Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/101

 INTBODUCTION xcvii ������action are clearly marked and they contribute to bring about the catastrophe toward which each plot seems tend- ing. The deus ex machina, whereby the main plot escapes the apparently inevitable tragic end, is an opportunely furious storm by means of which the parted lovers are brought together, and saved, the one from suicide, the other from impending death. In the sub-plot the interfering providence is a soldier who awakens from a drunken stupor at just the time and place to arrest the villain and save the lady. The villain is the center of each story. His evil plans, if successful, would compass the destruction of both pairs of lovers. Most of the crises in the story are the forward steps of his machinations. The drama observes the unities of time and place. It is indeed, for a first attempt, a surprisingly well-knit piece of work. Of the characteri- zation less can be said. Innocence is too innocent, virtue too virtuous, villainy too villainous. There is no shading. Everything is marked off in black and white. Ardelia's " factious suttle villain " is not a success. He is sufficiently armed with evil deeds, but he fails to arouse interest. There are in his case none of the inciting, half-excusing causes apparent in Macbeth or Richard III., nor are we for a moment blinded by poetic charm or over-mastering person- ality. Blvalto is merely a vulgar, bad man who wishes to be revenged on his prince for a deserved rebuke, to steal the money of his confederates, and to kidnap a girl who detests him. His motto is: �To all my senses their full pleasure give, I care not how reproached or scorned I live. �He has not even intellectual supremacy in his low plots. He succeeds less through his own subtlety than through the abnormal stupidity or credulity of his victims. Even the greatness of his contemplated crimes seldom raises him out of the commonplace. His most vigorous speech comes when ��� �