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Robert Browning s Poetry 
 
 The development of a soul ; little else is worth study " 
 
 Otctline Stttdies 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE CHICAGO BROWNING SOCIET 
 
 .■^^:.,H■^.;^^h^/ 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR d: COM PANT 
 
 lyj Dearborn Street 
 
 1886 
 
f6'2 
 
 •> 7 
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 
 
 iSS6 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Prefatory Note 4 
 
 A Classification of the Entire Writings of Robert Browning . 5 
 
 Shorter Programmes 31 
 
 Chronological List 35 
 
 Helps to the Study of Browning 40 
 
 The Chicago Browning Society 41 
 
 Rules for Literary Clubs 42 
 
 Browning and the Critics 43 
 
 Lectures and Papers • • .46 
 
 Constitution, Officers, and Members of the Chicago Browning 
 
 Society 47 
 
 Plan of Work for 1886-7 50 
 
 Advertisements 5' 
 
 43449,(5 
 
These outlines have been prepared with the hope that thejmay 
 help in the study of a poet whose works evince the highest poetic art 
 and insight, works which are so numerous and varied in character 
 that they constitute, as Canon Farrar says, " a literature in them- 
 selves." 
 
 The order in which the poems of R obert Browning shall be studied 
 is an important question, though fortunately one that permits of 
 various answers, each of which will yield good results. The order 
 set forth in the accompanying outline is the result of considerable 
 experience as well as much thought, and it is hoped will commend 
 itself to many. But others will prefer to begin with the love poems 
 or the dramas, which display the poet's most characteristic quality. 
 He is always dramatic Whatever form or style he uses, his writings 
 are everywhere permeated by the spirit of a living, struggling hu- 
 manity. 
 
 *" Man's thoughts and loves and hates. 
 Earth is my vineyard, these grew there." 
 
 One club in New York began with " Sordello " and courageously 
 carried the study through three years, although it is the poem upon 
 which chiefly rests the poet's reputation for obscurity. Other classes 
 have begun with " The Ring and The Book." 
 
 Whatever order is pursued, the student of Browning, like that of 
 any other poet, had better pursue his work in his own way. The 
 best results are attained in the open mind, equally devoid of preju- 
 dice and conceit, which acquires its own power of judging and makes 
 its own application of the truths and lessons taught. 
 
 ♦Epilogfue to Pacchiarotto. 
 
 (4) 
 
A CLASSIFICATION 
 
 Of the entire writings of Robert Browning, arranged for the 
 guidance of clubs and classes, with a few notes added, containing 
 information not found in the text. 
 
 Those shrinking from the long course can readily and profitably 
 elect such numbers as attract them. 
 
 The abbreviations refer to titles of books in the American 
 edition. See chronological list, page 35. 
 
 1. 
 
 1. Biography and Bibliography of Browning, (a.) 
 
 2. Popular Poems. 
 
 v/Xhe Pied Piper of Hameiin. D. P. (d.) 
 The Boy and the Angel. D. P. (c.) 
 The Twins. M. and W. (d.) 
 ■ v/How They brought the Good News from Ghent 
 to Aix. D. P. (e.) 
 
 (a.) See article by E. W, Gosse in Scridner's^ Dec. 18S1 ; London 
 Browning Society Papers, Part I ; *' Poets and Problems," by George 
 W. Cooke; Stedman's "Victorian Poets." A good portrait of the 
 poet is published in Illustrations, Part II. L. B. S. 
 
 (b.) Written for the little son of the actor, William Macready. 
 
 (c) Compare Longfellow's " King Robert of Sicily." 
 
 (d.) This parable is told by Martin Luther in his "Table Talk." 
 This poem was published with Mrs, Browning's " A Plea for the 
 Ragged Schools of London." " These two poems were printed by 
 Miss Arabella Barrett, Mrs. Browning's sister, for a bazaar to benefit 
 the ' Refuge for Young Destitute Girls,' one of the first refuges of 
 the kind, and still in existence. ^^—Londo?i Bro-wning Society Papers. 
 
 (5) 
 
6 ROBER T BR I WNING '6 POE TR T. 
 
 (e.) This ride is supposed to have occurred during the Dutch war 
 of Independence, early in the seventeentli century. The following 
 extract is from, a letter written by Mr. Browning: "There is no sort 
 of historical foundation about ' Good News from Ghent.' I wrote it 
 under the bulwark of a vessel off the African coast, after I had been 
 at sea long enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop or) the 
 back of a certain good horse ' York,' then in my stable at home." 
 
 11. 
 
 Poems of Heroism. 
 
 <y I. Incident of a French camp. D. P. {a.) 
 2. Pheidippides. Ag. (b.) 
 . 3. Echetlos. Ag. (c.) 
 y 4. Herv6 Riel. F. (^.) 
 
 / 5. Tray. Ag. (^.) 
 v/ 6. The Patriot. M. & W. (/.) 
 
 7. Clive. Ag. {g) 
 
 8. The Lost Leader, (/z.) • 
 
 (a.) The story of this poem is true with the exception that its hero 
 was not a boy but a full-grown man. 
 
 {Jj) " The facts related in ' Pheidippides ' belong to Greek legendary 
 history and are told by Herodotus and other writers. When Athens 
 was threatened by the invading Persians, she sent a running messen- 
 ger to Sparta to demand help against the foreign foe. The mission 
 was unsuccessful but the runner Pheidippides fell in on his return 
 with the god Pan; and although alone among Greeks, the Athenians 
 had refused to honor him. he promised to fight with them in the com- 
 ing battle. Pheidippides was present when this battle — that of Mara- 
 thon — was fought and won." — Mrs. Orr's '•'■ Handbook P 
 
 He ran once again and announced the victory at Athens. The re- 
 lease from toil which Pan promised him as a reward for his labors 
 was not the release he had expected. Marathon was well-known as 
 the » fennel-field." 
 
 (c.) This is another legend of the battle of Marathon. The word 
 ' Echetlos " means " Holder of the Ploughshare." A picture of 
 Echetlos was in Athens. 
 
 (ff.) A true story of 1692. 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POETR T. 7 
 
 {e.) This scene really occurred in Paris. The poem is a biting sar- 
 casm, directed against vivisection, which the poet has repeatedlj 
 called " an infamous practice.'' 
 
 (/".) In the first edition the scene of this poem was laid in Brescia, 
 but subsequently the name of the city was omitted and the" signifi- 
 cance of its universal application thereby heightened. 
 
 (g.) "That part of the poem, in which Clive says that if the bully 
 had, instead of confessing himself a cheat, pardoned Clive and spared 
 his life, he should have picked up the weapon cast away by his foe 
 and used it on himself, is Browning's own invention. Reconsidered 
 it a legitimate deduction from the fact that, when Clive had to face 
 an inquiry into his conduct, he destroyed himself. On the day of 
 Lord Clive's death, a lady, who was staying in the house, asked him 
 to come in and mend a pen for her. Such was his nerve that he did 
 so and then went into the next room and cut his throat with the very 
 penknife he had used in her service." — L. Br. S. Papers. 
 
 (Ji.) Refers to Wordsworth, for his defection, with Southey and 
 others, from the liberal cause. \ 
 
 III. 
 
 Art— Poetry and Poets. 
 
 1. How It Strikes A Contemporary. M. and W. 
 
 2. Transcendentalism. M. and W. {a.) 
 
 3. " Touch Him Ne'er So Lightly." Epilogue to 
 
 Dramatic Idyls. Ag. {b.) 
 
 4. Memorabilia. M. and W. 
 
 5. Epilogue to Pacchiarotto. {c.) 
 
 7. At The Mermaid. Pac. {d.) 
 
 8. House. Pac. (e.) 
 
 9. Popularity. M. and W. (/.) 
 
 {a.) Johannes Teutonicus, a canon of Halberstadt, in Germany, 
 after he had performed a number of prestigious feats almost incredi- 
 ble, was transported by the Devil in the likeness of a black horse^ 
 and was both seen and heard upon one and the same Christmas Day 
 to sav mu'^s in Halberstadt, in Mayntz and in Cologne." — Heyivoocfs 
 '-''Hierarchy^'' Book IV. 
 
8 ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POETR T. 
 
 {b.) These lines were taken bj critics as referring to Browning's 
 own poetry. On writing them again in the album of Mrs. R. H. 
 Dana (Miss Edith Longfellow) he added the following lines: 
 
 Thus I wrote in London, musing on my betters, 
 Poets dead and gone; and lo, the critics cried, '' 
 
 " Out on such a boast! " as if I dreamed that fetters 
 Binding Dante, bind up me! as if true pride 
 Were not also humble ! 
 
 So I smiled and sighed 
 As I oped your book in Venice this bright morning, 
 Sweet, new friend of mine! and felt the clay or sand — 
 Whatsoe'er my soil be, — break — for praise or scorning — 
 Out in grateful fancies — weeds, but weeds expand 
 Almost into flowers, held by such a kindly hand. 
 
 (c.) This is spoken directly by Mr. Browning himself and is a 
 criticism of his critics. The words "The poets pour us wine " at the 
 beginning of the poem are quoted from Mrs. Browning's "Wine of 
 Cyprus'." 
 
 {d.) Browning speaks here behind the mask of Shakespeare. To 
 " throw Venus " was to throw the highest cast at Roman dice. 
 
 (e.) See Wordsworth's Sonnet, " Scorn not the Sonnet." 
 
 (/.) Compare George Eliot's " Jubal." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Art — Poetry Continued. 
 
 1. The Two Poets of Croisic. Ag. {a.) 
 
 2. Essay on Shelley. B. S. Papers, (b.) 
 
 (a.) Le Croisic is situated in the southeastern corner of Brittany. 
 Sardine fishing and the crystallization of sea salt are still the chief oc- 
 cupations of the villagers. Rene Gentilhomme lived in the first half 
 of the seventeenth century, and Paul Desforges Maillard about a 
 hundred years later. The story of the later poet forms the subject 
 of a famous play, Piron's " Metromanie." 
 
 (5.) The Essay on Shelley was written about the year 1851 to serve 
 as an introduction to some Shelley Letters. These letters were after- 
 wards discovered to be a forgery and the book was suppressed, but 
 they gave Browning a chance of writing about the art of the poet he 
 admired. 
 
R UBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR T. 9 
 
 V. 
 
 Art—Fainting and Painters. 
 
