Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (40 page)

the President
At the time of publication, Lincoln.
Jenny Lind
The celebrated soprano (1820–87), known as the ‘Swedish Nightingale’. 1269.
Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82), poet, essayist, philosopher, and by this time the pre-eminent American man of letters. Browning had never met him, but knew and admired his work,
the Benicia Boy
The American boxing champion, John Heenan (from his birthplace, Benicia in California). On 17 April 1860 he fought a celebrated drawn bout with the English champion, John Sayers (see ‘A Likeness’, 1.23n.); in her letters of the time Elizabeth Barrett referred several times to the interest aroused by the contest. 1299.
Beacon Street
One of the principal streets in Boston. 1331–7. Sludge’s ‘hazy notion’ of a passage in the Greek (not Roman) historian Herodotus (fifth century
B.C
.); in book I of his
History
, Herodotus recounts that women in Babylon (not Egypt) prostituted themselves once in their lifetime at the temple of Aphrodite. 1381.
cresset
Fire-basket. 1392.
harlequin’s pasteboard sceptre
In traditional pantomime, a magic wand used by Harlequin against his rival, the Clown. 1439–41.
Lowell, Longfellow, Hawthorne
Prominent American writers, the first and third of whom were also personal friends of Browning’s: James Russell Lowell (1819–91), poet, essayist and critic; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82), poet; Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64), writer of fiction. 1450.
the Lizard Age
A book about dinosaurs. 1451.
the Old Country War
The American War of Independence, 1775–83. 1452
Jerome Napoleon
Youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte (1784–1860). 1454.
life in stones
By the study of fossils. 1455.
Fire into fog
Probably alluding to the ‘fire-mist’, the primeval state of the universe in some contemporary
theories; the term was coined by Robert Chambers in
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
(1844). 1465. The book is imaginary. Thebes, in Egypt, was fabled for wealth and power; it may have been one of the models for the city in ‘Love Among the Ruins’ (see
ll.21n
.,
73–8n
.). 1472–4. Both Lady Jane Grey, executed in 1553 by Mary Tudor after an abortive attempt to make her Queen, and Elizabeth I were Protestant heroines and enemies of the Catholic Mary; Sludge’s fantasy of them together in heaven would be calculated to please the (presumably Protestant) Horsefall. It is not clear whether this is the actual fraud whose detection precedes the opening of the poem, or whether Sludge is using it as an illustration. 1479.
arnica
Mountain tobacco
(Arnica montana)
is used in a tincture for relieving swelling and bruises. 1523.
herring-pond
The Atlantic (
OED
first records this colloquialism in 1686).

Apparent Failure

Published
Dramatis Personae
, 1864. The morgue was not in fact demolished, and still stands, but is closed to the public. 1–8. The Brownings were in Paris from October 1855 to June 1856. The two events referred to – the ‘baptism’ and the ‘Congress’ – did not take place at the same time. The Imperial Congress to end the Crimean War opened in Paris on 25 February 1856 and peace was concluded a month later. At this Congress Count Camillo Benso Cavour successfully pleaded for the recognition of Piedmont as an independent state after its aid to the British and French in the war; Prince Alexander Gortschakoff and Count Karl Ferdinand Buol-Schauenstein represented Russia and Austria respectively. Prince Louis Napoleon, the only son of the Emperor Napoleon III, was baptized in June 1856. 10.
Doric
Originally the earliest of the three ‘orders’ of Greek architecture; here meaning a plain, strong style of building. 12. The Italian poet and humanist Petrarch (1304–74) lived for much of his life in Provence; Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, near Avignon, source of the river Sorgue, was a favourite retreat. The Brownings visited it on their journey to Italy after their marriage in 1846. 39.
Tuileries
The palace where French sovereigns resided. 43–4.
Does the Empire
…
missed?
Napoleon III made himself Emperor in 1852, ending the Second Republic. 46–7.
red in vain / Or black
Socialist or reactionary; with a pun on the gambling game ‘rouge et noir’ (see next lines). 58–63. Browning’s opposition to the doctrine of eternal punishment is re-stated in several other poems, notably ‘Ixion’ (
Jocoseria
, 1883). 60. Revelation 1:11: ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last’.

