That Browning, whose judgment on his own work was one of the best in the world, took this view of _Pauline_ in after years is quite obvious.

He displayed a very manly and unique capacity of really laughing at his own work without being in the least ashamed of it.

"This," he said of _Pauline_, "is the only crab apple that remains of the shapely tree of life in my fool's paradise." It would be difficult to express the matter more perfectly.

Although _Pauline_ was published anonymously, its authorship was known to a certain circle, and Browning began to form friendships in the literary world.
He had already become acquainted with two of the best friends he was ever destined to have, Alfred Domett, celebrated in "The Guardian Angel" and "Waring," and his cousin Silverthorne, whose death is spoken of in one of the most perfect lyrics in the English language, Browning's "May and Death." These were men of his own age, and his manner of speaking of them gives us many glimpses into that splendid world of comradeship which.

Plato and Walt Whitman knew, with its endless days and its immortal nights.