The Works of Robert Browning Volume 8 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ... And speechify and sing-song and forego 2380 Far as you may your function, --still its pact Endures, one piece of early homage still Exacted of you; after your three bouts At hoitytoity, great men with long words, And so forth, --at the end, must tack itself 2385 The genuine sample, the Satyric Play, Concession, with its wood-boys' fun and freak, To the true taste of the mere multitude. Yet, there again What does your Still-at-itch, Always-the-innovator? Shrugs and shirks 2390 Out of his fifty Trilogies, some five Are somehow suited: Satyrs dance and sing, Try merriment, a grimly prank or two, Sour joke squeezed through pursed lips and teeth on edge, Then quick on top of toe to pastoral sport, 2395 Goat-tendingand sheep-herding, cheese and cream, Soft grass and silver rillets, country-fare-- When throats were promised Thasian Five such feats, -- Then frankly off he threw the yoke: next Droll, Next festive drama, covenanted fun, 2400 Decent reversion to indecency, Proved--your 'Alkestis' There 's quite fun enough, Herakles drunk From out fate's blackening wave Calamitous, just zigzags some shot star, Poor promise of faint joy, and turns the laugh 2405 On dupes whose fears and tears were all in waste "For which sufficient reasons, in truth's name, I closed with whom you count the Meaner Muse, Classed me with Comic Poets who should weld Dark with bright metal, show their blade may keep 2410 Its adamantine birthright though a-blaze With poetry, the gold, and wit, the gem, And strike mere gold, unstiffened out by steel, Or gem, no iron joints its strength around, From hand of--posturer, not combatant 2415 "Such was my purpose: it succeeds, I say Have not we beaten Kallikratidas, Not humbled Sparte? Peace awaits our word, Spite of...