Indeed, there used to be a regularly appointed jester, 'Filius Terrae' he was called, whose business it was to gibe and jeer at the honoured ones by way of reminder that all human glories are merely gilded baubles and must not be fancied metal." In this there are other and deeper things characteristic of Browning besides his learning and humour.

In discussing anything, he must always fall back upon great speculative and eternal ideas.

Even in the tomfoolery of a horde of undergraduates he can only see a symbol of the ancient office of ridicule in the scheme of morals.

The young men themselves were probably unaware that they were the representatives of the "Filius Terrae." But the years during which Browning was thus reaping some of his late laurels began to be filled with incidents that reminded him how the years were passing over him.

On June 20, 1866, his father had died, a man of whom it is impossible to think without a certain emotion, a man who had lived quietly and persistently for others, to whom Browning owed more than it is easy to guess, to whom we in all probability mainly owe Browning.