My study of Browning's poems is chronological. I recognise the disadvantages of this method, but I also perceive certain advantages. Many years ago in "Studies in Literature" I attempted a general view of Browning's work, and wrote, as long ago as 1867, a careful study of _Sordello_. What I now write may suffer as well as gain from a familiarity of so many years with his writings. But to make them visible objects to me I have tried to put his poems outside myself, and approach them with a fresh mind. Whether I have failed or partly succeeded I am unable to determine. The analysis of _La Saisiaz_ appeared--substantially--in the little Magazine of the Home Reading Union, and one or two other short passages are recovered from uncollected articles of mine. I have incorporated in my criticism a short passage from one of my wife's articles on Browning in _The Dark Blue Magazine_, making such modifications as suited my purpose, and she has contributed a passage to the pages which close this volume. I had the privilege of some personal acquaintance with Browning, and have several cordial letters of his addressed to my wife and to myself. These I have not thought it right to use. E.D. Contents CHAPTER I CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH Ancestry--Parents--Boyhood--Influence of Shelley--Pauline CHAPTER II PARACELSUS AND SORDELLO Visit to Russia--Paracelsus--His failures and attainments--Sordello, a companion poem--Its obscurity--Imaginative qualities--The history of a soul CHAPTER III THE MAKER OF PLAYS New acquaintances--Hatcham--Macready--Strafford--Venice--Bells and Promegranates--A Blot on the 'Scutcheon--Characters of passion--Characters of intellect CHAPTER IV THE MAKER OF PLAYS--_(continued)_ Women of the dramas--Dramatic style--Pippa Passes--Dramatic Lyrics and Romances--Poems of Love and of Art CHAPTER V LOVE AND MARRIAGE First letters to Miss Barrett--Meeting--Progress in friendship--Obstacles--Marriage CHAPTER VI EARLY YEARS IN ITALY Correspondence of R.B. and E.B.B.--Journey to Italy--Pisa--Florence--Vallombrosa--Italian politics--Casa Guidi-Friends--Son born--Death of Browning's mother--Wanderings. CHAPTER VII CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY Publication--Movements of Religious Thought--Dissent--Catholicism--Criticism--Difficulties of Christian life--Imaginative power of the poems--In Venice--Paris--England--Paris again--Coup d'état CHAPTER VIII FROM 1851 TO 1855 Essay on Shelley--New acquaintances--Milsand--George Sand--London--Casa Guidi--Spiritualism--Mr Sludge the Medium--Baths of Lucca--Rome--London--Tennyson's Maud CHAPTER IX MEN AND WOMEN Rossetti's admiration--Beauty before teaching--The poet behind his poems--Isolated poems--Groups--Poems of love--Poems of Art--Poems of Religion CHAPTER X CLOSE OF MRS BROWNING'S LIFE