1. _Abner._ The cousin of Saul and the commander of his army. _I Samuel_
xiv, 50.
9. _Saul and the Spirit._ For the conflict between Saul and the evil
spirit, and the refreshment that came to him when David played, see _I
Samuel_ xvi, 14-23.
12. _Gracious gold hair._ For the personal appearance of David, see _I
Samuel_ xvi, 12, 18; xvii, 42.
12. _Those lilies ... blue._ Mrs. Coleridge wrote to Mr. Kenyon to know
whether Mr. Browning had any authority for "blue lilies." Mr. Browning
answered, "Lilies are of all colors in Palestine--one sort is
particularized as _white_ with a dark blue spot and streak--the water
lily, lotus, which I think I meant, is _blue_ altogether." (_Letters of
R. B. and E. B. B._, i, 523, 556.)
31. _The king-serpent._ Probably the boa-constrictor. In poetry the
characteristic most often attributed to a snake is malignancy. But in
this picture of the serpent lying dormant and waiting for the sloughing
of its old skin in the springtime, when it will come forth with new
beauty and power, the idea presented is that of tremendous force
temporarily in abeyance.
42. _Then the tune._ The boy, alone in the field, tries all sorts of
experiments in musical attraction on the animals about him. Professor
Albert S. Cook suggests that Browning is here indebted to the Greek
pastoral romance of _Daphnis and Chloe_. See Smith's translation in the
Bohn edition. The passages read in part as follows: "He ran through all
variations of pastoral melody; he played the tune which the oxen obey,
and which attracts the goats--that in which the sheep delight.
"He took his pipe from his scrip, and breathed into it very gently. The
goats stood still, merely lifting up their heads. Next he played the
pasture tune, upon which they all put down their heads and began to
graze. Now he produced some notes soft and sweet in tone; at once his
herd lay down. After this he piped in a sharp key, and they ran off to
the woods as if a wolf were in sight." These quotations serve at least
to show how old is the fancy that animals are affected by music.
60. The service enjoined on the men of the House of Levi is described in
_I Chronicles_ xxiii, 24-32.
65. _Male-sapphires._ The male sapphire exhibits, through some
peculiarity of crystalline structure, a star of bright rays. It is also
known as "the star sapphire" and "the asteriated sapphire." The ruby
shows a clear red light at the center.
76. _Locust-flesh._ In _Leviticus_, Chapter xi, are given the laws
concerning "what beasts may and what may not be eaten." See verse 22 for
the rule about locusts. Cf. _Matthew_ iii, 4 for the food of John the
Baptist.
102. _The cherubim chariot._ The first chapter of _Ezekiel_ seems to be
the source of this picture.
105. _Have ye seen_, etc. The simile in lines 104-115 could have been
written only by one familiar with mountain regions. Browning knew the
Alps and Apennines. Did David at any time live in a mountainous country?
124. _Slow pallid sunsets._ Note the character of the similitudes so far
used in describing Saul. In his agony he is like the king-serpent. His
rage is like the earthquake that may tear open the rock but at the same
time sets the gold free. His final release from the evil spirit is
described by the sudden fall of the avalanche from the mountain summit.
The look in his eyes as he comes back to life, yet seeing nothing in
life to desire, is compared to pale autumn sunsets seen over the ocean,
or to slow sunsets seen over a desolate hill country. All the figures
contribute to our impression of Saul's power and majesty.
141. _Since my days_, etc. Compare this passage with _Pippa Passes_,
Prologue, 104-113.
172. _Carouse in the past._ This line marks a change in the direction of
David's thought. Up to stanza X it was the glorious past that he had
been urging upon Saul's attention. But now he realizes that true
inspiration comes not so much from a re-living of one's achievements, as
from the thought of the permanence of one's fame and one's deeds.
192. _And behold while I sang._ At this point David is overcome by the
memory of the sudden spiritual illumination that came to him in his
interview with Saul. He had reached the summit of his endeavor (l. 191)
and yet knew himself powerless to give the King new life. Then there
flashed upon him the truth expressed in stanzas XVII-XIX. He breaks off
in lines 192-205, going, in his strong feeling, ahead of his story and
commenting on what is described in stanza XIX. In stanza XV he resumes
his narrative.
204. _Hebron._ David watches the slow coming of the dawn over the hill
on which is situated the town of Hebron.
205. _Kidron._ A brook near Jerusalem. It is fed by springs, and the
amount of water in it is sensibly decreased by the extreme heat of the
day.
214. _Ere error had bent._ In _I Samuel_, Chapter xv, is an account of
Saul's disobedience and punishment. The choosing of Saul to be king is
described in _I Samuel_, Chapters ix and x.
292. _Sabaoth._ The word means "hosts" and is ordinarily used in the
phrase "The Lord of hosts." It represents the omnipotence of God.
303. _Nor leave up nor down_, etc. At the end of stanza xv, the thought
that had come to David was that God had proved supreme in all the ways
in which a human being could test knowledge and power, but that in the
one way of love the creature might surpass the Creator. At line 302 he
has come to believe in the infinitude of God's love as well as in the
infinitude of His power. It is interesting to note that George Eliot in
_Silas Marner_ gives to ignorant Dolly Winthrop an experience and a
philosophy of life almost identical with those of Browning's David.
307-312. A prophecy of the revelation of the divine in the human, the
coming of God in the person of Christ. It is the human in the divine
that men seek and love. In the Old Testament days such an idea, though
foretold and longed for, could be but vaguely conceived except in
moments of especial insight in the minds of poet-prophets like David.
Mr. Herford (_Robert Browning_, p. 120) says of this passage:
"David is occupied with no speculative question, but with the practical
problem of saving a ruined soul; and neither logical ingenuity nor
divine suggestion, but the inherent spiritual significance of the
situation, urges his thought along the lonely path of prophecy. The love
for the old King, which prompted him to try all the hidden paths of his
soul in quest of healing, becomes a lighted torch by which he tracks out
the meaning of the world and the still unrevealed purposes of God; until
the energy of thought culminates in vision and the Christ stands full
before his eyes."
313-335. In this stanza David represents all existences, good and evil
spirits, all animals, all forms of nature, as stirred by the great news
of the future manifestation of the love of God as shown in Christ.