Chapter III: Preface (1)

I make no apology for the publication of this work, because some such book has long been a necessity to any one who seriously proposes to study Browning. Up to its appearance there was no single book to which the leader could turn, which gave an exposition of the leading ideas of every poem, its key-note, the sources--historical, legendary, or fanciful--to which the poem was due, and a glossary of every difficult word or allusion which might obscure the sense to such readers as had short memories or scanty reading. It would be affectation to pretend to believe that every educated person ought to know, without the aid of such a work as this, what Browning means by phrases and allusions which may be found by hundreds in his works. The wisest reader cannot be expected to remember, even if he has ever learned, a host of remote incidents in Italian history, for example, to say nothing of classical terms which "every schoolboy" ought to know, but rarely does. Browning is obscure, undoubtedly, if a poem is read for the first time without any hint as to its main purport: the meaning in almost every case lies more or less below the surface; the superficial idea which a careless perusal of the poem would afford is pretty sure to be the wrong one. Browning's poetry is intended to make people think, and without thought the fullest commentary will not help the reader much. "I can have little doubt," said the poet, in his preface to the First Series of _Selections_ from his works, "that my writing has been in the main too hard for many I should have been pleased to communicate with; but I never designedly tried to puzzle people, as some of my critics have supposed. On the other hand, I never pretended to offer such literature as should be a substitute for a cigar or a game at dominoes to an idle man. So, perhaps, on the whole, I get my deserts, and something over--not a crowd, but a few I value more." As for my own qualifications for the task I have undertaken, I can only say that I have attended nearly every meeting of the Browning Society from its inauguration; I have read every book, paper, and article upon Browning on which I could lay my hands, have gone over every line of the poet's works again and again, have asked the assistance of literary friends in every difficulty, and have pegged away at the obscurities till they _seemed_ (at any rate) to vanish. It is possible that a scientific education in some considerable degree assists a man who addresses himself to a task of this sort: a medical man does not like to be beaten by any difficulty which common perseverance can conquer; when one has spent days in tracing a nerve thread through the body to its origin, and through all its ramifications, a few visits to the library of the British Museum, or a few hours' puzzling over the meaning of a difficult passage in a poem, do not deter him from solving a mystery,--and this is all I can claim. I have not shirked any obscurities; unlike some commentators of the old-fashioned sort, who in dealing with the Bible carefully told us that a score meant twenty, but said nothing as to the meaning of the verse in Ezekiel's dream about the women who wept for Tammuz--but have honestly tried to help my readers in every case where they have a right to ask such aid. Probably I have overlooked many things which I ought to have explained. It is not less certain that some will say I have explained much that they already knew. I can only ask for a merciful judgment in either case. I am quite anxious to be set right in every particular in which I may be wrong, and shall be grateful for hints and suggestions concerning anything which is not clear. I have to thank Professor Sonnenschein for permission to publish his valuable Notes to _Sordello_, with several articles on the history of the Guelf and Ghibelline leaders: these are all indicated by the initial [S.] at the end of each note or article. I am grateful also to Mr. A. J. Campbell for permission to use his notes on Rabbi Ben Ezra. I have also to thank Dr. Furnivall, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, and the Very Rev. Canon Akers, M.A., for their kindness in helping me on certain difficult points which came within their lines of study. It would be impossible to read the works of commentators on Browning for the years which I have devoted to the task without imbibing the opinions and often insensibly adopting the phraseology of the authors: if in any case I have used the ideas and language of other writers without acknowledging them, I hope it will be credited to the infirmity of human nature, and not attributed to any wilful appropriation of other men's and women's literary valuables. As for the poet himself, I have largely used his actual words and phrases in putting his ideas into plain prose; it has not always been possible, for reasons which every one will understand, to put quotation marks to every few words or portions of lines where this has occurred. When, therefore, a beautiful thought is expressed in appropriate language, it is most certainly not mine, but Browning's. My only aim has been to bring the Author of the vast body of literature to which this book is an introduction a little nearer to the English and American reading public; my own opinions and criticisms I have endeavoured as much as possible to suppress. In the words of Dr. Furnivall, "This is a business book," and simply as such I offer it to the public.

EDWARD BERDOE.

LONDON, _November 28th, 1891_.

_BOOKS, ESSAYS, ETC., WHICH ARE ESPECIALLY USEFUL TO THE BROWNING STUDENT._

BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS.

=Life of Robert Browning.= By MRS. SUTHERLAND ORR. London: 1891.

=Life of Robert Browning.= By WILLIAM SHARP. London: 1890.

On the whole, Mr. Sharp's Biography will be found the more useful for
the student. It contains an excellent Bibliography by Mr. John P.
Anderson of the British Museum, and a Chronological List of the Poet's
Works.

=Robert Browning: Chief Poet of the Age.= By W. G. KINGSLAND. London: 1890. Excellent for beginners.

=Robert Browning: Personalia.= By EDMUND GOSSE. Boston: 1890.

WORKS OF CRITICISM AND EXPOSITION.

=Robert Browning: Essays and Thoughts.= By JOHN T. NETTLESHIP. London: 1868. Artistic and suggestive.

=Stories from Robert Browning.= By F. M. HOLLAND; with Introduction by MRS. SUTHERLAND ORR. London: 1882.

=A Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning.= By MRS. SUTHERLAND ORR. London: 1885.

=An Introduction to the Study of Browning.= By ARTHUR SYMONS. London: 1886. Intensely sympathetic and appreciative.

=A Bibliography of Robert Browning, from 1833 to 1881.= By DR. F. J. FURNIVALL. 1881.

=An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry.= By HIRAM CORSON. Boston: 1888.

=Studies in the Poetry of Robert Browning.= By JAMES FOTHERINGHAM. London: 1887.

=Browning Guide Book.= By GEORGE WILLIS COOKE. Boston: 1891.

=Strafford: a Tragedy.= With Notes and Preface, by E. H. HICKEY, and Introduction by S. R. GARDINER. London: 1884.

=Browning and the Christian Faith.= The Evidences of Christianity from Browning's Point of View. By EDWARD BERDOE. London: 1896.

=Browning as a Philosophical Religious Teacher.= By Prof. HENRY JONES. Glasgow: 1891.

=Browning's Message to His Time: His Religion, Philosophy and Science.= By EDWARD BERDOE. London: 1890.

