SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES. (PAGE 73 .)
FEARS AND SCRUPLES. (PAGE 80 .)
THE BOY AND THE ANGEL. (PAGE 87 .)
WHY I AM A LIBERAL. (PAGE 92 .)
EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO. (PAGE 94 .)
THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND. (PAGE 98 .)
THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB AT SAINT PRAXED'S. (PAGE 107 .)
HOME THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD. (PAGE 115 .)
UP AT A VILLA—DOWN IN THE CITY. (PAGE 116 .)
A TOCCATA OF GALUPPI'S. (PAGE 122 .)
A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL. (PAGE 143 .)
ANDREA DEL SARTO. (PAGE 149 .)
CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS. (PAGE 161 .)
"CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME." (PAGE 174 .)
PREFACE
These selections from the poetry of Robert Browning have been made with especial reference to the tastes and capacities of readers of the high-school age. Every poem included has been found by experience to be within the grasp of boys and girls. Most of Browning's best poetry is within the ken of any reader of imagination and diligence. To the reader who lacks these, not only Browning, but the great world of literature, remains closed: Browning is not the only poet who requires close study. The difficulties he offers are, in his best poems, not more repellent to the thoughtful reader than the nut that protects and contains the kernel. To a boy or girl of active mind, the difficulty need rarely be more than a pleasant challenge to the exercise of a little patience and ingenuity.
Browning, when at his best in vigor, clearness, and beauty, is peculiarly a poet for young people. His freedom from sentimentality, his liveliness of conception and narration, his high optimism, and his interest[page iv] in the things that make for the life of the soul, appeal to the imagination and the feelings of youth.
The present edition, attempts but little in the way of criticism. The notes cover such matters as are not readily settled by an appeal to the dictionary, and suggest, in addition, questions that are designed to help in interpretation and appreciation.
TEACHERS' COLLEGE, NEW YORK,
July, 1899.
[page v]
[page vii]
INTRODUCTION
LIFE OF BROWNING
Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, May 7, 1812. He was contemporary with Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, Lowell, Emerson, Hawthorne, Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Dumas, Hugo, Mendelssohn, Wagner, and a score of other men famous in art and science.
Browning's good fortune began with his birth. His father, a clerk in the Bank of England, possessed ample means for the education of his children. He had artistic and literary tastes, a mind richly stored with philosophy, history, literature, and legend, some repute as a maker of verses, and a liberality that led him to assist his gifted son in following his bent. From his father Robert inherited his literary tastes and his vigorous health; in his father he found a critic and companion. His mother was described by Carlyle as a type of the true Scotch gentlewoman. Her "fathomless charity," her love of music, and her [page viii] deep religious feeling reappear in the poet.
Free from struggles with adversity, and devoid of public or stirring incidents, the story of Browning's life is soon told. It was the life of a scholar and man of letters, devoted to the study of poetry, philosophy, history; to the contemplation of the lives of men and women; and to the exercise of his chosen vocation.
His school life was of meagre extent. He attended a private academy, read at home under a tutor, and for two years attended the University of London, When asked in his later life whether he had been to Oxford or Cambridge, he used to say, "Italy was my University," And, indeed, his many poems on Italian themes bear testimony to the profound influence of Italy upon him. In his teens, he came under the influence of Pope and Byron, and wrote verses after their styles. Then Shelley came by accident in his way, and became to the boy the model of poetic excellence.
In 1838 appeared his first published poem, Pauline. It bears the marks of his peculiar