An Exposition of Browning's 'Sordello': With Historical and Other Notes - David Duff - Google Bøker

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Ecelin II.'s abandonment of the cause bringing Taurello

to Mantua, Sordello is appointed to welcome him with a

song. The poet is distracted, retires from the city to think

about his verses, wanders to Goito, and stays there

BOOK THE THIRD.

The renewed kingship over nature, however, lasts but a

short time. Sordello, resting and thinking at Goito, con-

cludes, not only that the revelation to men of his perfect

imagination is impossible, but that he has no such perfect

imagination to reveal. He orders the Apollo-idea from the

throne of his being

But this content to be done with the world of men proves

hollow; and Sordello perceives that, in not surrendering him-

self to the joys of actual life as they came to him one by one,

he has made a grand mistake. Something not himself-a

modest country girl, or the licentious luxury of Frederick's

court, or years of strenuous fight-might have claimed him ;

and each thing not himself, as he loved and served it, would

have been a step toward perfect happiness. His minstrel's

post at Mantua afforded many opportunities of so living,

but he spurned them all in his desire to reveal himself for

men's worship, and now he feels that his chances of bliss

are gone, and gone for ever

Sordello now cries out for the least bit of the actual

As if in answer to his desire, he is summoned to Verona

to celebrate the expected nuptials of Palma and Count

Richard Boniface

Having gone back to carry Sordello through his boyhood

and youth, Browning sets us down again where he began his

Verona appears once more in its excited state. Palma

and Sordello sit as lovers in the secret chamber of the

palace, and then behold from its window the city's prep-

arations for the recapture of Ferrara

As they sit together again, Palma tells Sordello of her all-

commanding love for him. To her he is the partial revelation,

sufficient to dominate her whole heart and intellect, of an

infinite and otherwise inscrutable mind

Palma proceeds to tell Sordello how, when it seemed im-

possible to marry him and make him head of the House of

Romano, two barriers were broken down by the death of

Adelaide and the withdrawal of Ecelin to a monastery

LI. 427-515.

Palma next shows Sordello how, after Adelaide's death and

Ecelin's withdrawal, Taurello Salinguerra, far from proving a

hindrance to her hopes, urged her to avoid alliance with the

Guelfs, and to become the independent head of the House of

Romano; and how he used his talents on her behalf.

Palma, who is armed with monk Ecelin's reply to Taurello's

last appeal not to let Romano go down, next informs Sordello

that she intends to act meantime as head of the House, re-

tain Taurello's services, and make Sordello leader of the

Ghibellin cause.

Through Palma's revelations Sordello, who shortly before

had cried out at Goito for the slightest contact with actual

life, is led to believe that, after all, he will find in men a

splendid use his all-powerful mind will mould their actions

Browning suddenly threatens to bring Sordello down

about our ears.

96

The Remainder of Book the Third.

After writing so much of Sordello, Browning, in 1838, went

to Italy. The remainder of the Third Book is devoted to

recording his meditation at Venice on what is to be the

purpose of his poetry. He feels himself 'called,' like one of

the prophets; and he is called to be the poet of suffering

humanity he must write to help man to live truly.

This makes him change his intention with regard to the

rest of Sordello's story. What will finally lay hold of his

hero's soul will be, not merely some interest outside of him-

self, whatever its moral quality, but what conscience tells him

is a good cause. God

"selects our yoke,

Sordello, as your poetship may find" (1. 782)

But Browning does not abandon his poem. He will, how-

ever, pause a little to reflect

Some poets have fixed and final ideas, which represent all

they can learn. Poets of true genius, on the other hand, are

always greater than anything they express; so that neither

need we look for complete autobiography in their songs, nor

can we conclude that in the future they will not express

something altogether different from what they have already

Browning, as he perceives when he reaches Italy, has lived

on into new thoughts and feelings will he express them

as far as poet can? Who,' he asks, 'will give me the fresh

inspiration necessary for the completion of my poem?'

Watching healthy peasant-girls at work and at play in

Venice, he wonders which of them would best draw him

out and quicken his powers

Suddenly a worn and sorrowful ghost, most unlike these

healthy girls, makes her presence known. It is Suffering

Humanity. Previous ideas of the poet's attitude to life are

abandoned. Here is his true queen. He has not chosen

her, but she has chosen him, and her claim is irresistible

Such poetic work for the race is not vain. The worst of

men is not beyond hope, since, amid all his evil, he retains

at least the idea of truth; and the only way in which the

poet may help him is, while honestly recognising the hard-

ness of life, to show him wherein the true good of his nature

lies, and the way to reach it

Human society is not a machine in working order: we do

not understand what the present scheme of things is aiming

at. The machine is only being fitted together in preparation

for producing certain results in another life

The poet's office is simply to make men see what they have

not observed for themselves. As long as we live, we shall be

in the dark with reference to the purpose of human life as a

whole, but it is his to help us by making us see where, and

with what limitations-as, for example, in the case of his

own poetry-our powers should be applied in the circum-

stances in which we are set. We must never seek to under-

stand the whole meaning of life, or to do all we think

ourselves fit for, but must rest content with the duty that

lies nearest' us. To understand Sordello is to learn this

lesson; therefore we had better not despise the strange

character Browning has portrayed in his hero

BOOK THE FOURTH.

Turning from Verona to Ferrara, the poem pictures the

awful state to which the city has been reduced through the

destruction of the Ghibellin quarter by the Guelfs and the

dire vengeance taken by Taurello Salinguerra on his return.

We see the Lombard League arriving in great style to

treat for Count Richard's release, and hear its members

conversing in the public square

We climb Taurello Salinguerra's wall, see his garden,

avenue, terraces and statues, and stop at the door of his

palace of San Pietro

Going back a little in the personal history of Sordello,

Browning explains what prompted him to visit Taurello.

Through the turmoil of the time the minstrel is led to per-

ceive that the world's crowd, which at first, in his boyish

dreams at Goito, he had believed to be composed of grand

and happy beings worth imitating and eclipsing, and latterly

had regarded as capable of being made to work out in actual

life his own great conceptions, is really a mass of afflicted

creatures, with but a tawdry rag of happiness clinging about

them. This perception, however, does not destroy his

recently adopted idea that the crowd is the body to his

soul. With all its misery, it is part of himself, and he

regrets now that he did not long ago think of making it

happy, since that would have meant happiness for himself .

L1, 331-375.

Stunned by Taurello Salinguerra's explanation of the

Ghibellin policy, Sordello staggers back to the city of Ferrara,

narrowly escapes murder, and is made to sing a song beside

the Verona carroch's fire

After the departure of his visitors from San Pietro,

Taurello Salinguerra is left alone in the presence-chamber,

where he sits meditating. His personal appearance is in

strong contrast with that of Sordello

Taurello Salinguerra's thoughts pass from Sordello and

swiftly traverse his own past. Belonging to Ferrara, he, in

his youth, was to win the whole city through marriage with

Linguetta, daughter of the deceased Marchesalla, the last of

the Guelf family of the Adelardi; but his bride was stolen

and given to Azzo, father of Azzo VI.

Taurello Salinguerra's autobiographical thoughts at San

Pietro are continued. Befriended by Henry VI., he began to

aim at recovering his former position at Ferrara, and to this

end Ecelin II. and he plotted together at Vicenza. They

were driven out of that city, however, by the Guelfs, and,

during their retreat, he lost, as he believed, his wife and his

only child. From that date his whole service was devoted

to the House of Romano. His character is further depicted

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