Robert Browning was fascinated by people—not only people of his own day, but also people who had lived in the remote past. Five of his famous dramatic monologues are spoken by characters from the ancient Classical world: a Greek goddess (Artemis), a Roman senator (in “Imperante Augusto Natus Est—”), an Arab physician (Karshish), a Greek poet (Cleon), and the last surviving eyewitness of Jesus Christ (in “A Death in the Desert”). They probe many different questions, especially regarding the transition from paganism to Christianity. How did such a change happen? And how might it have struck contemporaries?

As a supplement, the collection also includes “Bishop Blougram’s Apology” (sometimes called the greatest of all Browning’s monologues), which pursues many of the same issues down to his own day.