Early and Modern Criticism of Browning\u27s Pauline, Paracelsus, and Sordello

A study of certain of the critical comments -- both favorable and unfavorable -- that have been published on Pauline, Paracelsus, and Sordello should add materially to a better understanding not only of the poems themselves, but also of their relation to the totality of Browning\u27s work. Such a study is the subject of this thesis, which may be regarded as having a three-fold purpose: (1) To focus attention upon the three poems with which Browning began his career; (2) to establish and comment upon early and modern critical opinions of the poems; and (3) to determine whether any significant differences exist between the viewpoints and methods of the early and modern critics and, if so, to explain such differences