Front matter (continued 14)

Book II.—Line 68, Jongleurs: minstrels who accompanied the troubadours, and who sometimes did a little jugglery. l. 71, Elys: “Elys, then, is merely the ideal subject, with such a name, of Eglamour’s poem, and referred to in other places as his (Sordello’s) type of perfection, realised according to his faculty (Ellys—the lily)”—Robert Browning. [S.] l. 156: “The rhymes ‘Her head that’s sharp ... sunblanched the livelong summer’ are referred to Book V., l. 246, ‘the vehicle that marred Elys so much,’ etc., and ‘his worst performance, the Goïto as his first.’ l. 980 of the same book.” [S.] l. 94, “spied a scarab”: one of the marks of Apis, the sacred bull of ancient Egypt. The marks were “a black coloured hide with a white triangular spot on the forehead, the hair arranged in the shape of an eagle on the back, and a knot under the tongue in the shape of a scarabæus, the sacred insect and emblem of Ptah, and a white spot resembling a lunar crescent at his right side” (Dr. S. Birch). l. 183, “A Roman bride”: “on the wedding day, which in early times was never fixed upon without consulting the auspices, the bride was dressed in a long white robe with purple fringe and a girdle at the waist; her veil was of a bright yellow, and shoes likewise; her hair was divided with the point of a spear, which the antiquarians explained as emblematic of the husband’s authority, or as typical of the guardianship of Juno Curitico (Juno with the lance).” “But while these rites are being performed, remain unwedded, ye damsels; let the torch of pinewood await auspicious days, and let not the curved spear part thy virgin ringlets” (Ovid, Fasti, ii. 160). [S.] l. 218, “Perseus”—rescuing Andromeda when chained to the rock in the sea. l. 222, “gnome”: the Rosicrucians imagined gnomes to be sprites presiding over mines, etc. l. 224, “Agate cup, his topaz rod, his seed pearl”: amongst the various superstitions connected with precious stones the agate was held to be an emblem of health and long life, and to possess certain medicinal uses. The topaz, said the old doctor, “is favourable to hæmorrhages, to impart strength, and promote digestion”; it was an emblem of fidelity. l. 307, “Massic jars dug up at Baiæ”: Massic wine was famous in old Roman days. Baiæ, an ancient town near Naples; in old Roman days a health and pleasure resort of the wealthy; innumerable relics of these times have been unearthed. “Mons Massicus was a vine-clad hill in the Campagna, where the Falernian wine was grown.” [S.] l. 297, “A plant they have”; The day-lily—St. Bruno’s lily—the Hemerocallis liliastrum, in French, belle de jour. l. 329, Vicenza: a city of Northern Italy of great antiquity; the first encounter between the Guelfs and Ghibellines took place here, about 1194. l. 330, Vivaresi: a Lombard family. l. 331, Maltraversi: a noble family of Padua. l. 435, Machine: see l. 1014. l. 460, “some huge throbbing stone”: “In one of Ossian’s poems a description is given of bards walking around a rocking stone, and by their singing making it move as an oracle of battle.” [S.] l. 483, truchman == an interpreter. l. 527, rondel, tenzon, virlai, or sirvent: forms of Provençal poetry. “Rondel, a thirteen-verse poem, in which the beginning is repeated in the third and fourth verses—from rotundus; tenzon, a contest in verse before a tribunal of love—from tendo, in the sense of to strive; virlai, or vireley, a short poem, always in short lines, and wholly in two rhymes, with a refrain—from virer; sirvent, a poem of praise or service, sometimes satirical; from servire.” (Imp. Dict.) [S.] l. 529, angelot: an instrument of music somewhat resembling a lute. l. 625, “sparkles off”: intransitive verb,—“his mail sparkles off and it rings, whirled from each delicatest limb it warps.” [S.] l. 627, “Apollo from the sudden corpse of Hyacinth”: Apollo was one day teaching Hyacinthus to play at quoits, and accidentally killed him. l. 630, Montfort: the father of Simon de Montfort, who fought against the Albigenses. l. 729, Vidal: Pierre Vidal, of Toulouse, a poet of varied inspiration, was loaded with gifts by the greatest nobles of his time (see Sismondi, Lit. Eur., vol. i., p. 135). Professor Sonnenschein says he was a Provençal troubadour, who died about 1210. He was a sort of caricature of the usual troubadour excellence and foolishness. Some of his poems are the best remaining of the Provençal poetry. He went twice to Palestine, once with a crusade. He was hated by Sordello, and referred to in some of his poems which are extant. l. 730, filamot: yellow-brown colour; from feuille-morte; murrey-coloured: of a dark-red or mulberry colour (morus, mulberry). l. 755, plectre, or plectrum: a staff of ivory, horn, etc., for playing with on a lyre. l. 784, “Bocafoli’s stark-naked psalms”: not merely plain song, but naked song. l. 785, Plara’s sonnets. Both personages are imaginary. l. 786, almug: “probably the red sandalwood of China and India” (Dr. W. Smith). l. 788, river-horse: the hippopotamus. l. 792, pompion-twine: pumpkin. l. 843, Pappacoda: a nickname. Tagliafer, or Taillefer: the favourite minstrel-knight of William of Normandy, who rode in front of the invading army at the battle of Senlac, and sang the song of Roland. l. 846, o’ertoise: overstretch? l. 877, Count Lori, or Loria of Naples. l. 883, “The Grey Paulician”: “Eccelino II. found the Paterini or Paulicians, a Manichæan sect, who were driven from the East by the Empress Theodora (who had a hundred thousand of them killed) and her successors. They were slowly forced westward, and at last settled in Italy, and in Languedoc, in the neighbourhood of Albi. They are credited with planting the first seeds of the Reformation in the Latin Church. Innocent III., alarmed at their doctrines and increasing numbers, opposed them, and instructed St. Dominic and St. Francis to preach against them. The result was the cruel crusade of 1206, which continued in the form of more or less spasmodic persecution for many years,—at least thirty.” [S.] l. 899, Romano: the birthplace of Ezzelino, near Bassano. Eccelino Romano was chief of the Ghibellines. l. 901, Azzo’s sister Beatrix: married Otho IV. l. 902, Richard’s Giglia: a Guelf lady. l. 929, Retrude: wife of Salinguerra. l. 948, Strojavacca: a troubadour? l. 986, “Cat’s head and Ibis’ tail”: “Egyptian symbols in mosaic on the porphyry floor.” [S.] l. 989, Soldan: Sultan. l. 1009, “Iris root the Tuscan grated over them”: orris-root. l. 1013, Carian group: the Caryatides—women dressed as at the feasts of Diana Caryatis. Carya was a town in Arcadia.

