nland; and all the
characters, with the exception of _Miriam Mardyke_ (the BATHSHEBA of the
piece), who was bred in France and had its sun in her blood, were of the
Puritan pattern that does not accommodate itself very easily to the
language of passion.

But all this we knew ten years ago, when _The Sin of David_ was first
published; and the only new interest was the question of its
adaptability to the theatre. Poetic drama seldom gains much by
presentation on the stage, unless it is full of action; and there is
little action in this play except of the inward kind. In almost the only
case where quick movement is here demanded one becomes conscious of the
intrusion of words. When he knows that the relief of Pomfret depends
upon his instant action, _Lisle_ still finds time for conversations with
his servant, with _Miriam_ and with the doctor, and for a couple of
well-sustained soliloquies.

Certain lines, again, whose literary flavour, when read, makes us
overlook their inherent improbability in the mouth of the character that
utters them, take on, when spoken, an air of artifice. Such are the
lines in which _Miriam_ describes her old sister-in-law, to her face, as

"living without sin
And reputably rusting to the grave."

And there is always the danger that actors will be content with a rather
slurred and perfunctory recitation of lines that have no bearing on the
action but are just inserted for joy as a rhetorical embroidery.

It may be a trivial criticism, but I think the play suffered a little
from the appearance of the love-child whose death was to be the
punishment for _Lisle's_ sin in sending _Mardyke_ to his death in a
forlorn hope. The instructions in my book are contradictory. The time of
Act III. is described as "five years later," and we are then told that
"four years are supposed to have elapsed since Act II." Anyhow, the boy
should be only three or four years old. Actually he is a girl (the stage
must have it so) of some ten summers. You may say that all those years
during which the lovers' passion has been purified by worship of the
child's innocence, and "God has not said a word," add a dramatic force
to the blow when at last it falls. But for myself--a mere matter of
taste--I feel that the vengeance of Heaven has been nursed too long.

As for the interpretation, I must honestly compliment Mr. IRVING and
Miss MIRIAM LEWES on their performance. It is true that I should never
have mis