THE LOST LEADER. 165 t THE LOST LEADER. There has been much idle discussion over the original of The Lost Leader. Wordsworth, Southey, Charles Kingsley, have all been assigned to the enviable (?) position of Mr. Browning's model. The following note from Mr. Browning ought to settle the matter. It is published in the Preface to a recent edition of Wordsworth's Prose: "19 WARWICK-Crescent, W., Feb. 24, '75. "DEAR MR. GROSART,-I have been asked the question you now address me with, and as duly answered it, I can't remember how many times; there is no sort of objection to one more assurance, or rather confession, on my part, that I did in my hasty youth presume to use the great and venerated personality of WORDSWORTH as a sort of painter's model; one from which this or the other particular feature may be selected and turned to account: had I intended more, above all, such a boldness as portraying the entire man, I should not have talked about 'handfuls of silver and bits of ribbon.' These never influenced the change of politics in the great poet; whose defection, nevertheless, accompanied as it was by a regular face-about of his special party, was to my juvenile apprehension, and even mature consideration, an event to deplore. But just as in the tapestry on my wall I can recognize figures which have struck out a fancy, on occasion, that though truly enough thus derived, yet would be preposterous as a copy, so, though I dare not deny the original of my little poem, I altogether refuse to have it considered as the 'very effigies' of such a moral and intellectual superiority. "Faithfully yours, ROBERT BROWNING." 20. Whom the rest bade aspire. The allusion is, of course, to the healthful discontent and aspiration which the Liberals tried to nourish among the lower classes. 23. One more devil's-triumph. The original reading was "One more triumph for devils." 30. Menace our heart, etc. The reading was originally "Aim at our heart ere we pierce through his own." good words THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB AT ST. PRAXED'S CHURCH. St. Praxedis (or Praxedes), the Virgin, was the daughter of Pudens, a Roman Senator, the friend of St. Paul (2 Tim. iv. 21). She lived till the time of Antoninus Pius, and was distinguished for her devotion, her simplicity, and her good works. An oratory is said to have been built above her grave in Rome by Pius I. in A.D. 499. This building was destroyed A.D. 822, and the present church erected by Paschal I. During the absence of the popes at Avignon it fell to ruin, but was restored by Nicholas V. in the 15th century, and by St. Charles Borromeo in 1564. The mosaics of the church are especially remarkable. All the stonework is of the rarest. The tribune is ascended by a flight of steps composed of large slabs of rosso antico. The pillars on each side of the high altar are of white marble beautifully carved with foliage. St. Praxed's Slab (on which she slept) is of nero-bianco granite. One of the chapels is entered by a doorway formed of two columns of the rare black porphyry and granite, supporting an elaborately sculptured frieze. The outer and inner walls are covered with mosaics. From their richness this chapel was called Orto del Paradiso, or the Garden of Paradise. It contains one of the most celebrated relics in Rome-the column to which Christ was bound. It is a curious fact that so elaborate a church should have risen in honor of a maiden whose distinguishing virtue was her simplicity. To complete the contrast, to-day no woman is allowed to enter this rich chapel except on Sundays in Lent. At other times they can only look into it through a grating. Opposite the side entrance to the Orto del Paradiso is the tomb of Cardinal Cetive (1474) with his sleeping figure, which reminds us of the Bishop's design for his tomb, whereon he is to "lie through centuries" (80 fol.). 3. Nephews-sons. Passing for the former, though really the latter. 5. Old Gandolf. The Bishop's predecessor and hated rival. 15. I fought, etc. Other great ecclesiastics have thus looked out for their final resting-place in advance. The late pope Pius IX., for example, prepared a mausoleum for himself in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore by constructing in front of and beneath the high altar a splendid chamber approached by broad stairways and lined with the most precious marbles and alabaster; but as his death approached he changed his mind and desired to be buried "with the poor" in San Lorenzo. 