 ^ I. Fra Lippo Lippi. M. and W. (a.) 
 ^2. Andrea del Sarto. M. and W. (3.) 
 
 3. The Guardian Angei. M. and VV. (c.) 
 
 4. Pictor Ignotus. D. P. 
 
 (a.) The story of the life of this well-known painter, as told here 
 by himself, is historical, even to the incident of tht escapade from the 
 palace of Cosmo de Medici, who had shut him up to finish his paint- 
 ing The picture which he describes is that of " The Coronation of 
 the Virgin," still in Florence. "Hulking Tom" was the painter 
 known as Masaccio. See Lowell's poem of that name. 
 
 {b) The facts related here are also historical in substance, though 
 certain chroniclers present the character of Lucrezia more favorably. 
 The king was Francis I. ' 
 
 (c.) This describes an actual picture, imputed to Guercino and now 
 in the church of St. Augustine at Fano on the coast of Italy. The 
 " Alfi-ed " of the same poem is the friend referred to in the poem 
 of " Waring " — Alfred Domett, then prime minister o\ New Zea- 
 land. The London Browning Society have published photograph 
 illustrations of this picture, also of Andrea del Sarto's picture of 
 himself and his wife in the Pitti gallery at Florence, which suggested 
 the poem, and Fra Lippo's picture of the " Coronation." 
 
 VI. 
 
 Art— Painting and Sculpture. 
 
 I. Old Pictures in Florence. M. and W. (a.) 
 3. Eurydice. ((5.) 
 
 3. A Face. D. P. 
 
 4. Deaf and Dumb. A Group by Woolner. (c.) 
 
 (a.) Stanzas 26, 27, 28. Bijordi is the family name of" Domenico," 
 called " Ghirlandajo " from the family trade of ^^reath-making. 
 ■' Landro " stands for Alessandro Botticelli. " Lippino " was son of 
 ,Fra Lippo Lippi. Mr. Browning alludes to him as "wi-onged," 
 
lo RUBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR T. 
 
 because others were credited with some of his best work. Lorenzo 
 Monaco (the monk) was a contemporary, or nearly so, of Fra 
 Angelico, but more severe in manner. " Pollajolo " was both painter 
 and sculptor. " Margheritone of Arezzo " was one of the earlier 
 Old Masters and died, as Vasari states, infastidito (deeply annoyed) 
 by the success of Giotto and the " new school," hence the funeral 
 garb in which Mr. Browning depicts him. 
 
 " Mr. Browning possesses or possessed pictures by all the artists 
 mentioned in this connection." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 The translations of Vasari (which may be found in Bohn's Stand- 
 ard Library) give accounts of three painters. 
 
 The story of Giotto's O is told in every description of the painter, 
 but the fact that in some editions O Avas misprinted " Oh " might 
 cause some confusion. 
 
 The *' dotard," who was to be pitched across the Alps before free- 
 dom could be restored to Florence and art revive, was the Grand 
 Duke. 
 
 (3.) This poem is not included in the American edition of Brown- 
 ing's works. It is the poet's interpretation of a picture by F- 
 Leighton. 
 
 "But give them me — the mouth, the eyes, the brow! 
 Let them once more absorb me! One look now 
 
 Will lap me round forever, not to pass 
 Out of its light, though darkness lie beyond! 
 Hold me but safe again within the bond 
 
 Of one immortal look ! all woe tb.at was 
 Forgotten, and all terror that may be 
 Defied ; no past is mine, no future I Look at me !" 
 
 (c.) This poem is also unfortunately omitted from certain editions. 
 It consists of eight lines written for Woolner's group of Constance 
 and Arthur, the deaf and dumb children of Sir Thomas Fairbairn. 
 The group was exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1862. 
 
 " Only the prism's obstruction shows aright 
 The secret of a sunbeam, breaks its light 
 Into the jeweled bow from blankest white : 
 
 So may a glory from defect arise : 
 Only by Deafness may the vexed Love wreak 
 Its insuppressive sense on brow and cheek, 
 Only by Dumbness adequately speak 
 
 As favored mouth could never, through the eyes. ' 
 
ROBERT BRO i VNING 'S POETRT. 1 1 
 
 VII. 
 
 Art.— Music. 
 
 1 . A Toccata of Galluppi's. M. and W. {a) 
 
 2. Master Hugues of Saxe Gotha. M. and W. 
 
 3. Abt Vogler. D. P. 
 
 {a.) "The Venetian Baldassarre Galuppi, surnamed Buranello, was 
 an immensely prolific composer, and abounded in melodj, tender, 
 pathetic and brilliant." — Studies of the Eighteenth Cetitury in Italy ^ 
 by Vernon Lee. 
 
 ip.) The Abbe Vogler lived from 1749 to 1S14, and was the master 
 of great musicians, including Von Weber and Meyerbeer. It is fit- 
 ting that he should have been taken as the type of a great extem- 
 porizer, since none of his work survives. The beauty and meaning 
 of the poem do not depend in the least on historical associations 
 connected with the name. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Love. 
 
 1. By the Fireside. M. and W. {a) 
 
 2. In Three Days. M. and W. 
 
 3. One Word More. M. and W. {b.) 
 
 4. O Lyric Love. R. and B. Book L, lines 1 391 to 
 
 1416; Book XII., lines %6^ to 870. (c) 
 
 5. Apparitions. The Prologue to Two Poets of 
 
 Croisic. Ag. 
 
 6. Never the Time or the Place. J. 
 
 7. Wanting — is What? J. 
 
 8. A Wall. Prologue to Pacchiarotto. 
 
 {a) These are the poems generally accepted as written directly to 
 Mrs. Browning. Notice in " By the Fireside " the poet's plan for 
 work to be done some time in Greek literature, which he has since 
 carried out. 
 
12 ROBERT BRO WNING 'S POETR r. 
 
 (3.) This form of blank verse which the poet uses here, " the first 
 time and the last time," is so musical that one never misses the rhyme. 
 Bice is a common abbreviation for Beatrice. 
 
 (c.) With this invocation in mind, it is interesting to study all the 
 prologues and epilogues of the books Browning has published since. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Love —Mutual Love. 
 
 1. Meeting at Night, D. P. 
 
 2. Parting at Morning. D. P. 
 
 3. Love Among the Ruins„ M. and W. 
 
 4. Mesmerism. M. and W. 
 
 ^. A Lover's Quarrel. M. and W. 
 
 Ve. The Flower's Name, D. P. 
 
 7. Respectability. M. and W. 
 
 8. In a Gondola. D. P. (^.) 
 
 (a.) This poem was suggested by a picture of Maclise. 
 
 X. 
 
 L Love — Self Renunciation. 
 
 v/ I. The Lost Mistress. D. P. 
 
 2. The Last Ride Together. M. and W. 
 
 3. A Serenade at the Villa. M. and W. 
 
 IL Love— Unsatisfied. 
 
 1. Tw^o in the Campagna. M. and W. 
 
 2. A Pretty Woman. M. and W. 
 
 3. Youth and Art. D. P. 
 
 4. St, Martin's Summer, Pac, 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POETRT^ 13 
 
 XL 
 
 Love— The Woman's Side. 
 
 1. Ill a Year. M. and W. 
 
 2. A Woman's Last Word. M. and W. 
 
 3. Any Wife to Any Husband. M. and W. 
 
 4. James Lee's Wife. D. P. {a^ 
 
 (a.) The wife speaks throughovit. This poem is interesting in rep- 
 resenting different periods in the poet's life and power. The song in 
 Part VI, was written by Browning in 1S36 — the poem itself pubHshed 
 in 1864; important additions made in Part VIII. in 1872, not in 
 American edition, found in Crowell's "Red Line" selections, and 
 in L. Br. S. Papers, Part I., p. 59. 
 
 XIL . 
 
 Love— On One Side. 
 
 1. Rudel to tiie Lady of Tripoli. D. P. (a.) 
 
 2. Cristina. D. P. {b) 
 
 3. Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli. J. 
 
 4. A Likeness. D. P. 
 
 5. Numpholeptos. Pac. 
 
 ((2.) Rudel was a troubadour of the twelfth century, and it is 
 related in " Tales of the Troubadours " that he loved the Lady of 
 Tripoli. 
 
 (<5.) This was meant for a young man who fell in love with Queen 
 Cristina of Spain and became insane. — L. Br. S. Papers. 
 
 XIIL" 
 
 Love — Incomplete. 
 
 1. Tiie Statue and the Bust. M. and W. {a) 
 
 2. The Worst of it. D. P, 
 
 3. Too Late. D. P. 
 
14 ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 
 
 4. Dis Alitur Visum. Le Byron de Nos Jours. D. P. 
 
 5. Bifurcation. Pac. 
 
 6. Appearances. Pac. 
 
 7. Confessions. D. P. 
 
 (a.) The Bust was invented by Browning. The Statue is that of 
 the " Great-Duke Ferdinand " in the square of the Santissima Annun- 
 ziata in Florence. According to tradition, the duke loved a lady who 
 lived in the Riccardi Palace, at one corner of the square, whom he 
 could see only at her window, and that he had his statue placed where 
 it would look in that direction. Browning tells us that the bust was 
 executed in della Robia ware. Specimens of this work adorn the 
 cornice of the palace. 
 
 " The crime alluded to in the poem as darkening the Medici palace, 
 and casting its shadow on the adjacent street, was the murder of 
 Alexander, Duke of Florence, in 1836." — Airs Orr. 
 
 This is written in the Italian terza rima, and is a good illustration 
 of Browning's facility in difficult meters. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Love— Tragedy. 
 
 ^i. Porphyria's Lover. D. P. 
 
 2. Martin Relph. Ag. 
 
 3. A Forgiveness. Pac. {a.) 
 v^. The Laboratory. D. P. 
 v/5. The Confessional. 
 
 6. Cristina and Monaldeschi. {b.) 
 
 {a.) Mr. Browning owns a collection of "arms of eastern workman- 
 ship," just such as is described here. 
 
 {b.) An interesting description of Queen Cristina may be found in 
 " Madame de Sevigne and her Contemporaries," by Mile, de Mont- 
 pensier. Avon is the village on the east side of the park of Fontaine- 
 bleau. Monaldeschi was buried in its little church. 
 
ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 15 
 
 XV. 
 
 Love. 
 
