MEN AND WOMEN

By Robert Browning



CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
"TRANSCENDENTALISM: A POEM IN TWELVE BOOKS"
HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY
ARTEMIS PROLOGIZES
AN EPISTLE CONTAINING THE STRANGE MEDICAL EXPERIENCE OF KARSHISH, THE ARAB PHYSICIAN
JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION
PICTOR IGNOTUS
FRA LIPPO LIPPI
ANDREA DEL SARTO
THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB AT SAINT PRAXED'S CHURCH
BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY
CLEON
RUDEL TO THE LADY OF TRIPOLI
ONE WORD MORE






SELECTIONS FROM THE POEMS AND PLAYS

Edited By Myra Reynolds

CONTENTS

Introduction PAGE
    I. The Life of Browning 7
   II. The Poetry of Browning 31
 
Bibliography 57
 
Chronological Table 60
 
Selections from Browning
   (The figures in parentheses refer to the pages of the Notes.)
   Songs from Paracelsus (389) 65
   Cavalier Tunes (391) 69
   The Lost Leader (391) 72
   "How They Brought the Good News" (392) 73
   The Flower's Name (393) 76
   Meeting at Night (393) 78
   Parting at Morning (393) 78
   Evelyn Hope (393) 78
   Love Among the Ruins (394) 81
   Up at a Villa—Down in the City (394) 84
   A Toccata of Galuppi's (395) 88
   Old Pictures in Florence (396) 91
   "De Gustibus—" (399) 101
   Home-Thoughts, from Abroad (399) 103
   Home-Thoughts, from the Sea (400) 104
   Saul (400) 105
   My Star (402) 126
   Two in the Campagna (403) 126
   In Three Days (403) 129
   The Guardian-Angel (403) 130
   Memorabilia (404) 132
   Incident of the French Camp (404) 133
   My Last Duchess (404) 135
   The Boy and the Angel (404) 137
   The Pied Piper of Hamelin (404) 141
   The Flight of the Duchess (405) 152
   A Grammarian's Funeral (406) 183
   "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" (407) 189
   How It Strikes a Contemporary (409) 196
   Fra Lippo Lippi (409) 200
   Andrea Del Sarto (413) 213
   The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church (414) 222
   Cleon (416) 227
   One Word More (417) 239
   Abt Vogler (419) 247
   Rabbi Ben Ezra (422) 253
   Caliban Upon Setebos (423) 260
   May and Death (425) 271
   Prospice (425) 272
   A Face (425) 273
   O Lyric Love (425) 274
   Prologue to Pacchiarotto (425) 275
   House (426) 276
   Shop (426) 278
   Hervé Riel (426) 282
   Good to Forgive (427) 289
   "Such a Starved Bank of Moss" (427) 290
   Epilogue to the Two Poets of Croisic (427) 290
   Pheidippides (427) 295
   Muléykeh (428) 302
   Wanting Is—What? (428) 309
   Never the Time and the Place (428) 310
   The Patriot (429) 311
   Instans Tyrannus (429) 312
   The Italian in England (430) 315
   "Round Us the Wild Creatures" (431) 321
   Prologue to Asolando (431) 321
   Summum Bonum (431) 323
   Epilogue to Asolando (431) 324
   Pippa Passes (431) 325
 
Notes 389






THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN AND OTHER POEMS

By Robert Browning

CONTENTS

  PAGE
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 11
Hervé Riel 24
Cavalier Tunes 31
How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix 34
Through the Metidja to Abd-el-kadr 37
Incident of the French Camp 39
Clive 41
Muléykeh 59
Tray 68
A Tale 70
Gold Hair 75
Donald 82
The Glove 90

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  PAGE
The Pied Piper of Hamelin Frontispiece
“‘Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle Aurore’” 30
“I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three” 34
“A rider bound on bound full galloping, nor bridle drew until he reached the mound” 39
“Hair, such a wonder of flix and floss” 75
“And full in the face of its owner flung the glove” 95






