hat it was executed in "della Robbia"
ware, specimens of which, still, at the time he wrote, adorned the outer
cornice of the palace. The statue is one of the finest works of John of
Bologna.

The partial darkening of the Via Larga by the over-hanging mass of the
Riccardi (formerly Medici) Palace[63] is figuratively connected in the
poem with the "crime" of two of its inmates: the "murder," by Cosimo dei
Medici and his (grand) son Lorenzo, of the liberties of the Florentine
Republic.

The smallness of this group, and its chiefly dramatic character, show
how little direct teaching Mr. Browning's works contain. There is,
however, direct instructiveness in another and larger group, which has
too much in common with all three foregoing to be included in either,
and will be best indicated by the term "critical." In certain respects,
indeed, this applies to several, perhaps to most, of those which I have
placed under other heads; and I use it rather to denote a lighter tone
and more incidental treatment, than any radical difference of subject or
intention.

CRITICAL POEMS.

"Old Pictures in Florence." } Dramatic Lyrics.
"Respectability." } Published in "Men
"Popularity." } and Women."
"Master Hugues of Saxe-gotha." } 1855.
"A Light Woman." Dramatic Romances. Published in "Men and
Women." 1855.
"Transcendentalism." ("Men and Women.") 1855.
"How it Strikes a Contemporary." ("Men and Women.") 1855.
"Dis aliter Visum; or, Le Byron de nos Jours." ("Dramatis
Personae.") 1864.
"At the Mermaid." }
"House." }
"Shop." } "Pacchiarotto, and other
"Pisgah Sights," I. and II. } Poems." 1876.
"Bifurcation." }
"Epilogue." }

The first and fourth of these are significant from the insight they give
into Mr. Browning's conception of art. We must allow, in reading them,
for the dramatic and therefore temporary mood in which they were
written, and deduct certain utterances which seem inconsistent with the
breadth of the author's views. But they reflect him truly in this
essential fact, that he considers art as subordinate to life, and only
valuable in so far as it expresses it. This means, not that his standard
is realistic: but that it is entirely human; it could scarcely be
otherwise in a mind so devoted to