The Browning Cyclopaedia Part 35

See Book I., l. 353. l. 616, "_Verona's Lady_" is a statue on the top of a fountain at one end of the Piazza d'Erbe. The fountain was put up in 916, at the completion of the aqueduct by Berenger. It was restored in 1368.

The statue was first erected by Theodosius in 1380. It is called by the people _Donna Verona_, and wears a steel crown as a symbol that the town was an imperial residence. l. 617, _Gaulish Brennus_, who besieged Rome B.C. 385. l. 621, _Manlus_: Manlius Marcus, a celebrated Roman who defended the Capitol against the Gauls. l. 625, _platan_: the plane tree.

l. 626, _Archimage_: the high priest of the Magi or fire-worshippers. l.

687, _colibri_: humming birds. l. 712, _Ba.s.sanese_, of Ba.s.sano, a n.o.ble town on the Brenta. l. 797, _Basilic_: the Basilica, St. Mark's great Cathedral. l. 798, "_G.o.d's great day of the Corpus Domini_" (or _Body of the Lord_): the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is held on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. l. 811, _losel_ == a wasteful, worthless fellow. l. 813,

"_G.o.d spoke, Of right hand, foot, and eye_."

(See St. Matthew v. 29, 30) [S.]

l. 837, _mugwort_ == a herb of the genus _Artemisia_. l. 839, "_Zin the Horrid_": the Syrian wilderness where the Israelites found no water (Num.

xx. 1). l. 847, "_potsherd and Gibeonites_": see Joshua ix. l. 852, _Meribah_: see Exod. xvii. 7 and Num. xxvii. 14. l. 898, "_Prisoned in the Piombi_": horrible torture cells on the leads of the Ducal Palace at Venice, where the prisoners were roasted in the sun. l. 924, "_Tempe's dewy vale_": a beautiful valley in Thessaly. l. 964, _Hercules--in Egypt_: in his quest for the golden apples of the Hesperides, Hercules journeyed through Egypt--Busiris, the king, was about to sacrifice Hercules to Zeus, but he broke his bonds and slew Busiris, his sons and servants. l. 975, _patron-friend_: Walter Savage Landor, who warmly praised Browning's poetry when others abused it; the reference is to Empedocles, a Greek poet. l. 977, _Marathon, Plataea, and Salamis_: celebrated Greek battle-places. l. 987, "_The king who lost the ruby_": Polycrates of Samos. He was advised to throw into the sea the most precious of his jewels, a beautiful seal; he grieved much at the loss, but in a few days he had a present of a large fish, in the belly of which his ring was found. l. 992, _English Eyebright_: the botanical name of the plant is _Euphrasia officinalis_. Euphrasia was the name of a lady who was an old friend of Mr. Browning's (Dr. Furnivall). l. 1021, _Xanthus_: a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. l. 1024, _Polycarp_, an early Christian martyr, A.D. 166; and a disciple of St. John. l. 1025, _Charicle_: also a disciple. l. 1045, "_twy p.r.o.ng_" was one of the instruments used by necromancers in "raising the devil." "To procure the magic fork.--This is a branch of a single beam of hazel or almond, which must be cut at a single stroke with the new knife used in the sacrifice. The rod must terminate in a fork." (Waite's _Mysteries of Magic_, p. 260.) _Pastoral Cross_: the cross on a priest's vestment is sometimes Y-shaped. Hargrave Jennings, in his _Rosicrucians_, says it is now used as an anagram exemplifying the Athanasian Creed; exactly, in fact, like the magic twy p.r.o.ng in shape. An Archbishop's crozier or pastoral staff terminates in a cross at the top.

BOOK IV.--Line 24, _quitch-gra.s.s_ == couch-gra.s.s or dog-gra.s.s; it roots deeply, and is not easily killed. l. 24, "_loathy mallows_": loathsome mallows, probably because they grow in ditches and in churchyards. l. 34, _Legate Montelungo_: Gregorio di Montelongo, Pontifical legate for Gregory IX. l. 50, _arbalist_, a crossbow; _manganel_, an engine of war for battering down walls and hurling stones; and _catapult_, a war engine. l.

72, _Jubilate_: rejoice ye! _Jubilate Deo_, 66th Psalm. l. 83:

"_... What cautelous Old Redbeard sought from Azzo's sire to wrench vainly_."

The Lombard League had built Alexandria to defy Barbarossa, who was twice unsuccessful in taking it. l. 89, _Brenta_: a river of North Italy, pa.s.sing near Padua. _Bacchiglione_: the river on which stand Vicenza and Padua. l. 98, _San Vitale_: a small town near Vicenza. l. 147, "_Messina marbles Constance took delight in_": the marbles of Sicily. For variety and beauty they rival those of any country of Europe. l. 229, _Mainard_, or _Meinhard_: Count of Gorz, in the Tyrol. l. 280, Concorezzi: a knightly family of Padua. l. 395, "_Crowned grim twy-necked eagle_": the two-headed eagle, symbol of the empire. l. 479, _The Adelardi_: were a n.o.ble Guelf family of Ferrara and Mantua. Marchesella was heiress of the Adelardi family; Obizzo I. carried her off, and married her to his son Azzo V. l.

483, _Blacks and Whites_: the Neri, the black party, and the Bianchi the white. The Bianchi are called the _Parte selvaggia_, because its leaders, the Cerchi, came from the forest lands of Val di Sieve. The other party, the Neri, were led by the Donati. (See Longfellow's Dante--Notes to _Inferno_, vi. 65.) l. 511, "_goshawk_": a short-winged slender hawk (_Falco palumbarius_). l. 533, _Pistore_: Pistoia. l. 577, _Matilda_: Countess of Tuscany (1046-1114), known as the Great Countess; she was the champion of the Church and the ally of Hildebrand. l. 585, _Heinrich_: "Henry VI., married Constance, daughter of the King of Naples and Sicily.