Book III.—Line 2, moonfern and trifoly: plants which have supposed magical and healing properties [S.]; moonfern, the same as moonwort—Rumex lunaria; mystic trifoly == trefoil; “Herb Trinity” was used by St. Patrick to teach the mystery of the Holy Trinity. l. 12, painted byssus: silky fibres of a mollusc which has sometimes been spun with silk. l. 14, Tyrrhene whelk: the celebrated Tyrian purple, formerly prepared from a shell fish at Tyre. l. 14, trireme: a galley or vessel with three benches of oars on a side. l. 15, satrap == the governor of a province (Persian). l. 87, “Marsh gone of a sudden”: when the lake appeared in its place. l. 88, “Mincio in its place laughed”: when the river occupied the place of the marsh. l. 121, Island house: “a villa outside Palermo called La Favara” [S.]; Nuocera: between Pompeii and Amalfi. It was called “de Pagani,” from a Saracenic colony of Frederick II., who was sometimes contemptuously called the Sultan of Nocera. Villani preserves the quaint words of the famous taunt which Charles of Anjou addressed to Manfred, before the bath of Benvinutum: “Alles e dit moi a li Sultan de Nocere hoggi metorai lui en enfers o il mettar moi en paradis.” [S.] l. 123, Palermitans: citizens of Palermo. l. 124, Messinese: citizens of Messina. l. 125, “dusk Saracenic clans Nuocera holds”: Frederick, who was afterwards the renowned Frederick II., Emperor of Germany, was crowned at Palermo, in Sicily, in 1198; during his minority the land was torn by turbulent nobles, and revolted Saracens; in 1220 the Emperor-King planted a colony of Saracens at Nocera on the mainland. l. 132, mollitious alcoves == soft alcoves. l. 133, Byzant domes: Byzantine architecture, in which the dome was a feature, developed about A.D. 300. l. 135, “August pleasant Dandolo”: “Enrico Dandolo, one of the patrician family of that name in Venice, was chosen doge in 1192, although already blind and seventy-two years old. After naval successes against the Pisans, he was applied to at the time of the fourth crusade to furnish vessels for transport to Constantinople. After making terms most advantageous to the Republic, he himself led the enterprise to success, and shared with the French in the pillage of the city, and very largely in booty and privileges accruing. The four horses of St. Mark’s Church were brought over to Venice by him.” [S.] l. 140, “Transport to Venice square”: St. Mark’s Church in Venice is adorned with precious columns brought from temples and buildings in all parts of the ancient world. l. 225, “The bulb dormant, etc.”: “It was the custom to bury the hyacinth bulb with mummies.” [S.] l. 85, The Carroch: “during the war of the Milanese with Conrad, the Salic archbishop, Eribert, invented the Carroccio, which was at once adopted by all the cities of Italy. He placed it at the head of the army, and it was an imitation of the ark of the covenant of the tribes of Israel. The carroccio was a four-wheeled car drawn by four yokes of oxen. It was painted red; the oxen were dressed in red clothes to their heels; a very high mast, also painted red, was in the midst; it terminated in a golden ball. Below, between two white veils, floated the standard of the commune, and below that again was a crucifix, with the Saviour extending His arms to bless the army. A sort of platform in the front of the car was devoted to some of the bravest soldiers appointed for its defence. Another platform in the rear was occupied by musicians and trumpeters. Mass was said upon the carroccio before it left the town, and there was frequently a special chaplain attached to it.” [S.] l. 312, “the candle’s at the gateway”: “compare with King Alfred’s measurement of time. It is still the custom at Bremen for property to be sold at an auction by the candle—that is, the bidding goes on till the candle goes out.” [S.] l. 314, Tiso Sampier: “Eccelin I. and Tissolin di Campo St. Pierre had been warm friends until, a difference occurring about a marriage portion, Eccelin proved treacherous and grasping, and a lasting feud arose between the two families.” [S.] l. 315, “Ferrara’s succoured Palma!” “The preceding passages in quotation marks are all in the Guelf spirit; this explanation is Ghibelline, say from Browning himself.” [S.] l. 386, Cesano: a city of Emilia, between Bologna and Ancona, Dante, in Inferno, canto xxvii., characterises Cesano as living midway between tyranny and freedom. l. 456, Fomalhaut: a star of the first magnitude, in the constellation Priscus Australis, one of the brightest visible in the midnight meridian of September. [S.] l. 476, Conrad: the Swabian (1138-52). l. 486, Saponian: Mr. Browning explained this puzzling term as referring to the Saponi, who were a branch of the Eccelini family, which settled in Lombardy before the time of Sordello. l. 496, Vincentines: the people of Vicenza. l. 514,

