University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

The events upon which the following tragedy is founded, are said to have occurred in Castile, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, in the reign of Alphonso VIII.: but, for metrical purposes, I have transferred the scene from Castile to Arragon; retaining, however, the name of the king, that of the cotemporary monarch of Arragon (Peter, I believe) not being sufficiently tragical—at least, for poetic ears: several matters and allusions will, thus, be found historically out of place; but I do not think I have any where exceeded the allowed license of the drama.

In the construction of the tragedy (with the exception of the first and second acts, and the last

scene of the fifth) I have availed myself of the Spanish play on the same subject, the Raquel of Vicente Garcia de la Huerta, prefixed to which is printed the following ‘argumento’:

“Pues el Rey ovó pasados todos estos trabajos en el comienzo quando reynó, e fue casado, fuese para Toledo con su mujer Don̄a Leonor, e estando y, pagóse mucho de una Judia que avie nombre Fermosa, e olvidó la mujer, e encerróse con ella gran tiempo, en guisa que non se podie partir de ella por ninguna manera, nin se pagaba tanto de cosa ninguna, e estubo encerrado con ella poco menos de siete an̄os, que non se membraba de si, nin de su Reyno, nin de otra cosa ninguna. Estonce ovieron su acuerdo los omes buenos del Reyno, como pusiesen algun recando en aquel fecho tan malo e tan desaguisado: e acordaron, que la matasen: e que asi cobrarien a su Sen̄or, que tienen por perdido: e con este acuerdo fueronse para allá, e entraron al Rey diciendo que querian fabrar con el, e mientras los unos fabraron con el Rey, entraron otros donde estaba aquella Judia en muy nobles estrados, e degollaronla.”—Chrón. Gen.

Of the Spanish play, the ‘personas’ are as follow: “Alfonso Octavo, Rey de Castilla. Raquel, Judia. Ruben, Confidente de Raquel. Hernan Garcia de Castro, Rico Hombre. Alvar Fan̄ez, Rico Hombre. Garceran Manrique de Lara, Rico Hombre. Castellanos. Guardia del Rey. Acompan̄amento de Judios y Judias.”

From this, it will be seen that in the entire portraiture of Xavier, and, consequently, in the main design of the present tragedy, I stand not in the least in the shadow of my foreign predecessor, however I may be so placed in regard to many of its details. By the characters of Xavier and Rachel, the reader may be not unfrequently reminded of the origin of the “days of Purim,” which inspired for France one of the most forcible of the elegant dramatic poems of the classical Racine.

Thus much as to the subject of the tragedy. Its failure on the stage only renders its publication the more imperative; as the few whose good opinion

I covet, will, perhaps, be led by its perusal to think not unfavourably of the drama, in spite of the united outcry of the “critics;” some of whom, indeed, do me the justice first to misquote my lines, and then charitably load me with the burthen of their own stupidity:

“Faciunt næ, intelligendo ut nihil intelligant.” Moreover, it has been asserted by certain of these benevolent men, that every passage at all worthy of notice in the tragedy, is derived from the pages of our glorious old dramatists: this is a direct falsehood, and they know it to be so; but who shall give the lie to the oracle, though a wooden god pronounce it?

Amid the general cry of condemnation (the invariable portion of ill-success, merited or unmerited) which has of late been rung so cheerily and continually in my ears, and which might well dismay any but a mind predetermined to persevere and to succeed, some few journalists have ventured to speak of the tragedy with a little liberality and fairness; but one gentleman alone has stood aloof from the

mob of critics, and gilded the storm about me with the radiance of encouraging criticism: I am a debtor to his justice for the remainder of my life.

To confirm the opinion of two or three sensible people, that there is at least one superfluous office in the state, those ‘words and sentences’ which were struck by the Deputy Play-Licenser from the manuscript copy of the tragedy submitted to him for his approval, I have caused to be printed in capitals: the liberal reader will smile in perusing them; and deign, perhaps, to anticipate with some pleasure the speedy abolition of a childish tribunal. Of course, the revered name of the Deity, wherever it occurs, was erased by the great religious and moral pen of the licenser, and altogether abjured in stage-utterance: still, I have not hesitated to retain it in many places; having yet to learn, that it is not the part of the dramatist to make his characters speak as men speak; having yet to feel, that piety, or impiety, dwells rather in words, than thoughts—on the lips, than in the mind.