SCENE I. _The Same. An Apartment in the Castle. Enter_ LANCIOTTO._Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI

_A TRAGEDY_

Francesca, i tuoi martiri a lagrimar

mi fanno triato e pio.--DANTE.

_Inferno, v. 75 seq._

[Illustration: GEORGE HENRY BOKER]

GEORGE HENRY BOKER

(1823-1890)

The name of George Henry Boker suggests a coterie of friendships--a

group of men pledged to the pursuit of letters, and worshippers at the

shrine of poetry. These men, in the pages of whose published letters

and impressions are embedded many pleasing aspects of Boker's

temperament and character, were Bayard Taylor, Richard Henry Stoddard,

and Charles Godfrey Leland, the latter known familiarly in American

literature as "Hans Breitmann." These four, in different periods of

their lives, might have been called "the inseparables"--so closely did

they watch each other's development, so intently did they await each

other's literary output, and write poetry to each other, and meet

at Boker's, now and again, for golden talks on Sundays. Poetry was

a passion with them, and even when two--Boker and Taylor--were sent

abroad on diplomatic missions, they could never have been said to

desert the Muse--their literary activity was merely arrested. One of

the four--Stoddard--often felt, in the presence of Boker, a certain

reticence due to lack of educational advantages; but in the face of

Boker's graciousness--a quality which comes with culture in its truest

sense,--he soon found himself writing Boker on matters of style, on

qualities of English diction, and on the status of American letters--a

stock topic of conversation those days.

Boker was a Philadelphian, born there on October 6, 1823,--the son

of Charles S. Boker, a wealthy banker, whose financial expertness

weathered the Girard National Bank through the panic years of 1838-40,

and whose honour, impugned after his death, in 1857, was defended

many years later by his son in "The Book of the Dead," reflective of

Tennyson's "In Memoriam," and marked by a triteness of phrase

which was always Boker's chief limitation, both as a poet and as a

dramatist.

He was brought up in an atmosphere of ease and refinement, receiving

his preparatory education in private schools, and entering Princeton

in 1840. On the testimony of Leland, who, being related to Boker, was

thrown with him in their early years, and who avows that he always

showed a love for the theatre, we learn that the young college student

bore that same distinction of manner which had marked him as a child,

and was to cling to him as a diplomat. Together as boys, these

two would read their "Percy's Reliques," "Don Quixote," Byron and

Scott--and while they were both in Princeton, Boker's room possessed

the only carpet in the dormitory, and his walls boasted shelves of the

handsomest books in college.

"As a mere schoolboy," wrote Leland, "Boker's knowledge of

poetry was remarkable. I can remember that he even at nine

years of age manifested that wonderful gift that caused him

many years after to be characterized by some great actor--I

think it was Forrest--as the best reader in America.... While

at college ... Shakespeare and Byron were his favourites. He

used to quiz me sometimes for my predilections for Wordsworth

and Coleridge. We both loved Shelly passionately."

In fact, Leland claims that Boker was given to ridicule the "Lakers;"

had he studied them instead, he would have added to his own poetry a

naturalness of expression which it lacked.

He was quite the poet of Princeton in his day, quite the gentleman

Bohemian. "He was," writes Leland, "quite familiar, in a refined and

gentlemanly way, with all the dissipations of Philadelphia and New

York." His easy circumstances made it possible for him to balance his

ascetic taste for scholarship with riding horse-back. To which almost

perfect attainment, he added the skilled ability to box, fence and

dance. He graduated from Princeton in 1842, and the description of him

left to us by Leland reveals a young man of nineteen, six feet tall,

whose sculptured bust, made at this time, was not as much like him "as

the ordinary busts of Lord Byron." In later years he was said to bear

striking resemblance to Hawthorne. His marriage to Miss Julia Riggs,

of Maryland, followed shortly after his graduation, in fact, while he

was studying law, a profession which was to serve him in good stead

during his diplomatic years, but which he threw over for the stronger

pull of poetry, whose Muse he could court without the necessity of

driving it hard for support. Yet he was concerned about literature

as a paying profession for others. On April 26, 1851, he wrote to

Stoddard: "Alas! alas! Dick, is it not sad that an American author

cannot live by magazine writing? And this is wholly owing to the

want of our international copyright law. Of course it is little to me

whether magazine writers get paid or not; but it is so much to you,

and to a thousand others." The time, until 1847, was spent in foreign

travel, but it is interesting to note, as indication of no mean

literary attainment in the interim, that Princeton, during this

period, bestowed on him the degree of M.A., for merit in letters.

1848 was a red-letter year for Boker. It witnessed the publication of

his first volume of verse, "The Lessons of Life, and other Poems,"

and it introduced him to Bayard Taylor and to R.H. Stoddard. Of the

occasion, Taylor writes on October 13, to Mary Agnew:

Young Boker, author of the tragedy, "Calaynos," a most

remarkable work, is here on a visit, and spent several

hours to-night with me. He is another hero,--a most notable,

glorious mortal! He is one of our band, and is, I think,

destined to high renown as an author. He is nearly my own age,

perhaps a year or two older, and he has lived through the same

sensations, fought the same fight, and now stands up with the

same defiant spirit.

This friendship was one of excellent spiritual sympathy and remarkable

external similarities and contrasts. One authority has written of

their late years:

In certain ways, he and his friend, Bayard Taylor, made an

interesting contrast with each other. Here was Boker [circa

1878] who had just come back from diplomatic service abroad;

and here, too, was Taylor, who was just going abroad

as minister to Berlin. Both were poets; they were

fellow-Pennsylvanians and friends; and they were men of large

mould physically, and of impressive presence; yet they were

very dissimilar types. Boker, though massive and with a trace

of the phlegmatic in his manner (perhaps derived from his

Holland ancestors, the Bôchers, who had come thither from

France, and had then sent a branch into England, from which

the American family sprang), was courtly, polished, slightly

reserved. His English forefathers had belonged to the

Society of Friends, as had also Taylor's family in

Pennsylvania,--another point in common. But Taylor's

appearance, as his friends will remember, was somewhat bluff

and rugged; his manner was hearty and open.

Launched in the literary life, therefore, Boker began to write

assiduously. "Calaynos," the tragedy referred to by Taylor, went into

two editions during 1848, and the following year was played by Samuel

Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, May 10. From the New York

_Tribune_ office, on May 29, 1849, Taylor wrote:

Your welcome letter came this morning, and from the bottom of

my heart was I rejoiced by it. I can well imagine your feeling

of triumph at this earnest of fame.... I instantly hunted

up the London "Times" and found "Calaynos" advertised for

performance,--second night. I showed it to Griswold, who was

nearly as much surprised and delighted as myself. Of course

he will make good mention of it in his book. It will _sell_

immensely for you, and especially just now, when you are

coming out with "Anne Bullen" [sic.]. I shall not fail to have

a notice of it in to-morrow morning's "Tribune."

Some authorities state that it was given by Phelps without Boker's

consent. Another, who examined Boker's manuscripts, in possession of

the poet's daughter-in-law, Mrs. George Boker, records that Barrett

made cuts in the play, preparatory to giving it, Boker, even, revising

it in part. The American première was reserved for James E. Murdoch,

at the Philadelphia Walnut Street Theater, January 20, 1851, and it

was revived at the same playhouse in April, 1855, by E.L. Davenport.

As Stoddard says of it, one "should know something--the more the

better--about the plays that Dr. Bird and Judge Conrad wrote for

Forrest and his successors, about Poe's 'Politian', Sargent's

'Velasco', Longfellow's 'Spanish Student'."

His choice of subject, in this, his first drama, indicated the

romantic aloofness of Boker's mind, for he was always anxious to

escape what Leland describes him as saying was a "practical, soulless,

Gradgrind age." In fact, Boker had not as yet found himself; he was

more the book-lover than the student of men he afterwards became.

"Read Chaucer for strength," he advises Stoddard on January

7, 1850, "read Spenser for ease and sweetness, read Milton for

sublimity and thought, read Shakespeare for all these things,

and for something else which is his alone. Get out of your age

as far as you can."

These young men were not quickly received, and they regarded the

utilitarian spirit of the time as against them. To Stoddard Boker once

confessed: "Were poetry forged upon the anvil, cut out with the axe,

or spun in the mill, my heaven, how men would wonder at the process!

What power, what toil, what ingenuity!"

Boker's correspondence with Stoddard began in a letter, dated

September 5, 1849, announcing overtures made by the London Haymarket

Theatre for his new tragedy, "Anne Boleyn," which he was contemplating

sending them in sheets. "I have also the assurance," he announces,

"that Miss Cushman will bring it out in this country, provided she

thinks her powers adapted to it."

Boker's pen was energetic, and it moved at a gait which shows how

fertile was his imagination. "The inseparables" cheered the way for

each other in the face of official journalistic criticism. Taylor

declared "Anne Boleyn" far in advance of "Calaynos," prophesying that

it would last. "Go ahead, my dear poet," he admonishes, "it will soon

be your turn to damn those who would willingly damn you." Together

these friends were always planning to storm the citadel of public

favour with poetry, but Boker seems to have been the only one to whom

the theatre held out attraction. By August 12, 1850, he was sending

news to Stoddard that "The Betrothal" would be staged the following

month. In good spirits, he writes:

The manager is getting it up with unusual care and splendour.

