seo) the source
of the other allusion, of the linking Italy and England, is found. As the
reader will recall, the lines run:

"And save the soul! If this intent save mine,--
If the rough ore be rounded to a ring,
Render all duty which good ring should do,
And, failing grace, succeed in guardianship,--
Might mine but lie outside thine, Lyric Love,
Thy rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised)
Linking our England to his Italy!"

Dr. Corson especially notes Browning's opening invocation to his wife,
praying her aid and benediction in the work he has undertaken. "This
passage," says Dr. Corson, "has a remarkable movement, the unobtrusive but
distinctly felt alliteration contributing to the effect."

"O lyric Love, half angel and half bird
And all a wonder and a wild desire,--
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
Took sanctuary within the holier blue."

That Browning could never have created the character of Pompilia, save for
that all-enfolding influence of the character of his wife, all the
greater critics of "The Ring and the Book" agree. To Dr. Corson, Browning
said of her:

"I am not sorry, now, to have lived so long after she went away, but I
confess to you that all my types of women were beautiful and blessed
by my perfect knowledge of one woman's pure soul. Had I never known
Elizabeth, I never could have written 'The Ring and the Book.'"

Of Pompilia Dr. Hodell also says:

"... But there is another influence in the creation of this ideal
character beside that of the Madonna, it was the Madonna of his home,
the mother of his own child, whose spiritual nature was as noteworthy
as her intellect. And before this spiritual nature the poet bowed in
humble reverence."

Mrs. Orr, too, has written:

"Mrs. Browning's spiritual presence was more than a presiding memory
in the heart. I am convinced that it entered largely into the
conception of Pompilia.

"It takes, however, both the throbbing humanity of Balaustion and the
saintly glory of Pompilia to express fully the nature of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning as she appeared to her husband."

Dr. Dowden, Brooke, Corson, Herford, Hodell, Chesterton, and other
authoritative critics allude to their recognition of Mrs. Browning in the
character of Pompilia; and no reader of this immortal masterpiece of
poetic art can ever fail to find his pulses thrilling with those
inco