But it so happened, unfortunately, that his own words were not plain; that his catastrophes came with a crashing and sudden unintelligibleness which left men in doubt whether the thing were a catastrophe or a great stroke of good luck; that his conclusion, though it rang like a trumpet to the four corners of heaven, was in its actual message quite inaudible.

We are bound to admit, on the authority of all his best critics and admirers, that his plays were not failures, but we can all feel that they should have been.

He was, as it were, by nature a neglected dramatist.

He was one of those who achieve the reputation, in the literal sense, of eccentricity by their frantic efforts to reach the centre.
_A Blot on the 'Scutcheon_ followed _The Return of the Druses_.

In connection with the performance of this very fine play a quarrel arose which would not be worth mentioning if it did not happen to illustrate the curious energetic simplicity of Browning's character.