Brownings Italy A Study Of Italian Life And Art In Browning 1907

Author : Helen Archibald Clarke
Publisher : Theclassics.Us
ISBN 13 : 9781230341040
Total Pages : 102 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (41 download)

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Download or read book Browning's Italy; a Study of Italian Life and Art in Browning written by Helen Archibald Clarke and published by Theclassics.Us. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... V PICTURES OF SOCIAL LIFE "The year's at the spring And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven -- All's right with the world!" THE poems in which Browning gives some idea of the social conditions in Italy have dates ranging from the sixteenth century to near the end of the eighteenth. Four of them, "My Last Duchess," "Cenciaja," "In a Gondola" and "The Ring and the Book," have to do with murders, while all show appalling conditions of social decay. These glimpses of the time are only too true to the actual facts as they may be gleaned from contemporary records. "My Last Duchess" is not dated, but it is quite significant that the scene of the poem is Ferrara, for the story of Lucrezia de' Medici furnishes a strikingly similar incident. She was the daughter of Cosimo de' Medici and became the Duchess of Ferrara, and falling under suspicion of infidelity was possibly removed by poison in 1561. This would be quite enough of a hint for the poet to build his poem upon. The poem, it is true, was first entitled more vaguely "Italy," yet this episode of Medici family history could hardly have failed to serve the poet as the initiative idea of the poem. The Duke of Ferrara is pictured arranging for a new match with an ambassador from another Count. In the course of the conversation, he shows the ambassador a portrait of his last Duchess, whose general kindliness of nature was cause enough in this Duke's eyes for jealousy and for punishment by death. He is a typical art-connoisseur of the time, and evidently takes an emotionally artistic delight in the possession of the portrait of his beautiful murdered wife. It is a gem among Browning's poems for...