UNIT 39 TWO POEMS FROM MEN AND WOMEN
Structure
39.0 Objectives 39.1 Introduction 39.2 Reading 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came' 39.2.1 Introducing 'Childe Roland' 39.2.2 The plan and purpose of 'Childe Roland' 39.3 Reading 'Fra Lippo Lippi' 39.3.1 Giorgio Vasari and his Life of Fra Filippo Lippi 39.3.2 Introduction to 'Fra Lippo Lippi' 39.4 Let's sum up 39.5 Answers to exercises 39.6 Further reading
39.0 OBJECTIVES
After having read this unit you would be able to appreciate two of Browning's poems first published in Men and Women (1855). They are:
o 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came' and o 'Fra Lippo Lippi'.
By learning to appreciate them you will gain the ability to read and appreciate any other poem of Browning with the help of criticism available on them. on your o\\'n
39.1 INTRODUCTION -
Ln two earljer units you read two poems of Browning and an excerpt from Sordcllo. In this unit you will read two more poems written in the early fifties of the nineteenth century., With the help of these three units you should be able to appreciate the growth and development .of Browning's poetic art,
In this unit you will be prepared to analyse another poem of your choice of Browning such as 'Andrea del Sarto', 'The Grammarian's Funeral', 'Abt Vogler', 'Karshish'. and 'Rabbi Ben Ezra' with the help of articles and other reference material.
Don't' try to read more than a major subsection such as 39.2.1 or 39.2.2 at a time. . Give yourself a break after you've read something weighty and follow the , suggestions for reading from 'supplementary reading', priited in this block, offered from time to time.
39.2 READING 'CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER-
CAME' --
In this section first we will introduce you to the poem and then encourage yo~~to read it 011 your own before you read my discussion on it. 39.2.1 Introducing 'Childe Rolartd to the.Dnrk Tower Canze' Two Poems fl-om Men ~nrlWonretr You may have read San~uclTaylor Coleridge's Rinie ofthe Anclent Mariner prescribed for you in B.A. on your Understnnding Poetry (EEGOS) course. Browning's 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came' is a dream poem like The I I . . . .Childe Roland came upon me as a kind of dream. I had to write it; then and there, and I finished it in the same day, I believe. But it was simply that I had to do it. I did not,knpw then what I meant beyond that, and I'm sure I don't kn6w now. But I'm very fond of it. Browning rernqined fond of 'Childe Roland' till the end of his life. 'Childe Roland' was writtcn on January 2, 1852 in Pais in fulfilment of a new year resolution to write a poem a day. On the previous day he had written 'Women and Roses' and 'Love anong the Ruins' the day after. All thc three poems were published in Meh and Women (1853). However, Browning placed 'Childe Roland7 among the Dramatic Romnnces in 1863. Browning disapproved of any allegorical interpretations of the poem with the words 'Oh, no not at all,' but went on , 'I don't repudiate it, either. I only mean I was conscious of no allegorical intention in writing it.' Browning also denied that there were any sources for the poem other than the line in King Lenr, uttered by Edgar which gave the poem its title. Edgar's song in King Lear runs thus: Childe Rowland to the dark tower came, His word was still, 'Fie, foh, and fbm, I smell the blood of a British man. However, we know that Childe Rowland is a much older figure in European literature and folk tales than even Shakespeare. According to James Orchard Halliwell (1 820- 89), a noted Shakespearean scholar, Shakespeare above was quoting from two diffcrent compositions: the first line was from an old Scottish ballad in which Roland was the son of King