341, is
disingenuous
and misleading.
Byron
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. Stralenheim has fallen asleep near
the fire in his easy-chair. Papers and several rouleaux of gold are
ranged on a cabinet beside the bed. Kruitzner, who is armed with "a
large and sharp knife," is suddenly confronted with his unarmed and
slumbering foe, and though habit and conscience conspire to make murder
impossible, he yields to a sudden and irresistible impulse, and snatches
up "the portion of gold which is nearest. " He has no sooner returned to
his wife and confessed his deed, than Conrad suddenly appears on the
scene, and at the very moment of an unexpected and joyous reunion with
his parents, learns that his father is a thief. Kruitzner pleads "guilty
with extenuating circumstances," and Conrad, who either is or pretends
to be disgusted at his father's sophistries, makes the best of a bad
business, and undertakes to conceal his father's dishonour and rescue
him from the power of Stralenheim. The plot hinges on the unlooked-for
and unsuspected action of Conrad. Unlike his father, he is not the man
to let "I dare not wait upon I would," but murders Stralenheim in cold
blood, and, at the same time, diverts suspicion from his father and
himself to the person of his comrade, a Hungarian soldier of fortune,
who is already supposed to be the thief, and who had sought and obtained
shelter in the apartments of the conscience-stricken Kruitzner.
The scene changes to Prague. Siegendorf, no longer Kruitzner, has
regained his inheritance, and is once more at the height of splendour
and prosperity.
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. Stralenheim has fallen asleep near
the fire in his easy-chair. Papers and several rouleaux of gold are
ranged on a cabinet beside the bed. Kruitzner, who is armed with "a
large and sharp knife," is suddenly confronted with his unarmed and
slumbering foe, and though habit and conscience conspire to make murder
impossible, he yields to a sudden and irresistible impulse, and snatches
up "the portion of gold which is nearest. " He has no sooner returned to
his wife and confessed his deed, than Conrad suddenly appears on the
scene, and at the very moment of an unexpected and joyous reunion with
his parents, learns that his father is a thief. Kruitzner pleads "guilty
with extenuating circumstances," and Conrad, who either is or pretends
to be disgusted at his father's sophistries, makes the best of a bad
business, and undertakes to conceal his father's dishonour and rescue
him from the power of Stralenheim. The plot hinges on the unlooked-for
and unsuspected action of Conrad. Unlike his father, he is not the man
to let "I dare not wait upon I would," but murders Stralenheim in cold
blood, and, at the same time, diverts suspicion from his father and
himself to the person of his comrade, a Hungarian soldier of fortune,
who is already supposed to be the thief, and who had sought and obtained
shelter in the apartments of the conscience-stricken Kruitzner.
The scene changes to Prague. Siegendorf, no longer Kruitzner, has
regained his inheritance, and is once more at the height of splendour
and prosperity.