THE BROWNING SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS.

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part I.= Vol. I., 1881-4, pp. 1-116 (_presented by Dr. Furnivall_). [1881-2.

1. A Reprint of BROWNING'S Introductory Essay to the 25 spurious
_Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley_, 1852: On the Objective and
Subjective Poet, on the Relation of the Poet's Life to his Work; on
Shelley, his Nature, Art, and Character.

2. A Bibliography of ROBERT BROWNING, 1833-81: Alphabetical and
Chronological Lists of his Works, with Reprints of discontinued
Prefaces, of _Ben Karshook's Wisdom_, partial collations of _Sordello_
1840, 1863, and _Paracelsus_ 1835, 1863, etc., and with Trial-Lists of
the Criticisms on BROWNING, Personal Notices of him, etc., by F. J.
FURNIVALL.

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part II.= Vol. I., 1881-4, pp. 117-258. [1881-2.

3. Additions to the Bibliography of R. BROWNING, by F. J. FURNIVALL.
1. Browning's Acted Plays. 2. Fresh Entries of Criticisms on
Browning's Works. 3. Fresh Personal Notices of Browning. 4. Notes on
Browning's Poems and my Bibliography. 5. Short Index.

4. Mr. KIRKMAN'S Address at the Inaugural Meeting of the Society,
October 28th, 1881.

5. Mr. SHARPE'S Paper on _"Pietro of Abano" and "Dramatic Idyls_,
Series II."

6. Mr. NETTLESHIP'S _Analysis and Sketch of "Fifine at the Fair."_

7. Mr. NETTLESHIP'S Classification of Browning's Poems.

8. Mrs. ORR'S Classification of Browning's Poems.

9. Mr. JAMES THOMSON'S Notes on _The Genius of Robert Browning_.

10. Mr. ERNEST RADFORD on _The Moorish Front to the Duomo of Florence,
in "Luria,"_ I., pp. 122-132.

11. Mr. ERNEST RADFORD on _The Original of "Ned Bratt's" Dramatic
Lyrics_, I., pp. 107-43.

12. Mr. SHARPE'S Analysis and Summary of _Fifine at the Fair_.

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part III.= Vol. I., 1881-4, pp. 259-380, with _Abstract_, pp. 1*-48*. [1882-3.

13. Mr. BURY on _Browning's Philosophy_.

14. Prof. JOHNSON on _Bishop Blougram_.

15. Prof. CORSON on _Personality, and Art as its Vice-agent, as
treated by Browning_.

16. Miss BEALE on _The Religious Teaching of Browning_.

17. _A Short Account of the Abbé Vogler_ ("_Abt Vogler_"). By Miss E.
MARX.

18. Prof. JOHNSON on _Science and Art in Browning_.

The _Monthly Abstract_ of such papers as have not been printed in
full, and of the Discussions on all that have been discussed. Nos.
I.-X.

=Illustrations to Browning's Poems. Part I.=: Photographs of (_a_) Andrea del Sarto's Picture of Himself and his Wife, in the Pitti Palace, Florence, which suggested Browning's poem _Andrea del Sarto_; (_b_) Fra Lippo Lippi's 'Coronation of the Virgin,' in the Accademia delle belle Arti, Florence (the painting described at the end of Browning's _Fra Lippo_); and (_c_) Guercino's 'Angel and Child,' at Fano (for _The Guardian Angel_); with an Introduction by ERNEST RADFORD. [1882-3.

=Illustrations to Browning's Poems. Part II.=* (_d_) A photo-engraving of Mr. C. Fairfax Murray's drawing of Andrea del Sarto's Picture named above. (_e_) A Woodburytype copy of Fredelle's Cabinet Photograph of ROBERT BROWNING in three sizes, to bind with the Society's _Illustrations_, and _Papers_, and Browning's _Poems_: presented by Mrs. Sutherland Orr. (_f_) Reductions in fcap. 8vo, to bind with Browning's _Poems_, of _d_, _b_, _c_, above, and of (_g_) the engraving of Guercino's First Sketch for his "Angel and Child." [1882-3.

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part IV.= Vol. I., 1881-4, pp. 381-476, with _Abstract_, pp. 49*-84* and _Reports_, i-xvi. [1883-4.

19. Mr. NETTLESHIP on _Browning's Intuition, specially in regard to
Music and the Plastic Arts_.

20. Prof. B. F. WESTCOTT on _Some Points in Browning's View of Life_.

21. Miss E. D. WEST on _One Aspect of Browning's Villains_.

22. Mr. REVELL on _Browning's Poems on God and Immortality as bearing
on Life here_.

23. The Rev. H. J. BULKELEY on "_James Lee's Wife_."

24. Mrs. TURNBULL on "_Abt Vogler_."

The _Monthly Abstract_ of the Proceedings of Meetings Eleven to
Eighteen.

_First and Second Reports_ of the Committee (1881-2 and 1882-3).

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part V.= Vol. I., 1881-4, pp. 477-502, with _Abstract_ and _Notes and Queries_, pp. 85*-153*, and _Report_, pp. xvii-xxiii. [1884-5.

25. Mr. W. A. RALEIGH on _Some Prominent Points in Browning's
Teaching_.

26. Mr. J. COTTER MORISON on _"Caliban on Setebos," with some Notes on
Browning's Subtlety and Humour_.

27. Mrs. TURNBULL on "_In a Balcony_."

The _Monthly Abstract_ of the Proceedings of Meetings Nineteen to
Twenty-six, including "Scraps" contributed by Members.

_Third Report of the Committee_, 1883-4.

=Illustration, Part III.= Presented by Sir F. Leighton, P.R.A., etc., Vice-President of the Browning Society. A Woodburytype Engraving of Sir Frederick Leighton's picture (in the possession of Sir Bernhard Samuelson, Bart., M.P.) of "Hercules contending with Death for the Body of Alkestis" (_Balaustion's Adventure_).

[=Part VI.= of the Browning Society's Papers, a Second Supplement to Parts I. and II., with illustrations, is in the press.]

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part VII.= Vol. II., 1885-90, (being Part I. of Vol. II.), pp. 1-54, with _Abstract_ and _Notes and Queries_, 1*-88*, i.-viii., and Appendix, 1-16. [1885-6.

