22 pages • 44 minutes read
Fra Lippo Lippi
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Fra Lippo Lippi” is a dramatic monologue of 392 lines, divided into three stanzas. Dramatic monologues are a specific kind of narrative poem which gives a single speaker a specific voice and filters information through the speaker’s emotional lens.
Fra Lippo Lippi tells the head guard not only his whereabouts but about how his occupation as an artist and feeling trapped as a monk have led him to where he is. The poem is written in unrhymed, blank verse, which means it generally follows iambic pentameter, although this rhythm varies when Fra Lippo Lippi gets excited or confused. The stanza breaks are significantly placed as well, and used when Fra Lippo Lippi’s emotions are highest. The first takes place right after Fra Lippo Lippi has discussed why he feels flesh is significant and should be painted—this is his strongest affirmation that his version of art is holy. The second occurs late in the poem right before his artistic vision of the angel. He has just gotten angry when thinking about churchgoers defacing his work and says, “Hang the fools!” (Line 335). His ill-will makes him stop and reconsider. These breaks are orchestrated to make the audience linger over their significance and spotlight some of the poem’s main thematic concerns.
Allusion
While the poem contains allusions to real historical figures—such as Cosimo de Medici—and works of art, Lippo’s allusion to his painting featuring John the Baptist is of special significance, as it is used to slyly illustrate the issue of religious hypocrisy.
Between 1452 and 1465, the historical Fra Lippo Lippi painted “The Banquet of Herod” (also known as “The Feast of Herod”), a painting which depicts the presentation of John the Baptist’s head to Herod’s wife, Herodias. In the Biblical story, Herodias’s daughter, Salome, danced for her stepfather to receive any gift of her choosing. Herodias suggested she ask for John’s head, since the couple was annoyed by John’s condemnation of their marriage. Herodias and Herod both divorced their spouses, and married, which was against Jewish law. Browning read of this painting in Vasari’s biography or viewed it at the Prato Cathedral in 1853, when he lived in Italy. John the Baptist is the patron saint of Florence, noted for his unwavering religious faith and loyalty. His image often serves as a symbol of a devotedly pious person.
Fra Lippo Lippi’s allusion to the story highlights the hypocrisy of the Prior, who in his panic over seeing his mistress in Fra Lippo Lippi’s fresco, calls her “just my niece” (Line 196). He then seems to suggest Fra Lippo Lippi has painted her as “Herodias, I would say— / Who went and danced and got men's heads cut off!" (Lines 196-197). Herodias and Salome’s names are sometimes used interchangeably in religious texts, but this reference suggests a correlation between the Prior and Herod. This prompts the Prior to order Fra Lippo Lippi to “[h]ave it all out” (Line 198). That exposing the Prior in a painting for a second time is on Fra Lippo Lippi’s mind in the present moment, is clear when he wants to use one of the guardsmen as a model for the slave holding “John Baptist’s head a-dangle by the hair” (Line 34).
Colloquial Diction
Browning’s monologue is famous for its embrace of casual subject matter and phrasing. It is well-known that the Victorian era was somewhat restrictive in its conversations about religion, sexuality, and bodily functions, and clearly there were expectations in the Renaissance about how holy men should behave as well. Browning spares no one in showing Fra Lippo Lippi chase after women of ill-repute, swear, and belittle both men of the cloth and those of wealth.
The poem begins immediately with Lippo uttering “Zooks” (Line 3), an old-fashioned equivalent to “dang it all!” Later he cries out to “hang the fools” (Line 335) who have defaced his fresco. When he’s found by the guards near some “sportive ladies” (Line 6), he doesn’t seem to be at all afraid to admit his carnal desire: “zooks, sir, flesh and blood / [t]hat's all I'm made of!” (Lines 60-61). He’s later quite blunt about such matters, using a euphemism for sexual intercourse after tunics have been thrust aside. As a man of the cloth, Fra Lippo Lippi making such references would be considered scandalous. This is true also of his casual exposure of the Prior and his behavior with his mistress, as well as noting that Medici is allowed to get away with immoral behavior, stating how “Mum's the word naturally” (Line 79). This casual, but titillating, gossipy tone would be considered unseemly—but Browning deliberately uses such phrasing to give us a full picture of Lippo, his frustrations and foibles, adding to his characterization.
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By Robert Browning
