ABSTRACT
But he is, surely, too commonplace a villain to be the first actor or, at any rate, the first mover in such a tragedy. Nor is it the least intelligible part in the woman that such a second-rate rogue should have marred her life. Her after-history is strange-not strange for a woman perhaps; many women have done the samebut strange for her. We can only remember the little foot-note under ‘Marching Along,’ at the commencement of the Dramatic Lyrics: ‘Such poems as the majority in this volume might also come properly enough, I suppose, under the head of ‘Dramatic Pieces,’ being, though often lyric in expression, always dramatic in principle, and so many utterances of so many imaginary persons, not mine.’ People will say, in a word, that the subject is painful, the story horrible; perhaps Mr. Austin,2 who can never be brought to see that Browning has now and then written poetry, will call it ‘melo-dramatic’, by way of ‘question-begging appellative.’ Painful the tale is-as always is fit subject for a tragedy. But it is
Browning has written of late. To us it seems it would be, if we knew it equally well. Mr. Browning is reverting to his original simplicity, and with it his old strength is, not coming back, but once more fully showing itself.
