The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-02-21
KENOsHA, WISCONSIN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY p, 1873

tolo1ne, the Gypsy lover, now returns,
and surprising Lara just about to climb
to Preciosa's chamber q second time,
kills him. Then the Gipsies ara ban
ished, and Prociosa reneWs her wan
dering life with them, and seems in
danger Of having to yield to Bartolome
at last. But Victorian meanwhile has
learned that Lara had deceived him,
and that Preciosa is still true to him.
So at length, just as matters are get
ting desperate between Preciosa and
Barta1ome, Victorian finds the Gypsy
camp, and the two lovers renew their
VOWS and happiness. Just then too,
the tidings come that Preciosa is not a
Gypsy at all, but the daughter of 8
wealthy Spanish gentleman, from
whom she has been stolen by the Clip
sizes in infancy. Then Bartolome at
tempting to shoot Preciosa, is himself
killed. So with dangers all removed
and the two lovers together, the play
ends happily.
There is nothing striking in the plot
nor i'm Longfellow's treatment of it,
The poem is not very dramatic. The
characters are indeed pretty well de-
1 fined. Victorian, though too much in
love to study, still shows by his schol-
arly conversation that he has been q
student. Just now he undertakes in
tellectual pursuits 1.-THE intellect" he
tells Preciosa, lis finite; but the a6ec-
> tioqes are infinite and cannot be ex-
haasted," His romantic mood is also
brought into dramatic relief by CON
trast with his prosaic fellow-student,
Hypolito. When Victorian in fancy
pictures Preciosa asleep:
" And from her parted lips her gentle breath
Comes like the fragrance from the lips OF lowers
Her tender limbs are STILL and on her breast
= The cross she prayed to ere she fell asleep
Rises and falls Withthe soft tide of dreams,
4 Like q lAS lit DGIBC 'cttlC l1l0OICQ
The unromantic Hypolito answers
(Which means in prose
She's sleeping with her mouth little open"
When Victorian in praise of love
says:
/ Love is ever busy with the shuttle
: is ever weaving into life's dull warp,
Bright gorgeous flowers, and scenes Arcadian,
! Hanging eur gloomy prison house about
With tapestries, that make its walls dilate
Innever ending visions OF delight :"
The practical Hypolito answers:
Thinking to walk in those Arcadian pastures,
Thou hast run thynobls head against the wall"
The faithless Lara is also presented
in dramatic contrast with the noble
Don Carlos. Lara has little faith in
anything, least of sill in woman, and
thinks there's not virtuous woman
; in Madrid" He thinks of Preciosa
that
Though she is virgin outwardly,
, Within she is aEsnner like those panels
OF doors and altar pieces, the old works
Painted in converts, with the Virgin Mary
On the outside, and on the inside Venus"
But Don Carlos nobly answers,
THAT woman in her deepest degradation
Holds something sacred, something Undecided,
Some pledge and keepsake of her higher nature,
And like the diamond in the dark retains
Some quenchless CLEAN Of the celestial light -
Preciosa too is well drawn, a simple
girl, Fl cannot reason, I can only feel
with her tender love for Victorian and
her fierce scorn of Lara II have no
! words to tell you how I scorn YOU"
Cruzado is good Gypsy. 81 hate
the crowded town" says he
81 cannot breathe shut up within it's
gates.
Air. want air and sunshine and blue sky,
| The feeling Of the breeze upon my face
| The feeling Of the turf beneath my feet
And no walls but the far-Of mountain tops,
linen am free and strong, once more myself"
The Alcalde and the Padre are also
very characteristic Spaniards. The
Padre says there are hundred proofs
that the Gipsies are not Christians.
,'They never marry, never go to mass,
! Never baptiZe their children, nor keep Lent
Nor see the inside of a church, nor-nor-"
"Good reasons" answers the Alcalde.
good substantial reasons all!
No matter for the other ninety-ffve.
They should be burnt, I see it plain enough,
They should be burnt"
Chispa too,who talks in proverbs like
SanchO Panza, acts the old part of
jester in the play with some success, and
gives the serenaders some good advice.
though it savors a little of Hamlet's
address to the players-He tells them
to be mot loud but pathetic; for it is a
serenade to damsel in bed and not to
the man in the moon - Therefore
each shall not play upon his instru
ment as If it were the only one IL, -+ho