MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 821

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Please read the note on p. 1163 before reading this poem.

Mr Sludge, 'The Medium'

Now, don't, sir! Don't expose me! Just this once! This was the firstand only time, I'll swear, - Look at me, - see, I kneel, - the only time, I swear, I ever cheated, -yes, by the soul !· Of Her who hears -(your sainted mother, sir!) All, except this last accident, was truth - This little kind of slip! - and even this, It was your own wine, sir, the good champagne, (I took it for Catawba, you're so kind) 10 Which put the follyin my head!

'Get up?' You still inflicton me that terrible face? You show no mercy? - Not forHer dear sake, The sainted spirit's, whose soft breath even now

....r�. ;if;.. -':,.,,P.·· .i:,-) :. ... ,•, �� -�: MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 822 DRAMA TIS PERSONAE 823 A rap or tip! What bit of paper's here? Blows on my cheek - (don't you feel something, sir?) ;i,·~ Suppose we take a pencil, let her write, You'll tell? ·'t r Make the least sign, she urges on her child Go tell, then! Who the devil cares , 50 Forgiveness? There now! Eh? Oh I 'Twas your foot, What such a rowdy chooses to ... r) And not a natural creak, sir? Aie-aie-aie! Please, sir! your thumbs are through my windpipe, sir I Answer, then! Ch-chi Ii Once, twice, thrice ... see, I'm waiting to say 'thrice!' l All to no use? No sort of hope for me? Well, sir, I hope you've done it now! 1'1 It's all to post to Greeley's newspaper? Oh Lord! I little thought, sir, yesterday, 20 When your departed mother spoke those words ;\: What? Ifl told you all about the tricks? fr\: Of peace through me, and moved you, sir, so much, :~.; Upon my soul! - the whole truth, and naught else, You gave me - (very kind it was of you) ..J ~d how there's been some falsehood - for your part, These shirt-studs - (better take them back again, .t Will you engage to pay my passage out, ' J/ And hold your tongue until I'm safe on board? Please, sir)-yes, little did I think so soon :;j A trifle of trick, all through a glass too much ,,:li 60 England's the place, not Boston - no offence! Of his own champagne, would change my best of friends :) I see what makes you hesitate: don't fear! :} I mean to change my trade and cheat no more, Into an angry gentleman! :' ( Yes, this time really it's upon my soul! Be my salvation I - under Heaven, of course. Though, 'twas wrong. ; :• I don't contest the point; your anger's just: I'll tell some queer things. Sixty Vs must do. A trifle, though, to start with! We'll refer Whatever put such folly in my head, ,, 30 I know 'twas wicked of me. There's a thick I' The question to this table? Dusk undeveloped spirit (I've observed) Owes me a grudge - a negro's, I should say, How you're changed! ,.' Or else an Irish emigrant's; yourself Then split the difference; thirty more, we'll say. ., ,a: Ay, but you leave my presents! Else I'll swear Explained the case so well last Sunday, sir, f, When we had summoned Franklin to clear up 70 'Twas all through those: you wanted yours again, :- : So, picked a quarrel with me, to get them back! A point about those shares i' the telegraph: f Ay, and he swore . . . or might it be Tom Paine? ..• Tread on a worm, it turns, sir! If I turn, Thumping the table close by where I crouched, Your fault! 'Tis you'll have forced me! Who's obliged He'd do me soon a mischief: that's come true! To give up life yet try no self-defence? At all events, I'll run the risk. Eh? 40 Why, now your face clears! I was sure it would! IJ ~ ••, Then, this one time ... don't take your hand away, Done! Through yours I surely kiss your mother's hand ... May I sit, sir? This dear old table, now I Please, sir, a parting egg-nog and cigar! You '11 promise to forgive me? - or, at least, [ ". Tell nobody of this? Consider, sir! I've been so happy with you! Nice stuffed chairs, What harm can mercy do? Would but the shade And sympathetic sideboards; what an end Of the venerable dead-one just vouchsafe 80 To all the instructive evenings! (It's alight.) ·;j, 824 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 825 Well, nothing lasts, as Bacon came and said. In plaguy books I've had to dip into, Here goes, - but keep your temper, or I'll scream! Believed gold could ,be made thus, saw it made And made it? Oh, with such philosophers F ol-lol-the-rido-liddle-id dle-ol ! You're on your best behaviour! While the lad­ You see, sir, it's your own fault more than mine; With him, in a trice, you settle likelihoods, It's all your fault, you curious gentlefolk! Nor doubt a moment how he got his prize: You're prigs, - excuse me, - like to look so spry, In his case, you hear, judge and execute, So clever, while you cling by half a claw All in a breath: so would most men of sense. To the perch whereon you puff yourselves at roost, Such piece' of self-conceit as serves for perch 130 But let the same lad hear you talk as grand 90 Because you chose it, so it must be safe. At the same keyhole, you and company, Oh, otherwise you're sharp enough! You spy Of signs and wonders, the invisible world; Who slips, who slides, who holds by help of wing, How wisdom scouts our vulgar unbelief Wanting real foothold, - who can't keep upright More than our vulgarest credulity; On the other perch, your neighbour chose, not you: How good men have desired to see a ghost, There's no outwitting you respecting him! What Johnson used to say, what Wesley did, For instance, men love money- that, you know Mother Goose thought, and fiddle-diddle-dee: - And what men do to gain it: well, suppose Ifhe break in with,' Sir,/ saw a ghost!' A poor lad, say a help's son in your house, Ah, the ways change! He finds you perched and prim; Listening at keyholes, hears the company 140 It's a conceit of yours that ghosts may be: 100 Talk grand of dollars, V-notes, and so forth, There's no talk now of cow-hide. 'Tell it out! .·.• ·· How hard they are to get, how good to hold, Don't fear us! Take your time and recollect I How much they buy, - if, suddenly, in pops he­ Sit down first: try a glass of wine, my boy! 'J've got a V-note ! ' - what do you say to him? And, David, (is not that your Christian name?) ,, :)t"' What's your first word which follows your last kick? Of all things, should this happen twice - it may­ ; ' 'Where did you steal it, rascal?' That's because Be sure, while fresh in mind, you let us know!' He finds you, fain would fool you, off your perch, Does the boy blunder, blurt out this, blab that, '1 ~ i; Not on the special piece of nonsense, sir, Break down in the other, as beginners will? Elected your parade-ground: let him try All's candour, all's considerateness - 'No haste I Lies to the end of the list, - 'He picked it up, 150 Pause and collect yourself! We understand! IIO His cousin died and left it him by will, That's the bad memory, or the natural shock, The President flung it to him, riding by, Or the unexplained phenomena!' An actress trucked it for a curl of his hair, He dreamed ofluck and found his shoe enriched, Egad, He dug up clay, and out of clay made gold' - The boy takes heart of grace; finds, never fear, How would you treat such possibilities? The readiest way to ope your own heart wide, Would not you, prompt, investigate the case Show - what I call your peacock-perch, pet post With cow-hide? 'Lies, lies, lies,' you'd shout: and why? To strut, and spread the tail, and squawk upon! Which of the stories might not prove mere truth? 'Just as you thought, much as you might expect! This last, perhaps, that clay was turned to coin I There be more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,' ... 120 Let's see, now, give him me to speak for him! And so on. Shall not David take the hint, How many of your rare philosophers, 160 Grow bolder, stroke you down at quickened rate?

~:~ {~:_ !L.._ ,t1, ~ - ,· '.,. \;oi. .:~,, 1/ ~, . ;.-?.!.;'\..., ~t' ·;:,. :,_<":;-' 826 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 827 Ifhe ruffie a feather, it's' Gently, patiently! ~ Not that duck-under which decides your dive. Manifestations are so weak at first! ! :; ·200 Note this, for it's important: listen why. Doubting, moreover, kills them, cuts all short, f·•.' Cures with a vengeance l' i I'll prove, you push on David till he dives And ends the shivering. Here's your circle, now: There, sir, that's your style! Two-thirds of them, with heads like you their host, You and your boy- such pains bestowed on him, Turn up their eyes, and cry, as you expect, Or any headpiece of the average worth, ! 'Lord, who'd have thought it!' But there's always one To teach, say, Greek, would perfect him apace, Looks wise, compassionately smiles, submits Make him a Person (' Porson?' thank you, sir!) 'Of your veracity no kind of doubt, Much more, proficient in the art of lies. But - do you feel so certain of that boy's? 170 You never leave the lesson! Fire alight, Really, I wonder! I confess myself Catch you permitting it to die! You've friends; I [.i ' 210 More chary of my faith!' That's galling, sir l There's no withholding knowledge, - least from those What, he the investigator, he the sage, Apt to look elsewhere for their souls' supply: When all's done? Then, you just have shut your eyes, Why should not you parade your lawful prize? Opened your mouth, and gulped down David whole, Who finds a picture, digs a medal up, You! Terrible were such catastrophe! Hits on a first edition, - he henceforth So, evidence is redoubled, doubled again, Gives it his name, grows notable: how much more, And doubled besides; once more, 'He heard, we heard, Who ferrets out a' medium'? 'David's yours, You and they heard, your mother and your wife, You highly-favoured man? Then, pity souls Your children and the stranger in your gates: 180 Less privileged! Allow us share your luck!' Did they or did they not?' So much for him, So, David holds the circle, rules the roast, 220 The black sheep, guest without the wedding-garb, Narrates the vision, peeps in the glass ball, The doubting Thomas! Now's your turn to crow: Sets-to the spirit-writing, hears the raps, 'He's kind to think you such a fool: Sludge cheats? As the case may be. Leave you alone to take precautions!' Straight Now mark! To be precise - The rest join chorus. Thomas stands abashed, Though I say, 'lies' all these, at this first stage, ,, Sips silent some such beverage as this, 'Tis just for science' sake: I call such grubs . l. Considers ifit be harder, shutting eyes By the name of what they'll turn to, dragonflies. And gulping David in good fellowship, Strictly, it's what good people style untrut?; Than going elsewhere, getting, in exchange, But yet, so far, not quite the full-grown thmg: i With no egg-nog to lubricate the food, 190 It's fancying, fable-making, nonsense-work- J 230 Some just as tough a morsel. Over the way, What never meant to be so very bad - Holds Captain Sparks his court: is it better there? The knack of story-telling, brightening up Have not you hunting-stories, scalping-scenes, Each dull old bit of fact that drops its shine. And Mexican War exploits to swallow plump One does see somewhat when one shuts one's eyes, If you'd be free o' the stove-side, rocking-chair, If only spots and streaks; tables do tip And trio of affable daughters? In the oddest way of themselves: and pens, good Lord, Doubt succumbs! Who knows if you drive them or they drive you? Victory! All your circle's yours again! 'Tis but a foot in the water and out again; Out of the clubbing of submissive wits, t}f ,.. [ 828 DRAMATIS PERSONAE 1 MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 829

+,:i:. David's performance rounds, each chink gets patched, '( Ifyou can't hear a voice; we think you may: ~. 280 Every protrusion of a point's filed fine, '.l At least, the Pennsylvanian" mediums" did.' 240 All's fit to set a-rolling round the world, Oh, next time comes the voice! 'Just as we hoped!' And then return to David finally, 1: Are not the hopers proud now, pleased, profuse Lies seven-feet thick about his first half-inch. J O' the natural acknowledgement? Here's a choice birth o' the supernatural, Poor David's pledged to! You've employed no tool Of course! That laws exclaim at, save the devil's own, :.-'' So, off we push, illy-oh-yo, trim the boat, Yet screwed him into henceforth gulling you \ On we sweep with a cataract ahead, To the top o' your bent, - all out of one half-lie l f" ' We're midway to the Horseshoe: stop, who can, The dance of bubbles gay about our prow! You hold, if there's one half or a hundredth part Experiences become worth waiting for, Of a lie, that's his fault, - his be the penalty! Spirits now speak up, tell their inmost mind, . _,. 250 I dare say ! You'd prove firmer in his place ? 290 And compliment the' medium' properly, ~-tr·~ You'd find the courage, - that first flurry over, Concern themselves about his Sunday coat, ,,,; j

That mild bit of romancing-work at end, - See rings on his hand with pleasure. Ask yourself r j l~ I ~· ' ., \,·'' To interpose with' It gets serious, this; How you'd receive a course of treats like these! ~ ·•1• 1:,.; ·• .,._ / I;•,: ·1.1> Must stop here. Sir, I saw no ghost at all. ;; ,.r- __ Why, take the quietest hack and stall him up, ',1:."" ; ii; I.,! Inform your friends I made ... well, fools of them, Cram him with corn a month, then out with him \ And found you ready-made. I've lived in clover Among his mates on a bright April morn, f'\-;• These three weeks: take it out in kicks of me!' J With the turf to tread; see if you find or no I doubt it. Ask your conscience! Let me know, A caper in him, ifhe bucks or bolts!

~ Twelve months hence, with how few embellishments ',J Much more a youth whose fancies sprout as rank 260 You've told almighty Boston of this passage 300 As toadstool-clump from melon-bed. 'Tis soon, Of arms between us, your first taste o' the foil 'Sirrah, you spirit, come, go, fetch and carry, ,. From Sludge who could not fence, sir! Sludge, your boy! Read, write, rap, rub-a-dub, and hang yourself!' I lied, sir, - there! I got up from my gorge ,.. '. ,, .. I'm spared all further trouble; all's arranged; On offal in the gutter, and preferred Your circle does my business; I may rave ' ,_•.1_· Your canvas-backs: I took their carver's size, Like an epileptic dervish in the books, Measured his modicum of intelligence, Foam, fling myself flat, rend my clothes to shreds; Tickled him on the cockles of his heart ,_!J No matter: lovers, friends and countrymen With a raven feather, and next week found myself Will lay down spiritual laws, read wrong things right Sweet and clean, dining daintily, dizened smart, By the rule o' reverse. If Francis Verulam 270 Set on a stool buttressed by ladies' knees, 310 Styles himself Bacon, spells the name beside Every soft smiler calling me her pet, With a y and a k, says he drew breath in York, Encouraging my story to uncoil Gave up the ghost in Wales when Cromwell reigned, And creep out from its hole, inch after inch, (As, sir, we somewhat fear he was apt to say, 'How last night, I no sooner snug in bed, Before I found the useful book that knows) Tucked up, just as they left me, - than came raps! Why, what harm's done? The circle smiles apace, While a light whisked' ... 'Shaped somewhat like a star?' 'It was not Bacon, after all, you see! Ii .:. 'Well, like some sort of stars, ma'am.' - 'So we thought! We understand; the trick's but natural: And any voice? Not yet? Try hard, next time, Such spirits' individuality

'!.:.it 830 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 1~t 831 ,!:,' c!i> Is hard to put in evidence: they incline ~ ~'t' 'No, sometimes 320 To gibe and jeer, these undeveloped sorts. t) They doubt and say as much!' Ay, doubt they do! You see, their world's much like a gaol broke loose, And what's the consequence? 'Of course they doubt' - While this of ours remains shut, bolted, barred, ·~~ 360 (You triumph)' that explains the hitch at once! With a single window to it. Sludge, our friend, 1 Doubt posed our" medium," puddled his pure mind; Serves as this window, whether thin or thick, ~ He gave them back their rubbish: pitch chaff in, Or stained or stainless; he's the medium-pane ~1 Could flour come out o' the honest mill?' So, prompt 1 Through which, to see us and be seen, they peep: ·!·• Applaud the faithful: cases flock in point, They crowd each other, hustle for a chance, ~1 ' ,:;• 'How, when a mocker willed a "medium" once Tread on their neighbour's kibes, play tricks enough! I Should name a spirit James whose name was George, Does Bacon, tired of waiting, swerve aside? "James" cried the "medium," - 'twas the test of truth!' 330 Up in his place jumps Barnum - "I'm your man, \' In short, a hit proves much, a miss proves more. I'll answer you for Bacon!" Try once more!' f : A, Does this convince? The better: does it fail? i f Or else it's - 'What's a "medium" ? He's a means, l ,Lf i:C 37° Time for the double-shotted broadside, then - '.S, Good, bad, indifferent, still the only means f The grand means, last resource. Look black and big! Spirits can speak by; he may misconceive, :(' 'You style us idiots, therefore - why stop short? 1 I ( Stutter and stammer, - he's their Sludge and drudge, I ,\ Accomplices in rascality: this we hear Take him or leave him; they must hold their peace, s In our own house, from our invited guest '''.Ii' Or else, put up with having knowledge strained ,J Found brave enough to outrage a poor boy To half-expression through his ignorance. ::~ Exposed by our good faith! Have you been heard? Suppose, the spirit Beethoven wants to shed :J Now, then, hear us; one man's not quite worth twelve. New music he's brimful of; why, he turns I, 34° :i You see a cheat? Here's some twelve see an ass: The handle of this organ, grinds with Sludge, ,"), •t Excuse me ifl calculate: good day I' And what he poured in at the mouth o' the mill .,f ' .,i:-:r 380 Out slinks the sceptic, all the laughs explode, As a Thirty-third Sonata, (fancy now!) j: ! :'. ;\ Sludge waves his hat in triumph I Comes from the hopper as bran-new Sludge, naught else, The Shakers' Hymn in G, with a natural F, 1 Or - he don't. Or the" Stars and Stripes" set to consecutive fourths.' r' fi There's something in real truth (explain who can!) One casts a wistful eye at, like the horse Sir, where's the scrape you did not help me through, l ( i'. I ,); Who mopes beneath stuffed hay-racks and won't munch You that are wise? And for the fools, the folk :·ft Because he spies a corn-bag: hang that truth, Who came to see, - the guests, ( observe that word!) tf It spoils all dainties proffered in its place! 35° Pray do you find guests criticize your wine, I've felt at times when, cockered, cosseted Your furniture, your grammar, or your nose? ~;i And coddled by the aforesaid company, Then, why your' medium'? What's the difference? I'.·;. Bidden enjoy their bullying, - never fear, Prove your madeira red-ink and gamboge, - '~J: 39° But o'er their shoulders spit at the flying man, - Your Sludge, a cheat- then, somebody's a goose ':t I've felt a child; only, a fractious child ,:d,1 For vaunting both as genuine. 'Guests!' Don't fear I That, dandled soft by nurse, aunt, grandmother, 'I ,,.,l They'll make a wry face, nor too much of that, ,T Who keep him from the kennel, sun and wind, And leave you in your glory. tc;,.''- Good fun and wholesome mud, - enjoined be sweet, And comely and superior, - eyes askance 832 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 833 The ragged sons o' the gutter at their game, Then, it's so cruel easy! Oh, those tricks Fain would be down with them i' the thick o' the filth, That can't be tricks, those feats by sleight of hand, Making dirt-pies, laughing free, speaking plain, Clearly no common conjurer's! - no indeed! And calling granny the grey old cat she is. A conjurer ? Choose me any craft i' the world 400 I've felt a spite, I say, at you, at them, A man puts hand to; and with six months' pains, Huggings and humbug - gnashed my teeth to mark I'll play you twenty tricks miraculous A decent dog pass! It's too bad, I say, 440 To people untaught the trade: have you seen glass blown, Ruining a soul so! Pipes pierced? Why, just this biscuit that I chip, Did you ever watch a baker toss one flat But what's 'so,' what's fixed, To the oven? Try and do it! Take my word, Where may one stop? Nowhere! The cheating's nursed Practise but half as much, while limbs are lithe, Out of the lying, softly and surely spun To turn, shove, tilt a table, crack your joints, To just your length, sir! I'd stop soon enough: Manage your feet, dispose your hands aright, But you're for progress. 'All old, nothing new? Work wires that twitch the curtains, play the glove Only the usual talking through the mouth, :'· ·At end o' your slipper, - then put out the lights Or writing by the hand ? I own, I thought And .. . there, there, all you want you'll get, I hope! 410 This would develop, grow demonstrable, 450 I found it slip, easy as an old shoe. Make doubt absurd, give figures we might see, Flowers we might touch. There's no one doubts you, Sludge! Now, lights on table again! I've done my part, You dream the dreams, you see the spiritual sights, You take my place while I give thanks and rest. The speeches come in your head, beyond dispute. 'Well, Judge Humgruffin, what's your verdict, sir? Still, for the sceptics' sake, to stop all mouths, You, hardest head in the United States, - We want some outward manifestation! - well, Did you detect a cheat here? Wait! Let's see! The Pennsylvanians gained such; why not Sludge? Just an experiment first, for candour's sake! He may improve with time!' I'll try and cheat you, Judge! The table tilts: Is it I that move it? Write! I'll press your hand: Ay, that he may! , Cry when I push, or guide your pencil, Judge!' He sees his lot: there's no avoiding fate. 460 Sludge still triumphant! 'That a rap, indeed? 420 'Tis a trifle at first. 'Eh, David? Did you hear ? That, the real writing? Very like a whale! You jogged the table, your foot caused the squeak, Then, if, sir you - a most distinguished man, This time you're ... joking, are you not, my boy?' And, were the Judge not here, I'd say, ... no matter! 'N-n-no ! ' - and I'm done for, bought and sold henceforth. Well, sir, if you fail, you can't take us in,- The old good easy jog-trot way, the ... eh? There's little fear that Sludge will!' The ... not so very false, as falsehood goes, The spinning out and drawing fine, you know, - " • 1 Won't he, ma'am? Really mere novel-writing of a sort, But.what if our distinguished host, like Sludge, Acting, or improvising, make-believe, Bade God bear witness that he played no trick, Surely not downright cheatery, - any how, Wh* you believed that what produced the raps 430 'Tis done with and my lot cast; Cheat's my name: Wa~jtist a certain child who died, you know, The fatal dash of brandy in your tea And whose last breath you thought your lips had felt? Has settled what you'll have the souchong's smack: Eh? That's a capital point, ma'am: Sludge begins The caddy gives way to the dram-bottle. At your entreaty with your dearest dead,