Epilogue [to
Dramatis Personae
]

Published
Dramatis Personae
, 1864. In the first edition the first and second speakers were not identified. King David, ancestor and highest type of Christ in the Old Testament, represents the certainties of traditional religion; Ernest Renan (1823–92), author of the controversial
Vie de Jésus
(1863), represents contemporary scepticism about the authenticity of the Gospel narratives and despair at the loss of faith in the central Christian truth of the Incarnation. The
third speaker, unnamed in all editions, voices Browning’s view that faith is not dependent on a particular doctrine or mode of worship, and that the Incarnation takes place not in the historical figure of Jesus, but in the universe whose shifting play of circumstances defines each human being’s unique identity, and which reciprocally manifests the full range of human experience (‘feels and knows’). 1–21. The source is II Chronicles 5:11–14, describing the dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem, when Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant into the sanctuary: ‘And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place ( … also the Levites, which were the singers … being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) it came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.’ 11.
lift
Past tense, ‘lifted’ (an allowed form). 24–5.
that star / Which came, stood, opened once
The star which guided the Magi to Bethlehem, and ‘came and stood over where the young child was’ (Matthew 2:9): an emblem of the Incarnation of God in Man. 36–7.
When a first shadow … motion
When the first doubts arose about the authenticity of the Gospels and therefore the truth of the Incarnation. 46.
lesser lights
The moon and stars (Genesis 1:16); the ‘greater light’ the sun (‘son’, Jesus) is gone. The speaker goes on to say that each star may be, as science suggests, a sun to its own world, but that is no comfort to us. 57.
serene
Serene brightness.

House

Published
Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in Distemper: with Other Poems
, 1876. It is the plainest statement of Browning’s lifelong disavowal of autobiographical or confessional poetry (there are of course many exceptions in passages and whole poems, including, by a necessary irony, ‘House’ itself; for a good example of the principle in action, see the next poem, ‘Saint Martin’s Summer’). The poem revives the young Browning’s dislike of Wordsworth (see note to ‘The Lost Leader’) in its rebuttal of Wordsworth’s ‘Scorn not the Sonnet’, which opens: ‘Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned, / Mindless of its just honours; with this key / Shakespeare unlocked his heart.’ In his essay on Shelley (1852), Browning on the contrary praises Shakespeare as the type of the ‘objective’ (non-confessional) poet. Browning himself wrote notably few sonnets and published none in volume form; one of the few is a sonnet in praise of Shakespeare, ‘The Names’ (see p.
293
). 3.
pelf
Possessions. 29.
goodman
Householder or husband.

Saint Martin’s Summer

Published
Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in Distemper: with Other Poems
,
1876. Saint Martin’s Summer’, or ‘Indian Summer’, refers to the period of fine weather thought to occur often in mid-autumn (Saint Martin’s day is 11 November); in the poem it stands for the second flowering of love. The poem may have been influenced by the break between Browning and Louisa, Lady Ashburton, in 1869, after he refused her proposal of marriage, but it is not directly autobiographical. 1.
protesting
In the sense of ‘protestations’ (of love); also 1.67.7–8.
mansion … bower
Metaphors (elaborated in the following lines) for commitment to a stable and would-be permanent relationship as against a more transient affair. 71–2.
Penelope, Ulysses
Types of wisdom and prudence in Homer’s
Odyssey
.

