to the Palazzo Bufalo--or del Bufalo--in Rome. The wall has been pulled
down since Mr. Browning was last there.]

[Footnote 11: Aristotle.]

[Footnote 12: He rose to meet him from the place at which he stood,
saying, "Oh Mantuan, I am Sordello of thy land!" and they embraced each
other.]

[Footnote 13: The name of Naddo occurs in this book, and will often
reappear in the course of the story. This personage is the typical
Philistine--the Italian Brown, Jones, or Robinson--and will represent
genuine common-sense, or mere popular judgment, as the case may be.]

[Footnote 14: Elys, the subject of this song, is any woman of the then
prevailing type of Italian beauty: having fair hair, and a "pear-shaped"
face.]

[Footnote 15: Bocafoli and Plara, mannerists: one of the sensuous
school, the other of the pompously pure; imaginary personages, but to
whom we may give real names.]

[Footnote 16: The belief in personal experience is very strong here.]

[Footnote 17: The third of these, vol. i. p. 168, is very characteristic
of the state of Sordello's, and therefore, at that moment, of his
author's mind. The poet who _makes others see_ is he who deals with
abstractions: who makes the mood do duty for the man.]

[Footnote 18: Walter Savage Landor.]

[Footnote 19: The word "Eyebright" at page 170 stands for Euphrasia its
Greek equivalent, and refers to one of Mr. Browning's oldest friends.]

[Footnote 20: Here, as elsewhere, I give the spirit rather than the
letter, or even the exact order of Sordello's words. The necessary
condensation requires this.]

II.

NON-CLASSIFIED POEMS.

DRAMAS.

Our attention is next attracted to Mr. Browning's dramas; for his first
tragedy, "Strafford," was published before "Sordello," having been
written in an interval of its composition, and his first drama, "Pippa
Passes," immediately afterwards. They were published, with the exception
of "Strafford," and "In a Balcony," in the "Bells and Pomegranates"
series, 1841-1846, together with the "Dramatic Lyrics," and "Dramatic
Romances," which will be found distributed under various headings in the
course of this volume.

The dramas are:--

"Strafford." 1837.
"Pippa Passes." 1841.
"King Victor and King Charles." 1842.
"The Return of the Druses." 1843.
"A Blot in the 'Scutcheon." 1843.
"Colombe's Birthday." 1844.
"A Soul's Tragedy." 1846.
"Luria." 1846.
"In a Balcony." (A Fragment.