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

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has kindly contributed an account of the historical Sordello, which will be found in the Appendix. The Rev. Robert Law, B.D., has subjected my work to a persistent, vigorous, and far-reaching criticism; and this invaluable service, which I cannot acknowledge in its details, I would acknowledge here as heartily as it was generously rendered. Mr Law has also kindly revised the proofs.

EDINBURGH, April 1906.

DAVID DUFF.

ERRATUM.

Omit note on Book 1., line 275, page 10.

CONTENT S.

The text referred to is that of the seventeen -volume edition published by Smith, Elder, & Co. The reader will find it easy to number the lines by fives.

BOOK THE FIRST.

Lines 1-73.

Browning raises Sordello out of the darkness of the Middle Ages, tells how he will treat his subject, and collects an audience

Ll. 73-308.

Bringing up Verona, the poet sets us in the midst of Guelf and Ghibellin strife

Ll. 309-345.

PAGE

1

3

We get a glimpse of Sordello on the famous 'Verona night'

Ll. 345-373.

An apostrophe to Dante. This Sordello, of whom we have had a glimpse, has been absorbed by the greater Italian poet, who refers to him in the Divina Commedia and elsewhere; but Browning will extricate him and treat of him independently

11

12

Ll. 374-444.

We have a description of Sordello's home, the castle of Goito, with its surroundings.

LI. 444-482.

Sordello is in the forefront of natures specially framed for the perception of beauty

13

15

Ll. 483-522.

Of men belonging to this regal class some are passionate

in their devotion to objects not themselves

On the other hand, there are members of the regal class

who, far from devoting themselves to anything not them-

selves, regard each revelation of beauty as a mere reflection

of a type already existing in their own souls

Two dangers await the self-centred members of the regal

class. In actual life they do nothing, and so fail; or they

fail through attempting the impossible, by striving to attain

the realisation of all their conceptions

About to say that into these fatal errors Sordello fell,

Browning arrests himself: why anticipate unpleasant facts?

Sordello's imagination performs extraordinary feats on

external nature.

The world is powerless to break Sordello's day-dreams;

for he is closely sheltered from its care and pain

But the passing of time does for Sordello what the world

has failed to do, and he learns that his fancies are not

The actual beauties of Nature will not satisfy Sordello

now no longer king over tree and flower, he would be the

centre of an admiring crowd of men.

And, in order to be the admired centre of all, Sordello

would excel each man in his most excellent qualities

Sordello's imagination 'heightens him up' till he becomes

Apollo, the god of many attributes

31

LI. 927-962.

Palma, daughter of Ecelin II., becomes Sordello's Daphne

Time is slow to give Sordello opportunities of translating

his imaginations into real life.

BOOK THE SECOND.

Sordello, in pursuit of the visioned Palma, is led on through

the woods to Mantua, where a scene of actual life in the outer

world, with the real Palma, bursts upon his view

No homage is offered to Sordello on this his first appear-

ance, yet he finds reason to believe that fulfilment is begin-

ning to touch his dreams

At the Mantuan Court of Love the Troubadour Eglamor is

thoroughly defeated by Sordello, who is appointed Palma's

minstrel in his stead

Sordello seeks the cause of his marvellous success in song.

Eglamor is carried to his burial

Browning pauses to contrast Eglamor, whose poetry was

the fruit of effort, and who, as appeared even in his defeat,

loved his art for its own sake, with Sordello, and shows the

manner of his death

Sordello's joy of imagination is perfected at Eglamor's grave

Sordello, feeling that, with all his marvellous conceptions,

he must be of extraordinary origin, discovers, as he believes,

that he is of humble birth. He can no longer hope to become

Monarch of the World through action, his body being so

poorly fitted to express his soul, but he will win himself that

title by means of song, which will reveal his divine fancies to

When Sordello, at first discontented with the work involved

in professional minstrelsy, bestirs himself, his success is, in

a sense, too great, inasmuch as, owing to the people's heart-

felt applause, he begins to enjoy being a poet, and so is

tempted to be satisfied with only a piece of supremacy in

Sordello tries to intensify his success in song by forging for

himself a language by which he may give complete expression

to his imagination. The attempt fails, and he returns to his

Successful as it is in pleasing the people, Sordello's poetry

fails to serve his purpose, because they accept it as a mag-

nificent description of the attributes, not of himself, but of

Sordello's professional minstrelsy, with its attendant inter-

course with the Mantuans, becomes a rock on which he splits

into two parts. He is conscious of himself as an ordinary

man, trying to get on in the world by means of his art, and

this the Man-part-is hampered by the Idealist, or Poet-part,

who must needs be everything or nothing in actual life, and

still hopes to reveal himself through poetry as possessed, in

conception, of every attribute. On the other hand, the Poet-

part is hampered by the Man-part, who, having an eye to

business, regards the expression of the Poet-part's essential

nature as a thing that will not pay

By the time Sordello reaches this point in his career,

Adelaide's death has threatened the House of Romano with

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