“Mr Trench uses prose as his medium except in the critical scene between Wickham and Napoleon, where he rises to a fine and rather Browning-like blank verse.”
+ Ath p477 Je 13 ’19 150w
“Now here is at least a play. It has argument, dignity, eloquence and dramatic movement; it is based upon a real conflict of ideas, in any case they scarcely affect the whole. The whole work is disciplined; there is rhetoric, where rhetoric should be; and where dispassionate prose should be, there is dispassionate prose. It does honour to English literature; and when we learn that it has been played for one hundred nights with success, we shall believe that the English public has begun to do honour to itself.” J. M. M.
+ Ath p584 Jl 11 ’19 1450w Brooklyn 12:88 F ’20 30w
“Mr Trench’s play is worth all his poems twice over. It is one of the few real fruits of the war.” Mark Van Doren
+ Nation 110:371 Mr 20 ’20 480w
“The play has faults. It is unwieldy in construction, the threads are not always connected and the writing is at times over-elaborated. But these defects cannot outweigh its poetic quality, its power of characterization, and its intense drama. The scenes in Napoleon’s room at Boulogne and those in Wickham’s boat are particularly noteworthy. It would be interesting to see how it would stand the test of production.”
+ − Spec 123:344 S 13 ’19 700w
“Surely this play is not merely to be read, but to be seen. But every character is clear in outline, awaiting embodiment, demanding presentment. Its characters are never mere puppets ... not even Napoleon who must by now be more disgustedly weary of his earthly immortality than any denizen of the underworld. He, at any rate should return thanks to Mr Trench for this just, urbane and pitiless rehabilitation.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p334 Je 19 ’19 1700w