An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry Part 57

I said, "If one should wet his lips with wine, And slip the broadest plantain-leaf we find, Or else the lappet of a linen robe, {15} Into the water-vessel, lay it right, And cool his forehead just above the eyes, The while a brother, kneeling either side, Should chafe each hand and try to make it warm,-- He is not so far gone but he might speak." {20} This did not happen in the outer cave, Nor in the secret chamber of the rock, Where, sixty days since the decree was out, We had him, bedded on a camel-skin, And waited for his dying all the while; {25} But in the midmost grotto: since noon's light Reached there a little, and we would not lose The last of what might happen on his face.

-- 23. the decree: of persecution of the Christians, perhaps that under Domitian. The poet probably did not think of any particular persecution.

I at the head, and Xanthus at the feet, With Valens and the Boy, had lifted him, {30} And brought him from the chamber in the depths, And laid him in the light where we might see: For certain smiles began about his mouth, And his lids moved, presageful of the end.

Beyond, and half way up the mouth o' the cave, {35} The Bactrian convert, having his desire, Kept watch, and made pretence to graze a goat That gave us milk, on rags of various herb, Plantain and quitch, the rocks' shade keeps alive: So that if any thief or soldier pa.s.sed {40} (Because the persecution was aware), Yielding the goat up promptly with his life, Such man might pa.s.s on, joyful at a prize, Nor care to pry into the cool o' the cave.

Outside was all noon and the burning blue. {45}

-- 36. the Bactrian convert: in vv. 649, 650, he is spoken of as "but a wild childish man, and could not write nor speak, but only loved." Bactria was a kingdom in Central Asia; the modern name is Balkh {a district in northern Afghanistan as of 1995}.

having his desire: as a new convert, the simple man was eager to serve, even unto death.

41. aware: on the lookout; exercising a strict espionage.

"Here is wine", answered Xanthus,--dropped a drop; I stooped and placed the lap of cloth aright, Then chafed his right hand, and the Boy his left: But Valens had bethought him, and produced And broke a ball of nard, and made perfume. {50} Only, he did--not so much wake, as--turn And smile a little, as a sleeper does If any dear one call him, touch his face-- And smiles and loves, but will not be disturbed.

Then Xanthus said a prayer, but still he slept: {55} It is the Xanthus that escaped to Rome, Was burned, and could not write the chronicle.

Then the Boy sprang up from his knees, and ran, Stung by the splendor of a sudden thought, And fetched the seventh plate of graven lead {60} Out of the secret chamber, found a place, Pressing with finger on the deeper dints, And spoke, as 'twere his mouth proclaiming first, "I am the Resurrection and the Life."

-- 60. the seventh plate of graven lead: one of the plates on which John's Gospel was graven. It contained, it appears, the 11th chapter, in which Jesus says to Martha, 25th verse, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." The Boy uttered the words with such expression as 'twere HIS mouth first proclaiming them.

Whereat he opened his eyes wide at once, {65} And sat up of himself, and looked at us; And thenceforth n.o.body p.r.o.nounced a word: Only, outside, the Bactrian cried his cry Like the lone desert-bird that wears the ruff, As signal we were safe, from time to time. {70}

-- 69. the lone desert-bird: the ruff may possibly be referred to.

See Webster, s.v.

First he said, "If a man declared to me, This my son Valens, this my other son, Were James and Peter,--nay, declared as well This lad was very John,--I could believe!

--Could, for a moment, doubtlessly believe: {75} So is myself withdrawn into my depths, The soul retreated from the perished brain Whence it was wont to feel and use the world Through these dull members, done with long ago.

Yet I myself remain; I feel myself: {80} And there is nothing lost. Let be, awhile!"

-- 76. withdrawn into my depths: into the depths of his absolute being, of the "what Is"; see the doctrine of the trinal unity of man which follows.

{This is the doctrine he was wont to teach, How divers persons witness in each man, Three souls which make up one soul: first, to wit, A soul of each and all the bodily parts, {85} Seated therein, which works, and is what Does, And has the use of earth, and ends the man Downward; but, tending upward for advice, Grows into, and again is grown into By the next soul, which, seated in the brain, {90} Useth the first with its collected use, And feeleth, thinketh, willeth,--is what Knows: Which, duly tending upward in its turn, Grows into, and again is grown into By the last soul, that uses both the first, {95} Subsisting whether they a.s.sist or no, And, const.i.tuting man's self, is what Is-- And leans upon the former, makes it play, As that played off the first: and, tending up, Holds, is upheld by, G.o.d, and ends the man {100} Upward in that dread point of intercourse, Nor needs a place, for it returns to Him.

What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man.