 I. In a Balcony. M. and W. 
 
 Give special attention to the different character-studies. Constance 
 and the Queen are among the most subtile characters in Browning. 
 
 XVI. 
 Love Lyrics. 
 
 1. Misconceptions. M. and W. 
 
 2. My Star. M. and W, 
 
 3. Love in a Life. M. and W. 
 
 4. Life in a Love. M. and W. 
 
 5. One Way of Love. M. and W. 
 
 6. Another Way of Love. M. and W. 
 
 7. Women and Roses. M. and W. 
 
 8. Natural Magic. Pac. 
 
 9. Magical Nature. Pac. 
 
 10. Song. D. P. 
 
 11. Earth's Immortalities, II. Love. D. P, 
 
 XVIL 
 Jewish Poems. 
 
 1. Holy Cross Day. M. and W. 
 
 2. Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial. 
 
 Pac. {a) 
 
 3. JocHanan Hakkadosh. J. (<^.) 
 
 (a.) " Filippo Baldinucci was the author of a history of art, and the 
 incident which Mr. Browniog relates as a reminiscence of A. D. 1670, 
 appears there in a notice of the life of the painter Buti." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 {b) In the note at the conclusion of the poem "Mr. Browning pro- 
 fesses to rest his narrative on a Rabbinical work, of which the title, 
 given b^- him in Hebrew, means ' Collection of many lies ; ' and he 
 
i6 ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 
 
 adds, bj way of supplement, three sonnets, supposed to illustrate the 
 equally fictitious proverb ' From Moses to Moses, never was one like 
 Moses,' and embodj^ing as many fables of wildly increasing audacity. 
 The main story is nevertheless justified by traditional Jewish belief." 
 
 "The three days' survival of the 'Ruach' or spirit allowed to 
 departed saints, is aTalmudic doctrine still held among the Jews. 
 
 " The ' Helaphta ' was a noted Rabbi, The ' Bier ' and the ' Three 
 Daughters' was a received Jewish name for the constellation of the 
 Great Bear. The ' Salem ' is the mystical New Jerusalem to be built 
 of the spirits of the great and good." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Early Christian Poems. 
 
 1. Cleon. M. and W. (^.) 
 
 2. An Epistle. M. and W. 
 
 3. A Death in the Desert. D. P. (3.) 
 
 («.) The line from the address of Paul to the Athenians — Acts 
 xvii., 28 — indicates that Cleon is supposed to be one of those Greek 
 poets, living at the very time Paul is preaching the doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the dead. 
 
 {b!) " This is the record of an imaginary last scene in the life of 
 St. John It is conceived in perfect harmony with the facts of the 
 case; the great age which the Evangelist attained; the mystery 
 Avhich shrouded his death ; the persecutions which had overtaken the 
 church ; the heresies which already threatened to disturb it ; but Mr. 
 Browning has given to his St. John a fore-knowledge of that age of 
 philosophic doubt in which its very foundations would be shaken." — 
 Mrs. Orr. 
 
 This poem was the poet's contribution to the discussion that was 
 aroused by the appearance of Strauss's " Life of Jesus." 
 
 XIX. V. 
 
 other ReHgious Poems. 
 
 I. The Heretic's Tragedy; a Middle- Age Interlude. 
 M. and W. («.) 
 
ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 17 
 
 2. Johannes Agricola in Meditation. D. P. (3.) 
 
 3. Christmas Eve. D. P. 
 
 4. Easter Day. D. P. 
 
 5. Fears and Scruples. Pac. 
 
 6. Epilogue to Dramatis Personae. 
 
 (a.) "This heretic is Jacques du Bourg.Molay, last Grand Master of 
 the Order of Knights Templar, against whom preposterous accusa- 
 tions had been brought. This Jacques, whom the speaker erroneously 
 calls 'John,' and who might stand for any victim of middle-age 
 fanaticism, was burned in Paris in 1314; and the 'Interlude,' we are 
 told, ' would seem to be a reminiscence of this event, as distorted by 
 two centuries of refraction from Flemish brain to brain.'" — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 {b.) " The speaker, Johannes Agricola, was a German reformer of 
 the sixteenth century, and alleged founder of the sect of the Anti- 
 nomians; a class of Christians who extended the Low Church doc- 
 trine of the insufficiency of good works, and declared the children of 
 God to be exempt from the necessity of performing them."--il/r*. Orr. 
 
 XX. 
 
 other Religious Poems. 
 
 1. Caliban. 
 
 2. Saul, (a.) 
 
 {a.) Compare the fifth stanza with Matthew Arnold's " Empedocles 
 on yEtna," especially for the description of the effect of music on 
 disordered mental conditions. 
 
 XXL 
 
 Death and Immortality. 
 
 ^ I. Prospice. D. P. {a.) 
 
 2. Apparent Failure. D. P. {b.) 
 
 3. Pisgah Sights. Pac. {c.) 
 
 4. La Saisiaz. Ag. (d.) 
 
l8 ROBER T BRO WNING \S FOB TR T. 
 
 »^5. Evelyn Hope. M. and W. 
 v/6. Rabbi Ben Ezra. D. P. {e.) 
 7. Jochanan Hakkadosh. 
 
 (a.) This is one of the " E. B. B." poems. Compare Avith Pope's 
 "Dying Christian," and Bryant's " Thanatopsis/' 
 
 (^.) " Mr. Browning's verdict on three drowned men, whose bodies 
 he saw exposed at the morgue in Paris, in the summer of 1856." 
 — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 (c.) These can hardly be called poems of death, or immortality. 
 They belong at least to that class, where death is the interpreter of 
 life. 
 
 {d.) "A. E S. were the initials of Miss Anne Egerton Smith, the 
 proprietress of the Liverpool Mercury^ who was at La Saisiaz with 
 Browning and his sister, and whose sudden death gave rise to the 
 poem." — L. Br. S. PaJ>ers. 
 
 " La Saisiaz" is Savoyard for " The Sun," and is the name of a 
 villa among the mountains near Geneva. 
 
 (<?.) Rabbi Ben Ezra was one of the four great philosophers or 
 Lights of the Jews in the middle ages, and lived from 1092 to 1167. 
 He was born in Toledo, Spain, bvxt traveled through many lands, 
 including England. He believed in a future life. This poem, though 
 put into the mouth of the Jewish teacher, is too great to be classed 
 among the Jewish poems. It has been said to contain " the whole 
 philosophy of life." Compare the potter's song with Longfellow's 
 " Keramos," and the " Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayam. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Romantic. 
 
 ^ I. Childe Roland. M. and W. (a.) 
 
 2. The Flight of the Duchess. D. P. 
 
 3. The Glove. D. P. 
 
 4. Count Gismond. D. P. 
 
 5. The Italian in England. D. P. {b,) 
 
 6. Protus. M. and W. 
 
 7. Gold Hair. D. P. {c.) 
 
ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 19 
 
 (a.) "All Browning's great and peculiar qualities as a poet,,lind 
 their fullest and most perfect expression in Childe Roland, which, as 
 a feat of the imagination, surpasses in creative power, in range of 
 thought and feeling, in vividness and dramatic interest any poem of 
 its kind, which has been written since ' Cristabel ' and ' The Ancient 
 Mariner.' It is like these in its seeming supernatural aspect — I saj 
 seeming, because there is nothing in Childe Roland above and beyond 
 nature if we start with the poet at the starting point, which is found 
 near the end of the poem. The origin of the line from Shakespeare 
 is found in no known ballad or poem, but it is probably from a lost 
 part of 'Childe Rowland and Burd Helen.' The coming to the dark 
 tower is not the beginning but the end of the story. The hero who 
 reaches that goal and boldly asserts himself has won the crown — his 
 very presence there is victory. These thirty-four stanzas have the 
 substance of a poem or drama of large proportions." — Richard Gratit 
 White. 
 
 (a.) This poem was written in one day, 
 
 (d.) A fragment of an imaginary chronicle. 
 
 (c.) This story may be read in Pornic guide books. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Narrative. 
 
 1. Halbert and Hob. Ag. 
 
 2. Ned Bratts. Ag. {a.) 
 
 3. Pietro of Abano. (6.) 
 
 4. Ivan Ivanovitch. 
 
 5. Muleykeh. 
 
 6. Donald. J. 
 
 (a.) The main facts of this narrative are true, and related in a book 
 by John Bunyan, as having happened in Hertford. " Mr. Browning 
 has turned Hertford into Bedford ; made the time of the occurrence 
 coincide with that of Bunyan's imprisonment there; and supposed 
 the evident conversion of this man and woman to be among the many 
 which he effected." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
20 ^OBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR~r. 
 
 {b.) " Pietro, of Abano, was an Italian physician and alchemist, 
 born at Abano, near Paduain, 1246, died about 1320. He is said to 
 have studied Greek at Constantinople, mathematics at Padua, and to 
 have been made a doctor of medicine and philosophy at Paris. He 
 then returned to Padua, where he was professor of medicine and fol- 
 lowed the Arabian physicians, especially Averrhoes. He got a great 
 reputation and charged enormous fees He hated milk and cheese, 
 and'swooned at the sight of them. His enemies, jealous of his re- 
 nown and wealth, denounced him to the Inquisition as a magician. 
 They accused him of possessing the Philosopher's Stone, and of mak- 
 ing, with the devil's hel]), all money come back to his purse. His 
 trial was begun, and, had he not died naturally in time, he would have 
 been burnt. The Inquisitors ordered his body to be burned, and as a 
 friend had taken that away, they had his portrait publicly burned by 
 the executioner. In 1560 a Latin epitaph in his memory was put up 
 in the church of St. Augustin. The Duke of Urbino set his statue 
 among those of illustrious men, and the Senate of Padua put one on 
 the gate of its palace." — L. Br. S, Papers. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Friendship. 
 
 1. Waring. D. P. 
 
 2. May and Death. D. P. {a.) 
 
 3. Time's Revenges. D. P. 
 
 •/ 4. A Light Woman. M, and W. 
 
 {a.) " Surely the Polygonum Persicaria, or Spotted Persicaria, is 
 the plant alluded to. It is a common weed with purple stains upon 
 its rather large leaves; these spots varying in size and vividness of 
 color, according to the nature of the soil where it grows. A legend 
 attaches to this plant and attributes these stains to the blood of Christ 
 having fallen on its leaves, growmg below the cross." — L. Br. S. 
 Papers. 
 
