Poetical Works of ROBERT BRIDGES

Volume IV

London Smith, Elder & Co. 15 Waterloo Place 11902

OXFORD: HORACE HART PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BRIDGES

VOLUME THE FOURTH CONTAINING

LIST OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS

PALICIO.

1. PALICIO. A Romantic Drama in Five Acts in the Elizabethan manner.

ACHILLES IN SCYROS.

1. ACHILLES IN SCYROS. A drama in a mixed manner. Published by Ewd. Bumpus. London, 1890. 4to.

2. ACHILLES IN SCYROS. Uniform with Shorter Poems (I). George Bell & Sons, 1892.

PALICIO.

1. PALICIO. A Romantic Drama in Five Acts in the Elizabethan manner.

Published by Ewd. Bumpus. London, 1890. 4to. pp. 37-70.

RETURN OF ULYSSES.

1. THE RETURN OF ULYSSES. A Drama in Five Acts in a mixed manner.

Published by Ewd. Bumpus. London, 1890. 4to. pp. 71-100.

PALICIO

A ROMANTIC DRAMA

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

The scene is in PALERMO, and sometimes in the hills above MONREALE.

Time, Spanish occupation of Sicily.

3

PALICIO

ACT · I

SCENE · 1

Palermo. Reception-room in the Palace.

BLASCO and FERDINAND.

Philip crosses to L. and sits by Hugo.

Enter Messenger R., crosses to Hugo L.

MESSENGER.

Citizens of Palermo, King Pedro is dead. God rest his soul! The office of Viceroy being vacant, the Parliament of townsmen, assembled in the church of San Lorenzo, have this day elected Manuel to be your viceroy, in place of Hugo. Death to Hugo! Long live the king!

Enter a Soldier.

SCENE · 2

Hall in Manuel’s house. Enter PALICIO in woman’s clothes, bleeding, a dagger in his hand.

Enter Manuel, Philip, Margaret, and Servant.

Re-enter Servant.

Palicio comes forward.

25

ACT · II

SCENE · 1

Hall in Manuel’s house. MARGARET and CONSTANCE.

34

SCENE · 2

Room in the Palace. Enter BLASCO.

Enter Philip.

38

SCENE · 3

A room in Manuel’s house. PALICIO reclining on a long chair half-dressed. Daylight nearly excluded: one candle burns.

SCENE · 4

In Manuel’s house. MARGARET and MANUEL meeting.

Enter Philip (with some papers).52

Enter Constance with Servant.

56

SCENE · 5

Room in Manuel’s house. PALICIO as before (sitting).

57

Squarcialupu, who has appeared at the window, gradually thrusting his head between the curtains, and peering round, enters.

Enter Margaret, with Rosso blindfold.

60

69

ACT · III

SCENE · 1

Hall in Manuel’s house. MANUEL and MARGARET.

Enter Lucia.

Enter Philip.

SCENE · 2

On the hills above Monreale. Brigands fantastically dressed and armed are seated about on the rocks, with drinking-cups and remains of feast. PALICIO, in a black suit, his right arm in a sling. Much talking and singing, or the scene may open with the following song—

SONG.

(Palicio getting up on a rock waves them to silence.)

75

(Palicio gets up as before.)

During following scene the brigands going, carrying off things to cave.

Enter Palicio and Margaret.

Enter Lucia.

86

SCENE · 3

A room in the Palace. Enter HUGO and CONSTANCE.

Enter Philip.

Enter Servant.

91

Enter Manuel.

Enter LIVIO with the book, and BLASCO.

Re-enter Blasco with Guards.

Re-enter Hugo with Constance.

SCENE · 4

On the hills above Monreale, as before. Enter PALICIO and MARGARET.

Enter hastily a Brigand.

Enter Lucia.

Enter the Brigand with a letter.

108

ACT · IV

SCENE · 1

The hall in Manuel’s house: it is hung with black. PHILIP and LIVIO; the latter dressed in black, at a desk.

Enter Blasco.

Enter Margaret, throwing off a veil.

Re-enter Blasco.

SCENE · 2

A public place. MANUEL disguised as a friar meeting ROSSO.

SCENE · 3

Room in the Palace. HUGO and PHILIP meeting.

Enter Livio and Blasco.

124

Enter Margaret.

Re-enter Livio.

128

SCENE · 4

Dungeon of the Palace. PALICIO discovered. A door at back of prison is L. of centre.

129

Enter Gaoler.

Enter Manuel disguised as priest.

136

ACT · V

SCENE · 1

The same. PALICIO as before.

(Leaping up from Margaret, who staggers against the wall.)

Enter Blasco with sword drawn, Livio and two soldiers.