“The Biographie Universelle says: ‘Adelaide, Marchioness of Susa, was contemporary with Matilda the great Countess of Tuscany, and governed Piedmont with wisdom and firmness. She endeavoured more than once to make peace between the Emperor and Popes. She was married three times—to a Duke of Swabia, a Marquis of Montferrat, and a Count of Maurienna; and partly through her inheritance from the husbands, all of whom she survived, partly on account of her wise management, her fief Susa became the most important in Italy. Matilda, the great Countess of Tuscany, was one of the most famous characters of her age. Absolute ruler of the most powerful country in Italy, she defended Hildebrand, and adhered to the Pope against all enemies, proffers or threats. During her lifetime she transferred the greater part of her possessions by deed of gift to the papacy; and that deed was the foundation of Papal claims to many lands in Italy throughout the following centuries. She owned the Castle of Canozza, where the Pope took refuge from Henry IV., who had married Adelaide’s daughter; and it was to Canozza that that Emperor was obliged to resort, when later he sought the Pope’s forgiveness, and when he was left standing barefoot in the snow awaiting the Pope’s pleasure. Matilda conveyed her estates to the Pope in 1102, was made sovereign of all Italy in 1110, and died 1115.’ There appears to be no mention of any donative entrusted to the superb Matilda, either in the Biographie Universelle, or in Sismondi.” [S.] Line 501, “lion’s crine” == lion’s hair. l. 583, “like the alighted Planet Pollux wore.” Castor and Pollux were generally represented mounted on two white horses, armed with spears, and riding side by side with their heads covered with a bonnet, on the top of which glittered a star. The twins took part in the Argonautic expedition, and when a violent storm arose two flames of fire appeared, and were seen to play around their heads. Pollux was the son of Jupiter, whilst Castor was only his half-brother; but he obtained from Jupiter, for Castor, the gift of immortality, and a place with him amongst the constellations. St. Elmo’s fire, which frequently appears and plays about masts and yards of ships during storms, was called Castor and Pollux by Roman sailors” (Lemprière, Class. Dict.). l. 590,

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, Manlïus: 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, Bassanese, of Bassano, a noble town on the Brenta. l. 797, Basilic: the Basilica, St. Mark’s great Cathedral. l. 798, “God’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,

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, Platæa, 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 prong” 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 prong in shape. An Archbishop’s crozier or pastoral staff terminates in a cross at the top.

Book IV.—Line 24, quitch-grass == couch-grass or dog-grass; 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:

