Two or three years ago I wrote a Play, about which the chief matter I much care to recollect at present is, that a Pitfull of good-natured people applauded it: ever since, I have been desirous of doing something in the same way that should better reward their attention. What follows, I mean for the first of a series of Dramatical Pieces, to come out at intervals; and I amuse myself by fancying that the cheap mode in which they appear, will for once help me to a sort of Pit-audience again. Of course such a work must go on no longer than it is liked; and to provide against a too certain and but too possible contingency, let me hasten to say now--what, if I were sure of success, I would try to say circumstantially enough at the close--that I dedicate my best intentions most admiringly to the Author of _Ion_--most affectionately to Sergeant Talfourd. ROBERT BROWNING. * * * * * The phrases in the closing sentence were afterward used by Browning as a dedication when he discarded the advertisement in the collective editions of his poems. PERSONS PIPPA. OTTIMA. SEBALD. Foreign Students. GOTTLIEB. SCHRAMM. JULES. PHENE. Austrian Police. BLUPHOCKS. LUIGI and his mother. Poor Girls. MONSIGNOR and his attendants. INTRODUCTION NEW YEAR'S DAY AT ASOLO IN THE TREVISAN _A large mean airy chamber. A girl_, PIPPA, _from the silk-mills, springing out of bed._ DAY! Faster and more fast, O'er night's brim, day boils at last: Boils, pure gold, o'er the cloud-cup's brim Where spurting and suppressed it lay, For not a froth-flake touched the rim Of yonder gap in the solid gray Of the eastern cloud, an hour away; But forth one wavelet, then another, curled, Till the whole sunrise, not to be suppressed, Rose, reddened, and its seething breast Flickered in bounds, grew gold, then overflowed the world. Oh Day, if I squander a wavelet of thee, A mite of my twelve-hours' treasure, The least of thy gazes or glances, (Be they grants thou art bound to or gifts above measure) One of thy choices or one of thy chances, (Be they tasks God imposed thee or freaks at thy pleasure) --My Day, if I squander such labor or leisure, Then shame fall on Asolo, mischief on me!