letters
of information to the King. Rumor translates the poet's perfectly
decent, regular, meager life into secret sybaritic extravagances.

7. _Though none did._ His suit had once been fashionable, but, though
still serviceable, was of a sort no longer worn by his fellow townsmen.

25. _The coffee-roaster's brazier._ The coffee is roasted in a dish that
is made to revolve over the coals in an open pan or basin.

74. _Beyond the Jewry._ Beyond the Jew's quarter, a squalid portion of
the city.

90. _The Corregidor._ The Spanish title for a magistrate.

104. _Here had been._ The poet, misconceived by his generation, poor,
and lonely, has yet a great spiritual personality. Men see the old coat.
God, the King for whom he works, sees his real nature; hence heavenly
guards attend when this man comes to die.

115. _The Prado._ The chief fashionable promenade of Madrid.

FRA LIPPO LIPPI

Fra Lippo Lippi was born in Florence in 1406. See Vasari's _Lives of the
Painters_ for the account of his life on which Browning based his poem.
(Vasari's account is quoted in Cooke's _Browning Guide Book_.)

2. _You need not clap your torches._ Throughout this lively dramatic
monologue it is important to mark every indication of the words or
gestures of the auditors; for instance, in lines 13, 18, 26, etc.

7. _The Carmine._ Fra Lippo Lippi's entrance into the monastery of the
friars del Carmine and his education there are described later in the
poem. He lived there till he was twenty-six. He had no vocation for the
life of a monk and wished to devote himself to painting. He apparently
left the monastery on good terms with the friars.

17. _Master--a Cosimo of the Medici._ Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) was a
rich Florentine banker and statesman. He was a magnificent patron of art
and literature. The old Medici palace (l. 17), now known as _Palazzo
Riccardi_, is on the corner of the _Via Cavour_ and the _Via Gori_. The
church of _San Lorenzo_ (the "Saint Laurence" of l. 67) is a short
distance farther west on the Via Gori.

22. _Pick up a manner_. The painter protests against the rough usage to
which he has been subjected.

23. _Zooks._ An interjection formerly written "gadzooks." _Pilchards_
are a common cheap fish of the Mediterranean and are taken in seines.

28. _Quarter-florin._ The florin was a gold coin of Florence. It was
first struck off in the twelfth century and was called a florin because
it had a flower stamped on