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 Cornell University Library 
 PN 2598.M98A8 
 
 Alma Murray : 
 
 3 1924 027 135 833 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027135833 
 

 i'.y.Jfiitrirc Cr/i 
 
ALMA MURRAY 
 
 PORTRAIT 
 
 AS 
 
 BEATRICE CENCI 
 
 WITH CRITICAL NOTICE CONTAINING FOUR 
 LETTERS FROM 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING 
 
 LONDON 
 ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET 
 
 1891 
 
 in 
 
/4^^fV7/ 
 
 " Tragic poetry combined with tragic acting produces the most exalted 
 " impressions that the human mind is capable of receiving ; a great tragedy 
 " greatly cuted being indeed the highest outcome of man! s faculties, his sole 
 " complete, if but momentary, victory over the tyrannic conditions of his earthly 
 "existence" 
 
ALMA MURRAY. 
 
 ACTING is an art, great and creative in a sense and to an 
 extent that entitles it to rank as sister with the arts of paint- 
 ing and poetry themselves. How such a manifest truth can ever 
 have been called in question it is not easy to understand ; but that it 
 has been and in some quarters still is, admits of no doubt. The 
 result of this seeming openness of the question is that, in judging 
 of histrionics, people do not feel themselves compelled to apply the 
 same high standards as they must in dealing with arts that in 
 universal opinion are arts. But for all this, it is only after these 
 high standards have been, justly and rigorously, applied that any- 
 thing like a solid judgment of the true rank of an actor or actress 
 can be arrived at. The process is considerably simplified when 
 at starting a wise discrimination is employed ; when it is borne in 
 mind that, after all, a great actor or actress must in the nature of 
 things be as rare a phenomenon as a great poet ; and that an actor, 
 to be veritably great, has the most exacting of all conditions to 
 fulfil — that, namely, of being not merely an artist but in himself or 
 herself an organized and living work of art. 
 
 Alma Murray — the poetic actress without a rival, as she has 
 been justly styled by "the most subtle and sincere, the most 
 profound and piercing intelligence of our time," Robert Browning 
 — is the daughter of the late distinguished actor Leigh Murray, 
 and wife of Mr. Alfred Forman, the translator of Richard Wagner's 
 tetralogy " Der Ring des Nibelungen." She was born in London 
 at No. 7 Clement's Inn (a house which no longer exists) and made 
 her first appearance on the stage, when quite a child, at the 
 Olympic Theatre, since when she has been almost without inter- 
 mission before the public and has played a list of parts too varied 
 and too long to be enumerated here. The undermentioned 
 roles however may be selected as those in which she has made 
 
4 ALMA MURRAY. 
 
 her most signal and distinctive successes and as showing the 
 extraordinary range and versatility of her powers. 
 
 In tragedy ; Beatrice Cenci, (Shelley's " The Cenci,") Juliet, 
 (Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet,") Constance, (Browning's " In 
 a Balcony,") Mildred Tresham, (Browning's " A Blot in the 
 'Scutcheon,") Helena, (Todhunter's " Helena in Troas,") Soris, 
 (Miss Graves's " Nitocris ") : in romantic drama ; Colombe, 
 (Browning's " Colombe's Birthday,") Julie de Mortemar, (Bulwer's 
 " Richelieu,") : in comedy ; Portia, (Shakespeare's " Merchant of 
 Venice,") Titania, (Shakespeare's " Midsummer Night's Dream,") 
 Miss Hardcastle, (Goldsmith's " She Stoops to Conquer,") Sophia 
 Freelove, (Holcroft's "Road to Ruin,") Grace Harkaway, 
 (Boucicault's "London Assurance,") Clara Douglas, (Bulwer's 
 " Money,") : in melodrama ; Ruth Branston, (Wilton Jones's 
 " Haunted Lives,") : in other descriptions of play ; Esther Eccles, 
 (Robertson's " Caste,") Princess Christina (Lynwood and 
 Ambient's "Christina,") Pauline March, (Conway and Carr's 
 " Called Back,") Rachel McCreery, (Gillette's " Held by the 
 Enemy,") Eleanor Brandon, (Lart's " The Monk's Room,"). 
 
 Her regular stage performances have been supplemented by 
 equally remarkable dramatic readings and recitals, in the course of 
 which Rosalind, Pippa, Clytsemnestra, Briinnhilde, Isolde, have 
 been taken, each at some pregnant and crucial moment of their 
 dramatic existence, and presented with the keenest imaginative 
 insight and the completest technical mastery of the various 
 rhythms and metres in which they speak. 
 
