Chapter LXII: Epilogue: To the Two Poets of Croisic

This fate of the musician and the cricket has the same fundamental idea as the prefatory stanzas, the power of love to soften what is gruff and brighten what is somber in life.

64. _Music's son._ Goethe. The "Lotte" of the next line, the heroine of Goethe's _Sorrows of Werther_, was modeled in part on Charlotte Buff, with whom Goethe was at one time in love.

PHEIDIPPIDES

[Greek: Chairete, nikômen.] Rejoice we conquer!

2. _Dæmons._ In Greek mythology a superior order of beings between men and the gods.

4. _Her of the ægis and spear._ Athena, whose ægis was a scaly cloak or mantle bordered with serpents and bearing Medusa's head.

5. _Ye of the bow and the buskin._ Artemis or Diana, the huntress. Ancient statues represent her as wearing shoes laced to the ankle.

8. _Pan._ The god of nature, half goat and half man. To him was ascribed the power of causing sudden fright by his voice and appearance. He came suddenly into the midst of the Persians on the field of Marathon--so the legend runs--and threw them into such a "panic" that, for this reason, they lost the battle.

9. _Archons of Athens, topped by the tettix._ _Archon._ One of the nine rulers of Athens. _Tettix._ A grasshopper. "The Athenians sometimes wore golden grasshoppers in their hair as badges of honor, because these insects are supposed to spring from the ground, and thus they showed they were sprung from the original inhabitants of the country." (Berdoe, _Browning Cyclopædia_, p. 336.)

12. _Reach Sparta for aid._ The distance between Athens and Sparta is about 135 miles.

18. _Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth._ The Persians sent to those states which they wished to subject, messengers who were to ask earth and water as symbols of submission.

19. _Eretria._ An important city on the island of Euboea.

20. _Hellas._ Greece.

38. _The moon, half-orbed._ Spartan troops finally came to Athens after the full moon.

47. _Filleted victim._ A victim whose head was decked with ribbons.

52. _Parnes._ Herodotus refers in this connection to the Parthenian mountain.

62. _Erebos._ Hades, the abode of shades or departed spirits.

83. _Fennel._ The Greek word Marathon means fennel.

89. _Miltiades._ One of the ten Athenian generals.

105. _Unforeseeing one._ The poet finishes the story, which he has hitherto allowed Pheidippides to tell for himself.

105. _Marathon day._ In the month of September, B. C. 490.

106. _Akropolis._ The stronghold of Athens.

MULÉYKEH

The love of the Arab for his horse is traditional. "The story is a common one and seems adapted from a Bedouin's anecdote told in Rollo Springfield's _The Horse and His Rider_." (Berdoe, _Browning Cyclopædia_, p. 280.)

WANTING IS--WHAT?

This poem is in the nature of a prelude to the group of poems published under the title _Jocoseria_, 1883. Each poem in this volume shows the lack of some element that would have brought the human action or experience to perfection.

8. _Comer._ The invocation probably refers to the spirit of love with its inspiring, transforming power.

"NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE"

This poem was published in _Jocoseria_ in 1883. It is doubtless to be grouped with the poems that refer directly to Mrs. Browning.

THE PATRIOT

Browning says that this poem has no direct historical reference. He calls it "An Old Story," because in all ages men have experienced this unjust reversal of public approval. The poem is merely an imaginative, dramatic representation of the fickleness of popular favor.

INSTANS TYRANNUS

The title of this poem means "Threatening Tyrant." It comes from Horace's "Ode on the Just Man," in _Odes_, III, 3, i. The just man is not frightened by the frown of the threatening tyrant--_non vullus instantis tyranni_. Archdeacon Farrar refers the incidents to persecution of the early Christians. The poem certainly deals with some period when the ruler of a great realm had unlimited power to follow out his most insignificant animosities, and when just men and just causes had no human recourse.

The general idea of the poem is clear and forcible, but there are many minor difficulties of interpretation.

