Robert Browning Trivia

1. Robert Browning is particularly well known for his mastery of what form of poetry?

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: The dramatic monologue

A dramatic monologue is a type of poetry that is written as a speech delivered by a single character who is not the poet. Through the monologue, the speaker reveals his character and temperament. Such monologues can also be used in fiction and are often employed to tell stories. The use of this form peaked during the Victorian period, having been used by Lord Tennyson in works such as "Ulysses" and Matthew Arnold in "Dover Beach". Examples of Robert Browning's dramatic monologues include "Fra Lippo Lippi", "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister", and "Porphyria's Lover".

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: rats

The rats caused a great nuisance in the town of Hamelin, and the villagers were annoyed that their Mayor and his Corporation had proposed nothing to do about it.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"

Although the speaker of "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" is never named, his hatred of Brother Lawrence is painfully obvious.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: Sordello

Having achieved some success with his lengthy poems "Pauline" and "Paracelsus", Robert Browning spent nearly four years writing "Sordello", which he published in March of 1840. The poem features the 13th-century troubadour from Canto VI of Dante Alighieri's "Purgatorio", Sordello da Goito. Today, it is considered to be among the most difficult poems of the English language. William Sharp, in "The Life of Robert Browning", quotes Lord Tennyson as having said of the poem, "There were only two lines in it that I understood." After that, Browning began to move away from the style of writing expressed in "Sordello". The poem would later come to be praised, however, by the likes of Ezra Pound.

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: bit them

The rats 'bit the babies in their cradles'. They licked the soups from the maids' ladles, killed the cats and disturbed the women's chats.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "The Laboratory"

The speaker of the "The Laboratory" is obtaining poison to murder her husband's mistress.

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: red and yellow

The Pied Piper is noted for wearing only the colours red and yellow throughout the whole poem. Half his suit is red and the other half is yellow. He is described as having "sharp blue eyes, each like a pin/ And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin/ No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin/ But lips where smile went out and in".

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "Porphyria's Lover"

The setting of "Porphyria's Lover" is a cold, stormy night. When Porphyria enters the speaker's cottage, she stirs up the fire and then sits next to him.

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: 50,000 guilders

The Pied Piper had asked in return from the Mayor 1,000 guilders if he managed to rid his town of the rats. Instead of 1,000 guilders, the Mayor promised he would pay him 50,000 guilders if the job was done. After the rats had been drowned in the river, the Pied Piper had returned to the Mayor's office asking for his money. The Mayor had thought of the money as a joke, and so paid him only 50 guilders.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "My Last Duchess"

The speaker of "My Last Duchess" (the Duke) invites someone to look at a portrait of his previous wife. The Duke then comments on the qualities of the Duchess that he disliked.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

Act 3, scene 4 of William Shakespeare's "King Lear" contains the lines: "Child Rowland to the dark tower came. His word was still 'Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man.'" Written in January of 1852, Browning's 34-stanza poem explores Roland's journey to the Dark Tower. ("Childe" is a term meaning an untested knight.) Ultimately, the poem does not reveal what Roland discovers inside the tower when he finally reaches it. The poem inspired Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series of eight books which feature the quest of Roland Deschain, the last surviving member of the knightly order of gunslingers.

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: Weser

The rats in dozens followed the Pied Piper across the streets of Hamelin while he was playing to the River Weser, unaware that they were going to die.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "The Laboratory"

The speaker of "The Laboratory" is pleased with the results and makes payment for the poison.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: My Last Duchess

"My Last Duchess", first published in 1842 in Browning's "Dramatic Lyrics" collection, is one of his most anthologized poems. In the poem, the Duke is giving a tour of his art works to an emissary of the family from which his new wife will come. He shows the listener the painting of his last duchess. The poem implies it is possible the Duchess cheated on the Duke and so he gave an order to have her killed. The Duke tells his guest, "Sir, 'twas not / Her husband's presence only, called that spot / Of joy into the Duchess' cheek." Rather, she had a "heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad, / Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere." So eventually, the Duke "gave commands; then all smiles stopped together."

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: the children of Hamelin

The Pied Piper was furious when he did not receive the full pay that had been promised by the Mayor. For revenge, he abducted all of the children of Hamelin by blowing his pipe in order for the children to follow him.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "My Last Duchess"

The Duke's main complaint is that his last Duchess was too happy. Simple things, such as a "bough of cherries" and a "white mule," made her smile. Instead, he believes she should have been made happy because he had given her his "nine-hundred-years-old name."

