 Pippa Passes 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Ah — my sign was, the sun 
 Inflamed the sere side of yon chestnut-tree 
 Nipped by the first frost. 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 You would always laugh 
 At my wet boots : I had to stride thro' grass 
 Over my ankles. 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Then our crowning night ! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 The July night ? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 The day of it too, Sebald ! 
 When heaven's pillars seemed o'erbowed with 
 
 heat, 
 Its black-blue canopy suffered descend 180 
 
Pippa Passes 41 
 
 Close on us both, to weigh down each to 
 
 each, 
 And smother up all life except our life. 
 So lay we till the storm came. 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 How it came ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Buried in woods we lay, you recollect ; 
 
 Swift ran the searching tempest overhead ; l8 5 
 
 And ever and anon some bright white 
 shaft 
 
 Burned thro' the pine-tree roof — here burned 
 and there, 
 
 As if God's messenger thro' the close wood 
 screen 
 
 Plunged and replunged his weapon at a ven- 
 ture, 189 
 
 Feeling for guilty thee and me ; then broke 
 
 The thunder like a whole sea overhead — 
 
42 Pippa Passes 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Slower, Ottima — 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Sebald, as we lay, 
 Who said, " Let death come now ! 'tis right 
 
 to die ! 
 Right to be punished ! nought completes such 
 
 bliss 
 But woe ! " Who said that ? 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 How did we ever rise ? 
 Was't that we slept ? Why did it end ? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 I felt you, 
 Fresh tapering to a point the ruffled ends 197 
 Of my loose locks 'twixt both your humid 
 
 lips — 
 My hair is fallen now : knot it again ! 
 
Pippa Passes 43 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 I kiss you now, dear Ottima, now, and now ! 
 This way ? Will you forgive me — be once 
 more 201 
 
 My great queen ? 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Bind it thrice about my brow ; 
 Crown me your queen, your spirit's arbitress, 
 Magnificent in sin. Say that ! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 I crown you 
 My great white queen, my spirit's arbitress, 
 Magnificent — 2o6 
 
 {From without is heard the voice of Pippa singing^ 
 
 The year's at the spring, 
 
 And day's at the morn ; 
 
 Morning's at seven ; 
 
 The hillside's dew-pearled : 210 
 
44 Pippa Passes 
 
 The lark's on the wing ; 
 The snail's on the thorn ; 
 God's in his heaven — 
 All's right with the world ! 
 
 (Pippa passes.) 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 God's in his heaven ! Do you hear that ? 
 Who spoke ? 215 
 
 You, you spoke ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Oh — that little ragged girl ! 
 
 She must have rested on the step : we give 
 them 
 
 But this one holiday the whole year round. 
 
 Did you ever see our silk-mills — their in- 
 side ? 
 
 There are ten silk-mills now belong to you. 
 
 She stoops to pick my double heart's-ease — 
 Sh ! 221 
 
 She does not hear : call you out louder ! 
 
Pippa Passes 45 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Leave me ! 
 Go, get your clothes on — dress those shoul- 
 ders ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Sebald ! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 Wipe off that paint ! I hate you ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Miserable ! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 My God ! and she is emptied of it now ! 225 
 Outright now ! — how miraculously gone 
 All of the grace — had she not strange grace 
 
 once ? 
 Why, the blank cheek hangs listless as it 
 
 likes, 
 
46 Pippa Passes 
 
 No purpose holds the features up together, 
 Only the cloven brow and puckered chin 
 Stay in their places : and the very hair, 2 3 I 
 That seemed to have a sort of life in it, 
 Drops, a dead web ! — 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Speak to me — not of me ! 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 That round great full-orbed face, where not 
 
 an angle 
 Broke the delicious indolence — all broken ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 To me — not of me! Ungrateful, perjured 
 cheat ! 236 
 
 A coward, too — but ingrate's worse than all ! 
 
 Beggar — my slave — a fawning, cringing 
 lie! 
 
 Leave me ! betray me ! I can see your drift ! 
 
 A lie that walks and eats and drinks ! 240 
 
Pippa Passes 47 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 My God ! 
 
 Those morbid, olive, faultless shoulder- 
 blades — 
 
 I should have known there was no blood be- 
 neath ! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 You hate me, then ? You hate me, then ? 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 To think 
 She would succeed in her absurd attempt, 
 And fascinate by sinning, show herself 245 
 Superior — guilt from its excess superior 
 To innocence. That little peasant's voice 
 Has righted all again. Though I be lost, 
 I know which is the better, never fear, 
 Of vice or virtue, purity or lust, 2 5° 
 
 Nature or trick ! I see what I have done, 
 Entirely now ! Oh, I am proud to feel 
 
48 Pippa Passes 
 
 Such torments — let the world take credit 
 
 thence — 
 I, having done my deed, pay too its price ! 
 I hate, hate — curse you ! God's in his 
 
 heaven ! 255 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Me! 
 
 Me ! no, no, Sebald, not yourself — kill 
 
 me ! 
 Mine is the whole crime. Do but kill me — 
 
 then 
 Yourself — then — presently — first hear me 
 
 speak ! 
 I always meant to kill myself — wait, 
 
 you ! 
 Lean on my breast — not as a breast ; don't 
 
 love me 260 
 
 The more because you lean on me, my 
 
 own 
 Heart's Sebald ! There, there, both deaths 
 
 presently ! 
 
Pippa Passes 49 
 
 SEBALD. 
 
 My brain is drowned now — quite drowned : 
 
 all I feel 
 Is — is, at swift-recurring intervals, 
 A hurry-down within me, as of waters 26 S 
 Loosened to smother up some ghastly pit : 
 There they go — whirls from a black, fiery 
 
 sea! 
 
 OTTIMA. 
 
 Not me — to him, O God, be merciful ! 
 
 Talk by the way, while Pippa is passing from the 
 Hillside to Orcana. Foreign Students of Paint- 
 ing and Sculpture, from Venice, assembled opposite 
 the House of Jules, a young French Statuary, at 
 Possagno. 
 
 FIRST STUDENT. 
 
 Attention ! my own post is beneath this 
 window, but the pomegranate clump yonder 
 
50 Pippa Passes 
 
 will hide three or four of you with a little 
 squeezing, and Schramm and his pipe must 
 lie flat in the balcony. Four, five — who's 
 a defaulter ? We want everybody, for Jules 
 must not be suffered to hurt his bride when 
 the jest's found out. 8 
 
 SECOND STUDENT. 
 
 All here ! Only our poet's away — never 
 having much meant to be present, moon- 
 strike him ! The airs of that fellow, that 
 Giovacchino ! He was in violent love with 
 himself, and had a fair prospect of thriv- 
 ing in his suit, so unmolested was it, — 
 when suddenly a woman falls in love with 
 him, too ; and out of pure jealousy he takes 
 himself off to Trieste, immortal poem and 
 all — whereto is this prophetical epitaph ap- 
 pended already, as Bluphocks assures me — 
 " Here a mammoth-poem lies, Fouled to death 
 by butterflies!' His own fault, the simpleton ! 
 Instead of cramp couplets, each like a knife 
 
Pippa Passes 5 1 
 
 in your entrails, he should write, says Blup- 
 hocks, both classically and intelligibly. Ais- 
 culapms, an Epic. Catalogue of the drugs : 
 Hebe's plaister — One strip Cools your lip. 
 Phoebus' emulsion — One bottle Clears your 
 throttle. Mercury s bolus — One box Cures — 
 
 THIRD STUDENT. 
 
 Subside, my fine fellow ! If the marriage 
 was over by ten o'clock, Jules will certainly 
 be here in a minute with his bride. 3 1 
 
 SECOND STUDENT. 
 
 Good ! — Only, so should the poet's muse 
 have been universally acceptable, says Blup- 
 hocks, et canibus nostris — and Delia not 
 better known to our literary dogs than the 
 boy Giovacchino ! 36 
 
 FIRST STUDENT. 
 
 To the point, now. Where's Gottlieb, the 
 newcomer ? Oh, — listen, Gottlieb, to what 
 
52 Pippa Passes 
 
 has called down this piece of friendly ven- 
 geance on Jules, of which we now assemble 
 to witness the winding-up. We are all 
 agreed, all in a tale, observe, when Jules 
 shall burst out on us in a fury by and by, 
 I am spokesman — the verses that are to 
 undeceive Jules bear my name of Lutwyche 
 
 — but each professes himself alike insulted 
 by this strutting stone-squarer, who came 
 alone from Paris to Munich, and thence with 
 a crowd of us to Venice and Possagno here, 
 but proceeds in a day or two alone again 
 
 — oh, alone indubitably ! — to Rome and 
 Florence. He, forsooth, take up his portion 
 with these dissolute, brutalized, heartless 
 bunglers ! — so he was heard to call us all : 
 now, is Schramm brutalized, I should like to 
 know ? Am I heartless ? S 6 
 
 GOTTLIEB. 
 
 Why, somewhat heartless ; for, suppose 
 Jules a coxcomb as much as you choose, 
 
Pippa Passes 53 
 
 still, for this mere coxcombry, you will have 
 brushed off — what do folks style it ? — the 
 bloom of his life. Is it too late to alter ? 
 These love-letters, now, you call his — I 
 can't laugh at them. 6 3 
 
 FOURTH STUDENT. 
 
 Because you never read the sham letters 
 of our inditing which drew forth these. 6 5 
 
 GOTTLIEB. 
 
 His discovery of the truth will be frightful. 
 
 FOURTH STUDENT. 
 
 That's the joke. But you should have 
 joined us at the beginning : there's no doubt 
 he loves the girl — loves a model he might 
 hire by the hour ! 7° 
 
 GOTTLIEB. 
 
 See here ! " He has been accustomed," 
 he writes, "to have Canova's women about 
 
54 Pippa Passes 
 
 him in stone, and the world's women beside 
 him in flesh ; these being as much below, as 
 those above, his soul's aspiration ; but now 
 he is to have the reality." — There you laugh 
 again ! I say, you wipe off the very dew of 
 his youth. 78 
 
 FIRST STUDENT. 
 
 Schramm ! (Take the pipe out of his 
 mouth, somebody) — will Jules lose the bloom 
 of his youth ? 81 
 
 SCHRAMM. 
 
 Nothing worth keeping is ever lost in this 
 world : look at a blossom — it drops pres- 
 ently, having done its service and lasted its 
 time ; but fruits succeed, and where would 
 be the blossom's place could it continue ? 
 As well affirm that your eye is no longer 
 in your body, because its earliest favorite, 
 whatever it may have first loved to look on, 
 is dead and done with — as that any affection 
 
Pippa Passes 55 
 
 is lost to the soul when its first object, what- 
 ever happened first to satisfy it, is super- 
 seded in due course. Keep but ever looking, 
 whether with the body's eye or the mind's, 
 and you will soon find something to look 
 on ! Has a man done wondering at women ? 
 
 — there follow men, dead and alive, to 
 wonder at. Has he done wondering at men ? 
 
 — there's God to wonder at : and the faculty 
 of wonder may be, at the same time, old and 
 tired enough with respect to its first object, 
 and yet young and fresh sufficiently, so far 
 as concerns its novel one. Thus — 103 
 
 FIRST STUDENT. 
 
 Put Schramm's pipe into his mouth again ! 
 There, you see ! Well, this Jules — a 
 wretched fribble — oh, I watched his disport- 
 ings at Possagno, the other day ! Canova's 
 gallery — you know : there he marches first 
 resolvedly past great works by the dozen 
 without vouchsafing an eye; all at once he 
 
56 Pippa Passes 
 
 stops full at the Psiche-fanciulla — cannot 
 pass that old acquaintance without a nod 
 of encouragement — " In your new place, 
 beauty ? Then behave yourself as well here 
 as at Munich — I see you ! " Next he posts 
 himself deliberately before the unfinished 
 Pieta for half an hour without moving, till 
 up he starts of a sudden, and thrusts his 
 very nose into — I say, into — the group ; 
 by which gesture you are informed that pre- 
 cisely the sole point he had not fully mastered 
 in Canova's practice was a certain method of 
 using the drill in the articulation of the knee- 
 joint — and that, likewise, has he mastered 
 at length ! Good-by, therefore, to poor 
 Canova — whose gallery no longer need de- 
 tain his successor Jules, the predestinated 
 novel thinker in marble ! 128 
 
 FIFTH STUDENT. 
 
 Tell him about the women ; go on to the 
 women ! 13° 
 
Pippa Passes 57 
 
 FIRST STUDENT. 
 