.~t-1~J:~~f:~ /i!'Ir I ,Ii '/i/ 834 DRAMA TIS PERSONAE !11/' MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 835 ' :f - ~'c-li ~:i":<. · J· ./ The little voice set lisping once again ~' J Because one day there's much use, - when this fact The tiny hand made feel for yours on~e more '!, Brings you the Judge upon both gouty knees (; Th~ po?r lost image brought back, plain as d;eams, i, Before the supernatural; proves that Sludge Which image, if a word had chanced recall l. Knows, as you say, a thing he 'could not' know: F.1-'..w; •. The customary cloud would cross your ey:s, ·--1- ): Will not Sludge thenceforth keep an outstretched face Yo~r heart return the old tick, pay its pang! The way the wind drives? A nght mood for investigation, this! t 480 '.:r One's at one's ease with Saul and Jonathan, t 'Could not!' Look you now, Pompey and Caesar: but one's own lost child ... 1" I'll tell you a story! There's a whiskered chap, I wonder, when you heard the first clod drop J p-~- 520 A foreigner, that teaches music here Fro?1 the spadeful at the grave-side, felt you free , And gets his bread, - knowing no better way: f To mvestigate who twitched your funeral scarf :r· He says, the fellow who informed of him ·!,i Or brushed your flounces? Then, it came of course l And made him fly his country and fall West You should be stunned and stupid; then, (how else?) Was a hunchback cobbler, sat, stitched soles and sang, i., Your breath stopped with your blood, your brain struck work. Ii' In some outlandish place, the city Rome, :1 But now, such causes fail of such effects, ~ In a cellar by their Broadway, all day long; 11., , All's changed, - the little voice begins afresh, r't"· Never asked questions, stopped to listen or look, 490 Yet you, calm, consequent, can test and try ~ Nor lifted nose from lapstone; let the world And touch the truth. 'Tests? Didn't the creature tell Roll round his three-legged stool, and news run in i ~ , Its nurse's name, and say it lived six years, p ... J 530 The ears he hardly seemed to keep pricked up. I,. ·; And rode a rocking-horse? Enough of tests I i Well, that man went on Sundays, touched his pay, Sludge never could learn that!' -~ And took his praise from government, you see;

For something like two dollars every week, > 'l ~ He could not, eh? He'd engage tell you some one little thing 1. You compliment him. 'Could not?' Speak for yourself! Of some one man, which led to many more, I'd like to know the man I ever saw (Because one truth leads right to the world's end) Once, - never mind where, how, why, when, - once saw, And make you that man's master -when he dined Of whom I do not keep some matter in mind And on what dish, where walked to keep his health , ,l 1,:1.,. ' ~ ·• ,, .~ He'd swear I 'could not' know, sagacious soul! i· And to what street. His trade was, throwing thus 500 ( :;1 · '•I What? Do you live in this world's blow of blacks, : :1 54° His sense out, like an ant-eater's long tongue, Palaver, gossipry, a single hour I :;r Soft, innocent, warm, moist, impassible, Nor find one smut has settled on your nose, And when 'twas crusted o'er with creatures - slick,

ffI 'J Of a smut's worth, no more, no less ? - one fact :i· Their juice enriched his palate. 'Could not Sludge I' I Out of the drift of facts, whereby you learn What someone was, somewhere, somewhen, somewhy? I'll go yet a step further, and maintain, You don't tell folk-' See what has stuck to me! i· Once the imposture plunged its proper depth Judge Humgruffin, our most distinguished man, ;, I' the rotten of your natures, all of you, - '""'... Your uncle was a tailor, and your wife [~ (If one's not mad nor drunk, and hardly then) l Thought to have married Miggs, missed him, hit you!' - '.:J It's impossible to cheat- that's, be found out! 510 I: Do you, sir, though you see him twice a-week? i''.· Go tell your brotherhood this first slip of mine, 'No,' you reply, 'what use retailing it? . ~ { 55° All today's tale, how you detected Sludge, Why should I?' But, you see, one day you should, t Behaved unpleasantly, till he was fain confess, 836 DRAMA TIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 837 And so has come to grief! You'll find, I think, To crotchet and quaver? I've made a spirit squeak Why Sludge still snaps his fingers in your face. In sham voice for a minute, then outbroke There TJ.ow, you've told them! What's their prompt reply? Bold in my own, defying the imbeciles - 'Sir, did that youth confess he had cheated me, Have copied some ghost's pothooks, half a page, I'd disbelieve him. He may cheat at times; Then ended with my own scrawl undisguised. That's in the" medium "-nature, thus they're made, 'All right! The ghost was merely using Sludge, Vain and vindictive, cowards, prone to scratch. Suiting itself from his imperfect stock!' And so all cats are; still, a cat's the beast Don't talk of gratitude to me! For what? 560 You coax the strange electric sparks from out, For being treated as a showman's ape, By rubbing back its fur; not so a dog, Encouraged to be wicked and make sport, Nor lion, nor lamb: 'tis the cat's nature, sir! Fret or sulk, grin or whimper, any mood Why not the dog's? Ask God, who made them beasts! So long as the ape be in it and no man - D' ye think the sound, the nicely-balanced man Because a nut pays every mood alike. (Like me' - aside)-' like you yourself,' -(aloud) Curse your superior, superintending sort, '- He's stuff to make a" medium"? Bless your soul, Who, since you hate smoke, send up boys that climb 'Tis these hysteric, hybrid half-and-halfs, To cure your chimney, bid a 'medium' lie To sweep you truth down! Curse your women too, +: ' Equivocal, worthless vermin yield the fire! ., !\!~ We take such as we find them, 'ware their tricks, Your insolent wives and daughters, that fire up 570 Wanting their service. Sir, Sludge took in you - 610 Or faint away if a male hand squeeze theirs, How, I can't say, not being there to watch: Yet, to encourage Sludge, may play with Sludge ir~ .. ,. He was tried, was tempted by your easiness, - As only a' medium,' only the kind of thing He did not take in me!' They must humour, fondle ... oh, to misconceive Were too preposterous! But I've paid them out! ·,~1 Thank you for Sludge! They've had their wish - called for the naked truth, ~~- ,1{'•:l!}i; I'm to be grateful to such patrons, eh, And in she tripped, sat down and bade them stare: ,)~.J ..;~,•.%fr •.: ·1~-~- ·"l} ..:1 When what you hear's my best word? 'Tis a challenge; They had to blush a little and forgive! '•:~•:,r.~,P.·t;j 'Snap at all strangers, half-tamed prairie-dog, 'The fact is, children talk so; in next world So you cower duly at your keeper's beck! All our conventions are reversed, - perhaps Cat, show what claws were made for, muffling them 620 Made light of: something like old prints, my dear! Only to me! Cheat others if you can, The Judge has one, he brought from Italy, )f:(ij 580 Me, if you dare!' And, my wise sir, I dared - A metropolis in the background, - o'er a bridge, Did cheat you first, made you cheat others next, A team of trotting roadsters, - cheerful groups -~ And had the help o' your vaunted manliness Of wayside travellers, peasants at their work, To bully the incredulous. You used me? And, full in front, quite unconcerned, why not? Have not I used you, taken full revenge, Three nymphs conversing with a cavalier, Persuaded folk they knew not their own name, And never a rag among them: "fine," folk cry­ And straight they'd own the error! Who was the fool And heavenly manners seem not much unlike! When, to an awe-struck wide-eyed open-mouthed Let Sludge go on; we'll fancy it's in print!' Circle of sages, Sludge would introduce Milton composing baby-rhymes, and Locke 630 If such as came for wool, sir, went home shorn, 590 Reasoning in gibberish, Homer writing Greek Where is the wrong I did them? 'Twas their choice; In noughts and crosses, Asaph setting psalms They tried the adventure, ran the risk, tossed up

