and queen, in the interval of waiting for the chariot and attendants
to be brought to the gate. All the physical side of the healing of
Abgar has now been resolved into its spiritual meaning, and he
reinterprets the words of the Nazarene’s message that of his infirmity
he shall know full cure and those most dear to him have peace; but
while Abgar speaks of his changed ideal, looking now to a “city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” a clamor is heard
at the gate, and the body-slave rushes to the king with the tidings
that armed troops approach the palace, and begs him to flee in the
waiting chariot. Spurning thought of escape, the king and queen mount
the dais and stand calmly watching in the moonlight the heroic
spectacle of the approaching army. At this moment the queen’s women
rush into the garden, demanding flight; the conflict begins along the
wall; the gate bursts open, and Ananias retreats to the garden,
wounded, and shortly dies. A brief interval of quiet, but full of
portent, succeeds, when Stilbe, who had plotted with the king’s
enemies, rushes through the gate, pursued by the soldiers and bleeding
from wounds of their sabres. She is shot, apparently by the hand of
her former lover, Belarion, and falls dead at the king’s feet. Here
Mr. Upson leaves an unravelled thread of his plot, or at least one for
whose clew I have sought vainly. No cause has been shown for violence
toward her on the part of the soldiers whom she aids, nor on that of
her supposed lover and betrothed, Belarion. Why, then, she should
become his victim, or why he should look upon her dead body and
exclaim:
“Thus Fate helps out!”
is at least a riddle past my solving. If, as the results indicate,
Belarion has been using Stilbe as a tool to aid his ambitions, it
should scarcely have been related in good faith in the beginning of
the drama that their marriage was to be celebrated the week in which
the action of the play falls. If logical reasons exist for this change
of front, Mr. Upson should have indicated them more clearly.
The climax of the play follows immediately upon the death of Stilbe,
when the king, called to account by the insolent Belarion, in
righteous indignation strikes him down. It may be questioned whether
such a deed could follow so quickly upon the rapt spiritual state to
which the king had been lifted; but one inclines to rejoice that the
natural man, impelled by who shall say what higher force, triumphed,
ere the queen, pointing to the dead body of the trusted messenger,
Ananias, and repeating the Nazarene’s words, “Those most dear to you
have peace,”—demanded of the king his blade.
As they stand defenceless but assured, the soldiers, awed by the might
of some inner force in the king, shrink back, and the drama closes
with the victorious words,—
Together, Love, we go unto the city!
Though the play, looked upon from a dramatic standpoint, lacks in the
earlier scenes a certain magnetism of touch and vividness of action,
and in the last scene is somewhat overcharged with them, it has many
finely conceived situations which strike the golden mean, and the
characterization throughout is strongly defined. Its literary quality
must, however, take precedence of its dramatic in the truer appraisal.
In diction it shows none of the strained effort toward the supposed
speech of an earlier time, which usually distinguishes poetic dramas
laid far in the past, but has throughout a fitting dignity and
harmony, combined with ease and flexibility of phrase and frequent
eloquence of dialogue, especially in the passages spoken by Abgar.
It is a play rather of character and high motive than of plot, a piece
of sheer idealism, notable alike for its spiritual and its poetic
quality.
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
BROWN, Alice. Born Hampton Falls, N. H., Dec. 5, 1857. Graduated
Robinson Seminary, Exeter, N. H., 1876. On staff of Youth’s Companion.
Author: Fools of Nature; Meadow-Grass; By Oak and Thorn (English
travels); Life of Mercy Otis Warren; The Road to Castaly (poems); The
Days of his Youth; Robert Louis Stevenson, A Study (with Louise I.
Guiney); Tiverton Tales; King’s End; Margaret Warrener; The
Mannerings; Judgment. Resides in Boston.
BURTON, Richard. Born Hartford, Conn., March 14, 1859. Graduated
Trinity College, Hartford. Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1887. Married Oct. 7,
1889. Taught Old English Johns Hopkins, 1888. Managing Editor N. Y.
Churchman, 1888-89. Travelled in Europe, 1889-90. Literary Editor
Hartford Courant, 1890-97. Associate Editor Warner Library World’s
Best Literature, 1897-99. Professor English Literature, University of
Minnesota, 1898-1902. Editor Lothrop Publishing Co., 1902-04. Lectures
upon literature and the drama. Author: (verse) Dumb in June, 1895;
Memorial Day, 1897; Lyrics of Brotherhood, 1899; Message and Melody,
1903; (prose) Literary Likings, essays, 1898; Life of Whittier, in
Beacon Biography Series, 1900; Forces in Fiction, essays, 1902.
