The incongruity of Greek dramatic methods with his own seems to have speedily checked his progress; but Euripides, the author of the Greek _Hippolytus_, retained a peculiar fascination for him, and it was on another Euripidean drama that he now, in the fulness of his powers, set his hand.

The result certainly does not diminish our sense of the incongruity.

Keenly as he admired the humanity and pathos of Euripides, he challenges comparison with Euripides most successfully when he goes completely his own way.

He was too robustly original to "transcribe" well, and his bold emphatic speech, curbed to the task of reproducing the choice and pregnant sobriety of Attic style, is apt to eliminate everything but the sobriety.

The "transcribed" Greek is often yet flatter than "literal" versions of Greek verse are wont to be, and when Browning speaks in his own person the style recovers itself with a sudden and vehement bound, like a noble wild creature abruptly released from restraint.