_ almost the whole of the
fourth act), of which there is neither hint nor suggestion in the story.
fourth act), of which there is neither hint nor suggestion in the story.
Byron
But here and there, to save himself trouble, he "stole his brooms ready
made," and, as he acknowledges in the Preface, "adopted even the
language of the story. " Act ii. sc. 2, lines 87-172; act iii. sc. 4; and
act v. sc. 1, lines 94-479, are, more or less, faithful and exact
reproductions of pp. 203-206, 228-232, and 252-271 of the novel (see
_Canterbury Tales_, ed. 1832, vol. ii. ). On the other hand, in the
remaining three-fourths of the play, the language is not Miss Lee's, but
Byron's, and the "conveyance" of incidents occasional and insignificant.
Much, too, was imported into the play (_e. g.
_ almost the whole of the
fourth act), of which there is neither hint nor suggestion in the story.
Maginn's categorical statement (see "O'Doherty on _Werner_,"
_Miscellanies_, 1885, i. 189) that "here Lord Byron has _invented_
nothing--absolutely, positively, undeniably NOTHING;" that "there is not
one incident in his play, not even the most trivial, that is not to be
found in the novel," etc. , is "positively and undeniably" a falsehood.
Maginn read _Werner_ for the purpose of attacking Byron, and, by
printing selected passages from the novel and the play, in parallel
columns, gives the reader to understand that he had made an exhaustive
analysis of the original and the copy. The review, which is quoted as an
authority in the editions of 1832 (xiv. pp. 113, 114) and 1837, etc. , p.
341, is disingenuous and misleading.
The original story may be briefly retold. The prodigal and outlawed son
of a Bohemian noble, Count Siegendorf, after various adventures,
marries, under the assumed name of Friedrich Kruitzner, the daughter of
an Italian scholar and man of science, of noble birth, but in narrow
circumstances. A son, Conrad, is born to him, who, at eight years of
age, is transferred to the charge of his grandfather. Twelve years go
by, and, when the fortunes of the younger Siegendorf are at their lowest
ebb, he learns, at the same moment, that his father is dead, and that a
distant kinsman, the Baron Stralenheim, is meditating an attack on his
person, with a view to claiming his inheritance. Of Conrad, who has
disappeared, he hears nothing.
An accident compels the count and the baron to occupy adjoining quarters
in a small town on the northern frontier of Silesia; and, again, another
accident places the usurping and intriguing baron at the mercy of his
poverty-stricken and exiled kinsman.
