The Browning Cyclopaedia Part 34

GUILHEM. GUILLAUME.

En Sordel que vous en semblan Eh bien, Sordel, que vous en De la pros contessa preysan? semble de cette aimable comtesse Car tout dison, et van parlan si prisee? Car tous disent, tous Que per s'amor etz in vengutz, vous repetant que pour son E quen cujatz esser son drutz, amour vous etes veni ici, que En blanchatz etz por ley canutz. vous avez cru pouvoir etre son amant, et que pour elle vos cheveux blanchissent, et vos forces vous abandonnent.

SORDEL. SORDELLO.

Peyre Guilhem tot son affan Pierre Guillaume, Dieu mit en Mist Dieu in ley for per mon dan. elle tout son travail, pour en Les beautatz que les autratz an faire mon tourment. Les beautes En menz, et el pres son menutz. qu'ont toutes les autres ne sont Ans fos ab emblanchatz perdutz rien; leur prix est peu de chose.

Che esso non fos advengutz. Plutot fusse-je perdu par la vieil-lesse, que d'avoir eprouve ce que j'eprouve.

The poem of _Sordello_ is a picture of the troublous times of the early part of the thirteenth century in North Italy, and is the history of the development of Sordello's soul. Frederick II. is Emperor and Honorius III.

is Pope. Frederick II., the n.o.blest of mediaeval princes, the man who suffered much because he was centuries in advance of his time, is too well known to need any description. To understand the causes of the conflicts in which Lombardy was engaged, we must go back to the time of Charlemagne, who took the Lombard king Desiderius prisoner, in 774, and destroyed the Lombard kingdom. Luitprand, the sovereign of the Lombards from 713 to 726, had extended the dominion of Lombardy into Middle Italy. The Popes found this dominion too formidable, so they solicited the a.s.sistance of the Frankish kings. The whole of Upper Italy had been conquered by the Lombards in the sixth century. "Charles, with the t.i.tle of King of the Franks and Lombards, then became the master of Italy. In 800, the Pope, who had crowned Pepin King of the Franks, claimed to bestow the Roman Empire, and crowned his greater son Emperor of the Romans" (_Encyc.

Brit._). Now began a vast system in North Italy of episcopal "immunities," which made the bishops temporal sovereigns. In the eleventh century the Lombard cities had become communes and republics, managing their own affairs and making war on their troublesome neighbours. Leagues and counter-leagues were formed, and confederacies of cities even dared to challenge the strength of Germany. Otto the Great's empire, in the early years of the tenth century, consisted of Germany and Lombardy, with the Romagna and Burgundy; and it was Otto who fixed the principle, that to the German king belonged the Roman crown. The crown of Germany was at this period elective, although it often pa.s.sed in one family for several generations. Struggles for supremacy between the two powers took place in the reign of the Emperor Henry IV. of Franconia and the papacy of Gregory VII., the famous Hildebrand. It was the struggle between Church and State destined to be fraught with so much misery. The contest ended at this period in a compromise; but most of the gains were on the side of the Pope. It was renewed with great fierceness in the reign of Frederick I. of Hohenstaufen, called Barbarossa or "Red Beard," who came to the throne in 1152. He bestowed on the Empire the t.i.tle of Holy. The cities of Lombardy were commonwealths, somewhat after the fas.h.i.+on of those of ancient Greece; they had grown very rich and powerful, and whilst they admitted the Emperor's authority in theory, were averse to the practice of submission.

The city of Milan, by her attacks on a weaker neighbour, who appealed to Frederick for aid, began a war which resulted in the Peace of Constance in 1183, by which the Emperor abandoned all but a nominal authority over the Lombard League. The son and successor of Frederick--Henry VI.--began to reign in 1190; he married Constance, heiress of the Norman kingdom of Sicily, which was a fief of the papal crown. After the death of Henry VI., Philip, his brother, began to reign, in 1198. In 1208, Otho IV., surnamed the Superb, ascended the throne, and was crowned Emperor. The next year he was excommunicated and deposed. In 1212, Frederick II., King of Sicily, who was the son of Henry VI., began his reign, he received the German crown at Aix-la-Chapelle, 1215, and the Imperial crown of Rome, 1230. When he died he possessed no fewer than six crowns,--the Imperial crown, and the crowns of Germany, Burgundy, Lombardy, Sicily, and Jerusalem. He had a.s.sumed the cross, and in 1220 he left his Empire for a s.p.a.ce of fifteen years, to accomplish the crusade and to carry on the war with the Lombard cities and the Pope (Gregory IX.). John of Brienne, the dethroned King of Jerusalem, who was afterwards Emperor of the East, had a daughter named Yolande, whom Frederick married. He sent a bunch of dates to Frederick to remind him of his promised crusade. When that sovereign formed the army of the East, he left his young son Henry to represent him in Germany.

Frederick was deposed by his subjects, and died in 1250, naming his son Conrad as his successor. In the beginning of the reign of Conrad III., 1138, the Imperial crown was contested by Henry the Proud Duke of Saxony.

It was at this time that the contests between the factions, afterwards so famous in history as those of the Guelfs and the Ghibellines, began. Duke Henry had a brother named Welf, the leader of the Saxon forces. They used his name as their battle cry, and the Swabians responded by crying out the name of the village where their leader, the brother of Conrad, had been born--namely, Waibling. The Welfs and the Waiblings were therefore the originals of the terms Guelfs and Ghibellines.--"_The Romano Family._"

During the reign of Conrad II. (1024-39) a German gentleman, named Eccelino, accompanied that Emperor to Italy, with a single horse, and so distinguished himself that, as a reward for his services, he received the lands of Onaro and Romano in the Trevisan marches. This founder of a powerful house, famous for its crimes, was succeeded by Alberic, and he by another Eccelino, called the First and also le Begue--'the Stammerer.'