6. _What was his force?_ An ironic question. The man groveled because he was powerless to resist, and (line 10) because resistance might bring even worse punishment.

11. _Were the object_, etc. If the man could be made rich, if his life could be crowded with pleasures, if there could be found relatives or friends whom he loved, then there would be obvious ways of hurting him, he would stand forth in sufficient importance to make the swing of the tyrant's hand effective. But as it is, the man's poverty and friendlessness and meagerness of life render it difficult to find out vulnerable points of attack. He remains hidden (_perdue_) and, like the midge of the egg of an insect (_nit_), is safe through his very insignificance.

21. _spilth._ That which is poured out profusely. The _flagon_ is a vessel with one handle and a long narrow neck or spout.

35. _Then a humor_, etc. The tyrant goes through various changes of mood in his attitude toward his enemy. In lines 35-43 he feels a moment of contemptuous compunction at the man's suffering, and recognizes the absurdity of a contest between a great king and a person as insignificant as a tricksy elf, a toad, or a rat. But in line 44 his mood turns. He perceives that the burden (_gravamen_) of the whole matter lies in the incredibly petty nature of this unconquerable, baffling opposition to his will. He sees how the situation would awaken the wonder of the great lords who abjectly obey his lightest word, but he concludes that, after all, the small becomes great if it vexes you.

53. _I soberly_, etc. Even the tyrant sees a kind of grotesque humor as he narrates first the elaborate plans to entrap and crush so seemingly powerless a foe, and then the striking reversal of position when the man proves to have God on his side, and the tyrant becomes the one to cower in fear.

THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND

At the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, Lombardy and Venetia were assigned to Austria. Most of the inhabitants submitted to the foreign rule, but there were always small bands of patriots who stirred up revolutions against Austria. The chief revolution was that led by Mazzini in 1848, and when he was in exile he read this poem with much appreciation. In _Pippa Passes_ (1840), in the story of Luigi and the Austrian police, Browning had already given a picture based on Italy's struggle for freedom. In 1844 he visited Italy and then wrote "The Italian in England," which appeared in 1845. This poem does not represent a definite historic incident, but such a one as might have occurred in the life of some Italian patriot. For a similar feeling towards Italian independence see Mrs. Browning's _Casa Guidi Windows_ (written 1848-1851). For earlier poems see Byron's "Ode" beginning "O Venice, Venice, when thy marble walls," Shelley's "Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills," and the following sonnet by Wordsworth:

"Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee;
And was the safeguard of the west: the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.
She was a maiden City, bright and free;
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And, when she took unto herself a Mate,
She must espouse the everlasting Sea.
And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay;
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid
When her long life hath reached its final day:
Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great, is passed away."

8. _Charles._ Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia. He had used severe measures against "Young Italy," the party founded by Mazzini.

19. _Metternich._ A noted Austrian diplomat and one of the most powerful enemies of Italian freedom.

75. _Duomo._ The most famous church in Padua.

78. _Tenebræ._ _Darkness._ A religious service commemorative of the crucifixion. Fifteen lighted candles are put out one at a time, symbolizing the growing darkness of the world up to the time of the crucifixion.

"ROUND US THE WILD CREATURES"

The first interlude in _Ferishtah's Fancies_. These interludes are love lyrics which follow the separate Fables and Fancies of the Persian Dervish Ferishtah, and state in terms of the affections the truth embodied in didactic or philosophical fashion in the fables. In the first fable, "The Eagle," the Dervish observes an eagle feeding some deserted ravens. His first inference is that men will be cared for as the ravens, without effort of their own; later he sees that men should be as eagles and provide for the weak. The Dervish at once seeks the largest sphere of human usefulness with the words

"And since men congregate
In towns, not woods--to Ispahan forthwith!"

The lyric protests against the temptation to self-centered seclusion on the part of those who are entirely satisfied in each other's love.