Introduction to Robert Browning [49]
the basilisk! There let him grapple, denizens o' the dark, Foes or friends, but indissolubly bound, In their one spot out of the ken of God Or care of man for ever and ever more!"
Browning has distinctly indicated the standard by which he estimates art-work, in the closing paragraph of his Essay `On the Poet objective and subjective; on the latter's aim; on Shelley as man and poet'.
"I would rather," he says, "consider Shelley's poetry as a sublime fragmentary essay towards a presentment of the correspondency of the universe to Deity, of the natural to the spiritual, and of the actual to the ideal, than I would isolate and separately appraise the worth of many detachable portions which might be acknowledged AS UTTERLY PERFECT IN A LOWER MORAL POINT OF VIEW, UNDER THE MERE CONDITIONS OF ART. It would be easy to take my stand on successful instances of objectivity in Shelley: there is the unrivalled `Cenci'; there is the `Julian and Maddalo' too; there is the magnificent `Ode to Naples': why not regard, it may be said, the less organized matter as the radiant elemental foam and solution, out of which would have been evolved, eventually, creations as perfect even as those? But I prefer to look for the highest attainment, not simply the high, -- and, seeing it, I hold by it. There is surely enough of the work `Shelley' to be known enduringly among men, and, I believe, to be accepted of God, as human work may; and AROUND THE IMPERFECT PROPORTIONS OF SUCH, THE MOST ELABORATED PRODUCTIONS OF ORDINARY ART MUST ARRANGE THEMSELVES AS INFERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS."
The italics are mine. I would say, but without admitting imperfect art on the part of Browning, for I regard him as one of the greatest of literary artists, that HE must be estimated by the standard presented in this passage, by the "presentment", everywhere in his poetry, "of the correspondency of the universe to Deity, of the natural to the spiritual, and of the actual to the ideal."
The same standard is presented in `Andrea del Sarto', in `Old Pictures in Florence', and in other of his poems.
V. Arguments of the Poems.
* It has not been thought necessary, in these Arguments, to use quotation marks wherever expressions from the poems are incorporated; and especially where they are adapted in construction to the place where they are introduced.
Wanting is -- What?
"Love, the soul of soul, within the soul", the Christ-spirit, the spirit of the "Comer" (o` e'rxo/menos, Matt. 11:3), completes incompletion, reanimates that which without it is dead, and admits to a fellowship with the soul of things; `Ubi caritas, ibi claritas'. See passage from `Fifine at the Fair', quoted under `My Star'.
My Star.
The following passage from `Fifine at the Fair', section 55, is an expansion of the idea involved in `My Star', and is the best commentary which can be given on it: -- "I search but cannot see What purpose serves the soul that strives, or world it tries Conclusions with, unless the fruit of victories Stay, one and all, stored up and guaranteed its own For ever, by some mode whereby shall be made known The gain of every life. Death reads the title clear -- What each soul for itself conquered from out things here: Since, IN THE SEEING SOUL, ALL WORTH LIES, I ASSERT, -- AND NOUGHT I' THE WORLD, WHICH, SAVE FOR SOUL THAT SEES, INERT WAS, IS, AND WOULD BE EVER, -- STUFF FOR TRANSMUTING -- NULL AND VOID UNTIL MAN'S BREATH EVOKE THE BEAUTIFUL -- BUT, TOUCHED ARIGHT, PROMPT YIELDS EACH PARTICLE, ITS TONGUE OF ELEMENTAL FLAME, -- no matter whence flame sprung From gums and spice, or else from straw and rottenness, So long as soul has power to make them burn, express What lights and warms henceforth, leaves only ash behind, Howe'er the chance: if soul be privileged to find Food so soon that, at first snatch of eye, suck of breath, It shall absorb pure life:" etc.
The Flight of the Duchess.
In `The Flight of the Duchess' we are presented with a generous soul-life,
Browning has distinctly indicated the standard by which he estimates art-work, in the closing paragraph of his Essay `On the Poet objective and subjective; on the latter's aim; on Shelley as man and poet'.
"I would rather," he says, "consider Shelley's poetry as a sublime fragmentary essay towards a presentment of the correspondency of the universe to Deity, of the natural to the spiritual, and of the actual to the ideal, than I would isolate and separately appraise the worth of many detachable portions which might be acknowledged AS UTTERLY PERFECT IN A LOWER MORAL POINT OF VIEW, UNDER THE MERE CONDITIONS OF ART. It would be easy to take my stand on successful instances of objectivity in Shelley: there is the unrivalled `Cenci'; there is the `Julian and Maddalo' too; there is the magnificent `Ode to Naples': why not regard, it may be said, the less organized matter as the radiant elemental foam and solution, out of which would have been evolved, eventually, creations as perfect even as those? But I prefer to look for the highest attainment, not simply the high, -- and, seeing it, I hold by it. There is surely enough of the work `Shelley' to be known enduringly among men, and, I believe, to be accepted of God, as human work may; and AROUND THE IMPERFECT PROPORTIONS OF SUCH, THE MOST ELABORATED PRODUCTIONS OF ORDINARY ART MUST ARRANGE THEMSELVES AS INFERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS."
The italics are mine. I would say, but without admitting imperfect art on the part of Browning, for I regard him as one of the greatest of literary artists, that HE must be estimated by the standard presented in this passage, by the "presentment", everywhere in his poetry, "of the correspondency of the universe to Deity, of the natural to the spiritual, and of the actual to the ideal."
The same standard is presented in `Andrea del Sarto', in `Old Pictures in Florence', and in other of his poems.
V. Arguments of the Poems.
* It has not been thought necessary, in these Arguments, to use quotation marks wherever expressions from the poems are incorporated; and especially where they are adapted in construction to the place where they are introduced.
Wanting is -- What?
"Love, the soul of soul, within the soul", the Christ-spirit, the spirit of the "Comer" (o` e'rxo/menos, Matt. 11:3), completes incompletion, reanimates that which without it is dead, and admits to a fellowship with the soul of things; `Ubi caritas, ibi claritas'. See passage from `Fifine at the Fair', quoted under `My Star'.
My Star.
The following passage from `Fifine at the Fair', section 55, is an expansion of the idea involved in `My Star', and is the best commentary which can be given on it: -- "I search but cannot see What purpose serves the soul that strives, or world it tries Conclusions with, unless the fruit of victories Stay, one and all, stored up and guaranteed its own For ever, by some mode whereby shall be made known The gain of every life. Death reads the title clear -- What each soul for itself conquered from out things here: Since, IN THE SEEING SOUL, ALL WORTH LIES, I ASSERT, -- AND NOUGHT I' THE WORLD, WHICH, SAVE FOR SOUL THAT SEES, INERT WAS, IS, AND WOULD BE EVER, -- STUFF FOR TRANSMUTING -- NULL AND VOID UNTIL MAN'S BREATH EVOKE THE BEAUTIFUL -- BUT, TOUCHED ARIGHT, PROMPT YIELDS EACH PARTICLE, ITS TONGUE OF ELEMENTAL FLAME, -- no matter whence flame sprung From gums and spice, or else from straw and rottenness, So long as soul has power to make them burn, express What lights and warms henceforth, leaves only ash behind, Howe'er the chance: if soul be privileged to find Food so soon that, at first snatch of eye, suck of breath, It shall absorb pure life:" etc.
The Flight of the Duchess.
In `The Flight of the Duchess' we are presented with a generous soul-life,