Browning’s “The King”

BROWNING'S "THE KING" JOHN GRUBE In the November, J835, number of The Monthly Repository Browning published a remarkable poem, "The King," which he later (J84J) altered and re-used in the third scene of Pippa Passes. Apart from the poem's own literary merit, its later use in Pippa Passes throws light on Browning's view of revolutionary activity, and the connection he made between the human sacrifices of primitive religions and the human sacrifices demanded by a modem revolution. The poem should be read in its original unaltered form: THE KING A King lived long ago, In the morning of the world, When earth was nigher heaven than now: And the King's locks curled Disparting o'er a forehead full As the milk-white space 'twixt horn and horn Of some sacrificial bullOnly calm as a babe new-born. For he was got to a sleepy mood, So safe from all decrepitude, Age with its pine so sure gone by, (As though gods loved him while he dreamed,) That, having lived thus long, there seemed No need that he should ever die. Among the rocks his city was: Before his palace, in the SUD, He sate to see his people pass, And judge them everyone From its threshold of smooth stone. They haled him many a valley-thief Caught in the sheep-pens- robber-chief, Swarthy and shamcless- beggar-cheatSpy -prowler-or some pirate found On the sea-sand left aground; Sometimes from out the prison-house The angry priests a pale wretch brought, Who through some nook had pushed and pressed, Volume XXXVII, Number 1, October, 1967 70 JOHN GRUBE Knees and elbows, belly and breast, Worm-like into the temple,-caught He was by the very god, Who ever in the darkness strode Backward and forward, keeping watch O'er his brazen bowls, such rogues to catch: These, all and everyone, The King judged, sitting in the sun. Old councillors, on left and right, Look'd anxious up-but no surprise Disturbed the old King's smiling eyes, Where the very blue had turned to white. A python swept the streets one dayThe silent streets- until he came, With forky tongue and eyes on Hame, Where the old King judged alway; But when he saw the silver hair, Girt with a crown of berries rare That the god will hardly give to wear To the maiden who singeth, dancing bare, In the altar-smoke by the pine-torch lights, At his wondrous forest rites,But which the god's self granted him For setting free each felon limb Faded because of murder done;Seeing this, he did not dare Assault the old King smiling there. The most striking feature of this poem is its basis in primitive myth. In describing the central figure of the poem, the archetypal old King, Browning's first metaphor leads him to compare the king with "some sacrificial bull." This injects a sinister undertone into the idyllic picture of "the morning of the world," when moral norms and statecraft were simpler and better than today, when "earth was nigher heaven than now." This pattern permeates the first stanza. The king is "calm," "safe," and the "gods loved him," yet the idea of his possible death obtrudes: "... there seemed / No need that he should ever die." The words "there seemed" suggest that perhaps his peaceful rule is insecure, just as the words "No need that he should ever die" contain an echo of the immemorial ritual formula: "The king is dead; long live the king." In primitive societies a change of leaders is often marked by violence. The second stanza sets the poem in the ancient Near East, in a place like Petra-"Among the rocks his city was." A description of the king's normal and personal administration of justice is followed by an episode BROWNING'S liTHE KING" 71 of prime importance. A "pale" wretch, with sacrilegious intentions, had "pushed and pressed" with great difficulty, "worm-like into the temple." To punish this impiety, the "angry priests" drag him from the prison' to be judged by the old king. What is to be the old king's judgment on...