Ferrara still preserves the mediaeval traditions and appearance in a marked degree. The Dukes of Ferrara were noted art patrons. Both Ariosto and Tasso were members of their household; but neither poet was fully appreciated by his master. 8. =Fra Pandolf=. An imaginary artist. 45-46. Professor Corson, in his _Introduction to Browning_, quotes an answer from the poet himself: "'Yes, I meant that the commands were that she should be put to death.' And then, after a pause, he added, with a characteristic dash of expression, as if the thought had just started in his mind, 'Or he might have had her shut up in a convent.'" 56. =Claus of Innsbruck=. An imaginary artist. This poem is a fine example of Browning's skill in the use of dramatic monologue. (See Introduction.) The Duke is skilfully made to reveal his own character and motives, and those of the Duchess, and at the same time to indicate the actions of himself and his listener. Construct in imagination the scene and the action of the poem. What has brought the Duke and the envoy together? What things indicate the Duke's pride? Was his jealousy due to pride or to affection? Does he prize the picture as a work of art or as a memory of the Duchess? What faults did he find in her? What character do these criticisms show her to have had? What did he wish her to he? Note the anti-climax in lines 25-28: what is the effect? What shows the Duke's difficulty in breaking his reserve on this matter? What motive has he for so doing? Where does the poet show skill in condensation, in character drawing, in vividness, in enlisting the reader's sympathy? _The Flight of the Duchess_ should be read as a development and variation of this theme. THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB AT SAINT PRAXED'S. (PAGE 107.) Ruskin gives this poem high praise: "Robert Browning is unerring in every sentence he writes of the Middle Ages.... I know no other piece of modern English prose or poetry in which there is so much told, as in these lines, of the Renaissance spirit--its worldliness, inconsistency, pride, hypocrisy, ignorance of itself, love of art, of luxury, and of good Latin. It is nearly all that I have said of the central Renaissance, in thirty pages of _The Stones of Venice_, put into as many lines; Browning's also being the antecedent work." It is not, however, for its historical accuracy that a poem is mainly to be judged. The full and imaginative portrayal of a type, belonging not to one age only, but to human nature, is a greater achievement. And this achievement Browning has undoubtedly performed. 5. =Old Gandolf=. Evidently one of the Bishop's colleagues in holy orders, and like him in holiness. 31. =onion-stone=. See the dictionary for descriptions of this and other stones named in the poem. 41. =olive-frail=. A crate, made of rushes, for packing olives. 42. =lapis lazuli=. A very beautiful and valuable blue stone. 46. =Frascati=. A town near Rome, celebrated for its villas.