Sordello

Sordello by Robert Browning is about the fictionalized version of the life of Sordello da Goito, a 13th-century Lombard troubadour depicted in Canto VI of Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio. Excerpt: "Pym. Have I done well? Speak, England! Whose sole sake I still have labored for, with disregard To my own heart,—for whom my youth was made Barren, my manhood waste, to offer up Her sacrifice—this friend, this Wentworth here— Who walked in youth with me, loved me, it may be, And whom, for his forsaking England's cause, I hunted by all means (trusting that she Would sanctify all means) even to the block Which waits for him. And saying this, I feel…"