An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry Part 52

Thy pardon for this long and tedious case, Which, now that I review it, needs must seem Unduly dwelt on, prolixly set forth!

Nor I myself discern in what is writ Good cause for the peculiar interest And awe indeed this man has touched me with.

Perhaps the journey's end, the weariness Had wrought upon me first. I met him thus: {290} I crossed a ridge of short sharp broken hills Like an old lion's cheek teeth. Out there came A moon made like a face with certain spots Multiform, manifold, and menacing: Then a wind rose behind me. So we met In this old sleepy town at unaware, The man and I. I send thee what is writ.

Regard it as a chance, a matter risked To this ambiguous Syrian: he may lose, Or steal, or give it thee with equal good. {300} Jerusalem's repose shall make amends For time this letter wastes, thy time and mine; Till when, once more thy pardon and farewell!

The very G.o.d! think, Abib; dost thou think?

So, the All-Great, were the All-Loving too-- So, through the thunder comes a human voice Saying, "O heart I made, a heart beats here!

Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself!

Thou hast no power nor may'st conceive of mine: But love I gave thee, with myself to love, {310} And thou must love me who have died for thee!"

The madman saith He said so: it is strange.

-- 1. Karshish. . .To Abib. {that is, phrase finishes on line 7.}

17. snake-stone: a certain kind of stone supposed to be efficacious when placed upon the bite of a snake, in absorbing or charming away the poison.

21. My journeyings were brought to Jericho: i.e., in his last letter.

28. Vespasian: T. Flavius Sabinus Vespasia.n.u.s, Roman emperor, A.D. 70-79; sent by Nero in 66 to conduct the war against the Jews; when proclaimed emperor, left his son t.i.tus to continue the war.

24-33. his ardent scientific interest has caused him to brave all dangers.

49. The Syrian runagate: perhaps I'm writing for nothing in trusting my letter to him.

60. Thou hadst: wouldst have.

Zoar: one of the "cities of the plain", S. E. of the Dead Sea (Gen. 19:22).

65-78. Though he's deeply impressed with the subject, he approaches it with extreme diffidence, writing to the "all-sagacious" Abib.

82. exhibition: used in its medical sense of administering a remedy.

103. fume: vaporish fancy.

106. As saffron tingeth: Chaucer uses "saffron" metaphorically as a verb:--

"And in Latyn I speke a wordes fewe, To saffron with my predicacioun, And for to stire men to devocioun."--'The Pardoner's Prologue'.

113. Think, could WE penetrate by any drug.

141, 142. "Browning has drawn the portraiture of one to whom the eternal is sensibly present, whose spirit has gained prematurely absolute predominance: . . .and the result is. . .a being 'Professedly the faultier that he knows G.o.d's secret, while he holds the thread of life' (vv. 200, 201). Lazarus therefore, while he moves in the world, has lost all sense of proportion in things about him, all measure of and faculty of dealing with that which sways his fellows. He has no power or will to win them to his faith, but he simply stands among men as a patient witness of the overwhelming reality of the divine: a witness whose authority is confessed, even against his inclination, by the student of nature, who turns again and again to the phenomenon which he affects to disparage.

"In this crucial example Browning shows how the exclusive dominance of the spirit destroys the fulness of human life, its uses and powers, while it leaves a pa.s.sive life, crowned with an unearthly beauty.

On the other hand, he shows in his study of Cleon that the richest results of earth in art and speculation, and pleasure and power, are unable to remove from life the desolation of final gloom. . . . The contrast is of the deepest significance.

The Jewish peasant endures earth, being in possession of heaven: the Greek poet, in possession of earth, feels that heaven, some future state,

'Unlimited in capability For joy, as this is in desire for joy',

is a necessity for man; but no,

'Zeus has not yet revealed it; and alas, He must have done so, were it possible!'

But we must not pause to follow out the contrast into details.

It is enough to see broadly that flesh and spirit each claim recognition in connection with their proper spheres, in order that the present life may bear its true result."--Rev. Prof. Westcott on 'Browning's View of Life' ('B. Soc. Papers', IV., pp. 401, 402).

166. object: offer in opposition; see v. 243.

167. our lord: some sage under whom they had learned; see v. 254.

174. Thou and the child have: i.e., for him, Lazarus.

177. Greek fire: see Gibbon, chap. 52. {a flammable liquid, kept so secret that its exact const.i.tution is still unknown.}

281. Aleppo: a city of Syria; the blue-flowering borage was supposed to possess valuable medicinal virtues and exhilarating qualities.

301. Jerusalem's repose shall make amends: he will avail himself of it to write a better letter than this one.

A Martyr's Epitaph.

(From 'Easter Day'.)

I was born sickly, poor, and mean, A slave: no misery could screen The holders of the pearl of price From Caesar's envy; therefore twice I fought with beasts, and three times saw My children suffer by his law; At last my own release was earned: I was some time in being burned, But at the close a Hand came through The fire above my head, and drew {10} My soul to Christ, whom now I see.

Sergius, a brother, writes for me This testimony on the wall-- For me, I have forgot it all.

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister.

1.

Gr-r-r--there go, my heart's abhorrence!

Water your d.a.m.ned flower-pots, do!

If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence, G.o.d's blood, would not mine kill you!

What? your myrtle-bush wants tr.i.m.m.i.n.g?

Oh, that rose has prior claims-- Needs its leaden vase filled br.i.m.m.i.n.g?

h.e.l.l dry you up with its flames!

2.

At the meal we sit together: 'Salve tibi!' I must hear Wise talk of the kind of weather, Sort of season, time of year: 'Not a plenteous cork-crop: scarcely Dare we hope oak-galls, I doubt: What's the Latin name for "parsley"?'

What's the Greek name for Swine's Snout?