The Lombard League had built Alexandria to defy Barbarossa, who was twice unsuccessful in taking it. l. 89, Brenta: a river of North Italy, passing 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 Görz, 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 noble 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, Bassano: a city of Italy, in the province of Vicenza, on the Brenta. There is a church of St. Francis at Bassano. 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 Nomentanus: 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 nobles, 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 title 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 nobles 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 gods 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 assistance. 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, wranal: 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 principal rooms in Roman houses. l. 17, stibadium, a half-round reclining couch used by Romans near their baths. l. 18, lustral 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 glass 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 God, as Creator of the world. Mareotic: of the locality of Lake Mareotis, in Egypt. Mareotic wine was very famous; Cæcuban: Cæcubum, a town of Latium. Cæcubus 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 Crœsus, 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 passion) 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 passion 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 Ginguené 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 superstitions have accumulated. 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 Assisi, born 1182; one of the most beautiful characters who ever lived. All living creatures to him were his “brothers and sisters.” l. 205, “God’s truce”: “The Pax Ecclesiæ,” or “Treuga Dei”—a suspension of arms, putting a stop to private hostilities within certain periods. The treaty called the “Truce of God” 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, passing 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 noblest 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 god,” the “cinerary pitcher,” became part of the Christian edifice. l. 719, “The All-transmuting 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 Valsassina 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 Phœnix 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 Apidæ; 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 Pass” (W. M. Rossetti). l. 698, Campese: a town on the Brenta, near Bassano. l. 699, Solagna: a village in the province of Vicenza, in the Eastern Alps. l. 787, Valley Rù: 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 quantity. 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 assembled 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 Cassius against Julius Cæsar. “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 ambassador 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

was published under the title 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 noble 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 pass the door. The bride as calmly assented:

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 passed, and as constantly was the project of union deferred; the weeks grew months, the years passed 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 glass 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 pass 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 attitude 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 button answers, it would be vain to use a sovereign. Whether we play with counters or coins, we must do our best to win:—

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 God. 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 fortiter” (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 Préfet 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’ constitutes 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 noble 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 noble 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 Encyclopædia 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 assured 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 gratitude 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’ principal 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 assist 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 pass it if they could have relied on Charles’s assurance 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 passed 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 assent, 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 assertion 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 nobleman 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 anticipated. He is himself impeached, a bill of attainder against him is passed, 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. Passionately 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 assistance, 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 God 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 circumstances 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 asserts the late poet’s right to almost the whole of the Life of Strafford that has hitherto gone under the name of the late John Forster, in the second volume of the Lives of Eminent British Statesmen in Lardner’s “Cabinet Cyclopædia,” 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 accumulated 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 God.” 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 noble 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 passages 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 passages by John Forster? No! They are Robert Browning’s Plenty of others have his mark, especially those passages analysing 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. Assuredly 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 passage 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 circumstances 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 æsthetics—

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 supernè.’ Infinitely and distinctly various as appear the shifting hues of our common nature when subjected to the prism of CIRCUMSTANCE, 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 classifications, 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. Lustrous, indeed, as was the gathering of the lights in the political heaven of this great time, even that radiant cluster 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 associates, 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 Cyclopædia” (conducted by Dr. Lardner), pp. 228-9.

