R421210A. Dramatic Lyrics.
The Spectator, 10 December 1842, pp. 1191–92.
As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 390–391.
As both Mr. Browning and Mr. Trench* less aim at producing effects by exhibiting Nature as she really is, than by the character [p. 1192→] they can infuse into their own interpretation of her accidental entities, they may each be classed under the same general head, though their individual differences are such as prevent them from being considered together.
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*Reviewed with Dramatic Lyrics were two other works: Trench’s Genoveva and Clarke’s Love and Duty; we reprint only those comments relevant to Browning.
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The Dramatic Lyrics of Mr. Browning strike us as being the best, or at least the most readable and intelligible of his works; because the form and structure of the lyric, scarcely permits the affectation and obscurity which may take place in a longer poem. Single in subject, brief in extent, and popularly musical in the form of its verse, the lesser lyric, at least, almost impels its writer to a definite theme, with a direct treatment. The example of Pindar, and perhaps of Horace, can be alleged to show that obscurity may be present in the greater ode; but it is the obscurity of allusive brevity, not of self-satisfied conceit or mannerism; and part of it perhaps may be attributed to our own imperfect knowledge of a remote age and a foreign tongue.
These necessities have operated even upon Mr. Browning, and forced him, in the worst of his present poems, to be less discursive and obscure than is his wont. In the few direct lyrics written to be sung, or at least taking the form of song, he has displayed a vigour and spirit which show him capable of better things than he has yet published, if he would but resolutely root up his mannerisms and affectations. In some compositions, not lyric in their nature, being epigrams or stories—such as “Camp,” “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” and a few of the smaller pieces—the full effect they are capable of producing is only dashed by peculiarities of composition. In others—such as “Italy,” and in a lesser degree “France”—the mode of telling the story, the quaintness of the sentiments, or the choice of the metre and the character of the pauses, obtrude the writer so constantly on the reader, that every thing in art or nature is subordinate to Mr. Browning and his manner. There are some things worse than this—compositions no more like lyrics than they are like epics, (deducting length,) and where a vicious nature, fostered by self-indulgence, has contrived to defeat Necessity herself, and compress into a page the species of faults that have hitherto been spread through a poem. As an example of the better style—perhaps of the best thing in the brochure—we quote a Cavalier’s effusion called
marching along.
Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King,
Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing;
And, pressing a troop unable to stoop
And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop,
Marched them along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen singing this song.
God for King Charles! Pym and such carles
To the Devil that prompts ’em their treasonous parles!
Cavaliers, up! Lips from the cup,
Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup
Till you’re (Chorus) marching along, fifty-score strong
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.
Hampden to Hell, and his obsequies’ knell
Serve Rudyard, and Fiennes, and young Harry as well!
England, good cheer! Rupert is near!
Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here
(Chorus) Marching along, fifty-score strong
Great-hearted gentlemen singing this song.
Then, God for King Charles! Pym and his snarls
To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles!
Hold by the right, you double your might;
So, onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight,
(Chorus) March we along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.
As an instance how common thoughts and natural images can be rendered constrained and unnatural by the position of a rhyme and an occasional expression, we take a couple of stanzas from a series of compositions called “In a Gondola”—meaning, we fancy, Venetian Lyrics.
Tomorrow, if a harp-string, say,
Is used to tie the jasmine back
That overfloods my room with sweets,
Be sure that Zorzi somehow meets
My Zanze: if the ribbon’s black
I use, they’re watching; keep away.
Your gondola—let Zorzi wreathe
A mesh of water-weeds about
Its prow, as if he unaware
Had struck some quay or bridge-foot stair;
That I may throw a paper out
As you and he go underneath.
Genoveva. In power, apart from the qualities which render it available, Mr. Trench is perhaps inferior to Mr. Browning, as he excels him in popular art. Whatever his character may seem to those who know him, the root of Mr. Browning’s failure is the characteristic denounced by Solomon, “wise in his own conceit.” He seems to think that his own conceptions are all in all sufficient; intrinsically better than any thing to be found in nature, and requiring no rules of art to exhibit them to advantage—“he is a man, too great to scan.”
Reviewed:
Bells & Pomegranates. No. III. Dramatic Lyrics (RB), London: Edward Moxon, 1842.
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