PREFACE.
Although his first book was published so long ago as 1833; although some twenty or more Societies have been for the past sixteen years engaged in studying his works; although for seven years he has rested in his grave in Westminster Abbey,—the British Public has not yet learned to know Robert Browning, and has hitherto neglected to place itself upon terms of intimacy with the wonderful series of writings his vigorous and fruitful pen has left behind.
For this neglect no excuse can in future be advanced. The high price at which the works of Robert Browning have so far been published, has naturally restricted Lo a comparatively narrow circle those who have acquired and read them, The expiration of the copyrights of a large proportion of the poems has made it possible for these earlier books to be issued in a cheap and handy form, such as will place them within the reach of all whose taste inclines towards them. The mass of Browning's work offers itself readily for division into three clearly defined periods, and it is matter for congratulation that the product of the first period, that which terminated in 1864 with the publication of "Dramatis Personæ," embraces the greater part of
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