Nor the flooding lustre shun To whose bloom, from many a spray, 6 Chanting my witch-song merrily; While each woodland, brake, and dell,— Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong bell,' Echoes the harp of Ariel. See! I wave my roseate wings! Now my spirit soaring sings, 'Merrily, merrily, shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough." J. KEATS. DRAMATIS PERSONE. OTHO THE GREAT, Emperor of Germany. CONRAD, Duke of Franconia. ALBERT, a Knight, favoured by Otho. GONFRID, ETHELBERT, an Abbot. Page. Nobles, Knights, Attendants, and Soldiers. ERMINIA, Niece of Otho. AURANTHE, Conrad's Sister. Ladies and Attendants. SCENE. The Castle of Friedburg, its vicinity, and the Hungarian Camp. TIME. One Day. S OTHO THE GREAT.' ACT I. SCENE I.-An Apartment in the Castle. Enter CONRAD. O, I am safe emerged from these broils! For every crime I have a laurel-wreath, This danger'd neck is saved, "At Shanklin he undertook a difficult task; I engaged to furnish him with the title, characters, and dramatic conduct of a tragedy, and he was to enwrap it in poetry. The progress of this work was curious, for while I sat opposite to him, he caught my description of each scene entire, with the characters to be brought forward, the events, and everything connected with it. Thus he went on, scene after scene, never knowing nor inquiring into the scene which was to follow, until VOL. III. 15 four acts were completed. It was then he required to know at once all the events that were to occupy the fifth act; I explained them to him, but, after a patient hearing and some thought, he insisted that many incidents in it were too humorous, or, as he termed them, too melodramatic. He wrote the fifth act in accordance with his own views, and so contented was I with his poetry that at the time, and for a long time after, I thought he was in the right.' CHARLES BROWN MS. |