Chapter Ring of Amasis of R by Brewer's Readers Handbook

The case was this: There lived in Rome, in the year 1679, Pietro and Violante Comparini, an elderly couple, who, in spite of a fair income, were considerably in debt. One expedient suggested itself: they must have a child, and so enable themselves to draw on their capital, now tied up for an unknown heir- at-law. Violante, unknown to her husband, secured the infant of a disreputable woman, and became to all appearance the mother of a girl, Francesco Pompilia. There was also in Rome an impoverished noble, count Guido Franceschini, of Arezzo—he belonged to the minor ranks of the clergy, and had spent years hoping for preferment. His only chance of building up the family fortune was a rich wife. He was fifty years old, short, thin, pale, and with a projecting nose. He heard of Pompilia, proposed for her and was accepted. The Comparini were dazzled at the accounts of his wealth, whilst Pompilia’s dowry was grossly exaggerated to him. They were married, and the two families lived together at Arezzo. The arrangement was disastrous, and after a few months Pietro and Violante were glad to return to Rome. After some time Violante confessed her fraud, and was told that absolution would be given her if she restored to the legal heirs the money she had defrauded them of. Pompilia was the chief sufferer; her husband treated her with great cruelty, and attacked her on the score of infidelity with a certain canon Giuseppe Caponsacchi, whom she barely knew. She appealed for protection against her husband to the archbishop and the governor, but in vain. She found she was about to become a mother, and resolved to leave her husband and go to Rome, so she placed herself under the protection of Caponsacchi, and they fled towards Rome. They were overtaken and arrested at Castlenuovo, and were conveyed to the New Prisons in Rome, where they were tried on the charge of adultery. Being found guilty, a mere nominal punishment was inflicted on them, and, in consideration of her state, Pompilia was allowed to be removed to the home of the Comparini, where she gave birth to a son. Count Guido hired four ruffians, proceeded to the house with them, and there murdered Pietro, Violante, and Pompilia. He was taken red-handed in the deed, tried, and executed.

The poem is a series of dramatic monologues, in which the whole of the evidence is weighed and sifted. So ably is it done, that one moment you think Pompilia guilty, and the next you are sure that she and the canon are innocent. The pope pronounces the final judgment, and asserts their innocence. He names Pompilia “perfect in whiteness,” and calls her “my rose, I gather for the breast of God.” Of Caponsacchi he says—

And surely not so very much apart,
Need I place thee, my warrior-priest.

To the old pope, on the threshold of another world, a clear vision is given, and he understands the chivalry of his warrior-priest towards the forlorn and suffering Pompilia, and knows that Caponsacchi has shown himself possessed of the true courage which does not shrink from temptation, but which does not fall under it. The name is explained thus: The book is a parchment-covered book Browning picked up in a square in Florence, the Piazza San Lorenzo, containing the records of the Franceschini murder case.

The story…forms a circle of evidence to its one central truth; and this circle was constructed in the manner in which the worker in Etruscan gold prepares the ornament circlet which will be worn as a ring. The pure metal is too soft to bear hammer or file; it must be mixed with alloy to gain the necessary power of resistance. The ring once formed and embossed, the alloy is disengaged, and a pure gold ornament remains.—Mrs. Orr: Handbook to Browning.

Browning’s material was inadequate for his purpose. It was too hard and matter-of-fact, so he supplied the alloy of fancy, and wove his own ideas into the dead record.

The masterpiece is dedicated to his dead wife, in the magnificent outburst at the end of the first book, beginning—

O lyric Love, half-angel and half-bird,
And all a wonder and a wild desire.

The books are as follows:—

I. The Ring and the Book (explains the name).