e unconscious
burlesque of his "Ah,--I had forgotten: I am dying." In such things one
feels Browning's want of the unerring sureness of a great dramatist at
the crucial moments of action.

Although not brilliantly successful on the boards, _A Blot in the
'Scutcheon_ made a deep impression upon the more competent part of the
audience. For Browning himself the most definite result was that
Macready passed out of his life--for twenty years they never met--and
that his most effective link with the stage was thus finally severed.
But his more distant and casual relations with it were partly balanced
by the much enlarged understanding of dramatic effect which he had by
this time won; and _A Blot in the 'Scutcheon_ was followed by a drama
which attains a beauty and charm not far below that of _Pippa Passes_
under the conditions of a regular dramatic plot. The ostensible subject
of _Colombe's Birthday_ is a political crisis on the familiar lines;--an
imperilled throne in the centre of interest, a background of vague
oppression and revolt. But as compared with _King Victor_ or _The
Druses_ the dispute is harmless, the tumult of revolution easily
overheard. The diplomatic business is not etherealised into romance,
like the ladies' embassy in _Love's Labour's Lost_; but neither is it
allowed to become grave or menacing. Berthold's arrival to present his
claim to the government of this miniature state affects us somewhat like
the appearance of a new and formidable player in some drawing-room
diversion; and the "treason" of the courtiers like the "unfairness" of
children at play. Nevertheless, the victory of love over political
interest which the motto foreshadows is not accomplished without those
subtle fluctuations and surprises which habitually mark the conduct of
Browning's plots. The alternative issues gain in seriousness and
ideality as we proceed, and Browning has nowhere expressed the ideal of
sovereignty more finely than it is expressed in this play, by the man
for whose sake a sovereign is about to surrender her crown.[20] Colombe
herself is one of Browning's most gracious and winning figures. She
brings the ripe decision of womanhood to bear upon a series of difficult
situations without losing the bright glamour of her youth. Her inborn
truth and nature draw her on as by a quiet momentum, and gradually
liberate her from the sway of the hollow fictions among which her lot is
cast. Valence, the outward instrument of this li