28. Mr. ARTHUR SYMONS' Paper, _Is Browning Dramatic?_

29. Prof. E. JOHNSON on "_Mr. Sludge the Medium_."

30. Dr. BERDOE on _Browning as a Scientific Poet_.

The _Monthly Abstract_ of Proceedings of Meetings Twenty-seven to
Thirty-three; _Notes and Queries_, _etc._; _Fourth Annual Report_;
Programme of the Annual Entertainment at Prince's Hall, etc.

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part VIII.= Vol. II., 1885-90, pp. 55-146, with _Abstract_ and _Notes and Queries_, 89*-164*, and Report i-vii. [1886-7.

31. Mr. J. T. NETTLESHIP on _The Development of Browning's Genius in
his Capacity as Poet or Maker_.

32. Mr. J. B. BURY on "_Aristophanes' Apology_."

33. Mr. OUTRAM on _The Avowal of Valence_ (_Colombe's Birthday_).

34. Mr. ALBERT FLEMING on "_Andrea del Sarto_."

35. Mr. HOWARD S. PEARSON on _Browning as a Landscape Painter_.

36. Rev. H. J. BULKELEY on _The Reasonable Rhythm of some of Mr.
Browning's Poems_.

37. Prof. C. H. HERFORD on "_Hohenstiel-Schwangau_."

Abstracts of all Meetings held, _Notes and Queries_, _Fifth Annual
Report_, _etc._

=Reprint of the First Edition of Browning's= _Pauline_. [1886-7.

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part IX.= (being Part III. of Vol. II.). [1887-8.

38. Dr. TODHUNTER on _The Performance of "Strafford."_

39. Mrs. GLAZEBROOK on "_A Death in the Desert_."

40. Dr. FURNIVALL on _A Grammatical Analysis of "O Lyric Love."_

41. Mr. ARTHUR SYMONS on "_Parleyings with Certain People_."

42. Miss HELEN ORMEROD on _The Musical Poems of Browning_.

Abstracts of all Meetings held, _Notes and Queries_, _Sixth Annual
Report_, _etc._

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part X.= (being Part IV. of Vol. II.). [1888-9.

43. Mr. REVELL on _Browning's Views of Life_.

44. Dr. BERDOE on _Browning's Estimate of Life_.

45. Prof. BARNETT on _Browning's Jews and Shakespeare's Jew_.

46. Miss HELEN ORMEROD on _Abt Vogler, the Man_.

47. Miss C. M. WHITEHEAD on _Browning as a Teacher of the Nineteenth
Century_.

48. Miss STODDART on "_Saul_."

Abstracts of all Meetings held, _Notes and Queries_, _Seventh Annual
Report_, _etc._

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part XI.= (being Part V. of Vol. II.). [1889-90.

49. Dr. BERDOE on _Paracelsus: the Reformer of Medicine_.

50. Miss HELEN ORMEROD on _Andrea del Sarto and Abt Vogler_.

51. Rev. W. ROBERTSON on "_La Saisiaz_."

52. Mr. J. B. OLDHAM on _The Difficulties and Obscurities encountered
in a Study of Browning's Poems_.

53. Mr. J. KING, Jun., on "_Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau_."

54. Mrs. ALEXANDER IRELAND on "_A Toccata of Galuppi's_."

55. Mrs. GLAZEBROOK on "_Numpheleptos and Browning's Women_."

56. Rev. J. J. G. GRAHAM on _The Wife-love and Friend-love of Robert
Browning_.

Abstracts of all Meetings held, _Notes and Queries_, _Eighth Annual
Report_, _etc._

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part XII.= (being Part I. of Vol. III.). [1890-91.

57. Prof. ALEXANDER'S _Analysis of "Sordello."_

58. Dr. FURNIVALL on _Robert Browning's Ancestors_.

59. Mrs. IRELAND on _Browning's Treatment of Parenthood_.

60. Mr. SAGAR on _The Line-numbering, etc., in "The Ring and the
Book."_

61. Mr. REVELL on _The Value of Browning's Work_ (Part I.).

62. Mr. W. M. ROSSETTI on "_Taurello Salinguerra_."

List of Some of the Periodicals in which Notices of Robert Browning
have appeared since his Death.

Abstracts of all Meetings held, _Notes and Queries_, _Ninth Annual
Report_, _etc._

=The Browning Society's Papers, Part XIII.= (being Part II. of Vol. III., 1890-93). [1891-92.

63. Mrs. A. IRELAND on "_Christina and Monaldeschi_."

64. JÓN STEFÁNSSON, M.A., on _How Browning Strikes a Scandinavian_.

65. W. F. REVELL, Esq., on _Browning's Work in Relation to Life_ (Part
II.).

66. J. B. OLDHAM, B.A., on _Browning's Dramatic Method in Narrative_.

67. R. G. MOULTON, M.A., on _Browning's "Balaustion" a beautiful
Perversion of Euripides' "Alcestis."_

Abstracts of all Meetings held, _Notes and Queries_, _Tenth Annual
Report_, _etc._

*Out of print at present.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS, ETC.

1812. Robert Browning born at Camberwell on May 7th. He "went to the
Rev. Thos. Ready's school at Peckham till he was near
fourteen, then had a private tutor at home, and attended some
lectures at the London University, now University College,
London" (Dr. Furnivall).

1833. _Pauline_ published.

1834. Browning travelled in Russia.

1835. _Paracelsus_ published.

1836. _Porphyria_, _Johannes Agricola_, _The King_, and the lines
"Still ailing wind" in _James Lee_ published by Mr. W. J. Fox
in his magazine _The Monthly Repository_.

1837. _Strafford_ published.

1840. _Sordello_ published.

1841-6. _Bells and Pomegranates_ appeared.

1841. _Pippa Passes_ published.

1842. _King Victor and King Charles_ published.
_Dramatic Lyrics_ published.

1843. _The Return of the Druses_ published.
_A Blot in the 'Scutcheon_ published.

1844. _Colombe's Birthday_ published.

1845. _The Tomb at St. Praxed's_ published in _Hood's Magazine_, March.
_The Flight of the Duchess_ published.
_Dramatic Romances and Lyrics_ published.

1846. _Lucia_ published.
_A Soul's Tragedy_ published.
Robert Browning married (34), Sept. 12th, at St. Mary-le-bone
parish church our greatest poetess, Elizabeth Barrett, aged 37
(Dr. Furnivall).

