136 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



In striking contrast to the brokenness of this cry stands Acte's flowing 

 description of Poppaea, which will always be worth quoting once more 

 on the theme of soul-less beauty: 



A woman without pity, beautiful. 

 She makes the earth we tread on false, the heaven 

 A merest mist, a vapour. Yet her face 

 Is as the face of a child uplifted, pure; 

 But plead with lightning rather than those eyes, 

 Or earthquake rather than that gentle bosom 

 Rising and falling near thy heart. Her voice 

 Comes running on the ear as a rivulet ; 

 Yet if you hearken, you shall hear behind 

 The breaking of a sea whose waves are souls 

 That break upon a human-crying beach. 

 Ever she smileth, yet hath never smiled, 

 And in her lovely laughter is no joy. 

 . Yet hath none fairer strayed into the world 



Or wandered in more witchery through the air 

 Since she who drew the dreaming keels of Greece 

 After her over the Ionian foam. 



In the foregoing, and more clearly in several other passages, one 

 catches now and then an echo from some of the great teachers at 

 whose feet our poet has sat in patient learning; but there is abso- 

 lutely no sign of the mere copyist. Indeed, in this as in his dramatic 

 structure and atmosphere, he represents exactly the laudable atti- 

 tude described by Swinburne as "that faithful and fruitful disciple- 

 ship of love with which the highest among workmen have naturally 

 been always the first to study and the most earnest to follow the 

 footsteps of their greatest predecessors." It would be well if this 

 form of discipleship were more widely in vogue with aspiring drama- 

 tists, and the serious critic will be Uttle inclined to speak harshly. of 

 this feature of our author's style. 



VI 



As to scenic presentment we need detain our reader only a moment. 

 In the composition of the plays, as has been pointed out, Mr. Phillips 

 wisely kept the actor and the spoken word constantly in mind. In 



