--

Browning promised to consider the suggestion. Six weeks later,
in company with Forster, with whom he had become intimate,
he called upon Macready, to discuss the plot of a tragedy
which he had pondered. He told the tragedian how deeply he had been impressed
by his performance of "Othello", and how this had deflected his intention
from a modern and European to an Oriental and ancient theme.
"Browning said that I had BIT him by my performance of `Othello',
and I told him I hoped I should make the blood come." The "blood" had come
in the guise of a drama-motive based on the crucial period in the career
of Narses, the eunuch-general of Justinian. Macready liked the suggestion,
though he demurred to one or two points in the outline:
and before Browning left he eagerly pressed him to "go on with `Narses'."
But whether Browning mistrusted his own interest in the theme,
or was dubious as to the success with which Macready
would realise his conception, or as to the reception a play of such nature
would win from an auditory no longer reverent of high dramatic ideals,
he gave up the idea. Some three months later (May 26th) he enjoyed
another eventful evening. It was the night of the first performance
of Talfourd's "Ion", and he was among the personal friends of Macready
who were invited to the supper at Talfourd's rooms.
After the fall of the curtain, Browning, Forster, and other friends
sought the tragedian and congratulated him upon the success
both of the play and of his impersonation of the chief character.
They then adjourned to the house of the author of "Ion".
To his surprise and gratification Browning found himself placed
next but one to his host, and immediately opposite Macready,
who sat between two gentlemen, one calm as a summer evening,
and the other with a tempestuous youth dominating his sixty years,