University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

The following Drama was written with a view to its possible production on the stage, in an abridged form; but having heard that a play on the same subject is now in preparation at one of the principal theatres in London, I have decided to print it.

My conception of Rienzi's character, and treatment of his story, are founded directly upon the old Italian chronicles, and other historical documents relating to his life and times; but I have not scrupled to make use of Lord Lytton's brilliant novel wherever it suited my purpose. I am especially indebted to it for the dramatic manner in which Pandolfo di Guido, the influential citizen beheaded by Rienzi, and Cecco del Vecchio, his assassin, are made types of two different classes of the Roman people, at first favourable to him, but afterwards disaffected. Many

of the most striking situations in my Drama, as in the novel, are simply representations of recorded facts.

I have endeavoured to avoid those romantic flights of fancy by which Lord Lytton has given an air of improbability to a work founded upon careful historical study, and in many ways a vivid picture of the world in which Rienzi moved and worked.