riod. I am so much in
love with it that I design following up 'Leonor de Guzman' by
'Don Pedro'. The present tragedy, according to the judgment
of Leland, is the very best play I have written, both for the
closet and the stage. Perhaps I am too ready to agree
with him, but long before he said it I had formed the same
judgment."

This tragedy was performed at the Philadelphia Walnut Street Theatre,
on October 3, 1853, and at the New York Broadway Theatre, on April 24,
1854. Boker wrote to his friends, showing his customary concern about
an actress skilled enough for the role of his heroine. When, finally,
for the Philadelphia premiere, Julia Dean was decided upon, he thus
expressed his verdict to Stoddard, after the opening performance:
"Miss Dean, as far as her physique would admit, played the part
admirably, and with a full appreciation of all those things which you
call its beauties."

During these years of correspondence with his friends, Boker was
determining to himself the distinction between _poetic_ and _dramatic_
style.

"Seriously, Dick," he writes to Stoddard, on October 6, 1850,
"there is, to my mind, no English diction for your purposes
equal to Milton's in his minor poems. Of course any man would
be an intensified ass who should attempt to reach the diction
of the 'Paradise Lost', or aspire to the tremendous style of
Shakespeare. You must not confound things, though. A Lyric
diction is one thing--a Dramatic diction is another, requiring
the utmost force and conciseness of expression,--and Epic
diction is still another; I conceive it to be something
between the Lyric and Dramatic, with all the luxuriance of the
former, and all the power of the latter."

He must have written to Taylor in the same vein, for, in a letter from
the latter, there is assurance that he fully understands what a
slow growth dramatic style must be. But Boker was not wholly wed to
theatrical demands; he still approached the stage in the spirit of
the poet who was torn between loyalty to poetic indirectness, and
necessity for direct dialogue. On January 12, 1853, he writes to
Stoddard:

Theatricals are in a fine state in this country; every
inducement is offered to me to burn my plays as fast as I
write them. Yet, what can I do? If I print my plays, the
actors take them up, butcher, alter and play them, without
giving me so much as a hand in