| | PAGE |
| PREFACE | vii |
| PART I. |
| BROWNING'S LIFE AND WORK. |
| CHAP. | |
| I. | EARLY LIFE. PARACELSUS | 1 |
| II. | ENLARGING HORIZONS. SORDELLO | 24 |
| 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 |
| | II. | Antagonistic elements of Browning's intellect; resulting fluctuations of his thought. Two conceptions of Reality. Ambiguous treatment of "Matter"; of Time | 290 |
| | III. | Conflicting tendencies in his conception of God | 295 |
| | IV. | Conflicting tendencies in his treatment of Knowledge | 297 |
| | V. | Proximate solution of these antagonisms in the conception of Love | 300 |
| | VI. | Final estimate of Browning's relation to the progressive and conservative movements of his age | 304 |
| |
| INDEX | 310 |
