ABSTRACT
On the theology of the poem we should have much to say did time and place serve; meanwhile we need only applaud in passing the sincere and earnest spirit which breathes through it. The sincerity of it will to many look like levity. Already we have heard strange objections to the ‘tone’, as not elevated enough. Do these critics imagine that an ‘elevated’ tone is difficult? Do they suppose that Browning could not have adopted it, had he thought fit? But he did not think fit. Instead of imitating Milton he spoke as Robert Browning; his keen sense of the ludicrous and grotesque fading into the background whenever the presence of more solemn themes overshadowed it. In the bold and artful mingling of the ludicrous with the intensely serious he reminds us of Carlyle. His style is swayed by the subject. It is a garment, not a mould; it takes the varying shapes of varied movement, and does not force its one monotone on all.
