The Browning Cyclopaedia Part 16

Man has Forever."

Deeper he bent over his books, racked by the stone (_calculus_): bronchitis (_tussis_) attacked him; but still he refused to rest. He had a sacred thirst. He magnified the mind, and let the body decay uncared for.

That he long lived nameless, that he even failed, was nothing to him. He wanted no payment by instalment; he could afford to wait, and thus even in the death-struggle he "ground at grammar." And so where the

"Lightnings are loosened, Stars come and go!"

this lofty man was left "loftily lying."

NOTES.--_Hotis' business_, _Properly based Oun_, _Enc.l.i.tic De_, these are points in Greek grammar concerning which grammarians have written learned treatises.

=Greek Poems.= Mr. Browning had a peculiar power in rendering the ideas of the great Greek poets into strong resonant English verse. His lovely _Balaustion's Adventure_, the fascinating and picturesque _Aristophanes'

Apology_, with the _Herakles_ of Euripides, and the rough, robust, and perhaps over-literal _Agamemnon_ of aeschylus, at once proclaim the Greek scholar and the English master-poet. Some extracts from Professor Mahaffy's criticism of Mr. Browning's Greek translations are given below from his _History of Cla.s.sical Greek Literature_, vol. i. On the transcription of the _Agamemnon_ (p. 258): "Mr. Robert Browning has given us an over-faithful version from his matchless hand,--matchless, I conceive, in conveying the deeper spirit of the Greek poets. But, in this instance, he has outdone his original in ruggedness, owing to his excess of conscience as a translator" (p. 277). Mr. Browning has turned his genius for reproducing Greek plays upon this masterpiece, and has given a version which will probably not permit the rest [Miss Anna Swanwick's, Mr.

Morshead's, etc.] to maintain their well-earned fame, though it is in itself so difficult that the Greek original is often required for translating his English. I confess that, even with this aid, which shows the extraordinary faithfulness of the work, I had preferred a more Anglicised version from his master-hand." On the transcription of _Alcestis_ (p. 329): "By far the best translation is Mr. Browning's, in his _Balaustion's Adventure_; but it is much to be regretted that he did not render the choral odes into lyric verse. No one has more thoroughly appreciated the mean features of _Admetus and Pheres_, and their dramatic propriety" (note, p. 335). On the transcription of _The Raging Hercules_ (p. 348): "We can now recommend the admirable translation in Mr.

Browning's _Aristophanes' Apology_, as giving English readers a thoroughly faithful idea of this splendid play. The choral odes are, moreover, done justice to, and translated into adequate metre--in this, an improvement on the _Alcestis_, to which I have already referred." Speaking afterwards, of the _Helena_ of Euripides, Mr. Mahaffy remarks (p. 353): "The choral odes are quite in the poet's later style, full of those repet.i.tions of words which Aristophanes derides,"--and he adds in a note: "Mr. Browning has not failed to reproduce this Euripidean feature with great art and admirable effect in his version of the _Herakles_."... p. 466: "Nothing is more cleverly ridiculed [in _Aristophanes_] than those repet.i.tions of the same word which occur in the pathetic lyrical pa.s.sages of Euripides. The modern poet, who best understands Euripides, has followed his example in this point:--

'Dances, dances, and banqueting, To Thebes, the sacred city, through Are a care! for change and change Of tears and laughter, old to new, Our lays, glad birth, they bring, they bring.'

_Aristophanes' Apology_, p. 266.

There are many more instances in this version of the _Hercules Furens_.

This allusion to Mr. Browning suggests the remark that he has treated the controversy between Euripides and Aristophanes with more learning and ability than all other critics, in his '_Aristophanes' Apology_,' which is, by the way, an '_Euripides Apology_' also, if such be required in the present day."

=Guardian Angel, The: A Picture at Fano.= (_Men and Women_, 1855; _Lyrics_, 1863.) Fano is a city of Italy in the province of Urbino-e-Pasaro. It is situated on the sh.o.r.es of the Adriatic, in a fertile plain at the mouth of the Metauro. Its population in 1871 was 6439. The splendid tombs of the Malatestas are contained in the church of St. Francesco. The cathedral and other churches possess valuable pictures by Domenichino, Guido, etc. The picture referred to in the poem is in the church of St. Augustine. It was painted by Guercino (so called from his squinting), properly called Giovanni Frances...o...b..rbieri, who was born at Cento, near Bologna, in 1590. His first style was formed after that of the Carracci; he fell later under the influence of Caravaggio, whose strong colouring and shadows greatly impressed his mind. The n.o.bles and princes of Italy, and his brother artists, very highly esteemed Guercino's work, and they cla.s.sed him in the first rank of painters. He worked very rapidly, completing 106 large altar-pieces for churches, besides 144 other pictures. His greatest work is said to be his Sta. Petronilla, which is now in the Capitol at Rome. Guercino died in 1666, having ama.s.sed a large fortune by his labours. There is a good photograph of L'Angelo Custode, in the _Ill.u.s.trations to Browning's Poems_, part i., published by the Browning Society. An angel with wings outspread is standing in a protecting att.i.tude by a little child, and the angel's left arm embraces the infant, while the right hand encloses the hands of the child clasped in prayer. Cherubs look down from the clouds. In Guercino's first sketch of his Angel and Child, the angel points to heaven with his left hand, while he enfolds the child's hands with his right. Mr. Browning was staying at Ancona. He was greatly impressed by the picture, and forgetting that we all have a guardian angel, overlooked his own, and prayed, good Protestant as he was, to Guercino's angel to protect and direct him when he had done with the child. He, however, recognised Mrs. Browning as his own guardian angel, and with her went three times to see the painting. The Alfred referred to in Stanza vi. was Mr. Alfred Dommett, the Waring of the poem of that name. Mr. Dommett was then in New Zealand, by the Wairoa river of Stanza viii. Not only the consolatory doctrine of Holy Scripture and the Church as to the ministry of angels, but the soothing and elevating influence of religious art in conveying what words would fail to teach half so impressively, are well emphasised by Mr. Browning's poem.

The beautiful figure "Bird of G.o.d" is from Dante (_Purgatorio_, Canto iv.).

=Guelfs and Ghibellines.= (_Sordello._) The poem of _Sordello_ is so full of references to the wars between the Guelfs and Ghibellines, that a knowledge of the origin of this celebrated feud will help to throw light on some paragraphs in the poem. Longfellow, in his notes to Dante's _Inferno_, gives the story:--"The following account of the Guelfs and Ghibellines is from the _Pecorone_ of Giovanni Fiorentino, a writer of the fourteenth century. It forms the first Novella of the Eighth Day, and will be found in Roscoe's _Italian Novelists_, i. 322. 'There formerly resided in Germany two wealthy and well-born individuals, whose names were Guelfo and Ghibellino, very near neighbours, and greatly attached to each other.