21. On the epistle-side. The right-hand side, as one faces the altar. 23. Aëry. Airy; a poetical word used by Keats and others, but rare. Milton has "aëry-light" in P. L. v. 4, and "More aëry" in Id. v. 481. 25. Basalt, a hard, fine-grained rock of volcanic origin. On a slab of this the recumbent statue of the Bishop is to be placed, with a tabernacle, or canopy, above him supported by columns of peach-blossom marble. 28. Anselm. His favourite son, then standing at the foot of his bed. 31. Onion-stone. Browning's translation of cipolin (Italian cipollino, properly a little onion, from cipolla, onion, so called because made up of different strata, one lying upon another), a greenish marble, containing white or greenish zones. "Our stupid habit of using foreign words without translation is continually losing us half the force of the foreign language. How many travellers hearing the term cipollino' recognize the intended sense of a stone splitting into concentric coats, like an onion ?" (Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. iv. p. 361.) 41. Olive-frail. A basket made of rushes, used for packing olives. 42. Lapis-lazuli. A beautiful stone of a bright blue color, much valued for ornamental work. It is found in rounded masses of a moderate size, like the Jew's-head here. 46. Frascati. A favorite resort, twelve miles from Rome, on the slope THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB. 167 of the Alban Hills. It was built in 1191 on the ruins of a villa overgrown with underwood (frasche), whence its name. 48. Like God the Father's globe, etc. In the great Jesuit church (I Gesù) in Rome, the altar of St. Ignatius is adorned with a group of the Trinity by Bernardino Ludovisi. The Father holds a globe, which is said to be the largest piece of lapis-lazuli in existence. 51. Swift as a weaver's shuttle, etc. Cf. Job, vii. 6. 54. Antique-black. "Nero-antico' is more familiar to our ears; but Browning does right in translating it, as ‘cipollino' into ‘onion-stone’ (Ruskin). See on 31 above. 55. My frieze to come beneath. That is, the sculptured upper part of the sides of the tomb, which is like an oblong box with the slab for a cover. This kind of tomb, with its recumbent statue, and with or without the elaborate canopy over it, is the most common type of funeral monument in European churches. 58. Some tripod, thyrsus. The juxtaposition of the tripod (the symbol of Delphic wisdom) and the thyrsus (the symbol of Bacchic revels) is a fit introduction to the general chaos of Christian and Pagan art which follows. The spirit of the Renaissance is exactly typified by the conceit of making the mischievous Pan next neighbor to St. Praxed on the one hand and Moses on the other. 66. Travertine. A white, hard, semi-crystalline limestone, deposited from the waters of springs or streams holding lime in solution. The name is a corruption of the Latin Tiburtinus, from Tibur, now Tivoli, near Rome. 69. Jasper. Probably the variety known as blood-stone, deep green with blood-red spots. No stone takes a finer polish. 71. Pistachio-nut. Known also as the green almond. The kernel is shaped like that of the almond, but is a delicate green. 77. Tully's. Cicero (Marcus Tullius). 79. Ulpian. Who did not flourish until long after the Augustan age of Latin literature. 82. See God made and eaten. In the Eucharist. 87. A crook. The bishop's crosier. 89. Mortcloth. Pall. 95. St. Praxed at his sermon on the mount. The Saviour and the fe male saint appear to be confused in the Bishop's wandering thoughts. Cf. 59, 60 above. 99. Elucescebat. Blunderingly formed as if from a verb Elucescere. The verb "to be notable" (naturally used in an epitaph) is Elucere. Evidently, then, Elucescebat is not "choice Latin." IOI. Evil and brief, etc. Cf. Job, xiv. 1. 108. A visor and a Term. A mask; and a terminal figure, so-called, that is, a half-statue or bust, not placed upon, but springing from a square pillar (the Latin terminus). Both these, like the tripod, thyrsus, etc., are Pagan or classical emblems. III. Entablature. This term includes not only the frieze, but the horizontal mouldings above and below it. 116. Gritstone. A coarse-grained variety of sandstone. RABBI BEN EZRA. "One of the deepest and weightiest of all Browning's works. My favorite one. It contains the Philosophy of Life" (Furnivall). Rabbi Ben Ezra, or Ibn Ezra, was born at Toledo in Spain about 1092 or 1093 A.D., or in 1088, according to one authority. He was poor, but studied hard, wrote patriotic poems, married, had a son Isaac (also a poet), travelled in Africa, the Holy Land, Persia, India, Italy, France, and England. He wrote treatises on Hebrew grammar, astronomy, and mathematics, besides commentaries on the books of the Bible, etc. He died in 1167. His commentary on Isaiah has been translated into English, and published by the Society of Hebrew Literature (London, 1873). 