A BRIEF CRITICAL ESSAY 
ON 
“ ALICE :  AN ADULTERY.” 
 
Almost the first remark that we made on laying 
down the MS. submitted for our judgment was 
that it is always doubtful how far a man is 
justified in stripping bare his soul for the public 
benefit.  “ Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself?” 
asks Browning ; “ unlock my heart with a sonnet-
key ?”  And his answer is :— 
“ With this same key 
Shakespeare unlocked his heart,” once more ! 
Did Shakespeare ?  If so, the less shakespeare he !” 
Very well ; but Browning himself went even 
farther, and permitted the posthumous publication 
of the actual love letters that passed between 
himself and his wife. 
In point of fact, there seems no great objection 
to such an action save in the poet’s own interest. 
 
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