LXVII. "A sailor's wife I knew a widow's cares, Nor could we live together those poor boys and I; LXVIII. "For evil tongues made oath how on that day Me and all worldly harms and wrongs however keen." LXIX. Alas! the thing she told with labouring breath His anguish, with his heart he ceased to strive; LXX. To tell the change that Voice within her wrought LXXI. She slept in peace, his pulses throbbed and stopped, His ears were never silent; sleep forsook And oft he groaned aloud, "O God, that I were dead!" LXXII. The Soldier's Widow lingered in the cot, And, when he rose, he thanked her pious care Through which his Wife, to that kind shelter brought, A burthen, now with fortitude sustained, He bore within a breast where dreadful quiet reigned. LXXIII. Confirmed of purpose, fearlessly prepared "O welcome sentence which will end though late," LXXIV. His fate was pitied. Him in iron case When into storm the evening sky is wrought, 1793-4. THE BORDERERS. A Tragedy. [Or this dramatic work I have little to say in addition to the short note which will be found at the end of the volume. It was composed at Racedown in Dorsetshire during the latter part of the year 1795, and in the course of the following year. Had it been the work of a later period of life, it would have been different in some respects from what it is now. The plot would have been something more complex, and a greater variety of characters introduced to relieve the mind from the pressure of incidents so mournful. The manners also would have been more attended to. My care was almost exclusively given to the passions and the characters, and the position in which the persons in the Drama stood relatively to each other, that the reader (for I had then no thought of the Stage) might be moved, and to a degree instructed, by lights penetrating somewhat into the depths of our nature. In this endeavour, I cannot think, upon a very late review, that I have failed. As to the scene and period of action, little more was required for my purpose than the absence of established law and government; so that the agents might be at liberty to act on their own impulses. Nevertheless I do remember that, having a wish to colour the manners in some degree from local history more than my knowledge enabled me to do, I read Redpath's "History of the Borders,' but found there nothing to my purpose. I once made an observation to Sir Walter Scott, in which he concurred, that it was difficult to conceive how so dull a book could be written on such a subject. Much about the same time, but a little after, Coleridge was employed in writing his tragedy of "Remorse," and it happened that soon after, through one of the Mr. Pooles, Mr. Knight the actor heard that we had been engaged in writing Plays, and upon his suggestion mine was curtailed, and I believe Coleridge's also was offered to Mr. Harris, manager of Covent Garden. For myself, I had no hope nor even a wish (though a successful play would, in the then state of my finances, have been a most welcome piece of good fortune) that he should accept my performance; so that I incurred no disappointment when the piece was judiciously returned as not calculated for the Stage. In this judgment I entirely concurred, and had it been otherwise, it was so natural for me to shrink from public notice, that any hope I might have had of success would not have reconciled me altogether to such an exhibition. Mr. C.'s Play was, as is well known, brought forward several years after through the kindness of Mr. Sheridan. In conclusion I may observe that while I was composing this Play I wrote a short essay illustrative of that constitution and those tendencies of human nature which make the apparently motiveless actions of bad men intelligible to careful observers. This was partly done with reference to the character of Oswald, and his persevering endeavour to lead the man he disliked into so heinous a crime; but still more to preserve in my distinct remembrance what I had observed of transition in character, and the reflections I had been led to make during the time I was a witness of the changes through which the French Revolution passed.] SCENE, Borders of England and Scotland. TIME, the Reign of Henry III. READERS already acquainted with my Poems will recognise, in the following composition, some eight or ten lines, which I have not scrupled to retain in the places where they originally stood. It is proper however to add, that they would not have been used elsewhere, if I had foreseen the time when I might be induced to publish this Tragedy. February 28, 1842. АСТ І. SCENE, road in a Wood. WALLACE and LACY. Lacy. The troop will be impatient; let us hie Back to our post, and strip the Scottish Foray |