rves but to
show forth what purity and love, in Pompilia, could be; what bravery and
love, in Caponsacchi, the "warrior-priest," could do. This girl has not
the Browning-mark of gaiety, but she has both the others--this "lady
young, tall, beautiful, strange, and sad," who answered without fear the
call of the unborn life within her, and trusted without question "the
appointed man."

The "pure crude fact," detailed by Browning, was found in the authentic
legal documents bound together in an old, square, yellow
parchment-covered volume, picked up by him, "one day struck fierce 'mid
many a day struck calm," on a stall in the Piazza San Lorenzo of
Florence. He bought the pamphlet for eightpence, and it gave to him and
us the great, unique achievement of this wonderful poem:

"Gold as it was, is, shall be evermore,
Prime nature with an added artistry."

+ + + + +

Pompilia, called Comparini, was in reality "nobody's child." This, which
at first sight may seem of minor importance to the issue, is actually at
the heart of all; for, as I have said, it was the question of her dowry
which set the entire drama in motion. The old Comparini couple,
childless, of mediocre class and fortunes, had through silly
extravagance run into debt, and in 1679 were hard pressed by creditors.
They could not draw on their capital, for it was tied up in favour of
the legal heir, an unknown cousin. But if they had a child, that
disability would be removed. Violante Comparini, seeing this, resolved
upon a plan. She bought beforehand for a small sum the expected baby of
a disreputable woman, giving herself out to her husband, Pietro, and
their friends as almost miraculously pregnant--for she was past fifty.
In due time she became the apparent mother of a girl, Pompilia. This
girl was married at thirteen to Count Guido Franceschini, an
impoverished nobleman, fifty years old, of Arezzo. He married her for
her reported dowry, and she was sold to him for the sake of his rank.
Both parties to the bargain found themselves deceived (Pompilia was, of
course, a mere chattel in the business), for there was no dowry, and
Guido, though he _had_ the rank, had none of the appurtenances thereof
which had dazzled the fancy of Violante. Pietro too was tricked, and the
marriage carried through against his will. The old couple, reduced to
destitution by extracted payment of a part of the dowry, were taken to
the miserable Fr