The Laboratory
by
Robert Browning
GCSE LITERATURE
Commentary on the poem
What do you think of…?
Experimentations
Scientific
Medicines
The Laboratory
A Chemist
Chemicals
How about MURDER?
The time is the
Ancien Regime..
France in the
18th century
A time of privilege
for the aristocrats
Where the people
associated with
the King meet
A time for love affairs
at court
But in a laboratory…
using POISON
. . . away from
the court..
A lady is plotting
to murder her rival
Annotate the text
What can you infer and interpret?
The Laboratory by Robert Browning
ANCIEN REGIME
I
(= devil’s workshop) Why use these words? They evoke what
reactions from the reader?
IV
Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly,
That in the mortar – you call it a gum?
May gaze thro’ these faint smokes curling whitely,
Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come!
As thou pliest thy trade in this devil’s –smithy –
And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue,
Which is the poison to poison her, prithee?
Sure to taste sweetly, - is that poison too?
II
Plosive ‘p’ (reveals what about the speaker?) How?
V Why?
He is with her, and they know that I know
Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures,
Where they are, what they do: they believe my tears flow
What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!
While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear
To carry pure death in an earring, a casket,
Empty church, to pray God in, for them! – I am here.
A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket!
Mmmmm – alliteration
but what effects achieved? Why include them? VI
III
Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,
Soon, at the King’s, a mere lozenge to give,
Pound at thy powder, - I am not in haste!
And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!
Better sit thus, and observe thy strange things,
But to light a pastile, and Elise, with her head
Than go where men wait me and dance at the King’s.
And her breast and her arms and her hands, should
drop dead!
The key point of all this preparation?
How and why are
these words
emphasised?
Informal 2nd person
Establishes relationshipshe is the social superior
As thou pliest thy trade in this devil's-smithy-Which is the poison to poison her, prithee?
Repetition of poison
creates what effect?
Establishes
victim’s
gender
Pray thee = please
A polite request about
a sinister action
A dactyl = one strong stress followed by 2 weak stresses
The rhythm of the poem,
written in dactyls, helps here
=weak stress
= strong stress
He is with her; and they know that I know
Where they are, what they do: they believe my tears flow
While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear
Empty church, to pray God in, for them! -- I am here.
The repetition also makes her seem
excited or passionate
Dramatic
ending:
where is
“here”?
She’s fascinated by the process and asks
questions
She points at things
Questions show curiosity
That in the mortar -- you call it a gum?
Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come!
And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue,
Sure to taste sweetly, -- is that poison too?
Notice how beauty and good
things are linked to death and poison
Browning describes the scene through the
eyes of the lady and what attracts her attention. This
is how he creates her character
VII
X
Quick – is it finished? The colour’s too grim! Repeated ‘b’ Not that I bid you spare her the pain;
Why not soft like the phial’s, enticing and dim?
Why?
Let death be flt and the proof remain:
Let it brighten her drink, let her turn it and stir,
Brand, burn up, bite into its grace –
And try it and taste, ere she fix and prefer!
He is sure to remember her dying face!
VIII
XI
What a drop! She’s not little, no minion like me!
Is it done? Take my mask off! Nay, be not morose;
That’s why she ensnared him; this never will free
It kills her, and this prevents seeing it close:
The soul from those masculine eyes, - say, ‘no!’
The delicate droplet, my whole fortune’s fee!
That to pulse’s magnificent come-and-go.
If it hurts her, beside, can it ever hurt me?
IX
What does she mean?
XII
For only last night, as they whispered, I brought
Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill,
My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought
You may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will!
Could I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall
But brush this dust off me, lest horror it brings
Shrivelled; she fell not; yet this does it all!
Ere I know it – next moment I dance at the King’s!
Some gothic qualities in the poem
An evil plot
A deranged narrator
A story of a murder
A sinister setting
Madness
or obsession
Secrets
Which other poems in the anthology
have some of these qualities?
The Inspiration?
The Poison Affair, in French history, was a scandal implicating a number of prominent
persons at the court of King Louis XIV.
It began with the trial of Marie Madeleine d'Aubray, marquise de Brinvilliers (c.1630–
76). She conspired with her lover, Godin de Sainte-Croix, an army captain, to poison
her father and two brothers in order to secure the family fortune and to end
interference in her adulterous relationship.
Her husband escaped the same fate by his willingness to comply with officials. An
investigation was made, and the marquise fled abroad, but in 1676 she was arrested
at Liège. The affair greatly worked on the popular imagination, and there were
rumours that she had tried out her poisons on hospital patients. She was beheaded
and then burned.
The Brinvilliers trial attracted attention to other mysterious deaths. Parisian society
had been seized by a fad for spiritualist séances, fortune-telling, and the use of love
potions. Some of the quack practitioners undoubtedly also sold poison (called
“inheritance powders” at the time); after their arrest they furnished the police with lists
of their clients, who often were guilty merely of having their palms read or of buying an
aphrodisiac, and accused them of complicity in their crimes.
Summarise what you now know
about the poem:
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What is it about? (Content)
What themes are covered?
What tone does the poem have?
What literary devices have been used?
How effective is the poem for the reader?
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Summarise what you now know
about the poem:
What is it about?
A woman planning to kill a love rival in revenge
What themes are covered?
Anger, revenge, hatred, death, loss
What tone does the poem have?
Angry, aggressive, bitter, desperate
What literary devices have been used?
Enjambment, metaphor, simile, alliteration,
rhyme, dark imagery
• How effective is the poem for the reader?
• You decide (= personal response to the text, an
element of a good essay)
Read and understand the poem
“The Laboratory” (D)
Annotate the poem,
identifying literary devices (C )
Identify the
layers of meaning (B)
Analyse impact of the
literary devices
and layers of meaning (A)