He pursues soul in all its rich multiplicity, in the tortuosities and dark abysses of character; he forces crowds of sordid, grotesque, or commonplace facts to become its expressive speech; he watches its thought and passion projected into the tide of affairs, caught up in the clash and tangle of plot.

In all these three ways the Dramas and Dramatic Lyrics and Romances, which were to be his poetic occupation during the Forties, detach themselves sharply from _Paracelsus_ and the early books of _Sordello_.

A poem like _The Laboratory_ (1844), for instance, stands at almost the opposite pole of art to these.

All that Browning neglected or veiled in _Paracelsus_ he here thrusts into stern relief.

The passion and crime there faintly discerned in the background of ideally beautiful figures are here his absorbing theme.