 Her astonishing successes in tragedy and other acutely emotional 
 descriptions of work have tended perhaps to somewhat obscure the 
 recollection of her equally perfect achievements in comedy. Her 
 Portia, for instance, it was that first completely revealed in her the 
 inspired artist as distinct from the merely gifted and accomplished 
 actress. This part she first played at the Lyceum in 1880, (during 
 an illness of Miss Terry's) to the Shylock of Mr. Henry Irving, 
 establishing herself at once in general favour and grounding the 
 belief that she was an actress with a great career open to her. 
 Her performance was inexhaustible both in exterior charm and 
 inward resource. The subtle and pervading interpenetration of 
 intellect and emotion in Portia's character was seized with un- 
 erring instinct and brought out -yvith complete technical mastery. 
 
ALMA MURRAY. 5 
 
 Spirituality, poetic sensibility and distinction (both in conception 
 and execution) combined to make the embodiment ineffaceable 
 from the memory. Womanly abandon, tempered with queenly 
 reticence, was the salient feature of her self-surrender to Bassanio ; 
 her apparition in the trial scene was comparable only to that of 
 an ambassador from some high court of superhuman righteousness, 
 sent to plead silver-trumpet-tongued against Antonio's taking-off, 
 to save Shylock from himself and, failing that, to show how stern 
 against him could be the very justice that he had invoked ; while 
 in the distinctively comedy scenes all was of that chaste and golden 
 quality of workmanship which brought out the essential joyousness 
 of the character without once suggesting, even, the condescensions 
 or familiarities of common life. This was the first really great 
 opportunity of her career. Another and far greater one was 
 the production of Shelley's till then unacted tragedy, "The 
 Cenci," on May 7th, 1886, her performance in which secured for her 
 at one stroke an unassailable and world-wide reputation. Beatrice 
 Cenci is, as the " Daily Telegraph " remarked at the time, " surely 
 the longest part that any actress has ever studied, the most difficult, 
 the most exhausting." In it Miss Alma Murray's success was 
 complete and undisputed, proving conclusively that we had once 
 more among us a great tragic actress in the fullest and most specific 
 sense of the term. The audience assembled (to the number of 
 nearly three thousand) was perhaps the most distinguished and 
 critical that an actress has ever played to, completely representing 
 as it did both the intellectual elite of the time and the ordinary 
 play-going public in all its variety. Her treatment of the first 
 great scene, that of the banquet, convinced the spectators that 
 they were in the presence of authentic genius, and from that point 
 forward the whole house watched and listened as if it felt that any 
 single moment of distraction might rob it of some tone, gesture, 
 or movement from the actress, too spontaneous and too precious 
 to be heard or seen again in a life-time. After the final fall of the 
 curtain, "the enthusiasm," says the Shelley Society's Note-Book,' 
 " reached a climax on Miss Murray's appearance in the simple yet 
 very effective 'execution ' dress of the last scene, the whole audi- 
 ence rising to their feet and cheering vociferously.'' The press 
 (London, provincial, Parisian, and American) were absolutely 
 unanimous and unreserved in their praise of her, and on the 
 
6 ALMA MURRA V. 
 
 day after the event she received the following letter from Robert 
 Browning : — 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Forman, — I must say what many must already 
 have said, perhaps more energetically, how much impressed 
 I was by your admirable impersonation of that most difficult of all 
 conceivable characters to personate : after such a display of passion 
 and pathos, what is impossible for you — the Poetic Actress 
 without a rival ? * Ever truly yours, 
 
 "Robert Browning." 
 
