A COMMENTARY UPON BROWNING'S
THE RING AND THE BOOK
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GUIDO FRANCESCHINI
A COMMENTARY UPON
BROWNING'S THE RING
AND THE BOOK
: K^COOK
' with the life his life might give
These lived again, and yet shall live*
WILLIAM MORRIS
*SEEN B\
PRESERVA1
SERVICE
DATE
HUMPHREY MILFOR]
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY
I 920
Cf,
/
BeMcatefc
TO THE GENIUS OF
ROBERT BROWNING
ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE COMPLETED PUBLICATION OF
THE RING AND THE BOOK
FEBRUARY 1, 1919
PREFACE
IN the following pages an attempt is made to discharge
the two necessary and some of the more or less optional
functions of a commentator upon such a poem as The
Ring and the Book. The necessary functions are, firstly,
the explanation and illustration of the poet's thought
and language when either is not clear, and, secondly, the
explanation of what may be comprehensively called his
allusions ; among the miscellaneous optional functions here
undertaken are literary appreciation and source-study.
I. Answering a letter, written in 1855, in which Ruskin
seems to have spoken of his regret at the poet's obscurity
and of his delight in his profundity, Browning expressed
a hope that the * deepnesses ' which his correspondent
thought he had found in his work were more than ' mere
blacknesses '. In The Ring and the Book there are deep-
nesses enough, and (though they are happily far fewer, in
proportion to its length, than in most of Browning's longer
poems) there are also blacknesses. The first duty of a
commentator is to strive to plumb the deepnesses and
to make the blacknesses grey. His efforts will often be
partially, they will sometimes be wholly, unsuccessful.
Plain phrasing and high thinking are rarely found together
in Browning's poetry ; it is just where the thought is
most intricate that the periods are most thorny. N<»\\
viii THE RING AND THE BOOK
and again more meanings than one are packed into a
sentence, and a commentator may mistake a secondary
for a primary intention or may see what rests upon the
surface and fail to probe what lies below. Yet he need
not be disheartened. His partial and tentative interpreta-
tions may help a more fortunate or perspicacious student
to interpretations which are complete and sure ; even his
sheer blunders by exciting surprise or impatience may
bring him correction. It is possible, of course, that having
peered and peered into a dark place he may find that he
cannot even think that he dimly sees his way. In that
case he should follow the rule that guided Dr. Johnson
when he wrote his notes on Shakespeare ; he should frankly
confess his inability. If he passes without remark over
passages which readers are certain to find puzzling, he
annoys or he discourages. Some will condemn his com-
mentary, it may be unjustly, but not unnaturally, as a
fraud. Others will be dismayed by a misgiving that, as
they find difficulties where, apparently, there are none,
they must be exceptionally obtuse ; they will feel as
Douglas Jerrold is said to have felt when on recovery
from an illness he tried to read Bordello : ' I'm an idiot ',
he reflected, ' my mind's gone '.
II. Students of a poem so allusive, so variously and
sometimes so mysteriously allusive, as The Ring and the
Book will often wish for explanations even in passages in
which the poet's language and his drift are free from
obscurity. It has been remarked that Browning paid his
readers the high compliment of assuming that their erudi-
tion was as extensive and peculiar as his own ; he referred
compendiously, as to matters of common knowledge, to
all manner of matters literary, artistic, historical, ecclesi-
astical, social, biographical, topographical, zoological,
anatomical and so forth, which are familiar, if familiar at
PREFACE ix
all, to specialists only. He vouchsafes us a reference to
the Kiirhth .Ivieid for your frigid Virgil's fieriest word,
I »ut \\hrre ;ur \\c to find the sole joke of Thucydides,
and the jest (if jest there was) of the Patavinian about
the Aretines ? What was the gold snow Jove rained
on Rhodes, and why might Arcangeli ask, ' What's this
to Bacchus ? ' What are the chasms permissible only
to Catullus, and what are the scazons into which Capon-
sacchi was to insert an iambus impermissibly ? Why was
Pompilia according to one speaker Thalassian-pme, and
who was the Corinna whom according to another she
could act without book ? Even trained scholars have
answered one or two of these questions wrongly, or have
confessed that they cannot answer them at all. Again,
how was Caponsacchi to break Priscian's head, and what
was the Brazen Head that broke itself ? What sort of
verse is Bembo's verse, and what is a Marinesque Adoniad ?
Who was frank Ser Franco of the Merry Tales, and who
was Guido's wicked townsman of the sonnet - book ?
What is the tract De Tribus which St. John did not write,
and who wrote the De Raptu Helena ? Who was Olimpia
of the Vatican, and what Olimpias and Biancas gave their
husbands power unlimited ? What is the arachnoid tunic
of the brain, and what are the symphyses ? What is the
Boat-fountain, and what are the caritellas over which the
Triton snorted a spray ? How, at tarocs, do you nick
the nine and ninety and one over ? What is the Est-est,
and what is Tern Quatern ? Who were the Molinists,
and what was their Philosophic Sin ? Why should
Fe"nelon be let know the fool he is, and for what would
li«' be condemned ? Who was the Pope's sagacious Swede ?
Who was the accomplished Giro Ferri ? Who was florid
old rogue Albano ? These are among the questions, under
some of the headings above-mentioned, which are raised
b
1 ' i < I L VJ&LU*
some of
x THE RING AND THE BOOK
by allusions in The Ring and the Book, Most readers can
answer some of them, many can answer many ; but
Browning writes as if we could all answer them all,
without hesitation and ' without book '. We may, no
doubt, leave a large proportion of them unanswered with-
out being seriously thrown out, but they excite our curiosity ;
we should like to know the answers, if only it were not
sometimes necessary to search for them far and wide.
It is the plain duty of a commentator to make the search ;
if in a particular case he has not made it, or has made it
unsuccessfully, he should say that that is so.
III. Excellent detailed expositions have been published
of some of Browning's longer and more difficult poems ;
we have for instance Mr. Duff's study of Sordello and Mr.
Nettleship's analysis of Fifine ; but owing, perhaps, partly
to its relative clearness and partly to its abnormal length
there has been but little detailed exposition of The Ring
and the Book, and that little has been casual and somewhat
thin. General literary criticism of the poem, on the other
hand, has been abundant, systematic, and (within its
limits) thorough ; much of it is of the finest quality ; on
important points it is so harmonious that, half a century
having passed since the poem was published, it may
make some claim to finality. For these reasons it was at
first my intention, with respect to this optional function
of a commentator, to exercise my option negatively, but
the merest commentator cannot fix his thoughts, for any
length of time, on a literary masterpiece without having
his modest say to say on some of its broader issues ; he
will see, or imagine that he sees, some of the problems
which it presents from a new angle ; he will in any case
be tempted to examine and compare the appreciations of
approved literary critics. Of such appreciations of The
Ring and the Book many have appeared in well-known
PREFACE xi
books about Browning, but I have also found stimulating
suggestions in papers which have appeared from time to
time in the pages of Reviews, and to some of these I
have called attention. One of them is an article by Leslie
Stephen on * Browning's Casuistry ' ; another is the report
of a lecture by Henry James on * The Novel in The Ring
and tlie Book ' 1 ; a third, the most valuable of them all, is a
notice of the poem 2, written immediately after the comple-
tion of its publication, by that sometime editor of the
Fortnightly Review who is now Lord Morley.
IV. At the beginning of this Preface I spoke of source -
study as something separable from literary appreciation,
but of course the two things are very closely linked ; the
former is only occasionally an end in itself, normally it is
but a preliminary to the latter. If a poem has sources
external to the poet's mind — and what great epic or drama
has not ? — literary appreciation must be incomplete if
these sources have not been examined ; such examination
is indeed usually not merely a preliminary to criticism,
but an almost indispensable preliminary. My reason for
speaking of the two things as separable is that they have
in fact been separated ; all or nearly all the criticisms of
English critics upon The Ring and the Book have been
made without source-study. The circumstance detracts,
not indeed from the excellence of these criticisms, but
from their adequacy ; it must not be imputed as blame
to the critics, for the main source 3 of the poem was still
hidden when they wrote. It was not till after the poet's
death in 1889 that the collection of papers known as the
Yellow Book, upon which his poem was based, passed
from his son's hands into the semi-publicity of a college
library ; it was not till 1908 that its contents became
1 Reprinted in Xotes on Novelists.
;it<''l in Studies in Literature,
:i What is known as the ' Secondary Source ' (see p. xix) was reprinted as early
as 18RO.
xii THE RING AND THE BOOK
generally accessible. The appearance in this latter year
of the monumental volume which reproduced the Book
was an event of the greatest importance ; it placed students
of English literature under a load of debt to an American
Society and to an American man of letters — to the enter-
prise of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and to
the energy and enthusiasm of Professor Charles W. Hodell.
If the possession of this volume, cheap as it is at its price,
may seem to some of us in these days a luxury which must
be regretfully postponed, the Professor has made the post-
ponement endurable ; for he has published his translation
of the documents in ' Everyman's Library ', and has thus
made it possible for everybody to do much source -study
at a cost not seriously exceeding the ' eightpence English
just ' which Browning paid for his Book to the Florentine
stall-keeper x. The poet found its leaves ' medicinable ' ;
he drank greedily of its waters long before he knew that
it was to be a ' source '. Few other people, probably, if
they read the documents as a thing apart, will find in them
healing or refreshment ; read them in close connection
with the poem, and you will have your reward. They
give a piquant interest to many of the poet's details ;
reveal the adroitness of the workmanship with which he
fits odd pieces into his mosaic ; enhance our enjoyment
of the copiousness of his invention and the subtlety of
his wit ; invite us to the investigation of intriguing by-
problems ; set in a new perspective sections of the poem
which may have seemed tedious but will never seem
tedious again. Source-study, as Professor Hodell notes,
L cannot lay bare the mystery of artistic creation ; but as
we make our way through the Yellow Book we are on the
1 When I began to write this commentary the Professor's larger book was
not procurable, and I pursued my source-study in ' Everyman's Library'. The
results of the Professor's researches are recorded in an essay and notes which
are not printed in his smaller book ; having long worked without their help,
but having now examined them, I give myself the pleasure of expressing my
admiration for their scholarly thoroughness.
PREFACE xiii
master's very track, we follow with a keener perception
the workings of his mind ; above all we admire with a
constantly growing admiration what he preferred to call
the resuscitation — it was in fact the creation — of the
outstanding personae of his drama, his Guido, his Pompilia,
his Caponsacchi.
Many good lovers of Browning will look askance,
perhaps, at the intrusion of a commentator ; I can only
urge as a plea for their forgiveness that I too multum
amavi. From other students a pioneer who has com-
mented continuously on a not always easy poem of
more than twenty thousand lines, and has often, no doubt,
commented ill, may fairly ask for indulgence ; I ask also
for correction and instruction. For these and other boons
I am already in debt to several friends. Dr. Thomas
Ashby has favoured me with a memorandum on some
points relating to the city of Rome ; Canon Cruickshank
has allowed me to draw upon his varied erudition and has
also supplied me with a valuable note on what Browning
called the posy of his ring ; Mr. C. B. Phillips has had the
patience to read and has greatly improved my notes on
three of the poet's twelve books ; the insight of Mr. A. H.
Smith (who, like Canon Cruickshank, has helped me with
the ' posy ') has prevented some serious mistakes from
appearing in print, has enabled me to interpret more than
one locus pane desperatus, and has led me to appreciate
at its true value a very important section of the poem.
A. K. C.
1, 1919.
CONTENTS
DEDICATION
PREFACE
NOTE ON THE SOUBCES OF THE POEM
NOTE ON REFERENCES .
BOOK
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES
THE RING AND THE BOOK .
HALF-ROME
THE OTHER HALF-ROME
TERTIUM QUID
COUNT GUIDO FEANCESCHINI ....
GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI
POMPILIA
DOMINUS HYACINTHUS DE ARCHANOELIS .
JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTTINIUS .
THE POPE
GUIDO '
Vll
xvii
xxiii
1
30
53
72
91
112
139
160
179
198
233
TIIK H"»K AM- 1111: l;
\v
xvi THE RINa AND THE BOOK
APPENDICES
PAGE
I. CHRONOLOGY OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE POEM . . 275
II. THE HOME OR HOMES OF THE COMPARINI . . . 279
III. WHEN WERE THE COMPARINI AT AREZZO ? 283
IV. COULD POMPILIA WRITE? 285
V. THE MONOLOGUES AND THE DEPOSITIONS OF CAPONSACCHI
AND POMPILIA 290
VI. THE INFLICTION OF TORTURE 295
VII. POPE INNOCENT XII . .301
VIII. MOLINOS AND THE MOLINISTS 306
IX. THE POSY OF BROWNING'S RING ..... 312
X. ' POMPILIA, WILL YOU LET THEM MURDER ME ? ' . . 316
XI. REVISIONS OF THE TEXT OF THE POEM .... 319
INDEX 327
NOTE ON THE SOURCES OF THE
FOR a reason stated in the Introduction to Book 1. 1 have not given
in these pages a full narrative of the events with which The Ring
and the Book is concerned ; but a bare outline, in which much that
is important is ignored, may be a help to reader** of this note.
A certain Guido Franceschini was married at Rome in 1093 to a
certain Pompilia who had been brought up as the daughter of one
Pietro Comparini and his wife. He took her soon afterwards to his
home at Arezzo, where they lived unhappily together for more than
three years : Pompilia, according to her husband, was an intractable
and unfaithful wife ; Guido, according to his wife, was a cruel —
indeed an infamous — husband. Suddenly, in April 1697, under the
escort of a young priest called (.'aponsacchi, Pompilia tied from
Arezzo Rome-wards, to rejoin — so she said — her (putative) parent.-.
Guido pursued the fugitives, came up with them at the last stage of
their journey, had them arrested on a charge of adultery and of
flight or complicity in flight. They were taken to Rome and put
upon their trial before 'the Tribunal of the Governor', which tri-
bunal, after long delays, pronounced in September 1697 a somewhat
indecisive judgment; Caponsacchi was 'relegated' for a time to
Civita Vecchia, Pompilia, pending yet further inquiry, was detained
in a nunnery, from which, however, she was soon dismissed to
quasi-detention in the Comparini's home. There, on December 18,
I(>'.)7, she gave birth to a child ; and there, on January 2, 1698,
Guido appeared with four retainers, killed the Comparini, husband
and wife, and left Pompilia for dead ; she survived, by a miracle,
till January 6. Meanwhile the assassins made off for Arezzo, but
they were overtaken on their way, conveyed back to Rome, and
accused of murder before the above-mentioned Court. That the
killing was their act was established by most convincing proofs ;
the i-sues raised at the trial were more perplexing. Should a
confession !••• forced by torture from the prisoners ? Did they kill
their vietims to avenge (iuido's outraged honour, and wa.- that an
:i nation, if not a just ilicat ion, of the killing? Had Guide's honour
been, in fact, outraged ''. \\asthe killing attended, or not attended.
by aggravating circumstances ? Such were the questions discus
xvii
xviii THE RING AND THE BOOK
in a series of pleadings, by the state officials who appeared in
the case ; on these questions ' wrangled, brangled, jangled they a
month ' or rather more. At last, on February 18, the Court gave
judgment ; it condemned the accused, and after an appeal to the
Pope, promptly dismissed, they were executed on February 22.
The Yellow Book which Browning picked up at Florence in 1860 x,
and which was the primary source of his poem, is for the most part
a collection of documents relating to this murder-trial; of its
twenty-two pieces only the first, the last but one, and the last have
to do with other matters. The first is the confirmation, by ' the
Criminal Ruota of Florence ', of a sentence pronounced upon Pompilia
and others by 'the Commissary of Arezzo'. The last two are
(1) a 'memorial of fact' in which 'the Procurator of Charity'.,
Lamparelli, applied to the Roman Court, after Guide's death, for
' the re -integration of the fame and reputation ' of Pompilia, and
(2) an Instrumentum Sententice Definitivce which granted the applica-
tion. Of these three pieces I need say no more at present.
Of the nineteen papers which relate to the murder-trial fourteen
are official documents. The other five are (1) two anonymous
pamphlets, printed at Rome during the course of the trial in the
interests of the defence and the prosecution respectively ; they were
addressed to the general public, but, though more popular in style
and substance than the pleadings, were probably the work of the
advocates engaged ; they seem to have suggested to Browning his
Books II. and III. ; and (2) three letters sent immediately after the
executions by Roman lawyers to a lawyer at Florence, one Cencini ;
of these letters I shall speak in the Introduction to Book XII.
The fourteen official documents are also of two kinds. (1) Three
of them are styled ' Summaries ' ; they are selections from evidence
which was either given in the trial for adultery and put in to prove
or disprove contentions of the rival advocates in the murder- trial,
or else given in the course of the murder-trial itself. Among these
depositions the most important are those of Pompilia and Capon-
sacchi 2. (2) The eleven other documents are pleadings, five of them
by counsel for the prosecution, the ' Advocate ' or the ' Procurator '
of the Fisc (Bottini or Gambi), six by counsel for the defence, the
' Procurator ' or the ' Advocate ' of the Poor (Arcangeli or Spreti).
No speeches were made in Court ; the pleadings were ' memorials ',
written by the lawyers, printed ' in the type of the Reverend Apos-
tolic Chamber' and distributed among the judges and others officially
concerned ; they were often written hurriedly 3 and always printed
carelessly. Their general character is described very faithfully in
the poet's Book I. ; he quotes from them largely and parodies them
brilliantly in his Books VIII. and IX.
i See Appendix I. 2 See Appendices IV. and V.
3 See O.Y.B. xxiii., clxi., cxcv., E.L. 23, 168, 199.
NOTE ON THE SOURCES OF THE POEM xix
Thirteen of the twenty two pieces — the pleadings in the murder-
t rial, Lamparelli'a application, the Definitive Sentence — are in
Latin, ' a Latin cramp enough ', as Browning says. The Latin is
' intertilloted with Italian streaks' ; these streaks are the Arezzo
•nee with its confirmation, the summaries, the anonymous
pamphlets, and the letters. The poet says, very inaccurately, that
only three-fifths of his Yellow Book is in print ; he should have said
seventeen-eighteenths or thereabouts ! The only unprinted portions
are the Arezzo sentence and the letters, together with a title-page
and an * index * which the collector added. — From both the Italian
and the Latin, from both the printed and the unprinted pieces,
Browning squeezed almost every drop of fact or alleged fact that
they could yield.
The collector was no doubt the Cencini to whom the letters were
addressed — a lawyer professionally interested in the fortunes of
Quido and his family, and in close relations with at least one of the
advocates who defended the accused. He arranged the pieces that
had reached him in chronological order1, adding, as I have said, a
title-page and an 'index'. His title-page, translated by Browning
in I. 121-31, reveals the standpoint from which he viewed the case ;
his ' index ' (indice) is a useful table of contents.
The poet speaks of the Yellow Book as if it was not merely his
primary, but his one and only source ; there was however another.
In or about the year 1864 a copy, perhaps the only copy in existence,
of an Italian pamphlet which tells the whole story was found in
London and sent him by a friend. Written probably a few, but
only a few, years after the events which it records, it records them in
most lively fashion, supplementing the Yellow Book with a mass of
interesting detail ; it became, what Professor Hodell calls it, the
poet's ' Secondary Source '. It may, indeed, have set him definitely
to the task of composition ; facts which it alone gives are freely used
in those parts of the poem which were written first, and for this and
other reasons it is certain that the poem was begun after the date of
the new find. Post hoc need not of course mean propter hoc ; but
see Appendix I.
I have spoken in the Preface of the ' complete photo-reproduction'
of the Yellow Book which Professor Hodell published in 1908. To
that reproduction ho added other valuable matter: a translation
of the Book ; a translation of the Secondary Source ; a translation
of another account of the tragedy of which I have still to speak ;
an Essay on ' the Making of a great Poem ' ; and, lastly, a * Corpus
of Topical Notes '. His translations, which have been reprinted for
m's Library', are not always correct1, but he has dis-
< ide one mistake, however, in his arrangement ; see Appendix VI.
- A few mistranslations which throw the reader rather seriously out have
been noticed in Appendices 111., IV., V. I may add that lotrix does not mean
xx THE RING AND THE BOOK
charged with no little skill the hard task of interpreting the lawyers'
confused and often ungrammatical periods ; his essay contains,
inter alia, a masterly statement of reasons which give a unique
interest to the study of the sources of The Ring and the Book ;
of his notes, which deal almost exclusively with the corre-
spondence and the variations between the sources and the poem,
I have spoken in the Preface. ' I find a charm ', wrote the late Lord
Courtney of Penwith, ' in the mere possession of this volume. I
finger and turn over its pages . . . with subdued delight ' *. Every
other possessor of Professor Hodell's volume will understand the
delight and wonder why it was subdued.
Only a few words need be added about that other account of the
tragedy which I mentioned in the last paragraph ; though trans-
lated in the American book it is not a source of the poem, for it was
not discovered till after the poet's death. In the Royal Casana-
tense Library at Rome there is a collection of manuscript pamphlets
entitled Varii successi curiosi e degni di esser considerate, and one
of these pamphlets deals with the successo curioso which it calls the
'Trial and Death of Franceschini and his Companions'. It came
to light in the year 1900, and Professor Hall Griffin translated it
in the Monthly Review for the November of that year 2 ; he regarded
it as ' the best prose account of the whole case which is known to
exist ' — a judgment with which few readers of the Secondary Source
will agree. It contains much new information, but its special
feature is its note of edification ; the author dwells with pious and
prolix satisfaction on the ' Death of Franceschini ', for he ' made a
good end '. For students of The Ring and the Book the chief im-
portance of the pamphlet is that it confirms one or two guesses at
fact which Browning hazarded.
The Yellow Book was given to the library of Balliol College, soon
after the poet's death, by Mr. R. Barrett Browning ; it is a (some-
what blackened) vellum-bound volume of about 10 by 7| inches.
On the fly-leaf Browning wrote his name and, underneath it, the
motto from Pindar on which I shall comment in the note to I. 40 :
£/nol fj.£t> &v M(H<ra Kaprep^rarov /3Aos dX/c$ rptyei. At the beginning
of the book, on the inside of the cover, he pasted in a small
water-colour drawing (reproduced in Professor Hodell's volume)
described as Arme Franceschini Famiglia Aretina and stated to have
'strumpet' (O.Y.B. 10, E.L. 11), that scissw in frusta does not mean 'useless
mutilation ' (O.Y.B. 28, E.L. 34), that absque excessu legis does not mean ' without
excess of law', nor verecundia 'truthfulness' (O.Y.B. 52, 103, E.L. 68, 130), that
conductos as used in O.Y.B. ccxliii. means 'hired' not 'led' (O.Y.B. 192, E.L.
241). Col soldo cannot mean ' without a soldo ' (O.Y.B. 169, E.L. 210) ; by con-
fusing attesa with attesta the Professor makes havoc of the meaning of a sentence
in O.Y.B. 116, E.L. 145-6 ; his translation of Note A in E.L. 92 is also impossible.
(O.F.B.-the Professor's larger, E.L. his smaller book.)
1 The Times, Literary Supplement, February 25, 1909.
2 His translation is reprinted in Appendix B of his Life of Robert Browning.
NOTE ON THE SOURCES OF THE POEM xxi
I ii copied Da un MS Priorista Aretino esistenle presso lafamiglia
.\lhi- ft/nil il ; it is dated Arezzo Luylio /A'/.V. Plow he obtained it is
told in a note written above it: ' (From Seymour Kirkup,
Florence)' ; the sender was the 'My Kirkup' to whom he alludes
in Pacchiarofto, n., and to whom I shall refer in my note on XII.
222-4. Browning makes use of this drawing in XI. 2161-6 and XII.
821-4 ; as its date was July 1868 and the poem was published in
November 1868-February 1869 we see that the interval between
the completion of the poem and its publication was short.
In the same case as the Yellow Book are kept (1 ) the ring described
in the opening lines of the poem (see note on I. 1), and (2) a pen-
sketch of Guido, said to have been made shortly before or on
the very day of his execution ; a reproduction of it serves as the
frontispiece to this Commentary. Tin- sketch 'was sent to the
Poet by a stranger, who found it in a bundle of drawings, etc.
which he bought at a sale in England ' (0. Y.B. 298). For Guide's
personal appearance, and for his dress on the day of his death, see
O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 266 (Secondary Source); cf. I. 782-4, IV. 717-19,
VII. 396, and especially XII. 190-204.
.Mr. Pickard-Cam bridge, the librarian of Balliol, whom I have to
thank for much kindness, including permission to photograph the
sketch, was unable, when he showed me the treasures of his library,
to tell me what has become of the ' Secondary Source '.
1 An oxtrart from a letter to Pietro, written by one of this family evidently
friendly to the Knmceschini, will be found in the first 'Summary' in the Yellow
Book (O.Y.li. liv., E.L. 55).
NOTE ON REFERENCES
0. Y.B.=The Old Yellow Book, Source of Browning's The Ring and
the Book, in complete Photo-reproduction with Translation, Essay, and
Notes by Charles W. Hodell (Second Edition, Carnegie Institute of
Washington, 1916).
E.L.l = The Old Yellow Book : Source of Robert Brouming's The
Ring and tlic Book [Professor Hodell's translation, with short notes :
published in ' Everyman's Library'] (London, undated).
The First Anonymous Pamphlet = Notiz ie di fatto e di ragioni
per la Causa Franceschini [O. Y.B. cxli.-cliv., 116-126 ; E.L. 145-156].
The Second Anonymous Pamphlet = Risposta Alle notizie di fatto
e di ragioni nella Causa Franceschini [O.Y.B. ccvii.-ccxxv., 168-
183 ; E.L. 209-226].
The Secondary Source = The Death of tiie Wife-Murderer Guido
Franceschini, by Beheading [O.Y.B. 209-213, E.L. 259-266. See
above, p. xix].
The post-Browning Pamphlet = Trial and Death of Franceschini
and his Companions, etc. [0. Y.B. 217-225, E. L. 269-281. See above,
p. xx. The inaccurately phrased reference may remind the reader
that this pamphlet was not one of Browning's sources, having been
discovered after his death].
The Process of Flight = the trial of Pompilia and Caponsacchi for
adultery and flight or complicity in flight, often described in the
records" as processes fugw.
B. and H. Notes = ' Biographical and Historical Notes', appended
to the supplementary volume (Asolando) added to the sixteen-
volume edition of the poet's collected works.
N.E.D.=Neto English Dictionary.
Other references are unabridged, except in a few cases where
abridgment seems to need no explanation.
> When referring to passages in O.Y.B. I have noted the pages in E.L. on which
they are translated, but Professor Hodell is not responsible for the translations
which I have sometimes given.
XXI II
1
BOOK I.— THE RING AND THE BOOK
INTRODUCTION
IN Book I. the poet defines his purpose and describes his
method. He defines his pprpnae chiefly by disclosing the
full meaning and significance of the title which the Book
shares with the whole poem ; he describes his method
both by a direct statement and by a survey of the ground
which the other Books are to cover. Except so far as his
twofold aim is thereby subserved it is not a part of the
plan of Book I. to tell the story with which the poem
is concerned ; but unsystematically, incidentally, and by
« -usual instalments it is so far told there that when the
reader turns to Book II. he is already at home with it ;
what he does not then know he will learn before long. It
is not true, though it is often said, that the story is given
in full ten or twelve times in the poem ; it is true that
the reader's mind is saturated with it before he has read
very far. Even if he reads no farther than to the end of
Book I. he will say that a narrative by a commentator
would be superfluous.
The poet's statement of his purpose involved, as has
been said, a disclosure of the meaning of his title, and that
disclosure involved in its turn a description of the source
and origin of his poem. He tells us how one summer day,
by accident or rather by 'predestination', he picked up
from a Florence book-stall an old yellow volume of docu-
mente relating to a Roman cause ceUbre of 1698. He saw
jiam-e', as he somewhere says of a less notable find,
tin- Mil>ject's crowd of capabilities', but the facts as he
found them were 'dead' and 'inert'; if he was to use
1 B
2 THE RING AND THE BOOK
them he must give them life, he must breathe his spirit
into them. At a later date it occurred to him to employ
another metaphor. He wore upon his watch-chain a
ring, once his wife's1, which had been fashioned in imita-
tion of old Etruscan work ; the firm of artists who had
fashioned it had described to him the delicate process
by which the ore had been worked into it, how the necessary
hammering and fingering had only been possible when the
ore had been mixed with an alloy. It seemed to him that
the process by which the facts of his Yellow Book were
being, or were to be, worked into his poem was one of
the same kind; he could only give them artistic form by
mixing them with his fancy. The facts of the book were
the jeweller's ore ; the poet's fancy was the jeweller's
alloy ; his fancy mixed with the facts — the poet's poem —
was the jeweller's ring. Perhaps the admirable metaphor
was pressed too hard. Browning tells us repeatedly that
just as, when the jeweller's art has been exercised upon
his ring, he disengages the alloy, so, when the poet has
fashioned his poem, he will disengage his fancy from it.
But he does not disengage it, there is no ' repristination ' ;
unlike the jeweller's alloy, the poet's fancy does not ' fly
in fume ', it cannot (happily) be ' unfastened ' from the
\ facts.
The niethod adopted in The Ring and the Book, and
describedand justified in the second half of Book L^ is
that of a series of dramatic monologues. The single
dramatic monologue was of course with Browning a
constant, and it was his most characteristic, mode of
literary expression ; but the series of monologues in which
a succession of speakers say at length what they, know
and think, or think that they know and think, or would
have it thought that they know and think, about a set
of facts was a new departure, on which he did not venture
a second time.^ The_ method has the obvious drawback
that it involves repetition, but though repetition is frequent
it is rarely wearisome in The Ring and the Book ; it is
often very dexterously avoided, the poet's resourcefulness
gives to sameness the adroitest touches of variety2. — Mr.
1 See the note on I. 1.
2 See further in the Introductions to Books II. and IX.
BOOK I.— THE RING AND THE BOOK 3
Chostorton says that its method makes the poem * the epic
of free speech ' 1, and that the use of the method means
that truth being many-sided it can only be rightly appre-
hended when its many sides have been presented to our
view. Now the poet's language shows that he had in
mind this advantage of free speech 2, but he did not forget
attendant disadvantage, that it urvolves the presenta-
tion of the many sides of falsehood as well as of those of
truth. If, as in the records upon which his poem is founded,
the evidence which free speech supplies is as often false
as true, if it is conflicting and nicely balanced3, it may
baffle our judgment ; it may prevent us from pronouncing
' a sentence absolute for shine or shade ' ; it may make
us doubtful about the heroism of heroes and the knavery
of knaves. In our perplexity we shall welcome help from
an expert, but he must not offer it until all the evidence
has been heard ; if he offers it before, we shall give some
of it no fair hearing, the advantage of free speech will be
lost. It detracts from the claim of The Ring and the Book
to be what Mr. Chesterton calls it that Browning appears
as expert at the start ; before he has summoned a single
witness he tells us quite plainly what our ' ultimate judg-
ment ' is to be 4. When he wrote Sordello he declared
that he would have preferred to adopt a purely dramatic
method, to keep out of sight, and to let his hero say his
own say ; but reflection convinced him that
Your setters-forth of unexampled themes,
Makers of quite new men, producing them,
Would best chalk broadly on each vesture's hem
The wearer's quality ; "or take their stand,
Motley on back and pointing-polo in hand,
!<lo him.
In The Ring and the Book his theme is not so unexampled,
his men are not quite so new. They speak for themselves,
but he does not ' leave you to say the rest for them ' ;
before they * emerge ', he chalks their quality on their vesture
l 1348-78.
; Bni\v to W. M. !:<><•!. -Hi of 'the mass of almost equally balanced
evidence ' which (h,- n-ronh contain (/,' •«, p. 401).
"''• Whi-M •!; 'irst nuhlU'i >n was taken to the early dis-
1 m ami plot : to tint ohj.-.-tion Mr. John Morley supplied
;'/'/ Review, March 1, 1860, pp. 383-4). The objection
taken above is di
4 THE RING AND THE BOOK
and takes his stand with his pointing-pole 1. — How far,
when after forestalling our verdict he lets his witnesses
give their evidence, he makes them say what they would
themselves have said or actually did say is another question
— one of much interest hi connection with his reiterated
declaration that he adhered to his documents most scrupu-
lously. I have attempted to answer it, so far as the hero
and heroine are concerned, in Appendix V.
Among the most arresting passages in Book I. are
those which describe how immediately after he had
bought it Browning's attention was riveted to his Yellow
Book ; how as he picked his way through the crowded
streets he read it through, from its first to its last page ;
how before reaching home he had ' mastered the contents ' ;
how when at home in Casa Guidi he ' read and read it '
till far on into the night. As the hours passed he no doubt
became obsessed by the psychological problems which it
presented and, it may be, by a first suggestion of the
spiritual romance which his imagination was in the fulness
of time to body forth. All students of his works are
familiar with certain often-quoted words which he used
in the letter which serves as a preface to Sordello : ' My
stress lay on the incidents in the development of a soul :
little else is worth study. I, at least, always thought so '.
It is right that the words should be often quoted ; but as
used by the critics they sometimes suggest an unduly
restricted conception of the [range) of the poet'r interests.
His first concern as he perusecTfhe Yellow Book was, we
may safely conjecture, with the story as such. For, let
the psychologists say what they will, such stories as mere
stories had the strongest fascination for him. Whether
the Yellow Book provides materials for a good detective
novel has been disputed ; it has been described as too
' trumpery ', and in some respects it deserves that epithet ;
many readers agree with the judgment of Carlyle, who,
when congratulating Browning on his ' wonderful poem ',
declared with Carlylese politeness that it is ' all made out
of an Old Bailey story that might have been told in ten
lines and only wants forgetting ' 2. Be that as it may, we
A Sordello, I. 11-31.
2 Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William AllingTiam, pp. 284-5. Hossetti,
BOOK L—THE RING AND THE BOOK 5
must remember that the poet's interest in the develop-
ment of souls never blunted the keenness of his vision for
much that in comparison with it may be mean and trivial
and trumpery. He stored in his memory what his observant
eye had told him of ' the cobbler at his trade ', * the man
who slices lemons into drink ', the laundress ' at the cistern
by Citorio ', ' the puppets of Place Navona ' ; he could
re over the weediest and scrubbiest vegetable growths,
most repulsive varieties of vermin. His interest in
the details of crimes and criminal trials however sordid —
an interest which, we are told, was hereditary 1 — never
flagged2, and, though it was heightened by his sense of
their possible implications, it was primarily that un-
sophisticated interest which the humblest of us share
and many of the most eminent avow. Evidence of this
interest in Browning, as of his extensive and peculiar
knowledge of the annals of crime, will be found in many
books 3 ; no such evidence, perhaps, is more convincing
than that of an entry in the diary of Alfred Domett (the
poet's * Waring ') : ' He [Browning] had been present
during the whole of his [Cockburn's] Humming up on the
Tichborne case ' 1 The Lord Chief Justice summed up
in masterly style, but the performance took twenty days,
and even Browning can hardly have cared to study very
closely the development of the soul of Arthur Orton ;
he had no use for a stupid knave 4. — The poet's absorption
in the minutest details of the Old Bailey story of his Old
Yellow Book should convince his readers that if they are
to understand and to share the zest with which he wrote
we are told, ' seemed himself to lean a little to thia view '. Mr. John Morley wrote
in 1869 that when the first instalment of the poem was published * it was pro-
nounced a murky subject, sordid, unlovely, morally sterile ' (Fortnightly Review,
i». 331). — Carlyle's compliment might have been retorted on his
ow 11 brilliant ami elaborate study of the Old Bailey story of the Diamond .Necklace,
in which In- declares Unit he found romance (as Browning did in the story of Pom-
piliu; <i<nt< .ip.irt irom its connection with Marie Antoinette. See The Diamond
Necklace, c. 1.
up, Life of Robert Browning, p. 21.
1 In ins «ld age, he shows traces of being so bizarre a thing as an abstract
police detective, writing at length in letters and diaries his views of certain criminal
cases in an Italian town ' (Chesterton, Browning, p. 85).
llo.kll in o.l'./;. -17 ; Chesterton, Browning, p. 85 ; Dowden, Browning,
p. 26 :iilin, Lijf, p. L..VI ; Kegan Paul, Memories, p. 338.
I wrote as above 1 liave discovered that, if the date given by Professor
Hall liriilin for the entry in the diary is correct, Domett's statement is misleading.
..-b. 3, 1874 ' ; but the summing-up, which began on January 2u,
did not end till February 28.
6 THE RING AND 'THE BOOK
they must not only rise (so far as they can) as he rose ;
they must stoop as he stooped.
The Ming and the Booh, says M. Pierre Berger, is of all
Browning's works celle qui represente le mieux toute la
puissance, toute la variete de son esprit. Of the poet's
power Book I. provides many striking examples ; take
for instance the lines which describe the extent and the
limitations of the possibilities of artistic creation. His
variety is felt, not only when we compare one section of
the poem with another, but within the limits of particular
sections — nowhere more, perhaps, than in Book I. The
passages to which reference was made at the beginning
of the last paragraph are a good proof of this variety. The
first, like some other passages in Browning, is Browningized
Dickens. ' We have heard ', wrote Bagehot, ' that Mr.
Dickens can go down a crowded street and tell you all
that is in it, what each shop was, what the grocer's name
was, how many scraps of orange peel there were upon the
pavement ' x. Browning could do the same, and here he
X does it. And then from the life and colour of central
Florence, from ' buzzing and blaze, noontide and market-
time ', from the first rapid but absorbing search through
the pages of the mere detective story, ne takes us into
' the blackness ', ' the beauty and the tearfulness of night ',
and, as we stand beside him on the Casa Guidi balcony,
reveals to us the significance and the impressiveness of
what has become for him ' the tragic piece '.
^ Book I. ends with the best-known passage in the poem,
•the dedication to the poet's dead wife. All readers of
poetry are haunted by its beauty, perhaps also by its
occasional elusiveness ; many who have loved and lost
have felt its poignant appeal. As a dedication to The
Ring and the Booh it is particularly appropriate. Critics
tell us that Browning's direct influence on Mrs. Browning's
poetry was small, and that hers on his was perhaps smaller
still * ; we know that it was not their habit to consult
1 Literary Studies, ii. p. 138.
2 See e.g. P. Berger, Robert Browning, p. 40. It has, however, been supposed
that Mrs. Browning's direct influence can be traced in tne poet's attitude towards
— Christianity in Christmas- Eve and Easter-Day, written at .Florence in 1850. — The
dedication of The Ring and the Book is oniy one of many proofs that he regarded
— her indirect influence on his poetry as immeasurably great ; he felt that, as he
tells her, God ' best taught song by gift of thee '. iSee btopford Brooke, Browning,
p. 354.
one ai
BOOK L—THE liINO AND THE BOOK
one another about poeins on which they were engaged,
ven to show them to one another x till they were ready
to go to press. The Yellow Book had been found, and
had moved the poet most deeply, twelve months before
.Mr>. Browning's death; during those months she wrote
freely to ultimate friends about her husband's concerns ;
but she did not allude to the great find, possibly she had
barely heard of it2. For all that her influence on The
Ring and the Boole, though it was written many years later,
was most profound ; without her inspiration, as Mrs. Orr
has convincingly argued, he could never have created
his Pompilia 3.
NOTES
1. Do you, see this Ring ?} ' Mr. R. Barrett Browning has written
as follows : " The ring was a ring of Etruscan shape made by
Castellani, which my mother wore. On it are the letters A E 1.
after her death my father wore it on his watch chain "
(Hodell in O. Y.B. 337-8, note 539). This ring is now in the Balliol
College Library.
3. Castellani.] The famous Roman artist-jewellers, a visit to
whom, on an interesting occasion, Mrs. Browning describes in a
letter (Life of Mrs. Browning, ii. p. 354). Part of a Castellani
collection was purchased by the British Museum in 1872-3 ; another
part, including (says Ruakin) ' quite marvellous Etruscan gold ', it
declined to purchase (Ruskin's Works, Library Edition, xxxvii.
p. lUoj. On the delicate workmanship required for the reproduction
of Etruscan jewellery by the firm see E. T. Cook, Handbook to the
British Museum, p. 571.
-'.'>. r':i*ri.-<iinn:i:>n.\ See Introduction to Book I.
-7. rond tire ]= circle : cf. the Asolando volume, pp. 96, 137.
Shakespeare, who seems to have imported the word, has both
' ronduiv ' and ' rounduro'.
32. now for the thing signified.} What is signified begins to appear
in 141 seqq.
40. Mark the predestination.] ' Browning dedicated himself to
the picturing of humanity ; and he came to think that a Power
ml ours had accepted this dedication, and directed his work.
... He believed that he had certain God-given qualities which
ning wrote in 1853 : ' Robert is working at a volume of lyrics,
oi \vliii-h 1 imv« seen but u ie\\. . . . N\ o neither of us show our work to one
-lied vMrs. Orr. Life, p. 187).
\i'l>L'ii<li\ 1.
• rro.lurtion to Hook VII.
8 THE RING AND THE BOOK
fitted him ' for the task (Stopford Brooke, Browning, p. 402). His
sense of this in relation to The Ring and the Book appears again in
such passages as 520-21, 760-79 below.— In his Old Yellow Book
the poet wrote below his name : e/xoi /mw &v Moiva Kaprepwrarov
jSAos d\Kq. rp£(j>ei ('for me the Muse in her might hath in store her
strongest shaft ' ; Pindar, 01. i. 112). His son wrote : ' I know he
thought The Ring and the Book was going to be his greatest work long
before he had finished it ' (Hodell in 0. Y.B. 230).
42. One day still fierce.] A June day (see 92 below).
43-116.] See Introduction to this Book.
43. Across a Square in Florence.] The Piazza San Lorenzo (line
92). On the west side of this Piazza is the ugly unfinished fa9ade
of the church which gives it its name ; east of the church is ' Baccio's
marble ' (line 45), a statue by Baccio Bandinelli of Giovanni delle
Bande Nere, the father of Cosimo I. The Riccardi Palace (line 48),
a corner of which touches the Piazza on the N.E., was originally the
palace of the Medici (line 51) ; it was sold to the Riccardi in 1659,
and became a Government office in 1814. (The Riccardi Palace of
The Statue and the Bust is elsewhere.)
65. Treading the chill scagliola bedward.] Scagliola is properly
' a local name in the Italian Alps for limestones of various colours *
(N.E.D.), but the word is used loosely for compositions made for
tables, pillars, floorings, and so forth. Mrs. Browning, describing
her Casa Guidi home in a letter, says that the arms of the last count
of the Guidi ' are in scagliola on the floor of my bedroom ' (Life and
Letters of Robert Browning, p. 149).
66. two crazie] = l%d. See note on 324 below.
69.] See below, 369.
73. that Joconde.] Lionardo da Vinci's portrait of Mona Lisa, La
Gioconda (wife of the artist's friend Francesco del Giocondo). The
story of the recent theft of this masterpiece from the Louvre and of
its subsequent recovery is well known.
77. Spicikgium.] Italian spicilegio, collection of extracts (by
derivation, gleaning of ears of corn).
78. the Frail One of the Flower.] La Dame aux Camellias, by
Alexandre Dumas the younger, first published in 1850.
92. June was the month], and 1860 was (probably or perhaps
certainly) the year ; see Appendix I.
110-11. from written title-page To iwitten index.} The title-page
and the ' index ' (indice, i.e. table of contents) of the Yellow Book
were written, no doubt, by Cencini, the collector of the documents ;
a translation of the title-page is given, more or less ' word for word '
(132), by the poet below. He evidently wrote these lines without
referring to the Yellow Book, for the ' index ' will be found there,
not at the end, but immediately after the title-page ; see the note on
119 below.
112.] Browning's walk home to Casa Guidi from the Piazza San
BOOK I. —THE RING AND THE BOOK 9
Lorrn/o may he followed OH the map. 'The Pillar' is in the Piazza
of bh I ilnita, do- to 'the Bridge' of the same name; it
was taken from tin- Hat hs of Caracalla at Rome to commemorate t h<
victories of Cosimo I. (c. 1565).
119. Print three -fifths, tvritten supplement the rest.] A very
strange inaccuracy ; of the 262 pages of the Yellow Book not more
than 14 are written. See the note on 110-11.
122. Position.] Italian Posizione, i.e. setting-forth.
129-31. Wherein it is disputed, etc.] This summary of the
' criminal cause ' shows the bias of the writer of the title-page (see
note on 1 10- 1 1 ), who was a Florentine lawyer professionally interested
in Guido's affairs (see the letters in O. Y.B. ccxxxv.-xli., E.L. 235-8).
136. a Latin cramp enough.] For 'cramp' see Pippa Passes, I. :
' instead of cramp couplets, each like a knife in your entrails, he
should write both classically and intelligibly ' ; Aristophanes'
Apology, p. 130, ' cramp phrase, uncouth song '. Ruskin speaks of
' the cramp Thucydides ', of ' much cramp mathematics and useless
chemistry ', of ' a lot of work in cramp perspective '.
138. interfilleted with Italian streaks.] The Italian parts of the
Yellow Book arc the title-page and ' index ', the depositions of
witnesses, three letters, and two pamphlets.
141-4.] See 458 seqq. below and cf. The Two Poets of Croisic,
cm.: —
But truth, truth, that's the gold ! and all the good
I find in fancy is, it serves to set
Gold's inmost glint free, gold which comes up rude
And rayless from the mine. All fume and fret
Of artistry beyond this point pursued
Brings out another kind of burnish : yet
Always the ingot has its very own
Value, a sparkle struck from truth alone.
146. summed -up circumstance.] The Yellow Book contains
three Summaria, consisting of depositions and the like ; ' two of these
were produced by the prosecution, one by the defence.
154. nowise out of it.] Incorrect. The advocates often refer to
evidence which had, apparently, been printed but is not to be found
in the Yellow Book.
Hi."). 'Twas the so-styled Fisc began.] Criminal prosecutions were
conducted by the Advocate and the Procurator of the Fisc (often
called 'tin- Fiso1 in the records), who at the time of the trial were
iiii and Gambi. For the distinction between Advocate and
Procurator see note on VIII. 276.
Browning appears to be mistaken in supposing that the Fisc
pleadings ; see note on VIII. 68. But some passages
in the defending advocate's 'Argument the First' suggest that the
rosecution had already been outlined.
10 THE RING AND THE BOOK
169. jive . . . what we call qualities of bad.] Six qualitates (i.e.
aggravating circumstances) of Guide's crime were alleged by the
prosecution ; see note on VIII. 1108-1455.
173. Count Guido Franceschini.] Very likely Guido was a Count,
as Browning and Professor Hodell say, but the records do not so
describe him. The word which Hodell translates ' Count ' is in-
variably dominus, which is applied in the Yellow Book to men of
all sorts and conditions, e.g. to Caponsacchi and to Pietro (0. Y.B.
civ.).
177. Patron of the Poor.] Guido was defended by Arcangeli,
Procurator (or Patron) of the Poor (of. VIII. 1529), and Spreti,
Advocate of the Poor.
178-9. Official mouthpiece — to fee a better.] Spreti remarks
of himself and of the Advocate of the Fisc : ' He, like myself also,
ought solely to seek the truth and to be its advocates, as being both
of us officials of the Prince' (O.Y.B. cxxxviii., E.L. 143-4). Sir
F. Treves (The Country of ' The Ring and the Book ', p. 80) quotes
from a contemporary Relatione della Corte di Roma : ' The Advocate
of the Poor has charge to write free of cost for all poor and needy
persons '. The same thing was evidently true of the Procurator of
the Poor.
It does not follow that, as Browning says, Arcangeli only appeared
as ' mouthpiece ' for Guido and his confederates because they were
' too poor to fee a better '. Both he and his colleague Spreti were
considered to have shown ' much erudition ' in the trial (0. Y.B. 213,
E.L. 265); the poet makes Guido admit that his advocates were
' capital o' the cursed kind' (XI. 72) — ' Look at my lawyers ', he says,
' lacked they grace of law, Latin or logic ? ' (XI. 1757-8) ; and
Arcangeli (XII. 287) ' lowly begs the next commands ' of his family.
In Browning's Cenciaja a wealthy noble, accused of matricide, is
considered fortunate because he has ' gained for his defence The
Advocate o' the Poor'.
J 86. Reward him rather !] Arcangeli does not go so far as this ;
he only asks for a mitigation of the murder-penalty.
205. portentousest.] Browning uses the ^ugerlajave inflec-
tion more freely than other modern writers (except perhaps
Carlyle), more freely even than Shakespeare. He affects it especi-
ally in adjectives ending in ' -ous ' ; he writes for instance ' atro-
ciousest', ' beauteousest ', ' deliciousest ', 'dubiousest ', 'famousest'
(so Milton), 'heinousest', 'hideousest', 'irreligiousest', 'preciousest',
'sagaciousest', ' strenuousest '. Shakespeare gives the inflection
to participles, e.g. ' lyingest ', ' daring' st ', ' willing' st ', and Browning
writes ' rnovingest ', ' whimperingest', ' sneaking' st ' ('the sneak -
ing'st crew I e'er despised ' — Colombe's Birthday, Act III.).
215-16. a firebrand at each fox's tail, etc.] Judges xv. 4, 5.
222. Solon and, his Athenians.] O.Y.B. x., Ixxvii., E.L. 12. 84 ;
cf. VIII. 570-71.
BOOK l.—THE RING AND THE BOOK 11
!'_>:;. I he code Of Romulus and Rome.} O.Y.B. x., E.L. 12; cf.
VI 11. 572-3.
221. modem l'><d<l<\ Hurtolo.} Eminent Italian jurists of the
fourteenth eeiitury ; O.Y.B. xiv., xxxviii., clxxxi., E.L. 16, 36, 187.
In Xll. 3til Arcanguli is represented as 'straining every mi
to make his son ' a Bartolus-cum-Baldo for next age '.
220-7. 1 E.g. O.Y.B. x., xiv., E.L. 12, 15 ; cf. VIII. 574.
227 -S. do tiomething-or-other.] DeAdulteriis. See note on VIII.
570-74.
230. That nice decision of Dolabella.] O. Y.B. xxii., E.L. 22. In
VIII. 914-49 Browning quotes Arcangeli's account of the case
which Dolabella decided.
231. That pregnant instance of Theodoric.] O.Y.B. xxvii., E.L.
28. Sri- note on VIII. 482-7.
232. Ifiat choice example Mian gives.] O.Y.B. cxiv., E.L. 149 ;
cf. VIII. 511-18 ; the example is (I think) given only once (not
' much insisted on ' ) in the records. It comes from ^Elian's treatise
wepi iVwv idi6rT7Tos (cited as Hisloria Animalium), xi. 15.
241. wrangled, brangled, jangled.] See note on IX. 1039-40. ' To
brangle ', which properly means * to shake ', has been used for ' to
quarrel ' since the sixteenth century, through the influence perhaps
of ' brabble ' (see note on IV. 10) and k wrangle ' (N.E.D.).
— . a month. J The proceedings began, according to the records,
' in the current month of January ' ; according to Browning, on
January 5, before Pompilia's death. Judgment was given on
February 18.
248-9.] The court was not called upon to make, and did not in
fact make, any such pronouncement when it declared Guido guilty.
It was only after his execution, when Pompilia's representative
wished to give effect to her will, that, by an Instrumentum Xententice
Definitives (August-September 1698), it restored * the good name
and reputation of Francesca Pompilia '.
257-8. J O.Y.B. ccxxxv.-xl., E.L. 235-8; see Introduction to
Book Xll.
201-5.] What * minor orders ' Guido had taken is not stated in
the records. The ' nrst tonsure ' was not an order, but a necessary
sign am destinationis ad ordinem ; it was given to mere boys who
thncby became 'clerks' but not ecclesiastics. The four minor
:a'(ot porters, readers, exorcists, acolytes) conteried the hem-lit
of clergy, but did not impose celibacy ; cf. what Guido says in V.
20U-73 :—
I assumed
Three or four orders of no con
v cast out evil spirits and exor«
example ; bind a man to nothing more,
al flavour to hia layman's-aalt.
,n;ij.»i .M . subdeacou, deacon, pi
12 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the Doctrina de Sacramento Ordinis of the Council of Trent, c. 2
(Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papstthums, p. 246).
Browning's ' presbyter, Primce tonsurce, subdiaconus, Sacerdos '
is a strange jumble ; he makes a lawyer, arguing to an ecclesiastical
court, mix up the first tonsure with the major orders, and speak as
though a presbyter were not a sacerdos. What the lawyer should
here have named, with (and after) the first tonsure, was of course
the minor orders.
271-5.] The ' zealous orator ' was Ugolinucci, one of Cencini's
correspondents (see Introduction to Book XII.), who says that
when the court determined to await proofs of Guido's chiericato
his ' good friends began to breathe again ' (0. Y.B. ccxxxix., E.L.
238).
285. the Emperor's envoy.] Martinez ; see XII. 94-9 and note
on XI. 2279.
287. Civility.] See note on II. 1473.
295. how short of shine.] See note on 1373 below.
297. nay, read Herodotus.] He will tell you that nemesis
attends great prosperity and great expectations, e.g. in his stories of
Croesus, Xerxes, Polycrates.
300-3.] See Appendix VII. and the note on X. 384-7.
301.] On the Pope's age see note on X. 166.
307. Those Jansenists, re -nicknamed Molinists l.] For the
Molinists, to whom there are over thirty references in the poem, see
Appendix VIII. The Jansenists, named after Cornelius Jansen
(1585-1638), Bishop of Ypres, held semi-Calvinistic opinions con-
cerning Free Will, and hinted at limits to papal infallibility ; their
doctrines, as stated in their founder's Augustinus, were pronounced
heretical and abominable by Innocent X., at the instance of the
Jesuits, in 1653 (see Mirbt, Quellen, pp. 295-6), and were also con-
demned by his successors ; hence Guido in XI. 1781 calls Jansen to
witness ('Ask Jansenius else!') that papal pretensions have
'grown beyond Earth's bearing'. There were affinities between
1 The Molinists of The Ring and the Book, who, says Browning, were merely
Jansenists re-named, must not be confused with the more famous Molinists who
were bitter enemies 9f the French Jansenists in the eighteenth century ; their
quarrels, wrote Voltaire, ' have done more harm to the Christian religion than
could have been done by four emperors like Julian ' (see Morley's Voltaire, c. v.
§ 1; cf. Cambridge Modern History, viii. pp. 9, 12). These latter Molinists
adhered to _the tenets of the Spanish.- J.esuit Molina, refecting the Jansienist
doctrine of predestinatlSSTas appears from an epigram quoted by Boswell in his
Life of Dr. Johnson (year 1778). During the free-will controversy between the
sects a charming young lady 'appeared at a masquerade habiltte en Jesuite',
and the epigrammatist remarked :
On s'&onne id que Caliste
Ait pris I'habit de Moliniste.
Puisque cette jeune beaute
dte a chacun sa liberte",
N'est-ce pas une Jansdniste ?
BOOK T.—THE RING AND THE BOOK 13
their temper of mind and Molinist passivity, but it is rather, perhaps,
because the Papacy adopted the same attitude towards them both
th it the Molinists are here spoken of as Jansenists under a new
name.
309-14.] In the intervals of leisure between one task and the
next people like to have something to find fault with. But why
are such intervals described as ' 'twixt work and whistling -while * ?
' Whistling -while ', one would have supposed, would itself be a time
of leisure, but it seems to be a tertium quid.
318. he peeled off, etc.] See ITI. 1475 and Appendix VII.
324. His wen meal costs, etc.] If this was so, he was almost as
abstemious as his most abstemious predecessor. When Burnet,
afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, visited Rome during the reign of
Innocent XL, in 1685, ' one assured me *, he wrote, ' that the expence
of his [Innocent XL's] Table did not amount to a Crown a Day ;
tho' this is indeed short of Sisto V., who gave Order to his Steward,
never to exceed five and twenty Bajokes, that is, eighteen pence a
Day, for his Diet ' (Some Letters, pp. 248-9).
— . fivecarlines.] The carlino was a small Neapolitan silver coin,
worth about 4d. ; it is said to owe its name to Charles of Anjou,
.kin? of the two Sicilies (1266-85).
Before the Union of Italy the coins of different Italian govern-
ments were current throughout the peninsula. Browning mentions
as current at Rome during the reign of Innocent XII., besides the
Papal scudo (=5 francs), paolo and baiocco (fa and ^ of a scudo
respectively), the Venetian zecchino, the Neapolitan carlino and the
Tuscan (?) crazia ; his persons also talk of ducats (Neapolitan),
dollars (=thalers, originally Bohemian) and doits (Dutch); the
doit is with them, as with Shakespeare, a conventional expression
for a sum of negligible value. The poet also speaks of the Tuscan
> (the equivalent of the Papal baiocco) and of the Piedmontese
lira as current at Florence in 1860.
346. with his particular chirograph.] 0.7.5. ccxxxv., E.L. 235 :
con Chirographo particolare, i.e. by a special order in his own hand-
writing.
350-60.] Browning lays much stress on this alleged * substitu-
tion * of the Piazza del Popolo for the ' bridge-foot close by Castle
'lo * as the place of the execution of Guido and his companions ;
cf. X. 2108-14, XII. 106-9, 147-9, 310-13. His Pope says that he
makes tho change from an unfashionable to a fashionable quarter
in order that Guide's peers, ' the quality ', may ' see, fear, and learn ' ;
his Venetian of rank regards it ' as a conciliatory sop to the mob ',
a 'in malice * ; his Arcangeli stigmatizes it as * indecent * and
due to spite '.
The poet learnt that the executions took place in the Piazza del
Popolo from the Secondary Source (O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265 ; cf. the
Browning pamphlet, O.Y.B. '2'2\. /.'./,. 280), but no one in the
14 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Yellow Book speaks of an * indecent change ' or of any change at
all ; the place of the executions is not even mentioned in any of the
three letters written immediately after them to Cencini.
In his Cenciaja Browning records that just a century before
Guido the unfortunate Marchese dell' Oriolo
had his head cut off
In Place Saint Angelo, beside the Bridge,
With Rome to see, a concourse infinite.
350. head-and-hanging-place.] Cf. V. 84, 86 ; Measure for
Measure, 2. 1. 250-51, * heading and hanging', 'head and hang'.
351.] The Mausoleum of Hadrian, which became a fortress in
A.D. 423, and got its name of St. Angelo from an incident in the life
of Gregory the Great (see note on X. 1011), is on the right bank of
the Tiber. You cross to it by Hadrian's Pons Aelius (Ponte
S. Angelo).
357.] ' The gate ' is the Porta del Popolo, the northern gate of
Rome ; ' the church ' adjacent to it is S. Maria del Popolo.
358. the Pincian gardens green with spring. ] An anachronism.
The Pincian Hill, which rises steeply behind the east side of the
Piazza del Popolo, is now laid out in beautiful gardens, but ' all that
land was but a grass-grown hillside, crowned by a few small and
scattered villas and scantily furnished with trees, until the beginning
of the present [i.e. the nineteenth] century' (Marion Crawford,
Ave Roma Immortalis, i. p. 259). ' Till c. 1840 a deserted waste '
(Hare, Walks in Rome, i. p. 27).
There is a further anachronism, as Sir F. Treves shows (pp. 148-9 ;
see also his Plate 24), in Browning's description of the Piazza as a
gay ' cavalcading promenading place ' (line 356) in 1698 ; it was
then ' emphatically a Piazza of the People '. Bishop Burnet, who
visited Rome in 1685, mentions the ' Noble Obelisk ' and ' a Vast
Fountain ' (Some Letters, p. 237) ; Browning's fountains (line 359)
are of later date.
361-2. my writer adds, etc.] ' Pitied by all men of honour and by
good men ', says Arcangeli ; * pitied by every galanV uomo ', says
del Torto (Letters to Cencini).
370-72.] See 66 above.
39-1. a lone villa.] See Appendix "II.
410. British Public, ye who like me not.] Cf. 1379 below, and
contrast XII. 835, ' British Public, who may like me yet '. — In the
winter of 1860-61, a few months before her death, Mrs. Browning
wrote bitterly of the treatment of her husband by the British Public,
which she called an ' infamy ' ; its ' blindness, deafness and stupidity
to Robert are ', she said, ' amazing ' ; and she added, ' it affects him,
naturally ' (Mrs. Orr, Life of Robert Browning, pp. 233-4). In 1864,
when Book I. of the poem was probably written, the public was still
in much the same mood — it still ' liked him not ' ; but Dramatis
BOOK I.— THE RING AND THE BOOK I .",
Persona, published in that year, widened the circle of his admirers
— a second «lition of the book was soon called for1. In 1868 the
hope which lie in Hook XTT. that the public might Mike
him yet ' was evidently shared by his publishers ; the appearance in
that year of the well-known six-volume edition of his collected
poems enhanced his nascent popularity. After the generally
enthusiast ie reception of his magnum opus in the winter of 1868-9
hi-* reputation was firmly established ; no one with any claims to
bo literary could any longer pass him by.
423. I took my book to Rome first.] See the second paragraph of
Appendix I.
429. Everyone snickered.'] Everyone in Browning, I think,
* snickers ' (see e.g. VII. 1277, The Two Poets of Croisic, CXLII.,
F 'Hippo Baldinucci), except Mr. Hiram H. Horsefall, who ' sniggers '
like other people (Mr. Sludge, ad fin.).
433. The rap-and-rending nation.] The occupation of Rome by
the French lasted (with a short break in 1867) from their successful
siege of the city in 1849 till 1870 ; their garrison was withdrawn after
the battle of Sedan in the September of that year. I don't know that
there is any ground for the suggestion that they burnt records either
during the siege or afterwards.— For ' rap and rend ', which the
N.E.D.s&ys was 'common in the 16th and 17th centuries', cf.
Fifine at the Fair, Epilogue : ' make and mend, or rap and rend '.
433-5.] Browning was naturally suspect to papal officials. He
professed to be unconscious of hostility to the Roman Church as
such (see Chesterton, Browning, pp. 187-8), but 'some traces of
something like a subconscious hostility', to say the least, may be
found in his poetry (e.g. ' Rome's gross yoke', Christmas-Eve, XT.),
and many a * gird at the Temporality ' (e.g. the damning sentence
which ends his Cenciaja).
437-8. Clean for the Church . . . does it tell for once.] The
result of the trial of Guido justifies Browning's ' submission ', but
much of the poem which he was to write about it (much e.g. of
Books VI. and X.) was to prove by no means ' clean for the Church '.
444-6.] The Roman authorities, before allowing Browning to
' rove and rummage ' (427) among their records, required, he says,
that he should ' mend his ways ', that he should be * manned ', ' new-
manned', or 'wise-manned', i.e. that he should become a convert.
It was not enough that one of the eminent Catholic priests upon
whose names he puns should certify that he was a genuine student.
or even that he should promise to refrain from attacks upon the
Church.
With Manning Browning was on friendly terms (Mrs. Orr, Life,
1 Yet Browning could in 1867 still describe himself aa 'the m.-t unpopular
poet that ever was' (see Hall Oritltn. l.if>, p. 2^0). If i to find him
writin Liter that 'flii- readers I am :it I.i-t |>ri\ ilf_'c>l \<> export.
me fully h:ilf-\v:iy ' .-tii'l timli' ith in flic attention and sympathy
I gratefully a 'ions, 1872).
16 THE RING AND THE BOOK
p. 229). The poet admitted that the career of Wiseman had sug-
gested Bishop Blougraris Apology (published in 1855), but insisted
that there was ' nothing hostile in it ' (Gavan Duffy, M y Life in
Two Hemispheres, ii. p. 258 ; of. Chesterton, Browning, p. 188).
The Cardinal, anyhow, was not seriously aggrieved ; he wrote a
' quite good-natured ' review of Men and Women in 1856, though it
ended with the sentence : * If Mr. Browning is a man of will and
action, and not a mere dreamer and talker, we should never feel
surprise at his conversion ' (Hall Griffin, Life, p. 202).
453. the loose and large.~\ Cf. e.g. 506, ' the hot and dense '.
{""Browning carries the substantival use of adjectives further than
L other poets ; he even makes ' gloomy ' a substantive.
459. lingot.] Whatever may be the etymology of * ingot ', the
I of the French lingot, which Browning uses for ' ingot ' only here,
represents the definite article as in lendemain, lierre.
463.] Cf. 15, 16 above.
467. the djereed] is a wooden javelin about 5 ft. long, also the
game, ' analogous to tilting at a ring ' (Kenyon), in which it is used.
N.E.D. quotes from Layard ; ' they played the Jerid with their
long spears, galloping to and fro on their well- trained horses '.
480. Over the street and opposite the church.'} Casa Guidi, the
Brownings' home at Florence, is at the point where the converging
Via Maggio and Via Mazzetta join the Via Romana, almost exactly
opposite the Pitti Palace. Browning's ' terrace ' or balcony, over
the Via Mazzetta, faces the side of San Felice church and gives a view
down the Via Romana in the direction of the Porta Romana (499),
which is about a quarter of a mile away ('a bowshot ', says Browning,
498). There is an interesting mention of this balcony in Phelps,
Browning : How to know him, p. 23. A voice which reached Mrs.
Browning's ear through Casa Guidi windows rose ' 'twixt church and
palace of a Florence street' (Casa Guidi Windows, ad init.).
It should have been impossible for writers to say that Browning
found his Yellow Book in 1865 (see Appendix I.), for Browning never
lived at Casa Guidi (or at Florence) after the summer of 1861, when
his wife died there.
490. that gold snow Jove rained on Rhodes.] Kenyon explains :
' the shower of gold in which Jove visited Danae ', but the Danae
legend (see III. 439, note) has nothing to do with Rhodes. The
reference is to Iliad, 2. 670 . ' Kronion [ = Zeus] poured upon them
[the Rhodians] marvellous wealth ' ; and more particularly to
Pindar (01. 7. 34) : ftp^x6 de&v pa<n\evs 6 [Jityas xpuo^cus VL<f>ddecr<j-i irb\iv,
/ * the great king of the gods rained golden snow upon the city ' —
v.a legendary explanation of the wealth of Rhodes.
497-501.] As I understand, Browning as he stood on his balcony
on that dark night cast his eyes W.S.W. towards the Porta Romana,
which leads to the direct road from Florence to Rome ; then north-
wards across the Arno till in imagination he identified ('felt ') the
BOOK I.— THE RING AND THE BOOK 17
AIM iiiiini ; thru eastwards, and then south-eastwards towards
id Rome. — But I am far from certain that I understand the
lines ritjli-
508. Castelnuovo.] The last halting-place, 15 miles from Rome ;
see note on VI. 1398. At the Castelnuovo inn Guido overtook the
fugitives.
511-15.] 'These lines can mean nothing else', wrote Lord
Courtney of Pen with in The Times (February 25, 1909), ' than that
the three met face to face in the evening ' at Castelnuovo ; and he
proceeded to charge the poet with inconsistency, because they all
agree in saying (V. 1044-7, 1057 ; VI. 1514-20 ; VII. 1580-85) that
they met there face to face at dawn.
There is however no inconsistency, as Professor Verrall pointed
out ; the lines do mean something else. Browning saw the place in
imagination, not at the tim< \\licn the three met, but at sunset on
the previous evening — at the fateful moment when the two fugitives
reached the Castelnuovo inn and were forced by Pompilia's ex-
haustion to pass the night there.
Lord Courtney had called Browning's attention (in 1881) to the
alleged inconsistency ; the poet had answered politely, but when he
revised the poem later (in 1888-9) he wisely left unaltered what Lord
Courtney called his ' error '.
I rofer elsewhere (in the note to III. 1065-6 and in Appendix XI.)
to other points in Browning's answer to Lord Courtney.
521. Deep calling unto deep.] Psalm xlii. 7.
542-3.] Luke ii. 29, 30.
549. fox-faced this.] Cf. X. 880-81 :—
This fox -faced horrible priest, this brother-brute
The Abate.
~>~)'2. making as they were priests.] Cf. VI. 1940, ' makes as it
were love '.
Canon Oirolamo.] See note on II. 500-503.
554-5.] It docs not appear from the records that it was at the
instance of bis brothers that Guido pushed his fortunes at Rome.
564. what foul rite.] See below, 573-4.
">t)T. the Prince o' the Power of the Air.] A designation of Satan
in Ephesians ii. 2 ; see below, 597, and The Inn Album, pp. Ill, 126.
' It was the general belief of St. Paul's time that through the Fall
the whole world had become subject to evil spirits, who had their
dwelling in the air, and were under the control of Satan as the ir
«> ' (Dean Robinson, Ephesians, p. 49).
~>1'1. Mopping and mowing.] Both words mean the same thing,
kinir mouths ', * grimacing ' ; they are found together again in
VI. 1940:—
their hate
That mops and mows and makes as it were love,
0
18 THE RING AND THE BOOK
and in Aristophanes' Apology, p. 8. So in Shakespeare, Tempest,
4. 1. 47 (of Ariel's ' meaner spirits '), King Lear, 4. 1. 64 (of Flibberti-
gibbet). Carlyle (French Revolution, 1. 1. 4) says of Louis XV.'s
courtiers during the king's last illness that ' like mimes they mope
and mowl '.
582. what of God ?] See note on VII. 300-301.
585. like Saint George.'] On the comparison of Caponsacchi to
St. George see note on III. 1065-6.
593. dusk.] For * dusk ' as adjective (common in poetry) of.
Sordello, I. 391, III. 122 ; in Paracelsus Browning has ' duskest '.
593 seqq.~\ For an interesting use of this passage see Professor
Raleigh's Shakespeare, p. 16.
593-600.] Satan, ' the Prince o' the Power of the Air ' (cf. 567),
aims at confining human life beneath a roof or grate which will
prevent * God-glimpses ' ; it is the function of his messenger, ' the
angel of this life', to see to it that his master's aim is realized.
' Earth's roof ', however, proves also to be ' heaven's floor ' ; there
is in that roof an outlet through which, in spite of Satan, we may
(with effort) reach that floor. (Cf. The Inn Album, p. 126 : ' prison-
roof Shall break one day and Heaven beam overhead!') — In
Browning's view, though there is but a hint of the thought here,
Satan and his messenger subserve God's purpose ; if our life was not
roofed over, if aspiration involved no striving, life would not be
'probation'. See note on X. 1375 seqq.
604 seqq.] All this about the * solitary villa ' and the ' lone
garden- quarter ' is a mistake ; see Appendix II. — On many of the
incidents described here and elsewhere in Book I. I reserve comment
until we come to fuller accounts of them in later Books.
611. were-wolves.] ' Were -wolf '= German wahrwolf; wer (wdhr)
= 'man ' ; cf. ' weregild', money paid for a man killed. There was
a widespread superstition that men of ravenous appetite might
prowl at night in wolfish form. Cf. Greek Xvnavdpu-n-os, French
loup-garou. See further in Shakespeare's England, i. p. 519.
631-4.] Note in this simile the splendid line 633. — Detailed illustra-
tions from Nature are infrequent in The Ring and the Book ; ' the
human passion of the matter is so great that it swallows up
all Browning's interest ' (Stopford Brooke, Browning, p. 105) ; as
Landor somewhere says, ' similes ' — he means formal elaborated
similes — 'sadly interfere with passion'. Mr. Brooke notes that
Caponsacchi, for instance, does not use a single (detailed) illustration
from nature, and that the only person who uses such illustrations
is the meditative Pope ; for whose similes see note on X. 620 seqq.
638. over Tophet.] For Tophet see e.g. Isaiah xxx. 38.— The
' ray ' of line 635 transfixed the criminals like a spear ; it held them
suspended and quivering over the mouth of the burning pit (653-4)
until the Pope (648) decreed their doom. For the use of ' palpitat-
ing ' see III. 1166.
BOOK I.— THE RING AND THE BOOK 19
'ill. love as well as make a lie.] But in 847, 852, 883 the ' by-
1 M-S' of (H2 ('Half-Rome,' and 'The Other Half-Rome') are
said nicr aftri truth*; theyare * honest enough* (848,851).
»>i:,. / ' ^coursed the right and wrong.] Cf. XI. 243, 'discoursed
this platter*. The transitive use of the verb is 'now archaic*
'./>.).
667 seqq.] Cf. 417 seqq.
670. entablature.} The word, which in strictness means all that
on the columns in classical architecture, including architrave,
frieze, and cornice, here denotes the abacus (see next note). In
The Bishop orders his Tomb the entablature is the slab on which the
bishop is to lie in effigy. ,.
676. this abacus.] The abacus is the uppermost member of theA
capital of a column ; in the Greek orders, as generally in Norman \
architecture, it is square like the Old Yellow Book (677). *
678. the style], i.e. the pillar (664).
684.] Cf. 14-17 above. 'Favoured* means ornamented as
described in 16.
685. the re.novating wash 0' the water] which effects the ' repris-
ion ' of lino 23, where, however, the agent in repristination is
' a spirt O' the proper fiery acid '.
691. And these are letters.] O.Y.B. ccxxxv.-xli., E.L. 235-8 ; see
Introduction to Book XII.
702. matteolable.] Malleus = ' hammer ', malleolus = ' little
hammer ' ; ' malleolable ' (coined by Browning) is therefore more
ble here than the usual 'malleable', the workmanship of the
poet's fancy being delicate like that required in fashioning an
Etruscan ring.
703. / • .« not mine], i.e. ' which was not mine '. In modern
sh the relative pronoun is of course often omitted when it
would be the object of its clause, but rarely wh^nTt would be its
subject. In Shakespeare this latter omission is frequent (e.g.
Sonnets 4. 4, ' being frank she lends to those are free '), in Browning H
if i< perpetual : it occurs for instance six times in the first 75 lines J
<>f Book IX. The reader will often find in this omission the solution
of his difficulties in long and involved sentences.
706. thishow.] Cf. ' thiswise ' (Epilogue to Parleyings).
720-21.] God's high prerogative of creating what he conceives
't be delegated to man.
730. with too much life], i.e. with so much fire in it that it has
l> irnt itself out. The thought is illustrated by the first paragraph
of Book XII.
737. Stationed for temple-service.] The metaphor was, I suppose,
suggested by * the lamp of God in the temple of the Lord ' of
iii'-l iii. 3, Exodus xxvii. 20, 21, which was relighted daily. — The
it forgotten <>r Inlf-forirottrn facts of the past wliidi
have a value for the present should be revivified.
20 THE RING AND THE BOOK
741. portioned in the scale.] Cf. 718 above.
747. More insight and more outsight.] For the very useful but
now disused word ' outsight ' N.E.D. quotes from a writer of the
year 1605 : ' If a man have not both his Insight and his Outsight,
he may pay home for his blindnesse '.
755-6. put old powers to play, etc.], i.e. rouse to its old activity the
now half -lifeless matter, extend to their old limits the outlines of the
now shrunken mass, upon which I ' chance ' in my ' pilgrimage '.
With ' to the limit ' cf. X. 484.
760. why Faust ? Was not Elisha once ?] The ' mage ' or poet
is more fitly compared with Elisha (2 Kings iv. 8-37) than with
Faust, for it is God who helps him.
769. to and fro the house.} ' Fro ' was a preposition in Shake-
speare's time, but he does not, I think, use ' to and fro ' preposition-
ally.
774. medicinable.] Used actively, as in Othello (5. 2. 351) and
in Troilus and Cressida (1, 3. 91) : ' whose [the sun's] medicinable
eye Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil'.
782-4.] The description is taken, almost word for word, from
the Secondary Source, O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 266: ' Franceschini was
low of stature, thin and pallid, with prominent nose, black hair, and
a heavy beard, and was fifty years of age'. The last statement is
disproved by the baptismal records of Arezzo, which show that he
> was just forty at the time of his execution (born in January 1658).
See further in the note to II. 291.
792. eight months earlier], i.e. at the end of April 169tf ; the
murders took place on January 2, 1698.
798. Aged, they, seventy each], according to the inaccurate
statement in the Secondary Source (0. Y.B. 213, E.L. 265) ; see note
on II. 576.
806. Injury to his honour.] See note on VIII. 424-5.
816. crime coiled with connivancy at crime.] The sentence is ill-
expressed. The ' monster ' which curled from Guido's heart was
his scheme to drive Pompilia into misconduct with Caponsacchi
(' connivancy at crime '), and to make the misconduct a pretext for
killing her ('crime') on the plea of injured honour. But the
' monster ' which Guido alleged that Pompilia ' hatched and reared '
was not, of course, this ; it was a resolve on her part to be guilty of
the misconduct.
819. a month.] See note on 241 above.
832. he may get to bear.] See note on IV. 1541.
833. by voices.] The words depend on * to judge ' (825).
836. to all we seem to hear], i.e. apparently, to all that, when
we hear it, seems to us to be true.
838-1329.] Summaries of Books II. -XL Note that each
summary is itself summarized in its concluding line or lines.
841. plump.] So in the illustrated edition ; probably a misprint
BOOK I. —THE RINQ AND THE BOOK 21
for ' plumb ', of which ' plump ' in the sense which it has here is a
in. ic modern softening. Milton has 'plumb-down he drops/ in / *c
Paradise Lost, 2. 933. £x • / >***- A^y^
842-82.] Summary of Book II.
844. Then, by vibrations.] 'Then' is not antithetical to the
t ' of line 839. The world guesses (1) by the ' splash ', (2) * by
vibrations '.
866. toith his previous hint.] See Introduction to Book II.
868. JSacus] was in his lifetime, as king of ^Egina, renowned for
his justice, and after his death he became one of the three judges in
Hades (Minos and Rhadamanthus were the other two). He is ' a
type of impartiality '.
873. a certain spectacle], viz. that described at the beginning of
Book II., the exposure of the bodies of Pietro and Violante.
874. the church Lorenzo.] See note on II. 6.
875. the street], i.e. the small Piazza in Lucina, which narrows
towards the Corso ; its ' mouth ' is flanked by the two palaces
mentioned. It is * a favourite place for the lounger, since it forms a
placid backwater to the rushing stream of the Corso ' (Treves, p. 118).
883-909.] Summary of Book III.
897-903.] See notes on III. 118 and 462.
902. caritellas.] The word might, I suppose, mean small figures
of the Graces (Cariti = the Graces), but are there any such figures
about the Triton-fountain or near it ? May Browning's « caritellas '
be a misprint for * carretellas ', the vehicles in which ' the motley
merchandizing multitude ' of lino 903 has come to market ? *
904. three days ago.] See Introduction to Book III.
905. The frost is over and gone.] Browning pictures the murders
as occurring on a night which was 'oh, so cold', with snow falling
(above, 606-9).
910-42.] Summary of Book IV.
911. prelusive still of novelty.] See above, 894-5.
925. clarity of candour.] Beware of the misprint * charity ' in
the illustrated edition of the poem.
929. breathing musk from lace-work, etc.} Cf. II. 825, * the musk
o' the gallant ', VI. 1877. The contemporary Dowager Lady Castle-
wood shakes the rich aroma of musk out of her garments whenever
she movec I i. 3, ii. 3).
tndole], i.e. branched chandelier.
». for observance' sake.] Does this mean 'to pay respect to
r ', or ' to note what he says ', or (as is more probable) ' to
observe the custom of quitting the card-table so that others may
take a hand ' ?
1 Since I wrote as above Dr. Ashby has referred me to Thomas, Un An d Rome,
;>. 39 : ' let • ines connue* tout le nom de caratelle '. Plate
Hr. A>hl'.v trIN n,f. >ii,,w.s tluit a ctiratrlla was 'a sort of p;iir-
22 THE RING AND THE BOOK
943-1015.] Summary of Book V., with a digression (981-1014)
on the use of torture.
945-7.] Browning has a charming passage on the ' appropriate
tinge ' of tongues of flame ' according to its food ' in The Two Poets
o/Croisic (stanzas v.-vin.).
952. Tommali, Venturini and the rest.] Hodell says that 'the
usual custom in the criminal law of that day was to try before a
single judge', but admits that the presiding judge at Guido's trial
may ' possibly ' have been ' assisted by a board of judges '. This,
however, was certainly the case, for, though the advocates begin
their pleadings with the vocative singular lllustrissime et Reverendis-
sime Domine (the Dominus in question is described as Urbis Guber-
nator in Criminalibus), they address themselves as they proceed to a
board of judges (see O.Y.B. xxxvii., Ixi., clxiv., E.L. 37, 65, 172) ;
cf. 0. Y.B. ccxlv., E.L. 242, where, as Hodell notes, the sentence of the
Court is called ' the judgment of this Most Illustrious Congregation '.
Browning speaks throughout of three judges (see e.g. VI. 8),
sitting with the Governor as assessors. For Tomati and Venturini
see note on IV. 1308-16.
954 seqq.] See Appendix VI.
962-8.] Most readers, at any rate at first sight, would say that
the 'fools' of 962-3 are the Comparini, though Guido might be
expected to call them criminals in this context rather than fools.
They poured the blame of their wrongdoing upon Guido, alleging
that his fraud, and not theirs, was the cause of all the subsequent
trouble. But the ' folly ' of 968, which ' calls black white ', seems
to be that of the judges, who in the Process of Flight practically
whitewashed the defendants by imposing on them what in Guido's
view were absurdly inadequate penalties. They thereby made it
necessary for him to avenge his own honour, while yet they blame
him for avenging it. Since the ' folly ' of 968 ought to be that of
the ' fools ' of 962-3, it is possible that Guido is speaking of the
judges throughout. — For some ' incisive ' (965) comments by
Guido on the judges see V. 1852-66.
963. Satan-like.] Satan blames Job in the Bible (Job ii.), but
he does not pour the blame of his own wrongdoing upon him.
979. the Cord.] For the Cord, the Vigil, and other matters
relating to torture with which the poem is concerned see Appendix
VI.
98.5. Religion . . . Humanity.] ' Humanity ' here is human
nature, prompted by its instincts, but sanctioned or checked in its
actions by the Church (' Religion').
991. slave.] He was Religion's slave (985-6).
997. Let eye give notice, etc.], i.e. allowed his eye to show a flash
which suggested that there was a soul behind it.
1002-12.] When lay opinion at last denounced the use of torture
as both vile and foolish, and ' broke the rack ', the Church, says the
BOOK I.— THE KING AND THE BOOK 23
, profiled, haltingly and unconvincingly, that, though she
ini^ht have ' forgotten "^abrogate it, she had long since condemned
it. She was, howeve^unwilling-^perhapB she was unable — to cite
chapter and verse to proTe"ttiat this was so ; she preferred to leave
the book of her records closed. See further in Appendix VI.
1016-75.] Summary of Book VI.
1017. the coil], i.e. the entanglement caused by combining the
two rdles.
1024-32.] See Introduction to Book VI.
1034. at.] 'To' (as in III. 1688) or 'against' would be more
usual after * excepted '.
1040. To a short distance for a little time.] To Civita Vecchia (' a
half dozen hours' ride off ' — V. 1339) for three years.
1052.] See note on IV. 1308-16.
1054. \oaived recognition], i.e. virtually but not expressly con-
doned ; cf. VI. 9-24.
1063. eight months since], i.e. since May 1697 ; Browning calls
the interval ' six months ' in VI. 7.
1076-1104.] Summary of Book VII.
1081. the hireling and the alien.] Doctors, lawyers (1087),
ecclesiastics, and merely inquisitive sympathizers — ' too many by
half ' ; see III. 39-65. Attestations by various persons who
* assisted ' at Pompilia's death-bed were produced at the trial (0. Y.B.
lvii.-lx., E.L. 59-61).
1085.] Browning was mistaken about the place of Pompilia's
death ; see Appendix II.
1105-1219.] Summary of Books VIII. and IX. ; of Book VIII.
in particular in 1124-61, of Book IX. in 1162-1219.
1118. puissance] is here trisyllabic, just as ' impuissance ' is
quadrisyllable in Saul, xvni., and at least twice in Ferishtah's
Fancies ; but in XI. 1007—
Sire, you are regal, puissant and so forth —
* puissant ' is dissyllabic.
Shakespeare has * puissant' dissyllabic in Richard III. 4. 4. 434
and in King Lear, 5. 3. 216, and * puissance ' dissyllabic in Henry V.
3, Chorus : hut in the same play, 1, Chorus, ami in King John, 3. 1.
339, the latter word is trisyllabic.
N.E.D. notes that both words are always dissyllabic in Milton,
but often trisyllabic in other poets ; ' puissance ' trisyllabic is
especially common in Spenser (who however has ' puissant ' dis-
"<• in Faery Queene, 4. 15) and occurs in Tennyson.
1 122. too immense an odds] against the ' helplessness ' of ' common
sense' (1107).
1128-59.1 A long but easy sentence. The 'how' of 1128 is
"ird in 1 !:•>, and in 1 147, iu which latter line it finds a verb at
tot,
24 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1139. efficacious personage], i.e. cardinal ; see note on III. 1471,
' the efficacious purple '.
1151. whiffles], i.e. puffs forth ; the word is used for the allitera-
tion ('wheezes law . . . whiffles. Latin').
1153. levigate.] The Latin levigare, like the English verb, has the
two senses of (1) 'to make smooth ' and (2), in chemistry, ' to reduce
to powder'. N.E.D. quotes the present passage as a solitary in-
stance of the figurative use in sense (2). In Christmas-Eve, xvin.
' levigable ' is similarly used :
when the Critic had done his best,
And the pearl of price, at reason's test,
Lay dust and ashes levigable
On the Professor's lecture-table.
1159. As he had.] The use of ' as ' for ' as if ', common in poetry,
is specially common in Browning, where it sometimes causes a
difficulty in long sentences. The choice between the two is simply
dictated by convenience, as in Shelley, The Cenci, Act I. Sc. 2 :
you look on me
As you were not my friend, and as if you
Discovered that I thought so.
See note on III. 754.
1163. Leaving yourselves fill up]. For the omission of ' to ' after
' leaving ' cf. XL 342, 646.
1165. clap we to the close.] 'Clap we' = 'let us pass straight
away ' ; cf. Measure for Measure, 4. 3. 43 (' Truly, Sir, I would
desire you to clap into your prayers ; for, look you, the warrant's
come '), As you like it, 5. 3. 11, Much Ado, 3. 4. 44.
1174. To-morrow her persecutor.] See XII. 664-735. The
' Fisc ', which prosecuted Guido in the murder- trial, afterwards
supported the claim of the Convertites to inherit Pompilia's property,
made on the ground that she had been a loose woman. But there
is no evidence that Bottini took part in these latter proceedings ;
it appears from the legal documents (O.Y.B. cclx., E.L. 253) that
in them the Fisc was represented by Gambi, its Procurator.
1182-95.] On Browning's characterization of Bottini see Intro-
duction to Book IX. The present passage is perplexing. How
did Bottini combine caution and rashness ? In what respects did
he resemble the wrecker to whom he is compared ? How, precisely,
is the supposed wrecker supposed to act ? — 'Caution', it will be
observed, commends ' Rashness ' for being cautious.
1201. scrannel pipe.] 'Scrannel', in the sense of 'strident',
occurs again in VI. 1000. The word is familiar from its use in
Lycidas (line 124, ' their scrannel pipes of wretched straw '), where
Milton imitates Virgil's stridenti stipula ; its origin is uncertain.
BOOK L—THE RING AND THE BOOK 25
1202. studio.] The Italian word, like the French tiude, is used of
a lawyer's ofli<
1207. Forum and Mars' Hill] His 'studio' is his only audi-
torium- his Forum and Areopagus.
IL'U'.I. Olctveciniet], i.e. harpsichord-player.
1214-15. From old Corelli to young Haendel.] Corelli, the famous
violinist and composer, was born in 1653, Handel in 1684. Handel
was not ' i' the flesh at Rome ' in 1698. He had wished as a boy to
go to Italy, but ' could not find the means ' ; he first went there,
and became intimate with Corelli at Rome, in 1706. See Hubert
Parry, Studies of Great Composers, pp. 27-33. — Having adopted
1 lundel we have long ceased to modify his ' a ' ; to his contemporary
Addison he was ' Minheer Hendel ' (Spectator, No. 5).
1219. vindicates Pompilid1 s fame.] See Introduction to Book IX.
1220-71.] Summary of Book X.
1222.] See X. 236 and Appendix VII.
1225.] On the pope's age see note on X. 166.
1250. a huge tome, etc.] The tome is a MS. history of the Popes ;
see the opening lines of Book X.
1272-1329.] Summary of Book XI.
1273-4. skin for skin, etc.] Job ii. 4. ' The meaning apparently
is : a man will sacrifice one part of his body to save another, an arm,
for instance, to save his head ; and he will similarly give all that he
has to save his life ' (Driver).
1275-6. gainable, And bird -like buzzed.] An improvement in
two respects on the ' gainable, free To bird-like buzz ' of the earlier
editions ; as, for another reason, * shone ' is an improvement on
1 come ' in 1281.
1279. rivelled]= shrivelled: in Troilus and Cressida (5. 1. 26) it
means ' wrinkled '.
1284. that New Prison.] See note on V. 324-5.
PJ'.iT. pried and tried.] See note on IX. 1039-40.
1311. the frightful Brotherhood of Death] is mentioned again in
XI. 2414-15 and XII. 129. We learn from the records that the
Brethren arrived at the prison in the early afternoon (O.Y.B. 213,
E.L. 265) of the day of execution and accompanied the condemned
to the scaffold (0. Y.B. 224, E.L. 280). Story (Roba di Roma, pp.
."» 1 l - 1 ."» ) 1 1' •- -ribes certain Roman Confraternita della Morte concerned
with hurld!*; their dress and standard resemble those of ' tin-
frightful Brotherhood ' of which Browning speaks.
i::il».J Psalm cxxx. i.
1 :;•_'.">. by the longest way.} So as to make a deeper impression on
the populace ; see note on XII. 139.
1328. Munmiin] a kind of guillotine, the 'certain novel springe '
described in XI. I7'.» L>f>8.
1:;:;<>-47.J After the aen>unt> L'i\eii in lines 838-1329 of the
content- d the ' finally '
26 THE RING AND THE BOOK
v of line 1330 suggests, that the new paragraph will give us a corre-
) sponding account of Book XII. But it can hardly be said to do so ;
Book XII. cannot well be described as leading us back, ' by step and
step ', to mother-earth from the sublimities (and the depths 1, for we
have been far away from ' heaven ' at times, e.g. in Book XI. ) of
previous Books. Perhaps the paragraph is no more than the
anticipatory dismissal of the reader at the end of the whole poem,
but on that view the ' by like steps ' of line 1334 is still a difficulty.
Professor Dowden (Browning, pp. 258-9) uses the metaphors of
the passage when contrasting the noble monologues of Books VI.,
VII., X., with the worldly voices to which we listen e.g. in Books II.
and III. ' For the valuation ', he writes, ' of this loftier testimony
[that of VI., VII., X.] we require a sense of the level ground, even
if it be the fen- country. . . . The plain is where we ordinarily live
and move ; it has its rights, and is worth understanding for its own
sake. Therefore we shall mix our mind with that of " Half -Rome "
and " The Other Half -Rome " [II., III.] before we climb any mounts
of transfiguration or enter any city set upon a hill '.
1342-5.] The lines suggest that the eagle, who, as Tennyson
says;
clasps the crag with hooked hands
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world,
would fain, on the return of spring, soar yet higher and confront the
sun yet more closely with his homy eyes ; but he dies with his
aspiration unachieved.
1348-73.] Developing what has been suggested in the previous
paragraph the poet explains and justifies his scheme and method.
He might have selected (' saved ') one aspect of his subject- master /•
and ignored all others, but he preferred to present it unde^alj/its
aspects ; from these various aspects, he says, a unity will eventually
be evolved. Because jjuido's action was alive it could be variously
judged ; a man's activities" may sometimes reveal, but they often]
conceal, the motives which prompted them. Shift your point 01
view ever so little, they may have quite another appearance, and may
perplex your judgment. — The paragraph might be expected to end
with a further reference to the ' eventual unity ' of line 1363 — with
an assurance that by viewing Guide's action in various lights we shall
eventually be able to give a confident judgment upon it, just as
Browning by so viewing it was himself able to give his ' sentence
absolute for shade ' ; but it ends on another note.
1 Mr. John Morley, in an article in the Fortnightly Review (March 1, 1869) to
which I have often referred, aptly applied to The Ring and the Book what Virgil
(Qeorg. 2. 291-2) says of the tree which he calls aesculus : —
quantum vertice ad auras
Aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit
(' pushes its roots as far towards hell as it rears its top to the airs of heaven ').
BOOK I.— THE RING AND THE BOOK 27
;-7.J Note the startlingly brilliant pictures, painted with
one Mveep of the brush, of summer and winter.
1307 sery/.J Whatever may be the literal meaning of the simile
employed, its significance is clear enough.
1373. shine or shade.] No trick of language is employed more
constantly by Browning than the antithesis of * shine ' and ' shade ',
both in literal and in figurative senses. Here are some examples : —
The clock is vigilant,
And cares not whether it be shade or shine,
Doling out day and night.
(X. 457-9.)
There's a fountain to spout and splash !
In the shade it sings and springs ; in the shine such foam-bows Hash, etc.
(Up at a Villa, Stanza vn.)
In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea.
(Summum Bonum.)
The facts abound and superabound :
And nothing hinders that we lift the case
Out of the shade into the shine.
(IV. 5-7.)
Dark, difficult enough
The human sphere, yet eyes grow sharp by use,
I find the truth, dispart the shine from shade.
(X. 1241-3.)
What though it [Goldoni's verse] just reflect the shade and shine
Of common life ?
(Sonnet to Goldoni.)
Must the rose sigh " Pluck — I perish ! " must the eve weep " Gaze — I
fade ! "
— Every sweet warn " 'Ware my bitter ! " every shine bid " WTait my
shade " ?
Can we love but on condition, that the thing we love must die ?
(La Suisiaz, lines 309-11.)
Well, the result was something of a shade
On the parties thus accused, — how otherwise ?
Shade, but with shine as unmistakable.
Each had a prompt defence.
(111. 1340-43.) •
Judge this, bishop that,
Dispensers of the shine and shade o' the place.
(III. 981-2.)
A good thing or a bad thing — Life is which ?
Shine and shade, happiness and misery
Battle it out there.
(Ferishtah's Fancies: A Bean-Stripe.)
(Two other examples occur in the same poem.)
28 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Foiled by my senses I dreamed ; I doubtless awaken in wonder :
This proves shine, that — shade ? Good was the evil that seemed ?
(Ixion.)
So also ' shine ' alone : I. 295 (' human promise, oh ! how short
of shine ! '), VII. 1529 (' that heart burst out in shine '), II. 1194,
VII. 1570.
1379.] See 410 above. When Browning was offered the editor-
ship of the Cornhill in 1862 he wrote to his friend Story : ' They
count on my attracting writers — I who can never muster English
readers enough to pay for salt and bread ! ' (H. James, W . W.
Story and his Friends, ii. p. 116). But in the same letter he admits,
apropos of a Selection then printing, that ' people are getting good-
natured to my poems '.
1381-5.] ' Whoso runs may read ' is from Habakkuk ii. 2 :
' The Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it
plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it'. — The poet
pokes fun incidentally both at himself and at the literary world.
In the old days (say of Paracelsus or Sordello), when his public was
fit but small — indeed it was sometimes himself only — , it was not
\ necessary for him to atrajn after bim'rh't.y ; now, when a larger public
/takes account of him, it is necessary. Meanwhile, if, in view of this
larger public, he must take more pains to be lucid than of old, he is
perhaps not so anxious to secure its approval as he was (and is) to
secure the approval of the smaller ; his desire was (and is) to secure
this latter approval by discharging a poet's true function, not to win
popularity.
1386. Such labour had such issue.} ' Such labour ' as is described
in 1380-85 had its issue in The Ring and the Book.
1391-1416.] This famous invocation of the poet's dead wife, for
all its tenderness and pathos, is what Dr. Furnivall called it, 'gnarly' ;
and, though Dr. Berdoe dispensed with explanations on the ground
that ' there is no difficulty about the lines till we come to parse them ',
its gnarliness is not confined to its grammar. A careful ' Gram-
matical Analysis ' by Furnivall will be f oundx in the Browning
Society's Papers, Part IX. ; a loose translation into French prose is
given in La Vie et le (Euvre d' Elizabeth Barrett Browning, by G.-M.
Merlette (Paris, 1905), pp. 344-5.
I have permission to quote the following passage from a letter
written by the late Canon Scott Holland on the death of a friend : —
' Poetry wakes up at her touch, and it is hardly possible but that
those who remember her will not know a little more of what is to be
felt moving under the great lines, " O Lyric Love, half angel and half
bird ". The fluttering passion of the bird with the white flashing
purity of the angel — the wonder, the strangeness, the delight of a
visitant presence, caught and held in the body for a space, for our
joy, and released to fly back in a rush to the home that was hers all
BOOK I.— THE RING AND THE BOOK
29
along, leaving to us the sense of swift passage, as of a bird, through
a world that could not hold her, so that we are left startled out of our
humdrum selves, knowing that we have entertained an angel un-
awares ' (Some Hawarden Letters, pp. 185-6).
' When Nathaniel Hawthorne visited the Brownings in 1858 he
< I* scribed Mrs. Browning as " a pale small person, scarcely embodied
at all "... " Sweetly disposed towards the human race, though
only remotely akin to it " ' (Hall Griffin, Life of Robert Browning,
p. 229 ; he is quoting from Italian Notebooks, pp. 11-13).
1395. a kindred soul.] A soul as divine as the sun — * as life-
giving, as pure, as bright ' (Furnivall).
1397-9.] The long temporal clause qualifies line 1396; the
humanity of the poetess at the call of any earthly need is contrasted
with her lofty spiritual nature as pictured in the opening lines
(Furnivall).
1398. thy chambers], i.e., of course, her * sanctuary within the
holier blue '.
1399-1400. to drop down, etc.] Furnivall had Browning's
authority for connecting these infinitives, not with 'summons', but
with ' human'.
1401. This is the same voice.] The poet identifies his voice with
that which summoned her before — the voice of humanity praying
for the help. It is not possible to give a narrower interpretation
to 1397-9.
1403-4. my due To God.} For Browning's conviction of his high
function, by the discharge of which he must * save his soul ', see the
notes I. 40 and XII. 867.
1407. some interchange.} * Interchange ' is loosely used for
* transfer ' ; Browning is speaking of the help given by the poetess
to the poet. The thought of mutual help is foreign to the passage.
1413. so blessing back.] * So ' refers back to * raising ', with which
' blessing ' is in apposition.
1415-16.] See Appendix IX. for interpretations of this difficult
passage,
1415. which, I judge, thy face makes proud.] Is ' which ' subject
or object to ' makes proud ' ? In view of the interpretation of the
passage suggested in Appendix IX. I prefer to take it as subject ;
so Zampini-Salazar, La Vita et le Opere, p. 77 : qualche biancore che
a me sembri f illumini d' orgoglio il viso. Merle tte and (I think)
Furnivall take it as object.
BOOK II.— HALF-ROME
INTRODUCTION
THE speakers of the ten monologues of Books II. to XI.
are nine in number (for one of them speaks twice), and
these nine,, as Professor Hodell notes *, fall into three
groups of three. The first group consists of outsiders —
of men in the street or in the salon ; the second of the
chief actors in the tragedy ; the third of representatives
of law — two advocates and the Pope as judge. The
members of all the groups are concerned to express and
to justify opinions about certain events, and to that end
they must often narrate them ; but the members of the
first group are narrators primarily, they speak to people
whose knowledge of the events is vague and who want
fuller information. They give them what they want, but
they give them opinions and arguments as well ; so that
their three monologues, like the two Italian pamphlets
which probably suggested Books II. and III. to Browning,
and on which those books are partly based, are notizie,
not only di fatto, but also di ragioni 2. Meanwhile they are,
or they profess to be, primarily notizie di fatto, and as such
they rightly come first in the poem. When these notices
have been given other speakers can take many facts for
granted, can ignore incidents in which they had no personal
part or on which, for one reason or another, they do not
care to dwell ; they can do so without leaving the reader
_ in the dark.
1 O.Y.B. 252.
2 These pamphlets, published af Rome — as we should say, in flat contempt
of courts—while the case was still sub judice, are entitled respectively Notizie di
fatto e di ragioni per la Causa Franceschini and Risposta alle notizie di fatto e di
ragioni nella Causa Franceschini.
30
BOOK 1L— HALF-ROME 31
The relation of Book IV. — the third of tin- first group
of monologues — to Books II. and III. is in one respect
analogous to that of Book X. — the third of the third
group — to Books VIII. and IX. ; just as the Pope (inter
<il in) weighs the cases presented by the contending advocates
t«> the Court, so the superior person of Book IV. sifts and
I is the conflicting opinions of the street. The mono-
logue of the salon wul be considered separately (Introduc-
tion to Book IV.) ; the two monologues of the street may
conveniently be discussed together.
' 'Tis a very excellent piece of work : would 'twere
done ! ' says Christopher Sly after sitting through the first
scene of The Taming of tlie Shrew. Much the same judg-
ment has been sometimes passed, not at quite -so early
a stage, but before the end is well in sight, upon The Ring
and tfie Book. It is more than twice as long as the Mneid,
just twice as long as Paradise Lost, nearly twice as long as
the Odyssey, longer by one-third than the Iliad, shorter
indrr'l. but only by one third, than the completed part
of the interminable Faery Queene l ; many critics, even
admiring critics, have protested against what Lord Morley
called ' its impossible length ' 2, and perhaps, as Dr. Johnson
said of the much shorter Paradise Lost, ' none ever wished it
longer than it is '. Now pruning of the poem in detail
might certainly have been effected without loss, though
probably with less gain than some of us think ; but sugges-
tions have been made for excisions more drastic than mere
pruning. Thus it has been maintained (1) that Guido
should have spoken only once ; (2) that the Pope should
have been kept off irrelevant theology; (3) that one
specimen of street opinion 3, and one of lawyer's advocacy,
would have been enough ; (4) that the men in the street
ami the lawyers should have l>ren suppressed altogether,
hese propositions the first and second will be considered
in the Introductions to Bo. .k- X. and XL; the third and
. the Odyssey 12.1 K),
th.- /. ter editions) 21,134, the six
completed books of The Faery Queev 33,579.
' Professor Dowden went further ; he would have had Books II. to IV. fused
into one.
32 THE RING AND THE BOOK
fourth, so far as they concern Books II. and III., may
be considered here.
The suggestion that the opinions of the streets should
have been voiced by a single speaker is surely infelicitous.
The records prove that public opinion at Rome was sharply
divided — you were Guidoite or anti-Guidoite ; if but one
monologue had been assigned it, either half the city would
have been silent or the views of both halves would have
been more or less impartially expressed, with more or less
lack of colour, by some neutral and therefore unrepre-
sentative bourgeois. In the former case the principle of
Browning's method would have been abandoned, for it
requires that when there are two sides both shouldjbe heard ;
in the latter tEe^ method would have been employeoT to
little purpose, for each side can only be effectively re-
presented by a staunch adherent. Browning's clever-
ness was equal to most tasks, and he could give interest
to a monologue by a wobbler ; but how pale and tame a
wobbler's monologue might have been in comparison
with those of the stalwarts of Books II. and III.1 !
The more drastic suggestion that neither half -Rome
should have been given a hearing is less inconsistent,
perhaps, with the principle of the poet's method, and it
has found many supporters. Few of them, I imagine,
would go so far as Professor Hugh Walker, who says in
his decisive way that ' nearly half the poem ' — he includes
in that half Books II. and III. (as well as VIII. and IX.)
— ' is hardly worth reading ' 2 ! But it has often been
argued that the secondary Books weight the poem heavily,
and that the monologues of Guido, Caponsacchi, Pompilia
and the Pope, with the prologue, would stand out in bolder
relief if the others were excised3. Now it was of course
i It may be objected that the speaker of Book IV. (Tertium Quid) is a neutral,
and that nevertheless his speech is full of colour. But the neutrality (so far as
he is a neutral) of the person of quality who there ' dissertates on the case ' (I.
942) is dramatically appropriate, and owes much of its effectiveness to the non-
neutrality of the two preceding speakers ; the colour of the speech, while partly
perhaps due to that very fact, comes chiefly from a different source. See Intro-
duction to Book IV.
a The Age of Tennyson, p. 229.
3 Thus Mr. Sharp (Life of Browning, p. 127) wishes that the poem was of six
books only, comprising ' but the Prologue, the Plea of Guido, " Caponsacchi ",
"Pompilia", "The Pope", and Guide's last Defence'. 'Thus circumscribed',
he adds, '-it seems to me to be rounded and complete, a great work of art void of
the dross, the mere debris which the true artist discards'.
BOOK II.— HALF-ROM i: 33
the jHK-t's main concern to lay bare the very souls of his
chief actors, hut it was his bye-concern to give thenQi
'TTyiiitr eiujfoliliiuiit — luTrraiKe hissuborHmate actors more
fllan nu'i'o lay 'figures* — and to give his drama a vivid
mise en scene, that of the social and ecclesiastical Rome of
the close of the seventeenth century. To that end he
lavished the resources of his art, his humour, his know-
ledge, his gem' us ; so that quite apart from his tragedy
of souls his picture is priceless 2. But just as his scenery
never diverts the minds of his readers from the great issues
of his drama, so his secondary characters never stand in
the way of his protagonists ; Guido, Pompilia, Caponsacchi
are more real to us from the lively presentation of the
conditions and the persons that helped or hindered their
doings, heightened or assuaged their sufferings ; and this
fact is, not indeed the only, but the chief and the sufficient
justification of such Books as II. and III.3
Meanwhile most readers will be ready with their pruning-
knives, for it cannot reasonably be disputed that repetition
is a feature, and a blemish, of the poem ; but it is a less
prominent feature, and a less disfiguring blemish, than
might be inferred from the current but misleading assertion
that the poet tells the whole story at least ten times. In
the Introduction to Book I. it has been urged as an extenu-
ating circumstance that some repetition is necessitated
by the multiple-monologue method ; accept the method,
and you must bear with the repetition. You can ask no
more than that it shall be kept in check and counter-
balanced by variety. Now nothing could stale the variety
of Browning, and, if he does not reduce repetition to a
mini in u in, he keeps it down with extraordinary skill.
He makes a fresh speaker give freshness to a familiar/
incident by supplying some striking new detail, or by finding^
significance in an old detail which to an earlier speaker /
had none, or again, by distorting such a detail so as /
1 Tn some of his plays (e.g. in Colombe'a Birthday) Browning fails to do this.
' ' Another force pushes its way through the waste and rules the scene . . .
that bnttb of Browning*! own particular matchless Italy which takes us full
in tlir fan- aid remains from tin- tir.-t tin- lelt. rich, coloured, air in which we live
(M-. Henry .lames in tin- (}n<ir1i'rln /iVnV"'. -July 11UJ. ]>. 7'.»).
; Xnot her function which they discharge has been noticed in the first para-
graph of this Introduction : for a third — that of relieving the strain of the tragedy
the Introduction to Hook VIII.
J ,
34 TEE RING AND THE BOOK
to draw from it a new conclusion. Of his devices to secure
variety many examples will be found if you compare
Books II. and III. They both necessarily contain a full
narrative of the story ; the speakers belong to the same
class ; they both speak within forty-eight hours of the
murders, while the sensation is still absorbing1. All this
makes for repetition, but variety at once asserts itself.
The place-colour of Book II. is given by * the mouth of
the street ' by San Lorenzo church, in which the bodies
of the Comparini were exposed ; that of Book III. by the
fountain and market of the Piazza Barberini. The repre-
sentative of Half -Rome is a married man whose wife needs
the marital check — the fact is his ' source of swerving '
in his search for truth ; the Other Half-Rome finds its
mouthpiece in a bachelor who is prejudiced, it may be,
by his sympathy with outraged beauty 2 ; the latter speaker-
exhibits a reflectiveness and a sensibility which are absent
from the coarser nature of the former. Their information
on matters of fact, again, is often different. Half-Rome
has heard a report of the home-life and of the financial
position of the Comparini which does not agree with that
which has reached the Other Half. Half-Rome speaks of
the substance, the Otliejijlalf dwells upon the circum-
stances, of Violante's confession, and the motives which
they assign for it are not the same. The former maintains
that it was Violante, the latter that it was Paolo, who
brought about the ill-starred marriage which only one of
them describes in detail. The sordid quarrels of the
Franceschini and the Comparini at Arezzo, summarized
in some eight lines in Book III., occupy some sixty in
Book II. ; Pompilia's appeals to the Arezzo magnates
and the Augustinian, passed over lightly in II., are a care-
fully developed incident in III. The Guidoite pictures
Caponsacchi as a coxcomb, a haunter of houses of ill-fame,
a Paris and so forth ; to Pompilia's champion, though
' courtly ' and ' no novice to the taste of thyme ', he is
above all else a man of truth and of rare dignity and
resolution. A careful reader as he notes such differences
1 The murders were committed on the evening of January 2 ; ' Half-Rome '
speaks on January 3, ' the other Half-Rome ' (probably ; see Introduction to
Book III.) on January 4.
2 See, however, the Introduction to Book III.
II. II M.I- BOMB
hetueen these t \\ < i ' >;i in | >l< • -i will hardly <,uarrel
\\itli tin- judgment ot .Mr. Syiiimo that ' no contrast could
l»c more complete ' than that v.hich they pi'cM-nt1.
Three passairrs in the t \\ o Hooks uill probably be found
specially anv>tiiiLr: they all support the argument of the
urraph. The first is the description of the exposure
, t the liodi'-s of the ( 'omparini. the hustling crouds in the
church, the doddering ' Luca Cini on his 'Staff', the brisk
{to \\ho does the honours of his exhibition to the
Cardinal : to all this, which fills 2<M) lines at the beginnin<_r
of Honk II.. then is but a bare reterenec in Hook III.^
The second, at the beginning of Book III., sketches the
scene at 1'ompilia's bedside, telling us of her visitors 'too
many by half, of the credulous crone who 'chatters like
\ '.of the great — the once great — Carlo Maratta, 'who
paints Virgins so' and must paint Pompilia ; Book II \
lent about this. The third passage, one of the most
brilliant of its kind in the poem 2 — it makes one wish that
the wily ecclesiastic had been given a whole monologue — ,
is t he < )t her Half-Rome's account of Paolo's visit to Violante
and his bid for Pompilia ; of this again there is nothing
in Hook II., for according to Half-Rome there was no such
\ i-it and at any rate there was no such bid.
