^ ;■ /i -jr'i. <;.-^ -f,, f, -i, 5- -■}-, J- i S > i r>- ■> ^i ■• •: vi <"■> "r'^-A,-: 'Oif.'.^^J "■ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ASOLANDO. ■> ^ l-i\:^^ I- ASOLANDO: FANCIES AND FACTS. BY ROBERT BROWNING. LONDON : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE. 1890. \_All rights re served.\ TO MRS. ARTHUR B RONS ON. To WHOM but you, den?- Friend, should I dedicate verses — some few written, all of them supervised, in the comfo}-t of yotir presence, and with yet another experience of the gracious hospitality 7i07v bestowed on me since so many a year., — add- ing a cliarm even to my residetices at Venice, and leaving me little regret for the surprise and delight at my visits to A solo in bygone days ? I unite, you will see, the disconnected poems by a title- name popularly ascribed to the inventiveness of the ancient secretary of Queen Cornaro whose palace-tower still over- looks us : Asolare — " to disport in the open air, amuse one- self at random." The objection that such a word nowhere occurs in the works of the Cardinal is hardly important — Bembo was too thorough a purist to conserve in print a ietyn which in talk he might possibly toy with : but the word 8GG157 vi ASOLANDO is more likely derived from a Spanish source. I use it for love of the place, and in requital of your pleasant assurance that an early poem of mine first attracted you thither — where and elsewhere^ at La Mura as Ca Alvisi, may all happiness attend you ! Grate filly and affectionately yours, R. B. ASOLO : October 15, 1889. CONTENTS. PAGE Prologue i KOSNY 5 Dubiety 8 Now lo Humility ii Poetics 12 summum bonum 13 A Pearl, a Girl 14 Speculative 16 White Witchcraft ... .... 17 Bad Dreams : 1 19 „ n 20 M HI 27 „ IV 30 viii ASOLANDO PAGE Inapprehensiveness 34 Which ? •. ■- Vl The Cardinal and the Dog 40 The Pope and the Net 42 The Bean-Feast 46 Muckle-mouth Meg . . . . . . . . 52 Arcades Ambo . 56 The Lady and the Painter 58 Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice . . . . .61 Beatrice Signorini 76 Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment ... 99 "Imperante Augusto natus est " . . . 112 Development 123 Rephan 131 Reverie 141 Epilogue 156 ASOLANDO PROLOGUE. "The Poet's age is sad : for why? In youth, the natural world could show No common object but his eye At once involved with alien glow — His own soul's iris-bow. " And now a flower is just a flower : Man, bird, beast are but beast, bird, man- Simply themselves, uncinct by dower Of dyes which, when life's day began, Round each in glory ran." ASOLANDO: Friend, did you need an optic glass, Which were your choice ? A lens to drape In ruby, emerald, chrysopras, Each object — or reveal its shape Clear outlined, past escape, The naked very thing ? — so clear That, when you had the chance to gaze, You found its inmost self appear Through outer seeming— truth ablaze, Not falsehood's fancy-haze ? How many a year, my Asolo, Since — one step just from sea to land — I found you, loved yet feared you so — For natural objects seemed to stand Palpably fire-clothed ! No — FANCIES AND FACTS • No mastery of mine o'er these ! Terror with beauty, Hke the Bush Burning but unconsumed. Bend knees, Drop eyes to earthward ! Language ? Tush ! Silence 't is awe decrees. And now ? The lambent flame is — where ? Lost from the naked world : earth, sky, Hill, vale, tree, flower, — Italia's rare O'er-running beauty crowds the eye — But flame ? The Bush is bare. Hill, vale, tree, flower — they stand distinct. Nature to know and name. ^Vhat then ? A Voice spoke thence which straight unlinked Fancy from fact : see, all 's in ken : Has once my eyelid winked ? i M 2 ASOLANDO: No, for the purged ear apprehends Earth's import, not the eye late dazed : The Voice said "Call my works thy friends f At Nature dost thou shrink amazed ? God is it who transcends." AsoLO: Sept. 6, 1889. FANCIES AND FACTS ROSNY. Woe, he went galloping into the war, Clara, Clara ! Let us two dream : shall he 'scape with a scar ? Scarcely disfigurement, rather a grace Making for manhood which nowise we mar : See, while I kiss it, the flush on his face — Rosny, Rosny ! Light does he laugh : " With your love in my soul "- (Clara, Clara !) ■" How could I other than — sound, safe and whole — Cleave who opposed me asunder, yet stand ASOLANDO : Scatheless beside you, as, touching love's goal, Who won the race kneels, craves reward at your hand — Rosny, Rosny?" Ay, but if certain who envied should see ! Clara, Clara, Certain who simper : " The hero for me Hardly of life were so chary as miss Death — death and fame — that 's love's guerdon when. She Boasts, proud bereaved one, her choice fell on this Rosny, Rosny ! " So, — go on dreaming, — he lies mid a heap (Clara, Clara,) Of the slain by his hand : v/hat is death but a sleep ? FANCIES AND FACTS 7 Dead, with my portrait displayed on his breast : Love wrought his undoing : " No prudence could keep The love-maddened wretch from his fate." That is best, Rosny, Rosny ! ASOLANDOi DUBIETY. I WILL be happy if but for once : Only help me, Autumn weather, Me and mv cares to screen, ensconce In luxury's sofa-lap of leather ! Sleep ? Nay, comfort — with just a cloud Suffusing day too clear and bright : Eve's essence, the single drop allowed To sully, like milk, Noon's water-white. Let gauziness shade, not shroud, — adjust,^ Dim and not deaden,- somehow sheathe FANCIES AND FACTS « Aught sharp in the rough world's busy thrust, If it reach me through dreaming's vapour-wreath. Be life so, all things ever the same ! For, what has disarmed the world ? Outside, Quiet and peace : inside, nor blame Nor want, nor wish whate'er betide. What is it like that has happened before ? A dream } No dream, more real by much. A vision ? But fanciful days of yore Brought many : mere musing seems not such. Perhaps but a memory, after all ! — Of what came once when a woman leant To feel for my brow where her kiss might fall. Truth ever, truth only the excellent ! lo ASOLANDO NOW. Out of your whole life give but a moment ' All of your life that has gone before, All to come after it, — so you ignore So you make perfect the present, — condense. In a rapture of rage, for perfection's endowment. Thought and feeling and soul and sense — Merged in a moment which gives me at last You around me for once, you beneath me, above me — Me — sure that despite of time future, time past, — This tick of our life-time 's one moment you love me ! How long such suspension may linger ? Ah, Sweet — The moment eternal — just that and no more — When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut and lips meet ! FANCIES AND FACTS n HUMILITY. What girl but, having gathered flowers, Stript the beds and spoilt the bowers, From the lapful light she carries Drops a careless bud ? — nor tarries To regain the waif and stray : " Store enough for home " — she '11 say. So say I too : give your lover Heaps of loving — under, over. Whelm him — make the one the wealthy Am I all so poor who— stealthy Work it was ! — picked up what fell : Not the worst bud— who can tell ? 