A Florentine Tragedy | Page 5

for it. I have explained elsewhere that he looked on his works with
disdain in his last years, though he was always full of schemes for
writing others. All my attempts to recover the lost work failed. The
passages here reprinted are from some odd leaves of a first draft. The
play is, of course, not unlike Salome, though it was written in English.
It expanded Wilde's favourite theory that when you convert some one
to an idea, you lose your faith in it; the same motive runs through Mr.
W. H. Honorius the hermit, so far as I recollect the story, falls in love
with the courtesan who has come to tempt him, and he reveals to her
the secret of the love of God. She immediately becomes a Christian,
and is murdered by robbers. Honorius the hermit goes back to
Alexandria to pursue a life of pleasure. Two other similar plays Wilde
invented in prison, AHAB AND ISABEL and PHARAOH; he would
never write them down, though often importuned to do so. Pharaoh was
intensely dramatic and perhaps more original than any of the group.
None of these works must be confused with the manuscripts stolen
from 16 Tite Street in 1895--namely, the enlarged version of Mr. W. H.,
the second draft of A Florentine Tragedy, and The Duchess of Padua
(which, existing in a prompt copy, was of less importance than the
others); nor with The Cardinal of Arragon, the manuscript of which I
never saw. I scarcely think it ever existed, though Wilde used to recite
proposed passages for it.
Some years after Wilde's death I was looking over the papers and
letters rescued from Tite Street when I came across loose sheets of
manuscript and typewriting, which I imagined were fragments of The
Duchess of Padua; on putting them together in a coherent form I
recognised that they belonged to the lost Florentine Tragedy. I assumed

that the opening scene, though once extant, had disappeared. One day,
however, Mr. Willard wrote that he possessed a typewritten fragment
of a play which Wilde had submitted to him, and this he kindly
forwarded for my inspection. It agreed in nearly every particular with
what I had taken so much trouble to put together. This suggests that the
opening scene had never been written, as Mr. Willard's version began
where mine did. It was characteristic of the author to finish what he
never began.
When the Literary Theatre Society produced Salome in 1906 they
asked me for some other short drama by Wilde to present at the same
time, as Salome does not take very long to play. I offered them the
fragment of A Florentine Tragedy. By a fortunate coincidence the poet
and dramatist, Mr. Thomas Sturge Moore, happened to be on the
committee of this Society, and to him was entrusted the task of writing
an opening scene to make the play complete. {1} It is not for me to
criticise his work, but there is justification for saying that Wilde
himself would have envied, with an artist's envy, such lines as -
We will sup with the moon, Like Persian princes that in Babylon Sup in
the hanging gardens of the King.
In a stylistic sense Mr. Sturge Moore has accomplished a feat in
reconstruction, whatever opinions may be held of A Florentine Tragedy
by Wilde's admirers or detractors. The achievement is particularly
remarkable because Mr. Sturge Moore has nothing in common with
Wilde other than what is shared by all real poets and dramatists: He is a
landed proprietor on Parnassus, not a trespasser. In England we are
more familiar with the poachers. Time and Death are of course
necessary before there can come any adequate recognition of one of our
most original and gifted singers. Among his works are The Vinedresser
and other Poems (1899), Absalom, A Chronicle Play (1903), and The
Centaur's Booty (1903). Mr. Sturge Moore is also an art critic of
distinction, and his learned works on Durer (1905) and Correggio
(1906) are more widely known (I am sorry to say) than his powerful
and enthralling poems.
Once again I must express my obligations to Mr. Stuart Mason for
revising and correcting the proofs of this new edition.
ROBERT ROSS

A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY--A FRAGMENT

CHARACTERS:
GUIDO BARDI, A Florentine prince SIMONE, a merchant BIANNA,
his wife
The action takes place at Florence in the early sixteenth century.
[The door opens, they separate guiltily, and the husband enters.]
SIMONE. My good wife, you come slowly; were it not better To run to
meet your lord? Here, take my cloak. Take this pack first. 'Tis heavy. I
have sold nothing: Save a furred robe unto the Cardinal's son, Who
hopes to wear it when his father dies, And hopes that will be soon.