In the Notes on this and the two following Books,
\\hich. a> we have seen, are very specially notizie di fatto,
attention i- niH-tently invited to the relation between
im-nts of fact by Browning's speakers and parallel
Matement> in the Yellow Hook. The poet's study of that
hook was constant and most searching. He read it, he
told somebody, eight times through ; it became his ' four-
1 ; he found a use for even its most trivial
minuti.-i' : he declared that the story as he told it was the
>torv of the book, and maintained that the facts which he
found there entirely justified his interpretations of conduct
and motive. A student of the poem must therefore, if
he means to grasp its full significance, be also a student
of the book l
i //-/
ol.-i-rvo in tliN )>:i-i:»'_-. ned a-.- "f imiircct .•^•••.•rli. mi admirable
l.'. ;i* Browning iiMiiam-s it, i..r l'.i»l»'- -nl.ili-tv.
Ml face.
36 THE RING AND THE BOOK
NOTES
6. Lorenzo in Lucina.} The church is in the heart of Rome, just
off the Corso on your right as you walk south. Browning found no
mention of it in his Old Yellow Book, except in Pompilia's baptismal
certificate (0. Y.B. civ., E.L. 159) ; but in the Secondary Source,
which reached him later, it is important as the scene both of Pom-
pilia's marriage and of the exposure of the bodies of the Comparini
(0. Y.B. 209, 213, E.L. 259, 265). It therefore aroused his interest
and he wrote to Rome for particulars about it (see Appendix I.).
As he was never at Rome afterwards, the details about the church
which are mentioned in the poem were no doubt supplied by his
correspondent, who was Frederic Leighton (afterwards P.R.A.).
14.] Matthew vii. 6.
16. The right man.} Explained by 1542-7 below.
26-7.] This distinction is not drawn in the O.Y.B., where it is
said that Guido confessed to having given orders for stabbing his
wife in the face (O.Y.B. xxii., E.L. 22).
41. Not calm . . . as murdered faces use.} 'To use' in the sense
of ' to be accustomed to do something ' (cf. Fifine at the Fair, cxxxn.,
' you do not use to apprehend attack '), now found only in the past
tense, was common formerly in the present also, as in Lycidas, 67 :
' Were it not better done, as others use, To sport with Amaryllis ? '
Psalm cxix. 132, ' as thou usest to do unto those that fear thy name ' ;
but is the verb found elsewhere than in Browning (cf. I. 1133) in
the sense ' to be accustomed to be ' ? — Its transitive use for ' to
accustom' (IV. 39, 'we've used our eyes to the violent hue') is
now most unusual.
54-5.] See note on 6 above. The baptismal certificate gives
the string of names : Francesca Camilla Vittoria Angela Pompilia
(cf. VII. 5-7). She is often called Francesca in the records.
70. clandestinely.} An extract from the San Lorenzo Register,
printed in Treves (p. 299), shows that Guido and Pompilia were
married with all due form, in the presence of witnesses, by the
curatus of San Lorenzo, on the morning of (Sunday) September 6,
1693 ; and that the banns had been published, without any declara-
tion of impediment, on three Sundays in the previous July. The
long interval between banns and~mamage suggests a hitch ; perhaps
Pietro, having given his consent in July, revoked it afterwards ;
but it is difficult to believe that the marriage took place in the manner
which the Register describes without his having finally consented.
Yet three of the pamphleteers told their readers that he did not do so.
Even the best informed of them, the author of the Second Anony-
mous Pamphlet, wrote : ' After having signed the said articles
[about the dowry] Pietro absolutely refused to proceed to the
effectuation of the marriage of the said Francesca Pompilia with the
BOOK II. --HALF '-ROME 37
(iuido. of \\hom ln> had had te\\ <rood accounts. . . . The said
( Juido. M'orniiiL' any furt her consent of Pictro and without his know-
ledge, contracted the marriage' ; and t In- Secondary Source and the
I In i \vnin<i pamphleteer say the same (O.Y.B. ccx., 209, 218;
A'./,. L>IL>. L>.V.t-C>0, 271).
h must l>e remembered that two of these three pamphleteers
\\n>tr Rome time after the event, and that on some points they were
i iily misinformed ; but, even if they were all right in asserting
t hat . so far as Pietro was concerned, the marriage was ' clandestine ',
the Register disproves some of the clandestine incidents introduced
into the poem, such as the 'dim end of a December day', 'the
unpleasant pi iest ' who was ' not our parish friend ', but was, or was
perhaps, the Abate Paolo (see III. 449 seqq., VII. 425 seqq.).
83-5.] In his letter to Leigh ton (see note on 6 above) Browning
spoke of this ' famous Crucifixion by Guido '. Most modern critics
do not greatly admire it (see however Hare, Walks in Rome, i. 45) ;
it is certainly ' second ' by a long interval to the same artist's
Aurora, ' observable ' on the ceiling of the Rospigliosi Palace.
104. No stinginess in wax.] Such as there was, according to the <
poem, when Pompilia was married ; see 360 below, VII. 440.
1 1"». liarbers and blear-eyed.] The shops of barbers and apothe-
caries (tonstrinae and medicinae) were proverbially places for gossip ;
the blear-eyed would be found in the latter. Hence Horace ('the
ancient') opines that a particular bit of gossip is 'well known to
every blear-eyed man and barber ' (Sat. 1. 7. 3) ; cf. IV. 437.
1:22.] Cf. XII. 333 seqq., where Arcangeli says that he sent his
year-old son, as a treat, to witness the executions in the
Piazza del Popolo.
1 .">.">. She can't outlive night.] She did live, 'by a miracle '^ for
three days more.
147. Triangular »' the blade, etc.] From the Secondary Source,
O.Y.B. 212, E.L. 264: ' Franceschini's knife was of a Genoese
pattern (alia Genovese) and triangular, with certain hooks so made
t hat in wounding they could not be withdrawn without such lacera-
tion as to render the wound incurable '. Cf. VIII. 1170, X. 743.
154. the Cardinal.] Browning meant Cardinal Lauria, who was
Paolo's patron and is said to have helped in ' making the match ' ;
lint Lauria died in November 1693, two months after the marriage
(Hodell, O. Y.B. 299). It appears from the post-Browning pamphlet
that Cuido had served another Cardinal — Nerli (O.Y.B. 217, E.L.
Curate], i.e. I'urnln. parish-priest.
U'i-4. | The speaker professes to know that Pompilia has already
• confessed her crime', hut iii lino 1447-9 he only hopes that she may
live lon^f enoiiL'h to do so.
17s. '/.. /,/,//.,.syi/<///r.x-///.| See in. 96 and Appendix VIIL
ITU. I Cardinal d'Kstrees, the J'Yenrh ambassador at Koine, who
38 THE RING AND THE BOOK
first championed Molinos and afterwards spied upon and betrayed
him (see Appendix VIII.), ' book-made ' on Molinism.
188. the Ruspoli.] See I. 876.
190. A certain cousin of yours.] See below, 937 and 1542-7.
192. the handsel], i.e. the first use. The word is used as verb
in Holy-Cross Day, n. : —
Shame, man ! greedy beyond your years
To handsel the bishop's shaving -shears ?
202. smiled.] Substituted on the second revision for ' were ' :
so in 1338 below ' soothe ' for ' be ', in III. 963 ' chanced ' for ' was ',
in XII. 527 ' brood ' for ' be ', in XII. 537 ' lies ' for ' is '.
203. Via Vittoria.] Connects the Corso with the Via del Babuinc
(III. 391-2) ; described in Treves, pp. 97-100 : ' It was quite a
fashionable, well-to-do street. ... Some of the houses are so large
as to be almost mansions ' ; Half -Rome calls it ' aspectable '. That
adjective is now practically obsolete, but Mrs. Browning uses it
both in its proper sense, ' visible ' (The Soul's Travelling : ' the ocean
grandeur which Is aspectable from the place'), and in the sense
which it has here, ' worthy to be seen ' (Aurora Leigh, p. 203).
206-7. The villa — /' the Pauline district] had no existence ;
see Appendix II. The house in the Via Vittoria was the Comparini's
only home and was the scene of the murders.
257. Pietrd's estate was dwindling.] See note on IV. 97 seqq.
260. caf s-cradle.] ' A children's game in which two players
alternately take from each other's fingers an intertwined cord, so
as always to produce a symmetrical figure' (N.E.D.). Charles
Lamb says in his essay on Christ's Hospital that he and his school-
fellows amused themselves by ' weaving those ingenious parentheses
called cat-cradles '.
275. bounty of black hair.] See note on IV. 456.
286. Service and suit.] The rights which a lord could claim from
his feudatories ; a very favourite phrase of Browning's, used again
(not very appropriately) in 386 below ; cf. III. 1248, V. 2019.
291. younger . . . brother.] Browning wrongly, but not un-
naturally, assumed throughout the poem that Guido was the eldest
of the Franceschini brothers ; this is not stated in the Yellow Book,
and the Arezzo Register proves that he was the youngest of the three,
and Paolo the eldest (E.L. 289, Treves, p. 11). Paolo was born in
October 1650, Girolamo in August 1654, Guido in January 1658.
Their sister Porzia was born in January 1653.
304. thirty years.] A mistake ; see note on IV. 392.
308. concurrence], i.e. competition, Italian concorrenza, French
concurrence ; ' competitors and concurrents ' says Lord Bacon.
For the use of the word in this sense (' now a Gallicism ', N.E.D.)
cf. Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, iv.
BOOK 11.— HALF-HOME 39
(THNlMd ///'.•* 1'iniji ami <jirt his loins.} From Luke xii. .':.">,
' It-t your luins be girded about and your lights burning' ; cf. 1 Peter
i. l.'J. '_rird up the loins of your mind ". Browning was fond of these
metaphors; cf. e.g. IX. :_".». No n-adei will forget his condemnation
of • tin- >in ' of ' tin- unlit lamp and the ungirt loin' in The Statue
ami
/ -simile.] Above, 270-4.
< f-hroih >•/>/.] See note on 291 above.
•in tknatetudfat*.] Above, 263-5.
• IHC l>litt<l err. i See note on 70 ; cf. III. 449, ' one dim end
of a Deeember day', Vll. 420, 'dark eve of December's deadest
day '. In putting the marriage in December, which throws out the
eln-onoloL'v (see Appendix III.), Browning followed the Secondary
Bonne (</. Y.H. 209, E.L. 259) ; for putting it in the evening he had
no authority. The post- Browning pamphlet says that it took place
'one morning' (O.Y.B. 218, E.L. 271), which the Register con-
firms.
361. some priest-confederate.} ' Perhaps Abate Paolo ', says the
Other Halt 1 tome (111. 455), 'Paul', says Pompilia, without the
4 perhaps ' (VII. 437). The O. Y.B. does not identify him, but the
Register shows that he was Ignatius Bonechi, the curato of the
parish (Treves, p. 299).
382.] See Pompilia's account in VII. 489 seqq.
409.] So the First Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cxli., E.L.
1 t.~>). which says that the arrangement was advantageous to the
I Yaneesehini ; the diligence of the Abate, and some temporary
nditure by their house, .would enable them to gain greatly
by it.
\ 1 \. ii'ith purple flushing him.] Does this mean, ' financed by a
Cardinal ', who would lend the money necessary for the ' temporary
expenditure ' ?
IL'V Quoth Solomon, etc.} Song of Solomon, iv. 9, ' thou hast
ravished my heart with one of thine eyes'.
\\'.\.\ I can offer no explanation of this line; where do the
of 440 come from ?
S.] Song of Solomon, ii. 5, * stay me with flagons, comfort
me with apples '.
wait softly all his days.] Isaiah xxxviii. 15 ; used again in
Vlll. '.»'.» I and X. 715.
171. tibia /'lurk stone-heap.] The palace of the Franceschini at
-tanding and the family is extinct.
i.J The meanness of the fare at the Franceschini' s table
i- described in tlioworn deposition of t heir ><-rv ant Angelica Bat tista
(O.Y.B, I... /:./.
IT l . (I from earthenware.] Sour wine in niggardly
quantities poured from earthenware instead of silver. Angelica
depo>ed tint only one tl.i^k appeared at table, and that half or
7
40 THE RING AND THE BOOK
more than half its contents was water. For ' verjuice ' cf. Dryden,
Fourth Satire of Persius, 73 : —
himself, for saving charges,
A peel'd slic'd onion eats, and tipples verjuice.
490-91.] See the servant's evidence (0. Y.B. xlix.-liii., E.L. 49-52).
Bottini describes Beatrice as ' of true novercal type ' — immitis ac
semper vt experientia docet implacabilis socrus (0. Y.B. clxxiv., E.L.
181).
493. mumps], i.e. sulks, ill-humour ; a favourite word of Charles
Lamb's.
500-503.] Girolamo Franceschini, whom the poem represents as
the youngest of the brothers (' the boy of the brood ', X. 897), was
in fact, as we have seen (note on 291 above), older than Guido. He
was, like Caponsacchi, a Canon of the Pieve church at Arezzo, where
he lived with his mother. He is often mentioned in the records,
where evidence is produced (1) that he joined with his mother and
brother in treating the Comparini harshly, kicking the servant who
protected them, offering violence to Violante — the Secondary Source,
probably in error, says, to Pompilia — , and even threatening her
life (O.Y.B. xlix., 1., 209; E.L. 50, 51, 260); (2) that Pompilia
told the Bishop of Arezzo that she was absolutely unwilling to live
with him and his mother (0. Y.B. cv., E.L. 113) — Arcangeli, un-
supported by evidence, says that Pompilia accused him of having
tried to poison her (0. Y.B. ix., E.L. 11) ; (3) that he declared in the
Process of Flight that before the flight the Franceschini had no
knowledge of any intimacy between her and Caponsacchi (0. Y.B.
Ixxv., E.L. 81-2). But the most important passage about him
occurs in a faked letter to the Abate Paolo (see 684-725 below and
Appendix IV. ) in which it was pretended that Pompilia wrote :
' My mother told the Bishop and Signer Guido, and then all over
the town, that the Signer Canon my brother-in-law had made dis-
honourable advances to me, a thing never thought of by the same '.
The story of the alleged advances, which this letter was intended
to discredit, is taken as fact in the poem and emphasized as a terrible
addition to Pompilia's troubles. See II. 1292-3 (where they are
represented as prompted by Guido and his mother), VI. 842-6,
VII. 808-14 (where Guido is said to ' see this, know this, and let
be'), X. 896-909.
504. Four months.] See Appendix III. Of the 'probation' the
fullest if not the most accurate account in the records is that of the
Franceschini' s servant Angelica Battista (0. Y.B. xlix.-liii., E.L.
49-53).
513. gossip, cater-cousin and sib.] Cf. Fust and his Friends (in
Parleyings] ad fin., 'thy gossipry, cousin and sib'. For 'cater-
cousin ' see Merchant of Venice, 2. 2. 139, ' His master and he
[Shylock and Launcelot Gobbo] are scarce cater-cousins', i.e.,
BOOK 1L— HALF -ROM i: 41
apparently, an- hardly on speaking terms. There is no ground for
the current explanation. ' four! h eousins '. The word occurs again in
I ' tin Mn-iinii'l, vm.
.'•:M. jln in/ irltnl <lues, etc.] According to the Guidoite First
Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cxliii., E.L. 147), with which the
POM Browning Pamphlet (0. Y.B. 219, E.L. 272) agrees, ' when they
derided to return to Rome, as soon as they expressed their wishes,
they \vcn- provided [by Guido | with money for the journey, and at
Rome with furniture'. The' Secondary Source says that Guido
'scarcely gave them what was necessary for the journey' (O. Y.B. 210,
/•:./,. 260).
Cursed.] Substituted in the second edition for * And the ' ;
a decided improvement.
A tin I in 'I his eighty years.] This is not quite consistent
either with X. 166, where the Pope speaks of himself as 86 in
February 1698, or with fact, for he was born in March 1615.
540. held Jubilee.] It is stated in XII. 59-62 that the Pope
proposed ' to hold Jubilee a second time ' if he lived till the December
of 1698 ; what such a Jubilee would commemorate we are not told.
From the time of Paul II. (1464-71) ordinary jubilees have been
held in every twenty-fifth year (the last was held in 1900). Extra-
ordinary jubilees are also held on special occasions, e.g. on the
accession of a new pope. These, it is explained, are not jubilees
in the full sense, but only indulgent iaeplenariae in forma iubilaei.
All this is described more fully in IV. 145-91 ; see
O.Y.B. i.\., exliii., E.L. 11 (where lotrix, * washer- wife ', is wrongly
translated), 147.
::.] Proverbs xii. 4.
576. theJItujniHt Jifhj years.] So in III. 192 Violante is said to
have been ' far over fifty ', and in IV. 75 to have been ' fifty and
over ', in 1680, the year of Pompilia's birth ; in I. 798 and II. 195
she and 1 Metro are said to have been 'aged seventy each' when
murdered in January 1698.
The poet evidently based these statements on the Secondary
iroe, which speaks of the Comparini vaguely as ' two old septua-
genarians ' at the time of their death (O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265) ; he
overlooked or ignored the more exact assertion of the Second
Anonymous pamphleteer that Violante was 48 in 1680 (O.Y.B.
i.. E.L. 214) — which agrees with the San Lorenzo Register.
when- ~.\}{. is said to have died in eta dianni nn in circa (Treves,
p. :•«»«» >. 1'ietro died, says this Register, /'// tin di anni 'I'.i in circa.
580-83. ] Bee above, 20956??.
7. lniMt-HoJ] Kven the Guidoite pamphleteer does not
i olmimtuch financial (lisinten for Guido ; see O. Y.B. cxliii. -
iv.. /•;./.. I 17-8.
i'.m;,o. | Cuido is not repre>riit.-d as making this point in
. V.
42 THE RING AND THE BOOK
658. slanders written, printed, published wide.] Cf. IV. 640-43,
V. 764 seqq. The records often refer to these alleged ' slanders ' ;
see e.g. O.Y.B. cxliv., E.L. 148, where we are told that soon after
the return of the Comparini there was ' a copious distribution of
scritture throughout Rome, which Pietro had had printed to the very
serious prejudice of the honour of the Franceschini '. It appears
from O.Y.B. xxxiii., E.L. 32, that the Comparini circulated ' most
mordant writings ' against Guido in Arezzo also.
672-3.] See the deposition of the servant Angelica Battista
(O.Y.B. li.-lii., E.L. 51-2), and above, 473-4.
673. six clamorous mouths], her own and those of Guido,
Girolamo, Pompilia, Pietro, and Violante.
676. with stale fame for sauce.] Has much more point than the
' with three pauls' worth' sauce ' of the earlier editions.
684-725.] The letter here described is given in full in O.Y.B.
lv., Ixxxvii., (E.L. 56-7). See Appendix IV.
690. qualified the couple properly.] The letter speaks of ' their
perverse commands, contrary to law human and divine ',' of ' their
express command to murder her husband and poison his family',
of ' their wicked counsels ' generally. Browning originally wrote
'handsomely', but on the second revision substituted 'properly',
a favourite word of his in the same sense ; cf. e.g. XII. 112, ' Cardinal
Bouillon triumphs properly'.
691. hell, she said, was heaven.] ' Now that I have not her who
stirred up my mind I enjoy a quiet of Paradise '.
692. peals.] Cf. Samson Agonistes, 235, ' vanquished by a peal
of words ' ; Paradise Lost, 2. 920, ' nor was his ear less pealed with
noises loud '.
693. Carmel where the lilies live.] The profusion of flowers
upon Mount Carmel is proverbial ; but lilies are not specially
mentioned in the Bible in connection with it.
696. to this very end.] Explained by what follows.
716.] The grammar of the long sentence breaks down here.
' [Her parents'] last injunction to her had been that she should pick
up a fresh companion, helped by whom she . . . having put poison
. . . [having] laid hands . . . and [having] fired the house ' ought
to be followed by ' should scurry off ' ; but the speaker breaks off,
and starts afresh with ' one would finish. . . .'
723. But gave all Rome, etc.] The letter, which is dated June 14,
1694, was no doubt produced by Paolo in the suit for the nullification
of the dowry-contract, and so became public property.
727-8. the Abate had no choice, etc.] By ' a mandate of procura-
tion', dated October 7, 1694, Guido appointed Paolo to act for him
in all lawsuits to which he was a party (0. Y.B. civil., E.L. 162).
735-44.] The civil suit referred to was brought by Pietro against
Guido ' before Monsignor Tomati ' ; its object was to procure the
nullification of the dowry-contract, on the ground that there was
BOOK II.- HALF-ROME 43
conclusive proof that Pompilia was not 1 Metro's daughter ; but in
of tin- evidence of >i\ vritneeeec to that eileet Tomati decided
toli-avi- Pompilia in <i/«i*i fxixst ssiini' JillutiiHti* and left t h" contract
undi.-tuibed. Against this decision Pietro appealed 'to the Sacred
llota. l>. -ton- Monsignor Molines', l.ut tin- a ppeal was still undecided
when Pompilia died.
The fact- are Mated as above in many places in the records (see
e-peeially u. ) .11. ooxu., /•,'./,. "2\-\), but it is said in one place that the
original hearing was ' before the Court of the Sacred Rota ' (O.Y.B.
L, I\.L. -1(>). and in another that the appeal was to the
iiu a di C.iusti/ia ' (O.Y.B. cxliv., E.L. 148).
.t lu-r retVrences to this suit in the poem, see III. 646-87, IV.
1308-16.
7 I'.i. tin tlniihle verdicts favoured here.] Similarly the Other Half-
Koine says that
the Court, its customary way,
Inclined to the middle course the sage affect.
(III. 670-71 ; cf. III. 1379-80, 1395-7.)
754. Counter-appeal on Guide? s.] Cf. III. 681-8 ; but Browning
is to be wrong in supposing that Guido appealed against this
judgment or had any motive for so doing.
776. something like four time* her mm. \ Pompilia was 13 at the
time ; Guido was 46 according to Browning, but in fact only 36.
See note on 291 above.
787. rwr/x that cindered to the tonsure quite..] Cf. 1217, where the
speaker says that Caponsacchi was relegated to Civita ' to re-trim
his ton-un ; VII. 911, ' whose tonsure the rich dark-brown hides'.
'Brother Clout and Father Slouch', priests of another type, are
described as ' bald many an inch beyond the tonsure's need ' (VI.
379).
788. a bishop in the bud.] Cf. VI. 258, where Caponsacchi
explains how it was that he was * bishop in the egg '.
T'.iJ. a xninl of Caesar's household.] Philippians iv. 22. St.
Paul's ' saint- that are of Caesar's household ' were ' probably slaves
and freedmen ' (Lightfoot), but Half-Koine, like many of the com-
mentators, takes them to be persons of high position at the imperial
court.
TM i :,. 1 Browning often uses as an illustration the legend of the
-laving of the Python by Apollo ; cf. Old Masters in Florence, xm.,
TheTwo Poets of Cr<>i«i>\ r\xi. The illustration is hardly happy here.
for Pompilia makes hut a poor Python ; l>ut the poet could not re-i-t
th-- temptation to ' Apollos turned Apollo'.
796-7.] cf. III. 853 i :
hi . . .
:nl of his I'Miiilo's] nor free o' the house;
44 THE RING AND THE BOOK
and IV. 935-8. These statements do not agree with the records.
In the Process of Flight Pompilia deposed : ' Caponsacchi is not
related in any way to my husband, but was certainly a friend '
(O.Y.B. Ixxxv., E.L. 94), while Caponsacchi simply said that Guido
was no relation of his (0. Y.B. Ixxxix., E.L. 97). One of the lawyers,
wishing probably to justify Pompilia' s choice of an escort, says that
Caponsacchi was related to Guido, 'as is supposed' (O.Y.B. Ixi.,
E.L. 66).
r 801. threw comfits at the theatre.'} An incorrect reference to an
incident which Browning treated as of supreme importance. See
note on IV. 944.
806. a certain haunt of doubtful fame.} See Introduction to Book
VI., ad fin.
816. At the villa.] Guido had a vineyard with a house of some
sort at Vittiano, a hamlet (described in Treves, p. 182) some nine
miles from Arezzo on the road to Perugia ; it was at this ' villa '
that he enlisted his rustic confederates (O.Y.B. cxxviii., E.L.
135-6). The villa is often mentioned in the poem, e.g. in IIL 309,
1575, V. 253, 364, 1006, 1142.
821 seqq.~\ Caponsacchi as fox takes the place of the horned and
hoofed Satan of 770-72.
824. Mum here and budget there.} Cf. Merry Wives of Windsor,
5. 2. 5, ' We have a nay- word [pass-word] how to know one another :
I ... cry " mum " ; she cries "budget" '. The N.E.D. suggests
that ' mumbudget ' was ' perhaps originally the name of a children's
game in which silence was required ' ; it quotes from a writer of 1564
' nowe ye playe mumme budget and scilence glumme ', and from
another of 1622 ' I was Mum-budget and durst not open my lips'.
825. The musk o' the gallant.] Cf. I. 928-9, ' some man of quality
. . . breathing musk from lace-work and brocade ' ; VI. 1877.
832. horn-madness.] Applied originally, says N.E.D., to horned
beasts enraged to the point of threatening one another with their
horns (cf. Virgil's irasci in cornua], but sometimes applied by word-
play to the rage of a cuckold ; see Comedy of Errors, 2. 1. 57 : —
D. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.
A. Horn-mad, them villain ?
D. I mean not cuckold-mad : but, sure, he is stark mad.
' To give a man horns ' (K^para iroieiv TIVL) was a Greek proverbial
phrase for cuckolding him.
855-6.] See note on VI. 653.
866. The fox], who was Caponsacchi in line 838, seems here
to include Pompilia ; together they are one of the ' two parties '
of 865.
877. Had he to reconduct her.] Browning's authority for this
related to an earlier period, before Caponsacchi came upon the scene.
See the letter of the Governor, dated August 2, 1694 : ' when she
BOOK ii. ii M.I-' no Mi': 45
had been reprimanded liy \}\\> ino>t prudent prelate, he ;il\v;i\
her home in a carriage' (O.Y.I;. Ixxxi., A'./.. S'.l) : and that of
tin- Bishop, dated September l.~> in tin- same year : * That she might
not liecome even more exasperated I had her conducted home twice
at least in my carriage' (O.Y.B. xci., E.L. 99).
888. who was right ?\ Guido or his friends ? See the last
paragraph but one.
889. One merry April morn ing.] According to the records that of
Monday, April 29, 1697, but according to Browning, who changes
the date intentionally, that of Tuesday, April 23. See note on III.
1065-6.
890. After the cuckoo.] The cuckoo is of course an early bird, so
that ' \\aking after the cuckoo ' would be an ironical understatement
for late waking. The point here is that Caponsacchi is the cuckoo ;
he has been beforehand with Guido, cuckolded him, made him a
wilt i)l, and has now carried his wife off. Cf. Merry Wives of Windsor,
2. 1. 126-7, where Pistol cautions the jealous husband Ford : —
Take heed, have open eye, for thieves do foot by ni^lit :
Take heed, ere summer comes or cuckoo-birds do sing.
The cuckoo ' mocks married men * ; ' cuckoo ' is a
word of fear
Unpleasing to a married ear.
(Love's Labour's Lost, 5. 2. 908-12.)
891-3.] It is stated in the Sentence of the Criminal Court of
Florence that to prevent pursuit Pompilia put an opiate into her
husband's wine at supper (O.Y.B. v., E.L. 5), and the alleged fact
is often mentioned both in the records and in the poem. See
Bottini's justification of it in O.Y.B. clxxvii. (E.L. 184) and in IX.
:;o.
894-6.] Pompilia was accused at Arezzo of having carried off
money and other valuables, of which a list is given, ' from an
inginocchiatoio locked with a key which she took from her husband's
breeches' (O.Y.B. vi., E.L. 6). Pompilia says in her deposition
(O.Y.B. Ixxxv., E.L. 93) that what she took from a sgrigno
(Browning's ' scritoire ') was her own property ; see further in the
note on IX. 653. Guido alludes to ' the effraction, robbery ' as
features of the fault
I never eared to dwell upon at Koine.
(V. 1907-8.)
899. candid], i.e. pure, as in IX. 475.
years.] Pompilia (born in July 1680) was close
Upon seventeen.
!«>!i. .s>>//"/ the Philistine.] Suggested by Exodn> iii. L'L'.
46 THE RING AND THE BOOK
910. In company of the Canon.] See note on VI. 1080-84.
934. One Guillichini.] Gregorio Guillichini was accused before
the court at Arezzo of ' dishonest amours ' with Pompilia, of having
joined in persuading her to flee with Caponsacchi, of having taken
part in the theft of Guide's property, and of having helped in con-
ducting her to the carriage in which she fled. On these charges
he was condemned by the Commissioner to five years in the galleys
at Portoferraio (in Elba), but the sentence was modified by the
Florence Court.
He is not mentioned in the depositions made by Caponsacchi
and Pompilia during the Process of Flight at Rome, but in a letter
written to the Comparini from Castelnuovo on May 3, 1697, Pompilia
says that he was to have accompanied her in the flight, but that
sickness prevented his doing so (see note on VI. 2024).
In the records of the murder-trial he is quoted by the prosecution
as having said before the flight that Pompilia would be quite safe
with Caponsacchi as there was no harm between them (0. Y.B. Ixxiii.,
E.L. 80), and that Caponsacchi was going to Rome for good reasons.
The other references to Guillichini in these records are to the same
effect ; he was related to Guido, and it is argued that his further-
ance of the flight with Caponsacchi shows that he had no mistrust
of him. Guide's advocates do not, I think, mention him.
Allusions to Guillichini in the poem (V. 1016, VI. 2028, 2036-40,
VII. 1306, XI. 1666-7) are based either on the Arezzo sentence or
on Pompilia's letter.
943 seqq.~\ Full accounts of the journey are given by Caponsacchi
and Pompilia in Books VI. and VII.
944. Guided and guarded.]. The phrase constantly recurs in
Browning, e.g. In" V. 451, 816, VII. 153. See note on IX. 1039.
958. Camoscia.] A village 17 miles from Arezzo, at the foot
of the hill on which Cortona stands. (The Cortona railway station,
a mile and a half from the town, is near this village.) The speaker
is meant to be incorrect when he says that Guido was ' too late
by a minute only at Camoscia ' ; for the fugitives started at 1 A.M.,
and Guido didn't wake till near noonday (890). See the next
note.
959. Chiusi.] Browning was well acquainted with the road from
Arezzo to Foligno and Rome, for he had often driven over it at his
leisure (see note on VI. 1176 seqq.). He must therefore have known
what Half-Rome did not know, that .the fugitives went nowhere
near Chiusi.
966-7.] See note on VI. 1398.
972. at early evening.] On the very important question of the
time of the arrival at Castelnuovo see note on VII. 1580-84.
978.] See note on VI. 1401.
999. flung the cassock far, etc.] See VI. 1120-22, where Capon-
sacchi instructs his servant before the journey : —
HOOK II. //.I/,/-' //o.l//-; 47
Provide me with a laic dress! . . .
a a sword in case of accident.
In O.Y.li. e\i. (K.L. 119) Arcangeli maintains that the fact
that ( 'aponsaeehi, though an ecclesiastic, was dressed in 'laic
olotl libus liii/riilihux indutus) 'brings no small weight to
th« |u-iM)f of adult« iv. To which Bottini replies (O.Y.B. clxxix.-
\\., i'..L. ISO) that it does nothing of the sort ; for (1) ' as he is
no priest ' -'I am merely a sub-deacon,' said Caponsacchi in his
deposition (O.Y.B. xc., E.L. 97) — such wear cannot be said to
he forbidden him on a journey ; and (2) he may have worn it in good
fait h, to conceal himself and avert scandal '. Browning often refers
t.. the point (e.g. in III. 1259-61, V. 1049-51).
1001. over shoes over boots.] Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1 . 1. 24, 25.
1011. abashless.] Used again in III. 897; apparently coined
(on false analogy) by Browning.
1012.] Lamparelli brings evidence to prove that such an
' ingenuous protestation ' was ' made by the Canon, in the very
of arrest at the Castelnuovo inn, to the husband himself, who
t lii-re relinked him for such a flight: "I am a man of honour
(galanf huomo) and what I have done I did to save your wife from
the danger of death" ' (O.Y.B. ccxlix., E.L. 246).
1018. At Rome.] According to the Second Anonymous Pamphlet
the authorities at Castelnuovo sent the fugitives to Rome at Guide's
'instance' (O.Y.B. ccxv., E.L. 217), and the same thing is said
in IV. 1118-21 ; but here and elsewhere in the poem (II. 1058-60,
V. 1175, VI. 1575-84) it is Caponsacchi who appealed to Rome.
1031. caught at the sword.] The incidents of the scene, which
would be a fine subject for an artist, were collected by Browning
from various places in the Old Yellow Book. That Pompilia drew
a sword and threatened Guido with it is asserted by Guide's
advocates (O.Y.B. xvii., cxiv., cxxxi., E.L. 18, 122, 138), but
they do not say that it was Guidons sword, as is stated in the
poem (ef. 1 1 1. 1163, 1291, VI. 1544, IX. 894, X. 1083) ; indeed they
are in« -lim •<! to deny, though sometimes they admit, that he had
a sword (O.Y.B. cxliv., cxiv., cf. e\< i\. • E.L. 148, 122, cf.
203V I'.iowning's Arcangeli admits both a sword and a pistol
• V 1 1 1 . L' 1 :M .">). According to the post- Browning pamphlet Pompilia
•<*aeeh?8 sword which lay upon the table ' (0. Y.B. 221,
I-;.L.
1038. pinked] = l pierced with holes' ; cf. Henry VIII. 5. 4. 50,
g »f the Shrew, 4. 1. 136. The N.E.D. quotes from Ben
ii : !',y my In ad, 1 will pinck your flesh full of holes with my
i >l me to play with the word, as though it had
to do with colour (' With a flourish of red all round it "). Romeo
and Meivutio play upon the \\or.l -omcwhat similarly in /bunco and
' I. 61-4.
48 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1041. such invective, etc.] Based on the Second Anonymous
Pamphlet (O. Y.B. ccxiv., E.L. 216) and the Secondary Source
(0.7.5. 211, #.£.262).
1043-8.] So IX. 929-42 ; Caponsacchi gives a very different
account in VI. 1560-63.
1044. sbirri], otherwise capotari, the papal police ; called
birruarii in the Latin of 0. Y.B.
105,5. nose to face, an added palm in length.] Cf. Red Cotton
Night-Cap Country, in., where, when the hopes of Leonce Miranda's
relatives are suddenly dashed, we are told that
Cousin regarded cousin, turned up eye,
And took departure, as our Tuscans laugh,
Each with his added palm-breadth of long nose.
' Restare con un palmo di naso, to be left with a long nose, i.e. to
be disappointed in one's reasonable expectations ' (Hoare's Italian
Dictionary).
1068-76.] For these letters, alleged to have been found in the
inn (or in the prison) at Castelnuovo, see Appendix IV.
1082. He might go cross himself : the case was clear.] ' Well ?
it is finished. Let us make the sign of the cross over it', says a
character in Marion Crawford's Casa Braccio (c. xxxiii.). The
author explains that ' the common Roman phrase ' signifies ' that
a matter is ended and buried, as it were', but he adds that its use
' jarred upon ' the lady to whom the words were spoken ; for her
' the smallest religious allusion had a real meaning '.
1 127. repugns give glance.] The use of ' repugn ' with an infinitive
(with or without 'to') is not noticed in the N.E.D. It is one of
Browning's frequent Gallicisms.
1 131-2. ' Not my hand ', Asserts the friend.] See VI. 1662-5, note.
1132-3.] See Appendix IV.
1141. fardel] = ' bundle ' ; cf. 1126 above, 'the letters' bundled
beastliness '. The word sometimes means ' burden ', as in Hamlet's
soliloquy (3. 1. 76). Cf. Winter's Tale, 4. 4. 727.
1183. Nowise an exile, — that were punishment.] Compare what
Ovid says of his ' relegation ', with which Browning often compares
Caponsacchi's : —
Adde, quod edictum, quamvis immite minaxque,
Attamen in poenae nomine lene fuit ;
Quippe relegatus, non exsul, dicor in illo.
(Tristia, 2. 135-7.)
1198. those good Convertites.] Browning confuses throughout
(1) the Conservatorio di Santa Croce della Penitenza, also called Le
Scalette, which is in the Via Lungara (O.Y.B. 211, 221, E.L. 262,
275) — described in Treves, pp. 126-9 ; and (2) the nunnery of Santa
BOOK II.— HALF-ROM i: 49
h'tni il<ll<' < '<>» r> ititf , now pulled down (Treves, p. 104),
which was in the <'<>rso (<>.}'. 11. cdix.-celxii., K.L. 252-6). It was
he former that J'oinpiiia was sent by the judges in the Process
of Fli-l.t (O.Y.I., oxlvii, ccxxii., /•;./..' 151, 223); the latter laid
claim to 1'ompilia's proj)erty on the ground of its right of inheritance
to the property of loose women (O.Y.B. cxxx., cclix., E.L. 137, 252).
The mistakr is of no great importance except in relation to the
Pope's severe (and unwarranted) animadversion on ' the Monastery
ca I led of Convert ites' (X. 1494-1531).
1201. patiently possess her soul]. Luke xxi. 19.
1217. re-trim hi* tonsure.] See note on 787 above.
1221. a like sufferer in the cause.] Ovid was suddenly ordered,
l»y an imperial edict in A.D. 8, to leave Rome on an appointed day
and betake himself to Tomi (where Costanza now is ?) in the dreary
region of the Dobrudja. Was he, as Half-Rome says, a sufferer in
t h<- same cause as Caponsacchi ? It was, no doubt, officially stated
that his offence was the publication of his Ars Amatoria, but that
had happened ten years earlier. Ovid's own hints on the subject
(Tristia, 2. 103, 3. 5, 49) are mysterious ; Boissier (L1 Opposition sous
les CisarSy c. iii. § 2) suggests a probable explanation.
1222. Planted a primrose~patch]t an oasis in the desert ; but
does the phrase imply that he followed * the primrose path of
dalliance ' or simply that he turned out verses ? Probably it implies
both (1223-7) ; but it is to his poetry that Ovid referred under a
like metaphor when he wrote :
(Jui. sterili totiens cum sim deceptus in arvo,
Damnosa persto condere semen humo
(Epp. Pont. 1. 6. 33);
Hanc messem satis est si mihi reddit humus
(Ibid. 56).
— . where.] Civita, not Pontus, is the antecedent.
1230. the aforesaid Converges.] See note on 1198 above.
iL'i'.L*. like linnets o'er the flax.] Linnets (French linots) are so
.•ailed from the flax (linum) which is their chief food. The reference
to spinning here makes the comparison specially appropriate.
liMl. 1 The 1'ontifex .Maximus had the full patria potestas over
t he Vestal Virgins ; he could and did flog them with his own hand,
if they neglected their duties.
I -!'.». ofoldHead-C-the-Sackyetc.] See the note on Caponsacchi' s
full. -i i VI. 228-38) to ' Capo-in-Sacco our pnmenitor '.
iL'.'il. to Jirk.\ N.E.D. quotes from a writer of 1567: 'I had
tirk'd him trimly, 1 hou villain, if thou hadst L'iven me my sword'.
Ct //•»"/ V. L4. L".I.
l_7n. c.inulinn li<tt> . \ Canidia is the malignant sorceress of
Horace'.- &Oiir«4 and
50 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1272. First fire-drop.] We do not discover what this fire-drop
was till we reach the next paragraph ; the speaker loses himself in
the circumstances which preceded its application.
1285.] See note on III. 1480.
1292. Love from that brother.] See note on 500-503 above.
1297-8.] See note on 727-8 above.
1306.] * The scorpion's long slender tail is formed of six joints,
the last of which ends in a very acute sting which effuses a venomous
liquid ' (Imperial Dictionary).
1323. after full three long weeks.] Caponsacchi was relegated to
Civita Vecchia by a decree dated September 24, 1697, and it seems
to be implied in the records that Pompilia was sent to Le Scalette
at the same time ; she gave her bond to keep to Pietro's house as a
prison (habere hanc Domum D. Petri . . . pro tuto & securo carcere)
on October 12 (O.Y.B. xcix., civ., E.L. 106, 159). This gives
something between a fortnight and three weeks for her time at Le
Scalette.
In III. 1490-91 it is said that she passed five months ' among the
Convert nuns', a statement probably based on the assertion of the
untrustworthy First Anonymous Pamphlet that she was at Le
Scalette for 'some months' (O.Y.B. cxlvii., E.L. 151); this
would mean that she was sent there soon after her arrival in Rome
at the beginning of May.
Of the improbable * six weeks ' of IX. 1227 there is, as Hodell
points out (O.Y.B. 317), no suggestion in the records.
1331-8.] This passage was much altered (and improved) when
Browning revised the poem in 1888-9. In the earlier editions he
had written : —
She had demanded — had obtained indeed,
By intervention of whatever friends
Or perhaps lovers— (beauty in distress
In one whose tale is the town-talk beside,
Never lacks friendship's arm about her neck) —
Not freedom, scarce remitted penalty,
Solely the transfer to some private place
Where better air, more light, new food might be —
The words subsequently altered are printed in italics.
1333. Or perhaps lovers.] The insinuation is made in the First
Anonymous Pamphlet : ' In the meantime [? late summer or autumn
of 1697] Pietro Comparing abounding with money furnished him
with liberal hand by an unknown person, perhaps a lover of the
young woman, was triumphing confidently . . . bragging more-
over that she would soon be at home again in spite of the
Franceschini ' (O.Y.B. cxlvii., E.L. 151). A somewhat mysterious
allusion in the Second Anonymous Pamphlet to ' that kind bene-
factor ' who, moved by compassion, aided the Comparini in their
HOOK II. 1 1 M.I- i:o. Ml-: 51
la\\>iiii-. and t,i procure \vhosr death (iuido had laid plots (O.Y.B.
ecxxiii., /•.' /.. L'L'I), refers no doubt to the same person, who, the
writer adds, had licen at Home while J'ompilia was at Are/./.o and
could not IK- suspected of misconduct with her.
I:HL'. Doniiis pro careen-. | Sec note on 1323.
1 :;:><;. ,/'/'/"/ //// r<nninrtn-tliin<j.\ Above, 270-74 and 323.
i:;i;i x. i See Appendix II.
i:J7i'.-7. | Cf. V. I :'>*<). where Guido says that in the autumn of
H'>!»7 his wrongs made lu's wine ' acrid with the toad's-head-squeeze,
My uife'.- liesto\\ ment '. The toad provides adulterous wives in
huenal (,sv//. 1. 7(), (i. ().")<)) with poison for their husbands, and it
pro\ide> Horace's Canidia (Epodes, 5. 19; see above, 1270), as it
provides tlie witches in Macbeth, with ' ingredients for her caldron'.
1383, (,'iu-e birth, Sir, to a child] on December 18, 1697 according
to Bottini (O.Y.B. clxxxiv., E.L. 189).
1390. what »/v/.s- a bruin became a blaze.] Cf. V. 1483.
3. clodpole]^' blockhead', a favourite word with Browning
is with Shakespeare.
1399-1400.] Luke xix. 40.
1408. One final essay, last experiment.] In the same way Guido
ibet and defends his * Open to Caponsacchi ! ' as
the experiment, the final test,
Ultimate chance that ever was to be
For the wretchedness inside.
(V. 1626-8.)
< ontraM the view taken by the Other Half-Rome (III. 1599-
1 I.".:; ."). | Tin- rhetoric here (the 'wave', the 'filthy walls') was
ted l'\ the First Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cxlix., E.L.
: ' looking upon the walls incrusted everywhere with his
>t disgraces, the dams of his reason broken by his infamy, he
precipitated himself, etc.'
1117. Ai //" Hospital bard by.] A mistake; Pompilia died in
the home of the Comparini. See Appendix II.
I Mil. p tin Xcw Prison.] See note on V. 324-5.
I 17.",. rirlliti/} Italian ciriltu. ( 'f. IV. 217, ' civility and the
mode' : VIM. 74:*, 'the acknowledged i:se and wont'; X. 972;
X. P.I7H-S: the ' new tribunal', says the Pope sarcastically, 'Higher
than Cod's the educated man's! Nice sense of honour in the
human l»rea>t ; X . 2017, 'the spirit of culture'. See also VI. 156,
noic. 'Civility' requires, as some of thoe passages show, that
hii>l.ands should lie free to punish faithless wives.
I I7C>. Astrtea. \ The Lr«nlde>s of .Justice, who left the world when
i<l. n .me pa— .-d. l.ut icturns with the ic-toration of good
government, of religion, of morals and therefore, a> Dryden
with that of ( 'hallo II. Cf. Ned Bratts, ad fin.
52 THE KING AND THE BOOK
1487. male-Grissel.~] Griseld a, the type of meekness and patience,
comes from the last tale in Boccaccio's Decameron. The tale so
delighted Petrarch that he translated it into Latin and told it to
Chaucer when they met at Padua in 1373 ; Chaucer retold it in his
Clerk of Oxenford's Tale. — In the earlier editions the line ran, ' Of
the male-Grissel or the modern Job ! '
1495. by some Rolando-stroke.] Cf. XI. 304. The allusion is
to ' Durindana's trenchant edge '. Durindana was the marvellous
sword of Rolando, the paladin of Charlemagne.
1496. clavicle] = collar-bone.
1497-1503.] Cf. 1140-45.
1547.] See above, 937. — Compare with the end of Book II. the
end of the First Anonymous Pamphlet, on which pamphlet the
whole Book is to a great extent based.
BOOK III.— THE OTHER HALF-ROME
INTRODUCTION
IN the course of his summary of Book III. (I. 904) the
]>oct says that the monologue which it contains was spoken
three days after the murders, which would fix its date as
January 5, and that date is possibly consistent with the
' since four days ' of III. 867 (depuis quatre jours, counting
in both the 2nd and the 5th), but it is inconsistent with
other notices (I. 846 and 894, III. 36) which suggest January
4. There is a like ambiguity concerning the dates of the
monologues of Guido (V.) and Caponsacchi (VI.), but
such ambiguities are only important for the reason given
in the Introduction to Guido's monologue.
The chief interest of the admirable Book III. lies in
the contrast which it presents to Book II. ; of that con-
trast I have already spoken fully. Here I will only
suggest for consideration a point of subordinate importance.
Browning says in his summaries that though both the
speakers were * honest enough, as the way is ', they were
both led astray by a ' prepossession ', a ' swerve ', a ' fancy- \
fit ', which ' neutralized their honesty ' and brought ' un-
success ' to their guesses after truth ; or that if, in the
case of the second speaker, some measure of success was
attained, it was attained * by no skill but more luck ',
the luck that by a mere whim he happened to take the
right side1. I suggest that the reader may profitably
consider whether in these summaries the poet does full
justice to tin- iv|>ivscntativ<> of the Other Half - Rome.
It i> true that this excellent person, who shows a delicacy
' T. S47-B8,
54 THE RING AND THE BOOK
and a gravity x which the first speaker lacks, has not always
got his facts quite right — how could he, when the case
had not yet been investigated and rumour was on
many points his sole source of information ? — and that
we may detect in him some indications of bias 2 ; but he
has not taken a side, as Browning suggests, at random.
His speech is not merely a more or less honest, and a more
or less successful, attempt to get at the truth from the
evidence before him ; it is on the whole a very scrupulous
attempt. He is on his guard against the prepossessions
which Pompilia's sufferings have aroused in a compassionate,
and her beauty, possibly, in an inflammable heart ; he
discounts most effectively the influences of this latter
' source of swerving ' in 66-82, 865 seqq. On one crucial
point at least — the relations of Caponsacchi and Pompilia
before their arrest — he examines all relevant considerations
with entire candour, giving full weight to those which make
against his own conclusion. That conclusion is, as Brown-
ing says, that Pompilia is ' a martyr ' ; I am not sure
that the speaker insists, as Browning says he insists3,
that she is ' a saint ' as well 4 ; he seems indeed to regard
what Bottini calls the ' sainting ' 5 of her as having been
somewhat overdone. Meanwhile his conclusion is in a
general way the same as the Pope's 6 ; and though he
probes less deep than Innocent and speaks (of course) with
none of his impressive authority and wisdom, he is perhaps
more careful about details 7 and readier to listen to the
other side. But then the Pope, when he soliloquizes in
Book X., is pronouncing an ' ultimate judgment ' rather
than sifting evidence ; the latter process has, for the
most part, preceded his soliloquy.
In the Introduction to Book II. I noticed two brilliant
passages, descriptive and rhetorical respectively, in this
Book III. ; it contains others which make a different
and a higher appeal — the self- vindications which the
speaker puts into the mouths o^fT^tponsaccnl and Pompilia,
1 See III. 83-90, 111-12, 137 seqq., 220.
2 E.g. in III. 1540-42, 1615-18, 1653-5. 3 i. 909.
4 See, however, III. 111-14. -r> XII. 710.
6 And therefore as Browning's.
7 The Pope blunders badly on points of detail in X. 964 and 1494-1531.
BOOK 1 1 1. —THE OTHER HALF-ROM i: .V>
\orthy of their own monologues, and the lines
) \\hirh (lcsci-il)c the dawn of the sense of mother-
h<>od in Pompilia, a subject which always evokes from
r>ro\\nin^ the most delicate and melodious verse1.
NOTES
•I. ffie while liospital-array.} Cf. 35 below, and see Appendix II.
."». in frit/him], i.e. to take fright; this intransitive use of the
verb is not recognized by the N.E.D. Compare Tennyson's 'the
shepherd gladdens in his heart'.
8-10.] From the Secondary Source: 'the unhappy Francesca
Pompilia, notwithstanding all the wounds with which she had
been butehered, implored and obtained from the Holy Virgin the
grace of being able to confess ' (0. Y.B. 212, E.L. 263).
18. The Auffiutinia* brother.} Fra Celcstino of Saint Anna's:
O.Y.B. Ivii.-lvi'ii., E.L. 57-9.
25.] The full stop at the end of the line should be altered to
a — ; ' Who knows ? ' governs all the clauses from line 1 1 onwards.
30-31.] She ' cared for the boy's concerns ' by making a will
in his favour on her death-bed ; arrangements ' to save him from
the sire ' had been made before, immediately after his birth (O. Y.B.
exiii., E.L. 121).
32. with best smile, etc.} The speaker exaggerates ; see the
attestations' in O.Y.B.
.V>. the IOIKJ irhite Jazar-house.] See Appendix II.
41. Too many by half.} See note on I. 1081.
44. They took her witness.} If such a deposition was taken no
record of it has been preserved.
46. 'twas brother Celestine's own right.] As being ' of Saint
Anna ', the supposed scene of Pompilia's death ; see 798 below.
. Carlo . . . Manilla irho paints Virgins so.] Carlo Maratta
(H125-1713), whom Arcangeli understood to be ' first in reputation '
amoni: portrait-painters in 1698 (VIII. 639), painted Virgins so
D that he was called Carlo delle Madonne. He was ' for nearly
half a eentury the most eminent painter in Rome' (E. T. Cook,
llumlbnnl: tit the SntioHiil (Jullrri/, i. p. 183), but his fame did not
prove lasting. In his My Relations, published in 1821, Charles
Lamb wrote as follows of his In-other as picture-buyer: 'How
many a mild Madonna have 1 known to come in — a Raphael ! . . .
then, after eettain interim-dial degradations . . . adopted in turn
by eaeh of ii i. . . . consigned to the oblivious lumber-
room, i/u mil at la>t a Lueea (Giordano, or plain Carlo Maratti ! '
. K\er>le\- Kdition, p. 101).
' Sec IntrMnrtiMi, t<> I'.uok VII.
56 THE RING AND THE BOOK
63. " A lovelier face is not in Rome ".] That Pompilia was
beautiful appears from two places in the records : O.Y.B. clxxx.,
E.L. 186, mulier floridce cetatis, et ut audivi non spernendce famce —
reputation for beauty seems to be meant (Bottini) ; and 0. Y.B.
ooL, E.L. 246, venustam mulierem (Lamparelli).
66-7.] See note on IV. 456.
96. the Philosophic Sin.] Cf. II. 178 and see Appendix VIII.
103. the wind That waits outside a certain church.] The piazza
before the Gesu church ' is considered to be the most draughty
place in Rome. The legend runs that the devil and the wind were
one day taking a walk together. When they came to this square,
the devil, who seemed to be very devout, said to the wind, " Just
wait a minute, mio caro, while I go into this church ". So the wind
promised, and the devil went into the Gesu, and has never come
out again — and the wind is blowing about in the Piazza del Gesii
to this day ' (Hare, Walks in Some, i. p. 68).
118. yon Triton's trump.] In the centre of the Piazza Barberini,
where the speaker is discoursing, stands Bernini's fountain of the
Triton (I. 898-903), who ' blows from his conch into a sky a stream
of pearls ' (Story; ' sleet which breaks to diamond dust ', Browning).
131. composure] = composition, as in Troilus and Cressida, 2. 3.
251, Antony and Cleopatra, 1. 4. 22 : —
his composure must be rich indeed
Whom these things cannot blemish.
Dryden uses ' a composure ' for ' a composition ' in the sense of
' an agreement ' in his Introduction to Absalom and Achitophel.
155.] See note on IV. 97 seqq.
158. our Pietro being.] Double (or ' feminine ') endings are rare
in the poem, except when Latin is quoted ; see note on VI. 1691.
176. as before should go bring grist.] ' Should go bring grist as
before ' in the earlier editions ; the emphasis given to ' bring grist '
by the change is an improvement, cf . 244 below.
179. We have her own confession.] Frequent reference is made
to it in the Old Yellow Book, but no formal record of it is to be
found there.
180. 'twas Jubilee.] See note on II. 540. The Second Anony-
mous Pamphleteer writes (0. Y.B. ccxii., E.L. 214): 'Violante
was moved by remorse of conscience and by the insults and injuries
received in their [the Franceschini's] house, and was constrained
by the command of her confessor on the occasion of the Jubilee
to reveal to her husband Pietro that the said Francesca Pompilia
was not their daughter but a supposititious child '.
184. she harmed No one i"1 the ivorld.] The argument is developed
by Pompilia in VII. 269 seqq.
187. spouse whom.] Substituted in the second edition for
* husband — '. When on revising his poem Browning found that
BOOK III. Till-: OTHER HALF-SOME 57
the omi.»ion of a relative pronoun in certain passages had made
them ambiguous or was particularly harsh, he oftt n either managed
u h a pronoun, as here, or changed the form of a sentence,
M in SH» hi' low.
L'L".). Imring giiinrtl I'lnn/uHa, the girl grew.} Browning is care-
Lett ahout the grammar of his part ieiplo ; B66 e.g. 658-9 below.
A particularly >trikin<4 e\atn|)|e of this carelessness occurs in A
lt< nth l,i t//> l>>«' ii, line \'2.
L':;I. LMv I Then are two misprints here in the illustrated
edition of 1898: 'silver' for 'sliver', and 'surmount' for ' sur-
mouii
'Hnjue-leaved eye-figured Eden tree.] The reference in this
passage must be to a legend or allegory which I cannot trace. A
friend suggests that the use of the epithets ' tongue-leaved ' and
4 eye-tigured ' was * due to some allegorical woodcut of the early
sixteenth century, representing the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil .
:>44. | A change from the ' a light tuft of bloom towered above '
of the earlier editions ; see note on 176 above.
'2~><>. irlit'H one day brought a priest.} The elaborately-detailed
account of the Abate's visit to Violante (250-376) is based on hints
in the records, but represents the poet's 'fancy' rather than 'the
fact'. Oddly enough the post - Browning pamphlet is the only
place in the records in which it is said that the marriage-scheme
originated with Paolo (O.Y.B. 217, E.L. 269). The First Anony-
mous Pamphlet makes the (Jomparini take the initiative (O.Y.B.
cxli.. l'..L. 145); in the Second Anonymous Pamphlet and the
Secon* ee Guido (with the help of ' a certain hairdresser '-
see e.g. IV. 440) is himself the prime mover in the matter (O.Y.B.
ccviii., 209, E.L. 210, 259). We hear in the Secondary Source of
a visit paid to Violante, but it is paid by both the brothers (0. Y.B.
209, E.L. 259), and what passed at the interview is told very brieilv.
253. younger brother.} See note on II. 291.
257. A cardinal} See notes on II. 154 and on 407-8 below.
282. Their house might wear, etc.] There are many allusions
in the poem to hopes of some ' bounty ' (287) to be conferred on
(undo by his patron-friend, but what form it is to take is not quite
elear ; it is to be such that it can be enjoyed at Arezzo (292-4).
LS7. Some sparkle, tho' from.] An improvement, made in the
second edition, on the ' Sparkle, tho' from the ' of the first.
See n«)t.« on II. 816.
::iM. r/,/r.s.s by draining, etc.] Ought he to interfere with Guido
further than by arranging such a marriage as he desired ?
. j See note on II. 291.
:;•_".!. It'ip/t// he Iti* dole], i.e. may happiness he his portion !
' Happy ' here is in emphatic contrast to 'great'. ' Happy man
dole' has the same meaning' in Winters Tale, 1. 2. 103; else-
58 THE RING AND THE BOOK
where in Shakespeare (Merry Wives, 3. 4. 68, Taming of the Shrew,
1. 1. 144, 1 Henry IV. 2. 2. 80) it means ' happy he who succeeds ! '
332-43.] It is not quite easy to find one's way through this
ornithological passage with its phrenixes, sparrow-hawks, larks,
cucKoos, eaglesT ~Tl *, the Abate seems to say, ' my simple kins-
man, announcing his unworldly aims, sets about wife-catching in
Rome, he will very soon attract and catch some bird which he will
suppose to be a choice rarity, a veritable phoenix, but which, when
he has it in his nest, he will find to be a bird of prey. For many
a Roman mother is on the look-out for a husband for her daughter,
and, having regard to Guido's name and credit, she will not be
afraid that he is a mere snare such as Romans set for larks ; on
the contrary, she will without hesitation drop her daughter into
his nest, and the daughter, cuckoo-like, will bring ruin and disgrace
on the Franceschini brood.' — But then, the Abate sadly reflects,
that brood has fallen from its high estate ; no longer, as in crusading
days (cf. V. 1419, XI. 2142 seqq.), does it ' send eagles forth '.
338. lured as larks by looking-glass.} The method of luring
larks ' common amongst the Romans ' is described in Story's Eoba
di Roma, p. 448. Browning, who revised this book for his friend
the author in 1863 (Henry James, W. W. Story and his Friends,
ii. pp. 143 seqq.), took many hints from it for The Ring and the
Book.
375. A certain purple gleam, etc.] He had the air of a cardinal-
to-be. — Paolo ' swam with the deftest on the Galilean pool ' (II.
294) and high advancement had been confidently predicted for him
from the first (' Paul shall be porporate', V. 227).
381.] See 244 above.
384. the Hesperian ball.] Compare Caponsacchi's fine use of the
same legend in VI. 1002-9.
391. into the square of Spain, etc.] The Via Vittoria runs from
the Corso into the Via del Babuino, having reached which you
are close to the Piazza di Spagna.
393. the Boat-fountain.] At the foot of the steps leading from
the Piazza to the Trinita de' Monti is the fountain called La Bar-
caccia — a stone boat of the shape of a war-ship, spouting water
from its cannons — , the work of Bernini or his father.
396-401.] Cf. IV. 490-93. Based, like much else in this book,
on the Second Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. ccx., E.L. 212).
Pietro, we are told, obtained ' few good reports ' about Guido ;
the reports which he did obtain were ' very different from the pre-
supposed riches and the boasted high position '.
401. a cross *' the poke.] A cross was on the reverse of all the
silver coins of Elizabeth ; the word was thence applied to a coin
itself. Cf. As you like it, 2. 4. 12, ' I had rather bear with you
than bear you ; yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you, for I
think you have no money in your purse ' ; there is a similar word-
HI,— Till-: OTHER II M.I' HOME r,0
1. iv iii .' lltiinj IV. 1. - LM:5. The \\»r«l is common in the j»li:
• ami pile : B66 note on V. I57v
in:1.. //// fi'^flni me] = ' abscess '; used again in VI 1. 114.1 and else-
where. The Creek word drroffTwa (literally, 'a standing away
limn'. In -i ration of corrupt matter) wa> u>ed in this sci
and was adopted as a technical term in Latin, e.g. by Pliny. From
Latin it passed into Krench as aposteme, and was corrupted into
: a further corruption in its passage into English gives
us • imposthumc'. which is common in English poetry; it is used
! . \. L'T. l>aeon in his loth Essay speaks of ' maligne
Ulcers and pernicious Impostuiuations'.
l"7-S. fa 90, said sotne, Shaken off, said others.] 'Shaken off'
according to the speaker in IV. 414 ('The Cardinal saw fit to dis-
pi -use with him '), who follows what is hinted in the Second Anony-
mous Pamphlet (<). Y.H. ecviii.) : ' Cuido was at Rome in idleness,
out of the service of a porporute (i.e. cardinal), on the pay supplied
him l>y whom he had till then maintained himself (mistranslated
in E.L. 210). Contrast Guide's statement in V. 1795 seqq.
413. inched.] A favourite verb of Browning's, used again below
(617) ; it is applied in The, Inn Album (p. 94) to the slowly spreading
shadow of a tree (' The shadow inching round those ferny feet ').
423. Goodman Dullard.} ' Goodman ' is used in contemptuous
protest as in Romeo and Juliet, 1. 5. 79.
I :'•'.». the j>l<ii/ing Danae to gold dreams.} The Danae of Greek
legend was shut up in a brazen tower by her father Acrisius, whom
an oracle had warned that she would bear a son who would kill
him. Zeus visited her in a shower of gold, and she became the
mother of Perseus.
1 1") .10.] For the circumstances of the marriage, alleged to be
clandestine, see note on II. 70.
Mi'-:*. | Cf. II. 104-5, 360, VII. 440.
1.15. A priest — perhaps Abate Paolo.} See note on II. 361.
•nines* the church register}, i.e. the bn^ti^ntnl register, a
i -i -rtiiied extract from which was produced during the trial (O. Y.B.
civ., A'./.. IT)1.!): it gives the date of Pompilia's birth as July 17,
1680. Believing her to have been married in December Hi'.»:>.
shortly before Christmas, Browning makes the speaker say that
at the time of her marriage she was 'aged thirteen years and live
mont h> '.
If he had consulted the marriage register of San Lorenzo, he
would have found that this was a mistake. See note on II. 70.
!<>_'. ,/«,// Inmh.} The speaker is ' i' the market-place o' the
liarberini ', in view ' o' the motley merchandizing multitude ' (I.
. with 'the shamble- round the owner1 (below, 467).
It was not till the time of Leo XII. (1S23 !») that the slaughter ,,j
• • within the city was prohibited ; IP- established public Gambles
out-ide th. Porta del popolo (see story, Itubn <fi li'nini. p. :J78).
60 THE RING AND THE BOOK
470. Violante sobbed the sobs, etc.] The scene, imagined by
Browning, is described in full detail by Pompilia in VII. 487-583.
477. surnamed "a hinge".] 'Cardinal' comes from cardo,
' hinge '. In its ecclesiastical sense the word was first applied, as
adjective, to the principal churches in Rome, then to those who
governed them, the ' cardinal ' parish priests.
481 seqq.~\ That ' Paolo's patron-friend ' interposed in this way
is definitely stated in the post- Browning pamphlet, which adds
that the patron in question was Cardinal Lauria, and that he died
soon after the marriage (O.Y.B. 218-19, E.L. 270, 272). Browning
gathered his facts from two places in the records. The First
Anonymous Pamphleteer says that the marriage -contract was
signed by 'a Cardinal now defunct' (O.Y.B. cxlvi., E.L. 150;
see note on V. 1801-2) ; the Second, that a Cardinal who was Paolo's
patron interposed to reconcile Pietro to the marriage (O.Y.B. ccx.,
E.L. 212).
487-8.] 1 Corinthians xiii. 2, Matthew xvii. 20, xxi. 21.
495 seqq.] Contrast II. 404 - 6. Half - Rome speaks of the
handing over to Guido of the Comparini's ' fortune in its rags and
rottenness ' ; the Other Half-Rome of Guide's taking
Pietro' s whole having and holding, house and field,
Goods, chattels and effects, his worldly worth
Present and in perspective.
The former statement is based on O.Y.B. cxlv., E.L. 145 (First
Anonymous Pamphlet); the latter on O.Y.B. ccix., E.L. 211-12
(Second Anonymous Pamphlet). ' An interesting illustration of
the correspondence of the two speakers with the pro-Guido and
anti-Guido pamphleteers respectively ' (Hodell). See Introduction
to Book II.
515. orts.] Refuse -scraps ; the word is common in Shake-
speare, see e.g. Troilus and Cressida, 5. 2. 158, where it is used
figuratively with excellent effect.
522. Four months' experience.] See note on II. 504, and Appendix
536-9.] The Comparini, says the speaker, felt the remorse which
fools feel, and thus acquired the wisdom which fools acquire,
when they have been brought by pain to realize their folly. Fools
start on the hither side of wisdom and may reach it through pain.
Criminals are on the further side of it; they have lost wisdom
with their innocence and cannot attain to it through pain and
remorse. They will know nothing of remorse till that ' later day '
when God at last passes judgment upon them. — The speaker is
perhaps over-indulgent to Violante, who has been knave as well
as fool.
544. tributary.] Their tribute of quasi - condolence takes the
form of ' we told you so '.
BOOK III.— THE OTHKH HALF -ROME 61
555. llnhi Yrar.] Sec II. 540.
.M17. th> ijruit door new-broken.} The door in the extreme right
of the \\cst front of St. Peter's, called the Porta Santa, is OJM-IK «1
uiily for jubilees ; at other times it is walled up. The ceremony
of lirt a king it is performed by the Pope (see the description by
Cardinal Wiseman quoted in Hare, Walks in Rome, ii. p. 167). He
knock- three times, exclaiming Aperite mihi portas iustitiae, etc.
(•Open to me the gates of righteousness,' etc. — Psalm cxviii. 19),
and the door, ' having been cut round from its jambs and lintel,
falls at once inwards'.
568. muffled more than ever matron-wise.] See above, 446-7.
570-71. this the poisoner And that the parricide.] Cf. VII. 1056-7
* rang changes still On this the trust and that the shame ' ; Filippo
Baldinucci, vi., * this their ground and that the farmer's'.
572. Penitentiary.] The left transept of St. Peter's * contains
confessionals for ten different languages. ... By the pillar of
St. Veronica, below the statue of St. Juliana, is an elevated seat
[*' the throne " of line 583], whence on high festivals the grand-
penitentiary dispenses absolution ' (Baedeker). See the woodcut
in Wey's Rome, p. 295.
583-99.] See the passage quoted in the note on 180 above.
593. contract.] Note the accent ; the word is so accented
always (I think) in Shakespeare, e.g. in Romeo and Juliet, 2. 2. 117,
' I have no joy of this contract to-night '.
617. inched.] See note on 413 above.
619. what did I say of 'one, in a quag ?] See above, 491 and 519-21.
640. When this great news red-letters him.] Obviously ironical.
The day on which the great news reaches Guido will only be a red-
letter day to him in the sense that it will draw his blood when he
' tastes the teeth of the trap ' (641).
646. he carried case before the courts.] Brought a civil suit for
the nullification of the dowry-contract ; see note on II. 735-44.
655. six witnesses survived.] O. Y.B. ccxii., E.L. 214 : ' con-
clusive proof having been made by six witnesses who were examined,
wit h t he interrogatories administered on behalf of the Franceschini '.
658. deciding right.] For the ungrammatical participle see
note on 229 above.
663-5.] Somewhat obscure ; the meaning intended seems to
be that the original deception (not, as stated, the recent ' one long
lie') had both robbed the rightful heirs and shamed Guido (by
marrying him to a base-born girl) ; and at the same time was not
' humanized ' (/.'. made natural, however inexcusable) by Violante
having at the time any grievance against Guido which called for
revenue. Later on, of course, after the marria.ire. the ' probation*
<li<l irive her a grievance against him.
666. that ircre too fantastic.] 'That' is apparently the supposi-
tion that Violante's new tale was true.
62 THE RING AND THE BOOK
670-71.] See note on II. 749.
681-8.] See note on II. 754.
682. right is absolute] and admits of no such compromise as
the judgment of the court.
713-14.] I.e. how he might extricate himself from the dilemma
of 701-10 — might keep the dowry and yet be rid of Pompilia.
Pompilia and the dowry were to be the joint means to his revenge,
and were so far ' twined ' ; but he could untwine them by ridding
himself of Pompilia in the manner explained in what follows. See
especially 733, and cf. IV. 749-55.
738 seqq.] For the letter to the Abate, the contents of which
are here summarized, see Appendix IV.
746. complot.] In Shakespeare ' plot ' and ' complot ' are
practically synonyms ; see e.g. Richard //., 1. 3. 189. Cf. in the
same play 1. 3. 174-5 : —
It boots thee not to be compassionate [= passionate] ;
After our sentence plaining [— complaining] comes too late.
754. As if it had been just so much Chinese.] The first and
second editions have ' As it had been just so much Hebrew, Sir ' ;
by the revision we get rid of the pointless vocative. On ' as ' for
' as if ' see note on I. 1159.
789. tenebrific] occurs again in X. 1762 ; a favourite word
ofCarlyle's.
795-803.] O.Y.B. lvii.-lx., E.L. 57-6L
806. silly-sooth.'} In Twelfth Night (2. 4. 43-9) the Duke asks
for ' the song we had last night ' ; he says that it is sung by spinsters,
free maids, and others, that it ' dallies with the innocence of love ',
and that it is ' silly sooth ' (i.e. simple, unsophisticated, truth).
[The song which follows ('Come away, come away, death') does
not tally with the Duke's description, and has therefore been
regarded as an interpolation.]
— -^ Browning uses ' silly-sooth ' as a compound adjective, by which
he means either ' innocent ', ' unsophisticated ', or ' easily deceived ',
' foolish '. In III. 806 Pompilia is ' helpless, simple-sweet or silly-
sooth ' ; in VII. 1603 the Comparini are, in Pompilia's judgment,
' silly-sooth and too much trustful, for their worst of faults '. In
XI. 1228-31 Guido calls them
too stupid to invent,
Too simple to distinguish wrong from right, —
Inconscious agents they, the silly-sooth,
Of heaven's retributive justice ;
in IV. 242 ' the joy o' the husband silly-sooth ' is Pietro's joy when
he is fool enough to believe that Violante has borne him a daughter ;
in X. 2040 ' silly-sooth ' is coupled to ' inept ' ; in The Inn Album,
(p. 97) it means * easily deceived by a trick '.
III. Till-: <mtl-:n HALF nn.Mi-: 63
MM. v ' T\U find it hard], i.e. hard to 'persuade the mocking
world ' (S18).
837. Here be j'm-is. i-lmrticlfri/.] In Shakespeare 'charact* i\ '
•writing'. ' written letters' (Julius Ccesar, 2. 1. 308, Merry Wives,
' Facts, eharactery ' facts in black and white.
846. A proper tttar l» climb.] Substituted for the 'A star shall
climb ' of the cai-licr editions ; see note on 187 above.
850. redness.] Tin- star is red on the hori/on. seen through the
1'iit attains pure brilliant whiteness at the zenith.
854.] See note mi II. 796-7.
871-2.] An addition by t he speaker to Fra Celestino's testimony
in O.Y.B.
897.] After his long description of the ' abashless ' (cf. II. 1101)
hi (884-96) the speaker begins his sentence afresh in a
somewhat ditVcrent way.
900-906.] What Caponsacchi is here represented as maintaining
differs importantly from what he said in his deposition (O.Y.B.
l\ \\viii.-xci., E.L. 95-8.)
912.] Nor is the statement attributed to Pompilia consistent
\\ ith her deposition. See, for all this paragraph, Appendix V.
967-70.] For these appeals to the Governor and the Bishop
see O.Y.B. liii.-liv., lxxxi.-ii., xci.-ii., E.L. 53-4, 89-90, 99; and
note on II. 877.
967. soul and body.] A great improvement on ' the weak
shoulders ' — the reading of the first and second edition >.
972-89.] The general drift of this long and inelegant sentence
is clear enough, and it is possible — barely possible — to explain its
construction.
' This', says the speaker, ' is the ill consequence of a man bein^r
such as Guido is, that his hereditary friends, though disinclined
to help him from their private resources, will nevertheless (if he
come* l>efore them in their official capacity, and if, as potentates
in that capacity, they can befriend him without cost to themselves)
help him (thereby discharging their hereditary obligations) by weight-
ing ti of justice in his favour. Only churls or Molini-i-
\\ould refuse to do that.'
lint the speaker expresses himself clumsily. (1) The opening
words suggest that the ' ill consequence ' will be an ill consequence
to one like (iuido, not, as turns out to he the meaning, to the
interests of justice. (:2) The nominative ('born peers and friends
hereditary ') is separated by ten lines from its verb (' give ' in 985).
(3) '(Jive help' in 985 has a deceptive appearance of being in
apportion to "do -ervice'. (4) The j, so punctuated as
to suirirest that the eon-t ruct ion is completed by line US«I ('Why,
only chiiils. etc.').
catd .-•////./, . 1 Bee note «m I. 1873,
Potentfttet1 is in emphatic contrast to
64 THE RING AND THE BOOK
'friend' in line 983, where the absolute clause ('friend's door
shut', etc.) is concessive; hence the 'still'. — In the first edition
lines 983-5 ran : —
And if, the friend's door shut and purse undrawn,
The potentate may find the office-hall
Do as good service, etc.
' Seat ' is better than * hall ', but otherwise the revision is not,
perhaps, an improvement.
997-1000.] In his letter to Paolo, dated August 2, 1694, the
Governor of Arezzo wrote : ' Seeing that they [the Comparini]
were become incorrigible and the talk of the town ... I threatened
them with imprisonment and chastisement if they didn't amend '
(O.Y.B. Ixxxii., E.L. 90).
1005. fast the friend, etc.] See Pompilia's deposition (0. Y.B.
Ixxxiv., E.L. 92) : ' At the beginning of the said troubles I went
twice to Monsignor the Bishop . . . but it was of no service because
of his relations with my husband's house '.
1011. coached her.} See note on II. 877.
1015 seqq.] Pompilia's confession to the Augustinian is briefly
mentioned in her deposition ; she says that she told him all her
woes and begged him to write to Pietro in her name, saying that
she was desperate and was under the necessity of leaving her husband ;
- but that she had no answer. Browning develops the incident
(IV. 807-41, VI. 831-52, VII. 1282-1302, X. 1471-85) ; he represents
her as confessing that she was tempted to kill herself (III. 1018-19,
VI. 837-8, VII. 1283-5).
1024-7.] They had made the marriage in their own interest,
without reflecting on the consequences to Pompilia.
1034.] Matthew xviii. 7.
1039. all outlets, etc.] See above, 780.
1065-6. on a certain April evening, late T the month.} The evening
was that of Sunday, April 28 ; the actual flight began in the early
morning of Monday, April 29. The dates are fixed by the deposi-
tions of Pompilia and of Caponsacchi (O.Y.B. Ixxxv., Ixxxix.,
E.L. 93, 96, 97) and by the sentence of the Florence Court (O.Y.B.
v., E.L. 5) ; on this point, as on many others, the Secondary Source
(O.Y.B. 211, E.L. 262) follows Pompilia's deposition.
Browning, however, assigns the flight to the night of ' the last
Monday in the month but one ' (April 22), i.e. to the early morning
of Tuesday, April 23 (VI. 1110-18).
Now the poet, as he said himself, ' took great care to be correct
in all such matters'. ' For instance', he wrote in a letter to Lord
Courtney (see note on I. 511-15), ' in order to be quite sure of the
age of the moon on the occasion of Pompilia's flight, I procured
De Morgan's register of lunar risings and settings for the last — I
BOOK III. Till-: OTIII-i; HAU' ItO.Mi; 65
: ln»\\ many hundred years'. Why t lu-n, taking all this care,
did he ant<- date tin- flight l»y .-i\ d.,
The aiiM\ • '-led in VI. I 111 ; i o morrow ', says Capon-
Sftool til mi Monday, April 22, 'is Saint George'. All
through (he | lot MI Caponsaechi is represented as a St. George to
r«'inpilia ; he is her ' s<>ldier->aint ' (VII. 1786); ho
ulory of armour like Saint ( J.-orgo ' (I. 5
I.e ' potent ', says Uottini (IX. 601-2),
el>e, inayliap,
"in- Saint lieor.L'e would slay, slays him ;
tya hiiiix If (VI. 1771-2 ; cf. 1775-7), taunted as being
carries her
o!V ' in a ulory of armour like Saint ( J.-orgo ' (I. 585 ; cf. VII. 1323-4) ;
he
The oilicious jiriest. |\vlio| would personate Saint George
l'"r a mock lYiiu-os in umlragoned days.
It \\;IN therefore titling that he should he made to rescue Pompilia
from Guido on St. George's day, April 23, rather than in the follow-
in:: ueek.
1067. Three years and over.] From December 1693 (as Browning
supposed really from September) to April 1697.
1072-4.] See note on II. 894-6.
1<>'»7. a servant.] Maria Margherita Contenti ; see note on
VI Mi'.ll ami Appendix V.
I I 10. /// a red daybreak.] Pompilia's twice-repeated statement
that she reached Castelnuovo 'at the blush of dawn' (all* alba,
nl rnwijijinr delV alba — O.Y.B. lxxxv.-vi., E.L. 94) was certainly
ineom-et ; was it, as a lawyer printed on the margin of her deposi-
tion, a lie' (mrinlttrlnin)l For Browning's answer see 1187-95
IM-IOW. and the note on VII. 1580-84.
I I ir>-(>. | Cf. VI. 1405-6 ; O.Y.B. Ixxxix., E.L. 97.
1161. Not for imi xnkr. but his.] See Pompilia's development of
the point in VII. 1585-1601.
I !«•>:{. The sword o' the felon.] See note on II. 1031.
1167. As you serve scorpions.} Cf. VI. 670-71.
1186. in all points biU one.] The depositions of Pompilia and
i>a( « hi are inconsistent in many points ; see Appendix V.
1201. the last league.] Castelnuovo was * the last stage of all,
>re Rome1 (II. 962-3), from which it is fifteen mil. s
distant (not twelve as in VI. 1426). Here, as in V. 1055, the
id to be a ' league '.
1218-22.] Not a correct account of * Guide's tale '. He declared
that the fiiL'iiive> -pent a ni-jht at Foligno : * ho hauula noua, che
'/»/•" Fnl'njnn toll' osleria* (O.Y.B. cxxvii., E.L. 135).
1219. >tn<L] In the earlier editions 'where
your hor-e stands ' : the ehanire is a clear improvement, espeeially
in view of the ' While we got horses ready ' in the next line.
I
66 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1224-5. loop-hole to let murder through, But, etc.} In the earlier
editions ' loop to let damnation through, And ', etc.
1233. Perdue he couched.} 'Perdue' (or 'perdu') in the sense
* in concealment', * purposely hidden ', was formerly very common
in English ; so in French perdu or perdue (according to the gender
of its noun). Browning much affects the word, see e.g. : —
IV. 1286, ' the actors duck awhile perdue '.
IX. 564, ' intrigue there lurks perdue '.
XL 1190, ' found what trap
The whisker kept perdue '.
Instans Tyrannus, in., ' he couched there perdue '.
The Inn Album, p. 99, ' I knew what lurked,
Lay perdue paralysing me '.
Bordello, V. 32, ' Lie we both
Perdue another age '.
The N.E.D. says that the word was ' apparently originally intro-
duced in the French military phrase sentinelle perdue ' (i.e. a sentinel
on particularly perilous duty, see King Lear, 4. 7. 35) ; hence the
feminine inflection (it was also sometimes written ' perdew ', and,
still more strangely, ' perdieu '). It is now, the N.E.D. adds,
'usually written "perdu" or "perdue" according to gender',
but Browning follows the older practice ; he has ' perdue ' in all
the passages quoted, irrespective of gender (and number).
1248. baulked of suit and service now.] Guido is for the present
deprived of Satan's help. For * suit and service ' see note on
II. 286.
1252. this natural consequence], i.e. that described in 1236-44.
1259. in secular costume.] See note on II. 999.
1265. except death], i.e. the death of Pompilia.
1281 seqq.] Based on the Second Anonymous Pamphlet (O. Y.B.
ccxiv., E.L. 216).
1290. / told you.} In lines 1162-3.
1308-17.] On the subject of the love-letters, and of the ' one
letter ' of 1316 (that to the Abate), see Appendix IV.
1322. mouse-birth of that mountain-like revenge.} Suggested by
Horace, A. P. 139, parturient monies, nascetur ridiculus mus ('moun-
tains will be in travail, an absurd little mouse will be born '), an
abridgment of the Greek &8u>ev dpos, Zei)s 5' e^o/Mro, rb 5' £re«:ej/ ^vv.
1330-33.] See note on II. 727-8.
1342. Shade . . . shine.] See note on I. 1373.
1353-4. my worldly reputation . . . Being the bubble it is.] As
you like it, 2. 7. 152, ' the bubble reputation '.
1367-9.] The first and second editions have ' track the course '
for ' trace the birth ' in 1367 ; ' earth ' for ' night ' in 1368 ; ' night's
sun and Lucifer ' for * night's sun that's Lucifer ' in 1369. The
111. Till': nTIIKIl HALF-ROME r»7
ciiiiinia which app- tin- nul of lillis >hoiild
of OOOne !••• icmovcd.
1380. .1 middle course.] See above, <>71, and note on II. 749.
1 !<»'.). Htithrnt, Hitxli'imetl.] Ftynioloizically the two words an-
svnonvms. ' Shciit ' in Shakop.-aie (Merry Wives, 1. 4. 38,
tforibfaMMU, .->. -2. KU, Tt<*(/to MflrAf, 4. 2. 112)-' scolded \
I II 1. nl»<i<it«l (not imprisoned, Sirs!).] See note on II. 1183,
'nowise an exile,-- that were punishment '.
1 JL»r>. Had shot a second bolt.] See note on IV. 1305-27.
lilt;, the. Hundred Merry Tales.] Sir F. Kenyon says that
the reference is to the Decameron of Boccaccio, but Browning
would hardly have spoken of the ' last best ' of that famous collec-
tion of precisely a hundred stories in so vague a manner; the
last and perhaps the most famous of Boccaccio's hundred stories
is that of c.ri.-dda. Dr. Berdoe thinks that the Novelle of Franco
'ictti arc meant ; these Guido speaks of in V. 560 (' Ser Franco's
merry talcs') and again in V. 1153, possibly also in XI. 261 (' the
.Merry Tales'). — The collection referred to is not the same as * the
Hundred .M'liy Tales' out of which Beatrice says in Much Ado
('2. 1. 135) that Benedick has accused her of ' getting her good wit ' ;
for that volume (reprinted by W. C. Hazlitt in his SluiLt *i>eare
Jest Books, vol. i. ), though it includes Italian stories, was of English
origin.
1 1 . •< )-55.] Refers to the song of Demodocus (Odyssey, 8. 266-366),
of which we have somewhat too much, perhaps, in The Ring arid
the Book ; it is introduced again in VI. 1459-63 and in IX. 868-77 ;
MC the note on the latter passage.
1171. the efficacious purple.] 'Efficacy' (or 'efficacity') is
often attributed by Browning to cardinals ; in I. 1139-40
than one cllicacioiis pci-soiia'_rc
To tramjuilli/e, conciliate and secure,
means • more than one cardinal, etc.' Cf. IV. 470, ' Her etlieacity
my Cardinal/ In Cenciaja Browning says of the famous Cardinal
Aldo brand in i —
Hi- cllii acy nephew to the 1'ope !
1171-7.] See the First Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cxlvii.,
/•;./.. |.">U; 'The Abate, seeing the prosecution of the cau>e pro-
longed, had a just motive for carrying it to the feet of Our Lord
Tope), \\ith a memorial . . . beseeching him to apjwint a
'•ial congregation for all the causes. . . . But having received
no other answer than "To his Jud;_" "lices suox). .
Cf. the Second Anonymous Pamphlet (O. Y.li. ec\\\v.. I'..L.
For other refei"in •« •- to the appeal to the pope in the poem see V.
1346-51, L752 80, \ III. L395-1426,
68 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1475. nephews out of date.] See I. 318-23 and Appendix VII.
1480. Made Guido claim divorce.} Cf. Half-Rome, II. 1285 :—
He claimed in due form a divorce at least.
These statements, like the fuller statements of Guido in V. 1247-54,
1309-18, 1807-15, refer to the year 1697, after the Process of Flight
and the ' relegation' of Caponsacchi, of which a divorce-suit, brought
by Guido, would have been a most natural consequence ; but it
does not appear from the records that such a suit was in fact brought.
It is stated in the First Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cxliii.,
E.L. 147) that at an earlier time — viz. in 1694, after Violante's
confession — the Franceschini had contemplated divorce -proceed-
ings, but that, finding that the pundits whom they consulted were
divided in opinion, they were unwilling to risk an undertaking of
doubtful issue.
In his note on the passages referred to (O.Y.B. 318) Professor
Hodell does not clearly distinguish between the years 1694 and
1697.
1487-8. the blow That beat down Paolo' s fence.] Pompilia's con-
finement, which led to the murders.
1489. mannaia.] The Italian guillotine by which Guido was to
die. See I. 1328 and Guide's elaborate description in XI. 181-258.
1490-91. Five months . . . spent in peace, etc.] Probably a
mistake ; see note on II. 1323.
1495-9.] The question, who was chargeable for Pompilia's
maintenance at the Scalette, was discussed by the advocates (see
e.g. O.Y.B. Ixii., E.L. 66), and in the Anonymous Pamphlets (see
especially O.Y.B. clii., E.L. 155), but nothing of importance to
the poem turns upon it.
1519. He authorized the transfer.] A disputed point ; Guide's
backers denied that Paolo authorized it (for the fact would
have strengthened the case against their client), maintaining (1)
that ' all the preceding and succeeding circumstances proved it
to be very unlikely ', and (2) that * the said consent is not found
to have been registered'. They contended further that if Paolo
did authorize the transfer he exceeded his powers as Guido's proxy,
such powers relating only to matters of finance — a statement not
borne out by the authorization - document (O.Y.B. clii., clvii.,
E.L. 155-6, 162). An answer to their arguments will be found in
O.Y.B. ccxvi., E.L. 218.
*ft)27'-38.] This convincing explanation, which is developed with
great force and beauty in Book VII., and is accepted by the Pope
(X. 1072 seqq.}, does not seem to have occurred to the lawyers ;
it is suggested nowhere in the records.
1540-41.] For ' the one step left ' for Guido to take see below,
1571-2. — There is no evidence that such a letter as is here mentioned
was ever written.
BOOK III. Till- ()T 1 1 1': I! HALF-ROM/-: 69
Paolo's departure from Rome is variously explained in the
record.-. (1) According to the pro -(undo pamphleteer, when
pompilia had Iteen released from the Sealette and was near her
eoniinemeiit. 'it seemed to the Abate that every man's face had
become a mirror in which the image of the ridicule of his house
was reflected ; his mind, in other respects manly and constant,
in. dejected ; he often burst into excessive weeping from grief,
till he felt himself impelled to throw himself into the river' (cf.
V. I ''lit ultimately 'he resolved to abandon Rome, the
< ourt, his hopes and havings, his atl'eetionate and distinguished
patrons, and whatever property he had accumulated . . . and
went off to search for some entirely unknown and foreign clime "
((). Y.I:. r.xlviii., E.L. 151-2). So also, with less rhetoric and detail,
the advocate Spreti (O.Y.B. xxxii., E.L. 32; cf. the Secondary
Sourer O.Y.H. 211, E.L. 262-3). (2) The anti-Guido pamphleteer
replies that, if men's faces served the Abate as a mirror, what they
reflected was ' his own evil procedures', his attempts to extort a
judgment 'by subtle insinuations, trickery and deceit'; and
that lie left Home to have a part in planning the murders (O.Y.B.
< \\\i.. oxviL, K.L. 225, 219). (3) The post-Browning pamphleteer
says that an unfavourable judgment on the conduct of the Frai
chini led the Religious Order of Malta to give 'secret information
to Abate Paolo that he should resign his office ' of Secretary of the
Order, and that his departure was due to this disgrace (O.Y.B. 221,
E.L. 275-6).
The Other Half-Rome agrees, as usual, with (2). and makes
Paolo partly responsible for the murders; but credits him with
MtateneM in planning to save his own skin (line 1572). So also,
more explicitly, the Pope (X. 890-94):
all for craft,
All to work harm with, yet incur no scratch !
While Cnido brings the struggle to a (•!<•
Paul steps back the due distance, clear o' the trap
He builds and baits
1546-69.] Whether the legal position is here correctly stated
is perhaps uncertain ; the speaker follows (and expands) a passage
in one of Bottini's pleadings (0. Y.B. clxxxiv., E.L. 189-90). Bottini
asks himself the question, Why did Guido postpone his vengeance
from October 12, 1697, when Pompilia left the Scalette and went
to the Comparini's home, till January 2, 1698? He an.-\\ers it
'ying that ' he was waiting for her confinement which happened
on December 18, in order that the succession, for which he was
iraping. mii:ht lie made secure \ ( 'f. X. 7 .'»:_' -71.
i:.7.-». Yitt'tnnn.\ See note on II. Shi.
!:.,«'». //•/'/// inn- A/W/;-/.- /" tin- c!»,/. \ A favourite metap!'
P.i<>\\niM_ :. /,'///»/»/ /;- // l-;-;,,t. ii.. v. (' Finished and finite
70 THE EING AND THE BOOK
clods, untroubled by a spark ' ; 'A spark disturbs our clod '). The
' spark ' here, as is immediately explained, is the loyalty of the
rustics to their lord — a loyalty which was not deep, for they planned
to murder him when he did not immediately pay them the stipulated
reward (O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265). The Pope, therefore, though he
finds a glimmer of intelligence (X. 1495-6), can find no spark ' that
serves for a soul ' in these ' wretched lumps of life ' (X. 925-64).
1583. On Christmas-Eve.'} See note on V. 1581.
1584-5. solitude Left them by Paolo.] They lodged at Paolo's
villa by the Ponte Milvio (commonly called Ponte Molle) about
two miles north of Rome (O.Y.B. 211, E.L. 263).
1586.] The insertion in the later revision of ' had ' before
' disappeared ' improves both meaning and rhythm.
1587. A whole week.] Browning, in a fine passage (V. 1582- I
1621), makes Guido explain the delay.
1594. finger-ivise], feeling their way in the dark, a fdtons,
tastone.
1595-6.] See Appendix II.
1599. the, excusers say.} See II. 1407-30 ; it is interesting to
compare the two accounts of the incident. The Other Half-Rome's
account is based on 0. Y.B. clxxxvi.-vii., E.L. 191-2.
1615. since Guido knew, etc.] How could he know ? Here,
as in 1653 below, we note the speaker's bias (I. 883 seqq.).
1622-4.] From the Secondary Source (O.Y.B. 212, E.L. 263):
' . . . Comparini, who was likewise wounded by one of the other
assassins and was crying out " confession " '. Cf. IV. 1377-9,
XL 473-4.
1628-9. They had forgotten . . . the ticket.] Both the Pope
(X. 802-33) and Guido (V. 1720-25, XI. 1627-48) dwell upon the
strange omission, which is noticed in the Secondary Source (0. Y.B.
212, E.L. 264).
1633-6.] The allusions in the records to the flight of Guido
and his companions are as follows : —
O.Y.B. x., E.L. 12 (Arcangeli) : They were 'returning to their
country by the direct way along the consular road ' ; Guido was
found by his pursuers ' resting on a mattress (in stragulo) in a certain
inn'.
O.Y.B. Ixii., E.L. 67 (Gambi) : They were ' found in the inn at
Merluccia with fire-arms, and prohibited swords still bloody '.
O.Y.B. 212, E.L. 264 (Secondary Source): They were found
and arrested ' at the tavern of Merluzza ', ' having travelled afoot
towards Baccano '.
(An allusion in the post-Browning pamphlet — O.Y.B. 223,
E.L. 277-8 — is less definite ; the place of arrest is there described
as ' an inn a few miles from Rome '.)
In the poem Merluccia (Merluzza) is not mentioned. The fugitives
are said to have walked ' a prodigious twenty miles', and to have
III. Till-: DTIIKIi HALT Hn.MI-: 71
' o\ ei taken near I»accano ' or a little short of it. There they
\\ere found asleep ' in a ^ran^e \ • in the tii>t \\a\>ide >tra\\ ', ' by
the \\av-side. in some shelter meant for beasts ', ' i' the straw which
promised shelter first' (III. 1633-6, IV. 1394-9, X. 846-9, V.
HJ74).
The 'consular road* above mentioned is tin- Via Cassia, which
splits oil from the Koliuno and iVru^ia road (by which Caponsacchi
and 1'ompilia travelled to Koine) at the Ponto Milvio. It is the
shortest route from Rome to Are/./.o, but was not kept in proper
conditions for carna*." . pp. 73, 155, and for Mrrlu/./.a
and liaceano. ih'nL pp. l.'.S-'.i. .Merlu/./a is about 15 miles from
I tome, liaecano about 2.\ miles farther away.
1648.] Guide's dcfi -nee was based solely on the alleged loss
of his honour.
l<;.~><)-3. There was no fault . . . in the parents.] See note on
l<;i:> above.
1670. you bin! t/in-c In }>t'ii/.] See note on IV. 1305-27.
1672 seqq.] Suggest ed, like so much else in Book III., by the
Second Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. ccxviii.-xix., E.L. 220):
' Thi.- rii^ht [of killing his wife for honour's sake) ceases when the
husband has renoiuieed it by imphiring the arm of justice '. llaviiin
laboured the point the writer quotes in support of his view '•
celebrated Canonist'.
1676. olifi."-i sinner], i.e. 'one whose sin was committed
long ago', not 'a hardened, inveterate sinner'.
BOOK IV.— TEKTIUM QUID
INTRODUCTION
IN the Introduction to Book II. it was suggested that
Book IV. stands in the same kind of relation of Books II.
and III. as that in which the Pope's soliloquy (Book X.)
stands to the pleadings of Arcangeli and Bottini (Books
VIII. and IX.) ; the^speaker_ jn_JTertium Quid sifts and
weighs the opinions of'thft ptT^efo p-s.t,as_the_Pope weighs
;^^^^^7^^^^^IS^SfiI^te2lQ^^ There, however,
the Yesem^Iance"ceases . The Pope sits as a judge without
a jury, he pronounces judgment. Ou^ man of quality
arran^emethodizes he leves
a_very_special J^y^^o^progQJgpe. His summing up is
essentially of what Dickelns called ' the old established
and most approved form ' of English courts — a favourable
example of that form, for its ' running comments on the
evidence ' are well digested ; but^jt^does not compel or ^
persuade, or even help materially to a verdict. Unlike __
OieTope; agan^~the Ijudge^SQIie^a^wi makes no attempt
to trace back action to its hidden sources, to probe the -
souls of the actors ; he disre^aj^_thQSjQ-^eje^ier_Jssues
which to the Pope are_primary and vital. For these
reasons T3ook IV., for which, as for Book X., there is no
suggestion in the records, might have invited special
attack from the critics who insist that large parts of the
poem should have been excised.
That it has been immune from any such special attack *
1 It has, I have since found, been very specially attacked. ' General practice
has long suppressed Doctor Bottinius ' [Book IX.], writes the author of the notice
72
BOOK 1V.—TERTWM QUID 73
i- mi di mlit <lur to its astonishing cleverness and distinc-
tion. It the speaker's summing-up is of the kind with
\\hich \\c are familiar, it is not merely (as I have called it)
ivourable it is a most brilliant specimen of that kind.
Tin- j»ittl»lem> set by the evidence an-, indeed, left entirely
unsolved. ( 'oiild Viulante's fraud be condoned ? Perhaps;
but ' then- '< Munewhat dark ' in the matter 7 'let's on'1.
Which party cheated most abflul the^ marria«.r«' '. It's ' a
nice point ; ' decide who can ' ; ' suppose we leave the
• I in -t ion at tliis stage ? ' Were Caponsacchi and Pompilia
trinity of misconduct ? The question has 'faces, manifold
• •in nigh, to ponder on'; the jury — 'Her Highness' and
Hi T Kxcellency ' — must pronounce3. Was Guido right in
usurping the functions of law ? It is for the jury to say ;
• there are difficulties on any supposition and either side '4.
Do Tompilia's death-bed utterances prove her innocent ?
an al-u 'explicable by the consciousness of guilt'5.
The brilliant cleverness of the Book appears, not in any
triven to these difficult questions, for they are
not an>\\ered, but in the force and lucidity, the apposite
illustrations, \\ith \\hieh the :inmim»nt.a for this or that
il»le answer are marshalled and vivified ; note for
instance" thE — passage m ^KIcTT Tlie" speaker advances
\\ith the help of a most apposite parable (lim -
11), which may be held to justify condonation of
Violante's ci-ookedness, or that in which he strips of its
mm-essentials the bargain betueen the Kraneesehini and
the ('um]>arini (lines 505-57). Kqually excellent are his
dex-riptiuns and his tone and manner; if we do not find
in his diction the 'silvery and selectest phrase' which
liruwnin.tr promised6, his tone and manner are not only
admirably characteristic, they are well adapted to win
him an attentive hearin.tr from his audience.
The i-hie!' distinction of the Book, however, lies not in
\\hat it says, nor even, perhaps, in its way of saying it;
it is rather to he found, if the metaphor of Mr. Henry
.lames may U l»urru\\ed. in that 'perfect cloud of gold
. ' :iii.| m.-iiiy I.IT-.IH think they can
<\<> Without Tertium ijui-r. Th.-y >h..ul.l -ivr it i.in.l l:..ttini) ,ui..tlu-r trial.
1 IV. :;n;-i7. i\ iv. 1 1 18-17,
• I \ ! .' IN I ! . • I
74 THE RING AND THE BOOK
dust ' which the poet stirs as he ' drags along a far sweeping
train ' 1. Ile^presents a picture of a particular society
in a f oreign^country at a~bygone time without_any apparent
effort or ovef^emphasis ; he is no mere student or artist
striving to recapture that society and~lts environment by
painful research or imaginative strain ; he lives and moves
in_it. The Book is full of lively detail. We watch the
crowd at the puppet-play of Piazza Navona7 the wlisher-
women at work by the Citorio fountain ; we stroll to the
shop of the gossiping ' barberess ' of Piazza Colonna, or
by the help of the cord by the wall mount the stairs to
the attic of the vilissima lotrix ; we glance at the favourite
negro page, at the unfaithful society- wife ; we visit the
mouldering palace where an Italian Caleb Balderstone.
with napkin in half-wiped hand, points with pride to his
needy master's priceless Raphael ; or again we see,
multiplied by the mirrors of the glorified saloon, the
Principessa with her jewels, the powdered perukes of this
Highness and that Excellency, the canes dependent from
the ruffled wrist, the pomanders to make freckles fly, the
testy cardinal, who, if you jostle his cards, will rap you
out a . . st ! But detail is not obtruded ; it takes its
\ proper ancillary place in the poet's picture of the very
^ life of the Roman aristocracy of the seventeenth century —
a picture which, with others painted in The Ring and the
Book, is among the masterpieces of his ' matchless ' Italian
gallery, the most signal triumphs" of their kind, perhaps,
in English literature.
NOTES
7. Out of the shade into the shine.'] See note on I. 1373.
10. rabble' s-brabble.] For ' brabble ' cf. More, Utopia, Book II.
(§ Of the Religions of Utopia) : ' brauling, quarelling, brabling,
. striffe ' ; Twelfth Night, 5. 1. 68, Titus Andronicus, 1. 2. 62, Troilus
and Cressida, 5. 1. 99 (' he will spend his mouth . . . like Brabbler
the hound ').
1 Quarterly Review, July 1912, p. 79. Comparing the Italian atmosphere of
The Rind and the Book with that of Romola, in which books ' so many things make
for identity ' in this respect, Mr. James wrote : ' Each writer drags along a far-
sweeping train, though indeed Browning's spreads so immeasurably farthest ;
but his stirs up, to my vision, a perfect cloud of gold-dust, while hers, in " Romola ",
by contrast, leaves the air about as clear, about as white, and withal about as cold,
as before she had benevolently entered it'.
HOOK IV. T/-:/r/'/r.\i ^nn :.-,
I .VI 7. /.'/>/•'* " iiiiifhiin , <lr.\ The fj.-ijxai''i ('machine') of the
Attic t heat iv was a crane by \\hieh, when towards the end of a
play ('at the play's fifth act ') things had heeonie so complicated
that only supernatural agency could disentangle them, a god could
l»e lowered, as it were from heaven, to 'clear things'. Horace
in-i-ts that there should be no such intervention unle>s there is
a knot that calls for it (.I./'. I'.H); here the knot may call for the
nt of 'Truth the divinity', but the speaker thinks Law an
im -oni p< -tent ' nrjxwri for introducing her.
'2H. three years ago], i.e. in the early summer of H'>!U, when I'ietro.
after his return from Are/./.o to Rome, instituted his suit for the
iv of I'ompilia's dowry.
LMi. itirl. retort], i.e. offence and counter-offence, 'wrong returned
by wrong ' (548).
30. cargo — or passengers ?] Either word would suit ; the
-peaki -!• prefers ' passengers ' in order to justify his (not very
apposite) ((notation.
.'{1-2. ] Horace (Sat. 1. 5. 12, 13) describes the hubbub incidental
to his going on board a canal-barge. The servants of his party
call out to the bargeman to put in at a convenient place, and when
embarking protest against over-crowding.
Ho ! put in hero ! What ! take three hundred in ?
Ynii'll swamp us all.
(Conington's translation.)
puts the servants' cries in the wrong order.
; nml f"///'//.W.J Cf. II. 406, 'fusion and confusion'.
:!'.'. I For 'used' see note on II. 41.
42. Kn.«fhiiiM (t>xl the f-Mltihlixhcil fact.] Apparently Fusebius.
who records, iuhr alia, the miracle alleged to have attended the
conversion of ( 'unstant inc. was otlicially regarded as a historian
of unimpeachable accuracy: he was at any rate an indefatigable
collector of materials. Gibbon (c. xvi.) calls him ' the gravest of
the ecclesiastical historians'; 'his character', he says, 'was leM
tinctured l»y credulity than that of almost any of hiscontemporai i
47. the Fisc and the other kind of Fisc], i.e. the Advocate of the
Fi-e and tin- Procurator of the Fisc (for the distinction, see note
on VIII. 276).
.VI. \\ t ii-fll know who, etc.] Perhaps some one who pulls the
Pop.-'- strings rather than the Pope himself.
r>J. tin lnix.«il-tnlih.\ l>a— et (from Italian hnwln) was a card-
played Itetween a hanker and punters. It is said to have
Keen invented l>\ a Venetian nobleman who was banished for the
invention, and to have been introduced by the Venetian ambassador
in 1<>7J to the French capital, \\lieic it was prohibited by edict
(/nipcrifil DictioHtiri/) ; l>uma>. houcver. >peaks <>t i he <_r i me as
ha\ in^ been |i|aye<| in I'aris much earlier. Ma« aulay (Hilton/. <
76 THE RING AND THE BOOK
mentions an English nobleman as 'keeping the bank at the Queen
Dowager's basset table ' in 1688.
55. Her Eminence] the Cardinal ; Sua Eminenza, just as in
French a king is Sa Majeste. Cf. 470 below, ' Her Efficacity my
Cardinal ... he', and 1632-3, 'Her Excellency . . . she'. Was
this quite worth while ?
65. to aggrandize], i.e. to exalt. ' The first thing to aggrandize
a man in his own conceit, is to conceive of himself as neglected '
(Essays of Elia, Eversley Edition, p. 374) ; cf. Old Pictures in
Florence, xix.
68.] The speaker hints at a scandal concerning a married pair
present.
81. Will lie.] ' Which', object to ' consuming ' in 78, is under-
stood as subject to ' will lie '.
87. Like cresset, mudlarks poke, etc.] A cresset is an iron vessel
to hold grease or other burning substance ; the street-urchins
poke it to keep up the blaze. — In the first edition the passage ran :
nor swung till lamp graze ground
As watchman's cresset, he pokes here and there,
Going his rounds, etc.
90-91.] The speaker's conception of Pietro as a ' good fat rosy
careless man ' (102), a lover of hospitality and good cheer, is drawn
from a few words in the First Anonymous Pamphlet (O. Y.B. cxli.,
E.L. 145) : 'he was too indulgent to his appetite and given up to
laziness '.
97 seqq.] According to statements in the records Pietro was in
financial straits both in 1680, the year of Pompilia's birth, and in
1693, that of her marriage ; in 1680 they are said to have prompted
the fraud about her parentage (Secondary Source, 0. Y.B. 210,
E.L. 261 ; cf. First Anonymous Pamphlet, O. Y.B. cxliii., E.L.
147), in 1693 to have made him anxious to see her well married
(O.Y.B. cxli., E.L. 145). The speaker in Book IV. supposes the ^
difficulties to have occurred only in 1680 ; he says that ' God's ~~^
gift ' of Pompilia steadied Pietro and cured his extravagant habits ""
(cf. 287-98). But in II. 258 seqq. Half-Rome declares that it was -7 JA
when Pompilia came into his life that Pietro became careless about
money — :' learnt to dandle and forgot to dig '.
111. our ' ' poor dear shame-faced ones " . ] From the First Anony-
mous Pamphlet (toe. cit. in last note) : Pietro ' was several times
imprisoned for debt and, on making a statement of his property,
received secret alms from the Apostolic Palace every month '. If
this happened at all, it probably happened, as the pamphlet implies,
in 1680 and not in 1693, for Pietro's will, said to have been made
in 1695, shows that he was then comfortably off (O.Y.B. clvi.,
clxxxvi.,^.L. 161, 191 ; Treves, p. 9).
There were large endowments throughout Italy for the relief
BOOK IV.- TKIiTII'M QUID 77
ot poveri /</•;/«•//>»>/, 'shame-faced1 poor (/.'. people, perhaps of
good lijrtli. \\ho had seen Letter da\s); an account <.f Mich an
endowment at Klorence is L'iven in Hmnolfi, c. \. Poveri veryoijnofii
arc now relieved by the Congreyazimti <li <'<iri/ii of the Italian
communes (Kinjj and Okey. //'//// To-l>ni/, |>|). 223-4).
114. ravens they, And providence he.] Psalm cxlvii. 9, 'He
ijiveth to tin- beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry'
(cf. Job xxxviii. 41).
1 17. In vespers, missal beneath nrin.\ As Bcrdoc points out,
Yiolante would not take IHT missal (mass-book) to vrs|>< is.
IIS. llif proper San Lorenz<>\ as heinn IHT parish church. Cf.
VII. 17, 'the proper church' ; VIII. 364.
170. by <'ilnrin.\ The J'ia/./.a di Monte Citorio, west of the
Corso beyond the INaz/.a Colonna.
172. shine.] Browningese for 'show'. — Tlie woinan is described
as a vilissinia lotrix (O.Y.B. ix.) ; lolrix is mistranslated in E.L.
184. three pauls.] A paul was worth about 5d. Sec note on I.
324.
187. that person whom you trust.] The incidents of the bargain
were invented by Browning, but in the post-Browning pamphlet
there is something about this go-bet \\een and her ' sagacity ' (O. Y.J3.
219, E.L. 272-3).
196. " M y reproof is taken away".] No wonder that 'the *"i
officiating priest turned round' if Violante introduced these words
into the Magnificat ! They are suggested by the words of Elisabeth
in Luke i. 25 : ' Thus hath the Lord dealt with me ... to take
away my repioaeh among men'.
-'Hi. pair of pinners and a coif.] The word ' pinners ' is applied
either to 'a coif with two large flaps, worn by women in the
17th and 18th centuries', or to the flaps themselves (A'.A1. />.), as
206. the Orvieto in a double dose.] Orvieto is * the lightest and
mo>t delicate of Roman wines' (Story, Roba di Roma, p. 323);
but when produced by Arcangeli on a fete-day it is expected to
' fuddle the old nose ' of his father-in-law (VIII. 36).
213. and the rest 0' the names.] See VII. 5-7; O.Y.B. civ.,
/;./.. i.v.i.
214. next day.] The date of Pompilia's birth was said to be
July 17, that of her baptism was July 23 (O.Y.B. loc. cit.). The
>peaker\s next day ' tits the Roman custom of fifty years since ;
'the ceremony of baptism', says Story (Roba di Roina, p. 486),
4 is usually performed within forty-eight hours' of birth.
L'17. rii-Hify uinl tin nnnlc.\ See note on II. 117:!.
J. / tlintnjlit f/.s ninrh\, i.e. you assent, as 1 expected.
. before it is encroached on, etc.
212 .V>. I Compare Violante'> justification of her act in III.
184-21!!.
r
78 THE RING AND THE BOOK
242. silly-sooth.} See note on III. 806.
268. Don't cheat me, don't cheat you, etc.] 'I admit', says the
speaker, ' that you shouldn't cheat your friends ' ; he points to
himself and ' Her Highness ', calling them ' me ' and ' you ' as he
addresses ' Her Excellency '.
279.] An improvement on the ' God do n't please, nor his
heart shall pine ' of the first edition.
287-98.] See note on 97 seqq.