Resides in Boston.
CARMAN, Bliss. Born Fredericton, N. B., April 15, 1861. Graduate
University of New Brunswick, 1881. Postgraduate student University of
Edinburgh, 1882-83, and of Harvard, 1886-88. Studied law, practised
civil engineering, taught school. Office Editor N. Y. Independent,
1890-1902. For past four years has contributed a weekly column, called
“Marginal Notes,” to the Evening Post, Chicago, The Transcript,
Boston, and the Commercial Advertiser, N. Y. Unmarried. Author: Low
Tide on Grand Pré, 1893; A Sea-Mark, 1895; Behind the Arras, 1895;
Ballads of Lost Haven, 1897; By the Aurelian Wall, 1897; Songs from
Vagabondia, in collaboration with Richard Hovey, 1894; More Songs from
Vagabondia, 1896; Last Songs from Vagabondia, 1900; St. Kavin, a
Ballad, 1894; At Michaelmas, 1895; The Girl in the Poster, 1897; The
Green Book of the Bards, 1898; Vengeance of Noel Bassard, 1899; Ode on
the Coronation of King Edward, 1902; From the Book of Myths, 1902;
Pipes of Pan No. 1, 1902; Pipes of Pan No. 2, 1903; The Word at St.
Kavins, 1903; Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics, 1903. Resides in New York.
CAWEIN, Madison Julius. Born Louisville, Ky., March 23, 1865.
Graduated at High School in Louisville, 1886. Since then has confined
himself to the writing of verse. Author: Blooms of the Berry, 1887;
The Triumph of Music, 1888; Accolon of Gaul, 1889; Lyrics and Idyls,
1890; Days and Dreams, 1891; Moods and Memories, 1892; Red Leaves and
Roses, 1893; Poems of Nature and Love, 1893; Intimations of the
Beautiful, 1894; The White Snake (translations from German poets),
1895; Undertones, 1896; The Garden of Dreams, 1896; Shapes and
Shadows, 1898; Idyllic Monologues, 1898; Myth and Romance, 1899; Weeds
by the Wall, 1901; One Day and Another, 1901; Kentucky Poems
(selections published in London with an Introduction by Edmund Gosse),
1902; A Voice on the Wind, 1902. Resides Louisville, Ky.
FENOLLOSA, Mary McNeil. Born in Alabama. Graduated Irving Academy,
Mobile. Married, 1895, Ernest F. Fenollosa. Resided in Japan about
eight years. Author: Out of the Nest: A Flight of Verses, 1899; and
Child Verses on Japanese Subjects. Wrote Monograph upon Heroshige, the
Artist of Mist, Snow, and Rain; also verses, sketches, and stories in
many magazines.
GUINEY, Louise Imogen. Born Boston, Jan. 7, 1861. Graduated Elmhurst
Academy, Providence, R. I., 1879. Studied afterwards under private
tutors and abroad. Contributor since 1885 to Harper’s, Atlantic, and
other magazines. Author: The White Sail and Other Poems, 1887;
Monsieur Henri: A Footnote to French History, 1892; A Roadside Harp,
1893; A Little English Gallery, 1894; Patrins, essays, 1897; England
and Yesterday, 1898; A Martyr’s Idyl, and Shorter Poems, 1899; Editor
James Clarence Mangan, His Selected Poems, with Study by the Editor,
1897; of the Matthew Arnold (in small Riverside Literature Series); of
Dr. T. W. Parsons’ Translation of Divina Commedia of Dante, 1893; of
Henry Vaughn’s Mount of Olives, 1902. Resides since 1901 in Oxford,
England.
