_, act ii. sc. 2, line 115--

"... these swoln silkworms masters."

("Silkworm," as a term of contempt, is an Italianism.)

_Werner_, act iii. sc. 1, lines 288, 289--

"I fear that men must draw their chariots, as
They say kings did Sesostris'."

_Age of Bronze_, line 45--

"The new Sesostris, whose unharnessed kings."

_Werner_, act iii. sc. 3, lines 10, 11--

"... while the knoll
Of long-lived parents."

_Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xcvi. lines 5, 6--

"... is the knoll
Of what in me is sleepless."

(Byron is the authority for the use of "knoll" as a substantive.)

Or, compare the statement (see act i. sc. 1, line 213, _sq._) that "A
great personage ... is drowned below the ford, with five post-horses, A
monkey and a mastiff--and a valet," with the corresponding passage in
_Kruitzner_ and in Byron's unfinished fragment; and note that "the
monkey, the mastiff, and the valet," which formed part of Byron's
retinue in 1821, are conspicuous by their absence from Miss Lee's story
and the fragment.

Space precludes the quotation of further parallels, and for specimens of
a score of passages which proclaim their author the following lines must
suffice:--

Act i. sc. 1, lines 163-165--

"... although then
My passions were all living serpents, and
Twined like the Gorgon's round me."

Act iii. sc. 1, lines 264-268--

"... sound him with the gem;
'Twill sink into his venal soul like lead
Into the deep, and bring up slime and mud.
And ooze, too, from the bottom, as the lead doth
With its greased understratum."

_Did_ Byron write _Werner_, or was it the Duchess of Devonshire?

(For a correspondence on the subject, see _Literature_, August 12, 19,
26, September 9, 1899.)

TO

THE ILLUSTRIOUS GOETHE

BY ONE OF HIS HUMBLEST ADMIRERS,

THIS TRAGEDY

IS DEDICATED.

PREFACE

The following drama is taken entirely from the _German's Tale,
Kruitzner_, published many years ago in "Lee's _Canterbury Tales_"
written (I believe) by two sisters, of whom one furnished only this
story and another, both of which are considered superior to the
remainder of the collection.[159] I have adopted the characters,