The Ring and the Book is a long dramatic narrative poem, and, more specifically, a verse novel, of 21,000 lines, written by Robert Browning. It was published in four volumes from 1868 to 1869 by Smith, Elder & Co.
And Law does listen and compose the strife,
Settle the suit, how wisely and how well!
On our Pompilia, faultless to a fault,
Law bends a brow maternally severe,
Implies the worth of perfect chastity,
By fancying the flaw she cannot find.
Book IX : Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. Cam. Apostol. Advocatus.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
“Was never evening yet
But seemed far beautifuller than its day.”
Book VII: Pompilia, line 357.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
“Thy rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised)
Linking our England to his Italy.”
Book XII: The Book and the Ring, line 873.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
“The curious crime, the fine
Felicity and flower of wickedness.”
Book X: The Pope, line 590.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Book III : The Other Half-Rome, line 88.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Book X: The Pope, line 1185.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
“In the great right of an excessive wrong.”
Book III: The Other Half-Rome, line 1055.
Source: The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Book XII: The Book and the Ring, line 842.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
“A ring without a posy, and that ring mine?”
Book I : The Ring and the Book.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Book I : The Ring and the Book.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Book X: The Pope.<!-- line 1235 -->
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
“O lyric Love, half angel and half bird
And all a wonder and a wild desire”
Book I : The Ring and the Book <!-- line 1391 -->.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Context: O lyric Love, half angel and half bird
And all a wonder and a wild desire, —
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
Took sanctuary within the holier blue,
And sang a kindred soul out to his face, —
Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart—
When the first summons from the darkling earth
Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue,
And bared them of the glory — to drop down,
To toil for man, to suffer or to die, —
This is the same voice: can thy soul know change?
Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help!
Book X : The Pope.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Context: What wonder if the novel claim had clashed
With old requirement, seemed to supersede
Too much the customary law? But, brave,
Thou at first prompting of what I call God,
And fools call Nature, didst hear, comprehend,
Accept the obligation laid on thee,
Mother elect, to save the unborn child,
As brute and bird do, reptile and the fly,
Ay and, I nothing doubt, even tree, shrub, plant
And flower o' the field, all in a common pact
To worthily defend the trust of trusts,
Life from the Ever Living: — didst resist —
Anticipate the office that is mine —
And with his own sword stay the upraised arm,
The endeavour of the wicked, and defend
Him who, — again in my default, — was there
For visible providence: one less true than thou
To touch, i' the past, less practised in the right,
Approved less far in all docility
To all instruction, — how had such an one
Made scruple "Is this motion a decree?"
“Inscribe all human effort with one word,
Artistry's haunting curse, the Incomplete!”
Book XI, line 1560.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Book I : The Ring and the Book.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Book I : The Ring and the Book.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Context: Gold as it was, is, shall be evermore:
Prime nature with an added artistry —
No carat lost, and you have gained a ring.
What of it? 'T is a figure, a symbol, say;
A thing's sign: now for the thing signified.
Book IX : Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. Cam. Apostol. Advocatus.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Context: Forgive me this digression — that I stand
Entranced awhile at Law's first beam, outbreak
O' the business, when the Count's good angel bade
"Put up thy sword, born enemy to the ear,
"And let Law listen to thy difference!"
And Law does listen and compose the strife,
Settle the suit, how wisely and how well!
On our Pompilia, faultless to a fault,
Law bends a brow maternally severe,
Implies the worth of perfect chastity,
By fancying the flaw she cannot find.
