Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/494



Mr. Browning, as he ages, seems but to work the more strenuously and produce the more abundantly, having, since the colossal "The Ring and the Book," issued no less than six volumes, of which two at least, "Balaustion's Adventure" and "Aristophanes' Apology," may be accounted of first-rate importance. He has accumulated such immense stores of knowledge, and much of it recondite knowledge, of literature, of art, and of things in general; he has gathered such wealth of manifold reflections on some of the abstrusest problems of life, that he appears to be anxious to disburthen himself of as much as possible ere death overtake him, that the treasures of his learning and thought may not perish with him. The present volume differs from the others of recent date in being written almost wholly in rhyme instead of blank verse, and differs from all previous ones in dealing much with personal matters, and these the author's relations to the public and the critics, instead of being mainly dramatic. During about thirty years the bulk of the critics pronounced him unintelligible,