ABSTRACT
While separated in the structure of this book, Traherne’s estates of misery and grace both concern earthly existence. Misery is a post-baptismal state of apostasy, trial and suffering. However, grace is already present in misery, as the apostate youth of Centuries of Meditations still desires God amid his dreams of worldly trinkets. 1 This chapter is not concerned with misery alone but with trial, which spans the estates. The conventions of the genre of tragic drama provide a hermeneutical key to the themes of tension, conflict, dialogue and action that characterise innocence on trial in a sinful and suffering world.