THE COMPLETE POETIC AND DRAMATIC WORKS

Of Robert Browning

Cambridge Edition



TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ix
PAULINE: A FRAGMENT OF A CONFESSION 1
Sonnet: "Eyes, calm beside thee, (Lady, couldst thou know!)" 11
PARACELSUS.
I. Paracelsus aspires 12
II. Paracelsus attains 19
III. Paracelsus 25
IV. Paracelsus aspires 34
V. Paracelsus attains 40
STRAFFORD: A TRAGEDY 49
SORDELLO 74
PIPPA PASSES: A DRAMA 128
KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES: A TRAGEDY 145
DRAMATIC LYRICS.
Cavalier Tunes.
I. Marching Along 163
II. Give a Rouse 163
III. Boot and Saddle 163
The Lost Leader 164
"How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" 164
Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kadr 165
Nationality in Drinks 166
Garden Fancies.
I. The Flower's Name 166
II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis 167
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister 167
The Laboratory 168
The Confessional 169
Cristina 169
The Lost Mistress 170
Earth's Immortalities 170
Meeting at Night 170
Parting at Morning 170
Song: "Nay but you, who do not love her" 170
A Woman's Last Word 171
Evelyn Hope 171
Love among the Ruins 171
A Lovers' Quarrel 172
Up at a Villa—Down in the City 174
A Toccata of Galuppi's 175
Old Pictures in Florence 176
"De Gustibus—" 178
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad 179
Home-Thoughts, from the Sea 179
Saul 179
My Star 184
By the Fireside 185
Any Wife to Any Husband 187
Two in the Campagna 189
Misconceptions 189
A Serenade at the Villa 189
One Way of Love 190
Another Way of Love 190
A Pretty Woman 190
Respectability 191
Love in a Life 191
Life in a Love 191
In Three Days 192
In a Year 192
Women and Roses 193
Before 193
After 194
The Guardian-Angel 194
Memorabilia 195
Popularity 195
Master Hughes of Saxe-Gotha 195
THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 197
A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON 216
COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY 230
DRAMATIC ROMANCES.
Incident of the French Camp 251
The Patriot 251
My Last Duchess 252
Count Gismond 252
The Boy and the Angel 253
Instans Tyrannus 254
Mesmerism 255
The Glove 256
Time's Revenges 258
The Italian in England 258
The Englishman in Italy 260
In a Gondola 262
Waring 264
The Twins 266
A Light Woman 267
The Last Ride Together 267
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 268
The Flight of the Duchess 271
A Grammarian's Funeral 279
The Heretic's Tragedy 280
Holy-Cross Day 281
Protus 283
The Statue and the Bust 283
Porphyria's Lover 286
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" 287
A SOUL'S TRAGEDY 289
LURIA 299
CHRISTMAS-EVE AND EASTER-DAY.
Christmas-Eve 316
Easter-Day 327
MEN AND WOMEN.
"Transcendentalism: A Poem in Twelve Books" 335
How It Strikes a Contemporary 336
Artemis Prologizes 337
An Epistle, containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the
  Arab Physician
338
Johannes Agricola in Meditation 341
Pictor Ignotus 341
Fra Lippo Lippi 342
Andrea del Sarto 346
The Bishop orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church 348
Bishop Blougram's Apology 349
Cleon 358
Rudel To the Lady of Tripoli 361
One Word More 361
IN A BALCONY 364
Ben Karshook's Wisdom 372
DRAMATIS PERSONÃ?.
James Lee's Wife.
I. James Lee's Wife speaks at the Window 373
II. By the Fireside 373
III. In the Doorway 373
IV. Along the Beach 374
V. On the Cliff 374
VI. Reading a Book, under the Cliff 374
VII. Among the Rocks 375
VIII. Beside the Drawing-Board 375
IX. On Deck 376
Gold Hair: a Story of Pornic 376
The Worst of It 378
Dîs Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de Nos Jours 379
Too Late 380
Abt Vogler, after he has been extemporizing upon the Musical Instrument
  of his Invention
382
Rabbi Ben Ezra 383
A Death in the Desert 385
Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island 392
Confessions 394
May and Death 395
