No More Learning

February 28, 1842. [B]


This Dramatic Piece, as noted in its title-page, was composed in
1795-6. It lay nearly from that time till within the last two or three
months unregarded among my papers, without being mentioned even to my
most intimate friends. Having, however, impressions upon my mind which
made me unwilling to destroy the MS. , I determined to undertake the
responsibility of publishing it during my own life, rather than impose
upon my successors the task of deciding its fate. Accordingly it has
been revised with some care; but, as it was at first written, and is
now published, without any view to its exhibition upon the stage, not
the slightest alteration has been made in the conduct of the story, or
the composition of the characters; above all, in respect to the two
leading Persons of the Drama, I felt no inducement to make any change.
The study of human nature suggests this awful truth, that, as in the
trials to which life subjects us, sin and crime are apt to start from
their very opposite qualities, so there are no limits to the hardening
of the heart, and the perversion of the understanding to which they
may carry their slaves. During my long residence in France, while the
Revolution was rapidly advancing to its extreme of wickedness, I had
frequent opportunities of being an eye-witness of this process, and it
was while that knowledge was fresh upon my memory, that the Tragedy of
'The Borderers' was composed. [C]


* * * * *


[Of this dramatic work I have little to say in addition to the short
printed note which will be found attached to it. It was composed at
Racedown, in Dorset, during the latter part of the year 1795, and in
the following year. Had it been the work of a later period of life, it
would have been different in some respects from what it is now. The
plot would have been something more complex, and a greater variety of
characters introduced to relieve the mind from the pressure of
incidents so mournful. The manners also would have been more attended
to. My care was almost exclusively given to the passions and the
characters, and the position in which the persons in the drama stood
relatively to each other, that the reader (for I had then no thought
of the stage) might be moved, and to a degree instructed, by lights
penetrating somewhat into the depths of our nature. In this endeavour,
I cannot think, upon a very late review, that I have failed.
As to the
scene and period of action, little more was required for my purpose
than the absence of established law and government, so that the agents
might be at liberty to act on their own impulses. Nevertheless, I do
remember, that having a wish to colour the manners in some degree from
local history more than my knowledge enabled me to do, I read
Redpath's 'History of the Borders', but found there nothing to my
purpose. I once made an observation to Sir W. Scott, in which he
concurred, that it was difficult to conceive how so dull a book could
be written on such a subject. Much about the same time, but little
after, Coleridge was employed in writing his tragedy of 'Remorse'; and
it happened that soon after, through one of the Mr. Poole's, Mr.
Knight, the actor, heard that we had been engaged in writing plays,
and upon his suggestion, mine was curtailed, and I believe Coleridge's
also, was offered to Mr. Harris, manager of Covent Garden. For myself,
I had no hope, nor even a wish (though a successful play would in the
then state of my finances have been a most welcome piece of good
fortune), that he should accept my performance; so that I incurred no
disappointment when the piece was _judiciously_ returned as not
calculated for the stage. In this judgment I entirely concurred: and
had it been otherwise, it was so natural for me to shrink from public
notice, that any hope I might have had of success would not have
reconciled me altogether to such an exhibition. Mr. C. 's play was, as
is well known, brought forward several years after, through the
kindness of Mr. Sheridan. In conclusion, I may observe, that while I
was composing this play, I wrote a short essay, illustrative of that
constitution and those tendencies of human nature which make the
apparently 'motiveless' actions of bad men intelligible to careful
observers. This was partly done with reference to the character of
Oswald, and his persevering endeavour to lead the man he disliked into
so heinous a crime; but still more to preserve in my distinct
remembrance, what I had observed of transitions in character, and the
reflections I had been led to make, during the time I was a witness of
the changes through which the French Revolution passed.