 Why, on that matter he could never be 
 supercilious enough. How should we be 
 other (he said) than the poor devils you see, 
 with those debasing habits we cherish ? He 
 was not to wallow in that mire, at least ; he 
 would wait, and love only at the proper time, 
 and meanwhile put up with the Psiche- 
 fanciulla. Now I happened to hear of a 
 young Greek — real Greek girl at Mala- 
 mocco ; a true islander, do you see, with 
 Alciphron's " hair like sea-moss " — Schramm 
 knows ! — white and quiet as an apparition, 
 and fourteen years old at farthest, — a 
 daughter of Natalia, so she swears — that 
 hag Natalia, who helps us to models at three 
 lire an hour. We selected this girl for the 
 heroine of our jest. So, first, Jules received 
 a scented letter — somebody had seen his 
 Tydeus at the Academy, and my picture was 
 nothing to it : a profound admirer bade him 
 
58 Pippa Passes 
 
 persevere — would make herself known to 
 him ere long. (Paolina, my little friend of 
 the Fenice, transcribes divinely.) And in due 
 time, the mysterious correspondent gave cer- 
 tain hints of her peculiar charms — the pale 
 cheeks, the black hair — whatever, in short, 
 had struck us in our Malamocco model ; we 
 retained her name, too — Phene, which is by 
 interpretation sea-eagle. Now, think of Jules 
 finding himself distinguished from the herd 
 of us by such a creature ! In his very first 
 answer he proposed marrying his monitress : 
 and fancy us over these letters, two, three 
 times a day, to receive and despatch! I 
 concocted the main of it : relations were in 
 the way — secrecy must be observed — in 
 fine, would he wed her on trust, and only 
 speak to her when they were indissolubly 
 united ? St — st — Here they come ! 169 
 
Pippa Passes 59 
 
 SIXTH STUDENT. 
 
 Both of them ! Heaven's love, speak 
 softly, speak within yourselves ! T 7i 
 
 FIFTH STUDENT. 
 
 Look at the bridegroom ! Half his hair in 
 storm, and half in calm, — patted down over 
 the left temple, — like a frothy cup one blows 
 on to cool it ! and the same old blouse that 
 he murders the marble in ! 176 
 
 SECOND STUDENT. 
 
 Not a rich vest like yours, Hannibal 
 Scratchy ! — rich, that your face may the 
 better set it off ! 
 
 SIXTH STUDENT. 
 
 - And the bride ! Yes, sure enough, our 
 Phene ! Should you have known her in her 
 clothes ? How magnificently pale ! l82 
 
6o Pippa Passes 
 
 GOTTLIEB. 
 
 She does not also take it for earnest, I 
 hope ? 
 
 FIRST STUDENT. 
 
 Oh, Natalia's concern, that is ! We settle 
 with Natalia. 186 
 
 SIXTH STUDENT. 
 
 She does not speak — has evidently let 
 out no word. The only thing is, will she 
 equally remember the rest of her lesson, and 
 repeat correctly all those verses which are to 
 break the secret to Jules ? T 9 T 
 
 GOTTLIEB. 
 
 How he gazes on her ! Pity — pity ! 
 
 FIRST STUDENT. 
 
 They go in : now, silence ! You three, — 
 not nearer the window, mind, than that 
 
Pippa Passes 61 
 
 pomegranate — just where the little girl, who 
 a few minutes ago passed us singing, is 
 seated ! 197 
 
 II. — Noon. Over Orcana. The House of Jules, 
 who crosses its threshold with Phene : she is 
 silent, on which Jules begins. 
 
 Do not die, Phene ! I am yours now, you 
 Are mine now ; let Fate reach me how she 
 
 likes, 
 If you'll not die : so, never die ! Sit here — 
 My workroom's single seat : I over-lean 
 This length of hair and lustrous front ; they 
 
 turn 5 
 
 Like an entire flower upward : eyes, lips, last 
 Your chin — no, last your throat turns : 'tis 
 
 their scent 
 Pulls down my face upon you ! Nay, look 
 
 ever 
 This one way till I change, grow you — I 
 
 could 
 
62 Pippa Passes 
 
 Change into you, beloved ! IO 
 
 You by me, 
 And I by you ; this is your hand in mine, 
 And side by side we sit : all's true. Thank 
 
 God! 
 I have spoken : speak, you ! 
 
 Oh, my life to come ! 
 My Tydeus must be carved that's there in 
 
 clay; 
 Yet how be carved, with you about the 
 
 room ? 15 
 
 Where must I place you ? When I think 
 
 that once 
 This roomful of rough block-work seemed my 
 
 heaven 
 Without you ! Shall I ever work again, 
 Get fairly into my old ways again, 
 Bid each conception stand while, trait by 
 
 trait, 20 
 
 My hand transfers its lineaments to stone ? 
 Will my mere fancies live near you, their 
 
 truth — 
 
You by me, 
 *And side by side we sit 
 •Photogravure. From drawing by Louis Meyuell 
 
 «ind I by you ; this is your hand it, 
 
yoell 
 
Pippa Passes 63 
 
 The live truth, passing and repassing me, 
 Sitting beside me ? 
 
 Now speak ! 
 
 Only, first, 
 See, all your letters ! Was't not well con- 
 trived ? 2 5 
 Their hiding-place is Psyche's robe ; she keeps 
 Your letters next her skin : which drops out 
 
 foremost ? 
 Ah, — this that swam down like a first moon- 
 beam 
 Into my world ! 
 
 Again those eyes complete 
 Their melancholy .survey, sweet and slow, 3° 
 Of all my room holds ; to return and rest 
 On me, with pity, yet some wonder too : 
 As if God bade some spirit plague a world, 
 And this were the one moment of surprise 
 And sorrow while she took her station, paus- 
 ing 35 
 O'er what she sees, finds good, and must 
 destroy ! 
 
64 Pippa Passes 
 
 What gaze you at ? Those ? Books, I told 
 
 you of ; 
 Let your first word to me rejoice them, too : 
 This minion, a Coluthus, writ in red 
 Bistre and azure by Bessarion's scribe — 4° 
 Read this line — no, shame — Homer's be 
 
 the Greek 
 First breathed me from the lips of my Greek 
 
 girl! 
 My Odyssey in coarse black vivid type 
 With faded yellow blossoms 'twixt page and 
 
 page, 
 To mark great places with due gratitude : 45 
 " He said, and on Antinous directed 
 A bitter shaft " — a flower blots out the rest ! 
 Again upon your search ? My statues, 
 
 then ! — 
 Ah, do not mind that — better that will look 
 When cast in bronze — an Almaign Kaiser, 
 
 that, 50 
 
 Swart-green and gold, with truncheon based 
 
 on hip. 
 
Pippa Passes 65 
 
 This, rather, turn to ! What, unrecognized ? 
 I thought you would have seen that here you 
 
 sit 
 As I imagined you — Hippolyta, 
 Naked upon her bright Numidian horse. 55 
 Recall you this, then ? " Carve in bold 
 
 relief " — 
 So you commanded — " carve, against I 
 
 come, 
 A Greek, in Athens, as our fashion was, 
 Feasting, bay-filleted and thunder-free, 
 Who rises 'neath the lifted myrtle-branch. 6o 
 'Praise those who slew Hipparchus,' cry 
 
 the guests, 
 ' While o'er thy head the singer's myrtle 
 
 waves 
 As erst above our champion : stand up, 
 
 all ! ' " 
 See, I have labored to express your thought. 
 Quite round, a cluster of mere hands and 
 
 arms 65 
 
 (Thrust in all senses, all ways, from all sides, 
 
66 Pippa Passes 
 
 Only consenting at the branches' end 
 
 They strain toward) serves for frame to a 
 
 sole face, 
 The Praiser's, in the centre, who with eyes 
 Sightless, so bend they back to light inside 70 
 His brain where visionary forms throng up, 
 Sings, minding not that palpitating arch 
 Of hands and arms, nor the quick drip of 
 
 wine 
 From the drenched leaves o'erhead, nor 
 
 crowns cast off, 74 
 
 Violet and parsley crowns to trample on — 
 Sings, pausing as the patron-ghosts approve, 
 Devoutly their unconquerable hymn ! 
 But you must say a " well " to that — say, 
 
 « well ! " 
 Because you gaze — am I fantastic, sweet ? 
 Gaze like my very life's-stuff, marble — mar- 
 
 bly 80 
 
 Even to the silence ! why before I found 
 The real flesh Phene, I inured myself 
 To see, throughout all nature, varied stuff 
 
Pippa Passes 6? 
 
 For better nature's birth by means of art : 
 With me, each substance tended to one form 
 Of beauty — to the human archetype. 86 
 
 On every side occurred suggestive germs 
 Of that — the tree, the flower — or take the 
 
 fruit, — 
 Some rosy shape, continuing the peach, 
 Curved beewise o'er its bough ; as rosy limbs, 
 Depending, nestled in the leaves; and just 9 1 
 From a cleft rose-peach the whole Dryad 
 
 sprang ! 
 But of the stuffs one can be master of, 
 How I divined their capabilities ! 
 From the soft-rinded smoothening facile chalk 
 That yields your outline to the air's em- 
 brace, 96 
 Half-softened by a halo's pearly gloom, 
 Down to the crisp imperious steel, so sure 
 To cut its one confided thought clean out 
 Of all the world. But marble ! — 'neath my 
 tools IOO 
 More pliable than jelly — as it were 
 
68 Pippa Passes 
 
 Some clear primordial creature dug from 
 
 depths 
 In the earth's heart, where itself breeds 
 
 itself, 
 And whence all baser substance may be 
 
 worked — 
 Refine it off to air you may, condense it 105 
 Down to the diamond ; — is not metal there, 
 When o'er the sudden specks my chisel 
 
 trips ? 
 Not flesh, as flake off flake I scale, approach, 
 Lay bare those bluish veins of blood asleep ? 
 Lurks flame in no strange windings where, 
 
 surprised II0 
 
 By the swift implement sent home at once, 
 Flushes and glowings radiate and hover 
 About its track ? — 
 
 Phene ! what — why is this ? 
 That whitening cheek, those still-dilating 
 
 eyes ! 
 Ah, you will die — I knew that you would 
 
 die! 115 
 


 / kiss you now, dear Ottima, now, and now ! 
 This way ' ' 
 Photogravure. From drawing by Louis Meynelle. 
 
Pippa Passes 69 
 
 phene begins, on his having long remained 
 silent. 
 
 Now the end's coming ; to be sure, it must 
 Have ended sometime ! Tush, why need I 
 
 speak 
 Their foolish speech ? I cannot bring to 
 
 mind 
 One half of it, beside, and do not care 
 For old Natalia now, nor any of them. I2 ° 
 Oh, you — what are you ? — if I do not try 
 To say the words Natalia made me learn, 
 To please your friends, — it is to keep myself 
 Where your voice lifted me, by letting that 
 Proceed ; but can it ? Even you, perhaps, 125 
 Cannot take up, now you have once let fall, 
 The music's life, and me along with that — 
 No, or you would ! We'll stay, then, as we 
 
 are — 
 Above the world. 
 
 You creature with the eyes ! 
 If I could look forever up to them, 130 
 
JO Pippa Passes 
 
 As now you let me, I believe, all sin, 
 All memory of wrong done, suffering borne, 
 Would drop down, low and lower, to the earth 
 Whence all that's low comes, and there touch 
 
 and stay — 
 Never to overtake the rest of me, *35 
 
 All that, unspotted, reaches up to you, 
 Drawn by those eyes ! What rises is myself, 
 Not me the shame and suffering; but they 
 
 sink, 
 Are left, I rise above them. Keep me so 
 Above the world ! 
 
 But you sink, for your eyes 
 Are altering — altered ! Stay — "I love you, 
 
 love — " 141 
 
 I could prevent it if I understood 
 More of your words to me — was't in the 
 
 tone 
 Or the words, your power ? 
 
 Or stay — I will repeat 
 Their speech, if that contents you ! Only, 
 
 change x 45 
 
Pippa Passes 71 
 
 No more, and I shall find it presently 
 
 Far back here, in the brain yourself filled up. 
 
 Natalia threatened me that harm would follow 
 
 Unless I spoke their lesson to the end, 
 
 But harm to me, I thought she meant, not 
 
 you. 150 
 
 Your friends — Natalia said they were your 
 
 friends 
 And meant you well — because, I doubted it, 
 Observing (what was very strange to see) 
 On every face, so different in all else, *54 
 
 The same smile girls like me are used to beai, 
 But never men, men cannot stoop so low ; 
 Yet your friends, speaking of you, used that 
 
 smile, 
 That hateful smirk of boundless self-conceit 
 Which seems to take possession of the world 
 And make of God their tame confederate, 160 
 Purveyor to their appetites — you know ! 
 But still Natalia said they were your friends, 
 And they assented though they smiled the 
 
 more, 
 
72 Pippa Passes 
 
 And all came round me — that thin English- 
 man 
 With light, lank hair seemed leader of the 
 rest ; 165 
 
 He held a paper — " What we want," said he, 
 Ending some explanation to his friends, 
 " Is something slow, involved, and mystical, 
 To hold Jules long in doubt, yet take his taste 
 And lure him on until at innermost *7<> 
 
 Where he seeks sweetness' soul, he may find 
 
 — this ! 
 As in the apple's core the noisome fly ; 
 For insects on the rind are seen at once, 
 And brushed aside as soon, but this is found 
 Only when on the lips or loathing tongue." 
 And so he read what I have got by heart : 
 I'll speak it, — "Do not die, love ! I am 
 
 yours " — 
 No — is not that, or like that, part of words 
 Yourself began by speaking ? Strange to lose 
 What cost much pains to learn ! Is this more 
 right ? 180 
 
Pippa Passes 73 
 
 I am a painter who cannot paint ; 
 
 In my life, a devil rather than saint, 
 
 In my brain, as poor a creature too — 
 
 No end to all I cannot do ! 
 
 Yet do one thing at least I can — l8 S 
 
 Love a man, or hate a man 
 
 Supremely : thus my lore began 
 
 Through the Valley of Love I went. 
 