Spangles and red flannels flame through it from end to end. I

even think of appearing before the curtain on horseback, nay,

of making the whole performance equestrian, and of introducing

a hippopotamus in the fifth act. What think you? Have you

and your miserable lyrics ever known such glory? If the

play should take _here_, you benighted New-Yorkers will be

illuminated with it immediately after it has run its hundredth

night in the city which is so proud of its son.

This was the second of his pieces to be given performance, "Anne

Boleyn" never seeing the boards. "The Betrothal" was produced at the

Philadelphia Walnut Street Theatre, on September 25, 1850, and opened

in New York, on November 18 of the same year. Taylor wrote to its

author, on December 4: "I saw the last night.... It is even better as

an acting play than I had anticipated, but it was very badly acted.

I have heard nothing but good of it, from all quarters." It was

Elizabethan in tone, quite in the spirit of that romantic drama

practised by such American authors as Willis, Sargent and others. How

it was received when presented in London, during 1853, is reflected in

Boker's letter to Stoddard, dated October 9, 1853:

I have read the _Times_ notice of the "Betrothal." It is honey

to most of the other newspaper criticisms.... Notwithstanding,

and taking the accounts of my enemies for authority, the play

was unusually successful with the audience on that most trying

occasion, the first night.... The play stands a monument of

English injustice. Mark you, it was not prejudice that caused

the catastrophe; it was fear lest I should get a footing

on their stage, of which "Calaynos" had given them timely

warning.

"The Widow's Marriage," in manuscript, and never published, was

accepted by Marshall, manager of the Walnut, and is noted by Boker, in

a letter to Stoddard, October 12, 1852, the chief handicap confronting

him being the inability to find someone suited to take the leading

rôle. Stoddard's own comment was:

Whether [it] was ever produced I know not, but I should

say not, for the part of the principal character, _Lady

Goldstraw_, is one which no actress whom I remember could have

filled to the satisfaction of her creator. The fault of this

character (me judice) is that it is too good to be played on a

modern stage. It ought to have been written for antiquity two

hundred years ago.

Boker was right when he referred to himself as "prolific" at this

time. He already had produced, in 1851, according to markings on the

manuscript, a piece called "All the World a Mask," and he had

written "The Podesta's Daughter," a dramatic sketch, issued, with

"Miscellaneous Poems," in 1852. Toward the end of this year, he

completed "Leonor de Guzman."

"Her history," he writes to Stoddard, on November 14, "you

will find in Spanish Chronicles relating to the reigns of

Alfonso XII of Castile and his son, Peter the Cruel. There are

no such subjects for historical tragedy on earth as are to be

found in the Spanish history of that period. I am so much in

love with it that I design following up 'Leonor de Guzman' by

'Don Pedro'. The present tragedy, according to the judgment

of Leland, is the very best play I have written, both for the

closet and the stage. Perhaps I am too ready to agree

with him, but long before he said it I had formed the same

judgment."

This tragedy was performed at the Philadelphia Walnut Street Theatre,

on October 3, 1853, and at the New York Broadway Theatre, on April 24,

1854. Boker wrote to his friends, showing his customary concern about

an actress skilled enough for the rôle of his heroine. When, finally,

for the Philadelphia première, Julia Dean was decided upon, he thus

expressed his verdict to Stoddard, after the opening performance:

"Miss Dean, as far as her physique would admit, played the part

admirably, and with a full appreciation of all those things which you

call its beauties."

During these years of correspondence with his friends, Boker was

determining to himself the distinction between _poetic_ and _dramatic_

style.

"Seriously, Dick," he writes to Stoddard, on October 6, 1850,

"there is, to my mind, no English diction for your purposes

equal to Milton's in his minor poems. Of course any man would

be an intensified ass who should attempt to reach the diction

of the 'Paradise Lost', or aspire to the tremendous style of

Shakespeare. You must not confound things, though. A Lyric

diction is one thing--a Dramatic diction is another, requiring

the utmost force and conciseness of expression,--and Epic

diction is still another; I conceive it to be something

between the Lyric and Dramatic, with all the luxuriance of the

former, and all the power of the latter."

He must have written to Taylor in the same vein, for, in a letter from

the latter, there is assurance that he fully understands what a

slow growth dramatic style must be. But Boker was not wholly wed to

theatrical demands; he still approached the stage in the spirit of

the poet who was torn between loyalty to poetic indirectness, and

necessity for direct dialogue. On January 12, 1853, he writes to

Stoddard:

Theatricals are in a fine state in this country; every

inducement is offered to me to burn my plays as fast as I

write them. Yet, what can I do? If I print my plays, the

actors take them up, butcher, alter and play them, without

giving me so much as a hand in my own damnation. This is

something beyond even heavenly rigour; and so I proceed to

my own destruction, with the proud consciousness that, at all

events, it is my own act. _À propos_, have you ever read the

English acting copy of my "Calaynos"? A viler thing was never

concocted from like materials.

Whether or not the play, "The Bankrupt," preceded or followed

the writing of "Francesca da Rimini" in 1853, we have no way of

determining; but it would seem that it progressed no further in its

stage career than in manuscript form, it being the only play on a

modern theme attempted by Boker. Then, it seems, he was hot on the

trail of the Francesca love story told in Dante, and used by so many

writers in drama and poetry. It is this play, conceded to be his

best, which is included in the present collection, and which calls for

analysis and history by itself.

Taylor's collection of "Poems at Home and Abroad," dedicated to Boker

in 1855, suggests that the two must have continually talked over the

possibilities of gathering their best effusions in book form. Did not

Taylor write, as early as June 30, 1850, "You must come out in the

Fall with a volume of poems. Stoddard will, and so, I think, will I.

You can get a capital volume, with your 'Song', 'Sir John', 'Goblet',

and other things.... The publishing showmen would of course parade our

wonderful qualities, and the snarling critics in the crowd would show

their teeth; but we would be as unmoved as the wax statues of Parkman

and Webster, except that there might now and then be a sly wink

at each other, when nobody was looking." The two friends had been

separated for some time, while Taylor wandered over the face of

the globe, writing from Cairo, in the shadow of the pyramids, and

exclaiming, in Constantinople (July 18, 1852), "There is a touch of

the East in your nature, George."

In 1856, Boker prepared his two volumes of "Plays and Poems" for the

press. He had won considerable reputation as a sonneteer, and this was

further increased by the tradition that Daniel Webster had quoted him

at a state dinner in Washington. As yet he was merely a literary

poet, and a literary dramatist whose name is usually linked with that

Philadelphia group discussed in Vol. II of this collection.[A]

Writing of the Philadelphia of 1868, Leland says:

[It was] "the Philadelphia when 'Emily Schaumbeg' was the belle and

Penington's 'store' was the haunt of the booklover, when snow fell

with old fashioned violence, and Third Street was convulsed by

old-fashioned panics, when everybody went mad over Offenbach, when one

started for New York from the Walnut Street Ferry, when George Boker

was writing his dramas and George Childs was beginning to play the

public Maecenas." Oftentimes the sturdy figure of Walt Whitman could

be seen walking on Broad Street, while Horace Greely, buried in

newspapers, travelled aboard a boat between New York and Philadelphia.

It was the Civil War that not only turned Boker's pen to the Union

Cause, but changed him politically from a Democrat to a staunch

Republican. In fact, his name is closely interwoven with the

rehabilitation of the Republican party in Philadelphia. He often

confessed that his conscience hurt him many times when he realized he

cast his first vote for Buchanan. "After that," he is quoted as having

said, "the sword was drawn; it struck me that politics had vanished

entirely from the scene--that it was now merely a question of

patriotism or disloyalty." His "Poems of the War," issued in 1864,

contained such examples of his martial and occasional ability as the

"Dirge for a Soldier," "On the Death of Philip Kearney" and "The

Black Regiment," besides "On Board the Cumberland" and the "Battle of

Lookout Mountain."

About this time, there was founded the Union League Club, with Boker

as the leading spirit; through his efforts the war earnestness of the

city was concentrated here; from 1863-71 he served as its secretary;

from 1879-84 as its President; and his official attitude may be

measured in the various annual reports of the organization. But even

in those strenuous days--at the period when the Northern spirits

lagged over military reverses, and at the time when the indecision

of General McClellan drew from him the satiric broadside,--"Tardy

George"--privately printed in 1865--Boker's thoughts were concerned

with poetry. His official laureate consciousness did not serve to

improve the verse. His "Our Heroic Themes"--written for the Harvard

Phi Beta Kappa--was mediocre in everything but intent, recalling what

Taylor wrote to him: "My Harvard poem, [he had read it in 1850 before

the same fraternity] poor as it is, was received with great applause;

but, alas! I published it, and thus killed the tradition of its

excellence, which, had I not done so, might still have been floating

around Harvard."

