e: a circumstance the
more striking that it is perfectly transparent, as well as truly
poetical, so far as its language is concerned.

The defects and difficulties of "Pauline" are plainly admitted in an
editor's note, written in French, and signed by this name; and which,
proceeding as it does from the author himself, supplies a valuable
comment on the work.

"I much fear that my poor friend will not be always perfectly understood
in what remains to be read of this strange fragment, but it is less
calculated than any other part to explain what of its nature can never
be anything but dream and confusion. I do not know moreover whether in
striving at a better connection of certain parts, one would not run the
risk of detracting from the only merit to which so singular a production
can pretend: that of giving a tolerably precise idea of the manner
(_genre_) which it can merely indicate. This unpretending opening, this
stir of passion, which first increases, and then gradually subsides,
these transports of the soul, this sudden return upon himself, and above
all, my friend's quite peculiar turn of mind, have made alterations
almost impossible. The reasons which he elsewhere asserts, and others
still more cogent have secured my indulgence for this paper, which
otherwise I should have advised him to throw into the fire. I believe
none the less in the great principle of all composition--in that
principle of Shakespeare, of Raphael, and of Beethoven, according to
which concentration of ideas is due much more to their conception than
to their execution; I have every reason to fear that the first of these
qualities is still foreign to my friend, and I much doubt whether
redoubled labour would enable him to acquire the second. It would be
best to burn this; but what can I do?"

* * * * *

We might infer from this, as from his subsequent introduction, that Mr.
Browning disclaimed all that is extravagant in the poem, and laid it
simply to the charge of the imaginary person it is intended to depict:
but that he has also prefaced it with a curious Latin quotation which
identifies that person with himself.[8]

"Pauline" did not take its place among the author's collected works till
1868, when the uniform edition of them appeared; and he then introduced
it by a preface (to which I have just alluded) in which he declared his
unwillingness to publish such a boyish production, and gave the reasons
whic