12 ASOLANDO: POETICS. " So say the foolish ! " Say the foohsh so, Love ? " Flower she is, my rose " — or else " My very swan is she "— Or perhaps "Yon maid-moon, blessing earth below. Love, That art thou ! " — to them, belike : no such vain words from me. ■^' Hush, rose, blush ! no balm like breath," I chide it : " Bend thy neck its best, swan, — hers the whiter curve ! " Be the moon the moon : my Love I place beside it : What is she ? Her human self, — no lower word will serve. FANCIES AND FACTS SUM MUM BONUM All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee : All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem : In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea : Breath and bloom, shade and shine, — wonder, wealth, and — how far above them — Truth, that 's brighter than gem, Trust, that 's purer than pearl, — Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe — all were for me In the kiss of one girl. M ASOLANDO: A PEARL, A GIRL. A SIMPLE ring with a single stone To the vulgar eye no stone of price : Whisper the right word, that alone — Forth starts a sprite, like fire from ice, And lo, you are lord (says an Eastern scroll) Of heaven and earth, lord whole and sole Through the power in a pearl. A woman (^'t is I this"time that say) With little the world counts worthy praise : Utter the true word— out and away FANCIES AND FACTS 15 Escapes her soul : I am wrapt in blaze, Creation's lord, of heaven and earth Lord whole and sole— by a minute's birth- Through the love in a girl ! i6 ASOLANDO: SPECULA TIVE. Others may need new life in Heaven — Man, Nature, Art — made new, assume ! Man with new mind old sense to leaven, Nature — new light to clear old gloom. Art that breaks bounds, gets soaring- room. I shall pray : " Fugitive as precious — ■ Minutes which passed, — return, remain ! Let earth's old life once more enmesh us, You with old pleasure, me — old pain, So we but meet nor part again ! FANCIES AND FACTS 17 WHITE WITCHCRAFT. If you and I could change to beasts, what beast should either be? Shall you and I play Jove for once ? Turn fox then, I decree ! Shy wild sweet stealer of the grapes ! Now do your worst on me ! And thus you think to spite your friend — turned loath- some ? What, a toad ? So, all men shrink and shun me ! Dear men, pursue your road ! Leave but my crevice in the stone, a reptile's fit abode ! c 1 8 ASOLANDO: Now say your worst, Canidia ! " He 's loathsome, I allow : There may or may not lurk a pearl beneath his puckered brow: But see his eyes that follow mine — love lasts there, any- how." FANCIES AND FACTS 19 BAD DREAMS. I. Last night I saw you in my sleep : And how your charm of face was changed ! I asked " Some love, some faith you keep ? " You answered "Faith gone, love estranged." Whereat I woke — a twofold bliss : Waking was one, but next there came This other : " Though I felt, for this, My heart break, I loved on the same." 20 ASOLANDO BAD DREAMS. II. You in the flesh and here — Your very self ! Now wait ! One word ! May I hope or fear ? Must I speak in love or hate ? Stay while I ruminate ! The fact and each circumstance Dare you disown ? Not you ! That vast dome, that huge dance, And the gloom which overgrew A — possibly festive crew ! FANCIES AND FACTS 21 For why should men dance at all — Why women — a crowd of both — Unless they are gay ? Strange ball — Hands and feet plighting troth, Yet partners enforced and loth ! Of who danced there, no shape Did I recognize: thwart, perverse, Each grasped each, past escape In a whirl or weary or worse : Man's sneer met woman's curse, While he and she toiled as if Their guardian set galley-slaves To supple chained limbs grown stiff : Unmanacled trulls and knaves— The lash for who misbehaves ! 22 ASOLANDO: And a gloom was, all the while, . Deeper and deeper yet O'ergrowing the rank and file Of that army of haters — set To mimic love's fever-fret. By the wall-side close I crept, Avoiding the livid maze, And, safely so far, outstepped On a chamber — a chapel, says My memory or betrays — Closet-like, kept aloof From unseemly witnessing What sport made floor and roof Of the Devil's palace ring While his Damned amused their king. FANCIES AND FACTS 23 Ay, for a low lamp burned, And a silence lay about What I, in the midst, discerned Though dimly till, past doubt, 'T was a sort of throne stood out — High seat with steps, at least : And the topmost step was filled By — whom ? ^Vhat vestured priest ? A stranger to me,— his guild, His cult, unreconciled To my knowledge how guild and cult Are clothed in this world of ours : I pondered, but no result Came to— unless that Giaours So worship the Lower Powers. 24 ASOLANDO : When suddenly who entered ? Who knelt — did you guess I saw ? Who — raising that face where centred Allegiance to love and law So lately — off-casting awe, Down-treading reserve, away Thrusting respect . . . but mine Stands firm — firm still shall stay ! • Ask Satan ! for I decline To tell — what I saw, in fine ! Yet here in the flesh you come — Your same self, form and face, — In the eyes, mirth still at home ! On the lips, that commonplace Perfection of honest grace ! FANCIES AND FACTS 25 Yet your errand is — needs must be — To palliate— well, explain, Expurgate in some degree Your soul of its ugly stain. Oh, you— the good in grain— How was it your white took tinge ? "A mere dream" — never object ! Sleep leaves a door on hinge Whence soul, ere our flesh suspect, Is off and away : detect Her vagaries when loose, who can ! Be she pranksome, be she prude, Disguise with the day began : With the night— ah, what ensued From draughts of a drink hell-brewed ? 26 ASOLANDO: Then She : " What a queer wild dream ! And perhaps the best fun is — Myself had its fellow — I seem Scarce awake from yet. 'T was this — Shall I tell you ? First, a kiss ! " For the fault was just your own, — 'T is myself expect apology : You warned me to let alone (Since our studies were mere philology) That ticklish (you said) Anthology. " So, I dreamed that I passed exam Till a question posed me sore : ' Who translated this epigram By — an author we best ignore ? ' And I answered ' Hannah More ' ! " FANCIES AND FACTS 27 BAD DREAMS. III. This was my dream : I saw a Forest Old as the earth, no track nor trace Of unmade man. Thou, Soul, explorest— Though in a trembling rapture — space Immeasurable ! Shrubs, turned trees. Trees that touch heaven, support its frieze Studded with sun and moon and star : While— oh, the enormous growths that bar Mine eye from penetrating past Their tangled twine where lurks — nay, lives Royally lone, some brute-type cast I' the rough, time cancels, man forgives. ASOLANDO: On, Soul ! I saw a lucid City Of architectural device Every way perfect. Pause for pity, Lightning ! nor leave a cicatrice On those bright marbles, dome and spire, Structures palatial, — streets which mire Dares not defile, paved all too fine For human footstep's smirch, not thine — Proud solitary traverser. My Soul, of silent lengths of way — With what ecstatic dread, aver, Lest life start sanctioned by thy stay ! Ah, but the last sight was the hideous I A City, yes, — a Forest, true, — But each devouring each. Perfidious Snake-plants had strangled what I knew FANCIES AND FACTS 29. Was a pavilion once : each oak Held on his horns some spoil he broke By surreptitiously beneath Upthrusting : pavements, as with teeth, Griped huge weed widening crack and split In squares and circles stone-work erst. Oh, Nature — good ! Oh, x\rt — no whit Less worthy ! Both in one — accurst ! 