Browning and the Dramatic MonologueCurry, S. S. (Samuel Silas)
History
Browning and the Dramatic Monologue
Curry, S. S. (Samuel Silas)
Browning, Robert, 1812-1889 -- Criticism and interpretation; Dramatic monologues -- History and criticism
In "Griggsby's Station" we have a most decided monologue. Who is speaking,
and to whom is the monologue addressed? Is the speaker the daughter in a
family suddenly grown rich, talking to her mother? The character of the
speaker and of the listener must be definitely conceived and carefully
suggested in order to give truth to the rendering or even to realize its
meaning.
The same is true regarding many of Holman Day's stories in his "Up in
Maine," and other books. With hardly any exception these are best rendered
as monologues.
Many of the poems of Sam Walter Foss and other popular writers of the
present are monologues. The homelike characters demand sympathetic
listeners, who are, by implication, of the same general type and character
as the speaker. Even "The House by the Side of the Road" is better given
with the spirit of the monologue. It is too personal, too dramatic, to be
turned into a speech.
Again, notice Mrs. Piatt's "Sometime," and a dozen examples in Webb's
"Vagrom Verse"; also "With Lead and Line along Varying Shores"; and in
Oscar Fay Adams's "Sicut Patribus," where you would hardly expect
monologues, you find that "At Bay" and "Conrad's Choir" have the form of
monologues.
Many monologues in our popular writers seem at first simple and without
the formal and definite construction of those employed by Browning, yet
after careful examination we feel that the conception of the monologue has
slowly taken possession of our writers, it may be unconsciously, and that
the true interpretation of many of the most popular poems demands from the
reader a dramatic conception.
For the comprehension of any monologue, those points where the speaker is
directly affected by the hearer need especial attention. The speaker
occasionally echoes the words of his hearer. Mrs. Caudle, for instance,
often quotes the words of her spouse, and these were printed by Douglas
Jerrold in italics and even in separate paragraphs. "For the love of mercy
let you sleep?" for example, was thus printed to emphasize the
interruption by Caudle. These words would be echoed by her with affected
surprise. Then she would pour out her sarcasm: "Mercy indeed; I wish you
would show a little of it to other people." In most authors these echoed
speeches are indicated by quotation marks. Browning sometimes has words in
parentheses. Note "(What 'cicada'? Pooh!)" in "A Tale." "Cicada" was
certainly spoken by the listener, but the other words in the parentheses
and other parentheses in this monologue are more personal remarks by the
speaker. They have reference, however, to the listener's attitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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