Sordello (poem)
Encyclopedia
Sordello is a narrative poem by the English poet Robert Browning
. Worked on for seven years, and largely written between 1836 and 1840, it was published in March 1840. It consists of a fictionalized version of the life of Sordello da Goito, a 13th-century Lombard
troubadour
depicted in Canto VI of Dante Alighieri
's Purgatorio
.
Convoluted and obscure, its difficulties increased by its unfamiliar setting, Sordello is notorious as one of the hardest poems in English literature. It was harshly received at the time of its publication, but was championed decades later by Algernon Swinburne and Ezra Pound
.
s (partisans of the Pope
) and the Ghibellines (partisans of the Holy Roman Emperor
). Sordello is a Ghibelline, like his lord Ecelin II da Romano, and the soldier Taurello.
(whom he does not name). The citizens of Verona
have just heard that their Guelph prince, Count Richard of St Boniface, has been captured by Taurello Salinguerra.
Not long ago, Taurello had been lured away from Ferrara
; in his absence, his palaces were burned by Guelphs. On his return, he takes vengeance, and Azzo and Richard flee. They come back and besiege Ferrara, but when Richard is invited to a parley, he is captured. In a castle at Verona, the Council of Twenty-Four discuss the city's predicament; in a distant room, the poet Sordello sits motionless, thinking about his love, Palma.
Browning describes Sordello's childhood and youth as a orphaned page at the lonely castle of Goito
, near Mantua
. He spent nearly all his time wandering about the pine forest and marsh, and had little human company other than the elderly servants; what he knew about the world he knew by hearsay. Sometimes he would stare at a stone font in a vault of the castle, dreaming that the female statues who held it up were under a curse, and that he could plead with God for their pardon and release. At other times he would indulge in daydreams about himself as a great hero, in whom all virtues, skills and powers would combine — in other words, as a reinvention of Apollo
. Browning comments that an aesthete can fail in life either through attempting nothing, or attempting too much. Sordello once heard that the lady Palma was being wooed by the Guelph, Count Richard, and she became another subject of his daydreams.
Sordello, long reluctant to do so, finally enquires about his birth and origins. He is told that he was the son of an archer who saved the lives of Adelaide and Palma when they were nearly killed by a fire set by Ecelin himself. Disappointed, Sordello then gives up the plan of becoming a "man of action", and devotes himself to minstrelsy, but quickly becomes bored and slapdash; he tries reinventing his language in order to express his visions more directly, but encounters public incomprehension and personal fatigue. Sordello is deeply divided between his conceptions of poet as profession and poet as destiny.
The lady Adelaide dies suddenly; then the news comes that Ecelin II has resolved to retire to a monastery. Taurello confronts his lord on horseback, but is unable to make him change his mind. Taurello is thus forced to abandon his plan to join the Emperor on a new Crusade. He travels to Mantua, where Sordello is appointed to welcome him with song, but the baffled troubadour, lacking inspiration, wanders back to Goito.
, whose lack of devotion to anything outside of himself had been his ruin. His bitter musings are interrupted by Naddo, who brings news that he has been summoned to Verona to sing at Palma's wedding with Count Richard. But when Sordello arrives at Verona, Palma meets him and confesses her love for him. (At this point, the narrative returns to where it began at the start of Book I.)
The death of Adelaide and the withdrawal of Ecelin has made it possible for her to confess her love to Sordello and ask him to marry her. This would make him the head of the House of Romano; in fact, Taurello approves strongly, as it would make an alliance with the Guelphs unnecessary.
(Browning had written this much of the poem when in 1838 he travelled to Italy for the first time. With contemporary Venice
as a background, the rest of Book III consists of a discussion of his own hopes for the future, and his reasons for writing Sordello.)
arrive to negotiate a ransom for Count Richard. Sordello, too, arrives in Ferrara, making the long journey at the risk of his precarious health. He had planned to visit Azzo VII, camped outside the city, but first he goes to the palace of San Pietro to talk to Taurello Salinguerra. He is appalled by Taurello's explanation of the Ghibelline policy. He walks stunned through the city, and, on meeting the delegates from Verona, sings for them at their request; one of them turns out to be Palma in disguise.