30 ASOLANDO: BAD DREAMS. IV. It happened thus : my slab, though new, Was getting weather-stained, — beside, Herbage, bahn, peppermint o'ergrew Letter and letter : till you tried Somewhat, the Name was scarce descried. That strong stern man my lover came : — Was he my lover ? Call him, pray. My life's cold critic bent on blame Of all i)Oor I could do or say To make ne worth his love one day — FANCIES AND FACTS 31 One far day when, by diligent And dutiful amending faults, Foibles, all weaknesses which went To challenge and excuse assaults •Of culture wronged by taste that halts — Discrepancies should mar no plan Symmetric of the quahties 'Claiming respect from — say — a man That's strong and stern. "Once more he pries Into me with those critic eyes !" No question ! so — "Conclude, condemn Each failure my poor self avows ! Leave to its fate all you contemn ! There 's Solomon's selected spouse : Enr*'"! needs must h^ld "^iirh r.-i-ids -chocks them !" ASOLANDO: Why, he was weeping ! Surely gone Sternness and strength : with eyes to ground And voice a broken monotone — " Only be as you were ! Abound In foibles, faults, — laugh, robed and crowned " As Folly's veriest queen, — care I One feather-fluff? Look pity. Love, On prostrate me — your foot shall try This forehead's use — mount thence above. And reach what Heaven you dignify ! " Now, what could bring such change about ? The thought perplexed : till, following His gaze upon the ground, — why, out Came all the secret ! So, a thing Thus simple has deposed my king ! FANCIES AND FACTS 33 For, spite of weeds that strove to'spoil Plain reading on the lettered slab, My name was clear enough— no soil Effaced the date when one chance stab Of scorn ... if only ghosts might blab ! D 34 ASOLANDO. IN A PPREHENSIVENESS. \V^E two stood simply friend-like side by side, Viewing a twilight country far and wide, Till she at length broke silence. " How it towers Yonder, the ruin o'er this vale of ours ! The West's faint flare behind it so relieves Its rugged outline — sight perhaps deceives, Or I could almost fancy that I see A branch wave plain — belike some wind-sown tree Chance-rooted where a missing turret was. What would I give for the perspective glass At home, to make out if 't is really so ! FANCIES AND FACTS 35 Has Ruskin noticed here at Asolo That certain weed-growths on the ravaged wall Seem "... something that I could not say at all, My thought being rather — as absorbed she sent Look onward after look from eyes distent With longing to reach Heaven's gate left ajar — *' Oh, fancies that might be, oh, facts that are ! What of a wilding? By you stands, and may So stand unnoticed till the Judgment Day, One who, if once aware that your regard Claimed what his heart holds, — woke, as from its sward The flower, the dormant passion, so to speak — Then what a rush of life would startling wreak Revenge on your inapprehensive stare While, from the ruin and the West's faint flare, You let )our eyes meet mine, touch what you term Quietude — that 's an universe in germ — 36 ASOLANDO: The dormant passion needing but a look To burst into immense life ! " " No, the book Which noticed how the ^Yall-growths wave " said she "Was not by Ruskin." I said "Vernon Lee?" FANCIES AND FACTS yj WHICH? So, the three Court-ladies began Their trial of who judged best In esteeming the love of a man : Who preferred with most reason was thereby confessed Bo)'-Cupid's exemplary catcher and eager ; An Abbe crossed legs to decide on the wager. First the Duchesse : " Mine for me — Who were it but God's for Him, And the King's for — who but he ? Both faithful and loyal, one grace more shall brim 38 ASOLANDO: His cup with perfection : a lady's true lover, He holds — save his God and his king — none above her." " I require " — outspoke the Marquise — " Pure thoughts, ay, but also fine deeds : Play the paladin must he, to please My whim, and — to prove my knight's service exceeds Your saint's and your loyalist's praying and kneeling — Show wounds, each wide mouth to my mercy appealing." Then the Comtesse : " My choice be a wretch, Mere losel in body and soul, Thrice accurst ! What care I, so he stretch Arms to me his sole saviour, love's ultimate goal, Out of earth and men's noise — names of ' infidel/ ' traitor,' Cast up at him? Crown me, crown's adjudicator!" FANCIES AND FACTS 39. And the Abbe uncrossed his legs, Took snuff, a reflective pinch, Broke silence : " The question begs Much pondering ere I pronounce. Shall I flinch ? The love which to one and one only has reference Seems terribly like what perhaps gains God's preference." 40 ASOLANDO: THE CARDINAL AND THE DOG. Crescenzio, the Pope's Legate at the High Council, Trent, — Year Fifteen hundred twenty-two, March Twenty-five — intent On writing letters to the Pope till late into the night. Rose, weary, to refresh himself, and saw a monstrous sight : (I give mine Author's very words : he penned, I re- indite.) FANCIES AND FACTS 41 A black Uog of \ast bigness, eyes flaming, cars that hung Down to the very ground ahiiost, into the chamber sprung And made directly for him, and laid himself right under The tabic where Crescenzio wrote — who called in fear and wonder His servants in the ante-room, commanded everyone To look for and find out the beast : but, looking, they found none. The Cardinal fell melancholy, then sick, soon after died : And at Verona, as he lay on his death-bed, he cried Aloud to drive away the Dog that leapt on his bed-side. Heaven keep us Protestants from harm : the rest . . . no ill betide ! 42 ASOLANDO: THE POPE AND THE NET What, he on whom our voices unanimously ran, Made Pope at our last Conclave? Full low his life began : His father earned the daily bread as just a fisherman. So much the more his boy minds book, gives proof of mother-Avit, Becomes first Deacon, and then Priest, then Bishop : see him sit No less than Cardinal ere long, while no one cries "Unfit!" FANCIES AND FACTS 43 But someone smirks, some other smiles, jogs elbow and nods head : Each winks at each: "'I-faith, a rise! Saint Peter's net, instead Of sword and keys, is come in vogue ! " You tliink he blushes red ? Not he, of humble holy heart ! " Unworthy me ! " he sighs : " From fisher's drudge to Church's prince — it is indeed a rise : So, here's my way to keep the fact for ever in my eyes ! " And straightway in his palace-hall, where commonly is set Some coat-of-arms, some portraiture ancestral, lo, we met His mean estate's reminder in his fisher-father's net ! 