CHAPTER I

[CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH]

Ancestry—Parents—Boyhood—Influence of Shelley—Pauline

CHAPTER II

[PARACELSUS AND SORDELLO]

Visit to Russia—Paracelsus—His failures and attainments—Sordello, a companion poem—Its obscurity—Imaginative qualities—The history of a soul

CHAPTER III

[THE MAKER OF PLAYS]

New acquaintances—Hatcham—Macready—Strafford—Venice—Bells and Promegranates—A Blot on the 'Scutcheon—Characters of passion—Characters of intellect

CHAPTER IV