But returning together one day from the chase, there unfortunately arose some difference of opinion as to the merits of one of their hounds, which was maintained on both sides so very warmly that, from being almost inseparable friends and companions, they became each other's deadliest enemies. This unlucky division between them still increasing, they on either side collected parties of their followers, in order more effectually to annoy each other. Soon extending its malignant influence among the neighbouring lords and barons of Germany, who divided, according to their motives, either with the Guelf or the Ghibelline, it not only produced many serious affrays, but several persons fell victims to its rage. Ghibellino, finding himself hard pressed by his enemy, and unable longer to keep the field against him, resolved to apply for a.s.sistance to Frederick I., the reigning emperor. Upon this, Guelfo, perceiving that his adversary sought the alliance of this monarch, applied on his side to Pope Honorius II., who being at variance with the former, and hearing how the affair stood, immediately joined the cause of the Guelfs, the emperor having already embraced that of the Ghibellines. It is thus that the apostolic see became connected with the former, and the empire with the latter faction; and it was thus that a vile hound became the origin of a deadly hatred between the two n.o.ble families. Now, it happened that in the year of our dear Lord and Redeemer 1215, the same pestiferous spirit spread itself into parts of Italy, in the following manner. Messer Guido Orlando being at that time chief magistrate of Florence, there likewise resided in that city a n.o.ble and valiant cavalier of the family of Buondelmonti, one of the most distinguished houses in the state. Our young Buondelmonte having already plighted his troth to a lady of the Amidei family, the lovers were considered as betrothed, with all the solemnity usually observed on such occasions. But this unfortunate young man, chancing one day to pa.s.s by the house of the Donati, was stopped and accosted by a lady of the name of Lapaccia, who moved to him from her door as he went along, saying: "I am surprised that a gentleman of your appearance, Signor, should think of taking for his wife a woman scarcely worthy of handing him his boots. There is a child of my own, whom, to speak sincerely, I have long intended for you, and whom I wish you would just venture to see." And on this she called out for her daughter, whose name was Ciulla, one of the prettiest and most enchanting girls in all Florence. Introducing her to Messer Buondelmonte, she whispered, "This is she whom I have reserved for you"; and the young Florentine, suddenly becoming enamoured of her, thus replied to her mother, "I am quite ready, Madonna, to meet your wishes"; and before stirring from the spot he placed a ring upon her finger, and, wedding her, received her there as his wife.

The Amidei, hearing that young Buondelmonte had thus espoused another, immediately met together, and took counsel with other friends and relations, how they might best avenge themselves for such an insult offered to their house. There were present among the rest Lambertuccio Amidei, Schiatta Ruberti, and Mosca Lamberti, one of whom proposed to give him a box on the ear, another to strike him in the face; yet they were none of them able to agree about it among themselves. On observing this, Mosca hastily arose, in a great pa.s.sion, saying, "Cosa fatta capo ha,"

wis.h.i.+ng it to be understood that a dead man will never strike again. It was therefore decided that he should be put to death, a sentence which they proceeded to execute in the following manner: M. Buondelmonte returning one Easter morning from a visit to the Casa Bardi, beyond the Arno, mounted upon a snow-white steed, and dressed in a mantle of the same colour, had just reached the foot of the Ponte Vecchio, or old bridge, where formerly stood a statue of Mars, whom the Florentines in their pagan state were accustomed to wors.h.i.+p, when the whole party issued out upon him, and, dragging him in the scuffle from his horse, in spite of the gallant resistance he made, despatched him with a thousand wounds. The tidings of this affair seemed to throw all Florence into confusion; the chief personages and n.o.blest families in the place everywhere meeting, and dividing themselves into parties in consequence; the one party embracing the cause of the Buondelmonti, who placed themselves at the head of the Guelfs; and the other taking part with the Amidei, who supported the Ghibellines. In the same fatal manner, nearly all the seigniories and cities of Italy were involved in the original quarrel between these two German families: the Guelfs still supporting the interests of the Holy Church, and the Ghibellines those of the Emperor. And thus I have made you acquainted with the history of the Germanic faction, between two n.o.ble houses, for the sake of a vile cur, and have shown how it afterwards disturbed the peace of Italy for the sake of a beautiful woman.'"

=Gwendolen Tresham.= (_A Blot in the 'Scutcheon._) The cousin of Mildred Tresham.

=Gypsy.= (_The Flight of the d.u.c.h.ess._) The old crone who is sent by the Duke to frighten the d.u.c.h.ess, and who rescues her from her unhappy life.

=Hakeem= or =Hakem.= (_Return of the Druses._) He was the chief of the Druses. The first hakeem was the Fatimite Caliph B'amr-ellah. He professed to be the incarnate deity. He was slain near Cairo, in Egypt, on Mount Makattam.

=Halbert and Hob.= (_Dramatic Idyls_, First Series, 1879.) Two men, father and son, of brutal type, and the last of their line, are sitting quarrelling one Christmas night in their homestead. High words, followed by taunts and curses, led to an attack on the father by his furious son, who flew at his throat with the intention of casting him out in the snow.

The father was strong and could have held his own in the scuffle, but suddenly all power left him: he was struck mute. This still more enraged the son, who pulled him from the room till they reached the house-door-sill. Slowly the father found utterance and told his son that on just such a Christmas night long ago he had attacked his father in a similar manner and had dragged him to the same spot, when he was arrested by a voice in his heart. "I stopped here; and, Hob, do you the same!" The son relaxed his hold of his father's throat, and both returned upstairs, where they remained in silence. At dawn the father was dead, the son insane. "Is there a reason in nature for these hard hearts?" Certainly there is, says the mental pathologist. Persons born with such and such cranial and cerebral characteristics cannot help being brutal and criminal. They are handicapped heavily by nature from the hour of their birth, and they only follow out a law of their development, for which they are not responsible when they become criminal. The mental pathologist would have no difficulty in drawing the portraits of Halbert and Hob.

There is a monotony and family likeness in the criminal physiognomy which does not require an expert to detect. When a specialist such as Dr. Down goes over a great prison like Broadmoor, he has no difficulty in indicating for us the precise aberrations from the normal type which distinguish between the honest man and the criminal. This would be a terrible reflection on the Divine providence, if we omitted to take into account the pregnant last line of Mr. Browning's poem:

"That a reason out of nature must turn them soft, seems clear."

As Nature is never without her compensations, so there is a reason above all our materialism, our facial angles, our oxycephalic and our microcephalic heads which justifies the ways of G.o.d to men. Doctors are slow to recognise this, but judges always act upon the principle. Experts in criminal pathology find responsibility with great difficulty in the men they are endeavouring to save from the gallows. The judge, however, keeps to the common-sense rule that if the criminal knew that he was doing what he ought not to do, he is responsible before the law for his crime.

Halbert heard the voice in his heart--Hob relaxed his hold of the father's throat. Conscience rules supreme even over heredity and cerebral aberration. The basis of this story is found in Aristotle's _Ethics_, I., vii., c. 6.

="Heap Ca.s.sia, Sandal-buds, and Stripes."= The first line of the song in _Paracelsus_ iv.

=Helen's Tower.= Lines written at the request of the Earl of Dufferin and Clandeboye, on the tower which the Earl erected to the memory of his mother, Helen, Countess of Giffard. (Printed in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, Dec. 28th, 1883.)

=Henry, Earl Mertoun.= (_A Blot in the 'Scutcheon._) He was Mildred Tresham's lover, and was killed by her brother, Earl Tresham.

=Herakles= == Hercules, who wrestles with death, conquers him, and restores Alkestis to her husband, in _Balaustion's Adventure_. The _Raging Hercules_ of Euripides, which Balaustion read to Aristophanes, is translated by Mr. Browning in the volume _Aristophanes' Apology_.

=Heretic's Tragedy, The; A Middle-Age Interlude.= (_Men and Women_, 1855; _Romances_, 1863; _Dramatic Romances_, 1868.) "It would seem to be a glimpse from the burning of Jacques du Bourg Molay, at Paris, A.D. 1314; as distorted by the refraction from Flemish brain to brain during the course of a couple of centuries." [THE HISTORY.] Molay was Grand Master of the order of the Knights Templars, suppressed by a decree of Pope Clement V. and the general council of Vienne, in 1312. The Knights Templars were inst.i.tuted by seven gentlemen at Jerusalem, in 1118, to defend the holy places and pilgrims from the insults of the Saracens, and to keep the pa.s.ses free for such as undertook the voyage to the Holy Land. They took their name from the first house, which was given them by King Baldwin II., situated near the place where anciently the temple of Solomon stood. By the liberality of princes, immense riches suddenly flowed to this Order, by which the knights were puffed up to a degree of insolence which rendered them insupportable even to the kings who had been their protectors; and Philip the Fair, king of France, resolved to compa.s.s their ruin. They were accused of treasons and conspiracies with the infidels, and of other enormous crimes, which occasioned the suppression of the Order. The year following, the Grand Master, who was a Frenchman, was burnt at Paris, and several others suffered death, though they all with their last breath protested their innocence as to the crimes that were laid to their charge. These were certainly much exaggerated by their enemies, and doubtless many innocent men were involved with the guilty. A great part of their estates was given to the Knights of Rhodes or Malta.

