The doings of these "people" had once been "important" to Browning himself, and the old man's memory summoned up these forgotten old-world friends of his boyhood to be championed or rallied by their quondam disciple.

The death of the dearest friend of his later life, J.Milsand, in 1886, probably set these chords vibrating; the book is dedicated to his memory.

Perhaps the _Imaginary Conversations_ of an older friend and master of Browning's, one even more important in Browning's day and in ours than in his own, and the master of his youth, once more suggested the scheme.

But these _Parleyings_ are conversations only in name.

They are not even monologues of the old brilliantly dramatic kind.