Complete Works of Robert Browning 8: with variant Readings and Annotations (Complete Works Robert Browning)

405 Pages·1988·28.9 MB·English

by  Robert Browning

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING, VOLUME VIII
Drawzng, by William Wetmore Story, 1869.
EDITORIAL BOARD
J A C: K W. H E K R 1 N G Generd editor
ROMA A. KING, .JR.
PARK HONAN
Volume VIII P
h
BAYl.OR IJNIVE:RSITY
WACO, I’EXAS
OHIO IJNIVERSITY PRESS
A’I‘HE:NS, OHIO
1988
Members of the Editorial Staff who have assisted in the preparation (
Volume VIII:
John Berkey
Ashby Bland Crowder, Jr.
David R. Ewbank
Nathaniel Hart
W. Craig Turner
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid free paper. 03
Gpyright 0 1988 by Ohlo 1Jniversity Press and Baylor University
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-18389
ISBN O-821 4-0380-X
All rights reserved
Prmted in the IJnited States of America
CONTENTS
Page Number
PREFACE vii
TABLES xx
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxiv
THE RING AND THE BOOK
Book V. Count Guido Franceschini
Book VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi 79
Book VII. Pompilia 159
Book VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis 233
EDITORIAL NOTES 307
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
PREFACE
1 CONTENTS
This edition of the works of Robert Browning is intended to be
complete. It will comprise at least fourteen volumes and will contain:
1. The entire contents of the first editions of Browning’s works,
arranged in their chronological order of publication. (The poems
included in Dramatic Lyrics, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, and Men
and Women, for example, appear in the order of their first publication
rather than in the order in which Browning rearranged them for later
publication.)
2. All prefaces and dedications which Browning is known to have
written for his own works and for those of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
3. The two prose essays that Browning is known to have
published: the review of a book on Tasso, generally referred to as the
“Essay on Chatterton,” and the preface for a collection of letters
supposed to have been written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, generally
referred to as the “Essay on Shelley.”
4. The front matter and the table of con tents of each of the collect-
ed editions (1849,1863,1865,1868, 1888- 1889) which Browning himself
saw through the press.
5. Poems published during Browning’s lifetime but not collected
by him.
6. Poems not published during Browning’s lifetime which have
come to light since his death.
7. John Forster’s Thomas Wentworth. Earl ofstrafford, to which
Browning contributed significantly, though the precise extent of his
contribution has not been determined.
8. Variants appearing in primary and secondary materials as
defined in Section II below.
9. Textual emenda tions.
10. Informational and explanatory notes for each work.
11 PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MATERIALS
Aside from a handful of uncollected short works, all of Browning’s
works but Asolando ( 1889) went through two or more editions during
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his lifetime. Except for Puuline (1833), Strufford (1837), and Sordello
( 1840), all the works published before 1849 were revised and corrected for
the 1849 collection. Strufford and Sordello were revised and corrected for
the collection of 1863, as were all the other works in that edition.
Though no further poems were added in the collection of 1865, all the
works were once again corrected and revised. The 1868 collection added
a revised Pauline and Dramatis Personae (1864) to the other works,
which were themselves again revised and corrected. The printing of the
last edition of the Poetical Works over which Browning exercised
control began in 1888, and the first eight volumes aredated thuson their
title-pages. Volumes 9 through 16 of this first impression are dated 1889,
and we have designated them 1889a to distinguish them from the second
impression of all 16 volumes, which was begun and completed in 1889.
Some of the earlier volumes of the first impression sold out almost
immediately, and in preparation for a second impression, Browning
revised and corrected the first ten volumes before he left for Italy in late
August, 1889. The second impression, in which all sixteen volumes bear
the date 1889 on their title-pages, consisted of a revised and corrected
second impression of volumes l- 10, plus a second impression of volumes
1 I- 16 altered by Browning in one instance. This impression we term
1889 (see section III below).
Existing manuscripts and editions are classified as either primary or
secondary material. The primary materials include the following:
1. The manuscript of a work when such is known to exist.
2. Proof sheets, when known to exist, that contain authorial
corrections and revisions.
3. The first and subsequent editions of a work that preserve
evidence of Browning’s intentions and were under his control.
4. The collected editions over which Browning exercised control:
1849-Poems. Two Volumes. London: Chapman and Hall.
1863-l’he Poetical Works. Three Volumes. London: Chapman
and Hall.
1865-7’he Poetical Works. Three Volumes. London: Chapman
and Hall.
1868-‘I”he Poetical Works. Six Volumes. London: Smith, Elder
and Company. Reissued in stereotype impressions with
varying title pages.
18881889-The Poetical Works. Sixteen Volumes. London: Smith,
Elder and Company. Exists in numerous stereotype impres-
sions, of which two are primary material:
1888-1889a-The first impression, in which volumes l-8 are
dated 1888 and volumes 9- 16 are dated 1889.
1889-The corrected second impression of volumes l-10 and
a second impression of volumes 1 l-16 altered by Browning
.. .
Vlll
only as stated in section III below; all dated 1889 on the title
pages.
5. The corrections in Browning’s hand in the Dykes Campbell copy
of 1888-188&r, and the manuscript list of corrections to that impression
in the Brown University Library (see section III below).
Other materials (including some in the poet’s handwriting) that
affected the text are secondary. Examples are: the copy of the first edition
of Pauline which contains annotations by Browning and John Stuart
Mill; the copies of the first edition of Paracelsus which contain correc-
tions in Browning’s hand; a very early manuscript of A Blot in the
‘Scutcheon which Browning presented to William Macready, but not
the one from which the first edition was printed; informal lists of
corrections that Browning included in letters to friends, such as the
corrections to Men and Women he sent to D. G. Rossetti; Elizabeth
Barrett’s suggestions for revisions in A Soul’s Tragedy and certain
poems in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics; and the edition of Strufford by
Emily Hickey for which Browning made suggestions.
The text and variant readings of this edition derive from collation of
primary materials as defined above. Secondary materials are occasion-
ally discussed in the notes and sometimes play a part when emendation
is required.
111 COPY-TEXT
The copy-text for this edition is Browning’s final text: the first ten
volumes of 1889 and the last six volumes of 1888-1889a, as described
above. For this choice we offer the following explanation.
Manuscripts used as printer’s copy for twenty of Browning’s thirty-
four book publications are known to exist; others may yet become
available. These manuscripts, or, in their absence, the first editions of the
works, might be considered as the most desirable copy-text. And this
would be the case for an author who exercised little control over his text
after the manuscript or first edition stage, or whose text clearly became
corrupted in a succession of editions. To preserve the intention of such
an author, one would have to choose an early text and emend it as
evidence and j udgmen t demanded.
With Browning, however, the situation is different, and our copy-
text choice results from that difference. Throughout his life Browning
continually revised his poetry. He did more than correct printer’s errors
and clarify previously intended meanings; his texts themselves remained
fluid, subject to continuous alteration. As the manuscript which he
submitted to his publisher was no doubt already a product of revision, so
each subsequent edition under his control reflects the results of an
ongoing process of creating, revising, and correcting. If we were to
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