[Footnote 73: Two of these are now in the National Gallery; one presented to it by Sir Charles Eastlake, the other after his death by Lady Eastlake.]

[Footnote 74: Mr. Browning thus skilfully accounts for the discrepancy between the coa.r.s.eness of his life and the refined beauty of much of his work.]

[Footnote 75: The painter spoken of as "hulking Tom" is the celebrated one known as "Masaccio" (Tommasaccio), who learned in the convent from Lippo Lippi, and has been wrongly supposed to be his teacher. He is also one of those who were credited with the work of Lippino, Lippo Lippi's son.]

[Footnote 76: The Bishop's tomb is entirely fict.i.tious; but something which is made to stand for it is now shown to credulous sight-seers in St. Praxed's Church.]

[Footnote 77: First in "Hood's Magazine."]

[Footnote 78: These were correctly given in the MS., and appeared so in the first proofs of the book; but were changed from considerations of prudence.]

[Footnote 79: A feigned name for one of the three wonder working images which are worshipped in France.]

[Footnote 80: Mr. Browning allows me to give the true names of the persons and places concerned in the story.

Vol. xii. page 5. The Firm Miranda--Mellerio, Brothers.

" " 7. St Rambert--St. Aubin.

" " 7. Joyeux, Joyous-Gard--Lion, Lionesse.

" " 8. Vire-Caen.

" " 19. St. Rambertese--St. Aubinese " " 22. Londres--Douvres.

" " 22. London--Dover.

" " 22. La Roche--Courcelle.

" " 22. Monlieu--Bernieres.

" " 22. Villeneuve--Langrune.

" " 22. Pons--Luc.

" " 22. La Ravissante--La Delivrande.

" " 25. Raimbaux--Bayeux.

" " 25. Morillon--Hugonin.

" " 25. Mirecourt--Bonnechose.

" " 25. Miranda--Mellerio.

" " 26. New York--Madrid.

" " 30. Clairvaux--Tailleville.

" " 31. Gonthier--Beny.

" " 31. Rousseau--Voltaire.

" " 31. Leonce--Antoine.

" " 36. Of "Firm Miranda, London and New York"--"Mellerio Brothers"--Meller, people say.

" " 53. Rare Vissante--Dell Yvrande.

" " 53. Aldabert--Regn.o.bert.

" " 53. Eldebert--Ragnebert.

" " 54. Mailleville--Beaudoin.

" " 54. Chaumont--Quelen.

" " 54. Vertgalant--Talleyrand.

" " 59. Ravissantish--Delivrandish.

" " 66. Clara de Millefleurs--Anna de Beaupre.

" " 67. Coliseum Street--Miromesnil Street.

" " 72. Sterner--Mayer.

" " 72. Commercy--Larocy.

" " 72. Sierck--Metz.

" " 73. Muhlhausen--Debacker.

" " 73. Carlino Centofanti--Miranda di Mongino.

" " 73. Portugal--Italy.

" " 88. Vaillant-Meriel.

" " 96. Thirty-three--Twenty-five.

" " 97. Beaumont--Pasquier.

" " 107. Sceaux--Garges.

" " 128. Luc de la Maison Rouge--Jean de la Becquetiere.

" " 128. Claise--Vire.

" " 129. Maude--Anne.

" " 129. Dionysius--Eliezer.

" " 129. Scolastica--Elizabeth.

" " 136. Twentieth--Thirteenth.

" " 152. Fricquot--Picot.

[Footnote 81: Le Croisic is in the Loire Inferieure, at the south-east corner of Brittany. It has now a good bathing establishment, and is much frequented by French people; but sardine-fishing and the crystallizing of sea-salt are still its standing occupations.]

[Footnote 82: The details of this worship as carried on in the island opposite Le Croisic, and which Mr. Browning describes, are mentioned by Strabo.]

[Footnote 83: The story of Paul Desforges Maillard forms the subject of a famous play, Piron's "Metromanie."]

[Footnote 84: It is also, and perhaps chiefly, in this case, a pun on the meaning of the plural noun "cenci," "rags," or "old rags." The cry of this, frequent in Rome, was at first mistaken by Sh.e.l.ley for a voice urging him to go on with his play. Mr. Browning has used it to indicate the comparative unimportance of his contribution to the Cenci story. The quoted Italian proverb means something to the same effect: that every trifle will press in for notice among worthier matters.]

[Footnote 85: That of the Gregorian chant: a cadence concluding on the dominant instead of the key-note.]

[Footnote 86: We have a conspicuous instance of this in "Pippa Pa.s.ses."]

[Footnote 87: This spontaneous mode of conception may seem incompatible with the systematic adherence to a fixed cla.s.s of subjects referred to in an earlier chapter. But it by no means is so. With Mr. Browning the spontaneous creative impulse conforms to the fixed rule.

The present remarks properly belong to that earlier chapter. But it was difficult to divide them from their ill.u.s.trations.]

[Footnote 88: First in "Hood's Magazine."]

[Footnote 89: I may venture to state that these picturesque materials included a tower which Mr. Browning once saw in the Carrara Mountains, a painting which caught his eye years later in Paris; and the figure of a horse in the tapestry in his own drawing-room--welded together in the remembrance of the line from "King Lear" which forms the heading of the poem.]

[Footnote 90: Instances of it occur in the "Dramatic Idyls" and "Jocoseria;" and will be noticed later.]

[Footnote 91: Generally confounded with his contemporary and fellow-citizen, Girolamo del Pacchia.]

[Footnote 92: The (Baron) Kirkup mentioned at vol. xiv. page 5 was a Florence friend of Mr. Browning's, and a connoisseur in literature and art. He was enn.o.bled by the King of Italy for his liberal views and for his services to Italian literature. It was he who discovered the portrait of Dante in the Bargello at Florence.]

[Footnote 93: Nets spread to catch quails as they fly to or from the other side of the Mediterranean. They are slung by rings on to poles, and stand sufficiently high for the quails to fly into them. This, and every other detail of the poem, are given from personal observation.]

NON-CLa.s.sIFIED POEMS (CONTINUED).

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.