Ned Bratts

Published
Dramatic Idyls
, 1879. The poem, based on the story of ‘Old Tod’ in John
Bunyan’s Life and Death of Mr. Badman
(1680), is also a portrait of Bunyan himself, whom Browning regarded with ‘utmost admiration and reverence’; Browning freely changed the circumstances of Bunyan’s life and work in order to bring him personally into the story. 5.
bibbing
Tippling, 12.
tag-rag and bobtail
Rabble, riff-raff,
a-bowsing
Boozing. 17.
Of a reek
Reeking (with sweat). 18.
forbye
Besides. 20.
they
The ‘gentry’. 28.
boggled
Took fright. 29.
Tom Styles … Jack Notes
Conventional names (like ‘John Doe’); Brewer’s
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
differentiates between Tom as ‘the honest dullard’ and Jack as ‘the sharp, shrewd, active fellow’, which fits the context here, where Tom is being hanged for Jack’s crime. 32.
frizzles
Curls (of the judge’s wig). 33.
fleered
Rejoiced (at getting off ‘scot-free’); to ‘fleer’ in this context is to laugh coarsely. 35.
rank puritans caught at prayer
Worship outside the Church of England was forbidden under the Act of Uniformity, 1662, in force until the Toleration Act of 1689. ‘Puritans’ is here a catch-all term of abuse for any Nonconformist or Dissenting church. 43.
Serjeant
Judge; until 1873 common law judges were always chosen from barristers who had attained the degree of serjeant-at-law. 52.
Publican
Besides the literal meaning, recalling the biblical sense of ‘tax-gatherer’ and its associations (‘publicans and sinners’, Mark 2:16; ‘an heathen man and a publican’, Matthew 18:17). 64.
javelineers
Sheriff’s officers who provided the escort for judges at the assizes. 67.
Dropped the baby down the well
Killed an unwanted illegitimate child;
left the tithesman in the lurch
Evaded paying tax (‘tithes’) due to the Church. 71.
in our Public
‘In our public house’, with a play on ‘in public, openly’: while the court meets to decide the fate of comparatively minor offenders, Ned Bratts and his wife have been carrying on their dual activities as criminals and informers with impunity. 78.
quean
Hussy. 79.
pedlar
Here, euphemism for ‘thief;
noggin
Mug (of ale). 82.
midden
Dunghill. 83.
billet
Wooden club. 86.
(I’ve baulked a d—)
By saying ‘lily-livered’ instead of ‘damned’, Ned Bratts avoids the sin of swearing. See also
ll.92
,
100
,
104
,
243
. 89.
not a stoppage to travel has chanced
‘Not a hold-up (by a highwayman) has occurred’. 92.
Od’s
‘God’s’ (this oath has slipped by Ned’s guard). 96.
He danced the jig that needs no floor One
, of many similar euphemisms for hanging. 97.
Twos Scroggs that houghed the mare!
Smouch was hanged not
for the theft of which he failed to give Ned Bratts and Tab their cut, but for an offence he did not commit, ‘houghing’ or hamstringing a horse. 98. Psalm 37:36 (Book of Common Prayer): ‘I myself have seen the ungodly in great power: and flourishing like a green bay-tree.’ 100.
Zounds
‘God’s wounds’. 102.
the Book
Bunyan’s
Pilgrim’s Progress
(see
I.111n
.). 104.
’Sdeath
‘God’s death’. 111.
Who wrote it in the Jail
Bunyan was imprisoned in Bedford Jail for preaching without a licence, 1660–72, during which time he wrote most of
Pilgrims Progres’s
(not published however until 1678). 114.
Gammer
‘Old woman’; the male equivalent is ‘Gaffer’ (I.119). 114–15.
bobbing like a crab / On Yule-tide bowl
Alluding to the traditional Christmas game where players with their hands tied duck for crab-apples floating in a bowl. 117.
fuddling-cap
To ‘fuddle one’s cap’ is to get drunk; ‘cap’ in this and cognate phrases means ‘head’, so Browning’s use of ‘fuddling-cap’ as an article of clothing is an error. 126.
pad on, my prate-apace
‘Keep on talking, loudmouth.’ 129. Bunyan was a tinker by profession; in prison he made lace to support himself and his family. His blind daughter sold the lace (I–135 below). 130.
twelve years ago
Bunyan was arrested in 1660 (see
l.111n
.); this, and 1.315, therefore fix the date of the action as 1672; Bunyan was in fact released from prison in June of that year, a fact foreshadowed at II.307–12.156–7.
a Dives … Charles
‘Dives’ in Latin means rich man, and is the name conventionally given to the rich man in the parable in Luke 16:19–31, who is damned while the beggar Lazarus is saved. ‘Charles’ is Charles II, who came to the throne at the restoration in 1660 (see
ll.315–16
