205:. He spent nearly all his time wandering about the pine forest and marsh, and had little human company other than the elderly servants; what he knew about the world he knew by hearsay. Sometimes he would stare at a stone font in a vault of the castle, dreaming that the female statues who held it up were under a curse, and that he could plead with God for their pardon and release. At other times he would indulge in daydreams about himself as a great hero, in whom all virtues, skills and powers would combine – in other words, as a reinvention of
295:
lasting progress can only be made one step at a time. He has already decided that the
Guelphs represent the common people's interests more closely, because they subordinate, at least in principle, the momentary dominions procured by strength and cunning to the eternal dominion of God and His law. He concludes that his immediate duty is to convince Taurello to take up the Guelph cause and keep the Emperor away from Lombardy.
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243:, whose lack of devotion to anything outside of himself had been his ruin. His bitter musings are interrupted by Naddo, who brings news that he has been summoned to Verona to sing at Palma's wedding with Count Richard. But when Sordello arrives at Verona, Palma meets him and confesses her love for him. (At this point, the narrative returns to where it began at the start of Book I.)
194:; in his absence, his palaces were burned by Guelphs. On his return, he takes vengeance, and Azzo and Richard flee. They come back and besiege Ferrara, but when Richard is invited to a parley, he is captured. In a castle at Verona, the Council of Twenty-Four discuss the city's predicament; in a distant room, the poet Sordello sits motionless, thinking about his love, Palma.
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Guelphs? Can he expect to fulfil any of his hopes at all, or would it be wiser to see to his own happiness, even at the expense of his new subordinates? He concludes that his previous failures have been a result of the failure to accept the limitations inherent in being human, and his reluctance to devote himself to a single end, or to a single cherished person.
385:. Son of Henry VI and grandson of Friedrich Barbarossa. Crowned by Pope Honorius in 1220. His second wife was Yolande, the daughter of John of Brienne. Friedrich's decision to forswear crusading is given as the origin of his present conflict with the Pope, and the reason for his first excommunication, by Gregory IX, in 1227.
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action", and devotes himself to minstrelsy, but quickly becomes bored and slapdash; he tries reinventing his language to express his visions more directly, but encounters public incomprehension and personal fatigue. Sordello is deeply divided between his conceptions of poet as profession and poet as destiny.
229:
The lady
Adelaide dies suddenly; then the news comes that Ecelin II has resolved to retire to a monastery. Taurello confronts his lord on horseback, but is unable to make him change his mind. Taurello is thus forced to abandon his plan to join the Emperor on a new Crusade. He travels to Mantua, where
217:
Sordello is wandering through the wood towards Mantua, daydreaming about Palma, when he comes upon a crowd gathered by the city's wall. They are listening to the aged troubador
Eglamor. Impatient with Eglamor's feeble efforts, Sordello interrupts him and continues his song so effectively that, to his
319:
Sordello debates with himself about his best course of action. Should he persist in his determination to throw in his lot with the
Guelphs, or does his sudden elevation to the status of a Ghibelline leader imply that his destiny lies with them? Would the common people benefit from the triumph of the
298:
Sordello goes to
Taurello and Palma and delivers his pitch, but his curiosity to see what effect his speech is having on the soldier robs his long disused voice of emotion, and Taurello responds with puzzled amusement, and then with sarcasm. Sordello's pride is touched, and, realising that this will
270:
arrive to negotiate a ransom for Count
Richard. Sordello, too, arrives in Ferrara, making the long journey at the risk of his precarious health. He had planned to visit Azzo VII, camped outside the city, but first he goes to the palace of San Pietro to talk to Taurello Salinguerra. He is appalled by
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Sordello converses with Palma, and declares himself disgusted with both the
Guelphs and the Ghibellines: both sides pursue selfish ends and exploit the common people. He conceives the idea of building a City of God in which Christendom can be reunited. At dawn he leaps up to meet the ordinary folk
138:
Lord
Tennyson manfully tackled it, but he is reported to have admitted in bitterness of spirit: "There were only two lines in it that I understood, and they were both lies; they were the opening and closing lines, 'Who will may hear Sordello's story told,' and 'Who would has heard Sordello's story
225:
Sordello, long reluctant to do so, finally enquires about his birth and origins. He is told that he was the son of an archer who saved the lives of
Adelaide and Palma when they were nearly killed by a fire set by Ecelin himself. Disappointed, Sordello then gives up the plan of becoming a "man of
294:
By sunset, Sordello has already concluded his dream is impracticable. Even if the Utopia could be brought into being overnight by a single genius, the ideal city would crumble instantly when transferred into the hands of ordinary sinners. But he then realises his mistake: failure to accept that
407:
Called "the hill-cat" because of his alpine castle; his emblem was actually an ostrich with a horse-shoe in its mouth. The great-grandson of the relatively powerless Ecelo, a Saxon who introduced
Imperial power into northern Italy. He was married first to Agnes of Este, then to Adelaide. After
246:
The death of Adelaide and the withdrawal of Ecelin has made it possible for her to confess her love to Sordello and ask him to marry her. This would make him the head of the House of Romano; in fact, Taurello approves strongly, as it would make an alliance with the Guelphs unnecessary.