44 ASOLANDO: Which step conciliates all and some, stops cavil in a trice : " The humble holy heart that holds of new-born pride no spice ! He 's just the saint to choose for Pope ! " Each adds " 'T is my advice." So, Pope he was : and when we flocked — its sacred slipper on^ To kiss his foot, we lifted eyes, alack the thing was gone — That guarantee of lowlihead, — eclipsed that star which shone ! Each eyed his fellow, one and all kept silence. I cried " Pish ! FANCIES AND FACTS 45 I'll make me spokesman for the rest, express the common wish. Why, Father, is the net removed?" "Son, it hath caught the fish." 46 ASOLANDO. THE BEAN-FEAST. He was the man — Pope Sixtus, that Fifth, that swine- herd's son : He knew the right thing, did it, and thanked God when 't was done : But of all he had to thank for, my fancy somehow leans To thinking, what most moved him was a certain meal on beans. For one day, as his wont was, in just enough disguise As he went exploring wickedness, — to see with his own eyes FANCIES AND FACTS 47 If law had due observance in the city's entrail dark As well as where, i' the open, crime sto.od an obvious mark, — He chanced, in a blind alley, on a tumble-down once house Now hovel, vilest structure in Rome the ruinous : And, as his tact impelled him, Sixtus adventured bold. To learn how lowliest subjects^ bore hunger, toil, and cold. There sat they at high-supper — man and wife, lad and lass, Poor as you please but cleanly all and care-free : pain that was — Forgotten, pain as sure to be let bide aloof its time, — Mightily munched the brave ones — what mattered gloom or grime ? 48 ASOLANDO : Said Sixtus " Feast, my children ! who works hard needs eat well. I'm just a supervisor, would hear what you can tell. Do any wrongs want righting ? The Father tries his best, But, since he 's only mortal, sends such as I to test The truth of all that 's told him — how folk like you may fare : Come ! — only don't stop eating — when mouth has words to spare— "You" — smiled he — "play the spokesman, bell-wether of the flock ! Are times good, masters gentle ? Your grievances unlock ! How of your work and wages ? — pleasures, if such may be— Pains, as such are for certain." Thus smiling questioned he. FANCIES AND FACTS 49 But somehow, spite of smiling, awe stole upon the group— An inexpressible surmise : why should a priest thus stoop- Pry into what concerned folk? Each visage fell. Aware, Cries Sixtus interposing : " Nay, children, have no care ! " Fear nothing ! Who employs me requires the plain truth. Pelf Beguiles who should inform me : so, I inform my- self. See!" And he threw his hood back, let the close ves- ture ope, Showed face, and where on tippet the cross lay : 't was the Pope. E 50 ASOLANDO: Imagine the joyful wonder! "How shall the like of us — Poor souls — requite such blessing of our rude bean-feast?" " Thus— Thus amply ! " laughed Pope Sixtus. " I early rise, sleep late: Who works may eat : they tempt me, your beans there : spare a plate!" Down sat he on the door-step : 't was they this time said grace : He ate up the last mouthful, wiped lips, and then, with face Turned heavenward, broke forth thankful : " Not now, that earth obeys Thy word in mine, that through me the peoples know Thy ways — FANCIES AND FACTS 51 But that Thy care extendeth to Nature's homely wants, And, while man's mind is strengthened, Thy goodness nowise scants Man's body of its comfort, — that I whom kings and queens Crouch to, pick crumbs from off my table, relish beans ! The thunders I but seem to launch, there plain Thy hand all see : That I have appetite, digest, and thrive^ that boon's for me." E 2 52 ASOLANDO . MUCKLE-MOUTH MEG. Frowned the Laird on the Lord : " So, red-handed I catch thee ? Death-doomed by our Law of the Border ! We 've a gallows outside and a chiel to dispatch thee : Who trespasses — hangs : all 's in order." He met frown with smile, did the young English gallant : Then the Laird's dame : " Nay, Husband, I beg ! He's comely : be merciful ! Grace for the callant — If he marries our Muckle-mouth Meg ! FANCIES AND FACTS 53 " No mile-wide-mouthed monster of yours do I marry : Grant rather the gallows ! " laughed he. " l^'oul fare kith and kin of you — why do you tarry ? " " 1 o tame your fierce temper ! " quoth she. " Shove him quick in the Hole, shut him fast for a week: Cold, darkness and hunger work wonders : Who lion-like roars now, mouse-fashion will squeak, And 'it rains' soon succeed to ' it thunders.'" A week did he bide in the cold and the dark — Not hunger : for duly at morning In flitted a lass, and a voice like a lark Chirped " Muckle-mouth Meg still ye 're scorning ? 54 ASOLANDO : " Go hang, but here 's parritch to hearten ye first ! " " Did Meg's muckle-mouth boast within some Such music as yours, mine should match it or burst No frog -jaws ! So tell folk, my Winsome ! " Soon week came to end, and, from Hole's door set wide. Out he marched, and there waited the lassie : " Yon gallows, or Muckle-mouth Meg for a bride ! Consider ! Sky 's blue and turf 's grassy : " Life 's sweet : shall I say ye wed Muckle-mouth Meg?" " Not I " quoth the stout heart : "too eerie The mouth that can swallow a bubblyjock's egg : Shall I let it munch mine ? Never, Dearie ! FANCIES AND FACTS 55 " Not Muckle-mouth Meg ? Wow, the obstinate man ! Perhaps he would rather wed me !" " Ay, would he— with just for a dowry your can !" "I'm Muckle-mouth Meg" chirruped she. "Then so — so — so — so — " as he kissed her apace — " Will I widen thee out till thou turnest From Margaret Minnikin-mou', by God's grace, To Muckle-mouth Meg in good earnest ! " 56 ASOLANDO : ARCADES AMBO. A. You blame me that I ran away? Why, Sir, the enemy advanced : Balls flew about, and — who can' say But one, if I stood firm, had glanced In my direction? Cow^ardice? I only know we don't live twice, Therefore — shun death, is my advice. B. Shun death at all risks ? Well, at some ! True, I myself, Sir, though I scold FANCIES AND FACTS 57 The cowardly, by no means come Under reproof as overbold — I, who would have no end of brutes Cut up alive to guess what suits ]\Iy case and saves my toe from shoots. 