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Browning has attempted nothing approaching it in magnitude, or in the demand it made upon the sustained exertion of high intellectual powers. But he left his admirers no room to complain of diminished fecundity or of decaying vigor. "Balaustion's Adventure," including a transcript from Euripides, appeared in 1871, to prove his undiminished insight and inexhaustible interest in spiritual analysis.
Balaustion's Adventure, which is, of course, the mere framework for an English version of the Alcestis of Euripides, is an illustration of one of Browning's finest traits, his immeasurable capacity for a classic admiration.
This play must be familiar to English readers of Browning's Balaustion's Adventure. It has been set to music and produced at Covent Garden this very year. The specific Euripidean marks are everywhere upon it.
The studies in the Greek drama and the creations to which these gave rise extend at intervals over the whole decade. Balaustion's Adventure was published in 1871, Aristophanes' Apology in 1875, the translation of The Agamemnon of Æschylus in 1877.
The simple truth is that she was the poet, and I the clever person by comparison remember her limited experience of all kinds, and what she made of it. Remember on the other hand, how my uninterrupted health and strength and practice with the world have helped me. . . . 'Balaustion's Adventure' and 'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' were published, respectively, in August and December 1871.
But in truth Aristophanes is half on the side of Balaustion and of Euripides; he must, indeed, make his stand; he is not one to falter or quail; and yet when the sudden cloud falls upon his face he knows that it is his part to make the worse appear the better cause, knowing this all the more because the justice of Balaustion's regard perceives and recognises his higher self.
Those who knew him tell us that in conversation he never revealed himself so impetuously or so brilliantly as when declaiming the poetry of others; and Balaustion's Adventure is a monument of this fiery self-forgetfulness.
Lord Dufferin; Helen's Tower Scotland; Visit to Lady Ashburton Letters to Miss Blagden St.-Aubin; The Franco-Prussian War 'Herve Riel' Letter to Mr. G. M. Smith 'Balaustion's Adventure'; 'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau' 'Fifine at the Fair' Mistaken Theories of Mr. Browning's Work St.-Aubin; 'Red Cotton Nightcap Country'. From 1869 to 1871 Mr.
We shall not say that Balaustion is the speaker and that Herakles is somewhat of a woman's hero. Browning himself fully enters into Balaustion's enthusiasm. And the presence of the strong, joyous helper of men is in truth an inspiring one. The great voice that goes before him is itself a Sursum corda! a challenge and a summons to whatever manliness is in us.
The musician in "Abt Vogler," the artist in "Andrea del Sarto," the early Christian in "A Death in the Desert," the Arab horseman in "Muteykeh," the sailor in "Herve Kiel," the mediæval knight in "Childe Roland," the Hebrew in "Saul," the Greek in "Balaustion's Adventure," the monster in "Caliban," the immortal dead in "Karshish," all these and a hundred more histories of the soul show Browning's marvelous versatility.
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