File:The country of The ring and the book (1913) (14760800556).jpg

Identifier: countryofringb00trev (find matches)
Title: The country of The ring and the book
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Treves, Frederick, Sir, 1853-1923
Subjects: Browning, Robert, 1812-1889
Publisher: London : Cassell
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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er child. She wasabout to take a leap in the dark. She sprang and foundherself in the arms of a man who was young andhandsome certainly, but also strong, determined andcourageous. Above all—and this must have been herstrangest experience—he was kind and gentle. Herhusband treated her like a dog, this man approachedher with a homage that raised her at once to a positionof dignity and worshipful respect. Considering Caponsacchis personal qualities and con-sidering the service he rendered her, can it be a matterof surprise that she regarded him as a being sent fromGod ? Can it be wondered that she poured out herheart to him, that she threw herself at his feet, that forthe rest of her short life she bestowed upon him themost fervent devotion? She repudiated with indigna-tion the suggestion that she and the priest were lovers.The term lover, as her detractors used it, was aterm so vulgarised, so indiscriminating, so faulty thatshe scorned the idea that it could express the tie that 260
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Xu u <co O Oh <Cu p< op w H CO < H ou CO Pompilia bound her to Caponsacchi. He was her sole friend,guardian and saviour. He is mine, she cries, myCaponsacchi! This man restored my soul, Thisone heart brought me all the spring. The passages in The Ring and the Book whichdeal with these two, with this despairing girl and theresolute, unselfish man, are among the most beautifulto be found in the poetry of any country or any age. As Pompilia lies on her death-bed her last wordsare for Caponsacchi. She revels in her worship ofhim. She defends him against his traducers as a tigressdefends its wounded mate, and with the last breath inher body she comforts him as only an adoring womancan, and bestows upon him the farewell blessing ofher immeasurable love. It was during the flight of the two to Rome thatthe change wrought in her life by the coming of thisman was made suddenly manifest to her. On the wayCaponsacchi assures her that

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