1. The Laboratory by Robert Browning
GCSE LITERATURE
Commentary on the poem

2. How about MURDER? What do you think of…? The Laboratory
Experimentations
Medicines
The Laboratory
Scientific
A Chemist
Chemicals
How about MURDER?

3. The time is the Ancien Regime..
Where the people
associated with
the King meet
A time of privilege
for the aristocrats
France in the
18th century
A time for love affairs
at court
But in a laboratory…
using POISON
A lady is plotting
to murder her rival
. . . away from
the court..

4. What can you infer and interpret?
Annotate the text
What can you infer and interpret?

5. How and why are these words emphasised?
The Laboratory by Robert Browning
ANCIEN REGIME I
Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly,
May gaze thro’ these faint smokes curling whitely,
As thou pliest thy trade in this devil’s –smithy –
Which is the poison to poison her, prithee? II
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.
III
Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,
Pound at thy powder, - I am not in haste!
Better sit thus, and observe thy strange things,
Than go where men wait me and dance at the King’s. IV
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? V
Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures,
What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!
To carry pure death in an earring, a casket,
A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket! VI
Soon, at the King’s, a mere lozenge to give,
And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!
But to light a pastile, and Elise, with her head
And her breast and her arms and her hands, should
drop dead!
(= devil’s workshop) Why use these words? They evoke what reactions from the reader?
Plosive ‘p’ (reveals what about the speaker?) How? Why?
Mmmmm – alliteration but what effects achieved? Why include them?
How and why are these words emphasised?
The key point of all this preparation?

6. Establishes relationship- she is the social superior
Informal 2nd person
Establishes relationship-
she 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

7. Dramatic ending: where is “here”?
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.
Dramatic ending: where is “here”?
The repetition also makes her seem
excited or passionate

8. 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

9. Quick – is it finished? The colour’s too grim!
VII
Quick – is it finished? The colour’s too grim!
Why not soft like the phial’s, enticing and dim?
Let it brighten her drink, let her turn it and stir,
And try it and taste, ere she fix and prefer!
VIII
What a drop! She’s not little, no minion like me!
That’s why she ensnared him; this never will free
The soul from those masculine eyes, - say, ‘no!’
That to pulse’s magnificent come-and-go. IX
For only last night, as they whispered, I brought
My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought
Could I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall
Shrivelled; she fell not; yet this does it all! X
Not that I bid you spare her the pain;
Let death be flt and the proof remain:
Brand, burn up, bite into its grace –
He is sure to remember her dying face! XI
Is it done? Take my mask off! Nay, be not morose;
It kills her, and this prevents seeing it close:
The delicate droplet, my whole fortune’s fee!
If it hurts her, beside, can it ever hurt me?
XII
Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill,
You may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will!
But brush this dust off me, lest horror it brings
Ere I know it – next moment I dance at the King’s!
Repeated ‘b’
Why?
What does she mean?

10. Some gothic qualities in the poem
An evil plot
A deranged narrator
A story of a murder
Madness
or obsession
A sinister setting
Secrets
Which other poems in the anthology
have some of these qualities?

11. 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.

12. Summarise what you now know about the poem:
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?

13. 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)

14. 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)