Men and Women

“Fra Lippo Lippi” is a dramatic monologue which incidentally conveys the whole story of the occurrence the poem starts from—­the seizure of Fra Lippo by the City Guards, past midnight, in an equivocal neighborhood—­and the lively talk that arose thereupon, outlines the character and past life of the Florentine artist-monk (1412-1469) and the subordinate personalities of the group of officers; and makes all this contribute towards the presentation of Fra Lippo as a type of the more realistic and secular artist of the Renaissance who valued flesh, and protested against the ascetic spirit which strove to isolate the soul.

7.  The Carmine:  monastery of the Del Carmine friars.

17.  Cosimo:  de’ Medici (1389-1464), Florentine statesman and patron of the arts.

23.  Pilchards:  a kind of fish.

53.  Flower o’ the broom:  of the many varieties of folk-songs in Italy that which furnished Browning with a model for Lippo’s songs is called a stornello.  The name is variously derived.  Some take it as merely short for ritornillo; others derive it from a storno, to sing against each other, because the peasants sing them at their work, and as one ends a song, another caps it with a fresh one, and so on.  These stornelli consist of three lines.  The first usually contains the name of a flower which sets the rhyme, and is five syllables long.  Then the love theme is told in two lines of eleven syllables each, agreeing by rhyme, assonance, or repetition with the first.  The first line may be looked upon as a burden set at the beginning instead of, as is more familiar to us, at the end.  There are also stornelli formed of three lines of eleven syllables without any burden.  Browning has made Lippo’s songs of only two lines, but he has strictly followed the rule of making the first line, containing the address to the flower, of five syllables.  The Tuscany versions of two of the songs used by Browning are as follows: 

“Flower of the pine!  Call me not ever happy heart again, But call me heavy heart, 0 comrades mine.”

“Flower of the broom!  Unwed thy mother keeps thee not to lose That flower from the window of the room.”

67.  Saint Laurence:  the church of San Lorenzo.

88.  Aunt Lapaccia:  by the death of Lippo’s father, says Vasari, he “was left a friendless orphan at the age of two . . . under the care of Mona Lapaccia, his aunt, who brought him up with very great difficulty till his eighth year, when, being no longer able to support the burden, she placed him in the Convent of the Carmelites.”

121.  The Eight:  the magistrates of Florence.

130.  Antiphonary:  the Roman Service-Book, containing all that is sung in the choir—­the antiphones, responses, etc.; it was compiled by Gregory the Great.

131. joined legs and arms to the long music-notes:  the musical notation of Lippo’s day was entirely different from ours, the notes being square and oblong and rather less suited for arms and legs than the present rounded notes.

139.  Camaldolese:  monks of Camaldoli.—­Preaching Friars:  the Dominicans.

189.  Giotto:  reviver of art in Italy, painter, sculptor, and architect (1266-1337).

196.  Herodias:  Matthew xiv.6-11.

235.  Brother Angelico:  Fra Angelico, Giovanni da Fiesole (1387-1455), flower of the monastic school of art, who was said to paint on his knees.

236.  Brother Lorenzo:  Lorenzo Monaco, of the same school.

276.  Guidi :  Tommaso Guidi, or Masaccio, nicknamed “Hulking Tom” (1401-1429). [Vasari makes him Lippo’s predecessor.  Browning followed the best knowledge of his time in making him, instead, Lippo’s pupil.  Vasari is now thought to be right.]

323.  A Saint Laurence . . . at Prato:  near Florence, where Lippi painted many saints. [Vasari speaks of a Saint Stephen painted there in the same realistic manner as Browning’s Saint Laurence, whose martyrdom of broiling to death on a gridiron affords Lippo’s powers a livelier effect.] The legend of this saint makes his fortitude such that he bade his persecutors turn him over, as he was “done on one side.”

346.  Something in Sant Ambrogio’s:  picture of the Virgin crowned with angels and saints, painted for Saint Ambrose Church, now at the Belle Arti in Florence.  Vasari says by means of it he became known to Cosimo.  Browning, on the other hand, crowns his poem with Lippo’s description of this picture as an expiation for his pranks.

354.  Saint John:  the Baptist; see reference to camel-hair, line 375 and Matthew iii. 4.

355.  Saint Ambrose:  (340-397), Archbishop of Milan.

358.  Man of Uz :  Job i. 1.

377. Iste perfecit opus:  this one completed the work.

381.  Hot cockles:  an old-fashioned game.