58 ASOLANDO: THE LADY AND THE PAINTER, She. Yet womanhood you reverence, So you profess ! He. ^^'ith heart and soul. She. Of which fact this is evidence'! To help Art-study, — for some dole Of certain wretched shillings, — you Induce a woman — virgin too — To strip and stand stark-naked? He. True. She. Nor feel you so degrade her ? He. What FANCIES AND FACTS 59 — (Excuse the interruption) — clings Half- savage-like around your hat? She. Ah, do they please you ? Wild-bird-wings ! Next season, — Paris-prints assert, — We must go feathered to the skirt : My modiste keeps on the alert. Owls, hawks, jays — swallows most approve . . . He. Dare I speak plainly? She. Oh, I trust ! He. Then, Lady Blanche, it less would move In heart and soul of me disgust Did }ou strip off those spoils you wear, And stand — for thanks, not shillings — bare. To help Art like my Model there. She well knew what absolved her — praise In me for God's surpassing good, 6o AS LAN DO: Who granted to my reverent gaze A type of purest womanhood. You — clothed with murder of His best Of harmless beings — stand the test ! What is it yo2i know ? SJu. That you jest ! FANCIES AND FACTS 61 PONTE deli: ANGELO, VENICE. Stop rowing ! This one of our bye-canals O'er a certain bridge you have to cross That 's named " Of the Angel " : listen why ! The name " Of the Devil " too much appals Venetian acquaintance, so — his the loss, While the gain goes . . . look on high ! An angel visibly guards yon house : Above each scutcheon — a pair — stands he, Enfolds them with droop of either wing : The family's fortune were perilous 62 ASOLANDO: Did he thence depart — you will soon agree, If I hitch into verse the thing. For, once on a time, this house belonged To a lawyer of note, with law and to spare. But also with overmuch lust of gain : In the matter of law you were nowise wronged, But alas for the lucre ! He picked you bare To the bone. Did folk complain ? " I exact " growled he "work's rightful due : 'T is folk seek me, not I seek them. Advice at its price ! They succeed or fail, Get law in each case^and a lesson too : Keep clear of the Courts — is advice ad rem: They'll remember, I '11 be bail !" FANCIES AND FACTS 63 So, he pocketed fee without a qualm. What reason for squeamishness ? Labour done, To play he betook him with lightened heart, Ate, drank and made merry with song or psalm, Since the yoke of the Church is an easy one — Fits neck nor causes smart. Brief: never was such an extortionate Rascal — the word has escaped my teeth ! And yet— (all's down in a book no ass Indited, believe me !) — this reprobate Was punctual at prayer-time : gold lurked beneath Alloy of the rankest brass. For, play the extortioner as he might. Fleece folk each day and all day long. 64 ASOLANDO: There was this redeeming circumstance : He never lay down to sleep at night But he put up a prayer first, brief yet strong, " Our Lady avert mischance !" Now it happened at close of a fructuous week, "I must ask " quoth he " some Saint to dine : I want that widow well out of my ears With her ailing and wailing. Who bade her seek Redress at my hands ? ' She was wronged ! ' Folk whine If to Law wrong right appears. " Matteo da Bascio — he 's my man ! No less than Chief of the Capucins : His presence will surely suffumigate My house — fools think lies under a ban FANCIES AND FACTS 65 If somebody loses what somebody wins. Hark, there he knocks at the grate ! " Come in, thou blessed of Mother Church ! I go and prepare — to bid, that is, My trusty and diligent servitor Get all things in readiness. Vain the search Through Venice for one to compare with this My model of ministrants : for — " For — once again, nay, three times over. My helpmate 's an ape ! so intelligent, I train him to drudge at household work : He toils and he moils, I live in clover : Oh, you shall see ! There 's a goodly scent — From his cooking or I 'm a Turk ! 66 ASOLANDO: " Scarce need to descend and supervise : I '11 do it, however : wait here awhile ! " So, down to the kitchen gaily scuttles Our host, nor notes the alarmed surmise Of the holy man. " O depth of guile ! He blindly guzzles and guttles, " While — who is it dresses the food and pours The liquor ? Some fiend — I make no doubt — In likeness of — which of the loathly brutes ? An ape ! Where hides he ? No bull that gores, No bear that hugs — 't is the mock and flout Of an ape, fiend's face that suits. " So — out with thee, creature, wherever thou hidest ! I charge thee, by virtue of . . . right do I judge ! FANCIES AND FACTS 67 There skulks he perdue, crouching under the bed. Well done ! What, forsooth, in beast's shape thou con- fidest ? I know and would name thee but that I begrudge Breath spent on such carrion. Instead — *' I adjure thee by " " Stay !" laughed the portent that rose From floor up to ceiling : " No need to adjure ! See Satan in person, late ape by command Of Him thou adjurest in vain. A saint's nose Scents brimstone though incense be burned for a lure. Yet, hence ! for I 'm safe, understand ! " 'T is my charge to convey to fit punishment's place This la\v)'er, my liegeman, for cruelty wrought F 2 68 ASOLANDO: On his clients, the widow and orphan, poor souls He has plagued by exactions which proved law's dis- grace, Made equity void and to nothingness brought God's pity. Fiends, on with fresh coals ! " "Stay !" nowise confounded, withstands Hell its match : " How comes it, were truth in this story of thine, God's punishment suffered a minute's delay ? Weeks, months have elapsed since thou squattedst at watch For a spring on thy victim : what caused thee decline Advantage till challenged to-day ? " " That challenge I meet with contempt," quoth the fiend. " Thus much I acknowledge : the man 's armed in mail : ' FANCIES AND FACTS 69 I wait till a joint 's loose, then quick ply my claws. Thy friend 's one good custom — he knows not — has screened His flesh hitherto from what else would assail : At " Save me, Madonna ! " I pause. " That prayer did the losel but once pretermit, My pounce were upon him. I keep me attent : He 's in safety but till he 's caught napping. Enough !" "Ay, enough !" smiles the saint — "for the biter is bit, The spy caught in somnolence. Vanish ! I 'm sent To smooth up what fiends do in rough." " I vanish? Through wall or through roof? " the ripost Grinned gaily. " My orders were — ' Leave not unharmed The abode of this lawyer ! Do damage to prove 'T was for something thou quittedst the land of the lost — 70 ASOLANDO : To add to their number this unit ! ' Though charmed From descent there, on earth that 's above " I may haply amerce him." " So do, and begone, I command thee ! For, look ! Though there 's doorway behind And window before thee, go straight through the wall. Leave a breach in the brickwork, a gap in the stone For who passes to stare at!" "Spare speech! I'm resigned : Here goes ! " roared the goblin, as all — Wide bat-wings, spread arms and legs, tail out a-streani^, Crash obstacles went, right and left, as he soared Or else sank, was clean gone through the hole anyhow. The Saint returned thanks : then a satisfied gleam FANCIES AND FACTS 71 On the bald polished pate showed that triumph was scored. ' "To dinner with appetite now !" Down he trips. "In good time!" smirks the host, " Didst thou scent Rich savour of roast meat ? Where hides he, my ape ? Look alive, be alert ! He 's away to wash plates. Sit down, Saint ! What 's here ? Dost examine