_Ave_, with the hymn _Salve Regina Cœli_. This completes the list of Catholic hymns mentioned by Browning--six in all. III. POETIC FUNCTIONS OF THE REFERENCES TO MUSIC.--Six different poems contain the names of Italian musicians for purposes of comparison. _The Englishman in Italy_, in an implied comparison, contrasts the fiddlers, fifers, and drummers, at the Feast of the Rosary’s Virgin, to Bellini. So courageous and confident do they become on this day that (implying their inferiority) they play boldly on, says the poem, not caring even for the great Bellini. _Bishop Blougram’s Apology_ presents that politic churchman’s defense of his fidelity to established doctrines on the ground of expediency--ease in this life and a possible reward in the next. He admits that wise men look beneath his pretense of a belief in the winking Virgin and class him as either knave or fool. In this respect the Bishop likens himself to Verdi at the close of his worst opera. Though the populace applauded, the composer looked beyond them for the judgment of Rossini, the master. In _Youth and Art_, the struggling girl with aspirations for operatic honors, who misses a possibility for happiness in her futile quest for fame, compares herself with Grisi in her hopes of success. To surpass that prima donna, which, by the way, she never succeeds in doing, constitutes the height of her dream of happiness. _Red Cotton Night-Cap Country_, with its fantastic symbolism of night-caps, mentions the many varieties of that article and compares them to the various kinds of violins on exhibition at Kensington when the poem was composed, with special reference to those of Italy: “I doubt not there be duly catalogued Achievements all, and some of Italy, Guarnerius, Straduarius,--old and new.” * * * * * “Over this sample would Corelli croon, Grieving by minors, like the cushat-dove, Most dulcet Giga, dreamiest Saraband. From this did Paganini comb the fierce Electric sparks....” _Parleyings with Charles Avison_, the only poem which has comparative estimates of different musicians, names the Italians Buononcini and Geminiani as having been appreciated along with Wagner, Dvorak, Liszt and Handel. It is worthy of note that Rossini, Bellini, and Verdi, of the modern Italian school, are not mentioned in any such connection.