1847. The Brownings resident in Florence.

1849. March 9th, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning born.
_Browning's Poems_ published in two vols.

1850. _Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day_ published.

1852. Browning writes the Introductory Essay to the Shelley (spurious)
Letters.

1855. _Men and Women_ published.
The Brownings travel to Normandy.

1861. June 28th, Mrs. Browning died at Casa Guidi.

1863. _The Poetical Works_ of Robert Browning published in three vols.

1864. _Dramatis Personæ_ published.

1868. _The Poetical Works_ published in six vols.

1868-9. _The Ring and the Book_ published.

1871. _Hervé Riel_ published in the _Cornhill Magazine_.
_Balaustion's Adventure_ published.
_Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau_ published.

1872. _Fifine at the Fair_ published.

1873. _Red Cotton Night-Cap Country_ published.

1875. _Aristophanes' Apology_ published.
_The Inn Album_ published.

1876. _Pacchiarotto_ published.

1877. _The Agamemnon of Æschylus_ published.

1878. _La Saisiaz_ published.
_The Two Poets of Croisic_ published.

1879. _Dramatic Idyls_ published.

1880. _Dramatic Idyls_ (_Second Series_) published.

1881. The Browning Society inaugurated, Oct. 28th.

1883. _Jocoseria_ published.

1884. _Ferishtah's Fancies_ published.

1887. _Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in their Day_
published.

1889. _Asolando: Fancies and Facts_, published.
Robert Browning died in Venice, December 12th; buried in
Westminster Abbey, December 31st.

BROWNING CYCLOPÆDIA.

=Abano=, a town of Northern Italy, 6 miles S.W. of Padua, the birthplace of PIETRO D'ABANO (_q.v._).

=Abate, Paolo= (or Paul), brother of Count Guido Franceschini. He was a priest residing in Rome. (_Ring and the Book._)

=Abbas I.=, surnamed THE GREAT. _See_ SHAH ABBAS.

=Abd-el-Kader=, a celebrated Algerian warrior, born in 1807, who in 1831 led the combined tribes in their attempt to resist the progress of the French in Algeria. He surrendered to the French in 1847, and was set at liberty by Louis Napoleon in 1852. (_Through the Metidja to Abd-el-Kader._)

=Abt Vogler.= [THE MAN.] (_Dramatis Personæ_, 1864.) George Joseph Vogler, usually known as Abbé Vogler, or, as Mr. Browning has called him, Abt Vogler, was an organist and composer, and was born at Würzburg, June 15th, 1749. He was educated for the Church from his very early years, as is the custom with Catholics; but every opportunity was taken to develop his musical talents, which were so marked that at ten years old he could play the organ and the violin well. In 1769 he studied at Bamberg, removing thence in 1771 to Mannheim. In 1773 he was ordained priest in Rome, and was admitted to the famous Academy of Arcadia, was made a Knight of the Golden Spur, and was appointed protonotary and chamberlain to the Pope. He returned to Mannheim in 1775, and opened a School of Music. He published several works on music, composition, and the art of forming the voice. He was made chaplain and _Kapellmeister_ at Mannheim, and about this time composed a _Miserere_. In 1779 Vogler went to Munich. In 1780 he composed an opera, _The Merchant of Smyrna_, a ballet, and a melodrama. In 1781 his opera _Albert III._ was produced at the Court Theatre of Munich. As it was not very favourably received, he resigned his posts of chaplain and choirmaster. He was severely criticised by German musical critics, and Mozart spoke of him with much bitterness. Having thus failed in his own country, he went to Paris, and in 1783 brought out his comic opera, _La Kermesse_. It was so great a failure that it was not possible to conclude the performance. He then travelled in Spain, Greece, and the East. In 1786 he returned to Europe, and went to Sweden, and was appointed _Kapellmeister_ to the King. At Stockholm he founded his second School of Music, and became famous by his performances on an instrument which he had invented, called the "Orchestrion." This is described by Mr. G. Grove as a very compact organ, in which four keyboards of five octaves each, and a pedal board of thirty-six keys, with swell complete, were packed into a cube of nine feet. In 1789 Vogler performed without success at Amsterdam. He then went with his organ to London, and gave a series of concerts at the Pantheon in January 1790. These proved eminently successful: Vogler realised over £1200, and made a name as an organist. He seems to have excelled in pedal playing, but it is not true that pedals were unknown in England until the Abbé introduced them. "His most popular pieces," says the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, "were a fugue on themes from the 'Hallelujah Chorus,' composed after a visit to the Handel festival at Westminster Abbey, and on 'A Musical Picture for the Organ,' by Knecht, containing the imitation of a storm. In 1790 Vogler returned to Germany, and met with the most brilliant receptions at Coblentz and Frankfort, and at Esslingen was presented with the 'wine of honour' reserved usually for royal personages. At Mannheim, in 1791, his opera _Castor and Pollux_ was performed, and became very popular. We find him henceforward travelling all over Europe. At Berlin he performed in 1800, at Vienna in 1804, and at Munich in 1806. Next year we find him at Darmstadt, accepting by the invitation of the Grand Duke Louis I. the post of _Kapellmeister_. He opened his third school of music at Darmstadt, one of his pupils being Weber, another Meyerbeer, a third Gänsbacher. The affection of these three young students for their master was 'unbounded.' He was indefatigable in the pursuit of his art to the last, genial, kind and pleasant to all; he lived for music, and died in harness, of apoplexy, at Darmstadt, May 6th, 1814."

