Good News from Ghent to Aix

The question as to what was the "good news sent from Ghent to Aix," according to Robert Browning's poem, has caused very active discussion, in years past, among persons of literary taste. The arguments used were often ingenious examples in the way of criticism. One English writer, for instance, directed attention to the fact that the title of the poem was accompanied by an indefinite date, "16--," not tending to confirm the theory of an historical foundation for the story. A true narrative, he argued, would have ensured a definite date, and thereby added a real human interest to the spirited lines of the poem. Moreover, the "good horse Roland" is described as carrying his rider, on a headlong gallop, a distance of 120 miles, beginning the journey about midnight, and reaching its end shortly after sunrise in the morning; this is solemnly set down as a physical impossibility, and therefore a seal of untruth is stamped upon the whole story. Another critic, discarding the internal evidences and the physiological arguments, is struck by a military incongruity. "Aix," he reasons, "was evidently in a state of siege at the time when the event described occurred, and in sore straits. If this were so, how comes it that a horseman was allowed to gallop into town without hindrance?" After these and other labored essays had exhausted their force on the public mind, it occurred to some one to write to Mr. Browning on the subject. This inquiry drew from him a letter, printed in an English newspaper, the Oracle, under date of January 23d, 1882 It reads as follows: "There is no sort of historical foundation for the poem about 'Good News from Ghent to Aix;' I wrote it under the bulwark of a vessel off the African coast, after I had been at sea long enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop on the back of a certain good horse York, then in my stable at home. It was written in pencil on the fly leaf of Bartolio's 'Simbolid,' I remember." The events giving the poem the semblance of truth are these: the severity of the government of Charles V. in the Netherlands, with respect to religious matters, had estranged the affections of his subjects there; and the bigoted policy of Philip II. and the Duke of Alva brought the Netherlands finally to open rebellion. After several battles had been fought, the Netherland leader, William of Orange, assembled the North German states and at last succeeded in forming a Union called the "Northern Alliance." It was made at Ghent in 1578; and by means of it the North German States gained their religious freedom. But by that time almost all the provisions in Holland had become exhausted. In Aix particularly the famine was terrible, and according to Browning the last glass of Rhenish wine was poured down the throat of the "good steed Roland,"