That Miss Kemble's tragedy possesses points to be made, and passages that
will _tell_ on the stage, cannot be denied; but its interest for
representation requires to be concentrated; it "wants a hero, an uncommon
thing." It is well observed in the _Quarterly Review_, (by the way, the
only notice yet taken of the tragedy, that merits attention,) that "the
piece is crowded with characters of the greatest variety, all of
considerable importance in the piece, engaged in the most striking
situations, and contributing essentially to the main design. Instead of
that simple unity of interest, from which modern tragic writers have
rarely ventured to depart, it takes the wider range of that historic unity,
which is the characteristic of our elder drama; moulds together, and
connects by some common agent employed in both, incidents which have no
necessary connexion; and--what in the present tragedy strikes us as on
many accounts especially noticeable--unites by a fine though less
perceptible moral link, remote but highly tragic events with the immediate,
if we may so speak, the domestic interests of the play." This language is
finely characteristic of the drama.
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