“Since my last my dramatic ideas have been fermenting,
and have now, perhaps, settled—at least, among my various thoughts and
outlines there is one which pleases me, and with which Wynn seems well
satisfied. I am not willing to labour in vain, and before I begin I would
consult well with him and you, the only friends who know my intention. The time
chosen is the latter part of Queen
Mary’s reign: the characters,—Sir Walter, a young convert to the Reformation;
Gilbert, the man who has converted him;
Stephen, the cousin of Sir Walter, and his heir in default of issue, a
bigoted Catholic; Mary, the betrothed of
Walter, an amiable Catholic; and her
Confessor, a pious excellent man. Gilbert
is burnt, and Walter, by his own
enthusiasm, and the bigotry and interested hopes of his cousin, condemned, but
saved by the Queen’s death. The story thus divides itself:—1. To
the discovery of Walter’s principles
to Mary and the Confessor. 2. The danger he
runs by his attentions to the accused Gilbert. 3. Gilbert’s
death. 4. Walter’s arrest. 5. The
death of the Queen. In Mary and her
Confessor I design Catholics of the most enlarged minds, sincere but
tolerating, and earnest to save Walter,
even to hastening his marriage, that the union with a woman of such known
sentiments might divert suspicion. Gilbert
is a sincere but bigoted man, one of the old reformers, ready to suffer death
for his opinions, or
| Ætat. 25. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 11 |
“I come to town the week after next again: the thought
of the journey is more tolerable, as I expect relief from the exercise, for
very great exercise is
| 12 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 25. |
