, for reading the
proofs, with results extremely beneficial to the book.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER,
_January 1905_.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
PREFACE vii

PART I.

BROWNING'S LIFE AND WORK.

CHAP.

I. EARLY LIFE. _PARACELSUS_ 1

II. ENLARGING HORIZONS. _SORDELLO_ 24

III. MATURING METHODS. DRAMAS AND DRAMATIC LYRICS 37
Introduction.
I. Dramas. From _Strafford_ to _Pippa Passes_ 42
II. From the _Blot in the 'Scutcheon_ to _Luria_ 51
III. The early Dramatic Lyrics and Romances 65

IV. WEDDED LIFE IN ITALY. _MEN AND WOMEN_ 74
I. January 1845 to September 1846 74
II. Society and Friendships 84
III. Politics 88
IV. Poems of Nature 91
V. Poems of Art 96
VI. Poems of Religion 110
VII. Poems of Love 132

V. LONDON. _DRAMATIS PERSONAE_ 148

VI. _THE RING AND THE BOOK_ 169

VII. AFTERMATH 187

VIII. THE LAST DECADE 220

PART II.

BROWNING'S MIND AND ART.

IX. THE POET 237
I. Divergent psychical tendencies of Browning--"romantic"
temperament, "realist" senses--blending of their
_donnees_ in his imaginative activity--shifting
complexion of "finite" and "infinite" 237
II. His "realism." Plasticity, acuteness, and veracity
of intellect and senses 239
III. But his realism qualified by energetic individual
preference along certain well-defined lines 245
IV. _Joy in Light and Colour_ 246
V. _Joy in Form_. Love of abruptness, of intricacy;
clefts and spikes 250
VI. _Joy in Power_. Viole