We enter into the mind of the speaker, seeing her raging jealousy, her raging sense of betrayal, and now her fascination with the work of the chemist in his laboratory as he creates the poison that she thinks will end her troubles. In a mere forty-eight lines the poem gives us this story in incredible and vivid detail. Not only is the speaker jealous of Pauline, but she is jealous of a woman called Elise (23) as well. This isn’t, in other words, the first time he has betrayed the speaker. It sounds as though her husband or lover is a serial philanderer. And she has secretly gone off to an alchemist or chemist, who (for a large fee) has agreed to make her a deadly poison, with which she will be able to kill her rival. Now, she is determined to get her revenge. A woman (we don’t know her name) has been betrayed by her husband or lover with another woman, Pauline. We are in French high society, the society around the King’s court. The setting here is the Ancien Régime, i.e. it is not the poet speaking to us, but the voice of a character that he has created. This is in many ways a really sinister poem: Browning is creating for us the voice of a woman poisoner in eighteenth-century France.Īs with “My Last Duchess” and “Ulysses”, this is a dramatic monologue, i.e. The speaker is imagining one made of poison which, when lit, will give off poisonous vapours.Ģ9 minion: little thing (from French mignonne).ģ1 masculine eyes: it’s Pauline’s eyes, in fact, that are so vibrant.ģ9 its grace: i.e. at the court, presumably the court of King Louis XVI of France.ġ3 mortar: a bowl for grinding chemicals into powder.ġ5 phial: small glass container, test-tube.įan-mount: the small metal centre of a fan.įiligree basket: a little ornamental basket.Ģ3 pastile: a stick of aromatic paste. a workshop fit for the devil: the laboratory with all its poisonous chemicals.ġ2 the King’s: i.e. Department of Economics and International Studies Eventsģ devil’s-smithy: i.e.Department of Economics and International Studies.Resources and language learning strategies.The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found.Resources for Schools – English GCSE & AS Level.Department of English and Digital Media.Global Security & Intelligence Notes (GSIN).MA Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors.Department of History and History of Art.BUCSIS BA, MA and Research Degree Programmes.Double Degree MA Programme in PPE and Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy.Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS).School of Humanities and Social Sciences."We're in the laboratory," however, clearly shows that you are in that space and intend to be there for a while. There are other distinctions for the use of IN and AT, and sometimes the prepositions are used interchangeably. He's there now, and he'll be in his office this afternoon. We had to wait five hours IN the airport because all the flights were delayed. But since your activity is inside the room for a while, "in" is the more accurate preposition. If you were just going to meet there, either at the door or for a short time, then "at" might be appropriate. Your instructions state that you and your class are inside the lab, working. It was warm and comfortable IN the club (a place to spend time)." Let's meet AT the club (a meeting point). "Sometimes we use AT with a larger place. He notes that "AT is used to talk about position at a point: Michael Swan notes that "IN is used for position inside large areas, and in three-dimensional space (when something is surrounded on all sides): We had dinner at a restaurant in Attleborough.He will be at the airport to meet her." You use AT to indicate the place or event where something happens or is situated. The dictionary's definition for AT includes: "1. If something happens IN a place, it happens there. Someone or something that is IN something else is enclosed by it or surrounded by it.2. The Collins COBUILD Dictionary of the English Language has this entry under "in": We're "in the laboratory" describes your position: you are inside of something, surrounded by four walls, enclosed by it, surrounded by it.
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