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    A Blot in the 'Scutcheon
    A Blot in the 'Scutcheon
    A Blot in the 'Scutcheon
    Ebook100 pages52 minutes

    A Blot in the 'Scutcheon

    By Robert Browning

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    A Blot in the 'Scutcheon
    Author

    Robert Browning

    Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet and playwright. Browning was born in London to an abolitionist family with extensive literary and musical interests. He developed a skill for poetry as a teenager, while also learning French, Greek, Latin, and Italian. Browning found early success with the publication of Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835), but his career and notoriety lapsed over the next two decades, resurfacing with his collection Men and Women (1855) and reaching its height with the 1869 publication of his epic poem The Ring and the Book. Browning married the Romantic poet Elizabeth Barrett in 1846 and lived with her in Italy until her death in 1861. In his remaining years, with his reputation established and the best of his work behind him, Browning compiled and published his wife’s final poems, wrote a series of moderately acclaimed long poems, and traveled across Europe. Browning is remembered as a master of the dramatic monologue and a defining figure in Victorian English poetry.

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      Book preview

      A Blot in the 'Scutcheon - Robert Browning

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Blot In The 'Scutcheon, by Robert Browning

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: A Blot In The 'Scutcheon

      Author: Robert Browning

      Release Date: December 6, 2008 [EBook #2880]

      Last Updated: February 1, 2013

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON ***

      Produced by Gary R. Young, and David Widger

      A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON

      By Robert Browning

      Contents

      Transcriber's comments on the preparation of this e-text:

      Closing brackets i.e. ] have been added to some of the stage directions.

      Leading blanks are reproduced from the printed text. Eg.:

           GUENDOLEN.  Where are you taking me?

           TRESHAM.                              He fell just here.

      INTRODUCTORY NOTE

      ROBERT BROWNING stands, in respect to his origin and his career, in marked contrast to the two aristocratic poets beside whose dramas his Blot in the 'Scutcheon is here printed. His father was a bank clerk and a dissenter at a time when dissent meant exclusion from Society; the poet went neither to one of the great public schools nor to Oxford or Cambridge; and no breath of scandal touched his name. Born in London in 1812, he was educated largely by private tutors, and spent two years at London University, but the influence of his father, a man of wide reading and cultivated tastes, was probably the most important element in his early training. He drew well, was something of a musician, and wrote verses from an early age, though it was the accidental reading of a volume of Shelley which first kindled his real inspiration. This indebtedness is beautifully acknowledged in his first published poem, Pauline (1833).

      Apart from frequent visits to Italy, there is little of incident to chronicle in Browning's life, with the one great exception of his more than fortunate marriage in 1846 to Elizabeth Barrett, the greatest of English poetesses.

      Browning's dramatic period extended from 1835 to the time of his marriage, and produced some nine plays, not all of which, however, were intended for the stage. Paracelsus, the first of the series, has been fairly described as a conversational drama, and Pippa Passes, though it has been staged, is essentially a poem to read. The historical tragedy of Strafford has been impressively performed, but King Victor and King Charles, The Return of the Druses, Colombe's Birthday, A Soul's Tragedy, and Luria, while interesting in many ways, can hardly be regarded as successful stage-plays. A Blot in the 'Scutcheon was performed at Drury Lane, but its chances of a successful run were spoiled by the jealousy of Macready, the manager.

      The main cause of Browning's weakness as a playwright lay in the fact that he was so much more interested in psychology than in action. But in the present tragedy this defect is less prominent than usual, and in spite of flaws in construction, it reaches a high pitch of emotional intensity, the characters are drawn with vividness, and the lines are rich in poetry.

      A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON

      A TRAGEDY

      (1843)

           DRAMATIS PERSONAE

           MILDRED TRESHAM.

           GUENDOLEN TRESHAM.

           THOROLD, Earl Tresham.

           AUSTIN TRESHAM.

           HENRY, Earl Mertoun.

           GERARD, and other retainers of Lord Tresham.

           Time, 17—

      ACT I

                SCENE I.—The Interior of a Lodge in Lord Tresham's Park.

                Many Retainers crowded at the window, supposed to command

                a view of the entrance to his Mansion.

                GERARD, the Warrener, his back to a table on which are flagons,

                etc.

           FIRST RETAINER.  Ay, do! push, friends, and then you'll push down me!

           —What for?  Does any hear a runner's foot

           Or a steed's trample or a coach-wheel's cry?

           Is the Earl come or his least poursuivant?

           But there's no breeding in a man of you

           Save Gerard yonder:  here's a half-place yet,

           Old Gerard!

           GERARD.  Save your courtesies, my friend.  Here is my place.

           SECOND RETAINER.  Now, Gerard, out with it!

           What makes you sullen, this of all the days

           I' the year?  To-day that young rich bountiful

           Handsome Earl Mertoun, whom alone they match

           With our Lord Tresham through the country-side,

           Is coming here in utmost bravery

           To ask our master's sister's hand?

           GERARD.                             What then?

           SECOND RETAINER.  What then?  Why, you, she speaks to, if she meets

           Your worship, smiles on as you hold apart

           The boughs to let her through her forest walks,

           You, always favourite for your no-deserts,

           You've heard, these three days, how Earl Mertoun sues

           To lay his heart and house and broad lands too

           At

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