In 1869, Boker issued "Königsmark, The Legend of the Hounds and other

Poems," and this ended his dramatic career until his return from

abroad, and until Lawrence Barrett came upon the scene with his

revival of "Francesca da Rimini" and his interest in Boker's other

work, to the extent of encouraging him to recast "Calaynos" and to

prepare "Nydia" (1885), later enlarged from two acts to a full sized

drama in "Glaucus" (1886), both drawing for inspiration on Bulwer's

"The Last Days of Pompeii."

President Grant sent Boker to Constantinople, as U.S. Minister (his

appointment dated November 3, 1871)--an honour undoubtedly bestowed in

recognition of his national service. Here he remained four years, "and

during that time secured the redress for wrongs done American subjects

by the Syrians, and successfully negotiated two treaties, one having

reference to the extradition of criminals, and the other to the

naturalization of subjects of little power in the dominions of the

other." A reception was tendered him on December 22, 1871, by members

of the Union League Club, and among those present were Bayard Taylor,

Col. George Boker, of the Governor's staff, and son of Boker, and Dr.

Charles S. Boker, his brother. Among those who spoke were Robeson,

Secretary of the Navy, and Cameron, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

Congratulatory letters were received from Bryant, James T. Fields,

Stoddard, Lowell, Longfellow, Aldrich, Curtis, and Stedman. On this

occasion, Taylor said: "I know the ripeness and soundness of his mind,

the fine balance of his intellectual qualities."

On December 24, 1871, Boker wrote to Leland:

The scarcest thing with me just now is time. I might give you

a shilling at a pinch, but a half hour is an article which I

do not happen to have about me.... By the way, your rhapsody

over the East in "M.K." ["Meister Karl"] had something to do

with my acceptance of the Turkish Mission; and if you have

been lying, I shall find you out, old boy.

Boker's enthusiasm for Turkish scenery was unbounded, but his

difficulties as a diplomat were due to his ignorance of the tongue,

and his distrust of interpreters. But by the time his Government was

ready to transfer him to another post--that of Minister to Russia

(January 3, 1875)--he was heartily sick of his wrangling with the

Crescent, and glad, as he wrote Leland, "to shake the dust of this

dismal old city from my shoes, and prepare my toes for a freezing at

St. Petersburg." He echoed his distaste in later years by writing: "I

hate the East so profoundly that I should not return to it if there

were no other land in which I could live." This promotion to the

Russian court--it was a Russian, Ignatieff, who characterized him as

"of true diplomatic stuff"--was made in 1875, and he remained there

two years.

"While in Russia," we learn, "he was the only one of our

Ministers at foreign courts who was able to checkmate Spain in

her controversy with us about the _Virginius_. He baffled

the Spanish Ambassador at St. Petersburg, and influenced

Gortschakoff to send a despatch to Madrid, which caused Spain

to apologize to the United States; thus averting serious

complications."

Diplomatic life was not wholly distasteful to him; he possessed social

distinction which made him popular at both courts, so much so, indeed,

that the Czar cabled to Washington, when a change of administration

brought Boker's tenure of office to a close, asking if it were not

possible to have him retained. He had had his difficulties at the

Porte, as Lowell had had at Madrid. But his artistic nature responded

quickly to the picturesqueness of his surroundings. "Within a mile of

me," he writes Leland from Turkey,--"for I am now living at Therapia

upon the Bosphorus--there is a delicious encampment of the black tents

of a tribe of Gypsies." While he was in Russia he was continually

supplying Leland with information about gypsies.

He went to Egypt, at the invitation of the Sultan, and--as though

recalling Taylor's longing, in 1852, when he was in Cairo, to have

Boker with him--took a trip up the Nile, with Leland, whom he had

invited to accompany him. Under the palm trees at Misraim, he had his

first meeting with Emerson. The varied foreign travel had broadened

his taste, and he was quickly responsive to what he saw. Writes

Leland:

I have been with him many times in the Louvre, the great

galleries of London and St. Petersburg, and studied with him

the stupendous and strange remains of Egyptian art in the

Boulak Museum and the Nile temples, but never knew anyone,

however learned he might be in such matters, who had a more

sincere enjoyment of their greatest results. I remember that

he manifested much more interest and deeper feeling for what

he saw in Egypt than did Emerson, who was there at the same

time, and with whom I conversed daily.

On January 15, 1878, Boker withdrew from diplomatic life, returning to

the United States, where he resumed literary work, his chief interest

in the stage being revived by his association with Barrett. His home

in Philadelphia--one of the literary centres of the time,--bore traces

of his Turkish stay--carpets brought from Constantinople, Arabic

designs on the draperies, and rich Eastern colours in the tapestried

chairs. His experience was obliged to affect his writing, if not in

feeling, at least in expression. I note in his "Monody," written

at the time of the death of his friend, the poet, T. Buchanan Read

(1822-1872), such lines as "the hilly Bosphorus," and "... For

the hills of Ancient Asia through my trembling tears glimmer like

fabrics...." As early as 1855, he had written for the _U.S. Gazette

and North American_, an article on Read comparing his "New Pastoral"

with the poetry of Cowper and Thompson. But Read to-day is familiar

because of his "Sheridan's Ride." We are told that Boker had a

work-room where he delighted in designing metal scrolls.

There was a slight revival of public interest in his poems, which

necessitated the reprinting of several of his books.

"The last time when I saw him," Stoddard recalls in 1890, "was at the

funeral of Taylor, at Cedarcroft, a little more than ten years ago. We

rode to the grave, on a hillside, and we rode back to the house. And

now he has gone to the great majority!" Boker died in Philadelphia,

January 2, 1890. "He takes place with Motley on our roll of well-known

authors," George Parsons Lathrop has written, "and it is even more

remarkable that he should have cultivated poetry in Philadelphia,

where the conditions were unfavourable, than that Motley should

have taken up history in Boston, where the conditions were wholly

propitious."

It is by "Francesca da Rimini" that Boker is best remembered. In a

letter to Stoddard, March 3, 1853, he writes:

You will laugh at this, but the thing is so. "Francesca da

Rimini" is the title. Of course you know the story,--everyone

does; but you nor any one else, do not know it as I have

treated it. I have great faith in the successful issue of this

new attempt. I think all day, and write all night. This is one

of my peculiarities, by the bye: a subject seizes me soul and

body, which accounts for the rapidity of my execution. My muse

resembles a whirlwind: she catches me up, hurries me along,

and drops me all breathless at the end of her career.

And soon this was followed by the letter so often quoted, showing the

white-heat of his enthusiasm:

Now that "Francesca da Rimini" is done,--all but the

polishing,--I have time to look around and see how I have

been neglecting my friends during my state of "possession."

Of course you wish to know my opinion of the bantling; I

shall suppose you do, at all events. Well, then, I am better

satisfied with "Francesca da Rimini" than with any of my

previous plays. It is impossible for me to say what you, or

the world, will say of it; but if it do not please you both,

I do not know what I am about. The play is more dramatic than

former ones, fiercer in its display of intense passions, and,

so far as mere poetry goes, not inferior, if not superior, to

any of them. In this play I have dared more, risked more, than

I ever had courage to do before. _Ergo_, if it be not a great

triumph, it will certainly be a great failure. I doubt whether

you, in a hundred guesses, could hit upon the manner in which

I have treated the story. I shall not attempt to prejudice

you regarding the play; I would rather have you judge for

yourself, even if your decision be adverse. Am I not the devil

and all for rapid composition? My speed frightens me, and

makes me fearful of the merits of my work. Yet, on coolly

going over my work, I find little to object to, either as to

the main design or its details. I touch up, here and there,

but I do little more. The reason for my rapid writing is

that I never attempt putting pen to paper before my design is

perfectly mature. I never start with one idea, trusting to the

glow of poetical composition for the remainder. That will

do in lyrical poetry, but it would be death and damnation to

dramatic. But just think of it!--twenty-eight hundred lines in

about three weeks! To look back upon such labour is appalling!

Let me give you the whole history of my manner of composition

in a few words. If it be not interesting to you, you differ

from me, and I mistake the kind of matters that interest you.

While I am writing I eat little, I drink nothing, I meditate

my work, literally, all day. By the time night arrives I am in

a highly nervous and excited state. About nine o'clock I begin

writing and smoking, and I continue the two exercises, _pari

passu_, until about four o'clock in the morning. Then I reel

to bed, half crazy with cigar-smoke and poesy, sleep five

hours, and begin the next day as the former. Ordinarily, I

sleep from seven to eight hours; but when I am writing, but

five,--simply because I cannot sleep any longer at such times.

The consequence of this mode of life is that at the end of

a long work I sink at once like a spent horse, and have not

energy enough to perform the ordinary duties of life. I _feel_

my health giving way under it, but really I do not care. I am

ambitious to be remembered among the martyrs.

This letter is not only significant of Boker's method of workmanship;

it is, as well, measure of his charm as a letter writer. For, in

correspondence with his close friends, he was as natural with them,

as full of force and brightness, as he was in conversation. We find

Taylor thanking him at one time, when in distress over family illness

and death, for his sustaining words of comfort; we find Leland basking

in the warmth of his sheer animal spirits. To the latter, Boker once

wrote:

Dear old Charley, you are the only man living with whom I can

play the fool through a long letter and be sure that I shall

be clearly understood at the end. To say that this privilege

is cheerful is to say little, for it is the breath of life to

a man of a certain humour.

The "Francesca" note, therefore, is typical of Boker's enthusiasm.

When Stoddard read the play, we wonder whether he saw in it any

similarities to Leigh Hunt's poem on the same subject? For once he had

detected in Boker's verses the influence of Hunt. There are critics

who claim Boker had read closely Hugo's "Le Roi s'Amuse." But there is

only one real comparison to make--with Shakespeare, to the detriment

of Boker. His memory beat in Elizabethan rhythm, and beat haltingly.

The present Editor began noting on the margin of his copy parallelisms

of thought and expression in this "Francesca" and in the plays of

Shakespeare; these similarities became so many, were so apparent, that

it is thought best to omit them. The text used is not based on the

manuscripts left by Boker, nor has it been compared with the acting

copy made, in 1855, for E.L. Davenport, as has already been done

elsewhere in print. I have preferred to use the text finally prepared

by Boker for his published plays, this being the one which met with

his approval. In 1882, Lawrence Barrett, with the aid of William

Winter, prepared an acting version of "Francesca," and it was this

which Mr. Otis Skinner used, when he revived the piece in 1901.

A notice in The New York _Tribune_ for 1882 suggests that when E.L.

Davenport first essayed "Francesca da Rimini," in 1855, it was in

one-act. I can find no corroboration of this statement. The play-bill

here reproduced specifically announces a _five_ act tragedy, and it

is to be inferred that the form of the play, as given at the Broadway

Theatre, New York, September 26, 1855,[B] was the only one used by

him. Winter claims that as _Lanciotto_, Davenport was "unimaginative,

mechanical, and melodramatic," and that the whole piece "proved

tedious." This is strange, considering the heroic and romantic

characteristics in Davenport's method of acting. It may be that he

attempted Boker's play because of his interest in the development

of American drama. He had assisted Mrs. Mowatt in her career as

playwright, and, during his full life, his name was identified with

Boker's "Calaynos," George H. Miles's tragedy, "De Soto, the Hero

of the Mississippi," and Conrad's "Jack Cade." But the concensus of

opinion is that Boker's "Francesca da Rimini," as given by Davenport,

was a failure.

An examination of the cast in the Davenport program with the cast as

it was when Boker issued the play, indicates that the text must have

been considerably changed, and certain characters omitted, when,

at the suggestion of Winter, Lawrence Barrett promised to revive it

during the summer of 1882. The scholarly turn of Barrett's mind must

have made him ponder it well during a trip he made abroad at the time,

and Boker, meanwhile, must have been cutting the cloth to suit the

actor's ideas. Barron, one of Barrett's biographers, claims that "Mr.

Barrett saw great possibilities in the work, and with his practical

assistance the play was suitably changed, new situations were

effected, a more picturesque colouring was given the scenes and story,

and all that was repellant in the too close following of Dante [!]

was removed." The play was given by Barrett, at Haverly's Theatre,

Chicago, on September 14, 1882, Otis Skinner playing _Paolo_, and

Marie Wainwright appearing as _Francesca_. In Winter's estimate of the

performance, we find the dominant characteristics being "moderation"

and "balanced growth." He says of _Lanciotto_: "Alertness of the brain

sustained it, at every point, in brilliant vigour, and it rose in

power, and expanded in terrible beauty, accordingly as it was wrought

upon by the pressure of circumstances and the conflict of passions."

The memory of this must have affected the interpretation of Mr.

Skinner, when, as _Lanciotto_, in his revival of the piece at the

Chicago Grand Opera House, August 22, 1901, with Aubrey Boucicault

as _Paolo_, Marcia Van Dresser as _Francesca_, and William Norris as

_Pepe_, he met with such success. "D'Annunzio gives us the soldier and

the brute," he wrote me in 1904. "Boker's hero is an idealist--almost

a dreamer." The fact is, Boker was recalling his memories of _Othello_

and _Richard III_, if not of _Hamlet_, as Skinner suggests. In another

respect did the Barrett performance affect the later revival. The

portrayal of _Pepe_, by Norris, was based on what he called "the James

tradition," Louis James having, as Winter wrote, "a laughter that is

more terrible than malice."

Lawrence Barrett's interest in the American drama was never very

pronounced. He sought Boker's "Francesca da Rimini," as he sought W.D.

Howells' "Yorick's Love" (given at Cleveland, Ohio, October 26, 1878),

because the rôles therein suited his temperament. Between him and

Boker, there was some misunderstanding of short duration, about

royalties, but this was bridged over, and Boker's final attempts at

playwriting were made for him. The reader is referred to Vol. 32,

n.s. Vol. XXV, no. 2, June, 1917, of the _Publications of the Modern

Language Association of America_, for statements as to Boker's

"profits" from the stage.

After Otis Skinner's revival of "Francesca da Rimini," it was played

for a while by Frederick Ward and Louis James in association (1893)

and by Frank C. Bangs in 1892.

Hosts of dramas have been written on "Francesca da Rimini," and

every poet has essayed at one time or another to surpass Dante's

incomparable lines. Music scores have glorified this passionate love

story, while marble and canvas have caught the external expression of

it. In its portrayal, actual history has taken on legendary character,

and so "Francesca da Rimini" now ranks as a theme with the history

of Lancelot and Guinevere, of Tristan and Isolde. It has become the

inspiration for Maeterlinck in "Pelléas and Mélisande," who has viewed

the Italian passion through a mirage of mysticism.

Into "The Divine Comedy," the account of Francesca and Paolo is

dropped, keen, sensitive and delicate, as though the poet, a friend of

those concerned, wished to cover the hard fact of illicit love in an

ecstacy of human feeling. Dante, the supreme master of his age, the

incomparable lover of Beatrice, differentiated this tragedy from

countless incidents of like character which marked his age. Had the

story been preserved only in the form recorded by Boccaccio, it would

have been lost in its minor details of history; whereas Dante has

glorified it.

By the very fact that Dante places the two lovers in the circle of the

Lustful, it is clear that he realized the enormity of their sin.

The theory that his friendship with Guido Novella, the nephew of

Francesca, made Dante refrain from entering fully into the incident,

will not hold, when it is remembered that the cantos of the Inferno

were written in 1300, seventeen years before the poet reached Ravenna,

and accepted the hospitality of the Polenta house. Dante's infinite

compassion is, therefore, the cause for the compressed poetry of this

famous passage.

Dante's Francesca lines have been infinitely translated. Longfellow is

conscientious; Byron chafes to be freed of the original Italian, and

his lines are irksome; Rossetti sees and feels, but he is laboured.

Dante, infinitely translated, remains supreme.

The poems on this ideal love legend are of infinite variety. Tassoni

describes Paolo, the warrior, consumed with ravishing love, "shrunk

with misery;" he fails to reach the youthful passion, and is as

mediævally chivalric as is Chaucer in "The Knightes Tale" of Palamon

and Arcite. Leigh Hunt resorts to stilted narrative and description.

Byron once thought to write a drama on this subject; had he done so,

Silvio Pellico might have had a formidable rival. More or less, all

the playwrights have gone to Italian history, and the more exact they

became, the more gross the situation. F. Marion Crawford fell on this

rock of accuracy, when he wrote his Francesca play for Mme. Sarah

Bernhardt.

Silvio Pellico, who wrote the first drama on "Francesca da Rimini"

known to modern playgoers, lived his early life in an intensely

religious atmosphere, and suffered imprisonment later because of his

patriotic tendencies; it is not surprising, therefore, to find in his

play--first a national appeal that was to win it applause from all

Italy, and then, more important still, a purity of tone that struggled

most nobly against an inevitable, passionate end. _Paolo_ is the

one who, after some scruples, succumbs; _Francesca_ is infinitely

conscious that she is a wife; _Giovanni_ is suspicious. It would

seem that Pellico's play is the first that realized the theatrical

possibilities of the story; research has brought to light no play

manuscript previous to his.

In the handling of his details, Pellico's incongruities and

artificialities are many. _Paolo_ returns from knightly deeds in Asia,

to find his father dead--the _Malatesta Verucchio_ who died in 1312,

twenty-seven years after _Giovanni_ committed the murder; therefore

Pellico gives to the deformed brother the power that history does not

wholly accord. The dramatist would avoid the indelicacy he finds in

the reading incident, recounting it only in a situation during

which _Francesca_ holds aloof in a wild effort to stifle her love.

Throughout the play, there is this ruthless twisting, in a desire to

conceal wrong and unpardonable sin.

