[Footnote 19:  Lady Martin (Helen Faucit), however, wrote in 1891 to Mrs Ritchie:  “The play was mounted in all matters with great care ... minute attention to accuracy of costume prevailed....  The scenery was alike accurate.”]

[Footnote 20:  On which occasion Browning—­muffled up in a cloak—­was asked by a stranger in the pit whether he was not the author of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Othello.”  “No, so far as I am aware,” replied Browning.  Two burlesques of Shakespeare by a Mr Brown or Brownley were in course of performance in London. Letters of R.B. and E.B.B., ii. 132.]

[Footnote 21:  From the Prologue to Asolando, Browning’s last volume.]

[Footnote 22:  Mrs Orr, “Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning,” p. 54 (1st ed.).]

[Footnote 23:  A Soul’s Tragedy was written in 1843 or 1844, and revised immediately before publication.  See Letters of R.B. and E.B.B., i. 474.]

[Footnote 24:  Letters of D.G.  Rossetti to William Allingham, p. 168.]

[Footnote 25:  The above statement is substantially that of Browning; but on certain points his memory misled him.  Whoever is interested in the matter should consult Professor Lounsbury’s valuable article “A Philistine View of a Browning Play” in The Atlantic Monthly, December 1899, where questions are raised and some corrections are ingeniously made.]

[Footnote 26:  An uncle seems to have accompanied him.  See Letters of R.B. and E.B.B., i. 57:  and (for Shelley’s Grave) i. 292; for “Sordello” at Naples, i., 349.]

[Footnote 27:  In later years no friendship existed between the two.  We read in Mr. W.M.  Rossetti’s Diary for 1869, “4th July....  I see Browning dislikes Trelawny quite as much as Trelawny dislikes him (which is not a little.)” Rossetti Papers, p. 401.]

[Footnote 28:  See Mr R. Holt Hutton’s article on Browning in “Essays Theological and Literary.”]

[Footnote 29:  Luria withdraws from life “to prevent the harm Florence will do herself by striking him.” Letters of R.B. and E.B.B., i. 427.]

Chapter IV

The Maker of Plays—­(Continued)

The women of the dramas, with one or two exceptions, are composed of fewer elements than the men.  A variety of types is presented, but each personality is somewhat constrained and controlled by its idea; the free movement, the iridescence, the variety in oneness, the incalculable multiplicity in unity, of real character are not always present.  They admit of definition to a degree which places them at a distance from the inexplicable open secrets of Shakespeare’s creation; they lack the simple mysteriousness, the transparent obscurity of nature.  With a master-key the chambers of their souls can one after another be unlocked.  Ottima is the carnal passion of womanhood, full-blown, dazzling in the effrontery of sin, yet