III. MATURING METHODS. DRAMAS AND DRAMATIC LYRICS 37 Introduction. I. Dramas. From _Strafford_ to _Pippa Passes_ 42 II. From the _Blot in the 'Scutcheon_ to _Luria_ 51 III. The early Dramatic Lyrics and Romances 65 IV. WEDDED LIFE IN ITALY. _MEN AND WOMEN_ 74 I. January 1845 to September 1846 74 II. Society and Friendships 84 III. Politics 88 IV. Poems of Nature 91 V. Poems of Art 96 VI. Poems of Religion 110 VII. Poems of Love 132 V. LONDON. _DRAMATIS PERSONÆ_ 148 VI. _THE RING AND THE BOOK_ 169 VII. AFTERMATH 187 VIII. THE LAST DECADE 220 PART II. BROWNING'S MIND AND ART. IX. THE POET 237 I. Divergent psychical tendencies of Browning--"romantic" temperament, "realist" senses--blending of their _données_ in his imaginative activity--shifting complexion of "finite" and "infinite" 237 II. His "realism." Plasticity, acuteness, and veracity of intellect and senses 239 III. But his realism qualified by energetic individual preference along certain well-defined lines 245 IV. _Joy in Light and Colour_ 246 V. _Joy in Form_. Love of abruptness, of intricacy; clefts and spikes 250 VI. _Joy in Power_. Violence in imagery and description; in sounds; in words. Grotesqueness. Intensity. Catastrophic action. The pregnant moment 257 VII. _Joy in Soul_. 1. Limited in Browning on the side of simple human nature; of the family; of the civic community; of myth and symbol 266 VIII. _Joy in Soul_. 2. Supported by Joy in Light and Colour; in Form; in Power. 3. Extended to (a) sub-human Nature, (b) the inanimate products of Art; Relation of Browning's poetry to his interpretation of life 272 X. THE INTERPRETER OF LIFE 287 I. Approximation of God, Man, Nature in the thought of the early nineteenth century; how far reflected in the thought of Browning 287