These gentlemen largely augmented their patrimony, acquiring Ba.s.sano, Marostica, and many other estates situated to the north of Vicenza, Verona, and Padua; so that their fief formed a small princ.i.p.ality, equal in power to either of its neighbouring republics; and as the factions of the towns sought to strengthen themselves by alliances with them, the Seigneurs de Romano were soon regarded as the chiefs of the Ghibelline party in all Venetia. Eccelin le Begue and Tisolin de Campo St. Pierre, a Paduan n.o.ble, were warm friends, and the latter was married to a daughter of the former, and had a son grown to manhood. Cecile, orphan daughter and heiress of Manfred Ricco d'Abano, was offered in marriage, by her guardians, to the young St. Pierre; but the father before concluding the advantageous alliance, thought it proper to consult his friend and father-in-law, Eccelino. That gentleman, however, wished to obtain this great fortune for his own son, and secretly bribed the lady's guardians to deliver her up to him, when he carried her off to his castle of Ba.s.sano and then hurriedly married her to his son. This treachery made the whole family of Campo St. Pierre indignant, and they vowed vengeance. They had not long to wait for their opportunity. Several months after the marriage, the wife of the young Eccelino went on a visit to her estates in the Paduan territory, with a suite more brilliant than valiant. Tisolin's son, Gerard, who was to have been Cecile's husband, and was now her nephew, seized her and carried her off from the midst of her retinue to his castle of St. Andre. Cecile, escaping after a time, returned to Ba.s.sano and related her terrible misfortune to her husband, who at once repudiated her, and she afterwards married a Venetian n.o.bleman. The two families had, however, thus founded a mutual hate, which descended from father to son, and cost many lives and much blood. In the meantime, Eccelino II.'s power was augmented by this marriage and the one he afterwards contracted. He made alliances with the republics of Verona and Padua; and he soon required their aid, for in 1194, when one of his enemies was chosen podesta of Vicenza, he, his family, and the whole faction of Vivario, were exiled from the city. Before submitting, he undertook to defend himself by setting fire to his neighbours' houses; and a great portion of the town was destroyed during the insurrection. These were the first scenes of disorder and bloodshed which greeted the eyes of Eccelino III. or the Cruel, who was born a few weeks before. Exile from Vicenza was not a severe sentence for the lords of Romano; for they retired to Ba.s.sano, in the midst of their own subjects, and called around them their partisans, who were persecuted as they themselves were, without the same resources.

By the aid thus given with apparent generosity, they degraded their a.s.sociates, transforming their fellow-citizens into mercenary satellites, and increasing their influence in the town, from which their exile could not be of long duration. The Veronese interfered to establish peace in Vicenza. They had the Romanos recalled, with all their party; and an arrangement was made by which two podestas were chosen at the same time, one by each party. In 1197, however, the Vicenzese again chose a single podesta, hostile to Eccelino, and this time not only banished the Romanos, but declared war against them, and sent troops to besiege Marostica. Eccelino, placed between three republics, could choose his own allies; and decided now upon Padua. The Paduan army attacked that of Vicenza, near Carmignano, and took two thousand prisoners. The Vicenzese called upon the Veronese to a.s.sist them, and together they invaded the Paduan territory, desolating it up to the very walls of the city, and so frightening the Paduans that they delivered up all of their prisoners without waiting to consult Eccelino. That prince took this opportunity to break with Padua, and called upon Verona to arbitrate between him and Vicenza, giving them as hostages his young daughter and his strongest two castles, Ba.s.sano and Anganani. By this thorough confidence he so won the affection of the podesta of Verona that he concluded peace for him with Vicenza and the whole Guelf party, and then returned his castles to him.

The Paduans revenged themselves by confiscating Onaro, the first estate possessed by the Romano family in Italy.--_Salinguerra._ William Marchesella des Adelard, chief of the Guelf party in Ferrara, had the misfortune to see all the male heirs of his house, his brother and all his sons, perish before him. An only daughter of his brother, named Marchesella, remained, and he declared her the sole heiress to his immense estates, naming the son of his sister as heir should Marchesella die without children. Tired of warfare, and hoping to ensure peace to his distracted country, he determined to do so by uniting the leading families of the two factions. Salinguerra, son of Torrello, was at the head of the Ghibellines in Ferrara; and William not only offered his niece to him in marriage, but actually before his death placed her, then a child of seven years, in his hands to be reared and educated. The Guelfs were, however, unwilling to permit the heiress of their leading family to remain in the hands of their enemies; and they could not consent to transfer their affection and allegiance to those with whom they had fought for so long a time. They therefore found an opportunity to surprise Salinguerra's palace, and abduct Marchesella, whom they placed in the palace of the Marquis d'Este, choosing Obizzo d'Este to be her husband, and placing her property in the hands of the Marquis. In the end Marchesella died before she was married; her cousins, designated by William, in this event, to be his heirs, were afraid to claim the estates, and the whole property continued in the hands of the Este family. In the meantime the insult offered to Salinguerra was keenly resented. The abduction took place in 1180, and for nearly forty years afterwards civil war continued within the walls of Ferrara without ceasing. During those years, ten times one faction drove the other out of the city, ten times all the property of the vanquished was given up to pillage, and all their houses razed to the ground.--_Eccelino and Salinguerra._ In 1209 Otho IV. entered Italy, and held his court near Verona. All the chief lords of Venetia--but especially Eccelino II., de Romano, and Azzo VI., Marquis d'Este--were summoned to attend. Those two gentlemen had profited by the long interregnum which preceded Otho's reign to increase their influence in the marches, and the factions were more bitter against each other than ever. These factions had different reasons for existing in the different towns; but they quickly adopted the newly introduced names of Guelf and Ghibelline, and a common tie was thus suddenly formed between the factions in the various places.

Thus, by the mere adoption of a name, Salinguerra in Ferrara and the Montecci in Verona, found themselves allies of Eccelino; and, on the other hand, the Adelards of Ferrara, Count St. Bonifazio at Verona and Mantua, and the Campo St. Pierre at Padua, were all allies of the Marquis d'Este.

The year before, Este, after a short banishment, had re-entered Ferrara, and had succeeded in being declared lord of that city,--the first time that an Italian republic abandoned its rights for the purpose of voluntarily submitting to a tyrant. About the same time the Marquis had gained an important victory over Eccelino and his party; but, at the moment when the Emperor entered Italy, Eccelino had gained some advantages over the Vicenzese, and thought himself on the point of capturing the city. Azzo marched against him, whereupon Salinguerra entered Ferrara and drove out all of Azzo's adherents. The summons sent to the chiefs to meet the Emperor no doubt prevented a b.l.o.o.d.y battle and a useless ma.s.sacre.

(See note, p. 500; see also the article, TAURELLO SALINGUERRA, in this work.) In 1235, after a long and turbulent reign, full of vicissitudes, Eccelino II. retired into a monastery, and divided his princ.i.p.ality between his two sons, Eccelino III. and Alberic. The latter remained at Treviso; but Eccelino III. became very powerful, kept all Italy in turmoil, and was notorious for his infamous tyrannies and cruelties. In 1255 he was excommunicated by the Pope, Alexander IV., and a crusade was preached against him. He fought against his enemies from that time, with varying success and stubborn courage, until 1259, when he was wounded in battle and taken prisoner. The leaders of the enemy with difficulty protected him from the fury of the soldiers and the people; but he himself tore the bandages from his wounds, and died on the eleventh day of his captivity. All the cities which he had conquered and oppressed at once revolted; and Treviso, where Alberic had reigned ever since his fathers abdication, revolted and drove him out. Alberic, with his family, took refuge in his fortress of San Zeno, in the Euganean mountains; but the league of Guelf cities declared against him, and the troops of Venice, Treviso, Vicenza, and Padua surrounded the castle, where they were soon joined by the Marquis d'Este. Traitors delivered up the outworks; but Alberic and his wife, two daughters and six sons, took refuge on the top of a tower. After three days, compelled by hunger, he delivered himself up to the Marquis, at the same time reminding him that one of his daughters was the wife of Renaud d'Este. In spite of this, however, he and his family were all murdered and torn to pieces, and their dismembered bodies divided among all the cities over which the hated Romano family had tyrannised. In 1240 Gregory IX. preached a crusade against the Emperor Frederick II., and a crusading army surrounded Ferrara, where Salinguerra, then more than eighty years old, had reigned for some time as prince and as head of the Ghibellines. He successfully defended the city for some time; but when attending a conference, to which he was invited by his enemies, he was treacherously captured and sent to Venice, where, after five years' imprisonment, he died." [S.]

