translation could be more faithful. And not merely is Browning literal
in the sense of following the original word for word, he gives the exact
root-meaning of words which a literal translator would consider himself
justified in taking in their general sense. Occasionally a literality
of this sort is less easily intelligible to the general reader than the
more obvious word would have been; but, except in a very few instances,
the whole translation is not less clear and forcible than it is exact.
Whether or not the _Alkestis_ of Browning is quite the _Alkestis_ of
Euripides, there is no doubt that this literal, yet glorified and
vivified translation of a Greek play has added a new poem to English
literature.

The blank verse of _Balaustion's Adventure_ is somewhat different from
that of its predecessor, _The Ring and the Book_: to my own ear, at
least, it is by no means so original or so fine. It is indeed more
restrained, but Browning seems to be himself working under a sort of
restraint, or perhaps upon a theory of the sort of versification
appropriate to classical themes. Something of frank vigour, something of
flexibility and natural expressiveness, is lost, but, on the other hand,
there is often a rich colour in the verse, a lingering perfume and
sweetness in the melody, which has a new and delicate charm of its own.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 42: Note, for instance, the admirable exposition and defence
of the famous and ill-famed altercation between Pheres and Admetos: one
of the keenest bits of explanatory analysis in Mr. Browning's works. Or
observe how beautifully human the dying Alkestis becomes as he
interprets for her, and how splendid a humanity the jovial Herakles puts
on.]

[Footnote 43: The two speeches of Eumelos, not without a note of pathos,
are scarcely represented by--

"The children's tears ran fast
Bidding their father note the eye-lids' stare,
Hands'-droop, each dreadful circumstance of death."]

19. PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY.

[Published in December, 1871. (_Poetical Works_, Vol. XI. pp.
123-210).]

_Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau_[44] is a blank verse monologue, supposed
to be spoken, in a musing day-dream, by Louis Napoleon, while Emperor of
the French, and calling himself, to the delight of ironical echoes, the
"Saviour of Society." The work is equally distant in spirit from the
branding satire and righteous wrath of Victor