New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-22
James Harebell-ssMan O, Airlie.' y


ton, where the great poet is mad witness
of the unveling of his own statue. Never
has such thing taken place in real life,
though there is no doubt that it is possible.
70 reach this cOnsummatiOn, the author OF
the story OF JaD,es HarebeA, upon which the
drama is founded, leads captive the locker
on to the sweet sentiments which abound
in every word and action. A strict con-
structiOn Of the drama according to the
code laid down as far to the rear rs Sopho-
cles, would show the play to be SO original
that nothing like its arrangement has been
seen before Or since. 1t should be formed
like necklace-every link to be united in
chain, and the whole series to end in the
locket, whose secret spring only opens and
discovers the gem within at the right mo-
ment. To have gaps in the STORY is always
an interruption, and breaks continuity.
One space that imagination is called upon
to bridge may be tolerated, two may be use
full, but none is the best
| The poet has little money, and meets at
the house of the old lord a man of the
| world, to whom, in the freedom and gener-
| Osity of his character, he gives two hundred
| pounds of his money, that his book of
| poems may be published, while the lords
| daughter and the old gentleman himself
| look on the scene. OF the foolish and boy
| ish feeling in a youthful poet this scene is
perfectly characteristic, and though it is
not Scotch in its nature, still the play makes
no pretence of representing the economyof
| this people. The poet goes home to dream
and to tell of his great prospects to his wife.
from whom no secret is kept, and the scene
of his cottage, his home lite, the infant in
the cradle that he sings to sleep, the old
servant who chides him for his folly, the
BARN, the pretty wife who doats on her
dreaming husband, are drawn with a mas
ter hand. No far-fetched SMILES and ex-
travagant metaphor no bewildering
tumble of iIes in a misshapen mass: none
of the namby-pamby element and the
usual catches whch'a bound in the soubrette
business are here. Because it is simple it
is truthful. The looker-on is carried away
in the drift of the story, without realizing
the influence which enlists all the svmpa-
thies of his nature and opens the fountains
of his heart. The very birds OF the air sing
HarebeHs songs. The villagers returning
from harvest keep step to the measure of
his own fashioned music, and little fancy
is wanted to bring to the recollection of the
behOlder just such a man. "a prophet in his
own country" The man of the world who
is engaged to be married to the lords daugh-
~
poor poet that the three hundred pounds he
had lent him-eyery shilling he had in the
world-to aid a poor friend, can not be
paid, and leaves the unsuspecting Jamie
aruined man, praying in his innermost heart
that the cup may pass from him, and that
he may not break il to his wife, and the
man of the world stands at the easement
not unnOved, at the agony of the wife.
who, on her return. finds out the terrible |
truth from her husband that by his own
free-handed spirit he has brought the wolf
TO the door His wife and babe die, leaving
the poet griefstricken suppliant to the
to the lord of the manor, whose post of sec
retary he is selected to fill, craving work
that his SORROWS may be kempt; but not all
his affections have vet taught him the prac-
teal side of life. and when his former
servant appears, bearing an Offering OF
flowers he will not take the none offered
by subscription of his native townspeople
and even gives that away as fund for
people poor as himself. The memory OF his
lost wife is forever present, living in his
thoughts, and his forlorn cry as he over
looks the subscription list and the tribute
to his goodness Of heart that breathes in
every line, the moan for his dead wife.
that she may be alive to see this day. rings
like knell through the house, and knocks
al every heart.
The man of the world has never sent the
manuscript to the publisher. Both the
two hundred pounds for that purpose
and three hundred pounds loaned by !
HarrbeH on lis miserable subterfuge have
gone to pay a gambling debt Discovering |
this treachery. his agony turns him mad. |
The creditor to whom his false friend has |
paid the money, and who supplants him in
his affections for the Lords daughter, |
writing out check for the whole amount, |
which does not bring back the poor poets |
wife and babe.' however, and to him is
worthless. Here in this act as the truth |
bursts at once upon the trusting man, and |
IS depicted by the good acting of the va
rieties company, one sees a realization of |
the kind of stuff that poets are made of. |
Despair broods over his fancies. nis |
wander not to be collected, and |
as he goes daft, it is with $ nse of relief |
the lookers-on reflect that the poor, tortured |
soul is to suffer no longer. for madness has |
no recollection, and is as free from regret |
as from remorse.
When RarebeH has become famous, when |
his boy has grown to manhood, when the
old lord gets gouty, he erects marble
statue in honor Of the poet whom he tells
the villagers he drought out" in this he
ing remarkably forgetful of what he told
the poet himself, 'that he would not sue
ceed as poet" His daughter, now mar
red, her husband, the old servant Of the
poet, everybody, except the trickster who
has robbed the poet of his money, are all
present. AS the statue is unveiled the live |
poet is discovered in an old and ragged
who had come in at the last
and the marble man" looks down upon the
DYING man who dies in the cadence of one