310.] Cf. IX. 514, ' some pearl secreted by a sickly fish'.
328-9.] Cf. the beginning of Solomon and Balkis. — We learn
from 1 Kings x. 18-20 that Solomon made ' a great throne of ivory '
which had six steps, and that ' twelve lions stood there on the one
side and on the other upon the six steps ' ; and from 1 Kings vii.
7 that ' he made a porch for the throne where he might judge,
even the porch of judgment '.' Josephus (Ant. 8. 5. 2) says that the
ivory throne as described was ' constructed as a seat of justice '. —
Browning's vase between the lions seems to have been his own
invention.
335. To go.] Originally ' should go ' ; Browning when revising
his text limited the frequency of omissions of the relative pronoun.
338. " Nunc dimittis"]. In his first edition Browning printed
" Nunc dimittas ", which one sometimes feels (wrongly) that Symeon
should have said, and which the Comparini meant.
341. should] is better than the ' to ' of the first edition.
352-3.] For ' poor souls, It proved to be ' Browning originally
perpetrated ' fate must needs It proved to be'.
354.] For ' truth ' and ' sham ' the first edition has ' The truth '
and ' the sham', which make the line six-footed.
360 seqq.] Developed from the evidence of a servant of the
Franceschini (0. Y.B. li., lii., E.L. 52). See note on V. 71.
381 seqq.] There is some vagueness here in respect of the
time referred to. The ' sisters ', according to the speaker, were
off Guide's hands, though their marriage brought no help to the
Franceschini finances ; Paolo was provided for. There remained
the mother, who was likely to live long, and Girolamo, who, however,
had gained preferment. There were not therefore, at the time
apparently meant, so very ' many noble mouths to feed '.
It is stated in Treves (p. 11), on the authority, no doubt, of
the Arezzo registers, that Guido had only one sister, Porzia, who
' married a member of the distinguished family of the Aldobrandini '
(for this Porzia see XII. 785) ; and the records speak of one sister
only, who had married a brother of Conti (Pompilia's deposition,
O.Y.B. Ixxxiii., E.L. 91).
391. a second son.] A mistake ; see note on II. 291.
392. these thirty years.] Based on the First Anonymous Pamphlet
(0. Y.B. cxlviii., E.L. 151). As Professor Hodell points out (0. Y.B.
298), Browning makes a wrong use of this passage in II. 304, where
IV. TERT1UM v/'//> 79
-aid that (iuido (not Paolo) had been thirl v Y<MI> in Rome;
• •I. V. L".H
put !(»:». | See note oil I. iMil-.").
HiT. Thnnifb xtill from the side o t/n- Church. \ See note on
111. I'M'.
•ion. forty-six years.} Cf. 719 below, XII. 194 ; and see note on
II. L".M.
411. he too having his Cardinal.] See note on III. 407.
422-3.] Compare what Guido says about this in V. 292 seqq.
1.17. Xotiun tonsoribus !] From Horace, Sat. 1. 7. 3; u>» d
already in II. 1 lf> (where see note), but with more point here.
440. the woman - dealer in perukes.] Second Anonymous
Pamphlet, O.Y.B. ccviii., E.L. 210: Guido's 'most usual place of
; \vas the shop of certain l)<>nn> Pinircttie.re, whore he had
often made it known that it was his intention to start housi -U.
inn; with some good dowry'; Secondary Source, O.Y.B. 209,
E.L. 2.VJ : • he revealed his desire [to take a wife with a good dowry]
to a certain perucchiera near the Piazza Colonna '.
!lv zecchines.] A zecchine was worth about ten shillings;
M • note on I. 324.
456. fmir l>l<t'k as yon patch.] Cf. III. 66-7, where the painter
( 'ario Maratta is represented as fascinated by Pompilia's loveliness : —
Then, oh that pair of eyes, that pendent hair,
Black this and black the other !
dso II. 275, XI. 1349, 1 367. l— Professor Phelps collects passages
to show that Browning's ' ideally beautiful women generally have
yellow hair' (Browning : How to know him, p. 142); he might
dello's Palma to his list of yellow-haired In ant i< •>.
7. eyes as big As yon pomander.] Pomanders were (1) wax
perfume balls, such as Autolycus mentions among the ' trumpery'
whirh he sells at the shearers1 feast (Winter's Tale, 4. 4. 608) ; (2)
certain aromatic substances n>ed against infection; were they
al.-o warrant* (1 'to make freckles fly' ? and (3) boxes of gold or
.-ilviT in which to carry them. See Shakespeare's Enyhiittl. ii. pp.
115-16.
At a time of pestilence, shortly before the date with which we
ihe Cuuntrn of ' The Ring and the liook', pp. 237-8) : ' I
ha\c \van>leie,| tlir«.ii-_'h r\n\ pirtmv -allcry in Kniuc ami in Hnrnirr, srrkiiiL',
jiiiiuiit: tin- rrmvils ..i MI years Rone by, n»r tin- I'.-in- ..t
I'l'inpilhi. Alter scanning some hundreds of faOM ... 1 at List t'onml rmnpiliu.
ppean in l'r;i h'ilippo l.ippi's j.irtnrc «>I On- Ma.lnniui in tlit- 1'itti I'ala..' at
i-'ili'rirk i in >(•(•<•( I- to just ity liis Identification, to \\liicli lie nttarln--.
MIC that In- L'i\r- a rrproilui'tioii HI the tainuiis pirtnn- in colour
a- tin- I'rc.iitixpicc.- to lii> l.o,,k. His n-inarks on the expression oi the (ao
nio>t Interesting, bnl 1oaii\ i -lo-c jilcniili'-alion <>\ the Mailonna \vitli l!i<>"
1'oinpilia it may be ,,l.j.-i-tci| /// I'm, in,' ( I ) t hat . \\ hilc t he lornicr i^. a^ sir 1'n-dcrick
'a little \\oinan asMirc.lly ', the latter \\as tall (>ee ; (j» tl,at.
^s•liilt• tin- .Mailonna i> lair-haired, I'Dinpili ' hla« k as \on pad h'.
80 THE RING AND THE BOOK
are concerned, Mr. Short/house's hero is represented as carrying
about with him at Rome ' a pomander of silver in the shape of an
apple, stuffed with spices, which sent out a curious faint perfume
through small holes ' (John Inglesant, c. xxxiii. ).
470. Her Efficacity.] See the notes on 55 above (for 'Her')
and III. 1471 (for ' efficacity ' ).
472. the grey mare.'] ' The people's word ' here quoted seems
to be, not of Italian, as is suggested, but of English origin. The
N.E.D. traces it back to 1546. — Macaulay (History, c. iii.) suspects
that 'the vulgar proverb originated in the preference generally
given to the grey mares of Flanders over the finest coach horses of
England '.
484. its mere mention.] Substituted for the original ' mention
of it'.
490-93.] See III. 396 seqq., note.
495. tear.] An improvement on the ' one ' of the first edition.
497. stole to church at eve, etc.] All this is a mistake ; see note
on II. 70.
499-501.] According to Pompilia (VII. 482-583) it was not so
easy to gain Pietro's acquiescence in the fait accompli.
503. once more.] See above, 465-6.
506. clapnet.] A net which can be suddenly shut by pulling
a string ; Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, line 403 (N.E.D.).
514.] Compare the similar language of Guido in V. 497-502.
527-47.] See note on V. 494.
528. inexpressive.] Passive : ' that is not expressed '. Shake-
speare (As you like it, 3. 2. 10) and Milton (Nativity Ode, 116, and
Lycidas, 176) have ' unexpressive ' in the sense ' that cannot be
expressed '. See note on ' insuppressive ', XI. 980.
547. No party blamed.] More correctly, 'neither party had
blamed '.
— . starting fair.] For the ungrammatical participle see note
on II. 229.
554. least] should be 'less', as 'no' in 547 should be ' neither'.
568. fain were they], i.e. ' that they were fain '.
— . long before five months had passed.] The Comparini were at
Arezzo from early in December 1693 to early in April 1694 ; see
Appendix III.
569-70.] See note on II. 520.
574. this worse than bad.] See 564 above.
577. fell.] Substituted for the original 'came', which word has
occurred in 573.
600. round us in the ears.] A very favourite phrase of Brown-
ing's, used again in VIII. 1321, 1719, X. 1589, XI. 675, 1222, also
in Luria (Act II.) and Red Cotton Night-Cap Country. In all these
places ' to round a person in the ears ' means ' to din a thing into
his ears', to tell him something repeatedly and plainly. But the
BOOK IV.—TERTIUM QUID 81
old verb 'to rown ' (oomipted into 'round') means 'to whisper',
and 'to round a person in the ears' is properly to whisper some-
thing to him ; ' in later 0 ' In- -V. /•,'./>., ' to take him prinilrli/
to ta-k'. The .Y. /','./>., \\hieh, strangely enough, gives IV. 600 as
an in-tanee of the meaning 4 to whisper', quotes Coverdale's version
of .loli \\xiii. !."»: ' In dreames and visions of the night season
% . . He I outlet h them ill the ears ' ; ef. Kimj ./<>// il, 2. 1. 566. In
nil Mo,-!,!/;/,/ (c. iv.) Xiel Hlane tells his daughter to accost a person
quietly, to ' gie him a pn' by the sleeve, and round [a confidential
menage] into his lug'; Charles Lamb revives the half-forgotten
phrase in his Kssays, of course in its right sen-' .
r.rouning's misuse of the expression was perhaps suggested by the
use of ' round " and 'roundly' in the sense of straightforward' and
ii^ht foi wardlv'. ' \\ ithont hesitation or reserve', in such passages
as Hamlet, 2. 2. 139, 3. 1. 191. Hichurd II. 2. 1. 122 ; cf. V. 1354,
'to he round with you', i.e. 'to tell you the plain truth plainly*.
(\\'2. l>i/r-bl<>it'\, i.e. an illegitimate child, because 'it comes into
the world by a side-stroke ' (N.E.D.) ; cf. V. 770 ' by-blow bastard
babe', and the passage quoted from Fielding in the note on 1498
below. The word will be found in the torrent of vernacular abuse
with which Squire Beltham in Harry Richmond drenches his son-
in-law.
•ill').1 The 'counter-thrust ' appears to be that, if he proves
Yiolante's 'odious tale' to have been a ' lie hatched for mere malice'
sake', he must either leave it unpunished or try revenge.
I. jiijlit ll/f ir }>rr.> iifton.] See note on XL 476.
irriii . />/-i///, jiiihlifth, etc.] See note on II. 658.
»'»l."i. t» jf-cf\. replaces the original 'around'.
658. xii }>( '/•fliii/i/ <>/' it<i Hi/lit i ness.] James i. 21.
661. make parade of spoil they filched.} The ' spoil ' is the
ocratic connection which they had avowedly secured by a
iood.
662. from the In iifltl of' a lnuvr.\ They could slander (iuido from
a place of vantage, bciiiL' -ife at Home and not exposed to his
<ll'-c.
(•(is. I The 'four months' should be seven or eight. We are
now in April or .Ma\ H'>'.)1 ; 1'ompilia was married on Septeml>er 6,
1693. See Appendix III.
liTl. A*/// come.] In the first edition 'was come'; the 'was'
U nirly after the • was' at the beginning of the line.
708-11.) We have had this • antrler-simile ' applied to Pompilia
already in II. :>7o-77. :',L* I .'.. I :::..-.-60.
TIT I'.l. | The description ,,f Cuido's aj.}»eaiance and the in-
correct statement aliout hi- .. .. icon 1 1. L)(.l 1 ) are t aken from
the Seeondary Source (V.Y.I;. I'l:1,. I'.. I.. !>()()). A rough j.rn-
.-keteh of ( iuido, ' made on a loos«- sheet shortly before his execution',
bought amoii'_r a bundle of miscellaneous pajiers in London, and
82 THE RING AND THE BOOK
sent by the finder to the poet ' (O. Y.B. (7) ) ; it is reproduced in
O. Y.B. (facing p. 274) and in this commentary (frontispiece).
720-22.] ' She ' and ' He ' should be ' Her ' and ' Him '.
723. less] should be ' more '.
731. devil's dung.] The foul-smelling drug asafcetida (teufels-
dreck). — When a lodger, having a curmudgeon of a landlord,
wished to end his tenancy before his term had expired, Dr. Johnson,
advised him thus : ' You may say that you want to make some
experiments in natural philosophy, and may burn a large quantity
of assafcetida in his house '.
757. the subtle air that breeds the subtle wit.] See the words;
attributed by George Vasari to Michel Angelo, quoted in the note
on XII. 811.
762. try cross-buttock or whirl quarter-staff.] For ' cross-buttock *
see The Two Poets of Croisic, cvir., where Browning tells how on a
certain occasion ' Humbug cross-buttocked ' Voltaire. In Tom
Jones (Book XIII. c. v.) Fielding quotes a contemporary advertise-
ment in which a Professor of Boxing announces the opening of an
academy ' where the whole theory and practice of that truly British
art, with all the various stops, blows, cross-buttocks, etc. incident
to combatants, will be fully taught and explained '. — A quarter-
staff is ' a stout pole from six to eight feet long, tipped with iron ;
formerly used as a weapon by the English peasantry '. A passage
quoted by the N.E.D. from a writer of 1589 suggests that the staff
was made from an ash-tree cleft in four.
770. the famous letter.] See Appendix IV.
796.] A relative clause to which ' piece of heaven ' is the
antecedent ; cf. 842-6.
799, the Commissary], i.e. the ' Governor ' of Arezzo, as Browning
usually calls him ; in the Latin of the 0. Y.B. he is Gubernator or
Commissarius, in the Italian Governatore or Commissario.
807-41.] See note on III. 1015 seqq.
824.] The rhythm of the line is improved by the omission of
' her', which stood before ' heart ' in the first edition.
834. poor Uzzah that I am /] 2 Samuel vi. 6, 7. When in X.
1482-3 Browning made his friar of mean degree ask the question,
Who was it dared lay hand upon the ark
His betters saw fall nor put finger forth ?
he would himself have given a wrong answer ; for he originally
wrote 'Hophni', not 'Uzzah', in the present passage. — The friar
is not compared to Uzzah (or to Hophni) in the Yellow Book.
836.] Luke xxi. 19.
840. Said Ave/or her intention] ' for her sake ', cf. XII. 179. A
Gallicism ; faire des prieres, donner des aumones, dire la messe,
etc. a V intention de quelqu'un = faire ces choses dans le dessein qu'elles
lui servent devant Dieu (Littre). Newman wrote to Manning on a
HOOK IV, TSRTIUM riD s:j
piquant occasion : 'I propo- f« >i your intent ion
amid the difficult ie» and anxieties of your ccclesiast ieal dut
;. all hul nut- simile. | Cf. 7!M) above.
ll'/s fmrtlli/ J'nlli'n. | K\e had still enough of ' paradisal
nature' to refrain from making. M I'ompilia made, a false accusa-
tion againM her husband. In the first and second editions of the
poem line S."»(i ('So mucli Kve's") stands before line S.")|, and the
punctuation is defective. The change is a decided improvement.
861 tin-re needed Mliia vomit flame.] Cf. IX. Mil. ' sin- needed
write '.
876.J Negro pa<_re> \\, re fashionahle at the time; readers of
-"/ \s ill remember that Lady Castlewood had one.
887. l.iiwii'i nii'l X a *>inna.] Models of |)iirity ; Lucrctia the
\\ife of Collatinus (IX. 178) and the Susanna of the Apocrypha.
888-9.] Leda surprised by .Jupiter is the subject of a famou>
Correggio now in the Berlin (Jallery; another nude Leda by the
same artist, of which, according to Vasari (Lives of the Painters,
ii. p. i<>7), (iiulio Romano said ' that he had never beheld colouring
ited with equal perfection', has now been destroyed.
91:M.">. | Se«- Pompilia's deposition, O.YJ1. lxxxiii.-iv., E.L.
• '/'/.•»• 1'm/Hnlrntli/ pleaded.} Sec III. 972-89. The 1'ope
admits the plea (X. 9H7-7:*). Pompilia says in her deposition tliat
IK i application to the bishop was fruitless ' because of his relations
with my husband's house ' (O.Y.B. Ixxxiv., E.L. 92).
!i:;o-o2.] A long sentence, but its construction is simple.
936-8.] Bee note on 11. 7(.)6-7.
(.i| 1. 1 With this casual reference to the theatre-incident compare
that in II. 801. Tin- incident is mentioned only once in the records :
Pompilia speaks of it in her deposition as trivial in itself, but
as increasing (iuidos suspicions of Caponsacchi (O.).ll. Ixxxiii.,
I:'. I.. (.H ). In Uie poem it becomes the t unlink-point in Capon-
bfl life, redeeming him from the frivolity which bade fair to
k him ; and it is hardly less important to Pompilia. The
>iLrlit at the theatre of the ' beautiful sad strange smile ' of Pompilia,
and that of the 'earnest . . . silent, grave, almost solemn face'
of ( 'aponsacchi, were for Browning the beginning of his romance.
'.M.".. .-//( that I'uulil not irrili .' \ See Appendix IV.
'.i Hi. | In apposition to 'letters'.
•'•'2. | Could not a priest have had the wit to contrive an
ordinary amour, ea-ily hushed up, instead of this infamy in the
liirht of day? Urowninir originally wrote 'no mitigahle amour
to b<' hushed up'.
7. 1 The reading of the later editions, with it-
punctuation, ha> ln-<-n >ul»stit utcd for
I )i • \-ou tind it ir-ivt. -re.! the part of a priest
Tliat t<> riirlit mx>ngfl lie -kip from tin- clmivli
84 THE RING AND THE BOOK
960. In a lay -dress.} See note on II. 999. — The insertion of
* kind ' before ' sentinel ' in this line greatly improves the rhythm.
963-5.] The suggestion is made by Guide's advocate Arcangeli
(O.Y.B. cviii., E.L. 117), and Bottini shows why it could not be
adopted (O.Y.B. clxxiv.-v., E.L. 181). See IX. 1127 and note.
968. received protestations of her love.] This is not part of Capon-
| sacchi's ' own account o' the case ' as given in his deposition ; on
/ the contrary, he expressly denies that he received such protesta-
- tions (0. Y.B. lxxxviii.-xc., E.L. 96-8). See Appendix V.
975-7.] See Caponsacchi's deposition (loc. cit.).
\, 979. he had seen her once} viz. at the theatre (above, 944).
1006. by instinct.} But the speaker has just said that Capon-
sacchi had ' heard everywhere report ' which confirmed what
Pompilia told him (981).
1012. argument and inference.} The ' argument ' is that con-
tained in 966-1007, the critical analysis of Caponsacchi's claim that
his motive was ' pity of innocence ' ; the ' inference ' is that, this
claim being exploded, the true explanation of his conduct was that
he acted in ' the old stale unromantic way of fault ' (1017-24).
1028. visits night by night.} It appears from the records that
the only evidence for such visits came from the ' officious go-
between '.
1029. far and away.} Cf. Fifine at the Fair, v., ' the home far
and away'. ' Far and away' in ordinary English = ' very much'
with comparatives and superlatives ; do other writers use it as
Browning does here ?
1033-42.] See Appendix IV.
1053. / burnt because I read.] Caponsacchi is misrepresented
/ here. The letters which he said that he burnt were not the alleged
I love-letters — these he denies having received at all, but other
^ letters in which Pompilia begged for his escort in her flight to the
Comparini at Rome.
1054. CUT profuerint !] i.e. the forger and finder was Guido,
the person who stood to gain by their being found. It was a maxim
— a very obvious truism — laid down by a certain Cassius that in
a murder- trial the judges should ask themselves the question, Cui
bonofuerit ? (=cui profuerit ?), ' Who stood to gain by the crime ? '
1069. The silent acquetta.] Cf. V. 1736-7, where Guido puts
the question :
Why noise,
When there's the acquetta and the silent way ?
Acquetta occurs often in the records, e.g. in 0. Y.B. ccxiii., E.L. 215
(Second Anonymous Pamphlet), where it is said that Pompilia
was aware that Guido had made preparatione d1 acquetta with which
he meant to poison her. The word, which in common parlance means
a light shower, is used euphemistically of aqua tofana, a deadly
BOOK IV.—TKItTIUM QUID 85
ln|iii'l once employed lively l>y poisoners in Italy; it is somot;
.tiled un/in/ln ,11 r*r<i(jia — cette fameuse aqua-tofana, dont quelques
i-ni<xirrttitiit encore (at the beginning of the nineteen th
eenturv) le secret a Perouw, which plays a part in Dumas's Monte
pp. -2'2 1. 2
1104 C>. | Sec note on III. 1546-69.
. Caused to be . . . sent to Rome.] See note on II. 1018.
,.| Cf. II. 14<rr-l :><»:{.
1 I 11. the Paphos fit for such.] The name has suffered de^rada-
At Paphos in Cyprus Venus had a magnificent temple,
noticed e.<j. in Homer (Od. 8. 363) and in Virgil (Mn. 1. 415-17).
1147. the stock-fish], i.e. he is stolidly apathetic ; see Measure
for Measure, 3. 2. 116. Stock-fish is dried-cod ('so called from
its hardness ' — Dr. Johnson), beaten before it is cooked. In The
Tempest, 3. 2. 79, Til make a stock-fish of thee' means 'I will
beat thee '. In 1 Henry IV. 2. 4. 271, when the Prince calls FalstalT
a 'huge hill of flesh', Falstaff retorts that the Pi-inn- is a •starveling',
an ' eel's skin ', a ' dried neat's tongue', a ' stock-fish '.
I l.'.s. lirklr in the touch], i.e. a ticklish thing to touch. For this
obsolete use of ' tickle ' as adjective see «' Henry VI. 1. 1. 216 :
Paris i-; lost ; the state of Normandy
Stands on a tickle point.
In Hamlet (2. 2. 337) a clown is said ' to make those laugh whose
lungs are tickle o' the sere ' [' sere '=the catch in a gunlock which
is released by the trigger], i.e. who are easily moved to laughter.
1187. To try conclusions.] See note on V. 1125.
ll!»7. A particularly ugly line —
Another | consfd | era | tion have it | your way.
1209.] Matthew xxv. 21 ; used with covert sarcasm again in
1. 1190,
1218-79.] The decision of the Court in the Process of Flight
is developed at great length, with much irony, by both Half- 1 Ionic
and The Other Half-Rome (II. 1177 seqq., III. 1376 seqq.) ; it is
sneered at, though claimed as a decision in his favour, by (Juido
(V. 1177-1239, 1855-65, 1884-1938); it is denounced imxt
vehemently by Caponsacchi (VI. 1781-6). The gentle Pompilia.
however, recomii/.ed that (so far at least as she was concerned)
'the judges judged aright i' the main' — they gave her 'a tniee
from torture and Arezzo ' (VII. 1649-51); and the Pope, to the
reader's surprise perhaps, considered that the Court did not 'do
i" the main ' to any of the parties ( X. 705 seqq.).
I L'20. As end\, i.e. ' as to end ' ; cf. VI. 188 :
I had picked up so much of knave-' -p.,:
A< hide i) ;
86 THE RING AND THE BOOK
and VIII. 1774 :
the ambitious do so harden heart
As lightly hold by these home-sanctitudes.
1236-7], i.e. whether the subject of their prattle is edifying or not.
Donna Olimpia Pamfili was sister-in-law to Pope Innocent X.
(1644-55), whom she ruled and robbed ; he could deny her nothing,
and is said to have made her a present of the Palazzo Doria-Pamfili,
the most magnificent of Roman palaces. And yet when he died
she grudged him even the cost of a coffin. — Her influence with the
Pope led to the circulation of scandalous stories about her ; Pasquin
(see note on XII. 141) called her Olim pia, nunc impia, and said of
Innocent, Magis amat Olympiam quam Olympium.
The Saint Rose here mentioned may be either the Franciscan
saint of Viterbo (died 1261) or the Dominican saint of Lima in Peru
(died 1617, canonized c. 1675). Though the latter St. Rose in-
terested Spaniards rather than Italians, I think that she is meant.
Donna Olimpia was a recent sinner, and if girls preferred to prattle
about a saint they would perhaps select one recently canonized.
1240. as here we mean.] The wife, the priest, the husband,
have made a noise and, though they may be innocent otherwise,
should be punished for making it, just as school-girls are punished
for prattling, however innocently, in their dormitories.
1242. After her run.] She has ' scoured the fields ' (above, 1228).
1255. He fails obtain.] Cf. VI. 684, 'love has failed allure';
IX. 1240, ' ye fail preoccupy ' ; X. 1828, ' How could saints and
martyrs fail see truth ? '
1267. a further help i1 the case], i.e. to Guido, to whom Capon-
sacchi's relegation must be some satisfaction.
1272. heading, hanging.] Cf. I. 126, 350.
> 1276.] Luke xvi. 8.
1279. to the steel point], i.e. to the logical extremity ; cf. 1566
below, where ' cold steel ' is logical argument in the law-courts
and is contrasted with violence (' explosives ')..
1282-3..] The Piazza Navona is the largest of Roman piazzas.
' The principal fruit and vegetable market of Rome is held here
every Wednesday and Saturday and on these occasions it presents
a most animated scene ' ; a suitable place for a ' Punch-and-his-
mate ' show.
Story (Roba di Roma, pp. 267 seqq. ) describes the shows of puppets
at the Teatro Emiliano in the Piazza, but it is the ordinary Punch
show in the open air that is here described.
1286. perdue.] See note on III. 1233.
1300. a general duck-down.] Above, .1286.
1303-5.] Guido ' had resigned his part to brother Abate '
long before the time here referred to ; see note on II. 727-8.
1305-27.] Browning here follows the Second Anonymous
BOOK IV. -TBRTIUM QUID 87
Pamphlet. HI \\hii-h tin- three suits are fully d.-s«-i ibcd and it is
;!<•<! that the murder.- \\.iv caiiM-d by the hatred against the
Comparini which tlu-M- >uits hacl roused in (luido's mind (O. Y.B.
L, /•;./,. 2io).
130S-Hi.J Sec tin- note on II. 735-44, where the 'notable decree '
made mi the first hearing of this first civil suit is summari/.ed. The
note al>o >hows that Browning's references here to Tomati and
.Molincs an- incorrect; the first hearing was before Tomati (whom
the records describe as ' A. C.', which Hodell explains as Auditor
Curiae), the appeal was to Molines. It seems that the poet was
also wrong in saying, as he does repeatedly, that Tomati presided
at the murder-trial ; the records make no mention of him in con-
nect ion with it, the presiding judge was Venturini (IV. 1327).
i:::;i-7.] See note on III. 1471-7.
1.". U. the abominable thing], i.e. the total loss of honour con-
sequent on his being proved to be the husband of an adulteress.
1360. Vittiano.] See note on II. 816.
1364. font], i.e. fount, as often in old writers ; cf. 1358.
1365. The lodge.] Guido and his confederates were at Paolo's
villa near the Ponte Moile from December 24 to January 2 (0. Y.B.
211, E.L. 263). — For Paolo's departure from Rome see note on
III. 1540-41.
1369-70.] See Appendix II.
1371. 'Tis one *' the evening.] Hora prima noctis (O.Y.B. Ixi.) ;
uri hora circa di nolle (see O.Y.B. 320) ; i.e. an hour after the Ave
Maria, say about 7 P.M. See note on XIL 130-31.
1377-9.] See note on III. 1623-4.
1383.] The insertion of ' the ' (absent from the first edition)
before * lightnings ' greatly improves the rhythm.
1385-90.] Amplified from O.Y.B. ccxxiv. (E.L. 225): prenden-
dola per le treccie, tfc alzandola da terra oue giaceua, and O.Y.B.
lix. (E.L. 60) : haueua la testa sit le gambe del Sig. Pietro Comparini
gid morto.
i:!'.'K To the mill and the grange, etc.] See Appendix II. All
that Browning learnt about the matter from the records was that
* when the uproar of this horrible slaughter was heard abroad,
people ran thither, but the criminals succeeded in escaping ' (O. Y.B.
212, E.L. 263). The post-Browning pamphlet (according to Hall
Griffin's translation, Life, p. 319; see O.Y.B. 222, E.L. 277) says
that Pompilia, 'collecting her dying breath, had still sufficient
strength of voice to make her neighbours hear her cries for help '.
1 :5'.»<). had the start.] They left the villa at Ponte Molle. to
which they had hurriedly returned after the murders, ' about
an hour' In-fore the Public Force arrived there. Browning
borrows 'Public Force ' from the La Forza of the n -cords ( Model I.
O.Y.n. \\\-i).
l.;'.is. near Baccano.] See note on III. 16IU.
88 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1405-10.] From the Secondary Source (O.Y.B. 212, E.L 264 1
' Patrizi . . . having been overheated and wounded with a slight
scratch (puntura) died in a few days '.
1412-14.] The Cardinal was a person of impatient temper (line
56) and was listening ' o'er the cards ' to the speaker (1485).
1416-21.] Of. XI. 1704. ' It is told that Franceschini, during
the course of the journey [back to Rome after his arrest], asked
one of the sbirri how in the world the crime had been discovered.
And when he was answered that his wife, whom they had found
still living, had revealed it, he was so astounded that he was almost
deprived of his senses '. Before leaving the scene of the murders
Guido had been assured by one of his confederates that Pompilia
was dead. O.Y.B. 212, E.L. 263-4 (Secondary Source).
1422.] ' The criminals were tied on to their horses and taken
to Rome ' (O.Y.B. 212, E.L. 264).
1425-30.] Amplified from O.Y.B. See note on III. 8-10, with
which passage these lines may be compared and contrasted.
1436. flung for dead On Pietro's lap.] See note on 1385-90 above.
1442-75.] In her death - bed confessions Pompilia absolutely
denied that she had been unfaithful to her husband (O.Y.B. Iviii.,
E.L. 59). The lawyers for the prosecution contended that death-
bed confessions are true in fact and are accepted as true in the
courts, and they quoted authorities to that effect (O.Y.B. Ixvii.,
Ixxvi., clxv.-vi., E.L. 71, 83, 173-4). Guide's lawyers, also backed
by authorities, took exception to these general statements, and
argued, as ' Guido's friends ' are represented as arguing here, that
in the particular case of Pompilia there were strong motives for
making a false confession (O.Y.B. cxii., cxxx., ccxxviii., E.L. 121,
137, 231).
1453. the old Religious.] Fra Celestino (O.Y.B. Iviii., E.L. 58).
1466-7.] The records give no support to this statement ; see
Introduction to Book VI. Browning makes Caponsacchi appear
before the Court, but as amicus curiae ('friend of the Court', VI.
1636) rather than as one who had to 'answer for the part he played'.
1479-83.] This point is not made in the pleadings of Guide's
lawyers ; Browning found it in the pro-Guido First Anonymous
Pamphlet (O. Y.B. cliii., E.L. 156). It was of course one for Guido's
lawyers to make, if it was worth making at all ; but the poet in
his admirable caricature makes the anti-Guido advocate Bottini
show his ingenuity by employing a casuistical argument which it
suggested (IX. 1495-1503).
In Book IV. Guido's friends contend that Pompilia first made
a false public confession denying misconduct, and afterwards a
true private one admitting it. By the latter — so they say — she
gained absolution both for the misconduct and for the denial.
In Book IX. Bottini professes to think that she first made a
| true private confession admitting misconduct and thereby gained
IXtnK IV. TI-HT/UM QUID 89
absolution fur it : that ln-r misconduct was tluis obliterated ; that
sin- was then-tore juMilied in declaring publicly afterwards that
there hail been no misconduct.
I jsT. DtaffoUu accuse tl» ,/////,/,.'] People are deaf to Guide's
defellc •, •. ;m,l -ay tll.lt lie otlcl'S HOlle. Tile l|e\t lilli- SU«^Csts that
IM doe* in tart oiler a kind of defence, hut offers it very lamely.
I l!>7. n fiirluiHj], i.f. the feu miles into Tu-eaiiy. to reach \\hidi
Of hours told on the lingers of one hand ' (X.
830
I l us. Hiintln-rijin'XN Irilmnnl.] ' Anothcrguess ' is 'a phonetic
corruption from " anot herijets " for " anothergates" ', which is a
.Lenitive, meaning 'of another gate' (i.e. fashion, manner). So
N.E.l>., which quotes * anothergates ' from a \\iitei of l.V.H, and
• anothcrnets ' from OIK- of 1625 ('I wish you anothergets wife
then Socrates had '). For ' anotherguess ' cf. Fielding, Tom Jones,
15ook VII. c. iv. : ' If I thought he was a gentleman's son, thof
lie was a bye Mow | i.f. a bastard ; see above, 612], 1 should behave
to him in auothci LMICSS manner'; also Borrow, Lavengro (pub-
lished in IS.")1). c. xvi. : 'I fell in with other guess companions
from whom I received widely different impression:-". In Tiri'lflh
Night (5. 1. 198) we have 'othci^ates '. which, says \V. A. Wright,
north-country provincialism: he adds that 'other
guess ' (in the same sense) is used in Somersetshire. In the passage
quoted from Tom Jotn* above the speaker is a Somersetshire land-
lady.
The sentence of ' anotherguess tribunal ' is to be found in O.Y.B.
v.-viii., K.L. .V7. See the Pope's condemnation of it in X. s.",l i'..
l."il± fthxi'iicf <>/' ///> i/nillf/.] The Commissary of An-x./o '\\as
of opinion' to condemn 1'ompilia to imprisonment in the St incite
(see next note) for life, but the Court at Florence ' suspended the
ution ' of the sentence on the ground that she was already in
conlinement at Koine (<r<t r'tnwmilu a Itm/ia in nn Luogo Pio).
i:.lti. Tin MI'H,-/H.\ Prison in the Via Ghibellina at Florence:
no\\ part of a thi-atre. The name was taken from a castle of t he
i leant i, the prisoners in which, on its capture by the ' lilack> '
in l.'Jot, \\ere t ransfej-red to this prison (Gardner's Finn no . p. 226).
l.'.'Js -t(>. | This argument, which is used a«:ain in VIII. '.t'.t'.i
ion:;, b taken from O.T.R or., E.L. 16-17 (Arcanpeli) : 'When
iic concei'iied with an olTence which hurts honour this is not
momentary but continuous (habet Irncliim .v//rr».vx/« /////); nay more,
it becomes greater by lapse of time in proportion to theimi
of the insult to the injured party".
l.'ill. 'j'l t" explode.] Browning often uses Mo Lret ' in this
colloquial way: cf. VI. 763, 'it has got to be somehow for mv
tOO1 : VI. Mi-J. ' the drea?n -rets to invoK.- yourself ': \\ -Jnj.
'•_'"! to 1 ; '/'//' Inn Minim, p. 7S. ' Ho\\ sellish u'et \ oil
happy folks to bet'; VH. 65, M«». I is. :::;j. Note also its nae for
90 THE RING AND THE BOOK
' to become ' in X. 1794, ' we have got too familiar with the light ' ;
XI. 893 ; VII. 342, 640, 1200 (' It had got half through April ').
1545 seqq.] This argument comes from the Second Anonymous
Pamphlet, where it is stated very effectively (O.Y.B. ccxviii.-ix.,
E.L. 220).
1556. cold steel], i.e. wit, common sense, and logic, which he
had plied doughtily (1550-51).
1557.] Browning wrote originally ' hire . . . plot, plan,
execute ! '
1577r8. fons et origo Malorum.] What is thefons of this famous
phrase ? — For the scansion of 1577 see note on VI. 1691. In the
first edition line 1578 ran —
Malorum — increasingly drunk, — which justice done, —
which expresses the poet's meaning very harshly, obscurely and
unrhythmically.
1597. his fatty], i.e. his foolish ill-treatment of them at Arezzo.
1599.] Originally ' Would otherwise be ' ; here, as often,
Browning inserted a relative pronoun on revision.
1605.] His mother loves him.] So Pompilia : ' I could not
love him, but his mother did ' (VII. 1732).
1609-10.] This is doubtful ; see note on III. 407, and contrast
414 above.
1610-11.] See note on III. 481.
1621-31.] For the questions here raised about the infliction
of the torture on Guido see Appendix VI.
1633. she.] See note on 55 above.
i;ooK V.— COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINI
INTRODUCTION
'I'm. >pccch here L'iven is represented ;is having been made
to the judges. ' in a small chamber that adjoins the court ' *,
a feu days after the murders at the villa — on what precise
day we eannot deti miine, for the statements in the poem
are conflicting. The Comparini were murdered on .January
'2 and \\« an told in V. 1683 that Guido spoke four days
later, viz. on the 6th; but it appears from VI. 37 that
Caponsacchi spoke on the 5th-, and from I. 1050 that
(Juido spoke the day before. Again in V. 936 (Juido
alludes to Pompilia, who died on the night of January (>.
as dead, and in line 978 he speaks of her body as already
exposed in San Lorenzo church, but in line HiS7 lie declares
that she is still alive,
Has breath enough to tell her story yet.
The precise date of the speech, however, is unimportant ;
I iHitiee I >io\\ niii _rs ambiguities on the point as an instance
>'t which will force itself often on the student's notice,
that thoiiLfh hrowniiiL: took, as he declared, jjreat pains
about his dates, he was, as his son admitted, 'not at his
in such matters3. — Another time inaccuracy, due,
I think, to a misreading of the records, may be noticed in
l>ook V. Tin? poet brings his Guido into the witness-
chamlter exhausted by ' his limbs' late taste of what
' i
- tlut I'oiiipili.i \\.i- ' Imtrhered ' by Ouido 'three days'
l..-|,-r«- In- :i|.|
:! S.v .Mr. K. Harrrtt Uruwnii. to Professor Hod«-ll in O.P '
(Hot.'
91
92 THE RING AND THE BOOK
was called the Cord ' x, but, as will be shown in Appendix
VI., if the criminal was subjected to that cruel torture
at all, this happened at a much later stage.
The chief interest, of Book V. lies in the contrast which
it presents to Book XL Some critics have supposed tnat
Browning hinted at this contrast, which his preliminary
summary describes most forcibly2, in the headings which
he gave to the two Books3; be that as it may, it saute
aux yeux. In Book XI. Guido stands stripped, not merely
of title and family name, but of the artifice and subterfuge
in which he wraps himself in Book V. ; ' the true words
shine last '. For a full understanding of the poet's concep-
tion both monologues are essential ; J but I shall speak of
the clothed as of the naked scoundrel in the Introduction
to the later monologue.
' Browning ', writes Professor Phelps, ' is the greatest
master of sjgecial pleading in all literature. Although he
detested Count Guido, he makes him [in Book V.] present
his case in the best possible light, so that for the moment
he arouses our intellectual sympathy ' 4. Another American
professor goes further ; he suggests that many readers
of the poem (including himself ?), if seated on the bench,
would have been disposed, after hearing Guide's arguments,
to vote for his acquittal5. Perhaps the professors over-
rate the persuasiveness of the speech 6 ; its separate para-
graphs, many of them, are indeed as plausible as can be,
but the parts are more persuasive than the whole, for
^> the pleas which they advance are often inconsistent.
Meanwhile the Book is amazingly clever, and it is full of
good things ; such for instance as the acid pseudo-cheerful-
<ness of the speaker at the start, or his poignant reflections
^on the plight of an impoverished nobleman, outclassed
^by many a parvenu (see e.g. 67-77, 164-208), and of a dis-
illusioned hanger-on of the Church who has swum undeftly
' on the Galilean pool ' 7 (235-397) ; nothing could be more
i I. 979. 2 I. 1272-85, 1295-6.
3 See e.g. Mrs. Orr, Handbook, p. Ill : ' The speaker is no longer Count Guido
Franceschini, but Guido. ... He is indeed another man ... for he has thrown
off the mask '. — But it was perhaps only natural that the poet should introduce
the speaker formally at first, and name him more compendiously afterwards.
4 Jirowning : How to knoiv him, p. 246.
5 O.Y.B. 279.
« See further in the Introduction to Book XI. ? n. 294.
H<HU< I COUNT GU1DO FRANCESCI1INI 93
admit than his exposition of the real gist of the Franccs-
chini-( 'ompanni harirain (I.'U -""><;<;). nothing more judiciously
<iuasi-eandid than his avowal of his views on love and
niarriaL'c ((iCM-T.Vi)- views which, hmvever repulsive to us,
\\ere in accord \\itli the opinion of the Italy of his time,
lint it is difficult to pick out particular passages of the
Hook tor special praise; it is all so masterly. It ends,
like the iiioiKiloLMies of the two other chief actors, with a
passage \\hi-h 'ought to be referred to', wrote the Editor
of the Fortnightly*, 'when one wishes to know what power
over the instrument of his art Mr. Browning might have
achieved, if he had chosen to discipline himself in instru-
mentation'. Perhaps he practised this self -discipline more
often than Lord Morley's words would suggest.
*^^****
NOTES
5. Velletri], one of the most full-bodied of Italian wines, and
jrefor6 ' testifying ' under the circumstances.
. / inegar^nd gall], Matthew xxvii. 34, 48.
in were exempt, etc.] See Apiiciulix VL on all matters
TeToTmg to the infliction of torture upon Guido.
46. The father.] See note on XI. 1878.
49. when the purse he left held spider-webs.] This way of describ-
ing an empty purse comes from Catullus, 13. 7-8 : —
nain tui Catulli
I Menus sacculus cst arunoariiiu.
.">!. t fir hy.\ Cf. La Saisiaz, p. 22; the word is said to be cor-
rupted from "touchy'. It occurs several times in Shakespeare,
»•.;/. in /iiV/i/m/ ///.,4. 4. 168, 'Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy '.
57. demurs thereon.] Why not, as usual, 'thereto' or ' thereat \
as in a >« nt< IK <• of a letter from the poet to KusUin which J <|ii<>tc
for its literal v interest: 'I cannot begin writing poetry till my
imaginary reader has conceded licences to me which you demur >'it
altogether' (Ruskin's Works, Library Edition, xxxvi., p. \x\i\) ?
58-6 l.J That certain worthies at Arozzo gave Guido julviec,
and perhaps remoiist rated with him. ahout his treatment of Pom-
piiia is likely enough. It is true that liotli the Hishop and the
Govern i.ited him absolutely (O.Y.B. lxxx.-l\\\i..
E.L. 8'.» '.»»>, !»'.»), but several respectal.le Aretiin-s s|K)ke of his ill-
treatment of his wife as notorious (O.Y.B. liii., E.L. 53-4). It
» fortiii-jht/!/ ];,•>• i'-x, Marrlf I, IM'.'.», p. 334.
94 THE RING AND THE BOOK
appears that Paolo at Rome had been ' vexed by perpetual com-
plaints ' on the subject, which may have come from such people ;
he apparently thought them well-founded, for ' he did not cease
to take Guido to task' (O.Y.B. ccxlviii., E.L. 245).
II- 513.
and purtenance.] Exodus xii. 9, ' his [the lamb's]
legs, and with the purtenance thereof. — A servant
of theFranceschini deposed : ' For the victuals of all those
at table [six in number] the Franceschini used to buy a sucking
lamb on Saturdays . . . which the Signora Beatrice used to portion
out for the whole week'. The witness goes on to explain how
thriftily her mistress dealt with the lamb's head, liver, and intestines
(O.Y.B. li., E.L. 52).
74. when three-parts water.] The servant deposed that the wine-
flask which served for the six people contained 3| fogliette (about
2 pints ?) only; 'before putting the wine in the flask', she said,
' the Signora made me fill the flask half full of water, . . . and often
there was more water than wine ' (0. Y.B. lii., E.L. 52). Cf. II. 474.
84. hanged or headed.] See note on I. 350.
93. their bastard.] In Browning's view Guide's motive in plan-
ning the murders was to secure all Pietro's property in the name
of Pompilia's child as his own heir ; they were not to be committed,
therefore, till after her confinement (see the Pope's argument in
X. 752-74 ; cf. III. 1546-69, IV. 1102-6). For the success of the
scheme it was plainly necessary that Guido should be ready, when
the child was born, to recognize it as legitimate.
But it was still more necessary that he should not be detected
as the murderer. Once detected, he had to consult for his life
and not for finance ; it became his interest to maintain that the
child was a bastard. For, if that were so, the fact of its birth
would greatly increase the force of the only arguments that he
could use in his defence, viz. that he committed the murders to
avenge his injured honour, and that the injury to his honour was
still fresh.
The poet accordingly makes Guido in Book V. profess to believe
that Caponsacchi was Gaetano's father ; see line 1506, where he
speaks as if the boy could only be legitimate ' by some mad miracle
of chance', and 1530, where he says that it is his 'own inmost
heart's confession ' that he was ' the priest's bastard ' ; cf. 1643.
The peroration of the monologue, in which Guido expresses his
readiness to take the boy as his son, is a mere rhetorical appeal,
however effective ; he does not mean to be understood as so regarding
him : —
I take him at your word,
Mine be he, by miraculous mercy, lords ! (2027-8).
Meanwhile it is noticeable (1) that Guido' s lawyers, harping as
V.— COUNT GUIDO 1 IIANCESCH1N1 96
they rightly harp on the luninrix ruuxii plea, ami striving as they
strive to prove thai the murders \\ere committed iin-nntim nil
note on VIII. HMI3), say very little about ( iactano ; Arcam/eli
, lallv rcadv to asMime that he was or was ngt Guide's son
(<).)'./;. XXL, A'.A. 22): and (2) that in Book XI. Guido almost
ts ' to -peak of him ; when he remembers to do so (XL 1847-
l!M)2), he speak> of him as his lawful SOU.
"//.r |, /.r. to make.
111. hi/ n iinlnrinux I if. \ The Kranccschiiii had been in a dilemma :
should they aeeept or deny Violante's story? Was Pompilia her
child or a ' channeling' (1398)? To accept the story would have
strengthened a claim for a divorce, but would have prejudiced
Cuido's claim to the dowry (see O.Y.B. cxliii.-iv., E.L. 147-8).
i after Guide's arrest, when an acceptance of the story would
have provided him with an 'extenuating circumstance' for the
murders, Browning makes the pro-Guido Half -Rome scout it (II.
603 «ew.).
1 18. Qmopfa<l= * shoulder-blade ' (16 above) from Greek wnoirXdri).
Tht K i nil is 1 1 word, unlike the French omoplate, is a purely technical
term, but its use here is justifiable, for Guido is represented as
having (like Browning himself) made a special study of anatomy.
Sic XL 291-2 (note) and 1679.
130. owned the spiritual], i.e. admitted its claims.
i:U. mi/ back of docile beast.] A Gallicism.
142. ancientest of Tuscan toums.] Arretium was probably at
as old as Rome, but ' ancientest ' is probably a mere patriotic
claim.
I \:\. When my worst foe, etc.} The anti-Guido Second Anony-
mous Pamphlet states, on the authority of the Arezzo records,
that the iManeeschini did not enjoy the primary rank of nobility
but only the second (O.Y.B. ccxi., E.L. 213). In VI. 223 Capon-
>a.-rhi de.M-iilio his family as 'oldest now, greatest once ' at
Aiv/./o. and in VI. 1572-4 he says when at Castehiuovo : —
\Ye are aliens here,
My adversary and 1, called noble both ;
i am the nuiiler, and a name men know.
I 17 .">:;. | The 'high' rivalry of Franciscans and Dominicans
I i nds literary expression among Roman ecclesiastics at the end of
tin- -eventecnth century, and Bishop Burnet, Guide's contemporary,
duells upon it in his Lifters from Italy (pp. 32 seqq.). Such rivalry
lirafl \\holly alien to the spirit of their founders; it is interesting
to note that in the I'nrutlixn (cantos 11 and 12) Dante puts the
praises of St. Kraiiei> into the mouth of the Dominican St. Thomas
Aquinas. ihoM- of St. Dominic into that of tin- I'Yanciscan St.
IJ'.naxentlira : ' their \\oik- \\eie t ie end ' (11. 42).
168, "<• llnniinjn- t<> tin tiinjiirc\, i.e. holder of a lief directly
96 THE RING AND THE BOOK
under the Emperor, and therefore his ' man ' (homagium is from
Iwtno). The word ' homager ' is Shakespearian ; see Antony and
Cleopatra, 1. 1. 31 :
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Caesar's homager.
169. Or pay that fault, etc.], i.e. or should pay the penalty of
being poor by not claiming the rights of nobility.
170. lacks the flag yet lifts the pole], i.e. claims the rights of nobility
(' lifts the pole '), but is too poor to make the display which
nobility demands (* lacks the flag ').
171. On, therefore, I must move.] An improvement on the
original ' Therefore, I must make move '.
182. of late], viz. when the Comparini on their return to Rome
circulated pamphlets describing the Franceschini menage (see note
on II. 658).
190.] For Beatrice's economies in firing see O.Y.B. xlix., 1.,
E.L. 49, 50.
201. got to be a priest.] See note on IV. 1541.
202-7.] Cf. VI. 321-4, where a bishop says to Caponsacchi :
I have a heavy scholar cloistered up,
Close under lock and key, kept at his task
Of letting Fenelon know the fool he is,
In a book I promise Christendom next Spring.
See also II. 179, VI. 359 seqq.
210.] Cf. III. 343, VIII. 1095, XI. 2142 seqq.
212. The eldest son, etc.]. A mistake ; see note on III. 253.
227. porporate.] ' It was enacted in a constitution of Boniface
VIII. in 1297 that cardinals should wear the royal purple. They
are called the porporati to this day ' (Tuker and Malleson, Handbook
to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome, Part IV. p. 447). — The word
porporati often occurs in 0. Y.B.
228. Red - stockinged in the presence.] What ecclesiastical
dignitaries (if any) other than cardinals ' step red-stockinged ' in
the Pope's presence I do not know. — In X. 1164-5 the Pope professes
to regard the red stockings of a cardinal as symbolical :
Red-socked, how else proclaim fine scorn of flesh,
Unchariness of blood when blood faith begs !
233. bring the purchase back.] The * purchase ' is the payment
which he will have received for his labour in the Church's causr.
Cf. III. 292-4.
249-50. having afield, etc.] Acts iv. 37.
253. the villa.] See note on II. 816.
255. stanchion.] For ' stanchion ' as verb cf. Prince Hohenstiel-
Schwangau, p. 92, ' the one weak place that's stanchioned by a
HOOK V.— COUNT QUIDO FRANCESCHINl 97
In ' : /,'«/ Cotton Night-Cap Country, n., ' Repair wreck, stanchion
\\.ill '.
270. Three or four orders, etc.] See note on I. 261-5.
_">">. I trique sic paratiis], 'thus prepared for cither', i.e. for
immediate or for drl'i-m-d advancement : not. I think, for ' Chun-h
or world ', as Sir F. Kenyon explains.
•_".) 1 . X <>.,-/ !/< ,ir I'm nnh, sixteen, etc.} See note on IV. 392.
'l . n term}, i.e. a bust such as those of Terminus the god of
boundaries, springing out of a rectangular pillar; the word is
so MM -d iii Browning, e.g. in Strafford, 5. 2. 40.
v| The eomrna inserted after 'from' in the first edition of
tin- |>oem perhaps makes the meaning clearer.
:Ki<>. Chamberlain.} See note on VIII. 1084.
• !l t. hexastich], epigram of six lines.
318. Purfled], strictly = * fringed ', 'embroidered' (French
'He), as in Chaucer, Prologue, 193, ' his sieves y-purfiled at the
Bond1 ; so used also by Spenser and Milton. A favourite word
of Browning's in the sense 'ornamented', 'decked' ; cf. Sordello,
I. 900, and Apollo and the Fates, ad init. (Man's life is 'woe-purfled '
or ' weal-prankt ' as Lachesis may determine).
322. a tittup}, i.e. a curvet ; a dialectic word, * echoic from
the sound of the horse's feet ' (N.E.D.). C.S.C.'s parody is not
as happy as usual with its ' Yah ! tittup ! what's the odds ? '
324-5.] A mistake. After his arrest Guido was ' straightway
taken to the New Prisons ', and the New Prisons were ' at Tor di
Nonna ' (O.Y.B. 223, 224, E.L. 278, 279).
The Torre di Nona (Nona is said to be a corruption of Latin
•>ia; the building is called turns annonce in early documents)
was a tower in the city walls ; originally in the possession of the
Orsini, it became a papal prison as early as 1410 (Gregorovius).
It was immediately S. of the Ponte S. Angelo, and still gives
its name to the street which runs to the bridge by the river-side ;
but it was destroyed eight years before Guide's arrest (Hare, Walks
in Rome, ii. p. 148). The Carceri Nuove, built by Innocent X.
(ihitl. p. 116), are not far off, in the Via Giulia.
In Browning's Cenciaja (which every reader of The Ring and
the Book should consult) we read of a Marchese, accused of matricide
in I.VJ9, as confined in ' Tordinona-prison'.
:;ir>. ///// .sr/r///// climacteric}, the age of 49. For Guide's real
age see note on II. 291.
:;i7. fed hi/ the •>n«t-irind.] Cf. e.g. Job xv. 2 : 'Should a wise
man . . . till his belly with the east wind ? ' (i.e. the sirocco from
the de
. fulsome-fine}, richly overfed, fed to satiety; cf. The Inn
A II > "in, p. 103:
<>t fattened. fulsome, Imve you fed on me.
Su.-ked c.ut my -ubstance ?
II
98 THE RING AND THE BOOK
357. The sisters are well wedded^away.] See note on IV. 381
seqq. ,
364. one limes flocks. ctf^thnstshes there.] Cf. XI. 930, where
Guido speaks of ' trapping field-fares ' at Vittiano. For the liming
of small birds in Italy see Story, Eoba di Roma, p. 448 ; for their
use as food see ibid. p. 380 and XL 1908, note.
378. with neither cross nor pile], i.e. penniless. As ' cross ' is
one side of a coin (see note on III. 401), so ' pile ' is the other. It
' took its name from the pile or short pillar on which the coin rested
when struck ' (Skeat). ' Qross or mle ' usually means ' heads or
tails ' ; N.E.D. quotes hottTW^s Logic, iii. 18, § 1 : ' Why, in
tossing up a halfpenny, do we reckon it equally probable that we
shall throw cross or pile ? '
389. In shagrag beard.] Cf. Aristophanes' Apology, p. 130, where
Aristophanes, speaking of the ragged ('bruised and battered')
heroes for bringing whom upon the stage he taunted Euripides,
calls them his ' shag-rag hero-race '.
395. some poor prize.] The other gamesters, I suppose, make
up a purse for him. Guide's ' poor prize ' is to be some small
benefaction, presumably, from his cardinal.
402. sors . . . Virgilian dip.] Cf. X. 297, ' if we dip in Virgil
here and there, etc.'. As a famous seventeenth - century sors
Virgiliana the following passage, which Charles I. found when he
dipped into the Mnzid, may be quoted : —
' Distressed in war by an armed and gallant nation, driven home-
less from its borders, rent from lulus' embrace . . . when he hath
yielded him to the terms of a harsh peace . . . may he have no
joy of his kingdom . . . but let him fall before his day ' {Mn. iv.
615-20 : Mackail's translation).
406. Count you are counted]=not simply, 'you are a count',
but ' you are a count who counts '. ' There is small respect in
Rome for new titles . . . and the expression Conti che non contano
(" counts who do not count ") has been a proverbial pun for ages '
(Marion Crawford, Fortnightly Review, July 1885). — See note on 1. 173.
416. The cits enough, etc.], i.e. highly prosperous bourgeois who
aimed at being something more ; cf. II. 197, IV. 478-80. I cannot
find an exact parallel to the use of 'enough'.
443. taking], i.e. taking away.
451. Guarded and guided.] A favourite phrase of Browning's,
here used less gravely than usual. Cf. e.g. II. 944, V. 816, A Death
in the Desert, 172. See note on IX. 1039.
458. prizer] = prize-fighter ; cf. Luria, I:
once the brace of prizers fairly matched,
Poleaxe with poleaxe, knife with knife as good.
In As' you like it, 2. 3, 8, Charles the wrestler is called ' the bonny
priser of the humorous duke'.
BOOK V.— COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINI 99
481. /'/v /'"-•'' rous terms ?], i.e. did they call the terms
preposterous ':
488-9. Pietro of Cortona . . . His .scholar Ciro Ferri.] Cf.
IX. 114-17:—
who liath Ion<4 surpassed fh<- Florentine,
The rHiinafe and . . . what if I dared add,
Kvt-n liis mailer, yea the Cortonese, —
I moan (ho accomplished Ciro Ferri, Sirs !
Pietro (Bem-ttini) da Cortona (1597-1669) is best known for his
all. iforic al ceiling-paintings in the Pitti Palace at Florence; they
an- in the baroque style of the period. In some of them he was
I by his pupil Tiro Ferri (1634-89), a now forgotten artist
who — 'so Bottini was given to understand — surpassed Michael
Aiiu'elo, Raphael, and even Pietro himself ! — There are some interest-
ing allusions to this Pietro in Browning's Beatrice Signorini.
494. I falsified, etc.] On the subject of these falsifications the
anti-Guido pamphleteer declared that the Arezzo tax-registers proved
that Guido did not possess even one soldo of the 1700 scudi which
he had stated to be his income in the inventory of his property
which he had supplied to the Comparini (O.Y.B. ccix., ccxi., E.L.
211, 213). His supporter admitted that his income was much less
than that amount, but contended that he had over-stated it under
pressure from Violante, to remove Pietro's misgivings about the
proposed marriage (O.Y.B. cxlii., E.L. 146). Browning makes
Guido defend himself here in an airier manner (cf. IV. 527-50) ;
the mis-statement was mere ' garnishry ' which did not affect the
real * gist ' of the bargain.
523-4.] Ecclesiastes i. 14 s.egq.
529. spoons Fire-new] = brand-new ; cf. Soliloquy of the Spanish
Cloister, m., 'With a fire-new spoon we're furnished'. Shake-
speare, who is said to have coined 'fire-new', often uses it figuratively
(King Lear, 5. 3. 132, Richard III., 1. 3. 256, Twelfth Night, 3. 2.
23 ; Armado is described in Love's Labour's Lost, 1. 1. 179, as 'a
man of fire-new words ') ; cf. XL 364, ' Our fire-new gospel is
re-tinkered law'.
Abanished prince will endure humble fare, just as
r endures fire, but will be sorely tried by the vulgar
company which he will have to keep ; there his resemblance to
the salamander ceases — it will make him ' frizzle '. But to the
\vell-fod Roman bourgeois and bourgeoise it was just the humble
fare at Arezzo that was unendurable ; to the other kind of trial
tney were not exposed.
•~>ll -2.] 'All the winter long little portable furnaces smoke
wherein they [the great brown Roman chestnuts] are roasting, to
!)«• sold .>{ t \\-i-nty for a baiocco, and many an old wife sits by, " with
ehestnuts on her lap" ' (Story, Roba di Roma, p. 382).
542. baioc.] See note on t. 324.
100 THE EING AND THE BOOK
546. frizzles at the babe to kiss.] It will be remembered that it
was at the * babe to kiss ' that the blue candidate at the Eatanswill
election, who was ready to do everything else, was inclined to boggle.
558-66.] 'I won't answer', says Guido, 'in the high tragic
vein ; I simply refer your lordships to the evidence of comedies
and story-books which reveal people's true selves, to show that
the conduct of the Comparini was due to " purblind greed " '.
560. Ser Franco's merry Tales.] Franco Sacchetti (c. 1335-
1410) was a younger contemporary of Boccaccio (1313-1375), and
a writer of novelle in the manner of the Decameron. Guido should
not have called him his ' townsman ', for he was a Florentine.
There is another reference to Sacchetti in V. 1153, and perhaps
a third in XL 261.
562-3.] After ' a vizard from a face ' one would expect ' its
padding from a body ' rather than ' a body from its padding '. —
By the words ' a soul — it styles itself ' Guido seems to mean that
the writers in question strip away all the claims to high motives
by which the frothy ignorance of fools leads them to believe that
they are actuated.
581-2.] Genesis ii. 24 ; Matthew xix. 5.
588-90.] A veiled allusion, I think, to Pompilia's indignant
rejection of Girolamo's immoral advances ; see 640-41 below, and
the note on II. 500.
594. troll] Browning means by ' to troll ' to say glibly or
smoothly ; cf. XII. 849, ' Say this as silverly as tongue can troll '.
The verb is used both by Shakespeare (Tempest, 3. 2. 126 ; see
Clarendon Press note there) and by Milton.
597. at spring of year.] During carnival ?
617.] See Appendix III.
630. cast out, and happily so.] Happily for the Comparini, who
were thus absent from Arezzo when ' the abominable ' came upon
Pompilia. Cf. III. 531, where they are said to have ' fled away
for their lives, and lucky so '.
632. Woe worth the poor young wife.] In the phrase ' woe worth '
(e.g. in ' Woe worth the day ' — Ezekiel xxx. 2) * worth ' = ' becomes ',
* is ', or else ' let it become ', ' let it be '. ' Woe worth the day ' is
generally explained ' woe be to the day ' ; but is not ' woe ' in such
phrases an adjective ? Cf. e.g. Tempest, 5. 1. 139, * I am woe for't ',
Shakespeare's 71st Sonnet, 8, ' If thinking on me then should make
you woe '. (In Old Mortality, c. vii., some one says : ' I will be wae
to hear o' your affliction'.)
640-41. the satyr-love Of who but my own brother.] See note on
6^8. Swans^a^e soft.] But Pompilia was not soft^as a swan ;
she provETTto be a cockatrice.
672. From Thyrsis to Necera.] These names of pastoral lovers
have found their way from Theocritus and Virgil into modern poetry.
V.— COUNT OUIDO FRANCESCHINI 101
>ental roses in his shoe.] In Hamlet (3. 2. 288) * a forest
of fr.-itlirr* ' and 't\\o IV.iviucial roses ou my ni/.ed .shoes' are
mentioned as accessories of a smart actor's costume. The l'io-
viiiejal roses' are ribb< I of the shape and colour of the
double damask rose called Rose de Provence or, more properly,
de Provins (a place near Paris where this rose is said to have been
brought by the crusaders). Cf. XI. 1100-3, ' the hundred-petalled
ence prodigy--^-. the kind That's queen '.
705. To dgrfiaivfartiervice], i.e. to obey.
— . at th&taCStfSXa.] The Piazza of the Pantheon (Santa Maria
della Rotonda). ' You will rind gathered around the fountain
in the Piazza- ... a number of bird-fanciers surrounded by cages
in which are multitudes of living birds for sale. Here are Java
sparrows, parrots and parroquets, grey thrushes and nightingales,
redbreasts, yellow canary birds, beautiful sweet-singing little gold-
finches, and gentle ringdoves, all chattering, singing, and cooing
together ' (Story, Roba di Roma, p. 380).— The Pantheon itself is
commonly called the Rotonda by Romans ; Gilbert Burnet, Guide's
contemporary, always calls it by that name in his Letters from Italy.
708. J I may have paid far too much, says Guido, but I want
some sort of value for my money. I have paid ' my name and
style, my hope And trust, my all' (711-12).
hoodwink, starve and prpptity tiu>i*i*my bird.] See Shake-
speare's England, xxvii. § 2 <rFalconryJ,^ the Hon. Gerald
Lascelles), where the process of^S^d4wffncing ' is described. To
' hoodwink ' is to blindfold by throwing a hood over the eyes (? the
' winkers '). Mr. Lascelles says that the hawk ' must be brought
to her bearings by fatigue — never by starvation, for that is her ruin '.
Bartholomew Anglicus (De Proprietatibus Rerum, p. 120, ed. Steele)
says of the goshawk : * She must have ordinate diet, nother too
scarce, ne too full. For by too much meat she waxeth ramaious
[i.e. slowj. . . . And if the meat be too scarce, then she faileth, and
is feeble and unmighty to take her prey '.
710. should she prove a haggard.] The haggard is a IjajKk. which
has fully moulted at least once before she is trained. If fine-tempered
and naturally docile she may be very valuable, for the falconer
tit ids in her 'no amateur', but already 'a professional expert'.
She may however prove * untrainable, or be more trouble to reclaim
than she is worth ' ; and Shakespeare, like Browning here, uses
the word with this fact in view, e.g. in Othello, 3. 3. 260-63 (Othello
is speaking of Desdemona) :
If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I'ld whistle her off and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune.
- hakes pear e '« England, loc. cit.
102 THE RING AND THE BOOK
715. my f^tm^entle.] The term was applied, according to
Mr. Lascelles, to the whole species of peregrine hawks. ' Gentle ',
according to a writer quoted by Professor Dowden on Romeo and
Juliet, 2. 2. 160, distinguished the nobler peregrine from the gos-
hawk.
723-4.] 1 Corinthians vii. 9.
727.] Ephesians v. 23 seqq.
728-9.] You may find insubordinate underlings in the Church,
just as you may find refractory wives in marriage.
738.] St. Francis, while inculcating labour, taught his followers
to trust to heaven for the supply of their necessities.
738.] Did St. Francis use the manna-metaphor when teaching
his disciples to take no thought for what they should eat ? ' Quails '
were of course suggested by Numbers xi. 31-2.
740. the Levite-rule], i.e. the rule for deacons ; ' levites ' became
a name for deacons in very early Christian times.
748. Put case.] Elsewhere obsolete, but often found in Browning ;
cf. e.g. VIII. 1485, IX. 307, 815.
766.] See note on II. 658.
768-72.] The story is told with full detail in IV. 146-91.
770. by-blow bastard-babe.] See note on IV. 612.
781. their reckoning], i.e. their punishment (see 783).
805. them] must mean Pietro and Violante, to whom however
reference is made in the second person earlier in the sentence.
809.] The apodosis to the long conditional clauses which begin
here does not come till 827 (' what a friend were he ! '). So in the
long sentence 938-66 the apodosis does not begin till 963,
811. Locusta], the professional female poisoner in the reigns of
Claudius and Nero ; we read of her in Tacitus and Juvenal.
816. guarding, guiding.] See note on 451 above.
823. If he become no partner.] Originally ' Refuse to become
partner ' ; similarly in 827 ' Ah, if he did thus ' was originally
' Ah, did he do thus '. The reiteration of 'if keeps the structure
of the sentence clearer as we read ; and ' did he do ' is inelegant.
835.] For the letter to Paolo see Appendix IV.
839. praises], i.e. of Guido ; the letter says : ' . . . wishing
to be a good Christian and a good wife to Signer Guido my husband,
who often reproved me in a loving manner, and said that one day
I should thank him, etc.' (O.Y.B. lv., E.L. 57).
850. the Bilboa.] Bilboa (Bilbao) in Spain was famous from
the beginning of the Christian era for the manufacture of iron and
steel. Its name is applied by Shakespeare not only to a sword-
blade (Merry Wives, 1. 1. 165, 3. 5. 112) but also to chains (Hamlet,
5. 2. 6, ' Methought I lay worse than the mutines in the bilboes ').
853. practice], i.e. artifice.
859. Was marching in.] ' Marching in mere ' originally. The
change makes ' I myself, etc.' a relative clause instead of an apposi-
nnnK I' OOUNT OUIDO VBANCB8CHIN1 m:j
tion ti> tin- ' I ' <>f line S.'il. hid lirowniiiL' think th.it alliteration
serdone in ' my.-elf marehiii'_r in mere marital ' ?
ive' nf the illustrated edition is a misprint for
'I '.
876. ranij.\ Why did th.- poet alter the 'called' of his first
edition ''. ' Called ' keeps up the idea of temptation, and 'coppice
c-alled ' is not an unpleasant alliteration.
878 seqq.] The assertion that I'ompilia had many lovers at
ide by (iuido in the Process of Flight, and was quoted
by both his lawyers in the murder-trial. He said in his evidence:
' She stand> convicted as an adulteress . . . for many like excesses
whieh I have heard since that she committed with other persons'
(O.YJi. oxxvii, A'./.. 1 :!.-»; cf. O.Y.B. evil, E.L. 116).
897. where the tlteatre lent its lodge], i.e. its ' box ' ; the French
loge.
922. Stans pede in uno.] From Horace, Sat. 1. 4. 10 ; explained
' as a proverbial expression meaning " as an easy thing ", something
that you could do without needing both feet ' (\Vickham).
''_':>. In the one case], 918-20 ; ' plainsong ' echoes 'plainly'.
in the other}, 921-2 ; Guido can't make his defence * standing
on one foot ' ; he aches and needs a chair.
931], i.e. exhortation backed by threats of small penalties and
promises of small rewards.
933. threatenings . . . slaughter.] Acts ix. 1.
936. the dead guilty three.] Compare 978 and contrast 1687.
See Introduction to this Book.
938-66.] See note on 809 above.
948-51.] Cf. VII. 1249-51, IX. 380-81. Guide's threats to kill
Pompilia by poison or by the sword are often mentioned in the
reenrds ; the evidence for them is Pompilia's deposition (O.Y.B.
lxxxiii.-iv., E.L. 91-2): 'They [Guido and Beatrice) continued
perpetually to threaten my life. . . . My husband continued to
ill-treat me and to threaten my life, and (said) that he wished to
kill me. . . . He pointed a pistol at my breast, saying, " O Christ !
who keeps me from laving you out here ? " . . I was afraid that,
if he didn't kill me with arms, he might poison me'.
'. » ."» 1 . l> iKjaboo] = bogy.
967. Ifofefcu.] John xviii. 10; cf. IX. 1173.
'.»71 :*.] Matthew xxvii. 5-8; John xiii. 26.
987 seqq.] O.Y.B. v.-vii., E.L. 5-7, and elsewhere.
100<>. immoral) eommunieat ion-. ' In-
tflHgfiu-ing ' is applied in HV///r/-'x Tnh- ('2. 3. 68) as an epithet to
a go-between in such communications.
1006.] There is much in the love-letters about these absences
of Guido.
1012-13. | The different statements of Cuido's nei'jht'oiirs at.out
the hour of the flight echo variations in the depositions. 'At
104 THE RING AND THE BOOK
dawn I went downstairs, where I found Caponsacchi ', says Pom-
pilia (O.Y.B. Ixxxv., E.L. 93). ' At about seven hours ' (i.e. about
1 A.M. ; see note on IV. 1371) 'she came alone to the gate', says
Caponsacchi (O.Y.B. Ixxxix., E.L. 96). The sentence of the
Criminal Court says alle 1 ore di notte (0. Y.B. v., E.L. 5).
1016. your own cousin Guillichini.] For Guillichini and his
part in the flight see note on II. 934.
1018-19. made prize of all. Including your wife.] As is stated in
the sentence of the Criminal Court of Florence, O. Y.B. vii., E.L. 6.
1020-29.] See note on VI. 1080-83.
1026. a calash] = Italian calesse ; the word is applied in the
records by Pompilia, Caponsacchi, and the lawyers to the carriage
used in the flight.
1036.] See above, 935 and 980-85.
1040. head of me, heart of me, etc.] Cf. Fifine at the Fair, Epilogue,
I., ' Head of me, heart of me, stupid as a stone '.
1046.] In Isaiah xiv. 12 (' How art thou fallen from heaven,
0 Lucifer, son of the morning ! ') the king of Babylon in his fall
is compared to the morning star. The application of the verse
to the fall of Satan from heaven is as old as St. Jerome.
1049-51.] For Caponsacchi's 'laic dress' see note on II. 999.
1055. the league, the one post more.] See note. on III. 1201.
1058. — the tenderer sex—.] Cf. IX. 225, ' the weaker sex, my
lords, the weaker sex ! '
1077-8.] Cf. 1082. Guido usually speaks of Pompilia's guilt
as having been indisputably proved at the time of the flight, but
he professes to have been ready to put it to a ' final test ' (1626)
by his ' Open to Caponsacchi ! ' on the fatal evening.
1081. thrice.] Since the flight Guido had only once sought
unsuccessfully a legal remedy for his alleged wrong, viz. in the
Process of Flight — or twice, if we are to include the proceedings at
Arezzo, in which, however, he was not altogether unsuccessful.
1082-4.] The meaning of these lines is clear enough as far as
the word 'blot', but the following words ('which breaks — for fear
of mine ') are puzzling. I offer an explanation with no great
confidence.
'At the time of the flight', says Guido, 'it was perhaps just
possible to believe 'that the conduct of Pompilia and Caponsacchi
was a passing indiscretion, but by the time of the murders it had
been proved to be a " solid " crime of the very deepest dye — a
crime in the presence of which even the blackness of hell turns pale,
loses its solidity, and falls away as though stripped off in flakes '.
It does so, he adds, ' for fear of mine '. Of my what ? Apparently
of ' my black ' (i.e. blackness) or of ' my blot ' ; probably the latter,
but the two mean much the same. Can ' my blot ' (or ' my black ')
be the crime with which I confront it, viz. that of Pompilia a nd
Caponsacchi ? Perhaps ; but ' blot ' may have had a dou\> le
BOOK V.— COUNT OUIDO FRANCESCH1N1 105
in. anil!- in l'.i«i\\ ning's mind, referring also to the 'ulcer' engendeied
in Cindo's Mini (1108-70; cf. 1706) by the shame to \vhieh lie had
I.Cdl
1106-7.J Acts xxii. 3.
1114. amercement], i.e. penalty.
1124. my own sword.] See note on II. 1031.
1125. to try conclusions.} * Conclusions ' formerly often meant
' experiments ', as e.g. in Antony and Cleopatra, 5. 2. 358, ' She hath
pursued conclusions infinite Of easy ways to die ', and this is the
meaning of the word in the phrase ' to try conclusions ' as used
by Shakespeare ; see Hamlet, 3. 4. 195 and Merchant of Venice,
2. 2. 39 (where, however, young Gobbo corrupts it into k try con-
in- ions'); cf. Fifine at the Fair, xxvn., where 'to try conclusions
with mankind ' is explained by ' to experiment on ' men ; ibid.
Iv. In the modern use of the phrase, as the N.E.D. points out,
' conclusions '= the issue, result, as here ; cf. IV. 1187, XI. 846.
1128.] The comma at the end of the line should be removed.
1130. with proper clapping and applause.} See note on II.
1043-8.
Il31.,4uccubus],)tcm&\e demon.
. . Now, prose.} See note on VI. 1558-9.
1141-9.] In the love-letters there are many allusions (1) to
// Oeloso and (2) to his absences from Arezzo ; also (3) to the colour
of the wine drunk by the Franceschini family, e.g. ' If they continue
to drink the red wine, I let you know ' ; ' The Signora is drinking
wine . . . red like ours ' ; * With respect to what you wish to
know about the wine, I tell you that it is red just now ' ; * Tell me
what have I to do, that I may do it ' (O.Y.B. xcii.-vii., E.L. 100-4).
As to the wine, Guido dots the i's and crosses the t's.
1152. Both in a breath protested.} See their depositions (O.Y.B.
Ixxxvi., xc.-xci., E.L. 94, 97-8).
1153. Sacchetti again.} See note on 560 above.
1161. by my fay. J Chaucer writes ' by my fey ' ; ' fey ' =Frem -h
fei, the older form of foi. Shakespeare has * by my fay ' in Hamlet,
2. 2. 271, Romeo and Juliet, 1. 5. 128.
1174. Law renovates even Lazarus.} By ' law ' Guido means
* Nature, which is God' (1171); but he proceeds to identify this
law with the law administered in the papal courts (1175-6).
1175.] Acts xxv. 12.— See note on II. 1018.
1177-1239.] See note on IV. 1218-79.
1197-8.] Matthew xviii. 12.
1209-10.] Catullus, some of whose poems are most ' unseemly ',
was habitually < ailed doctus by the Roman poets who followed him
-Tibulliis, Ovid, Martial. Meanwhile doctus may be regarded as
mi-rely a standing epithet of a good poet; Horace, for instaiut,
hkfl <>t' tin i\y-«io\vn as the reward of 'learned forehead.-* '
(<ln<-tnriii. i. Catullus •evr.-i-.-d a p. i feet fascination over
106 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the Italians ' after the Renaissance (Burckhardt, The Renaissance
in Italy, p. 264). Of. the allusion in VI. 386-8.
1214-25.] I shall quote the decree of the Court in the Process
of Flight in the note on VI. 2007-22. It will be observed that
Guido follows the language of this decree closely in lines 1218-22,
translating literally the words complicitas, deviatio, relegatus. Lines
1223-5 are an addition of Guide's ; no sentence was pronounced
upon Pompilia, who was merely consigned, pending further in-
vestigation, to the Scalette.
1249. You erred i' the person.] See below, 1316 seqq.
1264. the Helen and the Paris.] We have had the comparison
of Pompilia and Caponsacchi to Helen and Paris already, from
Half-Rome (II. 1003-6).
1275-7.] The 'sulphur' and the ' sops-in-wine ' of line 1277 are
primarily, as the context shows, the 'commiseration', the 'grins',
the 'sarcasms' and so forth, which Guido met with during and
after his return- to Arezzo in the year 1697 ; in comparison with
these indignities he professes to regard the bodily torture which
he has just undergone as the merest trifle. But his metaphors
have probably a wider reference, including all his mental sufferings,
real or pretended, since his marriage ; ' Four years ', he says at the
beginning of his speech (see above, 20-38), 'have I been operated
on i' the soul ', and
This getting tortured in the flesh
Amounts to a1 most an agreeable change.
The word 'sulphur' is used in IV. 1189 of the effect alleged to
have been produced upon him when he became aware of the
incidents of Pompilia's flight; in V. 1136 he speaks of the pre-
tended discovery of the love-letters as showing that ' the witches'
circle' was 'intact'. 'Sops-in-wine' (of which Bacon says that
they are more potent than wine itself) may have been suggested
by the opiates with which he declared that Pompilia had drugged
his drink.
1282. Ultima Thule.] Virgil, Georg. 1. 30. The island of Thule,
first mentioned by a Greek geographer of the fourth century B.C.,
was vaguely placed in *the far north by later writers ; ' six days'
sail north of Britain', says Pliny. From a reference in Tacitus
(Agricola, 10) it has been identified with Mainland in the Shetlands ;
it may have been Iceland.
1283. Proximo, Civitas.] Civitavecchia, 40 miles from Rome —
' a good half-dozen hours' ride off ' (1339, below).
1300. Cancel me quick, etc.] See note on III. 1480.
1304. The Abate is about it] as Guide's representative under a
mandatum procurce (0. Y.B. clvii., E.L. 162).
1309-18.] Arcangeli says that Guido postponed his vengeance
' so long as he had a hope of dissolving the marriage on the ground
I
V.— COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINl 107
•k«- about the person married, being ignorant of the passages
in tin- Canon Law which show that a mistake about the quality
(unnliln.t) of tlu' JH-I int make a mamage void, Imt only a
mistake al,out the ESTmdii ". / .//. ... /.'./.. I L' I , _fl,
apposite "Raclicl-Loflli illustration (from ( ii-nr.-i.- xxix.) is l>io\\ nniLr B
o\\ n.
7. this their house is not the house, etc.] A mistake; see
Appendix 11.
The sentence which begins here does not end till 1372.
The veil) ('drowns') to which 'brother Paul' (1346) is the nomi-
nal i\v docs not come till 1368.
1347.] For this * vain attempt ' see note on III. 1471-7.
1357. in Ovid's art], as displayed, for example, in his A rs A matoria.
1358. his Summa.] The Summa Theologies of Thomas Aquinas
(cf. VI. 484, 1025), the text-book of Roman Catholic students.
1359. to act Corinna.] The Corinna in question is Ovid's mistress,
not of course the poetess who rivalled Pindar, though the B. and
H. notes so explain.
1365. merum sal.] The phrase is from Lucretius (4. 1162),
who says that a, lover will pronounce his dwarfish mistress to be
xapiruv pia, tota merum sal (' from top to toe all grace '). In
Afranius, 30, quidquid loquitur, merum sal est, the meaning is prob-
ably the same. Here merum sal means ' very spicy '.
1366-73.] See note on III. 1540-41.
1372. Britain almost divided from our orb.] Virgil, Ed. 1. 67,
penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.
1384-5.] It was VioJante, not Pompilia, who being refused a
fire at Arezzo found the cold intolerable ; see the evidence of the
servant in O.Y.B. xlix., 1., E.L. 49, 50.
1389.ocrif/ with the /Vi^/V/^ffrf f/""fTg^. See note on II. 1376-7.
14fW-lf. tn thefttll'ern,ylc.\, i.e. in the pit which they digged
to trap me ; on tnU tup or it they have laid the ' paving-stone of
shame ' to prevent my escape.
1112. the three suits.] See note on IV. 1305-27.
1450-52.] Caponsacchi, given his antecedents as described by
Browning, would have been more likely to ' travesty De Raptu
I!* I' ita in Latin scazons for the amusement of his scholarly friends
VI. 1747) than to hitch Guide's hap 'into a rattling ballad
rhyi:
ll.~>t-.~». '/"- < kristmas time, Beating the bagpipes.] See Story,
liuba di Roma, p. 8. The allusion is to the visit paid to Rome
in December by peasants from the Abrn/x.i who arc called pifferari.
They go (or went formerly) about in pairs, one jiiayin.n on the bag-
pipe (zampognd), the other on the pastoral pipe (piffero). 'For
the month before Christmas', wrote Story (about 1860), 'the sound
of their instruments resounds through the streets of Rome wher-
ever there is a >hrine, -wliether at the corners of the streets, in
108 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the depths of the shops, down little lanes, in the centre of the Corso,
in the interior courts of the palaces, or on the stairways of private
houses '. Mr. Bagot (My Italian Year, c. viii.) says that the practice
is centuries old, and that it ' seemed to bring the scene at Bethlehem
more vividly to the imagination than any of our Northern carols '
— seemed, for of late years he has noticed that the bagpipes play
' rather in honour of the wine-flask than in that of the JSIativity '.
1469. Lawful] See note on 2027 below.
1471. last Wednesday.] According to one of the lawyers (0. Y.B.
clxxxiv., E.L. 189) on December 18, which was a Wednesday.
1478. he's already hidden away and safe.] Arcangeli argues
(0. Y.B. xxi., E.L. 22) that the hiding away oi the boy, if he was
legitimate, was bound to excite Guide's anger ; see also the First
Anonymous Pamphlet, 0. Y.B. cxlviii., E.L. 152.
1504-5.] The Leviathan-passage in Job (chapter xli.) is used
again in VIII. 1738-42 (where see note), and more elaborately in
X. 1102-11.
1519 seqq.] Contrast Guide's franker words about a son and
heir in XI. 1847 seqq.
1549. Quis est pro Domino ?] Exodus xxxii. 26 (A.V.) : ' Then
Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's
side ? let him come unto me ' : he is about to take vengeance on
the calf-idolaters. The actual words of the Vulgate are Si quis
est Domini.
1550-51.] The evidence of Guido and of his acc9mplices, quoted
by Spreti (O.Y.B. cxxviii., cxxx., E.L. 135, 137), 'shows that the
negotiations between them took place at Vittiano.
1557. brained . . . staked . . . paunched.] Suggested by The
Tempest, 3. 2. 96, 98, ' That thou mayst brain him ... or paunch
him with a stake '.
1565.] Cf. VI. 2001, ' in a clown's disguise '. The prosecution
argued in the trial that it was an aggravation of Guide's crime that
he entered Pietro's house cum mutatione vestimentorum (O.Y.B.
Ixvi., E.L. ,70) ; in such a case the authorities regarded a homicide
as commissum ex insidiis. See the answer to this which Browning
puts into the mouth of Arcangeli (VIII. 1315 seqq.). Arcangeli is
made to describe the dress in which Guido committed the murders
as the same as that in which the Secondary Source says that he
was executed (O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 266).
1581. on Christmas Eve.] The child was born (see note on
1471 above) on Wednesday, December 18 ; by Tuesday, December
24, the news having travelled to Arezzo, Guido had made his way
to Rome. The records give no explanation of the contrast between
his hot haste to make the journey and his delay when he had made
it — he stayed at Rome inactively from December 24 to January 2.
Browning makes Guido give such an explanation in the next
paragraph.
)A' V.-mUNT CTJJDO FRANCE^CHTNI 109
158S. . mt/ !>r»!Jter's once.] Paolo's villa near the Ponte
Molle (see note on TV. 1365).
1597. only heard.] Gives a better rhythm than the original
' heard only '.
1013. a 'liiifh-iratch-firk.] Cf. Mesmerism, n. : 'at night, when
doors are shut . . . And the death-watch ticks '.
1020. tJir. experiment, the final test.] See note on III. 1599.
1634. Opened.] Note the effectiveness of this fateful word,
beginning the line and abruptly ending the paragraph.
1655-7. Violante Comvarini . . . Opened.] See the Secondary
Source, 0.7. B. 212, E.L. 263: 'The door was opened to him.
Immediately the scoundrel Franceschini . . . leapt upon Violante
who had opened it, and dashed her dead upon the ground '.
1673. Twenty miles off, etc.] See note on HI. 1633-6.
1683. Do you tell me, four ?] This seems to fix the date of the
monologue as January 6 ; but see the Introduction to this Book.
1687. my wife is still alive.] See Introduction.
1694. he too tells his story, etc.] See Introduction to Book VT. ;
Guido is mistaken in supposing that Caponsacchi's story will be
' florid ' and ' smooth ' !
1701. who took, etc.], i.e. God.
1722. Did I so scheme f\ See Introduction to Book XL
1723. with a warrant, etc.] See note on III. 1628-9.
1725. I had gained the frontier.] The Pope (X. 830-32) says
that with horses from Rome
'twere the easy task
Of hours told on the fingers of one hand
To reach the Tuscan frontier.
1737. the acquetta and the silent way.] See note on IV. 1069 : —
The silent acqiieUn, stilling at command —
A drop a day i' the wine or soup, the dose.
In the lines which follow those quoted other * silent ways ' are
suggested as possible.
1738. Clearly nit/ life was valueless], or I shouldn't have risked
I did.
1752-60.] See note on HI. 1471-7.
1764. either] the higher law or the law of the land.
1781. Justinian's Pandects.] The Pandects (irdvSfKrai = ' all-
receivers ') were a Digest, made by Justinian's orders (A.D. 530-33),
of the decisions of those Roman jurisconsults who had been
'patented', i.e. authorized by the emperors to give opinions which
were to have legal force with the tribunals.
1784. lie ftpepcl fhe>/ called but iroitld not come], i.e. which they
called for, but which would not come. The omission of the
relative as sul>jeet after its omi ..lijret goes beyond the
'ieenee which l?ro\viiini_r usually allows himself.
110 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1789. Come, unreservedly,— favour none nor fear, — ] ' None '
is absent from the original edition, probably by a mere misprint.
If the omission was deliberate, ' favour nor fear ' = ' neither favour
nor fear ' — an idiom which, though not uncommon, would be
employed very harshly here. ' None ' perhaps improves the rhythm
of the line.
1794. " Specify ? "], i.e. Do you tell me to specify how I served
the Church ?
1795-6.] See note on III. 407-8.
1801-2.] The cardinal who interposed was not, as here stated,
Guide's late patron Nerli, but Paolo's patron Lauria, who died
soon after the marriage ; see note on III. 481 seqq.
1809. / wished the thing invalid, etc.] See note on III. 1480.
1831-4.] Of. III. 972-1013.
1848. Rather than] ' side with, aid and abet ' (1845) ; Browning
has forgotten that he added ' in cruelty '.
1852. your predecessors] the Bishop and the Governor.
1854. their], i.e. posterity's.
1860-65.] Of. X. 838-41.
1865. any lie will serve] to secure your condemnation by posterity.
You may be condemned on any of the (false) grounds mentioned
in lines 1855-65, just as the Arezzo authorities are absurdly con-
demned on the grounds mentioned in 1835-51.
1903-14.] The sentence of 'the Commissioner at Arezzo ', con-
firmed by the Criminal Court of Florence, is given in O.Y.B. v.-
viii., E.L. 5-7. Contrast with what Guido here says the comments
of Caponsacchi on ' the two tales to suit the separate courts ' (VI.^
2043-58), and the Pope's scathing pronouncement on the ' strange
shameful judgment ' of the court at Arezzo (X. 834).
1913. the Stinche.] The prison at Florence ; see note on IV; 1516.
1920. which the aim and end.] Originally ' the sole aim and
end ' ; here as elsewhere Browning added on revision a much-
needed relative pronoun.
1932. comfit-pelting past discretion's law.] See note on VII.
1015. The confetti-throwing during Carnival ' forced every one
in the street [i.e. the Corso] or within reach of it to wear a shield
of thin wire netting to guard the face, and thick gloves to shield
the hands ' (Marion Crawford, Ave Roma Immortalis, i. p. 196).
1957-82.] Note the vigour of this long and involved sentence.
Such long sentences in Browning are often condemned, but they
are often very effective ; they express most dramatically the per-
sistency of speakers who having a complicated thought or emotion
pressing for utterance, utter it in one breath, perhaps ungrammatic-
ally, with all its complications. We may compare them with like
sentences in Cromwell's speeches, or again in St. Paul's epistles,
many of which, as has been pointed out, were not deliberately
written by their author, but dictated to an amanuensis.
BOOK V.— COUNT GU1DO FRANCESCHINI 1 1 1
• Tin- ,Lrrammatieal construction i> often broken . . . from a
desire to clear up obscurities at once and to forestall possible
misi -OIK •« -ptions. His style . . . hurries eagerly on, regardless of
formal rules, inserting full explanations in a parenthesis, trusting
to repetitions to restore the original connexion, and above all
depending on emphasis to drive the meaning home '. These words,
\\ritten about St. Paul's epistles (Robinson, Ephesians, p. 47), are
just as applicable to many passages in Browning.
A special example, where persistency of purpose is admirably
reflected in a persistently long sentence, will be found in the poet's
Mesmerism.
1965-6], i.e. satisfy their otherwise insatiable hunger for vengeance
upon me by means of my son, as explained in what follows.
<. what did you say ?] * For reparation, etc.' is substituted
for ' for justice ', as expressing more completely the purpose of the
judges in the Process of Flight.
2003. law's mere, executant.] Professor Hodell notes that this
is ' possibly suggested ' by a passage quoted by Arcangeli in O. Y.B.
xxviii., E.L. 29 : pro amore pudicitice porrigere ferrum mantis
non est leges cakare. sedcondere.
2009-11. (^SQtdier-^eepetc.] Cf. Virgil, Georg. 4. 237, where it
is said that bfee*^
vc iieiium
Moreibus inspirant, et spicula caeca relinquunt
Adfixae venis, animasque in vulnere ponunt.
'Exenterate' (= disembowelled) was — so it appears from the
N.E.D. — first anglicized by Southey.
2014. there's the mother's age to help.] Guido parades his filial
dutifulness, just as Paolo parades it on his behalf in III. 318. Dr.
Berdoe very strangely supposed that the reference is to Pompilia
(' he has work to do ; his wife may live and need his help ') !
2017. The fugitive brother.] Paolo ; see note on III. 1540-41.
2019. suit and service.] See note on II. 286.
2020. those stones that Shimei flung.] 2 Samuel xvi. 5-14.
2021. tlie spirit-broken youth, etc.] Girolamo ; see note on II.
500-503. Guido must have had his tongue in his cheek here.
2027. Whom law makes mine.] See above, 1469, and IX. 1324-7 :
In wedlock born, law holds .
Baseness impossible : since "Jiliva est
Quern nuptice demonstrant," twits the text
Whoever dares to doubt.
2027-8.] Sec note on <K5 a I
2037.] The ' when '-clause, \vhieh ends in 2047, has no verb.
L'oi.'i. ni, ti of fielinl.} Cuido uses the phrase because of its
application in 1 Samuel ii. 12 and 22 to the licentious sons of Eli.
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI
INTRODUCTION
[N Books VI. and VII. we are at the very core of the poem ;
they set forth, in the noblest verse, the noble romance
which Browning evolved from his ignoble, prosaTc7""un-
romantic Yellow Book. It was necessary to the poet's
design that his two chief • actors should ' say their say ' 1,
and for a monologue by Pompilia an occasion was suggested
in the records by the attestations of the persons of credit
who attended her upon her death-bed2. For a monologue
by Caponsacchi the records suggest no occasion. We find
assertions, seemingly unwarranted, that in spite of his
relegation to Civita he had been haunting the abode of""
Pompilia3, and as Guido pleaded the alleged fact in his
defence Caponsacchi might well have been summoned by
the prosecution to refute them ; but the Yellow Book
conveys no hint that he was actually summoned either
for that or for any other purpose. The poet had therefore
to create his occasion, and he created it with consummate
judgment. He represents his hero as confronting the
judges in his first wild sorrow and fierce indignation, as
confronting them, not as a mere witness to answer their
questions, but as amicus curies*, allowed full latitude in
that character ; so far as passion does not choke or dis-
cretion check his utterance he can say his say quite freely.
v Caponsacchi's monologue is in the strongest contrast
to Pompilia's. Hers is in one key throughout ; her
1 I. 1075. 2 o.Y.B. lvii.-lx., E.L. 57-61.
» See e.g. O.Y.B. xx., cxlviii., E.L. 2'., 152 ; cf. e.g. V. 1338-40.
* VI. 1630.
112
HOOK VL— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 113
serenity is unbroken, she is at pence with God and with
man. In his there is a constant conflict of emotions;
we find in it both love and loathing, withering scorn and
the tenderest pity, self -repression and the frankest self-
revelation. resignation and the wildest protests against
fate. Amidst all the wonderful variety of his speech
certain passages fix themselves upon the memory. Such
are those in which, with lively wit or mordant' satire, he
attacks the high ecclesiastics of his time, their opportun-
ism, their irreligion, their sordid ambition, their frivolous
dalliance, their scarcely less frivolous scholarship. Then
;ain there are his fierce outbreaks upon Guido. Tn
ifine at the Fair Browning makes his Elvire's husband
declare that ' to obtain the strong true product of a man '
you must 'set him to hate1', and with that the poet, I
think, agreed ' 2 ; his hero was none the less — perhaps he
was all the more — a hero to him because his hatred was
unmeasured. There was a moment, Caponsacchi says,
when lie illicit have killed his enemy :
one quick spring,
One great good satisfying gripe, and lo !
There had he lain abolished with his lie,
Creation purged o' the miscreate, man redeemed,
A spittle wiped off from the face of God 8 ;
he would have killed him with the savage joy with which
his ' Italian in England ' would have
grasped Metternich until
I felt his red wet throat distil
In blood thro' these two hands ;
but he lost his opportunity, and with it his one chance
of saving Pompilia's life. Now she lies dying, and in a
Dantcsque passage of astonishing power he pictures the
awful doom, worse than the most shameful death, that
he desires for her murderer 4. But other passages, perhaps,
are even more arresting : the brief accounts of the earlier
appearances of Pompilia6; the description of the mental
conflict which followed the speaker's first resolve ; the
concluding lines, in which the nobility of the thought is
1 Fifine at the Fair, LXXIX.
2 See Mrs. Orr, Life, pp. 370-71. Compare the passage about ' Dante, who loved
well because In- tnt. -.( • ,,, One Word. M . '. 71.1476
4 VI. 1'." 5 VI. 31)0, 411-U. 71 >lJ-'.i. H37-i6.
114 THE RING AND THE BOOK
echoed by the dignity of the verse ; and, most of all, the
long story of the flight. R, H. Hutton said of Browning
that ' there is no narrative force in him at all ' x — a strange
judgment which the last-mentioned passage sufficiently
refutes 2. It shows the poet's complete ' mastery in narra-
tive ', but it is not narrative only ; it is what Professor
Dowden called it, ' record winged with lyrical enthusiasm ' 3.
When The Ring and the Boole was first published the
objection was promptly raised that it is wanting in the
' grandeur ' which in a poem of such length is ' a funda-
mental and indispensable element ', and, more particularly,
that its hero does nothing heroic ; ' the action of Capon-
sacchi ', it was said, ' is not much more than the lofty
defiance of a conventionality, the contemplated penalty
being only small. . . . There was no marching to the
stake, no deliberate encountering of the mightier risks,
no voluntary submission to a lifelong endurance ' 4. It
may be added that Caponsacchi himself — the Caponsacchi
of the Yellow Book — regarded the adventure as a common-
place (though an unpleasant and a mildly dangerous)
duty ; and even as we read the poem the comparison of
the man to a soldier- saint, a slayer of dragons, a Saint
George, though natural enough on Pompilia's lips, seems
fairly to invite the smiling or sneering comments which
Browning, who himself adopts it, puts into the mouths of
Caponsacchi's critics5. His action is certainly 'noble and
disinterested ', and, though the Pope, who warmly approved
it, regarded it as too theatrical in some of its incidents6,
he was perhaps in that respect somewhat too censorious.
It is noble and disinterested, but it does not make Capon-
sacchi a Saint George. He is not the hero in action, but,
as Browning created him, he has the ' grandeur ' of a hero
in capacity for action, in mind and in heart. Under the
1 Literary Essays, p. 197. In the same essay (p. 230) there is an admirable
appreciation of Caponsacchi's monologue, which the writer considered ' the finest
effort of Mr. Browning's genius'.
2 Browning's admirers will be provoked to cite this or that narrative poem in
disproof of Mutton's dictum. The poet himself, in a letter to Mr. Gosse, ' selected
A Forgiveness as a representative example of his narrative poetry '.
a Dowden, Browning, p. 267.
4 I quote from an article by the Editor (John Morley) of The Fortniyhtly Review
for March 1, 1869. The last instalment of the poem had been published in February.
5 See note on III. 1065-6.
6 X. 1128-37,
VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPON SACC 11 1 li:>
1 felicitous annoy' of a new initial inn his finely-tempered
nature >\\er|»s a \\a_v all the frivolities and follies which
in -min-hed it : he lays aside every weight —
the imprisonment
<!i<- Miit-M :i>i<Io weight o' the world1—
that has pulled him down; he becomes capable of far
grander action than the particular call which comes to
him demands. -And yet Jt is upon the acceptance or
lion of that call that his spiritual lutiuv depends.
leaders ot .browning know how nrmlv the poet believed*
that there comes to a man, perhaps once only in his mjeJ
a call \\Tiich involves a no smaller issue. This "doctrine
of the great hour ' appears, more or less impressively, in -
some of his shorter pieces, in Youth and Art, for instance,
and in hi* tilil> r visum : it is adopted for the moment by
the villain of The Inn Album ; it startles all readers, and
vexed >«> i n e . \\ 1 1 en paradoxically presented in The Statue
and the Bust. To Caponsacchi, as to others, came the
hour for choice between * the great refusal * and the great
acceptance ot the testing opportunity, and the monologue
describes how under the spell of Fompilia's presence he
at first accepted it ; how in her absence * duty to God '
and ' duty to her ' seemed to point to refusal ; how when
he was with her once again he accepted finally. — Mr.
-terton has pointed out what, as he says, it is strange
that previous critics had not noticed2, that there is the
closest correspondence between the problem which presented
itself, as Browning conceived, to Caponsacchi and that
\\hieh the poet was himself set to solve in his own great
hour. He too had to choose between the chance of saving's
a life by a defiance of conventional (and normally sound) L
moralities and the sacrifice of the former by the observance [
of the latter. He chose as Caponsacchi chose, but with
h.:|>j)ier results ; more truly than his hero haud cunctando
rem restituit*.
\ I. •:>:,!.
In,.!,' pp. lo7-l<>. -The same suggestion is mi-l.-. perhaps
Independently, in an Italian appreciation <>f ti Zampini-Salaxar, £•
:>i>><-tt<i llnrrftt- llrnirniit'i. n. (11 i.
hi-
•Minis, uliirh an- pnvi-i'ly applicable to Hruwnini: ami hi- marriage,
i.-il I'v i;,,ttini t.i Caponsacchi ami tin- ili-ht in l.\. lonu. Hut Capon-
sarrhi djil delay, ami (through no fault <•!' his own) he faile I t.i save the >it nation.
116 THE RING AND THE BOOK
A very special interest will be found to belong to Book
VI. — and to Book VII. — when .we compare the ' ring '
with the ' book ', the poem with its source. The two
monologues are primarily based on the depositions made
by the two speakers in the Process of Flight, but not only
do they add very largely to those depositions, they are
often inconsistent with them, just as the depositions are
often inconsistent with one another. When Browning's
Caponsacchi asked the judges in the murder-trial to turn
to his deposition in the Process of Flight
and see
If, by one jot or tittle, I vary now \
the judges, if they had done what he asked, would have
had to say that he varied very seriously ; the story
which he is made to tell in January 1698 both adds to, and
on many crucial points varies from, the evidence which
the real Caponsacchi gave in the previous May. I have
noted the variations, and spoken of their significance, in
Appendix V. ; here I need say no more than that when
a reader takes them, together with the additions, into
account he will find that the essence and the self-con-
sistency of the story as Browning tells it were provided,
not by his Yellow Book, but by his imagination and his
art.
For a characteristic example of the play of the poet's
fancy upon his facts I may refer to his Caponsacchi's
account of his earlier career. The Yellow Book tells us,
on Pompilia's authority, that ' with other young men of
the town he used to pass before the house [of Guido] and
there stop to talk with certain donnicciuole ' 2. The
American editor, who translates donnicciuole by ' hussies ',
thinks that Browning ' may have read into the word some
of the opprobrium of our word flirt or even chippy '-
I have no idea how much opprobrium this latter term
connotes — , but he assures us that ' no such sinister mean-
ing is necessarily implied ' 3 ; according to Hoare's Italian
Dictionary a donnicciuola is nothing worse than a 'weak
stupid woman'. Meanwhile, whatever may have been
the precise meaning of the word on Pompilia's lips, the
1 VI. 1644-5. 2 O.Y.B. Ixxxiii., E.L. 91. 3 o.Y.B. 297.
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPON SACCH1 117
iii which sh-- u-ed it became the foundation
of an elaborat-e structure in^ the poem. Apart from his
relations with Pompilia the^ records say little more of
( aponsucchi than that he was a^man of proved spirit and
resolution, jipt, in the opiniopMof an ultimate mend, for
a Hazardous adventure. In the poem he had been f a,
squire of dames ' who flirted with countesses old and
young, ' a fribble and coxcomb ', an authority on fan-
mounts and * for delicate play at tarocs ', 'a prince of
sonneteers and lutanists ', 'a spiritual Cupid '. All this
adds greatly to the liveliness of the portrait and to the
graver interest of the drama, but its only real foundation
in the records is the allusion to the donnicciuole. — It appears
from certain passages in the poem that Browning was
inclined to interpret the equivocal Italian word in pessimam
partem. His Canon Conti expected Caponsacchi to be
attracted by ' Light-Skirts ' at the theatre, and his Guido
is represented as spreading reports, which he presumably
expected Aretine society to find credible, that his enemy's
steps ' inclined to a certain haunt of doubtful fame ' which
fronted the Franceschini palace l.
Some readers of The Ring and the Book have considered
that its story, like that of Aurora Leigh 2, was better suited
to prose fiction than to poetry. Whether that is or is
not so, the poet at any rate believed that the Yellow Book
would provide a good plot for a novel, for he handed it
over to a novelist-f riend soon after he met with it 3 ; and
no less an authority than Mr. Henry James spoke of ' the
sense, almost the pang, of the novel ' suggested to him
by his first reading of the poem on its first publication.
In a brilliant appreciation which he gave long afterwards
Mr. James declared that Caponsacchi — ' the soul of man
at its finest ' — must in a novel be the centre. He would
as novelist add certain episodes to the hero's career. He
would ' turn Caponsacchi on earlier, ever so much earlier ',
place him at Rome in pre-Arezzo days, bring him into
contact there with Guido in a relation which would make
him ' a predestined agent ' in the coming tragedy. And
' as the very end and splendid climax of all ' he saw Capon-
\ I. 117-8; II. 80K-7.
- Mrs. Browning herself spoke of Aurora Leigh as intended to be a ' novel-
a See Ai>i>finli\ I.
118 THE RING AND THE BOOK
sacchi admitted alone to an audience in the Vatican ;
* there ', he said, ' is a scene if we will ! ' l The scene
would in some of its incidents have recalled the impressive
interview, so mysteriously stage-managed, between another
Pope and another irregular servant of the Church in
Fogazzaro's novel 2.
NOTES
7. Six months ago.] In May 1697, during the Process of Flight ;
more precisely ' eight months since ', as in I. 1053, 1063.
8. you same three.] See note on I. 952.
12.] The line must be scanned thus : —
Laughter | no lev | ity noth | ing indec | orous, lords
(J. B. Mayor, Chapters on English Metre, p. 215). Anapaests (ww~~),
of which there are three in this line, abound throughout the poem ;
Professor Mayor found 88 in the first 200 lines of Book IV., against
an average of 30 in passages of the same length in Tennyson's blank
verse. — For indecorous he quotes Aristophanes' Apology, line 135 :
More decent, but indecorous enough.
This is a false quantity ; when ' decorous ' means ' beautiful ' it
comes from decorosus, and the o is short ; when it means ' seemly '
— ' indecorous ' in these passages means ' unseemly ' — it comes
from decorus, and the o should be long.
19. we are bound believe.] Cf. 89 below, ' Was he bound brave
the peril ? ' ; Fifine at the Fair, LXVII., ' was bound acknowledge '.
31. to lounge a little.] Cf. II. 1181.
34. Judge Tommati.] See note on IV. 1308-16.
36. was.] A correction of the original ' is '.
49-59.] John xix. 23, 24; cf. X. 1526. We have here the
Gospel story as embroidered by such painters as Teniers.
80. and taught you] by our evidence in the Process of Flight
(O.Y.B. Ixxxiv., Ixxxix., E.L. 92, 96).
92. / held so], i.e. that he was bound to brave the peril.
122. priest and trained.] Gives a better rhythm than the original
' a priest trained '.
124. her.] Emphatic ; the word is a great improvement on
the unemphatic ' one ' of the first edition.
134. Chop-fallen.] See note on XI. 788.
136.] There should be a note of exclamation after ' law ', as
in the first edition.
148. the quenched flax.] Isaiah xlii. 3 ; see below, 170-72.
1 Quarterly Review, July 1912 : ' The Novel in The Ring and the Book '.
2 II Santo, c. vii., § II.
VI. QIU8SPPJB CAPONSACCH1
I ."»<•>. irhtit'.t ///.-• -sV;//c, //ie o///f/- fMttrnt(ilf.\ 'Civility and the
mode ' personified ; see note on II. 1473.
188. « Iti'li il.\ See note on IV. 1220.
:M7. /////«'/•////»•/*////], i.e. 'from the point' (219).
I'll -14. | Dors Browning here follow some tradition which
\\ould explain ' to mock with ' and the words which follow ?
226. wait !\ \ think he means, till 1573 seqq.
228-35. J Cf. 11. 1249-50:
True Caponsicchi, of old Head-i'-the-Sack
Th:U fought at Fiesole er<> Flm-em •»• was.
The Florentines 'ruined Fiesole' in 1125, and Dante makes his
aneestor Cacciaguida, who was killed in the second crusade (Paradiso,
\~t. 139-48), i.e. about 1148, say that in his time Caponsacco 'had
already come down from Fiesole into the market-place', i.e. into
the Mercato Vecchio of Florence (Paradiso, 16. 121-2). The Capon-
sacchi had been a distinguished family at Fiesole, and they became
no less distinguished in their new home ; they had their palace,
with its tower no doubt (233), in this same Mercato Vecchio — now
an ugly modern square, the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. — A lady
of the house married Folco Portinari and became the mother of
Dante's Beatrice.
I do not understand the date which Caponsacchi gives so precisely
in lines 234-5. He says that Fiesole was ruined and that his
ancestors migrated to Florence 386 years before the year in which
he is speaking (1698), that is to say in 1312. But the real date
of the ruin of Fiesole was 1125, and that of the migration, if not
1125, must certainly, according to Dante, have been earlier than
that of Cacciaguida's departure for the East in 1147. Is it possible
that Browning, who must have had the passage from the Paradiso
in mind, forgot for the moment that Dante was not speaking in
his own person in that passage, but quoting his ancestor ? The
Paradiso was written approximately in (a little later than) i:>li'.
237-8. a branch Are ttte Salviati of u*.] What was once the
palace of the Salviati still exists ; it stands at the corner of the
Corso and the Via dpi Proconsolo.
242. an Hind nil ion.] This use of the word for a person who
makes a name illustrious is common enough in French.
•2 \ '. »-56.] ' The Granduke Ferdinand ' of this passage is Ferdinand
II. (1621-70); he was the son of Cosimo II. (1609-21), and the
idson of Ferdinand I. (1587-1609), the Grand Duke of The
tittituv. (iml lit*' />n«t.
There is 1 think, no statue of Cosimo II. at Arezzo, but there
is one of Ferdinand I. ; it stands in front of the Duomo. The
' father" of line iM.'J should perhaps he understood as 'grandfather'.
hixti'tft in I In- >'(/</. \ In II. 788 ( 'aponsaeehi is spoken of
as 'a bishop in the hud '. .,
120 THE RING AND THE BOOK
280-89.] It is a Jewish and Mohammedan tradition that the true
name of God is unknown to the uninitiated ; ' Jehovah ' is ' another
set of sounds ' substituted for it by a ' jumble ' of ' consonants
and vowels ', and in reading ' Adonai ' is used instead. The true
name was engraved on Solomon's ring ('his holy ring Charactered
over with the ineffable spell ' — Aurora Leigh, p. 85) ; its jjge had
a Compelling force enabling Solomon to summon powers of heaven
anoearth to ' pile him a palace straight ' (Abt Vogterji and obliging
those who saw the charactery to speak truth (Solomon and Balkis).
282. boggles at.] ' To boggle ' means ' to start aside, like a
frightened horse ' ; N.E.D. connects the word with ' bogle ', the
spectre supposed to cause the fright. It occurs in All's Well, 5. 3.
232, ' you boggle shrewdly, every feather starts you ', and is common
in Browning. Bottini uses it twice (IX. 551, 1379) ; cf. Ned
Bratts :—
this and 't other lout, struck dumb at the sudden show
Of red robes and white wigs, boggled nor answered " Boh ! "-
and Pietro of Abano : —
Grant me now the boon whereat before you boggled.
The present line, or rather the lines which it suggested to Calverley —
It takes up about eighty thousand lines,
A thing imagination boggles at — ,
brought a rare word, with the help of the journalist, into every- day
English.
