Criticisms upon "Paracelsus", important one written by John Forster;
Browning meets Macready at the house of Mr. Fox; personal description
of the poet; Macready's opinion of the poem; Browning spends
New Year's Day, 1836, at the house of the tragedian and meets John Forster;
Macready urges him to write a play; his subsequent interview
with the tragedian; he plans a drama to be entitled "Narses";
meets Wordsworth and Walter Savage Landor at a supper party,
when the young poet is toasted, and Macready again proposes
that Browning should write a play, from which arose the idea of "Strafford";
his acquaintance with Wordsworth and Landor; MS. of "Strafford" accepted;
its performance at Covent Garden Theatre on the 26th May 1837;
runs for five nights; the author's comments; the drama issued
by Messrs. Longman & Co.; the performance in 1886; estimate of "Strafford";
Browning's dramas; comparison between the Elizabethan and Victorian
dramatic eras; Browning's soul-depictive faculty; his dramatic method;
estimate of his dramas; Landor's acknowledgment of the dedication to him
of "Luria".