Notes.—Act I., Scene i. Pym, the great and learned champion of English liberty, was an intimate friend of Wentworth, and deeply felt his desertion of the popular cause. Sir Benjamin Rudyard was a prominent member of the Long Parliament. When the quarrel broke out between Charles and the Parliament, Rudyard quitted his parliamentary pursuits and joined Hampden and Pym’s party. He opposed the attainder of Strafford. He ultimately became anxious for a compromise between the King and the Commons; he acted, however, to the last with the patriots. Henry Vane, Sir, the younger, was a disciple of Pym, and was of considerable talents and equal fanaticism. He purloined from his father’s cabinet a very important document, which was used against Strafford on his trial. After the Restoration he was brought to trial and executed. Hampden, John, a gentleman of Buckinghamshire, quiet, courteous, and submissive; but with a correct judgment, an invincible spirit, and the most consummate address. In 1626 he was imprisoned for refusing to contribute towards the forced loan; he resisted the payment of ship-money. He threw himself heartily into the work of the Long Parliament, and commanded a troop in the parliamentary army. He was a great patriot and defender of the rights of the people. Denzil Hollis, Lord: “In 1629, when the Speaker refused to put to the vote Sir John Eliot’s remonstrance against the illegal levying of tonnage and poundage, and against Catholic and Arminian innovations, Hollis read the resolutions, and was one of two members who forcibly held the Speaker in the chair till they were passed. He was in consequence committed to the Tower. He was one of the ‘five members,’ as they were called, whom Charles accused of high treason in January 1642. He took no part in the proceedings against Strafford, who was his brother-in-law” (Imp. Dict. Biog.). The Bill of Rights: the third great charter of English liberties must not be confounded with “the Petition of Right.” “The Bill of Rights” was passed in the reign of William and Mary, in 1689. “much worn Cottington”: he was ambassador to Madrid. “maniac Laud”: Archbishop Laud was detested by the Puritans because he endeavoured to assimilate the doctrines and ritual of the Church of England to those of Rome. He was charged by Holles with high treason, and executed. Runnymead: the place where Magna Charta was signed. renegade: one faithless to principle or party; a deserter of a cause. Haman: see the Book of Esther. Haman resolved to extirpate the Jews out of the Persian empire, but Haman fell and Mordecai was advanced to his place. Ahitophel was a conspirator with Absalom against David, who prayed the Lord to turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness (2 Sam. xv. 31); whence the term “Ahitophel’s counsel.” League and Covenant: the “Solemn League and Covenant” was designed by the Scotch to carry out in their integrity the principles of the Reformation and to establish the Presbyterian in lieu of the Episcopal Church. Eliot: Sir John Eliot compared Buckingham to Sejanus in lust, rapacity and ambition, in the House of Commons, and seconded the motion for his impeachment. Eliot was sent to the Tower. “The Philistine”: the giant slain by David. “Exalting Dagon where the ark should be” (1 Sam. v.). Dagon was an idol, half man and half fish. He was worshipped by the Philistines. When they captured the “ark” from the Jews, it was placed in his temple, the idol fell, and the palms of his hands were broken off. scourge and gag: instruments of torture well understood in those days. “The Midianite drove Israel into dens” (Judges vi. 2): the Israelites for their sins were oppressed by Midian, and were compelled to hide from them in dens and caves of the mountains. Gideon: the Israelites prayed to God for deliverance from their enemies, and an angel sent Gideon, who destroyed Baal’s altar and delivered Israel (Judges vi.). Loudon: Scottish lord and covenanter; committed to the Tower for soliciting the aid of the king of France: he was sent to Scotland by Charles. Hamilton, Marquess of: sent by Charles to Scotland as commissioner to suppress the Covenant, he dared not land; was suspected of treason, and fled; was restored to the King’s favour, and became a leader of the royalists; was defeated by the parliamentary troops; fined £100,000, and executed. Joab: David, when dying, gave charge to Solomon to put his enemy Joab to death, which was done (1 Kings ii. 28-34). “No Feltons”: J. Felton assassinated Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and was executed. Gracchus: Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, the celebrated Roman tribunes, were after their death worshipped as gods, and their mother esteemed herself the happiest of Roman matrons in having given birth to such illustrious sons. The Petition of Right, the second great charter of English liberties, was directed against those grievances which Wentworth thus described in his speech in the third parliament: “the raising of money by loans, strengthened by commission, with unheard-of instruction; the billeting of soldiers by the lieutenants.... Our persons have been injured both by imprisonment without law (the King exercised an absolute right to imprison any one without legal proceedings), and by being designed to some office, charge, and employment, foreign or domestic, as a brand of infamy and mark of disgrace” (Prof. Gardiner). Aceldama: “a field said to have lain south of Jerusalem, purchased with the bribe which Judas took for betraying his Master, and therefore called the field of blood;—sometimes used in figurative sense” (Webster’s Dict.). Nathaniel Fiennes was the second son of William Fiennes; he was a lawyer, and in 1640 sat in the House of Commons for Banbury. He was a rigid Presbyterian, and a member of nearly all Cromwell’s parliaments. Ship money: “An imposition formerly charged on the ports, towns, cities, boroughs and counties of England, for providing and furnishing certain ships for the king’s service. The attempt made by Charles I. to revive and enforce this imposition was resisted by John Hampden, and was one of the causes which led to the death of Charles. It was finally abolished” (Webster’s Dict.). “Wentworth’s influence in the North”: Wentworth represented Yorkshire in parliament, and had great influence in the north of England.—Scene ii. “Old Vane” was secretary of state and comptroller of the household under Charles I. Savill: George Savill, Marquis of Halifax (?). Holland, Earl of: raised forces against the parliament after espousing its cause against Charles; he was tried after the King’s death and executed. “Lady Carlisle was the daughter of the ninth Earl of Northumberland. In 1639 she had been for three years a widow. Her husband was James, Lord Hay, created successively Viscount Doncaster and Earl of Carlisle” (from Miss Hickey’s Strafford). Weston, Sir Richard, Chancellor of the Exchequer, made Earl of Portland; denounced by Sir J. Eliot as an enemy of the Commonwealth. “This frightful Scots affair”: Professor Gardiner shows that Strafford opposed peace with the Scots, supported the harshest measures, and urged the King to invade Scotland (Encyc. Brit., vol xxii., p. 586). “In this Ezekiel chamber”: in the eighth chapter of Ezekiel the prophet has a vision of the chambers of imagery where he saw “wicked abominations.” “The Faction,” a party acting in opposition to the constituted authority.