# Bells and Pomegranates, First Series/Preface

PREFACE.
Although his first book was published so long ago as 1833; although some twenty or more Societies have been for the past sixteen years engaged in studying his works; although for seven years he has rested in his grave in Westminster Abbey,—the British Public has not yet learned to know Robert Browning, and has hitherto neglected to place itself upon terms of intimacy with the wonderful series of writings his vigorous and fruitful pen has left behind.
For this neglect no excuse can in future be advanced. The high price at which the works of Robert Browning have so far been published, has naturally restricted Lo a comparatively narrow circle those who have acquired and read them, The expiration of the copyrights of a large proportion of the poems has made it possible for these earlier books to be issued in a cheap and handy form, such as will place them within the reach of all whose taste inclines towards them. The mass of Browning's work offers itself readily for division into three clearly defined periods, and it is matter for congratulation that the product of the first period, that which terminated in 1864 with the publication of "Dramatis Personæ," embraces the greater part of ​Browning's poetry which is most calculated to become generally admired, and to take a firm and lasting hold upon popular appreciation.
The two charges most frequently and most successfully brought against the poetry of Robert Browning are, firstly, obscurity of thought, and, secondly, roughness of execution. That these charges are amply justified cannot be gainsaid. But, upon the other hand, it is also a fact beyond reasonable dispute that these faults of mannerism, grave though they be, are more than amply atoned for by the wealth of bright and vivid poetry to be found, mainly, in the earlier volumes, almost hidden and buried by the bulk and weight of the heavier work.
With the exception of "Prospice" from ("Dramatis Personæ"), and some half dozen of the pieces contained in the two volumes of "Men and Women," no selection could possibly be made more adapted to the perusal of a reader approaching for the first time the writings of Robert Browning, than the series of poems and plays united under the general title of "Bells and Pomegranates," Nowhere is Browning's lyrical faculty more ​pronounced than in the ringing "Cavalier Tunes;" nowhere is his earnest tenderness more apparent than in "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon," or "Colombe's Birthday." Where can sweeter word-music be found than in "The Flower's Name" or "In a Gondola?" Considering how vastly its circulation has been hindered by the necessary restrictions of copyright, is there any English poem published within the last fifty years more widely known than "The Pied Piper of Hamelin?"
The collection of "Bells and Pomegranates" was originally published by Edward Moxon in eight thin paper-wrappered pamphlets, the total price of the eight amounting to ten shillings. As might naturally be expected, by far the larger proportion of these slender pamphlets have now ceased to exist, and to gather together a complete set of them is a matter of extreme difficulty. Thus they have come to be numbered among the collector's treasures. But to the student they are as welcome as they are to the collector. Browning never rested from polishing and retouching these his earlier, and favourite works; and were one to read carefully "Pippa Passes," for example, as it appeared in 1841, and then turn to the same work as it stands in its final form, whole sections of the poem ​play would be found to have been altered almost past recognition. So long and so lovingly did the poet brood over his nestling before he allowed himself to leave it to its flight.
It may therefore be confidently anticipated that the present re-issue of "Bells and Pomegranates" will prove as acceptable to the old "Browningite" as it will to the reader who through its pages makes for the first time an acquaintance with the author of "The Ring and the Book." The former will now have access to the original text, and will be enabled to contrast it with the revised reading, the whole of the poems and plays having been printed precisely from the first edition of 1841-46.
Thomas J. Wise.