count, written by Joseph Arnould to
Alfred Domett, says: "The first night was magnificent ... there could be
no mistake at all about the honest enthusiasm of the audience. The
gallery (and this, of course, was very gratifying, because not to be
expected at a play of _Browning_) took all the points quite as quickly
as the pit, and entered into the general feeling and interest of the
action far more than the boxes.... Altogether the first night was a
triumph."--_Robert Browning and Alfred Domett_, 1906, p. 65.]

[Footnote 22: Forster's _Life of Dickens_, vol. ii., p. 24.]

10. COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY: A Play in Five Acts.

[Published in 1844 as No. VI. of _Bells and Pomegranates_
(_Poetical Works_, 1889, Vol. IV., pp. 71-169). Played at the
Haymarket Theatre, April 25, 1853, Miss Helen Faucit taking
the part of _Colombe_; also, with Miss Alma Murray as
_Colombe_, at St. George's Hall, November 19, 1885, under the
direction of the Browning Society. The action takes place
from morning to night of one day].

_Colombe's Birthday_, a drama founded on an imaginary episode in the
history of a German duchy of the seventeenth century, is the first play
which is mainly concerned with inward rather than outward action; in
which the characters themselves, what they are in their own souls, what
they think of themselves, and what others think of them, constitute the
chief interest, the interest of the characters as they influence one
another or external events being secondary. Colombe of Ravestein,
Duchess of Juliers and Cleves, is surprised, on the first anniversary of
her accession (the day being also her birthday), by a rival claimant to
the duchy, Prince Berthold, who proves to be in fact the true heir.
Berthold, instead of pressing his claim, offers to marry her. But he
conceives the honour and the favour to be sufficient, and makes no
pretence at offering love as well. On the other hand, Valence, a poor
advocate of Cleves, who has stood by Colombe when all her other friends
failed, offers her his love, a love to which she can only respond by
"giving up the world"; in other words, by relinquishing her duchy, and
the alliance with a Prince who is on the way to be Emperor. We have
nothing to do with the question of who has the right and who has the
might: that matter is settled, and the succession agreed on, almost
from the beginning. Nor are we made to feel that any disgrace or
reputation of weakness wi