317-18.] Philemon 10, 18-19.
319-20. the right-hand with the signet-ring . . . to shake and use.]
Cf. 810-11 below, and XII. 551-2 :
Mouth as it made, eye as it evidenced,
Despairing shriek, triumphant hate ;
and Cristina and Monaldeschi :
blessed and cursed
Faith and falsehood —
i.e. blessed faith and cursed falsehood.
323. letting Fenelon know the fool he is.] Cf. XII. 65, and see
Appendix VII. The passage suggests, perhaps wrongly, that
Fenelon was deemed heretical before he published his Maximes
in 1697.
333. a Marinesque Adoniad.] The Neapolitan Giovanni Battista
Marino (1569-1625) was the fashionable poet of his time at Rome ;
he visited Paris and was in high favour there with Louis XIII.
Referring to the Adone, his most famous poem — an epic more
than twice as long as The Ring and the Book — , Milton, who calls
its author dulciloquus, justly says, canit Assyrios divum prolixus
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 121
amorea (Mansus, 11). Marino's licentiousness and affectations —
the ruphuists of Italy became known as .Marinisti — gave him a
great vogue at a time of immorality and literary decline, but
Caponsarchi. when his higher nature asserts itself, 'doubts much '
it .Marino really be
A better bard than Dante after all
(below, 457-8).
346. the Pieve], the Church of S. Maria della Pieve, of which
Caponsacchi was a Canon.
349. at tarocs.] Cf. XII. 224. Tarocchi is ' a game of cards
in which there were ti ve sets or suits of ten cards each ', played
formerly in the selectest circles ; the cards used were sometimes
real works of art (see Ruskin's Works, Library Edition, xx. p. 335,
note). The game engrosses the abundant leisure of the humbler
folk of Fogazzaro's Piccolo Mondo Antico.
358-9. grunts And snuffles] with satisfaction at the flattery and
contempt for other handlers of his subject — Molinism, no doubt.
362. somebody], the speaker.
379. many an inch beyond the tonsure's need.} See note on II.
787.
387-8. chasms Permissible only to Catullus], who, in the middle
of the second line of an ' elegiac couplet ', permits himself ' pauses '
and ' chasms ', i.e. leaves syllables unelided contrary to the rules
of his metre ; e.g. (I quote from Ellis's text) : —
66. 48, luppiter, ut Chalybum | oinne genus pereat.
67. 44, Speret nee linguam | esse nee auriculam.
68. 178, A quo sunt primo | omnia nata bona.
99. 8, Guttis abstersti | omnibus articulis.
389. break Priscian's head.] Priscian was a famous grammarian
of the sixth century A.D. ; ' to break Priscian's head ' (diminuere
Prisciani caput) became proverbial for « to write or speak bad or
unclassical Latin'. In Love's Labour's Lost, 5. 1. 31, the school-
master Holofernes says of a piece of baddish Latin that it is ' Priscian
a little scratched ' ; cf. Pope, Dunciad, 3. 161-2 : —
Some free from rhyme or reason, rule or check,
Break Priscian's head and Pegasus's neck : —
and Butler, Hudibrasy 2. 3 : —
held no sin so deeply red
As that of breaking Priscian's head.
Below (VIII. 166) the phrase is varied ; Arcangeli expects that his
rival will 'break Tully's [i.e. Cicero's] pate '. — After reading the
unelassical Latin of the day's oHiee ( 'aponsaeehi will find the classical
Ovid a relief.
122 THE RING AND THE BOOK
393-433.] See note on IV. 944 for the importance of this theatre-
incident, which Pompilia also describes very fully (VII. 947-1030). J
The descriptions involve no idle repetition ; Browning's ability
to give variety to different tellings of the same story is as con-
spicuous here as elsewhere in the poem.
402. facchini], porters.
406. the Rafael] There is no Raphael, I think, in the cathedral
or elsewhere at Arezzo.
413. cousin] in the wider sense ; Conti's brother had married
Guide's sister (O.Y.B. Ixxxiii., E.L. 91).
416. Married three years since.} As Browning supposed, in
December 1693 (really in September; see Appendix III.). The
poet assigns the theatre-incident to March 1697 (VII. 951) ; it
was important for his purpose to represent it as occurring not long
before the flight. The records leave it undated.
424. The two old . . . family spectres.} Pietro and Violante.
439. / have touted low], ' bowed to the ground ', i.e. (here) abjectly
apologized ; the verb is used reflexively in IX. 13, ' Up comes an
usher, louts him low'. It is common in English literature from
Piers Plowman onwards ; cf. e.g. Chaucer, Monk's Tale : —
To which ymage, bothe yonge and oold
Commanded he to loute ;
and Spenser, Faery Queene, 1. 1. 30 :
He faire the knight saluted, louting low.
457-8.] See note on 333 above. Caponsacchi's doubt may be
compared with the avowed heresy of his contemporary, Colonel
Esmond, who ' put Shakespeare far beyond Mr. Congreve and
Mr. Dryden ' (Esmond, i. 3).
462. lancet-windows.] See note on 975 below.
463. go eat.] Cf. ' gone play ' (472), ' go pray ' (1882).
463. the Archbishop's ortolans.} Ortolans are a delicacy for
epicures ; in Pippa Passes (III. ad fin. ) a poor girl regards it as a luxury,
which she hopes rather than expects to enjoy, to have her polenta
sliced ' with a knife that has cut up an ortolan '. In the prologue
to Ferishtatis Fancies Browning makes an ingenious use of the
Italian way of cooking these birds.
467. canzonet.} Like some one in The Princess Caponsacchi, accord-
ing to Browning, had been 'a rogue of canzonets and serenades '.
472. play truant in church.} For a sly jest in the same vein
see IX. 670-72.
479. you say.} See above, 369.
483-1151.] Caponsacchi's account here of his adventures with
Pompilia is in many respects inconsistent with his deposition in the
Process of Flight. See Introduction to Book VI. and Appendix V.
HOOK VI. GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 123
ls|. flfemma".] Tin- Smnma Theologice of Thoma.- Aquinas ;
M-I- note on V. !
Is'.i. /.• em . £.& liou it may leave.
4<)0. to cunn<ct extremes], i.e. to bridge over the 'gap 'twixt
what is, what should be ', to turn aspiration into achievement.
503. There came], i.e. when there came.
522.] Cf. 553-4, 608-9, VII. 1052-3.
539. W hat fund of satisfaction, etc.] Caponsacchi is represented
as supposing that Guido was really jealous of him, and that he
sent Maria with the forged letter in order to discover whether
his jealousy was well-grounded or not. Had Caponsacchi ' kicked
his messenger down stairs ' he would have seen that it was not,
and his heart would have been * set at ease '. — The story .of., the*
lovfijattoro which is given in Book VI. is wholly different from
tfiat of the real Caponsacchi ; it is a masterly inventing rrf tho
poet's.
5o£ Thyrsis . . . Myrtilla.] See note on IX. 541. These and
other conventional names of pastoral lovers occur often in the
love-letters pjce4uced durimj^ibe Process of Flight.
582. the/wonr at her Mreasy\ A commonplace of poetry ; the
thorn at the nightmgale^Htjfeast was invented, like the Philomela-
Itys legend, to explain the supposed melancholy of the nightingale's
song. It is, ofcpjiseey really the male bird that sings.
588-9. his tftgbear^ . . Canon Conti.] Suggested by a passage
in Pompilia/s ctegosition. O.Y.B. lxxxiii.-iv., E.L. 91-92; see
- Mark ix. 48.
Cf. VII. 1023.
653-4.J l^ufTTfjIIiifaeposed in the Process of Flight that at an
interview with Caponsacchi she had begged him to avoid the street
in which the palace stood, because his passing along it brought her
into trouble with Guido ; and that he had answered that Guido
could not prevent his going along that street (O.Y.B. Ixxxiv.,
E.L. 92).
668. our church.] The Duomo, not the Pieve ; see above, 400.
685. tempts, — thinks he.] An improvement on fhe ' may, —
he thinks ' of the first edition.
704. griefful.] The N.E.D. quotes from Drummond of Haw-
thornden (1585-1649): 'to deliver her grief -ful body to the rest
of a retired grave '.
707. Our Lady of all the Sorrows.] ' All the Sorrows ' are the
Septem Dolores of the B.V.M. which give their name to a holy day
in the Roman t'hinvh. They are the Prophecy of Simeon (cf.
Luke ii. 35, ' a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also '),
the Flight into Egypt, the three days' loss of Jesus, the meeting
with Him on the way to Calvary, the Crucifixion, the |w<-»-nt from
the Cross, the Entombment.
124 THE RING AND THE BOOK
The^Mater Dolorosa of art is sometimes represented with seven
swords piercing her bosom or threatening her head (Mrs. Jameson,
Legends of the Madonna, pp. 36-7).
725-880.] Pompilia's every word at this momentous interview
has been burnt into Caponsacchi's memory ; she herself reports
what she said more briefly — ' in some such sense as this, whatever
the phrase ' (VII. 1418-42).
747.] The word ' dare ' is absent from between ' not ' and
' abstain ' in the first edition ; its insertion shifts the accent from
' that ' to ' strait ', which is its proper place.
771. at once], i.e. all at once, as in 1224.
785.] The full stop (instead of a comma) at the end of this
line in the illustrated edition is of course a mere misprint.
808-9.] ' My leaving Guido would mean that so far as he is
{ concerned I should be as good as dead (i.e. he would be rid of me)
without any sin on his part (he would not have killed me) ; more
death than that (i.e. my actual death by his hand) he would have
to answer for '. For Guide's ' own soul's sake ', therefore, Pompilia
entreats Caponsacchi to ' hinder ', by helping her to leave him,
' the harm ' her husband intends to do her (see above, 761-2).
811. to pay and owe], i.e. to pay death and owe life ; see note
on 319-20 above.
844-5. The love . . . Of his brother.] See note on II. 498-501.
862.] You become mixed up with the dream, and much of what
the dream tells me of you is mere ' delusion ' (874). — For ' gets
to involve ' see note on IV. 1541 : —
,, —
Men, plagued this fashion, get to explode this way.
873. Though you have never uttered word yet.] Cf. VII. 1444,
But the assertion that Pompilia first had speech with Caponsacchi
at this interview is flatly contradicted by her deposition ; see
note on 653-4 above and Appendix V.
898-9. was found Your confidence in error.] See above, 663-6.
909. that first simile.] Above, 671.
919. my miracle, etc.] That Pompilia had summoned him and
signified her choice of him was a miracle that did not need proof
outside itself ; just as the miracle of 912-15 did not require as proof
the story of the scorpion hatched in Madonna's mouth (910-11).
937-73.] See Dowden, Browning, p. 265, for some admirable
remarks on this fine passage.
948.] 2 Corinthians v. 17 ; cf. Revelations xxi. 4, 5.
960-61.] Plato uses his reed-pen, as Thomas Aquinas uses his
quill, to ' whisk off ' the fly. — He is called ' sinner ', in contrast to
' Saint ' Thomas, because according to the orthodox creed he lived,
like Euripides,
Under conditions, nowise to escape,
Whereby salvation was impossible,
BOOK VI. f.'/rxKPPE CAPONSACCHI li>r>
and Iterance hi.- impulse* and a.-|>ir at ii m- after truth
\veie I i. \\ilhoiil a warrant or an aim ' (X. His-
'.Mil. ''<>m the river ( 'e|»hissus which flows
\thens, not of course from the Boeotian Cephissus (as Berdoe
explains).
'.MKi-7. tin- inillnlttry pang . . . Felicitous annoy.} See the note
on the similar language which the Pope uses in the same connection
in X. 1211.
968. As ivhen the virgin band, etc.] Suggested partly by Revela-
tions xiv. 4.
975. the pillared front o' tlie Pieve.] Illustrations of this pillared
front are given in the 1898 edition of The Ring and the Book (facing
p. 204) and in Treves (facing p. 88). Note the round arches of the
three lower arcades. The Pieve dates from the early thirteenth
century; the Duomo, with its lancet windows (above, 462), was
iw-u'iui in 1277.
977-8.] Revelations xxi. 9, ' the bride, the Lamb's wife '.
988. his corona], i.e. his beads.
1000. scrannel voicftff SeeNnotc on I. 1201.
1002-9.] The * h&ctec-fmiJx, the 'hips andljaws', refer to the
idle dalliance of 984 and 95J2; ' the scven-foklxtfiigon^is the ( 'hureh,
which warns Caponsacchi off ' the thing of lir^^f^ojj) ', Pompilia.
' The fabled garden ' is the garden of the Hesprfides, the golden
apples of which were watched by the dragon Ladon.
1010-13.] The duty of obedience, which had been ' struck into '
Caponsacchi ' by the look o' the lady ' (cf. 434 and 704), gave him
its first call through the voice of the Church (1000-1), which he took ,
for the authoritative voice of God (1013). The voice demanded
from him an act of self-sacrifice ; it bade him * leave that live
passion ' and abandon the proposed adventure ; he could not
refuse its call to the obedience to which he was so newly pledged.
Therefore, during the two days following upon his conversation }
with Pompilia, he took no steps towards fulfilling the promise he I
had made her to act at once (881-94).
That he in fact took no such steps appears from the depositions.
Caponsacchi notes the delay, but does not explain it (O. Y.B. Ixxxix.,
A'. A. 96). Pompilia says that she complained that he had broken
his promise ; that he excused himself on the ground that he could
find no carriage at Arezzo ; that she rejoined that in that case he
should have found one elsewhere (O.T.B. Ixxxv., E.L. 93). Like
the rest of the romance, the story of the conflict in Caponsacchi's -.
mind and heart between the claims of what seemed to be his duty L
U (Jod and those of a chivalrous and spiritual passion is (
Browning's ' fancy added to the fact'. Nowhere does the poet's
i uiaLrination][work|more nobly.
1017. bow the Jtead], i.e. to the Master : to do his duty to God
i»t duty to her ( 1030).
126 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1022. noon broadened.] Cf. A Dream of Fair Women : ' Morn
broadened on the borders of the dark '.
1030. Duty to God is duty to her.] Treves (p. 264) finds in these
words an assertion 'that the saving of this fettered and unhappy
woman was a devotional act '. The context shows that this is a
misinterpretation.
1036-9.] With the punctuation given in the text ' I should
sin ' would be the apodosis to ' Could she but know ' (which is
certainly not intended), and the ' that ' in 1037 would have nothing
depending on it. The — in 1039 should be removed and the colon
changed to a note of exclamation. Caponsacchi is meant to say :
' If only she could know that I should sin if by sinning I could
procure some real good to her ! '
1045. he.] Grammar requires ' him '.
1046.] With the indignant exclamation ' I fear the sword of
Guido ! ' the sentence breaks off ; there is no apodosis to the * if '-
clause which begins in 1042.
1059. go minister.] Cf. 1882, 'go pray'.
1078. there's new moon this eve.] Caponsacchi is supposed to
be speaking on the evening of Sunday, April 21. In a letter to
Lord Courtney of Penwith (see note on III. 1065-6) the poet wrote :
' In order to be quite sure of the age of the moon on the occasion
of Pompilia's flight, I procured De Morgan's register of lunar risings
for the last — I forget how many hundred years '. Treves (p. 168)
says that ' by the use of the Metonic Cycle it appears that the day
of the new moon was April 23rd '.
1080-84.] Cf. 1089-90. The passage is very puzzling. Pompilia,
says Caponsacchi, is to ' take ' (i.e. pass through) the San Clemente
gate, for that is the only gate unguarded at night ; and she is also
to climb ' the low dilapidated wall ' by the Torrione. But surely,
if he meant her to climb the city-wall, he did not mean her to ' take '
any gate, guarded or unguarded.
Referring to the records we find Caponsacchi deposing that he
promised Pompilia to await her early in the morning at the San
Clemente gate, that Pompilia came alone to that gate at ' about
seven hours' (i.e. at about 1 A.M.), that they entered the carriage
together at that gate, and drove round, outside the city-wall, to
the San Spirito gate, ' which goes towards Perugia ' ; while Pom-
pilia declared that she came downstairs at dawn, joined Capon-
sacchi there, went with him to the San Spirito gate, and found the
carriage waiting outside it (O.Y.B. Ixxxix., Ixxxv., E.L. 96, 93).
The two depositions, it will be observed, are at variance on many
points, but they both imply that some gate was passed through
by Pompilia, and neither of them speaks of her climbing the wall
either by the Torrione or elsewhere.
A third account of the flight is given in the ' Sentence of the
Criminal Court of Florence '. It states that the gates being closed
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPON SACCHI 127
tin- fugitives ( 'limbed the wall by the Torrione, and that on arriving
at the Cavallo I DM outside the San Clemente gate they found the
carriage there (O.Y.B. v., E.L. 5).
The Sentence says nothing about the San Spirito gate, on which
point we should probably supplement it from Caponsacchi's deposi-
tion ; I nit the account it gives is free from the difficulty mentioned
at the beginning of this note, and if supplemented as proposed it
is clear, complete, and consistent with topography (for which sec
Treves, pp. 167-70). It is followed, with this supplement, in the
story which Browning attributes to Guide's Aretine neighbours
(V. 1020-29). The account which he attributes to Caponsacchi is
an attempt to reconcile irreconcilables.
The San Clemente gate, with the adjacent great bastion
the Torrione, is at the extreme north of Arezzo. The San
gate, to which the fugitives drove from the San Clemente, is at the
>outh of the town ; the Perugia road, by which they were to travel
towards Rome, passes through it (1146-7).
1099-1 103. J Legend, following the hint of John xx. 24, 25,
says that St. Thomas was not present with the other disciples
at the Assumption of the Virgin, and was sceptical about it; that
to convince him of the fact she threw down her girdle to him. A
citizen of Prato near Florence possessed himself, we are told, of
this girdle at Jerusalem during the first crusade, and brought it
home with him ; the sacratissinia cintola delta Madonna is pre-
served in Prato Cathedral. The story of the girdle was often
pictured by Italian artists, e.g. by Raphael in his * Coronation ',
now in the Vatican.
1110-11.] For Browning's change of the date of the flight
(which really occurred on April 29) and for his reason for changing
it see note on III. 1065-6.
1116. the octave.] Easter Day in 1697 was April 14 ; its octave
therefore included Sunday, April 21. The servant is supposed to
be speaking on Monday, April 22.
1120. laic dress.] See note on II. 999.
1129.] See note on 1851-3 below.
1147-8.] The vetturino who drove the fugitives from Arezzo
only took them the first stage (17 miles), viz. to Camoscia under
Cortona (O.Y.B. vi., E.L. 5).
1161. God's sea.] Revelations xv. 2 ; * the sea whose fire was
mixt with glass In John's transcendent vision * (Sordello, I. 364-5).
1170. who name Parian — coprolile.] Coprolite'is the petrified
excrement (Kfapot) of carnivorous reptiles ; beds containing it are
worked as a source of artificial manure. Compare with this reference
to it George Bubb Dodington, n. (in Parleyings) : —
No matter if tin- ore 1W which /cal <l<-'\
BO gold
128 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Ruskin (Stones of Venice, i. c. xxvi. § 5) ' thought it unnecessary
to warn the reader that, while he might legitimately take the worm
or reptile for a subject of imitation, he was not to study the worm
cast or coprolite '.
1176-1417.] See Introduction to Book VI.— The route taken
by the fugitives was that familiar to pre-railway travellers between
Florence and Rome. After leaving Arezzo it passes Camoscia
(below Cortona), the north end of Lake Trasimene, Perugia and
Assisi (see note on 1203-5), Spello, Foligno (where it joins the Via
Flaminia, the ' consular road ' from Rimini to Rome), Spoleto,
Terni, Civita Castellana. By this route the Brownings often
travelled to and from Rome, not always without adventure (see
Letters of E. B. Browning, ii. pp. 295-6, 298) ; the journey took
five or six days. Of their visits to Rome, however, only one (that
of the winter of 1860-61) took place after the finding of the Yellow
Book 1, and' the poet never crossed the Apennines again. Perhaps,
like Caponsacchi (VI. 1208) and Pompilia (VII. 1531), he 'forgot
the names ' of places at which he imagined incidents to have occurred
during the flight.
A full description of the road from Arezzo onwards, and of the
towns and post-stations upon it, will be found in Treves (Part ii.
c. iv.). Sir Frederick gives the precise distances from place to
place and suggests a time-table for the fugitives' journey, but only
now and then attempts to locate incidents unlocated by the poet.
1199. the determined morning.'} Cf. IX. 243 ; contrast ' the
doubtful morn ', 1430 below. Perugia is 46 miles from Asezzo ;
the fugitives, according to Browning, must have gone somewhat
more than that distance (' we have passed Perugia', 1203) by ' the
determined morning '. Now they had left Arezzo (at the earliest)
about 1 A.M., and Treves calculates that the average pace maintained
during the flight, excluding stoppages, was about five miles an
hour, or, including them, about three2. During the first part of
the journey, the road being ' practically level ', and the fugitives
being anxious to get a good start, they perhaps went faster ; but
even so the morning must have been very fully ' determined '
before they reached a point beyond Perugia. (In II. 978 the
speaker estimates that the stage from Castelnuovo to Rome — about
fifteen miles — is ' four-hours' -running'.)
1203-5.] They no doubt left both Perugia and Assisi (the ' holy
ground ' of St. Francis), as they had left Cortona, on their left
1 Sir F. Treves says (p. 112) that ' apparently the last occasion on which the
Brownings resided in Rome was in the winter of 1859 ' (i.e. before the Yellow
Book was found), and he implies (p. 172) that it was only in 1854 that they went
there by the Perugia route. Mrs. Browning's letters show that he is mistaken
on both points.
2 Much the same as that of English coaches at about the same date;(Macaulay,
History, c. Hi.).
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 129
hand ; to go up and down the hills upon which these towns stand
would have been a waste of time.
1214. This was — / know not where.] Possibly where the road
crosses the Chiaggio ; or perhaps somewhat further on. The
* great hill ' may be Monte Subasio, familiar to visitors to Assisi.
1226-7.] ' This good which I feel may be the good for which
t hat pain was ; if it is not, I fear that the hope of cure is gone '.
1234. / did not like that word.] For it implied that she was no
more to him that any other woman whom he might help. See
below, 1274, 1319, 1382-3.
1235-45.] The passage suggests the influence of the poet's
wife ; see Introduction to Book VII. Lines 1242-5 in particular
might come strajgLt4r.om Aurora Leigh.
1246. the<3ow4aJJ,^The flower of the dandelion.
1254.] Th'TbTshop's villa must be near Spello.
1262-5.] Caponsacchi has learnt how hollow the ecclesiasticism
of the time is ; ' he'll no more ' of it ; doesn't the Bishop see, as
he sees, that it is out of date ? — For the rochet see 1878 below.
1267. 7 can neither read nor ivrite.] See Appendix IV.
1271. ^Gabriel's song.] An adaptation, I suppose, of the words
of the Annunciation. — The Sapphic hymn appointed in the breviary
for the feast of St. Gabriel the Archangel (April 18) is not more
concerned with Gabriel than with Michael and Raphael.
1273. proper to us travellers.] Raphael was, in Milton's words
(Paradise Lost, v. 221-2),
the sociable spirit, that deign'd
To travel with Tobias ;
See the book of Tobit, passim. The breviary contains the following
prayer for the feast of St. Raphael the Archangel : —
Deus, qui beatum Raphaelem Archangelum Tobiae famulo tuo
comitem dediati in via : concede nobis famulis tuis ; ut ejusdem semper
protegamur custodia, et muniamur auxilio.
1274. 7 did not like that, neither.] Because she spoke of him as
a priest ; see 1382-3.
1275.] ' In the determined morning ' they were somewhere
between Perugia and Assisi (1199, 1203). Foligno is about 21
miles from the former and 10 from the latter ; if, therefore, they
reached Perugia, as Trove* suggests, about noon, and if when they
reached Foligno it was dark, they must have made this part of the
journey very leisurely.
1277-9.] The distance by road from Foligno to Rome is about
88 miles; the driver calculates that, with good luck, they will
cover it in 24 hours including stoppages.
1291. We did go on all night.] It appears from the records
that Guido declared ' in his confession ' that he had ascertained
c
130 THE RING AND THE BOOK
that the fugitives ' slept together at Foligno in the osteria of the
posthouse ' (0. Y.B. cxxvii., E.L. 135). Treves maintains, perhaps
too confidently, that the time of their arrival at Castelnuovo (at
sunset the next day) proves that ' any but the briefest halt at any
place on the journey' was quite 'impossible' (p. 205). Foligno
is about 72 miles from Castelnuovo.
1302-3.] Psalm Ixviii. 1. Mr. R. E. Prothero (The Psalms in
Human Life, p. 31) makes the interesting suggestion that Browning's
use of the quotation may be ' an echo of St. Antony ', who, when
sorely beset by the temptations of the world and the flesh in the
forms of fiends, drove them off by chanting Psalm Ixviii. So,
he suggests, Caponsacchi, hearing Pompilia moan in her fevered
dreams, and seeing her, as he imagined, wave away an evil spirit
that assailed her, cried ' Let God arise, etc.'.
1311-12.] Of. VII. 1564-5.
1320-40.] Pompilia also mentions the incident (VII. 1555-9).
' I think', says Treves (p. 191), ' this must have happened at Torri-
cella', but Torricella is at a much earlier stage in the journey,
N.E. of Lake Trasimene ; it was passed early on the first
morning of the flight.
1347. my own church.'] Cf. VII. 20.
1374. or else from, etc.] The cause here mentioned has been
already suggested in 1372 (' unborn ').
1375. Such as is put into a tree.] . Cf. X. 1073-81, where the
Pope speaks of plants and animals as being
all in a common pact
To worthily defend the trust of trusts,
Life from the Ever Living.
It is a breach of the common pact that brings swift retribution on
the mother in Ivan Ivanovitch.
1389. whose name ?] Gaetano was the name designed by Pom-
pilia for her unborn child, ' for a reason ' (VII. 30) given in VII.
101-7.
1396. Whom the winds carry.] Psalm xviii. 10.
1398. The old tower, etc.] Treves, who gives (pp. 217-30) an
interesting account of Castelnuovo, shows that Browning's descrip-
tions of the place here and in I. 508-9 are ' singularly inapplicable '.
The post-house where the fugitives passed the night and the prison
in which they were afterwards lodged may still be seen.
1405. Setting.] On the important discrepancy between Capon-
sacchi's and Pompilia's statements about the time of the arrival
at Castelnuovo see the note 'on VII. 1580-84 and Appendix V.
1414-16.] It appears from the records that the host made a
deposition and was cross-examined (O.Y.B. cxlv., ccxiv., E.L. 149,
216) about the circumstances of the night at Castelnuovo, but it
is not there stated that he pressed the fugitives to stay.
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 131
1427-9.] All this (cf. II. 975-7, III. 1196-1202, V. 1052-62) is
I on statements in the O.Y.B. (clxxxi., ccxxi., E.L. 187, 222),
but it is contradicted by Caponsacchi in his deposition (O.Y.B.
1\ \\i\., II. I.. 1)7). See Appendix V.
1444. an April day.} According to Browning the day was
Wednesday, April 25 ; it was in fact Tuesday, May 1.
1455-6.*] See note on 1291 above.
1459. Vulcan pursuing Mars.} This story from the Odyssey
is also introduced in III. 1450-55 and in IX. 868-77 (where see note).
1461. not without my Cyclops.} The Cyclopes of the Odyssey
were lawless Sicilian shepherds ; later accounts made them servants
of Vulcan, forgers of thunderbolts (e.g. Euripides, Ale. 5).
1487. Moliere's self.} When Moliere died in 1673 his fame was
already firmly established in Italy as in England.
1518-20.] Note the insistence on ' the blood-red day-break ' ;
cf. 1525, 1545, 1602, and see note on 1405: }
1528. Away from between me andfhell !j * Between me and "~1
hell ' comes as a surprise ; contrast wHbjjrthc language attributed
to Prmjpilifl. when referring to the same occa«ioTrin III. 1154-6 :
Count Guido once more betwee6, heavepr and me,
For there my heaven stood, my sStvTuion, yes —
That Caponsacchi all my heaven of help.
(Cf. III. 1344-7 and VII. 1595, where she speaks of her hus__
again on the same occasion, as ' that ipp-Mnnlr 'twixt the sun
me '.) Even in the present context Caponsacchi calls Guido
the opprobrious blur
Against all peace and joy and light and life.
— Violently aroused at sunrise from a deep sleep on ' a strange bed ',
distracted by all she sees in what she is elsewhere represented as
describing as ' a strange room like hell, roaring with noise, ruddy
with flame ' (III. 1151-2), Pompilia for one bewildered moment
identifies the * light like blood ' which fills the window (line 1520)
with the fires of hell. Before that window, between her and those
fires, stands * the black figure ' of Guido, whose abhorred embracing
seems to her a far worse fate than the ' hell ' which his figure inter-
cepts ; she can accept hell as heaven's ' just award ' rather than
bear * love-making devils '. — She is indeed at a point of anguish
where heaven and hell are as one ; remove the * devils ', and she
can plunge into the purity of hell's flames and find God there.
The blood-red sunrise of that terrible morning brought with it
the calamity portended the evening before by
the sudden bloody splendour poured
Cursewise in day's departure by the sun
(I. 511-12).
132 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1544. the sword thai hung beside him.] See note on II. 1031.
1558-9.] For the ' amorous pieces ' see Appendix IV. On
' verse and prose ' cf. 1660 below and V. 1140, II. 1075 ; both the
communications produced by Guide's lawyers as written by Capon-
sacchi (O. Y.B. xcviii., E.L. 105-6) are in prose, but there are allusions
in the correspondence to amorous pieces in verse. On Guide's
expectation of finding what he professed to find at the inn (or in
the prison) at Castelnuovo see 1668-73 below. Can it be believed
that the alleged correspondents would both have carried about
with them, and been so careless with, these incriminating documents?
1560-63.] Contrast II. 1043-8 and IX. 929-42, where Pompilia's
resolute defiance is represented as having caused a general revulsion
of feeling in her favour.
1573-4.] Cf. 223-6 above, and see note on V. 143.
1578. for reasons good.] The reasons alleged by Bottini in
defence of Caponsacchi's ' laic garb ' are given in the note to II. 999.
1600. fulgurant.] Elsewhere Browning applies the epithet only
to Jupiter, its rightful owner ; see Bordello, v. 44 : —
Careful, Jove's face be duly fulgurant ;
and Imperante Augusto Natus Est : —
yon gold shape
Crowned, sceptred, on the temple opposite —
Fulgurant Jupiter.
Cf. Cicero, Div. 2. 18. 43 : love tonante, fulgurante, comilia populi
habere nefas.
1611. Far beyond "friend".] He was glad that she had called
him ' my friend ' (1383), but she had since spoken of him as her
'guardian and saviour' (1542).
1625-7.] See VIII. 366-80, note.
1636. As friend of the Court.] See Introduction to Book VI.
1645. by one jot or tittle.] See Introduction to Book VI. and
Appendix V.
1657. when], i.e. if, and only if ; cf. 1666. For Pasquin see
note on XII. 141 ; the pasquinade here mentioned is, I think,
imaginary.
1662-5.] During the Process of Flight Caponsacchi was shown
two love-letters which had been offered as evidence against him.
Having examined them both he said of one of them, ' It was not
written by me, though the handwriting has some resemblance to
mine ' ; and of the other, ' It was most certainly not written by
me, the handwriting is not mine, and has indeed no resemblance
to mine whatever ' (0. Y.B. xc., E.L. 98).
1666. Bembo's verse /] ' You might as well say it is Bembo's
while you are about it ; why, it is such stuff as any scholar and
gentleman would scorn to write'. — Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) was
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 133
secretary to Caterina Cornaro, ex- queen of Cyprus (the ' Kate the
Queen ' of the song in Pippa Passes), at Asolo ; he was afterwards
Cardinal and secretary to Leo X. There is an allusion to him, as
the supposed coiner of the verb asolare, in the Dedication of the
Asolando volume. Bembo was a great scholar, a ' thorough purist '
(as Browning calls him) in language, and an elegant writer both of
prose and verse ; ' all Italy ', says Burckhardt (Renaissance in
Italy, p. 267), ' learnt by heart ' many of his epigrams.
1667. The tract ' Do Tribus '], i.e. the De Tribus Impostoribus
(viz. Moses, Christ, Mohammed), a tract of uncertain date ascribed
to a certain Ochinus, whom Sir Thomas Browne described (Religio
Medici, i. § 20) as ' that Villaine and Secretary of Hell '.
1691.] O. Y.B. Ixxiv. (E.L. 81) : patitur relevantissimam excep-
tionem publici meretricii, et tanquam unica (i.e. unsupported) nihil
probat. Cf. 0. Y.B. cclii., E.L. 249.
It is sometimes difficult to scan the Latin which Browning takes
from his documents and prints as verse, but there is no such difficulty
here ; the line has a double (or ' feminine ') ending (sub im \ putd \
t\6 | ne mer \ etri \ cis). When Latin is quoted such endings are
common (cf. IV. 1577, IX. 523, 524, etc.), otherwise they are rare,
in The Ring and the Book. — Double endings, as every one knows,
occur more often in Shakespeare's later than in his earlier work ;
thus there are said to be 33 per cent, of them in The Tempest, but
only 4 per cent, in Love's Labour's Lost. Exactly the opposite is
the case with Browning's blank verse. I found 18 double endings
in 100 lines of the early Paracelsus (1835) and 14 in 100 lines of
Pippa Passes (1845) ; these percentages, however, are much above
the average percentage in those two poems. I have also taken
at random 100 lines of each of four of the poet's later blank- verse
poems — Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau (1871), Red Cotton Night-Cap
Country (1873), The Inn Album (1875), Ferishlah's Fancies (1884)—
and have found in them no double endings at all. — In the poet's
translation of the Agamemnon (1877) the dialogue is given in blank
verse with double endings only.
1695. 0' the first night.] See note on 1147-8 above.
1697. frenetic], i.e. mad, passionate ; a favourite word of
Carlyle's. In Fifine at the Fair, v., ' frenetic to be free '= passion-
ately desiring freedom. * Frantic ' is the same word.
1697-1704.J Cf. IX. 686-93. The evidence of Borsi was much
discussed, and effectively riddled by the prosecution, in the murder-
trial ; but the point here made against it was first raised after
Uuido's execution, when in the proceedings taken to clear the
reputation of Pompilia Lamparelli suggested that Borsi might
have been compelled to depose to the kissings ' by the tedium of
his secret prison ' (O.Y.B. ccliii., E.L. 249).
A criminal charge was brought against him before ' the Com-
missary of Arezzo,' probably soon after the flight, for having helped
134 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the fugitives ; on his return to Arezzo after driving them one
stage (to Camoscia) he was perhaps arrested immediately, i.e. at
the end of April or the beginning of May. We are not told when
the Commissary acquitted him, but the acquittal was not confirmed
till December 24 (O.Y.B. viii., E.L. 7). He may therefore have
suffered ' some weeks ' or some months ' of sharp imprisonment '
(cf. IX. 689, 'after long rotting in imprisonment'), and in view
of the partiality shown towards Guido by the Arezzo authorities
he may have thought it well to let ' his obduracy melt ' and to
make such a confession as Guido desired.
1714-15], i.e. (but had) played discreetly, (had neither) ruffled
gown nor ripped the cloth.
1729, 1732.] Genesis xxxix.
1742. The pettiness o' the forfeiture.] Cf. 30 above : ' the jocular
piece of punishment '.
1747. ' De Raptu Helense '.] A Greek hexameter poem (EX^T/s
apirayiri) by Coluthus of Lycopolis in Egypt (c. 500 A.D.) ; a bad
imitation of Homer. A MS. of this ' Rape of Helen ', the only
surviving piece of its author, was found in Calabria by Cardinal
Bessarion (1389-1472), whose collection of MSS. formed the nucleus
of the library of St. Mark's at Venice. Among the treasures of
the French sculptor in Pippa Passes is a De Raptu Helence —
This minion, a Coluthus, writ in red
Bistre and azure by Bessarion's scribe.
1751. Scazons.] A Scazon (<rKa.fav, ' limping ') is an iambic
line of six feet, the last of which is a spondee or trochee ( — — or
— w), and not an iambus as in the ordinary iambic line. Catullus
and Martial both wrote poems in scazons, of which the following
are typical lines : —
Vale, puella. lam Catullus ob | durat.
Apollinarem conveni meum, | scazon.
Some scazons from the Prologue of Persius are quoted in the note
to IX. 453-6. Contrast the ordinary iambic line : —
Phaselus ille, quern videtis, hos | pites.
Caponsacchi is advised to make the Cardinal his friend for life
by sending him a copy of scazons in one line of which he has put
(as though by inadvertence) an iambus in the last foot for the
Cardinal's acumen to detect.
1757. these], i.e. of course, 'the religion and justice here'. It
is strange that Dr. Berdoe should have thought that ' these ' meant
' verse ' : he supposed, apparently, that Caponsacchi took his
friends' advice and travestied De Raptu Helence at Civita !
1767.] Luke vi. 38.
1771. would personate Saint George.] See note on III. 1065-6.
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 135
177 > tumid '. 'might', must be emphasi/< d.
178<>. t and gospel.] Browning gets rid of the anapaests
( \VITI- the law and the gos|pel] ') which gave a less good emphasis
in tin- first edition.
1792. cartulary], i.e. register.
1819. daring try be good.] Note the twice -repeated omission
of ' to ' before infinitive ; for the omission after ' try ' cf. VII. 880.
1820-21.] For the 'Prince o' the Power of the Air' see note on
I. 567. The meaning of ' the Lord of Show ' is clear enough ; I
don't know whether Browning coined or borrowed the phrase.
1824-5.] Vocati\v>.
1831. failure or success], i.e. whether the flight failed or succeeded.
1836. we who led the days, etc.] according to the discredited
Margherita (above, 1674 seqq.).
1838-9.] This argument in the fugitives' favour is used both
by Bottini (O.Y.B. Ixxii., E.L. 79), by the author of the Second
Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. ccxx., E.L. 221), and by Lamparelli
(O.Y.B. ccxlix., E.L. 246). Cf. III. 1128-30.
1842. we made aware of us] by our prompt appeal at Castelnuovo
to the Roman Court (above, 1575-83). See note on II. 1018.
1851-3.] Cf. 1129, 'Use and wont recognized the excepted
man '. The need for deceit and evasion in exceptional circumstances
may be paramount ; but it ' ought never to come to a man twice.
If he finds thAt-aocessity twice, he may, I think, be looked at with
the beginning of a suspicion ' (Chesterton, Browning, p. 108).
1855. dealing so ambiguously as gave.] Ungrammatical ;
Browning should have written either ' ambiguous ' or ' as to give '.
1877. the world's musk.] Cf. I. 929, II. 825.
1878. the rochet.] A short tight-sleeved surplice, * the proper
vestment of bishops, prelates, and canons'.
1879-80.] ' These good things ' don't ring true.
1884. Did not I say . . . ?] See 204 seqq.
1890. as I said] in 1473 seqq.
1905. Not death, etc.] Contrast the Pope, X. 2117 seqq.
1917. to cramp him], i.e. to give him a secure hold-by, as with
a cramp-iron.
1928-54.] The passage is surely suggested by the Inferno,
but a critic in The Edinburgh Review (July 1869, p. 184) said of it
that it ' is eminently French in character, and certainly suggests,
if it was not suggested by, the manner of M. Hugo '.
1932. Whom is it, straining onward still, he meets ?] Originally
Browning wrote, ' Lo, what is this he meets, strains onward still ? ',
the last words of which misrepresent his meaning.
1934. prize], the French prise.
1940. mopjand mows], i.e. grimaces ; see note on I. 572.
I '. > I .">. ^gmatch^ke. smapkrfiavour.-
1950f cockatrice/. . .(basilisk.] Ti^ two names 'are used
136 THE RING AND THE BOOK
interchangeably by Shakespeare ' (Shakespeare's England, i. p. 519 ;
cf. p. 496). Cf. Bartholomew Anglicus, De Proprietatibus Rerum,
p. 144, ed. Steele : ' The cockatrice hight Basiliscus in Greek '.
1959. the lady's mind], i.e. her good judgment in taking such
a man as myself for her helper.
1975.] See 1321 seqq.
1990. Painters would say, etc.] But Carlo Maratta, the then
famous painter, is made to say (III. 63) that ' A lovelier face is
not in Rome '.
1998. just to disfigure.] See note on VIII. 1221-5.
2001. in a clowj&s disguise.'} See note on V. 1565.
2006. For wTiat and by whom?] If it had not been for accidents,
which forced Guido to confess his guilt, his lawyers could have
invented a plausible tale, representing Caponsacchi as the murderer.
See VIII. 361-81, and cf. XL 1707-24.
— . It is too palpable] that vindication of his honour was not his
real motive.
2007-22.] The Decretum Relegationis, dated September 24,
1697, which sent Caponsacchi to Civita Vecchia, was drawn up in
terms : —
Joseph. Maria Caponsacc hius de Aretio pro complicitate in fuga, &
deuiatione Franciscae Comparing, & cognitione carnali eiusdera relegatus
per triennium in Ciuitate Vetula (0. Y.B. xcix., E.L. 106).
At the instance of Lamparelli, Procurator of the Poor, who defended
the fugitives in the Process of Flight, the judges afterwards sub-
stituted for pro complicitate — eiusdem the words pro causa de qua
in actis (or in Processu), i.e. for the reason with which the pro-
ceedings were concerned. So far both sides agreed ; see e.g. O. Y.B.
clxvii., E.L. 175 (Bottini), and O.Y.B. cxxvi., E.L. 134 (Spreti).
The question, however, what, if any, was the significance of
the substitution, was hotly disputed during the murder-trial.
Guide's lawyers contended that it had practically no significance,
that it was merely made ' by way of indulgence to the still- asserted
honour of the woman and to the dignity of the Canon ' ; they
denied that the judges meant to make any real correction, such as
the insertion, which appears to be suggested by the other side,
of the word prcetensa ('alleged') before cognitione carnali (O.Y.B.
cxii., cxxvi., E.L. 120, 134). The prosecution rejoined (1) that
the original wording of the decree was a blunder, ' a penman's
error ' (below, 2019), ' not in agreement with the proofs ' ; that
it stated the grounds on which the charge was based, not the reasons
for the sentence (cf. IX. 1527-9), and that it was corrected accord-
ingly ; (2) that the use of causa (not causis) in the amended form
of the decree proved that Caponsacchi was relegated for one reason
only, which, it is urged, was his complicity in the flight ; (3) that,
f the graver charge against him had been regarded as established,
BOOK VI.— GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI 137
he would have been punished far more severely (O.Y.B. clxvii.,
ccxxi., E.L. 175, 223).
2009-10. title O' the sentence.] The word 'title ' (titulus) means
the reasons stated in the decree. See IX. 1527-61.
2013. Probationis ob defectum.] Gambi asserts (0. Y.B. Ixii.,
E.L. 66) that ' it was resolved, because of defect of proof of adultery,
that the Canon should be relegated to Civita '.
2016. to amuse The adversary.] Suggested by the Second
Anonymous Pamphlet, which says (O.Y.B. ccxv.-vi., E.L. 217)
that the judges, ' nauseated by the importunity ' of the Frances-
chini brothers, sent Caponsacchi to Civita ' to give them some
satisfaction in their pressing solicitations rather than because of
the claims of justice '.
2024-5. Not what I wish true. . . . It is not true.] He professes
not to believe, because he wishes not to believe, that she applied
to Conti and Guillichini before applying to him ; he would rather
that she should have turned to him first. — Pompilia made different
but not necessarily inconsistent statements about her action in
this matter. She said in her deposition : ' Not knowing to whom
to have recourse to put this wish of mine [i.e. her wish to flee to Rome]
into execution, and thinking that either from relationship or from
friendship to my husband no one in the place would help me, I
resolved in the end to speak of it to Caponsacchi, because I heard
it said that he was a man of resolution ' (O. Y.B. Ixxxiv., E.L. 92-3).
She wrote, a few days earlier, to Pietro : ' I am imprisoned here
at Castelnuovo for having fled with a gentleman whom you don't
know, but he is related to the Belichini [a slip of the unpractised
penwoman or of the printer for Guillichini ; the name is printed
Quilichini in another place, O.Y.B. Ixxi.] who was at Rome; I
was to have come with him, but owing to illness he could not come.
This other gentleman however came, and I came with him because
my life was not worth an hour's purchase ' (0. Y.B. civ., E.L. 160 ; cf.
IX. 477, and see Appendix IV. ). It will be noticed that she mentions
Conti in neither place, but both in the Second Anonymous Pamphlet
(O.Y.B. ccxvii., E.L. 219) and in the Secondary Source (O.Y.B. 210-
211, E.L. 261-2) he is said to have been * the mediator of the flight '.
2032. dead, poisoned a month ago.] The authority for this is
the Second Anonymous Pamphlet (loc. cit.) : * it being public talk
and rumour that he died about a month ago under a similar
suspicion [of poison] '.
2036. had come], i.e. would have come ; Conti did not, apparently,
give evidence in the Process of Flight.
2037-8. condemned . . . To the galleys] at Portoferraio in Elba.
See O.Y.B. vii., E.L. 1.
2040. A fortnight since.] The Governor's sentence was finally
confirmed by the Florence Court on December 24, 1697, just a
fortnight before ihu date assigned to Caponsacchi's speech.
138 THE RING AND THE BOOK
2043. two tales to suit the separate courts.] See Guide's remarks
on this point, V. 1906-8.
2054.] A relative clause.
2061. the letter], i.e. apparently, the attestation given in O. Y.B.
Ivii.-lviii., E.L. 57-8. This attestation, however, is dated January
10, some days after the supposed date of the speech.
2077.] Cf. VII. 1841-3 (Pompilia) :—
So, let him wait God's instant men call years ;
Meanwhile, hold hard by truth and his great soul,
Do out the duty !
and X. 1210-12 (The Pope).
2099-2100.] Plutarch's Parallel Lives, the aim of which is
hortatory rather than purely biographical, are in sets of two ; in
each set a Roman and a ' Grecian ' are put side by side.
2104. from such communion], that of the ' imagined life ' of line
2081. But for all his resolution Caponsacchi cannot ' pass content '
from the imagined life with Pompilia to the real life without her.
BOOK VII.— POMPILIA
INTRODUCTION
WE are told on high authority that when Book VII. was
first published (in January 1869) people who on the appear-
ance of earlier portions of the poem had taken exception
to the sordid character of Browning's story became con-
vinced that ' the subject was not, after all, so incurably
unlovely ', but that, nevertheless, there was ' a comparative
disappointment ' at the presentation of Pompilia 1. If
there was any such disappointment — I know of no other
evidence of • it — it soon passed away. A succession of
most felicitous eulogies 2 of the poet's conception and of
the verse in which he embodied it has ' vindicated the
fame ' both of heroine and of poet ; no other part of the
poem has won so enthusiastic and so unqualified an admira-
tion from the critics, and their judgment has been accepted
by all readers, critical and uncritical, now for a full half
century. In its general tenour it stands unchallenged,
and it would be worse than superfluous to repeat in feebler
words what has been said so often and so well ; but on
one or two particular points a few observations may be
offered.
Browning, as every one knows, has been charged with
the ' defect in his dramatic art ' that the people whose
thoughts he professes to express in their own way ' use
Browning's speech and think his thought '. Professor
Walker, for instance, tells us that ' simple child as Pompilia
is, there is a depth of philosophy in her utterances that
1 Mr. John .Murl.-y in the Fortnightly Review, March 1, l&r, . :U2.
2 None of them, perhaps, is more felicitous than that ot .Mr. Btopfard Brooke
in his / 171, 408-U).
139
140 THE RING AND THE BOOK
is not in strict keeping with her character ' ; and that
' she, like all Browning's men and women, uses the abrupt
vivid language of the poet ' 1. On the former point I
shall speak in a moment ; what are we to say about the
latter ? Is it true that, to quote another exponent of
the same opinion, ' the child- wife Pompilia tells her story
in much the same language as her elderly and wicked
husband, Count Guido, and the young Canon Caponsacchi ;
and all talk a good deal more like Robert Browning than
any other human creature before or since ' 2 ? No doubt
a student of Browning's style and manner will find then-
presence in the utterances of all his characters in The,
Ring and the Book, just as a student of Shakespeare will
find evidence of Shakespeare's style in the utterances of
all the characters 'in, let us say, The Tempest'*. Pom-,
pilia, like Guido, Caponsacchi, and the rest, ' docks the;
smaller parts-o' -speech ', practises economy in the use of
articles and of relative pronouns, omits a ' to ' before her
infinitives ; in these and other ways she speaks Browning's
speech. But then Browning himself speaks in so many
profoundly different ways, adapts his diction, his manner,
his rhythm with such wonderful flexibility to the sorts
and conditions of his personae, to the thoughts and passions
which he makes them express ! In the childlike Pompilia
he created a character unusual in his poetry and the style
of her monologue is therefore unusual ; its simple diction
with its girlish colloquialisms, its limpid and pellucid flow,
may make it seem at times that (in the words of M. Berger)
ce ne soit plus Browning qui ecrive avec une telle simplicite
claire et douce . . . Id plus de recherche d'effet, plus de
complication de pensee, plus de rhetorique meme sincere,
rien que des paroles simples, presque waives d'une enfant
a I'dme pure*.
With the simplicity of language, manner, and rhythm
^ there is combined in Book VII., as M. Berger notes, a
simplicity of thought. Pompilia lies upon her death- bed,
pierced with ' twenty-two dagger- wounds, five deadly ',
and her survival is a marvel ; she speaks, naturally enough,
1 The Age of Tennyson, p. 230.
2 From Mr. Frederick E,y land's Selections from Browning, p. xvii.
3 Symons, Introduction to Browning, p. 20.
4 Pierre Berger, Browning, p. 210.
BOOK VII.—POMPILIA 141
' with a little disorder at first ', giving utterance to her
reflexions ' as they come '. But she does not suffer ' too
much pain'; the disorder disappears asfshe tells with
artlos charm of this or that incident oflier girlhood,
and hints as she proceeds at the horrors of her later years,
ha If -forgetting them at times or putting them aside. Her
mind and soul are at peace ; she holds fast to her faith
in God ; she rejoices in God's gift to her of a son ; she
ivmcinhcrs affectionately such affection as it has been
granted her to know ; she can forgive or finds excuses —
poor excuses but sincere — for the malignant hatred which
has mangled her body and would have ruined her soul ;
and all her strength returns to her as she vindicates the
purity and reverently recalls the devotion of her ' soldier
saint ' whom she will meet again in heaven. For the
rest, she ' endeavours to explain her lif e ' l, but it has been
a tangle which she cannot unravel ; of one of its per-
plexities she can only say,
Think it out, you who have the time ! * ^
— Ette ne comprend pas, mais se rfaigne ; she feels that
she is but an ignorant child. As the Pope, when recording
her purity, her patience, her faith, her return of right for
wrong, of ' most pardon for most injury ', says of her :
It was not given to Pompilia to know much,
Speak much, to write a book, to move mankind,
Be memorized by who records my time 3.
It is of this unsophisticated spirit (who has, however,
been memorized and has profoundly moved so much of
mankind as has read her story) that we are told that she
had a philosophy and that it was Browning's. A philo-
sophy, whether Browning's or another's ? When she says
in her simple way,
The saints must bear with me, impute the fault
To a soul i' the bud, so starved by ignorance,
Stinted of warmth, it will not blow this year4,
a professor of Moral Philosophy finds in the lines a valuable
corrective of the ' sceptical philosophy ' which was destined
1 So Browning summarizes her monologue in I. 1 mi.
VII. 709. 1020-2. < VH. 1515-17.
142 THE RING AND THE BOOK
to ' come down like a blight ' upon the poet x, but surely
they have no philosophical import whatever ; the flair
of the professor leads him astray. Or again, when she
lies serene in her last hours, when she says of herself,
Being right now, I am happy and colour things 2,
and speaks of God as
ever mindful in all strife and strait . . .
Till at the last he puts forth might and saves 3,
her words are used as that famous lyric is used in which
JPippa, cheered by the brilliant sunrise of her new-year's
Holiday, sees everything couleur de rose —
Morning's at seven ;
The hill-side's dew-pearled ; . . .
God's in his heaven —
All's right with the world !
— the two children are quoted as if they stated a reasoned
conclusion in support of Browning's optimistic theory4.
They both, I imagine, say precisely what any poet, optimistic
or otherwise, would have made them say if only he could
have made them say it so finely ; given their characters
and their circumstances, their utterances are in any case
entirely right. Out of their mouths is perfected praise
-and not philosophy5. — From the philosophical standpoint
Pompilia, for all her experience, is still a child ; from other
points of view she is indeed more, but half her charm is
her childlike charm ; and instead of endowing her with a
philosophy we shall more wisely enjoy such characteristic
passages as those in which she speaks of Tisbe and herself
before the tapestry, or describes what she saw and dimly
understood of the stormy interview in the Via Vittoria,
or pictures the delightfully domestic scenes at the Villa
till all turns suddenly into tragedy with
A tap ; we started up ; you know the rest !
1 Jones, Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher (edition-of 1896),
p. 333.
2 VII. 354. * VII. 1386-8.
4 Jones, op. cit. pp. 90, 95. — On the alleged optimism of The Ring and the Book,
see the Introduction to Book XII.
5 The sophistication of poor Pippa is carried far in an excellent edition of
Paracelsus by M. L. Lee and K. B. Locock, p. 42. Her ' God's in his heaven, etc.'
requires, it appears, a 'clue', which 'Transcendence rather than Immanence
provides'. «
BOOK VIL—POMPILIA 143
Pompilia, however, as I have said, is more than a child.
She is a mother, and she is one of the two parties in the
spiritual romance which gives its supreme interest to the
poem.
' Womanliness '. says the unnamed heroine of The Inn
Album, ' means only motherhood ' 1 ; but, though the
poet portrays many kinds of womanliness, it has been
observed that motherhood (like fatherhood) finds little
expression in his poetry, only perhaps in his Pompilia ;
in Ivan Ivdnovitch a defective sense of it meets with a
terrible punishment. In The Ring and the Book it is
treated with a penetrating comprehension, with a richm
of sentiment, enshrined in most melodious verse. In some
places, indeed, Pompilia is just the happy young mother,
the Madonna of many merely delightful Italian pictures ;
her prattle about her boy and her delight in him are like
the prattle and the delight of other young mothers, but
with their charm immeasurably enhanced by the beauty ^
of some stray thoughts 2 and not only by the music of
her words. But there is a rarer beauty and a deeper
insight in other passages where the full significance of
maternity is revealed 8 or the dawn of the maternal instinct
portrayed ; see especially 1222 seqq., the loveliest lines,
perhaps, in the whole poem. — Mindful of what was said
in the first paragraph of this Introduction I must not
linger upon this jioly ground ; I leave it with a reference
to some fine criticism in Mrs. Orr's Life of the poet. ' The
sudden rapturous sense of maternity ', she wrote, ' which
in the poetic rendering of the case becomes Pompilia's
impulse to self -protection, was beyond her age and her
culture ; it was not suggested by the facts ; and, what
is more striking, it was not a natural development of
Mr. Browning's imagination concerning them '. Mrs. Orr
insisted that the ' parental instinct was among the weakest
in his nature ', and continued : ' The ingenuously un-
bounded maternal pride, the almost luscious maternal
sentiments, of Pompilia's dying moments can only associate
themselves in our mind with Mrs. Browning's personal
utterances, and some notable passages in Casa Guidi
i The Inn Album, p. 186. ,-../. \ II. »:., J77-8, 1657-8.
3 See e.g. VII. 620-25, 1690-93. 174U-G7.
144 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Windows and Aurora Leigh 1. . . . Mrs. Browning's spiritual
presence on this occasion ' — the writer had in mind the
dedication in Book I. — ' was more than a presiding memory
of the heart. I am convinced that it entered largely into
the conception of Pompilia and, so far as this depended
on it, the character of the whole work ' 2.
Yet deeper even than her maternal instinct, more vital
in Browning's whole conception, is Pompilia's mystical
devotion to Caponsacchi. The sense of motherhood,
aroused on that bright spring morning at Arezzo, gave
her an energy and a courage of which before she had shown
I/ little sign ; but the most notable manifestation of this
courage and energy was given on ' the impulse to serve
God',
Not save myself, — no — nor my child unborn ! s —
it occurred when Guido was arresting Caponsacchi at
Castelnuovo and she found
Not my hand simply struck from the angel's, but
The very angel's self made foul f the face
By the fiend who struck there.
' That ', she says, ' I would not bear, that only I resisted ! ' '
— Again it is to the vindication of her ' far beyond friend ' 5
that her thoughts most constantly revert :
I must lay my babe away with God,
Nor think of him again, for gratitude.
Yes, my last breath shall wholly spend itself
In one attempt more to disperse the stain,
The mist from other breath foul mouths have made,
About a lustrous and pellucid soul . . .
Giuseppe-Maria Caponsacchi ! 6
And when, after her very last words about her boy, she has
bidden farewell to the friends at her bedside —
I thank and bless you every one !
No more now : I withdraw from earth and man
To my own soul, compose myself for God 7 —
she must needs add, ' Well, and there is more ' ; and her
monologue ends with ' the exalted fervour of her invoca- ^
tion ' of * the lover of her life, her soldier-saint ', ' its blending
1 See the last page of Part II. of Oasa Guidi Windows, and the Sixth Book of
Aurora Leigh.
2 Mrs. Orr, Life, pp. 270-72. a VII. 1600-1601. 4 yil. 1619-22.
* VI. 1611. 6 VII. 930-35, 941. ? VII. 1768-70.
BOOK VIL—POMPILIA
145
l>intuul ivstasy with half-realized earthly emotion ' V
Of • iLT'is which describe the sudden origin of her
faith in Caponsacchi 2, the development, during the journey
fnun Arezzo, of her devotion to the ' one heart that gave
her all the Spring'3, I will not speak; nor need I dwell
on the difference, most delicately but yet sharply drawn,
In -tween the feeling of the man for the woman and of the
woman for the man ; she will not call hers love, for she
has known that word too often profaned. The difference
is deep, far deeper than the difference, deep as that also
is, between the circumstances under which the two speakers
' say their say '.
I have sought to show in Appendix V. that, though
Browning never would admit it, his Pompilia is by no
means the same person as the Pompilia of the Yellow
Book, and I have argued that the contrast between these
two Pompilias, for more than one reason, deserves careful
study — for this reason especially, that such study will
enhance immensely, and in unexpected ways, the student's
admiration of the poet's creative genius and of this
particular creation.
NOTES
1-2.] Pompilia was born, according to the baptismal register,
on July 17, 1680 (O.Y.B. civ., E.L. 159); she is speaking on
January 6, 1698.
4. Lorenzo in Lucina.] See note on II. 6.
8-9. 'tis writ tliat I was married, etc.} Browning had not seen
the entry in the marriage register ; he misdates the marriage and
mis-states its incidents (see note on II. 70 and Appendix III.).
10. When they insert my death, etc.] See the extract from the
register of deaths (printed in Treves, p. 300) and Appendix II.
ad fin. The register mentions neither what Pompilia would wish
to be omitted, nor (of course) what she would wish to be added.
14. Exactly tivo weeks.] Nearly three ; if the only statement
on the point in the records (Bottini's in O.Y.B. clxxxiv.. A'./,. 189),
which Browning seems to accept (see note on V. 1471), is correct,
tin l>oy was born on December 18.
16, 17.J Search for an entry of the boy's baptism has been
Mrs. Orr, l.if<-, p. 272,
note on IV. 944.
3 VII. 1527.
L
146 THE RING AND THE BOOK
made in the registers of San Lorenzo and six adjoining parishes,
but without success (Treves, pp. 125, 300).
22. what the marble lion meant] The two lions in the portico
of San Lorenzo, one on each side of the door, are much older than
the church itself. That to the right of the door, which ' has a
singularly benevolent and even fatuous expression', is playing
with a mannikin who strokes his breast (or mane) ; that to the
left, ' with an aspect of extreme ferocity ', is perhaps ' eating the
figure of a prostrate man ' (according to Treves, has a headless
animal, apparently a dog, between its forepaws). Browning,
perhaps misled by Leighton (see note on II. 6), mis-states the
position of the ferocious lion (line 25). — According to an authority
quoted by Hare (Walks in Rome, i. p. 45-; cf. Treves, p. 120) the
lions symbolize respectively ' the benignity of the Church towards
the neophyte and the docile ', and her ' severity towards the
impenitent and heretical '.
23. With half his body rushing from the wall] The lions ' appear
to be emerging from the wall, since only the heads and the shoulders
of the beasts are in evidence ' (Treves, p. 119).
27. to be buried there, I hope.] See Appendix II. — A cemetery
is attached to the church, and tombstones cover the floor of its
portico.
30. Oaetano, for a reason.] Browning found the boy's name
in the Secondary Source, O.Y.B. 211, E.L. 263 : ' Pompilia bore a
son, to whom she gave the name Gaetano, to which saint she had
dedicated herself. Gaetano, archbishop of Teate (Chieti), was
the founder of the order of Theatins (called after his see). He
lived from 1480 to 1547, but was not canonized till 1671. — Browning
represents Pompilia as having fixed on the name for her child, if
a boy, eight months before its birth (VI. 1389), and as giving a
reason for the choice of name below, 100-107.
31. Don Celestine], her confessor on her death-bed.
32-3. he it was Baptized me.] A slip of Browning's, as the
baptismal certificate (O.Y.B. civ., E.L. 159) shows.
38. twenty-two dagger-wounds.] O. Y.B. 212, E.L. 263.
42. baptized and hid away.] See V. 1478, note.
46. two days after he was born.] It would then be time for him
to be baptized ; see note on IV. 214.
57. we know where.] See below, 235-7.
65. gets to be.] See below, 110, 118, 332, and the note on IV.
1541.
82.] On the question, ' could Pompilia write ? ' see Appendix
103-5.] See note on 30 above.
139. one surprising day] in April or May 1694, soon after the
return of the Comparini to Rome.
153. Guard them and guide them.] See notes on II. 944, V. 451.
BOOK VIL— POMPILIA
147
156-7.] Refers to the suit for divorce.
160-74.] See Introduction to this Book.
175-80.] Pompiliii was questioned in court about the love-
Appcmlix IV.
189-91.] Diana.
I '.»:;-(>.] Daphne, who when pursued by Apollo was turned into
a bay tree (Ovid, Met. 1. 548-52).
193. such.'] This colloquial use of ' such ' occurs again in 265,
368, 1236 ; it suits the simple style of Pompilia's monologue,
compare e.g. A Lovers' Quarrel, x. :
Or I tint your lip
With a burnt stick's tip
And you turn into such a man !
207-8.] See V. 1478, note.
217-18.] See Appendix II.
230. Our cause is gained.] He means, I suppose, that the
Court, by first consigning Pompilia to the Scalette, and then allow-
ing her to keep to the Comparini-home pro carcere, has shielded
her from Guido. — Neither of his ' causes ' in the courts had as yet
been won.
235. at tJie other villa, we know where.] See above, 57, and
Appendix II.
238. wine sincere outside the city gate.] Cf. 1 Peter ii. 2, ' as
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word '. This use of
* sincere ' is now obsolete, but the Italian sincero has this meaning.
The carrettieri who bring wine into Rome ' do not enjoy a very
good reputation for honesty ' ; they dilute the wine on the journey.
'This, however, is the least danger which the wine incurs. As
soon as it enters the gates it is destined to far worse adulteration
of every kind, and lucky is he who gets a bottle of pure and sincere
wine from any osteria, pot-house, or drinking-shop within the walls '
(Story, Roba di Roma, p. 325).
The passage shows that Browning placed the villa which he
made the scene of the murders inside the walls of the city.
245. shall to bed.] Cf. Hamlet 2. 2. 521, ' It shall to the barber's,
with your beard '.
262. through the seven.} What are they ? Not, I think, the
ii basilicae maiores of Rome, for the Ara Cseli, in which the
!•• -presentation here mentioned is specially splendid and which
I Metro must surely, therefore, have visited, is not one ofcthem. —
Representations of the birth of Christ, called presepi (presepio=
' m;uiLr'T '). .ire given at many chun-hi-s in Uoinc from Christmas to
tth -Ni'jht; see descriptions in Story, Roba di Roma, pp. 74-7,
Bagot, My Italian Year, c. viii.
267. A tap : we startnl u /> : I/OK know the rest.] The single
line is more effective than a description. Pompilia does not dwell
148 THE RING AND THE BOOK
on horrors ; indeed, she says that they have passed from her
memory (see below, 584-602).
279.] A badly-written line. The reader at first supposes that
the word ' that ' echoes the * that ' at the end of the previous line,
and refers to the imaginary falsehood described in 275-8 ; but
when he comes to the words ' and all harm did ' he finds that this
interpretation is mistaken, and that the ' that ' of line 279 refers
to the real falsehood of Violante, described in 270-74.
286.] The bargain between Violante and Pompilia's real mother
was struck (according to IV. 186-8) six months before Pompilia's birth.
291-2.] Of. 879-94 below.
300-301. who would frown thereat? Well, God, you see!} The
effectively abrupt introduction, in the simplest words, of the thought,
what God's judgment on the matter in hand is or may be, is char-
acteristic of the poet. Compare the ' But what will God say ? '
in The Worst of it, v. ; the ' And yet God has not said a word '
at the end of Porphyries Lover ; see also I. 582. An impression
of the same sort is produced by the last words of the parable called
Fears and Scruples : ' What if this friend happen to be — God ? '
302. that} is surely misplaced ; its right place would be after
the * because '-clause, at the beginning of 304.
315. let it go nor keep it fast.} She could not let the falsehood
go by admitting the truth, e.g. at the time of the marriage -negotia-
tions ; nor could she maintain it right through to the end.
320. to make amends}, i.e. to Pompilia ; to give her a position
about which there should be no ambiguity ; see below, 328 seqq.
The reference is not to Violante's making amends to God by her
confession during the jubilee of 1694.
323.] See note on III. 250.
325. a speech.} Such a speech as that reported in III. 264-372.
330.] See above, 303.
333.] Genesis ii. 24, Mark x. 8.
335. Should in a husband have a husband], i.e. a real husband,
not a sham one as her reputed parents had been sham parents.
351. that], i.e. from the fact that.
375. This may have made the change too terrible.] Contrast
117-18 above.
379. the same eve.] A mistake ; see note on II. 70.
380-81.] See Appendix III.
390. the slim young man.] Perseus with the winged sandals,
rescuing Andromeda.
395-8.] The description of Guido is taken from the Secondary
Source ; see note on IV. 717-19. Professor Hodell justly remarks
that * the Poet has probably stepped beyond dramatic propriety '
in putting the description (which she repeats in 443) into the mouth
of Pompilia (O.Y.B. 298) ; it is out of keeping with her character
and the occasion.
BOOK VIL—POMPILIA 149
398.J JSoc note on X. 724.
423. Master M<ilj,ichi.] Malpichi (or Malpighi) of Bologna was
f
tin LMvutrM biologist of his time. Gilbert Burnet, afterwards
William III.'s Bishop of Salisbury, wrote in 1685 after a visit to
Bologna : ' I saw not one of the chief Glories of the Place ; for
the famous Malpighius was out of Town while I was there ' (Some
Letters, edition of 1724, p. 191). Malpighi came to Rome in 1691
to be physician to the Pope ; he died in 1694 (cf. XII. 39).— The
Comparini were fortunate in securing the great man as a general
practitioner !
426.] See note on II. 70.
427. the Lion's mouth], i.e. the Via della Bocca di Leone. If
you go by this street from the Via Vittoria to San Lorenzo you
have only to walk over a little ' bit of Corso '. — Browning lodged
in the Via della Bocca di Leone during two visits to Rome.
435. Who proved the brother.] A mistake ; see note on II. 361.
440. Two tapers.] Cf. II. 360, where Half-Rome says that the
marriage took place 'o' the sly ... by a hasty candle-blink '.
See Appendix III.
445. 0' the chancel] Within 'the little marble balustrade'
of II. 20.
449-50.] Ephesians v. 23, 24. — As in the miracle at Cana in
Galilee (John iv.) the water, resigning its own properties, sub-
mitted to identification with the wine, so hi marriage the wife
should submit herself to her husband as the Church submits her-
self to Christ. Is the priest's symbolical interpretation of the
miracle an accepted piece of Catholic exegesis ?
463. the gutter's roaring sea.] Open drains ran down the middle
of most of the streets, the Corso included^(see-Tr^yes, p. 106) ;
the rain would swell them into * roaring «6as '. N
465. Trussedup in church . . . by mc^fhtt kite] — I-was nearly
coming, says rietro, like a kite into your omiecoto-^Cne church),
trussing you both up like a pair of pigeons and carrying you off.
472. the next three weeks.] See Appendix III.
482-583.] Based on a few words in the Second Anonymous
Pamphlet (O.Y.B. ccx., E.L. 212): 'After a few days, it having
been discovered by Pietro that the marriage was an accomplished
fact, though he vigorously denounced the proceeding, nevertheless,
since " what has been done cannot be undone "... the poor
old man was compelled to drink the cup of his bitternesses '.
503. The done thing, undone?] See the last note. The pro-
verbial words quoted in the Italian pamphlet are given in Latin :
factum infectum fieri non potest. Plautus has in his Aulularia
(4. 10. 15) Factum est iUjidj fieri infectum non potest.
578. the at*t gawrtaferaO^Cfc XL 978.
590-9 1.<s6/ea/ and^mru^oats^etc.] A familiar sound to Pompilia,
town-bird thmgh^ahf wasf^Srr Story, Roba di Roma, p. 362:
150 THE RING AND THE BOOK
' Every morning flocks of goats are driven [from the Campagna]
or led into the towns, where they may be seen crouching in the
streets, while the goat-herd sells their milk fresh from the udder
to his various customers, who come to the door and call for him '.
606. those points of my support.] They are stated in 617-25.
608. opposite the Spanish House], i.e. the house of the Spanish
ambassador, which gives the Piazza di Spagna its name.
620-25.] See Introduction to this Book.
620. blest bliss.] ' Blest ' may be a misprint ; the first and second
editions have ' best '.
628. help me find.] Cf. X. 1831-2, ' helped produce '.
634-5. a light That's later than my life-time], i.e. that first came
to her when on her death- bed.
640. To get enriched.] See note on IV. 1541. Colloquial uses
of ' to get ' are specially common in this Book.
647. he began deception first], i.e. by representing himself as having
a considerable income; cf. III. 275-7 and (e.g.] O.Y.B. 209, E.L.
259 : ' when they (i.e. the Franceschini) had made it appear that
their income was of considerable amount, they succeeded in their
intent ; although it was afterwards found that their entire capital
did not amount to the total of their income ' as they had stated
it in writing. See also 0. Y.B. ccxi., E.L. 213.
648. in one point], i.e. their maintenance at Arezzo.
655.] The emphatic ' Wrong ' at the beginning of the line
does duty for two syllables ; cf. XI. 521.
677-80.] Cif^a. Pompilia's deposition, O.Y.B. lxxxiii.-iv., E.L.
91-2. .^ \
678. A^ure^L]) See above, 398, and X. 724.
695-7 IQI^lttHsSr pathetic anxiety to find excuse for Guido
Pompilia would fain believe that tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner ;
she declares that as she reaches a fuller understanding of his treat-
ment of her she finds that she has little to forgive (cf. 631-7). If
r-she had only understood his 'true intent', which she misunder-
Lstood and thwarted ! — But it is obvious to the reader that a com-
prehension of Guide's true intent could only make his conduct
less forgiveable. She had supposed that his motive was mere
jealousy and that his aim was to keep her and Caponsacchi apart ;
Cit turned out that his motive was malignant hatred, that his aim
was to bring them together and drive them into crime. — A mis-
giving that her attempt at palliation fails comes over her as sh
develops it (see Introduction to Book VII.).
For the complete forgiveness which Pompilia's heart prompts,
and for which her head, even in her weakness, would gladly find
reasons, cf. 1707-39 below.
734. barely twelve years old.] She was well over thirteen ; born
July 17, 1680 ; married September 6 (Browning supposed, late
in December), 1693.
BOOK VI1.—POMP1LIA 151
736.) Cf. 472 above.
748.] All this was suggested, as Professor Hodell joints out,
by a passage in a letter produced in the Process of Flight (O.Y.B.
liv.. A'. I. . .V>j. written by some one at Arezzo to Pietro at Rome;
the u liter says that Pompilia, soon after the departure of the Coin-
pal ini, fece strepito grande, perche non voleua andare a dormire col
<>r Guido; cf. O.Y.B. cvi. (E.L. 114).
TIL'. ] Genesis i. 28.
808-14.] See note on II. 500-503.
821.] Matthew xiii. 34.
823. a flower -fig, the prime boast of May.] Of May ? ' There
an- two crops of tigs orreach tree. The first ripen in July, and are
called fichi-fiori, or flower-figs ' (Story, Roba di Roma, p. 385).
829. The, tree should bear an apple.] The Archbishop, who
thinks fit to play the humourist, remembers that he has lately
referred (line 765) to ' the apple ' plucked from a tree in the Creator's
' orchard '.
857-8.] 'The eye of God', says Pompilia,. 'penetrated the
ruined outside of my life, and saw that the reason why I was care-
less of appearances was that, through my following the Arch-
bishop's advice, my soul was desecrated and its light quenched '.
860. freed] expresses Pompilia' s meaning better than ' saved ',
for which it was substituted in the second edition ; the change
was also required by the presence of ' save ' in line 861.
861-2.] They said that Pompilia was not merely a bad wife,
and therefore ' wanton ', but was cynically wanton ; for she didn't
care to save appearances by dissembling her aversion for her husband.
869. mud so murk.] 'Murk', like 'dusk' (I. 593), is common
enough as an adjective in modern poetry (cf. e.g. Luria, m., ' the
murk mid-forest') ; ' murky', which has superseded it in modern
prose, was rare before the seventeenth century (' Hell is murky '
occurs in Macbeth, 5. 1. 41).
877. hate], i.e. of her own child, whom she was ready to sell to
Violante.
879-94.] Cf. 291-2 above.
880. try be good.] Cf. VI. 1819, ' like daring try be good '.
893-4.] Cf. 281-4 above.
911. whose tonsure the rich dark-brown hides.] See II. 787, note.
915-16. lay so light, etc.] Cf. VI. 1410-14.
930-31.] That being so, gratitude compels me to dismiss Gaetano """"
from my thoughts and to spend my last breath in showing that
Caponsacchi is ' purity in quintessence ' (925).
935. lustrou^Md^eJJ/ufld soul.] When The Ring and the Book
was published RossettihaoTin thlTMS. of his Love's Noctnm :
Fair with honourable eyes,
Lamps of a pellucid soul.
152 THE RING AND THE BOOK
To avoid the charge of plagiarism he sacrificed ' pellucid ', sub-
stituting in successive editions ' an auspicious soul ' and ' a trans-
lucent soul ' (Sir Edward Cook, Literary Recreations, p. 292-3).
950. / was at a public play.] Cf. VI. 394-433, and see note on
IV. 944.
951. In the last days of Carnival last March.] Easter Day in
1697 was April 14 ; Ash Wednesday was therefore February 27
and Carnival was over before March began. The date of the theatre-
incident is not fixed by the records.
952. but now know well.] She knows that she was taken there
as a lure to Caponsacchi.
979. By the dust-handful], pulveris exigui iactu (Virgil, Georg. 4. 87).
988. my husband's cousin.] ' Cousin ' is used in the wider
sense of the word. Conti's brother had married Guido's sister ;
see note on IV. 381 seqq.
992.] Psalm Iv. 6.
1015. My cornet battered like a cannon-ball.] The confetti thrown
during Carnival ' sting like small shot ' (Crawford, Ave Roma
Immortalis, i. p. 196). A cornet is ' a paper-twist ' (VI. 409)
such as grocers use.
1029. 0 Christ, what hinders, etc.] From Pompilia's deposition,
O.Y.B. Ixxxiv., E.L. 92: Tornati che fussimo a Casa mi appunto
vna Pistola in petto dicendo — Oh Cristo chi mi tiene, che non ti stenno
qu\, ammiri bene il Caponsacchi, se non vuoi, che te facci cosi, e non
ti ammazzi.
1041. pink], i.e. pierce ; see note on II. 1038.
1046. " Let God save the innocent ! "] She remembers the prayer
suggested to her by Pietro on another occasion (see 527 above).
1053.] Cf. VI. 521-2, 554.
1057. On this the thrust and that the shame.} See above, 1030.
For the form of expression cf. III. 570-71, ' this the poisoner And
that the parricide '.
1064-90.] Caponsacchi, says Margherita, is in real danger
from Guido, who does not threaten in sport. To be sure, he did not
stab the serving-man or poison the stranger who crossed his path
in his irregular amours ; he had the former sent off to the wars,
he married off the latter to an unattractive ' somebody else '. But
r~Caponsacchi comes between him and his lawful lady-wife, and
I being a priest he can neither fight nor marry ; to get rid of him
' — he must and he will kill him. You should put him on his guard.
1099. There is no other help.] But there is this help, ' or we should
craze '. ' Craze ', properly, as the passive participle shows, an
active verb (= French ecraser) and so used by Milton, is neuter
here, as twice in Paracelsus : I. (' Till I near craze '), v. ('I shall
craze like him ').
1125. 'My idol/'] One of the love-letters begins with Amato
Idolo mio (O. Y.B. xcvii., E.L. 104).
BOOK VIL—POMPILIA 153
1 143. a star.] See note on 1405 below.
1145. The impuxth note on 111. 403.
lir><>. /recent \, i.e. anticipate.
1 1 :>± the pretty verse, etc.] No pieces of verse were produced
among the love-letters, but the letters contain allusions to verses
sent by the lover; one of these letters is signed Mirtillo (1153).
Berdoe tells his readers, in his note on ' A sonnet from Mirtillo ',
that Mirtillo ' was probably a minor poet of the period ' !
1173. / am the Pope, am Sextus, now the Sixth.] Cf. XI. 705.—
A lunatic might declare that he was Sixtus Sextus, but no pope
has chosen to be that. The last Pope Sixtus was the Fifth (1585-
1590).
1174. Oiat Twelfth Innocent, proclaimed to-day], i.e. on July 12,
1691, when PompUia was close upon eleven years old.
1188. by Saint Joseph.] She selects her saint with a reference
to Caponsacchi's Christian name.
1196-7. Even when I found, etc.] Cf. XI. 852-7.— PpmjSilia
means that people could only ' take in ' the fact oTTine mutual
love of Caponsacchi and herself by supposing it to be illicit love.
1200. It had got half through April.] For the use of ' got ' see
note on IV. 1541.— Easter-Day (April 14) was just past ; cf. VI.
1116, note.
1208. the Archbishop gets him back to Rome.] In one of the love-
letters * Mirtillo ' (writing as Caponsacchi on the evening, apparently,
of the Saturday after Easter) is made to say : * I should like to
know if you can start on Sunday evening, that is, tomorrow evening,
because, if we don't start tomorrow evening, God knows when it
will be possible owing to the scarcity of carriages, for the Bishop
is to leave here with three carriages on Wednesday ' (0. Y.B. xcviii.,
E.L. 105).
1210. Even Caponsacchi.] Caponsacchi speaks in his deposi-
tion of his intention to go to Rome as having been formed, and
mentioned to Conti, irrespectively of Pompilia (O.Y.B. Ixxxviii.,
E.L. 96).
1215-19.] Spinello Aretino (c. 1323-1410) 'painted various
stories of St. Michael the archangel, in the chapel dedicated to that
saint, which is now used as a belfry ', in the church of San Francesco
at Arezzo ; and in his old age he ' undertook to paint certain stories
from the life of St. Michael for the Brotherhood of Sant' Agnolo
in that city ' (Vasari, Lives of the Painters, i. 258, 269). Browning
here refers to a famous fresco in San Francesco in which the arch-
angel combats the dragon ; it is described by Mrs. Jameson in her
Sacred and Legendary Art, pp. 108-9.
Lanes 1218-19 suggest the comparison, so often made in the
poem, of Guido to a dragon from whom Pompilia must be delivered
by a ' soldier-saint ' (see note on III. 1065-6, and below, 1323-4).
li'iTi-36.] Nature is in sympathy with the speaker. — Such
154 THE RING AND THE BOOK
natural pictures as we have here, painted with a few strokes of the
brush, often occur in Browning's earlier poems, not so often in
The Ring and the Book, and still less often in the poet's later
work.
1236. such sky /] See note on 193 above.
1249-51.] See V. 948-51, where Guido tells the judges that his
threats of ' desperate doings ' with sword and pistol were mere
' bugaboo-and-baby-work '.
1253-4.] Cf. 1283-5 below.
1267-8.] The Governor wrote to Paolo (August 2, 1694) that
the Comparini ' had taken all the jewellery from the lady- wife,
which I forced them to give back to her ' (0. Y.B. Ixxxi., E.L. 90).
The statement was confirmed by Guide's evidence in the Process
of Flight (O.Y.B. ciii., E.L. 111).
1274. who had spoke the word wrought this], i.e. the word which
prompted the Governor's threat ; the speaker of the word was of
course Guido.
1277. snicker.] See note on I. 429.
1282-1302.] See note on III. 1015 seqq.
1306. To Guillichini, that's of kin.] See note on II. 934.
1309. Then I tried Conti.] See note on VI. 2024-5.
1319. not quite so bold, etc.] It was probably from Conti that
Pompilia heard that Caponsacchi era huomo risoluto (see her deposi-
tion, O.Y.B. Ixxxi v., E.L. 93); the Second Anonymous Pamphlet
says that Conti advised Pompilia to secure his assistance in her
flight, because his spirit hauerebbe superato ogni cimento (O.Y.B.
ccxiv., E.L. 215). Allusions to his courage or recklessness, his
boldness or audacity, are frequent in the records.
1323. he's your true Saint George.] See note on III. 1065-6.
1326-7. that piece P ZHTFtefc] — A Saint George by Vasari, over
the high altar.
1336. this intends to say] do vuol dire, cela veut dire.
1351. on one leg, like the sentry crane.] 'After [companies of
cranes] fall to the earth, for to rest . . . they ordain watches that
they may rest the more surely, and the watches stand upon one
foot, and each of them holdeth a little stone in the other foot,
high from the earth, that they may be waked by falling of the
stone, if it hap that they sleep ' (Bartholomew Anglicus, De Pro-
prietatibus Berum, pp. 130-31, ed. Steele).
1369. To play with silk, and spurn the horsehair springe.] In
the first edition ' the silk '. Apparently a metaphor from catching
small birds who are to be attracted by bright-coloured silk in which
a horsehair springe is hidden.
1405. a star.] The star is Caponsacchi, who was to lead her
steps to the birthplace of her child (see below, 1448-50 ; cf. Matthew
ii. 9). But Caponsacchi is her ' star ' without this particular
reference ; see above, 1143.
BOOK VIL—POMPILIA 155
111 7. // MMU xii'-k sense as this.] Caponsacchi gives a fuller
at of what she said (VI. 725-880).
1 i:;i. that miracle.} That lie \vislu-s her good, though a stranger,
strange, But that nay whole life is so strange ' (VI. 758-9).
1434. Since a long while . . . I am.} The present tense is
used as in French or Italian.
1435. / am in course, etc.] According to the depositions of both
the parties Pompilia's appeal to Caponsacchi was based on this
ground (O.Y.B. Ixxxv., lxxxviii.-ix., E.L. 93, 96).
1444. The first word, etc.] This is contradicted by Pompilia's
deposition (O.Y.B. Ixxxiv., E.L. 92); she says that on an earlier
occasion she had begged Caponsacchi not to excite Guido's jealousy
by passing the Franceschini palace, and that he had had much to
say in reply. Caponsacchi virtually denies that this happened ;
his statement is not inconsistent with that which Browning here
attributes to Pompilia.
1448-50.] See note on 1405 above.
1456. " mine ".] Refers to * I am yours ', 1447.
1468. Turning now red that was so white.] The same star flashes
now white now red ; whether Caponsacchi says that he will take
her to Rome or counsels her to stay at Arezzo, in either case he
shows the same star-like loyalty. Still, the white flash is the better.
1476-7. how to prepare, etc.] Caponsacchi says in his deposition
(O.Y.B. Ixxxix., E.L. 96): 'I told her that I had secured the
calesse for the following morning early, and that I should await
her at the San Clemente gate '. See the note on VI. 1080-84.
1485. " He hath a devil ".] John vii. 20, viii. 48, etc.
1495. seqq.] The passage was altered to its present form in
the second edition. I cannot understand it as it ran originally : —
I did think, do think, in the thought shall die,
That to have Caponsacchi for my guide,
Ever, etc.
Nothing follows to which ' to have Caponsacchi, etc. ' can be the
subject. As amended the passage is without difficulty.
1504.] In the first edition—
Not this man, — who, from his own soul, re-writes.
1506. votarist.] Browning follows Shakespeare in sometimes
preferring * votarist ' to ' votary ' ; cf. VIII. 863, Christopher
Smart, 11.
1510. sight clearest so.] An absolute construction after Browning's
manner. — The votarist worships by faith and not by sight, but such
worship makes him see more clearly.
1 . . 1 . Introduction to Book V 1 1 .
1 .")^i >-21], ' crept into my cup instead of humming idly and happily
in the spring sunshine outside '.
156 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1527. This one heart.] See 1519 above and 1529 below.
1530. too hard] to be left unmentioned.
1531. must have a name, though I forget.] Cf. VI. 1208, where
Caponsacchi says that he ' forgets the names ' of places at which
incidents occurred during the journey. In the absence of names
we have topographical indications and time-indications, but the
latter sometimes appear to rule out identifications which the former
suggest. Hence probably Sir Frederick Treves, who^e knowledge
of the road is most complete, does not attempt to give his readers
guidance in such a passage as 1532-47.
The ' plain ' of 1532 is the Umbrian plain with which visitors
to Assisi are familiar, and the ' grey place ' of 1538 might be thought
to be Assisi. But the travellers were well past Perugia and in view
of Assisi 'in the determined morning' (VI. 1199-1205), and 'eve
was fading fast' (VII. 1534) when Caponsacchi called Pompilia's
attention to the ' grey place '. Time-indications suggest that the
' grey place ' was not far short of Foligno, which they reached
the same day when ' it was dark ' (VI. 1275).
1553. To try.] In the first edition ' I try '.
1555. Did not he find, etc.] Cf. VI. 1332.
1558. expecting], watching.
1559. the sudden hole, etc.], i.e. the revelation of the joy of mother-
hood.
1579-80.] Cf. VI. 1410-13, 1618-20.
1580-84.] Pompilia deposed in the Process of Flight, a bare
fortnight after the flight itself, that she arrived at Castelnuovo
with Caponsacchi [on the Wednesday morning] ' at dawn ', and
when cross-examined she stuck to her assertion : ' I did in truth
arrive at Castelnuovo at the reddening of dawn' (O.Y.B. Ixxxv.,
Ixxxvi., E.L. 94). It is certain, however, that this was not the
case ; Pompilia's statement, though echoed in the post-Browning
pamphlet (O. Y.B. 220, E.L. 274), was unsupported by other evidence
and was contradicted by three witnesses for the prosecution (0. Y.B.
cxi., E.L. 120) as well as by Caponsacchi himself (O.Y.B. Ixxxix.,
E.L. 97). The time of the arrival was about half -past seven (sub
hora prima noctis cum dimidio) on the Tuesday evening.
Either then Pompilia made a mistake or she was guilty of what
Guide's lawyers, in their print of her deposition, called a mendacium.
If she made a mistake, it was a very strange one ; the incident
which she misrepresented was very recent and was of capital im-
portance, it would (so it seemed) have been accurately fixed in
her memory. If on the other hand she lied, the lie had obviously
a strong motive. These considerations impressed the friendly
lawyers ; they might perhaps have argued that Pompilia would
scarcely have lied where detection of a lie was certain, but they
did not so argue ; they admitted the mendacium, while protesting
that it did not prove her guilty of the graver misconduct alleged.
BOOK VII.—POMPILIA 157
Thus Bottini : * Though Franceses Pompilia in her examination
aimed at concealing a longer stay at the said inn by asserting that
she came there in the dawn, yet no proof of the alleged adultery
can be argued from the said lie, because she told it, perhaps, with
a view to averting more thoroughly the suspicion of violated modesty,
which might have been conceived from a longer delay and a better
opportunity' (O.Y.B. clxxxi., E.L. 187). And Lamparelli, who
was specially concerned to maintain the good name of Pompilia,
says precisely the same (O.Y.B. ecliv., E.L. 250).
Browning was of course dissatisfied with any halting vindication
of his heroine, and some words above -quoted from her deposition
(' at the reddening of dawn ', al rosseggiar delV alba] suggested
to his resourceful mind a means of clearing her memory from the
imputation of falsehood. Worn out, he conceived, by her distresses
and her fatigue, she mistook ' the reddening white ' of sunset for
* the whitening red ' of sunrise :
She mixes both times, morn and eve, in one,
Having lived through a blank of night 'twixt each
Though dead-asleep, unaware as a corpse
(III. 1187-95).
I have argued at the end of Appendix V. that the explanation is
not con vine ing.
1603. silly-sooth.] See note on III. 806.
1606. I remonstrated, Then sank to silence.} See O. Y.B. 1., Ixxx.-
Ixxxi., E.L. 51, 89-90.
1612. They were not persecuted, etc.], i.e. of course, it was not the
case that while they were persecuted I was happy.
1616. Not for my own sake, efa] She fled from Arezzo not for
her own sake, but for her unborn babe's sake ; she resisted Guido
at Castelnuovo neither for her own sake, nor for her unborn babe's
sake, but for Caponsacchi's — at the bidding of God who forbids
us to * bear to see his angels bear ' (1599). Cf. VI. 1540 seqq.
1629. while I told, etc.] See above, 749 seqq., and, for the jest,
817-41.
1640-41.] See II. 1029-48, IX. 929-42, where the impression
which Pompilia's speech and action made upon the bystanders
is described; cf. the Secondary Source, O.Y.B. 211, E.L. 262:
' The young girl was not terrified at the sight of her husband, but
on the contrary she took courage and reproved him for all the
cruelties which had been practised upon her, and by which she had
been constrained to this step. Then Franceschini was thunder-
struck, not knowing how or what to answer '.
1644. / wish nor want], i.e. I neither wish nor want. For this
common idiom cf. e.g. VI. 1715, and Measure for Measure, 3. 2. 85-6 :
7W/n//. Vim will not bail me, then, sir ?
Then, Pompey, nor now.
158 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1649.] Cf. the Pope, X. 705-6.
1695. The night and the tap.] See note on 267 above :
A tap : we started up : you know the rest.
, , 709. / — pardon him ?] On her death-bed, when exhorted by
ner confessor to pardon Guido, Pompilia ' answered with tears in
her eyes, in a quiet and pitiful voice, "May Jesus pardon him as
I have .done with all my heart already "- -" May God pardon him
in heaven, as I pardon him on earth" ' (O.Y.B. Ivii., Iviii., E.L.
57, 59.)
1721-2.] Acts v. 15.
1726-7.] Cf. X. 356, 542. That hate palliates wickedness,
because it is 'a truth ', is a philosopher's paradox which comes
better from the Pope than from the unsophisticated Pompilia.
With Pompilia's excuse for Guido compare some lines in a
passage quoted in another connexion by Lord Morley (Recollections,
i. p. 247) from Bulwer's apology for O'Connell in his 'fine half-
forgotten poem St. Stephen's ' :
Hate in the man, whatever else appear
Fickle or false, was stedfast and sincere.
1731. he nowise made himself.] See XI. 939-42, where Guido
declares that he shall say to God in his defence,
I am one huge and sheer mistake, — whose fault ?-
Not mine at least, who did not make myself !
and he adds :
Someone declares my wife excused me so !
Perhaps she knew what argument to use.
See also XI. 2100-2101.
1737-9.] My polluted flesh, says Pompilia, would have needed
disinfection, had not Guido disinfected it by fire ; for that I owe
him thanks.
1739.] 1 Corinthians iii. 15.
1746. The great life], i.e. Pompilia's, contrasted with ' the little
life ' of 1748.
1755. Outlived.] The ' outlive ' of the first edition must be a
misprint.
1764. born of love not hate.] Contrast XII. 817, where Browning
speaks of Gaetano as ' born of love and hate '.
1793-4.] Do I doubt for a moment that it is only the world
(i.e. deference to its opinion) that keeps him away ? But for the
world, he would have been by my side in Rome in the flesh as he
is in spirit. — Pompilia does not know that Caponsacchi is in fact
in Rome, doing what she describes in 1795-7.
1798. / know where, etc.] Though away at Civita, he is with
BOOK VIL—POMPILIA 159
me here in spirit. We seem to be apart, but that is only 'the
world's insight' (1791-2).
1827.] Matthew xxii. 30, etc.
1841-3.] Caponsacchi has resolved as Pompilia would have
him do ; see VI. 2077.
BOOK VIII.— DOMINUS HYACINTHUS DE
ARCHANGELIS
INTRODUCTION
WE turn the page upon the noble aspiration which ends
the serenely beautiful death-scene of Pompilia, and are
confronted, perhaps affronted, by the expansive joviality
of the rollicking Arcangeli ; between Pompilia's close —
Through such souls alone
God stooping shows sufficient of His light
For us i' the dark to rise by. And I rise —
and Arcangeli's opening —
Ah, my Giacinto, he's no ruddy rogue,
Is not Cinone ? What, to-day we're eight ?
Seven and one's eight, I hope, old curly -pate ! —
the contrast, as M. Berger says, is almost ' brutal ' 1. Not
less abruptly, though the transition is less theatrical,
Bottini's pompous frivolity at the end of Book IX. gives
place to the solemn earnestness with which the Pope
addresses himself, at the beginning of Book X., to his
searching analysis of character and motive.
The speeches of the lawyers are an interlude between
monologues of deep spiritual import, and many critics
have taken exception to them as an unnecessary and
irrelevanbjnterlude, 'beside the mark and adventitious'.
Ofb suggests~~that, having written them, the poet should
have suppressed them, and even Sir Leslie Stephen could
find no sufficient defence for their insertion 2. We shall
1 Robert Browning, p. 216.
2 National Review, December 1902, p. 542.
160
HOOK VIII. HTAOINTHUS />/•: ARCHANGELI8 161
do \\ell. ho\\r\rr. to l»r;ir ill lililld Mr. < 'hrstertonV \\ise
\\;iniiiiLr thai 'it is rxecrdiiinlv <!anLfrrous to say that
ativthiiiL' in I'rou niu.ur is irrelevant or unneoessary '*. It
obvious, to bririn with, that the very frivolity and
prr ingenuity of these pleadings setjn__stEaug
relief jhr Lfrave_ and thoughtful thoroughness of the juono-
loour \\lii, -frfollotts. They are also designed to give a
relief to the reader a relief much needed after the two
eentra! monologues nf the poem and before the Pope's
pronouncement : if they in fact give that relief2, their
insertion is so far justified. Readers often skip or merely
sample Hooks VIII. and IX. for the very insufficient
reason that they have been told that ' they are not poetry '.
In these Hooks, wrote Mr. Stopford Brooke, 'there is wit
in its finest brilliancy, analysis in its keenest veracity';
' but', he adds, 'they are scarcely a poet's work'3. It
i< a mistake, which Mr. Brooke at any rate would have
advised no reader to make, to refuse the relief which the
brilliant wit and the keen analysis offer just because they
offer it in speeehes which according to accepted definitions
are not poetry; that reason for refusing it, if valid, is
equally valid for skipping, say, the Falstaff scenes in
Henry IV. The two speeches are egcejlent reading,, and
i -ven more so now than they were wnen it was usual to
speak slightingly of them. For now, thanks to Professor
llodell. \\r ean at the cost of a shilling compare them with
the actual pleadings upon which they are based; and
the comparison greatly increases our enjoyment of the
port's ama/ino; cleverness. It reveals his fidelity to his
-•mice f! ivoured by his own delirious irony, the brilliancy
of a cajMcajjiri- which is in-ncfalty^true to the principles
which makes the art of caricature legitimate1, the felicity
of his exposure ;>f the feeblenesses which ' the insuperable
160.
- It is true tint they have n<>t Driven It to some readers; thus- Mrs. Woodg,
tin MIL'! i -If ran rnji.y AivatiL'eli. '•(iniiiirinU II if ' L'riirral prartirc ' which, she says, '
'hu Imii! suiipn-M-.i Dorter li..t tinius ' (I'. H. Ward's English Poets, v. p. 8).
i:\"ii 1,-Td Murlry. in his ma-trrly rn!'>u'y "I tin- PIHMII on its flrat appearance,
said that ' \vc iu.i> |>rrha|>- \ a\\ n <>\ cr f he iiitiTiniii'_'lf<l Latin and lavs «t An-aiiKeli'.
— A reader of the Vi-llow Book will oft«-n \aun as lit- n-ads it : hut, wln-n after
iloinu' so he turns to (he po«-ni. he will neither yawn o\er An-aniieli nor suppress
ins.
Mirther in the Inf r<>dii<-ti<>n to P.....U I \.
N
M
162 THE EING AND THE BOOK
learning ' * of the pleaders varnishes over in vain. Nor
should it be forgotten that these speeches were necessary
tn Browning's plan. He determined that whatever his
fancy might add he would give his readers all the facts
and would show how they were mirrored in the minds 6T
the dramatis personce. He tells us, therefore, what they
all had to say about them — the hero, the heroine, the
villain, the man in the street, the man in the market-
place, society in the salon, the Pope in the Vatican ; had
he omitted to tell us what the^ lawyers had to say, his
design would have been imperfectly "fulfilled"; we should
have had a cause celebre with the cause left out. One
' facet-flash of the revolving year ' 2 would be missing ;
one constituent — for the purpose of the poem a most
important constituent — of papal Rome would be ignored ;
the poem would have lost variety and colour. — It was
probably a grudging recognition of all this that made a
critic suggest that it was indeed right to give us a speech
by a lawyer, but that we should have been given only one.
Not a felicitous suggestion ! The monologue-scheme of
the poem means audi alter am partem. If you listen to
Half-Rome, you must listen to The Other Half-Rome ;
if to Caponsacchi, to Guido ; if to Arcangeli, to Bottini.
The inclusion of two law-pleadings may be further justified,
if further justification is needed, by the fact that, though
the two have much resemblance, the poet has most skil-
fully differentiated both the pleadings and the pleaders3.
If, as I have argued, Books VIII. and IX. are excellent
reading and necessary parts of the poem, it would be a
mistake to pass them by ; but a notice warning certain
readers away has been posted by Sir Frederic Kenyon at
the entrance to Book VIII. ' This Book ', he says, ' is
so full of Latin, and the h,ui»ot«: of it turns sn_much
upon Latin phrases, as hardly to repay the trouble of
reading to any one who is not acquainted with that
language ' 4. The notice, like many other warning notices,
should, I think, be disregarded — even by a reader whose
1 O.Y.B. cl., E.L. 154. ' There is no memory of more learned arguments',
says the author of the post-Browning pamphlet (O.Y.B. 223, E.L. 278).
2 I. 1361.
a See the first paragraph of the Introduction to Book IX.
4 So also F. Zampini-Salazar, La Vita e le Opere di Roberto Browniny, etc., p. 65.
I'll/. HYACINTHUS DS ARCHANOELI8 i<>:t
acquaintance \\ith Latin is of the slightest. ll is almost
cruel to penalize him for a gap in his education by heading
him olV. for instance from ArranirHi's delightful asi.
the humour of which, as of much » Ise in the !><»ok, doesj
not turn upon Latin phrases ; and of nearly all the Latin
phrases l.rouiiini* provides, word by word or phrase by
phrase, a more or less literal translation; there is humour,
it is true, in the translation which a Latinless reader may
sometimes mi--, but he will not miss it often. At the
untranslated residuum he will not boggle, any more than
he bogles \\hen he reads
And then- lie caught the younkcr tickling trout —
in /fti</rante — what's the Latin word ? —
which by the way is Tennyson 1 and not Browning. Mean-
while it is hoped that any difficulties of the kind which he
may encounter will be removed by the following notes, many
of which even he, perhaps, will pronounce unnecessary.
NOTES
(X.B. — The numbering of the lines in the notes to this Book, after
;•'/, is that of the secotid and all subsequent editions of the poem,
but not that of the first edition. See ' Lines Added ' in Appendix XL)
1, 2. Giacinto . . . Cinone.] Arcangeli shows the wealth of
Jt.ilian in term illations augmentative, diminutive, etc. by his large
stock of pet names for his son, who is Cinone, ('ino/./.o, Cinoncello,
Cinuolo, Cinicello, Cinino, Ciniccino, Cinucciatolo, Cinoncino,
Cinarello, Cinotto, Giacintino, Cinuccino, Cintino, Cineruggiolo,
Cinuccio, Cinuzzo. 4 1 do not know anything l>etter done and more
amusingly', says Mr. Stopford Brooke (Brou -nhiy, ]>. 40.")), 'than
this man and his household — a paternal creature, full of his boys
and their studies, making us, in his garrulous pleasure, at home
with them. . . . Browning was so fond of this sketch that he dn\\
him and his hoys over again in the epilogue' (see XII. 289-3110).
.Mi\ IJrooke \\oiild have been even more amused, and more at home
with Arcangeli and his offspring, if he had reali/ed that the score
of names is lavished hy the fond Italian father on an 'only son'
(L 114
7. Quies me cum siihjunetivo.] That he realize* that undei
ei-rtain eireumsiaiices the relative <//ii should be followed by a
suhjunetive sliows that he is getting on.
i II'. / M<i.l.
164 THE RING AND THE BOOK
8. chews Corderius.] Maturin Cordier, Calvin's schoolmaster,
wrote excellent Latin school-books — Principia Latine loquendi
scribendique and Colloquia Scholastica — which held the field for
more than two centuries. In Arcangeli's days English as well as
Roman pedagogues 'taught Corderius' (Macaulay, History, c. vi.);
Frank Esmond, Giacinto's less industrious contemporary, loved
marbles and play and hunting ' a good deal better than Corderius '
(Esmond, i. 9) ; in 1736 Dr. Johnson recommended Corderius in his
' Scheme for the Classes of a Grammar School ' ; and even as late
as 1831 'to give an hour every morning to our old friend
Corderius ' was Macaulay's advice to the unscholarly editor of
Boswell (Essays, i. p. 171).
14. Papinianian.] Papinianus was minister under the Emperor
Severus. A writer of the fourth century calls him iuris asylum
et doctrinae legalis thesaurus ; Gibbon (c. vi. ) speaks of ' the superior
reputation as a lawyer which he has preserved through every age
of the Roman jurisprudence'. There are many citations from
him in the records.
36. my Orvieto.] See note on -IV. 206.
39. smell-feasts.] Among passages quoted for this word in
N.E.D. is the following from L'Estrange (A.D. 1692), Fables, 33 :
' The Fly is an intruder and a common smell-feast upon other
people's trenchers '.
43. galligaskin], i.e. ' gaiter '. The etymology of the word is
elaborately explained in the N.E.D.
45. in snug Gondotti.] The Via Condotti connects the Piazza
di Spagna with the Corso.
46. to crush cup.] Cf. Romeo and Juliet, 1. 2. 86, ' Come and
crush a cup of wine '. You crush a cup, as you ' crack' a bottle,
to get at its contents.
49. chambering and wantonness.] Romans xiii. 13.
58. Nutshell and naught.] Says Horace (Flaccus), Sat. 2. 5. 36 :
' A man shall pluck out my eyes before I'll let him rob you of a
nutshell ' (cassa nuce).
65. dumple.] This very rare word is used for its assonance
with ' dimple ' rather, perhaps, than with any regard for its precise
meaning. See note on IX. 1039.
68. Argument the First.] Much of Browning's Book .VIII. is
based on the real Arcangeli's Pamphlet 1 in O.Y.B., but the poet
borrows largely from other pleadings for the accused. Note that
' in this case, which as a matter of course follows the Civil Law,
the Roman practice is followed' (Hodell: 0. Y.B. 323) ; it is opened
by the defence. See however note on I. 165.
74. bachelor Bottinius.] See Introduction to Book IX.
78. Verges on Virgil.] Cf. 473-4. Giacinto is ' long since out
of Caesar', doesn't 'trip in Eutropius ' (XII. 357-8), and 'shall
attack me Terence with the dawn ' (VIII. 137) ; but he mismanages
VIII. /IY.\t'/XTUrx DEARGHANGELlx
I'.
his pivpo-itions (\'III. '.Mi.'1.), and last- year, misled by .srr//».v/ from
scrihi r>. he ni;id«- /*//*x/ the perfect of bibere (VI 1 1. 1772).
,] Matthew vi. U'.i.
<•//«// //<*•;/ /////»/r ////// /'V.sr. | His appointment
(ef. I*:}!' :; below); when tin- |-*i<c prosecuted 1'ompilia and < 'a pon
hi in tin- summer «»f H',',17 In- did not hold it.
HH. iln IVo Milone. | When Milo was prosecuted for the murder
of Clodiu- < 'icero -poke iiielVeet ively ill hifl defence; the famous
extant -peeeh For Milo' was ivritten by the orator when the trial
over. „
I \~>. 1 1 <>rf i mi H *\, the orator, Cicero's famous rival.
117. il>, K-t eet.] The lower rhuivh of San Klaviano at Monte-
tiascone 'contains a Gothic tomb in front of the high-altar, \\ith
the insei ipt ion, on a separate slab in front of it, —
i . \'\<(opter] M MI him) KST UK
K vc Do(wtntw— MI:\S MHI:T\S KST.
The inscription is -aid to have been composed by a valet who pic-
ceded his master \vhen travelling in order to test the wines at the
various stopping-places. On the doors of the hosU'lries \\heie
the best wine was to he had he inscribed the word "Est", and
when he reached the inn at .Monte!ia>cone (" hottle mountain")
he \\-rotc the "Est " three times <>n the door, with the result that
hi- master never got any further ' (Baedeker, ('iiilrul Ilnlif, p. 110).
' In the northern portion of the Roman States the richest and most
.-•d wine is the famous Ksl ' (Story, Rolm <li R<n,ia. )>. 3
l.'!<>. Duxit in uxorom. ) Dugftttzorw* would l>e 'eommonpl i« ••• ' :
IK in <lnxit, which is tint ' Latin due ', is (iambi's phrase ((). Y.li.
Ixi.); Aicangeli's own phrase in Pamphlet 1 (nnfLtcrdl J'onipilice —
•86 In-low) is perhaps still worse Latin.
l:U. T;i-das ju-ralrs jnlit.J Catullus (01. :j(>2) has taedas ceh/.n,,'
1 lea.
1&{. Connubio stabili sibi junxit. ] Virgil (dSn. 1. 73) has
iujnui xiuhili.
i:>7. //• .s-////// nttnck me Terence.] As Dr. Herdoe explains ' Hi-
son shall attack him with Trrrnee' it is perhaps worth while to
point out that k me ' is the so-called 'ethical dative', as 'you'
in 397,
141-8.] o.Y.l',. ix., E.L. 11.
I \-. \iluis |, i.e. owls, as Browning says. Cf. Lucan,
ft, :;:M; l»il,<>ne sinistro ; Ovid, Mil. 5,
\i-nturi mintia lin-tu-.
|L'M.I\ ii- Iniliii. dirimi inortalihus mncii
. l-''irinncci.\ This eminent Roman juri-t ( v. i». I ."• 1! h)|.'{)is
!!••!! eited by the la\S\V|.- m the Old Ve||,,\\ |;.»,k. I I
appointed by I'.ipe Clement VI 11. to defend Shellex
1G6 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Cenci when put on trial in 1599 for the murder of her father, and
he defended her on the ground on which Guido was defended,
that of outraged honour : there is an interesting allusion to the
case of Beatrice in O.Y.B. cii. (E.L. 110). Sir Walter Scott makes
a Scottish lawyer appeal to the authority of ' the illustrious
Farinaceus ' in his defence of Effie Deans in 1736 (The, Heart of
Midlothian, c. xxiii.). See further on Farinacci below, 328 note.
157. when Bottini brings his charge.] O.Y.B. Ixxi., E.L. 77-8.
On this letter see Appendix IV.
165. have I thee on hip?] Cf. Merchant of Venice, I. 3. 47,
4. 1. 334. ' To have a person on the hip ' ( = ' to have the advantage
over him ' ) is commonly explained as a wrestler's phrase, but Dr.
Johnson took it to be a metaphor from hunting, the hip of a deer
being the part often attacked by dogs ; his interpretation is strongly
supported by Othello, 2. 1. 311-14.
166. break TuU-ifs pate], i.e. break the rules of Ciceronian Latin.
' Break Priscian's head ' is the usual phrase ; see note on VI. 389.
168-72.] O.Y.B. clxxii., E.L. 179-80. Arcangeli is made to
foretell the precise terms which Bottini will employ.
173. Either.] The corresponding ' or ' is forgotten.
175-8.] From O.Y.B. civ., E.L. 112.
190. apices], the forms of the letters ; Arcangeli thinks the
word choicer than Bottini' s elementa.
210. sclopulo.] A barbarous word, said to be coined from the
Italian schioppo. — The Latin used in this passage (194-210) is
brought together from various passages in the pleadings ; it is
not always from the same hand.
212. / had thought to own, etc.] The real Arcangeli does in fact
own to the travelling-sword only (O.Y.B. cxiv.. E.L. 122); see
Bottini's answer, O.Y.B. clxxxiii., E.L. 188. — Arcangeli's 'gird
at the Fisc's Latin ' (216) is Browning's invention.
219. Tommati.] See note on IV. 1308-16.
226.] Cf. X. 679.