Back in the palace, Taurello ponders the events of his life (the theft of his first fiancée by Azzo VI, his plotting with Ecelin II to win back Ferrara
, and the loss of his wife and child while fleeing from Vicenza
), and briefly toys with the idea of taking Ecelin II's place.
Sordello converses with Palma, and declares himself disgusted with both the Guelphs and the Ghibellines: both sides pursue selfish ends and exploit the common people. He conceives the idea of building a City of God
in which Christendom can be reunited. At dawn he leaps up to meet the ordinary folk and to sketch the foundation of his plans in his mind.
Sordello goes to Taurello and Palma and delivers his pitch, but his curiosity to see what effect his speech is having on the soldier robs his long disused voice of emotion, and Taurello responds with puzzled amusement, and then with sarcasm. Sordello's pride is touched, and, realizing that this will be his last chance to express himself in any consequential way, he defends with eloquence the concept of poetry as a calling higher than any other.
When he has finished, Taurello shrugs and admits that his own life's work, seemingly more substantial, has been demolished by Ecelin's abdication, and impulsively throws the Imperial baldric
on Sordello's neck, declaring him head of the house of Romano. A strange intuition arises in both. It is then that Palma confesses what she has known for more than a year: Sordello is Taurello's son, the child he thought had perished at Vicenza.
Sordello desires to be left alone; Taurello and Palma go downstairs, where Taurello, excited out of his wits, starts to unfold a mad project to ignore both Emperor and Pope and build a new centre of power on the house of Romano.
He throws the Imperial emblem to the floor. The stress of this moment is too much, and when Taurello and Palma return, they find that he has collapsed and died.
Taurello's hopes of rising in the world are dashed. He marries Sophia, a daughter of Ecelin II, and dwindles into an unremarkable old age, eventually being captured and exiled to Venice. The Ghibelline cause triumphs through the ruthlessness of Ecelin III and Alberic.
Sordello's career is inflated by chroniclers and he is misremembered as a statesman and hero. Nothing authentic remains of his life, apart from a fragment of the Goito lay, his first and least remarkable song.
Count Richard of St Boniface (Bonifacio), prince of Verona
Azzo VII, of Este (1205-1264)
Taurello Salinguerra, of Ferrara
Ecelin II Romano
Sordello
Palma
Eglamor
Naddo
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
. Worked on for seven years, and largely written between 1836 and 1840, it was published in March 1840. It consists of a fictionalized version of the life of Sordello da Goito, a 13th-century Lombard
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
depicted in Canto VI of Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
's Purgatorio
Purgatorio
Purgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno, and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil...
.
Convoluted and obscure, its difficulties increased by its unfamiliar setting, Sordello is notorious as one of the hardest poems in English literature. It was harshly received at the time of its publication, but was championed decades later by Algernon Swinburne and Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
.
Plot summary
The setting is northern Italy in the 1220s, dominated by the struggle between the GuelphGuelph
Guelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
s (partisans of the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
) and the Ghibellines (partisans of the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
). Sordello is a Ghibelline, like his lord Ecelin II da Romano, and the soldier Taurello.
Book I
Browning begins by summoning the shades of all dead poets to listen to the story he has to tell. The one who intimidates him most is the "pale face[d]" ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
(whom he does not name). The citizens of Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
have just heard that their Guelph prince, Count Richard of St Boniface, has been captured by Taurello Salinguerra.
Not long ago, Taurello had been lured away from Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
; in his absence, his palaces were burned by Guelphs. On his return, he takes vengeance, and Azzo and Richard flee. They come back and besiege Ferrara, but when Richard is invited to a parley, he is captured. In a castle at Verona, the Council of Twenty-Four discuss the city's predicament; in a distant room, the poet Sordello sits motionless, thinking about his love, Palma.
Browning describes Sordello's childhood and youth as a orphaned page at the lonely castle of Goito
Goito
Goito is a comune of Lombardy, Italy, in the Province of Mantua, from which it is some 20 km, on the road to Brescia. It is situated on the right bank of the Mincio River near the bridge.-History:...
, near Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
. He spent nearly all his time wandering about the pine forest and marsh, and had little human company other than the elderly servants; what he knew about the world he knew by hearsay. Sometimes he would stare at a stone font in a vault of the castle, dreaming that the female statues who held it up were under a curse, and that he could plead with God for their pardon and release. At other times he would indulge in daydreams about himself as a great hero, in whom all virtues, skills and powers would combine — in other words, as a reinvention of Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
. Browning comments that an aesthete can fail in life either through attempting nothing, or attempting too much. Sordello once heard that the lady Palma was being wooed by the Guelph, Count Richard, and she became another subject of his daydreams.
