[Venice—Wednesday, 31 October 1888]
Browning sd [‘]I dined with the Editor of the Times, a day or two before I left London, and wished very much to hear what he was saying to Chamberlain, next to me, about the Parnell business and the probable result of the Commission. But a facheux, opposite, would insist on talking across the table to me, and asked ‘Why there are no young poets now, Mr Browning? I said ‘You must ask God that; who makes them,’ and missed Parnell.[”]
Henry James, Oct 30 ’88 Geneva, to Mrs Curtis. ‘I am glad he (Browning) has given you some glimpses of his deviner past. I have never seized the link between the two (Browning Poet & B. Man) and it is a solution of Continuity. But I have lately been readg him a good deal, & it seems to me that on the whole he is the writer of our times, of whom in the face of the rest of the world the English Tongue may be most proud for he has touched everything, and with a breadth! I put him very high—higher than anyone.’ Told this to Browning, who was pleased. I sd James considered & meant what he said on such matters.
R.B. said Mrs Proctor gave herself airs, and imitated S. Rogers’ manner & speech, & sd sharp things for effect. He liked Mrs Proctor.