 Such was the testimony of the greatest poet and greatest 
 dramatist then living, and it was eminently characteristic of the 
 man that he should have hastened to put his conviction on record 
 without a moment's delay. Upon the same day, but from quite 
 another quarter, Miss Murray received a second testimony, hardly 
 less characteristic in its kind, in the shape of a letter from the 
 most astute and practical of theatrical managers, Mr. Augustus 
 Harris, written in terms of sincere and enthusiastic praise. Others 
 quickly followed, and for many days letters continued to flow in 
 from friends, strangers, and literary and dramatic critics. "You 
 did succeed to a marvel with that grand part ! " were the words of 
 the veteran actress, Mrs. Dallas-Glyn, who in her youth had 
 herself contemplated playing Beatrice Cenci, and who, if any one, 
 was qualified to judge both of the difficulty of the task and of the 
 manner of its accomplishment. Sir Percy and Lady Shelley were 
 among the earliest to express to Miss Murray their admiration of 
 her performance and their gratitude for the service she had rendered 
 to the memory of the " beloved " poet whose name they bore ; and 
 a week or two later. Lady Shelley presented her with a locket 
 bearing, in front, a miniature copy of Guido's portrait of Beatrice, 
 and enclosing, at the back, a portion of the single lock of Shelley's 
 hair which she possessed, and of which, up to that time, she had 
 never parted with a particle to any one. 
 
 * This letter was, with Mr. Browning's and Miss Murray's permission, printed in the 
 Shelley Society's Note-Book, Part I. It will be opportune to supplement it here with another 
 on the same subject, written in acknowledgment of a portrait of herself as Beatrice Cenci 
 sent by Miss Murray to the poet on his last birthday but one. It is as follows: — 
 
 ''29 De Verb Gardens, W.. Majy gik, 1888. 
 
 "Dear Mrs. Forman, — I very gratefully accept the charming photograph, and heartily 
 thank its subject for enabling me to connect the undying memory of a display of true 
 histrionic excellence with the kind sympathy of that v. oman of genius for myself, whom 
 she honours with her friendship. With all regards to Mr. Forman, believe me, yours truly 
 ever, Robert Browning." 
 
ALMA MURRA Y. 7 
 
 By this marvellous performance Miss Murray may be said to 
 have challenged history. Never can the splendour, the horror and 
 the beauty of tragedy at its highest have been presented in more 
 intimate and unimpeachably balanced combination. Nothing in 
 the annals of the stage points to any actress having previously ever 
 even attempted so tremendous a task,* the combined intellectual, 
 ethical and physical demands of the part being beyond those of 
 any other existing rdle. No other tragic heroine is sustained so long 
 at so exalted a poetic pitch, no other has so appalling a moral 
 problem to resolve or such a succession of great stage situations 
 to pass through, and until something of equal dimensions has been 
 accomplished with equal success Miss Murray's Beatrice Cenci 
 will remain the greatest histrionic feat on record. 
 
 Detailed criticisms of her performance and an account of 
 everything connected with the occasion are to be found in a 
 published essay " Miss Alma Murray as Beatrice Cenci," by B. L. 
 Mosely, LL.B. ; in a privately printed pamphlet "Shelley's 
 Beatrice Cenci and her first Interpreter," by M. S. S. : and in 
 another pamphlet entitled " The First Performance of Shelley's 
 Tragedy 'TheCenci,'" compiled chiefly from the "Shelley Society's 
 Note-Book " and containing the collected criticisms of all the 
 principal newspapers. In this publication will also be found 
 accounts of her Colombe in " Colombe's Birthday." 
 
 Her performance of this queenly and captivating role, Mr. 
 Browning, being absent in Venice at the time, did not witness ; 
 but, upon his return to London, Miss Murray received from him 
 the following interesting and characteristic letter, dated December 
 29th, 1885 : — 
 
 " I could not have expected that the year would all but run out 
 before I had written even a single word of the many I was minded 
 to send you when, on returning to London, I heard from 
 friends I could trust and strangers whose testimony there was no 
 reason to doubt — how admirably you had done honour to my 
 play by your performance of Colombe. There has been no 
 attempt at the poor piece of flattery supposed acceptable to a play- 
 wright ; that ' his poetry had hardly been done justice to ' and so 
 
 * '* Neither Phedre, nor Medea, nor Lady Macbeth, nor Juliet, nor any other of the 
 parts on which the great actresses of historic name established their renown, at all approaches 
 Shelley's Beatrice in actual length, or in constancy and severity of tragic tension.*' — Shelley's 
 Beatrice Cenci and her First Interpreter. 
 
8 ALMA MURRA Y. 
 
 forth : it thoroughly delighted me to hear and to believe that you 
 had realized my idea and ^probably added graces of your own. 
 When I observe what preparations for a theatrical venture are 
 supposed requisite for success, — the thousands of pounds spent 
 on scenery and costume; the hundreds of rehearsals — and the 
 dozens of paragraphs-preliminary ; I look with wonder and no 
 little satisfaction on the circumstance that an old play composed 
 under the old conditions and brought out in the hope of living 
 through one night only; should have rewarded the eiforts in its 
 favour, as it has more than satisfied the author's ambition, I am 
 sure. Take my renewed thanks, dear Mrs. Forman, and believe 
 that you will be followed in your career by the deep interest of 
 
 " Yours truly ever, 
 
 " Robert Browning." 
 
 In March, 1888, Miss Murray appeared as Mildred Tresham in 
 Robert Browning's tragedy "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon." This 
 was the first occasion on which the great poet and thinker saw her 
 in a play of his own, and immediately after the performance 
 he wrote to her thus : — 
 
 "What am I to say of your performance yesterday? How 
 thoroughly you understood : how perfectly you looked ; how 
 beautifully and how powerfully you acted the part of ' Mil- 
 dred' I hardly can acknowledge in the quiet way which gives 
 criticism its importance. But ; criticism put aside for the mo- 
 ment ; need I attempt to express the gratitude I must feel at your 
 giving my work the generous help of your admirable histrionic 
 genius ? — no less than the poetic sympathy with which you have 
 so long and so signally made me your debtor ? Such treatment as 
 yours to a play much maltreated so many years ago, goes near 
 to reviving in its author something of the old impulse once 
 strong in him to try afresh in that direction. Whether or no that 
 is to be, one obstacle is completely removed ; and could he but 
 create the right character, it would be easy to find the adequate 
 representative — capable besides of heightening his attempts by 
 many graces all her own. 
 
 " Believe me yours very sincerely, 
 " Robert Browning." 
 
ALMA MURRA Y. g 
 
 By this performance, added to her Beatrice Cenci, it is not 
 surprising that the poet should have been stimulated to feel the 
 possibility of returning to dramatic writing, recognizing as he must 
 have done in Miss Murray the only actress of the English-speaking 
 or, to tell the sober truth, French-speaking stage, since Miss 
 Helen Faucit, capable of completely presenting the intellectual 
 aspects of her art, of creatively interpreting great character on the 
 highest literary ground, and of conveying truly tragic impressions. 
 Subsequently to the date of the foregoing letter, much passed 
 between Mr. Browning, Dr. Furnivall, and Miss Murray, regarding 
 the contemplated new play, and there is little doubt that, had the 
 poet's life been spared but a year or two longer, Miss Murray would 
 have been accorded the supreme glory of appearing in a tragedy 
 written expressly for her by one of the four greatest of her 
 country's poets. 
 
 Of Miss Murray's personal appearance it is not easy to give a 
 strict account, there being about her whole stage-presence a 
 varied and magnetic charm which to a great extent baffles 
 description. In height she is just of that fortunate medium 
 which appears to vary in accordance with the dress and bearing 
 she assumes, thus enabling her to undertake a wider range of 
 parts than is possible to an actress who to any very marked 
 extent either exceeds or falls short of the average stature. In 
 figure she is at once slightly, firmly and flexibly built. The limbs 
 move freely both from shoulder and hip, but the freedom never 
 degenerates into looseness and always reserves to itself a prompt 
 retractive power, so that the finger-tips, for instance, never, in the 
 most violent moments of action, go a hairsbreadth beyond the 
 proper outline of the gesture. There is no limit to the variety, 
 subtlety, and vividness of the facial play. The forehead is soft in 
 outline yet straight and high, and helps to imprint upon the whole 
 face that fine intellectuality which begets in the spectator the 
 sense of security so necessary for the full enjoyment of the 
 actor's art. The eyes are sufficiently large, of a just distance 
 apart, liquid and of a faintly reddish brown. In moments of 
 tears or tenderness the brown appears to deepen and soften, but 
 at the instigation of scorn or anger, or any other of the fiercer 
 passions, there is frequently to be observed a strange preternatural 
 invasion of the dormant red which gives them for a breathing- 
 
lo ALMA MURRA Y. 
 
