Epigram on the Grand Duke (‘The G.d Duke wash'd and kiss'd ten poor men's feet’)

First publ. by Michael Meredith in BSN xx, no. 2 (1990–91), p. 3. The lines occur in a letter of 8 Jan. 1854 from Robert Lytton to John Forster (now at Eton College): ‘Did you ever hear Browning’s Epigram on the Grand Duke? If not it is worth a hearty laugh so I send it you.’ He then quotes the poem; we follow his text, omitting quotation marks at the beginning and end. Lytton’s phrase ‘Did you ever hear’ implies that he had known the epigram for some time; we date the poem to the summer or early autumn of 1853 when the Brownings’ friendship with Lytton was at its height (see headnote to Serenade, p. 487).