Book II
Sordello is wandering through the wood towards Mantua, daydreaming about Palma, when he comes upon a crowd gathered by the city's wall. They are listening to the aged troubador Eglamor. Impatient with Eglamor's feeble efforts, Sordello interrupts him and continues his song so effectively that, to his own astonishment, he wins the prize, and Palma bestows upon him her scarf. Eglamor responds graciously to his defeat, but walks home alone and troubled, and dies the same night. At his funeral, Sordello praises him highly. Eglamor's jongleur, Naddo, becomes Sordello's jongleur.Sordello, long reluctant to do so, finally enquires about his birth and origins. He is told that he was the son of an archer who saved the lives of Adelaide and Palma when they were nearly killed by a fire set by Ecelin himself. Disappointed, Sordello then gives up the plan of becoming a "man of action", and devotes himself to minstrelsy, but quickly becomes bored and slapdash; he tries reinventing his language in order to express his visions more directly, but encounters public incomprehension and personal fatigue. Sordello is deeply divided between his conceptions of poet as profession and poet as destiny.
The lady Adelaide dies suddenly; then the news comes that Ecelin II has resolved to retire to a monastery. Taurello confronts his lord on horseback, but is unable to make him change his mind. Taurello is thus forced to abandon his plan to join the Emperor on a new Crusade. He travels to Mantua, where Sordello is appointed to welcome him with song, but the baffled troubadour, lacking inspiration, wanders back to Goito.
Book III
At Goito, Sordello re-immerses himself in his daydreams for a whole year, but he has lost his self-confidence, and he begins to wonder if he had thrown over all prospect of success as an ordinary human being, let alone as an Apollo. He concludes that he had been a narcissistNarcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
, whose lack of devotion to anything outside of himself had been his ruin. His bitter musings are interrupted by Naddo, who brings news that he has been summoned to Verona to sing at Palma's wedding with Count Richard. But when Sordello arrives at Verona, Palma meets him and confesses her love for him. (At this point, the narrative returns to where it began at the start of Book I.)
The death of Adelaide and the withdrawal of Ecelin has made it possible for her to confess her love to Sordello and ask him to marry her. This would make him the head of the House of Romano; in fact, Taurello approves strongly, as it would make an alliance with the Guelphs unnecessary.
(Browning had written this much of the poem when in 1838 he travelled to Italy for the first time. With contemporary Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
as a background, the rest of Book III consists of a discussion of his own hopes for the future, and his reasons for writing Sordello.)
Book IV
Ferrara has been destroyed; envoys of the Lombard LeagueLombard League
The Lombard League was an alliance formed around 1167, which at its apex included most of the cities of northern Italy , including, among others, Crema, Cremona, Mantua, Piacenza, Bergamo, Brescia, Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Padua, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Treviso, Venice, Vercelli, Vicenza, Verona,...
arrive to negotiate a ransom for Count Richard. Sordello, too, arrives in Ferrara, making the long journey at the risk of his precarious health. He had planned to visit Azzo VII, camped outside the city, but first he goes to the palace of San Pietro to talk to Taurello Salinguerra. He is appalled by Taurello's explanation of the Ghibelline policy. He walks stunned through the city, and, on meeting the delegates from Verona, sings for them at their request; one of them turns out to be Palma in disguise.
Back in the palace, Taurello ponders the events of his life (the theft of his first fiancée by Azzo VI, his plotting with Ecelin II to win back Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, and the loss of his wife and child while fleeing from Vicenza
Vicenza
Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...
), and briefly toys with the idea of taking Ecelin II's place.
Sordello converses with Palma, and declares himself disgusted with both the Guelphs and the Ghibellines: both sides pursue selfish ends and exploit the common people. He conceives the idea of building a City of God
City of God
City of God may refer to:*the unity between the Holy Roman Empire and the Church in the Middle Ages*City of God , 5th century book by St...
in which Christendom can be reunited. At dawn he leaps up to meet the ordinary folk and to sketch the foundation of his plans in his mind.
