Chapter XIX: Epilogue

1889

At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time,
When you set your fancies free,
Will they pass to where--by death, fools think, imprisoned--
Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so,
--Pity me?

Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken!
What had I on earth to do
With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly?
Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel
--Being--who?

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.

No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time
Greet the unseen with a cheer!
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be,
"Strive and thrive!" cry "Speed,--fight on, fare ever
There as here!"

INDEX

_Abt Vogler_.
Addison, J., disgust for the Alps.
_Andrea del Sarto_.
_Another Way of Love_.
_Apparent Failure_.
_Artemis Prologises_.
_Asolando, Prologue and Epilogue_.
Asolo: Browning's visits to, its place in his work;
last summer passed there.
Austin, Alfred, compared with F. Thompson.

_Bad Dreams_.
_Bells and Pomegranates_, meaning of title.
_Bishop Blougram's Apology_.
_Bishop Orders His Tomb, The_.
_Blot in the 'Scutcheon, A_.
_Boy and the Angel, The_.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett: engagement;
her sonnets;
described by her son;
her ill health;
invented name "Dramatic Lyric;"
her assistance in R. Browning's poems.
Browning, Robert: parentage and early life;
education;
visit to Russia;
play-writing;
first visit to Italy;
marriage;
travels in Italy and lives at Paris;
domestic life in Florence described by Hawthorne;
death;
personal habits;
peculiarities;
piano-playing;
enthusiasm;
friendship with Tennyson;
normality in appearance;
excellence in character;
his theory of poetry;
his sonnets;
his favorite feature the brow;
fondness for yellow hair;
his "rejected lovers,".
Browning, Robert Barrett: death at Asolo;
my conversation with.
Bryant, W. C., visits Browning.
Byron, Lord, lyrical power.
_By the Fireside_.

_Caliban on Setebos_.
Campion, T., his lyrical power compared with Donne's.

Carlyle, T.: travels to Paris with the Brownings;
his smoking.
_Cavalier Tunes_.
_Charles Avison_.
"_Childe Roland_."
Choate, J. H., his remark on old age.
_Christmas-Eve_.
_Cleon_.
_Clive_.
_Confessions_.
_Count Gismond_.
_Cristina_.

_Death in the Desert, A_.
_De Gustibus_.
_Dis Aliter Visum_.
Donne, J.: compared with Browning;
compared with Campion.
Dramatic Lyric, origin of name.
_Dramatic Lyrics_.
_Dramatic Romances_.
_Dramatis Persons_.

Eliot, George, _Daniel Deronda and My Last Duchess_.
Emerson, R. W.: pie and optimism;
his opinion of Tennyson's _Ulysses_.
_Epistle, An, Containing Strange Medical Experience of
Karshish_.
_Eurydice_.
_Evelyn Hope_.
"_Eyes Calm Beside Thee_".

_Face, A_.
Fano: seldom visited;
scene of picture of _Guardian Angel_.
_Fifine at the Fair_;
_Epilogue to_.
Forster, J., his praise of _Paracelsus_.
_Fra Lippo Lippi_.
Fulda, L., his play _Schlaraffenland_ compared with _Rephan_.

_Garden Fancies, Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis_.
_Glove, The_
Goethe, doctrine of elective affinities.
_Gold Hair_.
_Grammarian's Funeral, A_.
Gray, T., early appreciation of mountain scenery.
_Guardian Angel, The_,

Hallam, A. H., home in Wimpole Street.
Hawthorne, N., visits Browning in Florence.
_Holy Cross Day_.
_Home-Thoughts, from, Abroad_.
_Home-Thoughts, from the Sea_.
_How It Strikes a Contemporary_.
"_How They Brought the Good News_."

Ibsen, H.: an original genius;
_When We Dead Awaken_,
_A Doll's House_.
_In a Balcony_.
_In a Gondola_.
_Incident of the French Camp_.
_Ivàn Ivanovitch_.

_James Lee's Wife_.
_Jocoseria, Prologue to_.
_Johannes Agricola in Meditation_.
Jonson, B., his remarks on Donne.