248-9.] Dr. Johnson said of Foote the comedian : ' One
species of wit he has in an eminent degree, that of escape. You
drive him into a corner with both hands ; but he's gone, Sir, when
you think you have got him — like an animal that jumps over your
head' (Boswell's Life of Johnson, Everyman's Library, ii. p. 49).
253. tenon], i.e. fix securely.
257-8.] Browning seems to forget for the moment that he has
spoken of Arcangeli's speech as the first pleading in the trial.
270. Oh I was young, etc.], i.e. I acquired the trick of fence when
young (and still have it).
274. Blunderbore.] It will be remembered (or will have been
forgotten) that Blunderbore was one of the victims of the resource-
fulness of Jack the Giant-killer.
276. Pedant and prig.] Browning represents both Arcangeli
VI 11. HYACINTHU8DEARCHANGELIS 167
md P.otiini as jealous of Spreti. ' iiiannikin and dandiprat '. " n
im-h of olevernett', M I'.oMini is madi- to. -a II him (XI I. 137 -S). Spn-ti
iMiued much cn-dit in tin- mtmlrr-t rial ; • other- pleadings', \vi
the author of the Secondary Source, • were written in the defence
with much erudition, .•-pe.-ially by the Advocate of the Poor, who
i c -itain Monsiunor Spreti' (O.Y.It. '2\'.\. I-'..L. 2<>.~>). Browning
make- Arean-j' li >peak of him as his junior professionally as well
as in a;_rc, luit Hodell gives reason for thinking that this is a mistake,
and that the dilTerence bet \\ecn the Advocate and the Procurator
of the Poor was not one of rank. Tin- 'advocate', according to
ithoiity whom he quotes ((). }'.!>. 323), was specially concerned
witji tlie law, the ' procurator1 with the facts of a case *.
ft.] The real Arean«jeli's tirst pleading was written in
i ary (0. Y.H. \.. K.L. 12), but Browning puts the composition
of that of his Arcanirdi a lit tie later, for when it was written Carnival
already in full swing — the city was already ' a-swarm with
ngen to amuse'. Carnival -time was, in strictness at any
rate, the ten days before Ash Wednesday, and Asli Wednesday
in 1'' ! '--bruary 12. as is rightly implied in XI. .~>S2-4 ; but
in XII. :'»! lM-l)ruary 22 is wrongly spoken of as 'at our end of
( 'arnival ',
'51 1. 1 On (juestions relating to the use of torture in the capo
\pj>endi\ VI.
328. Fnrinncri. in;/ flumnln-l erst.] We have seen (note on 148)
that Farinacci died in 1613. Arcan^eli cannot, therefore, have
The ((notation which follows i< not to be found
in the Old Yellow Book; Profe—or Hodell has shown that P>rowning
referred to Karinaccrs Varice Qtifvstiones and took it from there
./;. :::;:.) : see Ap|.endi\ VI.
:;il. \\\\\. nmrltirs . . . ' :. ntfirli/rfs and rnnfcsvnres in
Karin
349-54.] See <). }'./;. oxxv., 213; E.L. 133, 265.
i>m\. i.e. protest, like Latin reclnimirr and French
See the protot of Spreti ill O.Y.B. CXXV., E.L. \'.\'.\.
3f>8. the poet's ivord reversed.] Virgil, Georg. 2. 458 :
O fortiniiito. nirniiiin. sua si !><>na noriiit.
olas !
('Ah, too fortunate the husbandmen, //' they but knew their
happiness ! ')
TC},.\ Cf. IV. US, VII. 17.
^0. | On this audacious theory, which Areanircli say- that
he miglit have advanced but for (luido's 'full confession', see the
1 Tlii-i cmiM hanlly »K> infrrn-1 fnun tin- « ..nt.-nl- .if tin- pl.-i.liiiL"* in thr Vi-llnw
Honk ; Imt it^ tf.-hnii nl I frmn the tile-titles
\\liirli ile-iTilie the pleading- ..! the \ .|\ . ..-;it i- d| the l'.«ir a- ' Meni..riaU of Law*
.iii.l th.i-<- Hi hi- eiillea'_'iie .1- ' Memorial- ••! l-'ai I aid U»W*.
168 THE RING AND THE BOOK
scornful comment of Caponsacchi in VI. 1625-7. Guido himself
is made to say (in XI. 1707 seqq.) that he would have thrown the
guilt on Caponsacchi in another way, if only Pompilia had been
' found dead, as I left her dead '.
377.] John viii. 11.
382.] Matthew xx. 15.
385-97.] It would be unfair, says Arcangeli, to call upon a
great alchemist to transmute brass into gold before your eyes ;
his demonstration might fail, by no fault of his own, through the
faultiness of his apparatus ('a faulty pipkin's crack'). Let him
prove his greatness in another way : by demonstrating that what
he has changed the brass into is really gold.
If I had tried to transmute into gold before the Court, i.e. had
tried to prove that Guido did not go to the villa to commit murder,
but to pardon and forgive, I too should have failed through ' a
faulty pipkin's crack', i.e. the disconcerting collapse of Guido
and his associates, their ' full confession '. Let me prove my
greatness otherwise : by showing that Guide's confessed deed was
really golden, i.e. that it was no crime but righteously done, because
done honoris causa (see line 425).
Browning originally wrote ' transmutable ' in line 387, but in
the second edition changed it to, ' transmuted ', which makes his
meaning clearer.
407-19.] I don't know the source of all this.
407. Bear pain no better /] Bottini is made to express the same
surprise in XII. 414-16. See Appendix VI.
424-5. Vindicatio . . . Honoris causa.] Even apart from their
confessions the evidence against Guido and his associates was
abundant and conclusive. Their lawyers therefore admitted the
killing (with an occasional reservation as to Guido, not to be taken
seriously — see O.Y.B. xxii., E.L. 22), but contended that their
clients should be absolved from guilt, or at least could claim some
relaxation of the murder-penalty, on the ground that their motive
had been the vindication of Guide's honour. Whether vindication
of honour, even if long postponed, was a good defence in law,
whether Guide's honour had in fact 'had injury', whether, if so,
its vindication was the motive of the killing, are the principal
questions in dispute.
428. misprision of the fact], i.e. a mistaken belief that such injury
was a fact. 'Misprision' is used in the same sense in X. 1271 ;
the legal sense of the word in ' misprision of treason ' is different.
442-55.] From Arcangeli's Pamphlet 1 (O.Y.B. xi., E.L. 13).
He makes the same point again in Pamphlet 8 (O.Y.B. cxii., E.L.
120) ; cf. Spreti in Pamphlet 2 (O.Y.B. xxvi., E.L. 27).
472.] Virgil, Mn. 1. 278-9 (he is speaking of the Roman Empire).
A quotation from Virgil is adroitly introduced to prepare for the
following aside.
\ III.
iiMiir!| From Horace, ()<l. I. :;± 1, ' I am called ii| .m
ITt;sj().| That injured honour requires vindication IB argued
.it length (I) "on the inert- natural ground' that >ue|i vindication
is claimed by ' liird and beast and 'the very insects' (480-542);
('2) 'on Heathen uruunds' it is claimed by pagan jurisprudence
• '-"!>); (3) mi the authority of 'Apostle and EvangeliM and
Saint \ and even of 'our Lord Himself, made all of mansuctude '
: (4) on that 'of Papal doctrine in our i>la/e of day'
06 \ 1-21) ; and finally (f>) on that of ' Civility ', ' the acknowledged
ttd wont' (731-846).
I^L' 7. ' unodorufl (A.I». 4 so :>::, ?) held high office under
Tin -odiiri, •. ih« first Gothic king of Italy, and under his grandson
and successor. He has handed down to us * in a shape diluted with
the platitudes and false rhetoric of a scholar of the decadence ' many
of the maxims of Theodoric, which, in their original form, '\\<i<
assuredly full of manly sense and vigour' (Hodgkin, Theodoric, p. 168).
The ('assiodori/ed 'apt sentence ' of Theodorie here noticed
quoted in the pleadings not by Arcangeli but by Spreti, who
gives it in full (O. >'./.'. \\\ ii.-viii., E.L. 28-9; cf. O.Y.B. cxxxvii..
E.L. 142-3).
489. when Aristotle doubts.] De Generalione Animal i inn. 3. 10.
l'.'_. <-»i>i/iit<j Kimj Salomon.] The only passage, so far as I
am aware, in the writings attributed to Solomon where the l>ee is
'taken as instance" is in the Septuagint version of Proverbs, e. vi.,
where it is an instance of wise industry; the passage is not in tin-
Hebrew. After sending the sluggard to the ant the Septuagint
sends him to the bee: ?) iropfi'OrjTi irpbs rrjv fd\t<raai', KO.I fj.ddf ws tpyaTit
(ffri .... naiirep o&ffa rfi /Ju>/i?7 dffffcvrjs rrjv ao<piai> Ti/j.r)ffa.ffa irporjx^7?-
496-501.] In the Scaligerana of Joseph Justus Sealiger (1540-
1609) the expression castcB apes is explained thus : Les abeilles
sentent \/ mi homme a couche avec sa femnif, inthibittiblement le
lendemain s'il approche il eat picque (Hodell, O.Y.B. 324).
497. castae apes.J Bartholomew Anglicus (c. 1267) says of
They are not medlied with service of Venus, nother resolved \\ith
lechery, nother bruised with sorrow of birth of children (l>< 1'ro-
prietotibw Rerum, p. 122, ed. Steele) ; he follows Virgil (Georg.
4. 197-!)) very closely.
•"'<>- 7. J 1 cannot identify the passage quoted either in its
original Creek or as 'Latinized'. If, as Dr. Berdoe supposes,
'the Idyllist ' mentioned is Theocritus, Arcangeli's Latini/er mu>t
ha\e mi>inter|n-eted the 9%«r dxodw of Idyl 27. 57.
-I I La * i note on I. 232.
IL] l-'i.-m Spreti'fl Pamphlet '.» (O.V.tt. exx\\ii.. /•:./.. II-' .
I >• mijtth- 1, in the unusual sense of 'act unworthily of his
rank and dignity ' ; cf. ( ijmMine, 2. 1. 17 •."•:_'. The Kn-iieh <l<'roger
often has this meaning.
170 THE RING AND THE BOOK
554-7.] Luke xxiii. 31. Arcangeli inverts the meaning of the
passage to which he refers.
559. whom our devils served for gods.] Cf. e.g. 1 Corinthians x.
20, ' the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils,
and not to God : and I would not that ye should have fellowship
with devils '. Gibbon writes in his 15th chapter : ' It was imagined
that they [the rebellious spirits who had been degraded from the
rank of angels] had distributed among themselves the most im-
portant characters of polytheism, one daemon assuming the name
and attributes of Jupiter, another of ^Esculapius, a third of Venus,
and a fourth perhaps of Apollo '.
570-74.] Cf. I. 221 seqq. ; O.Y.B. x., E.L. 12 : ' This had been
ratified in the laws of the Athenians and of Solon, that is to say,
of the wisest legislators, and, what is more, in that rude age of
Romulus, law 15. ... and similarly in the laws of the 12 Tables '.
There is an obvious slip over ' that fifteenth '. In the same con-
nection reference is made to ' the Julian ; the Cornelian ; Gracchus'
Law'.
The Lex Julia de adulteriis (18 B.C.) enleva au mari le droit qu'il
avail toujours eu jusque-la . . . de tuer safemme surprise en flagrant
delit d'adultere.
580-683.] The argument here is drawn mostly from the First
Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cl.-cli., E.L. 153-5).
597-600.] From Spreti, O.Y.B. cxxxvii., E.L. 142.
615.] Proverbs vi. 32-5.
639. first in reputation now.] For Carlo Maratta see note on
III. 58-9.
640. Samson in the sacred text.] See Judges xiii. 5, xvi. 21-30.
An effective retort to the argument here advanced is made in the
Second Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. ccxxiv.-v., E.L. 226).
663-7.] Referring to this argument, here taken word for word
from the First Anonymous Pamphlet, the Pope pertinently asks
' when, where ' did Christ say Honorem meum nemini trado ? (X.
1982-7). The words are attributed (with 'glory' for 'honour')
by Isaiah (xlii. 8) to Jehovah, and their irrelevance to the lawyer's
purpose is sufficiently shown by their context : ' My glory will I
not give to another, neither my praise to graven images '.
673-8.] The reference is to 1 Corinthians ix. 15. ' My glory '
should be ' my boast ' (TO /cai'x?7/ud /JLOV), and St. Paul's boast is
that while preaching the gospel he has not lived ' of the gospel ' !
680.] The comment of St. Ambrose, which Arcangeli ' can't
quite recollect ', is quoted by Spreti (O.Y.B. cxxxvii., E.L. 142):
' For who does not regard a bodily defect or a loss of patrimony
more lightly than a defect of soul and a loss of reputation ? (lib. 3. offic.
cap. 4) '.
691. soon to bask, etc.] Guide's backers look to the Pope to
support their ' Christian dogma '.
VIII. BYACINTBU8 DB A&CHANQELIS 171
'7.] This ingeniously had argument was actually used by
Arcan<reli «). }'./;. xiii.. /•;./..' I \).
7:M. ihiw nl<l imjmte Jews.] Numbers xi. 5, 6 : ' \\ '«• remember
tin- lish, which we did cat in K<rypt freely; the cucumbers, and
the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the jjarlick : But
nou our soul is dried away: then* is nothing at all, beside this
manna, before our eyes'. Note how the reference prepares the
for the aside which follows; cf. above, 472.
7:Y,ti-7.| .lames iii. 15.
7IL' \.\ See note on ||. | IT.'!.
7 KM. manners . . . //////.T the num.} William of Wykeham's
motto.
T:.± | Psalm exix. 9.
73.] I'Yom Sjireti. O.Y.H. \\.\i., E.L. 32; cf. Arcanireli.
O.7.B. xx.. /•:./,. 21.
764-73. See also the First Anonymous Pamphlet, O.Y.Il.
cxlviii., E.L. 151. The loss of family honour, proved by the
' cachinnation ' ('Every one's face had become a mirror in which
was reflected the image of the ridicule of his house '), so distressed
the Abate that he very often 'felt impelled to throw himself into
the liver and decided to leave Rome. Cf. V. 1366-73.
772. sound-hearlcil. \ ( 'ordalis = wise, not sound-hearted.
783-801.] Again from Spreti (O.Y.B. cxxxiii., E.L. 139).
786. cornuti.] ' Cornuto ' became practically an English syno-
nym (' honied ') for a cuckold in days when such words were more
freely used. Cf. e.g. Merry Wives of Windsor, '.\. f>. 71.
T'.M. l» run <nr(ii/.\ A mistranslation of dfln/nif, which means
'he tt d' (cf. 1299 Ix'low), i.e. committed murder.
812. J^eonardus.] O.Y.H. xxviii.. « \\xiv.. H.L. L".», IK). The
\\ i- decided l>y \\w 'Sacred Royal Court' of the kingdom of
Naples (the two Sicilies) in 1G17.
817. with commodity], i.e. at an advantage. Compare the use
of 'commodity' throughout the Bastard's famous speech in /;///»/
John (2. 1. 561-98) ending with—
>in« -c kiu^s break faith upon commodity,
Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thcc.
MM. Another fr net in HI* *.r<i ,„/>!?.} O.Y.B. ccxxxiv., E.L. 1 J<>.
' l-'nietiii»us ' is a favourite Callieism of lirownin^'s ; c{.()l<l
in rinr>m->. \\\i\.. the fructuous and sterile eras'; J'n,//,
'I'll' .I// //»/i», Vciiin-. line 43.
845-(>. | Isaiah viii. L*(». 'to the law and to the testimony'.
/*/// »/•////. dr. | Cuido's lawyers are of course eon
to include the killing of Pietro and Violantc \i\ their defence on
the plea of injured honour.
••nlnri*l.\ See Dote on VII. | :,( Hi.
875-81.] O.Y.I;. MX. xx. ; /•;./.. L»H
172 THE RING AND THE BOOK
896.] Psalm Ixix. 9, John ii. 17.
898-900.] In the Iliad (4. 35) Zeus tells Hera— not in ' joke ',
but in sore anger (^ey ox^o-as) — that, if she were to eat up Priam
raw with his sons and all the Trojans, perhaps then she might
appease her wrath. A scholiast on Persius (1. 4) quotes from a
lost translation of the Iliad by a certain Labeo :
Crudum manduces Priamum Priamique pisinnos.
906-61.] From Arcangeli's Pamphlet 1 (O.Y.B. xxii., E.L. 22).
946. undequaque], ' entirely ', cf. 1689 below.
948. In Valerius.} Valerius Maximus (c. A.D. 25) in his De
Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus (viii. c. 1 ad fin.). His comment
is : consideranter et mansuete populi Romani magistratus, sed Areo-
pagitae non minus sapienter.
963. He mismanages.] In the earlier editions ' How he manages ',
which hardly suits what follows.
965-71.] Browning was thinking of his own experience. His
father ' taught his son from babyhood the words he wished him
to remember by joining them to a grotesque rhyme ; the child
learnt all his Latin declensions in this way ' (Mrs. Orr, Life, p. 12).
973. just as Ovid found.] See note on II. 1221.
986. the Brazen Head.] Roger Bacon (1214-94) was believed
to have made a brazen head capable of speech. There were different
versions of the legend ; according to that followed by Browning
here and by Byron in Don Juan, I., stanza 217 —
Now, like Friar Bacon's brazen head, I've spoken,
' Time is, Time was, Time's past ' — ,
the head, after uttering the words quoted, the time for consulting
it having been neglected, tumbled from its stand and was shattered.
994. go softly all their days.] See note on II. 457.
999-1003.] For the' argument see note on IV. 1528-40.
1003. ex incontinent!.] The expression incontinenti (not ex
incontinenti) is often used in the pleadings (e.g. in O.Y.B. xiv.,
xv.), in contrast to ex intervallo, of killing a wife 'incontinently',
at the moment when discovered in misconduct. Browning misuses
it here.
1013.] In O.Y.B. cxcvi. (E.L. 200) Bottini quotes Farinacci
as saying that ' a father has the greatest power over a son and by
ancient law could even kill him ' ; and proceeds to justify the
extent of the patria potestas in the words quoted in 1017 seqq. Cf.
O.Y.B. Ixxvii., E.L. 84.
1032. here we brush Bottini's breast], i.e. come to close quarters
with him.
1040. In plcnitudine intellectus.] The phrase is Spreti's, but he
uses it otherwise ; the lawyers in O. Y.B. are polite.
HOOK VIII. H7ACINTHU SDK ARCH ANQBLIB IT:;
|I>II-(»S. j The argument i> aiiain from ArOtttlgeli'fl Pamphlet I
(<>. Y.I;. .\\.-\MK, /•;./.. ir>-is).
I'Ms. I The full stop p laced at the end of this line in the later
editions should of com>e In- changed to a comma.
In;,!-.-,. | p|'|i,. MHjree of the saying of the 'gaby' (originally
' ni-tic ') is unknown to me.
1064. the House of Converlites. \ Sec note on II. 1198.
1071-90.J The explanation of Guide's inactivity from December
-I to January 2 is of Browning's invention; compare what Guido
is made to say in V. 1581 seqq. The date of his arrival in lion
fixed by the Secondary Source (O.Y.B. 211, E.L. 263).
l'»s:>. (fie Sistine], i.e. the Sistine chapel in the Vatican, founded
ipe Sixtus IV. (1471-84).
1084. (Jamerlengo] = chamberlain. The Cardinal Camerlengo
ranks highest among the cardinals. An incident mentioned in
X. 2060 (note) shows his importance on the death of a 1'ope.
1085-6. the Hat And Rapier], known as lo stocco e il berretto
(cap with vizor).
1108-1455.] The question of the presence or absence of aggravat-
ing circumstances (ctfcunutantiat dyyravantes, circumstantue prce se
'iles rigorosam pcenam, sometimes called <{ii(ilitfites) in Guide's
erimes is introduced in Arcangeli's first pleading and much disci i
throughout the trial. These * qualities ' are somewhat variously
stated in different places (hence Browning speaks of ' five qualities
of bad' in I. 169, but of six here). Arcangeli here deals with (1)
the gathering of armed men (1119-56) ; (2) the alleged use of pro-
hibited arms (1157-1249); (3) the place chosen for the murders
•0-1313); (4) the alleged use of disguise (1314-38); (5) the
contention that Pompilia was under the control of the judge (1339-
M71); (6) the treason (Icesa majestas) alleged to be involved in
the crime (1371-1455).
1122. Coadunatio armatorum. | For this, the usual phrase in
the re.-ords, conventicula is sometimes substituted (e.g. in O.Y.H.
xliv., E.L. 43).
M-M-5.] Some of the pamphlets are addressed to the 'Lord
rnor ', but Browning had no warrant for supposing that the
(lovenior of the moment was the Governor who -is said (O.Y.B.
l.\i\.. /•,'./,. t»S) to liave made laws against coadunalio armatorimi.
1141-2.] The Latin words quoted are used by Spreti in another
connection ' ((). }'./;. \\xii.. /•;./,. 32).
1146-52. | The illustration is used by Arcangeli in Pamphlet S
(O.Y.B. e\v. /•;./.. li'S): 'If, wishing 'to commit a theft, a man
to climb over the walls of a city, though he might ha\e com-
mitted the former eiime without climbing the walls (which Karinacci
in his (Jurxliniis shows to be a MTV >crioiis otVence). e\cn >o i
only |iunished by a Dimple penalty, namely that for theft, M tx
the thing principally in liis mind .
174 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1164. Pope Alexander] the Eighth (1689-91), the immediate
predecessor of Innocent XII. For his ' constitution ' see e.g.
O.Y.B. Ixv., E.L. 69.
1166. tines.] A stag's antlers during the second year are un-
branched stems, to which in each successive year a tine or branch
is added. Cf. ' the stag's head with its grand twelve tines ' in
Browning's Donald.
1170. the Genoese blade.] See note on II. 147.
1180. Means to an end.] See O.Y.B. xlvi., E.L. 45: 'the
carrying of arms is not prohibited propter se, but because of the
pernicious end which follows it or may follow it '. See also below,
1322, and IX. 521 seqq.
1182. Furor ministrat anna.] Virgil, Mn. 1. 150 furor arma
ministrat ; quoted in this connection in the First Anonymous
Pamphlet, O. Y.B. cl., E.L. 154.
1183-4. Unde mi lapidem . . . Unde sagittas ?] Horace, Sat.
2. 7. 116 ; not quoted in the records. — Why does Browning write
mi for mihi, which is necessary to the scansion in Horace, and
would not make his own line more unmetrical ?
1188. that], i.e. that we should have incurred your blame.
1192. An unimportant sword and blunderbuss.] See above,
212-15, note.
1193. pollent in potency.] Arcangeli says in Pamphlet 1 (O.Y.B.
xvii., E.L. 17) : ' The lover is powerful in strength (viribus pollens),
never timid, and too prompt to resist, seeing that in the words
of a witness in the Process of Flight he is called Scapezzacollo
[i.e. cut-throat] '.
1194. amasius.] Plautus's word for ' a lover ', perpetually used
in the records.
1200-1201. plus non vitiat, etc.] I cannot identify the quota-
tion ; ' a medieval philosophic term ', says Hodell (O. Y.B. 334).
1218-20.] Not quite consistent with what follows. According
to* the passage quoted from Spreti (see next note) Guido gave no
orders to his associates about Pietro and Violante.
1221-5.] From Spreti, O.Y.B. xxxv., E.L. 34; cf. Arcangeli,
O.Y.B. xxii., E.L. 22.
1223. dicam.] A misreading ; 0. Y.B. has dictam, agreeing
with uxorem, ' his said wife '. Browning substitutes dicam as
an apology for the barbarous sfrisiandmn.
1228. Panicollus.] A mistake ; should be ' Panimollus ', a
jurist often cited in the records.
1235. in the Horatian satire.] Sat. 1. 2. 46.
1240-43.] O.Y.B. xxix., E.L. 29.
1248. Objectum funditus corruit], ' the objection falls to the
ground completely ' (' flat you fall ') : O.Y.B. xviii., E.L. 19.
1266-7.] O.Y.B. cxv., E.L. 123, and elsewhere. In one of
the ' Summaries ' the Fisc produced a mandatum procurce (lawyers'
\ 111. HTACINTHU8 DEARCHANOSLIS L75
Latin for prOCtffotomU, • proxy ') made l»y (Juido to Paolo (O. )'./>'.
civil., /../.. \(\'2). There was >ome di.-pute during tlic trial as to
the extent of this iiiiii/ilnltnu.
. ('niniinnlinnfs. | Cf. i:{27, when- r,in,n,,Hl'uix 'with more
See note on 817 above.
-!»:>.| From Arcangeli's Pamphlet 1 (0. Y.B. xviii., #.L. 19).
, i:;ol.] From Sprcti, 6>. >'./>'. \\.\i\., E.L. 33.
!-:\ ju^ta via (lelin(|iiens. | H.-P-, as in 1223, Browning
misquotes ; via should be ira, and the meaning is ' one who trans-
9 from just anger '.
Matthew 'viii. 20.
i:: 1 2-13.] There are many legends of the award of divine
commendation to St. Thomas Aquinas for his writings, and it may
In- presumed that he conceived himself divinely bidden on some
occasion to * arise and write ', but 1 have not discovered any refer-
ence to such an occasion.
1315. that we changed our garb.] See note on V. 1565, ' Donned
the first rough and rural garb I found '.
1321. / round thee in the ears.] See note on IV. 600.
1331.] Acts ix. 25, 2 Corinthians xi. .'J2-3.
1 :: :;.">-6.] 2 Timothy iv. 13. The ' many ' who held this opinion
forgot that the apostle asked for the cloak he left at Troas some
thirty years after his escape from Damascus.
1352. going to see those bodies.] Arcangeli took his eight-year-
old to see the grisly sight in San Lorenzo church just as he sent
him afterwards to see the executions in the Piazza del Popolo
(XII. 333-7).
1355. Tominati.] See note on IV. 1308-16.
1 .17! I.] For the 'three pending suits' see IV. 1305-27, note.
In two of the three Guido was the defendant; Arcangeli is there -
wrong in saying that the three suits were ' promoted by our-
I' the main'.
1385. to barbacue.] ' Barbacue your whole hogs to your palate ',
says Charles Lamb in his Dissertation upon Boast Pig. The noun
• liar!»aeue is said to be used in the West Indies of a hog roasted
whole.
I :;'.t7. 1 Malaehi iv. 2.
1398-1426.] For the appeal on Guide's behalf to the Pope,
>te on III. 1471-7.
1399. Ihr tanhi pack], i.e. the lawyers and the judges.
1400. Bell.] Cf. Spenser, Pastoral Eclogue, line 21 :
Sceiuetli th'-ir lraclrr> hell tlirir l>leatiii'_r time.-
In dnlcfiill sound.
1 1'i-J. / ' iiixoHoux. \ Coined. 1 think. l>\ l>mu niiiL' : it occurs
MI in his litnrii : ' prai-e forth shall How I'liisonous in acclaim \
might have been, but apparently was not, a Latin word.
176 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1404.] O.Y.B. cxlvii., vna particolare Congregazione.
1417-22.] 2 Samuel xii. 26-9. Joab had laid siege to Kabbah,
and when its fall was imminent he sent messengers to David urging
him ' to encamp against the city, and take it ; lest I take the city
and it be called after my name '.
1429.] Matthew viii. 14 and elsewhere. (Arcangeli should
have said ' mother ', not ' sister '.)
1432-3.] John ix. 21.
1453. minim], ' smallest part' ; cf. XI. 1107, Red Cotton Night-
Cap Country, IV. The word is now rarely used except in its technical
sense in music.
1460. the intellectuals], i.e. the mental powers. The expression
occurs twice in the Essays of Mia ; cf. ' his visuals ' (power of seeing)
in Jochanan Hakkadosh. For the Pope's (supposed) failing intellect
see XII. 57.
1469. all the times prescribed by Holy Writ.] Ecclesiastes iii. 1-8.
1470-71.] Ecclesiastes xi. 1.
1472-1520.] Arcangeli sums up his long answer to the allegation
of aggravating circumstances by the prosecution (1108-1455),
and in doing so takes note of one such circumstance with which
he has not dealt, viz. that Guido's accomplices were hired and
maintained at his cost for many days (1500-20; O.Y.B. ccvii.,
E.L. 209). In the records both Arcangeli and Spreti deal with
the point (0. Y.B. xvi., xxxiii. ; E.L. 17, 32).
1475. all and some.] The phrase is as old as Chaucer's time
(Pardoner's Preamble :
First, I pronounce whennes that I come,
And thanne my bulles she we I, alle and some),
and is very frequently used by Spenser as by Browning. (Cf. X.
1239, Bordello, I. 206, ' His crowd of feudatories, all and some '.)
1483. we may with safety do], i.e. not ' we may safely do ', but
' we may do with such precautions as will ensure our safety '.
See e.g. O.Y.B. xvi., E.L. 17 : 'the taking of companions for the
murders [is not an aggravating circumstance] because he could
lawfully use the help of companions so as to be able to consult
more safely for his honour by his wife's death '.
1485. Put case.] See note on V. 748.
1500-19.] The argument is Browning's own.
1509-12.] The story of Tobit, like that of Judith (IX. 569),
was made familiar to Italians by works of art, in which Raphael
and the dog figure.
1519. Haud passibus sequis.] Virgil, Mn. 2. 724 (with non for
haud, which would spoil the metre ; cf. note on IX. 1333-5).
1529. the poor man's advocate.] See note on I. 178-9.
1530-37.] From Spreti, O.Y.B. cxxxix., E.L. 144.
1542. Castrensis, Butringarius.] Paolo de Castro and Giacomo
VIII. HTACINTHUS DEARCHANGBLIS 177
I'.iit i -i«_';n i. jurists of the l.~>th and Ittli centuries rop. d i\ < ly.
The ' ret'iilireni 0800 ' heie mentioned is cited by Spreti, O.Y.B.
\\\\ i.. A'. /
I.V)!>. tenenda cordi|, 'to !)(• kept in mind ' ; ' Jiearl should hold'
is a mistranslation (XT note on 772 above).
i:,tin7<i. | From Areangeli, Pamphlet 15 (O.Y.ll. xli.-xliv., /-;./..
1 1 -.">), where the opinion of Castrcnsis on the technical point here
rai-<-d i- cited \\ith Mrong approval.
I.T7'.»-S3.| These |)oints are discussed l>v Spreti, ().}'.!>. \\\i\.,
/../. 37. Bee note on \. «.M;I.
I.V.Mi-Hiol.l This incident is mentioned in the Secondary
Source only ((). Y.ll. '1\\\. W.L. iMi:,) : ' |they conf.-ssed under torture]
that they had planned to kill Fianceschini himself and to rob him
of his money, because he had not kept his word to pay them as
soon as they left Uome '. See the comments of the Pope (X. 858-
868, ;».-.L>-t>n and of Guido (XI. mf>-49).
1602.J This fact is not mentioned by the Fisc or any one else
in the records : see last note.
1603-31.) This ama/ing proof of 'their rectitude, (iuido's
integrity ' i- (jiiite beyond the inventiveness of the real Arcangeli.
//, Or id's phrase.] Met. 1, 138-40:
it inn est in viscera terra-,
Oii.iM|iic iccnmliderat Styuiisipic adnmx-crat uml»ri>
KtToiliimtur opc<. irritaiiieiita inaloriini.
)- 1736.] The 'peroration' is that of Arcangeli's Pamphlet
S (O.Y.Ii. c.xxii.-iii., K.L. 130).
168-1. I. ii m I la's self.] Cf. IX. 180.
1689. unde(jiiai|iie|. 'entirely', as in 946 above.
I71!». / round you in the ears.] See 132I above, and note on
IV. 600.
17.". t. MitHHiiiu.] See XI. 180-258 for an elaborate description
of this Italian precursor of the guillotine.
I7:'.s IL*. | The famous Leviathan -passage in .!ol» (c. xli.) is
ii-. (1 three times in Tin- lil /»/ anil Hie Book : (1) by Cuido in \'. l."HiJ.."i.
where the ciiniiiiiir of the Comparing the lie- of Violante. and tin-
bold carriage of Caponsaeehi are repicsented as a threefold cord
\\hich land- Cnido; (2) by the Pope in X. 1102-11, where the
Church is said to err in trying to land such 'kings of pride ' as
Caponsacchi ; (3) by Areangeli here, where the 'king of pride'
i- the miracle of a speech \\hich the speaker lands and strands.
I <|iio!c. with Canon Driver's explanations, the part of the
which P.io\\niiiLr Ofiee here. 'Canst thou draw out
leviathan \i.f. the crocodile] with a fish-hook? Canst thou put a
rope into his no.-e '.' Or pierce his jaw through with a hook |not.
i .1.1'.. thorn] ? \i.f. Can the crocodile, if caught, be strung
after\\ard> mi a line, in k«-ep it fresh in the \\ater, like ordinary
M
178 THE RING AND THE BOOK
fish ?].... Wilt thou play with him as with a bird ? Or wilt
thou bind him for thy maidens ? [i.e. Will the crocodile allow itself
to be made a pet of ?] '
1745-9.] Cf. IX. 1577-9.
1769. red rosolio.] A cordial made in Italy with spirits, raisins,
and sugar. N.E.D. derives the word from ros solis.
1770-72.] See note on 78 above.
1782-3.] Matthew xxv. 27.
1785. by Agur's wish.] The quotation is from Proverbs xxx. 8 ;
the chapter is headed ' The words of Agur '.
1792-6.] Cf. 27-34 above.
1805-7.] From Horace, Epod. 8. 13, 14, where of course we have
bads (-pearls') not mammis ('breasts'). Arcangeli is not always
delicate ; cf. XII. 740-8.
1814. for, lambkins, we must live /] The good-living in prospect
suggests to Arcangeli words used by Pistol, who looks forward,
perhaps, to the ' profits which will accrue ' to him as sutler in
France (Henry V., 2. 1. 133).
BOOK IX.— JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA
BOTTINIUS
INTRODUCTION
Tin; manner of advocacy in the ecclesiastical courts at
Rome, as shown in the twelve pleadings of the Yellow
Book, was practically uniform ; if the poet was to give
two sample- pleadings, as the plan of his poem required,
sonic monotony was unavoidable. Both his advocates
must ransack the authorities from Moses, Hoi mil us, and
Solon to ""Baldo, Bartolo, and Farinacci ; both must be
ready with ' Ovidiang^ujp or Ciceronian crank': both
must ' ecclesiasticize^lheir argument ; both must quote
the ScriptuTeSTffeely"; both must be a little careless about
the relevancy of the quotations. That the unavoidable
monotony should be relieved by as much variety as the
conditions permitted was naturally Browning's aim, and
he attained it. with consummate skill, chiefly in two ways.
Km ploying a device already employed in Books II. and
III. he represented his two advocates as of diffe rent tempera-
ments and as differently circumstanced. His Bo
austere, deliberate, self. cent rcd^
(jjscursive debonatTT ftTe torm(T/Js a ri<'id bach/Tor with
no unprofessional cares or interests, the latter is'not more
a lawyer than a family maXin whom concentration upon
a case is interrupted by love of good living, domestic jo
i her's pride and ambition Th«- port's second de\ i<-e
was to assign his two pleadings to different stages of the
trial, and to present them at ditTerent stages in their
composition. Hi> Areangeli's plea«linir i1^ ' Argument the
17!)
180 THE RING AND THE BOOK
First ' 1, his Bo/fctini's is a final summing-up. Arcangeli
shows us but ' a chick in egg ', he produces 'a inere
d*a£fe-; he is interrupted in the drafting by extra-legal
preoccupations necessitating asides ; he finishes his draft,
it is true, but he leaves it ' i' the rough ' ; it is not yet
sufficiently emphasized, ecclesiasticized, latinized, Cicero-
ized ; there is still ' {Ms to stick in ' and ' tlr^Ltn thrmr-
out ' 2. Bottini, though he too~~nray have to ' prune and
"paro ' 3, spouts to an imagined audience a * full-grown
speech '-
no trace of worm it was,
Or cabbage -bed it had production from 4.
For this second way of temperinffj^onotpny Browning
took his cue from the recorcfs^^Tlie opening argument
of Arcangeli in the Yellow Book was written, says the
advocate, currenti, ut aiunt, calamo, ' with galloping pen ' 5 ;
it shows clear signs of haste. Bottini's final pleading in
Pamphlet 136, which the poet had chiefly in mind when
he wrote his Book IX., is much better arranged and much
more thorough and complete ; parts of it may even almost
deserve to be called, as Professor Hodell calls the whole,
' masterly '.
' In the monologue of Bottini ', says the critic to whom
I have just referred, Browning is far away ' from both the
letter and the spirit of the real Bottini. The poet seems
to have taken a distinctly hostile attitude towards this
prosecutor of Guido, which mars the fairness of his judg-
ment ' 7. Such a criticism of a caricature is perhaps too
solemn ; the caricature is so clever and so diverting that
± the reader will condone the flavouring spice of malice ;
but it must be granted that in Book IX. Browning did not
always bear in mind the principle of his method, and,
further, that he claimed from Bottini something which
it was hardly reasonable to claim.
The method adopted in The Eing and the Book required
that the speakers should be allowed to say substantially
what they would have chosen to say, and Browning
1 VIII. 68. 2 VIII. 1737-54.
» IX. 1577. ' 4 I. 1167-71.
5 O.Y.B. xxiii., E.L. 23. Arcangeli speaks of the temporis angustia, qua? non
passa est alia fundamenta cumulare.
6 The pleading numbered 13 in O.Y.B. and E.L. is certainly later in date than
that numbered 14 (also by Bottini ; see Appendix VI.). 7 O.Y.B. 272-3.
BOOK /A JOHANNES-BAPTIST A BOTTINIUS 181
<_niaranteed thai they \\oiild say in his poem \\hat they
said in fart. His Bottini, at any rate, docs not al\\a\s
do this. Many of the ival Bottini's arguments \\civ.
\\e shall Bee, more ingenious than sound — sometimes,
indeed, they \\eiv absurd -, but they were not so ingeniously^
.•ihsm-iU-ns some of those of the Brgwm'ngi/ed flojiiolr
We are promised, in the poet's metaphor, a sight of the
\ar\inu aspects of the revolving year1, but he modifies the
colours of this particular aspect. — * The anger of the poet ',
says Mr. Hodell, ' probably arose from Bottini's treatment
of Pompilia'. For 'anger' I should prefer to substitute
' half-humorous contempt ' ; but, whether Browning was
angry with the advocate or only despised him and laughed
at him, Bottini's treatment of Pompilia was at any rate
one of the eauses of Browning's frenttripnf, nf IWtjni and
this treatment, I agree, was not quite fair. The prosecutor
of Guido was not concerned, as the poet makes him say
that he was concerned, to ' saint ' Pompilia 2 ; his business
was to prove that Guido deserved death. To prove that
Pompilia was blameless would have helped to that end,
but to ground the case for Guido's condemnation entirely
upon her blamelessness would have been a blunder. Bottini
might rightly think that the vindication of the law would
be more complete if the condemnation was obtained on
other grounds ; and an attempt to obtain it on this ground
might well have failed. Suspicious circumstances attended
Pompilia's flight ; misconduct, though by no means proved
against her, had been so far credited by the judges in the
previous trial that Caponsacchi at any rate had been
penalized : her own evidence was contradicted on certain
p< ints by Caponsacchi himself and by other \\\'
• n one point it was self -contradictory 3. We may allow.
\\c must allow, that Bottini— the real Bottini — admitted, in
fact or for the sake of argument, far too much against her.
and that he failed to make points which would have told
in her favour; but if he had insisted on her absolute
truth and innocence and had based his case thereon he
mi'jht have let a villain through the meshes of the law
and cheated wannain of its due.
If. however, in this Book IX. Browning is neither quite
i I. I :•.»•.!. Ml. 710. \j.p..| „!!,,.< IV. :m.l V.
182 THE RING AND THE BOOK
true to the principle of his method nor quite fair to Bottini,
his caricature is not only, as has been said, very clevej art^
diverting, but it observes the canons of the caricaturist's
art. It exposes real absurdities and abnormalities, ex-
aggerating them with a true regard to what makes them
abnormal and absurd. The damaging admissions of the
Bottini of the Yellow Book were often unnecessary and
sometimes preposterous ; they may in many cases be
fairly attributed, as the poet attributes them, to the
vanity of an advocate who is confident that his eloquence
can * smoothen good and evil to one ' l ; who deliberately
rputs himself into tight places that he may show how
Ldexterously he can wriggle out of them ; who is over-
ready to find something ' to excuse, reason away and
show his skill about ' 2 ; who will accept
Anything, anything to let the wheels
Of argument run glibly to their goal 3.
It takes one's breath away at times, after laughing at
some ingeniously absurd argument in Book IX., to find
on turning to the records that, as the notes will show, it
is not caricature at all, but faithful photography.
Browning must have enjoyed himself greatly as he
wrote this brilliant piece, and it is strange that the enjoy-
ment of the writer should not be shared by some of his
readers 4 ; but for all his wit and fun he had a most serious
purpose at the back of his mind. He wrote his Book IX.
under the inspiration of the Comic Muse, but like the
Augustinian preacher, his mouthpiece in Book XII., he
was obsessed by the tragic thought howjgerverse, how false,
wie human judgments ojten_are/hQw utterly
fajj_J;o r^cogmze the highest when they see it. That
thought isaciomtTiciut wujtij tliruiighCuT"the poein, and
the pity of it is enhanced when the perversity and the
falseness and the cruelty and the failure are found in * law,
appointed to defend the just ' and to clear ' pearl-pure
fames ' 5. In what the Augustinian calls Bottini's ' best
defence ' for Pompilia — I have suggested above that it
i I. 1179-81. 2 ix. 1441-2. » IX. 469-72.
4 See Introduction to Book VIII. 5 XII. 555, 580.
BOOK IX.—JOHANNE8-BAPTI8TABOTTINIU8 183
n"t n-ully his business t<> drlnid lu-r- he did nm
the }Mvnch<T, inm-lv show
The inadequacy and inaptitude
<>f that self-same ma< hine, that very law
Man vaunts, devised to dissipate the gloom,
Rest- ue the drowninir <>rb from calumny1;
his IM--I defence was itsdl
NOTES
(N.B. — The numbering of the lines in the notes to this Book, afler
line ',.'>;, is that of the second and all subsequent editions, but not
(hat <>f the first edition. See ' Lines Added ' in Appendix XL)
13. louts him low], i.e. bows obsequiously. See note on VI. 439.
29. girding loin and lighting lamp.} See note on II. 318.
50. be the phrase accorded me !\ Bottini affects to look down
on artists and their concerns from a superior level ; cf. 31, 77, 118.
56. chiilk a little stumped], i.e. blurred by the instrument which
artists call ' a stump '.
• i.".. clouted shoon.] From Milton, Comus, 635.
91. E pluribus unum.] From Virgil, Moretum, 103, color est e
plnribus unus.
97. chyme.} From *i^6v, ' juice ' ; chyme is ' the form which
food assumes after it has undergone the action of the stomach '.
109. eximious], i.e. excellent ; ' common in the 17th century,
the few examples in the 19th are humorously pedantic or bombastic '
(N.E.D.). Cf. Jochanan Hakkadosh, lines 11-12 :
(Mir inuch-enlijzhtened master. Israel's prop,
Kximious .lochanaii P.en SaMmthai.
112. Capena], i.e. the Porta Capena, by which the Via Appia
enter- the city.
114. The Florentine.} Michael Angelo.
115. The Urbinate.} Raphael.
116. The Cortonese. \ Pietro ( Bei rettini) da Cortona (1597-1669)s
117. the accomplished Ciro Ferri.] This forgotten artist, for
whom and his master' see V. 488-9, died in 1689, so that the
misgiving «-xpre>>.-d in line 118 was justified.
1 in. rhnhu* plucks my ear!} From Virgil, Eel 6. 3-4, Cynthin*
[ = Phoebus] annni Vtllit et admonuit, imitated by Milton, Lycidas,
77.
143. The rack.] See App.-ndix VL
i XII. 576 tegq.
- I h:ivi- :i.l.li-.l lli
MI i li.nl— Wiiihun-.
|>:ir:mr:iph nn tin- kiii'l sii««rstitiii «>l n corn's|u.ii<U-iit,
184 THE RING AND THE BOOK
144-7.] ' The lyrist ' is Horace, who says that as the rack
makes the reluctant witness confess, so wine makes the usually
stiff and silent wit talk freely (Od. 3. 21. 13-14).
170. Phryne] was a famous Greek courtesan ; the Venus Anadyo-
mene of Apelles and the Cnidian Venus of Praxiteles are said to
have represented her. The orator Hyperides was one of her lovers :
his ' elegant defence ' of her on a capital charge is highly praised
in the treatise on Sublimity ascribed to Longinus. When the
orator's eloquence had failed to convince the judges he bade her
uncover her breast and so secured her acquittal.
170-71.] Cf. 175 and 576-7 below ; Bottini ' entangles himself
with his similitudes '.
172. / prove this ?] ' Prove ' is of course emphatic ; see 160
above.
177-8], i.e. how he caught the slave who (according to his tale)
had been preferred by Lucretia to her husband Collatinus. For
Tarquin's ' deed of shame ' see Livy 1. 58. 4.
189.] Luke vi. 44.
200-202.] I cannot discover where Browning found this pretty
' old conjecture '.
214-15.] I cannot trace the quotation ; Hodell says that it
was a ' medieval clerical saying '. A clepsydra was (1) a water-
glass for measuring time, and (2) a period of time so measured.
Pliny says (Epp. 2. 11. 14) that on a certain important occasion he
spoke in court through sixteen clepsydrae, and that his speech lasted
for nearly five hours.
217. As Flaccus prompts.] Horace (Flaccus) praises Homer
because ' he always hastens to the issue and hurries his readers
into the heart of the story, just as if they were familiar with it '
(A. P. 148-9). No po«t takes ' the epic plunge ' more boldly than
Browning.
225.] Suggested by O.Y.B. ccix., E.L. 211.
226. the Teian.] Anacreon of Teos; the quotations here and
in 427-9 are from an CPUTLKOV attributed to him.
yvvai^iv OVK £T elxff-
TL o$v ; didwcn /cdXXos
Kepara ravpots
6?rXas 5' edoiKev ITTTTOIS,
rots tx0ij(riv TO
rots
dvr
VLKq. 8£ KO.I
Ko.1 Trvp /oaX?7 TIS o!xra.
It will be noticed that according to Anacreon here ' man's dower '
is thought, the dvefj.6ev (f>pbvrnj.a which in Sophocles is that of man
and woman alike; Bottini read into Anacreon what he found
perhaps in Bion : /j.op(pd 6r)\vTtpai(n TreXei KO.\JV, dvtpi 5' d\Kd, * beauty
is women's glory, a man's is strength '.
BOOK /A. ./o//.LYA'/<;.s /M/T/NV'.-l HOTTINW8 185
240-41. Diseedunt mine amoies, etc. ] I cannot identify the
quota! inn.
iM.".. determined day.} cf. \'l. ll'.t'.), • the determined morning'.
iM'.t. Oohibita fait, etc.] I n the a }'./*. (ix., A1./,. 1 1 ) it is Arcangeli
who says thai 1'ompilia, when 'taken to Arc//o with her pseudo-
paivnts. was restrained from living a too free life '. Bottini admits
too much : see Introduction to this Book.
282. | Revelation xxi. 4, 5.
284-6. Novorum . . . Naseitur ordo !] Virgil ("the Mantuan'),
Eel. 4. 5-7 (with saeclorum for novorum). Of course he had no
'such purpose in his eye ' as Bottini pretends to think.
281). '/ IHIXXIUJC in I/if < 'a /i tides.] Song of Solomon ii. 11-13.
L".'S :iol.| Compare My Last Duchess.
307. rnl fv/.sv.J See note on V. 748.
— . escapes], i.e. escapades, peeeadilloes ; in Aristophanes' Apology
Aristophanes says of the (Ireek gods that
\\'ith kindly limnanism they eountenan< • <l
Our emulation of divine eacape&
Shakesj»eare gives the word a more sinister meaning, e.g. in Titus
Amlnmicufi, 4. 2. 113-14 :
C. Rome will despise her for this fold escape.
.V. The emperor, in his injje, will doom her death.
.'{1:5. olent.} 'Redolent' notwithstanding, ' olent ' is hardly an
English word.
.',!•>. Tonstans in levitate".] From Ovid, Tristia, 5. 8. 18
(he is speaking of Fortune) :
inanet in nullo certa tenaxque loco;
Sed modo laeta manet. vultus modo siiinit aieil 08,
Et tantum eon-tans in levitate sua Mt,
342. a levite.] The term was freely used as a synonym for a
di i« on or subdeacon ; cf. V. 740.
— . bears the bell aicay], i.e. is preferred, as the hell- wet her of
the Hock; cf. Herri Riel, XL, 'All that France saved from the
I'trlit whence England bore the bell' ; The Ttvo Poets of Croisic , i\ ,,
'bore the bell away From some too-pampered son of fortune':
George Bulb Dotli nylon, i.
347-8. "Credc non ilium", etc.] From Horace, Od. 2. 4. 17 is
(adapted).
I.J The reference is perhaps to Leviticus xxi. 17-23, where,
however, the Levites are not specially mentinmd.
:;.V). nnctimliil}. i.e. impure; as in 475 ('her candid fame')
' candid ' pure, >pot |e>>.
360 f.t;. Bee I Samuel \\\.
368. lieu prisea lide>!j 1-Yom VirL'il. .Kn. 6.878.
186 THE RING AND THE BOOK
372-3.] The Pope himself uses sea-side similes in X. 486 seqq.
and 1449-50.
380-81.] O.Y.B. Ixxxiv., E.L. 92 (Deposition of Pompilia) :
' He said that he wished to kill me. . . . He pointed a pistol at
my breast. ... If he ,did not kill me with arms, he might poison
me '. Of. V. 948-51.
394. the right Comacchian] from the Valle di Comacchio (N.
of Ravenna) famous in Garibaldi's story :
the lagoon
Not land, nor water, where the great eels lie,
The Valley of Comacchio.
(Mrs. Hamilton King, The Disciples, p. 143.)
404. lunes], mad freaks. The word is often used by Shakespeare ;
of. e,g. Troilus and Cressida, 2. 3. 139, where Agamemnon speaks
of Achilles' s ' pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows '.
405. Insanit homo.] Horace, Sat. 2. 7. 117.
418. truliest.] See note on XII. 560.
427-9.] See note on 226 above.
435 seqq.] This argument is used by the author of the Second
Anonymous Pamphlet (who may have been Bottini himself) ;
see O.Y.B. ccxix., E.L. 221. For Bottini' s damaging admissions
see the Introduction to this Book.
453-6.] Persius argues in his Prologue (8-11) that hunger can
make a man write poetry, just as it makes a parrot and a magpie
speak :
Quis expedivit psittaco suum %cu/)e,
Picamque docuit nostra verba conari ?
Magister artis ingehique largitor
Venter, negatas artifex sequi voaes.
Between the first and the second of these lines a few MSS. insert
Corvos quis olim concavum salutare ?
which Browning accepts (' a crow salute the concave '). But the
crow is out of place in the lines of Persius, and concavum (for which
one MS. has Caesarem) cannot mean the vault of heaven ; ' it
would doubtless refer to the sound ' (Conington). — This passage
is suggested by the real Bottini' s remark that, though the letter
referred to in 459 seqq. may have been written by Pompilia, it
does not prove that she could write at an earlier date ; despair
may have sharpened her wits (O.Y.B. clxxiii., E.L. 180). The
ingenious reference to Persius is Browning's own.
459. one letter], viz. that alleged to have been written by Pompilia
to the Comparini from the prison at Castelnuovo (O.Y.B. clv.-vi.,
E.L. 160). The letter is most important ; see Appendix IV.
466-8.] Browning should not have made Bottini say this ;
for (1) the letter was put in ' for the Fisc ', and not (like the love-
BOOK IX.—JOHANNES-BA 1'TISTA BOTTINWS 187
letters) by ({uido's advocates, and (2) it cannot have been written
before I'ompilia's imprisonment at ( 'astolnuovo, and therefore
cannot have been prepared by Guido before the flight.
17.~>. 1-ainlid. \ Sec note on ' uncandid ' above (:{.">.">).
1 7 (17. ••///// life, Not an hour's purchase"], la mia vita era a Jiore.
."»!:;. ninrkir<irniN\. !.<'. misers, money-grubbers. The word is
applied to Lord Cottington, the self -seeking minister of Charles I..
in Stafford, 1. 1. <i:J.
.".1 t.j Cf. IV. 310.
517. the Samson.] Judges xvi.
518. permit the end, etc.] Cf. VIII. 1137-9, 1180. That the end
justifies the means is argued freely by both sides : by the prosecu-
tion chiefly, as here, to justify the love -letters ; by the defence
to dispose of the alleged ' aggravating circumstances '.
523-5.] From O.Y.B. clxxvii., E.L. 184.
529-36]. Moschus, Idyl 1. 3-5 :—
dpaireTidas f'/tuj €<TTU> • 6 fiavvras ytpas f£et.
/it<r0«is rot rb <t>l\a/j.a rb Kvirpidos' ty d' dydyris viv,
rb (pt\a/j.a, TV 5', u> &vft K
537.] 1 Corinthians x. 11.
538 seqq.] The real Bottini often employs this argument ;
e.g. in O.Y./l. Ixxiii., Ixxiv., clxxvii.-viii. (E.L. 80, 81, 184).
539. else were hard explain.} Note the two Browningisms — the
(very common) omission of the relative as subject, and the (rare)
omission of ' to ' before infinitive after an adjective.
541. He is Myrtillus, Amaryllis she.} These and other lovers'
names occur in the love-letters, in which the unsophisticated
Pompilia, to whom, as the Pope says (X. 1020), ' it was not given
to know much ', is made to display a surprising knowledge of love-
literature. See O.Y.B. xcvi., E.L. 104: 'I don't know what
name to give myself, whether Vienna, or Amaryllis, or Dorinda,
or Lilla ; but I choose to call myself Ariadne . . . provided that
you are not a Theseus, but a chaste Joseph, or a dear Narcissus,
or an Ilago, or Fedone ; . . . Adonis was compassionate with
Venus, but I am not such as she, but truly a Medusa. ... If you
have read Tasso, etc.'. Dr. Berdoe explains that Amaryllis was
4 the name of a countryman !
548-50.] The story is told in Odyssey 4. 244-8 ; cf. Euripides,
Hec. 239-41.
:».•)!. boggled at.] See 1379 below and VI. 282, note.
flnck-illsh.] A wooden dish with cover which beggars
clatter when asking for alms. Cf. Measure for Measure, 3. 2. 135.
Charles Lamb, in his Complaint of ' the Decay of Beggars, calls it a
' clap-dish '.
.").»!. In ijnnd promises, etc.}, i.e. We praise her not only for making
such promises, but also for keeping them.
188 THE RING AND THE BOOK
564. perdue.] Of. III. 1233, note.
569-76.] Works of art familiarized Italians with the story of
Judith and Holophernes, as with that of Tobit (see note on VIII.
1509-12). It is used as an illustration three times in the records :
by Bottini, as here (O.Y.B. Ixxiii., E.L. 80); by Arcangeli, in a
rather feeble rejoinder (O.Y.B. cviii., E.L. 116); by the Second
Anonymous Pamphleteer in the same connection (O.Y.B. ccxx.,
E.L. 221).
576. /// entangle me, etc.] See note on 170-71.
582.] Horace, Od. 4. 2. 1-4. Icarus tried to fly with wings
constructed by his father Daedalus, who fixed them on with wax,
but he flew too near the sun ; the wax melted and he fell into the
sea.
597-8.] 1 Samuel xvii. 10 : Goliath defies the armies of Israel.
602. our Saint George.] See note on III. 1065-6.
606-8.] Critics said of St. Paul that ' his letters are weighty
and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak ' (2 Corinthians x. 10).
609. to oak], as believed to be specially liable to be struck by light-
ning (a classical tradition) ; cf. Measure for Measure, 2. 2. 115-17 :
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Split' st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak
Than the soft myrtle.
Tempest, 5. 1. 45 ; Coriolanus, 5. 3. 152-3. The belief is said to be
justified by statistics.
619. dreads a bear in every bush.] Midsummer Night's Dream,
5. 1. 21-2 :
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear !
623-30.] Bottini, after his manner, argues about the opiate
as Browning represents ; see 0. Y.B. clxxvii., E.L. 184. The same
argument is used by Lamparelli (O.Y.B. cclii., E.L. 248-9): 'The
insidious means by which the said Pompilia had recourse to flight,
by preparing a sleeping-draught not only for her husband but for
the whole household, beside the fact that it is not proved, would
(so far as it is proved) be an argument for her sagacity rather than
for her dishonour ; for the wife would have been too fatuous if
she had attempted flight without a precaution of this kind '.
624. thwart], cross-grained, as in King Lear, 1. 4. 305.
626. Helen's nepenthe], the drug which Helen gave to ' the
much-enduring ' Odysseus ; see Odyssey, 4. 220-21 :
UVTIK' ap' ei's olvov /3aXe (ftdp/maKOV, tvdev ZTTLVOV,
i>r)Trei>6€s T' &xo\6v re, KaK&v
(' Straightway she cast into the wine whereof they were drinking
a drug to soothe all sorrow and anger, to make men forget all
their troubles ').
BOOK IX JOHANNES BAPT1STA BOTTINIU8 189
646. Suis expensis, nemo militat.J 1 Corinthians ix. 7: 'who
gocth a warfare any time at his own charges ? '
»'.:.:;. nrrc ike fiction fact, etc.] The argument is a fair burlesque ;
it \sas not actually used by Bottini. A long list of heavy valuables
\vhieh J'ompilia was charged with carrying off is given in the
benoe of the Criminal Court of Florence' (O.Y.B. vi., vii.,
E.L. ('»). Pompilia said in her deposition (O.Y.B. Ixxxv., E.L. 93) :
' 1 took some little things of my own (robbicciuole di mio vso), a
box with many trifles (bagatlelle) in it, and some money, I don't
know how much it was, from a strong-box (sgriyno}. They were,
too, my own, as appears from the note both of the things and of
tin money made by the Registrar of Castelnuovo '. With this
Caponsacchi's deposition agrees. — If Pompilia walked alone, as
Caponsacchi says (O.Y.B. Ixxxix., E.L. 96), from Guido's house
to the carriage, or even if, as she says, Caponsacchi walked with
her, the things scheduled in the Sentence could hardly have been
canied all the way by hand, (specially as it was necessary 'to
scale the walls of the city '.
657-8.] Dido's brother Pygmalion, King of Tyre, secretly
murdered her rich husband Sycha-us and appropriated his treasure.
The ghost of Sychams appeared to her in a dream, revealed to her
her brother's crime, and told her where the stolen treasure would
be found ; with this as (insiliuiit cite she was to flee. She ' decamped
with bag and baggage ' accordingly, founded Carthage, and became
its queen (Virgil, Mn. 1. 348-64).
659-719.] Some of this high - comedy paragraph (684-707) is
based upon the records, which are full of arguments for and against
the credibility of the driver's story about the kissing ; the rest is
caricat ure (note in particular the sly jest of 670-72). The caricature
is richly deserved. One of the real Bottini's points is that kissing
during the flight cannot be inferred from the offer of kisses in the
love - letti-r>, liee.uise these kisses were oiYered by Pompilia (if
offered at all) to secure Caponsacchi's protection in her flight :
such an oiler, lie assures the court on the authority of the law-
books, 'begets no obligation' (O.Y.B. clxxix., B.L. 185)! — See
Caponsacchi's comments on the driver's evidence in VI. 1694-1704.
713-14.] From Horace, Od. 1. 13. 15-16:
os.-iila. <|iia' Venn*
l,MiiMtu parte sui ntx-taris imlniit.
Bottini's reference is careless; Horace meant by uxrulti not K
but Lydia's lips. By </ni/ita jxirtc he meant either the purest- and
best part, the «jiiim«->sene«-. or a very large (.art. Perhaps by
changing 'fifth' to 'third' Bottini implies that I'ompili
\\ould be even s \\ t eter than Lydia's.
TL'^-3.1 Suggested by Horace, A.I'. \ \~2 •.
Vui iii«>rc.> li.'iiiiiniiii iiiultoimii viilit «-t 111
190 THE RING AND THE BOOK
728-9.] Matthew xvi. 18.
732. Nature — baffled she recurs.] Horace, Epp. 1. 10. 24 :
Xaturam expelles furca, taraen usque recurret.
747-8. " Ut vidi " . . . " Ut perii ".] From Virgil, Ed. 8. 41.
760. busy o'er a book.} Livy's version of the story (25. 31. 9)
is that Archimedes was killed while ' intent on some figures which
he had described in the dust ' (intentum formis qua* in pu
descripserat).
782-3.] From Cicero, ad Fam. I. 9. 21 : ' we ought not always
to hold the same language, but we ought always to aim at the
same end '. He is justifying an apparent political inconsistency.
790. by.] Here, as in 792, =' compared with '.
804. in the Medicean mode], i.e. like the famous Venus de' 3IedicL
809-10. the epistle fraught With horrors], i.e. the letter to the Abate
Paolo, the contents of which are often summarized or expanded
in the poem, e.g. in IL 684-725 ; see Appendix IV. Assume that
PompiUa really wrote this letter, Browning makes his Bottini say
— the real Bottini does not use the argument — , her subsequent
denial, when she wished ' to repair the harm it worked ', was ' a
noble lie '.
815. Put case.] See note on V. 748.
832-5.] Immediately after Nero's accession at the age of seven-
teen, cum de supplicio cuiusdam damnati, ut ex more subscriberet,
admoneretur, lQuam vellem', inqu.it, 'nescire litteras!' (Suetonius,
Nero, 10).
838. O splendidly mendacious!] From Horace, Od. 3. 11. 35-6 :
Splendide mendax et in oome virgo
No bilis aevum.
He is speaking of the one Danaid who was faithful to her husband.
861. that commerce with souls.] For (1) the verb, (2) the meaning,
and (3) the pronunciation, ct // Penseroso, 39, ' looks commercing
with the skies', a phrase which Browning quotes in Fifine at the
Fair, ex. (end), and Tennyson, Walking to the Mail :
commercing with himself
He lost the sense that handles daily life.
Shakespeare does not, I think, use the verb, but he uses the noun
freely of intercourse generally, and (in verse) he accents it on the
second syllable (see Hamlet, 3. 1. 110, Tioelfth Night, 3. 4. 191,
Troilus and Crestida, 1. 3. 105).
868. Shall a Vulcan clap, etc.] See note on III. 1450-.V,.
871-7.] Many critics, ancient and modern, have rejected the
passage, 'seeing scandal' in it. Others, including Mr. Gladstone,
have regarded it as ' neither unworthy of Homer nor unlike him '.
IX. JOHANNES BAPTI8TA BOTTINIUS I'M
The (plot i«>n of its authenticity is fully discussed in Dr. Merry's
edition of the O-hj.^t //, i. pp. :i
^77. i>ickthank.\ The A". A'. />. recognizes only the meaning 'one
who "picks a thank", /.»•. cun-ies favour with another, esp.
by informing against some 01 he word is so used in / Henry
I V., \\. '2. IT), and in Rob Roy, e. ix. In Browning it means no more
than 'a meddler'; of. Kiiuj Victor m»l King Charles, Second Year,
Parti.
891. in the garb of truth.] Horace, Od. \.24.1,nuda Veritas.
893. Thalassian-pure.] Sir Frederic Kenyon and the A./:./',
explain ' pure as the sea ' (0d\a<r<ra) ; if this derivation is accepted
I should prefer to say 'pure as a sea-nymph' ('some Thala*>
• nt (In Fair. i. xix.). But the right explanation is probably
that suggested in H. and H. Notes. Livy says that at the rape of
the Sabine women one far more beautiful than the rest was seized
by the companions of a certain Thalassius. and that when many
asked, for whom were they taking her. they cried ' for Thalassius' ;
hence, he adds, the phrase has become 'nuptial' (1. 9. 12). Any-
how the use of the word Thalassius or Thalassio in marriage cere-
monies is abundantly proved; see e.<j. Catullus 61. 127. 'Some
think that the god of virginity was called Thafassio' or Thalassius
(Forbiger on Virgil, Catat. .">. 1">) ; perhaps Browning took that
view.
• ••itches at his suvrd.] See note on II. 1031.
900-945.] This delightful passage, with its euphuisms and its
confusion of metaphors, arre>t< attention. There might, says
Bottini. have been an amicable interview, some gentility of aj>oph-
thcgm or captivating lyrical cadence from (Juido, a smiling blush
from Pompilia, and all would have l>eeii happily settled. But
(Juido preferred to settle thiii«_r> by violence, by the argument of
the blow ; Pompilia. like an obedient wife, accepted his alternative,
returned him blow for blow. butTet ratiocinative. Cuido, having
got himself into a quagmire, preferred that Pompilia should not
him a hand to help him out, but should jump UJMMI his head.
cordingly, and he extricated himself by the rebound.
For her jumping upon his head, or (to return to the oilier metaphor)
flourishing the blade, proved to the crowd that she was innocent.
and what could he want more ? His honour, winch, he had feared,
was smirched. Hashed brinhtly again in the public
'I. LO&8; 'p.n.Kt with this Caponsacchi's
account in VI.
. /.<. must IM-.
John viii. 7.
D 11-7 U-lo\\ .
:>'f.\ .lollll \\. !."». ^^
Lanmedon defrauded Apollo and Neptune of
the reward he had promised them for building the walls of 'I
192 THE RING AND THE BOOK
In consequence of his fraud Troy was visited by a monster, and
Laomedon, on the advice of an oracle, exposed his daughter Hesione
for the monster to devour. Hercules promised to save her on
certain terms ; his terms were accepted and he saved her (Ovid,
Met. 11. 211-15). Portia makes use of the Hesione legend in The
Merchant of Venice (3. 2. 53-60).
972. ore.] Strictly a particular kind of whale ; commonly used,
as here, for a mythical monster.
985. Jove, far at feast, etc.] In the Iliad (1. 423-5) Thetis tells
Achilles that she cannot plead with Zeus for him at the moment,
because Zeus has gone far away for a fortnight's feasting with the
* unblamed ' (d/j.v/moi>as) Ethiopians.
987. / heard of thy regale.] VIII. passim.
988. Hercules spun ivool] Hercules was afflicted with a sore
disease. Warned by the oracle that he could only be cured if he
served for wages for three years he became, first the servant, then
the lover, of Omphale, queen of Lydia. To please her he spun
wool and wore her garments, while she wore his lion-skin (Ovid,
Fasti, 2. 305 seqq.). He did, however, rescue Hesione from the
' ore '.
992. most], i.e. greatest ; cf. Herve Riel, vi.
998. sole anti-Fabius.] The ' Fabian policy ' of slow attrition
in the Second Punic war was described by Ennius in the famous
line (unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem) into which Bottini
inserts a negative.
1004. ranged Arezzo.] Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, 1. 1. 33-34 :
Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall !
Arezzo sympathized with Pompilia, but did not put itself out over
her wrongs.
1018. Quid vetat ?] Horace, Sat. 1. 1. 24-5, ridentem dicere verum
Quid vetat ? (' why shouldn't one tell the truth in jest ? ').
1030. " Sepher Toldoth Yeschu "], i.e. The Book of the Genera-
tions of Jesus ; a Jewish attack upon Christianity which Voltaire
assigned to the first century, but which probably dates from the
thirteenth.
1034. schismatic . . .] Molinists, no doubt.
1039-40. chop And change.] Alliterative phrases, like the per-
petually recurring 'chop and change', 'shade and shine', had a
great attraction for Browning ; cf. ' grub and grab ', ' mop and
mow', 'land and strand', 'glare and flare', 'guard and guide',
* clout and lout ', ' roar and soar ', ' pry and try ', ' trip and skip ',
' whir and stir ', ' rhyme and chime ', ' primly, trimly ', ' drenched
and quenched ', ' cold and bold ', ' drips and drops ', ' round and
sound ', ' wags and brags ', ' wrinkling and twinkling ', ' dumplc
and dimple ', ' tint and hint ', ' rabble's brabble ', ' wrangled,
BOOK IX.— JOHANNES-BAPTIST 'A BOTTINIUS 193
See
194 THE RING AND THE BOOK
mollitious alcoves gilt
Superb as Byzant domes.
1204. thy wicked townsman.] Pietro Aretino ; see note on X. 654.
1206.] See note on 539 above.
1212. the holy house.} See note on II. 1198.
1216.]
1218.1
1220.
1225.
Mark i. 45.
John v. 7.
Matthew ix. 5.
domus pro carcere ; see note on II. 1323.
1227. Redeunt Saturnia regna.] From ' the Pollio eclogue ' of
Virgil (Ed. 4. 6), of which, here as elsewhere (284, 1227, 1376),
Bottini makes audacious use.
— . six weeks slip.] A mistake ; see note on II. 1323.
1232-4.] Psalm Ixviii. 13 (' the pots ' is a mistranslation ;
should be ' the sheepf olds ' ). ' To mue ' (French muer, from Latin
mutare with restriction of meaning) = ' to moult '.
1242.] Virgil, Georg. 1. 151-4.
1246. doubtful, nay fantastic bruit.] See II. 1368-72.
1268. Tozzi.] See XI. 2333, 2337 ; XII. 40.
1285. colocynth], KoXoKwdis, ' bitter-apple ', a strong cathartic.
Cf. Othello, 1. 3. 355, ' the food that to him now is luscious as locusts
shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida '.
1297-8.] Song of Solomon vii. 4, ' thy nose is as the tower of
Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus '.
1299. "Forsan et haec olim"] meminisse iuvabit ('even these
things, perhaps, it will one day be sweet to remember '), Virgil,
Mn. 1. 203.
1312.] See below, 1338-40.
1321-2.] I cannot identify ' the sage ' who said this.
1325-6. " films est Quern nuptise demonstrant ".] A legal ' text '
commonly quoted in the form Est pater ille quern nuptice demon-
strant, ' he is the father whom the marriage-rites point out as being
so '. See V. 1468-70, 2027.
1333-5.] Virgil, Eel. 3. 1-2. Bottini carelessly wrote sed for
verum. Both words mean ' but ', but if Virgil had written sed
he would have made a bad false quantity. Cf. 1564 below.
1338-40.] Pompilia said in her deposition: 'When about a
year had passed after the consummation of the marriage . . . my
husband and also Beatrice his mother began to turn against me
because I bore no children, saying that his house was dying out
because of me ' (O.Y.B. Ixxxiii., E.L. 91).
1345-7.] Virgil (Maro), Georg. 4. 554-8. The shepherd Aristseus
had lost all his bees. At the bidding of his mother Gyrene he
sacrificed four bulls and four heifers to the powers to whom the
loss was due. Nine days later he saw a marvellous sight ; bees were
humming in the carcasses and swarming from the bruised flanks.
BOOKIX.—JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTT1NIUS !!>:>
I :',:>!. .s7ccp horsehair certain weeks, etc.] Browning foll<>\\>
Shakespeare, Aiilontj and Cleopatra, 1. 2. 199-201 : —
Much is breeding
Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life,
. And not a serpent's poi-.<>n.
The more widely spread superstition about generation from horse-
hair relates to eels.
1358. of Arezzo's self.] In Casa Guldi Windows, Part I., Mrs.
Browning describes a demonstration of the Tuscan cities in Florence.
Representatives * of every separate state in Tuscany ' marched
with their banners — Siena's she-wolf, Pisa's hare, Massa's golden
and Pienza's silver lion, while ' Arezzo's steed pranced clear from
bridle-hold .
1362-6.] From Ovid, Fasti, 5. 241-2 ; the words are said by
Juno in indignation at the birth of Minerva from the head of Jupiter.
1371. last saint of our hierarchy.] See note on VII. 30.
1376-7. Incipe . . . patrem.] From Virgil, Eel. 4. 60 (adapted).
See note on 1227 above.
1379. boggle.] See note on VI. 282.
1384-7.] Matthew xii. 44-5.
1392-3. t' the simile Of Homer.] Bottini refers to Iliad 5. 87-92
where the impetuosity of Diomede is described.
1401-3.] Cf. 949, 1271 above, 1408 below.
1403. offuscated.} As in Christopher Smart, ix. (' Beware lest
fume offuscate sense '), Browning prefers ' offuscate ' to ' obfuscate '
(It. offuscare, Fr. offusquer). Alexander Hume (c. 1590) has 'offuskit '.
1407. " What's this to Bacchus?"] Greek tragedy had its
origin in choruses which danced and recited in honour of Dionysus
(Bacchus). As time went on its original purpose was more and
more ignored, and conservative critics exclaimed rl ravra a-pds
AuWo-op ; ('where does Bacchus come in?'); which phrase
became proverbial.
1410.] Luke vi. 20.
1419. as an eel, etc.] With this simile compare XII. 410-13.
1421.] See the Second Anonymous Pamphlet, O.Y.B. ccxxiv.,
E. L. 225 : ' Franceschini told his companions repeatedly to look
.mil stv if she was quite dead, and they, taking her by the hair and
lifting her from the ground where she was lying, thought that she
was dead, because the poor lady by natural instinct knew how
to simulate it '.
1422. for his sake.] Explained by 1478-91 below.
1428.] Between this and the next line the * snake ' (Arcangeli)
is supposed to hiss out its remonstrance, which Bottini proceeds
to make articulate.
1 JL>(.)-40.] Bottini's meaning is clear, but his grammar is most
perplexing. His meaning is : * Arcangeli's objection (raised
196 THE RING AND THE BOOK
against me, rather than against Pompilia) is that her tale, both
in her death-bed confession and in her subsequent talks, contra-
dicts mine. She admitted not a single peccadillo ; I have admitted
many'. But his grammar? (1) As the sentence stands it seems
impossible to give a satisfactory meaning to the * as ' of line 1430,
which is resumed (after the long prepositional clause introduced
by * in ') by the ' as ' of 1435. It cannot mean ' because ', for then
'is found' (for 'were found') would be necessary in 1435. It
cannot mean (what ' as ' often means) 'as if, for this meaning
would make nonsense of the passage ; the context shows that
Bottini admits that the two tales are at variance. (2) The 'in'
which governs the prepositional clause of 1430-34 depends upon
nothing. That clause is resumed by the ' this ' of 1435, which is
a nominative. — If Bottini, giving ' as ' the meaning of ' because ',
had dropped the ' in ' of 1430 and substituted ' is found ' for ' were
found ' in 1435, he would have expressed his meaning grammatically ;
he would, I think, have expressed it still better if he had also sub-
stituted ' that ' for ' as ' both in 1430 and in 1435.
1431.] For the confession and the subsequent talk see O.Y.B.
lvii.-lx., E.L. 57-61.
1446. that with this.'] Bottini's tale with Pompilia's.
1456-1505.] Bottini is made to argue thus : (1) if Pompilia's
tale was mendacious, it was ' splendidly mendacious ' (cf. 838) ;
for it was told, not (or not only) to re -integrate her own fame, but
to re-integrate Caponsacchi's, and it was told in the true interest
of Guido (cf. 1422), who, if persuaded that he had killed a saint,
might confess his sin and prepare penitently for death (1466-91);
(2) Pompilia confessed and was absolved before the death-bed
gossipry. Confession and absolution ' obliterate ' sin. When she
gossiped, therefore, she was sinless and might so describe herself.
Even if a casuist might accept these arguments as more or less
exculpatory of Pompilia, they would, of course, have been a support
to Guide's honoris-causa plea, and would have come more suitably,
dressed up a little differently, from Guide's advocates. The first,
indeed, was suggested to Browning by one of Arcangeli's pleadings
(O.Y.B. cxii., E.L. 121), and the second by the pro-Guido First
Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cliii., E.L. 156): 'the alleged
declaration made by the lady in the article of death (in articolo
di morte) may be equivocal in itself, in the sense that after confession
and sacramental absolution sin is cancelled as if it had never been
committed '.
The real Bottini naturally argued throughout that death-bed
confessions are true and are ordinarily accepted as true in the
courts, while his opponents maintained that they are often false
and that there are many precedents for rejecting them.
1482], i.e. that the murder was committed simply to avenge
his outraged honour.
BOOK IX.— JOHANNES-BAPTIST ]A BOTTINIUS 197
1494. We came to our Triarii, last resource.} Cf. George Bubb
Dodington, vn. :
Ventum est ad triarios ; last resource.
After explaining that the triarii were the reserve of the old Rome
army Livy adds (8. 8. 8-11) : inde rem ad triarios redisse proverbio
increbuit (' grew into a proverb ').
1505. of the act], i.e. of absolution.
1506. Solvuntur tabulae ? etc.] Horace, Sat. 2. 1. 86, solventur
risu tabulce. By solvuntur tabulce ? Bottini means ' does the
Court adjourn (amidst laughter) ? ' Horace's solventur tabulce
means probably ' the case will break down ', but the figure employed
is uncertain.
1517. Decretum.] See note on VI. 2007-22.
1531-8.] From Bottini's argument in O.Y.B. clxvii., E.L. 175.
I :. 1:2-3. J Horace, Od. 2. 10. 19-20, neque semper arcum Tendit
Apollo.
1545-52.] Browning found this in the Second Anonymous
Pamphlet (0. Y.B. ccxxi., E.L. 223) : ' The " title " of the case is
just like the branch hung up outside the door of an inn, which no
doubt means that wine is sold here, but by no manner of means
shows that the wine sold is good, saleable, and pleasant '. The old
custom of hanging an ivy bough before a vintner's door is mentioned
by writers quoted in notes to the Epilogue of As you like it, to
explain the proverb ' Good wine needs no bush ' ; it is still observed
in Italy. The ivy was sacred to Bacchus.
1564. tenax proposito.] From Horace, Od. 3. 3. 1, but for pro-
posito Bottini should have said propositi. See note on 1333-5 above.
1573. That famed panegyric of Isocrates.] A Panegyric (Xo-yoj
iravriyvpiK6s) was a speech written for a great public festival
(TTcu'Tryi'pis). The Panegyric, of Isocrates, which an ancient critic
called TTfptp6r)Tos ('famed'), advocated an invasion of Persia
(380 B.C.). It was said that the orator took more time in advising
the invasion of that country than Alexander took in conquering
all Asia, and Quintilian tells us that the composition of the speech
occupied the orator ten years at the lowest estimate.
BOOK X.— THE POPE
INTRODUCTION
OF all the Books of the poem Book X. is often unhesitat-
ingly pronounced to be the greatest1. The Pope's solilo-
quy, mellow with the expejnence dl a long life of action
and contemplation, is marked throughout by a rare dignity
and elevatioji ; its diction and its versification are on the
same 'nTghlevel as its substance ; the passages in which
judgment is given on the speakers of Books VI. and VII.
are hardly less noble than even the noblest parts of those
great monologues ; nothing in the poem is more finely
conceived and phrased than the .appeal which is put into
the mouth of Euripides ; apposite illustrations froin_
nature, more frequent and elaborate here than elsewhere,
are a conspicuous feature of the Pope's deliberate eloquence.
The interest of the Book is moreover enhanced by the fact
that 'here, if anywhere, I^rownJng^speaiks .for himself '.
He speaks for himself in two ways. A comparison of
Books I. and X. shows, what indeed is clear enough with-
out it, that the Pope's interpretations of conduct and
motive are Browning's interpretations ; and it is not less
certain that the theological reasonings of the monologue
are for the most part Browning's reasonings. X The inter-
pretations and the reasonings occupy between them nearly
all Book X., which is therefore in a sense Browning's
own soliloquy.
That the Pope should pass judgmejit on Guido, Capon-
1 So, for example, Signora Zarapini-Salazar in her admirable study of The
Ring and the Book : non esito a considerarlo la parte piii forte ed interessante
dell' intero poema (La Vita e le Opere di R. B. ed E. B.-B. p. 66).
198
BOOK X.—THE POPE I!)'.)
sacchi, and the rest was of course the reason for his
inclusion nmi>n<r the poet's nine speakers. So far as the
story is concerned it was his one and only jjbity ; in dis-
i-hargiiig it In- is admirably sureT direct—trenchant : though
in his awards of praise and blame he is Browning's mouth-
piece, the anachronism thereby involved1 is too slight
to need defence!! IF is otherwise with the theological
disquisitions. They are a manifest ' divagation ' ; the
Pope treads in those bypaths uncej±ainjy, his conclusions
an- often tentative ; in large parts of his reasonings the
anachronism is flagrant.
When Innocent has completed 2 his pronouncement
on the actors of his drama, ' all and some ', we expect
him to proceed at once, or at any rate after a formal rejec-
tion of the claim of ' clericate ', to give effect to that pro-
nouncement by passing sentence on the actor with whom
he is primarily concerned. The expectation is not fulfilled ;
sentence is deferred for some SOO lines. A deriding voice 3
lures the Pope from the straight path into Innpr Hiapnpqinna
MII the ultiinat_e basis of Christianity, the probable el'i
a religion of an age of doubt, the ethics and T-hebl-
Ruripides — discussions obviously unhelpfulvto him in
his task, which indeed has already been practically com-
pleted. Mr. Stopford Brooke, who noted that they * land
aim exactly at the point from which he set out', found
them, as others have found them, ' wearisome '. protested
that 'we might have been spared all this ' 4 ; the theology
Beems to have struck him, as the invitation to introduce
it -truck the Pope5, \vith a kind of chill in a poem so full
of the ' incandescent vitality ' of its author, so rich in the
presentation of life alike in its outward aspects and in its
passions, its < -rimes, its heroisms. Now you cannot prove
to people who find a thing wearisome that it is on the
contrary enlivening ; but the introduction of theology
into Book X. ha-g ft dra™*f*° fifp^n^ as a closer exa"mina-
tion will presently show.
Meanwhile a candid reader will admit that the glaring
anachronism to which I have referred is hard to justify.
Theology, if you like, he will say. but this theology ? It
i See e.g. note on X. 534-6.
X. 1265. ' Hrnti-tiiHi?, p. -111. » X. 1253.
200 THE RING AND THE BOOK
is impossible theology for a seventeenth -century (indeed
for any) pope, even for this ' strange Pope, a priest who
thinks ' 1. It is Browning's theolpgy/frand the arguments /
used in its support are Browning's characteristic arguments ; ^
so that those critics whose concern with the poet's poetry
is to construct from it the theologian's theology have good
warrant for quarrying a large part of their materials from
what profess to be the utterances of a very different person.
If, however, no sufficient apologia can be offered for the
intrusion of Browning's theological reasonings into Book
X., a kind of apologetic plea for their intrusion may perhaps
be advanced ; there is^, it may fairly be submitted , a certain
gain in_their a.ppf>arflno.p, in The Ring and the Book. In
this"" Eis^greatest poem we find those many sides of the
many-sided master for which most of us care most, his
amazingly accurate observation, his extensive and peculiar
erudition, his robust humour, his lively wit, his vigorous
swiftness, his wealth of imagination, his sure ' insight and
outsight ', his abiding sense of the__pre-eminence of love.
It is well that we should also find there the more purely
intellectual Browning, that there should be a place in it
*16r the characteristic arguments by which he worked so
often to conclusions by which he set such store, that life
is probation, that probation means sorrow and sin, that
, men must be judged by their aims and their efforts and
/ not by their product, that the weakness of a faith_may
be_ its strength, that ' the growing religious intelligence
waTETBest by a receding light ' 2, that man's highest hope
is based on his imjaerfection^that self-sacrificing love is
-an essential and a constant part of the perfection of
If no sufficient case can be made out for the injection
of Browning's argumentative processes into Innocent's
mind, a critic is on firm ground when he maintains that
the Pope is represented rightly, and at just the right
moment, as visited by blank juisgiyings and obstinate
quesjkiQniiu^_i^^ system which
is bound up with Catholic theology. His investigation
of the Guido - PompiliaT "tragedy has shown him that he
moves in a world in which the ideal of that system is worlds
i Caponsacchi in VI. 478. 2 gee note on X. 1366.
BOOK X.—THE POPE 201
from realization, and it is most natural that a poignant
that^jts joundatipns may In- inseemv should
_^
' rap and knock and enter in his soul ' l.
\V<- lind in Book X. two most striking contrasts in the
Pope's personality. One is the familiar contrast between
the mere weak old man and the divinely-commissioned
autoctaT who wields ; tlie~ thunderbolts 61 Heaven ' ~*. The
cither, ^and perhaps the more important, is between that
autocrat and Antonio Pignatelli, the
seTT*"! \Ve~~sFart with Innocent as Pope, seeking for instruc-
tion from the chronicles of his predecessors. ,He lights
upon an un propitious passaged As he pores over the
quaint and modifying story of Formosus 3 a touch of
humour colours his paraphrase of his document ; but on
reflection he
Starts somewhat, solemnizes straight hi.s smile4,
for the story forces upon him a s< •» -plica! conclusion about
the value of papal4udgments— '•
(Which of the judgments was infallible ?
Which of my predec < — >i- -|><>kr (Or <.<xl ?)5 —
he sets forth on his journey with ill omens. Yet no man,
however sceptical intellectually, is invested with supreme
authority, and a fortiori with authority deemed divine,
without a certain resultant M-lt - conlidence, purely in-
stinctive and illogical though it may be, and the Pope's
figure seems suddenly to straighten itself — ' Irresolute ?
Not I'6; as he enlarges on the theme of the weak old
man condemning the strong man ' in the plenitude of life
it ia the >ense of his high authority that supports him all
the time. — In lines 399-1252 he unravels the tangle of the
story ; before entering on the task he appeals for guidance
toliis shrc\\d pR^papal self . Much has lie seen and known
in the lm>y yean \\hen lie was 'no pope so long', and
that stored experience, aided by the intuitions of old age —
<*hop Blougram'8 Apology. — The dramatic effect of the monologue is to a
great extent lost by readers who take the view expressed e.g. by Mr. sharp (Life
of Browning, p. 126) that * all this section [Book X.J has a lofty serenll > '.
- \ . . the Pope, so often but a weak old man. In ;i trcinhliim hand an- laid
the tliuii(lfil"i|t- <>i iif..\cn ' i ' itvu'iirovius).
\\liirli niiu'ht, in-rliaps, have been compresHcd. s»-.- iK.tr un x. iM-i:.7.
•» 1. l-:.f,. 5 x. lil-±
202 THE RING AND THE BOOK
fires that more and more
Visit a soul, in passage to the sky,
Left nakeder than when flesh -robe was new — ,
guides him as he investigates1. And yet for all his dis-
avowal he still relies on his commission as Christ's Vicar ;
if he speaks and will act ' resolvedly ' it is because, as he
says a little later,
I it is who have been appointed here
To represent Thee, in my turn, on earth . . .
Incomprehensibly the choice is Thine !
I therefore bow my head and take Thy place 2.
One stark staring fact has, however, confronted him
throughout, a fact most injurious to papal authority and
to the pyramid of which it is the apex. The representa-^
tives of the Church have been discredited by hislnvestiga-
tlpns — a point emphasized by the circumstance that it is
only because the villain of the piece has claimed clerical
privilege that the Pope has come in as investigator — ,
whereas the nobility and the heroism that have been
A brought to light have sprung from simple human virtue
\> "j in characters either practically, outside the Church's
\ influence or unspoilt in spite of it. All this leads to the
raising of the speculative question, Is the Christian revela-i
knowledge of God]
_
, _ v- dqes_ it _.notseem even to hamper ? and to the doubt
L whether it might not Be well that the Pope's world should!
be rudely shaken from its ' torpor of assurance '. Such
I misgivings present themselves inevitably to his mind, and
his avowal of them adds immensely to the dramatic force
of his soliloquy. As ' in the dim droop of the sombre
February day ' which reflects the winter of his disillusion
and discontent 3 he avows his doubts, is forced to this
or that disquieting admission, offers this or that tentative
solution of a perplexity, the ' thrill ' that chills most of
us is not solely or chiefly caused, as it was caused in Mr.
Brooke's case, by his introduction of ' irrelevant ' theology.
—But he ends this drama within a drama in another key.
1 X. 383-98 ; cf. 1241 seqq.
2 X.- 1333-4, 1346-7.
'• I. 1235-6 ; cf. X. 283-4 and especially 212-13 :
I have worn through this sombre wintry day,
With winter in my soul beyond the world's.
I
BOOK X.—THE POPE 203
' A voice quickens his spirit ' ; in pronouncing sentence he
recaptures once again the unfaltering note of unquestioned
authority l.
It is a serious defect of the Yellow Book as the record
of a trial in which the balance was, as 'Browning said,
hard to strike^that it contains neither summing-up nor
verclict. Book X. fills the gap. It contains, the poet
teTis his readers, 'the ultimate iu(lLMnent_jiave_ vours_'_^.
and this judgment was no doubt in substance tlie judg-
ment of the real Innocent ; but in all its details it is
Browning's only. For except as the recipient of con-
ventional compliments the Pope is not prominent in the
Yellow Book. We learn indeed from the First Anony-
mous Pamphlet that the Abate Paolo, seeing that the
proceedings in the Process of Flight were protracted,
addressed a memorial to the Holy Father, praying him
to appoint a special Congregation to determine all the
cases, civil and criminal, which had arisen out of the
Guido-Ponipilia marriage, and that the Pope refused 3 ;
but certain letters, written on the evening of the day
of Guido's execution, to the Florentine Cencini^/were
Browning's only authority for the later unsuccessful
appeal, and they speak of it very briefly : —
Judging it expedient not to postpone the execution of the sentence
already determined His Holiness thought well, by a social decree
under his signature, to deny all clerical privilege.4
[Clerical privilege was claimed, but] the Pope >iLrn<<! the death-
warrant yesterday and determined that it should In- definitely executed
to-day.*
Last evening at two hours of the night [i.e. about 8 P.M.] my Lord
signed the death-warrant, disallowing [?] the clericate.*
An account of tho Innocent XII. of history, with whom
Browning was intimately acquainted, will be found in
Appendix VII.
1 X. 2100, cf. 1956-8.— The finest and perhaps the most app.-sit.* part «f the
Pope's disquisitions is the appeal of Buripldes: on this appeal ami tin- Pope's
answer see the note on X. 1670-1790. On his interesting allusions to tin- Molinists
see Appendix VIII. 1 221 i--J I .
3 O.Y.B. cxlvii., E.L. 150; cf. the Second Anonymous Pamphlet. O.Y.B.
ccxxv., E.L. 226. See III. 1471 seqq., and many passages In later Books.
I n.y.n. .-,A\XM:
6 O.Y.R. ccs
204 THE RING AND THE BOOK
NOTES
(N.B. — The numbering of the lines in the notes to this Book, after
line 92, is that of the second and all subsequent eamons, but not that
of the first. See ' Lines Added ' in Appendix XL )
1. Like to Ahasuerus.} Esther vi. 1 : ' On that night could not
the long sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of the records
of the chronicles ; and they were read before the king '. The
reading, however, unlike that of Innocent, was of the records of
contemporary events ; Ahasuerus did not ' question ' his predecessors
and ' take instruction so '.
2. these seven years now}, i.e. since he became Pope in 1691.
9.] Ecclesiastes xii. 12.
11. Alexander last.} Alexander VIII., his immediate predecessor.
14. Suchanone.} I am informed that in the Browning Society
of a certain university-town ' Suchanone ' was taken for a proper
name and that search was made for it in lists of the Popes !
16. ill.} See the second paragraph of Browning's Cenciaja,
where he speaks, in a stinging^arenthesis, of the multiplicity of
records of
injustice done by God
In person of his Vicar-upon-earth.
23. shall be stretched, etc.} An allusion, perhaps, to the practice
of placing in a Pope's coffin a parchment-register of his acts.
24-157.] The story of the trial of Pope Formosus (A.D, 891-6)
was told with variations of detail by many chroniclers and is re-told
in many modern books. Possibly, as has been suggested (Hall
Griffin, pp. 20-23), Browning's interest in the story was due to his
having read it as a boy in Wanley's Wonders of the Little World,
but the allusions to it in that book (p. 477) are not particularly
arresting. — Innocent was unfortunate in lighting on so unhelpful
a chronicle. The trial was an incident in the quarrel of pro-German
and anti- German imperialistic factions, and serves chiefly to illustrate
the degradation of the papacy between the death of Nicholas I.
(867) and the accession of Hildebrand (1073). In those two
centuries there were more than fifty popes, many of whom died
by violence.
32. seventh of the name.} He is generally known as Stephen VI.
(A.D. 896-7). When Professor Hodell called Mr. R. B. Browning's
attention to what he said was the poet's ' mistake ' upon the point,
Mr. Browning admitted that his father's memory 'was not at its
best in dates and figures ' (O.Y.B. 337). That is true, but the poet
was justified in calling this Pope, as Wanley (see last note) calls
him, Stephen VII. He is so called in the official list of the Roman
BOOK X.—THE POPE 205
Curia, and the uncertainty between ' sixth ' and * seventh ' is due
to the fact that a Stephen, whom that list recognizes as Stephen II.,
is omitted in other lists because though elected Pope (in 752)
lit- died a few days or months afterwards, in any case before
• 'on- •< Mtion. See Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papstthums,
PP. 268-9.
:;'.». as embalmed.} ' Before the time of Julius II. | ir,O.VlH| tho
bodies of the dead Popes were not opened and embalmed ' (Story,
Roba di Roma, p. 517, where what was then the usage is minutely
:l)Cd).
40. biirieil duly in the Vatican.] St. Peter's has been the usual
burial place of Popes except in two periods : (1) in the third, fourth,
and early fifth centuries, when they were usually buried in the
catacombs ; and (2) in the eleventh and twelfth, when twelve
Poj>es were buried in the Lateran. Some twenty rest in other
c it ies of Italy, and the Popes of the ' Babylonish captivity ' (1305-78)
in France. Of about 265 Popes ' more than 150 are believed to lie
in St. Peter's alone ', but many of their tombs have disappeared ;
none survive from that period of degradation, the ninth and tenth
centuries. See Gregorovius, Tombs of the Popes, especially chapter i.
89. 1X9X2], the initial letters of 'I^oPs X/KOTOS 0eoP Tt6s I'WTTJP
us Christ, son of God, Saviour) make up the Greek word for
' fish '. A fish is a common symbol both of Christ and of Christianity
in the catacombs, and is often found in early Christian gems with
other Christian symbols — the olive-branch, the pastoral staff, the
anchor, the cross, the dove (see Westcott, Religious Thought in
the
91. (FifihermjiUH^ Because of the saying of Christ to Peter and
Andrew."* J.. will make you fishers of men' (Matthew iv. 19).
!'_. Ffsh&r's-sianttA^ The Pope's anelh pexrulorio is so called
from its HeaT, which is a representation of St. Peter fishing from
his boat. Clement IV. (1265-8), who first mentions it, speaks of
it as used by the Popes in their private correspondence. When a
Pope is deposed, the ring is solemnly drawn from his finger ; when
a Pope dies, the ring is destroyed. The new Pope is presented with
another, on which his name is inscribed (Tuker and Malleson,
Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome, part iv. p. 341).
103. Stephen.] A.D. 896-7.
108. Theodore] II. ; A.D. 897.
129. John] IX. ; A.D. 898-900.
I .: I . /•;//'/« King of France] = Odo, Count of Paris, who was elected
t the Western Franks in 888 after the death of Charlis the
Fat; he died on the last day of 898. For the 'synod' held at
liaveima owin-r t" disturkme.-x at Koine see Slilman, Latin
t'lirltlinnili/. iii. p. lM I.
l.m mob ,iH hints blank. \ Cf. 077 !.--lo\v : ' the blot is blanched \
1.17. . I-//-///MXJ, who gives, inter «//</, a lively account of Pope
206 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Stephen's proceedings in his In Defensionem sacrce ordinationis
papce Formosi libellus ; see Mirbt, Quellen, pp. 100-101.
142. Sergius] III. ; A.D. 904-11.
155-7.] Matthew x. 28.
164.] John ix. 4.
166. my six and fourscore years."] Not quite accurate ; he was
born in March 1615, and was now not quite 83. See note on 2080-81.
— . my due Labour and sorrow.} Psalm xc. 10.
174.] Understand * he ' before ' gives ' ; see lines 176 and 197.
182.] The words ' ye shall not surely die ' in Genesis iii. 4 are
of course the serpent's, but the ' license ' here meant is that implied
in Genesis vi. 3.
200. yonder passion], the hard task of decreeing Guide's death.
203. A touch o' the hand-bell here.} Cf. 235, 282; suggested
perhaps to Browning by the silver hand -bell which stands on the
table before Leo X. in his portrait by Raphael in the Pitti.
212-13. this sombre wintry day, etc.} See Introduction to Book X.
217.] For the ' summaries ' (summaria) see note on I. 146.
221], i.e. what line of defence Guido's advocates thought it
more judicious to take.
222-6.] There is no evidence in the records that Guido defended
himself before the torture was employed or threatened (see Appendix
VI.) otherwise than he did afterwards.
228. a clear rede.} The N.E.D. quotes this passage for ' rede '
in the sense of ' tale ', comparing Marmion, U Envoy :
Why then a final note prolong,
Or lengthen out a closing song,
Who long have listed to my rede ?
236. Irresolute? Not I.} See Introduction to Book X.—
Irresolution is precisely the fault which historians find with Innocent ;
see Appendix VII.
236-7. the mound With the pine trees on it yonder.} Dr. Ashby
understands the reference to be to the Villa Barberini, S.E. of the
Piazza di S. Pietro, between the Porta Cavalleggieri and the Porta
S. Spirito — a spur of the Janiculum, with pine trees on it.
244. Peasants of mine cry, etc.} For Innocent's accessibility
to the poor see Appendix VII.
250. Breathe a veiri]= lance it, so as to draw blood ; the phrase
is ' archaic or obsolete ' (N.E.D.}.
272-5.] Contrast 341-5. — The doctrine that it is 'the seed of
act ' that God ' appraises ' is constantly enforced by Browning ;
the 'vulgar' judge by 'act', he says, 'it is the outward product
men appraise ' (below, 1673 seqq.). Cf. Rabbi Ben Ezra, especially
stanzas vn., xxin.-v. ; Saul, xvm. :
What stops my despair ?
This ; — 't is not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do !
BOOK X.—THE POPE 207
The port often asserts the same doctrine in the sphere of art; see
Dowden. l!n>irnhiy, p. 147.
286. Tlii/ chill persistent ram.] Cf. XII. 54-5.
293. How do they call him ?\ I cannot answer the question.
According to Dr. Berdoe (Browning Cyclopcedia, p. 440) ' the
sagacious Swede ' is Swedenborg, but Swedenborg was only ten
years old in 1698, and I cannot find that he at any time concerned
hi HIM -If with the Theory of Probability.
297-8.] For the ' Virgilian dip ' see V. 402, note. — The words
' when such shall point ' depend directly on ' who finds ' (294) ;
' point ' = ' indicate something which is to happen '.
319.] See note on 166 above.
347 seqq.] As Agamemnon says in JSschylus (Ag. 813), S/KOJ
oi' K diro y\w<r<rT)S 6eol K\I>OVT(S \fnj<f>ov^ , . . [ridevrai].
349 seqq.] Browning constantly declares that human testimony
is worthless ; cf. XII. 690-93 :
who trusts
To human testimony for a fact
Gets this sole fact — himself is proved a fool ! —
and XII. 836-40. See also A Death in the Desert, line 371 :
What truth was ever told the second day ?
Indeed he declares that language fails altogether to express truth ;
see the end of Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau and Mr. Stopford
Brooke's remarks upon it (Browning, p. 421).
'>.] Cf. VII. 1727, where Pompilia urges in Guide's defence
that hate ' was the truth of him '.
358. So was I made.] Cf. VII. 1731.
376. Have no renewing], i.e. cannot be cleansed ; the truth
cannot be extracted from them. Yet the Pope has said that from
the particular 'filthy rags of speech' with which he is here con-
cerned (i.e. from the ' dismal documents ' of the murder-trial) the
truth can be extracted :
Truth, IK •\vlu-n-. yet lies everywhere in these —
Not absolutely in a portion, yet
i:\ol\ible from the whole : evolved at last
Painfully, held tenaciously by me (229-32).
376-7. He, the Truth, is, too, The Word.] God alone is the Truth,
or, to put it otherwise, His word alone is true, and alone deserves
to be called ' The Word'. The Pope is simply saying in other
words * God is true and every man a liar *. the text of the
Augustinian's sermon (XI 1. OOP- 6Ql). -Jh'ivint le Verbe, la Parole
par excellence, toiite parole sera vaine. Mais ici, pour les hommes,
pour nnns~memes, /< Ixxoiti <l> //<o/\. rl rein r.rj>li<fiie son
Inny }>l'ii'/-»/' r I I'KTIV P. i L'« r. /,'••//•/•/ I!r'»rnimj. p. L'L' I .
208 THE RING AND THE BOOK
381. That I am I, as He is He.] That his own existence and
God's existence are the only facts of which a man can have absolute
knowledge is often asserted by Browning. It is the starting-
point of his argument in La Saisiaz (lines 217-22).
384-7.] In Ranke's summary of a Relazione of the Venetian
envoy Contarini (see Appendix VII.) we read that Innocent was
early admitted to the prelature. He became vice-legate of Urbino,
legislator of Malta, governor of Perugia, was afterwards nuncio to
Florence, administered the Polish nunciature for eight years, and
was then entrusted with that of Germany. The latter office was
commonly followed by the cardinal's hat, but Clement IX. did not
so reward him ; recalling him to Italy, he made him bishop of
Lezze, ' on the extreme boundaries of Naples '. In 1681, when
Innocent XI. was Pope, he became a cardinal and immediately
afterwards bishop of Faenza, legate of Bologna, and archbishop of
Naples (History of the Popes, iii. pp. 461-2). '
392. Left nakeder than when flesh-robe was new.] Cf. Rabbi Ben
Ezra and especially A Death in the Desert, lines 198-205, where St.
John (who has so much in common with the Pope) says in his old
age:—
And how shall I assure them ? Can they share
— They, who have flesh, a veil of youth and strength
About each spirit, that needs must bide its time,
Living and learning still as years assist
Which wear the thickness thin, and let man see —
With me who hardly am withheld at all,
But shudderingly, scarce a shred between,
Lie bare to the universal prick of light ?
The same thought is conveyed in a somewhat similar metaphor
by Waller on Old Age : —
The soul's dark cottage, batter' d and decay'd,
Lets in new light thro' chinks that Time has made.
398.] Luke xvi. 8. — The reference to ' the world ' is explained
by line 393.
404. A solid intellect.] See Introduction to Book XI. It was
by Browning that Guido was ' furnished forth ' with a solid intellect.
409. Is this our ultimate stage, etc.] On Browning's view of life
as probation see note on 1375 seqq. below.
413. makes the stumbling-block a stepping-stone.] Cf. the words
of St. Augustin, often quoted in illustration of In Memoriam, I. :
De vitiis nostris scalam facimus si vitia ipsa calcamus.
423. her main mankind], the mass of men, as ' the mainland ' in
1608 below means the bulk of a country contrasted with its mere
frontier-fringe. ' Her ' is an improvement on the ' the ' of the
first edition.
424-6.] Nature endows the mass of men with an instinct to obey
BOOK X.—THE POPE 209
• ' it.iin moral laws, s<> that at first they find it harder to do wrong
than to do ri<dit. As long as they listen to this instinct and obey
tin •>»• laws life proceeds in an orderly measure and march. Should
they turn a deaf ear and disobey, the measure would be broken,
the nian-h thrown out of step ; nature's careful purpose would be
defeated
437. marts obedience], i.e. his obligation to obey.
440-43.] See note on I. 261-5.
453. irreligiousest.] For the superlative see note on I. 205.
458. sluide or shine.] See note on I. 1373.
466. ombrifnge.] Apparently coined by Browning. It does not
mean, as P.enloe supposed, 'a place where one flies for skade'-
that has already been expressed by ' sunscreen ' ; C. S. C.'s ' ombri-
fuge (Lord love you !) case o' rain' interprets it correctly. The
word is 'irregularly formed from Greek 6nppos* (N.E.D.); why
did not Browning write • imUrifuge ' from Latin itnberl
175.] .Mark vi. 39, 40.
484. in ih,- limit.] Cf. I. 756.
486-510.] Cf. IX. 370-73, where Bottini remarks parenthetically
that
The Pope, we know, is Neapolitan
And relishes a sea-side simile.
510. give it to the soldier-crab], i.e. leave your clericate-casing
for one who will really do battle for the church. The soldier-crab
(i.e. hermit-crab) ' carries its shell about with it and changes it
for a larger one as it increases in size '.
511. / find this black mark impinge the man.] The use of 'to
impinge ' with an accusative of the thing or person struck ' is now
rare or obsolete' (N.E.D.). — Is it possible that (as 'black m,,rk '
us to suggest) Browning is here coining a verb from the Latin
pingere (' to paint ') ?
522-8.] The Pope intends to judge Guide's life by taking his
' last deliberate act ' as a sample of it, just as in 340-45 above he
conceives of God as judging his life by his 'latest act', by what
his life ' last put heart and soul into ', i.e. by his condemnation of
Guido.
530. enough], i.e. with sufficient reason.
534-6.] Guide's motives in marrying, says the Pope, were as
far removed as possible from those commonly alleged as the right
motives, by which he feigned that he was -actuated. The word
•farthest' must in L'lammar agree \\ith 'this marriage', but it
really refeis to (iuido's motives ; and ' so they \\rre ' must mean —
what it expresses obscurely 'they were indeed alleged by Guido
to bo ///.«* motives '. There is perhaps an anachronism in the severity
of the Pope's condemnation of a nuirin'ji " Mice, and some
unfairness in his assertion, supported neither \>\ the records nor
P
210 THE RING AND THE BOOK
by the narratives in the poem, that Guide seriously professed that
he had been moved by the ' permissible impulses ' of 538-9.
540. all to instigate] seems to mean ' all that goes to instigate
him ' ; note the repetition of ' all ' in line 543. Guide's sole motive
in marrying, says the Pope, was one that ' sinks man past level
of the brute ', viz. ' the lustjtar, .money '.
542. Whose appetite if <hrutishj,s a truth.} Cf. 356 above, and
VII. 1727.
557. a month.'} Strictly speaking, four months, viz. from early
in December 1693 to early in April 1694. See Appendix III.
567. painted plain], i.e. in his mind ; see 553.
•68QT gor-crojJi^i.e. carrion-crow ; ' gor ' = ' filth '. Cf. Aristo-
phanes'Apology^p. 121 :
Larks and nightingales
Are silenced, here and there a gor-crow grim
Flaps past, as scenting opportunity.
580-81.] The comparison is not quite apposite to what im-
mediately follows. Guido found, not that the Comparini treated
those weaker than themselves, but that they treated him, as he
treated them.
590-91. the curious crime, the fine Felicity . . . of wickedness.]
Guide's crime was ingeniously and carefully thought out ; it showed
what Petronius called a curiosa felicitas.
595. the parents, else would triumph.'] See note on 738-40.
600. Revenge, the manlier sin.] The same idea is suggested in
III. 663-5.
611-19.] Cf. III. 711 seqq.
620-30.] See note on I. 631-4. Elaborated similes are more
frequent in Book X. than elsewhere in the poem ; see 1175-9 and
2119-28.
650.] See Appendix IV.
654. that other Aretine.] Pietro Aretino (A.D. 1492-1557);
there are references to him in IX. 1204 (' Thy wicked townsman's
sonnet-book ') and in XI. 1962-3 :
where does Venus order we stop sense
When Master Pietro rhymes a pleasantry ?
He was ' the greatest railer of modern times ', and perhaps the most
licentious, the most corrupt, the boldest and the most dangerous.
' That notorious ribald of Arezzo ', Milton calls him in Areopagitica,
' dreaded and yet dear to the Italian courtiers '. ' Every one
knows ', writes Addison (Spectator, No. 23), ' that all the Kings of
Europe were his tributaries '. It caused surprise that he did not
aim his ribaldry at God, and his epitaph gave a reason why :—
Qui giace 1' Aretino, poeta Tosco,
Che disse mal d' ognun, fuorche di Dio,
Scusandosi col dir, Non lo conosco.
BOOK X.—THE POPE 211
reason has been suggested, viz. that 'he could extort no
money from God by threats or flattery, and was consequently never
goaded into blasphemy by a refusal ' (Burckhardt, The Renaissance
in It'll//, pp. 167-8).
674. A second time.] For the first time see 575 seqq. above.
686-7.] Note the optimistic turn which Browning gives to the
familiar proverb.
695. armed to the chattering teeth.] Guide's advocates main-
tained that when he appeared at Castelnuovo he was either un-
armed (O.Y.B. cxliv., E.L. 148) or, at any rate, armed only with
a travelling-sword (ense viatorio solummodo instructus, O.Y.B.
( \i\ ., E.L. 122). Even the prosecuting advocate Bottini is content
to argue that if Guido pursued the fugitives unarmed it was his
own fault (O.Y.B. cxcix., E.L. 203).
703. Failing the first.} Guide's first chance came to him through
the purity of Caponsacchi and Pompilia, which prevented the sin
that he had schemed to bring about.
706. Nor does amiss f the main.] Cf. VII. 1649, where Pompilia
says that (so far as she was concerned) ' the judges judged aright
i' the main '.
714.] 1 Corinthians iii. 15.
719. the unmanly means], i.e. to revenge ('the manlier sin';
see above, 600).
724.] For such * ignominious means ' see Story, Roba di Roma,
p. .448 ; cf. VII. 678.
727. follows in the chase], viz. his intimates at Arezzo, who
would back him in taking vengeance on his wife and her alleged
paramour, but not in taking it by 'unmanly means' and 'vile
practice ' ; these, we have been told (in 710), exposed him to 'public
scorn '.