15. Do I remonstrate, etc. Age has a satisfaction more keen than that of youth's restless desire to possess the matchless flower or the transcendent star. 16. Rather I prize the doubt, etc. Cf. Tennyson, In Memoriam, xcv.: "There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds." 24. Irks. Annoys. The verb was at first used personally, as here. Cf. Surrey, Æneid, ii. 18: “The Grekes chieftaines all, irked with the war;" Udall, John, xii. : “ignominie irketh them muche," etc. Afterwards it came to be employed only impersonally; as often in Shakespeare, Spenser, and other Elizabethan writers. Cf. F. Q. vi. 10. 29: "Sayd Calidore: Now sure it yrketh mee, That to thy blisse I made this luckelesse breach,' etc. The simple sense here is that care and doubt do not distress beasts, whose sole pleasure is feasting. 31. Then welcome, etc. Compare Easter Day, xxxiii. : "Happy that I can Be thwarted as a man, Not left in God's contempt apart With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart, 40. What I aspired, etc. Compare Lowell's Longing: "The thing we long for, that we are For one transcendent moment.' 52. Dole. Share, or portion dealt. 84. Indue. Put on; its original sense. This word, from the Latin induere, is not to be confounded with endue or indue, which is merely another form of endow. 151. Ay, note that Potter's wheel, etc. Cf. the splendid episode in the Rubaiyát of Omar Khayyám, stanzas 83-90. See also Isa. xxix. 16. 156. Seize the day. Cf. Horace, Od. i. 11. 8: "Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero." BEN KARSHOOK.-Childe roLAND. 169. What though, etc. The figure of the Potter is continued to end of the poem. 169 178. The new wine's foaming flow, etc. For the figure (suggested of course by Matt. xxvi. 29) cf. Mrs. Browning's Past and Future: "Dear Christ! when thy new vintage fills my cup, + BEN KARSHOOK'S WISDOM. This poem was printed in The Keepsake in 1856. It has, strangely, never been included in any volume of Browning's works. It seems clear that it was written before Men and Women was published (1855), and that it was meant to be part of that work; for in One Word More, 135, 136, Browning says: "I am mine and yours-the rest be all men's, Karshook, Cleon, Norbert, and the fifty." But in the later Tauchnitz Edition of 1872 the Karshook is altered into Karshish-the narrator of one of the long poems in the volume. 2. Karshook. The name means in Hebrew a thistle. 17. The Hiram's-Hammer, etc. See 1 Kings, vii. 13-22. The figurative use here is thoroughly Oriental. "CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME." This poem has enjoyed for some time the reputation of being one of the most obscure and inexplicable pieces of work done by its most obscure and inexplicable author. We try the experiment of printing it without one note except an introductory one. The following article by Mr. Arlo Bates (from The Critic for April 26, 1886) throws a flood of light upon the poem, and should, we think, make it intelligible even to the mind unaccustomed to Browning's method: "Without meaning to analyze, to expound, and least of all to explain a poem from which I would fain keep my hands as reverently as from the Ark, I ask the poet's pardon for saying that to me Childe Roland is the most supreme expression of noble allegiance to an ideal-the most absolute faithfulness to a principle, regardless of all else; perhaps I cannot better express what I mean than by saying the most thrilling crystallization of that most noble of human sentiments, of which a bright flower is the motto Noblesse oblige. "Ineffable weariness-that state when the cripple's skull-like laugh ceased to irritate, that most profound condition of lassitude, when even trifles cannot vex-begins the poem; with glimpses behind of the long experience of one who has seen hope die, effort fade, and—worse than all-enthusiasm waste, until even success seemed valueless. A state of exhaustion so utter that nothing but an end, even though it be failure, |