University of Virginia Library


2

Preface

The grandeur of this play is historical. It is founded on the principle achievements of that most extraordinary man, Charles Stuart who aspired to the throne of Scotland. His adventures were enthusiastic and striking. He was patriotic and valorous. His nature was as noble as his ambition was great. His ambition was unlawful, and he saw the vanity of his undertaking by reaping the harvest of a perilous defeat. The incidents of his career are made use of only as the basis of the superstructure of the Drama. The character of Madalena was suggested to the author by a beautiful story which he read in one of the papers three or four years ago. The object of the drama, as will be seen by the plot, is to develop the vanity of unlawful ambition, and, in contradistinction to it, the pleasure that may be derived from following the dictates of the Deity, as recognized in the nature of things. The Author has attempted to make this vanity, of which he was the victim, the more conspicuous in the domestic felicity which he is supposed to have enjoyed after his defeat. How far he has succeeded is left for his friends to judge. May 1st, 1838