James A. Hillhouse [pp. 329-335]

830 James Ji. ihi'ouse. [APRIL,
on high authority, are always attendant upon the
'course of true love;' and though not eminently
original in its conception, or of any extraordinary
merit in its execution, it abounds in sparkling passages, and contains many scenes which display no
little ability, and, in some instances, high descriptive power. The main characters are Cosmo, the
lover, and Demetria, the beloved. Some six years
have passed since they parted, with love mutual
and strong, yet untold. He goes to the wars in
quest of glory and the praise of honorable deeds,
which may entitle him to ask her hand; and she
remains to pine away in despair of ever meeting
him,
' So lengthened and so dismal seemed the time.'
The first scene presents him but just returned, ardently pressing his suit, which she delicately declines through excess of grief for the recent death
of a beloved parent. In the second scene, the mischief is commenced. Olivia, the haughty, envious,
malignant, and selfish sister of Demetria, is pouring her manifold griefs into the ear of her artful
and unscrupulous waiting-maid, Jacquelina. "Thou
know'st," she says
"Thou know'st, before I speak, the thorn that pricks me,
Thou seest her like an adder in my path,Perceivest me slighted-like a dwarfisheluster,While all are scrambling for the prize that gilds
Her branch. No moment of my life is sweet
Or comfortable. Deep, and ever rankling,
I bear a gangrene that corrodes to death.
Jacq. You wrong your beauty, trifle with your peace.
Olit'. Wrong?-Who that is not macerated, dead
To all that agitates the soul of Woman,
Could choose but feel-and bitterly resent?
Precedence is my right-inalienableYet when was not Olivia's favor blanked
At her appearing'-Half the natural love
My parents owed me she purloined. 1 pined
The loss, to be rebuked for sullenness,
Up from our childhood,-if my shape, or bloon
Dark curls, or glances, aught about me drew
A breath of praise,-an-en, I hear of eyes
That witch, as doth the pale-green evening sky;
Cheeks, like the rose-tipt glacier; yellow locks,
That make the dreamer murmur of Madonna!
Ever, for her, the proudest breathed the sigh;
Round her, Love anticked as a new-found Psyche,
While scarce an eye seemed conscious of Olivia."
After thus venting her spite in bitter complaints
of her sister's fortune, she proceeds to tell of Cosmo; how, that some ten years before, her father
brought him there, and she
"from the first laid claim to him and vowed,
By all the powers of love to make him mine."
* i * *
"iBut here, as ever, stepped the basilisk
'Twixt me and happiness."
She says that by her arts she prevented any declaration of their love; and that, while he was absent, she indulged'mournful hopes' that her sister
would soon cease to be her rival:
"But six full years are wasted, yet she lives;
She blooms, as in a second May."
It is difficult to conceive of a more malignant
passion than she here discloses. We know not
that this trait in her character is quite unnatural,
but we have even ulore regard for the honor of humanity than for Mr. Itillhouse's literary reputation, and most sincerely do we hope that it is so.
She goes on with her complaints that Cosmo yet
loves Demetria; and even while she speaks, her
words are clearly proven true by her seeing the
lovers walking arm-in-arm through the garden.
This still further excites her rage. Jacquelina
tells her a story of a very similar instance, in
which the less fortunate fair one rid herself of her
hated rival by a summary process, and thus fills
her mind with images of murder and vengeance.
But the crafty maid discovers for her a still more
feasible plan. As if suddenly calling it to mind,
she tells her that her
"Sister contumeliously dismissed
A wooer, whom we all know something of:
Haughty, unscrupulous, but of a face
And mien to hit fastidious eyes. He's now
Moody with disappointment, apt for mischief.
Oliv. Well, Barbadees.
Jacq. And to a wish,
Cosmo and he are still at dagger's points Oliv. What then?'T were death, if Jacq. I know it: hear me, lady.
Some quarrel in the service long ago,
Some bagatelle, I kiow not what, unsheathed
Their angry weapons. Costno twice disarmed him;
Coupling the second gift of life with terms,
That, chafing his imperious spirit, bred
A rancorous hate. This, Cosmo wots full well,
And Barbadeea, while he wooed your sister,
(Before her saintship turned poor me adrift,)
Confided gifts and letters to my care,
Communed with me in private of his love,
Lamenting that a rival he abhorred
Shoult triumph o'er him. Somewhere he had caught
A rumor of their early passion. Now,
The Count, you know, looked coldly on his suit
As well as she;-now, of these circumstances,
Could we not weave the several ends together,
Blending, transposing, coloring things,
That Cosno, (prone to sudden jealousy,)
Should think Itis mistress, to gain tirme and slip
Peaceably the knot of her old vows, dissembled?
Thouigh secretly grown fond of Barbadeeas
Might not these hints be wrought?"
This is finally determined upon. A warm, affectionate, passionate letter, which Demetria has writtea but never sent to Cosmo, is put into the envelope of the note, by which she flatly refused Barbadeea. This, accidentally falls into Cosmo's hands,
and Jacquelina explains it by a long, intricate and
plausible lie, which completely convinces the lover
that his'angel' is merely feigning a love for him,
in order more easily to escape her father's watchful scrutiny, and thus finally elope with Barbadeea.
The third Act shows us Cosmo uttering, in his anguish, the following fine soliloquy:
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