Book V
By sunset, Sordello has already concluded his dream is impracticable. Even if the Utopia could be brought into being overnight by a single genius, the ideal city would crumble instantly when transferred into the hands of ordinary sinners. But he then realizes his mistake: failure to accept that lasting progress can only be made one step at a time. He has already decided that the Guelphs represent the common people's interests more closely, because they subordinate, at least in principle, the momentary dominions procured by strength and cunning to the eternal dominion of God and His law. He concludes that his immediate duty is to convince Taurello to take up the Guelph cause and keep the Emperor away from Lombardy.Sordello goes to Taurello and Palma and delivers his pitch, but his curiosity to see what effect his speech is having on the soldier robs his long disused voice of emotion, and Taurello responds with puzzled amusement, and then with sarcasm. Sordello's pride is touched, and, realizing that this will be his last chance to express himself in any consequential way, he defends with eloquence the concept of poetry as a calling higher than any other.
When he has finished, Taurello shrugs and admits that his own life's work, seemingly more substantial, has been demolished by Ecelin's abdication, and impulsively throws the Imperial baldric
Baldric
A baldric is a belt worn over one shoulder that is typically used to carry a weapon or other implement such as a bugle or drum...
on Sordello's neck, declaring him head of the house of Romano. A strange intuition arises in both. It is then that Palma confesses what she has known for more than a year: Sordello is Taurello's son, the child he thought had perished at Vicenza.
Sordello desires to be left alone; Taurello and Palma go downstairs, where Taurello, excited out of his wits, starts to unfold a mad project to ignore both Emperor and Pope and build a new centre of power on the house of Romano.
Book VI
Sordello debates with himself about his best course of action. Should he persist in his determination to throw in his lot with the Guelphs, or does his sudden elevation to the status of a Ghibelline leader imply that his destiny lies with them? Would the common people benefit from the triumph of the Guelphs? Can he expect to fulfil any of his hopes at all, or would it be wiser to see to his own happiness, even at the expense of his new subordinates? He concludes that his previous failures have been a result of the failure to accept the limitations inherent in being human, and his reluctance to devote himself to a single end, or to a single cherished person.He throws the Imperial emblem to the floor. The stress of this moment is too much, and when Taurello and Palma return, they find that he has collapsed and died.
Taurello's hopes of rising in the world are dashed. He marries Sophia, a daughter of Ecelin II, and dwindles into an unremarkable old age, eventually being captured and exiled to Venice. The Ghibelline cause triumphs through the ruthlessness of Ecelin III and Alberic.
Sordello's career is inflated by chroniclers and he is misremembered as a statesman and hero. Nothing authentic remains of his life, apart from a fragment of the Goito lay, his first and least remarkable song.
Guelphs
Pope Honorius III- He was pope from 1216 to 1226.
Count Richard of St Boniface (Bonifacio), prince of Verona
- His emblem is the "purple pavis"; he is called "the ounce".
Azzo VII, of Este (1205-1264)
- Called "the lion" or "the lynx".
Ghibellines
Kaiser Friedrich II (1198-1260) of Hohenstauffen- Son of Henry VI and grandson of Friedrich Barbarossa. Crowned by Pope Honorius in 1220. His second wife was Yolande, the daughter of John of Brienne. The Kaiser's decision to forswear crusading is the origin of his present conflict with the Pope, and the reason for his excommunication by Gregory IX in 1227.
Taurello Salinguerra, of Ferrara
- (Salinguerra Torelli) Called "the osprey".
Ecelin II Romano
- (Ezzelino) Called "the hill-cat" because of his alpine castle; his emblem was actually an ostrich with a horse-shoe in its mouth. The great-grandson of the relatively powerless Ecelo, a Saxon who introduced Imperial power into northern Italy. He was married first to Agnes of Este, then to Adelaide. After decades of campaigning he retires to a monastery at Oliero, to the despair of Taurello.
Sordello
- A page, later a celebrated poet who discovers he is the son of Taurello.
Palma
- Sordello's lover, the only child of Ecelin II by Agnes of Este. (The historical Palma was Adelaide's child.)
Eglamor
- An elderly minstrel who is defeated by Sordello. (Fictional.)
Naddo
- Jongleur and friend to Sordello. (Fictional.)