New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-02-04
NEW PUBLICATIONS,
MICHAEII FIELD.


THE FATHERS TRAGEDY. WILLIAM RUFUS. 10y
Atty OR LAVEi By MICHAEL FIELD. l6no, PIP
Henry Holt Co.
The author of "Callirrhoe" Fair Rosamund"
and some other poems, who cOnceals herself under
the men name of aMichael Field" has excited ex-
pectations among English critical authorities
which the new volume just republishcd here VIII
probablv not satisfy In Some respects II SHOWS
nrocress The style is better sustained than that
of the earlier books although there are stii SONIC
strange apses into the prOsaic, and there is ean
in anluence of dctiOn and perhaps IN the easy
management OF the verse. The Work I'D general HIS
an air of distinction. and the passages winch are
likely 10 be singled out for thelt imaginative
oualty OF their force of expression are more ne
ouent than before: they strike us on almost every
mage Whatever else may be said OF Mlchael
F;eld,s noctrv il il not common. But we do miss
something OF the individual character which gave
her nreylous ventures so much freshness ana
promIse She seems to be passing through not uIi-
common experience of writer's who lose III impulse
what they gain IN Skill
The snir,t of the three tragedies before as IS
!he spirit of the minor Elizabethan paYwrghts.
We can imagine them written by one VINO mao
Jared abundantly on Shakcspeates hlstoilcal
PLAYS and INDUCED in a surfet OF Marlowe anu
Webster. From Shakespeare the author mas GER
tainlv caught trick of decamatory phrase. ana
hos even initiated the rhymcd endings to blank
vorse scenes The influence of Marlowe, however,
mas beep far more important, since 1t eNtenus 10
The very conception of the drama ana the lunu"-
mental shane of it. Michael Field has mere chosen
themes of excessive horror fertile III olooushcu'
,bvscal suffering brutality, remorse anger ana
iespair: the action proceeds by scenes OF criminal
violence rather than by the development vi noini"i
human motives; the characters are eAoi"s'''S
those which can ne represented in very broad out
a oIo 4 hounS al yea i'm ldIg
noet's appeal is rarely to sympathles, put
ro,her 10 our terror or less frequently, 10 or
nifty. and finally the mode of treatment is not 50
much dramatic as rhetorical To Illustrate thlS 's'
point. take the following lines from w iiiail
Rufus" which are fair sample OF Mlchael 'eiu
manner of setting forth character The scene Is tho
New Forest:
[Enter The Hing teith 5OistToHs toltoTg'ng. ,ord
Rufus Here | breathe free here am oNei-4oiu
Ofman and void; b. re the subservient SUI
privilege, ur sCarve TO baIrenEeSS,
AS nv caprice resolves. PUNISH mere.
Ha. hal Here am absolute. l roar
lion through the woods, and fugitive,
Sinks the unnamed and otfenceeSs hero;
Too appalled, for flight My will is law,
Far Forest Law-that is my perfect VIII.
1t doOms the poacker TO the sNlnglng O99ngn'
The hound TO crlnglng service, anu 'he uo0i
To the large liberty of wide contne.
Pm generous here TO my brute prisoners,
Yielding them charters with liberal hand'-
License TO lord it on this nJ0o vert
AZ The KINDS Deasure-the cODditIon.-Ah!
The Church herself must hold her revenues
AS ebbs ana flows my tTeasury's yellow TIDE.
am the source of all munlhcence.
This is almost in the sOnOrous vein OF MarlOwes
.Tamburlane' In The Fathers Tragedy which
ia founded on the story of King Robert ILL., OF Scot
land, the same crude method of proclanlng charac-
ter m heroic language, instead Of disclosing 1t In
action is followed persistenty and with but I'M
perfect success. Rothsay, the Kings son. an I'M
petuous, high-struug and dsorderly youth COM
pound of Hotspur and of Falstatfs Prince Hal.
almost commends himself to our liking, with his
fiery. mouth-iilllng speech which, although it
sometimes comes dangerously near fuStian is never
long without tue ring of eOquence; but he IS poor
creature in the crisis of his fate and one cannot be-
lieve that the author wished us to care for him. 1t
is great defect of the play indeed that contains
no one whom we can like respect, and its claim
upon our pity remains therefore unhonoed. OF plot
both dramas are totally destitute.
IL is evident that the authOr has chosen n path IN
which there is no progress. The construction OF her
poems and the style OF expression both belong to
literary forms which exhausted long ago and
can assuredly never be revived. For the modern
ATTEMPTS to COPY from the drama of tho Greeks
there is something to he said: the old classical
model represented an art in It's highest perfection
But the gIandose tragedies Of the contemporaries
of Shakespeare belong to IN art IN its childhood.
and their value is in the flashes of original genius
which blind us every now and then TO their mis-
sIlapen structure and false rhetoric.