Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-06-13
el Dorado Drama
Prof, L. Francis Dutf Of DeMing
Gives Pleasing Review Of Five
Act Play Founded ON C"rOn.
ado's Expedition.
(By ". Francis Duff)

Of Cibola, our modern Zuni. The 9th.
er characters Of importance In the
play are Herman d Alarcon, admiral
Of the little fleet which sailed up the
Pacific coast with the intention Of
cooperating with the land forces:
Luis de Ubeda. friar; Sir Philip
Perth. an Englishman, loosed after
a thirty years Imprisonment In the
dungeons of Spain and Mexico. to &C.
company the expedition: and Beatrix
d Estrada. in love with Coronado,
who desires that he may marry her
before the expedition starts. and which
she wishes to accompany.
Her father objecting, Coronado urg.
es upon her the necessity OF patience
and hope. Beatrix replies;
Patience! patience! are not all our
days
Shrouded beneath her flinty, irksome
smile?
O, patience IS the tyrant Of the world
And hope! Why, hope is dead! And az
for blessings!
Is it blessing to be starved, athirst,
And have both bread and wine, yet be
forbade
To taste? Is it blessed thing to
dwell
Forever in desert and behold
The gardens of the world, but in mi
rage?"
Later Beatrice reminds Coronado
that Frey Marcos de Nizza (who hal
made a preliminary trip to the nortD
said he did not see much gold. t.
which Coronado replies:
"Not he. but the good Moor Estevan.
clio
Went farther and saw much and
heard of more
And in the Zuni fortress they were
told
That northward, to the rising of the
sun
Quivira lay, which is Elysium.
The vanished paradise. and there men
find all things desirable"
Beatrix declares that IL he leaves
her behind she vii. follow, and in fact
does so. in ngisguise, on one of d. Alar.
Cons ships, determined to join him
somewhere in the dim north"
In scene II. d Alarcon having sail
ed far TO the north, and hearing moth
ing of Coronado, determines to return
to the south. Beatrix Tin disguise)
who has formed friendship for Perth
and the priest, Ubeda, deserts the ship
and Is followed by both of them, seek
ing to secure her return. The ship
sails away, and these three are left
alone in that waste land. Beatrix is
overcome with heat: Perth In min
istering to her. discovers she Is a
woman, and falls In love with her.
This complication Is further intensi-
fled by the later discovery that Perth
is Coronado's father. OF his love
Beatrix has no inkling, and her pity
and blind tenderness for Perth, whom
she knows has suffered, misleads him.
They overtake Coronado (Act III. J
at Casa Grande, Arizona. He has al.
ready begun to realize the failure OF
the expedition, exclaiming:
The tale was sickly and is dead al
ready,
All lies! There is no truth! Frey
Nizza lied!
We have seen no gold save in the
fatal sun.
Dry flats, like those in upper hell, led
on
Only to hills more desolate Will
thirst
Coronado, imagining the three way
farers to be spies sent upon his trai
hv Njrnrrxs hnnIcya ;p uha %r,L Lg,
| them all executed. Beatrix, by refus
| ing TO disclose her identity, .compli
Gates the matter still more; but thu
priest finally persuades him to fore
go his desperate intention.
Even at this time In Coronado,
mind the thought of returning turks
| To Perth he says.
"A breast awaits me there to die W
| on"
And Perth replies:
| Far In the south
There CLEANS an orb that seems I,
| lure you backward.
Use 1t not so; 1t is beacon lit
To guide a conqueror."
Prey TO alternate fear and hope
Coronado again, in speaking Of thei
objective point, says:
"That Eden that awaits us
Eastward from the Seven Cities G
| Gold,
Even yesterday ] questioned one RI
turning;
A sun-born native STRIPPING in whor
youth
Seethed like a tide OF dawn: vet h
was older
Than twice a thousand years! Fac
time he felt
The withering beckoner within hi
blood.
He sought Quivira and the hidde
source.
Laved his old limbs In that immorti
i rain
And lived again."
The play carries them through the
long, desperate and fruitless journe
to the Missouri river. Here Beatri
discloses her identity to her lover, u
on whom almost madness has falle
as a result OF the failure OF all hi