738-40.] A cursory glance at lines 733-42 as printed in the
later editions shows that the punctuation in 737 cannot be what
Browning intended. ' Craft, greed and violence ', he says in 733,
• complot revenge ', and after a colon their respective parts in the
plot are described, other colons dividing the descriptions. But
this orderly arrangement is upset by the full stop which has been
introduced, no doubt by a printer's error (see the note on 768 below),
into the middle of the second description (after ' beside ' in 737).
It should be a comma, and there should be no comma before ' beside ' ;
so in the first and second editions.
The metaphor here employed is drawn from the bright spots
with which sunshine chequers the ground under a tree. The
branches, twigs, leaves of the tree, which intercept much of the
sunshine, are Pietro and his family, who intercept a flow of revenue ;
they prevent the gold from falling upon the ground in a flood for
(iuido to scoop up. His grood therefore prompts him to destroy
them ; he will crush the tree, twigs, leaves and all.
212 THE EING AND THE BOOK
With ' possible sunshine < which > else would coin itself '
compare IX. 539 :
All those professions, else were hard explain ;
X. 594-5 :
[he determines to] pluck one last arch -pang
From the parents, else would triumph out of reach ;
X. 1375-7 :
I can believe this dread machinery
Of sin and sorrow, would confound me else,
Devised [for such and such purposes].
741-2. Advantage proved And safety sure.] Greed and craft having
gained their respective ends.
743. Murder with jagged knife.] See note on II. 147 ; Guido
had a dagger
Triangular in the blade, a Genoese,
Armed with those little hook-teeth on the edge
To open in the flesh nor shut again.
Cf. VIII. 1170.
748-51.] Genesis viii. 4, 11.
752-74.] If Guido killed Pompilia before she had given birth
to an heir, the capital of which Pietro had the usufruct would go
to his kinsmen, the ' rightful heirs ' of II. 580 ; he had therefore a
strong motive for sparing her till after her confinement. This
argument, borrowed from Bottini, has already been used in III.
1546-69 (where see note) and in IV. 1102-6. — I do not follow the
Pope's suggestion that before Gaetano's birth Guido had the same
motive for sparing Pietro and Violante.
761. thou], i.e. the money-bag, with which Guide's soul is
identified. See below, 795-6.
768. come what, come will.] Browning took great pains with
his punctuation (see Appendix XL), but he Was not a lynx-eyed
reviser of proofs ; the strange comma after ' what ' appears in all
the editions.
779-81.] The golden age of Saturn (Quam bene Saturno vivebant
rege /) is a commonplace in Latin poetry ; cf. IX. 1227.
784-7.] .The evidence given by Guido and his accomplices hi
the course of the trial (O.Y.B. cxxvii.-cxxx., E.L* 135-7) shows
that he had no difficulty in persuading them.
788. Christ's birthnight-eve.] See note on V. 1581.
789-90.] Luke ii. 14.
793. what is it I said ?] See above, 760.
794. he suffered cling.} Cf. XL 1272, 'I did not suffer them
subside '.
801.] James i/15.
BOOK X.—THE POPE 213
805.] God will not suffer sin to go on to the end unchecked.
809. Exceed the service.] It is suggested that up to a certain
point sin may subserve God's purposes.
818. Needs but to ask and have, etc.} Cf. III. 70, VI. 1093, V.
1723, ' with a warrant which 'tis ask and have '. For Guide's
oversight, of which Browning read in the Secondary Source (0. Y.B.
212, E.L. 264), see III. 1628-30, V. 1722-5, XL 1625-50, and
especially the Introduction to Book XI.
822. if a ducat sweeten word.] Cf. XI. 1627-35 :
Any day o' the week,
A ducat slid discreetly into palm
0' the mute post-master, while you whisper him . . .
. . . secures you any day
The pick o' the stable !
824. how should he], i.e. how he would, if asked. In the first
edition we have here ' in such wise | The resident . . . years, |
Guido, instructs, etc. '.
825. resident at Rome for thirty years.] A mistake ; see note
on IV. 392.
830-32.] See note on V. 1725.
834-6.] See O.Y.B. v.-viii. (E.L. 5-7), where the Sentence is
given in full, and the note on XI. 1663-9.
835. just pronounced.] Agrees, not with * sentence ', but with
' satire-upon-a-sentence '. The sentence was confirmed by the
Court at Florence on December 24, 1697 — two months before the
Pope rejected Guide's appeal.
838-41.] Cf. V. 1860-65, where Guido is made to speak as the
Pope here represents ; he suggests that the judges in the Process
of Tlight may be accused of having
made common cause
With the cleric section, punished in myself
Maladroit uncomplaisant laity,
Defective in behaviour to a priest
Who claimed the customary partnership
I' the house and the wife. *
848. the few permissible miles], ' permissible ' to men on foot
and worn out ; elsewhere called * a prodigious twenty mi Irs '
(III. 1633, where see note).
850-51.] Matthew viii. 30-32, and elsewhere.
854-5. He curses the omission, etc.] See Guide's comments upon
it in XI. 1625-50.
856-7.] 'The oversight about the warrant, which hamstrung
you (thwarted your flight) to your supposed hurt, was really a
mercy-stroke ; it saved your life (and thereby gave you a chance
of saving your soul — see below, 867-8). For if you had remembered
to get the warrant, though you would have rsrajwd arrrst and
214 THE RING AND THE BOOK
perhaps crossed the frontier, you would have been murdered
promptly by your comrades '.
In XI. 1649-50 Guido says of the post-master who refused to
supply him with horses without the necessary permission : —
He dares not stop me, we five glare too grim,
But hinders, — hacks and hamstrings sure enough.
861-3.] This, like the omission to get a warrant, is drawn from
the Secondary Source only ; see note on VIII. 1590-1601.
867. Thither], i.e. ' to thy doom '. The Pope still hopes that
Guido may be saved by repentance ; cf. 2117-18 below.
869-1238.] Having dealt with Guido (163-868), with whom of
course he is primarily concerned, the Pope proceeds to condemn
the other evil-doers (869-1003) : Guide's brothers and his mother
(869-925) ; his four accomplices (925-64) ; his backers at Arezzo
(965-93), especially the Governor (971-85) and the Bishop (986-93).
A vindication of Pompilia (1004-94) and of Caponsacchi (1095-
1212) follows ; and a balanced judgment — half condemnation and
half vindication — upon the Comparini (1213-33) ends the first part
of the monologue.
871 seqq.] Cf. I. 554 seqq. and below, 994-1003.—' If Browning
once or twice gives his fantasy play, it is in describing the black
cave of a palace at Arezzo into which the white Pompilia is borne,
the cavejuaeHtir denizens ' (Dowden, Browning, p. 260).
SSqfJbx-faced.] jCf. I. 549.
SSffiT:1] 'AutiJ \K. 1-10.
893. Paul steps back the due distance.] For Paolo's departure
from Rome and its motive see note on III. 1540-41.
896-909.] For Girolamo, as represented in the records and in
the poem, see^natffTmTT. 5*00-503.
911. Tfo.tfjrMixtf. gray njghtmare.^} A writer of A.D. 1340, quoted
in the N. ^.^r-co«pkfrnigntmares to foxes and wolves, just as
Beatrice as nightmare is here associated with Guiolo^jis jjrnlf and
Paolo as fox (880-82 above).
931-46.] See above, 784-7 and note.
947.] The earlier editions have 'As cattle would, bid march
or halt ! '
951. noble human heart], i.e. the heart which feels the nobility
of loyal service to a superior.
954. Religion.] Cf. 2076-7 below :
over-loyal as these four
Who made religion of their patron's cause.
955.] See Arcangeli's audacious defence of Guide's confederates
in VIII. 1603-16.
964. none of them exceeds the twentieth year.] The Pope is mis-
taken. 'Minority' (i.e. that they were under 25) was claimed
BOOK X.—THE POT!' 215
for only two of the four, vi/. for I )omenico Gambassini and Francesco
l';iM<|iiini (U.Y.ll. .\x.\i\.. rxxxviii.. OOXXX., A'./.. 37, 143, 232).
For J*iiHf|uini a l)apt isiual eertilieate was prodneed which proves
that In- wa.x nearly '1\ at the time of the murders (O.Y.B. ccxxx..
A'. L. I'.lL'i: and a letter written by Arcangeli on the day of the
executions shows that it was for him alone that the claim was
ultimately pressed (O.Y.B. ccxxxv., E.L. 235; cf. O.Y.H. • \\\i\..
E.L. 238).
971-2. thou know'st Civility better] than to interfere with a
husband on his wife's behalf ; cf. 2032-5 below. For ' Civility '
see note on II. 1473.
972. Marzi- Medici.] The Governor of Arezzo signs hi HIM -If
Vincenzo Marzi-Medici in a letter to Paolo (O.Y.B. Ixxxii., E.L.
90). He does not himself speak of Pompilia's appeals to him,
but they were attested by others (O. Y.B. liii., E.L. ~>4).
973. thy kinxman the Granduke.] Cosimo III., who was then
reigning, was the last but one of the Grand Dukes of the Medici
dynasty. According to Professor Hall Griffin the Governor was
not related to him ; he was the son of a Florentine lawyer (Life
of Robert Browning, p. 315).
987. Archbishop.] For Pompilia's appeals to the Bishop (not,
as the poet always calls him, Archbishop) of Arezzo see O.Y.B.
Ixxxi., Ixxxiv., xci., E.L. 89, 92, 99. Browning freely develops,
(specially in Book VII., what the records say about them.
992.] John x. 12, 13.
993. anon.] See below, 1454-70.
997. Transfix . . . suspiring Jlnme. \ The language is perhaps sug-
gested by Virgil, JSn. 1. 44 : exspirantem tramfixo pectore flammas.
1012. yonder], viz. on the Castel S. Angelo (Mausoleum of
Hadrian). A legend which can be traced back to the time of Leo
IV. (847-55) tells that when a pestilence was devastating Rome in
590 Gregory the Great saw, in answer to his prayers, the An • hansel
Michael sheathing his sword over the fortress. A chajx>l was
dedicated on the summit, by Boniface IV. (608-15), to S. Angelo
inter Nubes ; but our earliest evidence for a statue of the Archangel
in that position is given by pictures of the fifteenth century. The
present 4 armed and crowned ' Michael, by Verschaffelt, was placed
there in 1752 by Benedict XIV.; that of Innocent Xll.'s time,
the work of Raffaelc di Montelupo (1535), has been removed to one
of the courtyards of the building.
1U15-1G.J The metaphors are suggested by Kphesians \i. 14-17,
ajmssage of which fuller use is made in 1566-70 below.
1016 seqq.] Knowledge may defend man like a shield, but
Browning (or his characters) frequently asserts, as here, ' the
sovereignty of feeling o\vr knowledge' (see \\Vstcott, Reli
Thought in the West, p. 255, and the note on 1327-8 below).— As
philosopher Browning tended, during his later period, to regard
216 THE RING AND THE BOOK
knowledge in any absolute sense as less and less attainable, and
of less and less relative value. ' A sceptical philosophy came
down like a blight' upon him, says Professor Jones (Browning
as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher, p. 333), who detects a
trace of this sceptical philosophy in the present passage ; but
see Introduction to Book VII.
1022.] Cf. 667-72. For ' by who records ' cf. e.g. 1191.
1025-6.] Revelations vii. 2-4.
1028.] Philippians iv. 8.
1061. Endure man and obey God.} This is 'the standing ordi-
nance', 'the old requirement', 'the customary law' (1069-72);
it was superseded for Pompilia by ' the novel claim ' (1070) expressed
in the words ' plant firm foot . . . obey God all the more '.
1065 seqq.} See VII. 1222 and passim afterwards.
1078. even tree, shrub, plant.} Cf. VI. 1375-7 and note.
1083. with his own sword.} See note on II. 1031.
1097. the other rose, the gold.} See 1047. This Golden Rose
was annually blessed by the Pope and given to some king or other
illustrious person who had deserved the special gratitude of the
Holy See. It was given, for instance, by Alexander VI. to Gonzalo
de Cordova, the ' Great Captain ' of Ferdinand of Spain, for expelling
the forces of Charles VIII. from Italy, and by Leo X. to Henry
VIII., the Defender of the Faith, for his ' golden book ' in refutation
of Luther. — ' This mysterious gift, according to Pope Innocent III.,
represented by its gold, its odour and its balm, the Godhead, the
Body and Soul of the Redeemer ' (Milman).
1102-11.] The Pope thinks that the Church errs in putting its
young men of spirit and promise into leading-strings. He expresses
his thought in language drawn from the leviathan-passage in Job
(xli.) — a passage already used by the poet in V. 1504-5 and VIII.
1739-42 (where see note).
1105. bind him for our maidens}, i.e. 'give him to our maidens
as a pet '. The application of the words is explained by many
passages in Caponsacchi's speech (VI.) ; cf. 2069-72 below.
1106. The King of Pride.} Job xli. 34, 'he (Leviathan, i.e. the
crocodile) is king over all the sons of pride '.
1107. cord in nose and thorn in jaw.} Job xli. 2, ' canst thou
put an hook into his nose ? or bore his jaw through with a thorn ? '
' Thorn ' is a mistranslation for ' hook '. The meaning is that,
when and if you have caught youixCfocodiTfe^you cannot string him
on a line, to keep him fresh in the^WiltiiA-, -ay you can ordinary fish
(Driver).
1108. followed by all that shine.} The A.V. has correctly (Job
xli. 32) 'he maketh a path to shine after him ' (il laisse apres lui
un sillage de lumiere — Renan). Apparently Browning meant
' followed by other shining creatures such as himself ' ; he put a
meaning on the words which they cannot bear.
BOOK X.—THE POPE 217
1110. The comely terror.} Job xli. 12, 'I will not conceal (keep
silence concerning I.U.V.)! . . . Iji.s comely proportion '.
1111. th<il //it re of^gfati&Q&rhi* heart.} Job xli. 24, 'his heart
is linn as a stone j^yea^ikm as the nether millstone ' (R.V.). La
ile se composait de deux pierres superposes . . . dont la plus
dare etait posee dessous (Renan). The flashing forth of fire from
the netherstone at the stroke of the sword is an addition by
Browning to the imagery.
1116-27.] 'What if Caponsacchi's self-sacrifice was offered,
primarily and directly, to an idol of his own (i.e. to Pompilia), and
only indirectly to God and His saints, just as the love and gratitude
of the half-Pagan, half-Christian, Roman were offered, primarily
and directly, to the Venus whom the Church had changed into
Madonna's shape, and only indirectly to Madonna herself? The
self-saerifuv, like the love and gratitude, was there all the same. —
Again, the sweet savour of the self-sacrifice, the spikenard which
grew in the rock-like soil of Caponsacchi's firm and resolute heart,
to whomsoever offered, was offered by himself, uninspired by the
Church ; though the Church, when self-sacrifice is so offered by
her sons, is wont to claim it as her own offering to the saints '.
The Pope ' smiles ' at the comparison which he has drawn in
lines 1116-22, and at the gentle satire upon the Church which he
has conveyed under the itu « ns( metaphor in lines 1123-7.
1118-21. to turn each Venus here . . . Into Madonna's shape.]
Cf. The LHinciad, 3. 109-11 :
Till Peter's keys some christ'ned Jove adorn,
And Pan to Moses lends his Pagan horn :
See graceless Venus to a virgin turn'd. . . .
To which Pope appended a note : ' After a period of merciless
destruction, some classical monuments \\rre spared by the Popes;
temples were converted into churches, and statues of pagan gods
were occasionally made to do duty as Christian images *.
1123. All this sweet savour], i.e. that of self-sacrifice ; cf.
Ephesians v. 2, Philippians iv. 18.
% 1140. made bare], i.e. which made hare. 'The healthy rage'
is the antecedent to the understood ' which '.
1 l.V>. i "//riliatingearflt u-llfi all tluttrlniul\t i.e. winning men's heart >
by its beauty, in spite of the cloud from which it has emerged (1150).
1 164. how else proclaim fine scorn of flesh.} A whimsical explana-
tion of the red stockings of cardinals (V. 228).
1165. when blood faith begs.] The inversion ('blood' is the
object o'f ' begs ') gives emphasis to * blood '.
1175-9.] The beautiful simile brings out the full meaning of
what it illustrates.
1183-92.] R. L. Stevenson wrote in his Virginilmtt l*i<erisque
(c. iii.): 'To avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree
218 THE RING AND THE BOOK
of failure than to push forward pluckily and make a fall. It is
lawful to pray God that we are not led into temptation ; but not
lawful to skulk from those that come to us '. (The Pope, it will be
observed, goes far beyond this ; cf. James i. 2-4, 12.) ' The noblest
passage in one of the noblest books of the century is where the old
pope glories in the trial, nay, in the partial fall and but imperfect
triumph, of the youKger hero '.
1191. Reluctant /dragons.! An echo of the reluctantes dracones
of a famous passagein Hpiface (Od. 4. 4. 11), but Horace's reluctantes
means that his dragoTtsput up a stiff defence when attacked, the
Pope's dragons would avoid fighting altogether.
1195. through the very pains, etc.] See above, 1037-40.
1201. to strike the lute.] Cf. I. 1030 (where Caponsacchi is
described as ' a prince of sonneteers and lutanists '), X. 1490, 2071.
1202.] See Introduction to Book VI.
1211. the initiatory spasm], i.e. the mixed joy and pain of initia-
tion into a life of self-abnegation ; cf. the ' initiatory pang . . .
Felicitous annoy ' that ' would thrill Into the ecstasy and outthrob
pain ' of which Caponsacchi speaks in VI. 964-73. (In Parleyings —
Francis Furini, ix. — the phrase ' initiator-spasm ' is used of the
beginnings of life, ' the spasm which sets all going '.)
1218. Sadly mixed natures.] Cf. I. 530.
1230. you were punished in the very part, etc.] Upon this Westcott
comments (Religious Thought in the West, p. 275) : ' For that which
is evil there is judgment of utter destruction ; for that which is
good, purifying. So it is that chastisement is often seen to come
through the noblest part of a character otherwise mean, because
in that there is yet hope '.
1239. all and some.] See note on VIII. 1475.
1243. dispart tJie shine from shade.] See note on I. 1373.
1244. As a mere man may, etc.] See above, 243-67.
1246. the popular notion.] Cf. VIII. 1458-60, XII. 57-8, 299.
1253-1909.] The 'quick cold thrill' which the Pope suddenly
feels (1253) and the voice which 'derides' him (1265) lead him
into the long theological disquisitions of which I have spoken in
the Introduction to this Book. It will be observed that in the
course of these disquisitions (1308-1909) he reverts for awhile to
his main concern in 1440-1630.
1261. recognize]^ examine, pass in review, like the Latin recog-
noscere.
1271. misprision.] See note on VIII. 428.
1273. bold to all beneath], i.e. to all upon whom-4he--Hght of your
candle falls.
1284. darkness to be felt.] Exodus x. 21.
1289. Remembered.] The word suggests the Platonic doctrine
En
of dj'd/x.j'T/o-ts (recollection), familiar to English readers from Words-
worth's Ode on the Intimations of Immortality.
BOOK X.—THE POPE 219
1302.] See above, J l'.»±
1309. In such conception, etc.] The 'humanitarian thei-m
expounded later in the paragraph is not presented as absolute
truth, but as the highest conception of the divine nature possible
to ' the little mind of man ' in his present state. See note on 1366.
1311. what is it but a convex glass.] Cf. the closely parallel
passage in A Death in the Desert, lines 226 seqq.
1318. There (which is nowhere)], nowhere in particular ; we
speak of God as * in heaven ', but He transcends the category of
space.
1327-8.] On the relations of love and knowledge as conceived
by Browning see the discussions in Sir H. Jones's Browning as a
Philosaphical and Religious Teacher ; see also the note on 1016
seqq. above. — Here knowledge, however incomplete, is spoken of
as a necessary basis for love ; contrast with the Pope's ' how love
unless they know ? ' the poet's language at a later date in Ferishtah's
Fancies (A Pillar at Sebzevah) : —
So let us say — not ' Since we know, we love ',
But rather ' Since we love, we know enough '.
1330.] Higher ' modes of life ' may reflect more of the absolute
truth ; the conceptions of ' angels ' may be more adequate than
such as are possible to man. Cf. Ferishtah's Fancies : The Family,
and the lyric which follows ; see also 1654 below.
1339. Thy transcendent act], i.e. the act revealed in the ' tale '
(1348) * of lovejjyithout a limit ' ; see note on 1366.
1348 seqq.] Un lines 1348-52 the Pope speaks of a ' tale ' about
God (viz, the Incarnation) which is not only dear to his 'heart '
but is also pronounced to be sound by his ' reason ' ; in lines" 1362
seqq. he proceeds to snow wherein the value ol the tale lies. The
intervening passage (1353-61) may seem at lirst sight to be a digres-
sion, but the appearance of irrelevance is due to the condensation
of the argument. Thn folftr t.hfl Pnpo, savs or implies, satisfies both
hjs heart and his reason ; u'hy does it tuitixfi/ ///.« reason ? Because.
apparently^ l^o like nT^st of us has an intuitive conviction tnat
perfectionmust somewhere exist. H.- ramiu^ inui if in J m.ir.M»r * :
it mustLbcTound. if anywhere, in ' mind '. Of the minds of created
beings that of man is the highest, but perfection is assuredly not
there ; it is present in none of the three spheres in which we seek
for it, neither in his strength, nor in lu> intelligenee, nor in his love
(or ' goodness '). Can it be found, in all Utt» three, in God ? That
God's strength and intelligence^ are ijcrfcci^Natural Religion amply
attests *, but evidence that His" love is also perfect is wanting ' to
i In his later poem La Saisiaz (published In 1878) Browning wrote very
differently on this point : set- t b rmlinu' with liiu-s :>l?-8: —
••: man. 1 mourn I I mn>t impute :
tJiioiln. . IHIWIT, all honinlcil, c.tdi a human attribute...
J J 'i •«> ^ I'1
220 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the human eye, in its present state ' ; the two corresponding sides
of the triangle — His perfect strength and perfect intelligence — are
lain to us, but its base — ' love without a limit ' — we cannot see.
, however, as we feel sure, there is complete perfection some-
where, the fact that God is perfect in strength and intelligence
gives us a presumptive (and reasonable) expectation that He is
also perfect in love : and the ' tale ' comes in to confirm that
expectation.
1351. discept], ' express disagreement ' — a very rare word, says
the N.E.D. quoting Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha, xiv.
1360. in evidence], belongs to ' the effect ' ; the effect which
we can see with our eyes.
1366.] Browning admits, or rather he contends, that Natural
wa.rra.nt. for t.hft belief that God is ' all-l
but. the. idea._oj_a loveless God was utterly repugnant to him ; such
a GQjL-W,QlilcLbe inferior to man. See e.g. A Death in the Desert,.
lines 552 seqq. (if man has will, power, and love, however weak,
and God has only will and power, however strong, man is ' higher
in the scale than God ') ; Christmas-Eve, v. :
For the loving worm within its clod
Were diviner than a loveless god
Amid his worlds, I will dare to say ;
An Epistle of Karshish, ad fin. ; Saul, XVH. and xvin. ; Ferishtah's
Fancies, The Sun.
TKa± nr>H is ^Moving was to the poet, however he arrived at
,hat, nonclusion. the greatest and almost the surest of aU truths ;
was the tale which ^embodies that truth itself a truth to him — a
truth, that is, in the absolute sense ? There is much in the Pope's
monologue and in A Death in the Desert (see lines 453 seqq.) which
makes it difficult to answer the question with the confident affirma-
tive which might be given, perhaps, by a reader of Christmas-
Eve and Easter-Day. Mr. Robert Buchanan, indeed, reported that
when asked ' categorically ' whether he was or was not a Christian
Browning ' immediately thundered " No " ', but the poet was
often unfortunate in his reporters, who would understand aTrAcDs
what was meant to be understood as subject to important qualifica-
tion. The evidence of his poetry shows that his ' No ' should have
been so understood ; his ' thunder ' may have been due to a cause
of which the indiscreet questioner was serenely unconscious. Mean-
while it is certain that what the poet wrote is in general accord
with what one who knew him well tells us that he often said, viz.
/' that religious certainties are required for the undeveloped mind,
jbut that the growing religious intelligence walks best by a receding
(light ' (Mrs. Orr, Life, p. 178).
The question of the extent and content of Browning's eclectic
Christianity has been much discussed ; in spirit it agrees closely
BOOK X.—THE POPE 221
with what is said in IMiilippians ii. 4-8 (L quote from the R.V. ;
tin- A.V. translates incorrectly): —
. . . not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you
also to the things of others. Have this mind in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus : who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize
| lit. a thing to be grasped] to be on an equality with God, but emptied
himself [of the prerogatives of Deity', taking the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a
man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death. . , .*
1367-72.] See the last note. The doctrine here enunciated —
one of Browning's ' two main doctrines or opinions ' — is obscured
\\ • I irn formulated as Mr. Chesterton says that ' it can only be properly
stated', vi/. as 'the- hope that lies in the imperfection of God '
>• /tiny, p. 178). The doctrine is that God would be imperfect
Hi- were incapable of self-sacrificing love ; the hope it gives lies
in its assurance that there is no such imperfection in Him. 'The
All Great' is 'the All -Loving too' (An Epistle of Karshish) : no
more than in power and in wisdom does ' the creature surpass the
Creator ' in love (Saul).
1375 seqq.] The presence, says the Pope, of sin and sorrow in
t h<- world is only explicable on the theory that ' Lifcjs Probation '^- .
that their purpose is to 'evolve the moral qualities of man , and
to lit him for a higher life. We come across this doctrine, in onel
or other of its aspects, repeatedly in Book X. : in 409-10, in 1185-7,1
in 1415-19, in 1436-9.
In an article in The National Review (December 1902) Leslie
Stephen remarked that when expounding, in La Saisiaz, the doctrine
of immortality, Browning * repeats the most familiar of all arguments
... as if they had never occurred to any one before, instead of
lieing the staple of whole libraries of theology'. A like criticism
may be made of liis treatment of the doctrine that Life is Probation.
By its setting, by the mode of its presentation, he often gives a
ness to it, as for instanee in Jochanan Hakkodosh (ail fin.) or
in J'ncchiarotto, xxii.
All's for an hour of essaying
Who's lit and who's unfit for playing
Hi- part in the after-construction
Euaven'fl l''<e whereof Earth's the Induction?
Thinizs rarely go smooth at Rehearsal.
Wait patient the change universal —
r again in the late and very interesting Rephan ; but the
1 Since noting ttii« |M-<-IL'I- i»r limitation here I tlntl that it is used forShe same
purpose in Professor I'L'.m > r>r«» ning as a Religious Teacher, pp. 34-5.— This
littl.- book, in which Hr<.\\ ninu's theology is expounds! :m<l <tNai>N,-.| with
.il.|»- liirj.ijty should not I'- allowed to continue out of print.
222 THE RING AND THE BOOK
can hardly be said of its naked presentation here- and in La Saisiaz
(lines 266 seqq.) :—
There is no reconciling wisdom with a world distraught,
Goodness with triumphant evil, power with failure in the aim, . . .
If you bar me from assuming earth to be a pupil's place,
And life, time, — with all their chances, changes, — just probation-space.
1376. would confound me else.] See note on 738-40 above.
1377-8. at most expenditure, etc.] The poet conceives of God
as devising sin and sorrow as the necessary means of man's pro-
bation, but as devising them sorrowfully. He shares men's pain
and grieves at their sin. See Pigou, Browning as a Religious Teacher,
pp. 32-4.
1382. Creative], because he brings good out of evil, ' moral
qualities ' out of pain.
1384. " / have said ye are Gods ".] Psalm Ixxxii. 6 ; John x. 34.
1387-8. this . . . The other.] 'This' is the reason for the
presence of sin and sorrow in life ; ' the other ' is ' the tale ' of 1348.
1393. else unconceived.] For if it were the same (i.e. absolute
truth) man's miifd could not conceive it.
1400.] Cf. 1772 seqq.
1407. by God's gloved hand or the bare], i.e. by truth veiled in
myth, or by naked (' absolute, abstract, independent ' — see 1389)
truth.
1408-9.] Browning was not interested in the ' higher criticism '
of the gospel-story ; see Christmas- Eve, xv.
1412. some flat obstacle], some obstacle which we can flatten
and surmount.
1413-14.] Progress consists in the surmounting of obstacles ;
it is therefore impossible if either (1) there are no obstacles or (2)
there are obstacles, but they are unsurmountable.
Does Browning suggest here that the presence of ' solid truth
in front ' means the absence of obstacles to surmount, or that
solid truth would be itself an unsurmountable obstacle ? The former
explanation may seem the simpler, and it is consistent with the
poet's teaching, but the phrasing of lines 1412-15 supports the
latter. ' Solid truth ' is not conceivable by man in his present
state ; it is an obstacle which he cannot flatten.
1419-29.] If, says the Pope, we view the story of Guido and
Pompilia in the light of the belief that life in this world is merely
probation for life beyond it, we realize that the destruction of
Pompilia's life in this world and what would have been, but for
the detection of his guilt, the saving of Guide's are unimportant
facts. Life in this world is a little thing, life beyond it is a great
one. To form a true estimate of life as a whole we must ' wait
till life have passed from out the world '.
1419-20.] The first edition has :
BOOK X. Till: rOPE -2-2X
Him,
(}' the present prohlem : AS we see and <praU.
1 Ji'7. the, minute's worth], i.e. of how little worth it ia. We are
not * K-it.es \vlu> live entirely in the sensations of the moment.
11:57. rnnifii-l him strive.] Cf. 1547 below, 'thus compelled
IK MX -cive '. — The Pope argues that, if the gain of right living were
so manifest that it exercised an imperative force on conduct, life
would not be probation ; men would live rightly of necessity.
Browning often insists upon this, e.g. in A Death in the Desert,
lines 274-97 and 464-73. Miracles, says St. John in the latter
passage, may have been necessary in the earliest days of Christianity ;
at a later stage they would ' compel ', and (life being probation)
would not help.
1440-1536.] The Pope is not surprised to find that worldlings
and sceptics have no use for 'the j>earl of great price'. He is ^
>uiprisr<l, and even terrified, to find that churchmen, who know
its worth, join the worldlings and sceptics in disregarding it and
pursuing worldly aims ; it was, for instance, for mere worldly
'iis that the Bishop of Arezzo virtually abarfdoned the faith
by his treatment of Pompilia. It may be said, perhaps, that the
Church enfeebled the bishop~by coddling him ; what, then, of the
friar called Romano ? He was not coddled, but he proved wanting
in precisely the same way. Since, therefore, individual church-
mcn, whether coddled or not, fail the faith in its hour of need,
let us ' bind weaknesses together ' in the hope that we may find
faithfulness in Christian corporations. Alas, they too are un-
faithful ; witness the Convertites, * meant to help women because
these helped Christ ', who fell away from Christian love and were •
ready to slander Pompilia when worldly interest prompted. Is
this, then, the end and outcome of Christ's self-sacrifice ? Is this
all that his own stewardship has to show ? — The Pope's dismay
at finding that love and faith ' lie sluggish ' at the call of the Church
is made more poignant when he sees them roused into activity
by a call from out-ide ( 1547 seqq.).
1445. it proves], i.e. in their mistaken judgment.
1446.] Cf. IX. 372-3, note.
1453.] James i. 27.
1472. barefoot monk.] Hi- \\as an Augustinian Scul~<>.
1482. Who was it ?] It was Uzzah (2 Samuel vi. 6, 7), but
when Browning made the friar ask the question he thought that
it was Hophni ; see note on IV. 8:5 1.
1488.] Matthew i
1491.] Ephe>ian> v. \\'l, etO.
1499-1524.) The Pope's attack on 'the Monastery called of
Convert iles ' i> not warranted by the facts; se. n«.t. ,,n II. 1198.
1511-18.] See the last note. The claim of the Convertites
224 THE RING AND THE BOOK
must have been made very soon after Pompilia's death ; it is often
mentioned during the murder-trial. See also the Instrumentum
Sententice Definitive which cleared her reputation (O.Y.B. cclix.-
Ixii., E.L. 252-6).
1518. by the Pise's advice.] The application to the Court on
behalf of the Convertites was made by Gambi, ' Procurator General
of the Fisc ', who in the trial of Guido had appeared with Bottini,
* Advocate of the Fisc ', for the prosecution. See XII. 672 seqq.
1526.] Cf. VI. 57 seqq.
1545-6.] ' No ; that ice and that stone (i.e. human nature) is
not as insensitive as real ice and stone. The moon cannot make
ice melt, the sun cannot make stone bloom, but human nature
can be made to melt and to bloom by the action of certain " powers
o' the air " (1553-4). It has done so in many men of times past ;
we see it doing so in Caponsacchi to-day '.
1547. compelled perceive.] Cf. 1437, ' compel him strive '.
1553-8.] ' Love and faith ', says the Pope, ' leapt forth profusely
in old time at advent of the authoritative star ' (i.e. when the
Church called for them) ; ' now they no longer respond to its
influence, to warmth by law and light by rule, but to uncommissioned
meteors ' (i.e. to the ' instinct of the natural man ' — 1583, to the
call of honour, manliness, and pity — 1557-8).
1564. Should interfuse him], i.e. which in the supposed circum-
stances would interfuse him.
1566-70.] Ephesians vi. 14-17.
1571-1613.] The Pope answers the ' hubbub of protestation '
which he expects by arguing (1) that the zeal of servants of the
Church should outstrip that of men who act upon instinct (1584-7) ;
(2) that it is in fact usually shown in defending mere ' dogma '
(1577) and is aroused by mere trivialities of definition (1589-1613) ;
it neglects ' the weightier matters of the law '.
1585. Do not these publicans the same ?] Matthew v. 46, 47.
1589-1604.] The Jesuits in China, ever since their mission-
work began there in the year 1582, had shown a ' politic ' (line 1597)
tolerance of native customs and beliefs, making the most of points
of contact between Confucianism and Christianity. This tolerance
caused ' qualms ' in the minds of other missionaries, and in 1693
the Pope's Vicar Apostolic in China, Bishop Maigrot ' of Conon
in the province of Fo-kien ' — Browning's ' To-kien ' is a mistake —
condemned it in the decree here mentioned ; the point which he
most emphasized is that to which Browning refers. Tien means
literally ' heaven ' and the Jesuits' use of it seemed to Maigrot
to imply a non-insistence on the personality of God ; he was
particularly scandalized by the inscription King Tien (literally,
' worship Heaven ') being placed in Jesuit churches. But the
Jesuits, backed by the enlightened Emperor of China, declared
that Maigrot, who was almost completely ignorant of Chinese,
BOOK X.—THE POPE 225
\\as mi-taken ; Tim, they in-i-ted. denoted. k not the material
heavens, luit tin- ('rcator of all things'.
.M.iiirmfs decree aroused keen controversy at Rome, and a
pronouncement «»n the subject by tin- I'ope was anxiously expected.
Innocent, however, delayed; he did not wish to quarrel with the
is. and perhaps hojx-d that the storm would blow over;
perhaps al-o, as l'>ro wiling suggests, he was convinced that the
tarae* in\<»l\, d \\, i, of no real consequence. It was not till 1701,
when Clement XI. had >uccccdcd Innocent, that it became clear
that 'a Fabian policy could not l>e safely prolonged'; Clement
accordingly sent out the Tournon whom Browning mentions as
his legate \\ith full powers, luit this le^atcship was most tragically
unfortunate; it ended with Tournon's death in prison and the
expulsion of the missions fi-om ( 'hina.
Browning must l»e wrong in stating that the appointment of
Tournon had l»een pressed upon Innocent : he was 'a very young
ID in ', ' hardly more than a youth ', in 1 70 1 , the year after Innocent's
death. Tin- port makes the Pope call him 'Cardinal Tournon',
hut he did not become a cardinal till 1707.
i . < . Jenkins. The Jesuit* in China ; .Mr. .Jenkins tells the
story on the authority of the original documents. The text of a
decree issued by Tournon from Pondicherry in 1704, condemning
i accommodations to native beliefs, will be found in Mirbt,
V'" II' n ~,ir f.'i-xrln'rhte des Papstthums, pp. 303-5, cf. 288-91.
1589. Five years long, now.] Since Maigrot's decree in 1693 ;
• lie l.i-l note.
— . roitwls into mi/ ears], i.e. dins into my ears; Browning uses
the phrase incorrectly (>eo note on IV. 600).
l»»ol. tir<i>nt\, i.e. so urgent.
Hin.VI.'J. | The Pope docs not mean that the interests of Chris-
tiain' vital in China than in Kuropc, but that these interests
arc not really threatened there; the question which zealots have
I in < hina touches a mere fringe, not of geographical Christen-
dom, but of Christian doctrine.
Kins. iiniinliitnl.\ See note on 423 above.
1616. Metamorphosis the immeasurable.] Originally ' The im-
-urablc metamorphosis', but in the second edition Browning
pi. fen. ,| to avoid the accepted false quantity (metamorphosis).
1618. its price], the price paid for it by Christ on the Cross;
hence the ' mere ' of the next line.
1619. Rosy Cross.] The Rosicrucian sect, which had its origin
in Germany in the fourteenth century and claimed a certain
llosciikrcu/. as its founder,
the stone still sought
\Vhcicl.y [,asc metal into gold is brought.
The search was its « Great Work '.
Q
226 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1634. Power, Wisdom, Goodness,— God.] See above, 1363-6.
1636-7. When I outlive, etc.], i.e. when I have outlived the belief
in God and my soul is mere dust and ashes. .
1643-5. Clouds obscure, etc.] It would be over-hasty, says the
Pope, to conclude that because difficulties attend the Faith the
path of the believer would be easier if those difficulties were removed.
In the lines which follow the Pope gives singularly beautiful expres-
sion to Browning's favourite paradox that the weakness of a faith
may be its strength. Cf. e.g. Easter-Day, iv., where the speaker
argues that
You must mix some uncertainty
With faith, if you would have faith be —
and 1852 seqq. below, where the Pope says that ' assurance ' may
produce ' torpor '.
1647. better], i.e., of course, ' may better ' ; ' better ' is a verb.
1650-51. The incentive . . . no strength . . . comports], i.e. ' the
incentive which irresistible strength does not bring with it or in-
volve '. The French comporter is often a transitive, verb with
this meaning (e.g. Vaction comportait le repentir — Dumas), but I
can find no other example of such a use of the English verb.
1657-8.] The ' transcendent act ' of the tale of line 1348 (Christ's
incarnation and suffering) is to Browning but a type of ' the never-
ending self-sacrifice of a loving God ' ; the poet's doctrine is finely
stated in Pigou's Browning as a Religious Teacher, pp. 32-4.
1661. But] is transitional rather than adversative. After a
passing allusion to the ' phantoms ' of 1663-6 (see next note) the
Pope leaves the Christian world with which he is familiar.
1665-6.] ' Like phantoms — weaklings crying for help as they
trip and fall over the obstacles to the Christian faith (" clouds " ;
cf. 1643) as if they were unsurmountable ("crags")'. To these
phantoms the Pope has already, in the preceding paragraph, given
such help as he can offer.
1670-1790.] This brilliant and finely phrased pleading, intro-
duced as that of some anonymous old-time bard or philosopher
or both, who however proves to be Euripides (1703-9), falls into
three parts, p In the first the speaker urges that men's judgments
upon their fellows — such judgments as the Pope's office requires
him to pronounce — may be fallacious, for they are based upon
their ' outward product ' ; of which, even if it were a true criterion,
we can judge but crudely. ^In the second he describes his own
moral and theological teaching and its relation to Christianity, of
which he claims that it is at least an adumbration.^ In the third he
contends that in spite of all their advantages the accredited repre-
sentatives of Christianity in the seventeenth century A.D. do not
attain to the high moral and religious level reached by himself
in the fifth century B.C. — Before the pleading begins we are led to
X. '/'///•: /'"/>/; 227
expect, during its course it i-> a-^limed (IOST), that tin- I 'ope will
iiiiswi-r it ; and an aiis\\er is profe^-dlv -.'Ken in the paragraph
\\hich begins with line IT'.M. The Pope, however, doe- nut traverse
any of the pleader's contentions; In- men-ly tries to explain why
the Christians of his time are less earnest and zealous than the
( 'hristians of the day-spring ' — a point which has not been directly
raised. The pleading is not answered, for indeed the Pope doubts
whether it is answerable ; admirably suited as it is to the Euripides /{/-
in whose month it is [ nit, it is in fact an avowal of his own misgivings. '
* 1670-81.] The contention of lines 1670-74, that God judges
us, not, as we judge one another, by our * outward product ', but
by our 'inward worth', finds frequent expres-ion in Browning's
poetry: the Po}>e himself urges it in 272-5. In 1675-81 it is
admitted as a possibility that the outward product may in a sense
• od's test, but it is argued that, if this is so, He appraises the
product by its more or less^not absolutely, but relatively to what,
given the producer's powers and opportunities, may be fairly
expected from him. God is figured as a 'Machinist' (1678) whose
machines may do more or less than He 'exacts'.
1683-4.] See note on 1708-9 below.
1692. irithont a ivarrant or an aim.] Possibly an unconscious
reminiscence of a line in In Mtnmrinm (xxxiv. 8).
1698. * Know thyself'.} rVwtfi tr€a.vr6»t the motto engraved on
the temple at Delphi, was ascribed to one of the seven sages, or
even to Apollo ; Juvenal (Sat. 11. 27) says that it ' came down
from heaven '.
— . ''Take the golden mean'}, the mirrn inediocritas of Horace
(Od. 2. 10. 5), the TO ^<rov which numberless Greek maxims and
the philosophy of Aristotle prescribed.
I Tot-."). | The pleader proves to be p]uripides ; the details
_M\eii about him come from Aulus Gellius, a grammarian of the
second century A.D., or from late Lives of the poet. Kuripid
said to have gained pri/.es in athletic contests, to have painted
pictures which were long preserved, to have been a pupil of the
philosophers Ana'xagoras, Prodicus, Protagoras.
He strongly attracted Browning, who when In- was preparing for
work upon The A'///;/ and the Book wrote (in September 1862) from
Bianit/. to a friend that he was 'having a great read at Euripides
— the only book I brought with me ', and was at the same time
attending to his 'new poem that is about to be ... the Roman
murder story ' (see Appendix I.). At a later time, when the murder
story had been told, his admiration for Euripides found expression
in UnluistMs Adventure (1871) and Aristophanes' Apology (l.sT
1707. When the Third Poet's tread, etc.], i.e. when .flSschylus and
Sophocles began to find a rival in Euripides, their younger con-
temporary.
1708-9.] Kuripidcs was born, according to many authoriti
228 THE KING AND THE BOOK
in the year (and perhaps on the day) of the victory over the Persians
at Salamis (480 B.C.). He died in 406 B.C., the year before the
defeat of the Athenians at ^Egospotami. His lifetime thus included
the great age of Pericles.
1711-12.] Cf. Romans ii. 14, 15.
1718-20.] Acts xxiv. 25. Compare the last sentence of
Westcott's essay on ; Euripides as a Religious Teacher ' in his
Religious Thought in the West, p. 141 : ' It cannot be a mere acci-
dental coincidence that when St. Paul stood on the Areopagus
and unfolded the meaning of his announcement of " Jesus and the
Resurrection " he did in reality proclaim, as now established in
the actual experience of men, the truths which Euripides felt
after '.
The whole of this essay, which gives an admirably documented
account of the ethics and theology of Euripides, should be read in
connection with lines 1718-90.
1721. strong style], i.e. powerful pen (Lat. stilus) ; cf. 1786 below.
1723.] The note of interrogation in the text should be one of
exclamation ; so in lines 1724, 1726.
1730. Galileo's tube.] The books of Galileo, who was ' a prisner
to the Inquisition ' (Areopagitica) when Milton visited him in 1638,
remained on the Index till 1835, but Browning's broad-church
Pope of 1698 is interested in his discoveries. — ' Optic glass ', ' optic
tube ', were common phrases for Galileo's telescope ; see e.g.
Paradise Lost, 1. 288, 3. 590.
1734-53.] A study of the passages quoted by Westcott (see
note on 1718-20) will suggest that Euripides's insight as theologian
was even keener than Browning represents.
1762. tenebrific.] Cf. III. 789.
1766-71.] Compare with this the polytheistic system which
Guido elaborately improvises in XI. 1934-2003.
1772-6.] See above, 1400.
1784. rewardest.] Innocent, at any rate, is far from rewarding
them, as we have seen.
1792.] In the fourth century A.D. certain letters (still extant),
alleged to have passed between Seneca, the philosopher who was
Nero's tutor, and St. Paul, came to the notice of St. Jerome, who
placed Seneca ' in the catalogue of the saints ' on the strength of
them. They were indeed a recent and a clumsy forgery ; but the
close resemblance between Seneca's precepts and those of Chris-
tianity has given plausibility, or at least persistency, to a belief
that he had personal relations with St. Paul. See the interesting
argument in Boissier, La Religion romaine, Book II. c. 5.
1794. have got too familiar.] For Browning's use of the verb
' to get ' see note on IV. 1541.
1796 seqq.] The Pope describes the enthusiasm and self-
abnegation of the first converts to Christianity in language which
BOOK X.—THE POPE 229
suggests that their new birth, their 'initiatory spasm', was neces-
j martvnlom (cf. 1S33). But 1 do not think that he means this ;
' '
1800.| Ke\elation> xxi. 5,
1806.J The Pope follows Luke xviii. 30; the parallel passage
in Matthew (xix. -0) omits the definite promise of reward 'in the
present time '.
1828. fail see.] Cf. IV. 1255, 'he fails obtain'; IX. 1240,
'ye fail preoccupy'. Other omissions of * to ' before infinitive-
occur in 1815 .and 1831-2; with 'allowed initiate' (1815) cf. Mr.
' allow us share your luck '.
1829-30. J Originally ' Who is faithful now, Untwists heaven's
pun- white. «-tc.'. The alteration makes the meaning clearer.
1836. Will], i.e. the way which will.— The worldling admits
with a smile the greater prudence of the faithful Christian, which
will enable him to reap a richer reward; but feels sure that his
own improvident disregard of the future will have no very serious
consequences.
1851-1909.] The Pope anticipates, with grave misgivings but
not without hope, the coming of an Age of Doubt ; see XII. 775-8.
1854-63.] 'Doubt, rightly understood, is just that vivid,
personal, questioning of phenomena which breaks "the torpor of
assurance ", and gives a living value to decision ' (Westcott, BtKgioiu
ThniKjht in tin' West, p. 262). • The value and strength of a faith""]
'one- ponds accurately to the doubts it has overcome. Those
who IK \cr went forth to battle cannot come home heroes' (.lone-.
linnriiiiiij as a Philosophical atid lt?li<jious Teaclier, p. 317).
Crowning's thoughts about doubt in religion underlie much of th--
mere selfishness and sophistry of his Bishop Blougram.
The assurance which the Pope regards as causing torpor is that
of in- i id wont. In An Epistle of Karshish the torpor of
Lazarus is due to the assurance of absolute certainty. But faith
should not be based on certainty if life is to be probation; cf.
Easter-Day, iv. and the note on 1437 above.
1858. the infant camp], i.e. the camp which was formerly but is
*no longer 'infant .
1867. need], i.e. there is need.
1892. the lust and pride of life.] 1 John ii. 16.
1901.] The note of interrogation should be one of exclamation,
as in 1723, 1724, 1726.— In the first edition Browning wrote ' whit 1 1
which he afterwards changed to 'shall they ".
1904-!). | An antimasqiie (Ben Jonson called it an * antic-
masque") was an interlude, introduced as a conlra>t between the
acts of a masque, in which 'antics' or grotesque tLnnvv took pud
it \\a- often a burlesque of the ma>qiie. The '800k1 of line I
is the boot of the comic, as the busk is that of the tragic, actor
(Latin
230 THE RING AND THE BOOK
A ' kibe ' is in Shakespeare, as here, a chap on the heel ; see King
Lear, 1. 5. 8-9, Hamlet, 5. 1. 152-3. Browning had the latter passage
in his mind : ' the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of
the courtier, he galls his kibe '. t^,
1912-13.] See above, 1553-8. ; e J<
1925. the morrice.]- The ' maze ' of line 1917.
1928. the Augustin], the saint who made ' the Church's rule his
law of life ' (1912-13).
1931. second in the suite], the second ' experimentalist ' (see
above, 1910).
1942.] That is what the worldly wisdom and casuistic ' accom-
modations ' of Jesuitism to current ethics have come to to-day.
1945-8.] See above, 926-64.
1954. The world's first foot 61 the dance.} Substituted in the
second edition for the original ' The first foot of the dance ' ; prob-
ably to introduce the tripping anapaest (' o' the dance ').
1958. PauVs sword.} The sword (which, when raised aloft,
'expresses his warfare in the cause of Christ') was given to St.
Paul in art at a late period ; according to Mrs. Jameson (Sacred
and Legendary Art, p. 213), not till the end of the eleventh century.
Since the end of the fourteenth ' it has ', she says, ' been so generally
adopted, that in the devotional effigies I can remember no instance
in which it is omitted '.
1968, 1971. Perchance], i.e. ' Is it . . . ? ' The answer is ' no '.
Notes of interrogation are needed at the end of lines 1970 and 1974 1.
1975-6.] Originally ' Remonstrance on all sides begins Instruct
1976-8.] For this ' new tribunal ' of ' the educated man ',
« the spirit of culture ' (2017), see the note on II. 1473.
1981. blind predecessors.] Substituted in the second edition
for ' the predecessor '.
1983. / find it pleaded in a place], viz. in the First Anonymous
Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cli., E.L. 154-5) ; Browning makes his Arcangeli
use the very words of the pamphleteer's plea. See note on VIII.
663-7, where I have explained that the Pope might well ask ' when,
where ? ' (line 1982) Christ said nemini honorem trado.
1999. if thou please.] Cf. La Saisiaz, 404 : ' Thine the prize, who
stand aloof '.
2003. The minor orders.] Cf. 444-8 above, and see note on
I. 261-5.
2004. With Farinacci' s licence.} For Farinacci, whom Arcangeli
describes as his ' Gamaliel ', see notes on VIII. 148 and 328. In
the O.Y.B. there is, I think, no discussion, and consequently no
reference to Farinacci' s opinion, concerning the extent of the
i Since writing this note I find that the first edition has ' Is it ' (with notes
interrogation, of course) in both places.
BOOK X.—T//K /'OPE
231
immunity which minor orders gave; but, as Professor Hodell has
shown (h. }'./>'. :;.">:>), Uiounin^ consulted for himself tin- text of
Fnrinarri on another point, and perhaps he did so on this.
2015. criiu'itiny.] A decided improvement on the 'proper' of
the first edition.
2022-33.] Several small alterations (and improvements) were here
introduced in the second edition. In 2022 * Remonstrances ' was
substituted for ' Apologies ' ; in 2030 ' to ' for fc thy ' ; in 2032
'Anticipate a little! We toll thoo ' for 'She anticipates a little
to tell thee ' ; in 2<K{:> '(Uiido's life, sapjx'd society shall crash'
for ' Count Guide's life, and sap society '.
2040. silly-sooth.] See note on III. 806.
•_>o.->3.] Cf. XII. 316.
2060. the three little laps.] Upon the death of a Pope the
Cardinal Camerlengo (Chamberlain) is summoned to the room
where the body lies. ' After making a brief prayer he rises, the
face of the Pope is uncovered, and approaching the bed he strikes
three times with a silver hammer on the forehead of the corpse,
calling him as many times by name to answer. As the corpse
remain- speerhless, he turns to his companions, and formally
announces that " // papa e realmente morto " ' (Story, Roba di
Roma, p. 516).
2069. petit-mattre priestlings.} In John Inghsant (c. xxxvii.)
Shorthouse's seventeenth-century hero is deseriln •<! as having, on
a certain occasion at Rome, ' entirely the look of a petit-mattre,
and even — what is more contemptible still — of a jx/it-iiidltre priest '.
2073-4.] See note on 838-41 above.
2080-81. all four lives, etc.] A mistake. Browning supposed
the Pope to be somewhat older (see note on 166), and Guide's
confederates to be much younger (see note on 964), than they really
were.
2089. Hecuba-like.} \Vhon in the last agony of Troy the a#-d
Priam armed himself for its defence Hecuba is represented in
Virgil as protesting :
Non tali auxilio net-
Tnnpus eget (,-£//.
jstis
('The hour calls not for such succour or such defenders'.)
2093. Reply is apt], i.e. the Pope's (favourable) answer to our
appeal is ready to be given.
2101. asked the Count], in V. 1549, when he summoned his
milfeder .,'
2108-12.] See note on I. 350-60.
2119-28.] With this magnificent description and line use of
a thunderstorm compare another in I'i/>/>tr /'
where Ottima recalls how, when she and her paramour were lyin-_r
in a pine-wood.
232 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Swift ran the searching tempest overhead ;
And ever and anon some bright white shaft
Burned thro' the pine-tree roof, here burned and there,
As if God's messenger thro' the close wood screen
Plunged and replunged his weapon at a venture,
Feeling for guilty thee and me : then broke
The thunder like a whole sea overhead. . . .
2127-8.] See Appendix X.
2130-32.] The Pope sees a second chance for Guido in the
' obscure sequestered state ' of Purgatory. Of his phrase ' which
must not be ' Sir H. Jones says that ' it seems to carry in it the
irrefragable conviction of the poet himself ' (Browning as a Philo-
sophical and Religious Teacher, p. 118). Cf. Browning's reflections
on the suicides he saw lying in the Paris Morgue, for whom his
* own hope is ' (Apparent Failure, vn.) that
a sun will pierce
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched . . .
That what began best, can't end worst,
Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst.
2133. / may die this very night.] See above, 318-31.
BOOK XL— GUIDO
INTRODUCTION
IN Book V. Guido speaks 2058 lines before his judges in
the witness-chamber, in Book XI. he speaks 2427 to his
visitors in the prison ; thus he is allotted between a fifth
and a fourth part of the whole poem, exclusive of the
many long quotations from his utterances which will be
found in other Books. It is perhaps too large an allot-
ment ; Mr. Henry James complained, not without reason,
that his second harangue is ' alas ! too boundless ' x, while
Sir Leslie Stephen demurred to the concession of any
' second innings ' to the ' loathsome murderer ' ; the con-
— imi. he said, was 'the result of Browning's strange
interest in morbid — iaaychology \ and that interest, he
implied, was not only strange but itself morbid2. To the
tnrmer of Sir Leslie's two propositions, exeept to the
word strange', the poet would certainly have assented :
he would have hotly disputed the latter. When Kuskin
was * angry with ' his Mr. Sludge the Medium, he defended
himself for having ' anatomized the mood of the juggler '
on the ground that ' all morbidness of the soul is worth the
soul's study ' 3 ; it was not, therefore, morbid to be interested
in that morbidness. For Guide's second harangue (where
Browning, indeed, created as well as anatomized4) he
i Qwirti-rla /frnVw, July H)1'J, p. ts:5.— (iuidn himself speaks of his • Vdlul.lt-
rhetoii, ' (XI. 171). .•/.»/„// Rfrfctt, !><•• ember I'.xn.1. p.
Ku>kin's UW/.-X ( Library edition). \\\\i.. p. \\\viii.
m extract fnun NY. M. i;..--etti\ diar> (July 4, !«<»'.>) in Itoxm-tti l'ni»-rs.
p. |n| : ' r.riiwiiiim c-;illcd . . . t;ilkcil about an ;irt irlr in '1'i-m/i/,' /;/;/-. -ayiii'j th;it
tic, ;i- -licuii in tin- liitiif iiinl tin' /)'<»•/,-, is an ;in:ily>t. imt rrv.itor, »\ rh.,:
I ln~. I'.. \ri\ tiiil\ >ay~. i-> in it applicable ; berause he has In. I t<> create . . . the
eharactrr.-, < >'| the hn.ik as he OOBCeivefl them, an. I it is <.nl> alter that pn,.,.^ that
the aiiah.-ini: nietliM.I C.MHO int.. pla\ '.
234 THE RING AND THE BOOK
would have offered the same — sufficient or insufficient —
justification1.
Mr. Stopford Brooke was a more sympathetic critic
of the poem than Sir Leslie Stephen. He suggested that
' a weaker poet ', after giving Guido his say in Book V.,
' would have left him there, not having capacity for more ' ;
' but Browning ', he adds, ' so rich in thought he was, had
only begun to draw him ' 2. In what Stephen called his
first innings the batsman ' is obliged to play for safety,
and exhibits a masterly defence. In his second innings
he plays his truer . game and hits all round the wicket ;
to use his own metaphor, he puts off his ' sfteepskmj^&rb, /
rolf , it
with a curse on't ', and 'shows his shag'Sr The wolf,
is true, is not completely hidden in Book V. — his hate,
which is ' the truth of him ' 4, Guido cannot hide — , and
for that reason 5 the judicious reader, even if the summary
in Book I. has not put him on his guard, will hardly be
one of those ' not a few persons who when they have finished
Guide's first monologue are inclined to believe his plea ' 6 ;
he will not be ' baffled and won ' by Guide's sophistries.
Meanwhile the criminal gains a hearing by his frank dis-
avowal of any claim to be on a higher level than the average
worldling of his time ; he even excites a certain sympathy
by his presentation of himself as one whom his poverty
has made a laughing-stock7, and whose life has been blighted
by deceptions and disappointments. His defence is adroit ;
his points are often good points ; his ecclesiastical attitude
is unimpeachable; his attitude towards the judges,.,
although now and then
Incisive, nigh satiric, bites the phrase 8,
1 In a short notice, written when only a fourth part of the poem had been
published, the Editor of the Fortnightly Review (January 1, 1869, p. 125) remarked :
'The theme . . . lies in that department to which English taste, narrow and
rigid, usually expresses its repugnance by labelling it as morbid anatomy. . . .
That in his mode of handling a theme, at any rate, Mr. Browning is not morbid,
needs not be said. Of all contemporary poets he is the most healthy. ..." In
a subsequent article on the completed poem the same writer spoke trenchantly,
in his earlier manner, of ' all the odious cant about morbid anatomy ' (March 1,
1869). ' Odious cant ' from Sir Leslie StepTTeTr-*.
2 Browning, p. 407. ^'XI. 443-4>"v •* VII. 1727.
5 As well as for another mentioned ifrfB*> f ntrnri n rifoon to Book V.
0 The words quoted are Professor HodelPs in O.Y.B. 279.
7 Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se
Quain quod ridicules homines facit
(Juvenal, Sat. 3. 152-3) is the burden of much of Book V. » I. 965.
BOOK XL— GUIDO 235
is usually conciliatory ; he compels us to admit, what the
Court and at least halt' Rome would have admitted very
readily, that his wrongs an- not all unreal. In the second
monologue he has changed his attitude ; he has abajulonfid.
diplomacy. We have here and there a frantic appeal,
here~"and there the merest whine, but he is usually defiant
and his arguments have ceased to be self-exculpatory.
He no longer poses as the Church's faithful son ; its
me inhere, he declares, are ' born - baptized - and - bred
Christian atheists'1; he exposes most ruthlessly its
falsities and insincerities. S^ftp-r hatred, not, as before,
injured honour, is avowed to have been the motive of his
crimes ; so far as Pompilia was its object, he admits, or
rather he insists, that it was aroused by her purity and
innocence. The criminal finds relief in laying bare, in
all its ugliness, his ingrained and passionate love of evil.-*^-
K\< ellent illustrations of the difference between the two
Guidos will be found in their allusions to the Molinist
heresy2 — of these I shall speak in Appendix VIII. — , or
again in the places where they deal wit h the same incidents ; ,
contrast for example the full account of the murders in/1/
V. 1582-1669 with the shorter references to them in Xltfl
1275-87 and 1575-1610. 1 -suggest for special comparisoi|||
the reflections of the hypocrite in V. 1715-25 and of tht|
frank ruffian in XI. 1614-60 on his omission to take pre- '
< autions before the murders for his safety afterwards. In
the witness-chamber that omission is emphasi/ed as a
proof that he has not ' schemed ' 3. In the prison it is
cited as an instance of
Aitistry's haunting i-iuxo, the Incomplete4;
as the Pope conjectured, Guido ' curses the omission more
than the murder ' ; it was the
One touch of fool in Guido the astute 6.
Some parts of The Ring and tlie Book attract by sheer
attractiveness, Caponsacchi's monologue partly by the
happy variety of its tone and manner, chiefly 1>\ its noble
' XI.
i.uiilo proiV^x-; to slum-, ill I'.""U XI. In- riilinil.-;. tin- popular
horror oi Molini-m.
17JJ. \l. 1561. 3 X. 853-5.
236 THE RING AND THE BOOK
motive and high passion ; Pompilia's by its sustained
simplicity, its ' candour ' and innocence, its revelation
of the holiness of motherhood, the heroine's reverence
for the hero ; the Pope's by its mellow wisdom, its breadth
of outlook, its dignity and elevation. Guide's second
monologue, like lago's speeches in Othello, aj^racts chiefly
by repulsion ; there is indeed nothing in the poem", nothing
in Browning, nothing perhaps in all literature more attract-
ively, or at any rate more arrestingly, repulsive than
the' sudden jjfcange from Vn-n.-i7n.jp fr> ^r^^en terror in its
~ ore than lago's speecKes^Ts"^
Book XI. a mere study of the depths of wickedness. •
Browning's Guido, like his other scoundrels, his deceivers
and self -deceivers, is highly intejlsciiialized ; ,his thoughts,
like theirs, often hit the truth, they flresnTastimes profoundt.
nlnmst noble ; he is a master of irony, satire,
invective ; many of his descriptions, some of his
vilest imaginings, are of amazing power and brilliancy.
Among passages which justify one or other of these stater
ments may be mentioned his account of his first introduc-
tion to the newly-devised mannaia (179-258) ; his attack
on the Christians and Christianity of his day (515-70.'>) ;
his avowal of his own fundamental beliefs (1915-2003) ;
r*"his expression of his preference for ' colour ' in women ,i
^— of his loathing for ' chalky ' purity (2045-2227). It mayjlj
also be noticed that the colouring of place and time, so|||
vivid throughout the poem, is not least vivid here,
is present throughout the Book and not merely in patches
but attention may be called to Guide's sketches of th(
insolence of Tuscan and of Roman nobles (99-106, 191-1
213, 267-75), of the sacristan among his relics (567-78),
of the conduct to be expected under given circumstances
from the Pope's halberdier and from ' his Altitude the
Referendary ' (626-62), of the layman who is reminded
when at mass that he has left ' his cask a-tilt, the Trebbian
running ' (682-92), of the eunuch who plays Armida at
the opera (1410-20), of the probable result of the expected
election to the papacy (2259-65) 1.
1 In parting company with the Guido of Book XI. I would direct attention to
Mr. Swinburne's enthusiastic appreciation of that ' model of intense and punctili-
ous realism ... so triumphant a tiling that on its own ground it can be matched
by no poet; to match it we must look back to Balzac'. It occurs in an e-s-iy
BOOK XL—QUIDO 237
l'.r«'\\nii|.j i»iiiii| no hints in his Ycll<>\\ |>nnk for the
Belf-revelation of (Juido which his monologues promt ;
it doe> not e\en contain his deposition in the I'rn.-e-
riiuht. though it contains those of Pompilia and Capon
saechi. It gi\ cs a tew of his utterances on various occasions
and sonic portions of his evidence in the murder-trial,
hut neither these, nor the kno\\n facts of the story. BUg
(he highly educated and intellectual villain of the poem.
The liivc-lcttcrs. if Cuido forced them, shou that he had
some acquaintance with literal lire, the design of which.
on that hypothesis, they were the instrument, show a
criminal's ingenuity ; but that is all. — For the visit of
the ecclesiastics to the prison l>n»\\ning had authority;
he read in the Secondary Source : —
At the eighth hour [say ali»iit i( \.M. on Kehruary l'_ |
and his oompUUOQfl \\ere marked out for death |?| . . . \ i ' d by
. \ltatr I'aneiatiehi and Cardinal Acciajoli they did not delay in |ti«
paring themselves to die well1.
The same writer says further that (luido made a good end.
'dying with the name of Jesus on his lips' ; of this the
poel uakfifl use in Hook XII. (173-S!)). The object of
the visitors \\as of course to extract from the prisoner
a full confe»ion. so that he might b- ' absolved and recon-
ciled with (!od ' and might supply a conclusive testimony
to the justice of the judgment of the ecclesiastical court :{.
In declaring that their object was attained the author of
the Secondary Source is supported by the ecclesiastically-
minded author of the post- Brou ning pamphlet. If thi-;
latter writer was correctly informed, (luido did not
team1 and 'foam and curse and blaspheme' as the
poet represents, in his last hours; 'he cast himself into
the arms of the Frati and sho\\ed such signs of lively
'Notes on the Text of sh.'llry ' uhi.-li ap)M-;in-,l in tli.- l-'urlnigWy Review
\«r \l.i\ I. I •»••-'.•. tlin-f iiiuiitlis alter tin- pultlicat inn ,,| |;.,,,k XI. : the es>ay r..ii-
,i iiia-l.Tly ciini|iari<"ii "i I'.n «\\ nine's C,(\\<\<> \\itli Slielh-y's C.iiint CIMH-J.
Writing on Nnvciiit-ci .id ul what In- ••a|l.-«l llmuuing's
•new sfii-:ition iu. \-i-l ' ( 'I'll- I I'n .1 i liiif-tu.ly in t he later manner of
I'.al/ac. ami I alwa\ -; think 1 1 :i-h ;in.il\ -t t:re.it<--« M IK- OO1
in matter ami pr.xv.lnre t.' th. -till u-reater l_'r.-nchnian ' (Tl<- l.>t!>r* i./.l. ('.
.-.lite«l l.y Uosseaml Wi-e, i. |-p. ^U>-7).
I
(Jni.io insists, e.g. in XI. 512-14.
238 THE RING AND THE BOOK
contrition that his prayers were accompanied by their
tears rather than by their exhortations ' 1.
NOTES
(N.B. — The numbering of the lines in the notes to this Book, aft
line 923, is that of the second and all subsequent editions, but not
that of the first edition. See ' Lines Added ' in Appendix XL)
2. Abate Panciatichi.] A relative of this Abate — the Cardinal
of line 1245 — was Secretary of Briefs to Innocent XII. and his
predecessor. — The Panciatichi family, who had been the leaders of
the Ghibellines in Pistoia, settled in Florence about A.D. 1300.
3. your ancestor.] The Acciaiuoli were another old Florentine
family. A dynasty of this family, ' plebeian at Florence, potent
at Naples, and sovereign in Greece' (Gibbon, c. Ixii., ad fin.), held
the dukedom of Athens in the fifteenth century. Niccolo Acciaiuoli,
the ancestor here mentioned as the founder of the Certosa di Val
d'Ema (see next note), settled at Naples as a trader, made a large
fortune there, and became Grand Seneschal (see line 14 below)
of the kingdom. Landor gives an account of him in his Pentameron
of Bocca,ccio and Petrarca.
4-14.] The Carthusian monastery (Certosa), built on a hill at
the confluence of the Greve and the Ema, is well known to visitors
to Florence. The one-arched bridge of line 9 is some 2| miles
from the Porta Romana.
17. their scaffold planks.] See the description below, 207-49.
24. ere break of day.} See the passage quoted from O.Y.B.
213 in the last paragraph of the Introduction to Bock XI.
32. twelve hours hence.] Cf. 123 below. According to the
records Guido was told at the eighth hour (about 2 A.M.) that he
must die ; ' the Company of Death and of Pity ' (see last paragraph
of this Book) arrived at the prison at the twentieth hour (about
2 P.M.) ; the execution took place ' after dinner ' (O.Y.B. ccxxxix.,
213, E.L. 238, 265).
33-8.] The gaoler's encouraging belief 're-echoed the convic-
tion of all Rome ', if Browning's Venetian of rank judged rightly
(XII. 78). The poet's authority was a letter written by a certain
Carlo Ugolinucci immediately after Guide's execution (see Introduc-
tion to Book XII.) ; he declares that on the resolution of the court
to await the proofs of Guide's ' clericate ' the defence ' began to
breathe again' (O.Y.B. ccxxxix., E.L. 238).
37. fee of the good hand], i.e. a tip ; Italian buonamano.
40. Whoever owned wife, etc.] Cf. e.g. I. 866-7, II. ad fin.
i O.Y.B. 224, E.L. 279 ; Hall Griffin, p. 324.
l!f*fil< XI. OUIDO 239
|.'» .M. | For duido'* claim <>n the ground of hi* ' clei i
of which ue learn in the record* miK from the lelteis uritten
hi* execution (I. iV.T-'.i). sec e.g. X. 1999-2014; for tin- Pb]
rejection of the flailil see 1. :>L}8-36.
56-7.] See Appendix VII.
t)J. mi «iiclt xtnj'fx extant. \ See below, 557 seqq. There an- no
Christian* n«»\v in Home, says Guido, only * born-bapti/.ed-and-
bn-d Christian-atheists' (709); if by waving a wand he could
make Rome Chri*tian, an explosion would follow (622-5).
TL*. i-ti/iildl <>' flu- r///-.W kiiul.\ See note on I. 178-9.
108. JH nudity i>ri</f <nnl jn iintij />orl.\ In Riclmni II. (5. -~>. !»h
the king says that he is ' spurr'd, ^all'd and tired by jauncing
Bollngbroke ' ; in their note Clark and Wright quote from Cotgravc :
* lancer un cheval. To stim- a horse in stable till hcc sweat
wit hall; or (as our) to jaunt; (an old word)'. In Romeo uml
.Juliet the Nurse exclaims 'What a jaunt \(}'2 has •jauncc'J I
have had ! ' She has, she says, been ' jauncing up and down '
(2. 5. 26, ."):{).
130. while I (ell you.] Below, 179-258.
14"). 8kntnk~thanked.] As you like it, 2. 7. 161 : 'His youthful
h".-e ... a world too wide For his shrunk shank '.
1 17. irintllt'NtruH'x.] The word is applied in Scotland and in
the North of England to dry stalks of grass left standing; also.
Figuratively, to persons feeble in physique or infirm of pin j
Browning uses it in the literal sense in Fijincnl the F"l/\ ix.. where
• thistle-fluffs and bearded windlestraws ' are spoken of as materials
for birds' nests; cf. Old Mortality, c. vii. : ' 1 had rather that the
rigs of Tillietudlem hare naethuig but windlc-straes and sandy
lavrookfl than that they were ploughed by rebel*'.
181. many a good year gone.] See note on 272 below.
188. the Mouth-of-Truth.] The Bocca della Verita is a lar.m-
marble di.-e \\ith the mask of a Triton and an open mouth, which
•'bly served as the mouth of a drain; it is in the vestibule of
the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, to which it gives an alter-
native name. ' It was believed that if a \\itness, whose truthful-
doubted, were desired to place his hand in the mouth of
this mask, it \\oiild bite him if he were guilty of ]>crjury ' (II
II 'nlk* in Home, i. p. 159).
Is1.). //•//< /•» /(,/•'• <-,,i/ .'), i.e. why was Mannaia coy ?
I'.Mi. \\'hn ' xtiililul buffaloes.} ' ButTaloe* may' be seen in licrds
lu-re and there [in the Campagna |. The*e \» -a*t* are -till more
poueiful than the oxen, and are used to do all the harde*t work.
. . . All along the outer walls of Rome, at regular intervals, little
pens are tailed off with strong beams to afford refuge to any
pedotrians in ease they may chance to meet a drove of but!
or of oxen ' (Story, Rnlm id l!»n>'i, p. :>r>7). In old days there \\eie
buffalo races in the city (iliiil. pp. 551-2).
240 THE RING AND THE BOOK
224. slid] would perhaps be the right word. In the first of his
Letters on a Regicide Peace Burke speaks of the executioner fitting
to the size of his victims ' the slider of his guillotine '.
234. trundles.] The verb is often used intransitively by
Browning ; cf. e.g. 644 below. Addison notes (Spectator, No. 253,
quoted in N.E.D.) that in certain lines of Homer the stone of
Sisyphus, having been ' heaved up by several Spondees ', at last
' trundles down in a continual line of Dactyls '.
243. Discoursed this platter.] This transitive use of ' to discourse '
is archaic (N.E.D.) ; cf. I. 645, ' discoursed the right and wrong '.
260. Was not a Pope, etc.] The pope in question must be
Alexander VII., who reigned from 1655 to 1667 ; he was reputed
to be witty. See note on 272 below.
261. the Merry Tales], perhaps those of Sacchetti ; see notes
on III. 1446 and V. 560.
263. cullion.] Properly one easily deceived, as here ; but used
as a mere term of abuse by Shakespeare (e.g. in Henry V., 3. 2. 22).
272. Florid old rogue Albano's masterpiece.] Francesco Albano,
born at Bologna in 1578, taught at Rome and died in 1660 ; Ruskin
could ' still follow his prettiness ' and enjoy his Cupids. His
masterpiece of ' bouncing Europa on the back o' the bull ', for
which Browning here provides a model, is at Petrograd, where the
poet may have seen it in 1834 ; there is a replica of it in the Uffizi
at Florence (Hall Griffin, Life of Robert Browning, p. 63). — Since
Albano died (at the age of 82) in 1660, the picture was not painted
later, probably it was painted much earlier, than in that year ;
and according to Browning's story it was newly painted when
Guido first made acquaintance with Mannaia. How old was he
in 1660 ? Browning makes him forty-six when he married in
1693 (see note on I. 782-4) ; that would make him thirteen in 1660.
But he was in factjjorn in 1658.
and cfcmT>See note on IX. 1039-40.— ' Clout ' (as
means literally ' clod '.
ilas and Axis are the two uppermost vertebrae of
the neck ; SymDhyses are the unions of bones by cartilage.
Browning represents Guido as having studied anatomy at the
suggestion of his fencing- master (283-9) ; he had himself done so
' with reference to the expression of form ' (Mrs. Orr, Life, p. 232).
During her last winter in Rome, that of 1860-61, Mrs. Browning
wrote : ' Robert has taken to modelling under Mr. Story . . .
and is making extraordinary progress, turning to account his
studies on anatomy ' (ibid. p. 230).
294-5.] Ecclesiastes xii. 6 : 'or ever the silver cord be loosed,
or the golden bowl be broken '. Browning's ' silver cord ' is the
spinal cord (see below, 642), and his ' gold bowl ' is the brain.
303. extravasate], i.e. forced out of its proper vessel.
304-5.] See note on II. 1495.
ROOK XI.—GUIDO 241
:!<>7. iifni'liiin'nl l/inic «/'///// hrnin\. i.f. the mrnilirane whieh coats
the brain and the spinal cord.
311. Fagon\ was chief physician to Louis XIV. ; was he also a
'.owning and Thackeray (in l-'.*m<>inl) say? I have
read of him EM ordering opcrat ions, but not as operating. — Macaiilay
in his cha|»ter (iii.) on the 'State of Kn<rland in 1(JS."» ' notes that
at the time 'those exquisitely line blades which are required for
operations on the human frame' came from France.
.'.1 I. rixloja-ware.] The town of Pistoia, formerly Pistola, was
and is famous for its manufacture of weapons. From it comes
the word ' pistol ', which was originally applied to a dagger. In
modern Italian /,1^/nl'i pistol, pistolese = cutlass.
327. " Petrus, quo vadis ? "] Guido alludes to the legend, told
by St. Ambrose, that when, in the reign of Nero, St. Peter was
tiering from Rome along the Appian Way, he met our Lord coming
to the city and asked him, ' Ix>rd, whither goest thou ? ' (Domine,
quo vadis ?). On hearing the answer, ' I come to be crucified again '
(Venio ih-ram crncifiqi), he returned to Rome and was there martyred.
In the church of Domine Quo Vadis, half a mile south of the
Porta S. Sebastiano, where the road to Ardea branches off from
the Appian Way, the footprint of the Saviour is shown.
.'WO. raised up Dorcas.} Acts ix. 36-41.
'.\\'l. leave me linger], i.e. (he should) leave me (to) linger; cf.
646-7 below.
:>."»!'. overset]^ upset ' ; now out-of-date, but used e.g. by Morris
in The Man born to be King, and often by Carlyle in his French
Revolution.
358] introduces a new point. Guido argues : (1)1 am so near
death anyhow that the Pope need not trouble to kill me (341-57) ;
(2) he ought to bo more merciful than the law, but is showing himself
less so (358-409) ; (3) he is acting maliciously ; lest people should
condemn him, he is trying to make me confess that I am guilty
(410-34).
:UU. fire-new.] See note on V. 529.
:>7L] Malachi iv. 2.
386. such illmjirul in<;,n sequence] as is shown in the words put
into the Pope's mouth above.
:;'.):>. unite disputes, etc.] All agree that the I 'ope should ^rant
me the hem-lit of clergy which 1 claim ; see X. 1998-2014.
411-1 '2. nmjlit . . . confess.] See note on 14.~>l-2 below.
People of importance, >.i\> the >peaker, took different
viewi : see XII. «.u 7. 1 10-12.
ILVI. 9om« o/tw "'/,/. nl,t,txr.\ Cf. VIII. 1458-00. XII. :.T, 299;
ill the l.i-t pi. ic,- ' Somebody's thick headpiece ' is the I'ope's.
129-90, • lirownint: nnkrs Areanireli say the
>ime thintr in his letter to Ceneini (XII. :*0l):
H..\\ thc~c eld men like L'ixini: y.-uth a
242 THE RING AND THE BOOK
435-7]. The wolf robs the thief by robbing his intended victims.
451. boards, shaking now], i.e. the boards of which are shaking.
456-60.] Guido states his view of the meaning of his visitors. —
In line 460 as printed there is a strange mixture of the oratio recta
of ' so, quick, be sorry ' with the oratio obliqua of ' my soul '. 'So,
quick, be sorry ' should probably be printed within inverted commas.
469-70. you dare no more, etc.] You are determined, says Guido,
that I shall die, but you don't dare to condemn me to hell after-
wards ; you therefore want me to show penitence.
473-4.] For this incident see note on III. 1622-4.
476. to play a prize], i.e. to play a winning game, ' to fight you
and foil you '. Cf. Massinger, A New Way to pay Old Debts, 4. 2.
127-8, ' if I play not my prize to your full content ', where ' to play
my prize ' means ' to play my game successfully '. For the precise
technical meaning of ' prize ' in such expressions see Shakespeare's
England, ii. p. 389.
489. increase], i.e. raise your demands.
494. you looked me low], i.e. laid me in the dust by your mere
glance ; you had no need to use a weapon. The same thing is
expressed by ' exposed the Gorgon shield ' in line 507.
506. the adventure] of a passage of arms with me.
507. the Gorgon shield.] Whoever looked on the Gorgon's head
was turned into stone ; Athene placed it in the centre of her shield.
514. take the word you want.] 'You want a word from me',
says Guido, ' and you shall have it '. But the word they get will
not be the word that they would like to get.
521. Plainly.] The first syllable of the word is emphasized ;
it does duty for two (cf. VII. 655). Browning might have secured
the proper number of syllables by inserting a ' to ' before the in-
finitive ' put ', but the rhythm so obtained would have been even
less good.
529-30.] A step in the reasoning must be supplied; line 530
does not follow as an immediate consequence from 529.
533. mere reprisal, envy makes], i.e., of course, which envy makes.
The envy in question is the envy felt by the weak, who make the
' pact ' and abide by it, for the strong, who break it for their own
advantage. Readers of Greek will be reminded here of the
sophistries exposed in the earlier books of Plato's Republic.
549-52.] ' Do you say ', asks Guido, ' that the fault you find
with me is not that I defied the law of man, but that I disregarded
a divine precept which Christians recognize ? ' He answers that
Christians nowadays are mere hypocrites who care nothing for
divine precepts (553-763).
553. Colly my cow /] N.E.D. quotes a Leicestershire glossary
for ' colly my cow ' as ' a term of endearment for a cow ' ; ' colly ',
it says, means ' without horns '. ' Sing, oh poor Colly, Colly my
cow ' occurs in Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, 86.
XL GUIDO 843
what sense did Urowiiin.i: understand the phrase? Does
pivtcnd to In- soothing his visitors '{
I <|iiote (\\ithout ueeeptiiiL') the following suggestion from Notes
and ',' l>ruary 26, 1916: —
iy MY OOWl" (12 S. i. 91.) — Can Guide's exclamation l»e a
remini>eenre of the .»ld H \teeiit h -cent urv term of abuse applied to
Ilii-ueiiots in its original form M the cow of Colas," la vache a Cola*':
A stray cow, belonirhiL' to a certain Colas Pannier, entered a Pn>t<->taiit
plaee of worship at Hiomie. The Huguenots, thinking the cow was
driven in anioim them on purpose. >(-i/.ed and killed it. Tin- sheriff
(liailli), however, made them indemnify its owner. Soir_r- \\.-ic
written and SIIIIL: hy the Catholics in mi-mory of the incident. Vide
note to .M. Louis Batiffol's The. Century of the Renaissance, as trans-
lated in The National History of France just published, p. 245.
A. H. BAYI.KV.
A quite impossible interpretation will be found in Dr. Brewer's
Dit'tinnnry of Phrase and Fable, p. 275.
570. In Mesopotnnt//.] The Cophetua of legend w.
Kthiopian king; Guido's reference to him and to his kingdom
here is a scornfully wilful blunder; cf. his reference to Innocent
XII. as 'Pope the Five-Hundredth (what do I know or care ?) '
(121 above).— In 2 Henry IV. , 5. 3. 105, Falstaff enquires of Pistol :
O base .lxx>/ri(in kniu'ht, what is thy news?
Let King Cophetua hear the truth thereof.
583. Later ten days.] See note on VIII. 283-6.
.>M. Ihr ca mile-contest} of the evening of Shrove Tuesday; it
i> thus described by Marion Crawford, Aye Roma Inniiortalis, i.
p. 201 : 'Then, if it were the last night of Carnival, myriads of
those wax tapers tii.-t u.-ed in Saturn's temple of old lit up the
street [the CorsoJ like magic and the last game of all began, for
every man and woman and child strove to put out another's candle,
and the long, laughing cry " No taper ! No taper ! N» ir.n nmccolo ! "
\\cntringinguptothodarklingsky. . . . Put out at every instant,
the little candles were instantly relighted, till they were consumed
down to the hand ; and as they l>nrned low. another cry went up,
i nival is dead! Carnival is dead!" But he was not really
dead till midnight '. See also Story, Roba di Mount, p. (.H. There
i- a lively description of the candle -contest in Dumas, M»nh O/.s/o,
ii. c. \\.
590. Professors turn possessors.] Kxplained l»y what foll»>
nit. /'/v.s/'/V f/nur coll<<<tr.\ A (Jallieism. employed also by
<'arlyle; ef. M. Arnold. Hnlle.r Dead, I. wl Jin. :
the troops of d
\\'hom llela with austere control pn-sides.
616. gird your loins and wash my feet.] John xiii. Ill: the
244 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Pope washes the feet of old men on Maundy Thursday in observance
of our Lord's precept in verse 14. English sovereigns did the same
till the time of James I.
626-7.] ' The privates of the Swiss guard carry halberds 8 feet
long, with fine damaskeened steel blades. . . . The peculiar dress
of the Swiss guard is said to be the ancient doublet and hose of the
Swiss national costume, modified by designs of Michael Angelo.
It consists of full breeches to the knee of alternate stripes of red
yellow and black. The stockings are striped yellow and black.
. . . Their doublets, padded at the shoulder and drawn in at the
waist by a belt, are of smaller stripes of red yellow and black '
(Tuker and Malleson, Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical
Rome, Part iv. p. 356).
638. His Altitude the Referendary.] ' His Altitude ' = Sua Altezza.
The Referendarius is an official of great antiquity ; the Gothic
king Theodoric had his Referendarius (i.e., says Hodgkin, reporter
in the .Court of Appeal), and the secretaries of the early kings of
the Fyanks bore the same title. In the later imperial and the
papal 7 courts the Referendary was charged with such duties as
exanjnning and reporting on petitions.
^•642. Will cut the spinal cord . . . ugh, ugh /] See above, 294-6.
644. trundles.] See note on 234 above.
646. Shall end], i.e. which shall end.
663. What talk then of indecent haste ?] There would be talk of
indecent haste in the cases described in 626-37 and 638-58.
675. round him in the ears.] See note on IV. 600.
683. tinkle near.] The ' tinkle ' is the ringing of the bell at the
elevation of the Host.
699. mumping.] See note on 1895 below.
705.] Cf. VII. 1167-79.
718. the creature's obligation] to be absolutely sincere towards
his Creator.
734-40.] Either entirely submissive, or entirely independent
(though respectful).
735. your caudatory.] To be taken figuratively, of course ; a
caudatorio is a prelate's train-bearer.
750-56.] They ' laugh in the face of faith ' by rending hair,
gnashing teeth, and cursing !
758. dungy earth.] The phrase is from Shakespeare : Winter's
Tale, 2. 1. 157 ; Antony and Cleopatra, 1. 1. 35.
760-63.] Luke xv. 16^3,
7 l^^Moody ^drjmfaffrtZsl, i.e. drunkards in the quarrelsome stage,
ready to use their knives like true Italians ; cf. 784.
788. Chap-fallen.] In VI. 134 Browning writes ' chop-fallen ' ;
cf. Hamlet, 5. 1. 212. The two forms are, perhaps, about equally
common ; ' chap-fallen ' is preferred here because of ' chop ' in 785.
789.] Romans xiii. 4 ; a passage already used in IX. 1116.
BOOK XI.—GUIDO 245
796. Elude your c.nn/. \ Si •<• note on 533 above.
800. I ruled our births.] A man's ' genius ' is his
tutelar spirit, ' th^60mpanion who tempers a man's birth-star'
of Horace, Epp^.2. 18J7 (natale comes qui temperat astrum).
821. still /*//!// u'f>lj\iflc.] Cf._4()r), 435-44. ^-r.
831-45.] if \lic otwJrr w&w* PJill^TpTTTT-^-fntflcT would choose to
be * free your foe %but, though not ' • ul.sidi/cd ', ho would contrive
to levy Mack-mail.
846. We'd try conclusions.] See note on V. 1125.
878-80.] The only sense in which Guido could maintain that
Pietro and Violante had helped the flight was that they were
represented as having advised such a flight in the faked letter of
Pompilia to Paolo, sent from Arezzo more than three years earlier
(O.Y.B. lv., E.L. 57; they advised, the letter says, 'that I
should choose a young man congenial to me, and flee to Rome
with him ').
893. gets called.] See note on IV. 1541.
rued his head], i.e. with horns, made him a cuckold.
Browning saw the unedifying picture at Vallombrosa Convent
during his visit there, described by Mrs. Browning, in 1847.
916. horn-blind.] Guido plays on his being blind to the fact
that he is a cuckold.
924.] The line was added in the second edition, perhaps un-
necessarily.
925-7.] ' I conceive of the eye of God as " filling up " the whole
space above me and devouring me as I crawl, a tiny speck upon
the ground; I conceive of it, that is to say, as the wrath which
immensity wreaks on nothingness '.
929-30. by Vittiano . . . wnntintj to trap fieldfares.] See note
on V. 364.
'.•41. Someone declares, etc.} Cf. VII. 1731 and 2100-1 below:
So am I made, " who did not make myself : "
(How dared she rob my own lip of the word ?)
Pompilia pardoned Guido on her death-bed (see the attestations
of Fra CeleMino, O.Y.B. Ivii., Iviii., E.L. 57-8, 59), but she is not
quoted as using this ' argument ' in his defence.
970 seqq.] Compare Pompilia' s account of the incident in VII.
389 seqq.
977. balls of black.] Browning represents Pompilia as black-
1 and black-haired (II. 275, III. 67, IV. 456, where see note,
XI. 1349, 1367).
978. the old simile], found, for example, in the famous passage
in Lucretius (I. 87-99) on the sacrifice of Iphianassa (Iphigenia).
Cf. VII. :,7'.»xn.
980. ///.sv//;/>/T,s\<?tve] = not to be suppressed ; cf. Ci>l<nnln's liirth-
'/'///. Act II., " iiiMippressivc joy on e\ery face '. Adjectives with
246 THE RING AND THE ROOK
this, properly active, termination have often a passive force in
Shakespeare and Milton ; ' insuppressive ' occurs in Julius Ccesar,
2. 1. 134, ' the insuppressive mettle of our spirits '. See note on
'inexpressive', IV. 528.
997. Esther in all that pretty tremble.] The reference is to ' The
Rest of the Chapters of the Book of Esther 5 (in the Apocrypha),
c. 15, where Esther appeals to Ahasuerus for her fellow-countrymen
in * the perfection of her beauty ', but ' in anguish for fear '. The
king ' looked upon her in fierce anger ' ; she ' fainted and bowed
herself upon the head of the maid that went before '. But God
' changed the spirit of the king' into mildness ' ; he ' leaped from
his throne, and took her in his arms . . . and comforted her with
soothing words. . . . He held up his golden sceptre, and laid it
upon her neckband embraced her '.
998. the, do^ a the sceptre.] The dove is mentioned neither in
the chapteV frpm which I have quoted nor in the verses in the
Book of EstKer (4. 11, 5. 2) in which the king is said to -hold out
his sceptre as a sign of favour and the queen to touch the top of
it as an act of homage. Perhaps Browning had in mind the rod (or
sceptre) ' with the Dove upon the top ' which in the English corona-
tion service is called ' the Rod of Equity and Mercy '.
1025. that first wheelwork.] Cf. A Death in the Desert, lines 448-9 :
Was man made a wheelwork to wind up
And be discharged, and straight wound up anew ?
and Sordello, V. 447.
1028-31.] If Pompilia would but have admitted what she saw
but professed not to see, viz. that ' I am the wrought man worth
ten times the crude ', she might have awakened love between us.
1040. toy], i.e. fancy.
1056. the next weeks], i.e. the weeks of which Pompilia speaks
in VII. 472-81, those which passed between the marriage at Rome
and the departure for Arezzo. See Appendix III.
1072. their coming], i.e. the coming of ' friendship, as they name
satiety ' ; ' its ' would have suited better than ' their '.
1089.] The line was added in the second edition. *It seems so
necessary to the sense that it was perhaps omitted in the first
edition by a printer's mistake.
1100. the hundred-petalled Provence prodigy], the ' queen rose '
of the period (1103) ; see note on V. 673.
1107. the minim.] See note on VIII. 1453.
1118. The dreadful bronze our boast.] Bellerophon (line 1120)
slew the monstrous Chimaera, described by Homer (Iliad 6. 181)
as ' a lion in front, a serpent behind, a kid in the middle ' (irpovQe
XeW, 6-n-idev 5£ 8pa.Kuv, /j-tva-r) 5e x^aiPa) '•> it took its name, as Guido
says (1120-23), from its harmless middle part. A. large bronze
statue of the Homeric Chimaera, believed to be of Etruscan work-
BOOK XI.—OUIDO 247
iii;msliil>, was diseovrn-d at Are/./o in l.V>l; it is no\\ in the
Ktrusran must-urn at Kloivnrr.
1150. N/Y Itiijnit!/.} Uf. 'Sir Jealousy' (V. 1147); so in Shake-
re, '.;/. 'Sir Valour' (Tmilu* and Cressida, 1. 3. 176), 'Sir
Oracle ' (Merchant of Venice, 1. 1. 93).
1156. tawdry] is usually, of course, an adjective. The word
was * formerly used in the plirase tawdry lace, which meant lace
bought at St. AwdryV fair, held in the Isle of Ely (and «•!>< -where)
on St. Awdry's day, Oct. 17. Tawdry is a familiar corruption of
St. Awdry ' (Skeat).
1179.] See above, 405, 443, 821 seqq.
1190. perdue.] See note on 111. li'.TJ.
1 1 '.»:>. four hubbub months.} See Appendix III.
iL'nt.J See V. 7:>4 seqq.
1222. Rounded mij^lf In the ears.] See note on IV. 600.
1230. the silly-sooth.\ See note on III. 806.
I-M7. The palace in Via Larga.] The Palazzo Panciatichi
(built, says Guido, ' only the other day ' — Baedeker says, '-about
1700 ') is at the south end of what was formerly the Via Larga
and is now the Via Cavour. Napoleon was lodged in this palace
in 1796.
1256. Panciatic and lymphatic rhymed so pat /] The d illness
and heaviness of the architecture suggested the ' pleasantry'.
li'Tfi. transformations of <H*jnxl\, i.e. disgusting transformations.
1277. the snug little Villa.} See Appendix II.
1278-9. 1 Si -e note on III. 1622-4.
I.-.04.] Genesis ii. 23.
i:5ii:.. | K phi-slang v. 23-5.
1 :;<><•> -7. | Cmrsis iii. 16.
1 :!.'!!. the ('nininitxanj.] See note on IV. 799.
1349. The long black hair.] Cf. 1365-7 below, and see notr on
IV. 41
1380.J Psalm vii. 12 (Prayer-book Version).
1 tn'.t. Sltniii the loorse], i.e. profess the insincere love, do the
' loving acts '.
1413-17.] The eunuch plays the part of the enchantress in an
ojn-ra founded on the story of Rinaldo and Armida in Tasso's
-i If mine Liberata. The story was regarded as well suited for
o|.« -ratic treatment; in 1711, on his return from his visit to Italy,
Handel piodiicfd his Hiiuildo at the. Haymarket (see the Spectator
for March 6 in that year); and Gluck (1714-87) composed an
Armida.
1 IL'O. hrn gnld zwh'un-x.\ The zecchino (sequin) was worth about
ten shillings. In XII. 71 r>i<>\vning's Venetian of quality In t- in
' gold /.ecchilK
ino-i.'). | K\|n-ris to whom this passage has been submitted
kno\v nothing «>t the all« •!_'••(! antipathy U'tween elm and ash. The
248 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Rev. George Sampson tells me that on a walk in North Hampshire
he noted ten couples of elm and ash, and that ' in no case did either
tree appear to suffer from the other, although some of them had
their boughs intermingled '. In one place he has seen an elm
supporting an ash, and ' at the point where they rubbed they
appeared to have grown together '.
Did Browning take the supposed mutual aversion of elm and
ash from some literary or legendary source, not from direct observa-
tion ?
1451-2. ought . . . Have let.] Browning often omits ' to '
between 'ought' and an infinitive, as e.g. in 411 above, 'I ought
in decency confess '. Note here that immediately after ' ought
have let ' we have ' ought to have turned ' (1454).
1465. pulpit-corner on the gospel-side.] Cf. The Bishop orders
his Tomb :
My niche is not so cramped but thence
One sees the pulpit o' the epistle-side.
Pulpits in Catholic as in Protestant churches are sometimes on one
side, sometimes on the other ; sometimes (as e.g. in St. Mark's,
Venice) there are pulpits on both sides. I find it stated in Addis
and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary that the pulpit ' should be placed
on the gospel-side, unless that place is already occupied by the
Bishop's throne '. Whether there is any special reason why ' on
high-days' (1479) the high ecclesiastics to whom Guido is speaking
should preach from a pulpit ' on the gospel-side ' I do not know.
1469.] Deuteronomy xxv. 4.
1472. o' the world that's trodden flat], i.e. of the green grass world
which, so far as you know it, and so far only, is trodden flat.
1489. promise, which is air.] Cf. Hamlet, 3. 2. 99, ' I eat the
air, promise-crammed '.
1491.] Guido repeats what he has said in 719 seqq.
1499. save the mark /] The origin of ' (God) save [or bless] the
mark ' is uncertain. It is ' an exclamatory phrase, probably
originally serving as a formula to avert an evil omen, and hence
used by way of apology when something horrible, -disgusting,
indecent or profane has been mentioned. In modern literary use
(after some of the examples in Shakespeare) it is an expression of
impatient scorn appended to a quoted expression or to a statement
of fact' (N.E.D.).
1509-12.] Isaiah ii. 4. — Guido makes his ecclesiastical critics
say that his sword and spear, his ' wrath ' and ' ambition ', should
be used only in the service of the church — ' to plough our land '
and ' to prune our vines '.
1525-38.] The law and the church, says Guido, professed to
advise me to appeal to them — to ' pluck at law's robe ' and to
' kiss divinity's buckled shoe ' ; but after following their professed
BOOK Xl.—GUIDO
I came to sec that their real advice, conveyed, not in words,
luit l>v ' nods and winks', was that 1 should act for myself, work
out my own vengeance. He proceeds to argue that he did not
Bee that this was so when at Castelnuovo ; had he avenged himself
there, law and church would have acquiesced. WhcMi he did
that it was so, and set the right way to work at Rome, lie tripped
through a foolish and unaccountable omission.
!."•:{ I -2.] 2 Corinthians iii. 6.
1635-8.] If the inverted commas are rightly placed, the whole
of the four lines give the purport of the 'clownish saw', what'
the saw may be. An injured man should avenge himself, and not
.i>k for damages.
i:»r,l-2.] Matthew xii. LV>. etc.
1 r.ii 1 . . l///*7r//.s haunting curse, the Incomplete!] Browning
repeated the line, consciously or unconsciously, twenty years later
in his liealrtce Siynurini, where an artist wonders
would Iqve's success defeat
Artistry's haunting curse — the Incomplct- ':
1598-9.] Contrast with this what Guido says in his speech
in the witness-chaml>er, V. 1638 seqq.
1604. three only.} See above, 1585 seqq.
1606. ttenia], tape-worm.
1625-50.] See Introduction to Book XL
1641. Sees I ivant hat on head.] Suggested by the Secondary
Source, O.Y.B. 212, E.L. 263: 'In their haste one of them [i.e.
the assassins] left his cloak [at the scene of the murders], and
Frann-si-hini his hat, which betrayed them afterwards'.
1 <;:>n. /„//„*//•/>/*. | cf. X. 857.
1656. the boundary.] See note on V. 1725.
1663-9.] See the Sentence of the Criminal Knota of Florence.
confirming, on December 24, 1697 (' one week , says Guido, k before
I acted on its hint ' on January 2, 1698), the decision of the Com-
minaiy of Aiec&o (O. Y.I;. \.-\iii.. /•;./,. 5-7). The Pope (X. 834-<J)
-peaks 'of 'that strange shameful judgment . . . just pronounced
by the Rota and continued by the (Jrandul.
1669. the Stinche.] See note on IV. 1516.
1680. (/ think I told you).] See above, 288, and notes on V.
118 and XI. 291-2.
h'.'.rj. At th> nu'i-tii-lf . > ><•.} She had received ' twenty-two dagger-
wounds \ Vll. :ts; cf. III. 6, 7. Bee 0. >'./*. 212, E.L. 263.
1701. II ml she. been found dead, etc.] See note on IV. 1416-21.
1707-24. | Compare the ingenious defence \\hich < Juido's advocate
Arcangeli is represented as saying that he might have made if onlv
Cuido had not confer. (I (VIM. :;iil-82).
I7L>9-:;±| n. >'./;. l\ii.. Kiii.. E.L, :.7-9.
17:u-:»:i.| Bee note on VIII. l.VJO-1601.
250 THE RING AND THE BOOK
1750. / die last, etc.] From the Secondary Source, 0. Y.B. 213,
E.L. 266 ; so also the post-Browning pamphlet, 0. Y.B. 224, E.L.
280.
1771. 'twixt crosses leading to a skull], leading to a place of execu-
tion, a Golgotha ; the ' crosses ' are ' affront and failure '.
1781. ask Jansenius else. ] The form of the phrase is very common
in Browning; cf. Luria, Act in. ('with cause enough, consult the
Nuncio else '), The Inn Album, p. 8 (' Such the sum-total — ask
Colenso else ') and p. 36, where a parvenu's son says :
House, land,
Money, are things obtainable, you see,
By clever head-work : ask my father else ;
St. Martin's Summer, xn. (' Sober is genuine joy . . . Ask else
Penelope, Ulysses'). Other examples occur in Fifine at the Fair,
XLIV., and in Francis Furini, xi.
The Jansenists had good reason for the conclusion that papal
pretensions had ' grown beyond Earth's bearing ' ; see note on I.
307. ^
1784. than vrickets^i.e. than from crickets. Modern English
requires the repa*rtion of the preposition after ' than ' ; Browning
usually omits it. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, 2. 2. 71-2 :
Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords.
1790. trying all the spirits.] 1 John iv. 1.
1803-4. I fold My mantle round me.] Like Caesar.
1808-9.] The allusion is to the Second Siege of Vienna by the
Turks. The emperor Leopold I. had formed an alliance with
Pope Innocent XL and John Sobieski, king of Poland, and his
general Charles Duke of Lorraine put the supreme command into
the hands of the king, who on July 14, 1683, routed the Turks
under Kara Mustapha, the grand vizier. — The great victory was
celebrated by Filicaja in six odes ; Wordsworth has a sonnet upon it.
1812. Why is it that I make such suit to live ?] The rest of the
paragraph (1813-1910) gives reasons why he should not make such
suit. If the Pope pardoned him and he gained a fresh lease of life,
(1) he would lose ' the popular sympathy ', his friends would look
askance at him, his murdered wife would become the idol of the
people (1813-33) ; (2) he would lose all authority in his own family
(1834-43) ; (3) he would have no ' second chance ' in life (1844-6),
for his new-born son, though it might be supposed that he would
be a joy to him, would be no such joy (1847-1902). For all these
reasons life is for him no longer worth living (1903-10).
1833. the mad penitent ladies.] We read of Quakeresses in
America who at the same period ' walked naked through the streets
in imitation of the prophet Ezekiel [?], as a sign of the nakedness
of the land ' (Goldwin Smith, The United States, p. 33).
BOOK XL-<;ril><) 251
1844. am I not fifty years of age ?\ See note on I. 782-4.
is.")!*. i.s- nnt that the. phrase?} I cannot identify the quotation,
'.iv. ..IK- here.
1856-95.J Guido has ' no sort of use ' for a son (1902), whether
his son proves a success in the ordinary M-MSC (1856-68), or a failure
'an ineptitude ' (1869-78), or neither a success nor a failure, merely
' the medium measure of a man' (1879-95).
1869. the blood-offering.] Explained by 1854-5.
1878. not quite the fool my father was.] The records tell us
nothing of Guide's father Tommaso (II. 487) except his name
(O.Y.tt. elvii., E.L. 162). Browning makes Guido represent him
as having been at one time ' great and rich ' (V. 352), with friends
who were ' proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe ' (V. 48), able
to keep a chaplain and to give a handsome present to a scholar
for a ' hexastich ' (V. 309-15). As Toinmaso grew older he became
gouty (XI. 2171), and, being easy-natured, luckless, and improvident,
he 'let the world slide' (V. 47); 'troubles fell thick on him'
(V. 330), and he had to lament the loss of his ' broad lands ' (XI.
2170) ; ' the purse he left held spider-webs ' (V. 49). Guido pro-
fesses to have ' some slight feeling ' for a father to whom he admits
that he was not a dutiful son (V. 46, XL 1876-8).
1883-5.] Matthew xxi. 28-30.
1887. a paul] See note on I. 324.
1889. not on flesh and blood] as a son would be (1854-5).
1895. mumping.] Cf. 699 above, ' nuns a-maundering here and
mumping there'. The word here seems to mean ' washily senti-
mental ', as perhaps in Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace, HI. :
* our embassy " of shreds and patches ", with all its mumping cant '.
1900. runs], i.e. makes to run.
1903.] He is not sick of ' life's feast ', but of its unattainability
by himself.
1908. robins.] Commenting on the fact that ' the Roman market
is rich in game of all kinds', from the wild boar to the .-pai-row,
Story remarks that ' there is nothing an Italian will not shoot,
and nothing he will not eat ' (Roba di Roma, p. 380). See note on
V. 364.
1921. Etruscan, Aretine.] Arezzo is ' ancientest of TU.M an
towns ' (V. 142), and the Etruscans claimed to be among the earliest
inhabitants of the peninsula.
1922-3.] The reference is to Mneid 8. 314-15, where Evander,
sliu\\ ing ^Eneas the site of the future Rome, is made to
HJCC nemora indigenao Fauni Nymphaeque teneiiant,
Gensquo virum truncis et duro robore nata.
C In these woods dwelt Fauns and Nymphs sprung from the soil,
and a generation of men l>orn of trunks of trees and >tulil»orn oak '.)
Kvander says (.Kn, i<l X. \\^'l-\} that his Arcadians
252 THE RING AND THE BOOK
believed that they had often seen Jupiter himself on the Capitoline
hill, shaking his darkening cegis in his hand and gathering the
storm-clouds :
Arcades ipsum
Credunt se vidisse lovem, cum ssepe nigrantem
a concutcret dextra nimbosque cieret.
(' holder of the aegis ', i.e. the shield with which he excites
tempests and spreads dismay) is an epithet of Zeus in Homer
(e.g. Odyssey 24. 164).
1932.] 'The motto' is, I suppose, the second line quoted from
Virgil in the note on 1922-3 (Gens virum, etc.). For the shield
whereto Guido is presently to ' give gules to vary azure ' see note
on XL 2161-6.
1934-2003.] Guido maintains that his own faith and that of
his so-called Christian visitors are really the same. They believe,
as he does, in an all-good, all-wise, all-potent supreme Deity, whom,
remembering the passage in the Eighth .ZEneid (see note on 1925-7),
he calls Jove ^Egiochus (1936). They follow the Greeks, as he does,
in introducing, between this supreme Deity and man, an ' inter-
mediary race ' (cf. ' medium-powers ', 1969) of agencies" into whose
precise nature they do not 'pry narrowly' — agencies or powers
which recognize man's need to ' live ' and to ' enjoy ' (cf. 807). —
Believing all this contemporary churchmen have excused themselves
from emulating the self-sacrifice of the ' ag
pure ', but they mask their compromise, and ' enjoy the old liberty '
emulating the self-sacrifice of the ' age styled primitive and
of the Greeks ' o' the sly ' (1996-8) ; for they feel sure that, though
the Christian law may frown, there is nevertheless ' a wink some-
where '.
The passage supplements previous arguments of Guido' s ; see
especially 557 seqq., 798 seqq.
1963. Master Pietro], the licentious Pietro Aretino ; see note
on X. 654.
1966.] Guido' s advocate Arcangeli is represented as asking
' who hath barred thee primitive revenge ? ', and as suggesting that
' to bar revenge ' is a heresy of the Molinists (VIII. 697, 718 seqq.).
1972-4.] The words depend on ' propitiating ', and develop
the question ' whom ? '. ' Himself . . . made ' is a relative clause
to which ' sins ' is the antecedent.
1976. Revealed to strike Pan dead.] The reference is to a story
told by Plutarch (De Oraculorum Defectu, 17) ; certain voyagers
from Greece to Italy during the principate of Tiberius (it was after-
wards said, on the very day of the Crucifixion) heard a voice from
the Greek shore, bidding them to report that Pan was dead. The
story, to which allusion seems to be made in the Hymn of Milton's
Nativity Ode (stanza xx.), gave birth to Mrs. Browning's The Dead
Pan. Cf. Theophile Gautier's lines :
BOOK XI.—OUIDO 253
.Mais I'l Mympi- <•»'•.!<• an ( '.iK.iiiv,
.lupiter an X a /.a !•('•(• n.
Une voix dit ' Pan o.-l in.. it \ etc.
M. C16mcnceau, who had lately visited Greece, made much use
of the story in his Le Grand Pan, which he published in I SIM;.
1977. live good days.} Cf. IX. 413, 'to live and see good days ' ;
Psalm xxxiv. 12, 1 Peter iii. 10.
1991.] Cf. James i. 27 ; ' his flesh ' is of course the antecedent
to this relative clause.
2006-7.] Matthew xxvi. 52.
2011-44.] Guido argues that the Pope would have pardoned
him if he had urged that his crime had a religious motive.
2029.] Acts xvii. 23.
2033-4. here at Rome Romano vivitur more.] The proverbial
' one does at Rome as Rome does ' had its origin in a conversation
between two famous men in the fourth century. St. Augustin of
Hippo asked St. Ambrose of Milan what he should do about fasting
on Saturdays, which had become fashionable at Rome, and St.
Ambrose answered : Quando hie sum, nan ieiuno Sabato : quando
Romce sum, ieiuno Sabato. — Browning probably took his Romano
vivitur more from the lines quoted in the following passage by
Jeremy Taylor (Of Conscience, c. I., Rule 5) :
He that fasted upon a Saturday in Ionia or Smyrna was a s<hi>niat i< :
and so was he who did not fast at Milan or Rome upon the same day.
both upon the same reason :
Cum fueris Romae., Romano vivito more ;
Cum fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.
2050-53.] The stories of Byblis and Lycaon are told at length
by Ovid. The feeble Byblis was in love with her own brother,
whom she pursued until ' consumed by her own tears she was
changed into a fountain ' (vertitur in font em, Met. 9. 662-3). The
cruel and murderous Lycaon was turned into a wolf ( Met. 1. 237-9) :
Kit lupus, et veteris -i-r\a1 vr-tL'ia form®.
Canities eadem est ; eadem violentia vultu ;
Idem oculi lucent ; eadem feritatis imago est.
2086. your abnegation of revenge.} O.Y.B. Ivii., Iviii., E.L.
57-8, 59.
2100. " who did not innkr- myself".] Sec note on 941 above,
2118-220] Guido docs not care for the pure design of the other-
worldly Fra Angelico, the Dominican * Monk ' of San Marco at
Florence, but for 'the mighty spirit of Venetian colour, consum-
mated in Titian'. — He could, indeed, have endured the pale,
timid, ' holy ' 1'ompilia, had she come to him with a 'selvage cloth
of gold' round her whiteness, i.e. had she brought him wealth
(2125-81); but gold, though it 'will do \ is after all but 'sordid
254 THE RING AND THE BOOK
muck ' (2182) ; what he wanted in a wife was ' colour ', unscrupulous
passion ; ho wanted, not a Pompilia, but a Lucrezia Borgia (2183-
2220).
2122.] Guide's hatred for the whiteness of Pompilia recalls
that of Cenci for his son Bernardo in Shelley's tragedy —
Thy milky meek face makes me sick with hate —
(The Cenci, Act n. Scene 1).
