” A curious preference for the artificial should be mentioned as characteristic of ALESSANDRO DE MEDICI’S poetry. For his century was anything but artless; the great commonplaces that form the main stock of human thought were no longer in their first flush, and he addressed a people no longer childish. . . . Unquestionably his […]

As Played at Manneville, September 18, 1750 “L’on a choisi justement le temps que je parlois à mon traiste de fils. Sortons! Je veux aller querir la justice, et faire donner la question à toute ma maison; à servantes, à valets, à fils, à fille, et à moi aussi. “ DRAMATIS PERSONÆ PRINCE DE GATINAIS, […]

As Played at Breschau, May 3, 1755 “Venez, belle, venez,Qu’on ne s�auroit tenir, et qui vous mutinez.Void vostre galand! à moi pour recompenceVous pouvez faire une humble et douce reverence!Adieu, l’evenement trompe un peu mes souhaits;Mais tous les amoureux ne sont pas satisfaits.” DRAMATIS PERSONAE GRAND DUKE OF NOUMARIA, formerly LOUIS DE SOYECOURT, tormented beyond […]

As Played at Tunbridge Wells, April 3, 1750 “I am thinking if some little, filching, inquisitive poet should get my story, and represent it to the stage, what those ladies who are never precise but at a play would say of me now,–that I were a confident, coming piece, I warrant, and they would damn […]

As Played at Halvergate House, April 9, 1750 “You cannot love, nor pleasure take, nor give,But life begin when ’tis too late to live.On a tired courser you pursue delight,Let slip your morning, and set out at night.If you have lived, take thankfully the past;Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.If you have not […]

As Played at Bellegarde, in the April of 1750 “This passion is in honest minds the strongest incentive that can move the soul of man to laudable accomplishments. Is a man just? Let him fall in love and grow generous. It immediately makes the good which is in him shine forth in new excellencies, and […]

As Played at Paris, in the May of 1750 “Cette amoureuse ardeur qui dans les coeurs s’excite N’est point, comme l’on s�ait, un effet du merite; Le caprice y prend part, et, quand quelqu’un nous plaist, Souvent nous avons peine à dire pourquoy c’est. Mais on vois que l’amour se gouverne autrement. “ DRAMATIS PERSONÆ […]

As Played at Stornoway Crag, March 25, 1750 “You’re a woman–one to whom Heaven gave beauty, when it grafted roses on a briar. You are the reflection of Heaven in a pond, and he that leaps at you is sunk. You were all white, a sheet of lovely spotless paper, when you first were born; […]

As Played at Tunbridge Wells, April 1, 1750 “He to love an altar builtOf twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,And all the trophies of his former loves;With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre,And breathes three amorous sighs to raise the fire;Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent […]

As Played at Tunbridge Wells, April 1, 1750 “But this is the most cruel thing, to marry one does not know how, nor why, nor wherefore.–Gad, I never liked anybody less in my life. Poor woman!–Gad, I’m sorry for her, too; for I have no reason to hate her neither; but I wish we could […]

As Played at Tunbridge Wells, April 2, 1750 “Ye gods, why are not hearts first paired above,But still some interfere in others’ love,Ere each for each by certain marks are known?You mould them up in haste, and drop them down,And while we seek what carelessly you sort,You sit in state, and make our pains your […]

I OF GREATNESS INTIMATELY VIEWED “Oh, but they are beyond praise,” said Cynthia Allonby, enraptured, “and certainly you should have presented them to the Queen. ” “Her majesty already possesses a cup of that ware,” replied Lord Pevensey. “It was one of her New Year’s gifts, from Robert Cecil. Hers is, I believe, not quite […]