HALL, Gertrude. Born Boston, Sept. 8, 1863. Educated private schools
in Florence, Italy. Author: (verse) Far from To-day; Allegretto (light
verse): Foam of the Sea; Age of Fairygold; Translator Paul Verlaine’s
Poems, and of Cyrano de Bergerac; (prose) The Hundred, and Other
Stories; April’s Sowing; The Legend of Sainte Cariberte des Ois.
Resides New York City.
HOVEY, Richard. Born Normal, Ill., 1864. Educated Dartmouth College.
Author: Poems, privately printed, 1880; Songs from Vagabondia; More
Songs from Vagabondia; and Last Songs from Vagabondia (in
collaboration with Bliss Carman); Seaward: An Elegy (on the death of
Thomas William Parsons); The Quest of Merlin: A Masque; The Marriage
of Guenevere: A Tragedy; The Birth of Galahad; A Romantic Drama;
Taliesin: A Masque; Along the Trail: A Book of Lyrics; Translator the
Plays of Maeterlinck (in two series). Died 1900.
KNOWLES, Frederic Lawrence. Born Lawrence, Mass., Sept. 8, 1869.
Graduated Wesleyan University, 1894. Harvard, 1896. In editorial
department Houghton, Mifflin and Co., from February to September of
1898. Literary adviser of L. C. Page and Co., 1899-1900. Since that
time adviser for Dana Estes and Company. Unmarried. Author: (prose)
Practical Hints for Young Writers, Readers, and Book Buyers, 1897; A
Kipling Primer, 1900. (Republished in England); (verse) On Life’s
Stairway, 1900; Love Triumphant, 1904. Edited Cap and Gown Second
Series, 1897; Golden Treasury of American Lyrics, 1897; Treasury
Humorous Poetry, 1902; The Famous Children of Literature Series, 1902.
Resides in Boston.
PEABODY, Josephine Preston. Born in New York. Educated Girls’ Latin
School, Boston, and at Radcliffe College, 1894-96. Instructor in
English Literature at Wellesley College, 1901-03. Author: Old Greek
Folk-Stories (Riverside Lit. Series) 1899; The Wayfarers, a book of
verse, 1898; Fortune and Men’s Eyes; New Poems with a Play, 1900;
Marlowe, A Drama, 1901; The Singing Leaves, 1903. Contributor to
leading magazines. Resides Cambridge, Mass.
REESE, Lizette Woodworth. Born in Baltimore Co., Md., Jan. 9, 1856.
Teacher of English, West High School, Baltimore. Author: A Branch of
May; A Handful of Lavender, 1891; A Quiet Road, 1896. Resides in
Baltimore.
ROBERTS, Charles George Douglas. Born Douglas, N. B., Jan. 10, 1860.
Graduated University of New Brunswick, 1879 (A. M. 1880). Married
1880. Head Master Chatham Grammar School, 1879-81; York St. School,
Fredericton, 1881-83. Editor Week, Toronto, 1883-84. Professor English
and French Literature, King’s College, Windsor, N. S., 1885-88.
Professor English and Economics, same, 1888-95. Associate Editor
Illustrated American, 1897-98. Author: (verse) Orion and Other Poems,
1880; In Divers Tones, 1887; Ave: An Ode for the Shelley Centenary,
1892; Songs of the Common Day, and Ave, 1893; The Book of the Native,
1896; New York Nocturnes, 1898; Poems, 1901; The Book of the Rose,
1903; (prose) The Canadians of Old; Earth’s Enigmas; The Raid from
Beauséjour; A History of Canada; The Forge in the Forest; Around the
Camp-fire; Reube Dare’s Shad Boat; A Sister to Evangeline; Appleton’s
Canadian Guide-Book, 1899; By the Marshes of Minas, 1900; The Heart of
the Ancient Wood, 1900; The Kindred of the Wild, 1902; Barbara Ladd,
1902; The Bird Book, 1903; The Watchers of the Trails, 1904. Editor
the Alastor and Adonais of Shelley with Introduction and Notes, 1902.
Resides New York City.
SANTAYANA, George E. Born in Spain, 1863. Assistant Professor of
Philosophy, Harvard University. Author: (verse) Sonnets and Other
Poems, 1894; Lucifer: A Theological Tragedy, 1899; The Hermit of
Carmel and Other Poems, 1901; (prose) The Sense of Beauty, 1896;
Interpretations of Poetry and Religion, 1900. Resides Cambridge, Mass.
