ido in Rome, in
1698. He intends to mix a poet's fancy with the crude facts, and create a
beautiful and artistic work.

The result of Browning's purpose is a series of monologues, in which the
same story is retold nine different times by the different actors in the
drama. The count, the young wife, the suspected priest, the lawyers, the
Pope who presides at the trial,--each tells the story, and each
unconsciously reveals the depths of his own nature in the recital. The most
interesting of the characters are Guido, the husband, who changes from bold
defiance to abject fear; Caponsacchi, the young priest, who aids the wife
in her flight from her brutal husband, and is unjustly accused of false
motives; Pompilia, the young wife, one of the noblest characters in
literature, fit in all respects to rank with Shakespeare's great heroines;
and the Pope, a splendid figure, the strongest of all Browning's masculine
characters. When we have read the story, as told by these four different
actors, we have the best of the poet's work, and of the most original poem
in our language.

BROWNING'S PLACE AND MESSAGE. Browning's place in our literature will be
better appreciated by comparison with his friend Tennyson, whom we have
just studied. In one respect, at least, these poets are in perfect accord.
Each finds in love the supreme purpose and meaning of life. In other
respects, especially in their methods of approaching the truth, the two men
are the exact opposites. Tennyson is first the artist and then the teacher;
but with Browning the message is always the important thing, and he is
careless, too careless, of the form in which it is expressed. Again,
Tennyson is under the influence of the romantic revival, and chooses his
subjects daintily; but "all's fish" that comes to Browning's net. He takes
comely and ugly subjects with equal pleasure, and aims to show that truth
lies hidden in both the evil and the good. This contrast is all the more
striking when we remember that Browning's essentially scientific attitude
was taken by a man who refused to study science. Tennyson, whose work is
always artistic, never studied art, but was devoted to the sciences; while
Browning, whose work is seldom artistic in form, thought that art was the
most suitable subject for a man's study.

The two poets differ even more widely in their respective messages.
Tennyson's message reflects the growing order of the age, and is summed up
in the word "law."