Page:Osorio; a tragedy, as originally written in 1797 (IA cu31924105501831).pdf/21

 Coleridge's own school; the one a sentimental moralist, the other a sophisticated villain—both are dreamers. Two experiments made by Alvar on his return, the one on his mistress by relating a dream, and the other when he tries to kindle remorse in the breast of Ordonio, are too fine-spun to be intelligible. So when Ordonio enigmatically reproaches Isidore with his guilt, he tries the cunning of his audience to find out his drift. However, in spite of these faults, of the improbability of the action, of the clumsy contrivance with the picture, and the too ornate and poetic diction throughout, the tragedy was received with great and almost unmixed applause, and was announced for repetition without any opposition.

The following notice in the Examiner we may suppose to have been written by Leigh Hunt:—"The fable is managed and developed with a rapidity which never languishes, an intelligibility which a child might follow, and a surprise which would keep awake the most careless attention. The skill, indeed, with which the situations are disposed, so as to create effect, would have done honour to a veteran dramatist; for this, we suppose, Mr. Coleridge is indebted to his