A PHkASE BOOK FROM THE POETIC AND DRAMATIC WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING BY MARIE ADA MOLINEUX, A. M, PH. D. TO WHICH IS ADDED AN INDEX CONTAINING THE SIGNIFICANT WORDS NOT ELSEWHERE NOTED BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY HISTORICAL SKETCH SOME years ago the editor of the present volume planned and began - work upon a complete Concordance to the poems of Robert Browning. So far as is known, this antedated any similar effort. The time was unpropitious and the work was laid aside. The formation of The Boston Browning Society in the winter of 1885-86 gave an impetus to the study of the poet, and seemed to make some kind of cooperation possi ble. On Jnne 6, 1889, the Society held a special meeting at the Brunswick, to which all persons, whether members of the Society or not, that were interested in a Browning Concord ance, were invited. Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the second President of the Society, was in the chair. After a state ment of plan and some discussion, and the discovery that the work of the present editor antedated that of the Philadelphia Society, that had very generously offered to the Boston Society the concordance to Pauline already made by it, as a nucleus for any further enterprise, a committee was appointed to take the matter in charge. At first the number was limited to three, Dr. William J. Rolfe, Chairman, Miss M. A. Molineux, and the secretary of the Society, Mrs. John Rand, who would be able from her position to aid much in communicating with other members and in various ways, as well as in doing some portion of the literary work. The second member of the committee insisted that a committee of this importance would be quite in complete withoutColonel Higginson, and he was added, there fore, although he found it impossible to attend many of the meetings and was able to assist only by advice. The committee was empowered to add to its number as seemed advisable. The plan was to have the subject-matter, as represented by the Riverside Edition loose sheets of which were kindly supplied by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin Company, divided among-six ladies, Dr. Rolfe to edit the work when completed. Very early in the course of the proceedings the chairman announced that vi HISTORICAL SKETCH he should be unable, from press of other engagements, to do the editing, and proposed instead, that the second member of the committee should do it, as she already had in hand the most difficult portion, The King and the Book. It was decided that a concordance was too bulky and unnecessarily elaborate an emprise, and that it would be hard to find any publisher willing to undertake a book so expensive and little remunerative, while a phrase-book might be made to fill all the important needs of student and writer, and at the same time be acceptable to any one with a few minutes of leisure, wishing to refresh mind and heart with a wise or beautiful sentence from the writings of the poet that more than any other since Shakespeare understood the inmost soul and motives of the human race in all the varied manifestations. The summer time was thought the most advantageous, as the period of most leisure, and the ladies departed for their summer haunts, each armed with a volume. Alas when autumn came little had been accomplished, and from various causes several ladies had been obliged to relinquish the work and several volumes had changed hands. As the yearswent on and nothing of importance was done except by Mrs. Grace A. Oliver, Mrs. Rand, and Miss Molineux, the different portions of merely attempted work some volumes entirely un touched were sent by Dr. Rolfe to Miss Molineux. Meanwhile the original plan had become much modified. Instead of repeat ing each phrase three or four times under as many different catch-words, it was suggested by Dr. Rolfe that a one-word index should be substituted, and it is believed that this some what novel feature will be found an efficient and convenient substitute…