Arthur. He rescued his sister Burd Ellen who had been carried away by the fairies to the castle of the king Elfland. The first line of the quotation above and the title of Browning's poem thus comes remotely from the Scottish ballad. The succeeding two lincs, Halliwell pointed out, were from the nursery tale of 'Jack the Giant Killer'. It is also a tale of Norlhern origin but was known in England since very early times. You may have read it in your nursery class. Still, let me briefly tell you about it. Jack lived about the time of Arthur (a chieftain or general in the fifth or sixth centurq.). Jack's father was a Cornish fanner. He got known to his people when hc killed the giant of Mourit Cornwall. For this he dug a pit and covered it with brmches, leaves and earth. Then he lured the giant towards it in which he fell and died. From another giant Jack acquired a coat that made him invisible, shoes that gave him superhuman speed, and a sword of magjcal powers. With the help of these he succeeded in ridding his land of all the giants. Harold Golder in his article 'Browning's Childe Roland' (PMLA, 39,963-78) has shown that Browning must have drawn unconsciously upon several fairy tales such as 'Jack and the Beanstdk7,'Hap -07-my-Thumb' and 'The Scven Champions of Christendom' apart from 'Jack the Giant-Killer'. You may like to read this article provided as supplementary reading in this block. A 'Childe' in its medieval meaning is a young warrior serving his apprenticeship to Knighthood. Roland was a hero of the medieval French romance Chanson de Rolond Tulsidas. or for that matter Shakcspeare. rccords vi.s-li-v1.v ~liosl:of ninctcourli ancl tc~cntictlicentun. poets \\;lietlner of the United Fiingdom or India. 'C'hildc Rolr~nd/a /he Unrk T~MJ~YC1cin7e' is a coiniplcs rccord of a poct's ascosis in llis ~rofession.Soinie critics have comparcd it \\:it11 T.S. Eliot's 7hc T~'cI.Y/c LL~MLI. However, \vlnile Eliot talks about his age and the Europcan socict!. in that POCII~. Brolvning talks primnril!lr if not entirel!., about lli~n~sclf.justlike Tulsidas in somo of tlne verses of Vinc~~13s~/ikc~ mid W.B. Yeats in 'Mcditalions in Times ot'Ci\. il War' and -Nineteen Ninetcein'. The atmosphere in 'Clnildc: Roland' is 110 doubt eel-ic just as it is in Eliot's poem or in some of those of Colericlgc but thc intelltion is scl f- discoven., an examination of liis office of a poct \vitln respect to others'. more nctivc lnore involved in the daily business of lifc such as Ycats suspected his dcscendants could becon~e: 4 And n hat if m!, descendants lose tlnc flo~vcr Through 11duraldecle~nsioll of tlne soul. Through loo IIILIC~bus~ness with the passing hour. Tl~rouglitoo much play, or marriage with n fool'? Most 11u111ain beings busy tl~eil~selvesin solving routine iuu~ldai~eproblems of lifc. not ill crcatiilg '~iloi~~~nle~ltsof ~~lageing intellect' or artifices of etcinity. Ho\\c\lcr. thc poct is not nlwaj,,s sure tl~atwhat 11e is doing is of as great an inlporta~~ccas he imagines. Yeats's ow11 Thoor Ballylee tower was founded by a man-at-ar~ns.a . violent man: A man-at-arms Gathered a score of horse and spent his days In this tumultuous spot, Where tl~roughlong wars and sudden night alarltis His dwindling score and lie sccilled castaways Forgetting and forgot; However, before recognisiilg the violelit man's acl~ievement,Yeats had laugl~cdat the 'benighted travellers' who had laughed at hill1 sitting ill 11is 'clic~~nbernrclled \\.it11 stone* in froiit of, A grey stone fireplace ~vitha11 opein hearth, A candle and writtell page. . Yeats imagines that before him Milton also illust have 'toiled ontin soi~ncliltc cllail~ber'on his '11 Penseroso', significaltly a poem in which Milton \\.as examining t liis choice of profession in life