Subduing e'en rude village churls

By her angelic looks.

She reads to them at eventide
Of One who came to save ;
To cast the captive's chains aside
And liberate the slave.

And oft the blessed time foretells
When all men shall be free;
And musical, as silver bells,

Their falling chains shall be.

And following her beloved Lord,
In decent poverty,

She makes her life one sweet record
And deed of charity.

For she was rich, and gave up all
To break the iron bands
Of those who waited in her hall,
And labored in her lands.

Long since beyond the Southern Sea
Their outbound sails have sped,
While she, in meek humility,
Now earns her daily bread.

The first form of this comedy was serial publication in Graham's Magazine, September, October, and November, 1842. It was afterward carefully revised and published in book form in 1843, with the following preface: -

"The subject of the following play is taken in part from the beautiful tale of Cervantes, La Gitanilla. Το this source, however, I am indebted for the main incident only, the love of a Spanish student for a Gypsy Girl, and the name of the heroine, Preciosa. I have not followed the story in any of its details.

"In Spain this subject has been twice handled dramatically; first by Juan Perez de Montalvan, in La Gitanilla, and afterwards by Antonio de Solís y Rivadeneira in La Gitanilla de Madrid.

"The same subject has also been made use of by Thomas Middleton, an English dramatist of the seven

teenth century. His play is called The Spanish Gypsy. The main plot is the same as in the Spanish pieces; but there runs through it a tragic underplot of the loves of Rodrigo and Doña Clara, which is taken from another tale of Cervantes, La Fuerza de la Sangre.

"The reader who is acquainted with La Gitanilla of Cervantes, and the plays of Montalvan, Solís, and Middleton will perceive that my treatment of the subject differs entirely from theirs."

The book bore upon its title-page a motto from Burns:

"What 's done we partly may compute,
But know not what 's resisted."

It had been the poet's intention at first to have the
drama put on the stage, but this plan was abandoned.
A German version was performed at the Ducal Court-
Theatre in Dessau, January 28, 1855.

Lara. May not a saint fall from her Paradise,

And be no more a saint?

Don C.
Why do you ask?
Lara. Because I have heard it said this
angel fell,

And though she is a virgin outwardly,
Within she is a sinner; like those panels
Of doors and altar-pieces the old monks
Painted in convents, with the Virgin Mary

Don Carlos;

How happened it?

Don C. I had engagements elsewhere. Pray who was there?

Lara. Why, all the town and court. The house was crowded; and the busy

Fluttered like butterflies among the flowers.

There was the Countess of Medina Celi;
The Goblin Lady with her Phantom Lover,
Her Lindo Don Diego; Doña Sol,
And Doña Serafina, and her cousins.
Don C. What was the play?
Lara.
It was a dull affair;
One of those comedies in which you see,
As Lope says, the history of the world
Brought down from Genesis to the day of
Judgment.

There were three duels fought in the first act,

Three gentlemen receiving deadly wounds, Laying their hands upon their hearts, and

And with voluptuous motions fires the blood

Of inconsiderate youth, is to be held
A model for her virtue?

Don C.

She is a Gypsy girl. Lara.

The easier.

You forget

And therefore won

Don C. Nay, not to be won at all! The only virtue that a Gypsy prizes Is chastity. That is her only virtue. Dearer than life she holds it. I remem

ber

A Gypsy woman, a vile, shameless bawd, Whose craft was to betray the young and

fair;

And yet this woman was above all bribes.

And when a noble lord, touched by her

beauty,

The wild and wizard beauty of her race, Offered her gold to be what she made others,

She turned upon him, with a look of scorn,
And smote him in the face!
Lara.
And does that prove
That Preciosa is above suspicion ?

Don C. It proves a nobleman may be
repulsed

When he thinks conquest easy. I believe That woman, in her deepest degradation, Holds something sacred, something undefiled,

Some pledge and keepsake of her higher nature,

And, like the diamond in the dark, retains Some quenchless gleam of the celestial light!

Lara. Yet Preciosa would have taken the gold.

Don C. (rising). I do not think so.
Lara.
I am sure of it.
But why this haste? Stay yet a little
longer,

And fight the battles of your Dulcinea.
Don C. 'T is late. I must begone, for
if I stay
You will not be persuaded.

Lara.
Yes; persuade me.
Don C. No one so deaf as he who will
not hear!

Lara. No one so blind as he who will not
see !

Don C. And so good night. I wish you
pleasant dreams,

And greater faith in woman.
Lara.

[Exit.
Greater faith!
I have the greatest faith; for I believe
Victorian is her lover. I believe
That I shall be to-morrow; and thereafter
Another, and another, and another,
Chasing each other through her zodiac,
As Taurus chases Aries.

(Enter FRANCISCO with a casket.)

and a

Chispa. Abernuncio Satanas! plague on all lovers who ramble about at night drinking the elements, instead of sleeping quietly in their beds. Every dead man to his cemetery, say I; and every friar to his monastery. Now, here's my master, Victorian, yesterday a cowkeeper, and to-day a gentleman; yesterday a student, and to-day a lover; and I must be up later than the nightingale, for as the abbot sings so must the sacristan respond. God grant he may soon be married, for then shall all this serenading cease. Ay, marry ! marry y! marry ! Mother, what does marry mean? It means to spin, to bear children, and to weep, my daughter! And, of a truth, there is something more in matrimony than the wedding-ring. (To the musicians.) And now, gentlemen, Pax vobiscum! as the ass said to the cabbages. Pray, walk this way; and don't hang down your heads. It is no disgrace to have an old father and a ragged shirt. Now, look you, you are gentlemen who lead the life of crickets; you enjoy hunger by day and noise by night. Yet, I beseech you, for this once be not loud, but pathetic; for it is a serenade to a damsel in bed, and not to the Man in the Moon. Your object is not to arouse and terrify, but to soothe and bring lulling dreams. Therefore, each shall not play upon his instrument as if it were the only one in the universe, but gently, and with a certain modesty, according with the others. Pray, how may I call thy name, friend?

First Mus. Gerónimo Gil, at your service.

Chispa. Every tub smells of the wine