He reigned from 1190 to 1197." [S.] "_Philip and Otho_": "the latter conspired against Frederick II., who was brought up by Innocent III., and after Philip's death made Emperor, in 1212. He lived till 1250. His son Henry, King of the Romans, rebelled against him." [S.] l. 614, _Ba.s.sano_: a city of Italy, in the province of Vicenza, on the Brenta. There is a church of St. Francis at Ba.s.sano. Lanze says, "It is the peculiar boast of Bologna that she can claim three of the few artists of the earliest times: one Guido, one Ventura, and one Ursone, of whom there exist memorials as far back as 1248." [S.] l. 615, _Guido the Bolognian_: Guido Reni, the great painter of Bologna (1575-1642). l. 645, _Guglielm_ == William; _Aldobrand_ or _Aldovrandino_: Governor of Ferrara, in conjunction with Salinguerra (1231). l. 735, _San Biagio_: St. Biase, a place near the Lake of Garda. l. 797, _Constance_: wife of Henry VI. of Germany; by this marriage Frederick hoped that his empire would soon include Naples and Sicily. l. 837, _Moorish lentisk_: the mastich tree. l. 884, _poison-wattles_: the baggy flesh on the animal's neck, an excrescence or lobe. l. 977, _Crescentius Nomenta.n.u.s_: a Roman tribune, who, in the absence of Pope John and King Otho, tried to restore consular Rome. But the Pope and King returned, and crucified him, A.D. 998. (See Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, chap. xlix.) Professor Sonnenschein sends me the following further note: "Crescentius was a Roman who, towards the end of the tenth century, endeavoured to restore his country's liberty and ancient glory. The power of the Eastern emperors had long ceased in Rome, that of the Western emperors had been suspended by long interregnas. Rome was a republic in which the citizens, the neighbouring n.o.bles, and the Pope, disputed the authority. Crescentius, who was of the family of the Counts of the Tusculum, placed himself at the head of the anarchic government about 980, with the t.i.tle of Consul. He had, to dispute his rank, Boniface VII., who, murderer of two popes, had become Pope himself.

This pontiff was stained by the most shameful crimes, and as his authority was not well founded, the n.o.bles and the people aided Crescentius in breaking the yoke. Boniface died 985. John XV., who succeeded him, was detained by Crescentius far from Rome, in exile, until he recognised the sovereignty of the people. Upon his return he did not seek to trouble the government; and, as well as one can judge through the obscurity of ages, the Roman republic enjoyed until 996, under the Consul Crescentius, such peace, order, and security, as it had not known for a long time. John XV.

died the year Otho III. went from Germany to Italy, to receive the imperial crown. The young monarch chose his relative, Gregory V., to succeed John. None of the rights or privileges of Rome were known to the new pontiff, who, long accustomed to regard the popes as G.o.ds on earth, having now himself become pope, could not conceive of any resistance to his will. Crescentius refused to recognise a pope whose election and conduct were alike irregular. He opposed to him another pope, a Greek by birth, who took the name of John XVI., and he asked the Emperor of the East to send troops to his a.s.sistance. Otho III. entered Rome with an army in 998. He condemned John XVI. to horrible torture, and besieged Crescentius in the castle of St. Angelo; and as he could not conquer the latter, he offered him an honourable capitulation. However, he no sooner had him in his hands than he put him to death and ill-treated his wife.

Three years later, on his return from a penitential pilgrimage, she succeeded in causing his death by poison." l. 1006, _wra.n.a.l_: a lantern.

l. 1032, "_Rome of the Pandects_": "The digest or abridgment in fifty books of the decisions and opinions of the old Roman jurists, made in the sixth century, by order of the Emperor Justinian, and forming the first part of the body of the civil law." (Webster.)

BOOK V.--Line 6, _Palatine_, one invested with royal privileges and rights. l. 16, _atria_, halls or princ.i.p.al rooms in Roman houses. l. 17, _stibadium_, a half-round reclining couch used by Romans near their baths.

l. 18, _l.u.s.tral vase_: used in purification at meals, etc. l. 34, _pelt_, a skin of a beast with the hair on. l. 43, _obsidion_, a kind of black gla.s.s produced by volcanoes. l. 58, _Mauritania_, an ancient country of North Africa == land of the Moors, celebrated for the wood called Citrus, for tables of which the Romans gave fabulous prices. l. 61, _Demiurge_: a worker for the people; so G.o.d, as Creator of the world. _Mareotic_: of the locality of Lake Mareotis, in Egypt. Mareotic wine was very famous; _Caecuban_: Caecub.u.m, a town of Latium. Caecubus Ager was noted for the excellence and plenty of its wines. l. 82, _Pythoness_: the priestess who gave oracular answers at Delphi, in Greece. l. 83, _Lydian king_: Lydia was a kingdom of Asia Minor. The king referred to was Crsus, who interpreted in his own favour the ambiguous answer of the oracle, and was destroyed by following the advice he thought was given to him. l. 115, _Nina and Alcamo_: Sicilian poets of the period. In the life of Joanna, Queen of Naples, we read of "the Poetess Nina, whose love of her art caused her to become enamoured of a poet whom she had never seen. This fortunate bard (who returned her poetical pa.s.sion) was called Dante; but we cannot plead in her excuse that he had anything else in common with the great poet of that name. Nina was the most beautiful woman of the day, and the first female who wrote verse in Italian. She was so engrossed by her pa.s.sion for her lover that she caused herself always to be called 'The Nina of Dante.'" [S.] "Sismondi only mentions C. d'Alcamo as a Sicilian poet, apparently nearly contemporary with Frederick II. See Ginguene for a full account of Sicilian poetry." [S.] l. 145, _Castellans_, governors of castles. l. 146, _Suzerains_, feudal lords. l. 163, "_Hildebrand of the huge brain mask_": Pope Gregory VII. He was one of the most famous of the popes, and he lived in the latter part of the eleventh century. l. 174, _Mandrake_: Mandragora--a plant with a bifurcated root, concerning which many singular superst.i.tions have acc.u.mulated. l. 186, "_Three Imperial Crowns_": the Imperial Crown proper, the German crown, and the Italian or Lombard crown. There seems a little confusion here in the order of the different metals. The Imperial Crown was of gold. The German is always spoken of as the silver crown. The Italian or Lombard crown was known as the iron crown, because one of the nails of Christ's cross was inserted into its gold frame. (_Encyc. Brit._) l. 188, _Alexander IV._, Pope of Rome (1254-61); _Innocent IV._, Pope (1243-54). l. 189, _Papal key_: the keys of Peter in the papal arms. l. 194, "_The hermit Peter_": Peter, the Hermit of Amiens, who preached up the first Crusade. l. 195, _Claremont_ == Clermont, a city of France, in which, at a council held in 1095, Pope Urban II. first formally organised the great Crusade. l. 200, _Vimmercato_, a town on the Molgova, fourteen miles north-east of Milan.

l. 203, "_Mantuan Albert_": Blessed Albert founder of the Order of Canons Regular. But it was Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, who was umpire between Pope and Emperor. l. 204, _Saint Francis_, of a.s.sisi, born 1182; one of the most beautiful characters who ever lived. All living creatures to him were his "brothers and sisters." l. 205, "_G.o.d's truce_": "The Pax Ecclesiae," or "Treuga Dei"--a suspension of arms, putting a stop to private hostilities within certain periods. The treaty called the "Truce of G.o.d" was set on foot in A.D. 999. It was agreed, among other articles, that "churches should be sanctuaries to all sorts of persons, except those who violated this truce; and that from Wednesday till Monday morning no one should offer violence to any one, not even by way of satisfaction for any injustice he had received" (Butler's _Lives of the Saints_, _sub_ "St.

