The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-12-13


/ comDonwealths which have adopted the
secret-vcting system.
CONCERNING BOOKS.
| BY e. CAvAzZA.
Wyndham Towers By Thomas Bailey
Aldrich. The high expectation raised by
the announcement of new long poem from
the pen of Mr.. Aldrich is more than fulfilled.
In Wyndham Towers there is no diminution
| Of the characteristic felicity and finish of his
work. while the very powerful story is well
| proportoned and well sustained. 1t has
been right Instinct that has led Mr.. Aldiich
back to the springtide fountain of Elizabeth
an song to reinforce and refresh his style
The argument of the story is of the rivalry
OF two brothers, lovers Of gentle Devon
maiden in the days of Queen Elizabeth.
This rivalry led TO a renewal of the crime of
Cain. and retribution followed, swift and
terrible, upon the sin. A grim tale indeed,
but Mr.. Aldrch has been able, by his truly
| artistic treatment, to remove or soften its
excess of horror, and veil it in an atmosphere
| Of the history and poetry of its period. 1t is
| easily recognizable himself is the first to
| declare it-that Mr.. Aldrichs present work
| has been greatly influenced by his studies of
the English dramatists of the 18th century;
| but the effect is of assimilation, not of crude
Imitation. His new riches have been law
fully gained aud nobly employed. The idiom
In which Wyndham Towers is written is
finely balanced in its blending of the early
N m nj 4
tanned without lapse throughout the poem.
The landscape, which sets the scene of the
action, Is entirely English in its rustic
charm. Over the quiet village hangs Wynd-
ham Towers, like an eagles nest, upon the
crag, with its four square towers, ruin SO
| old as to be unrecorded.
In Caesars days pagan temple. next
A monastery; then a frudal hold;
Later manor, and at last ruin.
In this sinister home dwelt the two BROTH
ers. Darrell, the gentle cavalier and happy
lover OF Griselda, and Richard, cruel and
suspicious, feared and distrusted by the
girl. The beginning of the tragedy is finely
indicated:
As leaves turn into flame at the frost's touch
so Richards heart on GOODNESS fed its fire,
And burned with surfeit of Indifference.
The scene where Richard hears the song of
the happy lover-a song that repeats the
fresh and tuneful music of early English
lyrics-affords fine transition from the at
mosphere of silvery duskiness which enwraps
the lovers. to the fierce burst of passion in
which Richards excited spirit paints rapidly
vivid portrait of the age in which he alone
feels himself doomed to non-success, jealous
of the brother who had
Caught the ages malady,
The something magical that was in air,
And made men poets, heroes, demigods-
Made Shakespeare Raleigh, Grenvie, oxenham
ana SET them stars In the forefront Of Time.
shipped with Francis Drake
OF Tavistock. TO sail the Spanish seas
Ana teach the heather manners, with Gods
And heard the trumpets biaring for the Queen.
When twas the wind that whistled in the
OF cadiz All! and softer dreams he had
" an unnamed ard sweetest mystery,
And fr m e marble OF his Soul'S desire
Hewed out the white ideal of his love
A new Pygmalion!
This extract may suffice to show the fine
and flexible strength, the polished beauty of
the style of Wyndham Towers. But to ap-
preciate the excellence of the dramatic con-
struction. the progress of the tragic move
ment, the poem must be read as a whole
Richard drags himself sullenly home, and
broods over his grievances. exaggerating
them, seeing himself thwarted at all points,
Thinking how his day
Declined and how his narrow life had run
Obscurely Through an age of great events
Sucn as men never saw, nor will again
Until the globe be riven by GODS fire
One NAV not master DEATH
Butlf should be ones lackey. He had been
Ilne's dupe and bondsman ever since his birth
Had walked this pl met with his eye oblique;
Grasped what was worthless, what were most
dear missed
Into this mood the sound of the footsteps
of the fortunate brother falls like spark
that awakes an explosion. Darrell ap-
proaches
Singing in high hearted way,
HIS true loves kiss memory on his LIP,
Straight on he came to unrenowped END
whose dream had been in good chainmail to die
On some well-ioughten field at SET of SUM-
with glorious peal OF trumpets on his ear
fr0clalming victory. SO had he dreamed
And there. within an arch at the stair-top,
Anq screened behind a painted haDging-coth
OF coiled gold serpents ready to make Spring,
Ignobe Death stood. his convulsve hand
Graspng rapier PARKWAY down the blaze
To deal the blow with deadly-jeweled hilt-
BLACK Death, turned white with horror Of himself.
This daring Identification of the murderer
with Death himself, is in the true spirit of |
Marlowe and his contemporaries.
Richard hides the beautiful slain body in a |
secret alcove, but the wind or "some in |
corporeal hand" shuts the doors with a |
sharp clang and the murderer is caught in q |
deadly trap. A half-hour of frenzy and re-
morse and fear-all equally unavailing-and |
the tragedy is finished. With superb art,
Mr.. Aidrich changes from this scene to |
large landscape of the dawn:
A chill wind freshened in the pallid East
AND Drought sea-smell of newly blossomed foam |
Where sky and sea lay sharply edge TO ed9e
The purple melted, changed TO violet,
And that to every delicats sea-sheli tlnge,
Save that the air had In 1t sense of wings. '
Till suddenly theiheavens were all afiame,
Aud II was morning.
Men and maids 20 about their daily work
with gossip and conjecture as to the where
abouts of their lords. The countryside is
astir about the matter, but the brothers are
not found. The repetend is valuable in
significance and in lyric tone, by which Mr..
Aldrich indicates the passing of time.
1he red leaf withered and the green leaf grew.
Finally, in course of restoration of the old
Manor, an honest wood-carver happens to find
the secret spring of the door, the bodies of
murdered and murderer appear for one
moment, CHASTITY vision, then dissolve into
dust at the touch Of the air. The expiation
is at an end.
1t will have been seen how thoroughly
artistic are the conception and the execu-
ton of Mr.. Aldrich's tragedy In narrative
verse 1t has both power and beauty; and
VIII add greatly to the fare of its author.
Boston: Houghton and Miff1in; Portland:
Lorlng, Short 81 Harmon. Price Sl.25.)