[THE POEM.] The musician has been extemporising on his organ, and as the performance in its beauty and completeness impresses his mind with wonderful and mysterious imagery, he wishes it could be permanent. He has created something, but it has vanished. He compares it to a palace built of sweet sounds, such a structure as angels or demons might have reared for Solomon, a magic building wherein to lodge some loved princess, a palace more beautiful than anything which human architect could plan or power of man construct. His music structure has been real to him, it took shape in his brain, it was his creation: surely, somewhere, somehow, it might be permanent. It was too beautiful, too perfect to be lost. Only the evil perishes, only good is permanent; and this music was so true, so good, so beautiful, it could not be that it was lost, as false, bad, ugly things are lost! But Vogler was but an extemporiser, and such musicians cannot give permanence to their performances. He has reached a state almost of ecstasy, and the spiritual has asserted its power over the material, raising the soul to heaven and bringing down heaven to earth. In the words of Milton, he had become--

"All ear,
And took in strains that might create a soul
Under the ribs of death,"

and in this heavenly rapture he saw strange presences, the forms of the better to come, or "the wonderful Dead who have passed through the body and gone." The other arts are inferior to music, they are more human, more material than music,--"here is the finger of God." And this was all to go--"Never to be again!" This reflection starts the poet on a familiar train of thought--the permanence of good, the impermanence, the nullity of evil. The Cabbalists taught that evil was only the shadow of the Light; Maimonides, Spinoza, Hegel and Emerson taught the doctrine which Mr. Browning here inculcates. Leibnitz speaks of "evil as a mere set-off to the good in the world, which it increases by contrast, and at other times reduces moral to metaphysical evil by giving it a merely negative existence." "God," argued Aquinas (_Sum. Theol._, i., § 49), "created everything that exists, but Sin was _nothing_; so God was not the Author of it." So, Augustine and Peter Lombard maintained likewise the negative nature of moral evil:--

"Evil is more frail than nonentity."
(Proclus, _De Prov._, in Cory's _Fragm._)

"Let no one therefore say that there are precedaneous productive principles of evil in the nature of intellectual paradigms of evil in the same manner as there are of good, or that there is a malefic soul or an evil-producing cause in the gods, nor let him introduce sedition or eternal war against the First God" (Proclus, _Six Books_, trans. Thomas Taylor, B. i., c. 27). In heaven, then, we are to find "the perfect round," "the broken arcs" are all we can discover here. Rising in the tenth stanza to the highest stature of the philosophical truth, the poet proclaims his faith in the existence of a home of pure ideals. The harmony of a few bars of music on earth suggests the eternal harmonies of the Author of order; the rays of goodness which brighten our path here suggest a Sun of Righteousness from which they emanate. The lover and the bard send up to God their feeble aspirations after the beautiful and the true, and these aspirations are stored in His treasury. Failure? It is but the pause in the music, the discords that set off the harmony. To the musician this is not something to be reasoned about mathematically; it is knowledge, it is a revelation which, however informing and consoling while it lasts, must not too long divert a man from the common things of life; patient to bear and suffer because strengthened by the beautiful vision of the Mount of Transfiguration, proud that he has been permitted to have part and lot with such high matters, he can solemnly acquiesce in the common round and daily task. He feels for the common chord, descends the mount, gliding by semitones, glancing back at the heights he is leaving, till at last, finding his true resting-place in the C Major of this life, soothed and sweetly lulled by the heavenly harmonies, he falls asleep. The Esoteric system of the Cabbalah was largely the outcome of Neo-Platonism and Gnosticism, and from these have sprung the theosophy of Meister Eckhart and Jacob Boehme. It is certain that Mr. Browning was a student of the latter "theosophist" _par excellence_. In his poem _Transcendentalism_ he refers to the philosopher by name, and there are evidences that the poet's mind was deeply tinctured with his ideas. The influence of Paracelsus on Boehme's mind is conspicuous in his works, and the sympathy with that great medical reformer which the poem of _Paracelsus_ betrays on every page was no doubt largely due to Boehme's teaching. The curious blending of theosophy and science which is found in the poem of _Paracelsus_ is not a less faithful picture of Mr. Browning's philosophical system than of that of his hero. Professor Andrew Seth, in the article on theosophy in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, thus expounds Boehme's speculation on evil: it turns "upon the necessity of reconciling the existence and the might of evil with the existence of an all-embracing and all-powerful God.... He faces the difficulty boldly--he insists on the necessity of the Nay to the Yea, of the negative to the positive." Eckhart seems to have largely influenced Boehme. We have in this poem what has been aptly called "the richest, deepest, fullest poem on music in the language." (Symons.) Mr. Browning was a thorough musician himself, and no poet ever wrote what the musician felt till he penned the wonderful music-poems _Abt Vogler_, _Master Hugues of Saxe Gotha_ and _A Toccata of Galuppi's_. The comparison between music and architecture is as old as it is beautiful. Amphion built the walls of Thebes to the sound of his lyre--fitting the stones together by the power of his music, and "Ilion's towers," they say, "rose with life to Apollo's song." The "Keeley Motor" was an attempt in this direction. Coleridge, too, in _Kubla Khan_, with "music loud and long would build that dome in air." In the May 1891 number of the _Century Magazine_ there is a very curious and a very interesting account by Mrs. Watts Hughes of certain "Voice-figures" which have lately excited so much interest in scientific and musical circles. "By a simple method figures of sounds are produced which remain permanent. On a thin indiarubber membrane, stretched across the bottom of a tube of sufficient diameter for the purpose, is poured a small quantity of water or some denser liquid, such as glycerine; and into this liquid are sprinkled a few grains of some ordinary solid pigment. A note of music is then sung down the tube by Mrs. Watts Hughes, and immediately the atoms of suspended pigment arrange themselves in a definite form, many of the forms bearing a curious resemblance to some of the most beautiful objects in Nature--flowers, shells, or trees. After the note has ceased to sound the forms remain, and the pictorial representations given in the _Century_ show how wonderfully accurate is the lovely mimicry of the image-making music." (_Spectator_, May 16th, 1891.) The thought of some soul of permanence behind the transience of music, provided the motive of Adelaide Procter's _Lost Chord_. In the _Idylls of the King_ Lord Tennyson says--

"The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built for ever."

Cardinal Newman, too, as the writer in the _Spectator_ points out, expresses the same thought in his Oxford sermon, "The Theory of Development in Christian Doctrine." The preacher said: "Take another example of an outward and earthly form of economy, under which great wonders unknown seem to be typified--I mean musical sounds, as they are exhibited most perfectly in instrumental harmony. There are seven notes in the scale: make them fourteen; yet what a slender outfit for so vast an enterprise! What science brings so much out of so little? Out of what poor elements does some great master create his new world! Shall we say that all this exuberant inventiveness is a mere ingenuity or trick of art, like some fashion of the day, without reality, without meaning?... Is it possible that inexhaustible evolution and disposition of notes, so rich yet so simple, so intricate yet so regulated, so various yet so majestic, should be a mere sound which is gone and perishes? Can it be that those mysterious stirrings of heart, and keen emotions, and strange yearnings after we know not what, and awful impressions from we know not whence, should be wrought in us by what is unsubstantial, and comes and goes, and begins and ends in itself? It is not so! It cannot be."

