Of golden lands. Sesina's younger brother
Went likewise, and when he returned to Spain,
He told Sesina, that the poor mad youth,
Soon after they arrived in that new world,
In spite of his dissuasion, seized a boat,
And all alone set sail by silent moonlight
Up a great river, great as any sea,

And ne'er was heard of more: but 'tis supposed,
He lived and died among the savage men.

Note to the words "

Act II.

you are a painter," p. 186, Scene II.

The following lines I have preserved in this place, not so much as explanatory of the picture of the assassination, as (if I may say so without disrespect to the Public) to gratify my own feelings, the passage being no mere fancy portrait; but a slight, yet not unfaithful, profile of one, who still lives, nobilitate felix, arte clarior, vitâ colendissimus,

*

ZULIMEZ (speaking of Alvar in the third person).

Such was the noble Spaniard's own relation.

He told me, too, how in his early youth,

And his first travels, 'twas his choice or chance
To make long sojourn in sea-wedded Venice;
There won the love of that divine old man,
Courted by mightiest kings, the famous TITIAN!,
Who, like a second and more lovely Nature,
By the sweet mystery of lines and colours
Changed the blank canvas to a magic mirror,
That made the Absent present; and to Shadows

Sir George Beaumont. [Written 1814.]

Gave light, depth, substance, bloom, yea, thought and motion.

He loved the old man, and revered his art:

And though of noblest birth and ample fortune,
The young enthusiast thought it no scorn
But this inalienable ornament,

To be his pupil, and with filial zeal

By practice to appropriate the sage lessons,
Which the gay, smiling old man gladly gave.
The Art, he honoured thus, requited him :
And in the following and calamitous years
Beguiled the hours of his captivity.

ALHADRA,

And then he framed this picture? and unaided

By arts unlawful, spell, or talisman !

ALVAR.

A potent spell, a mighty talisman!

The imperishable memory of the deed,

Sustained by love, and grief, and indignation!

So vivid were the forms within bis brain,

His very eyes, when shut, made pictures of them!

:

ZAPOLYA:

A CHRISTMAS TALE,

IN TWO PARTS.

Πὰρ πυρὶ χρὴ τοιαῦτα λέγειν χειμῶνος ἐν ὥρᾳ.

APUD ATHENæum.

PART I.

THE PRELUDE

ENTITLED

"THE USURPER'S FORTUNE."

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE form of the following dramatic poem is in humble imitation of the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare, except that I have called the first part a Prelude instead of a first Act, as a somewhat nearer resemblance to the plan of the ancients, of which one specimen is left us in the Eschylian Trilogy of the Agamemnon, the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though a matter of form merely, yet two plays, on different periods of the same tale, might seem less bold, than an interval of twenty years between a first and second act. This is, however, in mere obedience to custom. The effect does not, in reality, at all depend on the Time of the interval; but on a very different principle. There are cases in which an interval of twenty hours between the acts would have a worse effect (i. e. render the imagination less disposed to take the position required) than twenty years in other cases. For the rest, I shall be well content if my readers will take it up, read and judge it, as a Christmas tale.

S. T. COLERIDGE.