 In its lovingest spot to abide, 
 
 And just on the verge where I pitched my 
 
 tent, 190 
 
 I found Hate dwelling beside. 
 (Let the Bridegroom ask what the painter 
 
 meant 
 Of his Bride, of the peerless Bride ! ) 
 And further, I traversed Hate's Grove, 
 In its hatefullest nook to dwell ; *95 
 
 But lo, where I flung myself prone, 
 
 couched Love 
 Where the shadow threefold fell ! 
 (The meaning — those black bride' s-eyes 
 
 above, 
 Not the painter's lip should tell !) 
 
74 Pippa Passes 
 
 " And here ! " said he, " Jules probably will 
 ask, 200 
 
 You have black eyes, love — you are, sure 
 enough, 
 
 My peerless bride, — then do you tell, indeed, 
 
 What needs some explanation — what means 
 this ? " — 
 
 And I am to go on, without a word — 
 
 So I grew wise in Love and Hate, 205 
 
 From simple that I was of late. 
 Once, when I loved, I would enlace 
 Breast, eyelids, hands, feet, form, and face 
 Of her I loved, in one embrace — 209 
 
 As if by mere love I could love immensely ! 
 And when I hated, I would plunge 
 My sword, and wipe with the first lunge 
 My foe's whole life out like a sponge — 
 As if by mere hate I could hate intensely ! 
 But now I am wiser, know better the fashion 
 How passion seeks aid from its opposite 
 passion ; 216 
 
Pippa Passes 75 
 
 And if I see cause to love more, or hate 
 
 more 
 Than ever man loved, ever hated, before — 
 And seek in the Valley of Love 
 The nest, or the nook in Hate's Grove, 220 
 Where my soul may surely reach 
 The essence, nought less, of each, 
 The Hate of all Hates, the Love 
 Of all Loves, in the Valley or Grove — 
 I find them the very warders 22 5 
 
 Each of the other's borders. 
 When I love most, Love is disguised 
 In Hate ; and when Hate is surprised 
 In Love, then I hate most : ask 
 How Love smiles through Hate's iron 
 
 casque, 2 3° 
 
 Hate grins through Love's rose-braided 
 
 mask, — 
 And how, having hated thee, 
 I sought long and painfully 
 To reach thy heart, nor prick 
 The skin, but pierce to the quick — 235 
 
J6 Pippa Passes 
 
 Ask this, my Jules, and be answered 
 
 straight 
 By thy bride — how the painter Lut- 
 
 wyche can hate ! 
 
 jules interposes. 
 
 Lutwyche ! who else ? But all of them, no 
 
 doubt, 
 Hated me : they at Venice — presently 2 39 
 Their turn, however ! You I shall not meet : 
 If I dreamed, saying this would wake me ! 
 
 Keep 
 What's here, the gold — we cannot meet 
 
 again, 
 Consider — and the money was but meant 
 For two years' travel, which is over now, 
 All chance or hope or care or need of it. 2 45 
 This — and what comes from selling these, 
 
 my casts 
 And books and medals, except — let them 
 
 go 
 Together, so the produce keeps you safe 
 
Pippa Passes 77 
 
 Out of Natalia's clutches ! — If by chance 
 
 (For all's chance here) I should survive the 
 
 gang 250 
 
 At Venice, root out all fifteen of them, 
 
 We might meet somewhere, since the world 
 
 is wide. 
 
 {From without is heard the voice 
 
 of Pippa, singing) 
 Give her but a least excuse to love me ! 
 When — where — 
 How — can this arm establish her above 
 
 me, 2 55 
 
 If fortune fixed her as my lady there, 
 There already, to eternally reprove me ? 
 (" Hist ! " said Kate the Queen ; 
 But " Oh ! " cried the maiden, binding 
 
 her tresses, 
 " 'Tis only a page that carols unseen, 260 
 Crumbling your hounds their messes ! ") 
 
 Is she wronged ? — To the rescue of her 
 
 honor, 
 My heart ! 
 
78 Pippa Passes 
 
 Is she poor ? — What costs it to be 
 styled a donor ? 264 
 
 Merely an earth to cleave, a sea to part ! 
 
 But that fortune should have thrust all 
 this upon her ! 
 
 (" Nay, list ! " bade Kate the Queen ; 
 
 And still cried the maiden, binding her 
 tresses, 
 
 " 'Tis only a page that carols unseen 
 
 Fitting your hawks their jesses ! ") 2 7° 
 
 (Pippa passes) 
 
 jules resumes. 
 
 What name was that the little girl sang 
 
 forth ? 
 Kate? The Cornaro, doubtless, who re- 
 nounced 
 The crown of Cyprus to be lady here 
 At Asolo, where still her memory stays, 
 And peasants sing how once a certain 
 page 2 75 
 
 Pined for the grace of her so far above 
 
Pippa Passes 79 
 
 His power of doing good to "Kate the 
 
 Queen " — 
 " She never could be wronged, be poor," he 
 
 sighed, 
 " Need him to help her ! " 
 
 Yes, a bitter thing 
 To see our lady above all need of us ; 280 
 
 Yet so we look ere we will love ; not I, 
 But the world looks so. If whoever loves 
 Must be, in some sort, god or worshipper, 
 The blessing or the blest one, queen or 
 
 page, 
 Why should we always choose the page's 
 
 part ? 28 5 
 
 Here is a woman with utter need of me, — 
 I find myself queen here, it seems ! 
 
 How strange ! 
 Look at the woman here with the new soul, 
 Like my own Psyche, — fresh upon her lips 
 Alit the visionary butterfly, 2 9° 
 
 Waiting my word to enter and make bright, 
 Or flutter off and leave all blank as first. 
 
80 Pippa Passes 
 
 This body had no soul before, but slept 
 Or stirred, was beauteous or ungainly, free 
 From taint or foul with stain, as outward 
 
 things 295 
 
 Fastened their image on its passiveness ; 
 Now, it will wake, feel, live — or die again ! 
 Shall to produce form out of unshaped stuff 
 Be art — and, further, to evoke a soul 
 From form be nothing ? This new soul is 
 
 mine ! 3 00 
 
 Now, to kill Lutwyche, what would that 
 
 do ? — save 
 A wretched dauber, men will hoot to death 
 Without me, from their laughter ! — Oh, to 
 
 hear 
 God's voice plain as I heard it first, before 
 They broke in with their laughter ! I heard 
 
 them 305 
 
 Henceforth, not God ! 
 
 To Ancona — Greece — some isle ! 
 I wanted silence only ! there is clay 
 
Pippa Passes 81 
 
 Everywhere. One may do whate'er one 
 
 likes 
 In art ; the only thing is, to make sure 
 That one does like it — which takes pains to 
 
 know. 3 10 
 
 Scatter all this, my Phene — this mad 
 
 dream ! 
 Who, what is Lutwyche, what Natalia's 
 
 friends, 
 What the whole world except our love — my 
 
 own, 
 Own Phene ? But I told you, did I not, 
 Ere night we travel for your land — some 
 
 isle 3 X 5 
 
 With the sea's silence on it ? Stand aside — 
 I do but break these paltry models up 
 To begin art afresh. Meet Lutwyche, I — 
 And save him from my statue meeting 
 
 him ? 
 Some unsuspected isle in the far seas ! 3 2 ° 
 Like a god going thro' his world there stands 
 One mountain for a moment in the dusk, 
 
82 Pippa Passes 
 
 Whole brotherhoods of cedars on its brow ; 
 And you are ever by me while I gaze — 
 Are in my arms as now — as now — as now ! 
 Some unsuspected isle in the far seas ! 3 26 
 Some unsuspected isle in far-off seas ! 
 
 Talk by the way, while Pippa is passing fro?n 
 Orcana to the Turret. Two or three of the Aus- 
 trian Police loitering with Bluphocks, an Eng- 
 lish vagabond, just in view of the Turret. 
 
 BLUPHOCKS. 1 
 
 So that is your Pippa, the little girl who 
 passed us singing ? Well, your Bishop's 
 Intendant's money shall be honestly earned : 
 — now, don't make me that sour face be- 
 cause I bring the Bishop's name into the 
 business : we know he can have nothing to 
 do with such horrors ; we know that he is 
 a saint and all that a bishop should be, who 
 
 1 " He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the 
 good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 
 
Pippa Passes 83 
 
 is a great man besides. Oh ! were but every 
 worm a maggot, Every fly a grig, Every 
 bough a Christmas fagot, Every tune a jig ! 
 In fact, I have abjured all religions; but the 
 last I inclined to was the Armenian : for I 
 have travelled, do you see, and at Kcenigs- 
 berg, Prussia Improper (so styled because 
 there's a sort of bleak hungry sun there), 
 you might remark- over a venerable house- 
 porch a certain Chaldee inscription ; and, 
 brief as it is, a mere glance at it used abso- 
 lutely to change the mood of every bearded 
 passenger. In they turned, one and all ; the 
 young and lightsome, with no irreverent 
 pause, the aged and decrepit, with a sensible 
 alacrity — 'twas the Grand Rabbi's abode, 
 in short. Struck with curiosity, I lost no 
 time in learning Syriac (these are vowels, 
 you dogs, — follow my stick's end in the 
 mud, — Celarent, Darii, Fevio ! ), and one 
 morning presented myself spelling-book in 
 hand, a, b, c, — I picked it out letter by 
 
84 Pippa Passes 
 
 letter, and what was the purport of this 
 miraculous posy ? Some cherished legend 
 of the past you'll say - — " How Moses hocus- 
 pocussed Egypt's land with fly and locust," 
 — or, " How to Jonah sounded harshish, Get 
 thee up and go to Tarshish," — or, " How 
 the angel meeting Balaam, Straight his ass 
 returned a salaam." In no wise ! " Shacka- 
 brach — Boach — somebody or other - — 
 Isaach, Re-cei-ver, Pur-cha-ser, and Ex-chan- 
 ger of — Stolen Goods ! " So talk to me of 
 the religion, of a bishop ! I have renounced 
 all bishops save Bishop Be ve ridge — mean to 
 live so — and die — As some Greek dog-sage, 
 dead and merry, Hellward bound in Charon's 
 wherry — With food for both worlds, under 
 and upper, Lupine-seed and Hecate's supper, 
 And never an obolus — though, thanks to you, 
 or this Intendant thro' you, or this Bishop 
 thro' his Intendant, I possess a burning pock- 
 etful of zwanzigers — to pay the Stygian 
 ferry ! 5 2 
 
Pippa Passes 85 
 
 FIRST POLICEMAN. 
 
 There is the girl, then ; go and deserve 
 them the moment you have pointed out to 
 us Signor Luigi and his mother. (To the 
 rest) I have been noticing a house yonder 
 this long while — not a shutter unclosed 
 since morning ! 5 8 
 
 SECOND POLICEMAN. 
 
 Old Luca Gaddi's, that owns the silk-mills 
 here : he dozes by the hour, wakes up, sighs 
 deeply, says he should like to be Prince 
 Metternich, and then dozes again, after hav- 
 ing bidden young Sebald, the foreigner, set 
 his wife to playing draughts. Never molest 
 such a household, they mean well. 65 
 
 BLUPHOCKS. 
 
 Only, cannot you tell me something of this 
 little Pippa I must have to do with ? One 
 could make something of that name. Pippa 
 
86 Pippa Passes 
 
 — that is, short for Felippa — rhyming to 
 
 — Panurge consults Hertrippa — Believ'st 
 thou, King Agrippa ? Something might be 
 done with that name. 7 2 
 
 SECOND POLICEMAN. 
 
 Put into rhyme that your head and a ripe 
 muskmelon would not be dear at half a 
 zwanzigerl Leave this fooling, and look 
 out : the afternoon's over or nearly so. 76 
 
 THIRD POLICEMAN. 
 
 Where in this passport of Signor Luigi 
 does our Principal instruct you to watch him 
 so narrowly ? There ? what's there beside 
 a simple signature ? (That English fool's 
 busy watching.) 81 
 
 SECOND POLICEMAN. 
 
 Flourish all round — "Put all possible ob- 
 stacles in his way ; " oblong dot at the end — 
 " Detain him till further advices reach you ; " 
 
 — 
 
Pippa Passes 87 
 
 scratch at bottom — " Send him back on pre- 
 tence of some informality in the above ; " 
 ink-spirt on right-hand side (which is the 
 case here) — "Arrest him at once." Why 
 and wherefore, I don't concern myself, but 
 my instructions amount to this : if Signor 
 Luigi leaves home to-night for Vienna, well 
 and good — the passport deposed with us 
 for our visa is really for his own use, they 
 have misinformed the Office, and he means 
 well ; but let him stay over to-night — there 
 has been the pretence we suspect, the ac- 
 counts of his corresponding and holding 
 intelligence with the Carbonari are correct, 
 we arrest him at once, to-morrow comes 
 Venice, and presently Spielberg. Bluphocks 
 makes the signal sure enough ! That is he, 
 entering the turret with his mother, no doubt. 
 
