One friend in particular he made, the Comte de Ripert-Monclar, a French Royalist with whom he prosecuted with renewed energy his studies in the mediaeval and Renaissance schools of philosophy.

It was the Count who suggested that Browning should write a poetical play on the subject of Paracelsus.

After reflection, indeed, the Count retracted this advice on the ground that the history of the great mystic gave no room for love.

Undismayed by this terrible deficiency, Browning caught up the idea with characteristic enthusiasm, and in 1835 appeared the first of his works which he himself regarded as representative--_Paracelsus_.

The poem shows an enormous advance in technical literary power; but in the history of Browning's mind it is chiefly interesting as giving an example of a peculiarity which clung to him during the whole of his literary life, an intense love of the holes and corners of history.