—Act II., Scene i. “Subsidies,” says Blackstone, were taxes, not immediately on property, but on persons in respect of their reputed estates, after the nominal rate of 4s. in the pound for lands and 2s. 8d. for goods. cockatrice: “The basilisk; a fabulous serpent, said to be produced from a cock’s egg brooded by a serpent. Its breath, and even its look, is fabled to be fatal” (Webster’s Dict.). Star Chamber: “The origin of this court is derived from the most remote antiquity. Its title was derived from the Camera Stellata or Star Chamber, an apartment in the king’s palace at Westminster, in which it held its sittings; it exercised an illegal control over the ordinary courts of justice, and in the reign of Charles I. became very tyrannical and offensive as a means of asserting the royal prerogative. It was abolished by the Long Parliament” (Student’s Hume, p. 358).—Scene ii. The George: a figure of St. George on horseback, worn by knights of the Garter. A masque, a species of dramatic entertainment. Fletcher and Ben Jonson wrote many masques which were acted at Court. The most beautiful work of this kind is the Comus of Milton. Act III., Scene i.—The new Parliament: “The Long Parliament,” which met Nov. 3rd, 1640; it voted the House of Lords as useless. The Great Duke: Buckingham.—Scene ii. Windebank, one of the secretaries of state, was impeached by the Commons for treason, and escaped to France. “sly, pitiful intriguing with the Scots”: “Charles, in his eagerness to conclude the negotiation, was induced to concede many points which he would otherwise have refused” (Lingard, Hist. Eng., vol. vii., p. 232). “The Crew and the Cabal”: the “crew” was a number of people associated together; the “cabal” a number of persons united to promote their private views in church or state by intrigue. What is usually understood by the “cabal” was a name given to a ministry under Charles II., the initial letters of the names of its members forming the word cabal. Mainwaring, Dr., a clergyman who preached in favour of the general loan. He was impeached by the Commons. Goring, Colonel: he was Governor of Portsmouth, was an officer of distinguished merit, and devoted to the King.—Scene iii., rufflers, bullies, swaggerers. “Are we in Geneva?”: Calvin’s city, where all sorts of puritanical restrictions were enforced against harmless amusements as well as breaches of morality. St. John, Oliver: St. John was Solicitor-General; he was one of the leaders of the Independents. stockishness, hardness, stupidity, blockishness (rare). Maxwell, Usher of the Black Rod. He received Strafford as his prisoner, after his impeachment, and required him to deliver his sword.—Act IV., Scene i. Hollis: Strafford was his brother-in-law, and so he took no part in the proceedings against him. “A blind moth-eaten law”: Strafford said on his trial that “it was two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this crime.”—Scene ii. “Prophet’s rod”: “Moses took the rod of God in his hand” (Exod. iv. 20). Haselrig, Sir Arthur: was one of the five members of the House of Commons whom Charles tried to impeach. Laud, Archbishop: had been impeached by Sir Harry Vane, and was a prisoner in the Tower. Bill of attainder: The Student’s Hume says (p. 399): “The student should bear in mind the difference between an Impeachment and a Bill of Attainder. In an impeachment the Commons are the accusers, and the Lords alone the judges. In a bill of attainder the Commons are the judges as well as the Lords; it may be introduced in either House; it passes through the same stages as any other bill; and when agreed to by both Houses it receives the assent of the Crown.”—Act V., Scene ii. “O bell’ andare”: “The Italian boat-song is from Redi’s Bacco, long since naturalised in the joyous and delicate version of Leigh Hunt” (R. B.) Term, or Terminus: the Roman god of bounds, under whose protection were the stones which marked boundaries. Genius: the Italian peoples regarded the Genius as a higher power which creates and maintains life, assists at the begetting and birth of every individual man, determines his character, tries to influence his destiny for good, accompanies him through life as his tutelary spirit, and lives on in the Lares after his death. (Seyffert’s Dict. Class. Ant.) “Garrard—my newsman”: was a clergyman who, when Wentworth went to Ireland as Lord Deputy, in 1633, was instructed to furnish him with news and gossip. (Miss Hickey.) Tribune: in ancient Rome, a magistrate chosen by the people to protect them from the oppression of the patricians or nobles. Sejanus, Ælius: distinguished himself at the court of Tiberius, who made a confidant of this fawning favourite, who made himself the darling of the senate, and the army. He was commander of the prætorian guards, and used every artifice to make himself important. He became practically head of the empire. He ridiculed the Emperor by introducing him on the stage; Tiberius then ordered him to be accused before the senate; he was subsequently imprisoned and strangled, A.D. 31. Richelieu, Cardinal: fomented the first commotions in Scotland, and secretly supplied the Covenanters with money and arms. He was prime minister to Louis XIII. of France. “A mask at Theobald’s”: Theobald’s, in Hertfordshire, was a beautiful house, inherited by Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, from his father, William Cecil, Lord Burleigh. King James liked this house so much that, in 1607, he offered Robert Cecil the Queen’s dower-house at Hatfield in exchange for it. Several of Ben Jonson’s masques were written for performance at Theobald’s. (Prof. Morley.) Prynne: William Prynne was a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, of a morose and gloomy disposition, and a thorough-going Puritan; he particularly hated theatres, dancing, hunting, card playing, and Christmas festivities. He wrote a great book against all these things, which he called Histrio-Mastix. He was indicted as a libeller of the Queen, condemned to stand in the pillory, to lose both his ears, to pay £5000 fine to the King, and to be imprisoned for life. “Strafford shall take no hurt”: Charles had said to Strafford, “Upon the word of a king you shall not suffer in life, honour, or fortune.” “Put not your trust in princes”: Psalm cxlvi. 3. Wandesford: Sir Christopher Wandesford was Master of the Rolls, and Privy Councillor in Ireland, and had been deputy there during Strafford’s absence. He was an intimate friend of Strafford’s, and is said to have died of grief at hearing of Strafford’s arrest. (Miss Hickey’s Strafford.) Radcliffe, Sir George: was appointed by Strafford guardian of his children; he was charged by Pym with treason. Balfour: Lieutenant of the Tower. “Too late for sermon at St. Antholin’s”: the Government had appropriated the Church of St. Antholin to the use of the Scotch commission. (Miss Hickey.) Billingsley: Balfour was desired by the King to admit Captain Billingsley and one hundred men to the Tower to effect Strafford’s escape. (Miss Hickey’s notes.) “I fought her to the utterance”: the last or utmost extremity—the same as Fr. à outrance. “David not more Jonathan”: were inseparable friends. The allusion is to David the psalmist and Jonathan the son of Saul. David’s lamentation at the death of Jonathan was never surpassed in pathos and beauty. (2 Sam. i. 19-27.) “His dream—of a perfect church.” Laud wished to make the Church of England “Catholic”; he endeavoured to assimilate its doctrines and ceremonies to those of the Catholic Church, ignoring the fact that “the Tudor settlement” was Protestant. Laud desired to appropriate all that to him appeared valuable in the Roman Catholic system, and to reject all that to him seemed objectionable. His “perfect church” was, as Browning puts it, “a dream.”

