ection Browning imagines himself as a child under the guardianship
of the angel.

16. _Like that child._ The child in the picture looks into the heavens.
Browning would look only at the gracious face of the angel.

46. _My angel._ Cf. "My love," l. 54. Both refer to Mrs. Browning.

MEMORABILIA

_Pauline_ (1832) has many references to Shelley; note especially lines
151-229; 1020-1031. Browning's "Essay on Shelley" appeared in 1852.
"Memorabilia" was composed in 1853-4.

18-28. That later in life Browning "came to think unfavorably of Shelley
as a man and to esteem him less highly as a poet" is shown by a letter
written to Dr. Furnivall: "For myself I painfully contrast my notions of
Shelley the _man_ and Shelley, well, even the _poet_, with what they
were sixty years ago." (Quoted by Mr. Dowden: _Robert Browning_, p. 10.)
Mr. Browning declined an invitation to be president of the Shelley
Society. For a discussion of Shelley's influence on Browning see
_Poet-Lore_, Volume VII, January, 1895.

INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP

Ratisbon, a city of Bavaria, was stormed by Napoleon in 1809. The story
told in the poem is a true one, but its hero was a man, not a boy.

MY LAST DUCHESS

The original title in _Dramatic Lyrics_, 1842, was "Italy." It is a poem
of the Italian Renaissance. Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck are,
however, imaginary artists.

THE BOY AND THE ANGEL

There is no known original for the story of Theocrite, but it is in
accord with the Roman Catholic belief that angels watch over human
beings and are interested in their affairs. In the last line is the
fundamental lesson of the poem. Compare the thought of Pippa in the song
"All service ranks the same with God." See Leigh Hunt's "King Robert of
Sicily" (in _A Jar of Honey_, ch. vi.) and Longfellow's "King Robert of
Sicily" (in _Tales of a Wayside Inn_) for an analogous legend.

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN

This poem was written to amuse little Willie Macready who was ill and
wished a poem for which he could make illustrations. There are many
legends that deal with the refusal of a reward promised to a magician
for some stipulated service. Mr. Berdoe (_Browning Cyclopaedia_, p. 339)
says that the story given here is based on an account by Verstegan in
his _Restitution of Decayed Intelligence_ (1634). Verstegan gives
"Bunting" as the name of the piper; the town, as Hamelin in Brunswick on
the Weser; and the mountain into which the children