The Saints Tragedy | Page 4

dishonest: our English justice has fled to
indifferent and sceptical writers for the impartiality which it sought in
vain elsewhere. This resource has failed,--the indifferentism of Hume
could not secure him against his Scotch prejudices, or against gross
unfairness when anything disagreeably positive and vehement came in
his way. Moreover, a practical people demand movement and life, not
mere judging and balancing. For a time there was a reaction in favour
of party history, but it could not last long; already we are glad to seek
in Ranke or Michelet that which seems denied us at home. Much, no
doubt, may be gained from such sources; but I am convinced that this is
not the produce which we are meant generally to import; for this we
may trust to well-directed native industry. The time is, I hope, at hand,
when those who are most in earnest will feel that therefore they are
most bound to be just--when they will confess the exceeding
wickedness of the desire to distort or suppress a fact, or misrepresent a
character--when they will ask as solemnly to be delivered from the
temptation to this, as to any crime which is punished by law.
The clergy ought especially to lead the way in this reformation. They

have erred grievously in perverting history to their own purposes. What
was a sin in others was in them a blasphemy, because they professed to
acknowledge God as the Ruler of the world, and hereby they showed
that they valued their own conclusions above the facts which reveal His
order. They owe, therefore, a great amende to their country, and they
should consider seriously how they can make it most effectually. I look
upon this Play as an effort in this direction, which I trust may be
followed by many more. On this ground alone, even if its poetical
worth was less than I believe it is, I should, as a clergyman, be thankful
for its publication.
F. D. M.

INTRODUCTION

The story which I have here put into a dramatic form is one familiar to
Romanists, and perfectly and circumstantially authenticated. Abridged
versions of it, carefully softened and sentimentalised, may be read in
any Romish collection of Lives of the Saints. An enlarged edition has
been published in France, I believe by Count Montalembert, and
translated, with illustrations, by an English gentleman, which admits
certain miraculous legends, of later date, and, like other prodigies,
worthless to the student of human character. From consulting this work
I have hitherto abstained, in order that I might draw my facts and
opinions, entire and unbiassed, from the original Biography of
Elizabeth, by Dietrich of Appold, her contemporary, as given entire by
Canisius.
Dietrich was born in Thuringia, near the scene of Elizabeth's labours, a
few years before her death; had conversed with those who had seen her,
and calls to witness 'God and the elect angels,' that he had inserted
nothing but what he had either understood from religious and veracious
persons, or read in approved writings, viz. 'The Book of the Sayings of
Elizabeth's Four Ladies (Guta, Isentrudis, and two others)'; 'The Letter
which Conrad of Marpurg, her Director, wrote to Pope Gregory the

Ninth' (these two documents still exist); 'The Sermon of Otto' (de
Ordine Praedic), which begins thus: 'Mulierem fortem.'
'Not satisfied with these,' he 'visited monasteries, castles, and towns,
interrogated the most aged and veracious persons, and wrote letters,
seeking for completeness and truth in all things;' and thus composed his
biography, from which that in Surius (Acta Sanctorum), Jacobus de
Voragine, Alban Butler, and all others which I have seen, are copied
with a very few additions and many prudent omissions.
Wishing to adhere strictly to historical truth, I have followed the
received account, not only in the incidents, but often in the language
which it attributes to its various characters; and have given in the Notes
all necessary references to the biography in Canisius's collection. My
part has therefore been merely to show how the conduct of my heroine
was not only possible, but to a certain degree necessary, for a character
of earnestness and piety such as hers, working under the influences of
the Middle Age.
In deducing fairly, from the phenomena of her life, the character of
Elizabeth, she necessarily became a type of two great mental struggles
of the Middle Age; first, of that between Scriptural or unconscious, and
Popish or conscious, purity: in a word, between innocence and prudery;
next, of the struggle between healthy human affection, and the
Manichean contempt with which a celibate clergy would have all men
regard the names of husband, wife, and parent. To exhibit this latter
falsehood in its miserable consequences, when received into a heart of
insight and determination sufficient to follow out all belief