y,
his liveliness of conception and narration, his high optimism, and his
interest in the things that make for the life of the soul, appeal to
the imagination and the feelings of youth.

The present edition, attempts but little in the way of criticism. The
notes cover such matters as are not readily settled by an appeal to
the dictionary, and suggest, in addition, questions that are designed
to help in interpretation and appreciation.

TEACHERS' COLLEGE, NEW YORK,

_July_, 1899.

CONTENTS

LIFE OF BROWNING
BROWNING AS POET
APPRECIATIONS
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF BROWNING'S WORKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Tray
Incident of the French Camp
"How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"
Herve Riel
Pheidippides
My Star
Evelyn Hope
Love among the Ruins
Misconceptions
Natural Magic
Apparitions
A Wall
Confessions
A Woman's Last Word
A Pretty Woman
Youth and Art
A Tale
Cavalier Tunes
Home-Thoughts, from the Sea
Summum Bonum
A Face
Songs from Pippa Passes
The Lost Leader
Apparent Failure
Fears and Scruples
Instans Tyrannus
The Patriot
The Boy and the Angel
Memorabilia
Why I am a Liberal
Prospice
Epilogue to "Asolando"
"De Gustibus--"
The Italian in England
My Last Duchess
The Bishop Orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
The Laboratory
Home Thoughts, from Abroad
Up at a Villa--Down in the City
A Toccata of Galuppi's
Abt Vogler
Rabbi Ben Ezra
A Grammarian's Funeral
Andrea del Sarto
Caliban upon Setebos
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"
An Epistle
Saul
One Word More

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

LIFE OF BROWNING

Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, May 7, 1812. He was
contemporary with Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, Lowell, Emerson,
Hawthorne, Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Dumas, Hugo, Mendelssohn, Wagner,
and a score of other men famous in art and science.

Browning's good fortune began with his birth. His father, a clerk in
the Bank of England, possessed ample means for the education of his
children. He had artistic and literary tastes, a mind richly stored
with philosophy, history, literature, and legend, some repute as a
maker of verses, and a liberality that led him to assist his gifted
son in following his bent. From his father Robert inherited his
literary tastes and his vigorous health; in his father he found a
critic and companion. His mother was described by Carlyle as a type
of the true Scotch gentlewoman. Her "fathomless char