Turning to Uhland's fragmentary ideas, which even he himself was

doubtful whether he could handle, an atmosphere confronts us as

mediævally German as the "Der arme Heinrich" of Hartmann von Aue,

which was the inspirational source for Longfellow's "The Golden

Legend." Uhland shows heaviness in conception, and a conventionality,

thoroughly at variance with the tragedy's original passion. Romantic

as he is, he has robbed the story of its warm southern nature, and has

thrown his Dante aside to deal with false situation. He seems willing

to let fact and spirit go. _Paolo_ is a knight who tilts and worships

a glove. Uhland thinks, and he is not alone in his belief, that

_Francesca_ had been promised to _Paolo_ before _Giovanni_ was wedded

to her; yet if _Paolo's_ marriage with _Orabile_, in 1269, is to be

recognized as correct, historically, logical deductions from dates

would discountenance the statement. Neither have I found commentaries

to support the theory that _Paolo_ was older than _Giovanni_, as

Uhland sets forth in his play. The servant in Boccaccio here becomes

a jealous lover. It is interesting to note the variations of this

counter-element in the many play versions of the story--the element

that urges _Giovanni's_ suspicion to quick action--the dramatic force

of _Pepe_ in Boker; the disappointed motherhood and embittered love of

_Lucrezia_ in Stephen Phillips; the inborn savagery of _Malatestino_

in D'Annunzio; the innocent unconsciousness of _Concordia_ in

Crawford, which finds similarity in a scene in Maeterlinck's "Pelléas

and Mélisande" between father and little son. Further, in Uhland,

a distorted glimpse of a colourless reportorial figure of Dante,

gathering material for his poem, is as meaningless as it is

unnecessary for atmosphere.

Stephen Phillips, in his Francesca drama, ignores altogether Italian

temperament; save for the fact that he occasionally mentions the

Tyrant of Rimini, Pesaro and Florence, and that he adheres to historic

names, there is more of the English hamlet romance in the piece, than

Italian passion. And that cannot be said of Shakespeare's "Romeo and

Juliet." Perhaps one may claim for Phillips some of the simplicity of

Dante, but there is not the humanity. Undeniably, the English poet is

happy in phrase and imagery, but his genius is not so dramatic as it

is poetic; he has some of the great lyrical feeling of Tennyson, and

he has that which distinguishes the poet from the dramatist--the

power to _describe_ situation. One cannot deny the appeal of his

girl-Francesca, nor the beauty of many of his haunting lines; but no

warm impression of the situation is gained, and the characters are

peculiarly inactive at inopportune times. Mr. Phillips's talent

was predominantly undramatic; he was too much the poet to allow his

feeling to be guided by historical material. Yet, as acted, the play

was charmingly simple.

On the other hand, D'Annunzio, in his drama, saturates himself with

the history of Italy. In bulk, his play has not the slightest claim

to simplicity; the main object of the dramatist seemed to have been

to overweight the scenes with the licentious and rude Italy of the

thirteenth century; extraneous side-issues burden the progress of

the plot. Yet D'Annunzio has taken care that this does not affect his

central theme. On the stage, the scenes appear cumbersome, and the

action moves slowly; but, after analyzing the book, it may be claimed

for this "Francesca da Rimini," that it reflects the age in which the

tragedy occurred. Much artistic construction is shown in the contrast

of the Polenta and Malatesta families, and, repellent as he is at

times, D'Annunzio has moments of great poetic fervour; his fire swings

forth in many of _Francesca's_ speeches, that alternate with the

languor of her symbolic nature.

That his drama on Francesca was definitely constructed for theatrical

effect, was openly avowed by Marion Crawford. At the beginning of the

French version made for Mme. Bernhardt, he placed material that showed

his intention of dealing with fact in the manner of a novelist, and

regardless of the sweetness of Dante. To him, _Concordia_ is fourteen,

since he considers 1289 as the date of the tragedy, and, with his

details from Boccaccio's commentary, he has coarsened _Francesca_,

making her bitterness full of the spleen that could only accompany

maturity. A striking point is to be noted in the strong vein of

Catholicism that colours many of the speeches.

_Paolo's_ wife, _Orabile_, moves through the D'Annunzio play with

only slight mention--to show the husband's avoidance of her--to draw

attention to her deep-rooted aversion to _Francesca_. Mr. Crawford

also brings her on the scene, and has _Paolo_ the cause of her death,

wittingly distorting history, since _Orabile_ died many years after

the murder of her husband.

The only American drama on the subject is that by Boker; it is a

peculiarly contradictory piece of work, since, from the standpoint

of the stage, it is essentially and effectively dramatic, while as

literature it is imitative of the Elizabethan style. Boker's

poetic imagery is distinctly borrowed, and his choice of words

disappointingly colloquial. Yet, over and above the mere story, he

has succeeded in portraying a strong character in his _Pepe_. The

historical setting of the play is slight, yet sufficient to localize

the piece, and his _dramatis personæ_ are faithfully distinct in

outline, though at times devoid of consuming passion.

Phillips as a dramatist has the fault of being diffuse; Boker's style

is prosaically plain. Were it not for over-elaboration, D'Annunzio's

play might supplant all others because of its spirit. Could we take

from Phillips his simplicity, from D'Annunzio his Italian intensity,

and from Boker his proportion, and could we add these to Crawford's

realization of situation, toned away from his melodramatic tendencies,

an ideal drama on "Francesca da Rimini" might be constructed.

But the revitalizing power that was given Shakespeare, has been

bequeathed to none who have followed Dante. The one beauty of the

Francesca story is the simple element that permeates the dark

motive. The genius required to deal with it lies in this: to make one

conscious of the tragedy in a touch that recalls the beauty of spring.

It is strange that no other poet than Dante has succeeded in catching

this beauty. No poet, writing directly on the theme, has the subtle

feeling which may be compared with that of the Italian. Richard Le

Gallienne is infinitely superior to Hunt; Lowell and Gilder beyond

the lesser poets,--but all fade before the master. They treat of the

vision of Hell, with its whirling wind; of the two in close embrace;

there is the kiss that ends the reading of a self-same love; there is

the flash of a dagger that joins them eternally in death. These are

the themes for the songs. The artists have done with brush and pencil,

what the poets have tried in sonnets and verse. But it is Dante who

dominates them everyone.

To me, after tracing in part the development of this Italian tragedy,

there remains the charm of Dante's simplicity, and were one to ask,

who, among the moderns, have partially reflected his passion, I should

turn to Keats' insatiable thirst for beauty in his sonnet, "A Dream,

After reading Dante's Episode of Paolo and Francesca," and his account

of it in a letter to George and Georgiana Keats (February 14, 1819),

and to Carlyle's appreciation of tragedy and love, in "The Hero as a

Poet."

Boker's "Francesca da Rimini" will stand largely because, in structure

and in directness, it is strikingly effective for the stage.

[Footnote A: Duyckinck recalls that, in 1862, R.T. Conrad's

"Devotional Poems" were published, edited by Boker.]

[Footnote B: We find a record of Mrs. John Drew having, as

_Francesca_, supported Davenport when the play was taken to

Philadelphia.]

BROADWAY THEATRE

* * * * *

LESSEE MR. E.A. MARSHALL

STAGE MANAGER MR. W.R. BLAKE

* * * * *

SECOND WEEK OF THE

REGULAR SEASON!

* * * * *

CONTINUATION OF THE ENGAGEMENT OF THE EMINENT

=AMERICAN ACTOR=

MR. E.L. DAVENPORT

* * * * *

FIRST TIME ON ANY STAGE OF

=THE TRAGEDY=

by G.H. BOKER, Esq., author of "Calaynos," "Betrothal," &c called

=Francesca da Rimini=

Will appear in an entirely

ORIGINAL CHARACTER!!

* * * * *

This production of a popular and most talented Native Author will be

brought forward with the efficient aid of

ESTABLISHED PERFORMERS!

NEW AND APPROPRIATE SCENERY!!

COSTUMES, PROPERTIES, DECORATIONS!!!

APPOINTMENTS, MUSIC and PAGANTRY!!!!

* * * * *

WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPT 26, 1855

Will be presented the Tragedy, in five acts, by G.H. BOKER, Esq., entitled

=FRANCESCA=

=DA=

=RIMINI=

CHARACTERS REPRESENTED.

_GUELPHS._

Malatesto, (Lord of Rimini) Mr. Whiting

LANCIOTTO {his sons } Mr. E.L. DAVENPORT

Paolo { } Mr. Lanergan

Pepe, (the Jester) Mr. C. Flaher

Rosalvi { } Mr. Walters

Malvechi {Young Nobles--companions of Paolo } Mr. Harcourt

Civanti { } Mr. Cutter

Rene, (a Troubadour) Mr. Vincent

Nobles, Soldiers, Pages, Troubadours, Attendants, &c, &c.

_GHIBELINS._

Guido da Polenta, (Lord of Ravenna) Mr. Canoll

The Cardinal Veechino Mr. Hodges

Florensi {Nobles of Malatesto's Court} Mr. Willet

Beppo { } Joraike

Henrico, (Captain of the Guard) Mr. Fordyck

Antonio, (A leader of the Forces) Mr. Wright

Nobles, Dignitaries of the Church, Soldiers, Pages, Banner

Bearers, Messengers, &c.

