Strafford. Sordello. By

Robert Browning (7 May 1812 - 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. Browning's early career began promisingly, but was not a success. The long poem Pauline brought him to the attention of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and was followed by Paracelsus, which was praised by Wordsworth and Dickens, but in 1840 the difficult Sordello, which was seen as wilfully obscure, brought his poetry into disrepute. His reputation took more than a decade to recover, during which time he moved away from the Shelleyan forms of his early period and developed a more personal style..... Charlotte Endymion Porter (Jan. 6, 1857 - Jan. 16, 1942) was an American poet, translator, and literary critic and the cofounder and coeditor of the journal Poet Lore. As the editor or coeditor of editions of the complete works of William Shakespeare, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and as a translator of major writers from around the world for Poet Lore, she was influential in shaping the American literary taste of her day..... Helen Archibald Clarke (Nov. 13, 1860 - Feb. 8, 1926) was an American literary critic, book editor, composer and lyricist, and the co-founder of the journal Poet Lore. She was influential in shaping the American literary taste of her day through her work on Poet Lore, through her work co-editing the complete works of the British poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and through her books on writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.... William Charles Macready (3 March 1793 - 27 April 1873) was an English actor.He was born in London the son of William Macready the elder, and the actress Christina Ann Birch. Educated at Rugby School, it was his initial intention to go to University of Oxford, but in 1809 financial problems experienced by his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first appearance as Romeo at Birmingham. Other Shakespearian parts followed, but a serious rupture between father and son resulted in the young man's departure for Bath in 1814. Here he remained for two years, with occasional professional visits to other provincial towns. On 16 September 1816, Macready made his first London appearance at Covent Garden as Orestes in The Distressed Mother, a translation of Racine's Andromaque by Ambrose Philips. Macready's choice of characters was at first confined chiefly to the romantic drama. In 1818 he won a permanent success in Isaac Pocock's (1782-1835) adaptation of Scott's Rob Roy. He showed his capacity for the highest tragedy when he played Richard III at Covent Garden on 25 October 1819.....