UP AT A VILLA is one of the best humorous poems in the language. The hero's desires and sorrows are so _naive_, his tastes so gravely held, that he provokes our sympathy as well as our laughter. One of the charms of the poem is the way in which he is made to testify, in spite of himself, to the beauties of the country (as in lines 7-9, 19-20, 22-25, 32-33, 36) and to the monotony or clanging emptiness of the city (as in lines 12-14, 38-54). Compare lines 8 and 82 with the picture in _De Gustibus_. A TOCCATA OF GALUPPI'S. (PAGE 122.) =Toccata=. See an unabridged dictionary. 1. =Galuppi=. Baldassare Galuppi, Venice, 1706-1785, a celebrated musician and prolific composer. 6. =St. Mark's=. The famous cathedral of Venice. =Doges ... rings=. The Doge was chief magistrate of Venice. The annual ceremony of "wedding the Adriatic" by casting into it a gold ring was instituted in 1174, in commemoration of the victory of the Venetian fleet over Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany. 8. =Shylock's bridge=. By the Rialto. A house by the bridge, said to be Shylock's, is still pointed out to visitors. 18. =clavichord=. An instrument of the type of the piano. 19 ff. =thirds=, =sixths=, etc. For the musical terms see an unabridged dictionary or a musical dictionary. 30. Compare the lines in Fitzgerald's translation of the _Rubaiyat_:-- "For some we loved, the loveliest and the best That from his vintage rolling Time hath prest, Have drunk their cup a round or two before, And one by one crept silently to rest." This is the characteristic note of poetic melancholy, found again and again from Virgil to Tennyson. 37-39. Is the ironical tone of these lines in harmony with the spirit of the rest of the poem? What does Galuppi's music mean to Browning? What does it recall of the life in Venice? Is the lightness of tone in the music itself or in the poet's idea of Venice? What emotions are aroused? What causes the poet's sadness? Is the verse musical? Does it suit the ideas it conveys? ABT VOGLER. (PAGE 126.) George Joseph Vogler, known also as Abbe (or Abt) Vogler (1748-1816), was a German musician. He composed operas and other musical pieces, became famous as an organist, and invented an organ with pedals and several keyboards. Browning seems to have in mind the complex musical harmonies of which the instrument was capable. See lines 10, 13, 52, 55, and 84 of the poem. See also the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. 3. =Solomon=. Legends about Solomon and his power over the spirits of earth and air are common in Jewish and Arabic literature. 9 ff. =building=. The idea of building by music is an old one. See the classical story of Amphion and the walls of Thebes, Coleridge's _Kubla Khan_, and Tennyson's _Gareth and Lynette_, lines 272-274. 19. =rampired=. Furnished with _ramparts_. 23. The reference is to St. Peter's in Rome.