 This poem was a personal utterance, called forth by the death of a 
 relative whom Mr, Browning dearly loved. 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING S POETRY. 21 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Hate and Revenge. 
 
 1. Installs Tyrannus. M. and W, {a). 
 
 2. Before. M. and W. 
 
 3. After. M. and W. 
 
 4. Soliloquy of a Spanish Cloister. 
 
 («.) " The 'present tyrant,' suggested by some words in Horace, 8th 
 Ode, Book II. This is the confession of a king who has been possessed 
 by an unreasoning and uncontrolled hatred of one man." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Poems of Humour. 
 
 1. Up at a Villa — Dov/n in the City. M. and W. 
 
 2. Sibrandiis Schafnaburgensis. D. P 
 
 3. Doctor . Ag. («.) 
 
 4. Pacchiarotto. (3.) 
 
 5. Solomon and Balkis. J. (c.) 
 
 6. Adam, Lilith and Eve. J. 
 
 7. Pambo. J. (^.) 
 
 {a.) An old Hebrew legend, founded upon the saying that a bad 
 wife is stronger than death. Satan complains in his character of 
 death, that man has the advantage of him, since he may baffle him, 
 whenever he will, by the aid of a bad woman. He undertakes to 
 show this in his own person. 
 
 (^.) A painter of Siena, generally confounded with Girolamo del 
 Pacchia. These incidents in the poem are historical, and related in 
 Vasari. 
 
 (c.) The Talmudic version of the dialogue between Solomon and 
 the queen of Sheba. The ring bore the Supreme name and com- 
 pelled the person towards whom it was turned, to speak the truth. 
 
32 ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 
 
 {d.) The name of Pambo or Pambus is known to literature as that 
 of a foolish person, who spent months, Mr. Browning says years, in 
 the pondering a simple passage from Psalm 39. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 National and Political Feeling. 
 
 1. Cavalier Tunes. D. P. 
 
 2. De Gustibus. M. and W. 
 
 3. Home Thoughts from Abroad. D. P. 
 
 4. Home Thoughts from the Sea. D, P. {a.) 
 
 5. The Italian in England. D. P. 
 
 6. The Englishman in Italy. D. P. 
 
 7. Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr. D. P. {b.) 
 
 {a.) " Here and here " is said to refer to the battles of Cape St. 
 Vincent (1796) and Trafalgar (1805), and perhaps to the defence of 
 Gibraltar (1 7S2). 
 
 {b.) This represents a follower of Abd-el-Kadr hastening through 
 the desert to join his chief. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Poems of the Renaissance. 
 
 ^y I. The Bishop Orders His Tomb. D. P. (a.) 
 
 2. My Last Duchess. D. P. 
 
 3. The Grammarian's Funeral. M. and W. 
 
 (a.) The Bishop's tomb is entirely fictitious, but something which 
 is made to stand for it is shown to credulous sight-seers in St. Praxed's 
 Church at Rome. 
 
 See " Browning and the Critics," page 43. 
 
ROBER r BR O WNING 'S POETRT. 23 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Unclassified Poems. 
 
 1. Shop. Pac. 
 
 2. Epilogue to Two Poets of Croisic. Ag, 
 
 3. Earth's Immortahties; Fame. D. P. 
 ^ 4. Ceiiciaja. F. («.) 
 
 5. Prologue and Epilogue to Fifine. 
 
 (a.) "Cenciaja" signifies matter relating to the Cenci; the word is 
 also a pun on the meaning of the plural noun Cenci, rags or old rags. 
 The cry of this, frequent in Rome, was at first mistaken bv Shelley for 
 a voice urging him to goon with his play. Mr. Browning has used it 
 to indicate the comparative unimportance of his contribution to the 
 Cenci story. The quoted Italian proverb means something to the 
 same effect, that every trifle will press in for notice among worthier 
 matters The poem describes an inciderit extraneous to the Cenci 
 tragedy, but which strongly influenced its course. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Special Pleadings. 
 
 1. Bishop Blougram's Apology. M. and W. (a.) 
 
 2. Mr. Sludge the Medium. D. P. (3.) 
 
 3. Prince Hohenstiel Schwangau. F. (c.) 
 
 (tz.) The original of this poem was Cardinal Wiseman. It is said 
 that the cardinal reviewed very good naturedly this poem in the 
 " Rambler," a Romanist journal. 
 
 ib.) Home, the spiritualist, was the original of Sludge. 
 
 (c.) A defence of the doctrine of expediency, and the monologue 
 is supposed to be carried on by the late emperor of the French. 
 Hohen-Schwangau is one of the castles of the King of Bavaria. The 
 "grim guardian of the square" refers to the statue of George First 
 on horseback. 
 
24 * ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 From Classic Sources. 
 
 I. Pan and Luna. Ag. {a^ 
 
 3. Artemis Prologuizes. D. P. {b^ 
 
 3, Ixion. J. 
 
 (a) This mythical adventure of Luna, the moon, is described by 
 Virgil in the Georgics. The text is taken from the Georgics, " If it 
 is worthy of belief." 
 
 (<5.) " This was suggested hy the Hippolytos of Euripides and des- 
 tined to become partof a larger poem, which should continue its story, 
 Hippolytos perishing through the anger of Venus, was revived by 
 Artemis (Diana), and afterwards fell in love with one of her nymphs. 
 Aricia. Mr. Browning imagines that she has removed him in secret 
 to her own forest retreat and is nursing him back to life by the help 
 of Esculapius, and the poem is a monologue in which sh - describes 
 what has passed since Phaedra's self-betrayal to the present time. 
 Hippolytos still lies unconscious, but the power of the gi-eat healer 
 has been brought to bear on him, and the unconsciousness seems only 
 that of sleep. The ensuing chorus of nymphs, the awakening of 
 Hippolytos, and with it the stir of the new passion with him, had 
 already taken shape in Mr. Browning's mind. Unfortunately some- 
 thing put the inspiration to flight, and it did not return." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 Baiaustion's Adventure. 
 
 This is a transcription of one of the plays of Euripides, placed 
 in an original setting. Balaustion herself is one of the freshest and 
 most lyrical of Browning's creations. 
 
 "Balaustion is a Rhodian girl, brought up in the worship of Eu- 
 ripides. The Peloponnesian war has entered upon its second stage, 
 the Athenian fleet has been defeated at Syracuse, and Rhodes, resent- 
 ing this disgrace, has determined to take part against Athens, and 
 joins the Peloponnesian league. But Balaustion will not forsake the 
 mother city and persuades her kinsmen to migrate with her to it. 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR r. 2 5 
 
 Thej take ship at Kaunus, but the wind turns them from their course 
 and when it abates they find themselves in strange waters, pursued 
 by a pirate bark. They fly before it towards what they hope will prove 
 a friendly shore, Balaustion heartening the rowers by a song from 
 ^^schylus, sung at the battle of Salamis, and run into the hostile 
 harbor of Syracuse, where shelter is denied them." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 Balaustion means "wild pomegranate flower," and the girl has bee A 
 so called on account of her lyric gifts. 
 
 The lines beginning " I know too a great Kaunian painter," refer 
 to a picture by F. Leighton, called " Hercules wrestling with Death 
 for the body of Alkestis," an engraving of which has been published 
 by the London Browning Society. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 Aristophanes' Apology. 
 
 " In point of circumstance, a sequel to Balaustion's Adventure. 
 Both turn on the historical fact that Euripides was reverenced far 
 more by the non-Athenian Greeks than by the Athenians. Both 
 contain a transcript from him." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Agamemnon. 
 
 Asa literal translation of one of the most difficult of the ancient 
 Greek tragedies. Browning's Agamemnon deserves careful study in 
 connection with other translations of the same work, but may be very 
 properly omitted from a regular Browning course. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Dramas — Strafford. 
 
 This was written at a request of Macready and brought out by him 
 at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1837. "Write me a play. Browning, 
 and keep me from going to America." Browning calls this a play 
 representing action in character, rather than character inaction. The 
 portraits in the play are historical with the exception of Lady Car- 
 
26 ROBERT BRO WNING 'S FOE TR 1 \ 
 
 lisle, which is purely imaginary. The Italian boat song in the last 
 scene is from Redi's Bacco, translated by Leigh Hunt. " Strafford" 
 has been edited with notes by Miss Hickey, with special reference to 
 school and club study, and published in a small volume by itself. 
 
 XXX VI. 
 Dramas — Pippa Passes. 
 
 This drama illustrates the unconscious influence which a little silk- 
 weaver, strolling happily along the country lanes during her brief 
 lioliday, exerts upon the character and actions of those who only 
 hear her songs., The song, beginning " Give her but a least excuse to 
 love me," refers to Catherine Cornaro, the Venetian queen of Cyprus, 
 and is the onlv one of the songs which is based on any fact. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Dramas — Luria. 
 
 This is supposed to be an episode in the struggles between Florence 
 and Pisa. 
 
 " Luria is grave and somewhat remote; it simply represents Duty 
 triumphing in the midst of intrigue, and with no motive beyond 
 duty's self. The conception is grand, the result impressive — but it is a 
 lesson; the * Blot in the Scutcheon is an experience." — JoJni Weiss. 
 
 It is interesting to note in connection with the passage where the 
 secretary refers to the charcoal sketch of a Moorish front for the 
 unfinished Duomo, that recently such a sketch has been actually 
 found in the small museum, Opera del Duomo, at Florence. Brown- 
 ing did not know of its existence. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 Dramas— Blot in the Scutcheon. 
 
 First produced at the Theatre Royal in 1S53. Dickens said of this 
 play, that he would rather have written it than any work of modern 
 times. 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR T. 27 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Dramas—Colombe's Birthday. 
 
 '' Colombe of Ravestein is ostensibly duchess of Juliers and Cleves, 
 but her title is neutralized by the Salic law under which the duchy is 
 held; and though the duke, her late father, has wished to evade it in 
 her behalf, those about her are aware that he had no power to do so, 
 and that the legal claimant, her cousin, may at any moment assert 
 his rights. This happens on the first anniversary of her accession, 
 which is also her birthday," — Airs. Orr. 
 
 XL. 
 Dramas — Paracelsus. 
 
 A dramatic poem in which the principal character is the celebrated 
 empiric and alchemist of the sixteenth century. It has been pro- 
 nounced by Weiss and others to be the loftiest effort of Browning's 
 genius. Weiss says " We must not take Paracelsus as a drama, but a 
 meditative poem too grave to entertain a reminiscence of the theatre.' 
 
 XLI. 
 Dramas — King Victor and King Charles. 
 
 The story of this drama is historical, and can be found in a numoer 
 of the histories of this period. Browning's justification of his own 
 view of the characters is found in the preface to the play. 
 
 XLII. 
 Dramas— A Soul's Tragedy. 
 
 XLIII. 
 Dramas — The Return of the Druses. 
 
 •' The Druses of Lebanon are a compound of several Eastern tribes, 
 owing their religious system to a Caliph of Egypt, Hakeen Biamr 
 
28 ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR T. 
 
 Allah, and probably their name to his confessor, Darazi, who first 
 attempted to promulgate his doctrine among them ; some also impute 
 to the Druse nation a dash of the blood of the Crusaders. One of 
 their chief religious doctrines was that of divine incarnations. It 
 seems to have originated in the pretension of Hakeem to be himself 
 one; and as organized by the Persian mystic, Hamzi, his vizier and 
 disciple, it included ten manifestations of this kind, of which Hakeem 
 must have formed the last. Mr. Browning has assumed that in any 
 great national emergency the miracle would be expected to recur, 
 and he has here conceived an emergency sufficiently great to call it 
 forth," — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 XLIV, 
 Pauline. 
 
 " This poem is, as its title declares, a fragment of a confession. The 
 speaker is a man, probably still young*, and Pauline, the name of the 
 lady who receives the confession and is supposed to edit it. It is not, 
 however, ' fragmentary ' in the sense of revealing only a small part 
 of the speaker's life, or of onlv recording isolated acts from which 
 the life may be built up. Its fragmentary character lies in this : that 
 while very explicit as a record of feeling and motive, it is entirely 
 vague in respect to acts. It is an elaborate retrospect of successive 
 mental states big with the sense of corresponding misdeeds. An 
 ultra-consciousness of self is in fact the key-note of the entire mental 
 situation. [The life of Pauline's lover has not been wholly misspent, 
 but his ultimate object has been always the gratification of self] 
 We leave him at the close of his confession, exhausted by the 
 mental fever, but released from it — new-born to a better life ; though 
 how and why this has happened is again part of the mystery of the 
 case. 'Pauline ' is the one of Browning's longer poems, of which no 
 intelligible abstract is possible : a circumstance the more striking, in 
 that it is perfectly transparent as well as truly poetical so far as its 
 language is concerned. * * * 
 
 *' The defects and difficulties of Pauline are plainly admitted in an 
 editor's note written in French and signed by this name : and which, 
 proceeding as it does from the author himself, supplies a valuable 
 comment on the work. * * * 
 
 " ' Pauline ' did not take its place among the author's collected works 
 
nOl^ERT BROWNING'S FOETRT. 29 
 
 until 1867, when the uniform edition of them appeared; and he then 
 introduced it by a preface, in which he declared his unwillingness to 
 publish such a boyish production, and gave the reasons which 
 induced him to do so. The poem is boyish, or at all events youthful, 
 in poitit of conception ; and we need not wonder that its intellectual 
 crudeness should have outweighed its finished poetic beauties in the 
 author's mind.. It contains, however, one piece of mental portraiture, 
 which, with slight modifications, might have stood for Mr. Browning 
 when he re-edited the work as it clearly did when he wrote it. It 
 begins thus : ' I am made up of an intensest life.' The tribute to 
 the saving power of imagination is also characteristic of his mature 
 mind, though expressed in an ambiguous manner. It is interesting 
 to know that in the line ' The king treading the purple calmly to his 
 death,' he was thinking of Agamemnon, as this shows how early 
 his love of classic literature began. The allusion to Plato largely 
 confirms this impression. The feeling for music asserts itself, though 
 in a less spiritual form than it assumes in his later works. The most 
 striking piece of true biography which ' Pauline ' contains, is its evi- 
 dence of the young writer's reverent affection for Shelley, whom he 
 idealizes under the name of Sun-treader. An invocation to his 
 memory occupies three pages, beginning with the eighth, and is 
 renewed at the end of the poem. * * * The curious Latin quotation of 
 the preface is from the works of Cornelius Agrippa, a well-known 
 professor of occult philosophy, and is indeed introductory to a 
 treatise upon it, * * * The Andromeda described as ' with the 
 speaker,' is that of Caravaggio, of which Mr. Browning possesses an 
 engraving which was always before his eyes as he wrote his earlier 
 poems." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 The Red Cotton Nightcap Country. 
 
 " The real life drama, which !Mr. Browning has reproduced under 
 this title, was enacted partly in Paris and partly in a retired corner of 
 Normandy, where he spent the late summer of 1872 ; and ended in a 
 trial which had been only a fortnight closed, when he supposed him. 
 self to be relating it. His whole story is true, except that in it which 
 reality itself must have left to the imagination." — Mrs. Orr. 
 
30 ROBERT BR O WMNG ' ' ; P OE TR T. 
 
 " It is the story of Mellario, the Paris jeweler, and was studied at 
 the place of his ending, St. Aubin in Normandy, from the law papers 
 used in the suit concerning his will. It was put in type with all the 
 true names of persons and things; but, on a proof being submitted 
 bj Brov;ning to his frier.d, Lord Coleridge, then littorney-general, 
 the latter thought that an action for libel might lie for what was said 
 in the poetn, however unlikely it was that such procedure would be 
 taken. Thereupon fictitious names were substituted." — L. Br. S. 
 Papers. 
 
 The possible friend and adviser, to whom Miranda is referred, was 
 M.Joseph Milsand, who always at that time passed the bathing sea- 
 son at St. Aubin. 
 
 Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 XLVL 
 
 XLVIL 
 
 The Inn Album. 
 
 This poem is, in the main outlines, a true story, that of Lord de 
 Ros, once a friend of the great Duke of Wellington and about whom 
 there is much in the Greville memoirs. The story made a great sensa- 
 tion in London over thirty years ago. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 Sordello. 
 
 XLIX. 
 The Ring and the Book. 
 
 Note. — Experience would indicate that the most effective way of 
 studying the last two is to assign the lesson beforehand, which in the 
 case of " The Ring and the Book " may reasonably cover a book ; this 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING \S POETR 2'. 31 
 
 to be carefully studied by each individual at home; then, when they 
 come together, to compare notes, and each contribute his mite to the 
 general whole in some such order as follows: — 
 
 1. Tell the Story. 
 
 2. Its relation to the preceding lessons. 
 
 3. What new elements introduced into the story by 
 
 this lesson. 
 
 4. What chief moral lesson found by each. 
 
 5. Noblest passages and quotable lines. 
 
 6. Difficult passages. 
 
 7. Out-of-the-way words and allusions. 
 
 After such a study as this, then and only then will the club be pre- 
 pared either to write or to listen to some papers upon general topics, 
 including a range of tlie whole work. Only where classes are com- 
 paratively small, of uniform grade of intelligence and socially familiar 
 and congenial, is it wise to undertake to read in class. 
 
 SHORTER PROGRAMMES. 
 
 These short programmes are prepared for the use of 
 those who have not the time or do not desire to make a 
 complete study of Browning, but would like to gain some 
 knowledge of his poems. It is impossible to prepare any 
 partial list of these poems that is wholly representative of 
 the poet and his best work, and it should be borne in mind 
 that such lists are necessarily subject to the particular men- 
 tal bias and preference of the individual preparing them, 
 and are thus fit matter for the revision of any other student 
 of Browning. For notes on the poems, see full classifi- 
 cation. 
 
 With regard to the classification of Browning's poems, it 
 should be said that all classifications are more or less arbi- 
 trary, and that most of the poems fall naturally into more 
 
32 ROBER T BRO WNING 'S FOB TR T. 
 
 than one group. The reader need not therefore be sur- 
 prised at finding certain poems placed under different heads 
 in the three programmes. 
 
 PROGRAMME A. 
 
 I. 
 
 Love Poems. 
 
 1. Wedded Love. 
 
 One Word More. 
 
 A Woman's Last Word. 
 
 Any Wile to Any Husband. 
 
 2. Love and Tragedy. 
 The Last Ride Together. 
 Youth and Art. 
 
 The Laboratory. 
 
 3. Love Lyrics. 
 Meeting at Night. 
 Parting at Morning. 
 One Way of Love. 
 Another Way of Love. 
 Love Among the Ruins, 
 Natural Magic, Masfical Nature. 
 Never the Time and the Place. 
 
 Two in the Campagna. 
 By the Fireside. 
 A Lover's Quarrel. 
 
 The Confessional. 
 In a Balcony. 
 James Lee's Wife. 
 
 My Star. 
 Love in a Life. 
 Life in a Love. 
 In Three Days. 
 In a Year. 
 The Worst of it. 
 Too Late. ^ 
 
 IL 
 
 Poems on Art. 
 
 Andrea del Sarto. v 
 Fra Lippo Lippi. 
 Old Pictures in Florence. 
 The Guardian Angel. 
 Pictor Ignotus. 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR T. 33 
 
 III. 
 
 Poems on Music. 
 
 A Toccato of Galuppi's. 
 Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha. 
 Abt Vogler. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Poems Illustrating Browning's Ideas of the Poetic 
 
 Art. 
 
 How it Strikes a Contemporar}-. 
 
 House. 
 
 Shop. 
 
 Epilogue, " The Poets Give Us Wine." 
 
 At the Mermaid. 
 
 V. 
 
 Poems of Early Christian Art. 
 
 The Epistle. 
 Death in the Desert. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Poems of Immortality and Religious Life. 
 
 La Saisiaz. 
 Christmas Eve. 
 Easter Day. , 
 Evelyn Hope. ^ 
 May and Death. 
 Prospice. J , 
 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra. 
 
34 ROBERT BROWNING'S POBTRT, 
 
 VII. 
 
 Other Religious Poems. 
 
 Caliban on Setebos. 
 Saul. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Heroes and Heroines. 
 
 The Patriot. ^ 
 
 Herv^ Riel. v 
 
 Echetlos. 
 
 Incident of the French Camp. ^ 
 
 The Lost Leader. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Jewish Life and Character. 
 Holy Cross Day. 
 Jochanan Hakkadosh. 
 Burial Privilege of Biitdinucci. 
 
 X. 
 
