"Was such a lighting-up of faith, in life, In the true way by help of the great glow?" R. and B. X. The Pope, v. 1815. i.e., only allowed [to] initiate, [to] set man's step, etc. "If I might read instead of print my speech, Ay, and enliven speech with many a flower R. and B. IX. Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, v. 4. Here the subject relative of "refuses" is omitted, and the verb followed by an infinitive without the prepositive: "many a flower [that] refuses obstinately [to] blow in print." 3. Instead of the modern analytic form, the simple form of the past subjunctive derived from the Anglo-Saxon inflectional form, and identical with that of the past indicative, is frequently employed, the context only showing that it is the subjunctive. (See Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar,' 361 et seq.) "Would we some prize might hold To match those manifold Possessions of the brute, — gain most, as we did best!” i.e., as we should do best. Rabbi Ben Ezra, St. xi. "Thus were abolished Spring and Autumn both," i.e., would be abolished. I. The Ring and the Book, 1358. "His peevishness had promptly put aside ... II. Half Rome (R. and B.), 369. i.e., would have promptly put aside. "(What daily pittance pleased the plunderer dole.)” X. The Pope (R. and B.), 561. i.e., as the context shows, [it] might please the plunderer [to] dole. "succession to the inheritance Which bolder crime had lost you: " i.e., would have lost you. IV. Tertium Quid (R and B.), 1104. But the verbs "be" and "have" are chiefly so used, and not often beyond what present usage allows.1 4. The use of the dative, or indirect object, without "to" or "for." Such datives are very frequent, and scarcely need illustration. The poet has simply carried the use of them beyond the present general usage of the language. But there's a noticeable one in the Pope's Monologue, in 'The Ring and the Book,' vv. 1464-1466: The Archbishop of Arezzo, to whom poor Pompilia has applied, in her distress, for protection against her brutal husband, thinks it politic not to take her part, but send her back to him and enjoin obedience and submission. The Pope, in his Monologue, represents the crafty Archbishop as saying, when Pompilia cries, "Protect me from the wolf!" "No, thy Guido is rough, heady, strong, Come to me daughter! thus I throw him back!" i.e., thus I throw back [to] him the fawn which limps up bleeding to my foot and lies. The parenthesis, "Come to me, daughter," being interposed, and which is introduced as preparatory to his purpose, adds to the difficulty of the construction. There are, after all, but comparatively few instances in Browning's poetry, where these features of his diction can be fairly condemned. They often impart a crispness to the expressions in which they occur. 1 Tennyson uses 66 saw" viderem, in the following passage: = "But since I did not see the Holy Thing, I sware a vow to follow it till I saw." Sir Percivale in 'The Holy Grail! The contriving spirit of the poet's language often results in great complexity of construction. Complexity of construction may be a fault, and it may not. It may be justified by the complexity of the thought which it bears along. "Clear quack-quack is easily uttered." But where an author's thought is nimble, farreaching, elliptical through its energy, and discursive, the expression of it must be more or less complex or involved; he will employ subordinate clauses, and parentheses, through which to express the outstanding, restricting, and toning relations of his thought, that is, if he is a master of perspective, and ranks his grouped thoughts according to their relative importance. The poet's apostrophe to his wife in the spirit-world, which closes the long prologue to 'The Ring and the Book' (vv. 13911416), and in which he invokes her aid and benediction, in the work he has undertaken, presents a greater complexity of construction than is to be met with anywhere else in his works; and of this passage it may be said, as it may be said of any other having a complex construction, supposing this to be the only difficulty, that it's hard rather than obscure, and demands close reading. But, notwithstanding its complex structure and the freight of thought conveyed, the passage has a remarkable lightsomeness of movement, and is a fine specimen of blank verse. The unobtrusive, but distinctly felt, alliteration which runs through it, contributes something toward this lightsomeness. The first two verses have a Tennysonian ring: When the first summons from the darkling earth Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, -- To toil for man, to suffer or to die, ΙΟ This is the same voice: can thy soul know change? Never conclude, but raising hand and head so blessing back In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home, . "his," v. 5, the sun's. "Yet human," v. 6: though 'kindred' to the sun, yet proved 'human' 'when the first summons,' etc. "This is the same voice," v. 11, i.e., a voice of the same import as was "the first summons,' one invoking help. The nouns "interchange," "splendour," "benediction," vv. 17, 18, 19, are appositives of "what," v. 17. "Never conclude," v. 20, to be construed with "commence," v. 13: "Never [may I] conclude." "Their utmost up and on," v. 23, to be construed with "yearn," v. 21. "so," v. 23, looks back to "raising hand and head," etc. "Some whiteness" . . "Some wanness" v. 25, v. 26, to be construed with "blessing back." See an elaborate analysis of this Invocation, by Dr. F. J. Furnivall, read at the forty-eighth meeting of the Browning Society, February 25, 1887, being No. XXXIX. of the Society's Papers. But, after all, the difficulties in Browning which result from the construction of the language, be that what it may, are not the 1 In the last three verses of 'The Ring and the Book' the poet again addresses his "Lyric Love" to express the wish that the Ring, which he has main difficulties, as has been too generally supposed. The main difficulties are quite independent of the construction of the language. Many readers, especially those who take an intellectual attitude toward all things, in the heavens above and in the earth beneath, suppose that they are prepared to understand almost anything which is understandable if it is only put right. This is a most egregious mistake, especially in respect to the subtle and complex spiritual experiences which the more deeply subjective poetry embodies. What De Quincey says in his paper on Kant,1 of the comprehension of the higher philosophical truths, can, with still better reason, be said of the responsiveness to the higher spiritual truths: "No complex or very important truth was ever yet transferred in full development from one mind to another: truth of that character is not a piece of furniture to be shifted; it is a seed which must be sown, and pass through the several stages of growth. No doctrine of importance can be transferred in a matured shape into any man's understanding from without: it must arise by an act of genesis within the understanding itself." And so it may be said in regard to the responsiveness to the higher spiritual truths-I don't say comprehension of the higher spiritual truths (that word pertains rather to an intelrounded out of the rough ore of the Roman murder case, might but lie "in guardianship" outside hers, 66 "Thy rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised) The reference is to the inscription on Casa Guidi, Via Maggiore, 9. Florence: QUI SCRISSE E MORI ELISABETTA BARRETT BROWNING CHE IN CUORE DI DONNA CONCILIAVA E FECE DEL SUO VERSO AUREO ANELLO FRA ITALIA E INGHILTERRA PONE QUESTO MEMORIA FIRENZE GRATA 1861. 1 'Letters to a Young Man.' Letter V. |