Robert Browning is a well-known English poet whose dramatic monologues are remarkably wonderful to look at. He was born in Walworth in 1812 and was baptized on 14th June at Lock’s Fields Independent Chapel.
In 1838, he moved to Italy in search of facts for a long poem comprised of heroic couplets “Sordello”, which has been portrayed as an imaginary biography of the board Mantuan addressed by Dante in his Divine Comedy. Sordello is one of the hardest yet most popular poems in English Literature.
Sordello is a narrative poem which got published in March 1840, encompassing fictionalized account of the life of Sordello da Goito, illustrated in Canto VI of Dante Alighieri’s Purgatorio.
Table of Contents
Life of Sordello
Sordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit was an Italian troubadour during the 13th century. He was born in (c. 1200, Goito, in Mantua Italy, and died before 1269. His works have inspired several writers including Alighieri, Robert Browning, and Samuel Beckett. He was born in Goito in a province named Mantua. He shifted to tavern brawls.
In Florence by 1220. Certainly, he abducted Cunizza, while he was at the court of Richard of Bonfazio at his brother’s instigation Ezzelino III da Romano. Such a scandal initiated him to Provence in 1929. Therefore, he accompanied Charles of Anjou on his Naples exhibition (1265) but this threw him behind bars in Naples within a year.
His emergence in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy depicted those spirits who were not allowed to make their last confession due to their sudden death although this is Dante’s speculation that Sordello was murdered.
Sordello: Forms and Devices
Sordello by Robert Browning has been structurally organized into two parts. The first portion is comprised of the development of a young man as a poet following his development as a politician in the next half. The action along with the amalgamation of anticipating disruption happens to be constant which additionally keeps the poem intact or pull apart. Deviation while imaginably exasperating can be referred to as an essential device of Browning’s work.
The incorporation of ellipses and breaking of a particular statement in the middle, keeping the artistic temperament intact by adding a couple of other depictions along with the use of enjambment and caesuras, have enabled his works to become difficult and unique. His art of transforming an early version of a poem from blank verse to rhymed couplets changes the vision of the poetry. Such visualization of word painting was quite appealing as his contemporaries could undergo the allusive narration.
Jane Carlyle, a Victorian stated she has read the entire poem but could not reach a conclusion whether Sordello was a book, person, or town whereas Douglas Jerrold was fear of losing his mind after he read it. With the energized and delineated characters in “Sordello” certainly he would consummate them with the splendid description of the site. His success of such poems in the pre-twentieth century is based on experimentation with the mind of consciousness.
Plot Summary of Sordello
It has depicted the domination and the exploitation between Guelphs known as partisans and the Ghibellines referred to as the partisans of the Roman Emperor. Sordello is Ghibelline and Taurello is the soldier in this poem.
Book 1
Robert Browning commences by summoning the dead poets to listen to the tale he has to appraise. The natives of Verona have been addressed regarding the captivity of their Guelph Prince named Count Richard of St Boniface. Meanwhile, Taurello had been enticed by Ferrara from burning his palaces in his absence by Guelphs. Azzo and Richard Raj were away after he came back.
Certainly, they have entered to besiege Ferrara but as soon as Richard accepts the invitation to a parley and articulated them he was apprehended.
The city’s predicament was discussed among the Council of Twenty-Four, in a castle whereas poet Sordello was found motionless in a nearby room thinking about his lover, Palma. Browning describes Sordello’s youth as an orphan who undergoes isolation at Goito in a castle. Except for elder servants he did not receive any human company.
Hence, he used to spend his time wandering about the marsh and dense forest or staring at a stone visualizing the female statues that have a place in a higher position were all imprecation. He requests god for their emancipation. Dreaming about placing himself as a hero by conquering land and attaining the greatest skills and powers, he imagined himself as Apollo.
Sordello got to know about lady Palma who was chased by the Guelph, Count Richard transformed Palma into the subject of his hallucination.
Book II
Dreaming about Palma, Sordello was walking towards Mantua through the woods. Interrupting Troubador Eglamor he begins to sing so effectively that he wins the award by astounding the rest and Palma was found bestowing her scarf upon him. Watching this Eglamor responds cordially walking home alone and dying on the same night probably after such failure. Eglamor’s jongleur, Naddo becomes Sordello’s troubadour. At his funeral, we find Sordello glorifies Eglamor’s characteristics.
Meanwhile, Sordello begins to enquire about his birthplace as he was the son of an Archer who saved Adelaide and Palma while they were killed by a fire raised by Ecelin. He later sticks to the decision of not acquiring the position of ‘man of action’ and assigns himself to poetry but turns disorganized. He decides to focus on the reinvention and investigation of his language to allow his ideology get expressed directly but he had to face several encounters.
Sordello’s conception of poetry highly emphasized between poetry as a profession and as a destiny. Initially, Ecelin II resolves to retire from the monastery following the death of lady Adelaide, and the story commences. Confronting his Lord, Taurello fails to initiate his mind due to which he was forced to abandon his ideology and join the ruler on a new expedition. Hence, he travelled to Mantua where Sordello greets him with his melody but due to lack of inspiration, he digresses back to Goito.
