The progress of the drama is now retarded; and again, as if the author perceived that the story had fallen behind or remained stationary, it is accelerated by sudden jerks.

A dialogue of retrospection is a common device at the opening of popular plays, with a view to expound the position of affairs to the audience; but a dramatic writer of genius usually works forward through his dialogue to the end which he has set before him.

With Browning for the purpose of mental analysis a dialogue of retrospection may be of higher value than one which leans and presses towards the future.

The invisible is for him more important than the visible; and so in truth it may often be; but the highest dramatist will not choose to separate the two.

The invisible is best captured and is most securely held in the visible.
As a writer of drama, Browning, who delights to study the noblest attitudes of the soul, and to wring a proud sense of triumph out of apparent failure, finds his proper field in tragedy rather than in comedy.