326:
Taurello's hopes of rising in the world are dashed. He marries Sophia, a daughter of Ecelin II, and dwindles into an unremarkable old age, eventually being captured and exiled to Venice. The Ghibelline cause triumphs through the ruthlessness of Ecelin III and Alberic.
238:
At Goito, Sordello re-immerses himself in his daydreams for a whole year, but he has lost his self-confidence, and he begins to wonder if he had thrown over all prospect of success as an ordinary human being, let alone as an Apollo. He concludes that he had been a
209:. Browning comments that an aesthete can fail in life either through attempting nothing, or attempting too much. Sordello once heard that the lady Palma was being wooed by the Guelph, Count Richard, and she became another subject of his daydreams.
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on Sordello's neck, declaring him head of the house of Romano. A strange intuition arises in both. It is then that Palma confesses what she has known for more than a year: Sordello is Taurello's son, the child he thought had perished at Vicenza.
218:
own astonishment, he wins the prize, and Palma bestows upon him her scarf. Eglamor responds graciously to his defeat, but walks home alone and troubled, and dies the same night. At his funeral, Sordello praises him highly. Eglamor's
310:
Sordello desires to be left alone; Taurello and Palma go downstairs, where Taurello, excited out of his wits, starts to unfold a mad project to ignore both Emperor and Pope and build a new centre of power on the house of Romano.
330:
Sordello's career is inflated by chroniclers and he is misremembered as a statesman and hero. Nothing authentic remains of his life, apart from a fragment of the Goito lay, his first and least remarkable song.
271:
Taurello's explanation of the Ghibelline policy. He walks stunned through the city, and, on meeting the delegates from Verona, sings for them at their request; one of them turns out to be Palma in disguise.
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When he has finished, Taurello shrugs and admits that his own life's work, seemingly more substantial, has been demolished by Ecelin's abdication, and impulsively throws the Imperial
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He throws the Imperial emblem to the floor. The stress of this moment is too much, and when Taurello and Palma return, they find that he has collapsed and died.
102:. Worked on for seven years, and largely written between 1836 and 1840, it was published in March 1840. It consists of a fictionalised version of the life of
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Browning begins by summoning the shades of all dead poets to listen to the story he has to tell. The one who intimidates him most is the "pale face"
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be his last chance to express himself in any consequential way, he defends with eloquence the concept of poetry as a calling higher than any other.
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The poem is convoluted and obscure, its difficulties increased by its unfamiliar setting. It was harshly received at the time of its publication:
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Back in the palace, Taurello ponders the events of his life (the theft of his first fiancée by Azzo VI, his plotting with Ecelin II to win back
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as a background, the rest of Book III consists of a discussion of his own hopes for the future, and his reasons for writing
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Sordello is appointed to welcome him with song, but the baffled troubadour, lacking inspiration, wanders back to Goito.
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have just heard that their Guelph prince, Count Richard of St Boniface, has been captured by Taurello Salinguerra.
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Sordello's lover, the only child of Ecelin II by Agnes of Este. (The historical Palma was Adelaide's child.)
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Browning describes Sordello's childhood and youth as an orphaned page at the lonely castle of
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The setting is northern Italy in the 1220s, dominated by the struggle between the
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A page, later a celebrated poet who discovers he is the son of Taurello.
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Becoming Browning: the poems and plays of Robert Browning, 1833–1846
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An elderly minstrel who is defeated by Sordello. (Fictional.)
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Count Richard of St Boniface (Bonifacio), prince of Verona
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Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day
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and to sketch the foundation of his plans in his mind.