 IQ2 
 
88 Pippa Passes 
 
 III. — Evening. Inside the Turret on the Hill above 
 Asolo. Luigi and his Mother entering. 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 If there blew wind, you'd hear a long sigh, 
 
 easing 
 The utmost heaviness of music's heart. 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Here in the archway ? 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 Oh no, no — in farther, 
 Where the echo is made, on the ridge. 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Here surely, then. 
 How plain the tap of my heel as I leaped 
 
 up! 5 
 
 Hark — " Lucius Junius ! " The very ghost 
 
 of a voice, 
 
Pippa Passes 89 
 
 Whose body is caught and kept by — what 
 
 are those ? 
 Mere withered wallflowers, waving over- 
 head ? 
 They seem an elvish group with thin bleached 
 
 hair 
 That lean out of their topmost fortress — 
 
 look 10 
 
 And listen, mountain men, to what we say, 
 Hands under chin of each grave earthy 
 
 face. 
 Up and show faces all of you ! — " All of 
 
 you ! " 
 That's the king's dwarf with the scarlet 
 
 comb ; old Franz, 
 Come down and meet your fate ! Hark — 
 
 "Meet your fate!" 1 5 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 Let him not meet it, my Luigi — do not 
 Go to his city ! Putting crime aside, 
 Half of these ills of Italy are feigned ; 
 
0,0 Pippa Passes 
 
 Your Pellicos and writers for effect J 9 
 
 Write for effect. 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Hush ! say A writes and B. 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 These A's and B's write for effect, I say. 
 Then, evil is in its nature loud, while good 
 Is silent ; you hear each petty injury, 
 None of his virtues ; he is old beside, 2 4 
 
 Quiet and kind, and densely stupid. Why 
 Do A and B not kill him themselves ? 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 They teach 
 Others to kill him — me — and, if I fail, 
 Others to succeed ; now, if A tried and 
 
 failed, 
 I could not teach that : mine's the lesser 
 
 task. 29 
 
 Mother, they visit night by night — 
 
 
Pippa Passes 91 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 You, Luigi ? 
 Ah, will you let me tell you what you are ? 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Why not ? Oh, the one thing you fear to 
 
 hint, 
 You may assure yourself I say and say 
 Ever to myself. At times — nay, even as now 
 We sit — I think my mind is touched, sus- 
 pect 35 
 All is not sound ; but is not knowing that 
 What constitutes one sane or otherwise ? 
 I know I am thus — so all is right again. 
 I laugh at myself as through the town I 
 
 walk, 
 And see men merry as if no Italy 40 
 
 Were suffering ; then I ponder — "I am 
 
 rich, 
 Young, healthy ; why should this fact trouble 
 me 
 
92 Pippa Passes 
 
 More than it troubles these ? " But it does 
 
 trouble. 
 No, trouble's a bad word ; for as I walk 
 There's springing and melody and giddi- 
 ness, 45 
 And old quaint turns and passages of my 
 
 youth, 
 Dreams long forgotten, little in themselves, 
 Return to me — whatever may amuse me, 
 And earth seems in a truce with me, and 
 
 heaven 
 Accords with me, all things suspend their 
 
 strife, 5° 
 
 The very cicala laughs " There goes he, and 
 
 there ! 
 Feast him, the time is short ; he is on his 
 
 way 
 For the world's sake: feast him this once, 
 
 our friend ! " 
 And in return for all this, I can trip 
 Cheerfully up the scaffold-steps. I go 55 
 This evening, mother ! 
 
Pippa Passes 93 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 But mistrust yourself — 
 Mistrust the judgment you pronounce on 
 him ! 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Oh, there I feel — am sure that I am right ! 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 Mistrust your judgment, then, of the mere 
 
 means 
 To this wild enterprise : say you are right, 6° 
 How should one in your state e'er bring to 
 
 pass 
 What would require a cool head, a cold 
 
 heart, 
 And a calm hand ? You never will escape. 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Escape ? To even wish that would spoil all. 
 The dying is best part of it. Too much 6 5 
 
94 Pippa Passes 
 
 Have I enjoyed these fifteen years of mine, 
 To leave myself excuse for longer life : 
 Was not life pressed down, running o'er with 
 
 That I might finish with it ere my fellows 
 Who, sparelier feasted, make a longer stay ? 
 I was put at the board-head, helped to all 7* 
 At first ; I rise up happy and content. 
 God must be glad one loves his world so 
 
 much. 
 I can give news of earth to all the dead 
 Who ask me : — last year's sunsets, and great 
 
 stars 75 
 
 That had a right to come first and see ebb 
 The crimson wave that drifts the sun away — 
 Those crescent moons with notched and 
 
 burning rims 
 That strengthened into sharp fire, and there 
 
 stood, 
 Impatient of the azure — and that day 80 
 In March, a double rainbow stopped the 
 
 storm — 
 
Pippa Passes 95 
 
 May's warm, slow, yellow moonlit summer 
 
 nights — 
 Gone are they, but I have them in my soul ! 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 (He will not go !) 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 You smile at me ? 'Tis true, — 
 Voluptuousness, grotesqueness, ghastliness, 8 5 
 Environ my devotedness as quaintly 
 As round about some antique altar wreathe 
 The rose festoons, goats' horns, and oxen's 
 skulls. 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 See now : you reach the city, you must cross 
 His threshold — how ? 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Oh, that's if we conspired ! 
 
 Then would come pains in plenty, as you 
 
 guess — 91 
 
g6 Pippa Passes 
 
 But guess not how the qualities most fit 
 For such an office, qualities I have, 
 Would little stead me otherwise employed, 
 Yet prove of rarest merit only here. 95 
 
 Every one knows for what his excellence 
 Will serve, but no one ever will consider 
 For what his worst defect might serve ; and 
 
 yet 
 Have you not seen me range our ^coppice 
 
 yonder 
 In search of a distorted ash ? I find ioo 
 
 The wry spoilt branch a natural perfect bow ! 
 Fancy the thrice-sage, thrice-precautioned 
 
 man 
 Arriving at the palace on my errand ! 
 No, no ! I have a handsome dress packed 
 
 up — 
 White satin here, to set off my black hair, 105 
 In I shall march — for you may watch your 
 
 life out 
 Behind thick walls, make friends there to 
 
 betray you ; 
 
Pippa Passes 97 
 
 More than one man spoils everything. March 
 
 straight — 
 Only no clumsy knife to fumble for ! 
 Take the great gate, and walk (not saunter) on 
 Thro' guards and guards — I have rehearsed 
 
 it all in 
 
 Inside the turret here a hundred times. 
 Don't ask the way of whom you meet, ob- 
 serve, 
 But where they cluster thickliest is the door 
 Of doors ; they'll let you pass — they'll never 
 
 blab 115 
 
 Each to the other, he knows not the favorite, 
 Whence he is bound and what's his business 
 
 now. 
 Walk in — straight up to him ; you have no 
 
 knife : 
 Be prompt, how should he scream ? Then, 
 
 out with you ! 
 Italy, Italy, my Italy ! 120 
 
 You're free, you're free ! Oh, mother, I could 
 
 dream 
 
98 Pippa Passes 
 
 They got about me — Andrea from his exile, 
 Pier from his dungeon, Gaultier from his 
 grave ! 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 Well, you shall go. Yet seems this patriotism 
 The easiest virtue for a selfish man 125 
 
 To acquire. He loves himself — and next, 
 
 the world — 
 If he must love beyond — but nought be- 
 tween : 
 As a short-sighted man sees nought midway 
 His body and the sun above. But you 
 Are my adored Luigi, ever obedient l 3° 
 
 To my least wish, and running o'er with love ; 
 I could not call you cruel or unkind. 
 Once more, your ground for killing him ! — 
 then go ! 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 Now do you try me, or make sport of me ? 
 How first the Austrians got these provinces — 
 
Pippa Passes 99 
 
 If that is all, I'll satisfy you soon — 13 6 
 
 Never by conquest but by cunning, for 
 That treaty whereby — 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 Well ? 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 (Sure he's arrived, 
 The telltale cuckoo — Spring's his confidant, 
 And he lets out her April purposes !) J 4° 
 
 Or — better go at once to modern time — 
 He has — they have — in fact, I understand 
 But can't restate the matter ; that's my 
 
 boast : 
 Others could reason it out to you, and prove 
 Things they have made me feel. 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 Why go to-night ? 
 Morn's for adventure. Jupiter is now 146 
 A morning-star. I cannot hear you, Luigi ! 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
ioo Pippa Passes 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 "I am the bright and morning-star," saith 
 God — 
 
 And, " to such an one I give the morning- 
 star ! " 
 
 The gift of the morning-star ! Have I God's 
 gift 150 
 
 Of the morning-star ? 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 Chiara will love to see 
 That Jupiter an evening-star next June. 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 True, mother. Well for those who live 
 
 through June ! 
 Great noontides, thunder-storms, all glaring 
 
 pomps 
 Which triumph at the heels of June the God 
 Leading his revel thro' our leafy world. T 5 6 
 Yes, Chiara will be here — 
 
Pippa Passes ioi 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 In June : remember, 
 Yourself appointed that month for her 
 coming. 
 
 LUIGL 
 
 Was that low noise the echo ? 
 
 MOTHER. 
 
 The night-wind. 
 She must be grown — with her blue eyes 
 upturned l6 ° 
 
 As if life were one long and sweet surprise : 
 In June she comes. 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 We were to see together 
 The Titian at Treviso. There, again ! 
 
 {From without is heard the voice of Pippa singing^ 
 
 A king lived long ago, 
 
 In the morning of the world, l6 5 
 
102 Pippa Passes 
 
 When earth was nigher heaven than now ; 
 And the king's locks curled, 
 Disparting o'er a forehead full 
 As the milk-white space 'twixt horn and 
 
 horn 
 Of some sacrificial bull — J 7° 
 
 Only calm as a babe new-born : 
 For he was got to a sleepy mood, 
 So safe from all decrepitude, 
 Age with its bane, so sure gone by — 
 The gods so loved him while he dreamed,^ 
 That, having lived thus long, there seemed 
 No need the king should ever die. 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 No need that sort of king should ever die ! 
 
 Among the rocks his city was : 
 
 Before his palace, in the sun, 18? 
 
 He sat to see his people pass, 
 
 And judge them every one 
 
 From its threshold of smooth stone. 
 
Pippa Passes 103 
 
 They haled him many a valley-thief 
 Caught in the sheep-pens, robber chief l8 5 
 Swarthy and shameless, beggar-cheat, 
 Spy-prowler, or rough pirate found 
 On the sea-sand left aground ; 
 And sometimes clung about his feet, 
 With bleeding lip and burning cheek, J 9° 
 A woman, bitterest wrong to speak 
 Of one with sullen thickset brows ; 
 And sometimes from the prison-house 
 The angry priests a pale wretch brought, 
 Who through some chink had pushed 
 
 and pressed, x 95 
 
 On knees and elbows, belly and breast, 
 Worm-like into the temple, — caught 
 At last there by the very god, 
 Who ever in the darkness strode 
 Backward and forward, keeping watch 200 
 O'er his brazen bowls, such rogues to 
 
 catch ! 
 These, all and every one, 
 The king judged, sitting in the sun. 
 
104 Pippa Passes 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 That king should still judge sitting in the sun ! 
 
 His councillors, on left and right, 2 °5 
 
 Looked anxious up, — but no surprise 
 Disturbed the king's old smiling eyes, 
 Where the very blue had turned to white. 
 Tis said, a Python scared one day 
 The breathless city, till he came, 2I ° 
 
 With forky tongue and eyes on flame, 
 Where the old king sat to judge alway; 
 But when he saw the sweepy hair, 
 Girt with a crown of berries rare 2I 4 
 
 Which the god will hardly give to wear 
 To the maiden who singeth, dancing bare 
 In the altar-smoke by the pine-torch lights, 
 At his wondrous forest rites — 
 Seeing this, he did not dare 
 Approach that threshold in the sun, 22 ° 
 Assault the old king smiling there. 
 TSuch grace had kings when the world 
 begun ! (Pippa passes) 
 
Pippa Passes 105 
 
 LUIGI. 
 
 And such grace have they, now that the 
 
 world ends ! 
 The Python at the city, on the throne, 
 And brave men, God would crown for slaying 
 
 him, 225 
 
 Lurk in by-corners lest they fall his prey. 
 Are crowns yet to be won, in this late time, 
 Which weakness makes me hesitate to reach ? 
 Tis God's voice calls, how could I stay? 
 
 Farewell ! 
 
 Talk by the way, while Pippa is passing from the 
 Turret to the Bishop's brother's House, close to 
 the Duomo Santa Maria. Poor Girls sitting on 
 the steps. 
 
 FIRST GIRL. 
 
 There goes a swallow to Venice — the stout 
 
 sea-farer ! 
 Seeing those birds fly, makes one wish for 
 
 wings. 
 Let us all wish ; you, wish first ! 
 
io6 Pippa Passes 
 
 To finish. 
 
 SECOND GIRL. 
 
 I ? This sunset 
 
 THIRD GIRL. 
 
 That old — somebody I know, 
 Grayer and older than my grandfather, S 
 
 To give me the same treat he gave last week — 
 Feeding me on his knee with fig-peckers, 
 Lampreys, and red Breganze-wine, and 
 
 mumbling 
 The while some folly about how well I fare, 
 Let sit and eat my supper quietly — 10 
 
 Since had he not himself been late this 
 
 morning, 
 Detained at — never mind where, — had he 
 
 not — 
 " Eh, baggage, had I not ! " — 
 
 SECOND GIRL. 
 
 How she can lie ! 
 
Pippa Passes 107 
 
 FIRST GIRL. 
 
