Or, my scrofulous French novel On gray paper with blunt type! Simply glance at it, you grovel Hand and foot in Belial's gripe: If I double down its pages At the woeful sixteenth print, When he gathers his greengages, Ope a sieve and slip it in't? Or, there's Satan!--one might venture Pledge one's soul to him, yet leave Such a flaw in the indenture As he'd miss, till, past retrieve, Blasted lay that rose-acacia We're so proud of! _Hy, Zy, Hine ..._ 'St, there's Vespers! _Plena gratia Ave, Virgo!_ Gr-r-r--you swine! In this "soliloquy" we have, in a few lines, possibly the strongest interpretation of hypocrisy in literature. The soliloquy begins with the speaker's accidental discovery of the kindly-hearted monk, Brother Lawrence, attending to his flowers in the court below, and the sight causes an explosion of rage. So intense is his feeling that, in his imagination, he talks directly to Brother Lawrence. Note, for example, such suggestions as, "How go on your flowers?" Of course, Brother Lawrence knows nothing of the speaker's presence; that worthy, with gusto, answers his own questions to himself. Notice also the abrupt transitions. Browning, even in his soliloquies, often introduces events. "There his lily snaps!" is given with sudden glee as the speaker discovers the accident. The difference between Browning and Shakespeare may be still more clearly conceived. "Shakespeare," says some one, "makes his characters live; Browning makes his think." Shakespeare reveals character by making a man think alone, or, in contact with others, act. Browning fixes our attention upon an individual, and shows us what he is by making him think, and usually he suggests the cause of the thinking in some relation to objects, events, or characters. The situation in every case is most favorable to the expression of thought and feeling, and of deeper motives. The chief difference between Shakespeare and Browning is the difference between a play and a monologue. The point of view of the two men is not the same, and we must appreciate that of both. Browning's "Saul" may be regarded as a soliloquy. David is alone. Browning's words here help us to an appreciation of his peculiar kind of soliloquy. "Let me tell out my tale to its ending--my voice to my heart Which can scarce dare believe in what marvels last night I took part, As this morning I gather the fragments, alone with my sheep, And still fear lest the terrible glory evanish like sleep!" "My voice to my heart" is very suggestive. Browning always made his speaker, when alone, talk to himself. He divides the personality of the individual much more than did Shakespeare. Shakespeare simply makes a man think aloud, while Browning almost makes consciousness dual. Some one may ask,--Why not take any story or lyric and give it directly to an imaginary listener, and only indirectly to the audience?