Hierophant_. The action takes place during one day.]

The story of _The Return of the Druses_ is purely imaginary as to facts,
but it is founded on the Druse belief in divine incarnations, a belief
inculcated by the founder of their religion, Hakeem Biamr Allah, the
sixth Fatemite Caliph of Egypt, whose pretension to be an incarnation of
the Divinity was stamped in the popular mind by his mysterious
disappearance, and the expectation of his glorious return. Browning here
gives the rein to his fervid and passionate imagination; in event, in
character, in expression, the play is romantic, lyrical and Oriental.
The first line--

"The moon is carried off in purple fire,--"

sounds the note of the new music; and to the last line the emotion is
sustained at the same height. Passionate, rapid, vivid, intense and
picturesque, no stronger contrast could be imagined than that which
exists between this drama and _King Victor and King Charles_. The cause
of the difference must be sought in the different nature of the two
subjects, for one of Browning's most eminent qualities is his care in
harmonising treatment with subject. _King Victor and King Charles_ is a
modern play, dealing with human nature under all the restrictions of a
pervading conventionality and an oppressive statecraft. It deals,
moreover, with complex and weakened emotions, with the petty and prosaic
details of a secondary Western government. _The Return of the Druses_,
on the other hand, treats of human nature in its most romantic
conditions, of the mystic East, of great and immediate issues, of the
most inspiring of crises, a revolt for liberty, and a revolt under the
leadership of a "Messiah," about whom hangs a mystery, and a reputation
of more than mortal power. The characters, like the language, are all
somewhat idealised. Djabal, the protagonist, is the first instance of a
character specially fascinating to Browning as an artistic subject: the
deceiver of others or of himself who is only partially insincere, and
not altogether ill-intentioned. Djabal is an impostor almost wholly for
the sake of others. He is a patriotic Druse, the son of the last Emir,
supposed to have perished in the massacre of the Sheikhs, but preserved
when a child and educated in Europe. His sole aim is to free his nation
from its bondage, and lead it back to Lebanon. But in order to
strengthen the people's trust in him, and to lead them back in greater
glory, he pretends that