Of all forms of literature, whether in Verse or prose, the dramatic
monologue seemed to me the aptest for the exposition of character and
habits of mind. It is the creation--or recreation--of Robert Browning,
the most illuminating interpreter of the workings of the human mind that
England has produced since Shakespeare died. My first endeavour
was therefore

to watch
The Master work, and catch
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.

I have been, I fear, a clumsy botcher in applying the lessons that
Browning was able to teach, but the dramatic monologues of which this
volume is largely composed owe whatever art they may possess to his
example. My dramatic studies are drawn from life. For example, the local
preacher who expresses his views on the rival merits of Church and Chapel
is a Wharfedale acquaintance, and the farmer in 'Cambodunum' who declares
that "eddication's nowt but muckment" actually expressed this view to a
Chief Inspector of Schools, a member of the West Riding Education
Committee, and myself, when we visited him on his farm. I do not claim
that I have furnished literal transcripts of what I heard in my
conversations with my heroes and heroines, but my purpose throughout has
been to hold a mirror up to Nature, to give a faithful interpretation of
thought and character, and to show my readers some of the ply of mind and
habits of life that still prevail among Yorkshiremen whose individuality
has not been blunted by convention and who have the courage to express
their reasoned or instinctive views of life and society.

But the interpretation of the minds of Yorkshire peasants and artisans for