. . ~ ' . ~· .- . r·.:•r·•. .. I'}c~j,{~t~?~. ' ', ' 838 DRAMATIS PERSONAE l,., MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' '1 .1, 839 . fl.,t-'·io:· ,: . /·i /'!, .:e.; 'f' And lost, as some one's sure to do in games; Your side, as they build up the wall on theirs; They fancied I was made to lose, - smoked glass Where both meet, midway in a point, is truth r::ltrr:: ·· ,,.:_ Useful to spy the sun through, spare their eyes: High overhead: so, take your room, pile bricks, And had I proved a red-hot iron plate Lie! Oh, there's titillation in all shame! They thought to pierce, and, for their pains, grew blind, What snow may lose in white, snow gains in rose f Whose were the fault but theirs? While, as things go, Miss Stokes turns-Rahab, -nor a bad exchange! Their loss amounts to gain, the mare's the shame! Glory be on her, for the good she wrought, 640 They've had their peep into the spirit-world, , 680 Breeding belief anew 'neath ribs of death, And all this world may know it! They've fed fat Browbeating now the unabashed before, Their self-conceit which else had starved: what chance Ridding us of their whole life's gathered straws Save this, of cackling o'er a golden egg By a live coal from the altar! Why, of old, And compassing distinction from the flock, Great men spent years and years in writing books Friends of a feather? Well, they paid for it, To prove we've souls, and hardly proved it then: And not prodigiously; the price o' the play, Miss Stokes with her live coal, for you and me! Not counting certain pleasant interludes, ' Surely, to this good issue, all was fair - Was scarce a vulgar play's worth. When you buy Not only fondling Sludge, but, even suppose The actor's talent, do you dare propose He let escape some spice of knavery, -well, 650 For his soul beside? Whereas my soul you buy! '(· r 690 In wisely being blind to it! Don't you praise Sludge acts Macbeth, obliged to be Macbeth, Nelson for setting spy-glass to blind eye Or you'll not hear his first word! Just go through And saying ... what was it - that he could not see That slight formality, swear himself's the Thane, 7 . The signal he was bothered with? Ay, indeed! And thenceforth he may strut and fret his hour,

Spout, spawl, or spin his target, no one cares! ,,: ~ '-";.·• I'll go beyond: there's a real love of a lie, fl ,:, "··,:,;_ Why hadn't I leave to play tricks, Sludge as Sludge? :· •' Liars find ready-made for lies they make, As hand for glove, or tongue for sugar-plum. Enough of it all! I've wiped out scores with you - At best, 'tis never pure and full belief; I ,. Vented your fustian, let myself be streaked Those furthest in the quagmire, - don.'t suppose Like tom-fool with your ochre and carmine, They strayed there with no warning, got no chance 660 Worn patchwork your respectable fingers sewed 700 Of a filth-speck in their face, which they clenched teeth, To metamorphose somebody, -yes, I've earned Bent brow against! Be sure they had their doubts, My wages, swallowed down my bread of shame, And fears, and fairest challenges to try And shake the crumbs off - where but in your face? The floor o' the seeming solid sand! But no! Their faith was pledged, acquaintance too apprised, As for religion - why, I served it, sir! All but the last step ventured, kerchiefs waved, I'll stick to that! With my phenomena And Sludge called 'pet': 'twas easier marching on I laid the atheist sprawling on his back, 1- •· To the promised land, join those who, Thursday next, Propped up Saint Paul, or, at least, Swedenborg! f ," Meant to meet Shakespeare; better follow Sludge - In fact, it's just the proper way to balk Prudent, oh sure! - on the alert, how else? - These troublesome fellows - liars, one and all, 710 But making for the mid-bog, all the same! 670 Are not these sceptics? Well, to baffie them, To hear your outcries, one would think I caught No use in being squeamish: lie yourself! Miss Stokes by the scruff o' the neck, and pitched her flat, Erect your buttress just as wide o' the line, ~ Foolish-face-foremost! Hear these simpletons,

...X'.h..a_•--•~:.!!, , r~~~,...;--···.. ~.::t ·' 1 840 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM' 841 ,,,~ ' , That's all I beg, before my work's begun, Look at him! Try to be too bold, too gross Before I've touched them with my finger-tip! For the master! Not you! He's the man for muck; Thus they await me ( do but listen, now I Shovel it forth, full-splash, he'll smooth your brown It's reasoning, this is, - I can't imitate Into artistic richness, never fear! The baby voice, though)' In so many tales Find him the crude stuff; when you recognize Must be some truth, truth though a pin-point big, Your lie again, you'll doff your hat to it, 720 Yet, some: a single man's deceived, perhaps - 760 Dressed out for company! 'For company,' Hardly, a thousand: to suppose one cheat I say, since there's the relish of success: Can gull all these, were more miraculous far Let all pay due respect, call the lie truth, Than aught we should confess a miracle' - Save the soft silent smirking gentleman And so on. Then the Judge sums up-(it's rare) Who ushered in the stranger: you must sigh Bids you respect the authorities that leap 'How melancholy, he, the only one To the judgement-seat at once, -why don't you note Fails to perceive the bearing of the truth The limpid nature, the unblemished life, Himself gave birth to!' - There's the triumph's smack! The spotless honour, indisputable sense That man would choose to see the whole world roll Of the first upstart with his story? What­ I' the slime o' the slough, so he might touch the tip 730 Outrage a boy on whom you ne'er till now 770 Of his brush with what I call the best of browns - Set eyes, because he finds raps trouble him? Tint ghost-tales, spirit-stories, past the power Of the outworn umber and bistre ! Fools, these are: ay, and how of their opposites Who never did, at bottom of their hearts, Yet I think Believe for a moment? - Men emasculate, There's a more hateful form of foolery- Blank of belief, who played, as eunuchs use, The social sage's, Solomon of saloons With superstition safely, - cold of blood, And philosophic diner-out, the fribble Who saw what made for them i' the mystery, Who wants a doctrine for a chopping-block Took their occasion, and supported Sludge To try the edge of his faculty upon, - AB proselytes? No, thank you, far too shrewd! Prove how much common sense he'll hack and hew 740 - But promisers of fair play, encouragers ' I' the critical minute 'twixt the soup and fish! O' the claimant; who in candour needs must hoist 780 These were my patrons: these, and the like of them Sludge up on Mars' Hill, get speech out of Sludge Who, rising in my soul now, sicken it, - To carry off, criticize, and cant about! These I have injured! Gratitude to these? Didn't Athens treat Saint Paul so? - at any rate, The gratitude, forsooth, of a prostitute It's 'a new thing' philosophy fumbles at. To the greenhorn and the bully- friends of hers, From the wag that wants the queer jokes for his club, Then there's the other picker-out of pearl To the snuff-box-decorator, honest man, From dung-heaps, - ay, your literary man, Who just was at his wits' end where to find Who draws on his kid gloves to deal with Sludge So genial a Pasiphae ! All and each Daintily and discreetly, - shakes a dust Pay, compliment, protect from the police: 750 O' the doctrine, flavours thence, he well knows how, 790 And how she hates them for their pains, like me I The narrative or the novel, - half-believes, So much for my remorse at thanklessness All for the book's sake, and the public's stare, Toward a deserving public! And the cash that's God's sole solid in this world!

"\~ ., 842 DRAMATIS PERSONAE ; '' MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 843 t ~,P,,f;\:, ::?•" .;;_. ·. ·-:,· :rffi;,r-J:f'•k,, ,, ,, r ~-rt-i --=j~ ,n,.N. $ '.~ Concede that, and I ask But, for God ? cl Ay, that's a question! Well, sir, since you press - Next what may be the mode of intercourse (How you do tease the whole thing out of me! Between us men here, and those once-men there? 1" ~•.; I don't mean you, you know, when I say' them': ,.- . First comes the Bible's speech; then, history Hate you, indeed! But that Miss Stokes, that Judge I I With the supernatural element, -you know - All that we sucked in with our mothers' milk, Enough, enough - with sugar: thank you, sir!) ii-- Now for it, then! Will you believe me, though? Grew up with, got inside of us at last, You've heard what I confess; I don't unsay 840 Till it's found bone of bone and flesh offlesh. 800 A single word: I cheated when I could, See now, we start with the miraculous, Rapped with my toe-joints, set sham hands at work, And know it used to be, at all events: ~- Wrote down names weak in sympathetic ink, What's the first step we take, and can't but take, rl: Rubbed odic lights with ends of phosphor-match, In arguing from the known to the obscure? And all the rest; believe that: believe this, Why this: 'What was before, may be today. By the same token, though it seem to set Since Samuel's ghost appeared to Saul, of course if,,, The crooked straight again, unsay the said, My brother's spirit may appear to me.' Stick up what I've knocked down; I can't help that. Go tell your teacher that! What's his reply? It's truth! I somehow vomit truth today. What brings a shade of doubt for the first time This trade of mine - I don't know, can't be sure 850 O'er his brow late so luminous with faith? 810 But there was something in it, tricks and all! 'Such things have been,' says he,' and there's no doubt Really, I want to light up my own mind. Such things may be: but I advise mistrust They were tricks, - true, but what I mean to add :.i' Of eyes, ears, stomach, and, more than all, your brain, Is also true. First, - don't it strike you, sir? ..':i. Unless it be of your great-grandmother,

Go back to the beginning, - the first fact r Whenever they propose a ghost to you!' We're taught is, there's a world beside this world, : ' The end is, there's a composition struck; With spirits, not mankind, for tenantry; ;\' 'Tis settled, we've some way of intercourse r'. That much within that world once sojourned here, '-' r,. Just as in Saul's time; only, different: That all upon this world will visit there, How, when and where, precisely, - find it out! And therefore that we, bodily here below, 860 I want to know, then, what's so natural 820 Must have exactly such an interest As that a person born into this world I r .,.,, In learning what may be the ways o' the world And seized on by such teaching, should begin Above us, as the disembodied folk With firm expectancy and a frank look-out Have (by all analogic likelihood) For his own allotment, his especial share In watching how things go in the old home I' the secret, - his particular ghost, in fine? With us, their sons, successors, and what not. I mean, a person born to look that way, Oh yes, with added powers probably, Since natures differ: take the painter-sort, Fit for the novel state, - old loves grown pure, One man lives fifty years in ignorance Old interests understood aright, - they watch! Whether grass be green or red, - 'No kind of eye Eyes to see, ears to hear, and hands to help, 870 For colour,' say you; while another picks 830 '· Proportionate to advancement: they're ahead, ;, :'.t And puts away even pebbles, when a child, That's all - do what we do, but noblier done - Because of bluish spots and pinky veins - Use plate, whereas we eat our meals off delf, 'Give him forthwith a paint-box!' Just the same ; -• t'.'" (To use a figure). Was I born, .. 'medium,' you won't let me say, -

