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Asolando: Fancies and Facts. Published in London, December 12th, 1889, on
the day on which Mr. Browning died in Venice. Contents: Prologue; Rosny;
Dubiety; Now; Humility; Poetics; Summum Bonum; A Pearl, A Girl;
Speculative; White Witchcraft; Bad Dreams, I., II., III., IV.;
Inapprehensiveness; Which? The Cardinal and the Dog; The Pope and the Net;
The Bean-Feast; Muckle-mouth Meg; Arcades Ambo; The Lady and the Painter;
Ponte dell’ Angelo, Venice; Beatrice Signorini; Flute Music, with an
Accompaniment; “Imperante Augusto, Natus est ——”; Development; Rephan;
Reverie; Epilogue. The volume is dedicated to the poet’s friend, Mrs.
Arthur Bronson. In the dedication the poet explains the title Asolando: it
was a “title-name popularly ascribed to the inventiveness of the ancient
secretary of Queen Cornaro, whose palace-tower still overlooks us.”
Asolare—“to disport in the open air, amuse oneself at random.” “The
objection that such a word nowhere occurs in the works of the Cardinal is
hardly important. Bembo was too thorough a purist to conserve in print a
term which in talk he might possibly toy with; but the word is more likely
derived from a Spanish source. I use it for love of the place, and in
requital of your pleasant assurance that an early poem of mine first
attracted you thither; where and elsewhere, at La Mura as Cà Alvisi, may
all happiness attend you!—Gratefully and affectionately yours, R.
B.”—Asolo, Oct. 5th, 1889.
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