Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1871-02-22

forget dnythingn - and repeated with
some emphasis that he had great mem
ory.
He knew the capacities of the opera
houses in the Eastern cities, and remark
ed that he preferred a small or medium
sized hall to read ina room in which
everybody can see my face he said,
for so much depends on the face and
the lighter shades of voice
what do you mean by good au-
dience?' he asked.
Good refers to size rrther than quail
ty, and mostly means a full house. At
this moment lady, wrapped in water
proof and hood, came up and sat down
tiones about Miss Adelaide Proctor, and
other writers.
Did you know Mrs. Browning" ask
ed the lady passenger.
'Oh, yes, indeed y
DO tell me something about her.
Well, she was one of the smallest wO-
men you ever saw, and was i'll good
deal. 1t was very funny to see the way
Browning used to carry her about all
over Europe The talk fell on Brown
/ inp's plays, COLOnl6e'S Birthday and The
Blot IN the 'iScutcheOR-that remarkable
thing in literature, q tragedy without a
crime y somebody said. Mr.. Dickens
warmly assented to the praise given TO
/ the dramatic fragment.
Notwithstanding its beauty l sup
( pose Browning never intended 1t TO be
acted p asked one.
tOh, yes he replied Browning re-
quested me once to fit it for the strange,
and / did so. It was not the fault Of the
play that it was not successful; it was
Z H. NOT III fn
it,
However skeptical l may have felt
about this criticism l said nothing, Mr..
Dickens expressed still further his ad-
miratiOn of Browning. He asked me If
I had read the poem Rabbi Ben Ezra
I had not, whereupon he commended it
warmly, and advised me to read it.
had but one more talk with him, and
! that brief one. One afternoon, during
walk together OH deck, said, Mr..
/ Dickens, if you don't object to my ask
! ing you something about your books
/ Not at all, he said, cordially.
/ 4 would ask you to give me word
/ to characterize certain qualities which
( the style assumes occasionally [ hat
! ed, said, to employ the word melO-dTa-
matte, feeling it to be Inappropriate, but
could find no other, and asked if he OBJ
jected to it in any case.
what do YOU mean when you say
melodramatic !? he inquired.
when the etyle rises above the level
/ of common Erose, and the sentiment
/ lifts itself out of the region Of common
! things, and the sentences actually be-
come rhythmical. There is something
of it in the storm in 'Cavid'-he nod
ded affirmatively-'in 'An Italian
Dream in the Pictures from Italy : the
chapters on 'MOnseignedr, in the Tale
I of Two Cities possess it, and the pass
ages wherin Lucy Manette hears the
echoes of hurrying footsteps where no
| footsteps are, are all musical and sug-
/ gestive of more than they say
Yes, l recogniZe-I understand you
perfectly; but that which you mean l
SHOULD not call melq-dramatici I gall 1t
| picturesque
Then dwelling on this for a moment,
| Let me tell you,' he said, the definite
/ I give to an English artist the other day,
who asked me to explain the difference
| between the theatrical and the dramatic
in picture. I said, if any of the figures
III the scene look as if they thought they
were being looked at, if their express
ion in the least shows them to be aware
of spectators, I should call it theatrical.
But when they do their part with un-
conscious energy, and are wholly sub
ject to the governing emotions of the
scene, it is dramatic.'
He was celebrating this definition,
when a large man Joined us and put his
clumsy foot into the talk, and trampled
it shapeless.-LippincOtp8 Magazine