SCOLLARD, Clinton. Born Clinton, N. Y., Sept. 18, 1860. Graduated from
Hamilton College, 1881. Also studied at Harvard and at Cambridge,
England. Professor of English Literature at Hamilton College, 1888-96.
Author: (verse) Pictures in Song, 1884; With Reed and Lyre, 1888; Old
and New World Lyrics, 1888; Giovio and Giulia, 1891; Songs of Sunrise
Lands, 1892; The Hills of Song, 1895; A Boy’s Book of Rhyme, 1896;
Skenandoa, 1896; The Lutes of Morn, 1901; Lyrics of the Dawn, 1902;
The Lyric Bough, 1904; Ballads of Valor and Victory, 1904 (in
collaboration with Wallace Rice); Footfarings (prose and verse), 1904;
(prose) Under Summer Skies, 1892; On Sunny Shores, 1893; A
Man-at-Arms, 1898; The Son of a Tory, 1900; A Knight of the Highway;
The Cloistering of Ursula, 1902; Lawton, 1900; Editor Ford’s Broken
Hearts, 1904, and of Ballads of American Bravery, 1900. Resides
Clinton, N. Y.
THOMAS, Edith Matilda. Born Chatham, O., August 12, 1854. Educated
Normal School, Geneva, Ohio. Removed to New York, 1888. Author:
(verse) A New Year’s Masque and Other Poems, 1885; Lyrics and Sonnets,
1887; Babes of the Year, 1888; The Inverted Torch, 1890; Fair Shadow
Land, 1893; A Winter Swallow, 1896; The Dancers, 1903; (prose) The
Round Year. Resides West New Brighton, Staten Island.
TORRENCE, Frederic Ridgely. Born Xenia, O., Nov. 27, 1875. Educated
under private tutors and at Miami University, O., also Princeton.
Librarian Astor Library, 1897-1901. Librarian Lenox Library, 1901-03.
At present Associate Editor of The Critic, New York. Unmarried.
Author: (verse) The House of a Hundred Lights, 1900; El Dorado, A
Tragedy, 1903. Resides in New York.
UPSON, Arthur. Born in Camden, N. Y., 1877. Graduated from Camden
Academy, 1894. B. A. University of Minnesota. Author: Poems (with
George Norton Northrop); Westwind Songs (with an Introduction by
“Carmen Sylva”); Octaves in An Oxford Garden; The City, a Poem-Drama
(with Introduction by Count Lützow). Resides Minneapolis, Minn.
WOODBERRY, George E. Born Beverly, Mass., May 12, 1855. Graduated
Harvard, 1877. Professor of English at University of Nebraska,
1877-78, and 1880-82. On editorial staff of the Nation, 1878-79.
Author: History of Wood Engraving, 1883; Life of Edgar Allan Poe,
1885; Studies in Letters and Life, 1890; The North Shore Watch and
Other Poems, 1890; Heart of Man, 1899; Wild Eden, 1899; Makers of
Literature, 1900; Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1902; Poems (collected
edition), 1903. Editor: Complete Poems of Shelley; Complete Works of
Poe (with Mr. Stedman); National Studies in American Letters; Columbia
Studies in Comparative Literature; Lamb’s Essays of Elia; Aubrey de
Vere’s Selected Poems, and Bacon’s Essays. Editor of the Journal of
Comparative Literature. From 1891 to 1903 Professor of Comparative
Literature at Columbia University.
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Dialect, obsolete, alternative spellings, and accent marks were left
unchanged.
Footnotes were numbered sequentially and moved to the end of the
section in which the anchor occurs.
‘Thelogical’ changed to ‘Theological’: ‘Lucifer: A Theological Tragedy’
Punctuation additions:
final stop: ‘Of the missing Nancy’s Pride.’
final stop: ‘The night is loud; the pavements roar.’
final stop after elipses: ‘A common clod of scentless earth….’
semicolon: ‘rose-stain encrimsoned the ground;’
comma: ‘Ah, fortunate he roams who roameth’
comma: ‘Footfarings (prose and verse), 1904;’
colon: ‘1903. Editor: Complete’