It is now a waif of literature which collectors prize.

There is special significance in the _Date_ and _Dabitur_, the twins of Browning's poem, when we bear in mind the occasion with which it was originally connected.
In the early weeks of 1855 Mrs Browning was seriously ill; through feverish nights of coughing, she had in her husband a devoted nurse.

His sleepless hours were troubled not only by anxiety on her account but by a passionate interest in the heroisms and miseries, of his fellow countrymen during the Crimean winter: "when he is mild _he_ wishes the ministry to be torn to pieces in the streets, limb from limb." Gradually his wife regained health, but she had not long recovered when tidings of the death of Miss Mitford came to sadden her.

Not until April did she feel once more a leap into life.

Browning was now actively at work in anticipation of printing his new volumes during the approaching visit to England.