ome would have had no
tragedy to talk about, nor we this book to read. It is in Pompilia that
all the threads of action meet: she is the heroine, as neither Guido nor
Caponsacchi can be called the hero.

The story of _The Ring and the Book_, like those of so many of the
greatest works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, comes to us from
Italy. Unlike Shakespeare's, however, but like one at least of Webster's
two masterpieces, it is no legend, but the true story of a Roman
murder-case, found (in all its main facts and outlines) in a square old
yellow book, small-quarto size, part print, part manuscript, which
Browning picked up for eightpence on a second-hand stall in the Piazza
San Lorenzo at Florence, one day in June, 1865. The book was entitled
(in Latin which Browning thus translates):--

"A Roman murder-case:
Position of the entire criminal cause
Of Guido Franceschini, nobleman,
With certain Four the cut-throats in his pay,
Tried, all five, and found guilty and put to death
By heading or hanging as befitted ranks,
At Rome on February Twenty Two,
Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight:
Wherein it is disputed if, and when,
Husbands may kill adulterous wives, yet 'scape
The customary forfeit."

The book proved to be one of those contemporary records of famous trials
which were not uncommon in Italy, and which are said to be still
preserved in many Italian libraries. It contained the printed pleadings
for and against the accused, the judicial sentence, and certain
manuscript letters describing the efforts made on Guido's behalf and his
final execution. This book (with a contemporary pamphlet which Browning
afterwards met with in London) supplied the outlines of the poem to
which it helped to give a name.

The story itself is a tragic one, rich in material for artistic
handling, though not for the handling of every artist. But its
importance is relatively inconsiderable. "I fused my live soul and that
inert stuff," says the poet, and

"Thence bit by bit I dug
The ingot truth, that memorable day,
Assayed and knew my piecemeal gain was gold,--
Yes; but from something else surpassing that,
Something of mine which, mixed up with the mass,
Makes it bear hammer and be firm to file.
Fancy with fact is just one fact the more;
To-wit, that fancy has informed, transpierced,
Thridded and