a rent In the napkin thou twistest and twirlest ? Agape . . . Ha, blood is it drips nor abates " From thy wringing a cloth, late was lavendered fair ? Wliat means such a marvel ? "' " Just this does it mean ; I convince and convict thee of sin !" answers straight The Saint, wringing on, wringing ever — O rare ! — 72 ASOLANDO: Blood — blood from a napery snow not more clean. " A miracle shows thee thy state ! " See — blood thy extortions have wrung from the flesh Of thy clients who, sheep-like, arrived to be shorn, And left thee — or fleeced to the quick or so flayed That, behold, their blood gurgles and grumbles afresh To accuse thee ! Ay, down on thy knees, get up sworn To restore ! Restitution once made, " Sin no more ! Dost thou promise ? Absolved, then, arise ! Upstairs follow me ! Art amazed at yon breach ? Who battered and shattered and scattered, escape From thy purlieus obtaining ? That Father of Lies Thou wast wont to extol for his feats, all and each The Devil 's disguised as thine ape !" FANCIES AND FACTS 73 Be sure that our lawyer was torn by remorse, Shed tears in a flood, vowed and swore so to alter His ways that how else could our Saint but declare He was cleansed of past sin? "For sin future — fare worse Thou undoubtedly wilt," warned the Saint, " shouldst thou falter One whit !" " Oh, for that have no care ! " I am firm in my purposed amendment. But, prithee. Must ever affront and affright me yon gap ? Who made it for exit may find it of use For entrance as easy. If, down in his smithy He forges me fetters — when heated, mayhap. He 'II up with an armful ! Broke loose — 74 ASOLANDO: How bar him out henceforth ?" "Judiciously urged ! " Was the good man's reply. " How to baulk him is plain There 's nothing the Devil objects to so much, So speedily flies from, as one of those purged Of his presence, the angels who erst formed his train — His, their emperor. Choose one of such ! " Get fashioned his likeness and set him on high At back of the breach thus adroitly filled up : Display him as guard of two scutcheons, thy arms : I warrant no devil attempts to get by And disturb thee so guarded. Eat, drink, dine and sup, In thy rectitude, safe from alarms !" So said and so done. See, the angel has place Where the Devil had passage ! All 's down in a book. FANCIES AND FACTS 7$, Gainsay me? Consult it ! Still faithless? Trust me? Trust Father Boverio who gave me the case In his Annals — gets of it, by hook or by crook, Two confirmative witnesses : three Are surely enough to establish an act : And thereby we learn — would we ascertain truth — To trust wise tradition which took, at the time. Note that served till slow history ventured on fact. Though folk have their fling at tradition forsooth ! Row, boys, fore and aft, rhyme and chime ! 76 ASOLANDO. BEATRICE SIGNORINI. This strange thing happened to a painter once: Viterbo boasts the man among her sons Of note, I seem to think : his ready tool Picked up its precepts in Cortona's school — That 's Pietro Berretini, whom they call Cortona, these Italians : greatish-small, Our painter was his pupil, by repute His match if not his master absolute. Though whether he spoiled fresco more or less, And what 's its fortune, scarce repays your guess Still, for one circumstance, I save his name — Francesco Romanelli : do the same ! FANCIES AND FACTS 77 He went to Rome and painted : there he knew A wonder of a woman painting too — For she, at least, was no Cortona's drudge : Witness that ardent fancy-shape — I judge A semblance of her soul — she called " Desire " With starry front for guide, where sits the fire She left to brighten Buonarroti's house. If you see Florence, pay that piece your vows, Though blockhead Baldinucci's mind, imbued With monkish morals, bade folk " Drape the nude And stop the scandal ! " quoth the record prim I borrow this of: hang his book and him ! At Rome, then, where these fated ones met first, The blossom of his life had hardly burst While hers was blooming at full beauty's stand : No less Francesco — when half-ripe he scanned Consummate Artemisia — grew one want 78 ASOLANDO: To have her his and make her ministrant With every gift of body and of soul To him. In vain. Her sphery self was whole — Might only touch his orb at Art's sole point. Suppose he could persuade her to enjoint Her life — past, present, future — all in his At Art's sole point by some explosive kiss Of love through lips, would love's success defeat Artistry's haunting curse — the Incomplete ? Artists no doubt they both were, — what beside Was she ? who, long had felt heart, soul spread wide Her life out, knowing much and loving well, On either side Art's narrow space where fell Reflection from his own speck : but the germ Of individual genius — what we term The very self, the God-gift whence had grown Heart's life and soul's life, — how make that his own ? FANCIES AND FACTS 79 Vainly his Art, reflected, smiled in small On Art's one facet of her ampler ball ; The rest, touch-free, took in, gave back heaven, earth. All where he was not. Hope, well-nigh ere birth Came to Desire, died off all-unfulfilled. " What though in Art I stand the abler-skilled," (So he conceited : mediocrity Turns on itself the self-transforming eye) "If only Art were suing, mine would plead To purpose : man — by nature I exceed Woman the bounded : but how much beside She boasts, would sue in turn and be denied ! Love her ? My own wife loves me in a sort That suits us both : she takes the world's report Of what my work is worth, and, for the rest, Concedes that, while his consort keeps her nest. The eagle soars a licensed vagrant, lives So ASOLANDO : A wide free life which she at least forgives — Good Beatrice Signorini ! Well And wisely did I choose her. But the spell To subjugate this Artemisia— where? She passionless ? — she resolute to care Nowise beyond the plain sufficiency Of fact that she is she and I am I — Acknowledged arbitrator for us both In her life as in mine which she were loth Even to learn the laws of? No, and no, Twenty times over ! Ay, it must be so : I for myself, alas ! " Whereon, instead Of the checked lover's-utterance — why, he said — Leaning above her easel : "Flesh is red " (Or some such just remark) — " by no means white As Guido's practice teaches : you are right." FANCIES AND FACTS 8r Then came the better impulse : " What if pride Were wisely trampled on, whate'er betide ? If I grow hers, not mine — join lives, confuse Bodies and spirits, gain not her but lose Myself to Artemisia ? That were love ! Of two souls — one must bend, one rule above : If I crouch under proudly, lord turned slave. Were it not worthier both than if she gave Herself — in treason to herself — to me ? " And, all the while, he felt it could not be. Such love were true love : love that way who can ! Someone that 's born half woman not whole man : For man, prescribed man better or man worse, Why, whether microcosm or universe. What law