_THE DRAMAS_ Of the great poets who, not being born dramatists, have attempted to write dramas in poetry, Browning was the most persevering.

I suppose that, being conscious of his remarkable power in the representation of momentary action and of states of the soul, he thought that he could harmonise into a whole the continuous action of a number of persons, and of their passions in sword-play with one another; and then conduct to a catastrophe their interaction.

But a man may be capable of writing dramatic lyrics and dramatic romances without being capable of writing a drama.

Indeed, so different are the two capabilities that I think the true dramatist could not write such a lyric or romance as Browning calls dramatic; his genius would carry one or the other beyond the just limits of this kind of poetry into his own kind.

And the writer of excellent lyrics and romances of this kind will be almost sure to fail in real drama.