SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

The present volume may best be supplemented by the reading of one or more of Browning's longer poems. Of these, Pippa Passes will naturally be chosen first, followed by A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, In a Balcony, and Colombe's Birthday. The two volumes of selections made by Browning himself contain most of his noteworthy shorter poems, down to 1880.

The standard editions of Browning are published by Smith, Elder & Co., - the complete works in seventeen volumes, and Browning's selections in one volume. The complete works are also published in one volume in "The Cambridge Poets" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). An American edition. of Browning's selections, with notes by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, is published by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

For the biography of Browning the best authorities are the Life and Letters, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr (Smith, Elder & Co.); The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Harpers); Robert Browning, Personalia, by Edmund Gosse (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). The life by Professor Edward Dowden (Dent & Co.) is the most satisfactory biography. Short lives by William Sharp and G. K. Chesterton may be found respectively in the Great Writer series (Walter Scott & Co.) and the English Men of Letters series (The Macmillan Company). Two articles by Katherine C. Bronson-"Browning in Asolo," The Century, volume 59, and "Browning in Venice," The Cornhill Magazine, new series, volume 12 — give interesting accounts of Brown

ing's later years. Of introductions and hand-books to Browning there are many, among which the following may be mentioned:

A Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning. Mrs. Sutherland Orr (Bell & Co.).

An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry. Hiram Corson (Heath & Co.).

An Introduction to the Study of Browning. Arthur Symons (Cassell & Co.).

An Introduction to the Poetry of Robert Browning. W. J. Alexander (Ginn & Co.).

The Browning Cyclopaedia. Edward Berdoe (Swan, Sonnenschein & Co.).

The Poetry of Robert Browning. Stopford A. Brooke (Crowell).

Of essays upon aspects of Browning's work it is possible to mention only a few of the more valuable, as follows:

Walter Bagehot: "Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning, or pure, ornate, and grotesque art in English Poetry," in Literary Studies, Vol. II. (Longmans, Green & Co.).

John Jay Chapman, in Emerson and other Essays (Scribners).

Joseph Jacobs, in Literary Studies (Nutt).

Hugh Walker, in The Greater Victorian Poets (Swan, Sonnenschein & Co.).

E. C. Stedman, in Victorian Poets.

Augustine Birrell, "On the Alleged Obscurity in Mr. Browning's Poetry," in Obiter Dicta, Vol. I. (Scribners).

"Robert Browning," in Essays and Addresses (Scribners). Edward Dowden, " Mr. Tennyson and Mr. Browning," in Studies in Literature.

C. C. Everett, in "Essays Theological and Literary (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.).

Sir Leslie Stephen, "The Browning Letters," in Studies of a Biographer, Vol. III. (Duckworth).

G. E. Woodberry, in Makers of Literature (Scribners).

K

I

ENTISH Sir Byng stood for his King,

Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing:

And, pressing a troop unable to stoop

And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop,
Marched them along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.

IJ

God for King Charles! Pym and such carles

To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous parles!

Cavaliers, up! Lips from the cup,

Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup

Till you 're

IC

(Chorus) Marching along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.

III

Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knell

Serve Hazelrig, Fiennes, and young Harry as well!
England, good cheer! Rupert is near !

Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here,

(Chorus) Marching along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song?

IV

Then, God for King Charles! Pym and his snarls
To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles!
Hold by the right, you double your might;
So, onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight,

20

(Chorus) March we along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!

II

GIVE A ROUSE

I

KING CHARLES, and who 'll do him right now?
King Charles, and who 's ripe for fight now?
Give a rouse : here's, in hell's despite now,
King Charles!

II

Who gave me the goods that went since?
Who raised me the house that sank once?
Who helped me to gold I spent since ?

Who found me in wine you drank once?

(Chorus) King Charles, and who'll do him right now?

King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now? 10
Give a rouse: here's, in hell's despite now,

King Charles!

III

To whom used my boy George quaff else,

By the old fool's side that begot him?
For whom did he cheer and laugh else,

While Noll's damned troopers shot him?

(Chorus) King Charles, and who'll do him right now?
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now?

Give a rouse: here's, in hell's despite now,
King Charles!

20