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of house and stage, takes place near the front of the stage, which destroys the general effect in a great degree.

11. Orra-Orra is a rich heiress, and the ward of the Count of Aldenburg-the Count wants her to marry his son, Glottenbal, who is a foolish young man-she falls in love with Theobald, a Nobleman of reduced fortune-Rudigere is a villain, a bastard of the house of Aldenberg, and in love with Orra— she detests him-Rudigere persuades the Count to confine Orra in his ancient castle in the Suabian forest, till she will consent to marry Glottenbalbetween the 2d and 3d acts, she is conveyed by Rudigere from Switzerland to the old castle-she is told that one of the ancestors of herself and the Count had murdered a knight who hunted in the forest, and that on St. Michael's eve, the spectre of the knight was accustomed to enter the castle, and call on some descendant of his murderer, to bury his body in hallowed earth-she is dreadfully afraid of seeing the ghost of the knight-Theobald, in order to rescue Orra from her confinement, enters the castle by a secret passage, dressed as the knightOrra faints, and is carried off in that situation—on recovering from her fit, she becomes mad-Theobald had taken the precaution to apprize her by letter of his design-Rudigere had attempted to snatch the letter from her, and she had thrown it into the fire without being able to read it-Rudigere's villany is discovered-he stabs himself, and wounds Glottenbal with a poisoned dagger- -this is a very interesting play the catastrophe is pefectly natural, but it would have been more pleasing, if some intimation

had been given that Orra might in time probably recover her senses--Miss Baillie says-"the principal "character of this Tragedy is a woman under the "dominion of Superstitious Fear, and that particular

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species of it, the fear of ghosts, or the returning "dead-those, I believe, who possess strong imagi"nation, quick fancy, and keen feeling, are most easily affected by this species of fear I have, "therefore, made Orra a lively and cheerful cha"racter, when not immediately under its influence "the catastrophe is such as Fear, I understand, "does more commonly produce than any other "passion."

12. Dream-this T. is written in prose-it consists of 3 acts only--the scene lies chiefly in the Monastery of St. Maurice in Switzerland-two of the Monks are so much terrified by a Dream, which each of them had seen, that they reveal it to the Prior-Osterloo, an Imperial General, passes by the Monastery at the head of his troops-the Prior conjures him to halt, and says that the safety of all the Monks depends on their choosing by lot, from the officers or soldiers, a man who shall spend the night within the walls of the Monastery, and there undergo certain penances for the expiation of long-concealed guilt-Osterloo, with some reluctance, consentsthe lot falls on him-in compliance with the injunctions of the vision, a grave is dug in the burying place for strangers-a coffin is found and forced open-a corpse appears without the right handOsterloo confesses that he had murdered the person whose bones had been discovered-the Prior condemns him to death-Osterloo finds himself in a

situation so entirely new to him, that his fortitude fails him in the last scene he is brought to the block -one of the executioners directs him to give a sign, when he is ready-this however he does not doanother executioner is preparing to strike, when the Imperial Ambassador enters, and rescues Osterloo from the power of the Prior-Osterloo is found dead -the Ambassador at first scouts the thought that a man of such uncommon courage in the field, should have died of mere Fear on the scaffold-this however appears to be the fact this play has great merit-the character of Osterloo is drawn in a masterly manner-Miss Baillie says-" the fear of death " is here exhibited in a brave character, placed under "such new and appalling circumstances as might, I supposed, overcome the most courageous

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"it is not want of fortitude to bear bodily sufferings, "or even deliberately inflicted death, under the cir"cumstances commonly attending it, that the cha"racter of Osterloo exhibits-it is the horror he "conceives on being suddenly awakened to the imagination of the awful retributions of another world, "from having the firm belief of them forced at once upon his mind by extraordinary circumstances, "which so miserably quells an otherwise undaunted spirit it will probably be supposed that I "have carried the consequences of his passion too "far in the catastrophe to be considered as natural; "but the only circumstance in the piece that is not entirely invention, is the catastrophe."

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13. Siege the scene in this C. lies in a castle on the French confines of Germany-the object of it is to represent the effects of Fear-Count Valde

mere is an officer in the army-he affects to be a man of courage, but is really a coward-a plot is laid for putting his courage to the test-a sham Siege of the castle takes place-Valdemere retires to a vault, where he is found "distilled almost to jelly "with his fear"-the pretended Siege is followed by a real attack from the enemy-this attack is repelled chiefly by the exertions of Antonio-Livia, the mistress of the castle, rewards him with her hand -the principal persons of the play promise not to expose Valdemere, on condition that he will marry Nina, to whom he had promised marriage-Valdemere is not a bad character, but on the whole this is a poor play.

14. Beacon-this is a moderate piece in 2 actsthe subject of it is Hope-the scene lies in a small Island of the Mediterranean, of which Ulrick is the Lord-Ermingard and Aurora had been mutually attached-Ermingard had gone to the holy warsand there was strong reason to believe that he was dead-Aurora, who is of an ardent temper, still cherishes Hope-according to her promise, she causes a fire to be lighted every night on a rock as a Beacon for Ermingard in case he should return-he does return in the 2d act-he had become a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, on the supposition that Aurora was married to Ulrick-he finds that she is still single, and heartily repents of his vow of celibacy -the Pope's Legate summons Ulrick to give an account of his conduct to the Pope-and affords Ermingard reason to hope that the Pope will dispense with his vows-Miss Baillie says-"I have "introduced into the scenes several songs, so many

indeed, that I have ventured to call it a Musical "Drama-I have, however, avoided one fault so "common, I might say universal, in such pieces, "viz. making people sing in situations in which it " is not natural for them to do so-and creating a "necessity for either having the first characters per"formed by those, who can both act and sing, (per"sons very difficult to find) or permitting them to "be made entirely insipid and absurd-for this pur"pose, the songs are all sung by those who have "little or nothing to act, and introduced when no

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thing very interesting is going on-they are also "supposed not to be spontaneous expressions of "sentiment in the singer, but (as songs in ordinary "life usually are) compositions of other people, "which have been often sung before, and are only generally applicable to the present occasion."

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If the writers of musical pieces would have the sense to follow Miss Baillie's example, Operas would not be such despicable things as they now are.

Miss Baillie's Comedies do her but little creditthe Election is by far the best of them-her Tragedies have great faults, but greater beauties-she has the happy art of introducing characters, which, tho' natural, are new to the stage.

15. Family Legend-this play was published separately-see D. L. May 29 1815.

16. Martyr 1826-this is a sacred Drama in 3 acts-it is far from a bad play, but it is not so good as might have been expected from Miss BaillieCordenius Maro, an officer of the Imperial Guard, is so struck with the fortitude with which the Christian Martyrs sustain their sufferings, that he

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