145

SCENE · 2

Room in the Palace. MANUEL, disguised as priest, meeting ROSSO.

Enter Philip.

Enter Ferdinand and Hugo with despatches.

SCENE · 3

Reception-room at the Palace. As first scene of first act. CONSTANCE, ROSSO, and MANUEL disguised.

Enter Hugo, Philip, Livio, and Ferdinand.

Enter an Officer.

Enter Manuel (as himself, with paper in hand) and Constance. Margaret, Lucia, and Rosso following.

Enter Palicio.

161

THE RETURN OF ULYSSES

A DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS IN A MIXED MANNER

162

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

Neatherd and other servants to Telemachus and Eumæus.

Retainers of Wooers; and Maids of Penelope.

The scene is laid in Ithaca. The first Act on the sea-shore. The second at Eumæus’ hut. The last three in the hall of Ulysses’ house.

163

ULYSSES

ACT · I

Ithaca: the seashore. Thick mist thro’ which Ulysses can scarcely be discerned asleep under a tree. In the foreground, Athena.

177

ACT · II

The hut of EUMÆUS. (Same background as Act I.) Some swine seen thro’ pens.

Enter Ulysses (disguised).

Enter Telemachus.

Athena appears at the door to Ulysses.

Re-enter Ulysses as himself.

Re-enter Telemachus.

205

ACT · III

Hall in house of Ulysses: [as described, in note]. EURYMACHUS, AMPHINOMUS, CTESIPPUS, PHEMIUS, and many suitors. Noise and brawling. Remains of feast.

Enter Herald.

Enter Antinous and his men.

216

Enter from the gallery above, Penelope.

Enter Telemachus, spear in hand at back; the wooers throng round him as he presses forward.

228

ACT · IV

The same: many wooers seated about the hall over remains of feast. In front of stage TELEMACHUS (L.), EURYMACHUS (C.), AMPHINOMUS and ANTINOUS (R.). Phemius sitting near: at left of stage a table piled with gifts.

Music. (All are seated.)

Enter Eumæus with Ulysses disguised.

(Eumæus bears food to Ulysses, who eats and drinks during Phemius’ ode.)

Enter suddenly Penelope (with some six maids attendant).

Re-enter suddenly Penelope with maids.

267

Enter in the gallery above Maids whispering and tittering.

272

ACT · V

The same: ULYSSES and TELEMACHUS.

275

Enter Eurymachus, Antinous, Ctesippus (others following).

Enter Amphinomus, the rest after him.

Enter Penelope (with bow). Maids follow.

Some wooers rise from their seats. Tel., Eum., and neatherd go out by the postern door R.

[Exeunt Ul., Tel., Eum., and neatherd in fighting order. The doors close behind them.

293

Re-enter Penelope and maids.

Re-enter Ulysses, as himself.

Athena appears on the threshold.

301

302

NOTES

PALICIO

I

The fragment of Æschylus on the title (see List of previous Editions) suggests a truly ancient origin for the family of Palicio: its known history is given in the Nobiliario viceregio capitaniale e pretoriano in Palermo nobile. Parte terza degli annali di Agostino Inveges. Palermo. MDCLI. p. 104. PALIZZI. Hugo, Squarcialupu and some of the others may be found in Sicilian histories about the year 1500, the supposed date of this play: their characters and the political situation are quasi-historical. The incidents connecting Margaret and Palicio are mostly adapted from a bad French story by De Stendhal, called Vanina Vanini, in a book titled Chroniques Italiennes, published by Michel Levy, in 1855.

1883.

II

Since the publication of PALICIO, unexpected light has been thrown on the married history of Palicio and Margaret. It would seem that they had a son, who was probably named after his maternal uncle, the chief Justiciary: for in March 1891 a half-witted Sicilian, named Manuel Palizzi, or Palicio, was303 among the Italians who were executed by the mob in New Orleans, for being concerned in the murder of the head of the police. Though the mental condition of this unfortunate fellow was such as to make his responsibility questionable, yet his connection with the Mafia society, and with their motives and crimes, points, as unmistakably as his name, to his ancestor in my play, terribly degraded though he was in body as in mind. It is possible that some of our fanatical anarchists may be similarly the prey of a depraved atavism, and be impelled by a fermentation of the sour dregs of an old puritanic heroism. I hope that the family is now extinct. The late Professor Freeman in the introduction to his History of Sicily, contributed to the literature of my play, by giving a careful and

full account of what I assumed to be the origin of the family name.

1894.