 space or so an aspect of almost devouring animal ferocity. The feet 
 and hands are small and compact, the wrists slender and expres- 
 sive. The walk and gestures vary at will from those of imperial 
 and sweeping dignity (as in Dr. Todhunter's Helena) to those of 
 captivating and dainty grace (as in Shakespeare's Titania). In the 
 matter of voice, the histrionic artist's finishing triumph or primary 
 despair, Miss Murray has been richly endowed. Its volume is not 
 more than normally large ; but it is all quality, and that quality 
 exquisitely pleasurable to the ear. It is bright, melting, ringing, or 
 thrilling, at command ; always feminine and always certain of its 
 effects, even at the most exacting moments, without violence or 
 offending noise. Style, authority and distinction, those great 
 primary requisites in the absence of which it is vain to look for high 
 histrionic work, she possesses not only each in its utmost degree but 
 in perfect proportion one with another. In all she does she is 
 independent, original and essentially English, yet there are certain 
 unindigenous aspects of her art which have led to her being 
 compared, in comedy- drama, with Desclde, in melodrama and 
 tragedy with Dorval and Rachel. The purity, melodiousness 
 and vitality of her elocution are proverbial. She never emphasizes 
 the details of a part to the detriment of its general design, but of 
 all her great characters it may be said, to paraphrase the words of 
 Matthew Arnold on Sophocles, that she has played them steadily 
 and played them whole. 
 
 Amongst contemporary actresses, indeed, she stands out as the 
 sole and typical example of the purest-blooded Aryan artist, who, 
 without emphasis or set purpose, is able to make us as it were 
 instinctively perceptive of the tragic contest she must have waged 
 not only with the baser forces of the human soul itself but with 
 the monstrous and deadly hindrances of its worldly surroundings, 
 before arriving at the state of undistractable and purified vision 
 upon which alone such self-coherent and aspiring art-work as hers 
 can be based. 
 
 Fascinating and powerful no matter what class of work she is 
 engaged in, it is when wearing classical or romantic dress, speaking 
 blank verse, and portraying the great creations of the greatest 
 poets, that her unique assemblage of qualities becomes most fully 
 apparent. On these occasions, instead of disappointing expecta- 
 tion, falling short, and betraying a limited scope, she seems rather 
 
ALMA MURRAY. ii 
 
 to be seized by an additional inspiration which brings all her 
 physical and mental attributes into their highest combination, 
 transfigures her whole being, and enables her to stimulate the 
 intellectual and exalt the ethical nature of the spectator in a way 
 that can only have been paralleled by the great actresses of the 
 past. 
 
 If (as none can doubt) it be incontrovertible that " he who is 
 greatest in the highest reaches of his art is the greatest artist " 
 and that " the highest actor is the one who understands and 
 can interpret the highest author," then it will not be difficult 
 for history to assign Miss Alma Murray her proper place among 
 the greatest practitioners of her art, irrespective of the fact that 
 an authority whose every clearly-recorded opinion on matters of 
 art will be treasured as long as the English language lasts, has 
 emphatically designated her " a woman of genius " and " the 
 poetic actress without a rival." 
 
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, 
 london and bungay. 
 
London : Vigo Street, W 
 October, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Elkin Mathews's New Books. 
 
 Now ready, second edition. 
 Post SvOf brown buckram^ price *is. 6d. 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING: ESSAYS AND THOUGHTS. 
 
 By JOHN T. NETTLESHIP. 
 
 The volume includes the ** Essays on Robert Browning's Poetry," 
 published in 1868, which did so much to popularize Mr. Browning's work. 
 The present edition is more than doubled in size, containing additional 
 essays, dealing with poems which have appeared since the publication of 
 the first volume. 
 
 75 copies on Whatman large paper. A few remain. 
 
 " When an individual work is dealt with, nothing can be more searching and elahorate 
 than Mr. Nettleship's analysis, and tothat analysis those works which have done most 
 to justify the common charge of obscurity have been forced to yield up their meaning, 
 A high and penetrating intelligence was needed for such a task; and something more 
 than intelligence was needed to make us realize, as Mr. Nettleship has done, the true 
 depth and^ breadth of the philosophy which underlies the vast and varied body of Brown- 
 ing's poetical work. It is not often that so solid and genuine a piece of thinking is 
 produced in literary criticism." — Academy, 
 
 *' It must always hold a very high place among studies of Browning. It is the work 
 of an accomplished scholar, a keen critic, and a devoted admirer of Browning." 
 — Literary World. 
 
