"TO CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, ON SEEING HER PLAY "BIANCA," IN MILMAN'S TRAGEDY OF "FAZIO"", Eliza Cook's Journal,[no date], 1853
Dublin Core
Title
"TO CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, ON SEEING HER PLAY "BIANCA," IN MILMAN'S TRAGEDY OF "FAZIO"", Eliza Cook's Journal,[no date], 1853
Subject
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
Cook, Eliza, 1818-1889
Arts--Literature
Description
This is a poem in Eliza Cook's journal written by her and dedicated to Charlotte Cushman.
Credit
Gale Digital Collections, Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Credit
Gale Digital Collections, Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Creator
Cook, Eliza, 1818-1889
Source
Eliza Cook's Journal
Publisher
Eliza Cook
Date
1853-00-00
Type
Reference
Poem Item Type Metadata
From
Cook, Eliza, 1818-1889
To
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876
Text
TO CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN,
ON SEEING HER PLAY "BIANCA," IN MILMAN'S TRAGEDY OF "FAZIO."
I THOUGHT thee wondrous when thy soul portrayed
The youth Verona bragged of; and the love
Of glowing southern blood, by thee was made
Entrancing as the breath of orange grove.
I felt the spirit of the great was thine:
In the rapt Boy's devotion and despair,
I knew thou wert a pilgrim at the shrine
Where GOD's high ministers alone repair.
No rote-learned sighing filled thy doting moans;
Thy grief was heavy as thy joy was light;
Passion and Poesy were in thy tones.
And MIND flashed forth in its electric might.
I had seen many "fret and strut their hour;"
But my brain never had become such slave
To Fiction, as it did beneath thy power,
Nor owned such homage as to thee it gave.
I did not think thou couldst arouse a throb
Of deeper, stronger, beating in my heart
I did not deem thou couldst awake the sob
Of choking fulness and convulsive start.
But thy pale madness, and thy gasping woe,
That breathed the torture of Bianca's pain;
Oh! never would my bosom ask to know
Such sad and bitter sympathy again!
When the wife's anguish scars thy hopeless check,
Let crowds behold and laud thee as they will;
But this poor breast, in shunning what they seek,
May yield perchance a richer tribute still.
___________
ON SEEING HER PLAY "BIANCA," IN MILMAN'S TRAGEDY OF "FAZIO."
I THOUGHT thee wondrous when thy soul portrayed
The youth Verona bragged of; and the love
Of glowing southern blood, by thee was made
Entrancing as the breath of orange grove.
I felt the spirit of the great was thine:
In the rapt Boy's devotion and despair,
I knew thou wert a pilgrim at the shrine
Where GOD's high ministers alone repair.
No rote-learned sighing filled thy doting moans;
Thy grief was heavy as thy joy was light;
Passion and Poesy were in thy tones.
And MIND flashed forth in its electric might.
I had seen many "fret and strut their hour;"
But my brain never had become such slave
To Fiction, as it did beneath thy power,
Nor owned such homage as to thee it gave.
I did not think thou couldst arouse a throb
Of deeper, stronger, beating in my heart
I did not deem thou couldst awake the sob
Of choking fulness and convulsive start.
But thy pale madness, and thy gasping woe,
That breathed the torture of Bianca's pain;
Oh! never would my bosom ask to know
Such sad and bitter sympathy again!
When the wife's anguish scars thy hopeless check,
Let crowds behold and laud thee as they will;
But this poor breast, in shunning what they seek,
May yield perchance a richer tribute still.
___________
Location
London, England
Geocode (Latitude)
51.5073219
Geocode (Longitude)
-0.1276474
Archive
Gale Primary Sources
Provenance
http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/A4qAB8. Accessed 14 April, 2021
Extended Date/Time Format (EDTF) Specification
1853-XX-XXXX
Social Bookmarking
Geolocation
Collection
Citation
Cook, Eliza, 1818-1889, “"TO CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, ON SEEING HER PLAY "BIANCA," IN MILMAN'S TRAGEDY OF "FAZIO"", Eliza Cook's Journal,[no date], 1853,” Archival Gossip Collection, accessed July 3, 2024, https://archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/637.