energy in clay-modelling, giving up poetry altogether. Not long
before the death of Mrs. Browning, he was busy writing _Prince
Hohenstiel-Schwangau_, although he did not publish it until the
right moment, which came in 1871. After the appearance of _Dramatis
Personae_ (1864), and _The Ring and the Book_ (1868-9), Browning's
fame spread like a prairie fire; and it was quite natural that his
immense reputation was a sharp spur to composition. One is more
ready to speak when one is sure of an audience. Capricious destiny,
however, willed that the books which sold the fastest after
publication, were, with few exceptions, the least interesting and
valuable of all the poet's performances. Perhaps he did not take so
much care now that his fame was assured; perhaps the fires in his
own mind were dying; perhaps the loss of his wife robbed him of
necessary inspiration, as it certainly robbed him of the best critic
he ever had, and the only one to whom he paid any serious attention.
When we remember that some of the _Dramatic Romances_, _Luria_,
_A Soul's Tragedy_, _Christmas-Eve_, _Men and Women_, and some of
the _Dramatis Personae_ were read by her in manuscript, and that
_The Ring and the Book_ was written in the shadow of her influence,
we begin to realise how much she helped him. Their love-letters
during the months that preceded their marriage indicate the
excellence of her judgment, her profound and sympathetic
understanding of his genius and his willingness to listen to her
advice. He did not intend to publish _A Soul's Tragedy_ at all,
though it is one of his most subtle and interesting dramas, and only
did so at her request; part of the manuscript of _Christmas-Eve_ is
in her handwriting,

It is worth remembering too that in later years Browning hated to
write poetry, and nothing but a sense of duty kept him during the