Venice, 1706-1785, a celebrated
musician and prolific composer.

6. =St. Mark's=. The famous cathedral of Venice. =Doges ... rings=.
The Doge was chief magistrate of Venice. The annual ceremony of
"wedding the Adriatic" by casting into it a gold ring was instituted
in 1174, in commemoration of the victory of the Venetian fleet over
Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany.

8. =Shylock's bridge=. By the Rialto. A house by the bridge, said to
be Shylock's, is still pointed out to visitors.

18. =clavichord=. An instrument of the type of the piano.

19 ff. =thirds=, =sixths=, etc. For the musical terms see an unabridged
dictionary or a musical dictionary.

30. Compare the lines in Fitzgerald's translation of the
_Rubaiyat_:--

"For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That from his vintage rolling Time hath prest,
Have drunk their cup a round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest."

This is the characteristic note of poetic melancholy, found again and
again from Virgil to Tennyson.

37-39. Is the ironical tone of these lines in harmony with the spirit
of the rest of the poem?

What does Galuppi's music mean to Browning? What does it recall of the
life in Venice? Is the lightness of tone in the music itself or in
the poet's idea of Venice? What emotions are aroused? What causes
the poet's sadness? Is the verse musical? Does it suit the ideas it
conveys?

ABT VOGLER. (PAGE 126.)

George Joseph Vogler, known also as Abbe (or Abt) Vogler (1748-1816),
was a German musician. He composed operas and other musical pieces,
became famous as an organist, and invented an organ with pedals and
several keyboards. Browning seems to have in mind the complex musical
harmonies of which the instrument was capable. See lines 10, 13, 52,
55, and 84 of the poem. See also the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.

3. =Solomon=. Legends about Solomon and his power over the spirits of
earth and air are common in Jewish and Arabic literature.

9 ff. =building=. The idea of building by music is an old one. See
the classical story of Amphion and the walls of Thebes, Coleridge's
_Kubla Khan_, and Tennyson's _Gareth and Lynette_, lines
272-274.

19. =rampired=. Furnished with _ramparts_.

23. The reference is to St. Peter's in Rome.

The musician's imagination takes fire from his playing, and his music
seems like a glorious palace which he is building. The notes are
conceived as spirits doing his bidding (sta