in the lady's face,'' Hunt makes the king rise and swear
"rightly done! No love, quoth he, but vanity, sets love
a task like that!'' This is the material Browning worked
on; he makes use of this speech of the king's, but remodels
the lady's character wholly, and gives her an appreciative
lover, and also a keen-eyed young poet to tell her
story afresh and to reveal through his criticism the narrowness
of the Court and the Court poets.

12. Naso: Ovid. Love of the classics and curiosity as
to human nature were both characteristic of Peter Ronsard
(1524-1585), at one time page to Francis I, the
most erudite and original of French medieval poets.

45. Clement Marot: (1496-1544), Court poet to Francis I.
His nature and verse were simpler than Ronsard's,
and he belonged more peculiarly to his own day.

48. Versifies David: Marot was suspected of Protestant
leanings which occasioned his imprisonment twice, and put
him in need of the protection Francis and his sister gave
him. Among his works were sixty-five epistles addressed
to grandees, attesting his courtiership, and the paraphrase
of forty-nine of the Psalms to which Ronsard alludes.

50. Illum Juda, etc.: that lion of the tribe of Judah.

89. Venienti, etc.: Meet the coming disease; that is,
if evil be anticipated, don't wait till it seizes you, but
dare to assure yourself and then forestall it as the lady did.