This poem was written during Mr. Browning's first journey to Italy, in
1838. He sailed from London in a merchant vessel bound for Trieste, on
which he found himself the only passenger. The weather was stormy and
for the first fortnight Browning was extremely ill. As they passed
through the straights of Gibraltar the captain supported him upon deck
that he might not lose the sight. Of the Composition of the poem he
says, "I wrote it under the bulwark of a vessel off the African coast,
after I had been at sea long enough to appreciate even the fancy of a
gallop on the back of a certain good horse 'York' there in my stable at
home." The poem was written in pencil on the flyleaf of Bartoli's
_Simboli_, a favorite book of his. Browning says that there was no sort
of historical foundation for the story, but the Pacification of Ghent in
1576 has been suggested as an appropriate background. The incident
narrated could naturally belong to the efforts of the united cities of
Holland, Zealand, and the Southern Netherlands to combat the tyranny of
Philip II.
6. Of this line Miss Barrett wrote: "It drew us out into the night as
witnesses."
13. _'Twas moonset._ The distance from Ghent to Aix is something over a
hundred miles. The first horse gave out at Hasselt, about eighty miles
from Ghent; the second horse failed at Dalhem in sight of Aix. Roland
made the whole distance between midnight of one day and sunset of the
next. The minute notes of time are for dramatic and picturesque effect
rather than as exact indications of progress. Even the towns are not
used with the exactness of a guide-book, for Looz and Tongres are off
the direct route.
17. _Mecheln._ Flemish for Mechlin. The chimes they heard were probably
from the cathedral tower.
41. _Dome-spire._ Over the polygonal monument founded by Charlemagne in
Aix-la-Chapelle is a dome 104 feet high and 48 feet in diameter. The
reference is probably to this dome.