Page:Osorio; a tragedy, as originally written in 1797 (IA cu31924105501831).pdf/15

 middle of the fifth Act. He set off a week ago."

In the meantime, Wordsworth himself was hard at work on The Borderers. Both the poets, however, were doomed to witness the disappointment of their hopes.

"William's play," says Miss Wordsworth (20th Nov., 1797), "is finished, and sent to the managers of the Covent Garden Theatre. We have not the faintest expectation that it will be accepted." On 21st Dec. she writes:—"We have been in London: our business was the play; and the play is rejected. It was sent to one of the principal actors at Covent Garden, who expressed great approbation, and advised William strongly to go to London to make certain alterations." "Coleridge's play," she adds, "is also rejected;" and for this she expresses great sorrow and disappointment.

In the following year (1798) two scenes from Osorio, under the titles of The Dungeon and The Foster-Mother's Tale, were published, together with other pieces by Coleridge, in the volume of