hearts be--Christ, how far!

These poems are valuable not only for furnishing an interesting
interpretation of Shakespeare's character as a man and artist, but for
the glimpses they give into Browning's stand toward his own art. He
wished to be regarded primarily as a dramatic artist, presenting and
interpreting the souls of his characters, and he must have felt keenly
the stupid attitude which insisted always in reading "Browning's
Philosophy" into all his poems. The fact that his objective material was
of the soul rather than of the external actions of life has no doubt
lent force to the supposition that Browning himself can be seen in
everything he writes. It is true, nevertheless, that while much of his
work is Shakespearian in its dramatic intensity, he had too forceful a
philosophy of life to keep it from sometimes coming to the front.
Besides he has written many things avowedly personal as this chapter
amply illustrates.

To what intensity of feeling Browning could rise when contemplating the
genius of Shakespeare is revealed in his direct and outspoken tribute.
Here there breathes an almost reverential attitude toward the one
supremely great man he has ventured to portray.

THE NAMES

Shakespeare!--to such name's sounding, what succeeds
Fitly as silence? Falter forth the spell,--
Act follows word, the speaker knows full well;
Nor tampers with its magic more than needs.
Two names there are: That which the Hebrew reads
With his soul only: if from lips it fell,
Echo, back thundered by earth, heaven and hell,
Would own, "Thou didst create us!" Naught impedes
We voice the other name, man's most of might,
Awesomely, lovingly: let awe and love
Mutely await their working, leave to sight
All of the issue as--below--above--
Shakespeare's creation rises: one remove,
Though dread--this finite from that infinite.

CHAPTER III

A CRUCIAL PERIOD IN ENGLISH HISTORY

"Whom the gods destroy they first make mad." Of no one in English
history is this truer than of King Charles I. Just at a time when the
nation was feeling the strength of its wings both in Church and State,
when individuals were claiming the right to freedom of conscience in
their form of worship and the people were growing more insistent for the
recognition of their ancient rights and liberties, secured to them, in
the first place, by the Magna Charta,--just at this tim