ABSTRACT
Elizabeth declared herself ‘vexed’ by this review. LEBB, I, 446-7. The book before us is the work of a poet; though if this fact should gain but a
limited recognition, the writer will have only himself to blame. If the Muses will masquerade and don the trappings of gipsies, they must feel no offence if they should forfeit by the grotesqueness of their seeming the respect that is due to their nature. True, the Nine may have their seasons of frolic and pastime,—nor is their sporting to be censured when occasion befits; but the Temple of Apollo and the hour of sacrifice are not the place nor the period suitable to such recreations. In a word, our complaint against Mr. Browning is-that while dealing with the highest themes of imagination and indicating his competency to treat them, he has recklessly impaired the dignity of his purpose by the vehicle chosen for its development. The form of doggrel [sic]—carried to excess by strange and offensive oddities of versification-is not that in which the mysteries of faith, doubt, and eternity can be consistently treated.
