Alice: An Adultery

A BRIEF CRITICAL ESSAY ON “ ALICE : AN ADULTERY.” Almost the first remark that we made on laying down the MS. submitted for our judgment was that it is always doubtful how far a man is justified in stripping bare his soul for the public benefit. “ Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?” asks Browning ; “ unlock my heart with a sonnet- key ?” And his answer is :— “ With this same key Shakespeare unlocked his heart,” once more ! Did Shakespeare ? If so, the less shakespeare he !” Very well ; but Browning himself went even farther, and permitted the posthumous publication of the actual love letters that passed between himself and his wife. In point of fact, there seems no great objection to such an action save in the poet’s own interest. xiii