2128-9.] Is the illustration taken from some ecclesiastical
vestment ?
2161-6.] Cf. the description of the arms of the Franceschini
in XII. 822-4 :
Shield, Azure, on a Triple Mountain, Or,
A Palm-tree, Proper, whereunto is tied
A Greyhound, Rampant, striving in the slips.
The description follows closely the water-colour drawing of which
I have spoken on p. xxi.
2165-7.] It occurs to Guido that the Franceschini arms, which
symbolize the greed of the family (2163), also symbolize its ill-
fortune.
2184. those Olimpias bold, those Biancas brave.] Unscrupulous
and passionate heroines of Italian romance. The author of the
B. and H. Notes says that the Olimpia here meant is the wife of
Bireno in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and that the Bianca is the
wife of Fazio as presented in Dean Milman's Fazio. The latter
identification will hardly commend itself to readers of Milman's
play.
2185. worth Or muz1 wealth.] Ormuz, on an island at the mouth
of the Persian gulf, a mart for diamonds and pearls. Cf. Milton,
Paradise Lost, 2. 2, ' the wealth of Ormus and of Ind ' ; Marvell,
Song of the Emigrants in Bermuda, 20, ' Jewels more rich than
Ormus shows '.
2202. Delilah.] Judges xvi.
2204. call-bird], i.e. decoy-bird.
2212. Straight from the sun.] Circe, the sorceress of the Odyssey,
who with her wand turned the companions of Odysseus into swine,
was the daughter of Helios (the sun).
2214. O thou Lucrezia, etc.] Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope
Alexander VI. and sister of Caesar Borgia, who, according to scandal
and to Guide's suggestion here, was also her lover ; she was univer-
sally believed to be just such an infamously passionate woman as
Guido would have wished his wife to be. She has, however, been
whitewashed by the researches of modern historians ; Dr. Garnett
calls her ' kindly . . . and somewhat apathetic ', and declares
that ' nothing could be less like the real Lucrezia than the Lucrezia
of the dramatists and romancers ' (Cambridge Modern History, i.
HOOK XI.—GU1IH) 285
|». 'I'M i cf. Symonds. Tin Age of the /Ji.>-/Wx. pp. 328-32).— ' The
figure of the rope's daughter between her terrible father and
I. rot her. in part their terrible victim and an object of pity, in part
•luetive -iren. and lastly a penitent Magdalen, exercises a charm
on the imagination by the mystery which surrounds her, and in
the obscurity of which guilt and innocence struggle for supremacy '
(Gregorovius).
2235. IH/.s1 /A/.v strict inquisition, etc.] Guido hints here and in
'2:\\\ .«v/»/. that the Cardinal had his ' affianced bride' put out of
tlu- way. The idea was perhaps suggested to Browning by a pa-
in his friend Story's Graffiti <r Italia, p. 128, where the servant of
an aspiring ecclesiastic has a like suspicion about a * tall, majestic.
lieivr-eyed girl '
who disappeared
Some ten years back, and God knows how or why.
2254. kill you /], i.e. and by killing me destroy your chance of
becoming Pope ; see note on 2265-7 below.
2258. must die next year.} Cf. XII. 38. Innocent, however,
lived for two years and a half more — till September 27, 1700.
2259-64.] Cf. 2339 below, where Guido makes a correct fore-
cast of the result of the next papal election. With his account of
' how the chances are supposed' compare XII. 42-8 (see note on
the passage), where Browning's Venetian of rank makes a wager
which he will lose. -Seventh' (2264) should be ' Might h '.
2265-7.] Guido catches at any argument, good or bad, which
lie thinks may conceivably influence his visitors to attempt to save
his life, but he cannot deliberately suppose that the Cardinal will
be moved by his suggestion that he will be able, if spared, to 'give
hi- friend a lift' with the Curia when a new pope is to be elected.
He kno\vs and admits quite freely that he is of no account at Rome,
ha- been an utter failure as a hanger-on to the skirts of the Church
e.g. V. 367 AT^/. ).
'2'2~\). irltiw ilfnth ///A-////* tin' fcinperor.} It appears from Un-
it tier in O.Y.B. cexxxvi.. :'>.">* (/•,'./,. L'lIT) that •recommendations
of great consequence ' had been made to the 1'ope to spare (luido;
the Ambassador of the Kmperor .-poke specially on the point on
Tin-day. February IS. 'M lie told me '. >ays the writer, 'the day
before yesterday ' (i.e. on Thursday, February 20). Browning
make- a delightful use of this letter in XII. (.M '.). where his
Venetian \\ritesto a friend that ' Martini-/, the Osarian Minister',
used his best endeavour- to -pare blood,
And strongly pleaded for the life ' of one '.
Urged he, ' I may have dined at table with ! '—
Hi \\ill not soon forget the Pope's rebuff,
Feels the Slight sen.-ibly. I promise you :
2280. outrages the Louis you so love.] For the * love ' of Innocent
256 THE RING AND THE BOOK
for Louis XIV. see Appendix VII. If French influence was exerted
at all in Guido's affair, it was probably exerted against that of the.
Emperor's ambassador ; the Venetian of rank is made to declare
that it was so exerted (XII. 110-12).
2281-3. enemies . . . coercive.] See note on 2265-7, and observe
the incongruity of the words with what immediately follows.
2290.] He continues after waiting for an answer which has
not come.
2301-2.] It has often been remarked that ignoble characters
in Browning sometimes express noble thoughts (e.g. in Bishop
Blougram's Apology, Mr. Sludge the Medium, Prince Hohenstiel-
Schwangau, Fifine at the Fair; cf. 2375-86, below). As Mr.
Chesterton says (Browning, p. 192) : ' There is nothing that deserves
more emphatically to be called a speciality of Browning. ... In
his poetry praise and wisdom were perfected not only out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings, but out of the mouths of swindlers
and snobs '.
2315-17.] It would be a consolation to Guido at the moment of
death to have crunched up his adversaries — in argument.
2329. kind work o' the wine and myrrh.] Mark xv. 23, ' they
gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh : but he received it
not ' ; upon which Professor Swete remarks : ' Wine drugged with
myrrh was usually offered to condemned malefactors, through the
charity, it is said, of the women of Jerusalem, the intention being
to deaden the sense of pain ' (St. Mark, p. 379). Guido's wine and
myrrh may be metaphorical, but the fortifying sip of Velletri in
V. 4-6 suggests that they may be literal.
2333. Tozzi], the successor of Malpighi (VII. 423) as physician
to the Pope ; see IX. 1268, XII. 40.
2338. of seventy near.] In 1586 Sixtus V. fixed the number of
cardinals at seventy, but there are usually some vacancies.
2339.] See above, 2259-64, and note.
2341-5.] See note on 2235.
2346. Martinez], ' the Caesarian Minister ' (XII. 94).
2347. Stops that with veto.] The claim of the Emperor to an
absolute veto on papal elections was granted to Otto the Great
by the citizens of Rome in the year 963. Such ' a right of exclusion '
(ius exclusivce) has often been exercised by the Emperor and other
secular potentates with the acquiescence of the conclave ; its
exercise was denounced by Pius X. in 1904, who declared that id
si aliquoties accidit, apostolicce tamen sedi probatum est nunquam.
See Mirbt, Quellen, p. 404.
2375-86] See note on 2301-2.
2376.] Cf. George Eliot's The Legend of Jubal, where the con-
sciousness of death is represented as the stimulating motive of the
arts.
2391-2.] I recognized on earth the fallibility of the Pope, I
BOOK XI.—OUIDO
257
shall not in 'another world ' impute that fallibility to God, but shall
recogni/.r an authority to which I must bow.
-Hi), (he Allienian who died so.] Themistocles. A rumour
that he poisoned himself is noted by Thucydides (I. 138) ; the
legend that he died by drinking bull's blood is first mentioned by
Aristophanes (Knights, 83-4).
:MU. Who are these, etc.] The 'Company of Death'; see
note on I. 1311. 'Descend my stair' is a slip; we read in the
Secondary Source (O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265) that when taken off to
execution ' the condemned were made to go downstairs ', and Sir
P. Troves was assured, on a visit to the New Prisons, that there
were no underground cells there (Treves, p. 137). Cf. XII. 132,
' the Count was led down, hoisted up on car '.
2425.] Guido hesitates between claiming that he is a subject
of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and admitting the Pope's jurisdiction.
2427. Pompilia.] On this famous invocation see Appendix X.
BOOK XII.— THE BOOK AND THE RING
INTRODUCTION
IT has been suggested, with a confident ' surely ' 1, that
the poet should have ended his whole poem with the
startling invocation with which he ends his eleventh
Book, but a measured and controlled ending is required
by acknowledged" canons o± tlie poetic art and recom-
mended by the practice of its greatest exponents. Be
that as it may, the suggestion of many critics that Book
XII. might well have been dispensed with is altogether
unacceptable. For this brilliant epilogue contains some
of Browning's deepest thonglit and hJiest verse ; much
of it is alive with l»ia uMjjjuUjmTartrir ; It displays through-
out his invention in its fullest activity. He tells us in
its second paragraph that .
Of all reports that were or may have been \ .
Concerning those the day2 killed or let live
he counts four only, and he proceeds to give us them ;
but fortunately he lays more stress on reports ' that may
have been ' (and were not) than on reports ' that were '.
The reports that were, of which alone he might have
counted four, are as follows : (1) a letter from Arcangeli
at Rome to a lawyer at Florence who, it appears, was pro-
fessionally interested in Guide's concerns — the Francesco
Cencini who collected documents relating to the murder-
trial, supplied them with a title-page and a table of contents,
and bound them up into the Yellow Book ; (2) a second
1 Sharp, Life of Robert Browning, p. 126.
a The day, of course, of the executions, "February 22, 1698.
258
BOOK XIL—THE BOOK AND THE RING 259
letter, t'n m another Roman lawyer, Gaspare del Torto,
to this same Cencini ; (3) a third letter, also to Cencini,
from \i 1 another lawyer, Carlo Antonio Ugolinucci. All
these are business-letters, written, on the evening of the
fateful February 22, to inform Cencini that the attempt
to save Guido on the ground of his ' clericate ' has failed,
that he and his rustic confederates have indeed been
executed. (4) The fourth report is the valuable Italian
pamphlet, written probably after the death of Innocent
XII. in 1700, which I have followed Professor Hodell in
calling the Secondary Source ; it carries on the story to
its end upon the scaffold.
Of the four reports, real or imagined, which Browning
counts and gives the first (a) is a letter alleged to have
been written, immediately after the executions, to a
correspondent at Venice byjt lively Venetian visitor,, at
Rome ; it is based partly upon the real reports but is
Inainly of the poet's invention. The writer is represented
as interested in various matters, personal, social and
political ; he speaks of the entries in his betting book,
of the ' prodigious gaiety ' of Carnival, of the Pope's ill-
^health, of the prospects of the succession, of the probable
condemnation of Fenelon, of the rivalry of the French
and Austrian ambassadors ; but what interests him most
keenly is the cause celebre of the day and its denoument.
The second report (6) is a letter from Arcangeli to Cencini
— the real business -letter to the lawyer with a fictitious
and delightfully intimate postscript to the personal friend ;
in the former Arcangeli announces what ' The Holiness
of our Lord the Pope ' has ' judged inexpedient', in the
latter, dismissing correctitude, he stigmatizes the ' spite '
which has prompted the workings of ' Somebody's thick
headpiece', and proceeds to develop some of the most
familiar motifs of Book VIII. — the writer's antipathy to
his more successful rival, his complacent pride in the
precocity of his over-indulged son. In the third report
(c), a__whpUy_ fictitious letter of Bottini's, alleged to have
•i \\ritt'-n to ' no matter who' on February 24, we have
in the same way some final touches added to Browning's
portrait of that ambitious and not too scrupulous person;
with this letter the writer is represented as enclo
260 THE RING AND THE BOOK
what I take to be Browning's fourth report (d), some para-
graphs, ' smoking from the press ', of a sermon said to
have been preached at San Lorenzo church, on Sunday,
February 23, by Fra Celestino the Au^u^tinian^ Pompilia's
confessor. The sermon cfoes noc meet the reader's
legitimate expectation by adding to his knowledge ' con-
cerning those the day killed or let live', but it adds a
needful note of solemnity to this Book XII. It would
not be fitting that wit and humour should be altogether
dominant at the end of ' the tragic piece ' ; their domin-
ance is checked by this ' magnificent passage, in which
the fine dignity of the verse fitly matches the deep truth
of the preacher's monitions ' 1.
As he neared the end of his labours Browning put his
noblestjDowers to play in this impressive sermon ; what
isTtTrdeepTruth ' ? Professor Henry Jones, ill ail iiiterest-
ing chapter upon ' Browning's Optimism ', maintains that
' the poet's purpose, constant throughout the whole poem ' 2,
is, if I understand the Professor rightly, to draw from
the story the comforting moral that even in this world
truth and goodi&5S~may be trusted to triumph. TEaTTs
riot the~mbral drawn from it by Fra Celestilio, who. ^like
the Pope in Book X., ' confronts the long perplexity and
entanglement of circumstances with the ' facile — Lord
Morley called it ' fatuous ' — * optimism which insists that
somehow justice and virtue do rule in the world '. If, as
seems certain, the Pope and the Augustinian speak for
Browning, ' the whole poem ', whateveriTTfia^rbe besides,
' is ', in Lord Morley 's words, ' a Tjaxable of the feeble and
half-hopeless struggle which truth has to make ag^ainsT
,±Tie ways of t|ie world. That in tms particular case truth
and justice did win some pale sort of victory does not
weaken the force of the lesson7*3. If the fact tfiat Guido
met in the end with his deserts makes the cause of right
a decisively victrix causa in the story of The Ring and the
1 Quoted from an article by the Editor in the Fortnightly Review, March 1,
1869, p. 339. The high praise which Lord Morley gave, a month after the first
appearance of Book XII. , to the diction of the sermon is ovr L more fully due to
it as revised for later editions ; see Appendix XI.
- Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher, p. 90. See the Introduc-
tion to Book VII.
3 Fortnightly Review, loc. cit. Lord Morley says in his Recollections (i. p. 133
that his interpretation of the poem ' gave some pleasure to Browning himself.
BOOK XII.— THE BOOK AND THE RING 261
Book, »\r ^should U- Justiiicd m pronouncing Hamlet
optimistic because among the corpses which strew the
stage at the end of itsjast scene that of Claudius is one.
—Browning's temperament was undoubtedly optimistic,
and expressions of confident optimism are very frequent y
in liis poetry. But critics who write of him as a teacher
with a message and a mission seem sometimes to forget
that men of genius ' see things in different aspects and
many lights ', and that ' inconsistencies ' may be ' the marks
of their greatness ' 1.
Speaking of the second part — the postscript — of his
second report (6) Browning declares that it is ' extant
just as plainly ' as the first part
you know where,
Whence came the other stuff, went, you know how,
To make the Ring that's all but round and done '.
He might have said the same of most of (a) and of all (c)
and (d) ; they come, as we have seen, from the poet's
fancy, they are part of the alloy of which he speaks at the
beginning of the poem. — He ends by reminding us once
more of thn rinfi nf frjn nietnipfrrrrT^nnd of the ' posy ' s
which he engraved upon it ; gracefully acknowiedgin
Tommaseo's tribute to his ' lyric Love ', whose ' rare gol
ring of verse ' linked ' our England to his Italy '.
NOTES
(N.B. — The numbering of the lines in the notes to this Book, after
line i!0(j, is that of the second and all subsequent editions, but not that
of the first edition. See ' Lines Added ' in Appendix XI. )
2. roared and soared.] See note on IX. 1039-40.
11. composite] = composed ; the only instance quoted in the
N.E.D. for this ' rare ' use of the word is from Mrs. Browning's
The Greek Christian Poets : ' a dithyrambic ode . . . composite
of fantastic epithets '.
12. the Wormwood Star.] Revelations viii. 10, 11 (R.V.) : * And the
third angel sounded, and there fell from heaven a great star, burning
1 The words quoted occur in a newspaper report of a speech made in February
1919 by Lord Uryce on the occasion of the Ruskin centenary.
- XII. 230-8. I. 1390.
262 THE RING AND THE BOOK
as a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the
fountains of the waters ; and the name of the star is called Worm-
wood (6 "Ai/Wos) : and the third part of the waters became worm-
wood ; and many men died of the waters, because they were made
bitter '. In 827-9 the Guido-rocket, so finely described here, is
identified with the Wormwood Star. — Mrs. Browning makes use
of this star in the famous passage which describes Savonarola's
appeal to Lorenzo the Magnificent (Gasa Guidi Windows, Part I.) ;
cf. Aurora Leigh, Book V. (p. 214).
20. the main streaks], described in the letters and the sermon-
extract which follow ; cf. 210 below.
26. the first that comes.] It is one of those ' that may have been ',
not of those ' that were ' ; see (a) in the Introduction to Book XII.
29. busy idleness], the strenua inertia of Horace (Epp. 1. 11. 28) ;
Wordsworth speaks of ' worldlings revelling in the fields Of strenuous
idleness ' (Poems of Sentiment and Reflection, xxx. ; cf . The Prelude,
4. 378).
31. at our end of Carnival.] Inaccurate ; see note on VIII.
283-6.
34-8.] The strangers were too previous ; Innocent XII. lived
till September 27, 1700. Cf. XI. 2258.
39-40.] For Malpichi (or Malpighi) see VII. 423; for Tozzi
see IX. 1268, XL 2333.
42-8.] It is interesting to compare the Venetian's with Guide's
account of ' how the chances are supposed ' for the succession
(cf. XI. 2260-63, 2338-9, 2346-7); the Venetian, unlike Guido,
puts his money on the wrong horse. Of the names of other possible
starters mentioned in these accounts only that of Colloredo
appears in the valuable Eelazione in which the envoy Erizzo (see
Appendix VII.) described the proceedings of the conclave. It
should be remembered that both Browning's prophets speak in
expectation of an immediate vacancy ; when Innocent died two
and a half years later the situation was changed. Colloredo was
then passed over as too austere, others as too violent, others as
too mild, others again as having too many nephews ; the Austrian
candidate, who started as the favourite, was excluded by French
influence. On the death of Charles II. of Spain (November 3, 1700
— a month after the death of Innocent) the Cardinals, ' manifestly
touched ', says Erizzo, ' by the hand of God ', cast their eyes on
Cardinal Albani, who openly approved the determination of Louis
XIV. to accept the Spanish succession for the house of Bourbon
(Ranke, History of the Popes, ii. p. 428). Albani was elected on
November 16, the conclave having deliberated for less than two
months : it had taken five to elect Innocent in 1691.
42-3.] That Cardinal Spada was ' actual Minister ' should have
cautioned the Venetian against ' wagering on his head ', for, as a
contemporary writer observed, son emploi de premier ministre
BOOK X1I.—THE BOOK AND THE RING 263
porle, tlii-i>n. inn espece d'exclusion pour le pontifical. Bien des
gens ne veulent pas dans cette place un cardinal Imp accoutumd a
gouvemer hs affaires par lui-meme (Melanges historiques, iv. p. 711).
52. That Custom-liouse he built upon the. bank.} Cf. 89 below,
' that l)ogana-by-the-Bank he built '. Innocent built a Dogana
di Terra in the Piazza di Pietra, far away from the Tiber ; it is
now the Exchange, but it retains its old name. I know nothing
of his maritime Custom-house.
53. Naples born.] Cf. IX. 372-3.
54-5.] See X. 284-6.
57. lies in stupor, etc.] Cf. 299 below, X. 1246-7, VIII. 1458-60 :
They say. tin- I 'ope has one half-hour, in twelve.
Of something like a moderate return
Of the intellectuals, — never much to lose !
62. twice in one reign.] I cannot discover what reason the
Pope would have had for proclaiming a Jubilee in December 1698.
His Jubilee in 1694 commemorated, according to the poem (II.
539-40), his eightieth birthday ; but he was born in March 1615.
— . ope the Holy Doors.] See note on III. 567.
63-8.] For the King's ' fresh orders ', the condemnation of
Fenelon (which the Venetian expects too confidently), and the
'wry face' of Cardinal Bouillon (cf. line 112) see Appendix VII.
ad Jin.
74. gold zecchines.] See note on XI. 1420.
78. the conviction of all Rome.] See note on XI. 33-8.
81. that old enmity to Austria, etc.] As a partisan of France
Innocent was of course unfriendly to Austria (see Appendix VII.) ;
Martinez, the Austrian ambassador, had been exerting himself to
save Guido (see note on XI. 2279 and 94 seqq. below).
90.] Cf. X. 244 seqq. and Appendix VII. With ' the crowd he
suffers question ' cf. X. 794, ' he suffered cling ', XI. 1272, * did
not suffer them subside '.
104. palchetto.J See note on 115 below.
106-9.] See 'note on I. 350-60.
114. at the edge of the Three Streets], i.e. of the long streets \\hieh
radiate southwards from the Piazza : the Via del Babuino, the
Corso, the Via di Ripetta.
115.] From the Secondary Source, O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265:
'Many stands Ipalchelti] were constructed for the accommodation
of those curious to see such a terrible execution, and so great was
the concourse of people that some windows fetched as much as
six dollars each '. For the erection of these wooden stands in tin
Pia/./a del Popolo on other occasions see Story, Roba di Roma,
p. 453. A chapter in Dumas's Monte-Cristo (ii. c. xiv.) gives a
lively pieture of the incidents of a nineteen! h-eeni my execution
in the Pia/./a. \\ith mannaia, the highly-rented \\indows, the
264 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Confraternity of Death, the jostling crowd, and all the rest of it.
Dumas says that the scaffold was erected at the point where the
views from the three radiating streets meet.
117. our Envoy Contarini.] See Appendix VII.
119. 'tis four -and-twenty hours ago], i.e. late in the evening of
February 21.
124. ere cock-crow.] According to the Secondary Source ' at
the eighth hour ', i.e. about 2 A.M. on February 22.
125-8.] From the Secondary Source, O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265:
* They [Guido and his accomplices] were assisted by Abate
Panciatichi and Cardinal Acciajoli, nor did they delay in preparing
themselves to die well '. See Introduction to Book XI. ad fin.
129. the Company of Death.] See note on I. 1311.
130-31.] One of Ceiicini's correspondents writes that the execu-
tions took place 'after dinner' (doppo il pranzo) (O.Y.B. ccxxxix.,
E.L. 238) ; Browning gives ' after dinner ' as the time of the arrival
of the Company of Death at the prison. He proceeds to make a
very careless slip by saying that the Company arrived ' at sunset ',
having already said that they arrived ' at twenty hours ' (i.e. about
2 P.M.), following in this latter statement the author of the Secondary
Source (O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265). (For ' the way they reckon here '
see note on IV. 1371.)
If the Company of Death had arrived at the prison ' at sunset ',
it would have been dark before the executions took place, after the
long procession through- the densely packed streets to the Piazza
del Popolo (see note on line 139).
132. was led down.] See note on XI. 2414.
133. heinousest.] See note on I. 205.
135. His intrepidity, nay nonchalance.] From the Secondary
Source, which speaks of Guide's intrepidezza and sangue freddo
on the way to execution as having been ' the wonder of all ' (0. Y.B.
213, E.L. 265).
139. the New Prisons.] See note on V. 324-5. — The procession
did not go by the shortest route (viz. along the river-side and by
the Via di Ripetta) to the place of execution ; it went ' by the
longest way ' (I. 1325), ' by the most densely populated streets '
(0. Y.B. 224, E.L. 280), for greater effect on the people of Rome. —
Browning took his details from the Secondary Source (O.Y.B. 213,
E.L. 265-6); the route of the procession at starting has been
somewhat obscured by the construction of the Corso Vittorio
Emanuele, but can be followed with a little guesswork.
141. Where was stuck up, etc.] What Bacon called ' pasquils
or satires, to make sport' — they are usually and more correctly
called pasquinades — owe their name to a certain Pasquino, a Roman
tailor of the 15th century, ' skilful in his trade and still more skilful
in his epigrams '. A broken statue, at the corner of the Palazzo
Braschi, by the Piazza Navona, was opposite his shop, and to this
BOOK XIL—TIJE BOOK AND THE RINQ 265
statue his name \va.> tiaii>ferred after his death; for it became
the custom to fix upon its pedestal witty criticisms after his manner
upon current affairs. From these pasquinades it has been said
that a history of Rome might be composed. Good selections from
such of them as survive are given by Story (Roba di Roma, c. xi.)
and by Haiv (Walks in Rome, ii. pp. 126-8).
Browning promises us a pasquinade of his own manufacture,
but the promise, unfortunately, is not kept (see lines 208-9).
158. Twelve were Tern Quatern.} See the interesting account
of the Papal state-lotteries in Story, Roba di Roma, pp. 129-40.
Stakes were made on the drawing of particular numbers from one
to ninety ; a ticket-holder could stake on one, two, three, four, or
five numbers, and five numbers were drawn ; a sum staked on three
numbers was a terno, on four a quaterno. Story gives further
details, but they do not fully explain the present passage ; 1 it-
notices superstitions about numbers attending this kind of gambling
and tells us of women praying at Christmas-tide to the Santo
Bambino to this effect : ' cure our diseases ; lower the water of
the Tiber ; heal Lisa's leg ; send us a good carnival ; give us a
winning terno in the lottery ' (op. cit. p. 81). Cf. Aurora Leigh,
Book VII. (p. 319), where a crone prays the Madonna that she may
' win a tern in Thursday's lottery '.
The lotteries were a valuable instrument of papal finance.
Innocent XII., as Browning says, forbade them, and his example
was followed by Benedict XIII. (1724-30) and Clement Xll. (1730-
1740), but they were revived soon afterwards. A writer during
Innocent's reign denounced them as ' an invention of bitter malice
to suck the blood of imprudent gamesters '.
173-204.] Taken or developed (except 182-6) from the Secondary
Source (O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 266).
182. at Saint Mary's opposite.] Three churches of St. Mary
face the Piazza del Popolo ; the speaker refers to the most im-
portant of the three, S. Maria del Popolo at the north end of the
Piazza, not to either of ' the two Twins, resembling one another
as well as placed near one another ' (Burnet, Some Letters, p. 237)
at its south end.
184. Umbilicus], ' navel ' ; see 745-6 below.
194.J Though the Secondary Source, which is here quoted,
says that Guido was fifty when executed, we know that he was
in fact only just forty ; see note on I. 782-4.
210.] See line 20 above, with the note.
215-19.] See Introduction to Book Xll.
222-4.] For the game of Tarocs see note on VI. 349.— In a
letter written in September 1868 (shortly U -foiv tin- j>ul»iirati<m
of the first instalment of TJie Ring and the Book) Barone Kirkup
told W. M. Rossetti that he had lately sent Browning * some
excellent stories of gamesters ' from a dialogue on cards by l'i
266 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Aretino; 'Browning', he added, 'is writing a poem relating to
Arezzo in which gambling will make a great figure ' (W. M, Rossetti,
Rossetti Papers, pp. 367-8). Gambling does not ' make a great
figure ' in The Ring and the Book, but Browning had clearly been
inquisitive about Italian card-games in connection with his poem,
and his inquisitiveness on a subject which would play a very small
part therein is a good instance of his immense care about the smallest
details of his local colouring.
227. my four-years' -intimate.] For the importance of these
words see Appendix I.
229. the " whole position of the case".] See I. 121-31.
236-8. See I. 461-3 and introduction to Book XII.
239-88.] These fifty lines are partly a literal translation, partly
a somewhat amplified paraphrase, of Arcangeli's real letter (see
Introduction). A facsimile of the MS. of the letter will be found
in the illustrated edition of the poem.
245. on Tuesday last.} An addition of Browning's, taken from
the letter of del Torto (0. Y.B. ccxxxvii., E.L. 237).
258. by his particular cheirograph.] See note on I. 346.
259. To derogate.] Arcangeli's phrase is derogare ad ogni Privi-
legio Clericale ; the verb he uses might be read as denegare, but the
action of the Pope is described as a derogatio ( = annulment) by
another of Cencini's correspondents.
264. to do Pasquini good.] See note on X. 964.
268-9. Decollate by mere due of privilege, etc.] Cf. I. 125-6, 'put
to -death By heading or hanging as befitted ranks '. ' By mere due
of privilege ' is an addition of Browning's to Arcangeli's real letter ;
the author of the post-Browning pamphlet says that death by
mannaia (' heading ') was conceded to Guido ' rather out of respect
for his being in clerical orders than for any other reason ' (0. Y.B.
223, E.L. 278). — 'Decollate' represents the colla Decollazione of
the original ; the ' Decollation ' of John the Baptist was a holiday
at Eton in the sixteenth century.
271. exemplarity.] The Italian esemplarita : this is not in the
original, but del Torto says that Guido died con coraggio e esem-
plarita.
273. nor its blue banner blush to red] Cf. 822 below.
277. Quantum est hominum venustiorum.] Though this quota-
tion from Catullus (3. 2) is correctly paraphrased in the next line
('The nice and cultivated everywhere') Dr. Berdoe felt so sure
of his Latin that he made nonsense of the passage by translating,
* how much happier were the men ! ' In some Corrigenda circulated
afterwards he substituted ' as far as such persons could express
such feelings ' ! The Browning Society should have checked the
vagaries of its most active member, who could write such a note
as ' " Quid multa ? " what penalty ? ' (Browning Cyclopaedia,
p. 325).
BOOK XII.— THE BOOK AND THE RING 267
286-7.] Contrast this with ' too poor to fee a better ' in I. 179.
288. / confirm myself.] Mi raffermo, I declare myself again.
291-390.] This delightful postscript is Browning's own ; in
lines 325-6 he takes a hint from one of the other letters.
291. Hactenus senioribus !] Probably from Cicero. Arcangeli
seems to mean ' So far for the grave Signori our clients '.
294-5. what folks call Pisan assistance.} Soccorso di Pisa is
proverbial for ' aid that comes too late '. During the siege of
Jerusalem in the First Crusade the Genoese, who managed the
besieging machines, wanted help from the Pisans ; but the Pisan
fleet was delayed by contrary winds and they did not apj>ear till
after the victory had been won (July 1099). Compare Browning's use
(in Aristophanes' Apology, p. 125) of ' Plataian help ' as proverbial
for help that comes in time — an allusion to the thousand whom
the Plataeans, while others loitered, sent to help the Athenians at
Marathon.
299. Somebody's thick headpiece.] Cf. 57 above.
301.] Cf. XI. 430 :
age never slips
The chance of shoving youth to face death fust.
311. the indecent change.] See note on I. 350-60.
316.] Cf. X. 2053.
319.] Song of Solomon ii. 15.
325-6.] The ' Matrimonial Cause and the Case of Gomez ', to
which Browning makes both Arcangeli and Bottini (657 below)
refer, had nothing to do with either of them. They are mentioned
by the lawyer Ugolinucci as a matter concerning himself and Cencini
(O.Y.B. ccxxxix.-xl., E.L. 238).
327. Reliqua differamus in crastinum], sc. diem ; from Cicero,
Rep. 2. 44. 4 : sed in hunc diem hactenus : reliqua, differamus in
crastinum (' but enough of all this for to-day ; let's put off the
rest till to-morrow ').
328. estafette.] Italian staff etta, courier.
331. fat-chaps Hyac.inth], our old acquaintance of Book VIII.
/ promised him, etc.\ See note on VIII. HJr.i'.
hoc malim.] More polite than 'That 1 prefer' (hoc malo)t
ArcaiiLr< li i> proud of his ei^ht -year-old's idiomatic use of the sub-
junctive mood ; cf. VIII. 7, ' Quies me cum sitbjtinctiro (I could
cry) '.
341. the peacock-fans.] These fans ( It. Jlabelli) were borne OH each
side of the Pope during certain great functions, e.g. on Christmas
Day, when he sat in the loggia of St. Peter's to give his Messing
urbi et orbi. Mrs. Browning makes a humorous use of the fans
in her Christmas Gifts, where the Italian tricolour is n '(.resented
as being brought to the Pop'', as he 'sits in St. ' hair', on
the Christmas Day following the \\ai <»t 1S.~>9: —
268 THE RING AND THE BOOK
0 mystic tricolor bright !
The Pope's heart quailed like a man's ;
The Cardinals froze at the sight,
Bowing their tonsures hoary :
And the eyes in the peacock-fans
Winked at the alien glory.
The Abbe Martigny, in his Dictionnaire des Antiquites chretiennes
(s.v. flabellum), says that the peacock symbolizes the saint, un-
corrupted by vice, because according to the opinion of antiquity
the flesh of the peacock is incorruptible ; the saint shines with the
varied brilliancy of his virtues as the peacock with that of its feathers.
With respect to the Pope the Abbe adds : on conqoit que Vfiglise
ait voulu que, comme le JJieu qu'il represente sur la terre, il apparaisse
aux yeux des populations respectueuses entoure de ces plumes de
paon qiii sont la vive image des seraphins d'lsaie (VI. 2).
357-8. He's long since out of Ccesar, etc.] The young Hyacinth
' verges on Virgil ', and ' shall attack me Terence ' (VIII. 78, 137).
361. A Bartolus-cum-Baldo.] See I. 224, note.
367-8. Adverti supplico humiliter Quod.] From Arcangeli's
first pamphlet (O.Y.B. xii., E.L. 13) ; it means ' I humbly beg it
may be noted that . . . ', not of course (as Dr. Berdoe mistrans-
lates) ' I have observed, I humbly beg that . . . ', whatever this
may mean.
376. old Somebody.] Cf. 299 above.
391-750.] Both the letter (406-58, 647-750) and the sermon-
extracts sent with it (459-646) were invented by the poet.
392.] Cf. I. 1197 seqq.
394. on the Monday.] February 24.
410-12.] Bottini employs the same metaphor in IX. 1419-20.
414- 16. J Compare what Arcangeli says in VIII. 404 seqq.
436-40.] See note on VIII. 276.
437. dandiprat] = (l) a small coin, worth about 3d. ; (2) a dwarf or
pigmy; (3) an urchin (as in Scott, Kenilworth, c. xxvi.). So N.E.D.,
adding : ' etymology unknown and sense-development uncertain '.
439. save-all.] ' A contrivance to hold a candle-end in a candle-
stick while burning, so that it may burn to the end ' (N.E.D.).
Arcangeli throws no light upon the case and thus gives his pert
junior the chance of exhibiting his light.
445. a stone.] The first edition has ' a man ', the second ' a
stoic ' ; see Appendix XI.
451. which proved a treasure.] See II. 14-15.
453-4.] Romans iii. 4.
461-2. doling praise To innocency.] The Court did not dole
praise to innocency, as Bottini notes below (694-6) : —
the Court
Found Guido guilty, — but pronounced no word
About the innocency of his wife.
BOOK XII.— THE BOOK AND THE RING 269
466. who add], i.e. to some such words as ' God sleeps '.
469. to fools.1] ' To ' should surely be * from '.
472-3.] See Introduction to Book XII. on this optimistic ' con-
clusion '.
479.] The ' culver ' is here distinguished from ' Noah's dove ',
but the latter is often called ' the culver ', as e.g. in Maundevile's
Travels : * the storye of Noe . . . when that the culver broughte
the Braunche of Olyve '.
496 seqq.~\ There was much less secrecy and mystery about the
catacombs in early times than the preacher supposed. Their
approaches were at first open and unconcealed, but ' in consequence
of imperial edicts of persecution at certain periods during the third
century it became necessary to withdraw them as much as possible
from the public eye, and for this purpose new and difficult entrances
were effected '. See Northcote and Brownlow, Roma sotterranea,
i. pp. 14, 15 and elsewhere ; Boissier, Promenades archtologiques,
Home et Pompei, c. iii., especially p. 184.
504. their idol-god, an Ass f] Tertullian devotes a chapter to
proving 'that the Christians do not adore the head of an ass, as
is cast in their teeth ', and explains the origin of the reproach by
a reference to Tacitus (Hist. 5. 3, 4), who asserts that the Jews
consecrated an effigy of an ass in their sanctuary, because on their
expulsion from Egypt a herd of wild asses had guided them, when
distressed by want of water in the desert, to an oasis with abundant
springs. The story, Tertullian supposes, was told of the Christians
• because we are near akin to the Jewish religion '. — A famous
graffito, discovered in 1856 in what was probably a guard-room
in the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, represents a crucified
ass, worshipped by a man who is presumably a Christian ; it bears
the inscription AAEHAMENOC CEBETE (i.e. fftfrnu) 0EOISI,
* Alexamenus worships his God '. See the interesting note, with
a reproduction of the graffito, in Roma sotterranea, ii. pp. 345-52.
520.] Many terra-cotta lamps have been found in the catacombs ;
some of them bear the monogram JP, i.e. XP, the first two letters
of the Greek Xpurry, 'for Christ'. See Roma sotterranea, i. pp.
290-93. There is a collection of these and other treasures from
the catacombs in the Christian Museum of the Lateran.
521.] Vessels of glass and terra-cotta containing blood have
often been found in the catacombs. See Roma sotterranea, ii.
pp. 330-43, where illustrations of some of these vessels are given.
522. palm-branch.] Palm-branches (Revelations vii. 9-14) were
often scrawled in the catacombs.
525.] Hebrews xi. 38.
526-30.] Just as Noah's dove, says the preacher, was the one
survivor of many 'dove-like things as dear', just as the crevice
revealed that the catacombs contained one martyr while coun1
others remained unrevealed, so it may be that while Pompilia's
270 THE RING AND THE BOOK
purity has been vindicated, many other ' chaste and noble fames
lie strangled '.
531-53.] I have shown, he continues, that human report often .?
vilifies the good (439-530) ; it as often glorifies the bad. In the|
burnished statues of the human deities, on which you gaze with
awe, there may lurk scorpions and centipedes ; for all their brilliancy
these so-called deities are demons and devils. It is only now and
then that on a sudden, as it were by an earthquake, God showsjj
good and bad in their true light. v,
538. lurks a centipede.] An obvious improvement on the reading
of the earlier editions, ' lo, a cockatrice ! '
539-40.] Fra Celestino speaks of the old Greek and Roman gods
in the language of the primitive church.
551-2.] ' Despairing shriek ' is the object of ' made ', * triumphant
hate ' of ' evidenced ' ; see note on VI. 319-20.
554-609.] The paragraph develops the thoughts of the previous
paragraph, and gives a fresh turn to the preacher's conclusion. —
Observe that the 56 lines form a single sentence, which needs careful
reading but leads up most effectively to the conclusion of the argu-
ment (see note on V. 1957-82). The dependent clauses, beginning
respectively with ' as ye become spectators' (554-61), ' as ye behold '
(562-5), ' [as ye] mark ' (565-73), ' as ye watch ' (573-9), ' [as ye]
hear ' (580-84), ' when ye find ' (585-97), are summed up by ' all
this well pondered ' (598), and the inference to be drawn from all
the pondering follows (598-609). In the clause introduced by
' [as ye] mark ' the ' how ' of the sub-clause is resumed by a second
' how ' in 569.
557-61.] A sinner, says the preacher, can protect himself against
the attacks of other sinners ; not so the saint who lacks ' the first
apprenticeship to sin '. Is that sound doctrine ?
560. truliest ./be] = foe in the truest sense. Browning treats
' truly ' as an adjective ; cf. IX. 418, ' truliest victor '.
581-4. Submit, for best defence, etc.] Bottini did not in fact
' submit ' anything of the kind, but he admitted much (and Browning
represents him as admitting still more) against Pompilia. See
Introduction to Book IX.
595-7.] Deuteronomy xxxiv. 7.
604. Man's speech being false, etc.] See note on X. 349 seqq.,
and 376-7 ; cf. 835-40 below.
610-46.] Bottini would not have enclosed this extract from
the sermon ; however interesting to us, it is irrelevant to his purpose
and would have had no interest for his correspondent.
619.] I do not understand ' still ' here.
623. Christ's assurance.] See X. 1806, note.
631-2.] ' He has lost, perhaps, the means of bringing goodness
from its ideal conception into the actual life of man ' (Mrs. Orr).
639. Fame— that bubble.] Cf. III. 1353-4.
BOOK X II.— THE BOOK AND THE RING 271
647. ampollfMiii/. \ Coined by Browning from Italian ampollosita.
The word is suitable in connection with 'bubble', for the Latin
ri (derived from ampulla, a big-bellied flask) means 'to
use inflated language '.
648. the. monk' 8 own bubble.] Cf. 639 above.
657-60.] See note on 325-6; the alleged 'first pleasant con-
sequence ' is a pleasantry of Browning's.
662. of both], i.e. of earth's liars and of the world.
672-80.] All this is a mistake ; see note on II. 1198.
674. convertite] as an English equivalent for a ' penitent ' is
found in Shakespeare : As you like it, 5. 4. 190, King John, 5. 1. 19.
686.] The legal instruments in the O.Y.B. show that Tighetti
was Pompilia's ' heir-beneficiary ' (hares beneficiatus), and make
no mention of Gaetano as being her real heir (O.Y.B. cclix.-xii.,
E.L. 252-6), but from one of Arcangeli's pleadings (O.Y.B. cxiii.,
E.L. 121) it appears that Tighetti was trustee for Gaetano ;
Arcangeli's Latin, however, is perplexing.
690-92.] See note on 461-2 above, and see 752-67 below.
712.] Hebrews iv. 12.
715. Astrsea redux.] Cf. II. 1476.
719-21.] O.Y.B. v.-viii., E.L. 5-7.
727. the other sooty scout.] Genesis viii. 7.
735.] Lamentations iv. 1.
744. the, famous relic], viz. the umbilicus of our Lord (see 184 above).
745-6. Martial's phrase, etc.] Martial, Epp. 4. 89. 1-2 :—
Ohe, iam satis est, ohe, libclle,
Iain pci -venimus usque ad umbilicos.
The umbilici of a book were two knobs at either end of the roller
to which the parchment when filled with writing was attached.
' We have come to the umbilici ' therefore means that the book is
finished. Arcangeli plays on the two meanings of the Latin word
(see 184).
752. The Instrument.] O.Y.B. cclix.-xii., E.L. 252-6.
755. September] should be August, precisely 'six months after-
ward ' ; the definitive sentence was given on August 19, the
September proceedings were a mere formality.
756.] It does not appear from the records that the Pope caused
the delay.
769-70.] On Venturini see note on TV. 1308-16. In the Instru-
mentum Sententice Definitives he is described as giving sentence
iirbi* Gubernatoris in Criminalibus Locumtenens sedans. There is
nothing in the records to justify Browning's ' a Venturini too \ '
TTJ. /.'// some account.] It is a mistaken account. There is
no doubt that limner? ion -d;»y was July 12, 1691, and
that he died on Srj>teml>rr 1*7, 1700.
775, SM \. 1851 seqq.
272 THE RING AND THE BOOK
776-8. what birth His reign may boast of, etc.] Voltaire was born
in 1694. For Browning on Voltaire see La Saisiaz, ad fin. and
The Two Poets of Croisic, where this ' terrible Pope ' displays his
fallibility in most humiliating fashion.
785. Porzia, sister of our Guido.] See note on IV. 381 seqq.
786-7. The Priors of Arezzo and their head Its Gonfalonier.'] Under
the Grand Dukes of Tuscany the Gonfalonier and Priors of Arezzo
were probably no more than a Mayor and Corporation. In the
later days of the republics the Gonfalonier (' Standard Bearer ' of
Justice) had become the supreme head of the State, and the Priors,
chosen from the Greater Guilds, formed the Signoria. — Browning
must have found the 'record' here mentioned at Arezzo on his
way to or from Koine on his last visit there in the winter of 1860-61 ;
I assume that the * I find ' of line 782 is to be taken literally. See
the second paragraph of Appendix I.
811. Petrarch] was born at Arezzo in 1304, his father, who had
been keeper of the archives at Florence, having been exiled with
Dante in 1302. He left Arezzo in his infancy and seems to have
had no further connection with it.
— . Buonarroti at a pinch.] At a pinch ; for Michael Angelo was
not even born at Arezzo, but (in 1475) at Caprese, of which place
his Florentine father was Podesta. Caprese, though in the diocese
of Arezzo, is many miles away from the city. Michael Angelo's
boyhood was passed at Settignano near Florence, and no one has
ever called him an Aretine.
The Aretine George Vasari quotes Michael Angelo as saying to
him (politely) : ' Giorgio, if I have anything good in me, that
comes from my birth in the pure air of your country of Arezzo,
and perhaps also ' from a fact of much greater importance (Lives
of the Painters, v. p. 229).
812. vexillifer] = ' flag-bearer' (805).
813. the Patavinian.] Livy of Padua (Patavium) ; ancient
critics detected a provincialism in his style, which Quintilian called
' a certain Patavinity '.
I cannot discover that Livy says anywhere that Arezzo was
founded by ' Janus ef the Double Face ' (Janus bifrons). He
notes a certain double-facedness in the conduct of the Aretines
during the Second Punic War (27, 24).
817. Gaetano, born of love and hate.] To Pompilia on her death-
bed the child seemed ' Only his mother's, born of love not hate '
(VII. 1764).
821. the blazon, shall make bright my page.] Cf. XI. 2161-6,
and see above, pp. xx-xxi.
828. the Star Wormwood.] See 12 above, and note.
832-3.] Cf. I. 735-8.
835.] British Public, who may like me yet.] See note on L
410, ' British Public, ye who like me not '.
BOOK XIL—THE nonK AND THE RING 273
838. mir I' ni, inn *i>eech is naught.} See 604 above, and note on
\. :',l!i M-f/v.
sj'.t. t mil.} See note on V. f>'.M.
falsehood would have done the work of truth.] Would it ?
From the proposition, * truth when transmitted becomes falsehood ',
it does not follow that * falsehood when transmitted becomes truth '.
862. twice] to the eye of the gazer and to his soul.
864-5.] Compare the fine passage in Fifine at the Fair, LXI.,
If LM lining with
Ah, Music, wouldst thou help ! Words struggle with the weight
So feebly of the False, thick element between
Our *.MI|. th<- Trui-, and Truth !
868. If this intent save mine], i.e. if by my intent to save the
reader's soul I save my own. Summing up the purport of a letter
from Browning to his future wife, Professor Dowden wrote (Browning,
p. 88) : 'To sit by her for an hour a day, to write out what is
in him for the world, and so to save his soul, would be to attain
his ideal in life '.
871. succeed in guardianship.} The ring preserves the truth
hidden away in * the rough ore ', but it also performs another office
of a ring, that of a * guard-ring ' or ' keeper ' outside a wedding-
ring. Browning would have his ' Ring ' lie outside his wife's ' gold
ring of verse '.
872. Lyric Love.} I. 1391.
873-4.] The allusion is to the inscription, written by the poet
Tommaseo, which the municipality of Florence placed on the front
of Casa Guidi after Mrs. Browning's death :
QUI SCRISSE E MORI
KUSABETTA BARRET1 BROWNING
(UK IN CUORE DI DONNA CONCILIAVA
SCIENZA DI DOTTO E SPIRITO DI TO ETA
i() VERSO AUREO ANELLO
FRA ITALIA I! IMillll.TKRRA
PONE QUESTA MEMORTA
FIRENZE t'.RATA
1861. 3
1 sic
2 As 'printed in /ampini-Salazar. IM Vita e le Opere. p. 371, the Inscription
is phrased <>th«TwN- in several places. I.VI-IDK is given for MEMOKIA in Mrs.
Browning's Letters.
APPENDIX I
CHRONOLOGY OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE POEM
IN XII. 227-8, lines written, presumably, very shortly before the
publication of the poem in the winter of 1868-9, Browning apostro-
phizes his Yellow Book with the question,
How will it be, my four-years' -intimate,
\\ lu-n thou and I part company anon ?
He says elsewhere l that he discovered the book hi the month of
June ; and many writers, assuming that intimacy, in the sense
that the poet intended, followed hard upon first acquaintance,
have asserted that the date of the discovery was June 1865 2 ; they
might have said June 1864.
Neither of those dates, however, can be accepted. Browning
tells us that having picked up the book on a stall in Florence he
took it home with him to Casa Guidi and ' read and read it ' there
the same evening 3. Now Mrs. Browning died at Casa Guidi on
June 29, 1861, and her husband left Florence a few weeks afterwards ;
he was never at Casa Guidi or in Florence again. From this it
follows that the find was not made later than the June of 1861 4,
and the poet's friend and biographer, who says that it happened
(luring ' his last days at Casa Guidi ' 6, assigned it to that year ;
but it is certain that it was made in an earlier June. For (1)
Browning says that he took the book with him to Jiomr with a
view to pressing inquiries which it suggests ', and his last visit to
Koine was in the winter of 1860-61 ; (2) he speaks of finding, at
Arezzo surely, ' a record in the annals ' of that town relating to
persons whose existence the book had revealed to him 7, and he was
never at Arezzo after the spring of 1861 ; and (3) we have a positive
i I. 92, 487.
/ »trn<ltiction to Browning, p. 133 ; Sharp, Life of Brmcning, pp. 1 ifi,
119 ; F. M. Wilson, A Primer on Brottminy, p. 10 ; Gardner, The Story of Florence,
p. 288. !'.», 469-77.
' In Mr. Him-ITs two-volume rilitinn of I'.rcwninR the book is said to have
lift-n picket! up in -luii' iteo Zampini-Saksar, /-" Vita e le Overt, v. 44.
a Mrs. Orr, Life, p. u;>i. \ 1 1. fsS-4,
275
276 THE RING AND THE BOOK
statement from Professor Hall Griffin, on the authority of one of
the two persons concerned, that during his last visit to Rome the
poet invited a friend to write an account of the book's contents 1.
These facts prove that the book was discovered not later than the
June of 1860, and from the third we may infer that it was not dis-
covered earlier 2 ; nothing in the poem itself precludes an earlier
date, but there is neither internal nor external evidence to suggest
one. I shall therefore accept as correct the authoritative state-
ment of Sir Frederic Kenyon3, supported, though not quite posi-
tively, by the poet's son 4, that June 1860 was the date of the
find.
In a letter written in 1858 Browning told his friend Mr. Fox that
' the stuff out of which books grow lies about one's feet indeed '
at Florence 5, and when two years later he found the Yellow Book
lying on the Florence bookstall he saw at a glance that the stuff it
provided for bookmaking was exceptionally valuable. It riveted his
attention on the instant and impressed his very soul, and we might
have expected that, knowing that his ' find was gold ', he would
' attempt smithcraft ' very soon. He did nothing of the kind. The
following winter, as we have seen, was spent by the Brownings
in Rome, and in the course of it Mrs. Browning had much to tell
her correspondents about her husband's interests and occupations.
Strange to say — strange, when we remember what a find he thought
it — she does not mention his new treasure. She confesses to being
more than a little vexed at his having, apparently, forgotten that
poetry is his vocation ; ' he has taken ', she says, ' to modelling under
Mr. Story, and is making extraordinary progress ' ; the work makes
his back ache, but ' nothing ever made him so happy before'. She
' grudges a little the time for his particular art ' and she expostulates
— ineffectually ; he talks of material for a volume which he will
work at in the summer 6, but at present he will not write at all 7.
Still more surprising are some proposals which Browning made when
the Yellow Book was still a recent acquisition. I have just noticed
his suggestion that a friend whom he met in Rome that winter
should write an account of its contents ; he said that he would
give him the book for that purpose 8. He also, at a date not pre-
cisely recorded, offered the story as a subject for a novel to another
1 See below.
2 It would be unreasonable to interpose a long interval between the discovery
and the invitation above mentioned.
a It is made in a note on p. 251 of his revised edition of Mrs. Orr's Life.
4 ' The " yellow book " was probably picked up in June of 1860 ' (Letter of
Mr. R. Barrett Browning to Professor Hodell, O.T.B. 337, note 536).
5 Mrs. Orr, Life, p. 215.
6 Dramatis Personce, probably ; see the next paragraph.
r 7 Mrs. Orr, Life, pp. 230, 232-3.
8 Hall Griffin, Life, p. 229. The Professor says that the friend in question,
Mr. W. C. Cartwright, ' is the [oral ?] authority for the incidents with which his
name is connected ' (p. 231, note 1 ).
APP. /.— COMPOSITION OF THE POEM 277
frit-lid, Mi>s <>glr, th<- authoress of A Lost Love1 ; and Mrs. Orr was
' almost certain ' that he offered it ' for poetic use to one of his lead-
ing contemporaries ' a. At the time when these things happened
there must have been, as Professor Hall Griffin said, ' a reaction '
since that nu moialik June day; the book had not yet become
l'.io\\ nine's ' intimate ' in the sense in which he used that word.
We have seen that the poet left Florence, never to return, in the
late summer of 1861 ; he settled down in London in the autumn,
and busied himself inter alia in preparing his wife's Last Poems for
tin- press and (probably) in writing a part of his own Dramatis
Personce. 3. Nothing further is heard of the . Yellow Book till
September 1862, when he writes from Biarritz to Miss Blagden that,
besides ' having a great read at Euripides 4 — the only book I brought
with me — ', he is ' attending to my own matters, my new poem that
is about to be, and of which the whole is pretty well in my head, —
the Roman murder story you know ' 5. The new poem was still
' about to be ' ; two years more were to pass before it began to come
into being. In 1864 his hands were freed by the publication of
Dramatis 1'ersonce, and it was in that year, probably, that a stimulus
was given to his interest in the murder-story by a second most
important find — that of ' the Secondary Source ' 6, which adds a
mass of interesting detail to the story of the Yellow Book. In a
letter dated October 17, 1864 he wrote to Frederic Leighton, then at
Rome, begging him to supply him, after careful study, with par-
ticulars about the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina ; they would, he
said, be of great use to him 7. Now that church is barely mentioned
in the Yellow Book, but in the Secondary Source it is the scene
of important incidents, the marriage of Guido and Pompilia, the
exposure of the bodies of the Comparini. The discovery of the
scene of these incidents, of which the poet was to make such brilliant
use, must have aroused his curiosity at once, and may have started
him upon the actual composition of his poem. Be that as it may —
whether the discovery was or was not the cause — , we have conclusive
evidence that its composition was in fact begun in the month of
the Leighton letter. Immediately after a visit from Browning, in
.March 1868, Mr. \V. M. Rossetti noted in his diary that tin- poet had
told him that he ' began The Ring and the Booh in October 164 ';
that 4 he was staying at Bayonne ' at the time, and there ' laid out
1 Mrs. Orr, Life, p. 251 ; Hall Griffin, Life, loc. cit. ; O.Y.B. 237. Many years
later the poet remarked to Professor Corson : ' When she said she made nothing
out of it I wrote The Ring and the Book '. Uall Griffin says that the offer to Miss
Ogle was made, like that to Mr. Cartwright, in the winter of 1860-1, but Mrs.
Orr, who seems to have been his authority for the incident, does not date it. —
On the Yellow Book as material for a novel see Introduction to Book VI.
2 Mrs. Orr, Life, p. 251.
3 These two books were published in 1862 and 1864 respectively.
4 l.uripides figures conspicuously in The Ring and the Book ; see note on X.
1670-lTyn. 6 Mrs. Orr, p. 250.
o above, p. xix. ? Mrs. Orr, p. 273 ; see note on II. 6.
278 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the full plan of the twelve cantos, accurately carried out in the
execution ' ; 'he has written ', B/ossetti added, ' his forthcoming
work all continuously, not some of the later parts before the earlier ' 1.
The Secondary Source is used freely in Book I.2, and the information
which Leighton was to supply was wanted for, and is used freely in,
Book II. — It was, then, in October 1864 3, rather more than four
years after the first find, and (probably) immediately after the
second, that Browning began to write his poem, and that the
Yellow Book began to be his rather more than four years' intimate ;
the intimacy grew rapidly and he writes cheerfully ten months later
(August 1865) : ' Good luck to my great venture, the murder-poem,
which I do hope will strike you and all good lovers of mine ' 4.
The poem was finished in 1868 and published, in four parts of
three books each, in the November of that year and the three
following months. Why was it published in that way ? ' Poetry ',
said Bagehot, ' should be memorable, emphatic, intense, and soon
over '. The, Ring and the Book has the first three of these qualities,
but it certainly has not the last ; when Calve rley hinted that it
might run to ' eighty thousand lines ' 5 he multiplied by less than
four. Mr. Stopford Brooke supposed that it appeared by instalments
because Browning suspected that it might prove wearisome if
published all at once, that he was merciful ' to a public which does
not care for a work of longue haleine ' 6. The poet, however, usually
credited his readers with unlimited staying power ; it is more likely,
perhaps, that the mode of publication was dictated or suggested by
his publisher 7.
1 Rossetti Papers, p. 302. Mr. Rudolf Lehmann (An Artist's Reminiscences,
p. 224) writes that Browning spoke to him — he does not say at what date — as
follows : ' When I first read the book, my plan was at once settled. I went for
a walk, gathered twelve pebbles from the road, and put them at equal distances
on the parapet that bordered it. These represented the twelve chapters into
which the poem is divided and I adhered to that arrangement to the last '. The
first of these statements is inconsistent with Rossetti's report, made immediately
after it occurred, of his conversation with the poet. Perhaps Mr. Lehmann's
memory — his book was not published till 1894 — may have played him false on
the point.
2 In lines 350 seqq., 405, 781-4, 873 seqq., 1292, 1307 seqq., 1325.
3 Mr. Sharp's ' early in 1866 ' (Life of Browning, p. 116) is certainly a mistake.
4 To Miss Blagden ; Mrs. Orr, Life, p. 260.
5 The Cock and the Bull.
6 Browning, p. 392.
7 Since writing as above I find that my guess was not altogether wide of the
mark. It is true that Browning was so far merciful to the public as to propose
that the poem should appear in two monthly volumes ; but his publisher, Mr.
G. M. Smith, believed that it would ' bear printing ' — so he P9litely phrased it —
in four ; ' and this accordingly was done '. See Hall Griffin, Life, p. 239.
APPENDIX II
THE HOME OR HOMES OF THE COMPARINI: WHERE
DID THE MURDERERS ATTACK THEM ? WHERE DID
POMPILIA DIE ?
ACCORDING to the poem the Comparini had at least two homes in or
about Rome : one in the Via Vittoria, ' the aspectable street where
they lived mainly ', and another, a villa ' of less pretension, meant
for jaunts and jollity ', in what is described as the ' Pauline district '
(II. 202-7).
The Via Vittoria is a well-known street, aspectable and respectable,
in the northern part of the city ; it runs from the Corso to the Via
del Babuino, which it joins near the Piazza di Spagna. It is in this
street that Browning puts all the incidents of the home-life of the
Comparini before they left Rome for Arezzo, and it was to this street
that they returned later on.
The villa in the Pauline district is described by the poet in several
places. He says that it ' lurks by the gate at Via Paulina ' (II. 1365-
1366), that it is ' solitary ', 4 in a lone garden- quarter ' (I. 604-5, III.
1596, IV. 1369), that it is ' smothered up in vines ', that it is in the
neighbourhood of mill and grange and cottage and shed (IV. 1394),
that it is ' out of eye-reach, out of ear-shot ', ' at the town's edge by
the gate i' the Pauline way ' (V. 1335-7). He seems to have placed it
close to the Porta S. Paolo and just inside that gate lt near the
famous Pyramid of Cestius. According to the poem it was to this
villa, at the extreme south of the city, that Pompilia was taken in
October 1697 when she left the Scalette ; it was to this villa that
Guido and his companions ' felt their way across the town bv blind
cuts and black turns ' (III. 1594-5) from the Abate's villa beyond
the northern gate, and it was here that they hacked their victims.
A passage in Book VII. (233-8) suggests that the Comparini had
yet another home. Pietro is there represented as contemplating,
That he placed it wwide the gate appears from VII. 233-8, where Pietro is
er villa' (see below) because it is 'outside the
represented M puiming 'the other villa' (
eity gate*.
279
280 THE RING AND THE BOOK
after Pompilia's confinement, a move to ' the other villa, we know
where, still farther off ' ; such a move, he thought, would be good
for the infant Gaetano, who would ' grow fast in the good air ', and
it would have another advantage — ' wood is cheap and wine sincere
outside the city gate ' (see note on VII. 238).
Let us, however, ignore this second villa and possibly third home ;
even a second home is something of a puzzle. We are told of the
villa in Via Paulina that Pietro had ' bought it betimes ', and that he
was in occupation both of it and of the house in Via Vittoria before
the family went, in 1693, with Guido to Arezzo (II. 201-7, 475-6).
Can this have been so ? Though his will, made in 1695 (0. Y.B.
clxxxvi., E.L. 191), shows that in that year he still had property to
bequeath (0. Y.B. clvi.-vii., E.L. 161), he had, according to one of our
authorities, been reduced to such straits in 1693 that he was then a
povero vergognoso receiving a monthly pittance from the Apostolic
Palace (0. Y.B. cxli., E.L. 145) \ In 1697, after some of his property
had fallen into Guide's hands, he found himself engaged in three
protracted lawsuits, and it is difficult to see how this ' easy careless
man ', who followed no profession or trade, can have kept up a villa
as well as a town-house. The shrewd and masterful Violante would
surely have insisted on his selling or letting one or the other.
The records say very little about the Comparini's home or homes.
The only evidence to be found there for the house in Via Vittoria is
the address of a letter written, or alleged to have been written, by
Pompilia on May 3 [1697], from the prison at Castelnuovo ; Al Sig.
Pietro Comparini mio Padre alia strada Vittoria. Roma (O.Y.B. clvi.,
E.L. 160). The only evidence for a house in ' the Pauline district '
is the Obligatio of Pompilia, when released from the Scalette in the
following October, to keep to Pietro's house as a prison ; his house
is there stated to be sita in via Paulina (O.Y.B. civ., E.L. 159).
Now there was at least one Via (or Strada) Paolina in the heart of
Rome, and Browning might have identified the Via Paulina of the
Obligatio with it. His reason for placing it in a solitary suburban
quarter was probably because a lonely villa commended itself to him
as a more suitable scene for the murders 2. The records nowhere
suggest that they were committed in such a villa ; the smothering
vines, the neighbouring mills and granges and sheds were the poet's
* fancy added to the fact ', or rather, as we shall see, substituted
for it.
The truth about the Via Paulina home has been discovered, with a
close approach to certainty, by Sir Frederick Treves. Maps and
1 See, however, the note on IV. 111.
2 See the expostulation which Pompilia dreams that her son might in times
to come address to her (VII. 216-18) :
Poor imprudent child 1
Why did you venture out of the safe street ?
Why go so far from help to that lone house ?
APP. 11.— HOMES OF THE COMPARINI 281
plans <»f the period show that the Via del Baltiiino, into which, as we
have seen, tin- Via Vittoria runs from the Corso, was then officially
styled Strada Paolina. .Winning that the Via del Babuino is the
Via Paulina of 1'ompilia's bond1, Sir Frederick concludes that the
Via Paulina house and the Via Vittoria house were one and the same,
a house at the corner where the two streets meet and therefore
describable as in either of them 2. Given their identity the only
possible alternatives to this conclusion are, either that the Comparini
occupied at the same time two houses in adjacent streets, or that
between May and October 1697 they migrated from a house in one of
these streets to a house in the other. The first of these alternatives
is absurd, and the second (like the first) finds no support in the Old
Yellow Book.
The validity of the Treves theory is confirmed when we examine
the evidence for the scene of the murders. The exposure of the
bodies of the Comparini in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina
(0. Y.B. 213, E.L. 265) makes it probable that they were murdered in
or near that parish. Now entries in the church's Register of Deaths
record, under date January 3, 1698, that the victims ' died of certain
wounds in the house where they lived in the Strada Paolina ', and
the only Strada Paolina in the neighbourhood of the church was the
Via del Babuino.
Of the scene of Pompilia's death Browning gives two different
accounts. According to his ' Other Half- Rome ' she died ' in the
long white lazar-house . . . Saint Anna's ' (III. 35-7) ; according
to his Pope (X. 1504-6) and his Bottini (XII. 676), in the Monastery
(of St. Mary Magdalene) of the Convertites. The ' lazar-house ' was
suggested to the poet by the fact that Fra Celestino Angelo, to whom
Pompilia made confession on her death-bed, described himself as
1 of S. Anna ' ? ; the Monastery of the Convertites by his belief that
the claim of that institution to Pompilia's property was based on the
ground that she was a loose woman who had died within its walls
(XII. 678-80).
The first identification was the merest guess, and if Sir Frederick
Treves is right in saying that * no such house [as a hospital of Saint
Anna] had any existence ' (Treves, p. 76) it was not a happy one.
As to the Convertites, Browning seems to have been mistaken about
their i-laim. It was based apparently on a general right of the
Monastery to inherit the property of loose women who died within
the city ; our records do not suggest that this right was limited as the
poet represents (O.Y.B. cxxx., cclix. seqq., E.L. 137, 252seqq.). — The
1 There is a Via Paulina to-day near S. Maria Maggiore ; I do not know whether
Hi 1-3, and Illustration 106.
<>.}'. II. hiii.. /../.. 58-0. I ra < .-l—tiiio is also described (O.Y.B. lix.) as of
Gies'i mi'! Maria. The iii<>th.-r-hc>u>r of tin- At/<t*tini<i>ii >v,;/-i (I. are- footed
Aii-ii-tiiiians) to which community Cekctino belonged is at the church of that
name in the Corso, near tin- Via Vittoria.
282 THE RING AND THE BOOK
real scene of Pompilia's death is fixed by the San Lorenzo Register :
mori nella casa dove abitava alia strada paolina (0. Y.B. 322 ; Treves,
p. 300). — In VII. 27 Browning represents her as expressing a hope that
she would be buried at ' the proper church ', her own San Lorenzo ;
the Register shows that if she had such a hope it was fulfilled :
fu septa [seppellita or sepolta] in qa na [questa nostra] Chiesa.
APPENDIX III
WHEN WERE THE COMPARINI AT AREZZO ?
i
IT is stated repeatedly in the poem that the Comparing Pietro and
Violante, were at Arezzo for four months (II. 504, III. 522, V. 617,
XI. 1195) L ; these statements are based on the deposition of
Pompilia (O.Y.B. Ixxxiii., E.L. 91), and are consistent with the
' a few months ' of the Second Anonymous Pamphlet (0. Y.B. ccxi.,
E.L. 213) and of Bottini (O.Y.B. Ixix., E.L. 76). As we read the
story we nnd that, if we are to follow it intelligently, we must answer
the question, When did the four months begin and end ?
There is evidence that they ended early in April 1694. Two
letters written to Pietro by residents in Arezzo 2 imply that he and
Violante left the town very shortly before the Palin Sunday of that
year (0. Y.B. liv., E.L. 54-5). Palm Sunday in 1694 was April 11, so
that, if what the letters imply was the fact, the four months must
have begun early in December 1693.
This conclusion, however, cannot be reconciled with other state-
ments in the records. The Secondary Source, it is true, says that,
the marriage having taken place ' during December ', the Comparini
went off to Arezzo with the newly married pair ' in the same
December' (O.Y.B. 209, E.L. 259-60), but Pompilia deposed that
it was not till two months after the marriage that she and the others
left Rome (0. Y.B. Ixxxii. : doppo essere stata sposata 3 al medemo [i.e.
to Guido], si trattenne in Roma per lo spatio di due mesi senza con-
sumare il matritnonio, e passato d. tempo, fui condotla assieme colli
sodetti [i.e. the Comparini] dal sodetto mio marito in Arezzo). If
Pompilia was married in December and stayed at Rome for tw~o
months afterwards, we must conclude that the party went to Arezzo
in February 1694, and that the Comparini did not return to Rome till
the following June.
1 In one place (IV. 568) it is suggested that their stay was very slightly longer.
2 The letters are undated, but they were clearly written soon after Pietro's
departure.
•••Hsur Hodell translates sposata by 'engaged ', which is of course a mistake
(see E.L. 91) ; note the words in the O.Y.B. which precede those quoted.
283
284 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Which (if either) of these conflicting conclusions are we to accept ?
As they both follow from statements in the records it is obvious that
one (or more) of those statements must be inaccurate. Fortunately
it is possible to say where the inaccuracy lies.
When Sir Frederick Treves was collecting materials for his most
valuable work on The Country of ' The Ring and the Book ', he
examined the marriage -register of the church of San Lorenzo. He
found there evidence of much importance to the story in more than
one way 1, and he found inter alia that Pompilia was married, not, as
the Secondary Source says, in December 1693, but three months
earlier, on September 6 2. With the discovery of this fact all
difficulty disappears, the chronology becomes clear 3 :
September 6, 1693. The Marriage.
Early in December, 1693. The Departure to Arezzo.
Early in April, 1694. The Return of the Comparini to Rome.
Browning took as his starting-point the mistaken statement
about the date of the marriage which he found in the Secondary
Source, but he aggravated the chronological difficulty which that
statement involves by putting it late in December (on ' December's
deadest day ' 4, VII. 426). He took account of Pompilia' s assertion
that there was an interval between the marriage and the move ; he
makes three weeks pass after the former event before Pietro is even
informed of it (VII. 479). He can hardly, therefore, have dated
the move much earlier — having married Pompilia on December 21
he should, in view of what she says about the spatio di due mesi, have
dated it some weeks later — than the end of January. But the
records told him that he must give the Comparini a full four months
in Arezzo, and he must have known that he had to get them back to
Rome early in April. Placed in this quandary he prudently allowed
his time-indications to become extremely vague.
1 See note on II. 70.
2 The Secondary Source was probably written, as its concluding sentence
suggests, some years after the events which it narrates ; Mrs. Orr's statement
(Handbook, p. 83) that it was ' published immediately after the Count's execution '
has no warrant.
3 I assume that Pompilia's due mesi should have been ire.
4 Professor Hall Griffin (Life, p. 312) says that Browning put the marriage in
December ' for artistic reasons ' — " one dim end of a December day " (III. 449)
— on account of the gloom associated with it'. He should have said ' late in
December ' ; in putting it in December Browning simply followed his Secondary
Source.
APPENDIX IV
COULD POMPILIA WRITE ?
THE poet always maintained that, while breathing his own breath
into the lifeless facts which he found in the Yellow Book, he accepted
them as facts ; he declared for instance that his Pompilia was both in
speech and act the Pompilia of the Book l. Now that the Book is
in our hands the statement challenges examination ; we can hardly
help asking, Is the Pompilia here depicted as noble and as spotless
as the poet's heroine ? and more particularly, Is she so transparently
truthful ?
In this Appendix I propose to test her veracity in a matter of great
importance to the story. She declared on oath in May 1697 that
she could not write. If we can find good reason for believing that
declaration, she is cleared at once from the damaging charges based
on the letteis sent to the Abate Paolo in the summer of 1694 and on
the love-letters composed in the spring of 1697 2 ; but, if we are
driven to disbelieve it, it becomes, not certain indeed nor even in my
judgment at all probable 8, but at any rate not impossible that she
1 See Appendix V.
2 The Paolo-letters are printed in O.Y.B. lv., Ixxxvi., E.L. 56-7, 95, the love-
letters in O.y.Il. xcii.-xcix., E'.L. 99-106. The comments made upon them by
the lawyers and the pamphleteers are repeated and expanded in the poem ; for
the Paolo-letters see II. 684-725, III. 738-71, 1315-16, IV. 767-86, V. 834-67,
VIII. 157-98, IX. 807-38; for the love-letters see II. 1068-7«. 11:26-47. IV.
1032-59, V. 1133-62, VI. 510-19, 557-74, 1650-73, VII. 175-79, IX. 538-47,
\. (.47-56. Some of these passages might have been excised or abridged with
advantage.
3 The two Paolo-letters were probably faked ; their contents are such that
Pompilia can hardly have written tin-in. They are inconsistent with her actions ;
her explanation of the mode of their production (by Ghrido) is quite credible;
the more important letter was put in. durinu the murder-trial, l»>i the prosecution,
obvion.slv as ilamaL'inir, not to Pompilia. but to (iuido : (Juido had an obvious
motive for composing them in Pompilia's name, for rumours of his ill-treatment
of her had aroused in Paolo's mind a disquiet which he would desire to remove
(see O.Y.B. ccxlviii., / >n<l. linally, we are told by Bottini. and his
assertion is nowhere eontradicted. that at least one of them ha : 'irned
by the judges' ts/,r,t<i ,i Dl>. hi, lie ilmx) in the previous trial (O.Y.li. elxxii.. /•:./..
The authenticity of the love-letters is also very doubtful. Those which
were attributed to I'oiiipilia- the majority — prove that the writer was. what she
can hardly have been, \\ell versed in classical literature; all knowledge of them
286 THE RING AND THE BOOK
wrote those letters, and (what is more important) all her evidence,
except when corroborated, becomes suspect. What answer, then, to
our question, Could Pompilia write ? does the Yellow Book suggest ?
I. Pompilia' s statements on the subject are as follows : —
(a) In her first examination in the Process of Flight, on May 13,
1697, she deposed : ' About a month ago (vn mese fa in circa l)
I went for confession [at Arezzo] to an Augustinian Father whom
they called the Roman, and told him of all my sorrows, praying him
to write to my father in my name because I cannot write (non so
scriuere), and to represent to him that I was in despair . . . ' (0. Y.B.
Ivi., Ixxxiv., E.L. 92).
(b) In further examination, on May2 21, 1697 : 'While I was at
Arezzo I wrote at my husband's instance [in June 1694] to the Abate
Franceschini, my brother-in-law here at Rome ; and because I
could not write (non sapeuo scriuere) my husband wrote the letter
with a pencil and made me trace it over with a pen. . . . This
happened two or three times ' (0. Y.B. liv., Ixxxvi., E.L. 55, 94).
(c) In the same further examination : ' The said Caponsacchi
before the affair in question (prima delfatto, i.e., apparently, before
the flight) did not send me any letter, because I cannot read manu-
script and cannot write. Nor did I ever before the said affair send
a letter of any kind to the said Caponsacchi' (0. Y.B. lxxxv.-vi.,
E.L. 94).
(d) In a letter dated May 3, [1697], purporting to have been
written from the prison at Castelnuovo to the Comparini at Rome, and
produced in the course of the murder-trial : ' . . . I sent you news
of these things on purpose, but you did not believe that those letters
which I sent you were written by me. But I tell you that I finished
learning to write at Arezzo. . . . The bearer of this letter was
moved by compassion and gave me the paper and what else was
necessary. So come here to Castelnuovo as soon as you have read
this letter of mine ' (O.Y.B. clvi., E.L. 160).
II. Caponsacchi, who denied on oath that he either received or
wrote any Zove-letters, admitted that he received letters, which he
supposed to have been written by Pompilia, about the proposed
was denied by Caponsacchi, who declared that the handwriting of one assigned
to him bore no resemblance to his own ; and Guido's account of their discovery
does not, to say the least, carry conviction. — It would therefore be impossible
to argue that the existence of either of these sets of letters proves that Pompilia
could write.
1 Professor Hodell translates the words by ' about a month later ' (later, he
seems to understand, than ' the beginning of these troubles ')• They surely mean
' about a month ago ', and fix Pompilia's assertion non so scriuere to the time of
the approaching end of these troubles, i.e. to April 1697. — The Professor makes a
serious slip when he translates (E.L. 92) the marginal comment peierat (' she
perjures herself ') asserens nescire scribere by ' she died asserting that she did not
know how to write ' ; perhaps he mis-read peierat as perierat. There is, by the
way, no evidence that Pompilia said anything on her death-bed about her ability
or inability to write.
» The Martii of the document is clearly a slip for Mali.
A PP. IV.— COULD POM PI LI A WRITE? 287
flight. The first of these, lie said, was brought him by the servant
Maria, the others were thrown down by Pompilia from her window ;
his earlier answers were given to the servant, those to Pompilia' s last
two appeals were respectively (1) drawn up by Pompilia to her
window by a string, and (2) given by word of mouth as he was
walking in the street and she was standing at that window (0. Y.B.
lxxxviii.-ix., E.L. 96).
III. Guide's advocates do not (I think) mention the Castelnuovo
letter (I. (d) above) but they maintain the authenticity of the other
letters attributed to Pompilia and stigmatize her non so scriuere as a lie
and a perjury (see e.g. O. Y.B. Ixxxiv., Ixxxvi., E.L. 92, 94). To justify
this harsh judgment Arcangeli cites the fact (if it is a fact) that she
recognized her signature at the command of the Court (O. Y.B. civ.,
E.L. 112); it was, he says, appended to her marriage-agreement,
' about the truth of which it is monstrous to dispute, because, for
one reason, the signature of one of the cardinals is also thereto
appended '. This latter point is also made in the pro-Guido First
Anonymous Pamphlet (O. Y.B. cxlvi., E.L. 150).
IV. The anti-Guido lawyers, who, we should remember, were not
n i •<•< \ssarily advocates for Pompilia, do not seriously argue that she
could not write, (a) When he deals with the Arezzo love- and
flight-letters, Bottini's case is, firstly, that they have not been
proved to be in her handwriting ; secondly, that she repudiated
them ; thirdly, that even if she wrote them they are consistent with
her innocence (O.Y.B. Ixxiii., clxxv., E.L. 80, 182). (6) With
respect to the principal letter to Paolo, he argues that its tenor
shows it to be a forgery, or alternatively that Pompilia wrote it
under compulsion (O.Y.B. Ixxi.. < •Ixxii.-iii., E.L. 77, 179-80). (c)
He dcfcs not dispute the genuineness of the Castelnuovo letter ;
indeed he uses it in support of the opinion that she may have
written the flight-letters (O.Y.B. clxxiii.-iv., E.L. 180).
V. Lamparelli, who, unlike Bottini, was solely concerned to
restore Pompilia's ' good name and fame ', (a) argues as he does about
the love- and flight-letters (O.Y.B. ccl., E.L. 247). (6) He notes
that she asserted that she could not write at the time when the
principal Paolo-letter was written ; but his denial of its authenticity
is based, like Bottini's, on other grounds (O.Y.B. ccxlvii., E.L. 244).
(c) To the Castelnuovo letter he does not allude.
Such is the evidence of the Yellow Book ; what conclusion must
we draw from it ?
In attempting an answer I need not linger over II. and III.
Caponsacchi's statements (II.) are not always n •< -<>in -ilal)l<- with
Pompilia's under I. (c), but for our present purpose they are of
secondary importance l. The suggestion that Pompilia could not
1 I speak of the discrepancies and of their significance in Appendix V.
288 THE RING AND THE BOOK
write surprised him, but he had, he said, no certain knowledge on that
matter (0. Y.B. xc., E.L. 97). The statements of Guide's advocates
(III.) concern us even less. They were bound to maintain that the
Arezzo letters were genuine, and the only proof they offer of their
authenticity is that Pompilia could sign her name, but you cannot
necessarily write letters because you can do that.
The evidence of IV. and V. is of more significance ; it is strange
that Bottini, and still more strange that Lamparelli, did not firmly
maintain that Pompilia was illiterate ; they would hardly, perhaps,
have withdrawn from so important a position if it had really been
tenable against attack. It is, however, on Pompilia's own evidence
(I.) that we must chiefly depend for an answer to our question. Of
this I. we must lay no stress on what is stated under (b) ; the fact
(if fact it is) that she could not write in 1694 does not establish her
alleged inability in 1697. Confining our attention, therefore, to
(a) (c) and (d) we note that on May 13 and May 21, 1697, Pompilia,
when under examination upon her oath, gave ' I cannot write ' as
her reason for having enlisted an amanuensis to write a letter for
her in the previous month, and as a proof of the impossibility of her
having corresponded with Caponsacchi. Yet a few months later,
in January or February 1698 (after Pompilia's death), a letter
signed with her name was produced in Court, and the date it bears —
May 3, [1697] — was several days earlier than the dates of her re-
iterated asseverations of illiteracy. The letter, which is of some
length and not that of a tiro, states that the writer had previously
written in her own hand to the same correspondent ; it explains
that she had finished learning to write before she left Arezzo x.
If this letter of May 3 was really written by Pompilia, we are forced
to the conclusion that she gave false evidence ; we must agree with
the marginal commentator, peierat asserens nescire scribere.
Is its genuineness doubtful ? When it was put in the Court was
told that it had been found, after Pompilia's death, inter domesticas
scripturas 2, i.e., I suppose, among papers found in the Comparini's
house. Guido's craft and wickedness may have known no bounds,
but it is difficult to believe that he forged it. He cannot have done
so before Pompilia's imprisonment at Castelnuovo, for the letter
assumes that circumstance and it could not have been foreseen ;
and he can hardly have had an opportunity afterwards of inserting
anything among the domesticae scripturae. Nor would he in any
case have forged such a letter as this, for its contents show that the
question cui profuerit ? 3 (' who stood to gam by it ? ') could not have
been answered by Guidoni ; it gives a plausible and an innocent
explanation of the flight. The letter was put in by the Fisc, i.e. by
the anti-Guido lawyers, and its authenticity was disputed by no one,
1 Pompilia left Arezzo on the night of April 29-30, 1697.
2 O.T.B, clxxvi., E.L. 180. » See note on IV. 1054.
APP. IV.— COULD POM PI LI A WRITE? 289
not even by Lamparelli, the champion of 1'ompilia's good name.
It may be objected that Pompilia herself had no opportunity of
repudiating it, for (as I have said) it was not produced 'till after her
death ; but this fact hardly detracts from the cogency of the proof
t hat it was hers.
The letter of May 3 u- not, I think, adroitly handled in the poem.
It was Browning's concern, even more than Lamparelli's, to ' saint
I'ompilia ' l ; he should either have ignored the letter or explained
it away. The former alternative would have been inconsistent with
his practice, for he rarely ignored what he found in his Yellow Book ;
and he does not adopt it. It is true that his Pompilia, who (unlike
the real Pompilia) professes illiteracy on her death-bed '-, makes no
mention of this letter ; but Browning brings it to our notice in Book
IX.3. Having done so he should surely have offered some suggestion
which would have enabled his readers, the letter notwithstanding,
to share his belief in his heroine's absolute veracity ; but he offers
none. No doubt in Book IX. his mind is fully occupied, not by the
task of clearing Pompilia, but by that of caricaturing Bottini. The
real Bottini, in a somewhat hazy paragraph 4, admitted the genuine-
ness of the letter without question, and was therefore inclined to
admit also the genuineness of the later Arezzo letters ; he suggested
that Pompilia learnt to write during her last days there, ' despair
sharpening her wits ' (desperatione ingenium acuente). Fixing on this
last phrase Browning proceeded to provide his readers with some
delightful entertainment ; he made the advocate illustrate Pompilia's
sudden acquirement, under the pressure of necessity, of an un-
familiar art by the lines in which Persius speaks of parrots and
magpies learning to speak, and poetasters to poetize, under the
stimulus of hunger 6. He represented him as going on, more suo, to
deny pro forma the authenticity of the Castelnuovo letter, which, he
explains, was forged by Guido ; but the denial and the explanation
are hardly intended to be convincing, and they do not convince.*
The poet should have come to Pompilia's rescue ; he should have
made a serious attempt, elsewhere if not in Book IX., to clear his
heroine from the stain which the letter, introduced but unexplained,
casts upon her voracity, just as he attempts, most ingeniously, to
show that her incorrect statement about the time of her arrival at
the Castelnuovo inn was no falsehood, but an innocent and natural
mistake 7.
i XII. 710.
1287, 1490; of. VII. 691, 1124, VI. 726.
I •* O.Y.B. clxxiii.-iv., E.L. 180.
I \. l ts-68. « See the last paragraph.
note mi vir. 1580-84. Fora reason given at the end of Appendix V. I
do nut think that liN attempt is successful..
APPENDIX V
THE MONOLOGUES AND THE DEPOSITIONS l OF
CAPONSACCHI AND POMPILIA
IN the monologues of Books VI. and VII. Caponsacchi and Pompilia
when dealing with the same group of facts often lay stress on different
incidents ; indeed one of them may sometimes "entirely ignore an
incident of which the other gives a full description. Which is as
it should be ; such differences are natural in themselves, are often
characteristic of the speakers, add variety to the poem. Meanwhile
the two monologues, so far as they cover the same ground, tell us
a substantially identical tale ; they are not only self-consistent
separately, they are consistent with one another.
When, however, we compare them with the two depositions on
which they profess to be based, or the two depositions with one
another, we find no such consistency. I propose in this Appendix
to notice (I.) discrepancies between the depositions ; (II.) discrepancies
between Caponsacchi's, and (III.) between Pompilia's, deposition and
monologue ; and to offer (IV. ) some observations on the significance
of all these discrepancies.
I. Discrepancies between the depositions, (a) According to
Pompilia she had at least tliree conversations with Canpnsacchi
about the proposed flight before the last day which they spent at
Arezzo ; according to Caponsacchi there were no conversations between
them on any subject whatever before that day. (6) Caponsacchi
speaks of Pompilia standing at her window, throwing down letters
to him and drawing up letters from him ; Pompilia denies that any
such letters passed ; none, she says, were written, because she could
not read manuscript and could not write, (c) According to Capon-
sacchi the final arrangements for the flight were made by conversa-
tion, according to Pompilia by a signal, (d) Pompilia says that on
April 29 she came downstairs at dawn, met Caponsacchi, and went
with him on foot from the house to the San Spirito gate, where a
1 For these depositions see O.Y.B. Ivi.-lvii., lxxxii.-vi., Ixxxviii.-xci. ; E.L. 57,
90-98?
290
APP. V.—CAPONSAGCHI AND POMP1LIA 291
carriage awaited them ; CapODBaoohi says that 1'nmpilia came alone
at 1 A.M. to tin- San Clemente gate, where he was waiting with 1 he
carriage. ('•) Pompilia affirms and re-affirms that she and her
companion reached the Castelnuovo inn at dawn; Caponsacchi
deposes that they arrived there 'in the evening'. (/) About the
time spent at the inn the two depositions contradict one another
flatly. Says Caponsacchi: 'Because the said Francesca [ =
Pompilia] said that she felt some pains and had not the spirit to
continue the journey without rest, she threw herself, dressed as she
\\ as, on the bed in a camera, and I, in my clothes likewise, lay down
on another bed which there was in the same camera, telling the inn-
keeper to call us after three or four hours. . . . But he did not call
us, and the said Francesca's husband arrived on the scene in the
mean-time'. Says Pompilia: 'We stopped1 at the inn for the
space of more than an hour, and during this time we stayed in a sala
upstairs. ... I did not go to sleep nor lie down to rest , . . during
the time I stopped there '. And when it is suggested to her that
Caponsacchi's story is the true one she sticks to her own.
II. Discrepancies between Caponsacchi' 's monologue and his
deposition, (a) The deposition denies, the monologue asserts ?, that
love-letters, purporting to come from Pompilia, were brought to
Caponsacchi by the servant Maria. (6) The deposition speaks of
a long series of letters relating to the flight ; according to the mono-
logue there were no such letters 3. (c) The deposition denies by im-
plication the statement of the monologue 4 that Caponsacchi was
for a time inclined to go back from his promise that he would take
Pompilia to Rome, (d) According to the monologue 6 Caponsacchi
' paced the passage, kept watch all night long ', at Castelnuovo,
and was in the courtyard of the inn when Guido arrived ; according
to the deposition, as we have seen (I. (/)) he slept (and over-slept) in
the camera in which Pompilia slept also, and Guido arrived while he
was still there.
III. Discrepancies between Pompilia's monologue and her deposi-
tion, (a) In her monologue 8 Pompilia says most emphatically that
' the first words I heard ever from his [Caponsacchi's] lips ' WOK a
promise to deliver her, made two days before the flight. In her
deposition she speaks of a much earlier conversation with him ; it
occurred soon after the theatre-incident and resulted in his promising
not to excite Guide's suspicions further by passing along the street
into which her window looked. (6) In her monologue 7 she says
that love-letters, purporting to come from Caponsacchi, were
1 AToi cifemuusimo does not mean ' we shut ourselves in ' as Hodell translates.
2 VI. 506 seqq. Browning's ingenious treatment of the earlier history of the
love-letters is based on nothing in the Yellow Hook.
I IK- liight was proposed, agn-rd to, and arranged, according to the monologue,
at two interviews (VI. 701-895, 1063-86).
* VI. 974-1062. * VI. 1418. •
« VII. 1444. 1 VII. 1118-25, 1149-57.
292 THE RING AND THE BOOK
brought and read to her by Maria ; in her deposition, as we have
seen (I. (&)), she says that no such letters came, (c) In her deposition
(I. (/)) she gives a detailed account of what happened between her
arrival at dawn and her husband's arrival soon after at Castelnuovo ;
in her monologue 1 she declares that her mind is a blank about
everything between the ' tragical red eve ' of her arrival and her
husband's sudden appearance ; ' the head swam round ', she says ;
' the bewildered flesh sucked down all sense '.
IV. The significance of these discrepancies. The results of source-
study are not always commensurate with the labour which it in-
volves, but an examination of the sources of The Ring and the Book
yields a rich return. The discrepancies which it reveals raise an
intriguing problem by the way. In conversation 2 and in the poem
Browning declared emphatically that though his fancy might play
upon the facts of the Yellow Book he accepted them as he found
them ; it is a question of great interest how in the face of such
discrepancies as have been noted under II. and III. he could so
greatly exaggerate his fidelity to his source. Their real significance,
however, lies elsewhere. It might be supposed that the revelation
of inconsistencies, either between the depositions of Caponsacchi
and Pompilia or between Browning and those depositions, could
not increase our enjoyment of the poem ; for forty years 3, it might
be argued, Books VI. and VII. stirred the minds and thrilled the
hearts of readers who were not aware of the inconsistencies, and
they will affect readers who are aware of them in precisely the same
way. They will, I believe, affect them differently and more power-
fully ; an examination of the conflicting depositions can hardly fail,
when they compare them with these two Books, to add immensely
to their admiration of Browning's genius. It will show them that
he picked and chose and altered with consummate skill ; that for
everything that is brilliant or sublime in the monologues the records
gave him but the barest hints ; that the charm and the nobility of
the finely contrasted characters of the hero and the heroine were
entirely his creation4.
It remains to enquire how far the depositions, together with other
parts of the Yellow Book, support certain general conclusions at
1 VII. 1571-86. On the statement of Pompilia about the time of her arrival
at Castelnuovo, and on Browning's explanation of that statement, see the note
on VII. 1580-84 and the end of this Appendix.
2 ' I asked him if it did not make him very happy to have created such a woman
as Pompilia ; and he said, " I assure you I found her in the book just as she speaks
and acts in my poem " ' (the Rev. John W. Chadwick in The Christian Register,
January 19, 1888 ; quoted in O.Y.B. 282). See also Dr. Pope's edition of A Death
in the Desert, p. 54.
» Books VI. and VII. were published in December 1868 and January 1869
respectively. Professor Hodell's reproduction of the Yellow Book was first
published in 1908.
» ' One can hardly come from a close study of Book and Ring, side by side,
without an ever-deepening sense of the might of Browning as a creative artist '
(Hodell, O.Y.B. 291).
APP. V.—CAPONSACCHI AND POMPILIA 293
*
which the poet arrived. He told W. M. Rossetti that the Book sup-
plied a * mass of almost equally balanced evidence ' *, but his reflec-
tions upon that evidence led him to an assured conviction that the
charge of misconduct brought against Caponsacchi and Pompilia was
a false charge, based on evidence which was for the most part a
deliberately false concoction. In spite of the contradictions which
I have noticed most readers of the Book will share that conviction.
They will not, I think, discover a ' true St. George ' and an absolutely
blameless heroine in the Caponsacchi and Pompilia who appear
there. It is true that the Caponsaccbi of the Book makes a favourable
impression. He is humane, manly, resolute, adventurous ; he
speaks the truth, so far as we can judge, without reserve, and does
not calculate the consequences too nicely. We do not, however,
detect in him any spiritual exaltation and enthusiasm or any real
qualifications for a hero of romance ; for such a role he seems all
too matter-of-fact. Since the occasion serves — he is going to Rome
in any case — he will escort Pompilia, as he would escort another, to
save her from oppression or from death ; it is a plain duty, and there
the matter ends. The tender age, the helpless inexperience, the
undeserved misfortunes, the saintly end of the real Pompilia excite
our sympathy and our pity so keenly that, even if we could wholly
dissociate her from the Pompilia of the poem, we should still desire
to find her faultless ; we recognize that her faults were but the
natural result of the three-years' torture at Arezzo. Long-suffering
and yet not too submissive during all that terrible time, brave and
intrepid at its close, she was crushed by the wretched miscarriage
of the flight ; a weakness and timidity which the poet veils betrayed
her into subterfuge and falsehood. We saw in Appendix IV. that
the gravest suspicion attaches to her professions of illiteracy, for
which fear supplied an obvious motive ; more than a suspicion of
inveracity is aroused by several other parts of her deposition 2.
It is possible that on one or two points on which her evidence is
contradicted by Caponsacchi' s she spoke the truth, or at least that
she meant to speak it ; but we must remember that only a fortnight
passed between the flight and her examination by the Court ; that,
though the painful excitements, and perhaps the physical suffering,
through which she had passed might well have blurred her recollec-
tions, her statements on critical points were positive and definite ;
that when she and Caponsacchi differed as to facts his version is often
supported by other evidence, but that hers is not ; that if her state-
ments were false there was a motive for the falsehoods. — Let us
glance for a moment at one of the most glaring discrepancies between
the depositions, that concerning the time of the arrival at the
Castelnuovo inn. Chronological and geographical considerations
suggest, what other witnesses proved, that Pompilia's assertion on
i Rossetti Papert, p. 401. « See above, I., especially (e) and (/).
294 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the point was incorrect. Browning admits the incorrectness and
invents an explanation by which he thinks that he acquits her of
mendacity : but his explanation does not cover enough ground.
For Pompilia did not only assert (and re-assert) that she reached
the inn at the reddening of sunrise, which reddening, in her fainting
state, she mistook, says the poet, for the reddening of sunset ; she
gave a clear account, quite inconsistent with the alleged unconscious-
ness, and equally inconsistent with Caponsacchi's story, of the precise
manner in which the time at the inn was spent l.
i See above, I. (e), (/) ; and the note on VII. 1580-84.
APPENDIX VI
THE INFLICTION OF TORTURE
THE Ring and the Book contains (I.) allusions to a very severe kind
of torture employed by the ecclesiastical courts at Rome to force
confessions of guilt, and (II.) allusions to the infliction of this or a
milder torture upon Guido and his confederates in the murder-trial ;
as well as (III.) some general remarks on the use of torture as a
judicial process.
I. The very severe kind of torture was, says Browning,
called the Cord,
Or Vigil-torture more facetiously 1.
Its effects are described by the poet's Arcangeli in a translation of a
passage from the ' immortal " Questions " ' of the jurist Farinacci * ;
Browning took the trouble, as Professor Hodell has shown 8, to hunt
up a reference made to the Quaestiones by the Advocate of the Poor
in O. Y.B. xxxv., and he put a part of what he found into Arcangeli's
mouth. The great jurist also describes the nature of the Vigil,
which name, in view of what the torture in fact was, may well be
called ' facetious ', but this latter description, which inter alia
explains the terms ' Vigil ' and ' Cord ', is not reproduced in the
poem ; a curious reader will find it in the Professor's translation
from the Quaestiones 4.
II. In IV. 1621-4 Browning's ' man of quality ' says that he
* hears the court intends ' to put Guido to the torture, a step which
he regards as ' unduly harsh ', for 'he is noble, and he may be
innocent '. The speaker is represented as discoursing on the evening
of January 5, the third day after the murders ; on the same or the
following day Guido is made to say that he has already been * put
1 I. 979-80.
II. :;::u- u : see note on VIII. 148.
: o. V.li. :{:;:. (not,- r.^r,).— Professor Hodell says that Browning ' learned almost
nil his l;i\v from the Hook ' ; the instance of further research above noticed is, he
.-i.l.U. the only in-t:in« i- In- h:i- toiiinl 'of the Poet's having tnivrlril Ix-ynml the
l',( MI k for Ifizal Information ' (<> Y.I'-. _.">-'.". s.-«- howcvrr my note on X. -Join.
•» O . )
296 THE RING AND THE BOOK
to the rack ' in spite of his nobility \ and it appears from I. 977-80
as well as from V. 38 that this means that he has suffered, not mere
ordinary torture, but the Vigil. Again, in the monologue of the
poet's Arcangeli, which, says Browning, was ' the first speech for
Guido ' 2 and was the first of all the pleadings, the advocate plainly
implies that both Guido and his confederates have undergone the
severer ordeal 3.
The Yellow Book, however, proves that all this is incorrect. It
shows quite clearly, as Professor Hodell notes 4, that there were two
stages in the trial. During the first stage, when the earlier argu-
ments were written, though some ' simple ' torture may have been
inflicted upon Guide's plebeian associates 6, the Vigil was not
inflicted either upon them or upon their principal ; the prosecution
applies to the Court to decree its employment, the defence maintains
that the application should be refused. The parties seem to agree
that, though the Court has a discretionary power in the matter 6, the
Vigil can only in strictness be decreed (1) if the crime with which an
accused person is charged is 'most atrocious', and (2) if there is a
semiplena probatio, i.e. if the proofs of his guilt are strong ; in the
absence of these conditions, he is, it seems, liable to ' simple ' torture
only 7. A ' most atrocious ' crime is defined as one for which the
penalty is death 8, or, as Spreti insists, not ' mere death ' (mors
simplex, which means, I suppose, hanging or beheading) but some-
thing more awful, such as dismembering, burning, and the like 9.
Whether the crime of Guido and his associates was ' most atrocious '
in the sense that it deserved capital punishment, simple or not
simple, was of course the point at issue in the trial. — When we reach
the second stage, to which the later arguments belong, we find that
the infliction of the Vigil has been decreed and that the accused have
in consequence made, no longer a ' qualified ' confession, but the
i V. 11-14. 2 I. 1161, VIII. 68, note.
» VIII. 311 seqq.
4 O.Y.B. 245-6, 335 (note 524).— There is no doubt whatever that, as Professor
Hodell says, the pleading of Bottini which in E.L. is called Pamphlet 14 (O.Y.B.
cxcv.-cciv.) was inserted in the wrong place by the collector of the documents ;
it belongs to the first stage of the trial, and should come next after Pamphlet 7.
(Note e.g. that in Pamphlet 13 (O.Y.B. clxiii., E.L. 171) Bottini refers to a para-
graph of Pamphlet 14, beginning with Sed quatenus etiam — O.Y.B. cxcviii., E.L.
202 — ,as belonging to his 'past response'.) — The second stage begins with
Pamphlet 8.
& Compare O.Y.B. xxii. (E.L. 23) with O.Y.B. xxxv. (E.L. 34).
6 See e.g. O.Y.B. clxiii., E.L. 171. Spreti contends that the Court's discretion
is limited to dispensing with the ' urgency ' of the proofs (O.Y.B. xliv., E.L. 43).
V O.Y.B. xxxv., xlvii., cxxv., cxcv., E.L. 34, 45, 133, 199.
s See e.g. O.Y.B. cxxv., E.L. 133, where Spreti gives the reason for the first
condition above mentioned on the authority of Uaynaldus : ' When an accused
person cannot be condemned to death he must not, for the purpose of getting a
confession from him, be exposed to a torture which may cause death'.
y O.Y.B. xxxv!., E.L. 34 : Delictum autem atrocissimum dicitur dumtaxat illud,
pro quo pcena gravior quam simpiicis mortis imponenda venit, veluti scissionis in
frusta, combustionis, & similium. Professor Hodell, confusing frusta with
frustra, mistranslates scissionis in frusta by ' useless mutilation '.
APP. VI. —THE INFLICTION OF TORTURE 297
1 avowal plump and plain ' * which Browning's Arcangeli represents
as having been secured at the very outset. It is not, however,
quite clear from the records how far the Vigil was actually em-
ployed. \Ve are told, indeed, by Spreti that its employment almost
caused the death of one of the confederates, Alessandro Baldeschi,
'/>// per duos vices in eodem Tormento lethaliter defecit 2, but he speaks
less definite^ about the other defendants ; the confessions, he says,
are null and void, because made in fear of the Vigil 3. The less
authoritative post-Browning pamphleteer, who notes that ' far
less than had been imagined was it found needful to apply torture to
en-ure the confession of the assassins and of Guido, who more
emphatically than the others persisted in denying his guilt ', adds
that * notwithstanding this, simply at the sight of the torture his
heart failed him and he made a full confession ' 4.
We have seen that in the poem a person of ' the superior social
section ' based his opinion that Guido should not be tortured on the
ground of his nobility. The same position is maintained by the
poet's Arcangeli, who disputes ' validity of process ' in the Court's
decree —
Inasmuch as a noble is exempt
From torture which plebeians undergo
In such a case : for law is lenient, lax,
Remits the torture to a nobleman
Unless suspicion be of twice the strength
Attaches to a man born vulgarly :
We don't card silk with comb that dresses wool 6.
And Guido is represented in his first monologue, not indeed as
* disputing validity ' — for he is * subdued near to mock-mildness ' •
in Book V. — , but as telling the judges that, though k law thinks other-
wise'. (he vulgar at least thought that 'noblemen were exempt
from racking ' 7. In the Yellow Book Spreti, in claiming exemption
for Guido, claims it on the same ground, but his claim relates to the
i vm. 312.
'•* O.Y.B. cxxv., E.L. 133 : cf. VIII. 346-54. See also the Secondary Source,
O.Y.B. 213, E.L. 265: 'Baldeschi made denial, even though "the cord" was
administered to him twice, under which he swooned. Finally he confessed '.
:< Confessiones D. Q-uidonis . . . [el] eius sociorum stint nuUce, proptereb non
attendendce , cum scilicet emanauerint metu rigorosi Tormenti VigHiae. Bottini in
his answer says that confessions ' supervened ' after the Vigil was decreed, and
of their having been made in fear of it and ratified eo (? the fear or the torture)
cessante ; his words decretum super Tormento D. Ouidoni A sociis inferendo
Hoi Ml mistranslates by ' the decree which inflicted the torture of the Vigil ' etc.
(O.P /;. • •l.xiii.-iv . E.L. 171-2).
4 O.Y.B. 223, E.L. 278 ; I quote from the translation in Hall Griffin, p. 323.
In XII. 414-16 Browning makes Bottini say of Guido :—
much sport he contrived to make,
\Vln> :it first twist, preamble of the o>nl,
Turned white, told all, like the poltroon he was 1
Cf. VIM. tni-7.
\ III. 316-24. •• I. ~ V. 1 •_'-!».
298 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Vigil only ; it does not extend to ' simple ' torture x. He says that,
by the Constitutions of Paul V., the Vigil can only be inflicted on
criminals who are liable to the penalty of a specially ignominious and
infamous death, burning, for instance, or mutilation ; but, he argues,
nobles are not liable to ignominious and infamous penalties ; there-
fore, he concludes, since Guido is noble, the Vigil cannot be inflicted
upon him 2. To this Bottini answers that it is the practice of the
courts, when the employment of the Vigil is in question, to consider
only the nature of the crime and not the ' quality ' of the person.
For ' otherwise ', he says, * neither nobles nor priests and religiosi,
on whom an infamous penalty is not inflicted, could ever be exposed
to that torture ' ; and, he adds, citing Farinacci, that ' nobility,
especially in very atrocious crimes, confers no privilege as to the
kind of torture ' 3. The two lawyers, it will be seen, agreed that
nobility did confer a privilege as to the kind of penalty ; some curious
decisions are mentioned elsewhere in the Yellow Book which illustrate
the fact. Thus a case is cited on the authority of Ulpian in which
the Emperor Pius (for the same crime, apparently) sent a man of
humble birth into perpetual exile, but ' relegated ' a noble for a time
only 4 ; and the Book tells us of another in which some young nobles,
having killed their wives under circumstances which do not concern
us, were absolved by the Royal Court of Naples on account (partly)
of their quality5. The 'heading or hanging as befitted ranks'6,
inflicted on Guido and his companions respectively, shows that in the
ecclesiastical as well as the imperial and royal courts of Italy law
respected persons.
III. Some general remarks upon judicial torture are made twice
in the poem. In Browning's preliminary outline of the contents of
Book V., after noting that torture was formerly * here, there and
1 The poem does not narrow the exemption-claim to the Vigil, but Browning
was no doubt aware that the wider claim was inadmissible. In an interesting
passage in Book VIII. (406-19) Arcangeli is made to say that some sixty years
before nobles were trained to brave torture, which, presumably, the courts might
call upon them to endure : —
Guido Franceschini, nobleman,
Bear pain no better ! Everybody knows
It used once, when my father was a boy,
To form a proper, nay, important point
I' the education of our well-born youth,
That they took torture handsomely at need,
Without confessing in this clownish guise.
Each noble had his rack for private use,
And would, for the diversion of a guest,
Bid it be set up in the yard of arms,
And take thereon his hour of exercise, —
Command the varletry stretch, strain their best,
While friends looked on, admired my lord could smile
'Mid tugging which had caused an ox to roar.
2 O.Y.B. xxxvi., E.L. 34. a O.Y.B. cciv., E.L. 207.
4 O.Y.B. xxv., E.L. 27. 5 O.Y.B. xxviii., E.L. 29.
« I. 126 ; cf. e.g. O.Y.B. 338, E.L. 238.
APP. VI. —THE INFLICTION OF TORTURE 299
everywhere ' employed ' to tease the truth out of loth witness ', he
t r;irrs the later attitude towards it of ' Religion ' and ' Humanity ' l
with some scathing comment on the former. At the end of Book
IV. (1621-31) his representative of cultured lay opinion reduces the
use of torture ad absurdum ; ' abolish it ' is his advice. — Secular
law in this as in other matters has lagged some little way behind
secular opinion ; ecclesiastical law and opinion alike have lagged
in Rome a long way behind both.
In respect of the former of these two propositions England has
been an exception to the rule ; for, though prerogative has some-
times defied law, English law has never sanctioned torture as a
means of extracting evidence or confession 2. In Scotland opinion
condemned torture before the end of the seventeenth century, when
the future James II. so complacently employed and witnessed it ;
but law did not catch up opinion till 1708, the year following the
Act of Union 3. On the continent the public opinion of civilized
countries had decided that torture was ' a vile trick ' some time
before law discarded it ; it was formally abrogated in Austria in
1776, in France in 1789, in Holland in 1798, in Prussia (where
however Frederick the Great had ' practically ' abolished its use in
1740) in 1805. Even in the secular states of Italy, excepting the
infamous kingdom of Naples, it had disappeared before the end of
the eighteenth century ; in Tuscany, which led the way at the
prompting of the humane Beccaria, it became illegal in 1776.
Meanwhile in the papal dominions torture was permitted by the
paternal government till the issue of a Bull by Pius VII. in 1816.
Browning had that event, presumably, in his mind when he wrote
the last lines of the passage which, as he said, ' is all history ' :
Then did Religion start up, stare amain,
Look round for help and see none, smile and say
" What, broken is the rack ? Well done of thee 4 !
" Did I forget to abrogate its use ?
" Be the mistake in common with us both !
1 See note on I. 985.
2 I have not taken account here of the peine forte et dure, the infliction of which
did not become unlawful in England till 1772. It was not a means of ' teasing the
truth out of loth witness ', but of compelling a prisoner accused of felony to con-
-•Mt. to be tried; for he could not be tried without such consent. See Dicey,
I. a ir a nd Opinion in England, p. 79.
3 A few years before Guide's trial the Scottish Claim of Right (1689) by denying
the legality of torture ' without evidence or in ordinary cases ' admitted it ' by
the plainest implication' under precisely the conditions under which, as we have
seen, the legality of the rigorous torment of the Vigil was admitted by Guide's
advocates. See Macaulay, History of England (4-vol. edition), iii. p. 22, and a
note of the author's in c. iv. of The Bride of Lammermoor. — For the admissions
of Guide's advocates see e.g. O.Y.B. xx\\.. /•;./.. :u : sancitum fuit huiusmodi
torment nut [that <>f the Vigil] inferri non posse, ni*» copulating concurraid illn <ln<>,
riili'lir.'t ^mxl ,1,'liftnm nil utrocissimum, quodque Iteus sit gravattu indiciit vrgen-
tisxiniis.
1 I.e. of what the poet calls ' Iliiinanit
300 THE RING AND THE BOOK
— One more fault our blind age shall answer for,
" Down in my book denounced though it must be
" Somewhere. Henceforth find truth by milder means ! "
Ah but, Religion, did we wait for thee
To ope the book, that serves to sit upon,
And pick such place out, we should wait indeed ! 1
Pius VII.'s Bull itself served to sit upon. When in 1849 the offices
of the Inquisition at Rome were thrown open by the triumvirs who
administered the short-lived Roman Republic many instruments
of torture were discovered, ' all in good preservation and carefully
kept as if for future use ' 2 ; and even in the latest days of the
Temporal Power the hateful eguuleus or cavalletto is said to have
been revived by Cardinal Antonelli, with some support from a section
at least of those whom he misgoverned 3.
1 I. 1002-12.
2 It has been maintained by clerical partisans that these instruments ' had
been brought to the offices after the government took possession of them, in order
to excite indignation ' (Bolton King, History of Italian Unity, ii. pp. 390-92). Mr.
King found it 'difficult to balance the evidence as to the genuineness of the
discoveries'.
a Story, Roba di Roma, pp. 553-4.
APPENDIX VII
POPE INNOCENT XII.
THE poem introduces us to a historical personage of importance in
Antonio Pignatelli of Naples, Innocent XII. (1691-1700). By an
unfortunate slip the Encyclopedia Britannica identified Browning's
pope with Innocent XI. (1676-89), and the slip led the author of an
American Guide-Book to Browning, who knew something about this
Innocent XL, to suggest that the poet either confounded the two
men with one another or deliberately gave to the later Innocent
qualities which belonged only to the earlier. These suggestions have
been supported in England by Dr. Berdoe *, but no student of
Browning should have put forward or countenanced the first, and
the second is equally baseless. There are points in which Innocent
XII. was like his namesake, but there are also points in wlpch he
was utterly unlike him, and both appear in Browning's portrait ;
which, subject to an important reservation which has been made in
the Introduction to Book X. and to another which will be suggested
presently, is altogether faithful.