just as Yeats was examining his 0\\~11 in his 'Meditations in Time of Civil War'. Browning's 'Childe Rola~~d'records the introspect~oilsof a mid-Victoria11poct in the middlc of his career. Miltoil wrote his hvin poeills 'L' Allcgro' and '11 Pcnscroso' \vlncn he was around 23 years old; Yeats (1865-1939) when he publislicd 111s -Meditations' in the Tower (1928) was arouild 63; and Browning uns an unsucccssli~l poct, unknown to the world at 40 when lnc wrote 'Childe Roland'. Hc \vas kno\\n to the Amcriczu~tourists as husband of tlne much Inore successf~~lElizabeth Barrctt. I Hciicc n7cdiscover a tone of fiitility ill Browning's voice and an atmosphcrc of dcceit. decay aid death in the poem. Did 1 clnoosc the right profession? is \vlnat tlic 1 poet asks lnimsclf. Aind yct it is not a rhetorical question. for Bro\\ning \\as n i stubbori~optimist. T112 opening of the pocln rcconciles t11c dichotomy in the image of tlic 'honi? t1 cripplc' : M!. first ~houglntnns. hc licd in every nord. That hoar^. cripplc nit11 mal~ciousc! 2 .4skancc to \\atcl~the 11 orlting of his lie On mine. and mouth scarce able to afford Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scorccl Its edge, a1 onc lnorc victinl gained thercby. T11c portrait is liigl~lyironical. The mall is a 'cripple' and yct vcl~erablc-'ho:~r!l'. His physical deforlnity is nia~iifestationof his morn1 dcfcct. lic loolcs suspiciously sidc\vaq's, and \,\rl~cnRoland talccs the path suggested by him 11c is scarce ablc to suppress his joy for lmving gained onc nlore victinl by deceiving a-lusty youth. The iiitroducto~yscctioii of thc poem - i.e. from stanza I to VIII - records thc ironical L situation in uhich the inscription of the poem is madc. Roland is marc thxl: tlie cripple sat thcre 011 the road \\.it11 staff in hand only to waylay travcllcrs \\.lio.might seek his direction. Ho\vc\wr, all agreed that it was that 'ominous tract' that -(hidJ'the Dark Tower. Why sl~oulclRoland \\:ant to follow an 'ominous' tract? \lih\. should he wish to go to a "dark" to\ver8? Roland's coi~ditionis described \\lit11 the help of an exempl~lmof a11 old mail 011 his dcath bed \\-110 \vould rathcr dic in order to plcase his kin than survivc and disappoiilt them Roland's kin arc his 'Band', nan~cly The Kniglits who to tho Dark tower's scarcll addressed Their steps - that just to fail as they, secmed bcst, And Rolaid's fear now is if 11c is 'fit' to follo~rthat 'ominous tract' on which many knights went before him. Notwitl~standingthe fact that many knights had followed the path to the lowcr, possibly on the advicc of the cripple Roland still finds him 'hatcfiil' and takcs the patl~,away from thc highway, pointed out by him. The first sectioil of thc poem of tl~cfirst eight stanzas ends wit11 an eerie picturc of thc youthful man as an estray i.e. a domestic anillla1 that 11as strayed away fro111110lne: All tlzc day Had bcen a dreary one at bed, and dim Was settling to its close, yct shot one gnnl Red leer to see tlie plain catch its cstray. The heath has caught its 'cstray' once again. The coining of Roland is thus a 110111~ coining of a cluester, a traveller, and a knight. The picture so far is full of tropcs: nothing really appears to match its description; words seem to have lost thcir comii~~~nicativetaIentj all is irony and paradox. Poetry here is at its ironical best. The niizth to tlie twcl~tyninthstanza forills the middle section of thc poem. It is a harrowing tale of thc poetic landscape. Outsiders notice only the triumphs of the poets, their laurcls and the rare applause b~ltthe real esperience that the poet has is of cocklc and sptlrge (plants of acrid milky juice) and a burr becoizlcs llis 'treasure trove'. Nature that is rich elsewhere and for othcr people looks peevishly towards Lbc poet . 