Not, only had I never met such men
before, but I had not read about them in literature, or seen their
portraits painted on canvas. The wish to give a literary interpretation
of the world into which I had been privileged to enter grew every day more
insistent, and this volume is the fulfilment of that wish.
Of all forms of literature, whether in Verse or prose, the dramatic
monologue seemed to me the aptest for the exposition of character and
habits of mind. It is the creation--or recreation--of Robert Browning,
the most illuminating interpreter of the workings of the human mind that
England has produced since Shakespeare died. My first endeavour
was therefore
to watch
The Master work, and catch
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.
I have been, I fear, a clumsy botcher in applying the lessons that
Browning was able to teach, but the dramatic monologues of which this
volume is largely composed owe whatever art they may possess to his
example. My dramatic studies are drawn from life. For example, the local
preacher who expresses his views on the rival merits of Church and Chapel
is a Wharfedale acquaintance, and the farmer in 'Cambodunum' who declares
that "eddication's nowt but muckment" actually expressed this view to a
Chief Inspector of Schools, a member of the West Riding Education
Committee, and myself, when we visited him on his farm.
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