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Blougram's wager, Guido's Odds: Browning, chance, and probability.(Robert Browning's poetry)(Critical Essay)

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From: Victorian Poetry
Date: 20030322
Author:Fowler, Rowena

 
Then add there's still that plaguy hundredth chance 
Strauss may be wrong. And so a risk is run -- 
For what gain? 
       (Bishop Blougram's Apology, 11. 587-589) 
 
For Guido had so nearly nicked the nine 
And ninety and one over. 
      (The Ring and the Book, 12.222-223) (1) 

BROWNING'S IS AN ESSENTIALLY ALEATORY POETRY, DERIVING ITS DRAMATIC life from the clashing and balancing of probabilities. His self-construction as man and writer, the style and language of his poems and his relation with his audience, embody an ethics and poetics of risk. Browning was numerate and ...

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