For more than this I know, and have recorded
Within the red-leaved table of my heart.’
And further on, Frankford, when doubting his wife’s fidelity, says, with less feeling indeed, but with much elegance of fancy,
‘Cold drops of sweat sit dangling on my hairs,
Like morning dew upon the golden flow’rs.’
So also, when returning to his house at midnight to make the fatal discovery, he exclaims,
——‘Astonishment,
Fear, and amazement beat upon my heart,
Even as a madman beats upon a drum.’
It is the reality of things present to their imaginations, that makes these writers so fine, so bold, and yet so true in what they describe. Nature lies open to them like a book, and was not to them ‘invisible, or dimly seen’ through a veil of words and filmy abstractions. Such poetical ornaments are however to be met with at considerable intervals in this play, and do not disturb the calm serenity and domestic simplicity of the author’s style. The conclusion of Wendoll’s declaration of love to Mrs. Frankford may serve as an illustration of its general merits, both as to thought and diction.