And it is clear that before the last plays, _Luria_ and _A Soul's Tragedy_, were published his old stage ambition had entirely vanished.

It was not altogether hyperbole (in any case the hyperbole was wholly unconscious) when he spoke of her as a new medium to which his sight was gradually becoming adjusted, "_seeing all things, as it does, in you._" [Footnote 28: _E.B.B to R.B._, 26th May 1846.Cf.

_R.B._, 13th Feb.
1846.] She, on her part, united, as clever women in love so often do, with a woman's more utter self-abasement a larger measure of critical penetration.

The "poor tired wandering singer," who so humbly took the hand of the liberal and princely giver, and who with perfect sincerity applied to herself his unconscious phrase-- "Cloth of frieze, be not too bold Though thou'rt match'd with cloth of gold," "That, beloved, was written for me!"[29]--shows at the same time the keenest insight into the qualities of his work.

She felt in him the masculine temper and the masculine range, his singular union of rough and even burly power with subtle intellect and penetrating music.