 My turn. 
 Spring's come and summer's coming : I would 
 
 wear 
 A long loose gown — down to the feet and 
 
 hands. I S 
 
 With plaits here, close about the throat, all 
 
 day; 
 And all night lie, the cool long nights, in 
 
 bed ; 
 And have new milk to drink, apples to eat, 
 Deuzans and junetings, leather-coats — ah, 
 
 I should say, J 9 
 
 That is away in the fields — miles ! 
 
 THIRD GIRL. 
 
 Say at once 
 You'd be at home — she'd always be at 
 
 home ! 
 Now comes the story of the farm among 
 The cherry orchards, and how April snowed 
 
108 Pippa Passes 
 
 White blossoms on her as she ran. Why, fool, 
 They've rubbed the chalk-mark out, how tall 
 
 you were, 25 
 
 Twisted your starling's neck, broken his 
 
 cage, 
 Made a dunghill of your garden ! 
 
 FIRST GIRL. 
 
 They destroy 
 My garden since I left them ? well — per- 
 haps ! 
 I would have done so — so I hope they have ! 
 A fig-tree curled out of our cottage wall ; 3° 
 They called it mine, I have forgotten why, 
 It must have been there long ere I was born : 
 Cric — eric — I think I hear the wasps o'er- 
 
 head 
 Pricking the papers strung to flutter there 
 And keep off birds in fruit-time — coarse 
 long papers, 35 
 
 And the wasps eat them, prick them through 
 and through. 
 
Pippa Passes 109 
 
 THIRD GIRL. 
 
 How her mouth twitches ! Where was I ? 
 
 — before 
 She broke in with her wishes and long gowns 
 And wasps — would I be such a fool ? — Oh, 
 
 here ! 39 
 
 See how that beetle burnishes in the path ! 
 There sparkles he along the dust ; and, there — 
 Your journey to that maize-tuft spoiled at 
 
 least ! 
 
 FIRST GIRL. 
 
 When I was young, they said if you killed 
 
 one 
 Of those sunshiny beetles, that his friend 
 Up there would shine no more that day nor 
 
 next. 45 
 
 SECOND GIRL. 
 
 When you were young ? Nor are you young, 
 
 that's true ! 
 How your plump arms, that were, have 
 
 dropped away ! 
 
no Pippa Passes 
 
 Why, I can span them ! Cecco beats you still ? 
 No matter, so you keep your curious hair. 
 I wish they'd find a way to dye our hair 5° 
 Your color — any lighter tint, indeed, 
 Than black — the men say they are sick of 
 
 black, 
 Black eyes, black hair ! 
 
 FOURTH GIRL. 
 
 Sick of yours, like enough ! 
 Do you pretend you ever tasted lampreys 
 And ortolans ? Giovita, of the palace, 55 
 Engaged (but there's no trusting him) to 
 
 slice me 
 Polenta with a knife that had cut up 
 An ortolan. 
 
 SECOND GIRL. 
 
 Why, there ! is not that Pippa 
 We are to talk to, under the window, — 
 quick, — 59 
 
 Where the lights are ? 
 
Pippa Passes in 
 
 FIRST GIRL. 
 
 That she ? No, or she would sing. 
 For the Intendant said — 
 
 THIRD GIRL. 
 
 Oh, you sing first ! 
 Then, if she listens and comes close — I'll 
 
 tell you, 
 Sing that song the young English noble made, 
 Who took you for the purest of the pure, 
 And meant to leave the world for you — what 
 
 fun ! 65 
 
 SECOND GIRL. 
 
 [Sings.] 
 
 You'll love me yet ! — and I can tarry 
 Your love's protracted growing : 
 
 June reared that bunch of flowers you carry 
 From seeds of April's sowing. 
 
 I plant a heartful now : some seed 70 
 
 At least is sure to strike 
 
112 Pippa Passes 
 
 And yield — what you'll not pluck indeed, 
 Not love, but, may be, like. 
 
 You'll look at least on love's remains, 
 
 A grave's one violet : 75 
 
 Your look ? — that pays a thousand pains. 
 What's death ? — you'll love me yet ! 
 
 third, girl (to Pippa, who approaches). 
 
 Oh, you may come closer — we shall not 
 eat you ! Why, you seem the very person 
 that the great rich handsome Englishman has 
 fallen so violently in love with ! I'll tell you 
 all about it. 82 
 
 IV Night. The Palace by the Duomo. Mon- 
 
 signor, dismissing his Attendants. 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 Thanks, friends, many thanks. I chiefly 
 desire life now, that I may recompense every 
 one of you. Most I know something of al- 
 
Oh, you may come closer — we shall not eat 
 
 you!" 
 Photogravure. From drawing by Louis Meynelle. 
 
i,i 
 
Pippa Passes 113 
 
 ready. What, a repast prepared ? Benedicto 
 benedicatur — ugh ! — ugh ! Where was I ? 
 Oh, as you were remarking, Ugo, the weather 
 is mild, very unlike winter weather; but I 
 am a Sicilian, you know, and shiver in your 
 Julys here. To be sure, when 'twas full 
 summer at Messina, as we priests used to 
 cross in procession the great square on As- 
 sumption Day, you might see our thickest 
 yellow tapers twist suddenly in two, each like 
 a falling star, or sink down on themselves in 
 a gore of wax. But go, my friends, but go ! 
 [To the Intendant] Not you, Ugo ! [The 
 others leave the apartment^ I have long 
 wanted to converse with you, Ugo ! 18 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 Uguccio — 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 — 'Guccio Stefani, man ! of Ascoli, Fermo, 
 and Fossombruno ; — what I do need in- 
 
H4 Pippa Passes 
 
 structing about are these accounts of your 
 administration of my poor brother's affairs. 
 Ugh ! I shall never get through a third part 
 of your accounts : take some of these dain- 
 ties before we attempt it, however. Are 
 you bashful to that degree ? For me, a 
 crust and water suffice. 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 Do you choose this especial night to ques- 
 tion me ? 30 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 This night, Ugo. You have managed my 
 late brother's affairs since the death of our 
 elder brother — fourteen years and a month, 
 all but three days. On the 3d of December, 
 I find him — 35 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 If you have so intimate an acquaintance 
 with your brother's affairs, you will be tender 
 
Pippa Passes 1 1 5 
 
 of turning so far back : they will hardly 
 bear looking into, so far back. 39 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 Ay, ay, ugh,' ugh, — nothing but disap- 
 pointments here below ! I remark a consid- 
 erable payment made to yourself on this 3d 
 of December. Talk of disappointments ! 
 There was a young fellow here, Jules, a 
 foreign sculptor I did my utmost to advance, 
 that the Church might be a gainer by us 
 both : he was going on hopefully enough, 
 and of a sudden he notifies to me some mar- 
 vellous change that has happened in his 
 notions of art. Here's his letter : " He 
 never had a clearly conceived ideal within his 
 brain till to-day. Yet since his hand could 
 manage a chisel, he has practised expressing 
 other men's ideals ; and, in the very perfec- 
 tion he has attained to, he foresees an ulti- 
 mate failure. His unconscious hand will 
 pursue its prescribed course of old years, 
 
1 1 6 Pippa Passes 
 
 and will reproduce with a fatal expertness 
 the ancient types, let the novel one appear 
 never so palpably to his spirit. There is but 
 one method of escape ; confiding the virgin 
 type to as chaste a hand, he will turn painter 
 instead of sculptor, and paint, not carve, its 
 characteristics," — strike out, I dare say, a 
 school like Correggio. How think you, 
 Ugo ? 66 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 Is Correggio a painter ? 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 Foolish Jules ! and yet, after all, why fool- 
 ish ? He may, probably will, fail egregiously ; 
 but if there should arise a new painter, will 
 it not be in some such way by a poet now, or 
 a musician — spirits who have conceived and 
 perfected an ideal through some other chan- 
 nel — transferring it to this, and escaping our 
 conventional roads by pure ignorance of 
 
Pippa Passes 1 1 7 
 
 them ; eh, Ugo ? If you have no appetite, 
 talk at least, Ugo ! 77 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 Sir, I can submit no longer to this course 
 of yours. First, you select the group of 
 which I formed one ; next you thin it gradu- 
 ally, — always retaining me with your smile, 
 — and so do you proceed till you have fairly 
 got me alone with you between four stone 
 walls. And now then ? Let this farce, this 
 chatter, end now — what is it you want with 
 me ? 86 
 
 Ugo 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 From the instant you arrived, I felt your 
 smile on me as you questioned me about this 
 and the other article in those papers — why 
 your brother should have given me this villa, 
 
1 1 8 Pippa Passes 
 
 that podere, — and your nod at the end 
 meant — what ? 93 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 Possibly that I wished for no loud talk 
 here. If once you set me coughing, Ugo ! — 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 I have your brother's hand and seal to all 
 I possess. Now ask me what for ! what ser- 
 vice I did him — ask me ! 9 8 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 I would better not : I should rip up old 
 disgraces, let out my poor brother's weak- 
 nesses. By the way, Maffeo of Forli — 
 which, I forgot to observe, is your true name 
 — was the interdict ever taken off you, for 
 robbing that church at Cesena ? 104 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 No, nor needs be ; for when I murdered 
 your brother's friend, Pasquale, for him — 
 
Pippa Passes 119 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 Ah, he employed you in that business, did 
 he ? Well, I must let you keep, as you say, 
 this villa and that podere, for fear the world 
 should find out my relations were of so indif- 
 ferent a stamp ! Maffeo, my family is the 
 oldest in Messina, and century after century 
 have my progenitors gone on polluting them- 
 selves with every wickedness under heaven. 
 My own father — rest his soul ! — I have, 
 I know, a chapel to support that it may rest ; 
 my dear two dead brothers were — what you 
 know tolerably well ; I, the youngest, might 
 have rivalled them in vice, if not in wealth, 
 but from my boyhood I came out from 
 among them, and so am not partaker of their 
 plagues. My glory springs from another 
 source ; or if from this, by contrast only, — 
 for I, the bishop, am the brother of your em- 
 ployers, Ugo. I hope to repair some of their 
 wrong, however : so far as my brother's ill- 
 
120 Pippa Passes 
 
 gotten treasure reverts to me, I can stop the 
 consequences of his crime ; and not one soldo 
 shall escape me. Maffeo, the sword we quiet 
 men spurn away, you shrewd knaves pick up 
 and commit murders with ; what opportuni- 
 ties the virtuous forego, the villainous seize. 
 Because, to pleasure myself, apart from other 
 considerations, my food would be millet-cake, 
 my dress sackcloth, and my couch straw, — 
 am I therefore to let you, the offscouring of 
 the earth, seduce the poor and ignorant, by 
 appropriating a pomp these will be sure to 
 think lessens the abominations so unaccount- 
 ably and exclusively associated with it ? 
 Must I let villas and poderi go to you, a mur- 
 derer and thief, that you may beget by 
 means of them other murderers and thieves ? 
 No — if my cough would but allow me to 
 speak! 145 
 
 INTEND ANT. 
 
 What am I to expect ? You are going to 
 punish me ? 
 
Pippa Passes 12 1 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 Must punish you, Maffeo. I cannot afford 
 to cast away a chance. I have whole centu- 
 ries of sin to redeem, and only a month or 
 two of life to do it in. How should I dare 
 to say — 15 2 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 " Forgive us our trespasses ? " 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 My friend, it is because I avow myself a 
 very worm, sinful beyond measure, that I 
 reject a line of conduct you would applaud, 
 perhaps. Shall I proceed, as it were, a-par- 
 doning ? I, who have no symptom of reason 
 to assume that aught less than my strenuous- 
 est efforts will keep myself out of mortal sin, 
 much less keep others out. No. I do tres- 
 pass, but will not double that by allowing 
 you to trespass. l6 3 
 
122 Pippa Passes 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 And suppose the villas are not your broth- 
 er's to give, nor yours to take ? Oh, you are 
 hasty enough just now ! 166 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 One, two — No. 3 ! — ay, can you read the 
 substance of a letter, No. 3, I have received 
 from Rome ? It is precisely on the ground 
 there mentioned, of the suspicion I have that 
 a certain child of my late elder brother, who 
 would have succeeded to his estates, was 
 murdered in infancy by you, Maffeo, at the 
 instigation of my late brother — that the 
 Pontiff enjoins on me not merely the bring- 
 ing that Maffeo to condign punishment, but 
 the taking all pains, as guardian of the in- 
 fant's heritage for the Church, to recover it 
 parcel by parcel, howsoever, whensoever, and 
 wheresoever. While you are now gnawing 
 those fingers, the police are engaged in seal- 
 
Pippa Passes 123 
 
 ing up your papers, Maffeo, and the mere 
 raising my voice brings my people from the 
 next room to dispose of yourself. But I 
 want you to confess quietly, and save me 
 raising my voice. Why, man, do I not know 
 the old story ? The heir between the suc- 
 ceeding heir, and this heir's ruffianly in- 
 strument, and their complot's effect, and the 
 life of fear and bribes and ominous smiling 
 silence ? Did you throttle or stab my 
 brother's infant ? Come, now ! i9 2 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 So old a story, and tell it no better ? 
 When did such an instrument ever produce 
 such an effect ? Either the child smiles in 
 his face, or, most likely, he is not fool 
 enough to put himself in the employer's 
 power so thoroughly ; the child is always 
 ready to produce — as you say — howsoever, 
 wheresoever, and whensoever. 200 
 
124 Pippa Passes 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 Liar! 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 Strike me ? Ah, so might a father chas- 
 tise ! I shall sleep soundly to-night at least, 
 though the gallows await me to-morrow ; for 
 what a life did I lead ! Carlo of Cesena re- 
 minds me of his connivance, every time I 
 pay his annuity — which happens commonly 
 thrice a year. If I remonstrate, he will con- 
 fess all to the good bishop — you ! 2 °9 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 I see thro' the trick, caitiff ! I would you 
 spoke truth for once. All shall be sifted, 
 however — seven times sifted. 
 
