We may make a threefold
division: first, the thirteen years before his marriage in 1846;
second, the fifteen years of married life, closing in 1861; third,
the remaining twenty-eight years. During the first period he
published twelve works; during the second, two; during the third,
eighteen. The fact that so little was published during the years
when his wife was alive may be accounted for by the fact that the
condition of her health required his constant care, and that after
the total failure of _Men and Women_ (1855) to attract any
popular attention, Browning for some time spent most of his
energy in clay-modelling, giving up poetry altogether. Not long
before the death of Mrs. Browning, he was busy writing _Prince
Hohenstiel-Schwangau_, although he did not publish it until the
right moment, which came in 1871. After the appearance of _Dramatis
Personae_ (1864), and _The Ring and the Book_ (1868-9), Browning's
fame spread like a prairie fire; and it was quite natural that his
immense reputation was a sharp spur to composition.
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