Dramatis Personæ (poetry collection)

Poetry collection by Robert Browning

For the list of characters at the beginning of a book or play, see Dramatis personae.

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Dramatis Personæ is a poetry collection by Robert Browning. It was published in 1864.

## Background

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Browning wrote the collection in London, where he had returned with his son after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was his first publication after a nine-year hiatus. During this time, Browning's reputation was fluctuating, and Dramatis Personae along with The Ring and the Book, which is widely considered his greatest work, were enough to begin a critical re-evaluation of the writer.

## The poems

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The poems in Dramatis Personae are dramatic, with a wide range of narrators. The narrator is usually in a situation that reveals to the reader some aspect of his personality. Instead of speeches that are intended for others' ears, most are soliloquies. They are generally darker than the poems found in Men and Women, his previous collection, and along with The Ring and the Book these poems embody a turning point in Browning's style. Browning's poetry after this point most notably touches on religion and marital distress, two potent issues of his time period.

This new style was appreciated, as Dramatis Personae sold enough copies for a second edition to be published, which was a first in Browning's career. However, though he gained respect, Browning didn't have much commercial success as a poet. The sales of this work and most notably his Collected Poems were helped by public sympathy after the death of his wife.

## Poems in the collection

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* James Lee’s Wife
* Gold Hair: A Story of Pornic
* The Worst of It
* Dîs Aliter Visum
* Too Late
* Abt Vogler
* Rabbi ben Ezra
* A Death in the Desert
* Caliban upon Setebos
* Confessions
* May and Death
* Deaf and Dumb
* Prospice
* Eurydice to Orpheus
* Youth and Art
* A Face
* A Likeness
* Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"
* Apparent Failure
* Epilogue

## External links

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* The full text of Dramatis Personæ at Wikisource
* Dramatis Personae

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Robert Browning

Plays|

* Strafford (1837)
* Pippa Passes (1841)
* King Victor and King Charles (1842)
* The Return of the Druses (1843)
* A Blot in the 'Scutcheon (1843)
* Colombe's Birthday (1844)
* Luria (1846)
* A Soul's Tragedy (1846)
* In a Balcony (1855)

Poetry collections
and poems|

* Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
* Paracelsus (1835)
* "Porphyria's Lover" (1836)
* "Johannes Agricola in Meditation" (1836)
* Sordello (1840)
* Dramatic Lyrics (1842, "My Last Duchess", "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister", "Count Gismond")
* Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845, "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad", "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", "Meeting at Night", "The Laboratory", "The Lost Leader")
* Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day (1850)
* Men and Women (1855, "Love Among the Ruins", "Evelyn Hope", "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", "Andrea del Sarto", "Fra Lippo Lippi", "A Toccata of Galuppi's")
* Dramatis Personæ (1864, "Rabbi ben Ezra", "Caliban upon Setebos")
* The Ring and the Book (1868–9)
* Balaustion's Adventure (1871)
* Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society (1871)
* Fifine at the Fair (1872)
* Red Cotton Night-Cap Country (1873)
* Aristophanes' Apology (1875)
* The Inn Album (1875)
* Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper (1876)
* The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (1877)
* La Saisiaz and The Two Poets of Croisic (1878)
* Dramatic Idyls (1879, 1880)
* Jocoseria (1883)
* Ferishtah's Fancies (1884)
* Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day (1887)
* Asolando (1889)

Related|

* Browning Society
* Armstrong Browning Library, collections and papers
* Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1853 sculpture)
* The Barretts of Wimpole Street
* 1934 film
* 1957 film
* Pied Piper of Hamelin

Family life|

* Elizabeth Barrett Browning (wife)
* Robert Barrett Browning (son)
* Casa Guidi

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