To feel and to know is mind's highest conjunction. Music dredges deep, and draws to light treasures from the soul, says the poem. In the poem Browning pays tribute to his early music-master, John Relfe.

"Fust and his Friends" is the Epilogue to this series, Parleyings." It relates an episode in the life of Johann Fust, who was considered to have invented the art of printing, and certain monks who, having heard the report of his marvels, have decided that he must have made a compact with the devil; so, being in danger of losing his soul, these friends have come to Fust to exorcise Satan and restore their friend to his senses, but so ignorant and forgetful are they, that they cannot hit upon the right formula for the occasion.

The inventor is depressed-something fails in his idea, apparently, it won't work. But suddenly, as the monks argue, the master idea comes; and, invoking aid from Archimedes, who had said, "Give me a place to stand on, and I could move the world," Fust runs to his printing room and returns with the exorcising Psalm that the monks could not remember, written on the paper.

Fust is overwhelmed with joy at the success of his machine at last. He explains the process to the monks, who now see there was no miracle. But they dread the discovery and doubt its value-it will do as much harm as good, they think. Fust defends the value of his discovery as of great future good, even if bad incidentally results also.

In 1887 Browning removed from Warwick Crescent to De Vere Gardens, Kensington.

"He had for several years been preparing for a more roomy dwelling, says Mrs. Orr, and handsome pieces of old furniture had been stowed away at Warwick Crescent.

This summer he merely went to St. Moritz; he was determined to give the London winter a fuller trial in the more promising circumstances of his life.

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During this winter of 1887-88 his friends first perceived that a change had come over him, that his life was drawing to a close; it was difficult to do so when so much of the former elasticity remained; when he still proclaimed himself quite well,' so long as he was not definitely suffering. But he was often suffering; one terrible cold followed another ... but he made no distinct change in his mode of life. He still dined out: still attended the private view of every, or almost every, art exhibition. He kept up his unceasing correspondence-in one or two cases voluntarily added to it.

Soon after his final return to England, while he still lived in comparative seclusion, certain habits of friendly intercourse, often superficial but always binding, had rooted themselves in his life he could rise early and go to bed late and occupy every hour of the day with work or pleasure.

CHAPTER XVII

"SONNET TO EDWARD FITZGERALD”

Browning's grief and indignation on reading Edward Fitzgerald's published opinion of Mrs. Browning-Replies with sonnet expressing his rage and contempt-Philosophy of Browning probably spur to rage-Irreconcilable points of view between Browning and Fitzgerald Professor Cowell's view of "The Rubáiyát" opposed to Fitzgerald's translation - Mysticism or wine-Seer or sensualist.

A "SONNET to Edward Fitzgerald" was published in the Athenæum of July 13th, 1889:

"TO EDWARD FITZGERALD.

"I chanced upon a new book yesterday;

I opened it, and where my finger lay

'Twixt page and uncut page, these words I read-
Some six or seven at most-and learned thereby
That you, Fitzgerald, whom by ear and eye

She never knew, thanked God my wife was dead.'
Ay, dead! and were yourself alive, good Fitz,
How to return you thanks would task my wits.
Kicking you seems the common lot of curs-
While more appropriate greeting lends you grace,
Surely to spit there glorifies your face-
Spitting from lips once sanctified by hers.
ROBERT BROWNING.

"July 8th, 1889."

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The Sonnet was not included in Browning's subsequent published work, "Asolando "; he died five months after its publication.

The "Sonnet to Edward Fitzgerald" was called forth in a rage of indignation by Browning, against some words of Fitzgerald which were reported in a newspaper and caused the bitter expressions of the Sonnet.

When Mrs. Browning's death was reported, Fitzgerald wrote:

"Mrs. Browning's death is rather a relief to me, I must say; there will be no more' Aurora Leighs,' thank God! A woman of real genius, I know; but what is the upshot of it all? She and her sex had better mind the kitchen and the children, and perhaps the poor. Except in such things as little novels they only devote themselves to what men do much better, leaving that which men do worse or not at all."

Browning's savage Sonnet dealt a blow for his outraged affections, and his wife's defiled personality as artist and

woman.

In the Sonnet to Fitzgerald, Browning gave vent, probably, to a suppressed indignation; the cult of Omar Khayyám, as translated by Fitzgerald, could not but be repugnant to Browning the mystic.

The translation of "The Rubáiyát" by Fitzgerald is one of the ironies of life. The attention of Fitzgerald was drawn to the poem by Professor Cowell; they discussed the question of translating it into English. The result was so totally different an interpretation by Fitzgerald to Professor Cowell's interpretation of the poem's myticisms and the personality of the Persian mystic, Omar Khayyám, that a protest was laid against it.

In the "Life of Edward Fitzgerald," by Thomas. Wright, the view of Professor Cowell is presented. Where Fitzgerald saw agnosticism, and translated buffoonery to the credit of the Sufi, Professor Cowell saw Omar a mystic and the mystic's doctrine of the spiritual intoxication of Divine truth. Mr. Wright relates his conversations with Professor Cowell concerning the publication of "The Rubáiyát" that he came upon in the Bodleian Library, and so enthusiastically drew Fitzgerald's attention to. Mr. Wright records :

"When I visited Cambridge in November, 1901, I was able to hear Professor Cowell's opinions from his own lips:

'Are we,' I said, 'to take Omar's words literally or is there a hidden meaning?'

"The poem, he replied, 'is mystical. I am convinced of it. When in India, I had many conversations with the Moonshees on the subject, and they were all of this opinion. They ridiculed the idea that the poem is allegorical.'

666

Omar's laudation of drunkenness,' said I, 'is difficult to explain away.'

"By drunkenness,' said Professor Cowell, with a smile, 'is meant Divine Love.'

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But if his laudation of drunkenness is a difficulty, still more must we regret some of the expressions he uses towards the Deity.'

They merely illustrate,' observed Professor Cowell, 'Omar's disbelief in the Mahometan heaven and hell. He ridicules the very orthodox Pharisees among the Mahommedans with their strict observation of minutiæ.'

'Then,' said I, what it all means is this: Trouble not your head about the rewards of Heaven or the pains of Hell, as understood by the Mahommedans; live a right life and never cease to trust in the goodness of God!'

666 It is so.'

"But Fitzgerald did not agree with you?'

"Sometimes he inclined to this belief, though generally not. He could never quite make up his mind.'

"As for the remark made," says this biographer, "that readers care for but one Omar, and his real name is Fitzgerald-that, if true, says little for the reader's intelligence now that the complete Omar is accessible to all."

The stormy side of Browning's soul was ever well kept in hand. The outbreak in the Sonnet recalls his fiery rage at Forster, who had insulted a woman's name in the poet's hearing (diary of Macready). Except in these two cases, his indignation is only discernible in his art. If you would get the true, strong product of a man, set him to hate a little, he says in "Fifine-at-the-Fair." Indignation graved some of his greatest work. Protest was his atmosphere, constructive art was his instrument; but in this "Sonnet to Edward Fitzgerald," for once the destructive tool was used, and the smouldering anger flamed skywards.