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844 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 845 Well, seer of the supernatural Advantage their grand selves: be it true or false, Everywhen, everyhow and everywhere, - Each thing may have two uses. What's a star? Will that do? A world, or a world's sun: doesn't it serve As taper also, time-piece, weather-glass, I and all such boys of course And almanac? Are stars not set for signs Started with the same stock of Bible-truth; When we should shear our sheep, sow corn, prune trees? Only, - what in the rest you style their sense, The Bible says so. 880 Instinct, blind reasoning but imperative, This, betimes, taught them the old world had one law Well, I add one use And ours another: 'New world, new laws,' cried they: 920 To all the acknowledged uses, and declare 'None but old laws, seen everywhere at work,' Ifl spy Charles's Wain at twelve tonight, Cried I, and by their help explained my life It warns me, 'Go, nor lose another day, The Jews' way, still a working way to me. And have your hair cut, Sludge!' You laugh: and why? Ghosts made the noises, fairies waved the lights, Were such a sign too hard for God to give?· Or Santa Claus slid down on New Year's Eve No: but Sludge seems too little for such grace: And stuffed with cakes the stocking at my bed, Thank you, sir! So you think, so does not Sludge I Changed the worn shoes, rubbed clean the fingered slate When you and good men gape at Providence, 890 0' the sum that came to grief the day before. Go into history and bid us mark Not merely powder-plots prevented, crowns This could not last long: soon enough I found 930 Kept on kings' heads by miracle enough, Who had worked wonders thus, and to what end: But private mercies - oh, you've told me, sir, But did I find all easy, like my mates? Of such interpositions! How yourself Henceforth no supernatural any more? Once, missing on a memorable day Not a whit : what projects the billiard-balls? Your handkerchief - just setting out, you know, - 'A cue,' you answer: 'Yes, a cue,' said I; You must return to fetch it, lost the train, 'But what hand, off the cushion, moved the cue? And saved your precious self from what befell What unseen agency, outside the world, The thirty-three whom Providence forgot. Prompted its puppets to do this and that, You tell, and ask me what I think of this? 900 Put cakes and shoes and slates into their mind, Well, sir, I think then, since you needs must know, These mothers and aunts, nay even schoolmasters?' 940 What matter had you and Boston city to boot Sailed skyward, like burnt onion-peelings? Much Thus high I sprang, and there have settled since. To you, no doubt: for me-undoubtedly Just so I reason, in sober earnest still, The cutting of my hair concerns me more, About the greater godsends, what you call Because, however sad the truth may seem, The serious gains and losses of my life. Sludge is of all-importance to himself. What do I know or care about your world You set apart that day in every year Which either is or seems to be? This snap For special thanksgiving, were a heathen else: 0' my fingers, sir! My care is for myself; Well, I who cannot boast the like escape, Myself am whole and sole reality Suppose I said 'I don't thank Providence 910 Inside a raree-show and a market-mob 950 For my part, owing it no gratitude' ? Gathered about it: that's the use of things. 'Nay, but you owe as much' -you'd tutor me, 'Tis easy saying they serve vast purposes, 'You, every man alive, for blessings gained

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846 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 847 In every hour o' the day, could you but know I .1; 1.1 • I saw my crowning mercy: all have such, Stamp with your foot or pull the bell : all's one, He understands you want him, here he comes. Could they but see!' Well, sir, why don't they see? 'Because they won't look, - or perhaps, they can't.' Just so, I come at the knocking: you, sir, wait Then, sir, suppose I can, and will, and do The tongue o' the bell, nor stir before you catch Reason's clear tingle, nature's clapper brisk, Look, microscopically as is right, Or that traditional peal was wont to cheer Into each hour with its infinitude Your mother's face turned heavenward: short of these 960 Of influences at work to profit Sludge? There's no authentic intimation, eh? For that's the case: I've sharpened up my sight Well, when you hear, you'll answer them, start up To spy a providence in the fire's going out, And stride into the presence, top of toe, The kettle's boiling, the dime's sticking fast And there find Sludge beforehand, Sludge that sprang Despite the hole i' the pocket. Call such facts At noise o' the knuckle on the partition-wall! Fancies, too petty a work for Providence, And those same thanks which you exact from me Prove too prodigious payment: thanks for what, i think myself the more religious man. Religion's all or nothing; it's no mere smile Ifnothing guards and guides us little men? O' contentment, sigh of aspiration, sir - No, no, sir! You must put away your pride, No quality o' the finelier-tempered clay Like its whiteness or its lightness; rather, stuff 970 Resolve to let Sludge into partnership! I live by signs and omens: looked at the roof 1010 0' the very stuff, life oflife, and self of self. Where the pigeons settle - 'If the further bird, I tell you, men won't notice; when they do, The white, takes wing first, I'll confess when thrashed; They'll understand. I notice nothing else: Not, if the blue does' - so I said to myself I'm eyes, ears, mouth of me, one gaze and gape, ',;,: Nothing eludes me, everything's a hint, Last week, lest you should take me by surprise: Handle and help. It's all absurd, and yet Off flapped the white, - and I'm confessing, sir I There's something in it all, I know: how much? Perhaps 'tis Providence's whim and way No answer! What does that prove? Man's still man, With only me, i' the world: how can you tell? Still meant for a poor blundering piece of work 'Because unlikely!' Was it likelier, now, When all's done; but, if somewhat's done, like this, 980 That this our one out of all worlds beside, 1020 Or not done, is the case the same? Suppose The what-d'you-call-'em millions, should be just I blunder in my guess at the true sense Precisely chosen to make Adam for, O' the knuckle-summons, nine times out of ten, - And the rest o' the tale? Yet the tale's true, you know: What if the tenth guess happen to be right? Such undeserving clod was graced so once; If the tenth shovel-load of powdered quartz Why not graced likewise undeserving Sludge? Yield me the nugget? I gather, crush, sift all, Pass o'er the failure, pounce on the success. Are we merit-mongers, flaunt we filthy rags? All you can bring against my privilege To give you a notion, now - (let who wins, laugh!) Is, that another way was taken with you, - When first I see a man, what do I first? Which I don't question. It's pure grace, my luck: Why, count the letters which make up his name, I'm broken to the way of nods and winks, 99o 1030 And as their number chances, even or odd, And need no formal summoning. You've a help; Arrive at my conclusion, trim my course: Holloa his name or whistle, clap your hands, Hiram H. Horsefall is your honoured name,

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; 850 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 851 1110 Somebody turns our spyglass round, or else Or lock me in, - nor stop at this today, Puts a new lens in it: grass, worm, fly grow big: But cut me off tomorrow from the estate We find great things are made oflittle things, ! And little things go lessening till at last IIS0 I look for' - (long may you enjoy it, sir!) brief, she may unchild the child I am.' Comes God behind them. Talk of mountains now? 'In You never had such crotchets? Nor have I! We talk of mould that heaps the mountain, mites That throng the mould, and God that makes the mites. Who, frank confessing childship from the first, The Name comes close behind a stomach-cyst, Cannot both fear and take my ease at once, So, don't fear, - know what might be, well enough, The simplest of creations, just a sac But know too, child-like, that it will not be, That's mouth, heart, legs and belly at once, yet lives At least in my case, mine, the son and heir 1120 And feels, and could do neither, we conclude, O' the kingdom, as yourself proclaim my style. If simplified still further one degree: The small becomes the dreadful and immense! But do you fancy I stop short at this? Lightning, forsooth? No word more upon that! ,n6o Wonder if suit and service, son and heir A tin-foil bottle, a strip of greasy silk, Needs must expect, I dare pretend to find? With a bit of wire and knob of brass, and there's If, looking for signs proper to such an one, Your dollar's-worth oflightning ! But the cyst­ I straight perceive them irresistible? The life of the least of the little things? Concede that homage is a son's plain right, And, never mind the nods and raps and winks, No,no! 'Tis the pure obvious supernatural Preachers and teachers try another tack, Steps forward, does its duty: why, of course! Come near the truth this time: they put aside I have presentiments; my dreams come true: 1130 Thunder and lightning: 'That's mistake,' they cry, I fancy a friend stands whistling all in white 'Thunderbolts fall for neither fright nor sport, II7_0 Blithe as a boblink, and he's dead I learn. But do appreciable good, like tides, t.:; I take dislike to a dog my favourite long, Changes o' the wind, and other natural facts - And sell him; he goes mad next week and snaps. "Good" meaning good to man, his body or soul. I guess that stranger will turn up today Mediate, immediate, all things minister I have not seen these three years; there's his knock. To man, - that's settled: be our future text I wager 'sixty peaches on that tree!' - "We are His children!"' So, they now harangue That I pick up a dollar in my walk, About the intention, the contrivance, all That your wife's brother's cousin's name was George - That keeps up an incessant play oflove, - And win on all points. Oh, you wince at this? See the Bridgewater book. You'd fain distinguish between gift and gift, II80 ..., Washington's oracle and Sludge's itch 1140 Amen toit! O' the elbow when at whist he ought to trump? Well, sir, I put this question: I'm a child? With Sludge it's too absurd? Fine, draw the line I lose no time, but take you at your word: -Somewhere, hut, sir,your somewhere is not mine I How shall I act a child's part properly? Your sainted mother, sir, - used you to live ,Bless us, I'm turning poet! It's time to end. With such a thought as this a-worrying you? How you have drawn me out, sir! All I ask 'She has it in her power to throttle me, Is- am I heir or not heir? IfI'm he, Or stab or poison: she may turn me out. Then, sir, remember, that same personage 852 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 853 1~ t ' (To judge by what we read i' the newspaper) While swimming, in five minutes row a mile, Requires, beside one nobleman in gold Pull themselves three feet up with the left arm, 1·: :; II90 To carry up and down his coronet, Do sums of fifty figures in their head, Another servant, probably a duke, And so on, by the scores of instances? To hold egg-nog in readiness: why want The Sludge with luck, who sees the spiritual facts Attendance, sir, when helps in his father's house His fellows strive and fail to see, may rank Abound, I'd like to know? With these, and share the advantage.