 "Among the very best criticism of poetry ever written I am quite sure that we may 
 count that b_y Mr. John T. Nettleship, the well-known artist. First published in 1868, 
 the book gained many readers for a then little known poet Republished since his 
 death, and now that he is second only to the Laureate in the multitude of his readers, it 
 has in its new form speedily reached a second edition. And it deserves an even wider 
 success, for of all books on Browning its criticism is the sanest, its style the clearest. 
 You can follow Mr, Nettleship when he is discussing 'Waring' o,r 'Sordello,* with the 
 same keen interest that you have in Arnold's discussion of 'Heine* or ' Byron,' or of 
 Mr. Lowell's 'Dante' or 'Lessing.' The second and newer half of the volume has 
 even more of attractiveness. * Browning's Intuition,' * The Development of Browning's 
 Genius,' ' Leading Poetic Principles of Browning's Art,' are the titles of some of the most 
 original and suggestive essays that I have read for many a year. . . . * "Sordello" ' 
 Mr. Gosse tells us somewhere, 'has been an eminent stumbling block, "not merely in 
 the path of fools " but in that of very sensible and cultivated people, and yet we may 
 find a thousand reasons why " Sordello" ought to be the most readable of books.' I 
 think not, but those who can read * Sordello ' will find invaluable assistance in Mr. Nettle- 
 ship's essay." — " Taney's" Literary Notes. 
 
 " Mr. Nettleship's thoughtful volume." — Athenmu-in. 
 
 "The work of years of the most devoted application. . . . The most careless reader 
 of these essays must be convinced that he has been conducted into the presence of a 
 sovereign genius." — Daily News. 
 
 " A book which no good Browningite should be without." — Scots Observer. 
 
 "The value of a small volume of * Essays on Robert Browning's Poetry,' which 
 appeared in 1868, was quickly recognized. That value has not decreased with the years, 
 for of the multitude of pens which have moved rapidly over paper in the task of recording 
 critical and uncritical opinions of the poet, nothing has appeared which surpasses in its 
 peculiar virtues the work of Mr. Nettleship, and his little book has serenely kept its place 
 as an indispensable aid to a right understanding of Browning's thought. In one respect 
 only did the years impair for the student the helpfulness of the volume. As they passed 
 new poems continued to appear, until the criticism bore no proper relation to the strength 
 and variety of the poet's work. This drawback is removed in the present book. . . . 
 The new matter is in the main of the same general character, and follows the same 
 methods as that which preceded it. . . . It is immensely painstaking and conscientious, 
 and it has in an unsurpassed degree the indispensable quality of insight.'*— ^^Ji^wt 
 Advertiser {JJ.S. A.'). 
 
 foVER. 
 
"Mr. Nettleship touches with loving reverential care the poems he writes of, em- 
 phasizing the best there is in them, and clearing up as far as passible the misty places. 
 His explanation of 'Childe Roland' is very interesting. It is one of the_ poet's most 
 characteristic productions, full of the strangest and most powerful word pictures. _. . . 
 Those who wish to search for a deeper significance than lies on the surface of Browning's 
 poems will find much inspiration in this volume, with its flowing style and earnest words." 
 — Chicago Tribune. 
 
 "The publication in 1868, of Mr. Nettleship's volume of comment and analysis of the 
 poems of Browning, marked the beginning of the wide-spread and enthusiastic worship 
 paid to that poetry by modern wisdom and modern folly. The essays are now republished 
 with revisions and additions, and will be gladly welcomed by students of the Work of the 
 great poet lately dead. Mr. Nettleship has carefully considered and outlined the 
 boundaries of his comment. He does not aim to criticite Browning's work or to compare 
 him with other poets, but merely to endeavour to understand and interpret the poems 
 themselves. . . . Mr. Nettleship analyzes and paraphrases several Of the more difficult 
 poems. In these comments we note especially the subtle sympathy of the explanation of 
 ' The Flight of the Duchess ' ; the modestly offered, yet consistent and imposing allegory 
 of ' Childe Roland ' : and the meditation upon the Prayer Spirit suggested by ' Saul.' " — 
 Literary World (Boston, U.S.A."). 
 
 Post %vo, buckram, price 6;. 
 
 THE POETRY OF TENNYSON. 
 
 By the Rev. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D. 
 
 Contents :— Tennyson's First Flight ; The Palace of Art ; Milton and 
 Tennyson ; Two Splendid Failures ; The Idylls of the King ; The Homeric 
 Trilogy ; The Bible in Tennyson ; Chronological Bibliography, &c. 
 
 Post Zvo, cloth, price 2s. 
 
 DANTE: SIX SERMONS. 
 
 By the Rev. PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A., 
 
 Author of "The Alphabet of Economic Science," &c. 
 