Francesca da Rimini, (Daughter of Guido) Mme Poniat

Ritta, (her attendent) Miss J. Manners

* * * * *

TO-MORROW EVENING--A NEW TRAGEDY, in which

=MR. E.L. DAVENPORT=

Will appear

* * * * *

TREASURER Mr. P. WARREN

ASSISTANT TREASURER Mr. NAGLE

* * * * *

Doors open at three quarters past 6 o'clock--Performances will commence

an half past 7, precisely.

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI

_A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS_[A]

_By_ GEORGE H. BOKER

[Footnote A: The text that follows was compared with Lawrence

Barrett's copy of the second edition, now in the library of The

Players, New York. The title page reads: Plays and Poems: | by |

Ticknor and Fields. | MDCCCLVII. | | Boker's copyright, 1856.]

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

McVicker's Theatre, Chicago, November 6, 1882

MALATESTA, _Lord of Rimini_ Mr. B.G. Rogers.

GUIDO DA POLENTA, _Lord of Ravenna_ Mr. F.C. Mosley.

LANCIOTTO, _Malatesta's son_ Mr. Lawrence Barrett.

PAOLO, _His brother_ Mr. Otis Skinner.

PEPÉ,[1] _Malatesta's jester_ Mr. Louis James.

CARDINAL, _Friend to Guido_ Mr. Charles Rolfe.

RENÉ,[1] _A troubadour_ Mr. Percy Winter.

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, _Guido's daughter_ Miss Marie Wainwright.

RITTA, _Her maid_ Miss Rosie Batchelder.

_Lords, Ladies, Knights, Priests, Soldiers, Pages, Attendants, etc._

Grand Opera House, Chicago, August 26, 1901.

MALATESTA, _Lord of Rimini_ Mr. W.J. Constantine.

GUIDO DA POLENTA, _Lord of Ravenna_ Mr. E.A. Eberle.

LANCIOTTO, _Malatesta's son_ Mr. Otis Skinner.

PAOLO, _His brother_ Mr. Aubrey Boucicault.

PEPE, _Malatesta's jester_ Mr. William Norris.

CARDINAL, _Friend to Guido_ Mr. Frederick von Rensselar.

RENE, _A troubadour_ Mr. Fletcher Norton.

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, _Guido's daughter_ Miss Marcia Van Dresser.

RITTA, _Her maid_ Miss Gertrude Norman.

_Lords, Ladies, Knights, Priests, Soldiers, Pages, Attendants, etc._

SCENE. _Rimini, Ravenna, and the neighbourhood._

TIME. _About 1300 A.D._

[Footnote 1: In the original edition, the accents in the names of PEPÉ

and RENÉ are used only in the Dramatis Personæ, and not in the body of

the book.]

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI

ACT I.

SCENE I. _Rimini. The Garden of the Palace. PAOLO and a number of

noblemen are discovered, seated under an arbour, surrounded by RENE,

and other troubadours, attendants, &c._

PAOLO. I prithee, Rene, charm our ears again

With the same song you sang me yesterday.

Here are fresh listeners.

RENE. Really, my good lord,

My voice is out of joint. A grievous cold--

[_Coughs._

PAOLO. A very grievous, but convenient cold,

Which always racks you when you would not sing.

RENE. O, no, my lord! Besides, I hoped to hear

My ditty warbled into fairer ears,

By your own lips; to better purpose, too.

[_The NOBLEMEN all laugh._

FIRST NOBLEMAN. Rene has hit it. Music runs to waste

In ears like ours.

SECOND NOBLEMAN. Nay, nay; chaunt on, sweet Count.

PAOLO. [_Coughing._] Alack! you hear, I've caught poor Rene's cough.

FIRST NOBLEMAN. That would not be, if we wore petticoats.

[_The others laugh._

PAOLO. O, fie!

FIRST NOBLEMAN. So runs the scandal to our ears.

SECOND NOBLEMAN. Confirmed by all our other senses, Count.

FIRST NOBLEMAN. Witnessed by many a doleful sigh, poured out

By many a breaking heart in Rimini.

SECOND NOBLEMAN. Poor girls!

FIRST NOBLEMAN.[_Mimicking a lady._] Sweet Count! sweet

Count Paolo! O!

Plant early violets upon my grave!

Thus go a thousand voices to one tune.

[_The others laugh._

PAOLO. 'Ods mercy! gentlemen, you do me wrong.

FIRST NOBLEMAN. And by how many hundred, more or less?

PAOLO. Ah! rogues, you'd shift your sins upon my shoulders.

SECOND NOBLEMAN. You'd bear them stoutly.

FIRST NOBLEMAN. It were vain to give

Drops to god Neptune. You're the sea of love

That swallows all things.

SECOND NOBLEMAN. We the little fish

That meanly scull about within your depths.

PAOLO. Goon, goon! Talk yourselves fairly out.

[PEPE _laughs without._

But, hark! here comes the fool! Fit company

For this most noble company of wits!

[_Enter_ PEPE, _laughing violently._]

Why do you laugh?

PEPE. I'm laughing at the world.

It has laughed long enough at me; and so

I'll turn the tables. Ho! ho! ho! I've heard

A better joke of Uncle Malatesta's

Than any I e'er uttered. [_Laughing._

ALL. Tell it, fool.

PEPE. Why, do you know--upon my life, the best

And most original idea on earth:

A joke to put in practice, too. By Jove!

I'll bet my wit 'gainst the stupidity

Of the best gentleman among you all,

You cannot guess it.

ALL. Tell us, tell us, fool.

PEPE. Guess it, guess it, fools.

PAOLO Come, disclose, disclose!

PEPE. He has a match afoot.--

ALL. A match!

PEPE. A marriage.

ALL. Who?--who?

PEPE. A marriage in his family.

ALL. But, who?

PEPE. Ah! there's the point.

ALL. Paolo?

PEPE. No.

FIRST NOBLEMAN. The others are well wived. Shall we turn Turks?

PEPE. Why, there's the summit of his joke, good sirs.

By all the sacred symbols of my art--

By cap and bauble, by my tinkling bell--

He means to marry Lanciotto!

[_Laughs violently._

ALL. [Laughing.] Ho!--

PAOLO. Peace! peace! What tongue dare echo yon fool's laugh?

Nay, never raise your hands in wonderment:

I'll strike the dearest friend among ye all

Beneath my feet, as if he were a slave,

Who dares insult my brother with a laugh!

PEPE. By Jove! ye're sad enough. Here's mirth's quick cure!

Pretty Paolo has a heavy fist,

I warn you, sirs. Ho! ho! I trapped them all;

[_Laughing._]

Now I'll go mar old Malatesta's message. [_Aside._

[_Exit._

PAOLO. Shame on ye, sirs! I have mistaken you.

I thought I harboured better friends. Poor fops,

Who've slept in down and satin all your years,

Within the circle Lanciotto charmed

Round Rimini with his most potent sword!--

Fellows whose brows would melt beneath a casque,

Whose hands would fray to grasp a brand's rough hilt,

Who ne'er launched more than braggart threats at foes!--

Girlish companions of luxurious girls!--

Danglers round troubadours and wine-cups!--Men

Whose best parts are their clothes! bundles of silk,

Scented like summer! rag-men, nothing more!--

Creatures as generous as monkeys--brave

As hunted hares--courteous as grinning apes--

Grateful as serpents--useful as lap-dogs--

[_During this, the_ NOBLEMEN, _&c., steal off._]

Ha!

I am alone at last! So let me be,

Till Lanciotto fill the vacant room

Of these mean knaves, whose friendship is but breath. [_Exit._

SCENE II.

_The Same. A Hall in the Castle. Enter_ MALATESTA _and_ LANCIOTTO.

MALATESTA. Guido, ay, Guido of Ravenna, son--

Down on his knees, as full of abject prayers

For peace and mercy as a penitent.

LANCIOTTO. His old trick, father. While his wearied arm

Is raised in seeming prayer, it only rests.

Anon, he'll deal you such a staggering blow,

With its recovered strength, as shall convert

You, and not him, into a penitent.

MALATESTA. No, no; your last bout levelled him. He reeled

Into Ravenna, from the battle-field,

Like a stripped drunkard, and there headlong fell--

A mass of squalid misery, a thing

To draw the jeering urchins. I have this

From faithful spies. There's not a hope remains

To break the shock of his great overthrow.

I pity Guido.

LANCIOTTO. 'Sdeath! go comfort him!

I pity those who fought, and bled, and died,

Before the armies of this Ghibelin.

I pity those who halted home with wounds

Dealt by his hand. I pity widowed eyes

That he set running; maiden hearts that turn,

Sick with despair, from ranks thinned down by him;

Mothers that shriek, as the last stragglers fling

Their feverish bodies by the fountain-side,

Dumb with mere thirst, and faintly point to him,

Answering the dame's quick questions. I have seen

Unburied bones, and skulls--that seemed to ask,

From their blank eye-holes, vengeance at my hand--

Shine in the moonlight on old battle-fields;

And even these--the happy dead, my lord--

I pity more than Guido of Ravenna!

MALATESTA. What would you have?