(_Butler's Lives of the Saints--sub_ May 5.) For half a century before the suppression of the Order, horrible stories about various unholy rites practised at its midnight a.s.semblies had been in circulation. It was said that every member on his initiation was compelled to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, to spit upon and trample under foot a crucifix, and submit to certain indecent ceremonies. It was charged against them that hideous four-footed idols were wors.h.i.+pped, and other things too terrible to narrate were said to be done at these a.s.semblies. Whether these things were true or not, has been hotly disputed ever since the accusations were made. The spitting on the cross seems, at any rate in France, to have been admitted by the accused; many of the worst things confessed were admitted under the most cruel tortures, and are consequently more likely to have been false than true. In Carlyle's essay on the "Life and Writings of Werner" (_Critical and Miscellaneous Essays_, vol. i., p. 66: 1888), the whole story of these mysterious rites is discussed. After several pages of quotations from Werner's drama _The Templars in Cyprus_, Carlyle says, "One might take this trampling on the Cross, which is said to have been actually enjoined on every Templar at his initiation, to be a type of his secret behest to undermine that inst.i.tution (the Catholic Church) and redeem the spirit of religion from the state of thraldom and distortion under which it was there held. It is known at least, and was well known to Werner, that the heads of the Templars entertained views, both on religion and politics, which they did not think meet for communicating to their age, and only imparted by degrees, and under mysterious adumbrations, to the wiser of their own order. They had even publicly resisted, and succeeded in thwarting, some iniquitous measure of Philippe Auguste, the French king, in regard to his coinage; and this, while it secured them the love of the people, was one great cause, perhaps second only to their wealth, of the hatred which that sovereign bore them, and of the savage doom which he at last executed on the whole body."

[THE POEM.] The Abbot Deodaet and his monks are singing in the choir of their church about the burning alive of the Master of the Temple two hundred years before. He has sinned the unknown sin, and sold the influence of the Order to the Mohammedan. In a graphic and lurid manner they picture the details of the execution. They have no pity for the victim, and seem to be gloating over his sufferings. They imagine that the victim calls in his agony on the Saviour whom he forsook and traitorously sold; he cries now "Saviour, save Thou me!" The Face upon which he had spat, the Face on the crucifix which he trampled upon, is revealed to the burning man feature by feature; he now sees his awful Judge, his voice dies, and John's soul flares into the dark. Said the Abbot, "G.o.d help all poor souls lost in the dark!"

NOTES.--i., _Organ: plagal cadence_. The cadence formed when a subdominant chord immediately precedes the final tonic chord. ii., _Emperor Aldabrod_, probably the family name of one of the Greek emperors, but I can find nothing about him. _Sultan Saladin_, of Egypt and Syria, whose portrait is so faithfully drawn by Sir Walter Scott, in _The Talisman_. _Pope Clement V._ (1305-14). Platina, in his life of this Pope, says only a few words on the Templars: "He took off the Templars, who were fallen into very great errors (as denying Christ, etc.), and gave their goods to the Knights of Jerusalem"; _clavicithern_: an upright musical instrument like a harpsichord. iv., _Laudes_: a Catholic service a.s.sociated with _Matins_.

It consists, amongst other devotions, of five Psalms. vi., _Salva reverentia_: "saving reverence," like the "saving your presence" of the Irishman. vii., _Sharon's Rose: Solomon's Song_, ii. 1. The rose was the symbol of secrecy. viii., _leman_: a sweetheart of either s.e.x.