[THE POEM.] _Sordello_ is Browning's _Hamlet_, and is the most obscure of all Mr. Browning's poems. It has been aptly compared to a vast palace, in which the architect has forgotten to build a staircase. Its difficulties are not merely those which are inseparable from an attempt to trace the development of a soul,--such a work without obscurity could only deal with a very simple soul,--but are consequent on the remoteness of time in which the political events and historical circ.u.mstances which formed the environment of Sordello's existence took place, and the partial interest which the majority of readers feel concerning those events. The work deals with the struggles of the Guelfs and Ghibellines; and it is necessary to possess a fair knowledge of the history of the times, places, and persons concerned before we can grasp the mere outlines of the story. It must be admitted, whether we allow the charge of obscurity or not, that Mr.

Browning never helps his reader. He may or may not actually hinder him: it is certain that he does not go out of his way to a.s.sist him. The first step towards understanding Sordello, then, is to gain some acquaintance with the period and personages of the story. The work is full of beauty.

Probably no poet ever poured out such wealth of richest thought with such princely liberality as Mr. Browning has done in this much discussed poem.

It is like a Brazilian forest, in which, though we shall almost certainly lose our way, it will be amidst such profusion of floral loveliness that it will be a delight to be buried in its depths.

BOOK I.--The poem in its first scene places us in imagination in Verona six hundred years ago. A restless group has gathered in its market-place to discuss the news which has arrived,--that their prince, Count Richard of St. Boniface, the great supporter of the cause of the Guelfs, who had joined Azzo, the lord of Este, to depose the Ghibelline leader, Tauzello Salinguerra, from his position in Ferrara, has become prisoner in Ferrara; and in consequence immediate aid is demanded from the "Lombard League of fifteen cities that affect the Pope." The Pope supported the Guelf cause, the Kaiser that of the Ghibellines. The leaders of the two causes are described, and the principles of which each was the representative. We are next introduced to Sordello; not in his youth, but in a supreme moment before the end of his career--a moment which has to determine his future.

How this pregnant moment has come about, and how the past has fas.h.i.+oned the present, the poet now proceeds to explain. We are taken back to the castle of Goto, when Sordello was a boy already of the regal cla.s.s of poets, musing by the marble figures of the fountain, and finding companions in the embroidered figures on the arras. Adelaide, wife of Eccelino da Romano, the Ghibelline prince, was mistress of the castle.

Sordello was only a page, known only as the orphan of Elcorte, an archer, who, in the slaughter of Vicenza, had saved his mistress and her new-born son at the cost of his own life. The son was afterwards known as Eccelin the Cruel. Sordello led the ideal life of a poet child at Goto. All nature was a scene of enchantment to him, was endowed with form and colour from his own rich fancy. But Sordello was not content with living his own life, he must combine in his person the lives of his imaginary heroes. He will be perfect: he chooses Apollo as his ideal: he must love a woman to match his high ambition. He aims at Palma, Eccelin's only child by his former wife, Agnes Este, but who has been already set apart, for reasons of state, as the wife of Count Richard of St. Boniface, the Guelf. Palma, however, it is reported in the castle, will refuse him. Sordello anxiously awaits his opportunity. The return of Adelaide to the castle demands the services of the troubadours: Sordello's chance lies this way.

BOOK II. shows us Sordello setting forth on a bright spring day, full of hope that he will meet Palma. Arriving at Mantua, he finds a Court of Love, in which his lady sits enthroned as queen, and the troubadour Eglamor contending for her prize against all comers. Eglamor seems to make but a poor affair of the story he is singing. He ceases. Sordello knows the story too, and feels that he can do better with it. He springs forward, and with true inspiration sings a new song to the old idea transfigured. He has won the prize from Palma's hands. Swooning with joy, he is carried back to Goto, the poet's crown on his brow and Palma's scarf round his neck. Eglamor is dead with spite, and the troubadours have a new chief. Thus was Sordello poet, Master of the Realms of Song. He will slumber: he can arise in his strength any day. He is summoned to Mantua to sing to order. He finds the idea of work distasteful; but he conquers, and is crowned with honours. But he feels he has only been loving song's results, not song for its own sake; his failure to reach his ideal destroys the pleasure derived from his success. Soon the true Sordello vanished, sundered in twain, the poet thwarting the man. The man and bard was gone; internal struggles frittered his soul; he became too contemptuous, and so he neither pleased his patrons nor himself. He falls lower and lower, abjures the soul in his songs, and contents himself with body. His degradation is complete. Meanwhile Adelaide dies, and Eccelin resolves to forsake the world and the Emperor, and come to terms with the Pope. Taurello rages furiously at this news, and returns to Mantua.

Sordello is chosen to sound his praises. "'Tis a test, remember," says Naddo. But Sordello loathes the task: he will not sing at all, and runs away to Goto.

BOOK III.--Once more at his old home, Mantua becomes but a dream.

Sordello, well or ill, is exhausted: rather than imperfectly reveal himself, he will remain unrevealed. He will remain himself, instead of attempting to project his soul into other men. He spent a year with Nature at Goto, but as one defeated,--youth gone, love and pleasure foregone, and nothing really done. With an all-embracing sympathy he has not himself really lived. When Nature makes a mistake she can rectify it. He must perish once, and perish utterly. He should have brought actual experience of things obtained by sterling work to correct his mere reflections and observations. He may do something yet: though youth is gone, life is not all spent. He has the will to do,--what of the means? Resolution having thus been taken, the means are suddenly discovered. Naddo arrives as messenger from Palma, telling how Eccelin has distributed his wealth to his two sons, has married them to Guelf brides, and has retired to a monastery; that Palma is betrothed to Richard of St. Boniface, and Sordello must compose a marriage hymn. Sordello seizes the opportunity, and hastens to meet Palma at Verona. We have now arrived at the point at which the poem of Sordello opens in Book I. He has to hear a strange confession from the lips of Palma. If Sordello had been paralysed by indecision, she too had done nothing, because she was awaiting an "out-soul." Weary with waiting for her complement, which should enable her to live her proper life, she had conceived a great love for Sordello when he burst upon the scene at the Love Court. To win Sordello for herself and her cause henceforth was her life-object. When Adelaide died this became practicable. She had heard the astonis.h.i.+ng dying confession of Adelaide, and had witnessed Eccelin's visit to the death-chamber when he came to undo everything which Adelaide had done. He had resolved to reconcile the Guelf and Ghibelline factions. Taurello determined to use Palma to support the Ghibellines. Palma, as head of the house, agreed to this; but it was arranged that the project should not at present be made public. She must profess her intention to carry out the arrangement which Taurello had made, before he entered on the religious life, of marrying the Guelf, Count Richard. Taurello has thus entrapped the Count, and has him in prison at Ferrara. Palma's father, Eccelin, blots out all his old engagements. All now rests with Palma, and she arranges to fly with Sordello on the morrow as arbitrators to Taurello at Ferrara. Now is one round of Sordello's life accomplished. Mr. Browning here makes a long digression, beginning, "I muse this on a ruined palace-step at Venice."

The City in the Sea seems to him a type of life:--

"Life, the evil with the good, Which make up living, rightly understood; Only do finish something!"

No evil man is past hope; if he has not truth, he has at least his own conceit of truth; he sees it surely enough: his lies are for the crowd.

Good labours to exist; though Evil and Ignorance thwart it. In this life we are but fitting together an engine to work in another existence. He sees profound disclosures in the most ordinary type of face: the world will call him dull for this, as being obscure and metaphysical. There are poets who are content to tell a simple story of impressions; another cla.s.s presents things as they really are in a general, and not, as in the previous cla.s.s, in an individual sense; but the highest cla.s.s of all brings out the deeper significance of things which would never have been seen without the poet's aid. These are the Makers-see--obviously a higher type of genius than the Seers. "But," asks the objector, "what is the use of this?" It is quite true that men of action, like Salinguerra, are not unwisely preferred to dreamers like Sordello: they, at least, _do_ the world's work somehow; this is better than talking about it. But, at any rate, there is no harm done in compelling the Makers-see to do their duty.

It is their province to gaze through the "door opened in heaven," and tell the world what they see, and make us see it too, as did John in Patmos Isle. And so Mr. Browning has a.n.a.lysed for us the soul of Sordello; but he expects no reward for it. The world is too indolent to look into heaven with John, or into h.e.l.l with Dante.

BOOK IV.--The description of the unhappy position of Ferrara, "the lady city," for which both Guelf and Ghibelline contended, opens the fourth book. Sordello is here with Palma. He has seen the dreadful condition of the people, and has espoused their cause. Here, in the midst of carnage and ruin, Sordello learns his altruism. He appeals to Taurello Salinguerra, but nothing comes of it. The more he sees of the misery of the people, the more he vows himself to an effort to raise them. The soldiers ask him to sing at their camp-fire. He sings, and Palma hears and takes him back to Taurello Salinguerra. The poet here describes the chief and tells his story. He is the doer, as contrasted with Sordello the visionary; but he has led a life of misfortune and adventure. At the burning of Vicenza he lost wife and child; he embraced the cause of Eccelin and the Ghibellines. As Eccelin had gone into a monastery, all Taurello's plans were disarranged. He ponders as to whom shall be given the Emperor's badge of the prefects.h.i.+p; and what shall he do with his prisoner Richard; Sordello asks Palma what are the laws at work which explain Ghibellinism. He feels he has been a recreant to his race: Taurello has the people's interest at heart; all that Sordello _should_ have done he _does_. Are Guelfs as bad as Ghibellines, or better? Both these do worse than nothing, is a reflection which comforts the do-nothing poet. What if there were a Cause higher and n.o.bler than either, and he (Sordello) were to be its true discoverer? A soldier, at this point, suggests to Sordello a subject for a ballad: a tale of a dead worthy long ago consul of Rome, Crescentius Nomenta.n.u.s, who--

"From his brain, Gave Rome out on its ancient place again."

Sordello resolves to build up Rome again--a Rome which should mean the rights of mankind, the realisation of the People's cause.

BOOK V.--The splendid dream of a New Rome has vanished from Sordello's mind ere night; his enthusiasm is chilled, and arch by arch the vision has dissolved. Mankind cannot be exalted of a sudden; the work of ages cannot be done in a day. The New Rome is one more thing which Sordello could imagine, but could not make. His heart tells him that the minute's work is the first step to the whole work of a man: he has purposed to take the last step first: he may be a man at least, if he cannot be a G.o.d. The world is not prepared for such a violent change; society has never been advanced by leaps and bounds. Charlemagne had to subject Europe by main force, then Hildebrand was enabled to rule by brain power. Strength wrought order, and made the rule of moral influence possible; in its turn, moral power allied itself with material power. The Crusaders learned the trick of breeding strength by other aid than strength; and so the Lombard League turned righteous strength against pernicious strength. Then comes, in its turn, G.o.d's truce to supersede the use of strength by the Divine influence of Religion. All that precedes is as scaffolding, indispensable while the building is in progress, but a thing to spurn when the structure is completed: that, however, is not yet. As talking is Sordello's trade, he endeavours to persuade Salinguerra to join the Guelfs, as this, to Sordello, seems the more popular cause. Taurello hears him with patience, mixed with a contemptuous indifference. His scornful demeanour rouses Sordello to make the highest claims for the poet's authority: "A poet must be earth's essential king." To bend Taurello to the Guelf cause, Sordello would give up life itself. He knows that "this strife is right for once."

Taurello is impressed at last: the argument hits him, not the man; himself must be won to the Ghibellines. Palma, being a woman, is impossible as leader of the party; her love for Sordello may, however, be cast in the balance, and in an inspired moment Taurello invests Sordello with the Emperor's badge, which he casts upon his neck. Palma now tells Taurello that Adelaide, on her death-bed, confessed that Sordello was Taurello's own son, who did not perish, as he believed, at Vicenza. Adelaide, for her own purposes, had concealed his rescue. "Embrace him, madman!" Palma cried; thoughts rushed, fancies rushed. "Nay, the best's behind," Taurello laughed. Palma hurries Taurello away, that Sordello may collect his thoughts awhile. Sordello is crowned. They hear a foot-stamp as they discuss the future, in the room where they left Sordello, and "out they two reeled dizzily."

BOOK VI.--Now has arisen the great temptation of Sordello. Is it to be the Great Renunciation or the Fall? With the magnificent prospect before him of Chief of the Ghibellines, the Emperor cause; with the Emperor's badge on his neck; with Palma, his Ghibelline bride, he, Taurello Salinguerra's son, might at last do something! After all, what was the difference between Guelf and Ghibelline? Why should he give up all the joy of life that the mult.i.tude might have some joy? "Speed their Then." "But how this badge would suffer!--you improve your Now!" So Sordello lovingly eyes the tempter's apple. After all, evil is just as natural as good; and without evil no good can accrue to men. Sordello may then as well be happy while he may. Soul and body have each alike need of the other: soul must content itself without the Infinite till the earth-stage is over. He has tried to satisfy the soul's longing, and has failed: why not seek now the common joys of men? Salinguerra and Palma reach the chamber door and dash aside the veil, only to find Sordello dead, "under his foot the badge." Has he lost or won? He learned how to live as he came to die: he made the Great Renunciation, and in seeming defeat he achieved his soul's success.

NOTES TO BOOK I.--Line 6, _Pentapolin_, "o' the naked arm," king of the Garamanteans, who always went to battle with his right arm bare. (See _Don Quixote_, I. iii. 4; "The _friendless-people's friend_," etc.) Don Quixote is here spoken of, and "_Pentapolin named o' the Naked Arm_" is mentioned by Don Quixote when he sees the two flocks of sheep: "Know, friend Sancho, that yonder army before us is commanded by the Emperor Alifanfaron, sovereign of the Island of Trapoban; and the other is commanded by his enemy the king of the Garamanteans, known by the name of Pentapolin with the naked arm, because he always engages in battle with the right arm bare." l. 12, _Verona_: a city of North Italy, on the Adige, under the Lombard Alps. l. 66, "_The thunder phrase of the Athenian_," etc.: aeschylus, who fought at Marathon. l. 70, "_The starry paladin_": Sir Philip Sidney's love poems to Stella were written under the _nom de plume_ of Astrophel (the lover of the star). [S.] l. 80, _The Second Friedrich_ == Holy Roman Emperor (1194-1250), surnamed _the Hohenstauffen_, the most remarkable historic figure of the middle ages. He was the grandson of Barbarossa, and was crowned in 1220. l. 81, _Third Honorius_ == Pope Honorius III. (1216-1227): he was a Guelf. l. 104, _Richard of St.

Boniface_, Count of Verona, was of the Guelfs; _Lombard League_: the famous alliance of the great Lombard cities began in 1164. l. 117, "_p.r.o.ne is the purple pavis_": a pavise is a large s.h.i.+eld covering the whole body: when the s.h.i.+eld was _p.r.o.ne_--_i.e._ fallen flat on its face--its owner was defenceless. l. 124, "_Duke o' the Rood_": of the Order of the Holy Cross. l. 126, _h.e.l.l-cat_ == Eccelin. l. 131, _Ferrara_: an ancient city of North Italy, twenty-nine miles from Bologna and seventy from Venice. l.

131, _Osprey_: a long-winged eagle. "An osprey appears to have been the coat of arms of Salinguerra, as the 'ostrich with a horseshoe in his beak'

was that of Eccelin." [S.] l. 142, _Oliero_: the monastery which Eccelin the monk entered. It is situated near Ba.s.sano, in the Eastern Alps. ll.

148 and 149, _Cino Bocchimpane_ and _Buccio Virtu_: citizens. l. 149, _G.o.d's Wafer_: an oath (Ostia di Dio). l. 150, "_Tutti Santi_" == "All Saints!" an exclamation. l. 153, _Padua_: a famous city of Lombardy, said to be the oldest in North Italy; _Podesta_ == governor of a city. l. 197, _Hohenstauffen_: this dynasty of Germany began with Conrad III. (1137-52).

Frederick II. was the most ill.u.s.trious man of this ill.u.s.trious family. l.

198, _John of Brienne_: crusader and t.i.tular king of Jerusalem (1204). He was afterwards Emperor of the East. His daughter Yolande or Iolanthe married Frederick II. l. 201, _Otho IV._, Holy Roman Emperor (_c._ 1174-1218). l. 202, _Barbaross_ == Frederick Barbarossa: one of the greatest sovereigns of Germany (1152-90). There is a German tradition that he is not dead, but only sleeping, and that when he starts from his slumbers a golden age will begin for Germany. l. 205, _Triple-bearded Teuton_ Barbarossa: the legend runs that his beard has already grown through the table slab, but must wind itself thrice round the table before his second advent. l. 253, _Trevisan_: of the province of Treviso; its chief town, Treviso, is distant seventeen miles from Venice. l. 257, _G.o.dego_: a town in Venetia, amongst the Asolan hills. _Marostica_: a town of North Italy, fifteen miles north-east of Vicenza, at the foot of Mount Rovero. l. 258, _Castiglione_: a town at the Italian end of the Lago di Garda (Cartiglion in the text, but evidently a misprint); _Ba.s.sano_: a city of Italy, in the province of Vicenza, on the Brenta. In the centre of the town is the Tower of Ezzelino. _Loria_, or Lauria: a city of Italy in the province of Potenza. The castle was the birthplace of Ruggiero di Loria. l. 259, _Suabian_: the struggle for the Imperial throne between Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick (1198-1208) enlisted the sympathies of Italy, and some of the Guelfic towns took the part of the Guelf Otto.

l. 262, _Vale of Trent_: Trent or Tridentum was once the wealthiest town in Tyrol; it lies between Botzen and Verona. l. 263, _Roncaglia_, near Piacenza, where Frederick I. held the Diet in 1154, and received the submission of the Lombards. l. 265, _Asolan and Euganean hills_: in the Trevisan, a district of North Italy, between Trent and Venice. l. 266, _Rhetian_, of the country of the Tyrol and the Grisons; _Julian_ mountains: between Venetia and Noric.u.m. l. 288, _Romano_: Eccelino da Romano. l. 304, _Rovigo_: a city of Italy, about twenty-seven miles S.S.W.

of Padua. From the eleventh to the fourteenth century the Este family was usually in authority. l. 305, _Ancona's March_: the frontier or boundary of Ancona, a city of Central Italy on the Adriatic. l. 315, _Hildebrand_: Pope Gregory VII. (1073-85). l. 317, _Twenty-four_: the magistrates of Verona who managed the affairs of the city. l. 324, _Carroch_, or _caroccio_: a Lombard war carriage, which was drawn by oxen, and bore a great bell, the standard of the army, and the Sacred Host, forming a rallying point. l. 373, "_John's transcendent vision_"--Book of Revelation. ll. 382 and 385, _Mantua_ and _Mincio_: about seven hundred years ago the river Mincio formed a great marsh round the city of Mantua; this separated the city from the mountains, on the slope of which stood the castle of Goto. l. 420, _Caryatides_: figures of women serving to support entablatures. l. 587, "_That Pisan Pair_": Niccolo Pisano, and Giovanni Pisano, his son were great sculptors and architects of Pisa (_circ._ 1207-78). "Nicolo was born about 1200, and was one of the first to seek after the truer forms of art in the general quickening of the century. He was a great sculptor, as his works and those of his son Giovanni (architect of the Campo Santo at Pisa) and his school bear witness at Pisa, Orvieto, Pistoia, and many other towns. After he had met with an example of the genuine antique--a sarcophagus now at Pisa--he brought his future work into accordance with its rules." [S.] l. 589, "_while at Sienna is Guidone set_": "The name Guido da Sienna and the date 1221, mark a picture now at Sienna; and this, with other works attributed to the same painter, show him to have been one of the earliest artists who express a feeling independent of Byzantine influence." [S.] l. 591, "_Saint Euphemia_": a fine brick church at Verona, dating from the thirteenth century. The interior has now been entirely remodelled. [S.].

_Saint Eufemia_: of Chalcedon: her body was said to have been miraculously conveyed to Rovigno, in the sixth century. l. 606, "_so they found at Babylon_": "It is said that after the city (of Seleucia) was burnt, the soldiers searching the temple (of Apollo) found a narrow hole, and when this was opened in the hope of finding something of value in it, there issued from some deep gulf, which the secret magic of the Chaldeans had closed up, a pestilence laden with the strength of incurable disease, which polluted the whole world with contagion, in the time of Verus and Marcus Antoninus, and from the borders of Persia to Gaul and the Rhine."--Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus. [S.] l. 607, "_Colleagues, mad Lucius and sage Antonine_": during the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (the philosopher) and the scapegrace Lucius Verus; the latter was in command of the Roman forces in the east, and engaged in a war with Parthia. His generals sacked Seleucia, and he was himself present in the neighbourhood of Babylon during the winters of A.D. 163-5 (_v._ Clinton, _Fasti Romani_). [S.] l. 608, "_Apollo's shrine_": "Seleuceus, one of Alexander's generals, and himself a Macedonian, founded the Syrian empire, and built the town of Seleucia. A good deal is told of the h.e.l.lenization of the East under Seleucus. He, no doubt, founded the temple of Apollo, who was claimed as an ancestor of the family." [S.] l. 617, _Loxian_: surname of Apollo. l. 671, _Orpine_: a yellow plant, commonly called _Livelong_ (Sedum Telephium). l. 679, "_adventurous spider_": the geometric spiders (Orbitelariae), are almost the only ones whose method of forming a snare have been at all minutely recorded. The garden spider (Epeira) spins a large quant.i.ty of thread, which, floating in the air in various directions, happens, from its glutinous quality, at last to adhere to some object near it--a lofty plant, or the branch of a tree. When the spider has one end of the line fixed, he walks along part of it, and fastens another, then drops and affixes the thread to some object below; climbs again, and begins a third, fastening that in a similar way. Mr. Browning is in error when he makes the spider shoot her threads from depth to height, from barbican to battlement. l. 707, "_eat fern seed_": this was anciently supposed to make the eater invisible; _Naddo_: appears as Sordello's friend and adviser: Mr. Browning makes him a representative of the "Philistine" party, and puts into his mouth the words of mere conventional, superficial wisdom. l. 720, "_Poppy--a coa.r.s.e brown rattling crane_": the cranium or skull-like poppy head, when it contains the seed and is dry. l. 784, _Valva.s.sor_, or _vavasour_: in feudal law a princ.i.p.al va.s.sal, not holding immediately of the sovereign, but of a great lord; _suzerain_: a feudal lord, a lord paramount. l. 835, "_The Guelfs paid stabbers, etc._": "In 1209 Otho IV. entered Italy, and held his court near Verona. All the chief lords of Venetia, but especially Eccelino II., da Romana, and Azzo VI., Marquis d'Este, were summoned to attend. Those two gentlemen had profited by the long interregnum which preceded Otho's reign. They had used the various discords between the towns to increase each his own faction; and the hatred between the two was more bitter than ever. A dramatic scene took place at the meeting before the Emperor. When Eccelino saw Azzo, he said, in the presence of the whole court, 'We were intimate in our youth, and I believed him to be my friend. One day we were in Venice together, walking on the Place of St. Mark, when his a.s.sa.s.sins flung themselves upon me to stab me; and at the same moment the Marquis seized my arms, to prevent me from defending myself; and if I had not by a violent effort escaped, I should have been killed, as was one of my soldiers by my side. I denounce him, therefore, before this a.s.sembly as a traitor; and of you, Sire, I demand permission to prove by a single combat his treachery to me as well as to Salinguerra, and to the podesta of Vicenza.' Shortly afterwards, Salinguerra arrived, followed by a hundred men at arms, and throwing himself at the feet of the Emperor, he made a similar accusation against the Marquis, and also demanded the ordeal of battle. Azzo replied to him, that he had on his hands plenty of gentlemen more n.o.ble than Salinguerra ready to fight for him if he was so anxious for battle. Then Otho commanded all three to be silent, and declared that he should not accord to any of them the privilege of fighting for any of their past quarrels. From these two chiefs the Emperor expected greater service than from all other Italians; and he secured their allegiance by confirming the lords.h.i.+p of the Marches of Ancona upon the Marquis, and by declaring Eccelino to be imperial deputy and permanent podesta of Vicenza." [S.] Line 857, _Malek_, a Moor. l. 885, _Miramoline_: a Saracen prince, whose territory was situated in North Africa: in the year 1214, St. Francis of a.s.sisi set out for Morocco to preach the gospel to this famous Mahometan, but was taken seriously ill on the way. l. 888, "_dates plucked from the bough John Brienne sent_": he sent a bunch of dates to remind Frederick of his promise to join the crusade. l. 924, _crenelled_: embattled, crenellated. l. 935, _Damsel-fly_: the dragon-fly, so called from its elegant appearance. l. 946, _Python_: a monstrous serpent which haunted the caves of Parna.s.sus, and was slain by Apollo. l. 950, "_Girls--his Delians_": at the island of Delos the festival of Apollo was celebrated. The girls were priestesses of Apollo. l. 956, "_Daphne and Apollo_": Daphne was a nymph who, being pursued by Apollo, was at her own entreaty changed into a bay tree--the tree consecrated to Apollo. l. 1008, _Trouveres_ == troubadours.

BOOK II.--Line 68, _Jongleurs_: minstrels who accompanied the troubadours, and who sometimes did a little jugglery. l. 71, _Elys_: "Elys, then, is merely the ideal subject, with such a name, of Eglamour's poem, and referred to in other places as his (Sordello's) type of perfection, realised according to his faculty (_Ellys_--the lily)"--Robert Browning.

[S.] l. 156: "The rhymes 'Her head that's sharp ... sunblanched the livelong summer' are referred to Book V., l. 246, 'the vehicle that marred Elys so much,' etc., and 'his worst performance, the Goto as his first.'

l. 980 of the same book." [S.] l. 94, "_spied a scarab_": one of the marks of Apis, the sacred bull of ancient Egypt. The marks were "a black coloured hide with a white triangular spot on the forehead, the hair arranged in the shape of an eagle on the back, and a knot under the tongue in the shape of a scarabaeus, the sacred insect and emblem of Ptah, and a white spot resembling a lunar crescent at his right side" (Dr. S. Birch).

l. 183, "_A Roman bride_": "on the wedding day, which in early times was never fixed upon without consulting the auspices, the bride was dressed in a long white robe with purple fringe and a girdle at the waist; her veil was of a bright yellow, and shoes likewise; her hair was divided with the point of a spear, which the antiquarians explained as emblematic of the husband's authority, or as typical of the guardians.h.i.+p of Juno Curitico (Juno with the lance)." "But while these rites are being performed, remain unwedded, ye damsels; let the torch of pinewood await auspicious days, and let not the curved spear part thy virgin ringlets" (Ovid, _Fasti_, ii.

160). [S.] l. 218, "_Perseus_"--rescuing Andromeda when chained to the rock in the sea. l. 222, "_gnome_": the Rosicrucians imagined gnomes to be sprites presiding over mines, etc. l. 224, "_Agate cup, his topaz rod, his seed pearl_": amongst the various superst.i.tions connected with precious stones the agate was held to be an emblem of health and long life, and to possess certain medicinal uses. The topaz, said the old doctor, "is favourable to haemorrhages, to impart strength, and promote digestion"; it was an emblem of fidelity. l. 307, "_Ma.s.sic jars dug up at Baiae_": Ma.s.sic wine was famous in old Roman days. Baiae, an ancient town near Naples; in old Roman days a health and pleasure resort of the wealthy; innumerable relics of these times have been unearthed. "Mons Ma.s.sicus was a vine-clad hill in the Campagna, where the Falernian wine was grown." [S.] l. 297, "_A plant they have_"; The day-lily--St. Bruno's lily--the _Hemerocallis liliastrum_, in French, belle de jour. l. 329, _Vicenza_: a city of Northern Italy of great antiquity; the first encounter between the Guelfs and Ghibellines took place here, about 1194.

l. 330, _Vivaresi_: a Lombard family. l. 331, _Maltraversi_: a n.o.ble family of Padua. l. 435, _Machine_: see l. 1014. l. 460, "_some huge throbbing stone_": In one of Ossian's poems a description is given of bards walking around a rocking stone, and by their singing making it move as an oracle of battle." [S.] l. 483, _truchman_ == an interpreter. l.

527, _rondel, tenzon, virlai, or sirvent_: forms of Provencal poetry.

"_Rondel_, a thirteen-verse poem, in which the beginning is repeated in the third and fourth verses--from _rotundus_; _tenzon_, a contest in verse before a tribunal of love--from _tendo_, in the sense of to strive; _virlai_, or _vireley_, a short poem, always in short lines, and wholly in two rhymes, with a refrain--from _virer_; _sirvent_, a poem of praise or service, sometimes satirical; from _servire_." (_Imp. Dict._) [S.] l. 529, _angelot_: an instrument of music somewhat resembling a lute. l. 625, "_sparkles off_": intransitive verb,--"his mail sparkles off and it rings, whirled from each delicatest limb it warps." [S.] l. 627, "_Apollo from the sudden corpse of Hyacinth_": Apollo was one day teaching Hyacinthus to play at quoits, and accidentally killed him. l. 630, _Montfort_: the father of Simon de Montfort, who fought against the Albigenses. l. 729, _Vidal_: Pierre Vidal, of Toulouse, a poet of varied inspiration, was loaded with gifts by the greatest n.o.bles of his time (see Sismondi, _Lit.

Eur._, vol. i., p. 135). Professor Sonnenschein says he was a Provencal troubadour, who died about 1210. He was a sort of caricature of the usual troubadour excellence and foolishness. Some of his poems are the best remaining of the Provencal poetry. He went twice to Palestine, once with a crusade. He was hated by Sordello, and referred to in some of his poems which are extant. l. 730, _filamot_: yellow-brown colour; from _feuille-morte_; _murrey-coloured_: of a dark-red or mulberry colour (_morus_, mulberry). l. 755, _plectre_, or plectrum: a staff of ivory, horn, etc., for playing with on a lyre. l. 784, "_Bocafoli's stark-naked psalms_": not merely _plain_ song, but _naked_ song. l. 785, _Plara's sonnets_. Both personages are imaginary. l. 786, _almug_: "probably the red sandalwood of China and India" (Dr. W. Smith). l. 788, _river-horse_: the hippopotamus. l. 792, _pompion-twine_: pumpkin. l. 843, _Pappacoda_: a nickname. _Tagliafer_, or _Taillefer_: the favourite minstrel-knight of William of Normandy, who rode in front of the invading army at the battle of Senlac, and sang the song of Roland. l. 846, _o'ertoise_: overstretch?

l. 877, _Count Lori_, or Loria of Naples. l. 883, "_The Grey Paulician_": "Eccelino II. found the Paterini or Paulicians, a Manichaean sect, who were driven from the East by the Empress Theodora (who had a hundred thousand of them killed) and her successors. They were slowly forced westward, and at last settled in Italy, and in Languedoc, in the neighbourhood of Albi.

They are credited with planting the first seeds of the Reformation in the Latin Church. Innocent III., alarmed at their doctrines and increasing numbers, opposed them, and instructed St. Dominic and St. Francis to preach against them. The result was the cruel crusade of 1206, which continued in the form of more or less spasmodic persecution for many years,--at least thirty." [S.] l. 899, _Romano_: the birthplace of Ezzelino, near Ba.s.sano. Eccelino Romano was chief of the Ghibellines. l.

901, _Azzo's sister Beatrix_: married Otho IV. l. 902, _Richard's Giglia_: a Guelf lady. l. 929, _Retrude_: wife of Salinguerra. l. 948, _Strojavacca_: a troubadour? l. 986, "_Cat's head and Ibis' tail_": "Egyptian symbols in mosaic on the porphyry floor." [S.] l. 989, _Soldan_: Sultan. l. 1009, "_Iris root the Tuscan grated over them_": orris-root. l.

1013, _Carian group_: the Caryatides--women dressed as at the feasts of Diana Caryatis. Carya was a town in Arcadia.