Odilo," Jan. 1st.) l. 281, _hacqueton_: a quilted jacket, worn under a coat of mail. l. 298, _trabea_: a regal robe. l. 384, _thyrsus_: a spear wrapped about with ivy, carried at feasts of Bacchus. l. 405, _baldric_: a richly ornamented belt, pa.s.sing only over one shoulder. l. 453, "_Caliph's wheel work man_": an automaton. l. 509, _Typhon_, a giant. l. 660, _Lombard Agilulph_: a king of Lombardy, A.D. 601. l. 712, "_changed the spoils of every clime at Venice_": the great Cathedral of St. Mark's, Venice, contains columns and ornaments of various kinds, brought from heathen temples in all parts of the Roman world. Pillars from the Temple of Jerusalem, and precious marbles from ancient Roman palaces, combine to make the interior of St. Mark's one of the strangest and richest Christian churches in the world. So these spoils from many lands, taken from temples devoted to alien worship, have been "changed" to Christian uses in this church. l. 718, "_earth's reputed consummations_": that is to say, the n.o.blest works which the world at the time could produce. "The temple at Thebes was the consummate achievement of one age; of another, that of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans; of another, the Parthenon at Athens. All these were 'earth's reputed consummations.'" l. 719, "_razed a seal_": Thebes being despoiled like Rome, Athens rifled like Byzant, until St. Mark's at Venice having razed a seal (_i.e._ broken the seal, or, as it were, extracted the nails that fixed the most famous works in the world to their original site) lo! the glittering symbols of the all-purifying Trinity blazed above them: so the "horned and snouted G.o.d," the "cinerary pitcher," became part of the Christian edifice. l. 719, "_The All-trans.m.u.ting Triad blazed above_": that is, they were consecrated by reason of the new faith in the Trinity. The three persons of the Holy Trinity are represented in the mosaics of St. Mark's Church."[7] l. 750, _Treville_ or Treviglio: a town in Lombardy, fourteen miles south of Bergamo. l. 751, _Cartiglione_: is this a misprint for Castiglione? l.

788, _writhled_ == wrinkled. l. 794, _pauldron_: a defence of armour-plate over the shoulders. l. 909, _Gesi_ or Jesi: a city in the Italian province of Ancona. It was the birthplace of Frederick II. in 1194. l. 943, _Valsugan_: a town on the Brenta, on the road from Trent to Venice. l. 970 _Torriani_: a faction of Valsa.s.sina of Lombardy, contending with the _Visconti_ (l. 971): Otho Visconti, Archbishop of Milan (1262), founded the house of Visconti. The Torriani were democrats, the Visconti aristocrats. l. 1065, "_Trent upon Apulia_": _i.e._, Northern upon Southern Italy. l. 1071, _Cunizza_: called Palma throughout the poem (see p. 123). l. 1090, _Squarcialupo_: not historical.

BOOK VI.--Line 100, _jacinth_ == hyacinth in mineralogy; a name given to several kinds of stone--topaz, etc.; _lodestone_: magnetic oxide of iron.

l. 101, _flinders_: fragments (of shining metal). l. 142, _Cydippe_: an Athenian girl who met Acontius at a festival of Artemis. He wrote a promise of marriage from the girl to himself on an apple, and threw it at her feet. The girl read the words aloud, and the oracle told her father she would have to comply with the words she had read. l. 143, _Agathon_--evidently meant for Acontius in the above story. l. 184, _Dularete_: not historical. l. 323, "_brakes at balm-shed_": brake ferns at seed time--_i.e._, autumn. l. 387, _reate_ == a waterweed, as water crow-foot. l. 388, _gold-sparkling grail_: gravel gold-coloured. l. 417, _citrine_ == crystals: a yellow pellucid variety of quartz; "_fierce pyropus-stone_" == a carbuncle of fiery redness. l. 590, _King-bird_: "The Phnix travels (in an egg of myrrh) to Heliopolis to die." [S.] l. 614, "_an old fable_," etc. See Pindar's, "Fourth Pythian Ode." l. 630, _Hermit-bee_--a species of Apidae; some of the best known of this species are solitary in their habits. The Carpenter-bee (_Xylocopa_) excavates nests and cells in wood; the Mason-bee (_Osmia_ and _Megachill_) forms nests with particles of sand. l. 677-8, _"Henry of Egna," "Sofia," "Lady of the Rock," etc._: Sofia was the "youngest daughter of Eccelin the monk, widow of Henry of Egna, the 'Lady of the Rock,' or of the Trentine Pa.s.s"

(W. M. Rossetti). l. 698, _Campese_: a town on the Brenta, near Ba.s.sano.

l. 699, _Solagna_: a village in the province of Vicenza, in the Eastern Alps. l. 787, _Valley Ru_: in the valley of Enneberg or Gaderthal, on the Eastern Alps. l. 788, _San Zeno_: the basilica of St. Zeno, an early bishop of Verona. l. 792, _raunce_, or rance, a bar or rail. l. 799, _cushat's chirre_--the ringdove's coo. l. 802, _barrow_: a tomb. l. 803, _Alberic_: brother of Eccelin. He was tortured to death. l. 858, _Hesperian fruit_: of the Western land (Italy or Spain). The golden apples of the Hesperides probably were oranges. l. 894, "_rifle a musk pod and 'twill ache like yours_": a freshly-opened musk pod has a most powerful and pungent ammoniacal odour. Musk requires to be smelt in minute quant.i.ty. Sordello's story deals with political troubles and horrors of war, too powerful a dose for reading at one sitting.

="So, the head aches and the limbs are faint!"= (_Ferishtah's Fancies._) The sixth lyric begins with these words.