NOTES.--STANZA I. "_Solomon willed._" Jewish legend gave Solomon sovereignty over the demons and a lordship over the powers of Nature. In the Moslem East these fables have found a resting-place in much of its literature, from the Koran onwards. Solomon was thought to have owed his power over the spiritual world to the possession of a seal on which the "most great name of God was engraved" (see Lane, _Arabian Nights_, Introd., note 21, and chap. i., note 15). In Eastern philosophy, the "Upadana" or the intense desire produces WILL, and it is the _will_ which develops _force_, and the latter generates _matter_, or an object having form (see _Isis Unveiled_, Blavatsky, vol. ii., p. 320). "_Pile him a palace._" Goethe called architecture "petrified music." "_The ineffable Name_": the unspeakable name of God. Jehovah is the European transcription of the sacred tetragrammaton [Hebrew: YHWH]. The later Jews substituted the word Adonai in reading the ineffable Name in their law and prayers. Mysterious names of the Deity are common in other religions than the Jewish. In the Egyptian _Funeral Ritual_, and in a hymn of the Soul, the Word and the Name are referred to in connection with hidden secrets. The Jewish enemies of Christ said that the miracles were wrought by the power of the ineffable Name, which had been stolen from the Sanctuary. (See _Isis Unveiled_, vol. ii, p. 387.)--STANZA III. _Rampired_: an old form of ramparted. "_The Illumination of Rome's Dome._" One of the great sights of Rome used to be the illumination of the dome of St. Peter's on great festivals, such as that of Easter. Since the occupation of Rome by the Italian Government such spectacles, if not wholly discontinued, have been shorn of most of their splendour.--STANZA IV. "_No more near nor far._" Hegel says that "Music frees us from the phenomena of time and space," and shows that they are not essentials, but accidents of our condition here.--STANZA V. "_Protoplast._" The thing first formed, as a copy to be imitated.--STANZA VII. "_That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth sound, but a star._" "A star is perfect and beautiful, and rays of light come from it." STANZA XII. "_Common chord._" A chord consisting of the fundamental tone with its third and fifth. "_Blunt it into a ninth._" A ninth is (_a_) An interval containing an octave and a second; (_b_) a chord consisting of the common chord, with the eighth advanced one note. "_C Major of this life._" Miss Helen Ormerod, in a paper read to the Browning Society of London, November 30th, 1888, has explained these musical terms and expressions. "C Major is what may be called the natural scale, having no sharps or flats in its signature. A Minor, with A (a third below C) for its keynote, has the same signature, but sharps are introduced for the formation of correct intervals. Pauer says that minor keys are chosen for expressing 'intense seriousness, soft melancholy, longing, sadness, and passionate grief'; whilst major keys with sharps and flats in their signatures are said to have distinctive qualities;--perhaps Browning chose C major for the key, as the one most allied to matters of everyday life, including rest and sleep. The common chord, as it is called, the keynote with its third and fifth, contains the rudiments of all music."

=Adam, Lilith, and Eve= (_Jocoseria_, 1883). The Talmudists, in their fanciful commentaries on the Old Testament, say that Adam had a wife before he married Eve, who was called Lilith; she was the mother of demons, and flew away from Adam, and the Lord then created Eve from one of his ribs. Lilith had been formed of clay, and was sensual and disobedient; the more spiritual Eve became his saviour from the snares of his first wife. Mr. Browning in this poem merely uses the names, and makes no reference to the Talmudic or Gnostic legends connected with them. Under the terror inspired by a thunderstorm, two women begin a confession of which they make light when the danger has passed away. The man says he saw through the joke, and the episode was over. It is a powerful and suggestive story of falsehood, fear, and a forgiveness too readily accorded by a man who makes a joke of guilt when he has lost nothing by it.

=Adelaide, The Tuscan= (_Sordello_), was the second wife of Eccelino da Romano, of the party of the Ghibellines.

=Admetus= (_Balaustion's Adventure_). King of Pheræ, in Thessaly. Apollo tended his flocks for one year, and obtained the favour that Admetus should never die if another person could be found to lay down his life for him: his wife, Alcestis, in consequence cheerfully devoted herself to death for him.

=Æschylus.= The Greek tragic poet who wrote the _Agamemnon_ translated by Mr. Browning. Æschylus was born in the year 525 before Christ, at Eleusis, a town of Attica opposite the island of Salamis. When thirty-five years old Æschylus not only fought at Marathon, but distinguished himself for his valour. He was fifty-three years old when he gained the prize at Athens, B.C. 472, for his trilogy or set of three connected plays. He wrote some seventy pieces, but only seven have come down to our times: they are _Prometheus Chained_, _The Suppliants_, _The Seven Chiefs against Thebes_, _Agamemnon_, _The Choëphoræ_, _The Furies_, and _The Persians_. The _Agamemnon_, which Mr. Browning has translated, is one of the plays of the Oresteia, the _Choëphoræ_ and the _Eumenides_ or Furies completing the trilogy. The poet died at Gela, in Sicily, B.C. 456. Æschylus both in order of time and power was the first of the three great tragic poets of ancient Greece. Euripides and Sophocles were the other two.

=After.= See BEFORE and AFTER.

