s in the
"Dramatis Personae" are aglow with the romance of life, as in the "Eurydice
to Orpheus," and "A Face," which refers to Emily Patmore. There are studio
traces as well in these, and in the "Deaf and Dumb," suggested by a group
of Woolner. The crowning power of all is revealed in the noble faith and
the exquisite tenderness of "Prospice," especially in those closing lines
when all of fear and pain and darkness and cold,--

"Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,
Then a light, then thy breast,
O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be the rest!"

The references to his wife in this poem, in the enthralling "One Word
More," and in the dedication to "The Ring and the Book," as well as those
to be divined in his character drawing of "Pompilia," are incomparable in
their impressiveness and beauty, and must live so long as poetry is
enshrined in life. The vital drama, the splendor of movement, the color,
the impassioned exaltation of feeling, the pictorial vividness that are in
these poems grouped under "Dramatic Romances" and "Dramatis Personae," give
them claim to the first rank in the poet's creations. Curiously, during
this period, the change in Browning's habits of work, which his wife used
to urge upon him, seemed to gradually take possession of him, so that he
came to count that day lost in which he had not written some lines of
poetry. Did he, perchance in dreams, catch something of "the rustling of
her vesture" that influenced his mind to the change? To Elizabeth Browning
poetry was not only a serious calling, but its "own exceeding great
reward," always.

Another change came to Browning, which redeemed him from the growing
tendency to become a recluse, and made him a familiar figure in the great
world. He seemed to become aware that there was something morbid and
unworthy in the avoidance of the world of men and women. Browning's
divinely commissioned work had to do with life, in its most absolute
actualities as well as its great spiritual realities, because the life
eternal in its nature was the theme on which he played his poetic
variations, and no revelation of human nature came amiss to him.

He had already supervised the publication of Mrs. Browning's essay on "The
Greek Christian Poets" and "The Book of the Poets," and "nothing," he
said, "that ought to be published, shall be kept back." He had also lent
Story considerable assistance in arranging