=Soul, The.= It "existed ages past" (_Cristina_); "is resting here an age"

(_Cristina_); "on its lone way" (_Cristina_ and _Rabbi ben Ezra_); "its nature is to seek durability" (_Red Cotton Night-cap Country_); "is independent of bodily pain" (_Red Cotton_); "is here to mate another soul"

(_Cristina_); "shall rise in its degree" (_Toccata of Galuppi's_); "it craves all" (_Cleon_); and "can never taste death" (_Paracelsus_). _La Saisiaz_ is _the_ poem for proof of its existence and immortality.

=Soul's Tragedy, A=: Act I. being what was called the poetry of Chiappino's life, and Act II. its prose (London, 1846). The incidents are not all historical; they are imagined to have occurred at Faenza, a city of Italy about twenty miles south-west of Ravenna, in the sixteenth century. Chiappino is a patriot--so far as words and fine sentiments go.

He is a good type of the men who in all popular movements seek their own interest while pretending to be concerned only for the welfare of the people. Having fomented popular feeling against the Provost of Faenza he has been sentenced to exile. He has, however, an influential friend, Luitolfo, who has volunteered to exert his good offices with the Provost, with whom he is on good terms, with the view of obtaining a pardon. The first Act opens with a dialogue between Eulalia and Chiappino in Luitolfo's house, concerning the cause of the latter's prolonged absence on his errand of friendly intercession. Luitolfo and Eulalia are betrothed lovers. Chiappino, while his friend is absent endeavouring to save him, is bragging of his humanitarian courage and daring, and depreciating his friend while making love to his betrothed. Eulalia listens, but begs for "justice to him that's now entreating, at his risk, perhaps, justice for you!" Chiappino hates Luitolfo for the favours he has done him, the fines he has paid for him, the intercession he has made; and so he endeavours to make himself important in the woman's eyes, to pose as the martyr of humanity, while he belittles her betrothed lover, and tries to prove that his acts of kindness were unimportant. While they discuss, a knocking is heard without; the door is opened, and Luitolfo rushes in with blood upon him. He declares he has killed the Provost, and the crowd are in pursuit of him. Chiappino offers his protection, and talks bravely as usual; forces Luitolfo to fly in his disguise while he remains with Eulalia and meets the angry pursuers. The populace enter, and Chiappino, without hesitation, declares it was he who killed the Provost: he knows the people will bless him as their saviour, so he takes the credit of Luitolfo's act of vengeance. Eulalia is anxious he should give the credit to Luitolfo, as the murder turns out to be popular; but Chiappino defers the explanation till the morrow. Act II. is in prose; the scene is laid a month after, in the market-place of Faenza: Luitolfo is mingling in disguise with the populace a.s.sembled outside the Provost's palace. A bystander tells him that Chiappino will be the new Provost: it is he who was the brave friend of the people; Luitolfo the coward, who ran away from them and their cause. Ravenna, he says, governs Faenza, as Rome governs Ravenna; and the Papal legate, Ogniben, has entered the town, saying satirically: "I have known three-and-twenty leaders of revolts!" He wishes to know what the revolters want. The soldiers came into Ravenna, bearing their wounded Provost (he had not been killed, as Luitolfo supposed). The Legate had come to arrange matters amicably. He will have no punishments for the insurrection. What he desires to know is, Do they wish to live without any government at all? or if not, do they wish their ruler to be murdered by the first citizen who conceives he has a grievance? Chiappino puts himself forward as spokesman, and declares he is in favour of a republic. "And you the administrator thereof?" asks the Legate. After a little fencing, Chiappino agrees to this; and so the crowd is waiting to see him invested with the provostship. He is to marry Luitolfo's love and succeed to his property. Luitolfo will not believe all this till he sees Eulalia and his quondam friend. Chiappino enters with Eulalia, making excuses for his _volte-face_ both in politics and love, and shows that he falls completely into the trap the clever and satirical ecclesiastic has set for the pretended patriot. After much cutting sarcasm at Chiappino's expense on the part of the brilliant legate, who evidently knows his man to the marrow, the waiting populace are informed that the provostship will be conferred on Chiappino as soon as the name of the person who attempted to kill the late Provost is given up. Luitolfo comes from his place in the crowd to own and justify his act, much to the confusion of the man who has claimed all the credit of the deed. The Legate orders Luitolfo to his house, and recommends the patriot to rusticate himself awhile. Then, demanding the keys of the Provost's palace, and advising profitable meditation to the people, he leaves them chuckling that he has known _four-and-twenty_ leaders of revolts. The character of the ecclesiastic Ogniben is one of the finest inventions of Mr. Browning.

NOTES.--Act I. _Scudi_: dollars. Act II.: _Brutus the Elder_: who conspired with Ca.s.sius against Julius Caesar. "_Dico vobis!_" I tell you!

"_St. Nepomucene of Prague_" == St. John Nepomucen of Prague (1383), martyr. He was an anchorite and an apostle. The Emperor Wenceslaus had him put to death because he refused to betray what the Empress had told him under the seal of confession. _Ravenna_: a very celebrated and very ancient city of North-east Italy. Its great historical importance began early in the fifth century, when Honorius transferred his court thither.

From 402 to 476 A.D. Ravenna was the chief residence of the Roman emperors. It was subject to papal rulers in the period of this story.

"_Cur fremuere gentes?_" (Psalm ii. 1): "Why do the heathen so furiously rage together?" _Pontificial Legate_: an amba.s.sador sent by the Pope to the court of a foreign prince or state. "_Western Lands_": The allusion is to the discovery of America and the treasures and curiosities brought by Columbus to Spain.

=Speculative.= (_Asolando_, 1889.) Could the inspirations and pure delights of the past return, and remain with some great souls who have learned the divine alchemy of turning to gold the pains and pleasures of earth's old life, it would be for them all that lower minds seek in a new life in what they call heaven; the real heaven being a state, and not a place. Love has inspired the poem.

=Spiritualism.= Browning's opinions on this subject are to be found in his poem _Mr. Sludge the Medium_.

=Spring Song.= The poem commencing

"Dance, yellows and whites and reds!"

was published under the t.i.tle of "Spring Song" in the _New Amphion_, 1886.

In 1887 it was published at the end of _Gerard de Lairesse_ in the "_Parleyings_" volume.