LANCIOTTO. I'd see Ravenna burn,

Flame into heaven, and scorch the flying clouds;

I'd choke her streets with ruined palaces;

I'd hear her women scream with fear and grief,

As I have heard the maids of Rimini.

All this I'd sprinkle with old Guido's blood,

And bless the baptism.

MALATESTA. You are cruel.

LANCIOTTO. Not I;

But these things ache within my fretting brain.

The sight I first beheld was from the arms

Of my wild nurse, her husband hacked to death

By the fierce edges of these Ghibelins.

One cut across the neck--I see it now,

Ay, and have mimicked it a thousand times,

Just as I saw it, on our enemies.--

Why, that cut seemed as if it meant to bleed

On till the judgment. My distracted nurse

Stooped down, and paddled in the running gore

With her poor fingers; then a prophetess,

Pale with the inspiration of the god,

She towered aloft, and with her dripping hand

Three times she signed me with the holy cross.

Tis all as plain as noon-day. Thus she spake,--

"May this spot stand till Guido's dearest blood

Be mingled with thy own!" The soldiers say,

In the close battle, when my wrath is up,

The dead man's blood flames on my vengeful brow

Like a red planet; and when war is o'er,

It shrinks into my brain, defiling all

My better nature with its slaughterous lusts.

Howe'er it be, it shaped my earliest thought,

And it will shape my last.

MALATESTA. You moody churl!

You dismal knot of superstitious dreams!

Do you not blush to empty such a head

Before a sober man? Why, son, the world

Has not given o'er its laughing humour yet,

That you should try it with such vagaries.--Poh!

I'll get a wife to teach you common sense.

LANCIOTTO. A wife for me! [_Laughing._

MALATESTA. Ay, sir, a wife for you.

You shall be married, to insure your wits.

LANCIOTTO. 'Tis not your wont to mock me.

MALATESTA. How now, son!

I am not given to jesting. I have chosen

The fairest wife in Italy for you.

You won her bravely, as a soldier should:

And when you'd woo her, stretch your gauntlet out,

And crush her fingers in its steely grip.

If you will plead, I ween, she dare not say--

No, by your leave. Should she refuse, howe'er,

With that same iron hand you shall go knock

Upon Ravenna's gates, till all the town

Ring with your courtship. I have made her hand

The price and pledge of Guido's future peace.

LANCIOTTO. All this is done!

MALATESTA. Done, out of hand; and now

I wait a formal answer, nothing more.

Guido dare not decline. No, by the saints,

He'd send Ravenna's virgins here in droves,

To buy a ten days' truce.

LANCIOTTO. Sir, let me say,

You stretch paternal privilege too far,

To pledge my hand without my own consent.

Am I a portion of your household stuff,

That you should trade me off to Guido thus?

Who is the lady I am bartered for?

MALATESTA. Francesca, Guido's daughter.--Never frown;

It shall be so!

LANCIOTTO. By heaven, it shall not be!

My blood shall never mingle with his race.

MALATESTA. According to your nurse's prophecy,

Fate orders it.

LANCIOTTO. Ha!

MALATESTA. Now, then, I have struck

The chord that answers to your gloomy thoughts.

Bah! on your sibyl and her prophecy!

Put Guido's blood aside, and yet, I say,

Marry you shall.

LANCIOTTO. 'Tis most distasteful, sir.

MALATESTA. Lanciotto, look ye! You brave gentlemen,

So fond of knocking out poor people's brains,

In time must come to have your own knocked out:

What, then, if you bequeath us no new hands,

To carry on your business, and our house

Die out for lack of princes?

LANCIOTTO. Wed my brothers:

They'll rear you sons, I'll slay you enemies.

Paolo and Francesca! Note their names;

They chime together like sweet marriage-bells.

A proper match. 'Tis said she's beautiful;

And he is the delight of Rimini,--

The pride and conscious centre of all eyes,

The theme of poets, the ideal of art,

The earthly treasury of Heaven's best gifts!

I am a soldier; from my very birth,

Heaven cut me out for terror, not for love.

I had such fancies once, but now--

MALATESTA. Pshaw! son,

My faith is bound to Guido; and if you

Do not throw off your duty, and defy,

Through sickly scruples, my express commands,

You'll yield at once. No more: I'll have it so! [_Exit._

LANCIOTTO. Curses upon my destiny! What, I--

Ho! I have found my use at last--What, I,

I, the great twisted monster of the wars,

The brawny cripple, the herculean dwarf,

The spur of panic, and the butt of scorn--

be a bridegroom! Heaven, was I not cursed

More than enough, when thou didst fashion me

To be a type of ugliness,--a thing

By whose comparison all Rimini

Holds itself beautiful? Lo! here I stand,

A gnarléd, blighted trunk! There's not a knave

So spindle-shanked, so wry-faced, so infirm,

Who looks at me, and smiles not on himself.

And I have friends to pity me--great Heaven!

One has a favourite leg that he bewails,--

Another sees my hip with doleful plaints,--

A third is sorry o'er my huge swart arms,--

A fourth aspires to mount my very hump,

And thence harangue his weeping brotherhood!

Pah! it is nauseous! Must I further bear

The sidelong shuddering glances of a wife?

The degradation of a showy love,

That over-acts, and proves the mummer's craft

Untouched by nature? And a fair wife, too!--

Francesca, whom the minstrels sing about!

Though, by my side, what woman were not fair?

Circe looked well among her swine, no doubt;

Next me, she'd pass for Venus. Ho! ho! ho! [_Laughing._]

Would there were something merry in my laugh!

Now, in the battle, if a Ghibelin

Cry, "Wry-hip! hunchback!" I can trample him

Under my stallion's hoofs; or haggle him

Into a monstrous likeness of myself:

But to be pitied,--to endure a sting

Thrust in by kindness, with a sort of smile!--

'Sdeath! it is miserable!

[_Enter_ PEPE.

PEPE. My lord--

LANCIOTTO. My fool!

PEPE. We'll change our titles when your bride's bells ring--

Ha, cousin?

LANCIOTTO. Even this poor fool has eyes,

To see the wretched plight in which I stand.

[_Aside._]

How, gossip, how?

PEPE. I, being the court-fool,

Am lord of fools by my prerogative.

LANCIOTTO. Who told you of my marriage?

PEPE. Rimini!

A frightful liar; but true for once, I fear.

The messenger from Guido has returned,

And the whole town is wailing over him.

Some pity you, and some the bride; but I,

Being more catholic, I pity both.

LANCIOTTO. Still, pity, pity! [_Aside. Bells toll._] Ha! whose knell is that?

PEPE. Lord Malatesta sent me to the tower,

To have the bells rung for your marriage-news.

How, he said not; so I, as I thought fit,

Told the deaf sexton to ring out a knell.

[_Bells toll._]

How do you like it?

LANCIOTTO. Varlet, have you bones,

To risk their breaking? I have half a mind

To thresh you from your motley coat!

[_Seizes him._

PEPE. Pardee!

Respect my coxcomb, cousin. Hark! ha, ha!

[_Laughing._]

[_Bells ring a joyful peal._]

Some one has changed my music. Heaven defend!

How the bells jangle. Yonder graybeard, now,

Rings a peal vilely. He's more used to knells,

And sounds them grandly. Only give him time,

And, I'll be sworn, he'll ring your knell out yet.

LANCIOTTO. Pepe, you are but half a fool.

PEPE. My lord,

I can return the compliment in full.

LANCIOTTO. So, you are ready.

PEPE. Truth is always so.

LANCIOTTO. I shook you rudely; here's a florin.

[_Offers money._

PEPE. No:

My wit is merchandise, but not my honour.

LANCIOTTO. Your honour, sirrah!

PEPE. Why not? You great lords

Have something you call lordly honour; pray,

May not a fool have foolish honour, too?

Cousin, you laid your hand upon my coat--

'Twas the first sacrilege it ever knew--And

you shall pay it. Mark! I promise you.

LANCIOTTO. [_Laughing._] Ha, ha! you bluster well. Upon my life,

You have the tilt-yard jargon to a breath.

Pepe, if I should smite you on the cheek--

Thus, gossip, thus--[_Strikes him._] what would you then demand?

PEPE. Your life!

LANCIOTTO. [_Laughing._] Ha, ha! there is the camp-style, too,

A very cut-throat air! How this shrewd fool

Makes the punctilio of honour show!

Change helmets into coxcombs, swords to baubles,

And what a figure is poor chivalry!

Thanks for your lesson, Pepe.

[_Exit._

PEPE. Ere I'm done,

You'll curse as heartily, you limping beast!

Ha! so we go--Lord Lanciotto, look!

[_Walks about, mimicking him._]

Here is a leg and camel-back, forsooth,

To match your honour and nobility!

You miscreated scarecrow, dare you shake,

Or strike in jest, a natural man like me?--

You curséd lump, you chaos of a man,

To buffet one whom Heaven pronounces good!

[_Bells ring._]

There go the bells rejoicing over you:

I'll change them back to the old knell again.