=Herve Riel.= (Published in the _Cornhill Magazine_, March 1871. Browning received 100 for it, which sum he gave to the Paris Relief Fund, to provide food for the starving people after the siege of Paris. Published in the _Pacchiarotto_ volume in 1876.) The story told in the poem is strictly historical. Herve Riel was a Breton sailor of Le Croisic, who, after the great naval battle of La Hogue in 1692, saved the remains of the French fleet by skilfully piloting the s.h.i.+ps through the shallows of the Rance, and thereby preventing their capture by the English. For this splendid service he was permitted to ask whatever reward he chose to name.

The brave Breton asked merely for a whole day's holiday, that he might visit his wife, the Belle Aurore. Dr. Furnivall says: "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. The war between Louis XIV. and William III. was undertaken by the former with the object of restoring James II. to the English throne. Admiral Turnville engaged the English fleet off Cape La Hogue, and thereby wrecked the French fleet and the cause of James. Apropos of Herve Riel, Mr. Kenneth Grahame says (_Browning Society's Papers_, March 30th, 1883, p. 68*): 'In Rabelais' _Pantagruel_, lib. IV., cap. xxi., Panurge says, '... quelque fille de roy ... me fera exiger quelque magnificque cenotaphe, comme feit Dido a son mary Sychee; ... Germain de Brie a Herve, le nauctrier Breton,'

etc. Then a note says, 'En 1515, dans un combat naval, le Breton Herve Primoguet, qui commandoit _la Cordeliere_, attacha son navire en feu au vaisseau amiral ennemi _la Regente d'Angleterre_, et se fit sauter avec lui. Germain de Brie ou Brice (_Brixius_) qui celebra ce trait heroique dans un poeme latin, etoit un des amis de Rabelais.' This was a forerunner of Browning's hero. The coincidence of names, etc., is curious."

=Hippolytos.= (See ARTEMIS PROLOGIZES.) The _Hippolytus_ of Euripides is the chaste wors.h.i.+pper of Diana (Artemis), who will give no heed to Venus.

His step-mother Phaedra loves him, and kills herself when she discovers he will not succ.u.mb to her attentions.

=Hohenstiel-Schw.a.n.gau.= See PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHw.a.n.gAU.

=Holy-Cross Day= [On which the Jews were forced to attend an annual Christian Sermon in Rome]. (_Men and Women_, 1855; _Romances_, 1863; _Dramatic Romances_, 1868.)--[THE HISTORY.] Holy Cross Day, or the Festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, falls on September 14th annually. It is kept in commemoration of the alleged miraculous appearance of the Cross to Constantine in the sky at midday. The discovery of the True Cross by St. Helen gave the first occasion of the festival, which was celebrated under the t.i.tle of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14th, both by the Latins and Greeks, as early as in the fifth or sixth centuries at Jerusalem, from the year 335. (See for the history of the festival Butler's _Lives of the Saints_, under September 14th.) The particular details of this poem are not historical, but it is quite true that such a sermon was preached to Jews from time to time, and that they were driven to church to listen to it. A papal bull, issued in 1584, formerly compelled the Jews to hear sermons at the church of _St. Angelo in Pescheria_, close to the Jewish quarter. The Pescheria or fish market adjoins the Ghetto, the quarter allotted to the Jews by Paul IV. This pope compelled the Jews to wear yellow head-gear; and, among other oppressive exactions, they had to provide the prizes for the horse-races at the Carnival. In a note at the end of the poem Mr. Browning says, "The late Pope abolished this bad business of the Sermon." The conduct of the popes towards the Jews varied according to the policy or humanity in the character of the pontiff. "In 1442 Eugenius IV. deprived them of one of their most valuable privileges, and endeavoured to interrupt their amicable relations with the Christians: they were prohibited from eating and drinking together. Jews were excluded from almost every profession, were forced to wear a badge, to pay t.i.thes; and Christians were forbidden to bequeath legacies to Jews. The succeeding popes were more wise or more humane. In Naples the celebrated Abarbanel became the confidential adviser of Ferdinand the b.a.s.t.a.r.d and Alphonso II.; they experienced a reverse, and were expelled from that city by Charles V. The stern and haughty Pope Paul IV. renewed the hostile edicts; he endeavoured to embarra.s.s their traffic by regulations which prohibited them from disposing of their pledges under eighteen months; deprived them of the trade in corn and in every other necessary of life, but left them the privilege of dealing in old clothes.