I give the glossa of Theotypas.}

-- 82-104. The supposed narrator, Pamphylax, gives in these bracketed verses, on the authority of an imagined Theotypas, a doctrine John was wont to teach, of the trinal unity of man-- the third "person" of which unity, "what Is", being man's essential, absolute nature. The dying John is represented as having won his way to the Kingdom of the "what Is", the Kingdom of eternal truth within himself. In Luke 17:20-21, we read: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of G.o.d should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of G.o.d cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of G.o.d is within you." In harmony with which, Paracelsus is made to say, in Browning's poem, "Truth is within ourselves; . . . there is an inmost centre in us all, where truth abides in fulness"; etc. See pp. 24 and 25 of this volume. {In this etext, see Chapter I, 'The Spiritual Ebb and Flow, etc.', of the Introduction.

Excerpt is shortly before the poem 'Popularity'.} "Life, you've granted me, develops from within. But INNERMOST OF THE INMOST, MOST INTERIOR OF THE INTERNE, G.o.d CLAIMS HIS OWN, DIVINE HUMANITY RENEWING NATURE" (Mrs. Browning's 'Aurora Leigh').

Mrs. M. G. Glazebrook, in her paper on 'A Death in the Desert', read at the 48th meeting of the Browning Society, Feb. 25th, 1887, paraphrases these lines: "The first and lowest {soul} is that which has to do with earth and corporeal things, the animal soul, which receives primary sensations and is the immediate cause of action --'what Does'. The second is the intellect, and has its seat in the brain: it is superior to the first, but dependent on it, since it receives as material the actual experience which the animal soul supplies; it is the feeling, thinking, willing soul --'what Knows'. The third, and highest, is the spirit of man, the very principle of life, the divine element in man linking him to G.o.d, which is self-subsistent and therefore independent of sensation and knowledge, but nevertheless makes use of them, and gives them existence and energy--'what Is'."

And then, "A stick, once fire from end to end; {105} Now, ashes save the tip that holds a spark!

Yet, blow the spark, it runs back, spreads itself A little where the fire was: thus I urge The soul that served me, till it task once more What ashes of my brain have kept their shape, {110} And these make effort on the last o' the flesh, Trying to taste again the truth of things"-- (He smiled)--"their very superficial truth; As that ye are my sons, that it is long Since James and Peter had release by death, {115} And I am only he, your brother John, Who saw and heard, and could remember all.

Remember all! It is not much to say.

What if the truth broke on me from above As once and oft-times? Such might hap again: {120} Doubtlessly He might stand in presence here, With head wool-white, eyes, flame, and feet like bra.s.s, The sword and the seven stars, as I have seen-- I who now shudder only and surmise 'How did your brother bear that sight and live?' {125}

-- 113. superficial truth: phenomenal, relative truth; that which is arrived at through the senses, and belongs to the domain of the "what Knows". Essential, absolute truth can be known only through a response thereto of the essential, the absolute, the "what Is", in man's nature. John has attained to a measure of absolute truth, and smiles on reverting to the very superficial truth of things.

121-123. See The Revelation of St. John, chap. 1.

125. your brother: he means himself, of course.

"If I live yet, it is for good, more love Through me to men: be naught but ashes here That keep awhile my semblance, who was John,-- Still, when they scatter, there is left on earth No one alive who knew (consider this!) {130} --Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands That which was from the first, the Word of Life.

How will it be when none more saith 'I saw'?

"Such ever was love's way: to rise, it stoops.

Since I, whom Christ's mouth taught, was bidden teach, {135} I went, for many years, about the world, Saying, 'It was so; so I heard and saw', Speaking as the case asked: and men believed.

Afterward came the message to myself In Patmos isle; I was not bidden teach. {140} But simply listen, take a book and write, Nor set down other than the given word.

With nothing left to my arbitrament To choose or change: I wrote, and men believed.

Then, for my time grew brief, no message more, {145} No call to write again, I found a way, And, reasoning from my knowledge, merely taught Men should, for love's sake, in love's strength, believe; Or I would pen a letter to a friend, And urge the same as friend, nor less nor more: {150} Friends said I reasoned rightly, and believed.

But at the last, why, I seemed left alive Like a sea-jelly weak on Patmos strand, To tell dry sea-beach gazers how I fared When there was mid-sea, and the mighty things; {155} Left to repeat, 'I saw, I heard, I knew', And go all over the old ground again, With Antichrist already in the world, And many Antichrists, who answered prompt 'Am I not Jasper as thyself art John? {160} Nay, young, whereas through age thou mayest forget: Wherefore, explain, or how shall we believe?'

I never thought to call down fire on such, Or, as in wonderful and early days, Pick up the scorpion, tread the serpent dumb; {165} But patient stated much of the Lord's life Forgotten or misdelivered, and let it work: Since much that at the first, in deed and word, Lay simply and sufficiently exposed, Had grown (or else my soul was grown to match, {170} Fed through such years, familiar with such light, Guarded and guided still to see and speak) Of new significance and fresh result; What first were guessed as points, I now knew stars, And named them in the Gospel I have writ. {175} For men said, 'It is getting long ago: Where is the promise of His coming?'--asked These young ones in their strength, as loth to wait, Of me who, when their sires were born, was old.

