Page:Osorio; a tragedy, as originally written in 1797 (IA cu31924105501831).pdf/22

 acquaintance with the German drama, which, in the hands of Schiller at least, redeems all its faults by its excellence, and among its other striking beauties, abounds in the picturesque. We never saw more interest excited in a theatre than was expressed at the sorcery-scene in the third act. The altar flaming in the distance, the solemn invocation, the pealing music of the mystic song, altogether produced a combination so awful as nearly to overpower reality, and make one half believe the enchantment which delighted our senses. The characters most laboured by the author are Ordonio and Alhadra. Both are developed with a force of thinking and a power of poetry which have been long strangers to the stage, and the return of which we hail as the omen of better days. In none of his works has Mr. Coleridge exhibited so much of his sentimental and descriptive power, so little deformed with his peculiar affectations. His images have his usual truth and originality without their usual meanness: his tenderness is as exquisite as in his best pieces, and does not degenerate into his usual whining."

The following criticism of Remorse is from the Times of Monday, Jan. 25, 1813:—