Dramatic Works and Minor Poems ... Illustrated by A. Niemeyer

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I ■ I DRAMATIC WORKS AND 8©inor Poems. BY HENRY JOHN SMITH. ILLUSTRATED BY ADELBERT N1EMEYER. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: WILLIAM RIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY, W. 1S91. All rights reserved. ■■ ?TE^>. STAMrOKD 5TSS— .... Like the daughter of the Wilderness, &c, &c preface. ERRATA. Page 18, line 16, Jor " conquest of" read " conquest over.'' ,i 26, ,, 3, for " momentarily" read "momentary— that." ,, 201, ,, 34, after " winter stores " — ! emitted. ,, 224, ,, 29, for " Worm-eaten " read " Grub-eaten." ,, 268, ,, 31, " Mr. Reynold" should be in italics. ,,. 294, ,, 9-10, for "justifies you, as father, breaking off," read "justifies you, as father, in breaking off." ,, 300, ,, 9, for " yon " read " you." In offering the following works to the public, the author begs leave to make a few remarks in reference thereto and to the many difficulties under which they have originated.

Having lost both parents and fortune in early child hood, he became dependent on the bounty of others and was compelled, when only ten years of age, to quit his native country for the Continent. There, being left in the hands of a heartless dissembler, he sighed under a long period of bondage, toil, and direst privation. On the verge of starvation, he at length found means to escape, and, through the assistance of a kind-hearted gentleman of the neighbouring town of Charleroi, to return to England. Some time afterwards, at the wish of an elder brother, who had settled in Germany, he journeyed thither, and arrived at a small rustic place, little more than a village, where for the next few years he was employed in a manufactory under his brother's management. During this period, seized by an unconquerable yearning for study, he, by the aid of such books as his VI

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. scanty savings enabled him to procure, applied himself assiduously to the rather formidable task, denied, as he was, almost all necessary means of resource, and jeered at by all around, of repairing the deficiencies of an entirely neglected education. Having to a degree made himself master of the German language, and arrived at a moderate proficiency in his own, he wrote a number of small poems (English and German) which gained for him a certain amount of popularity among his immediate friends and acquaintances. Impelled by his ambition to higher efforts, he commenced the composition, in outline, of D'Enambuc and other minor plays. This rendered his duties in the works more irksome and distasteful than ever, and in the belief, that it only needed the completion of the work in question to raise him to fame and fortune, he determined, in defiance of all argument and admonitions, to resort again to the place of his birth, Birmingham.

There D'Enambuc was completed, submitted to a London theatre, and — returned "with thanks." Nothing daunted, he tried again with the same result, being informed by an honest and good-natured stage manager that the piece was at least "six times too long" and in its then state perfectly useless Talent — " oh yes ! " but he had commenced at the top, instead of the bottom of the ladder. He was dismissed with the urgent advice to abandon all thoughts of such a career, and, being totally devoid of necessary means, to seek without delay other " more suitable " occupation.

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. VN We will not dwell on the struggles and privations of the two following years, but simply state that he was at length discovered by his brother and persuaded to return to Germany, where he arrived well-nigh broken hearted and with a seriously impaired constitution. Destroying, for the most part, the minor productions of his youth, as also the outpourings of his disconsolate heart, he devoted himself in his spare time to technical studies and business in general. By dint of unremitting and unaided perseverance he became in a few years sufficiently qualified to enable him, on the retirement of his brother, to undertake the management of the works, which under his supervision were shortly afterwards removed and greatly enlarged. Years passed, years of severe toil and responsibility, during which he was sustained and buoyed up alone by the hope of realizing, through strict economy, a competency, however small, upon which to retire and resume his efforts in that department of literature, in which to gain though but a modest footing had constituted his sole and incessant desire.

After refusing several advantageous propositions on the part of capitalists to establish similar works in partnership with them, he at length determined to run the risk, and associating himself with two sleeping partners, he erected a manufactory in the vicinity of the Rhine and Ruhr, and commenced business on his own account. Having surmounted the many difficulties placed in his way by the old firm — a firm of twenty-five

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. VM years' standing, and, until then, the only one of the kind in Prussia — his business increased so rapidly that in a few years he was able to double the extent of the works. Shortly afterwards he accepted overtures from the old firm, an amalgamation was agreed upon, and thus at last he was able to retire, after upwards of twenty years' struggle on a path in every way distasteful to his feelings and utterly opposed to his life-long aspirations. As the kind reader will undoubtedly imagine, despite all toil, struggles and anxiety, in their thousand different forms, his Muse was not altogether neglected. He applied himself, in his few hours of leisure, to the completion or revisal of the minor poems which had escaped destruction, and to the reconstruction of the plays conceived and commenced in his youth. ' Noxia,' ' Don Zago,' and a few minor poems were printed and published* but the publisher dying shortly afterwards, nothing more was heard of them.

The first-named piece, however, was honoured by H.R.H. Prince Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen with the gold medal (Bene Merenti) for science and the fine arts, and a copy presented, at her request, to his daughter, Princess Marie. " Thus, kind reader," to conclude with an extract from the preface of the above-mentioned edition of ' Noxia,' &c, " I have intimated a few of the many difficulties under which the following pieces have been written. Judge them, yet let thy sentence be just. Weigh the disadvantages beneath which they have grown, and * Since then again thoroughly revised and altered.

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. IX let thy condemnation, if such it must be, be guided at least by a kind and considerate perusal. I ask no more. " And now, little book, farewell ! I dare scarce bid thee prosper. Go ; thy claims are modest. Like the daughter of the Wilderness, thy merit lies more in thine unassuming attire than in the elegance and finish of a more civilized cultivation." The Author Wiesbaden, 1891 VOL. I. b CONTENTS OF VOL. I. PAGE Preface iii Conscience and the Young Poet ; or, Sympathy's Appeal. A Caprice i D'Enambuc Drama in Five Acts 17 Noxia. Romantic Drama in Five Acts 151 Shades and Sunlight ; or, A Festive Day. Play in Four Acts CONSCIENCE AND THE YOUNG PO ET; OR, SYMPATHY'S APPEAL. SL Caprice. THE POET'S TALE. B VOL. I. PARTS REPRESENTED: Sympathy and attendant Spirits. A Young Poet. Conscience (a sturdy Watchman). Spirits of Poverty, &c, &c. B 2