London: Chapman & Hall 1864. First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title to "Mrs Grant Duff from Robert Browning, May 30, '64". Mrs. Duff was an acquaintance of Browning's; some copies of several letters from him to her are laid in. Comprised of eighteen poems, this was the first book published by Browning after the death of his wife & his return to England after a long residency in Italy. It heralded a renewal of Browning's poetic work after an extended silence. Though in some measure a continuation of his exuberant & eclectic two-volume collection Men and Women, Dramatis Personae, despite its title, is essentially less dramatic than those earlier volumes. Often speaking in propria persona, & addressing contemporary issues in argumentative tones, the poems are notable for their use of colloquial speech. Often in the background is the poet's sorrow at the death of his wife, Elizabeth Barrett, whom he had married in 1846; indeed, the book returns repeatedly & agonizingly to the theme of love, both human & divine. It includes some of Browning's grandest poems before The Ring and the Book - which followed it in 1868; notably, "Caliban upon Setebos", which examines the nature of primitive man, drawing on Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Rabbi Ben Ezra", enunciating Browning's considered philosophy of life, & the long, skeptical examination of spiritualism, "Mr. Sludge, 'the Medium'. 8vo, original embossed cloth. Spine lightly faded, inner hinges strained as usual, some marginal pencil scoring to text, otherwise a very good copy with a rare inscription. Preserved in a half-morocco slipcase.