'See ' Or shut your eyes', said Nature peevishly, 'It notiling skills; I cannot hclp my case; 'Tis the last judgcmellt's fire must cure lzis place, Calcine its clods and set n~yprisoilers free,' To Browning ill his early forties, the poetic landscape appearcd a dead and dreary place where The dcad trec gives no shcltcr. the criclcct no rclicf. And the dry stonc no sound of water. to borron. Eliot's words in The Wrrsle Lc~n~i.w~h'thc land in Eliot's poelll is dq ! and parched, in Browning's grass srows as scantiljr as hair on a leper's skin and tlfe ground appears to be 'kneaded up with blood.' 11.1 the inidst of death and dcst~-~iction all around stands a 'bliild horse' apparently thrown out of the devil's stable. 'Alive?' asks Roland about the horse and goes on to answer, . . .he migl~tbe dead for ought I know, With that red gaunt and calloped neck a-strain. And shut eyes underneath the 111sty mane: Likc a tnle soldier, Roland, overconliilg despair. prepares himself for a fight. He does so by reillenlberiilg his better days. ( It appears that Browning \vishes to recall those days when he was ~velcomedby Macready and Forst~rand abovc all Dicltens.) But even tlic~the is not granted. Cutl~bertleft him cold by.his treatment: . I aImost felt him fold An arm in niille to fix ille to the place, That way he used. Alas, one night's disgrace! Out went illy heart's new fire and left it cold. Giles, the soul of honour, was treated shabbily by his peers. Hc \\as called a traitor. spat upon and cursed. On the one lland Browiliilg is metonymically spcalting OF gallants - one fake, i.e. Cuthbert. and the other gciluine i.e. Giles - but n~etaphoricallythey stand for genuine and fake poets as ICeats before hi!n had talltcd about in 'The Fall of Hyperion: A Fragment' (18 18). '@ To revert to the narrative, Roland is deep in despair some~vhatlike the Irish Ailman of Yeats: The years to come seeilled waste of breath, A waste of breath tl~eyears behind The plight of the Knights such as Cuthbert and Giles makes him prefer his waste land t'o that of valourous fight for honour. 'Better' he affirills, 'this present than a past likc 2 that;' and he commits himself to the 'darkening path'. He hears no sound nor call he have a sight and is afraid that 11e could be attacked by a.11 ow1 (ho~let)or n sharp toothed bat: 'Will the night send a howlet or a bat'?' Within the middle section stanza ilineteeil starts a description of a still illorc ghostl! ' atnlosphere reininiscent of those lines froill Coleridge's Rime:' I About, about, in reel and rout The death-fires danced at night; The water, like a witch's oils, Burnt green, and blue and white. Roland is taken by surprise by the appearance of a 'little river' which conics as unespectedly as a serpent. The siillile perforills nlore tllall thc trope prol~liscs. Browning makes use of it to heighten the effect of the atmosphere. Stroke after stroke the weird milieu grows more and more dim as Brownii~gdescribes the dark river ('black eddy') spattered with white 'flakes and spumes' making thc river look like a dark monster baring its teeth, The river is fi~rtl~eretidowcd with tyraiulical power as it is lllctonyillically shown carrying ai~ilnalsand vegetables along its coursc. '. u I TIIo Pocnis fro~n I I . . .a suicidal throng: Met7 rrnd MJonirtl The river which had done tlleln all tllc wrong, 1 ' Whate'er that was, rolled by, deterred no whit Roland's experience of crossing the river is 110 less gruesome: I . . .While I fordcd - good saints, Ilow I feared To set my foot upon a d~~dman's cheek, Each step, or feel the spear I trust to seck For hollows, tangled in his hair or beard! tt may have been a water rat I spearcd, But. ugh! it sounded like a baby's shriek. Ilaving crossed the rivcr Roland expects to witness a better terrain. Howcver, tllc loan1 below llis feet tells hi111 of some war that inust have beell fought 011 that ground. 'Childe Roland' is a dreail~poein like 'Kubla lhan' and iillagcs often symbolise the huinan conditioia that the poet wants to portray. 'Toads in a poisoiled tanlc, Or wild cats in a red-llot iron cage- thc fight if ailinlals in lllc dreadfill circular arena - 'fell cirque' - which no aniil~al seeins to leave represents the Inad fight of poets and men of Ieltcrs in life. Tllcrc are besides, the difficult systems of the society, mcaniilgless but painfill, created by no one one knows who. These institutions appear in Bro\.vlling's drca~nas a 'bralcc' or machine for separating fiber such as flax or llenlp: And illore than that - a furloilg on -why, there! .What bad use was that cngine'for, that \vhcel, Or brLake,ilot wheel - that harrow fit to reel Men's bodies out like silk'?, With all the air Of Tophet's tool, on earth left unaware, Or brought to sharpen its n~styteeth of stecl. The image of tllc ,machine or brake l~aunti~lglysuggests the painfill torllleilt Browning must bavc gone tlirough as a poet. Dr, Johnson had know11poverty. was eve11 about to bc sent to a debtor's prison but was fort~~nntein his largc group of friends, though not of the patrons such as Lord Cllesterficld. However, early in his life adversity did ,not spare him which elicited those nien~orablelincsfronl him in I,ondon (1738): Quick let us rise, the happy scats cxplore, And bear oppression's iilsoleilcc no morc. . This mouri~f~~ltn1t11 is cverywl~ereconfcssed SLOW RISES WORTH, BY POVERTY DEPRESSED: But here illore slow, where all are slaves to gold, Where looks arc merch~~dise,and smiles are sold; Johnson had not yet tunled thirty while l!e had just begull his service with Edward Cavc on The Gcntlc~nan',s Magozinc. Probably Browning's case, inore than a hundred years latcr, was inuch inore difficult with the social fabric of Lo~ldonno longer thc saille and his own social intercourse being less close and intinlate thail Johnson's. 1 Literary tests, we know, are conll~lexby nature, which tneans that they arc not easily decipherable and are not isotropic. Speaking in the context of 'Childc Rolald', wc can say that this complexity crops up due to iilterwcavi~lgof scvcral motifs i.c. those of the narrative needs of the Roland lcgend, the metaphoric need of translating Browning's personal inessage into the overall plan of thc narrative, and finall?f thc I'ictorifm Poetry aesthetic dcnland of the appropriate metollylllic clloicc of images hich ma! ~i\c a11 appearance of unity to thc poem. After Roland had witnessed the various forms of fear and tribulations on thc: hcnth lic began to look for a new direction in \vhich he could take his stcps. At the thought, A great black bird, Apollyon's bosoill friend. Sailed past, not beat his wide wing dragon-penned That brushed my cap - perchance the guide 1 soug11.t. Roland is not the folk hero but Bro\vning himself because he is not shown tlie direction by Apollyon, an angel of the botto~nlesspit' in the 'Book of Revelation' n~lcl in B~unyan'sThe Pilgrim's Progress (1678-'84) hinlself but by his 'bosonl friencl.' Bro~vningthe devout Christian tlmt 11e was would have co~lsideredit profane and all cxpression of his pride to have a Biblical character guide his steps. B~m~~nn's Apollyoil 'had wings like a, drazon' and the direction of the fall of the cap sl~o\\.ccl him the direction in which he could go. And so it happened. Instead of the heath and wastc land Roland no\?-found 11imself surrounded by mountains, or nlore appropriately froin Rolancl-s point of vim\. 