and strangers: we--
Oh, close, safe, warm, sleep I and she,
--I and she!"

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 57: This note contains three burlesque sonnets whose chief
interest is, that they are, with the exception of the unclaimed sonnet
printed in the _Monthly Repository_ in 1834, the first sonnets ever
published by Browning.]

[Footnote 58: One can scarcely read this poem without recalling the
superb and not unsimilar episode in prose of another "great dramatic
poet," Landor's Imaginary Conversation between the Empress Catherine and
Princess Dashkof.]

[Footnote 59: Mrs. Orr, _Handbook_, p. 313.]

30. FERISHTAH'S FANCIES.

[Published in November, 1884 (_Poetical Works_, 1898, Vol.
XVI. pp. 1-92).]

_Ferishtah's Fancies_ consists of twelve sections, each an argument in
an allegory, Persian by presentment, modern or universal in
intention.[60] Lightly laid in between the sections, like flowers
between the leaves, are twelve lyrics, mostly love songs addressed to a
beloved memory, each lyric having a close affinity with the preceding
"Fancy." A humorous lyrical prologue, and a passionate lyrical epilogue,
complete the work. We learn from Mrs. Orr, that

"The idea of _Ferishtah's Fancies_ grew out of a fable by
Pilpay, which Mr. Browning read when a boy. He ... put this
into verse; and it then occurred to him to make the poem the
beginning of a series, in which the Dervish who is first
introduced as a learner should reappear in the character of a
teacher. Ferishtah's 'fancies' are the familiar illustrations
by which his teachings are enforced."[61]

The book is Browning's _West-Eastern Divan_, and it is written at nearly
the same age as Goethe's. But, though there is a good deal of local
colour in the setting, no attempt, as the motto warns us, is made to
reproduce Eastern thought. The "Persian garments" are used for a
disguise, not as a habit; perhaps for the very reason that the thoughts
they drape are of such intense personal sincerity. The drapery, however,
is perfectly transparent, and one may read "Robert Browning" for
"Dervish Ferishtah" _passim_.

The first two fancies (_The Eagle_ and _The Melon-Seller_) give the
lessons which Ferishtah learnt, and which determined him to become a
Dervish: all the rest are his own lessons to others. These deal
severally with faith (_Shah Abbas_), prayer (_The Family_), the
Incarnation (_The Sun_), the meaning of evil and o