Paul first shut them up in their Ghetto, a confined quarter of the city, out of which they were prohibited from appearing after sunset. Pius IV.

relaxed the severity of his predecessor. He enlarged the Ghetto, and removed the restriction on their commerce. Pius V. expelled them from every city in the papal territory except Rome and Ancona; he endured them in those cities with the avowed design of preserving their commerce with the East. Gregory XIII. pursued the same course: a bull was published, and suspended at the gate of the Jews' quarter, prohibiting the reading of the Talmud, blasphemies against Christ, or ridicule against the ceremonies of the Church. All Jews above twelve years old were bound to appear at the regular sermons delivered for their conversion; where it does not seem, notwithstanding the authority of the pope and the eloquence of the cardinals, that their behaviour was very edifying. At length the bold and statesmanlike s.e.xtus V. annulled at once all the persecuting or vexatious regulations of his predecessors, opened the gates of every city in the ecclesiastical dominions to these enterprising traders, secured and enlarged their privileges, proclaimed toleration of their religion, subjected them to the ordinary tribunals, and enforced a general and equal taxation." (Milman's _History of the Jews_, book xxvii.)

[THE POEM.] Part of the satire of the poem is in the fict.i.tious extract from the _Diary by the Bishop's Secretary_, 1600, prefixed to it. The Bishop looks upon the matter as though he were compelling the Jews to come in and partake of the gospel feast; he flatters himself that many conversions have taken place in consequence of the enforcement of this law, and that the Church was conferring a great blessing on the Jews by permitting them to partake of the heavenly grace. What the Jews themselves thought of the business is told in the poem. The speaker describes the crowding of the church by the Israelites, packed like rats in a hamper or pigs in a stye; to the life the poet hits off the behaviour of the wretched audience, compelled to listen to that which they abhorred, and to pretend to be converted, and to affect compunction and interest in doctrines which they detested. Then the most serious part of the poem begins: the speaker complains that the hand which gutted his purse would throttle his creed, and for reward the men whom he has helped to their sins would help him to their G.o.d; then the pathos deepens, and while the pretended converts are going through the farce of acknowledging their conversion in the sacristy, the speaker meditates on Rabbi Ben Ezra's _Song of Death_. The night the Jewish saint died he called his family round him and said their nation in one point only had sinned, and he invokes Christ if indeed He really were the Messiah, and they had given Him the cross when they should have bestowed the crown, to have pity on them and protect them from the followers of His teaching, whose life laughs through and spits at their creed. Perhaps, indeed, they withstood Christ then: it is at least Barabbas they withstand now! Let Rome make amends for Calvary. Let Him remember their age-long torture, the infamy, the Ghetto, the garb, the badge, the branding tool and scourge, and this summons to conversion; by withstanding this they are but trying to wrest Christ's name from the devil's crew.

=Home, D. D.=: the Spiritualist medium. See MR. SLUDGE THE MEDIUM.

=Home Thoughts from Abroad.= (Published in _Dramatic Romances and Lyrics_, in _Bells and Pomegranates_, VII., 1845.) In praise of all the mighty ravishment of our English spring, and the lovely sister months April and May,--

"May flowers bloom before May comes, To cheer, a little, April's sadness."

And nowhere, surely, are these months so delightful as in England!

Melon-flowers do not make up "for the b.u.t.tercups, the little children's dower." In many parts of Southern Europe the trees have all been ruthlessly cut down, lest they should harbour birds. The absence of our hedgerows does much to mar the beauty of a Continental landscape in spring.

=Home Thoughts from the Sea.= (_Dramatic Romances and Lyrics_, in _Bells and Pomegranates_, VII., 1845.) Patriotic reflections on pa.s.sing the Bay of Trafalgar by one who, remembering how here England helped the Englishmen, asks himself "How can I help England?"

=House.= (_Pacchiarotto, with other Poems_: 1876.) If we accept Shakespeare's Sonnets in their natural sense, as the best authorities say we must, they open up to the public gaze pa.s.sages in the life of the great poet which those who love an ideal Shakespeare would rather have not known. If, says Mr. Browning in the poem, Shakespeare unlocked his heart with a sonnet-key, the less Shakespeare he! For his own part, he will do nothing of the sort; and, though probably few men led purer and holier lives from youth to manhood than Mr. Browning, he declines to admit the vulgar gaze of the public into the secret chambers of his soul. In earthquakes, indeed, the fronts of houses often fall, and expose the private arrangements of the home to the impertinent observation of the pa.s.ser-by. In earthquakes this cannot be helped; but a writer may keep his secrets to himself till an imprudent biographer gets hold of them to make "copy" of. As a fact, all that the world is really concerned with in Mr. Browning's life and opinions can be gathered "by the spirit-sense"

from his works. The main idea of the poem is very similar to that of _At the Mermaid_.

=Householder, The.= (_Fifine at the Fair._) The Epilogue to the poem, telling how Don Juan is at last united to his wife Elvire by death.

=How it strikes a Contemporary.= (_Men and Women_: 1855.) The faculty of observation is essential both to the poet and the spy. Lavater said that "he alone is an acute observer who can observe minutely without being observed." The poet of Valladolid was mistaken by the vulgar mob for an agent of the Government, because they were always catching him taking "such cognisance of men and things." His picture is sketched in a very few lines; but these are sufficient to show us the very man, in his scrutinising hat, crossing the Plaza Mayor of the dull and deserted city, in which there was--one would think--as little life to interest a poet as to employ a spy. We soon get to feel that the poet-evidences in the man's behaviour should have been sufficiently strong to save him from the reproaches of his neighbours. The dog at his heels, the note he took of any cruelty towards animals or cursing of a woman, the interest in men's simple trades, the poring over bookstalls, reveal to us the image of his soul. However, his fellow-citizens in all these things thought they had evidence of a chief inquisitor; and in the land of Spain, which for many centuries cowered under the shadow of the most terrible weapon ever forged against the liberties of man, inquisition and espionage were in the air.

Men were better judges of spies than of poets; they were more familiar with them. So it was set down in their minds that all their doings were sent by this recording prowler to the king. All the mysteries of the town were traced to his influence: A's surprising fate, B's disappearing, C's mistress, all were traced to this "man about the streets." But it was not true, says the contemporary, that if you tracked the inquisitor home you would find him revelling in luxury. On the contrary, his habits were simple and abstemious; at ten he went to bed, after a modest repast and a quiet game of cribbage with his maid. And when the poor, mysterious man came to die in the clean garret, whose sides were lined by an invisible guard who came to relieve him, there was no more need for that old coat which had seen so much service. How suddenly the angels change the fas.h.i.+on of our dress--and how much better they understand us than do our neighbours!

=How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.= (_Dramatic Romances and Lyrics_, in _Bells and Pomegranates_, 1845.) There is no actual basis in history for the incidents of this poem, though there is no doubt that in the war in the Netherlands such an adventure was likely enough. Three men go off on horseback at their hardest, at moonset, from the city of Ghent, to save their town--through Boom, and Duffeld, Mecheln, Aerschot, Ha.s.selt, Looz, Tongres, and Dalhem, to the ancient city of Aix. The hero of the work was the good horse Roland, who was voted the last measure of wine the city had left. Two of the horses dropped dead on the road, and the n.o.ble Roland, bearing "the whole weight of the news," with blind, distended eyes and nostrils, fell just as he reached the market-place of Aix, resting his head between the knees of his master.