 Psychological. 
 
 [Only a few of the most striking- short poems have been placed under this head 
 which IS descriptive in a certain sense of all that Browning ever wrote.] 
 
 Ned Bratts. 
 
 Halbert and Hob. 
 
 Martin Relph. 
 
 Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister. 
 
 Gold Hair. 
 
 A Light Woman. 
 
 The Statue and the Bust. 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING 'S ROE TR T. 35 
 
 PROGRAMME B. 
 
 This programme is made up of some of the long single 
 poems and a few of the dramas, and necessarilv includes 
 two or three mentioned in the foregoing programmes. 
 
 I. Bishop Blougram's Apology. 
 
 II. 
 
 Caliban on Setebos. 
 
 III. 
 
 Saul. 
 
 IV. 
 
 James Lee's Wife. 
 
 V. 
 
 In a Balcony. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 VII. 
 
 A Blot in the 'Scutcheon. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Martin Relph. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Flight of the Duchess. 
 
 X. 
 
 Ivan Ivanovitch. 
 
 XL 
 
 Luria. 
 
 XII. 
 
 A Soul's Tragedy. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Pippa Passes. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Paracelsus. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING'S WORKS, 
 
 Born 1812, at Camberwell, England. 
 
 1833. Pauline. 
 
 1835. Paracelsus. 
 
 1837. Strafford. 
 
 1840. Sordello. 
 
3^ ROBER T BRO WNING 'S FOB TR 2". 
 
 1841. Pippa Passes. (Bells and Pomegranates, No. I.) 
 
 1842. King Victor and King Charles. (B. and P. No. II. 
 
 1842. Dramatic Lyrics. (B. and P. No. III.) 
 
 Cavalier Tunes. 
 
 Marching along. 
 
 Give a Rouse. 
 
 Mj Wife Gertrude. 
 Italy and France. 
 
 Italy; or, My Last Duchess. 
 
 France ; or, Count Gismond. 
 Camp and Cloister. 
 
 Camp (French.) 
 
 Cloister (Spanish.) 
 In a Gondola. 
 Artemis Prologuizes. 
 Waring. 
 Queen Worship. 
 
 Rudel and the Lady of Tripoli. 
 
 Christina. 
 Mad-House Cell. 
 
 Johannes Agricola. 
 
 Porphyria. 
 Through the Metidja. 
 The Pied Piper of Hamelin. ^ 
 
 1843. Return of the Druses. (B. and P. No. IV.) 
 
 1843. A Blot in the 'Scutcheon. (B. and P. No. V.) 
 
 1844. Colombe's Birthday. (B. and P. No. VI.) 
 1844-5. Seven Poems in " Hood's Magazine." 
 
 The Laboratory. 
 
 Claret. 
 
 Tokay. 
 
 Sibrandus Schnafnaburgensis. 
 
 The Boy and the Angel. 
 
 The Tomb at St. Praxed's, 
 
 The Flight of the Duchess. 
 
ROB BR T BRO WNING \S POETR T. 37 
 
 I S45. Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. (B. and P. No.VII. 
 
 How Thej Brought the Good News. 
 
 Pictor Ignotus. 
 
 Italy in England. 
 
 England in Italy. 
 
 The Lost Leader. ' 
 
 The Lost Mistress. 
 
 Home Thoughts from Abroad. 
 
 The Confessional, 
 
 Earth's Immortalities. 
 
 Song, " Nay, but you." 
 
 Night and Morning. 
 
 Saul. 
 
 Time's Revenges. 
 
 The Glove. 
 
 "845. k"soul's Tragedy, } (B- -^ P. No. VTII.) 
 
 1846. Married to Elizabeth Barrett. 
 
 1849. Revised his printed poems. 
 
 1850. Christmas Eve and Easter Day. 
 1852. Prose Essay on Shelley. 
 
 1855. ^^^ ^^^ Women. 
 
 Series I . 
 
 Love Among the Ruins, v A Pretty Woman. 
 
 A Lover's Quarrel. Childe Roland. 
 
 Evelyn Hope. Respectability. 
 
 Up at a Villa — Down in the City. A Light Woman. 
 
 A Woman's Last Word. The Statue and the Bust. 
 
 Fra Lippo Lippi. Love in a Life. 
 
 A Toccata of Galluppi's. Life in a Love. 
 
 By the Fireside. Instans Tvrannus. 
 
 Any Wife to Any Husband. My Star. 
 
 An Epistle of Karshish. The Last Ride Together. 
 
 A Serenade at the Villa. The Patriot. 
 
 How it Strikes a Contemporary. Memorabilia. 
 
 Master Hugues of Saxe Gotha. Mesmerism. 
 Bishop Blougram's Apology. 
 
38 ROBER T BRO V/NING 'S POE TR T. 
 
 Series II. 
 
 Andrea del Sarto. Before. 
 
 After. In Three Days. 
 
 In a Year. Old Pictures in Florence. 
 
 In a Balcony. Saul. 
 
 De Gustibus. Women and Roses. 
 
 Protus. Holy-Cross Day. 
 
 The Guardian Angel. Cleon. 
 
 The Twins. Popularity. 
 
 The Heretic's Tragedy. Two in the Campagna. 
 
 A Grammarian's Funeral. One Way of Love. 
 
 Another Way of Love. Transcendentalism. 
 
 Misconceptions. One Word More. 
 
 1 86 1. Death of Mrs. Browning. 
 1864. Dramatis Personae. 
 
 James Lee. 
 
 Gold Hair. 
 
 The Worst of It. 
 
 Dis Aliter Visum. 
 
 Too Late. 
 
 Abt Vogler. 
 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra. 
 
 A Death in the Desert. 
 
 Caliban Upon Setebos. 
 
 Confessions. 
 
 Prospice. 
 
 Youth and Art. 
 
 A Face. 
 
 A Likeness. 
 
 Mr. Sludge. 
 
 Apparent Failure. 
 
 Epilogue. 
 
 1868-9. The Ring and the Book. 
 
 1871. Herv^ Riel. 
 
 1871. Balaustion's Adventure. 
 
 1871. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau. 
 
ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 39 
 
 1872. Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 1873. Red Cotton Night- Cap Country. 
 
 1875. Aristophanes' Apology. 
 1S75. The Imx Album. 
 
 1876. Pacchiarotto and Other Poems. 
 
 Prologue. 
 t Pacchiarotto. 
 
 At the Mermaid. 
 
 House. 
 
 Shop. 
 
 Pisgah Sights, I and II. 
 
 Fears and Scruples. 
 
 Natural Magic. 
 
 Magical Nature. 
 
 Bifurcation. 
 
 Numpholeptos. 
 
 Appearances. 
 
 St. Martin's Summer. 
 
 A Forgiveness. 
 
 Cenciaja. 
 
 Filippo Baldinucci. 
 
 Epilogue. 
 
 1877. Agamemnon. 
 187S. La Saisiaz. 
 
 The Two Poets of Croisic. 
 1880. Dramatic Idyls. 
 
 Series I. 
 Martin Relph. Pheidippides. 
 
 Halbertand Hob. Ivan Ivanovitch. 
 
 Tray. Ned Bratts. 
 
 Series IE 
 Proem. Echetlos. 
 Clive. Muleykeh. 
 Pietro of Abano. Doctor . 
 
 Pan and Luna. Epilogue, 
 
40 ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT, 
 
 1883. Jocoseria. 
 
 Wanting is — What? 
 Donald. 
 
 Solomon and Balkis. 
 ,^, Cristina and Monaldeschi. 
 ^, Mary Wolstonecroft and Fuseli. 
 ^^ Adam, Lilith and Eve. 
 Ixion. 
 
 Jochanan Hakkadosh. 
 \^' Never the Time and the Place. 
 V.,'' Pambo. 
 , 1885. Ferishtah's Fancies. 
 
 HELPS TO THE STUDY OF BROWNING. 
 
 Richard Grant White's saying, that the way to read 
 Shakespeare is to read him, is good advice and applicable 
 to the one who would make a study of Robert Browning. 
 Most of the critical studies published are found m maga- 
 zines and reviews, a full list of which may be found in 
 Poole's Index. Among the available books that may be 
 of use are the following: 
 
 Browning Society Papers. See page 41. 
 
 Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning, by Mrs. Sutherland 
 Orr. 
 
 Stories from Robert Browning, by Frederic May Holland. 
 
 See also the essays on Browning in "Obiter Dicta," Stedman's "Vic- 
 torian Poets," George W. Cooke's " Poets and Problems " and Pro- 
 fessor Dowden's " Studies in Literature." 
 
BROWNING SOCIETIES. 
 
 The so-called Browning movement was inaugurated by 
 the organization of the London Browning Society in July, 
 1 88 1, and includes men of the highest rank and scholarship 
 among its members. Through its publications and other 
 activities it has done much effective work in awakening an 
 interest in these writings and encouraging organizations for 
 their study. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 3939 Langley avenue, 
 Chicago, is the local Honorary Secretary of this society. 
 
 In Prof. Corson, of Cornell University, organized 
 
 a Browning Society at Ithaca, N. Y. Prof. Levi Thaxter 
 previous to this time had had various classes for the study 
 of Robert Browning in and around Boston. In Novem- 
 ber, 1S82, the first Browning club was organized in Chi- 
 cago, which in four years' work has included in its study 
 all his writings. From this club, more or less directly, 
 seven or eight other circles have sprung up in the city and 
 vicinity, and perhaps as many more in other cities through- 
 out the west. On the fourteenth of April, 1886, the Chi- 
 cago workers organized themselves into the Chicago 
 Browning Society, for the purpose of mutual help and with 
 the hope of encouraging wider study. The society will 
 hold monthly meetings during winter months, and will 
 from time to time publish such helps as its funds will war- 
 rant, this pamphlet being the first of the series. See pro- 
 gramme for this season, page 50. It has arranged with 
 Charles H. Kerr & Co., 175 Dearborn street, to become its 
 publishers. This firm is also agent for the London Society, 
 and is prepared to fill any orders for Browning material. 
 Correspondence solicited. 
 
 (41) 
 
RULES FOR LITERARY CLUBS. 
 
 The following " ten commandments" for the guidance 
 of literary studies have been found helpful, and are here 
 reprinted as a suggestion to new clubs. 
 
