The interpreter of a monologue must be true to the character of the speaker. He must faithfully portray, not his own, but the attitude and bearing, feelings and impression, of this character. Every normal person would greatly admire the beauties of "the villa," but the "Italian person of quality," in Browning's monologue, feels for it great contempt. In Browning's "Youth and Art" we feel continually the point of view, the feeling, and the character of the speaker. YOUTH AND ART It once might have been, once only: We lodged in a street together, You, a sparrow on the housetop lonely, I, a lone she-bird of his feather. Your trade was with sticks and clay, You thumbed, thrust, patted, and polished, Then laughed, "They will see, some day, Smith made, and Gibson demolished." My business was song, song, song; I chirped, cheeped, trilled, and twittered, "Kate Brown's on the boards ere long, And Grisi's existence imbittered!" I earned no more by a warble Than you by a sketch in plaster: You wanted a piece of marble, I needed a music-master. We studied hard in our styles, Chipped each at a crust like Hindoos, For air, looked out on the tiles, For fun, watched each other's windows. You lounged, like a boy of the South, Cap and blouse--nay, a bit of beard, too; Or you got it, rubbing your mouth With fingers the clay adhered to. And I--soon managed to find Weak points in the flower-fence facing, Was forced to put up a blind And be safe in my corset-lacing. No harm! It was not my fault If you never turned your eye's tail up As I shook upon E _in alt._, Or ran the chromatic scale up; For spring bade the sparrows pair, And the boys and girls gave guesses, And stalls in our street looked rare With bulrush and water-cresses. Why did not you pinch a flower In a pellet of clay and fling it? Why did not I put a power Of thanks in a look, or sing it? I did look, sharp as a lynx (And yet the memory rankles) When models arrived, some minx Tripped up stairs, she and her ankles. But I think I gave you as good! "That foreign fellow--who can know How she pays, in a playful mood, For his tuning her that piano?" Could you say so, and never say, "Suppose we join hands and fortunes, And I fetch her from over the way, Her, piano, and long tunes and short tunes?" No, no; you would not be rash, Nor I rasher and something over: You've to settle yet Gibson's hash, And Grisi yet lives in clover. But you meet the Prince at the Board. I'm queen myself at _bals-pares_, I've married a rich old lord, And you're dubbed knight and an R. A. Each life's unfulfilled, you see; It hangs still patchy and scrappy; We have not sighed deep, laughed free, Starved, feasted, despaired,--been happy.