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Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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decades of campaigning he retires to a monastery at
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143:The poem was, however, championed decades later by
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912:Armstrong Browning Library, collections and papers
714:How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix
378:Kaiser Friedrich II (1194–1250) of Hohenstauffen
190:Not long ago, Taurello had been lured away from
803:Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society
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444:Jongleur and friend to Sordello. (Fictional.)
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839:Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper
468:. London: Walter Scott Ltd. pp. 93–113.
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496:, 1906, reprinted 2009 by BiblioBazaar as
266:Ferrara has been destroyed; envoys of the
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183:(whom he does not name). The citizens of
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222:, Naddo, becomes Sordello's jongleur.
1012:Cultural depictions of Italian people
481:, Ohio State University Press, 1983,
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754:Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
647:Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession
14:
694:Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
494:Browning's Sordello: A Commentary
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390:Taurello Salinguerra, of Ferrara
383:Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
368:Called "the lion" or "the lynx".
163:(partisans of the Pope) and the
130:'s opinion was recorded thus by
670:Johannes Agricola in Meditation
926:The Barretts of Wimpole Street
348:He was pope from 1216 to 1226.
134:in his biography of Browning:
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412:, to the despair of Taurello.
365:Azzo VII, of Este (1205–1264)
1017:Cultural depictions of poets
819:Red Cotton Night-Cap Country
733:Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day
705:Dramatic Romances and Lyrics
569:King Victor and King Charles
360:"; he is called "the ounce".
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960:Elizabeth Barrett Browning
846:The Agamemnon of Aeschylus
710:Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
356:His emblem is the "purple
1007:Works based on Purgatorio
1002:Poetry by Robert Browning
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856:The Two Poets of Croisic
585:A Blot in the 'Scutcheon
577:The Return of the Druses
113:depicted in Canto VI of
968:Robert Barrett Browning
465:Life of Robert Browning
462:Sharp, William (1989).
796:Balaustion's Adventure
766:A Toccata of Galuppi's
746:"Love Among the Ruins"
381:More usually known as
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944:Pied Piper of Hamelin
826:Aristophanes' Apology
789:The Ring and the Book
394:(Salinguerra Torelli)
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128:Alfred, Lord Tennyson
782:Caliban upon Setebos
396:Called "the osprey".
98:by the English poet
877:Ferishtah's Fancies
477:Clyde de L. Ryals,
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811:Fifine at the Fair
637:Poetry collections
593:Colombe's Birthday
335:Historical persons
169:Holy Roman Emperor
167:(partisans of the
145:Algernon Swinburne
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663:Porphyria's Lover
345:Pope Honorius III
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773:Dramatis Personæ
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718:Meeting at Night
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609:A Soul's Tragedy
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155:Plot summary
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56:Edward Moxon
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953:Family life
750:Evelyn Hope
373:Ghibellines
165:Ghibellines
997:1840 poems
991:Categories
976:Casa Guidi
852:La Saisiaz
655:Paracelsus
449:References
405:(Ezzelino)
241:narcissist
149:Ezra Pound
120:Purgatorio
111:troubadour
67:March 1840
937:1957 film
932:1934 film
869:Jocoseria
639:and poems
553:Strafford
52:Publisher
19:Sordello
890:Asolando
792:(1868–9)
776:(1864, "
708:(1845, "
688:(1842, "
677:Sordello
672:" (1836)
665:" (1836)
417:Sordello
256:Sordello
234:Book III
220:jongleur
139:told!'".
91:Sordello
34:Language
900:Related
744:(1855,
433:Eglamor
340:Guelphs
315:Book VI
304:baldric
280:Vicenza
276:Ferrara
262:Book IV
213:Book II
201:, near
192:Ferrara
181:Shelley
161:Guelphs
108:Lombard
37:English
963:(wife)
892:(1889)
886:(1887)
880:(1884)
872:(1883)
858:(1878)
848:(1877)
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572:(1842)
564:(1841)
556:(1837)
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410:Oliero
290:Book V
252:Venice
207:Apollo
203:Mantua
185:Verona
175:Book I
24:Author
971:(son)
601:Luria
545:Plays
441:Naddo
425:Palma
358:pavis
199:Goito
94:is a
83:Print
42:Genre
854:and
780:", "
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760:", "
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498:ISBN
483:ISBN
147:and
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