 I. 
 Aim to study, not to create, literature. 
 
 II. 
 Avoid red tape and parliamentary slang. 
 
 III. 
 Let but one talk at a time, and that one talk only of the matter in 
 hand. 
 
 IV. 
 Start no side conferences : whispering is poor wisdom and bad man- 
 ners. 
 
 V. 
 
 Come prepared. Let the work be laid out systematically in deliber- 
 ate courses of reading and study. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Let papers be short. Beware of long quotations. " Brevity is the 
 soul of wit." 
 
 VIL 
 Be as willing to expose ignorance as to parade knowledge. 
 
 VIII. 
 Aim not to exhaust, but to open the theme. Incite curiosity. Pro- 
 voke home reading. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Begin and close to the minute. 
 
 X. 
 Meet all discouragements with grit and industry. Rise superior to 
 numbers ; for the kingdom of culture, like the kingdom of God, 
 comes without observation. 
 
 (42) 
 
BROWNING AND THE CRITICS. 
 
 If Browning has had his detractors he has also always 
 had his admirers, men of genius and wide attainment like 
 himself, who are quick to recognize in him one of the lead- 
 ing and most prolific minds of the age. Such intelligent 
 and generous commendation amply atones for the loss of 
 popular applause. Below is a short list of extracts from 
 leading critics, selected for the most part from the trial list 
 of criticisms published in the Browning Society Papers, 
 parts I and II. 
 
 *' To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern that no shade of 
 quality escapes it, and so quick to feel that discernment is but a hand 
 playing with finely ordered variety on the chord of emotion, a soul in 
 which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling 
 flashes back as a new organ of knowledge." — George Eliot on Robert 
 Broivning. 
 
 " It is some time since we read a work of more unequivocal power 
 than ' Paracelsus.' We conclude that its author is a young man, as we 
 do not recollect his having published before. If so, we may safely 
 predict for him a brilliant career, * * * if he continues true to the 
 promise of his genius. He possesses all the elements of a fine poet." 
 — yokn Forster^ in Examiner, Sej>t., ^^35- 
 
 "Without the slightest hesitation we name Robert Browning at 
 once with Shelley, Coleridge and Wordsworth. * * * He has in 
 himself all the elements of a great poet, philosophical as well as 
 dramatic." — ibid, in Monthly Magazine, 183b. 
 
 " By far the richest nature of our times." — y. R. Lovjell before the 
 Bro^^vmng Society. 
 
 " I would rather have written the " Blot in the 'Scutcheon " than 
 any other work of modern times. There is no other man living who 
 could produce such a work." — Charles Dickens. 
 
 (43) 
 
44 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRY. 
 
 " Browning ! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, 
 No man has walked along our road with step 
 So active, so inquiring eje, or tongue 
 So varied in discourse." 
 
 — From Sonnet by W. S. Landor. 
 
 " Everything Browningish is found here — the legal jauntiness, the 
 knitted argumentation, the cunning prying into detail, the suppressed 
 tenderness, the humanity, the salt intellectual humor. * * Whatever 
 else may be said of Mr. Browning and his work by way of criticism, it 
 will be admitted on all hands that noxvhere in literature can be found a 
 man and a ivork more fascinating in their ivay. As for the man, he was 
 crowned long ago, and we are not one of those who grumble because 
 one king has a better seat than another, an easier cushion, a finer light 
 in the great temple. A king is a king and each will choose his place." 
 — Robert Buchanan on " The Ring and the Book^'' in Athenceum^ Dec. i86S. 
 
 " Unerring in every sentence; always vital, right, profound. * * 
 In a single poem, 'The Bishop Orders his Tomb,' Browning tells 
 nearly all that I have said of the central Renaissance in thirty pages of 
 * Stones of Venice.' " — RusUn. 
 
 *' Now if there is any great quality more perceptible than another 
 in Mr. Browning's intellect, it is his decisive and incisive quality of 
 thought, his sureness and intensity of perception, his rapid and 
 trenchant resolution of aim. To charge him with obscurity is about 
 as correct as to call Lynceus purblind or to complain of the slowness 
 of the telegraphic wires. He is something too much the reverse of 
 obscure ; he is too brilliant and subtle for the ready reader of a ready 
 writer to follow with any certainty the track of an intelligence which 
 moves with such incessant rapidity." — A. C. Sivinburne^ in introduc- 
 tion to 'works of George Chapna7i. 
 
 " Of all writers since Dante we should speak of Browning as the 
 poet of suffering, suffering on a great scale, though impelled and pas- 
 sion-wrought." — Eclectic and Congregational Review^ Dec.^ 1868. 
 
 " To blend a profound knowledge of human nature, a keen percep- 
 tion of the awful problem of human destiny, with the conservation 
 of a joyous human spirit, to know and not despair of them, to battle 
 with one's spiritual foes and not be broken by them is given only to 
 the very strong. This is to be a valiant and unvanquished soldier of 
 humanity." — Edinburgh Review^ J^^^y-, ^S6g. 
 
ROBERT BROWMNG'S POETRT. 45 
 
 " He is chiefly dear to the age because having been racked with its 
 doubts, stretched upon the mental torture wheels of its despair, hav- 
 ing sounded cynicism and pessimism to their depths, he sometimes 
 firmly and sometimes faintly trusts the larger hope, but always, in the 
 last analysis and residuum of theught, trusts. Coming from such a 
 mind, such a buoyant message this vexed and storm-tossed age will 
 not willingly let die." — H. R. Haiveis. 
 
 " He is the intellectual phenomenon of the last half century, even 
 if he is not the poetical aloe of modern English literature. His like 
 we have never seen before. * * * In all true poetry the form of the 
 thought is part of the thought, and never was this absolute law of 
 literary aesthetics more flagrantly illustrated than in the poetry of Rob- 
 ert Browning. To say that Browning is the greatest dramatic poet 
 since Shakespeare is to say that he is the greatest poet, most excellent 
 in what is the highest form of imaginative composition, because it is 
 the most creative." — Richard Grant White. 
 
 " In considering whether a poet is intelligible ard lucid we ought 
 not to grope and grub about his work in search of obscurities and 
 oddities, but should, in the first instance at all events, attempt to re- 
 gard his whole scope and range, to form some estimate, if we can, of 
 his general purport and effect, asking ourselves how are we the better 
 for him, has he quickened any passion, lightened any burden, purified 
 any taste, does he play any real part in our lives. ^ And if we are 
 compelled to answer "Yes" to such questions, it is both folly and 
 ingratitude to complain of obscurity." — Augustine Birrell in " Obiter 
 Dictar 
 
LECTURES AND PAPERS. 
 
 The following papers and lectures; are probably available, with 
 the necessary restrictions of time and place, to circles, classes or 
 clubs or popular audiences interested in the study of Browning. 
 Prof. Louis J. Block, of the Douglas school, Chicago, Rev. David 
 Utter, 115 Twenty-third street, and Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 3939 Lang- 
 ley avenue, have lectures on the general suljject of Browning and 
 his writings. Mr. Utter also gives special interpretations and read- 
 ings. Mr. Jones has special papers on *' Fifine at the Fair," " Christ- 
 mas Eve and Easter Day," "A Soul's Tragedy," " The Religion of 
 Browning," and will give conversations, help organize clubs, etc. 
 
 Mrs. S- C. LI Jones, No. 3939 Langley avenue, has papers on 
 *' Luria" and '• The Tragedies of Love." 
 
 Mrs E T. Leonard, No. 175 Dearborn street, has papers on 
 "Mildred Tresham," " Djabal" and "Browning's Measure of Life 
 and his Standard of Success." 
 
 Mrs. Emma E. Marean, No. 3619 Ellis avenue, has papers on 
 "The Poet- pair," •* A Study of Clara" (in the " Red Cotton Night- 
 Cap Country,") Ferishtah's Fancies," and '• Browning's Interpretation 
 of the Poet's Mission." 
 
 Miss Mary E. Burt, 3410 Rhodes avenue, has a paper on " Sor- 
 dello." 
 
 Mrs Anna B McMahan, of Quincy, 111., gives lectures and 
 interpretations of the writings of Robert Browning. 
 
 James Colgrove, J34 Wabash avenue, has made a special study of 
 'Old Pictures in Florence," and has a collection of illustrative 
 pictures. 
 
 (46) 
 
THE CHICAGO BROWNING SOCIETY. 
 
 The first club for the stu.iy of Robert Browning's writings was 
 organized in Chicago in the autumn of 1SS2. This chib has con- 
 tinued its systematic course of study of these writings for the last 
 four years, and from this more or less directly have sprung seven or 
 eight other circles in this city and immediate vicinity, and perhaps as 
 many more in a like manner throughout the west. Believing that 
 the time had come when these unrelated workers might profitably 
 accomplish something in a co-operative way, a call was issued, 
 signed by fifty ladies and gentlemen, most of them members of these 
 Chicago Browning Circles, for a meeting to be held in the parlors of 
 the Church of the Messiah, April 14, 18S6. Over a hundred persons 
 were present. A paper was read on the v^ritings of R obert Browning 
 by Prof. L. J. Block; readings were given by Mrs. F. W. Parker and 
 David Utter, followed by a song from G. E. Dav/son, Esq ; after which 
 the organization was perfected as below. 
 
 The officers were instructed to arrange for the beginning of the 
 active work of the society in the autumn of 1886. 
 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Article I. The name of this Association shall be the Chicago 
 Browning Society. 
 
 Article II. The object of this Society shall be to prom.ote the 
 reading and study of Robert Browning's works, the publication of 
 helps in such study, and other matters calculated to awaken a v.ider 
 interest in this poet. 
 
 Article III. Any person interested may become an annual 
 member by the payment of two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50), the 
 payment of which shall give each member the right to attend all 
 
 (47) 
 
48 ROBERT BROWNING'S POETRT. 
 
 regular meetings of the societj^ and to a copy of all the publications 
 issued during the year. Any one may become a life member of this 
 society by the payment at one time of twenty-five dollars ($25.00). 
 
 Article IV. The officers of this society shall be a president; 
 three vice-presidents, a secretary, a treasurer, and nine other persons, 
 forming an executive committee, three of which shall constitute 
 a sub-committee on publication. These officers shall be elected 
 annually, their duties shall be such as usually devolve upon such 
 officers in similar societies ; they shall hold office until their successors 
 are chosen, and the executive committee shall have power to fill 
 vacancies in the committee, to call meetings, etc., and to them shall 
 be entrusted the general management of the affairs of the society, 
 provided a majority shall be necessary to form a quorum for the 
 transaction of business. 
 