Among the authorities about his pope which the poet, probably
or certainly, consulted were two contemporary Relazioni of Roman
affairs, sent from Rome by Venetian envoys to their government ;
these reports, which are summarized and in part quoted by Ranke^
in his History of the Popes, are therefore valuable to students of
The Ring and the Book.
Domenico Contarini, whom Browning's ' man of rank, Venetian
visitor at Rome ' mentions as * our Envoy ' 2, reported on July 5,
1696, that Innocent XII. laboured to imitate Innocent XL, by whom
he had been promoted to the Cardinalate and whose name he had
assumed, making him his model in the practice of his government
but eschewing his austerity and harshness 8 ; that he abolished the
sale of appointment s. thereby depriving gold of its power and enabling
virtue once again to reach the highest offices ; that he gave audience
i Browning Cyctopcedia, pp. 453-4. - XII. 117.
3 See the pasquinade quoted in Appendix VIII. (ad. fin.).
301
302 THE RING AND THE BOOK
} most readily and owed much of his reputation to the facility of
access which he afforded to the poor, which was a powerful check
upon the ministers and judges. ' lie has nothing in his thoughts ',
> Contarini continued, ' but God, the poor, and the reform of abuses.
He lives in the most abstemious retirement, devoting every hour
to his duties without consideration for his health l. . . . He is full
of love to the poor, and is endowed with all the great qualities
that could be desired for a head of the church 2. Could he
only act for himself on all occasions he would be one of the first
of Popes ' .3
Niccolo Erizzo, who was perhaps Contarini' s immediate successor,
noted on October 29, 1702, that Innocent XII. closed the abyss of
nepotism, and that, though he did much for the poor, lightened the
public burdens, erected buildings for the Court and completed the
construction of harbours, he nevertheless left a considerable sum in
the treasury 4. But, Erizzo added, he lived too long for the college
of cardinals, whom he on his side did not esteem very highly ;
the cardinals considered that he sacrificed the interests of the
/ Papal See by too conciliatory a deportment towards the sovereign
courts 5.
It is precisely the characteristics which the envoys mentioned
that Browning attributes to his pope. We find allusions in the poem
to his hatred of nepotism 6, to his care for things maritime 7, to his
gentleness 8, to his simple and abstemious life 9, to his love of the
1 On the other hand Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, writing
from Rome in 1685, says of Innocent XI. : ' The Pope is very careful of his Health,
and doth never expose it ; for, upon the least Disorder, he shuts himself up in
his Chamber, and often keepeth his Bed, for the least Indisposition, many Days '
(Some Letters, p. 249).
2 Immediately after Innocent XII.'s death Saint-Simon wrote in his Memoires :
C'etaiit un grand et saint pope, vrai pasteur et vrai pere commun, tel qu'U ne s'en voit
plus que bien rarement sur la chaire de Saint-Pierre. — Of Innocent XI. Burnet
(op. cit. p. 248) says that all the Romans had a general contempt for his pontificate.
3 Ranke, History of the Popes, iii. pp. 462-3.
4 Was finance a strong point of the administration of Innocent XI. ? Ranke
says that he found a deficit which threatened public bankruptcy, but succeeded
in raising the revenue to ' a not inconsiderable sum above the expenditure ' (op.
cit. ii. p. 419). Burnet writes in a different tone : ' He doth not ease the People
of their Taxes. ... It is not possible for the People to live and pay the Taxes. . . .
His Government is severe, and his Subjects are ruined' (Some Letters, pp. 196, 249).
5 Ranke, op. cit. iii. p. 464.
6 Hatred of nepotism was a point of resemblance between the two popes.
By Innocent XI., says Ranke, the practice was at length altogether abolished ;
Burnet admits that ' he that reigns now doth not raise his family avowedly '.
Nepotism revived during the short reign of Alexander VIII. (1689-91) ; Innocent
XII. issued a bull against it in 1692. See in the poem I. 318, 323, III. 1475.
7 XII. 52-3 ; cf. IX. 372-3.
8 I. 289, XI. 56.
9 1. 324, 1239. Abstemiousness and simplicity are further points of resemblance.
Burnet (pp. 248-9) writes of Innocent XI. : ' His Life has been certainly very innocent,
and free from all those publick Scandals that make a Noise in the World : And there
is, at present, a Regularity in Rome, that deserveth great Commendation ; for
publick Vices are not to be seen there. His personal Sobriety is also singular'.
See further in the note to I. 324.
APP. VII.— POPE INNOCENT XII. 303
poor l, to his accessibility 2. See also, more generally, I. 1222,
Ml. 593-4.
It will h IM In •< -11 observed that genijeness^and accessibility are
points of contrast between Innocent XII. and Innocent XI. Another
was foreign policy. When Contarini regretted that the later pope
* could not act for himself on all occasions ', he was referring to
Innocent's attitude towards foreign courts, which Erizzo noted that
the cardinals censured as ' too conciliatory '. They meant that he
was, as Macaulay represents, him, too irresolute s, and in the end too
subservient to Louis XIV; The latter charge finds an echo in the
language of two of Browning's personce. His Guido bases an appeal
to the Pope on the ground, true or false, that His death would
* outrage the Louis you so love ' 4 ; his Venetian of rank declares
that proofs of Innocent's ' passion for France and France's pageant
king ' are ' now scandalously rife in Europe's mouth ' 6. Did
Innocent, as Guido says, love Louis, and if so, why ? Were the
proofs of his passion for that pageant king as conclusive as, according
to the Venetian, they were rife ?
When Innocent became Pope in 1691 the French and Roman
courts had long been at variance ; their quarrels came to a head in
1682, when an assembly of French clergy at St. Germain passed the
famous four resolutions (drawn up, it is said, by Bossuet) which set
limits to papal authority and asserted the liberties of the Uallican
church. The resolutions, confirmed by a royal edict, were promptly
condemned by Innocent XI., who during the rest of his reign — he
died in 1689 — refused institution to the bishops whom the king
appointed ; his successor Alexander VIII. (it is said, reluctantly)
did the same, jnnocent XII., though he owed his election largely
to French backing, at first continued this Gallophobe policy ; he
would not, for instance, give any support to our James II., regarding
him as a tool in the hands of Louis. In 1693r however, the chief
cause of quarrel was removed ; the Erf nch r.lr.rgyL.withdrc -w their
fpanliit.in|]^~llTft"Icrnpr napnp>11f>^ hia ndint, • and the Pope was im-
patient for a complete reconciliation. For a while, indeed, a regard
for his i nftmrtiiji: obli^-d him to maintain, in his public acts, a strict
neutrality between Louis and his enemies, but when the approaching
death of the childless Charles II. of Spain gave urgency to the
question of the Spanish succession he is said to have gone so far,
during the last months of his own life and of that of Charles •, as to
advise him to name the French candidate as his successor. ' It was
important ', says Ranke, * for the See of Rome that the mighty
Prince who had abandoned that position of antagonism towards
ecclesiastical prerogatives which had been a source of discord with
l I. 319, XI. 57, XII. 93. « X. 243 seqq,, XII. 90.
•it !•• .-mil irresolute ', says Macaulay (History, c. xix.) ; ' mild yet resolute ' ,
says Brim-Mini: (I. 1222; cf. X. 236). » XII.
« Innocent XII. died on September 27, Charles II. on November 3, 1700.
304 THE EING AND THE BOOK
the Papacy should be shaken loose from the maritime powers, and
attached exclusively to the interests of Catholicism ' 1.
The rapprochement of Innocent and Louis, perhaps the sub-
serviency of the former to tHe Tatter, was shown by an incident
to which Browning's Venetian refers ; he writes that ' somebody
responsible '
Assures me that the king of France has writ
Fresh orders : Fenelon will be condemned 2. ^
Innocent was. a tolerant theologian, but Louis was not; he sided
strongly with Bossuet against Fenelon. whose Explication des
Maximes des Saints sur la Vie interieure (January 1.0977" advanced
/Quietist doctrines — doctrines wliich in Bossuet' s judgment were
Inconsistent with Christianity ; they aroused the King's vif ressenti-
ment. Determined ' to cut the roots of Quietism ' Louis promptly
banished the Archbishop from Court, and brought ' all the batteries
of French influence ' to secure his condemnation by the Vatican.
He pressed, almost ' ordered ', Innocent to denounce the Maximes,
assuring him that, in the judgment of all his bishops, the book was
tres mauvais and ires dangereux, and he bombarded Cardinal
Bouillon, his ambassador at Rome (XII. 112), with constant instruc-
tions to expedite a denunciation. Innocent, tardily and reluctantly,
appointed commissioners to examine the Maximes in August 1697,
but, though he lavished compliments upon Louis and assured him of
his anxiety to second his intentions, he was not to be hustled ; in
this as in other matters, as Bouillon reported, Rome n'aime pas a
se commettre par des decisions precises, and as late as September 1698
another cardinal declared que ce seroit beaucoup, si cette affaire etoit
finie dans quatre ans. He under-estimated, however, as Browning's
Venetian over-estimated, the pliability of Innocent ; Fenelon and
his doctrines were condemned in March 1699, though m~tne ' very
mo.derate __tfiims ' wlficE~-anreaSaer~orTBook X. would expect 3.«
Innocent summed up the controversy, into the merits of which
we need not enter, with the obiter dictum that Fenelon erred by loving
God too much, and Bossuet by loving his neighbour too little. —
Bouillon's ' love for the delinquent ', of which the Venetian speaks
in XII. 67, is attested in a letter which he wrote to one of Fenelon' s
friends in 1698 : je Vaime, he says, pour le moins autant que vous
pourriez P aimer, et je Vestime plus que je rCai jamais estime personne
dans rfiglise ; and the difficulty of his position (XII. 66) is explained
in an Apologie which he wrote later : J'etais tout a la fois cardinal,
ministre du roi, et Vami de Varcheveque. Comme cardinal je pouvais
1 Ranke, History of England, v. p. 236. See also Ranke's History of the Popes,
ii. pp. 425-8 ; Cambridge Modern History, v. p. 58 ; Macaulay, History, e. xix.
* XII. 63-5.
A3 Michelet says of Fdnelon after his condemnation : ' II gardait avec lui Rome
meme, qui n'avait agi que sous la pression de la France ' (Histoire de France, xiv.
p. 111).
APP. VII.— POPE INNOCENT XII.
305
elre jnge, el je //r/-///.s ,'//•> m-nlri- ; mnimr miniatre, je devais elre
rot/ffnif' I't I'lin-ln rt''/m . </u<: I'luit jnifili(/ncni^fil ihnix In ili^jrnre. du
•n, a, in (iini '/i <•' /ir-'/nf, je devais entrer dans tout ce qui pouvait
1-onti \ justification l.
Sonic further evidence of Browning's intimate knowledge and of
the faithfulness of his presentation of details concerning the papal /
history of tlie time will he found in the notes to X. 384-7, 1589-
. XII. 42-8.
-fory <.f tin- priM-ecdiuus against F£nelqn is told very fully in original
M.i, •iiiiit-nfs prmti'.l in MSItinyes historique* (tome iv.), from which I have quoted.
It i-. I think, certain that Hrowning read these documents.
APPENDIX VIII
MOLINOS AND THE MOLINISTS
WE find distributed through the poem more than thirty references,
most of them hostile, to the sect of the Molinists and to its founder l.
The aged Luca Cini couples their doctrines with the murder of the
Comparini as evidence that
Antichrist surely comes and domesday's near 2 ;
to the curato of San Lorenzo it seems that such crimes as Guide's
crop forth
I* the course of nature when Molinos' tares
Are sown for wheat 3 ;
a third speaker suggests that a magistrate must expect to be stig-
matized as churl or Molinist if he will not manipulate the scales of
justice in the interests of a friend 4. Guido, posing in Book V. as
orthodox, professes to regret that a duly baptized baby may grow
up to be a Molinist 5, and to opine that ' poison-torture ' might
properly be applied to the next refractory member of the sect °.
Caponsacchi, found straying from the primrose path in which the
Church has^ placed him, is facetiously charged with Molinism by
his bishop 7 ; Pompilia, convicted of what another bishop assures
her is heresy, is jestingly suspected of dipping into the Molinists'
books 8. These heretics, says Arcangeli, ' bar revenge ', which is
' the natural privilege of man ' 9 ; their doctrines, he fears, have
1 It is only in Book IV. (Tertium Quid) that the Molinists are not mentioned.
The omission is perhaps accidental, but it may mean that the superior person
who spoke that monologue scorned to echo the sentiments of the vulgar, or that
he tactfully avoided allusions to a heresy which had compromised people who
moved in the selectest circles.
2 II. 126-7. 3 n. 174-6 ; cf. VI. 152.
* III. 989. 5 V. 870.
6 V. 1043 ; for other allusions in Book V. see Ikies 203, 223, 1238, 1838. Con-
trast Guido's altered tone in XI. 643; 2041 ; when he throws off the mask of
orthodoxy he jeers at anti-Molinism.
7 VI. 473.
8 VII. 769-70. » VIII. 697, 721-3.
. \ III,— MOLINOS AND THE MOLINISTS 307
eaten -o tar into tin- IHUH- ' as to persuade people to pursue secular
luisine.-s on a sa-nd day1. Bottini declares that the corpses of
Molinists might rightly serve, with those of Jews and Turks, to
assist the anatomical studies of draughtsmen ; thinks you must
be of the sect if you are sourly censorious about matrons' midnight
assignations; conjectures that the ' suppression of some Molinism
i ' t ho bud ' may have been an imperative duty of our Lord's disciples ;
hints that Molinists may go so far as to raise doubts about the
all-sufficiency of a death-bed confession 2. And finally the Pope
fttea an admonition thatjf he refuses to save Guido he will
Luther.-, and Calvins and .Molinos with an excellent pretext
for the Interest attacks upon the Church 3.
The tone of most of these passages will have suggested, what is
indeed the fact, that Molinism was a lost cause at the time of Guide's
trial. Its founder, as we shall see, hadJ??cn condemn* •<! more than
tenjrears before, and was nowjiead ; there had been a hue and cry
after his followers, \\ho hadHfor the most part retracted — no Italian,
perhaps, would have confessed in 1698 that he was one of them 4.
The high ecclesiastics to whom Arcangeli and Bottini addressed
their pleadings may still have nursed resentment against their
fallen adversaries, and in that case Browning might fittingly repre-
sent the advocates as trampling upon them ad captandam benevo-
lent iani ; but in^hejileadings of thejTellow Book they do not even
mention them. The populace agamTTolIowmg the Church's load,
had in 1687 been hot against the heretics; as Juvenal said and
Mr. Shorthouse has reminded us, ' the mob of Remus '
sequitur fortunam, ut semper, et odit
Damnatos B,
and it would have IK -en delighted to see Molinos burn6. But the
hatreds of mobs are usually short-lived and there is, perhaps, an
an i' -In 01 1 is m in the representation of the outcry against kin.
'Mill virulent in I(i08r it must by that time have become, what
r.iouiiini: hiniM-lf calls it, a 'frowsy tune'. He speaks of the
.Molinists as
tlu: sect for a quarter of an hour]
I' the teeth of the world, which, clown-like, loves to ...
Taste some vituperation 7 ;
ten years and more are a long quarter of an hour.
i VIII. 1074-9. 2 IX. 33, 506-8, 1048, 1499-1500.
\. 2062 teqq.
i Quietism in ;i !«•- exaggerated form \v;ia advocated by Fenelon in France in
iM-n.iix vii.
78-4 ; John Ingli-xnni. 0. \\xviii.
" In .i letter written at Kmno on the day of the condemnation of Molinos it
is said tlcit then- \\cn- «-rics of ' To the stake! To the stake!' (fuoco, fuoco .'). The
letter i> tran-ihtcd in r,iu'elo\\ •- MoUnot the Quietist, pp. 66-8 (see note below).
7 I. 307-11.
308 THE RING AND THE BOOK
Whether, however, the world still vituperated Molinism in 1698
or had already forgotten it, its appearance would most certainly
have made a deep and a lasting impression upon such a Pope
as is portrayed in The Ring and the Book. When Browning in his
Book I. makes his Innocent say
Leave them alone .... those Molinists!
Who may have other light than we perceive l
the words may or may not be appropriate to the Innocent of history,
but they are entirely consonant with the mind of the soliloquist of
Book X., and they illustrate and confirm what I have said in the
Introduction to that Book. The speaker is so far influenced by the
great traditions of his office as to feel that the Molinists denied recog-
nized truths (if truths they are)*' atjgerii 6f"tiieir soul ', T>ut he
probes much deeper than that. To him jbEeir_teaching is the
symj)tom._o£^n_on-com.ing destiny whiclTmay mean_npless than the
dissolution of an elaborately "colnisti^te3]sjstem and the substitution
of — who knows 'wKaTY The Molinists may, he "dimly surmises,
be the heralds of a new era which will break up ' faith in the thing
grown faith in the_^eport 7 and will call upon us all to be
obedient to some truth
Unrecognized yet, but perceptible —
to
Correct the portrait by the living face,
Man's God, by God's God in the mind of man 2.
Who, then, it may be asked, was this Molinos who excited such
deep hatred and such deep searchings of heart ? And what did he
stand for ? The poet, for all his thirty and more references, with-
holds the information 3 ; it is perhaps the duty of a commentator
to supply it.
Miguel de Molinos 4 was born of noble parents in the diocese of
Saragossa in 1627. He graduated in theology, became a -priest, and
^ jtgyeloped in a peculiar direction, with a fanatic's logic, the doctrine
~ bt" contemplative passivity arid receptivity (Quietism) which he had
i I. 315-16. 2 x. 1864-74.
» We read in II. 178 and in III. 91-7 of a ' doctrine of the Philosophic Sin '
which Antichrist or Moh'nos disseminates, but which the poet does not describe.
He found the expression hi the First Anonymous Pamphlet (O.Y.B. cxlvi., E.L.
150) : ' Perhaps an attempt was being made at Rome to bring in the power of
sinning against the Law of God with impunity, together with the doctrine of
Molinos and the philosophic sin, which was checked by the authority of the Holy
Office *. The nature of this philosophic sin, which scandalized ' somebody ' at
Pompilia's bedside, will appear from the quotation which ends this Appendix.
4 The well-known account of Molinos and Molinism in the later chapters of
John Inglesant is most interesting, but its chronology is most puzzling. In
Mr. John Bigelow's lucid and altogether admirable Molinos the Quietist (New York,
1882) will be found translations of the Papal Bull which condemned Molinos in
1687 and of other important documents.
£J L &i IS-
APP. VIII. — MOLINOS AND THE MOLINISTS 309
imbibed from the follower.- of his iellou -count iyuom:tn St. Theresa
( 1 ."> 1 5-82). He eame to Italy at some unrecorded date and by his
high character, his personal attractiveness, his intellectual gifts and
the fascinating novelty of his tenets, won innumerable adherents ^
• 'very where, in Rome and Naples more especially, _A^ Rome he
bccame^a director of fashionable consciences'1, an ' ellieient
gleaner of souls ', as Mr. fc>trach« y says of Manning, 'who moved in
t he k>st society ' 2 ; among his friends and followers he could count
Crist ina, the brilliant and eccentric ex-queen of Sweden. Keele-i-
astics of high position, one of whom was Cardinal d'Kstree>, the
French ambassador, gathered round him, and in IfiTfi Tnnoo.ent XL.
the newly elected^Pope. lodged him in the Vatican, took him — so it
was believed — fojLJlis_j^irituaJLdbIrectpr, and even purposecTto make
him a cardinal. It had long been known that Molinos would
embody his opinions in a book to be called The Spiritual Guide, and
in 1675 the book had appeared, with ' approbations ' from members
of the Inquisition. It was most enthusiastically received : we are
told that in five years it passed through no less than twenty editions.
It was not till 1680 that a prognostic of trouble was first discern-
ible, but it was such a cloud as could scarcely disturb the serenity
of the sky. It was, indeed, no bigger than a man's hand ; it was
a cautious tract by a Jesuit, hinting, without asperity or direct
mention of Molinos, a/t dangers inherent in the Method of Quietism.
The cloudlet melted "away ; in IGSITlhe Inquisition approved the
Method and condemned its critic. Meanwhile, however, the
more far-sighted Jesuits were beginning to see that Molinisrn was •.
in fact a challenge to the whole ecclesiastical system, for its founder ||
taught that confession ia-no- Lin ding Christian duty, that there is noli
need for" human intermediaries between the soul and God, that
all external rites are superfluities. Despairing of the Pope 3 they'1
invited and secured the help of Louis XIV., then, as always, their
close ally, and by his command the most hectoring protest.- were
made to the Vatican; the Pope, so the King complained, was
offering cordial hospitality to 'a corrupter of souls, a notorious
scoffer at the practices and the ceremonies of the Church ' 4. The
French ambassador, whom Molinos knew successively as adherent,
as friend, as spy, as betrayer 6, and as open enemy, was referred
1 Lord St. Cyres, Francois de Ftnelon, p. 78.
•in'iit Victorians, p. 54.
I 'rayers were offered in Jesuit monasteries for the Pope's conversion to Roman-
ism ( liindow, p. -4). The prayers were heard, for soon after the arrest of Molinos
Innocent ibuMOoed him. In a letter written in 1685 he is reported to have said,
\'i'riimi-ntf *i<iin<> ingannatu, ' Truly we have been deceived ' (ibid. p. K»).
•» Ibid. p. U7.
5 'To most men occupying the attitude which d'KstnVs had taken towards
Molino- ami hi- dort rine- these orders irom Yer-aille- \\oiil.l have hem embar:
ing. Hut d'] - ;i courtier, and he enjoyed an nilicial residence at Koine
extremely. AV/M/V tff mck ruiilii cr<ni< t/trio , he \\;i- ready to hum Molinos' (ibid.
In John 1 ii<ih's<in(, o. xxxvii.
310 THE RING AND THE BOOK
by Innocent XI. to the Inquisitors, whom he soon convinced that
here was a heresy for them to hunt. A long secret trial, in which
imprisonment and torture were freely employed and every calumny,
however gross, was greedily believed, ended as the King and the
Jesuits desired. On September 3, 1687. the church of S. Maria
sopra Minerva, which had been the scene, some forty years before,
of the condemnation and of the abjuration of Galileo, was the scene
of the_condemnation, and possibly also of the abjuration, ofBpEnos,
who, unlike Galileo, was kept fast in prison till the day of his death,
December 28, 1696. Reisers oTTJTe'Tlirig and the Book will be
inclined to ask, ^hy^if Innocent XII., who became Pope in 1691,
was as sympathetic tbwards'TiIm as the poem represents, warte
content to keep him there ?
Many excellent expositions of Molinos's teaching have been
published, and some of them are by contemporaries ; of these latter
I shall print on& in full. In 1685-6 a famous Scotchman visited
Rome, Naples, and other Italian towns — no less a person than
Gilbert Burnet, who was to be William III.'s Bishop of Salisbury,
the historian of ' his own time '. On December 8, 1685, after the
arrest of Molinos but before his condemnation, this competent
observer wrote from Rome as follows to a friend : —
The new Method of Molinos doth so much prevail in Naples, that
'tis said he hath above twenty thousand Followers in this City. And
since this hath made some Noise in the World, and yet is generally
but little understood, I will give you some Account of him. He is a
S^anish^a&s^ that seems to be but an ordinary Divine, and is certainly
a very ill Reasoner, when he undertakes to prove his Opinions. He
hath writ a Book, which is in titled, II Guida Spirituale, which is- a short
Abstract^_the_jffi^iticji. Divinity. ~" The Substance of the whole is
reduced tcTthis, That in oar Prayers and other Devotions, the best Methods
are_to_jc£kir_e .the Mind from all gross Images, and so to form an Act of
Faith, and thereby to present our sePves before God, and then to sink into
a Silence and Cessation of new Acts, and to let God act upon us, and so
to follow his ~V6nducl. This way he prefers to the Multiplication of
many new Acts, and different Forms of Devotion ; and he makes small
Account of corporal Austerities, and reduces all the Exercises of Religion
to this Simplicity of Mind. He thinks this is not oitiy to be proposed
to such as live in religious Houses, but even to Secular Persons, and
by this he hath proposed a great Reformation of Men's Minds and
Manners. He hath many Priests in Italy, but chiefly in Naples, that
dispose those who confess themselves to them, to follow his Method.
The. Jesuits '.have set themselves much against this Conduct, as fore-
seeing, that it may much weaken the Empire that Superstition hath over
the MimEjoTPeople, that it may make Religion become a more plain
and simple thing, and may also open a Door to Enthusiasms. They
also pretend, that his Conduct is factious and seditious ; that this may
breed a Schism in the Church. And because he saith in some Places
of his Book, That the Mind may rise up to such a Simplicity in its Acts,
.I/'/'. VIII.— MOLINOS AND THE MOLINISTS 311
Unit // inn// /'/.NT /// .mutt- of if* Ihrotini,* to <',ml i in nndiateltj, Without Con-
h „>/>/, itit/'j tin llnmniiilii <>f t'hrixl, they have accused him as intending
in lay aside the Doctrine nf Christ's /I iniintiily ; tho' 'tis plain that
he speaks only "/ //,, /'«/•//// of some single Acts. Upon all those Heads
they have set themselves miieh against Moli/io*; and they have also
pretended, that some of his |)i>eip|rs have infused into their Penitents,
Tlnit tin'/ niiui i/o (i/i<l i-iuniiiiinii-ntf, f/.t t/tti/ find themselves disposed,
irithoiit going first to Confession : which they thought weakened much
the-YokeJjy which tin- Priest* subdue tfie Consciences of the People
to their Conduct. Yet he was mm h supported, both in the Kingdom
of .V'//*/« v. and in Sicily: He had also many Friends and Followers
at Rome. So the Jesuits, as a Provincial of the Order assured me,
finding that they could not ruine him by their own Force, got a great
King, that is now extremely in the Interests of their Order, to inter-
pose, and to represent to the Pope the Danger of such Innovations.
It i- certain, the Pope understands the Matter very little, and that he
i> po-M^M-d with a great ((pinion of Mol'titox* Sanctity; yet, upon the
Complaints of some Cardinals, that seconded the Zeal of that King,
he and some of his Followers were clapt in the Inquisition, where they
have been now for some Months : But they are still well used, which
is believed to flow from the good Opinion that the Pope hath of him,
who saith still, that tho' he may have erred, yet he is certainly a good
Man. Upon this Imprisonment, Pasquin said a pleasant thing. In
one week, one Man had been condemned to the Gallies for somewhat
he had said, another had been hanged for somewhat he had writ, and
Molinos was clapt in Prison, whose Doctrine consisted chiefly in this,
That Men ought to bring their Minds to a State of inward Quietness ;
from which the Name of Quietists was given to all his Followers. The
Pasquinade upon all this was, Si parliamo, in Oalere ; si scrivemmo,
1 in jiii-i-nti : .s/ xtiaino in quiete, alV SanC OJficio : e che bisogna fare?
If we speak, we are sent to the Gallies ; if we write, we are hanged ;
if \\e stand quiet, we are clapt up in the Inquisition : What must wo
do then ?* Yet his Followers at Naples are not daunted, but they
l»clieve ho will come out of this Trial victorious 2.
1 This pasquinade, which was current soon after the arrest, is quoted in two
letters written in August \(W:> (Him-lnw, pp. 48, 50).
- »S't»/»<' Li'tli-rx, ( 'ntitni/ihtti un Aci'im/it <>)' n luit neem'd most remarkable in trarcl/iny
•t:>-rtnti<l. It'ili/, Honw Part* of <;,TIII<II>II. etc. In the Years H*.~> and MM;.
Written by O. Burnet, D.D. (London. l7iM). pp. ^m-ii.
APPENDIX IX
THE POSY OF BROWNING'S RING (I. 1391-1416)
0 lyric Love, half angel and half bird
And all a wonder and a wild desire, —
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
Took sanctuary within the holier blue,
And sang a kindred soul out to his face, — 1395
Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart —
When the first summons from the darkling earth
Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue,
And bared them of the glory — to drop down,
To toil for man, to suffer or to die, — 1400
This is the same voice : can thy soul know change ?
Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help !
Never may I commence my song, my due
To God who best taught song by gift of thee,
Except with bent head and beseeching hand — 1405
That still, despite the distance and the dark,
What was, again may be ; some interchange
Of grace, some splendour once thy very thought,
Some benediction anciently thy smile :
Never conclude, but raising hand and head 1410
Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearn
For all hope, all sustainment, all reward,
Their utmost up and on, — so blessing back
In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home,
Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud, 1415
Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall !
The ' posy ' falls into two parts. In the first (1391-1402), after
the elaborated vocative of lines 1391-1400 and the parenthetical
question of line 1401, the poet appeals in line 1402 to his 'lyric
Love ' * to hearken to him from heaven, ' from the realms of help '.
1 It is a curiosity of literature that the author of a book called The Religion
of our Literature should have written as follows : ' Though Lyric Love is here a
quality personified, it seems to be so interchangeably with Christ. . . . We have
heard that some interpreters have actually considered them to be addressed to
his wife ' (quoted by Berdoe, Browning Cyclopcedia, pp. 293-4).
312
APP. IX.— POSY OF BROWNING'S RING 313
In tin- second (1403-16) he records a solemn vow which contains a
prayer and a thanksgiving to which he would have her give ear.
He vows that IK will never begin his song1 without praying her,
with brut head and beseeching hand, to inspire him still, and will
never end it without blessing her, with hand and head raised, for
the inspiration which he is well assured that he will have received.
That such is the general drift of the passage is unquestionable ; I
must therefore dissent in limine from the suggestion of the I:
J. J. G. Graham 2 that the poet causes the poetess to bless back to
him what the last two lines express. The word ' blessing ' in 1413
is in apposition to ' raising ' in 1410, and the person who ' raises hand
and head ' and who therefore ' blesses back ' is obviously the poet.
If in its general drift the passage is clear, in some points of detail
it is not so clear ; but its only serious difficulty lies in its last two
lines 3. What are the ' whiteness ' and the ' wanness ' of those
lines, and what do the relative clauses which describe them mean V
( 'lit ics quote the posy in full and very justly extol it, but except in the
Browning Society's Papers I have found no published answers to these
questions. In those papers I find answers from the critic whom I
have named and from Dr. Furnivall4.
Mr. Graham explains the * whiteness ' of the passage as ' good-
ness, purity, innocence, guileless truth, unselfish Jove — perfect in
heaven, marred and stained on earth ' ; the ' wanness ' as ' the
exaggeration of whiteness 5, the excess of all this, angelic goodness '
and so forth. The poetess, he says, ' is all whiteness, all wanness '
in heaven, and she conveys to the poet some measure of these
qualities (for it is only to some that we on earth can attain) — ' some
of her own whiteness, the idea of which makes her face, he judges,
even in heaven to shine with a ... prouder joy ; some of her own
wanness, reflected on him from her realms of help, where on the.
golden floor, he thinks, her foot may fall '. The critic cautiously
adds, and I share his misgiving, that Browning may not have
meant all this, but he comforts himself with the reflection that ' we
may lawfully find in the creative work of great bards meanings which
(\eii they themselves never meant nor intended '. Very possibly ;
but great bards mean or intend .something, and it is the first duty of
their interpreters to discover, if they can, what that something is.
Dr. Furnivall, whose exegesis of the passage claims respect both
from the scrupulous care which he lavished on his 'grammatical
analysis ' and from the fact that ' the poet himself decided ' at least
one doubt for him 8, wrote : * The " whiteness " is the glory round
/ , Mjn I iiriiivull. hi> work upon The Ring and the Book.
- The Browning Social/'* /'<//<./-.-, part xi. p. 389.
"iiir point-; of less ditl'n ulty s,-f tin- ix.trs to Book I.
•it. p:irt i\. pp. I1
tirah.ini .|ii..t.^ fn-m l'itrl,-ni>t<jn, p. -jD'.i, the plirusr ' w
whiten to wanness
in support of his Interpretation of the won I.
i mil.
314 THE RING AND THE BOOK
the person, halo-robed, of the Poetess — with, perchance, white clad
angels and saints — in Heaven ; the " wanness ", Heaven's lucent
floor ' ; and he added that the poet, ' for her aid to him ', blessed
the poetess back in Heaven — ' her in her glorified body, . . . her,
as she paces the floor of Heaven, wan with unearthly light ' x. These
last words are open to the obvious criticism that the whiteness and
the wanness are not introduced by the poet as simply descriptive of
the poetess in heaven ; he blesses back, not her in her whiteness and
her wanness, but the whiteness and the wanness themselves.
A similar but more attractive interpretation of the passage has
been suggested to me by my friend Canon Cruickshank of Durham,
who writes as follows :
I have often puzzled over the lines in question. The only solution
I can frame is this. Mrs. Browning was an invalid, we know ; therefore
presumably white and wan. The poet regards her as an angel ; her
characteristics in heaven will still be those which she had on earth, and
her environment will have elements which she displayed on earth, for
heaven and the angels are entirely congruous. Consequently there
will be whiteness and wanness in heaven where she moves. Her pale
face will make the surrounding whiteness proud, and there will be
wanness where ' her foot may fall '. — The thoughts really at work in
the poet's mind are two : (1) she is still the inspiration of his life and
his muse, though removed for a time ; and (2) she will be recognizable
in heaven when he joins her. She who was white and wan on earth
will though glorified be his wife still in heaven. The latter thought
is not indeed expressed, but I think it is in his heart of hearts, inspiring
the whole passage.
It will be seen that Canon Cruickshank, who gives a much more
satisfactory meaning to ' wanness ' than the Browning Society
interpreters, agrees with Dr. Furnivall in thinking that it is in a
glorified vision of his lyric Love that the poet will find that ' inspira-
tion of his muse ' for which he has prayed. But the question arises
whether he did not count on a less mystical and more definite in-
spiration. A reader who has read carefully to the end of line 1414
and then pauses for a moment will, I think, very confidently expect
that what the poet is blessing back will prove to be some such help in
his work as the poetess gave him while on earth, some such help as
he has prayed that she will still give him from heaven,
some interchange 2
Of grace, some splendour once thy very thought,
Some benediction anciently thy smile.
Can ' wanness ' and ' whiteness ' be so interpreted as to fulfil this
expectation ?
1 The French version to which I have referred in the note to I. 1391-1416
runs as follows : renvoyant ainsi . . . un pieux hommage a quelque Wane rayon
fier du reflet de ton visage, a quelque pale nuage, rencontre peut-0tre sous tes pas.
2 See note on I. 1407.
APP. IX.— POSY OF BROWNING'S RING 315
Mi. A. H. Smith, a friend who has often come to my rescue in a
diilieulty, agrees with me that the words ought to be so interpretable
and is inclined to think that they can be so interpreted. He suggests
that they refer, not to characteristics of the poetess in heaven, but
to characteristics of Browning's own poem : —
The Ring and the Book [he writes] has moments and episodes of
splendour (highly wrought and noble passion, etc. — all this is the ' white-
ness '), and again a world of suffering and of things pitiful (' wanness ').
The splendour is represented as reflected from the face of the poet's
wife in heaven and the sad places are places in which she (who was
always so ready to answer the call of sorrow and ' to toil for man, to
suffer or to die ') would be ready to walk and which would show the
traces of her footsteps. Browning, communing with her in heaven,
t hanks her for everything which, flowing from her inspiration, is splendid
and pitiful in his poem. As the reference to ' whiteness ' catches up
and repeats 1407-9, so the reference to ' wanness ' catches up 1397-1400.
One might perhaps argue in support of this interpretation that the use of
the word ' some ' throughout — ' some interchange ', ' some splendour ',
* some benediction ', ' some whiteness ' , * some wanness ' — indicates
that Browning is on the same tack throughout, the tack being that
all that is best in his poem comes from his lyric Love. ... It seems
very likely [he adds] that the choice of the words whiteness and wan-
ness was half -consciously dictated in the way Canon Cruickshank
suggests. Physical and moral and metaphysical associations were
probably all mixed up in the two words, which certainly give one the
impression that they were well packed with meaning for Browning.
APPENDIX X
'ABATE,— CARDINAL,— CHRIST,— MARIA,— GOD, . . .
'POMPILIA, WILL YOU LET THEM MURDER ME ?'
IF the climax of Guide's appeal at the end of Book XL is not what
R. H. Hutton was inclined to call it, ' the only purely dramatic
passage in Browning's whole picture ' \ it is assuredly the most
dramatic ; it thrills the reader with its final vocative 2, the most
arresting single word, perhaps, in English literature. It thrills the
reader, but how should he interpret it ?
Bishop Westcott noted as a speciality of Browning that he
discerns a spark of goodness in very evil people and ' thereby restores
assurance as to the destiny of creation ' ; the poet, he wrote, ' has
dared to look on the darkest and meanest forms of action and passion
. . . and has brought back to us from this universal survey a con-
viction of hope '. Of this the Bishop found an instance in the
invocation of Pompilia ; he saw in it a suggestion that Guido,
however degraded and debased, was ' not past hope to the spiritual
' Up to the last ', he continued, ' with fresh kindled passion,
great criminal reasserts his hate. . . . The end comes. The
ministers of death claim him. In his agony he summons every
helper whom he has known or heard of ... and then the light
breaks through the blackest gloom. In the supreme moment he
has known what love is, and knowing it has begun to feel it. The
cry, like the intercession of the rich man in Hades for his five
brethren 3, is a promise of far-off deliverance ' 4. The same view is
taken by Sir Henry Jones 5 and Professor Hodell 6 ; and Mr. Arthur
1 Literary Essays, p. 232.
2 We may compare with it the hardly less dramatic vocative ' HAKEEM ! ',
Anael's dying cry in The Return of the Druses.
8 The comparison is not felicitous. Dives intercedes (as the Bishop says) for
his brethren (' lest they also come into this place of torment '), just as in Pippa
Passes the sinful Ottima intercedes for her paramour (' Not me — to him, O God,
be merciful ! '). Guide's appeal is for himself (' will you let them murder me ? ').
* Religious Thought in the West, pp. 253-4, 265-6.
5 Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher, p. 117.
6 O.Y.JB. 277. Hodell calls the invocation a ' cry for forgiveness '.
316
eye '.
the g
APP. X.— INVOCATION OF POMPILIA 317
Symons, noting how in ' this superb dimax ' (luido 'reveals in a
ln-eath his mvri malignant cowardice and the innocence of his
murdered wife', asks parenthetically the unexpected question,
' Is it with a touch of remorse, of saving penitence ? ' *
That the alleged speciality of Browning is a real speciality is
indisputable 2 ; he discerned ' sparks ' in most unpromising ' clods '.
I cannot believe, however, that the invocation means that he dis-
cerned any spark in Guido ; you must not read what you take to
be a poet's psychological system into every line and word of his
dramatic work. It is true that the Pope, in the noble passage which
ends Book X., expresses a (far from confident) hope that by ' a
suddenness of fate ' the truth may be
Hashed out by one blow,
And Guido see, one instant, and be saved ;
but the truth of Pompilia's goodness is not suddenly flashed upon
Guido ; his conviction of it has inspired some of the ugliest parts of
his soliloquy ; it revolts him. He remembers, however, that she
found excuses for him — ' he did not make himself ' (XI. 941, 2100) ;
that she desired no revenge — he scorns her ' abnegation ' of it (2086) ;
that she had ' no touch of hate ' — ' it would prove her hell ', he says,
* if I reached mine ' (2089-90) ; and the thought is ' flashed ' upon
him that he can therefore count upon her intercession, which, as
coming from one whom he has so deeply wronged, should have a
marvellous efficacy. Prompted accordingly, not by a knowledge
of what love is, nor by ' remorse and saving penitence ', but by the
instinct of self-preservation, he appeals to her ' as to a power almost
beyond God's ' 3 ; despairing of all other help he sees in her his last
resource. But then he has not said one word about her ' which is not
set on fire by a hell of hatred ' ; his ' outbursts of tiger fierceness ' *
against her have left the foam still upon his lips 6 ; so that of all
powers in heaven and on earth she is precisely the one to whom
appeal is barred.
The invocation exerts its arresting force on different minds in
different ways. For some of us its impressiveness lies, not in its
' restoring assurance as to the destiny of creation ', nor in its furnish-
ing an extreme example of the poet's optimism, but in its startling
1 Introduction to Brottming, p. 146.
2 See for example the last lines of Apparent Failure.
\\. II. lluttcill. tOC. tit.
' Tin- c\|»n — ion< qiiMtnl atv .Mr. Stopford T.r '»»»«/. \>. :'.»'
I'ompilia says of (iuiilo. ' hat.- was tin- truth of him ' (VII. 17^7).
IK has said, only twenty lines before that containing his appeal,
1 i.To\v one gorge
To ln;ithiii'_rly n'jn-t I'oinpilia's pale
Poison my hasty hunger took for food (2404-6).
318 THE RING AND THE BOOK
revelation of the unspeakable meannessof^a lost soul. When fate
has mastered Iago7 lie declares thai from this time forth ' he
' never will speak word ', and when asked ' What, not to pray ? '
he makes no answer. ' Well, thou dost best ', says Othello 1 ; he
does better, to my mind, than Guido.
i Othello, 5. 2. 304-6.
APPENDIX XI
REVISIONS OF THE TEXT OF THE POEM
THE late Lord Courtney of Penwith sent to The Times (Literary
Supplement, February 25, 1909) ' A note on The Ring and the Book '
on the main purport of which I have commented elsewhere \ He
was chiefly concerned with what he regarded as an error in the poem,
but he quoted incidentally from a letter which Browning wrote him
on May 14, 1881, and from his quotation I extract the following :
I have not Iqoked at the poem . . . since it appeared in print
rest -r\ iiiLr that business for a future day (which ought not to be delayed
much In Hirer), when the whole work will be carefully revised. At
promt 1 have the faintest memory concerning any particular part
<>r pa-sair.e of it.
The extract is of extraordinary interest. It reminds us, in the
most compelling way, of what we are told was the poet's normal
attitude towards his past work. Matthew Arnold used to say that
an author could not be always reading his own books, and no author
was less disposed to do so than was Browning. Conscious, if ever
poet was, of the high calling by the exercise of which he was to ' save
his soul' he pressed forward, forgetting much that was behind;
he delegated the close perusal and the interpretation of his published
pomis (according to a perhaps mythical anecdote) to the members
of the Browning Society. But he cannot, of course, have been
speaking very seriously when In- professed to have but the faint « >t
memory of any particular passage of his nuujniun <>f»is, even of that
very particular passage (relating as it does to a crucial incident
of Pompilia's story) at which his correspondent was inclined to cavil.
He had not, we may be sure, forgotten ' O lyric Love ', or ' Pompilia,
will you let them murder me ? ', or the endings of the monologues
of his hero and heroine, or many other things that are unforgettable.
Nor, again, can we interpret without much latitude his statement
that he had not looked at the poem since it appeared in print;
unless Lord Courtney omitted some important qualification, it
i See the notes on I. 511-15 and III. 1065-6.
319
320 THE RING AND THE BOOK
cannot be reconciled with fact. A second edition of The Ring and
the Book appeared in 1872 1 and it was no mere reprint of the first
edition of 1868-9 ; the author had subjected the text to a thorough
revision in the interval. Seventeen new lines had been added — an
addition which, if small in proportion to the 21,000 lines already
there, could not, one would have thought, have been forgotten by the
man who made it — , and not only had these new lines been added ;
like his Arcangeli, Browning ' stuck in this ' and ' threw out that ' ;
he retained his old lines, it is true, but, like his Bottini, he ' pruned
and pared '. The stickings-in and the throwings-out, the prunings
and the parings, taken one by one, were not often important, but
taken together they come to a good deal ; that many of them, such
as most of the changes in punctuation, are inconspicuous and even
trivial is in itself good evidence that the revision of 1872 was deliberate
and careful.
We have seen that nine years later the poet looked forward (it
would seem, without enthusiasm) to a further revision ; it was a
business, he felt, ' which ought not to be delayed much longer '.
The business was undertaken and completed, for the sixteen-
volume 2 edition of his collected works, in 1888-9, shortly before his
death. In this second revision no new lines were added, but in
other respects, though somewhat more extensive, it was of the same
kind as that of 1872.
I have compared the text of the different editions, and here are
the general results of the comparison in respect of three of the twelve
Books. Some of the changes introduced were of course merely
consequent on others.
In Book II. there are over 120 differences between the first
edition (A) and that of 1888-9 (C) ; about half of them are in
wording and about half in punctuation and the like. About
a third of the changes had already been made in the second
edition (B).
In Book III. there are about 110 differences between A and C,
of which about 65 are in wording. Rather less than a third of
the changes had been made in B.
In Book XII. there are over 130 differences between A and C ;
they are distributed roughly as in Book II. More than a
third but less than half of the changes had been made in B,
in which several new lines were introduced.3
1 T have seen no copy of an 1872 edition of Vol. II. (containing Books IV., V.,
VI.) and am not sure that one was printed.
2 A seventeenth volume, containing Asolando and some ' Biographical and
Historical Notes ', was afterwards added to this edition.
:! A list of the changes in Book XII. is given at the end of this Appendix. As
that Book is much shorter than either Book II. or Book III. it is clear from the
figures given above that in dealing with its text Browning was more disposed to
alteration.
APP. XL— THE TEXT OF THE POEM 321
The changes in punctuation are included in the above statistics
not merely because they are sometimes important, but for two
special reasons besides : (1) for that already noticed, viz. that such
changes, especially in a work which abounds in long and intricate
sentences, require a close study of the text such as Browning forgot
that he had made ; and (2) because, though his punctuation was not
always felicitous, he was supremely alive to its importance. He
resented most keenly any garbling of his text by people who mis-
placed his stops, for it led, as he told a correspondent, to the charge of
unintelligibility being brought against him — against ' your poor
friend, who can kick nobody ' l ; and Mrs. Orr assures us that his
punctuation ' was always made with the fullest sense of its signifi-
cance to any but the baldest style, and of its special importance to
his own ' 2. Unfortunately, in spite of his sense of its significance
and in spite of the two revisions, much faulty punctuation appears
in the latest editions ; necessary stops are sometimes absent and
unnecessary ones present ; worst of all, some quite impossible stops,
even impossible full stops, have crept and intruded into the text 8.
The changes of wording, though not always important, are almost
always improvements. They usually substitute clearness for
obscurity, or correct for loose grammar, or ordinary for Browningese
English, or a sound for an unsound emphasis, or a smooth and
rhythmical for a turbid and obstructed flow 4, or a lively and forcible
for a tame or feeble word or phrase. One change of the last kind
may be of interest to persons concerned in the production of books.
In the first edition Bottini introduces his extract from Fra Celestino's
sermon thus :
But what say you to one impertinence
Might move a man ? That monk, you are to know, . . .6
' Man ' is clearly very tame, and in the second edition it makes way
for ' stoic ' ; but ' stoic ', if much more forcible than ' man ', is not
strikingly appropriate, and (though its metrical peculiarity is not
uncommon in Browning) it is not rhythmical. In the final edition
we read ' stone ', which is rhythmical and is absolutely right other-
wise. The poet, we may conjecture, deleted * man ' and wrote
' stone ' in the margin on his first revision ; ' stoic ' was perhaps
simply a misreading of his handwriting by a too well-informed
printer. — The alterations, even the additions, rarely (if ever) intro-
duce a new thought or a new fact, and do not often correct a mis-
statement ; in one place indeed a correction is made, where Browning
i Mrs. Orr, Life, pp. 357-8. a Life, p. 360.
a See X. 738-40, note ; cf. VI. 136. VIII. 1048.
•» ' Metamorphosis the immeasurable ' (X. 1616) is not a very elegant line, but
it is better than ' The immeasurable metamorphosis ', which appeared in the first
edition. 5 XII. 444-5.
322 THE RING AND THE BOOK
does not often slip 1, in a scriptural reference ; he found that he had
confused Hophni and Uzzah 2.
Lists are appended (1) of the lines which were added to the poem
in 1872 — none were added in the later revision ; and (2) of the
changes in wording introduced on the two revisions of Book XII.,
which is chosen, not because these changes are specially important
— they are not — , but because that Book is the shortest. I have
not included in this latter list the very numerous changes in punctua-
tion to which reference has been made above.
1. LINES ADDED TO THE POEM IN 1872
All the additions occur in later Books, viz. in VIII. , IX., XL, and
XII. Book X. is marked in the margin of the second and later
editions as containing 2135 lines against the 2134 of the first, but
this inconvenient change is due, not to the addition of a line, but
to a peculiarity in the numbering ; line 92 of the first edition was
distributed afterwards between two paragraphs and was therefore,
in accordance with Browning's practice, counted as two lines.
BOOK VIII
1. The first edition (A) has in 402
Shaming truth so !
For which the second edition (B) substitutes (its 402-3)
Undoing, on his birthday, — what is worse, —
My son and heir !
[The change is welcome, as is every reference to the young Giacinto.
' Shaming truth so ! ' has no great value.]
2. After A's 540 (B's 541) B adds
Absit, such homage to vile flesh and blood !
[This new ending of the paragraph is thoroughly characteristic of
the speaker.]
3. In A's 1208-11 we have
" Punishment exceeds offence :
" You might be just but you were cruel too ! "
If so you stigmatise the stern and strict,
Still, he is not without excuse —
For which is substituted in B (its 1210-16)
i See, however, the note on IV. 196. 2 iy. 834.
APP. XL— THE TEXT OF THE POEM 323
" Punishment were pardoned him,
" But here the punishment exceeds offence :
" He might be just, but he was cruel too ! "
Why, grant there seems a kind of cruelty
In downright stabbing people he could maim,
(If so you stigmatise the stem and strict)
Still, Guido meant no cruelty —
[The meaning was clear enough in A, but there is some gain in
getting rid of the application of * you ' to different persons in A's
1209 and 1210.]
4. After A's 1214 B, changing the punctuation at the end of that
line to a comma, adds (its 1220)
Merely disfigure, nowise make them die.
[The addition is unnecessary.]
5. After A's 1240 B, removing the note of exclamation at the
end of that line, adds (its 1247)
Obtained, these natural enemies of man !
[A decided improvement ; A's ' these ' in its 1240 stands for ' to
these ' ; the removal of the Browningism here conduces to clearness.]
6. For A's 1449
Our Cardinal engages read my speecli :
B substitutes (its 1456-7)
Our Cardinal engages to go read
The Pope my speech, and point its beauties out.
[Another improvement ; indeed the change is almost necessary.
Arcangeli's point is that the Cardinal will read his speech to the Pope.]
7. After A's 1507 B inserts (its 1516)
By application of his tongue or paw :
[A much needed addition.]
BOOK IX
A's 498-500
Suppose this man could love, though, all the same —
From what embarrassment she sets him free
Should one, a woman he could love, speak first — 500
becomes in B (its 498-502)
Despite the coil of such encumbrance here,
Suppose this man could love, unhappily,
And would love, dared he only let love show !
In case the woman of his love, speaks first, 601
From what embarrassment she sets him free !
324 THE RING AND THE BOOK
[It is perhaps doubtful whether the expansion of the passage
improves it. The misplaced comma after ' love ' in B's 501 is due
to its having followed the word, quite correctly, in A's 500.]
BOOK XI
1. After A's 923 B adds (its 924), removing the semicolon after
' orb ',
As the eye of God, since such an eye there glares :
[The addition is not necessary, but it makes for clearness.]
2. After A's 1087 B adds (its 1089), changing the stop after c toil '
to a comma,
" Proper appreciation and esteem ! "
[Some such addition was much wanted.]
BOOK XII
1. After A's 606 B inserts (its 607)
" Plagued here by earth's prerogative of lies,
[The words are characteristic of the speaker, but the addition is not
necessary.]
2. For A's 607
" Should learn to love what he may speak one day.
B substitutes (its 608-9)
" Now learns to love and long for what, one day,
" Approved by life's probation, he may speak.
[The change makes the paragraph end with more impressiveness
and dignity.]
3. A's 613
" Yet weigh the worth of worldly prize foregone [sic],
is expanded in B (its 615-16) into
" Yet what forbids I weigh the prize forgone,
" The worldly worth ? I dare, as I were dead,
[The change softens the contrast between A's 612 and 613.]
4. Between A's 622 and 623 B, which changes the * dream ' of
A's 622 to ' doubt ', inserts (its 626)
" Many a dream of life spent otherwise —
[The new line enhances the beauty of the passage.]
APP. XI.— THE TEXT OF THE POEM 325
2. VARIATIONS OF WORDING IN BOOK XII
ABC
Original Edition Second Edition Final Revision
(1872)
(1888-9)
79 the one
its one
as B
85 the man
as A
our man
167 Guido was last to
To ... steps,
as B
. . . steps
Guido was last
223 he
as A
folk
268 Decollated by
Decollate by mere
as B
way
due
273 Nor its ...
Thereby, nor its
as B
thereby
. . .
290 On the next
On next
as B
^ | folks
as A
folk
321 but
as A
best
348 folks
as A
folk
373 of
at
asB
385 The
as A
I'm
409 I
as A
Who
445 man
stoic
stone
451 shows, have
show which
as B
488 and
as A
so
499 man, so, blind
as A
man born blind
512 So
as A
Thus
521 held the
as A
now held
527 be
as A
brood
535 Be
Are
as B
637 Is
as A
Lies
538 lo, a cockatrice
as A
lurks a centipede
543 pass
546 Was deemed
as A
as A
That seemed
547 lays
as A
laid
548 lets the world see
as A
let the woi Id
the
perceive
550 stand
as A
stood
655 fame pearl-pure
as A
E'-pure fame
556 In
as A
559 Would thence-
as A
h thence-
forth make
forth makes
560 that's
as A
souls'
561 For
as A
Since
590 leave
as A
let
607 See ' Lines added '
607-9 See 'Lines i
;<)7-'.» it* 11 ; hut sub-
added '
stitutes Should
learn for Now
learns
326
THE RING AND THE BOOK
608 the worn, who
610 as A
610 worn, who haply
610 glide
611 Bare feet, coarse
612 glides
613 With these bare
612 as B
613 as B
robe and rope-
feet, coarse robe
girt waist of
and rope -girt
mine
waist
613 See 'Lines added'
615-16 See 'Lines
615-16 as B
added'
621 some
624 much
624 as B
622 dream would
625 doubt would
625 doubt will
— See ' Lines added '
626 See 'Lines added'
626 as B
626 great, in fine
630 good and great
630 as B
630 May weU be
634 Of life are
634 as B
641 the
645 my
645 as B
642 the
646 my
646 as B
647 Else had he
651 Nor stoops to
651 as B
turned
turn .
650 — So rounded
654 — So, rounding
654 And so round
657 the liars
661 as A
661 earth's liars
662 so much
666 froth and
666 as B
666 True
670 The
670 as B
671 where
675 what's
675 as B
675 paul
679 as A
679 piece
684 to end
688 as .4
688 which ends
689 Station
693 Place her
693 as B
724 Is turned into
728 Turn into quite
728 as B
725 first of all
729 as A
729 first
726 And
730 Which
730 as B
770 accounts
774 account
774 as B
777 There
781 If
781 as B
784 to
788 of
788 as B
785 men's
789 all
789 as B
787 of crime
791 o' the crime
791 as B
788 caused such
792 could have caused
792 as B
urgency to cure
such urgency
789 The mob, just
793 To cure the mob,
793 as B
then, of chronic
just then, of
801 her
805 the
805 as B
804 stern History
808 the annalist
808 as B
805 Trust rather to
809 Go rather by
809 as B
814 one
818 I
818 as B
817 Of bearing
821 Which bore the
821 as B
— Book
— page
— as B
861 the Andante
865 as A
865 e'en Beethoven
It will be observed that a large proportion of the changes made,
including all the added lines, occur in the report of Fra Celestino's
sermon (459-642 in A) ; see Introduction to Book XII.
INDEX
Abacus, 19
4 Abashless ', 47
Acciaiuoli, the, 238
Acquetta, 84-5, 109
Addison, 25, 210, 240
Advocate and Procurator, xviii.,
10, 167
JSacus, 21
jEgiochus, 252
;Elian, 11
^Eschylus, 207, 227
Afranius, 107
' Aggrandize ',76
' Aggravating circumstances ', 10,
173, 176
Agur, 178
Ahasuerus, 204, 246
Albano (Albani), Cardinal (after-
wards Clement XL), 225, 262
Albano (painter), 240
Alexander VI., 216
Alexander VII., 240
Alexander VIII., 174, 204, 302
' All and some ',176
Alliteration and assonance, 24,
102-3, 164, 192-3
Amaryllis, 187
Amasius, 174
Ambrose, St., 170, 241, 253
* Ampollosity ',271
Anacreon (' the Teian '), 184
Anatomy, B.'s knowledge of,
transferred to Guido, 95,
240 ; ' morbid anatomy ',
233-4
Audio pescatorio, 205
Angelica Battista, 39, 40, 42, 94
Anonymous Pamphlets, xviii.,
xxiii., and passim
' Anotherguess ', 89
Anti-Fabius, 192
Antimasque, 229
Antonelli, Cardinal, 300
Antony, St., 130
Apices, 166
' Apollos turned Apollo ', 43
Aqua tofana, 84-5
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 95, 124,
175 ; his Summa Theologies,
107, 123
Arachnoid tunic of brain, 241
Arcangeli, G., xviii. ; as alchemist,
168; his asides, 163, 168,
171 ; contrasted with Bottini,
179 ; on Molinism, 306-7 ; his
letter to Cencini, 258, 259,
266-8; his monologue at-
tacked and defended, 160-62,
179-80, not to be skipped,
161-3 ; his son, see Giacinto ;
his pleadings quoted or re*
ferred to, passim
Archbishop (Bishop ?) of Arezzo,
45, 63, 64, 151, 153, 193, 215,
223
Archimedes, 190
Arezzo : Duomo, 123, 125 ; Fran-
ceschini palace, 39 ; Pieve,
121, 125, 154 ; S. Francesco,
153; statue of Ferdinand
I., 119 ; Torrione, 126-7 ; walla
and gates, 126-7
* Subtle air ' of, 82, 272 ; arms
of, xxi., 195; the Comparini at,
327
328
THE RING AND THE BOOK
80, 283-4 ; the flight from, 45,
64-5, 126-30, 156 ; magistrates
of, 272 ; famous natives of,
153, 210-11, 272; origin and
antiquity of, 95, 251, 272;
records of, 20, 38, 78, 95, 272,
275 ; trial and sentence of
Arezzo Court, xviii., 45, 46, 89,
110, 133-4, 213, 249
Aristseus, 194
Aristophanes, 257
Aristotle, 169
Arnold, Matthew, 243, 319
Art, function of, 273
' Artistry's haunting curse ', 235,
249
<As'='asif ', 24, 62
Asafoetida, 82
Ash and elm, mutual antipathy of,
247-8
Ashby, T., xiii., 21, 206
' Ask Jansenius else ', 12, 250
* Aspectable ', 38
Ass as God of Christians, 269
Assisi, 128, 129, 156
Assumption of the Virgin, 127
Astrcea redux, 51
Atlas and Axis, 240
Augustin, St., 208, 253
Aulus GeUius, 227
Auxilius. 205-6
Ave, the', 87
B. and H. Notes, xxiii., 107,
191, 254
Baccano, 70-71
Bacchus, 195, 197
Bacon, Francis, 59, 106, 264
Bacon, Koger, 172
Baedeker's Central Italy, 61, 165
Bagehot, W., 6, 278
Bagot's My Italian Year, 108,
147
Baldeschi, A., 297
Balliol College Library, xx.-xxi., 7
Balzac, B. compared to, 236, 237
' Barbacue ', 175
Barbers' shops, 37
Bartholomew Anglicus, 101, 136,
154, 169
' Bartolus-cum-Baldo ', 11, 268
Basilisk, 135-6
Basset, 75-6
* Bear the bell away ', 185
Beatrice (Guide's mother), 40, 94,
96, 103, 111, 194, 214
Bees, 111, 169, 194
Belial, men of, 111
Bembo, Cardinal, 132-3
Benedict XIII. , 265
Berdoe, E., 28, 67, 77, 169, 207,
312 ; his indiscretions, 111,
125, 134, 153, 165, 187, 209,
266, 268, 301
Berger, P., 6, 140, 160, 207
Bessarion, Cardinal, 134
Bible, references to, passim
Bigelow's Molinos the Quietist,
307, 308, 309
Bilboa, 102
Bion, 184
Blagden, I., 277
Blunderbore, 166
Boccaccio's Decameron, 52, 67,
100
' Boggle ', 120
Boissier's L' Opposition sous les
Cesars, 49 ; Promenades archeo-
logiques, 269 ; La Religion
romaine, 228
Sorrow's Lavengro, 89
Borsi, 127, 133-4, 189
Bossuet, 303, 304
Boswell, J., 12. See also Johnson,
Dr.
Bottini, J.-B., xviii. ; charac-
terized by B., 24, 179;
contrasted with Arcangeli,
179 ; his letter to * no matter
who ', 259, 271 ; on Molinism,
307 ; his monologue attacked,
160-61, 180, a caricature, 180,
182, its graver aspect, 182-3 ;
his pleadings quoted or re-
ferred to, passim
Bouillon, Cardinal, 263, 304-5
' Brabble ', 11, 74
' Brangle ',11
Brazen Head, 172
' Breathe a vein ', 206
Brooke, Stopford, on Arcangeli' s
* boys ', 163 ; on Books VIII.
INDEX
329
and IX., 161 ; on Book XL,
234, 317 ; on B.'s self-dedica-
tion, 7-8 ; on Mrs. Browning's
influence, 6 ; on the inade-
quacy of human speech, 207 ;
on mode of publication of
R. and B., 278 ; on Pompilia,
139 ; on B.'s similes, 18 ; on
the Pope's theological dis-
quisitions, 199
Browne, Sir T., 133
Browning, E. B., her indignation
with the British Public, 14;
her influence on B.'s poetry,
6-7, 129, 143-4; B.'s 'lyric
Love', 28-9, 261, 312-15;
her marriage, 115 ; her writ-
ings quoted or referred to : —
Aurora Leigh, 38, 117, 120,
129, 144, 262, 265; Casa
Ouidi Windows, 16, 143-4,
195, 262; Christmas Gifts,
267-8 , Greek Christian Poets,
261 ; Last Poems, 277 ; The
Dead Pan, 252; The SouVs
Travelling, 38. See also 7, 8,
29, 128, 273, 275, 276
Browning, Robert, studies ana-
tomy, 95, 240 ; compared to
Balzac, 236-7 ; influence upon,
of Mrs. Browning, 6-7, 129,
143-4; his attitude towards
Christianity, 220-21, and
miracles, 223 ; as corrector
of proofs, 212, 321 ; his
interest in criminals and
criminal trials, 4-6 , his close
observation of detail, 5, 6 ;
his doctrines of 'the great
hour', 116, and of 'the
imperfection of God ', 220,
221 ; his inaccuracy in dates
and figures, 53, 91, 204, 240,
264 ; on the inadequacy of
human speech, 207 ; on the
attainability of knowledge,
215-16, and on the relations
of knowledge and love, 219 ;
how he learnt Latin grammar,
172 ; his marriage, 116 ;
studies modelling, 240, 276;
hia ' morbid psychology ', 233-
234; his optimism, 142, 260,
317 ; ' parental instinct not
strong ' in, 143 ; his attitude
towards his past work, 319 ;
his religious beliefs, 200,
220-21, 222; chronology of
his work upon B. and B.,
275-8; his hostility to the
Roman church and the tem-
poral power, 15, 204; his
early unpopularity, 14-15, 28 ;
his finding and close study of
the Yellow Book, 1, 4, 35,
275-6. See also Ring and the
Book. The
Browning's poems, references
(other than on words and
phrases) to : —
A Death in the Desert, 207, 208,
219, 220, 223
A Forgiveness, 114
Abt Vogler, 120
An Epistle of Karshish, 220, 221
229
Apparent Failure, 232, 317
Aristophanes' Apology, 118, 227,
267
Balauslion's Adventure, 227
Beatrice Signorini, 99, 249
Bishop Blougram's Apology, 16,
201, 229, 256
Cenciaja, 10, 14, 15, 67, 97, 204
Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day,
6, 220, 222, 226, 229
Coiombe's Birthday, 33
Dis aliter visum, 115
Dramatis Personce, 14-15, 276,
277
Fears and Scruples, 148
FerishtaVs Fancies, 23, 122, 219,
220
F ifine at the Fair, 113, 191, 256,
273
Francis Furini, 218
George Bubb Dodington, 127
Ivnn Ivnnovitch, 130, 143
Jochanan Hakkadosh, 221
La Saisiaz, 208, 219, 221-2,
272
Mesmerism, 111
330
THE RING AND THE BOOK
Browning's poems* references
(other than on words and
phrases) to — (contd.) —
Mr. Sludge the Medium, 233, 256
My Last Duchess, 185
Ned Bratts, 51
Old Masters in Florence, 43
One Word More, 113
Pacchiarotto, xxi., 221
Paracelsus. 133
Pippa Passes, 122, 133, 134, 142,
231-2, 316
Porphyries Lover, 148
Prince Hohenstiel - Schwangau,
133, 207, 256
Rabbi Ben Ezra, 69-70, 206, 208
Red Cotton Night-Cap Country,
48, 133
Rephan, 221
Saul, 206, 220, 221
Solomon and Balkis, 78, 120
Sordello, 3, 4, 79, 127
The Bishop orders his Tomb, 248
The Inn Album, 17, 115, 133,
143, 237
The Italian in England, 113
The Return of the Druses, 316
The Statue and the Bust, 8, 39,
115, 119
The Two Poets of Croisic, 9, 22,
43, 272
The Worst of it, 148
Youth and Art, 115
Browning, R. B., xx., 7, 8, 91,
204, 276
Browning Society, 266, 319; its
Papers, 28, 313
Bryce, Lord, 261
Buchanan, R., 220
Buffaloes at Rome, 239
Burckhardt's Renaissance in Italy,
106, 133, 211
Burke, 240, 251
Burnet, Bishop, on Franciscans
and Dominicans, 95 ; on
Innocent XL, 13, 302; on
Malpighi, 149 ; on Molinos,
310-11 ; on the Pantheon,
101 ; on the Piazza del
Popolo, 14, 265
Butler's Hudibras, 121
Butringarius (Butrigari), 176-7
Byblis, 253
* Bye-blow ', 81, 89
Byron, 172
' Calash ', 104
Calverley's The Cock and the Bull,
97, 120, 209, 278
Cambridge Modern History, 12,
254; 304
Camerlengo, 173, 231
Camoscia, 46, 127, 128
' Candid ', ' uncandid ', 45, 185,
187
Candle-contest, 243
Canidia, 49, 51
Caponsacchi, Giuseppe, passim ;
his character in the Yellow
Book, 116-17, 154, 293 ; dis-
crepancies between his de-
position and his monologue,
116-17, 291 i as hero for a
novel, 117-18. In R. and B. :
amicus curice, 88, 112 ;
' bishop in the bud ', 43 ; his
earlier career, 34, 116-17 ;
the flight, see Arezzo ; his
connection with the Frances -
chini, 43-4 ; a Saint George,
65, 114; his 'great hour',
115, 125 ; a good hater,
113 ; in what sense heroic,
114-15 ; repudiates author-
ship of love-letters, 132, 286 ;
burns flight-letters, 84 ; his
dealings with Maria, 123,
291 ; occasion of his mono-
logue, 88, 112 ; its variety
and brilliancy, 113-14 ; his
claim to ' nobility ', 95 ; the
Pope's judgment upon him,
217-18, 224; his relegation,
48, 49, 112, 136, 137
Caponsacco (' old Head - i' - the-
Sack '), 49, 119
Caritellas, 21
Carlyle, 5, 10, 18, 62, 133, 241;
his judgment on R. and B., 4
Carmel, 42
Carnival, 110, 152, 167, 243
' Cartulary ', 135
INDEX
331
Cartwright, W. C., 276
Cassiodorus, 169
Castellani, 7
Castelnuovo, 17, 65, 128, 130,
291-4 ; arrival at the inn, 17,
65, 156-7, 291, 293-4; scene
there, 47, 131, 157
Castrensis (De Castro), 176-7
Catacombs, 205, 269
' Cater-cousin ', 40-41
Cat's-cradle, 38
Catullus, 93, 191, 266; doctus I
though * unseemly ', 105 ; his
metrical licences, 121 ; his ,
scazons, 134
Caudatory, 244
Celestino, Angelo, Fra, 88, 146, '
281 ; his sermon, 260, 326
Cenci, Beatrice, 165-6 ; her father,
237, 254
Cencini, F., xviii., xix., 8 ; letters
to, 12, 14, 203, 238, 258-9,
264, 267
' Cephisian reed ',125
Certosa di Val d' Ema, 238
Chadwick, J. W., 292
* Charactery ', 63
Charles, Duke of Lorraine, 250
Charles II. of Spain, 262, 303
Chaucer, 52, 105, 122, 176
Chesterton, G. K., on occasional
need for deceit, 135 ; defends
Books VIII. and IX., 161;
calls R. and B. ' the epic of
free speech ', 3 ; doctrine of
'the great hour', 115; doc-
trine of ' the imperfection of
God', 221. See also 5, 15,
256
Chimaera, the Etruscan, 246-7
Chinese missions, 224-5
' Chirograph ', 13
Chiusi, 46
' Chop-fallen ', * chap-fallen ', 244
Christianity, B.'s attitude towards,
220-21 ; as taught in China,
224-5
Church, the, Guido upon, see
Guido ; the Pope's mis-
f'vings about, see. Innocent
II.; R. and B. 'clean for
the Church ' ? 16 ; the Church
and torture, 22-3, 298-300
* Chyme ', 183
Cicero, 132, 190, 267; his Pro
Milone,lG5', ' breaking Tully's
pate ', 121
Circe, 254
Ciro Ferri, 99, 183
'Civility and the mode ', 51, 119,
169, 215
Civita Vecchia, 23, 49, 50, 106
' Clack-dish ', 187
' Clap we to the close ', 24
' Clapnet ', 80
Ciavecinist, 25
Clavicle, 52
Clemenceau's Le Grand Pan, 253
Clement IV., 205
Clement XI. See Albano, Car-
dinal
Clement XII., 265
Clepsydra, 184
Clericate, Guide's claim of. See
Guido
' Clodpole ', 51
' Clout ', 240
' Clouted shoon ', 183
Coadunatio armatorum, 173
Cockatrice, 135-6
Coins current in Italy, 8, 13, 77,
79, 247
Collatinus, 83, 184
4 Colly my cow ! ', 242-3
Colocynth, 194
Coluthus, 134
Comacchian eels, 186
• Commerce ', 190
Commissary of Arezzo, 82. See
Marzi-Medici
' Commodity ', 171
'Company (Confraternity) of
Death ', 25, 238, 257, 264
Comparini, the, their stay at
Arezzo, 80, 99, 283-4; exposure
of their bodies, 21, 35, 36;
their home or homes, 279-82 ;
their return to Rome, 41, 100,
283 - 4 ; distribute scritture,
42. See also Pietro and Vio-
lante
' Complot ', 62
332
THE RING AND THE BOOK
1 Comport ', 226
' Composite ',261
' Composure ', 56
* Conclusions, to try ',105
' Concurrence ',38
Confetti, 110, 152
Consular road, 70, 71 128
Contarini, D., 208, 301-2, 303
Conti, Canon, 78, 123, 137, 152,
153, 154
' Contract ', 61
' Convertites ', 271 ; Monastery of
Convertites. 48-9, 223-4, 281
Cook, Sir E. T., 7, 55, 152
Cophetua, 243
Coprolite, 127-8
* Cord, the '. See Vigil-torture
Cordati, 171
Corderius, 164
Corelli, 25
Corinna, 107
Cornuti, 171
Correggio's Leda, 83
* Counts who don't count ', 98
Courtney of Pen with, Lord, xx.,
17, 64, 126, 319
' Cramp ', adjective, 9 ; verb,
135
Crawford, F. Marion, 14, 48, 98,
110, 152, 243
' Craze ', verb, 152
Cristina, Queen, 309
' Cross ' ( = coin), 58 ; ' cross and
pile ', 98
Cross-buttock, 82
Crossing oneself, 48
Cruickshank, A. H., xiii., 314
' Crush cup ', 164
Cuckoo, 45, 58
Cui profuerint ? 84
' Cullion ', 240
Culver, 269
Danae, 16, 59
* Dandiprat ', 268
Dante, 95, 113. 119, 121
Daphne, 147
De Raptu Helence, 134
De Tribus, 133
Death-bed confessions, 88, 196
' Decollate ', 266
Decretum Relegationis, xvii., 136,
137
Del Torto, G., 14, 259, 266
Delilah, 254
' Derogate ', 169, 266
D'Estrees, Cardinal, 37-8, 309
Deus ex machina, 75
* Devil's-dung ', 82
Devils become gods, 170
Diana, 147
Dicey's Law and Opinion in Eng-
land, 299
Dickens, 6, 72, 100
Dido, 189
' Discept ', 220
' Discourse ' (active verb), 19, 240
Djereed, 16
Dolabella, 11
Domett, A., 5
Domus pro carcere, xvii., 50, 147,
194, 280
Donnicciuole, 116-17
Dowden's Browning, 26, 31, 114,
124, 207, 214, 273
Driver, S. B., 25, 177
Dryden, 40, 56, 122
Duffy's My Life in Two Hemi-
spheres, 16
Dumas, A., the elder, 75, 85, 243,
263-4 ; the younger, 8
' Dungy earth ', 244
' Dusk'', ' duskest ', 18
E.L., xii., xx., xxiii. ; quoted or
referred to, passim
Eagles, 26, 58
' Eden tree ', 57
' Efficacity ' of cardinals, 24, 67
Elisha, 20
Elm and ash, mutual antipathy of,
247-8
End justifies means, 187
Entablature, 19
Erizzo, N., 262, 302
' Escapes ' (=escapades), 185
Estafette, 267
Est-est, 165
Esther, 246
Ethical dative, 165
Etruscan jewellery, 2, 7
* Eude, King of France ', 205
INDEX
333
Euripides, 131, 187, 227-8, 277;
his pleading in Book X., 198,
203, 226-7
1 Eusebius and the established
fact ', 75
* Exemplarity ', 266
' Exenterate ', 111
' Eximious *, 183
' Extravasate ', 240
Fagon, 241
Falconry, 101-2
' Far and away ', 84
' Fardels ', 48
Farinacci, 165-6, 167, 172, 173,
230-31, 295
Faust, 20
' Fay ' (in « by my fay '), 105
Feminine endings, 56, 133
Fenelon, 96, 120, 304-5
Fielding's Tom Jones, 82, 89
Fiesole, 119
Filicaja, 250
' Finger-wise ', 70
' Firk ', 49
Fisc, the, xviii., 9, 24, 75, 165, 224
Fish as symbol, 205
Fisher's-signet, 205
Flight from Arezzo. See Arezzo
Florence : ' Baccio's marble ', 8 ;
Casa Guidi, 16, 275 ; S. Felice,
16 ; S. Lorenzo church and
piazza, 8 ; Mercato Vecchio,
119 ; Panciatichi palace, 247 ;
Porta Romana, 16; Riccardi
palace, 8; Stinche, 89; S.
Trinita bridge and piazza,
9 ; Via Larga, 247
The Brownings at, 275; B.'s
walkthrough, 4,6,8; sentence
of Florence court, see Sentence
Flower-figs, 151
Fogazzaro's Piccolo Mondo Antico,
121; his 11 Santo, 118
Foligno, 65, 129, 130, 156
Formosus, 201, 204, and his
successors, 204-6
Fra Angelico, 253
Francescbini, the, ancestors of,
58 ; £ arms of, xxi., 254 ;
nobility of, 95 ; poverty
and economies of, 39-40, 94,
96, 99, 150. For individual
members of the family see
Beatrice, Girolamo, Guido,
Paolo, Porzia, Tommaso
Francis of Assisi, St., 95, 102, 128
Franciscans and Dominicans, 95
French occupation of Rome, 15
' Frenetic ', 133
' Fructuous ',171
* Fulgurant ', 132
' Fulsome-fine ', 97
Furnivall, F. J., 28, 29, 313-14
Gabriel's song, 129
Gaetano (Pompilia's son), 56, 94-5,
108, 130, 143-4, 157, 158, 212,
271, 272
Gaetano, St., 146
Galileo, condemnation of, 310;
his ' tube ', 228
Gallicisms in construction, 48, 95,
155, 226, 243, in use of words
and phrases, 38, 82, 103, 119,
164, 169, 171, 195
Galligaskin, 164
Gambi, F., xviii., 24, 70, 137, 224
Gambling in Rome, 265
Gardner's The Story of Florence,
89 275
Gautier, Theophile, 252-3
George, St., Caponsacchi as, 66,
114 ; Vasari's St. George, 154
George Eliot's Romola, 74, 77 ;
her The Legend of Jubal, 256
* Get ', B.'s use of, 89-90
Giacinto (Arcangeli's son), 160,
163, 164, 175, 267, 322
Gibbon's Roman Empire, 75, 164,
170, 238
Girdle of the Madonna, 127
Girolamo Franceschini, 40, 100, 111
Gladstone, 190
YvC)Oi aeavrbv, 227
Goats in Rome, 149-50
God as All-Loving, 220, 221;
His judgments and men's
contrasted, 206, 227 ; as
' Machinist ', 227 ; His name,
sudden introductions of, 148,
tradition concerning, 120
334
THE RING AND THE BOOK
Golden mean, 227
Golden Rose, 210
Goliath, 188
Gonfalonier and Priors of Arezzo,
272
' Good wine needs no bush ',197
Gor-crow, 210
Gorgon shield, 242
Governor of Arezzo. See Mazzi-
Medici
Graham, J. J. G., 313
Grand Dukes of Tuscany, 119,
215
Greeks, religion of, 252
Gregorovius, 97, 201, 205, 255
Gregory I., 215
'Grey mare the better horse ', 80
' Griefful ', 123
Griffin, W. Hall, his Life of E. B.,
xx., 16, 29, 204, 215, 240,
276, 277, 278, 284
Griselda, 52, 67
' Guard and guide ', 46, 98
Guard-ring, 273
Guido Franceschini, passim ; his
age, 20, 38, 43, 96, 97, 240,
265 ; his appearance, 20, 81 ;
at Castelnuovo, 47, 157, 211 ;
attitude towards the Church,
234-5, 248-9, and contem-
porary Christians, 235, 239,
242, 252 ; his claim of
'clericate', 11, 12, 199, 238,
239 ; his confederates, 70,
87, 176, 177, 213-14, 231,
296-8 ; contrast between his
two monologues, 92, 234-5 ;
not styled Count in the
records, 10 ; how he died,
237-8, 264 ; dismissed ( ? ) from
a cardinal's service, 59 ;
drugged by Pompilia ? 45,
188 ; place of his execution,
13-14 ; flight from Rome and
arrest, 70-71, 87, 213-14;
forger of letters ? 132, 187,
285, 288 ; hanger-on of the
Church, 92, 255; 'hate the
truth of him ', 158, 207 ;
intellectualized by B., 208,
236; invokes Pompilia, 316-
318 ; his journey to Rome
and inactivity there, 108,
173 : his ' jagged knife ', 37 ;
his lawsuits, 68, 85, 87, 175 ; /
on Molinism, 235, 306 ; his v
motive in marrying, 209-10 ;
his fatal omission, 213-14,
235 ; pen-sketch of, xxi., 81-2 ;
how far persuasive in Book V. , •
92, 234; why he postponed
vengeance, 69, 70, 106 - 7 ;
threatens Pompilia, 103, 186;
was he tortured ? 295-7 ; his
desire for 'colour' in a wife,
253-4
Guido Reni, 37
Guillichini, G., 46, 104, 137
Haendel (Handel), 25, 247
Haggard, 101
' Half - Rome ' contrasted with
4 The Other Half -Rome ', 34-5
* Hamstring ', 213-14
' Handsel ', 38
' Happy be his dole ', 57-8
Hare's Walks in Rome, 14, 37,
56, 61, 97, 146, 239, 265
Hat and Rapier, 173
Hawthorne, N., 29
Hazlitt's Shakespeare Jest-books, 67
' Heading ', 14
Hecuba, 231
Hercules, with Ornphale, 192 ;
rescues Hesione, 191-2
Herodotus, 12
Hesione, 192
* Hesperian ball ', 58, 125
Hexastich, 97
' Hip, to have on ', 166
Hoare's Italian Dictionary, 48, 116
Hodell, C. W., xii., xix.-xx., xxi.,
and passim
Hodgkin's Theodoric, 169, 244
Holland, H. Scott, 28-9
' Homager ', 95-6
Homer: Iliad, 16, 172, 192, 195,
246; Odyssey, 67, 131, 187,
188, 190-91, 252
Honoris causa, xvii., 71, 89, 95,
168, 169, 196
Hophni, 82, 223, 322
INDEX
335
Horace, quotations from and allu-
sions to, by ' Half -Rome ',
37, by 'The Other Half-
Rome ', 66. by * Tertium
Quid ', 75, by *Guido, 103,
by Arcangeli, 164, 169, 174,
178, by Bottini, 184, 185, 186,
188, 189, 190, 192, 197, by
the Pope, 218. See also 51,
227, 245, 262
' Horn-blind ', 245
* Horn-madness ', 44
Horsehair, generation of snakes
from, 195 ; ' the horsehair
springe ',154
Hortensius, 165
Hundred Merry Tales, 67
Button, R. H., 114, 316, 317
Hyperides, 184
lago, 236, 318
Icarus, 188
' Illustration ', 119
' Impinge ' used transitively, 209
' Imposthume ', 59
' Inch ', verb, 59
Incontinenti, 172
* Indecorous ', scanning of, 118
* Inexpressive ', 80
' Initiatory pang ' (or ' spasm '),
218, 229
Innocent III., 216
Innocent X., 12, 86
Innocent XL, 13, 250, 301-3
Innocent XII., his abstemious
life, 13, 302; his accessi-
bility, 302-3 ; his age, 12, 41,
206, 231 ; speaks for B., 198-
200; builds a dogana, 263 ; on
an Age of Doubt, 199, 229;
— dramatic force of his soliloquy,
L)<>:>; his election, 262; con-
demns Fenelon, 304 ; his hope
forGuido, 232, 317; compared
with Innocent XL, 301-3; his
judgments, 199, 214, 218; his
relations with Louis XIV., 303-
304 ; his misgivings, 200, 202,
223, 227 ; his attitude towards
Molinism, 308 ; ' Naples born ',
209,263; repudiates nepotism,
302; his pre-papal career, 201,
208; his love of the poor,
303 ; resolute or irresolute ?
201, 206, 303 ; alleged senility
of, 176, 241, 263; his theo-
logical disquisitions, 198-202^
218 seqq. ; not prominent in
the Yellow Book, 203. See also
30, 31, 54, 72
Instrumentum Sententice Defini-
tives, xviii., 11, 224, 271
' Insuppressive ', 245-6
' Intellectuals ', 176
' Intelligence ', 103
' Intention ', 82-3
Isocrates's Panegyric, 197
Italian colour in R. and B., 33,
73-4, 236
Jack the Giant-killer, 166
James II., 299, 303
James, Henry, on Italian colour
in R. and B., 33, 73-4; on
excessive length of Book XL,
233 ; on ' the novel in R. and
B.\ 117-18; his W. W. Story
and his Friends, 28, 58
Jameson, Mrs., her Legends of tht
Madonna, 124 ; her Sacred
and Legendary Art, 153, 230
Jansenists, 12-13, 250
Janus bifrons, 272
' Jauncing ', 239
Jenkins's The Jesuits in China,
224-5
Jerome, St., 104, 228
Jesuits, their ' accommodations ',
224, 230 ; their Chinese mis-
sions, 224-5; their attacks
rn Molinos, 309-11. See
12
Joab, 176
Job, 22, 25; the book of Job
(Leviathan passage), 108,
177-8, 216-17
Joconde, the (la Gioconda), 8
Johnson, Dr., 31, 82, 85, 164, 166
Jones, Sir H., his Browning as a
Philosophical and Religious
Teacher, 141, 1 4i>, -2 Hi, 219,
229, 232, 260, 310
336
THE RING AND THE BOOK
Josephus, 78
Jubilees, 41, 56, 263
Judith and Holophernes, 188
Justinian's Pandects, 109
Juvenal, 51, 227, 234, 307
Kenyon, Sir F. G., 16, 67, 97, 162,
191, 276
' Kibe ', 230
King, Bolton, his History of Italian
Unity, 300
King and Okey's Italy To-day, 77
King, Mrs. Hamilton, her The
Disciples, 186
Kirkup, Barone, xxi., 265-6
Labeo, 172
* Laic dress ', 47, 132
Lamb, Charles, 38, 55, 76, 81, 175,
176, 187
Lamparelli, A., xviii., 47, 56, 133,
135, 188, 287, 288, 289
Landor, W. S., 18, 238
Lauria, Cardinal, 37, 60, 110
Lee and Locock's Paracelsus, 142
Lehmann's An Artist's Reminis-
cences, 278
Leighton, Lord, 36, 146, 277, 278
Leo X., 216
Leo XII., 59
Leviathan. See Job
' Levigate ', 24
Levite = deacon, 102, 185
Lex Julia de Adulteries, 11, 170
Lightfoot, Bishop, 43
' Lingot ', 16
Linnets, 49
Livy, 184, 190, 197, 272
Locusta, 102
* Lord of Show ', 135
Lotteries at Rome, 265
Louis XIV., 255, 303, 304, 309, 311
' Lout ', verb, 122
Love-letters, 105, 106, 123, 132,
153, 285-8, 290-91
Lucan, 165
Lucifer, 104
Lucretia, 83, 184
Lucretius, 107, 245
Lucrezia Borgia, 254-5
Lunatics claim to be pope, 153
* Lunes ', 186
Luring birds, 58
Lycaon, 253
Macaulay, Lord, 75-6, 80, 128,
164, 241, 299, 303, 304
Maigrot, Bishop, 224-5
' Main ', 208
Malchus, 103
' Malleolable ', 19
Malpichi (Malpighi), 149
Mandatum procures, 42, 68, 174-
175
Mannaia, 25, 68, 239, 240
Manning, Cardinal, 15, 82-3
Maratta, Carlo, 55, 79, 136
Maria Margherita Contenti, 65,
123, 133, 152, 287, 291, 292
Marino and Marinisti, 120-21
Martial, 134, 271
Martigny's Dictionnaire 'des anti-
quites chretiennes, 268
Martinez, 12, 255, 263
Marvell, A., 254
Marzi-Medici, V., 44-5, 63, 64, 82,
154, 215
Massinger, P., 242
Maundevile's Travels, 269
Mayor's Chapters on English Metre,
118
' Medicean mode ',190
' Medicinable ', 20
Melanges historiques, 263, 305
Merlette, G.-M., 28, 29, 314
Merluzza (Merluccia), 70, 71
Merry-thought, 193
Metrical points, 23, 56, 118, 133,
135, 150, 225, 230, 242, 321
Michael the Archangel, statue of,
on the Castel S. Angelo, 215
Michael Angelo, 99, 183, 272
Michelet's Histoire de France, 304
Milman's Latin Christianity, 205,
216 ; his Fazio, 254
Milton, on Marino's Adone, 120-
121 ; on Ormuz, 254 ; on
death of Pan, 252 ; on Pietro
Aretino, 210. See also 10,
24, 36, 42, 80, 183, 190, 228,
246
' Minim ', 176
INDEX
337
Minor Orders, 11-12, 230, 231
Mirbt's Quellen zur Geschichte des
Papstthums, 12, 205, 206, 225,
256
Mirtillo, Myrtillus, 153, 187
Misprision, 168, 218
Moliere, 131
Molina, 12
Molines, 43, 87
Molinos and the Molinists, 12-13,
121, 192, 235, 306-11
' Mollitious ', 193-4
Money, Italian. See Coins current
in Italy
Montefiascone, 165
4 Mop and mow ', 17-18
More's Utopia, 74
Morley, Lord, on Arcangeli's
speech, 161 ; on early dis-
closure of story of R. and B.,
3 ; on Fra Celestino's sermon,
260 ; on B.'s ' instrumenta-
tion ', 93 ; on early judgments
upon R. and B., 5, 114, 139 ;
on its length, 31 ; on ' morbid
anatomy ', 234 ; the poem a
protest against ' fatuous op-
timism', 260. See also 12,
26, 158
Morris, W., 225, 241
Moschus, 187
' Muckworm ', 187
' Mum ' and ' budget ', 44
' Mumps ', ' mumping ', 40, 251
' Murk ', ' murky ', 151
Music and Truth, 273
Musk, 21, 44
Mustapha, Turkish vizier, 250
Naples, Innocent XII. 'a birth-
place, 209, 263; Molinism
at, 310, 311 ; description of
thunderstorm at, 231
Natural Religion, 219, 220
Nature, rapid sketches of, in R.
and B., 27, 164
Negro pages, 83
Nepenthe, 188
Nerli, Cardinal, 37, 110
Newman, Cardinal, 15, 82-3
Nightingale, 123
Nightmare, Beatrice as, 214
Northcote and Brownlow's Roma
sotterranea, 269
' 0 lyric Love ', 28-9, 312-15
O.Y.B., xi.-xii., xix.-xx., xxiii. ;
quoted or referred to, passim
Oaks and lightning, 188
' Offuscate ', 195
Ogle, Miss, 277
Old age, insight of, 201-2, 208
' Olent ', 185
Olimpia, Donna, 86
* Olimpias and Biancas ', 254
* Ombrifuge ', 209
' Omoplat ', 95
Omphale, 192
Optimism, 142, 260-61, 317
Ore, 192
Ormuz, 254
Orr, Mrs. Sutherland, her Hand-
book, 92, 270, 284 ; her Life
and Letters of R. B., 7, 14, 15,
143-4, 172, 220, 240, 275-8,
321
Ortolans, 122
Orts, 60
Orvieto (wine), 77
' Other Half-Rome, The ', con-
trasted with * Half -Rome ',
34-5 ; excellence of the mono-
logue, 53-4
Ottima (in Pippa Passes), 231, 316
' Outsight ', 20
' Overset ', 241
Ovid, quotations from and allu-
sions to, by ' Half-Rome ',
49, by Guide, 107, 253, by
Arcangeli, 172, 177, by Bot-
tini, 185, 192, 195. See also
48, 49, 107, 165
Palchetti, 263
Palma (in Sordello), 79
Palmo di naso, 48
Pan, death of, 252-3
Panciatichi, the, 238 ; their palace,
247
Panimollus (B.'s Panicollus), 174
Paolo Franceschini, the Abate,
accessory to the murders ?
338
THE RING AND THE BOOK
69 ; appeals to the Pope,
67, 203 ; a future Cardinal ?
58 ; his departure from Rome,
how explained, 69, 171 ;
expostulates with Guido, 94 ;
not the priest at the marriage,
39, 149 ; the Pope's judgment
upon, 214 ; Guido's proxy,
42, 68, 174-5; his villa, 70,
87, 109 ; his visit to Violante,
35,57-8. See also 38, 111
Papal election, forecasts of, 255,
262-3 ; veto on papal elec-
tions, 256
Paphos, 85
Papinianus, 164
Parry's Studies of Great Composers,
25
Pasquinades, 86, 264-5, 311
Pasquini, F., 215
Patavinian, the, 272. See Livy
Patrizi, 88
Paul V., constitutions of, 298
Paul, St., 110-11, 175, 188, 228;
his sword, 230
Peacock fans, 267-8
' Peals ', 42
Peine forte et dure, 299
' Pellucid soul ', 151-2
Penitentiary, 61
' Perdue ', 66
Perseus, 148
Persius, 172, 186
Perucchiere, 79
Perugia, 85, 128, 129, 156
Peter, St., 205, 241
* Petit-maitre priestlings ',231
Petrarch, 272
Petrus, quo vadis ? 241
Phelps's Browning : How to know
him, 16, 79, 92
Phillips, C. B., xiii.
* Philosophic Sin ', 37, 56, 308
Phryne, 184
' Pickthank ', 191
Pietro Aretino, 210-11, 265-6
Pietro Comparini, his age, 20,
41 ; B.'s conception of,
76 ; his financial embarrass-
ments, 60, 76, 280; his
lawsuits, 42-3, 87, 147, 175 ;
his objection to Pompilia's
marriage, 36-7, 149 ; visits
the presepi, 147 ; his will,
76, 280. See also Comparini,
the
Pietro da Cortona, 99, 183
Pifferari, 107-8
Pignatelli, Antonio. See Innocent
XII.
Pigou's Browning as a Religious
Teacher, 221, 222, 226
Pindar, xx., 8, 16
' Pink ', verb, 47
Pinners, 77
Pippa sophisticated, 141-2
' Pisan assistance ', 267
Pistoia, 241
Pius VII., 299, 300
Pius X., 256
Plato, 124, 218, 242
Plautus, 149, 174
Pliny, 106, 184
' Plumb ' and ' plump ', 20-21
Plutarch's De Oraculorum Defectu,
252 ; his Parallel Lives, 138
Pomanders, 79-80
Pompilia, passim ; her age, 45,
59, 150 ; her appeals to the
Bishop and the Governor, 34,
44-5, 64, 83, 151, 193, 215,
and to the Augustinian, 34,
64, 82, 286; beautiful, 56,
dark, 38, 79, 245, and tall,
79 ; her treatment by Bottini,
181, 182-3; her devotion
to Caponsacchi, 144-5 ; her
arrival at Castelnuovo, 17,
65, 156-7, 291, 293-4; stay
there, 130, 131, 291, 294, and
attack upon Guido there, 47,
157 ; a child, but sophisticated
by critics, 140-42 ; place of
her death, 281-2 ; her death-
bed confession, 55, 88-9, 196 ;
her deposition, 286, 288,
290-91, contrasted with her
monologue, 291 - 2 ; drugs
Guido ? 45 ; her flight, 126-
130, 156, and its date, 64-5;
forgives and finds excuses for
Guido, 150, 158, 245, 317;
INDEX
339
legitimate or illoirit iinate ? 95 ;
letters attributed to her, 42,
102, 137, 186, 187, 245, 285-9 ;
her alleged lovers, 50, 103 ;
her marriage and its date,
36, 59, 283-4 ; not clandes-
tine, 36-7 ; maternal instinct
in, 55, 143-4 ; her names, 36 ;
' The Other Half-Rome ' upon,
54, 55 ; the Pope upon, 141 ;
* re-integration of her fame ',
xviii., 11, 224; sent to, 49,
59, 89, 106, 147, and from,
50, 69, 147, 279, 280, the
Scalette ; simplicity of her
monologue in style and
' thought, 140-42; at the
theatre, 44, 83, 122, 152;
alleged thefts by, 45, 189;
was she truthful ? 285-94 ;
could she write? 285-9; the
Poinpilia of R. and B. not the
V Pompilia of the Yellow Book,
1 l">, 293
Pope, G. U., 292
Pope's Dunciad, 121, 217
Pope, the, of R. and B. See
Innocent XII.
Pope as fisherman, 205
Pope washes feet, 244
Pope's Swiss Guard, 244
Popes, burial and embalmment of,
205
Popes, death of, 231
Porporati, 96
Porta Santa of St. Peter's, 61
Porzia (Guide's sister), 38, 78, 272
* Post-Browning pamphlet ', xx.,
xxiii., and passim
Posy of B.'s ring, 28-9, 261, 312-15
Poveri vergognosi, 76-7, 280
Prato, 127
Presepi, 147
* Preside ' used transitively, 243
* Prince o' the Power o' the air ',17
Priscian's head, to break, 121
' Prize, to fight a ', 81, 242
f Prizer ', 98
Probation, Life as, 18, 221-2, 223,
229
Process of Flight, xxiii., and passim
Procurator and Advocate, xviii.
10, 167
* Properly ', 42
Prothero's The Psalms in Human
Life, 130
Provencal roses, 101, 246
4 Public Force ', 87
* Puissance ', ' puissant ', 23
Pulpit, position of, 248
4 Purfled ', 97
* Put case ', 102
Quakeresses in America, 250
Qualitates. See Aggravating Cir-
cumstances
Quarter-staff, 82
Quietism, 304, 307, 308, 309
Quis est pro Domino ? 108
Raleigh's Shakespeare, 18
Ranke's History of England, 304 ;
his History of the Popes, 208,
262, 301, 302, 303, 304
4 Rap and rend ',15
Raphael the Archangel, as patron
of travellers, 129, 176
Raphael (painter), 99, 127, 206
Ravenna, synod of, 205
4 Reclaim ' ( = protest), 167
4 Recognize ' ( = review), 218
Red stockings of cardinals, 96, 217
4 Rede ', 206
Referendary, 244
Registers of Arezzo, 20, 38, 78,
95, 272, 275 ; of S. Lorenzo
church, 36, 37, 39, 59, 145,
146, 281, 282, 284
Relative pronouns, omission of, 19,
57, 78, 90, 109
Renan, E., 216, 217
Revisions of text of R. and B.,
319-26, and passim
Rhodes, gold snow rained on, 16
Rinaldo and Armida, 247
Ring, Mrs. Browning's, 2, 7
Ring and the Book, The, chrono-
logy of its composition, 275-8 ;
curtailments desired in, 31-3,
72-3, 201 ; distribution of its
monologues, 30 ; as 4 epic of
free speech ', 3 ; Gallicisms
340
THE RING AND THE BOOK
in, see Gallicisms ; loose
grammar in, 42, 57, 61, 63,
80, 82, 126, 135, 148, 196;
Italian colour of, 33, 73-4,
236 ; abnormal length of,
31, 233 ; its effective long
sentences, 110-11, 270 ;
method of, 1, 2-3, 26, 162,
involves repetition, 2, 33 ;
its name, 1 - 2 ; optimistic
moral drawn from, 142, 260,
V 317 ; publication of, by instal-
ments, 278 ; faulty punctua-
tion in, 55, 67, 83, 118, 126,
173, 211, 212, 229, 230, 321 ;
its purpose, 1, 260 ; revisions
of its text, see Revisions ;
similes in, 18, 186, 209, 231 ;
slips and mistakes in, 8, 9,
39, 48, 59, 77, 78, 97, 146, 170,
171, 172, 174, 175, 223, 231,
257, 264; sources of, xviii.-
xix. ; sublimities and depths
of, 26 : variety of, 6, how
secured, 33-5, 179-80
' Rivel ', 25
Robinson's Ephesians, 17, 111
Rochet, 135
Rolando's sword, 52
Roman customs, passim. See es-
pecially Story, W- W.
Romano the Augustinian, 34, 64,
82, 223, 286
Romano vivitur more, 253
Rome : —
Bridges : Ponte S. Angelo, 13,
14 ; Ponte Molle (Milvio), 70
Churches : Domine quo vadis,
241 ; Gesu, 56 ; S. Lorenzo
in Lucina, 36, 146, 277, 281,
282; S. Maria in Ara Cseli,
147 ; S. M. in Cosmedin, 239 ;
S. M. Sopra Minerva, 310;
S. M. dei Miracoli and S. M.
di Monte Santo (' twins '),
265; S. M. del Popolo, 14,
265; S. M. della Rotonda
(Pantheon), 101 ; S. Pietro,
61
Fountains : Barcaccia (' Boat-
fountain '), 58 ; Triton, 21, 56
Palaces : Doria-Pamfili, 86 ;
Fiano and Ruspoli, 21
Piazzas : S. Angelo, 14 ; Bar-
berini, 56, 59; di Monte
Citorio, 77 ; Colonna, 79 ; in
Lucina, 21 ; Navona, 86, 264;
di Pietra, 263; del Popolo,
13, 14, 265 ; della Rotonda,
101 ; di Spagna, 58, 150, 279
Prisons : Carceri Nuove, 97,
257 ; Tordinona, 97
Streets : del Babuino ( = Strada
Paolina), 38, 58, 263, 279,
281 ; della Bocca di Leone,
149; Condotti, 164; Corso,
21, 149, 263, 279; Giulia,
97 ; della Lungara, 48 ; di
Ripetta, 263, 264; Vittoria,
38, 58, 149, 279-81
Bocca deUa Verita, 239 ; Castel
S. Angelo (Mausoleum of
Hadrian), 14, 215 ; Dogana,
263 ; Monastery of Conver-
tites, 48-9 ; Pincian Hill, 14 ;
Porta Capena, 183; Porta
del Popolo, 14, 59 ; Le
Scalette, 49; Sistine Chapel,
173 ; Villa Barberini, 206
B.'s visits to, 128, 149, 272,
275 ; French occupation of,
15; shambles in, 59
' Rondure ', 7
Rose, St., 86
Rosolio, 178
Rossetti, D. G., 4-5, 151-2
Rossetti, W. M., 3, 233, 265,
277-8, 292-3
* Rosy Cross ', 225
' Round us in the ears ', 80-81
Ruskin, vii., 7, 9, 93, 121, 128, 233,
240
Sacchetti, F., 67, 100, 240
' Sagacious Swede ', 207
St. Anna's, 55, 281
St. Cyres, Lord, his Fenelon,
309
Saint-Simon's Memoires, 302
Salviati, the, 119
Sampson, G., 248
Samson, 170, 187
INDEX
341
' Save the mark ', 248
' Save-all ', 268
Sbirri, 48
Scagliola, 8
Scalette, Le, 48, 50, 68, 69, 106,
147, 279, 280
Scaliger, J. J., 169
Scazons, 134
Sclopulus, 166
Scott, Sir Walter, 81, 100, 166,
206, 239, 268, 299
* Scrannel ', 24
'Secondary Source', xix., xx.,
xxi., xxiii., 277, 284 ; quoted
or referred to, passim
Seneca and St. Paul, 228
Sentence of Florence Court, xviii.,
45, 46, 64, 89, 104, 126-7,
137, 189, 213, 249
* Sentry crane ', 154
Sepher Toldolh Yeschu, 192
Septem Dolores B. V. M., 123-4
' Service and suit ', 38, 66
' Shade and shine ', 27-8
* Shagrag ', 98
Shakespeare : Antony and Cleo-
patra, 195 ; As you like it,
197 ; Hamlet, 101, 261 ;
Henry V., 178; Macbeth,
51 ; Measure for Measure,
188 ; Merchant of Venice,
192 ; Midsummer Night's
Dream, 188; Much Ado,
67; Othello, 101, 194, 236,
318
Feminine endings in, 133 ; omis-
sion of relatives, 19 ; free use
of superlatives, 10; words
and phrases, passim
Shakespeare's England, 18, 79,
101-2, 136, 242
Shambles in Rome, 59
Sharp's Life of B., 5, 32, 201, 268,
275 '
Shelley, 24 ; his Cenci, 237, 254
Shimei, 111
' Shine and shade ', 27-8
Shorthouse's John Inglesant, 79-80,
231, 307, 308
' Sib ', 40
' Silly-sooth *, 62
Similes in R. and B., IS, 186, 209,
231
' Sincere ', 147
Sixtus V., 13, 153, 256
' Skin for skin ', 25
' Smell-feast ', 164
Smith, A. H., xiii., 315
Smith, G. M., 278
Smith, Goldwin, 250
' Snicker ', 15
Snow, T. C., 193
' Soldier-crab ', 209
Solomon, 169 ; his porch of judg-
ment, 78 ; his ring, 120
Solon, 10, 170
Sophocles, 184, 193, 227
' Sops-in-wine ', 106
Sources of R. and B., xi.-xii., xvii.-
xxi.
Source-study, xi.-xiii., 292
Spada, Cardinal, 262-3
Spanish succession, 303
j * Sparks ' in ' clods ', 69-70, 317
Spenser, 23, 122, 176
| Spicilegium, 8
! Spinello Aretino, 153
Spreti, D., xviii., 10, 167 ; his
pleadings quoted or referred
to, passim
' Stanchion ', verb, 96-7
Stephen VII., 204-5
Stephen, Sir Leslie, 160, 221, 233,
234
Stevenson's Virginibus Puerisque,
217-18
' Stock-fish ', 85
Story, W. W., B. studies modelling
under, 240, 276; his Graffiti
<f Italia, 255; his Roba di
Roma, why specially im-
portant to readers of R. and
B., 58, description of Roman
customs, etc. in, 25, 56, 58,
59, 77, 86, 98, 99, 107, 147,
149-50, 151, 165, 205, 231,
239, 243, 251, 263. See also
28, 300
' Studio ', 25
Stump, artist's, 183
' Style ' =pen, 228, = pillar, 19
Succubus, 105
342
THE RING AND THE BOOK
' Suchanone ', 204
Suetonius's Nero, 190
Sulphur, 106
Summaria, xviii., 9
Superlatives in B., 10
Susanna, 83
Swete's St. Mark, 256
Swinburne, A. C., 236, 237
Symons's Introduction to B., 35,
275, 317
Symphyses, 240
Tacitus, 102, 106, 269
Tsenia, 249
* Tale ' of the Incarnation, 219-20,
222, 226
Tarocs, 121
Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberate, 247
' Tawdry ', 247
Taylor, Jeremy, 253
' Tenebrific ', 62
Tennyson, 23,
208, 227
' Tenon ', verb, 166
' Term ', 97
' Tern Quatern ', 265
Tertium Quid, 31, 306 -, char-
acteristics of the monologue,
72-4; on torture, 299; un-
favourably judged, 73
Tertullian, 269
' Tetchy ', 93
Thackeray's Esmond, 21, 83, 122,
164, 241
' Thalassian-pure ', 191
Theatre -incident at Arezzo, 44,
83, 122, 152
Themistocles, death of, 257
Theodoric the Goth, 11, 169
Theresa, St., 309
' Thishow ', * thiswise ', 19
Thomas, St., 127
Thucydides, 257 ; his * sole joke ',
193
Thule, 106
' Thwart ', adjective, 188
Tichborne trial, B. at summing-up,
5
' Tickle to the touch ', 85
Tighetti, D., 271
Time, Roman, 87
Tines, 174
' Tinkle ', 244
' Title ' of decree, 137, 197
' Tittup ', 97
' To and fro the house ', 20
4 Toad's-head-squeeze ', 51, 107
Tobias and Tobit, 129, 176
Tommaseo, 261, 273
Tommaso (Guide's father), 251
Tommati (Tomati), 22, 42-3, 87
Tonsures, 11, 43
Tophet, 18
Torture, B. and Tertium Quid
upon, 22-3, 298-300; inflic-
tion of, during murder-trial,
295-8 ; in papal states and
in secular states, 299-300
Tournon, Cardinal, 225
Tozzi, 256
Treves, Sir Frederick, on the
flight, 127, 128, 129, 130,
156 ; identifies Pompilia with
Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna,
79 ; on points relating to
Home, 14, 38, 146, 149, 257 ;
on the Comparini's ' villa ',
280-81. See also 10, 44, 76,
125, 126,- and Registers
Triarii, 197
' TroU ', 100
* Truliest ', 270
' Trundle ', 240
Tuker and Malleson's Christian and
Ecclesiastical Home, 96, 205, 244
Twelve Tables, the, 170
Ugolinucci, C. A., 12, 238, 259, 267
Umbilicus, 265, 271
Unidentified quotations and allu-
sions, 39, 90, 173, 174, 175,
184, 185, 207, 248, 249, 251,
254
' Unisonous ', 175
' Unshent *, 67
' Use ', verb, 36
Uzzah, 82, 223, 322
Valerius Maximus, 172
Vallombrosa Convent, 245
Vasari, G., 83, 153, 154, 272
Velletri (wine), 93, 256
INDEX
343
Venetian envoys. See Contarini,
D., and Erizzo, N.
Venetian visitor to Rome, xii., 13,
238, 255, 259, 301, 303, 304
Venturini, M. A., 22, 87, 271
Verjuice, 39-40
Verrall, A. W., 17
Vestal Virgins, 49
Veto on papal elections, 256
Vienna, second siege of, 250
Vigil-torture (Vigiliarum), 91-2,
295-8
' Villa i' the Pauline district ', 38,
147, 279-81
Vindicatio honoris causa, 168.
See Honoris causa
Violante Comparing her age, 20,
41 ; her confession, 56, 95 ;
opens door to the murderers,
109; visited by Paolo, 35,
57-8. See also 60, 77, 99, 148,
280, and Comparing the
Virgil, quotations from and allu-
sions to, by Guido, 98, 106,
107, 251-2, by Arcangeli,
165, 167, 168, 174, 176, by
Bottini, 183, 185, 189, 190,
194, 195, by the Popje, 231 ;
his * fieriest word ',251. ' See
also 111, 152, 164, 169, 191,
215
' Virgilian dips ' (sortes Vir~
giliance), 98, 207
Vittiano, 44
Voltaire, 82, 192, 272
' Votarist ', 155
Walker's Age of Tennyson, 32,
139-40
Waller, E., 208
Wanley's Wonders of the Little
World, 204
' Wanness ' and * whiteness ', 313-
315
Ward's The English Poets, 72-3,
161
Were -wolves, 18
Westcott, Bishop, on Christian
symbols in the catacombs,
205 ; on doubts in religion,
229; on Euripides as
a religious teacher, 228 ;
on Guide's invocation of
Pompilia, 316 ; on * the
sovereignty of feeling over
knowledge ', 216, See also
218
Wey's Rome, 61
' What's this to Bacchus ? ', 195
' Whiffle ', 24
' Whistling- while ', 13
* Windlestraws ', 239
Wine, adulteration of, in Rome,
147
Wiseman, Cardinal, 15-16, 61
* Woe worth ', 100
Woods, Mrs., 72-3, 161
Wordsworth, 218, 250, 262
Wormwood Star, 261-2
Yellow Book, xi., xii., xviii.-xix.,
xx.-xxi., 275-8. See also E.L.
andO.Y.B.
1 Yellow-haired beauties ' in B., 79
Zampini-Salazar's La Vita e le
opere di R. B. ed E. B.-B.,
29, 115, 162, 198, 273, 275
THE END
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