Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert BrowningBrowning, Robert
General
Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning
Browning, Robert
Drama; English poetry; Poetry -- Collections
80. _What am I a beast for?_ If you had happened, says Fra Lippo, to
catch Cosimo in a frolic like this, of course you would have said
nothing; but you think a monk is a beast if he indulges in these
nocturnal pleasures. Yet why should the fact that I break monastic rules
make you consider me a beast? Just let me tell you how I happened to
become a monk.
83. _I starved there._ Note the vivid picture of the life of a street
gamin here and in lines 112-126.
88. _Aunt Lapaccia._ Vasari says, "The child was for some time under the
care of a certain Mona Lapaccia, his aunt, who brought him up with very
great difficulty till he had attained his eighth year, when, being no
longer able to support the burden of his maintenance, she placed him in
the above-named convent of the Carmelites." "Trussed," means "firmly
seized."
117. _Which gentlemen_, etc. Gentlemen clad in fine ecclesiastical robes
walk in the religious procession and carry tall wax candles or torches;
the drippings from these candles the street-urchin wishes to catch in
order to sell them again, but it is against the law, and the fine
gentlemen if not kindly disposed may call in the magistrates ("The
Eight") and have the boy whipped.
130. _The antiphonary's marge._ He scrawled his sketches on the margins
of the book used by the choir, and he made faces out of the notes, which
were then square with long stems.
139. _We Carmelites._ The three orders of monks, the Carmelites, the
Camaldolese, and the Dominicans (called "Preaching Brothers" by Pope
Innocent III) owned various monasteries and churches, and were each
ambitious to possess the greatest sacred paintings.
145-163. These lines describe the different figures painted on the wall
by Fra Lippo when the prior bade him "daub away." The monks dressed in
black or white according to the garb of their orders; the old women
waiting to confess small thefts; the row of admiring little children
gazing at a bearded fellow, a murderer who, still breathing hard with
the run that has brought him in safety to the altar steps, defies the
"white anger" of his victim's son, who has followed him into the church;
the girl who loves the brute of a murderer, and brings him flowers,
food, and her earrings to aid him when he shall escape--all these are
painted on the wall. Then the young artist took down the ladder by means
of which he had reached the bit of cloister-wall where he had been
recording his observations of life, and called the monks to see.
156. _Whose sad face._ The purpose of Christ's suffering ("passion") on
the cross was to bring love into the world, but after a thousand years
of his teaching his image looks down upon theft, anger, murder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account