¹ Stopford A. Brooke, Tennyson, His Art and Relation to Modern Life (New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1903). In a letter to the present writer, July, 1933, Dr. L. P. Jacks of Oxford, son-in-law of Brooke, wrote: “I think he (Brooke) would have said Tennyson's ‘Northern Farmer’ is about the best dramatic monologue in English.”

² S. S. Curry, Browning and the Dramatic Monologue (Boston: Expression Company, 1908). References in this paper refer to the third edition, 1927.

³ R. H. Fletcher, “A Classification of Browning's Dramatic Monologues,” Modern Language Notes, xxiii, April (1908), 108 ff.

⁴ Claud Howard, The Dramatic Monologue: Its Origin and Development (“Studies in Philology,” iv; Chapel Hill, N. C: University of North Carolina Press, 1910).

⁵ W. L. Phelps, Browning How to Know Him (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1915).

⁶ Bliss Perry, A Study of Poetry (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1920).

⁷ Ina Beth Sessions, A Study of the Dramatic Monologue in American and Continental Literature (San Antonio, Texas: Alamo Printing Company, 1933).

⁸ Note the relationship between the dramatic monologue and such types as the lyric, letter, soliloquy, monologue per se, and drama.

⁹ Locksley Hall conforms to the dramatic monologue requirements only in the opening stanza. Rizpah is a Perfect example of the type. (See Table I for a list of the characteristics of the Perfect form.)

¹⁰ Lieder, Lovett, and Root, British Poetry and Prose (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1938), ii, 518; 550.

¹¹ In Snyder and Martin's, A Book of English Literature, 4th ed. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1943), ii, Rizpah (p. 522) is called a “tragic ballad,” and Ulysses (p. 495) is termed “one of the noblest of dramatic monologues.” In the Lieder, Lovett and Root anthology, Ulysses (p. 517) is said to contain a speaker who “soliloquizes.” Neither of these anthologies classifies the dramatic monologues Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto, and The Bishop Orders His Tomb in St. Praxed's Church, although both books properly list My Last Duchess as an example of this type. In the Harcourt, Brace and Company publication The College Survey of English Literature (vol. 2, 1946), Ulysses is listed as a dramatic monologue (p. 490); and so are Locksley Ball (p. 491), Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister (p. 537), and My Last Duchess (p. 538). The editors of this anthology state that “Browning varies the technique of his dramatic monologues: the Spanish monk soliloquizes, but the Duke of Derrara … talks to the envoy” (p. 538).

¹² Stopford A. Brooke, op. cit., p. 436.

¹³ Ibid., p. 431.

¹⁴ S. S. Curry, op. cit., p. 7.

¹⁵ Idem.

¹⁶ Idem.

¹⁷ Ibid., p. 10.

¹⁸ Ibid., p. 11.

¹⁹ Ibid., p. 33.

²⁰ Ibid., p. 16.

²¹ Ibid., p. 19.

²² Ibid., p. 42.

²³ R. H. Fletcher, op. cit., p. 108.

²⁴ Idem.

²⁵ Claud Howard, op. cit., p. 11.

²⁶ Ibid., p. 12.

²⁷ Idem.

²⁸ Ibid., p. 13.

²⁹ Ibid., p. 15.

³⁰ W. L. Phelps, op. cit., p. 169.

³¹ Bliss Perry, op. cit., p. 267.

³² Ibid., p. 268.

³³ Ibid., p. 269.

³⁴ Ibid., p. 270.

³⁵ See Footnote 7.

³⁶ “Monologue” and “dramatic monologue” are used interchangeably in this paper, unless otherwise indicated.

³⁷ S. S. Curry, of. cit., p. 54.

³⁸ Ibid., p. 58.

³⁹ Both Curry and Howard refer to The Patriot as a dramatic monologue. The guess here as to the audience is made by Howard.

⁴⁰ Formal mention of M. W. MacCallum's The Dramatic Monologue in the Victorian Period (Oxford: The Oxford University Press, 1925), was not made because the discussion has little bearing on the presentation here. He did state that the long monologue is a difficult and not a “wise” form in which to write. The “strain” involved in such a lengthy work as The Ring and the Book is too much for the monologue form. Further, he added that drama; is now recovering lost ground and the dramatic monologue is not likely to flourish.

⁴¹ The dramatic monologue is usually discussed in its poetic form, but there does appear the prose type like Margaret Prescott Montague's “Up Eel River,” Atlantic Monthly, cxxxi, no. 5 (1923), 636 ff.

⁴² S. S. Curry says: “In the monologue the speaker must suggest the character of both speaker and listener and interpret the relation of one human being to another ” (p. 32). Also, he says that the monologue “usually” has a “well-defined listener” (p. 7). However, he does not prove these two points when he cites as examples of dramatic monologues The Patriot and Incident of the French Camp. In these poems there is no definite audience nor is the character of the audience suggested.

⁴³ See following discussion of Count Gismond.

⁴⁴ This statement raises the question as to whether it is possible to maintain dramatic excitement in such long poems as those in Browning's The Ring and the Book. See MacCallum's comment in footnote 40.

⁴⁵ The contrast might be noted between this piece and Andrea del Sarto, where another quarrel has been in progress. In the latter, however, the speaker makes the request:

and continues his appeal for many lines which are frequently interrupted by Lucrezia, the audience. It is a Perfect example, having all seven characteristics.

⁴⁶ See footnote 9.

⁴⁷ One of the most interesting comments concerning the dramatic monologue was made by Dr. J. B. Wharey of the University of Texas in a letter to the writer on January 17, 1935: “The dramatic monologue is, I think, one of the best forms of disciplinary reading—that is, to use the words of the late Professor Genung, ‘reading pursued with the express purpose of feeding and stimulating inventive power.’ In a very peculiar sense, the dramatic monologue demands that the reader be constantly alert, that he catch the significance of every word, that he clearly visualize the dramatic situation. The reader, like the author, must be able to lose himself in the speaker; he must exercise whatever of creative imagination he possesses. No other art-form so ‘feeds and stimulates inventive power’. ”