Edward Bruce Hamley

“ Zaire's love increases with the indulgent tenderness of her lover. She casts herself in tears at his feet and beseeches him to defer the marriage till the morrow. She calculates that her brother will then be gone—that she will have received baptism—that she will have acquired the strength to resist; she even flatters herself that the Christian religion will permit her to love a man so generous, so virtuous, to whom nothing is wanting but to be a Christian. ”

“ Besides, so many great masters—Corneille, Racine, Boileau—have so accustomed our ears to the harmony of rhyme, that we could not endure any other; and he who wished to deliver himself from the burthen which the great Corneille carried, would be regarded with reason, not as a bold genius adventuring in a new route, but as a weak man who could not journey in the ancient ways. ”

“ A heart like his could not love otherwise than madly. He resolved to throw off the effeminate habits which had been the bane of so many Asiatic sovereigns, and to possess in Zaire one who should share his heart with the duties of a prince and warrior. The faint ideas of Christianity, barely traced on the heart of Zaire, vanished at sight of the Soldan; she loved him no less than she was loved by him, without letting ambition mix in the least with the purity of her tenderness. This is how she speaks to her confidante Fatima:—
"Who could refuse to give him all her heart? ”

“ It is not attempted here to decide which method is the better adapted to the stage. There can be no question which gives more pleasure and profit to the reader of a play. The opportunities for such wisdom and wit and poetry as shall be of general application, to be quoted, and remembered, and put by for use, must necessarily be much fewer when the energy of the dramatist is absorbed in the action of the piece, under conditions which tax all his art and ingenuity. ”

“ Nothing is admitted that does not tend to the development of the plot; every speech is directed to that end. This naturally gives to the whole piece an air of isolation, as if the characters had no other business in life than what they are doing on the stage. ”

“ The Englishman says all he wishes—the Frenchman only what he can; the one travels in a vast highway—the other marches in shackles, in a narrow and slippery path.
"But we can never shake off the yoke of rhyme—it is essential to French poetry. Our language does not agree with inversions; our verses do not suffer the running of one into another—at least this liberty is very rare; our syllables cannot produce a sensible harmony by their long or short measures ”

“ Want of individuality even might be defended on the ground that, as ready-made suits ought to fit average and not exceptional people, so it is easier to find good representatives of parts in which the actor can adapt the part to himself, than of those in which he must adapt himself to the part. Many Zaires and Alzires might be found for one Lady Macbeth or Cleopatra. In all that he aimed at—in versification, language, situation, and stage effect—Voltaire was one of the most successful of dramatists. ”

“ The principle of maintaining an elevation above the level of common life excludes a vast range of Shakespearian characters—not only the grave-diggers and clowns and jesters, but many to whom we accord high rank in the serious drama: Shylock, and Cassio, and Kent, and even Lear himself, would all be pronounced unsuitable, even monstrous. ”

“ Nothing but honourable poverty remains for me, and I am about to return to my bonds." The Soldan, admiring the courage of the Christian, and himself born for generous actions, remitted all the ransoms, gave him a hundred knights for ten, and loaded him with presents, but, at the same time, signified that Zaire could not be purchased and was indeed above all price. Also he declined to give up among the redeemed a prince of Lusignan, captured long ago in Cæsarea. ”

“ At this moment comes an officer to separate Zaire from her father and brother, and to arrest all the French knights, and, as Lusignan is removed, he binds her by an oath to secrecy. This sudden severity was the result of a council held by Orosman. St Louis's fleet had sailed from Cyprus—as was feared, for the Syrian coast; but a second courier having brought the news of the departure of St Louis for Egypt, Orosman was reassured, for he was himself the enemy of the Soldan of that country. ”

“ It was in this play that he first exchanged the classic for the romantic style, without, however, ceasing to preserve the unities, and, no longer the imitator of Racine and Corneille, became himself the founder of a school. "Zaire," he says, "is the first drama in which I have dared to abandon myself to all the sensibility of my heart: it is my only tender tragedy."
"Those who are fond of literary history," says the advertisement to the play, "will like to hear how the piece was produced. Many ladies had reproached the author with not putting enough love into his tragedies ”