Of the almighty people, meets the death.

He plann'd for thousands. Oh! my sickening heart
Has sunk within me, when the various woes
Of my brave country crowded o'er my brain
In ghastly numbers-when assembled hordes,
Dragg'd from their hovels by despotic power,

Rush'd o'er her frontiers, plunder'd her fair hamlets,
And sack'd her populous towns, and drench'd with blood
The reeking fields of Flanders.-When within,
Upon her vitals prey'd the rankling tooth
Of treason; and oppression, giant form,
Trampling on freedom, left the alternative
Of slavery, or of death. Even from that day,
When, on the guilty Capet, I pronounced
The doom of injured France, has faction reared
Her hated head amongst us. Roland preach'd
Of mercy-the uxorious dotard Roland,
The woman-govern'd Roland durst aspire
To govern France; and Petion talk'd of virtue,
And Vergniaud's eloquence, like the honeyed tongue
Of some soft Syren wooed us to destruction.
We triumphed over these. On the same scaffold
Where the last Louis pour'd his guilty blood,

165

170

175

180

185

Fell Brissot's head, the womb of darksome treasons,
And Orleans, villain kinsman of the Capet,
And Hébert's atheist crew, whose maddening hand
Hurl'd down the altars of the living God,
With all the infidel's intolerance.

190

The last worst traitor triumphed-triumph'd long,
Secur'd by matchless villainy-by turns
Defending and deserting each accomplice
As interest prompted. In the goodly soil
Of Freedom, the foul tree of treason struck

Its deep-fix'd roots, and dropt the dews of death
On all who slumber'd in its specious shade.
He wove the web of treachery. He caught
The listening crowd by his wild eloquence,
His cool ferocity that persuaded murder,
Even whilst it spake of mercy!-never, never
Shall this regenerated country wear

The despot yoke. Though myriads round assail,
And with worse fury urge this new crusade

Than savages have known; though the leagued despots
Depopulate all Europe, so to pour

The accumulated mass upon our coasts,

195

200

205

Sublime amid the storm shall France arise,
And like the rock amid surrounding waves
Repel the rushing ocean.-She shall wield
The thunder-balt of vengeance-she shall blast
The despot's pride, and liberate the world!

210

FINIS

Osorio, 1797.

VELEZ

ALBERT

OSORIO

FRANCESCO

MAURICE

FERDINAND

NAOMI

MARIA

ALHADRA, wife of FER

DINAND,

- MARQUIS VALDEZ, Father to the two brothers, and Doña Teresa's Guardian.

DON ALVAR, the eldest son.

DON ORDONIO, the youngest son.

MONVIEDRO, a Dominican and Inquisitor.

ZULIMEZ, the faithful attendant on Alvar.

ISIDORE, a Moresco Chieftain, ostensibly a Christian.
NAOMI.

DOÑA TERESA, an Orphan Heiress.

= ALHADRA, Wife of Isidore.

FAMILIARS OF THE INQUISITION.

MOORS, SERVANTS, &c.

1 First published in 1873 by Mr. John Pearson (under the editorship of R. H. Shepherd): included in P. and D. W. 1877-80, and in P. W. 1893. Four MSS. are (or were) extant, (1) the transcript of the play as sent to Sheridan in 1797 (MS. I); (2) a contemporary transcript sent by Coleridge to a friend (MS. II); (3) a third transcript (the handwriting of a 'legal character') sold at Christie's, March 8, 1895 (MS. III); (4) a copy of Act I in Coleridge's handwriting, which formerly belonged to Thomas Poole, and is now in the British Museum (MS. P.). The text of the present issue follows MS. I. The variants are derived from MSS. I, II as noted by J. Dykes Campbell in P. W. 1893, from a MS. collation (by J. D. Campbell) of MS. III, now published for the first time, and from a fresh collation of MS. P.

Osorio was begun at Stowey in March, 1797. Two and a half Acts were written before June, four and a half Acts before September 13, 1797. A transcript of the play (MS. I) was sent to Drury Lane in October, and rejected, on the score of the 'obscurity of the last three acts', on or about December 1, 1797. See Art.' Coleridge, Osorio and Remorse, by J. D. Campbell, Athenaeum, April 8, 1890.

Osorio A Tragedy-Title] Osorio, a Dramatic Poem MS. II: Osorio, The Sketch of a Tragedy MS. III.

