He soon could write with the pen; and from that time Lived chiefly at the convent or the castle.

So he became a rare and learned youth:

But O! poor wretch! he read, and read, and read,
Till his brain turned; and ere his twentieth year
He had unlawful thoughts of many things:
And though he prayed, he never loved to pray
With holy men, nor in a holy place.

But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet,
The late Lord Valdez ne'er was wearied with him.
And once, as by the north side of the chapel
They stood together chained in deep discourse,
The earth heaved under them with such a groan,
That the wall tottered, and had well nigh fallen
Right on their heads. My Lord was sorely frightened;
A fever seized him, and he made confession

Of all the heretical and lawless talk

Which brought this judgment; so the youth was seized,
And cast into that hole. My husband's father.
Sobbed like a child-it almost broke his heart:
And once as he was working near this dungeon,
He heard a voice distinctly; 'twas the youth's,
Who sung a doleful song about green fields,
How sweet it were on lake or wide savanna
To hunt for food, and be a naked man,
And wander up and down at liberty.
He always doted on the youth, and now
His love grew desperate; and defying death,
He made that cunning entrance I described,
And the young man escaped.

Ter.

"Tis a sweet tale:

Such as would lull a listening child to sleep,
His rosy face besoiled with unwiped tears.
And what became of him? .

Sel.
He went on shipboard
With those bold voyagers who made discovery
Of golden lands. Sesina's younger brother
Went likewise, and when he returned to Spain,
He told Sesina, that the poor mad youth,
Soon after they arrived in that new world,
In spite of his dissuasion, seized a boat,
And all alone set sail by silent moonlight
Up a great river, great as any sea,

And ne'er was heard of more: but 'tis supposed
He lived and died among the savage men.

Note to the words "You are a painter," p. 350, Scene ii., Act ii.

The following lines I have preserved in this place, not so much as explanatory of the picture of the assassination, as to gratify my own feelings, the passage being no mere fancy portrait; but a slight, yet not unfaithful, profile of the late Sir George Beaumont.

Zul. (speaking of Alvar in the third person.) Such was the noble Spaniard's own relation.

He told me, too, how in his early youth,

And his first travels, 'twas his choice or chance
To make long sojourn in sea-wedded Venice;
There won the love of that divine old man,
Courted by mightiest kings, the famous Titian!
Who, like a second and more lovely Nature,
By the sweet mystery of lines and colors
Changed the blank canvass to a magic mirror,

That made the absent present; and to shadows

Gave light, depth, substance, bloom, yea, thought and motion.

He loved the old man, and revered his art:

And though of neblest birth and ample fortune,

The young enthusiast thought it no scorn
But an inalienable ornament,

To be his pupil, and with filial zeal
By practice to appropriate the sage lessons
Which the gay, smiling old man gladly gave.
The art, he honored thus, requited him:
And in the following and calamitous years
Beguiled the hours of his captivity.

Alh. And then he framed this picture? and unaided

By arts unlawful, spell, or tallsman !

Alv. A potent spell, a mighty talisman!

The imperishable memory of the dead,

Sustained by love, and grief, and indignation !

So vivid were the forms within his brain,

His very eyes, when shut, made pictures of them!

ZAPOLY A.

A CHRISTMAS TALE. IN TWO PARTS.

Πὰρ πυρὶ χρὴ τοιαῦτα λέγειν χειμῶνος ἐν ὥρᾳ.

APUD ATHENEUM

PART I.

THE PRELUDE, ENTITLED THE “USURPER'S FORTUNE.”

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE form of the following dramatic poem is in humble imitation of the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare, except that I have called the first part a Prelude instead of a first Act, as a somewhat nearer resemblance to the plan of the ancients, of which one specimen is left us in the Eschylean Trilogy of the Agamemnon, the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though a matter of form merely, yet two plays, on different periods of the same tale, might seem less bold, than an interval of twenty years between a first and second act. This is, however, in mere obedience to custom. The effect does not, in reality, at all depend on the time of the interval; but on a very different principle. There are cases in which an interval of twenty hours between the acts would have a worse effect (i. e. render the imagination less disposed to take the position required) than twenty years in other cases. For the rest, I shall be well content if my readers will take it up, read and judge it as a Christmas tale.

CHARACTERS.

EMERICK, Usurping King of Illyria.
RAAB KIUPRILI, an Illyrian Chieftain.
CASIMIR, Son of KIUPRILI.

CHEF RAGOZZI, a Military Commander.
ZAPOLYA, Queen of Illyria.