=Statue and the Bust, The.= The Riccardi Palace in Florence is the scene of the story told in this poem. A lady who has just been married to the head of the n.o.ble Riccardi house notices one who rides past her window with a "royal air." The bridesmaids whisper that it is the great Duke Ferdinand; who in his turn directs his glance at the bride the head of the house of Riccardi had that day brought home. As he looked at the woman and she at the man, her past was a sleep--her life that day only began. That night there was a feast in the house of the bride, and the Grand Duke was present. The lovers stood face to face a minute. In accordance with the courtly custom of the time, he was privileged to kiss the bride. Whether a word was spoken or not cannot be said. The husband, who stood by, however, saw or heard something which mortally offended him; and when, at night, he led his bride to her chamber, he told her calmly that the door which was then shut on her was closed till her body should be taken thence for burial. She could watch the world from the window, which faced the east, but could never more pa.s.s the door. The bride as calmly a.s.sented:

"Your window and its world suffice,"

she said. It would be easy, she thought, to fly to the Duke, who loved her: it would only be necessary to disguise herself as a page, and she would save her soul. She reflected, however, that next day her father was to bless her new condition; and she must tarry for a day, consoling herself with the reflection that she should certainly see the Duke ride past. And so she turned on her side, and went to sleep. That night the Duke resolved to ruin body and soul, if need might be, for the sake of this beautiful woman; and on the morrow he addressed the bridegroom, whose duties at court brought him into his presence, suggesting that he, with his wife, should visit him at his country seat at Petraja. The bridegroom quietly declined the invitation, giving as his reason that the state of his lady's health did not permit her to quit the palace, the wind from the Apennines being particularly dangerous for her. The Duke was foiled in his project; but promised himself it should not be long before he met the bride again, yet he must wait a night, for the envoy from France was to visit him. He too reflects that he shall see the lady as he rides past her palace. They saw each other, and each resolved that next day they would do more than glance at a distance; but next day and the next pa.s.sed, and as constantly was the project of union deferred; the weeks grew months, the years pa.s.sed by, till age crept on, and each perceived they had been dreaming. One day the lady had to confess that her beauty was fading: her hair was tinged with grey, her mouth was puckered, and she was haggard-cheeked; and as she beheld herself in her gla.s.s she bade her servants call a famous sculptor to fix the remains of her beauty, so that it should no more fade. Della Robbia must make her a face on her window waiting, as ever, to watch her lover pa.s.s in the square below. But long before the artist's work was finished, and the cornice in its place, the Duke had sighed over the escape of his own youth; and he too set John of Douay to make an equestrian statue of him, and to place it in the square he had crossed so often, so that men should admire him when he had gone to his tomb. The figure looks straight at one of the windows of the Riccardi Palace: the att.i.tude suggests love for the lady and contempt of her husband. In connection with all this the poet reflects on the condition of the spirits of these two awaiting the Last Judgment. Do they reflect on the greatness of the gift of life--how they had seen the proper object of their lives, and yet had missed it? "But," the poet hears us object, "their end was a crime, and delay was best." The test, however, of our use of life can be as well attained by a crime as a virtue. A game can be played without money: where a b.u.t.ton answers, it would be vain to use a sovereign. Whether we play with counters or coins, we must do our best to win:--

"If you choose to play!--is my principle, Let a man contend to the uttermost For his life's set prize, be it what it will."

These people as surely lost their counter as if it were lawful coin. This moral has been much disputed by Browning students. So far as society was concerned the lady and the Duke did well: so far as their own souls were concerned they undoubtedly did ill. The Duke would have been more manly and the woman truer to her human instincts if he and she had let love have its way. Both dwarfed and withered their souls by looking and longing and pining for what they had not courage to grasp. The sin in each case was as great in the sight of G.o.d. It was simply prudence and conventionality which restrained the lovers; and these things count for nothing with the poet-psychologist. But conventionality counts for a great deal in our conduct of life. It may have been "the crowning disaster to miss life" for the man and woman: if so, it was a sacrifice justly due to human society.

If every woman flew to the arms of the man whom she liked better than her own husband, and if every governor of a city felt himself at liberty to steal another man's wife merely to complete and perfect the circle of his own delights, society would soon be thrown back into barbarism. The sacrifice to conventionality and the self-restraint these persons practised may have atoned for much that was defective in their lives.

"_Pecca fort.i.ter_" (sin bravely), said Luther; but it would be difficult to defend the doctrine on any principle of ethics. Many readers have found difficulties in understanding this poem. One such wrote to an American paper to inquire: "(1) When, how, and where did it happen? Browning's divine vagueness lets one gather only that the lady's husband was a Riccardi. (2) Who was the lady? who the Duke? (3) The magnificent house where Florence lodges her Prefet is known to all Florentine ball-goers as the Palazzo Riccardi. It was bought by the Riccardi from the Medici in 1659. From none of its windows did the lady gaze at her more than royal lover. From what window, then, if from any? Are the statue and the bust still in their original positions?" These queries fell into the hands of Mr. Wise, who forwarded them to Mr. Browning, who sent the following answer:--"Jan. 8th, '87. DEAR MR. WISE,--I have seldom met with such a strange inability to understand what seems the plainest matter possible.

'Ball-goers' are probably not history readers; but any guide-book would confirm what is sufficiently stated in the poem. I will append a note or two, however. (1) 'This story the townsmen tell': 'when, how, and where'

const.i.tutes the subject of the poem. (2) The lady was the wife of Riccardi, and the Duke--Ferdinand, just as the poem says. (3) As it was built by and inhabited by the Medici till sold, long after, to the Riccardi, it was not from the Duke's palace, but a window in that of the Riccardi, that the lady gazed at her lover riding by. The statue is still in its place, looking at the window under which is 'now the empty shrine.'

Can anything be clearer? My 'vagueness' leaves _what_ to be 'gathered'

when all these things are put down in black and white? Oh, 'ball-goers'!--Yours very sincerely, ROBERT BROWNING." The Medicean palace in the Via Larga, now called the Via Cavour, is meant as the _duke's_ palace. See articles on this question in _Poet Lore_, vol. iii., pp. 284 and 648. It is an error to suppose that but one palace is referred to in the poem. The Piazza della Annunziata in Florence is the square referred to in the first verse. The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin was built in 1250, and adorned at the expense of Pietro de' Medici from the designs of Michelozzi. The loggia of the church forms the north side. On the east is the Foundling Hospital, _Spedale degli Innocenti_, dating from the year 1421. In the centre of the square is an equestrian statue of Ferdinand I., cast from cannon taken by the Knights of St.

Stephen from the Turks.

NOTES.--"_Great Duke Ferdinand_": Ferdinand I. was Grand Duke of Florence, an honour first conferred on Cosimo (dei Medici) I. by Pope Pius V., who conferred the patent and crown upon him in Rome. Ferdinand was a cardinal from the age of fourteen, but he had never taken holy orders. He was an amiable and capable ruler, and Tuscany flourished under his government.

He was thirty-eight years old when, in 1587, he succeeded his brother on the throne. _Riccardi_: a n.o.ble family of Florence. "The Palazzo Riccardi, a proud and stately residence, was begun in 1430 by Cosimo dei Medici. It remained in the possession of the family till 1659, when they sold it to Gabriele Riccardi; but towards the end of the last century it was bought by the Grand Duke, and is now employed as a species of Somerset House, partly for literary purposes and partly for government offices. It is a n.o.ble building, and is most imposing in appearance. The window-sills are by Michael Angelo" (see Murray's _Handbook to North Italy_). _Via Larga_: this was overshadowed by the Medici Palace, symbolical of the shadow cast by the crime of its owners in destroying the liberties of the city.

_Encolure_ (Fr.): the neck and shoulders of a horse. _Emprise_: undertaking, enterprise. "_Cosimo and his cursed son_": Cosimo dei Medici was called "the father of his country," his grandson was "Lorenzo the Magnificent." _Arno_: the river which flows through Florence. _Petraja_: a suburban residence near Florence. _Apennine_: the mountain range in the valley of which Florence is seated. "_Robbia's craft_," "_Robbia's cornice_": Della Robbia is the name of a family of great distinction in the art history of Florence. "Robbia's craft" would seem to be a term applied to the kind of work done, and does not refer to the artist himself, as the last famous Della Robbia (Girolamo) died in 1566. The work called Robbia ware was terra-cotta relief covered with enamel. _John of Douay_ (1524-1608), usually called Giovanni da Bologna: a celebrated sculptor of Italy. "_stamp of the very Guelph_": English money of our time, our royal family being Guelfs. "_de te fabula_": the fable is told concerning yourself.

=Strafford.= [THE STATESMAN AND THE HISTORICAL PERIOD OF THE POEM.] It is so important that the reader of the tragedy of _Strafford_ should start with a clear idea of the historical facts with which it deals, that I have included in my article the following extract from Professor Gardiner's Life of Strafford in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. For the benefit of such of my readers as may have forgotten the fact, I may state that, before the earldom was conferred on Strafford, he was Sir Thomas Wentworth:--"High-handed as Wentworth was by nature, his rule in Ireland made him more high-handed than ever. As yet he had never been consulted on English affairs, and it was only in February 1637 that Charles asked his opinion on a proposed interference in the affairs of the Continent. In reply, he a.s.sured Charles that it would be unwise to undertake even naval operations till he had secured absolute power at home. The opinion of the judges had given the King the right to levy ship-money; but, unless his Majesty had 'the like power declared to raise a land army, the crown'

seemed 'to stand upon one leg at home, to be considerable but by halves to foreign princes abroad.' The power so gained, indeed, must be shown to be beneficent by the maintenance of good government; but it ought to exist. A beneficent despotism supported by popular grat.i.tude was now Wentworth's ideal. In his own case Wentworth had cause to discover that Charles'

absolutism was marred by human imperfections. Charles gave ear to courtiers far too often, and frequently wanted to do them a good turn by promoting incompetent persons to Irish offices. To a request from Wentworth to strengthen the position of the deputy by raising him to an earldom he turned a deaf ear. Yet, to make Charles more absolute continued to be the dominant note of his policy; and, when the Scottish Puritans rebelled, he advocated the most decided measures of repression, and in February 1639 he offered the king 2000 as his contribution to the expenses of the coming war. He was, however, too clear-sighted to do otherwise than deprecate an invasion of Scotland before the English army was trained. In September 1639, after Charles' failure in the first Bishops' War, Wentworth arrived in England, to conduct in the Star Chamber a case in which the Irish chancellor was being prosecuted for resisting the deputy. From that moment he stepped into the place of Charles'

princ.i.p.al adviser. Ignorant of the extent to which opposition had developed in England during his absence, he recommended the calling of a parliament to support a renewal of the war, hoping that by the offer of a loan from the privy councillors, to which he himself contributed 20,000, he would place Charles above the necessity of submitting to the new parliament if it should prove restive. In January 1640 he was created Earl of Strafford, and in March he went to Ireland to hold a parliament, where the Catholic vote secured a grant of subsidies to be used against the Presbyterian Scots. An Irish army was to be levied to a.s.sist in the coming war. When, in April, Strafford returned to England, he found the Commons holding back from a grant of supply, and tried to enlist the peers on the side of resistance. On the other hand, he attempted to induce Charles to be content with a smaller grant than he had originally asked for. The Commons, however, insisted on peace with the Scots; and on May 9th, at the Privy Council, Strafford, though reluctantly, voted for a dissolution.

After this Strafford supported the harshest measures. He urged the King to invade Scotland; and, in meeting the objection that England might resist, he uttered the words which cost him dear: 'You have an army in Ireland'--the army which, in the regular course of affairs, was to have been employed to operate in the west of Scotland--'you may employ here to reduce this kingdom.' He tried to force the citizens of London to lend money. He supported a project for debasing the coinage, and for seizing bullion in the Tower, the property of foreign merchants. He also advocated the purchasing a loan from Spain by the offer of a future alliance. He was ultimately appointed to command the English army, but he was seized with illness, and the rout of Newburn made the position hopeless. In the great council at York he showed his hope that, if Charles maintained the defensive, the country would still rally round him; whilst he proposed, in order to secure Ireland, that the Scots of Ulster should be ruthlessly driven from their homes. When the Long Parliament met, it was preparing to impeach Strafford, when tidings reached its leaders that Strafford, now Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, had come to London, and had advised the King to take the initiative by accusing his chief opponents of treason. On this the impeachment was hurried on, and the Lords committed Strafford to the Tower. At his trial in Westminster Hall he stood on the ground that each charge against him, even if true, did not amount to treason; whilst Pym urged that, taken as a whole, they showed an intention to change the government, which in itself was treason. Undoubtedly the project of bringing over the Irish army--probably never seriously entertained--did the prisoner most damage; and, when the Lords showed reluctance to condemn him, the Commons dropped the impeachment, and brought in a bill of attainder. The Lords would probably have refused to pa.s.s it if they could have relied on Charles's a.s.surance to relegate Strafford to private life if the bill were rejected. Charles unwisely took part in projects for effecting Strafford's escape, and even for raising a military force to accomplish that end. The Lords took alarm and pa.s.sed the bill. On May 9th, 1641, the King, frightened by popular tumults, reluctantly signed a commission for the purpose of giving to it the royal a.s.sent, and on the 12th Strafford was executed on Tower Hill."