'ugl! heights'. However, Rolaild recounts: Here ended, then, Progress this way. When, in the very nick Of giving up, one time inore caine a click As wllen a trap shuts - you're inside the den! With these words end Roland's difficult journey and Browning's nightmarc. Somewhat as in Shelley's 'Triumph of Life' Browning rcccives thc epiphany of witnessiilg the poets whose pat11 he had followed all his lifc: There they stood, ranged along the Hill-sides - met To view tlie last of me, a living franc For one more picture! In a sheet of flsune I saw them and I knew them all. The last sectioil of the poem i.e, coilsistiilg of tlie last five stanzas is a prepai-ation for this end. If Browning is to feel blessed in their con~patly,the poets of yester years are also to feel alive through him. The poetic undertone, as it were, finally becoillcs the dominant tune in the last lines of the poem: And yet Da~lntlessthe slug-horn to my lips I set And blew. "(7hilde Roland to the Dark Tower. Came. " A poetic act is an act of sound and music. The last words are a poetic cluotation just as the 'slug-horn' is a poetic coinage (for slogan) of Tllomas Chatterton, tl~c marvellous boy. hdyet it is poetv that is a sluggish instnimeilt as Browning mus~ have seen it in his early forties. Browning here as Roland is a hero deternliiled to \\,in just as in 'Prospice' he was prepared to face death bravely. Harold Bloom considered 'Childe Roland' ~rotvnii;~'s'finest' poenl (The Hi,.lgcr.~,n the Tower, p ,157). Whether finest or not, it is certainly ail exullple of 'strong' poet?. as Bloom would call it and operates at inany levels, the lllost importallt of which is tile autobiographical. 30.3 RI<:iDINC; 'FRA 1,IPPO 1,IPl'l' 0 011Ill 1 ~1~~~1l~jlf~ri I \\'li~lc1c3cIi11i~ H~.o\\n~ng-.; ~OL'I~~S c;l~.Iicr 111 [Iiis and thc prc'\.lous I\\() un~ts\\c Iintl i arlol~rccltllc 11ic~Iie)~lof firs[ 111.0\1c1111g :I O;ICI\~,I.CILIIICI to tllc SIIICI! 01. [lie ~~c~c~ii.tlic~i :~\/\III~\ (QLI to ~i.;ldII and fillall! prcscrit~~ig!ou \\ it'h :ilr nrinl~,sisancl app~.cciatio~iol' I I 111 LIIC IIICSCI~[C:ISC \\c :II.C going to nclopt a sl~glill! dit'fcl.c~itsrratcg! The Ilocrn 'Fra Lij~poLippi' ~~ublislicclin A4cr.i C~IIL/ la'otii~~rlfor the l.'ir.st ti~iic \\as l)asccl 011 tlic life of tllc painter Filippo tli 'Tomasso Lippi (c. 1406- I46!)) \\.sittell b? (;'iorgio \!asari. An IIl~glislitl-nnslnLion of I:l~c'Life' b!. Julia C'on\\a! and Pctc~. . . t3o1itl~1icllais ~~~.intccliii this blocli. 'r'ou ma!- go tllrougl~it before rcacling tlic ~~oelii. If'\o~i\\is11 to I\no\\ :tboi~tCjiorgio \'ns;lri plcasc read Llic li311o\\ 111% sub-section. I Ci~orgio\':lsal-l \\as all Itallan pnintcr. arcliitcct and cclcbrarcd autliol. of' 'llic~/.I\!L,.s oi 7 iscsccc~t //I .i/~/s /C~/LI. 17/.!11/ ( 0 a I).?'liis \\ark I-anlccd lii~iialolig \\ itll Machin\ clli and /iriosti>.as a Icaclillg Italian lilcrar!. :trtis(. Vtlsasi clailncd that lie liad Icarlit his art in tlic lil-st 11lacc from Micliilla~igcloill I-lo~.cncc.:I SL~I.\\\liicli IYJS hccn clisj)~~tcti.allel al'tc~.liis clcl~art~~i-cIhr I No LI-LI~rcfe~.c~i~e \\.orl; csistccl for \'asnri to consult and base his /.ivcJ.s Lipon. So. in a \\a\. he in\ c~lrcclthe clisciplinc of art histor!,. I-lo\\c\cr-. arr critics Iia\c poiriteel oul tlia~\?asari's tccl~nicnl\ ocnbular). is of c~ii~iaclccluatc. For instance. he too li.c~~t~c~itI!LIS~S the \\.old Oc:l~~tili~l\\Ilicli sllo\\.s his lack ol'cliscrimi1i3~io1i. Not\\ithstnncling his fn~~lts.