News from Parnassus, No. XXXUL 



1 S24.] 



markahly simple: Alasco, tlie hero of 

 tlie piece, a yonng Polish iioblcmRi), liiis 

 been brought up by ColoiU'l Walsini;- 

 ham, an Eiiglisiimaii in tlie Prussian 

 service, and tiic early friend of Alasco's 

 father, who, failing iu battle by the side 

 of Walsingham, had bequeathed his son 

 to the care of the latter. Alasco has 

 been intended by the colonel for the 

 hushand of his daughter Aniaiilha; but 

 Hohendahl, the governor of tlie jiro- 

 ■vince, having succeeded in persuading 

 Walsingham that his proposed son-in- 

 law is connected with the Polish insur- 

 gents, tlie Englishman is induced, by liis 

 rigid ideas of loyalty, to renounce his 

 previous intention, and to favour the 

 suit of Hohendahl. On tiiis resolution 

 being announced to Alasco, he informs 

 Walsingham that Amantha is already 

 bis wife, having been privately married 

 to him in the presence of Friar Jerome, 

 her maternal uncle, at the death-bed 

 request of her mother. Enraged at the 

 unexpected success of his rival, Ho- 

 hendahl contrives, by a forged letter, 

 to get Amantha into his power, and 

 procures an ambush to be laid for her 

 t'ather ; but the latter is rescued from 

 assassination by the sudden appearance 

 of Alasco and his friend Conrad, one of 

 the principal leaders of the insurgents, 

 who has just succeeded in engaging 

 Alasco to cs|)ouse their cause. On 

 learning from Walsingham that Aman- 

 tha is in the power of the baron, Alasco 

 immediately avails himself of the assist- 

 ance of his partisans to make an attack 

 upon the castle of Hohendahl, just iu 

 lime to save his wife from the lawless 

 violence of the governor. In tlie begin- 

 ning, the assault is successful, and 

 Hohendahl is killed in combat with 

 Alasco ; but Walsingham, arriving with 

 a reinforcement, turns the fate of the 

 day; the insurgents are routed, and 

 Alasco surrenders himself to his fatl'.er- 

 in-law, who, in pursuance of what he 

 deems an imperative duty, gives him up 

 to the military authorities. They sen- 

 tence him to death, regardless of the in- 

 tercession of Walsingham, who deter- 

 mines on an appeal to the king as a last 

 resource. Maliuski, an apostate leader 

 of the insurgents, fearing the success of 

 this appeal, resolves on murdering 

 Alasco in his sleep, but is baffled in his 

 attempt and killed by Conrad, who is 

 about to secure the escape of his friend, 

 when the voice of Amantha is heard 

 calling on her husband. Alasco refuses 

 to;quit her, even to preserve his life; in 

 Monthly Mag. No. 395. 



SI9 



the midst of their intervievp, be is sum- 

 moned to execution, and is separated 

 from his unhappy wife. On hearing a 

 shout without, which slie considers as 

 announcing the completion of her hus- 

 band's doom, she stahs herself. She 

 has scarcely perpetrated the fatal deed, 

 when Walsingham rushes in, accompa- 

 nied by Alasco and others, to inform his 

 daughter of his ajiplication to the king 

 for pardon having succeeded. The 

 intelligence arrives too late; she dies in 

 the arms of Alasco, who, overwhelmed 

 with grief and despair, kills himself upon 

 the body of Amantha. 



It will be evident, from this brief 

 outline of the plot, that many excellent 

 opportunities are afforded for producing 

 a powerful effect, and of these the author 

 has availed himself with great skill and 

 judgment. A fastidious critic might, 

 perhaps, object, that the tone of the 

 principal personages partakes too much 

 of romance; that Walsingham's loyalty 

 is unreasonable, and Alasco's neglect of 

 self-preservation extravagant. But 

 such a mode of judging would serve to 

 Condemn some of the noblest produc- 

 tions of Shaks])eare himself. The legi- 

 timate sources of tragedy are to be 

 sought in the sublime of human charac- 

 ter. Mr. Shoe's characters are poetical, 

 but not unnatural, creations; the quali- 

 ties attributed to them are of rare occur- 

 rence, it is true, but they are such as 

 history sufficiently demonstrates to be 

 neither impossible nor improbable. 

 They are essentially tragic, and are 

 never for a moment confounded with 

 the revolting monstrosities of melo- 

 drama, so happily described by the 

 witty author of the Metromanic. 



" Des caracleres romanesqiies, 

 Des incidens miraeuleux, 

 Des vertus toiijours gigantesqiies, 

 Un fond d'intrigne fabiilenx." 



Alasco likewise possesses another 

 great advantage over most of its con- 

 temporaries; it is, what indeed every 

 dramatic piece ought to be, a drama of 

 action. It abounds with forcible inci- 

 dents and striking situations, and thus 

 the interest is kept up to the termina- 

 tion. We are never detained by those 

 long and irrelevant attempts at display, 

 which, however beautiful they may 

 often be, considered merely as poetry, 

 have little or no reference to the progress 

 of the action, and frequently render a 

 modern play so decidedly undramatic, 

 that the reader would sutler little loss, 

 1 T if. 



