IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
What can death render us commensurate
With what it takes away; the voice of birds
On sweet spring mornings, and the face of spring;
And lush long grass around the browsing herds;
And shadows on the distant hills the flying rain-clouds fling?
What is there brighter in the world to come
Than white-winged sea-gulls, flashing in the sun
Above the blue Atlantic; what more free,
Yet what more stable, than those white wings, strung
All motionless, against a wind that whips the racing sea?
Yea, and if these things yet may be the soul's—
The summer moon above the garden flowers
Dew-drenched, and the slow song of nightingales—
Yea, and if all these after death be ours,
More beauty yet, and peace from strife, yet still the debt prevails.
For what can ever give us back again
The dear, familiar things of every day;
The loved and common language that we share;
The trivial pleasures; and, when children play,
Their laughter, and the touch of hands; and jests; and common care?
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MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS
"Mr. Presland appears to be following in the footsteps of Schiller.... Considered generally, Mr. Presland's drama is a fine piece of work. Excellent in its presentation of character, impressive in sentiment, and dignified in metre, it lacks none of the greater qualities of the historical drama...."—Scotsman.
"The author remains as simple and dignified in style as in his treatment of the tragedy of 'Joan of Arc.' There is no painful straining after effect. Act V. is really powerful."—Evening Standard.
"Mr. Presland gives promise of becoming one of the most successful living writers of poetic drama. His 'Joan of Arc' we have reason to remember, his 'Queen Mary' is no less striking. There is no Swinburnian welter of poetry here, but a very dramatically presented study of a very baffling woman. It would be difficult for anyone to cavil at the poet's presentation of the time.... Nothing could be finer, from a dramatic point of view, than her acting after the murder of Rizzio.... The last act is a splendid bit of work; the savagery of the street song and the last speech of Mary before signing her abdication are equally dramatic and equally poetic on very diverse lines. The play is altogether noteworthy."—Glasgow Herald.
"... It would, in our estimation, be a decided acquisition to any actor-manager who could arrange with the author to allow him to produce it.... Space does not permit us to deal with it here as we would like to do, or as it deserves, but we with pleasure commend it to our readers in the most emphatic way...."—Road.
"... 'Mary Queen of Scots,' a work in which he equals and even exceeds his marked success in dramatizing a theme from the history of the heroic Maid of Orleans.... Its progress is well planned, and it proceeds with spirit, several of the scenes being splendidly dramatic. As literature the play is sustained at a high level in strong nervous verse.... The characters are firmly drawn and lifelike...."—Liverpool Daily Post.
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JOAN OF ARC
EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS
"An excellent drama.... The verse is always flexible, and at the right moment rises into the atmosphere of poetry in which Shakespeare moves with such freedom.... Joan is the soul and centre of the play, and the author has done nobly by her. We catch, as we read, some of the infection that fell upon men's souls from her presence ... which simply means that Mr. Presland has realised his historical characters so well as to make them seem living.... What we have written is sufficient to show with what dramatic truth and poetic sympathy the dramatist has approached his great subject, and with what success he has handled it."—Glasgow Herald.
"Mr. Presland has put some excellent workmanship into this new dramatic picture of the Maid of Orleans.... The action never flags. The verse is fluid, natural, yet dignified, and adapts itself easily to the varying requirements of the situations.... A play which leaves in the reader's mind a picture that grows upon him. One forgets everything but Joan, and that not because of any lack of proportion in the composition, but because of the naturalness and force of her beautiful character."—Bibliophile.
"At once good drama and good poetry.... The well-known story is deftly treated. The verse is easy and vigorous—above all, it is dramatic."—Sheffield Daily Telegraph.
"Mr. Presland's play shows how impressive Joan of Arc may be made as the central figure in a 'history.' ... Written with faithful adherence to Shakespearean traditions of form, it follows out in an interesting sequence of scenes the several stages in the career of the Maid of Orleans.... The piece is all the more impressive because it does not bring in any invented theatrical love interest, or anything of that sort, to confuse the simple lines of the accepted story."—Scotsman.
"Written in language which will commend itself to all educated people, who will certainly not only be entertained, but instructed thereby. The author has done his work excellently in every way."—Road.
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MANIN
AND THE DEFENCE OF VENICE
EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS
"... The play is genuinely dramatic, and its impressiveness is heightened by the dignity of the blank verse. There is poetry on every page, but the effects are gained, not by flaunting rhetoric, but by simplicity of language, which is forcible through its truth.... We can only advise those who love English verse to read this play; they will see that poetry is still a living thing among us."—Oxford Magazine.
"Mr. Presland follows up his dramas 'Joan of Arc' and 'Mary Queen of Scots,' with a picture, at once moving and terrible, of the siege of Venice by the Austrians in 1849.... He has once more proved himself a dramatist of that high poetic order which we have so often been told died out with the eighteenth century."—Literary World.
"His new work condenses into four acts of vigorous and flexible blank verse, always animated in movement, and skilfully wrought together into a fine unity of action.... Mr. Presland's Manin is an impressive, pathetic figure, and the play one which cultured readers should follow with unqualified interest."—Scotsman.
"... The poetry never clogs the action and the whole play is tense with the struggle in the soul of the hero.... The play thus becomes the tragedy of a city but the triumph of a man, and the interplay of the two ideas is finely wrought out. It is not all sombre, but even the gayest of its characters throbs to the heart-beat of Italy, and helps to give unity to the drama."—Glasgow Herald.
"Written in blank verse, that is both flexible and dramatic, the author gives an effect of spaciousness, combined with tense feeling."—Publisher's Circular.
"In the unfolding of the story, Mr. Presland shows much greater genius than he did in either of his two previous dramatic works.... The verse is most flexible, and practically all through he moves with great freedom and reaches real dignity; the action seldom flags, and the whole work is truly dramatic. Especially might we pick out the last act as extremely powerful."—Sheffield Telegraph.
"Throughout this admirable piece of dramatic work there is clear evidence of the author's extraordinary power as a delineator in poetic drama of human character in its many phases. His 'Joan of Arc' was a work which one could not fail to remember by reason of its striking characteristics; but we are convinced that remembrance of the 'Defence of Venice' will be equally, if not more, indelible."—Cape Argus.
LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS