An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry Part 39

No matter for these! But Giotto, you, Have you allowed, as the town-tongues babble it-- Oh, never! it shall not be counted true-- That a certain precious little tablet Which Buonarroti eyed like a lover, Was buried so long in oblivion's womb And, left for another than I to discover, Turns up at last! and to whom?--to whom?

-- St. 30. a certain precious little tablet: "The 'little tablet' was a famous 'Last Supper', mentioned by Vasari, and gone astray long ago from the Church of S. Spirito: it turned up, according to report, in some obscure corner, while I was in Florence, and was at once acquired by a stranger. I saw it, genuine or no, a work of great beauty."--From Poet's Letter to the Editor.

Buonarotti: Michael Angelo (more correctly, Michel Agnolo) Buonarotti, b. 6th of March, 1475, at Castel Caprese, near Florence; d. at Rome, 18th of Feb., 1564.

and to whom?--to whom?: a contemptuous repet.i.tion.

31.

I, that have haunted the dim San Spirito, (Or was it rather the Ognissanti?) Patient on altar-step planting a weary toe!

Nay, I shall have it yet! Detur amanti!

My Koh-i-noor--or (if that's a plat.i.tude) Jewel of Giamschid, the Persian Sofi's eye; So, in antic.i.p.ative grat.i.tude, What if I take up my hope and prophesy?

-- St. 31. San Spirito: a church of the 14th century, in Florence.

Ognissanti: i.e., "All Saints", in Florence.

I shall have it yet!: I shall make a happy find yet.

Detur amanti!: let it be given to the loving one.

Koh-i-noor: "Mountain of Light", a celebrated diamond, "the diamond of the great Mogul", presented to Queen Victoria, in 1850.

See Art. on the Diamond, 'N. Brit. Rev.' Vol. 18, p. 186, and Art., Diamond, 'Encycl. Brit.'; used here, by metonymy, for a great treasure.

Jewel of Giamschid: the 'Deria-i-noor', or 'the Sea of Light', one of the largest of known diamonds, belonging to the king of Persia, is probably referred to. See 'N. Brit. Rev.', Vol. 18, p. 217.

32.

When the hour grows ripe, and a certain dotard Is pitched, no parcel that needs invoicing, To the worse side of the Mont St. Gothard, We shall begin by way of rejoicing; None of that shooting the sky (blank cartridge), Nor a civic guard, all plumes and lacquer, Hunting Radetzky's soul like a partridge Over Morello with squib and cracker.

-- St. 32. a certain dotard: Joseph Wenzel Radetzky, b. Nov. 2, 1766, d. Jan. 5, 1858, in his 92d year; governed the Austrian possessions in Italy to Feb. 28, 1857.

Morello: Monte Morello, the highest of the spurs of the Apennines, to the north of Florence.

33.

This time we'll shoot better game and bag 'em hot: No mere display at the stone of Dante, But a kind of sober Witanagemot (Ex: "Casa Guidi", 'quod videas ante') Shall ponder, once Freedom restored to Florence, How Art may return that departed with her.

Go, hated house, go each trace of the Loraine's, And bring us the days of Orgagna hither!

-- St. 33. the stone of Dante: see 'Casa Guidi Windows', Pt. I, Sect. XIV., XV.

Witanagemot: A. S. 'witena gemo^t': an a.s.sembly of wise men, a parliament.

Casa Guidi: Mrs. Browning's 'Casa Guidi Windows', a poem named from the house in Florence in which she lived, and giving her impressions of events in Tuscany at the time.

the Loraine's: the "hated house" included the Cardinals of Guise, or Lorraine, and the Dukes of Guise, a younger branch of the house of Lorraine.

Orgagna: Andrea di Cione (surnamed Orcagna, or Arcagnolo, approximate dates of b. and d. 1315-1376), one of the most noted successors of Giotto, and allied to him in genius; though he owed much to Giotto, he showed great independence of spirit in his style.

34.

How we shall prologuize, how we shall perorate, Utter fit things upon art and history, Feel truth at blood-heat and falsehood at zero rate, Make of the want of the age no mystery; Contrast the fructuous and sterile eras, Show--monarchy ever its uncouth cub licks Out of the bear's shape into Chimaera's, While Pure Art's birth is still the republic's!

35.

Then one shall propose in a speech (curt Tuscan, Expurgate and sober, with scarcely an "issimo"), To end now our half-told tale of Cambuscan, And turn the bell-tower's ALT to ALTISSIMO; And, fine as the beak of a young beccaccia, The Campanile, the Duomo's fit ally, Shall soar up in gold full fifty braccia, Completing Florence, as Florence, Italy.

-- St. 35. an "issimo": any adjective in the superlative degree.

to end: complete.

our half-told tale of Cambuscan: by metonymy for the unfinished Campanile of Giotto;

"Or call up him that left half-told The story of Cambuscan bold."

--Milton's 'Il Penseroso'.

An allusion to Chaucer, who left the 'Squire's Tale' in the 'Canterbury Tales' unfinished. The poet follows Milton's accentuation of the word "Cambuscan", on the penult; it's properly accented on the ultimate.

beccaccia: woodc.o.c.k.

the Duomo's fit ally: "There is, as far as I know, only one Gothic building in Europe, the Duomo of Florence, in which the ornament is so exquisitely finished as to enable us to imagine what might have been the effect of the perfect workmans.h.i.+p of the Renaissance, coming out of the hands of men like Verocchio and Ghiberti, had it been employed on the magnificent framework of Gothic structure."--Ruskin in 'Stones of Venice'.

36.

Shall I be alive that morning the scaffold Is broken away, and the long-pent fire, Like the golden hope of the world, unbaffled Springs from its sleep, and up goes the spire, While, "G.o.d and the People" plain for its motto, Thence the new tricolor flaps at the sky?

At least to foresee that glory of Giotto And Florence together, the first am I!

-- St. 36. and up goes the spire: Giotto's plan included a spire of 100 feet, but the project was abandoned by Taddeo Gaddi, who carried on the work after the death of Giotto in 1336.

"The mountains from without In silence listen for the word said next.

What word will men say,--here where Giotto planted His Campanile like an unperplexed Fine question heaven-ward, touching the things granted A n.o.ble people, who, being greatly vexed In act, in aspiration keep undaunted?"

--Mrs. Browning's 'Casa Guidi Windows', Pt. I., vv. 66-72.

Pictor Ignotus.

{Florence, 15--.}

I could have painted pictures like that youth's Ye praise so. How my soul springs up! No bar Stayed me--ah, thought which saddens while it soothes!

--Never did fate forbid me, star by star, To outburst on your night, with all my gift Of fires from G.o.d: nor would my flesh have shrunk From seconding my soul, with eyes uplift And wide to heaven, or, straight like thunder, sunk To the centre, of an instant; or around Turned calmly and inquisitive, to scan {10} The license and the limit, s.p.a.ce and bound, Allowed to truth made visible in man.

And, like that youth ye praise so, all I saw, Over the canvas could my hand have flung, Each face obedient to its pa.s.sion's law, Each pa.s.sion clear proclaimed without a tongue: Whether Hope rose at once in all the blood, A-tiptoe for the blessing of embrace, Or Rapture drooped the eyes, as when her brood Pull down the nesting dove's heart to its place; {20} Or Confidence lit swift the forehead up, And locked the mouth fast, like a castle braved,-- O human faces! hath it spilt, my cup?