Enough of talk I Ay, but share My fault is that I tell too plain a truth. The drawback! Think it over by yourself; Why, which of those who say they disbelieve, I have not heart, sir, and the fire's gone grey. Your clever people, but has dreamed his dream, Defect somewhere compensates for success, Caught his coincidence, stumbled on his fact Everyone knows that. Oh, we're equals, sir I He can't explain, (he'll tell you smilingly) The big-legged fellow has a little arm 1200 Which he's too much of a philosopher And a less brain, though big legs win the race: To count as supernatural, indeed, Do you suppose I 'scape the common lot? So calls a puzzle and problem, proud ofit, - Say, I was born with flesh so sensitive, Bidding you still be on your guard, you know, Soul so alert, that, practice helping both, Because one fact don't make a system stand, I guess what's going on outside the veil, Nor prove this an occasional escape Just as a prisoned crane feels pairing-time Of spirit beneath the matter: that's the way! In the islands where his kind are, so must fall Just so wild Indians picked up, piece by piece, To capering by himself some shiny night, The fact in California, the fine gold As if your back-yard were a plot of spice - That underlay the gravel - hoarded these, Thus am I 'ware o' the spirit-world: while you, 1210 But never made a system stand, nor dug! Blind as a beetle that way, - for amends, So wise men hold out in each hollowed palm Why, you can double fist and floor me, sir! A handful of experience, sparkling fact Ride that hot hardmouthed horrid horse of yours, They can't explain; and since their rest oflife Laugh while it lightens, play with the great dog, Is all explainable, what proof in this? Speak your mind though it vex some friend to hear, Whereas I take the fact, the grain of gold, Never brag, never bluster, never blush, - And fling away the dirty rest oflife, In short, you've pluck, when I'm a coward - there I And add this grain to the grain each fool has found I know it, I can't help it, - folly or no, O' the million other such philosophers, - I'm paralysed, my hand's no more a hand, Till I see gold, all gold and only gold, Nor my head a head, in danger: you can smile 1220 Truth questionless though unexplainable, And change the pipe in your cheek. Your gift's not mine. And the miraculous proved .the commonplace I Would you swap for mine? No! but you'd add my gift The other fools believed in mud, no doubt- To yours: I dare say! I too sigh at times, Failed to know gold they saw: was that so strange? Wish I were stouter, could tell truth nor flinch, Are all men born to play Bach's fiddle-fugues, Kept cool when threatened, did not mind so much 'Time' with the foil in carte, jump their own height, Being dressed gaily, making strangers stare, Cut the mutton with the broadsword, skate a five, Eating nice things; when I'd amuse myself, Make the red hazard with the cue, clip nails I shut my eyes and fancy in my brain

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854 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 855 ~-~ ' I'm - now the President, now Jenny Lind, Now Emerson, now the Benicia Boy- Daily for weeks to come. I've told my lie, 1270 With all the civilized world a-wondering 1310 And seen truth follow, marvels none of mine; And worshipping. I know it's folly and worse; All was not cheating, sir, I'm positive! I feel such tricks sap, honeycomb the soul, I don't know ifI move your hand sometimes ''1 But I can't cure myself: despond, despair, When the spontaneous writing spreads so far, And then, hey, presto, there's a turn o' the wheel, If my knee lifts the table all that height, Under comes uppermost, fate makes full amends; Why the inkstand don't fall off the desk a-tilt, Sludge knows and sees and hears a hundred things , Why the accordion plays a prettier waltz You all are blind to, - I've my taste of truth, Than I can pick out on the pianoforte, Likewise my touch of falsehood, - vice no doubt, Why I speak so much more than I intend, But you've your vices also: I'm content. Describe so many things I never saw. 1320 I tell you, sir, in one sense, I believe 1280 What, sir? You won't shake hands? 'Because I cheat!' Nothing at all, - that everybody can, 'You've found me out in cheating!' That's enough Will, and does cheat: but in another sense To make an apostle swear! Why, when I cheat, I'm ready to believe my very self - Mean to cheat, do cheat, and am caught in the act, That every cheat's inspired, and every lie Are you, or, rather, am I sure o' the fact l Qyick with a germ of truth. (There's verse again, but I'm inspired somehow.) Well then I'm not sure! I may be, perhaps, You ask perhaps Free as a babe from cheating: how it began, Why I should condescend to trick at all My gift, - no matter; what 'tis got to be IfI know a way without it? This is why! In the end now, that's the question; answer that! There's a strange secret sweet self-sacrifice 1290 Had I seen, perhaps, what hand was holding mine, In any desecration of one's soul Leading me whither, I had died of fright: 1330 To a worthy end, -isn't it Herodotus So, I was made believe I led myself. (I wish I could read Latin!) who describes If I should lay a six-inch plank from roof The single gift o' the land's virginity, To roof, you would not cross the street, one step, Demanded in those old Egyptian rites, Even at your mother's summons: but, being shrewd, (I've but a hazy notion - help me, sir!) IfI paste paper on each side the plank For one purpose in the world, one day in a life, And swear 'tis solid pavement, why, you'll cross One hour in a day- thereafter, purity, Humming a tune the while, in ignorance And a veil thrown o'er the past for evermore! Beacon Street stretches a hundred feet below: Well, now, they understood a many things 1300 I walked thus, took the paper-cheat for stone. Down by Nile city, or wherever it was! Some impulse made me set a thing o' the move 1340 I've always vowed, after the minute's lie, Which, started once, ran really by itself; And the end's gain, - truth should be mine henceforth. Beer flows thus, suck the siphon; toss the kite, This goes to the root o' the matter, sir, - this plain It takes the wind and floats of its own force. Plump fact: accept it and unlock with it Don't let truth's lump rot stagnant for the lack The wards of many a puzzle! Of a timely helpful lie to leaven it! Put a chalk-egg beneath the clucking hen, Or, finally, She'll lay a real one, laudably deceived. Why should I set so fine a gloss on things? What need I care? I cheat in self-defence, 856 DRAMATIS PERSONAE ,. MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 857 And there's my answer to a world of cheats! If aught be true, if good and evil clash. Cheat? To be sure, sir! What's the world worth else? ', !390 No foul, no fair, no inside, no outside, Who takes it as he finds, and thanks his stars? There's your world I 1350 Don't it want trimming, turning, furbishing up r And polishing over? Your so-styled great men, Give it me! I slap it brisk Do they accept one truth as truth is found, -.f With harlequin's pasteboard sceptre: what's it now? Or try their skill at tinkering? What's your world? Changed like a rock-flat, rough with rusty weed, Here are you born, who are, I'll say at once, At first wash-over o' the returning wave I It Of the luckiest kind, whether in head and heart, All the dry dead impracticable stuff Body and soul, or all that helps them both. Starts into life and light again; this world Well, now, look back: what faculty of yours Pervaded by the influx from the next. Came to its full, had ample justice done I cheat, and what's the happy consequence? By growing when rain fell, biding its time, You find full justice straightway dealt you out, 1360 Solidifying growth when earth was dead, 1400 Each want supplied, each ignorance set at ease, Spiring up, broadening wide, in seasons due? "qt' Each folly fooled. No life-long labour now Never! You shot up and frost nipped you off, As the price of worse than nothing! No mere film Settled to sleep when sunshine bade you sprout; r, Holding you chained in iron, as it seems,

One faculty thwarted its fellow: at the end, fi. Against the outstretch of your very arms All you boast is 'I had proved a topping tree And legs i' the sunshine moralists forbid!

In other climes' -yet this was the right clime •H·,.,·· What would you have? Just speak and, there, you see I Had you foreknown the seasons. Young, you've force You're supplemented, made a whole at last, Wasted like well-streams: old, - oh, then indeed, Bacon advises, Shakespeare writes you songs, Behold a labyrinth of hydraulic pipes And Mary Qieen of Scots embraces you. 1370 Through which you'd play off wondrous waterwork; 1410 Thus it goes on, not quite like life perhaps, Only, no water's left to feed their play. But so near, that the very difference piques, Young, -you've a hope, an aim, a love: it's tossed Shows that e'en better than this best will be - And crossed and lost: you struggle on, some spark :f,?: This passing entertainment in a hut Shut in your heart against the puffs around, Whose bare walls take your taste since, one stage more, Through cold and pain; these in due time subside, •t.., ... And you arrive at the palace: all half real, Now then for age's triumph, the hoarded light And you, to suit it, less than real beside, You mean to loose on the altered face of things, - In a dream, lethargic kind of death in life, Up with it on the tripod! It's extinct. That helps the interchange of natures, flesh Spend your life's remnant asking, which was best, Transfused by souls, and such souls! Oh, 'tis choice! 1380 Light smothered up that never peeped forth once, 1420 And if at whiles the bubble, blown too thin, Or the cold cresset with full leave to shine? Seem nigh on bursting, - if you nearly see Well, accept this too, - seek the fruit of it The real world through the false, - what do you see? Not in enjoyment, proved a dream on earth, Is the old so ruined? You find you're in a flock But knowledge, useful for a second chance, 0~ the youthful, earnest, passionate - genius, beauty, Another life, -you've lost this world -you've gained Rank and wealth also, if you care for these:

Its knowledge for the next. What knowledge, sir, ''I., h. And all depose their natural rights, hail you, Except that you know nothing? Nay, you doubt (That's me, sir) as their mate and yoke-fellow, Whether 'twere better have made you man or brute, Participate in Sludgehood - nay, grow mine,

