The Cambridge Edition of the Poets

EDITED BY HORACE E. SCUDDER

BROWNING

THE EDITOR

THE COMPLETE

POETIC AND DRAMATIC WORKS OF

ROBERT BROWNING

Cambridge Edition

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

The Riverside Edition of the Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning was published first in 1887. It included all the writings which the American publishers had from time to time brought out by arrangement with Mr. Browning or his representatives. A year later the English publishers issued a new and revised edition, whereupon the Riverside Edition was carefully compared with the author's latest revision and made to agree with it. There had grown up, moreover, about the writings a considerable body of comment and interpretation, and to facilitate the study and enjoyment of the poems, the American publishers engaged Mr. George Willis Cooke to prepare a Guide-Book which served as a very desirable accompaniment to the Riverside Edition of the works. They added also to the series, by arrangement with the English publishers, the authorized Life of the poet by Mrs. Sutherland Orr.

The ten volumes thus brought together furnish a complete Browning collection, but it has long been apparent that students and lovers of Browning would find it very convenient to have the complete works of their author in a single portable volume, and the plan of the Cambridge Edition so successfully applied to the poems of Longfellow and Whittier was adopted for this purpose. By a careful study of condensation with every regard for legibility it has been found possible to bring the entire body of Browning's work into a single volume, and to equip the edition with the requisite apparatus. The order of arrangement is chronological, with one or two obvious divergences. As in the other volumes of the Cambridge Edition, a biographical sketch introduces the work, brief head-notes chiefly pertaining to the origin of the respective poems have been supplied, drawn largely from Mr. Cooke's admirable volume, and a small body of pertinent notes of an explanatory character added, though the reader will readily see that the exigencies of the volume have compelled the editor to be very frugal in this respect. The appendix also contains the one notable piece of Browning's prose, a chronological list of his writings, and indexes of titles and first lines.

BOSTON, 4 PARK STREET, August 1, 1895.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ix

PAULINE: A FRAGMENT OF A CONFESSION 1

SONNET: "EYES, CALM BESIDE THEE, (LADY, COULDST THOU KNOW!)" 11

PARACELSUS. I. PARACELSUS ASPIRES 12 II. PARACELSUS ATTAINS 19 III. PARACELSUS 25 IV. PARACELSUS ASPIRES 34 V. PARACELSUS ATTAINS 40

STRAFFORD: A TRAGEDY 49

SORDELLO 74

PIPPA PASSES: A DRAMA 128

KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES: A TRAGEDY 145

DRAMATIC LYRICS. CAVALIER TUNES. I. MARCHING ALONG 163 II. GIVE A ROUSE 163 III. BOOT AND SADDLE 163 THE LOST LEADER 164 "HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX" 164 THROUGH THE METIDJA TO ABD-EL-KADR 165 NATIONALITY IN DRINKS 166 GARDEN FANCIES. I. THE FLOWER'S NAME 166 II. SIBRANDUS SCHAFNABURGENSIS 167 SOLILOQUY OF THE SPANISH CLOISTER 167 THE LABORATORY 168 THE CONFESSIONAL 169 CRISTINA 169 THE LOST MISTRESS 170 EARTH'S IMMORTALITIES 170 MEETING AT NIGHT 170 PARTING AT MORNING 170 SONG: "NAY BUT YOU, WHO DO NOT LOVE HER" 170 A WOMAN'S LAST WORD 171 EVELYN HOPE 171 LOVE AMONG THE RUINS 171 A LOVERS' QUARREL 172 UP AT A VILLA--DOWN IN THE CITY 174 A TOCCATA OF GALUPPI'S 175 OLD PICTURES IN FLORENCE 176 "DE GUSTIBUS--" 178 HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 179 HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA 179 SAUL 179 MY STAR 184 BY THE FIRESIDE 185 ANY WIFE TO ANY HUSBAND 187 TWO IN THE CAMPAGNA 189 MISCONCEPTIONS 189 A SERENADE AT THE VILLA 189 ONE WAY OF LOVE 190 ANOTHER WAY OF LOVE 190 A PRETTY WOMAN 190 RESPECTABILITY 191 LOVE IN A LIFE 191 LIFE IN A LOVE 191 IN THREE DAYS 192 IN A YEAR 192 WOMEN AND ROSES 193 BEFORE 193 AFTER 194 THE GUARDIAN-ANGEL 194 MEMORABILIA 195 POPULARITY 195 MASTER HUGUES OF SAXE-GOTHA 195

THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES 197

A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON 216

COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY 230

DRAMATIC ROMANCES. INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP 251 THE PATRIOT 251 MY LAST DUCHESS 252 COUNT GISMOND 252 THE BOY AND THE ANGEL 253 INSTANS TYRANNUS 254 MESMERISM 255 THE GLOVE 256 TIME'S REVENGES 258 THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND 258 THE ENGLISHMAN IN ITALY 260 IN A GONDOLA 262 WARING 264 THE TWINS 266 A LIGHT WOMAN 267 THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER 267 THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 268 THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS 271 A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL 279 THE HERETIC'S TRAGEDY 280 HOLY-CROSS DAY 281 PROTUS 283 THE STATUE AND THE BUST 283 PORPHYRIA'S LOVER 286 "CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME" 287

A SOUL'S TRAGEDY 289

LURIA 299

CHRISTMAS-EVE AND EASTER-DAY.

CHRISTMAS-EVE 316 EASTER-DAY 327

MEN AND WOMEN. "TRANSCENDENTALISM: A POEM IN TWELVE BOOKS" 335 HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY 336 ARTEMIS PROLOGIZES 337 AN EPISTLE, CONTAINING THE STRANGE MEDICAL EXPERIENCE OF KARSHISH, THE ARAB PHYSICIAN 338 JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION 341 PICTOR IGNOTUS 341 FRA LIPPO LIPPI 342 ANDREA DEL SARTO 346 THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB AT SAINT PRAXED'S CHURCH 348 BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY 349 CLEON 358 RUDEL TO THE LADY OF TRIPOLI 361 ONE WORD MORE 361

The Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning