[Footnote 32: The classification of this poem is open to the obvious
objection that it is not a monologue; but a dialogue or alternation of
monologues, in which the second speaker, Balaustion (who is also the
narrator), is, for the time being, as real as the first. Its conception
is, however, expressed in the first title; and the arguments and
descriptions which Balaustion supplies only contribute to the vividness
with which Aristophanes and his defence are brought before us.
"Aristophanes' Apology" is identical in spirit with the other poems of
this group.]
[Footnote 33: This incident is founded on fact. It is related in
Plutarch's Lives, that after the defeat of Nicias, all those of the
captives who could recite something from Euripides were kindly treated
by the Syracusans.]
[Footnote 34: The name signifies celebration of the festival of the
Thesmophoria. This was held by women only, in honour of Ceres and
Proserpine.]
[Footnote 35: The chorus of each new play was supplied to its author by
the Government, when considered worth the outlay. Sketches of this and
other plays alluded to in the course of the work may be read in the
first volume of Mahaffy's "History of Classical Greek Literature."]
[Footnote 36: The plays were performed at the lesser and greater
festivals of Bacchus; this, the Lenaia, being the smaller one. Hence,
the presence of priest as well as archon at the ensuing banquet]
[Footnote 37: The failure here alluded to is his Ploutos or Plutus--an
inoffensive but tame comedy written when Aristophanes was advanced in
years, and of which the ill-success has been imputed to this fact. Mr.
Browning, however, treats it as a proof that the author's ingrained
habit of coarse fun had unfitted him for the more serious treatment of
human life.]
[Footnote 38: Figures placed above the entrance of Athenian houses, and
symbolizing the double life. It was held as sacrilege to deface them, as
had been recently and mysteriously done.]
[Footnote 39: Introducing him into the play, as in the disguise of a
disreputable woman.]
[Footnote 40: Aristophanes' comedy of the "Clouds" was written
especially at Socrates, who stood up unconcernedly in the theatre that
the many strangers present might understand what was intended.]
[Footnote 41: Mr. Mahaffy's description of the "Clouds" contains an
account of this defeat, which sets forth the amusing conceit and
sophistry of Aristophanes' explanation of it. He alludes here to the
prevailing custom of several dramatic writers competing for a prize.]
[Footnote 42: Whirligig is a parody of the word "vortex." Vortex itself
is used in derision of Socrates, who is represented in the "Clouds" as
setting up this non-rational force in the place of Zeus--the clouds
themselves being subordinate divinities.]
[Footnote 43: Saperdion was a famous Hetaira, the Empousa, a
mythological monster. Kimberic or Cimberic means transparent.]
[Footnote 44: A pure libel on this play, which is noted for its novel
and successful attempt to represent humour without indecency.
Aristophanes here alludes to the prevailing custom of concluding every
group of three tragedies with a play in which the chorus consisted of
Satyrs: a custom which Euripides broke through.]
[Footnote 45: The inverted commas include here, as elsewhere in the
Apology, only the very condensed substance of Mr. Browning's words.]
[Footnote 46: Tin-islands. Scilly Islands, loosely speaking, Great
Britain.]
[Footnote 47: A demagogue of bad character attacked by Aristophanes: a
big fellow and great coward.]
[Footnote 48: White was the Greek colour of victory. This passage, not
easily paraphrased, is a poetic recognition of the latent sympathy of
Aristophanes with the good cause.]
[Footnote 49: A game said to be of Sicilian origin and played in many
ways. Details of it may be found in Becker's "Charikles," vol. ii.]
[Footnote 50: Thamyris of Thrace, said to have been blinded by the Muses
for contending with them in song. The incident is given in the "Iliad,"
and was treated again by Sophocles, as Aristophanes also relates.]
[Footnote 51: This also is historical.]
[Footnote 52: Grote's "History of Greece," vol. iii. p. 265.]
[Footnote 53: Eidotheé or Eidothea, is the daughter of Proteus--the old
man of the sea. A legend concerning her is found in the 4th book of the
Odyssey.]
[Footnote 54: There is such a monument at Pornic.]
[Footnote 55: These words are taken from a line in the Prometheus of
Æschylus.]
[Footnote 56: Mr. Browning desires me to say that he has been wrong in
associating this custom with the little temple by the river Clitumnus
which he describes from personal knowledge. That to which the tradition
refers stood by the lake of Nemi.]
[Footnote 57: The Cardinal himself reviewed this poem, not
disapprovingly, in a catholic publication of the time]
[Footnote 58: This refers to the popular Neapolitan belief that a
crystallized drop of the blood of the patron saint, Januarius, is
miraculously liquefied on given occasions.]
[Footnote 59: The "Iketides" (Suppliants), mentioned in Section XVIII.,
is a Tragedy by Æschylus, the earliest extant: and of which the text is
especially incomplete: hence, halting, and "maimed."]
[Footnote 60: This poem, like "Aristophanes' Apology," belongs in spirit
more than in form to its particular group. Each contains a dialogue, and
in the present case we have a defence, though not a specious one of the
judgment attained]
[Footnote 61: We recognize the _cogito ergo sum_ of Descartes.]
[Footnote 62: The narrator, in a parenthetic statement, imputes a
doctrine to St. John, which is an unconscious approach on Mr. Browning's
part to the "animism" of some ancient and mediæval philosophies. It
carries the idea of the Trinity into the individual life, by subjecting
this to three souls, the lowest of which reigns over the body, and is
that which "Does:" the second and third being respectively that which
"Knows" and "Is." The reference to the "glossa of Theotypas" is part of
the fiction.]
[Footnote 63: The present Riccardi palace in the Via Larga was built by
Cosmo dei Medici in 1430; and remained in the possession of the Medici
till 1659, when it was sold to Marchese Riccardi. The original Riccardi
palace in the Piazza S. S. Annunziata is now (since 1870) Palazzo
Antinori.
In my first edition, the "crime" is wrongly interpreted as the murder of
Alexander, Duke of Florence, in 1536; and the confusion, I regret to
find, increased by a wrong figure (8 for 5), which has slipped into the
date.]
[Footnote 64: Mr. Browning possesses or possessed pictures by all the
artists mentioned in this connection.]
[Footnote 65: (Verses 26, 27, 28.) "Bigordi" is the family name of
Domenico called "Ghirlandajo," from the family trade of wreath-making.
"Sandro" stands for Alessandro Botticelli. "Lippino" was son of Fra
Lippo Lippi. Mr. Browning alludes to him as "wronged," because others
were credited with some of his best work. "Lorenzo Monaco" (the monk)
was a contemporary, or nearly so, of Fra Angelico, but more severe in
manner. "Pollajolo" was both painter and sculptor. "Margheritone of
Arezzo" was one of the earlier Old Masters, and died, as Vasari states,
"infastidito" (deeply annoyed), by the success of Giotto and the "new
school." Hence the funeral garb in which Mr. Browning depicts him.]
[Footnote 66: The "magic" symbolized is that of genuine poetry; but the
magician, or "mage," is an historical person; and the special feat
imputed to him was recorded of other magicians in the Middle Ages, if
not of himself.
"Johannes Teutonicus, a canon of Halberstadt in Germany, after he had
performed a number of prestigious feats almost incredible, was
transported by the Devil in the likeness of a black horse, and was both
seen and heard upon one and the same Christmas day to say Mass in
Halberstadt, in Mayntz, and in Cologne" ("Heywood's Hierarchy," bk. iv.,
p. 253).
The "prestigious feat" of causing flowers to appear in winter was a
common one. "In the year 876, the Emperor Lewis then reigning, there was
one Zedechias, by religion a Jew, by profession a physician, but indeed
a magician. In the midst of winter, in the Emperor's palace, he suddenly
caused a most pleasant and delightful garden to appear, with all sorts
of trees, plants, herbs, and flowers, together with the singing of all
sorts of birds, to be seen and heard." (Delrio, "Disquisitio Magicæ,"
bk. i., chap, iv., and elsewhere; and many other authorities.)]
[Footnote 67: "Wine of Cyprus." The quotation heading the poem qualifies
it as 'wine for the superiors in age and station.']
[Footnote 68: Such as Wordsworth assumed to have been in use with
Shakespeare.]
[Footnote 69: This is told in the tales of the Troubadours.]
[Footnote 70: Published, simultaneously, in Mr. Fox's "Monthly
Repository." The song in "Pippa Passes" beginning "A king lived long
ago," and the verses introduced in "James Lee's Wife," were also first
published in this Magazine, edited by the generous and very earliest
encourager of Mr. Browning's boyish attempts at poetry.]
[Footnote 71: These verses were written when Mr. Browning was
twenty-three.]