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 T O W ER -

CAME' --

In this section first we will introduce you to the poem and then encourage y o 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 ~ n r Wonretr
l
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<rrne,'Kubla Khan' and 'Cluistabel', three of the most celebrated poems of
Coleridge and it has the same eerie, gloomy, and weird atmosphere. When some
stranger asked Browning about 'Childe Roland' in 1887 he admitted:
I

. . . .Childe Rolandcame 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
7
Women (1853). However, Browning placed 'Childe Roland 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 b y 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
7
'Jack and the Beanstdk7,'Hap-0 -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 ~ M C1cin7e

J ~ Y ' is a coiniplcs rccord of a poct's ascosis i n
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 P O C I I ~ .
Brolvning talks primnril!lr if not entirel!., about lli~n~sclf.just
like Tulsidas in somo of
tlne verses of V i n c 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., a n 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 4

could becon~e:

And n hat if m!, descendants lose tlnc flo~vcr

Through 11duraldecle~nsiollof tlne soul.
Through loo I I I L I C ~bus~nesswith the passing hour.
Tl~rouglitoo much play, or marriage with n fool'?

Most 11u111ain beings busy tl~eil~selves in solving routine iuu~ldai~e problems of lifc. not
ill crcatiilg ' ~ i l o i ~ ~ ~ nof
l e~ ~
l tlsa g e i intellect'
ng 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~~cc as 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~~nber
nrclled \\.it11
stone* in froiit of,

A grey stone fireplace ~vitha11opein 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 R o l a ~ ~ records

d' 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~~l Elizabeth Barrctt.
I
Hciicc n7cdiscover a tone of fiitility ill Browning's voice and an atmosphcrc of
dcceit. decay aid death in the poem. Did 1clnoosc 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?
cripplc' :
1
t

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
Roland talccs the path suggested by him 11c is scarce ablc to
sidc\vaq's, and \,\rl~cn
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 m a r c 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 - ( h i d J 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~~~nicative taIentj 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 ~ prisoilers
y 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 ' t h land

c in Eliot's poelll is d q !
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.' 11.1the 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 t o 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' (1818).
'@
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 t l ~ 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 ( h o ~ l e t 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 f r o ~ 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 ~ man's ~ d 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~~nnte
in 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 m o u r i ~ ftn1t11
~ ~ l 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 !le 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
1
Johnson's.

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?fthc
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 ~ ~ n n ' 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, t l ~ c
marvellous boy. h d yet it is poetv that is a sluggish instnimeilt as Browning m u s ~
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 0 1 1 I l l 1
~ 1 l ~~j l f~
ri~ ~ 1 I

\\'li~lc1c3cIi11i~ H~.o\\n~ng-.; ~ O L ' I c;l~.Iicr

~ ~ S 111 [Iiis and thc prc'\.lous I \ \ ( ) u n ~ t s\\c Iintl
i
arlol~rccltllc 11ic~Iie)~l of firs[ 111.0\1c1111g :I O;ICI\~,I.CILIIICI to tllc SIIICI! 01. [lie ~ ~ c ~ tlic~i
c~ii.
: ~ \ / \ I I I \~ ( Q L I t o ~i.;ldI I a n d fillall! prcscrit~~ig !ou \ \ it'h :ilr nrinl~,sisancl app~.cciatio~i ol'
I I 111 LIIC I I I C S C I ~ C:ISC
[ \ \ c :II.C going to nclopt a sl~glill! dit'fcl.c~itsrratcg!

The Ilocrn 'Fra Lij~poLippi' ~~ublisliccl in A4cr.i C~IIL/ l a ' o t i i ~ ~ rfor

l the l.'ir.st ti~iic
\ \ a s l)asccl 0 1 1 tlic life of tllc painter Filippo tli 'Tomasso Lippi (c. 1406- I46!)) \\.sittell
b? (;'iorgio \!asari. A n IIl~glislitl-nnslnLion of I:l~c'Life' b!. Julia C'on\\a! and Pctc~.
. . t3o1itl~1iclla is ~~~.intccl iii this blocli. 'r'ou ma!- go tllrougl~it before rcacling tlic ~ ~ o e l i i .
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' ' l l i c ~/.I\!L,.s oi
7 i s c s c c c ~ /t / I . i / ~ / / sC ~ / L I .1 7 / . ! 1 1 / ( 0 a I ) . ?'liis
\\ark I-anlccd l i i ~ i ialolig \ \ itll Machin\ clli and /iriosti>.as a Icaclillg Italian lilcrar!.
:trtis(. Vtlsasi clailncd that lie liad Icarlit his art i n tlic lil-st 11lacc from Micliilla~igcloill
I-lo~.cncc.:I S L ~ I . \\liicli
\ IYJS hccn clisj)~~tcti.allel al'tc~.liis clcl~art~~i-c
Ihr I<omc. I.i.onl
.~\~itlrcn dcl S:\~.to( 1484- 15-70)ancl Baccio R:~llclirlclli. l-I~)\\'c\'c~.. later :i~sess~iic~lts
<)I'
\'nsari Iia\ c confi~~nlccl Iiis Lilanic crlcr.y! ns an archilcct but not as a painter.
Zlichclnngclo cloubtccl tllc cl~lnlir!. ol'Vasnri's ~nsplrationin his ~~aintlngs nlicl
~,ustcrrt! is 111 ngrccmcnl \\ it11 him. bio~iclllclcss.\\.lien the first cclitio~lof \j:isai.~'s
l.i\!~'.\\\.as 11~1bl1sIied rn 1550 Michclan~clo.the ccntul.).'s lrcatcst artist ancl I!.rlc poet
\\.rote n sonnet on him.

