at
his soul is already lost. He is not worse at the end, but perhaps on the
way to betterment. The tragedy is then in the discovery by the people
that he who was thought to be a great soul is a fraud. But that
conclusion was not Browning's intention. Finally, if this be a tragedy
it is clothed with comedy. Browning's humour was never more wise,
kindly, worldly and biting than in the second act, and Ogniben may well
be set beside Bishop Blougram. It would be a privilege to dine with
either of them.

Every one is in love with _Pippa Passes_, which appeared immediately
after _Sordello_. It may have been a refreshment to Browning after the
complexities and metaphysics of _Sordello_, to live for a time with the
soft simplicity of Pippa, with the clear motives of the separate
occurrences at Asolo, with the outside picturesque world, and in a lyric
atmosphere. It certainly is a refreshment to us. It is a pity so little
was done by Browning in this pleasant, graceful, happy way. The
substance of thought in it and its intellectual force are just as strong
as in _Sordello_ or _Paracelsus_, and are concerned, especially in the
first two pieces, with serious and weighty matters of human life. Beyond
the pleasure the poem gives, its indirect teaching is full of truth and
beauty; and the things treated of belong to many phases of human life,
and touch their problems with poetic light and love. Pippa herself, in
her affectionate, natural goodness, illuminates the greater difficulties
of life in a single day more than Sordello or Paracelsus could in the
whole course of their lives.

It may be that there are persons who think lightly of _Pippa Passes_ in
comparison with _Fifine at the Fair_, persons who judge poetry by the
difficulties they find in its perusal. But _Pippa Passes_ fulfils the
demands of the art of poetry, and produces in the world the high results
of lovely and noble poetry. The other only does these things in part;
and when _Fifine at the Fair_ and even _Sordello_ are in the future
only the study of pedants, _Pippa Passes_ will be an enduring strength
and pleasure to all who love tenderly and think widely. And those
portions of it which belong to Pippa herself, the most natural, easy and
simplest portions, will be the sources of the greatest pleasure and the
deepest thought. Like Sordello's song, they will endure for the healing,
comforting, exalting and impelling of the world.

I have written of her and of other par