\\.Iiich \\.ere of his til~lc.Iiis cnc!.clopacdic lin~\\.l~clgc01 the mnjor nncl minor Italian artists. liis ~~~iclc~'stanclingof tlic trends in the dc\.clol~mcnl. of Italia~ia~t ;llld, Iiis insights illlo the tcclinicnl aslIccts. - of nit countcrbalancc liis dcfic~cncics\\Iiich sccm tl-i\!ial in cornpasison. To gi\.c !.o~ran csanll~lcof Vasari's insigl~linto rhc technical aspects: lie pointed 0111 that 13il'iari lacked :I sound I\~io\\.lcclgcol'llu~iin~l anatom!. \\ hicll \\.as fi~ndn~iicntnlto tllc rcl~rocluctio~lof tllc Ii~~lnanfig~11-c. Vasari \.al~lcddesign in art bccrt~lsclie belie\ ccl that nn artist rnLlr;l hn\c a clcw lik~~r~of \\hat 11c \\.anted to 53)' tlilough n articular piccc of art. Vnsari's /.IL-C.Y :11.e cnrrchcd b!. the nnccciotcs .I.iom the li\;cs o.t'rhc 11;111itcrs\\liicli nt the snnic time significnntl!. il lustrntc thcil- clinracccrs alicl malie a11indelible nnrk on OLII. mcmor!'. f,or mstnncc Vasw tells us that Fra Filrpl~o1.111111 Ilnd lost 111smo~licr at h~s~II-th ancl his l'athcr t\\o !cars later. So he liad LO be broughr up 1)) Monrl Lnl~accia.llic slstcs crl' Itis f'~thcsTo~nmaso. As shc found 11 clifiicult to bear the costs so Vasnl.~~clls us. FII I~I~IOliad to bc made a I'l.rnr at the C'nrminc c1i1.11-chat tlic age ol'clght. (Tllc li~otnotcto thc 'L~fc'\\auld tell !ou thal Filippo tool 'I'OLI \\oulrl c~ilo?rcaclllig tile 'L1t2of Fra Filippo I,~ppi' II'\\c: Iiad been In the classroo~ii\\c \\ oulcl ha\ c clisci~sscclit. Wc \\auld sh~i.In the S;III~Cfh~.tl~~s!i [l~c ri,l It)\\ ins chcc1,-\ (:!I 1- 17r;>17!.,x,;c. (-,c:rciscs. Victorian Poetry Self-check Exercise-I1 1. Who was Filippo's first teacher of art at Florence? 2. How did Filippo elicit 'compassion and freedom, froin the Moors of Barbary? 3. Who was Cosimo de' Medici? What did he do to Filippo and WIIJ,'? Hov did the artist respond and what was his master's reaction to his act'? 4. Who was Lucrezia Buti? 39.3.2 Introduction to 'Fra Lippo Lippi' Now that you have read Vasari's life of Fra Filippo Lippi you are ready to read Browning's verse narrative which was based on that life. Browning must have seen in and around Florence inany of Lippi's works. In lines 344-77 of the poem he tells the watclunen about his plan to paint 'The Coronatioil of the Virgin' for St. Ainbrose7s Convent. There is another reference to Lippi's paintiilg in line 73 of the poem of St. Jerome (340-420), which he did for Cosimo, his patron. Lippi was rebelling against the work of painters such as Giotto (whom you inet in thc first block of this course), Fra Angelico, Giovanili da Fiesole (1387-1455), and Lorenzo Monaco (c.1370-c.1425). Angelico was the inodcl Medieval painter who took painting as an act of piety and pzinted the portraits of the saints kileeling dowp. Lippi talks about another type of piety. The world of bea~ltyaccordiilg to him was God's creation and was not to be passed by unheeded: Oh, oh, It inakes me mad to see what men shall do And we in our graves! This world's no blot for us, Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good: To find its ineaning is my meat ind drink. ~ip~i(slife and career, it appears, provided Browning with a perfect objective . T~vuPoems from correlative, to use Eliot's term in The Scired Wood (1920), for the expression of his Men ariri Women ow11 beliefs and ideals. FAA FILlPPO LIPPI. MAMNNA ENTHRONED. 1437. Panel, 45~25lh"(114.7~64.8 cm). Galleria Nazionde d'Arte Antica, Rome Read the poem first and then, read lsobel Armstrong's article on Browning afforded in this block for suppleinentar- reading. 39.4 LET'S SUM UP With this unit you come to the end of the discussion on Browning on tllis cotlrse. Wc could have made thislblock one entirely on Robert Browning as we did earlier in the (Ij HOIL el el-. I\ e Victurictn Poetry first, second and fouftl~blocks on Chauccr. Spcnscr- and Milt011 dccided to take up one major along I\ ~ththrcc 111or.cmalor ~ii~norpocts of tlic Vtctorian period. Tllcse will be dlscusscd in the succccdlng tno ~lnlts It \\as our endeavour to esaniiiie tests closely and if you coulcl get a liang of LIils mctliod 01' closc analysis we would consider our task accompl~sl~cd Self-Check Exercise-1 1. An allegory is a figurative narntivc or description mcant to con\;i\ n i cilcd nloral. It is in a way an csteilclcd mctaplior-. IRc t~i-iwic(Il/cct~c. and 717~~ Pilgrim :s Progres'.