tage history to record. In spite of occasional
fairly successful productions it must be admitted that Browning's plays
have never achieved, probably never will achieve, popularity in the
shape of long runs in many cities.[3] They are too subjective, too
analytic, too psychological, for quick or easy understanding. But to the
reader they offer many delights. The stories are clear, coherent,
interesting; the characters strongly individualized; the crises of
experience stimulating; the interaction of personalities subtly
analyzed; the poetry noble and beautiful.

The two non-dramatic numbers of _Bells and Pomegranates_ were _Dramatic
Lyrics_ (No. 3, 1842) and _Dramatic Romances and Lyrics_ (No. 7, 1845).
The first included such poems as "Cavalier Tunes," "In a Gondola,"
"Porphyria," and "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"; the second included "How
they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," "The Lost Leader," "The
Tomb at St. Praxed's," "The Flight of the Duchess," "The Boy and the
Angel," and the first part of "Saul." These poems, together with the
dramas, make a remarkably rich body of poetry to be produced in the
short space of five years. And the character of the work, its variety
and beauty and strength and originality, were such that its meager and
grudging acceptance seems now inexplicable.

The most important event in the life of Browning during this period was
his acquaintance with Miss Elizabeth Barrett. In 1844 she brought out a
new volume of poems which he saw and greatly admired. He wrote to her
expressing delight in her work and asking permission to call; but Miss
Barrett, owing to long-continued invalidism, had lived in almost entire
seclusion, and she was not at first willing to receive Mr. Browning.
This was in January, 1845, and many letters passed between them before
the first interview in the following May. Mr. Browning's love for Miss
Barrett found almost immediate expression and she was soon conscious of
an equally strong love for him, but for a considerable time she
persistently refused to marry him. To her mind the obstacles were almost
insurmountable. Of these her ill-health was chief. She could not
consent, she said, to dim the prosperities of his career by a union with
her future, which she characterized as a precarious thing, a thing for
making burdens out of--but not for his carrying. In exchange for the
"noble extravagancies" of his love she could bring him only "anxiety and
more sadness than he w