prevails alike through great and small, The world and man — world's miniature we call ? S2 ASOLANDO: Male is the master. "That way " — smiled and sighed Our true male estimator — " puts her pride My wife in making me the outlet whence She learns all Heaven allows : 'tis my pretence To paint : her lord should do what else but paint ? Do I break brushes, cloister me turned saint ? Then, best of all suits sanctity her spouse Who acts for Heaven, allows and disallows At pleasure, past appeal, the right, the Avrong In all things. That 's my wife's way. But this strong Confident Artemisia — an adept In Art does she conceit herself? ' Except In just this instance,' tell her, ' no one draws More rigidly observant of the laws Of right design : yet here, — permit me hint, — If the acromion had a deeper dint, That shoulder were perfection.' What surprise FANCIES AND FACTS 83 — Nay scorn, shoots black fire from those startled eyes ! She to be lessoned in design forsooth ! I'm doomed and done for, since I spoke the truth. Make my own work the subject of dispute — Fails it of just perfection absolute Somewhere ? Those motors, flexors, — don't I know Ser Santi, styled ' Tirititototo The pencil-prig,' might blame them? Yet my wife — Were he and his nicknamer brought to life, Tito and Titian, to pronounce again — Ask her who knows more — I or the great Twain Our colourist and draughtsman ! " I help her, Not she helps me ; and neither shall demur Because my portion is " he chose to think — " Quite other than a woman's : 1 may drink At many waters, must repose by none — ^ ASOLANDO: And I yearned for no sameness but difference In thing and thing, that should shock ni}- sense With a want of worth in them all. and thence Startle me up, by an Infinite Discovered above and below me— height And depth alike to attract my flight, Repel my descent : by hate taught love. Oh, gain were indeed to see above Supremacy ever — to move, remove, Not reach — aspire yet never attain To the object aimed at ! Scarce in vain,- As each stage I left nor touched again. FANCIES AND FACTS 139 To suffer, did pangs bring the loved one bliss, Wring knowledge from ignorance, — just for this — To add one drop to a love-abyss ! Enough : for you doubt, you hope, O men, You fear, you agonize, die : what then ? Is an end to your life's work out of ken? Have you no assurance that, earth at end, Wrong will prove right ? Who made shall mend In the higher sphere to which yearnings tend? Why should I speak ? You divine the test. When the trouble grew in my pregnant breast A voice said " So wouldst thou strive, not rest ? I40 ASOLANDO: " Burn and not smoulder, win by worth, Not rest content with a wealth that 's dearth ? Thou art past Rephan, thy place be Earth ! " FANCIES AND FACTS 141 REVERIE. I KNOW there shall dawn a day — Is it here on homely earth ? Is it yonder, worlds away, Where the strange and new have birth. That Power comes full in play ? Is it here, with grass about, Under befriending trees, When shy buds venture out. And the air by mild degrees Puts winter's death past doubt ? 142 ASOLANDO: Is it up amid whirl and roar Of the elemental flame Which star-flecks heaven's dark floor, That, new yet still the same, Full in play comes Power once more ? Somewhere, below, above, Shall a day dawn — this I know — When Power, which vainly strove My weakness to o'erthrow. Shall triumph. I breathe, I move, I truly am, at last ! For a veil is rent between Me and the truth which passed Fitful, half-guessed, half-seen, Grasped at — not gained, held fast. FANCIES AND FACTS I for my race and me Shall apprehend life's law : In the legend of man shall see Writ large what small I saw- In my life's tale : both agree. As the record from youth to age Of my own, the single soul — So the world's wide book : one page Deciphered explains the whole Of our common heritage How but from near to far Should knowledge proceed, increase ? Try the clod ere test the star ! Bring our inside strife to peace Ere we wage, on the outside, war ! 143 144 ASOLANDO: So, my annals thus begin : With body, to life awoke Soul, the immortal twin Of body which bore soul's yoke Since mortal and not akin. By means of the flesh, grown fit. Mind, in surview of things. Now soared, anon alit To treasure its gatherings From the ranged expanse — to-wit. Nature, — earth's, heaven's wide show Which taught all hope, all fear : Acquainted with joy and woe, I could say " Thus much is clear, Doubt annulled thus much : T know. FANCIES AND FACTS 145 " All is effect of cause : As it would, has willed and done Power : and my mind's applause Cioes, passing laws each one, 'l"o Omnipotence, lord of laws." Head praises, but heart refrains From loving's acknowledgment. Whole losses outweigh half-gains : Earth's good is with evil blent : (lood struggles but evil reigns. Yet since Earth's good proved good — Incontrovertibly AN'orth loving — I understood How evil — did mind descry Power's object to end pursued - L 146 ASOI.ANDO: Were haply as cloud across (rood's orb, no orb itself: Mere mind — were it found at loss Did it play the tricksy elf And from life's gold purge the dross ? J?o\ver is known infinite : Good struggles to be — at best Seems — scanned by the human sight, Tried by the senses' test — {'jood palpably : but with right Therefore to mind's award Of loving, as power claims praise ? Power — which finds nought too hard, Fulfilling itself all ways Unchecked, unchanged : while barred, FANCIES AND FACTS 147 Baffled, what good began Ends evil on every side. To Power submissive man Breathes " E'en as Thou art, abide ! " While to good " Late-found, long-sought, Would Power to a plenitude But liberate, but enlarge Good's strait confine, — renewed Were ever the heart's discharge Of loving ! " Else doubts intrude. For you dominate, stars all ! For a sense informs you — brute. Bird, worm, fly, great and small, Each with your attribute Or low or majestical ! L 2 148 ASOLANDO: Thou earth that embosomest Offspring of land and sea — How thy hills first sank to rest, How thy vales bred herb and tree Which dizen thy mother-breast — Do I ask ? "Be ignorant Ever ! " the answer clangs : Whereas if I plead world's want, Soul's sorrows and body's pangs. Play the human applicant, — Is a remedy far to seek? I question and find response : I — all men, strong or weak, Conceive and declare at once For each want its cure. "Power, speak FANCIES AND FACTS 149 ^' Stop change, avert decay, Fix life fast, banish death, Eclipse from the star bid stay, Abridge of no moment's breath One creature ! Hence, Night, hail, Day ! " What need to confess again No problem this to solve By impotence ? Power, once plain Proved Power, — let on Power devolve Good's right to co-equal reign ! Past mind 's conception — Power ! Do I seek how star, earth, beast. Bird, worm, fly, gained their dower For life's use, most and least? Back from the search I cower. ISO ASOLANDO: Do I seek what heals all harm, Nay, hinders the harm at first, Saves earth ? Speak, Power, the charm \. Keep the life there unamerced By chance, change, death's alarm ! As promptly as mind conceives, Let Power in its turn declare Some law which wrong retrieves, Abolishes everywhere What thwarts, what irks, what grieves L Never to be ! and yet How easy it seems — to sense Like man's — if somehow met Power with its match — immense Love, limitless, unbeset FANCIES AND FACTS 151 By hindrance on every side ! Conjectured, nowise known, Such may be : could man confide Such would match— were Love but shown Stript of the veils that hide — Power 's self now manifest ! So reads my record : thine, O^world, how runs it ? Guessed Were the purport of that prime line, Prophetic of all the rest ! " In a beginning God Made heaven and earth." Forth flashed Knowledge : from star to clod Man knew things : doubt abashed Closed its long period. 