 INTENDANT. 
 
 And how my absurd riches encumbered 
 me ! I dared not lay claim to above half my 
 
Pippa Passes 125 
 
 possessions. Let me but once unbosom my- 
 self, glorify Heaven, and die ! — Sir, you are 
 no brutal, dastardly idiot like your brother I 
 frightened to death : let us understand one 
 another. Sir, I will make away with her for 
 you — the girl — here close at hand ; not the 
 stupid obvious kind of killing ; do not speak 
 — know nothing of her or me ! I see her 
 every day — saw her this morning. Of course 
 there is to be no killing ; but at Rome the 
 courtesans perish off every three years, and 
 I can entice her thither — have, indeed, be- 
 gun operations already. There's a certain 
 lusty, blue-eyed, florid-complexioned English 
 knave I and the police employ occasionally. 
 You assent, I perceive — no, that's not it — 
 assent I do not say — but you will let me 
 convert my present havings and holdings into 
 cash, and give me time to cross the Alps ? 
 'Tis but a little black-eyed, pretty singing 
 Felippa, gay silk-winding girl. I have kept 
 her out of harm's way up to this present ; 
 
126 Pippa Passes 
 
 for I always intended to make your life a 
 plague to you with her. 'Tis as well settled 
 once and forever. Some women I have pro- 
 cured will pass Bluphocks, my handsome 
 scoundrel, off for somebody ; and once Pippa 
 entangled ! — you conceive ? Through her 
 singing ? Is it a bargain ? 243 
 
 (From without is heard the voice of Pippa singing) 
 
 Overhead the treetops meet, 
 
 Flowers and grass spring 'neath one's feet ; 
 
 There was nought above me, nought below, 
 
 My childhood had not learned to know ; 
 
 For what are the voices of birds — 
 
 Ay, and of beasts — but words, our words, 
 
 Only so much more sweet ? 2 5° 
 
 The knowledge of that with my life begun. 
 
 But I had so near made out the sun, 
 
 And counted your stars, the seven and one, 
 
 Like the fingers of my hand : 
 
 Nay, I could all but understand 255 
 
' Overhead the treetops meet, 
 Flowers and grass spring 'neath one's feet ' 
 Photogravure. From drawing by Louis Meynelle. 
 
Pippa Passes 127 
 
 Wherefore through heaven the white moon 
 
 ranges ; 
 And just when out of her soft fifty changes 
 No unfamiliar face might overlook me — 
 Suddenly God took me ! 2 59 
 
 (Pippa passes) 
 
 MONSIGNOR. 
 
 1 
 
 [Springing tip.'] My people — one and all 
 — all — within there ! Gag this villain — tie 
 him hand and foot ! He dares — I know not 
 half he dares — but remove him — quick! 
 Miserere mei, Domine ! quick, I say ! 264 
 
 Pippa's Chamber again. She enters it. 
 
 The bee with his comb, 
 The mouse at her dray, 
 The grub in its tomb, 
 Wile winter away ; 
 
 But the firefly and hedge-shrew and lobworm, 
 I pray, 5 
 
128 Pippa Passes 
 
 How fare they ? 
 
 Ha, ha, best thanks for your counsel, my 
 
 Zanze ! 
 " Feast upon lampreys, quaff the Breganze" — 
 The summer of life so easy to spend, I0 
 
 And care for to-morrow so soon put away ! 
 But winter hastens at summer's end, 
 And firefly, hedge-shrew, lobworm, pray, 
 How fare they ? 
 
 No bidding me then to — what did she say ? 
 "Pare your nails pearlwise, get your small 
 
 feet shoes J 5 
 
 More like" — what said she? — "and less 
 
 like canoes ! " 
 How pert that girl was ! — would I be those 
 
 pert, 
 Impudent, staring women ? It had done me, 
 However, surely no such mighty hurt 
 To learn his name who passed that jest upon 
 
 me : 2 ° 
 
 No foreigner, that I can recollect, 
 Came, as she says, a month since, to inspect 
 
Pippa Passes 129 
 
 Our silk-mills — none with blue eyes and 
 
 thick rings 
 Of raw-silk-colored hair, at all events. 
 Well, if old Luca keep his good intents, 2 5 
 We shall do better, see what next year 
 
 brings ! 
 I may buy shoes, my Zanze, not appear 
 More destitute than you perhaps next year ! 
 Bluph — something ! I had caught the un- 
 couth name 2 9 
 But for Monsignor's people's sudden clatter 
 Above us — bound to spoil such idle chat- 
 ter 
 As ours ; it were, indeed, a serious matter 
 If silly talk like ours should put to shame 
 The pious man, the man devoid of blame, 
 The — ah, but — ah, but, all the same, 35 
 No mere mortal has a right 
 To carry that exalted air ; 
 Best people are not angels quite : 
 While — not the worst of people's doings 
 scare 
 
130 Pippa Passes 
 
 The devil ; so there's that proud look to 
 spare ! 40 
 
 Which is mere counsel to myself, mind ! for 
 I have just been the holy Monsignor ! 
 And I was you too, Luigi's gentle mother, 
 And you too, Luigi ! — how that Luigi 
 
 started 
 Out of the turret — doubtlessly departed 45 
 On some good errand or another, 
 For he passed just now in a traveller's trim, 
 And the sullen company that prowled 
 About his path, I noticed, scowled 
 As if they had lost a prey in him. 5° 
 
 And I was Jules the sculptor's bride, 
 And I was Ottima beside, 
 And now what am I ? — tired of fooling. 
 Day for folly, night for schooling ! 
 New- Year's day is over and spent, 55 
 
 111 or well, I must be content ! 
 
 Even my lily's asleep, I vow : 
 Wake up — here's a friend I've plucked you ! 
 Call this flower a heart's-ease now ! 
 
Pippa Passes 131 
 
 Something rare, let me instruct you, 6o 
 
 Is this, with petals triply swollen, 
 
 Three times spotted, thrice the pollen, 
 
 While the leaves and parts that witness 
 
 The old proportions and their fitness 
 
 Here remain unchanged, unmoved now — 65 
 
 Call this pampered thing improved now ! 
 
 Suppose there's a king of the flowers, 
 
 And a girl-show held in his bowers — 
 
 " Look ye, buds, this growth of ours," 
 
 Says he, " Zanze from the Brenta, 1° 
 
 I have made her gorge polenta 
 
 Till both cheeks are near as bouncing 
 
 As her — name there's no pronouncing ! 
 
 See this heightened color too, 
 
 For she swilled Breganze wine 75 
 
 Till her nose turned deep carmine — 
 
 'Twas but white when wild she grew. 
 
 And only by this Zanze' s eyes, 
 
 Of which we could not change the size, 
 
 The magnitude of all achieved 8o 
 
 Otherwise may be perceived ! " 
 
132 Pippa Passes 
 
 Oh, what a drear, dark close to my poor day ! 
 How could that red sun drop in that black 
 
 cloud ? 
 Ah, Pippa, morning's rule is moved away, 
 Dispensed with, never more to be allowed \%5 
 Day's turn is over — now arrives the night's. 
 
 lark, be day's apostle 
 
 To mavis, merle, and throstle, 
 
 Bid them their betters jostle 
 
 From day and its delights ! 9° 
 
 But at night, brother howlet, over the woods, 
 
 Toll the world to thy chantry ; 
 
 Sing to the bats' sleek sisterhoods 
 
 Full complines with gallantry ; 
 
 Then, owls and bats, 95 
 
 Cowls and twats, 
 
 Monks and nuns, in a cloister's moods, 
 
 Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry ! 
 
 [After she has begun to undress herself 
 Now, one thing I should like to really know : 
 How near I ever might approach all these 
 
 1 only fancied being, this long day — IDI 
 
Pippa Passes 133 
 
 Approach, I mean, so as to touch them, so 
 As to — in some way — move them — if you 
 
 please, 
 Do good or evil to them some slight way. 
 For instance, if I wind 105 
 
 Silk to-morrow, my silk may bind 
 
 \Sitting on the bedside. 
 And broider Ottima's cloak's hem. 
 Ah, me, and my important part with them, 
 This morning's hymn half promised when I 
 
 rose ! 
 True in some sense or other, I suppose. J I0 
 
 \As she lies down. 
 God bless me ! I can pray no more to-night. 
 No doubt, some way or other, hymns say 
 right. 
 All service ranks the same with God 
 With God, whose puppets, best and worst, 
 Are we : there is no last nor first. "5 
 
 \She sleeps. 
 THE END. 
 
NOTES 
 
 Prologue. — Asolo. A small fortified town in the 
 province of Treviso, about thirty miles from Venice. 
 It is situated on a hill commanding a fine prospect. 
 Asolo was known to the ancients as Ascelum, and it 
 still contains the ruins of a Roman aqueduct. Silk- 
 growing is the leading industry. Browning was ex- 
 ceedingly fond of the town, both in his youth and old 
 age. His last volume was named after it, " Aso- 
 lando." Asolo is encircled by a massive wall, and 
 has an old cathedral, beside other prominent buildings. 
 
 i. Day. The irregular, hurrying lines, gradually 
 lengthening from the monosyllable of the first line to 
 the twelve syllables of the twelfth, are admirably 
 suggestive of the advancing dawn. 
 
 20. Asolo. The poet places the accent on the first 
 syllable, although it properly falls on the second. He 
 uses the same poetic license in 11. 42 and 64 below. 
 
 40. Feel. Feeling, as commonly in Middle English. 
 
 62. Monsignor. The Bishop, who has control of 
 his brother's estates, as is subsequently made clear in 
 J35 
 
136 Notes 
 
 the course of the play. For the other leading char- 
 acters, see Introduction. 
 
 88. Martagon. A species of lily (Liliu?n martagon)^ 
 commonly known as " Turk's cap." 
 
 89. Saint Agnes. A virgin martyr of the fourth 
 century; the Saint Agnes of Keats's famous poem. 
 Pippa evidently has in mind some painting in the 
 cathedral. 
 
 90. Turk bird. Turkey. The familiar domestic 
 fowl is sometimes called Turk bird since it is sup- 
 posed to come from Turkey. 
 
 100. Weevil and chafer. Insects of the beetle 
 family; the latter is also called May-bug and cock- 
 chafer. 
 
 102. Gibe. Flout. 
 
 120. Old Luca. Ottima's hated husband. 
 
 131. Possagno church. Possagno, a village four 
 miles from Asolo, was the birthplace of Canova, who 
 designed its famous church. The latter is in the 
 form of a circular temple, and contains an altar-piece 
 by the great artist, as well as his tomb. It is singu- 
 larly appropriate that the wedding of a sculptor 
 should take place in this church. 
 
 166. Our turret. Evidently one of the towers of 
 the old walls. 
 
 169. Each to each. The reference is to Luigi and 
 his mother. 
 
Notes 137 
 
 181. The Palace by the Dome. The Bishop's Pal- 
 ace, which adjoins the cathedral [Duomo or Dome) 
 
 213. Cicala. Italian for cicada, or locust. 
 
 Scene I. — 4. Your Rhine land nights. " There is 
 an especial dramatic purpose in making Sebald a 
 German. The Italian temperament would not be 
 capable of so strong a reaction as he suffers." 
 (Rolfe.) 
 
 28. St. Mark's. The cathedral at Venice. Al- 
 though thirty miles distant, it can be seen from the 
 hill of Asolo on a clear day. 
 
 29-30. Vicenza, Padua. Towns about twenty-five 
 miles distant from Asolo. Vicenza is southwest of 
 Asolo, and Padua directly south. 
 
 45. His blood. Note the effect of crime in com- 
 pelling the mind to dwell upon certain words which 
 haunt the imagination and constantly recall the dread- 
 ful memory. Compare " Macbeth " ii. 2. 31. 
 
 53. Wittol. A compliant or contented cuckold. 
 
 56. Black ? The resemblance of the dark wine to 
 blood repels him. 
 
 58. Duomo. Cathedral. Cf. Prologue, 181. 
 
 59. Capuchin. The Capuchin monks are a branch 
 of the Franciscan order. They wear a brown habit. 
 
 76. Proof-mark. The sign which indicates that a 
 print is among the first impressions from the plate. 
 80. Coil. Fuss, ado. 
 
138 Notes 
 
 116. He is turned. It is a common superstition 
 that the face of a murdered man looks skyward for 
 vengeance. 
 
 119. Four gray hairs. Ottima is probably older 
 than Sebald. Cf. 228 below. 
 
 167. Campanula. A genus of flowers having bell- 
 shaped corollas, and known as harebell, or bell-flower. 
 (Lat. catnpanula, little bell.) 
 
