Or a new character leaps up out of the crowd, and calls us to note his ways, his dress, his voice, his very soul in some revealing speech, and then passes away from the stage, while we turn, refreshed (and indeed at times we need refreshment), to the main speaker, the leading character.
But to dwell on the multitude of portraits with which Browning's keen observation, memory and love of human nature have embellished _The Ring and the Book_ belongs to another part of this chapter.

At present the question rises: "What place does _The Ring and the Book_ hold in Browning's development ?" It holds a central place.

There was always a struggle in Browning between two pleasures; pleasure in the exercise of his intellect--his wit, in the fullest sense of the word; pleasure in the exercise of his poetic imagination.

Sometimes one of these had the upper hand in his poems, sometimes the other, and sometimes both happily worked together.

When the exercise of his wit had the upper hand, it tended to drive out both imagination and passion.