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: Porphyria's Lover

"Porphyria" was first published in January of 1836 in the "Monthly Repository" and was later republished as "Porphyria's Lover" in Browning's 1842 collection "Dramatic Lyrics". The poem is told from the perspective of Prophyria's lover, who kills her in order to preserve her pure and all to himself: "That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good: I found A thing to do, and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, And strangled her."

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: he was lame

The only child that was left behind didn't make it in time before the Pied Piper stopped playing, which made all the children stand still. The lame child returned the way he came, and never saw Hamelin again. It is said that the Pied Piper led the children to a place similar to heaven that was a 'joyous land' with 'pleasant sights they see'.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "Porphyria's Lover"

These actions are attributed to Porphyria by her lover. The reader is left to wonder, though, if anything the speaker says is true.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Based on a legend from the town of Hamelin, Browning's poem tells the story of a town overrun by rats. A piper agrees to rid the town of rats in exchange for 50,000 guilders, and so he does. But when the mayor doesn't pay up, the piper leads the town's children away: "Once more he stept into the street; And to his lips again Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane; And ere he blew three notes (such sweet Soft notes as yet musician's cunning Never gave th'enraptured air) There was a rustling, that seem'd like a bustling Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling, Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering, Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering, And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering, Out came the children running."

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: 22 July

It has been known in the town of Hamelin then and now, that since the 22nd of July 1376, any person who plays music on 'Pied Piper Street' would 'lose his labour'.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"

The speaker of "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" focuses on Brother Lawrence's superficial, daily actions, such as the placement of his knife and fork when he has finished eating. This monk completely ignores his own feelings of anger and hatred.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

First published in Browning's 1842 collection "Dramatic Lyrics", this poem is told from the voice of a nameless Spanish monk. The irony of the poem is that, while the speaker is noting all the minor ways Brother Lawrence fails at Christianity, he himself is indulging in a murderous hatred. His thoughts are interrupted when the bell rings for vespers: "Or, there's Satan!--one might venture Pledge one's soul to him, yet leave Such a flaw in the indenture As he'd miss till, past retrieve, Blasted lay that rose-acacia We're so proud of! Hy, Zy, Hine... 'St, there's Vespers! Plena gratia Ave, Virgo! Gr-r-r--you swine!"

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: give him as much money as he wants

The Mayor travelled North, South, East and West to find the Pied Piper and asked everyone he saw if they had seen him. He agreed that when he would find him he would pay 'Silver and gold to his heart's content' if he returned with the children.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "My Last Duchess"

The Duke would never stoop so low as to talk to his Duchess and explain what made him unhappy. Instead, he had her killed.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: The Laboratory

The poem is set in 17th century France and the speaker wants to use the potion to kill women who are rivals for the affections of man: "What a drop! She's not little, no minion like me- That's why she ensnared him: this never will free The soul from those masculine eyes,-say, 'no!' To that pulse's magnificent come-and-go." The poem was likely inspired by a French aristocrat, Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray, who was convicted of poisoning her brothers and father.

From Quiz "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning

Answer: keep their promise to anyone

The townspeople had learnt their lesson - to keep their promises to anyone who did something for their town, including and especially pipers. They knew that if they didn't, something similar to the Pied Piper's revenge could happen again.

From Quiz Robert Browning Quotes

Answer: "Porphyria's Lover"

The mental instability of Porphyria's Lover is obvious at the end of the poem. He justifies the murder and deems it acceptable since God hasn't told him otherwise.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: Blank verse

"Fra Lippo Lippi" was published in Browning's 1855 collection "Men and Women" and, through the 15th-century painter Filippo Lippi, explores whether art should be realistic or depict an idealized image. The poem does not rhyme but was instead written in blank verse, which uses non-rhyming iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter uses five metrical feet consisting of a short (unstressed) syllable followed by a long (stressed) syllable. The poem begins: "I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave! You need not clap your torches to my face. Zooks, what's to blame? you think you see a monk!" Free verse, unlike blank verse, does not employ a set meter. Couplets are two lines, usually in the same meter, joined by rhyme. Browning has been known to write in rhyming couplets, as is the case with "My Last Duchess." Ballad form uses stanzas of four lines each, with the rhyme scheme ABCB or ABAB.

From Quiz A Survey of Robert Browning's Poetry

Answer: An unreliable narrator

Unreliable narrators typically drop hints that enable the reader to piece together the true story, as in Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" or Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell Tale Heart". "Count Gismond" is another example of a poem in which Browning employs an unreliable narrator. One could read the poem as a story of the vindication of innocence by a woman who was falsely accused of being lovers with Count Gauthier, but hints scattered throughout the poem suggest she may not be telling the truth.

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