THE RETURN OF ULYSSES

This play, being a dramatising of the chief scenes in Homer’s Odyssey, and not a recast of the story in dramatic form, is as a stage-play open to evident objections; to which, if it be not successful, there can be no answer. How closely Homer has been followed need not be pointed out, as translations of304 the Odyssey are common, and the recent accurate version by Mr. Lang is in every one’s reach. Reference to that will measure the author’s fidelity, and show where he has altered, where added; and it may also excuse him from any acknowledgment of obligation to his friend, beyond the general confession that he has borrowed from his book whenever it suited him to do so.

It was necessary for the play to make the hall of Ulysses’ house different from its description in the Odyssey; and considering the disagreement of critics as to Homer’s meaning, this was a matter of less regret. The hall required for the last three acts has the following necessary parts. Of the three walls the back wall has, running along it at a convenient height, a practicable gallery, which communicates at either end with the upper rooms. This gallery joins in the left corner a short staircase against the left wall, leading down to the hall, not so far as to the floor, but ending on a daïs-like platform, which is raised two or three feet above the rest of the floor. This is the elevation on which Penelope sits to receive the gifts, and on to which Ulysses leaps when he makes himself known. It has steps also down from it to the floor of the hall. The gallery spoken of is supported by pillars, behind which a305 bench for the suitors runs along the wall; and this arrangement may follow round what is seen of the right wall of the room. But the centre of the back

wall is broken by the doorway which leads into the outer court: its threshold is three steps above the floor of the hall; it has double folding-doors, through which, if they are open, the outer court may be seen; and this outer court is on a higher level than the inner hall. The postern gate is in the right back corner. The fireplace is at the right front.

With this skeleton given, the text is clearly descriptive of all the disposition; but there is one stage direction it may be well to add: that is, that the chair, in which Penelope sits on the daïs to watch the contest with the bow, is thrown down on the floor of the hall in the fighting when Eurymachus is killed; and is set up for her there in the centre of the stage by one of the maids for the last scenes.

1884.

P.S. The translation of the Odyssey referred to above is the joint work of Mr. S. H. Butcher, Fellow and Praelector of University College, Oxford, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and of Mr. A. Lang, late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Published by Macmillan and Co.

306

OXFORD: HORACE HART PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

UNIFORM EDITION OF ROBERT BRIDGES’S POETICAL WORKS.

SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

VOLUME I. Prometheus the Firegiver—Eros and Psyche—The Growth of Love—Notes. Small Post 8vo, 6s.

TIMES.—‘For sheer poetical beauty there have been few things done in our generation more perfect.’

GUARDIAN.—‘The new edition is as dainty a one as any poet could desire for his work, and it will no doubt win for Mr. Bridges a considerable portion of the many new readers whom he deserves.’

WORLD.—‘Beautiful and scholarly ... Mr. Bridges has firmly established himself in the favour of students of poetry, and the present edition should still further extend the appreciation of a writer whose work is always poetic and sincere.’

BOOKMAN.—‘Mr. Bridges is more than an excellent craftsman ... He is of those that speak to the heart, and not merely to the aesthetic senses.’

VOLUME II. Shorter Poems—New Poems—Notes. Small Post 8vo, 6s.

DAILY CHRONICLE.—‘Mr. Bridges is an artist whose work cannot fail to give pleasure to all who care for artistry in English verse ... We find here in full measure his sane and manly spirit, his love of life, of beauty and of England, his refinement of thought and of form, his cool and fresh lyric quality.’

SCOTSMAN.—‘This new edition cannot but do good to English poetry all the world over, if it makes Mr. Bridges and his work better known than they are.’

GLASGOW HERALD.—‘Mr. Robert Bridges, as a poet, has one supreme merit. He is always clear, pure, and understandable; so that it is ever a pleasure to read his verse, which is charged with knowledge of nature, her aspects, moods, and melodies ... Indeed, in reading the poems of Mr. Bridges one cannot but think that he is a reincarnation of some one of the noble ancient poets.’

VOLUME III. The First Part of Nero—Achilles in Scyros—Notes. Small Post 8vo, 6s.

MONTHLY REVIEW.—‘Of these two fine plays the first is perhaps the more interesting, the second the more beautiful. The reader will find in it (Nero) the keen pleasure of an imperial game of chess.’

ST. JAMES’S GAZETTE.—‘Mr. Bridges is a poet who has established the right to be read as a whole by all who take contemporary literature seriously.’

MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.—’The verse has a likeness to that of the strong and level Massinger, but is full of little deliberate experiments ... It is poetry fresh and exultant, breaking upwards through “scholarship”.’

THE WORKS OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

THE POEMS OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. New and Cheaper Edition. Complete in one volume, with Portrait and Facsimile of the MS. of A Sonnet from the Portuguese. Large Crown 8vo, bound in cloth, gilt top, 7s. 6d.