152 A SOL AN DO: Knowledge obtained Power praise. Had Good been manifest, Broke out in cloudless blaze, Unchequered as unrepressed, In all things Good at best — Then praise — all praise, no blame — Had hailed the perfection. No ! As Power's display, the same Be Good's — praise forth shall flow Unisonous in acclaim ! Even as the world its life, So have I lived my own — Power seen with Love at strife, That sure, this dimly shown, — Good rare and evil rife. FANCIES AND FACTS 153 Whereof the effect be — faith That, some far day, were found Ripeness in things now rathe, Wrong righted, each chain unbound. Renewal born out of scathe. Why faith— but to hft the load. To leaven the lump, where lies Mind prostrate through knowledge owed To the loveless Power it tries To withstand, how vain ! In flowed Ever resistless fact : No more than the passive clay Disputes the potter's act. Could the whelmed mind disobey Knowledge the cataract. 154 ASOLANDO: But, perfect in every part, Has the potter's moulded shape. Leap of man's quickened heart, Throe of his thought's escape, Stings of his soul which dart Through the barrier of flesh, till keen She climbs from the calm and clear, Through turbidity all between, From the known to the unknown here. Heaven's " Shall be," from Earth's " Has been " ? Then life is — to wake not sleep, Rise and not rest, but press From earth's level where blindly creep Things perfected, more or less, To the heaven's height, far and steep, FANCIES AND FACTS 155 Where, amid what strifes and storms May wait the adventurous quest, Power is Love — transports, transforms Who aspired from worst to best, Sought the soul's world, spurned the worms'. I have faith such end shall be : From the first, Power was — I knew. Life has made clear to me That, strive but for closer view. Love were as plain to see. When see ? When there dawns a day. If not on the homely earth, Then yonder, worlds away, Where the strange and new have birth, And Power comes full in play. 156 ASOLANDO: EPILOGUE At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time, When you set your fancies free, Will they pass to where — by death, fools think, im- prisoned — Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so, — Pity me ? Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken ! What had I on earth to do With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly ? Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel — Being — who ? FANCIES AND FACTS 157 One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph. Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake. No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time Greet the unseen with a cheer ! Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be^ "Strive and thrive !" cry "Speed,— fight on, fare ever There as here ! " PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW^STREET SQUARE LONDON NEW AND UNIFORM EDITION OK THE ^WORKS ROBERT BROWNING lit Sijctveii join iuvs, siiitill vroirii Svo., j>t'i>'<' •>». <'ftrh ; Of, ill iiiiifhfiii sff biiiili inj, privr dC-t, This Edition contains Three Portraits of Mr. Browning, at different, periods of life, and a few Ilhistrations. There is also a Large Paper Edition of.250 Copies, printed on Hand-made Paper. This Edition can only be obtained through Booksellers. COITTEITTS OF THE AT O L TJ JVC ES . Volume i. PAULINE ; and SORDELLO. Volume 2. PARACELSUS .and STRAFFORD. Volume > PIPPA PASSES: KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES: THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES: and A SOUL'S TR.'VGEDY. With a Portrait of Mr. Browning. Volume 4. A BLOT IN THE SCUTCHEON-: COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY.: and MEN .\ND WOMEN. Volume 5. DRAMATIC ROMANCES: and CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER. DAY. DR.\MATIC LYRICS : and LURIA. IN X BALCONY : and DRAM.\TIS PERSON/E. With a Portrait of Mr. Browning. THE RING AND THE BOOK. Books i to 4. With Two Illustrations. THE RING AND THE BOOK. Books 5 to 8. THE RING AND THE BOOK. Books 9 to 12. With a Portrait of Guido F'ranceschini. BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE: PRINCE HOHEN- STIEL-SCHWANGAU, Saviourof Society: and FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Volume 12. RED COTTON NIGHTCAP COUNTRY: and THE INN. ALBUM. Volume 13. ARISTOPHANES" APOLOGY, including a Transcript from Euripides, being the Last Adventure of Balaustion : and THE AGAMEMNON- OF. ^SCHYLUS. Volume 14. PACCHIAROTTO, and How he worked in Distemper: with other Poems : LA SAISIAZ : and THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC Volume 15. DRAMATIC IDYLS, First .Series : DRAMATIC IDYLS, Second Series : and JOCOSERIA. Volume 16. FERISHTAH'S FANCIES : and PARLEYINGS WITH CERTAIN. PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE IN THEIR DAY. . With a Portrait of Mr. Browning. Volume 6. Volume 7- Volume 8. Volume 9- Volume 10. Volume 1 1. London: SMITH; ELDER, & CO., 15 Wateiloo Place, NEW EDITION OF Mrs. BROWNING'S WORKS. . IN COURSE .OF ISSUE. A NEW EDITION Of The Poetical Works or Elizabeth Barrett Browning In Six Volumes, small crown 8vo. 5s. eack. This Edition will be unifonn with the recently jiublished edition of Mr. Robert Browning's Works. It wfU contain several Portraits of Mrs. iJrowning at different periods of life ; and a fe\v Ilhtstrations. A VOLUME WILL BE PUBLISHED MONTHLY. TUF.RE IV11,I. AI,SO HE A LARGE PAPER EDITION OF 125 COPIES PRINTED ON HAND-MADE PAPER. THIS EDITION WILL ONLY BE SUPPLIED THROUCH BOOKSELLERS. VOLUME I. was published on October 26, 1889. London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo PLicc. t<- ft t* ^maauAjmmsmmmMlk JHfn^gy^gi « \ ■■ *■ This^booJkis D\ IF on the \ti9 R £ C ^^f'^^^'^B- MAIN LOAN DESK |4 l^FC'D ID-U^ fio-uRi FEB 2 3 FF f~- /- r: 19S9 ^59 ■''- r-. REMINGTON RAND INC. 20 213 (533 THK LIBKAKY ^~ - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNU^ LOS ANGELES UC SOUTHERN o — I PLEA-i: DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD. J a^n^-^'braSyq ^c?/0J|]V3J0>^ I