=Agamemnon of Æschylus, The.= A translation published in London, 1877. The scene of the play is laid by Æschylus at Argos, before the palace of Agamemnon, Mycenæ, however, really being his seat. Agamemnon was a son of Atreus according to Homer, and was the brother of Menelaus. In a later account he is described as the son of Pleisthenes, who was the son of Atreus. He was king over Argolis, Corinth, Achaia, and many islands. He married Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, by whom he had three daughters Chrysothemis, Iphigenia and Electra, and one son Orestes. When Helen was carried off by Paris, Agamemnon was chosen to be commander-in-chief of the expedition sent against Troy by the Greeks, as he was the mightiest prince in Greece. He contributed one hundred ships manned with warriors, besides lending sixty more to the Arcadians. The fleet being detained at Aulis by a storm, it was declared that Agamemnon had offended Diana by slaying a deer sacred to her, and by boasting that he was a better hunter than the goddess; and he was compelled to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease her anger. Diana is said by some to have accepted a stag in her place. Homer describes Agamemnon as one of the bravest warriors before Troy, but having received Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses, priest of Apollo, as a prize of war, he arrogantly refused to allow her father to ransom her. This brought a plague on the Grecian host, and their ruin was almost completed by his carrying off Briseis, who was the prize of Achilles--who refused in consequence to fight, remaining sulking in his tent. After the fall of Troy the beautiful princess Cassandra fell to Agamemnon as his share of the spoils. She was endowed with the gift of prophecy, and warned him not to return home. The warning, however, was disregarded, although he was assured that his wife would put him to death. During the absence of Agamemnon Clytemnestra had formed an adulterous connection with Ægisthus, the son of Thyestes and Pelopia; and when he returned, the watchman having announced his approach to his palace, Clytemnestra killed Cassandra, and her lover murdered Agamemnon and his comrades. The tragic poets, however, make Clytemnestra throw a net over her husband while he was in his bath, and kill him with the assistance of Ægisthus, in revenge for the sacrifice of her daughter Iphigenia. In the introduction to the translation of the Agamemnon in _Morley's Universal Library_ we have an excellent description of the great play. "In this tragedy the reader will find the strongest traces of the genius of Æschylus, and the most distinguishing proofs of his skill. Great in his conceptions, bold and daring in his metaphors, strong in his passion, he here touches the heart with uncommon emotions. The odes are particularly sublime, and the oracular spirit that breathes through them adds a wonderful elevation and dignity to them. Short as the part of Agamemnon is, the poet has the address to throw such an amiable dignity around him that we soon become interested in his favour, and are predisposed to lament his fate. The character of Clytemnestra is finely marked--a high-spirited, artful, close, determined, dangerous woman. But the poet has nowhere exerted such efforts of his genius as in the scene where Cassandra appears: as a prophetess, she gives every mark of the divine inspiration, from the dark and distant hint, through all the noble imagery of the prophetic enthusiasm; till, as the catastrophe advances, she more and more plainly declares it; as a suffering princess, her grief is plaintive, lively, and piercing; yet she goes to meet her death, which she clearly foretells, with a firmness worthy the daughter of Priam and the sister of Hector; nothing can be more animated or more interesting than this scene. The conduct of the poet through this play is exquisitely judicious: every scene gives us some obscure hint or ominous presage, enough to keep our attention always raised, and to prepare us for the event; even the studied caution of Clytemnestra is finely managed to produce that effect; whilst the secrecy with which she conducts her design keeps us in suspense, and prevents a discovery till we hear the dying groans of her murdered husband." As Mr. Browning announces in his preface to his translation of the tragedy, he has aimed at being literal at every cost, and has everywhere reproduced the peculiarities of the original. He has also made an attempt to reproduce the Greek spelling in English, which has made the poem more difficult than some other translations to the non-classical reader. We have ample recompense for this peculiarity by the way in which he has imbibed the spirit of his author, and so faithfully reproduced, not alone his phraseology, but his mind. It required a rugged poet to interpret for us correctly the ruggedness of an Æschylus. Line for line and word for word we have the tragedy in English as the Greeks had it in their own tongue. If there are obscurities, we must not in the present instance blame Mr. Browning: a reference to the original, so authorities tell us, will prove that Greek poets were at times obscure. The _Agamemnon_ is part of the Oresteian Trilogy or group of three plays; this trilogy of Æschylus is our only example extant, and it is necessary to say something of the other parts. Atreus, the son of Pelops, was king of Mycenæ. By his wife Ærope were born to him Pleisthenes, Menelaus, and Agamemnon. Thyestes, the brother of Atreus, had followed him to Argos, and there seduced his wife, by whom he had two, or according to some, three children. Thyestes was banished from court on account of this, but was soon afterwards recalled by his brother that he might be revenged upon him. He prepared a banquet where Thyestes was served with the flesh of the children who were the offspring of his incestuous connection with his sister-in-law the queen. When the feast was concluded, the heads of the murdered children were produced, that Thyestes might see of what he had been partaking. It was fabled that the sun in horror shrank back in his course at the horrible sight. Thyestes fled. The crime brought the most terrible evils upon the family of which Agamemnon was a member. When this hero was murdered by his wife and her paramour, young Orestes was saved from his mother's dagger by his sister Electra. When he reached the years of manhood, he visited his ancestral home, and assassinated both his mother and her lover Ægisthus. In consequence of this he was tormented by the Furies, and he exiled himself to Athens, where Apollo purified him. The murder of Clytemnestra by her son is described in the second play of the Trilogy, called the _Choëphoræ or the Libation Pourers_. _The Furies_ is the title of the third and concluding play of the Trilogy. (For an account of Æschylus see p. 8.)