_Karshish (see Epistle, An_).
Keats, J.: prosody in _Endymion_;
_Bright Star_;
his conception of Beauty;
preface to _Endymion_;
his doctrine; of beauty.
Kipling, R., allusions to Browning in _Stalky and Co_.

_Laboratory, The_.
Landor, W. S., his poetic tribute to Browning.
Lanier, S., his criticism of _The Ring and the Book_.
_La Saisiag, Prologue_ to.
_Last Ride Together, The_.
LeMoyne, Sarah Gowell, her reading aloud _Meeting at Night_.
Lessing, G. E., his: remark about truth.
Longfellow, H. W.: a better sonneteer than either Tennyson
or Browning;
_Paul Revere's Ride_ compared with "_How They Brought," etc_.
_Lost Leader, The_.
_Lost Mistress, The_.
_Love Among the Ruins_.
_Lover's Quarrel, A_.
_Luria_.

_Macbeth_: German translation of;
pessimistic speech by.
Macready, W. C., relations with Browning.
Maeterlinck, M.: scene in _Monna Vanna_ taken from _Luria_;
his praise of Browning's poetry.

_Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha_
_Meeting at Night_
_Men and Women_
_Mesmerism_
Mill, J. S., his opinion of _Pauline_
_Mulèykeh_
_My Last Duchess_
_My Star_

_Nationality in Drinks_

_Old Pictures in Florence_
Omar Khayyam, his figure of the Potter compared with Browning's,
_One Way of Love_
_One Word More_

_Pacchiarotto_:
_Epilogue_ to,
_Prologue_ to,
_Paracelsus_
_Parting at Morning (see Meeting at Night_)
_Pauline_
_Pippa Passes_
Pope: popularity of _Essay on Man_,
his prosody compared with that of Keats.
_Porphyria's Lover_
_Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau_
_Prospice_

_Rabbi Ben Ezra_
_Rephan_
_Respectability_
_Reverie_
_Ring and the Book, The_
Rossetti, D. G.: draws picture of Tennyson;
his opinion of _Pauline_.
Rossetti, W. M., meets the Brownings and the Tennysons.
_Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli_
Ruskin, J., his remark on _The Bishop Orders His Tomb_.

_Saul_
Schiller, F.: his poem _Der Handschuh_;
his poem _Das Ideal und das Leben_.
Schopenhauer, A.: father's financial help similar to Browning's;
his late-coming fame similar to Browning's,
his remark on Rafael's _St. Cecilia_.
Schumann, R. and Mrs., presentation to the Scandinavian king.
Shakespeare, W., Browning declares him to be the supreme poet.
Sharp, W., characterization of _Sordello_.
Shelley, P. B.: his vegetarianism imitated by Browning;
his lyrical power.
_Sibrandus Schafnaburgensis_ (see _Garden Fancies_).
_Sludge (Mr. ) the Medium_.
_Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister_.
_Soul's Tragedy, A_.
_Sordello_.
_Statue and the Bust, The_.
Stedman (mother of the poet, E.C.), her remarks on the health of
Mrs. Browning in Florence.
_Summum Bonum_.

Tennyson, A.: reading aloud from _Maud_;
Browning's letter to him;
a genius for adaptation;
wrote to please critics;
compared with Browning;
his lyrical power;
his lyrics compared with Browning's;
wrote no good sonnets;
_Lotos-Eaters_;
_Ulysses_;
_Crossing the Bar_;
_St. Agnes' Eve_ compared with _Johannes Agricola_;
_Locksley Hall_;
his "rejected lovers" compared with Browning's;
his criticism of _The Laboratory_;
_Crossing the Bar_ compared with _Epilogue to Asolando_.
Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_.
Thompson, F., his poetry compared with Austin's.
_Time's Revenges_.
_Toccata of Galuppi's_.
_Transcendentalism_.
_Twins, The_.
_Two Poets of Croisic_, the _Epilogue_ to.
_Up at a Villa--Down in the City_.
Wagner, R.: his originality;
his slow-coming fame;
his operas.
_Which_.
Wister, O., criticism of Browning's poetry in his novel _The
Virginian_.
Wordsworth, W.: served as model for _The Lost Leader_;
his sincere love of the country.

_Youth and Art_.