He was certainly one of those somewhat rare men who are fierily ambitious both in large things and in small.

He prided himself on having written _The Ring and the Book_, and he also prided himself on knowing good wine when he tasted it.

He prided himself on re-establishing optimism on a new foundation, and it is to be presumed, though it is somewhat difficult to imagine, that he prided himself on such rhymes as the following in _Pacchiarotto_:-- "The wolf, fox, bear, and monkey, By piping advice in one key-- That his pipe should play a prelude To something heaven-tinged not hell-hued, Something not harsh but docile, Man-liquid, not man-fossil." This writing, considered as writing, can only be regarded as a kind of joke, and most probably Browning considered it so himself.

It has nothing at all to do with that powerful and symbolic use of the grotesque which may be found in such admirable passages as this from "Holy Cross Day":-- "Give your first groan--compunction's at work; And soft! from a Jew you mount to a Turk.
Lo, Micah--the self-same beard on chin He was four times already converted in!" This is the serious use of the grotesque.

Through it passion and philosophy are as well expressed as through any other medium.