ADVERTISEMENT
The form of the following dramatic poem is in humble imitation
of the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare, except that I have called
the first part a Prelude instead of a first Act, as a somewhat
nearer resemblance to the plan of the ancients, of which one
specimen is left us in the Æschylean Trilogy of the Agamemnon,
the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though a matter of form
merely, yet two plays, on different periods of the same tale,
might seem less bold, than an interval of twenty years between
a first and second act. This is, however, in mere obedience to
custom. The effect does not, in reality, at all depend on the
Time of the interval; but on a very different principle. There
are cases in which an interval of twenty hours between the acts
would have a worse effect (i.e. render the imagination less disposed
to take the position required) than twenty years in other
cases. For the rest, I shall be well content if my readers will
take it up, read and judge it, as a Christmas tale.
