play that would better holdthe attention of the audience, but they all remained failures. Not onlydid Browning profit from this otherwise disheartening experience, butwriting the dialogue for the characters helped him explore the "dramaticdialogue." The dramatic dialogue, "enabled him to, through imaginaryspeakers, to avoid explicit autobiography and yet did not demand thatthese speakers act out the story with the speed or simplifications that astage production demands. " William Irvine notes, "In Browningmonologues, murderers recollect, but do not commit, their murders". Hisfirst collection of such monologues , "Dramatic Lyrics," appearing in1842, was as unsuccessful as his plays had been.His poem Pauline was followed by a dramatic poem called Paracelsuswhich was the first poem to bring him fame and prominence with the otherliterary figures of the day. In Paracelsus Browning used a Renaissancesetting, which would become a familiar motif in his later work. From 1841to 1846 he wrote a series of poems under the title "Bells andPomegranates," which included such poems as Pippa Passes, My last Dutchess,and The Bishop Orders His Tomb.In 1846 he fell in love with the poet Elizabeth Barret. She wassix years older than Robert and jealously guarded by her "tyrannical"father. Because of her poor health which was made worse by the Englishclimate, they moved to Florence, Italy, and were married there. Theylived in a palace that would later be made famous by Elizabeth's poem,Casa Guidi Windows. As Elizabeth's health slowly returned to her, shewas able to enjoy a fuller life. Robert seemed to thrive during theseyears of this remarkable marriage. While they were there, Robert wrote"Christmas Eve and Easter Day," and a series of dramatic monologues, whichwere later published collectively as "Men and Women," which included FraLippo Lippi and Andrea del Sarto which were studies of renaissance artists. "Men and Women" also reflects hi...
