The Ring and the Book
The Ring and the Book is a poem of twelve books by Robert Browning, running to over 21,000 lines (twice the length of Paradise Lost), in which nine different characters relate or review the events of a 17th century murder case from their own perspectives. Each has a book of the poem devoted to his or her monologue, one of the characters speaking twice. Browning, in his own voice, adds introductory and concluding books, making up the twelve.
The source of the poem
In Book I Browning describes how he purchased the "old square yellow book" from a stall in Florence in June 1860. It was a compilation, put together (probably) by a Florentine lawyer, of printed law-pleadings, pamphlets and hand-written material, partly in legal Latin, partly in Italian. According to him, he read it straight through without a pause.
As for the ring, Browning describes how a ring of "slivers of pure gold" is made by mixing gold with an alloy to support it while working it, but once that is done, "just a spirt/O' the proper fiery acid o'er its face/And forth the the alloy unfastened flies in fume", leaving the ring - an analogy for the work done in producing poetry from "pure crude fact" of the book.
Synopsis
Book I. The Ring and the Book Following his account of the purchase, Browning sets out some facts of the case. The impoverished Count Guido Franceschini of Arezzo marries the supposed daughter of a Roman bourgeois couple, Pietro and Violante Comparini, Francesca Pompilia (the legal documents call her Francesca throughout, Browning always uses her second name Pompilia). Pietro and Violante go to Arezzo to live in the Franceschini family house, but after falling out with him return to Rome and start proceedings for the return of the dowry, alleging that Pompilia is actually a prostitute's daughter. Later, Pompilia flees Arezzo in the company of Canon Giuseppe Caponsacchi. Guido catches up with them, but not before they have reached the Roman jurisdiction. In the trial that follows, Caponsacchi is ordered into internal exile for three years, and Pompilia is confined to a convent, though later allowed to return to the home of the Comparini for the birth of her son. Here Guido, with four followers, gets entry to the house, kills the Comparini and mortally wounds Pompilia. He and his followers are captured, tried and executed.
Book II. Half-Rome While the trial is pending, an anonymous speaker, being also, like Guido, an older man with a younger wife, interprets the events from Guido's point of view.