 Article V. The Society shall hold at least four meetings in 
 each 3'ear, the annual meeting being on the second Tuesday in April, 
 at which time the annual dues must be paid. 
 
 Article VI. This Constitution may be amended by a majority 
 vote at any regular meeting, providing two months notice of the same 
 be sent to each member through post-office, or otherwise. 
 
 OFFICERS FOR 1886-7. 
 
 President — Jenkin Lloyd Jones. 
 
 Vice-Prestdettts — Mrs. Wirt Dexter, Mrs. Wm. L. McCormick, 
 Mrs. Celia P. Woolley. 
 
 Seeretary — Mrs. Ellen Mitchell, 44 Sixteenth Street. 
 
 Treasurer — Mrs. Reginald de Koven, 99 Pearson Street. 
 Directors. 
 David Utter, Louis J. Block, James Colegrove, 
 
 Miss Grace T. Howe, Mrs. Potter Palmer, Mrs. Emma E. Marean, 
 Mrs. H. A. Johnson, Mrs. A. N. Eddy, Mrs. F. S. Parker. 
 
 Cotmnittee on Publication. 
 Rev. David Utter, Mrs. Emma E, Marean, Mrs. C. P. Woolley. 
 
ROBER T BRO WNING 'S POE TR T, 49 
 
 CHARTER MEMBERS. 
 
 Mrs. Mary N. Adams, 
 Miss Mary E. Burt, 
 Mrs. Amanda N. Beiss, 
 Mrs. H. J. Beckwith, 
 Mrs. J. C. Brooks, 
 Prof. L. J. Block, 
 MissE. W. Brown, 
 James Colegrove, 
 Mrs. a. J . Caton, 
 Mrs. John M. Clark, 
 Miss L. M. Dunning, 
 Mrs. Wirt Dexter, 
 Mrs. Ruth B. Ewing, 
 Mrs. a. N. Eddy, 
 C. Norman Fay, 
 Chas. a. Gregory, 
 Mrs. Chas. A. Gregory, 
 Robert J. Hendricks, 
 Franklin H. Head, 
 Mrs. John J. Herrick, 
 Chas. D. Hamill, 
 Mrs. Susan W. Hamill, 
 Mrs. Ellen Henrotin, 
 Miss Grace Howe, 
 Miss May Henderson, 
 Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 
 Mrs. S. C. Lloyd Jones, 
 Mrs. Frank Johnson, 
 Mr. Hosmkr A.Johnson, 
 Mr. John H. Jewett, 
 Mrs. John H. Jewett, 
 Charles H. Kerr, 
 Mrs. E. W. Kohlsaat 
 
 Reginald deKoven, 
 
 Mrs. R. de Koven, 
 
 Miss Susie King, 
 
 William S. Lord, 
 
 Miss Martha J . L oudon. 
 
 Miss Mary' L. Lord, 
 
 Miss Julia Leavens, 
 
 C. P. Morgan, 
 
 Mrs. Emma E. Marean, 
 
 Mrs. Anna Morgan. 
 
 Mrs. W. T. McCormick, 
 
 Mrs. R. Hall McCormick, 
 
 Mrs. Ellen Mitchell, 
 
 Mrs. Franklin MacVeagh, 
 
 Mr. Franklin MacVeagh, 
 
 Mr. a. R. Parker, 
 
 Mrs. F. S. Parker, 
 
 Mr. F. W. Parker, 
 
 Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, 
 
 Mrs. Potter Palmer, 
 
 Potter Palmer, 
 
 Mrs. R. W. Patterson, jr., 
 
 Mrs. D. F. Sellbridge, 
 
 B. D. Slocum, 
 
 Miss Helen D. Street, 
 
 Miss Carrie Smith, 
 
 Mrs a. T. Spalding, 
 
 Mrs. a. N. Stevenson, 
 
 Laura J. Tisdale, 
 
 Rev. David Utter, 
 
 Miss Jennie A. Willcox, 
 
 Mrs. Celia P. "Woolley, 
 
 Mrs J. M. Walker. 
 
50 ROBERT BROWNING S POETRT. 
 
 PLAN OF WORK FOR 1S86-7. 
 
 The meetings of this Society Vvill be held the second Tuesday of 
 each month at eight o'clock p. m., beginning in November and end- 
 ing in May. Three of these will be public meetings, four for study 
 and for members only. The following is the programme for the 
 coming season. 
 
 NOVEMBER (PIBLIC). 
 
 Introductory Meeting — paper by Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. 
 
 DECEMBER. 
 
 Subject to be announced. 
 
 JANUARY (public). 
 
 Reading of one of Browning's plays by members of the 
 Society. 
 
 FEBRUARY. 
 
 Browning's Interpretation of Old Age — paper by Prof. David 
 Swing. 
 
 MARCH (public). 
 
 Dramatic Performance by members of the Society. 
 
 Annual Meeting. 
 
 Four papers on Ivan Ivanovitch — writers, Mrs. Dexter, Mrs. 
 Mitchell, Mr. Head, Mr. Gilbert. 
 
 Due notice of the place of meeting will be given. 
 
 Applications for membership should be made to the Treasurer. 
 
KOBERT BROWNING'S POEMS. 
 
 POEMS AND DRAMAS. In 
 
 two volumes, i6mo, $3.00. 
 
 Many English drr.mas have been ^vrit- 
 , ten within a iev: years, the authors of 
 which h;ive established their claim to 
 the title of poet. But it is only in Mr. 
 Browning- that we find enough of fresh- 
 ness, vigor, grasp, and of that clear in- 
 sight and conception ■^"hich enable the 
 artist to construct characters from w^ith- 
 in, and so to make them real things, and 
 not images, as to warrant our granting 
 the honor due to the dramatist.— James 
 Russell 'Lowell, in North America fi 
 Review. 
 
 FIFINE AT THE FAIR; 
 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL- 
 SCHWANGAU ; HERVE 
 RIEL. i6mo, $1.50. 
 
 SORDELLO, Strafford, Christ- 
 mas Eve, and Easter Day. 
 i6mo, $1.50. 
 
 Next to Tennyson, we hardly know 
 of another English poet who can be 
 compared with Browning. — E. P. 
 Whipi'lj:. 
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 i6mo, $1.50. 
 
 MEN AND WOMEN. i6mo, 
 $1.50. 
 
 THE INN ALBUM. i6mo, 
 $1.50. 
 
 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 
 
 Beyond all parallel the supremest po- 
 etical achievement of our time. , . . . . 
 
 The most precious and profound spir- 
 itual treasiu'e that England has produced 
 since the days of Shakespeare. — London 
 AthencEuni. 
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVEN- 
 TURE. i6mo, $1.50. 
 
 If the modern reader wishes to 
 breathe the spirit of the old Greek, to 
 feel, too, that " beauty making beautiful 
 old rhj'me," he must read the story of 
 " Balaustion's Adventure." — Westmin- 
 tfcr Review. 
 
 PACCHIAROTTO, and Other 
 
 Poems. i6ino, $1.50. 
 JOCOSERIA. i6mo, $1.00. 
 
 FERISHTAH'S FANCIES. 
 
 i6mo, $1.00. 
 RED-COTTON NIGHT-CAP 
 
 COUNTRY; or Turf and 
 
 Towers. i6mo, $1.50. 
 
 Some of the lines are wonderfully 
 powerful, and some of the scenes are 
 
 remarkably vivid It is a tale of 
 
 passion and superstition, — of love the 
 most intense, with doubt and fear and 
 sacrifice the most appalling. — NevjTork 
 Graphic. 
 
 AGAMEMNON, LA SAISI- 
 A.Z, TWO POETS OF CRO- 
 ISIC, PAULINE, AND 
 DRAMATIC IDYLS (First 
 and Second Series). i6mo, 
 $1.50. 
 
 WORKS. New Edition. In 
 eight volumes. Crown 8vo, 
 gilt top, S13.00; half calf, 
 $22.50. {Sold only in sets.^ 
 
 JOCOSERIA. Uniform with 
 New Edition of Works. Crown 
 8vo, gilt top, $1.00. 
 
 FERISHTAH'S FANCIES, 
 Uniform with above. Crown 
 8vo, gilt top, $1.00. 
 
 *^* For sale by all Bookseller's. Se?it^ post-paid, on receipt of price 
 by the Publishers., 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 
 
 4 Park St., Boston; ii East 17TH St., New York. 
 
ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 We have by a recent arrangement become Chicago agents 
 
 for the London Browning Society's publications, and invite 
 
 attention to the following list of pamphlets which we have 
 
 now on hand. 
 
 MONTHLY ABSTRACTS OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
 
 BROWNING SOCIETY. 
 
 Leaflets of four to twelve pages each, giving reports of the 
 informal discussions of papers at the London Browning Soci- 
 ety. Twenty-four numbers are now on hand, and will be 
 mailed to any address for $1.00. Ten numbers, 50 cents. All 
 these Abstracts, with other matter of interest, are included in the 
 
 BROWNING SOCIETY PAPERS. 
 
 Parts I, II, III, IV, V and VII are now ready. Price per 
 part, to non-members, $2.50 postpaid. We have also Part I 
 of the 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS TO BROWNING'S POEMS, 
 
 the price of which is $2.50. Any of the above can be secured 
 at half price by acquiring 
 
 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP IN THE LONDON SOCIETY, 
 
 which further entitles the member to two copies of all the 
 publications issued by the society during the current year. 
 Membership fees, $5.50, which may be remitted through us. 
 
 CHICAGO PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Robert Browning's Poetry. Outline studies published for 
 the Chicago Browning Society. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 
 cents; postpaid. 
 
 " Seed Thoughts'" from Browning and others. Selected bv 
 Mary E. Burt. Paper, 62 pages, decorated cover, 30c., postpaid. 
 
 Browning's Selected Poetns. Red Line edition, full gilt, 
 $1.00, postpaid. 
 
 Browning's Women. By Mary E. Burt, $1.00, postpaid. 
 Ready in December. 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 175 Dearborn Street, ckicago. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 27Moy'e2B8 
 
 
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 :^i^ar'63H 
 
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 ftMft 8 IMK,. 
 
 LD 21A-50m-12,'60 
 (B6221sl0)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
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