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    Rachel . Horrible ! horrible I My love hath made me coward—Oh !—' tis fearful : 'Tis cruel , now to die—in youth to die—Ere a grey hair is on my head , to die I . Is there no hope ? # * * # *

    Give me the means I — And , oh ! no blood—let it not be in blood I " - —pp . 77—79 . The love of Xavier for his daughter is a beautiful part of his character . Thoughts of her have alone the power to shake his resolution ; early in the drama they move him to fear : —

    " My sweet child ? They would not tread to earth that blushing flower ? They would not ilaw that precious diamond ? Not drag death ' s cloud athwart that living star ?—'Twould be a way to kill me : but , too cruel : "—p . 32 . His speech over her body , after she has taken the poison , is exquisitely pathetic : —

    "There Xavier ' s life Gasped into dull oblivion ! this rough frame Holda not his being ; but in thee , thou fair - And exquisite image of the living God ! He breath'd , and mov'd , and joy'd . Cold ! cold ! my child £ No fire is on the altar of thy beauty ; Thy lips are idly ope , for balmy breath

    Of sighs , nor sweet word-music , ever more Shall pass from their deep crimson—poison'd—pale ; Thine eyes , that shone so gorgeous with rich light , Where the soul dwelt , a clear and visible thing , Are—my tears rise—I see not what they are . r The holy pressure of a father ' s kiss Seal up th y lips I—their venom poisons not , O ' ermatch d with sweetness . "—p . 80 .

    We have said nothing of the inferior characters of the drama , feelrng , as we do > that with their prominence and their baseness tfiey have injured its effect as a whole . Reuben , however , should not be omitted ; he is admirably drawn and minutely finished . The ' style throughout is elegant and hi ghly dramatic . It is an ungrateful task to review a tragedy as adapt e d for the theatre . Even the insertion of the parts cancelled W the

    licenser , as in the present instance , do not fill it up . ; M £ e feel impressed with the conviction , that , of the living whole which existed in the mind of the author , what we possess is in many respects but the skeleton . That high thoughts , poetical imagery , and the full and free expression of emotion , have been curtailed or omitted , to make room for the bustle and excitement , and to ensure all the proprieties of the modern Sfage as by the managers established .

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    Dramatic Recollections , 157

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1837, page 157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1829/page/31/