); ‘Charles’s Wain [Wagon]’ is a name for the constellation of the Great Bear. 160.
lump of leavened sin
I Corinthians 5:6–8: ‘Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? … Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.’ 161. “ ‘
Down on my marrow-bones!
‘I went down on my knees (to ask forgiveness).’ 164–70. A variant of the parable in Luke 13:7–9: ‘Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none; cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.’ 166.
dreriment
Dreariness or dismalness; Browning probably found this archaic form in Spenser, who coined it. 168.
cloister
In the (original, now obsolete) sense of an enclosed space; but the anti-Catholic Bunyan may also be punning on the word’s religious connotations. 172.
stag-horns
Bare upper branches; this nonce-use was probably influenced by the stag-horn beetle. 174.
marie
Soil; Milton’s ‘burning marl’ (
Paradise Lost
i 296) had associated the word with hell, and Browning may also have come across the phrase in George Eliot’s
Daniel Deronda
(1876). 178.
Tophet
Biblical name for Hell; used by Bunyan in
Pilgrim’s Progress
(see
I.203
n. below; also ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’, II.143n and 160n. 179. ‘
Look unto me and be ye saved!
’ Isaiah 45:22. 180. Alluding to Moses striking water from the rock in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6 and Numbers 20:11).
outstreats
out flows. In a footnote in the first edition, Browning cited Donne’s use of this word in ‘The Progress of the Soul’, a poem
also alluded to admiringly in
The Two Poets of Croisic
(1878). 181–2. Isaiah 1:18: ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ 201.
a just-lugged bear
A bear that has just been tormented by having its fur pulled. 202.
You had
‘You could have’. 203.
Christmas
Ned Bratts’s error for Christian, the hero
of Pilgrim’s Progress
. From this point the poem is saturated with specific allusions to famous episodes and characters from
Pilgrim’s Progress
: Christian’s flight from the City of Destruction, abandoning his wife and children, the ‘burden’ (of original sin) from which he is released by grace, his entry through the ‘wicket-gate’ to the way of salvation, the Slough of Despond, the encounter with the fiend Apollyon, the martyrdom of Faithful in Vanity Fair, etc. 204–5.
Joseph’s sack
…
which held the cup
Ned Bratts’s confused recollection of Genesis 44, in which Joseph, sending his brothers back to Canaan with sacks of food, conceals his silver cup in the sack of his youngest brother, Benjamin, and then makes believe to accuse them of theft. 206.
chine
Backbone. 207.
you pitched me as I flung
‘You gave as good as you got.’ 221.
I had
‘I would have.’ 225. Compare the angel with his sickle in Revelation 14:19.229.
thrid
Thread, follow the course of. 231. The Delectable Mountains come into view towards the end of Christian’s journey; Faithful had taken ‘death’s short cut’ by his martyrdom. 243.
Odds my life
A minced oath, as at I.92. 246. Ned Bratts, wishing to flatter the judge’s wisdom, first addresses him as Master Worldly-Wiseman, and then, remembering that he is one of the villains of
Pilgrim’s Progress
, revises this to the genuinely wise Interpreter who helps Christian. 263.
peach
Inform. 270.
Sackerson
A celebrated Elizabethan bear, mentioned in
Merry Wives of Windsor
I i 269; Ned Bratts however speaks as though the bear were still alive. 271.
Brawl
Dance. 274–5.
Where’s hope … light?
John 3:20: ‘every one that doeth evil hateth the light’. The man in the iron cage (of despair) in
Pilgrim’s Progress
is said to have ‘sinned against the light of the word’. 288.
I wis
Or ‘iwis’, archaic term meaning ‘assuredly, indeed’. 289–90. ‘A Fox should not be of the Jury at a Goose’s trial’ (Thomas Fuller,
Gnomologia
, 116). 292.
i’feggs
A variant of ‘i’faith’. 298.
though a fox confessed
‘Though you were an acknowledged villain’. 303.
Amicus Curiae
‘Friend of the Court’ (a joke on the legal term, which is not literally applicable to Ned Bratts). 315–16. The restoration of the monarchy after the Civil War and the Interregnum took place with the accession of Charles II in 1660, celebrated in Dryden’s
poem Astraea Redux
. Astraea was the Roman goddess of Justice. 320.
those two dozen odd
The ‘rank Puritans’ of II.35–8.325–6. These lines were not in the first edition. 328.
Bunyan’s Statue
By Sir Joseph Boehm (1834–90), given to the town in 1874.