He also made a study of the Italian people. In 1835 he
published a drama called _Paracelsus_, founded upon the history of that
celebrated alchemist and physician, and delineating the conditions of
philosophy in the fifteenth century. It is novel, antique, and
metaphysical: it exhibits the varied emotions of human sympathy; but it is
eccentric and obscure, and cannot be popular. He has been called the poet
for poets; and this statement seems to imply that he is not the poet for
the great world.
In 1837 he published a tragedy called _Strafford_; but his Italian culture
seems to have spoiled his powers for portraying English character, and he
has presented a stilted Strafford and a theatrical Charles I.
In 1840 appeared _Sordello_, founded upon incidents in the history of that
Mantuan poet Sordello, whom Dante and Virgil met in purgatory; and who,
deserting the language of Italy, wrote his principal poems in the
Provencal. The critics were so dissatisfied with this work, that Browning
afterwards omitted it in the later editions of his poems.
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