No L I - L I ~r c f e ~ . c ~ \\.orl;
i ~ e 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 o f c ~ i~iaclccluatc.
i For instance. he too
li.c~~t~c~itI! L I S ~ the
S \\.old Oc:l~~tili~l
\\Ilicli sllo\\.shis lack ol'cliscrimi1i3~io1i.

Not\\ithstnncling his f n ~ ~ l t\\.Iiich

s. \\.ere of his til~lc.Iiis cnc!.clopacdic l i n ~ \ \ . l ~ c l0g1c
the mnjor nncl minor Italian artists. liis ~~~iclc~'stancling of tlic trends i n the dc\.clol~mcnl.
of Italia~ia ~;llld,t 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'iarilacked :I sound
I\~io\\.lcclgc ol'llu~iin~lanatom!. \ \ hicll \\.as fi~ndn~iicntnl to tllc rcl~rocluctio~l o f tllc
Ii~~lnan fig~11-c.Vasari \.al~lcddesign in art bccrt~lsclie belie\ ccl that nn artist rnLlr;l
hn\c a clcw l i k ~ of ~ r\\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!. i l lustrntc thcil- clinracccrs alicl malie a11indelible nnrk on OLII.
mcmor!'.

f,or mstnncc V a s w tells us that Fra Filrpl~o1.111111 Ilnd lost 111smo~licrat h ~ ~s I I - ancl th
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 11clifiicult to bear the costs so Vasnl.~~cllsus.
FII I ~ I ~ Iliad
O to bc made a I'l.rnr at the C'nrminc c1i1.11-chat tlic age ol'clght. (Tllc
li~otnotcto thc ' L ~ f c '\\auld tell !ou thal Filippo tool<tlic vo\\s not In 14 14 but In
142 1 \\hen Itc \\as tiftccn. Vns:lr~IS oltcn carclcss about his dates. I-lo\\c\ cr.
cons~clcr~ny ihc scale 011 \ \ Ii~chhc \\as \\osk~ngand t l ~ cdocunlcnts so Sc\\ 011 \ \ I I I c I ~
hc c o ~ ~ basel d 111srcsuarclics Vasan dcscr\~cdtlic pralsc ofthc postcr~~! that Iic got.)

'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 s h ~ .In
i the S;III~C fh~.tl~~s!i
[l~c
ri,l It)\\ ins chcc1,-\ (:!I 17r;>17!.,x,;c. (-,c:rciscs.
1-
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
7
the Virgin' for St. Ainbrose s 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 i n d drink.
 ( s and career, it appears, provided Browning with a perfect objective
~ i p ~ ilife . 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, 4 5 ~ 2 5 l h "(114.7~64.8cm).
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
Victurictn Poetry first, second and fouftl~blocks on Chauccr. Spcnscr-and Milt011 HOIL el el-. I\ e
dccided to take up one major along I\ ~ t hthrcc 111or.cmalor ~ i i ~ n pocts
o r of tlic
Vtctorian period. Tllcse will be dlscusscd i n the succccdlng t n o ~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 7 1 7 ~ ~
Pilgrim :s Progres'.~personi f ~abstract
f qua1i tics. Ah.s~/10/77L I Y ~ L./I/ L ' / ~ / I o ~ ~ ~ IS
I L ;I~ /
political allegory. Fables iisually 11ai~cL: 11iorc\\.clI defined niol-al and tlic
characters i11it 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 fro111tlic devil's S~LICI!
Above are tlie last threc lrilcs of the 13'"stanza 'The first thrcc 1111~s
oi'tlic
14'" stanza also dcscr~bctlie horse A stud 1s a stnblc Notice [lo\\ \\ell
Bro\\n~ngcreates the weird atniosphcrc I\ ~ t hthe help of 111c111ingcol' Llrc
grotesque that is the horse.
3 Shaltcspeare's K ~ n gLcnr wh~cliBron~n~ng adm~ttcdto 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~/0 Innc//71or-i110
t)~Bo~nrd~) nnci /\I ~ o s ~ o ' \
OrEancko F7'lrwoso have Roland as the hero

4. i ' "The S C V Lc '~l i 3 ~ i i ~ ~ ~ o ~ i ~

'Jack the Giant Killer'. 'Jack and tlic B c ~ i ~ t n l lancl
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 lt1d1in11p11ig of
Filippo and his friends while they \yere amusing thei~isclvcsin the Mal.cli of
Ancona was fancihl. 1111434 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.

T l ~ last
e few words of the paragraph - 'rare gc~iiusesarc cclcstial fornis and
not beasts of burden' - are memorable.

4. Lucrezia B~lfi,dattgl~terof Francesco Ruti (a Florenti~lecitizen). i\.:~sn nu11at

the corlvent of t l ~ c111111s of Sta. Marghcrtta. Hc fled with her In 1456 fro111
Prato causing muc11 11ar11lto tlld reputat1011of thc con~~ciit nild 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
M ~ CJIZCI
I Wolne~z
39.6 FCTRTHER READING

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',s
in
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

'11would be useful to coilsult a i ~ yof thc~

followiilg three boolcs if you are going t o
attempt a poem for your tcrnl paper not discussed on this course. The boolcs are as
. below:

Ii 1. Mrs. Sutherland Orr. A Hnnclhook to I l ~ eWor.ks 9fRohe1'l Browning (G. Bell

& Sons: London, 19 19)
I
\I 2. Willial~lClyde DeVanc. A Rro\vning Hanclhoc)k (1935, Appleton- Ceiltury -
t Crofts, Iilc.; New York, 1955)
i
I

1 9
3. Ian Jaclc, Hrownrng ',s Mc!jur Poct1:v (Clnrcndou Press: Oxford, 1073)
i
'I
1 Thosc who don't have access to a good library may writc sessional essay on 'Fra
I
1 Lippo Lippi.