DE CHATILLON; OR, THE CRUSADERS.
A TRAGEDY.1[1]
["About this time, Mrs Hemans was engaged in the composition of another tragedy, entitled 'De Chatillon, or, The Crusaders;' in which, with that deference to fair criticism which she was always ready to avow, and to act upon, she made it her purpose to attempt a more compressed style of writing, avoiding that redundancy of poetic diction which had been censured as the prevailing fault of 'The Vespers.' It may possibly be thought that in the composition in question she has fallen into the opposite extreme of want of elaboration; yet, in its present state, it is, perhaps, scarcely amenable to criticism—for, by some strange accident, the fair copy transcribed by herself was either destroyed or mislaid in some of her subsequent removals, and the piece was long considered as utterly lost. Nearly two years after her death, the original rough MS., with all its hieroglyphical blots and erasures, was discovered amongst a mass of forgotten papers; and it has been a task of no small difficulty to decipher it, and complete the copy now first given to the world. Allowances must, therefore, be made for the disadvantages under which it appears,—thus deprived of her own finishing touches, and with no means of ascertaining how far it may differ from the copy so unaccountably missing."—Memoir, p. 80-1.]
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
| Rainier de Chatillon, A French Baron. | Gaston, A Vassal of Rainier’s. |
| Aymer, His Brother. | Urban, A Priest. |
| Melech, A Saracen Emir. | Sadi. |
| Herman, | |
| Du Mornay, } Knights. | Moraima, Daughter of Melech. |
Knights, Arabs, Citizens, &c.