Summum Bonum. (Asolando, 1889.) A Latin phrase meaning the chief or ultimate good. “In ethics it was a phrase employed by ancient philosophers to denote that end in the following and attainment of which the progress, perfection and happiness of human beings consist. Cicero treated of the subject very fully in his De Finibus.” (Encyc. Dict.) Concentration is the key-note of the poem: in the honey-bag of one bee there is the breath and bloom of a year; in a single gem is represented all the chemistry of nature, from the condensation of the gases which went to form the earth; in the beauty of a single pearl is all the wonder of the sea, just as in a lump of coal are the imprisoned sun-rays of prehistoric forests. But truth and trust are brighter and purer than gems and pearls; in the love of a young girl Mr. Browning sees the concentration of the brightest truth and purest trust in the universe, so holy a thing to him is love. The Summum Bonum of St. Augustine is, of course, the true, ultimate good of man—the Love of God—of which the love of the purest of mankind is but a dim reflection.

Sun, The. (Ferishtah’s Fancies, 5.) Some one told one of Ferishtah’s pupils that it had been reported that “God once assumed on earth a human shape,” and he desired to know how the strange idea arose. Ferishtah replied that in days of ignorance men took the sun for God. “Let it be considered as the symbol of the Supreme,” said the Dervish. “There must be such an Author of life and light somewhere: let us suppose the sun to be that Author. This ball of fire gives us all we enjoy on earth, and so inspires us with love and praise. If we eat a fig we praise the planter; and so on up to the sun, which gathers to himself all love and praise. The sun is fire, and more beside. Does the force know that it gives us what it does? Must our love go forth to fire? If we must thank it, there must be purpose with the power—a humanity like our own. Power has no need of will or purpose; and no occasion for beneficence when all that is, so is and so must be. As these qualities imply imperfection, let us ‘eject the man, retain the orb,’ and then ‘what remains to love and praise?’ We cannot be expected to thank insentient things. No! man’s soul can only be moved by what is kindred soul: man’s way it receives good; man’s way it must make acknowledgment. If man were an angel, his love and praise, right and fit enough now, would go forth idly. Man’s part is to send love forth, even if it go astray.” “But,” says the objector, “man is bound by man’s conditions, can only judge as good and right what his faculty adjudges such: how can we then accept in this one case falsehood for truth? We lack an union of fire with flesh; but lacking is not gaining: is there any trace of such an union recorded?” Ferishtah replies, “Perhaps there may be; perhaps the greatly yearned-for once befell; perhaps the sun was flesh once.” The pupil demands “An union inconceivable once was fact?” The Dervish replies, “There is something pervading the sun which it does not consume: is it not fitter to stand appalled before a conception unattainable by man’s intelligence?” Firdausí, in the Sháh Námeh, records that Húsheng was the first who brought out fire from stone; and from that circumstance he founded the religion of the fire-worshippers, calling the flame which was produced the light of the Divinity. Húsheng was the second king of the Peshadian dynasty; from his time the fire faith seems to have slept till the appearance of Zerdusht, in the reign of Gushtasp, many centuries afterwards, when Isfendiyár propagated it by the sword. After Húsheng had discovered fire by hurling a stone against a rock, thereby producing a spark, which set light to the herbage, he made an immense fire, and gave a royal entertainment, calling it the Feast of Siddeh. The lyric explains that the divine element of fire is enshrined in the earthly flint when the spark escapes; the relationship is difficult to remember. So God was once incarnate in the form of man; and this some find it as hard to believe.

