spear began, instead of trying to begin where he left
off. Jonson and Beaumont would very likely have done themselves credit
on the same terms: Marston would have had at least a chance. Massinger
was in his right place, such as it was; and one would not disturb the
gentle Ford, who was never born to storm the footlights. Webster could
have done no good anyhow or anywhere: the man was a fool. And Chapman
would always have been a blathering unreadable pedant, like Landor, in
spite of his classical amateurship and respectable strenuosity of
character. But with these exceptions it may plausibly be held that if
Marlowe and Shakespear could have been kept out of their way, the rest
would have done well enough on the lines of Peele and Greene. However,
they thought otherwise; and now that their freethinking paganism, so
dazzling to the pupils of Paley and the converts of Wesley, offers
itself in vain to the disciples of Darwin and Nietzsche, there is an
end of them. And a good riddance, too.

Accordingly, I have poetasted The Admirable Bashville in the rigmarole
style. And lest the Webster worshippers should declare that there is not
a single correct line in all my three acts, I have stolen or paraphrased
a few from Marlowe and Shakespear (not to mention Henry Carey); so that
if any man dares quote me derisively, he shall do so in peril of
inadvertently lighting on a purple patch from Hamlet or Faustus.

I have also endeavored in this little play to prove that I am not the
heartless creature some of my critics take me for. I have strictly
observed the established laws of stage popularity and probability. I
have simplified the character of the heroine, and summed up her
sweetness in the one sacred word: Love. I have given consistency to the
heroism of Cashel. I have paid to Morality, in the final scene, the
tribute of poetic justice. I have restored to Patriotism its usual place
on the stage, and gracefully acknowledged The Throne as the fountain of
social honor. I have paid particular attention to the construction of
the play, which will be found equal in this respect to the best
contemporary models.

And I trust the result will be found satisfactory.

The Admirable Bashville; or, Constancy Unrewarded

ACT I

_A glade in Wiltstoken Park_

_Enter_ LYDIA

LYDIA. Ye leafy breasts and warm protecting wings
Of mother trees that hatch our tender