BY

MISS MACAULEY.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOr, and sold BY MISS MACAULEY;

ALSO BY SHERWOOD, JONES, AND CO. PATERNOSTER-ROW;
ANDREWS, BOND-STREET; LLOYD AND SON, HARLEY-
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1823.

[Price Seven Shillings.]

17477.36.64

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

FROM

THE BEQUEST OF EVERT JANSEN WENDELL

1918

B. M'Millan, Printer, Bew-Street, Covent-Garden.

HISTRIONIC DELINEATION

OF

THE CHARACTER

OF

Mary Stuart;

COMMENCING FROM

HER RESIDENCE AT THE COURT OF HENRY II. IN FRANCE,

AND CONTINUED TILL

HER FLIGHT TO ENGLAND, AFTER THE BATTLE OF

LANGSIDE.

Like one that stands upon a promontory,

And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,
Wishing his foot were equal to his eye;

And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,
Saying-he'll lade it dry, or have his way.

SHAKSPEARE.

THE enterprising mind is ever on the alert either to produce that which has never before been attempted, or to improve upon that which is already done. This may be considered as an

impulse of human vanity; but if this vanity of the ambitious few is productive of advantage to the unassuming many, it is a merit rather than a defect, and is more entitled to praise than

censure.

Literature and the Drama have risen to such an altitude of perfection, that any attempt at improvement, invention, or novelty, carries with it, at the first view, an air of presumption, which must expose to animadversion, perhaps to condemnation, the towering spirit which has dared to meditate on an apparent impossibility.

Yet the love of novelty is a quality inherent in our nature: we follow with avidity the fascinating attraction, whether imaginary or real; and those who are permitted to lay any claim to the possession of genius, will ever find pleasure, and willingly encounter pain and danger, in the exercise of originality;-and one path of Dramatic Literature and Scenic Power remains as yet unattempted, perhaps even unthought of hitherto.

V

A Histrionic Delineation of Historic Character.

To draw a poetic delineation of the shining characters of history, and give also a personal portraiture of that delineation of the mind, is, I believe, an effort as yet unmade in the annals of British Literature and the Drama. It is an association which seems only to have existed with the Grecian Fathers of the Stage, and to have perished with them; and we live to lament the declension of that extent of human faculty, which rather excites our wonder than provokes our imitation, and which is probably a dormant power, more from the want of exertion than the lack of genius. To reunite these long-divided associates of the intelligent mind, were, indeed, "a consummation devoutly to be wished."

The value and utility of such an undertaking is easily rendered obvious. If History is a national study, and the Drama a national amusement, the conjunction of two powerful efforts