7 ,,

858 DRAMATIS PERSONAE MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 859 I veritably possess them - banish doubt, The more creativeness and godlike craft!' 1430 And reticence and modesty alike! 1470 But I, do I present you with my piece, Why, here's the Golden Age, old Paradise It's' What, Sludge? When my sainted mother spoke j Or new Eutopia ! Here's true life indeed, The verses Lady Jane Grey last composed And the world well won now, mine for the first time! About the rosy bower in the seventh heaven Where she and Qieen Elizabeth keep house, - And all this might be, may be, and with good help You made the raps? 'Twas your invention that? Of a little lying shall be: so, Sludge lies! Cur, slave and devil!' - eight fingers and two thumbs Why, he's at worst your poet who sings how Greeks Stuck in my throat! That never were, in Troy which never was, Did this or the other impossible great thing! Well, if the marks seem gone He's Lowell- it's a world (you smile applause), 'Tis because stiffish cocktail, taken in time, 1440 Of his own invention -wondrous Longfellow, Is better for a bruise than arnica. Surprising Hawthorne! Sludge does more than they, And acts the books they write: the more his praise I '1480 There, sir! I bear no malice: 'tisn't in me. I know I acted wrongly: still, I've tried But why do I mount to poets? Take plain prose - What I could say in my excuse, - to show Dealers in common sense, set these at work, The devil's not all devil ... I don't pretend, What can they do without their helpful lies? He's angel, much less such a gentleman Each states the law and fact and face o' the thing As you, sir! And I've lost you, lost myself, Just as he'd have them, finds what he thinks fit, Lost all-1-1-1- ... Is blind to what missuits him, just records What makes his case out, quite ignores the rest. No - are you in earnest, sir? 1450 It's a History of the World, the Lizard Age, 0 yours, sir, is an angel's part! I know The Early Indians, the Old Country War, What prejudice prompts, and what's the common course Jerome Napoleon, whatsoever you please, Men take to soothe their ruffled self-conceit: All as the author wants it. Such a scribe 1490 Only you rise superior to it all! You pay and praise for putting life in stones, No, sir, it don't hurt much; it's speaking long Fire into fog, making the past your world. That makes me choke a little: the marks will go! There's plenty of' How did you contrive to grasp What? Twenty V-notes more, and outfit too, The thread which led you through this labyrinth? And not a word to Greeley? One - one kiss How build such solid fabric out of air? 0' the hand that saves me! You'll not let me speak, How on so slight foundation found this tale, I well know, and I've lost the right, too true! 1460 Biography, narrative?' or, in other words, But I must say, sir, if She hears (she does) 'How many lies did it require to make Your sainted ... Well, sir, - be it so! That's, I think, The portly truth you here present us with ? ' ,, My bed-room candle. Good night! Bl-1-less you, sir! 'Oh,' quoth the penman, purring at your praise, ''Tis fancy all; no particle of fact: I was poor and threadbare when I wrote that book "Bliss in the Golden City." I, at Thebes? 1500 R-r-r, you brute-beast and blackguard! Cowardly scamp! We writers paint out of our heads, you see!' I only wish I dared bum down the house '-Ah, the more wonderful the gift in you, And spoil your sniggering! Oh what, you're the man?

:;i-!;,,

" ~, 'l::C; 4?t~;.5·"~,1~ 860 DRAMATIS PERSONAE You're satisfied at last? You've found out Sludge? We'll see that presently: my turn, sir, next! •I too can tell my story: brute, - do you hear? - You throttled your sainted mother, that old hag, In just such a fit of passion: no, it was . .. To get this house of hers, and many a note Like these ... I'll pocket them, however ... five, 1510 Ten, fifteen ... ay, you gave her throat the twist, Or else you poisoned her! Confound the cuss! Where was my head? I ought to have prophesied He'll die in a year and join her: that's the way.

I don't know where my head is: what had I done? How did it all go? I said he poisoned her, And hoped he'd have grace given him to repent, Whereon he picked this quarrel, bullied me And called me cheat: I thrashed him, - who could help? He howled for mercy, prayed me on his knees 1520 To cut and run and save him from disgrace: I do so, and once off, he slanders me. An end of him! Begin elsewhere anew! Boston's a hole, the herring-pond is wide, V-notes are something, liberty still more. Beside, is he the only fool in the world?

-, (~"~" NOTES, PP. 821-3 1163 Though the condition of the manuscript suggests strongly that Browning revised the poem heavily shortly before Dramatis Personae went to press, the poem (or a substantial part of it) was in all probability drafted in 1859-60. Mrs Browning's reference to her husband's 'working at a long poem' of which she had not seen a line (1 8 May 1860), is generally taken to apply to 'Mr Sludge', especially since the poem's topical allusions are mainly to events of 1859-60. Given Mrs Browning's beliefs in spiritualism, Browning is unlikely to have worked on the poem for a year or so followingher death. The model for Sludge was Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-86) as the popular American medium himselfreadily recognized (see his Incidents in My Life, Second Series, New York, 1872 -Browning complained of Home's 'vomit of lies' here, and referred to Home as a 'dung-ball'). Browning had firstmet him at a seance in Ealing (see Betty Milier, 'The Seance at Ealing: A Study in Memory and Imagination', Cornhill Magazine CLXIX, 1957, 317-24) on 23 July 1855 (later in the year Home conducted seances in Florence and other Italian cities). Mrs Browning was initially impressed, and distressed at her husband's response to Home whom he always regarded as a fraud; in 1902 their son claimed that his mother had later much modifiedher opinion. For general background, see K. H. Porter, Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle,University of Kansas Press, 1958. M. Millhauserbelieves that Robert Chambers, author of Vestiges a/Creation (1844) and a disciple of Home, was inBrowning's mind as he wrote his poem: see 'RobertBrowning, Robert Chambers, and Mr. Home, the Medium', VNL 39, 1971, 15-19. Spiritualism was widely practised in the 1850s and 1860s and was a most controversial subject. Further in­ formationis available in the First Series of Home's book (1863) - which Browning denied reading - and in W. L. Phelps, 'Robert Browning on Spiritualism', Yale Review XXIII(1933), 125-38. 'Mr Sludge' is the only poem of Browning's clearly set in the United States, which Browning never visited though he had many American friends. Apart from Caliban, Sludge is Browning's only American hero, and he is the only one to speak what Browning meant to be American speech (J. V. Fleming reports that Browning's Americanisms are accurate in 'Browning's Yankee Medium', American Speech XXXIX,1964, 26-32). Among other treatments of what was Bernard Shaw's favourite Browning poem are: I. Armstrong, 'Browning's Mr Sludge, "The Medium'", VP II, 1964, 1-

MR SLUDGE, 'THE MEDIUM' 9 Catawba a light sparkling Americanwine. 16 rowdy ruffian (anAmerican word; OED's firstrecorded usage is in 1819). First published in Dramatis Personae on 28 May 1864. The manuscript is unlike that 35 Franklin Among other things, Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster of of other poems in the volume in appearing to be a rough draftrather than a faircopy, the US. In spiritualist circles, he was head of the 'College of Spirits' in the other and, to an extent unequalled by other of Browning's printers' manuscripts, is heavily world. revised. A number of single lines were added, and many other revisions made in 37 Tom Paine the great American political theorist (1737-1809). proof. After 1864 there were a few minor verbal revisions and a number in punc­ 54 post send quickly. tuation. Greeley's newspaper the New York Tribune, edited by Horace Greeley (18 u-'72).

_, n64 NOTES, PP. 823-30 NOTES, PP. 830-39 u65 65 Vs V-notes: five-dollar notes or bills. 345 Shakers American religious sect. 67 this table that used at the seance. G, with a natural F an impossibility-the scale ofG demands F sharp. 81 nothing lasts, as Bacon came and said Sludge may be thinking of Francis 346 Stars and Stripes Sludge perhaps means The Star-Spangled Banner. Bacon's essay Ofthe Vicissitude of Things, but it is more probable that he is attributing set to consecutive fourths Such an arrangement would be highly discordant. a platitude to an authority designed to impress his auditor. 353 gamboge a yellow gum-resin used as a pigment. 112 trucked exchanged. 361 posed puzzled. trucked] gave cancelled MS. reading. 368] not in MS. 117 With cow-hide that is, with a whip. 387 cockered pampered. 130 grand] fine MS. 393 kennel gutter. 134 vulgarest Sludge shares Browning's fondness for unusual superlatives. 432 souchong a Chinese tea. credulity] incredulity MS., 1864-8. smack taste. 136 Johnson Samuel Johnson (1709-84): 'All argument is against it; but all 433 caddy . .. dram-bottle tea-caddy ... liquor-bottle. belief is for it.' 434 cruel The adverbial usage is obsolete or dialectal. Wesley Samuel Wesley, father of the founder of Methodism, coped with a 461 Very like a whale Sludge quotes the agreeable Polonius (Hamlet III. :2.400). poltergeist in the winter of 1716-17. 480 Saul and Jonathan King Saul of Israel threw a javelin at his son Jonathan 137 Mother Goose The nursery rhymes adapted from the French were first because ofJonathan's friendship for David (1 Samuel xx 33). published in English in Boston (1719). 481 Pompey and Caesar Julius Caesar beat his son-in-law, Pompey the Great, at 140 conceit fancy. the Battle of Pharsalia. 158 a slight misquotation of Hamlet I. 5.166. 500 blow ofblacks blast of smuts. 168 Parson Richard Porson, Cambridge Greek scholar, 1759-1808. 516,_17] And once begin the traffic, never fear cancelled MS. reading. 182 glass ball of the kind used by a crystal gazer. 523 fall West move to the west - that is, to the United States. 183 spirit-writing the automatic writing' dictated' or 'controlled' by a spirit. 526 Broadway amainstreetinNewYorkCity. 218 the stranger in your gates the outsider, or partial convert- 'thy stranger that is 528 lapstone stone held in the lap to hammer leather on. within thy gates' (Deuteronomy v 14). 546 rotten OED does not record the word as a noun. 220] an addition to the MS. 576 prairie-dog North American burrowing rodent. guest without the wedding-garb stranger (Matthew xxii 11-14). 511 beck] nod MS., 1864-8. :221 doubting Thomas sceptic - after the apostle who doubted Christ's resurrection 591 Asaph choirmaster (or eponym of a chorus of singers) of David's time, when (John xx :24-