Time. The reign of Philip II., just at the close of the civil wars against the Moors, and during the heat of the persecution which raged against them, shortly after the edict which forbad the wearing of Moresco apparel under pain of death.

In the reign of Philip II shortly after the civil war against the Moors, and during the heat of the Persecution which raged against them. Maria an orphan of fortune had been espoused to Albert the eldest son of Lord Velez, but he having been supposed dead, is now addressed by Osorio the brother of Albert.

In the character of Osorio I wished to represent a man, who, from his childhood had mistaken constitutional abstinence from vices, for strength of character-thro' his pride duped into guilt, and then endeavouring to shield himself from the reproaches of his own mind by misanthropy.

Don Garcia (supposed dead) and Valdez father of Don Ordoño, and Guardian of Teresa di Monviedro. Don Garcia eldest son of the Marquis di Valdez, supposed dead, having been six years absent, and for the last three without any tidings of him.

Teresa Senñora [sic] di Monviedro, an orphan lady, bequeathed by both Parents on their death-bed to the wardship of the Marquis, and betrothed to Don Garcia-Gulinaez a Moorish Chieftain and ostensibly a new Christian-Alhadra his wife.

MS. III.

ACT THE FIRST1

SCENE The sea shore on the coast of Granada.

VELEZ, MARIA.

Maria. I hold Osorio dear: he is your son, And Albert's brother.

Velez.

Love him for himself,

Nor make the living wretched for the dead.

Maria. I mourn that you should plead in vain, Lord Velez ! But Heaven hath heard my vow, and I remain Faithful to Albert, be he dead or living.

Velez. Heaven knows with what delight I saw your loves; And could my heart's blood give him back to thee I would die smiling. But these are idle thoughts! Thy dying father comes upon my soul

1 For Act I, Scene 1 (11. 1-118) of Remorse, vide post, pp. 820-3.

5

IO

Before I ACT THE FIRST (The Portrait and the Picture). Corr. in MS. III. Scene-The sea shore, &c.] Scene.-The Sea shore on the coast of Granada, in the Seigniory of the Marquis Valdez. Valdez Teresa corr. in MS. III. [For Velez, Maria, Osorio, Albert, Francesco, read Valdez, Teresa, Ordonio, Alvar, Isidore throughout, Remorse.] Before 1, SCENE II. Enter Teresa and Valdez. Osorio] Ordoño corr. in MS. II. 2 Albert's] Garcia's corr. in

Remorse.

MS. III.

With that same look, with which he gave thee to me:
I held thee in mine arms, a powerless babe,
While thy poor mother with a mute entreaty
Fix'd her faint eyes on mine: ah, not for this,
That I should let thee feed thy soul with gloom,
And with slow anguish wear away thy life,
The victim of a useless constancy.

I must not see thee wretched.

• Maria.

There are woes

Ill-barter'd for the garishness of joy!

If it be wretched with an untired eye

To watch those skiey tints, and this green ocean;
Or in the sultry hour beneath some rock,
My hair dishevell'd by the pleasant sea-breeze,
To shape sweet visions, and live o'er again
All past hours of delight; if it be wretched

To watch some bark, and fancy Albert there;
To go through each minutest circumstance
Of the bless'd meeting, and to frame adventures
Most terrible and strange, and hear him tell them:
(As once I knew a crazy Moorish maid,
Who dress'd her in her buried lover's cloaths,
And o'er the smooth spring in the mountain cleft
Hung with her lute, and play'd the selfsame tune
He used to play, and listen'd to the shadow
Herself had made); if this be wretchedness,
And if indeed it be a wretched thing
To trick out mine own death-bed, and imagine
That I had died-died, just ere his return;
Then see him listening to my constancy;
And hover round, as he at midnight ever
Sits on my grave and gazes at the moon;
Or haply in some more fantastic mood
To be in Paradise, and with choice flowers
Build up a bower where he and I might dwell,
And there to wait his coming! O my sire!
My Albert's sire! if this be wretchedness
That eats away the life, what were it, think you,
If in a most assur'd reality

He should return, and see a brother's infant
Smile at him from my arms?

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

[Clasping her forehead.

12 mine] my Remorse, 1813. 29 him] him Remorse. 40 Or hover round, as he at midnight oft Remorse. 50 my] my Remorse. Stage

direction om. Remorse.