Book III
In Book III Sordello engulfs in daydreams for almost a year at Goito but he was afraid of thinking about whether he had lost all prospect of achieving success as a human being and he gradually loses his appetite. Behind his destruction is his lack of inspiration and devotion to any other perspective outside except himself. He had chosen the way of addressing himself as narcissistic.
Naddo uses his musings and misguides others by spreading news of his summoning to Verona for enlightening Palma and Count Richard’s wedding with his melodious song. The scenario revolved around the arrival of Sordello in Verona as Palma confesses her attraction and love for him. This scenario takes the readers back to Book 1, from where it began. With the death of Adelaide’s and rejection of Ecelin have paved a way for Palma to express what he feels for Sordello.
She directly asks Sordello to marry. It will make him lead the house of Romano and willfully Taurello accepted it as that would help them form an alliance with the Guelphs. When Browning travelled to Italy, he ended his writing of “Sordello” till this in 1838 keeping Venice in the background. The rest of the story of Book III is comprised of his wishes and aspirations in the future along with the motive of choosing and writing “Sordello”.
Book IV
In Book IV, Ferrara was destroyed by the agents, and envoys of the Lombard League negotiated an expiation for Count Richard. Arriving in Ferrara, he took risk of his perilous health. Azzo Vii during such turmoil camped outside the megalopolis and Sordello decided to meet him after affirming Taurello Salinguerra explanation of the policy of Ghibelline in the palace of San Pietro. He was shocked by whatever was taking place after meeting the agents of Verona.
They requested him to sing but the surprising thing was one of them comes to be Palma among them. Taurello after coming back to his place, he indulges in all the events that took place in his life which include his first fiancée robbery by Azzo VI, his tricks with Ecelin II to attain Ferrara, and the loss that he had to undergo with his wife and child’s disappearance from Vicenza.
Meanwhile, Sordello shares with Palma that he is annoyed and disgusted with both Guelphs and the Ghilbellines. They prefer the exploitation of their countrymen and apply tricks to overcome their avaricious motives. He hopes to build a City of God where there will be a reunification of Christendom. Similarly, he calls upon a meeting among the commoners to give his place a foundation.
Book V
With the commencement of Book V, Sordello’s dreams have reached their conclusion by sunset. The town would be crumbling in the hands of sinners even if Utopia is initiated to come down. But he later understands that failure to accept such initiation can only help them execute one step at a time. Therefore, he has decided that the Guelphs will be taking care of the interests of the common man as they are subordinate.
To take forward such ideology his immediate work will be to convince Taurello by delivering his idea perfectly and requesting him to search for the reason behind Guelph cause and ensuring the emperor by reaching a non-intervention policy from Lombardy. Sordello delivers his ideas to Palma Taurello but he was more indulged to find out the reaction of the soldiers after his deliverance which made him emotional but Taurello replied to him in a tone of sarcasm and amusement.
Sordello this is the fact that he may not receive any more chance to express himself in such a way and hence, he tactfully defends the sarcasm of Taurello upholding poetry by placing it on a pedestal, explaining the superiority of poetry over any other. Palma later announces what he understood as poetry and what it means to her. Palma also confesses that Sordello is the son of Taurello and the child had not perished at their well-known place called Vicenza.
Later part we find Sordello was left alone. Palma and Taurello move downstairs. Taurello gets very excited to undergo an unwrapping project to neglect both the emperor and the pope. This would help him to build a new power centre in Romano.
Book VI
Sordello faces an argument with himself about his action. He had to fight with his own intellect and conclude whether he wants to continue remaining stuck in his own ideology. His determination of mixing himself with the Guelphs follows with the sudden elevation of the Ghibelline leader day pics that he is destined to be with them. Several questions were hoarding in his mind. Will the commoners benefit from the Guelphs?
Will he be able to fulfil any of his wishes or will it be better for him to remain stuck and think of his own happiness? He reaches a conclusion by thinking that maybe his previous failures have initiated him so vigorously that he faces failure and is afraid to undertake the limitations. Throwing the emblem he addresses that the stress is too much for him and when Palma and Taurello will arrive they will find him dead and collapsed.
Taurello’s wish of rising also turned invalid and he marries Sophia, the daughter of Ecelin II. Later he was captivated and thrown away in Venice. Sordello was overlooked as a hero. There is nothing authentic to remember about him apart from his fragmentation in Goito lay, which was his only song.
FAQs
Who was Plasma in ‘Sordello‘?
Readers have come to know Plasma as Sordello’s lover who was the child of Ecelin II by Anges situated in Este. Palma is a historical character who was the child of Adelaide’s child. He was a minstrel who was later overthrown by Sordello.
Who was Sordello in Dante?
Sordello da Goito or sometimes Sordell is an Italian troubadour who has inspired several authors including Samuel Beckett, Dante Alighieri, and Robert Browning during the period of the 13th century.
What are Robert Browning’s most famous poems?
Browning has a major contribution to the genre of children’s literature. However “ The Pied of Hamelin” has acquired the best position. He was the best poet considered in England even after even after he dies in 1889.
Who meets Dante in Heaven?
In heaven, Dante comes across Cunizza da Romano and Folco of Marseille who introduced Rahab to Dante. Dante and Beatrice escalate to the sphere of the Sun referred to as the fourth heaven. He also meets St. Thomas and eleven souls from a crown.