The Complete Works of Robert Browning, Volume XII — (2001)

By Robert Browning
Edited by Rita Patterson and Paul Turner

A single work, the complex Aristophanes’ Apology (1875), comprises the twelfth volume of The Complete Works of Robert Browning. Second in Browning’s series of long narrative poems based on classical Greek materials, Aristophanes’ Apology begins as a further adventure of Browning’s young Greek heroine, Balaustion (previously encountered in Balaustion’s Adventure, in Volume X of the present edition). In a confrontation with Aristophanes, Balaustion defends her (and Browning’s) favorite tragedian, Euripides, whom Aristophanes had repeatedly satirized. Aristophanes offers an ingenious, vigorous explanation of his motives and values, but Browning ensures that Balaustion claims the higher moral and artistic ground for Euripides. To demonstrate his greatness, she reads Euripides’ play Herakles aloud, in Browning’s own translation.

Browning’s understanding of this play and its author, like his view of Greek drama overall, is both idiosyncratic and strongly held. He energetically takes up artistic and philosophical issues ancient and modern through his dramatized speaker. Many interpreters have noted that the charges against Euripides are parallel to Victorian critics’ complaints about Browning’s own works, and that the poet’s justification of Euripides constitutes a vehement defense of his art.

As always in this acclaimed series, a complete record of textual variants is provided, as well as extensive explanatory notes.