it
has been subject to no other law. "The Ring and the Book" was written at
what may be considered the turning-point of a human life. It was in some
degree a turning-point in the author's artistic career: for most of his
emotional poems were published before, and most of the argumentative
after it; and in this sense his work may be said to divide itself into
two. But the division is useless for our purpose. The Browning of the
second period is the Browning of the first, only in a more crystallized
form. No true boundary line can be drawn even here.

My endeavour will, therefore, be to bring the sense of this real
continuity into the divisions which I must impose on Mr. Browning's
work; and thus also to infuse something of his life into the meagre
statement of contents to which I am forced to reduce it. The few words
of explanation by which I preface each group may assist this end. At the
same time I shall resist all temptation to "bring out" what I have
indicated as Mr. Browning's leading ideas by headings, capitals,
italics, or any other artificial device whatever; as in so doing I
should destroy his emphasis and hinder the right reading, besides
effacing the usually dramatic character, of the individual poems. The
impressions I have received from the collective work will, I trust, be
confirmed by it.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: I stated in my first edition that Mr. Browning was
descended from the "Captain Micaiah Browning" who raised the siege of
Derry in 1689 by springing the boom across Lough Foyle, and perished in
the act (the incident being related in Macaulay's "History of England,"
vol. iv., pp. 244 and 245 of the edition of 1858). I am now told that
there is no evidence of this lineal descent, though there are
circumstances which point to some kind of relationship. Another probable
ancestor is Captain ---- Browning, who commanded the ship "Holy Ghost,"
which conveyed Henry V. to France before he fought the battle of
Agincourt; and in return for whose services two waves, said to represent
waves of the sea, were added to his coat of arms. The same arms were
worn by Captain Micaiah Browning, and are so by the present family.]

[Footnote 2: Wiedemann is the second baptismal name of Mr. Browning's
son; and, in his infantine mouth, it became (we do not exactly guess
how), the "Penini," shortened into "Pen," which some ingenious
interpreters have derived from the word "Apennine."]

[Footnote 3: And--we are bound