You marry, faugh! Beget a race of elves;

Wed a she-crocodile, and keep within

The limits of your nature! Here we go,

Tripping along to meet our promised bride,

Like a rheumatic elephant!--ha, ha! [_Laughing._

[_Exit, mimicking_ LANCIOTTO.

SCENE III.

_The Same. A Room in the Same. Enter_ LANCIOTTO, _hastily._

LANCIOTTO. Why do these prodigies environ me?

In ancient Rome, the words a fool might drop,

From the confusion of his vagrant thoughts,

Were held as omens, prophecies; and men

Who made earth tremble with majestic deeds,

Trembled themselves at fortune's lightest threat.

I like it not. My father named this match

While I boiled over with vindictive wrath

Towards Guido and Ravenna. Straight my heart

Sank down like lead; a weakness seized on me,

A dismal gloom that I could not resist;

I lacked the power to take my stand, and say--

Bluntly, I will not! Am I in the toils?

Has fate so weakened me, to work its end?

There seems a fascination in it, too,--

A morbid craving to pursue a thing

Whose issue may be fatal. Would that I

Were in the wars again! These mental weeds

Grow on the surface of inactive peace.

I'm haunted by myself. Thought preys on thought.

My mind seems crowded in the hideous mould

That shaped my body. What a fool am I

To bear the burden of my wretched life,

To sweat and toil under the world's broad eye,

Climb into fame, and find myself--O, what?--

A most conspicuous monster! Crown my head,

Pile Cæsar's purple on me--and what then?

My hump shall shorten the imperial robe,

My leg peep out beneath the scanty hem,

My broken hip shall twist the gown awry;

And pomp, instead of dignifying me,

Shall be by me made quite ridiculous.

The faintest coward would not bear all this:

Prodigious courage must be mine, to live;

To die asks nothing but weak will, and I

Feel like a craven. Let me skulk away

Ere life o'ertask me. [_Offers to stab himself._

_Enter_ PAOLO.

PAOLO. [_Seizing his hand._] Brother! what is this?

Lanciotto, are you mad? Kind Heaven! look here--

Straight in my eyes. Now answer, do you know

How near you were to murder? Dare you bend

Your wicked hand against a heart I love?

Were it for you to mourn your wilful death,

With such a bitterness as would be ours,

The wish would ne'er have crossed you. While we're bound

Life into life, a chain of loving hearts,

Were it not base in you, the middle link,

To snap, and scatter all? Shame, brother, shame!

I thought you better metal.

LANCIOTTO. Spare your words.

I know the seasons of our human grief,

And can predict them without almanac.

A few sobs o'er the body, and a few

Over the coffin; then a sigh or two,

Whose windy passage dries the hanging tear;

Perchance, some wandering memories, some regrets;

Then a vast influx of consoling thoughts--

Based on the trials of the sadder days

Which the dead missed; and then a smiling face

Turned on to-morrow. Such is mortal grief.

It writes its histories within a span,

And never lives to read them.

PAOLO. Lanciotto,

I heard the bells of Rimini, just now,

Exulting o'er your coming marriage-day,

While you conspired to teach them gloomier sounds.

Why are you sad?

LANCIOTTO. Paolo, I am wretched;

Sad's a faint word. But of my marriage-bells--

Heard you the knell that Pepe rang?

PAOLO. 'Twas strange:

A sullen antic of his crabbed wit.

LANCIOTTO. It was portentous. All dumb things find tongues

Against this marriage. As I passed the hall,

My armour glittered on the wall, and I

Paused by the harness, as before a friend

Whose well-known features slack our hurried gait;

Francesca's name was fresh upon my mind,

So I half-uttered it. Instant, my sword

Leaped from its scabbard, as with sudden life,

Plunged down and pierced into the oaken floor,

Shivering with fear! Lo! while I gazed upon it--

Doubting the nature of the accident--

Around the point appeared a spot of blood,

Oozing upon the floor, that spread and spread--

As I stood gasping by in speechless horror--

Ring beyond ring, until the odious tide

Crawled to my feet, and lapped them, like the tongues

Of angry serpents! O, my God! I fled

At the first touch of the infernal stain!

Go--you may see--go to the hall!

PAOLO. Fie! man,

You have been ever played on in this sort

By your wild fancies. When your heart is high,

You make them playthings; but in lower moods,

They seem to sap the essence of your soul,

And drain your manhood to its poorest dregs.

LANCIOTTO. Go look, go look!

PAOLO. [_Goes to the door, and returns._] There sticks the sword, indeed,

Just as your tread detached it from its sheath;

Looking more like a blessed cross, I think,

Than a bad looking omen. As for blood--Ha, ha!

[_Laughing._]

It sets mine dancing. Pshaw! away with this!

Deck up your face with smiles. Go trim yourself

For the young bride. New velvet, gold, and gems,

Do wonders for us. Brother, come; I'll be

Your tiring-man, for once.

LANCIOTTO. Array this lump--

Paolo, hark! There are some human thoughts

Best left imprisoned in the aching heart,

Lest the freed malefactors should dispread

Infamous ruin with their liberty.

There's not a man--the fairest of ye all--

Who is not fouler than he seems. This life

Is one unending struggle to conceal

Our baseness from our fellows. Here stands one

In vestal whiteness with a lecher's lust;--

There sits a judge, holding law's scales in hands

That itch to take the bribe he dare not touch;--

Here goes a priest with heavenward eyes, whose soul

Is Satan's council-chamber;--there a doctor,

With nature's secrets wrinkled round a brow

Guilty with conscious ignorance;--and here

A soldier rivals Hector's bloody deeds--

Out-does the devil in audacity--

With craven longings fluttering in a heart

That dares do aught but fly! Thus are we all

Mere slaves and alms-men to a scornful world,

That takes us at our seeming.

PAOLO. Say 'tis true;

What do you drive at?

LANCIOTTO. At myself, full tilt.

I, like the others, am not what I seem.

Men call me gentle, courteous, brave.--They lie!

I'm harsh, rude, and a coward. Had I nerve

To cast my devils out upon the earth,

I'd show this laughing planet what a hell

Of envy, malice, cruelty, and scorn,

It has forced back to canker in the heart

Of one poor cripple!

PAOLO. Ha!

LANCIOTTO. Ay, now 'tis out!

A word I never breathed to man before.

Can you, who are a miracle of grace,

Feel what it is to be a wreck like me?

Paolo, look at me. Is there a line,

In my whole bulk of wretched contraries,

That nature in a nightmare ever used

Upon her shapes till now? Find me the man,

Or beast, or tree, or rock, or nameless thing,

So out of harmony with all things else,

And I'll go raving with bare happiness,--

Ay, and I'll marry Helena of Greece,

And swear I do her honour!

PAOLO. Lanciotto,

I, who have known you from a stripling up,

Never observed, or, if I did, ne'er weighed

Your special difference from the rest of men.

You're not Apollo--

LANCIOTTO. No!

PAOLO. Nor yet are you

A second Pluto. Could I change with you--

My graces for your nobler qualities--

Your strength, your courage, your renown--by heaven,

We'd e'en change persons, to the finest hair.

LANCIOTTO. You should be flatterer to an emperor.

PAOLO. I am but just. Let me beseech you, brother.

To look with greater favour on yourself;

Nor suffer misty phantoms of your brain

To take the place of sound realities.

Go to Ravenna, wed your bride, and lull

Your cruel delusions in domestic peace.

Ghosts fly a fireside; 'tis their wont to stalk

Through empty houses, and through empty hearts.

I know Francesca will be proud of you.

Women admire you heroes. Rusty sages,

Pale poets, and scarred warriors, have been

Their idols ever; while we fair plump fools

Are elbowed to the wall, or only used

For vacant pastime.

LANCIOTTO. To Ravenna?--no!

In Rimini they know me; at Ravenna

I'd be a new-come monster, and exposed

To curious wonder. There will be parade

Of all the usual follies of the state;

Fellows with trumpets, tinselled coats, and wands,

Would strut before me, like vain mountebanks

Before their monkeys. Then, I should be stared

Out of my modesty; and when they look,

How can I tell if 'tis the bridegroom's face

Or hump that draws their eyes? I will not go.

To please you all, I'll marry; but to please

The wonder-mongers of Ravenna--Ha!

Paolo, now I have it. You shall go,

To bring Francesca; and you'll speak of me,

Not as I ought to be, but as I am.

If she draw backward, give her rein; and say

That neither Guido-nor herself shall feel

The weight of my displeasure. You may say,

I pity her--

PAOLO. For what?

LANCIOTTO. For wedding me.

In sooth, she'll need it. Say--

PAOLO. Nay, Lanciotto,

I'll be a better orator in your behalf,

Without your promptings.

LANCIOTTO. She is fair, 'tis said;

And, dear Paolo, if she please your eye,

And move your heart to anything like love,

Wed her yourself. The peace would stand as firm

By such a match.

PAOLO. [_Laughing._] Ha! that is right: be gay!

Ply me with jokes! I'd rather see you smile

Than see the sun shine.

LANCIOTTO. I am serious.

I'll find another wife, less beautiful,