NOTES.--[N.B. The references here are to the pages of the poem in the last edition of the complete works in sixteen vols.]--P. 269, _Atreidai_, a patronymic given by Homer to Agamemnon and Menelaus, as being the sons of Atreus; _Troia_, the capital of Troas == Troy. p. 270, _Ilion_, a citadel of Troy; _Menelaos_, a king of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon. p. 271, _Argives_, the inhabitants of Argos and surrounding country; _Alexandros_, the name of Paris in the Iliad: _Atreus_, son of Pelops, was king of Mycenæ; _Danaoi_, a name given to the people of Argos and to all the Greeks; _Troes_ == Trojans. p. 272, _Tundareus_, king of Lacedæmon, who married Leda; _Klutaimnestra_ == Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus by Leda. p. 273, _Teukris land_, the land of the Trojans--from Teucer, their king; "_Achaians' two-throned empery_": the brother kings Agamemnon and Menelaos. p. 274, _Linos_, the personification of a dirge or lamentation; _Priamos_, the last king of Troy, made prisoner by Hercules when he took the city. p. 275, _Icïos Paian_, an epithet of Apollo; _Kalchas_, a soothsayer who accompanied the Greeks to Troy. p. 277, _Kalchis_, the chief city of Euboea, founded by an Athenian colony; _Aulis_, a town of Boeotia, near Kalchis; _Strumon_, a river which separates Thrace from Macedonia. p. 282, _Hephaistos_, the god of fire, according to Homer the son of Zeus and Hera. The Romans called the Greek Hephaistos Vulcan, though Vulcan was an Italian deity. The news of the fall of Troy was brought to Mycenæ by means of beacon fires, so fire was the messenger. _Ide_ == Mount Ida; _of Lemnos_, an island in the Ægean Sea. p. 283, _Athoan_, of Mount Athos; _Makistos_ == Macistos, a city of Tryphylia; _Euripos_, a narrow strait separating Euboea from Boeotia; _Messapios_, a name of Boeotia; _Asopos_, a river of Thessaly; _Mount Kitharion_, sacred to the Muses and Jupiter. Hercules killed the great lion there; _Mount Aigiplanktos_ was in Megaris; _Strait Saronic_: Saronicus Sinus was a bay of the Ægean Sea; _Mount Arachnaios_, in Argolis. p. 286, _Ate_, the goddess of revenge; _Ares_, the Greek name of the war-god Mars. p. 288, _Aphrodite_, a name of Venus. p. 290, _Erinues_ == the Furies. p. 292, _Puthian_ == Delphic; _Skamandros_, a river of Troas. p. 293, _Priamidai_, the patronymic of the descendants of Priam. p. 300, _Threkian breezes_ == Thracian breezes; _Aigaian Sea_, the Ægean Sea; _Achaian_, pertaining to Achaia, in Greece. p. 301, _Meneleos_, son of Atreus, brother to Agamemnon and husband of Helen; _water-Haides_, the engulfing sea. p. 302, _Zephuros_, the west wind; _Simois_, a river in Troas which rises in Mount Ida and falls into the Xanthus. p. 304, _Erinus_, an avenging deity. p. 307, _the Argeian monster_ == the company of Argives concealed in the wooden horse; _Pleiads_, a name given to seven of the daughters of Atlas by Pleione, one of the Oceanides. They became a constellation in the heavens after death. p. 309, "_triple-bodied Geruon the Second_," Geryon, king of the Balearic Isles, fabled to have three bodies and three heads: Hercules slew him; _Strophios the Phokian_, at whose house Orestes was brought up with Pylades son of Strophios. p. 316, _Kassandra_, daughter of Priam, slain by Clytemnestra. p. 317, "_Alkmene's child_"--Hercules was the son of Alkmene. p. 319, _Ototoi_--alas!; _Loxias_, a surname of Apollo. p. 322, _papai, papai_ == O strange! wonderful! p. 324, _Itus_, or _Itys_, son of Tereus, killed by his mother. p. 325, "_Orthian style_," in a shrill tone. p. 332, _Lukeion Apollon_--Lyceus was a surname of Apollo. p. 335, _Surian_ == Syrian. p. 343, _Chruseids_, the patronymic of the descendants of Astynome, the daughter of Chryses. p. 348, _Iphigeneia_, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; her father offered to sacrifice her to appease the wrath of Diana. p. 350, _The Daimon of the Pleisthenidai_, the genius of Agamemnon's family. p. 351, _Thuestes_, son of Pelops, brother of Atreus; _Pelopidai_, descendants of Pelops, son of Tantalus.

=Agricola, Johannes=, (_Johannes Agricola in Meditation_,) was one of the foremost of the German Reformers. He was born at Eisleben, April 20th, 1492. He met Luther whilst a student at Wittenberg, and became attached to him, accompanying him to the Leipsic Assembly of Divines, where he acted as recording secretary. He established the reformed religion at Frankfort. In 1536 he was called to fill a professorial chair at Wittenberg. Here he first taught the views which Luther termed _Antinomian_. He held that Christians were entirely free from the Divine law, being under the Gospel alone. He denied that Christians were under any obligations to keep the ten commandments. Mr. Browning has quite accurately, though unsparingly, exposed his impious teaching in his poem _Johannes Agricola in Meditation_ (_q.v._).

=Agrippa, Henry Cornelius=, the mediæval doctor and magician, was born at Cologne in 1486, and was educated at the university of that city. He was denounced in 1509 by the monks, who called him an "impious cabalist"; in 1531 he published his treatise _De Occulta Philosophia_, written by the advice and with the assistance of the Abbot Trithemius of Wurzburg, the preceptor of Paracelsus. In 1510 he came to London on a diplomatic mission, and was the guest of Dean Colet at Stepney. He afterwards fought at the battle of Ravenna. In 1511 he attended the schismatic council of Pisa as a theologian. In 1515 he lectured at the university of Pavia. We afterwards find him at Metz, Geneva, and Freiburg, where he practised as a physician. In 1529 he was appointed historiographer to Charles V. He died at Grenoble in 1535. A man of such vast and varied learning could hardly in those days have avoided being accused of diabolical practices and heretical opinions; the only wonder is that he was not burned alive for his scientific attainments, which were looked upon as dangerous in the highest degree. (_Pauline_ in the Latin prefatory note.)

="A King lived long ago."= Song in _Pippa Passes_, which is sung by the girl as she passes the house of Luigi. Mr. Browning first published the song in the _Monthly Repository_, in 1835 (vol ix., N.S., pp. 707-8), it was reprinted with added lines, and was revised throughout, in _Pippa Passes_ 1841.

=Alberic= (_Sordello_). Son of Eccelino the monk, described in the poem as "many-muscled, big-boned Alberic."

=Alcestis= (_Balaustion's Adventure_), the daughter of Pelias, was the wife of Admetus, son of Pheres, who was king of Pheræ in Thessaly. Apollo, when--for an offence against Jupiter--he was banished from heaven, had been kindly received by Pheres, and had obtained from the Fates a promise that his benefactor should never die if he could find another person willing to lay down his life for him. The story how this promise was obtained is set forth with great dramatic force in Mr. Browning's _Apollo and the Fates_ (_q.v._). Alcestis volunteered to die in the place of her husband when he lay sick unto death. Her sacrifice was accepted, and she died. But Hercules, who had been hospitably entertained by Pheres, hearing of the tragic circumstance, brought Alcestis from Hades out of gratitude to his host, and presented her to her grief-stricken husband. Euripides has used these circumstances as the basis of his tragedy of _Alcestis_.

="All Service ranks the same with God."= A song in _Pippa Passes_.

=Amphibian.= The Prologue to _Fifine at the Fair_ is headed "Amphibian," under which title it is included in the _Selections_.

=Anael.= A Druse girl who loves Djabal and believes him to be divine (_The Return of the Druses_).