A CHRISTMAS TALE, IN TWO PARTS: The Prelude ENTITLED "THE USURPER'S FORTUNE;" AND The Sequel ENTITLED "THE USURPER'S FATE." BY S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq. LONDON: PRINTED FOR REST FENNER, PATERNOSTER ROW. ADVERTISEMENT THE form of the following dramatic poem is in humble imitation of the Winter's Tale of Shakespear, except that I have called the first part a Prelude instead of a first Act, as a somewhat nearer resemblance to the plan of the ancients, of which one specimen is left us in the Eschylian Trilogy of the Agamemnon, the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though a matter of form merely, yet two plays, on different periods of the same tale, might seem less bold, than an interval of twenty years between a first and second act. This is, however, in mere obedience to custom. The effect does not, in reality, at all depend on the Time of the interval; but on a very different principle. There are cases in which an interval of twenty hours between the acts would have a worse effect (i. e. render the imagination less disposed to take the position required) than twenty years in other cases. For the rest, I shall be well content if my readers will take it up, read and judge it, as a Christmas tale. S. T. COLERIDGE, |