538 
cession to the strength of his party, Rienzi 
loses not a moment in calling it into 
action. Scrolls are placed on all the con- 
spicuous parts of the city, calling upon the 
people to rise against their oppressors—ap- 
pointing a place and hour for meeting— 
and openly signed by Riensit’s name. ‘They 
are scorned and treated with contempt by 
those whose power and its bad use they 
threaten. The meeting takes place—the 
changes are carried by acclamation—and 
Rienzi is placed in the seat of supreme and 
uncontrolled power, as “ Tribune of the 
People.”’ The patriot. is no sooner seated 
in the chair of state than he shows symptoms 
of being about to become the politician. 
He instantly brings about a marriage be- 
tween the heir of the Colonna and his own 
daughter ; having previously, however, urged 
the age of the nobles to its height, by exe- 
cuting summary vengeance on one of their 
most distinguished members, merely for 
commitiing a crime that.impunity had ren- 
dered at least venial, if not a virtue, in the 
eyes of his fellows and followers. To the 
marriage banquet of his daughter with 
Angelo, Rienzi now invites al! the chief 
nobles of the city, though he had previously 
gained knowledge of a plot which they had 
prepared for his immediate assassination, 
The nobles attend—their plot is exposed and 
frustrated, and themselves condemned to 
death; but they are all pardoned by the 
new dictator, on condition that they take 
certain degrading oaths, and go through 
other ceremonies, all of which are of a na- 
ture at once to further the interests of the 
people, and fix the power of their (now) 
ambitious leader. These oaths and cere- 
monies (so degrading are they to the honour 
of the nobles, at the head of whom is the 
elder Colonna) induce the new-made bride- 
groom not only to secede from his connec- 
tion with Hiengi, but to taunt and outrage 
him to his face, and finally to head a new 
conspiracy of the nobles. This is met by 
new exertions on the part of Rienzi, and a 
trial of strength in the field, or rather in the 
streets of Rome, ensues, in which the party 
of the nobles is partially defeated, and seve- 
ral of themselves (including Angelo) taken 
prisoners, and condemned to instant execu- 
tion. By the intercession of Claudia, An- 
gelo’s pardon is pronounced by Rienzi, but 
not till it is too late; for as the scene be- 
‘tween the daughter and father is concluding, 
the frantic mother of Angelo enters to an- 
nounce the death of her son, and pronounce 
a prophetic curse upon its author. It now 
appears that the sinister changes which have 
taken place in the character and conduct of 
Rienzi since his eleyation to supreme power, 
added to the unceasing and now united 
efforts of the nobles against him, have greatly 
alienated the people from his party; and, 
accordingly, his self-confidence is shaken, 
his rule totters, and his mingled weakness, 
arrogance, and intemperance, ere hastening 
his downfal. At length, while he is medi- 
Monthly Theatrical Report. 
[ Nov. 
tating on his altered condition, his enemies, 
both patrician and plebeian, have collected 
in overwhelming force at the gates of the 
capitol (where he is shut up); and just as 
they are about to storm it, he orders the 
gates to be flung open, and issues. forth 
alone and unarmed; and having harangued 
them on their fickleness, he resigns his 
power back into the hands that gave it. 
This, however is not enough: they demand 
his instant death ; and just as he is baring 
his breast to their swords, Claudia enters, 
in time to receive the first mortal wound 
that was aimed at her father’s heart, but 
not to cover it from a thousand others that 
the instant after assail it. 
It will be seen, from the above sketch, 
that Miss Mitford’s plot is a very simple 
one, consisting merely of the sudden rise, 
the brief reign, and the precipitate fall, of 
an ambitious man. Nevertheless, it includes 
several situations of great dramatic capa- 
bility, and scope for the display of much 
passion and pathos, and the developement 
of many subtle windings and varyings of 
the human character. With regard to the 
first of these, we will say that Miss Mit- 
ford has used her materials with great judg- 
ment, and with corresponding dramatic 
effect. The scene in which Rienzi’s appa- 
rently insane boldness, in affixing his name 
to the scroll that is stuck about the city, is 
related to the lords whose power it contemns 
(Rienzi himself loitering in, as if by acci- 
dent, and taking part against himself), is 
conceived in a true dramatic spirit, and exe- 
cuted with great felicity. Those also be- 
tween the same parties after I2ienzi’s eleva- 
tion, when the lords beg for Ursini’s pardon ; 
and again at the bridal banquet, the fine 
scene between Rienzi and Angelo alone, 
when the latter contemns and falls off from 
his alliance with his plebeian father-in-law, 
and Rienzi runs through the history of his 
own past life; the scene between the same 
two characters, when Angelo is condemned 
to death by Rienzi; and finally, the con- 
cluding catastrophe: all these points of dra- 
matic interest are worked out with great 
skill, and with a real feeling of the nature 
and capability of the materials in hand. We 
are not able to give equal praise to the man- 
ner in which the character of Rienzi is 
brought out, and. its subtle changes and 
windings linked together. We admit the 
truth of all its parts; but we are not made 
to see the connecting links which bind those 
parts one to another. We must add, too, 
that in softening down those points of Ri- 
enzi’s real character which would have stood 
in the way of the spectator’s sympathy, — 
y ympathy, 
Miss. Mitford has in no slight degree im- 
paired the truth as well as the force and 
consistency of her representation. 
over, by choosing to crowd the events and 
feelings of many years into the limits of a 
single play, she has (almost necessarily, 
perhaps) induced a hurry and consequent 
confusion in the spectator’s mind, which is 
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