Robert Browning The Complete Plays: Paracelsus, Stafford, Herakles, The Agamemnon

Robert Browning (1812 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. Table of Contents Introduction Robert Browning by G. K. Chesterton Plays Paracelsus Strafford Bells and Pomegranates No. I Pippa Passes Bells and Pomegranates No. II King Victor and King Charles Bells and Pomegranates No. IV The Return of the Druses Bells and Pomegranates No. V A Blot in the scutcheon Bells and Pomegranates No. VI Colombes Birthday Bells and Pomegranates No. VIII Luria and a Souls Tragedy Herakles The Agamemnon of Aeschylus Pippa Passes is a verse drama, which was dedicated to Thomas Noon Talfourd, who had recently attained fame as the author of the tragedy Ion. The author described the work as "the first of a series of dramatic pieces." King Victor and King Charles was the second play written by Robert Browning for the stage. The subject of the play is the strange incident in 173032 in the Kingdom of Sardinia in which the elderly king, Victor Amadeus II, first abdicated in favour of his son Charles Emmanuel III, and then after months of everincreasing complaints unexpectedly demanded to be restored. He was imprisoned until his death a year later. Brownings treatment is based on 18th century sources which cast Victor as deliberately deceptive, but he goes further to create a secret history in which Charles is exonerated from all charges of cruelty. The play is in four acts... | Robert Browning The Complete Plays: Paracelsus, Stafford, Herakles, The Agamemnon