TO
GEORGE MEREDITH
NOVELIST AND POET
THIS LITTLE BOOK ON AN ILLUSTRIOUS CONTEMPORARY
IS WITH DEEP RESPECT AND ADMIRATION
INSCRIBED.
PREFACE
This Introduction to the Study of Browning, which is now reprinted in a new form, revised throughout, and with everything relating to facts carefully brought up to date, has been for many years out of print. I wrote it as an act of homage to the poet whom I had worshipped from my boyhood; I meant it to be, in almost his own words, used of Shelley, some approach to "the signal service it was the dream of my boyhood to render to his fame and memory."