Selections From The Poems And Plays Of Robert Browning Part 47

HERVe RIEL

This poem was written during Browning's second visit to Le Croisic in Brittany, in September, 1867. It was published in _The Cornhill Magazine_, March, 1871, the proceeds of one hundred guineas being sent by Browning to the Paris Relief Fund, to provide food for the people after the siege of Paris. The story is historic. Mrs. Lemoyne, in 1884, read "Herve Riel" to Browning and he then told her that it was his custom to learn all about the heroes and legends of any town that he stopped in and that he had thus, in going over the records of the town of St. Malo, come upon the story of Herve Riel, which he narrated just as it happened in 1692, except that in reality the hero had a life holiday. "The facts of the story had been forgotten, and were denied at St. Malo; but the reports of the French Admiralty were looked up, and the facts established." (Dr. Furnivall quoted in Berdoe, _Browning Cyclopaedia_.)

"GOOD TO FORGIVE"

This little poem was written and printed as the Prologue to _La Saisiaz_ in 1878, but in the _Selections_ it appeared as No. 3 of "Pisgah-Sights."

"SUCH A STARVED BANK OF MOSS"

Prefatory stanzas to _The Two Poets of Croisic_.

EPILOGUE TO THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC

This fate of the musician and the cricket has the same fundamental idea as the prefatory stanzas, the power of love to soften what is gruff and brighten what is somber in life.

64. _Music's son._ Goethe. The "Lotte" of the next line, the heroine of Goethe's _Sorrows of Werther_, was modeled in part on Charlotte Buff, with whom Goethe was at one time in love.

PHEIDIPPIDES

[Greek: Chairete, nikomen.] Rejoice we conquer!

2. _Daemons._ In Greek mythology a superior order of beings between men and the G.o.ds.

4. _Her of the aegis and spear._ Athena, whose aegis was a scaly cloak or mantle bordered with serpents and bearing Medusa's head.

5. _Ye of the bow and the buskin._ Artemis or Diana, the huntress.

Ancient statues represent her as wearing shoes laced to the ankle.

8. _Pan._ The G.o.d of nature, half goat and half man. To him was ascribed the power of causing sudden fright by his voice and appearance. He came suddenly into the midst of the Persians on the field of Marathon--so the legend runs--and threw them into such a "panic" that, for this reason, they lost the battle.

9. _Archons of Athens, topped by the tettix._ _Archon._ One of the nine rulers of Athens. _Tettix._ A gra.s.shopper. "The Athenians sometimes wore golden gra.s.shoppers in their hair as badges of honor, because these insects are supposed to spring from the ground, and thus they showed they were sprung from the original inhabitants of the country." (Berdoe, _Browning Cyclopaedia_, p. 336.)

12. _Reach Sparta for aid._ The distance between Athens and Sparta is about 135 miles.

18. _Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth._ The Persians sent to those states which they wished to subject, messengers who were to ask earth and water as symbols of submission.

19. _Eretria._ An important city on the island of Euboea.

20. _h.e.l.las._ Greece.

38. _The moon, half-orbed._ Spartan troops finally came to Athens after the full moon.

47. _Filleted victim._ A victim whose head was decked with ribbons.

52. _Parnes._ Herodotus refers in this connection to the Parthenian mountain.

62. _Erebos._ Hades, the abode of shades or departed spirits.

83. _Fennel._ The Greek word Marathon means fennel.

89. _Miltiades._ One of the ten Athenian generals.

105. _Unforeseeing one._ The poet finishes the story, which he has. .h.i.therto allowed Pheidippides to tell for himself.

105. _Marathon day._ In the month of September, B. C. 490.

106. _Akropolis._ The stronghold of Athens.

MULeYKEH

The love of the Arab for his horse is traditional. "The story is a common one and seems adapted from a Bedouin's anecdote told in Rollo Springfield's _The Horse and His Rider_." (Berdoe, _Browning Cyclopaedia_, p. 280.)

WANTING IS--WHAT?

This poem is in the nature of a prelude to the group of poems published under the t.i.tle _Jocoseria_, 1883. Each poem in this volume shows the lack of some element that would have brought the human action or experience to perfection.

8. _Comer._ The invocation probably refers to the spirit of love with its inspiring, transforming power.

"NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE"

This poem was published in _Jocoseria_ in 1883. It is doubtless to be grouped with the poems that refer directly to Mrs. Browning.

THE PATRIOT

Browning says that this poem has no direct historical reference. He calls it "An Old Story," because in all ages men have experienced this unjust reversal of public approval. The poem is merely an imaginative, dramatic representation of the fickleness of popular favor.

INSTANS TYRANNUS

The t.i.tle of this poem means "Threatening Tyrant." It comes from Horace's "Ode on the Just Man," in _Odes_, III, 3, i. The just man is not frightened by the frown of the threatening tyrant--_non vullus instantis tyranni_. Archdeacon Farrar refers the incidents to persecution of the early Christians. The poem certainly deals with some period when the ruler of a great realm had unlimited power to follow out his most insignificant animosities, and when just men and just causes had no human recourse.

The general idea of the poem is clear and forcible, but there are many minor difficulties of interpretation.

6. _What was his force?_ An ironic question. The man groveled because he was powerless to resist, and (line 10) because resistance might bring even worse punishment.

11. _Were the object_, etc. If the man could be made rich, if his life could be crowded with pleasures, if there could be found relatives or friends whom he loved, then there would be obvious ways of hurting him, he would stand forth in sufficient importance to make the swing of the tyrant's hand effective. But as it is, the man's poverty and friendlessness and meagerness of life render it difficult to find out vulnerable points of attack. He remains hidden (_perdue_) and, like the midge of the egg of an insect (_nit_), is safe through his very insignificance.

21. _spilth._ That which is poured out profusely. The _flagon_ is a vessel with one handle and a long narrow neck or spout.