New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-01-22
PATRICK HAMILTON A Tragedy OF the Reformation
an scotland 1923 BY T. y. JOHNSTON. l6fno. PIP.
1873 william Backwood 4 sons, Edinburgh sDd
London, MDCCCLA&XIl.

PATRICK HAMILTON Tragedy Of the Re form i,
l33 william BlackwOOd 4 sons, Edinburgh aDd
London, MDCCCLA&All
II ANYTHING were wan ing to convince us that we
are in the midst of poetic period which is no, pro-
ductive of poetry, it is just such performance as
Mr.. Johnston's tragedy. Not TO admit that ii pos
sesSes an uncommon degree OF ability wonld be as
absurd as TO deny that that ability s lavishly AMI
was. efully expended. 1t has the defects of the
present school Q; English verse, in that its manner
is better than its matter for. with the exception of
n few solecisns, ii is written throughout in good
Eughsh-harmonIous. reasonable, scholarly Eng
lsh IL has however, two faults, which are not TO
be condOned il is in no sense, or IN only the shall
lowest sense, dramatic and II Is stecpei through
and through with modernneSS. tyrO IN dramatic
reading mi ght perhaps, create for himself, In the
reading q int idea of the personalities 0iits seven
character. but with this clew in his hand, SUP
posing that possible. the tyro could not say
10 which of these characters any speech that
might be read at random belonged, and in whose
month il would be emnently fitting. Nor could an
expert tell. They all talk alike-n the same mel
liAuous verse with the same tropes and figures and
10 the same expected end. Mr. Johnston cannot
conceive Enthusiastically, as the Old dramltiSts
di the smallest of them more charac leT4stcally
than Mr. Tennvson aud Mr. Swinbume-and as one
of the young masters, an Z" lnheTitOr OF unfu!tlle
renown " Thomas Lowell Beddoes, sought TO conceive
his shadowy distractions. An extract from one of
his early note books written yearor two after the
death of Keats of whom il reminds us. ought to be
stalled by Mr. Johnston before he begins another
tragedy. Here is what drfted through the mind Of
this child o. Marowe " The words OF each speaker
10 be if possible always Characteristic e. g.. those
of Leoaigied Deep dark and treacherouS, With an
occasional stimulation of candOr, varied by bursts of
yenomous sarcasm and unholyridicule, with rough
ness of phrase. ZiJ0 : solemn antique, mysteri-
GUS and authoritative, with an antiquity Of
phrase MelchOir: rude. and daring. Lucd:
the prose OF a foolish old man. Aureli0: poet
with cadences of genter feeling. Erminia of more
qentle innocence soft and poetical, ascending to
pure sublImity Of feeling at the end THE Hing !:
maiestically high in adversely confding in his for
time Maria bold and ambitious, worldly sO
Eight or nine variations TO be observed" For the
rest of the extract. which Is equally weghty, we
ust refer the reader of this TO the POsthumOus and
Collected Poems of this wonderful young man,
who quitting tho worship of Apollo for that of
Esculapius spent the last twenty years Of AIS life
IN Germany, and passed out in the Unknown IN un-
ueodious silence.
few examples of the mOdernness OF feeling and
nhraseoogy in Mr. JohnstOn's tragedy will suffice.
We shall not comment upon them further than by
saving that they are supposed to be appropriate to
The discourse of sundry men and women Of Scot