atriot brought up in Brittany, analyses his own
character with the merciless self-consciousness of Browning himself:

"I with my Arab instinct--thwarted ever
By my Frank policy, and with in turn
My Frank brain thwarted by my Arab heart--
While these remained in equipoise, I lived--
Nothing; had either been predominant,
As a Frank schemer or an Arab mystic
I had been something."

The conflict between policy and devotion is now transferred to the arena
of a single breast, where its nature is somewhat too clearly understood
and formulated. The "Frank schemer" conceives the plan of turning the
Druse superstition to account by posing as an incarnation of their
Founder. But the "Arab mystic" is too near sharing the belief to act his
part with ease, and while he is still paltering the devoted Anael slays
the Prefect. The play is thenceforth occupied, ostensibly, with the
efforts of the Christian authorities to discover and punish the
murderers. Its real subject is the subtle changes wrought in Djabal and
Anael by their gradual transition from the relation of prophet and
devotee to that of lovers. Her passion, even before he comes to share
it, has begun to sap the security of his false pretensions: he longs,
not at first to disavow them, but to make them true: he will be the
prophetic helper of his people in very deed. To the outer world he
maintains his claim with undiminished boldness and complete success; but
the inner supports are gradually giving way, Arab mystic and Frank
schemer lose their hold, and

"A third and better nature rises up,
My mere man's nature."

Anael, a simpler character than any previous woman of the plays, thus
has a more significant function. Lady Carlisle fumbles blindly with the
dramatic issues without essentially affecting them; Polyxena furthers
them with loyal counsel, but is not their main executant. Anael, in her
fervid devotion, not only precipitates the catastrophe, but emancipates
her lover from the thraldom of his lower nature. In her Browning for the
first time in drama represented the purifying power of Love. The
transformations of soul by soul were already beginning to occupy
Browning's imagination. The poet of _Cristina_ and _Saul_ was already
foreshadowed. But nothing as yet foreshadowed the kind of spiritual
influence there portrayed--that which, instead of making its way through
the impact of character upon character, passion u