CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. SIGNIFICANCE OF PRESENT ÎNTEREST IN BROWNING'S

POETRY AS REGARDS THOUGHT AND ART

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PAGE

I

...

II. LIFE OF THE POET, AND HISTORY OF HIS WRITINGS,

"PERIODS" of Work, and GROWTH OF ART

III. LITERARY RELATIONS-THE AGE AND ITS IDEAS—

MODERN HUMANISM-MATTER AND FORM OF

BROWNING'S POETRY-HIS DRAMATIC METHOD

AND POWER

...

IV. CRITICAL OBJECTIONS-OBSCURITY AND ITS CAUSES

-FURTHER ANALYSIS OF DRAMATIC METHOD,

WITH REFERENCE ΤΟ IT - STYLE AND ITS

QUALITIES-CHARACTERISTICS

26

43

VIII. FIRST DRAMATIC LYRICS (1836-1846)

IX. POEMS OF LIFE AND DUTY, AND BROWNING'S

64

90

107

130

150

X. RELIGIOUS POEMS: "SAUL," "CHRISTMAS EVE,"

"THE SUN"

192

XI. BROWNING'S POETRY AND THE IDEAL OF RELIGION

--LEADING SPIRITUAL IDEAS

215

REFERENCE LIST OF POEMS INCLUDED

IN THE FOLLOWING STUDIES.

I. FIRST POEMS-(1) "Pauline," 27, 28, 45, 48, 54; (2) " Paracelsus,"

28, 48, 96, 151; (3) "Sordello," 29, 45, 48, 54, 113.

II. DRAMAS, 28, 29, 54; "Strafford," "Pippa Passes,” “King Victor

and King Charles," "The Return of the Druses," "A Blot in

the Scutcheon," "Colombe's Birthday," "Luria,' ""A Soul's

Tragedy," "In a Balcony," 130-147.

III. FIRST DRAMATIC LYRICS, 29, 54, 150; "Porphyria's Lover,"

"Johannes Agricola," "Cavalier Tunes," "Count Gismond,'

"Incident of the French Camp," "In a Gondola,” “Waring,”

"My Last Duchess," "The Bishop orders his Tomb at St.

Praxed's," 151-157.

IV. POEMS OF Life and Duty-"The Boy and the Angel," 168;

"The Statue and the Bust," 170; "A Grammarian's Funeral,"

174; "Deaf and Dumb," 177; "James Lee's Wife," pt. vi., Under

the Cliff, 178; pt. viii., By the Drawing-Board, 179; "The Last

Ride Together," 180; "Two in the Campagna," 181; "The

Patriot," 182; "Echetlos," 183; Lyric xii. in "Ferishtah's

Fancies," 183; "Instans Tyrannus," 183; "Halbert and Hob,"

184;
"Rabbi Ben Ezra," 185; "Pisgah Sights," i., ii., 189;

"Jochanan Hakkadosh," 190.

V. STUDIES OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS-"Saul," 195;

"Christmas Eve,"

205; The Sun in "Ferishtah's Fancies," 211; "Sordello" (part

of), 213; "Epistle of Karshish" (part of), 214; “Ixion," 214.

VI. THE RELIGIOUS

IDEAL IN BROWNING-" A Death in the

Desert," 220; Epilogue to "Dramatis Personæ," 232;
"Fears

and Scruples," 234; the Pope's meditation in "The Ring and

the Book," 255.

VII. POEMS OF THE "IMMORTAL "LIFE" Paracelsus,'

" "Sordello,"

"Saul, ," "A Grammarian's Funeral," the "Love-Poems,” “
"Cleon,"

252; "Rabbi Ben Ezra," 255; "Epistle of Karshish," 257

"Easter Day," 261; "La Saisiaz," 274.

VIII. STUDIES, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND CASUISTIC.-"Caliban upon

Setebos," 286; "Bishop Blougram's Apology," 294; "Mr.

Sludge, the Medium," 313.

IX. ART POEMS: PAINTING

"Fra Lippo Lippi," 335;

Ignotus," 343.

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"Old Pictures in Florence," 332;

"Andrea del Sarto," 339; "Pictor

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POETRY " Youth and Art," Pippa Passes" (part of),

"Pictor Ignotus," 345; Shop," 346; Respectability," 346;

“Popularity,” 347; "How it strikes a Contemporary,” 347;

Digression in "Sordello," 348; "A Light Woman," 350 ;

"Transcendentalism," 350; "At the Mermaid," 351; House,"

353; the Epilogue to Pacchiarotto," 353; Epilogue to

"Dra-

matic Idyls," 354; Prologues to "Pacchiarotto " and "Iocoseria,"

Lyric in "Iocoseria," 'Wanting is-What?" Prologue and

Epilogue to the "Two Poets of Croisic," 355; Aristophanes'

Apology," 356.

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66

"Master Hugues of

"Childe Roland

X. ROMANCES "The Flight of the Duchess," 371;

to the Dark Tower came," 377.

XI. THE LATER POEMS: HISTORY, THEMES, QUALITIES, AND

CLASSIFICATION OF, 33-38.

STUDIES IN THE POETRY

OF

ROBERT BROWNING.

CHAPTER I.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PRESENT INTEREST IN BROWNING'S POETRY AS REGARDS THOUGHT AND ART.

It is said sometimes that our age is essentially prosaic and unspiritual, and that, being so, it has and can have little care for poetry. Newspapers, novels, and reviews are the literature most characteristic of the time and the reading of its leisure hours. These appeal to its interests and minister to its wants. But for poetry in any serious way it has neither taste nor time.

And there is truth in this, no doubt. Many circumstances of the time and many things in its bias and habit are unfavourable to that art which is the pure, passionate, and disinterested expression of man's mind and life. We have abundant curiosity and

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