~personi f~fabstract qua1 i tics. Ah.s~/10/77LIY~L/ ./I L'/~/Io~~~IL~/IS ;I political allegory. Fables iisually 11ai~c:L 11iorc \\.clI defined niol-al and tlic characters i11 it are animals. On\,cll's Anitnu1 l;hr/?7is a political satire in tllc form of a fablc. 2. One stiff blind horse, his every boilc a-stare. Stood stupefied. howcvcr he came there: Thmst out past senlice fro111 tlic devil's S~LICI! Above are tlie last threc lrilcs of the 13'"stanza 'The first thrcc 1111~soi'tlic 14'" stanza also dcscr~bctlie horse A stud 1s a stnblc Notice [lo\\ \\ell Bro\\n~ngcreates the weird atniosphcrc I\ ~ththe help of 111c 111ingc ol' Llrc grotesque that is the horse. 3 Shaltcspeare's K~ngLcnr wh~cliBron~n~ng adm~ttcd to lia\/c proc~dcdl111n with the title of his pocii~;the carly tuclfth ccntur! French ~-omallcc( '/7~it1roti de Rolcind, and the Italian Orln/7~/0Innc//71or-i110 t)~ Bo~nrd~) nnci /\I ~os~o'\ OrEancko F7'lrwoso have Roland as the hero 4. 'Jack the Giant Killer'. 'Jack and tlic Bc~i~tnlli'ancl "The SCVL~c'li3~ii~~~o~i~ of Cllriste~ldom'. Self-check Exercise-I1 1. ' Masaccio was doing thc frescoes (pictures piintcd on frcsh plaster) 011 the walls of Branacci chapel of Sta. Maria dcl Car~ninc.'Tlicsc 11 crc going Lo be some of the iiiost il~flucntialpaintiilgs of the Renaissance Filippo thus go[ his first lessons froill a master artist of Renaissance Ital! . 2. Later researches have slioi\n that Vasari's stoq about the lt1d1in11p11igof Filippo and his friends while they \yere amusing thei~isclvcsin the Mal.cli of Ancona was fancihl. 111 1434 Filippo was at Padua and al-L 111sLori31isIi:n c felt thc effect of llis presence Lherc on thc art of that period on thc palllLlng\ nt PaduK especially tl~oseof Mantegtia 1 3. The story narrated in the fifth palagraph of the 'Life' lins bccn I'OLIIICIto [IC broadly tnle by later scholarship. Tl~elast few words of the paragraph - 'rare gc~iiusesarc cclcstial fornis and not beasts of burden' - are memorable. 4. Lucrezia B~lfi,dattgl~ter of Francesco Ruti (a Florenti~lecitizen). i\.:~sn nu11at the corlvent of tl~c111111s of Sta. Marghcrtta. Hc fled with her In 1456 fro111 Prato causing muc11 11ar11l to tlld reputat1011of thc con~~ciitnild shock to licr father. The Pope, hoivever, granted liini pcrm~ssionto marc llcr and from this union was born Filippo. called Filippino. one ofthe 111ost rcnoivncd Florentine painters of the latter half of the fifiecnth cci~tury I I Two Poems from I CJIZCI 39.6 FCTRTHER READING M~I Wolne~z You have several articlcs in this block which you may like to go through. In this unit we have referred to Harold Bloom's 'Browning's Childe Roland: All things deforllled and broken' (pp.157 - 167) published in The Ringers in The Tower: .Y~I~L/IL',sin Ro177c1nticTr~dition (University of Chicago P: Chicago, London, 1971) and to 'Tcsting thc Map: Browning's Childc Roland' (pp. 106-122) published in A Map of' hfi,r.rcnd~ng(O.U.P.: Oxford, New York, 1975, 1980) by the same author. a '11 would be useful to coilsult ai~yof thc~followiilg three boolcs if you are going to attempt a poem for your tcrnl paper not discussed on this course. The boolcs are as . below: I 1. Mrs. Sutherland Orr. A Hnnclhook to Il~eWor.ks 9fRohe1'l Browning (G. Bell i & Sons: London, 19 19) I \ 2. Willial~lClyde DeVanc. A Rro\vning Hanclhoc)k (1935, Appleton- Ceiltury - I t Crofts, Iilc.; New York, 1955) i I 9 1 3. Ian Jaclc, Hrownrng ',s Mc!jur Poct1:v (Clnrcndou Press: Oxford, 1073) i 'I 1 I Thosc who don't have access to a good library may writc sessional essay on 'Fra 1 Lippo Lippi.