 These brilliant Lectures form an excellent introduction to the Study of 
 Dante. The original edition, published at 6s. in 1879, has long been out 
 of print and difficult to meet with. 
 
 MORE ESSAYS ON DANTE. 
 Thick 8vo, buckram, price \2s'., with Portrait and Plates. 
 
 LITERATURE AND POETRY. 
 
 By PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D. (St, Andrews). 
 
 Dr. Schaff's Volume consists of Ten Critical Essays upon some of the 
 great Literary Epochs in the World's History. The Articles upon Dante 
 and Dante Literature, English and Foreign, are deeply interesting and 
 valuable. The Titles are — '"The English Language," "The Poetry of 
 the Bible," "The Dies Irae," "The Stabat Mater Dolorosa," "The 
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 CHAMBERS TWAIN. 
 
 By ERNEST RADFORD, 
 
 With a Frontispiece by Walter Crane. 
 
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 crown 4to, large paper, at 10s. 6d. net. 
 
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 Price one shilling, quarterly. Printed on hand-made paper. 
 
 In the Press. 
 
 GEORGE MEREDITH. Some Characteristics. By R. 
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 Plate. Post 8vo, 7^. dd. A few large-paper copies. 
 
 THE STUDENT AND THE BODY-SNATCHER. By 
 R. K. Leather, M.A., and R. Le Gallienne. Royal i8mo, 
 3^. 6rf. A few on large paper. 
 
 LETTERS TO LIVING ARTISTS. By Pasquin Junior. 
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 A SICILIAN IDYLL : a Pastoral Play. By J. Todhunter. 
 With Frontispiece by Walter Crane. Imperial i6mo, 5^. net. A 
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 ROBERT BROWNING AND THE DRAMA. A Note 
 
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 [over. 
 
ESSAYS AND CRITIC/SMS ON 
 
 MISS ALMA MURRAY 
 
 AND POETIC DRAMA. 
 
 (" The most poetic actress of the day." — Academy.) 
 
 AN INTERVIEW WITH MISS ALMA MURRAY. Her 
 Opinions of " The Cenci." Reprinted from the Evening News. 
 "Of special interest to all Shelley lovers." — Court Circular. 
 
 MISS ALMA MURRAY AS BEATRICE CENCI. A 
 Paper by B. L. MoSELY, LL.B., Read and Discussed before the 
 Shelley Society. 
 
 "An exhaustive analysis of Miss Murray's impersonation."— (^^f^rz/^r. 
 " Read amid frequent applause." — Morning: Post. 
 
 MISS ALMA MURRAY AS JULIET. With Remarks on 
 her HELENA and SORIS. By Frank Wilson. 
 
 "A very able piece of dramatic criticism, and should be read by every one who 
 thinks seriously about the drama." — Evening- News. 
 
 "An unusually able piece of criticism, profound in its analysis and eloquent in its 
 praise, the work evidently of one who regards acting as a high creative art, and who 
 is not content to judge it by any lower standard than is made use of in dealing with 
 the most serious efforts in poetry, music, or painting." — Publishers' Circular. 
 
 " Mr. Wilson proves himself to be a most thoughtful student of the Drama. . . . 
 his pamphlet must be full of interest to the student of the stage and of Shakespeare.* 
 — Academy. 
 
 MISS ALMA MURRAY'S CONSTANCE in "IN A 
 BALCONV.'* By B. L. Mosely, LL.B. 
 
 "An admirable essay.'' — Athenceum- 
 
 * ' An essay setting forth the special qualities of Miss Murray's acting. " — Globe. 
 
 " A faithful and eloquent criticism." — C. S, in The Illustrated London News. 
 
 SHELLEY'S BEATRICE CENCI AND HER FIRST 
 INTERPRETER. By M. S. S. 
 
 "A well-merited tribute to the acting of Miss Alma Murray.'' — Atkemstim. 
 " A well written and justly laudatory pamphlet." — Academy. 
 
 THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF SHELLEY'S 
 TRAGEDY "THE CENCI." Chiefly from the Shelley Society's 
 Note-Book, forming a voluminous record of opinion on Miss Alma 
 Murray in her famous impersonation of Beatrice Cenci. 
 
 Also, 
 
 PORTRAIT OF MISS ALMA MURRAY AS JULIET. 
 
 Etched by W. J. Allingham. 
 
 London : Elkin Mathews, Vigo Street, W. 
 
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