I, for I loved them, answered, joyfully, {180} Since I was there, and helpful in my age; And, in the main, I think such men believed.

Finally, thus endeavoring, I fell sick.

Ye brought me here, and I supposed the end, And went to sleep with one thought that, at least, {185} Though the whole earth should lie in wickedness, We had the truth, might leave the rest to G.o.d.

Yet now I wake in such decrepitude As I had slidden down and fallen afar, Past even the presence of my former self, {190} Grasping the while for stay at facts which snap, Till I am found away from my own world, Feeling for foot-hold through a blank profound, Along with unborn people in strange lands, Who say--I hear said or conceive they say-- {195} 'Was John at all, and did he say he saw?

a.s.sure us, ere we ask what he might see!'

-- 156. I saw, I heard, I knew: expressions which occur throughout John's Revelation.

188-197. The poet provides, in these lines, for the prophetic character of John's discourse, its solution of the difficulties destined to beset Christianity in the future, and especially of those which have been raised in our own times. The historical bulwarks which the Strausses and the Renans have endeavored to destroy, Christianity, in its essential, absolute character, its adaptiveness to spiritual vitality, and the wants of the soul, can do without.

Indeed, there will be much gained when the historical character of Christianity is generally disregarded. Its impregnable fortress, namely, the Personality, Jesus Christ, will remain, and mankind will forever seek and find refuge in it. Arthur Symons, in his 'Introduction to the Study of Browning', remarks: . . ."it is as a piece of ratiocination--suffused, indeed, with imagination-- that the poem seems to have its raison d'etre. The bearing of this argument on contemporary theories, may to some appear a merit, to others a blemish. To make the dying John refute Strauss or Renan, handling their propositions with admirable dialectical skill, is certainly, on the face of it, somewhat hazardous. But I can see no real incongruity in imputing to the seer of Patmos a prophetic insight into the future--no real inconsequence in imagining the opponent of Cerinthus spending his last breath in the defence of Christian truth against a foreseen scepticism."

"And how shall I a.s.sure them? Can they share --They, who have flesh, a veil of youth and strength About each spirit, that needs must bide its time, {200} Living and learning still as years a.s.sist Which wear the thickness thin, and let man see-- With me who hardly am withheld at all, But shudderingly, scarce a shred between, Lie bare to the universal p.r.i.c.k of light? {205} Is it for nothing we grow old and weak, We whom G.o.d loves? When pain ends, gain ends too.

To me, that story--ay, that Life and Death Of which I wrote 'it was'--to me, it is; --Is, here and now: I apprehend naught else. {210} Is not G.o.d now i' the world His power first made?

Is not His love at issue still with sin, Visibly when a wrong is done on earth?

Love, wrong, and pain, what see I else around?

Yea, and the Resurrection and Uprise {215} To the right hand of the throne--what is it beside, When such truth, breaking bounds, o'erfloods my soul, And, as I saw the sin and death, even so See I the need yet transiency of both, The good and glory consummated thence? {220} I saw the Power; I see the Love, once weak, Resume the Power: and in this word 'I see', Lo, there is recognized the Spirit of both That moving o'er the spirit of man, unblinds His eye and bids him look. These are, I see; {225} But ye, the children, His beloved ones too, Ye need,--as I should use an optic gla.s.s I wondered at erewhile, somewhere i' the world, It had been given a crafty smith to make; A tube, he turned on objects brought too close, {230} Lying confusedly insubordinate For the una.s.sisted eye to master once: Look through his tube, at distance now they lay, Become succinct, distinct, so small, so clear!

Just thus, ye needs must apprehend what truth {235} I see, reduced to plain historic fact, Diminished into clearness, proved a point And far away: ye would withdraw your sense From out eternity, strain it upon time, Then stand before that fact, that Life and Death, {240} Stay there at gaze, till it dispart, dispread, As though a star should open out, all sides, Grow the world on you, as it is my world.

-- 202. "Oh, not alone when life flows still do truth and power emerge, but also when strange chance ruffles its current; in unused conjuncture, when sickness breaks the body--hunger, watching, excess, or languor-- oftenest death's approach--peril, deep joy, or woe."

--Browning's 'Paracelsus'.

"The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through c.h.i.n.ks that Time has made.

Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, As they draw near to their eternal home.

Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new."--Edmund Waller.

"Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven; and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the c.h.i.n.ks of her sickness-broken body." Fuller's 'Holy and Profane State', Book I., chap. 2.

203. With me: connect with 'share', v. 198.