Litchfield enquirer., 1867-09-12
HOLLISTER'S POEMS.

l Mr. Booth, in the winter of 1S59-60 From some criticisms that appeared in the New Orleans papers at the time, we should judge that the play was very we'll received by the people of that city. We have never heard of its being performed anywhere else, and have long been hoping that Mir. Booth would give 1t a trial in some of our Eastern theatres
 The history of the first Plantagenet king contains much excellent matter for dramat- ic use, and of course the best Is that about the great Archbishop, undoubtedly one of the strongest characters in English history as some passages of his life are also among the most tragical. King Henry the Second too, was very remarkable character; proud, passionate, tempestuous, unscrupu- lous, and vindictive, but mighty able both in the cabinet and the field; who seemed to know every thing almost by instinct, and never forgot anything he had learned, nor any face he had ever seen; bold and valiant alike in his sinnings and his repent ings; his energy and his activity, both men, tai and physical, of the most fiery and ire pressible descriptions; while the story of his passion for Rosamond Clifford, an the domestic affiictions of his later years, the repeated rebellion of his sons, and his ten derness toward them, invest his life with an air of romance and of plaintive melan- choly, such as might well tempt the drama tist's hand.
 The Tragedy opens with the elevation of Beckett to the See of Canterbury, which took place in 1162, and closes with his death at the altar of St. Benedict's in 117O, | thus covering period of about eight years. The principal characters are the King, the D,1, o+o AoG ,loa r Justiciary, Eleanor the Queen, Matilda the | Queen Mother, and Rosamond Clifford, 1 the Kings left-handed wife The leading events of the drama are the Kings impet- uous action in raising Beckett to the Prim- acy, against the remonstrances of the court; the great change that came over the latter immediately after his promotions; the rup- ture between him and Henry growing out of this change; the framing of the Claren- don constitutions, Backet's enforced sub scription to them, and his quick repentance for having subscribed them; his magnifi- cent doings ill the tumultuous council at Westminster, which winds up with his full minating the Church's curse against the King,-one of the most telling points in the play; the hollow reconciliation between them, and the murder of Beckett, which makes the catastrophe. To these should be added Queen Eleanor's discovery of Henry's connection with Rosamond, and ROsamond's discovery in turn that she is not the Kings lawful wife, and that her children by him are not in the succession, and sharp quarrel between Henry and Eleanor on Rosamond's account, which ends with his sudden ordering of the Queen into close confnement,-an very eff fective point in the drama The Princes are not introduced at all upon the scene. ward as among the causes which so far subdued the King as to induce his final reconciliation with the Primate. These doings, to be sure, did not occur till some time after Becket's death, the matter be- ing drawn back for dramatic effect;-a pro- ceeding perfectly legitimate indeed, though we cannot profess to be altogether satisfied with the manner in which it is done.
 Here we have plenty of capital materials for a dramatic structure, but the materials are exceedingly difficult of organization, insomuch that to organize them in proper artistic style might we'll tax the utmost powers of Fletcher or Schiller. An his torical drama is not indeed tied to the ac- tual order of the events it uses; it may transpose or consolidate them, according as will best serve tho purpose of consis- tent, impressive, and manageable action In the present case, the plan of the drama required it to end with Beckets death; with him for the hero it could hardly be otherwise. But we are apt to think 1t would have been better, had Becket's death closed the third or fourth Act, and the last Act been made to turn upon the Kings strange pilgrimage to the martyr shrine with bare and bleeding feet, and his prostrate submission to the scourgings of the priests and monks; with the rebel lion of his sons flaming the fires of re- morse, and the seemingly providential dis comfture of his foes which took place while he was in the crisis of his penances At all events, such an arrangement would, we think have made the drama better for closet use, though probably not for stage use; for 1t would not have prevented the murder of Beckett from being the most trag ic part of the action; and in these times theatrical sensation is so much more the order of the day than instruction on the stage, that 1t would hardly do to have the last act ofa play less exciting than the third or fourth.
 The play, judging from tho effect of re- peated perusal, bears study we'll, and grows better on close acquaintance. The char acterization is firm and not wanting in clearness and discrimination. Of course. Beckett and the King are the two great characters of the piece. Their main fea- lures are boldly marked, but as it seems to us, rather too much in outline, with not enough of delicate shading for we'll finish ed portraits. Doubtless the author pur- posely left good deal of the filling-in to be done by the actors, who, if they are workmen, can often supply the drapery of flesh and blood, provided the bones and sinews be given them in the right order and proportion; though even for them something more of the nicer details of ex- pression would not be in the way.-while in the reading, at least, it would decidedly enhance the verisimiltude of the work,
 Probably the two best delineations of character are De Glanvil. and Rosamond. Here we seem nearer to Nature. De Clan
 vii is fine conception. skillfully express ed. His courage, his integrity, his prac- tical wisdom, tempered as they are with an infusion of easy mirthful humor, are deliy- tered with mixture of boldness and mod esty that is quite charming. He always gives the King good advice, gives it plain ly, yet manages to do so without firing his linfammable blood. Here is a fair ins- lance of his uua1itv.