It really throws some light upon the reason of Browning's obscurity.

The ordinary theory of Browning's obscurity is to the effect that it was a piece of intellectual vanity indulged in more and more insolently as his years and fame increased.

There are at least two very decisive objections to this popular explanation.

In the first place, it must emphatically be said for Browning that in all the numerous records and impressions of him throughout his long and very public life, there is not one iota of evidence that he was a man who was intellectually vain.

The evidence is entirely the other way.
He was vain of many things, of his physical health, for example, and even more of the physical health which he contrived to bestow for a certain period upon his wife.