st; and it must be remembered that the aim of
Comedy is intrinsically lower and more limited than that of Tragedy,
that it is destructive, disintegrating, negative, concerned with smaller
issues and more temporary questions; and that Euripides may reasonably
be held a better teacher, a keener, above all a more helpful, reader of
the riddle of life, than his mighty assailant. This is how Aristophanes
has been described, by one who should know:--

"He is an aggregate of many men, all of a certain greatness.
We may build up a conception of his powers if we mount
Rabelais upon Hudibras, lift him with the songfulness of
Shelley, give him a vein of Heinrich Heine, and cover him
with the mantle of the Anti-Jacobin, adding (that there may
be some Irish in him) a dash of Grattan, before he is in
motion."[50]

Now the "Titanic pamphleteer" is more recognisable in Browning's most
vivid portrait than the "lyric poet of aerial delicacy" who in some
strange fashion, beyond his own wildest metamorphoses, distracted and
idealised the otherwise congruous figure. Not that this is overlooked
or forgotten: it is brought out admirably in several places, notably in
the fine song put into the mouth of Aristophanes at the close; but it is
scarcely so prominent as lovers of him could desire. It is possible,
too, that Browning somewhat over-accentuates his earnestness; not his
fundamental earnestness, but the extent to which he remembered and
exhibited it. "My soul bade fight": yes, but "laugh," too, and laugh for
laughter's as well as fight for principle's sake. This, again, is merely
a matter of detail, of shading. There can be little doubt that the whole
general outline of the man is right, none whatever that it is a living
and breathing outline. His apology is presented in Browning's familiar
manner of genuine feeling tempered with sophistry. As a piece of
dramatic art it is worthy to stand beside his famous earlier apologies;
and it has value too as a contribution to criticism, to a vital
knowledge of the Attic drama and the work and personality of
Aristophanes and Euripides, and to a better understanding of the drama
as a criticism of life.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 50: George Meredith, _On the Idea of Comedy_.]

23. THE INN ALBUM.

[Published in November, 1875. (_Poetical Works_, 1889, Vol
XII. pp. 179-311.) Translated into German in 1877: "_Das
Fremdenbuch_ von Robert Browning. Aus dem Engli