Browning's humour was never more wise, kindly, worldly and biting than in the second act, and Ogniben may well be set beside Bishop Blougram.

It would be a privilege to dine with either of them.
Every one is in love with _Pippa Passes_, which appeared immediately after _Sordello_.

It may have been a refreshment to Browning after the complexities and metaphysics of _Sordello_, to live for a time with the soft simplicity of Pippa, with the clear motives of the separate occurrences at Asolo, with the outside picturesque world, and in a lyric atmosphere.

It certainly is a refreshment to us.

It is a pity so little was done by Browning in this pleasant, graceful, happy way.