Deaf and Dumb: a Group by Woolner 395
Prospice 395
Eurydice to Orpheus: a Picture by Leighton 395
Youth and Art 396
A Face 396
A Likeness 396
Mr. Sludge, "the Medium" 397
Apparent Failure 412
Epilogue 413
THE RING AND THE BOOK.
I. The Ring and the Book 414
II. Half-Rome 427
III. The Other Half-Rome 441
IV. Tertium Quid 456
V. Count Guido Franceschini 471
VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi 489
VII. Pompilia 508
VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis, Pauperum Procurator 525
IX. Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. Cam. Apostol.
  Advocatus
540
X. The Pope 554
XI. Guido 572
XII. The Book and the Ring 594
Helen's Tower 601
BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE, including a Transcript from Euripides, 602
ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY, including a Transcript from Euripides,
  being the Last Adventure of Balaustion
628
PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY 681
FIFINE AT THE FAIR.
Prologue 701
Fifine at the Fair 702
Epilogue 735
RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; OR TURF AND TOWERS 736
THE INN ALBUM 773
PACCHIAROTTO, WITH OTHER POEMS.
Prologue 802
Of Pacchiarotto, and how he worked in Distemper 802
At the "Mermaid" 807
House 808
Shop 809
Pisgah-Sights 810
Fears and Scruples 811
Natural Magic 811
Magical Nature 812
Bifurcation 812
Numpholeptos 812
Appearances 814
St. Martin's Summer 814
Herve Riel 815
A Forgiveness 817
Cenciaja 820
Filippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial 823
Epilogue 827
THE AGAMEMNON OF Ã?SCHYLUS 830
LA SAISIAZ 849
THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC 859
Oh Love! Love 874
DRAMATIC IDYLS: FIRST SERIES.
Martin Relph 875
Pheidippides 877
Halbert and Hob 879
Ivan Ivanovitch 880
Tray 887
Ned Bratts 887
DRAMATIC IDYLS: SECOND SERIES.
Prologue 892
Echetlos 892
Clive 893
Muléykeh 897
Pietro of Abano 899
Doctor —— 906
Pan and Luna 909
Touch him ne'er so lightly 910
The Blind Man to the Maiden 910
Goldoni 910
JOCOSERIA.
Wanting is—What? 911
Donald 911
Solomon and Balkis 913
Cristina and Monaldeschi 914
Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli 916
Adam, Lilith, and Eve 916
Ixion 916
Jochanan Hakkadosh 918
Never the Time and the Place 928
Pambo 928
FERISHTAH'S FANCIES.
Prologue 929
I. The Eagle 929
II. The Melon-Seller 930
III. Shah Abbas 930
IV. The Family 932
V. The Sun 933
VI. Mihrab Shah 934
VII. A Camel-Driver 936
VIII. Two Camels 937
IX. Cherries 938
X. Plot-Culture 939
XI. A Pillar at Sebzevar 940
XII. A Bean-Stripe: also Apple-Eating 942
Epilogue 946
Rawdon Brown 947
The Founder of the Feast 947
The Names 947
Epitaph on Levi Lincoln Thaxter 947
Why I am a Liberal 948
PARLEYINGS WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE IN THEIR DAY.
Apollo and the Fates 948
With Bernard de Mandeville 952
With Daniel Bartoli 955
With Christopher Smart 959
With George Bubb Dodington 961
With Francis Furini 964
With Gerard de Lairesse 970
With Charles Avison 974
Fust and his Friends: an Epilogue 979
ASOLANDO: FANCIES AND FACTS.
Prologue 987
Rosny 987
Dubiety 987
Now 988
Humility 988
Poetics 988
Summum Bonum 988
A Pearl, a Girl 988
Speculative 988
White Witchcraft 989
Bad Dreams. I. 989
Bad Dreams. II. 989
Bad Dreams. III. 990
Bad Dreams. IV. 990
Inapprehensiveness 991
Which? 991
The Cardinal and the Dog 991
The Pope and the Net 992
The Bean-Feast 992
Muckle-Mouth Meg 993
Arcades Ambo 993
The Lady and the Painter 993
Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice 994
Beatrice Signorini 996
Flute-Music, with an Accompaniment 999
"Imperante Augusto natus est—" 1001
Development 1002
Rephan 1003
Reverie 1005
Epilogue 1007
APPENDIX.
I. An Essay on Shelley 1008
II. Notes and Illustrations 1014
III. A List of Mr. Browning's Poems and Dramas, arranged in the order of
first publication in book form 1023
INDEX OF FIRST LINES OF POEMS 1027
GENERAL INDEX OF TITLES 1031