SD2336. William Michael Rossetti to William Bell Scott
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 342–343.
45 Upper Albany Street
5 February [1860]
Dear Scott,
I wish we could have an interchange of viva voce bullying about Sordello. Of course I am not such a fanatic as to dissent wholly from what you say: I admit that it is too obscure in expression, much too confused in story, sometimes vague and diffuse, and psychologically too general without representing the particular period—though there are passages of magnificent couleur locale scattered throughout. In assuming that the poetic mind which Browning apparently had in his thoughts is that of such men as King René and the Troubadours, do you overlook the fact that Sordello is a real historic and poetic character? though indeed I don’t know that Browning aimed to portray him historically, nor even that the materials for doing so exist. But the truth is (as I have said to you erewhile) that a first reading of Sordello counts for nothing at all towards appreciating it (this implies some blame to it, I don’t deny): the first reading ought only to be a preparation for the second, and the second for the third. After that, one is qualified to entertain an opinion to which may fairly be called one’s real opinion of the book: not before. I do hope you’ll give it at least a second trial, I so delight in the poem: and to assist you therein (or frighten you therefrom?) for the honour and glory of splendid old Browning, I shall now bore you with an abstract (from memory) or [sic, for of] the story—which is indeed deplorably unintelligible at first.
Among the German Barons who accompanied their Emperor into Italy was one named Ecelin. He had a son named Ecelin, often called Romano in the poem; and Ecelin has for sons another Ecelin and Alberic, who are often named passim, and the former of whom must not be confounded with his father. Romano had by his first wife also a daughter whom Browning calls Palma (by Dante called Cunizza, and placed in the lunar heaven); by his second wife, Adelaide the Tuscan, much addicted to astrology, he has a young family including (if I remember right) the Ecelin and Alberic above-named. This family is of course Ghibelline, and is one of the most powerful in that cause. Another great Ghibelline family was that of Salinguerra: Taurello Salinguerra (always remember that Taurello and Salinguerra are one and the same person) might in his youth have almost taken the first place in his party; but gradually he sinks his interests in those of Romano, to whom he becomes a kind of lieutenant. In the Sicilian court of the Emperor Frederick he had married a lady named Retrude. Romano with his wife Adelaide, and Taurello with his wife Retrude, were together on one occasion, when they were attacked, and their quarters set on fire, by the adverse party. Retrude had just borne a son, Sordello. They were saved from the flames by an archer named Elcorte, who died in the exploit; Retrude also died—and I think there is a hint, obscurely given, of her having been dispatched by Adelaide, who dreads that Taurello and his heir will acquire the ascendancy over her own family—Taurello being a man of incomparably greater abilities than Romano. At any rate, Adelaide possesses herself of Sordello; gives out that Taurello’s son is dead, and that the infant Sordello is the son of Elcorte; and brings him up in her sequestered castle of Goito, ostensibly out of gratitude for the service rendered by Elcorte.
Sordello grows up a poetic youth, of course ignorant of his real origin. He has a youthful passion for Palma. She is destined for the bride of Count Richard of St. Boniface, a nobleman colleagued with the Guelph Marquis of Este, and whom Ecelin hopes to detach from that party by the marriage. A tournament, with troubadours etc., is held at Mantua in honour of the approaching nuptials. Sordello happens to have wandered on that day to Mantua; on the impulse of a moment, he competes as a troubadour with the famous Eglamor, and conquers. Eglamor dies of disappointment. Sordello becomes famous; wearies of his position as a poet; his passion for Palma now possesses him powerfully. Adelaide dies—revealing on her death-bed to Palma the secret of Sordello’s birth: Romano, tired out with intrigues and crimes, retires into a monastery. Taurello quits his city, Ferrara, professing that his object is to give scope for a reconciliation of Ghibellines and Guelphs (he has some other object in reality—I think, the negotiation of Palma’s marriage with St. Boniface). The Guelphs rise, and burn his palaces. Taurello returns, and puts them down. Este and St. Boniface come to their relief. Taurello calls a parley; and, when Este and St. Boniface enter Ferrara for the purpose, he seizes them, and holds them prisoners. Palma has arrived at Verona; also Sordello, determined to be a troubadour no more.
It is at this point that the poem opens; the earlier events above recited occupying two or three books in the middle of the poem, and being otherwise brought out incidentally—partly in a long soliloquy of Taurello.
Sordello and Palma meet, and avow their mutual love. The Guelphs (Lombard League) assemble in Verona to march for the relief of Este and St Boniface. Sordello and Palma accompany them to Ferrara.
When they arrive, the Imperial Legate Tito of Trent is in colloquy with Taurello, bringing from the emperor a baldric with which Taurello is to invest any person he pleases, thereby constituting him head of the Ghibelline party. He debates whether to keep it himself, or to bestow it on Ecelin junior (son of the now monk Ecelin Romano), or on Palma. Sordello has an interview with him, and advocates the cause of the people, as distinct from both factions. He bores Taurello considerably; and the latter at last, half seriously, half jeeringly, invests him with the baldric. Then Palma explains that Sordello is Taurello’s son, and vast schemes of aggrandizement flit before Taurello. They leave Sordello alone. On returning, they find him dead (through spiritual exhaustion, or how otherwise Browning alone knows)—the baldric beneath his feet in token of his having determined to resign his own interest for those of the people. Taurello survives many years—Ecelin junior and Alberic resuming their family position as heads of the Ghibelline cause.
Of the psychology of the poem—the contrasted natures of Taurello and Sordello, and the elaborate analyses of the latter—I say nothing, except that the gist of the whole notion about Sordello as representing the poetic nature seems to be that it must not expect full elaboration and fruition of the power in this world, but await these in the next. This is indicated in some lines (in one of the early books)
Thrusting in time eternity’s concern
So that Sordello—Fool! who spied the mark
of leprosy upon him etc.
I am sure this must have choked you off pretty well with the subject for the present; so I will cut it short now …
Publication: R.W. Peattie, “W.M. Rossetti and Browning’s Sordello,” Browning Society Notes, 22 (December 1994), 55–57.
Manuscript: University of British Columbia.
___________________
