The Poems, vol 2 | Page 9

he could judge the play had great dramatic
opportunities. Early in the autumn "The Spagnoletto" appeared,--a
tragedy in five acts, the scene laid in Italy, 1655.
Without a doubt, every one in these days will take up with misgiving,
and like Mr. Emerson "not expecting to read it through," a five-act
tragedy of the seventeenth century, so far removed apparently from the
age and present actualities,--so opposed to the "Modernite," which has
come to be the last word of art. Moreover, great names at once appear;
great shades arise to rebuke the presumptuous new-comer in this
highest realm of expression. "The Spagnoletto" has grave defects that
would probably preclude its ever being represented on the stage. The
denoument especially is unfortunate, and sins against our moral and

aesthetic instinct. The wretched, tiger-like father stabs himself in the
presence of his crushed and erring daughter, so that she may forever be
haunted by the horror and the retribution of his death. We are left
suspended, as it were, over an abyss, our moral judgment thwarted, our
humanity outraged. But "The Spagnoletto" is, nevertheless, a
remarkable production, and pitched in another key from anything the
writer has yet given us. Heretofore we have only had quiet, reflective,
passive emotion: now we have a storm and sweep of passion for which
we were quite unprepared. Ribera's character is charged like a
thunder-cloud with dramatic elements. Maria Rosa is the child of her
father, fired at a flash, "deaf, dumb, and blind" at the touch of passion.
"Does love steal gently o'er our soul?"
she asks;
"What if he come,
A cloud, a fire, a whirlwind?"
and then the cry:
"O my God!
This awful joy in mine own heart is love."
Again:
"While you are here the one thing real to me
In all the universe is
love."
Exquisitely tender and refined are the love scenes--at the ball and in the
garden--between the dashing prince-lover in search of his pleasure and
the devoted girl with her heart in her eyes, on her lips, in her hand.
Behind them, always like a tragic fate, the somber figure of the
Spagnoletto, and over all the glow and color and soul of Italy.
In 1881 appeared the translation of Heine's poems and ballads, which
was generally accepted as the best version of that untranslatable poet.
Very curious is the link between that bitter, mocking, cynic spirit and
the refined, gentle spirit of Emma Lazarus. Charmed by the magic of
his verse, the iridescent play of his fancy, and the sudden cry of the

heart piercing through it all, she is as yet unaware or only vaguely
conscious of the of the real bond between them: the sympathy in the
blood, the deep, tragic, Judaic passion of eighteen hundred years that
was smouldering in her own heart, soon to break out and change the
whole current of thought and feeling.
Already, in 1879, the storm was gathering. In a distant province of
Russia at first, then on the banks of the Volga, and finally in Moscow
itself, the old cry was raised, the hideous mediaeval charge revived, and
the standard of persecution unfurled against the Jews. Province after
province took it up. In Bulgaria, Servia, and, above all, Roumania,
where, we were told, the sword of the Czar had been drawn to protect
the oppressed, Christian atrocities took the place of Moslem atrocities,
and history turned a page backward into the dark annals of violence and
crime. And not alone in despotic Russia, but in Germany, the seat of
modern philosophic thought and culture, the rage of Anti-Semitism
broke out and spread with fatal ease and potency. In Berlin itself
tumults and riots were threatened. We in America could scarcely
comprehend the situation or credit the reports, and for a while we shut
our eyes and ears to the facts; but we were soon rudely awakened from
our insensibility, and forced to face the truth. It was in England that the
voice was first raised in behalf of justice and humanity. In January,
1881, there appeared in the "London Times" a series of articles,
carefully compiled on the testimony of eye-witnesses, and confirmed
by official documents, records, etc., giving an account of events that
had been taking place in southern