Fra Lippo Lippi as dramatic monologue:
If poetry’s garb is embellished upon a dramatic soul, the aesthetic effect which is created is that of a dramatic monologue. A dramatic monologue is a unique genre which includes a poetic narrative carried out through a dramatic conversation between an active speaker and an implied listener. Unlike a soliloquy, which is a process of thinking aloud, a dramatic monologue is a speech of a single person-who is not the poet -in the presence of a silent interlocutor, who never speaks, but whose silent presence adequately dramatizes the speaker’s eloquence. The poetry originates from a critical moment of intense dramatic tension and along with the progressing of the poem, the inner psyche of the speaker is more and more disclosed. Browning has exploited this literary genre to its fullest dimension to offer such masterpieces as “My Last Duchess”, “Andrea Del Sarto”, “Porphyria’s Lover” and obviously, “Fra Lippo Lippi”. In the lattermost poem, Browning has laid bare the longings and aspirations of a Renaissance artist against the restraints and bondages of society and culture in the finest mould of dramatic monologue one has ever seen.
Browning’s dramatic monologue always begins in medias res and “Fra Lippo Lippi” is not an exception. At the very outset we find that Lippo has been caught by the chief of the watch in a quite embarrassing situation. It is past midnight and paintermonk is apprehended by the watch in the wrong quarters of the town, where “sportive ladies leave their doors ajar”.The reader knows nothing beforehand concerning the personality of Lippo or the reason for his visiting the brothel. It is only afterwards that Lippo gradually explains his identity, personality, unfulfilled desires, conflict and attempts to justify his action to the police officer. This abrupt beginning and subsequent unravelling is what makes Browning’s dramatic monologue so distinctive.
Any dramatic monologue springs from some or the other conflict, a kind of dramatic crisis or tension which prompts the speaker to expose his bosom instantaneously which he would not have done otherwise. This central conflict is responsible for the exquisite dramatic flavour that we savour in these monologues. In “Fra Lippo Lippi” the conflict is set right in the beginning when Lippo is returning to his monastic residence, “The carmine”, after enjoying a nocturnal visit to the nearby brothel and is suddenly apprehended by a police officer. It is assumed to be very controversial and even blasphemous for a monk to be seen in a red light area, and that too by a patrolling police officer. If Lippo cannot provide adequate justification for his “misdeed” then he is sure to end up in the prison house, losing both his honour and livelihood. No situation on earth can be more conflicting and tense than a monk trying to justify his promiscuous and lascivious rendezvous and Browning utilizes this tension to its fullest to reap the most fruitful poetry out of it. Here, Lippo plays the active speaker who goes on explaining and justifying himself and the police officer acts the part of the passive interlocutor who speaks nothing but his mere presence intensifies Lippo’s critical mental state. After the futile threats in the name of Cosimo of the Medici and abortive prayer, Lippo goes for his self-revelation to justify himself.
After properly constructing the mould of dramatic monologue, Browning does enliven the whole matter by inserting his most ingenious machinery, what Ian Bett categorizes among the seven signs of dramatic monologue as the “revelations of character”.Browning mirrors the internal conflict between the two alter egos : Lippo clearly states that he joined the order only at the age of eight merely to make his both ends meet. The call of his soul was not towards spirituality but towards art and nature. That’s why after being confined within his cell for three weeks painting “saints and saints/And saints again”, he sought a moment of relief by going to a brothel. He must stick to his spiritual profession for the sake of livelihood but he must also cater to his love for art and life for his inner satisfaction. He tried many times to combine these two contrary entities through his painting, which is again discarded by the prior as “the perishable clay” . Lippo’s artistic self revolts against the theological autocracy of the validity of one and only spiritual existence by renouncing the world. He presents a very logical argument that since the Almighty God created this world, nothing can be impure or devellish. To question the purity and veracity of God’s creation is equal to question God Himself. So Lippo preaches the message of defying the spiritual by admiring the material, gaining the divine grace by feeling the divine manifest in worldly beauty : “to paint soul, by painting the body”. Therefore his artistic self comes victorious out of the constant tussle between his spirituality and sensuousness – symbolized by the Carmine and the brothel – as Lippo vouchsafes : “(the world) it means intensely, and means good:/To find it’s meanings is my meat and drink”.
Therefore, “Fra Lippo Lippi” is rightly considered to be one of Browning’s chosen magnum opus which shows the true self of the spiritual and the artistic in the magnificent mould of dramatic monologue. “Fra Lippo Lippi” as a dramatic monologue is no less than an icon and it deserves truly what J. S Mill praised about poetry itself : “Eloquence is heard, poetry is overheard… Poetry is feeling confessing itself to itself, in moments of solitude”.
