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A DRAMATIC CRITIC
he would not press against his own, and,
having borne the extremity of anguish
and shame in her discovery upon his wrists
of the flesh marks that told the disgrace
of his captivity, found one moment of
happiness in the offer of her childish
prayers in his behalf ? The pain depicted
was so awful, the heart hunger so terrible,
that the sight of them could not have
been endured but for the glory and gran-
deur of the act of self-immolation. At
the very last, the yearning in his hollow
eyes as they glazed in death was almost
insupportable, and was, indeed, so pitiful
that the dread realism of the final moment,
when the strong soul parted from the
weary body, was felt as a relief. At the
first performance of this play in Boston,
I had the never paralleled experience of
being one of a company of spectators
whose emotion was manifested by audible
gasping for breath, by convulsive choking
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