r n66 NOTES, PP. 840-48 NOTES, PP. 848-55 n67 724 rare splendid. 1055) not in MS. 742 Mars' Hill the Areopagus at Athens, where Saint Paul told the Athenians 1060 motes normally used of specks of dust; Sludge means 'small insects' (mites). they were 'too superstitious' (Acts xvii 22-34). 1066) Multiply, and prove irresistible! MS. ,1 745 new thing 'For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their 1069 offices acts of kindness. "::r. time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing' (Acts xvii 21). 1074 Great and Terrible Name 'Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for 747 dung-heaps Browning referred to Home as 'this dung-ball'. it is holy' (Psalm xcix 3). 772 umber and bistre brown pigments. 1077 Magnum et terribile 'Great and Terrible' (Latin). 775 fribble trifler. 1086-8 the Jews . .. Nor speak aloud Some Jews do not use the name of the Lord, 777 faculty intelligence. which was originally deliberately ineffable (JHWH). 784 greenhorn raw, inexperienced youth. uo1 vulgar] proper MS. 788 Pasiphae The lusty wife of Theseus fell in love with a bull. u17 The Name] 'Nomen' MS. 790 for their pains, like me] all, as I hate you MS. stomach-cyst a minute organism: paramecium? 791-2 thanklessness/ Toward a deserving public] having sinned/ Against a respect­ n24-6 Sludge describes a Leyden jar, an electrical condenser. able public MS. n40 Bridgewater book The Bridgewater Treatises (On the Power, Wisdom, and 802 sympathetic ink invisible ink. Goodness ofGod, as manifested in the Creation) were published between 1833 and 803 odic lights The lights at seances were said to be emanations of Od (a word 1840. coined by Reichenbach in 1850), a spiritual force pervading Nature. In Aurora Leigh n52 crotchets fancies. VII, 295-6, Mrs Browning had referred to 'That od-force of German Reichenbach/ 1157-8 the son and heir/ O'the kingdom 'of such[little children] is the kingdom of Which still from female finger-tips burns blue'. heaven' (Matthew xix 14). phosphor-match The white phosphorus of the match would glow in the dark. n59] not in MS. 805-6 set/ The crooked straight 'the crooked shall be made straight' (Isaiah xi 4, n67 does its duty] to instruct me MS. Luke iii 5); 'That which is crooked cannot be made straight' (Ecclesiastes i 15) - 1170 bob/ink bobolink, a North American bird. similar biblical phrases abound. n8o Washington's oracle If Sludge has anything particular in mind, it has not 807 knocked] thrown MS., 1864-8. been identified. 824 home] world MS., 1864-8. u86 heir to the kingdom ofline u58. 832 plate . •. delf gold- or silver-plate ... a kind of earthenware. 1225 'Time' with the foil in carte make a well-timed parry in fencing. 846 Samuel's ghost appeared to Saul l Samuel xxviii 14. j11mp their OllJtl height] I'd like to know MS. 852 Such things may be 'Can such things be' (Macbeth III. 4.10). 1226 skate a five make the figuie five on the ice. 884 my life] the world MS. 1227 Make the red hazard pocket the red ball in billiards. 887 Sludge confuses Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. 1227-30] Make the red hazard with the cue, do sums _ 901) notinMS. Of fifty figuies in their brain, swim, row, 910 raree-show a show or spectacle - originally a peep-show carried in a box. Pull themselves up, overhead, with the left arm, 916 weather-glass barometer. Trip on a tightrope stretched across the Falls MS. 921 Charles's Wain the constellation of the Great Bear. (Blondin crossed a tightrope over Niagara Falls several times in 1859.) twelve] nineMS. 1236 heart . .. grey] time ... out MS. 929 powder-Plots The Gunpowder Plot (1605) to blow up Parliament was 1253 it lightens There is lightning. discovered in time. 1256 when while. 940 Boston city] all New York MS. 1263 stouter braver. 947 special thanksgiving Thanksgiving Day is an annual holiday in the US. 1268 Jenny Lind the Swedish soprano (182o-87). 963 dime ten-cent coin. 1269 Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), philosopher and writer. 968] not in MS. Benicia Boy John C. Heenan, born in Benicia, California, American prizefighter, 972-4 If the further bird ... bl11e does The thought, like much else in the poem, drew in 1860 with the English champion, Tom Sayers (referred to in 'A Likeness', recalls 'Caliban upon Setebos '. 23). 975) When you grew angry, took me by surprise MS. 1272] These same tricks that emasculate the soul, MS. 1003 sprang] knew MS.; sprung 1864-8. 1299 Beacon Street a main street in Boston. 1005) not in MS. Beacon Street] The broad way MS. 1027] not in MS. 1305-6 lump . • • leaven it 'a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump' (1 1035 canthus] corner MS.; canthus 1864-8. Corinthians v 6). canthus corner of the eye. 1325 Quick alive. 1046 dew-point temperature at which dew forrns. 1330-31 Herodotus • •. Latin The Greek historian of the fifth century B.C. wrote 1050 cent. per cent. one hundred per cent. in Greek. . '~··..f- ~;; .~\~.4 . 1i1

;:-... · 'J u68 NOTES, PP. 855-60 NOTES, PP. 860-65 n69 _f;, _J.,_ 1333 Egyptian Sludge's error for Babylonian. In I, 199, Herodotus tells of the not demolished. Browning had visited it in 1857, and seen the three bodies of the rite by which every Babylonian female gave herself once in her life to any man at the poem. On the poem, see J. Lucas, in BSNVI, No. 1, 1976, 17-23. temple of Aphrodite. 1338 a many an obsolete form of expression (compare 'a few'). 1-3 Seven years since . .. Prince In June 1856 Browning witnessed the baptism of 1365 topping very high. the only son of Napoleon III. 1374 puffs of wind. 6 Seine the river on which Paris stands. 1381 cresset vessel holding combustibles for a torch. 7 Congress The Imperial Congress met in Paris early in 1856 to end the Crimean 1392 harlequin's pasteboard sceptre In commedia dell'arte and pantomime, War. Harlequin often uses a kind of magic wand. Gortschakoff Prince Alexander Gortschakoff represented the Russians at the 1409 Mary Queen ofScots Mary Stuart (1542-87), executed by Elizabeth I. Congress of Paris. 14n piques stimulates. 8 Cavour's appeal Piedmont had aided the British and French in the Crimean 1432 Eutopia In this spelling, the Greek means the 'ideal place' (Utopia means War; and Count Cavour (181o--61), Prime Minister of Sardinia, had appealed for 'no place'). recognition of Piedmont as an independent state. Here's true] This is MS.; Here is 1864-8. Buol Count Karl Ferdinand Buol-Schauenstein (1797-1865) represented the 1433 world well won The subtitle of Dryden's play All for Love (1678) is The Austrians at the Congress of Paris. World Well Lost. 10 Doric an architectural style, simple and strong. 1436 poet Homer. 12 Petrarch's Vaucluse The fourteenth-century Italian poet lived for a while in 1439 Lowell J. R. Lowell (1819-91), writer and professor of belles-lettres at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse in south-east France. Harvard. Sorgue The fountain, celebrated by Petrarch, is the source of the Sorgue river. Lowell] Homer MS. 39 Tuileries the palace of Napoleon III and earlier emperors. applause] and say MS., 1864-8. 43 leveller egalitarian. 1440 Longfellow poet and Harvard professor (1807-82). Empire Napoleon III had become Emperor of the former Republic in 1852. 1441 Hawthorne Browning knew the American novelist (1804--64) in Florence. 4~ red . .. / Or black alluding to the gambling game, rouge et noir. 1451 Old Country War the American War of Independence from the 'Old Country', England. EPILOGUE 1452 Jerome Napoleon Jerome Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon (1784- 1860), had been briefly married to an American. First published in Dramatis Personae on 28 May 1864. Changes between manuscript 1454 life in stones alluding to fossil evidence for evolution. and 1864, and between 1864 and later printings, are few and insignificant, except for 1455 Fire into fog In theories of the nebular origin of the universe, the first state is the identification of the first and second speakers as David and Renan, made in the imagined as a 'universal fire-mist' (Chambers's phrase in Vestiges of the Natural second edition of Dramatis Personae (the unidentified third speaker is obviously History ofCreation, 1844). Millhauser (17) suggests that Browning may be alluding Browning himself). The poem was probably written very late in 1863 or early in to Chambers in the preceding lines. 1864, after Browning had finished Renan's life ofJesus. 1457 Theseus escaped the Cretan labyrinth by following a thread laid by Ariadne. In a number of respects (form, mood, imagery) the second part recalls 'Pictor 1466 Thebes the Egyptian city fabled for its wealth. lgnotus'. The poem's importance as a statement of Browning's religious position is 1472 Lady Jane Grey Q!ieen of England (1553) for nine days until Mary Tudor universally recognized. See W. Kirkconnell, 'The Epilogue to Dramatis Personae', \ took over and executed her. MLNXLI, 1926, 213-19 (reprinted inDrew,Robert Browning, 234-41). 1479 arnica a tincture for wounds and bruises. 1484 He's] An MS., 1864-88 (change made for second impression of 1888). I first of the Feast ofFeasts that of the dedication of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 1485-6 And I've lost you, lost myself,/ Lost all-I-I-I- •.. ] not in MS. viii, and 2 Chronicles v). 1488 prompts, and what's] 1864, 1888; is, and what MS.; must be, what 1868. 3 Levites The priests' assistants in the Temple were traditionally chosen from the 1500 R-r-r] AieMS. tribe of Levi. 1513A 14] Sure to succeed, the niggers say- who knows? cancelled MS. reading. 13-21 'and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and 1523 herring-pond the Atlantic Ocean (not a Sludgism). instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord' (2 Chronicles v 13). APPARENT FAILURE 24 that star the one that 'stood' over the manger at the birth of Christ (Matthew First published in Dramatis Personae on 28 May 1864. There are no significant ii 9). differences between manuscript and 1864, and between 1864 and later printings. The 29 gyre on gyre spiral on spiral. poem was in all probability written in the summer of 1863 when Browning was 96 where's the need ofTemple Browning became less and less a church-goer in the staying in Brittany. The poem was a favourite of Tennyson's. And the building was latter half of his life.