 185. Swift ran, etc. Cf. Browning's wonderful pic- 
 ture of a thunder-storm in " The Ring and the Book. 5 ' 
 ("The Pope," 21 18, et seq.) 
 
 189. Plunged and rep lunged his weapon at a ven- 
 Uire. A marvellous stroke of the imagination. 
 
 Interlude I. — Giovacchino. The poet Giovac- 
 chino evidently resorted to the honorable expedient 
 of flight in order to escape some unworthy passion. 
 Cf. Biblical story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar. 
 It is also possible that the woman's love referred to is 
 pure but unreciprocated and unwelcome, and that the 
 flight is instigated by consideration for her happiness. 
 In either case, any conduct indicating self-control or 
 moral principle could win nothing but sneers from 
 such fellows as those forming this group of speakers. 
 
 17. Trieste. A city of Austria-Hungary at the head 
 of the gulf of the same name, at the northeastern 
 extremity of the Adriatic. It is seventy-three miles 
 northeast of Venice. 
 
Notes 139 
 
 19. Bluphocks. This odd name means " Blue-Fox," 
 and is said by Furnivall to be " a skit on the Edinburgh 
 Review, which is bound in a cover of blue and fox." 
 Rolfe calls Bluphocks " the only unredeemed villain 
 whom Browning has created." See Interlude ii. 1. 
 
 24. sEsculaftius. The god of medicine. Giovac- 
 chino is ridiculed for regarding love as a disease to 
 be cured instead of a passion to be enjoyed, and it is 
 maliciously suggested that his new epic take /Escula- 
 pius for its hero and that various drugs be called into 
 requisition to cure the love-sick victim. 
 
 34. Et canibus nostris. And to our dogs. From 
 Virgil, Eclogues, iii. 67 : " Notior ut jam sit canibus 
 non Delia nostris." 
 
 42. In a tale. Bound to tell the same story. Cf. 
 Shakespeare, " Much Ado About Nothing," iv. 2. 281 
 
 in. Psiche-fanciulla. One of the most faultless of 
 Canova's works, representing Psyche (Psiche) as a 
 maiden with a butterfly. Fanciulla is Italian for 
 young girl. Canova's Psyche is in the gallery at 
 Possagno. 
 
 117. Pieta. Shortly before his death, Canova pro- 
 duced this statue of the Virgin with the dead Christ 
 in her arms, for the church at Possagno. 
 
 139. Mala?nocco. "The Lagoon, immediately op- 
 posite to Venice, is closed by a long shoaly island, 
 Malamocco " (Murray). On this island, which forms 
 
140 Notes 
 
 part of the boundary of the harbor of Venice, is a 
 small town of the same name. 
 
 141. Alciphron. A Greek philosopher and epistol- 
 ary writer of the age of Alexander the Great. 
 
 146. Lire. Plural of lira, an Italian coin equiva- 
 lent to the French franc, or equal to about twenty 
 cents of our money. 
 
 149. Tydeus. An Homeric hero who was a leader 
 in the expedition against Thebes. He was a son of 
 ^neus, King of Colydon. Academy. The Academy 
 of Fine Arts, Venice. 
 
 153. Fenice. Phenix, the principal theatre in Ven- 
 ice. 
 
 177. Hannibal Scratchy. A burlesque spelling of 
 the name of the celebrated Italian painter, Annibale 
 Caracci. 
 
 Scene II. — 26. Psyche. Psyche {i.e. the soul) was 
 very beautiful, and was beloved by Cupid. Venus, 
 however, hated and persecuted her. Cupid finally 
 made her his wife, and Psyche gained immortality. 
 
 39. Minion, favorite. Cf. Shakespeare, " Cyrnba- 
 line," ii. 3. 39 : " The exile of her minion is too new." 
 Coluthus. A Greek epic poet of the sixth century, 
 whose " Rape of Helen," was discovered by Cardinal 
 Bessarion, a Greek scholar (1395-1472), noted for 
 his profound and varied learning} and his reverence 
 for the literature and traditions of Greece. Jules 
 
Notes 141 
 
 seems to have had an illuminated copy made by the 
 cardinal's scribe. 
 
 40. Bistre. "A dark brown paint, made from the 
 soot of wood." 
 
 46. He said, and on Antinous, etc. See Odyssey, 
 xxii. 1 o. Antinous was the first among the suitors of 
 Penelope to meet his fate at the hands of Ulysses. 
 He fell, pierced in the neck by the " bitter shaft." 
 
 $0. Almaign Kaiser. German emperor. 
 
 5 1 . Truncheon. A short staff, emblematic of high 
 office. 
 
 54. Hippolyta. Queen of the Amazons. 
 
 55. Numidian. Numidia was a country in the 
 northern part of Africa, corresponding in the main 
 with the modern Algeria. 
 
 59. Thunder-free. A crown of bay or laurel was 
 thought by the ancients to be a protection against 
 lightning. 
 
 61. Hipparchus. The son of Pisistratus, tyrant of 
 Athens, who was slain (b. c. 514) by Harmodius and 
 Aristogeiton. His tragic fate was a favorite subject 
 for drinking songs. The daggers with which the 
 despot was stabbed were concealed in the myrtle- 
 branches carried by the assassins at the festival of 
 the Panathenasa. Cf. " Childe Harold," iii. 20. 
 
 j 5. Parsley crowns. "The leaves of a species of 
 parsley (Apimn graveolens, our celery) were much 
 
142 Notes 
 
 used by the ancients in garlands on account of 
 their strong fragrance, especially in drinking-bouts." 
 (Rolfe.) 
 
 92. Dryad. Wood nymph. 
 
 95. Chalk. Crayon. 
 
 98. Steel. Tool of the engraver. 
 
 108. Flesh. In the same construction as metal ', 
 1. 106. 
 
 181. I am a ftai7iter. These verses, designed to 
 reveal the diabolical plot, are mystical and involved 
 in manner, but plainly convey the meaning that Jules 
 is to be wounded through his love, in conformity with 
 the revengeful schemes of Lutwyche, whose jealous 
 hatred takes this means of delivering the artist a 
 mortal blow. Jules is furnished unmistakable evi- 
 dence that the woman he has idealized possesses 
 neither strength of mind nor purity of character. 
 
 257. To eternally reprove. The "split infinitive," 
 usually avoided by careful prose writers, is sometimes 
 made necessary in poetry by the exigencies of metre. 
 
 258. Kate the Queen. Caterina Cornaro, born c. 
 1454, a native of Venice and the last queen of Cyprus, 
 was forced to resign her kingdom to the Venetians in 
 1489. Her abdication was attended with unusual 
 ceremony, and her journey from Cyprus to Venice 
 was a tour of triumph. On her arrival at Venice, 
 she was received with distinguished honor by the 
 
Notes 143 
 
 Doge and Senate, and was assigned for a place of 
 residence the Chateau Fort of Asolo. In the latter 
 town, Caterina formed a small court, and wielded 
 her brief and very circumscribed authority with firm- 
 ness and grace. She died in Venice in 1510. 
 
 270. Jesses. Straps of leather or silk, fitted to the 
 legs of a hawk, to which the line held in the fal- 
 coner's hand is attached. Cf. " Othello," iii. 3. 261. 
 
 272. The Cornaro. The castle at Asolo, built in 
 the thirteenth century, which was the residence of 
 Caterina Cornaro (" Kate the Queen "), after her 
 abdication of the throne of Cyprus. 
 
 276. Grace. Favor. 
 
 290. The visionary butterfly. Symbol of the soul, 
 and of immortality. 
 
 306. Henceforth. Thenceforth, from that time. 
 Ancona. A city of Central Italy, on the coast of 
 the Adriatic; capital of the province of the same 
 name. 
 
 Interlude II. — 1. Bluphocks. The foot-note 
 which Browning adds seems to be a " half-apology 
 for creating a character of so unmixed evil " (Rolfe), 
 and a plea for the reader's tolerance toward the 
 depraved scoundrel. 
 
 3. Intendant. The superintendent in charge of the 
 estate just inherited by the Bishop from his brother. 
 The "Intendant's money" refers to the bribe of 
 
144 Notes 
 
 Maffeo, whose plot has for its end the doing away 
 with Pippa, the real heiress of the estate. 
 
 10. Grig. Cricket. Cf. Tennyson, "The Brook," 
 54 : " High-elbowed grigs that leap in summer 
 grass." 
 
 13. Armenian. The Armenian Church divided 
 from the Roman Catholic in 491. It has its own 
 Pope (" Catholicos "). 
 
 14. Kcenigsberg. A fortified city of East Prussia, 
 338 miles northeast of Berlin, and ranking as the 
 third city in the dominion. It is capital of the 
 government of the same name. 
 
 15. Prussia Improper. Prussia Proper was the 
 name applied to the arm of land bounded on the 
 north by the Baltic and on the south by Poland, in 
 order to distinguish it from the other provinces of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 18. Chaldee. A Semitic dialect. 
 
 26. Syriac. Syriac was the common language in 
 Western Asia from the third to the eighth century. 
 It still exists as the ecclesiastical language in the 
 Syrian churches. Vowels. The Syriac language has 
 five vowels designated by the Greek vowels inverted. 
 
 28. Celarent, Darii, Ferio. Coined words employed 
 in logic. They are in the first of " five mnemonic 
 lines used by logicians to designate the nineteen valid 
 forms of the syllogism." 
 
Notes 145 
 
 32. Posy. Contraction of "poesy" — a verse, or 
 motto. Cf. " Merchant of Venice," v. 1. 148 : 
 
 " A paltry ring 
 That she did give me, whose posy was 
 For all the world like cutler's poetry 
 Upon a knife." 
 
 33. Hocus-po cussed. Juggled. Fly and locust. Cf. 
 Exodus, viii. 20 and x. 4. Tarshish. Introduced 
 arbitrarily for the sake of the rhyme. It was not to 
 Tarshish but to Nineveh that God commanded Jonah 
 to go. Cf. Jonah, i. 
 
 36. How the angel, etc. Cf. Numbers, xxii. 22, 
 et seq. 
 
 43. Bishop Beveridge. A Calvinist theologian 
 (1636-1707). The pun on the name is obvious. 
 
 45. Charon's wherry. Charon was the son of 
 Erebus. It was his office to carry the shades of the 
 dead in his boat across the River Styx. Cf. Stygian 
 ferry, 1. 51, below. In return for his service, Charon 
 was paid with an obolus (a small silver Athenian 
 coin), placed in the mouth of the corpse before 
 burial. 
 
 47. Lupine-seed. A kind of pulse. " In plant-lore, 
 ' lupine ' means wolfish, and is suggestive of the Evil 
 One " (" Flower-lore," Friend, p. 59). Hecate. A 
 goddess of the underworld who was greatly feared, 
 
1 46 Notes 
 
 and who was thought to be propitiated by frequent 
 offerings of eggs, fish, onions, etc. These gifts of 
 food were usually placed at cross-roads. 
 
 51. Zwanzigers. An Austrian coin worth twenty 
 kreutzers, or about fifteen cents. 
 
 61. Prince Metternich. A famous Austrian states- 
 man (1 773-1859), whose policy was one of conserva- 
 tism and repression. He was prime minister during 
 the most eventful years of the reign of Napoleon. It 
 is to him that the well-known saying is attributed : 
 " Apres moi, le deluge ! " 
 
 70. Panurge consults Hertrippa. Panurge is a 
 character in Rabelais's romance, " Gargantua and 
 PantagrueL" He consults the magician Hertrippa 
 in regard to his marriage. 
 
 71. King Agrippa. Cf. Acts xxvi. 27. 
 
 73. Your head and a ripe mtiskmelon. Cf. the 
 old English proverb : "He that loseth his wife and 
 sixpence hath lost a tester" (the tester being six- 
 pence). 
 
 80. That English fooVs, etc. There is no occasion 
 for fear that the man whom they are watching will 
 escape while they are talking. 
 
 92. Deposed. Deposited. 
 
 93. Visa. An endorsement made by the police 
 upon a passport after they have inspected it and 
 found it correct. 
 
Notes 1 47 
 
 98. Carbonari. An Italian secret society, organized 
 in 1820, which was endeavoring to free Italy from 
 the grasp of Austria. 
 
 100. Spielbei-g. An Austrian prison. 
 
 1 01. Makes the signal. Points out Luigi to the 
 police. 
 
 Scene III. — 6. Lucius Junius. Lucius Junius 
 Brutus led the revolt which resulted in the expulsion 
 of the Tarquins and the establishment of the Roman 
 republic (509 b. a). His name occurs naturally to 
 Luigi, as the latter tries the echo, siilce the young 
 patriot is contemplating a similar deed to that which 
 won immortal renown for Brutus. 
 
 14. Old Franz. Francis I., Emperor of Austria. 
 
 19. Pellicos. Silvio Pellico (1 788-1 854), an Italian 
 patriot and a member of the Carbonari. He was 
 arrested and confined eleven years in the prisons of 
 Santa Margherita in Milan, of I Piombi at Venice, 
 and finally in the Spielberg. His celebrated book, 
 " Le Mie Prigioni," gives a history of his long im- 
 prisonment. Pellico was set at liberty in 1830, 
 and devoted the remainder of his life to literary 
 work. 
 
