ABSTRACT
This dramatic poem is avowedly constructed in imitation of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, and, like that, so far violates the doctrine of the unities as to bring the events of twenty years together between the ordinary acts. Bold as this may be, and still bolder to take up the bow of Shakespeare, truth compels us to say, that Mr. Coleridge has drawn it with a powerful arm, and produced a piece of no ordinary merit. The scene is laid in Illyria, and the story is that of a usurper, who succeeds for a long time; but after a series of crimes falls by the hand of the very noble that assisted him in gaining the throne, but towards whom the tyrant subsequently behaves with the wonted treachery of men who have betrayed their country. The queen dowager Zapolya and her son, which last has attained maturity, are restored, and the whole ends happily. There is a considerable beauty in the language, and the characters are all delineated in a manner that would, we are inclined to think, render the play attractive upon the stage.
