ABSTRACT
In the Advertisement prefixed, Mr. Coleridge tells us that ‘the form of the following dramatic poem is in humble imitation of the Winter’s Tale of Shakespeare, except that the first part is called a Prelude, instead of a first act, as a somewhat nearer resemblance to the plan of the ancients, of which one specimen is left us in the Æschylian Trilogy of the Agamemnon, the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though a matter of form merely, yet two plays, on different periods of the same tale, seem less bold 421 than an interval of twenty years between a first and second act’. There is, as may be concluded from the foregoing extract, a considerable lapse of time between the two parts of this Christmas tale, a licence which is sanctioned by the model he has chosen, and the evils of which are somewhat lessened by the more complete division adopted by Mr. Coleridge. That which would, in exact imitation of Shakespeare, be called the first act is in this instance called the prelude; and the drama itself contains four acts only. The scene is in Illyria; the play opens as the king of that province, Andreas, is at the point of death, an event which is announced in the first scene. ‘A faction exists for depriving his queen and her infant of their regal possessions; at the head of which is Emerick, an ambitious courtier, who alledges that the queen’s representations of her having become a mother are fallacious; and, by the aid of the soldiery, invests himself with the vacant functions of royalty. Raab Kiuprili, an honest, loyal warrior, at this juncture, returns from the camp, and is informed of their traitorous intentions. He bears a paper sent to him by Andreas, appointing him, in conjunction with the Queen and Emerick, guardians of the state and of the royal infant, which the latter treats as the act of a madman, and refuses to obey. The usurper has succeeded in seducing from his allegiance Casimir, the son of Kiuprili. The parent, however, severely reprehends the conduct of his son, and remains inflexible in his loyal and honest attachment to the family of his late sovereign; this so provokes Emerick, that the first act of his lawless authority is the seizure of Kiuprili, and his confinement in a dungeon. Casimir in vain pleads for his father, whom the tyrant dooms to die. The queen, Zapolya, in the mean time, escapes with her infant boy from assassination purposed by Emerick. Ragozzi, a faithful friend of the virtuous persons in the drama, effects the escape of Kiuprili from prison, and accidentally meeting Zapolya, undertakes to conduct her and her infant to a place of safety. At this period of the story the prelude ceases.
