Those who knew him tell us that in conversation he never revealed himself so impetuously or so brilliantly as when declaiming the poetry of others; and _Balaustion's Adventure_ is a monument of this fiery self-forgetfulness.

It is penetrated with the passionate desire to render Euripides worthily, and to that imitation are for the time being devoted all the gigantic powers which went to make the songs of Pippa and the last agony of Guido.

Browning never put himself into anything more powerfully or more successfully; yet it is only an excellent translation.

In the uncouth philosophy of Caliban, in the tangled ethics of Sludge, in his wildest satire, in his most feather-headed lyric, Browning was never more thoroughly Browning than in this splendid and unselfish plagiarism.

This revived excitement in Greek matters; "his passionate love of the Greek language" continued in him thenceforward till his death.