The Works of Robert Browning, Volume 3Houghton Mifflin, 1899 |
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Common terms and phrases
Æneid Arezzo arms Augustinian babe bade better break breast breath brow Caponsacchi Cardinal child Chimæra church Ciro Ferri confessed Count Guido Court cried crime dare dead death deed dowry earth eyes face faith fault fear Fisc flesh fool Franco Sacchetti give God's hand hate head heart heaven husband Innocent Innocent XI Jansenists judge laugh law and gospel leave light live look lords man's marriage mind Molinists mother murder never night nowise o'er once Ovid Pietro play Pompilia poor Pope pray priest prove punishment revenge Rome round Saint Saint George sake shame Sicariis Sirs smile soul speak stand sword tale tell thee there's thing thou thought tonsure took touch truth turn twixt Violante what's wife word wrong
Popular passages
Page 278 - Fie is a priest ; He cannot marry therefore, which is right : I think he would not marry if he could. Marriage on earth seems such a counterfeit, Mere imitation of the inimitable : In heaven we have the real and true and sure.
Page 32 - O lyric Love, half angel and half bird, And all a wonder and a wild desire, — Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun, Took sanctuary within the holier blue, And sang a kindred soul out to his face, — Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart — When the first summons from the darkling earth Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, And bared them of the glory — to drop down, To toil for man, to suffer or to die, — This is the same voice : can thy soul know change ? Hail then,...
Page 477 - Art, — wherein man nowise speaks to men, Only to mankind, — Art may tell a truth Obliquely, do the thing shall breed the thought, Nor wrong the thought, missing the mediate word.
Page 3 - Saint Somebody Else, his Miracles, Death and Life, — With this, one glance at the lettered back of which, And " Stall .' " cried I : a lira made it mine. Here it is, this I toss and take again ; Small-quarto size, part print part manuscript : A book in shape but, really, pure crude fact Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard, And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since. Give it me back ! The thing 's restorative I
Page 4 - Position of the entire criminal cause ' Of Guido Franceschini, nobleman, ' With certain Four the cutthroats in his pay, ' Tried, all five, and found guilty and put to death ' By heading or hanging as befitted ranks, ' At Rome on February Twenty-Two, ' Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight: ' Wherein it is disputed if, and when, ' Husbands may kill adulterous wives, yet 'scape 130
Page 278 - In marriage ; they are man and wife at once When the true time is : here we have to wait Not so long neither ! Could we by a wish Have what we will and get the future now, Would we wish aught done undone in the past ? So, let him wait God's instant men call years ; Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul, Do out the duty ! Through such souls alone God stooping shows sufficient of His light For us i
Page 275 - A whole long fortnight : in a life like mine A fortnight filled with bliss is long and much. All women are not mothers of a boy, Though they live twice the length of my whole life, And, as they fancy, happily all the same.
Page 388 - Life is probation and the earth no goal But starting-point of man : compel him strive, Which means, in man, as good as reach the goal...
Page 382 - Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestalled in triumph ? Pray " Lead us into no such temptations, Lord ! " Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold, Lead such temptations by the head and hair, Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight, That so he may do battle and have praise...
Page 18 - And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands ; and he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm.