Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/104

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Introduction

raptures of her recreant lover for the Queen, and meanwhile is defenceless before the tempestuous and vulgar wooing of the villain, Rivalto. Finally, last test of the romantic heroine, she can submit to poverty and shame, can give her lover up to a rival Fair One if he so decrees, and can die with prayers for their happiness on her lips. Most of the effective passages in the play have to do with Marina. Take, for example, this description of the love-nest at Rome where Blanfort won her heart:

The place, oh! twas most fit for the occasion,Secret and blooming with the verdant spring;A Grove of mirtles, compassed itt about,Which gave no more admittance to the SunThen served to chear the new appearing flowers,And tell the birds itt was their time to sing.A crystal spring, stole through the tufted grasse,Hasting to reach a fountain which itt fed,But murmur'd still, when 'ere it found a stop.

The description of Marina herself is almost as charming as Marvell's lines on Maria and not unlike them:

'Twas here, my lord, neer to this fountain's side,I saw the Maid, the soft, the charming maid,That seemed to give the sweetness to the place,And in herself possesst all I've described,The season's youth, and freshnesse of the flowers,The harmony of all the tunefull birds,And clearness of the Spring on which she gaz'd.

Marina is, in truth, a winning and pathetic character, and it is a pity that her fidelity could not have a better reward than the regained love of the handsome, inconstant, selfish Blanfort.

The play closes with a proper distribution of rewards. Punishments are not, however, so meted out. The villain, Rivalto, is romantically, and in the grand style, forgiven, and even furnished with funds. But he takes himself off with