d Euripides and AEschylus; knew all the gossip of the
literary clubs, salons, and the studios; was a frequenter of
afternoon-tea parties; and then, over and above it, he was Browning: the
most profoundly subtle mind that has exercised itself in poetry since
Shakspere. His personal grace and charm of manner never failed. Whether
he was dedicating "Balaustion's Adventure" in terms of gracious
courtesy, or handing a flower from some jar of roses, or lilies, or his
favourite daffodils, with a bright smile or merry glance, to the lady of
his regard, or when sending a copy of a new book of poetry with an
accompanying letter expressed with rare felicity, or when generously
prophesying for a young poet the only true success if he will but listen
and act upon "the inner voice,"--he was in all these, and in all things,
the ideal gentleman. There is so charming and characteristic a touch in
the following note to a girl-friend, that I must find room for it:--

29 De Vere Gardens, W.,
_6th July_ 1889.

MY BELOVED ALMA,--I had the honour yesterday of dining with the
Shah, whereupon the following dialogue:--

"Vous etes poete?"

"On s'est permis de me le dire quelquefois."

"Et vous avez fait des livres?"

"Trop de livres."

"Voulez-vous m'en donner un, afin que je puisse me ressouvenir de
vous?"

"Avec plaisir."

I have been accordingly this morning to town, where the thing is
procurable, and as I chose a volume of which I judged the binding
might take the imperial eye, I said to myself, "Here do I present
my poetry to a personage for whom I do not care three straws; why
should I not venture to do as much for a young lady I love dearly,
who, for the author's sake, will not impossibly care rather for
the inside than the outside of the volume?" So I was bold enough
to take one and offer it for your kind acceptance, begging you to
remember in days to come that the author, whether a good poet or
no, was always, my Alma, your affectionate friend,

ROBERT BROWNING.

[Footnote 25: It was on his first experience of this kind, more than a
quarter of a century earlier, that he wrote the nobly patriotic lines of
"Home Thoughts from the Sea," and that flawless strain of bird-music,
"Home Thoughts from Abroad:" then, also, that he composed "How they
brought the Good News." Concerning the last, he wrot