Tab. (Ned Bratts.) Tabitha Bratts, who was converted by John Bunyan, and who went with her husband to the Chief Justice at the assizes, asking to be hanged, and whose request was favourably entertained.

Tale, A. The Epilogue to the Two Poets of Croisic is included in the second series of Selections under this title.

Taurello Salinguerra. (Sordello.) His name, says Mr. W. M. Rossetti, may be translated as “Bullock Sally-in-war,” or “Dash-into-fight.” He belonged to the family of the Torelli, one of the two leading families of Ferrara. He married Sofia, a daughter of Eccelin the Monk, and he became the ruler of his native city. He was the right-hand man of Eccelin, and also of his son. The great authority on this character is Muratori (Annali d’ Italia, compilati da Lodovico Antonio Muratori). Mr. W. M. Rossetti read a paper to the Browning Society in November 1889 on “Taurello Salinguerra,” and I am indebted to this valuable essay for the following dates and particulars concerning this interesting character. He was born about the year 1160. In 1200, when he was head of the Ghibelline faction in Ferrara, he suddenly assailed the town of Argenta with the Ferrarese army, and having taken it, sacked it. In 1205 the head of the Guelf faction, both in Ferrara and the March of Verona, was Azzo VI., Marquis of Este. Naturally they quarrelled, and Azzo took the castle of La Fratta from Salinguerra and dismantled it. This was the beginning of the many dissensions between them. In 1207 Azzo VI. was compelled by Eccelino da Onara and others to retire from Verona. Then it was that Salinguerra, head of the Ghibellines in Ferrara, declaring himself the intimate friend of Eccelino, expelled from that city all the adherents of Marquis Azzo; and, leaving no room for him, began to act as Lord of Ferrara. In 1208 Marquis Azzo VI. re-established himself in Verona. Reaching Ferrara with an army, he expelled Salinguerra. In 1209 Salinguerra re-entered Ferrara, stripped Azzo VI. of Este of its dominion, and sent his partisans into exile. In 1210, the Emperor Otho IV. professing that the March of Ancona belonged to the empire, Azzo obtained the investiture of it from the Emperor. Probably at this time peace was re-established between Azzo VI. and Salinguerra, the competitors for the lordship of Ferrara. In 1213 Aldrovandino, Marquis of Este and Ancona, succeeded his father Azzo VI. and continued to hold, along with Count Richard of San Bonifazio, the dominion of Verona, where he was created Podestà in this year. He had contests with Salinguerra in Ferrara. In 1215 Aldrovandino, Marquis of Este, died, and was succeeded by Azzo VII., a minor. In 1221 Azzo VII. and his adherents assailed Salinguerra at Ferrara, and forced him to abandon the city, and consigned the palace of Salinguerra to the flames. After mediation, the expelled men returned to their homes. In 1222 the Ghibelline cause prevailed at Ferrara: Azzo and the Guelfs had to leave the city. He collected an army at Rovigo, and returned to Ferrara. Salinguerra, a crafty fox, made peace, for fear the people should turn against him. The peace was only a trap, however, by which to catch Azzo. In 1224 Azzo VII. returned to lay siege to Ferrara. The astute Salinguerra sent embassies to Count Richard of San Bonifazio, to induce him, with a number of horsemen, to enter Ferrara under pretext of concluding a friendly pact. But on entering he was at once made prisoner, with all his company; and therefore the Marquis of Este, disappointed, retired from the siege. Enraged at this result, Marquis Azzo proceeded to the siege of the castle of La Fratta, a favourite stronghold of Salinguerra, and starved it into submission. Salinguerra complained of this to Eccelino da Romana, his brother-in-law, and they both studied more assiduously than ever how best to crush the Guelfs, of which the Marquis of Este was chief. In 1225 the Lombard League procured the release of Count Richard, who returned to Verona; but he was expelled, when he took refuge in Mantua. He ultimately returned to Verona. In 1227 Eccelino the younger was established in Verona, and Count Richard again expelled. In 1228 Eccelino da Onara, father of Eccelino da Romana and of Alberic, had become a monk, and led the life of a hypocrite, finally showing himself to be a Paterine heretic. In 1230 Verona was in trouble: the Ghibellines raised a riot and imprisoned Count Richard; Salinguerra was made Podestà. In 1240 Pope Gregory IX. incited the Lombards and the Marquis of Este to besiege Ferrara. The Doge of Venice attended in person; the Mantuans concurred, as also did Alberico da Romana. After some months peace was proposed, and Salinguerra came to the camp of the confederates to ratify them. Salinguerra was entrapped, and was transferred as a prisoner to Venice; where, treated courteously, he ended his days in holy peace; and the House of Este, after so many years, re-entered Ferrara.