[THE TRAGEDY.] (Published 1837, and dedicated to William C. Macready.) _Strafford_, a tragedy in five acts (written for the stage at Macready's request), has for its plot the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford and his condemnation and execution. It tells the story of the faithful statesman who loved his sovereign, and sacrificed his life from an almost insane devotion to an utterly unworthy man. The tragedy deals with a period of English history which was richer than any other in the a.s.sertion of the rights of the people against the tyranny of their rulers. We are introduced to the band of patriots who secured for us the rights which are to-day the most precious heritage of every Englishman--the brave men who, like Hampden and Pym, resisted the system of forced loans, and the obnoxious tax called "ship-money." Strafford has been carrying fire and sword through Ireland, and Charles is proposing to persecute the Scotch with similar severity. Wentworth has answered the summons of the king, and has yielded to his request to undertake the Scotch war. He now begins to see how treacherous his sovereign is. Charles, by bribes and promises, has detached him from the people's cause only to use him as a catspaw, to bear the hatred and fury of the people in his stead. Pym tries to win back "the apostate" to the cause of liberty. They loved each other as David and Jonathan; and the efforts of Pym to touch the heart of his friend, and win him from his chivalrous devotion to Charles to his duty to his country, are finely described in the play. But neither duty, danger, nor the imminent approach of death itself, can divert for a single moment the n.o.bleman who is devoted body and soul to the wretchedest semblance of a "king by right divine" who ever secured such devoted service. Strafford, deaf alike to the calls of friendship and patriotism, serves one man only--Charles,--and leaves the patriots to fight for England as best they may. Lady Carlisle interposes her influence, warns Strafford of his danger, and begs him to secure his retreat while he may; but he is as little moved by the appeals of a woman's love as by those more powerful and legitimate motives which he has refused to entertain. Such blind devotion to an ideal founded on so insecure a base could have only ruin for its end. Strafford leads the army to the north, is ignominiously defeated, finds that Charles has treacherously listened to proposals of reconciliation with the Scotch, and that the patriots are in league with them; returns to London, and determines to impeach the patriots, but finds his move antic.i.p.ated. He is himself impeached, a bill of attainder against him is pa.s.sed, and he is arrested and imprisoned in the Tower. Charles, who had promised that Strafford should not suffer in life, liberty, or estate for his devotion to his cause, makes no effort to save him, though nothing could have been easier than to have done so; and actually, after a little show of hesitation, signs his death warrant at the request of Pym.

Pa.s.sionately and entirely devoted to Strafford, Lady Carlisle has conceived a plan by which, with the King's connivance, he may escape from the Tower. A boat has been brought to the river entrance of the fortress, and arrangements made for his escape to France; but Strafford refuses to run away from the country which demands his life, and will not let it be said to his children in after years that their father broke prison to save his head; and so, while he delays the acceptance of Lady Carlisle's a.s.sistance, he is led to execution. He sees that not he alone, but the master who has betrayed him, must incur the vengeance of the outraged people of England; and his last words addressed to Pym are to implore him (on his knees) to spare the King's life. He feels that nothing will move the stern patriot from his sense of duty, and thanks G.o.d that it is himself who dies first. He expresses no word of ill-feeling against Pym, and goes bravely to death, the victim of a misplaced affection almost without parallel in our history. _Strafford_ is a presentation of "naked souls," as Dr. J. Todhunter called it. "They are almost like Hugo's personages, monomaniacs of ideas--Strafford of loyalty to Charles; Lady Carlisle of loyalty to Strafford's infatuation; Pym of loyalty to an ideal England.... Browning has not left the King even a rag of conventional royalty to cover his nakedness. He has stript him with a vengeance." How far Browning's representation of the circ.u.mstances attendant on the impeachment and condemnation of Strafford is true to the actual facts must be left to the decision of the greatest authority on the history of the period--Professor Gardiner. In his introduction to Miss E. H. Hickey's _Strafford_, he says: "We may be sure that it was not by accident that Mr.

Browning, in writing this play, decisively abandoned all attempt to be historically accurate. Only here and there does anything in the course of the drama take place as it could have taken place at the actual court of Charles I. Not merely are there frequent minor inaccuracies, but the very roots of the situation are untrue to fact. The real Strafford was far from opposing the war with the Scots at the time when the Short Parliament was summoned. Pym never had such a friendship for Strafford as he is represented as having; and, to any one who knows anything of the habits of Charles, the idea of Pym or his friends entering into colloquies with Strafford, and even bursting unannounced into Charles's presence, is, from the historical point of view, simply ridiculous. So completely does the drama proceed irrespectively of historical truth, that the critic may dispense with the thankless task of pointing out discrepancies. He will be better employed in asking what ends those discrepancies were intended to serve, and whether the neglect of truth of fact has resulted in the highest truth of character.--For myself I can only say that, every time I read the play, I feel more certain that Mr. Browning has seized the real Strafford, the man of critical brain, of rapid decision, and tender heart, who strove for the good of his nation without sympathy for the generation in which he lived. Charles I., too, with his faults perhaps exaggerated, is the real Charles. Of Lady Carlisle we know too little to speak with anything like certainty; but, in spite of Mr. Browning's statement that his character of her is purely imaginary, there is a wonderful parallelism between the Lady Carlisle which history conjectures rather than describes.

There is the same tendency to fix the heart upon the truly great man, and to labour for him without the requital of human affection; though in the play no part is played by that vanity which seems to have been the main motive with the real personage." It has frequently been said that Browning, in this play, has closely followed the story as given in the _Life of Strafford_ by the late John Forster. The reason for this undoubted fact has recently been given to the world. In the _Pall Mall Gazette_, in the month of April 1890, Dr. F. J. Furnivall published the following letter, which a.s.serts the late poet's right to almost the whole of the _Life of Strafford_ that has. .h.i.therto gone under the name of the late John Forster, in the second volume of the _Lives of Eminent British Statesmen_ in Lardner's "Cabinet Cyclopaedia," pp. 178-411, with the Strafford Appendix, pp. 412-21: "This volume was published in 1836. John Forster wrote the life of Eliot, the first in the volume, and began that of Strafford. He then fell ill; and as he was anxious to produce the book in the time agreed on, Browning offered to finish _Strafford_ for him, on his handing over all the material he had acc.u.mulated for it. Forster was greatly relieved by Browning's kindness. The poet set to work, completed Strafford's life on his own lines, in accordance with his own conception of Strafford's character, but generously said nothing about it till after Forster's death. Then he told a few of his friends--me among them--of how he had helped Forster. On my telling Prof. Gardiner of this, I found that he knew it; and had been long convinced that the conception of Strafford in this Lardner _Life_ was not John Forster's, but was Robert Browning's.

The other day Prof. Gardiner urged me to make the fact of Browning's authorship public; and I do so now, though I have frequently mentioned it to friends in private; and at the Browning Society, when a member has said, 'It is curious how closely Browning has followed his authority, Forster's _Life of Strafford_,' I have answered, 'Yes, because he wrote it himself.' We thus understand why, when Macready asked Browning, on May 26th, 1836, to write him a play, the poet suggested Strafford as its subject; and why, the _Life_ being finished in 1836, the play was printed and played in 1837. The internal evidence will satisfy any intelligent reader that almost all the prose _Life_ is the poet's. It is not only little touches like these on pp. 182-3, describing James I., which reveal Browning,--'He was not an absolute fool, and little more can be said of him ... whenever an obvious or judicious truth seemed likely to fall in his way, _his pen infallibly waddled off from it_'; on p. 227, 'divers ill-spelt and solemn sillinesses from the King,' the reference to the 'Sordello' Ezzelin[8] on p. 229, etc.,--but it is the conception and working-out of the character of Strafford, '_that he was consistent to himself throughout_,' p. 228, etc., and that his one object was to make Charles 'the most absolute lord in Christendom,' and that this explains all apparent inconsistencies and vanities in his conduct. Let any one read the following last paragraph of the _Life_, and ask himself if it is not the poet's hand. Page 411: 'A great lesson is written in the life of this truly extraordinary person. In the career of Strafford is to be sought the justification of the world's "appeal from tyranny to G.o.d." In him Despotism had at length obtained an instrument with mind to comprehend, and resolution to act upon, her principles in their length and breadth; and enough of her purposes were effected by him to enable mankind to see "as from a tower the end of all." I cannot discern one false step in Strafford's public conduct, one glimpse of a recognition of an alien principle, one instance of a dereliction of the law of his being, which can come in to dispute the decisive result of the experiment, or explain away its failure. _The least vivid fancy will have no difficulty in taking up the interrupted design, and by wholly enfeebling, or materially emboldening, the insignificant nature of Charles, and by according some half-dozen years of immunity to the "fretted tenement" of Strafford's "fiery soul,"--contemplate then, for itself, the perfect realisation of the scheme of "making the prince the most absolute lord in Christendom."

That done,--let it pursue the same course with respect to Eliot's n.o.ble imaginings, or to young Vane's dreamy aspirings, and apply in like manner a fit machinery to the working out the project which made the dungeon of the one a holy place, and sustained the other in his self-imposed exile._ The result is great and decisive! It establishes, in renewed force, those principles of political conduct which have endured, and must continue to endure, "like truth from age to age."' Take again a couple of pa.s.sages of two and a half lines each on Strafford's illnesses, on page 369, and recollect that Browning owed much to Donne:--'The soul of the Earl of Strafford was indeed lodged, to use the expression of his favourite Donne, within a "low and fatal room" ... But even by the side of the body's weakness we find a witness of the spirit's triumph,--a vindication of the mightiness of will!' And on page 370--'Then, when every energy was to be taxed to the uttermost, the question of his fiery spirit's supremacy was indeed put to the issue, by a complication of ghastly diseases.' Are these and like pa.s.sages by John Forster? No! They are Robert Browning's Plenty of others have his mark, especially those pa.s.sages a.n.a.lysing and philosophising on character. I have appealed to Messrs. Smith & Elder to reprint this _Life of Strafford_, with an Introduction by Prof. Gardiner; but I suppose that there is no copyright in it, as it has always gone under John Forster's name. a.s.suredly all students of Browning should have this _Life_ on their shelves. I should say that Forster did not write more than the first four pages of it, and that Browning began with 'James I.

... came to this country in an ecstasy of infinite relief,' on page 182."

In this _Life of Strafford_ there is a striking pa.s.sage on the question of that statesman's "apostacy." "In one word, what it is desired to impress upon the reader, before the delineation of Wentworth in his after years, is this--_that he was consistent to himself throughout_. I have always considered that much good wrath is thrown away upon what is usually called 'apostacy.' In the majority of cases, if the circ.u.mstances are thoroughly examined, it will be found that there has been 'no such thing.' The position on which the acute Roman thought fit to base his whole theory of aesthetics--

"Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas, Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atram Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne, Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?" etc.

is of far wider application than to the exigencies of an art of poetry; and those who carry their researches into the moral nature of mankind cannot do better than impress upon their minds, at the outset, that in the regions they explore they are to expect no monsters--no essentially discordant termination to any 'Mulier formosa superne.' Infinitely and distinctly various as appear the shifting hues of our common nature when subjected to the prism of CIRc.u.mSTANCE, each ray into which it is broken is no less in itself a primitive colour, susceptible, indeed, of vast modification, but incapable of further division.[9] Indolence, however, in its delight for broad cla.s.sifications, finds its account in overlooking this; and among the results none is more conspicuous than the long list of apostates with which history furnishes us. It is very true, it may be admitted, that when we are informed by an old chronicler that 'at this time Ezzelin changed totally his disposition,'--or by a modern biographer that 'at such a period Tiberius first became a wicked prince,'--we examine too curiously if we consider such information as in reality regarding other than the act done and the popular inference recorded; beyond which it was no part of the writer to inquire.--Against all such conclusions I earnestly protest in the case of the remarkable personage whose ill-fated career we are now retracing. Let him be judged sternly, but in no unphilosophic spirit. In turning from the bright band of patriot brothers to the solitary Strafford--'a star which dwelt apart'--we have to contemplate no extinguished splendour, razed and blotted from the book of life. l.u.s.trous, indeed, as was the gathering of the lights in the political heaven of this great time, even that radiant cl.u.s.ter might have exulted in the accession of the 'comet beautiful and fierce,' which tarried a while within its limits ere it 'darted athwart with train of flame.' But it was governed by other laws than were owned by its golden a.s.sociates, and impelled by a contrary, yet no less irresistible force, than that which restrained them within their eternal orbits,--it left them, never to 'float into that azure heaven again.'"--John Forster's _Life of Strafford_, in the "Cabinet Cyclopaedia" (conducted by Dr.

Lardner), pp. 228-9.