⁂ This Edition is uniform with the Two-Volume Edition of Robert Browning’s Complete Works.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. Uniform Edition. Six volumes in set binding, Small Crown 8vo, 5s. each.

⁂ This Edition is uniform with the Seventeen-Volume Edition of Mr. Robert Browning’s Works.

AURORA LEIGH. With an Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne, and a Frontispiece. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt top, 3s. 6d.

A SELECTION FROM THE POETRY OF ELIZABETH Barrett Browning. First Series, Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.; Second Series, Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.

POEMS. Small Fcap. 8vo, bound in art-linen, with cut or uncut edges, 1s. (Also supplied in leather binding.)

THE LETTERS OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. Edited, with Biographical Additions, by Frederic G. Kenton. In two vols. With Portraits. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, 15s. net.

ROBERT BROWNING’S WORKS AND LIFE AND LETTERS.

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Edited and Annotated by Augustine Birrell, K.C., M.P., and Frederic G. Kenton. In two vols., Large Crown 8vo, bound in cloth, gilt top, with a Portrait-Frontispiece to each volume, 7s. 6d. per volume.

⁂ An Edition has also been printed on Oxford India Paper. This can be obtained only through booksellers, who will furnish particulars as to price, &c.

UNIFORM EDITION OF THE WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. 17 vols. Small Crown 8vo, lettered separately, or in set binding, 5s. each.

This edition contains Three Portraits of Mr. Browning at different periods of life, and a few Illustrations.

A SELECTION FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. First Series, Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.; Second Series, Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.

POCKET VOLUME OF SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BROWNING. Small Fcap. 8vo, bound in art-linen, with cut or uncut edges, price One Shilling. (Also supplied in leather binding.)

THE LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING AND ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. Fourth Impression. With Two Portraits and Two Facsimile Letters. 2 vols., Crown 8vo, 21s.

⁂ These Volumes are uniform with ‘The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.’

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ROBERT BROWNING. By Mrs. Sutherland Orr. With Portrait, and Steel Engravings of Mr. Browning’s Study in De Vere Gardens. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 12s. 6d.

SMITH, ELDER & CO.’S NEW BOOKS.

THE TALE OF THE GREAT MUTINY. By W. H. Fitchett, M.A., LL.D., &c., Author of Deeds that Won the Empire, Fights for the Flag, Wellington’s Men, &c. Second Impression. With Eight Portraits and Four Maps. Crown 8vo, 6s.

DEEP SEA PLUNDERINGS: A Collection of Stories of the Sea. By Frank T. Bullen, F.R.G.S., Author of The Cruise of the ‘Cachalot,’ The Log of a Sea Waif, The Men of the Merchant Service, &c. Third Impression. With Eight full-page Illustrations by Arthur Twidle. Crown 8vo, 6s.

THE LIFE OF LORD RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN. By R. Barry O’Brien, Author of Fifty Years of Concession to Ireland, The Life of Charles Stewart Parnell, &c. Third Impression. With a Portrait. Large 8vo, 10s. 6d.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. By Herbert W. Paul, Author of Men and Letters. With a Portrait. Large Post 8vo, 7s. 6d.

A SAILOR’S LOG. By Robley E. Evans, Rear-Admiral in the U.S. Navy. Second English Impression. With Illustrations. Large Post 8vo, 8s. 6d.

CAVALIER AND PURITAN IN THE DAYS OF THE STUARTS. Compiled from the Private Papers and Diary of Sir Richard Newdigate, Second Baronet, with Extracts from MS. Newsletters addressed to him between 1675 and 1689. By Lady Newdigate-Newdegate, Author of The Cheverels of Cheverel Manor, &c. With a Photogravure Portrait of Sir Richard Newdigate. Large Post 8vo, 7s. 6d.

THE SMALL FARM AND ITS MANAGEMENT. By James Long, Author of British Dairy Farming, Farming in a Small Way, The Story of the Farm, Our Food Supply, &c. Crown 8vo, 6s.

ORPHEUS IN THRACE, and other Poems. By the late John Byrne Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley. Bound in White Buckram. Crown 8vo, 5s. net.

GHOST BEREFT, AND OTHER STORIES AND STUDIES IN VERSE. By Jane Barlow, Author of Irish Idylls, &c. Fcap. 8vo, 3s. 6d. net.

THE BALLAD OF MR. ROOK. By G. W. Bound in Art Linen. Size 17-1/2 by 17 inches. With Six full-page Coloured Illustrations by the Hon. Mrs. Percy Wyndham. Price 10s. net.

London: SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. All other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

The varied ellipses remain unchanged.

The variation in fonts, sizes etc in e-book displays makes accurate reproduction of verse indents and caesuras impossible. The approach used should give a reasonable approximation in most cases.