London, June 9, 1863.”

4.  Preface to Bells and Pomegranates.—­I. Pippa Passes (1841).

“ADVERTISEMENT.

Two or three years ago I wrote a Play, about which the chief matter I much care to recollect at present is, that a Pit-full of good-natured people applauded it:  ever since, I have been desirous of doing something in the same way that should better reward their attention.  What follows, I mean for the first of a series of Dramatical Pieces, to come out at intervals; and I amuse myself by fancying that the cheap mode in which they appear, will for once help me to a sort of Pit-audience again.  Of course such a work must go on no longer than it is liked; and to provide against a certain and but too possible contingency, let me hasten to say now—­what, if I were sure of success, I would try to say circumstantially enough at the close—­that I dedicate my best intentions most admiringly to the author of ’Ion’—­most affectionately to Serjeant Talfourd.

ROBERT BROWNING.”

5.  Preface to Bells and Pomegranates.—­VIII. Luria and A Soul’s Tragedy.

“Here ends my first series of ‘Bells and Pomegranates:’  and I take the opportunity of explaining, in reply to inquiries, that I only meant by that title to indicate an endeavour towards something like an alteration, or mixture, of music with discoursing, sound with sense, poetry with thought; which looks too ambitious, thus expressed, so the symbol was preferred.  It is little to the purpose, that such is actually one of the most familiar of the many Rabbinical (and Patristic) acceptations of the phrase; because I confess that, letting authority alone, I supposed the bare words, in such juxtaposition, would sufficiently convey the desired meaning.  ‘Faith and good works’ is another fancy, for instance, and perhaps no easier to arrive at:  yet Giotto placed a pomegranate-fruit in the hand of Dante, and Raffaelle crowned his Theology (in the Camera della Segnatura) with blossoms of the same; as if the Bellari and Vasari would be sure to come after, and explain that it was merely ’simbolo delle buone opere—­il qual Pomogranato fu pero usato nelle vesti del Pontefice appresso gli Ebrei.’  R. B.”

It may be worth while to append the interesting concluding paragraph of the preface to the first series of Selections, issued by Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. in 1872: 

“A few years ago, had such an opportunity presented itself, I might have been tempted to say a word in reply to the objections my poetry was used to encounter.  Time has kindly co-operated with my disinclination to write the poetry and the criticism besides.  The readers I am at last privileged to expect, meet me fully half-way; and if, from their fitting standpoint, they must still ‘censure me in their wisdom,’ they have previously ‘awakened their senses that they may the better judge.’  Nor do I apprehend any more charges of being wilfully obscure, unconscientiously careless, or perversely harsh.  Having hitherto done my utmost in the art to which my life is a devotion, I cannot engage to increase the effort; but I conceive that there may be helpful light, as well as reassuring warmth, in the attention and sympathy I gratefully acknowledge R. B.