BOOK III.--Line 2, _moonfern and trifoly_: plants which have supposed magical and healing properties [S.]; _moonfern_, the same as moonwort--_Rumex lunaria_; _mystic trifoly_ == trefoil; "Herb Trinity"

was used by St. Patrick to teach the mystery of the Holy Trinity. l. 12, _painted byssus_: silky fibres of a mollusc which has sometimes been spun with silk. l. 14, _Tyrrhene whelk_: the celebrated Tyrian purple, formerly prepared from a sh.e.l.l fish at Tyre. l. 14, _trireme_: a galley or vessel with three benches of oars on a side. l. 15, _satrap_ == the governor of a province (Persian). l. 87, "_Marsh gone of a sudden_": when the lake appeared in its place. l. 88, "_Mincio in its place laughed_": when the river occupied the place of the marsh. l. 121, _Island house_: "a villa outside Palermo called La Favara" [S.]; _Nuocera_: between Pompeii and Amalfi. It was called "de Pagani," from a Saracenic colony of Frederick II., who was sometimes contemptuously called the Sultan of Nocera. Villani preserves the quaint words of the famous taunt which Charles of Anjou addressed to Manfred, before the bath of Benvinutum: "Alles e dit moi a li Sultan de Nocere hoggi metorai lui en enfers o il mettar moi en paradis."

[S.] l. 123, _Palermitans_: citizens of Palermo. l. 124, _Messinese_: citizens of Messina. l. 125, "_dusk Saracenic clans Nuocera holds_": Frederick, who was afterwards the renowned Frederick II., Emperor of Germany, was crowned at Palermo, in Sicily, in 1198; during his minority the land was torn by turbulent n.o.bles, and revolted Saracens; in 1220 the Emperor-King planted a colony of Saracens at Nocera on the mainland. l.

132, _mollitious alcoves_ == soft alcoves. l. 133, _Byzant domes_: Byzantine architecture, in which the dome was a feature, developed about A.D. 300. l. 135, "_August pleasant Dandolo_": "Enrico Dandolo, one of the patrician family of that name in Venice, was chosen doge in 1192, although already blind and seventy-two years old. After naval successes against the Pisans, he was applied to at the time of the fourth crusade to furnish vessels for transport to Constantinople. After making terms most advantageous to the Republic, he himself led the enterprise to success, and shared with the French in the pillage of the city, and very largely in booty and privileges accruing. The four horses of St. Mark's Church were brought over to Venice by him." [S.] l. 140, "_Transport to Venice square_": St. Mark's Church in Venice is adorned with precious columns brought from temples and buildings in all parts of the ancient world. l.

225, "_The bulb dormant, etc._": "It was the custom to bury the hyacinth bulb with mummies." [S.] l. 85, _The Carroch_: "during the war of the Milanese with Conrad, the Salic archbishop, Eribert, invented the Carroccio, which was at once adopted by all the cities of Italy. He placed it at the head of the army, and it was an imitation of the ark of the covenant of the tribes of Israel. The carroccio was a four-wheeled car drawn by four yokes of oxen. It was painted red; the oxen were dressed in red clothes to their heels; a very high mast, also painted red, was in the midst; it terminated in a golden ball. Below, between two white veils, floated the standard of the commune, and below that again was a crucifix, with the Saviour extending His arms to bless the army. A sort of platform in the front of the car was devoted to some of the bravest soldiers appointed for its defence. Another platform in the rear was occupied by musicians and trumpeters. Ma.s.s was said upon the carroccio before it left the town, and there was frequently a special chaplain attached to it."

[S.] l. 312, "_the candle's at the gateway_": "compare with King Alfred's measurement of time. It is still the custom at Bremen for property to be sold at an auction by the candle--that is, the bidding goes on till the candle goes out." [S.] l. 314, _Tiso Sampier_: "Eccelin I. and Tissolin di Campo St. Pierre had been warm friends until, a difference occurring about a marriage portion, Eccelin proved treacherous and grasping, and a lasting feud arose between the two families." [S.] l. 315, "_Ferrara's succoured Palma!_" "The preceding pa.s.sages in quotation marks are all in the Guelf spirit; this explanation is Ghibelline, say from Browning himself." [S.]

l. 386, _Cesano_: a city of Emilia, between Bologna and Ancona, Dante, in _Inferno_, canto xxvii., characterises Cesano as living midway between tyranny and freedom. l. 456, _Fomalhaut_: a star of the first magnitude, in the constellation Priscus Australis, one of the brightest visible in the midnight meridian of September. [S.] l. 476, _Conrad_: the Swabian (1138-52). l. 486, _Saponian_: Mr. Browning explained this puzzling term as referring to the Saponi, who were a branch of the Eccelini family, which settled in Lombardy before the time of Sordello. l. 496, _Vincentines_: the people of Vicenza. l. 514,

"_... just As Adelaide of Susa could entrust Her donative ...

... to the superb Matilda's perfecting_."

"The _Biographie Universelle_ says: 'Adelaide, Marchioness of Susa, was contemporary with Matilda the great Countess of Tuscany, and governed Piedmont with wisdom and firmness. She endeavoured more than once to make peace between the Emperor and Popes. She was married three times--to a Duke of Swabia, a Marquis of Montferrat, and a Count of Maurienna; and partly through her inheritance from the husbands, all of whom she survived, partly on account of her wise management, her fief Susa became the most important in Italy. Matilda, the great Countess of Tuscany, was one of the most famous characters of her age. Absolute ruler of the most powerful country in Italy, she defended Hildebrand, and adhered to the Pope against all enemies, proffers or threats. During her lifetime she transferred the greater part of her possessions by deed of gift to the papacy; and that deed was the foundation of Papal claims to many lands in Italy throughout the following centuries. She owned the Castle of Canozza, where the Pope took refuge from Henry IV., who had married Adelaide's daughter; and it was to Canozza that that Emperor was obliged to resort, when later he sought the Pope's forgiveness, and when he was left standing barefoot in the snow awaiting the Pope's pleasure. Matilda conveyed her estates to the Pope in 1102, was made sovereign of all Italy in 1110, and died 1115.' There appears to be no mention of any donative entrusted to the superb Matilda, either in the _Biographie Universelle_, or in Sismondi." [S.] Line 501, "_lion's crine_" == lion's hair. l. 583, "_like the alighted Planet Pollux wore_." Castor and Pollux were generally represented mounted on two white horses, armed with spears, and riding side by side with their heads covered with a bonnet, on the top of which glittered a star. The twins took part in the Argonautic expedition, and when a violent storm arose two flames of fire appeared, and were seen to play around their heads. Pollux was the son of Jupiter, whilst Castor was only his half-brother; but he obtained from Jupiter, for Castor, the gift of immortality, and a place with him amongst the constellations. St.

Elmo's fire, which frequently appears and plays about masts and yards of s.h.i.+ps during storms, was called Castor and Pollux by Roman sailors"

(Lempriere, _Cla.s.s. Dict._). l. 590,

"_For thus I bring Sordello_."