 30. They visit night by night. That is, in 
 dreams. 
 
 55. I go this evening. See Interlude ii. 90 et seq. 
 The police have been misinformed. 
 
148 Notes 
 
 99. Coppice. A copse ; wood of small growth. 
 
 122. Andrea, Pier, Gualtier. Former conspirators 
 against the tyrannical Austrian government. 
 
 135. How first the Austrians got these provinces. 
 Austria gained by conquest the greater part of North- 
 ern Italy in 181 3. The Congress of Vienna after- 
 ward made repeated concessions, until by 181 5 all the 
 provinces fell under Austrian control. 
 
 138. The treaty. Made by the Congress of 
 Vienna. 
 
 148. "/ am the bright and morning star." Cf. 
 Revelation, xxii. 16. 
 
 150. The gift of the morning star. Cf. Revelation, 
 ii. 28. 
 
 151. Chiara. Luigi's betrothed. 
 
 156. Leading his revel. It is unusual to find June 
 personified as masculine. 
 
 163. The Titian at Treviso. An altar-piece by 
 Titian in the Cathedral of San Pietro. Treviso is an 
 Italian town, seventeen miles from Venice. 
 
 164. A king lived long ago. A song first published 
 in 1835. Numerous alterations were made when it 
 was incorporated in " Pippa Passes" in 1841. 
 
 168. Disparting. Intensive form of parting. 
 172. Got. Begotten. 
 
 174. Age with its bane. The edition of 1835 has : 
 " Age with its pine." 
 
Notes 149 
 
 184. Haled. Dragged, hauled. Cf. Luke xii. 58 : 
 " Lest he hale thee to the judge." 
 
 189. And somett7r.es clmig, etc. The following 
 four lines were inserted in 1841. This verse then 
 read: 
 
 " Sometimes there clung about his feet." 
 
 209. Pytho7i. The monster serpent slain by Apollo. 
 He lived in the caves of Mt. Parnassus, and guarded 
 the oracle of Delphi. Subsequently came to be used 
 of any dragon, and finally of any violent, dangerous 
 tyrant. 
 
 Interlude III. — 7. Fig-peckers. A species of 
 bird that lives upon figs. 
 
 8. Lampreys. A kind of fish resembling an eel 
 in shape, and having a circular suctorial mouth with 
 teeth on its inner surface. It is still eaten commonly 
 in many parts of Europe. Breganze-wt7ie. Wine 
 made at Breganza, an Italian village, twelve miles 
 north of Vicenza. 
 
 19. Deuza7is. A kind of apple. Jimetings. A 
 variety of early apple. Leather-coat. A tough-skinned 
 apple. The name is frequently applied to the golden 
 russet. Cf. "2 Henry IV." v. 3. 44: "There's a 
 dish of leather-coats for you." 
 
 55. Ortolans. An Old World bunting, a small 
 singing bird found in Europe, considered a great 
 
150 Notes 
 
 table-delicacy. Cf. Browning's Prologue to " Ferish- 
 tah's Fancies " : 
 
 " Pray, reader, have you eaten ortolans 
 Ever in Italy ? " etc. 
 
 57. Pole7ita. A porridge made of corn meal. It 
 forms the principal food of the poorer class of 
 Italians. 
 
 Scene IV. — 4. Benedict*? benedicatur. A form of 
 blessing. 
 
 10. Messina. A city and seaport of Sicily, having 
 many fine buildings and one of the best harbors in 
 the Mediterranean. Its climate, while excellent, is 
 extremely hot in midsummer, as the Bishop inti- 
 mates. 
 
 1 1 . Assujnption Day. A Church festival celebrated 
 on the 15 th of August to commemorate the miracu- 
 lous ascent into heaven of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 20. Ascoli, Fermo, and Fossumbruno . Towns of 
 Central Italy which are important ecclesiastical 
 centres. 
 
 44. Jules, a foreign sculptor. See Scene II. 
 above. 
 
 54. The very perfection. One of Browning's favor- 
 ite doctrines is to the effect that in attaining any form 
 of perfection on earth, one encounters danger of ulti- 
 
Notes 151 
 
 mate spiritual defeat. Aspiration, endless battles 
 with apparent failure, are more to be desired than 
 whatever kind of self-satisfied accomplishment. Cf. 
 " Andrea del Sarto " : 
 
 " A man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
 Or what's a heaven for ? . . . " 
 
 6$. Correggio. Antonio Allegri da Correggio(i494- 
 1534), one of the most famous of Italian painters. 
 His reputation rests chiefly on his frescoes in the 
 church of San Giovanni and those on the dome of 
 the cathedral at Parma. 
 
 92. Podere. A farm or small landed property; a 
 manor. 
 
 1 01. Forli. A walled city of Central Italy at the 
 foot of the Apennines, about forty miles southeast of 
 Bologna. 
 
 104. Cesetia. An episcopal city situated between 
 Bologna and Ancona, and about twelve miles from 
 Forli. 
 
 128. Soldo. The Italian "penny"; a copper coin 
 equivalent in value to the French sou. 
 
 134. Millet-cake. A kind of cake made from a 
 variety of small grain which grows in Italy. It is 
 eaten almost wholly by the peasantry. 
 
 141. Poderi. Plural of podere. See 1. 92, above. 
 
 226 Begun operations already. See Interlude ii. 
 
152 Notes 
 
 253. The seven and one. " The Seven Stars " is a 
 popular term for the Pleiades. Rolfe thinks the one 
 may be " any « bright particular star ' in the heavens," 
 but it is suggested in the notes to the Clarke and Porter 
 edition that " the ' one ' is probably Aldebaran (the fol- 
 lower), so called because it follows upon the Pleiades." 
 
 264. Miserere mei, Domine. " Have mercy on me, 
 O Lord ! " 
 
 Epilogue. — 2. Dray. Nest ; usually that of the 
 squirrel. 
 
 5. Hedge-shrew. Field-mouse. Lob-worm. Re- 
 sembles an earth-worm, though somewhat larger. 
 Lives in the sand of seashores, and is much used for 
 bait. Spelled also lug-worm. 
 
 70. Brenta. A navigable river of North Italy, 
 which rises in the Tyrol. 
 
 88. Mavis, 7nerle, and throstle. The mavis is the 
 English song-thrush ; the merle is the English black- 
 bird ; the th?'Ostle belongs to the thrush family, and 
 by the " Standard Dictionary " is also identified with 
 the song-thrush {turdus musicus). 
 
 91. H owlet. Owlet. 
 
 92. Cha7itry. Private chapel. 
 
 94. Full complines. An ecclesiastical term: the 
 last of the canonical hours, or the last service of com- 
 mon prayer for the day, following vespers. Plural of 
 complin or compline. 
 
Notes 153 
 
 96. Cowls and twats. The poet has explained 
 (through Doctor Furnivall) that he obtained the word 
 twats, referring to a part of a nun's attire, from the 
 Royalist jingle called " Vanity of Vanities " inspired 
 by the picture of Sir Harry Vane : 
 
 " 'Tis said they will give him a cardinal's hat : 
 They sooner will give him an old nun's twat." 
 
 " The word struck me," said Browning, " as a dis- 
 tinctive part of a nun's attire that might fitly pair 
 off with the cowl appropriated to a monk." 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 A CHRONOLOGY 
 
 1812. 
 Robert Browning born, May 7th, Parish of St. 
 Giles, Camberwell, London. 
 
 Baptized, June 14th, in Congregational Chapel, 
 Walworth. 
 
 1825. 
 Obtains Shelley's poems, which have a formative 
 influence on his genius. 
 
 1826. 
 Leaves private school, where he has spent several 
 years, and studies at home with a tutor. 
 
 1829-30. 
 Attends lectures at University College, London. 
 
 1833. 
 Pauline published. 
 
 *55 
 
156 Brownings Life and Writings 
 
 1833-34. 
 Travels in Russia and Italy. 
 Returns to Camberwell. 
 
 1835- 
 Paracelsus published. 
 
 The Browning family move from Camberwell to 
 Hatcham. 
 
 Browning makes the acquaintance of Macready. 
 
 1835-36. 
 Contributes several poems to the Monthly Repos- 
 itory. 
 
 1837. 
 Strafford published. 
 
 Strafford produced at Covent Garden Theatre, 
 May 1 st. 
 
 1838. 
 First Italian journey. 
 
 1840. 
 Sordello published. 
 
 1 841. 
 Publication of Bells and Pomegranates begun. 
 Pippa Passes published. 
 
Brownings Life and Writings 157 
 
 1842. 
 King Victor and King Charles published. 
 Dramatic Lyrics published. 
 
 Writes Pied Piper of Hamelin for Mr. Mac- 
 ready's young son, Willy. 
 
 1843. 
 The Return of the Druses published. 
 A Blot in the ''Scutcheon published. 
 A Blot in the ''Scutcheon produced at the Theatre 
 Royal, Drury Lane, February 1 ith. 
 
 1844. 
 Visit to Italy. 
 Colombe^s Birthday published. 
 
 1844-45. 
 Contributes six poems to Hood^s Magazine. 
 
 1845. 
 Dramatic Romances and Lyrics published. 
 
 1846. 
 Luria published. 
 A SouVs Tragedy published. 
 Married Elizabeth Barrett, September 12th. 
 
 1847. 
 Moves to Italy, residing at Casa Guidi, Florence. 
 
158 Brownings Life and Writings 
 
 1849. 
 Poems (first collected edition) published in two 
 volumes. 
 
 Birth of Robert Barrett Browning, March 9th. 
 Death of the poet's mother. 
 
 1850. 
 Christ?nas-Eve and Easter-Day published. 
 
 1851. 
 The Brownings visit England, and spend the fol- 
 lowing winter in Paris with Robert Browning, the 
 elder. 
 
 1852. 
 Introductory essay to the [spurious] Letters of 
 Percy Bysshe Shelley published. 
 
 The Brownings pass the summer in London. Re- 
 turn to Florence the following winter. 
 
 1853. 
 Colombo s Birthday produced at the Haymarket 
 Theatre by Miss Helen Faucit, April 25th. 
 
 1855. 
 Men a7id Women published. 
 
 1855-56. 
 Resides in London and Paris. 
 
Brownings Life and Writings 159 
 
 1858. 
 A trip to Normandy. 
 
 1 861. 
 Death of Mrs. Browning at Casa Guidi, June 29th. 
 
 1863. 
 Poetical Works published in three volumes. 
 
 1864. 
 Three poems contributed to The Atlantic Monthly. 
 Dramatis Personce published. 
 
 1866. 
 Death of Browning's father at Paris. 
 
 1867. 
 Receives degree of M. A. from Oxford, and is 
 made honorary Fellow of Balliol College. 
 
 1868. 
 Poetical Works published in six volumes 
 
 1868-69. 
 The Ring and the Book published. 
 A tour in Scotland, and visit to Lady Ashburton 
 at Loch Luichart Lodge. 
 
 1870. 
 Residence at St.-Aubin, France. 
 
160 Browning s Life and Writings 
 
 1871. 
 Balaustian's Adventure published in August. 
 Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Savior of Society, 
 published in December. 
 
 Herve Riel published in Cornhill Magazine. 
 
 1872. 
 Fifine at the Fair published. 
 Publishes a volume of selections from his works. 
 
 1872-73. 
 Spends part of each year at St.-Aubin. 
 
 1873. 
 Red Cotton Night-Cap Country j or, Turf and 
 Towers published. 
 
 1874. 
 Visit to Antwerp. 
 
 1875. 
 Aristophanes'* Apology published in April. 
 The Inn Album published in November. 
 Visit to Villers, on coast of Normandy. 
 Nominated to the office of Lord Rector of the 
 University of Glasgow. 
 
 1876. 
 Pacchiarotto and Other Poems published. 
 Visit to the Isle of Arran. 
 
Browning's Life and Writings 161 
 
 1877. 
 
 The Agamemnon of JEschylus published. 
 
 Spends the autumn with his sister at La Saisiaz, a 
 villa among the mountains near Geneva. 
 
 Receives formal offer of the Lord-Rectorship of 
 the University of St. Andrews. 
 
 1878. 
 La Saisiaz : The Two Poets of Croisic published. 
 Revisits Italy. 
 
 1879. 
 Dramatic Idyls published. 
 
 Elected President of the New Shakespeare Society. 
 Receives degree of LL. D. from Cambridge. 
 
 1880. 
 Dramatic Idyls, Second Series, published. 
 Publishes a second series of selections from his 
 works. 
 
 1881. 
 
 London Browning Society holds its first meeting, 
 October 25 th. 
 
 1882. 
 Receives degree of D. C. L. from Oxford. 
 
 1883. 
 Jocoseria published. 
 
1 62 Browning 's Life and Writings 
 
 1884. 
 Receives the degree of LL. D. from the University 
 of Edinburgh. 
 
 FerishtaWs Fancies published. 
 Again declines to stand for the Lord-Rectorship 
 of St. Andrews. 
 
 1885. 
 Purchases a residence in Venice, the Palazzo 
 Manzoni, and returns to England. 
 
 1886. 
 Spends the autumn in Wales. 
 Accepts the post of foreign correspondent to the 
 Royal Academy. 
 
 1887. 
 
 Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in 
 Their Day published. 
 
 1888. 
 
 Returns to Italy. 
 
 1888-89. 
 Poetical Works published in sixteen volumes. 
 
 1889. 
 Asolando : Fancies and Facts published. 
 Robert Browning died at Venice, December 12th; 
 buried in Westminster Abbey, December 31st.