Inapprehensiveness, somewhat in the spirit of the preceding poem, tells of a woman who is entirely absorbed in verifying a writer's observation on a weed, and utterly unconscious of the love for herself which is consuming her companion- Oh, fancies that might be, oh, facts that are!" The worst of it is that her 'inapprehensive stare' freezes the expression of the man's love, so that he merely replies to her cultured remark with a similar one. We recall Two in the Campagna when we read Inapprehensiveness. Which? paints subtle portraits in miniature. The Countess is willing to be Providence to a lover, provided he on his side refers solely to her for salvation. We are left to decide whether such an ideal of love, if genuine, is or is not an arrogant usurpation of God's prerogative. The Cardinal and the Dog is of a class of story in frequent demand in a children's hour. The Pope and the Net is one of those bizarreries, like the story of Judas and the fowl in Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, for which Browning has a keen relish. The Bean-Feast is in the cast of thought of Ferishtah's Fancies. Muckle-Mouth Meg is a pleasant Border ballad. Arcades Ambo censures vivisection, which it defines with animosity and dubs cowardice. The Lady and the Painter effectively inveighs against a conventionalism that approves a woman who wears the wings and breasts of murdered birds, and disapproves another who, as a model, suffers her beautiful form to be reproduced in marble or on canvas. Ponte dell' Angelo, Venice, belongs to a group of poems Browning has written on traditions of places. Like the Greeks, he is partial to wiliness, especially when, as here, it is a saint who gets the better of the evil one. Beatrice Signorini is a pretty tale of a Griselda who had the wit on a provocative occasion to turn Katharine and thereby rose immeasurably in her husband's estimation. Flute Music, with an Accompaniment is a dialogue, the ideas of which are suggested by a flautist's playing heard through the ash-trees. A woman ridicules the poetic construction which a man puts upon the fluting. At last, he turns the tables upon her by affecting, at all events, to take her cynical words as descriptive and consequently condemnatory of her own ways with him. The poem is accurately described by its title, the precise meaning that may be put upon the words being subsidiary — an 'accompaniment' to their music. "Imperante Augusto natus est" is a contemporary comment on the greatness and glories of Augustus. It gives the story of his annual donning of a beggar's garb in order to avert the jealousy of the divine element so dreaded by the Romans. The title and the allusion at the end of the poem refer to the so-called Messianic prophecy in one of the (forged) Sybilline books. The poem accentuates the prevailing Roman sentiment of the uncertainty of things and the nearness of supremacy to destruction. Development is an interesting and delightful parable of Browning's philosophy of illusion and growth. Rephan in a noble and imaginative manner expresses contentment with the limitations, difficulties, and ignorance in which mankind lives. Reverie expresses Browning's belief that Love is the hidden name of Power. On earth, Power and Love appear dissociated, because on earth man is. meant to grope his own way and attest the stuff of which he is made. Epilogue is the last word spoken by Browning to the world. It is an epilogue not only to Asolando but to the whole of his life. Though it is not a poem that epitomises his genius, it is one that calls up a backward-glancing vision of the particular influence he has everywhere exercised over his readers. The Epilogue to Asolando at least reminds us of Browning's bracing, tonic effect upon all of us and the hopefulness and support he has afforded many in hours of gloom or trouble. Standing apart from criticism, the poem is brave, energetic, stimulant, and proves still true Browning's line of self-description in Pauline, self-description which no moment lived, no line written since has annulled, and which is the 'secret' of Browning's greatness "I am made up of an intensest life." Agamemnon of Æschylus, The, 202 Andrea del Sarto, 116 Another Way of Love, 123 Any Wife to any Husband, 111 Cleon, 121 Clive, 217 Christmas-Eve, 103 Colombe's Birthday, 88 Confessional, The, 94 Confessions, 129 Count Gismond, 81 Apollo and the Fates. A Prologue,Count Guido Franceschini, 146 234 Cristina, 82 Cristina and Monaldeschi, 221 "DE GUSTIBUS ———,” 120 Deaf and Dumb; a Group by Wool- ner, 129 Death in the Desert, A, 127 Avison, Charles, Parleying with, De Lairesse, Gerard, Parleying with, BAD DREAMS, 242 Balaustion's Adventure; including Bartoli, Daniel, Parleying with, 235 Bean-Stripe, A: also Apple-Eating, 231 Beatrice Signorini, 244 Bells and Pomegranates, 75-103 Bishop Blougram's Apology, 115 \Bishop, The, orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church, 93 Boy, The, and the Angel, 95 CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS, 128 Cardinal, The, and the Dog, 243 Cenciaja, 201 Cherries, 230 "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower |